> EverDream
>  by mm1145
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Do you still dream?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starlight's hooves moved in the steps of the dance. He was dancing in blackness, surrounded by scattered pin pricks of light in the blackness. In the sky, I am dancing in the night sky. Starlight continued to dance, his hooves picking out the formal steps. 

Suddenly she was there, taking her position opposite him in the dance. Starlight was aware of her but he could not describe her. He could clearly see her but he could not remember what she looked like. But he knew her, he had always known her. She was The White Pony. 

For a time that could have been minutes and could have been a thousand years they danced, spinning and moving in the light specked blackness. Eventually the tone of the dance shifted, moving from formal to intimate. They danced on, their hooves and necks becoming entwined as the dance continued.

“You must find them,” the White Pony whispered to him as their heads came close. 

“What must I find?” he asked desperately as the spin of the dance took them apart. 

“You know what you must find,” she replied calmly as they danced on.

The dance brought their heads close again. 

“They are needed,” she whispered. 

“Why are they needed?” 

“You know why they are needed”

The dance continued, Starlight and The White Pony twisting on through the night.

“They must stop it,” The White Pony whispered, her voice more urgent.

“What must they stop?” Starlight had his face next to hers now. 

She stared straight into his eyes. “The Darkness,” she whispered.

Starlight felt a chill at the reply and at the pain he saw in The White Pony's eyes. He noticed that the points of light were going out. The light around them was fading.

“You must find them,” The White Pony repeated more urgently. 

“What are they?”

“You know what they are.” Most of the lights had gone now. Starlight felt a coldness pressing in; he noticed that The White Pony was glowing, he could feel her warmth and he danced closer to her.

“Everypony knows what they are. They are the part of you in everypony else. They are needed and you must find them.”
All the stars had gone out now. Starlight and The White Pony danced on through the darkness, lit only by her gentle glow. 

“Where should I look for them?” Starlight asked. 

“You know where to look,” The White Pony replied softly. “Seek the dusk. Seek the starlight, there you will find where they sleep.” 

Starlight noticed that The White Pony herself had started to fade. He danced ever closer, wanting to cling to her fading light and warmth.

“Will you tell me something before I go?” she whispered in his ear, her voice going faint. 

“Anything!” Starlight responded eagerly, desperately.

“Tell me,” The White Pony asked, her voice faint and her light almost totally gone. “Do you still dream of me?”

-----

Starlight awoke with a start to a clanging noise coming from the deck above. His body’s automatic reactions had him up and half way across the cabin floor before his mind woke up and told him that the clanging was the ringing of the 'alert stations' bell. He grabbed his sword belt from the hook on the wall, rammed his hat on his head and headed for the door to the cabin. His hooves clattered off the wood as he galloped along the corridor, up the steps and out into the fresh, cold air of the main deck of the EverDream.

The EverDream. A Soarin class airship constructed by Fancypants Industries at the Luna ship yard in Canterlot near the end of the pony/griffin war. 52 meters prow to stern, 8 meters broad at the widest point. Two hundred pony strong crew with a complement of one hundred fliers. Armament twenty 300 kilostar projection cannons in two broad batteries mounted port and starboard and five 100 kilostar swivel mounted lances on deck. Twin screw hurricane engines with blue glass sunlines. Maximum forward speed 24km/h. Maximum climb rate 1m/s.  It had been the pride of the fleet in the Battle of the Broken Pass and had been responsible for the destruction of at least ten griffin war balloons. 

That had been thirty years ago. 

When Starlight had bought her she had been laid up for the last ten of those. But the EverDream was a well-constructed airship and it had been a relatively easy task to get her airworthy again.

Starlight pushed past the crewponies who were scurrying to their alert stations and up the steps that led to the command deck. A junior officer was on duty at the wheel; he saluted Starlight as he went past Starlight waved back at him. 

The ship was no longer a warship of Equestria and Starlight had certainly never been a warpony, but it was his ship, and the crew he had hired saluted him all the same. Standing at the back of the command deck was a small knot of about half a dozen ponies. He recognised his old teacher Rapier Swift as well as his friend Rainstorm. One of the other ponies in the group turned and saw him.

"Ah, Sir Starlight," said the grizzled earth pony, greeting him with a polite smile made slightly sinister by the scar that cut a groove through tan fur from chestnut mane to jaw, narrowly missing his eye. 

He turned and again Starlight hoped the Captains's name mark - the sail of an old fashioned ocean vessel - wasn't a literal expression of his special talent. 

The Captain waved a hoof at where a crew pony was banging on the alert station's gong. "Knock that off now, I think all our crew are awake." He turned back to Starlight. "We did not wake you with our emergency, did we?"

Starlight forced a smile onto his face. “No, Captain Genoa, I believe that it was time I should have been awake anyway.”

The Captain turned back to the group and a brown-coated earth pony trotted over to Starlight and put a hoof round the younger pony’s shoulders. “The dreams again?” he asked.

Starlight nodded. “Yes. The White Pony,” he told his old teacher. 

Rapier Swift just nodded knowingly in response. 

Starlight had known Rapier Swift since he had been a foal. The earth pony had served with his farther during the wars. Then later his father had hired his old friend to teach his son how to fight. He was a master of most weapons, and his name mark - an old fashioned straight edged mouth sword - was a visible indication of this, but his personal favourite was the hoofblade, a weapon more common with pegasus than earth ponies. The hoofblade was strapped to the foreleg and when in use extended out of the front of its scabbard. It was hard to use as it was slimmer and shorter than a standard mouth sword and required that you fight on only three legs - but it did allow you more precision and kept your mouth free for orders. 

“Come on,” he said to Starlight, “let's see if we have got the whole story yet,” Guiding him into the group of ponies. 

Starlight saw that they were gathered around a young pegasus dressed in flying goggles and jacket. She was obviously a scout, and scout ponies usually flew higher and longer than regular fliers, up where the air was cold.

“How many were there?” Captain Genoa was asking. 

“There seemed to be about a hundred or so trying to hide in high cloud.” 

“Armed?” another pegasus in the group asked. This was Rainstorm, she was the leader of the fliers aboard the EverDream.

“Lightly. Seemed mainly to be just their claws, no war weapons.”

“That means they have a balloon somewhere nearby,” Rapier Swift said from Starlight's side. “Griffin pirates would not travel without war weapons if they were intending to ambush an airship. And since they are obviously intending to ambush us they must have them somewhere.” 

The ponies in the group looked at Rapier Swift when they noticed that Starlight had joined them. Both of the pegasi saluted, Starlight giving them his usual resigned wave in return. Rainstorm at least should know better than that, he thought. Yes, she had joined the Equestrian Flying Corps and gotten quite high up before they parted company, but the two of them had been at school together, she should remember that. Maybe she was trying to be funny. He had always been slightly envious of Rainstorm; the grey pegasus had a clarity of purpose about her. 

Right from a young age she had known what she wanted to be, and had set to going about it. When they used to play together as foals she had always been the one to suggest they play ponies vs. griffins. When she had received her name mark, a ominously black cloud with rain and lighting coming out of it, she had been able to tell him instantly what it meant and how it would take her to where she wanted to be. His own name mark, a single star shining a cone of light down, had just appeared one morning and he still did not know what it meant. 

“What's happening?” he asked. 

“Our scouts have spotted griffin raiders setting an ambush up ahead,” Rainstorm told him. “Wind Rush has just brought word.”

“Can we avoid it?” he asked.

Rainstorm shook her head. “We are too close by now, if we were to change course they would notice and attack. The scouts say there is no reasonable way round these cloud banks. Also we just do not know what war weapons they may have or where they have them hidden.”

Captain Genoa nodded, looking thoughtful. 

“What are you thinking, Genoa?” Rapier Swift asked. “I know that expression.” 

Genoa was another of Rapier Swift's friends from the wars; they had apparently served together several times, and when Starlight had been looking for a competent pony to Captain the EverDream, Rapier had recommended his old friend. Starlight did not get on that well with the grumpy old pony, who he suspected thought of him as a spoilt foal, but he had to admit he knew what he was doing when it came to commanding an airship.

“Rapier,” the Captain said thoughtfully, “do you remember the time they set an ambush for us when we were passing over that mountain range near Trottingham?”

Rapier Swift's face broke into a smile. “You think that would work?” he asked. 

“Probably. I doubt these raiders are any smarter that that commander was - if they were, they would not be pirates.” He turned to look at the pegasus scout. “Wind Rush, did they see you?”

The young flier shook her head. “No sir, we were careful.”

“Well then,” the Captain said, smiling, “this is what we do and we do it quickly and quietly.”

-----

Starlight bent his head low over the map that he was pretending to study.

“Where are they?” he whispered harshly out of the corner of his mouth, the effort of staring at this chart and trying to act normal was telling on him. 

“Right above us,” Rapier Swift replied casually.

“You can see them?” Starlight hissed.

“Oh yes. They are not as cleverly hidden behind those cloud banks as they think they are.”

Starlight risked a causal glance round the deck. They had made an effort to make the deck as normal looking as possible. The bright, royal blue squares of the sunlines were gleaming along the edge of the EverDream, between the deck and the canopy. Most of them were stretched as if they were cruising normally. The crew on the deck were also doing their best to look casual and unconcerned; there were groups of crew ponies tending lines and stowing supplies - he even saw a group that had climbed up above the lifting envelope and were cleaning the crystal canopy.

The crystal canopy was the most obvious thing that singled the EverDream out as a warship rather than a merchant or a pleasure craft. Any normal airship had a lifting envelope large in proportion to its hull; he had seen racing craft where the lifting envelope was nearly three times the size of the ship hanging beneath it. This was fine for a merchant who needed to get where he was going fast, or for a pleasure craft that wanted the most manoeuvrability, but for a warship, having that large fragile fabric bag hanging exposed was just too big a risk. 

The designers had come up with a clever solution to solve two problems at once. First of all, the lifting envelope had been made smaller. The ones lifting the EverDream - there were three separate bags in a line for added flexibility and safety - were together not much bigger than the hull itself. This did of course sacrifice some speed and manoeuvrability; the EverDream did not so much cut through the sky as wallow in it. But this had made the problem of the exposed lifting envelope manageable. Second they had placed several solid poles round the edge of the deck, all angled upwards and slightly outwards so they cleared the edge of the lifting envelope. On top of these poles they had placed the crystal canopy. It was rounded so as to contain all of the lifting envelope under it and sloped so as to cover about half of its side as well. Its shape made it impossible to get a good shot at the envelope without being almost directly underneath the EverDream. 

The canopy itself was made up of hexagonal panels of a variant of the same crystal that made up the sunlines, each panel about the size of a pony. This gave the canopy its second function. It was designed to be a large collector for the same magical energy the sunlines drew, supplementing them and providing a constant flow of energy. The crystal it was made up of was designed to be clear, unlike sunlines, so that it could be easily seen through, as well as being much tougher. So it sacrificed a lot of the efficiency of sunlines and it was fixed; it could not be furled or stretched to adjust output. Despite all these limitations it provided one third of the power the engines of the EverDream needed when she was cruising.

“Come on, come on,” he muttered savagely at the map table. “We are obviously a sitting duck here - what are you waiting for!”

“You know I heard an old soldier's saying: 'it is not the being attacked I mind, so much as the fact that they make me wait for it to happen,' ” Papyrus quoted. 

Papyrus was Starlight's oldest friend - in fact he was his father's oldest friend; the old, light-blue coated unicorn had been the family's librarian and general household manager for as long as Starlight could remember and his mother had said he had been the librarian when she had met his father. Together with Rapier Swift, the old unicorn had been responsible for looking after him after his parents had died. Most ponies just saw the white beard and scholarly expression and assumed that he was a absent-minded scholar. It was true that he was a very learned pony, but he was not just an intellectual.  Over the years he had learnt as much about fighting from Rapier Swift as Starlight had.

Rapier Swift looked thoughtful. “I still think I will take waiting over having someone try to stick something sharp into my-” he broke off when a shadow fell over the map table the ponies were pretending to study. Starlight's eyes shot heavenward to where the sun was blotted out by griffin wings. 

“NOW!” Captain Genoa yelled. “Up and at 'em!” 

Ponies leapt into action. Crew ponies who seemed to be just casually working or resting near the deck guns jumped at them and started to fire them. Tarpaulins were hauled off what looked to be just stacks of barrels to reveal other ponies and swivel canons under them. Crew ponies leapt out from where they had been concealed, and others pulled weapons out of hiding places near them. The deck guns spat fire at the oncoming griffins.

Starlight drew his sword. He heard the metallic rasp of Rapier Swift's hoofblade. 

“Here they come,” Rapier muttered to him as he set himself in the three-legged stance of a hoofblade fighter. “Remember what I taught you.” 

Starlight nodded and set his hooves in the fighting stance. Two griffins landed in front of the ponies. The griffins where at least half as big again as the ponies on the deck and they had sharp claws and beaks instead of the ponies' flat hooves and mouths. These two roared and charged.

The first griffin swiped at Starlight with a two clawed grasp. Starlight nimbly ducked under its claws, twisted and planted both back hooves in the centre of its chest. He completed the turn and slashed at it with his sword; the griffin deflected it with its claws but Starlight had it on the back claw. He followed up, stepping in and delivering a series of fast slashes at it. The creature blocked his strikes and reared up to slash at Starlight again. A bolt of green light shot past Starlight and struck the griffin in its chest, throwing it back to land in a heap on the deck. He turned to see Papyrus standing there, his glowing horn pointing at the griffin.

“I had him,” Starlight complained to the old unicorn, dropping his sword on the deck.

“I am heartily sorry my young pony,” Papyrus replied. There was a flapping of wings as more griffins landed on the command deck. “I shall leave you to handle these ones on your own.”

Starlight quickly scooped up his sword and turned to face the new attackers.

-----

Rainstorm peeked over the thin cloud the fliers were using for cover, her light grey coat and mane making her blend in well with the clouds. She had seen the griffin ambushers launch themselves at the EverDream a few minutes ago and the sound of hoof to claw fighting was clearly audible.

“What are they waiting for?” a pony to her left asked irritably as he mouthed the hoof cannons strapped to his forelegs.

“Exactly the right moment,” she told her colleague, “pass the word again - nopony moves a wing feather till we get the signal.” She heard the whisper go along the line of pegasi. 

The fliers from the EverDream had taken wing and, using the bulk of the ship to hide them from the griffin’s ambush positions, had flown as silently as possible up and around behind where the griffins had set their ambush. They had then watched as the griffins had sprung their trap on what they had thought to be the unaware EverDream. From what she could see the ambushers themselves had been taken by surprise. She hoped that the preparations that the crew had made would enable them to stand against the griffin assault until the Captain gave them the signal. 

“Come on, come on," she muttered irritably. She might be able to give the order to wait but it did not mean she liked it any more than the pony to her left did; her wings itched to take flight. There was a flash of light from the clouds in front of the EverDream, quickly followed by two more. Rainstorm twisted her head and saw what the Captain had been waiting for. 

Rising out of the clouds was a griffin war balloon.

Griffin war balloons were less well built and designed than pony airships. As all griffins could fly they were naturally less concerned with the construction of their air vehicles, whereas the unicorns that mostly designed the pony airships and the earth ponies that mostly crewed them had more of an interest in keeping them flying. This balloon had a circular deck shape about half as wide as the EverDream was long with a shallow curving hull under it. Rainstorm thought it looked a bit like a soup bowl. She saw that it had hanging lines all round the edge of its circular deck. So it was not even self powered, it had to be pulled by its crew - and its large lifting envelope did not even have a canopy over it. Very sloppy and vulnerable. She braced herself against the cloud. Any second now... The warballoon fired its cannons again. As soon as it did so a green flare shot up from the EverDream. That was the signal.

Rainstorm dived over the cloud and down in a power dive. The rest of the flier ponies followed suit and as she fell her quick mind and eyes ran over the situation. How many attackers were there on the EverDream? How were they arrayed? How many crew did that war balloon have? She made her decision.

“Wings one to ten help the ship,” she screamed over the slipstream, “everypony else break with me.” She knew that the wing leaders would relay her words. She had decided to take on the crew of the balloon personally. She did not know what sort of weapons it had and did not really like the idea of leaving it free to fire at their ship; she was going to lead her wings in an attack on the warballoon’s crew and use the shock and surprise to push as deep into it as possible, giving their gunners something else to think about rather than shooting at the EverDream.

The fliers reformed their formation as they pulled closer. Steady, steady, Rainstorm thought to herself as the bulk of the airship got close. Now. She pulled her body round in a sharp turn, the g-forces straining her wings. Just like in flight school. She saw the ponies following her also break and pull round, the rest hitting the attackers on the EverDream hard from behind.

Her hooves skimmed mere inches off the crystal canopy as she sped along. Up ahead she saw a small knot of ponies on the crest of the dome hard pressed by griffins. “If I can help as I pass by,” she muttered to herself and rolled sideways. As she passed she grabbed a griffin's wings and wrenched him off the canopy, her momentum carrying him far out and away from the ship.

She swooped low over the bow of the EverDream and dug her wings hard into the air, heading for the war balloon, the rest of the fliers in her group following tight around her. It seemed to be a silly attack pattern, but it was the right one to use against this foe. Griffin war balloons had one advantage over pony airships: their more rounded shape meant that they did not have the blind spots on their fire lines that the more elongated airships had. But the gunners at this angle were focused on the EverDream and it would take them a little time to refocus on the attacking pegasi, time Rainstorm and her fliers did not intend to give them.

-----

Genoa saw the warballoon belch fire at the EverDream. “That's it,” he shouted at the junior officer, “signal the fliers.” The young unicorn nodded and sent a green firework screeching into the sky. Genoa then hoofed up the speaking tube.

“Engines to combat speed.”

A roar from behind announced a griffin. Genoa tuned to face it, drawing his sword from its scabbard as the griffin charged forward, its claws up and ready to attack.

Suddenly with a blur of motion Starlight rolled in front of the griffin, his sword up, deflecting the attack. Rapier Swift was with him, calmly fencing with his hoof blade at the beast's savage attacks. Between them the two ponies pushed the griffin back.
Genoa sheathed his sword; he may not really like the young noble but he had courage, you had to give him that - and Rapier had trained him how to use that fancy sword of his. He turned back to the job of commanding the ship.

The EverDream was moving quite fast now; he made a decision and again hoofed up the speaking tube. “Starboard guns fire once as she bears then gun crews join the defence.” He gave the wheel a twist. This would bring the ship off a direct course with the balloon but it would skew the ship enough to give the starboard batteries one shot at the enemy warballoon. After that the EverDream's fliers would be too close to risk another shot without risking hitting them, and Genoa knew it was considered very bad manners to shoot at your friends. 

From what he could see, Rainstorm had taken half the fliers and was leading them on a direct attack on the warballon, most likely in an attempt to stop its fire at the EverDream. Not really necessary as a ship of the Everedeam’s class would happily trade fire with a single warballon of that size and armaments. He did not know how many crew that balloon had, but griffins were fierce and he doubted that the remaining fliers Rainstorm had with her would be enough to overwhelm its crew. He was going to need to bring the EverDream in so the crew ponies could help out. He briefly considered signalling her back to the ship but he decided to let her go on ahead. She was right; while the EverDream would easily win in a firefight with that warballoon there was no point in risking being hit by a lucky shot if you did not need to be.

As the ship twisted around, the batteries of magical war machine cannons fired. The ship rocked with the recoil and teardrops of magical fire shot out towards the griffin war balloon. They arched lazily through the sky and struck the warballoon. Some of the fire missed but most of it hit the hull, impacting on the armoured surface but doing little damage. A few shots hit the deck and the lifting envelope, sending the griffin crew running across the deck. Genoa twisted the wheel again putting the EverDream back on course with its opponent. 

The rest of the crew ponies whoi had been crewing the guns rushed out of the hatches and joined in with the fight, as did the pegasi who had not gone straight for the attack on the balloon. The ponies of the EverDream now had the weight of numbers and had also managed to out-manoeuvre their opponents, forcing the remaining griffin ambushers off the ship. But the Captain did not want to leave that warballoon able to attack them. Anyway, they needed to help their fellow ponies. The EverDream quickly closed on the stationary warballoon.

“Prepare to board!” Genoa shouted. He could see some of the fliers on the deck of the warballoon. Those flyponies, he thought, always needing the help of us more stable, grounded types. At the last second he gave the wheel a twist; the EverDream slewed round and with a grinding crunch it scraped along the side of the griffin warballoon.

-----

Starlight braced himself as the hulls of the two air vessels scraped across each other; on the other side he could see the griffin crew locked in combat with some of the EverDream’s fliers. He took a few steps backwards, judged his moment, then took a running jump. He leaped over the railings, across the gap and landed awkwardly on the deck of the warballoon. The warballoon’s deck was lower than the EverDream’s had been and that threw him off his stride. He turned the fall into a roll and came back to his hooves, hearing the shouts as other crewponies did the same. He drew his sword and dashed forward. 

His plan was to find the commander of the warballoon - he would probably be at the command station, which Starlight could see was in the centre of the deck. He jumped over a prone griffin and ducked between a pair of pegasi as he galloped across the planks of the deck. He spotted his quarry just as the griffin Captain spotted him. The griffin Captain was almost half as tall again as his crew - nearly twice the height of a pony. He was surrounded by a small knot of other griffins that where engaged with some of the pegasus fliers from the EverDream. He was also carrying a fearsomely large magical cannon in his fore-claws, one big enough to be a mounted gun on a pony airship.

Starlight had the presence of mind to duck as the magical fire from the Captain’s weapon screeched over his head and tore a chunk out of the deck. He bunched his haunches and leapt at the Captain before he could get a chance to fire again. The Captain was large even for a griffin and Starlight was not a large pony. The griffin Captain dropped his gun and caught Starlight's headlong leap on his wing, flipping the pony over his head. Starlight landed on his back and quickly rolled over in time to avoid being skewered by the Captain's sabre. He fumbled for his own sword and brought it up just in time to deflect another savage blow. The griffin roared and rained a torrent of ferocious blows at Starlight, forcing him to back away from the fearsome attacks. 

-----

Rainstorm kicked out at the head of one of the griffin guncrew, knocking him down. She followed the momentum round, flipping herself over in a back flip. The leading edges of her out-spread wings caught the gunner’s mate and the sharp edges of her wing blades cut at him. He fell. Rainstorm finished the flip and landed back on all four hooves. 

“Press forward!” she shouted, although it was unnecessary. The lower decks of the warballoon were wide and open and appeared to be sparsely populated. This balloon seems to have very few crew, she thought as the fliers from the EverDream swarmed forwards. They had taken the few guncrew that were here completely by surprise with their initial assault and were now pressing forward towards the middle, where she could see the familiar mass of a crystal spinner engine. 

More griffins pressed in from either side in a more organised-counter assault. Ah, there is the rest of the crew, Rainstorm thought as magic fire from hoof cannons and the larger cannons the griffins carried shot back and forth across the open deck. She crouched low and leapt at one of the new griffins, front hooves out. She hit him high up, bowling him over. They went down in a heap and Rainstorm pulled the roll forwards and then bucked out with her rear hooves, throwing the unfortunate griffin off her and slamming him into one of the solid wooden pillars. She bounced back to her hooves and turned to follow up but there was no need; her opponent was definitely out of the fight.  

As she turned she saw the warballoon’s crystal spinner, and something nagged at her mind. She took a second look. Yes, she had not been imagining it. Stacked in piles around the engine were the unmistakable shapes of charge crystals, most of them glowing with stored energy. How stupid were these pirates? she thought. Everypony knew that you did not keep charged crystals near the spinner - it would only take a stray shot to cause... As if she had summoned it with her thoughts, a blast of magical energy whistled past her shoulder and slammed into a pile of unstable crystals. Crystals flew out of the pile, briefly shining bright with overcharge, then exploding in sharp cracks to send out ripples of magical energy. Other crystals were hit by these ripples and they also briefly glowed with overcharge before exploding. 

Rainstorm turned back to where the hatch was. “Out!” she screamed, “get out, it is going to...” She did not finish her warning cry. There was a loud crack as the shielding on the crystal spinner engine gave up and a high pitched whine as the core let go.

-----

Starlight felt his rear hooves hit the railings around the edge of the deck as the griffin Captain fiercely pressed his attack, when suddenly the whole ship shuddered. The deck rocked and the Captain staggered back; Starlight was just about to launch a counter-attack when the deck in front of him heaved. The planks split and a belch of green fire shot up between them. Through the flames the Captain gave Starlight an evil look, then unfurled his wings and leapt to the sky. Starlight saw other griffins and ponies on the deck take flight, hatches springing open and more griffins and ponies pouring out, most taking to the sky as soon as they did so. 

One of them was Rainstorm. “Abandon baaalloooon,” she sang out as she came on deck. The deck shook again.

“Rainstorm, you didn't-” Starlight shouted at the pegasus as he sheathed his sword. As she took wing he glanced over the side and saw a pillar of green flame explode out the side of the ship.

“Rainstorm!!!” he shouted, but the flier had shown the ship a clean pair of flight feathers and was well away. 

He picked up his hooves and galloped back across the deck. Underneath him the deck rocked, planks exploding outwards. He realised now that in his fight with the griffin Captain he had been forced clean across the width of the warballoon, far away from the EverDream and everyponyelse. Part of the lifting envelope burst and the whole deck started to slew. As he galloped he saw that the EverDream was starting to pull away, the last of the boarding party scrambling aboard. Don't leave me behind, he screamed in his mind as he bunched his legs and leapt. As he pushed off, the deck collapsed underneath him; he felt his hooves slip and lost his momentum. Desperately he grabbed out with his mouth and managed to grab on to a trailing line from the Eveream. He felt rather than saw the warballoon fall away under him, leaving him hanging on the end of the rope.

For a few minutes he just hung there recovering. Then he tried to grasp the rope with his forehooves to climb up. But his hooves had never been that dextrous and he could not get a grip. He tried to brace himself off the side and climb up that way, but again he could not manage it. He was just wondering how long it would be before one of the fliers noticed him hanging there when he heard a voice calling to him from above. 

“And what have we learnt from this?” the voice called out.

He looked up to see Rapier Swift looking over the edge at him. He tried to say something back but with the rope in his mouth his words were incomprehensible.

“I think what you are probably trying to say is that you have learnt that you should not go rushing in and getting yourself in to a fight over your head without waiting for support. Do you agree, Papyrus?” 

Papyrus' head joined Rapier Swift's at the edge. “I do believe that is what he was saying my young pony,” Papyrus added. “I also believe that he was saying that he would be much obliged if we would lift him back on deck.”

Starlight tried to nod at this but his neck was already sore.

“Well I suppose we should humour the young,” Rapier Swift said, seeming to be enjoying the joke far too much for Starlight's tastes, “would you do the honours?”

“Of course my young pony.” Papyrus said. 

Starlight felt himself gripped in the comforting embrace of Papyrus' magic and lifted back up onto the deck. When he had his hooves firmly back on the deck he cleared his throat and worked the cramp out of his jaw. “I think what I have learnt,” he said bitterly, “is that a certain pegasus of my acquaintance should be more thoughtful of what she is blowing up.”

“Ah and you were doing sooo well,” a voice said from behind, accompanied by a flutter of wings. 

He spun round to see Rainstorm alighting on the deck behind him. “You blew that balloon up with me on it,” he said accusingly, “I could have fallen to my death!” 

“Starlight, we are several hundred meters up. I could have caught you several times over in that distance.” 

“That is beside the point!” Starlight replied. 

“So what exactly is the point?”

Starlight spluttered for a few moments, unable to find an appropriately scathing response. “Well that is not it, whatever it is,” he finished lamely.

“Well when you find the point, do come and tell me,” Rainstorm said, flexing her wings. “I am going to see what happened to the rest of my fliers.” And with that she disappeared down the deck.

Starlight deflated and decided he should follow Rainstorm’s lead. He set off up the deck to see what the outcome of the little skirmish was.

-----

Starlight lay on the deck of the ship, his eyelids drooping in the afternoon sun. All around him he could hear the bustle of the crew ponies as they tided up the ship. He seemed strangely tired - yes it had been a hard fight this morning but he should not have been this tired from it. His head drooped on his forelimbs. Maybe he had not slept properly. Still, he thought, there is nothing to do. Maybe if he just sat here and looked out over the view.

The EverDream was flying high above a large cloud layer that covered all the ground beneath them; from up here it looked like a sea of white, the afternoon sun reflecting brightly off it. Starlight's eyelids drooped again. Something flashed in front of Starlight's eyes; sitting up he stared in front of him. He jumped to his hooves and stared blankly out over the expanse of cloud. He turned and galloped up the steps to where Papyrus and Rapier Swift were looking over the map. 

“It is there!” he shouted at them. 

They looked at him blankly. 

“What's where?” Papyrus asked the excited pony.

“It's there,” Starlight replied, virtually pushing the old pony over to the railings. 

“Where?” Papyrus stared out over the sea of white cloud.

“There!” Starlight gestured with his hoof.

Rapier Swift came up and using a pair of looking glasses scanned the horizon. “There is a mountain sticking out of the cloud base,” he said, passing the glasses over to his old friend. 

“Yes,” Starlight said excitedly, “it is there.” By now the excited scene had attracted the attention of other ponies. Rainstorm and Captain Genoa trotted over to the railing. 

“What's got you so excited?” Rainstorm asked. 

Papyrus looked around. “Apparently there is something on the top of that mountain over there,” he said, lowering the glasses and pointing to the speck on the horizon that was the mountain top, “and it seems to have our excitable friend here wound up.”

She stared out over the cloud base. “So what is there?” she asked.

Starlight's head drooped. “I do not know,” he admitted, the rest of the ponies looking at him in shock and amusement, “but it is important,” he told them. “We must go there and we must find it.” 

Papyrus patted him on the back with a forehoof. “Well then, let's not hang around here. Rainstorm my young pony could you and some of our fine fliers go and scout the place, and Captain Genoa if we could set a course please?” 

Rainstorm nodded, gave a whistle and took wing. She was joined in the air by a trio of other ponies and after a few words they set off for the distant mountain. Captain Genoa gave a salute and walked back to the wheel shouting orders at the crew as he went. 

“It is there you know,” Starlight said quietly. “Whatever she needs to me find, it is over there.” He looked at the old unicorn. “You understand that?” he asked. Papyrus was one of the few ponies who knew how bad the dreams had got back when he was in his family's estates near Canterlot. How he had been unable to concentrate. How often he had woken up to find himself standing on his balcony staring out over the countryside below. How he would find that he had dozed off at a desk and woken up to find sheets of paper covered in the sentences ‘you must find them’ and ‘they are needed.’ How eventually he had bought the Everdeam and resolved to solve the riddles of his dreams and how The White Pony had been driving him onwards ever since.

“Of course I do my young pony,” the old unicorn said comfortingly, again putting his hoof on Starlight's shoulder, “of course I do.”

“Good,” Starlight said staring back over at where Rainstorm and her fliers were now vanishing dots. “I am glad somepony does.”

-----

The mountain stuck out of the low cloud base like an island in the sea of white. A short distance after it exited the clouds, the mountain abruptly stopped, forming a large plateau covered almost entirely in a lush forest; at the far side of the plateau the mountain continued up in an unclimbable spire until it reached a sharp peak.

Rainstorm alighted back on the deck. “The forest grows right up to the edge of this plateau everywhere except for that clearing.” She pointed a hoof at the edge closest to where the EverDream was approaching.

“I suggest that we tie up next to the edge and then you can set off on hoof to find whatever it is you are looking for,” Captain Genoa said as they approached the edge. 

Starlight nodded. “That is fine by me, Captain.” He turned to his friends. “Papyrus, Rapier Swift and Rainstorm, do you want to come with me? I do not think that we will need to take too many ponies with us.” The other three ponies nodded.

Genoa brought the EverDream up alongside the cliff edge; pegasi flew over with ropes, followed by some of the crew ponies as soon as the ship got close enough to the edge for them to jump. The ropes were made fast round some of the trees and the EverDream was hauled in until it was sitting snugly up against the cliff. Planks were run out and other crew ponies walked over to the cliff to get a better look at the damage done during their fight with the griffin pirates.

Starlight pulled the cinch tight on his saddle bags. “Right,” he said in his best leader voice. “So me, Papyrus, Rapier Swift and Rainstorm will head through the trees to where she spotted that cave. Captain Genoa will make sure the EverDream is here to pick us up when we are done.” 

Rainstorm fluttered next to him as he walked over the plank. She had donned a short-barrelled hoof cannon and so was more reluctant than usual to walk instead of flying. “Are you sure that it is in the cave?” she asked.

“It has to be,” he told her, “it is here, I know it is and there is really not anywhere else it could be.”

She looked at him. “Maybe it would be easier if you told us what it is we are looking for?”

He stopped and turned his head back to her. “If I knew I would,” he told her flatly.

-----

Starlight pushed through the bushes at the edge of the clearing and saw the cave entrance. 

“Holy Luna,” he breathed as he pushed himself through into the clearing proper. The trees butted up against the edge of a sheer cliff going up the rest of the mountain. In the side of the cliff was a cave mouth. The cave was enormous; it looked to Starlight to be about ten times taller than himself. The rest of the shore party pushed past him out into the clearing.

“In there?” Rainstorm asked as she emerged.

Starlight nodded.

“Nice cave,” Rapier Swift said. “What horrors do you suppose are awaiting us inside it?”

“Griffins, hydras, shock hawks,” Starlight replied, “why should it be different than the rest of the journey so far?”

“Well this is interesting,” Papyrus said, walking up to the entrance and seeming to be unconcerned with the possibility that something with ravenous intent was waiting inside. 

“What is interesting?” Rainstorm asked, flying close to the old pony. 

He looked up at her. “Be a dear and see if you can clear away some of that hanging growth from the top of the wall there?” he said in response. 

Rainstorm shrugged and flew up to the top of the cave mouth. Taking a mouthful of the hanging creepers she gave them a great tug. A large quantity of the overgrown vegetation came away and fell to the floor. 

“Yes, very interesting. The Twilight Sparkle.”

“The what?” Starlight asked, coming to his old teacher's side.

Papyrus gestured with a hoof at the top of the cave. Rainstorm’s impromptu gardening had revealed a stone slab embedded in the wall. It had some ancient writing on it, which had been worn away with the long passage of years, but still clearly visible was a large symbol. It was two six-pointed stars laid over each other with five smaller stars around them.

“The Twilight Sparkle is a symbol in some of the old magical texts,” he continued. “It is said to be the name mark of a very powerful mage who lived a long time ago. Some of the old stories say that she was sent to Equestria by the sun herself, or maybe she was banished from heaven by the moon.” He sighed. “So much knowledge lost to time.” He looked at where 
Starlight was standing eyes wide jaw open. “You looked shocked my young pony.”

Starlight shook himself. “Seek dusk, seek starlight,” he muttered to himself, then shook his head and chuckled. “Twilight, Sparkle.” He looked round at his friends. “Come on,” he waved a hoof at the cave, “it is in there for sure,” and he set off at a canter into the cave.

“You know,” Rapier Swift said as he trotted up to Papyrus's shoulder, “I think our fearless leader may be losing his marbles.” 
Papyrus sighed. “He is not losing his marbles, he just never had much of a full set to begin with.”

------

After about fifty meters the cave opened out into a large cavern. Papyrus gave a grunt and a magic ball of light floated up and hovered in the centre spreading light over the whole of the enormous space.

“Oh wow,” Rainstorm breathed. 

Oh wow indeed, Starlight thought. In the books he had read as a foal he had seen drawings of a dragon's cave, and this looked like a typical one - right down to the dragon curled up on its horde sleeping in the centre. But as with all foalhood things, they proved to be very different in real life. First, this dragon seemed to be made of stone, and second, a dragon's hordes in stories were always made up of gems and gold and other valuable things, but this was the first one Starlight had seen made up of... 

“Books,” Papyrus breathed softly. 

Indeed, the dragon’s horde seemed to be composed of hundreds of books. The stone dragon was not sleeping on them but they were piled up in stacks round him. 

The ponies slowly wandered into the cavern, still struck with the majesty of the scene. Rainstorm flew up and tapped a hoof against the dragon.

“Stone,” she said pointing out the obvious. “Why would anypony build a stone statue of a dragon in a cave on the top of a mountain?”

Papyrus cleared his throat. “Rainstorm my young pony, I do not think it is a statue.”

Rainstorm flinched back. “You mean it is a real dragon?” she exclaimed. 

“I believe so.”

“Alive!?” 

“No. No, almost certainly not.” 

Rainstorm relaxed and went back to looking round.

“Do dragons always turn to stone when they die?” Starlight asked his old teacher.

“No, not usually.” Papyrus looked curiously at the stone dragon. “I did read somewhere that dragons can turn themselves to stone, but it is very rare. It is a sort of inbuilt spell; when a dragon gets old or thinks he is dying he can become stone. But it almost never happens.”

“Why?”

“Well my young pony. You see for that to happen a dragon has to not really want to live anymore, to believe that he has nothing in the world worth keeping going for, and dragons are usually such self-centred creatures that they just do not feel that way. I wonder what happened to this one.” 

“I wonder why books,” Rainstorm called from where she was looking at the top of one of the towering book piles. 

“Well quite. Dragons are hoarders by nature and I have known dragons to horde many things, but only that which they believe has value. I do not know of a dragon that would think there is any value in reading. Rainstorm, what are those books? Maybe they will shed some light on this.”

Rainstorm picked up a book from the top of the pile and blew the dust off it. “Supernaturals.” She looked at a few others. “’Basics of anamorphic spells', 'How to run a race', 'Daring Do and the quartz queen' ” Rainstorm put the books back on the piles.

Papyrus shook his head. “The mystery deepens.”

“Papyrus.” 

It was Rapier Swift's voice. Starlight heard it coming from the back of the cave where several piles of books blocked their view of the dragon’s head.

“Papyrus, you need to see this.” Rapier's voice had a detached quality to it.

The rest of the ponies came round the towering piles of books. The dragon had been lying with its forelimbs and head on the ground, curled around to create a cosy space between its vast body and the piles of books. Starlight saw that the dragon was looking down, a sad expression on its huge face. Between the dragon's fore-claws there was a second statue.

“Oh a pony,” Papyrus exclaimed as he saw it, “well I suppose that that explains the books.” 

It was a pony. A mare, by what Starlight could see. She seemed to be curled up in the space between the claws, as though she had just settled down to sleep. From what he could, see Starlight thought she looked as though she was old but not decrepit. There were wrinkles on the stone face but she looked like she would still be able to stand her ground. In front of the pony, in the space created by the dragon, there was a writing pedestal turned to face the sleeping statue, and next to it a small table with a book and a small stone sphere on it.

“I suppose the books are hers then - but that does not explain why she is here.”

Rapier made a strangled sound. “Look at the pony, Papyrus. Look at her!”

“Well yes,” Papyrus replied confused, “as I have said it is a bit strange that she is here. Dragons are usually very territorial, even when it comes to ponies and I do wonder why her books are part of his horde but...”

“Her flank you old fool,” Rapier almost screamed, “for Luna's sake look at her name mark!”

The old unicorn walked closer and peered at the stone pony’s flank. 

“Oh my,” he whispered, legs starting to shake. “Oh my indeed.” He sat down on his hind quarters. 

Starlight pushed past him and looked at the pony’s flank for himself.

“Twilight Sparkle,” the old unicorn whispered. 

Still clearly visible, despite the lack of contrast the stone form gave her, was the mare’s name mark. It was the same design as had been on the stone on the entrance.

“You think this could be...” Rapier Swift started, and stopped,

“Twilight Sparkle,” Papyrus finished. “Yes my young pony, I rather think she might.” He stood up and examined the stone pony in more detail. “Twilight Sparkle,” he muttered under his breath.

There was silence for a few seconds as Papyrus just stood there staring at the legendary pony.

“So not a story after all,” Starlight said breaking the spell.

“Well, it would seem not my, young pony.” Papyrus replied, shaking his head and looking round the huge cave, “and this must be her library. Some of the stories said she cared for books, but I always took that to mean she craved knowledge. Maybe it had a more literal meaning.”

“...and what is this?” Rainstorm asked, picking the stone sphere up off the table and rolling it round in her hooves. 

It seemed to be a about the size and shape of a large orange or a small grapefruit and it had strange symbol on it. Starlight could not see anything special about it and he ignored it; instead he examined the book, but apart from its name he could not make anything out.

“What do you make of this?” he asked Papyrus. 

The unicorn levitated the book out of Starlight's hooves and held it up to his face. 

“‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide,’ ” he said, reading the cover before opening it. “How interesting; it seems to be a very old guide to some sort of magical artefacts, but there are notes and comments written in a newer script all through it.” He leafed over a few pages. “Yes, it seems that somepony was making notes to some sort of spell or tests she was doing.” 

“And what about this? It seems to be some sort of writing but I cannot read it,” Rapier Swift asked from the writing lectern. Papyrus put the old book back on the table and looked at the sheet of parchment on the lectern.

“It's in formal pony,” he explained.

Rapier gave him a quizzical look.

“You see in the time Twilight Sparkle is supposed to have lived,” he looked at the small pony statue between the arms of the larger dragon, “did live... pony writing came in two languages. Common pony was pictographic and simple and was used for everyday things like signs and lists, whereas formal pony was phonic and used for more formal writings like letters and books. You see most ponies could not read very well so...” 

“We do not need the lecture,” Rapier said, “can you read it?”

“Oh yes. Formal pony is not that complex a language. Now let me see...” He peered at the parchment muttering under his breath for a bit and then Starlight saw his legs wobble again and he sat down. “Oh Celestia,” he breathed. 

Starlight was a bit shocked-his old teacher was not one to use such language. “What is it?” he asked.

“It's a copy of a letter from Twilight Sparkle,” Papyrus replied, shock clear on his voice. “Oh Celestia,” he repeated.

“Well that makes sense,” Rapier said. “This is where she lived and you said formal pony was used for letters - what is so surprising?” 

Papyrus cleared his throat “What it says my young pony, and who it is to.” He shook his head. “It might be easer if I just read it to you.” He looked at the letter again and started to read:

"Dear Princess Celestia,

Spike says that nopony knows where you have gone but I know that the message spell will find you wherever you are.
The light is fading now but we managed it. Your last task to me is complete. They are safe and the Dark servants will not find them. I am so cold. When you get old you feel the cold - have other ponies in the past told you that I wonder? I am with Spike in his home on the mountain, I think I will sleep soon and join my friends, but first I had to send you my last report. 

We gathered up the Elements of Harmony- Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty and Magic- and put them to sleep. In their stone state the Dark Seekers will not hear them. Then Spike took me and we took them and scattered them around Equestria. I placed protective wards on the places where they sleep so even if the Dark servants find them they will not be able to take them. I placed them in places that were important to their bearers, my friends- Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkiepie and Rainbow Dash. I miss them so much; I think I have told you that before. I never had friends like them before or since. I have kept the sixth Element with me; the Darkness will not take it while Spike and I watch over it. 

I am so tired and the effort is draining me. I will get Spike to send this letter now and then I will finally join my friends. 

Goodbye Celestia.

Your forever-faithful student, 
Twilight Sparkle"

Papyrus finished reading the letter. The assembled ponies stared at it and the stone statue in silence. Suddenly the quiet was broken by a flutter of wings. Looking back at the entrance, Starlight saw a young pegasus come flitting into the cave. He recognised her from earlier in the day Wind Rush, the scout who had spotted the griffin ambush. She darted up and hovered in front of them.

“Sir Starlight,” she gasped out. “Urgent message from Captain Genoa: He says ‘Time to haul flank. There is a Dark Cloud on the horizon.’ ”

-----

“Shore crew. Cast off bow lines. Cast off stern lines,” Captain Genoa bellowed over the sound of the alert station's gong. “Port sunlines to full stretch, starboard sunlines half furl,” he continued as he climbed up the steps to the command deck. He hoofed up a pair of looking glasses and stared out at the Dark Cloud. The mass of Darkness writhed and boiled through the sky, lightning flickering round its edges. Even at this distance he could clearly see the Dark Creatures swarming around the edge of the cloud. Wordlessly he passed the glasses over to the junior officer on the command deck and turned to the helm. 

“Celestia help us,” the junior office breathed as he saw the approaching enemy.

“She better,” Captain Genoa said flatly, waving the crew member to stop banging the alert. On the edge of the cliff he saw the shore crew frantically untying the lines that held the EverDream to the mountain and flinging them to other crew members on board. “Fliers a loft,” he shouted. Almost instantly the air was filled with the flapping of wings as the pegasi leapt to the sky. “Gun batteries prime cannons and prepare to fire. Deck mounts independent operation.” Ponies clattered and hurried over the deck as they rushed to obey the orders. A team of ponies hurried past the Captain and crewed the swivel mount lance at the rear of the command deck. 

Genoa picked up a speaking tube again. “Engines manoeuvring speed,” he ordered as the last of the shore crew leapt back aboard. He gave the wheel a twist to port and the EverDream gave a lurch as her twin screws bit the air and she moved away from the cliff. “Recovery crew - retrieve Sir Starlight and the shore party,” he added almost as an afterthought as the ship heeled as it pulled round. Looking over his shoulder he could clearly see the Dark Creatures now without the aid of the looking glasses- strange and terrifying things that floated around the edge of the cloud; some of them almost looked like things he could recognise. There was a dragon shape there, others looked like a nightmare come to life, flickering dark spiky masses of tendrils. 

“Starboard guns fire as she bears,” he shouted as the ship continued its leisurely turn. For a moment there was silence; looking over the deck he could see every crewpony standing at their station staring at the cloud and ready to leap into action. The crew waited breathlessly as the EverDream slowly came round. Then there was a rippling thunder from the gun deck as the starboard battery spat gouts of magical fire into the sky.

-----

Starlight and the rest of the group emerged from the far edge of the forest. As soon as the young pegasus had delivered her message they had thrown the book, letter and the odd stone sphere into their saddlebags and galloped back to where the Everdeam was tied up. Starlight did not know why he had stopped to pick up the stone and the book; he justified it by the fact that these had evidently been important to Twilight Sparkle - but in reality he had felt he just could not leave without them.

“All that knowledge,” Papyrus had bemoaned as they were galloping through the tree covered plateau, “the Library of the most studious unicorn of her age. A pony who was the personal student of the princess of the sun no less. I could have spent the rest of my life studying that.” 

“Very likely if you had stayed there,” Rapier Swift had said flatly. “And never made it past a title page.” 

As soon as they had cleared the cave, Rainstorm had stretched her wings and disappeared into the sky. Starlight assumed that she had gone on ahead to find the rest of her fliers. The remaining three ponies quickly galloped back though the woods. As soon as they emerged, Starlight could see why Captain Genoa had sent the flier. Boiling in from the horizon was a Dark Cloud. 

Starlight swallowed and felt a chill. He had not seen a Dark Cloud before, but he had heard of them. Everypony had heard of them, they were the new stuff of nightmares. About fifteen years ago the Darkness had first come to Equestria, since then Dark Clouds had become more and more common; now they roamed Equestria's skies. Virtually nothing could stop them, not unicorn magic, not powerful weapons of war, not even brute earth pony strength. They would appear, strange horrifying creatures spilling forth from them to cover an area. Eventually the Dark Cloud would move on leaving behind nothing. No life, no magic, nothing. Sometimes ponies could hold them back to allow time for escape - there had even been rumours of places where they had been defeated, but not without heavy cost. The Darkness terrified ponies, and slowly it was devouring their world.

“They are abandoning us.” Papyrus screamed, pointing his hoof at edge of the cliff. Starlight saw that the EverDream had loosed its mornings and was even now pulling away from the edge.

“They are not,” Rapier told the old pony. “If they stayed tied up the EverDream would be a sitting target. Genoa is taking her out to where she has a fighting chance.” As if to underline his point there was a rippling explosion and the ship lurched as its gun battery opened fire. Teardrops of magical fire arched through the sky to rain down on the mass of creatures milling round the edge of the cloud.

“They will send a recovery party for us,” he finished. “Come on, let's head to the edge.” Starlight could see a small group of pegasi winging their way towards them as they again set off. He felt something strange, a twitching in his hooves and a tingling on the back of his mane. Without knowing why he stopped and spun, tucked his head down and bucked out. His back hooves connected with something. Something flew through the air its presence only revealed by the movement of leaves as it was thrown back and it crashed into the trunk of a tree with a tinkling crashing sound. Starlight stared at the source of the noise wondering what had happened. 

“Crystal moth,” Rapier Swift shouted. “Papyrus...” but the old unicorn was as fast on the uptake and there was an explosion of light that radiated out from the old pony. As the light passed, the air shimmered in several places, revealing about a dozen strange creatures surrounding the small band. They were about the size of a foal with a segmented body and moth-like wings made of a strange dark crystal that seemed to flex and bend as they floated on the air.

Starlight had heard of these before. Crystal moths were the infiltrators of the Darkness, they used their crystal body to somehow bend the light round them; they would sneak in and then as soon as a Dark Cloud appeared they would leap out and attack the helpless ponies in the ensuing chaos. They could be revealed by a flash of magic light like Papyrus had demonstrated, but only if you knew that they were there. He had known somehow, he had felt them - how?

Starlight heard the metallic rasp of Rapier Swift's hoof blade and quickly drew his own sword just in time to fend off one of the creatures as it dived at him. Strange black crystal talons rasped against the blade as he threw the creature back; he sensed as much as felt another of the creatures diving on him from behind and he let his training take over. He kicked out as he spun, catching the creature on one of its wings. He slashed at it with his sword as it spun wildly, but he could not judge the rapid spin and missed it. Several more of the creatures dived at him and he threw himself into a roll coming up beside Rapier Swift. His old instructor was wielding his hoof-blade in defence of the old unicorn. Starlight slashed at a moth but again his blade clattered off the creature's crystal wings. 

“Get your blade past their wings,” Rapier shouted at him, fitting action to words and deftly guiding his blade past the wings and skewering one of the creatures through its vulnerable middle. 

Starlight as always was amazed at his old teacher's ability to remain calm in the face of mortal danger; he seemed not to care that they were outnumbered and surrounded by creatures of the Darkness. Starlight slashed at another diving pair and then an idea struck him. He slashed at a moth, driving back and then pivoting on his front right hoof and spinning solidly planting his rear hooves on the enemy. The moth flew backwards and hit a stone outcrop, its wings shattering with a satisfactory ringing crash. Starlight completed the spin in time to see a beam of yellow magical energy pick a moth out of the air.

“Persistent are they not?” Papyrus said as he plucked another of the creatures out of the air with his magic. 

Starlight could only nod in reply as he spun and kicked at more of them. The three ponies backed into a fighting circle as the moths again pressed their advantage of numbers. Suddenly the air above Starlight was filled with the fluttering of wings as the recovery party's pegasi arrived. The extra ponies tipped the balance, and in a flurry of hooves and blades the remaining moths were quickly dealt with.

“Sir Starlight.” The lead pegasus saluted. “With your permission we have a ship to catch.” 

Starlight sheathed his sword so he could be safely lifted, and nodded back at the pegasus.

-----

As soon as she was clear of the cave Rainstorm spread her wings and sought the sky. When she cleared the tops of the trees she saw what Windrush had reported. Off in the distance she could see the Dark Cloud, and surrounding it the mass of large Dark creatures. She looked towards the EverDream and saw that the fliers had already taken to the sky. The flight had split; half of the fliers were staying in close to provide short range support, the other half were already formed into arrowhead formations and were heading off to engage the larger Dark creatures. She folded herself into the fast flight posture; front and rear hooves out-stretched, wings back and sped off to catch up with her fliers.

Rainstorm caught up with the lead wing in the formation and slid into the flightleader's position, Cirrus her second shifting over to make room for her.

“I thought you were going to miss this dance,” he said, hiding his relief behind the light humour all fliers used at times of tension.

“Of course not. I would not leave you partnerless!” she quipped back, “did Captain Genoa give us any instructions?”

“Nothing more detailed than 'for Luna's sake keep them off my ship'. ”

Rainstorm nodded and used the excuse of priming her hoof cannon to give herself time to think. She mouthed the catch and the small charge crystal slid into the assembly. The hoof cannon she was wearing was smaller than the ones the rest of the cannon-armed members of her wing wore. 

All of the weapons were much smaller versions of the large cannons that were on the EverDream. Like most war engines they used a charged magical crystal to provide the spell energy for the conduction chamber and then a long brass barrel to focus the spell charge. Hoof canons were strapped to the fore-leg with the crystal assembly and conduction chamber about at knee level; their barrel was about the thickness of a pony's leg and usually extended out beyond the hoof. Hers were smaller; she had been going exploring, not into a fight and she had wanted to be able to walk properly if she needed to. 

The casing around the conduction chamber started to warm up telling her that the weapon was ready to fire and she made up her mind on the plan. 

“Cirrus, pass the word to the wing leaders. Tell them to go in hard and try to get some of the faster of those monsters to follow them. Leave the slower ones to the EverDream's guns.”

Cirrus nodded and arced away to pass the word. Rainstorm looked at the mass of large, twisted Dark creatures boiling out of the cloud. It was not really a good plan but there was no good plan here. She looked round at her wing- she trusted all these ponies; they were good fliers even if not all of them were ex-Equestria Flying Corps, but only some of them had fought the Darkness before like she had. 

Her mind went back to that day over the yellow grass country. She had been only a wing leader, not a flight leader, and she had led her wing against a Dark creature, a hideous cross between a huge jellyfish and a ladybird, that had been harrying a herd of earth ponies fleeing from the town. She had lost many good ponies that day, ripped to shadows by the thing's tendrils, but they had saved most of the refugees. She felt more than heard Cirrus slot back into formation beside her as she picked the target for her wing. A large black dragon that seemed to be moving far too fast for her liking. Well I guess it is time for the speech, she thought to herself. She turned so she could be heard by all her wing. 

“Ponies,” she started, “wing mates. I am not going to lie to you, this is going to be a hard fight but I have confidence in you. We are pegasi, we are descended from a long line of brave pegasi, and when there is hard fighting, pegasi have always been there to do it.” There was a cheer from her wing. “So let's embrace this challenge and show them how pegasi fly.” There was a bigger cheer, even from ponies who had obviously been too far away to hear her. It was not the best speech in the world, Rainstorm thought as she twisted back around, but it's the only one I've got. The black dragon had spotted them now and turned to face them. Here we go, she thought as the dragon breathed a jet of back fire at the approaching wing. The wing split, ponies diving around the jet of fire and Rainstorm pointed her cannon at the dragon and fired.

----

“Down!” Genoa shouted and he threw himself flat on the deck. As the black fire washed over head he felt his mane frizzle. He picked his head up in time to see the black dragon wheel off to starboard and turn for another run at them. Lances of magical energy from the deck weapons stabbed at it and it broke off its run, a wing of the fliers swooping after it. He pushed himself to his hooves and took the wheel again. The outlying creatures form the Dark Cloud were harassing the Everdeam, attempting to limit their ability to manoeuvre. “Trying to slow us up for the knockout blow,” he muttered; it was working as well. Harassed by these creatures, they could not get off good barrages at the approaching Dark Cloud or turn and disengage. 

He gave the wheel a savage twist to port as a large Dark creature reared up in front of the bow. It looked like an enormous black armoured whale with sharp wings and a mouth full of teeth. The EverDream lurched as the creature scraped along the bow, ripping chunks out of the hull armour, and then again as the gun battery fired at almost point blank range. The creature was ripped to shreds by the intense fire, its body cracking and evaporating. “Furl those sun lines,” he bellowed at the crew, “and try to keep those things away from the envelopes.” The last thing he needed now was damaged sunlines. 

The sunlines were the primary source of the magical energy that the airship ran on. They were magically conductive sheets of crystal - about a pony’s length square – that were flexible and could be rolled up. The actual term 'sunline' came from when they were first used; they looked less like the sheets of modern designs and more like a thin line or rope. Most sunlines were a vivid primary colour, the colour reflecting the different flavours of magical energy they were designed to absorb. The sunlines on the EverDream were a deep navy blue, the most common colour for ships of its size and draw. They hung between the deck and the lifting envelope or canopy, looking not unlike small sails or large flags, where they could absorb the most energy. This was then fed through crystal straws in the frame of the ship to the spinner engine where it could be used. 

The crystal the sunlines were made of could absorb a lot of magical energy, but was quite fragile and prone to wear and tear and, given their exposed position, battle damage. In order to offer them some more protection, sunlines were designed to be furled - rolled up - to minimise their exposure and prolong their lifespan. Unfortunately when furled they only provided a fraction of the power so a captain would adjust his sunlines depending on his energy usage; typically in combat they would keep the lines of the exposed side of the ship furled and stretch the ones of the sheltered side. But it was one of the biggest skills of a captain to know how to set his sunlines and Genoa could not risk his with these creatures all over his ship. They had to be furled and he accepted that the EverDream would be slower as a result.

Smaller dark shapes scuttled all over the ship as the Dark Cloud got closer. Large spider things about the size of a large cat or small dog with strange spindly legs and oversized fangs. As with all the Dark creatures Genoa had seen - he had seen too many already - they seemed to drink the light, creating a misty shadow around them. The crew ponies were having to spend a lot of effort fending them off and it was only getting worse. There was a small explosion of dark light and one of the black spider creatures appeared on the wheel. Genoa swore and jumped back reaching for his sword. The creature gave an insectile hiss and leapt for his face. A magical nimbus enveloped the thing and it was flung over the side. Genoa grabbed the wheel again.

“Thank you,” he said to the junior officer as he took the wheel again. 

“Captain! Fine off the starboard bow.” 

The looking glasses levitated themselves in front of Genoa. Looking through them he swore again. What might have just been an outlier of the Dark Cloud itself was revealed under magnification to be a swarm of creatures. These did not look like the spiders that were plaguing the ship, instead they were larger and could almost have been... They looked like the shadows of pegasus ponies, and they were approaching fast. 

He hoofed up the speaking tube. “Gun crew. Load starboard scatter fire and hold for my signal,” he shouted as he gave the wheel another savage twist. “Ensign, signal the fliers, see if they can distract some of that swarm.” He doubted it; the pegasi were already hard-pressed, and the swarm of shadow ponies was closing fast. The junior officer nodded and sent up a series of coloured fireworks signalling the order to any of the ship’s fliers that could see them. “All crew,” he bellowed over the deck, “prepare to defend the ship!” 

The swarm grew closer as the EverDream made its turn. “C'mon, c'mon,” he muttered under his breath; never had a turn seemed so lazy. Lances of fire from the deck guns stabbed at the swarm. Genoa could see individuals in the attacking swarm shrivel under the firepower. They were almost on them now. “FIRE!!!” he yelled into the speaking tube. The cannons spoke. A hail of magic scythed into the shadow ponies cutting them down in waves but still the swarm came.

“For Equestria!!” he bellowed, the cry echoing back from the deck. He grabbed his sword from out of its scabbard as the shadow ponies hit the EverDream.

-----

The strong limbs of the pegasus held Starlight tight as the flier raced through the sky. His stomach lurched as the pegasus dived down under the wing of a black dragon that roared past them and then weaved through the wing of fliers that were chasing it. Starlight had been flown by pegasus before, but this was terrifying; the helplessness he felt as the rescue party dodged round the combat between them and the EverDream was almost too much to bear. As the flier jerked around another Dark creature Starlight got another good look at the airship.

EverDream was in trouble. Two large creatures that looked like enormous black jellyfish, big blobs of smoky darkness with long smoke-like tendrils, were approaching it. As he watched they started to wrap their tendrils around the ship, clutching at it. Why were they not firing at the new attackers? he wondered. As they flew closer he saw why; there was nopony left to crew the guns. All the crew ponies were fighting hoof to hoof with what looked like shadows of themselves.

“Take us down to the command deck,” he told the pegasus holding him. The pegasus nodded and swooped round towards the stern of the airship. Starlight saw the smoke-like tendrils had wrapped themselves around the deck and he saw a small knot of ponies by the wheel, surrounded by the Dark intruders. He drew his sword and braced himself. The recovery flight swooped low over the deck; there was a pull as the pegasus backstroked his wings and then his legs let Starlight go and he dropped to the deck.

As soon as Starlight's hooves hit the deck he slashed out at the Dark tendrils that were trying to wrap themselves around the ship. Rapier Swift did the same, and together the two ponies fought their way through the forest of smoke-like limbs to where Captain Genoa and the rest of his ponies were fighting. As they approached, one of the creatures they were fighting twisted round to face them. Starlight reared back in shock and horror. The creature was a twisted reflection of a pony. Its coat and mane were a deep midnight black and its eyes were holes into blackness. It seemed to distort the air around it, drawing in the light and warmth to create an area of floating shadow. As it slashed its front legs at him Starlight saw that they ended not in normal hooves but in savage talons. Instinctively he blocked its slash, but the force of the blow knocked him to the deck. The monstrosity reared up over him, its taloned hooves pawing the air. Suddenly a steel point protruded from its chest. The creature screamed in despair and imploded in a flash of black smoke revealing Captain Genoa standing behind it. 

The Captain sheathed his sword as Starlight got back up to his hooves. “Sir Starlight,” he said as he saluted. “Nice of you to join us for our last stand. Should I go down with the ship or do you want that honour?” 

Starlight's equally sarcastic reply was cut off by a shout from Papyrus. He ran over to where the old unicorn was standing at the rail and pointing back out at the mountain top. 

In its pursuit of the fleeing EverDream, the Dark Cloud had wrapped itself almost all the way round where the mountain emerged from the cloud base. Looking back, Starlight could see what his old teacher had seen. There was a cloud of glowing purple smoke billowing out of where Starlight estimated the cave was. The smoke expanded until it almost covered the little forest and then suddenly it snapped together into the figure of the dragon that they had seen in the cave.

“Holy Celestia,” Starlight breathed.

He could see that the dragon still seemed to be made of the purple smoke and it still seemed to glow, but other than that it looked as real as anything he had seen. It reared up and roared; the noise deafening even from this distance. Then it lowered its head and let out a stream of bright green fire. The fire billowed over the Dark Cloud, melting it where it touched. The Cloud seemed to flinch and contract from the attack. The dragon roared and breathed flame again; this time when its fire struck the cloud it did not melt, instead it seemed to bunch together, deflecting the fire around it. Dark creatures dove at the purple dragon and he slashed at them with glittering claws.

“By Luna's mane what is that?” Rapier Swift asked. 

“It seems to be the dragon from the cave,” Papyrus responded without taking his eyes off the epic fight going on over the plateau.

“Maybe it will distract the Darkness,” Starlight wondered. As if in response to his thoughts, more of the smoke-like Dark tendrils reached up and tried to grab at the ship and the ponies. 

“No such luck,” Rapier said, slashing his hoof blade at one of the things.

Starlight again drew his sword and set himself to a fighting stance. He sensed rather than saw the flash of purple light from behind him. The light streamed past him almost like water; where it touched the tendril the Dark thing smoked and evaporated. He spun around towards the middle of the deck and saw her- it was the pony from the cave.

Starlight was sure it was her; her name mark, the ‘twilight sparkle’, was clear and vivid on her flank. She stood there in the middle of the deck. She was younger than the stone version of her had been. She seemed to be a young strong pony in her prime rather than the old figure he has seen in the cavern. Starlight also noticed that not only was she glowing but he could see through her. A projection? he thought, A spirit? Her violet eyes stared straight into his, straight into his soul, and she spoke a single word.

“GO” 

The word echoed around the ship and then there was a flash of light and she vanished. 

Starlight looked around the ship; all the shadow ponies and the Black tendrils seemed to have disappeared. The EverDream was floating in a clear patch of air.

“Captain!” he shouted “you heard the err... ghost. Haul flank!”

“Ay sir,” Genoa replied, then turning to the deck he bellowed to the stunned crew. “Full stretch all sunlines,” he hoofed up the speaking tube. “Engines full power.” He leaned his head down and plucked up one of the junior officers who had been knocked senseless on the deck “Stop lying down on the job and recall the fliers,” he yelled, the junior officer saluted woozily but he screwed up his eyes and sent a whistling fireball into the sky where it exploded in a red glow that hung over the ship.

The ship lurched as it picked up speed, seeking clear skies. Starlight joined Papyrus back at the rail. Looking back at the battle on the mountain top, the dragon had now been joined by the enormous figure of the mare, as big as the dragon. She was slashing at the Dark creatures, her magic and hooves joining the fire and claws of her companion. But the Dark Cloud was pressing in, as they watched it wrapped itself around the fighting pair, closing over them completely.

“That is it then,” Rapier Swift said woefully.

“I do not think so,” Papyrus replied. “Captain, get us out of here now.” 

“We are going as fast as we can,” Genoa responded. 

Starlight could see flashes of green and purple in the Dark Cloud now. They were getting more and more urgent. White streaks of lighting arched, earthing themselves on the mountain. The whole Cloud seemed to rock and bulge. 

“Captain!” he called, backing away from the stern railing.

The mountain top exploded. Jets of green and purple fire tore through the Dark Cloud, ripping it to shreds. Lighting reached out, flashing and grounding and then the entire spire detonated, throwing out molten rock and house sized-boulders 

“Brace!!” Starlight screamed as he threw himself for a hoof-hold. The shockwave picked the EverDream up and flung it through the sky.

-----

Rainstorm led her wing in a sharp dive angled through the swarm of shadow ponies. She pointed her hoof cannon at the one that she had picked out as her target and triggered it. But instead of a ball of magical fire, the device just gave a pathetic whine. The Discord cursed thing was out of charge. Instead of blowing the shadow creature apart, as she passed she settled for hitting it with her forehoves. The shadow pony spun widely, bowled over by her sheer speed but it did not shatter. Rather, it wheeled out of the swarm and came after her. Rainstorm flipped herself over and jammed her wings out to their full stretch. The sudden impact of the air nearly wrenched them out of their sockets but it brought her nearly to a standstill and the shadow pegasus almost ran into her. As she stopped she brought her rear hooves up and delivered a powerful buck to the creature’s head. There was a brief scream abruptly cut off as the Dark creature shattered into fragmented shadows which disappeared like burning gas. All creatures of the Darkness did that when they were defeated; nopony knew why. 

More of the dark pegasi had followed the wing out of the swarm, and Rainstorm saw Cirrus turn and blow one of them away with his much larger hoof cannon. But not all of them were so lucky. Another of her wing missed with her hoof cannon and before she could get off another shot her target was on her, slashing at her with its fearsome claws. The young pegasus screamed once before she exploded into shadows. 

Ponies that were killed by the Darkness also disappeared into shadows - nopony knew the reason for that either, but everypony was sure they were just as dead as by other methods. The remaining Dark creature turned to face her but another of Rainstorm’s wingmates flashed past it, the sharp blades mounted on the leading edge of his wings slicing deep into it. It also shattered. 

She brought her wing back round ready for another run. They were trying to keep another swarm of these dark copies of pegasi from the EverDream but they were not having much success at it - already the ship had been enveloped by the first one. 

As she turned she caught sight of the top of the mountain and the Dark Cloud. It had wrapped itself round the mountain top and she watched the strange purple dragon appear and start to fight it. This is getting weird, she thought. As she watched there was a flash of purple light and a giant figure of a mare joined the dragon. She looked similar to the dragon, purple and slightly transparent. Her hooves came down in a crack of magic driving the Dark Cloud back but more of the creatures swept round at them. She tossed her head and streamers of white hot magic lashed out at them.

Rainstorm shook her head. This is no time to stare like an awe-struck filly, you are in the middle of a battle, she thought to herself. Concentrate or you will regret it. As she was gathering her thoughts there was a high-pitched whistle that years of training drove right to the centre of her awareness. She snapped round to face the EverDream.

The sound was the noise that a ship used to issue an urgent order to its fliers - and sure enough she saw the bright red glow of a signal flare hanging above the EverDream - but that was not what caused her to stop and stare again.

The EverDream was floating in clear space. There was no sign of either the large creatures that had latched onto it or the swarms of dark pegasi that were attacking it. 

“Recall! Back to the ship!” she yelled out pointlessly; the rest of her fliers had seen the message as clear as she had.

She flattened herself, dug her wings into the air and sped back. The EverDream must be making a run for it. Even at this range she could see all the sunlines being stretched, their reflective, dark blue panels flashes of new colour along the side of the ship’s deck. Even the slowest pegasus could overtake an airship of the EverDream’s class easily, but it was not a good idea to get left behind by your ship.

She felt a tingle go along her spine, as if all the hairs on her coat were trying to stand on end. It was just like she’d flown into a thunder cloud or as if a crystal spinner engine was about to let go. She twisted her head back just in time to see the Dark Cloud pulse and then explode, taking the top of the mountain with it. Her instincts took over and she folded her wings in as tight as she could. The shock wave hit her and tossed her around the sky as pony sized chunks of rock rained down around her.  

-----

Dazedly, Starlight picked himself up off the deck and looked around. All over the ship, ponies where doing the same thing. The ship was a mess. Sunlines hung snapped and loose and wreckage was strewn around. Looking up he saw that there was a large rock embedded in one of the panels of the crystal canopy. Rainstorm landed next to him, her mane was wild and she did not fold her left wing up when she landed.

“Well that was fun,” she said. She flexed her left wing and winced in pain. “I think I may have sprained that a bit,” she said flatly, “that is what comes of trying to ride out a wave like that. But I reckon I am probably luckily to have made it through that considering what it did.”

Slowly Starlight walked over to the aft railing and looked out.

The cave, the spire, the forested plateau, the entire top of the mountain no longer existed. Along with the Dark Cloud. 

He sensed a presence at his side and turned to see Papyrus standing there. 

“It seems a pity,” he said, gesturing to where the mountain had been. “Twilight Sparkle’s last act. Destroyed her library.”

“Was that really her?” Starlight asked.

Papyrus nodded. “Almost certainly. A part of her at least. And part of her friend - that dragon, he must have been the ‘Spike’ referred to in the letter. She kept a part of them. Call it a spark of their sprit. There, watching, guarding, waiting for us.” The old unicorn turned and looked at Starlight. “For you, my young pony. But why? What was she guarding with all that power?” 

Starlight remembered the feeling he'd had when he was leaving the cave, the feeling that he could not leave without the stone. He reached back into his saddle bag and picked out the stone orb. “This maybe?” He turned the stone orb over in his hooves. It glinted strangely in the light of the setting sun.

“Whatever this is.”

-----

Starlight danced through the night. The stars were again shining brightly as he moved his hooves in the steps of the formal dance.

Again she was there, her hooves moving with his in the dance steps. The White Pony. For time uncountable they danced together through the stars. As before, the dance changed, becoming less formal and more intimate as she moved her head next to his.

“You must find them,” she whispered in his ear. 

“I have found them,” Starlight replied. 

She smiled at him. “You have found part of them,” she said, “you have found the first or the last. The part that is everything and yet on its own it is nothing.” She looked into his eyes again. “They are needed.”

“The Darkness,” he whispered into her ear and again he felt the chill press in.

They danced on for a bit, necks and hooves entwining. Starlight noticed that the stars were fading again. The air was growing cold. 

“You must find them,” she repeated urgently. 

“Where are they?”

“You know where they are.” She smiled at him. “The magic told you they sleep with their sprits, with the stars, with the others. You must find them.”

The light had gone dim. Again he noticed The White Pony glowing with a light of her own, and again he clung to her warmth. 

As her light started to fade, she looked into his eyes. “Tell me,” she whispered, “do you still dream of me?”

He looked back into the light of her eyes. 

“Yes,” he whispered back as her light faded, “always.”

End of chapter 1

=====


A giving spirit rests with the gifts returned. But not all of its treasures bestowed on the world are yet dulled.
Next chapter: Rough Diamond.


> Rough Diamond: part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The past in Ponyville

“Come on dear, one more push and it will be done,” the nurse said encouragingly from the other end of the delivery stable. 

Rarity screamed and clamped her hooves even more tightly on Spike’s scaled claws. Spike bit back his own protests and whispered comforting words in his wife’s ear. That was at least the fifth ‘one more push’; he spared a glance for the doctor, but the doctor’s face was not as encouraging as he had hoped it would be. It had been a hard labour already, and it was taking its toll on Rarity. Spike loved his wife with all his considerable heart, but even he had to admit that she was not the most robust of ponies. Oh, she had reserves of personality and inner strength, but she was not as physically tough as Applejack or Rainbow Dash.

Another contraction hit and Rarity screamed and swore in pain again. Spike was thankful that his hide was covered with thick scales, as his claw had taken a bruising. Again he whispered comforting words in her ear.

“Spike, you dragon, you,” Rarity snapped at him, “this is all your fault, if I ever let you touch me again it will be because--” Her words dissolved into a torrent of swearing and screams. “--and what is this doing to my figure!”

Spike leaned in closer and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Rarity, my darling, you will be as beautiful as always.”

Tears welled up in Rarity’s eyes. “Oh Spike, don’t leave me, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Spike stroked her mane and reassured her that he would not. Rarity’s sharp mood swings were one of the things that he had gotten used to over the unending hours. It had been almost as tough on him mentally as it had been hard on Rarity physically, and he was worn out. He again considered if he should ask the nurse to fetch Twilight. She was just in the waiting room outside and her presence would be a great comfort to him, but he suppressed the urge. Rarity would really not  like her friends to see her is such a state.

Rarity screamed as another contraction hit her, crushing Spike’s claw between her hooves again. Spike bit back the pain and tried not to let the worry show in his eyes.

===

A torrent of swearing in Rarity’s unmistakable tones drifted through the wall of the waiting room from the delivery stable beyond.

“Oh, my,” Fluttershy said, blushing a pink almost the same colour as her mane. 

Applejack, sitting next to her, chuckled. “Yep, Rarity has a good set of lungs on her when she wants to use ‘em.”

“Oh my, where did she learn such language?”

“Flutters, sugar cube, I seem to remember you using that one when you where foaling little Sweet Apple.”

“Oh my,” Fluttershy repeated and cringed back in her seat.

“If ah remember correctly, ya ware swearing up such a storm I had to send AB and her friends out of the farm.”

“Oh dear.” Fluttershy moaned and tried to crawl between the cushions.

“Where is Sweetapple?” Twilight asked Fluttershy, hoping to distract her friend before she disappeared without the use of magic. 

“Oh, Big Mac left him with Apple Bloom and her friends, they are such nice girls.”

‘Nice girls’ would not be the first description that came to mind when Twilight thought of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but they had mellowed a lot since they had gotten their marks, and sometimes they at least managed not to destroy everything they started on.

Another torrent of swearing punctuated her thoughts. 

“Oh, my,” Fluttershy repeated and blushed a deeper shade of red.

Twilight cast around for more distractions; if she did not distract Fluttershy soon, she would be able to use the pony to boil a kettle.

Fortunately, at that point the best distraction in Ponyville thundered through the door. 

“Is it here yet? Is the new foal here yet? Can I see the new foal?” The pink streak exclaimed as it darted around the small waiting room, leaving a trail of magazines and, for some reason, confetti in its wake.

“Pinkie Pie,” Twilight called out, but the pink blur was too worked up to listen.

“Can I, can I, can I, is it a colt or a filly? I hope it is a filly like its mother, or maybe a colt like its father, but its father is Spike and Spike is a dragon, what do you call a half pony, half dragon baby -- for that matter what do you call a baby dragon?”

“PINKIE PIE!” Twilight tried again, but Pinkie Pie was too far gone to pay attention to anything in the mundane world of sound. 

“Oh, I know, Twilight you are smart, I mean you are the smartest pony I know, probably the smartest pony in all Ponyville, no all Equestria, you know what baby dragons are called. But what if there is not a name for them. Oh! I know, we need a ‘name a baby dragon’ party.”

Another epic blast of swearing erupted through the wall.

Pinkie Pie shuddered to a dead halt in the middle of the room, just as if she had hit a brick wall. She tilted her head to one on side. “Oh, that is a doosy.” She turned to Applejack. “Is that even possible?”

“Pinkie Pie, cupcake,” Applejack said with a chuckle. “I don’t think she means it, she is just letting off steam.”

“So do we have a new foal yet?” Rainbow Dash asked from where she had followed Pinkie Pie through the door. More swearing answered her. “I guess not. Boy, Rarity can swear up a storm when she wants to; she is worse than Soarin when he misses a trick.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Does it usually take this long?”

“No RD, it does not,” Applejack responded a little sharply, “not that you seem to want to find out.” 

Rainbow Dash had the good grace to look embarrassed at this. She had been a bit put out -- and vocal about it -- when one of the Wonderbolts had taken time out to have a foal in the middle of their tour. 

“But it ain’t a normal birth after all. As Pinkie Pie said, it is half dragon and there ain’t no telling how long that might take.”

“I tried to find out if anypony knew,” Twilight added, “but there was not much information in my books. So I sent to Canterlot for some more books. But they did not have much information, so I tried to find some information on of my own, but there is not much information on dragon hybrids, so I had to make up some theories.” 

Twilight started to scrabble at the pile of papers in front of her. “But I was not certain on whether my theories were any good, so I had to read some books on making up theories, but they were not much help, so I needed to make up some more theories for my first theories.” Twilight’s scrabbling became frantic. “...and then all the different theories gave me different answers, so I needed to see whether my answers were any good, so I needed to make up some more theories to see if my first answers were good answers.” 

Applejack got up and gently put her hoof over the frantic unicorn’s neck. “Twi, when did you last sleep?”

Whatever strings had been holding Twilight up broke and she collapsed in a heap “Oh, Spike, Rarity, please be okay.”

There was another stream of curses that abruptly broke of mid obscenity. Everypony in the waiting room held their breath, and then there was the faint wailing of new lungs.

Everypony breathed again. After a few minutes the connecting door opened and Spike folded himself through it. A small part of Twilight’s mind thought that her young dragon friend was starting to get a little too big for normal pony architecture, but the larger part of her mind was totally focused on the little bundle that he held one large arm. 

“Is that the baby? Can I see the baby? I want to see the baby!” Pinkie Pie rushed up, bouncing up and down in front of him. 

Spike put out his other arm and gently pushed the over excited pony away. “Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash,” he said as they pushed themselves up and walked over to him. “Everypony else,” he said, looking at the vibrating Pinkie Pie. “I would like you to meet my daughter.” He gently pulled aside a fold of blanket to reveal the tiny creature within. “I would like you meet Rough Diamond.”
-----

The present, aboard the airship Everdream
Starlight paced the floor of the little cabin.

“So where are they?” he asked impatiently.

Papyrus put the book back on the stand and looked at the pacing pony. 

“My young pony, for the last time, I do not know.”

“Why do you not know?” Starlight said irritably. “You have been studying the book and the book tells you where they are -- that must be what she means -- so you must know where they are.”

“Nevertheless, I do not. And pacing round my cabin is not going to help me find out any faster. Why don’t you go and pace around on deck?”

Starlight looked down at his hooves. “I did that already,” he said, “they are trying to repair some of the damage that the Dark Cloud did, and they told me to get out of their way.”

Papyrus looked at his young charge. He and Rapier had promised Starlight’s farther that they would look after him. But his growing -- well, call it what it was -- madness was worrying the old scholar more and more. Starlight had been a lot better since they had started on this -- again, let’s be honest -- quest, but after they had found the stone orb he had started to deteriorate again.

“Well, you are not helping me make sense of this book by pacing around like that.”

“What are you having trouble with? You said you can read the language the book is written in, so why can you not just read it and tell me where they are?”

“Starlight, my young pony, it is just not that simple.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing it is not just a simple matter of reading the book. The book, is not a map to where these are.” He waved at the stone. “The book contains instructions or maybe a guide for a very powerful magical artefact, undoubtedly exactly as the title, ‘The Elements of Harmony a Reference Guide’, says.” 

“The stones!” Starlight chipped in.

“Not as far as I can tell. The magical artefacts you refer to appear to be some sort of crystal or gem.” He flipped through the book’s pages and showed a picture to Starlight. 

It was a picture of six gemstones, each a brilliant primary colour, arranged in a geometric shape. There was writing in a different ink to the rest of the book next to the picture, clearly added after the book was finished. 

“What’s that say?” said Starlight pointing at the writing. 

“That, my young pony, is the second problem. There are copious notes all through the book made by a unicorn who obviously had been studying the magical artefacts; she makes many references to them and to experiments she has done -- and constantly contradicts the main book. For example, the text next to that picture says. ‘Why are they shown like this? They have never looked like this. Does their shape change depending on their bearer? Is that why they look like our cutie marks?’ ”

“What the hay is a cutie mark?”

“Name marks,” Papyrus filled in irritably, “it was the term used in the time Twilight lived; our language has changed subtly since then.” He went back to the book “...and when she is not contradicting the book, the editor makes nonsensical statements like this one here. The book says ‘there are six Elements but only five are known, honesty, loyalty, laughter, kindness and generosity,’ then she has scribbled in the margin: ‘magic -- the sixth is magic, my element, my gift, the special spark that brings us all together.’ ”

“Hay,” Starlight interrupted excitedly, “those elements you just mentioned, what where they, truthfulness, giving, friendship, happiness?”

“Honesty, loyalty, laughter, kindness, generosity and presumably magic,” Papyrus corrected

“Yes, whatever. They were mentioned in the letter. The one to the Goddess.”

“Princess Celestia. Yes they were.” Papyrus was actually a bit impressed with Starlight’s logical jump.

“Yes, well, Twilight Sparkle said she hid them -- maybe it is not the book, but the letter that tells us where they are!”

“I did think of that, my young pony. But the letter is not anymore specific than the book is -- it mentions that Twilight took them and hid them in places important to their bearers, but it does not tell us where these places are. Or even really who the bearers where. No, my young pony, I am afraid that it is probably going to be a long job sorting this out.”

Whatever Starlight was going to say in response to this was interrupted by a splintering crash that echoed through the ship.

---------

“Okay, carefully. Now remember, it is going to be off balance with that rock stuck in it. So don’t go throwing it about,” Genoa lectured group the flyers who where holding the ends of the ropes.

“We know what we are doing,” Rainstorm retorted, “this is not the first time we have replaced a crystal pane.”

“And did any of the others have a damn great rock stuck in them? Or more importantly, were any of them on my damn ship?” Genoa shouted irritably back. There was no reply form the assembled ponies. “No? Good, so we do this carefully, and we do not try to pull any fancy aerobatics, okay?” Nods from the assembled ponies, slightly sulkily ones from the pegasi. “Okay flyers, take up the slack and let’s get that panel loose.”

The Everdream’s pegasi pulled the ropes attached to the damaged crystal panel taut, while the earth pony crew stepped up to its edge, pry bars ready.

Genoa watched from below and worried. Replacing a panel of the crystal canopy was not that difficult a repair job, compared with a lot of what could need replacing on an airship, but it was one of the more tricky ones to do without the aid of a repair slip. The panels of the canopy were designed so that they could be replaced in just such a circumstance as this, i.e. if they became damaged in combat and were a hazard to the rest of the canopy. All airships carried several spare panels, as well as spare sun lines and the rest, but it was still a tricky task. 

The Everdream rocked slightly in the light breeze. Genoa’s blood froze as he watched the ropes the pegasi were holding go momentarily slack... and usually it was not something you would ever try while flying.

Normally, before any repair work was carried out, you would land your airship. Preferably on a nice repair slip, but failing that, any section of flat ground would do, and then shut down the spinner engine and the rest of the mechanics, so you could take out the damaged sections and replace them. But they were currently flying over a vast stretch of dark and gloomy forest, and even if they could find a clearing big enough to land the Everdream, he did not want to have a powered down airship sitting in the middle of a forest full of Luna knew what nasty creatures as night fell. So they were attempting to repair the worst of the battle damage while still aloft. ...and thus Genoa was currently on his last, much frayed, nerve. 

The crew jammed their pry bars in the joint between the crystal panels and heaved the damaged panel clear, more ponies quickly looping a carrying net around it. More pegsai took up the slack and the panel, together with the large rock imbedded in it, was slowly lowered to the deck.

“How does it look?” he called out to one of the unicorns up on the canopy.

The unicorn stuck his head in the hole, his horn glowing as he probed at the crystal panelling on either side of the empty space. “Not as bad as it could be,” he called back, “we are going to need to replace this one.” He tapped a hoof on a panel. “It has got micro fractures all the way through it, and we should probably replace this other one as well, while we are at it. But the rest of them look okay for now.”

Genoa let himself relax slightly; it was indeed better than his worst fears. 
The way the Everdream had been thrown about by that blast of magic, he had worried that some of the more sensitive parts of the ship’s workings would have been overloaded -- or the canopy fractured by the rain of rocks -- but so far, apart from the obvious panels, about half a dozen sun lines and some damage caused by the Dark creatures to the hull, the ship seemed to be in very good shape.

“Okay, let’s have that second panel out while we can get at it,” he called to the work crews. The pegasi flew back up and the ropes where restrung to the second panel.

Genoa paced the deck below as the work crew started to prize the second panel out of the canopy. With any luck, once they had replaced the panels in the canopy he would feel better about this, and they would not need to do any more dangerous repairs. Once they had gotten their repairs done he would ask Starlight where he might like to go next on the strange whim of his. Genoa trusted Rapier; he had not served much with the pony, but when he had, he had found him to be a very capable leader, and like all ponies in the Equestrian Air Force, he had known Starlight’s father. Lord Nothstar was famous and there were whole books dedicated to the tactics he’d used in the many battles he’d been involved in. But his foal. Well, that was another matter. 

A sound interrupted Genoa’s train of thought. It was not a large sound; it would probably not have been noticed, and certainly anypony else would not have paid it any heed amidst the general creaks and groans that an airship in flight made. But Genoa had been on airships most of his long life, and he was well aware of all their little noises, and this was not one he recognized.

He stopped and twisted his head. The little sound came again. He did recognize it. He had heard it before, but he could not place it just at the moment. The sound came again and his ears twitched; it was coming from the pillar he was just walking past. Curious, he put his hooves on the railing and pressed his head close to the pillar. He heard the sound again, an odd  creaking, snapping sound. 

Icicles ran down his spine as he remembered where he had heard the sound before. He leapt back to the deck. “Stop!” he shouted up to the work crew, waving a hoof desperately at them. “Leave that panel alone!”

The sound was a crack working its way through the timber of the support pillar. The pillar must have been damaged in the fight and the crack had been slowly working its way through the grain of the timber, pushed by the gentle movement of the airship. The ponies stopped what they were doing and looked curiously down the second panel half out of the canopy.

“Get some bracing!” Genoa ordered desperately. “For Celesta’s sake, somepony get a brace  in that space. The main support is damaged, the canopy…”

There was a loud echoing crack and Genoa realized that it was too late. He twisted around in time to see the pillar, now snapped clean through, start to fall. He looked upwards, fearing the worst. 

He watched in horrified slow motion as half of the canopy started to twist and warp, the ponies of the work crew falling flat to the crystal, grabbing at support lines with their mouths, the flyers darting down to grab them as the structure buckled.

Usually it would not have mattered if one of the support posts for the canopy had broken. The canopy was designed to stay up while missing a few of the pillars. After all, this was a warship. But they had removed some of the panels; that had weakened the self-supporting nature of the canopy. Most of it was still being held up by the other support posts, but a section of it was not. Supported only by this broken post and its neighbour, and not the rest of the pillars, it could no longer hold the weight of this section of the canopy, as well as the ponies standing on it. 

As the loose section twisted, the half out panel warped and, with a sharp crack, snapped. The two sharp halves fell out of the canopy, the spinning shards of crystal glinting in the light as they fell. Genoa watched helplessly as the two shards fell towards the front lifting envelope. The first shard landed on the top if the fabric bag, the razor edged crystal easily cut thorough the tough fabric, but the shard disappeared into the balloon leaving only a small hole that started to leak the lifting gas. 

The second, on the other hoof, landed off centre and started to bounce down the sloping side of the envelope. Genoa thought they might have gotten lucky, but then the sharp point of the shard stabbed into the balloon and started to tear. The shard fell down the side of the envelope, its razor edge slicing a huge jagged gash in the tough fabric, sliding almost to the deck before it fell out. Genoa watched as the balloon, its side completely ripped open, turned inside out in an explosion of the lifting gas. 

Everything seemed to stand still for a breath as everypony waited to see what was going to happen next. Then the deck under Genoa’s hooves started to tilt. 

Genoa leapt for a hold as the deck started to tilt forward, the bow of the Everdream sagging downwards as it was deprived of its buoyancy. There were more shouts from above, and cracking sounds as the rest of that canopy section started to come apart, crystal panels falling out of their frames. The crew ponies that had been standing on them scrambled madly for the ropes, as their support came apart under their hooves, some of them losing their balance to slide and fall off the edge. Flyers darted in, trying to catch the fallers and rescue other ponies form the wildly swaying canopy, but he did not have time to worry about them. He pulled himself up the now sharply sloping deck to one of the hatches and stuck his head inside. He heard the chaos in the middle deck as everything that was not tied down started to fall bow ward. 

“Tilt warning,” he shouted desperately down the hatch. A bit unnecessarily as he could already here the sound of ponies falling “Tilt!”

There was a popping, crackling explosion and he glanced up at the remains of the fore lifting envelope. Crackling green lightning was arcing from the raised base of the balloon and earthing itself all over the front of the ship; some of the crew ponies were not fast enough and got caught in the spitting web of magic, falling stiffly with their legs twitching. Genoa saw one of the pegasi hit by a stray bolt, her wings went rigid and she fell out of the sky, two of her friends darting after her as she dropped.

“Rogue lighting!” he shouted down the hatch. That first shard must have hit the spell platform at the base of the balloon and damaged it. “ Rogue lighting from the forward spell pate. Kill the feed to the balloons.” For a moment Genoa wondered if the ponies in the spinner room had heard the order, or if they had been knocked out by the tumbling tools and equipment inside the ship, but then mercifully the crackling lighting storm around the wreck of the fore lifting envelope ceased. 

That was better, Genoa thought, as he half walked, half climbed up to the command deck at the aft of the ship. That dealt with the major crises, now just to deal with the minor one of the ship crashing bow first into the ground. Even as he pulled himself up the deck he could feel the ship start to fall.

> 	Rough Diamond: part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The present, aboard the airship Everdream
---------
The door to the deck burst open, and Starlight and Papyrus half fell out on to the wildly sloped deck. Papyrus managed to maintain a grip on the door while Starlight went tumbling through, landing heavily in a pile of ropes.

“Rig lifting lines!” they heard Genoa call out from where he was hanging on to the command deck. The air around the falling airship was now filled with pegasi as the Everdream’s flyers abandoned ship, leaping out through hatches and windows and into the sky. As Starlight hauled himself up, crew ponies rushed to tie lines to the Everdream and throw them to the flying pegasi circling the ship. The flyers caught the lines and struggled to haul the weight of the massive airship.

Starlight scrambled up steps that where becoming a wall and onto the command deck. “What’s happening?” he shouted to Genoa over the rising wind of the falling airship.

“We are falling.” Genoa snapped back at him, then he turned back to the deck. “For Luna’s sake, somepony slice that aft balloon!” he bellowed out over the chaos.

“What, why!” Starlight shouted as the ship lurched, wrapping his legs around the railing he was hanging on to.

Genoa did not respond, just kept shouting down at the crew ponies that where trying to carry out his orders while hanging on for dear life.

“Why wreak the aft envelope as well?” Starlight shouted, this time almost into the old pony’s scared face.

Genoa made an impatient gesture. “Because if we don’t, we are going to smash to pieces when we hit the ground.” He ground his teeth in frustration. “What the Discord are those flyers doing.” He shouted wildly to the air around the rapidly falling ship. “Rainstorm, get that balloon cut!” he screamed.

It seemed to Starlight that what the flyers were doing was grabbing lines -- and more importantly ponies -- out of the air as the falling ship ploughed thorough wispy clouds on its way to the ground.

“I got this.” Starlight heard called out from the aft. He looked up and saw Rapier clinging to one of the aft support poles for the crystal canopy. The ship was now falling at a good forty five degrees off the vertical, so the post he was climbing along was now getting close to horizontal. As Starlight watched, he slid his hoof blade out of its sheath on his fore limb, then let go of the post entirely. 

Rapier fell ‘forward,’ down the ship.  He landed on the aft balloon with a thud, and Starlight saw him stick his hoof blade savagely into it before he rolled off, dragging the sharp blade down one side, opening a long slice in the balloon. Rapier fell forward off the balloon, but somehow managed to catch one of the support lines in his teeth as he dropped. Lifting gas flooded out of the hole in the envelope as the balloon partly deflated. 

“That is better,” Genoa sighed, as the ship started to level out.

“But now we are falling faster--” Starlight started, as he unwrapped his legs from around the railing.

“Yes, but now we are falling flat, and we stand a chance of surviving the landing.” Genoa replied not taking his eyes off the air. “Okay flyers, grab lines and get ready,” he bellowed into the air.

Starlight heard a noise and turned to see Rapier climb down the support line and on to the now level deck.  He turned to his friend, hoping to get a better answer out of him. “What was that about?” he asked plaintively, waving a hoof at the savaged envelope. 

“We needed to level out the ship’s fall,” Rapier replied -- far too calmly for the situation, Starlight thought.

“But didn’t we just cut away half of the remaining lifting power? We are falling faster now!” Starlight repeated, indeed they were, even if the levelling of the ship had removed the immediate feeling of panic and had lessened the howling wind.

“Yes, but we are falling level. Airships are built and braced from the flat bottom; if we hit the ground flat, we spread the shock over all the supporting beams. If we had struck head on, the bow would have taken all the force and it would have split the ship in half, or worse.”

“But why cut the envelope, why not just kill the power?”

“Lifting envelopes do not respond instantly, it takes time for the magical charge to properly dissipate. It would be at least an hour before we lost buoyancy just from a power loss.”

“Cloud!” one of the pegasi shouted, and Starlight heard the cry repeated around the rest of the ponies.  Glancing over the side he saw a large cloud approaching. It must have been quite a low cloud, as he could clearly see the green of the forest below it.

“Why the shout--” he started, as the Everdream fell through the cloud, then there was a violent shaking that knocked him off his hooves and slammed him into the railing. Dazedly, he pushed himself back up and saw the lifting lines fall lose around the ship, looking up he saw the flyers freeing themselves from the cloud and darting back to retrieve them. Of course, to the pegasus ponies, clouds were semi-solid, and that thud must have been them trying to use it to slow the falling airship. He stumbled over to where Rapier and Genoa where hanging on to the wheel. 

“You got any control?” Rapier was asking.

Genoa spun the wheel. “Not much.”

Rapier pushed himself up on his hind legs and scanned the rapidly approaching ground.
“There,” he shouted, pointing ahead and a little port off the bow, “that clearing there, can we make that?” 

“Going to be close.” Genoa scooped up the communications tube. “Full power!” he bellowed into it. “Get me some Celestia dammed lift!” That last was another shout to the flyers, and Starlight saw the pegasus ponies grip the lines and heave for all they were worth.

“Going to be very close,” Genoa muttered, as the Everdream started to pick up forward speed. Starlight watched in terror as the trees rushed towards them.

“Here comes the ground.” Starlight heard somepony almost sing as he saw the crew scramble for any hoof holds they could find. There were a few moments of utter silence and stillness, except for the rushing of the falling wind, and then…

“Trees!” somepony screamed from the bow, and Starlight felt the crashing thud as the belly of the Everdream plowed into the forest canopy. There was a splintering of branches and the crashing of fully grown trees as the full weight of the air ship crashed through the leafy canopy, and more thuds as the ship crashed into the trunks of trees. The ship cracked and shuddered, and Starlight saw more of the panels of the damaged canopy shake themselves lose. There was one massive thud, he lost his grip and was sent flying into the air. He just had time to hear the shout of ‘ground!’ from the crew, before he hit his head hard against the suddenly rising deck and blackness overtook him.  

------

“You must find them.” The voice of the White Pony drifted to Starlight through the light speckled darkness. “They are needed.”

Starlight twisted and searched, looking for her, but he could not see her, only hear her voice.

“You know we actually came off quite lightly--” he heard Rapier swift say from somewhere else.

“They must stop it,” the voice of the White Pony whispered to him. Starlight spun around trying to find her.

“--it could have been a lot worse,” Rapier finished.

“A lot worse? We crashed into a forest!” Papyrus’ slightly hysterical voice came from the same place as Rapiers’.

“We landed,” Rapier insisted.

“You must find them,” the White Pony said again, more insistently, the urgency in her voice tugging at Starlight.

“No, Rapier, we crashed.” That was Rainstorm. “Trust me, I am an expert on the difference.”

“Well, whatever we did, we did not do it that badly. The hull is largely undamaged. The middle lifting envelope is intact, and we did not even damage that many sunlines.”

“Where are they?” Starlight called out desperately into the star speckled darkness. “Tell me where I can find them.”

“We need to fix or replace nearly half of the sunlines.” The caustic tones of Captain Genoa bullied themselves into the dream. “The aft envelope needs patching. The fore envelope needs heavy repair -- and did you even look at the canopy? It is not meant to be at that angle--”

“They are close,” the White Pony whispered to Starlight. “Part is nearby.”

“--it will take time to fix and we crashed into forest.”

“So you will be able to find a tree to replace the support that went, and now you can shut down the spinner and get the repairs done properly.” Rapier’s voice sounded optimistic.

“Where is it?” Starlight pleaded , “tell me where it is.”

“Not the point. When night falls, whatever lives in this forest is going to realize that there is a nice pony buffet sitting here.”

“It is nearby,” the White Pony whispered. “Look for the one who is and is not. The joining of strength and beauty. She holds the given heart.”

“…and they will find it sitting in a heavily armed airship,” Rapier insisted, “we have over two hundred armed ponies here, and more than a few war weapons. Rainstorm and her pegasi will sweep the area and we will set up proper scouts. We even managed to ‘crash’ in a clearing so we have clear fire lines. Stop worrying, Genoa, like I said, it could have been worse.”

“You MUST find them.” The image of the White Pony flashed in front of Starlight.

“Wait!” he screamed, reaching out with his forehooves… and fell out of the bed, landing in a tangled heap of blankets on the floor of the cabin.

He looked around and saw that he was sitting on the floor of Papyrus’ cabin. He had been lying in the pony’s bunk. Rapier, Genoa and Rainstorm, as well as the old unicorn, were standing in the cabin . They all turned to look at him. 

“Yes, things could always be worse,” Genoa said, looking at Starlight. “I better get back to organizing the crew.”

He left the cabin as a worried Papyrus came over and helped Starlight disentangle himself from the sheets.

“How are you feeling?” the old unicorn asked.

“I am fine,” Starlight replied, “what happened?”

“You hit your head and knocked yourself out,” Rapier said.

“Before that. What happened to the ship?”

“One of the fore supports for the canopy must have been damaged in the fight with the Dark Cloud,” Rapier explained. “When we started replacing the panels in the canopy, we removed some of the panels that were spreading the weight to the undamaged supports, and the damaged one could not take the strain. It snapped and some lose panels fell to the deck, one of them spilt the fore envelope and damaged the spell lifter mechanism -- without its lift we had no buoyancy. Fortunately we managed to land.”

“Crash,” Rainstorm interjected.

“Land,” Rapier insisted, “in this forest.” 

“It was quite a impressive crash, really, when you think about it,” Rainstorm added. This earned her a half dozen fixed stares.

“Maybe from your point of view,” Starlight told the pegasus. “I probably did not have as good a view of the beauty of it, what with all the terror.” 

Rainstorm shook her head. “That is not what I meant. I mean it is quite hard to get an airship to accurately crash like that.”

“Seemed easy enough to me,” Starlight said with feeling.

Rapier shook his head as well. “I know what she means. Airships are designed not to crash easily, I mean, think about it Starlight. The Everdream is designed to be shot at. If it was that easy to take us down, we would not have been any good in a fight, would we ?”

“So what went wrong? I distinctly remember falling to the ground.”

Rapier seemed to think about it for a bit. “You might call it a perfect storm of circumstances. Like Rainstorm said, it was kind of impressive.” Rainstorm nodded. “The crystal canopy was weak at just the right point when that post snapped. The canopy twisted in just the right way to snap a panel, and the panel fell in just the right way to completely take out that balloon, as well as damage the spell plate and force us to shut down the lift.” He shrugged  again. “One in a million accident.”

The ponies stood and thought about that. After a few seconds Papyrus interrupted their thoughts. “Well, my young pony.” He looked Starlight straight in the eyes. “You bashed your head pretty hard. How are you really feeling? Are you feeling dizzy? Seeing double? Hearing anything strange?” 

“More than usual,” Rainstorm added.

Starlight looked carefully around the cabin, they seemed to only be one version of all his friends. “No, I seem to be okay,” he said, deciding to ignore that vision. It was the White Pony after all, it was not like that was unusual at the moment.

Papyrus looked carefully into his eyes and probed  the back of his head with one hoof. “Are you sure, my young pony, you were out for quite a while there.”

Starlight shook the probing hoof off. “Yes, I am fine. I probably just needed a little rest after the excitement of crashing. Now,” he said, standing up, “shall we go and see just what sort of forest we have landed in?”

-----

In the past, in a little cottage just outside Sweetapple Acres

“Tea, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked in her gentle lilting voice.

“Yes please, Fluttershy,” Twilight responded.

Fluttershy picked up the teapot in both hooves and refilled Twilights cup.

“Rarity?”

“Yes please, darling.”

They were sitting in the garden of the little cottage that Fluttershy and Big Mac shared on the edge the Sweetapple Acres, near where it met the Everfree forest. The Apple family had built it when Fluttershy and Big Mac got married, and Twilight always thought its placement was a nicely symbolic merging of the two ponies who lived there. 

It was a perfect spring afternoon. The sun was shining, but it was not too hot; the birds were singing, and in the distance she could hear the sounds of the Apple clan busy at work in their orchards. 

In the large lawn in front of the cottage, two foals were playing in the grass. Twilight took a sip of her tea and gazed out at them. She did not get to spend as much time with her friends in Ponyville as she would like anymore -- her work took her to Canterlot too much, and away to more distant and dangerous locations, but she liked to return here whenever she could. Ponyville had a tranquillity to it that helped restore her occasionally battered self.

“Twilight dear,” Rarity’s unmistakable voice interrupted Twilights daydream.

She turned back to her friend, guiltily aware she had missed what she had said. “I am sorry, Rarity, I was just watching Sweet Apple and Rough Diamond playing. Foals are so cute at that age.”

Fluttershy and Rarity turned to look at their respective offspring.

“Yes, they are,” Rarity said with a sigh, before turning back to Twilight. “Are you getting lonely, Twi? Are you yearning for the clip-clop of tiny hooves on the floor of your library?”

“No.”

“Really. Is the life of the most studious unicorn in all of Equestria not getting a bit lonesome?” Rarity pressed.

“No, of course not. I love my studies.”

“Really.” Rarity leaned forward over the table and folded her hooves. “So who was that handsome stallion I saw you having lunch with in Canterlot last week?”

Twilight nearly choked on her tea.

“Why, Twilight dear, anypony would think that you are hiding something.”

“No,” Twilight managed to get out through her coughing. “I just did not realize that you were in Canterlot, that is all.” Twilight did in fact have something to hide, but it was not what her friend thought, and her mind worked desperately to try to find a way of diverting Rarity’s hunt for gossip.

“Fancypants and Fleur invited me to an art show,” Rarity said with a casual wave of her hoof. “But no changing the subject. Who was that handsome pony -- and am I going to have to dig out my wedding dress designs?”

Twilight’s mind raced through the possible options -- maybe the best was to hint at what Rarity wanted to see and let her own imagination fill in the blanks.

“He is just a colleague,” she said, trying to inject just the right amount of casualness in her voice.

“So he works for Celestia then?”

“Yes.” That was true enough.

“And he is studying magic with you?”

“Yes.” Twilight said relaxing a bit.

“And so the armour he was wearing was to protect him when your spells go badly wrong?”

“Yes… no… what I mean is,” Twilight flustered.

“Yes, Twi dear, do go on,” Rarity said, calmly looking at her friend.

Twilight was actually secretly pleased she was managing to keep her friend thinking in terms of a romantic relationship, instead of venturing into more dangerous speculation. She decided to wriggle on the hook some more and see if Rarity could be persuaded to bite deeper.

“Well, he is a member of the Canterlot guard, he works with my brother.”

“Ah, so he is a friend of your brother then.”

“Yes.”

“So was it Shining Armour or Cadence who set you up on that date?”

“Neither. No, look it was not a date,” Twilight said firmly, going for the theory that the more you deny it, the guiltier it looks, “we were just two friends having lunch together.”

“So you where just two friends, having lunch together in quaint little street café in the picturesque old quarter of Canterlot? Just like Fluttershy and Big Mac were two friends who liked to have lunch together, and then two friends who liked to have candle lit dinners together, and then take midnight walks in the apple orchards together?”

Fluttershy giggled softly at this.

“Is that the sort of friendly lunch you where having?”

Twilight’s further blustering was interrupted by a high pitch crying. Everypony’s heads snapped around to where the foals were. Sweet Apple was sitting on the ground, looking curiously at Rough Diamond, who was sitting in the middle of a muddy puddle crying tremendously.

Fluttershy and Rarity jumped to their hooves.

“Oh, Diamond dearie, what has happened to you?” Rarity called out, as she dashed over to where her foal was sitting. As soon as she got close enough, a blue magical aura enveloped the little filly and she floated up to her mother. “Oh dear, you are all muddy, don’t worry, mummy will make it all better. I will get all the disgusting mud off you in no time.”

She glanced at Fluttershy, who was had picked up her own foal and was checking him to see if he was hurt. 

“Fluttershy darling, do you mind if I take Rough Diamond inside and give her a wash?”

“Oh, of course not. You know where everything is.”

“Of course, Flutters dear, many thanks.” Rarity trotted off in the direction of the cottage, her foal held close. “Come on darling, mummy will give you a nice bath and we will get all that nasty mud off you.”

She disappeared inside and Fluttershy walked back to where Twilight was sitting. She put Sweet Apple down on the table, where he grabbed at one of the scones and tried to eat it all in one go.

Twilight watched where Rarity had gone inside. “How is she coping with Rough Diamond?” she asked Fluttershy.

Fluttershy retrieved the scone from her foal. “She is doing, well... okay.”

“Okay?” Twilight asked quizzically.

“Well, it is hard for her, with Spike being away for long periods of time, and with Rough Diamond being… well it is hard sometimes.”

Twilight nodded. She could read between the lines to what Fluttershy was not saying. 
Ponyville was a very accepting place -- not only did all three types of pony live together in harmony, without the discrimination you sometime got in places like Canterlot or Fillydelphia, but also cows and donkeys -- even Zecora had come to be accepted, after Twilight had explained to her friends what a zebra was. And when she had moved in, she and Spike had been welcomed with open doors. But Spike was definitely a dragon, and even though they had not known what one was they recognised that Zecora was definitely a zebra, whereas Rough Diamond was… well, different was the only real way to put it.

Her rear hooves and legs were that of a pony; proper hooves and fur as brilliant white as her mother’s. But instead of a normal pony tail made of hair, she had a thick muscular tail like a dragon; it was still furred underneath, but on top it had thick green scales like Spike. Those scales continued along her back, blending into her fur at the sides. Half way along her back she sported a small set of wings, leathery and dragon-like, not feathered. 

Her front legs started off like a pony’s, but instead of hooves she had dragon-like claws with sharp talons. Most of the time she would walk on all fours, but more and more often she would try to walk upright like Spike, and use her claws to grab at things. The scales on her back continued over her neck, taking the place of a pony’s mane, and up around her head. Her face started off on the top like a pony’s, with pony type pointed ears and eyes, but instead of the flat face and button nose of a pony mare, she had a long, almost stallion-like muzzle. 

In the centre of her forehead she had a little horn, but it was not straight and smooth like a unicorn’s, but more twisted and rough like a dragon’s horn, and as far as Twilight knew she had shown none of the wild spurts of magic that made the life of a unicorn’s parents so interesting.

Yes, Rough Diamond was different, and unfortunately to a lot of ponies, different still meant something to be afraid of. Twilight herself had felt the occasional twinge of fear when she had looked at the little foal, but she had decided that was to do with how much her mixture of species reminded her of the villain Discord. And it was not helping that Celestia and Luna needed Spike for much of the work that was being done, and that kept him away from Ponyville much more than any of them would have liked.

“Spike,” Fluttershy’s voice reached into Twilights thoughts.

“Yes,” she mused, “maybe it would be easier if he was able to spend more time in Ponyville.”

“No, Spike. He is here,” Fluttershy said, pointing a hoof down the garden.

Twilight twisted around and followed the direction of Fluttershy’s hoof. Sure enough, the unmistakable shape of the purple and green dragon was coming up the road that lead from Ponyville.  Butterflies started to flap in Twilight’s stomach. Spike was not supposed to be in Ponyville. Celestia had sent him on an important errand. Why was he here now? She turned back to Fluttershy.

“Flutters,” she said trying to hide her nervousness with a causal tone. “Why don’t you leave Sweet Apple with me and go and tell Rarity that Spike is here.” 

“Oh, okay, sure.” The two mares stood and Fluttershy picked up Sweet Apple and placed him on Twilights back, where he immediately climbed up her neck and started to try to chew on her ear.  Fluttershy trotted over to the cottage door while Twilight and Sweet Apple set of to meet Spike at the edge of the garden.

“Hey, Twilie,” Spike greeted his old friend. Twilight grimaced. She thought that Spike had been spending a bit too much time with her elder brother. “It seems you are getting on well with Sweet Apple. Foals seem to like you.”

“Don’t you start.” She waved a warning hoof at the dragon. “I got enough of that from your beloved wife.”

Spike tilted his head to one side. “Oh,” he said, curious, “and what has my darling Rarity been saying to you?”

“Oh, nothing much. It was just that she saw me and Bright Spark having lunch in Canterlot.”

Worry crossed Spike’s face. “Does she think you are keeping secrets from her?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Only of a romantic nature.”

Spike smiled. “Well you know, Twi, you and Bright Spark…”

“I told you not to start,” Twilight scolded, prodding Spike in his chest. She leaned in close and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Anyway, what are you doing in Ponyville, aren’t you are supposed to be over in the Dragon Teeth mountains?”

“Celestia sent me to come and get you,” Spike replied, also in a whisper.

The butterflies in Twilight’s stomach had babies. “How bad is it?” she asked. Celestia would not have sent Spike to Ponyville to get her if it was not urgent.

“Bad. It is on the move.”

The butterflies in Twilight’s stomach froze. She glanced around at the cottage and the farm, which suddenly seemed so very small and vulnerable. “Do we need the Elements of Harmony, are we going to have to tell them?”

Spike shook his head. “Celestia does not think so. The Dusk Hunters are mobilising; we will meet them and Luna at the Broken Pass.”

Twilight’s mind raced. The Broken Pass would be too close to Trottingham to be a good place to meet the enemy, but was there a better place before they were forced into action? She disliked the idea of meeting it on the wide open planes. Luna would know the situation better than she did, but this was still worrying. This was much earlier than they had expected; they had not expected it to start moving for months yet.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a cry from behind her. Spike’s head shot up and his face broke into a smile.

Twilight twisted her head around and saw that Rarity and Rough Diamond were standing at the door to Fluttershys cottage.

She looked back at Spike. “Go ahead. We have time. Sweet Apple and I will catch up.”

Spike bounded over the lawn and the air was filled with Rough Diamond’s screams of delight, and Rarity’s mock protests as Spike picked them both up in his large claws.

Twilight steadied Sweet Apple on her back and set off at a slow walk. So it has started, she thought, as she watched Spike playing with his daughter.  Even if Celestia was right and they did not need the Elements of Harmony this time, this would not be the end of it. At some point she knew that they would need them, and at that point they would need to tell their friends the secrets they were keeping. But not right now. For now she agreed with the princesses. It was best if they like the rest of Equestria remained ignorant of the darkness facing their world. 

> Rough Diamond: part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The present, a clearing in a forest somewhere south of the Dragon Toof Mountains 

Starlight wandered slowly around the edge of the clearing that the Everdream had come down in. He thought on balance that Rapier had been right; considering what had happened they had gotten off quite lightly. He looked back at the Everdream. It was sitting, almost level, at the end of the trench it had ploughed as it had hit. Looking back along the line of flight, there was a clear path of destruction through the trees, caused as the ship had cannoned through them. 

It only extended a few times the length of the ship, showing that no matter how hard their fall had been, they had not actually been going that fast forward when they had finally hit -- but as Genoa had pointed out, it would be a clear indication for anything that found it that something interesting was at the end of the trail.

The ship itself was a swarm with ponies. All of the crew was out, and most of them where working on fixing the damage. Gangs of crew ponies worked at various tasks all about the stricken airship. He could see a group of them working one of the trees that they had knocked over. They were striping the branches away, and a second group was working ropes around it, getting it ready to be hauled back to the Everdream. He presumed that that was going to be the replacement for the broken support that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

Even from this distance, he could see Genoa pacing around the deck, and he could swear that he could hear the cranky old pony’s voice as he bellowed orders at the work gangs. That was the main reason that Starlight had volunteered to ‘patrol’ the edge of the clearing. It kept him far away from the grumpy captain. Genoa had been incredibly bad tempered since they had crashed; something he seemed to subconsciously blame Starlight for, and his bellowing had upset Starlight’s head.

Starlight put a hoof up and gently rubbed his head. Despite what he had told Papyrus and Rapier, his head did not actually feel right to him; there was a dull ache and an sort of prickly feeling that would not go away. It was better when he was outside, another reason why he was here walking the edge of the clearing.

It was strange that, he thought as he slowly paced around, my head is far better when I’m on this side of the clearing, rather than the other. When he was around the  front of the ship he felt almost normal, when he was around the stern he felt almost as bad as when he had been inside. Maybe it is the sun.

He looked up and located the afternoon sun. It was tight of the starboard quarter of the ship, so where he was standing was in full sunlight. So maybe not the sun, he thought. He looked around; there were just as many ponies here as the rest of his route, in fact there was quite a large group working at the bow of the ship.

When they had crashed they had still -- despite much effort -- been slightly bow down, and the bow had taken quite a bit of damage to its heavy armour plating, as well as damage to its internal structure, so in addition to a team working on repairing the damaged lifting envelope and a team working on the spell plate and its connections, there were a good many ponies working with hammer and pry bar to remove damaged plates and beams and replace them as best they could. The noise was certainly penetrating, but despite all that, his headache seemed much better here that at the stern. 

As he walked slowly around past the bow, Starlight  looked out where both the fore and aft lifting envelopes were spread out on the grass of the clearing, surrounded by teams of ponies trying to repair them. The fore balloon had a jagged gash running right the way along it, going almost top to bottom, while the aft one only had a comparatively clean cut, through where Rapier had slashed it. Unfortunately, warship levels of redundancy or no, both need to be fixed if they wanted to be able to fly properly. So the crew had carefully drained the remaining lifting gas out of the aft envelope and laid them out.

One of the problems with airships of the Everdream’s class was that they had a very bad weight to lift ratio, and therefore needed an almost complete set of lifting envelopes to maintain stable flight. Obviously the lifting envelopes were not just the simple bags of gas, but were just as complex magical devices as the spinner engines or the cannons. Each one consisted of a close woven series of gas cells,  with a stronger canvas bag over it to provide more protection. The honeycomb-like system inside it was designed in such a way that it would be very hard for more than a few of the bags to be damaged, but of necessary all the sections of the honeycomb needed to be connected to the spellplate at the bottom. This connection allowed the magic of the spell plate to permeate the lifting envelope, giving the lifting gas the physics-defying buoyancy required to float a ship the size of the Everdream. 

Apparently they had been very unlucky that the hole the falling crystal had put in the fore envelope had managed to tear it apart completely. When Rapier had slashed the aft envelope he had only acutely damaged less than half of the gas honeycomb’s and that was one of the reasons that there was much less work to do on the aft envelope

The second was that the first shard of crystal had managed to damage the spell plate. The spell plate was the main source of power and control for the lifting envelopes. Under normal circumstances, the lifting gas would have barely managed to get the weight of its own balloon and maybe a basket with half a dozen ponies in it off the ground, let alone an airship of the Everdream’s size. But the spell plate focused magical power through the special conductive threads woven into the balloons structure, and it was that magical charge that made the envelope able to lift many, many times what it should have been capable of. 

The process was not instant; it took time for the gas to become sufficiently charged to provide enough lift, especially in the case of a ship as large as the Everdream.  But when the front spell plate had been impaled by the falling crystal shard, it had shorted out the complex spell patterns -- and in order to prevent harm to the crew, Genoa had shut them down.  Fortunately the damage was repairable, but until it was repaired they were grounded. 

Yes, Starlight thought, as he slowly paced the clearings edge. Grounded in this forest full of things with, as Papyrus had put it, ‘ravenous intent’. Most creatures of limited intelligence had at least realized that ponies were too much trouble to try to eat, but this far away from the more populated parts of Equestria you could never be sure of that -- after all, you still heard of manticores attacking ponies, even the countryside surrounding Canterlot.

At least they had managed to separate the damaged lifting spellplate from the rest of the ship’s magic network, so at least they could use the cannons, but a lot of them had been damaged in the crash -- most of them thrown loose from their mounts when they had hit ground. Until they fixed the sunlines and some of the rest of the ship, they would have limited firing capabilities for a sustained fight.

Starlight’s thoughts brought his mind back to what he was supposed to be doing out here, and he made an effort as he walked to peer into the overgrown gloom of the forest in search of anything that might look hungry for pony. 

He had made nearly a complete circuit again, and was approaching the bow from the port side, He was starting to wonder if he should abandon this patrol, as his head was starting to feel worse again, and go and admit to Papyrus that it was probably not as undamaged as he had thought, when he had heard the noise.

He froze, and very slowly moved his head, scanning the undergrowth and trying to locate the source of the movement. He heard it again; one of the bushes had rustled. He held his frozen posture, considering. That was not the wind. It was definitely something moving through those bushes. What he really should do now was to raise the alarm, but he stopped before he did. He was not sure what was making that rustling, and he would look pretty stupid if it turned out he had gotten all worked up over a rabbit. He considered calling out a greeting -- after all if it was a rabbit or something, it would be impolite not to greet it. But he bit his tongue; whatever was there had almost certainly seen the ponies now, and if it had not called out to them, it was not going to answer him.

He made his mind up and carefully walked closer to the edge of the forest. He saw more movement and something disappeared into the undergrowth. He pushed on, walking out of the clearing and under the forest canopy. Carefully pushing through the bushes, he nearly jumped out his fur, as a squirrel leapt off the branch not more than a leg’s length in front of him and darted away across the tree branches. When he had recovered and gathered his wits about him, Starlight started to laugh.

Yes, he thought, he could just see the expression on Rapier’s or even Rainstorm’s face. If they could see me now. He could imagine Rainstorm’s comments about being afraid of a squirrel. He looked off into the direction his adversary had headed. He thought he could hear a strange tinkling sound, and with less trepidation and more curiosity, he pushed on through the bushes and towards the sound. 

----

The sound turned out to be a small stream cascading over a waterfall to form  a small pond. Starlight looked at the crystal clear water and realized that he was terribly thirsty. Without hesitation he walked up to the stream and ducked his head into the pond. That was better he thought, as the cool water ran down his throat. Maybe it was this thirst that was causing my head ache, he thought as he drank deeply.

Now he came to think about it, he was feeling much better as he drank. At the back of his mind was the thought that this forest was dangerous, and that he was supposed to be back at the ship watching out for anything that might pose a danger to it. But the thought did not get very far, as he finished his wonderful drink and raised his head, looking over the other side of the stream.

And straight into the eyes of the White Pony. 

For a few heartbeats they stared into each other’s eyes. Starlight’s mind froze. It was her. She was standing clear as day on the other side of the little stream. Then suddenly she smiled at Starlight and leapt away, disappearing into the undergrowth.  

“Wait!!” Starlight called out desperately. He tried to leap after her, but his hooves tangled up in each other and he tumbled head first into the pond. 

“Please wait!!”  he called again as he pulled himself dripping out of the water and up onto the bank. He pushed through the undergrowth and out onto a small forest trail. In the distance he caught a flash of white disappearing past a tree. 

“Please come back,” he called out, as he galloped down the trail after her.  As he reached the tree he again caught a glimpse of her and he again galloped after her. His mind was reeling. What was she doing in the forest? he thought as he galloped faster after fleeting glimpse of a white tail or hooves. 

It was really her. She was really here after all these years of seeing her in his dreams, he finally knew she was real. Part of his mind wondered if he still might be imagining it, but he stamped on that thought. He had seen her, she was there, just ahead of him -- and he would find her. She was just up ahead. He galloped around a last corner and skidded to a halt in front of a sheer cliff face. He twisted left and right, trying to find where the White Pony had gone, but here was no sign of her. He looked around, but the path just ended at this cliff face. He walked up and down the base of the cliff, searching desperately for any sign of the White Pony, but all he could see was the shear rock face extending up at least a dozen pony lengths.

She must be here, he thought desperately. She was just in front of me , she could not have vanished. A small part of his mind insisted that it was quite possible that she had just vanished, and that she had not in fact ever been there. Then he spotted something in the distance; there was a shadow in the wall of the cliff. He galloped down the cliff towards it. 

The shadow turned out to be a cave.  It was bigger than a pony but not as big as the cave where they had found Twilight Sparkle and Spike. He hesitated outside the entrance, his natural caution telling him that there was every likelihood that the cave contained something dangerous; a manticore or a cockatrice perhaps, but he shook the thought off. She had gone in the cave, he knew it. He walked towards the cave and cautiously, but firmly, went inside.

-------

Ponyville school, the past

Rarity knocked a little nervously on the door to the classroom. “Come in,” a voice called out from inside. She pushed open the door and walked inside the little classroom.

“Have a seat,” Cheerilee called out from behind the desk, waving a fore leg to the chair in front of it. “I will be with you in a second, just finishing up some marking.

Rarity came in and sat down on the offered seat. Even though she was a fully grown pony --  and a mother herself, and even through she had been at school with Cheerilee -- she still felt strangely nervous sitting there, waiting to talk to a teacher. It was like being a foal again.

“Did you have a nice time in Canterlot?” the schoolteacher asked without looking up from her marking. “A fashion show was it not?”

The clash of steel on steel, the cries of ponies and worse. The sulphurous breath of dragons mingled with the smell of sweat and blood.

“Yes,” Rarity replied a little too quickly, “a fashion show.”

“Did you get to see the princesses? I know that Twilight always sends word to them when you are going to be in Canterlot “

Celestia, her mane no longer its normal pastel colours, but instead a brilliant rainbow of flames, her armour golden and bright as the sun, standing in the middle of a group of pony guards. Her sister, expression filled with defiance, standing by her side. 

“For a bit, they were very busy with affairs of state -- you know how it is.”

“I bet. I do not know how they manage it. I just have this little school to manage and I am over worked.”

“I suspect they have a lot of help.”

“Anyway, I am sure you and Spike managed to spend some time together.”

The terrifying monster bearing down on her, its black eyes pits of darkness, its razor claws slashing at her. The large purple claw picking it up throwing it in the air, where a white hot jet of flame incinerated it.

“It was nice to have him around, he is always very attentive of me.”

“I bet it is always nice to spend some quality time with your friends.”

Twilight standing at the centre of the semicircle of ponies. Her horn starts to glow and then the crown on her head picks up the same radiance. The jewel around Rarity’s neck starts to glow, as well as the ones around her friends. As the magic takes hold, she can feel it flowing through them, be part of them as they start to lift off the ground.

“Yes, it is always nice to remember what brought you together in the first place.” Cheerilee shut the last book and put the pile to one side. 

“Yes it is, is it not.” 

She got up and pulled her chair around to the front of the desk and sat down next to Rarity. Rarity relaxed at this; it made it feel much less like she was getting a telling off from teacher.

“Well, now you are back from Canterlot I thought that we should have a little talk about Rough Diamond.”

Rarity nodded, it had seemed likely that was what this was about; it was very unlikely that the school mare had wanted a dress designed.

Rarity looked out the windows to where her daughter was playing in the small school’s playing field -- or much more to the point, not playing. The rest of the colts and fillies had gathered together and where playing a ball game. But Rough Diamond was sitting a bit forlornly on the swings by herself.

“It has not gotten any better?” Rarity asked. It was not really a question; she had not managed to spend much time at home recently, but it had been plain even to her that her daughter’s problems had not gotten any better.

Cheerilee shook her head. “I have tried to encourage her to make more friends with the other foals in the class and I have worked hard to teach the message that our differences just make us more exciting, but…”

Rarity nodded. There was really no way around the essential facts of the matter; Rough Diamond was just not a normal pony, and the blunt fact was she was not a pony at all.

“And the whole Cutie Mark thing just aggravated it even more.” 

Rarity nodded again. Ponies had Cutie Marks. A special ‘picture’ that appeared on their flanks when they realised what their special talent was. It was one of the defining moments of a young pony’s life. Their mark told the world who they were and what they were; it was their own special symbol and guide to their purpose. But dragons had no such marks, and nopony knew if Rough Diamond would get one.

“Everyponyelse in her class has their mark by now, and well…” 

Cheerilee tailed off and Rarity understood what she was getting at. Ponies got their Cutie Marks at different ages; some ponies took longer to find their talents --  some talents were complex or more hidden. But by a certain age almost everypony had their mark. Rarity did not know of a pony as old as Rough Diamond who’s flank was still blank. As time had gone on and her daughter did not get a Mark, Rarity had tried to encourage her; she’d had her sister Sweetie Belle Talk to her.

Sweetie Belle and her friends had been very late developers, only getting their Marks  at what was a quite old age for ponies. But that had only helped for a little bit, all the stories of the former Cutie Mark Crusaders were about how they tried to find their Marks. As time when on and it became obvious that Rough Diamond was not going to get a Cutie Mark, she became more and more depressed.

“I think you or Spike are going to have to sit down and talk to her.” The schoolmare said seriously. “There is only so much I can do. Maybe if you or Spike could spend some more time in Ponyville, or maybe take her with you to Canterlot, she would feel less like an outcast.”

Daggers stabbed through Rarity’s heart. This was what she knew that she needed to do, and it was what she could not do. She and Spike had talked at length with all their friends about it, including the princesses.

“Maybe if she could stay with her aunt Sweetie Belle, or with some of the Apple clan...” Rarity started lamely.

“Rarity,” Cheerilee interrupted sharply. “Sweetie Belle or Scooterloo or even Big Mac will not help. You are her mother, Spike is her father. You need to spend time with her; show her that she is loved, whatever she is. What can be more important than your family?”

Rarity wished with all her heart that she could tell the kind school mare. To open her heart and pour out all the things she had seen over the past years, but she could not. When Twilight and Spike had invited the rest of their friends to Canterlot and Princess Celestia had told then about the enemy, Rarity had been horrified. First with the secrets that her best friend and her husband had been keeping, and then with the nature of the threat. And she herself had been sworn to secrecy. Much as she yearned to tell her old foalhood friend the truth, she could not.

“It is work,” she lied lamely, “it is just too busy; I just cannot take the time off.” She knew that it was a hopelessly feeble lie, but she was not good at this deception, none of them really where and they dealt with it in their own way. Twilight and Spike had had years more of it than their friends and had developed methods of coping. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie just pretended that they had gotten better jobs in Canterlot, and mostly moved out of Ponyville, only coming back occasionally to visit their families. Poor Applejack just refused point blank to explain, clamming up every time anypony asked.

Cheerilee gave Rarity a pleading look. “Rarity, what is wrong? I know you are not busy with work; there has not been a new dress in the window of Carrousel Boutique for months, and I know from friends that you have not been showing at exhibitions  in Canterlot. What is going on? Is it to do with the latest news?”

Everypony had heard of the increasing tensions, but only the Dusk Hunters knew who the real enemy behind their puppets was. And she could not tell her old friend; the knowledge was just too dangerous and horrific, and the burden knowing it would place on a pony was too much for her to dump on her friend.

“No, no it is just I have a lot of special work in Canterlot and Spike and I need to spend a lot of time in the city. Rough Diamond would just not be able to spend time with us there. And she would have no friends. You know what sort of elitist Canterlot ponies can be.” She almost pleaded with her eyes for Cheerilee not to ask any more questions.

Cheerilee leaned forward “Rarity, please, what is wrong.” She reached out and placed her foreleg on her friend’s shoulder. “forget the fact that I am your daughter’s teacher. Forget all the things that we have become over the years, tell me as the filly that you gossiped with about colts behind the school.”

Rarity opened her mouth to speak again, but Cheerilee shushed her. “Rarity, the entire town knows something is not right. just tell me please, I want to help you.”

Rarity again looked at her foal-hood friend. “I can’t, Lee,” she said sadly. “I wish I could, but I cannot.”

Cheerilee started to say something again, but this time Rarity put up a hoof to stop her. 

“Please do not ask any more because I cannot tell you. Please, if any part of you still trusts, me accept this.”

Cheerilee nodded. “Okay Rarity, I will. But what about Rough Diamond?”

Rarity looked out of the window. “It is best that she is here.” Cheerilee started to object. “No, Lee, it truly is.” Rarity smiled. “I may not like to admit it, and when I was younger I may have overlooked it, but Ponyville is one of the nicest places in all of Equestria. And -- especially now -- one of the safest.” There were tears in Rarity’s eyes. “She truly is better off here.”

Cheerilee stood and put her foreleg around her friend. “Okay Rarity, I will do what I can.” She held her for a bit. “Come on, let’s go and see her now; at least we can do that much.”

---------

A cave in the forest, the present

The cave wound its way back into the cliffside; after a little way it became dark and Starlight considered turning back, but then, just as he was about to retreat, he saw a light ahead. It was not the bright light of day, but neither was it the flickering of fire or torchlight. Curious,  he approached the corner and the source of the light.

Starlight let out a gasp. The tunnel had opened out into another large cave. This cave was nowhere near the grandeur of the one they had found Twilight and Spike in, but despite that it was still impressive.  It was not as big for one thing, and it lacked the majestic stalactites and pillars of that proper dragon’s cave, but what it lacked in size it more than made up for in clutter. 

The cave seemed to be filled with piles of… well, stuff would have to be the only word for it. The walls were hung with pictures and rugs; where there was free wall space, there were bookcases and cupboards pressed up against them. Some of the cupboards were half open and Starlight could see that they were filled with more things. Clothes, books, piles of gems and scrolls. The rest of the cave seemed to be covered in tables and other furniture; these were also buried in more things -- pictures, statues, ornaments, and mysterious items that Starlight could not begin to guess at. He saw a telescope leaning against one wall, a plain yellow dress draped over it.

The light was coming from the roof where there were a series of jewelled chandeliers, but they did not have candles or oil lamps in them, instead the gems themselves seemed to glow with a strange constant light that illuminated the strange collection.

Slowly, Starlight stepped into the cave; as he stepped forward he noticed that the floor had changed, it was no longer the sand or rock you would expect in a cave. The floor in here was wooden floorboards with rugs on it.

This is not a cave, he thought as he walked slowly forward. It is a house.

As he walked he noticed that he had stepped through an arch about twice the height of a pony. It was made of three columns of marble that twisted together as they climbed. Along its length it was studded with perfect blue gems.  He stopped and examined it, and then looked back at the room.

Yes, this is a room, not a cave, he thought, as he stepped through the doorway but who’s? A further thought struck him. Could it be hers? Could this be where the White Pony lived?

He walked further into the room and examined one of the tables -- it was littered with scrolls and books, some open, some closed -- it looked like the working desk of a busy scholar, but the inkwell was dry and other signs showed that it had not been used in a long time. He looked at some of the books, but he could not understand the language. He thought the writing looked a bit like that he’d seen in the book they had picked up from Spike’scave. 

What had Papyrus called it? Formal pony. Yes, formal pony, but he could not tell. He moved further on into the cave, passed a whole herd of dressmaker’s forms, some of them supporting half completed outfits, and came to a large picture on the wall. He stopped and looked at it. It seemed to be a copy of a photograph, blown up and framed. It showed six young mares; they were standing in a street outside a shop -- again he could not read the lettering on the shop sign -- but the sign itself was a large donut. 

The six ponies seemed to be having fun, they were all smiling genuine smiles of laughter, and the pink one on the end seemed to be so happy she looked like she was about to leap off the picture at him. They were dressed in formal outfits, but as Starlight examined them he noticed that they all seemed to be ragged or ripped, as though they has been dragged through a hedge. One of the two unicorns seemed to be missing one of her glass shoes.  He looked at the label beneath the picture

‘Our best night ever,’ it read. There was a card stuck behind its official label. ‘To Rarity, happy birthday from the rest of the gang.’

Starlight looked back at the happy ponies. Something was nagging it him about that picture. He looked carefully at it for a few more moments and then it hit him. The other unicorn -- not the one with a missing slipper, but the other one, the purple one -- he recognised her. It was Twilight Sparkle. The dress she was wearing covered up her name mark, but he was certain it was her.

Starlight reached out and gently placed a fore hoof on the picture of the purple mare. “Who were you really, Twilight Sparkle?” He asked “and what is your connection to the White Pony?”

“The question, pony,” a rasping voice from behind Starlight asked, “is who are you?”

-------------

“He’s what?” Rapier asked incredulously.

“He’s gone missing.” Rainstorm replied.

“What do you mean missing?” Rapier injected.

Behind him the crewponies and a group of flyers hauled the now repaired aft lifting envelope back up onto the deck from the clearing floor.

“I mean that he is not where he should be.” The pegasus waved her hoof at the edge of the clearing. “He is supposed to be out there keeping an eye on the forest, but he is not there now and nopony knows where he is.”

Rapier stood there, his emotions battling between shock and anger. Finally he got himself under control. “Who saw him last?” he asked.

“Windrush says he saw him walking around the edge a few hours ago, just before they started to move the replacement canopy support, but nopony has seen him since.”

“A few hours ago!” Rapier almost shouted. “How can we not have noticed that he has been missing for that long?”

Rainstorm’s wings flicked out angrily. “Hay, we have been busy trying to fix the ship.  And it is not our job to keep an eye on him.” 

Rapier visibly took control of his anger and backed down. “I know,” he said conciliatorily, “it is just he has been a bit...” he trailed off, helpless.

“Yer, I know as well.” Rainstorm finished, refolding her wings. “I suppose we should go and get after him. I will go and gather up a wing.”  She started to turn, but Rapier put out a hoof to stop her.

“No, don’t.” 

She turned back and looked at him quizzically. “Like you said before, you are all busy repairing the ship and there is no point dragging him back here if we are still grounded. I will get Papyrus and we will go and find him and drag him back.”

“Who are we supposed to be dragging where, my young ponies?”  Papyrus’ voice interrupted. Both ponies turned to see the old unicorn walking along the deck towards them.

Rapier explained. Papyrus just sighed and looked out over the forest. “Well, I suppose he could not have gone far,” he said.

“He should have not gone off at all. What is that pony thinking of!” Rapier said, his anger showing again.

Papyrus shook his head. “I do not think he is thinking very clearly at all at the moment. We better get after him, Rapier -- no knowing what sort of trouble he will have gotten himself into.”

Rapier sighed. “Okay.” He turned to Rainstorm. “Did Windrush give any indication of which way he might have gone?”

Rainstorm shook her head again. “Like I said, nopony saw him, he could be anywhere.”

Rapier sighed again. “Okay, well we will do a spiral search and see if we can pick up his trail; it is not like he is likely to be trying to hide or anything. Rainstorm, we will leave you a trail of our own to follow when we find him. Come on Papyrus, let’s get going.”

> Rough Diamond: part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A cave in a forest in the present

Starlight spun round and the explanation died on his lips as he saw the creature that addressed him. It was bigger than he was -- about half as big again -- and stood on four limbs, but he did not recognise what it was. It looked a bit like a pony, and it was addressing him in pony, but it did not look like any pony Starlight had ever seen.

“I- I- I-” he stammered out.

“Yes you. Who are you?” the creature asked, prodding at him with a scaly claw on the end of one of its forelimbs.

Starlight’s mind had gone blank. He could not place the creature in front of him. It had the basic body shape of a pony, but bigger. It also had some very un-pony like features; in addition to its claws it did not have a mane, it had green dragon-like scales running down its back, and what looked like leathery wings half way along its flank. Looking past that, he could see that it had a muscular tail with the same scales as well.

“I- I am Starlight,” he said when he found his voice.

“Indeed, pony,” she said, looking him over carefully, “and what are you doing in my home?”

“Your home?”

“Yes, pony. My home,” she said, gesturing about the cave. “It has been my home for many times longer than you have probably been alive. Now what are you doing here?”

Starlight tried to think, but the shock of the appearance of this creature and her, he thought it was a her -- face shape that was the most obvious distinguishing feature of ponies, but hers looked more like a dragon’s.

“I walked in from the forest,” he eventually answered a bit lamely.

The creature pulled back surprise, showing in her strangely very pony like eyes. “You walked here?” she asked incredulously. “My dear little pony, do you have any idea how dangerous the forest you walked through is? There are lots of creatures in that forest who hate ponies. And there are many more who love pony,” she added with a humourless laugh. “Who or what are you? You are not a changeling -- I would know -- so what are you doing here?”

Starlight tried to step backwards, driven back by the creatures’ penetrating stare, but he backed up against a cupboard. It rattled and some of the ornaments fell over. “I am a pony,” he said defensively. “I am Sir Starlight of house Northstar. I was onboard the Everdream, that is an airship, we crashed in a clearing. I--” He stopped. How did he explain the White Pony to this creature. “I got lost in the forest and found my way here, the cave looked inviting so I walked in. Sorry,” he added a bit forlornly.

The strange creature backed down. “Your airship crashed?” she asked her, suspicion visibly being replaced with curiosity. 

Starlight nodded.

“Around midday?” 

“How did you know that?”

The creature laughed. “My dear little pony. I suspect the whole forest knows that. Your airship made quite the impression round here.” She looked Starlight up and down and her manner visibly relaxed. “Well, my little pony. It seems you have the luck of Luna to have survived first the crashing of your ship, and then to find your way to one of the only caves in the entire forest whose occupant would not eat you.”

She seemed to come to a decision and held out one of her forelimbs in an obviously welcoming gesture. “Welcome to my home, stranger. I am Rough Diamond. Out of Rarity by Spike,” she said formally.

Starlight’s education and background took over and he touched his fore hoof gently to the outstretched limb. “Your kindness and hospitality is well received,” he replied in the formal tones he had been taught. “I am Sir Starlight Northstar. Out of Wind Whisperer by Star Moon, thirty fourth lord of Northstar.”

In the back of Starlight’s mind several things snapped together. He twisted his head to look at the picture of the gaily dressed ponies. “Spike,” he said, suddenly turning back to look at Rough Diamond. Suddenly the creature’s strange shape made sense. “The dragon who was the companion to Twilight Sparkle. Your sire was the companion of the legendary Twilight Sparkle?”

The strange dragon/pony creature in front of him smiled sadly. “She always preferred it when I called her aunt Twiley.”

Starlight stared at Rough Diamond in shock. “You knew her! You knew Twilight.” Starlight’s mind raced “You must have known the goddess.”

“Not very well, I am afraid,” she said calmly. “Not with the same personal relationship as auntie Twilight, but my mother did take me to Canterlot a few times and I did meet the princesses.” A thoughtful look came over her face. “They seemed quite interested in me. But I was very shy when I was young, and all the looks I got in the big city upset me.”

Starlight’s mind reeled. “By Luna,” he stammered out, “personal knowledge of Twilight Sparkle and the goddess. How Papyrus would like to meet you.” 

Rough Diamond shook her head. “Well, my little pony,” she said with the air of somepony dragging their mind back. “Seems that if I am not going to eat you, I think it would be polite if I feed you. Would you join me in a meal? I believe I still have something that ponies eat.” She waved a claw ended fore hoof towards the back of the cave. 

Starlight’s stomach reminded him that it had been quite a while since he had eaten; he gave a small nod and followed the strange creature back through the piles of bric-a-brac that filled her home.

-------

Ponyville, the past
The late autumn sun was shining down on the outside of the dress shop in the centre of Ponyville, and the weekly plan issued by the weather office said that it would continue to do so for at least the rest of the afternoon. It even shined on the large cart full of crates and furniture parked outside, despite the cloud of gloom that seemed to emanate from the forlorn creature sitting on the back.

Rough Diamond sat on the tailgate of the large cart and stared down at the collection of gems in her large claws. Part of her hated those claws -- they were one of the things that set her apart from her friends in Ponyville -- but in the scheme of things they were a fairly minor problem, and unlike some of the others they where actually very useful for doing things.

She placed the pile of gems down beside her on the cart and picked one up between her claws. She carefully held it up less than a claws length away from her face. She closed her eyes and tried to reach for her magic. For a few moments she struggled to find the inner balance she needed, but she persevered like she had been taught, and eventually she found the touch and was able to grip her magic. What little there was.

She opened her eyes and looked at the gem with her magic enhanced vision. To her normal eyes the gem was a pretty uninspiring ruby -- irregular in shape with a flaw running through the centre of it. It was one of the discards her mother had declared ‘totally un fabulous.’ If her father had been around then she was sure that he would have eaten it on the spot. In fact Rough Diamond herself was considering whether to make it a light snack, but she wanted to ‘look’ at it first. 

Through her magic enhanced vision the gem seemed to glow with a sparkling, fractured light. She twisted the gem in her claw and moved it closer to her face. Yes, the light looked fractured like the gem itself, but maybe... She reached out her other claw and touched the gem, channelling her magic into that claw. She knew from her lessons -- and from what the other unicorns had told her -- that most unicorns did not need such close contact for their magic. One of the simplest things that any unicorns could do was to levitate objects at a distance, and she felt a twinge of frustration that even this simplest of pony tricks was beyond her abilities. She fought down the anger before it broke her concentration and focused her magic through her claw and into the gem. 

The light of her magic flowed into the gem, flowing around and into the pulsating light of the gem itself. When she thought she had sufficiently filled the gem, she gave her magic a little twist. The gem in her hand shattered, some of the outer bits falling away. Rough Diamond relaxed her magic and flicked at the gem with her claw. The rest of the outer shell fell away, revealing the shape beneath. She smiled at what had been revealed. A baby fire ruby, she thought as she carefully examined the now almost perfect miniature heart shaped ruby lying in her huge claw. 

It had not been a real fracture after all, it had been where the fire ruby had been subsumed in another half formed gem. Through her magical sight she could now see the pure light of the fire ruby clearly as it sat and pulsed at her. She put the baby gem to one side and reached for another of the reject gems.

Her contemplation of the second gem was interrupted by the door to the dress shop crashing open. She looked up to see a large red earth pony stallion walking slowly backwards through it, followed by a large piece of furniture and that was in turn followed by a slightly smaller orange pegasus stallion. He was followed by her mother.

“Oh, do be careful with that, Big Mac,” her mother said in her worried tone. “Oh, look out Sweet Apple it is slipping at your end. Careful of the door.” Rarity looked up and saw where her daughter was sitting. “Oh, Diamond, dearie,” she called out. “Be a dear and come here and lend a hoof.”

Rough Diamond put down the gem and jumped of the cart. She walked over to where the pair of stallions were struggling. Standing on her back hooves, she reached out with her claws and grabbed the end of the piece of furniture, removing almost all the weight off the young orange pegasus. 

He turned his face up to her and smiled. “Thanks Ruffie,” he said.

“No sweat, Sweetie,” she replied with a grin. Sweet Apple really did not like that nickname, and so, of course, she used it at every opportunity. Between the three of them they managed to get the furniture onto the cart. 

“Oh, well done deary,” Rarity gushed, reaching up to rub the scales on Rough Diamond’s back. That was actually quite hard to do as she had grown decidedly bigger than her mother. 

“You always were my most precious gemstone.” Rough Diamond grimaced at the childish nickname. “Now,” Rarity said, turning back to the house. “I think we just have a few dozen more boxes up stairs and we are done. Come along boys.” Big Mac and Sweet Apple shared a despairing look and followed Rarity back to the shop.

Rough Diamond was about to return to her gems when she heard a call of “Ruffie!” She turned to see three figures coming over the little bridge towards her.  She recognised two of them and she waved enthusiastically back. Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake were some of her old friends from school, although their schooldays were long behind them now. And while she did not recognise the third pony, she realised who -- or more actually what -- he was. 

“Hi Pound, Hi Pump.” She waved as they came up to the cart. “And who is this?” Pumpkin put a hoof proprietarily round the shoulder of the young pegasus stallion standing by her side. 

“This,” she said with a smile, “is Wind Walker. He is my very special sompony.” 

“Reeeallly?” Rough Diamond replied, looking over the top of the happy couple at Pound Cake. Pumpkin’s bother just rolled his eyes. As far as Rough Diamond knew this was Pumpkin’s third ‘very special somepony’ this year.

“Well. I am Rough Diamond,” she said, extending a claw to the pegasus. The young stallion just looked at it wide eyed for a few seconds, and then gave a grunt as Pumpkin hoofed him in the ribs. 

“Ur, yes. Nice to meet you,” he stammered out as he reached and very gently touched his hoof against her claw. There was a few more seconds of silence.

“Well,” Rough Diamond said, breaking the awkwardness. “Sweet Apple, Big Mac and mum are inside moving boxes, why don’t you take Wind Walker and introduce him to them, Pumpkin?”

“Yer, let’s to that,” the young unicorn said, half pushing her still shocked colt-friend towards the house. As they left Rough Diamond heard some harsh whispering and caught words like ‘rude, claws and monster.’

She turned back to Pound Cake. “Where did your sister find him?” 

Pound Cake grimaced. “I am afraid he is my fault. She met him in Cloudsdale when her and mum came to visit me at training camp.” 

“Is he EFC?” Rough Diamond asked, a bit shocked.

Pound Cake had left home and joined the Equestrian Flying Corps during the latter half of the war, and had taken part in the final assault on the ‘palace of the People,’ although not in any major way he was always quick to add. ‘I could barely see the Discord dammed place from where I was,’ he always answered when anypony asked him.

“No.” Pound shook his head vigorously. “I think she met him in a doughnut shop or something -- you know what she is like.”  

Rough Diamond nodded. Unfortunately she did know what Pumpkin Cake was like, having spent many a night with her weeping into her side over her latest spurned ‘love of my life’.

“So you are really moving out,” Pound Cake said, gesturing to the packed cart. “Dad said so in his last letter, but I did not really believe it.” 

“Yep.” Rough Diamond sighed. “We really are moving. Mum says she and dad have found a nice space in the middle of the forest, and dad and aunt Twilight are there now building a house.” 

Pound Cake gave her a questioning look.

“Well dad is a bit too large to fit inside Carousel Boutique any more,” Rough Diamond explained, “and mum says she wants to retire from the dress making business, and they think that a bit of peace and quiet in the forest would be good at the moment -- what with the end of the war and all.”

Pound Cake nodded at this. Equestria was not the happy place it had been before the war. As Wandering Thought, an ancient pony philosopher had put it: ‘It is impossible to find victory in a civil war. While you may seem to have won, in the end you will find you have always lost more.’ For the past ten years the war had torn Equestria apart, and even with it over a great depression seemed to have settled on the land. Princess Celestia had withdrawn from public completely, not even coming out for the latest Summer Sun Celebration. A similar depression seemed to have settled over her mother and father, as well as auntie Twilight and her friends. To Rough Diamond they all seemed to be suffering from the same great sadness.

“And you are going with them?” Pound Cake asked. 

Rough Diamond could see the worry in his eyes. “Where else would I go?”

“You could stay here in Ponyville,” he responded quickly, “or move to Canterlot, or even Cloudsdale.”

Rough Diamond looked down at the pegasus. Even though she was younger than the Cake twins, her large size had always made her feel like an older sister, and Pumpkin’s need for somepony’s shoulder to cry on had forced her into the more mature role.

“You are sweet, Pound, but you know I can’t. I have never really fitted in, even here where ponies know me.” A lot of the ponies and others that lived in Ponyville had come to accept her, and some like the Cake twins had grown to be her friends, but that had not stopped the majority of ponies from being nervous around her. Dragons were fierce, everypony knew that. And since Spike had grown larger, she had noticed that ponies give him furtive little side glances when he was in town. And by extension she got the similar looks. They were always polite to her but she knew what they were thinking, is she going to turn on us? What if she leaps at me with those claws? It was not conscious, but it was there.

“Anyway.” She tried to force a note of lightness into her voice. “Mum will need me to make sure that she has somepony to sort out her cottage and keep dad in line.”

At that thought, the door from Carousel Boutique opened and the ponies came out carrying the last load of boxes. Big Mac and Sweet Apple placed them on the cart with Rarity fussing around them making sure that they were all properly packed.

Pound Cake and Rough Diamond were just walking over to the cart when the door slammed open again and a sobbing Pumpkin Cake rushed out, followed by Wind Walker. The two ponies pushed past Pound and Rough Diamond and galloped onwards. They stopped on the little bridge, and even from where she stood, Rough Diamond could clearly hear the sound of shouting. 

“Oh dear,” she sighed, watching the two arguing ponies. “I hope you and your mum can cope with her this evening.”

“If we can’t we will send for you,” Pound Cake replied with a smile.

They had reached the cart; Rarity had got all the boxes sorted and Big Mac and Sweet Apple had harnessed themselves into the traces. 

“You all packed, Dearie?” Rarity asked from the seat at the front of the wagon.

“Yes, mum,” she replied with a little exasperation. “I was finished packing this morning.”

“Well then. Big Mac, Sweet Apple. Let’s go,” her mother said with cheerfulness that Rough Diamond thought was a little forced. The two stallions heaved and the fully laden wagon set off out of town.

Rough Diamond turned back to Pound Cake. “Goodbye, Pound,” she said, putting out a claw to shake. 

The pegasus surprised her by throwing his forelegs round her neck in a hug. “Goodbye Ruffie,” he said, and Rough Diamond could hear tears in his voice. “Stay safe.”

“You too, Pound Cake,” she said fighting back tears of her own. She disengaged the clinging colt and looked him straight in the eyes. “…and come and visit.”

“I will,” he promised.

“…and bring your troublesome sister as well.” 

“I will.” He grinned, but Rough Diamond could still see the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. 

“You better,” she said, and with a wave she turned and trotted off to catch up with the cart. 

------
The Everdream, in a forest clearing

The sun was half set and the star-swirl was starting to climb into the sky as Genoa paced up and down the deck.  He had been doing that so much today that he feared that he was going to wear a trench in the solid wooden planks. He stopped and looked at where the brightness of the star swirl was just clearing the horizon. Earlier in the voyage, Papyrus had given him a lecture on its nature. Apparently it was not just a collection of very large bright stars, as most ponies assumed. Papyrus had told him, lectured him in fact, that it was much closer than the stars, and was most probably made up of a collection of glowing rocks. When Genoa had asked him how in Equestria he could possibly know that, the old scholar had gone on at length about timings, measurements and angles. Genoa had regretted asking.

Above him flyers held the now repaired fore lifting envelope in place, as the crew carefully fed lifting gas into its repaired cells. More ponies lifted the spell-plate back into place and reattached it to the base of the envelope. Soon they would be able to test the runs, and then with any luck they would be able to start to charge the system. Soon after that he would be able to lift his ship out of this Luna cursed forest.

A dark coated flyer broke out of the trees, skimming the ground and darting up to the Everdream. He landed next to Rainstorm and the two held a whispered conversation. Eventually Rainstorm waved the flyer away and trotted over to Genoa. 

“They still out there?” he asked her.

She nodded in reply. “Forked Lighting says there are another two packs moving in from the west.”

Genoa grimaced. For the past few hours their scouts had been reporting the presence of quite large packs of hunting Diamond Dogs. The semi-bipedal canines did not seem to be actually hunting for the Everdream, but Genoa did not think that if they came across her they would just let them be. They would be able to deal with a single pack, but if several of them decided to gang up on them it would be a different story.

Diamond Dogs were not particularly good fighters individually, but they were tough and vicious, and most of the packs Genoa had heard of usually sold their services are mercenaries, so they tended to be experienced at nothing else. 

“How long?” Rainstorm asked, waving a hoof at the lifting envelope and the ponies replacing panels in the canopy.

Genoa considered the work and did a quick calculation. “Quite a while yet,” he replied, then stopped and looked at Rainstorm.

“What are you thinking?” 

“I was thinking that me and a few of my ponies should go and see if we can lead some of those doggies off on a little wild phoenix chase.”

Genoa considered it. “Interesting thought, but that would alert them to the fact that there are ponies in the forest, and that might pique their interest and start them searching.”

“They are already searching, Genoa. If not for pony then for something. I have never seen so many packs spread out over such an area -- if we do not do something, I think it is quite likely that they will find us before we manage to get this flying brick airborne.”

It was a sign of how worried Genoa was that he let that insult to the Everdream slide right over him.

“You think you can manage that without taking causalities?” he asked.

Rainstorm shrugged. “No promises, but it’s not like we will be directly engaging them. I was thinking more about letting them see us and then flying off. You know the old ‘over here, no, over there’ game.”

Genoa looked back at the work crews on the envelope.

“Okay,” he said eventually. “It is going to take us a couple of hours to get the pressure in the envelopes back up to lifting strength. You think you can keep them distracted for that long.”

“Not a problem, they are Diamond Dogs; it is not like they going to catch on to what we are doing.”

Genoa nodded. “Okay, when we are off the ground we will send up a flare. When you see that, give your pursuers the slip and come back here. We will still need to follow Rapier and Papyrus to where Starlight got to.”

Rainstorm saluted, leapt into the air and flew off.

Genoa went back to pacing the deck as he watched the fore spell-pate being reattached and the crystal runs replaced. Unicorns stood over them directing small flows of magic into them to test their integrity. After a few minutes he heard the distinctive sound of hunting trumpets and, rather closer than he liked, the sound of Diamond Dog howls.

------

The strange dragon pony did indeed have something ponies ate. She had guided him back through a maze of what Starlight might have called junk, if he was prepared to be so impolite to this strange and slightly intimidating creature. For the last couple of hours they had been sitting at a table, Starlight eating a quite good carrot and daisy pie, and Rough Diamond crunching her way through a plate of what to Starlight’s surprise had turned out to be emeralds. They had spent the time talking; she had told him of her life -- her foal-hood in Ponyville, and her mother and father. 

Starlight had been particularly interested in her memories of Twilight, as he knew that Papyrus would quiz him mercilessly about it. As she had talked, Starlight had found himself growing more and more fascinated with her. In a lot of ways she was very pony-like; she spoke like a pony, be it in a strange accent that reminded Starlight of some of the older books he had read, and she had obviously been taught by a pony. But in other fundamental ways she was not a pony. She ate her gems by picking them up in her claws and tossing them into her mouth, where they crunched between her sharp dragon-like teeth.

After she had told him all about her upbringing, he told her a little about himself, and about what he was doing in the forest; about the dreams, about his friends Rapier, Papyrus and Rainstorm, and about the Everdream, and eventually about the Dark Cloud on the mountain and the ghost of Twilight and Spike. He had been a bit cautious about this; according to her, Spike was her father – he tried not to think about that this, as it meant she was hundreds, if not thousands of years old -- and telling her about how her fathers ‘ghost’ had been destroyed saving him from a Dark Cloud was something he wanted to approach with caution. But she did not seem to be hurt by the news. There was something there, even Starlight could see it. Something between her and her father, but she had not told him what it was.

He drew his tale to a close with the story of how they had crashed in the forest. As he was telling her about the repairs a thought struck him and he leapt to his hooves.

“OH Celestia!” he shouted.

Rough Diamond looked at him. “What’s wrong?”

“My friends, Genoa, the ship they do not know I am here!” he exclaimed -- how could he have been so stupid. He had been sitting here enjoying a meal while all the time his friends must have been worried sick about him.

“I must get back to them.” he said, after he had explained this to her. “When is it? How long have we been sitting here?”

“Hold on, I’ve got a clock here somewhere,” Rough Diamond said, walking over to one of the junk covered tables and picking her way through the piles. “It was a present from aunty Applebloom,” she said, a little wistfully, picking things up and putting them back down. “She made it herself. I know I have it here somewhere.”

Starlight’s already overwhelmed mind threw another shoe when he spotted something familiar in the detritus. And he let out a strangled cry

Rough Diamond turned round at the strange sound. “What is it pony?” she asked worriedly, “you have gone very pale.”

Starlight pointed with a forehoof. “That-that-that-” he stammered.

“This?” Rough Diamond asked, picking up one of the things she had been sorting through looking for the clock.

Starlight could only nod his head feebly. The thing that she was so casually tossing back and forwards in her claws was a stone sphere, identical to the one that had been with Twilight Sparkle and Spike. 

Starlight’s mind raced in circles. The white pony, the sphere, Twilight, Spike, this Rough Diamond. What did it all mean? She had lead him here, but why? And who? Just as he was getting his thoughts in gear to ask Rough Diamond about the stone, the gem around her neck emitted a clear chime and started to glow.

“Oh dear,” she said, a worried expression coming over her face. “That cannot be good,” she said, placing the stone back on the table and heading off to the front of the cave. Starlight followed in her wake, his mind still racing.

They rounded a pile of furniture and caught sight of the front of the cave. Standing around the archway was a group of Diamond Dogs, currently looking at the piles of things that Rough Diamond kept in her home. 

Starlight had not seen the large semi-bipedal canines in the flesh before, but he had heard a lot about them. Diamond Dogs, according to Rapier swift, were brutal and greedy and mostly none too bright, and therefore made excellent mercenaries. They had been found in almost all of the armies that the Equestrian armed forces had faced in the last hundred or so years, and so Rapier had had a lot to say about them. 

Starlight recognised this as what could be loosely called a ‘scout commando group’. There were four Dogs dressed in light chain mail armour with helmets that covered most of their jagged faces. These were typical Dog troopers and represented mostly pure muscle with brains as an optional extra. The fifth was different; he did not wear full armour, instead he wore a fancy breast plate studied with gems, as well as a crown, also gem encrusted. Diamond Dogs had a madness for shiny gems; their ownership and display was a status symbol amongst their clans. From the amount he was wearing, this Dog was obviously very well placed in his clan structure.

One of the guard Dogs spotted Rough Diamond and Starlight; he gave a low growl and the rest of their group spun around. The leader caught sight of Rough Diamond and he visibility jumped.

“What aaare yooou?” he asked in a rough, hissing voice.

“What am I?” Rough Diamond repeated, anger in her voice. Starlight noticed she was now standing on her hind legs, claws held out in a way that emphasised her large stature. Even so, she was not much bigger that the largest of the guard Diamond Dogs. “Who are you, and what do you want in my home?”

Starlight had been standing behind the dragon-pony, and as she walked angrily forward he was spotted by the lead Dog.

“Pony!” the Diamond Dog shouted, and the larger, more armoured, members of the pack dropped what they were looking at and moved forward. They were obviously trying to be threatening, but even from what Starlight could see of their faces they did not look very happy about it.

“Wwee wwant the poonyyy,” the lead Dog hissed, “let us have him and weeee will let you livvee.”

Rough Diamond gave a harsh half laugh. “Let me live?” She raked her stare over the approaching guard Dogs, and they flinched back from her. “You are not from around here, but I see your hirelings know me. Why don’t you ask them who I am?”

“I doo not care who you arrree. Not-pooonyy,” the lead Dog sneered. “Give us the pony, or we will take him by force.”

“Come and take me,” Starlight said and he drew his sword, taking up a fighting stance beside Rough Diamond. Something about that Diamond Dog was setting his teeth on edge, apart quite from the fact he wanted to take him prisoner.

“If you insist.” The lead Dog made a waving gesture with his paw and the two closest Dogs leapt. Starlight had just enough time to see the first Dog thrown back by a blast of green and purple light, before the second one was on him.

Rapier Swift had trained Starlight how to fight. He had told Starlight a lot of the art of combat, but as the Dog slammed into him, Starlight remembered one of the more basic lesions. It was hard to fight an opponent who was nearly twice your weight and had arms longer than your body.  The Dog was on top of him and had enveloped in him with its arm before Starlight could get his sword around in a proper defence. He bucked out, trying to throw the creature off him, but it had a firm hold of him.

He was just running through his options, when he felt the Dog being pulled off him. He looked up to see that Rough Diamond had grabbed the Dog from behind. As he watched, she picked it up and threw it away, past the arch and out of the cave. 

Starlight picked himself up and watched Rough Diamond as she paced across the floor to where the leader and his remaining two minions stood. She was standing on her back legs and was showing her full height, there was a sparkle around her horn -- it did not look like the glow of the magic of unicorns -- but Starlight assumed that it had been her that had been responsible for the blast of light. As she moved, he could see a similar sparkle coming from the gem she wore around her neck.

“I am Rough Diamond,” she snarled at the retreating Dogs, “out of Rarity by Spike. The lineage of dragons is in me.  This is my home and that pony is my friend.”

To his credit, and despite his obvious fear, the lead Dog stood up straight. He was still backing away in the face of the dragon-pony’s anger, but he was trying his best to not look intimidated. “You do not scare meee, not-pony,” he said, fighting with all his might to make it true. “I control a dozen tribes in this forest, they will come here and they would tear this pace apart to get the pooonyyy if I wish it, and I dooo.”

“Well then,” Rough Diamond replied, the sparkling form her horn increasing. “I suggest you wait for them outside.” 

Faint lines of light reached out from her horn, spreading out in front of her, and all of a sudden Starlight saw what she was doing. She had intimidated the Diamond Dogs backwards and now they were the other side of the strange marble and gem pillar that he had walked through as he entered the cave. Now the streamers of light from her horn reached out to the arch, gently caressing each of the gems. Each of the gems started to glow with their own internal light. There was a sudden musical twang and a wall of glowing blue light snapped together in the archway.

A shield, Starlight thought as he watched it. It must be a shield. He had seen shields before, ponies usually called the Sparkle Fields, and they were a purple colour, not blue. Some unicorn ponies could cast them and a lot of modern airships and other pony war machines made use of them, but he could not see what use it would do them, the arch was inside the cave -- the Diamond Dog could just walk around it. His question was answered an instant later when the shield on the archway bulged out and flashed. He briefly saw the shield expand outwards down the passage pushing the Dogs with it. 

He shook his head, picked up his sword and walked over to where Rough Diamond was still standing before the archway. 

“How? What?” he started.

“A very good question.” She turned to face him, the gem around her neck glowing a deep, fiery red.

Starlight shook his head and tried again. “What did you do?” he asked pointing to the archway. 

Rough Diamond lowered herself back down on to all four limbs. Starlight was relieved; standing like that she looked much more like a pony and much less like a dragon.

“Oh that,” she said, slightly dismissively, “there is magic in gemstones if you know where to look. When I was young I was fascinated by gem stones, I used to pick them up and stare at the light coming from certain ones. Fortunately my mother and father made sure there was always a lot around the house. When I grew up I realised that the ponies I was living with could not see the light of the gems.” Her smile became slightly twisted. “I suppose you could call gem magic my special talent. As I grew up and I learnt about magic I started to understand how to harness the glow of the gems to do things.” She waved her claw at the glowing chandeliers. “It has proven quite useful.” She looked at Starlight her intense gaze boring into him “but that is not what I meant pony. They came here looking for you. You heard them. ‘Give us the pony.’ How did they even know you were in this forest, and what do they want with you?” 

Starlight shrugged. He had just started thinking about the same thing himself. His thoughts were interrupted by a growling and thumping from down the corridor, each thump was accompanied by a musical twang. 

“Good as this arch shield is,” Rough Diamond said, looking down the corridor, “it will not hold up if that mutt does have an army here. And I do not think I will be able to hold off an entire army if they want to come and take you. For whatever reason they want you.”

A thought struck Starlight. “Why don’t we ask him?”

“What?”

“The shield can hold the single Dog and his hirelings back, right?”

Rough Diamond gave a snort. “Oh yes, pony. That shield was designed to hold back far worse than him.”

“Well then. Why don’t I go and ask him what he wants me for,” he said over his shoulder as he stared down the passage that led out of the cave.

As Starlight rounded one of the bends in the corridor, he came up muzzle to muzzle with the Diamond Dog leader. The blue translucent shield had stopped part way down the passage, and on the other side of it stood the fancily dressed Diamond Dog and one of his subordinates. The armoured Dog was pounding his fists on the shield, and that was the cause of the noise. 

“Arhhhh Poony,” the lead Dog sneered as Starlight approached. “Have you come to give yourself up to meee?” 

Starlight smiled back at him. “Why would I want to do that?” He waved a hoof at the shield. “It seems you are a bit trapped.”

The Diamond Dog leered at him. “You are wrong, poony. It is you who are trapped. Trapped behind the not-pony’s shield, you cannot go anywhere and myyy freindsss are coming. When they get here we will smash the not-pony’s magic and we will take you.” 

“What do you want with me? Why all this effort?”

The Diamond Dog laughed harshly. “You do not know? Silly poony!” It looked at Starlight. “The time is coming, It is returning,” he sneered. “You and your ponies are no match for It, and It waaantss you.”

“What wants me! Why does ‘it’ want me?” Starlight asked, confused.

“Silly pony.” The Diamond Dog laughed. “You are Starlight, but you do not even know who you are.” There was a noise from outside the cave. “My friends are here, poony,” the Diamond Dog sneered again, “there is no escape for you now.” 

Starlight looked past the creature as shadows started to flicker on the wall of the passage. 

> Rough Diamond: part 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside a cave in a forest in the present

Papyrus carefully pushed the leaves aside and looked out at the cave mouth. Standing in front of the cave entrance, clearly visible in the light of the now risen star-swirl, were two large Diamond Dogs.

Very carefully, Papyrus let the branch fall back into position and shuffled back through the undergrowth to where Rapier was standing on a small forest trail. “And you are certain that he is inside that cave?” he asked his old friend in a hushed whisper, waving a hoof in the direction of the cave and the Diamond Dogs.

Rapier nodded. “Where else could he be? Those Luna cursed things may have scuffed up his trail badly. but you can still clearly see some hoof prints. They are not ours, and if there were any other ponies in this forest, we would have seen evidence of them by now.”

Papyrus nodded. Their spiral search had covered a large amount of the forest before they had eventually found even the smallest trace of the wayward Starlight, and even when they had, they had repeatedly lost it again. Sometimes the trail had been obscured by the tracks of other forest animals, at other times they had to hide from the packs of Diamond Dogs that seemed to be infesting this place. Eventually, after much searching, they had picked up the trail again by a cliff wall and followed it to this cave, where it seemed a searching pack of Diamond Dogs had beaten them to it.

“Anyway, I think that fact that those mutts think there is something in that cave worth leaving a guard on is the best clue that we have found him.”

Papyrus nodded. It was good logic, but it brought up some very nasty conclusions. “He is in the cave, either trapped or captured or…” he stopped.

“They are still guarding that cave,” Rapier emphasised, “they would not be doing that if there wasn’t something they wanted in there.” Rapier turned back to look at the cave entrance. “We need to find a way in. We could take those doggies, but if they notice us, then they will sound the alarm and then there will be more than we can handle,” he stopped pacing. “We should head back to the Everdream and gather up a wing or two of flyers and some crew, then we can storm the place.”

Papyrus shook his head. “No time,” he said worriedly, “let me get them out of the way.”

Rapier watched as Papyrus used his magic to gather a collection of twigs, leaves and rocks, and arrange them together in a strange pattern on the floor of the forest.  Then he stood next to his creation. The glow from his horn increased and the light started to spread over the arrangement in front of him. Rapier looked around worriedly; it had gotten quite dark over the last half hour, and it was possible that the Diamond Dogs might notice the glow.

The glow had spread over the entire collection, and Rapier watched fascinated as the pattern that Papyrus had created twisted and warped before his eyes. The twisting hurt his head and he blinked and rubbed his eyes with his hoof. When he opened them again, the collection of twigs and stones had disappeared, and in their place was a young earth pony.

Rapier stared at it -- he could not recognise the pony it was supposed to be -- and as he watched, it seemed to flicker and change subtly, as if it was becoming a different pony. He reached out his hoof to touch it. 

“Don’t,” Papyrus hissed sharply. “It is just an illusion,” the unicorn said, a grimace on his face, “and it is not easy to maintain.” Papyrus waved a hoof at the bushes on either side of the little path. “Quick, hide.”

Rapier saw at once what the plan was and he dived under the undergrowth, Papyrus doing the same on the other side of the path.

From where he was hiding, Rapier saw the hooves of Papyrus’ fake pony walk slowly past the bushes. There was a faint rustling and then a clear cry of ‘pony!’ from the Diamond Dogs. He saw the hooves of the fake pony flash past, and then a large paw thudded into the earth mere hoof lengths from his face, quickly followed by others.

Rapier slowly crept out from where he had been hiding and looked back down the path. 
Papyrus had stopped the illusory pony in the middle of the track . It was standing weirdly, and Rapier could clearly see through part of it to the stones and sticks inside. Papyrus had also crawled out of his bush, and wordlessly the two ponies crept up behind where the two guard Dogs were standing and getting ready to pounce on the illusion. 

With a small pop Papyrus let the illusion collapse and the fake pony fell apart, the outer shell vanishing and its skeleton of sticks and stones falling to the ground. 

The Diamond Dogs turned to look at each other in puzzlement and one of them caught sight of Papyrus and Rapier. It turned its head towards Rapier in time to meet Rapier’s rear hooves coming the other way. They met with a clang and the Diamond Dog fell unconscious to the ground. Papyrus had hit the second guard with a blast of magic and he was as out of it as the first. 

“It is really depressing how stupid they can be.” Rapier said stepping over the unconscious Dogs.

“It’s the helmets,” Papyrus replied.

“Really?”

“Oh yes, my young pony. All that weight of metal on their head overheats their brains. That is why their leaders do not wear them.”

Rapier considered this for a few seconds before he shrugged and the pair of them walked carefully into the cave. 

----

The past, outside a cave in a forest

Twilight was pacing the small clearing outside the cave, when Spike pulled himself out through the opening.

She looked up at him and her face fell when she saw his expression.

“She is not any better, is she?” she asked her oldest friend as she walked over to him.

Spike shook his head. “No Twi, she’s not. She does not want to help and she does not really even want to talk to me.” He crouched down so that he was face to face with Twilight. “She still blames me for what happened, and for the loss of her mother.”

Twilight came closer and placed a hoof carefully on his large snout. “It was not your fault, Spike, we did our best -- we did better than our best. And we won; we drove the enemy back.”

“Yes, but at what cost?” Spike waved a claw at the horizon where what ponies called the star swirl was already rising into the sky. It had been many pony lifetimes since the end if the Equestrian Civil War, and he wondered if he and Twilight were the only ones who remembered when it had been Luna’s moon, the silvery twin to the golden sun, just as Luna had been Celestia’s eternal balance. “I feel like we paid far too high a price for that victory. Especially as it has proven to be so fleeting.”

“Spike, our victory brought us lifetimes worth of peace -- even Celestia has stopped beating herself up over it,” Twilight said with feeling, “and as for the enemy... we knew that it would return, that was why we have spent all these years preparing for it.”

Spike looked back at the cave behind him and sighed. “I had just hoped that she would be able to forgive me by now.” 

Twilight placed a comforting hoof against his giant cheek. “It was never your fault. We did our best; there was nothing either you or her could have done.” Twilight looked up into Spike’s eyes. She was not sure her dragon friend believed her. She was not sure she believed herself.  

The strike had come many years after the end of what was now called the Dark Star Rebellion, or the Equestrian Civil War, but at the time had just been called The War.  She wondered now why it had come as quite such a surprise; after all, they knew that the enemy was almost impossible to actually defeat, and they should have been more careful. They had been at first. They knew that the Darkness was sneaky, the start of the civil war had proven that. Nopony had suspected that Dark Star would try what he did.  

But so much time had passed and her friends had grown old and they had grown more relaxed, more peaceful. She herself had not grown old, at least not physically. As the years had gone on, the rest of her friends had started to show the signs of age, while she had not. She had started to be concerned by that, and had spent more and more time researching magic, and the magic of the Elements of Harmony in particular. Then the strike had happened.

She had been in Canterlot. Celestia had persuaded her to take up a chair at the University of Canterlot, and part of the position had been a role teaching at the School for Gifted Unicorns. They had come when she was busy teaching a class on advanced levitation. To this day she wondered why they had chosen that time. Did the enemy think she would be more vulnerable outside? Or maybe that the presence of the foals would make her more hesitant to use her power? Maybe they had some other reason all together.

Whatever their reason, the first warning was when Star Dancer’s carefully arranged pattern of spinning balls hit something. The foal had come running to her, worried that she had done something wrong with her spell -- then the field had suddenly seemed to be filled with crystal moths.

The only thing that had saved a stunned Twilight during those first few seconds had been the foals. The crystal moths had found that they were trying to attack through a madly spinning array of balls, rocks, books and whatever else her students had been floating around. The confusion had given Twilight the few moments she needed to recover her senses and the first moth to actually make it to her had been shattered by a sharp crack of magic. After that, Twilight had easily been able to fend off the rest of the ambushers. It had only been later, after the field had been cleared and they where questioning why the Darkness had tried to kill her, that the realization had come that it had not been her alone that they had been targeting. 

Rainbow Dash had brought the first word. Although the Wonderbolts were a flight display team, they primarily drew their members from the ranks of the Equestrian Armed Forces, and most of their members came straight from the EFC, so when the crystal moths had attacked her at their training ground, they had gotten a warmer reception then they had evidentially planned for. 

Rainbow’s arrival had brought with it the realisation that the Darkness was not just attacking her, but her friends as well, and that all her friends were in danger. With that revelation, she and Spike had travelled to their friends as fast as possible. 

They had been too late. 

Fluttershy had survived. The Dark attackers had been beaten back by Big Mac, Sweet Apple, Wind Fall, Apple Blossom, Apple Core and the combined efforts of the host of forest creatures that lived in Fluttershy’s cottage. Unfortunately all their efforts would eventually be in vain, as Fluttershy had been badly hurt and would later die of her injuries.

Pinkie Pie had also managed to fight off the Darkness, but no pony, not even her, could properly explain how.

Applejack had been out in the orchard. Afterwards they found the trail of filled apple buckets and then the evidence of a struggle. Applejack had always liked apple bucking and even in her old age had refused to let anypony help her.

And Rarity. By the time Spike and Twilight had reached to the little cottage in the forest, the fight had been all but over. As Spike and Twilight had come thundering into the clearing, magic and fire blazing, they had seen Rough Diamond standing over the fallen form of her mother, Dark moths surrounding them.  Rough Diamond had a fire in her eyes that Twilight had not seen before. 

Just as they arrived the moths again darted in seeking to finish off the injured pony. Rough Diamond had unleashed a flurry of her very specialised magic -- streaks of muilti-colored flame erupting from the gemmed necklace that she wore -- but it had not been enough.

They had arrived just too late.

Rough Diamond had never forgiven Spike for not being there when they needed him, or Twilight for dragging him away. Words had been exchanged; the sort of words that could not easily be taken back, and she had abandoned the little cottage and Equestrian society. Years later, when Spike had gone to try to make peace with her, he found she had gone into hibernation, curled up like a dragon surrounded by her ‘horde’. Spike had periodically checked up on her in the years in-between, but even when she had been awake she had not wanted to talk.

“It was not your fault,” Twilight said, again placing her hoof kindly on his cheek.

“I know, Twiliy,” the dragon responded. “I just had hoped that she had forgiven me and she would help us.”

“I know, Spike, I had hoped so too, but we will just have to manage without her.” Twilight’s horn glowed and the flap on her saddlebag opened. Out floated a dark cloak, a jewelled crown and a strange necklace. She floated the cloak around her, settled the crown on her head and looked at the jewelled necklace. it was odd -- instead of a central gem, it had five shaped stones in a cluster; an orange apple, a blue balloon, a red lightning bolt, a purple diamond, and a pink butterfly. It was the combined form of the Elements of Harmony that her friends had borne, still showing their cutie marks. It was her constant connection to her long gone friends.

As she fastened the necklace around her neck she was aware of a faint glow, spreading up to encompass the crown she wore.  “Come on Spike,” she said firmly “Celestia needs us now more than ever.”

“Of course, General Twilight.” Spike pulled of mocking imitation of a pony salute.

“Stop that you,” she replied, climbing up to the space in his scales where she preferred to ride. 

Spike took one look back at the cave and then turned and headed off to the new war.  

------

The present, Rough Diamond’s cave

Starlight’s face broke into a large grin.

“Why you smiling, Pooonnnyyy?” the Diamond Dog on the other side of the magical shield said mockingly. “You are traaped behind your shiiieeeld. And my friends are coming. When they get here we will break the not-pony’s shield and--” He broke off in the face of Starlight’s grin.

“WHY are you smiling PONY!?” he screamed at Starlight.

Starlight waved with a fore hoof. “Look behind you.”

The Diamond Dog whirled around.

“Hello, mutt.” Rapier Swift grinned at the Diamond Dog.

The Diamond Dogs had a moment of surprise before Rapier’s hoof came around and knocked him flat. A blast of magic picked up the second Diamond Dog and slammed him against the wall of the cave.

“Rapier, Papyrus. Thank Celestia you are here,” Starlight exclaimed as his old friends walked up to the shield’s edge. He turned his head back into the cave. “Lower the shield, it is my friends.”

“Your friends?” The voice drifted from the back of the cave.

“Yes, my friends for them ship. You remember I told you about them?”

The transparent blue wall in front of Starlight flickered and then vanished. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” Starlight exclaimed as Rapier and Papyrus walked forward.

Rapier walked up to Starlight. “I am very glad to see you as well,” he said putting one hoof on Starlight’s shoulder.

He removed his hoof and sharply prodded Starlight with the other one. “Now what in Celestia’s name where you doing wandering off into the forest?” he said sharply.

“I--” Starlight tried to interrupt, but Rapier was having none of it.

“Where you not thinking? Do you not know what sort of dangers can lurk in a forest like this? And you just wander off randomly, for Luna’s sake -- did that bump on the head mash your brain?”

“I did not--” Starlight tried again.

“You are fortunate that these were just Diamond Dogs. It could have been so much worse; just imagine if it had been a manticore or a chimera -- what would you have done then, would your shield have held them off?”

“How did you make that, anyway?” Papyrus asked curiously.

Rapier was taken off guard by the interruption and Starlight saw his chance. “I did not and I did not,” he broke in.  He turned to Papyrus. “I did not just wander here, she lead me here. Papyrus, it is here, or part of one of them is here. She led me here for it,” he exclaimed, “and that is not all.”

There was the sound of hooves on the sandy floor of the cave entrance behind him and Starlight saw looks of shock and amazement dawn in the two ponies’ eyes. Rapier brought his hoof up blade sliding out. Papyrus backed away.

There was a sibilant hiss and he spun around; Rough Diamond was standing in the turn of the tunnel. She was standing on her rear pony hooves, her front claws up and her twisted horn was glimmering. The gem around her neck was glowing a bright red. She looked big, much bigger than any of the ponies.

Starlight saw what was happening and leapt in front of his two old friends. “Hay! Hay! Friend!” He twisted to Rough Diamond. “Friend!” he shouted, waving his hooves wildly in the air. “Everypony friend, okay?”   He twisted his head, looking back and forth between the two sets of antagonists. “We are all friends here.” 

To his relief everypony seemed to relax.  He turned to Rough Diamond, as in his limited experience she was the one most likely to react badly to shocks like this; he could probably trust Rapier and Papyrus not to do anything stupid immediately.

“These are my friends I told you about. This is Rapier Swift--” He waved a hoof at Rapier “--and Papyrus. They are my oldest friends, they raised me when my parents died, okay?”
The dragon-pony nodded her head slowly and lowered her clawed forelimbs.

Starlight relaxed and turned back to the ponies. “This is Rough Diamond. This is her cave, she was the one who produced that shield.”  He turned to Papyrus unable to contain his excitement. “Papyrus, she is Spike’s daughter, she knew Twilight Sparkle.”

Papyrus looked even more shocked than when he had first seen her. “No, that is impossible. Almost all the legends agree that Twilight lived hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago.”

“No, it is not. Papyrus look at her. She is Spike’s daughter; she is part dragon. She has one of the stones and lots more. Come and look,” he started to push the old unicorn up the tunnel towards the main cave.

“You must see this,” he insisted as he pushed the unicorn past the Rough Diamond and into the cave. Rapier followed more cautiously.

“Oh my,” Papyrus breathed, as he half walked, half was pushed by Starlight into the cave.

“You see?” Starlight said eagerly.

“Yes I do see, my young pony. You do seem to have a knack for finding lost treasures.”  He walked over to one of the collections of random things. “What are all these?”

“Memories,” a raspy voice answered him, sounding more than a little irritated. 

Papyrus’ horn glowed and a picture frame floated up towards him from out of one of the piles. It had a picture of a group standing in front of a round building. In the centre of the group was a brilliant white unicorn wearing a lovely white dress and standing next to a purple dragon. Next to the white unicorn was a smaller unicorn, also white coated but unclad, and two other older unicorns, a pink mare and a white stallion. On the other side of the dragon there stood a single unicorn. Papyrus gave a little gasp of shock as he recognised the pony. It was Twilight sparkle. There was no mistaking the name mark on her purple flank.

“Memories of what?” he asked to the air as he put the picture down.

“The past.”

He turned to see the strange not-pony standing in the tunnel mouth. “Oh, I am very sorry,” he said, the fear of earlier seemingly totally replaced with the curiously of the academic. “I am being unforgivably rude. I am Papyrus.”

“Yes, Starlight said.”

“Oh yes, of course he did -- and your name is Rough Diamond.”

“Yes,” she replied her caution slowly drifting into amusement with the strange old little pony.

“And you really knew her,” he waved a hoof at the picture “you really knew Twilight Sparkle.”

A smile floated across the strange snout. “Yes, I really knew her.”

“Tell me please, what was she like?”

“Auntie Twilight was...“ She paused to think. “Auntie Twilight was mostly worried when I knew her,” she answered eventually. “Father said she had not always been that way, but she had acquired a great burden that she had been forced to pass on to her friends, and it had changed her.”

“And was she really as powerful as they say,” Papyrus continued, “could she really defeat an ursa major?”

Again a smile ghosted over Rough Diamond’s face, but before she could reply, Starlight pushed himself in front of the old unicorn. “That is not important, you have to see this,” he said, pushing the old unicorn further into the large cave. 

“Not important! My young pony we are speaking to somepony who knew the legendry Twilight Sparkle; she may even have met the goddess herself -- think of all the things she could tell us.” 

“That is not why we are here,” Starlight insisted. He pushed his old teacher around a chase lounge and pointed to the table. “This is why we are here.”

Papyrus walked over to the table and picked up the stone orb from the pile of paper it was sitting in. “It is another of those stones,” he said, looking back at Starlight.

Starlight nodded eagerly. “Yes, like I said, that is why she led me here.”

Papyrus examined the stone. “How interesting,” he said, half to himself, “it has a marking like the other one.” He rubbed a hoof over the mark. “Yes, just like the other one the mark is not carved in the surface, but seems to be part of the stone itself.”  He turned around, taking the stone with him.

“Do you know what this is?” he asked Rough Diamond.

“No,” she shook her head.

“Then how does it come to be here?”

“It was given to me to keep safe,” she replied, almost dreamily, “by someone dear to me.” She looked down at the floor. “Someone I should have appreciated more.”

Papyrus opened his voice to ask more when he was interrupted by a hissing voice. “Ssssillly pony,” the voice said, “and sssilllly not-pony. You do not even know what it is you hold.”

Starlight spun around to see the Diamond Dog leader that Rapier had knocked down standing in the door way. His crown had been knocked off and he was leaning against the wall. Something about him made Starlight’s fur stand on end.

“Arh, mutt,” Rapier said over the rasping swish of his hoof blade. “Come for a second try have you?”

“Sssilly ponies.” The Diamond Dog pushed himself off the wall and started to walk into the cave. “You do not know what it is you have. You do not know what it is you face.” Something about the way his shadows danced and flickered on the cave wall sent a cold chill through Starlight.

“I have faced your kind many times,” Rapier said, positioning himself in front of the creature. “I know you well enough.”

“Ssssillyyy ponies,” the Diamond Dog sneered as it walked slowly closer, ignoring Rapier’s fighting stance. “You do not know what it is you seek. But we do. We have been seeking them for years after the pony hid them, and now we know where they are. Silly ponies.”

“Rapier, look out!” Starlight shouted. Something was very wrong, he could feel it, his tail was twitching like crazy and it felt like all the hairs on his back where trying to stand on end.

The Diamond Dog swung its fist at Rapier. It was a clumsily blow, one even Starlight could have dodged in his sleep, but as Rapier ducked under it something strange happened. The fist’s shadow seemed to leap out of the floor -- and it was the shadow, not the fist, that connected with him. Rapier flew across the room and collided heavily with a collection of dressmaker forms, which collapsed and buried him in an avalanche of half completed dresses. 

“SILLY PONIES,” the Diamond Dog screamed, throwing his arms out wide. His shadows leapt off the wall, flowing through the air and filling the cavern with blackness. The Darkness of the shadows flowed over the Diamond Dog, engulfing him.  For a few terrifying seconds Starlight watched the roiling turmoil of the blackness, then a huge image of the Diamond Dog’s face made out of shadow emerged from the cloud. 

“SILLY PONIES,” it roared, “THE DARKNESS HUNGERS!!!”

A blast of purple fire outlined with green struck the creature. Starlight twisted to see Rough Diamond standing tall in the middle of the room, her twisted horn shining and the heart gem around her neck glowing a fiery red. 

“Pony. Light,” she shouted as she tossed her head, sending another blast of fire into the mass of Darkness. 

Tendrils of smoke-like blackness reached out as Papyrus’ horn lit up and a flash of eye watering brilliance filled the room. The huge black head screamed, but more of the black tendrils struck out, seeking the dragon-pony. Whips of purple fire and flashes of light drove them back, but more joined them.

Starlight dashed across the room head down, heading for the pile of clothes where Rapier had fallen. He skidded to a halt and desperately kicked out at the pile. 

He saw a hoof and he tugged at it, pulling his teacher free.

Rapier looked dazedly at the huge mass of blackness blocking the exit. “Is that that stupid mutt?” he asked. 

Starlight nodded.

“…and it turned into that creature of Darkness.” 

Starlight nodded again.

Rapier looked at the mass of black tendrils and then at the two ponies throwing magic at it. “Do you think steel will hurt it?” Starlight asked Rapier as magic fire flew into the creature and black tendrils lashed out. Rapier pushed himself to his hooves.

“Only one way to find out,” Rapier spat, and he charged across the room, hoof blade rasping as it flicked from its scabbard. Starlight grabbed at his sword and followed. 

Starlight and Rapier charged into the mass of dark tendrils, lashing out at them with their swords. The tendrils did cut under their blades, as the two ponies danced into the mass, Starlight found himself flank to flank with Rapier, blades slashing out at the seeming unending Darkness. 

“Ponies go left,” he heard, and looked out to see Rough Diamond waving left with a claw; behind her Papyrus was already walking sideways, staying focused on the massive creature.  A barrage of fire slammed into the right side of the dark mass, taking the opening Starlight and Rapier jumped into the temporally clear space. They set their hooves and slashed at the seeking tendrils. 

Again the cavern was filled with blinding light and the Dark mass flinched back; the ponies pushed forward, but the massive smoke-like face retaliated, and Starlight was forced to back up as he desperately fended off blows.

“SLILLY PONIES,” the huge face screamed at them. “YOU CAN NOT WIN. I AM DARKNESS.” 

“Stupid Doggy,” Rough Diamond replied, a sneer in her voice. “You have fallen of the same trap twice.”

Then Starlight realised what the dragon pony had been doing.  She had pushed the black cloud back towards the entrance, towards that gem studded arch. The back smoke was now halfway inside that arch. 

As before, streamers of pale light reached out from Rough Diamond, stroking the gem stones in the arch; as they did so, each one started to glow with its own inner light. The shield snapped out, filling the arch and slicing into the mass of Darkness. The huge face screamed as the purple light cut through it, but this time the glow from the crystals kept rising, the shield between them becoming more intense. The Darkness writhed and squirmed, twisting around the now brilliant arch of light, as though it had been run through with it.

Starlight slowly backed away, sheathing his sword, Rapier joining at his side. The arch was a brilliant white now, and seemed to be growing still brighter. Starlight looked at Rapier. 

“Run?” he suggested, as the magic in the arch started to crackle and bright strikes of lightning arced  to the walls. The miniature Dark Cloud let out another unnatural scream.

“Run.” Rapier nodded and as one, the two ponies turned and leapt for cover.

There was a thunderous crack and a blinding flash of light as the arch exploded. Starlight felt himself picked up by the blast and thrown across the room, landing heavily on the chaselonge, which rocked and tipped over, ending up in a pile with it on top of him.
Starlight laid dazed for a few moments, trying to work out why he kept being thrown about today, before he heaved and shrugged the furniture off his back.  He got to his hooves and looked around the room.

Not surprisingly, the archway at the end of the room had disappeared, taking the strange Dark creature with it. The accompanying blast seemed to have thrown all the clutter of the cave about, a lot of the piles had fallen over, and the stuff that had been at that end of the cave had been flung around; most  of it was now broken. In one corner he saw that Rapier had been thrown back into the pile of dressmaker forms, but he was already getting back to his hooves. In the centre of the room Papyrus stood behind Rough Diamond, who was already back on all  four feet. Papyrus seemed unharmed. 

Most likely, Starlight thought, was that he had been behind the larger more stable dragon-pony when the archway detonated.  

Starlight walked carefully across the debris strewn floor towards Rough Diamond. “What--” he started, waving a hoof around the room and then stopped, unable to find a proper way to phrase the question. “What was that?” he started again.

“It... he was a puppet,” Rough Diamond said flatly.

“A what?”

Rough Diamond turned to look at Starlight. “A puppet for the Darkness,” she said, and sighed, seeing the trio of confused pony expressions.

“The Darkness does not always work openly. In fact it prefers not to. A lot of time it works through creating conflict. If we fight each other we waste out strength and we cannot fight it. To do this it works through puppet creatures like that.”

“So that was not a Diamond Dog,” Papyrus said, “it was a Dark creature all along?”

Rough Diamond shook her head. “No, he was a Diamond Dog. At least to begin with; he was probably one of their leaders and the Darkness offered him power and so…”

“It took him over,” Papyrus finished.

Rough Diamond shook her head. “He let it,” she said flatly.

“How do you know so much about the Darkness?” Papyrus asked. “Did you fight it before?” 

Rough Diamond shook her head and Starlight thought she looked sad.  “No. Not myself.” She gestured over to where a book case had collapsed, spilling books all over the floor. “But auntie Twilight was very studious in making sure that things got properly recorded and I read some of her writings.”

The strident blast of a trumpet echoed in from the cave’s mouth.

“I think that might be those friends of his,” Rapier said, his ears pricking up at the noise.

“Will they all be puppets?” Starlight asked worriedly.

Rough Diamond shook her head. “No, it would not need to, it would only need enough puppets to make sure that its goals were met.”

There was a pair more of trumpet blasts. 

“But there are rather a lot of them if they are using the usual Diamond Dog hunting signals,” Rapier added. He turned back. “I think that is our cue to leave.”

Starlight turned back to the mess that was the remains of the cave, locating and retreiving the strange orb. “Rough Diamond, I need to take this,” he said, holding the odd thing up to her.

She nodded. “Yes, you said. The White Pony.” She looked around the cave. “Take it,” she said, a twinge of sadness in her voice, “it is obviously important, otherwise the Darkness would not be trying so hard to stop you.”

Starlight stuffed the stone into his saddle bags and turned to follow his friends down the passage, when a sudden sadness came over him. He looked back at the strange not-pony standing in the ruins of her horde of memories. “Come with me,” he blurted out.

She looked back over her shoulder at him. “What did you say?” she asked.

“Come with us,” he amended swiftly, “on the Everdream. You know about the Darkness, you knew Twilight. You know how to fight it,” he trailed off in the face of her sad eyes. “We need you,” he finished slowly.

She shook her head slowly. “No, I…” she started, then she stopped and looked around the room. “No, pony,” she started again, “this is not my fight, I am sorry.” She turned back into the cave and Starlight felt his heart sink, then he turned and galloped after his friends. 

> Rough Diamond: part 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starlight galloped down the passage that led out of Rough Diamond’s cave and stopped as he nearly ran in to the back of Rapier and Papyrus.

“Aren’t we getting out of here?” he asked.

A trumpet blast echoed through the forest; there was an answering blast from a different direction.

“We got company,” Rapier replied. There were a couple of more trumpet blasts. “...and lots of it.”

There was rustling from the bushes and Starlight could see darker Diamond Dog sized shapes in the shadows, lots of them. Beside him there was the metallic rasp of Rapier’s hoof blade sliding out.

“Should we head back inside?” Starlight waved a hoof at the cave behind them. “Rough Diamond can probably do something to keep them out.”

“I do not think that will be necessary, my young pony.” Papyrus said, pointing a hoof at where the star swirl was clearly visible over the treetops.

Starlight followed the line of his hoof to where a shape was just cutting into the brilliance of the swirl.

-----

There was the patter of thuds and rattles of small objects striking the hard hull of the Everdream. Genoa looked out over the top of the wheel. “Willow,” he said, in a mock enquiring voice. “Are those creatures trying to attack us?” 

The junior officer floated the looking glasses off their stand and walked over to the edge of the command deck. “Yes, Captain, I do believe that they are,” Willow replied in a helpful tone.

“My word, that is not very friendly of them is it?” Genoa replied, his tone still mocking.

“Distinctly uncivil, Captain,” Willow replied.

“Would you kindly ask them to desist?”  

“With pleasure, Captain.” Willow grinned back.

Genoa was in a surprisingly good mood; it felt very good to have his ship in the sky again, and the relief of having got the repairs completed before anything nasty decided that they where prey had lightened his spirit considerably.

Once they had managed to get the Everdream airborne, it had been a relatively easy matter for Rainstorm and her scouts to find the trail that Rapier and Papyrus had left, guiding them to wherever that young idiot had wandered off too. But no sooner had she reported that she had found where she thought they had gone, then another scout had rushed back with the news that a large pack of Diamond dogs was on the move towards them as well -- and this one seemed to be very single minded, none of the flyers had managed to get their attention enough to divert them. Fortunately, it seemed that this pack of Diamond Dogs had not expected to encounter an airship, and so for once Genoa did not see any chance of his ship being damaged.

The airship shook as its cannons spoke.  Teardrops of magic spellfire, blindingly bright in the dark of the night, thudded into the forest below. The patter on the hull ceased. “And signal the flyers to retrieve Starlight and his ponies,” he said casually. The guns spoke again. “When ever they have time.” Genoa stared down at the explosions rippling through the trees. “No hurry.”

--------

Rough Diamond watched as the strange ponies disappeared down the tunnel that lead out of her home and back to the forest. She sighed and then turned back to made a start on picking up the scattered things that the explosion of her arch and the Dark puppet Diamond Dog had strewn around her cave.

At least it will reaffirm that I am not an easy picking, she thought, as she effortlessly picked up a table and righted it. I will need to build myself a new arch, of course. But it is unlikely that I will have any trouble with my doggy neighbours before then. An echo of a hunting trumpet drifted through the cave mouth. Well, that is if they calm down when they have finished hunting those ponies. For a moment she felt worried about them; they had been a bit strange -- especially that first one -- but it had been a very long time since she had spent any time around ponies and she had forgotten how much fun they could be.

They will be fine, she thought, as she picked up a fallen bookcase and pushed it back against the wall. They seemed to be fairly capable fighters, and that first one had said that they had an airship close by; they should not come to harm between here and it. As she pushed the bookcase back against the wall a book fell from the top and landed heavily on her head. Curious, she caught it before it bounced to the floor and looked at it.

It was a copy of ‘The Ponyville Letters.’ It was the book that Twilight had published with her -- and later her friend’s -- collected friendship reports to Princess Celestia. This copy was one of the first editions, and she had gotten it as a birthday present from auntie Twilight. She idly opened it and flicked to a random page.

It was one of the letters written by Spike. She remembered Rarity telling her about it when she showed her the fire ruby.

Dear Princess Celestia, 
Today I learned a great lesson about friendship. Well, you might think that it would feel good to get lots and lots of stuff, but it doesn't feel nearly as good as giving something special to somepony you really care about. But I learned that it truly is better to give than to receive, and that kindness and generosity are what lead to true friendship. And that's more valuable than anything in the world. Well... almost anything.

On the page opposite the printed letter was a drawing, showing Spike as a young dragon standing in the library at Ponyville. In his out-stretched claws he held the fire ruby, the same one that hung round her neck. He was offering it to Rarity, who had been drawn with a expression of quiet happiness. She looked at the picture for a while and then she looked out the door, to where she could still hear the sound of the pack of Diamond Dogs hunting the ponies.

She closed the book with a snap.

------

Spell fire thudded into the trees and the ground shook as the Everdream’s cannons discouraged the nearest pack of Diamond Dogs.

“It is always nice to have friends in high places,” Papyrus commented as even the closest Diamond dogs broke off their charge in the face of the threat of fire from on high. There was a flutter of wings and the small space by the cave mouth was suddenly full of pegasus ponies.

“I see you found him,” Rainstorm shouted at Rapier, as the rest of her wing sped past pursuing the fleeing Diamond Dogs.

“Yep, we did.” Rapier grinned back at her. 

“Good, well you get him back to the ship while me and my friends here deal with these puppies and then--” She stared at Starlight. “--we can have a little talk about certain ponies running off.”

Starlight gave her a half smile and an apologetic wave, but she had gone off, darting through the trees. More pegasi arrived and Starlight let one of the grab him in its strong legs and carry him up above the tree line.

As he cleared the trees he got a good look at the Everdream. The ship was obviously up and flying again; all three lifting envelops were repaired, and from what he could see the crystal canopy looked intact. Despite all the work, But he could still see some places where the plating on the hull had been ripped away by its passage through the trees and not replaced, and when the cannons fired he could see that there were gaps in the battery fire.

His thoughts were interrupted by the swish-zip sound of arrows passing close by. Those creatures on the ground are shooting at me, he thought, as the pegasus carrying him started to swerve. There was another barrage of arrows and he heard a scream as one of them hit his carrier in the leg; its grip on him weakened and he fell from its grasp.

As he plummeted towards the green sea of the trees, the only coherent thought that went through Starlight’s mind was that he seemed to be spending all of today falling. Then strong limbs were wrapped around him and he was again lifted clear. For a moment he thought that the pegasi had managed to catch him, but then he realised that the legs holding him were rougher and covered with scales. 

“You know, pony. I now know why your friends were so anxious to find you,” a familiar, slightly raspy, voice said to him. “You do seem to need a lot of looking after.”

Starlight twisted his head around and starred up into the odd but wonderfully welcome face of Rough Diamond. 

-----

Outside Rough Diamond’s cave, the relatively recent past 

The late afternoon sun shone through the leaves and dappled the book in front of Twilight with shadows. A thought struck her, and with a small grunt of effort she levitated the quill pen off the ground and made a small note in the corner of the page.

You are getting tired, Twilight, she thought to herself. You are too old to be galloping round the country like you used to do when you where a filly. Even if you do not do much of the actual galloping anymore.  That thought reminded her of why she was here, and she looked up from the book propped on the rock in front of her and towards the cave mouth. It had been quite a while since he had gone in there and she worried what was happening. She made herself relax and went back to studying the book.

I am getting old now, she thought as she read the pages again. In fact, if she was truthful with herself she had been old for a very long time --  she was so old that only her teacher, the immortal alicorn Princess Celestia or her faithful assistant Spike, had any idea how old she really was. She herself had long since forgotten.

There was a rumbling from the cave and she looked up to see a purple blur emerging from the cave mouth. With a grunt of frustration and pain she reached up and pulled her glasses down. The blur resolved itself into the large shape of Spike. Too many books, Twilight my filly, she thought. Too much studying. You can still read, but your eyes are no good for anything else now.

Spike unfolded himself from the cave and walked over to where Twilight was sitting. “It is done,” he said, bending his head down to her. “She knows it is important, she will look after it.”

Panic crossed Twilight’s face. “You did not tell her what it was?”

Spike shook his enormous head. “No of course I did not. I just told her it was something important to her mother.” Twilight relaxed. “She will take care of it.” Spike said softly.

“I know,” Twilight responded gently.

“We dragons are good at guarding things.”

“I know, after all you have always managed to keep me safe.”

Spike looked back at the cave mouth. “There is so much of her mother in her,” he said with sadness heavy in his voice. “She is so like Rarity.”

“So much of you too,” Twilight said, “the best of both of you went into her.”

Spike smiled a little. “Maybe not the best, but definitely the most typical.”  His face sagged again. “I wish I could have told her you know,” he said darkly. “I wish I could have told her the truth all those years ago.”

“I know, Spike.” Twilight again comforted her oldest friend. “We all have ponies we wish we could have told.” Her fore hoof went unconsciously to the little locket she always wore around her neck. “But we could not. Celestia thought it was too dangerous. The more who knew the true nature of the enemy, the more risk.”

“I know, but if we had told her maybe…” Spike trailed off.

“…and maybe if I had never been sent to Ponyville the whole world would be different. But it is not and what is done is done.” With an effort, Twilight lifted a scroll out of her saddlebags and made a check mark on it. Then she let the scroll and the quill fall to the ground. “And it is done,” she said with finality. “Take me home Spike. I am tired.”

Spike bowed his head. “Of course, Princess Twilight,” he said, slightly mockingly. He extended an enormous claw and lifted Twilight to his back. He looked back at the cave.

“Come on, Spike,” Twilight said kindly, but with firmness, “we must not linger to long. As long as it is asleep the Dark Seekers will not find Generosity, but they know our taste. If we linger here too long they will get suspicious.

Spike turned around. “Of course, Twi. Let’s go home,” he said, setting out through the forest.  

Twilight settled down in the space between Spike’s scales. Sometimes she wondered if her oldest friend knew that he had carried her so often that she had worn a pony shaped space in his hard scales. It was done. Just as the Princess had asked, she had put down the last of the burdens she had been force to take up from her friends. But she still had her own burden. She thought of the small stone orb nestled in the bottom of her saddle bag. No, she could not put that burden down. That one she would have to watch over for some time to come.  It was her burden and she could not put it down, she would have to look after it until somepony came to take it from her. The regular, famillar rumbling of Spike’s breathing started to lull her to sleep. Yes she would have to stand guard over Magic but she did not think she would have to watch alone.

----------

The present, onboard the Everdream

The two stone spheres sat in the middle of the desk. 

“Two of them,” Papyrus said, looking at the strange stones.  He picked up the book. “It looks likely that these are something to do with the Elements of Harmony.”  He picked up the letter. “…and therefore it seems likely that Twilight took these stones and hid them in places important to these ponies. Applejack, Fulttershy, Rarity, Pinkiepie and Rainbow Dash.”

There was an intake of breath from Rough Diamond at the list of ponies.

After Genoa had picked them up from the forest floor, he had taken the Everdream up and away from the pack of Diamond Dogs – they did not have any way of following the airship, and seemed to have lost interest after their leader was dealt with.

They were now sitting in Papyrus cabin 

“You recognised those names,” Papyrus stated.

Rough Diamond nodded.

“I thought you might. Twilight Sparkle said that they were friends of hers and you knew Twilight, so there was a good chance that you would know them.”

“Rarity was my mother,” Rough Diamond said softly.

There was silence around the room as everypony tried to think of what to say. Starlight wanted to say something comforting, but was at a loss as to what to say to somepony whose mother died hundreds of years before he was born.

Rough Diamond shook her head as if to shake off a memory. “But yes, old pony, I did know those ponies. Not as well as my mother or father did, but I knew them. Can I see that letter?”

Papyrus floated the letter over to where Rough Diamond sat. She grabbed it in one of her claws. Starlight looked at her claws and wondered about them. Sure, he had seen other creatures that had dextrous limbs before, both griffons and Diamond Dogs had ‘hands’, and ponies could manage quite well to hold things that where large enough in the crook of their forelegs, but what must it be like to have those strange things? In fact, what must it be like to be the  strange creature that was sitting across the cabin from him?

She finished reading the letter and lowered it. “And you think that these stones--” She waved one of her claws at the two stones on the table. “--are the things that auntie Twilight said she hid.”

Papyrus nodded. “It is the only thing that makes sense,” he replied. “We found the first one with her and the second one with you.” He looked at Starlight. “Our young friend here seems to be being guided to them. But what they are and why they are needed, we still do not know.”

Rough Diamond looked at the letter again ‘Places that where important to their bearers,’ she muttered under her breath. ‘My most precious gemstone.’ The last comment seemed to be an echo of somponyelse’s words.  Again Rough Diamond seemed to pull her mind back from wherever it had gone and she put the letter back on the table.

“Well,” she said with firmness. “I do not know what might be important to the rest, but everypony knew that there was only one place in all Equestria that was important to Applejack.” She turned to look at Starlight. “Time for me to visit my home town,” she said. “We need to go to Sweet Apple Acers.”

End of chapter 2

-----
The harsh truth is softened by a caring word. They endure together where both called home; one with longing and the other with love.

Next chapter: The Last Harvest