Equestria is not the only land full of magical creatures. Welcome to Anoia.
Equestria is not the only land of magical creatures.
As Twilight Sparkle and her friends have discovered, there are many other lands that also are inhabited by magical beings. There is Griffonstone, populated by the griffons; Yakyakistan, where the yaks live; the Changeling Kingdom, home of the changelings; the Dragonlands, inhabited by the dragons; Mount Aris and Seaquestria, the two homes of the hippogriffs. But this is a story of a land beyond even that. A land not populated by another species entirely. No, this land is home to ponies, but not the same ponies you know and love and hate. These ponies are different. And this is their story.
Far to the North, there is a kingdom made of crystal called the Crystal Empire. This kingdom is surrounded by a frozen wasteland, but it is protected by a magical artifact known as the Crystal Heart. The Heart keeps the Empire warm by protecting it from the cold and snow with a magical force field. It also can blast evil unicorns that want to take over it to bits. But it could also get shattered to pieces by a baby alicorn screaming. During a crucial time. And almost made the entire kingdom freeze over while its subjects just said, “We’ve seen snow before,” and completely ignored it.
But, luckily, you know, everything came together in the end, and the Crystal Heart was restored, and yadda yah, you know, the usual. And that baby alicorn grew up, and so far hasn’t shattered any more precious artifacts with her voice. Yet.
A light breeze ruffled Flurry Heart’s multi-toned curls as she flew home from school, her saddlebag packed with all the homework she had to do over the weekend. It wasn’t that heavy, and would probably only take Flurry Heart an hour if she worked hard. Also in Flurry’s bag was a new book she’d gotten from the library earlier that day, a book she was just itching to read. The brief description on the back had told Flurry that the book was about a young earth pony heroine who was setting out on a quest overseas to prove to the rest of the world that earth ponies were strong and powerful, too, even though they didn’t have any special magic horns or wings. All they had was their strength and connection to the ground, as well as their knowledge and brains. And that was all anypony needed.
Flurry’s large wings caught an updraft, and the young princess soared upwards. The feeling was elating. It filled her up with so much happiness that Flurry closed her eyes and smiled, just her and the air rushing in her face. It would be much easier to just fly through her window and into her room, but her parents had been firm. She always had to come through one of the main doors and stop by the throne room so Cadance and Shining Armor could know that their daughter was home and alright. So, at the peak of her ascent, Flurry tucked her wings into a dive and zoomed down towards one of the four supporting pillars of the Crystal Palace, each of which had a door that led into the castle. Flurry’s wings snapped out at the last second, allowing Flurry to slow down enough to land. She trotted to the northern pillar and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, she turned down the hallway and opened the door to the throne room with her magic.
The throne room was the largest in the palace, and it was spacious and filled with light at any time of day. Tall windows lined the walls, spilling sunlight into the room, and a pink carpet lined with white that was wide enough for seven ponies to walk side by side led from the doorway to the throne itself, which was set on top of a pedestal with two levels. It was made of purple and different shades of blue crystals and was large enough for Shining Armor and Cadance to sit next to each other. On the right side of the lower level was a smaller replica of the throne for Flurry Heart since she became too big to sit with her parents.
Shining Armor currently wasn’t in the throne room. He was most likely out with his guards looking for the missing ponies. Cadance was sitting on the throne, holding a scroll and a quill with her magic, writing her weekly letter to Twilight Sparkle in Canterlot, telling the ruler of Equestria about the progress the Empire had made with the search, which was almost nothing. The princess’s forehead was scrunched up in worry, and dark circles lined her eyes. She hadn’t gotten much sleep since ponies started going missing. Cadance looked open when she heard the door open. A small smile crossed her face when she saw Flurry Heart.
“Good afternoon, Mother,” Flurry Heart said politely.
“Flurry Heart.” The Princess of Love put down her letter and walked down to meet her daughter. She opened one of her multi-toned wings and pulled Flurry in for a hug. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, Mother.” Flurry wriggled out of her mother’s hug and looked up into her mother’s tired purple eyes. They usually were bright and sparkled, but they hadn’t been that way in several months.
The door opened again, and two Crystal guards came in. They nodded to Cadance and left again. Flurry rolled her eyes. When the first ponies went missing, Cadance and Shining Armor had those two guards follow Flurry everywhere. It was a little embarrassing, to be honest. She understood where her parents were coming from. Whoever was kidnapping ponies would most likely want a princess, and Flurry Heart might seem like easy prey. The guards were supposed to be stealthy, so Flurry wouldn’t notice they were there, but if it was stealthy guards her parents wanted, they might want to pick some other guards. Flurry was aware of them from Day 1.
“Did you have any progress finding the missing ponies?” Flurry asked her mother when the guards left. Cadance flinched and turned away from her daughter. She didn’t want Flurry to have to worry about those kinds of things. She was much too young. Yet Flurry wanted to worry about them. Those ponies were her subjects, too. She needed to look after them.
“No, not yet,” Cadance sighed, still avoiding Flurry’s gaze. “Maybe your aunt Twilight will have had some more luck in Canterlot.” Flurry could tell her mother was just saying that to make her feel better, but she heard the layer of hopelessness under her mother’s words. Cadance didn’t think that anypony would have any luck. Whoever stole those ponies knew how to not leave any clues behind. “Why don’t you go work on homework?” Flurry started to protest, but one look from her mother told her she was being dismissed. Flurry turned and left the room. She climbed several flights of stairs and walked down more than a dozen hallways before she got to her room in one of the towers.
Flurry’s room had been kept simple by Flurry Heart. Anything and everything her parents gave to her that screamed, “I’M AN ALICORN PRINCESS!!! I’M SUPER SPECIAL!!!” had been stuffed in the small box underneath Flurry’s bed. She’d put a special charm on it that allowed it to hold absolutely anything, and that it would never run out of space. Other than that, Flurry had a simple bed with a frame of light blue crystal, light pink and white bed covers, and a darker blue crystal nightstand with a matching crystal lamp. A picture of Flurry with her parents and Aunt Twilight and all her friends at Flurry’s last birthday party was next to the lamp. A white desk and stool were under one of the windows on the left of Flurry’s door, and another window was in the same place, just on the right side of the door. Across from Flurry’s desk was a white bookshelf stuffed to overflowing with basically every kind of book imaginable.
The only thing that told anypony who walked in that this was the room of a princess, despite the obvious fact that it was in a palace, was the crown stand right next to the door. A white pillar as tall as one of Flurry’s wings held a velvet cushion with a glittering tiara perched on top. It was a simple silver frame with light pink and blue gems sparkling in the sunlight that streamed in through the windows. A large, clear gem in the shape of an oval was in the center of a silver arch with gems dotting the frame. Two identical arches, only smaller, were on each side of the larger one, their bases overlapping one another. A simple glass case was over the crown, to protect it. Flurry’s parents had told Flurry, very sternly, that she couldn’t get rid of her crown, or else her parents would lock her in her room and take all her books away for a full day, and her library privileges for a month. It was Flurry’s love of books that kept the crown in her room, although she was very tempted about every other day to pull out her box and to shove the crown inside, pillar and all. Today, however, was not one of those days.
When Flurry walked into her room, she glanced at her crown, but she let it sit, as she just ignored it and hung her saddlebag on a hook next to the crown stand. She used her magic to take out her books and quills and scrolls covered with notes and set them down on her desk. She plopped down on her stool, using her magic to open one of her books and unroll a blank scroll. She picked up a quill, dipped it in the ink jar on the corner of her desk, sighed, started writing.
The sun was setting when Flurry finished. The red and gold rays of fading sunlight colored everything they touched a shade of orange. Flurry sighed and rubbed one of her eyes as she used her magic to roll up her scrolls, stack her books, and gather up her quills. It probably wouldn’t have taken Flurry so long on a normal day, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the missing ponies. Who could have taken them? Who would have wanted to take them? What would anypony want to do with a couple of ponies? Flurry used her magic to open her saddlebag, take out her book, and bring it over to her, opening it and flipping to the first page. Flurry tried to concentrate on her book, but her mind kept straying away. Soon she was staring out the window as the sun slipped behind the horizon. A maid came up and announced that it was time for supper, and Flurry went numbly. She was quiet throughout the meal, for which her father was still not present.
“Flurry, dear, are you alright?” Cadance finally asked.
“Yeah, just… just tired.” Flurry didn’t look at her mother. It wasn’t a lie. She was tired, but not in the way she wanted her mother to think.
That night, Flurry tried to sleep and failed. She tossed and turned, and even tried humming, then singing to herself. But nothing worked. Flurry stared out one of her windows at the bright, silver full moon glowing in the sky amidst the small pinpricks of the stars. A cool night breeze blew in and calmed Flurry down immediately. Flurry slowly got out of bed and walked over to the window. It was the window on the right side of her door, so she didn’t have her desk in the way. Flurry tentatively hopped up on the window ledge and slowly tipped out of the window.
The rush of adrenaline filled her veins, as it did every time she went flying. The cold night air rushed past Flurry as she plummeted downwards. It was so peaceful she smiled. A moment before she would have flattened against the ground, Flurry’s pale pink wings snapped out, catching a breeze and lifting Flurry upwards, soaring above the roofs of her kingdom. Flurry’s wings pumped, pushing her forwards, towards the mountains. Flurry loved flying over the mountains. They were so wild and free, so beautiful all at the same time. Flurry flew low, skimming over the surfaces of cold lakes, her hooves brushing against the thin layer of snow that was on the mountains year-round. Flurry dodged around boulders and skinny evergreens, the grin on her face growing with every second she was in the air. Once, she even whooped, the sound echoing throughout the rocky mountains.
Flurry passed over a frozen waterfall, the stream completely iced over. Snow banked up on the shores. And… wait, what was that? Flurry stopped, flapping her wings to keep her hovering. Her bright turquoise eyes scanned the ground. She could have sworn she saw somepony dash into the little grove of trees over there… Flurry shook herself. It was nothing, she told herself as she slowly flew away. It was probably a squirrel. Or a rabbit. Nothing to worry about. But she couldn’t quite convince herself that.
Flurry suddenly shot upwards like a rocket, climbing up above the clouds. She felt like she could fly to the moon. She curved backward and plummeted back to the ground. The grove of trees grew closer and closer until Flurry flapped her wings, skimming over them, heading back towards the palace. The thrill ride seemed to make her more tired.
A rope suddenly closed around her middle, and she was yanked out of the air.
Princess Twilight Sparkle’s hoofsteps echoed through the empty halls of Canterlot Castle. She walked slowly, in no hurry to get to her usual monthly meeting. Every meeting was the same. Guards and captains came in to report that they had no luck finding the missing ponies, and she and her friends talked about how all the citizens of Equestria were living in fear, afraid that they or somepony they loved would be next to be taken without a trace, how they would only leave the house if they had to, how the school had been closed and mothers kept their foals close. Occasionally the leader of another kingdom would visit, also to report that they had no luck in their kingdoms finding their missing subjects.
Twilight sighed to herself. It was all too depressing. Even the weather seemed to agree. Clouds covered the sky in a thin layer, not enough to rain but enough to make the day feel very hopeless and dismal. The stained glass windows depicting Twilight and her friends defeating every foe that had dared step into Equestria had hardly any light to let into the empty hallways and dark rooms. It differed so much from Ponyville and Twilight’s castle there that Twilight got a lump in her throat, the aching homesickness that she always carried with her flaring up and bringing tears to Twilight’s eyes. It had been several years since Twilight had started ruling Equestria, but that didn’t make being away from Ponyville any easier.
The doors of the council chamber loomed in front of Twilight, interrupting her thoughts. Twilight took a deep breath and opened the doors using her magic. A large chandelier hanging from the ceiling was enough to light the room, even when the tall windows along the walls failed to do so. A long table with one and a half dozen golden chairs took up most of the room. On a raised platform at the end of the table was Twilight’s chair, with Spike’s smaller seat next to hers. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Starlight Glimmer were sitting in the chairs closest to Twilight’s. Usually, there would be at least half a dozen captains of other commanding officers filling in more of the chairs, or at least one other leader occupying a council seat, but today, Twilight had instructed that any guards who didn’t have anything to report would not be necessary at today’s meeting. That meant that there were no guards there. Twilight sighed again, but she trotted up to her seat and sat down. Spike was sitting in his chair, and he cast a sideways glance at Twilight, wondering where she had been. It wasn’t like Twilight to be late, or even arriving at the last minute. Twilight avoided looking at him. For a moment, nopony spoke.
“This is ridiculous!” Rainbow Dash burst out, slamming her hoof on the table.
“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack glared across the table at the blue pegasus.
“More ponies are going missing every week!” Rainbow Dash continued, ignoring Applejack. “None of our guards have found anything. They’re just disappearing!”
Twilight sighed quietly to herself. A few months back, three pegasi went missing from Cloudsdale. One week later, several more ponies also disappeared. Since then, ponies had been suddenly disappearing without a trace all over Equestria. Twilight couldn’t find any pattern, and she had no idea what whoever was taking her subjects wanted. She had all her guards out looking for the missing ponies, hoping that they could find a clue. And it wasn’t just Equestria. She’d received word that the other kingdoms neighboring Equestria had missing subjects, too. Some of them were convinced that one of the other kingdoms was hiding their missing creatures, while others were more concerned with finding them and dealing with whatever was taking them later.
“I say we declare war!” Rainbow Dash slammed her hoof on the table again.
“Oh, dear,” Fluttershy muttered to herself.
“Rainbow, what has gotten into you?” Applejack demanded.
“I quite agree. This is not going to be solved by going to war with our neighbors,” Rarity said. “We don’t have any proof that it was them in the first place.”
“We don’t need proof! We just need force!”
“Rainbow, I understand that you want to find the missing ponies,” Starlight Glimmer said gently, putting her hoof on Rainbow’s. “We all do. But Rarity’s right. This isn’t going to be solved by going to war. What we need is to figure out where they went, or who took them, and work from there.”
“But we don’t know where they went, or who took them!” Rainbow swiped her hoof out of Starlight’s reach. “What’s to say that one of the other kingdoms didn’t take the missing ponies?”
“I’ve told you, Rainbow,” Twilight said quietly, “the other kingdoms have missing creatures, too. Not just Equestria.” Everypony turned to look at Twilight when she spoke. She might be their friend, but she was still the ruler of Equestria.
“Well, they could be stealing some of their own subjects, to make them not look suspicious!” Rainbow Dash declared, looking satisfied with herself.
“No way!” Pinkie exclaimed. “You saw how mad or scared or sad the other rulers were when they came to Twilight saying that their subjects were missing, too.” Pinkie’s eyes were red and puffy from crying, and her mane was on the verge of going flat again. She hadn’t been the same since she’d received word that her sister, Limestone Pie, had been taken.
“Well, what if it’s some new villain who is stealing ponies to have leverage on us?” Rainbow said, the triumphant look fading from her face.
“It’s very possible,” Twilight whispered. “And if it is…” Twilight trailed off. She didn’t need to finish her thought. Everypony understood.
“Well… what if they’re being sucked into another dimension?” Rainbow asked, racking her brain for any other explanation for how fifty ponies could disappear without a trace. “Like the one that Twilight has a mirror to?”
“I wrote to my friends in that world,” Twilight murmured. “They’re looking for any signs that could help us.”
“What if they’re lying?” Rainbow Dash said. “What if they’re the ones taking them?”
“They would never!” Twilight and Starlight both flared up at the same time.
“Rainbow, my friends in that other world are alternate versions of all of you,” Twilight cried. “I’ve saved that world with them twice, and they’ve saved everyone there almost as many times as we have.”
“Yeah, but what about that other pony? The one who stole your crown? Sunshine Shimmer, or something? That sounds like something she would do.” Rainbow sat back in her chair with her arms folded.
“She’s changed,” Twilight insisted. “If it wasn’t for her, the Sirens would have taken over that world and gathered enough strength to come here! Also, she saved my counterpart from ripping both dimensions to pieces when she was corrupted by magic.”
“So you have an evil twin? Maybe she did it, then!”
“Rainbow, enough! None of my friends in the other world would do anything to hurt Equestria!” Twilight’s violet eyes were blazing with anger. She was breathing in and out deeply, her chest heaving with anger. She felt the urge to blast Rainbow Dash with her magic or turn her to stone. But she forced those feelings down. She hadn’t gotten much sleep lately, and she tended to explode sometimes if she wasn’t careful enough. Rainbow Dash winced as though she had been slapped and cowered in her chair. For a moment, all was quiet as everypony stared at Twilight, wondering if they should fear her. Twilight blinked, and then she sat back in her chair, shame written across her face.
“I’m sorry, Rainbow, I just - I…” Twilight looked down at her hooves. “I’m sorry,” she repeated.
The door opened, and Lyra Heartstrings hurried into the room. She looked worse than Pinkie Pie. Her eyes were bloodshot and always seemed on the verge of tears with dark circles under them, indicating that she hadn’t slept well, either. Her mane was disheveled, and her legs were shaking as if they were too weak to hold her up anymore. Lyra felt so hopeless that she could walk into a birthday party right now and everypony would suddenly feel sorrowful and hopeless like they were at a funeral.
“Have you found BonBon yet?” Lyra gasped. She was panting as if she had just run a mile. Behind her, two guards peeked into the doorway. Their gazes locked on the light green unicorn and their eyes narrowed in unison.
“Not yet, Lyra,” Twilight said regretfully. About once every day, somepony came into Twilight’s throne room, wondering if the pony they loved that had been snatched had been found and would be returned to them. Twilight always hated breaking the news to them that they’d had no luck with the search. Lyra plopped down on the floor and began to cry.
“She’s been gone for three weeks!” she choked out between sobs. “I want my friend back!” Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie came up to Lyra and began to comfort the distressed unicorn. Lyra wailed into Fluttershy’s shoulder, soaking Fluttershy’s long pink mane, which Fluttershy didn’t seem to mind, while Pinkie Pie put her hoof around Lyra’s shaking shoulders and wiping tears from Lyra’s cheeks.
“Fluttershy, Pinkie, please take Lyra somewhere where she can get a proper rest and food,” Twilight instructed. The two ponies nodded and led Lyra from the room.
“See?!” Rainbow Dash cried out again, pointing to the closed doors. “This is why we need to find the missing ponies! How many other ponies or creatures do you think are out there, crying and not sleeping because they miss their friends so much?”
“Believe me, Rainbow, all of us want to find them. We’re trying as hard as we can.” Twilight tried to calm Rainbow down with her voice, but it didn’t work.
“Well, then you need to try harder.” Twilight winced as if Rainbow had hit her.
“What if we pass a rule that nopony can leave the house unless an adult pony, or at least a friend is with them at all times?” Applejack jumped in hurriedly. “Maybe whoever is taking ponies only takes ponies that are alone.” Twilight shook her head.
“Thorax tried that in the Changeling Kingdom. A whole family of changelings went missing while they were out having a picnic.”
“Oh dear,” Rarity muttered. “What exactly are we going to do?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out!” Rainbow screamed at her. The force of her voice blew Rarity’s mane out of order.
“Ah, my hair!” Rarity quickly started to try and fix her mane while Rainbow rolled her eyes.
The door burst open again. Twilight looked up, wondering if Lyra was back, or if it was somepony else who wanted to ask about the search. But it was neither. Flash Sentry raced into the room, followed by two purple pegasi Crystal guards, one with a pink mane and one with green.
“Pardon my intrusion, Your Majesty,” Flash Sentry said, hastily bending his legs into a bow. The two other guards followed in suit. “Urgent news from the Crystal Empire.”
“Did more ponies disappear?” Twilight asked as she hurriedly stood up and trotted over to the guards. “Are Cadance and my brother okay?”
“Worse,” the green-maned guard growled.
“Your Majesty,” Flash whispered, “Princess Flurry Heart has been captured.”
The dark, dank dungeons of Celestia-knows-where were not the most wonderful place to be kept captive, as Sweetie Drops quickly found out on her first day here.
Her prison was just a long hallway full of cells on both sides. Each cell had one wall made of bars, which faced the hallway, and three other walls made of dark, gray, rough stone. A pile of hay was in the corner, along with two buckets; one which held water, and one that contained food whenever Sweetie Drops’ kidnappers decided to feed the prisoners. About three dozen cells were on each side of the hall, and at each end of the hall, there was a large gray door. Her kidnappers always came through one of the doors, but the other door had never been opened. Sweetie Drops had no idea what was behind it.
All of the cages were full, but there were at least five more floors above this one, or so Sweetie had heard from eavesdropping on her captors, full of more cages and more innocent ponies and creatures that had been stolen from their homes and taken to this place. Sweetie was sad to say that ponies were not the only ones getting snatched. On her floor alone there were about seven dragons, ten or so yaks, fifteen changelings, a few hippogriffs, and even a griffon. The rest of the cages were full of ponies.
Sweetie had been here for three weeks, but many of the others had been here for months. Sweetie Drops had been doing a mission for S.M.I.L.E. when she had been kidnapped. S.M.I.L.E. had wanted her to try and find out what she could about the missing ponies, but she’d been taken before she could relay any good information. Her best friend, Lyra Heartstrings, was probably tearing apart the continent looking for her. Sweetie Drops knew they weren’t in Equestria. She’d seen way too many ponies with both wings and a horn. But none of them were alicorns. When their wings were unfolded, they were the wings of a pegasus.
Oh, and yes, her kidnappers were ponies.
Sweetie Drops hadn’t seen anything like it. These ponies looked just like Equestrians did, except for the fake alicorns, but they didn’t seem to act like them. For instance, when they dragged in the griffon, who said her name was Gilda, and she knew Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and that they were going to come and pound them unless they let her go, the ponies acted like they didn’t even know who Twilight Sparkle was. That was the big red flag. Every creature knew who Twilight Sparkle and her friends were. They had saved Equestria, and just about everywhere else, on more than one occasion.
Sweetie paced her cell. It wasn’t very big, so she could only go about five steps before she had to turn around and go in the other direction. She was thinking about all the fun ways she would decapitate her captors when they came for feeding time next. Ooo, yes, that was fun to think about. First, she would gouge out their eyeballs and stuff them into their ears. Then she would dig into their brains and tear them apart. Then she would rip out all their guts and feed them to the pigs at Applejack’s farm and take a giant rock and ground their body into tiny bits of dust that she would throw into the sea and watch them get washed away to all the four corners of the earth. Then she would celebrate by having tea with Lyra. Ah, that was the life. It made Sweetie Drops feel better just thinking about it.
The large iron door clanged open. Several ponies came in, pushing carts loaded with buckets full of kitchen scraps. Seriously, that was what they fed them. Sweetie had been too squeamish to eat them at first, but after a few days, she had given in. But it was still gross. The ponies each went to separate cells and opened the door, sliding in a full bucket while grabbing the empty food bucket. Then they closed the door and continued to the next cell. Sweetie Drops was down towards the end of the room with the unopened door, so she had to wait. When a lime green unicorn with straight brown hair arrived in front of her cell with the cutie mark of a mixing machine, Sweetie prepared herself to bust out of this place for good. Her plan was flawless. There were no problems. Not a single one. Nadda.
The unicorn used her magic to open the door and turned away for a split second to grab a bucket. Big mistake. When she turned around again, she found an empty cell.
“What?” she cried. She whirled around again, only to see Sweetie Drops sitting on top of her cart, holding a bucket of scraps. Sweetie slammed the bucket on the unicorn’s head, splattering scraps all over her head.
“Escape!” The unicorn pointed blindly at Sweetie Drops, who leaped off the cart and ran for the door. The three other ponies who were in the room at the time chased after her. Unfortunately, one of them was one of those fake alicorns, and he teleported right in front of Sweetie Drops, his chestnut-colored wings spread defiantly. Sweetie skidded to a stop. She tried to swerve around him, but the two other ponies leaped on top of her, pinning her to the ground. The unicorn who had a bucket on her head used her magic to lift it off her head. Scraps slid off her flattened mane and her glaring face. Juice covered her face and dripped onto the floor. Her eyes were so brown they almost appeared brown.
“HOW DARE YOU?!?” she screamed at Sweetie Drops, who figured she could be heard back home. “HOW DARE YOU! I want this one to be locked in its cage with no food or water for three days. That should teach it to appreciate what it’s got.” The unicorn leaned into Sweetie’s face. Sweetie wrinkled her nose. The putrid smell leaking off her was too much. The other ponies slammed Sweetie back in her cage. One of them grabbed the handle to her water bucket in his mouth, and his buddy copied him. Trash-Unicorn slammed the door and gave Sweetie one last loathing look before stalking off. Once the door closed, the other prisoners started shouting at Sweetie.
“What were you thinking?”
“What, you were gonna fly out of here back to Equestria?”
“You could never have taken on all of them at once!”
“What were you thinking?!?”
Sweetie curled up on her pile of hay and buried her face in the straw. She just wanted to get out of here. Didn’t they? Or did they think that Twilight Sparkle and her friends were coming to rescue them? They’d been here for months. Twilight Sparkle never took that long to come to the rescue. No, they weren’t getting rescued. They weren’t getting out of here. They would be stuck here forever.
Sweetie Drops wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, the door clunked open again. Feeding time again. And this time, Sweetie Drops would be left out. However, she didn’t hear the usual opening and closing of the cage doors. Only the squeaking wheels of one cart, not four. Curiosity overtook Sweetie, and she stood up and walked to the door of her cell. Two ponies, both fake alicorns, were pushing a cart with only one shelf, which was close to the ground. A handle rose high enough for them to push. On the cart was an unconscious young filly with purple and pink curls streaked with blue. Her face was turned away from Sweetie Drops, but she could see the foal’s cutie mark: a light blue heart with two golden swirls under it with a shield behind it. A horn was just barely visible above the filly’s curls, and her wings were partially spread out. Sweetie Drops would have assumed that it was one of those fake alicorns, a pony from this place, but the wings weren’t pegasus wings. They were much larger. Anger boiled inside Sweetie Drops as she recognized the foal. It was Princess Flurry Heart. How dare these despicable ponies take innocent foals! Not only that, but they stole a princess! It’s like they were asking for Equestria to go to war with them. On Flurry Heart’s left rear leg was a thick iron band. Sweetie’s glance shifted to her own back hoof. All the prisoners had a cuff around one of their legs. Sweetie wasn’t sure what they did, and she didn’t want to find out.
“Boss says he wants this one in the room,” the fake alicorn said to his mate.
“Why?” the other one replied. His voice was deep and gravelly. “It’s no different from the others.”
“I don’t know, but just do it, Rick. You don’t want Boss on your bad side.” The first fake alicorn stopped, turned around, and headed back the way he had come.
“Sure, Brad,” the one called Rick muttered to himself. He used his magic to open the door with a squeak and a clunk before rolling the cart inside. He disappeared into the dark interior for a few moments before coming out with the empty cart. Slamming the door behind him, Rick trotted out of the room. Sweetie dragged herself to the back of her cell and plopped down on her hay.
“Please, Twilight,” she whispered to herself. “Hurry.”
Flurry Heart only remembered those things since she’d been snatched. Her head throbbed, she couldn’t see anything, and her rear ankle felt like something was cutting into it.
And so Flurry Heart lay in the darkness for a while, long enough for her to get very, very scared, and very, very mad.
She was an alicorn princess. Not only that, but she was the daughter and niece of two other alicorn princesses. And she was kinda, sorta the granddaughter and grand niece of two more alicorn princesses. Yeah. She was kinda a big deal. In kidnapping her, these monsters were practically asking to get blasted with rainbows and turned to stone.
Flurry blinked open her eyes. Still dark. Except… there was a band of light coming from underneath… a door? Flurry opened her eyes wider. Slowly, the light brought the rest of Flurry’s surroundings into focus. Flurry was in a plain room made of steel. The only other things in it were two buckets next to a large, gray door that looked as if it weighed more than Cadance’s throne.
Seriously? Flurry thought incredulously. I can blast that door to pieces before you can say Sweet Celestia. Flurry lit her horn, but as she did, a shock of electricity jolted her body. Flurry’s horn did not ignite. Flurry looked down at her ankle. There was an iron band on it, cutting into her skin. Waves and swirls were carved in it, and they were glowing briefly before dimming again. Flurry’s breath came out in gasps. That hurt! Whoever did this was gonna pay. Flurry tried to at least light the tip of her horn for a bit more light, but, once again, another painful shock rocked her body. Flurry’s legs numbed, and she toppled onto the ground, shivering.
Okay, she thought to herself, these guys gave me a hoof cuff that shocks me whenever I try to do magic. Flurry glanced back at it again. The cuff was attached to a chain that was about a foot long and was anchored to the ground at the other end. So she was stuck. And she did not like it.
Flurry lay on the ground for a while, breathing hard and trying to get enough strength back to be able to stand again. When she did, she tried pulling on the chain, stomping on it, even biting it. Nothing worked. Flurry spread her wings and flew upwards towards the ceiling, hoping to pull her hoof out of the chains. Still, she was trapped. Flurry beat her wings harder, straining to get away, but she finally gave up and plopped down on the ground again. She eyed the two buckets by the door. They were just far enough away that Flurry couldn’t reach them.
Flurry wasn’t sure how long she was stuck in the room, but she spent her time pacing, trying to come up with a plan, a strategy, anything that would get her out of here. It made her even more angry when she realized that these guys were probably using her as a bargaining chip against her mother and her aunt Twilight. These guys probably wanted to take over Equestria and were going to use her to make sure they got what they wanted.
After what seemed like forever, Flurry heard hoof steps outside the door. There was a bunch of clunking and clicking, and then the door swung open. On the threshold were three ponies. Two of them were unicorns with blank expressions on their faces. One had a straight brown mane and a lime-colored coat. She smelled like garbage. Her dark brown eyes narrowed at Flurry Heart. Flurry could tell that she hated ponies for some reason. Her companion was a tan stallion with greasy black hair. His shallow gray eyes were empty of any emotion whatsoever. However, it was the pony in front of these two that puzzled Flurry the most. He had a gray coat like a rock, and his mane was black and well-groomed. His dark brown eyes were so dark they appeared black, and they were cold and calculating. They studied Flurry Heart like she was nothing more than a fascinating bug or rock that he found on the side of the road. But the thing most extraordinary about this stallion was the fact that he had both a horn and wings. However, unlike Flurry’s own wings, his were like those of a pegasus. It was like he was an alicorn without the earth pony magic mixed in, so he had just unicorn and pegasus magic. His wings were spread authoritatively, and he held his head high. Flurry could tell that this was the pony in charge. Flurry kept her wings tucked in close. She would not give this infuriating pony the pleasure of her cooperating.
“So, you say this one is one of them?” Fake Alicorn asked Garbage Pony. Garbage Pony scowled at Flurry, and Flurry glared right back.
“Yes,” she said grudgingly. “Our scouts found it flying by itself. Easy catch.”
“Ah. I… see.” Fake Alicorn walked around Flurry Heart in circles, poking and prodding Flurry’s mane, tail, and wings. He “hmm”d and “ahh”d like Flurry was just an interesting artifact or exhibit instead of a real pony. Fake Alicorn grabbed one of Flurry’s wings and unfolded it forcefully, displaying it for his two companions to see. Flurry hissed at him, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“As you can see, this specimen’s wings are much larger than the average pegacorn.” Fake Alicorn’s voice was filled with amazement and wonder as if he couldn’t wait to make Flurry drink radioactive dye and see how she reacted. They think I’m just another experiment, Flurry thought with a flare of anger, just another toy for them to play with instead of a real pony with feelings!
“With all due respect, sir,” Garbage Pony interrupted, “what does that mean?”
“It leads me to believe,” Fake Alicorn said amusingly, “that either it is another species altogether, or it has much more power. It will be fascinating to study.” Fake Alicorn dropped Flurry’s wing, which had been getting numb. “Kiwi Swirl, I want you to find out all you can about these unique pegacorns. We need to know all we can about this place if we are to claim it for our own kind.”
“Excuse me,” Flurry interrupted. All three ponies turned and gawked at her as if they didn’t think she was capable of speech. “Hi. I’m sure this is all just a misunderstanding. But if you think you can… what was it? Oh, right, ‘claim it for your own kind’, you’re gonna be very surprised. In case you’re wondering, you are most definitely not the first one who wanted to take over Equestria, and you will not be the first to succeed, either. Now, if you could please just let us all go, we’ll go back home, and everything will be fine.” Flurry innocently blinked her large blue eyes at Fake Alicorn. This trick always worked with her mom. However, it did not work on these ponies. Fake Alicorn chuckled.
“Well well well, got a feisty one here, do we?” Fake Alicorn walked up to Flurry Heart and cupped her chin, forcing her to look at his face. “Unfortunately it won’t do much. We’ve got everything we need to claim the rest of the world, and your home along the way, especially now that we’ve got you now. I hear that your little leaders would do anything to get you back, including surrendering their kingdoms to me. Soon the whole world will be one empire under me!” Fake Alicorn did an evil laugh that made Flurry roll her eyes. Yeah, so he was scary and all, but her aunt Twilight had faced worse threats. Also, his evil laugh wasn’t that evil. Fake Alicorn tilted Flurry’s head from side to side, inspecting it.
“Hmm,” he muttered. “Kiwi, I want the magic meter in here as soon as possible. We need to measure its power.” He dropped Flurry’s head and turned away, walking out of the room with the two unicorns behind him. The door slammed with a clunk, and Flurry was left to darkness again. She sighed, turning in a circle and plopping down on the cold cement floor. Fake Alicorn had forgotten to move the two buckets closer so Flurry could reach them. Her stomach growled and her mouth was as dry as sawdust. Flurry closed her eyes and slipped off into dreamland.
Flurry’s dreams were full of happy memories of her and her family. There was her last birthday party, all the Hearth’s Warming Eves she could remember, and just visiting her aunt in Canterlot. She might never see any of them again.
A loud clunk jolted Flurry out of her sleep. She was still in the gray room, but the door was open again. Garbage Pony and her friend were back. Thankfully, Fake Alicorn was nowhere to be seen. Kiwi Swirl was holding an iron mold of a unicorn horn and a small instrument that looked like a thermometer. She walked up to Flurry and, with no particular gentleness, jammed the iron horn onto Flurry’s horn. A single groove swirled around the iron mold, and it lit up as the machine read how much magic Flurry had. Kiwi held up the thermometer with her magic, and she and Blank Face both looked at it curiously. The red blob in the bottom of the meter suddenly shot upwards and broke through the top of the instrument. Both ponies looked between Flurry Heart and the broken instrument with shocked faces. Finally, Kiwi shook her head.
“What’ll we tell Boss?” she asked her companion quietly.
“Pony has lots of magic,” Blank Face muttered. His way of speech reminded Flurry of the yaks. But she liked yaks much better.
“Yes, but how much?” Kiwi persisted. “Boss wants to know exactly how much magic it has.”
I’m not an it! Flurry thought indignantly.
“This one needs further study… much further study.” Kiwi shook her head and used her magic to grab the instrument off of Flurry’s horn. She and Blank Face left the room again, plunging Flurry into darkness again. Flurry was a big filly, almost a mare, but she felt like she could cry loud enough to break the Crystal Heart again. She collapsed on the floor and let the tears spill, clinging to the hope that Twilight Sparkle and her friends would come and rescue her soon. But a part of her knew with iron certainty that they weren’t coming soon. They might never come at all.
Twilight Sparkle anxiously paced in front of her throne. Flurry Heart captured… it couldn’t be! And yet she’d sent a letter to Cadance and Shining Armor, asking them to confirm this, and they reluctantly agreed that yes, the youngest princess in Equestrian history had been stolen.
Stealing a princess was not like stealing an ordinary pony, not in any way. This could mean war. If word got out about this… well, things would look extremely grim at best, and Equestria and all the neighboring kingdoms would join together and go to war with the kidnappers at worst. But the main thing about going to war is that you have to know who you’re going to war with. And Twilight had no idea who was taking the missing ponies.
“Come on, Twilight,” Spike muttered from up on his throne, “take a break from this whole thing. You won’t be any good to anypony if you’re about to fall asleep on your feet.” And it was true. Twilight had spent every waking hour sending every single creature who was eligible to the Crystal Empire to try and find clues about where Flurry Heart might have gone. She also spent every sleeping hour dreaming about Flurry in some horrible place, getting tortured for information about Equestria. Which was why the ratio of Twilight’s Waking Hours to Twilight’s Sleeping Hours was 24 to 0.
“Take a break? Take a break?!?” Twilight launched into the air and flew up to Spike in the blink of an eye, getting up in his face, her normally calm violet eyes wild. “I CAN’T TAKE A BREAK!!! FLURRY HEART’S BEEN CAPTURED!!! I NEED TO FIND HER OR ELSE WE’LL GO TO WAR!!!” Twilight hovered there, panting. Spike cautiously pushed her away.
“Relax, Twilight,” Spike glanced around nervously, looking for emergency exits from Twilight’s twilighting. “You’ll figure it out. You always do. But first…” Spike pushed Twilight to the door of the throne room, “you need to rest.”
“Rest? How can I-” Twilight started, but Spike pressed a claw to her mouth, shushing her.
“Twilight. Look at me.” Twilight’s eyes swam with tears, but she gazed into Spike’s intense green eyes. For a moment, Spike could see everything she was feeling. Her heartbreak over losing her niece, her desperation to get her back, her panic that Equestria might be going to war. He felt her pain, her fear, her rage, her exhaustion. He knew that Twilight blamed herself for Flurry Heart’s disappearance. She felt like she could have tried harder. “Twilight. Listen. You have to rest. If you don’t you’ll never get anything done. You have to at least try. Take a short nap. Get your strength back. Then you can go figure out where Flurry Heart is and charge the place with all your friends and blast magic friendship rainbows and free everypony and go home happy. But first, rest.”
Twilight blinked. She was so exhausted she could plop down on the floor right here and sleep for a year. But she’d pushed that tiredness down. She couldn’t focus on Flurry Heart and the other missing ponies if she was tired! Twilight instead had focused on her anger, her pain, her regret. But now all that exhaustion came rushing out in a big flood.
“I… you’re right, Spike,” Twilight mumbled. Then she passed out, breathing in and out peacefully. Spike smiled sadly at her.
“I know I’m right. I usually am.” He managed to carry/push/pull Twilight to her room and get her into her bed, pulling the covers up to her chin and closing the curtains on the window. “Sleep tight,” Spike murmured as he closed the door on the sleeping alicorn.
Even though Twilight was finally resting, and was glad to do so, her dreams were far from peaceful. She saw Flurry Heart running from monsters, trying to get home. She saw Flurry trapped in a cage being fed poison while creatures shrouded in darkness recorded how she reacted in notebooks. She saw Flurry being stripped forcefully of her magic, leaving her weak and defenseless. Worst of all, she saw Flurry lying still in a pool of blood, her wings half spread and mangled, hundreds of bleeding cuts covering her body.
“No!” Twilight’s eyes snapped open, and she lay there, panting. “It was just a dream,” she told herself over and over again. “Just a dream.” But something about her dreams felt real. Spike opened the door a crack and saw Twilight, sitting in bed, looking well-rested and not like she would fall asleep on her feet at any moment, but shaken and sweating.
“Twilight?” he asked tentatively. “Are you okay?”
“Oh. Um, yes. Yes, I’m fine.” Twilight avoided Spike’s gaze as she pulled herself out of bed.
“O-kay. Anyways, some guards just came in. They say they finally have a clue.”
“WHAT?!?!” Twilight leaped into the air. “Where are they?”
“In the throne room, but-” Spike was cut off as Twilight flew so fast she became a purple blur. “Hey, wait!” Spike flapped his wings desperately, trying to keep up with the princess. He pushed open the throne room doors and found Twilight standing in front of her throne, two guards in front of her.
“...Found something,” the guard on the right was saying. He had an iron-colored mane with a light gray coat. His eyes were deep blue, and a scar ran across one of his ankles. His friend was the same color as storm clouds, with a lightning-colored mane and sunken gray eyes.
“What did you find?” Twilight practically shouted.
“We were patrolling the streets of downtown Canterlot, just like you asked,” the stormy guard answered. “We heard a scream come from one of the houses. We rushed inside and found three ponies in black attempting to stuff the civilians into large sacks and take them away.”
“May I see them?” Twilight asked anxiously. The guards nodded. The gray guard trotted over to the door and opened it, poking his head out and gesturing to somepony in the hallway. Three ponies were thrown into the room with no particular care, and five more guards, all with blue manes and white coats, followed them. The ponies wore full bodysuits made of black material, but the hoods were down so you could see their faces. Two were unicorns, and one was a pegasus. One of the unicorns had a cherry red coat with chocolate brown mane falling onto her shoulders in looping curls. Her eyes were forest green, and she looked very unhappy. She looked as if she was about Flurry’s age. Twilight felt a pang inside her when she thought about Flurry. The other unicorn wore a scowl that seemed to be permanently stuck onto his face. His coat was dark blue with a grayish-white mane cut close to his scalp like Twilight’s guards. The pegasus was lime green with a lemon yellow mane and brown eyes that seemed empty of all emotion.
“Well?” Twilight demanded.
“Ah. Yes. Before we get into that, there’s something you should see, Your Majesty.” The gray guard flicked his tail, and one of the five guards came up and prodded the cherry-colored unicorn with the tip of his spear. She winced and stood up, reluctantly unfolding her wings.
Twilight’s jaw dropped. So did Spike’s. The cherry unicorn blushed, although you couldn’t tell with her coat.
“What… how… who… what?” Twilight stammered. The guard with the spear poked the unicorn again.
“Speak,” he growled.
“... Your Majesty.” The unicorn had a sweet and shy voice that sounded sort of like Fluttershy’s, which shocked Twilight. Call her stereotypical, but she’d been expecting thugs and monsters and horrible things, not most likely innocent unicorns with pegasus wings. That was the main thing Twilight noticed that set this pony apart from alicorns.
“I mean no harm,” she stammered.
“No harm? What do you mean, no harm?” Twilight slammed her hoof down. The unicorn winced. “You think kidnapping my innocent subjects and taking them away without a trace means no harm?”
“My father made me do it,” she whispered. Her voice was so quiet Twilight could barely hear it. Her glance flicked to the dark blue unicorn. His scowl deepened and he glared at his daughter. “I didn’t want to.”
“So you were forced to do this. But what about them?” Twilight pointed an accusing hoof at the other two ponies, but her gaze never wavered from the fake alicorn’s face.
“I-I don’t know about them.” The unicorn’s gaze flicked to the other ponies again.
She can’t talk in front of them, Twilight realized. They’ll punish her.
“Iron Spear,” she commanded, “take these two to the caves and leave us.”
“A-are you sure, Your Majesty?” the gray guard, Iron Spear asked nervously, shooting a suspicious glance at the fake alicorn. “These ponies are… unpredictable. Are you sure you want to be left alone with one?” The fake alicorn flinched again, her eyes closed, but Twilight could see the expression of pain written across her face.
“Iron Spear. I am the same pony who defeated Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek, Cozy Glow, and many others, some more than once. I started as a unicorn who became a princess who became ruler of all of Equestria. Are you doubting me and my capability to handle things like this?”
“N-no, Your Majesty.” Iron Spear hurriedly bent his legs in a quick bow.
“Good. Then take you ponies out of here and take care of these two.” Twilight gestured to the other two ponies. The guards hurriedly escorted the ponies from the room. The pegasus went quietly, but at the door, the blue unicorn snarled at the guards, broke free for a second, and glared at his daughter, whose head was hanging in shame.
“Tell them anything,” he growled, “and I swear…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence. The guards grabbed him and wrestled him out of the room, but his words had the intended effect on the red unicorn. If a pony could wilt, this one certainly did.
“Spike,” Twilight said firmly, “you’re excused, too. Write to Starlight and Celestia and Luna. Tell them to come here as soon as they can. Then write to my friends and tell them a council meeting is being scheduled right now. Don’t alert Cadance and Shining yet; I want to make sure this is genuine.” Spike hesitated, his gaze flicking between Twilight and the cherry red pony. He nodded and flew out the door. Once the door shut, Twilight’s shoulders slumped and she seemed to relax, now that they were all alone.
“I’m sorry,” the red pony’s voice was choked with tears, “but I can’t tell you anything. If I do… I’ll be punished. Really bad.” Twilight smiled warmly at her and trotted down the ramp to stand face to face with the poor pony.
“I knew a little filly once who had the same problem as you.” Twilight gently placed her hand on the red pony’s shoulder. “She was pressured by her parents to make her decisions the way they wanted them to. But she eventually realized that she could stand up to them and make her own decisions.” The fake alicorn’s dull green eyes brightened, and she looked at Twilight with a flame of hope starting to burn inside her.
“Really?” Her voice was breathless as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Really.” Twilight’s purple eyes were warm and calm, reassuring the young unicorn. “She learned to make her own choices, no matter what might happen. She chose to do what was right, instead of what other ponies wanted. And I know you can, too.”
“I… I want to, but… this goes beyond just my father. It goes to the emperor. I got in trouble with him because I tried to convince him to let the ponies go, and he got mad, and… well, my father’s his commander for all his armies. He and Lemon Lime, the pegasus, usually go on the missions to find and bring back more ponies. And I almost got my father fired, so I had to go on the next mission, and we got captured, so I’m probably in really big trouble, and when they find out I’ve been talking with you, then…” She gulped as if she was just realizing how much she had said. “I should probably stop talking.”
“All right,” Twilight said agreeably. “Just one more question: How do you have both wings and a horn?”
The red pony blinked. “What do you mean, how? You have both of them.”
“Yes, well…” Twilight unfolded one of her wings. The red pony gasped.
“They… they’re so big,” she mumbled. “How did they get that way? You’re not like any pegacorn I’ve ever seen.”
“Pegacorn?” Twilight asked, folding her wing back up.
“Yeah, you know: the child of both a pegasus and a unicorn who got a horn and pegasi wings. But not wings like you have.”
“Is that what you are? A pegacorn?”
“Yep. My mom’s a pegasus. Pegacorns aren’t uncommon where I’m from, although they aren’t that normal. All pegacorns end up working for the emperor. He wants to keep them all under close watch so none of them try to overthrow him. If you’re not a pegacorn, then what are you?”
“I’m an alicorn. A pony with the combined magic of all three tribes. Pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies. There are only five alicorns in Equestria because we’re rare. Well, there were five…” Twilight turned her head to avoid looking at the other pony. Suddenly, the red pony gasped.
“Oh, my goodness. A few days ago, I heard my father talking about how they discovered a ‘new species of pegacorn’ here and managed to bring one back. Is that…?”
“Flurry Heart?!? You know where she is?” Twilight lunged at the young pegacorn, shaking her. “Tell me!”
“She-she’s with the others. Why is she so super important?” Twilight let go of her and started pacing.
“Flurry Heart is my niece and the daughter of another alicorn. Also, she’s the only natural-born alicorn in recorded history. All us other alicorns were made alicorns some time in our life. I was a regular unicorn, but then I became a princess. Also, all alicorns are princesses and have more magical potential than basically any other pony or creature in existence!”
“Yikes. She sounds… important.”
“Yeah, she’s important! If we don’t get her back, we might go to war!” Twilight took several deep breaths.
“Okay. I’m going to need you to tell me everything you know. It’s the only way to avoid going to war. In return, I’ll do everything I can do to protect you and your family from the emperor. Come on. I’m going to go see if I can find anything else about your land and pegacorns in some ancient texts. Our two lands must have made contact at some point. And I’ll need you with me…?”
“Red.” The red pegacorn looked nervous at the prospect of going against her father’s wishes. “Red Berry.”
“Red. Stay close to me, and nopony will bother you.” Twilight trotted towards the door. Without any hesitation, Red followed, folding her wings up. The two of them walked down the corridor, Red gazing in awe at the dozens of stained glass windows depicting Twilight Sparkle and her friends’ successes.
“Who’s that?” she asked, pointing her hoof at one of the windows.
“That’s Nightmare Moon. She was the first villain me and my friends defeated. She was jealous of her older sister, Celestia, so she turned to darkness. But we destroyed the darkness in her and turned her back into Luna. That was when we first discovered the Elements of Harmony.”
“Who’s that?”
“Discord. The second villain we had to defeat. He broke apart our friendship, making the Elements useless. He’s a creature of chaos, and he tried to turn Equestria into the chaos capital of the world. But me and my friends overcame those challenges and cast him back to stone. Later, though, my friend Fluttershy showed him the magic of friendship, so he’s on our side.”
“You and your friends sound amazing.” Red sighed. “I wish I had friends like yours.” She gasped. “Who’s that?”
“Queen Chrysalis. Queen of the changelings, a species that takes the form of somepony you love and feeds off your emotions for them. We had to defeat the whole tribe when they attacked my brother’s wedding. Eventually, the changelings changed, although Chrysalis did not.”
“Huh. I think we - I mean, they - captured some of those, too. Ooo, how many other adventures have you had?”
“A lot,” Twilight sighed exasperatedly. “It can get a little tiring.”
“Tell me everything,” Red demanded. Twilight smiled at her.
“Not a lot of adventures where you’re from?”
“Not like these.” Red waved her hoof around, gesturing to all the windows depicting battles and friendship lasers and villains getting turned to statues.
“Well, before I met my friends, I didn’t really want any. I mean, it would just distract me from my studies. Then I found out Nightmare Moon would be returning, so I wanted to find the mysterious Elements of Harmony, which were the only things that could defeat her.”
“But you and your friends have done so much! How could you not want any?” Twilight laughed a little.
“Well, I didn’t know that then. Anyways, I came to Ponyville and met my friends: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. I was very annoyed with them, though, because I just wanted to get some alone time to find out more about the return of Nightmare Moon. When she did come back that night, I hurried to go find the Elements in the Everfree Forest, a forbidden forest because it’s home to monsters and grows without the help of ponies. My friends insisted that they come along, and it was a good thing, too. They used their unique abilities to get around all the challenges Nightmare Moon threw at us. I realized that they were the spirits of the Elements of Harmony: Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, and Laughter. I represented the sixth element, Magic, and the six of us used the elements to defeat Nightmare Moon. Then later, with Discord…”
“Yes?” Red cried eagerly.
“Well, Discord had originally been defeated by Celestia and Luna with the Elements of Harmony before they became lost. They turned Discord to stone, but he broke free and rained chaos down on Equestria. He divided me and my friends, and the Elements were pretty useless without our friendship. But then I realized what he was doing, and gathered my friends. We overcame Discord, turning him to stone again.”
“But you said that Discord turned good,” Red pressed.
“Yes, I’m getting there. Unfortunately, before that could happen, Chrysalis attacked Canterlot with her changelings in the middle of my brother’s wedding with my former foal sitter. Then...”
Twilight told Red about every single quest she and her friends had gone on, and all the times they had been saved themselves by somepony else. Red hung onto every word the princess said. After Twilight finished, Red told her about everything she knew. The two of them were sitting in the library when the door burst open and Starlight Glimmer trotted into the room, Spike flapping behind her. Starlight’s eyes darted from side to side until they landed on Red. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she noticed that Red had wings.
“Starlight!” Twilight called. Starlight trotted over to the two ponies, her gaze still staring at Red in disbelief. Red shifted in her seat, suddenly uncomfortable.
“Oh! This is Red.” Twilight gestured to the red pony, but Starlight’s expression didn’t change. She didn’t even blink. “Um… Oh! Is it the wings?”
Starlight nodded mutely.
“Um, well, let's just say… um, she’s from another land which also has ponies, except they also have this tribe called pegacorns, which are unicorns with pegasus wings. So, different from alicorns. Also, they’re apparently pretty common where she’s from.” Twilight studied Starlight’s face. Starlight shook her head and blinked.
“Sorry, it’s just… I’ve never seen anything like you before. Well except for alicorns, but you're not an alicorn, so… also, alicorns are pretty rare, and if you were one, we would have heard something about you, cause all alicorns are princesses here, heh… wait, another land of ponies?” Starlight looked at Twilight for confirmation. She nodded solemnly.
“It’s a land across the sea, called Anoia. The emperor wants to conquer Equestria so that he can expand his sphere of influence and have power over every single living thing. But he wanted to know more about the inhabitants of these lands, so he’s been capturing all the ponies and creatures they can to study. They really wanted an alicorn, so they got Flurry Heart when she was alone. They want to find our weaknesses so they can attack us. According to Red, the emperor won’t try anything peaceful or diplomatic. He’s a war fanatic. He conquers through battle and bloodshed.”
“What’s the emperor’s name?” Starlight asked tentatively.
“Emperor Lupines. That’s his name. My father says he’s named that because he’s smart and cunning, like a wolf.” Red shuddered. “I met him once. I hated him the moment I laid eyes on him.”
“Who’s your father?”
“The emperor’s commander.”
“What were you doing here?”
Red hesitated. She didn’t like talking about this.
“I got in trouble with the emperor. He sent me with my father and Lemon Lime, one of the emperor’s most trusted generals, to kidnap more ponies. I didn’t want to. But my father made it very clear that I would either go with him or get exiled. And getting exiled is the worst punishment there is, and trust me, my father would have made it much worse.”
Starlight put her hoof on Red’s shoulder. She hadn’t thought that ponies were suffering other than the Equestrians.
“Have you seen Flurry Heart?” Starlight asked anxiously. “Little pony, light pink with purple and pink curls?” Her heart started beating at a hundred times its normal speed when Red nodded.
“I haven’t actually seen her, but I think I know where she is.” Red glanced at Twilight before continuing. “There’s a large prison-house where the missing ponies are being kept. About three dozen cells on each of five floors. On each floor, there’s a special, fortified cell for more dangerous prisoners. I think she would be kept in one of those.”
“Why hasn’t she escaped already?” Twilight asked. “Flurry Heart can shatter magical artifacts simply by screaming. She’s probably the most powerful pony in all of Equestria. I don’t care how fortified or strong your prison is, Flurry Heart could bust out of it.” Starlight nodded; she’d been wondering the same thing. Red winced.
“On all the prisoners, there’s a cuff on one of their legs that prevents them from using any magic. This cuff can only be opened by keys; no amount of magic will do anything. At least, not any of our magic. But a super-powerful pony might be able to. And there’s only one key that will work on the cuffs, and it’s in the possession of the emperor. I’m sorry, but the only way you’ll be able to get her back is to surrender.”
“Surrendering was never an option before today, and that won’t change as long as I have something to do with it,” Twilight growled. “We’ve defeated so many villains and faced impossible odds plenty of times. This won’t be any different.” She turned to Red, her eyes burning with passion. “Red, I’m going to have to ask you to do something insanely dangerous and absolutely crazy.” Red gulped.
“Um… what?” she asked nervously.
“I need you to go back to Anoia. Go straight to the emperor and tell him that your father and Lemon Lime were captured, and you just barely got back. Act loyal to him and find out all you can about how the emperor plans to attack Equestria. Then tell me everything. We’re going to war.”
Flurry Heart had paced in every direction at least a hundred times each. And still nothing had changed. She was thirsty, her stomach was growling with hunger, and nopony had come to see her since the incident with the magic meter. Nopony came to study her and take notes and make her drink radioactive dye or anything. The absence was unsettling.
The young princess wondered what her aunt and her mom were doing right now. Probably tearing the continent apart looking for her. But Flurry had a feeling she wasn’t anywhere near Equestria. She was somewhere else entirely, beyond any of the kingdoms. Past Mount Aris, even.
After what felt like an eternity in the darkness, the door cranked open again, and Kiwi Garbage Pony was back with her companion. Kiwi carried a suitcase in her mouth, probably forgetting she had a horn and could do magic. Blank Face trotted around to stand behind Flurry, which made her uncomfortable.
Kiwi Swirl opened the case and pulled out a syringe. She looked at Flurry with relish, as if she’d always wanted to do this.
“Hold it still,” she commanded. Blank Face happily obliged, slamming his front hooves onto Flurry’s back, pushing her down. Her wings sprawled out, and Blank Face planted his hooves onto her wings, pinning her to the ground. Flurry struggled, but it was no use. Kiwi approached her with menace in her eyes, holding the syringe with her magic. The sharp point gleamed in the dim light. With no remorse, she plunged the syringe into one of Flurry’s front hooves. Flurry cried out in pain as the syringe filled up with blood - her blood. When it was full, Garbage Pony pulled it out again, her eyes gleaming as she stared at the blood.
“When Boss gets this sample…” She chuckled menacingly. “Well, that was only the first of many tests, you little nuisance.”
Flurry Heart whimpered. Where the syringe had been on her arm was a small dot of blood that trickled down her hoof in a wavy line of crimson.
“Keep it down,” Kiwi told Blank Face. Flurry squirmed and struggled and tried to pull away, but Blank Face finally held her completely paralyzed her with his magic. Flurry was suspended in an aura of dark green light, but she couldn’t move. Kiwi Swirl smirked and used her own magic to grab a lock of Flurry’s mane and to cut it with some shears that were in the case. Flurry cried out when the lock of hair fell to the ground. Kiwi picked it up, nodded in satisfaction, and dropped it into the case as well. She also plucked one of Flurry’s feathers from her wings (Flurry winced) and took a sample of Flurry’s DNA. She took these samples and her case with her as she finally left the room. Blank Face released Flurry and scurried after her.
For a while, Flurry just lay there, shivering in the darkness, trying and failing to ignore the pain that was racking her body. It was a while before Flurry realized that they had detached her cuff from the chain that kept her to the floor, but the cuff still prevented her from using magic. Flurry limped over to the water bucket and drained it. She managed to choke down the scraps, but it did little to ease her hunger.
“I wish I had one of Aunt Pinkie Pie’s cakes,” Flurry moaned to herself. “Or one of her pies. Or… well, really anything.” Thinking of her aunts back home made Flurry’s heartache. It was all she could do to keep from breaking down crying. She circled and lay down, resting her muzzle on her hoof, closing her eyes. Flurry tried to get some sleep, but she couldn’t seem to drift off. Occasionally, her cuff would send small shocks through her leg until it was numb, but Flurry was so depressed she didn’t even notice this was unusual, as she was not using any magic.
When Flurry finally fell asleep, she dreamed of all the times her aunts had saved Equestria. She hadn’t been there for many of them, but Aunt Twilight had told her the stories in such great detail, and so many times, that Flurry could recall them almost instantly.
She saw her aunts using the Elements of Harmony on Nightmare Moon and Discord. She saw her parents use their love to defeat Chrysalis, and her mom returning the Crystal Heart to defeat Sombra. She remembered being told about Tirek and Starlight Glimmer, and how Starlight Glimmer had saved Flurry and her family from Chrysalis again. She recalled Aunt Twilight’s story about the Pony of Shadows and about Cozy Glow. Most importantly, she remembered helping chase Sombra out of the Crystal Empire, although he came back, and her aunts dealt with him then. Then there was Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow working together. Flurry hadn’t witnessed the final battle, but she’d heard there were a lot of magic rainbows.
A strong shock jolted her from her peaceful rest. Flurry’s eyes snapped open, pain and shock racking her body until she was numb. When the pain finally subsided, she glanced at her cuff. The grooves around it were glowing brightly. Her hoof felt like it was being poked by a thousand needles.
“Fascinating,” a voice said quietly from the corner. “It’s heart rate only increased by 15%.”
Flurry whirled around. She didn’t see anypony, but when she strained her eyes, she spotted a camera hiding in the corner. The voice came from there. A fresh wave of rage swept over the young alicorn, and she resisted the urge to run over there and rip the camera out of the wall. The only thing holding her back was the fact that whoever was monitoring her could set off her cuff at any moment, sending fresh waves of pain and shock throughout her body. So Flurry settled for sitting in place and glaring at the camera as if daring the ponies watching her to anything more. Which they did.
Suddenly Flurry thought she should start flying. Flurry had no idea where that had come from, but the thought was so overwhelming, pushing any other thoughts out of her head. So Flurry spread her wings and started to fly in circles around the room.
Speed up, a little voice in her head told her. Flurry obliged. The room passed in a blur. Flurry glanced at her cuff and noticed it was glowing dimly.
Sweet Celestia! she thought with a jolt. They’re sending thoughts to my head to make me do what they want! Well, that won’t work.
Flurry forced mental bands of steel around her brain, pushing out the false thoughts. She landed at the edge of the room and glared at the camera.
Start flying again! the voice whispered in her head. Go super fast! Don’t stop for anything, not even water!
“No,” Flurry said out loud. She pushed those thoughts away. “I won’t.”
Yes you will, the voice said coaxingly. It was smooth and gentle, like her mom’s voice. Every sense in Flurry’s body was telling her to listen to it. You will fly in circles until we get enough data. You will fly in circles as fast as you can. Do it. You cannot escape me. I am inside your head. Do it. I will always be here. You cannot fight me. You. Will. DO IT.
It was like Flurry couldn’t think anymore. Her body wouldn’t respond to her brain. Her wings spread again and flapped hard, propelling Flurry in circles around the room. Flurry’s mind screamed to stop, but nothing would work. It was like she was trapped inside her own brain, and she couldn’t control anything. Now she would do whatever these cruel and vicious ponies wanted her to.
You hate this, the voice whispered in her ear. You can’t stand this. Let me help you. You won’t have to control anything. You won’t feel any more pain or fear. Let me take control. Let me lead you to a victorious future.
No, Flurry whispered inside her head, but it was a pathetic attempt to push the voice out of her head. Suddenly, it was like her brain shut down. Flurry’s eyes glazed over, and her body went limp, doing whatever the other ponies wanted her to do. She became a robot, a zombie, an obedient servant of the leader of this world. She would do whatever she was told. She could be a weapon or a bribe. What she couldn’t be was free.
From that moment on, Princess Flurry Heart never remembered anything.
The salty spray coming off the sea caught the wind and whirled up to splash in Red’s face. Below her, green and turquoise waves stretched out in every direction for miles, crashing into each other and tossing in the strong wind. The sun’s glare off the water was dazzling, so much so that Red felt like she’d go blind if she looked at it directly.
She officially hated it.
Her wings ached as she urged them to keep flapping. The wind whipped her hair around so little strands kept ending up in her mouth, and she had to spit them back out again. The sunshine was beating down on her, making these conditions the absolute worst to be flying home in. Worst of all, the wind was blowing back towards Equestria, which meant that Red had to fight it all the way back to Anoia.
Red looked towards the horizon. Was it just a mirage, or… was that an island? Red shook her head to clear the saltwater out of her eyes and looked again. Yup. It was a relatively large island, about the size of Canterlot. The beaches were lined with white sand, with the aquamarine waves crashing against them and pulling away. About a half-mile or so inland, the landscape manifested itself in cliffs and rock with fertile soil and other nutrients on top. These cliffs made up the middle of the island, surrounded by the beaches. Palm trees swayed in the breeze. Small huts that reminded Red of the houses of the small town right next to Canterlot (What was it called? Ponytown or something?) were clustered close together in the center of the island. Red would have sighed with relief that there was finally a place to rest her wings, except for the fact that she recognized this island.
The island was home to the mysterious Solious tribe, a group of earth ponies with wings that resembled an insect. They had the power to change the color of their coats at will to anything from camouflage to bright red. However, to keep this power, they had to charge in the sun every day. That was why they manifested on this island. It was enchanted so that it would only rain or get cloudy at night, and clear skies all day long, so the Solious ponies could soak up as much sunlight as needed. They had isolated themselves on this island for more than a thousand years, and while they disliked Anoian ponies, they had formed a shaky peace treaty with Emperor Mouse a few hundred years ago. This treaty had reluctantly been kept by following emperors. However, Emperor Lupines had broken that treaty by closing off the Solious’s island and forbidding anypony from going there. This is what caused the Soliouns to hate pegacorns more than any other pony.
Red glanced back at her exhausted wings and sighed. She needed someplace to stay for the night, or at least to rest. She couldn’t keep flying all the way to Anoia in one run, and there weren’t any other islands between here and the continent. Sometimes you have to make tough choices. Red flew close to the water, trying to hide her approach to the island, which would be pretty near impossible, as she was deep red and stood out very clearly against the water. Luckily, however, the sun was setting in a brilliant show of orange and reds and pinks painting their way across the horizon, which helped disguise Red enough she was able to land on the beach and make her way to a cave in the cliffside without being spotted.
The cave was a few yards above the ground, so with a little help of Red’s wings, she was able to easily leap into the mouth of the cage. It was about the size of a walk-in closet, just big enough for Red to build a fire in the center and curl up by the back wall as she waited for the sun to go down. Once the island was bathed in darkness, she snuck out in search of food.
One of the plus sides to having an island with sunshine all day is that there’s more vegetation there than in the Everfree Forest. It didn’t take Red long to find several fruit bushes and trees, along with an abundance of nuts and other things. Back in her cave, she was delighted to find a small, freshwater spring bubbling in the back. Red ate and drank until she was content and full. She blew out her fire and curled up for what would hopefully be a peaceful night.
Unfortunately, it was anything but peaceful.
Red was jolted from her sleep by a buzzing sound. Her ears pricked up and turned towards the sound as she groggily lifted her head. Once she realized what the noise was, however, her sleepy expression was replaced by one of terror. The Soliouns! They’d found her. Red jumped to her feet as silently as she could and pressed herself against the back of the cave. Oh, how she wished she still had her black bodysuit! Then she could blend in with the shadows. Voices leaked into the cave.
“I’m telling you, I saw somepony flying over the water!” said a male voice. It was quick and high-pitched. “It wasn’t flying like one of us, so it must have been one of those ponies.” He spat out the word like it tasted bad.
“Yeah, well, whatever, kid. Let’s just hope it wasn’t a pegacorn,” a gruff voice replied. An orange glow slowly grew brighter as the bug ponies approached. “I’ve had enough trouble with those creatures for a lifetime.”
A burning torch came into view right before the two Soliouns. The one holding the torch was the one with the higher voice. His mane was bright pink and shaggy, while his coat rippled between white and gold. His deep blue eyes were the only things that were constant. The gruffer one was a burly pony with a helmet over his mane with his tan eyes reflecting the torchlight. His coat was a solid blue fading into red around the hooves. Red didn’t know whether or not to be scared or in awe.
Pink Mane gasped, nearly dropping the torch from his mouth. “Commander!”
“Yes, yes, I see it, Brickle,” the commander growled. “I need to go get reinforcements. Do you think you can handle this creature?” Brickle nodded enthusiastically and planted himself in the entrance to the cave and put a good attempt at a fierce expression on his face. He stuck the torch in the dirt floor of the cave and eyed Red, as if assessing whether or not she was an actual threat. Red whimpered and tried to make herself as small as possible.
“Cower in fear, enemy of Solious!” he cried, holding his head defiantly. “You have trespassed on our territory and used our resources. You shall pay with your life!”
“R-really?” Red stammered. “Um, maybe that’s a bit excessive. Maybe I should just go on my way, and you can pretend like I was never here…?” Brickle barked a laugh.
“Sorry, little filly. You have angered the great Solioun ponies! Your death will be painful and dragged out so that you will not make the same mistake.”
“You sound like you’re reading a script,” Red said a little more bravely, “that doesn’t even make sense.”
“Really?” Brickle looked down his muzzle at her, the confusion on his face indicating that he had no idea how that worked. “Please explain this insult, little filly.” Red gulped.
“W-well, if you kill me, then I wouldn’t come back, right? So how could I make the same mistake if I was dead?” Brickle seemed to consider this.
“Ah, you’re right, little filly. I shall speak to the commander about this when he returns.”
“I am not a little filly!” Red cried indignantly. She stood up and spread her wings defiantly. Brickle stood up, too, streaks of red flickering in his mane.
“How dare you!” Brickle cried, spreading his own wings. They were transparent with a darker pink frame. The wings could fold up nicely on the top of Brickle’s back, like a fly. His wings turned from pink to orange-red and back again. Red stared in amazement.
“How do you do the color change thing?” she asked curiously. Brickle stopped. He hadn’t been expecting that.
“I - what?”
“Changing colors.” Red pointed to Brickle’s wings. Brickle’s gaze followed where her hoof was pointing.
“Oh! Well, you see, we have to recharge in the sun every day, but, other than that, I just think what color I want to be, and I just turn that color.” Brickle shrugged like this was perfectly normal. Which, for him, it was.
“What happens if you don’t recharge in the sun?” Red asked.
“We can’t change color until we do. We turn plain lime green, really boring.” Brickle held up his hoof and turned it the same color as Lemon Lime. Red winced. Lemon Lime was stuck in Canterlot with her father. She was going to get in big trouble.
“See? Boring,” Brickle said with satisfaction, as if he’d just won an argument. He looked at Red and noticed how her wings were folded in again, how her ears were drooping, how her eyes were staring at the ground as if avoiding his gaze. “Hey. What’s up?”
“Huh?” Red looked up suddenly. “Oh, uh… nothing. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” Brickle protested, trotting over to her and putting his hoof around her shoulders. It was considered treason to help a pegacorn, but Brickle didn’t care. “Have you been getting enough sunshine?”
Red snorted. “I’ve been flying out in the sun all day. I wouldn’t be surprised if I got too much sun.”
“Hey!” Brickle protested. “There is no such thing as too much sunshine.” Red smirked at him, and Brickle held her gaze. For that moment, the two of them just stared into each other’s eyes. Brickle’s heart climbed up into his throat, beating faster all the way. Then Red dropped her gaze again. Brickle blinked. He wanted to make her happy again. He didn’t know why, he didn’t even seem to care about the costs. He just wanted to see her smile again. Because that was even better than the brightest of sunny days.
“Seriously, what is up with you?” Brickle asked, lifting Red’s chin so their eyes met for a brief moment again. Red took a deep breath, and the whole story came tumbling out. How she’d gotten in trouble with the emperor, how she’d had to go to Equestria and gotten captured. She told him about Twilight Sparkle, and her secret mission with the emperor, and how she’d only come here for shelter and a place to rest for a bit. The strangest part to Brickle was that he believed her.
“Geez, Red, I...I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Red muttered, her voice choked up as if she was going to cry.
“Yes, Brickle,” came a new voice, “don’t be sorry for the pathetic little pegacorn’s excuses.” Brickle and Red whipped their heads towards the source of the voice. The commander was back, and with him, he had the most beautiful pony Red had ever seen. Her mane was made of golden locks that caught the torchlight as she stood in the cave. Her coat was a shimmering lilac. Her cold, blue eyes were the only thing that ruined the image. They were beautiful, but they were calculating, as if this pony was imagining the demise of every single pony she set her eyes upon. Beyond her and the commander, Red could see dozens of Soliouns hovering in midair outside the cave, waiting for orders. The newcomer tsked when she saw Brickle standing protectively in front of Red.
“Step aside, Brickle,” she said, a thin layer of sweetness not covering up the cold steel in her voice. Brickle gave Red a look and mouthed I’m sorry before slowly walking to the commander’s side. “I’ll make sure you get off free. You’ve simply been put under this pony’s evil spell.”
“I don’t have an evil spell!” Red burst out. Pretty Pony didn’t seem to hear her.
“A daughter of Lupines’s most trusted general?” She said it slowly, as if savoring every word. “Oh, my, what a tragedy. Don’t worry, little filly. You’re going to have an absolutely thrilling execution.”
“Take her away,” Pretty Pony commanded, flicking her tail.
“Yes, Golden Lily, ma'am,” the commander grumbled. Golden Lily lifted off, her wings buzzing as she flew away to the village. The commander looked at Brickle, who, reluctantly, followed. He cast one more longing glance back at Red before she disappeared from sight. The commander waved his hoof just the tiniest bit, and the other Soliouns poured into the cave, surrounding Red and trapping her in a corner. Red tried to use her magic to fend them off, but she’d never been that good at protective or defensive spells. Soon an iron collar was around her neck with two chains connected to it like iron leashes. The squadron of Solious soldiers flew out of the cave, forming a circle around the pegacorn. The commander flew in front, with two other Soliouns flying close behind him. Each of these ponies had a chain in their mouth, which were connected to Red’s collar so that they dragged her along. Red didn’t protest. Hopefully, if what she’d learned in school was correct, the Solious tribe had any trials at sunrise. It was about the middle of the night. Surely, they would put Red in a well-guarded cell, but at least she would be alone. Then she could contact Twilight Sparkle.
The Solious village was relatively small. Red counted about three dozen huts, most of which served as businesses and homes. The rest of the cliff, surrounding the village, were fields and gardens with every kind of plant you could imagine. All of them seemed to be prospering in the Solioun sunlight.
To the side of the village was a large amphitheater, which Red assumed was where all the tribe’s big events happened: plays, trials, executions… Next to the amphitheater was a small jailhouse that was connected to the amphitheater. You could go through the jailhouse and come out through an archway that opened up on the open sands of the bottom of the amphitheater. The squadron of guards dragged Red towards the jailhouse. It was empty, with about ten cells that consisted of a small, three-by-three room with a stack of hay and a bucket of water. There was a small, barred window in each of the cells. The guards stuffed Red in the cell closest to the door to the amphitheater.
“Sleep tight, little pegacorn,” the commander snarled at Red, “because in the morning, it’ll all be over.” He left two guards stationed by the door to the jailhouse and the one to the amphitheater but left himself. He didn’t seem too worried about Red escaping. Once Red was alone, she sighed with relief and looked down at her necklace.
To communicate without looking too suspicious, Twilight Sparkle had given Red a necklace that was a large purple gemstone in the center of a silver frame decorated with smaller gemstones that were pink and dark indigo. Twilight had one that was exactly the same, just the large gem was red and the smaller gems were chocolate brown and forest green. Red took a deep breath, lit up her horn, and blasted the gem. It glowed magenta, and then a projection of Twilight Sparkle appeared in front of Red. Twilight looked around and blinked.
“Oh! Red!” she cried happily. “Sorry, I’ve never really done this before, but - Nevermind! So, what’s the emergency?”
“Well, it’s no big deal,” Red assured her, “except for the fact that I’m about to be executed.”
“WHAT?!?!” Twilight looked shocked. Red told her the whole story.
“I’ll send reinforcements!” Twilight declared. “I’ll even come with my friends! We’re great about negotiating and getting ponies free who have been captured who don’t deserve it.”
“I appreciate it,” Red said, cutting off Twilight, “but by the time you get here, it’ll be too late.”
“This is really bad,” Twilight said fretfully. Red rolled her eyes.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Red’s head shot up. “Sh. I think I hear something.” Twilight closed her mouth, but she looked like she wanted to keep talking. Red stepped towards the door of her cell and looked out.
“Brickle?” she asked incredulously.
“Shh,” Brickle placed his hoof over her mouth. “Yes, it’s me. The guards don’t know I’m in here, and it would probably be best to keep it that way.” He looked past Red and stopped. “Uh, Red, who’s that?”
Red looked where he was pointing.
“Oh! Well, uh, heh, heh, funny story, um, just a moment.” Red slapped her necklace, and the projection of Twilight disappeared. “So, what were you saying?”
“Red, I… I can’t let you get killed tomorrow,” Brickle burst out. “So I came up with a plan. But I need your help.”
“I’m listening.”
Brickle’s eyes met Red’s. His blue eyes were shaking with fear, and misty from unshed tears. Faint circles lined his eyes, indicating that he hadn’t been sleeping. Red’s bright and intense green eyes were steady and firm, even though she was scared out of her wits. Brickle gazed into Red’s eyes and felt a wave of calm wash over him, erasing his fear.
“Alright. Here’s the plan.” Brickle told her his plan in a hushed voice. Red listened patiently, nodding slowly at times.
“Okay, here’s my thoughts. A good plan, but it won’t work.” Brickle hung his head. Red smiled at him encouragingly. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a better one.”
The sun rose in a dazzling display of pink and gold, showering the island in light. Soliouns bound from their homes and danced in the sunlight, their coats and manes shifting colors. Young foals flew up in the air and danced about, flipping and whirling and dancing in the light breeze. Eventually, everypony headed towards the amphitheater, filling up the seats and looking expectantly at the sands below. Golden Lily stepped out into the sunlight when they were all seated, letting a rainbow of colors shift through her mane before settling on her normal color.
“Good morning, Soliouns!” she cried cheerfully. The ponies in the stands cheered, stamping their hooves to show their approval.
“Yes, yes, it is the start of another wondrous day,” Golden Lily continued. “But, last night, we found something deeply disturbing.” The ponies gasped and whispered to each other. “Indeed. An Anoian pony was found sheltering in our own caves. And not just any pony. A pegacorn.” There was more gasping and whispering.
“We have caves?” a pony in the back asked. Golden Lily ignored her.
“This is very disturbing, I agree,” she said sincerely. “I hope I’m not the only one who believes that this traitorous pony deserves to be executed in the most painful way possible.” A few ponies looked at each other with uncertainty, but the majority of the crowd was nodding agreeably. Golden Lily smiled kindly at them. “Yes. Guards, please bring the prisoner.”
Two Solioun guards emerged from the jailhouse tugging Red behind them. Red’s head was hung, and she meekly followed the guards, who insisted on tugging on her anyway. Her wings were folded in tightly. Nopony noticed that her pendant was glowing slightly.
The guards chained Red to the ground while Golden Lily observed coldly. Red pawed meekly at the sand, leaving shallow trenches. The guards trotted off to guard the entrance.
“Commander Storm?” Golden Lily commanded. “The blade.”
The same commander from the night before emerged from the shadows holding a double-bladed ax in his mouth. Red gulped as beads of sweat trickled down her neck. Golden Lily took the ax and held it in her hoof as she turned to Red with her eyes empty of remorse.
“This is what happens when you anger the Solious ponies,” she said frostily. “May you be the last to make this mistake.” Golden Lily grabbed the ax in her mouth and raised it high.
“WAIT!!!”
Everypony’s head turned to the entrance to the jailhouse. The guards parted to reveal a purple pony with a deep indigo mane striped with violet and magenta. Her fierce purple eyes were flashing, and her wings were spread defiantly.
“Lemme tell you something,” Twilight Sparkle said boldly as she strode out towards Golden Lily, who had dropped the ax. The ponies were so shocked by the fact that Twilight had both wings and a horn that they didn’t notice that her hoofs weren’t sinking into the sand. “You’re messing with one of my friends. And you do not, I repeat, do not mess. With. My. Friends.” Twilight stopped an inch away from Golden Lily’s face. “Do you hear me?”
“W-what is this?” Golden Lily stammered. “Another Anoian? This is treachery! How many more of you do I have to kill, pesky pegacorns?” Sweat trickled down her neck as she avoided Twilight’s firm gaze.
“Oh, you can’t kill me,” Twilight said. “I’m not a pegacorn. I’m an alicorn, which means you have no right to kill me. Also, I’m not even from Anoia. I’m from Equestria, which makes me an Equestrian.” She glared at Golden Lily.
“Makes no difference!” Golden Lily cried. “You’re trespassing on our territory! You must suffer the consequences!”
“The thing is, I’m not. I’m not even actually here.” Twilight lit up her horn, looking at the ax with hatred in her eyes. Red lit up her own horn, although nopony saw. They were all focused on Twilight. Red teleported the ax away, but it looked like Twilight had done it.
“I...I...I...RUN!!!” Golden Lily screamed, spreading her wings and flying away from the amphitheater. The rest of the Soliouns followed in suit. When the dust settled, there was nopony left except for Red and Twilight.
“Well, well, well,” Brickle said as he landed in the sand, his coat shifting from camouflage back to white, holding the ax in his hooves, “your plan worked.”
“Of course it did,” Red said snarkily, looking teasingly at Brickle as he used the ax to hack through her chains. “If I came up with it, it’s guaranteed to work.” Brickle elbowed her playfully. Red smiled and pulled off the iron collar. She rubbed a sore spot on her neck as she turned to Twilight. “Thanks for your help, Twilight.”
“No problem,” Twilight grinned. “I haven’t had that much fun since I beat Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow!”
“Uh… who?” Brickle asked.
“Nevermind,” Twilight said hastily. She whipped her head to the side. “Oops, I’ve gotta go. Another council meeting about the missing ponies.” She rolled her eyes and vanished. Red’s pendant stopped glowing.
“Missing ponies?” Brickle turned to Red, who was blushing.
“Well, the emperor’s trying to take over Equestria, the place where that pony’s from. So he captured several citizens to study them and to look for Equestrian’s weaknesses.”
“Equestria? There’s a whole other continent out there?” Red nodded.
“Full of ponies and other creatures, and I’m going to help save it.” Red spread her wings and launched into the air.
“Wait!” Brickle called. Red skidded to a halt and turned around. “I’m coming with you.”
“Brickle, no. You’re a Solioun. You’ll be killed on sight. I can’t… I won’t risk your life, too.”
“But it’s fine if you do?” Brickle demanded, stamping his hoof.
“Brickle, you don’t understand,” Red protested. “It’s dangerous! And you’ve never left the island before. It’s very different.”
“I can get used to different. If I’m correct, I’m trying to help a pegacorn from Anoia.” He gave Red a stink eye.
“No, Brickle. I won’t let you.”
“I don’t want to stay here!” Tears swam in Brickle’s eyes. He couldn’t have Red flying off to her death with no backup.
“You have to, Brickle! This could mean war between two large continents of ponies and other creatures. The Solious ponies will have to choose aside. It’s inevitable. So choose the right side! Convince the other ponies to join your cause. And, if I come back…” Red faltered. She hated making promises she might not be able to keep. “If I come back, I’ll never go anywhere without you.”
Brickle’s eyes were still misty, but he managed a smile and nodded at Red. Red returned his watery smile as she turned around and flew off towards Anoia. For some reason, leaving Brickle behind was tugging at her heartstrings a little bit more than she expected.
Granite Lupines sat calmly on his throne as he heard the reports from his commanders.
“We managed to capture one of those unicorn-things that live in the mountains,” recited Lieutenant Gooseberry down on the floor in front of the emperor, “one of the ones with the mane around their neck.”
“Very good,” Lupines said smoothly. “I’ll have my scientists get on this one immediately.”
“Er, we may have had to clamp its muzzle shut,” the lieutenant said uncomfortably. “It wouldn’t shut up. Something about a cure to the stream of silence or something.”
“Ah, well.” Lupines waved his hoof at the door. “You are dismissed.” The lieutenant nodded politely and exited the room.
“Yes, about that,” Marylyn shifted from hoof to hoof, a strand of her turquoise hair falling out of its tight bun. “He hasn’t been reporting for several days. We can’t locate him anywhere. He went off on a mission and never came back.”
“Who else was on that mission?”
“Second-in-Command Lemon Lime and the commander’s daughter, Red Berry, who was on probation by his Majesty.” Marylyn bowed respectfully to the emperor.
“Did any of them come back?” he demanded.
“The daughter did. She has a message for you.”
“Let’s hear it.”
Marylyn nodded to one of the guards standing by the door, and he opened the door to let Red in. Red trotted up to the emperor, her wings spread. She bowed gracefully in front of the throne.
“Your Majesty.”
Lupines studied the pegacorn with his dark eyes. “You went on a mission with your father and his second-in-command?”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Red replied respectfully.
“What happened to them?”
“Captured by the Equestrian forces. I only just managed to escape.”
“How so?”
“I pretended like I would be their ally. If they actually believed that, they should be easy to defeat.” Red spoke with a convincing voice that definitely swayed Marylyn. Lupines looked like he had his doubts, although he kept them to himself.
“Very well. I will request that you continue to go on your missions to this Equestria. Once we find out more information about these ponies, we will attack.”
“Attack?” Red asked tentatively, lifting her head a little bit.
“We must not delay any longer. Once we have weakened their defenses, we will have a rescue mission for our ponies. We will destroy these… Equestrians.”
“What if they attempt to do the same to us?” Red met the emperor’s gaze boldly.
“We have stronger forces. We will prevail. Now, did you tell these ponies any information that could help them in an assault?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
“Very good.”
The door opened and Kiwi Swirl trotted in. She bowed her head to the emperor.
“Your Highness.”
“How is our newest test subject?”
“The technology has worked. The test subject has successfully responded to it.”
“Wonderful. May we see an example.” It was not a question, but a statement. Kiwi nodded and gestured to a unicorn with a blank expression. He whispered something to somepony else behind the door and stood back. Into the room trotted a young pony, just older than a filly. Her coat was pink so light it was almost white. Her mane was purple and pink, streaked with blue, curling around her horn and bouncing with every step. The young mare’s eyes were a beautiful turquoise, but they were glazed over and empty. The pony’s mane and coat had dimmed and lost their luster. She moved without purpose; more like she was being controlled. Red gasped quietly. She knew without a doubt that this was Flurry Heart.
The abducted princess stopped in front of the emperor, parallel with Red. She bent her legs in a respectful bow. Red sucked in a sharp breath.
“Yes, this specimen is remarkable, isn’t it?” Lupines said in response to Red. He thought she was shocked by the sight of the alicorn princess. However, it was quite the opposite. Red was nauseated at the fact that Flurry Heart was following the emperor. She felt sick, and she almost threw up in her mouth.
“What treatment did you give her?”
“The newest technology,” Kiwi responded. “She reacted surprisingly well.”
“Ah. I see. This one will be useful for my plans.”
“Plans?” Red inquired suddenly. “What plans?”
“That is classified information for only the emperor to know,” Kiwi snapped. “You have no right to even ask that. The nerve!”
“Now, now, Kiwi, the young filly’s only curious,” Lupines said smoothly. Red clenched her jaw. This pleased Lupines. The more infuriated the pegacorn got, the more likely she was to slip up and let loose the fact that she might be working for Lupines’ enemy. “There is no need to snap at her in such a manner. You are dismissed.” Kiwi looked like she had been slapped, but she turned and slowly walked towards the door. She paused before she exited the room, shooting a look of full hatred and loathing at Red. Lupines smiled in satisfaction. Red needed everypony as her enemy, so she had nowhere to turn for help or trust.
“Now, about those plans. I suppose that the daughter of my most trusted general can also be trusted, am I correct?” Lupines stared Red down as he descended from his throne.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Red said stiffly. Lupines nodded.
“Well, I’ll give it to you straight. We need more land. This whole side of the planet is conquered and under control of me, and still we need more land. We have discovered another continent that has lots of lands. It should sustain us for the next several thousand years. And so we plan to conquer that land. This young filly,” Lupines gestured to Flurry Heart, “will serve useful as a bargaining chip to speed their surrender along.”
“Well, that has been quite enough excitement for now,” Lupines said abruptly. “Marylyn, find Red a suite in the palace. I want her… close.” Marylyn nodded and trotted towards the door. Red glanced at Lupines suspiciously before following. Once the door closed, Lupines sat on his throne and leaned back. He used his magic to pull a table with a map on it from behind his throne and began arranging little models of horseshoes around on it.
Red Berry was a threat. Lupines couldn’t let her go run wild, trying to convince the ponies of Anoia to not go to war. He would get rid of her when the time was right. Lupines glanced up at Flurry Heart, who was still kneeling before him.
“Stand up,” Lupines ordered. Flurry did so. Lupines grinned. This was useful.
“Now,” he continued, “show me how much power you really have.”
Flurry Heart nodded and lit up her horn. Her eyes glowed white, and she spread her wings as she lifted off the ground a few feet. Flurry began to glow a blinding white light, and Lupines shielded his eyes but kept looking. The guards at the door looked away out of fear. Flurry yelled and the light blinded everything. When it died down, there was nothing left of the ceiling of the throne room except for a pile of rubble on the floor. The map table was reduced to splinters. Lupines’ throne was tilted sideways. Flurry Heart landed on the floor and stared at Lupines with her blank eyes.
“Impressive,” Lupines admitted. Flurry didn’t move. “And now,” Lupines continued, “we can begin. I must rally the troops. In one month, we will attack. After all...” Lupines stood up and strode over to Flurry Heart, smoothing her curls with his hoof, “this is war. Who’s going to notice a few more dead ponies here and there?”
Twilight was getting antsy, and for a very good reason.
Her latest reports from Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts had confirmed that there was, indeed, a whole nother continent out past the farthest reaches of Equestria and the surrounding kingdoms. It was also, as described from Twilight’s sources, full of ponies. There didn’t seem to be that many pegacorns, though, although Red had said that all the pegacorns were working for the emperor, which was probably why they didn’t see any of them. Twilight had sent Rainbow to scout out this new kingdom from the air, and she chose several of the Wonderbolts to go with her. Twilight had a feeling that this was just an excuse to be with Soarian. Rainbow tried to deny it, but everypony knew she had a huge crush on him.
Red’s most recent reports weren’t the happiest. Much to Twilight’s disappointment, the Anoians didn’t try to sue for peace, or give Equestria more time to prepare for war. She was most appalled that they had brainwashed Flurry Heart, for Celestia’s sake, and were planning to attack in no less than a month. Twilight had all the other kingdoms notified of the upcoming war and was pleased that they would help Equestria fight it.
Which was how Twilight got stuck in a meeting with the other rulers about battle strategy.
“They’re gonna have to come by sea,” Dragon Lord Ember insisted, pointing to the battle map that Red had sent Twilight via teleportation. “So we’re going to have to cut them off. Maybe the hippogriffs…?” She looked hopefully at Queen Novo, who snorted.
“We can’t hold them off forever. The most we could do is sink some of their ships, but there’s no way we can avoid the whole war that way. This country has more ponies and larger forces than all ours combined. The only way we’re going to win this war is with brains and strategy.”
“I could ask Sunset Shimmer if she could give me some knowledge about wars that have happened in her world for advice,” Twilight said slowly, “but we need a good strategy now. Hmm, I wonder…” Twilight leaned forward and studied the map. “It’s very possible that they could have two armies come in, pushing in on both sides. Or maybe they want us to focus on a decoy, while the real army comes around the other side and launches a surprise attack on Canterlot, and boom, we lose.” Twilight was quiet for a minute. “I’ve got it.”
“You have a plan?” Ember asked excitedly.
“Will it work?” King Thorax spoke up in his quiet voice.
“I’m not sure. But here’s the gist of it.” Twilight pointed to the different places on the map as she spoke. “The yaks and the Crystal ponies will protect the northern side. If nopony attacks from there, and we’re certain that they won’t, we’ll move them to other places where we’re struggling. The griffons and the dragons will protect the eastern side, between Griffonstone and Equestria. My guards will protect the western side. The changelings and the hippogriffs will slow down the other armies, sinking ships and stealing supplies and things like that. They shouldn’t come from the south; it’s only desert. But, remember, do this with as few casualties as possible. The Anoians can restock their armies. We can’t. If you have to retreat, do that. But, whatever you do, don’t let them get to Ponyville. All of us will be hiding there. Hopefully, nopony will think to look for the rulers of all these kingdoms in a ragtag little town in the middle of nowhere.”
“Woah, woah, wait.” Ember held up her claws. “You expect us to hide while our subjects are out there, sacrificing their lives and fighting?”
“It’s for the best. What all of your subjects need is for us to be alive so we can rebuild what this war has torn down. If we have to get involved, we will. But for now, it’s best to lay low.” Twilight looked around at the other rulers. Mixed emotions of fear and anger and shock were on every face.
“H-how will we communicate with our generals and commanders?” Shining Armor asked shakily. Cadance was back at the Empire. She was in no state to do anything once she heard what had happened to her daughter. Twilight sighed.
“I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out,” she promised. The door creaked open and Spike poked his head into the room.
“Uh, Twilight?” Spike pulled out a scroll and waved it at Twilight. “There’s something you should see.” Twilight took the scroll with her magic and opened it, scanning it quickly.
“Tree of Harmony under the school… magical chamber still there… tunnels?” Twilight looked up at the rest of the room. “This meeting is adjourned. Meet back here in three days. If you want to stay in the castle, Spike will hook you up.” Twilight rolled up the scroll with her magic.
“I will?” Spike asked nervously. “Twilight, where are you going?”
“Starlight needs me in Ponyville. Some strange tunnels appeared under the school. Be back soon.” And with that, Twilight teleported away in a flash of magenta. The other rulers stared at Spike expectantly.
“Right. Um.” Spike swallowed, sweat trickling down his neck. “Who wants a room?”
Three days later, Spike was sitting in his room, snacking on a bowl of gems when Twilight appeared. Normally, Spike would have been so startled he would have thrown his bowl in the air and flapped his wings in alarm. But since Twilight had become ruler of Equestria, she’d been teleporting and appearing all over the place as a faster way of travel.
“Back already?” Spike asked, bored, popping a ruby in his mouth. “That was quick.” Twilight gave him a sharp look, unable to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
“What was the emergency?” Spike lifted the bowl and dumped the rest of the gems into his mouth and smacked his lips.
“Some strange tunnels appeared under the School of Friendship, where the Tree of Harmony made a chamber. They lead to all kinds of random places all over Equestria, like a system. In fact, the places they lead are the ideal kinds of places where an enemy would attack, or where we would have to stand our ground. Spike, do you know what this means?”
“Um… no?” Spike set the now-empty bowl on a bedside table and brushed shards off his scales. Twilight rolled her eyes.
“This means that we have a way to communicate between the rulers and the armies! They just need to send a messenger through the tunnels to give us the message! Or they could just write it. But the tunnels could also be useful for a retreat. They could come back to Ponyville and rest up while we plan a new and better strategy. Don’t you see? This is just the right thing we need! Spike, I think the Tree of Harmony is on our side!”
“Hasn’t it always been?” Spike yawned.
“Oh, Spike. Anyways, I need to have another meeting. We need to get the armies trained up properly, and get them into position. If the Anoians want to fight us, they’re going to get a kick in the face. Or, if it comes to it, a magic rainbow.” Twilight trotted over to the door and opened it, trotting out. She stuck her head back in and grinned. “After all, a magic rainbow always works. It’s a solid backup plan.” Twilight yanked her head out of the room and ran off towards the conference room. Spike watched her go.
“But what if we could find a way to win this war without any fighting?” Spike wondered aloud.
Halfway across the world, Red was lying in bed, thinking the exact same thing.
Marylyn had given Red a beautiful room. A whole wall was glass, with a balcony that overlooked the garden. The bed was a double, with plush pillows and comforters. The other walls had painted pictures of flowers and fruit and waterfalls. The furniture was made of mahogany, and there was a small desk tucked into the corner with a comfy stool. The bedside table was polished and had a china lamp on it with a single, empty drawer. Red had gone to her old house and gotten a single bag of her most prized possessions, which sat in the corner, untouched. The room was beautiful, and Red loved it, but the looming threat of war was the only thing constantly on her mind.
Red hung out with the emperor’s generals and commanders, squeezing all the information out of them as she could without them noticing. She eavesdropped on the emperor whenever possible and listened to his plots. All of this she reported to Twilight the first chance she got. From what Twilight told her, the Equestrians had a solid plan for the war and were prepared for whatever the emperor would throw at them.
The emperor’s plan was actually pretty close to what Twilight had guessed. He was going to attack the eastern coast with a smaller army, hopefully getting the attention of Twilight Sparkle and the whole Equestrian army. Then, while they were distracted fighting to the east, the bigger army would split into three and come from the north, west, and south, closing in on Canterlot and forcing them to surrender. In response to this, Twilight ordered a team of pegasi to scout the southern border. If they saw any armies, they were to come through the tunnels to Ponyville so Twilight could order some armies down that way. She was hoping the awful conditions would discourage the Anoians, so they would try some different approach.
Red and Twilight had a secret plan between the two of them and Twilight’s friends. Twilight and her friends would come to Anoia secretly, and, while the emperor was busy with the war, they would liberate the captured ponies and creatures and bring them back home. With the initial mission accomplished, Twilight would discuss terms for surrender with Emperor Lupines, and that would be that. All done. Nothing to worry about anymore. At least, that’s what Red desperately hoped.
“Miss Red?” Marylyn opened the door a crack and stuck her head into the room. “The emperor would like to see you.”
“Really? What - what for?” Red asked nervously as she stood up and trotted over to Marylyn.
“I don’t know, but you should hurry. He’s in a hurry to get the armies on their way to Equestria to begin the war.” Was it just Red’s imagination, or did a flicker of fear enter Marylyn’s eyes when she said “war”? “Come on, you don’t want to be late.”
Red followed Marylyn to the throne room. Marylyn pushed the door open and gestured for Red to enter, but stayed outside the room.
“Aren’t you coming?” Red said in a hushed voice, hesitating. Marylyn shook her head.
“This is top secret. Nopony else is allowed.” Marylyn jerked her head at the door, and Red reluctantly entered the room.
Emperor Lupines’s eyes followed Red as she approached the throne. His other generals were surrounding him, staring uncertainty at this new pony.
“Ah, good, finally,” The emperor smiled coldly at the red pegacorn. “Now we can finally begin.”
“Your Majesty, with all due respect, what exactly am I here for?” Red asked politely, inclining her head in acknowledgment of the other commanders.
“A good question, but you will understand in a bit.” Lupines turned to his generals. “We are here to discuss strategy. Lieutenant Gooseberry, take your and Commander Sea Spray’s forces to the southern canal. Travel under the cover of the night. You will meet Generals Pepper, Stone, and Flaken at the fork. These generals will travel through the other entrance to the canal.
“Lieutenant Sands, you will take your forces to the southern border. Do not attack until any armies that may be there have left to fortify the eastern front. Avoid any armies and guards at all costs. Wait until the other generals meet up with you outside the capital.
“Commander Samuel, you and Second-in-Command Nutberry will attack from the north. Use soldiers that are trained to fight in the cold. Push forward until you meet with Lieutenant Sands. You shouldn’t encounter too many armies, and if you do, they won’t be very big or strong. Everyone else will hopefully be over in the east.
“Finally, General Phillip and Commander Aaron will take your armies and come in from the west. When you meet up with Lieutenant Sands and Commander Samuel outside of the capital, attack it. Once you have the capital, the country will fall. Take any royalty you find and hold them captive, as well as anypony that could help you get to the rulers. Once the country is in my hooves, we will use their forces combined with ours to finally take those bratty Soliouns and their precious island. At last, the whole world will be under my total control!”
The generals cheered as Lupines declared this. The relishing feeling he got from simply thinking about it was wonderful. Imagine, the whole world obeying his orders and commands. Any resisters would be executed and destroyed, and he would bring the planet into a golden age led by him, the great Emperor Lupines, the savior of all of pony kind. And those… those other creatures… well, let’s just say they’ll be taken care of.
“Your Highness.”
Lupines spun in the direction of the voice. He glared at Red, who laid back her ears but held her steady gaze. The pegacorn had changed since she came back, Lupines was sure of that. She was calmer and seemed more in control, instead of the stammering, shy little filly she once was. Lupines had a suspicion that it was those pesky Equestrians. They always ruined everything.
“What?” he snarled.
“I still don’t see how I come into any of this.”
“Do you want to come into any of this?” Lupines demanded.
“Of course, Your Majesty. I would be truly honored to serve his Highness in such a noble cause.” Red didn’t hesitate in her line. If she was bluffing, she was doing a very good job. Lupines had been monitoring the pegacorn for a while, but he didn’t see anything suspicious or worth worrying about.
Lupines sniffed. “All right. I need somepony to monitor things here while I’m gone, and make sure those Equestrians don’t stage an invasion to come and rescue their ponies and other creatures. So…”
“What are you saying, Your Highness?” Red asked.
“I’m saying I’m promoting you, Red Berry. As of this day, you are now Lieutenant Berry, and you will be assigned a legion of ponies to guard the mainland in my absence.”
Red blinked, her eyes large and frightened. This was the kind of reaction that would be expected of her. Once again, Lupines’s suspicions that Red was working against him flickered.
“Aren’t… aren’t you staying here, Your Majesty?” Red said slowly. “I mean, wouldn’t it be wiser?”
“Please. Those Equestrians couldn’t successfully attack us if we were all sleepwalking. No, I’m not worried about them. However, I do want the ponies of Anoia to believe that they will be protected if anything were to happen. So I need you to command a small group of soldiers to protect the capital. Who knows. Maybe these Equestrians will get the Soliouns on their side. The creatures of Solious have been wanting to stage an attack on us for years, and they know our weaknesses. You need to be prepared for that scenario, as well as any attempted rescue missions to the test subjects.” Lupines strode down to stand in front of Red, towering over her. The cherry-red pegacorn was trembling underneath the emperor’s cold stare. Typical. These ponies could never get a grip. “And let me make it perfectly clear that any suspected treason or betrayal will result in death.”
Lupines was trying to trip her up. If she acted too confident, she probably was giving information to the Equestrians to help them win the war, meaning she would be under their protection and would not be killed. If she acted too scared, she knew that she was going to get caught in the act of smuggling information to the enemy side, and would be killed. If she acted in between, it was most likely that she was innocent. She should be scared that if she was suspected of doing these treasonous things, she would be killed, but she was hoping that she would do a good enough job that she would pass.
A flicker of fear appeared behind Red’s intense green eyes, but it was quickly squashed. Red stood up straight and saluted to the emperor.
“Yessir!” she barked. Lupines stared into her eyes, hoping she would waver or even break. Red held her gaze steady. There was something about Red’s eyes that scared Lupines. If he had seen that kind of intensity in his dead children’s eyes, he would know for a fact that they would try to overthrow him. That was why he had all his children killed, and his wife as well, so no secret heirs would appear out of nowhere to challenge him. Red couldn’t challenge him, but Lupines had an unsettling feeling whenever she looked him in the eyes. No matter how she tried to hide behind her mop of a mane, her eyes shone bright and intense. She would make a good leader. Lupines hoped he could control her and use her leadership skills to his advantage. This pony was too dangerous to be left alone.
Lupines dismissed his commanders and called Marylyn in. He ordered Red to wait outside; he would have some more instructions for her after his discussion with Marylyn.
“You promoted her?” Marylyn whispered.
“Of course. I need to either use her or dispose of her, and she’s too valuable to just discard.” Lupines settled back on his stone and black crystal throne and stared hard at Marylyn, who shook under the weight of his heavy stare. “She is dangerous, though.”
“Indeed,” Marylyn murmured, nodding.
“Which is why I need you to watch her.”
Marylyn’s head snapped up and her eyes were as wide as moons. “What?”
“I need you to watch her. Every waking second. Never leave her side. When she’s supposedly sleeping, post a guard outside her door that would intercept at any sound of something suspicious. I don’t want to risk anything. Do you understand?”
Marylyn nodded slowly, a strand of hair slipping from her bun. She hurried and fixed it, avoiding the emperor’s eyes.
“Do you have any questions or contradictions?”
Marylyn shook her head vigorously.
“Thank you. Then you may leave.” Marylyn nodded again and trotted backwards out of the room. Red peeked through the crack in the door.
“Lieutenant Berry.” Red pushed the door open gently with her hoof and stepped inside the room.
“Yes, Emperor Lupines?”
“You’re Second-in-Command is Marylyn. I have instructed her to never leave your side, so if you’re thinking of trying anything, you may want to think again.”
“I would never betray His Majesty,” Red said placidly. Once again, Lupines couldn’t tell if she was telling the truth or bluffing.
“Good. You will have access to the commander’s office in the local guardhouse. The legion of soldiers that normally guard the city will be under your control. Use your position wisely. Do not make me regret this decision. The moment I do, the punishment will be severe.”
Red gulped. “Death?”
“Worse.” Lupines chuckled without any humor or warmth in his voice. “I will make you watch as I slowly take away everything you hold dear, and then I will slowly kill you in a great amount of pain.”
Sweat beaded on Red’s forehead, but she exhaled and nodded firmly.
Marylyn was a simple pony from simple beginnings. She certainly hadn’t expected to become a trusted secretary of the emperor. And yet she had risen above her class in college, and before she knew it, she was in the league with the emperor. Her parents would have rejoiced, had they been alive. But Suanne and David MacConell had angered the wrong pony (read: Emperor Lupines) and were no longer among the living. Marylyn had never mentioned this to His Majesty. If she did, she would be definitely fired, and maybe even executed. So she kept her secret.
Marylyn’s light purple hooves trotted slowly down the hallway of the Anianio guardhouse. Anianio was the name of Anoia’s capital, located several miles off the coast of Anoia. The guardhouse was the largest and the nicest in the whole country. The basement was the barracks and the mess hall for the guards, and the offices for commanding officers and lieutenants were on the ground floor. Above that were extra cells, in case the prison house was filled, or a soldier or officer had committed a crime. They had to stay in the guardhouse cells, which were much worse than the prison house's. This was because they had most likely abused their position, which could only be granted at the hoof of the emperor himself.
The emperor tested each guard or soldier or officer before they were granted office. He had to find out if they were trustworthy, or tough enough to take the responsibility of being in the Anoian military. If one of them broke that trust, they were sentenced to the worst punishments possible.
Lieutenant Berry’s door was at the end of the hallway. Marylyn still thought of her as Red, but she should address her with her proper titles. After all, the young pegacorn had gone from the nervous and shy daughter of Commander Lightning to a lieutenant in a few minutes. Well, maybe a few days. Marylyn was sure that she wasn’t the only one who had noticed the change in Red’s personality when she came back from the failed mission. She was more confident in herself, and the leadership qualities that had always been there were unmasked in all their glory from hiding for all those years. Her green eyes were bright and intelligent. Maybe they always were. Red had originally kept a lock of hair hanging loose to hide her face to fit her shy character. It was like she had no purpose for living. But once she came back, she kept her head held high and her shoulders rolled back and her wings spread. Her mane was pushed back behind her ears so that her face was clear and open. Marylyn liked the change.
Using her magic, Marylyn opened the door to Red’s office. The lieutenant herself was pacing behind her desk, the pendant bouncing on her chest. Marylyn hadn’t given the necklace that much attention before, but she realized that it was new. Red hadn’t had it before she went to Equestria, and since she got back, she never let it out of her sight.
“Oh. Hi, Marylyn,” Red said distractedly. Her pacing increased vigorously.
“Um.” Marylyn cleared her throat. “Good evening, lieutenant.”
“Don’t bother with the titles,” Red insisted. “I mean, we are all alone. Nopony has to know.”
“Um. Right. All alone.” Marylyn squinted and saw that the pendant around Red’s neck was pulsing with a dim light. Red noticed Marylyn looking and flushed so much you could almost see it. She turned away for a brief moment, and when she spun around again, the necklace was normal.
“Sorry about that.” Red laughed nervously. “It’s, um, supposed to be like a flashlight. Yeah. But sometimes it malfunctions.” She plastered a smile on her face. Marylyn blinked. Red cleared her throat and sat down at her desk.
“Right. Okay. So.” Red looked at a map of the city of Anianio that was spread out across the mahogany desk. “Commanding an army. Should be a piece of cake. Right?”
“Um, ma’am?” Marylyn said tentatively. “What is ‘cake’?” Red flushed.
“Um, it’s this dessert… over in Equestria… that’s kinda like a big… muffin thing? That is different from a muffin? It’s sweeter, and always has frosting on it?”
“How do you know about this product?” Marylyn asked pointedly. Red gulped, and beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
“Well… the ponies I was sent to capture lived above a cake shop, and I helped myself to some?” tried Red. Marylyn squinted. Something about that story didn’t seem right. Maybe it was the way Red said everything as a question, like she was wondering whether or not Marylyn believed these things. And she wasn’t sure she did.
“Um. Anyways. Marylyn, are all the guards at their posts?” Red tried to put on an official facade, but bits and pieces of the young and nervous and scared pony she really was kept slipping through. Something about this made Red seem like a stronger leader. She wasn’t afraid to let other ponies know what she was really feeling. Marylyn added that to her very long list of things she liked about Red.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Please, enough with the formal titles,” Red insisted again. “Anyways, good. Tell them that I want them to report anything suspicious to me immediately. Do they have a rotating schedule?”
“Yes, ma’a-” Marylyn clamped her mouth shut, suppressing another “ma’am”. “It’s in the file cabinet.”
Red nodded and stood up. Trotting over to the file cabinet tucked into the corner next to the door, she opened the top drawer with her magic and flicked through files. Marylyn coughed.
“Um, it’s in the bottom drawer.”
“Oh.” Red flushed again, closed the top drawer, and opened the bottom one. She pulled out a sheet of paper with her magic and scanned it. “Perfect. I’ll just have them follow this and… do other stuff.”
Marylyn nodded politely. She knew Red had no idea what she was doing, but that was what Marylyn was here for. She also knew that the emperor just wanted Red to be under careful watch. He hoped to use her skills for his own good. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been promoted or even given a room in the emperor’s palace. She would have been booted back to the streets and kept under less subtle careful watch. Marylyn wasn’t supposed to leave Red alone for even a minute. She didn’t understand his caution, but she would never disobey His Majesty. Never.
Even as she thought it, Marylyn knew it was a lie.
A few days later, Marylyn was true to her orders. She never left Red’s side, although it looked like Red was following Marylyn around instead of the other way around. Marylyn was older and had a higher status than the young red pegacorn. Red kept trying to get away from Marylyn, even if it was only for a few moments. Marylyn kept coming up with excuses to come with her. She could sense Red getting jumpy and her attempts to get away increased.
Emperor Lupines left with his armies for Equestria the day after Red’s promotion. Red stood on a cliff, watching the ships depart, the wind blowing her chocolate brown curly mane. Marylyn trotted up behind her and followed the new lieutenant’s gaze.
“You okay?” Marylyn almost whispered. She had unintentionally developed a deep fondness for Red, and now, she couldn’t call her by her official terms even if she tried.
Red sighed. “I guess so. I just… I don’t know. Do you ever feel like…” Red cut off, shaking her head and avoiding Marylyn’s gaze. “Nevermind. You probably wouldn’t get it.”
Marylyn put her hoof gently on Red’s shoulder, saying, “Hey. It’s alright. You can tell me.” Red smiled at Marylyn. There was something about the way that Red smiled that warmed Marylyn to the tips of her hooves, even with the chilly breeze.
“All right. Do you ever feel like… something is missing? From the story? That makes everything make no sense, and if you just knew that one thing, everything would make sense again?” Marylyn stopped.
“I… yes. I feel that way all the time.” Marylyn didn’t know why she said that. “Like you have a secret that you have to keep at all costs and make sure nopony finds out, or else you would lose everything and it would affect more than just yourself.”
Red nodded understandingly. She finally tore her eyes away from the horizon, where the ships had long since disappeared.
“Come on. We’ve got work to do.”
Red turned away and started walking down the slope. Marylyn watched her go before switching her gaze back to the horizon. It occurred to her that Red had a lot more going on in her life than she let on. The two ponies were probably more alike than either of them realized.
The first battle came exactly where Twilight expected it to be.
At the mouth of the canal between Griffonstone and the Dragon Lands, a patrol spotted a fleet of about a dozen ships sailing towards the canal. They brought back dragon and griffon reinforcements and soon sank a total of four ships and damaged the rest. The fleet quickly surrendered and retreated to back where they came from. The commander’s second-in-command jubilantly reported to Dragon Lord Ember that there were no casualties. Ember had believed that they would easily win this war, but Twilight wasn’t so sure.
“That was most likely just a decoy,” she reminded the other rulers for the thousandth time, “something to make us too confident and cocky. It will get much more difficult from here on out.”
Ember rolled her eyes and scoffed, but the others thought Twilight had a valid point. They gave orders to increase the number of patrols and to not engage in large battles. Simply sink ships and cut supply lines and slow them down. The real fighting will happen when they get onto Equestrian soil.
Twilight was very nervous. As her friends liked to say, she was “twilighting twice as much nowadays”, which Twilight continuously denied. Her reports from Red had come to an abrupt halt. She hadn’t heard anything from the pegacorn since she had confirmed Twilight’s suspicions about the emperor’s battle plans. After that, they had come to a stalemate. Twilight wanted to call Red using their pendants, but she had enchanted them so that only Red’s was able to make the calls. This was so Twilight wouldn’t accidentally call Red in the middle of a meeting with the emperor or in a place where a ton of ponies could see Red’s betrayal. All Twilight’s could do was make Red’s pendant glow so that Red would know Twilight wanted to talk. Twilight had been sending these glows twice a day at least, and still no answer. Twilight feared that Red had been discovered and possibly killed.
Obviously, Twilight and the other rulers were camping out in Twilight’s castle. The cutie map turned out to be very good for plotting battles. Twilight and Starlight Glimmer combined their magic so that the cutie map could now show live footage of what was happening anywhere in Equestria. They could see where the armies were heading and could anticipate their moves. Because of this, they sent out orders to get rid of all patrols and dispatch any creatures that were on patrol to report to the armies to strengthen their numbers.
Equestria had scored several small victories, but the Anoian armies pulled a surprise attack over to the east and had taken Griffonstone due to the lack of government or monarchies. So the enemy had a base easily within attacking distance of Equestria.
The Battle of the Canal was another failure. Somehow, the Anoians had snuck up between the Dragon Lands and the southern border of Equestria. A large fleet was slowly fighting their way up the canal between the Dragon Lands and Griffonstone with great casualties. They were halted by a large troop of griffons and dragons at the fork. The other army flanked the Equestrians and defeated them. The only thing that kept them from getting completely obliviated was the new tunnels the Tree of Harmony had created.
And so the Dragon Lands, the changeling kingdom, and Griffonstone all fell to the Anoians. This was very bad news for Twilight. She spent the day pacing in circles around the throne room, wearing a groove on the floor.
After a battle in sweltering heat one day, Mount Aris fell as well. The surviving hippogriff armies fled to Ponyville. The small town was now overflowing with wounded soldiers. Applejack and her family gave up a whole section of their apple orchard to have the perished soldiers that just couldn’t make it buried. A single soldier was soon buried under every single apple tree. Wiping tears from her face, Applejack shakily proclaimed that they gave her trees the best fertilizer ever. Then she burst into tears and ran away crying at the thought of so many innocent creatures killed. Rainbow Dash tried to tell her to toughen up, although that ended up with both ponies sitting on the ground, bawling their eyes out and creating a new lake in the center of Ponyville.
Soon, much to Twilight’s despair, Equestria was surrounded by enemy territory when winter set in. The cold and snow slowed everything down, and the Equestrians spent the season trying to bring their armies back up to scratch with mixed results. They had little to no success in the spring, while Manehatten and Fillydelphia fell, as well as many other smaller towns.
“We have to fight back!” Ember shouted when the rulers met one spring day to discuss what to do about the predicament.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everypony!” Rainbow Dash screamed back.
“Well you need to try harder!” bellowed Ember. “We’ve got to fight back or we’re toast!”
“We’re trying,” Thorax said wearily. “But they’re too strong. They aren’t fooled by my changelings trying to disguise themselves as Anoians who try to get inside information. Sooner or later, they get kicked out or revealed before we can get any good information.”
“Yaks not like getting pushed around by ponies!” Prince Rutherford cried. “Yaks smash ponies!”
“Oh, really?” Ember said scathingly. “Because you seem to be doing a fantastic job!”
“Every creature, stop!” Twilight cried. “This war is hard, but we have to have faith that we can win!”
“Twilight,” Shining Armor said slowly, Cadance at his side, “I think…”
“Don’t you get started!” Twilight’s voice was choked with the tears that were forming in her eyes. “I can’t think about what would happen if we lose. I can’t-” Twilight cut off, curling up in a ball and started crying, sobs shaking her shoulders. Princess Skystar came over and gently wrapped her wings around the princess.
“Twilight’s right,” Thorax said strongly.
“Are you kidding me?” Ember screamed. “We don’t need an ushy-gushy speech from a king who doesn’t even know how to lead a kingdom and knows nothing about fighting a war!”
Thorax winced; she’d struck a sore spot. But he lifted his head and continued.
“Maybe I don’t. But I do know this. If you don’t fight back, then there’s no point in fighting at all. You might as well just hand yourself over to the enemy. You have to beat them at their own game, turn them against their leader, which will make them lose their support and popularity. But none of that will happen unless you fight back.”
Ember opened and closed her mouth, speechless. The other leaders looked at each other. Twilight lifted her head, her eyes red and putty and still full of tears but determined.
“I agree with Thorax,” Queen Novo said abruptly. “We need to fight back with everything we’ve got.”
Slowly but surely, the other leaders nodded their heads in agreement. Twilight smiled faintly.
“So!” Ember said sharply. Everyone’s heads turned to her, expecting an argument. “What do we have to do to get our armies back off the ground?”
Hope exploded inside Twilight like fireworks. There was a chance they could do this after all. Things weren’t all lost. If they were with her…
Suddenly, an explosion shook the room, making the tree root chandelier rock dangerously, the gems hanging from it clatter against each other. All heads whipped around towards the door.
“What the…” Applejack said slowly.
Every creature hurried out of the room and ran to the front steps of the castle. Smoke was rising into the air above the Everfree Forest. From out of the forest ran Sandbar, Gallus, Smolder, Yonna, and Ocellus. Yonna was carrying some creature on her back.
“What’s going on?” Twilight asked.
“Something’s attacking!” Ocellus got out.
“We were in our treehouse,” Smolder explained, “when some kind of bomb came out of the sky and blasted the castle ruins. We just barely escaped with our lives.”
“What do you mean?” Celestia demanded. Luna and her sister’s eyes were watering at the thought of their old castle getting blasted.
“When they saw us running away, they seemed determined to make sure there were no survivors,” Ocellus explained shakily. “They tossed more bombs. The treehouse seemed to be protected, because, you know, it’s made from the Tree of Harmony, but we had to get out. So we ran, but…”
“A bomb was heading straight towards us,” Gallus said dully. His eyes were full of grief, but he couldn’t lift them from the ground. He was flapping his wings, but it seemed that just doing that was taking all his concentration. “Silverstream used the magic in her pearl shard to protect us.”
Twilight gasped. She looked at the unconscious body on Yonna’s back. For the first time, she realized it was Silverstream. The pink and blue hippogriff was dusted with ash and her feathers and fur were singed. She wore a necklace with a shard of Queen Novo’s pearl on it, allowing her to change between a hippogriff and seapony at will. The shard was gone. Shattered. Silverstream was breathing, but she had given up her magic to make sure her friends were safe.
“No…” Princess Skystar was so quiet she almost couldn’t be heard. She flung herself into her mother’s wings and sobbed.
“It was scary,” Sandbar whispered. “The bomb was heading for Gallus, and Silverstream pushed him away and - and she grabbed her necklace and…and this shield came up around us and deflected it and she…fainted.” He broke off, unable to continue.
“Is she…?” Pinkie Pie was quiet, very unlike her.
Yonna nodded silently. “She’s alive.”
It was the first sentence that Yonna had made that her grammar wasn’t broken or incorrect. Silverstream deserved it.
Another explosion rocked the sky, closer to Ponyville, smoke billowing into the sky and blotting out the sun.
“You five,” Twilight commanded, straightening and wiping tears out of her eyes, “get Silverstream inside the castle and get a doctor for her. If they won’t go with you, tell them that I sent you.” Gallus looked up, a fire burning in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. He nodded and he and his friends galloped up the stairs to the castle and disappeared into the doors. “Everyone else,” Twilight continued, “stay low. Keep yourselves protected. Me and my friends will deal with these guys.”
“WHAT?!” Prince Rutherford yelled.
“What about not getting involved in combat?” Ember demanded. “Won’t they be more than happy to take you prisoner or kill you or something?” Twilight glared at her.
“Excuse me, but me and my friends have defeated more villains than I can count. I think we can take on these guys. Besides, if things go wrong-” she shrugged, “-we can always do rainbow lasers and turn them all to stone or vaporize them or something.” Twilight spread her violet wings and lifted into the sky, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike following. Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie ran on the ground as the six ponies and dragon hurried towards the Everfree Forest.
“We aren’t going to die, right?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Try not to think about it, sugarcube,” Applejack responded.
“I hope not. I haven’t seen Hamilton yet!”
“What is that?” Rainbow Dash inquired, staring down at Pinkie as she flew overhead.
Red’s eyes snapped open, her breath coming out in pants. Sweat was forming on her forehead. Red pushed herself into a sitting position, faintly gasping for air. She had no idea where these nightmares came from, but she had a feeling that there was something real about them.
Don’t think about that, she scolded herself. They can’t be real. They can’t.
A few months back, a few days after Lupines left, Red started getting these nightmares about battles between Equestria and Anoia. She’d put them off for a while, convincing herself that they were just her imagination acting up. She was just stressed about the war. Then she’d gotten a battle report from Commander Sea Spray about a battle that she’d seen in her dreams. That was when she had figured out that her dreams were nothing short of visions of the near future.
Now, this might have been a good thing. If you had a spy on the inside who could see the future, they could smuggle the information to the other side and alert them of what was to come. However, Red had never been able to get more than a minute by herself. Marylyn insisted on coming with her to wherever Red was going, and at night, a guard was outside the door, preventing Red from contacting Twilight then. So she was forced to stay, safe and sound in her guardhouse, while the Equestrians fought with their lives for the imprisoned ponies and creatures a few meters from Red.
Red slipped out of bed and paced her room. The battle she’d seen was extremely bloody. It took place in a small town that Red remembered Twilight telling her about: Ponyville. In her vision, Anoian air forces were dropping bombs on the forest next to Ponyville, destroying ruins that could possibly have extra supplies or a shelter for residents of the town. They were blowing up an old castle ruin, when six creatures, including one pony, ran out of a crystal treehouse in front of the castle and made a break for the woods. The treehouse was somehow protected by a magical force field, but the creatures weren’t so lucky. A bomb was heading for them, but one of the creatures that Red recognized as a hippogriff created a protection bubble around the six. They were safe, but the hippogriff fainted. A while later, the air force arrived at the edge of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle and her friends confronted them and managed to take down at least a third of the soldiers. However, they were soon overpowered and knocked out, dropping to the forest floor like stones. The Anoians decided they were no immediate threat for now and left them alone. They proceeded into the town and prepared to throw more bombs at Twilight’s castle, but were stopped by a small force of different creatures.
Four of them were some of the creatures who escaped from the forest: the yak, the pony, the dragon, and the changeling. The others were two hippogriffs, a blue dragon, a lime green changeling, a large yak, three tall and slender alicorns with wings spread, and a stallion unicorn. Two of the alicorns had wavy manes, but the third, while she was a candy-colored pink, looked like she was ready to tear these ponies to pieces if they didn’t leave.
The air forces simply rolled their eyes and groaned and said “This again?” and things like that. They tried to push forward, but the two changelings turned into dragons, and they and the two real dragons rose into the air. All four of them opened their mouths and roared fire onto the Anoian stashes of bombs that were being carried in carts pulled by several pegasi. The bombs exploded, knocking at least a dozen and a half ponies out of the skies, dead or unconscious.
The dragons worked on torching more ponies, but the Anoians ducked and swerved and most of them avoided getting burned to a crisp. The two hippogriffs lifted into the air and knocked dizzy or unstable ponies out of the skies, and once they were on the ground, the two yaks knocked them unconscious or killed them. The younger yak only knocked them unconscious. She seemed hesitant about killing. The big yak, however, had no hesitation whatsoever.
The alicorns were quick to blast more ponies with their magic and fly around, making the Anoians dizzy. The pink one was really on a whirl.
“Give!” She grabbed two ponies and whacked their heads together, knocking them unconscious so they dropped to the ground. “Me!” Whirling around, the alicorn shot another blast at a black pegacorn, killing him instantly. “My!” Cadance shot after an escaping pegasus and pushed her down to the ground, leaving her for the yaks to deal with. “Daughter!” The pink alicorn blasted two more pegasi to the ground, dead. “BACK!!!” Cadance lit up her horn and blasted a laser through the sky and killed at least thirteen Anoian soldiers. The remaining soldiers quickly retreated, but one of the hippogriffs (the yellow and blue one) was knocked down to the ground, and the smaller changeling had a broken wing. She was on the ground, back in her own form, studying the large hole in the membranes. The large one limped over to her, blood leaking from one of his hind legs. The larger hippogriff had a mangled claw but was otherwise in good shape. She insisted on helping bring the other hippogriff inside the castle. The other two alicorns were unhurt but shaken. The stallion hurried over to Cadance and put his arm around the pink pony’s shaking shoulders and guided her gently back to the castle.
“Has anypony seen Twilight Sparkle?” the dark blue alicorn inquired. The remaining creatures shook their heads silently. Some Equestrian soldiers, who had stood to the side, watching in awe as their leaders took care of this group of Anoians, came up to drag away the dead bodies. A small flight of Equestrian pegasi flew over the Everfree Forest, looking for Twilight Sparkle and her friends. And that was where Red’s dream ended.
Red’s breathing steadied as she shakily recounted her vision. Twilight Sparkle could still be alive. She could be okay. Everything might be alright. But she knew in her heart that it wouldn’t. All the other battles she’d seen were almost always Anoian victories. Equestria would soon fall if she didn’t do something.
The door cracked open a fraction of an inch. The guard outside of Red’s door poked his head into the room and stared at her questioningly.
“Oh. Um. I’m okay. Just had a… nightmare.” Red smiled nervously as the guard slowly withdrew his head and closed the door. Red exhaled and climbed back into bed. She lay down and tried to fall asleep, but horrible images kept filling her head of Twilight’s body lying broken on the forest floor. When the sun rose over the horizon, flooding the land in brilliant shades of light pink and gold, Red got out of bed and resumed pacing. She used her magic to pull a brush through her curls. The sun had cleared the horizon when Marylyn finally opened the door and slipped into the room. Several strands of her mane had slipped out of her bun, and Red could tell that she’d gotten ready in a rush.
“Good morning!” Marylyn said brightly. Her smile melted when she saw Red’s crestfallen face. “Um. Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Just had a rough night.” Red glanced out the window. “Had a nightmare.”
“Oh.” Marylyn shifted her hooves. “So…”
“We’re going to be getting another battle report soon,” Red said, still looking out the window. “Make sure my schedule’s clear so I can look at it.”
“How can you be sure?” asked Marylyn nervously. Red whipped her head around again and met Marylyn’s shaky light pink eyes with her steady green ones.
“Have I ever been wrong before?”
Marylyn cleared her throat. “Um. No.”
“Then clear my schedule for tomorrow,” Red said briskly as she trotted out of the room. Marylyn scurried to follow. Red glanced behind her and glanced at Marylyn fixing her bun as she walked. Red winced. The deep turquoise of Marylyn’s mane reminded her all too well of Brickle’s eyes. She felt a pang in her heart as she thought of Brickle, which she didn’t fully understand.
Red turned back to the hallway in front of her. She tried to focus on the day ahead of her - she had to run drills and hear the reports from the night patrollers for any signs of things they might have seen. Red had gotten rid of the “Kill anything that you see move” rule when they accidentally killed a couple of Anoians goofing around and a great number of birds and rabbits. Instead, if they saw anything, they were to inspect it, and if it was anything that they thought they should be worrying about, they would report instantly to Red. Other than that, at noon that day, the patrols would make a daily report after getting a few hours of sleep. But her mind kept wandering back to the vision she’d had. If that was really going to happen… she couldn’t think about it. And Twilight Sparkle couldn’t be dead. That was just crazy talk. If Twilight Sparkle was dead, Red was almost positive that the sun would stop rising. Which was probably true. Twilight was the reason the sun rose anyways.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. Red heard reports and checked in on the drills of the new guards. There were about a dozen of them, and they had a long way to go if they were going to make it into the Anoian army. When Red finally had a moment to breathe, it was almost sunset. The battle she’d seen in her vision took place at about midday. If it had happened that day, then the battle had already passed. But if it took place the day after… Red still had time to try and warn Twilight.
Once the sun slipped below the horizon again, Red retired to her room, hoping that there would be no visions tonight. Of course, that was setting the bar pretty high. But Red luckily had that simple request granted.
The report came in. Finally. Lupines had been waiting all day. He was dying to know about how the assault on Canterlot went.
The plan was to go over the small town next to Canterlot and threaten it with some bombs. The Canterlot guards would come to the rescue, but the other armies, which had successfully surrounded Canterlot, would attack the city and capture the leaders, which were no doubt hiding in the palace, convinced that the guards would take care of them and that there was nothing to worry about.
Commander Sea Spray’s second-in-command walked into the room, his steps subdued and his head hung low, avoiding Lupines’ eyes. The emperor immediately went into shallow panic mode. Clearly, something had happened that the commanders and generals were regretting telling him.
“Well?” Lupines snarled. The other pony (Lupines thought his name was Shell) winced.
“Well… Um… It failed.”
Lupines blinked. He shook his head and glared at Shell.
“Excuse me?”
“It… failed. We were stopped in Ponyville, by a small force of rag-tag ponies and creatures. We were caught off guard and had to retreat. When we came back, there was a large shield around both Ponyville and Canterlot. It was so strong none of our weapons could penetrate it. And all of our forces were forced out of it. There’s no way for us to get there now.”
“You were stopped,” Lupines said slowly, venom dripping from his voice, “by a rag-tag group of ponies and creatures?!” Shell gulped and nodded. Lupines rubbed his hoof on his forehead.
“Do you mind telling me what these creatures looked like?”
“Um, yes sir. There were three ponies with wings and horns, like pegacorns, but with bigger wings. And much more powerful. And there were two dragons, and two shape-shifting creatures and some yaks and two hippogriffs and an earth pony. And a unicorn. And we encountered a couple of younguns in the forest when we were raiding. We tried to kill them, but one of them managed to generate a shield. And some ponies fought us just outside of town. There was another one of those pegacorns there, too, as well as two pegasi and a unicorn and two earth ponies. They were presumably killed, but we never found their bodies.” Shell shifted from hoof to hoof nervously.
In his head, Lupines was already putting together who his forces had met outside of Canterlot. If there were some pegacorns with larger wings and who were more powerful than pegacorns, they would be what they called alicorns, who were the leaders of the ponies. Which meant that if the pony leaders were there, chances were that the other leaders were there as well. Instead of doing what Lupines had thought they would do, they were smarter than he had thought. They had hidden in a small, insignificant town that would probably be overlooked by Lupines. That was smart. Lupines didn’t think he’d ever had an opponent quite so intelligent as the Equestrian forces.
“Second-in-Command Shell,” said Lupines menacingly, “I hope you realize that the creatures that you encountered were the leaders of these lands, as well as several of their closest friends. And you just assumed that they were a… ‘small force of rag-tag ponies and creatures'.”
Shell gulped, seeing where this was going. Sweat rolled in rivers down his neck. “Um… yes?”
“So you should have captured them and brought them to me. And you didn’t. Even more than that, you were forced to retreat at their hooves. And gave them time to put up additional protection, which delays our plans by a large amount?”
“Yes?”
“And the punishment of this is death.” Lupines flicked his tail, and two guards trotted in and grabbed Shell and dragged him away.
“No! Please! Wait! Please, give me another chance! Please! No!”
Lupines snorted. He was immune to any emotions that other ponies might give him. He turned to the remaining three guards in the room.
“Send a letter to Commander Sea Spray and the other generals. Tell them that if they mess up this bad again, they will meet the same fate as Second-in-Command Shell.” They nodded and trotted out of the room. Lupines settled back on his throne with a sigh.
In his mind, Lupines knew that the Equestrians were more powerful than the Anoians, but the Anoians had greater numbers. He had hoped that if he attacked suddenly and scared the Equestrian military with their great numbers, they would surrender or be scared to fight them. But now the leaders of Equestria and the surrounding lands had realized that they were indeed more powerful than Anoia, which made it almost impossible for them to lose the war now. But Lupines had to try. He’d gotten this far already. He wasn’t going to back down.
So Lupines started forming a mental plan. He would dig in for a siege and stay long enough for the Equestrian’s strength in their protective shield to fade. Then they would suddenly all attack at once, overwhelming the Equestrians and catching them off guard. They would fall, and Equestria would finally fall to Lupines’s control.
Lupines relished in the idea of an entire world following his every order. He would rule over it all. And he would be long gone before any more problems came up, such as running out of living space, or exhausting their resources, or before advancing technologies would take over the world and there would be no ponies, only cyborgs. Yeah. All those problems were far off in the future. Lupines didn’t need to worry about them right now.
All he needed to worry about was winning this war and taking down the rulers of these lands. They had escaped him. Nopony ever did. Lupines always found the ponies who betrayed him in the end. And after this whole thing blew over, and he emerged victorious, he would find that Red. He would find out what it was that he suspected about her if it was the last thing he did. Even if he had to torture it out of her. Lupines wasn’t sure what it was, but he was suspicious about something. And even that suspicion was wavering under Red’s act. At least, he thought she was acting…
Dang, that pony was good! If she was acting, she was doing a fantastic job. Lupines allowed himself a smile despite himself. If she wasn’t a lieutenant, he would stick her in the closest theater and they would never get rid of her. But, if she was acting, then that meant she was a spy. The smile melted off Lupines’s face as he sat up quickly.
A spy… if that was true, then he had made the right decision, making Marylyn watch over the pegacorn every waking second. Hopefully, if Red was smuggling information to the Equestrians, Marylyn would catch her. And yet, the Equestrians hadn’t interpreted Lupines’s moves very well. They had put up defenses along their borders, but they left gaps in areas that they had thought to be impenetrable, such as the desert. The Anoians were able to slip past them fairly easily. If Red was a spy for the Equestrians, she was doing a terrible job. Like, awful.
Lupines shook himself and focused on the issue at hand. He had to infiltrate Canterlot. Only then would he be able to take the city, and with it, the remains of the Equestrian armies and rulers. And then the world would bow to him and him alone.
The sunlight filtered through the large pink bubble in the center of what once had been and what hopefully would soon, once again, be Equestria. The force field was similar to the one Shining Armor had placed around Canterlot during his and Cadance’s wedding. Except for this one was created by four alicorns and covered a larger area.
Twilight paced inside her castle. Her saddlebag was slung across her back, filled with supplies. Spike was hovering in the corner, his backpack also stuffed with any necessities that they might need for a rescue mission. Her friends would be there soon with their own supplies, and Twilight was anxious to get going.
Since Red’s reports had failed, Twilight had thought more and more about the missing ponies. If what Red had told her was true, those ponies and other creatures were being held captive in a dank, damp prison-house, being fed kitchen scraps. It was all Twilight could do to not go running into the prison house, horn blazing, setting free every single creature being held there, killing anypony who tried to stop them. Then Starlight talked some sense into her and convinced Twilight that doing that would be a suicide mission. And so Twilight agreed (grudgingly) to take her friends along and do a more quiet approach.
The doors creaked open and Twilight’s best friends in the world trotted in, followed by Shining Armor, Cadance, Celestia, and Luna. Twilight exhaled and stopped pacing.
“All ready, Twiligh’?” Applejack asked, grinning.
“I’ve been ready since the first pony went missing!” Twilight exclaimed. Then she took some deep breaths and calmed down. “Sorry. I’m just a bit… stressed.”
“A bit?” Rainbow Dash teased, although her eyes danced with worry. Spike snorted.
“You’re lucky you didn’t see her reaction when she first found out,” he said. “She gave ‘twilighting’ a whole new level.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Whatever. You ready?” she asked the princesses. They nodded and stepped forward. The four alicorns stood in a circle and lit their horns in unison. The tips of the horns met and a glow surrounded the ends. This orb shot a beam of light up through the ceiling. Everypony followed its progress as it passed through the roof. They all knew that it reinforced the protection shield.
“Do you think you can maintain it while I’m gone?” Twilight asked nervously when they finished.
Starlight shook her head. “I’m staying with the school. Now, more than ever, it’s very important that every creature knows the power of friendship and staying strong.”
Nodding, Twilight blinked back tears.
“Okay. Come on, girls.”
“Twilight, wait.”
Twilight’s head whipped around to face Cadance. For the first time, Twilight noticed that Cadance also had a saddlebag strapped across her back.
“I’m coming.” Cadance’s eyes were red and puffy, with black circles under them, like they had been for the past few months, but determined.
“Cadance, no,” was Twilight’s immediate response. “We need you here.” Cadance shook her head briefly.
“I’m coming,” she repeated. Twilight looked at Shining Armor, hoping for support. His eyes were sad, but he looked like he accepted this. Stunned, Twilight looked at Celestia and Luna, who looked shocked but not like they were going to interfere.
“Cadance…” started Twilight. Cadance put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and met her eyes.
“Twilight, I’m coming. I have to. My daughter’s over there, held by those…” Cadance broke off, tears welling up in her violet eyes. “Please, Twilight,” she whispered.
Twilight couldn’t bring Cadance. But… Twilight looked at Cadance and sighed in defeat.
“All right. Just… if something happens here because you were gone, don’t look at me.” Twilight turned and faced her friends.
“Ready, girls?”
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie nodded determinedly. Cadance trotted over to stand next to Fluttershy. Twilight exhaled and lit her horn. Her magenta magical aura glowed brighter and brighter as Twilight focused on what Red had told her about Anoia. She formed a picture in her head and she and her friends disappeared from the room.
A pink flash lit up the night sky in the middle of Anianio. Twilight blinked and looked around. The dirt street was lined with shops, most of which had apartments on top. The full moon glowed brightly in the sky, illuminating the deserted street perfectly. Small carts stood parked next to doors and on sidewalks. A mouse skittered across the street, clutching a rotten apple like it was pure gold.
“Oh, poor thing,” Fluttershy whispered. Her quiet voice echoed against the silent storefronts.
“Well,” Rainbow Dash said slowly, “this… isn’t what I was expecting.”
“Let me guess.” Twilight rolled her eyes and gave Rainbow an exasperated look. “You were expecting a large forest with a creepy landscape and wolves howling in the distance and a full moon and a cloudy sky 24/7 and monsters everywhere.”
Rainbow Dash blushed and mumbled, “Maybe.”
Twilight sighed and glanced at Cadance. The Princess of Love was slowly taking in their surroundings as she pivoted on the spot.
“It’s very… similar. To Equestria,” Cadance decided. Her sights fell on the form of the palace in the distance. Her eyes narrowed until they were slits of violet. “That’s where she is.”
“Um,” Twilight said quickly. She knew instantly who Cadance was talking about, and she also knew that if Cadance charged into the palace now, she would be stopped. Even if the emperor had left, he would leave guards behind to guard his home. “We don’t actually know if she’s in there. We need to have a plan. First, we need to find shelter. Then we need to find Red. I know she’ll help us. And maybe she knows where Flurry is.” Cadance flinched, hearing her daughter’s name. Twilight hurried on. “Red can probably convince the guards on the palace to relax, take a day off or something. Then we can sneak inside and look for Flurry. Red should come with us, and act like she’s taking us prisoner or something so we have a good cover story. Once we free Flurry, we’ll free everyone else and be back to Canterlot before you know it.” Glancing around at everypony’s faces, Twilight tried to smile so that she sounded confident in her plan. And she was. There were just a bunch of variables that all depended on a balance. If one thing went wrong…
Twilight shook her head and started down the path to the castle.
“This way, guys.”
“Um, aren’t we supposed to wait before we go that way?” Applejack asked, she and the rest of the ponies not moving.
“It’s more likely that we’ll find shelter this way than the middle of town,” Twilight retorted. She whirled around again and trotted off that way. Her friends glanced at each other before following. They knew better than to disagree with Twilight’s plans. Because they were often successful.
In the end, they found a rock shelf hanging over a sheltered area that was hopefully shielded from the prying eyes of the Anoians. Twilight immediately left to go search for Red to try and find out where she was so that she could meet her in the morning. Her friends protested until Cadance sided with Twilight.
A pair of guards were standing in front of the main doors to the palace. Twilight soared overhead and landed a few yards from the pair. Hopefully, in the dark, it would look like her wings were regular pegasi wings from that distance. She folded her wings close to her side and trotted up to the guards with her head held high, hoping that they wouldn’t see how nervous she was.
“Halt!” one of the guards said, he and the other crossing spears, forming an x. Twilight stopped and looked them defiantly in the eyes.
“State your name and business,” the other guard growled.
“Lyra Heartstrings,” lied Twilight, thinking of the first pony that came to her mind. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought of the green unicorn back in Ponyville, probably sick to her stomach with worry about Sweetie Drops, who was being held somewhere nearby. “I live here.”
The guards glanced at her wings and horn, then at each other.
“Fine.” the first guard scowled. They uncrossed their spears and allowed Twilight to pass through.
“By the way,” Twilight said with a sudden burst of inspiration, “I’m looking for somepony. Emperor Lupines himself told me to check in on her and report back to him. I don’t suppose such… strong, handsome guards such as yourselves could tell me where she is?” Twilight batted her eyes and smiled flirtatiously at the two pegasi guards. But inside, she knew she was probably doing a horrible job. Flattery was more Rarity’s thing. Sure enough, the two of them exchanged a puzzling and suspicious look.
“I mean,” added Twilight quickly, “clearly you are so good at what you do, your commander saw it fit to have you guard the entrance to the palace itself! Truly, you must be amazing at what you do. I am so sorry to bother you. I was just hoping that you could help me, but it’s absolutely okay if you can’t, I’m sure you have many other things to do. I’ll just be on my way…” Twilight hung her head and tried to look sad and defeated, which wasn’t hard to do. It was all she’d been feeling for the past half-year.
“Wait!” said the first guard hastily. His companion glared at him, but he plowed on. “Um, who was it you were looking for?”
Twilight’s ears pricked up and she turned to look at the guards with a hopeful expression that was 100% genuine.
“You would help me?” she said, tears wavering in her eyes. “That’s so sweet of you!”
The first guard blushed and rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. “Well, you know, just curious… who was it again?”
“Red. Red Berry?” Twilight tilted her head, studying the guards’ expressions for any hints. The second guard snorted.
“Obviously we know her. She’s our commander.” Twilight blinked, shocked.
“She is? I mean, of course she is! It’s just been so long since I was here, you know, helping His Majesty with the war and all that…” Twilight chuckled nervously before clearing her throat. “Could you take me to her? I must speak with her.”
The guards exchanged another glance, but they finally relented. The first guard escorted Twilight to the guardhouse while his companion stayed at their post to cover their shift. Goodness, Twilight thought to herself, Red must be doing a fantastic job with these guys.
The guardhouse was close to town. The two-story brick building was rectangular and solid-looking. Behind it was a five-story tall building made of solid gray stone. Twilight knew without a doubt that the stone building was the prison house. All the missing ponies were right there…
A light was on on the ground floor, and the guard raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“Looks like you’re lucky. Lieutenant Berry’s still awake. Guess that new battle report that came in must be puzzling her quite a bit.”
“New battle report?” Twilight asked. The guard gave her another strange glance.
“Oh, right. Of course. Just… been so long.” Twilight smiled.
The guard escorted her down a long hallway that they entered the moment they stepped inside the door. Doors lined the drab walls, most of which were the offices of other commanders and generals who were away, fighting Equestria. The thought made Twilight’s blood boil. The first office on the left was Red’s. Twilight suspected that she was there because of her low position and newbie status. The door was dark brown wood like all the others, and a shiny bronze plaque on the door read Lieutenant Berry. Twilight glanced around. She noticed that all the doors had plaques on them, some shiny and new like Red’s, some rusted and barely readable, probably for the older generals who had been serving for a while. The guard knocked three times on the door, the sounds thundering through the silent guardhouse.
“Come in,” said a voice. Twilight’s heart leapt and almost grew wings and flew away. Hearing Red’s voice made her hopeful. But she noticed changes in the tone. Red’s voice was firmer, stronger. She sounded more in control, like she could lead a huge army into battle and guide them to victory. The changes were slight, but Twilight noticed them nonetheless.
The door creaked open and gentle, golden lamplight flooded the hallway. Twilight stepped forward as her guard said, “Somepony’s here to see you, Lieutenant.” He closed the door and Twilight could hear his footsteps trotting out the door. Twilight glanced around the office.
It was small but cozy. A map of Anoia took up a whole wall, while a small window dominated the wall next to the map. A file cabinet was tucked away in the corner by the door. A simple wooden desk was in the middle of the room with a lamp in the corner and several papers and files scattered around on the scratched and worn desktop. A light purple pegacorn stood in the back corner against the map. Her turquoise mane was tucked into a tight bun, and her light pink eyes looked tired but alert. Red was sitting behind the desk, reading a report that had presumably come in that day. Her dark curls were pushed back, but a few strands slipped out of their hold and brushed against the table. Red looked up when the guard left the room. Her eyes were the same forest green that they were when Twilight last saw her, but they seemed more intense while wearier and tireder at the same time. Now they widened in surprise and blinked once, as if not believing what they were seeing.
Red was shocked. In her six months as a lieutenant, she had never even thought about the possibility of Twilight Sparkle appearing on her front porch. And yet the purple alicorn stood in front of Red’s desk, her eyelids drooping but her violet eyes were bright and fierce.
When Red said Twilight’s name, Twilight simply inclined her head in acknowledgment. Red could tell she was acting cool and composed, not at all like a pony from the enemy side who had come for her help. Red was sure that was what Twilight was here for.
“W-what are you doing here?” stammered Red.
“Emperor Lupines sent me to check on you and report back to him,” Twilight responded. Her voice was dead and flat, and she sounded as if she was reading a script. Red realized this was her cover story. She glanced fervently at Marylyn for a second. Twilight couldn’t spill with her there. She was smart to wait.
“Oh! Of course. I… I was expecting somepony. Um, Marylyn, could you…?” Red jerked her head at the door. Marylyn hurriedly shook her head.
“No, Lieutenant. I… think I should stay with you.”
She was lying, Red could tell. Since the first day, Red had had a suspicion that Marylyn was acting on Lupines’s orders, sticking close to her in case she tried to smuggle information to Twilight. Although Red thought that Lupines wasn’t entirely sure that she was a spy.
“Marylyn,” Red said a little more forcefully. “Please leave.”
“No.” Marylyn shifted her hooves but was defiant. “I need to stay.”
Red sighed and tried her last resort.
“Marylyn, I know Lupines put you up to this.” Marylyn’s eyes widened with surprise, confirming Red’s suspicion.
“H-how did you…?”
“And I know you’re doing a fantastic job. But you just need to step outside for a few minutes so I can have a short conversation with…?” Red looked to Twilight with the question written in her eyes.
“Lyra,” Twilight filled in immediately in the same deadpan voice. “Lyra Heartstrings.”
“Lyra.” Red turned back to Marylyn and smiled. “See? It’ll be fine. Just a few minutes.”
“No, Lieutenant.” Fear had entered Marylyn’s eyes and made them waver. “I don’t know how you knew about my orders, but you must know that I have to follow them. If I don’t…”
Red knew. She knew the punishment for disobeying orders. But she needed to help Twilight. She just couldn’t let Lupines win. It would be too terrible if he did. She exhaled and hoped that she wasn’t entirely crazy about doing this.
“This isn’t Lyra Heartstrings,” Red said, walking over to Twilight’s side. “Her name… is Twilight Sparkle. Princess of Friendship and ruler of Equestria.”
Marylyn’s jaw dropped. Twilight turned to Red with a curious expression.
“Why?” she asked in a low voice while Marylyn stuttered.
“It’s probably the only way,” Red whispered back.
“T-this pony… is the ruler of Eque…” Marylyn looked as if she might faint. She took a deep breath as if to call for the guards, but Red stopped her.
“No, don’t. Listen… I’ve been a kind of… spy. I’ve been giving Twilight information that would help her win the war and help save the missing ponies. They’re her subjects, and she needs them back. And if Lupines wins the war… Marylyn, you must know that the consequences would be grave.”
Marylyn still didn’t look entirely convinced, but she also didn’t look like she was going to call the guards in. Reassured, Red plowed on.
“And then you never left my side, which prevented me from giving her any more information. And they’re about to lose the war. If they do… Equestria will become Anoia, many more ponies will die, and all the dragons, the griffons, the hippogriffs, the yaks, all of them… they’ll all die, too.”
“Wait… what?” Twilight looked inquiringly at Red. So did Marylyn.
“How do you know that?” said Marylyn slowly.
“So it’s true?” Twilight demanded, glaring at Marylyn, who nodded.
“I heard the emperor talking about it to himself when he probably forgot I was in the room. He wants to keep a singular race of only ponies to dominate the world. And any ponies who showed any scrap of loyalty to you princesses would immediately be executed. But… how did you know that?” Marylyn asked, pointing at Red, who flushed.
“I… I saw it.”
That particular vision was the first one Red had had. She’d thought it was just a dream, even when her dreams were confirmed as visions. It was a large, bloodstained battlefield filled with every single changeling, hippogriff, yak, griffon, dragon, and Kirin, plus dozens of ponies, both Equestrian and Anoian, lying on the ground, dead, blood leaking from their severed heads and necks. Red almost threw up when she woke up again. She’d put it off as a panic-induced nightmare. But that same dream kept looping around after every battle that the Anoians had against the Equestrians. Sometimes there were more dead ponies and creatures, sometimes an entire species was gone, probably allying themselves with the Anoians and escaping genocide. Red once saw a happily ever after. It was a short flicker, right in the middle of another battle vision.
In it, she and Twilight were standing on a platform in front of hundreds upon thousands of creatures and ponies from all over the world, smiling brightly and probably announcing a peace treaty between the two continents or something. But then it disappeared right back into dying ponies. Red had never seen the vision again, telling her it was a rarity if it ever came true.
“You saw it?” Marylyn said incredulously. “How?”
“Um…”
“Can you read minds?” Twilight asked, as if this was something perfectly normal to ask somepony.
“What?”
“I have a friend who, when she touches somepony else, she can see what they’re thinking. Can you do that?”
“Um, not that I know of,” Red said nervously. “But… sometimes I have these dreams… and I saw that in one of them… Does that make sense?”
“Kind of?” Marylyn said. “We’ll worry about that later. So… you’ve been spying on us for… Twilight here?”
“Well, not since you came along,” Red said ruefully. “I haven’t been able to pass any information with you watching me so closely.”
“Oh, so that’s what happened to you,” Twilight said. “I was wondering what was going on over here.”
“Wait, how were you doing that? It’s not like you could fly back and forth between Equestria and Anoia every night.”
Red lifted her pendant and Twilight did the same.
“With these. They can help us communicate by projecting the other wherever you are, and Red tells me all she knows that would help us win the war,” Twilight explained. Marylyn tilted her head.
“Oh. I was wondering what Red’s necklace was for. She never let it out of her sight.” Marylyn shook her head. “But I can’t let you just… prance off with a princess from another continent.” She took in another large breath.
“Marylyn, no!” Red cried. The purple pegacorn paused. “Please,” continued Red, “please let us do this. You know what’ll happen if Lupines wins. If Equestria wins, things would be much better for everypony. You have to help us.” Red’s voice was so full of emotion that Marylyn stopped and hung her head.
“You’d better win,” she grumbled after a brief silence. “Or else things won’t be good.”
Red almost cried with relief.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “You won’t regret it.” She and Twilight hurried out of the room and nearly ran outside.
Neither of them noticed the bright yellow flash that emitted from the open doorway.
Twilight led Red to their hideout under the cliff. Her friends were all sleeping, except for Cadance and Rainbow Dash. Cadance was sitting by the campfire, the flames reflecting in her tired eyes. Rainbow was keeping watch by zooming from place to place and pouncing on anything that moved, even leaves just skittering across the top of the cave.
“Rainbow Dash, if you keep doing that, everypony within a mile of here will know where we are,” Twilight said quietly as she stepped up. Cadance’s eyes lit up and she and Twilight hugged. Rainbow sat across from the two alicorns, folding her arms and rolling her eyes.
“What in Equestria took you so long?” Rainbow scolded.
“I found who I was looking for.” Twilight gestured to the dark shadows behind her. Red slowly stepped into the circle of firelight. Cadance and Rainbow Dash stared at her. “Guys, this is Red.” Red smiled non threateningly.
“Hello,” she whispered.
“You have wings,” was all that came out of Rainbow Dash’s mouth.
“Oh. Yeah. I was born with them.” Red extended her wings and flapped them twice before folding them back up again.
“Born with both wings and a horn,” Cadance said sadly. She stared into the fire sadly. Red knew she was thinking about Flurry Heart. Twilight had told her all about the young alicorn.
“Yes. Except we’re just a combination of pegasi and unicorns, not all three. So we just have pegasi wings instead of wings like you have.” Red jerked her head at Cadance’s spread but drooping wings. She noticed that they started as pink but faded into purple at the tips. Cadance merely nodded.
“So. Red, we need to get the missing ponies out,” Twilight said, turning to the red pegacorn.
“I know.” Red nodded. “So I can guess you probably want me to have my guards leave for a while so that you can sneak in, get them all, and sneak back out?”
Rainbow Dash snickered at Twilight’s expression. Cadance mustered a small smile. Twilight’s eyes were wide and her jaw dropped, leaving her mouth open.
“H-how did you…?”
“You’re not the only pony here who can think up plans,” Red said, forcing down a giggle. “I figured that was probably what you would want me to do.”
Twilight shook herself. “Yes. Yes, it is. That’s exactly what I want you to do. Can you do it?”
“Right to the point.” Red considered for a moment, staring into the flames. If she did that, she would get in huge trouble if she ordered it directly. But do it indirectly, and just provide an opening for them to slip in… Red couldn’t see where that went wrong.
Suddenly, a massive headache erupted in her brain, making her cry out in pain. Red couldn’t see anything through the haze that swam in front of her. She heard Twilight’s worried voice as if she was yelling across the ocean. Then she blacked out.
Seeing the red Anoian pony had sent a fresh wave of sadness and guilt pulling Cadance under again. Both wings and a horn… she didn’t care what Red said, it reminded her painfully of Flurry Heart.
Cadance blamed herself for Flurry’s capture. If she’d been more straight with her daughter, or enforced more rules, or had more guards watching her, then maybe she wouldn’t have been taken. Twilight tried to comfort her, saying that nothing she could have done would have prevented Flurry Heart’s eventual capture. They really wanted her and would give their best and only their best to the cause. Flurry would have been taken away anyway. But that didn’t help.
And then Red had easily agreed to betray her leader and help the Equestrians. Call her paranoid, but Cadance grew suspicious of such easy commitment. She wanted to trust the pegacorn - she might be the only way to get to Flurry Heart. But she could still have her doubts, right?
Then Red had passed out. She went limp and almost collapsed on the ground, if Twilight hadn’t caught her. Then the pony went rigid and stiff, and her eyes opened, but they weren’t a fierce, defiant green like they normally would be. Instead, they were pale white and glowing, illuminating the small space. Red’s breathing increased, almost becoming panting as her chest heaved. It stayed this way for at least a full minute, although it felt like a year.
“What the…” Rainbow Dash managed. Twilight and Cadance were both paralyzed with shock as they stared at Red. Finally, her eyes stopped glowing and Red went limp again. Her breathing slowed a bit when she suddenly sat straight up.
“What… what happened?” she murmured to herself. Twilight and Cadance didn’t respond. Rainbow Dash shakily explained what had happened in scarce detail, as only Rainbow Dash could. Red shook her head.
“I… I don’t understand.” She turned to Twilight. “What happened?”
“You were all like, bleh, and then your eyes went all glowy, and then you just laid there, all dead and stuff, and then you came back!” Pinkie Pie was sitting, wide awake on her sleeping spot, acting out with unerring accuracy what had happened to Red. She’d seen the whole thing. Apparently, so did Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Spike.
“A-are you all right, sugarcube?” Applejack asked tentatively. Red was silent.
“What was that?” Spike’s eyes were wide with shock.
“Are you okay?” Fluttershy whispered. Red shook her head once.
“I… I don’t know. I don’t even know what happened.” Red blinked and looked around at all of them. Each of their faces mirrored the same, unasked question written all over Red’s face. Twilight was the one to break the ice.
“Do you remember what happened to you?” Twilight’s voice was just barely above a whisper. Red nodded and glanced around the fire before continuing.
“I saw something. It was confusing, but I think I got the gist of it. I saw Canterlot, with this big pink bubble around it, but it was weak and cracking. Anoian forces were trying to get inside by bashing the shield with spears and swords and even trees. Then the shield finally gave way, and they charged into Canterlot, taking everypony by surprise. Nopony had any idea what to do. It was just chaos. Lots of ponies died. And not just ponies. Other creatures, too. Emperor Lupines himself caught and killed the rulers of those lands with his own hooves. And… then it was over.”
Facial expressions ranged from fear to shock to anger. Cadance herself was between the fear and shock category. An invasion of Canterlot that was completely unprecedented… lots of ponies and creatures dying… and her fellow rulers being killed at the hooves of the same pony who ordered Flurry Heart’s capture. Anger flared up inside of her, the same feeling she’d gotten when Chrysalis had taken Shining Armor away from her, but ten times worse. Shining Armor would be killed. Starlight Glimmer, the pony who had saved her and Flurry from Chrysalis, would likely be killed as well. Celestia, the pony who had adopted Cadance when she’d become an alicorn and raised her in Canterlot to be a princess, would definitely be killed.
“Has this already happened?” Cadance muttered. Red looked at her, and Cadance saw the answer in her green eyes. She almost collapsed with relief.
“No. It… hasn’t happened. But it will. Very soon.”
“How do you know that?” Rarity asked, stifling a yawn. Red shifted uncomfortably.
“I… get these dreams. That kind of show me the near future?” Red looked at all of them, trying to discern whether or not they believed her. Cadance wasn’t exactly sure, but she trusted Red, so if she said she got visions of the future, then she probably got visions of the future.
“Have you ever seen anything past the near future?” Cadance asked. The cherry-red pegacorn nodded, her glossy, chocolate brown curls bouncing. The firelight reflected her eyes as she told them.
“I’ve seen the outcome of this war. Who wins the whole thing. There are only two. The most likely one…” She hesitated, looking at Twilight before continuing. “...is that Lupines wins. He kills any loyal supporters of the old governments, and kills any creature who’s not a pony. I’ve seen this dream many times. After every single battle. It always changes. Sometimes there’s more dead creatures, sometimes less. I’ve seen one where there are no griffons, which meant that they probably allied themselves with Lupines. Once I saw one where you could only live if you were a pegacorn. I think Lupines might have been trying to make a superior race or something. But it’s horrible.” Red shivered, letting this sink in. “But there’s another one.”
“Well, why didn’t you say anything?” Rainbow Dash almost yelled. “Tell us!”
Red flinched. “It’s very faint. Not likely at all. And I’ve only seen it once. It’s a future where Equestria comes out victorious, and Lupines is most likely overthrown. He’s replaced by somepony else, somepony who’s willing to befriend Equestria, and everything turns out okay. But, like I said, it’s faint and not likely to happen. If we do want it to come true, there’s a lot of things that need to be changed.”
“Have you seen anything about Flurry?” whispered Cadance. Her voice broke when she said Flurry’s name. Her spirits dropped farther than she would have thought possible when Red shook her head.
“I haven’t seen anything. Then again, I can’t really control these things.”
“Wait, you said that we still have time before the invasion of Canterlot,” Twilight declared, using her leader's voice. “We need to rescue the missing ponies, then get back to Canterlot. We’ll worry about what to do then.” She turned to Red. “Got any ideas?”
“I just have guards patrolling the outside. So if you can sneak inside, you have free access to all the doors from these keys.” Red used her magic to lift a ring of keys off of her pendant necklace. “This one unlocks all the regular cells, so it’s the only one you’ll need.” Red turned to Cadance. “I heard that Flurry Heart’s in the palace, so you and Twilight should probably go for her. In the dark, you could pass as pegacorns if you keep your wings folded. I’ll go back to my office so that it’ll be like I had nothing to do with any of this. The rest of you can go get the prisoners.” Red tossed the ring of keys to Rainbow Dash, who caught them and saluted to Red before taking off into the sky. Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike hurried after.
“Remember,” Twilight called softly after them, “bring them back here! Me and Cadance will meet you with Flurry, okay? And then we’ll be back to Canterlot soon.” She turned to Cadance and smiled. “Ready?”
“Of course,” Cadance smiled, masking her feelings. She was panicky. What had they done to Flurry Heart that she didn’t even need to stay in the prison house? What if… No. Cadance pushed those what-ifs deep down inside her. Flurry Heart was alright. She was sure of it. Or else she would rip Lupines to pieces.
The palace was a long, dark structure made of dark cement and stones. The guards let them in without a hitch, which unsettled Cadance a great deal. Either they were supposed to let them in so that they could get caught, or they were just like the Equestrian military. The hallways were silent and eerie, so Twilight and Cadance lit the ends of their horns for a bit of light. They trotted quietly throughout the halls, opening doors a crack, searching for Flurry Heart. With each passing second, Cadance’s despair and her anticipation mounted to the point that it was almost unbearable. Of course, that was when they found her.
It was a room like any other - at least, on the outside. On the inside, it was also just like any other room. Except for the light pink alicorn lying on a small bed, which was the only other thing in the room, other than a simple nightstand and a lamp, which was currently dark. There were no windows. Nothing. Twilight felt another wave of anger at Lupines.
Flurry Heart’s colors were slightly paler, dimmer. She looked like all the magic had been sucked out of her… No. No, nonono no. That couldn’t have happened. If it did…
Cadance rushed to the side of the bed, Twilight following a second later. Flurry looked alright, but there was something off. Twilight could tell. She reached out and tentatively shook the young alicorn awake. Flurry raised her head and blinked open her beautiful turquoise eyes. Except that they were no longer turquoise. Twilight sucked in her breath sharply and Cadance whimpered. Flurry’s eyes were gray and empty of all color, and, even worse, glazed over and blank. There was no recognition or any feeling whatsoever. It was like she was already gone…
Twilight shoved those thoughts away. No. She refused to believe it.
“Flurry Heart,” she whispered, “remember me?”
Flurry blinked once and smiled placidly.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, “but I don’t really know who you are.” Her voice was flat and emotionless. Cadance burst into tears, collapsing into Twilight. Twilight’s own sight was getting blurry with tears as she stared at the pony who had once been Flurry Heart.
Flurry sat up on her bed. Twilight noticed that one of her ankles had an iron band around it. It was pulsing with a gentle light.
“Cadance,” Twilight mumbled. Her voice was barely audible. “Look. If we can get that cuff off of her… I think she’ll be back.” Cadance stopped crying, but she still looked miserable. A new determination filled her eyes and she sat up straight.
“Okay,” she muttered. She lit up her horn and shot a blast straight towards the cuff. Flurry’s gray eyes widened and snatched her leg out of the way just before it was hit.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she practically yelled. “I have to wear that! It’s a matter of life or death!”
Cadance and Twilight glanced at each other, uncertainty in their eyes. Twilight wondered, deep down, if that was true. If Flurry was just a corpse, kept alive by magic to be a bargaining chip. She shoved those feelings away into her secret vault of shoved-away feelings. She would need to get a new one soon. She nodded to Cadance: Do it.
Twilight suddenly leaped at Flurry Heart and tackled her to the ground. The lamp fell to the floor and shattered. Flurry struggled and wriggled as Twilight held her leg down.
“Let me go!” she cried. “Don’t do it! I have to! Let me go!” Flurry flapped her wings frantically, and Twilight held them down as gently as she could. Cadance lit up her horn again and blasted the cuff as hard as she could. It absorbed all the magic and stopped glowing. A heartbeat later, it opened up and clattered to the floor. Flurry immediately went limp. Twilight and Cadance stared at the broken cuff on the floor.
“Wow,” Twilight said, “that was easy.”
“You’ll jinx us,” Cadance scolded. Twilight smirked at her, but stopped when she saw Flurry.
“Oh, no…” Twilight hurriedly stepped off of her and stood back for Cadance, who practically ran at her daughter. She picked up one of her hooves and let it go, but it dropped like a stone. Tears welled up in Cadance’s eyes and started to spill. They splashed on Flurry’s dead body. Cadance bowed her head and her horn touched the tip of Flurry’s. For a moment, there was silence other than Cadance’s weeping. Then Flurry’s horn lit up, as well as Cadance’s. Twilight noticed that Flurry’s magical aura around her horn was gray, although it was previously yellow. Where the two horns met, a small ball of white light formed. Where Flurry’s horn met the white orb, the aura turned back to yellow. Slowly but surely, the color came back to Flurry’s horn, and when it met Flurry’s forehead, the color came back to that area, too. It spread to the rest of Flurry’s body, and when every bit of Flurry’s body had been restored, she gasped and opened her eyes. Once again, Flurry’s eyes were a clear turquoise color that resembled the Crystal Heart. They landed on Cadance and widened in surprise.
“Mom?” Flurry coughed out.
Tears welled up in Cadance’s eyes again, but this time they were tears of joy.
“Flurry!” Cadance grabbed her daughter and pulled her into the biggest hug in the history of the world. Flurry hugged her mother back. Then she spotted Twilight, and her face lit up the whole room.
“Aunt Twilight!” Flurry launched herself at Twilight and embraced her. Twilight wrapped her hooves around her niece for a moment.
“All right, all right. Let’s get moving,” she said reluctantly, gently pushing Flurry away. “We have to meet up with my friends; they’re getting everypony else.”
“We’re going home?” Flurry leaped into the air and did loop-de-loops. “EEEEYYYYEEEESSSS!!!!”
Normally, Cadance would have reprimanded Flurry for this very un-princess-like behavior. But she was so overjoyed at having Flurry back, she wouldn’t have even gotten mad if Flurry decided to eat all the cookies in the world. Twilight smiled and led the way out the door.
“This way, guys.”
The three alicorns ran down the halls and emerged on a balcony overlooking the palace gardens. They spread their wings and launched into the crisp night air. Flurry never stopped chatting about everything she could tell them. Twilight and Cadance gasped and furrowed their brows in anger at all the right places. It felt so good to have Flurry back, Twilight felt like her heart would swell right out of her chest.
Twilight’s hideout came into view. She and Cadance touched down gently in front of the cave and folded their wings. Flurry, however, kept flapping and zooming in small circles around their heads.
“I haven’t been able to fly like this in months!” she exclaimed as she performed a double back-flip. “I’ve been kept up in that horrid cell. It was awful!”
“I’m sure,” Twilight said absently. She was glancing at the cave. She swore she saw shadows or figures moving in there… Maybe her friends had come back early. But there weren’t nearly enough. Cadance was oblivious to this. She was watching Flurry with delight written all over her face. For the first time since the first ponies went missing, she looked like herself again.
“Come on, Flurry,” Cadance said, a smile in her voice. “You must be exhausted. Take a quick rest while we wait for the others to come back.” She turned and started walking into the cave. The moment she disappeared into the shadows, there was a scuffling sound, and a muffled scream. Twilight backed up nervously, and fear entered Flurry’s eyes.
“Aunt Twilight?” she asked nervously. “What’s going on?”
From the shadows emerged a half-dozen Anoian guards. Two of them were dragging Cadance outside. Her muzzle and hooves and wings were bound, and a cuff was clamped around her hind leg, preventing her from using magic. She let out a muffled cry. The other four surrounded Twilight.
“Flurry,” Twilight muttered, just loud enough for the young alicorn to hear, “get out of here. Find my friends.”
“Aunt Twilight?” Flurry’s voice was filled with fear and uncertainty.
“GO!” Twilight yelled, leaping into action. She blasted a guard with her magic, knocking him back. Spreading her wings, Twilight flapped hard, trying to gain ground. The other three guards spread their wings and chased after her. Flurry was winging away in the direction of the guardhouse. She hoped Flurry was going to find Red. Twilight had told Flurry about her. In a moment of hesitation, one of the guards knocked into Twilight’s wing, dislocating it. Twilight cried out in pain as she plummeted to the ground. She landed in a heap.
The guards tied her up in the same way they did Cadance and dragged the two of them to the prison house.
“Where’s Flurry?” Cadance muttered. Or, at least, that’s what it sounded like to Twilight.
“Safe,” Twilight tried to say. Cadance must have gotten the message, because her shoulders sank in relief.
Twilight glanced around uneasily. Something about how the guards had known about their secret location made her wonder if there was something else going on here… Somepony must have told them. Twilight’s eyes widened in the sudden realization.
Flurry’s breath came out in pants, her wings beating as hard as they could. Her aunt’s last words rang in her head.
Flurry, get out of here. Find my friends. GO. Flurry shook herself and risked a look over her shoulder. She didn’t see any guards in pursuit, but that didn’t mean they weren’t coming.
She had to find Red. Aunt Twilight had told her about the pegacorn who had chosen to fight with the Equestrians rather than the Anoians because she knew in her heart that it was the right thing to do. She might know what was happening with her mom and her aunt. And she was also probably the only other pony who knew where her other aunts were.
Landing in front of the guardhouse, Flurry folded her wings close to her side and disguised herself as a pegacorn. She trotted inside to little resistance and scanned the doors lining the hallway, trying to figure out which one was Red’s. One of the first ones she saw said Lieutenant Berry, so Flurry decided to try that one. She knocked once and pushed the door open.
A red pegacorn with brown curls and green eyes was sitting behind a desk. She looked up as Flurry entered. Flurry knew that this must be her.
Red’s eyes widened when they saw Flurry, but there was recognition in those intense green eyes, like she’d seen Flurry before. Maybe Red had seen her during that period of time of which Flurry couldn’t remember anything.
“Are you Red?” Flurry asked. Red nodded and stood up.
“I am. And you’re Flurry Heart.” It wasn’t a question. “Did Twilight free you?”
“Yep. And she and my mother just got kidnapped.” Flurry was straight to the point. She couldn’t waste any time.
“What?!” Red looked absolutely shocked. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t her doing.
“Uh, huh. And she sent me to find her friends. So…?”
“Oh. Um, her friends are over at the prison house, freeing everypony.” Red pointed out the window.
“Really? Well, isn’t that just fascinating.”
Flurry and Red jerked their heads to the door. Standing on the threshold was a gray pegacorn with shiny black hair and black eyes. Next to him was a light purple pegacorn with a turquoise bun and light pink eyes. She was very interested in the floor and wouldn’t meet Red’s eyes. Flurry and Red narrowed their eyes in unison.
“You.” Flurry’s snarl dripped venom. It was directed at the gray pegacorn. This was the same pony who had ordered everything. He had kidnapped her and dozens of other innocent ponies and creatures.
Lupines smiled.
“Yes, it’s me. You don’t seem too excited.” His humorous words didn’t match his deathly tone.
“How could you?” Red cried. Flurry realized she was glaring daggers at the other pegacorn. Marylyn shifted her hooves.
“I had to,” she mumbled.
“I trusted you!” Tears filled Red’s eyes and choked her voice. “I told you everything! And this is how you repay me?”
“She did the right thing, and you know that,” snarled Lupines. “You would never have won. I would have figured you out eventually. I already knew there was something suspicious about you. That’s why I had you under such close surveillance.”
“You’re lying,” Red snapped. “You thought there was something suspicious going on, but you had more doubts than you did suspicion. You had me under close surveillance because you couldn’t stand that I might have gotten past you. And you put me in charge because you hoped that I wouldn’t destroy you. You know that if I put my mind to it, I could overthrow you and win this war for the Equestrians as easily as I could breathe. Face it, you’re scared of me. You’re scared of what I might do. And here’s a little tip.” Red approached Lupines without an ounce of fear in her body. “Everything you’re scared I might do… I’m going to do it. Starting with winning this war. And you.” Red whipped around to face Marylyn. The fury in her eyes made Marylyn flinch. “You were scared Lupines would find out your secret. You just want to be on his good side and make sure he never finds out, because if he did, you would be dead before you could say ‘sweet Celestia’. The only reason you betrayed us was to save your stupid flank. You might have cared, but you let your fear get the best of you.” Red stopped for a moment. She was breathing heavily, and her rage was still fresh.
Lupines looked shocked, but he quickly regained his composure. Marylyn looked fearful, and Flurry was just watching the whole ordeal go down. She wished she had some popcorn.
“Now, Red, you made that up. Now you’re a spy and a liar. This is not good. I’m afraid I’ll have to execute you. My, my, this will be fun. And as for the little princess over there in the corner…” A rush of fear flowed over Flurry. “I’m afraid I have no more uses for you. I have much better bargaining chips now.”
Lupines launched himself at Flurry, tackling her to the ground. He was heavy and quickly pinned down all her limbs. Flurry wriggled and squirmed, but it did nothing. Red roared and pushed Lupines off Flurry and shoved him into the wall. She lit her horn and stood in front of Flurry protectively. Flurry scrambled to her feet while Lupines slowly got to his. His sleek black hair was in disarray, and he seemed kind of mad about that. He lit his own horn and shot a blast of pure black magic straight at Red, but it was blocked by Flurry. She made a shield appear in front of the red pegacorn and deflected the blast.
“Impossible!” Lupines roared. “I am the most powerful pegacorn that has ever lived! I have more power than everypony else combined!”
“That’s because you steal the magic of everypony you hate and kill,” Red said matter-of-factly. She blinked and looked shocked, as if she didn’t know where the words she was speaking were coming from.
“Oh, really?” Flurry said in a mocking tone. “Well, have you ever fought a pony born with more power than everypony else? You see, Lupines, here’s the thing.” Flurry stepped in front of Red and lit her horn threateningly and spread her wings. “If you steal the magic, it can always be stolen back.”
“You don’t have enough power to do that to me!” A crazed and insane look entered Lupines’s eyes and he smiled a strange smile. “Not even the two of you together! No pony can! I’m safe! Ha!”
In response to this, Flurry and Red stood next to each other, both of their horns lit and their wings spread. They combined their magic into a magical blast directed right at Lupines’s horn. When the blast met the horn, Lupines’s horn lit up and his magic started being sucked out of him and into an orb of light. Lupines roared again and twisted his head and tried to break the connection. Sweat broke out on Red and Flurry’s foreheads. They were running out of strength. Lupines were right. They couldn’t drain him of his magic.
A new blast of magic joined Flurry and Red’s, and the last bits of Lupines’s magic was sucked out of him. Flurry and Red looked to the side and saw Marylyn, her eyes determined and her horn lit. Lupines screamed in rage but was too weak to do anything. He collapsed onto the floor.
“Wow,” Flurry murmured. “Um… thanks,” she said to Marylyn.
“This doesn’t mean I forgive you.” Red eyed Marylyn, and she winced. “But thanks anyway.”
“Sure thing.” Marylyn turned to the black orb containing Lupines’s magic. “Um… what do we do with this?”
“My aunt Twilight told me about stealing a pony’s magic,” Flurry said. “You either have to take the magic yourself or put it in an artifact of some kind.”
“Here.” Red used her magic to lift her necklace up off her neck and held the pendant in her hoof. “Use this.”
Flurry smiled and blasted the necklace with her magic. The black orb was sucked into it, and the pendant glowed black for a second before dimming. It looked perfectly normal. Red set it on her desk carefully.
“We’ll worry about what to do with it later,” she decided. A moan came from the corner where Lupines lay. He opened his eyes and slowly pushed himself into something like a sitting position. He glanced around and stared at the ponies for a moment too long, as if he was slowly processing what he was seeing. Then he suddenly lunged at Red and fell short by about a foot.
“You!” he shouted. His eyes were bloodshot and wild. “You must… stop… green eyes… future… read… thoughts… too dangerous… must be… killed!” Gathering the last of his strength, he grabbed a spear that had been abandoned outside the door and stabbed at Red with it. But she dodged it easily and leaped to the other side of the room. Flurry Heart and Marylyn backed up until they were in the hall, just outside the door.
“Must be stopped!” Lupines’ head lolled to the side, and he grinned like an insane pony and charged at Red. He managed to stab the base of one of her wings, drawing blood. Red cried out in pain and pushed him away again, knocking the blunt end of the spear into his chin. “Must be killed! Too… dangerous…”
In a final attempt to end Red’s life, Lupines straightened himself as best as he could and threw the spear at Red’s chest, right where her heart would be. Red grabbed the spear a moment before it touched her, whipped it around, and charged at Lupines. Her green eyes were cold with fury. She knocked him down and stabbed him with the spear in his neck.
Lupines tried to speak, but he just gurgled blood. His wings flapped like he was trying to fly, and his hoof twitched. Red stepped back, horrified at what she’d done. The cold light drained from Lupines’s eyes, and he stopped moving.
“Oh, my,” Marylyn muttered.
“That’s the mild way of saying it,” Flurry said wryly.
“I… I killed him,” Red mumbled, staring at Lupines’s motionless body as if it would suddenly come back to life. “I can’t believe I did that…”
“He was trying to kill you,” Marylyn pointed out. “It was your life or his. And he probably would have died soon anyway.”
“What was he trying to say?” Red asked, nudging one of the gray pegacorn’s sprawled-out limbs tentatively. “Something about green eyes and the future…”
Marylyn shrugged. “Beats me.”
Flurry was silent. She was thinking about a possibility, but this theory needed confirmation.”
“Red,” she said slowly, “what am I thinking?”
“You’re thinking you know what Lupines was talking about,” Red said automatically. She stopped. “Wait… Where did that come from?”
“What’ll happen to Aunt Twilight and my mom?” Flurry pushed on.
“They’re currently at the guardhouse, but Twilight’s friends are gonna take on the guards and free them. They’re going to be here in about fifteen minutes looking for you.” Red’s large, green eyes blinked in shock. “How do I know that?”
“Because you can read minds,” Flurry said, “and see the future.”
“You can read minds and see the future,” Flurry said simply. This did not help matters.
Red couldn’t fully process what the light pink alicorn in front of her was saying. Read minds and see the future…? Those were all cool powers, but ponies didn’t just have them just because. It would explain where her dreams were coming from, and how she knew that Lupines was scared of her. She couldn’t exactly explain it; she just knew that Lupines was scared of what she might do. He must have known about her powers… But she couldn’t have those powers. That was just crazy. No way could she do that… And yet, there was a layer of truth and certainty underneath Flurry’s words. She was sure.
“Red can read minds?” Marylyn demanded. “And see the future?” Flurry nodded.
“Red, have you ever noticed that you’re the only pegacorn in all of Anoia with green eyes?” Flurry said, turning back to Red.
“Um, no?” Red was silent after she said this. “I mean, I noticed that I was the only pony in this city with green eyes that I had seen, but surely there’s other ponies out there with green eyes, too, right?” Flurry shook her head.
“I used to think I was captured because I was the youngest alicorn and would be considered easier,” Flurry explained. “But now I know it was because I knew something about Anoia. I found a really old book in the library one day and read about a legend of ponies with both wings and horns who had eyes like forests.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Marylyn inquired. Red had been wondering the same thing.
“These ponies had visions from time to time about events that would happen in the future. They could also trace paths into the future. They could also read the thoughts and emotions of anypony close to them.” Flurry looked from Red to Marylyn, as if she was waiting for them to put two and two together. Marylyn’s face was blank, but Red figured it out.
“Me?” she asked, pointing to herself. “You’re saying that I can read minds and see the future?” Flurry nodded, deadly serious. “But… why couldn’t I do this before?”
“Lupines was really worried about your powers,” Flurry said. “So he did something to you that prevented you from using them. Once you left for Equestria, those actions were reversed, and you could use your powers again. That’s when you first had your visions, right?”
“That makes sense,” Marylyn said. “Lupines wanted all powerful ponies under his watch and working for him so that there wouldn’t be any rogue ponies with the power and the drive to overthrow him.”
“Go on, try them out,” Flurry urged.
“Um… how?”
“Just try,” insisted Flurry. She and Marylyn stood in the doorway, giving Red some space. Sighing, Red reluctantly closed her eyes.
Come on, she thought fiercely. Mind reading powers, please.
Instantly, her mind was bombarded with noises and sounds.
Wonder if she can really do it. Would be cool if she could. I wish I had powers like that. The voice in Red’s head was Flurry’s voice. She was hearing the alicorn’s thoughts.
Does this mean she knows? Marylyn thought frantically. She seemed to know earlier… but maybe she was just bluffing… I’m not safe anymore…
Okay, Red thought, that was great. Please turn it off again. Her head continued to ache with the thoughts of the other two ponies in the room. Turn it off, commanded Red inside her head. I’ve had enough. Turn it off NOW!!!
That did it. Flurry and Marylyn’s thoughts left her head as quickly as they’d come. Red sighed in relief.
All right, one power down. One to go. Red concentrated for a moment, wishing to see her future. Different paths opened up in her mind. If she agreed, she could lead Anoia to a bright and hopeful future. However, there was the possibility that another pony like Lupines would come along and tear down everything she’d built. If she declined, Anoia would either remain government-less for the time being, or Twilight would take over and everything would be combined into one country under one single ruler. A dictatorship. Even if Twilight would be a just and good ruler, that didn’t guarantee that future rulers would be.
Red blinked her eyes open. Flurry and Marylyn were staring at her expectantly. Red burst into a grin.
“I take it that they work?” Marylyn inquired. Thoughts immediately crowded into Red’s head, giving her a mild headache.
OhnoI’mdoomedshe’ssuretoknowwhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo? Red firmly beat those thoughts back along with the burst of fear that came with them and nodded.
“Woah,” Flurry muttered. “What’s it like?”
“Um, strange,” Red admitted. “But I’m sure I’ll get the hang of them.”
“What’s going on with my aunt and my mom?” demanded Flurry, stepping forward.
“I can’t see what’s going on right now-”
“Yes, but you can see what’s going to happen in a second.” Flurry’s turquoise eyes were wide and pleading. “Please, Red. I need to know that they’re going to be alright.”
Red sighed and closed her eyes again. She saw Twilight’s future and followed the path.
“Um, they’re fighting the guards at the guardhouse - or, if they aren’t, they will be very soon,” Red reported. “Twilight’s friends are helping them, and they’ll win unless a guard gets away and comes back with reinforcements. No, wait, that future disappeared. One of them will try to get away, but the prisoners have been freed and aren’t too happy. And if I don’t go over there and order them to retreat-” Red gulped and reported the future she saw, “-they’ll all be killed.”
“Well, then, what are you waiting for?” Flurry demanded. Red’s eyes snapped open and she saw Flurry standing on the windowsill, her wings spread. “Let’s go get ‘em!”
Flurry leaped out the window and into the fresh night air. Red and Marylyn followed. As they neared the guardhouse, panicked thoughts crowded in Red’s mind, accompanied by determined and furious thoughts. She stopped in midair and clutched her head, forcing up barriers and blocking the voices in her head. Marylyn caught her before she fell out of the sky.
“Are you alright?” Marylyn’s light pink eyes were full of concern. Red nodded and righted herself.
“I’m fine. Just adjusting. Come on.” Red turned to the guardhouse and tucked her wings into a dive, Marylyn and Flurry following a heartbeat later. She spread her wings and banked to a stop, landing gracefully in front of the door. Two thuds behind her told her that Flurry and Marylyn were right behind her.
“Well?” Flurry looked ready to jump into battle herself. Her wings were twitching and she kept stamping her hooves as if she couldn’t stand to stay still. Red exhaled and ran through the door, opening it with her magic. She skidded to a halt almost immediately, however, when she saw the battle in front of her.
The cell doors were all unlocked and the prisoners were fighting Red’s own soldiers. Twilight and Cadance were flying through the mayhem, blasting with their horns and knocking dozens of Anoians unconscious. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were both engaged in hoof-to-hoof combat with their own soldiers. Pinkie Pie was dashing from place to place so fast it was like she was teleporting. The Anoians who were unlucky enough to cross paths with her were either blasted with a party cannon, smashed in the face with a cake or a pie, tied up with streamers with party hats on, or driven insane by Pinkie’s madness. Fluttershy was sitting on the side of the battle with a pale orange pegasus Anoian who was in tears. Fluttershy was patting him on the back and talking to him gently. Rarity had fainted from shock over the small scratch above her horn, and Spike was fiercely defending her by setting any guards who were foolish enough to get close on fire.
Flurry immediately launched herself to her mother’s side and began fighting for her. Marylyn crept up next to Fluttershy and cowered behind her. Fluttershy looked like she didn’t know exactly what to make of this. Red flew above the battle.
“ANOIANS!!” she shouted in a strong, clear voice. The fighting slowed and then stopped altogether as the Anoian guards pulled back and turned to face their commander. “Surrender and retreat! These creatures are leaving for their home and they will succeed in getting there. Nothing you can do will stop that. So pull back!”
“But…” one of the guards spoke up tentatively. “What about Emperor Lupines? Surely he’ll be furious at us.” The other guards made sounds of agreement and started eyeing the Equestrians like they were prepared to pick up where this battle had left off.
“Emperor Lupines is dead,” Red informed them firmly. Everypony there gasped and stared at her as if she had four wings instead of just two. “I killed him myself. And with all the power and authority invested in me, I declare Anoian’s complete surrender from this war and declare our official alliance with Equestria and the surrounding kingdoms.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
“Lupines is really dead?” another soldier peeped. Red nodded.
“The war’s over?” Cadance inquired. She was holding Flurry close as if she was afraid that her daughter would disappear if she didn’t hold on to her at all times.
“Yes,” Red confirmed. She landed gently on the floor and eyed them all. Twilight flew over and landed next to Red.
“I agree to our alliance and hope that both of our nations will be led to prosperous futures without conflict,” she said brightly.
“Wait, our nations?” Red asked quietly.
“Well, you’re going to rule Anoia from now on, right?”
“M-me?” she stuttered. “Rule… Twilight, you must be insane.”
“I don’t think so,” Twilight said with a sly smile. “Who else do you think it would go to?”
“Um…” Red looked at Marylyn, as if asking her to help her. Marylyn shrugged. “My father?”
“Your father is currently being held in Canterlot for his crimes,” Twilight said flatly. “Do you really think he’s in any condition to rule this place? And if he did, wouldn’t things just go back to being the way they were?”
Red opened and closed her mouth, speechless.
“Even if he was supposed to inherit the throne, you would be his heir,” Twilight pressed on. “And since he is clearly unable to take it, that means you have to.”
“But… I’m not sure I could,” Red protested.
“Of course you can!” Flurry Heart said brightly, coming to land beside the two of them, Cadance right behind her. “I literally just saw you tell your entire army to stop fighting, and that the war was over. You literally killed Lupines-”
“On accident!” Red added hastily.
“-and you can totally see the future! Who better to lead than you?” Flurry put her hoof on Red’s shoulder. “You’ve always had it in you, Red. Now you need to use it.”
“Wait, see the future?” Rainbow Dash asked, coming down to land next to Twilight. The rest of her friends joined them. “Did I miss something?”
Red blushed so much that it was clearly visible, despite her warm red coat.
“Um…” Flurry said sheepishly, her cheeks red. “Maaaybe?”
Twilight raised her eyebrow suspiciously. “Really? And what is that?”
“I can sorta, kinda see the future,” Red mumbled. “And read minds.”
Well, that got their attention in a flash.
“What?” Cadance exclaimed. Red turned an even deeper shade of her name and nodded.
“How could you sit on something like that for so long?” Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.
“They only just started acting up!” Red protested. “I can’t really control them much. But Lupines did something that prevented me from using them, and when I left, somehow, those things got reversed and I could use my powers freely again.”
Twilight was nodding like it all made sense. And wouldn’t it be just like Lupines, she thought bitterly, to take an innocent pony and strip her of her once-in-a-century powers that could change the world. And all that for nothing. Red still got her powers, she still overthrew Lupines, and she’s just what this place needs for a ruler.
Red gasped and her eyes turned white again like by the campfire. That was where the similarities ended. She didn’t faint or start breathing heavily, but stood completely still with her mouth hanging open a little bit. After a minute or so, her eyes turned green again.
“What was that?” Marylyn asked nervously. Her voice was shaking, and Twilight had to remind herself that Marylyn hadn’t been by the campfire when Red had her vision.
“A vision,” Twilight explained. She studied Red’s face, which was slightly panicked. “What did you see?”
“The same thing as last time,” Red replied shakily. “An invasion of Canterlot. Only it’s a lot clearer now, and I can’t see an alternative.” Red turned to face everypony else. “We’re going to have to fight this battle.”
“What futures can you see?” inquired Twilight.
“If we win and get the Anoians to surrender and make peace with Equestria, then there will be no more fighting, and our kingdoms can form an alliance that would help all of us. But if the Anoians win… they don’t know what’s happened here, so it’ll be kind of hard for us to convince them that Lupines is dead and that I’m their commander now, and even harder to get them to listen to us. And if they don’t listen, they’ll most likely kill us all and take Canterlot anyway. They’ll find out Lupines is really dead, and another dictator will assume the throne and rule the world in a state of fear and poverty.” Red glanced around at everypony’s shocked and scared expressions. “But,” she added hastily, “the odds are mostly in our favor. So, we’d better get over there,” Red declared, and she jerked her head towards the door. Twilight and her friends, Cadance, and Flurry ran through the door, along with all the missing ponies and creatures. Red grabbed Marylyn and held her back for a moment before joining them.
“Where’s Marylyn?” Flurry asked, hovering over the grounded ponies with everypony else who had wings.
“I told her to stay here,” Red said, spreading her own wings and taking flight. “She’ll have to watch over the guards and the city while I’m gone.”
Twilight nodded and lit her horn. Her magic lit up the night sky like a falling star. In a flash, Anoia disappeared and was replaced by the Canterlot castle throne room.
The throne room was empty, but the sounds of battle could be heard outside. Twilight rushed to a nearby window and peered outside nervously.
“Oh no!” She gasped. “We’re too late! The Anoians have started their attack!”
The protective shield surrounding the two towns had been blown to pieces, which covered the ground so much so that it looked pink. Thousands of Anoian soldiers were scattered throughout the city of Canterlot, unable to be held back. The Equestrian forces were vastly outnumbered but were fighting nonetheless. They came up in waves from Ponyville, swords and spears clashing and blood being spilled among the streets.
Ponyville itself was untouched by the invaders; they seemed to be mostly focused on Canterlot. And after watching the battle for a bit, Twilight understood why.
In the middle of the fray, Celestia and Luna, Dragon Lord Ember, King Thorax, Prince Rutherford, Queen Novo, Princess Skystar, Shining Armor, and Starlight Glimmer were all fighting in the center of town. The fountain that normally stood there had been knocked down and reduced to rubble. Water still leaked out, mixing with the blood and dust in the streets, forming a reddish mud that was splattered across everypony’s hooves.
Explosives were dropped from the sky by the Anoian air force, taking out just as many Anoians as Equestrians, the ponies were so mingled amongst each other. Dragons tried their best to eliminate the bombs before they could be dropped, but many bombs still fell anyway. Yaks rammed into unsuspecting Anoians and knocked them down, trampling them as they went. Hippogriffs, pegasi, griffons, and a few changelings were fighting in the air, engaging in hoof-to-hoof combat above the clouds. Other changelings distracted Anoians by constantly changing forms, making them easy prey for the yaks, and others still helped in any way they could by alternating between fighting in the sky and on the ground.
So many ponies and other creatures had been killed in the fighting that the sides of the streets were littered with bleeding and broken bodies. It made Twilight’s heart ache just to see them, even though a little more than half of them were Anoians.
“What’s going on?” Red cried from next to Twilight.
“They’re fighting,” Twilight responded in a quiet voice. “And we’re losing.” She turned to face the room and raised her voice. “We have to help them!”
“Why?” asked a cream-colored earth pony with pink and purple curls and blue eyes. “We’re just regular ponies. What could we do?”
Flurry Heart glanced around at them all with disgust written all over her face.
“Seriously? ‘What could we do’? That’s the best excuse you could come up with?” Flurry demanded, flapping her wings so that she hovered over them all. “Listen to me. We’re outnumbered by a few hundred to one. Every single pony counts. If we want to win this war, we all need to work together. I know you’re all just regular ponies and creatures and feel like you couldn’t contribute much to this fight, but we need you. We need you all. If you don’t join us and fight, then we’re as good as done. We might as well just surrender now. But if you stay and fight by our side…” Flurry looked around with a hopeful expression, hoping that they would believe her. A young coral pink unicorn with dark blue braids stepped forward, her eyes shaky but determined.
“She’s right,” she declared. Her calm, clear voice carried across the silent throne room. “If we want to win this, we all need to fight. And why? Because our home is in jeopardy. If we don’t stand by our leaders and fight, then who will? If we don’t at least try, then how will we live with ourselves when Equestria is conquered because we were all too stubborn to simply fight. If I’m going to die, then I want to die fighting beside my princess, my friends, and for my country. I’m not going to sit around and do nothing while innocent ponies are out there dying. I’m going to fight.” The unicorn turned around and faced the rest of the ponies and creatures in the room. “And if you’re the creatures I think you are, you will too.”
Twilight was silent. She recognized the unicorn as one of the students at the School of Friendship, and the unicorn foal who had convinced the unicorns to join with the pegasi and earth ponies during the Battle of Grogar’s Bell. Her words were simple but moving. Twilight could see a ripple among the crowd as other creatures agreed with the little foal and pledged their allegiance to Equestria.
“That’s the spirit,” Flurry said brightly to the foal. She grinned up at the alicorn princess. “So what are we waiting for? Soldiers are still dying out there, and I’m going to fight beside them.” Flurry flew towards the door, and everyone else in the room ran after her, Twilight included. They burst out of the doors of the castle and onto the battlefield.
The Anoians had taken the Equestrian forces by surprise. Starlight Glimmer would give them that. They did one thing right. But they made a very stupid decision by making her angry.
Starlight had done some… questionable things in her past. She’d stolen a whole village of ponies’ cutie marks, as well as Twilight Sparkle and her friends’ marks. She’d tried to run off with Twilight and her friends’ marks, and although she lost the cutie marks, she’d gotten away. Then she’d spied on Twilight for a while, trying to figure out what she could do to Twilight that would hit her where it hurts. She’d changed one of Starswirl the Bearded’s spells so that she could go back in time to prevent the first Sonic Rainboom from happening, leading to a bunch of alternate futures where villains reigned supreme. And she’d made a bunch of other mistakes she regretted. But she’d also reformed the entire changeling tribe, helped stop the Pony of Shadows, and fought Queen Chrysalis by herself. She’d almost won, but Chrysalis was super-powered, yadda, yah. Starlight had an insane magical ability, and if you made her mad, you were going to end up on the wrong side of that magic.
Which is exactly what the Anoians decided to do.
When the barrier first collapsed, Starlight had accompanied the rulers of the surrounding lands to go meet with the leaders of the army to try a diplomatic approach. It didn’t go as planned.
Celestia had asked them to not invade Canterlot, to give them back all the territory they had stolen, and to go back home so that they could cool off for a bit. Then they could try this again. They said no. Luna and King Thorax had joined Celestia’s side and again pleaded for their surrender. They said no again. Queen Novo and Princess Skystar had also joined Celestia and they tried asking the Anoians to surrender one more time. They once again refused. Then Dragon Lord Ember made the mistake of angering the Anoians.
“Can we get on with this?” she’d shouted. “I want to actually fight for my land and my kingdom, not sit around debating with these ridiculous creatures!”
Which made the Anoians pretty pissed. Then they pulled out swords and explosives and nets and other weapons. And tried to capture them. They grabbed Thorax first and tied his ankles together and were about to drag him off when Starlight finally snapped. See, Thorax was her friend. And she really liked him alive. And not a captive of some evil ponies who wanted to take over the world. So she let out a roar and blasted those ponies with her magic.
Luckily, they put up shields just in time. Unluckily, Starlight’s magic was still so strong that it pushed them and their entire army to the edge of Canterlot. While Ember helped Thorax get untied (the two of them were definitely avoiding each other’s eyes and were definitely blushing. Starlight suspected that there was something going on between the two of them), Shining Armor did the logical thing: he sent a burst of magic into the sky that exploded like a firework and spelled out the words Help they’re attacking in pink sparkly letters. Hopefully, the guards and military forces down at Ponyville could see that and would come to their aid.
Starlight should have known better than to put her faith in those guards who did absolutely nothing when a crisis came up, and if they did, then it was usually small, insignificant, and did absolutely nothing except further prove their uselessness.
The Anoians charged, and the little forces that were in the city joined the leaders on the streets to start fighting. Celestia and Luna looked uncertain yet ferocious (how does one look uncertain and ferocious at the same time? Starlight wasn’t sure, but Celestia and Luna managed it), Ember and Prince Rutherford looked murderous, Novo and Skystar looked determined, and Thorax looked like he’d rather be doing anything else. He shook himself and put on what he probably thought was a scary face, but it really just made him look cute.
About a half-hour later, the guards down in Ponyville finally decided to show up. They really just pushed the Anoians further into Canterlot, but they killed a couple dozen ponies by the time they got to Starlight and the others, so they did all right. Starlight was a whirl, blasting ponies with her magic or kicking them down with her hooves when they got too close or ducking explosives or spears. Then the doors of the castle burst open and at least a hundred creatures poured out onto the blood-soaked streets of Canterlot. Leading the charge was Flurry Heart. Starlight’s heart soared upon seeing the young alicorn. It meant that Twilight was back, and those other creatures were the missing ponies! They were alright! Starlight leaped back into battle with renewed energy. She lit her horn to blast another Anoian when her magic suddenly sputtered out and died. Starlight gasped and whirled around. An Anoian had clamped an iron cuff around her back ankle, blocking her magic. His coat was the color of sand and was splattered with blood and mud. His mane was a similar style to that of the guards: cropped close to his head. His eyes were an unsettling shade of white, like cream, and his face was twisted into a malicious snarl.
“Let's see you fight without your precious magic,” he snarled. Starlight roared and tackled him with her bare hooves. She pushed him into the broken fountain and his mane and coat were soaked. Starlight slammed her hooves into his chest and pinned him down while he struggled. He lit up his own horn and would have blasted Starlight’s face off if she hadn’t dodged it.
“Take. It. Off,” Starlight growled in a threatening voice. The Anoian freed one of his hooves and suddenly shoved her off him. He stood up, shaking with anger. Then a magical blast out of nowhere shoved him off the fountain and through a window. A Canterlot pony glanced up from the book he was reading, wondering why there was a pony-shaped hole in his window. Starlight turned in the direction of the blast, wondering where it had come from. She was shocked to see Sunburst running up to her, his horn and his eyes blazing with fury.
“Sunburst?” Sunburst shot another blast at the cuff on Starlight’s ankle, causing it to shatter. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I couldn’t let you have all the fun, could I?” he asked playfully. Starlight felt heat rising in her cheeks but didn’t know what it meant. “Also the students at the school wanted to join in the fighting and I couldn’t stop them. I figured, the least I could do was supervise them and fight some myself. And I could see you aga-.” Sunburst clamped his mouth shut, his own cheeks flushing. Starlight nudged him.
“Well, I’m not leaving until I kill at least another dozen ponies,” Starlight declared. “Care to join me?”
Sunburst nodded happily, and the two of them leaped into the fray. Whenever an Anoian tried to attack one of them, the other was quick to come in with a magical blast to save them. Starlight’s mane was matted and soaked with blood and mud. Her hooves were splashed with the blood of her enemies and the blood of her friends. Sunburst wasn’t faring much better. His cape was in shreds and flecks of blood were on his glasses, obscuring his vision. The dead bodies that littered the streets were so bloody that Starlight couldn’t tell if they were Anoian or Equestrian, but the numbers made her heart ache. This wasn’t going to be an easy battle.
The Anoians outnumbered the Equestrians by an outstanding amount. At least, in the military. Soon after the missing-and-now-returned-so-they’re-not-really-missing-anymore ponies came out of the castle, they joined in the battle, which was surprising but not really. Those ponies were just ordinary, everyday ponies. But they were determined to fight their kidnappers for their country. Their bravery spread like wildfire, and soon every single citizen of Canterlot had joined in the fighting. Not long after, the citizens of Ponyville came charging into the war-torn city to help, too. And most of those citizens weren’t even actual citizens of those towns. They were runaways of the Crystal Empire, Yakyakistan, Mount Aris, Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Griffonstone, the Dragonlands, the Changeling kingdom, and many others, coming to seek shelter from the war. And now they were fighting for their home alongside the soldiers and guards whose job was to fight. They weren’t asked to. They were doing it because they wanted to, because they couldn’t stand the thought of their home being ruled by these barbarians.
It was the Anoians who were outnumbered now.
The battle had been raging on for at least an hour, or so it felt to Starlight. Three Anoians attacked her from behind, pushing her to the mud-soaked ground. She looked around for Sunburst, but he was busy fighting another Anoian unicorn. A large blast knocked the guards off Starlight’s back, and she stood up, looking around gratefully for whoever had done that. Twilight flew in, her horn blazing. Her mane was also streaked with blood, but her hooves were clean since she was flying over the ground rather than running around in the mud.
“Thanks, Twilight!” Starlight cried, turning around and killing another pegasus.
“No prob,” Twilight muttered distractedly. “Have you seen Red?”
“No,” Starlight said, frowning. “Haven’t seen her. Then again, I’ve been a little distracted.”
“I haven’t seen her since I got into this battle.” Twilight spun in a circle, looking for the cherry red pegacorn. “I’m starting to worry about her…”
Starlight used her front legs to kick another Anoian away. He crashed into a brick wall and fell, unconscious.
“You shouldn’t be,” Starlight assured the stressed purple alicorn. “Why don’t you fly over everything? She’ll be much easier to spot from the air. Then again…” Starlight lifted one of her hooves out of the muck. “She’d probably blend right in with this stuff.”
Twilight glared at her. Starlight winced; she realized that her meaning had been taken wrong.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”
“EVERYPONY STOP!!!”
Twilight and Starlight’s heads jerked towards the source of the sound along with everyone else’s. Hovering in midair, her silhouette standing out against the sun behind her, was Red.
“Found her,” Starlight muttered under her breath.
A dark blue unicorn stepped forward. His grayish-white mane caught the sunlight, and Twilight gasped.
“Who’s that?” Starlight whispered.
“That’s Commander Lightning, one of Emperor Lupines’s most trusted generals,” Twilight replied. “My guards caught him, Red, and a pony named Lemon Lime trying to capture another pony. Red was innocent, but I locked him and Lemon Lime in my dungeons. They must have escaped during the chaos.”
“You traitor,” Lighting snarled at Red. “Get down here right now and fight for your country.”
“No, Father.” Red lifted her head high and glared at her father.
“What?” he growled. “Red Berry, what are you doing?”
“I’m fighting for my country.”
“No, you’re not. If you were, you would get down here immediately, and you would fight alongside us.” Lightning stepped back a step and six other Anoians stood next to him. Starlight assumed that they were the rest of Emperor Lupines’s trusted generals and commanders. She felt an overwhelming urge to kill them all.
“I’m fighting for my country in another way,” Red declared, her voice carrying across the silent battlefield. “You always said that your enemies always have more than one weakness, and therefore there are multiple ways to defeat them.”
“So? Are you going to kill the leader of this land and take it for Emperor Lupines?” Lightning was getting impatient, and his impatience was creeping into his voice.
“No.”
“Well, whatever it is that you’re going to do, get on with it!” Lighting snapped. Red winced, but then she straightened and shook herself, as if she was done listening to him.
“Emperor Lupines is dead.” Red got straight to the point and paused so that every single Anoian in the crowd could gasp and whisper to their neighbors. “I killed him myself. And I also inherited the throne. And as the new ruler of Anoia, I declare our surrender. I renounce all the territories that we conquered in this war back to their original owners. And I announce Anoia’s official alliance with Equestria.”
Lightning narrowed his eyes at his daughter, staring daggers at her.
“Rrreally?” His voice dripped with venom. “And what makes you think that you can take the throne?”
“If the current emperor dies without declaring a proper heir, and he has no family to speak of, then the child of his most trusted advisor will assume the throne,” Red stated. “I believe Lupines’s most trusted advisor was you, Father.”
Lighting growled but didn’t deny it.
“Woah, woah, woah, wait!” A lime green unicorn with straight brown hair stepped forward from the crowd. “She can’t be our new emperor!”
“Why not, Kiwi Swirl?” Red challenged. Kiwi gestured behind her and a yellow pegasus with a lime green mane stepped forward. Twilight drew her breath in sharply; Starlight guessed that was Lemon Lime, the other Anoian Twilight had imprisoned. Lemon Lime produced a small box and Kiwi Swirl held the box with her magic.
“In the old days, when Anoia was a new country, there was a long line of bad and corrupt rulers,” Kiwi began. A few feet away, Rainbow Dash groaned.
“This is gonna be a history lesson, isn’t it?” she grumbled. “I HATE history.” Kiwi glared at her before continuing.
“One day, Cameron the Crafty came and enchanted the finest emerald in his possession that it would kill whoever touched it unless they were fit to rule. He got rid of all the corrupt rulers and finally found one who could assume the throne. Since then, the Emperor’s Emerald has been passed down from generation to generation to eliminate unfit rulers and to find the only ones who could rule the land.” Kiwi opened the box and showed the forest green emerald to everypony else within earshot who had heard the story. The Emperor’s Emerald was about the size of Twilight’s Element of Harmony, before it was destroyed. It was the most beautiful shade of green Starlight had ever seen, and she could have sworn that it was glowing.
Most of all, when Starlight glanced back at Red, she noticed that the Emerald was the same color as Red’s eyes, which also seemed to glow faintly when they landed on the Emerald. If that wasn’t a clear sign that Red was supposed to be the bearer of this gem and the true heir to the throne, then she didn’t know what was.
“Well, Red?” Lightning asked so quietly it was almost a whisper. “Are you willing to risk your life for a silly throne?”
Red glanced over at Twilight and took a deep breath before nodding.
“I am.”
Landing gently in front of Kiwi on what was possibly the only patch of dry land in all of Canterlot, Red approached the small black box holding the Emperor’s Emerald. Her hooves were shaking slightly, but she was determined. When she reached the box, she hesitated before taking the gem. Then she gently reached out a trembling hoof and touched the Emerald.
No doubt about it, the Emerald was definitely glowing now. Red jerked her hoof back, wary of what might happen next. The Emerald slowly rose out of the box and floated until it hovered in front of Red. Small orbs of white light began to swirl around the pony and the stone, lifting them both into the air. The Emerald began to glow brighter, and so did the white lights. They moved faster and faster, until Red wasn’t visible through the large ball of the brightest white light any of them had ever seen, even brighter than the sun. Then everything turned a blinding white for a moment, blinding everyone.
When the light cleared, Red was standing on the dry patch of land again, but she looked… different. She held herself with more authority than before, and every ounce of her being radiated power. Her wings were spread, and her chocolate brown mane glinted as the sunlight caught hidden strands of gold hidden in the brown. But the biggest difference was the crown on her head.
It was simple yet elegant. It was made up of silver wires forming arches, the largest in the middle and each arch after that smaller. All of the bases of the arches overlapped each other where they met the silver band at the base of the crown. The arches and the band were covered with small emeralds. The Emperor’s Emerald was at the base of the largest arch, glinting and glittering in the sunlight.
The first pony to do anything was surprisingly Kiwi Swirl. She fell to her knees and bowed before her new emperor. Like a wave, every creature behind her did the same, until only Lightning and the other generals were left standing, not wanting to accept this pony as their new leader.
“Fools!” Lightning roared. “She is a mere child! She cannot lead us! Lupines is still alive, and when he finds out how you all have betrayed him-”
“You’re fired,” Red said.
That shut him up. “I - what?”
“I’m firing you,” stated Red, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I can do that now. I only wished I’d had the authority to do it sooner.”
Lightning ground his teeth and turned and fled through the crowd, his generals behind him. Twilight flew up to Red.
“I’ll send my guards after them,” she said.
“No.” Red was staring off after them.
Twilight blinked. “But-”
“Let them go.” Red’s mouth curved into a small, bittersweet smile. “They’ll try, but they won’t be any threat.”
As the sun set that night, the land that had been and once again was Equestria breathed a sigh of relief. The war was over, and a new era of peace could begin.
The real reason Red let her father go had nothing to do with him being a possible threat.
Yes, she could see the future, and she knew that her father would hide in the shadows for a while, gathering strength in numbers, before he launched a surprise attack on her for betrayal. And in all the futures she could see, it failed. If she saw anything different, then she would start to get a little worried.
She really let him go because, even though he was a terrible pony and had never been very nice to her and only cared about what Emperor Lupines cared about, he was still her father. And no matter what, she couldn’t put him in prison. It wouldn’t feel right.
What also didn’t feel right was walking through the palace that was now hers and having every single pony refer to her as “Your Majesty”. It was very unsettling and would take some getting used to.
Before she could return home, however, she had to establish Anoia’s alliance and official friendship with Equestria and the surrounding kingdoms. Unfortunately, that took a long meeting with all the rulers of said kingdoms. And while some were willing to embrace this new friendship (Twilight, Queen Novo and Princess Skystar, King Thorax), others were less certain and refused to accept this alliance unless the Anoians paid for what they had done (Dragon Lord Ember, Prince Rutherford).
“Do I need to remind you,” Ember proclaimed, “that her kind not only invaded our homes and conquered them through brute force and murder, but also kidnapped our own subjects to study in a lab?!?”
Red winced and shrunk in her seat, trying to make herself invisible. From the way that Ember said it, it sounded a lot worse than what actually happened. She felt like Ember was doing that on purpose. Either way, it was a very uncomfortable moment.
“But Red didn’t do that,” Twilight protested. “And she’s going to change everything. I can be sure that this won’t happen again.” Ember and Prince Rutherford snorted in unison and received dirty looks from the others.
“Besides,” Thorax chimed in, “the changelings did more awful things than that, and we were forgiven and look at how that turned out.” His cheeks flushed when he mentioned the changelings’ past mistakes. Ember rolled her eyes.
“Ember,” Twilight said, “I know you’re upset. But if we stay in the past, then how are we supposed to live in the present or charge to the future?”
“Ugh, we’re getting sappy now!” Ember groaned and leaned against the back of the chair. “You know how I hate it when you get all sappy!”
“My point is,” Twilight said, frowning, “we can’t judge a pony based on their past mistakes. I’ve seen enough examples of this - probably more than you.”
Twilight sat back with a satisfied smirk while everyone else in the room made Ooohhh… noises while Ember flushed.
“I’ve seen enough, thank you very much!” she snapped. “I know how to judge someone. And I’m judging the Anoians for declaring war on us, stealing our territory, killing our soldiers and citizens, and kidnapping innocent creatures and torturing them!”
“Ember, have you ever heard of the hydra?” Twilight asked out of the blue dragon. She caught Ember off guard.
“Um… no.”
“It’s a creature with multiple heads, and if you cut one off, two more grow back,” Twilight explained. “To kill it, you have to aim for the heart.”
“Okay, but what does this have to do with anything?” Ember demanded.
“Think of your problem with what the Anoians did as a hydra. To get rid of it, you have to aim for the heart. The only way to do that is to forgive them. If you continue to hate them, or try to give the ponies who wronged your subjects a taste of their medicine, that would be like cutting off one of its heads; the problem will come back twice as bad.”
Ember opened and closed her mouth, stunned. She finally sat back and fell silent for the rest of the meeting.
Red sat up taller with every defense that Twilight threw at the blue dragon. It felt good to know that somepony would stick up for her, even when the rest of the world was against her.
In the end, Twilight brought out a scroll and unrolled it in front of Red.
“This is a scroll that each kingdom has to sign if they want to ally themselves with us,” she explained. “Everyone on here is protected by everyone else, and protects someone if they’re in trouble.”
Red nodded and used her magic to sign the scroll with a quill. Ember and Prine Rutherford still looked skeptical, but Red was relieved to finally get this over with.
Immediately, Red headed home with her subjects. It was strange to have a whole fleet of ships for her. Of course, she shared the luxuries. She wasn’t ready to have them all to herself yet. She spent her days walking on the decks with Marylyn, enjoying the salty air and planning her reign.
“So, any pieces of advice before we get home?” Red asked, the breeze brushing her curls away from her face.
“What? From me? No offense, but I’ve never ruled a country before,” Marylyn teased.
“Yes, but you were Lupines’s trusted assistant and were with him all the time. You must have picked up something,” Red persisted.
“Do you really want to use Lupines as an example?” Marylyn asked quietly. Red fell silent.
“Lupines never used the Emperor’s Emerald, did he?” she whispered. The question caught Marylyn off guard.
“No, I don’t think so,” she said. “I never saw him wear it, or, really, ever saw the Emerald. He kept it locked up in a vault… I think Cameron the Crafty enchanted the gem to kill any emperor currently on the throne who is unworthy. So he locked it away so that it couldn’t do that.”
Red nodded. “I was wondering how the Emerald could have chosen someone like him to be emperor if it was only supposed to choose good emperors.”
“I’m going to go find some shade,” Marylyn said as she lifted her hoof to shield her eyes from the sun beating down on her. “You coming?”
“Maybe,” Red said absentmindedly, her eyes scanning the horizon. Marylyn shrugged and left her to her sea gazing.
The sun shone down unforgivingly, torching anything underneath it. Clouds drifted lazily across the bluest sky Red had ever seen. The bright blue sea stretched out in all directions, just like it had when Red had flown back to Anoia from Equestria. That felt like a lifetime ago. So much had happened since then…
The setting sun painted streaks of pink and orange across the darkening sky. It was a marvelous sight. Anypony with wings would waste no time leaping into the sky that would soon be dusted with stars. In the distance, against the vibrant colors of the sunset, a speck appeared on the horizon. Red rubbed her eyes and looked again, making sure it wasn’t a mirage. When she saw that it wasn’t, she allowed herself a small smile. With every passing second the speck grew larger and larger.
Red glanced around. She had the deck all to herself. Nopony was watching. Red leaped over the railing and fell towards the dark ocean waves. She snapped out her wings and caught a gentle breeze, flying low and close enough to the water that she could reach out with her hooves and brush the waves.
The rush of adrenaline that always came with flying filled her veins as she soared away from the ship and towards the island in the distance. Her wings flapped in sync with her beating heart, and while her head filled with doubts, her heart ignored them and pushed forward. She had a promise to fulfill, and she wasn’t going home until she made it come true.
Unbeknownst to Marylyn and the rest of Anoia, Red had one last stop to make before she went home to Anoia.
All Brickle could think about was Red. She was the first thing he thought about in the morning, the last thing he remembered before he went to sleep, the only thing he would dream about, and the one thing constantly on his mind all day. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, and it was starting to drive him crazy.
“She promised to come back,” he muttered to himself as he paced back and forth on top of the cliffs facing west, the direction that Red had gone after she left. Splashes of red dotted his coat. “She said that if she came back, she would never go anywhere without me again. But she hasn’t come back,” he grumbled. He sat down and stared off into the distance. The sunset was beautiful, but Brickle didn’t even notice it. His mind stayed on Red as it had for the past few months.
“It’s been almost a year!” he cried to himself. Tears filled his eyes and he ducked his head, letting the tears spill. He let his coat turn whatever colors it wanted to. Storm clouds of gray and blue marched up his back and spilled over his hooves. His shaggy pink mane turned midnight black, and he couldn’t care less. There was only one thing that would make him happy again, and that thing would mark him as a traitor and he would be sentenced to death for it. Maybe death would be better than one more day without Red.
The moon eventually rose over the ocean, casting a dim light over Solious. Small white dots appeared all over Brickle as his coat immediately tried to match his surroundings. Brickle stood up and slowly walked back to his village, his head hung as another day without Red came to an end.
Purposefully, Brickle took the long way back. He walked around the edge of the cliffs until he arrived at the grove of trees that spread across this half of the island. Brickle ducked into the shady shrubbery and exhaled. No matter what the day brought, being in the tree grove immediately calmed Brickle down. Maybe it was the Solious tribe’s connection to nature that made this happen. Some Soliouns even had the power to manipulate plants. Brickle was one of these ponies, although he didn’t use this power often.
When Red had gotten kidnapped, Brickle was going to use his powers to make some vines trap the guards when they were taking Red to be executed. The vines would trap them in place long enough for Brickle to heroically rescue Red and the two of them flew off into the sunset and lived happily ever after, all alone on a deserted island somewhere. If the world didn’t need them, then they didn’t need the world.
But Red was just as smart as she was pretty, and she came up with a better plan. Except for the end. Red had abandoned him on this island and left to go save the world. Not a day went by that Brickle didn’t wish that Red had taken him along. As long as he stayed camouflage, nopony would know he was ever there. And it would be worth the risk to be with Red for all eternity.
A twig snapped somewhere in the grove, and Brickle snapped his head up. His coat immediately turned the same dark green and black as the forest around him, hiding him completely. Or, it should have.
Hooves wrapped around Brickle and pulled him behind a leafy bush. It startled Brickle so much that his coat turned bright green with fear. Whoever was kidnapping him knew how to look for Soliouns. Frantic thoughts rushed through his head as he ran through possible suspects. Was it Lupines? Golden Lily? Storm?
“It’s none of those, Brickle,” said a familiar voice. “Honestly, I’m offended that you would think that I was one of those ponies. And tone down your colors! Do you want me to get caught?”
Brickle whipped his head around and stared at whoever had grabbed him. The moonlight streamed through the leaves of the canopy of trees overhead, but he could see perfectly well a pair of bright green eyes, a cherry red coat, and chocolate brown curls that glinted with strands of gold hidden in her mane.
“Red?” Brickle stammered as he shakily got to his feet.
“Oh, Brickle, you’re in even worse shape than I left you in!” Red teased. “I don’t know what you’d do without me.”
“Y-you’re here,” he stammered. “You’re actually here…” He couldn’t think of anything else to say and kissed Red before he knew he was going to do it.
Brickle blushed, and it wasn’t the only bit of him that turned red. Streaks of crimson flashed across his wings as Red stared at him like he’d sprouted extra hooves.
“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” Brickle was silenced as Red pulled him close and kissed him on the lips. Brickle didn’t know what color his coat was turning, and he didn’t care, either. This feeling was what he’d always wanted to feel… what he’d wished he could feel every day Red was gone. But now she was here…
“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Red whispered when they finally broke apart. “I… maybe sorta got promoted and couldn’t do anything because I was under constant watch of Lupines and I wanted to come back but I couldn’t and… Yeah. I’m here now,” she finished lamely.
“Red, just being under Lupines’s watch wouldn’t have kept you away from me, and we both know it,” Brickle said. “What else happened?”
“It’s a long story,” Red mumbled.
“Fantastic. I’ve got all night.” Brickle sat down on the forest floor, his coat turning back to its signature white-and-gold combo and his mane shifting back to pink. It was the first time he’d sported those colors since Red left. Red could see he wasn’t going anywhere and relented, sitting down next to Brickle.
“Well, it all started when I got back to Anoia…”
The two of them were up talking all night. When the sun finally peeked above the horizon, casting light pinks and golds across the sky, Red and Brickle were still in the same place, still talking.
“And you became emperor just like that?” Brickle was astounded. In his village, only ponies from the original line of rulers could rule, and Soliouns weren’t allowed to question them, revolt, or even propose the idea of a new ruler. And he was pretty sure that ponies that were considered traitors by a previous ruler weren’t allowed to assume the throne.
“Yeah, I thought so, too,” Red said. “I feel sorry for you guys. Your traditions are tough.”
“Yeah… Wait, how did you know that?” Brickle demanded. He wouldn’t be surprised if Red could read minds now. She never ceased to amaze him. To think that she killed Lupines just like that.
“Yep, I can read minds. And see the future,” Red told him. “Apparently Anoians with green eyes have those powers.”
Brickle sat there, stunned. “That’s… that’s pretty big.”
“I know. Lupines knew, so he tried to prevent me from even finding out about them, let alone use them. It wasn’t until I left for Equestria that I was free from those bindings, and my powers slowly came back.”
“Why did Lupines send you to Equestria, anyway, if going would mean you could use your powers again?” Brickle asked. “And once you got back, why didn’t your powers get blocked again?”
“I don’t really know,” Red confessed, staring off into space. “My best guess is that he thought that he had successfully blocked my powers, and even if I left, they wouldn’t come back. And I think I was away long enough that my powers became strong enough to start fighting Lupines.” Red closed her eyes and stayed still for a moment before opening them again. “We have to go. Golden Lily’s looking for you since Storm reported that you didn’t come back last night. If we stay here for a few more minutes, she’ll find us.”
“We?” Brickle asked as Red stood up and unfurled her wings.
“I told you that if I came back, I would never go anywhere without you again, right?” Red said. “And so I’m keeping that promise.”
Brickle leaped up, splashes of pink happiness erupting all over his coat. His own wings came out, and the two of them flew into the sky. Brickle followed Red as they winged away to Anoia.
“What about me?” he asked as they flew. “Anoians hate my kind.”
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re different from the other Soliouns,” Red replied. “And you’ll be with me. Nopony will lay a hoof on you without my permission.”
“Do you get many storms where you’re from?” Brickle asked, eyeing the sky warily. Red laughed, knowing what he meant.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get your sunlight every day,” she said. Brickle smiled at her and grabbed her again. Red looked a little surprised but didn’t object. Brickle pulled her in close, and they kissed like tomorrow would never arrive.