Once upon a time there was the unicorn Empire, A thousand year has passed since the fall of the tyrant and now a prophecy is coming true, what will Twilight do as she finds long-held beliefs shattered?
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there was a tyrant who would sat on the throne of Equestria but under the leadership of Princess Platinum the third, a unicorn rebellion dethroned the tyrant and established the UNICORN EMPIRE showing once and for all the superiority of UNICORNS over lonesome mud-ponies or mutated chickens!
A thousand year has passed since the fall of the tyrant and now a prophecy is coming true, what will Twilight do as she finds long-held beliefs shattered?
[29/3/2020] I'm going to rework the chapters and improve them, I'm busy with my other stories but I do want to finish this one.
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there was a being of disharmony called Discord. He ruled the land through chaos and disorder until two sisters stood up to him, through means of powerful magic they petrified the being and hid the remaining statue.
After their defeat of the chimera, the two sisters went to the ponies living in the lands of Equestria and assumed control, but it was not to last.
As time went on, the elder sister fell to greed. The elder tried to remove her younger sister so she could rule alone, a battle ensued but the younger sister was no match for the elder.
In a final attempt from the elder to spite her sister, she used the magical artifacts that they had used on the spirit of disharmony to remove her from existence, burning the final likeness of the younger sister into the moon.
But her tyranny would not last as under the leadership of Princess Platinum the third, a unicorn rebellion dethroned the tyrant and established the UNICORN EMPIRE showing once and for all the superiority of UNICORNS over lonesome mud-ponies or mutated chickens!
"Wake up you traitor!" A kick landed in the pony's stomach, rudely awakening her. "Judgement day piece of thrash, get on your hooves"
The pony remained on the floor looking defiantly up at the guard who had woken her.
"No."
The guard chuckled, "Are you sure?" He asked as he bucked the pony in the stomach again, putting her in a state of agony. She tried to summon her magic but was blocked by an inhibitor ring around the base of her horn.
"Get me some rope and a collar!" The first guard shouted to another guard who was waiting outside of the cell. A few seconds later the items that he had requested floated through the bars of the cell, "Raise your head traitor."
The pony still refused to comply with the guard but a violent yank on her hair with telekinesis forced her to elevate her head. The cold metal band slid around her neck and locked in place, the guard binding the rope around a ring hanging from the collar like a leash. "Now you can walk with us or we can drag you through the shit outside."
The pony thought for a moment but ultimately decided she would not stoop down as low as to be dragged through the crap. The pony slowly got up on her hooves, everything hurting from the physical abuse she had received that morning and from those before.
"Good choice." the guard said, tugging the leash, making the pony stumble forward. The pony groaned as she was being led outside, light assaulting her eyes that had been in darkness for two days.
Around her tents stood in a grid pattern, the ponies that usually occupied them standing beside the road.
"Race traitor!"
"Chicken lover!"
"Go to Tartarus, piece of filth!"
They were all shouting insults at her and so every now and then she got hit by something thrown from the crowd, some even daring to come up close and spit on her.
At the center of the encampment, there was a raised platform with some sort of two-sided guillotine, a closer inspection showed a sky blue pegasus with three scars from gryphon claws running down her face and her wings locked in the device.
The pegasus this mess had all started with a day ago.
"Step up to the platform." A guard ordered her as she reached a flight of stairs, refusing to go up there was another tug on the collar again making the pony stumble forward up the stairs by force.
"We are all gathered here today to witness the punishment of a traitor and an abomination of nature!" An announcer yelled at the crowd who immediately got into an uproar. "Lieutenant Sparkle, you have been accused of collaborating with the pegasus. How do you plead?" He asked the pony.
Twilight looked over at the pegasus who she now saw was also gagged. The pegasus was slowly but noticeably shaking her head and looking at her with pleading eyes, she had known the pegasus for a day but she already was loyal enough to want to stop Twilight from doing anything stupid.
"I was wrong." Twilight said, waiting for a moment before continuing. "Pegasi aren't monsters that haunt the sky as we were told! They're ponies just like us with families, they're no less inferior than we are!" That was the moment a buck landed on the side of Twilight's head giving her a nasty cut and knocking her over on her side.
"Your decision is an unfortunate one." The announcer said, "Lieutenant Sparkle, you have been found guilty of collaborating with the pegasus. Punishment for this crime is death." He finished telling Twilight, turning to the pegasus. "Pegasus, for your crimes of trespassing and corrupting of one of our officers you've been sentenced to a life of servitude on the farms. Additionally, there is no place for a winged pony in our glorious Empire so they'll be removed before your sentence is enacted." He told the pegasus, Twilight remembered her name to be Rainbow Dash. She struggled against the restraints holding her wings in place to no avail, she shot a pleading look to Twilight who herself couldn't do anything either.
One of the guards pushed Twilight forward to an executioner's block, a pony with a black mask came up on the podium levitating a large axe alongside him. He'd break off her horn first and then decapitate her, as was the way with any traitor to the empire.
"Any last words?" The executioner asked in the most cliche way possible as he put his hoof on Twilight's horn. She looked at the executioner but her eyes soon drifted to something in the air far behind him.
A small smirk crossed her face as she recognized what it was, she may die here regardless but at least she wouldn't be alone.
"Dragon."
A loud roar came from the majestic beast as it soared down spitting fire onto the encampment. Fires lit as entire tents went up in flames. Taking advantage of the confusion that caused, Twilight lightly bucked the executioner in the chest relieving him of his axe and knocking him down off the platform. The dragon meanwhile had turned to make a second pass on the encampment. Twilight took a look over at Rainbow who was again desperately trying to get out of the device to prevent herself from being burned alive, "Buck it." She muttered to herself, "Not like I've got much more to lose anyway"
Quickly releasing the clamps holding the wings of the pegasus in place, Rainbow immediately fell forward as the restraints were released. As she took off her gag she turned to Twilight.
"Didn't think you'd... Watch Out!" The pegasus shouted as she pushed the unicorn back, a spear sticking in the wood were Twilight had just stood.
"Thanks, now follow me!" Twilight shouted while she jumped off the podium into the disorganized crowd, Rainbow hot on her tail.
"Where are we going?!" Rainbow shouted as the dragon made another pass, burning even more of the encampment.
"Prison tent! I need to get this bucking inhibitor ring off my horn!" Twilight shouted back as they made a sprint to the tent where she was held captive. The tent was empty when they arrived, seeing that at the time no one was being held captive except her and Dash.
"What'ya need, unicorn?" Rainbow asked as the unicorn was rummaging through a box.
"Something that looks like a wrench and fits around the ring on my horn." Twilight explained.
"Like this one?" Rainbow said through her teeth as she was holding a black wrench in her mouth.
"Yes! Put it on the ring and turn it anticlockwise twice." Twilight told the pegasus. Following the instructions, Dash got the ring off of Twilight's horn.
"You always thought you were so smart." The guard who had escorted her stood in the entrance, "Thought you could get away from this too, Sparkle?"
Twilight shifted a step closer to Rainbow and lit up her horn in anticipation of a spell. "Get out of my way, Sapphire. You know that you're outmatched even when armed." Sapphire's silence took too long in Twilight's opinion so she decided to charge him. Putting up a small barrier to prevent him from using his spear she bucked him straight in the chest at full power, hearing a couple of ribs cracking. "Run!" She called out to Rainbow, who was already running for the entrance. Outside unicorn soldiers were running around with ranged weapons shooting at the dragon whenever it passed,
"We should get some equipment and supplies!" Rainbow said to Twilight. The unicorn, meanwhile, was ripping off parts of cloth from a tent.
"I know. Here, put this on." Twilight said, tying the cloth to Rainbow, covering her wings. "Follow me, hopefully there isn't anypony in the tent we're going to." The two ran through the burning encampment to a tent close to the edge of it, slowly peaking into it they saw a stash of equipment without anypony guarding it
"Score!" Rainbow said as she ripped open a box, "These are boxes of pegasi Equipment!" She said pulling out a suit of armor, tossing it to Twilight and pulling another one for herself. Twilight meanwhile was raiding a weapons cash levitating two gauntlets in her magic, "How do you use these? I've seen pegasi fight with them but how do you extend them?" Rainbow grabbed a gauntlet and put it on, Twilight mirroring her since they had to get moving soon.
"There's a button on top of here that when you press..." A blade shot forward from the top of the gauntlet, "...then a blade will come out. It'll lock in place until you pull back this notch." She pulled back on a little notch on the front part of the extended blade, making it slide back into the gauntlet. Twilight replicated the action but instead of using her hooves, she used magic. Satisfied with the result she stood back down, grabbed a nearly empty saddlebag, and peaked out the tent.
"Crap. RUN!" Twilight shouted, the two of them running out of the tent towards the edge of the encampment. Behind them the dragon, now peppered with arrows, made another attack run burning a row of tents including the one they were just in.
"We need to get out of here before that thing barbecues us!" Rainbow shouted to Twilight.
"Way ahead of you!" She shouted back as they reached the edge of the encampment near a forest. "That's the forest where we stumbled upon you." She added while running to the foliage of the forest where they took a bit of a breather.
"I need to find my little sister, if you want to leave me now I won't stop you. You've already given up enough for me." Rainbow said as she looked back at the burning encampment.
"I've got nowhere to go and you owe me now so I think I'll tag along," Twilight replied while keeping her gaze at the encampment. Rainbow pulled Twilight into a wing-hug, "Thanks Twilight. You're not bad for a unicorn."
"Also that pegasus armour looks really silly on you with its wing holes." The two shared a chuckle.
Twilight checked the saddlebag she had snatched to see what kind of supplies she had managed to grab, a compass, a long rope, a small utility knife, some sort of scroll, and most importantly a rolled-up map. Quickly opening the map she found a relatively accurate depiction of all of the three pony kingdoms, though for some reason the entire continent was named 'Equestria' for one reason or another.
"What's that scroll?" Rainbow asked, picking it up and inspecting it. The seal on the scroll was that of a sun with eight arms. Neither Twilight nor Rainbow recognised it so they decided to break it and see what was contained in the letter it was stamped on. A black leather wristband of sorts with a red crystal lightning bolt embedded into it dropped from the rolled-up paper as it was unrolled.
"What's this?" Twilight said inspecting the band, though it didn't look like there was all that much to it. Regardless, Rainbow pulled it from Twilight's hooves as she too was curious about the thing, though when she got it in her hooves the crystal suddenly started glowing.
"Unicorn, what the buck is it doing?!" Rainbow called out as she tossed the thing onto the ground.
"I've got no clue... but it doesn't seem to be giving off harmful magics," Twilight muttered as she concentrated on detecting any magic from within her body. A loud roar came from the camp as the dragon crashed into the middle of it, reminding the two ponies that they still had to get as far away as possible.
"We'll figure it out later after we find my little sister," Rainbow told Twilight, tossing the opened scroll back into the bag.
Twilight nodded and bound the saddlebag to her barrel setting off for the location where she had overpowered and captured the pegasus days before and where her treason had begun.
“Please gasp stop moving so quickly. I need to gasp take a break.” Twilight puffed as she tried to keep up with the pegasus. The pair had been running for about two hours by that point and Twilight was beginning to crack.
“I can’t Twilight, my little sister has been out there on her own for three days! She might be in serious trouble!” Rainbow countered but her own ragged breathing gave away that she too needed a break.
“If so, then your gasp not going to be of any use if you’re completely spent,” Twilight argued, hoping that the pegasus would stop walking for a moment, Rainbow slowed down to a trot and thought it through.
“Fine, ten minutes. After that, we’re moving on. We’re almost at the spot you captured me I believe.” Rainbow relented, Twilight collapsing into a heap on the forest floor, giving herself enough of a break to get her breathing to a normal level. She may have been an excellently trained officer of the Empire but a pegasus would always have the edge on sheer endurance. Rummaging through the saddlebag she picked out the scroll they had put off reading. Rainbow sat down next to Twilight to see what was on the scroll. “Twilight, can you read it out loud?” She asked, clearly embarrassed by something.
Twilight glanced at the pegasus who was twiddling with her hooves, “Sure... What’s wrong?” the unicorn asked as she noticed Rainbow's awkwardness
”I never learnt how to read.” Rainbow muttered, too soft for Twilight to pick out.
“Come again, I didn’t catch that,” Twilight pushed.
”I CAN’T READ!” Rainbow shouted, her eyes tearing a bit. ”My parents couldn’t afford education and I had to work to get food on the table.”
Twilight felt a pang of guilt for the pegasus, she had had the best education possible while Rainbow had to struggle her entire life. “I can teach you if you want?” she offered, Rainbow took a bit to react.
“You’ve done enough for me. Since you’ve met me I only got you into trouble.” She said dejectedly.
“Rainbow, I made the decision to not execute you on the spot like my orders told me to and I don’t regret it. If I had then I would have never seen through the lies of the Empress.” Twilight explained, “You’re probably the only pony I can truly trust right now. I’d be honored if you’d let me teach you to read.” She added, giving Rainbow a friendly nudge.
"Still though, why?" Rainbow asked, still not understanding why Twilight would've given up her life for her.
"My teacher in Canterlot. She always said to judge a pony not by the length of their horn but the content of their character. In your case the lack of a horn does not mean your character doesn't seem all that bad."
That seemed to get through to the pegasus. “Thanks, Twilight.” Dash said, “Now, what’s on that scroll?”
Twilight refocused on the scroll and took a breath,
Once upon a time, there were two ponies who ruled the day and night, but a single race of ponies wasn’t happy with this rule as they no longer had any power over the other races. Led by their leader they organized an insurrection, critically wounding the younger sister. In a desperate attempt to save her sister the elder used six artifacts of great power.
The Elements of harmony.
But with only half the artifacts under her command, the effects were not those that she desired, instead of healing her sister the artifacts put the pony away in stasis on the moon. The elder sister wept as she found the effects to be irreversible, seeing this weakness the conspirators revealed themselves and tried to strike the weakened pony down. Not having the will or energy to fight, the sister took the elements and ran from the palace hiding the artifacts until new bearers would rise, but before disappearing the sister left a last prophecy to those who’d dared to threaten her and pushed her off the throne:
On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her release and tyranny will fall.
But the elder knew that without new bearers for the elements her sister would pass still. She left clues to the location of the elements in the hope one day they would be found and her sister restored. If you see her mark know that an element might be near.
-Starswirl the Bearded
There was another bit of text written below, seemingly somepony else’s writing...
Save my sister.
Twilight got the feeling of dread as she realized she had heard the story before only from another perspective.
“So you think that crystal on that wristband is one of the elements of harmony?” Rainbow asked, snapping Twilight back to reality. The pegasus screwed around with the crystal as it seemed to glow whenever she was the one touching it.
“It could be," Twilight admitted as since she couldn't disprove the rather simple hypothesis, "but I’m not sure how it’s possible it just so ‘happened’ to end up in the precise bag we took.” Twilight theorized suspiciously. “Camp gets attacked by a dragon, we get freed and then find a scroll in a random bag that seems to be just for us. It’s just too much of a coincidence.”
“Do you think it’s a tracking device?” Rainbow asked nervously, scowling at the wristband and pushing it back into Twilight's saddlebags.
“No, if it were then I would have heard about it before. It's also a way to elaborate story if it were just a way of finding us... I think somepony went through a great effort for us to find this,” Twilight explained. “Anyway, right now it’s a moot point. We need to find your sister and get as far away from here as possible before search parties are assembled.
Rainbow nodded and the pair ran the last few minutes to their destination. The ground still showed marks from the struggle that happened there as the two arrived. “I was scouting ahead to see if the road was safe before we moved up further when you jumped me.” Rainbow walked to the bushes behind the scuffle. “I left her in a cave a couple hundred meters that way. I also left the food we had with her so she might still be there.”
Rainbow and Twilight walked the last bit to where she left her sister, “Hoofprints,” Twilight pointed out as they got close. “A lot of them.” The ground in front of the cave was riddled with little footprints and disturbed leaves.
“Squirt, you in there?” Rainbow asked, her voice echoed against the walls. The rainbow maned pony walked into it while the unicorn waited outside to stand guard.
”Dash?” A raspy voice answered and a small orange pony with a purple mane peaked over a large rock further in the cave. ”Rainbow!” She shouted tackling the other pegasus.
“I thought they had sniff captured you and I would never sniff see you again!” She sobbed into Dash’s coat.
“Shhh, Scoots I’m here now.” Rainbow comforted the little pegasus, “It would be so not cool if I left you here.”
A few minutes of sobbing later Twilight came into the cave, “Rainbow we can’t stay here, we need to move now.”
The little filly looked past Rainbow to see who spoke, her eyes went wide. “UNICORN! RUN!” She started struggling against Dash who was trying to keep her in place.
“Calm down Scoots, she’s on our side. She saved my feathers back there.” Dash told the filly who calmed down and inspected Twilight, “Are you wearing pegasi armor?”
Twilight chuckled, “Yes I am.” She said with as warm a smile she could manage, “Are you two ready to go?”
“We’re good.” Dash said for both her and Scootaloo. “How much food do you have left, Scoots?”
The little filly jumped from Dash’s hold and dragged a large saddlebag from behind a rock, “I kept up the rations so we’ve still got a large bag left.” She proudly stated.
“I knew you would,” Rainbow told the filly and strapped the saddlebag onto herself. Twilight meanwhile grabbed the map and spread it out, “we’re situated about seventy kilometres west from the Dragonskeep, depending on how fast word about our escape gets out, the land between the keep and the Canterhorn mountain range will be swarming with patrols.”
Rainbow also took a look at the map, “We were trying to sneak between there and wrap around Canterlot into earth pony territory.”
“We can’t without being spotted and heading through the mountain range is also a no-go, there’s too much mining traffic going through there.” Twilight summed up.
“We can’t go back to pegasi territory either, they’d execute you and force me to give up Scoots because she’s a weak flyer.” Rainbow also added, crossing off Maresaw and Stalliongrad off the list of places where they could go.
“So we head west past the mountain range into White Tail Woods and try to get a resupply at Ponyville.” Twilight decided, “After that, we travel along the edge of the Everfree towards earth pony territory.”
“Ponyville was under unicorn control, right? You sure it’s safe to stop there?” Rainbow asked with concern.
“It’s an earth pony village maintained to supply Canterlot with food, the ponies there have been a thorn in the hoof of the Empress since its inception,” Twilight said as she recalled her history of the Empire. "It's really only still there because the earthponies are so much more productive at farming than unicorns."
Rainbow nodded, “Then that’s settled, we should also get some cloaks to hide the armour and wings so Squirt and I look like earth ponies.”
Twilight repacked the map and walked out of the cave, “We still have the entire afternoon of good daylight, we should get moving now to get as far away from the encampment as possible.”
Scootaloo and Dash also made their way outside, both of them taking a quick glance at the location of the sun and walking off. “Where are you going?” Twilight asked holding the compass from the bag in her magic. “You’re going North”
Rainbow gave Twilight a confused stare, “No, we’re not. Pegasi have a near-perfect sense of direction since we have to use it to fly. You can also see that the sun is going to set over there.”
Twilight made the mental calculations coming to the conclusion that the two pegasi were right. She studied the compass closer to see if it might be stuck, the compass was a regular red and white arm but the plate on it didn’t have any markings indicating north, in place of that there was an eight-armed sun.
“What the... Dash look at this.” Twilight levitated the compass to Rainbow while simultaneously taking out the letter. “It’s the same mark!” Twilight ran a quick magic scan of the object, being completely in awe after she finished. “The spellwork is beautiful. I don’t know what half of it does but it’s like an intricate painting.”
The blue pegasus compared the two symbols, “That letter said that that symbol would lead to an element didn’t it? So this thing might lead you to others?” She hypothesized, again demonstrating the pegasus had a knack for making connections.
“What’s an element?” The little pegasus cut in having no clue what the elder two were talking about.
“We’re not sure kid, if we figure out what exactly they are we’ll share,” Rainbow told the filly, ruffling her hair.
“Anyway, you two lead the way, I’ll follow since we're not following the compass while it's pointing at Rainbow... Wait...” Twilight took out the compass again and walked around Rainbow, the needle staying firmly pointed at the pegasus. “Well that may confirm the hypothesis you are one of these 'elements'.” She levitated the wristband over to the pegasus. “There, try it on to see what it does!”
Rainbow eyed it nervously but did as Twilight had asked, the unicorn hadn't tried to bring her harm so she probably wouldn't now. As she secured it around the wrist opposite to the sword the glow intensified exponentially for the briefest of moments, forcing everypony to look away. As they looked back, though, the wristband was gone, replaced by a large round shield behind which Dash could take cover, the gem sitting inert in its centre. "Sparkle, please explain the magical shenanigans," Dash nervously said as she eyed the thing with wide eyes.
"I-I... have no idea what happened. Some kind of transmutation spell contained in the crystal... but then why would it still be sitting at the centre of the shield..."
"It's so cool though!" Scootaloo said with awe, running her hoof over the cold metal.
"Well yeah, it's awesome, but I'm not sure how we're going to take it-" The shield glowed red, not as bright as before by far, and in an instantly reformed into the wristband. "-with us."
"I guess that solves that," Twilight said stunned as she couldn't make heads or tails of the magic happening in front of her. "The compass also changed directions, it's pointing south now."
"Guess it's pointing to another pony that's a bearer of one of these things?" Dash said. "It's moot though, we're going the opposite direction."
"Agreed. We're wasting time now."
The group turned and started walking to the west, they still had a long way to go.
Two weeks of tiring and careful travel were behind them the trio as they made their way to Whitetail forest, carefully avoiding unicorn patrols and a couple of pegasi ones that mostly remained distant. A slow-moving river now lay before the companions before they could enter the forest proper.
“Can't you, I don’t know, teleport over?” Rainbow asked Twilight, looking at the wide river. The sun was already going down towards the horizon but they wanted to reach the other end before nightfall.
“No, and if I could I wouldn’t. Even at this distance, we’re too close to Canterlot. A teleport like that would be picked up all the way over there.” Twilight answered, “If you fly over all the baggage and armour I can swim over.”
“Yeah, no. I'll fly you over before I allow you to freeze in there,” Dash pointed out and rolling her eyes, the river was nearly seventy-five meters of ice-cold water and they had been walking for a few hours already on that day. “I’ll drop off the stuff on the other bank first, wait here,” The pegasus said, taking off with the filly and saddlebags. Twilight made her way to the edge of the river, dipping her hoof in she shuddered, it was quite cold.
Yeah, maybe it's for the best that I didn't go in there.
“Alright, let's get you over there,” Rainbow said as she picked up the unicorn and flew her over the water, only the full weight of a pony might have been a bit much for Rainbow. "I... Don't... think..." The pegasus lost her grip on the unicorn and she dropped into the water. Twilight yelped in surprise and from the cold water as she tried staying afloat. Rainbow Immediately dove down and dragged her to the other edge, Twilight was shivering madly. “S-So c-cold.”
Rainbow looked at the unicorn who was curled up in a ball, “Crap. SCOOTALOO! get some cloth and use it to dry her off and keep her warm!” Rainbow quickly ran into the forest picking up some dry wood while Scootaloo went to work drying off Twilight. Rainbow having a few good sticks under her wing ran back to the river bank and quickly built a firepit. “Twilight if you can, I need you to start this fire for me,” She told the shivering pony. Twilight lit her horn and a small ember in the middle of the pile of wood, Rainbow shielded the little spark with her wings until it got big enough to sustain itself.
“Scootaloo I want you to get some more firewood,” Rainbow told the filly who immediately ran to the treeline.
“They’re going to find us because of that smoke trail.” Twilight weakly said, having sat up on her haunches, her blanket they had procured around her.
"We've been running for weeks Twi, if they were still that close on our tails now we might as well give up." Dash pulled Twilight close and wrapped her wings around the unicorn. Scootaloo came back with a small bundle of wood which they promptly used to fuel the fire. “How far are we from Whitetail now?”
“About twenty more kilometers,” Twilight answered, Rainbow grabbed a loaf of bread from her saddlebag and broke off a bit, “Here, eat.” She said holding it out to Twilight.
“I already had some,” Twilight said defensively, not wanting to take more than her share of their nearly completely depleted supplies.
Dash pushed the piece of bread into Twilight’s hooves, “I recall that Whitetail has fruit trees in it from patrols there. We can eat there when we arrive.”
Twilight quietly obeyed the pegasus and ate the piece of bread. “G’night, Twi, Scoots.” Slowly the three drifted to sleep, a day away from Whitetail woods
“Captain Armor, Do you understand your task?” A unicorn stood in the middle of a burnt encampment surveying the damage done by the dragon whose corpse now lay in the middle of the camp. The unicorn turned herself to face the captain.
“To the best of my ability, I will make sure my sis-... Twilight Sparkle is brought to justice, my Empress,” He replied, satisfying the other unicorn. He turned and marched away, leaving the empress alone with her private guards.
“Go and make sure he does his job and if he doesn’t, kill him. Slowly and Painfully.” One of the guards saluted and marched off. The Empress satisfied turned back to the corpse remembering the words her father had told her, On the longest day of the thousandth year, she’ll exact vengeance upon the world that removed her from her throne. That day was quickly approaching and somehow a promising but unproven Lieutenant's execution is halted by a dragon who should have been unable to pass the Dragonskeep unseen. She had to be certain that this Twilight Sparkle wouldn’t become a problem.
Leaves rustled beneath the hoves of the three travelers as they made their way deeper into the forest, the morning left a thick layer of fog in between the trees severely limiting visibility.
"Are you sure we're still on track?" Rainbow asked as she pushed her way through the underbrush. "Not following the roads isn't exactly the fastest way to travel."
"Yes, I'm sure we're going the right way and you know as well as I do that if we took a road the chance of being caught would be way too high," Twilight responded to the grumbling pegasus, Rainbow had agreed to avoid flying unless it was absolutely necessary to lower the chances of getting caught even further.
Rainbow sighed as she was bored out of her mind, they had been walking through whitetail for two days now and the energetic pegasus was having trouble with too much bottled up energy. "Can't we just go for a run or something?" She asked.
Twilight rolled her eyes at the request as it wasn't the first time the pegasus had asked, "Who's going to take Scootaloo if we do run off."
Rainbow huffed, "One of us can just take her on one of our backs." She argued.
"We're already carrying food and other equipment, we can't afford being tired if we have to run from either pegasi legionaries or unicorn knights." Twilight explained as she had on all other occasions Rainbow had asked.
"I know, I know. The forest is just so incredibly boring!" Rainbow said looking back at the filly that was dragging her hooves after the two adults, "You keeping up okay Scoots?" Dash asked.
"Yup! Never better!" The filly reacted happily, she hadn't been grumpy for the entirety of the trip and had managed to keep up with the elder two ponies.
Twilight suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, her ears swiveling as she picked up a sound. "Get down!" She whispered, the two pegasi also dropping on their stomach.
"Is that singing?" Rainbow whispered to Twilight as she also heard what Twilight had heard.
"I think so." Twilight answered as the pegasus snuck forward towards the location where the singing was coming from. "Rainbow get back here!" Ordered the pegasus as she kept creeping forward, Rainbow ignored the unicorn and got close enough to be able to hear what was being sung.
Lullay moon princess, goodnight sister mine And rest now in moonlight's embrace
Twilight and Scootaloo crept up beside Rainbow as she now had a visual on the pony who was singing: A pony sitting on her flank next to a small pool of water covered in a thick brown cloak, a slightly sharpened white horn sticking through the cloak
Bear up my lullaby, winds of the earth Through cloud, and through sky, and through space Carry the peace and the coolness of night And carry my sorrow in kind
Twilight listened closely to the text as she tried to stay hidden within the underbrush, the other two ponies doing the same.
Luna, you're loved so much more than you know May troubles be far from your mind And forgive me for being so blind
Scootaloo accidentally managed to snap a twig as she moved a bit to get a better view, the cloaked pony swiftly turning to look at where the sound came from and running off into the thick fog of the forest.
"Ponyfeathers!" Rainbow swore, "Squirt, get on my back!" She told the little filly.
"You had to sneak closer didn't you!" Twilight said as she too got up from her lying position, "Follow me!"
The two ran off in the direction they were walking in before, "So you're going to tell me that you weren't curious as to what you were hearing!" Rainbow shouted at Twilight, who was running in front of her.
"Yes I was curious but I wasn't about to risk our cover to hear a SONG!" Twilight shouted back, above the two running ponies two shadows started trailing them. Scootaloo was the first to notice them as she wasn't arguing like the other two were, "Uhm, Dash, Twilight?" She said, trying to draw attention to herself.
"Come on, it can't be that bad. By the time she finds someone to report to we'll be somewhere in ponyville!" Dash shouted back at the Unicorn. Scootaloo saw the two shadows growing rapidly, "GIRLS!" She said Trying harder to get the two's attention.
"WHAT!" The elder pegasus and unicorn simultaneously replied as two armoured pegasi broke through the forest roof and smashed down in front of the running ponies. Twilight turned herself to the two assailants and lit her horn, firing a concentrated beam of light into the two pegasuses eyes nullifying their element of surprise. Extending the blade on her foreleg she charged the first pegasus who hadn't recovered from the bright flash of light and plunged the blade into his lightly armoured neck, she hadn't become a lieutenant by sitting on her flank all day.
The second pegasus had recovered by that point and extended his own blade, slashing down at Twilight. The unicorn parried the blade but her lack of skill with leg-mounted weapons was painfully apparent. Rainbow had put Scootaloo into a small bush and also ran towards the pegasus legionnaire, "Hey, YOU!" She shouted as she extended her own blade, thrusting it forward. The pegasus batted the blade aside but in doing so left himself open to an attack from Twilight, the unicorn slashing at the supporting foreleg. Rainbow followed up by stabbing her blade deep into the unarmored side of the pegasus.
The two victorious ponies let out a few ragged breaths as they wiped off the blood from their blades. Rainbow walked up to the copses and pulled a primary feather from both the right wings of the fallen pegasi and carefully put them in her saddlebag. "May you find peace in the heavens above." She said as she closed their eyes.
Twilight meanwhile was rummaging through the saddlebag of one of the fallen pegasi looking for supplies, finding a few bandages and some food. "Dash, How long until more pegasi will be sent out to investigate?" Twilight asked Rainbow who had walked over to Scootaloo to calm her down.
"Depending on how far they were through their patrol? Most likely an hour, less than thirty minutes if we're extremely unlucky." Rainbow responded while loading Scootaloo on her back, "But there's also the chance that they'll assume they ran into a unicorn patrol. That would be the best outcome because that would mean they will take longer to respond and most likely in force."
"Then we should get moving, Ponyville should only be a couple of hours away from here," Twilight said as she secured her saddlebags. Rainbow half-acknowledged what Twilight said while she kept looking at the corpses.
"What are you waiting for, Rainbow? We've got to move!" Twilight said as Rainbow stalled further. "We should burn them," Rainbow replied, her eyes tearing a bit. "Their souls will be trapped in their bodies if we don't."
Twilight realized the pegasus was having a religious internal conflict about what to do at that moment and stepped closer to her companion, "They'll have proper services when other pegasi find them but we don't have the time." She said putting a hoof on Dash's shoulder, she may not have known about pegasi custom but they could not stay there.
"Y-Yeah, you're right." Dash stuttered as she pulled her gaze away from the corpses, "Let's go."
The three ponies were lying in the underbrush on the edge of the forest, the trio had tracked deeper into the unicorn territory to prevent them from being found by the pegasi. The village in front of them was nothing short of a slum as it consisted out of cobbled-together materials.
"How many ponies live in there?" Scootaloo asked as she seemed to be disgusted with the settlement.
"Estimates put it at five-thousand" Twilight answered, also covering her nose slightly as the smell coming from the village reeked. "I don't know the exact number as Earthponies aren't exactly seen as citizens by Canterlot."
"This is even worse than what pegasi do to Earthpony villages and cities under our control," Dash said as she surveyed Ponyville, comparing it to her mental image of Maresaw.
Surveying further Twilight saw an apple orchard stretching out towards what she assumed to be the Everfree forest. The village itself had a central building with a clock tower while the rest of the town bloomed out from there, "Look over there." Dash said pointing at an abandoned cottage close to the edge of the Everfree made out of a tree. "We can take shelter there until I can get a cloak to go into the village itself."
Twilight looked Rainbow, "What do you mean 'I' ?" Twilight asked annoyed at the pegasus.
"Face it Twi, that head-spike is a dead giveaway in an Earthpony village. While I can just cover my wings with a cloak and walk around." Rainbow argued, Twilight lighting up her horn making it fade out of existence as if it wasn't even there.
"Or you could do that" Rainbow said as Twilight was smirking at her.
"Let's go take a look at that cottage," Twilight said while sneaking back into the forest. The three made their way through the edge of the forest, they spotted a few unicorns patrolling the edge of town but none seemed to go near to the abandoned cottage to Twilight's relief.
Getting as close to the house as they possibly could they made a quick sprint to the cottage, the back door was hanging over on its hinges and opened without much trouble. The inside was a dusty mess, any furniture that had stood in there had been removed or stolen long ago. Moving up to the first floor over squeaking stairs they found a similar sight to the first floor but the closet contained a couple of brown rags they could fashion cloaks out of.
The first floor also gave a good vantage point the group could use to keep an eye on any guards that might come and check up on the cottage. "We should go pick a few apples in that orchard tonight to add to our supplies," Rainbow said while she rummaged through her saddlebag.
"We should also try to find some rope and something to make a tent out of in the village itself." Twilight said as she screwed around with the rags, "Rainbow, come over here." She said, the pegasus stepping closer to allow Twilight to put one of the rags around her. "That should work." She said as she tied the cloth together, hiding Rainbow's wings completely.
"Yup, now we just wait until darkness." Rainbow said as she lay down against one of the bags and closed her eyes, "Might as well sleep for a bit if we're going to be up tonight."
Twilight shrugged and lay down next to her while Scootaloo pushed herself between the two. Comfortably waiting until the night would fall upon them.
"So, are you finally going to tell us what our target means to you, Captain?" Swift Star asked, the light blue mare's helmet was lying behind her as she was lazily drawing something on a piece of parchment.
Shining Armor huffed, levitating his helmet on his bed as he sat down next to his makeshift desk, "Why? You know what her name, rank, cutiemark, mane and fur-color are and what her favorite breakfast is." He replied reading through some reports lying on his desk.
"That's just the thing, Cap." Comet Flash, an orange unicorn, said from his position lazily leaning against a set of boxes while chewing on a reed. "How in Tartarus would you know what her favorite bucking breakfast is."
Shining groaned, he cared for his subordinates a lot but they were annoying as Tartarus. "If you needed to know I would have told you, now if you two could get off your flanks and do some productive work we might be able to catch her!"
Swift Star raised an eyebrow at the wording Shining used, "What do you mean catch? Aren't we just going to kill the bitch when we find her?" She asked.
"I'M NOT JUST GOING TO KILL MY SISTER!" Shining finally shouted as he brought his hooves down on his desk, cracking the wooden board. He sat back down as he now had the full attention of his subordinates, "I don't know what that pegasus told her to turn her against us but I intend to ask her personally."
"Damn, Cap. You know you can trust us with crap like that right?" Comet said, giving a friendly knock on the shoulder of his superior.
"Yeah, I know. It's just that these orders come right from the top." Shining said as he picked up a report again, he opened up his mouth to say something else but something in the report caught his eyes. "Guys, look at this." He showed the report to his companions.
"Two dead pegasi in Whitetail? What's so suspicious about that? We whack a couple of those chickens in that forest every day." Swift Star said as she finished scanning the report.
"Yes, but we didn't kill these two and when we found them they had wounds consistent with blades, not spears." Shining continued, a grin forming on his face. "So it's friendly fire?" Comet guessed, Swift Star shaking her head as she saw where this was going. "Pegasi don't do friendly fire." She said as she levitated her pencil over to the map, Marking the location where the bodies had been found.
"But we do know about two fleeing ponies who stole a set of them from the ones we captured." Shining continued as he took his own pencil and drew a straight line from where the encampment had been to where the bodies had been found, "Going south wouldn't make sense as they know we'd have too many patrols looking for them there."
Comet levitated a third pencil to the map as he continued the line, "So if they went west instead to avoid a high concentration of unicorns they might have run into, let's say, two pegasi on their way to their first destination."
Shining raised up the map and smiled as he looked at the line,
"Ladies and gentlecolts, we're going to Ponyville."
Rainbow woke up as she felt a hoof repeatedly stabbing her side, "Yeah, yeah. I'm awake." she grumbled, rubbing her eyes. Outside the sun had nearly set and the world began becoming darker.
Twilight passed an empty saddlebag to Rainbow as the pegasus stretched her legs. "I figured out the guard patrol route after those two guards pass that corner..." Twilight pointed at a house on the edge of town, "... Then we'll have about three minutes we can use to sneak in."
Rainbow nodded while looking at the town, it was anything but quiet in there, you could see various places where fires lit up the street and you could hear ponies laughing in the distance if you were listening carefully.
"You also need to put this on." Twilight said as she levitated over a hood to Rainbow, "Your hair would stand out too much if you just walked around with it."
Rainbow grumbled once again but didn't complain further as she put on the hood, Scootaloo climbed onto Rainbow's back again giving a tap to signal she was secured. The trio stepped outside, waiting in the shadows for the guard duo to pass.
"GO!" Twilight whispered as she sprinted to the edge of town, running into an alley they made a quick turn so they wouldn't be seen by any guards patrolling the outside perimeter.
"I think the middle of town is the unicorn HQ if we avoid that we'll be able to sneak towards the orchard unseen." Twilight Told Rainbow, who had put Scootaloo back on the ground.
"We should also watch out for earthponies, they might not like unicorns but that doesn't mean they'll side with us," Dash said as she checked if her hair, wings, and armor were still covered by the makeshift clothing.
"Agreed." Twilight said, "Let's get moving." The three stuck to the shadows as they made their way through town, to Rainbow's surprise no unicorn guards patrolled the inner streets but Twilight explained that on several occasions Earthponies had murdered the guards in the close-quarter environment of the streets where they had the advantage so unicorns just stuck to patrolling main roads and the outside perimeter.
At some point, the group made it to a little courtyard where ponies were drinking. Moonshine, Twilight concluded. They tried to sneak past but just as Rainbow was about to turn the corner out of sight one of the earthponies spotted her, "HEY YOU THERE!" He shouted, Rainbow freezing.
"Go on ahead, if we don't find each other again we'll meet back at the cottage." Dash whispered to Scootaloo and Twilight before she turned back to the earthponies, "What do you want?" she asked the pony who had shouted as she saw Scootaloo and Twilight disappear into the darkness behind her.
"You ain't from around here are ya." He said as he took another gulp from his drink, "I ain't know any earthpony around here that would wear a hood while in these streets."
Rainbow grimaced as she realized she had stepped too close to the earthpony as he suddenly pulled off the hood, revealing Dash's rainbow mane. The earthpony also looked slightly confused as it wasn't what he had expected, "No head-spike?" He muttered, "Sorry ma'am we sometimes get head-spikes sneaking through here to gather intelligence."
Dash let out the breath she was holding and slowly removed her left leg from the blade gauntlet's activation button, "I just try to hide this damn hair of mine from them." Dash replied.
The earthpony chuckled, "I can see why, you'd be singled out by the bastards every time they saw you." He said pushing a second mug of ale to Dash, "Have a drink on me, the least ah can do after troubling you."
Dash wanted to deny but saw she had the attention of pretty much everypony in the courtyard to some degree, Sitting down on one of the stools she threw the content of the mug down her throat. She almost gagged at the potency of the first gulp she took, the entire courtyard laughing at the disguised pegasus's reaction. "That's some damn strong stuff" She commented as she wiped a tear from her eyes.
"Most ponies don't even hold down the first the first gulp." The earthpony said as he couldn't stop grinning, "Mah name is, Rivet by the way"
"Rainbow" Dash replied, realizing too late that her name might not be the most typical for an earthpony.
"You from the northern earthpony cities?" He asked, "If ya got pegasus blood in ya that might explain the hair"
Rainbow was glad that the earthpony just rolled with her name as she made up a half-truth to tell him, "I was born and grew up in Maresaw, A couple of weeks ago I managed to break through the patrols on the edge of Whitetail. At first, I wanted to loop around the Canterlot mountain range into earthpony territory but the unicorns seem to be looking for something there so I went back to Whitetail to try and cut south through ponyville."
"Lie!" An orange earthpony wearing a Stetson hat shouted from a table over as she had been listening in, "Ah know a lie when ah hear one and YOU are keeping some information to yourself." Rainbow had by this point gotten of her little stool and was carefully walking backward, other earthponies who had previously been sitting now stood up. They apparently trusted this mare to speak the truth.
"Now ah know that unicorns can hide their horn with some fancy magic so why don't ya just show us yours, would make it a lot easier on us lot." She said as a couple of stallions formed up around her.
"Maybe if I had a horn I could," Dash replied getting in a battle stance, ready to activate her blade at a moment's notice. The earthpony mare stopped for a moment as she apparently couldn't detect a lie but before she could say anything another earthpony came running into the courtyard.
"UNICORNS ON THEIR WAY!" He shouted, everypony seemed to forget about Dash and started hiding the tables, stools, and beer while others just ran off into the few alleyways lining the courtyard. Rainbow also not interested in being caught by the unicorns also bolted into a street, she turned a couple of corners before coming to a stop behind some crates.
Letting out a couple of breaths Rainbow remembered that Twilight and Scootaloo had gone on their way to the apple orchard, she got up and took a step in the direction she believed it to be in...
...And then got kicked in the chest by an earthpony.
Rainbow tumbled into the stack of crates as the kick launched her a short distance, "Ah want answers! You show up in mah town, lie to us about where ya from, and then a bunch of unicorns come crashin' our drinkin' evening!" The orange earthpony from before furiously shouted at Dash. The pegasus was struggling to get back on her hooves as she was pretty sure she'd have broken ribs if she hadn't been wearing armour, "You're outmatched, earthpony," She grunted. "I'm not interested in fighting you so just leave while you can."
The earthpony raised an eyebrow at the statement but wasn't backing down, "And do what? report us to those stickheads so we can get arrested?" She growled, digging her hooves in for a charge. Dash saw this and got ready, she wasn't lying about not wanting to hurt the earthpony but she couldn't go look for companions while she was blocking her.
The earthpony shot forward but to Dash it was clear that she hadn't had any formal fighting training, deflecting the first strike from the earthpony and jabbing her on her throat as a warning punch, pegasus fighting style being such that they should be able to fight while only standing on hind legs. The mare coughed as Dash stepped out of striking distance again, "Last warning." Dash said threateningly as she got ready once again to deploy her blade if the earthpony attacked.
Hesitating for a moment the pony took a step back but then picked up a box and threw it at Dash, who dove out of the way finally extending her sword and pointing it at the Earthpony to stop any potential charges. The orange pony realizing the extent of her mistake turned around and bolted. "Oh no, you don't!" Dash shouted as she took to chasing the pony, only having a few pony lengths between the two Dash had to admit the earthpony was seriously fast as she was having trouble catching up. It also didn't help that she was keeping to narrow streets meaning that Dash couldn't use her wings to gain the speed advantage.
The Earthpony took a look behind her and to her horror saw Dash behind her with a determined scowl, making another turn she saw her destination, a red patched up barn on a hill within the apple orchard. Little did she know that by running into the relative openness of the trees she'd be giving Dash a massive advantage. Bolting from the alley the earthpony heard the sound of flapping as she suddenly got tackled from behind, landing on her back she got pinned by her assailant. Her pupils shrinking to pinpricks as she saw a very menacing pegasus with open wings holding a blade to her throat.
"You should have just forgotten about me," Dash said as she raised the sword and plunged it down again.
"DASH STOP!" Rainbow heard Twilight shout from behind her, her blade having already slightly pierced the earthponies hide. Looking over at her friend she saw that she was levitating the strange compass in front of her as the needle was pointing at the earthpony while glowing orange.
"Oh great, you're going to tell me she's one of these 'elements' aren't you?" Dash deadpanned, Twilight nodded while Scootaloo just hid behind Twilight's legs. Dash looked back at the orange pony who was silently looking up at her, fear in her eyes and a small stream of blood coming from her neck. Dash retracted her blade and looked at the earthpony before suckerpunching her in the face.
"So what in Tartarus do we do now?" Dash asked as she stepped away from the unconscious mare that lay on the ground next to them. Twilight came up to the mare and started bandaging the wound Dash had made to prevent it from infecting, "I haven't got the faintest but we can't just leave her now and I don't think we can haul her back to the cottage without having every earthpony here coming down on us."
Rainbow couldn't agree more as she remembered that everypony at the makeshift bar had listened to the pony next to her when she said Dash was lying, "I think that barn there is her home, if we sneak her in there you can keep watch on her while I get the stuff we left at the cottage."
Twilight nodded as she dropped the disguise on her horn so she could more effectively levitate the unconscious mare, "I'll take care of getting her inside, you get the rest of our supplies." Rainbow opened her wings and took to the air, it was slightly cloudy and the unicorns hadn't set up any searchlights like they typically did when dealing with pegasi at night. A minute of flight later Rainbow landed at the back of the cottage and quickly grabbed the supplies they had left behind before taking back off again towards the barn, she could see the slight purplish glow as Twilight was levitating the pony up through a window.
"Need some help?" Dash asked as she helped the struggling unicorn by airlifting the earthpony through the window, helping Scootaloo and Twilight up afterward. The room contained a bed and a closet and clearly belonged to the earthpony as there were a few spare hats that lay about the room. "So we're just going to wait for her to wake up?" Dash asked as she searched a chest at the foot of the bed, "Jackpot!" Dash said as she revealed a couple of ropes, throwing them at Twilight who bound the ponies legs together and tied her muzzle shut.
"We'll take rotating shifts watching her, I'll take the first shift." Twilight said as she stat down in a corner of the room with a good view of the bed and the door. Dash shrugged and lay back down, trying to get some more rest for when the pony woke back up. Applejack could feel her head pounding as she woke back up due to rays of the sun hitting her eyes, trying to move her hooves she found them to be tied together just as her muzzle was being kept shut by some rope.
"Finally awake I see?" She heard a raspy voice say, her eyes snapping open and focussing on where the voice came from. Sitting against the wall of her room was the pegasus who had almost slit her throat, next to her was a unicorn that seemed to just have woken up and on the other side of the pegasus was a small filly pegasus who was still sleeping.
AJ tried to say something but the rope around her muzzle was stopping her as the unicorn walked up next to the bed. "If you don't shout I'll remove the gag," She said, Applejack not seeing any other option made an approving grunt. A weird tingling feeling came from the ropes around her muzzle as the unicorn's horn lit up and the ropes came loose.
"What in tarnation do ya two want from mah." She asked, "I've got nothin' to give y'all."
Rainbow huffed, "You know about us, that's something we can't really allow right now." She said as she walked up to the other side of the bed, "You sure she is one of these 'elements', Twilight?"
The unicorn got something out of her saddlebag, an orange glowing compass, and levitated it to Rainbow. "If we are to believe this thing she is. The question we should ask is if there is one of those gems here as well."
Applejack meanwhile was mulling over the names the two had said, "Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash?" She said both the head of the unicorn and the pegasus snapped to her, "A captain and two lieutenants came by the village yesterday to question a few of us about if we had seen a unicorn called Twilight Sparkle and a pegasus called Rainbow Dash."
Twilight went slightly pale as she suspected the identity of the captain, "The Captain, what did he look like?"
"Stallion, white coat blue hair, his earth mark was of a shield covered by a star with three small stars above it." Applejack said, describing the Stallion she'd seen the day before. Twilight frowned, "Are you sure?"
Applejack huffed, "Y'all calling me a liar?" She said, slightly offended.
Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "Careful with your words, earthpony."
Applejack brought her nose as close as she could to Rainbow's, "Mah name is Applejack!" She hissed.
"Calm down Dash, we've got bigger problems. The unicorn Captain described is my brother," Twilight said as she magically pulled the two ponies apart.
Rainbow frowned, "Well Ponyfea-"
The door to Applejack door flew open and a filly with a large bow came sprinting inside, "Applejack! There are unicorns coming to..." the little filly slowed down as she saw the other occupants of the room, "...the farm." She finished as Twilight caught hold of her with telekinesis.
"LET MAH SISTER GO." Applejack shouted as she struggled against the rope, Twilight ignored her. "What unicorns and how did they look?" She calmly asked.
"T-three of them, two stallions, a white a-and an orange one, and one b-blue mare. " She stuttered, Twilight dropped the filly on top of her sister. "He knows we're here, are there any other ponies in this building?" Twilight asked Applejack. "Why do you care?" AJ asked as she kept her sister between her bound hooves.
"Because my brother will kill everyone in this building to find out where I am if he knows I'm here," Twilight said as she strapped the saddlebag she had put on the ground back to her barrel. Twilight poked at Scootaloo, waking her.
"Me and mah sister are the only one here, mah Ma, Pa, and Granny got murdered by unicorns and mah brother is somewhere south." Applejack said, before adding. "Ah hope."
Twilight thought for a moment, "Do you have any weapons here?" Applejack nodded, Twilight walked up to the bed and extended the blade out of her gauntlet, cutting the ropes that were holding the earthpony in place. "Show me."
Applejack carefully walked up to the chest at the foot of the bed and pushed it aside, revealing a couple of loose floorboards. After removing the floorboards Applejack pulled up a unicorn shortsword. Twilight immediately levitated it over and attached it to her barrel while she started loosening her gauntlet. "What am I supposed to fight with now!" Applejack growled as her sister was hiding behind her back legs. Twilight tossed her gauntlet over to the earthpony, "That! You wouldn't have been able to effectively used that sword anyway!"
"We've got incoming! They just left the town and are now on the road coming here." Rainbow said as she peeked out the window, "Are there any back exits?" She asked AJ as she tightened the straps on the gauntlet.
"The kitchen door leads to the back of the barn, we can get out of there." Applejack said, loading her sister on her back.
"Good, that's our exit," Rainbow said, putting Scootaloo on her own back. Applejack leading the other ponies down to the kitchen where they left the house.
Twilight stopped for a moment and looked at Applejack, "I'm sorry for this."
Applejack shook her head. "You sh-" Twilight lit her horn and shot a fireball at the barn, "WHAT IN TARNATION ARE YA DOING!" Applejack shouted as the barn caught fire.
"I can't fight my brother one on one, this might slow him down!" She said as she started running away from the barn, Rainbow running up next to her. "Where are we going!" She asked, Twilight answering in a single word.
"Everfree!"
Applejack skidded to a halt, "WHAT, Why in tarnation would you lead us into that cursed forest!"
Twilight and rainbow also stopped, "If we go north the pegasi will kill us, East is towards my brother, and South is an open plain up until the Ghastly Gorge where they could just shoot us in the back with composite bows, which means we can only go west and west is the Everfree!" Twilight explained, "Even a forest as dangerous as the Everfree is a better option than that!"
Applejack hesitated a moment longer but got moving again after a string of curses, Rainbow and Twilight also turned and crossed into the forest. Applejack glanced back at the burning barn one more time before she ran into the forest, throwing her lot in with the other three fugitives. Shining stood next to the smouldering barn as a couple of guards dragged a beaten earthpony forward, "Name." He ordered.
"Rivet." The earthpony answered, looking down at the dirt.
Shining looked at the pathetic mud-pony, "You said you saw something last night but didn't tell us?"
"N-No! I-I did tell! I saw a pony with a rainbow mane last night, she said she was heading south, but after the guards came to break us up she fled." He explained quickly before coughing up blood. Shining frowned at the pony, "You have a duty as a serf to report any suspicious ponies to the authorities." He said with an icy voice, "Punishment for not complying with this law is death."
"W-What!" Rivet stammered but was held in place by two unicorns. Shining got a spear and tossed it towards the stallion, the speak impaling the ground next to him.
"But you are right, you eventually chose to do right and report. You get away with your life this time, earthpony, do not hesitate to inform us sooner next time."
Comet Flash came walking up to Shining from behind, "We found tracks captain." He said as he threw a salute.
"Good, where do they lead, lieutenant?" Shining asked his friend, "They ran into the Everfree, Three sets of hooves, Sir." Comet answered.
Shining looked out at the forest to the west frowning at the forest, "Send word to units along the forest border that they have to look out for three ponies travelling through the forest." Shining ordered, he couldn't just follow into the forest without proper gear.
"Are we sure this is Sparkle's work?" Comet asked the captain as he looked at the smouldering barn.
"I can practically smell her magic coming off it." Shining growled, "It was her."
Comet nodded, "I'll inform Swift Star to gear up. We'll have the necessary supplies within two days." He said, "Hopefully command will be a little more flexible."
"See to it." Shining answered, "Dismissed." Comet ran off to inform his colleague and gather supplies, Shining looking over at the forest.
He'd get her somehow, even if that meant that he'd have to burn the entire damn forest to the ground.
Strange sounds and smells assaulted the five travelers as they were walking through the thick underbrush of the Everfree forest. Luckily for the three ponies they had yet to run into one of the creatures the forest was infamous for. "So, how did a pegasus and a unicorn end up together?" Applejack asked as she tried to distract herself from her surroundings.
Twilight chuckled, ''That's quite the story, Applejack." She said making a quick scan of their immediate area, "Over a month ago now I was patrolling a patch of forest south of the Black Sea when I and my team stumbled upon Rainbow. She was trying to travel south and into earthpony territory, she actually put up a decent fight but my squad was six unicorns strong so it was only a matter of time before we overpowered her. We had her pinned down and me being the highest rank present was tasked with her execution." Twilight grimaced as she recalled that moment, "I'd fought pegasi before but I never had to execute one, Rainbow would have been the first if I didn't get the idea to spare her life to interrogate her."
Rainbow chuckled, "Glad you didn't, but now you bring it up, why did you keep me from being executed even after it became painfully apparent that I didn't know any useful information?"
"To answer that question I'd have to give some background context." Twilight said, "Unicorns are taught from the moment that we're born that earthponies and pegasi are just about equivalent to the corrupted mare herself. Me and my brother grew up learning just that but then Shining got picked for training at the Canterlot officer academy..."
Twilight suddenly looked really sad as she recalled this part her youth, "Shiny used to be BBBFF's but after he went to that school he went from a caring big brother to 'Empress this, Empress that', they turned him into a pony who didn't even resemble his former self. Sometimes the old him would break through the cracks but it would immediately be stamped back down. I didn't understand why but after I myself was picked for that school it put everything in perspective. Where the usual education just makes you believe unicorns are superior to other races, the officer academy tries to make you think the Empress is a god herself."
"If so then how did ya remain relatively sane through it all?" Applejack asked the lavender mare.
"I used to have a good teacher and I just reminded myself of Shining, I never wanted to become like him." Twilight answered, "But that also brings me back to Rainbow. I could have just followed the Empress's orders and executed you, Rainbow, but I wanted to learn. All throughout my youth, I heard pegasi were evil and now I had one I could personally interrogate."
Rainbow smiled to herself, "You were in there with me almost the entire day with me before they dragged you out and accused you with treason, which you didn't even deny."
"I was only allowed to interrogate you for an hour following official guidelines." Twilight said with a smirk, "I went completely off the reservation when I stayed with you for that long and when they finally pulled me out of that tent every preconception about pegasi I had had been shattered. After that, I was about to be executed while they were going to cut off Rainbow's wings."
"They were going to cut off Dash's wings?!" Scootaloo questioned bewildered at the prospect.
"Yes but before they got the chance a dragon attacked the camp, giving us a chance to escape. After that, we travelled through Whitetail towards Ponyville where we found you, Applejack."
Applejack was slightly stunned, "That's quite the story, after mah Pa, Ma, and granny got killed by unicorns I just assumed all of ya were just the same."
"We're just trying to find our way in the world, AJ. It's just that the information we're given is wrong." Twilight said as she jumped over a fallen tree, "You also said you had a brother, didn't you? What happened to him?"
"Remember the raid on Ponyville by earthponies a couple years back?" Applejack asked Twilight who nodded. "That raid is infamous within the Empire, a group of earthponies tracking up north unseen to raid one of Canterlot's food production sites. It might not have had that much of an effect in the short term but it seriously shocked our leadership."
Applejack nodded, "Mah brother went back with that group, ah stayed behind with Applebloom her because she was still too young to make that trip. But he promised that he'd come back to us."
A tear fell from the corner of Applejack's eye, "That was the last time ah saw mah brother."
Twilight stopped and put a hoof on Applejack's shoulder, "We never caught that raiding party and after its hit, we tightened border security so your brother would have never gotten the chance to come and get you."
This seemed to give some hope to the earthpony, "Thanks, Twilight."
The group turned their attention back to the forest as they continued walking, "Is it me or did the forest just become really quiet?" Rainbow asked nervously as she tried to pick up the sound of animals. The fact they'd come this far without any dangers of the Everfree showing themselves was remarkable but they didn't know how long that'd last.
"She's right, this ain't normal." Applejack said as she looked at the underbrush around them to see if she could pick up movement. Twilight looked ahead and saw the forest thinning in front of them, "I think there's a clearing up ahead." She said as she led the other four ponies on.
The supposed clearing turned out to be a large chasm with an old rope bridge connecting to the other side, fog rising up from the large gap in the earth obscuring the other side. "Rainbow can you check out the other side of that bridge?" Twilight asked the pegasus, who dropped off Scootaloo and took off towards the other side while Applejack and Twilight stood took up defensive positions in front of the two fillies on their side of the bridge.
Rainbow landed on the foggy side of the cavern, from what she could see from her surroundings she saw a couple of bushes and trees but nothing suspicious came to her eyes, she turned to inspect the rope bridge's supports on her side of the chasm as she got tackled by something behind her, extending her blade she slashed at the thing attacking her. Two blades clashed as another attacker appeared and made sure Dash's blade didn't hit his ally. Rainbow struggled to get out of the grip the two attackers had her in but when a third attacker appeared to hold her down she knew she had lost. She took a good look at the attackers who had pinned her down.
They were all black or grey-furred ponies but that wasn't what Rainbow focussed on. It was the fangs, slitted cat-eyes, and bat wings they possessed.
"Rainbow! What's going on over there!" Twilight shouted from across the cavern, The first black pony holding its blade on Rainbows throat. "Tell them the coast is clear." He said baring his fangs to the pegasus. Rainbow snarled back at him, "I don't betray my friends." She hissed back at the bat-like pony, the third attacker seemed to notice something on Dash.
"Guys look at this." A feminine voice said as she pointed at the slightly glowing gem that was stuck on Rainbow's wristband, "Do you think she's one of the prothesized ones to heal the Nightmother?" The female asked as the second attacker raised his eyebrow.
"You think she's Loyalty?" He asked, the female nodding. The first attacker groaned, "Call your friends over and they might live to see the sun rise above the horizon once again." Rainbow hesitated as the large stallion seemed sincere, "We have been stalking your little group for a couple of hours now, pegasus. I would only have to give the order and your friends would be gone."
Rainbow shivered for a moment as she suddenly understood why the forest had been quiet. "Girls! Come on over!" She shouted over at the others. The bridge began swaying as Twilight, Applejack, Applebloom, and Scootaloo started crossing. Applejack was the first one across the bridge followed by the fillies and Twilight, "Rainbow what took you so long?" Twilight said as she tried to spot the pegasus through the thick fog, immediately drawing the short sword she carried when she saw Dash being held down by the three ponies.
"Relieve yourselves of your weapons and you'll be spared." The large stallion holding Dash down said as his companions had already removed Rainbows blade. Twilight glanced at Applejack who was looking the strange pony into its eyes, "It ain't lying." She finally grunted as removed her gauntlet and threw it in front of her, another bat-pony suddenly appeared from the fog and snatched the gauntlet away before disappearing again into the thick mist. Twilight grimaced as she tossed her own sword forward, it too being taken by a pony who appeared from the fog.
"How do you know our words aren't a lie." The female bat-pony asked Applejack, the earthpony just shrugged. "Ah get a bad taste in mah mouth when someone's lyin', ah've always known when someone does it."
"Interesting." The female replied, turning to the large male. "Honesty and loyalty, don't you think?"
The large male just glared at the other ponies, "Follow me." He said, getting of Dash, several new armed bat-ponies appeared from the fog to escort the five ponies to their destination.
"Eight centuries." The large Stallion said as they followed a path, "We kept this place a secret from the outside world for eight hundred years so our species would not be extinguished by the others."
"Kept what from the outside world?" Twilight asked as the fog suddenly stopped revealing a slightly overgrown but clearly maintained Castle, "Whoa." Twilight said as she gawked at the keep.
"Keep moving unicorn, it was your kind who harmed the Nightmother in the first place." One of the escorts growled at Twilight as she had slowed down a bit too much. "Nightmother? Who's.." A couple of gears started turning in Twilight's head as she remembered a particular song, "...You mean Luna?"
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY HER NAME AGAIN UNICORN!" The leading stallion shouted in Twilight's face with a sudden unmatched rage with bared fangs ready to sink into her throat, "YOU'RE NOT WORTHY ENOUGH TO SAY IT! "
Twilight trembled at the berating, not willing to use her magic in fear these ponies would retaliate. "Keep moving to the castle, we'll find out if the hunch my companion had was correct." He grumbled as he got off of Twilight and started moving towards the castle again, Twilight being helped up by a concerned Applejack. As the group entered the castle they immediately stepped into a throne room, Two banners hung from the ceiling above two empty thrones, one night blue with a half crescent moon among stars and another yellow one with a stylized sun with eight arms.
"Twilight, Look at that sun," Rainbow said, Twilight nodded in acknowledgement as she had also seen it.
"It's the mark of daymother," The female bat-pony said as she heard what Rainbow said, "You've seen it before?"
Twilight instinctively levitated the scroll she had in her saddlebag out to show to the bat-pony as she heard swords deploying around her, The female motioned for the other to calm down. "You should be careful with that magic of yours, my kin aren't that comfortable with it." She said as she picked the scroll out of Twilights magic with two small claws in the middle of her wing.
"You've read Starswirls prophecy?" She said with a raised eyebrow, "Do you possess any other items that are connected to daymother?" She asked, Twilight nodded and levitated the compass out of the bag, getting glares from the other escorts.
"I-Impossible!" The female said as she took a step backwards, "That Item was in daymother's care when we last saw her."
"We're here" The stallion cut the mare off, they entered a side room where a few older bat-ponies were sitting. "What's the meaning of this Nightwing?" the eldest at the head of the table asked the stallion, "Why have you brought these day-dwellers here?"
"I have brought them here to seek your council, Elder." Nightwing said, "Pegasus, step forward. Moonlight, show the elders the items from the unicorn." The female bat-pony stepped forward and put the scroll and the compass down as Rainbow stepped forward. "Moonlight here seems to think these mares have a connection to the elements."
The Council of elders seemed baffled at the sight of the gem but the eldest one took a hold of the compass and fiddled with it, the device suddenly gave a click as he pulled on the ring and the red and orange gemstones that were embedded in the base plate started glowing as the needle swung between Applejack and Rainbow.
"By Starswirls beard!" One of the councillors said as he looked at the compass, "Bring them to a room and feed them, they have a long journey ahead of them." The eldest said as he pushed the compass back towards Moonlight, "The council will have to converse about this discovery for a while. But before that, you are to tell them our knowledge of the elements."
Nightwing nodded and motioned for the others to follow, he lead the group to another side chamber with a few beds in it and food on the table, mainly fruits. "Moonlight will answer any questions you have while you wait for the council to finish its session," Nightwing told them as he and all other guards except Moonlight left the room.
Applebloom and Scootaloo went up to the table and started eating the fruit that was placed there. Twilight heard Applebloom whispering something to the pegasus filly, something she was glad for since she hadn't said a thing since the incident in Applejack's room, something Twilight was responsible for. Moonlight meanwhile took a seat on one of the beds, "So, what exactly are the elements?" Twilight asked her curiously.
"The elements are a collection of powerful artefacts that have the ability to restore harmony to a being that's corrupted. But the gems are only one part of the equation, you also need the wielders who represent the elements themselves. The pegasus, for example, represents Loyalty and the Earthpony the element of honesty." The bat-pony explained.
Twilight nodded, being slightly annoyed that she didn't have any tools with her she could use to write any of this down, "So what are the other elements of harmony then?" She Inquired, Rainbow and Applejack had sat down next to her to listen in on the bat-pony.
"There are six of them, Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, and Laughter when those elements are brought together the last bearer will be revealed although I know of its location I do not know what it represents." She explained, itching Twilight's curiosity even further, "Do you know of all the locations of these elements?"
The bat-pony nodded, "After daymother fled she hid the gemstones deep inside the great fortresses of Equestria. Honesty lay in the Dustwatch to the south, Laughter in Westrock Castle, Generosity in the Dragonskeep, kindness in the underground fortress of Manehattan, and loyalty used to reside in the Cloudsdale fortress but that is clearly no longer the case since you carry the gem with you. As for the last element, it is located somewhere within Canterlot castle."
Twilight's eyes went wide open, "Canterlot castle?! That place has been made impenetrable!"
"Daymother always liked her pranks back in the day." Moonlight said with a grin, "She alway's told my ancestors about the secret passageways she'd installed in the original castle to prank the nobles. If you figure out where they are you might be able to sneak in and out undetected. But all that is still a long time away since that is the last element to reveal itself." The bat-pony ended.
"Why would 'daymother' hide all the gems in the first place?" Applejack asked, Midnight just shrugged. "You would have to ask her, she left us over a century ago and hasn't returned."
"Wait, what do you mean 'Hasn't returned?' Wouldn't she be long dead by this point?" Rainbow asked bewildered, Moonlight had to stop herself from laughing as the ponies wouldn't have any way to know, "Night and daymother are both ageless, they have seen centuries go by, wars fought and they have endured."
Rainbow and the others were gawking at the revelation, "She has lived for over a thousand years? She must look ancient." Moonlight giggled at Rainbows statement, "One of the benefits of agelessness is that she physically stays in her twenties but the elders say that that's just an illusion she uses to fit in with regular ponies."
Scootaloo, who had been listening from the table with Applebloom stepped forward to the bat-pony. "What kind of pony are you exactly." She asked.
Moonlight smiled at her, "We have been called many names through the years, Night terrors, Vamponies, bat-ponies. But the name we got from our nightmother was Thestral." She said, satisfying the little filly.
"But now I must ask you to rest, the council will not keep you here as it is in their interest to reunite the elements since they are required to lift the curse of darkness the unicorns placed on nightmother in their rebellion." Moonlight said as she lay down on the bed.
"Ah agree, it was already evenin' when we were outside, it's long past bedtime for them two," Applejack said as she pointed at the fillies. Twilight nodded and telekinetically levitated them over to a bed, Scootaloo grumbled but Applebloom tensed up as she got caught in the telekinesis, "Let me handle mah sis, Twilight." Applejack said as she plucked Applebloom out of the magic field, and put her into bed manually. A few minutes later all the ponies were lying in bed slowly drifting to sleep as they waited for the council to come out of session. "Wake up, pegasus." The voice of Nightwing woke Rainbow from her slumber. Rainbow groaned as she looked outside, the sun was still under the horizon but she could see some of its light already illuminating the sky. Twilight and Applejack were already up and were carrying Scootaloo and Applebloom respectively while the two fillies were still sleeping.
"The council will see you now." He said, Twilight levitated over Rainbow's saddlebag for her to put on. A few minutes later they were all standing before the council again. "Welcome back all of you." The eldest started, "We decided to let you sleep till dawn because the western sections of the forest are too dangerous for even us to traverse at night. We hope you will take up the task of reuniting the elements before the next summer solstice next year."
"That's all well and good but why?" Rainbow asked sceptically, "Why would we risk our hides for you guys?"
"A fair question." One of the councillors said, "Before the rebellion daymother kept the three tribes in balance having them live together in harmony, but with her sister gone she doesn't have the will to do so."
"Tell us pegasus." Another councillor started, "Would you prefer the tribes living separate to each other or would you want them to live together in peace as they did once before?"
"I-" Rainbow stuttered as she realized the stakes though she may not have been entirely sure such a fantastical future could ever be. Twilight tapped Dash and Applejack on the side motioning to huddle up,
"What should we do?" Applejack asked as the three had their heads together.
"Doesn't sound too bad, I mean we're getting along fine aren't we?" Rainbow commented.
"I for one vote for going to find the elements." Twilight said, "I don't really see the negatives to living and working together."
The three turned to the council again as Twilight spoke, "We'll try to find and unite them, If we three..." Twilight pointed at herself, Rainbow, and Applejack. "...can work together then I believe everypony could do so."
The eldest nodded, "We appreciate your commitment, as we understand you are on the run from both the pegasi confederacy and the Empire we'll have you escorted to the south into earthpony territory. Please, for the sake of the nightmother. Do not stray from the path as for when she returns she will not last long against the curse"
With that, the ponies were being led out of the chamber, "Your weapons will be returned to you before we head back into the forest." Nightwing said while he was leading the group to a storage room where Moonlight was already waiting alongside three new and filled saddlebags, "I took the liberty to prepare new supplies for you to ease your journey." She said as she pushed the saddlebags forward, The three grown-up mares thanked the thestral and quickly replaced their old saddlebags with the filled ones. Outside there were a couple of heavily armed thestral who presented their weapons, less than an hour later the group of ponies alongside Moonlight, Nightwing, and two other thestral were travelling due south towards earthpony territory.
The first day of travelling was nearly completely uneventful as nothing in the forest attacked them but Twilight had spotted the fresh remains of various predators so she made the educated guess that alongside the thestral guarding them directly there were also ones shadowing them and keeping the path clear. Finally, on the second day at the end of the morning, they reached the edge of the forest the speed at which they'd been able to cover the distance they'd had was astounding. One could almost believe some form of magic was involved.
"This is where we part, bearers." Nightwing stated, "May the nightmother guide you on the true path." He said as all thestral except Moonlight turned around. Nightwing noticed this and called out, "Come, sister. Do not delay them further."
"I wish to travel with them, brother." Moonlight told him, standing her ground. "Our species has hidden in the shadows for long enough."
Nightwing turned and walked back to his sister, "If you do you would no longer be welcome at the keep." He said concerned. "And our kind thrives in secrecy, I do not want you to die for what you are."
Moonlight nodded, "I know, but I am done with waiting. If by my actions I can make Equestria a better place then I'll take it and suffer the consequences."
The five other ponies watched with interest as the two thestral talked, "Should we take her with us?" Rainbow whispered to Twilight, "I mean, I like her but she'd be in a lot of danger out here. Hell, worse than even the two of us probably."
"If she wants to come along I'm not stopping her." Twilight whispered back, "She's smart, she'd have thought it through and I think she'd just head out on her own if we said no."
Moonlight walked up to the five watching ponies, "As you have no doubt heard I wish to travel with you, my question to you is, will you have me?"
"Scoots, what do you think?" Rainbow asked the filly.
"I like her. She's cool, she can come with us if she wants." Scootaloo answered with a smile, Moonlight turned to Applejack, "Ya sure the earthponies wouldn't just lock ya up?"
Moonlight shook her head, "Of the three races the earthpony strayed the least from the path of harmony, they will not seek out the other races but if one of them came knocking on their doorstep then they wouldn't turn their backs."
Applejack nodded, "Then ah see no problem with you taggin' along."
Moonlight nodded and turned to the last pony, "You don't even have to ask." Twilight said.
"If you truly allow her as one of your own I will not stop my sister, she will have to make her own choices." Nightwing said to the entire group, Moonlight walked up to him, "We will see each other again after the elements are united and nightmother has been healed." She told him. The stallion pulling the mare into a hug, "I will hold you to that." He replied before turning and disappearing back into the forest.
"Come on Moonlight, we've got leagues to go and if we go now we might be able to reach it in a week." Twilight called out. The companionship heading down south, now with a greater purpose than just getting to safety.
Unicorn armor is made up out of a gold like metal that provides protection to the torso and head but less so to the legs. The main advantage to unicorn armor is that it's enchanted by Canterlot mages to withstand outside weather influences better. Rank is determined by the color of the crest on top of the helmet, a red crest signifies the rank of soldier for example.
Earthponies
Earthpony armor consists of thick steel, due to this the armor would be unwieldy for unicorns as without the inherent earthpony strength it would be too cumbersome for most unicorns to wear in a combat situation. The armor itself protects more of the body than its unicorn counterpart, the house, like the unicorn one, has a crest but where the unicorn version has an artificial crest, the earthpony one has a slit to allow the ponies hair to flow through. Rank is distinguished by runes forged onto the flank plate of the earthponies armor, when a pony gains a rank the entire back plate gets replaced by one that has the corresponding rune to the rank of the pony. A blank flank signifies the status of a regular soldier.
Pegasi
Out of the three races, pegasi armor is the least heavy since pegasi doctrine mainly revolves around speed and agility. The torso is protected by a tough leathery surface just as the flank is, The back legs are made up out of a tough fabric that is mainly designed to stop arrow fire from unicorns at medium to long range. The front legs are protected by two gauntlets that have the notable feature that they can both support an extendable blade if necessary. The Helmet does not have a nose guard to allow for flight goggles to be worn with it. Rank is distinguished by a marking on the front of the torso but many pegasi have the habit to also paint their ranks on their helmets.
Weapons
1. Spear
A weapon utalized by both unicorns and earthponies and to a limited degree pegasi, The variant used by the Earthponies is usually longer than the unicorn ones as they use them in a phalanx as opposed to throwing weapons like the unicorn adaption of it.
2. Recurve Bow
A weapon exclusively used by unicorns to take out targets at range, the grip and string of the bow have small magic guiding crystals imbedded into them to allow for easier use by regular unicorns. Earthponies have been rumored to be developing a infantry version of their ballista called the 'crossbow' but these reports have yet to be confirmed.
3. Shortsword
Another exlusive weapon to unicorns the shortsword like the recurve bow has crystals imbedded into the hilt making it virtually impossible to knock one of these swords from the levitation of a unicorn unless you break said unicorns concentration. These weapons can't be used either pegasi or earthponies since the weapons can be riped from their grasps with levitation, the only race recorded to have been successful with these weapons other than unicorns have been griffins as they can tightly hold on to the hilt of the sword.
4. Extendable Blade
This pegasi weapon has been sighted as possibly the most versatile ever created, the module can be attached to nearly any supporting gauntlet and gives the user the ability to deploy a sword of varying sizes at any time. The weapon can be used by any of the races but since it's made by the griffins the only race with a steady supply of them are the pegasi. The blade is operated by pushing a button on the device to extend it and re-sheathing it by pulling the blade back in manually. Models also exist that can retract by a second push on the main button but those are rare since they are only given to officers.
"How far are we from Appleoosa?" Applejack asked Twilight, the group had left the Everfree days prior and were walking in what Twilight and Rainbow had determined to be a straight line Towards the earthpony capital. Applejack had been giddy to get to earthpony territory, which Twilight guessed was because she wanted to find her brother.
"We're a couple of hours away at worst, AJ." Twilight responded to the earthpony, turning her attention back to Moonlight. While walking the thestral and unicorn had been having conversations about the batponies and how they had kept themselves hidden. As it appeared the batponies although having hidden for nearly a millennia had been spying on the other races and actually had a reasonably accurate picture of all of them.
"I think I can see the outer walls!" Rainbow shouted as she flew back to the ground, the pegasus had been flying almost non-stop since they were out of unicorn territory. "It's about six leagues out I think"
"If so then it might be a good idea to stay on the ground for a bit, Rainbow. The earthponies will not appreciate a pegasus casually flying around their airspace." Moonlight advised the pegasus, she grumbled but landed moments later, getting herself involved into the conversation Scootaloo and Applebloom were having.
The batponies had given the group various items the group could use on the road but the most notable of those items was earthpony currency. When Twilight had asked how the batponies had gotten their hooves on it Moonlight didn't want to elaborate, making twilight think it was probably stolen in one of the batponies' espionage actions. Moonlight and Twilight continued their conversation for another hour, this time the topic being the curse placed on Luna or 'nightmother' as the bat-pony called her. The curse apparently was turning the pony into a twisted and corrupted version of her true personality and when daymother had tried to purge the taint, the elements had locked the younger sister away instead of healing her.
But that wasn't what baffled Twilight the most, the fact that Moonlight told the story as if day- and nightmother had both wings and a horn. "They do." Moonlight answered as Twilight asked if they did.
"WHAT!" I mean... I..." Twilight struggled to form words while Moonlight was grinning, disturbing Twilight slightly as she wasn't quite used yet to the sharp fangs the thestral possessed.
"You'll see when you meet nightmother on the summer solstice next year." She said as Appleoosa came into view of the walking group. The city was truly massive, its grey walls of solid granite standing more than twelve meters tall and watchtowers dotted the outer wall. Outside of the city, massive fields of grain and fruit orchards spanned to the horizon in the south and were being tended to by hundreds of ponies. To the west lay the large granite quarry that was responsible for the city's building materials.
"What ya all starin' at?" Applejack asked as everyone had slowed down to look at the city, "Let's go!"
Moonlight who had been wearing a cloak put up the hood so the ponies wouldn't immediately recognize her as an unknown species. Following the road to one of the city's gates, they passed small groups of earthpony farmers who mostly bunched up and whispered to each other. As they approached the gate the group could see eight earthpony soldiers standing guard outside of the open gate, one of the guards spotted them and seven of them immediately attached their spears to their armour facing forward, while the eighth ran into the city.
"HALT!" The leader of the squad shouted, "State your business, unicorn." He said as he singled out Twilight as the leader of the group.
"We seek shelter for the night and information about a family member of one of my companions." Twilight responded, meanwhile a couple more guards, one clearly an officer, had come outside and Twilight could see a couple of the large ballistas lining the wall aimed at them.
"This is not a decision we can make, Unicorn, it is for the King to decide to allow your peculiar group access or not. Relinquish your weapons and give your supplies to the guards." The officer ordered, Twilight nodded to the others as they once again had to remove their weapons and give them away. The officer raised an eyebrow as Twilight threw the sword down she had gotten from Applejack. "Tell me, Unicorn. How is it you carry an officers sword?" He asked suspiciously, Applejack stepped forward as she had already removed her gauntlet.
"Ah gave it to her, Sir. Ah got it after me and mah fellow earthponies killed a unicorn in the narrow streets of Ponyville." She told him.
"Fellow kin from ponyville no less." The officer said, seemingly glad, before turning to Moonlight. "Remove your cloak. We will not have you walking through our city like that." He told her. Moonlight, who had already thrown several blades onto the ground of which not even her companions had known, unclasped her saddlebag and lifted the cloak from her body with her wings. A couple of the guards took a step back as they saw the leathery wings and fangs, and most spears could be seen drifting a little in the direction of the bat-pony.
"What in the King's name are you?" The officer asked Moonlight.
"The fact you have to ask that question means my kin have done their work well." She answered, "My species is called Thestral, or bat-pony. To me it matters little which you pick."
The officer thought for a moment, "Take them inside, lock them up in the guardhouse. The king will decide its fate." He said, the guards leading the group through the gates and into a building on the inside where they were locked up in a large holding cell.
"That went well." Rainbow commented as she sat down in a corner of the cell, keeping Scootaloo under a wing protectively.
"We're not dead." Moonlight deadpanned.
Rainbow just grunted. "As I said, went well."
Applebloom and Applejack went to sit in another corner of the room while Twilight sat down on a bench against the wall, Moonlight saw the earthpony guard who was left by the door eyeballing her but whenever she looked at her she'd turn away again. "If you have other questions you want to ask, ask them." She flat out told her.
The red maned guard uncomfortably turned to face the cell's inhabitant, "It's just that you said that your kind did its job well if we didn't know about you. Have you guys been hiding among us or something?"
"No, not exactly. I'm not going to tell you where the rest of my kin lives but it isn't in earthpony territory." Moonlight said from her sitting position, the guard shuffled again as she had another question. "So the fangs..."
"No, I'm not a vampony." Moonlight cut her off, "I'm an omnivore, I eat both plants and meat." the bat-pony said as she pulled aside her cheek to show a set of grinding teeth behind her canines. The Guard relaxed slightly and flashed a grin, "I think I just won a bet." She said as she returned to her post. About fifty mind-numbing minutes later the officer from the gate with a few other guards came walking back into the guardhouse, "You seem to be in luck, the king has taken an interest in your little group, unicorn." He said as he opened the lock to the cell and led them outside where more guards joined them. The guards tied Rainbow's and Moonlight's wings to their barrels before they were allowed to join the others.
The group was led to the inner city by the guards who completely surrounded them to cut off any avenue of escape, earthponies stopped at the side of the street to look at the convoy of ponies as they passed. Twilight looked around the city, they had passed several large parks already, something you wouldn't see in unicorn cities. She had heard about the affinity to nature the earthponies had before but to experience it was still strange to her. After almost forty-five minutes of walking the group passed into the inner ring and saw the main keep in front of them, it wasn't as tall as unicorn structures typically were but it was very clear that the thick granite blocks could withstand serious punishment if they ever would come under siege.
The door to the keep opened and the ponies were led into the castle and after walking to the end of the main hallway, the throne room. A large brown Stallion sat on a throne, he wore the same type of armor as all the other guards but it was augmented by a small dark green cape hanging from one side of the armor.
"Presenting his majesty, King Iron Hoof. Lord of Appleoosa, Guardian of the Earthpony realm and rightful ruler of the northern Earthpony cities!" An announcer shouted, the King looked inquisitively at the group. Twilight, Applejack, and Applebloom bowed for the king, Rainbow and Scootaloo stood rigidly and both made a salute with their wings, and Moonlight just stood confused between the five other ponies not sure what proper protocol was.
Seeing all the different responses the king burst into laughter, "Rise." He said with a deep rumbling voice, "I must say I find you an intriguing group of ponies. It is not every day you see earthponies, pegasi, a unicorn, and an entirely new species travel as a single group as opposed to bashing each other's skull in." He thundered.
None of the six ponies present knew how to respond the casual tone the king had spoken with, Twilight was especially baffled as any casual talk around the Empress would usually end in an execution. "Are any of you going to talk or what? I'm not like that empress or the pegasi with their sticks up their buts, I'm an earthpony. I worked to get where I'm right now."
"Nice to meet you, King Hoof." Applebloom weakly said, The king raised an eyebrow.
"You're going to have to say it a bit louder than that if you want to be heard, little one."
"Nice to meet you, King Hoof." Applebloom repeated a bit louder, a smile crept onto the king's face.
"Come on! You're an earthpony, Louder!"
"Nice to meet you, King Hoof." Applebloom said with her regular volume.
"There we go!" He said satisfied as he got off his throne and stepped down the stairs closer to the group of ponies, "Now I know the unicorn is a former officer because of the way she bowed, the pegasus is a former regular and you're both deserters because your two nations hate each other too much to team up to fuck me over." He walked over to Moonlight, "I trust that my kin over there is truly a former Ponyville resident but that leaves you, abomination, what are you?"
Moonlight gulped at the massive stallion standing before her, almost towering a full head above her. "I-I helped lead them safely through the Everfree and I wanted to see the world after hearing the stories various members of my kin told about the outside world." She explained, Applejack had to stop herself from physically cringing at the explanation as Moonlight was lying by omission.
"Hmm, so your kind lives in the Everfree. That would explain how you've been able to hide from the rest of the world." The king said, Moonlight's grey fur seemed to lose a bit of colour as the king correctly guessed where her home was. "But I don't think they'll become a threat since your kin probably doesn't have the largest population. I don't believe the creatures of the Everfree would allow it." He walked back up to his throne and sat down, staying quiet for a moment as he thought through his next course of action.
"King Iron Hoof, we-"
"Silence, pegasus," the King cut off Rainbow. "Your group my be intriguing but not think we have forgotten it is your kind that enslaves our northern kin."
Rainbow didn't dare talk again as the King thought before speaking up again. "I cannot allow you to just roam freely through my realm but I do not believe you pose a threat to my ponies. I will have you escorted for as long as you reside within the city and my quartermaster will make sure you are housed in one of the barracks in the lower city." He decided, "In return, the unicorn will give us as much information about the current state of the Empire's forces. Other than that I also want you to help train my troops, it will be useful for them to have actual experience fighting a unicorn, bat-pony, and a pegasus."
Twilight listened to the demands, She didn't know that much about the earthpony front with the unicorns but she could at least give them a general state of affairs.
"As for you, my fellow kin, I hear you are in search of a member of your family who left you after the raid of Ponyville." The king said to Applejack, "Yes, my lord." She answered.
"Follow one of my scribes, he'll look through the archive for you to see if we have records on your brother." The king told her, he motioned to a couple of the ponies around the room and they led each of the ponies on their separate ways. Rainbow, Scootaloo, and Moonlight were being taken to a waiting room, Twilight was being led by a couple of officers who seemed eager to talk to the unicorn, and Applejack and Applebloom followed a scribe and a guard to the archive.
A familiar guard waited in the room where Rainbow, Scoots, and Moonlight were led into. "Aren't you the guard from the gate?" Scootaloo asked the guard who stood by the table.
"Yes, little pegasus. It seems because I volunteered to guard you over at the gates they now want me to keep an eye on you in the city."
Rainbow walked up to the table and sat down on a bench, "Well if we're going to be stuck together then we should at least know each other's names," Dash said while holding out her hoof, "Rainbow Dash." The guard stepped forward and shook Rainbows hoof, "Cherry Petal" She said, Scootaloo and Moonlight introduced themselves after Dash. Twilight came walking back into the room followed by a slightly disappointed officer about half an hour later and was shortly after followed by Applejack and Applebloom. "Any information on your brother, Applejack?" Twilight asked the seemingly happy earthpony, "Eeyup, He apparently joined up with the earthpony military and has seen various deployments. His unit is supposed to be stationed at the Dustwatch right now."
"Awesome! We should go there after we've helped the earthponies train over here." Dash said, "Also we have our escort here." She pointed at Cherry. "Ah heard, seems like ya aren't rid of us yet." AJ said, "Ah'm Applejack and the filly here's Applebloom."
"Pleased to meet you two." Cherry responded and put her helmet back on as she had taken it off while she had talked to the other ponies. "Now you're all back here we should head down to the barracks, I must inform you that if any of you get separated from me in the city you are to report to the nearest guard you can find. If you do not you'll be arrested and trialled when found. Am I clear?" She asked, all the other ponies nodded. "Good, follow me." Twilight, Rainbow, and Moonlight were sitting in a dressing room, Rainbow had gotten a new set of pegasus armour, including the helmet this time, to use while training. Twilight had gotten a set of captured unicorn armour and Moonlight only took the torso of the pegasi armour with the undersuit. As for weapons Rainbow and Moonlight got a blunted version of the extendable blade while Twilight got a blunted shortsword. While Rainbow, Twilight, and Moonlight would be training the earthponies, Applejack, Applebloom, and Scootaloo would go roaming around the city with Cherry to visit some shops and maybe buy some equipment with the money from the bat-ponies. Outside the dressing room they could hear a group of earthponies being informed about the training, a couple of the earthponies could be heard laughing as they seemed to think it was a joke of some sort.
"Come on out you three." An earthpony shouted into the dressing room. Dash grinned "Let's go show them a couple of moves shall we." She said, as she spread her wings and blasted off through the door. "Let's follow her before an earthpony ballista accidentally shoots her." Moonlight muttered, a bit grumpy that the earthponies didn't have the type of knives she usually carried so she'd have to do with the extendable blade. Outside they could see about sixteen earthponies, Two full squads, who were all focussed on Dash as she landed in the middle of the training arena. "The first squad will train with the pegasus and the second one with the unicorn." The officer in front of the soldier told them, The group breaking up into two squads.
Twilight saw a drill sergeant walking towards her, "So before we start I want to take stock of you, unicorn." He said, the squad forming a half circle around them, a bunch of other soldiers had taken place on the viewing stands of the training arena as they wanted to spectate the training fights. "Fine by me." Twilight replied, unsheathing the sword and giving it a few experimental swings. She also quickly cast a spell on both herself and her opponent without anyone realizing it. Rainbow on the other side of the arena seemed to be challenged by her respective drill sergeant while earthponies just seemed to try and avoid Moonlight.
The sergeant picked up a spear and started circling Twilight, the unicorn mirroring him. The earthpony suddenly jumped forward in a stabbing move, Twilight beat away the spear and slashed at the earthpony but he rolled out of the way before the sword could hit. The two started circling again as the sergeant got back on his hooves, "What is it, Unicorn? Too afraid to attack?" He tried to taunt her, Twilight just raised an eyebrow. "Afraid? I'm just giving you the chance to attack me." Twilight replied as she poured more magic into her horn in anticipation of another spell. Twilight saw the sergeant looking at her as if he had already won, How about you suck on this one. Twilight feigned a stumble, the sergeant immediately took the bait and charged forward again. The small crowd cheered at the supposed imminent defeat of the unicorn but just before the spear hit twilight she disappeared in a flash of light and appeared a meter to the left, savagely grinning she brought down the flat of the sword against the exposed neck of the earthpony as she simultaneously turned and bucked him in the side. The cheering from the stand stopped as the sergeant bit the dust, a large red mark where the sword had hit.
"Before we started our duel I cast a spell that would show the severity of any potential wounds." Twilight stated as she brought up her dull sword and sliced it past her throat, a yellow line appeared. "Yellow indicates a superficial wound." Twilight pressed the sword a bit harder to her throat and the line turned from yellow to orange and then to red, "Orange is a critical wound that would kill you if you don't immediately treat it and red means the blow would have been lethal."
Having finished her explanation Twilight resheathed the sword and lifted the spell, the red lines disappearing from both the ponies their necks. "It seems I underestimated you." The sergeant said as he got up from the ground. A cheer suddenly came from the crowd watching as Twilight saw Dash getting bucked on her armour and flying into the wall on the side of the arena.
"Don't worry, sergeant. There are very few unicorns that can pull off a short-range teleport like that." Twilight said as she saw Rainbow being pinned to the ground by her opponent, forcing her to concede. "Anyway, with that out of the way, shall we start the training now?" The sergeant nodded and the group huddled around to listen to Twilight explaining everything she knew about unicorn tactics against earthponies. "It's not going to happen, Cap." Comet said, "Canterlot blocked us from entering the forest and even if we went in now without their permission, there is no way in Tartarus that we can find any meaningful tracks from them. They're gone, they've slipped through the cracks."
Shining was fuming at his desk, his superiors in Canterlot had found it a waste of resources to pursue Twilight into the Everfree. Some horseshit about the Everfree wildlife finishing them off before they would reach earthpony territory. "I know they don't want us to go into the damn forest but I know for sure none of the creatures there would be able to stand up to her."
Comet raised an eyebrow, "How can you be so sure of that? There's some terrifying crap living in that forest, I mean if you run into a hydra you're pretty much bucked."
"I know she's going to make it out because she is one of the most talented and creative magic users I know and I personally taught her how to swordfight." Shining responded, Comet tried to come up with a rebuttal but couldn't. Shining's training would tip Sparkle's odds in her favor.
"Anyway, what has Swift Star been doing? She's only been here a couple of times the past few days and I've seen her send multiple messages to who knows where." Shining asked Comet who just shrugged, hell did he know where his female colleague was or what she was doing.
"I've been doing my own thing." The blue mare said as she walked into the tent. Shining looked at her, "And your own thing is?" He asked. The unicorn threw a file on his desk, "That's straight from intelligence, don't ask how I got my hooves on it."
"How the hell did they get to Appleoosa already?!" Shining shouted as he read the report. Swift levitated another parchment to Shining, "Apparently they're travelling with some sort of vampony, that's probably how they got through the Everfree as quickly as they did."
"Let me get this straight, not only did they travel through a bucking monster-infested forest in no time at all, they also managed to get to the earthpony bucking capital." Shining slowly asked the lieutenant in front of him, she nodded. "Can whoever got you that info also kill them?"
The lieutenant nodded once again, "For the right price."
Shining pondered for a moment, "Do it." He eventually decided, "I'll pay myself if I have to." Swift Star saluted and left the tent to get it done.
Comet watched his superior with surprise, "What happened to 'asking her personally'?" He asked Shining.
"She's too much of a potential asset for the earthponies, I'm not going to have my personal feelings stand in the way of the safety of the Empire and the Empress."
Comet nodded, "probably going to be a helluva surprise for her when it happens when she thinks she is safe."
"Yes, it is." Shining responded, he knew that he had to do it but somewhere it didn't feel right. He pushed the feeling back down, the traitor had made her call and this was the only appropriate action... Wasn't it?
"So, we can go and explore?" Scootaloo asked Cherry with a devious smile, the earthpony soldier was sitting on a terrace alongside Applejack. The other members of their group were once again training with the earthpony army at the Colosseum in the middle ring of the city like they had been doing for the last few days.
"So long you two stay near to the park." Cherry told the filly with a smile, "And if you think you're in trouble you come straight back here. Got that?" Scootaloo and Applebloom readily nodded, Cherry made a motion with her hoof that the two fillies could go and the two didn't waste any time waiting around. Leaving a cloud of dust behind them Applebloom and Scootaloo ran into one of the larger parks of the city, Scootaloo had a small cloak, with its hood down, which they had bought in the city tied to her barrel to hide her wings.
"So what are we gonna do?" Applebloom asked the pegasus in disguise after they had stopped in the middle of the park in a bush,
"We should try to get our sky-marks!" Scootaloo said with a grin, Applebloom just looked confused.
"Sky what?" She asked, which confused Scootaloo in turn.
The pegasus pointed at her flank, "You know the think on your flank that shows what you're good at?"
Applebloom suddenly realized what Scootaloo was talking about, "Ooh, ya mean your earth talent? Would make sense if ya called it differently with ya'll being able to fly."
Scootaloo nodded, "Yea, anyway. What should we do? I can't try and fly in the city without Cherry watching us so we should do something you want to do." She told the earthpony, Applebloom thought for a moment but then heard a group of other fillies running through the park.
"How 'bout we go play with them while ah think up something we can do?"
Scootaloo nodded, "Beat you to them!" She shouted as she started sprinting to the group of earthpony fillies,
"Oh no ya don't!" Applebloom shouted back as she started chasing but even as she pushed herself to the brink she couldn't catch up to the pegasus who had the advantage of a lighter body. "Hey! What are you guys doing?" Scootaloo asked one of the fillies who were running around, the group stopped to look at her and the one she had spoken to started grinning.
"Tag, you're it!" She shouted as she booped the pegasus on the nose before running away from her. Applebloom came to a skidding stop just in front of Scootaloo who shot a devilish grin to her friend,
"Tag!" She said her as she bolted.
"Oh no, ya don't!" Applebloom said as she ran after the other fillies and eventually cornered a brown colt with a green mane, "End of the line." She said as she closed in on him, "Tag, you're it!" She said as she ran off again, the colt looked around for a target and saw Scootaloo walking by. By the look on his face the pegasus could see herself becoming a target. Bolting for a section of the park that had a lot of trees she expertly weaved herself between them, she might not be able to fly but pegasi training started when you reached the age of six and it featured a lot of obstacle courses. Behind her she could hear the colt falling further behind as she left the trees again at the edge of the park, the two other fillies and Applebloom were already there sitting in a bush.
"He's just behind me you girls should probably start running," Scootaloo said, Applebloom looked over her shoulder and pulled the pegasus into the bush with the others. "What's going on?" The pegasus whispered, the colt that was chasing her appeared from the trees and was also pulled into the bush.
"Don't talk, Chestnut." One of the two fillies told the colt while pointing at an alleyway, any memory of the game of tag disappeared as she looked into the alley. A mare was driven into a corner by a stallion who had a knife in his mouth,
"That's my mom!" One of the fillies squeaked, clearly panicking.
"Mah sister and a soldier are sittin' outside the inn of the prancing pony. Jus' tell them Applebloom sent ya." Applebloom whispered to the colt, Chestnut, he nodded and sprinted back into the park. Meanwhile, the stallion was pawing at the mare who was already down on the ground.
"They're not going to come in time." Scootaloo growled as the other had started filly was crying,
"What are we gonna do 'bout it? He's twice our size!" Applebloom asked the pegasus who just narrowed her eyes,
"You? you're going to wait here. I am going to give that lowlife a taste of pegasi warrior culture." She responded and then smirked, "Might even get my sky mark for it."
"Horseapples." Applebloom cussed as the two other fillies stared wide-eyed at Scootaloo as she charged the stallion without her cloak. As soon as Cherry had finished her terms the two fillies ran off to play in the park. Applejack was fiddling with the new suit of armor she had bought in the city, Rainbow, Twilight, and Moonlight had insisted that she get a set of armor of her own. Twilight had the pegasus armor altered so that the wing holes were closed, Rainbow was comfortable in her own set and Moonlight said she was fine with her leather tunic she had in which she could hide a large amount of what she had told to be throwing knives. So with the other's approval, she was able to get an earthpony warplate that had a custom gauntlet to allow the extendable blade to be attached.
"Does one of you want anything to drink?" A waiter asked the two, Applejack nodded.
"An apple cider, please," She said.
"Hard or soft?" The waiter in turn asked,
"Hard," Applejack replied while Cherry ordered a regular one, not willing to drink while on duty.
The soldier saw Applejack screwing with her armor again and chuckled, "You'll get used to it, I'm just surprised that you didn't get a helmet with the rest of the suit. It's not like you didn't have the coins for it." Applejack huffed, she had used up most of the money they had gotten from the batponies but since they were living in the barracks they got mostly free food and Twilight and the others were even getting paid small amounts of money for the help with the training,
"Ah wasn't gonna switch mah hat out fer a helmet, Ah've already lost everythin' when mah barn burned down so it's the only thing connectin'me to mah ma and pa." Applejack reasoned.
The waiter came back with the drinks and the two payed the nessecary coins for them. "So I've been meaning to ask, how did you end up with the peculiar group you did?" Cherry asked as she took a gulp from her mug.
"Rainbow showed up in Ponyville and initially we thought she was a unicorn so we got in a bit of a brawl, which Rainbow won, so if it weren't fer Twilight I'd be a goner right now." Applejack told her as she drank from her own mug.
"And you still went with them?" Cherry questioned, Applejack chuckled a bit.
"Yeah, at the time they were trying to travel through Ponyville unnoticed and me attackin' her blew their cover, which also meant me and mah sister became a target since the stickheads were pretty set on capturing those two."
"Damn, it ended quite well though, since you're not in Ponyville anymore," Cherry commented, Applejack couldn't disagree. Over the next fifteen minutes they finished their drinks and shared some banther before they saw a colt running at them. "Ma'am! you've got to come with me!" He shouted in a panic, "A stallion is attacking the mom of one of my friends, Applebloom said you two would help!"
Before the colt fully realized it Cherry had scooped him up and deposited him on her back, running into the park, Applejack on her tail. "Where!" She asked the little pony that was clinging to her back.
"Other side of the park behind those trees over there!" He told the soldier, as they reached the edge of the trees they heard a loud, high pitched, screech. Putting on another burst of speed the two mares charged through the patch of trees to where the sound had come from. Bursting from the treeline on the other side they came to a sight which neither Applejack or Cherry had expected,
Scootaloo was standing on her hind-legs with her front legs in a ready stance while a mare lay on the ground with a filly between her legs and another one that seemed to be conflicted about if she should be cheering for the pegasus or being scared of her. But the most noteworthy thing was the stallion that lay crying on the ground while holding onto his private parts. "PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE, JERK!" She thundered at the stallion. Cherry didn't waste any time in letting the stallion get up and held him down,
"What's going on here!" She asked, the stallion grunted in pain.
"The chicken attacked me," he said, Applejack had to hold back Scootaloo from attacking the stallion again.
"Only because you were attacking that mare!" She responded, Cherry looked at the mare who was holding what presumably was her little filly.
"Ma'am, is that true?" Cherry asked.
"Y-Yeah, the pegasus stepped in just before he could go any further." She said, a couple of other soldiers who had heard the scream earlier came running to the scene,
"Take this stallion away for assault, guys. He assaulted that mare." The two stallions nodded but stopped when they saw Scootaloo.
"What about the pegasus?" one of them grumbled.
"The pegasus is here with the Kings' approval and is my responsibility, you two get the stallion I'll take care of my charge," Cherry said, the two new guards nodded and picked up the stallion, putting the knife in a saddlebag, and led him away.
"Are you okay ma'am?" Scootaloo asked the mare who nodded,
"Thanks to you that is." She said with a small smile.
"Ah think we should end this day prematurely before ya'll get into more trouble." Applejack sighed, Applebloom ran to her,
"We only just started! Can we go and play with them some more? Please?" Applebloom asked with the largest puppy dog eyes she could manage, Applejack looked to Cherry who sighed and nodded. The fillies cheered and ran back into the park, the filly who was hugging her mom was also pushed along with the group with the reassurance that the mare would be okay with Applejack and Cherry.
After letting the kids play for another hour Cherry finally decided that it was time for them to head back to the barracks and they said their goodbyes to the other fillies who had accepted Scootaloo as one of their own which the older ponies were thankful for. When the two had returned to them they had proudly proclaimed that they were going to go on a 'Crusade' to get their flank marks, Applejack almost said 'What could possibly go wrong' out loud but then remembered the incident earlier that day. After the trip back to the Barracks Cherry left for the Colosseum to pick up the others. "She did WHAT!" Twilight Shouted as they walked back from practice with Cherry, Rainbow meanwhile was having a fit of laughter.
"She attacked that stallion and hit him in the nuts," Cherry said again, Twilight still seemed baffled.
"How can you be laughing, Rainbow!" She asked the rainbow maned pegasus.
Rainbow wiped a tear from her eye, "The first thing pegasi learn the younglings is how to fight as an underdog against a larger opponent since, you know, that's a good lesson to learn when you're still small." She said with a smirk.
Twilight looked at her friend with a blank expression, "So you're not going to punish her or anything for doing something that crazy?!" That was when Moonlight cut into the conversation,
"Punishing her for something she learned from a young age would be unfair, Twilight, and what she did might have been slightly stupid but it was also a brave and noble thing to do."
"Fine." Twilight relented as they reached the barracks, the sun having reached the horizon, inside they found the two fillies playing some games with a few of the soldiers there. "I want you and Scoots in our room with me in just a bit for some more reading lessons." She told Rainbow, Who threw a mock salute with her wing,
"We'll be there lieutenant."
Twilight rolled her eyes as she walked into the room where she and the others had been sleeping for the last days, Moonlight meanwhile lay down on one cots to get some rest. Twilight walked over to a small desk she had gotten to pick up a book she had gotten from the earthponies. She found it on the desk but before she picked it up she noticed something odd, all the writing tools on the table were re-arranged. They were still clearly organized in a way that would make it look like they hadn't been touched, something the earthponies didn't bother with. Slightly suspicious Twilight lit her horn and quickly scanned the room just to be sure, feeling a slight tug on her horn as an indication of a magic storage. Following the higher concentration of magic she found that it seemed to be coming from beneath the floorboards.
"What are you doing, Sparkle." Moonlight asked, having noticed the unicorn's strange behavior. Twilight said nothing and wrapped her telekinesis around a few loose floorboards above the magic cash and pulled them out.
"I don't think we should be... What's in that box?" Moonlight asked as Twilight pulled out a crate from the hole in the floor and opened it. Inside there were four crystals a large flat one at the bottom and three smaller ones fixed on top of it. Twilight's eyes went wide as she recognized what the construct was,
"Moonlight, go to Cherry and tell her to evacuate the building." She told the bat-pony with a level tone, "It's a bomb."
The bat-pony didn't waste time to respond and immediately ran out of the room, Twilight meanwhile inspected the device. The large crystal was the explosive itself and with the way it was charged tampering with it would just detonate the thing early. Two of the three smaller crystals seemed to be part of the detonator, one battery that was slowly charging the other crystal that would fire a pulse into the large crystal making it explode. Twilight's heart skipped a beat as she checked the amount of magic in the battery.
It was nearly empty and Twilight had no illusions about what would happen if it did empty out, in a moment of brilliance Twilight cast a stasis spell on the detonation crystal just as the battery ran out. A sort of static feeling hit Twilight's spell as the crystal fired but was frozen by the unicorn's spell, she knew that if she released the stasis now the bomb would detonate.
Rainbow and Cherry burst into the room, "Twilight the building has been evacuated, you got to go! And Rainbow here didn't want to go as long as you were still in here!" The earthpony said as Rainbow was hovering beside her. Twilight shook her head,
"I can't, you two get out." She told them before she gasped, the third small crystal had turned black and was eating at Twilight's stasis spell, making it increasingly harder to maintain.
"I'm NOT leaving without you!" Rainbow shouted at the unicorn who was straining herself to stop the bomb from detonating,
"If I leave, this thing blows up, Rainbow." Twilight grunted, "I'm not going to try and get away while there are still ponies in this building so get out, NOW!"
"Twi, I don't leave frie-" Rainbow started,
"This thing is going to take out half the building, Dash! What do you think will happen to Scootaloo if you're not there!" Twilight cut off the pegasus, trying to play into the feelings Rainbow had for the little filly.
Rainbow looked troubled for a moment, "That's not fair, egghead." She said as she took a few steps backward to the door, "You make sure you get out you hear me!" Rainbow said before she ran to the exit. Twilight gave a quick nod to Cherry who nodded back and ran after the pegasus.
With those two out of the building Twilight could concentrate on getting out herself, she could try and teleport but she quickly scratched the idea as teleporting without a line of sight would require her to release the stasis.
Another tug on her magic reminded her that she had to find a solution very quickly as the black crystal would completely drain her of magic in minutes, she briefly considered smashing the black crystal but realized that if she did that the energy contained within would come out and disrupt the stasis, letting it explode.
She went over a few other plans in her head but all of them would result in her blowing up. Twilight didn't notice the other pony entering until she was pushed aside by her. She panicked as she released the stasis spell she was casting but no explosion followed, "Leave, Twilight Sparkle." She said as a brilliant golden magic aura surrounded the explosive. Twilight looked at the pony who was hiding herself under a cloak but a sharp white horn stuck through the cloth,
"You're the pony we saw in Whitetail!" She said baffled.
"Yes, my little pony, I've been keeping you safe for a while now." She grunted as the black crystal was now consuming her magic at an accelerated rate.
"Keeping me safe? Why?" Twilight asked, the white unicorn chuckled.
"You were always the pony with the questions, my little star, but I'm afraid this will be the last time I'm able to help you solve your problems. Dark things are waking at the bottom of the world, things that will need to be contained," She grunted as Twilight felt the massive amount of magic being pulled out of the unicorn but she had something else on her mind as she recognized the nickname.
"P-professor Morningstar?" She stammered, as the nickname she had said was the one her former magic teacher had given her. Twilight hadn't seen the pony in a long time as the professor had been accused of treason and disappeared when Twilight was in the officers' school.
"I have set events into motion that I cannot reverse, my little star, the dragon was my first intervention and that took too much of my power already. From this point on you have to be vigilant in keeping yourself and your companions safe." The professor told Twilight as a tear fell onto the ground, "The Empress will stop at nothing when she realizes what you are doing, Twilight. Please, I've done everything I could to help you but now it fall to you to make the decisions. Lead them, Twilight, they will fall apart without you." The professor finished, golden tendrils of magic wrapped around the purple unicorn who was paralyzed by the act.
She's polycasting?! That shouldn't be possible!
The thought went through Twilight's mind as she suddenly appeared outside next to her friends, "Twilight!" Rainbow managed to shout just before the explosive went off. The shockwave knocked over a couple of ponies who hadn't been bracing themselves properly. Cherry looked at the flaming wreck that was essentially her house,
"No-one would have survived if that thing had gone off without warning." She said to no-one in particular. Ponies started running around with buckets of water trying to stop the flames as Rainbow helped Twilight up. "I have to bring you girls to the King, he has to know, and you can't stay in the city if an attack like this is warranted to kill you."
Twilight just nodded weakly and looked at the flaming wreck as Cherry called over a couple of other soldiers to help her escorted the group to the inner ring of the city.
Twilight might have been dazed but she had already decided one thing for sure:
whoever had organized this attack was going to pay for it eventually.
Twilight was studying the map in front of her, she still had bandages covering the minor injuries she had gotten when the bomb exploded. The king had told them to leave the city and head further into earthpony territory prevent any other possible attacks harming his people but was still thankful that Twilight had managed to get all the soldiers out before she let the bomb explode. Twilight hadn't exactly told anyone yet how she got away from the bomb, everyone just assumed she teleported herself out.
Twilight looked over at her group, Scootaloo and Applebloom were sleeping alongside Applejack and Cherry, the soldier had been assigned to them for as long as they were traveling through earthpony territory. Sitting beside her was Moonlight who was determining their location using the stars, "We should reach the fortress by tomorrow if I'm correct." She said, the tips of the mountain range that housed the Dustwatch had already become visible on the horizon a couple days earlier. Twilight nodded, "Good, the fillies are going to need the rest." The two fillies had been holding up quite well considering the distance they had walked but with the days becoming increasingly colder as the year was coming to a close it was becoming necessary for them and the others to take a break.
Rainbow meanwhile was screwing around with her extendable blade and the element of loyalty, The shield appearing and disappearing as she willed the thing to deploy and then reverse itself into the wristband.
"I'm still amazed it's capable of doing that." Moonlight said as she pulled out her own map, which she had marked the locations of elements on.
"Oh yeah, haven't really used it before but it's pretty useful," Rainbow said, turning the wristband back into the shield and keeping it like that.
Moonlight nodded in agreement, "We should probably get some sleep if we're going to reach the fortress tomorrow." The batpony turned to the sleeping earthpony soldier as she finished packing the maps back into her saddlebag, "We also have to either tell her what we're really doing or find a good cover story because it'll look suspicious if we just start poking around the keep to looking for something."
"Tell me what?" Cherry groaned as she sat up, "You girls aren't exactly quiet you know." She glanced over at the unicorn and pegasus who both looked like they had just been caught stealing cookies. Rainbow collapsed her shield, which surprised the earthpony which hadn't even seen the shield in the first place.
"You see, we're hunting down a set of pre-Empire artefacts to... help the bat-ponies." Twilight started explaining, "There are six artefacts in total, one for each of the great fortresses of Equestria. The Dustwatch supposedly contains one of them. Rainbow is carrying one of them right now and AJ is supposed to carry another."
Cherry looked confused for a moment, "What do you mean by supposed to? Can't anyone use the artefacts?"
Moonlight shook her head, "The elements represent the best qualities of ponies; Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and a sixth I do not know of what it represents. Rainbow here represents Loyalty and we're pretty sure AJ represents Honesty." She explained, "We need the artefacts before the next summer solstice to release a curse that was put on our nightmother by the unicorns, if we don't she will be consumed by it."
Cherry rubbed her head, messing up her red mane. "So you need a particular set of ponies to use a set of artefacts that are spread throughout Equestria to save this 'nightmother' batpony?" The three other ponies nodded. "But there's a catch isn't there?"
"Yes, we know where the gemstones are but we don't know anything about the ponies who are supposed to use them. The only thing leading us is this thing." Twilight said as she pulled out the compass, "It's currently pointed somewhere in the direction of Manehattan, just as three of the other gemstones are located within the Empire."
"So you're willing to risk your hides to help the bat-ponies for what? To cure one of their leaders?" Cherry asked, looking at the unicorn and pegasus and earthpony as if they were insane. Twilight, turned to Moonlight afterwards. "No offence to you that is."
"None taken." Moonlight told her with a small smile, "The reason they help us is that we hope by healing nightmother we can convince daymother to restore balance back to the world." She tried to explain to the earthpony but just made her more confused.
"You just lost me there, why would this 'day- and nightmother' be able to do anything of any meaning?" Cherry asked.
"Do you know how the Empire was founded, Cherry?" Twilight asked the earthpony changing the subject momentarily, Cherry nodded. "Something about beating a tyrant who destroyed her sister and-"
"It's a lie" Twilight cut her off, Cherry rolling her eyes as if that was obvious. This didn't discourage Twilight though as she didn't know the magnitude of the lie. "Not just a small one but one that could break the Empire. Unicorns believe themselves superior over the other races and revere the Empress because it was her ancestor who stood up against the tyrant and beat her while the other races did nothing. If it were to come out that the Empress just took the power for herself just because she could, her legitimacy will be destroyed and the Empire would split up in various factions fighting amongst themselves."
"So why don't you girls just spread that news yourselves? What does this have to do with 'nightmother'?" Cherry asked as she put some wood on the campfire they had started.
"Everything." Moonlight answered as she pointed at the mare in the moon, all colour seemed to vanish from Cherry's face as she connected the dots. "Y-your trying to revive a god." She stammered.
Twilight nodded, "And that's why it's extremely important that our true goal stays secret for as long as possible. The bomb in the barracks is going to look small in comparison to what the Empress will do when she realizes what we're doing. Regardless of if she thinks we can actually achieve it."
The earthpony lay back down on her makeshift bed, her head reeling with new information. "I'm going to sleep now." She stated but she knew that she probably wasn't going to get much sleep now anyway.
"Don't hesitate to ask us questions if you have them, Cherry. It's a lot to take in." Twilight told her while giving her a friendly nudge on the shoulder.
"Will do." She said as she stared up at the moon, the image of the mare in the moon staring back at her. "C'mon! We're almost there!" Applejack shouted at the others as she was keeping up a fast but steady pace to the mountain range.
"Slow down AJ, you sound like Rainbow!" Twilight shouted back at the earthpony while Rainbow started laughing.
"You're just the only one of us who isn't in shape, Sparkle butt!" She shouted at the unicorn, the statement wasn't completely untrue. Earthponies had the benefit of having their natural magic enhancing their endurance while pegasi had adapted to flying giving them larger lungs and bigger hearts, Twilight just had her own endurance to fall back on but that didn't even get close to what the others could do.
"Ah can see it!" Applejack shouted back at Twilight as she stopped on top of a hill, giving the unicorn a chance to catch up. When she finally got to the top of the hill she was amazed at what she saw. Built into the side of the mountains an interconnecting structure of walls cutting off all access from the mountains to the countryside behind it and in the centre of it all stood a tiered fortress of black stone, The green flags of the Earthpony kingdom flying at its towers.
"That looks so cool!" Scootaloo squealed as she saw the fortress and tried to find the edge of the fortress, "How far does it go?!"
Cherry chuckled as the little pegasus' eyes were wide open, "The walls run from the Cerulian Ocean all the way to Saltlick Sea. We are currently right in the middle at the main fortress known as the Dustwatch. A prime example of earthpony construction." She said full of pride.
"I'll lead from this point on, when we run into the inevitable guards I'll get you girls cleared. we should arrive in the early evening." She told the companionship as she led them to the ancient fortress. It didn't take long for the group to run into the first patrol, initially, the four earthponies they had run into were reluctant to let the group continue but after Cherry showed the order the King had given her they had agreed to take them to the leading General of the Dustwatch.
"You keep the girls here while I go talk to the General, Twilight," Cherry told Twilight as they reached the main keep, the unicorn nodded in agreement. "Try to make it as quick as possible, I'm not sure how long I can keep Applejack from leaving and searching her brother on her own."
"Will do," Cherry answered as she made her way further into the keep, Twilight sat down on one of the benches in the room and looked at her earthpony companion. Applejack was sitting on another bench nervously fiddling with her hooves, messing with her hat, and taking glances at the earthpony guards, Twilight sighed as this went on for a couple of minutes. "Your brother will be fine, Applejack." She tried to comfort the mare.
"Ah know, Twi. It's just that Ah haven't seen him for years." She replied.
"Applejack, if your brother cares about his family half as much as you do then he wouldn't have forgotten about you," Twilight said as she smiled at the earthpony, Applejack smiling back at the unicorn.
"Ah guess you're right, he's probably been beatin' himself up over not having returned to ponyville yet."
A couple of minutes of banter later Cherry came walking back carrying a saddlebag seemingly filled with green fabric. "General leaf has approved for us to stay within the fortress." Cherry announced, "You have to wear these capes so you can be identified as friendly." She added before turning to Applejack, "Your brother is currently out for a patrol but he'll be back in the eastern barracks before nightfall which, incidentally, is also the barracks where we'll be housed for the duration of the stay."
Applejack jumped off the bench she was seated on, closely followed by her little sister who also seemed to be excited at the prospect of seeing her bigger brother. "Well, let's get going then!" She said as she attached the green fabric to the armour she had bought. Everyone else followed in attaching the capes to themselves, Cherry reminding herself of something as they finished.
"Rainbow, Moonlight, You are not to fly any higher than the walls to prevent any gunners from accidentally firing on you." She told the two flight-capable ponies, Rainbow grumbled but in the end didn't complain too badly as she could see why she would be forbidden from flying too high.
Ten minutes later the group arrived at the eastern barracks where a soldier was already waiting for them, "Follow me." He ordered and led them to a room similar to the one they had shared in Appleoosa.
"Ah'm goin' to ask around for mah brother for a bit." Applejack said after she threw her saddlebag onto one of the bunks, and left the room again. Applejack approached a group of soldiers that were playing a game of cards, "Good afternoon, would it trouble ya'll if Ah asked some questions." She asked, the soldiers seemed to take her in before responding.
"That depends. What ya wanna know?" One of them asked sceptically, Applejack sat down at the table with the stallions.
"Ah'm lookin' for mah brother, larger than average red stallion with a blond mane and mighty big apple for an earth mark?" She asked the group who all perked up at hearing the description, seemingly recognizing who she was talking about. Another one of the soldiers spoke up, "Why are you looking for Silent Red?"
"He's mah brother." Applejack replied, the soldier immediately narrowed his eyes. "Prove it. What's his real name, the only thing he really talks about are his two little sisters and we don't appreciate one of our mates being taken for a ride."
Applejack slightly recoiled from the soldier at the sudden hostility, "His name is Big McIntosh Apple and mah name's Applejack. His other little sister is called Applebloom, she's also here right now." She told them, the stallions glanced at each other coming to a silent agreement.
"Follow us." One of them said as they all put down their cards, "Back in Appleoosa a bunch of mares found out about Mac's sister problem and pretended that she was in the city, when the big lug found out that they were fooling him he broke down crying and didn't say a thing for weeks." He told Applejack, "If you break that stallions heart, King's orders be damned, you'll wish you were never born."
Applejack followed the stallions into another room that had bunk beds lining the hallway, "Just stay here, he should be back within the hour." He said and as to speak of the spirit of Chaos, Applejack could hear a group of soldiers entering the barracks.
"Have you heard about the recent disappearances in the civilian districts?" She could hear a mare ask as the door to the barracks could be heard closing again.
"Eeyup" A low rumbling voice of a stallion answered.
Applejack froze as she heard the reply, moments later a large stallion walked into the room and similarly froze. The mare that walked behind Mac crashed into the large stallion.
"What the buck, Macintosh." the mare said as she picked herself back up from the floor but the red stallion didn't seem to register her remark as he was focussed on Applejack.
"S-Sis?" He stuttered.
"Hi, big brother." She replied a growing smile on her face, it took a couple of seconds but both ponies sprung up and embraced each other in a hug. "Ah've missed you, big brother." She cried into Big Mac's shoulder. Behind them, a little filly also entered the room.
"Applejack?" Applebloom asked as she had also entered the room, both Mac an AJ looked at the little filly.
"Bloom?" Mac asked, his eyes already teared up from meeting back up with Applejack. The little filly suddenly realized who her sister was hugging and joined in on the hug.
"How did ya get out of Ponyville?" Mack asked while wiping tears from his eyes, the other soldiers had sat down on a couple of bunks
"Well..." Twilight was sitting behind her desk scribbling away at a document in front of her, Rainbow and Scootaloo had gone out for a run, Moonlight had gone for a flight herself in the darkness, this left Cherry alone with the unicorn.
"Twilight?" She asked, the purple pony turning her head to the earthpony soldier. "Yes?" she answered, the earthpony nervously pawing at the ground.
"If I were let's say, hypothetically, be willing to help you find those magical artefacts," Cherry started, a smile creeping up onto Twilight's face. "What would happen to the earthponies as a whole when you succeed?"
Twilight thought for a moment before answering, "I would assume they would be integrated with the other species if sun-mother succeeds." She reasoned but Cherry didn't seem to be satisfied.
"How do you know that for sure." She asked sceptically, Twilight sighed. "I haven't told the others but I've met her twice in this past month and I think I've known her for much longer without realizing." This got Cherry's attention, "You've met her?!"
Twilight nodded, "The last time was in Appleoosa, she's the reason I got out of the barracks. I was completely out of options when I was disarming that bomb and if she hadn't shown up I wouldn't be here right now."
"Wow," Cherry simply said. "And you think you've known her for much longer?"
Twilight nodded again, "Yes, though I can't be completely sure, she called me her little star. My professor used to call me that when I was still a little filly. But professor Morningstar was a regular pony so I don't know that for sure."
"Well, ok then. I'll give you a 'tour' of the castle tomorrow." Cherry told Twilight as she stood back up, "But only you, if I take too many ponies it'll look suspicious with that many ponies looking around."
Twilight nearly sprung up as she heard that, "Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou!" She quickly said as she hopped around the room but suddenly Rainbow came crashing through the door startling the two other ponies.
"Rainbow what's-"
"Scootaloo's missing!" She shouted as she was in a full-on panic, Twilight used telekinesis to hold the pegasus down. "Rainbow, calm down and tell me what happened." She slowly said to Dash.
"I-I was taking a run with the Squirt as you know and she kinda challenged me to a race. I, of course, ran ahead a bit but when I turned back she wasn't there!" Rainbow explained as Twilight was simultaneously writing down some notes, "At first I thought she was pulling a prank but after fifteen minutes she still hadn't shown herself again! I checked all the streets in the area but she's nowhere to be found!"
Moonlight suddenly burst through the door in a similar fashion to Rainbow only she didn't seem to be panicking in the slightest. "I just saw scootaloo being dragged into some underground tunnel system by some sort of black bug, I wasn't quick enough to stop it." She said, Twilight had to stop Rainbow from immediately flying off again.
"Let me go, UNICORN! No one stops me from getting to my sister." She roared in anger.
"If you wait for two seconds we can follow Moonlight with each other, if we all go we'll have more luck finding her." Twilight reasoned, Rainbow flopping down onto her flanks. "Fine but hurry up." She grunted.
Twilight turned to Cherry who had quickly put her armour back on, "You get AJ up to speed, Dash and I are going ahead to start searching. The elements are on hold up until we find that filly."
Cherry nodded as she was still fiddling with her armour, Twilight turning back to Moonlight.
"Lead us to where you lost them. We've got a filly to find."
Hoofsteps echoed through the damp air of the tunnels below the Dustwatch, Moonlight had not entered with Twilight and Dash as she had gone back to get the earthponies. Twilight had been marking the way they had been walking with chalk so the others would easily be able to find them once they also entered the catacombs.
Dash meanwhile was obsessively scanning every nook and cranny she found for evidence of her little sister, they had already found a couple of orange feathers along the path they were now moving through.
"Dash, you need to slow down to allow the others to catch up," Twilight told the pegasus who had yet to show any signs of slowing down.
"Can't. Have to find her." Rainbow simply answered as she continued barreling down the underground hallway deeper into the mountain upon which the Dustwatch was built.
"Rainbow, if we find her we're also going to find the things that took her. We. Need. Backup!"
"I DON'T CARE! I'M NOT LOSING HER AS WELL!" Dash shouted at the unicorn trailing her as she jumped around to face her companion, her voice echoing through the tunnel.
Twilight meanwhile looked at Dash with a sudden curiosity, "What do you mean with 'as well'?"
Dash suddenly stopped moving entirely, "I-I promised her parents I would make sure she'd survive, unlike her bigger sister." She softly said as tears started rolling down her face. "That older sister was my best friend at the time, she was extremely shy and a terrible flyer but the kindest pony I've ever met."
Dash paused for a moment as she struggled to find the right words, "Did you know that at the age of twelve pegasi are thrown off the cloud city they were born in to see if they have gained enough flying skills to get back up?"
Twilight shook her head as the specifics of pegasi culture weren't taught in the empire, seeing as the pegasi were portrayed as little more than dishonourable raiders.
"When my class was thrown up it didn't take very long for me to get back up to the clouds just like the rest of the class followed soon after... she never got back up to the cloud and once someone went down to see if they could find her body they never did. After Scoots was born I promised her parents to keep that filly safe whatever the cost so before the same thing could happen to squirt I ran away, the rest you know." Dash told Twilight as she turned to continue further down the tunnel, "That's why I can't slow down Twi, I already failed her once in not going after her. I'm not letting her little sister go as well."
With that Dash went on and ran at her previous speed down the tunnel. Twilight, though still of the opinion that they should have wait for the others, ran along with the pegasus who was clearly not going to be dissuaded as two ponies were still better than one in a fight.
The furter into the mountain they ran the more the wallways started to look like actual caves instead of constructed passageways, also along the walls clusters of a hardened green goop of some sort started appearing the deeper they came. Sounds of walking creatures had also slowed down Dash's and Twilight advance as they were now sneaking down the tunnel to avoid being spotted for as long as possible. A couple of minutes of sneaking later they could see a dim green light in the tunnel ahead. Turning a final corner we were faced with what could only be described as a horror scene. Green pods lined the walls of the tunnel they had entered, each and every single one containing an earthpony who were seemingly unaware of their surroundings.
"This is horrible" Twilight whispered while Dash's anger only seemed to increase at the sight of the hallway.
"And my sister's somewhere in here" Dash growled as she slowly moved forwards on three legs, keeping her extendable blade poised to strike at any moment. Twilight similarly took her short sword in a telekinetic hold beside her as she closely followed the pegasus.
Suddenly Dash saw movement in the corner of her eyes and quickly turned, slashing at the thing beside her, a raspy screech could be heard as a black pony of some sort dropped onto the ground. Chitin covered its body, though its legs seemed to be full of holes, and a pair of insect wings sprouted from its back just as a jagged horn sat on its head.
"Where. is. my. sister?" Rainbow slowly and darkly asked as she held the bleeding bug-pony up against one of the pods with her sword pressed against its throat.
The blue insectoid eyes seemed to be looking up at the pegasus in fear as it responded with a raspy voice, "I don't know, the Queen wanted to see the sky pony herself!" It whimpered.
"And where might she be?" Twilight asked as she kept an eye on the surrounding hall, just in case they had missed another one of these bug ponies.
The bug pony looked terrified as it stuttered its answer, "I-I will not betray my Queen!" This angered Rainbow, a low growl came from the pegasus as she pushed the sword slightly deeper into the bug pony's neck.
"Where is she." Dash once again asked, the bug screeching in pain but stubbornly refused to answer.
"I will not ask again, where is my sister." Rainbow threatened for the last time as she pushed her blade even further into the neck of the creature.
"I will not..."
Before the bug could finish Dash pulled back her blade only to jam it deep into the creature's skull, killing it before it even hit the ground.
"It was wasting our time, we should continue on, maybe the next one will cooperate better." The pegasus stated to Twilight who was baffled by how violently Dash had killed the bug. Rainbow didn't give the unicorn time to respond as she continued sneaking through the caverns where they found a few more hallways where ponies were trapped in the green cocoons.
Only a few minutes later the two infiltrators could hear voices echoing through the tunnel. Crawling around the presumed last corner they finally entered a very large cavern which had multiple other caves leading into it, in the centre of this large cavern more of the bug creatures roamed and flew around, performing various tasks. Though that wasn't what caught Rainbow's nor Twilight's eye, that was the large black bug on a throne of some sort and a small orange filly who lay unconscious in front of some of the bugs.
"Anything else to report, Delilah?" The larger but skinny bug asked, her stature and position on the throne clearly giving away that this one was the Queen of these creatures.
"We have captured fifty residents, which should provide us with enough love to start replacing some of them instead of just kidnapping them." It stated, the Queen seemingly approving.
"Continue our operation for another week to store a buffer of love. Also, take this Sky pony away to a pod, it is a curiosity but ultimately of no use to me." The Queen answered, Dash nearly seeing red as one of the bugs dragged Scootaloo along the floor with it.
Twilight tried to stop the pegasus before she could jump off the raised entrance to the cavern they were hiding in, but Dash's speed meant that she was already in the midst of the group dragging Scootaloo before Twilight could even begin casting a spell.
The first creature, that was dragging Scootaloo, received a sword to the neck as Rainbow came down, severing its spine and collapsing it immediately. Three more of the creatures that had been standing close to the first were swiftly taken out by Dash before any response came from the creatures that had been taken completely off guard.
Twilight saw one of the smaller bugs light its horn with a sickly green aura as it readied a spell. Grumbling a curse to herself she jumped down after the pegasus, making a roll to reduce the impact with the ground while simultaneously using her sword to take out the bug that had been charging its horn.
Coming out of their stupor at the swift execution of five of their number the Queen started shouting enraged orders at the smaller ones, "GET THEM!"
Dash and Twilight both took a position next to the unconscious form of Scootaloo while making sure none of the bugs would suddenly charge, only what happened next neither the unicorn nor pegasus could have predicted.
Every single one of the bugs suddenly caught on fire and turned into exact copies of the two ponies.
"Dash?" Twilight softly said as she looked straight into the eyes of one of her copies.
"Y-yeah?" Dash stuttered as her rage had faded a bit and she realized how screwed they were without proper backup.
"Only go after copies of yourself to prevent hitting me," Twilight instructed, the copies of the two ponies circling the trapped ponies while seeking an opening to attack.
Seeing a green glow coming from one of the Twilight copies the real Twilight quickly turned and put up a shield, her sword clattering to the ground as she switched spells. Thinking this was the opportunity to strike, the one bug released its spell while a couple of the other copycats charged only to run straight into the slightly visible shield. Not wasting a second Twilight dropped the shield and picked up her sword to take a swing at the dazed bugs, taking three more of them out before the last one managed to retreat back to a safe distance.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" The Queen shouted at the remaining bugs, while stumbling back towards a cave herself. The creatures even after being shouted at were hesitantly looking at Twilight and Rainbow. Given that the bugs weren't charging them, seemingly out of fear, Twilight took the time to study the creatures that hadn't changed. If the bugs were anything like ponies they looked like they were starving and possibly weren't even combatants as their combat performance up until now was suggesting.
Suddenly one of the circling copies of Rainbow burst into flames and turned back into a bug just before dropping onto the floor, followed by two copies of Twilight as the real Twilight saw knives stuck in the necks of the fallen bugs. Only a moment after two fully armoured earthponies smashed down from the same ledge the unicorn and pegasus had come from.
"Y'all seem like ya can use some help." Applejack said as she fixed her Stetson hat back on her head and pointed a spear in the direction of the bugs, Big Mac doing the same. The bugs seeing the two heavily armoured soldiers retreated back towards their Queen and took a defensive posture around her. More bugs fell around the Queen with knives sticking out of their bodies in various places as the two earthponies, pegasus, and unicorn formed up and started pushing the bugs backwards.
"Give up, Changeling! There is no need for this bloodshed, you have failed!" Moonlight shouted down from the ledge while holding what seemed to be a throwing knife in her wing talon.
"That's easy for you to say, Thestral. Your kind isn't starving!" The queen shouted back at Moonlight who still had a throwing knife at the ready, "I will remember this for a long time to come." The queen snarled as her horn lit up, Twilight immediately put up a shield over her group while Moonlight threw her throwing knife but hit nothing as the space the Queen had just been occupying was empty and the live 'changelings' had disappeared with her.
The group could suddenly hear a rough cough as they turned around and saw one of the changelings that had initially attacked them try to crawl away while clutching a wound inflicted on it by Twilight. Dash growled but was beaten to the bug by Midnight as the bat pony looked down at the fearful changeling.
"Don't move, daughter of Vironect. I mean you no harm." Moonlight said as she started treating the wound on the changeling.
"What are you doing?" Dash asked as she looked confused at the bat pony while getting slightly angrier once again. Moonlight ignored the pegasus and continued to stem the bleeding of the creature.
"Moonlight I must agree with Dash here, you must have seen what they did to the earthponies when you got down here." Twilight agreed.
"Ah'm agreein' with them two, Midnight. Better to be rid of it before it can do any more damage." Applejack also
"NO!" Moonlight shouted back at the three others, "You know nothing about the suffering of the changelings, they feed on love and when the three main races fell into war their kind was almost completely wiped out! That they are still alive after almost a millennium is astounding, I will not kill them for trying to survive." She angrily stated and hefted the changeling, who had fallen unconscious, onto her back before flying up to the ledge where she disappeared back into the caves.
The leftover ponies stood still for a moment looking at the empty cave exit only to be brought to reality by a groan from behind them. Dash immediately turned around as she recognized Scootaloo's voice and picked up the waking filly into a tight hug.
"You two should get back up to the barracks as well, we'll get everything done down here," Twilight told Rainbow who nodded and also flew off towards the cave leading to the surface. With Dash gone, Twilight turned to Applejack who was doing her mighty best to avoid standing near or looking at the changeling corpses. Seeing this Twilight sighed and walked up to her companion,
"You know we had no choice but to take them out, right?" Applejack sighed, closed her eyes, and nodded in understanding.
"Ah just ain't used to seein' this many dead things at the same time. Ah mean the unicorns in Ponyville are brutal but nothin' like this." Applejack admitted as she glanced at the corpses. "Ah ain't no soldier like you or Dash."
"It's not easier for us either, AJ. Let's just get out of here." Twilight said as she took a couple of steps towards the exit only to stop as she realized something she probably should have done earlier...
The floor of the cavern was unnaturally flat.
Stopping in her tracks she turned around and increased the amount of light that was coming from her horn, the entire room now decently lit up. The supposed cavern wasn't natural but carved! Scanning the room further her eyes eventually wandered over the floor where they stopped.
"Applejack help me remove this thing" Twilight said as she started pushing the throne of the changeling Queen towards the side of the room.
"Can ya give a hoof as well, Mac?." Applejack said as she also started pushing even though she had no clue why.
"Eeyup," The stallion simply replied, the moment he put a bit of force against the stone chair it moved as if it weighed nothing.
"Thanks," Twilight said baffled at the display of raw power, turning back to the room afterwards.
"What did ya see Twi?" Applejack asked as the unicorn seemed to be stuck in thought while looking at the floor, a smile slowly growing on the unicorns face.
"Look at the floor, tell me what you see." Twilight cryptically said, drawing Applejack's attention to the ground.
"It's a sun?" The female earthpony said as she didn't immediately understand what Twilight meant, "and is that writing?"
"Yes! It's ancient ponish!" Twilight squealed, "It says, Speak truth and enter the vault of Honesty. We accidentally found the vault!"
"What's she talkin' about, sis?" Mac asked as he was thoroughly confused at the sudden freakout the unicorn had. Twilight completely ignoring the large stallion as she tried figuring out the riddle.
"We're huntin' a bunch of magical artefacts, one of them seems to be here." Applejack answered her brother while keeping her eyes fixed on the mumbling unicorn.
"They dangerous?" Mac looking concerned at her sister.
"Apparently the Empress will try to get our heads once she finds out but from what I hear it's worth it." Applejack answered just as Twilight seemed to have a solution.
"Truth!" She spoke in a language Applejack had never heard but the effect was immediate, the crack of stone rang through the chamber as the arms of the sun along with the centre sunk into the ground. The middle circle of the ring suddenly slip into two and revealed a staircase. The two earthponies just looked on in amazement as Twilight was clapping her hooves like a small excited filly.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" She squealed as she started making her way down into the 'vault'. Applejack and Big Mac following as Twilight's horn was the only source of light the two had since Moonlight had left with their lantern.
The Stairs weren't that long as they soon entered a chamber that had murals and more text the two earthponies couldn't read. At the end of the chamber, a large mural of two large ponies, one white and a smaller dark blue one that had both a horn and wings stood facing each other, in front of it a pedestal stood with an iron torque on top of it with a large orange gemstone embedded into it.
"To my sister, who expected ponies to tell the truth, no matter how hard it was." Twilight read from the text that was written above the pedestal before adding. "Which I failed to do."
The group remained silent for a moment, only for Applejack to step forward and touch the necklace. The gemstone momentarily lighting up in a brilliant orange light as the earthpony flinched, the light dying down again immediately after Applejack stopped touching it. The orange earthpony looking at Twilight as for advice but the unicorn motioned for her to try again, this time the crystal stayed inert.
"This is all mighty strange to me but Ah'm sure y'all will help me out with it."
"That we will," Twilight said as she turned to go back to the staircase they had gone down, looking back at Applejack with a smirk.
"Come on, Element of Honesty I think we should tell our friends of our progress."
The thundering shout rang through the barracks as Twilight, Applejack, and Big Mac entered the compound after helping the earthponies release their kin from the green pods. The latter of the three immediately tensed up as he recognized who it belonged to,
"That was General Leaf, sis. He ain't soundin' too happy right now" The red stallion stated as he grimaced at the building in front of them. Meanwhile, cogs in Twilight's brain were turning as to why the General would be this angry, not liking the answer she came up with.
"He's after Moonlight and that changeling!" She said as she stormed into the building at full speed, followed by the two earthponies as they got over their hesitation. In front of the door to the room they had gotten they could see the fuming General along with a squad of very heavily armed soldiers, their attention turning to the three new arrivals.
"Unicorn, get your vampony friend to open this door and give up that abomination of a creature." He growled at Twilight who gulped nervously at the rage with which the General had spoken to her.
Walking up to the door Twilight lit her horn and seconds later disappeared only to reappear on the other side of the barricaded entranceway. Before she even got the chance to reorient herself she had already hit the ground and had a knife pressed against her throat,
"I'm not giving her up," The thestral snared at the unicorn, the hurt changeling looking fearfully at the pinned unicorn.
"Moonlight, they're not going to let it leave the fortress after what they saw down in the catacombs," Twilight tried to reason but Moonlight didn't give an inch of ground on her stance.
"I won't give her up, if the ponies outside want her then they're going to have to get her over my cold dead body!" Moonlight snarled with exposed fangs, finally giving Twilight enough space to stand back up while she went over to comfort the shivering changeling.
Seeing this Twilight sighed, lit her horn, and reappeared outside, startling the earthponies with her sudden appearance. "She's not going to give her up, sir, and I'm afraid that this will end in unnecessary bloodshed if you force your way in," Twilight told the General who glared her down, seemingly thinking up his next move.
"You have one hour to leave my fortress, filly, if I find that thing or any of you to still be here I will personally execute you on the spot." He growled before turning and stomping out of the barracks.
Not wasting a second of this precious time Twilight immediately teleported back into the barricaded room where Moonlight glared at her the moment she appeared in the room.
"My decision still stands." She simply stated while keeping her wing talon close to one of her weapons.
"I know, we have exactly an hour to leave this place before the General will return," Twilight said as she levitated assure the desk that had served as the barricade that held the door closed. Applejack immediately coming in and strapping on her saddlebags over her warplate. Moonlight looked surprised but not wanting to waste this opportunity to leave she immediately packed what little she had.
Big Mac stood in the doorway looking at her sister as she packed her gear, Apple Bloom having also joined them in the room. The big stallion walking up to her sister and pulling her into a hug as she finished packing. "Stay safe out there sis," he simply said as Applejack returned the hug.
"Ah've got a bunch of good ponies watchin' mah back, we'll be as safe as possible." Applejack replied as she put Apple Bloom onto her back.
Rainbow Dash chose that moment to come running into the room with Scootaloo on her own back, "What was that shou..."
She paused and snarled as she spotted the changeling sitting on the bed behind Moonlight while Scootaloo just tried to hide behind Rainbow's mane. "What is that thing still doing here?" She asked, angering Moonlight once again.
"She's coming with us and since we have less than one hour to leave this place I suggest we start packing." She responded irritably. Before Rainbow could respond to the bat pony's response the last member of their group came running into the room, Cherry already having her saddlebag ready to go at any time immediately picked them up and secured them.
"I heard what happened." She simply stated, "Where are we going next?" She inquired as she glanced at the changeling who seemed to be closely huddling against Moonlight.
Twilight who had finished packing opened her saddlebag and levitated out their map, studying it for a brief moment. "Trotterdam, we'll try to get passage on a ship to Fillydelphia where we can try crossing the straight into the Empire and head for Manehattan to find the Element of Generosity."
The group having packed all the gear and equipment they owned looked at each other awkwardly, Rainbow definitely not being at ease with the changeling and Moonlight being overly protective of the exact same creature. Taking a few moments it was Twilight who finally broke the silence, "Uhm... we should leave before our deadline expires."
The others silently agreed and the group swiftly left the barracks and made their way to the front gate where they could see General leaf with a group of soldiers.
"General?" Twilight asked as her group was spotted, the General still seemed to be fuming.
"Know that the only reason I'm letting you go is that you have the king's support and that you helped discover this filth in the belly of my fortress, Unicorn. If I find out that thing harmed one of my kin anywhere else I will make sure your head will be mounted on a spike, am I clear?" He threatened as he motioned for the group of soldiers to open a passageway for the group to walk through.
"Crystal," Twilight replied before leading her group out the fortress, the heavy doors closing behind them with a loud thud. The companionship silently walking down the foot of the mountain with only Twilight's horn as light in the darkness of the night that had fallen to a small stream of water where they could fill up their water sacks.
"So, we're going to Trotterdam?" Moonlight asked as she filled her water reservoir, Rainbow immediately huffed.
"I'm not going anywhere until you explain why that is coming with us." She said as she pointed at the changeling, Moonlight wanted to retort but at seeing the expressions of the others she sighed.
"Amber, please come over here." She commanded to the changeling who shyly shuffled forward, Twilight gasping as the cut she had delivered to its leg had already closed and only a small line of where the blade had it her remained.
"I took her in because after the cataclysm my people sought out the hives only to find all the changelings died of starvation or been killed, sometimes both. You must understand that back then the hives didn't kidnap ponies, they just invented new identities and lived among ponies. The records even seem to suggest Night- and Daymother had an unofficial truce with the hives that didn't take ponies to prevent Queens that did from settling within their realm." Moonlight explained
"So why did they all just die off then?" Rainbow asked, not sounding as angry as she had just been.
"Because of hate and other negative emotions are like poison to my kind..." Amber's raspy voice startling the group except for Moonlight who continued for the changeling,
"...which there were a lot of back in those days, effectively every hive either starved or started to abduct ponies which ended with the respective tribe storming their hive and killing their entire populations."
Everyone stood still in silence as they looked at the changeling, who shyly shrunk back behind the thestral. Moonlight looked at rainbow who seemed to be severely conflicted.
"Fine, I'll give you a chance but if you look at Scootaloo the wrong way you'll wish you'd died down in that cave." Rainbow threatened, Moonlight sighing as she realized that that was probably the best she was going to get from the pegasus.
"Anyway, we should get some sleep. Trotterdam is leagues from here and I don't think we a lot of extra supplies so we should get up as early as possible tomorrow to make as much ground as we can." Twilight interjected, the others agreed and put down their sleeping mats to get some much-needed sleep.
"Good night, everypony," Twilight said as she cut off the flow of magic to her horn, plunging the group into darkness. "Come on Cap, getting messages out of Appleoosa is hard at the best of times and after your proposed stunt it'll be near impossible." Swift Star said as Shining was pacing through the barracks, they had left ponyville and headed for Manehattan since there had been no reason to stay in the mud-pony town if they weren't allowed to enter the forest. Manehattan being the headquarter of the Empires operations against the earthponies was the most logical place to go next as any and every report on the situation would inevitably get there.
Shining groaned loudly, the trip to the bastion had been long and he had hoped a report would have already reached the city, "I know, Swift. I'm just annoyed with the fact that I don't know if we succeeded, we know there was a massive explosion that took out a barracks in Appleoosa but not if we succeeded in taking them out, I want to know if I failed the Empress or not!" He shouted, storming outside onto the wall of the city's central bastion to get some air, also taking the time to get a good look at the city. The city was designed in the way of a tiered city, the upper tier was were the nobility and high-class ponies would live, the middle housing the well off commoners, and the lower for the earthpony serfs and low-class unicorns.
"Just take a breather, Cap, the agent will pull through she's a professional." Swift star said as she turned back to the stairs into the fortress, "I'm going back to get some practice done, feel free to join me if you feel up for a flank beating."
Shining grumbled an acknowledgment as the mare disappeared down the stairs behind him while he continued staring at the city for an extended amount of time while being stuck in thought. In fact, so stuck in his thoughts that he didn't notice the mare approaching him.
"Is there something bothering you, Captain?" She asked pulling him back to reality, looking the mare over his stance tensed up. She had an immaculately styled purple mane and a pristine white coat under the black dress she was wearing.
"Countess Belle, my apologies I did not notice your approach," Shining said as he bowed his head to the stunning mare. Looking over the mare's dress he noticed that there were gemstones subtley embedded into her dress giving it a sparkle that would attract all and any attention in a room, the rumors being that the mare designed and made all these dresses herself which had been written off by some of the nobility as no noble lady would stoop so low as to do a commoners work.
"Don't worry dear, you were deeply in thought while looking at my city." She said as she joined Shining on the battlements looking over the city, "If I may ask, what do you think of it?"
Shining kept a stoic face as he looked at the city, the lower districts were dotted with factories where ponies had to work in terrible conditions to manufacture tools and other product for the rest of the Empire. This had driven the nobility of the city to push the output of the factories to their maximum regardless of safety concerns. If any city in the Empire deserved to be called a shithole of greed, Manehattan would be on top of that list.
"It's magnificent, my lady," Shining answered, the Countess suddenly letting out a very unladylike snort.
"It's a greedy pile of manure, Captain Armor, you know it but just don't want to say it." She stated, Shining being too lost for words to respond to the Countess, "My colleagues of the 'noble' variety only ever try to gain more power and wealth, never looking at improving the city as a whole." She sighed as she paused for a moment.
"Did you know these walls used to be a magnificent white?" She asked breaking her own silence again, Shining shaking her head at this revelation. The walls of the city were all grey but now he studied them he realized that was because all the ash and soot from the factories had stained the color, some portions of the wall still retaining some semblance of what it had been in times long gone, "I thought so... Anyway, you must have more important business than listening to the troubled ramblings of a mare." The Countess stated as she pulled her gaze away from the city, "Have a nice day, Captain, may the Empress grace you with her light."
With that, she left once again, Shining blushing as he could have sworn the mare fluttering her eyelashes at him. Turning for the stairs himself Shining started making his way to the training field where he could clear his mind as thoughts haunted him.
Why would she have approached me like that? What does she have to gain from getting on my good side? The waves of the Cerulean Ocean crashed into the ship Twilight and her companionship had gotten passage on, the trip to Trotterdam had taken them four days to complete and after arriving they had once again reported their presence to the authorities. It had taken some time for them to find an earthpony that was comfortable enough to take them aboard.
The day after they had left the Dustwatch Moonlight had almost freaked out as she realized that they hadn't found the element of Honesty before they had been evicted only for Applejack to show the gem hanging around her neck. The element now in front of Twilight as she had taken too studying it along with the Element of Loyalty. Only unlike with that Element Twilight focused her study on the torque instead.
What she found was utterly terrifying to the mare, the torque wasn't steel as she had originally thought but instead was an alloy...
...of Adamantium and Mithril, called Arcanasteel.
The worth of the object in front of her was about the same as half of Canterlot itself... and there were supposedly five more of them out there. Though that wasn't the great kicker of her discovery, what was the greatest revelation was that the gem's magic had blended seamlessly with the innate properties of the alloy which meant they had been made for each other. Seeing this Twilight had come to a conclusion the others wouldn't like: The Element of Loyalty wasn't completed. The leather band was clearly not part of it as a set and they would most likely have to go to Cloudsdale as well to find the item the gem was supposed to sit in.
Twilight sighed as she hung back in her hammock, she'd have to figure out the true properties of the alloy as even she had never read any records on the material other than myths and legend. A soft snore from beside her startled the Unicorn as she looked over at the hammock beside her the changeling now disguised as an earthpony was sleeping. Twilight hadn't made up her mind about the creature as even though she had sympathy for Amber she wasn't sure she could trust her.
"FILLYDELPHIA IN SIGHT!" Rainbow's shout penetrating the deck, the Rainbow maned pegasus having made herself useful as a spotter for the ship as she was able to fly much higher than an earthpony sitting in the mast.
Deciding she could use some air Twilight made her way onto the deck where she found the rest of her companionship standing at the side of the ship looking at the city on the horizon. Twilight sighed as she realized they wouldn't be staying there for long and would attempt to enter the Empire...
...And if she knew her brother he would most likely be in the very city they were going to attempt to enter as it served as the headquarters of operations against the earthponies. Shaking her head Twilight joined in on watching the approaching city,
One problem at a time, Twilight. We'll fix those problems when we encounter them.
"Where do you think we can get passage to the other side, Twi?" Rainbow asked as the group had found a spot overlooking Phillydelphia's harbor, the captain of the ship that had brought them here didn't want to try crossing the straight over to the empire as he didn't fancy his ship to be destroyed by either unicorn or earthpony warships.
"It's not going to be the earth kingdom, if they're caught ferrying us over it'll give the Empire a valid casus belli against them." Twilight sighed as she levitated out the bag with the group's remaining coins. "We're going to need to find a smuggler to transport us to the other side."
"That's gonna be darn expensive ain't it?" Applejack surmised, Twilight sighed and nodded. They would probably have enough to make the passage but that would leave them without any money to buy a lot of supplies, but, that was a problem Twilight had already figured a solution for even though what she had thought up might be... divisive.
"We have enough funds to get to the other side but we might have to forage if we get unlucky with the ferry fee is on the high end," Twilight said explained while looking over the docks' storehouses to see if there were any cafes that might house anypony who could ferry them over.
"We should split up to find a captain that's willing to take us." Moonlight suggested while the disguised changeling was huddling up against her, Twilight approving of the suggestion.
"We'll split into two groups though we should be careful, the places we're bound to find the ponies we need are probably not going to be the safest places in the city," Twilight said as she stood up and started pointing at ponies, "Moonlight, Amber, and I will form one group and Cherry, AJ, Apple Bloom, Dash, and Scootaloo the other."
"So, where and when are we going to meet back up?" Cherry asked as the group also needed to find a place to sleep for the night.
"An hour after nightfall, if we haven't found a captain to take us by then we're going to try again tomorrow," Twilight answered, the earthpony soldier nodding in agreement, "In that case, we should get going. We'll see each other again in a few hours."
With that, the group split into two and they both made for a different section of the docks, the clean appearance maintained by the earthpony navy quickly faltering as they got into the civilian area of the harbor.
"We should start at one of the pubs along the docks, even if they don't have anypony in there that can get us over they might still be able to point us to somewhere that does." Moonlight suggested as she made her way towards one of the establishments, Amber staying as close to the bat pony as she possibly could but Twilight faltered. "Uhm, Twilight are you coming?"
Twilight looked slightly guilty as she made her next suggestion, "We need to cover your eyes if we're going to get anywhere, Moonlight, they might scare off anypony who would be able to get us across." The bat pony stood still for a moment as she contemplated Twilight's remark and then responded in a way the unicorn didn't expect.
"Okay."
"Wait, you're okay with possibly meeting criminals with a blindfold on?!" Twilight gasped at which Moonlight just shrugged and tore a strip of cloth off her cloak and bound it around her head.
"I'll just act as if I'm a blind pony and don't worry I'll make it work," Moonlight said as she motioned for Twilight to lead the way, "Amber'll guide me after you."
"O-okay," Twilight stuttered in amazement but started moving to a pub anyway. The moment they entered the building the entire room went silent, all of the earthponies looking at the unexpected new arrivals. Moonlight seemed to care only a little as the decently disguised bat pony somehow made it to the counter.
"Two beer please," She asked as Twilight and Amber sat down next to her, a murmur going through the pup and just as fast as Moonlight had taken a seat she had left and suddenly stood behind Twilight.
"Not one more step."
Color drained from Twilight's face as she saw two earthpony stallions with large knives that had been silently approaching from behind.
How did she know they were coming?! She's wearing a blindfold!
"Step out of the way, we have no interest in killing a blind pony." The largest of the two growled but the bat pony didn't budge an inch.
"I'm afraid you won't be killing anypony today." She calmly stated, the entire pub was now attentively looking at how this was going to be resolved.
The large stallion rolled his eyes and laughed as he tried to push past Moonlight, only what happened next was something no-one expected. Instead of being pushed aside Moonlight stepped to the side and took a hold of the stallion's foreleg, throwing him to the side. Not giving the second stallion a chance to respond she charged him, ducking below a panicked swing from the knife the second stallion, turned around and bucked the stallion in the ribs. The pub was engulfed by silence once more as the supposed blind pony strolled back to the counter and took a gulp from her beer before turning back towards the two stallions.
"I suggest you two leave now." She stated as they got back onto their hooves, flashing a knife of her own. The two stallions glancing at each other nervously before slowly backing off and making a run for the door. "Well, that was interesting." Moonlight muttered as she turned back to her mug of beer, Twilight along with more than one of the earthponies were staring at her slack-jawed.
"H-how..." Twilight stuttered as her brain was trying to make a coherent sentence.
"I've got my secrets, Twilight." Moonlight simply responded as she continued taking gulps from her pint, conversation slowly starting up again although the pub as nopony else dared to approach them. Waiting for another fifteen minutes Moonlight decided to call over the barkeep since Twilight still seemed to be broken and Amber wasn't one to start talking to strangers.
"Do you know anypony who might be able to ferry us to the other side of the straight, barkeep?" Moonlight asked the seemingly nervous stallion stood at the other end of the counter.
"Ya'd have ta ask Flint Gravel, the pony in the corner over there, Ah'm not concerned with business like that." He told Moonlight who nodded and threw a couple of coins onto the counter only for them to be pushed back by the barkeeper, "It's on the house if ya get yer business done and leave as quick as possible."
"We will, thank you." Moonlight said as she dragged along the unicorn to the corner of the bar that gave a good overview of the entire establishment, even though it was sure she couldn't see the earthpony she still managed to somehow 'see him'.
"Flint Gravel?" The old earthpony looking inquisitively at the three ponies who had approached him, "We were told you could help us with a problem of ours."
"That depends on the problem." He responded, his voice a low rumble as he pointed at the chairs on the opposing side of the table. The trio taking a seat as the stallion clearly wasn't going to continue otherwise. "So, what do you need?"
"Passage across the straight for six mares and two fillies." Twilight being the first one to respond as her brain had finally rebooted, Flint studied the three ponies in front of him to see if they were trying to scam him in any way.
"I see, that's gonna cost a hefty sum of money..." He stopped for a moment, pondering if he really wanted to ask what he was about to.
"...Unless you're willing to do me a favor." He added as he tried to gauge the trio's reaction. Twilight looked at Moonlight who 'looked' back at her and nodded.
"What might that favor be?" Twilight carefully asked, the stallion smiling slightly as the three seemed to be willing to do his work for him.
"I need a package to be delivered to Manehattan, since you'll probably be stopping there at the very least, you might be the ponies for the job and if your blind friend's demonstration showed anything." Twilight thought for a moment but came to the conclusion that even if the others found a captain to take them over none would do it for a price that fell within their budget.
"I need to speak to my companions to see if they agree, where can we find you if we do?"
"Find the Ranger, she's docked at pier seven. If your group is not there before tomorrow evening the deal's off and we'll be gone." He said, getting off his chair and slowly strolled to the door. "I'll see you there... or not, I'm leaving regardless."
Moonlight, Twilight, and Amber quickly departed after the old stallion had left, making their way to the point where they had promised to meet back up with the others. The sun was nearly completely below the horizon as they arrived, the other group not having reached the location yet as they sat down on a stone bench. "So, Moonlight, are you going to take off that blindfold now?"
"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot," Twilight stared at the bat pony as she undid the piece of cloth and stashed it into her saddlebag, blinking her eyes as she got used to the quickly dimming light. "Wow, that's much more disorienting than I remember." She said as she looked at the two friends that accompanied her, both Amber and Twilight staring at her. "You want an explanation, don't you?" She deadpanned.
"That would be appreciated," Surprisingly, Amber instead of Twilight asked the question. The changeling cringing as Moonlight looked at her charge and smirked.
"Echolocation," She answered, "The tone is so high that your ears can't pick it up, if you could it would sound something like this."
She opened her mouth, her canines on full display.
"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
"STOP IT!" Moonlight immediately stopped at hearing the voice coming from the side, Rainbow, AJ, Cherry, Bloom, and Scootaloo all clutching their ears. "What in tartarus was that?!" Rainbow groaned from her position on the ground.
"Uhm, oops?" Moonlight sheepily said as she noticed every one of her friends lying on the ground.
"We'll explain later. First I want to know if you girls found a captain to take us." Twilight interupted, Cherry shaking her head.
"We found one that wanted to take us but his rates were far to high for us to afford." The earthpony answered as she sat down on another bench next to the one Twilight and Amber were sitting on. "You three have any luck?"
"We found a captain who wants to take us over as long as we... do him a favour." Twilight answered, "I wanted to talk to you girls first before deciding to take it."
"What kind of 'favour' did he want us to do?" Cherry asked suspiciously.
“He wants us to deliver a package to somepony in Manehattan, though it sounded as if that pony was important to him.” Twilight answered, the earthpony looking at the others. Dash and Scootaloo shrugged, while Applejack and Apple Bloom nodded, hearing this Cherry turned back to Twilight.
“So where do we have to go?” ”Stay low and don’t make a sound, the water carries your voice farther than land does.” Flint said, the boat they were on was floating near the shore of the Empire. The earthpony had taken them on board the moment they had arrived at the dock where the Ranger was located and they had left the next evening.
”Where’s the package you wanted delivered?” Twilight whispered as the group quietly lowered a rowing boat into the water. Flint grabbed a watertight package and passed it to Twilight who picked it up in her magic, only for Flint to quickly hit her horn making her drop it again.
”Are you STUPID? They can see that light coming from that stick for miles!” He hissed, ”Use your hooves.”
Twilight picked up the package with her hooves at the scolding and placed it into her saddlebag, ”So who is this supposed to be for?“
”I need to get that to my organizer on this side of the straight, since I don’t usually take anypony to this side I don’t get to send her a lot of messages.” Flint took out a letter that was also protectively encased, ”Burn that the moment you’ve read it, she is instrumental in ensuring safe passage across the strait.”
Twilight looked at the encased scroll and gently added it to her backpack, ”I will get it to her, I swear.”
”Good, when you meet her don’t let your preconceptions judge her. She’s made the lives of a lot of earthponies, and unicorns for that matter, a lot better.” He told Twilight as the unicorn stepped into the rowing boat, ”You’ll find a group of earthponies at the shore, I was supposed to pick them up before you approached me. They might be a bit skittish around unicorns so make sure they don’t bolt when they see you, I can’t come back for them if they do.” With that he pushed off the boat and waved before the darkness swallowed him and only the outline of the ship could vaguely be seen, Applejack and Rainbow Dash meanwhile had started rowing to the shore. After a couple of minutes of rowing as silently as possible the boat ran ashore, the faint outlines of a group of ponies a bit further ahead on the beach.
”There’s the group of earthponies.” Cherry whispered as she secured one of the cloaks they had bought to hide the armor they were wearing. The earthpony group had also spotted the boat coming ashore and were running towards the boat, skidding to a halt the moment the came close enough to notice Twilight standing among the group. Their eyes went wide open as they probably thought they had been set up and they slowly started backing up.
”Shh, it’s okay, we’re not with them.” Twilight whispered at the group who still suspiciously eyed the group that had just landed, ”The ship is anchored over there, head straight out and you’ll be able to spot its outline against the horizon.” ”T-thank you,” The lead earthpony said as she motioned for her group to board. The group consisted of a stallion three mares and two fillies quickly stepped aboard the boat, the small fillies gawking at Rainbow as she strapped on her extendable blade and tested it.
Rainbow noticing the attention smiled a bit and ruffled the mane of one of the kids, ”Good luck on the other side all of you.”
The earthponies watched as the strange group of ponies helped push the boat into the waves and into the open water where the group began rowing towards the faint outline of the ship further up. The companions waited for the boat to get some distance before finally turning and heading inland as to avoid accidentally running into a patrol, after that they'd turn and travel towards the city and would attempt to enter. "So how are you going to get inside? Can you teleport?" Rainbow asked, she and Moonlight would be able to fly over the wall but the others would have to find an alternative entrance into the city.
"Teleportation is out, there are wards avoiding it and even if I figured out how to circumvent those the teleport would still be detected," Twilight answered as she looked at the wall to see if there were places they could enter, "If we find out how to destroy the metal grid in one of the wall's drains we can enter there."
"I can do that," Amber answered, surprising the others as they looked at the disguised changeling. She cringed back as she realized that everypony curiously looking at her.
"And how are you planning to do that exactly?" Rainbow asked skeptically, though not as hostile as she initially had been she still didn't fully trust the disguised creature.
Amber looked at the ground and spit out a small glob of green goo that immediately sizzled and burned into the ground, "I'll need some extra food but I can burn through the metal."
Twilight looked at the newest member of the companionship with a small smile, "We'll wait until nightfall before breaching into the city." She decided as the group pulled back into their hideout in the field of grain that surrounded the city. Seeing that they would have to wait for at least another hour Twilight decided to pull out the letter she had gotten from Flint Gravel that apparently detailed whoever his contact is, and separated from the group for a bit before opening the letter.
Miss Sparkle, though I would understand that you wouldn't trust my contact but I must reiterate that she has been instrumental in getting earthponies out of there.
My current problem is that I haven't received word back from her runner after I sent her a message, though since there are still groups of earthponies getting to the extraction point she's still active but I'm afraid that he was captured and interrogated. If that's true my contact is in grave danger and needs to get out of there herself.
Now I'm sure you're interested in what my contact's name is, again I must reiterate that despite appearances she is a good mare. My contact is Countess Rarity Belle, I'm not sure how you'll get this to her but I want you to personally hoof it over to make sure it doesn't get seen by any other eyes than hers.
Remember to burn this letter after reading. -Flint Gravel.
“That is awfully gross...” Rainbow said as Amber used her spit to melt through the metal bars, the green globs the changeling had spit out eating away at the metal grate.
“If it can get us in without passing the guard it'll be worth it,” Twilight responded though she too was a little grossed out. The grate came loose, Twilight only just managing to catch it before it clattered to the ground and probably would have attracted unwanted attention.
“Give me two seconds to clean off these bars, I don't think you ponies would do well if you touched that stuff,” Amber said, licking off the excess goo. Dash held a hoof in front of her mouth to stop herself from throwing up and turned around, a few of the others doing the same as the pegasus to avoid having to watch the display. “Alright, we can go through now.”
Amber being the first in line squeezed through the gap they had now created, the others following until they all were inside and in the safety of the alleyways of the city. Moonlight led them as her night vision allowed her to see much clearer than the others.
“Can we, Ah dunno, find a tavern someplace 'round here?” Applejack asked as they took the time to rest in the shadows.
“No, not yet anyway,” Twilight replied in a whisper. “The sun will rise soon, if we're going to look for a room now ponies might start asking questions. We're just going have to power through to the afternoon, we'll present ourselves as traders from Manebridge if anypony asks."
"Cool, so we're just going to hang out here until sunrise," Rainbow propped herself up against a wall and lowered her hood. "I'm catching some z's, wake me if stuff goes sideways." She was gone in an instant, a soft snore coming from under the cloth that was covering her up.
"Wow, that pegasus knows how to sleep, I'll give her that," Cherry said astonished at the ability of the pegasus to seemingly just shut off. "Anyhow, Twilight, that package we were supposed to deliver, where do we need to drop it off?"
"About that..." Twilight said sheepishly, cringing slightly as the rest would not like who they were supposed to deliver this to. "It's addressed to Countess Rarity Belle."
"WHAT?!" Cherry exclaimed, quickly muzzling herself as to not wake anypony in the surrounding houses. "You mean the Countess Rarity Belle that runs the city, a noble that wouldn't hesitate for a second to turn you in for political clout. Have you gone insane, you are a wanted mare remember?"
"We did promise to deliver the message and we're probably going to have to infiltrate the main keep to find the element anyhow," Twilight argued. "If we get into there, what's it to break into the noble's quarters?"
Smack
Moonlight practically hissed as she smacked Twilight over the back of her head with a hoof. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to break into places completely unseen?! We are not doing this, our own quest is way more important in the grand scheme of things!"
"But-"
"I gotta say Twi, general run in Ponyville was not to make a ruckus if ya wanted ta avoid attention. Definitely not with higher placed ponies," Applejack agreed with Midnight, "Not sure who this Countess is, may be a very decent pony, but Ah ain't risking mah hide jus' ta get that package to her."
Twilight looked down at the small package in her hooves, very conflicted about pushing more to deliver it. Flint must've put a lot of trust in her to do deliver the package, for her not to do so now... "Alright. We'll only go after the element and then leave." She pushed the package back into her saddlebags, trying to put the matter out of her mind.
"Good to hear that," Moonlight said with a sigh of relief. "We should discuss how we're going to get into the keep, we really can't just walk in there with our entire group."
"Before we go on, Ah've been meaning ta ask, ho many earthponies live 'round here?" Applejack asked, Apple Bloom cradled in her forelegs.
"Plenty, most of them in the lower district here but a few will be up in the higher districts as serfs," Twilight answered from what she knew about Manehattan. "Down here we're probably safe from prying eyes, the moment we head higher into the city we should be more careful."
"So we leave the fillies and most of us down here while a pair, maybe a trio go up and investigate the keep," Moonlight proposed, getting the discussion back on topic of infiltrating the keep. "That leaves the question of who."
"I need to be one of the ponies there," Twilight said without hesitation.
"No," Moonlight immediately replied. "If you get recognised everything falls apart. I say that I, Amber, and Applejack go up to scout."
"It's a risk we have to take Moonlight," Twilight countered the batpony. "You're probably better at the stealth but none of you knows anything about guard protocols, passwords, and everything in between. Like it or not, as a former officer I am much more suited to talk my way out of a situation than you are."
The two of them locked eyes, the piercing cat eyes of the batpony doing nothing to dissuade Twilight in their small battle of wills. It was Moonlight that relented, looking down to the ground.
"Fine, you make a good point," she grumbled.
"You're still very much required in this plan though, I am going to need a set of knight armour to even get inside, preferably an officer's armour. The key being that we get it without it being reported missing."
"That's totally not a tall order," Moonlight grumbled. "I'll see what I can do. We still have the cover of darkness, if I go now I can scout out the keep for any potential points of access before first light." Twilight nodded in agreement, the batpony jumping up into the sky and hovering there for a moment as Twilight stopped her from flying off with magic.
"The south side of the lower district's main market plaza, head there when the sun's up and find a noticeable spot. We'll meet back up there."
"Understood. See you in a couple of hours." With that, the thestral was off into the darkness to be seen later. "And you thought it'd be a good idea to meet up here?" Rainbow asked sarcastically as she and Twilight pushed through the crowd of ponies, earthponies and unicorns mixing together in the market square, all trying to sell their ware to anypony that looks at them for more than two seconds. Rainbow had mud mixed in her hair and covering her clothes, looking like a proper bum though it also effectively hid her colourful hair.
"Maybe it's market day? I've been to a few cities and the markets there were never this crowded," Twilight scowled as a salespony tried pushing something into her hooves so she'd have to buy it. Rainbow got much less attention from the salesponies as she looked like she did not have any money.
Hold on...
"Dash, Moonlight would want to attract our attention but avoid the attention of everypony else, right?" Twilight asked hypothetically, an idea forming in her head. "We should check the entrances to the square."
"Why's that?" Rainbow's asked as she followed the unicorn pushing through the crowds to where the mass of ponies thinned.
"Because that's where the beggars are," Twilight answered. "Blind ponies to be specific." That didn't help lift Rainbow's confusion at all but she followed Twilight regardless. As they got to the main southern entrance to the square Twilight scanned the beggars sitting there with their bowls and hoping to get a little money.
"Please, a coin for the blind."
Both Rainbow and Twilight spun around, coming face to face with the batpony's fanged smile. Moonlight being covered by her brown cloak and blindfold tied over her eyes. She was holding out a bowl that had a few coins in it, shaking it around so they made noise.
"What... but... How?!" Rainbow stammered as she couldn't believe the batpony had been able to find them blindfolded.
"I didn't think I was ever going to find you in the square itself, so I decided to wait here at the entrance. I also didn't want to risk some pickpocketer feeling under the cloak and pulling on my wings," Moonlight said as she motioned for them to follow. "You guys found someplace to stay?"
"Yes. It's a bit cramped but it's cheap," Twilight answered as they left the crowded area into the quieter back alleys. “So what did you find?”
“Security is good. very good,” Moonlight answered as Twilight Took the lead to guide them back to the inn they'd gotten lodging in. “Their patrols are tight, from the ground you're not going to be able to slip in through the gaps as there were none I saw last night.”
“And from the air?” Rainbow asked as Moonlight hadn't excluded that possibility.
“There's some spotlights I noticed but most of their defences are against possible earthpony infiltration. I think if we're doing this we're going to have to drop in from above at night,” Moonlight suggested.
“That's still really risky. Even if they wouldn't expect pegasi down here they'd still put up a shield blocking air access if they notice anything wrong,” Twilight countered. “If that happens we'd either be locked out or trapped inside.”
“This plan already is wrought with danger, it's just another risk we're going to have to take,” Moonlight responded to Twilight's concerns.
“I know, I'm just pointing out that we either pull this off or we're fighting our way out of the city,” Twilight scowled and looked back at the thestral. “I don't like the odds we'd have in the latter case.”
“I'll add don't get caught to the list,” Moonlight sarcastically stated. The trio arrived at the inn Twilight had been guiding them to and walked in past the tender and up to their room.
In it Cherry was giving some instructions to Applejack on her fighting stance, the room already barely enough room to accommodate them. Amber, in her disguised form, was silently keeping an eye on the two of them while also observing Scootaloo and Apple Bloom sleeping on one of the beds as the trio entered.
“Good ta see the three of y'all made it back in one piece,” Applejack commented, dropping her stance and making room.
“Sheesh, I know you said small but I didn't think it'd be this small,” Moonlight commented as she entered the room last.
“Please stop doing that,” Dash grumbled, rubbing her head.
“Do what?”
“The looking without looking, it's kinda seriously creeping me out. Can you see through that blindfold or something?” Dash elaborated, making the thestral chuckle as she pulled off the blindfold.
“Can't promise I won't do it again,” she smirked as Dash snatched up the blindfold to see if you could look through it.
“Anyhow, we really could only afford this room if we still wanted to eat. All the earthpony coins we managed to trade with Flint for unicorn ones will only feed us for so long. We aren't in the wild where we can just eat the grass anymore,” Twilight stated while she pulled out her short sword and strapped it around her barrel. “We should get some rest, I want to try and get into and out of that castle as soon as possible.”
“No extensive planning? No contingency plan?” Cherry asked with a raised eyebrow. “You're really planning to just rush in?”
“I really don't like being in this city,” Twilight grumbled. "I just want to get this thing and get out."
“What about the pony that's supposed to wield the element? Have we even checked that compass thing yet?” Cherry pushed. Twilight opened her mouth to reply but stopped, realizing that, no, she hadn't. Grabbing a hold of her saddlebags with magic, the unicorn went ahead and pulled out the compass to see what it would say.
"It's pointing north now. That's directly towards the keep," She said as the needle stopped spinning.
"The noble quarters lay behind there too, the pony may not be in the keep itself," Midnight commented as she'd seen the area for herself.
"Does it really matter? If it's the keep the pony will likely be a guard that's unlikely to help us, and if it's a noble we're even more screwed," Cherry commented. "How in the world are we going to convince some unicorn to join our poor, ragtag, band of traitors?" she added sarcastically.
"We'll figure something out. We have to," Moonlight stated, drawing a laugh from Cherry.
"Seriously, What do you think is going to happen? That we're just going to walk up to some unicorn noble or guard and be like 'hey you're this wielder of some powerful artefact and we need you to destroy your empire'. That's certainly going to go over well," Cherry locked eyes with the batpony. "You may be desperate but not all of us are suicidal."
"If we don't Nightmother-"
"Oh yeah, the god that's, according to some legend, supposed to be returning-" Moonlight's hoof smashed into the side of Cherry's nose, drawing blood from her nostrils. Twilight immediately grabbed hold of the thestral so she couldn't press the attack.
"Moonlight!" Twilight exclaimed as the thestral hissed at the earthpony.
"I need some air," Cherry stated, rummaging through their pile of stuff to find a cloak with which to cover her heavy armour.
"Applejack?" Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were wide awake and had been watching the argument unfold. "Can we... go outside too?"
"I can watch them while you discuss how to get yourselves killed," Cherry grumbled, getting the small cloak Scootaloo had been wearing out of the pile too. Applebloom gave her big sister the biggest puppy eyes she could, the elder earthpony sighing and giving a nod.
"Don't do anything I would do Scoots, the unicorns aren't gonna be as nice as the earthponies were," Dash warned her, ruffling her hair.
"Come on you two, let's go," Cherry said, leaving with the two fillies in tow. As the door to the room closed, Twilight locked eyes with Moonlight.
"We're having a talk." "Think they'll be alright?" Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo as they had found a relatively calm square where Cherry could sit and think. The unicorn city lacking all the greenery that the earthponies planted all around their city.
"Yeah, our big sisters can work things out between Cherry and Moonlight, can't they?" Scootaloo confidently waved off Apple Bloom's concerns.
"Ah guess if you say so..." Apple bloom said, not completely sure herself, her focus being on something between the crates some way behind the pegasus. "What in tarnation?"
Scootaloo also turned around, spotting the same thing Apple Bloom had. A white unicorn filly with light purple and pink hair poking her head up from between a set of crates, looking over at a set of unicorns in armour that were seemingly looking around for something. "What do you think she's hiding for?" Scootaloo asked.
"Why don't we go over to ask?" Apple Bloom said walking over to the filly's hiding spot, silently approaching from behind with Scootaloo closely behind. The filly had no clue they were there until they were right behind her. "Hi there, what are ya doing?"
She spun around, covering her mouth to avoid screaming in surprise. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow as the filly looked between the two of them. "I... I'm playing hide and seek! Yup! That's what I'm doing!" she squeaked, nervously glancing behind her at the two unicorns were getting closer.
"Are you hiding from them?" Scootaloo bluntly asked, pointing at the two older unicorns.
Sweetie's eyes widened and for a moment bit her lower lip. “Y-Yes,” she admitted. “You earth ponies know how to shake them, right? Please, can you help me?!”
Apple Bloom was taken aback by the begging unicorn. “Yer a fugitive then?”
“Y-yeah!” she answered.
Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes but eventually accepted what she'd been told. “Alright, come with us.”
“Bloom, I don't know, this really sounds like something Rainbow would do,” Scootaloo said carefully.
“Anypony runnin' away from ponies like them are our friends, right?”
“I'm not sure that's how that wor-”
“Can we please leave?!” the filly interrupted, her nervousness increasing by the second.
“Fine, fine, I still don't like it,” Scootaloo whined, “At least tell us your name.”
“Sweetie B-... Just Sweetie.” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow at that but didn't as further as the two unicorns were getting awfully close. They tried leaving the hiding spot as subtly as they could, sticking to cover wherever it was possible. They could see Cherry sitting against a wall, looking up at the open sky as they heard a shout from behind.
“You three fillies, stop right there!” one glance behind them showed they'd been spotted. The shout though had also alerted Cherry who was standing ready for a fight as she saw the three fillies running towards them.
“What did you do?!” Cherry exclaimed as she allowed the trio to jump onto her back.
“No time! Run!” Apple Bloom called back to her, getting an enraged scream from the earthpony soldier, the speed she picked up surprising all three of the fillies.
“If your sister won't kill you for this stunt, I will!” Cherry shouted as she turned corners and sprinted down streets and alleyways. It wasn't long before she had lost their tails and started heading back to the inn where the group was hiding. “So what is up with the unicorn?”
Sweetie cringed. “She's a fugitive like us!” Apple Bloom answered, before Sweetie could say anything.
“Is she now?” Cherry looked over her shoulder at the three fillies. “Tell me then, why are you running filly?”
“I, uhh...” Sweetie fell silent as she had nothing to reply with. “Wait, you said you were fugitives?” Sweetie clamped her hooves over her mouth as she said it.
“Alright, get off my back,” Cherry demanded, the three fillies sliding off as she sat down onto her butt. “You.” she poked sweetie on her chest. “Head back down that street and forget you ever saw us.”
“B-But... And what if I get caught and tell the guard?”
“Are you?” Cherry leaned forward, her voice having a very dangerous edge to it. Sweetie swallowed nervously, looking down the street where Cherry had pointed.
“I-I can't...” she sniffed, “They'll recapture me...”
“Recapture? and who do you mean?” Cherry asked as Sweetie teared up.
“T-Those unicorns, they were guards from house Tinker. They want me to pressure m-my sister,” the small unicorn admitted. “I-I don't know where to go.”
“Who's yet sister?” Apple Bloom asked, having stepped up next to Cherry.
