> A Kirin Tale
>  by Leaf Blade
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 01. A Silent Quest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie Pie ran through an open field as fast as her hoofsies could possibly carry her, which wasn’t fast enough. She didn’t dare look back to see how close the Nirik chasing her was, but she could hear his frantic hoofbeats on the grass, and the snarling cackle he made as he readied himself to take down his prey.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes and saw something in the distance; a chasm, by the look of it. She wondered if she or the Nirik would be crazy enough to jump down into it, but she only wondered for a second before she was somewhat distracted by a sudden gash in her cheek.

The Nirik had caught up to her, and was grinning maliciously as a pair of magical steel claws surrounded his forehooves, the edges dripping with Pinkie’s blood.

“Looks like your luck’s run out, girl,” the Nirik sneered, before indulging in a self-satisfied cackle.

He was wrong though; Pinkie knew her luck would never run out, and she proved it by bolting out of the Nirik’s range while he was distracted by his own laughter. He screamed at her to come back before galloping toward her again, and while she had hoped she’d have thought of a plan to escape before he caught up to her again, he was making ground super fast.

But then inspiration struck; if Pinkie really believed she was lucky, then surely a little fall down a mysterious chasm couldn’t hurt, right? 

It didn’t matter. She at least had to believe it would hurt less than whatever the Nirik would do if he caught her.

Pinkie ran for the chasm, getting closer and closer with each step and just hoping really, really, really hard that she could make it before the Nirik caught up to her, but oops no she couldn’t.

He slashed her across the hind leg, tripping her and causing her to tumble to the ground.

Pinkie whimpered in pain and cringed at the sight of her bleeding, shredded leg, and the Nirik just licked his lips as he inched ever closer to the prone Kirin.

“I think you’ve run far enough today,” the Nirik hissed, its fanged mouth twisting into a hideous and scary grin, as the dark green smoke rose from his back and mane, smothering the air around him.

“IIIIII honestly don’t think so?” Pinkie put on her best, most charmingest smile as she tried to reason with the Nirik, even though she knew it was kinda sorta a total lost cause. “I’d like to run a little bit further, if you don’t mind!”

“I do,” the Nirik said flatly.

“You do want me to run further?” Pinkie hopped to her hooves, biting down another pained whimper as her bloodied leg hit the ground. “Okie dokie lokie, I guess I’ll just be on my w—”

Pinkie’s pleas were cut short by a slash across her muzzle, that tore the flesh of her nose and left three bloody scratches across it.

“Hehehokay, I can see somepony is in a super grumpy mood,” Pinkie laughed nervously, “why don’t you just lay down for a bit while I—”

“Enough talking!” the Nirik screamed as it lunged at Pinkie, claws bared at her and ready to take her down for good.

Which is just what she was waiting for.

The grooves on her horn glowed a bright, pale blue as a pair of vines reached out of the ground and wrapped around the Nirik’s hindlegs. Controlling the vines with her magic, she spun the Nirik around in the air a couple times before throwing him as far away from her down the open field as she possibly could, only feeling a little bit bad at the giggle she made when he landed on the grass with a noticeable thud, even in the distance.

Still though, he was up and at ‘em right quick, and charged down Pinkie like an oncoming freight train. Pinkie might’ve bought some time, but she couldn’t beat the guy in a straight up fight, and the only escape option she had at hoof was jumping down the ravine.

So she jumped.

She relished the Nirik’s shocked gasp for only a second before her mind and face were confronted by a jutting cliff. Pinkie looked up past the silly cartoon stars swirling over her head to see the cliff wasn’t very far down the ravine, and the Nirik was looking down at her.

She smiled at him before walking straight off the cliff, pleased as punch to see his eyes widen in shock, which basically confirmed that he didn’t have the guts to follow her down.

She just had to hope that her guts wouldn’t end up spilled all over the bottom of this chasm.

Pinkie wasn’t sure how many cliffs, rocks, crags, and other such things she’d hit by the time she landed at the bottom of the ravine with a nasty thump. She’d lost count after like the fifth or sixth? Seventh maybe?

Anyway, she was lying in the dirt at the bottom of the ravine— looking through her one eye that still opened all the way after the other was hit by a rock on the way down—and she vaguely saw the Nirik looking down the ravine, before turning and walking away, out of sight.

Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief that quickly turned into a hacking cough that spilled blood out of her mouth. Her chest hurt like crazy, she could barely move her limbs, she could feel blood pooling in her mouth—and all that just from a measly fall!

She was safe from the Nirik at least, but geez she was so tired all of a sudden. All that running around, probably. Even if she was injured, it wouldn’t hurt to lie down for a bit, would it?

Maybe close her eyes a minute?

She was really sleepy.

****

Twilight Sparkle rose from her bed and walked downstairs into her humble dining room, where she ate breakfast with her parents. There were no words shared between them. Twilight could not remember the last time there had been words shared between any Kirin in Twilight’s village.

The day that every member of the village entered the Stream of Silence— and were robbed of not only their voices, but their emotions as well—seemed at once to have been an eternity ago, and yet just yesterday. Twilight honestly had no concept of how long it had been since she had heard her voice, or anyone else’s.

And it was—well, ‘funny’ wasn’t quite right, as Twilight wasn’t certain she had the capacity to feel humor anymore—but it was a curious thing; the Stream of Silence was supposed to remove the Kirin’s ability to feel, and yet Twilight could still feel one thing, like a wispy flame struggling to breathe deep inside her heart.

She wasn’t sure what the feeling was exactly, she had no tools with which to parse what her emotions might theoretically feel like at this juncture, but she knew one thing; she wanted her voice and her emotions back.

Twilight left her home and looked back at her parents, who nodded at her with no hint of love or anything else on their faces. Did they still love her? Did she care? Did it matter? Twilight had no answers, but she did know that she would not be returning home today, and likely not for a long time after.

She wondered if her parents knew what her plan was. She couldn’t tell them—well, she could have written it, but even writing words down was frowned upon since the Stream of Silence, and it took far too much energy anyway. Twilight just supposed it didn’t matter if her parents knew what she was up to, it was not as though they had the ability to feel anything for her one way or the other.

Twilight passed by the Stream on her slow walk through the village, and she let her eyes wander across it. Such a simple thing, visually indistinct from any other body of water, yet the impact it had on Twilight’s life, and those of her family and friends, was unquantifiable.

She paused a moment to look at the Stream. She wanted to hate it, to issue it some burning glare as if her ability to show disdain for the thing that had ruined her life would fix her somehow, but she felt nothing as she looked into the water’s reflection, and a bored-looking lavender Kirin looked back at her with glassy eyes.

Enough stalling. Twilight headed for the village gates and did not look back even once.

The Grove that held Twilight’s home was nestled into a hidden ravine deep within the southern mountains of Equestria; it would be some time before Twilight found any other civilization or signs of sentient life.

Not that it mattered; Twilight could neither hold a conversation nor feel loneliness. And yet, she found that after giving it a moment’s thought, she wasn’t looking forward to a lonely journey to… to where, exactly?

The Stream of Silence was an utter enigma, even to the Kirin who had built their homes around it. Twilight lived near the thing her entire life and knew absolutely nothing about it, save for its effects on her, which she only understood insofar as she could experience them; the specific nature of her curse eluded her.

Point being, where would she go to find a cure? Who would even know how to make one, or if it was even possible?

Twilight supposed it was a good thing that she did not have the ability to feel hopelessness as her legs kept moving forward one step at a time, undeterred by the impossible nature of the task at hoof.

She at least knew one thing; the first thing she required was information. The landscape of Equestria outside the Grove was not something known to those within it, but Twilight had been a rather curious sort before her silencing, and she was vaguely aware of a capital city in the land of ponies called Canterlot, where the world’s greatest library was said to reside. Surely it would have some information that could help her, and if not, at least it was a direction to be walking in.

So Twilight kept walking, easily losing track of time until something caught her eye. It was a Kirin, not one that she recognized, lying in the middle of the ravine in a pool of blood, with several scrapes, bruises and gashes across its pink-furred body. The girl was still breathing, but barely.

Twilight stopped in her tracks and blinked. She walked toward the Kirin and looked around, spying a nearby cave that would suffice for what she needed to do. She didn’t know what had happened to this mare that caused her to be in such a state, but Twilight had no desire to linger around and find out if whatever had hurt her still lurked nearby.

Twilight’s horn glowed with raspberry magic, and a similarly-colored aura enveloped the pink Kirin as Twilight levitated her, carrying her behind as she escaped into the moss-covered cave and laid the pink Kirin on the ground.

Twilight stood behind the Kirin and faced the cave entrance, just to be safe. She wrapped the mare up in a glowing raspberry light, and as she closed her eyes, so too did the wounds on the pink Kirin close.

Twilight opened her eyes to see a mare whose fur was still stained by blood, and who still had an odd bruise or scrape, but had color in her face again, and the hair on her mane and tail practically bounced with fluffiness, where they had been laid nearly flat before.

Still though, while Twilight’s magic was powerful enough, the girl’s wounds were many, and Twilight did not have the power to close them all.

Regardless, the pink Kirin’s face—which had been an unpleasant and fearful-looking scowl when Twilight found her—was now graced by a tiny smile as the Kirin’s breathing returned to normal.

There was something satisfying about seeing that tender smile. It made Twilight feel…

Something.

****

Pinkie groaned and arched her back as she yawned herself awake, not even thinking to take stock of where she was until she was halfway into that yawn and she saw a lavender Kirin staring straight into her soul with the dead-eyed stare of a demon, or like a really bored yeti.

Pinkie yelped and jumped back, cowering on the floor and putting her hooves over her eyes, super certain that she’d been caught by the Nirik and this was it for her, and yet…

She opened her eyes, and the lavender Kirin just… tilted her head a bit, and her ears did an adorable little flop. She didn’t move or attack or even show any inkling that she wanted to hurt Pinkie at all. In fact, Pinkie took a look at her legs, which last she’d seen had been all kinds of torn up by rocks and Nirik, but now were good as new, or close enough anyway.

“Did you…” Pinkie pointed at the lavender Kirin with a trembling hoof. “Did you heal me?”

The lavender Kirin nodded, but said nothing.

“W-wow, thanks a bazillion!” Pinkie hopped up and down with a big grin on her face, but stopped in the air mid-jump. “Wait, you’re not gonna turn into a Nirik and haul me off someplace, are you?!”

The lavender Kirin shook her head, but said nada.

“Oh,” Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief as she touched the ground. “Soooo… you just took care of me? And-“ Pinkie could see the light outside the cave entrance, and could tell sunset was coming soon “-watched over me while I slept?”

The lavender Kirin nodded, but again, didn’t say a gosh darn thing.

“Not really much of a talker, are ya?” Pinkie giggled, and the other Kirin just shook her head, of course.

Pinkie took a sec to walk in a little circle around the Kirin and size her up, which she didn’t seem to mind even as she kept her eyes on Pinkie the whole time.

Pinkie’s first impression was that lavender was a really cute color for a Kirin, and that this new girl’s indigo mane was a nice compliment, especially with the deep purple and bright pink streaks, and her burnt-red horn—which was pretty standard for any Kirin—looked pretty snazzy too.

The hair of her mane around her neck and head were just as floofy as any Kirin—except Pinkie’s of course, cuz she was the absolute queen of floof—but she also had neatly straightened bangs, and the hair on her tail was straight as an arrow.

Pinkie’s final conclusion was that this Kirin had the face of a friend, even she did seem a little reserved, and was a super cutie that Pinkie wanted to get to know better! So what better way to do that, than to introduce herself?

“What’s your name? Mine is Pinkie Pie! Do you like that? I came up with it myself!”

The lavender Kirin blinked, and tilted her head.

“Uhhhh, are you okay?” Pinkie asked, touching a hoof to her chin.

The lavender nodded yadda yadda.

“Wait,” Pinkie’s eyes widened as a light bulb went off over her head, “you can’t speak, can you? Waitwaitwait, let me try again.” Pinkie cleared her throat. “Are you capable, physically, of speaking?”

The Kirin shook her head.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” Pinkie gasped. She’d absolutely hate it if she couldn’t speak, she just had so much to say and to talk about and to yell and to sing and to—well you get it. “Is there anything I can do to help?” she knew it was a silly question, but she couldn’t not ask, just in case there was something she could do.

The Kirin shook her head.

“Well, can you write down your name?”

The silent Kirin didn’t react at first, like she had to think about Pinkie’s question, which made Pinkie a little nervous. What if she couldn’t write, and Pinkie was just rubbing salt in her wound like a big meanie? She’d hate to make anypony feel bad!

Pinkie took a deep breath, “It’s okay! You don’t have to tell me if you don’t feel comfortable,” the lavender Kirin blinked, and Pinkie hurried to come up with something to say to keep the conversation going. “Uh, how about I give you a nickname?”

The soon-to-be-nicknamed-by-Pinkie Kirin nodded.

“Oh okay, this’ll be fun!” Pinkie beamed. “I’m great at coming up with names!” Pinkie walked in a circle around the Kirin and hummed, wracking her brain to come up with the perfect moniker. “Okay, I got it! You’re super-duper purple, which is cute as heck, and you’re the strong silent type, so that means you must be pretty smart! How do you feel about ‘Purple Smart’?”

Purple Smart’s eye twitched, and she looked to her left, then to her right. She took a few scraps of moss and hanging vines from the cavern walls with her magic, arranging them into a neat little pattern on the ground between her and Pinkie—a pattern that spelled out two words.

TWILIGHT SPARKLE

“Your name is Twilight Sparkle?!” Pinkie gasped, throwing her hooves up to her face. “What a cool name! Did you come up with that?”

Twilight Sparkle nodded, and Pinkie couldn’t help squealing in delight.

She beamed at Twilight, “Are you trans like me?”

And for a second, she felt like she was gonna have an anxiety attack over maybe accidentally outing herself before she was sure this other Kirin was trans. But fear not! A nod of Twilight’s head not only put her worries to rest, it sent a lightning bolt of joy through her heart that coursed through her whole body!

Pinkie purred and jumped next to Twilight Sparkle, wrapping her forelegs around her new friend.

“I can’t believe I met another friendly Kirin!” Pinkie beamed, rubbing her cheek against Twilight’s, who didn’t seem to mind. “It’s been forever since I met one who didn’t turn into a mean ol’ Nirik and try to attack me! And I can’t believe your trans too! This is the best day eve—WAIT! What’re your pronouns?”

Twilight said nothing, and Pinkie felt like a doofus for expecting her too.

Pinkie jumped back and examined Twilight.

“Is there any way you can tell me?”

Twilight blinked.

“Should I just guess?”

Twilight remained still for a second, and then nodded.

“Okay,” Pinkie breathed in, knowing she’d be mortified if she guessed wrong, “please don’t be super mad if I guess wrong, okay? I know how awful misgendering feels, and I’m really really sorry if I mess up!”

Twilight just stared at Pinkie, who took a deeeeeeep breath.

“She and her?” Pinkie asked nervously, biting down on her hoofsies.

Twilight nodded, and Pinkie’s delighted scream could’ve shattered glass.

“I’m so happy I got it right on the first try!” Pinkie bounced up and down before jumping at Twilight and tackling her into a hug, pinning her to the ground. Pinkie gasped and jumped into the air, “I just had the greatest idea in the whole world! Do you know what the Elements of Harmony are?”

Twilight stood to her feet and shook her head.

“They’re these legendary magical artifacts,” Pinkie explained excitedly, “said to be created by the oldest and wisest Kirin sages in history. Nopony knows what happened to ‘em though, and a lot of people just think they’re a legend, but I know they’re real!”

Twilight tilted her head, and Pinkie blushed and tapped her hooves together.

“Okay, I don’t know they’re real,” Pinkie muttered, before puffing up her cheeks and stamping her hooves in the dirt, “but I believe it! Super strongly! And I’m gonna find the Elements and save Equestria!”

Twilight’s head was still cocked to the side, and her ears twitched.

“Uhhhhh, you’re probably wondering why I brought all this up, huh?” Pinkie asked, feeling a little self-conscious that she kinda got rambly there for a second, which wasn’t entirely helped when Twilight nodded.

“Right, so, anyway!” Pinkie cleared her throat. “I think the Elements can probably restore your voice! I mean, they’re supposed to be super magical, so why not, right? So whaddya say? You wanna team up? We can look for the Elements and a cure for your voice together! It’ll be fun! Like an adventure!”

Twilight said nothing for a moment, and Pinkie bit her lip.

Another moment went by where Twilight didn’t react, and Pinkie lowered her head a bit, then another silent moment and Pinkie’s chin was on the ground, and then another moment where Twilight did nothing and Pinkie’s hooves were covering her eyes because she was a stupid, dumb, worthless pony who always made mistakes and got way far ahead of herself and of course no one wanted to go looking for made-up dumb artifacts that probably weren’t even real, especially not with a dumb boring ugly pink Kirin like—

Twilight’s hooves gently brushed Pinkie’s away from her face, and Pinkie’s teary eyes were greeted by the utterly glorious sight of Twilight’s small nod.

“Y-you will? You’ll help me look for ‘em?” Pinkie muttered, trying not to lose it and start bawling right then and there, but after Twilight nodded again, the waterworks came out in full force. “Nopony’s ever believed in me! Thank you sooooooo much, Twilight!”

Pinkie held onto Twilight for a sec while she sobbed and wheezed, but then she bounced away and giggled, having gotten the crying out of her system.

“So what’re we waiting for, huh?” Pinkie beamed. “Let’s go find those Elements!”

Twilight nodded, before following Pinkie out of the cave and into the ravine, which was tinted orange by the setting sun.

Pinkie hopped merrily along and turned to Twilight, wanting to ask her a million bazillion questions, but she’d be sure to stick only to yes or no questions.

Buuuut that’d have to wait, because Twilight was standing totally still and looking off into the distance behind her.

Pinkie trotted up to Twilight to see what she was seeing, and noticed a big black smokestack rising in the distance, visible even past the ravine’s scarily high walls.

Twilight pointed her hoof in that direction.

“You wanna go that way?” Pinkie asked incredulously, and Twilight nodded. “Why? Whatever’s making that smoke, it’s probably super danger—wait.” Pinkie gasped, having been struck by a terrifying thought. “Is that where you came from? Like, your home?”

Twilight nodded, and a crushing anxiety seized Pinkie’s gut.

“Lead the way, Twilight,” Pinkie nodded, wearing her most serious of serious faces, “I’m right behind you!”

Twilight took off and Pinkie followed, and she tried to just ignore the really queasy feeling in her gut that got bigger and stronger the closer they got to the smoke.

It was probably nothing. She hoped.



Twilight had many questions for her new companion, and she would have to devote time to finding a way to ask them.

While Twilight was skeptical of the existence of ‘legendary magical artifacts’ that could somehow restore her emotions and ‘save Equestria’—from what, Twilight had no clue—she did know that she had no direction of her own, and Pinkie Pie could benefit from Twilight’s magical expertise while Twilight could benefit from her company, at the very least.

Nothing about Pinkie Pie struck Twilight as anything other than what she seemed to be; a bubbly, cheerful young woman with big dreams. Twilight could definitely find worse company.

But for the moment, Twilight needed to focus on the task at hoof. Fires in the Grove were rare, though not unheard of, and she was certain that everypony in the village would be fine, but it wouldn’t be right to turn her back on her home if they really did need her help, so before any ‘Element hunting’ could begin, Twilight needed to return to the village to make sure everything was alright.

It didn’t take long after reaching the village to see that there was indeed something very wrong there. The fires were being caused by a Nirik, who sliced down trees with steel claws and let out a hideous, shrieking laugh at Kirin who huddled in their homes for safety.

She hadn't seen a Nirik since before she had been silenced, and if it were up to her, she would have preferred to never see one again.

But there was nothing to be done about it now, all Twilight could do was remove the threat as quickly and efficiently as possible, which meant first getting its attention focused solely on Twilight, so that the other villagers could get to safety and put out the fires.

Twilight turned toward Pinkie and clapped her hooves, then pointed at the Nirik, hoping by some miracle that Pinkie would understand that Twilight wanted her to grab the monster’s attention.

“HEY NIRIK!!!!!” Pinkie screamed at the top of her lungs.

That was perfect.

The Nirik turned toward Twilight and Pinkie and bore a sinister grin, and Twilight sized up its features more closely.

The flames surrounding its body weren’t actual flames, they were magical smoke that rose from the Nirik’s dark frame, which on closer inspection was more like a sickly dark green than pure black, and its puffy mane was also made of the flame-like smoke, in a dark teal hue; Twilight presumed that in his Kirin form, his mane probably looked similar to Pinkie’s.

His most notable feature though, was his snarling, malicious grin that bared a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs.

“Y-you’re the Nirik from before!” Pinkie’s voice dripped with fear, but it was quickly swept away by frustration. “What’re you doing here!? Why are you hurting innocent Kirin!?”

“I figured they were hiding you someplace,” the Nirik smirked and took a step closer, Pinkie inching behind Twilight, “and lo and behold, here you are.”

Twilight wasn’t entirely certain what was going on between these two, but she could tell that Pinkie did not want to go with him, so Twilight was going to protect her.

“W-we’re gonna beat you up though!” Pinkie jumped beside Twilight and pointed a hoof at the Nirik, but Twilight stuck her hoof in front of Pinkie. “Wait, what’re you doing, Twilight?” Pinkie whispered, and Twilight pointed to herself, then put her hoof on Pinkie’s nose and pushed down, sitting Pinkie down on her haunches. “You’re gonna fight him yourself?”

Twilight nodded.

“I can h—”

Twilight pointed at Pinkie’s legs, which were still cut and bruised even after Twilight’s healing. Twilight did not want Pinkie worsening her injuries by getting into an unnecessary fight.

“Are you sure?” Pinkie asked fretfully, and Twilight nodded. A single Nirik was no threat to her.

“Hey!” the Nirik roared. “You’d better not be ignoring m—”

Twilight didn’t even look back at the Nirik before grabbing him in her magical aura and throwing him hard against a tree, Pinkie snorting at the rough thud he made as he collided with the wood.

Twilight pointed at herself, and Pinkie nodded. “I’ll leave this to you, Twilight. Thanks.”

Twilight nodded, and turned to face the Nirik, who growled as he returned to his hooves.

“If you think you can beat Fast Break that easily-“ the Nirik suddenly disappeared, before reappearing behind Twilight, with his steel claws pointed at Twilight’s throat “-then you have another thing coming!”

Even if Twilight had emotions to speak of, she still would not have been impressed. She almost wished she could still laugh, just to show this enemy how little his attacks meant to her. She simply teleported herself and Pinkie out of the way of the man’s attack, standing with her back to a stream and staring him down as he looked dumbfounded at the empty air that used to contain his opponent.

He snarled at Twilight and charged toward her, and before she could make a move against him, he disappeared again, reappearing once more behind Twilight, but this time it was Pinkie Pie who was his target.

Twilight grabbed Pinkie in her aura and levitated her high into the air and safely away from the Nirik’s attack, the Nirik planting face first into the grass as he fumbled a tackling strike against her.

“Wow, you sure showed him!” Pinkie giggled, and Fast Break didn’t seem terribly amused, if his snarl was any indication.

Twilight could only hold one pony at a time, so she dropped Pinkie and grabbed Fast Break, throwing him into the air as Pinkie fell to the ground, only to be caught by Twilight’s aura as she released Fast Break. Twilight gently placed Pinkie on the ground and, as Fast Break began to orient himself in the air, she grabbed him in her aura and slammed him hard into the ground on his back.

Unless his spine was as steel as his claws, he wouldn’t be fighting for a while after that.

“You think…” Fast Break growled as he struggled to his feet, Twilight arching an only-slightly-impressed eyebrow, “…that I’ll lose so easily?”

“Enough, Nirik,” a booming man’s voice echoed throughout the village, and it sent a shudder down Twilight’s spine. “Don’t embarrass yourself or the Storm King’s army more than you already have.”

The source of the voice quickly made himself known as he stepped out of the foliage and into the empty village square. He was another Kirin, though much larger and more imposing than any Twilight had seen in her lifetime.

He was a hulking mass of muscle, easily double Twilight’s size, with a burnt red coat and pitch-black horn, with a silvery white mane kept in a wild, unkempt style that almost looked like a coat of needles around the man’s neck.

“My name is Commander Tirek,” the man said, “and this village now belongs to the Storm King. You will submit, or you will die.”
> 02. An Invading Army
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hulking red Kirin who identified himself as Commander Tirek strode slowly through Twilight Sparkle’s village. Pinkie Pie was cowering behind Twilight, using Twilight’s body for cover, as the pair stood with their backs to a river and Twilight stared this Tirek down.

He was alone—for now; the man referred to himself as a ‘Commander’ and said that he was working under someone else, which all but confirmed that more Nirik would quickly be on their way, and if that happened, Twilight’s village would become a war zone and there would be a lot of blood.

Twilight couldn’t allow that, and the most efficient way she saw of diffusing the situation was to simply take out the Kirin leading them and prepare the citizens for battle as soon as possible.

Easy enough; it was only one Kirin, after all.

Twilight charged into the clearing between herself and Tirek and stood tall, staring him down with a disaffected expression.

The larger man smirked in reply, “You wish to challenge me?”

Twilight nodded.

Tirek chuckled. “Very well. I’m interested to see the strength of this Grove’s Kirin. Show me what you can do, child.”

Tirek walked into the clearing and looked Twilight in the eye, but made no move to attack. He was confident, which was no surprise if he commanded his own army; he was likely much more powerful than the Nirik Twilight had so effortlessly defeated before.

Twilight paced back and forth a moment, eyes trained on Tirek; she wanted to see if he would try to take first blood. If he did, she could react to his attack and learn about his combat abilities, which would give her an advantage going into this fight… but all he seemed interested in was watching Twilight with a smug sneer and waiting for her to move first.

So be it then.

Twilight’s eyes darted left and right, spying burning and cracked trees all around her. She tore shreds of flaming wood from the trees and fashioned them into makeshift spears and needles as she threw them at Tirek, surrounding him in a sea of weaponry.

The grooves in Tirek’s charcoal-black horn glowed brick-red as he dug his hooves into the ground, the Kirin simply standing in place as Twilight’s assault made contact, though if her attack did any damage at all, she couldn’t see it.

Tirek simply laughed and looked around at all the splintered shards of wood that were deflected off his body like pebbles being thrown against a mountain’s face.

“Is that it?” he snorted. “Is that the best you can do? Your village is on the line! Why aren’t you transforming?”

Twilight blinked, and cocked her head. It hadn’t occurred to her that Tirek might be uninformed about the Stream of Silence and its effects.

“Unless…” Tirek pondered, tapping his chin with a hoof as his gaze rested on the river nearby. “The Stream of Silence? I had heard rumors, but…” the man clicked his tongue and grit his teeth; he had appeared only mildly vexed before, but Twilight could see clear anger burning in his eyes now.

“What use is there to a village full of Kirin who can’t even transform!?” Tirek shouted, stomping his hoof. “It might as well be destr—”

Twilight had figured Tirek’s magic out; it wasn’t natural strength that allowed him to deflect Twilight’s attack before, but his magic. Distracted as he was by his rage, he wouldn’t be able to protect himself from a wooden lance to the back of his neck.

Or at least, that’s what Twilight thought before seeing the grooves on his horn light up, and felt the lance being wrested from her magic aura. Tirek looked at the makeshift weapon and scowled, seemingly unimpressed.

While Twilight’s magical repertoire might have been rusty from years of not practicing, her mind was as sharp as ever, and she had thought a few steps ahead. Enough steps, in fact, to predict Tirek would look at the weapon that almost hit him and turn a blind eye to the much smaller needle charging him from below.

‘Blind eye’ was an appropriate descriptor as well, considering where the needle ended up.

Tirek screamed and threw a hoof to his face as he dropped the lance and stumbled back, blood pouring from the pierced eye. Twilight wasted no time grabbing the lance and throwing it against Tirek’s other eye, picking up several of the other broken shards and throwing them one at a time, hoping that at least some of them would get through Tirek’s defensive spell.

But none of them did, as wooden spears were burned to harmless ash in the wake of Tirek’s transformation into a Nirik.

The Nirik’s body was a deep, bloody red, and the smoke that poured from his body was an almost transparent ash gray. His eyes glowed with oil-black light and the fangs that were gritted into a fearsome snarl were crooked, decaying and yellow-tinted.

Twilight felt no fear, but her instincts still caused her legs to tremble.

Tirek’s snarl twisted into a wicked grin, and a rumbling chuckle escaped his lips.

“Well done, girl,” he said, “but now you’re going to see the true power of a Kirin.”

Tirek blitzed past Twilight in the blink of an eye, and before she could turn to face him she felt her body being crushed. A cursory glance revealed that Tirek had caught her in a giant fist made from the smoke emanating off him, and though it was only barely visible, it was solid as stone.

The fist squeezed and Twilight made no outward reaction. She felt her bones being crushed, she felt the snapping of her limbs and shattering of ribs, and yet it meant nothing to her. She supposed this was it, this was how she was going to die, and frankly she didn’t really mind. She didn’t have much of a life to return to anyway.

Before that morbid thought could entirely take hold, the fist dropped Twilight onto the grass as two beams of light shot Tirek in the back of his head, and he turned to face the source; Night Light and Twilight Velvet, Twilight Sparkle’s parents.

“Well then,” Tirek grumbled with a grin on his face, “so there are Kirin here who may actually put up a fight? Fine then.”

Tirek walked toward Twilight’s parents, forgetting about Twilight entirely. Twilight struggled to stand, but soon felt a warmth caressing her body, and looked up to see Pinkie Pie had come out of hiding, and the pale blue light covering Twilight’s body matched the grooves of Pinkie’s burnt-red horn.

“It’s not much,” she whispered, “but it should get you back on your feet, yeah?”

Twilight nodded as she stood up, then looked over to the scene of Tirek crushing her father with his smoky fist while whipping her mother with his tail. They weren’t going to last more than a few more seconds against him.

“Twilight, what do we do?” Pinkie whimpered. “We need to help them! And Tirek’s army’s gonna get here pretty soon! What do we do?”

Pinkie Pie was right; if Tirek indeed had an army, it wouldn’t be long before it arrived. The Kirin who Twilight had trounced earlier was now unconscious, which meant the only present threat was Tirek himself, and if he was taken out now, that would deal a huge blow to his army, no matter how powerful they were.

But Twilight knew she couldn’t defeat him, and neither could her parents, nor any of the silent, weakened Kirin in this village. Which left only one option.

Twilight cocked her head toward the village gate and ran in that direction, looking back to see Pinkie hesitating for only a second before following Twilight’s lead.

“We’re just gonna leave?” Pinkie said worriedly.

Twilight nodded, looking back to see that Tirek was still engaged with her parents for the time being. This would be Twilight and Pinkie Pie’s only opportunity to escape undetected.

“But this is your home!” Pinkie pleaded, but didn’t stop running. “And those Kirin, are they—”

Twilight nodded, but she didn’t stop running either.

“But—”

And at Pinkie’s third whimper, Twilight stopped and pressed her nose against Pinkie Pie’s. She had no words or expressions she could use to impress upon Pinkie the urgency with which they needed to escape, but she hoped Pinkie could somehow understand simply from that small gesture.

Twilight pulled back and ran, Pinkie following Twilight out the village exit and into the ravine.

****

From atop the ravine, near the foothills of the Macintosh Hills, Twilight watched the glow of her home’s pyre glistening against a dark blue sky, columns of black smoke seemingly devouring the stars. She knew as she turned her back on it, that she would never see that village again.

While her and Pinkie Pie weren’t quite out of the woods regarding Tirek’s army, they stopped a moment to catch their breath. Pinkie Pie’s spell did indeed get Twilight back onto her feet, and her body moved without any apparent problems, but she wasn’t moving as fast as she wanted to.

And Pinkie Pie, she was breathing heavily, hoof glued to her chest and eyes stretched wide-open as she grappled with what had just happened.

Twilight wasn’t certain what she was shaken up over; whether it was nearly losing her life, or being so close to the complete annihilation of a Kirin village, or the knowledge that such a powerful army was rampaging through Equestria, and was likely chasing them.

It didn’t matter to Twilight; while she couldn’t empathize with Pinkie’s pain, she could still recognize it for what it was and offer her best attempt at a comforting presence.

She walked over to Pinkie, sheltered in an alcove just inside the ramp down to the ravine, and put a hoof on the pink Kirin’s back. Pinkie Pie jumped for a moment, but looked behind her to see Twilight and offered a shaky smile.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, the words barely legible past her sniffles and blubbers. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Twilight cocked her head.

“It’s my fault,” Pinkie sniffed, “they’re after me. I didn’t warn you—well, I guess that wouldn’t have helped your village, would it? Damn it, I’m so stupid! Why did I think leading them to another village would—”

Twilight tapped Pinkie’s shoulder, light enough to be considered gentle but hard enough to stop her rambling and get her attention. When Pinkie looked at Twilight, tears staining her eyes, Twilight merely shook her head.

“You don’t blame me?” Pinkie said, and Twilight nodded. Pinkie frowned and opened her mouth, but then put a hoof to her chin and chuckled. “I don’t know what that means, I kinda phrased that question weird.”

Twilight took her hoof and put it in the dirt at their feet, etching written words for the first time in many years.

“It’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself.”

Twilight tilted her head as she re-read her own message. She had forgotten how verbose she could be.

Pinkie Pie chuckled, but her laughter quickly escalated into a full belly laugh as she rolled around on her back. Twilight tilted her head.

“I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you,” Pinkie wiped a tear from her eye and smiled at Twilight. “I’m just—I dunno what to say. Other than ‘thank you’, obviously! So thank you! It means a lot that you’d say that to me.”

Twilight nodded. She puffed out her chest and put a hoof on it, then pointed to Pinkie Pie.

“You’re gonna protect me?” Pinkie asked curiously.

Twilight nodded.

“W-well then,” Pinkie Pie’s cheeks turned a bright red as she put a hoof on one, turning her gaze away from Twilight, “I guess, uh, I’ll try to be worthy of your protection!”

Twilight cocked her head.

“Umm,” Pinkie chuckled nervously, “what I mean is, uh, I don’t know… what I mean.” Pinkie laughed awkwardly, even letting out a snort, and Twilight just waited for her to compose herself, which she did by taking a deep breath.

“Okay!” she said exuberantly, pumping her hooves in front of her. “So you’re honestly serious about helping me, huh?” Twilight nodded. “Okay! Then I have to get serious too! We’re gonna do this, Twilight! We’re totally gonna find the Elements of Harmony and save Equestria from those mean ol’ Nirik!”

Twilight nodded, and she noted that the Nirik army and Pinkie’s claims of ‘saving Equestria’ from before were indeed related, as she had presumed. Right now though, they still had to make it to the Macintosh Hills before the Nirik caught up to them.

Twilight got up and walked in that direction, pointing Pinkie that way with a bob of her head, and Pinkie sprung to her hooves to follow Twilight, taking one last look behind her.

Twilight didn’t bother to look back. There was nothing for her that way.

“Twilight! We better hurry!” Pinkie whispered urgently, and Twilight didn’t need to look back to know to quicken her pace, sprinting into a full gallop toward the looming Macintosh Hills before the Nirik—whose crackling, flaming bodies she could hear in the distance—caught up to them.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie ran through a moonlit open field, and the Nirik weren’t far behind. Twilight looked to see that there were about six of them, and even if they were all as weak as the first one Twilight defeated, there were still too many for Twilight to feel confident taking on at once, given her and Pinkie’s injuries.

They would still be able to lose them in the Macintosh Hills, but only if they reached them before the Nirik caught up to them.

A slash of flame burned through the grass on Twilight’s right, only missing the Kirin by a hair because she was able to dodge in time. Another bolt of flame came in an arc from above, but Twilight summoned a protective barrier above herself and Pinkie to deflect it.

“Wow, they’re really close, huh?!” Pinkie said with a shaky smile, running as fast as she could, though it was obvious she was exhausted. Twilight felt like she could run another thousand miles, but she could tell that her body was slowing down with every passing step.

They wouldn’t make it at this rate.

But maybe… Pinkie could make it, if Twilight bought her some time.

Twilight stopped in her tracks and turned around, lighting up her horn with raspberry magic and scraping a hoof across the grass out of habit.

“W-w-what are you doing?!” Pinkie all but shrieked, screeching to a halt and jumping in front of Twilight.

Twilight picked Pinkie up in her magic and tossed her away toward Macintosh Hills—lightly enough that she wouldn’t be harmed, but with enough force to give her a head start.

Twilight could easily make out the shadowy figures in the distance, and could count their number; there were six Nirik approaching, enveloped in various flames and vapors; a sign that they had a mixture of Natures among their group.

No matter; all Twilight had to do was buy time for Pinkie, who suddenly hopped in front of Twilight with an irritated scowl and pressed her nose against Twilight’s.

“I am not leaving you behind,” she growled, “that is not an option for me, okay?”

Twilight took a step back and blinked. After a moment, she nodded.

Pinkie took a deep breath and looked over her shoulder, her previous fierce demeanor melting away at the charging Nirik getting rapidly closer, but then light returned to her face and she bore a hesitant smile at Twilight.

“Would it be possible,” she tapped her hooves together, “to maybe combine our powers? Like, maybe you have a spell that can give me a wee energy boost? I think I have an idea.”

Twilight nodded, and Pinkie’s smile shone radiantly in return.

“Alright then,” Pinkie turned on her hooves and scraped one twice across the grass, “gimme a boost, and I’ll stop these guys, at least long enough for us to make our getaway!”

Twilight stood beside Pinkie Pie and lit up her horn, connecting the aura of her magic with Pinkie’s and feeling Pinkie’s magic in return. Twilight noted that Pinkie Pie had a Wood Nature, apparently.

Pinkie’s horn lit up with a pale blue light, and as she grunted and grumbled with her tongue hanging out of her mouth and her eyes tightly shut, a line of pale blue light shone across the field.

From that light emerged a hundred or more thorny claws that grabbed the Nirik that ran straight into them. The Nirik fought back with fire and lightning and metal, but for every claw that they struck down, there was another to take its place.

“That oughtta do it!” Pinkie hopped in place and beamed at Twilight, who was looking at Pinkie’s wall of defense with wide eyes. Even if she could speak, she wouldn’t be sure what to say, but she knew that Pinkie had done well, and wanted to commend that.

Twilight gave Pinkie Pie a salute, but Pinkie just scoffed and rolled her eyes with a giggle.

“C’mon, silly,” Pinkie prodded Twilight with a hoof, “we gotta go! Hurry up!”

Pinkie Pie ran for the hills and Twilight followed, looking back for one moment to watch the Nirik preoccupied with Pinkie’s spell. She knew that Pinkie had only been able to cast that with Twilight’s help—or at least she assumed, based on Pinkie’s prior comments—but Twilight still took note that Pinkie’s spell was far greater than any Twilight had in her arsenal, and that was… something.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie were only a stone’s throw away from the foothills by the time the pursuit party began catching up to them again, and while Twilight knew that they would be cutting it close, she believed they could still make it and then lose the party in the hills.

At least that was plan A before a Nirik jolted to the front of the pack, cutting Twilight and Pinkie off from the Hills, its body crackling with blue electricity. Pinkie took a fighting stance, and Twilight merely looked over her shoulder to see the other five Nirik surround the pair.

This wasn’t good.

Twilight wracked her brain for ideas, some solution to this new problem; perhaps by combining their magic again, Pinkie would be able to buy a way out of this mess, but that would take time they didn’t have. Or perhaps Twilight could put up a barrier and—and drain the rest of her magic, most likely, with no tangible benefit.

It looked like the only available tactic was to just fight their way through and hope they could get lucky. But then plan B arrived in the form of a wall of blue flame behind the pursuing Nirik, accompanied by a cackle that rumbled through the foothills.

Pinkie sidled up to Twilight and looked concernedly to her for an answer, but a shrug was all Twilight could give.

“Looks like you fellas stumbled into the wrong neighborhood,” a raspy woman’s voice growled, her voice being carried by magic and echoing through the Hills to sound much deeper than it really was. “The Storm King’s army isn’t welcome in these Hills.”

A small opening appeared in the wall of flame, and yet another slow cackle was heard.

“This is your only invitation to turn back,” the voice said. “You’d better take it.”

A lengthy shadow stretched outward from the wall of flame, covering the grassy field in darkness and even shrouding the nearby hills, enrapturing the attention of the two Kirin and their pursuers. Suddenly, two bright blue flaming eyes appeared on the wall, accompanied by a similarly burning grin.

Then another smiling face appeared in the shadow. Then another, and another, until the entire visible range of the foothills were covered in these gruesome grinning faces.

“Unless you want to deal with us,” several raspy voices spoke in unison, “take this chance to turn back.”

Only one of the Nirik hesitated, taking a shaky step toward the shadowy foothills, but once he turned to see his party had all run away through the opening provided, he quickly followed suit.

Pinkie Pie breathed a sigh of relief and flopped onto her belly as the Nirik ran away, though Twilight wouldn’t let down her guard until the person responsible for the show made themselves known.

Luckily, Twilight wouldn’t have to wait long, as once the shadows and flames receded, a figure slunk out of the shadows.

“The ol’ Army of Shadows trick,” a light blue Kirin flicked back her rainbow-colored mane as she approached Twilight and Pinkie with a friendly smile, laughing at the fleeing Nirik, “gets ‘em every time.”
> 03. A New Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie hopped excitedly in a circle around Twilight, smiling ear to ear and prodding Twilight while pointing at the blue Kirin who drove away Tirek’s pursuit party.

“Did you see that?!” Pinkie clamored. “Did you see that!?” Pinkie gave a great big grin to Twilight, who side-eyed her and blinked. Pinkie curled her nose and tilted her head back. “You did see that, right?”

Twilight nodded.

“Then what gives?” Pinkie huffed. “You don’t seem too enthusiastic!”

Twilight glanced at Pinkie briefly, blinked at her, then put her eyes back on the blue Kirin. Pinkie tapped her chin and hummed.

“Actually, now that I think about it,” Pinkie pondered, “you haven’t seemed very enthusiastic about anything. You’re always really glum and straightforward, like a robot or some—” Pinkie felt a dim lightbulb hover over her head as she remembered something that Tirek mentioned. “Wait a tick! The Stream of Silence, that’s right!

“I’ve heard of that, but I thought it was just an old urban legend! You mean,” Pinkie gasped in horror, “you really can’t emote, can you?!”

Twilight shook her head.

“And you can’t feel any feelings!”

Twilight nodded.

“That’s so sad!” Pinkie blubbered and jumped onto Twilight, wrapping her forelegs around her.

Twilight just shrugged, because of course she would just shrug! It’s not like she could be sad about not being sad!

“Twilight Sparkle!” Pinkie said proudly, standing tall in front of Twilight. “I know I already said I’d help you get your voice back, but now I’m doubly super-duper sure! I’m gonna totally help you get your emotions and stuff back, okay?”

Twilight blinked, and then paused. Pinkie bit her lip as she waited for more of a response than that and started feeling a little pit in her stomach as she worried that maybe she’d gotten a little carried away and stuck her hoof in her mouth.

But then Twilight nodded, and Pinkie let go of the breath she’d been holding onto.

“But first thing’s first!” Pinkie grinned and bobbed her head toward the blue Kirin, who was preening herself and totally ignoring Pinkie and Twilight. “We gotta go introduce ourselves!”

Pinkie hopped through the moonlit grass toward the blue Kirin before flopping onto the ground mid-bounce cuz something had grabbed ahold of her tail. She looked behind her to see what was up, and saw her fluffy tail coated in the raspberry glow of Twilight’s magic.

“What’s the matter?” Pinkie asked concernedly, bobbing her head at the blue Kirin. “You don’t wanna introduce yourself?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed slightly and she gently tilted her head to one side.

“Oh, you don’t know if we can trust her,” Pinkie whispered, getting real close to Twilight so as not to let the blue Kirin overhear.

Twilight nodded, and Pinkie nodded in turn, trying to affect a very serious demeanor for this serious situation, but she couldn’t keep it up for more than two seconds without bursting into giggles.

“The way I see it,” Pinkie chirped, “that Kirin helped drive away the Nirik, and judgin’ by how she talked to ‘em, I don’t think she’s on good terms with the Storm King’s army. And y’know how the old saying goes, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, and I love making new friends!”

Pinkie laughed and hopped away from Twilight again, only to be caught mid-bounce by her and flop onto the ground.

“You could at least wait until my hooves are on the ground silly,” Pinkie blew a raspberry at Twilight, who just blinked in response.

“You guys know I can hear everything you’re saying, right?” the blue Kirin said in a raspy voice as she trotted up to them. Twilight quickly jumped in front of Pinkie, and the blue Kirin stopped once she was face-to-face with Twilight.

“Oh, please don’t get mad at her!” Pinkie hopped to her hooves and pushed Twilight and the blue Kirin away from each other. “She’s a little gunshy cuz those guys were chasing us and her village got destroyed and—”

“What, the whole village?” blue Kirin took a step back and her eyes widened. She took a sharp breath when Twilight nodded, and sat down on her flank. “No way… they just torched it? They didn’t try to take over or anything?”

“Nope,” Pinkie shook her head and felt her shoulders nearly break from the weight of being responsible for that destruction. “They said a village full of Kirin who couldn’t transform were worthless, and so they just—they just—”

Pinkie took several haggard breaths as she tried not to burst into tears, and she gasped quietly as she felt Twilight’s hoof on her shoulder. Pinkie couldn’t imagine how Twilight felt… or didn’t feel? She wasn’t sure what was going through Twilight’s mind right now, but it couldn’t have been good, and Pinkie felt like her heart was gonna break right in two, if only because Twilight’s wasn’t able to.

“Hey,” blue Kirin cleared her throat, “listen for a sec. My name’s Rainbow Dash, and I am no friend of the Storm King or his army. In fact, me and a couple friends are putting together our own little resistance group. If you guys wanna join—”

“YOU ARE!?” Pinkie shouted gleefully, toppling Rainbow Dash over in an excited tackle. “Omigosh omigosh omigosh!!! I thought I was totally alone against the Storm King! I thought everyone else was too afraid to fight ‘em!”

“Well, you’re not totally wrong,” Rainbow said, pushing Pinkie off of her and dusting herself off. “See, cuz the Storm King’s army is only targeting Kirin villages, and since our kind tends to stick to ourselves and not make waves with other ponies or anyone else, most of the pony towns and cities don’t see the Storm King as a threat.”

Pinkie clicked her tongue and grumbled under her breath. She glanced at Twilight and felt her heart warmed by the sight of Twilight’s eyes slightly narrowing, signaling that she was just as unimpressed as Pinkie was by Equestria’s apathy; even without her emotions, Twilight could still tell between right and wrong, and that was a huge comfort to Pinkie Pie.

“And I mean, obviously not every pony is an apathetic jerk,” Rainbow shrugged, “but you know how it is. Governments gonna government, and they don’t see anything as a threat until it impacts them personally. And the Storm King knows this and is exploiting the heck out of it.”

“So what do we do?” Pinkie asked, her ears flattening against her head. Hearing about a so-called resistance group made her really happy, but being reminded about how much other people just did not care about her and her kind sorta kinda deflated her spirits again.

“What, you think the Kirin are just gonna lie down and roll over?” Rainbow scoffed, and she affected a big smile that quickly made its way to Pinkie too. “Sure, some villages have either joined the Storm King or been conquered by him, but even in those villages, there’re still some of us who are fighting back!

“All over Equestria, seeds of resistance are being planted, and it’s just a matter of time before somepony harvests those seeds! And that somepony is gonna be—”

“ME!” Pinkie and Rainbow shouted in unison, and when they saw each other’s enthusiasm, they couldn’t help but laugh.

“See, Twilight?” Pinkie beamed at Twilight. “Rainbow’s super cool!”

Twilight didn’t budge.

“So your name’s Twilight, huh?” Rainbow approached Twilight and held out her hoof, and Twilight gave it the coldest and most limp hoofshake Pinkie’d ever seen, but at least she tried!

“Yup!” Pinkie hopped between the two and put her foreleg around Twilight. “Her name’s Twilight Sparkle! She can’t talk, so I hope you don’t think she’s been being rude this whole time.”

“Twilight Sparkle?” Rainbow grinned and leaned in toward Twilight. “You’re trans, right?”

Twilight nodded, and Pinkie stood there blinking in disbelief as Rainbow grinned.

“Yeah, big same,” Rainbow held her hoof out, with Twilight looking down at it awkwardly.

Rainbow grabbed Twilight’s hoof and held it up, then tapped her own hoof against it.

Pinkie stammered for a sec before asking, “How did you know she was—”

“I could just tell, I guess?” Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno, something about the name ‘Twilight Sparke’ just seems extremely trans to me. It’s pretty cool, but not as cool as ‘Rainbow Dash’, obviously.”

“I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie smiled, wagging her tail as she awaited compliments on how good her name was.

“That’s adorable,” Rainbow snickered, and Pinkie’s smile widened as her heart swelled with pride. “Now that’s enough dawdling, it’s getting late!”

“Oh yeah,” Pinkie said as she looked up at the pitch black night sky.

“No worries,” Rainbow said confidently and batted her hoof, “I can getcha through the Macintosh Hills in like ten seconds flat, then we’ll head straight to Resistance HQ and you guys can catch some shuteye in a decent bed.”

“You have an HQ?!” Pinkie jumped in front of Rainbow Dash and grabbed her by the cheeks.

“Yeah,” Rainbow chuckled, pushing Pinkie’s hoof away. “It’s a little more pathetic than I’d like, but it’s home for now, and my friends’ll be waiting for us there. Now c’mon!”

Rainbow Dash ran ahead and Pinkie nudged Twilight’s shoulder as the two took off after her.

“So what do you think?” she asked Twilight as they ran. “I really like her.”

Twilight looked at Pinkie for a moment, and that made Pinkie wanna smile even harder. Eventually, Twilight nodded, and Pinkie giggled in delight.

****

While Rainbow Dash wasn’t quite right about getting Pinkie and Twilight through the Hills in ‘ten seconds flat’, they did really speed through ‘em and into the town of Appleloosa, making it there while the moon was still high in the sky.

And good thing too, because Pinkie Pie was exhausted.

Rainbow’s friends were sound asleep by the time Pinkie’s party reached Rainbow’s headquarters, so everypony agreed that the introductions could wait until tomorrow, and with nothing else to do, Pinkie and Twilight took off into the spare bedroom so they could get some much needed and well-earned shuteye.

Pinkie giggled at the sorry shape the ‘guest bedroom’ was in; it was more like an empty storage closet with a single mattress just kinda flopped onto the concrete floor in the corner of the room, with little scatterings of hay sprinkled here and there to make it slightly more presentable.

It was a disaster, but it was adorable.

Pinkie hopped onto the mattress with a laugh and patted the space beside her to call Twilight over, but to Pinkie’s surprise, Twilight gathered some of the loose hay into a pile and laid down on top of it.

“Twilight?” Pinkie asked concernedly. “Aren’t you coming onto the bed?”

Twilight shook her head, her eyes shut as she prepared to go to sleep on the floor.

“How come?” Pinkie tilted her head and pouted, even though Twilight was looking away and couldn’t see.

Twilight turned her head toward Pinkie. She pointed to the bed, then held her hooves together really closely, then pointed at Pinkie with one hoof and herself with the other, before crossing her forelegs and shaking her head.

“Ohhhh, you think there isn’t enough room for both of us?” Pinkie slapped her forehooves together.

Twilight nodded.

Pinkie scoffed, “C’mon, Twilight! That’s ridiculous! This bed’s more than big enough for us both!”

It was true the mattress was pretty teeny-tiny, and it’d be a bit of a struggle for the two to both fit on it, but Pinkie had a secret weapon.

She curled into as much of a ball as she could, tucked all four legs underneath her, and curled her fluffy tail around herself, biting down an amused grin.

“I loaf,” she said, releasing a burst of little giggles.

Twilight stared at Pinkie until Pinkie’s smile faded, and then put her head back down on her hay pile.

“Twilight?” Pinkie said hesitantly, tapping her hooves together. “Do you… not want to sleep by me?” Pinkie could practically feel her hoof flying into her mouth so she stammered to hastily correct herself, “W-whwat I mean is that—uhh, do you—umm…” Pinkie groaned and put her hooves up against her cheeks and it felt like pressing them against a hot grill.

She flopped onto the mattress, forelegs limply dangling off the edge, and looked at Twilight, wondering what she was thinking.

Twilight pointed a hoof at Pinkie and prodded with it twice, then pointed one hoof at Pinkie and another at herself, put the two hooves together, then hung her head back with her eyes closed and took quick breaths in and out while twitching her forelegs. Then she snapped her head back up with her eyes half-open, and mimicked a silent yawn.

“Ohhh, you think if we sleep close to each other on this tiny bed,” Pinkie sprung up into a sitting pose, “that I won’t get a very good night’s sleep, I’ll be all groggy and restless in the morning.”

Twilight nodded.

“Well, what about you?” Pinkie huffed. “Sleeping on the floor isn’t good for you either, and you deserve a good night’s rest as much as I do! Or more, even!”

Twilight shook her head. She waved her forelegs at the scraps of hay lying around, pointed at herself, and then shrugged.

“You’re used to sleeping on the floor,” Pinkie grumbled, feeling frustrated that Twilight was so insistent to not sleep in the bed. It wasn’t good for her! But then again, maybe Twilight was right, and Pinkie wouldn’t want to make herself or Twilight feel all groggily in the morning.

Except…

“Twilight,” Pinkie blurted out, looking away from Twilight and feeling her cheeks burning her again, “can I be totally honest with you?”

Pinkie glanced at Twilight enough to see her nod.

“And can you promise not to be angry at me,” Pinkie bit her lip, “or judge me too much, or be mean to me or make fun of me or laugh at me?”

Twilight tilted her head to the side, her ears flopping slightly and her curly purple mane rustling. She nodded with her eyes closed, and Pinkie realized that her request was a little silly considering that Twilight couldn’t do any of those things even if she wanted to.

Pinkie took a deep breath, her teeth tugging against her lip as she tried to hold back the tears that were coming, and she blurted out her shameful confession all at once.

“I really want you to sleep next to me cuz I’m super lonely!”

Pinkie turned away from Twilight and put her hooves up against her head.

“I know, I know,” she breathed rapidly, “I said I was concerned about you and how well you slept, and that’s true! But I’m also concerned about me and how I feel like garbage and I’ve missed being around other ponies for so long!

“But I feel like if I’m concerned for you and me then I’m not really concerned about you I’m just concerned about me and I shouldn’t be concerned about me I should be concerned about you and not me but I can’t—”

Pinkie gasped as she felt Twilight’s hoof on her shoulder, and she darted her head around to see the purple Kirin sitting right next to her on the mattress.

“I don’t want you to do something you don’t want to,” Pinkie blubbered, fighting in vain against the flow of tears, “just because I—”

Twilight put her hoof on Pinkie’s muzzle. Twilight pointed over to the hay pile she had been laying on, then pointed at herself, then shook her head. She pointed her hoof at the mattress under the pair and nodded.

“You’re saying you were wrong before?” Pinkie wiped away what felt like buckets of tears from her eyes. “You really just want me to sleep well, and you think I’ll sleep better with you nearby instead of over there?”

Twilight nodded, and Pinkie felt a wall of mixed emotions slam into her with brutal force.

“And you’re not just saying that because I’m a dumb stupid ugly pink Kirin that nopony could ever like and you want me to shut up?”

Twilight didn’t respond, and Pinkie felt the vice of shame strangling her insides.

But then, something curious happened; she saw something flash through Twilight’s eyes, if only for the briefest second of seconds.

It was anger.

Twilight put a hoof on Pinkie’s chest, and while Pinkie almost recoiled after seeing that flash in Twilight’s eyes, something about Twilight’s hoof felt gentle and calming on Pinkie’s chest. Twilight looked Pinkie right in her eyes and pointed to Pinkie’s mouth with her free hoof.

Twilight slammed her hoof onto the mattress and shook her head.

“You don’t ever want to hear-” Pinkie paused, gulping down a big lump of anxiety “-me put myself down like that again.”

Twilight nodded. She looked at her hoof for one moment, then looked back up at Pinkie and held her forelegs apart from each other.

Pinkie didn’t even need to ask what that meant; her entire body lit up and she felt her floof getting even floofier as she tackled Twilight into a hug, purring as Twilight wrapped her own forelegs around Pinkie.

Pinkie bashfully crept off of Twilight and tried to make some room for her on the mattress so Pinkie wouldn’t be in her way, but Twilight sidled right up next to Pinkie, curled into a ball as much as she could, tucked her legs under her, and curled her fluffy tail around herself.

She loaf.

Pinkie wore a shaky smile and loafed right next to Twilight, the pair wrapping their tails around each other as Pinkie quickly dozed off into peaceful slumber.

Pinkie would wake up a little sore and groggy after all, but she couldn’t remember a time where she’d slept so well.

****

Twilight Sparkle found it odd when she awoke in the morning and found no fluffy pink loaf by her side.

She took a note to investigate that later, but she had something she needed to do first; look in a mirror, and thankfully there was one nearby on a dilapidated old dresser.

Twilight didn’t feel exhaustion anymore, so looking at her reflection and checking the state of the bags under her eyes was the easiest way for her to tell if her body had gotten enough sleep.

She hadn't expected to look positively glowing, but she sure did, and it was a good thing to see; she couldn’t recall the last time she appeared so well-rested. She wondered what the cause could have been, but quickly realized there simply wasn’t enough data to do a full analysis based on one night’s sleep.

Still, sleeping next to Pinkie Pie a second time probably couldn’t hurt, so long as Pinkie was alright with it.

Twilight moved from the guest bedroom into what could only graciously be described as the foyer. Sunlight peaked through several poorly patched-over holes in the roof and illuminated the dusty concrete floors. There was no furniture to speak of and the windows were hastily boarded up, leaving the room with awkward pockets of shadow that skirted around the beams of sunlight.

Twilight had reservations already about Rainbow Dash’s value as an ally—having only seen her in action one time did not give enough information on her ability, and her attitude didn’t strike Twilight as particularly dependable—and seeing the rundown state of her ‘headquarters’ only strengthened Twilight’s doubts.

Still, this was Pinkie Pie’s quest, and she had placed her faith in Rainbow Dash; Twilight had no choice but to do the same, and would do what she could to make the most of things.

Speaking of Pinkie Pie, Twilight was beginning to wonder where she had gone, since Twilight expected to see her by now, if not in the bedroom than certainly in the foyer or nearby kitchen, which was similarly vacant.

“You worried about Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow asked, hovering around the front door as Twilight stepped out of the kitchen.

Twilight stopped in the middle of the foyer and pondered that question.

The obvious answer was ‘no’, she wasn’t worried; she wasn’t able to worry about Pinkie Pie. But that thought conjured vague memories in Twilight, and she recalled that she used to worry a lot before her silencing, didn’t she?

She wondered if the old her would be worried, but quickly dismissed the notion as not being relevant. Pinkie Pie was an adult, and moreover she had travelled across Equestria alone already; she was more than capable of taking care of herself.

So even if Twilight had the capability to be worried about Pinkie Pie, doing so would be meaningless. But the idea that if she wasn’t Silent she would be very worried about Pinkie Pie scratched the back of her mind. She had practically forgotten her old self, and almost wondered if perhaps her new state of being was an improvement.

“Twilight?” Rainbow asked, looking at Twilight with a furrowed brow. “You alright there?”

Twilight nodded. She did two tepid jumps in the air and fluffed up her mane, then motioned her hoof in a forward circle. Rainbow tilted her head and let her mouth hang slightly ajar, evidently missing the meaning in Twilight’s gestures.

Pinkie Pie would have known that meant ‘where is Pinkie Pie?’ but Pinkie wasn’t here, which was very inconvenient.

Twilight walked right up to Rainbow’s nose—Rainbow backing up until she bumped awkwardly into the doorframe—and stared at her.

“Sooooo, you’re looking for Pinkie Pie, right?” Rainbow asked, arching an eyebrow. Twilight nodded, and Rainbow sighed and pushed Twilight away. “She headed out with my bros a little bit ago. C’mon, we can probably catch up to ‘em no problem.”

Rainbow headed out the door and cocked her head to signal Twilight to follow her, which Twilight did.

There wasn’t any reason not to trust Rainbow’s word, even despite Twilight’s reservations regarding her; and more to the point, it made good sense to try and get to know Rainbow Dash a little better, perhaps try to understand what Pinkie Pie saw in her.

That said, Twilight wasn’t entirely listening as Rainbow talked while they walked through the dirt roads of Appleloosa; Twilight was too distracted by the sorry state of the city. Kirin walked around looking sullen and dirty, while every so often Twilight would spy a pony or two who looked no worse for wear.

Every building Twilight saw around her was in the same pitiful shape that Rainbow Dash’s headquarters were in, and that at least put Twilight somewhat at ease; it wasn’t Rainbow’s fault she lived in poverty, and Twilight had rushed to judgment without having all the facts, something which she should have known better than to do.

Twilight’s hoofsteps came to a stop as she looked into the horizon; sitting in the town square a few yards away, a grand tower touched the sky. Its ornate detail and dazzling adornments clashed strikingly against the decay and stagnation of the surrounding architecture, and something in Twilight’s stomach turned at the mere sight of it.

It almost made her feel something, some tickling on the back of her neck that felt vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place. But she knew one thing; this tower— whatever it was— it was wrong, somehow. It did not deserve to exist.

“Y’like that?” Rainbow hissed as she walked back to Twilight, noticing she had stopped. Rainbow cocked her head at the tower and sneered. “That’s where the Flim Flam Brothers live. They took over this town at the Storm King’s order after it was conquered.

“Appleloosa used to be a Kirin Grove, but now they run the place, and the Kirin that don’t join up with the Storm King, or perform labor for slave wages, get treated like garbage at best, and ‘disappear’ at worst.”

That was… a lot to process. When Rainbow had mentioned before that the Storm King conquered Kirin villages, she had assumed Rainbow was talking from a place of distance. It hadn't even crossed Twilight’s mind that Rainbow’s home village might have been conquered.

And what was this about ‘disappearing’? If these Flim Flam Brothers really made Kirin who opposed them disappear, then Rainbow introducing herself as an enemy of the Storm King was quite brave of her; almost stupid, even. Twilight would never have done that… would she?

She would need to think on this.

“Yo, Twilight?” Rainbow waved her hoof in front of Twilight’s face. “You still with me?”

Twilight nodded.

“Sorry I just kinda rambled at’cha,” Rainbow stammered, holding a hoof behind her head, “I just can’t stand those brothers, but like, don’t tell anypony I said that, cuz that’s not a good opinion to have around here, you feel me?”

Twilight nodded.

“What about you?” Rainbow asked as the pair resumed walking. “What do you think about that ugly tower?” Rainbow chuckled, “Although I guess I’m not really giving you much space to make your own call, huh?”

Twilight shrugged, and stopped where she stood. She pointed at the tower, planted her hoof firmly in the dirt, and shook her head.

“You don’t like it either?” Rainbow asked, the pitch of her voice raising slightly. Twilight nodded, and Rainbow let out a short groan. “Wait, does that mean you do like it? Or you don’t?”

Twilight blinked.

Rainbow let out a strained laugh, “Okay, do you like that tower?”

Twilight shook her head, and Rainbow laughed again.

“Awesome,” she gave a sly grin and nudged Twilight with her elbow, “glad we’re on the same page, at least.”

As Twilight and Rainbow continued their walk, Twilight continued to observe the local populace. Most of the Kirin here looked less emotive than Twilight did, and Twilight knew it was because they were all burdened with unfathomable stress, each and every single one of them.

It was difficult to process the scale of so much misery compounded in one location, so Twilight put it out of her mind. Though thinking about such things did cause her to realize that she couldn’t feel stress anymore, and that was… good?

Not ‘good’ exactly, that wasn’t something Twilight had any real context for anymore, but it was convenient at the very least. Without stress—or anxiety, for that matter—to weigh her down, Twilight could do what she needed to do without fetters.

Even when the thing she needed to do flew in the face of basic self-preservation, which was a rather serendipitous thing to be thinking about as Twilight and Rainbow passed by a shop where the owner was being hassled by a trio of Kirin.

Twilight didn’t understand the exact details of their conversation, but she got the gist; the trio belonged to the Storm King’s army, the shopkeeper had been saying some rather unkind things about said King very recently, the trio were here to collect a debt.

“Honestly, Dazzling Gleam,” one of the Kirin let out a raspy chuckle, “sayin’ stuff like that might cost ya, y’know what I’m saying?”

The shopkeeper, a steel-blue furred Kirin mare with an immaculate and fluffy beige-colored mane, glared at the trio at her stand.

“I won’t apologize,” she said. “I know what those Brothers over in the tower did to my girlfriend! I won’t forgive them, or your cursed Storm King!”

“Well then,” one of the Storm King’s men cleared his throat, “I guess we’re gonna have to teach y—”

Twilight took the man in his magic and tossed him behind her like the garbage he was, walking into the empty space his absence provided. She was now standing between the two other soldiers, who stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed at her, and the shopkeeper—Dazzling Gleam, apparently—wore a similar expression.

“Hey Dazzle,” Rainbow said casually as she trotted behind one of the Storm King soldiers, who was eyeing her as a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead.

“Rainbow Dash,” Dazzling Gleam put a hoof up to her cheek as she rested the elbow on the counter of her stand, evidently more relaxed now that Rainbow—and possibly Twilight?—was here, “is this incredibly brave and incredibly stupid Kirin one of your friends?”

Twilight didn’t wait for Rainbow to answer before she picked up the other two soldiers, one by one, and threw them away. She turned around, anticipating a counterattack from them, only to see them scurrying away with their tails literally between their legs.

“She is now,” Rainbow cackled.
> 04. An Obvious Trap
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie’s eyes fluttered open and before she had even gotten a peek at the waking world around her, she was drowned in a sudden wave of loneliness. Something felt missing, but she forced herself awake despite that and jumped out of bed, taking a big yawn before scoping out the scene.

Oh that’s right, she was in Rainbow Dash’s pad—eh, such as it was. It was cold and there were holes in the walls and ceiling that little beams of sunlight poked through, illuminating the hay all over the dark gray concrete ground, and none of these details were helping Pinkie’s awful mood.

Pinkie heard a rustling behind her, and her jaw dropped when she looked over at the bed and Twilight was sleeping there, curled up into a little cozy-looking ball. Pinkie had forgotten about Twilight—or rather, her brain hadn’t quite caught up to her yet and all of yesterday was still a blur to her.

Twilight looked so sweet and cute, and fluffy too but that was just a Kirin thing. Pinkie felt the siren call of Twilight’s fluff yearning her back to the bed, but she took a step back and shook it off. Twilight was—well it was complicated, Pinkie crushed on girls SO easily, and Twilight basically coming out of nowhere and rescuing her was just—ehhh well how could she not crush?

It didn’t hurt that she was SOOOOO pretty, like waow.

Pinkie bit her lip and looked away from sleepy Twi, and if she could’ve disappeared into her own fluff she would’ve, if only to escape from how hot her burning cheeks were, ugh she felt like such a dork. It was easy to crush on Twilight, she didn’t say anything! It was easy to project Pinkie’s own feelings onto Twilight, and that just wasn’t fair to Twi, and it wasn’t healthy for Pinkie either.

This was all getting very convoluted in Pinkie’s brainspace so it was time to grab some breakfast… uhh, well hopefully, she didn’t know if there was any breakfast to be had, and judging by the ‘rustic’ decoration of Rainbow’s place, odds looked bleak.

But bleak odds had never dampened Pinkie’s spirits before, so she proceeded undaunted! Empty fridges though, those dampened Pinkie’s spirits quite easily, and her ears flopped practically to the floor when she opened the kitchen fridge up and there was like, one orange in it.

She did eat the orange though, and it was good! But it wasn’t breakfast.

“Looking for food”?

Pinkie snapped to attention, getting her head out of the fridge at the sound of a young man’s voice. It was a Kirin, a very, very brown Kirin, with a light brown coat and chocolate brown mane, the guy was fairly well built and he had a warm smile on his face, which was decorated by fairly soft features.

“Sowwy,” Pinkie said, her mouth still full of orange, “wath that oranjth for thumwon elth?”

“No, you’re fine,” the guy chuckled and batted his hoof. “But you can see there’s no food in the fridge, we kinda have to get creative to get our meals around here. The name’s Sandstorm, by the way.”

“I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie squeaked, grinning ear to ear as she swallowed the orange. “Nice to meetcha Sandstorm!” Pinkie bounced toward the pretty Kirin boy and excitedly shook his hoof, shaking his whole body along with it. “Now what’s this about getting creative? I do like the sound of that.”

“C’mon,” Sandstorm cocked his head and headed for the door, Pinkie bouncing along behind him, “I’ll show you around town. Well, what’s left of it anyway.”

****

Twilight knew enough about herself and about the world to be certain that even if she still had her emotions, she couldn’t have possibly been surprised that the Storm King soldiers she had antagonized returned quickly, with several more soldiers in tow.

Rainbow Dash didn’t seem perturbed by this either, she merely scraped her hoof across the dirt as she and Twilight stood in the center of a small market, the nearby salesponies quickly scattering as the line of soldiers approached Rainbow and Twilight, Rainbow apparently very eager to do battle with them.

There were too many soldiers for Twilight to count—though that didn’t stop her from trying—but she could tell there were far too many of them for only Rainbow and Twilight to defeat in a straight fight, and if the soldiers turned their attacks onto the innocent townsfolk of Appleloosa who remained on the edges of the market around them, Twilight wasn’t certain she would be able to protect everypony.

It was a real problem, one that Twilight was still trying to work out a solution to when the soldiers suddenly stopped, barring the road forward from Rainbow Dash and Twilight, but evidently having no intention of coming closer to them.

Except for one; a well-put-together Kirin stallion with sandy-colored fur and a mane as orange as autumn leaves, he had rather soft, feminine facial features, and a dainty trot as he walked toward Twilight—who decided it would be best if she stood in front of Rainbow to keep her from lashing out and making trouble needlessly.

“You know,” the man laughed softly as he turned his head to his retinue of soldiers, “such a large escort was unnecessary. We aren’t here to do war or anything.”

“But sir, these girls—”

“Did I ask?” the man cut off one of his soldiers with a severe glare, though his warm smile never left his face.

“No, sir.”

“Then please,” the man waved dismissively at the soldiers, “allow me to discuss matters with these women in peace. All this commotion will alarm the townsfolk.”

Without another word, the soldiers dispersed, most returning to the tower they came from, though others wandered off into the city, and Twilight couldn’t shake the impression that they were going to blow off steam by harassing more innocent people.

Even if Twilight didn’t have Pinkie to think about, she couldn’t imagine being anything other than an enemy to the Storm King.

“I’m sorry about them,” the man turned his full attention to Twilight and Rainbow, and while Twilight could appreciate the man’s beauty, she couldn’t shake the impression of a snake oil salesman the way he smiled at her. “Things have been rather tense around here lately, what with the—”

“Hey, Sunny Day,” Rainbow took a step forward and huffed from her nose, small jets of flame pouring out of her nostrils, “how’s the Flim Flam Brothers’ boots taste?”

Sunny Day looked sickened when his eyes fell on Rainbow and he realized who he was dealing with.

“Ah, Rainbow Dash,” Sunny’s attempts to force a smile back on his obviously bemused face were admirable, though not nearly enough to mask his contempt. “Long time no see.”

“Really?” Rainbow scoffed. “Feels like just yesterday you turned on us to lick the Brothers’ boots.”

“Well,” Sunny’s smile was stretched thin and his tone was measured carefully, though his resentment still shone through to Twilight, “after what happened with Wood Hammer—”

“Don’t you dare talk about Wood Hammer,” a soft but vicious feminine voice spoke up from behind Twilight, who looked to see the steel-blue furred Kirin who Twilight had helped earlier had moved away from her shop to join the conversation.

While Rainbow looked like she was ready to throw hooves with Sunny Day, Dazzling Gleam looked like she was ready to kill him.

Twilight dragged Rainbow by the tail with her magic and stood as a buffer between Sunny Day and the two Kirin who were ready to spill his blood, staring down Rainbow for a moment before Rainbow rolled her eyes and sat down, batting her hoof and letting Twilight take the lead.

“Ah, I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you before,” Sunny Day said, holding his hoof to Twilight.

Twilight looked at his hoof for a moment and considered whether to take it. She decided to do so and politely shake the man’s hoof, deciding it would be best to not cause conflict with the Storm King’s soldiers unless somepony’s safety was at risk.

“My name is Sunny Day,” Sunny Day said proudly, as if his own name were music to his ears, a feeling Twilight vaguely remembered having about her own name, and she wondered what it would be like to feel that way again. “And you are?”

“Her name’s Twilight Sparkle,” Rainbow stood next to Twilight and spoke calmly, having composed herself. “She doesn’t talk.”

“Doesn’t talk, huh?” Sunny Day looked skeptically at Twilight, who stared back at him. Sunny let out a small hum. “So she doesn’t. That’s fine.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow snorted, “I bet that’s how you prefe—”

Twilight clamped Rainbow’s mouth shut with her magic, prompting a snicker from Dazzling Gleam, who sheepishly looked away with her ears clamped against her head when Twilight and Rainbow both looked at her.

“Anyway,” Sunny Day cleared his throat, “I can tell you have no love for authority figures, Twilight Sparkle, but I’m also guessing you care about the safety of innocent people. Why else would you risk arrest, or worse, by antagonizing the Storm King’s soldiers?”

Twilight blinked. She had very little interest in listening to this man for much longer if he didn’t hurry to a point.

“So,” Sunny Day cleared his throat again, and Twilight surmised he wasn’t used to dealing with someone like her who had no interest or desire to placate his ego, “my point is this: there’s been a rash of disappearances in this town as of late, mostly of the town’s Kirin population, and our soldiers haven’t had any luck figuring out who is doing this or why.”

“Gee, I wonder,” Rainbow sneered.

“Funny the Storm King can’t find a solution for a problem they invented,” Dazzling Gleam added, her voice dripping with disgust.

“Believe what you want,” Sunny Day harrumphed, “but I care about the Kirin living under the Storm King’s protection. I don’t want any harm to come to them, but I believe there’s a mole in our ranks, so I need someone unconnected to the Storm King to look into this matter for me.”

Which, of course, is where Twilight came in.

“You expect us to believe—”

Once again, Twilight thought it necessary to clamp Rainbow’s mouth shut.

“Like I said,” Sunny Day turned up his nose and looked at Rainbow with a scowl, “believe what you want. As for you, Twilight Sparkle, think it over. I’ll be happy to compensate you for your work, of course. Come see me on the ground floor of the Flim Flam Tower if you have any questions.”

With that, Sunny Day took his leave. And Twilight began thinking about his offer and the likelihood of him indeed being in on the cause of his so-called problem.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine the Storm King’s men spinning this story of wanting to protect innocents from quote-unquote ‘mysterious’ disappearances in order to trick nosy outsiders into their traps.

In fact, Twilight couldn’t think of a more likely alternative. Why would someone be kidnapping Kirin unaffiliated with the Storm King? Though a third party with their own agenda, who didn’t want to make waves with the Storm King and thus only captured those the soldiers would deem ‘unimportant’, wasn’t outside the realm of possibility either.

Too many variables. Twilight would need to consult Pinkie Pie before making a decision either way.

“Ugh, I hate that guy,” Rainbow grumbled, and Twilight looked over to see she was commiserating with Dazzling Gleam.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Dazzling sighed and shook her head, her tongue sticking out through her bitter scowl. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the Flim Flam Brothers are behind Wood Hammer’s and the other Kirin’s disappearances, and Sunny’s all too happy to throw us all under the bus to save his own skin.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, her voice heavy, but she quickly slashed her solemnness away with a snarl and kicked her back hooves. “And we all trusted him! And this is what we get!”

“Yup,” Dazzling shook her head slowly. “And like, I feel miserable about the whole thing, but I feel really awful for Sandstorm.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Rainbow hung her head and let out a bitter growl. “If I have to think about Sandstorm’s face when he heard about Sunny’s betrayal I’ll go berserk. Poor guy’s never gonna wanna date again, I swear.”

“So what now, acting captain?” Dazzling stood up straight and ran a hoof through her fluffy mane. “Do we walk into Sunny’s obvious trap, or…?”

“Uhm,” Rainbow sputtered and tried to mask a cough by making it sound like she was just clearing her throat. “Twilight? What do you think? You’re in on this whole thing too, right?”

Twilight nodded.

“Any ideas?” Rainbow asked, and judging by the way her face was going pale and Dazzling’s comment about ‘acting captain’, Twilight surmised that Rainbow wasn’t as happy to be in charge of her little rebellion as she had let on before. She didn’t know what to do.

And frankly, neither did Twilight.

Twilight did two stiff hops in the air, then stood on her hind hooves and wiggled her forehooves in the air, like she thought Pinkie would do.

Rainbow tilted her head and croaked out a baffled grumble, and Dazzling just looked in disbelief like she was watching a poor circus performance.

Twilight wasn’t getting through to them.

She took her hoof and wrote in the dirt, though her village’s taboo against writing was still so ingrained in her head that it made it too difficult for Twilight to force herself to write more than one word.

“PINK”

“You wanna run things by Pinkie Pie first?” Rainbow asked, and Twilight nodded. “Sounds good to me. We’ll get Sandstorm in on this thing too, and then the five of us can put our heads together and come up with a plan.”

“Works for me,” Dazzling Gleam nodded and flashed a smile, and Twilight noted it was the first time since Sunny Day showed up that Dazzling had smiled at all. “I’ll pack up the shop and we can bounce.”

“Sounds good!” Rainbow said, and once Dazzling was out of earshot in order to pack up her shop, Rainbow collapsed onto the ground and put her hooves on her head.

“Geez, what am I even doing? I can’t be an ‘acting captain’, I’m a total spaz! If Twilight hadn't been there I totally would’ve just punched Sunny right in his smug face and like it’s so obvious I would’ve been the next one to disappear—”

Rainbow looked up at Twilight, who was still standing at Rainbow’s side, and blinked. Twilight blinked back at her.

“I uh,” Rainbow stood up and dusted herself off, “didn’t realize you were still here.”

Twilight wondered what Pinkie Pie would do when faced with another pony’s obvious discomfort, and the answer was plain as day.

Twilight squeezed Rainbow in a tight hug, and while Rainbow was caught off-guard and hacked for a second, then tried to pull away from Twilight, when Twilight started to let go Rainbow froze.

Twilight resumed the hug, and Rainbow slowly sank into Twilight’s embrace.

“Thanks, Twi,” she said, making sure to whisper so nopony would hear her, “I really needed this.”

****

Pinkie waddled over to a stool sitting in front of a cool wooden bar, and once she managed to get herself on top of it, she patted her big ol’ belly proudly. Sandstorm taught her the secret technique of ‘dining and dashing’, and thanks to that Pinkie’s belly was fuller than it’d been since she left home, or possibly ever!

She’d maybe regret it later, but right now she felt GOOD.

She felt even better when she looked around the bar; it seemed like a place where everypony could just hang out and lose their troubles for a little bit. The Kirin who wandered slavishly outside looked dead on their hooves, but there were several Kirin in the bar who were having lively conversations with friends, and it warmed Pinkie’s heart.

And then Pinkie spied a very cute Kirin sitting at the edge of the bar; a silvery white coat of fur that looked like it’d been polished to a shine somehow, with a mane of deep purple hair that fell around her face in elegant curls.

She was super pretty and Pinkie really wanted to try and talk to her, but as soon as the mysterious mare of mystery turned her head in Pinkie’s direction, her icy blue eyes meeting Pinkie’s, Pinkie spun around and away from her, too embarrassed to even try looking at her.

“Bartender!” Pinkie pounded her hoof on the bar and sat up very dramatically and straight. “I would like some WATER, please! I would ask for milk, but I cannot afford it! I have no money!”

“C’mon, Pinkie Pie,” Sandstorm groaned, sitting on a barstool next to Pinkie and resting his forelegs on the bar, “don’t announce that to everypony in town.”

“Here you go, fellas,” the bartender said as he laid a pair of mugs in front of Pinkie and Sandstorm, though Pinkie barely registered what was happening as all of her hairs stood on end from being called ‘fella’, and she nervously darted her eyes all about to see if everypony was staring at her and clocking her as trans.

“Uh, wait what?” Sandstorm asked, looking into his mug and tilting his head. “We ordered water, I think this is cider?”

“Yep, apple cider,” the bartender said. “Used to be a real specialty in this neck of the woods. Anyhoo, it’s courtesy of the lady over there.” The bartender cocked his head to the side, and wouldn’t you know it, the pretty lady Pinkie was looking at earlier winked at Pinkie when she looked over again.

Pinkie knew an opportunity when she saw one, and she sidled up to the lady at the end of the bar, sitting in a stool right next to her.

“Hey, ma’am,” Pinkie put her foreleg on the bar and flashed a pretty cool-looking smile, if she did say so herself, “did you crawl out of hell? Cuz you are hot.”

The lady blinked and her formerly confident smile disappeared into a look of complete befuddlement. Pinkie’s cheeks turned pinker than usual and she cleared her throat, determined to try again.

“Uh, I mean,” Pinkie cleared her throat again but choked on some of her own spit and gave a loud hacking cough, but she didn’t let that deter her and smiled confidently at the pretty mare, “did you fall from heaven? Cuz your face looks busted.”

The pretty lady just put a hoof up to her lips and Pinkie could tell she screwed up again.

“SANDSTORM!” Pinkie shrieked. “HOW DO YOU FLIRT WITH GIRLS!?”

“I don’t!” Sandstorm called back. “I’m gay!”

“YEAH ME TOO!” Pinkie shouted. “IT’S NOT WORKING OUT SUPER WELL FOR ME AT THE MOMENT THOUGH!”

Pinkie nearly gasped as she felt a cold hoof underneath her chin, and that hoof gently pulled her head back to look at the pretty lady, whose eyes were glittering like the ocean under a starlit sky, and her lips were curved into a seductive smile.

“Darling,” she whispered, short-circuiting Pinkie’s brain instantly, “has anypony told you that your voice is sweeter than the very first song of spring?”

Pinkie paused, and she blinked. Her whole face was bright red now and she felt like there should’ve been steam comically pouring out of her ears. She had to say something though, so she mustered up all her linguistic prowess to reply with something that would charm this incredibly sexy lady.

“HRRRNG!” Pinkie grunted, biting down on her lip and raising her hooves in a mock-shield.

“You’re cute,” the lady giggled, taking a sip of her drink. “What’s your name? Mine is-” the woman paused for dramatic effect and ran a hoof through her beautiful mane “-Rarity.”

“P-P-Pi-Pi-Peepee-Pi-P-P-P-Pinpee—” Pinkie threw her hooves over her face and brought her head down onto the bar, tugging on her ears to try and cover her immense shame.

“Her name’s Pinkie Pie,” Sandstorm said, trotting over to join the conversation and taking a seat next to Pinkie, patting her mane comfortingly. “Mine’s Sandstorm, by the way.”

“It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you both,” Rarity said before taking another dainty sip of her cider. “Especially you, Pinkie Pie, you’re quite the doll.”

“YOU ARE!” Pinkie bolted her head up and yelled for the whole bar to hear, her sudden shouting met with suffocating silence.

“I am, yes,” Rarity examined her hoof and gave Pinkie a smirk and an aside-glance. “Thank you for noticing.”

Pinkie grabbed her cider—still sitting over by where she was sitting in the first place—in her magic and took a big gulping sip, but she took a little bit too much and choked, spewing cider all over the bar.

“Wow, Pinkie,” Sandstorm said drolly, “you’re really good at first impressions.”

“Thanks,” Pinkie snarked back, “your mom thought so too.”

Sandstorm narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to respond with a witty comeback, but he was interrupted by Rarity’s snort, Pinkie turning to see her giggling and Pinkie’s bad joke and that filled Pinkie’s heart with affection.

“So what brings you to Appleloosa, Pinkie Pie?” Rarity asked, resting one foreleg on the bar.

“Oh, I’m here to overthrow the local government,” Pinkie responded gleefully, Sandstorm choking on his cider and spitting it down onto the floor.

“PINKIE!” Sandstorm yelped. He grabbed Pinkie’s scruff with his magic and pulled her into a huddle, whispering harshly “Don’t just say stuff like that!”

“Why not?” Pinkie asked confusedly. “It’s not like anypony here actually likes the Flim Flam Brothers, right?”

“You’re not wrong,” Rarity chortled, and Pinkie threw her hooves to point emphatically at Rarity.

“Y’SEE?” Pinkie said to Sandstorm, scoffing at the naïve Kirin’s ignorance.

“Yeah,” Sandstorm grumbled through gritted teeth, “I still don’t think it’s a great idea to announce that to literally everypony in town.”

“It’s not everypony in town,” Pinkie scoffed again and batted her hoof, “just everypony in this bar.”

“So anyway,” Rarity loudly cleared her throat, and Pinkie snapped to attention, placing her foreleg on the bar and resting her cheek on her hoof. “I was wondering, since you’re no fan of the Flim Flam Brothers yourself, if you’d like to help a girl out.”

“YES? Obviously?!” Pinkie said excitedly, enthusiastic about being helpful and getting the attention of this hot girl.

“Kirin are disappearing in this town,” Rarity said coldly, and Pinkie appreciated that she sure wasn’t beating around the bush at all, “and it doesn’t take a genius to know that the Flim Flam Brothers are behind it all. I want to stop them, and to rescue the Kirin who have been kidnapped, if I can.”

“Okay, so what do you want us to do?” Pinkie leaned in, pounding her little hooves on the bar.

“Well, I was—” Rarity was about to say something important probably, but the doors to the bar swung open and Twilight walked in, and she immediately became all Pinkie could care about.

“TWILIGHT!!” Pinkie shrieked in delight, bounding like a rocket off the bar and throwing herself straight at Twilight, bowling her over and knocking both girls out of the bar, the two tumbling through the dirt for a moment before hitting another building, with Pinkie lying on the ground and Twilight on top of her. Pinkie didn’t hate the view. “I missed you!”

Twilight got off of Pinkie, which made Pinkie feel a little disappointed honestly, and helped her off the ground, Pinkie bouncing up quickly and asking Twilight how her day was, but Twilight of course couldn’t say much of anything so she just shrugged.

And yet, even though Twilight couldn’t emote at all, Pinkie felt warmer and safer with her nearby.
> 05. A Battle Between Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Twilight and Pinkie Pie returned to the bar that Pinkie’s rather impressive bounce had propelled them both out of, Twilight observed Pinkie while she hopped up and down beside Twilight, shooting Twilight an aside glance and following it up with a beaming smile.

Twilight wasn’t quite sure what to make of Pinkie’s smile; she wasn’t sure what could have caused such a wide and seemingly pleased smile just from looking at Twilight, though she supposed it was a good thing for Pinkie Pie to be in a good mood, and Twilight reasoned it would only be polite to return Pinkie’s smile.

But she couldn’t.

Twilight tried to move the muscles of her mouth into a smile but it wasn’t happening, and Twilight halted in her tracks as she strained to do so.

“Are you okay?” Pinkie asked, her smile gone as she looked with a furrowed brow and concerned eyes toward Twilight straining to smile.

Twilight nodded. It wouldn’t do to make Pinkie Pie worry.

“Are you sure?” Pinkie asked, cocking her head, her ears flopping along with the motion ever so slightly in a way that Twilight couldn’t help but be transfixed by for a moment.

Twilight nodded again and stuck her hoof into the dirt of Appleloosa’s dusty road; there were a few lonely ponies loitering around the various businesses on either side of the road, but the road itself was empty so nopony would be disturbed by Twilight as she struggled against her village’s teachings ingrained in her mind and drew a symbol in the dirt for Pinkie Pie.

:)

Pinkie looked at the symbol and it took a moment for her to react, and in that moment Twilight wondered if perhaps Pinkie didn’t like it, and if Twilight had mistaken what the right response to Pinkie’s smile should have been. That would be unfortunate.

Twilight’s presumption that she had made a mistake only grew when she saw the dirt at Pinkie’s hooves become stained by her tears, and Twilight looked up from said dirt to lock eyes with Pinkie, whose eyes were pouring like faucets, her whole face scrunched up into a blubbering mess.

Twilight tilted her head. Did Pinkie not like the symbol?

“I-I love it!” Pinkie sniffed. “Y-you drew a smiley for me! You like me!”

Twilight hadn't considered that before. She wasn’t sure she could still ‘like’ things, but if she could, she was certain that she did-slash-would like Pinkie Pie.

So she nodded, and Pinkie threw herself off the ground and tackled Twilight into a big hug, pinning her to the ground as Pinkie buried her face in Twilight’s fluffy mane, Pinkie’s sobs barely audible inside Twilight’s fluff.

Twilight, of course, did the only responsible thing to do and put her forelegs around Pinkie, embracing her in a comforting hug while Pinkie cried herself out. Twilight knew it would only be a matter of time, and there was no sense in Pinkie feeling alone or unsafe while she was with Twilight. Pinkie could cry on Twilight all day if she needed to, for all Twilight cared.

“Hey! You guys alright!?” Rainbow Dash called out, her head poking out the door to the bar.

Hm. Perhaps Pinkie didn’t have all day to cry after all.

“Yuppers!” Pinkie sprung to her hooves and waved to Rainbow Dash. “All good here!”

Was she lying?

No, when Pinkie turned her head to Twilight, her eyes were still watery but her smile was bigger than ever, and Twilight didn’t detect even a smidge of insincerity to it.

Twilight put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. If Pinkie wasn’t okay, it was important for Twilight to know about it.

“You’re the best, Twilight Sparkle,” Pinkie giggled and wiped her eye. “Sorry I got a little carried away there, I—”

Twilight shook her head and put a hoof on Pinkie’s lips. Twilight didn’t want to hear any apologies from Pinkie for her behavior. There was nothing wrong with it, as far as Twilight was concerned.

Twilight cocked her head toward the bar and headed in that direction, Pinkie bouncing along beside her the entire way, humming to herself with a big smile still on her face; bigger even than when Twilight first looked.



The tavern was rather sparse, with only about three patrons occupying its corners and very little in the way of decoration or flourish. Compared to Rainbow’s house, it looked like a mansion, but that it could even be compared to Rainbow’s house spoke volumes about its bleak state.

“Oh, Twilight! Twilight, over here!” Pinkie clamored, hopping up and down in front of the bar and pointing frantically to a silver-coated Kirin sitting on a stool and looking over her shoulder at Twilight.

The mare in question was aesthetically beautiful, with soft, curvy features, and her coat and mane were both immaculately groomed to the point of almost shimmering. She wore a flirtatious smirk and her deep blue eyes almost seemed to beckon Twilight closer to her.

Twilight felt her cheeks heating up and she didn’t know why.

Twilight turned her attention for just a moment to Rainbow Dash, sulking at the other end of the bar, with Dazzling Gleam consoling her with a pat on the back. Twilight wasn’t sure what to make of that, so she put it out of her mind. Next to the two was another Kirin, who Twilight didn’t recognize. Probably Rainbow’s other friend that she had mentioned— the one that was hanging out with Pinkie— Sandstorm.

“Hey, Rainbow!” Pinkie yelled across the bar. “You gotta come over here and meet my new friend Rarity!”

“Pay her no mind, darling,” Rarity said softly, returning her attention to her drink as Twilight sat up on a stool next to Pinkie Pie. “Rainbow Dash and I have… history.”

“Ooooooh!” Pinkie cooed, tapping her hooves on the bar.

Twilight, for her part, looked over at Rainbow, who must have sensed Twilight’s gaze since she turned to look over at Twilight, who blinked twice at Rainbow. Rainbow hung her head and groaned, but then arched her back and nodded at Twilight, giving her a big albeit shaky smile.

Good enough for Twilight. If Rainbow was okay working with this Rarity despite their ‘history’, and Pinkie trusted her, Twilight would put her trust in Rarity as well.

“SOOOOO,” Pinkie said with a gigantic smile, placing a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder as well as on Twilight’s, “this is my good friend Twilight Sparkle—”

Pinkie coughed and retracted her hooves; she opened her mouth to speak but Twilight put her hoof on Pinkie’s mouth and merely nodded her head. Pinkie didn’t need to ask if they were indeed good friends— as far as Twilight was concerned, they were.

“Ahem,” Pinkie cleared her throat and put her hoof around Rarity, who looked amused at Pinkie’s forwardness as Pinkie scooched Rarity’s stool closer to Twilight’s, “and this is my new friend, Rarity!”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Twilight Sparkle,” Rarity hopped over to Pinkie’s stool, now vacant as Pinkie was content to sit on the bar, and reached her hoof out to Twilight, who took it politely.

A silent beat.

Rarity wasn’t yet aware that Twilight couldn’t speak.

“Rather the quiet one, I see,” Rarity chuckled, placing her hoof in front of her mouth. Pinkie whispered into Rarity’s ear and Rarity’s eyes widened, an obvious blush streaking across her face. “My apologies, I didn’t realize you—”

Twilight shook her head and batted her hoof.

“Anyhoo,” Rarity cleared her throat, “let’s get down to business then, shall we?”

“Yeah! Rarity’s gonna help us fight the Storm King, Twilight!” Pinkie clamored, pounding her hooves on the bar.

“That is my plan,” Rarity giggled at Pinkie’s antics, and Twilight took a look around the bar to see if anyone paid Pinkie’s words any mind.

Nopony seemed to even notice, which struck Twilight as peculiar. A pony raving about overthrowing the Storm King couldn’t have been an everyday occurrence here, could it?

Unless it was, and that was the reason why Kirin were beginning to disappear. In which case, are the bar patrons simply unfazed by a familiar refrain, or could it be possible that—

“Twilight Sparkle?” Rarity asked, prodding Twilight delicately with her hoof. “Are you listening?”

No. Twilight had gotten lost in thought and heard not a single word Rarity had said.

Twilight shook her head and hopped off the stool, onto the creaky wooden floor of the tavern.

“Twilight!” Pinkie gasped. “Don’t be rude!”

“It’s quite alright, darling,” Rarity sighed, and her tone made it sound anything but alright. Twilight could apologize for her rudeness later, however. Right now she had more pressing matters to attend to.

Twilight turned her head to Pinkie and Rarity, and held up a hoof to her own eyes, then pointed at Pinkie Pie.

“You’re watching me?” Pinkie tilted her head, though her ears suddenly perked up and she bit down on her lip.

“We’re being watched,” Rarity stated correctly, Twilight nodding her head. Rarity’s face twisted into a scowl and she let out a bitter growl. “You’ve already talked to Sunny Day. He’s already given you his offer, hasn’t he?”

Twilight nodded.

“Then of course he’s watching,” Rarity’s eyes darted around the room, like she thought she could detect a hint of Sunny Day’s presence with just her eyes. “Sunny Day always keeps an eye on outsiders after he makes first contact with them.”

“R-really?” Rainbow Dash said, having approached the conversation and sidling up next to Twilight. “I didn’t— I didn’t know that.”

“He wouldn’t want you to,” Rarity said. “And no offense meant, but you don’t exactly have a deft hoof for subtly like I have.”

Rainbow grumbled, but didn’t reply.

“So what do we do?” Pinkie asked, loafing up on the bar next to Rarity.

Frankly, Twilight wasn’t surprised by any of this. She wasn’t surprised that Sunny Day was still watching her, in fact she suspected that he was and was operating under that assumption; hearing her suspicions be confirmed was actually good news in her mind.

She could feel a faint presence ever since she talked to him, and she could feel the eyes of ponies and Kirin that she walked past, even as they tried their best to remain casual. They were likely able to hide their spying from other Kirin before, but there was little that could be hidden from Twilight Sparkle.

“Hey gals,” Dazzling Gleam said in dry tone as she and Sandstorm approached the little gathering of Kirin, and as the six Kirin wandered closer together, Twilight could feel the prying eyes of the surrounding patrons intensifying. “What’s going on over here?”

Pinkie Pie explained the brief conversation that had gone on before Dazzling and Sandstorm got involved, and both of them looked ready to turn into Nirik at any moment.

“So what do we do?” Sandstorm growled, dust spilling out between his gritted teeth as he tried to keep his emotions under control. “We can’t just stand here and—”

Twilight picked up the nearest spying patron and threw him out the door, following suit with the other two patrons whose eyes were locked on Twilight. She was tired of waiting too.

“Huh,” Pinkie Pie hummed. “Twilight, did you know we were being watched this whole time?”

Twilight nodded. She didn’t know, but she was at least ninety-percent certain, and this wasn’t the time to be splitting hairs.

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash sputtered, “you knew Sunny was watching us this whole time and didn’t say anything?! What the heck?!”

Twilight shrugged and held her hooves over her head, she slapped them against the ground and then held them in front of herself in an X-formation.

“Ooooh, you were waiting for Sunny to make the first move?” Pinkie said. “Cuz you wanted to play defense.”

Twilight nodded.

Rarity laughed, and Dazzling Gleam rolled her eyes. Sandstorm’s eye twitched and his mouth hung open, but he said nothing. Rainbow looked like she wanted to say something, but she just shook her head and whispered “okay, sure” under her breath.

Was Pinkie Pie’s ability to intuitively understand Twilight unusual? She found it most convenient, and wondered why anyone could have a negative or perturbed reaction to it.

The doors to the tavern slowly creaked open, and Sunny Day walked in, almost a dozen armored soldiers guarding him from behind.

Twilight took the mood of her allies; Pinkie was still in a loaf but looked ready to pounce at any moment, Rarity’s expression was completely indecipherable, but she looked as though she was staring straight through Sunny Day.

Rainbow and Dazzling Gleam looked ready to bare their fangs but they kept themselves under control, Dazzling making it look far easier than Rainbow, as the rainbow-maned Kirin twitched and tapped her hoof on the ground.

Sandstorm stared at Sunny, his eyes focused on the treacherous Kirin like a laser, and while his face betrayed no emotion— a fascinating parallel to Twilight’s own— Twilight could feel the heat of Sandstorm’s intense rage rolling off of him.

“You were onto me this whole time, Twilight Sparkle?” Sunny Day said, sounding nonplussed by Twilight seeing through his charade. “And you didn’t say anything? How rude.”

“SUNNY DAY!” Sandstorm snarled, his eyes glowing pure white as his Nirik transformation begun.

“Hm?” Sunny barely glanced at Sandstorm. “Is there a fly buzzing in this room?”

“Things are about to get ugly in here,” Rarity said, her eyes falling on Dazzling Gleam as she tried to restrain Sandstorm, who was quickly turning into a savage beast, “and I don’t think this tiny little bar will be able to contain what’s about to happen.”

“So,” Sunny Day sighed, Twilight looking at him through her peripheral vision, “I take it this means you won’t be working with me, Twilight Sparkle?”

“No way!” Pinkie yelled, standing tall and stomping her hoof on the bar. “We’ll never work with the Storm King, right Twilight?!”

Twilight nodded.

Twilight gave one last cursory glance to Sandstorm, who looked like he was about to break free from Dazzling’s restraints, even with Rainbow helping to hold him back.

“Sandstorm, Twilight,” Pinkie said calmly, and Twilight looked up to Pinkie without hesitation. “Let me handle Sunny Day, okay?”

Twilight nodded. Sandstorm growled and sputtered, but Twilight walked in front of him and looked him right in the eye, and he settled down. Twilight turned to Pinkie and nodded again.

“Great, thanks!” Pinkie squeaked, before bouncing off the bar with lightning speed and rocketing into Sunny Day, crashing into him and through the tavern wall, removing them both from what was about to become a very ugly tavern brawl.



****



Sunny Day tossed Pinkie off of him and they stood in the middle of the dusty road, staring daggers at each other.

“It’s just you and me, Sunny,” Pinkie said coolly, scraping her hoof across the dirt.

“Are you super sure about that?” Sunny Day snorted, and Pinkie took a sec to look at the twenty or so pony soldiers that were stationed in front of nearby buildings, surrounding what Pinkie had thought would be a one-on-one Kirin fight.

“Are you super sure?” Pinkie asked, cocking her head back and crossing her hooves in front of her, trying to project as much confidence as possible, and she felt like she was doing a pretty good job! “You really don’t wanna fight me one-on-one? Everypony already thinks you’re a bootlicker, you don’t wanna try and prove them wrong?”

“The opinions of fools mean very little to me,” Sunny hissed, the twitch of his eye telling a much different story than his words.

“I mean, not to brag but I’m a pretty big deal,” Pinkie played with one of the curls in her mane. “The Storm King wants me alive, and there’s no way you haven’t seen my wanted posters, right?”

“I haven’t, actually,” Sunny Day said drolly, his patience apparently wearing pretty thin. Pinkie’s eyes flickered toward him for a sec in confusion; didn’t look like he was lying, but that was super weird. Why wouldn’t Pinkie’s wanted posters be all over the place in Appleloosa?

Unless… oh.

Pinkie couldn’t hold back her laughter as she realized what was going on.

“What’s so funny?” Sunny Day asked irritably, taking a step closer to Pinkie, which was a good sign for her if he was approaching on his own instead of sending his troops in.

“I know Tirek had my poster,” Pinkie said coyly, putting a hoof up to her chin, “he knew my name and face and everything. I wonder why he wouldn’t have shared that information with other ponies?”

“What are you getting at?” Sunny growled.

“Duh,” Pinkie snorted, grinning confidently at Sunny and trying not to laugh as he progressively got even more steamed. “Tirek obviously wants all the credit for bringing me in. So he doesn’t want anyone else to know what a big deal I am.”

“And just why should I believe any of this nonsense?” Sunny scoffed.

“I mean, you don’t have to,” Pinkie shrugged. “But can you really afford to take a chance that I’m lying?”

Sunny paused, and Pinkie let her grin widen just an inch.

“If what you’re saying is true,” Sunny Day took a deep breath and composed himself, “why shouldn’t I just let my soldiers bring you in and—”

“Oh you can totally do that,” Pinkie nodded, waving off Sunny Day super dismissively. “I mean, if you want the FlimFlam Bros. to get all the credit.”

Again, Sunny paused. He was on Pinkie’s hook now, she could feel it in her bones, all she had to do was reel him in gently.

“You like to think you’re a big man here in Appleloosa, huh?” Pinkie said, pacing back and forth and making an obvious show of how unimpressed by him she was. “But Appleloosa is like the least important Grove in Equestria. The Storm King left ponies in charge of it, for heck’s sake!

“But sure Sunny, you’re a big huge deal, right? That’s why you’re here licking the FlimFlim Brothers’ boots, that’s why they get all the credit of your accomplishments, that’s why you’re flanked by a bunch of pony soldiers, hired guns of the FlimFlammers, instead of getting any support from the Storm King herself.

“You are such a big deal, Sunny.”

“Soldiers,” Sunny Day licked his lips and took several intentional steps toward Pinkie, who tried not to look too excited, “stand down. I feel like this girl needs a wee lesson in humility.”

“Whatever floats your boat,” Pinkie said, blood pumping and heart pounding as she readied herself for a real fight.

Pinkie Pie and Sunny Day slowly walked around each other in a circle, sizing the other up before engaging; Pinkie didn’t know squat about Sunny or his fighting style, and while she didn’t take him seriously as a person, she could sense his magic wasn’t anything to sneeze at.

Pinkie would prefer to wait for Sunny’s attack and then counterattack, that was usually her jam, but as the seconds passed and Sunny just kinda stood there it became clear that Sunny was thinking the same thing, which meant this was gonna become a battle of patience which uh, hoo boy did that put Pinkie at a disadvantage.

Also it didn’t help that Sunny’s horn was already glowing, which meant he was already doing something, Pinkie just couldn’t tell what.

All this thinking was starting to make Pinkie sweat and she wiped her brow, making sure not to let her eyes leave Sunny for even a second just in case he tried something, but oof it was getting hard to think with all this—

—heat.

Hm.

Pinkie could’ve sworn it wasn’t nearly this hot when she was out in the sun before, and even if it was afternoon now and the sun was right above her, this sudden wave of heat rolling over her sure was suspicious.

“So you’re a Fire Nature, huh?” Pinkie said, taking deep breaths and straightening up her posture.

“And what if I am?” Sunny said coyly, raising a hoof to his lips. “What will you do about it?”

“Hmm, I’m thinking I’ll—”

Pinkie cut herself off with a magically-enhanced pounce, thinking she’d grab Sunny quicker than he could react and end this thing before it even really started.

But her plan was shaken up when she passed right through Sunny Day’s body, slamming into a wooden beam on the deck of a nearby building instead. Pinkie shook her head and quickly got to her hooves, growling at the two Sunny Days that appeared in place of the mirage Pinkie had tackled through.

“What’s the matter Pinkie Pie?” Sunny Day chuckled, and hearing his voice coming out of two bodies made Pinkie’s head hurt more than it already did. “Not quite feeling yourself right now?”

Pinkie grumbled and tried to shake off the heat, but with every second Sunny’s magic made that harder and harder.

He had a good thing going; batter Pinkie with unbearably oppressive heat and make her waste all her energy fighting mirages, then go in for the kill. But Pinkie wasn’t about to throw in the towel, though she really could’ve used a towel to deal with all this sweat. It was starting to sting her eyes!

Pinkie shut her eyes and took in a deep breath, letting the magic of Equestria’s nature and wildlife flow through her like wind whistling through a field of bamboo. For a single second she could feel the breeze on her fur, brushing off the sweat and grime Sunny’s magic had left on her.

For a moment she could feel herself, alone with the universe, and when she snapped her eyes open she was ready to fight back.

Pinkie channeled her magic into her hind legs and bounced off the ground, Sunny Day just looking amused at her efforts, but Pinkie let out a single laugh as she passed right by him on purpose, turning in the air and using her magic to bounce off the air itself toward Sunny, who spun around to try and deflect her attack, eyes widening like saucers.

Pinkie didn’t attack Sunny though, she bounced right by him again, hitting the ground and bouncing up toward the air, then bouncing off the air again, and again and again like a pinball until she was sure Sunny Day’s head was spinning trying to keep up with her movements.

Then she hit him, slamming right into him with a flying kick that sent him crashing into the same wooden beam Pinkie had been knocked into earlier, a satisfying crack resounding in Pinkie’s ears as the wood splintered from the impact.

Pinkie had forgotten how much fun fighting could be, but she was really starting to get into a rhythm now. She launched herself at Sunny, getting ready to hit him with a super cool spinning kick before he could recover, but he managed to duck and slide under Pinkie’s attack and get back into a defensive stance.

As Pinkie settled on the ground a few inches away, she noticed that Sunny’s speed wasn’t anything too impressive; Pinkie definitely had the edge there, so if she just got a chance to capitalize on it, this fight was as good as hers.

Pinkie charged in and Sunny stood his ground but was clearly getting ready to dodge, but Pinkie had no intention of giving him that option. Instead of hitting Sunny directly, Pinkie slammed her hooves on the ground in front of him, using her magic to bounce Sunny helplessly up into the air.

Pinkie jumped up and hit Sunny with that spinning kick she owed him, and he crashed into the dirt in a heap, coughing and sputtering as he stood up on shaky legs.

Sunny’s horn flashed with yellow light that forced Pinkie to shut her eyes for a sec, and when she opened them she saw like a bunch of Sunny Days. She tried to count them but there were too many and she kept getting distracted but she guessed there was like fifteen maybe.

“Oh are you using this silly trick again?” Pinkie kicked her hoof and scoffed. “I don’t think that’s gonna work on me this time.”

“You should know better by now,” Sunny said softly, an evil glint in his eye— or eyes cuz he had like thirty of ‘em, “than to judge so quickly by appearances.”

Pinkie puffed up her cheeks as the mirror images of Sunny slowly surrounded her. She didn’t like being lectured, but she really didn’t like having a bunch of mean guys surrounding her, even if it was just a bunch of illusory clones of one mean guy.

Pinkie needed to find out which one was the real one and fast, and while she did find it kinda weird that Sunny wasn’t attacking her— he looked like he was just waiting for her to make the next move— she didn’t think it was a great idea to dwell on that too much. No sense in overthinking stuff, Pinkie preferred to just not think about stuff at all.

Speaking of stuff, Pinkie had a great idea to figure out which Sunny was the real Sunny! She created a little pinch of magical pocket confetti and threw it at a group of the illusions; the real Sunny would react to its magic, and it’d just phase right through any fake Sunny.

Pinkie thought it was a brilliant plan!

Until the confetti touched the illusions and detonated them.

Pinkie only had a fraction of a second to react, her eyes widening and her ears standing straight up as she realized what was about to happen and that she had no way to stop it, and before she knew it, all of the illusions surrounding her exploded in a chain reaction, engulfing Pinkie in searing flames, the sounds of the explosions washing away her screams.

Quite frankly, Pinkie was surprised she was even still alive, but she couldn’t move and her body felt like every inch of it had been dipped in boiling frenchfry oil and she just wanted to cry but all that came out was a measly little whimper.

Fighting suddenly didn’t feel as fun as she remembered it being.

“Wow,” Sunny said coldly, standing over Pinkie Pie has she twitched and squirmed and tried to get some feeling back in her little crispy body. “Even I’m amazed by just how much you charged right into my trap. Worked better than I could’ve imagined.”

Pinkie looked away from Sunny and felt her face heating up, but in like an embarrassed way not in a ‘her skin was on fire’ way, though it felt like that too. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and she wondered how this happened.

She thought for sure she was stronger than this. She was stronger than this! But maybe she was only strong when she was with her.

No, no that’s ridiculous! She wanted to be with me because I was strong!

But if that was the case, she sure wasn’t showing that strength now.

“Soldiers,” Sunny said, “you can take her to the tower now. This fight is over.”

NO.

Pinkie growled under her breath.

No, there was no way Pinkie was gonna let the fight end like this.

Sunny had done nothing but be mean to her and disrespect her, and now he was gonna get off scot-free? After betraying Sandstorm and the others? After siding with the Storm King and licking the Flim-Flam Brothers’ boots?

No way.

I’m NOT gonna let that happen!

Pinkie snarled and stood on her hooves, and when Sunny turned to face her, he wasn’t met with the cuddly pink Kirin Pinkie was used to being; what he saw was a being of bloodlust and vengeance, whose pitch black body was covered in brambly thorns and whose eyes burned with nothing but hatred and anger.

She was a Nirik.

“Soldiers! Stand ba—”

Sunny’s words were cut off when Pinkie rushed toward him at mach speed and laid him out with a devastating punch, sending him crashing to the ground. But Pinkie wasn’t done, not even close. She jumped into the air and aimed to smash Sunny Day under the full weight of her Nirik form, crushing him into dust with one powerful blow.

Sunny just barely rolled out of the way, and it was a good thing for him too because Pinkie’s landing shattered the earth she landed on, leaving a sizable crack in the ground under her hooves. If Sunny’s head had been under her hoof instead, he would’ve been killed instantly.

And when Pinkie realized this— when she saw the cracks under her hooves and realized she came within a hair’s breadth of killing another creature— her rage disappeared, and her Nirik form along with it.

Pinkie barely even registered Sunny’s frantic pleas to his soldiers to arrest Pinkie, and she didn’t bother to fight back as they shackled her and started dragging her toward the tower.

This is what she deserved.
> 06. A Simple Matter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

So Pinkie got thrown in jail. It happens. Sort of an occupational hazard when trying to overthrow a local government.

She was locked in a cold, iron cell— very dark and dreary, with super uncomfortable iron shackles fixing her to the wall, all in an effort to suppress her Wood Nature magic. Pinkie tried to squirm a little to test her shackles but yeah she wasn’t going anywhere right now.

On the bright side, she’d gotten a bit of her spark back on the trip to the jail. She was feeling a little bit more like her old self, though she still felt bad about nearly killing Sunny Day.

Speaking of Sunny, he was standing in front of Pinkie’s cell. Pinkie figured he was gloating or something? She wasn’t really listening to him.

“Let’s see you try to ‘rebel’ from inside that cage,” Sunny said smugly.

And Pinkie couldn’t hold back a giggle at his expense.

“What’s so funny?” Sunny asked irritably, hoof tapping on one of the cell bars.

“Sorry, it’s just-” Pinkie interrupted herself to laugh again “-you’re just trying so hard! I don’t mean to laugh, but your tiny little fragile ego is just funny!”

Sunny didn’t like that. Oooh no he didn’t like that at all.

He was steaming like a tea kettle as he stared daggers into Pinkie’s eyes, and Pinkie tried really, really hard to take him seriously, but she just couldn’t help laughing again.

“Why are you even working for the Storm King—” Pinkie snorted. “Heck, not even the Storm King, you’re working for the freakin’ Flim-Flam Brothers! Two hired guns in the Storm King’s army that I promise you she doesn’t give a crap about! Those are the boots you wanna lick? That’s? I mean c’mon, how can I respond to that with anything but laughter? Hehe, butt.”

Pinkie drove her point home by giggling furiously, wiggling her little legs as much as they’d wiggle with the rattly chains holding them down.

“You wouldn’t understa—”

“No I understand perfectly!” Pinkie grinned ear-to-ear. “You got scared by the soldiers and you thought the best way for you to not get hurt was to join them! You probably didn’t even think about your friends when you made the decision, but by the time you had a chance to think about it, it was too late! Your ego wouldn’t let you back down so you just kinda stuck around with them.

“Now you’re desperate to rise through the ranks, cuz you can’t admit that you screwed up big time, and you need your bad decision to mean something, anything, and all you can think to do is gain the respect of the fascists you’ve thrown your lot in with. I get it!”

Sunny shut down completely; his sharp glare from earlier had completely disappeared and been replaced by an awkward, blank stare. Looks like Pinkie really squished that tiny ego of his.

“You know,” Pinkie hummed, “it isn’t too late to turn back.”

“What,” Sunny said flatly, grinding his teeth.

“To the good guys’ side, I mean!” Pinkie chirped, and now it was Sunny who was laughing, but his laugh was bitter and sharp, unlike Pinkie’s soft and bubbly laughter.

“You really think life is as simple as ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’?” Sunny scoffed. “You’re so naïve.” Sunny let out another bitter chuckle, and Pinkie rolled her eyes.

“You sure like to laugh at stuff that’s not funny,” Pinkie griped. “Cuz like, yeah I do think it’s as simple as ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’! The guys trying to take over Equestria, the ones who are burning people’s homes, kidnapping and enslaving, even killing people? Those are the bad guys actually! The ones trying to stop those things? Those are the good guys! It really is that simple!”

“You’re hopelessly naïve,” Sunny shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“And you’re hopelessly dull,” Pinkie yawned.

Sunny grumbled and shot Pinkie a nasty look, but before he could say anything, Pinkie cut him off; she really wasn’t interested in listening to his boring speeches anymore.

“Look, Sunny,” Pinkie said, “I know how it feels to be scared. I know what it’s like to feel like everything you care about could be taken away from you at any moment. But the Storm King isn’t gonna have your back.

“What you need is the magic of friendship. Friends will help you outta a jam where soldiers will let you rot, and I know you used to have some really good friends who would love for you to come back to them.”

“It’s too late for that now,” Sunny muttered under his breath, and Pinkie had the suspicion that he really didn’t mean to say that, especially for Pinkie to hear.

“It’s never too late for friendship, Sunny,” Pinkie smiled.

Sunny’s eye twitched and he looked like he was gonna say something else, but then a pony soldier wandered in and whispered something into Sunny’s ear.

“The tower is under attack?!” Sunny said, aghast, and Pinkie couldn’t help letting out a howling laugh.

“Hey that’s that magic of friendship I was just talking about!” Pinkie beamed. “I betcha anything those are my friends coming to rescue me! And let me tell ya, Sunny, you don’t stand a chance against Twilight Sparkle!”

Sunny groaned and tapped his hoof against his forehead.

“Have this woman fit with a bridle,” Sunny grumbled, “I don’t want to hear her voice ever again.”

And with that, Sunny disappeared to deal with the tower attack, leaving Pinkie alone in her cell. She didn’t really mind though; she had a good feeling she wasn’t gonna be in there for very long.

****

Twilight Sparkle believed that breaking into the Flim-Flam Brothers’ tower would be a simple matter. The reality of the situation was somehow even simpler than she imagined it.

The plan was for Twilight’s group to break into two teams; while Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Sandstorm attacked the tower from the front doors, Rarity and Dazzling Gleam were to infiltrate the tower from behind or below, rescue Pinkie Pie and the other prisoners, and reconvene with Twilight’s group so they could defeat the Flim-Flam Brothers once and for all.

But as Twilight’s three-pony cell stood in a large circular plaza inside the tower, surrounded by the unconscious bodies of weak pony soldiers whom they had effortlessly beaten, Twilight wondered if they would even need to wait for the infiltration team at all.

“Wow, that was it!?” Rainbow exclaimed, kicking a downed soldier in the head. “What were we afraid of this whole time?!”

A fair question, but Twilight presumed that the truth of the matter was that the soldiers’ intimidation factor worked against them in the end; they were so certain they had the people cowed, that they believed nopony would ever fight back, and they simply weren’t prepared when Twilight and her allies did just that.

But now, the first battle was over with a victory for Twilight’s camp, yet there was something that gave Twilight pause.

She watched Sandstorm as he agitatedly kicked his hoof against the downed soldiers, or scraped his hooves across the concrete, his body twitching with every gesture. Something was getting to him, and it was only getting worse with time.

Twilight trotted over to Rainbow and prodded her, wanting to hear her opinion on the matter. And while it took a moment or two for Rainbow to understand what Twilight was gesturing at, Rainbow did indeed take notice of Sandstorm’s peculiar behavior.

“Hey, Sandstorm!”

Though instead of sharing any information with Twilight, she elected to simply go to the source herself.

Fair enough, Twilight supposed; Twilight figured she would be able to come up with an effective plan to deal with Sandstorm’s problems if she had enough information to understand it, but it wasn’t her place to butt into matters between friends.

“What?” Sandstorm hissed.

“What’s up with you, dude?” Rainbow asked. “You’re acting all… fidgety.”

“I’m just itching to get this over with,” Sandstorm sighed. “So let’s just quit the talking and—”

“Ever the impatient one,” a familiar soft masculine voice came from the far door, Sunny Day making his presence known with a sigh. “Haven’t changed much, eh Sandstorm?”

Sandstorm didn’t respond with words, just a guttural growl that let everyone in the room know exactly how he felt about Sunny Day.

Sunny Day, meanwhile, had not quite caught up to the fact that he had just entered a room full of battered and bloodied soldiers, and when that realization finally hit him, his smug demeanor disappeared in a second, replaced with obvious, visible concern.

“Sunny,” Rainbow Dash growled, “you have one chance to surrender. Use it wisely.”

“Surrender?” Sunny balked. “Surrender?! You think I’m going to surrender now!? NO! I will not allow two random Kirin who just happened to show up on my doorstep ruin everything I’ve built!”

“What you’ve built?” Sandstorm snarled and pushed his way past Rainbow Dash, approaching Sunny Day with bloodlust in his eyes. “What about what we were gonna build? Together?! Have you just forgotten about everyth—”

“I gave you the chance to come with me!” Sunny shot back, but the way he recoiled into the wall behind him made his desperation and worry obvious.

“Don’t give me that crap!” Sandstorm spat. “Did you honestly think I was just gonna turn my back on my friends? On my community, on my ethics?! I could never work for the Storm King! And I thought that you were the same way, Sunny.”

Sandstorm’s rage subsided as he was only a couple of feet from Sunny Day. Rainbow was watching them carefully, apparently not keen on intervening; Twilight wasn’t interested in interrupting them either, unless things got violent enough that Twilight suspected one of them might be seriously injured.

Sunny Day may have been an enemy, but Twilight had no reason to simply stand by and let him be killed.

“Well—you—” Sunny grasped at straws to try to find a defense for his actions, but confronted by the pain and righteous anger of a Kirin whom he used to hold dear, all his justifications were failing him.

Not that it mattered much; apparently Rainbow Dash had gotten bored of waiting for Sunny and Sandstorm’s reunion to play out and in the time it took for Twilight to blink, Rainbow was standing over Sunny Day, who was lying on the ground, laid out by Rainbow Dash’s punch.

“Just give it up, Sunny,” Rainbow scoffed smugly. “You’re getting your butt kicked right here, right now, and you can spend the rest of your life regretting the shitty decisions that led up to this moment. And honestly? You kinda have it coming. You’re just getting what you deserve right now.”

“No,” Sandstorm said coldly. “This isn’t what he deserves.”

“Eh?” Rainbow balked, and Twilight suddenly felt the fur on her neck standing on edge.

“Sunny Day deserved better,” Sandstorm growled, his dull roar barely escaping his lips past gritted teeth. “He deserved to live a happy and fun-filled life, with me. Where we got to follow our dreams together and move into a nice house, and smooch every day.

“And that was ruined by the Storm King.”

“Yeah?” Rainbow said, disinterested. “And?”

“I can’t believe—” Sandstorm shook his head before shoving Rainbow Dash out of the way and pointing an accusatory hoof at Sunny Day, still lying on the ground with a hoof over his swollen cheek. “I can’t believe I trusted you! I can’t believe I loved you, and you just threw me to the wolves like garbage!

“And despite all of that, I can’t believe that I still love you!” Sandstorm’s voice was strained as tears fell from his eyes, but if Sunny Day was moved by Sandstorm’s emotion, he didn’t show it. “I can’t believe after everything, all I want is to beg you to come back to our side so we can be happy together— I can’t believe all I want is for you to come back and to love me.

“I—” Sandstorm’s snarl twisted into a bestial roar and his eyes filled with glowing white energy. “I HATE YOU!”

Sandstorm’s fur turned pitch black and an aura of shifting sand poured off of him like steam off a boiling tea kettle. His teeth had become like knives in his mouth, and he roared with the fury of a wild beast. He had fully transformed into a Nirik.

Now Sunny Day was forced to react, and his response was a reasonable one; to get up immediately and barricade himself in the next room, slamming the door in Sandstorm’s face.

Sandstorm threw himself into the door, and he likely would have torn it from its hinges if Rainbow hadn't pulled him off of it and thrown him to the ground.

Twilight teleported herself between Sandstorm and the door, her and Rainbow Dash barricading Sunny Day’s escape route from the out of control Sandstorm.

“Sandstorm?” Rainbow said tentatively. “Buddy? You alright?”

Sandstorm reached out with arms of rock-hard sand, grabbing both the Kirin in his way and tossing them aside, but instead of trying to force his way through the door, he turned to face Twilight and Rainbow Dash in the main room.

Twilight’s horn flashed, and with a crack of magic the dozen or so unconscious pony soldiers were teleported outside; it wouldn’t do to have them stuck in the crossfire of what was about to happen.

“Alright Sandstorm,” Rainbow spat, “this how it’s gonna be? You’re gonna just act like a petulant jerk? We’re all hurting, you jackass! Your pain ain’t special!”

“SHUT UP,” Sandstorm snarled.

Twilight wondered if there was a history of animosity between these two Kirin that she had been unaware of until now, but she supposed it didn’t matter.

The only way to stop a Nirik is to open up its heart, and the only way to do that was to understand the emotions that led to its transformation, and guide it to a healthy resolution.

A simple enough matter, and one accomplished rather handily with fighting.

Rainbow scraped a hoof across the ground and exhaled smoke from her nose. Twilight stuck her hoof in front of Rainbow to get her attention and stared into her eyes.

“What?” Rainbow griped.

Twilight pointed at Sandstorm and stomped her hooves, then pointed at Rainbow and shook her head.

Rainbow just looked confused, so Twilight dropped the subject.

She was trying to impress upon Rainbow that she needed to control herself and be careful not to become a Nirik herself, but it looked like Twilight was simply going to have to keep an eye on Rainbow’s emotional state for her.

“Relax, Twi,” Rainbow chuckled. “I’ll settle this in ten seconds flat!”

Rainbow charged at Sandstorm with such speed that Twilight had to brace herself against the gust of wind and heat left in Rainbow’s wake; but Rainbow wasn’t fast enough to beat the wall of sand that rose in front of Sandstorm, Rainbow crashing right into it and being flung back as if she’d hit a wall of iron.

The sand wall buried Rainbow Dash, but Twilight was able to cover her with a shield just in time, and Rainbow crashed through the sand before jumping toward Sandstorm and hitting him with a thunderous kick.

Against a normal enemy, that kick would have sent them flying; but against a Nirik it was barely enough to turn Sandstorm’s cheek, and he looked like he barely felt it.

“Hm,” Rainbow grumbled as she touched the ground in front of Sandstorm.

Rainbow hadn't noticed the ground opening up to swallow her underneath her hooves, but she was incredibly lucky that Twilight noticed, using her magic to switch positions with Rainbow Dash. And while Rainbow was mildly disoriented by the sudden switch, Twilight was able to levitate herself outside the range of Sandstorm’s quicksand ability.

Sandstorm was undeterred, letting out a guttural roar as two walls of sand rose up on either side of Twilight, smashing into her and smothering her. While she was able to defend herself with her shield, she could feel the force of Sandstorm’s magic pressing up against hers like an oncoming migraine.

Twilight couldn’t see the battlefield through the walls of sand, and she considered teleporting herself out, but before she could she heard Rainbow Dash charging Sandstorm again, whatever battle cry she yelled muffled by the walls of sand.

What she heard clearly however was Rainbow’s howl of pain as Sandstorm’s wall of sand crushed her, and Twilight focused all her energy into locating Rainbow and teleporting them both out of harm’s way.

And she succeeded in that effort— taking note that Rainbow now had an ugly bruise on her shoulder— but the magic required for such a maneuver left Twilight overextended, and she needed a second to catch her breath.

A second that she did not have, as Sandstorm took advantage of the pair’s loss of momentum to bury them both beneath a wave of crushing sand, Twilight feeling the course texture of the sand against her skin and the weight of it on her bones before she was able to create a bubble around Twilight and Rainbow to keep them safe; though she could tell by the power of Sandstorm’s force that this barrier would not last long.

“C’mon, Twilight!” Rainbow poked Twilight but then hissed in pain at the pain in her shoulder. “We gotta get out there and kick Sandstorm’s butt!”

Twilight stared at Rainbow.

“What?” Rainbow growled, her patience running thin. Twilight found herself wondering if the feeling would have been mutual if Twilight had her emotions.

Twilight pointed at Rainbow, and then crossed her hooves.

“Wh—”

Twilight pointed at Rainbow, and then crossed her hooves.

“Are you saying you want me to stay outta the battle?” Rainbow scoffed. “Is that what this-” Rainbow repeated Twilight’s motions “-is?”

Twilight nodded.

“Pfft, c’mon Twi, that’s—”

Twilight pointed at Rainbow, and then crossed her hooves.

“I’m not gonna—”

Twilight pointed at Rainbow, and then—

“Alright! Fine!” Rainbow screamed and stamped her hoof. “You wanna fight on your own so bad?! You think I’m holding you back?!”

Twilight shook her head.

“Well then what—”

Twilight put her hoof on Rainbow’s chest, right over her heart.

“I— I don’t—”

Twilight punched the air with her hooves, then shook her head. She put her hoof over her own heart, then over Rainbow’s heart, then nodded her head.

“You don’t wanna fight him at all,” Rainbow said, eyes widening with realization before her ears clamped down on her head. “So I really am getting in your way, huh?”

Twilight paused. She knew Rainbow wouldn’t like it, and she considered sparing Rainbow’s feelings to avoid a potential situation where Rainbow rebelled at Twilight and made things worse for them, but Twilight elected that being honest with her was the right thing to do.

Twilight nodded.

“I’m not gonna let you get hurt,” Rainbow said, affecting an air of confidence that Twilight could see right through as clear as she could see Rainbow’s shaking hooves. “If it looks like something might happen to you, I’m gonna step in.”

Twilight tapped her chin, then nodded. Rainbow nodded in return.

Twilight teleported herself and Rainbow Dash outside the bubble and toward the front of the room, on the other side from Sandstorm. Rainbow sat on her flank as Twilight took a step forward to face Sandstorm, though Twilight could feel her supply of magic was beginning to run dry. She’d have to be careful.

Sandstorm laughed; a bitter, haunting sound that echoed through the empty room.

“What’s the matter, Rainbow Dash?” Sandstorm snarled, venom dripping from his fangs that fell from his lips and turned to dust in the air. “You don’t wanna fight anymore? Finally ready to admit that you’re just a COWARD?!”

Rainbow clicked her tongue, but she said nothing and did nothing. Twilight recognized that must have been difficult for Rainbow, and she wished she could commend Rainbow for her restraint.

But if Rainbow looked mildly irritated by Sandstorm’s taunt, Sandstorm looked utterly furious at Rainbow’s lack of response, his face twisting into a ghoulish mask of rage.

Sandstorm charged at Rainbow Dash, screaming about how she was a coward, but Twilight wasn’t interested in humoring his tantrum, and as Sandstorm raised a wave of sand to try and crush Rainbow, Twilight merely teleported Rainbow out of Sandstorm’s way.

Sandstorm rushed to try and hit Rainbow with a physical strike, but Twilight teleported herself between the two and knocked Sandstorm away with her shield; Sandstorm once again trying the wave of sand, and once again having his attack fall against Twilight’s shield, completely ineffective.

“Is this how you fight your battles now, Rainbow Dash!?” Sandstorm screamed. “You get some stranger to fight them for you!? You’re a coward! You and Sunny Day both!”

Sandstorm tried attacking with a spear of sand, but Twilight blocked it. Sandstorm attempted a large platform of sand above the girls’ heads and rained spikes down on top of them, but Twilight blocked it. Sandstorm tried opening the ground underneath them and turning it into quicksand, but Twilight levitated the pair above it.

“Cowards will get what they deserve!” Sandstorm shrieked, his attacks and screams becoming increasingly desperate. “Isn’t that right, Rainbow Dash?! Isn’t that what you said!? Cowards will get what they deserve!”

Twilight teleported herself and Rainbow once more into the center of the room; while she was concerned at first that she would expend too much energy fighting Sandstorm, she quickly learned that his attacks were rudimentary, and without having to expend energy keeping an eye on Rainbow and protecting her, Twilight found that defending herself and Rainbow from Sandstorm’s attacks took almost no effort.

And while Twilight was not in a great position to counterattack against Sandstorm without losing her advantage, she saw no need to. Sandstorm would destroy himself.

“Cowards get what they deserve!” Sandstorm screamed again as his attack fell limply against Twilight’s shield. “They’ll get what they deserve!” Sandstorm howled, as yet another attack was deflected. “Cowards… they’ll get—”

Rainbow interrupted Sandstorm’s pathetic yowls with a high-speed punch, Rainbow’s sudden increase in momentum and magical force giving her punch enough strength to lay Sandstorm out and knock him to the ground.

It was only then that Twilight saw the tears pouring down Rainbow’s face.

“I get it, Sandstorm,” Rainbow whimpered, her hoof trembling as she held it in front of her and stood over Sandstorm, who didn’t seem to be in a hurry to stand up. “I get it. And I’m—I’m sorry.

“I know I said what I said, and there’s nothing I can do that can take it back,” Rainbow stomped her hoof on the ground, shaking her head furiously as her tears twinkled in the air around her. “I was so consumed by my own hate and anger after Sunny’s betrayal that I didn’t even think about how you were grieving; I didn’t even consider how much you still loved him.

“And I’m sorry.”

“Do you think an apology—” Sandstorm spat as he struggled to his hooves. “Do you think that will fix anything?! You think your damn words will bring Sunny back!? Will change how worthless you were!?”

“No, I don’t,” Rainbow shrugged, and while her hooves were still shaking, her tears had stopped and she looked directly into Sandstorm’s eyes without flinching. “Cuz yeah, you’re right again. I was a terrible leader to you and Dazzling Gleam. You guys relied on me, and my fear of what might happen totally had us all spinning our wheels forever, and that’s on me.”

Rainbow took a deep breath and shook her head. Sandstorm stood completely still, the dust and sand trailing off his aura starting to cool down but was still noticeably simmering.

“There’s nothing I can do to fix that now,” Rainbow said. “But what I can do is admit that I screwed up, and I can try to make it right.”

“You think you can make things right!?” Sandstorm snarled and unleased several spears of sand on Rainbow’s position, but once the dust settled, Rainbow was standing behind Sandstorm and his attacks hadn't hit her at all; Twilight didn’t even need to interfere, Rainbow had this battle under control now.

“I dunno, Sandstorm,” Rainbow said, hitting Sandstorm with a mach-speed punch and sending him flying. “I dunno how I’m gonna make things right, or if I even can! But that’s not about to stop me from trying!”

Sandstorm wasn’t listening, and just tried to defend himself and keep Rainbow at bay with another wall of sand, but Twilight covered Rainbow with a shield that allowed Rainbow to charge through the wall at lightning speed completely unharmed, laying Sandstorm out with another punch.

“But what I do know is-” Rainbow said, gracefully dancing around another of Sandstorm’s spears “-that you’re in pain! Cuz of what I did! I get that!”

Sandstorm tried to crush Rainbow with hands of sand, but he was simply too slow, Rainbow laying a fast kick to the back of his head, and when he turned around and tried to slash at her with his sand, she’d already gotten far away from him.

“But it’s not okay for you to use your pain as an excuse to lash out!” Rainbow said confidently. “We’re all hurting, Sandstorm! Your pain isn’t special!”

Rainbow sped toward Sandstorm and hit him square in the cheek with another high-speed punch, knocking him to the ground. He didn’t appear to resist it either, and as he struggled back to his hooves, his fur began to turn brown and his aura disappeared.

His Nirik form was fading, returning him to the form of a Kirin; a sad, scared Kirin.

“I don’t know what to do,” Sandstorm said, tears falling down his face. “I don’t wanna hurt anypony, not even Sunny, but I just—I just—”

“It’s okay, dude,” Rainbow sat next to Sandstorm and put her hoof around him. “I don’t think any of us know what to do. But at the very least, we got each other.”

Sandstorm affected a weak, tired smile.

“Thank you,” he whimpered. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Rainbow sighed. “You deserved a better leader… you deserved better from me.”

Twilight sighed and sat on her flank. She took a deep breath to try and channel some more magic back into her body. There were still quite a few fights in the lavender Kirin’s future, but this one, it seemed, was over.
> 07. A Rescue Operation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Pinkie Pie sat in her jail cell, legs shackled to the wall and teeth grinding against the bridle in her mouth, she was starting to think that maybe she’d overstayed her welcome.

While she was being escorted to her cell, her magic allowed her to feel the other Kirin who were trapped inside the tower, and their pain and sorrow still resonated in Pinkie’s mind; she’d wanted to wait for Twilight, but hearing the faint sounds of battle from the other room made Pinkie start to wonder if maybe Twilight needed her help.

And if that was the case, Pinkie would do anything to be by Twilight’s side, even if that meant becoming a Nirik again.

Pinkie’s shackles may have been designed to keep a Wood Nature like herself restrained, but they had no idea how powerful Pinkie could be when she really let herself go wild. And while becoming a Nirik again was the last thing Pinkie wanted to do, she would do it without question if it was for Twilight’s sake.

But before she could entertain that thought for too long, she heard some hoofsteps coming down the hall. It probably wasn’t Twilight, but it could’ve been so Pinkie decided to at least wait and see who it was before breaking out of her cell.

It was not, in fact, Twilight Sparkle. But Pinkie’s ears shot straight up and her eyes widened when she saw that instead, it was Rarity.

“Oh, darling!” Rarity said aghast, holding a hoof up to her mouth as she saw the sorry state Pinkie had been left in by her captor. “Hold on, dear, we’re going to have you out of that mess in a flash! Promise!”

“Yeah, I got this,” a blue-furred Kirin with a sandy-colored mane cricked her neck as she walked up to the cell, her horn lighting up as she bent the bars with her magic, tearing away Pinkie’s shackles right after.

Pinkie wasted no time bouncing out of her cell, wrapping her hooves around Rarity and squealing in delight.

“Rarity!” Pinkie said cheerily, stars in her eyes. “It’s so good to see you! I never expected you would be the one to rescue me!”

“Yes, well,” Rarity tried to play it cool, but Pinkie could see— and was close enough to even feel— the heat warming up her cheeks. “I came here with Twilight Sparkle, we have this whole big operation to rescue you, and the other Kirin, and then defeat the Flim-Flam Brothers. It’s a rather impromptu situation, but so far it’s gone off without a hitch!”

“That’s so awesome!” Pinkie gleefully cheered and stamped her hooves on the ground. “I’m super duper excited to help out! So what are we doing next?”

Before Pinkie could get too caught up in the moment, she noticed the other Kirin and she felt like a total doofus for not thanking her already.

“Oh hey!” Pinkie took the woman’s hoof in her hoof and shook it super hard. “Thank you so much for rescuing me! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?”

“Dazzling Gleam,” Dazzling said, running a hoof through her mane and striking a confident pose.

“A mare after my own heart, to be quite honest,” Rarity said with a smirk.

“You’re a flatterer,” Dazzling batted her hoof bashfully at Rarity.

“I try,” Rarity flashed a charming smile, and Pinkie was starting to drown in sapphic tension so she figured it’d be best to cut them off.

“So what’s the plan, ladies?”

“Well first,” Rarity stood next to Pinkie and looked her over, and Pinkie tried not to be too self-conscious about a beautiful woman checking her out, but she couldn’t stop blushing.

“Rarity?” Pinkie squeaked.

“Oh, sorry darling,” Rarity chuckled nervously, “I was simply checking to make sure they didn’t hurt you.”

“Nah, I’m good,” Pinkie nodded confidently. “Quite frankly, I’m rarin’ to go go go!” Pinkie emphasized her readiness with a series of short hops as she spoke.

“You two done flirting?” Dazzling Gleam chuckled into her hoof.

“Please, dear,” Rarity scoffed, “this is not flirting.” Rarity closed the distance between herself and Dazzling Gleam, brushing a hair out of Gleam’s face. “If I was flirting-” Rarity whispered, her lips inches from Gleam’s and Pinkie wishing that were her right now, before Rarity turned on her hooves and flicked her tail across Gleam’s face “-you would know it.”

“Ahem so anyhoo!” Pinkie croaked, her voice cracking and her cheeks a deep red. “What’s the plan?”

“Do we meet up with Twilight next?” Dazzling Gleam asked, her tone remarkably measured for someone who had just had Rarity getting super flirty with her; Pinkie was jealous of Gleam’s coolness to be honest. “Or do we try and release the Kirin on our own?”

“I think the latter,” Rarity hummed. “While I doubt any of the captured Kirin will be in fighting shape, our position against the Flim-Flam Brothers will be much stronger if they don’t have the leverage of hostages to use against us.”

“Plus they won’t be able to use their army of twisted Nirik soldiers to attack us!” Pinkie added, and she thought her words were super clear, so she was confused by the looks of horror and bafflement on Dazzling Gleam and Rarity’s faces. “What?”

“What do you mean?” Rarity asked cautiously.

“Twisted Nirik soldiers?” Gleam asked, her voice cracking as she bit her lip.

“Yeah,” Pinkie said casually. “You guys not know about that? The reason the Flim-Flam Bros are kidnapping Kirin, the only reason any of the Storm King’s troops kidnap Kirin, is cuz they’re trying to force them to become Nirik that they can put under their control and use as soldiers.

“Most of the time the drafted Nirik— that’s what the Storm King calls them— aren’t super reliable as foot soldiers since they’re hard to control, so they pump their bodies full of drugs and magic to make them go even crazier, and then release them on towns or enemies that they want completely destroyed.

“So it’d be better if we didn’t have to worry about that in our fight with the Brothers is all I’m saying! Plus, the sooner we free the Kirin from that awful situation, the better in my imho.”

Pinkie smiled as she finished her lecture, but that smile quickly faded when met with the cold and horrified expressions of Rarity and Dazzling Gleam.

“Did you girls—” Pinkie gulped. “Did you girls not know about all that?”

“No,” Dazzling Gleam said flatly, falling back on her flank.

“How do you?” Rarity asked, eyebrow raised.

“I—” Pinkie froze. What could she possibly say to answer that question? She didn’t want to lie, she didn’t even know if she could, but she couldn’t exactly be honest either.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Oh,” Rarity said sheepishly. She cleared her throat. “That’s perfectly alright darling, we all have demons. Either way, neither Dazzling Gleam nor I have any intention of simply abandoning the Kirin here to such grisly fates. We shall rescue them all, and then we shall reunite with Twilight Sparkle and the others.”

“Sounds great to me!” Pinkie beamed, a wave of relief washing over her.

“Yeah,” Dazzling Gleam gave a sharp exhale and stamped her hooves, “let’s get this done.”



****

Rainbow Dash exhaled sharply, a wicked cackle escaping her lips as she stood over a defeated pony soldier. Sunny Day bit his lip, a bead of sweat dripping down his brow.

It didn’t take long to catch up to Sunny, dude probably thought his numbers would help him beat Twi and Rainbow so he waited with a little battalion just a few rooms over from where the fight with Sandstorm happened.

And as all his soldiers laid defeated in just a couple minutes, Rainbow figured that he hadn't expected Rainbow and Twilight to be such a strong team.

“So,” Sunny Day said cautiously, “where’s Sandstorm?”

“Shut up,” Rainbow snarled. “Keep that name outta your mouth.”

Sandstorm was still reeling from his sudden Nirik transformation, plus he already had doubts about if he could face Sunny Day himself without breaking down, and also he just got his butt kicked by Rainbow and Twilight. So he wasn’t in a great place to help out in the fight against Sunny, and Twilight suggested he catch up with Rarity’s crew instead.

Which just left Sunny Day, alone in a room against Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, is that a threat?” Sunny pursed his lips all smug. “Please, after your two fights against my soldiers, plus Sandstorm’s ghastly Nirik transformation, you two must be on your last—”

Sunny was cut off by the sensation of suddenly being lifted into the air by Twilight’s magic, Twi having teleported behind him while he was yammering. She threw Sunny Day toward Rainbow, who jumped into the air and knocked Sunny hard against the ground with a powerful kick.

Before Sunny could even struggle to his hooves, Twilight grabbed him again and threw him into the wall, a guttural groan of pain escaping the dude’s mouth. But Rainbow was far from done with him, jumping toward him and socking him across the jaw with her hoof and tossing him to the ground, where she proceeded to smash into his back and then kick him across the floor.

“I’m not messing around here, Sunny,” Rainbow growled, though there was a voice at the back of her mind that wondered if maybe she was taking this a bit far. Rainbow took a deep breath and squashed that voice though.

This wasn’t a battle between two former friends in Rainbow’s mind— it couldn’t be, Rainbow couldn’t stand to think of it that way— this was a battle between Rainbow, who wanted to do the right thing by her friends and the Kirin of Appleloosa, against a fascist bootlicker.

Nothing more, nothing less.

“I’m not—” Sunny sputtered and coughed, blood dripping from his nose and mouth into a pool on the ground as he stood up, fangs bared and eyes glowing with intense rage. “I’m not going to lose everything I’ve worked so hard for!”

A burst of flame surrounded Sunny Day as his fur turned black and dark orange flames burned all over his body, coating him in an armor of fire.

“I won’t let my work be ruined!” Sunny snarled, and his horn glowed bright yellow as Rainbow could feel the temperature of the room heating up.

As a fellow Fire Nature, it didn’t bother Rainbow all that much, but a quick look over to Twilight, who covered herself in one of her magical bubbles, told Rainbow all she needed to know; she needed to end this guy quickly.

It was clear to her now that dealing with Nirik wasn’t a simple matter of brute force; she’d always been scared of other Nirik, but the way Twilight dealt with Sandstorm was downright inspiring. Twilight showed Rainbow that a Nirik’s heart isn’t completely closed off, it’s just hidden behind armor, but if you can strip that armor away, you can connect with a Kirin’s purest self through their Nirik transformation.

That said, Rainbow didn’t have the patience or magical powers that Twilight had. She would need to rely on her own methods to get through to Sunny’s heart, if he even still had one. And she knew just how to do that.

“You think I can’t take the heat, Sunny?” Rainbow laughed, her gravelly voice echoing through the empty room— Twilight having teleported the battered soldiers out at the first sign of Sunny’s transformation, just like she did with Sandstorm.

Rainbow’s mane burned with rainbow-colored flame as her fur turned scorched-black, her fangs sharpening and growing in her mouth as her eyes became covered by white-hot flame.

Rainbow might not have been scared of Nirik anymore, but if Sunny Day knew what was good for him, he was about to be.

Wings of flame stretched out from Rainbow’s back as she flew into the air, breathing a bullet of compressed air directly at Sunny; he dodged the attack, but Rainbow just smirked as the bullet exploded on impact with the ground, knocking Sunny for a loop.

Sunny roared in frustration as he stood up, and Rainbow let out a piercing cackle.

“What’s so funny?!” Sunny barked.

“Dude, I can see through you like a pane of untouched glass,” Rainbow grinned ear to ear. “You’re trying so hard to be tough, but I can see you shaking from fear.”

“I’m not afraid of you!” Sunny screamed, conjuring a collection of bright red jewels surrounding Rainbow.

Rainbow knew this trick; they’d explode if Rainbow so much as grazed any of ‘em, so she looked over to check how Twi was doing, and she nodded at Rainbow from behind her barrier, but she was also starting to sweat pretty bad so Rainbow needed to hurry things up.

But as long as Twi was safe from Sunny’s attacks, that was good enough for Rainbow, who covered herself in a barrier of wind that immediately touched and detonated the minefield surrounding her, and while Rainbow’s barrier did dampen the damage a bit, the explosions still took out a couple chunks of her flesh, but hey whatever. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Rainbow divebombed at Sunny, whose eyes widened as he took a step back, before Rainbow grabbed him and did a super cool somersault in the air, then threw Sunny right into the ground hard enough to leave a crack in the concrete.

“Dude, c’mon,” Rainbow chuckled, circling around Sunny in the air as he struggled to get back into the fight. “I don’t even know why you’re going so far outta your way for the freakin’ Flim-Flam Bros. Not like they’d do the same for you.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Sunny spat, his horn lighting up.

“Yeah? You think so?” Rainbow clicked her tongue; now she was starting to get mad. “What about your friends, Sunny? They not mean anything to you?”

“Friendship doesn’t put meals on the table!” Sunny growled. “It doesn’t save somepony from being snatched from their home and thrown into a cell! Friendship didn’t do a damn thing to help Wood Hammer!”

Oh.

Oh was that how it was gonna be now?

Rainbow didn’t visibly react, but the temperature of the room drastically cooled down all of a sudden, as the warm colors in Rainbow’s fiery mane shifted to feature mostly cooler ones— purple, blue, white, that sorta thing.

Rainbow dived toward Sunny again, but when she made contact with him, the mirage she thought was him blew up in her face, sending her flying back and bouncing along the concrete ground, a spray of blood and streams of smoke following her.

She grumbled and stood up, but she was a little too woozy to try and fly again just yet; she checked on Twilight for a sec, figuring that Rainbow’s magic cooling down the room— which she honestly didn’t even know she could do— would help Twi out a bit.

And it kinda did; Twi wasn’t hiding inside her bubble anymore, but she was sitting on her flank, eyes closed as she attempted to channel her magic. At first Rainbow thought about screaming at her like ‘yo don’t close your eyes in the middle of a combat zone, idiot!’ but then she realized Twi had her eyes closed cuz she trusted Rainbow to have her back, and that kinda brought a smile to Rainbow’s face.

Granted, that smile quickly faded when she saw Sunny taking a deep breath before blowing a stream of flame directly at Twilight, but Sunny’s reflexes were never that great and Rainbow’s were amazing so she was able to intercept Sunny’s attack in the nick of time.

Rainbow threw out a shield of ice-cold flame that she didn’t even know she could do, but she was kinda inspired by Twilight’s magic and thought it might work and yo here it was!

Rainbow looked back at Twilight, who peeked one eye open and nodded at Rainbow, before shutting her eyes once more.

“Don’t worry, Twi,” Rainbow chuckled, “I’ve got this.”

A tap of Twilight’s hoof alerted Rainbow and she looked over at Twi, who shook her head before pointing at Rainbow and then quickly at herself, nodding.

“Oh yeah, you’re right,” Rainbow grinned ear to ear, “we’ve got this! Together!”

Sunny’s horn flashed, and Rainbow and Twilight found themselves surrounded by his glowy red jewel mines; but Rainbow just gave a grin to Twilight, who nodded in return and covered the pair in her barrier, Rainbow sending out a gust of wind that detonated the mines, blowing the walls, floor, and even ceiling of the room to kingdom come, but Twi’s magic was incredible and her and Rainbow weren’t scratched at all.

Sunny, left devastated by his own futile attack, collapsed to the ground, his aura weakening as he struggled to keep control of his Nirik transformation.

Rainbow stomped a black hoof in front of Sunny’s face, and she carried Twilight on her back cuz Twi was running outta juice and Rainbow didn’t want her to get hurt or exhaust herself more than she needed to.

“Sunny,” Rainbow said, “friendship’s a lot more powerful than you think.”

“I can’t believe you,” Sunny growled. “How dare you lecture me, after everything you did! You were supposed to lead us after Wood Hammer was captured! And you didn’t do a damn thing! Always making excuses and running us around in circles! You’re nothing but a coward, and here you are preaching?! Don’t make me laugh!

“It’s your fault I had to turn to them to survive!”

“You’re right about one thing, Sunny,” Rainbow said coldly. “I was a total screwup. I was a crappy leader, and yeah I was a total coward. And yet, here I am trying to make up for my mistakes, and here you are trying to blame me for yours.

“Grow up. You can believe whatever you want, but the truth is that I’m here to set things right, and I’m not gonna let your cowardice or my own stop me from doing that.”

Sunny responded only with a weak shot of flame from his mouth, but Rainbow was quick enough to get behind him, Twi still safely on her back, before his attack had a prayer of connecting.

Rainbow’s horn glowed a deep violet, and she froze Sunny where he stood, before grabbing him in her magic and throwing him against the wall, shattering the layer of ice around him and draining whatever juice he had left, leaving him nothing more than a sad, withered Kirin lying helplessly on the ground.

Rainbow wasn’t sure if she reached his heart exactly, but she was sure of one thing; this fight was over.

“Alright dude,” Rainbow breathed a soft sigh of relief as she released her Nirik transformation and felt like her old self, though she had to fight against a wave of exhaustion at the same time, “lemme ask ya something.”

“What is it?” Sunny said bitterly, barely glancing up at Rainbow.

“Do you wanna be friends again?”

Sunny Day’s eyes snapped open as he looked up in pure shock and bewilderment at Rainbow’s words, but Rainbow just offered a smile and her outstretched hoof in return.

“What?” Sunny croaked. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, dude,” Rainbow shrugged. “Like, when I came here, all I wanted to do was beat you up— and don’t get me wrong, I’m super glad I got to do that! You totally had it coming!”

Sunny grumbled under his breath, but Rainbow figured even he couldn’t deny the truth in Rainbow’s words at this point.

“But if I’ve learned anything from this fight, and that one with Sandstorm,” Rainbow sighed, “it’s that it’s never too late to make a better decision, to try and make things right. That’s what I’m doing by being here, and you can do the same thing.

“It’s not too late for you to do the right thing, it’s not too late for you to choose friendship over fascism. But you can’t have both.”

“You’re wrong,” Sunny let out a pathetic chuckle. “It’s way too late for me. No matter what I choose, I’m screwed. The Flim-Flam Brothers won’t appreciate my complete failure to stop you, and my so-called ‘friends’ won’t ever forgive me. I just need to accept tha—”

“Man, shut up,” Rainbow groaned and rolled her eyes. “All Sandstorm wanted was for the dude that he loves to not be such a jerk, and as for me, I’ve already forgiven you. No one cares about your ‘woe is me fascism didn’t work out for me’ sob story, dude.

“What matters now, is that you have an opportunity to try and make things right with the people who care about you, or you can run away with your tail between your legs. It’s your decision, and I’m not gonna try and twist your leg into making either one.

“So what’s it gonna be, Sunny?”

Sunny looked up at Rainbow and bit his lip.

A moment of silence passed, and it was agonizingly slow for Rainbow Dash.

Sunny looked down, away from Rainbow.

But then he looked back up at her, and put a quivering hoof on her hoof, Rainbow flashing a great big smile.

“Come on, dude,” Rainbow said as she helped Sunny up off the ground, “let’s go stomp some fascists together.”

“Yeah, okay,” Sunny said anxiously, “I think I’d like that.”
> 08. An Ugly Battle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie breathed a sigh of both exhaustion and relief as she sat on her flank and looked around at the prison room that the Flim-Flam Bros. had all the Kirin trapped in; Rarity and Dazzling Gleam were wandering about, making sure nopony was badly hurt and that everyone had plenty of water and was ready to walk back home, but Pinkie was still just reeling from tiredness.

Truth be told, there weren’t very many guards standing between Pinkie’s team and the prisoners; most of the security staff in the tower must’ve been busy getting their butts kicked by Twilight, but taking out the few guys who were left still took the wind outta Pinkie’s sails.

No, that wasn’t quite right; what was really bothering Pinkie was her fight with Sunny Day, and more specifically her transformation into a Nirik.

She promised herself she wouldn’t do that anymore— after everything she saw with the Storm King, she couldn’t imagine there was any good to becoming a Nirik and spinning out of control, but she still felt the tug on her heart to transform sometimes.

She couldn’t deny it, the Storm King made her angry. It made her so angry, just all the time. She hated the Storm King so much, and what they were doing wasn’t right at all, and thinking about it made Pinkie just wanna—

“Woah, you girls have been busy,” Sandstorm’s voice distracted Pinkie from her thoughts and she bounced up to meet him.

“Sandstorm!” Pinkie squealed as she leapt from the ground and tackled Sandstorm, pinning him under her on the ground. “It’s so good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you too, Pinkie Pie,” Sandstorm chuckled, and Pinkie got off him and helped him up. “Glad to see you’re safe.” Pinkie nodded vigorously and gave a bright, shining smile.

“Sandstorm?” Dazzling Gleam cocked her head as she approached Sandstorm and Pinkie, the latter of whom was pointing at Sandstorm like ‘hey lookit this guy!’ “What are you doing here? I thought you were with Rainbow Dash’s team?”

“I was, but I uh—” Sandstorm shifted around nervously, and Pinkie gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. “We ran into Sunny, and I couldn’t— I just—”

“It’s okay,” Dazzling said softly, taking Sandstorm’s hoof in hers. “I wouldn’t have been able to face Wood Hammer either. I understand.”

“Thanks,” Sandstorm rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from Dazzling and Pinkie, his cheeks tinted a cute bright pink. Sandstorm bolted his head up and looked around. “Hey wait a sec, speaking of Wood Hammer, where is she? Shouldn’t she have been with the other prisoners?”

Dazzling Gleam was silent, and Pinkie wasn’t sure what to say either.

“Unfortunately,” Rarity chimed in as she joined the others in their little huddle, “things have turned out to be a bit more complicated.”

Pinkie felt like that was quite an understatement. If Wood Hammer wasn’t with the prisoners, chances were good that she was already turned into a Nirik soldier. Which meant even if she were still in the tower, rescuing her was gonna get ugly.

“So here’s what we’re going to do,” Rarity cleared her throat. “With Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s group down one member, they’re a bit underpowered. And now that we’ve rescued most of the prisoners, what I’m suggesting is that we split our forces.”

“So me and Sandstorm take the Kirin back to town,” Dazzling Gleam said, “while you and Pinkie Pie meet up with Rainbow’s group.”

“That’s correct,” Rarity nodded. “And once we join with Twilight and Rainbow Dash, we’ll comb the tower for any remaining prisoners and then confront the Flim-Flam Brothers themselves.”

“Sounds good to me!” Pinkie cheered.

“Yeah,” Dazzling nodded shakily, “sure.”

“Something the matter, darling?”

“N-no, not really,” Dazzling muttered. “It’s just, Wood Hammer is my girlfriend, and I feel weird leaving her fate in the hooves of strangers, when it should be my responsibility to—”

Pinkie loudly scoffed, cutting off Dazzling Gleam’s morose monologue. She looked at Pinkie with a confused glower, but Rarity was just trying not to laugh.

“It’s not your ‘responsibility’ to look after your girlfriend, Dazzling Gleam,” Pinkie batted her hoof dismissively, “that’s not how girlfriending works. You take care of each other and look after each other, sure, but you don’t gotta feel obligated to be the one person who takes care of her. That’s just not healthy!”

“Pinkie is right, dear,” Rarity added, giving Dazzling Gleam a supportive hoof on the shoulder. “And I promise you, Wood Hammer is in excellent hooves with the four of us.”

“Yeah,” Dazzling Gleam nodded, and she looked to be feeling a wee bit better, but she wasn’t entirely convinced. “You’re right. I know you’re right. Thank you, Rarity, Pinkie.”

Before Pinkie could respond to Gleam’s thanks with a big hug, Sandstorm called Pinkie over to talk to him one-on-one real quick.

“What’s up, Sandstorm?” Pinkie chirped.

“Oh, I just wanted to share something with you that I thought you might find kinda interesting,” Sandstorm hummed and poked at the floor, piquing Pinkie’s curiosity. “Since you’re gonna be fighting the Storm King’s whole entire army eventually.”

“I do like interesting things,” Pinkie nodded and tapped her hooves, anxiously awaiting to hear the interesting thing.

“I, uh,” Sandstorm muttered and bit his lip. “Look, I don’t want the others to hear about this cuz it’s embarrassing, but I turned into a Nirik and lashed out at Twilight and Rainbow.”

“Wow, Sandstorm,” Pinkie said grimly, feeling kinda split between wanting to empathize with the guy for losing control of himself— cuz y’know, mood— and being upset that he attacked their friends. “That sucks.”

“I know,” Sandstorm hung his head and slouched, and Pinkie decided to roll with ‘empathy’ and gave Sandstorm a supportive pat on the head and lift his chin up a little. “The point is, Twilight and Rainbow didn’t defeat me with just their fighting. I mean, they did do that too, but that’s not the point.

“Twilight was all defense, like she refused to throw a punch at all, cuz she wasn’t trying to fight me exactly… it was like she was trying to get through to my heart by letting all of my emotions and attacks smash into her shield. Like she knew that behind all the lashing out, I was just scared and sad.

“I dunno, it sounds super dumb when I say it like th—”

“No, it sounds good,” Pinkie squeaked, tears in her eyes. “Thank you, Sandstorm, for sharing that with me. I really appreciate it.”

Twilight fought a Nirik by trying to get through to his heart? And she won?

When Pinkie first turned on the Storm King, she had a theory that she could defeat the Nirik by getting through to their hearts, that she didn’t have to beat them all up or anything, but she couldn’t ever do it— she always got too angry herself.

But Twilight actually did it? That meant Pinkie’s theory was actually kinda smart and it was possible! And if Twilight could do it, Pinkie would find a way to do it too!

Pinkie’s ears shot up and her stomach turned, and she found herself growling under her breath instinctively.

“You okay, Pinkie?” Sandstorm asked.

“Yeah,” Pinkie said coldly. “Thanks for the tip, Sandstorm. I think I’m gonna need it sooner rather than later.”

Pinkie clambered over to Rarity and clamored for her attention as Rarity and Dazzling Gleam got all the Kirin folk ready to head back to town.

“Yo is everypony here ready to go?” Pinkie said anxiously. “Cuz we gotta go go go!”

“What’s the rush all of a sudden, Pinkie Pie?” Rarity asked. “It’s better to make sure things get done right than to get done quickl—”

“A Nirik is around here,” Pinkie whispered in Rarity’s ear, “and I’m pretty sure it knows where we are and is on its way.”

“Oh,” Rarity said bleakly, and her white-furred face somehow managed to get even more pale. “Alright, Dazzling is everypony ready?”

“It’s now or never, so yeah,” Dazzling Gleam nodded.

Dazzling Gleam led the Kirin to safety with Sandstorm’s help, and Pinkie and Rarity followed behind them to the entrance, watching them leave and waiting behind in an eerily empty circular room, no choice but to patiently await for the predator who approached them.

And they weren’t waiting long either; a pitch-black Nirik with a mane of splintering, blood-red thorns that reached all the way to her back trotted into the room, blood red glowing eyes locked directly onto Pinkie and Rarity. She wasn’t any larger than Pinkie or Rarity, but she felt massive to Pinkie, who shuddered in fear at her approach.

Though it didn’t help that there were two of them, exactly identical down to the last feature.

“Hm,” Rarity puffed up her cheeks, letting out an awkward laugh to try and deflate the tension. “Well that’s troubling.”

“I think it’s just magic,” Pinkie calmly explained, locking eyes with the Nirik who didn’t seem intent on getting too much closer, as it just stared Pinkie and Rarity down from across the room. “Some kind of clone jutsu, y’know?”

“I suppose,” Rarity took a deep breath and scraped a hoof across the floor. “Any suggestions on how we defeat it?”

“We can’t just beat her up,” Pinkie shook her head, fluffy mane rattling all about and ears flopping this way and that. “We need to get through to her heart, and help her release her rage so that she can transform back into a Kirin.”

“How do we do that?” Rarity arched an eyebrow, and Pinkie giggled bashfully.

“I have no idea.”

“Well then,” Rarity rolled her eyes playfully and lit up her horn with a blue light, “I guess ‘we just beat her up’ will be Plan A!”

Rarity lunged forward, brandishing a whip of sparkling glass that formed in the air above her. One of the Wood Hammers jumped in front of the other as Rarity struck down with her whip, but Rarity’s attack was not only completely ineffective, but Pinkie could feel even at a distance how Wood Hammer was absorbing Rarity’s magic away from her, the whip disappearing into Wood Hammer’s body…

…only to reappear quickly under Wood Hammer’s control as it lashed out against Rarity.

Pinkie Pie jumped into the way of the attack, getting an ugly slash across her face for her trouble, but Rarity threw out a sparkling glass shield that shattered Wood Hammer’s whip as it went in for a second attack.

“That’s certainly an interesting defense Wood Hammer has,” Rarity said, releasing her shield and taking a defensive stance in front of Pinkie, who rubbed her hoof on the bloody gash across her cheek.

Wood Hammer though stayed completely still, merely glowering at the two Kirin who opposed her.

Her clone though? Her clone charged right at Pinkie and Rarity, with Rarity re-summoning her shield to defend them, but the clone simply phased not only through the shield, but Rarity’s body as well, sending a visible shiver down Rarity’s spine.

Pinkie slammed her hooves on the ground and caused the clone to float harmlessly in the air, but before Pinkie could even think to breathe a sigh of relief, she realized that Wood Hammer Classic had somehow managed to get behind her.

It was a good thing Rarity was there to beat Wood Hammer Classic back with her shield, cuz if Rarity had been even a second slower, Pinkie could’ve been ripped in half or some other gruesome thing. Honestly, Pinkie didn’t know what would happen cuz she still hadn't seen Wood Hammer’s offensive skillset in action, and she’d prefer to keep it that way to be quite honest!

Unfortunately, just as Pinkie was thinking that, Hammer’s clone absorbed the magic that was keeping it floating in the air, and it fired an explosive blast of magic directly at Pinkie as it hit the ground, blowing Pinkie away and causing her body to floppily tumble across the ground like a stone skipping across a pond.

Rarity was managing to keep Wood Hammer Classic at bay with her shield, which Hammer didn’t seem to be able to absorb, so that meant Hammer’s absorption ability was probably only usable on attacks? But then what about Pinkie’s float magic? That’s not an attack…

Pinkie only had a second to ponder, but it suddenly hit her like a train what was going on when she realized that Wood Hammer’s clone had suspiciously disappeared while Wood Hammer was weakly attacking at the shield.

Pinkie wanted to shout a warning, to tell her that Wood Hammer’s clone was going to attack her from behind while she was distracted by the Classic, but her brain moved faster than her mouth and by the time her voice caught up to her thoughts, the clone was already behind Rarity and on the attack.

The clone lashed out with a brambly claw of thorns as Pinkie screamed Rarity’s name, but Rarity merely scoffed and split her shield in two, effortlessly blocking the clone’s attack, Pinkie allowing herself a satisfied giggle at how smoothly Rarity had this battle under control.

Until her shield disappeared, absorbed into the clone’s body and leaving Rarity wide open to attack.

Pinkie rushed to try and defend Rarity, but the clone slashed a gnarled claw into her body before Pinkie could reach them, tearing Rarity’s skin and leaving several bloody gashes across her side as they tore through her, dragging her along their arc and pushing her away from her second shield, opening her up to another attack from the real Wood Hammer.

That attack never connected with Rarity, as the real Wood Hammer’s massive claw of thorns was stopped dead by Pinkie’s aura that turned the thorns into immovable petrified wood, Pinkie breathing blue smoke from her mouth as her fur turned pitch black and her mane twisted into an array of deadly thorns that mirrored Wood Hammer’s transformation.

Pinkie was furious at the idea of just standing back and letting Rarity be hurt, and if Pinkie had to transform into a Nirik to save her friend? Fine.

She could see through Wood Hammer’s technique now; this battle would be over quickly, and if Pinkie couldn’t open Wood Hammer’s heart, Pinkie would at least beat her into submission.

The clone tried to lunge at Pinkie, but she just reeled in her legs and then hit the clone in the head with a powerful buck that sent the clone flying. Classic Wood Hammer jumped back defensively, but Pinkie snarled at her and froze the enemy Nirik’s hooves to the ground by petrifying them.

Pinkie knew exactly how to get through Wood Hammer’s seemingly impervious defense; only the clone could absorb magic, but it had no defense against Pinkie’s hooves. And the real Wood Hammer had no defense against Pinkie’s magic.

This fight was as good as over.

But no… no, it wasn’t even close to over, was it? Not as long as Wood Hammer’s heart remained mangled by rage.

“I get it, Wood Hammer,” Pinkie growled, her voice resonating with an unearthly harshness. “I get it. The Storm King conquering your grove is unfair, being betrayed by your friend hurts like hell, your friends not even being able to come to your rescue-” Pinkie shook her head and let out a furious snarl “-I can’t even imagine the pain you’re going through! You have every right to express that pain, and not let it be smothered by fear or whatever those bastard brothers did to you!”

Pinkie raised her forehooves and stomped them hard on the ground, practically shaking the whole building.

“So come at me with all you’ve got!” Pinkie roared. “Come at me until you’ve got nothing left! I can take it!”

Pinkie charged at Wood Hammer and laid into her with several solid punches, but unsurprisingly Wood Hammer just absorbed them all before releasing an explosive shockwave that launched Pinkie away, causing her to hit the ground like a sack of thrown meat.

But Pinkie wasn’t even close to done yet.

“I’m not gonna let the Storm King do whatever she wants to anymore!” Pinkie screamed, a wall of petrified wood forming behind her. “I’m not gonna let her keep taking people’s lives, and even their emotions, away from them!”

And with that, Pinkie’s wall exploded into a shower of splinters that rained down on Wood Hammer’s body, exploding into a cloud of dust as Pinkie breathed heavily, her Nirik form beginning to fade as she put every last drop of magic she had into that attack.

She wanted to spur Wood Hammer’s rage, to grind her gears until they exploded and she had no choice but to release her emotions, and maybe it was a bit ironic that Pinkie only succeeded in doing that to herself, because Wood Hammer?

Wood Hammer still had quite a bit of rage left, as she stepped out of the dust cloud seemingly unfazed by Pinkie’s attack— a little bit of shrapnel even phasing right through Wood Hammer’s body as a reminder of how worthless Pinkie’s attack was— Pinkie falling to her flank in shock and hopelessness.

Wood Hammer’s eyes burned with fury as she scraped a hoof across the ground before charging straight at a helpless Pinkie, who shut her eyes tight and braced herself for the attack.

Instead, a metallic clang resonated in Pinkie’s ears, and when she opened her eyes she saw Rarity standing in front of her, shield raised to defend from Wood Hammer’s attack.

“That’s some interesting magic you have, Wood Hammer,” Rarity said with a single cackle, “I certainly hope you don’t mind if I borrow it!”

Rarity’s shield exploded with a shockwave of magic that sent Wood Hammer flying, and Pinkie’s eyes widened in disbelief as Rarity managed to adapt her shield to copy Wood Hammer’s absorption and reflection ability, after only having seen it this one time. Rarity was amazing.

“I’m not going to let you stand on your own anymore,” Rarity said to Pinkie, though her eyes were firmly focused on Wood Hammer who was recovering from Rarity’s attack. “I’m going to fight the Storm King as well! I won’t let anypony else be hurt by them!”

“Thank you, Rarity,” Pinkie said softly, struggling to stand up. She couldn’t be resting on her flank while Rarity was fighting, now could she? “I thought I could open up Wood Hammer’s heart, but I failed.”

“Hmm,” Rarity glanced over at Pinkie and shook her head. “I wouldn’t count yourself out just yet, darling. After all, you opened up my heart at least.”

“Rarity,” Pinkie said fondly, hoof over her heart, but then she gasped. “Rarity! Your shield!”

There was a big crack in Rarity’s shield from where Wood Hammer’s hoof collided with it, but Rarity didn’t seem concerned.

“It’s fine, sweetheart,” Rarity giggled. “I can just repair it, see?”

And sure enough, she sutured up the crack in the shield and it was good as new, but it still seemed weird that the shield got damaged like that at all, didn’t it? Maybe Rarity’s copy of Wood Hammer’s magic just wasn’t as strong as the real thing.

Or maybe…

Pinkie looked over at Wood Hammer; she was on her hooves again, but she didn’t seem intent on charging Rarity or Pinkie. She almost seemed… sluggish. Like she was in pain.

And then it dawned on Pinkie; every piece plopped into place.

“She takes damage,” Pinkie whispered, and Rarity opened her mouth to speak, but Pinkie cut her off. “She takes damage! Even when she absorbs an attack, the attack still hits her! That’s why she uses the clone too, I bet! Her ‘ultimate defense’ isn’t a defense at all, it’s a high-risk high-reward attack!”

“Well then,” Rarity grinned, both her and Pinkie looking over the weakened Wood Hammer with gleams in their eyes, “I suppose this fight will simply come down to who can take the most abuse before falling down.”

“And I’m feeling pretty dang sturdy right now,” Pinkie growled, bloodthirsty grin on her face.

Pinkie took a deep breath and felt the magic of nature flowing through her veins, and then she popped into the air, bouncing over toward Wood Hammer but bouncing away again before she could attack, and then bouncing on air in every direction she could think of just to get Wood Hammer’s head spinning.

She threw some pocket confetti down on Wood Hammer to disorient her even more, and Rarity threw several shards of crystal that hit their mark on Wood Hammer directly, and even though she absorbed them, when she launched her counterattack, it completely whiffed thanks to Pinkie’s mobility and Wood Hammer’s disorientedness.

Wood Hammer re-summoned her clone, and it was able to grab Pinkie in its jaws before Pinkie could react, but she threw some pocket confetti at it and that exploded and forced it to let go, Pinkie bouncing away right into the waiting Wood Hammer Classic’s punch, which clanged uselessly against Rarity’s shield.

Rarity’s intervention couldn’t have been more perfectly timed, and her shield that absorbed the punch fired it back on Wood Hammer, sending her careening to the other side of the room. And just for good measure, Rarity pitched the shield at the clone’s head, knocking it to the ground.

Pinkie charged up her magic, feeling safe with Rarity’s protection, and once she was properly charged, sprang into the air and bounced toward Wood Hammer.

“This is the final blow, Wood Hammer!” Pinkie shouted, her hoof crashing against Wood Hammer’s head and knocking her for a loop, her body tumbling across the ground.

Wood Hammer tried to stand up, but Pinkie quickly jumped on top of her and pinned her to the ground, delicately placing her forehead against Wood Hammer’s even as the Nirik snarled and gnashed her teeth.

Their horns touched, and Pinkie hummed a gentle tune. It was a song her mom had taught her, one that had been close to her heart for a long time, and always helped her remember who she was whenever she started to forget.

She hoped it could do the same for Wood Hammer.

Rarity stood by and watched carefully as Pinkie continued to hum, holding Wood Hammer in a hug as the Nirik tried to struggle and fight Pinkie off, but because Wood Hammer had been so worn down by the battle, she wasn’t able to overpower Pinkie.

And soon, her struggles became faint, as flecks of ash flew off of her body until her Nirik form had completely faded, and Wood Hammer returned to normal.

She breathed heavily as Pinkie stood over her, but Pinkie quickly hopped off and lent a hoof to Wood Hammer to help her off the ground. It was nice, to see the real Wood Hammer now; she was an oak-brown Kirin with golden scales, and a fluffy burgundy mane. She had very chiseled features, but her eyes looked so soft, and they held a kind of motherly glow to them.

“Hey,” Pinkie said.

“Hey,” Wood Hammer replied, her voice heavy with grief.

“What do you need?”

“Honestly?” Wood Hammer sighed and rubbed her head. “I need a drink.”