After Jason Wright's suicide, a second human arrives in Equestria. Two years later, he is a mercenary with a partner, but on a job he becomes entangled in something way bigger than any mercenary may be able to handle. Especially a magicless human.
Jason Wright is dead. The Elements and all of Ponyville are to blame for his abuse for three long horrendous years. Princess Celestia, upon hearing about this, lays down righteous judgement on each of them. This breaks their friendship and causes them to scatter to the winds while also destroying the reputation of Ponyville itself.
Two years later, a second human enters Equestria for a job. He and his new companions are a part of a mercenary team, not well known, but unique in their own way. Little does this human know that a simple job his team accepted in Equestria will lead him to becoming involved in something bigger.
EDIT: Changed setting to Teen, but may change it back if things get a bit too dark.
Princess Celestia sat on her throne, looking down at the various piece of paper in front of her and trying to make sense of the contents within them. For this paper was a coroner’s report. A report on a specific individual who she had only spent a hooffull of days with, but who had made a great impression on her. That individual was Jason Wright, a human who had appeared some three years prior in Canterlot and had an audience with her and Luna. She never would have known about Jason’s death had it not been for Applejack Apple, Element of Honesty.
The report told of a gruesome story for the poor human soul. Suicide. Something that was almost impossible in this land of peace and harmony. However, that wasn’t the worst of it. The coroner admitted that he was no expert on a human’s biology, but his skin was peppered with scars from various objects hitting him and even scars from a lightning strike that ran from his head down to his toes. She knew he didn’t have the same magical protection from lightning that her little ponies had, but she had assumed that Twilight, her former faithful student, would easily be able to make said connection and warn her friends not to harm him.
How wrong that assumption was, it seemed. Not only did he have a scar from being struck by lightning along with a blind eye, but there were multiple scars in the shape of hooves that battered his body and deep gashes that looked worryingly recent. He was malnourished at his time of death, and there was more evidence that the ponies of Ponyville, the so-called friendliest place in Equestria, had rejected this human and forced him to live in a dark and dismal cave in the dreaded Everfree. For three whole years, if her investigative team’s report was accurate, which she didn’t doubt, he had endured this torment.
She looked at the pictures of the body taken by the coroner and had to resist the urge to vomit. When she’d met Jason, he was a spry younger human with dark brown hair, light brown eyes, and a smile on his lips and heart. He’d looked healthy, and despite being an omnivore he reassured her that he wouldn’t eat any sort of meat that could talk or think. The pictures she had showed someone with a more skeletal appearance. Sunken eyes, hollow cheekbones, multiple scars, more than half of which were hoof shaped, half of his hair missing and the other half gray, and signs of broken bones that had poorly healed.
Celestia began shedding tears as she read the report from her investigative team. Apparently, all of this started when her student, Twilight Sparkle, had rejected Jason. This, in turn, led the entire town to not only refuse to help him, but it also caused many in the town to actively try and chase him out of town. And the ponies who should have helped him, those who were supposed to represent the Elements of Harmony, had turned their backs on him. In fact, the lightning scar came from the ever so impulsive Rainbow Dash while the oldest of the hoof scars came from Applejack. Fluttershy had rejected him out of complete fear of him, Rarity had chased him out of her shop, and Pinkie Pie had apparently never even once tried to meet the new human or even throw him a party. While the rest of the town were no better, she expected so much more from the Bearers. Too late, she realized that while the Tenets of Harmony were to be idealized, the Bearers themselves were flawed, more so than she’d realized.
With this realization, Celestia wondered if there were more patterns like this throughout her nation. Digging deeper had revealed some disturbing facts about her ponies that left her appalled. There were reports, buried deeply so as not to even reach her, of ponies being mistrustful and even hateful towards other species. Zecora was the first example that she’d discovered. While the zebra shamaness wasn’t as cruelly mistreated as Jason, she was still feared until her student and her friends had cleared things up. Apparently, the same courtesy wasn’t given to Jason.
Celestia also looked into the young Spike, and findings regarding him were even more horrifying. Spike was less of a friend to Twilight now and more of an indentured servant. He was forced to clean the castle where Twilight now lived, had no friends of his own his own age, and was apparently taken advantage of by the so-called Element of Generosity due to his feelings of love towards her.
She put the papers down again, leaning back in her throne and looking up at the ceiling. A sudden wave of guilt washed over her. Was she any better? She had never once thought to check on the young human. She’d never even sent a letter to Twilight asking about him and how he was faring in the three years since she’d sent him there. She’d only given him a day’s worth of bits for a night in an inn. This was just as much her failure as it was theirs. Her assumptions had led to the destruction of someone who only wanted to make friends in this world.
With this horrific realization, she put the papers in a neat pile, asked Raven Inkwell to organize them for her, then told her guards she was off to Ponyville. However, before she could even leave the throne room, a green mist formed in front of her. A scroll appeared and Celestia caught it in her magic. Noting the seal was marked URGENT, she broke said seal and opened it.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Something terrible has happened! The Castle of Friendship has locked me and everypony else in town out of it! We can’t get in no matter how hard we try! Please come and help!
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
As she read this, her sadness turned into rage, rage that she hadn’t felt in centuries. Blinding hot rage that apparently woke her sister as the dark blue mare appeared in a flash beside her, still wearing her sleepwear. “Sister? What has transpired? What ails you?” Luna asked with a yawn.
Celestia forced herself to calm down, then looked with sorrow at her younger sister. “Remember Jason Wright?”
Luna brightened a bit. “That lovely human who came to us three years ago? Yes, I remember. Why? Is he coming to visit?”
Celestia shook her head darkly. “He…won’t be able to visit us or anyone ever again,” she said, her voice catching in her throat. “He’s…dead.”
Luna’s smile faded instantly, and she stared unbelieving at her sister. “You lie…” she said.
Celestia shook her head. “No…it’s true.” She pointed to the papers that Raven was still organizing. “It’s all in there.”
Luna locked on to the papers, and soon she’d grabbed them in her magic, looking over the reports with her own eyes. Celestia sat on the pristine marble floors of her throne room, tears of sorrow mixed with regret pouring from her eyes. She could feel the rising anger from her sister as she read everything. When she returned, the utter rage she felt from Luna was on par with her anger as Nightmare Moon. No, it far surpassed it. Celestia looked up and her normally pale face would have gone even paler. The utter hatred in her eyes was visible as a dark aura surrounded the lunar alicorn. “How…?” her voice was trembling in righteous fury, “how could those six mares…who freed me from my nightmare…have caused the death of an innocent creature?!”
“We can find out together,” Celestia said, holding up Twilight’s letter which Luna grabbed and scanned quickly. “That may somehow be related.”
“There’s no doubt about that,” Luna growled, grinding her teeth in rage as she raised her horn. “Come, sister, we shall hear their pitiful excuses before they are punished!”
Normally, Celestia would have contradicted her sister’s words, but she was beginning to see Twilight and her friends in a new light. She had failed Twilight. She had failed her ponies. She realized in that moment then that the unification of Equestria all those years ago had only taken the hatred and fear the three tribes once had for one another and redirected it outwards. It might not have been as evident, but this blatant example of Jason’s death due to years of abuse and hatred had to not only be dealt with, but it should inspire change. She realized that a thousand years of peace didn’t mean there was true harmony in her lands. She would work to ensure that not only did Jason’s memory not go quietly into that good night, but that it would be the inspiration for change.
Twilight Sparkle paced in front of the Castle of Friendship, trying not to hyperventilate as she waited for a response from Princess Celestia. Her friends surrounded her, trying to calm her down. All save for Applejack, who sat apart from the rest and dug at the ground with her hoof. Lately, the farmmare had not been wearing her traditional Stetson, and it had worried Twilight until this new issue cropped up.
“Darling, you need to pull yourself together,” Rarity said in a reassuring tone, “everything’ll be alright, just you wait.”
“Yeah!” Pinkie said, “I bet when the princess gets here, she’ll be able to solve this issue lickety split!”
“Chin up, Twilight!” Rainbow encouraged.
“My animal friends told me that there’s nothing evil looking inside,” Fluttershy said in an attempt to be helpful.
However, Twilight was stuck in her own thoughts. She paced back and forth, eyes wide with worry. Nearby, Starlight Glimmer and Spike both stood and watched Twilight slowly descend into worry and fear. The former looked down at the latter. “Does she normally get like this when she’s stressed?” Starlight had only recently come into town after her time traveling debacle with Twilight and was still learning the ropes about how things worked in this town.
Spike huffed and nodded. “You’ll get used to it,” he said, leaning against a nearby bench with his arms crossed.
“You deal with this often?” Starlight asked.
“More often than you’d think,” Spike sighed as he looked back at the castle. “Still, I hope we can figure this out. I’ve got some comics in there that I’d hate to lose. They cost a lot.”
Starlight reached over and gently rubbed Spike’s back as nearby, Fluttershy looked at Applejack. “Um…Applejack? Are you okay?”
Applejack jumped at being addressed, then looked up at the pegasus. “Uh, not really,” she said.
“Worried about the castle too, huh?” Rainbow asked with a nod that was probably supposed to be understanding. “Me too.”
Applejack then did something nopony else there who knew her well enough expected. She wrapped herself up tightly, pulling on her mane to cover her face. “Ah don’t wanna talk ‘bout it none right now.”
Before anyone else could say anything, the sound of teleportation magic was heard nearby. Princess Celestia stood tall and looked down at the ponies before her. However, Princess Luna was also there, and both had looks of anger on their faces, causing everypony else to recoil in shock.
All except Twilight Sparkle, who ran over to the princesses with a look of relief. “Thank goodness you’ve come!” she said, sounding much less stressed as she pointed to the castle. “I don’t know what happened! I was reading in the library and Spike was cleaning when we were suddenly outside and unable to-”
“Be silent, Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Celestia said, and the tone coming from her muzzle was like that of living ice.
Twilight’s ears splayed down against her face and she backed away, a look of fear and confusion on her face. “Puh-Princess, what-?”
“I said be silent!” the princess repeated with more force, spreading her wings apart majestically as she glared down with anger and disappointment clear on her face. There was silence now as her gaze focused on each of the other five. When her eyes lay on Starlight and Spike, her features softened and she gave them a nod. “Young Spike, Miss Starlight Glimmer, would you please join my sister for a moment? She has something she needs to tell you.”
Confused, Spike and Starlight did as they were told, following a stern looking Luna away from the rest of them. Twilight gave Princess Celestia a pleading look before opening her mouth to speak again. However, a glare from the princess silenced her as she looked at the six mares in front of her. “Three years,” she began. “Three years you ponies ignored, tormented, abused, beat and starved an innocent being. What do you have to say for yourselves?”
Twilight looked completely shocked by this, as did four other ponies. However, it was Applejack who spoke. She looked up and removed her hair from her eyes. Everypony could see how bloodshot they really were now. They saw the bags under her eyes and the tearstains on her cheeks. She looked truly remorseful as she spoke out. “Ah can’t lie. We ain’t got an excuse.”
“You’re damned right you don’t!” Celestia shouted, startling even Applejack. Hearing the princess swear was practically unheard of, but she continued. “You are the reason behind the death of someone! You may not have directly done it, but your actions drove someone who only wanted to be your friends to SUICIDE!” She used her own Royal Canterlot Voice to emphasize that last word, sending them all sprawling.
Twilight was the first to recover and speak, looking up at Celestia with confusion in her eyes. “What…do you mean?” she asked.
“I’m talking about the human I sent down here three years ago!” Celestia said in rage. “I’m talking about Jason Wright! I’m talking about how the six of you were the leaders of the charge in the abuse of a defenseless being! I’m talking about how you sent him to live in a damp cave in the middle of the Everfree! Lost, alone, cold, and hungry! He was forced to scavenge because nobody here was generous, kind, honest, loyal, or even strove to make Jason smile!” She looked at the five mares whose elements they represented with a disapproving angry glare, causing each of them to shrink back.
Twilight looked stunned at this. This had to be a joke, right? There was no way that the actions she took against that human for the betterment of Ponyville had such dire consequences! She began to breath heavily, feeling another panic attack. She shook her head, denying it as she said, “That’s not true…it can’t be…”
“Would you all like to see the body!?” Celestia shouted. “Do you want to see the scars that you all inflicted on him! The lightning scars, the hoofprints from being bucked mercilessly, the way his skin sagged off of his bones from lack of food! Perhaps that should be part of your punishment for what you did to him!”
“W-We were protecting Ponyville from a threat!” Rainbow shouted, although she didn’t look so confident.
Celestia was right in Rainbow’s face, nose to nose with her. “What threat, Miss Dash? What sort of threat did he pose to you?! To Ponyville!? What gives you the right to become cruel to someone and disguise it as loyalty?!” She then turned to Fluttershy, who was now crying openly. “Where was your kindness when Jason needed it the most?!” Next, she turned to Rarity. “Where was your generosity when Jason could have used it in his darkest hours!?” She moved to Applejack. “Where was your so-called Apple hospitality when Jason was forced to steal from you, only for you to chase him off, buck him in the chest to break his ribs or to send your mutt after him to tear his skin off!?” Next, she moved onto Pinkie Pie, whose mane and tail was completely flat and her smile gone. “And you completely avoided him altogether, when a bit of laughter would have done him good! Instead, he hung himself!” Lastly, she turned to Twilight Sparkle, who was still completely shocked and unmoving. “And as for you, my faithful student,” and she spat the words out as if they were repugnant to her, “you forgot the earliest lesson you learned!” With that, she slammed a scroll down on the ground in front of the purple alicorn, who picked it up with shaky magic.
As Twilight read, her eyes widened and she broke. She looked down with tears in her eyes as she repeated over and over again, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, please forgive me, please forgive me, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…”
The others approached warily at the parchment now lying on the ground. As they read, their spirits crumbled.
Dear Princess Celestia,
My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; it's the contents of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
“Tell me, so-called Princess of Friendship,” Celestia said as she picked the scroll up with her magic, “what was it about Jason that made him different from Miss Zecora? Was it because Zecora was shaped like a pony? Was it because Zecora is an herbivore like us? Tell me what it is about Jason that made you shove him aside like garbage!”
Twilight, however, was still lost in her own thoughts, rocking back and forth as she repeated the same phrases over and over again. An apology and pleading for forgiveness. The others didn’t look any better. Pinkie Pie had a mad look in her eye as she was beginning to gather sticks and moss to make a human figure, calling it Jason. Rarity was simply sitting on the ground, tears pouring from them. Fluttershy was collapsed in a heap, sobbing profusely. Applejack was simply staring at the ground, her mane even more unkempt and falling around her. Rainbow was no longer flying now, just staring out towards the Everfree.
Suddenly, however, Twilight stopped. She looked up a hopeful expression on her face. “Wait…we can fix this!” she said with a somewhat mad grin, a grin that resembled what she looked like during the Want It Need It incident some years prior. She looked around wildly. “Where’s Starlight!? She finished Star Swirl’s time travel spell! Maybe she can-!”
“No, I can’t use it anymore,” Starlight said as she returned alone. Luna was in the distance holding a clearly despondent Spike.
Twilight saw Spike crying and stood. “Spike?! What’s wrong?!”
She moved to run to him, but was blocked by a magical wall. Starlight stepped in front of her, then to the surprise of everypony there sans Celestia, the unicorn shoved her teacher back hard with her hoof. “You don’t deserve to see him, child abuser!” Starlight growled.
“Ch-Child abuser…?” Twilight asked, her mane coming more undone.
“Princess Luna told us all about how you’ve relegated Spike to the sidelines!” Starlight snapped. “He has to clean the castle?! You’re a princess now, Twilight! You have the money to hire ponies for that! Instead, you call Spike, who’s been there for you longer than anypony else here save the Princess, ONLY your Number One Assistant! He’s only a child! He should be in school, making friends with others his own age, not acting as your slave!”
Twilight collapsed onto her haunches again. “B-But he likes-”
“And as for YOU, Rarity!” Starlight snapped, looking at the still crying unicorn mare, “We all know that Spike here has feelings for you, but what have you done? You use him as a pin cushion and free labor! You take advantage of his feelings to get work out of him!” She spun and looked at the others. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you all have done that one way or another, relegating him to the side.” She looked back at Twilight. “As of today, Twilight Sparkle, I wash my hooves of you, as in I am no longer your student. You claim to be the Princess of Friendship, but if you can’t even treat your oldest companion like a real friend or even a sibling, then you’ve failed.” With that, she turned and trotted away, walking back to Luna and Spike with her head held high.
Twilight fell to her side, holding her head in her hooves. Her mouth was moving as if she was speaking, but nothing came out. The princess had watched this all with a dispassionate glare. When nopony else spoke, she stood taller. “You asked me to come here to fix the issue with getting into the castle, Miss Sparkle. The truth of the matter is, that since the Tree of Harmony was the one who made the castle for you, it now rejects you as a Bearer.” She lifted her horn and six stone objects appeared in the air. All of them bore a remarkable resemblance to the Elements they had received all those moons ago. The detail on them was so precise, but there was one small detail that everypony noticed.
The gems on them had all been blackened. All corrupted and unusable. The six mares, upon seeing this, fell further back into themselves. Pinkie lost more of her color, Rarity’s mane and tail lost their lovely curls, Applejack’s head was now practically covered in her blond mane, and judging from the slight rhythmic trembling she must have been crying, Fluttershy was completely sobbing and wailing now, Rainbow Dash was looking at the ground in anger, although at who or what remained to be seen but if the tears were any indication, it was self-loathing, and Twilight was babbling nonsense.
“The Elements of Harmony have completely rejected you, and for good reason,” Celestia said. “While Jason was alive, it seemed as if they may have held out hope you’d come to your senses like you did with Zecora, but when your actions caused his suicide, they deemed you beyond unworthy of ever reclaiming these again.” She teleported them away and looked down at them. “Now then, for your punishments. Twilight Sparkle, you are hereby stripped of your title as a princess and all privileges that affords you, including your servants which you never even thought to utilize and instead forced it all on Spike. And speaking of, I am taking him into my custody instead. You were clearly not ready to raise him.”
Twilight briefly came out of her madness and pleaded, “No! Please Princess! I can fix this! I can make things right with Spi-!”
“I have spoken,” Celestia said firmly. She then turned to Rainbow Dash. “As for you, Rainbow Dash, I hereby remove you from the Wonderbolts effective immediately. All of your accolades and medals will be revoked and your record wiped. It will be as if you never joined.”
Rainbow closed her eyes, her wings hanging limply by her side as she cried a bit, gritting her teeth and bucking the air in frustration. Celestia turned to Applejack. “Applejack Apple, my first thought was to revoke my land grant to your family for your heinous actions against Jason, but that would be cruel to the food production in this town. Since you were the only pony there when he killed himself and witnessed it, I don’t need to further punish you. Instead, you will live with what you’ve done.”
“Understood,” Applejack said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Celestia turned to Pinkie Pie. “I believe the same punishment can go for you, Pinkamena Diane Pie,” Celestia said. “Your actions against Jason, while not violent, contributed greatly to his suffering. You will have to live with that.”
As Pinkie blubbered in shame, Celestia turned to Rarity. “Rarity, I am revoking your business license effective immediately. You will never be allowed to own a business ever again. You will simply be another run of the mill seamstress with no business to call your own.”
Rarity was bawling now, holding onto Fluttershy, but Celestia simply ignored her as she turned last to Fluttershy. “As for you, Fluttershy, your veterinarian license issued to you by Twilight is hereby null and void. You will no longer be allowed to help those poor innocent creatures in need ever again, just like you failed to help Jason.”
Celestia took a few steps back, spreading her wings and looking at the gathered crowd of ponies who were watching this in confusion. She glared at them, then turned back at the six. “But I’m not finished here yet. Everything that this town has done to Jason and any other creatures who are not ponies will be revealed and shown to the rest of Equestria publicly. Your failures will be broadcast for all to see. All of your accolades as the former Bearers will be destroyed and publicly burned. You will simply become six ponies who failed their mandate.”
Before she could continue, a new male voice called out, “It is unfortunate that I have awoken to see such a state.” Everypony turned to see a glowing transparent version of Jason Wright standing nearby. He looked like a blue apparition with his frame encased in a slightly brighter blue light. His expression was neutral and he had his arms crossed. This apparition still bore the wounds, scars, and gaunt figure of the dead human. His one good eye scanned the crowd of ponies, then looked down at the former bearers. In a calm and serene tone, the apparition said, “You six and the rest of this town have corrupted my tenets and have cast out a creature who was once a kind and happy man. Your princess is correct that you had the chance to change your ways while he still lived, but you threw him away like refuse. Out of sight, out of mind as the human saying goes. You are not only no longer worthy to be bearers of harmony, but do not deserve the castle that bears the title of friendship.”
The apparition turned next to Celestia, and the monarch shrank back in fear, but tried not to show it. The materialization of Harmony that took Jason’s form simply shook his head in utter disappointment, saying absolutely nothing. For Celestia, however, it was like an arrow to the heart. He then turned and held out his hand towards the crystal castle. It began to glow slightly, then shake and tremble before suddenly bursting into blue hot flames. Everypony watched in disbelief as the crystal walls and towers of the Castle of Friendship began to whither away into ash, disappearing into nothingness. The six ponies and the rest of the town could only watch in horror as the once majestic structure crumbled into nothing more than dust until nothing remained of it save for a black scar on the land in the shape of its foundation. The soul of Harmony turned to Celestia, walked up to her, and snapped his fingers. A box appeared next to Celestia, all bearing a number of items inside. “Give these to the only two creatures who lived in that castle who did nothing to Jason: Starlight Glimmer and Spike the Dragon. They will not suffer for the sins of others.”
Celestia nodded as the apparition turned to the crowd. In a mighty voice, he spoke: “Your town is unworthy to even exist! However, as I rarely take direct action, I will do nothing. This town will fall on its own, not by my hand. May this be a harsh lesson not just to Ponyville but to all of Equestria: Harmony and friendship are not to be hoarded! They are to be spread everywhere, even to races you fear and loathe! And you are not to force change, but to allow others to explore their own means of achieving harmony and friendship. Farewell!” And with that, the apparition brightened and vanished in a white flash.
Two years later, and things had gone vastly downhill for the once peaceful and happy town of Ponyville. When the news about all of the atrocious acts taken against Jason Wright were publicly shown to the rest of Equestria, not just in the papers but in a countrywide magical broadcast and later that year a book detailing every single detail, Ponyville became a pariah among the nation. It went from being called Friendliest Town in Equestria to Cruelest Tartarus-hole in Equestria. Nopony wanted anything to do with the town, and it quickly began losing tourists.
Ponies from Ponyville quickly began to pack and leave, but even their reputation as former Ponyvillians preceded them. They were treated poorly by other ponies in other towns. This led to civil unrest among the populace, so much so that Celestia had to take action. She created a coastal town rather secluded from the rest of Equestria known as Maretime Bay. There, the ponies who were fleeing Ponyville could live in some semblance of peace, away from the prying eyes of the rest of the kingdom.
As for the former bearers, once news of their cruelty reached Equestrian ears, they all began going their separate ways. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both went back to Cloudsdale, living in their parents’ houses and avoiding contact with everypony save for their parents. Said parents did their best to help, but even Rainbow Dash’s parents couldn’t just dismiss what they did. They were rarely seen after that.
A despondent Pinkie Pie returned to her home on the rock farm. Her family was as loving as they could be, after the lectures, of course. Even Maud had a few words to say, not to mention the wall of words that came from Marble. However, they made it clear that they said this out of the hopes that Pinkie would become a better pony because of it.
Rarity, much like the others, began to return to her parents’ house, but since they were part of the problem in Ponyville, they had to move to Maretime Bay when the town began shutting down. She was never seen much after that, either.
Applejack was the only pony whose family didn’t leave. Despite everything, their farm still provided an essential service to the nation. However, their workload became harder since the entire town of Ponyville had been deserted. Every day, Applejack had to look at the once vibrant town and could only remember what had been. Not only that, but the tree where Jason committed suicide in was never touched by her or her family. Instead, it grew more and more wild, its apples falling and never being eaten by anypony else.
As for Twilight, she spent those two years in a mental facility. The alicorn couldn’t accept what had happened to Jason, insisting that he was still alive and that she was learning so much about his world. She described events that hadn’t happened, such as Pinkie Pie’s party for Jason, how the town had gotten to accept him as a friend to ponies, and even began talking about Spike being more and more included in the events of her fictitious day to day life. The doctors and nurses worked around the clock to help heal her mind and help her accept what had happened. When she finally accepted what she’d done, she quickly followed through on the other stages of grief until she accepted that her actions had caused the suicide of an innocent being.
When she was released, she was moved to Maretime Bay, living in the town’s lighthouse and tending to it as the new lighthouse keeper. The doctor’s thought that her keeping busy would keep her from regressing into her manic state, something that she was prone to do during her recovery process. She learned quickly how to do chores and such on her own. Since she still had her alicorn magic, she discovered that it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. She regretted the treatment she gave Spike more and more with each passing day.
The most outrage came from the Crystal Empire, especially when news of how their hero Spike had been treated by Twilight and her friends reached their ears. He was welcomed by Princess Cadance and Shining with open hooves, and the latter tried his best to make things right with the little brother he’d always had but never really acknowledged.
Spike went between Canterlot and the Crystal Empire, though, as Princess Celestia and Luna were also hoping to build a good relationship with him, which he was a bit reluctant to accept at first, but soon he saw the two as family as well. He quickly let go of his feelings for Rarity when he learned of what she’d done to Jason. He was sent to school in the Crystal Empire and made some new friends his own age. He even developed a crush on a filly there. Funnily enough, she was the complete opposite of Rarity.
The news of the death of Jason Wright by suicide along with the cause spread not along all of Equestria, but outside it as well. There had never been so much tension between Equestria and other nations, especially when news of how certain Ponyvillians treated other races.
The news even reached the lawless city Thornfall located deep within the Badlands just outside of Equestria. Specifically, it reached the ears of an individual in a darkened corner building. He was sitting at a desk, reading over several job requests he’d received when the door burst open. Quickly, he pulled his hood over his face so as not to be seen, although his partner hadn’t informed him that there was anyone coming by today.
He was just slipping his gloves on when his partner, an abyssinian male named Tobias, came bursting in. He was about one year younger than the individual and had fur as black as night save for a small spot of white on his forehead. His yellow eyes were wide with alarm as he rushed in, catching his breath. He was wearing a black coat and had a pair of daggers attached to the belt wrapped around his waist.
The figure at the desk sighed, and looking at him through the darkened hood that obscured his features, he said, “Toby, you know better than to come bursting in.”
Tobias grabbed a glass of water that was on the desk, gulping it all down as he continued to catch his breath. “I managed to snag this from some new ponies I saw in town.” He pulled out a newspaper from his pocket and slid it onto the table. The figure looked down at it, then back at Tobias, who turned the paper over and pointed. “It’s an article from one of those Equestrian newspapers,” he explained. “Apparently, you weren’t the first to come here after all.”
The figure looked at the paper, then reached up to his hood. He slid it off, revealing a young-looking human male with long brown wavy hair, light blue eyes, and a couple of scars on said face, including a cut that went from above his eye to below it, the result of an encounter with a goblin assassin that had nearly killed him had it not been for Tobias’ timely rescue. He reached down and grabbed the newspaper, reading the article aloud.
“Today marks the five year anniversary of the suicide of one Jason Wright, the first human to traverse the expanse of worlds from his to ours. His tale is one well known to all ponies today. He wished to befriend ponykind but instead was the victim of the cruelty of ponies from the now infamous town of Ponyville. He was chased out of the town, tormented, abused, starved, and rejected by those ponies who were said to be the Bearers of Harmony alongside their entire town. Now, he is dead, a tragic tale of failure and loss.
“Two years ago, Princesses Celestia and Luna established this day as the Day of Remembrance. We don’t just remember Jason’s tragedy, but we hold this day in high regard because it reminds us that the Tenets of Harmony are for all races all across the world, not just here in our kingdom. May we never forget that despite everything we claim to hold dear, we are flawed. We must rise above these flaws if we are to become better ponies.”
Tobias looked down at the human in front of her, leaning down and looking at him curiously. “So…what do we do, G?” he asked.
“What do we do?” he repeated, raising an eyebrow. “We do what we always do.” He looked at the papers scattered on his desk, then reached down and grabbed one, picked it up, and showed it to him. “We work to survive.”
Tobias looked at it, then chuckled. “Excellent choice,” he said as he put his hood over his head. “So, Gregory, when do you want to start this job?”
Gregory Eugene Graystone, twenty nine year old human male, reached down and retrieved a face mask sitting on the desk. “You know what they say, Toby,” he said as he placed it over his face and touched something on the side. Instantly, the mask began to expand, covering his entire face until his human features were hidden. When it was covered, the eyepieces began glowing a light blue and two vertical lines of light light light appeared on the voice modulator. He stood and grabbed two large serrated blades which he strapped to his belt. As he put his hood over his head, he spoke. “There’s no time like the present.” As he spoke, the line on his modulator brightened and dimmed to match his voice. Not only that, but his own voice changed completely. It was deeper and more menacing, enough to intimidate those around him.
Tobias chuckled and grabbed his own bag. “Lead on, Gregory.”
“That’s not my name,” the now disguised human reminded Tobias.
Tobias rolled his eyes and nodded. “Fine, fine. Lead on…Revan.”
With that, Tobias followed his human friend and companion, the mysterious mercenary named Revan, out into the crime filled city. The mercenary party Shadow Dawn had work to do.
Spike walked down the halls of the Crystal Palace. Rather, it was Prince Spike of the Crystal Empire who strolled down the hallway back towards his room. Unlike three years ago, he had grown quite well thanks to some additions to his diet that they’d imported straight from the Dragon Lands, mostly roc meat which he learned was not only quite common back in the Dragon Lands, but was also extremely delicious when roasted and seasoned well. He’d sprouted his wings finally, which had been quite an ordeal, and he was now taller than even Cadance, his new adopted mother. He wasn’t too muscular, but his friend Dragon Lord Ember told him that the muscles would come if he trained well.
In fact, that was where he’d just come from. He’d come from the arena where Shining Armor had been personally training him in several combat arts. It had been a challenge considering both of them had different body types, but it was a fun learning experience for both. Shining had managed to adapt and teach him several ways to fight. With his wings, Spike was even more formidable, and Shining had one of the guards in the palace, a pegasus named Flash Sentry, train with him in aerial maneuvers and combat. Even with three years of training under his proverbial belt, Spike knew he was still no match for the brother he’d longed to have for so long, and who he now had, even if technically Shining was his adopted dad. Still, he was able to hold his own fairly well.
As he turned the corner, he saw a couple of crystal guards walking down the hall with the six-year-old Flurry Heart. She was walking with a couple of her friends from school. When she saw Spike, her wings fluttered excitedly and she jumped into his arms. “Big brother!” she said happily. For a six-year-old, she actually could talk relatively well.
Spike’s heart warmed at this and the sixteen-year-old dragon held his little sister in his arms. “Hey, Flurs,” he said, calling her by the nickname he’d given her a while ago.
She hugged him for a bit, then he heard her sniffing. “Eeew, you’re all sweaty,” she said, waving her hoof in front of her nose like she was trying to get rid of the stench as she flew out of his grip.
Spike rolled his eyes. “I just got done training with dad,” he said, “and I was about to go shower. Where were you all going?”
“Mom said we could go out for some ice cream and scones!” Flurry said excitedly. “Do you wanna come after you shower?”
Spike chuckled and shook his head. “Hmmm, as nice as that sounds, I’m actually gonna take a nap. Dad’s training made me really tired today. Buy me a cornet, would you?” He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out some crystal bits which he gave to Flurry.
“Chocolate filled?” she asked.
He chuckled. “You know me well, little sister,” he said, ruffling her mane. “You and your friends have a good time, and I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Okay!” With that, the group of fillies and the guards walked past him, the guards giving Spike a friendly nod as they did so.
Spike went back to his room and unlocked his door, stepping inside. He quickly walked through the regal looking bedroom towards his bathroom. The shower water felt amazing on his scales, especially when he turned the temperature up to scalding hot. At least, scalding hot for ponies. When he finished, he walked over to his bed, collapsed into it, and turned around, staring up at the crystal ceiling above him.
The room he was granted by his new adopted parents was nearly three times bigger than his old one in the former Castle of Friendship. His bed was a king-sized bed, which he felt was too big for him but Cadance insisted, saying that he would grow into it. He had three large arched windows looking out onto the city of Crystalia, a balcony with two chairs, a large fireplace and a couple chairs there, a desk, a large closet full of his new clothes, a second storage closet for any miscellaneous belongings he had, a few wall mounts for the various weapons he’d been granted by the best Crystalia blacksmith, and shelves for all of his comics and other awards.
As he turned over to stare at the ceiling, something from his storage closet fell over, creating a sound of shattering glass. He stood with a groan and walked over to see what had fallen. He turned the light on and walked in, initially finding nothing as he walked through. Soon, however, he saw a small brown picture frame sitting on the ground near the back. He reached down and picked it up, staring at the picture with a sense of sadness and betrayal.
The picture was one taken during their first week in the Golden Oaks Library all those years ago. He was standing next to Twilight, both of them all smiles as they stood in the main area. He remembered that Twilight had insisted on them taking a picture ‘…for the future.’
When they’d lived in Golden Oaks, he’d only stored his copy away, but after the destruction of the library, he’d placed it on the nightstand next to his bed, prominently on display. It had been luckily locked away in a strong chest that had mostly survived. Every day, before he got up to take care of the myriad of chores needed in the castle, he’d look back at the picture of his younger self, missing his younger days and trying to gain strength from those memories.
When he’d been there that fateful day three years ago after hearing about what she’d done to Jason Wright, a being he’d never even heard of let alone met, his emotions got the better of him and he blurted out all that he’d been holding in against Twilight. Princess Luna, bless her soul, had been there listening, calmly reassuring him that he would be alright. He had sensed a profound sadness and anger, but the latter wasn’t directed at him. Starlight had been there to comfort him as well, even helping him move into his new room before he returned the favor by helping her move in with Sunburst.
He looked at the picture frame a bit more closely now, as there was something different about it. He quickly realized that the glass protecting the picture had a crack in it, one that split right between him and Twilight, separating them. There was a part of him that wondered just how Twilight and her former friends were doing. He didn’t consider them even former friends because he felt that they didn’t treat him as such. Still, they’d been in his life for years, so he couldn’t help but be a bit curious. Last he’d heard, Twilight had been in some sort of insane asylum for two years before being released and shipped off to Maretime Bay. Rarity apparently lived there too. As for the others, Rainbow and Fluttershy had been living in Cloudsdale until about a year ago when they both decided to move to a small settlement near Maretime Bay called Zephyr Heights, Pinkie was on her rock farm, and Applejack was the only one of the former Elements who still lived in Ponyville, working on her farm with her family.
He sighed, putting the picture back up on the shelf face down so it wouldn’t fall so easily again. He turned away, walking back out of the darkened closet of old, forgotten memories, back into the large room full of a bright new future.
He sat on the ground in front of a large window facing the mountains of the Frozen North, closing them and entering a state of meditation. Zecora had moved up to the Crystal Empire with Spike and Starlight, setting up an apothecary shop in Crystalia while using some neighboring forests outside the city for ingredients. She’d helped him through some of his darker moments in the adjustment period, including teaching him about meditation techniques that could help calm the mind.
Slowly, over the course of ten to fifteen minutes, he felt the negativity leaving him once more. The memories would never leave him, but he could move past them and learn from them. As a winged dragon teen prince, he now had some responsibilities to those ponies in the empire, and he couldn’t let the past dictate his actions. These ponies were a lot closer to Harmony than the ponies he’d known, and his status as hero notwithstanding, the crystal ponies clearly enjoyed his company and were always kind to him.
Feeling much more relieved, he stood and went back to bed, crawling under the covers as he did so. He sighed contentedly and closed his eyes. Aside from one brief hiccup, today had been a good day. As he fell asleep, he wondered if he could try once more to convince Cadance to let him join the local adventurer’s guild despite being adopted royalty. With thoughts of adventure with a party in the ever-expanding borders of the northern empire filling his mind, he fell asleep, smiling happily at the thought.
Twilight Sparkle was walking around the house she’d been living in for the past year after having been released from her two-year stint in a mental hospital. She was using her magic to clean the lighthouse mirrors, something she did daily. With lighthouse mirrors, one had to be extremely careful when cleaning as one scratch could affect the effectiveness of the amount of light given off by the crystal lantern. As she rinsed off the rag in the nearby sink, she looked out at her new home.
Maretime Bay was a beautiful new town, and it was just on the borders of the slight Equestrian expansion into what had once been called the Undiscovered Lands. Since almost all of its citizens were former Ponyvillians, most were earth ponies. Her lighthouse was separated from it by a small canyon formed from years of erosion by a river that flowed in from the west. A large natural bridge made of earth linked Maretime Bay to her new home, and she would occasionally go into town for supplies.
Today just so happened to be one of those dreaded days, and Twilight was stalling as long as she could just so she wouldn’t have to see the faces of the ponies who she had personally failed. She didn’t want to see the glares from ponies who were now relegated to a town separated from the rest of Equestria so as to ensure they wouldn’t be harmed by other ponies.
Still, while she had finally accepted that her foalish and cruel actions had caused the death of someone who’d only wanted to be her friend, she had to endure the constant reminding glares of ponies who she’d once considered to be her close townsponies. She’d never liked being constantly reminded of her failures, and even Rarity had given her looks of pure hate she’d never expected from one of her former best friends. That is, whenever she actually saw her former friend.
Finishing up her cleaning, she teleported everything to the kitchen along with herself. Draining both soapy and rinsing buckets, she cleaned them up then placed them back into storage before she went to her room. It was smaller than her old one, but it was still enough for her. It was also the only place in the house that wasn’t exactly clean. By the time she’d finish her day, she hardly had time to clean it, which caused her even more guilt as Spike’s room back in her former home in the Castle of Friendship was more often than not a mess. She had always scolded him for it, but now she understood why.
With a heavy heart, she decided to continue putting off her going into town and actually put some effort into cleaning her room. She spent the next couple of hours cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, organizing, and washing her sheets. Finally, her room was organized and cleaned. She lay on her freshly made bed, sighing and closing her eyes as she rested briefly before she left. She missed her friends. She missed her family. She missed Spike, the little brother she’d never acknowledged. She wanted to make things right, but there were some things she now realized she could never take back.
There was a knock on her bedroom door, causing her to jump. She looked at it, then sighed. It was most likely the nurse that the Canterlot mental hospital had assigned to keep an eye on her, Nurse Maple Leaf. She lived in a smaller house next to the lighthouse, so Twilight didn’t see her too much. Initially, Twilight had been resentful of her presence, but Maple Leaf had grown on her as a nice constant in her life. She was the only pony who didn’t treat her like Tartarus. “Come in, Nurse Maple,” she said tiredly.
Maple Leaf, a unicorn mare about ten years older than Twilight, opened the door and walked inside. She was a dark brown mare with some white spots scattered on her stomach along with green eyes and a group of three maple leaves for a cutie mark. She was wearing her typical nurse’s hat and a nurse’s gown. In her green magic she held a pencil and a clipboard. “Good afternoon, love,” she said in a kindly Trottingham accent, “and how are we doing today? Better, I hope?”
“Yeah, I’d say so,” Twilight said as she sat up in her bed.
Maple looked around the room and nodded. “I see you cleaned the room up. Is it time to go into town already?”
Twilight’s ears fell. “Is it that obvious?”
“You do tend to do a lot more around the lighthouse whenever you need to go into town for supplies, love,” Maple said with a knowing look.
Twilight sighed and nodded as she slowly got out of bed and stood. “I know…I need to go to town, but it gets harder every time.”
“You do realize I can go if it gets too hard,” Maple said. “You don’t have to go alone, either. I can come with you.”
Twilight shook her head stubbornly. “No, the doctors told me I needed to face my demons straight on,” she said, “and I need to do that alone.”
Maple nodded and wrote something down on her pad as she replied, “just know that I’ll be here for you if you need a helping hoof. I’m here for the long haul.”
Twilight gave her a grateful smile. “I appreciate that, Maple, but I’ll be alright. Is there anything I can get for you while I’m in town?”
Maple shook her head. “Oh no, you don’t have to spend your money on me, dear,” she said, “I know you don’t earn too much from your job.”
“Please, it’s the least I can do,” Twilight insisted.
Maple looked a bit uncertain, but when Twilight continued to ask, she finally said, “Well…I’ve been craving chocolate mint chip cookies from Crumble Nation. They’re my absolute favorite.”
Twilight inwardly winced. That was where Rarity’s parents worked, along with Rarity herself. She went there sometimes, but not often. It still hurt to be there and get ignored by her once close fashionista friend. Still, she’d offered, and it was the least she could do. “Does one dozen cookies sound okay?” she asked.
“Yes, thank you, love,” Maple said.
“Alright, then I’ll get those last so they’re fresh,” she said, of course hiding the real reason for wanting to go last.
“See you when you come back, Twilight,” Maple said.
“Yeah…see you later…”
With a heavy heart, she grabbed her coin purse, put her saddlebags on, went out to the back of the lighthouse, hitched herself up to the cart she took into town, and began plodding down the road…
“Mom, Dad, I’m gonna go and play with Scootaloo at her house for a bit,” Rarity heard Sweetie Belle say from the kitchen where she was helping her mother make another batch of cookies for the small cookie business they’d opened in Maretime Bay, Crumble Nation.
“Sounds good, sweetie,” Cookie Crumbles said, “tell her aunts I said hello.”
“Will do!” Rarity heard Sweetie galloping out of the door.
Cookie came back into the kitchen and looked at her older daughter. Giving her a smile, she said, “Is the next batch ready, pumpkin?”
Wiping sweat from her brow, Rarity walked over to the oven and looked in. “Not yet,” she said, “probably another…three minutes.”
Over the past years, she’d been living with her family. Since she was unable to own any business again, she’d been forced to find another job. She’d tried leaving Maretime Bay, holding some jobs for a few months, including working in a small smoothie shop, but ponies eventually figured out that she worked there and would refuse to go to said places unless she wasn’t there. So, she was forced to return to Maretime Bay and got a job at her parents’ cookie shop. It wasn’t the busiest, considering everypony in Maretime Bay knew who worked in the kitchen, but the cookies were good enough for repeat customers. Hondo was the one who took orders so nopony would have to see Rarity.
“Thanks, hun,” Cookie said as she went back to her mixing bowl to mix the next batch of cookies.
Rarity walked over and began to wash the dishes used during the last batch. She inhaled deeply, then sighed. She was a seamstress…she shouldn’t have to work in a cookie shop…but what could she do? She couldn’t own a business ever again thanks to what happened three years ago. She was simply going through the motions of living now. Whenever she had time off, she would try her best to keep her seamstress skills sharp, but most of the time she would grow frustrated which would devolve into her going out, buying a bottle of wine from the local winery, and drinking her sorrows away until she went to sleep. The cycle would then start again.
She heard someone walking into the shop, and when she heard the voice of the pony who greeted her father, she scowled. It was Twilight. “C-Can I have two dozen original chocolate chip cookies and a dozen chocolate mint chip cookies?”
“Sure, that’ll be seventeen bits,” Rarity heard her father say. There was the sound of bits being placed on a counter and then her father said, “I’ll box those up for you right away.”
“Thanks…” Rarity could hear the uncertainty and sadness in Twilight’s tone. She couldn’t help herself, she began moving closer to the door while Hondo began boxing up the cookies for Twilight. There was silence for a bit before Twilight spoke again. “S-So…how’ve things been here?”
Hondo didn’t reply right away, but when he did, his voice was neutral but not hostile, something Rarity knew was a customer service tone. “Pretty good, all things considered.”
“Is the business doing okay?”
“Fairly well.”
“Good.” There was silence for a little bit before Twilight asked, “A-And how’s Rarity doing?”
“As well as could be expected,” Hondo said.
“Th-That’s good, I’m glad,” Twilight said.
Rarity gritted her teeth. How dare Twilight say such things!? It was her initial actions against Jason Wright that had led her to falling so far! She lost everything! She continued listening as Twilight continued, “Would you…tell her I stopped by and said hi? Oh, and that she’s welcome to drop by for tea anytime.”
“You know she won’t come,” Hondo said with a heavy sigh as the sound of something being placed on the counter caught Rarity’s attention. The boxes of cookies must have been finished.
“I-I know,” Twilight said sadly, “but please?”
Hondo was silent for a bit, then said, “I’ll let her know, Miss Sparkle.”
“Thank you,” Twilight’s voice sounded a bit relieved, “and thank you for the cookies.”
“No problem. Have a good afternoon,” Hondo replied.
When she heard the door to the shop open and close, Rarity put down the pot she’d been cleaning and trotted hesitantly out to the front of the shop. It was small, with a few tables for waiting ponies. They’d almost gotten a larger building, but they didn’t have the funds for it, so they decided on a grab and go/delivery model. It worked, but it meant they had to hire a delivery pony. Said pony was off on a delivery at the moment.
Rarity walked over to the window and watched the cart that Twilight was pulling take a left at the crossroads as she headed back to her lighthouse. Rarity knew that Twilight always made this place her last stop whenever she came into town, and the barrels of food and other supplies in the back of the cart only confirmed it. “Tsk,” she said as she turned back and strutted back towards the kitchen.
“Pumpkin, maybe it’s time you actually go visit her,” she heard her father say from his spot behind the counter.
Rarity stopped, then turned to her father. “Father dear,” she said with a stone-cold tone, “she’s the initial reason why we lost everything. If she hadn’t rejected that human-”
“You would have acted the same way,” her mother interrupted her. When Rarity turned to face her mother, she saw the indigo-colored unicorn mare scowling at her. “You know that’s true.”
Rarity scowled. They’d had this discussion many times throughout the years. Rarity knew that she’d made a mistake by turning Jason away, but she told herself that she did it to not only protect her little sister from the Everfree Monster as he was called for those three years, but because if Twilight had turned her away, then she must have had a good reason. After all, she had trusted Twilight and if she’d turned Jason away, there had to be a good explanation. “I admit, I may have been a bit…apprehensive, but if Twilight hadn’t-”
“Don’t try and hide from your own actions, young filly,” Hondo said.
“We aren’t,” Cookie added.
“We were part of a few crowds who chased Jason out of Ponyville.” Hondo said with his ears laid back.
“We’ve lost our friends, our self-respect, and our old home because of our own actions,” Cookie concluded, “not the actions of others. You’re a grown mare. You need to take responsibility for what you did, no matter how painful.”
“And hiding away from the world and especially from Twilight isn’t going to help you or her heal from this,” Hondo finished.
“And you don’t see the hypocrisy of Twilight doing the same thing??” Rarity demanded to know.
“We’re not her parents,” Hondo said patiently,
“We’re yours,” Cookie concluded, “and while we’re worried about her, she’s a grown mare.”
“So am I!” Rarity shot back.
“You’re certainly not acting like it right now,” Cookie said sternly.
Rarity looked at both of them, then looked down at the ground. She felt humiliated, like a foal who was being scolded by her parents. She pawed at the ground, frowning. She hated the fact that her parents were right, and as she acknowledged it, the pit in her stomach returned. The pit she didn’t want to feel. She growled and shook her head before walking away from her parents. She swallowed the bile in her throat and walked back to the kitchen. She’d be buying two bottles of wine tonight, she knew. At least it was the weekend…
“Dashie, are you hungry?” the voice of Rainbow Dash’s mother called from behind her bedroom door. “I made your favorite. Pasta and potato sandwich on sourdough.”
Rainbow was lying on her bed, staring up at the cloud ceiling above her. There was an apple of hard cider in her wing, nearly gone. It was her last bottle of Apple family cider, but it was enough to dull the pain for the moment. She sighed and looked at the closed door. “Just…leave it outside the door, mom,” she said as she drank the last of the cider.
“A…Alright, sweetie,” she said. Rainbow could hear the plate being set on a table that her parents had set just outside her room. “Did you have a hard day at work?”
Rainbow scowled. With her being drummed out of the Wonderbolts with a dishonorable discharge, she’d been forced to get a job at one of Cloudsdale’s restaurants as a server at least until a year ago. When she and her family had moved to a new pegasus settlement called Zephyr Heights, they’d been able to move their house there, setting it on the ground for the first time. She then got a job at the local tavern and inn. The pay wasn’t great and her coworkers didn’t exactly treat her with any kindness. They all knew who she was and what she’d done, so a part of her couldn’t blame them for how they treated her, but it was still tough. The customers were just as bad, leaving her measly tips or none at all. Today, she’d even had a young filly point at her and call her a bad pony. “It was the same as before.”
“I’m sorry, hun,” her mom said, “you don’t deserve that treatment.”
Pretty sure I do, Rainbow thought to herself as she put the bottle on the nightstand next to her foalhood bed. “I’m fine, Mom.”
“Okay…” her mom said uncertainly. “We’re here if you need anything, alright?”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Rainbow listened to her mom’s hoofsteps walking down the hall after a couple more seconds of silence. She turned over on her bed, sighing as she covered herself with her blanket. She hated what her life had become. She had lost everything, and there were days when she slipped and blamed that human for what happened, but while she knew she wasn’t too smart, she knew enough to know this was her fault. Sure, she couldn’t take all the blame, but her punishments were caused by her own actions.
Initially she had blamed Jason, but as time went on, and after a couple confrontations from her former number one fan and sister, she took time to self-reflect and realized that this was all on her. She’d permanently scarred and blinded someone. She’d caused the death of someone. No, she’d driven someone to suicide. The very thought made her shiver.
She didn’t want to eat, but her stomach betrayed her. Eating was another reminder of what she’d denied to Jason. She’d struck him when he’d been stealing from the Apple orchard, and had just left him to die. Still, she couldn’t just ignore the calling of her stomach. She stood, trudged over to the door, and opened it. Her mouth watered at the sight of her favorite dish.
She brought it over to her desk and placed it down, sitting at her desk. As she ate the sandwich and drank the water she’d been given, she felt tears begin falling. She looked over towards the door that led to the trophy room her parents had once held for her. She’d gone through and removed each and every award, destroying them in a fit of rage one day. That had been the day that she stopped blaming Jason and began acknowledging that she’d been the one in the wrong.
She ate the rest of her meal in silence, holding back her tears.
Fluttershy wiped her brow with a wing as she looked up at the late summer sun. Angel stood beside her, busily digging at the ground to get to some of the carrots she’d planted in her garden. Above her, the new pegasus settlement of Zephyr Heights stood on a large mountainside. It was a mix of different houses that had been moved from Cloudsdale to this new colony town, but she saw construction on a ledge for what she assumed was a cloud creation facility. Ever since Equestria expanded into the Undiscovered Lands, they’d found plentiful resources, and having a new source of clouds was a good thing for the rest of Equestria.
She looked down at her garden and nodded in satisfaction. Since she didn’t have a way to treat animals, and since animals knew what she’d done and avoided her except for Angel, she decided to pass her time by growing a garden. It kept her mind off of everything else around her, and more importantly, keeping away from the city and on this patch of wild land she’d converted to a garden helped her avoid the judgmental stares of the other pegasi in the new town.
Her parents had been taking care of her needs thanks to their retirement fund. Not only that, but they had been selling any excess produce that her garden produced during harvest and giving all the proceeds to her. The harvest that was coming this year seemed like it would be early and plentiful. She smiled a bit despite herself. She may not have gotten to work with animals again thanks to them knowing her crimes, but she did find surprising enjoyment in the hard work of growing edible roots and vegetables. She stretched and spread her wings, letting the cool breeze from the wind cool her fur. She looked down at Angel, who had just dug up a carrot and was brushing the dirt off. “That looks good, Angel,” she said.
Angel looked up at her, a pleading look in his eyes. “Can I?” he asked.
She looked at the carrot. It was a big one, and she knew that if he ate that big of a piece, she wouldn’t be able to give him any dinner. She reached down with her wings and took it from him. “You can eat it for dinner tonight,” she promised, placing it in a small nearby bucket which had some other freshly picked fruits and vegetables that she was going to contribute to tonight’s dinner.
The rabbit looked a little upset, but nodded in understanding as he hopped around, sniffing at the ground and at the plants. “They smell ready,” he said, “all except the potatoes.”
Fluttershy picked up her watering can and began sprinkling the water around the garden. “By the end of the week they should be ready for harvesting,” she said, “so let’s wait until then.”
Angel nodded and continued helping. Angel was old in terms of how long rabbits lived, but he still acted like the same young bunny she’d saved eight years ago. She could tell by the voice she heard thanks to her special talent that he was reaching the end of his natural lifespan. He’d matured greatly in the three years that had passed since she’d lost everything. He’d lost his attitude, at least for the most part, and had been instrumental in helping her out of her funk. She’d spent weeks after the event crying in her bed while also being tormented by guilty conscience nightmares of Jason hanging from a tree. She’d never seen it, but the ghastly sight of it in her mind’s eye kept her from sleeping well.
Oddly enough, it was her little brother Zephyr who’d been the catalyst to help her snap out of it. He hadn’t been happy to hear that his big sister, a mare he said he’d looked up to, had ignored someone who had been in need. She had listened as he had called her out on her own failings over the years, something he’d never done before. He talked about how he had been bullied in school only for her to not be there to help, which hurt to hear. He then compared it to what she’d done to Jason and explained that he himself had once had a few darker thoughts about his own self-worth. He reminded her about the time he’d gone to live in the woods and how at his darkest moments he actually HAD considered it. However, she’d been there to bring him out of it. He asked her where she was when Jason had such dark thoughts.
This broke Fluttershy and as the still shouting Zephyr had been pulled out of the room by their parents, she’d broken down even harder. She’d been inconsolable for days until she’d taken stock of herself. Her brother’s words may have been harsh, but they’d been right. She had failed her mandate as a former Element of Kindness. It took her a bit more time, but she accepted that what had happened, had happened. She resolved never to forget it and to learn from it. She promised herself that she would become a better pony because of it.
That didn’t stop the looks that came her way, however. While her own self-loathing during her reflective period had been worse than the looks she got from other ponies, it still hurt her a lot. It was because of this that she decided to take up a hobby on the ground, this time gardening. It had brought her peace of mind.
From behind her, she heard the flapping of pegasi wings as somepony landed nearby. She turned around, half expecting to see her mother since she had a flower garden several yards away. Instead, she saw the last pony she’d expected to see. Her brother stood nearby, a watering can in his hoof. He looked at her with an acknowledging nod. “Fluttershy.”
“Zephyr? What are you doing here?” Fluttershy asked.
He frowned a bit. “What? I can’t come by to see my parents now?” he asked with a bit of a scowl.
Fluttershy’s ears drooped. “N-No, of course you can,” she stammered, quickly trying to course correct.
“Besides, it’s nice having my name associated with this place, dontcha think?” he asked as he looked nonchalantly at his hoof.
“Ah, well, I…” she stammered.
His scowl softened and he let out a sigh, putting his hoof back down. “Truth be told, I was on vacation and decided to drop in and see how you all were doing.” He began watering their mother’s flower garden. “Mom and Dad look good in their retirement. And…well, you look a bit better than the last time we…spoke.”
The silence between siblings was awkward. The sound of watering cans being poured onto plants mixed with the mountain breeze was the only sound heard. As one, the two turned to each other to speak. “Fluttershy, listen-/Zephyr, I’m-”
The two siblings froze, then slowly Zephyr gestured towards Fluttershy. She took a deep breath and said, “Zephyr, I’m so sorry for not being the big sister you deserved growing up. I should have been there more for you, especially when you were being bullied. I know what being bullied is like, and I should have known better. I should have been better to Jason, too…but I wasn’t…”
Zephyr took this in, looking at her with a collected expression. Fluttershy had never seen him so mature before and she wondered just how the last nearly three years had treated him. His mane style had changed and looked a bit more mature, plus his accent sounded a bit more refined. She knew from what her parents told her that he lived in Manehattan working at a prestigious mane stylist shop, and he did have a slight Manehattan accent.
“Fluttershy, I’ll be honest,” he finally said, “A part of me is still upset about what you did or actually didn’t do. Still, I suppose it’s to be expected. You were always like that and always had a difficult time changing.” He sighed again. “Despite that, I was so proud when you became an Element of Harmony. I looked up to you even more and I wanted to be more like you. You had what I didn’t. A steady job you loved, friends, the adoration of the ponies, and more. But when I heard what you didn’t do for that human, I was completely upset. What I said to you that day may have been my true feelings on the matter, but I didn’t…well, my new girlfriend told me I didn’t do a good job explaining myself. I acted on impulse, like I always do. I’m not apologizing for the intent behind my words, but I am apologizing for how I expressed them.”
Fluttershy was completely stunned. This seemed to not be the same brother she knew. He seemed a bit more well-spoken than the pony she’d grown up with. Still, a part of her soared. Truth be told, she missed him. She didn’t have any friends anymore except for Angel, and having someone in her life like Zephyr was better than having nopony. “I…I’m still sorry for what I did,” she said, unable to help herself.
“I know,” Zephyr acknowledged, “and I’m willing to try and bring that brother-sister bond back, or even build a new one. Just…don’t expect it to happen overnight.”
“Of course,” Fluttershy acknowledged. Unable to help herself any longer, the emotions of this brief but hard conversation getting to the emotional pegasus, she dropped her watering can, galloped over to her brother and flung her forelegs around him. “I missed you,” she whispered as she hugged him tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Zephyr didn’t react for a bit, but after a few moments, Fluttershy’s heart soared when she felt Zephyr returning the hug. The two remained like that, Fluttershy letting her emotions out through her tears. Finally, when she was finished, she broke the hug, stepping back and wiping what remained with her towel. “Th-Thank you, Zephyr,” she said gratefully, “and I want to rebuild that sibling bond we hardly had.”
“Glad to hear it,” Zephyr said, and for the first time since coming here, he smiled a bit. “I miss my favorite big sister.”
Fluttershy couldn’t help herself at that moment. She grinned slightly and said, “Apparently not enough to let me know you have a girlfriend.”
Zephyr actually blushed at that. “Y-Yeah, well, we’ve only been dating for a month, and it’s a bit harder than any other relationship I know of.”
“Who is she?” Fluttershy asked.
“You remember that foalhood crush I had back when you and Rainbow were in flight camp?” he asked a bit sheepishly.
Fluttershy couldn’t believe it. Sure, she knew about this crush, but in her younger age she figured it’d never go anywhere. Besides, she was always scared of said individual. “No way…you and GILDA?!”
He smirked. “Didn’t think your little brother had enough game to snag that cute hen, did you?”
“Well, she just-I don’t-HOW?!” Fluttershy was completely flabbergasted.
He chuckled. “Believe it or not, she came into the place where I worked a few months ago. Nopony else was available, so I decided to help her. Of course, I screwed it up according to her and she squawked at me and chewed me out. I guess I’ve been living in Manehattan enough to learn when to bite back at customers who are being completely rude, so I shouted back at her, telling her that if she didn’t like it, she was free to go somewhere else. Guess that got her attention because she looked back in the mirror, muttered something about it not being too bad and paid before storming out. She came back often and always asked for me. She always would claim she didn’t care for it, then I would tell her to go somewhere else if she didn’t like it. She asked me out about a month and a half ago and two weeks after that we became official. Guess she liked my backbone or something.”
Fluttershy was flabbergasted. She’d always assumed that he would be going after her first and now former friend Rainbow Dash, but she guessed that he was turned off by her actions of cruelty. “I-I don’t know what to say…”
“How about ‘Congratulations’?” Zephyr said with a snarky tone.
Fluttershy looked a bit abashed but then quickly nodded. “O-Of course I’m happy for you,” she said, “it’s just…I didn’t expect you two to end up together.”
“Eh, neither did I, but I guess I needed somepony, or somegryphon, to help me get over my other crush.”
Fluttershy’s ears went down a bit. She hesitantly walked over and placed her hoof on Zephyr’s back. “She’s taken things a lot harder than I did…”
“What she did was barbaric, Flutters,” Zephyr said, “blinding a magicless being with a lightning strike and then leaving without doing anything?” He sighed, then shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about Rainbow Dash right now.” He looked at her. “What about you? How’s your love life going?”
She was a bit taken aback by this. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Don’t try and lie to me, big sis,” he said, a small smirk forming on his face, “I mean you and Discord.”
His smirk slowly vanished when Fluttershy looked at the ground, her wings falling from their normal place at her side. “Ever since…that day…I haven’t seen him. I’ve tried to reach out to him, but I get no response to my letters. I don’t know what he’s doing.”
Zephyr was the one now who put his hoof on her back. “Eh, don’t worry about it too much,” he said, “you were always too good for him.”
Fluttershy understood that he was trying to cheer her up, and while she appreciated the sentiment, he’d gone about saying it wrong. She gave him a slight glare. “He was my friend, Zephyr. I just want to make sure he’s alright.”
“Th-That came out wrong,” Zephyr said, trying to backpedal. “I just meant that-”
“I know you meant well, but I can choose my own friends,” Fluttershy said, putting her hoof down literally and figuratively, “just like you can choose your own marefriend.”
“Henfriend,” he corrected her, but then he looked a bit sheepish. “Well, I suppose I’ve got some work of my own to do, eh?”
“We both do,” Fluttershy said before turning, giving her brother a smile, and hugging him. He hugged her back.
The two siblings held each other for a while before they both heard an excited tittering from nearby. They both pulled apart in embarrassment only to see their mother, Posey Shy, standing there with the biggest smile on her face. “It’s so nice to see you two getting along again,” the older quieter mare said. “Are you two hungry? I’m making both your favorites.”
The siblings looked at each other, then turned and smiled. “I’m ready,” Fluttershy said.
“Me too,” Zephyr said.
“Then let’s go home,” Posey said. “Dinner’s getting cold.”
Fluttershy gathered up her belongings, then called Angel back to her. Together, the three pegasi and single rabbit flew back up to have the first family meal the family have had in years.
Pinkamena Diane Pie bucked at yet another rock, watching as it began to crack open. Inside, she was satisfied to see yet another large geode full of precious ore and gems that they could sell to the nearby town of Rock Ridge. Business had been fairly good for the Pie Rock Farm despite those ponies in town learning about one of their family members having contributed, however slightly, to the suicide of an innocent being.
She brushed her completely straight mane away from her eyes, wiping sweat away as she inhaled and exhaled deeply before grabbing her water bottle and taking a few deep gulps of water before pouring some over herself to help cool her body off. She shuddered in relief as the cooling water eased the heat of the afternoon sun. Looking around the farm, she saw that her progress was still a bit slower than her sisters today. She was less than halfway done with her stretch of land.
She heard somepony walking up behind her, so she turned and to her surprise Marble was standing there. One of her eyes was hiding behind her striped gray mane while her visible purple eye looked at her sister with concern. She looked at the piece. “You…doing okay?” Marble asked in her normal soft and quiet tone.
Pinkamena looked back at the land, then back at her younger sister. “Yeah…I’m alright,” she said. “Just taking a little break is all.”
Marble walked up and looked at the portion of the farm where she’d been working. Looking back at her older sister, she said, “You won’t…be done…before night…”
“I’m getting better,” Pinkamena said, “and I’ll be done before you know it,” she added with a small smile, hoping that it would reassure her sister of the lie she’d just told.
Marble looked around once more, then looked back at her sister. Without another word, Marble walked over to the next row of rocks and began tapping at them. Pinkamena took a few seconds to recover from what she was seeing before she trotted over. “Marble, I’ll be fine, I-”
“No, you really won’t,” Marble replied in a much louder voice than before. Her hesitation whenever she normally spoke vanished and she looked up at Pinkamena. “Pinkie, you’ve been slipping lately. Even mom’s noticed. Every time this time of year, you get a bit…distracted.”
Pinkamena paused and looked down at the ground, a wave of various emotions washing over her. She looked down. “I…guess you’re right,” she admitted.
Marble’s voice grew soft again as she walked back over to Pinkamena. “It’s…the anniversary…isn’t it…?”
Pinkamena nodded solemnly. She dug at the ground with her hoof, then sighed heavily. “I keep thinking about what I could have done differently,” she said. “I shouldn’t have listened to Twi-to Twi-to her…” A brief scowl came on her face before fading. “I didn’t…”
Marble stomped on the ground, catching Pinkamena’s attention. “You’ve been doing this for three years,” she said with a frown, “isn’t it time to start moving forward?”
“How can I forget what I didn’t do for Jason-?”
Marble held up a hoof. “I didn’t say forget, did I?”
“Jeez, are you two old maids gonna talk or get back to work?” the harsh tone of Limestone Pie said as she walked up, wiping her brow with a slightly dirty towel. She turned to Pinkamena. “She’s not wrong, you know? You’ve been moping for the past week. Everypony knows.”
“If it’s…that much trouble…you know dad or mom would…let you take…time off,” Marble added.
Pinkamena shook her head. “That would leave the farm short…”
“We handled things before you came back well enough,” Limestone said with a scowl, “but you’re just dragging yourself down along with the rest of us.”
“That’s not completely fair,” the monotone voice of Maud said as she too walked up. She looked at Pinkamena with her normal half-lidded expression. “Pinkie, we can take care of things here. There’s nothing wrong with you taking time off.”
Pinkamena looked down, sitting on her haunches in the dusty farmland and trying to hold back tears. “I have to help…” she insisted.
“You’re are sister, and we love you,” Limestone said, “nothing will change that.”
“But you need to accept that what happened to Jason happened,” Maud said. “Yes, other ponies had a hoof in what happened, but you need to learn from it and move forward.”
“Don’t…forget…” Marble concluded.
Pinkamena looked at her three sisters. Her eyes were full of tears, and she began to quietly sob. Marble was the first to embrace her. Maud was next, and then Limestone joined in reluctantly, lightly patting the pink pony on the head. They stayed like that for a while until Pinkamena broke the hug. “I think…I’d like that,” she said. “Maybe I’ll go to that new town where Twilight and Rarity are. I want to check on them.”
Limestone scoffed at that, but Marble and Maud simply nodded. “Go tell mom and dad,” Maud said, “we can finish up your section.”
Pinkamena nodded as she turned and walked back to the farmhouse. She still felt the massive weight of her guilt, but there was something in her that was starting to take shape. Hope.
Unnoticed by her, a single strand of her mane curled ever so slightly.
Applejack stood on the porch of her house, looking over at what remained of her family’s apple farm. She sighed in dismay at what she saw. Nearly three years ago, the outermost parts of the massive multiacre orchard had caught some sort of rot that they couldn’t cure. They’d burned the trees that had caught it, but that had only slowed things down. It was too early for apple bucking, so they couldn’t harvest anything and at the rate the rot was spreading they would barely be able to get a quarter of the harvest at best. The worst of the rot had struck in the past year, taking hundreds of trees per month. It was the worst possible thing to happen to their family.
She saw Big Mac come slowly walking over from the northeastern portion of the fields. She didn’t need to hear what he had to say to know. His expression said it all. However, she still walked up to her big brother and asked, “Did any make it?”
Big Mac spat the hay out of his mouth and said, “None.”
Applejack’s heart fell. Their livelihood for over a hundred years was dying and nopony could do anything about it. They barely had the funds to ask for an expert from Canterlot to come and help. Tree Bark, a botanist, had come in, looked over the rot, and explained that there was nothing that he could think of that could be done. He’d apparently never seen this rot before.
Granny had called it “Retribution from above,” and there were times that Applejack couldn’t blame her for thinking that. After all, the rot had started sometime after Jason Wright’s death and burial in the highest honor in Canterlot. Ironically, it had started around the tree which he’d used to hang himself with. Applejack turned and looked back inside the house where she saw Granny sitting at the table. She looked back at Big Mac. “What are we gonna do, Big Mac? We can’t stop this rot, and ah doubt we’ll git anything to harvest when apple buckin’ rolls ‘round.”
Big Mac looked with sorrow at his little sister. “Only one thing to do,” he said.
Applejack watched him walk past her and straight through the front door into the kitchen. She knew how hard this upcoming decision would be for him, but she knew he was right. She followed him inside, where he heard Granny ask, “Well, youngin’? What’s the scoop?”
“Granny…” Big Mac’s voice caught in his throat, and he took a few seconds to compose himself. Applejack’s heart went out to her big brother and she put a reassuring hoof on his back. He looked back at her, then nodded gratefully. He turned back to Granny Smith. “Granny,” he began in a stronger tone, “I think we should leave.”
There was silence for a few moments until Apple Bloom came slowly walking into the room, a look of sorrow on her face as she said, “L-Leave…?”
Granny Smith, however, wasn’t having it. She glared at Big Mac and said, “Ah ain’t leavin’ this farm fer nothin’! It’s been mah home fer years, ever since ah was a youngun!”
“Ah don’t like it any more than you do, Granny,” Applejack said, taking a step forward, “but look out at our orchard!” She gestured out of the window at the farm. More than half of their former orchard was gone, having needed to be burned in an effort to stave off the strange rot that had taken hold of it. Applejack knew that with the loss of the apple harvest, including their zapp apple grove, their potential future profits would not manage to break even. “We gotta face facts. It’s time the Apples mosey on out of this place.”
Granny Smith sat stubbornly at the head of the kitchen table, glaring out the window. “Ah’ve lived here fer over a hundred years,” she said, “and ah ain’t givin’ up ‘till the last.”
“Will yah quit being as stubborn as a mule and face reality!?” Applejack shouted, stomping her hoof on the table and causing a new crack to form in it. Nearby, Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh jumped at her temper. “We ain’t gonna be able tah plant anythin’ in time fer next spring! And what if the new trees catch the rot?! We’ll be right back where we started!”
Everypony in the room could see Granny’s bottom lip beginning to tremble, although the angry, stubborn look in her eyes didn’t leave. “Are yah just suggestin’ we give up and throw away everythin’ mah mammy and pappy built up here?” she asked in a quieter tone.
“Yah think ah like the idea?” Applejack asked in a calmer tone, “Ah was born here, Granny, and ah’ve lived mah entire life here. Ah don’t like it none, but we can’t be foalish about it.” She reached down and picked up a piece of stationary, holding it up. “A couple days ago, ah got a letter from Rarity. She told me they got some mighty good prime farmland up in Maretime Bay. It ain’t as big as what we’ve got here, but we can more than make do with it.”
“But how are we gonna get there, sis?” Apple Bloom asked nervously. “Nopony will help us move. They hate us.”
“Nah, sugarcube, they hate me,” Applejack said, looking over at the nearby hat rack. For the past three years, ever since Jason had died, she had refused to wear her signature Stetson. She knew her own parents would be ashamed of her, so she didn’t feel worthy of it, “but that shouldn’t stop ya. Ah can leave and find mah own way. If ponies knew ah ain’t around, they may be inclined tah-”
“Now you wait just a cotton pickin’ minute there,” Granny said with a glare. She got up and trotted over to a surprised Applejack. She placed a hoof on her chest and pushed her against the wall until Applejack was standing on her back legs. “Yah dun harmed that poor human, yes, but you’ve been punishin’ yerself fer three years. Ah’ve seen the look in yer eyes. If’n yah could go back, would yah do things any differently?”
“Granny, ah…of course ah would!” Applejack said, tears in her eyes. “Ah’d invite him tah meet the family, give him a job and a roof over his head! Ah’ve seen that cave he lived in, and it ain’t fit fer anypony tah live in! Anycreature, even!”
“Listen, sweetie, what’s done is done,” Granny Smith said. “We’re all tah blame fer what happened tah our beloved town. Not just you. Besides, we’re yer family, and yer the only family ah have left.”
Applejack looked down with shame in her eyes. Most of the rest of the Apple family, upon hearing what had happened to Jason, had effectively distanced themselves from the Ponyville branch, including her cousin Braeburn. Some had come to visit for brief stints, but not many. She was grateful for said visits, but they were few and far between. Applejack’s tears fell slightly, and she said, “Ah’m so sorry…ah failed y’all…”
“Everypony failed, hun,” Granny said, “not just you.” She backed away, then turned with a heavy sigh to Big Mac. “Ah don’t like tah admit when ah’m wrong, but yer right. We can’t stay here. We’ve gotta go.” She then turned to look at the others. “But we’re gonna need help.”
“Ah may have a way we can git some help,” Applejack said, “but yah ain’t gonna like it.”
“…What is it…?” Granny asked.
Applejack inhaled, then sighed as she said, “Mercenaries.”
Granny snapped to attention. “Ah ain’t about tah let some money hungry creatures handlin’ all our belongings or payin’ fer services that’s untrustworthy!”
“At this point, ah can’t see any other choice, Granny,” Applejack said. “Ah doubt the princess will send anypony tah help us! She don’t want nothin’ tah do with us! Besides, we don’t have the ponypower needed tah help. Even if we got in touch with the family that still talks tah us, there’s nowhere near enough ponies.”
Granny scowled, but after a while she deflated. “Ah see…” she said. “We’ll use that as a last resort. If we can’t muster up enough help, we’ll…hire a mercenary or two.”
The streets of Thornfall were busy as per the usual. Creatures from all different sorts of life were walking around the local marketplaces, mostly the various outcasts of societies from around the entire world. Abyssinians, gryphons, dragons, yaks, diamond dogs, goblins, rogue changelings and many other races called this hodgepodge of a town their home. As it was located in the Badlands, the city was a haven for crime, and there were many various crime families who called Thornfall their home.
Through the crowds, a pony with a hood covering her head made her way through the streets, eyes peeled. She was a unicorn, and because there was a market for unicorn horns here, she knew that she couldn’t let her horn be seen. She was trailing a black abyssinian male through the crowd at a safe distance so she wouldn’t be spotted. She’d been spying on him for a while, knowing he was a part of a two-team mercenary group called Shadow Dawn.
She knew how good they were, and while they weren’t the very best mercenary group thanks to their small size, one thing about them made them stand apart from the rest: when they took a job on, no amount of money could cause them to change sides. She respected that in her own way, and she wanted in. However, she had only ever seen this member of the team, an abyssinian named Tobias. The other member, a mysterious individual named Revan, always eluded her. She’d heard about Revan, but could never find him.
It was why she was following Tobias. She hoped that he would eventually lead her to wherever Revan was. She’d been at it for days and so far, Tobias had only gone to his small run down shared apartment complex, the market for food, and the seedy mercenary guild building near the center of town. She’d tried sneaking in after hours and searched through their mismatched files to find Revan, but there had been very little in said files. All she found was that Revan could only be reached through Tobias.
She had some hope today, however. Using a small scrying spell that she’d developed that circumvented the mercenary guild’s magical defenses, she’d seen Tobias speaking to the guild master, a fat pig faced goblin. He’d handed Tobias a piece of paper, explaining that the job on it was something Revan had specifically asked for. She thought she heard something about expanding their business as a guild up north, but that seemed a bit far-fetched. She knew Equestria didn’t normally employ mercenaries as it was considered a dirty profession in the so-called land of harmony and friendship. Since mercenaries only worked for money, the consensus among Equestrians were that they were untrustworthy, which is what made this Shadow Dawn team stand out more.
When Tobias came to side road, he stopped and leaned against an old building. She saw him take out a large brown stick of sorts, only to realize moments later that he was lighting a cigar. He let out several puffs of it. The unicorn mare watched from a safe distance, never taking her eyes off of him. However, when a small group of variously shaped goblins passed between them, he suddenly vanished.
Alarmed, she ran through the crowd, making her way through the various creatures towards the alley where he’d been leaning. She couldn’t lose him! Not today! She had to force her way through several groups of creatures who shouted angrily at her. All sense of stealth was gone. She needed to find this abyssinian immediately!
The alley was dark, with fabrics stretching between the buildings on either side to protect anyone walking through them from the heat of the desert sun. It stank of garbage and dirty water, something rare in the Badlands save for the one week a year where it poured nonstop. She pulled her cowl over her muzzle to block out the smell and pulled her goggles over her eyes. She touched the side of them with her hoof and the alley brightened. Said goggles had been enchanted by her to enhance her vision in this place, something she knew she could use to convince this Shadow Dawn mercenary team to let her join.
She crept through the alley, all of her senses on alert. Her goggles glowed a slight cyan, just like her eyes. She looked around, the enchanted goggles over her eyes enhancing her vision. She could see nothing, however things were too quiet in this alley.
She continued looking around, searching in every nook and cranny that she could find. The alley had no exit, and she wasn’t sure if the abyssinian could have climbed up the walls that quickly. However, her question was answered about five minutes later when she felt something sharp being pressed against the back of her neck. Even through her hood she could tell this was a dangerous blade. She froze and waited. Finally, a voice spoke. “You’ve been a busy little unicorn, haven’t you?”
She didn’t move, instead she only waited until the voice spoke again. He did a few moments later. With a sigh, the voice said, “What do you want? Why have you been following me?”
Without making any sudden moves, she simply replied, “I’ve been trying to find your companion.”
The abyssinian scoffed. “My companion doesn’t like to be disturbed unless it’s important.”
“This is important,” the mare said. “I want to join Shadow Dawn.”
That seemed to catch the abyssinian off guard, because he went silent for a few seconds before saying, “And just why would we want you in our ranks? We’ve been doing quite well on our own.”
“I’m a powerful unicorn,” she explained, “I have skills in magic that most don’t have. I’ve traveled the world longer than Shadow Dawn’s been around. I’ve made some good allies around the world that could be useful to you.”
“But why would you want to join us?” Tobias asked. “What’s your angle? Everybody’s got one.”
The mare frowned. “Do I need a reason to join a new and upcoming mercenary party? I’ve just said I can be of big help to you.”
“We don’t go traveling the world,” Tobias said, “we don’t make enough talons here to move-”
From out of nowhere a large bag of coins appeared, landing on the ground with a loud jingle. Tobias paused and the mare took the opportunity to speak. “In that bag are several large amounts of money from all over the world, along with some rare gems that’ll fetch a hefty price. With this, you can move your operation somewhere else. Maybe even start your own mercenary group and keep all the profits instead of having to give up half the reward to the guild.”
There was silence for another few seconds before a distorted, almost mechanical sounding voice said from the shadows ahead of her, “So, you think you can just bribe your way into the Shadow Dawn?” As the mare looked towards the source of the voice, a pair of glowing sky-blue eyes appeared. A hooded bipedal figure stepped out of the shadows, approaching slowly as his footsteps echoed through the alley. “You think just because you offer us money you’re automatically accepted into the group? Many have come before you wanting in, and we turned them away for less. What makes you so special? Make your case.”
The mare then understood why Revan was feared. The mask on his face was terrifying to look at. The glowing eyes elicited no emotion and unlike hers, the mask’s eyes faced forward like those of an apex predator. The two glowing vertical lines on what had to be the voice modulator only brightened and dimmed with each word he spoke. The clothes he wore were all black as were his boots. He even had his claws covered, although a part of her noticed that there were five of them, something she hadn’t seen in many bipedal races with claws. She couldn’t even hear him breathe, but she knew he was judging from the way his chest moved up and down.
The mare looked up at Revan, showing no fear as she said, “It’s hard to speak freely with a pussycat aiming his blade at my neck.” Revan looked over at where Tobias stood and slowly nodded. When the mare felt the blade be removed from the back of her neck, she sighed in relief before removing her hood, goggles, and cowl. She knew if she wanted to earn their trust, she had to show them who she was. Her vivid crimson and bright yellow mane popped out and her fierce cyan eyes locked onto the masked figure that was Revan. “My name is Sunset Shimmer,” she explained. “I was once the student of Princess Celestia until I left Canterlot when I was thirteen. I’ve spent years exploring the world, making a living and connections all over the world, including places you’ve probably never even heard of.”
“You’re not answering my question,” Revan said.
“If this is supposed to impress us, it’s not,” Tobias added, stepping to stand beside Revan. “Titles like student to a princess mean nothing here.”
“Of course they don’t,” Sunset agreed with fire in her eyes, “but I know I can be of use!”
“I’m sure you can be,” Revan said, “but what do you want out of this? That’s what we want to know.”
Sunset looked at Revan and Tobias, and a smirk formed on her face. “Fine, you want the truth? I want to join to repay what you did for me a few months ago. I hate owing favors to anybody, and I like to repay debts.”
Both continued to look down at the pony mare in front of them, but she didn’t back down. Tobias spoke. “Wait…I remember you now.” He turned to Revan, who didn’t take his gaze off of Sunset, at least if the lack of motion from him was any indication. “She’s that unicorn we found almost dying out in the Badlands a few months ago, remember?”
Revan didn’t say anything for a bit. Instead, he only continued to look at Sunset, who continued glaring at the menacing figure. After a few seconds of silence, he slowly nodded. “You don’t owe us anything.”
“We did the right thing by bringing you to someplace that would help,” Tobias added. “You were beaten up pretty badly, and that brand you got is the brand of the Blue Dragons. You should consider yourself lucky that they just beat you up and didn’t rob you.”
Sunset snorted. “They took all my talons, but the other money they called fake and useless out here.”
“Not surprising,” Tobias said as he crossed his arms. “Talons are the only currency they accept out here, and the Blue Dragons only have business out here. Your money is useless here.”
“But not in the rest of the world,” she replied. “I have Equestrian bits, Gryphonian claws, Dragon Lands coins, and more. There’s enough from each to build a business.”
“Equestria won’t see us as legitimate,” Revan said.
“And the other nations don’t exactly need mercenary work, nor could they afford it most of the time,” Tobias added.
“So don’t use the word mercenary!” Sunset said, starting to sound desperate, “You could be a business with multiple areas of expertise!”
“And just why would ponies want to hire us?” Tobias asked with a growl.“We’re not exactly what they would consider hirable. Just ask Jason. Oh wait…”
Sunset’s scowl returned in full force. “Those ponies are fools,” she said, “but I guarantee that if you have me with you, they’ll be more likely to hire you for work!”
“I don’t know…” Tobias said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Revan?”
Revan looked down at her, arms slowly crossed. The strange masked creature and pony mare stared at each other for a long while before he said, “Very well, we’ll have a trial run.”
“Trial run?” Sunset tilted her head in confusion.
“It just means you’ll come with us on an assignment,” Tobias explained. “The profits will be split three ways, but I will warn you, it won’t be much. It’s a job from the guild, and they take a piece of the action before we get anything. The job will be something simple and it will give us time to know you better.” Sunset felt a bit relieved to hear it, until she heard Tobias say, “I have just the job, too.” He brought out a piece of dirty paper from his coat pocket and gave it to Revan. “It’s the kind of job you asked the boss for specifically.” Revan looked down at the paper, then turned and looked at Tobias, who simply chuckled and shrugged. “Even he was surprised that it came in!”
“What kind of job?” Sunset asked, feeling a bit worried now.
Tobias and Revan turned their attention back to her. “It’s an escort job,” the abyssinian explained, holding the paper out for her to see. “The pay isn’t too much, but it’s the perfect job for this little test of ours. It’s also in Equestria.”
Sunset read the paper, and her stomach dropped. The client party was the Apple family. She despised all of Ponyville for what they did because during her travels around the world she’d seen and had even experienced the same sort of treatment from other races and had a great deal of sympathy for what Jason had done. She always thought so highly of her race, but to know that they were capable of such xenophobia and hatred made her stomach crawl. And to hear that they were going to be helping the family of one of Jason’s most constant abusers made her stomach turn. She looked up at Revan and Tobias. “W-Why would either of you want to take this job? And for that matter, how did it get all the way down here?”
“You know the clients,” Tobias said, “and I’m going to assume that nobody, or should I say nopony, wants to help them. Seems as if they’re getting desperate if they’re reaching out for outside help. But here’s the thing you should know about us.” He leaned down, his yellow eyes now completely serious as he looked into Sunset’s eyes. “Once we sign a contract for a job, we never betray the clients. Most mercenaries will sell their soul to the highest bidder, even during the middle of a mission, but we don’t. We either fulfill the job or are released from it from our clients.”
Sunset nodded in understanding. It was one reason why she wanted to join them after she’d heard more and more details about their exploits around the Badlands and in other lands nearby. “I won’t betray any clients we have,” she promised, “but I don’t have to like the jobs. Especially this one.”
Tobias grinned and smacked her on the back, laughing. “That’s the spirit! Now, we leave in an hour. Pack up whatever you need and meet us at the north gate. We’ll need to walk to the nearest Equestrian town to catch a train. That is, if they’ll let us on.”
“I’ll be there, and I can help get us on a train,” Sunset said before she turned and galloped away back to the inn where she’d been staying to gather all of her belongings. She would prove herself worthy of being a part of the Shadow Dawn team! She could do this!
Tobias watched the unicorn galloping away down the darkened alley, turning when she reached the street and vanishing into the crowd of various creatures. He turned to the masked human beside him. “She certainly has a flare for the dramatic. Like you.”
Gregory reached up and grasped the mask. There was a hiss and then he pulled it off, revealing his face. He looked over at his companion. “How so?”
“Oh, the whole glowing eyes thing with her goggles,” Tobias grinned. “Similar color, too.”
Gregory simply nodded and looked back at the end of the alleyway. “I just wonder if she’ll be like all the others,” he said, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes.
“It takes a lot to survive in the Badlands,” Tobias said. “You should know better than anyone.”
Gregory turned back to Tobias, the two business partners and friends locking eyes for a bit. Gregory then smiled ever so slightly. “You’ll never let me live that down, will you?”
“You were drinking dirty water out of that vehicle of yours when I found you!” Tobias said, “and all of your food was gone! Honestly, I’ve never seen someone so unprepared for the Badlands.”
“It’s not like I intended to drive there,” Gregory said with a frown.
Tobias made a “Tch!” noise and then looked back at the entrance to the alley. Several second later, he looked back at Gregory. “Is that really the mare you told me about and showed me on that device of yours?” he asked. Gregory nodded. “So…why is she still here? Shouldn’t she be in the other human world you told me about?”
“Either history played out differently here than in the show,” Gregory replied, “or the human world or Star Swirl’s mirror doesn’t exist here. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that she will be coming with us on our next job.”
Tobias clapped his paws together, rubbing them. “This is going to be one of the more fun adventures we’ve had, eh G?”
“If you say so,” Gregory replied.
“Hey, at least there’s less of a chance of you being knocked around again,” Tobias said in a teasing manner.
“That hasn’t happened in a while,” Gregory replied giving Tobias a sideways glance.
“Only because the jobs we’ve taken haven’t been as dangerous as before,” Tobias said. “Just use those guns you brought with you. Dengal said she could make those bullets of yours if she had access to one.”
Gregory shook his head. “They’re too advanced for her,” he said, “and besides, she’s already working on making guns of her own.”
“You know that goblin blacksmith girl has the hots for you, right?” Tobias asked as they began making their way back to their office.
Gregory put his mask back on, the hiss audible as the black coverings hid his human features. The glowing eyes returned and the distorted voice of Revan replied, “She doesn’t know the real me.”
“Hey, you said she was attractive by human standards,” Tobias said, “so why not give her a chance?”
Gregory didn’t reply, instead he walked out into the main street, pulling his black hood over his head. Tobias only sighed, following his companion into the crowd. Sometimes, his companion was a bit too serious for his taste, but he was still a good man deep underneath that hardened exterior. Still, the abyssinian smiled. He anticipated that this next journey would be fun.
“Ah wanna thank y’all fer comin’ and helpin’ with all of the packin’,” Applejack said to the three members of the Apple family who had come and helped pack things up for their inevitable move.
Albemarle Pippin, Merry Way, Blue Pearmain and Golden Russet, two earth pony stallions and two pegasus and unicorn mare twins respectfully, sat nearby with mugs of some of the last of the zapp apple cider in their hooves, drinking to quench their thirst. Merry was married to Blue and was the best friend of Ablemarle Pippin, who normally went by Pippin or simply Pip. Pippin nodded and raised his mug. “Glad to help,” he said in a deep voice.
“You’re still family, even if the others don’t want to see it,” Blue added. Her husband nodded in solidarity.
“We’re just sorry that you have to leave this place behind,” Golden added, looking around sadly. “I’ve had a lot of good memories here.”
Applejack looked around and sighed. In the time since she’d managed to get a request sent off to anypony willing to help, two weeks had passed. It had only been three days before when the only three extended Apple family members who still talked to them had arrived. The house was all boarded up and empty. The normally bright red paint of the house and barn was peeling, there were no more barn animals around as they’d been sold off to help pay for farming supplies. Their cow and sheep herds had gone to other farms around the kingdom when the family couldn’t afford to feed them.
The rot had only taken hold of more trees by that time. Not knowing how it spread, the family didn’t want to uproot any trees for replanting just in case the rot spread through the roots, so they sadly had to burn the entire orchard. That had been one of the darkest days for Applejack. Not the darkest, but one of them. Nobody had really spoken that day, and the smoke had apparently reached Canterlot according to the newspaper they received the next day. Apple Bloom had cried openly, and so had Big Mac, the strongest and toughest stallion Applejack knew. She knew she would cry, but she hadn’t expected any tears from Big Mac. She hoped, however, that with the destruction of the trees that the rot wouldn’t spread anywhere else.
Applejack raised the mug of cider in the air. “A toast. To family. May the memories we made never die.”
Everyone raised their mugs in solidarity and drank. The rainbow colored liquid tasted as sweet as ever. They all drained their mugs and set them down on the carriage nearby. While Big Mac collected them and rinsed them out with a nearby water pump, Merry spoke up. “So,” he said, “Granny tells me that y’all are hiring some mercenaries to keep an eye on us.”
Applejack felt herself tense up. She immediately turned to the dark orange stallion. “We wanted tah keep ourselves safe,” she said quickly, “it ain’t safe fer us out there anymore, especially since-”
“We’re not judging what you’re doing,” Pippin said, “after all, this new Maretime Bay isn’t exactly close to friendly territory.”
“Isn’t it near the Undiscovered Lands?” Merry asked.
Applejack nodded. “It’ll take us a while to get there by carriage,” she said, “unless we can get a train ride to the nearest station, but the train doesn’t stop in Ponyville no more.”
“Hence the need for mercenaries?” Golden asked.
Applejack nodded. “Sure nuff.”
“But what if somepony pays them off to just abandon us?” Blue asked. “I hear that’s what they do in the Badlands.”
“We’ll just have to hope tah high heaven that they won’t or that we don’t run into somepony who’ll wanna rob us,” Applejack said. “Now come on. Let’s make sure everythin’s all ship shape and ready tah go. Check to see we didn’t miss anythin’ either.”
At that, everypony scattered off, looking around the farmhouse and the barn to make sure things were in order for whoever would be using this place after they were gone. They had to sell it well below market value because of the rot and the damage to the house. About a half hour later, everypony was back, a few of them having found boxes and other random items that they had missed in their last sweep.
As they were tightening down the caravan and covering their belongings with tarps and blankets, Apple Bloom suddenly paused, her ears perking up. Applejack noticed this and walked over to her. “Apple Bloom? Everythin’ alright?”
“Somepony’s comin’ up the road,” Apple Bloom whispered, pointing to the east.
Everypony turned in the direction she was pointing. Sure enough, in the distance they saw three individuals walking up. One of them looked like a pony, but with the hood on, nopony could be sure. The other two were taller, bipedal. One looked like a cat, while the third was dressed in all black, their features obscured by a hood. Everypony watched as they grew closer. The features of the catlike creature became visible first, since the others were wearing hoods over their heads. He had black fur with a white patch on the forehead. He had black hair as well which was cut short and he had yellow eyes.
The pony’s features were visible next. The pony appeared to be a mare, probably a unicorn if Applejack wasn’t mistaken. She wore a black cowl over her muzzle along with a pair of goggles that hid her eyes. Applejack thought she saw some orange fur on the unicorn’s legs, but since said unicorn was wearing a cloak, that’s all she could see. Applejack couldn’t even see her cutie mark.
The third individual, however, made her pause. They were a little bit taller than the bipedal cat, wearing black garments that covered any fur they may have had. They had a couple of knives attached to their belt and he was holding a large metal pole, but it was the mask over their head that frightened her. It was terrifying, to say the least. Applejack felt Apple Bloom pressing her, and she could hardly blame the poor teenage filly.
When she looked down at the creature’s claws, she paused again. She’d never seen anycreature with more than four claws before. This creature had five claws, or fingers. She couldn’t see any talons on them, but then again this individual had gloves on. She wondered how hot they must be in there.
“Hello there, everyone,” the cat being said with a wave. Judging by the voice, the cat was a male. “We received a request for an escort mission for…” here he took out a folded piece of paper from the long coat he wore and opened it, “one hundred and fifty bits.” He folded the paper and slipped it back in his pocket. “Are we in the right place?”
Everypony else was silent, all looking at Applejack. This was her show, after all. She straightened and despite the fear of the masked creature beside this cat, she stepped forward. “That’s us,” she said.
“Ah, excellent!” the cat said as he took a step forward. “We’re Shadow Dawn, the mercenary party who will be picking up your job request. Now, I understand this will take a few days?”
“Ah’d say about three, maybe four days if the weather holds,” Applejack replied.
“I’m sure it’ll hold,” the cat said, “after all, it is summer still.”
“Ah suppose so,” Applejack said.
“Excellent!” The catlike creature clapped his claws together. “Now, before we get underway, there’s the small matter of some paperwork-”
“Just a moment there, young fella!” Granny Smith interrupted him with a scowl. She stamped forward and looked the cat straight in the eyes. “Ah hope yer not hopin’ tah gouge us out like them stories about yer kind say! We ain’t easily taken in, yah know!”
“I suggest you not make such hasty assumptions, old mare,” the pony (now confirmed to be a mare based on her tone alone) beside the cat said with a bite in her tone, “or did you forget that it was assumptions that led to the death of one Jason Wright?”
The third individual simply held up their hand for silence, turning to the mare rather sharply. This caused the mare to flinch. They then turned back to the cat and the two exchanged a look. The cat looked back down with his ears pinned back slightly, an abashed look on his face. “Ah, I know mercenaries have a bad reputation here,” he said, “but we’re not quite like them. Shadow Dawn honors our contracts and doesn’t break them. If Princess Celestia herself were to offer us all the bits she had, we’d refuse. It’s the principal of the thing.”
Granny stepped back, her own face a bit abashed. “Ah see,” was all she said in a diminished tone.
The cat then turned to Applejack, holding up some new papers. “We just have a few papers for you to look over and sign. They’re standard requirements for a job like this. It lists off all of our requirements. Payment up front, a signature at the end of our job to signify that the job was completed, things like that. Take as much time as you need to read them over.”
Applejack took the papers and began reading them. She was soon surrounded by several other members of her family as they too read over the contracts. Nothing about it seemed nefarious to her, but she knew that Merry was probably the most likely to catch something since he was the smartest one she knew there. He had grown up training to be a small-town politician before he married Blue and became a farmer with her. When he gave her an approving nod, Applejack looked back at the three. “Who do yah need signin’ this?”
“Whoever sent out the request,” the cat said. He reached into his coat pocket and brought out a black pen. “Need this?”
“Thanks,” she said as she took the pen in her mouth and began signing where she needed to. When she was done, she gave the pen back, along with the papers. She then trotted over to one of the carriages, grabbed a brown bag and brought it over to them. “Here yah are,” she said as she dropped it into the cat’s outstretched paw.
The cat put the bag in a pack he had over his shoulder. “Great!” he said. “Now, the only thing left to do is get you to your destination and then have you sign off on that. Now,” he clapped his paws together and looked around, “are you ready to get underway, or do you need more time?”
“Ah think we’re ready,” Applejack said, “but yah know, it’d help an awful lot if we knew yer names.”
“How rude of us!” the cat said with a self-deprecating smile. “My name’s Tobias, and this pony is a new member of our team named Sunset Shimmer, a pretty powerful unicorn.”
“Well, it’s nice tah meet y’all,” Applejack said, “but what about yer other friend there?” She gestured to the hooded and masked figure beside them. “Don’t he ever talk?”
Tobias looked back, then smiled and turned back to Applejack. “That’s Revan,” he said, “and he does talk, but not all the time. I’m sure you’ll hear him talking sometime on this trip. But we should really get a move on! Train won’t wait on us forever.”
That caught Applejack’s attention. She turned to Tobias. “Train?”
“Thank our pony companion here for that,” he said, gesturing down to the hooded and cloaked mare. “She managed to…convince…the train to stop here for the next twenty minutes. That was ten minutes ago.”
“It’ll get us to the White Tail station before nightfall,” the pony named Sunset said, “so I suggest you get moving.”
Surprised at this new development, Applejack wasted no time running up to her cart and hitching herself up to it. “Let’s get a move on, everypony!”
Princess Celestia was sitting in her room later that night after the sun had gone down, looking over the latest reports from the nurse she’d asked to be assigned to her former faithful student Twilight. Despite her immense disappointment in the young mare, she still had a hoof in raising her from a filly to an adult and thought of her like a pseudo daughter. Just as she had with her previous student before their argument and before she fled the palace all those years ago. She was pleased to learn that Twilight had been doing a bit better, but was disheartened to hear that she hardly ever left her lighthouse unless it was absolutely necessary.
“Perhaps it was a mistake sending all of Ponyville’s residents to one place,” she muttered to herself.
“Perhaps it was,” a familiar male voice said. One which sent chills down Celestia’s spine as she jumped up. “Hello there, Princess, did you miss me?”
“Discord,” she growled, “you cretin, show yourself!”
In front of her, a zipper appeared in midair. It moved down, and out stepped the lord of chaos himself. He zipped the space behind him back up, leaving nothing behind. His smile was as infuriating as ever. However, something about him was different. There was a black patch over his left eye. “Cretin, you say?” he asked, placing his paw on his chest. “Why Tia, that hurts! You’re breaking my heart!” He held out his claw, and in it a heart appeared that shattered, leaving red pieces of glass on the floor.
Celestia stood, stomping on one of the larger pieces and storming up to the draconequus. She grabbed him with her hoof and shoved him against the wall. “Leave!” she snapped.
He vanished and appeared sitting in her bed, reading a newspaper with a pair of black rimmed glasses on. “Somepony’s testy,” he said with an amused tone.
Celestia whirled around and aimed her horn at him. “Leave,” she growled, “or I’ll make you leave.” Her horn began to glow for effect.
Discord tossed the papers away, turning them into little birds which flew out of the window and evaporated into nothingness. He slowly stood, paw and claw raised. His smile was gone, and a serious look appeared on his face. “Okay, I see you’re in no mood for jokes,” he said as he snapped and two chairs appeared. He sat in one and pointed towards the other.
The seriousness of the draconequus threw Celestia off, but she didn’t move or let her guard down. “What are you up to?” she asked suspiciously.
“I swear, I’m not up to anything,” he said, “I simply came to talk. It’s been too long and things are certainly chaotic around her.”
That sent her alarm bells off and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Was Jason Wright’s death because of you?” she snarled angrily.
“Heavens, no,” Discord said, looking honestly appalled. “I didn’t even know he existed until I learned about his death. I couldn’t even detect his body with my magic even after his…untimely death. Besides, death isn’t really my style. My kind of chaos doesn’t kill. That’s a line I refuse to cross. You know that. After all, back all those years ago, did I ever once kill any of your little ponies?”
“Still, you could have influenced my little ponies like you did during your first escape,” Celestia snapped.
“No, I didn’t do anything in regards to Jason Wright and his treatment,” Discord said with a frown, “that was all you and your ponies.” He gestured to the seat and then snapped again. A small tea table appeared between the chairs with a very fancy looking tea set sitting on it. “No tricks, I promise,” he said.
Still wary of this strange behavior, Celestia nevertheless approached and scanned the tea with her magic. Everything about it seemed normal, but she knew better than to trust Discord’s magic. However, she strangely didn’t sense any deception from him, which was normal when it came to him. At least, up until Fluttershy helped reform him several years before. “And why should I trust you?” she asked.
“Your point is well taken,” Discord said, “but once more ask yourself this: has my chaos ever caused the death of anycreature? Even in my reign, did it? Even a suicide?”
Celestia’s frown deepened. She knew he was right. Discord’s type of chaos would never lead to the death of anypony. She sighed. “Okay…I get it.”
“Good!” he said, and with a wave of his paw the chairs and tea vanished. He gestured then to the balcony. “Would you care to join me outside?”
Celestia looked at the now standing draconequus, then slowly nodded. The two made their way to Celestia’s private balcony, where Discord took a seat in one of the chairs there. Celestia did the same, and the two looked out at the beautiful cliffside metropolis that was Canterlot. The stars were out in full force, and not even the lights of the city below could dim their magnificence. That was how Celestia had her balcony situated. She loved looking at her sister’s night. The moon wasn’t up yet, as it was waning.
The two sat in silence for a bit. Then, Discord said, “Be honest, Celestia, how are things going in Equestria these days? I’ve been…avoiding it lately.”
Celestia sighed. “Not too good,” she said. “Ever since the world learned of Jason Wright and his abysmal treatment at the hooves of my ponies, other nations are at my doorstep demanding I do something about the various ways nonponies are being treated in my kingdom. I’ve hardly had a day off to recover from this.”
“You were the one who had that book written, you know,” he chided her, “so this chaos is your fault, not mine.”
She rubbed her forehead with her hoof. “I wasn’t going to just hide this, you know? I knew the consequences and accepted them.”
“Other versions of you would have simply swept this under the rug,” Discord said, “or even just not punished those involved.”
She groaned. She knew about the many various versions of Equestria thanks to him and it always made her head hurt. “I’m not them, am I?”
Discord shook his head. “No, you’re not,” he said, “but you did bring this on yourself.”
“I’m already reminded about this every day,” she groaned, “I don’t need it from you.”
“Alright, alright, lips sealed,” he said before zipping his mouth shut with a literal zipper.
She looked over at him. “What are you here for, Discord? Here to mock me?”
He shook his head. “Nnmm mmmmt mmmt mmmll!” he said. Celestia sighed and unzipped his mouth with her magic. “No, not at all,” he repeated.
“Then why are you here?” she asked.
“To do something I rarely do,” he said, “and that’s bring you news about something that concerns you.”
She turned to him, scrutinizing him. “And that would be…?”
Discord leaned back in his seat, looking up at the sky. “It involves a certain orange unicorn mare and her two traveling companions.”
“Orange unicorn ma-?” Celestia paused, eyes wide in alarm as she shot up out of her seat. “Sunset Shimmer?! You’ve seen Sunset Shimmer!?” She was practically shouting in complete shock.
Discord put both his pinkies in his ears and moved them back and forth, a squeaking noise coming from them as he did so. “Anypony ever told you that you shout really, really loud?” he asked with a frown.
She was immediately in Discord’s face. “Where is she?! Don’t hide anything from me!”
Discord backed away, then gave Celestia a saucy grin. “So close,” he said, “if anypony saw us like this, they’d think you were interested in little old me.”
Celestia’s face went red, either with anger or embarrassment she didn’t know. Still, she backed off and tried to calm down. “Fine, you have my attention now,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “What about Sunset do you have to tell me?”
“Well, she’s finally back in Equestria, for one,” Discord said.
“Where?” Celestia asked with a growl.
“She’s traveling with a couple of mercenaries from the Badlands,” Discord said. “One of those mercenaries is…quite the character, I must say. You’ll find him quite fascinating, I’m sure.”
“Where. Is. Sunset?” Celestia asked, putting deliberate emphasis on each word.
Discord’s infuriating smirk returned. “Now, if I told you that, there would be no fun in it,” he said.
“This isn’t a game, Discord!” Celestia bellowed, “I need to find her immediately!”
His smile faded again. “I’m well aware that this isn’t a game,” he said in a once more surprisingly serious tone, “but I’ve only been allowed to tell you what I’ve already told you.”
Celestia’s eyes were wide as saucers at that. “‘Allowed’?” she repeated. “You mean to tell me that-”
“I do,” Discord said with a nod.
“Does it have to do with-?”
“I can’t tell you why.”
Celestia grew increasingly frustrated. “I hate you,” she said.
Discord nodded. “I know, and now is one of the few times I wish I could help, but I’m being forced to stay out of this one. I can’t use my magic to interfere in Equestrian affairs anymore.”
Celestia deflated. She hated when this happened, because it always meant a huge headache for her in the end. She could already feel it coming on as she nodded. “And of course it just to happens to happen when my country is in its own chaotic state…”
Discord stood and stretched. “For what it’s worth, Tia, I’m sorry,” he said, and to Celestia it sounded like a genuine apology.
“…Not your fault…” Celestia murmured as she herself stood. “I should really get back to work…”
“You should really get some rest,” Discord said as he began to fade, “after all, you’re gonna need it.”
“I can’t afford to rest right now,” she said, although her trudging body slowly made its way towards her bed without her even knowing.
“You’ll need all the rest you can manage,” Discord’s fading voice said, “so sleep, and good luck…”
With that, Discord’s body vanished, as did his chaotic presence. Celestia, growing more and more exhausted with each step, collapsed into bed. The blankets moved of their own accord, covering her as the ancient alicorn mare quickly fell into a deep sleep.
It had only been a half day since the group of ponies and their mercenary escorts had left the farm and they were already halfway to their destination. The train that the mercenary group had promised the ponies had indeed been at the old Ponyville train station waiting for them. The train’s conductor, one who Applejack knew, wasn’t too thrilled with having to make a stop, but when he saw the pony who called herself Sunset Shimmer, Applejack saw a hint of fear in his eyes as he allowed the Apples to leave their carriages in their cargo car. Since the train itself was only half full, that meant that the Apples and their hired help could make themselves comfortable in one of the emptier cars.
Not much was said during that time. Some of them took the opportunity to sleep. They’d worked hard packing up the last of the family’s belongings during the first half of the morning, and seeing as though they hadn’t expected to make it so far in so short a time, they decided to recover their strength.
Applejack was one of these ponies. The stresses of packing up and moving had taken a massive toll on her. She dozed on and off in her seat, being jolted awake a few times by a jostling of the car they were in whenever the train hit some sort of bump on its westerly journey. During their last hour before they arrived at White Forest Junction, however, she was awake. She felt a bit more rested, but with the sun nearing the western horizon, she knew that they wouldn’t get very far once they disembarked, so they would need to set up camp.
Which was where they were now. After getting off at White Forest Junction, they only had a half hour of daylight left, which didn’t give them much time to find a campsite where they could set up for the night. Luckily, they found a large clearing near a large stream where the group set up a camp. By the time the sun was well below the horizon, they had a fire going and some stew boiling over said fire, a carrot and potato stew with various herbs and spices and tomato sauce mixed in with some water to thin it out.
While they ate, however, Applejack kept stealing glances at the smaller, secondary camp some ways away where the three mercenaries had set up their own camp. They had a fire of their own, but no stew pot boiling over it. Instead, it looked like they had some food already prepared and were quietly eating, or at least two of them were. She noticed that the silent masked Revan hadn’t removed his mask.
Feeling a little bad about how they’d been less than hospitable during their first encounter, she filled up three extra bowls halfway with some soup and made her way over to the second campfire, each bowl being balanced on a piece of wood. Tobias looked up when she arrived. “Hello, there,” he said with a polite nod, “is there something I can do for you?”
Applejack shook her head and passed the impromptu platter with steaming soup over to him. “Ah thought y’all could use somethin’ a bit more fillin’ that whatever it is yer eatin’,” she said, “as thanks fer gettin’ us on that train and fer keepin’ watch over us.”
Tobias took the piece of wood carefully and inhaled the scent of the steaming bowls. “Oh damn,” he said with a chuckle, “this stew smells absolutely amazing. Thank you very much!”
“Shoot, it ain’t nothin’,” Applejack said as she watched Tobias pass the other bowls out to the other two. “Just tryin’ tah be a good host.”
She thought she heard the unicorn named Sunset scoff at this, but it was Tobias who spoke next. “Well, this’ll definitely send us to bed with full stomachs tonight instead of our normal hard tack. Thank you again.”
“Yes…thanks,” Sunset added, although Applejack couldn’t hear any sort of gratitude in her voice.
When the silent third member called Revan looked up, Applejack froze. The glowing sky blue eyes of his mask were locked onto her. It was a terrifying few moments before Revan simply nodded at her. Applejack felt a bit of her fear of this Revan ebb away. He may have been a silent member, but it seemed as if he was grateful. She decided to speak up. “Yah really don’t talk much, do ya, stranger?”
Tobias looked up, a little apprehension in his face. The pony, who was now not wearing her cowl, goggles and hood, looked up, a small piece of bread in her magic. They both turned to Revan. The mysterious figure seemed to be looking at Applejack, but without being able to see a face, it was hard to tell. The blue glowing eyes on the mask simply looked at her. Finally, she heard the voice of this mysterious Revan for the first time. “Only when necessary.”
She was taken aback by the voice. It was deep and had what she could only describe as an artificial tone to it. She was, frankly, even more intimidated by this creature than before. Still, she knew that she’d rather have him on her side than as an enemy. She slowly nodded. “Kinda like mah brother. He’s a stallion of few words.”Revan’s head tilted slightly, looking towards the fire where the Apples all sat. He then turned his head back to Applejack, slowly nodding in response. She knew that while he wasn’t a pony, she knew that type of nod. “Ah, well,” she stammered out, “ah’ll leave y’all tah eatin’. Hope y’all enjoy the soup.”
“We will,” Tobias said with a smile, “and thanks again!”
Applejack smiled, turned, and walked back to their camp. As she did so, she couldn’t help but look back one more time. There was something about Revan that she couldn’t put her hoof on. It was eating at her, but she couldn’t understand why. Shaking her head, she turned back and made her way back to camp.
The fires were both dim now as everyone in both camps were asleep. The sky above was clear of any clouds and the only noises to be heard were the sounds of wind through nearby trees along with some occasional nighttime animal noises. Sunset was out on watch, using her enchanted goggles to enhance her vision. Everything around her was brighter, and with the lack of a moon until later that night it helped her spot any movement and focus on it. She’d volunteered for first watch because one, she wanted to get a feel for how guard duty went, and two, she didn’t want to be in the middle or at the end. First shift, in her mind, was always the easiest shift.
As she patrolled both campsites, she heard whispering coming from the two singular tents that Tobias and Revan both shared. Curious, she slowly crept back up to see if she could hear anything. She caught the tail end of Tobias saying something. “-things being as they are, we may become targets, especially with this being the family of a former Harmony Bearer.”
She listened, and to her surprise the voice that replied was not the same as the voice from the mask. It sounded more, well, normal. “Equestria has become a more dangerous place in the past three years,” the new voice said. Sunset noted that the voice was indeed male, although unlike the voice she’d heard coming from the mask, this one lacked the menacing edge. It was still deadly serious, however. “Did the Guild Master have anything to say?”
“You know the answer to that,” Tobias said.
“Yeah, suppose so,” Revan, or so she assumed, replied. “The next couple of days are going to be a bit rough.”
“At least we got halfway there already,” Tobias said, “so that’s a plus.”
“True,” Revan said, “but we’re on the edge of former Equestrian soil. It’s still just as lawless as the Badlands.”
“I’ve heard the rumors,” Tobias said. “You ready to face ponies again?”
Revan was silent for a bit, then his voice replied, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Good. I have the splints and medical supplies ready just in case,” Tobias said with a chuckle.
A chuckle which Revan didn’t join in on. As Tobias went quiet, Revan said, “My shift is in a few hours. I’m going to sleep.”
“Sure thing,” Tobias said, “goodnight.”
“Night,” Revan said, and with that, there was silence again.
This left Sunset with several questions about what she’d just heard. As she walked away to go back to her patrol. The most intriguing thing she had heard about was that this Revan had faced ponies in the past. She wasn’t sure why Tobias had phrased it that way, but it piqued her interest. She decided that she’d try and get some more information at a later date. She just had to be patient. So, she resumed her watch, keeping her thoughts in the back of her mind and her attention on the here and now.
The waning moon above shone its dim silvery light on the sleeping ponies below. It reflected off of the serene lake which was disturbed by a slight breeze, leaving ripples on the surface. The noises of nocturnal animals were remote. An owl hooted nearby, a group of wild wolves howled in the distance, and a few branches were snapped by the careless hoof of a pony who wasn’t looking where he was going.
“Hush!” one of the other ponies in the small group hissed back at the first pony, “or do you want to wake up the whole world with that racket!”
“Sorry,” the first pony said a bit loudly.
“Quiet!” another pony whispered.
“Sir, we’re almost there,” another pony said.
“Alright, everypony, put your stealth game on,” the apparent leader of the group said. He pulled on a chain in his hoof before looking back. “Mango, come.”
The pony attached to the chain, an extremely burly but rather dim earth pony stallion named Mango Wrecker, came forward, looking nervously at the whip on the belt of the leader. “What Mango gonna do?” Mango asked.
“Sit down,” the leader said, and the burly pony did so. The pony in charge, a unicorn stallion named Dirty Hunter, who preferred to go by Hunter, walked over to the edge of the small valley, looking down with the rest of the group of bandits and thugs. Below, the camp lay still, unsuspecting. Hunter grinned and turned back to the others. “Just like you predicted, Ace.”
Ace Hole, the unicorn stallion strategist of the group, pushed his glasses up as he looked down at the camp. “We shouldn’t be too hasty,” he whispered, “for all we know, they’ve asked somepony to protect them.”
“Pff, with their reputation who’d come to their rescue,” Hunter said with a smirk.
Oneshot, their expert pegasus bowstallion, came up and looked down. His eyesight was better than most ponies and he scanned the area below. “I don’t see anypony on any sort of patrol,” he whispered.
“We should get the lay of the land first,” Ace said.
“Yes,” Hunter agreed before he motioned for his group to fan out. He stayed beside Mango, looking down at the camp as Ace, Oneshot, and a mysterious former earth pony soldier in the Royal Guard who only called himself ‘Echo’ walked on the edge, looking down at the peaceful, unsuspecting looking camp. He looked around at the others in their group, looking for signs that there might be some sort of lookout. He thought it foolish for anypony out this far not to set up a lookout, but these were Ponyvillians, after all. Ignorant fools who had disgraced themselves.
Oneshot got Hunter’s attention with a wave of his wing. Hunter looked over and read the hoof signals that they’d come up with to communicate over large distances. Doing a quick translation, Hunter gathered that there was some sort of lookout, but there was only one that he could see. A unicorn, and a mare at that. Hunter grinned. Once they were done with those last Ponyvillians, they’d have another to have fun with. Unicorns were always the most fun to break.
He waited a bit to see if anypony else found another lookout, although he trusted Oneshot’s abilities. There was none. Eventually, the other three returned to their initial lookout point. “Report,” Hunter said.
“Two encampments,” Oneshot said. “The main one is to the north and the smaller one is to the south. Main one has a few carriages sitting right out in the open. Smaller one is probably where there are other lookouts or escorts.”
“Judging by the number of tracks we saw,” the elusive Echo said, “there are eight ponies in that bigger camp. If that unicorn is one of the escort group, then that group consists of three.”
“And those other tracks?” Hunter asked.
Echo shook his head. “One’s feline, but the other one is wearing some sort of boot. I’ve never seen one like that before. Still, it’s likely from the strides taken that the owner of those boots is bipedal.”
“We go smash now?” Mango asked.
“Hush, Mango,” Hunter said, giving the chain one harsh pull which made the bigger pony hiss in pain. “We’ll smash them soon.” Hunter turned back to the others. “An abyssinian, probably. Anypony here tangled with one of their kind?” A cursory glance informed him that they hadn’t. “Me neither, so we should be careful. If the third creature isn’t leaving any tracks, maybe it’s another abyssinian who likes wearing boots. From what I know about them, they’re incredibly flexible and tough to beat in a fight. But that’s why we have Mango here.”
“So, take out the escort first?” Oneshot asked.
Ace once more adjusted his glasses. “I’d advise that we move towards the main camp first. I watched the unicorn lookout. She has a pattern she follows and if we time it right, we can have those Ponyvillians all where we want them. Then we get the biggest payday the guild’s ever seen.”
Hunter grinned. “Okay, we have a few hours before daylight, and I’d like this done quickly. Time to strategize.”
Applejack woke up with a jolt, sitting up in her cot and panting heavily. She’d had yet another one of her night terrors regarding Jason Wright. They were always the same: she’d see his lifeless hanging corpse on the apple tree of her once beautiful orchard after hearing the sickening crunch of his neck being snapped. She would feel the same feeling of nausea as the dream, more detailed than any other, revealed every inch of his scarred and deformed body to her. The lightning strike scar made by Rainbow Dash, the multiple buck scars on his chest, arms, and sides, one prominent scar made by her, the bite marks made by her sadly now deceased dog Winnona (who had died after eating an apple tainted with the rot some months prior), the gaunt form caused from lack of food, his tattered and graying head of long wild hair, and the lifeless eyes which stared into her soul.
The night terrors had come less and less as time went on, but she still had them, and they all ended the same way. The lifeless corpse would come back to life, snap the rope away, and begin walking towards Applejack, who was frozen in place and unable to move. The boney hands of the now dead human would reach up, grab her by the throat, and with his one good eye, would stare at her, not saying a word, but instead choking her. And just as she felt the life go out of her, it would be her on the hanging noose instead of Jason, who would simply look at her with a mixture of rage and sadness. That was when she would be able to move and try and escape, trying also to call out apology after apology, but she would be unable to do so. The dream version of Jason would just turn and walk away, not helping her in the slightest, just like she’d never helped him.
And then, Applejack and the entire tree she hung from would fall into a pit, heading towards an eternal pit of flames. This was when she would wake up most times, although other nights she’d wake up earlier.
Applejack slowly moved to the side, putting her hooves on the ground beside her cot. She couldn’t see much, but in the dim moonlight that came from above, she knew it must be early morning. She took time to calm down, taking a few quiet deep breaths so as not to wake the ponies in the other tents around her. She slowly made her way over to where she remembered her canteen being placed. She swallowed a few sips, which helped her stomach settle. She didn’t want to hurl anything extra up because she knew she’d need the strength, especially if they were to build a brand new home once they got to Maretime Bay.
She turned and was about to open the tent flap to let some fresh air in when a shadow fell across the tent. She paused, looking at the hulking pony figure that stood on what looked like a distant hill. The outline wasn’t too clear, but even she knew that nopony in their group had a figure like this. Not even that unicorn mare who was with the mercenary group.
When a second pony figure emerged and spread a pair of wings, she knew they weren’t part of her group. Especially since she saw that the pegasus pony held a bow and arrow in their hooves. Panicking, Applejack ran out and looked in the distance to see two ponies. The one with a bow and arrow had a flaming arrow pointed directly at the camp. So, she did the only thing she knew how to do in that moment. She alerted the camp.
“Bandits!” she shouted as she ran along the encampment, screaming the words over and over again. However, she didn’t get too far before there was an explosion behind her, sending her sprawling onto her back. She groaned and sat up, looking back to see one of the carriages full of belongings decimated and catching fire quickly. “No!” she shouted in agony as she quickly got back on her hooves and tried to rush forward to put out the fire. However, another explosion rocked the ground and struck the second carriage, causing more of their belongings to be destroyed.
By this time, the others in camp were awake and running out, dazed and confused by what was happening. When Granny Smith saw the burning wreckage that was once their belongings, she screamed in utter agony, further shattering Applejack’s heart.
A blast of orange magic from further up the hill caught Applejack’s attention, and a third explosion rocked the night, only this explosion was in midair, illuminating the area around them and scattering small pieces of whatever was being shot at them all around. Now fully awake, Applejack went into defensive mode, looking for anything she could use as a weapon to defend her family. She spotted an older iron frying pan that she grabbed, holding it up as she tried to get a sense of what was happening.
Because of the fire caused by whatever their attackers had launched at them, she couldn’t see into the darkness too much, but she did hear blasts of magic being fired and what sounded like the hooves of a massive bull charging towards them. Three stallions, her brother, Merry, and Pippin, ran past her towards a hulking beast that was making its way towards them at high speed. The burly creature was tackled by all three stallions, but Applejack watched them all be thrown back. “Mango smash!” the deep voice of the creature, which Applejack now saw to be a massive earth pony stallion, shouted in hat could only be described as excitement as he bucked the three stallions away like they were nothing but ragdolls.
Golden and Blue were pulling Granny Smith and Apple Bloom away from the camp, the former fighting to get away from Golden and Apple Bloom only crying in sadness and confusion. Applejack gripped her pan, rage building inside her as she launched herself at the stallion, bringing the pan down to try and knock him out.
Unfortunately, it seemed as if this stallion’s head was made of solid rock because her attack only served to make the rampaging stallion even more excited. He stomped past them, and Applejack heard somepony cry out in pain along with the snapping of a bone. Applejack looked around, and to her dismay saw Big Mac holding one of his forelegs with the other. It was bent back at an angle that was unnatural. She ran up to him while Merry and Pippin ran over to the rampaging maniac who was tearing their camp apart. “Big Mac!” she shouted.
Big Mac looked up at her, his deep green eyes full of pain, but not the pain of his broken leg. It was the pain of failure, something she knew all too well just by looking in the mirror every morning. “I’ll be fine,” he grunted as from behind them they both heard the sound of magic being shot at somepony. “Go!” And with that, he shoved her off. “Protect our kin!”
Knowing that there wasn’t much she could do, she turned and ran back into the fray, her pan in hoof as she saw the large earth pony start to get up. Golden was once more charging her horn, aiming it down at the massive pony, but before she could do anything a blast of magic struck her, sending her sprawling.
Blue launched into the air, quickly scanning the skies before she was struck with some sort of net, bringing her down. However, Golden’s magic struck the net and caused it to evaporate.
Applejack continued her attack on the massive stallion, Merry and Pippin trying their best to hold him down, but it was as if nothing could hold back this rampaging beast. He simply stomped through their campgrounds, destroying everything in his path. Applejack tried striking him in the head again and again, but it didn’t work, and soon her pan shattered, sending metal everywhere. She resorted to using her hooves, but the raging hulk was unable to be stopped.
That was, until he stopped himself. The sudden halt sent the three ponies on his back flying off, landing right beside a familiar face. Tobias looked down at the three, a serious look on his own face. “Stop the fires,” he said as he stepped between the pony and Applejack, “and leave Mango to me.”
The stallion saw Tobias and waved. “Hi, Tob!”
“You know ‘im?!” Applejack asked in an accusing tone.
“No time to explain, just go,” Tobias ordered before launching himself at the hulking beast. “Come on, Mango, time to play!”
For a few moments, Applejack watched as the he seemed to dance around the hulking creature. The stallion apparently named Mango tried to grab at Tobias, but the way he was doing it made it seem that he thought this was some sort of game. Still, the cat was leading Mango away from the camp towards the lake, so that was a plus.
Pippin caught her attention and pulled her away. She grabbed a blanket and began putting the flames out as best as she could, but something about it was off. The fire wasn’t going out like normal fires would, and even the buckets of water from the lake that Merry would bring to help douse it didn’t seem to be working as well. There was also a foul smell from the fire itself.
A figure was suddenly thrown onto the ground nearby, and a grunt could be heard from said figure. Applejack turned to see a unicorn slowly getting to their feet, only to be blasted away with another shot of orange magic. Sunset Shimmer, the unicorn mercenary, stepped forward, horn lit up and ready to go. “You made a big mistake attacking me, little stallion,” she said with a smirk. “I’ll lay you out just like I laid out your four eyed companion!”
“Nnng,” the stallion, a dark brown unicorn wearing a red bandana, stood and glared at the orange unicorn. “Just because you’re with Shadow Dawn and that freak Revan doesn’t mean shit,” he spat, aiming his horn at Sunset and firing a blast, which the mare deflected with a dim orange magic shield. “That bastard isn’t worth being a mercenary-”
He was silenced by a powerful blast of magic again, only this one froze the unicorn in ice. Sunset looked down at the stallion with a look of disdain. “Nopony cares what you think,” she spat.
The ice began to crack, which caused Sunset to arch an eyebrow. Applejack and the two stallions had barely enough time to duck as the ice exploded, revealing a very angry unicorn. “How dare you?! Is there no honor among mercenaries anymore?!” He fired a blast at Sunset, but this time she was flung back, unable to deflect it with her magic. She was sent flying, tumbling across the ground like a ragdoll before coming to a halt and standing again, only for the unicorn to buck her in the chest. A blast of magic from Sunset caught the attacker on the side of the face, however, and caused him to fall to the side, screaming in pain.
Applejack turned away, going back to trying to stop the fires. The magic blasts from nearby seemed to grow more distant. The fires, thanks to both Merry and Pippin dousing the flames with water now, were slowly but surely being put out. Just as the first fire was being extinguished, something crashed into the second fire. Applejack turned and saw two ponies, an earth pony with a sword in his hoof and a pegasus with a bow and arrow, slowly approaching the flames. Applejack turned and saw, to her astonishment, a figure rising out of said flames.
It was Revan, and in his claws he held a deadly looking black blade along with a small black circular shield. There were a few arrows sticking out of the shield, but Applejack also noticed that there was an arrow in his shoulder. She watched as he reached up, snapped the majority of it out of him and tossed the broken piece of wood aside before he used his blade to cut through the other arrows stuck in his shield. The pegasus frowned and took aim again. “I never liked you, Revan,” he spat. When the figure, who had slowly walked out of the flames, didn’t respond, he growled and aimed at him.
Revan was instantly on the defensive, holding his shield up in anticipation. The glowing blue eyes of his mask were still terrifying to look at despite Applejack knowing that he had been injured. When the pegasus let loose his arrow, Revan reflected instantly, catching it in his shield. However, he wasn’t fast enough to block the second arrow that the pegasus let loose. Time slowed as Applejack watched in horror while the arrow sped for Revan’s mask.
Upon impact, the arrow simply shattered, exploding into shards. This seemed to catch both ponies off guard, which Revan used to his advantage. He ran towards the two ponies, weapon at the ready. The two ponies quickly recovered and while the pegasus took to the skies, the larger earth pony rushed towards Revan. The earth pony took a swing at the strange masked figure with his sword. Revan deflected it, then bashed at the pony’s muzzle with the hilt of his blade, sending the pony sprawling.
An arrow suddenly appeared right in Revan’s shield arm, causing the masked figure to look up just in time to deflect another arrow with his shield. This gave the earth pony a chance to attack, but before he could a blast of orange magic caught him in the head, sending the pony sprawling into unconsciousness. Applejack looked towards the source to see Sunset nodding at Revan before going back to face her own opponent.
Revan quickly cut off both ends of the arrow that were in his arm and faced the pegasus pony again. The pony reached into his quiver, only to find he had no more arrows, so instead, he sped down, crashing into Revan hoof first. The two tumbled over each other onto the ground, grappling at each other with their hooves and claws.
Once again, Applejack didn’t have time to watch as the fight was leading away from the fire. The others had joined now. Granny was tending to Big Mac’s broken foreleg while Golden was trying to use her magic to drag water through the air towards the fire. Blue was flying back and forth from the water to the second fire with buckets as fast as she could. With the extra help the fire was quickly being put out.
When the last of the flames were put out, there was darkness. With her eyes not used to the dark yet, Applejack looked around wildly, only seeing shadows. Two unicorns were still fighting, but that fight quickly ended with a cry from the unicorn stallion as Sunset knocked him out. Tobias was still flipping and jumping over the large stallion, avoiding strike after strike. And the only form of light from the third fight, the one between Revan and the pegasus, was the glowing mask of the strange being.
Revan was quickly brought to the ground, the two tumbling around until Applejack saw the pegasus reach down and apparently pull the head off of Revan. However, when he looked down at the figure, he froze. “No way…you’re one of them!” He then chuckled darkly as he tossed the mask aside, then brought his hoof down onto Revan’s head. Applejack heard Revan grunting in pain as the hoof struck him. Revan raised his arms and deflected more and more hoof strikes. With a snarl, the pegasus raised a hoof to strike. “I’ll end your race here and-”
BANG!
A loud explosion rang out. The pegasus froze, hoof still in midair. For a few agonizing seconds, nothing could be heard. Even Tobias and the pony named Mango stopped, turning to see what was happening. Then, the pegasus began falling. Revan reached up and shoved the pegasus to the side, slowly sitting up, covering his face with his hood and retrieving the mask. He placed it over his face again, and Applejack could hear a strange hiss from it. In the dark, Applejack saw him place an object on his belt, a gleam of metal from it reflecting in the moonlight.
Tobias and Mango were instantly by Revan’s side. Tobias was the first to speak. “Did you use-?”
“Yes,” was all that Revan said before taking a step, stumbling a bit.
“Mask friend okay?” Mango asked in what sounded like concern.
Sunset appeared and cast a large orb of light in the air, illuminating the four. When Tobias saw the two arrows in Revan’s shoulder and arm, his eyes went wide. “Mango, help me carry him!” he ordered.
Mango knelt down and Tobias helped Revan onto the back of the massive stallion. Applejack couldn’t wait any longer. She had to know just what was going on. She galloped up and got Tobias’ attention. “What in tarnation is happenin’ here? Who are these ponies?”
Tobias turned back to her. “I don’t have time to discuss it,” he said with severity, “but when I’m done healing Revan, I’ll let you know.”
“I know a few healing spells,” Sunset said, coming forward.
He then turned to Sunset. “Magic doesn’t affect him like it does us,” he explained, “he needs non-magical means of healing. Come on, Mango.”
With that, the large pony stallion, Tobias, and Revan all headed back to their camp.
When morning came, the extent of the damage done to the caravan was revealed in full. Nearly three-fourths of the belongings of the Apple family had been destroyed. Valuable heirlooms, old silverware, some clothes, and even a good number of farming tools were destroyed by the fire. Thankfully, most of the food wasn’t destroyed along with their bits, so they would still be able to use both when building their new farm and barn. Still, many of the reserve apple seeds had been destroyed as well, so they would have to start small. There were a few zapp apple seeds that were spared, so they could at least get something going.
Tobias was busily tending to his friend’s wounds, having already pulled the shafts out of both injuries and having sewn them both up. He looked down at his now unconscious partner, seeing how Gregory was wincing in pain at everything he did even in his sleep. He’d given Gregory a potion made to help ease pain and to keep him unconscious, but with how this human’s body reacted to potions or any form of magic, the effects were greatly diminished. Revan’s face was heavily bruised, but with the zebra salve he had applied to Gregory’s face, he hoped that the swelling would go down. He looked down at his friend’s belt and sighed. “I wish you could have found another way to deal with Oneshot than killing him,” Tobias said sadly, “but he knew the risks as much as we did…”
He finished changing the wounds, then made his way outside where three of the remaining four members of Bad Squad, a group of mercenaries from the mercenary guild in Thornfall, were tied and disarmed, being looked after by their newest member Sunset Shimmer. Hunter, Echo, and Ace were looking up at Tobias with a scowl as he approached. Mango was not tied up because Tobias knew that Mango was only being abused by these other ponies just so they could use his strength. He walked up in front of the three and drew one of the rapiers at his side, aiming it at Hunter’s neck. “Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t just kill you now,” he demanded.
Hunter spat at the ground. “Don’t give me that empty threat,” he growled, “it’s not our fault we were hired to take these ponies. We take jobs, same as you.”
Sunset glared at them, raising her horn which began to glow. “And just who hired you?” she demanded.
Hunter looked at her. “You must be new,” he said with a grin, “because no mercenary gives away secrets like that. We do have a sense of honor.”
“You have no honor,” Tobias said in a threatening tone, pointing the tip of his blade against Hunter’s neck. “You sold your own parents out to make a quick bit.”
“And I’d do it again too,” Hunter bragged, seeming unconcerned with the tip of the rapier against his throat.
Tobias slowly removed his blade from Hunter’s neck, instead placing it against Ace’s neck instead. “How many others were hired to chase these ponies, and by whom?” he knew Hunter and Ace were brothers, the last of their family, and while Hunter and Ace may have betrayed their parents, he knew that Hunter would do nearly anything to protect his little brother.
Hunter’s smirk faded immediately and he struggled against his restraints, but Sunset kept him in place with her magic. “Just try it, I dare you,” she said, “and that pegasus we killed won’t be the only casualty.”
Tobias inwardly winced at this. Sunset was a powerful unicorn, that much was clear, but her attitude was very atypical of any pony he knew of here. She had the hints of a Canterlot accent in her voice, so if she was from there, he wondered just what had happened to make her actually threaten death to someone. Then again, he had to remind himself that the ponies of Ponyville had woken up and chosen violence against the only other human besides his companion to enter this world, so he had to concede that ponies were not the perfect society they portrayed themselves as to the world. Not only that, but the ponies that Gregory had met upon his arrival had been equally as cruel and violent towards him, chasing him out of Dodge City without a second’s hesitation.
“Our new team member’s words aside,” he said, throwing Sunset a warning glare before turning back to Hunter, “I suggest you start talking. We’ve been hired to protect the family whose belongings you so callously destroyed, and if the boss was stupid enough to approve a job that conflicts with ours, heads will roll. Starting with your dear little brother.” He pressed the tip of his sword against Ace’s neck deeper, enough to cause a cut to open.
Hunter’s scowl deepened, but soon he snorted in a very equine manner before saying, “In my saddlebags.”
Sunset walked over and lifted the saddlebags with her magic. She dumped all of the contents out, which revealed a number of different weapons, tools, a large bag of what sounded like coins, and a piece of parchment paper. A very fancy looking scroll which she unraveled and read silently. She apparently had to take a double take, reading the words more carefully before she floated the scroll over to Tobias. “Somepony really didn’t want those ponies reaching Maretime Bay,” she said.
Tobias read the scroll carefully.
To whom it may concern,
It has come to the attention of our group that the former Element of Honesty and her family are leaving their abode. We will be paying handsomely in advance to ensure that they do not reach their destination. Dead or alive it doesn’t matter to us. The first half of your payment is enclosed below, and we will pay the second half upon completion.
SHADOWS WILL FALL
Tobias raised an eyebrow, then both shot up in alarm and realization. He turned back to the three remaining members of Bad Squad. “You won’t die,” he said as he stuffed the scroll into his pocket, “but that money of yours won’t be going back to Thornfall with you.” With several precise slashes, the ropes binding them together were cut. He then removed the two magic suppression rings on Hunter’s and Ace’s horns. As Sunset lifted the bag of money off of the ground, Tobias kicked the bag over to them. “Get out of here.”
“We won’t be the only ones after them, you know?” Hunter said as he lifted his bag and belongings away, “so don’t expect the next few days on the road to be easy.” With that, the three remaining ponies grabbed the wrapped-up body of their dead companion, which Echo placed on his back, and began galloping away, heading up and over the hill.
Sunset approached Tobias afterwards, giving him the bag of bits which he took. It was hefty, and he placed it in his bag to show to his friend Gregory later. “Any idea who hired those morons?” she asked.
Tobias knew all too well. He’d heard about them somewhere, but couldn’t quite recall where he’d heard about them at the moment. Still, just the thought of who these folks were sent shivers down his spine. He looked at Sunset. “Tell the clients they need to pack up everything double time. We have to get moving now.”
As he walked back into Gregory’s tent, he saw that his friend was already awake, wincing as he sat up and looked at the wounds on his shield arm. When he saw Tobias’ expression, Gregory stiffened. “Toby, what’s wrong?” he asked, wincing more as he spoke. Tobias handed the paper to Gregory, who read it over. He read it, then looked back at Tobias with a worried look, his face pale, although whether that was from the blood loss, fear, or both, Tobias couldn’t say. “Why would they be interested in the Apple family?”
“I don’t know,” Tobias said, “but we need to get moving.”
Gregory nodded, grabbed his mask, and placed it over his head, the standard hiss of air heard as it was sealed. “Then let’s move.”
With that, they struck camp. Their mission now had a sense of urgency, but Shadow Dawn never broke a contract, even if someone was after their charges. It was their creed, their mantra, their promise, to be a better breed of mercenary.
Sunset’s first glimpse of Maretime Bay was met with mixed feelings from her. For one thing, she could appreciate that, despite being only a couple of years old, the town had a more modern day look, unlike the backwater dump that had been Ponyville. The buildings didn’t have the plainly outdated and dangerous thatched roofing that seemed to be all the rage in most towns. The town was less colorful than other places in Equestria. Sure, there were some buildings that had some color, but for the most part they were muted. There was a large factory being built on a small hill overlooking the town, although for what purpose she couldn’t guess.
Secondly, she could appreciate just how orderly it was. This town was apparently planned out, and had a very good aesthetic. Ponyville didn’t have that. Instead, it was more haphazard, and emergency services would have a harder time reaching their destinations in a town such as that. At least here, the roads were smooth and well-marked.
On the other hoof, Sunset could hardly accept that these sadists and country hicks even deserved a city of their own. What they’d done was a crime that deserved time in the deepest, darkest dungeons of Canterlot, and in the case of the Inhumane Six as they had become known throughout Equestria, Tartarus. If nothing else, they shouldn’t be allowed to be around each other where they could propagate their hate, xenophobia, and speciesism.
She looked back at their group. Their clients were down to two carts of what they could recover from the attack more than two days ago. At least since then there had been no more attacks despite Hunter’s warnings, but with Revan and Big Mac both injured, Sunset and Tobias had to pick up the slack on watch. The two other stallions in the Apple group had even joined in on the watch.
Mango, their new tagalong, was pulling both carts, each of which also carried the injured members of their party. Revan was in the front carriage and Big Mac the back one. Both acted as their lookouts during the day, while at the same time not speaking much. Camps had been shared after that fateful attack.
Sunset quickly grew to learn from Tobias that the group that had attacked them, Bad Squad, had poorly mistreated Mango and used his love to destroy in their jobs. He might not have been a smart pony, only speaking in fragmented sentences and referring to himself in the third person, but Mango had cried and apologized over and over again once Tobias had calmly explained what he’d done. In fact, it had been his idea to pull the carriages to act as penance for his actions.
Surprisingly, it had been the normally silent Revan who’d taken Mango aside most nights to have conversations with the massive stallion. The dark green colored unicorn with the dim red and orange striped mane and tail always seemed to look better after one of these talks, especially when he’d been given a mango to eat. When Sunset asked about him, Tobias could only say that he knew little about the stallion, only that he had a very hard life growing up on a farm before he ran away and was found by Bad Squad some years ago.
She was brought out of her reverie by the sound of flapping. Looking up, she saw an approaching pegasus. Golden came flying over just then and landed in front of the group. She’d gone down to the town ahead of them to find a contact who would show them to their destination. When she landed, she walked up to Applejack. “She’s coming soon,” she said, “but we might have to wait a few minutes. She said she had to, and I quote, ‘…freshen up a bit.’”
Applejack snorted and whinnied a bit. “Sounds like her, alright,” she said before turning back. “Alright, everypony, let’s take a breather.”
As everyone stopped and either took out some food or water to tide them over, Sunset saw Revan slowly climb over his seat on the carriage, landing heavily on his feet before walking over to Mango. The large stallion saw him coming and smiled. “Mask friend! Mask friend feeling better?” When Revan touched his injuries and nodded a bit, Mango looked relieved. “Good. Mango happy. Not like seeing mask friend hurt.”
Sunset walked over to the two. “You sure you’re feeling alright?” she asked, catching the attention of the masked biped and the massive stallion. “I know Tobias said magic isn’t effective on you as much as it would be for others, but I do know a few spells and I’m more powerful than your average unicorn.”
Revan stared at her, the glowing sky blue lights on his mask making it look like he wasn’t blinking. Mango put a surprisingly gentle hoof on Revan’s back. “Mango want friend with no ouchies. Please?” His deep orange eyes looked at Revan pleadingly.
Revan looked back at Mango, then back at Sunset. “The clothes stay on,” was all he said.
She was a bit frustrated by this, but could work with it. She nodded in agreement and raised her horn. Two areas of his arm where the injuries were located became illuminated by her magic, and at once she realized that this would not be as easy as she thought. She felt that the magic touch on the creature’s skin was being drained into him, like he was some sort of magical sink that pulled the magic down the metaphorical drain that were his injuries. She increased the magic around the wounds, focusing all of her energy into trying to activate and speed up his body’s normal healing process.
She felt like there was some success, but without being able to see his skin, scales, fur, or whatever he had, she couldn’t make that determination. Still, the more she cast, the more magic seemed to seep into him. It was as if he was some kind of magic black hole, letting not even light escape. That thought got a chuckle out of her. Perhaps Black Hole would be a good handle for him, not Revan, whatever that meant.
After a few minutes, she stopped casting, looking up at Revan. “How’s that feel?” she asked.
Revan reached over and gently squeezed one of the injured areas. He turned back to her and nodded. “Better,” he said.
Sunset sat on her haunches, suddenly exhausted. She didn’t realize how draining even those healing spells had been on her. She hadn’t been too magically drained ever since she’d left Canterlot, but this Revan was not a normal creature to heal by any means.
“Mask friend not hurt now?” Mango asked. “We can play later?”
Revan looked back. “It still hurts a bit,” he said, “so we probably won’t be able to play. Ask Tobias.”
Mango’s ears flattened like an upset foal. “Mango want to stay with mask friend. Want to play.”
“Another time, I promise,” Revan said.
Everyone heard the sound of an approaching pony just then, so their attention was turned to a white unicorn mare with deep purple mane and tail. Sunset scowled. She knew this face well. The former Bearer of Generosity who had scorned her duties had arrived. She watched as Applejack hesitantly approached. The two looked at each other for a while before the farm mare spoke up. “Howdy, Rarity. Nice tah see yah again.”
Rarity looked at them, then at the rest. To Sunset’s eyes, she looked a far cry from the images of the former fashionista she saw in the newspapers. Her mane wasn’t as well kept as it appeared to have been from the press photographs of her, as she had her mane tied back. Her tail wasn’t curled as much and was a lot straighter. Her eyes looked a lot less lively, but there were no bags under them. She turned back to Applejack and spoke. “It’s nice to see you too, Applejack,” she said, “but who are these newcomers with you?”
“We brought a couple cousins of ours tah help us move,” Applejack replied.
“Yes, I remember them from your last family reunion in…in Ponyville,” she said, “but I meant the other three.”
Applejack hesitated, but it was Tobias who spoke first. “Hello there, miss,” he said with a polite bow and a smile. “Name’s Tobias. Your family hired us to protect them during this trip.”
Rarity made a face at this, then turned back to Applejack. “Are these…mercenaries?”
Applejack nodded. “Ah know what yer thinkin’ sugarcube, but-”
“Surely you can’t be serious!” the unicorn exclaimed. “Mercenaries would sell their soul to Thanatos if it meant they could make a quick bit! How do you know they won’t betray you even now!?”
“They saved our lives when we were attacked by another group of mercenaries,” Applejack explained with a stern frown, “and it’s attitudes like yours that put us where we are now, Rarity.”
Rarity fell back a bit, ears flat against her face. “You were attacked…?” she asked in shock.
“And we’re lucky we all weren’t killed,” Merry said.
“These three saved us, and one of them even got injured protecting us,” Pippin added.
Rarity looked at the three with what Sunset assumed was a newfound respect, albeit begrudgingly. “I see,” was all she said before turning back to Applejack. “Well, why don’t you and you…companions…follow me? I’ll show you to that farmland I saw.”
“Alright, everypony! Time tah mosey on along!” Applejack called out.
Tobias returned to where Revan was and gently pushed him into the carriage. “We’re almost there,” he said, “so rest. We’ll help them unpack before anything.”
Revan nodded and made his way back to the carriage, climbing in as the group headed into the new town. Sunset trotted beside the cart, looking around but keeping a constant vigilant eye on the one called Rarity. She didn’t particularly care for how she acted towards her and the two other mercenaries. She reminded Sunset of one of those self-important ponies from Canterlot, ponies she absolutely despised. They always looked down on those they deemed lesser than themselves, and they didn’t care about the common pony. She’d read about how it used to be when she’d been Celestia’s student. The nobility had fallen far from grace.
“Boy, howdy,” Applejack said as she looked at the large stretch of land before her, “this oughta do us more than just fine!”
Stretched out before them, near the easternmost edge of Maretime Bay, sat a veritable treasure trove of prime farmland just waiting to be tilled. The grasslands they stood in looked fertile, and to Applejack’s keen senses, felt and smelled fertile. It stretched out far, not as far as Sweet Apple Acres, but it was more than enough for some orchards to be planted, along with other crops as well. The breeze that came from the ocean was something she might need to get used to, but she felt like in the coming years the familiar farm smells would overpower the faintly salty breeze.
Granny Smith slowly walked up beside Applejack looked down at the tired family matriarch as she scanned the area around them. Nopony spoke as she looked around, then to Applejack’s relief, she slowly nodded. “We can build our new farmhouse right near that patch of brush there,” she said, then turned and pointed in another direction. “The farm can be there,” she added, pointing to a flat spot to their right.
Applejack could somewhat see what she was trying to do. She was trying to recreate the look of Sweet Apple Acres. Not that she could blame the older mare, of course. She was itching to do the same thing. If Granny hadn’t made some excellent choices in placement, she might have argued, but where she’d pointed were actually perfect locations for the future barn and farmhouse.
Nearby, Applejack looked over and saw Rarity standing and glancing with some suspicion at Tobias, Revan, Mango, and Sunset. The burly earth pony was talking with a smile to Revan, who she saw was replying in short sentences. Tobias had told her a bit about Mango’s story and it broke her heart to hear that ponies could be so cruel. Of course, she had to remind herself of her own shortcomings. A part of her wondered if she could ask this Mango to work in helping to build as a farmhoof, but upon seeing how happy he seemed to be with this Revan creature, she dismissed the idea.
That was, until Tobias walked up and unhitched the large pony from the cart and spoke with him. Mango’s smile faded and he looked a bit uncertain, looking around the area before glancing over at the Apple family, all of whom were exploring their new land. When he turned to Revan, the masked biped only nodded. Tobias then turned towards Applejack, leading Mango towards her. The massive stallion looked nervous as Tobias said, “Pardon the intrusion, everyone, but would you be interested in a proposition?”
“What kind of proposition?” Granny Smith, who hadn’t left Applejack’s side, asked as she too turned to face the cat.
Tobias nodded politely to her. “Pardon me, ma’am, but I think I might have a solution that helps everyone here.” He turned to Mango. “See, Mango Wrecker here grew up on a farm as well. He’s strong, dependable, and I’m pretty sure he can till a field a lot faster than anyone you have. He might not speak with full sentences, but he’s smart.”
“Mango sorry he destroyed your things,” the pony in question said with regret. “Mango wants to work off debt and help here. Please?”
Applejack was a bit surprised by this. This stallion was bigger than Big Mac, and he was on the bigger side of stallions that she’d seen in her life. Still, she couldn’t ignore the look of regret on his face. They could use all the ponypower they could get, and despite Merry, Pippin, Golden and Blue planning on moving here to become permanent members of the farm when things were settled down, that still wouldn’t be enough. When they’d started to expand Sweet Apple Acres all those years ago, they’d had the help of many other ponies in their extended family, but since they’d been cut off, Applejack was more willing to acknowledge that a stallion like this Mango would be useful.
Granny, however, didn’t look too trusting of the burly stallion. “And just why should we trust yeh, eh? Yah done destroyed nearly everythin’ we owned, and yer nothin’ but a mercenary.”
“Granny, that’s a similar attitude to what got us in trouble with Jason,” Applejack said. “Besides, we need the help.”
“Mango not smart, but Mango good listener,” Mango said. “Mango knows farm life.”
“But then why were yeh part of a mercenary group?” Granny asked, eyes narrowed at the stallion.
“Granny!” Applejack admonished.
“Mango only pawn in game of life,” Mango said in an oddly sage way.
Granny looked at the large pony with confusion. “Beg yer pardon?”
“Ma’am, let me explain,” Tobias said, stepping forward. “Mango is a good pony, but he can easily be led astray. That’s one of his flaws. The other flaw is he loves to destroy things. It’s something of a stress relief for him. I don’t know much about his foalhood, but from what I know it wasn’t a good one. He just needs a healthier outlet for his impulses.” He gestured to a large forest on the edge of the grasslands. “He could easily buck down plenty of those trees for your new house and barn and even pull up the trees to help expand your farmland.”
Granny frowned, but slowly began to nod before she looked at Mango. “Ah’ll be keepin’ an eye on yah, sonny boy,” she said, pointing a hoof at him, “but yer okay tuh stay here. Fer now.”
Mango’s eyes lit up with joy and he nodded. “Mango will work hard!” he said as he jumped up and landed heavily, causing everyone to stumble back at the sheer force of his jump. He noticed this and looked sheepish. “Sorry,” he said.
Applejack gave a small smile. “Come on, partner,” she said to Mango, “why dontcha help us unpack everything we got left? Then we can git tah work gettin’ the wood fer the new farmhouse.”
The sun was just beginning its descent towards the west. Tobias, Sunset and Revan were walking through the town of Maretime Bay. They’d gotten their necessary signature from the Apple family and had departed. Tobias had offered to help get things set up before they left for no extra charge, but Granny Smith had simply thanked them for their offer before saying that the Apples would take care of their own. Mango would be there with them as a hired hoof as his massive strength would help.
With nothing more to do and having been paid, not to mention the amount of money they’d liberated from Bad Squad, the mercenary group walked through the streets. Tobias caught something nearby, a bakery of sorts, and decided to stop in to get something for the group as a means of celebrating a job well done.
As Sunset and Revan waited outside, the powerful unicorn looked up at her companion, noticing that Revan was leaning against a wall and observing the brand-new town. His arms were crossed and even in the bright summer sun the blue glow from his mask’s eyes was still clearly visible. She slowly walked up to stand beside him, looking around at the new town.
She’d seen the town from the hill where their clients were now setting up shop. She had to admit, Maretime Bay was, in its own way, impressive. Seeing things from below only reinforced the fact.Still, while the town here was new and looked bright, the attitudes of the ponies around her told a different story. Sure, on the surface they seemed to act like most friendly ponies did, but Sunset had a very unique ability: the ability to be more aware of the emotions of those around her. She knew she was an Empath.
She’d always had this talent, and it had led to her being ostracized when she was much younger. It had led to her cutting herself off from making any friends, especially during the time when she’d been Celestia’s student. And this ability let her see something that others might not have picked up on, that being that there was an underlying darkness in Maretime Bay. A negativity that almost oozed from them.
She frowned. She knew most of, if not all, of these ponies were from that blasted town of Ponyville, shunted off to the side so as not to cause trouble for the rest of the kingdom. Sure, her old teacher might have said she was doing this to ‘protect her little ponies from each other’ but she was wise to what Celestia was all about. Any real threat was always put out of sight and out of mind.
Unsure why she did so, she spoke. “Lovely town. Leagues better than Thornfall.” She waited for an answer, looking at Revan, but all he did was stare back down at the town. He may have had a reaction under that mask of his, but she’d never know. That mask hid everything. Revan seemed to be able to hide his emotional state from her empathic ability better than anyone she’d known. The mask certainly helped with that, but his lack of reaction gave her nothing. She turned back and continued. “The perfect little hideaway for psychopaths and murderers.” When there was still no response, she gave Revan a curious look. “You really don’t talk much, do you?”
Revan finally spoke. “Only when needed,” the voice from his mask said.
“Aha! But you didn’t need to talk right then, did you?” she asked, pointing a hoof at him, “You could have just nodded or ignored me. Besides, I know you talk more than you have with me.”
Revan turned his head to her, and Sunset inwardly smiled triumphantly. She didn’t need to see his face to know he probably had a confused expression on whatever face he had underneath. Pressing her advantage, she said, “I heard you talking with Tobias a couple hours before the attack.”
Revan stood in silence for a bit, before he said, “He’s earned my full trust. You haven’t.” He then turned back to looking at the town.
This stung Sunset’s pride, but her years in the world taught her to look between the lines of what others said a lot, looking for the hidden meaning. “Okay, I suppose that’s a fair point,” she conceded, “I mean, you don’t know me yet. But surely helping to defeat those other mercenaries gained some trust?”
“There’s a difference between defending a client and wailing on some thugs,” Revan retorted.
Sunset scowled at that. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“I saw you fight those two unicorns,” he replied. He turned and faced her completely, arms crossed as he looked down at her. She didn’t need to be an expert in bipedal body language to know he was disappointed.“You strike me as a powerful unicorn but you toyed with them. As mercenaries, Shadow Dawn works to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible. You prolonged your fight. We don’t get paid by the hour. The sooner we get our jobs done, the sooner we can find another and earn more money.”
Sunset felt her ears being splayed back against her head. Was she being scolded like she was some foal!? She felt the hot sting of humiliating anger rising from within her before she turned back to the town, taking a few deep breaths of slightly salty sea air to help her calm down. “Noted…” she said through clenched teeth.
The infuriating thing was, Revan was right. She had been toying with the four eyed pony and his friend. It had been a chance to stretch her magical abilities in combat and she had thoroughly enjoyed herself while she took them down. She had to admit, she knew little about mercenary work, but the fact that they were paid for each job they took made his words make sense. They weren’t working eight-hour days and earning bits every hour. They lived from job to job, so from a certain point of view, it made sense to finish a job quickly so they could go to the next one. Especially a party like this one which never betrayed their clients like other mercenaries were known to do.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a new pair of hoofsteps began approaching them. Sunset looked down the street and her eyes went wide before narrowing at the certain purple alicorn who’d stopped nearby, breathing heavily from apparent exertion. She looked around, then locked eyes with Sunset. “Ah, um, excuse me,” Twilight Sparkle said in between big gulps of air, “but did you see a number of earth ponies coming through here? One of them would be orange with some apples for a cutie mark?”
Before Sunset could give her a snippy remark, Revan spoke. “Over there,” he said. Sunset turned to see he was pointing towards the hill.
Twilight jumped at the voice, turning to look at Revan. A look of uncertainty and fear passed over her face, but she just nodded. “Th-Thank you, sir,” she said before turning and walking past them.
She didn’t get far, though, as a group of eight ponies spotted her, a unicorn mare and seven stallions, three unicorns, two pegasi and two earth ponies. Their scowls were plainly obvious as one of them spat on the ground in front of where Twilight was about to step. “Bitch,” one stallion snarled.
Sunset watched as Twilight paused, looking down at the spittle on the ground. She then walked over it before the mare spat on her cheek. “This town doesn’t need you, cunt,” the young mare said with venom in her voice.
Sunset watched this go down with some amusement and vindication. She absolutely loathed Twilight Sparkle, former Princess of Friendship, and a twisted part of her was amused by what she was seeing. However, that amusement was quickly replaced by disgust when one of the larger ponies approached and struck Twilight in the eye, sending her sprawling. The pony who did so was a larger earth pony, so the strike would have definitely hurt. “Go back to that lighthouse and away from town,” the pony said, “we don’t want you here!”
Twilight simply stood up, no fight in her eyes as she hung her head low. Her ears were pinned down by her side. “I’m sorry…” she whimpered, tears in her eyes.
“Sorry doesn’t bring back your torture experiment, now does it?” the mare said before looking back at the stallions. “Show her what we mean, boys.”
The stallions moved closer to Twilight, who didn’t move. Some of them cracked their necks and they all were about to strike when a shadow moved past Sunset. A familiar metal pole hit the ground, blocking the hoof of the pony who had thrown the first strike. A metallic clang rang out and the stallions jumped back, holding his hoof in pain. He looked up at the masked figure of Revan, who was staring at the stallion with those blue glowing eyes of his. “Stay out of this fight, stranger,” one of the stallions said, staring at the hooded figure.
Sunset watched with some curiosity as Revan didn’t move, the metal pole standing between them and the now confused looking Twilight, who was looking up at Revan. The mare of the group, a unicorn, stepped forward, horn beginning to ignite. “This isn’t your place,” she snapped, aiming her horn at him. “Get out of the way, now.”
“W-What are you doing?” Sunset heard Twilight asking in alarm.
Sunset was thrown back into a memory. She remembered being stranded in the Badlands with no water left and no food. She thought she would be able to cross the hot sands, but had used up all of her food and supplies in a few days. If it hadn’t been for Revan and Tobias, she’d have died out there.
She was brought back to the present when Tobias said, “What’s going on out here?”
The ponies turned and they frowned when they saw the abyssinian walking up, a box of donuts in his claws. “Don’t you get involved too, cat,” the mare, clearly the leader of this group of ponies, snapped.
Tobias raised an eyebrow, then looked at the situation. Looking at Revan, he sighed. “Couldn’t help but get involved in helping the helpless, eh?” he asked as he carefully set the box down on the ground. Quickly, he drew a pair of rapiers that were attached to his hip. The sound rang in the air as he leaped up and landed beside Revan with the grace and agility of a feline. He stood to the side, leaving himself as less of a target as he held out one arm towards them while the other moved behind his back, pointing in the same direction as the first rapier, a form that Sunset had never seen before.
The stallions, six of them, began encircling the two. The masked figure just stood there, hand on his metal staff unmoving. Tobias stood beside him, looking at their opponents. Twilight looked flabbergasted at what was happening, looking up at the two defending her. “Please…don’t do this, you two…I’m not worth it.”
“You’re right, you’re not,” the mare said before suddenly teleporting beside Twilight and bucking her hard. This sent the alicorn into a wall hard enough that she fell to the ground unconscious. The mare who’d attacked raised a hoof at the abyssinian and the masked Revan. “Get them!”
All seven stallions moved in at this, eyes full of rage and hatred. One of them, a unicorn, leaped at Revan, but the larger biped twirled his metal staff, bringing it crashing down on the stallion’s head. The stallion went down hard, completely unconscious. This caught the others off guard, making it easier for Tobias to use the back of one of his rapiers to strike another blow on the back of another stallion’s head, this one the earth pony who’d struck Twilight. He too went down with a heavy thud.
Sunset watched in stunned silence as the other unicorn stallion lowered his horn and fired a blast of magic directly at the masked Revan. Revan was quick to react as he lifted his metal staff in a defensive position. The magic struck the staff and then…nothing. It was as if the staff was absorbing the magic. The stallion had only a moment to look in shock before Revan twirled his staff with an expert flourish before striking the still glowing horn. Sunset winced at that as the stallion went down, holding his horn and screaming in agony.
She watched as the two pegasi leaped into the air out of the range of Tobias’ rapiers and Revan’s staff. Something inside of Sunset stirred, and before she could even think of consequences of her actions, she raised her horn and caught the two pegasi in her magic, bringing them both slamming into the ground with a heavy THUD, knocking the wind out of them.
Looking over at Tobias, she saw that he was dancing deftly around the remaining earth pony stallion, leaping up and landing strike after strike on the stallion, leaving very shallow cuts on his fur. It looked to Sunset as if Tobias was aiming not to kill but to subdue.
Sunset turned to Revan, seeing if she could help him, but he looked to be holding his own against the remaining unicorn, albeit barely. He was being pushed back by a more powerful magic blast that was being absorbed by the staff yet again. The stallion ceased his magical blast before swiftly leaping towards Revan, who took the brunt of the sudden attack in his stomach, sending him sprawling onto the ground, his staff flying out of his hand. With another blast, Revan was sent into the side of a building before slumping down, barely moving.
Sunset reacted with hostility, firing off a blast of her own magic at the unicorn stallion. He must not have been expecting it since he was flung into several empty barrels, causing them to shatter. This did knock the stallion out, but when she turned to face the mare, she was gone. Instead, she’d somehow gotten over to where Revan was, lifting him up in her magic and snarling at the remaining two. “That’s enough!”
Tobias, having just struck the earth pony with his sword and knocking said pony out, held out his swords towards the mare while Sunset lowered her head, her horn ignited. The mare, however, didn’t react. Instead, a small bit of her magic wrapped around Revan’s wrists, moving them behind his back. Revan twitched a bit and he began to thrash about. Sunset was about to fire her own magic but Tobias placed a claw on her withers. “Easy now,” he said, “no need for any more violence.”
“Shut up, cat!” the mare bellowed, moving the arms back further, causing Revan to move around further.
Tobias dropped his rapiers and raised his arms. “No need to go further. We surrender.”
Sunset looked up at Tobias incredulously. She knew she could take this mare out with a flash, but when she saw the mare’s spell, she realized that if she tried anything, the mare could snap Revan’s arms out of a reflex of sorts once her magic struck the mare. With an angry snort, she stood and deignited her horn. With that, she felt herself being pushed into the ground. Next to her, Tobias was pushed down by the now recovered larger earth pony stallion. The two pegasi she’d brought down were the ones holding her down.
The mare smirked in triumph, causing rage to build within Sunset. She knew she was stronger than this pathetic pony, but she had the upper hoof in this situation and with Revan in danger, any move could cause this clearly violent mare to cause further pain to Revan. She watched as the mare brought the masked figure down, forcing him to his knees. “Now then, let’s see just what kind of freak we have underneath that mask of yours, huh?”
Tobias’ eyes went wide and he struggled against his captor. “No! Don’t!”
The mare turned and looked with a smirk at Tobias. “And just why should I listen to you?”
“His face…can’t be seen,” Tobias said. “It’s too dangerous to be seen! Anyone who looks into his real eyes will be turned to stone!”
The mare stared silently at Tobias before throwing her head back and laughing hard. “The gorgon is an old mare’s tale,” she said with derision, “and besides, where are his snakes?” She turned and her magic enveloped Revan’s mask, only to vanish and seem to seep into the mask. “The buck…?”
“Don’t remove his mask!” Tobias shouted in a more desperate tone.
“I wonder what secrets you’re hiding under that mask of yours?” the mare said, ignoring the abyssinian. She turned to the second earth pony stallion who was just coming to. “You! Pull this mask off for me!”
The earth pony shook his head swiftly, blinking a few times before walking up and placing both hooves on either side of Revan’s mask. He pulled, but nothing seemed to give. With a grunt, he tried again but failed. A third attempt sent him sprawling back as he lost the grip on the mask.
“Pathetic,” she growled as she reached out with her magic once more, trying to tear it off. Once again, though, the magic seeped into the mask. Enraged, the pony let him go, then turned and bucked the figure square in the chest. This sent Revan flying into a wall that led down an alley.
“Revan!” Tobias shouted in terror as he tried his best to break free, but the ponies were too strong for him.
The mare trotted over to the alley and looked in. Her horn began glowing, and Sunset saw the telltale signs of dark magic begin forming around her horns and eyes. “This is for-”
A loud CRACK rang out, and the mare’s horn shattered. She screamed in pain as she rolled around, the empty spot on her forehead that was her horn bleeding all over the ground. Sunset felt the grip on her loosen. Using this opportunity, she created a magic shield around her that flung the two pegasi off of her before she blasted the earth pony off of Tobias.
The abyssinian wasted no time in picking up his rapiers and rushing towards the alley. He looked in and his eyes widened in horror. He ran into said alley. Sunset stood and looked around, seeing that there were some local town guards finally showing their worthless flanks. One of them looked at the bleeding and now unconscious mare, then back at Sunset. “What happened here?”
“Um…these seven here attacked this pony and her friends,” Twilight, who had only come back to consciousness just a few moments before, stepped forward and gestured to Sunset. “They were trying to defend me and these seven attacked.”
The guard looked at the mare who was now being tended to by a corpspony. Shaking his head, he said, “These ponies have been nothing but trouble since the day they moved here. Looks like trouble finally caught up with them.”
At that moment, Tobias came out from the alley, holding the still masked Revan. There may have been no fur or scales showing from the masked being, but the way he hung showed that he was seriously injured. Twilight looked over and her eyes shot open in horror. “Is he okay?” she asked Tobias.
“No,” he said, “he’s been injured by ponies. Again.” Tobias sounded bitter at the accusation before he took a deep breath and exhaled.
“One of our corsponies can have a look at him,” the guard said.
Tobias shook his head fervently. “No. He can’t be seen by anyone. He doesn’t like showing anyone but me his face. Besides, magical means of healing don’t work on him as effectively as they would you or me.”
The guard frowned at this. “I see.”
“We’ll need to stay the night somewhere,” Tobias said, turning to the guard. “Does this town have an inn?”
“Not yet,” the guard said.
“Um…you could stay with me for the night,” Twilight said, raising a hesitant hoof. “I live in the town lighthouse and there are a couple spare rooms where you could sleep.”
Sunset bristled at this. She didn’t like to be beholden to this fraudulent ex-princess. Still, she was the newbie in this group, so she had to defer to the other two. Looking up at Tobias, she saw to her dismay that he was looking down at Twilight with a thoughtful expression on his face. After a few seconds, he sighed and nodded. “Do you have a bath that can fit us? I may need to do some sort of work on Revan and I’ll need a place to lay him down and wash him.”
Twilight nodded before turning to the guards. “I’ll take them to my house.”
The guard frowned at his, but nodded before turning to Tobias and Revan. “I realize I can’t ask you to stay and give your testimony against this attack,” he said, looking at the ponies who were now being arrested, “but I hope that we can talk to you later about this incident.”
“No promises,” Tobias said. “After all, we have to get back to our home and get another job as soon as possible.”
“Understood.” The guard then turned to the others. “Get them to the hospital, but under guard!”
As the guards continued cleaning up the mess, Sunset looked at the nervous looking purple alicorn. She was looking up in the direction of the Apple farm, but then turned back to the group. “I’ll show you to the house.” With that, she turned and began walking down the street, heading up towards the edge of town.
Sunset followed, keeping a close eye on Revan and Tobias. The former was limping slightly but being held up by the abyssinian. She sighed and walked beside the two. This wasn’t how she expected her return to Equestria to go.
The nurse looked down at the now hornless unicorn mare lying on the bed. A half hour ago, the local town guards had brought this mare in along with the shattered remains of her horn in the hopes that the doctors could use the reconstitution spell to put it back together. However, every time they tried, the pieces of the horn would always lose their cohesion several seconds later. It was as if the magic holding the horn together would vanish, leaving nothing but the discarded pieces of the horn. Even when they tried to put the horn itself back together, the same thing happened. If the doctors couldn’t do something soon, this pony would never have a horn again.
Currently, the pieces of the horn were being kept inside a bucket of ice and the broken horn, after being cleaned and wrapped up, was being kept cold with an ice pack. The other stallions who’d been brought in were being treated for some less severe injuries, although one of them had cuts that weren’t able to be healed by the standard magic healing spells. The other injuries, while minor, were in a sense unusual. It took a bit more magic to heal them than other similar injuries.
The nurse left the room to grab something. She headed to a storage closet to grab more gauze when she overheard two doctors talking. She paused and listened in, recognizing the voices of doctors Charlie Horse and Neck Brace.
“…you sure about that? The description of that third creature that they attacked sounds like…you know…” Dr. Brace said.
“Look, I’ve been around a bit more than most ponies,” Doctor Horse said, “and there is no intelligent creature in the world with five talons or appendages on each claw or paw. Dragons have four talons, abyssinians have four, hippogriffs have four, you see my point? This creature had five on each. Sounds familiar?”
“Not rea-” Doctor Brace paused and there was a pregnant silence between the two. “You don’t think…”
“I don’t know to be honest,” Doctor Horse said, “but if this creature is one, it would make sense why he would hide his entire body. After what happened to the first one, wouldn’t you be cautious?”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Doctor Brace said, “I mean, the whole world knows what this town did to Jason, so if another human did show up, he’d know about it more than likely.”
The nurse’s ears perked up at this. Was she hearing right? Was one of the victims of the assault really…a human…? She listened closer, but the voices faded away as the doctors turned a corner. She waited for a bit before she grabbed the gauze and trotted down the hall back to the medical ward. As she did so, she looked down at the bottom of her left hoof. A single black spot was tattooed onto the bottom. She smirked as she put it back down.
She would need to report this. Perhaps in time, they could determine whether or not this mystery creature was another human. Because, if so, they could move things along much faster. Especially since human bodies had absolutely no magic, the use of a living human would be…interesting.
Her superior had to be notified of this immediately. Her majesty would definitely be quite intrigued. It could throw a wrench into her plans for Equestria, after all…
“So…here we are…” Twilight said, gesturing forward to the large lighthouse in front of them. Looking back at her newfound guests, she saw that the one in the mask and all black clothes was still leaning on the abyssinian, only now he seemed a bit weaker. Not that she could tell just by looking, but by the way the masked being slumped against his companion, it seemed like she was right.
The abyssinian didn’t look around too much as his attention was focused on his masked partner. In a distracted tone, he asked, “Where’s the bathroom?”
Twilight quickly showed him the larger first level bathroom. He thanked her, then closed and locked the door. Twilight could hear the worried tone of the abyssinian from inside and the discarding of clothes. She moved away and looked back to the pony member of the group. They’d been in such a hurry to get to Twilight’s house that she hadn’t had the time to get their names. “So…can I get you something to drink? I have water, milk, some remnants of apple cider from when I used to-”
“Water will do,” the orange unicorn said with a sharp edge to her voice as she looked at the living room before walking over to the nearby couch.
Twilight, now used to harsh tones used by ponies when speaking towards her, simply nodded and went into the kitchen, grabbed four glasses, filled a pitcher full of water, then levitated them all out, placing them on the coffee table before pouring water into two of them. She levitated one over to the unicorn, who took it without a word and began drinking while looking out of the window.
“…I never really introduced myself,” Twilight said, feeling a bit awkward due to the silence. At one point, she had no issues with silence, but now there was always a part of her that craved some sort of interaction with other ponies. The nurse was alright, but she wanted more. “My name is-”
“I know who you are, former Sovereign of Friendship,” the unicorn said with a hint of hostility in her tone before she took a breath and looked back to face Twilight. “The whole world knows who you are.”
Twilight’s ears crashed against her head. Sometimes she forgot that she and her former friends had been ousted by her former teacher and the Princess of Equestria. Her name had become infamous throughout Equestria and synonymous with failure. Not only that, but being called a former Sovereign instead of a Princess hurt even more somehow. It was the first time she’d ever been called that. “R-Right…I should have remembered that.”
The unicorn looked at Twilight with a scowl before she let out a small sigh. “Sunset Shimmer. That’s my name.”
Twilight nodded at her, giving the unicorn her best smile while sipping her water. “If my magic senses haven’t been dulled, then I must say that you feel like a powerful unicorn, Sunset,” she said.
“I know I am,” Sunset said as she swallowed half of the contents of the glass before putting it down.
Twilight slightly bit her lower lip, wondering what else to talk about. She took a deep breath. “Thank you…for earlier…you three didn’t have to jump in and save me.”
“Believe me, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t have,” Sunset said, “but Revan stepped in and when Tobias joined him, I figured I would need to get involved as well.”
“Revan…is that the masked biped with you?” Twilight asked.
“And Tobias is the abyssinian,” Sunset said.
Twilight nodded. “Well, thank you for trying to defend me, even if you didn’t want to.”
Sunset’s jaw clenched and she muttered, “Don’t mention it…ever…”
At that moment, the front door opened. Twilight turned to see the nurse walking in with her normal smile on her face. She looked over at Twilight and waved. “Good afternoon, Miss Sparkle,” she greeted, “and how are you doing-?” She paused when she saw Sunset Shimmer. “Oh! Hello! I was unaware we had guests.”
“It was a bit sudden,” Twilight admitted, “but she and her companions needed a place to stay for the night.”
“Hi, nurse,” Sunset said before nodding at the older pony.
The nurse had a surprised look on her face. “Well, this is unlike you, Miss Sparkle,” she said before looking around. “Where are the others?”
“One of them got injured in an incident in town,” Twilight briefly explained, “so they’re in the bathroom with the other one being treated for some injuries.”
The nurse’s smile vanished and she looked at the locked door. “Why didn’t you say so?!” She galloped to the door and knocked on it. “Hello? I heard one of you got hurt? I’m a nurse, so I can help.”
The voice of Tobias came through the door. “Thanks for the offer, but I can handle things here.”
“I’m well trained in helping heal ponies,” the nurse insisted.
“We’re not ponies,” Tobias replied before they heard a grunting noise and Tobias saying, “Easy, easy…”
“I can still help,” the nurse said, sounding more worried now.
“Nurse, leave them be,” Twilight said. “It sounds like Tobias has things handled.”
The nurse looked unsure, but slowly nodded. “Well, alright, but I’m always here if you need help. Do you need medical supplies?”
There was silence for a few seconds, then Tobias said, “Some bandages and maybe something to sterilize wounds would be useful, please.”
The nurse’s eyes widened and she nodded. “I’ll be right back!” So saying, she galloped out of the room, heading down a nearby hallway.
“Who’s the pony in the nurse getup?” Sunset asked with some amusement in her voice.
Twilight’s ears fell back against her head once more as she turned back to Sunet. “She’s…my personal nurse…” she explained.
“To keep you from going insane again?” Sunset asked with a small smirk. When Twilight nodded, Sunset chuckled. “I see old Sunny hasn’t changed. She’s still coddling you, her former ‘faithful student’.” She made air quotes with her hooves.
Twilight’s eyebrows show up in confusion. “Princesss Celestia ‘hasn’t changed’? What do you mean?”
Sunset’s smile faded into a scowl. “That’s none of your damned business,” she snapped.
Twilight recoiled at the sudden hostility and cursing, but calmed herself. “Sorry,” she said.
Sunset scoffed at this, and there were a few more seconds of silence, broken only by the nurse coming back and giving what Tobias had requested to the abyssinian. She then asked the two in the living room if she could get them anything, but Sunset just shook her head and Twilight did as well. She then left the room, leaving it in more awkward silence. A few minutes passed by and eventually Sunset sighed. “So…from sovereign to lighthouse keeper.” She looked around. “Still looks like you’re doing good.”
Twilight shrugged a bit. “It keeps me busy,” she said, “and it’s a necessary job.”
“Can’t imagine many ships come by here at all,” Sunset said, looking out of the window that faced the ocean.
“A hooffull do pass by, we do get ships coming in every now and then,” Twilight explained.
“That’s surprising,” Sunset said, still looking at the ocean.
“Yeah…well most of what they bring is shipped to Zephyr Heights,” Twilight said.
“Never heard of it,” Sunset said, a small hint of curiosity in her voice.
“It’s a new pegasus settlement close to us,” Twilight said, “a Cloudsdale colony. They live on the cliffside.”
Sunset looked a bit more curious now. “A cliffside settlement. That’s not something you see in Equestria every day.”
Twilight heard the sarcasm dripping from her voice and nodded. “Yes…true.” She didn’t want to antagonize this pony any more than she apparently already had just by existing. She tried desperately to change the subject, and she thought back to Sunset’s display of magic. “I have to say, you seem to be a very powerful mage. It’s rare to see ponies who have that kind of skill.”
Sunset smirked. “I’ve only grown stronger since I left Equestria,” she said haughtily. Twilight didn’t like this as it reminded her of how prideful Trixie had been before, but she let the unicorn continue, especially since unlike Trixie, this unicorn could clearly back her claims up. “There are secrets of magic all across the world that have been lost to time. I’ve found a few of them and mastered their spells. I’ve even heard rumors of ancient pony relics from even before the Dark Age of Ponydom.”
Twilight tilted her head, ears perked forward. “Before?”
Sunset chuckled in amusement. “You didn’t learn about the times before we were pulled apart? The times when we lived in some semblance of harmony before the Dark Age? You never heard about the ancient Dream Valley? The Six Wands of the Six Princesses? Tambelon?”
Twilight shook her head. “I never saw anything about it during my studies when I was Princess Celestia’s student.”
Sunset scoffed. “Typical. You probably never even heard about the mythical Megan Williams, then.”
Twilight’s ears perked up. “May Gan Williams?”
Sunset shook her head. “Megan Williams.”
Twilight said the name a few times, eventually wrapping her tongue around the strange sounding name. “Can you…tell me more?”
Sunset snorted a bit, then shrugged. “Eh, sure. Got nothing better to do.”
“What’s going on out here?”
The two turned to see Tobias walking out with Revan leaning slightly against the abyssinian. Revan didn’t look any different, but Twilight suspected that the bandages were underneath his clothes. She stood up. “How are you two doing?”
Tobias gave a small smile. “We’re alright. I just had a few scrapes and bruises, but Revan here took a bigger beating than I did.”
“I can cast that healing spell again if you like,” Sunset offered.
Tobias looked at Revan with a confused expression. “Again?”
Revan looked at him and nodded. “She cast a spell that did help a bit.”
“It’s just draining for me, but I can manage,” Sunset said.
“I know some healing spells, too,” Twilight spoke up. “It’s my fault you got hurt, so if you’re okay with it, then I can try and help.”
“Revan’s body doesn’t react the way you’d think when magic is cast on him,” Tobias explained as he led Revan to an open spot on the couch where he sat the masked figure down.
“It did feel strange, but he said it helped,” Sunset said.
“I have a lot of magic reserves, so I can help too,” Twilight added. This earned her a glare from Sunset, but she didn’t care. All she wanted to do was help the being who had defended her when nopony else had done so in a long while.
Tobias looked at the unicorn and alicorn duo, then back at Revan, who nodded. “Well…alright.”
Twilight and Sunset began casting a healing spell on Revan, and Twilight could immediately tell that Revan was no ordinary creature. The magic she was pouring into him seemed to vanish and drain into him. Still, she continued pouring her magic into him and as she did so, Revan slowly sat up and began flexing his arms and legs. He touched a few spots on his arms and even gently touched the side of his head. When Twilight couldn’t keep going, she stopped, as did Sunset. Looking up, Twilight asked, “Did…that help?”
Revan stood and walked around the room, lifting his legs and rolling his arms a bit before he turned. “Yes. Thank you.”
Twilight felt relief wash over her as Revan sat back down. She then gestured to the two empty glasses on the table. “Here’s some water for you, if you’d like some.”
Tobias nodded and poured a glass before offering it to Revan, who simply shook his head and said, “I’m alright, thank you.”
“So, what exactly were you two talking about before we came out here?” Tobias asked before taking a sip of the water.
“I was just about to inform this former sovereign about Megan Williams,” Sunset said with a smirk.
Twilight winced, but also saw Revan apparently react to this. He looked over at Sunset and spoke. “You know about her?”
Sunset’s gaze shot over to Revan. “You know about her?!”
“Bits and pieces,” Revan said, “but tell me what you know.”
Twilight turned to Sunset, her curiosity piqued once more. Sunset still looked a bit stunned by Revan’s apparent knowledge of this strange Megan Williams, but she cleared her throat. “So, I don’t know too much about her,” she began, “but the books I found on her all say something similar. According to ancient myths and legends, she and her brother Daniel Williams and her sister Molly Williams came to our world many thousands of years ago from a distant land. Back then, apparently the sun and moon moved on their own and the ponies lived in some large valley in a semblance of harmony.”
“Dream Valley.”
Everyone looked at Revan, but none more so than Sunset, who looked shocked. “How did you know?”
“Continue.”
No one spoke for a bit before Sunset cleared her throat. “Well, anyway, these three siblings were summoned many times to help deal with issues before the Dark Age of Ponydom.”
“What kind of issues?” Tobias asked.
Sunset paused and thought for a bit. “I didn’t get too far into the book before I put it down. I wasn’t interested in ancient pony history at the time. I did see a drawing somepony made of them, though.”
“What did they look like?” Twilight asked, her curiosity starting to get the better of her.
Sunset smirked, then raised her horn. A large mist rose from her horn and created an image of a dimly lit page of a book. To Twilight’s shock, there were three bipedal figures there. Three human figures. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Revan lean forward, his head turned upwards to look at the magical display. Twilight’s eyes were wide as saucers as she took in the well drawn image of the three humans. She had no means of judging their ages, but with the depictions of several other ponies standing and smiling next to the three (including one that looks a lot like Applejack) she figured that the depictions were accurate. They looked about as old as Jason Wright had been, as they towered over the ponies below. Oddly enough, there was a small dragon there who looked somewhat similar to Spike, albeit with lighter pink scales instead of the darker purple her Spike had.
“Firefly, Applejack, Twilight, Bow Tie, Spike, Megan, Daniel, and Molly.” Everyone turned to Revan who was now standing and facing the image with his arms crossed as he looked it over.
“The book didn’t mention the names of those ponies and that dragon,” Sunset said, “so how do you know their names?” Revan simply looked at Sunset, the bright glow of his glowing eyes seeming to stare into Sunset’s soul. Twilight saw Sunset shiver very slightly as she added, “That’s for you to know, eh? Fine.”
“So…does this mean that Jason Wright wasn’t the first human to come to our world?” Tobias asked.
“Seems that way,” Sunset said as she dispelled the image, although Twilight noted that she was still looking suspiciously at Revan, at least for a few more seconds. She turned back to Twilight. “Guess three humans got along well with our ancestors, so I wonder why the first human to visit us in thousands of years was forced to kill himself to escape the pain and suffering you inflicted on him, hmm?”
Twilight’s ears drooped again as the immense guilt of her actions and subsequent inaction mounted up against her once again. She barely heard the scolding tone of Tobias as she looked down at the glass of water in her magical grip, the ice inside having melted already. She jumped a bit when she felt a warm and tender paw on her back. Looking up, she saw Tobias looking down at her with a somewhat sad smile. “Sorry about Sunset,” he said. “She tends to be…opinionated.”
Looking around, Twilight noticed that Sunset was now gone, leaving only her and the other two mercenaries. She put the glass down on the coffee table and sighed. “She’s not wrong…I messed up big time.”
“That doesn’t excuse her words, or what happened to you earlier,” Tobias said as he grabbed the box of donuts he’d carried with him earlier along with Revan. He opened it up and placed it on the table. “A thank you for letting us stay here.”
Twilight shook her head. “It’s really nothing,” she said, “if anything, you deserve a place to stay after helping me when you didn’t need to. And speaking of, I do have a couple of spare rooms where you can stay. I’ll show you to them.” With that, she headed upstairs, leading them to the few spare rooms that were in the house.
Celestia rubbed her eyes as she looked at the jumble of letters in front of her, trying to make sense of the dancing words on the scrolls in front of her on the desk. The sun had long since set, leaving the night sky crystal clear thanks to the nightly weather crew dispersing clouds above the capital of the kingdom.
She couldn’t even remember just what she was reading over, but she thought it was something to do with the crop yield from Appleloosa being lower than it ever had been. With Sweet Apple Acres becoming defunct from the unusual disease that had struck the entire farm, the other farms around the southern part of Equestria had to step up, at least for a while. Not only that, but Celestia feared that they may have to dip into the royal granaries to keep food costs down so that they wouldn’t have to export food from elsewhere around the world, especially since the other nations had begun to look on the nation with unfavorable eyes.
There was a flash of bright blue light, and her sister was there. She wore her standard regalia and had a frown on her muzzle. “Sister, are you still up?” she asked with a concerned tone, “I believe it’s long past time for you to retire.”
“I was going to retire, but then the events with Jason happened, and-”
“I meant retire for the night,” Luna corrected her.
Celestia felt her cheeks get warm. “Oh, that.” She looked at her paperwork. “I was just about to…” she yawned at this, then cleared her throat, “…finishing up.”
Luna looked over her shoulder at the paperwork that Celestia was looking over. “Now, I admit I’m still a thousand years out of touch when it comes to certain aspects of ruling, but I don’t think that Apple is spelled with a Z.”
Celestia looked at the paperwork again, then sighed when she saw the spelling error. Quickly fixing it with her magic, she continued on. “Did you come to say something, sister?” Celestia asked, growing a bit annoyed now.
“Yes. I’m putting you to bed.” Luna raised her horn and the stacks of paper in front of Celestia vanished in a flash.
Celestia turned and gave her sister a glare. “I wasn’t done!”
“You’re done for tonight,” Luna said sternly. “Now get to bed.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Celestia said hotly, “you’re not Mother!”
“You’ve been sleeping poorly for weeks now, and it’s starting to show,” Luna said without a hint of fear. “It’s beginning to affect you. You’re getting up later than normal, you’ve missed raising the sun a number of times meaning I’ve had to do it, you’ve started losing your temper more according to Prince Blueblood and some other nobleponies, and more.”
Celestia quickly stood and stared down at her sister. She was growing furious now. First Discord comes and tells her the news about Sunset and now this?! She tried to cool herself down, but with only partial success. “Luna,” she began through gritted teeth, “this kingdom is on the decline. I’m trying my best to keep things from ripping apart at the seams. I have too much to do, and the only pony I trust to help me is you!”
Luna shook her head. “There are other ponies around who can aid you,” she said, “but you’ve gotten too hooves-on in the past two years. Has the death of Jason Wright affected you so much that you are unable to trust anypony?”
“Three years, Luna, three damned years!” Celestia shouted before standing and pacing the bedroom. “There were guards in the town, the mayor could have reported it to me, even my former student ignored him and didn’t mention a word of this! I know you would have told me everything, but all of Ponyville just ignored and abused him without my knowing!” She collapsed onto her bed and screamed into a pillow before sitting back up. “It started with me. I trusted my little ponies too much. I thought they were better…”
“Not everypony is like Ponyville,” Luna said, slowly approaching the solar princess with a softer expression. “There are many good ponies out there. Some are even in our court. Look at Lord Fancy Pants and his wife Lady Fleur De Lis. Lady Noblesse Oblige, too. Those three are some of the amazing nobles who have done so much good for Equestria, and they’re not alone. You’re taking too much on, and you’re losing sleep because of it.”
Celestia paused a bit. She didn’t want to admit it, but she knew her sister was right. While she did trust Luna to be there for her, she still had lost one thousand years of experience thanks to being trapped in the moon. Luna had proven herself over and over again, and Celestia was grateful for it. Still, she thought about what Luna was saying. Luna sat there patiently while Celestia thought. Minutes passed.
At that moment, a chiropteran pony, otherwise known as a bat pony, stepped from out of the corner of the room where the shadows lay. Her sudden appearance made Celestia’s heart leap out of her chest and she nearly jumped but caught herself. She put a hoof to her chest and looked at the chiropteran mare. “Misty Dawnfire, if I’m not mistaken.”
The chiropteran nodded quickly. “You got it right on the first try this time, Princess,” she said, sounding impressed. She turned to Luna and bowed respectfully. “Greetings, your Highness.”
“Greetings, Miss Dawnfire,” Luna said. “What brings you to our sister’s royal chambers so late at night?”
“Apologies for the late arrival, Princess,” she said to Celestia, “but I have a report from some of our agents in the field, one from Dodge City and the other from Maretime Bay. I felt neither could wait.”
Celestia’s ears swiveled forward as she directed her full attention to the chiropteran agent. “What do you have to report?” she asked.
Misty cleared her throat and faced both princesses. “From what the agent in Dodge City has been able to gather, there was an unusual incident in that town a couple or so years ago. They couldn’t get a clear year number. A strange bipedal creature tried to enter the town but the ponies there, led by one Cherry Jubilee, chased the creature out of town a number of times despite said creature claiming to not mean any harm and just wanting to both be friends and to be trying to find his way to Ponyville. The last time, the creature fled south.”
Celestia’s ears dropped at this. It was just another example of her ponies and their increasing intolerance for anything other than themselves. However, something in Misty’s explanation caught Luna’s attention. “Bipedal, you say?” Luna asked. What manner of creature was it? Dragon? Abyssinian? Goblin?”
Misty shook her head. “Judging from the description, it sounds like this creature may have been a human.”
Celestia’s eyes went wide in alarm and she stood up. “A human?!”
“When was this incident??” Luna asked, now fully on alert.
“Sounds like it happened shortly after Jason’s suicide,” Misty said, “but the agent in the field had conflicting reports. Still, they all agree on the description. Pale pink-ish skin, five digits on the hands, forward facing eyes and somewhat of a gorilla-ish appearance by some. The ones who did speak about it said that it wasn’t Jason, but the features were similar. They believed the human was male, though.”
Celestia’s heart began to race. Another human in their world? What could have happened to him? She mentally pulled up a map of Dodge City and its surroundings. If this human, were it a human, were chased away and headed south, he would have headed directly to the Badlands, a lawless piece of desert where Equestria had no jurisdiction. She inhaled deeply. “Have you dispatched anypony to Thornfall?”
“Already done, Princess,” Misty said. “Several of our undercover ponies are flying there now.”
Celestia nodded. Thornfall was the only city out in that deadly desert. There were no other settlements out there except for farms that collected clouds from the sky to provide water for the city. These moisture farmers, as they called themselves, were usually pegasi or griffons, had several farms all over the Badlands where they brought clouds down near the ground where they made the clouds rain into large troughs of land. The majority of this water was then redirected to Thornfall while they kept the rest for themselves.
Clearing her throat, Celestia looked back at Misty. “Does your undercover operative know what to do if they make contact with this creature, if it is indeed a human?”
“The Wright Protocol, yes Princess,” Misty said.
“Good,” Celestia said with relief. “What’s the other news?”
“Our agent in Maretime Bay reported that the Apple family from Ponyville made it there safe and sound with the help of a group of mercenaries,” Misty said. “They did seem to have some trouble on the road, but other than that they seem to be settling in well.”
Celestia nodded. She would send out an official to offer aid from the kingdom to help pay for anything they might need to help them rebuild. “Good to hear.”
“There was something else of note from that town,” Misty said.
Celestia’s relief turned to concern when she saw Misty’s uncertain expression. “What is it?”
“Twilight Sparkle was assaulted by a group of several ponies,” Misty said.
Celestia shot out of her seat. “Assaulted?!”
“Is she okay?” Luna asked in a calmer demeanor.
“From what we know, she made it out relatively unscathed,” Misty said, “but a few other creatures stepped into the fight to defend her. A unicorn mare, an abyssinian male, and a masked figure. Apparently, those three were the mercenaries that escorted the Apple family from Ponyville to Maretime Bay.”
Celestia was relieved to hear that Twilight was alright. Despite everything, she still did care for her former student. It had hurt to see her in that mental institution for those two years, but she needed the help. “I see. Is there anything else?”
“The pony of the group matched the description of a pony of interest you gave us a few years ago,” Misty said. “One Sunset Shimmer.”
Celestia felt her knees go weak. Whether it was from how tired she was or from shock or even a mixture of both she couldn’t say, but then she thought back to what the eyepatch wearing Discord had told her earlier. Oddly enough, she focused on the words Discord had said about one of Sunset’s new companions instead of her. Why did they stick out to her? She shook her head clear of these thoughts. “Have our pony in the field there keep an eye on her. When she leaves, try and keep tabs on her.” She hated doing this, but she was worried about Sunset. If this pony was Sunset, Celestia wanted to make sure that her former student was kept safe. Sunset might hate her for this, but at the moment, Celestia could live with it. She’d rather have Sunset alive and hating her than harmed.
“As you command, Princess,” Misty said.
“Is there anything else you have for us?” Luna asked.
“A hospital report and a guard incident report from Maretime Bay,” Misty said, reaching into a saddlebag and pulling out a folder. “It’s about the leader of the ponies who led the assault on Sparkle.”
Celestia took it and read it over, Luna standing next to her and reading alongside her. Celestia’s brow furling further with each sentence she read. For a unicorn to lose a horn at such a young age was truly horrible, but modern day medicine had progressed far enough so that if doctors were quick enough, a horn or any other severed limb could be replaced without permanent damage. However, this was an unusual report to say the least. If whatever weapon had been used on this unicorn was used again, it could spell certain disaster.
Fortunately, it seemed as if this weapon was used in self-defense by one of the mercenaries, at least according to the witness reports she saw from the guard report. She put the papers on her desk. “Thank you, Misty. Was there anything else?”
“No, Princess,” Misty said.
“Then you’re dismissed.”
“Thank you, Princess.” With that, the chiropteran bowed respectfully to the princesses and slid back into the shadows, disappearing as their kind tended to do. Celestia leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes with her hooves. Things were happening at a rapid pace, and she didn’t like it.
Luna looked over the papers and then raised her horn. They all disappeared in an instant before she turned to Celestia. “I will begin dealing with this issue this very night,” Luna said, “so you go to sleep.”
Celestia, too tired to argue with her sister anymore as their earlier brief fight had taken a lot out of her, simply nodded and collapsed onto her bed. She felt a sheet being pulled over her before she too passed out.
The northern mountains beyond the Crystal Empire were devoid of any habitation. Not even during the summer months did the sunlight melt the snow at the bottom of the mountains. Ancient glaciers covered these mountains, growing every year. One particular glacier had formed much faster than the rest, having created a massive dome of ice over a vast valley below. Over the centuries, the massive dome of ice was covered by snowfall after snowfall until the valley was covered in nothing but darkness.
However, even within said darkness there was light. A single cave existed with a pair of stone doors that led down into a vast but empty cavernous city. The dark icy blue light that came from the ceiling above illuminated the ancient city below. A city inhabited by nopony for over two thousand years.
In one corner of the ancient city were signs of recent habitation. A ruddy warm light came from inside and smoke came from the recently refurbished mansion’s chimney. It was towards this mansion that Obscura flew, her dark wings buzzing behind her as the mare landed quietly in front of the door. Two burly stallion guards saw her and quietly opened the doors for her. Instantly she heard tortured female screams. She smirked as she walked through the recently cleaned hideout into the main area where she saw two other stallions, their wings buzzing and creating a gust of localized wind that was pulling a certain changeling queen’s legs in different directions. Standing on a dais nearby was a tall, elegant mare who had her features covered by a pure white hooded cloak.
As Obscura walked in, she heard Chrysalis shout out, “Please! No more! I can’t take it!”
“Then you will tell us what you had planned for Equestria,” one of the interrogators demanded.
Chrysalis was sobbing by this point, and Obscura saw that she looked thinner than before she left to talk with her Maretime Bay contact. “I-I swear we weren’t planning anything!” she whimpered.
“That’s a filthy lie, you worthless insect,” the other interrogator growled, rearing up and smashing his hoof into her exoskeleton, breaking it and exposing the dark green blood within. Chrysalis’ eyes went wide and she went limp, clearly overstimulated. She wasn’t knocked out, but she was lying there in excruciating pain.
“Now why did the two of you do that?” the hooded mare asked in a soft voice. She didn’t sound mad. Instead, she sounded like a disappointed mother who was about to scold her foals. “You went too far.”
The two stallions quickly bowed. “Forgive us, your majesty,” one of them said regretfully.
The mare waved a hoof. “Never mind that. She’s clearly in no mood to talk anymore. Stand aside.” As the mare stood, the stallions stepped away, as did Obscura. Obscura knew her queen well enough that she could tell when the golden shoe wearing mare would be using her incredible magic. She watched as underneath the white hood a bright pale purple magical glow began to be seen. She waited to hear their majesty speak. And speak she did.
“Thy heart is cruel, “and you’re a fool “to challenge our future throne.”
“Thy punishment thus, “no need for a fuss, “as art you shall atone.”
Chrysalis tried to move, but was unable to as the magic surrounded her. She was lifted up into the air and moved towards a blank canvas hanging on the wall. She tried to beg and plead for her life, but nothing seemed to sway the hooded mare as Chrysalis sank into the canvas. There was a flash of light as she completely vanished, only to be replaced by an oil painting of a terrified looking Chrysalis, both hooves pressing against the painting as if trying to break free. However, she was now trapped forever in a painting, unable to move.
The tall, elegant and cloaked mare then turned her attention to Obscura. “And which one of my dear ponies are you, young one?”
“Obscura, your majesty,” the young gray mare said with a bow and a buzz of her black wings.
From beneath the hood, the elegant mare chuckled warmly. “Ah yes, I remember you. The Maretime Bay branch. I wasn’t expecting a report from you for another week. Is something wrong?”
“I received a communique from our contact,” Obscura reported, reaching into a small saddlebag on her back and pulling out a clean white folded note.
The note was taken up in a pale purple aura and unfolded before being brought closer to their queen. She read the node and then softly folded it back before turning back to sit in her throne, the golden coated shoes ringing out melodiously through the empty halls. When she sat down, she leaned back and removed her hood and cloak, revealing the horn and wings of their queen. Her dark purple eyes looked thoughtful as her blue striped mane and tail blew in the ethereal wind behind her. “This is most interesting…I have not seen one since the time…of…” Turning to Obscura, she asked, “Have you confirmed this sighting yourself?”
“Yes, your majesty,” Obscura said. “The human, if indeed it is a human, has been taken in by former princess Twilight Sparkle.”
“‘If it is a human’? What do you mean?” the alicorn asked.
“Your majesty, this bipedal creature is covered in black clothes and wears a mask unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Obscura reported. “His entire body is covered so we can’t get a good look. He has five digits on each appendage, though.”
“Then he’s a human,” the alicorn said. She stood and walked over to a massive mirror hanging on a nearby wall.
“What are your orders, my queen?” Obscura asked.
The alicorn held up her hoof, then reached out to touch the sides of the mirror. In a tender voice she began to chant once again.
“Oh, magic mirror of mystique “reveal the truth to me. “A view of Maretime Bay I seek; “a human I wish to see.”
The darkened mirror’s surface began to softly glow, then swirling clouds swarmed around the reflection. The scene on its surface shifted to reveal a room at night. There were two figures sitting on the edge of a bed. One was clearly an abyssinian with black fur, and the other was a hooded figure wearing nothing but black. A mask lay on a nearby table, but the mirror was unable to see the face of the hooded being.
“G, is there any reason why you continue to act like that?” the abyssinian asked. “The mysterious act is getting a bit old.”
The figure seemed to sigh, then reached up with a gloved hand and removed the hood, revealing a familiar type of face. By now, everypony in Equestria knew what Jason Wright looked like due to his features being drawn by artists, and while this human wasn’t quite the same, the features were identifiable. This human had a few scars on his pale face, light blue eyes, long brown hair that was damp from sweat, and a tired but stern expression on his face. “If I don’t use that mask, I’d have been killed long ago,” the human replied.
“G, it’s not the mask that makes you,” the abyssinian said in a reassuring tone. “You’re a good mercenary on your own without using that mask.”
“I’m not ready to give up the mask,” the human simply known as ‘G’ replied, “and I’m a mediocre mercenary at best. Besides, the mask makes people fear me. It gets the job done a lot easier.”
“Is this because of that comment I made about you being knocked around a lot?” the abyssinian asked. “Don’t forget, you saved me during our mission to-”
“That mission was mostly me stumbling around looking for that fucking relic that was dust in the end,” the human replied in a testy tone, “and as I recall, I stumbled into more traps than was necessary.”
“Nobody’s good during their first few jobs,” the abyssinian said in a reassuring tone, “and besides, you were still recovering from dehydration and being chased out of Equestria by those ponies.”
That caught Obscura’s attention, and it also seemed to catch the attention of the queen. He was chased out of Equestria? What for? Was he dangerous? Was it their fear? She was curious to learn more so she continued to listen. The human spoke again. “The fact still stands that I’m not the best mercenary. We’re barely making ends meet as it is, and we’re about to lose our home.”
“Then let’s go somewhere else,” Tobias suggested.
“And do what? I’m an unknown here, and people fear that which they don’t understand.” The human sounded resigned to his fate. “I’m weaker than even the weakest earth pony and the little bits of fighting I do know haven’t done me much good lately. Shit, you saw what those ponies did to me earlier. Took me to the cleaners.”
The abyssinian made a “Tsk” sound before saying, “Sounds like you’re giving up.”
“I’m just facing facts, Toby,” the human said, “ponies and other races won’t accept me for who or what I am. That incident when you brought me to the guild saw to that.”
“I accepted you,” the abyssinian named Toby said.
“I believe the first words out of your mouth were ‘Damn, what shithole did you crawl out of?’”
“And I apologized for that,” Toby said in exasperation.
“And then there was that hornless unicorn deserter who stopped my heart,” the human said. “And let’s not forget the earth pony who almost shattered my ribcages, and then there was Cherry Jubilee and her squad of haters-!”
“G, come on!” Toby said. “Yes, I know Dodge City chased you out, but it was just one town. Are you holding that against the entire nation?” Obscura watched Toby scoot over, pushing the mask behind them as he put a comforting paw on the human’s shoulder. “You’re my best friend, G, but I’m worried. You’ve been like this for years.”
The human was silent for a bit. Then, after about a half minute, he said, “I know…it’s hard not to see the positive light when you’re stuck in the Badlands.”
“I have those days too, but we’re luckier than most,” Toby said kindly. “We at least get consistent jobs, we have enough food, we have a place to live that keeps out most of the sand.”
The human sighed. “I hate sand. It’s course and irritating and it gets everywhere,” he muttered.
“Imagine having fur like me, G,” Tobias said. “And you’re really not as bad as all that. You’ve become a decent fighter. You have decent muscle now and you’ve caught the basics of Cat-Fu. Come on, turn that frown upside down?” He reached over and gave one side of the human’s cheek a pinch, pulling his lip up to emulate a smile.
The human chuckled a little bit. “I know you’re trying to cheer me up a bit, and I appreciate the effort, but it’ll take a lot more than just a single conversation to make up for what I’m feeling.”
“Well, you aren’t getting rid of me so easily,” Toby said. “Just…try?”
The human sighed deeply, then said, “I make no promises.”
At that, their queen lowered herself down. The mirror began to swirl and returned to its darkened state. The queen turned, looking a bit saddened. “There is little to no kindness left in Equestria, it would seem,” she said sorrowfully. “Harmony has given way to cruelty and hatred. My little ponies have fallen from grace. They must be shown the way.” She then turned to Obscura. “My dear, rest here tonight. In the morning, come to me. I will write a message to your contact in Maretime Bay and you will deliver it.”
“As you command, your majesty,” Obscura said.
“And remember, my dear pony, the shadows will fall…”
“…before the dawn of the age of majesty,” Obscura finished the mantra.
The queen gave her a loving smile, then nodded. “Now off to sleep. Soon, Equestria will shine brightly again.”
Obscura smiled, then turned to head to her room in the mansion. She couldn’t wait for their time to come. The queen and her loyal ponies would rise and lead Equestria into an age of peace and prosperity.
Apple Bloom was sitting on the floor of a brand new tree house that her two friends had made a year ago while the three of them played Go Fetch, one of their favorite card games. She was super excited to have a proper sleepover with her two friends. Writing letters to them was nice and all, but she was super happy that the three of them would be together again. Not only that, but now they could play at the beach whenever they wanted!
“Scootaloo, do you have any princesses?” Sweetie Belle asked, holding her cards in her magical aura.
“Mmm…nope. Go Fetch.” As Sweetie Belle picked up another card and scowled at the results, Scootaloo turned to Apple Bloom. “So, when’s that farm gonna be finished?”
Apple Bloom shrugged. “Dunno. Granny didn’t say much about it when I asked. We got a few ponies who are gonna help us build, though.”
“I wonder if my aunts will let me help,” Scootaloo wondered, her wings buzzing behind her as she hovered off the ground. “I can kinda fly a bit, now, so I can be the awesomest scout ever!”
“I’ve been getting better with my magic, so I could help too,” Sweetie Belle said. “School’s out for the summer anyway, so I can come help.”
Apple Bloom looked at the two. Even after two years apart, it seemed as if nothing had changed between the three teenage fillies. “I can ask Granny tomorrow,” she said.
“Cool!” Scootaloo’s wings didn’t so much buzz anymore as they did a sort of half buzz/flapping thing, at least that’s how Apple Bloom could best describe it. She’d been surprised at how much her friends had grown in their two years apart.
Apple Bloom looked up at the newly built tree house. “I still can’t believe ya replicated the old clubhouse,” she said.
“It took the two of us a long time,” Scootaloo said, “but I never imagined we’d be back together, so it was well worth the extra effort!”
“How’s things going with you?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Neither of us heard anything.”
Apple Bloom’s ear dropped a bit. “Haah…well, remember I told ya that we lost our farm back in Ponyville, right?”
“That seriously sucks,” Scootaloo said. “Sweetie Belle, got any fours?”
“Why didn’t your family leave when things got bad?” Sweetie asked as she levitated a card to Scootaloo, who took it and placed a pair of fours on the ground in front of her.
“Granny thought we could fix things,” Apple Bloom said as she shuffled the cards in her hooves. “She can be as stubborn as a mule-ah, I mean, she can be pretty damn stubborn.”
Scootaloo’s eyes widened. “‘Damn’? Wow, Bloom, two years away and you turn into a potty mouth.” She grinned at her friend.
Apple Bloom looked a bit sheepish. “Sorry ‘bout that,” she said.
“Hey, we’re all teenagers here,” Sweetie Belle said. “We can all swear if we fucking want.”
The other Crusaders looked at their unicorn friend in more shock than before. “Sweet Celestia, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said.
“I’ve heard Rarity say worse,” Sweetie Belle said, “believe me.”
The three looked at each other, then they all burst out laughing. It felt good to be together and laughing again. It may have been only two years, but to the three of them it felt like a lifetime and like no time had passed at the same time. Apple Bloom had missed so much. Scootaloo’s late blooming but first flight, a small concert in Maretime Bay where Sweetie Belle had sung a sad ballad, the tragedy of Winona’s passing, and so much more.
As their game of Go Fetch continued, Apple Bloom smiled sadly. She’d done a lot of growing up in the past couple of years. Her relationship with her sister had soured, but they were beginning to make amends. They weren’t as close as they had been, but things were starting to heal. As she’d matured, she also went through the rigors of puberty, something that she had her family’s support through.
After the game ended, the three had turned the lantern off and had gotten into their cots. As they lay there in the darkness, Scootaloo spoke up. “Apple Bloom, you never told us who those three were who came with you and your family. I saw a unicorn, but who were the other two?”
“Oh…well, Applejack hired them to help us git from Ponyville to here,” Apple Bloom explained. “I can’t really remember their names right now, though. I think the unicorn was, um…Sunset something or other?”
“That masked creature was scary looking,” Sweetie Belle said.
“They saved us when we were attacked,” Apple Bloom said.
“Oh,” Scootaloo said. “Well, that’s good.”
Apple Bloom nodded as she yawned. “Big Mac got his leg broken, but he’ll be right as rain soon,” she said.
“I still can’t picture Big Mac being hurt like that,” Sweetie Belle said. “I used to have a small crush on him, and he always looked invincible to me.”
THAT was a major surprise to Apple Bloom. She sat up and looked at her friend. “You have a crush on my brother??”
“Had, Apple Bloom. Had. I don’t anymore.”
Apple Bloom slowly lay back down. “I never knew…”
“Me neither,” Scootaloo said. “Got any crushes now?”
Sweetie paused a bit, and in the dark, Apple Bloom though she saw a hint of darkness coming onto Sweetie’s cheeks. She grinned. “Sweetie has a crush on someponyyyyy~!” she giggled.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got a crush,” she said.
“Who is it??” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom could practically hear the grin on the young pegasus’ face.
“Yeah…I'm not telling you,” Sweetie said before yawning.
“Aww, come on!” Scootaloo begged.
“Not a chance.”
“Why don’t we git some sleep?” Apple Bloom suggested. While she too wanted to know which colt had caught Sweetie’s eye, she was exhausted from the long day of walking and just wanted to pass out.
“Good idea,” Sweetie said as she covered herself with the covers.
“I won’t forget about this,” Scootaloo said with what sounded like a pout as she pulled the blanket over her body.
Apple Bloom giggled a bit as she closed her eyes. It felt nice to be back with her friends. She’d had her family back on the farm, but for the past two years she’d never been with anypony her own age. No cousins dropped by anymore, the other foals in Ponyville were gone, and she felt alone. She’d sent letters to her old friends, and that helped, but she always felt tired at the end of the day back on her old farm, so she hardly had the strength to write more regularly. At the very least, now she could talk to them much more often. She could go back to school now, something she never thought she’d miss.
As she fell asleep with her friends, she failed to hear a rustling noise just outside their window.
“Get out of here, monster!”
“We won’t let you hurt our foals!”
Gregory looked at the gathered crowd of ponies in front of him, looking surprised at the unusual hostility and fear coming from them. He stood next to his car which he’d driven to the edge of the town. His hands were raised in confusion as he said, “Please listen, I’m not here to cause any trouble,” he said, “I just want-”
A rotten apple struck the side of his head as he stumbled back and fell onto his butt. He brought his hand up, holding the place where the apple had exploded more in surprise than pain. He looked around and saw a larger stallion giving him a wicked glare. “We said git, now!” the stallion shouted.
“I just want directions to get to-” Gregory began, but he was interrupted by a blast of magic to the face, sending him sprawling. Fortunately, his hand was on his car, which seemed to absorb most of the magic somehow, but it didn’t stop the pain. There were rocks thrown next, which pelted his face. He could hear the shouts of the ponies as well as feel the rocks opening up some deep cuts on his face.
Left with no other choice, and his eyes brimming with tears of confusion, he managed to get into his car, start it up, and drive away. Fortunately, he had packed enough liquids to last a while, although that wasn’t why he’d packed his sodas and sports drinks. He drove into the desert to the west, and when he was far enough away from the ponies of whatever town that was, he stopped and tended his wounds.
“Why? Why did they do that?” he asked as he used his first aid kit to bandage himself up. He knew the cuts from those rocks would leave scars, but he was more concerned with them getting infected in this desert. Once he had cleaned and disinfected said injuries, he continued driving. He was still a bit in shock.
There was a noise on top of his car and he looked up to see the roof being torn off with ease. He looked at the horrifying eyes of Daybreaker. Terror coursed through his body as he heard her say, “You are not welcome in the land of harmony. You will not taint the land of my little ponies or any land in this world!” She raised her horn. Gregory screamed-
-and shot up out of bed, a scream about to erupt from his mouth. He was panting heavily as he put his hand on his chest, trying to calm down from the nightmare he’d had regularly for the past two years. The thirty two year old human man named Gregory Eugene Graystone grabbed a glass of water that was by the side of his bed and downed it before he got up and went to a basin of water in his room. He splashed his face with some of said water and looked at his reflection in the mirror. There were several scars that lined his face and exposed chest. Some were from his initial introduction to ponykind while others came from later wounds he received from various jobs he and Tobias had taken.
He sighed and went back to bed, lying down and looking up at the ceiling. His thoughts wandered back to the dream and the events of the past. Aside from the attack from Daybreaker, it had been completely accurate. He had fled Dodge Junction in shock after his first couple of times trying to get into town to ask for help.
Shock which had turned to anger. Anger not just at the ponies who’d assaulted him without a reason but mostly anger at himself. He’d realized that he’d been a complete fool to believe that he could just waltz into a town of ponies and be instantly accepted. He’d been so naïve. As he’d driven through the sands of whatever desert this was, he’d thought back to the circumstances that brought him to Equestria.
Back on Earth, his life had been shit. He had been mistreated by his work, had a cheating girlfriend who gaslit him until she finally dumped him, and was chronically depressed. It had been his discovery of My Little Pony that had pushed him to find a new job elsewhere and seek a counselor.
Still, depression doesn’t just go away, and one night he was curiously browsing the Dark Web when he found something interesting. He wasn’t looking for anything illegal, but he was there because he wanted to see what they had there. When he discovered a place called EnterYourFantasies.onion, he was intrigued by what it could be, so he read the contents. To his surprise, it was an instruction manual on how to reach the worlds of fiction.
Normally, he would have dismissed it as something a crackpot would write, but for some reason he couldn’t stop reading it. There were even video testimonials showing people putting cameras through the portals they’d made. This included glimpses of Coruscant, the bridge of a famous Federation starship, Middle Earth, Dune, Wonderland, Hogwarts, Zion from The Matrix,and even places like Skyrim and Baldur’s Gate.
He printed out everything he could right then, reading it over and over. He even downloaded the videos as well. He just couldn’t tell if what he saw was incredible CGI or real, but he loved seeing them. The instructions on how to do it seemed absurdly simple. When he went back to the page the next day, however, it was gone.
Still, with the printouts, he decided it might be a good excuse to go out for a weekend and get some exercise. He brought along a bike camera, a fishing rod, all the necessary items needed to perform the ritual or spell or whatever it was, and a laptop that could connect via Bluetooth to the camera. If something did happen, he wanted proof.
As a test, he’d tried creating a connection to Ponyville, following the absurdly simple instructions to the letter. To his surprise, when he’d put his camera through the air, he saw the camera vanish. And through view he saw on his screen, he’d seen that it had actually worked. The town on the other side looked much more realistic than he’d anticipated, since he’d been expecting it to look like a cartoon, but the town hall in the distance was unmistakable, as was the Castle of Friendship in the distance.
Having confirmed that things would work, he began fantasizing about leaving this world. It wasn’t like he had anything keeping him on Earth. His parents were dead to him and he hadn’t spoken to them since he was kicked out at eighteen after graduating high school. He’d been forced to couch surf and get odd jobs until he saved enough for an apartment. He had no real friends, mostly because he’d been awkward all his life. His girlfriend, or his ex, had been a backstabbing cheating bitch.
As Gregory lay in the bed in the Maretime Bay’s lighthouse, he remembered back to when he’d dreamed and fantasized about going to other worlds for weeks after his discovery until he decided to plan for it. Even during the planning and organizing of supplies, there was a big part of him that wasn’t sure if he wanted to do this or not. He kept telling himself that it was just something to do to keep his mind occupied.
That didn’t mean he was stupid. He knew Equestria was a dangerous place and with his lack of magic he had to defend himself. So, he’d utilized this newfound obsession to take some basic self-defense courses while legally purchasing a few firearms and plentiful ammo to replace as well as long blades for if and when his bullets inevitably ran out. He’d purchased some MRE’s as well as some of his favorite snacks that he could share with the ponies.
When the time came, and after all his insane preparations were complete, he’d opened a portal to Equestria and drove his car, packed full of supplies, through the portal. Instead of ending up in Ponyville, he’d ended up in front of a town with a sign indicating that it was Dodge City. That was when he’d encountered the ponies who’d chased him out of town.
Thinking back on it, he realized he was not a well man during those times despite his regular counseling sessions. He didn’t tell his counselor everything which he knew he should have. He had all of these delusions that he berated himself for in this moment. Delusions of instantly being accepted by ponies. Sure, he knew about their treatment of Zecora, and that should have been a strong clue. Not only that, but the way they described dragons should have been another strong indicator. He was an utter fool for coming here, and he needed to come to grips with his negative tendencies, alter them, rechannel them into something else.
For a few days, Gregory had driven around the desert, looking for any sign of civilization that might just take him in, but as his gasoline supply depleted and his MREs and supply of water and other liquids began to be depleted, he began to lose hope. Finally, he was unable to start his car again, so he dug in, making a base camp around his car as he tried to go searching on foot. Weeks passed by, and soon he was rationing his remaining liquids. Nothing he did seemed to work. He tried burning his garbage to make some smoke that might signal anyone. Hell, he would have welcomed being found by Chrysalis at that point.
However, it wasn’t Chrysalis that found him. Instead, it was a black furred abyssinian male who helped him come back to life, as Gregory had been steadily losing strength out in the hot desert. Tobias had been a Godsend to him, and had even single handedly pulled his car towards the only city in the Badlands: Thornfall.
As Tobias helped bring Gregory back to full strength, the abyssinian explained that he was a part of a guild of mercenaries who took jobs in this lawless country and abroad in other nations aside from Equestria, as mercenary work was frowned upon by the ponies. They accepted anyone into their ranks, but in this place, strength ruled. If you weren’t strong, you died.
Gregory, with a newfound sense of purpose, decided that when he was better, that he would become a mercenary. He had some training, but he was no fool. He knew that he wouldn’t be much of a match for others around him thanks to his complete lack of magic. Tobias had informed him about that a few days after he’d arrived in the abyssinian’s small home.
A soft knock at the door caught his attention. He shot up and almost spoke up when he remembered that he wasn’t in their home base. He waited to hear who it was, and when said individual spoke, he relaxed. “G, you awake?”
Gregory breathed out softly before he stood and unlocked the door before stepping aside and snapping his fingers twice, a signal they’d made to indicate that Tobias could enter. The abyssinian came in quickly, shutting and locking the door before he turned back to the human. The abyssinian looked him in the eyes, then sighed and shook his head. “Another Daybreaker nightmare?” he asked. Gregory nodded silently. Tobias sighed and reached out, putting a paw on his shoulder. “You realize that you could stop these nightmares if you took some of that potion from Zirco.”
Gregory shook his head. “I’ve seen how it affects others, and I’d rather not become an addict,” he said silently as he walked over and sat on the edge of his bed.
Tobias came over and sat next to him, putting an arm around him. Unlike human male relationships, abyssinians were more like cats in how they showed that they cared for those close to them. Gregory felt the paw on his arm begin kneeding him. He’d long gotten used to the ways that Tobias had to cheer someone up, and in a sense, he liked it. It helped him relax, especially when his friend purred. Looking over at the black furred catlike being, Gregory gave him a grateful nod. “I’ll be alright.”
Tobias shook his head. “No, you won’t be. G, I’ve been thinking long and hard about this for a few months now, and I’ve been saving up my share of our loot, at least all I can spare, and I think it’s high time that we get out of the mercenary game. You and me. We can go to Panthera and start a new life. I might not have any family anymore, but I think you’d enjoy the country. It’s beautiful. Wide grasslands, old growth forests, snowcapped mountains, beautiful rivers, clean towns and cities and the best catnip around.”
Gregory snorted. “Catnip doesn’t affect me like it does you, you know,” he reminded his only close companion in the world.
“The food, then,” Tobias said. “It’s a meat lovers paradise! And you could introduce some human meal ideas there, like pizza and burgers! Believe me, abyssinians would welcome you there, even more if I’m there to vouch for you?”
Gregory frowned at that. “Are you saying that abyssinians are as wary as ponies are?”
“G, come on, not everyone is as bad as the ponies you met,” Tobias said. “Remember when you told me about your world’s cats? Well, we can be like that. A lot of us can be somewhat standoffish until we get to know you. I’m an exception, and I know other abyssinians are like me too.”
“What’s stopped you from going back to Panthera?” Gregory asked.
“Money, mostly,” Tobias admitted, “but with the money we got from the Bad Squad, we could get out of Thornfall much sooner. Maybe in another month or two. We could even take that derelict vehicle of yours with us!”
Gregory looked at how excited his companion was. Tobias’ eyes seemed to light up whenever he talked about his home continent, and the tales Gregory had heard about it always intrigued him. It sounded like one of those medieval isekai worlds, especially when Tobias told him about the Adventurer Guild organization there. A nerdy part of him loved the idea of becoming an adventurer like in anime and manga, but since they spent a lot of their money solely on surviving in Thornfall, he’d put those thoughts in the back of his head. Reality was a harsh mistress. There was no time to dream. Still, part of him wanted to dream. “You’d willingly pull that car again? The tires are pretty flat now, the battery’s long dead, and it’s just a lump of junk.”
“A lump of junk from Earth,” Tobias corrected. “I’d hate to see something from your world just be abandoned.” He gave Gregory a warm understanding smile. “Don’t think I don’t know about the times you’ve just sat in there for hours on end.”
Gregory had no idea that Tobias knew about those times. During some times when he was feeling especially homesick, he would sit inside the car that was parked on the side of their building. He ignored the heat and was grateful that he had handcranked windows. He would sit and listen to his music or audiobooks or read from his ebook readers just to make the pain of homesickness lessen a bit. He’d even fallen asleep inside a number of times. Even if none of the items he brought from Earth would be able to be used for their intended purposes, he was glad he had them.
“You sure?” Gregory asked. “That hunk of metal weighs a ton.”
“I managed it just fine last time, thank you very much,” Tobias replied while flipping Gregory off, something hard to do since he had only four talons as opposed to Gregory’s five fingers. His face then relaxed and he continued. “So, what do you say, G? After we save up enough, why don’t we go back to Panthera? You wouldn’t need to wear all of that depressing black or that mask, either. Fuck it, we could even go register at the Adventurer’s Guild just like in those animes you showed me.” Tobias looked at Gregory expectantly, his tail swishing slightly in anticipation.
Gregory sighed and flipped him off as well, a very small smile forming on his face. Embracing thirty years of urges, Gregory reached up and began scratching behind Tobias’ left ear. The abyssinian closed his eyes and seemed to relax, purring ever so slightly. Gregory smirked a bit at this. Tobias was the only one he knew who would allow this, but only in private. The nightmare from before faded away and he slowly nodded. “I gotta admit, that sounds nice,” he said, “but I’ll need some time to think about it.”
“Mmm…yeah, that sounds-right there, G, please-sounds good to me.” Tobias stretched and then played his head on Gregory’s lap, purring a bit.
Gregory shook his head in disbelief, continuing to stroke the bipedal cat’s head. He remembered back to when Tobias had first shown this kind of affection to him. It had freaked and weirded him out at first, but when Tobias and a couple other abyssinian mercenaries from Thornfall explained that it was a way that they showed friendship to those they held close, he’d slowly begun accepting the display. He even welcomed it, especially in times like this. “Thanks, Toby,” he said gratefully.
Tobias’ tail curled up slightly and he nodded. “You’re my friend, G. I hate seeing you like this.”
Gregory felt himself relaxing thanks to his companion’s efforts. Even if he was worried about opening himself up too much to Tobias, just the fact that the abyssinian hadn’t pushed him too much meant the world to him. He yawned and looked at the wall clock. It was just past two in the morning. “Jesus, it’s still super early,” he muttered. “We should try and get back to sleep. We’ll need our strength for when we head back tomorrow.”
Tobias nodded and he slowly sat up, stretching and making a “MRRP” sound. “Part of me wishes we could at least explore this place,” Tobias said with a hint of disappointment. “After all, we’re in Sunny Starscout’s future house, for crying out loud!”
Gregory smirked again. “No shit,” he said. “Still, you know that time is money. Come on, let’s get some sleep.”
Tobias smiled and patted Gregory on the back. “Sure thing, bud. See ya in the morning, okay?” With that, he gave the human a reassuring smile, then watched as his companion left the room, closing the door firmly behind him. When Gregory had locked it, he crawled back into the admittedly most comfortable bed he’d ever slept in since his arrival in this world. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine a future as not some hated mercenary, but as an adventurer. He felt something then that he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Hope.
Twilight woke earlier than normal thanks in part to her alarm clock going off. Groaning, she almost turned it off before her sleep addled brain began to clear and the events of the previous day resurfaced. Quickly, she sat up and went to her mirror, brushing her mane to look at least somewhat presentable for her guests. She rushed downstairs and began making breakfast. She knew she didn’t have any meat products for her abyssinian guest, but she did have eggs, a plentiful source of protein that hopefully would suffice. She also prepared some toast and waffles with butter and syrup. She knew she wasn’t the best cook, but she had learned how to at least make these easily enough, Modern appliances were convenient.
Tobias was the first to come down, humming something to himself as he walked into the kitchen. When he saw the food on the table, his eyes widened. “Whoa, that looks incredible,” he said.
“I-I hope you like it,” Twilight said nervously. I didn’t have any meat and I didn’t know what your friend eats, so I made something that everycreature could eat.”
“No no, this is more than alright,” Tobias said reassuringly. “Although, I have to apologize, but Revan won’t be joining us. He doesn’t eat with anyone but me. Do you mind if I fix him a plate before coming back down?”
Twilight was a bit concerned by this, but nodded. “Of course,” she said.
Tobias thanked her, then put a moderate amount of each piece of food on a plate before heading back upstairs. When he came back down, he sat at the table and plated up some breakfast for himself. Twilight noticed that he’d taken a smaller portion, so she said, “You don’t have to hold back. I just went shopping, so I’m alright.”
“Are you sure?” Tobias asked. When Twilight confirmed it, he smiled and took a healthy helping.
As the abyssinian ate, Twilight felt her curiosity rising. Over the course of the past year, she had been reading more about foreign lands after realizing that was part of what had fueled her actions against Jason: her own ignorance. She’d used any spare money she could set aside to order books that detailed other nations. She wanted to ask about Panthera, but she felt her nervousness rising. She was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice that Sunset Shimmer had entered and plated herself up some breakfast. When she finally mustered the courage to talk, she noticed Sunset. “Ah, Sunset Shimmer. Good morning.”
The unicorn, who had a messy mane, gave Twilight a glare before going back to eating her meal. “Got any coffee?” she asked.
Twilight immediately stood. “I’ll brew a pot right away,” she said, heading to the kitchen cabinet where she found her supply of coffee. While she didn’t drink it often, sometimes she had to stomach the bitter liquid to help wake up.
As she was preparing a pot, Maple Leaf came in, all bright and cheery. “Good morning, everypony-I mean everycreature,” she said, looking apologetically at Tobias.
Tobias smiled and waved a dismissive paw. “Honest mistake,” he said. “I normally just say everyone or everybody. A little trick I learned from Revan.”
“Was he the creature that you were treating yesterday?” Maple asked with a concerned look. “How’s he doing?”
“It is, and he’s doing better thanks to Twilight and Sunset casting a healing spell on him,” Tobias said.
“I’m glad to hear,” the nurse said, “but where is he?”
“He’s a private person,” Tobias said, “and prefers to eat in solitude.”
“So he doesn’t have to wear that mask of his?” Sunset asked.
“Heh, you’re right about that,” Tobias said before taking a bite of egg and swallowing it down with some orange juice.
“Well, on another topic, please forgive me for not introducing myself yesterday,” the nurse said. “I’m Maple Leaf. I live in a smaller house on the property.”
Tobias nodded and said, “My name’s Tobias. This is Sunset Shimmer, a recent companion we brought on board, and the one I was treating yesterday is named Revan.”
“So, you’ve got medical knowledge, huh?” Sunset asked Maple.
“That’s right,” Maple replied.
“Let me guess: Sunbutt sent you here to make sure that failed princess didn’t go over the deep end and take a nosedive into the ocean-”
“SUNSET!” Tobias swiped his paw at the back of the unicorn’s head, smacking it hard with an angry expression on his face. “We’re guests in this house! We may be mercenaries, but show some damned manners!”
There was silence for a bit as the coffee maker was the only noise heard. Nobody spoke, the tension in the air rising with each passing minute. Finally, the sound was broken by the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. Revan, now back in his full black outfit, stepped into the room. Looking around, he finally focused on Tobias. “What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Tobias said, shooting a glance towards Sunset.
Revan nodded, then looked at Twilight, although it was hard to tell with the eyes being part of the mask. “Where should I put these?”
“T-The sink,” she stammered. He nodded and did so before sitting down at the table next to Sunset, his hands folded patiently in front of him. The silence returned until the coffee maker was finished brewing and the others ate silently. One could cut the tension in the room with a knife as Twilight got up, poured coffee for Sunset and placed it on the table. As the unicorn took the coffee without a word, Twilight decided to break the unbearable silence and change the subject. “Um, Tobias? This might sound like a random and strange question, but what’s your homeland like?”
Tobias paused briefly, then swallowed what was in his mouth before facing her. He wiped his mouth clean before speaking. “Panthera is a remarkable place, from what I remember of it and from what little news we receive in Thornfall. It’s pretty prosperous, and while it’s not as technologically advanced as Equestria might be, it’s still a peaceful place.”
She’d heard similar stories before, but was curious to know more. “I wish I could visit sometime, but I doubt I could afford it,” she said.
Tobias gave a wistful smile as he looked up at the ceiling. “Well, it’s pretty different from Equestria as far as I’ve seen, but in other ways it’s similar. It’s a kingdom like Equestria. The Highclaw family has ruled over the kingdom for about…three hundred years or so. They took the throne away in a revolution against the Nighthunter Dynasty.”
“They don’t sound pleasant,” Maple said. “The Nighthunter ones, I mean.”
“They really weren’t,” Tobias explained. “They were cruel to the common folk and charged an absurd amount in taxes to them. The Highclaws were a minor noble family who rose up and took the throne, executing all of the guilty Nighthunter family members while sparing those too young to know better.”
Twilight shuddered. She knew that executions had been done away with in Equestria about a hundred years after Nightmare Moon, but the fact that another nation had done it only six hundred years later was disconcerting. She frowned and pushed through her own prejudices once more. “That sounds like it was a dark time,” she said.
“It was,” Tobias said, “but it was bound to happen. Those who are in power are always afraid to lose it. Thankfully, the Highclaw Dynasty is much better.”
Twilight thought back to the one time she’d seen two visiting abyssinian dignitaries from Panthera. She was only twelve at that point and had been carrying Spike to lunch when she’d spotted the large cats walking on two legs instead of four like normal cats. They were flanking the Princess, who had a warm smile on her face while speaking to the dignitaries. She later learned that one was the Crown Prince of Panther while the other was the Prince’s younger sister. Both had been in their teens when they visited, so they were already full grown adults now. “I’ve heard that,” Twilight said.
There was a knock at the door just then, a rather heavy one at that. Twilight looked at the door with confusion, as nopony visited her at all save for Maple, but the nurse was comfortable enough to just walk in, not that Twilight minded. “Wonder who’s at the door this early?” Maple asked.
“I’ll go see,” Twilight said as she got up and walked over to the door.
When she opened it, her eyes widened as she saw one of the town guards, a unicorn stallion, standing at the door with a serious look in his eyes. Without preamble or greeting, the guard spoke up. “Miss Sparkle, there’s been a foalnapping. Have you seen or heard anything about three foals named Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, or Scootaloo?”
Discord sat in his house, a floating screen in front of him. He watched from the perspective of one of the current creatures in Shadow Dawn as they ate breakfast in Twilight’s new lighthouse home. He sighed, reaching his claw up to the eyepatch he now wore, touching it gently and wincing a bit as he lowered his claw. He felt something that he hadn’t felt before: helplessness. Thanks to being kept out of current Equestria affairs, all he was able to do was watch. It pained him, but after the one who kept him away explained their reasoning, he had to reluctantly agree with it.
As he continued watching, he felt a presence entering the room, despite there being nobody actually there. Discord waved his paw, dismissing the screen. “What do you want, now?” he asked.
Androgynous but sweet giggling filled the room, echoing as if the voice came from a deep cavern. “It would seem as if you found a way around my rules,” a voice said in that same androgynous voice.
Discord tensed. He knew the owner of the voice would have figured him out eventually, but not this quickly. Knowing he was caught, he said, “You didn’t think I’d just sit back and do nothing, did you?”
“Be at ease, my dear Discord,” the voice said, “I will allow this to continue. After all, it was foreseen. But be forewarned, the actions you took will have personal consequences for you.”
Discord waved his paw dismissively. “It’s not like you did anything when he showed up.”
“You know I do not work in such a manner.”
“Bull. Shit,” Discord snapped back, standing and looking up at the ceiling. “You know I could fix this issue with a snap of my fingers, so why not let me?!”
“I have already informed you of my reasons,” the voice said in a stern, matter-of-fact tone. “Your devotion to changing yourself for the better as of late is most reassuring, and I do welcome it, but they are not as devoted as you.”
“I know some are!” Discord snapped. “I’ve seen it!”
“I am aware, but they changed far too late,” the voice said in a disappointed tone. “And yet, others have not changed despite everything.” There was silence for a few seconds before the voice began again. “You know why I have asked you to stay away. However, I will allow you this concession of looking in on them until I deem otherwise.”
Discord gritted his teeth, but knew he could do nothing in this situation. The owner of the voice was powerful, more so than he ever could be. “Haven’t they suffered enough?” he asked, a hint of worry in his voice now.
“The time will soon come when their greatest trial will commence,” the voice said, “and neither one of us must interfere. It must be their choice and theirs alone without outside interference.” There was a pause, then the voice’s tone softened. “I know your fondness for them, but you cannot interfere in this. It is a critical step in their growth. Either they will succeed or they will fail.”
Discord did something he never thought he’d ever do again. He snapped and a cigarette appeared in his paw, already lit. He took a big drag of it and let the nicotine soothe him. As he exhaled, he said, “I hate you.”
“I am fond of you too, my old friend. For what it may be worth, I am sorry that this must happen.”
Discord’s anger disappeared. He couldn’t be angry at the owner of the voice. Deep down, he knew they were right. He couldn’t baby them in this instance. They fucked around and found out, as the human saying went. He stroked his goatee. “No, don’t be sorry. I know why you’re doing it.” Discord took another drag and let it out a little while later. “I’m just glad I was able to do something for…” he drifted off.
“Yes,” the voice said with a warmth to it now, “that was quite a clever ploy to save him, and you did well on that front. Now then, I must bid you farewell.”
As the voice vanished, Discord felt a slight breeze through his goatee, which then straightened out to become a bit more well-kept. He sighed. “I hate when you do that…” he said as he grabbed at the goatee, fixing it to his liking once again. Once more, he reached up to the patch on his eye, touching it before standing, walking over to a mirror, and removing it. The eye was gone, replaced by a swirling black void with a bit of white mixed in. He put the eyepatch back on. “Worth it,” he said as he went back to his lounge chair, sitting down and looking back at the screen. He took another drag and watched the scene before him unfold. Things were about to take a turn for Maretime Bay and all of Equestria, and all he could do was watch.
Far away, in another part of the world magic mirror activated once more, and the alicorn stood alone, watching the same scene that Discord was watching unfold before her. The alicorn could sense that someone else was watching with her, but even with her increased magical power, she couldn’t locate the source. However, the once great ruler of ponykind and the once most magical of all ponies wasn’t focused on that. Instead, she was focused on three foals sleeping on cots in a treehouse. She knew of these three from her contacts in the city, but what looked to be about to happen was not something that was part of her plans.
She watched the solitary mare approaching them, a wild look in said mare’s eyes. Shaking her head, the queen looked into the darkness behind her throne, a place forbidden to the ponies under her protection and command. “Equestria has fallen so far,” she said sadly. “What say you, my old companion?”
There was silence for a bit, then there was the sound of massive rustling from beyond. A pair of glowing green reptilian eyes appeared and a green flame emerged from the shadows, illuminating an ancient but still quite powerful dragon for a brief moment. A deep, rumbling voice spoke. “Yes, your majesty.”
The alicorn smiled warmly. “Now now, there’s no need for such formalities. We’re friends, you and I.”
“As you say,” the dragon replied before retreating further back into the shadows.
She turned back as the crazed looking mare approached the treehouse. “Yes…friends…”
Twilight’s world was turned upside down in that moment. She had heard what the guard had said, but could barely comprehend it. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute as she tried to process what had just been revealed to her. Eventually, she managed to croak out, “C-Could you repeat that?”
The guard nodded and said, “Three young foals have been foalnapped. Their parents and legal guardians have received no ransom note and no demands. Have you heard anything that might be pertinent to the search?”
This snapped Twilight back into action. “No, sir, I haven’t,” she said, “but I could help with the search.”
“This is a matter for the guard, miss Sparkle,” the guard said.
“Do any of your guards know about tracking spells?” Twilight asked, feeling antsy now and wanting to help. There were things in her past that she wanted to make up for, and her treatment of the CMC during the Gabby Gums incident was one of them.
The guard’s professional demeanor faltered a bit and a look of uncertainty passed over his face. “Well, nopony in our regiment knows anything of that sort, but-”
“I know a tracking spell that can find them!” Twilight took a step forward. “Let me help!”
The guard took on a stern expression. “With all due respect, miss, you’re not a princess anymore. You’re a civilian.”
“I can still help with tracking them before they get hurt!”
The guard continued staring back at Twilight, his stern glare being returned by her determined and frantic one. The stare down was interrupted when a voice asked, “What if you hired us to help?”
Twilight looked behind her to see a smirking Sunset Shimmer now standing there, looking at Twilight. The guard looked at her and asked, “And who are you?”
“Who I am isn’t important,” she said, “but what is important is that we’re not civilians. My comrades and I are a mercenary group who will gladly help…for the right price.”
Twilight saw Tobias quickly rushing up to Sunset’s side. From behind, the masked Revan stood a few steps away, arms behind his back as he watched the current proceedings. The guard frowned. “Mercenaries…I thought those were illegal.”
Sunset shook her head. “According to the Royal Guard Bylaws as set down by Princess Celestia Solaris over nine hundred years ago, ‘In times of duress, outside assistance may be procured.’ We’re outside assistance, and we’d be willing to help for the right price.”
“I don’t have the authority to make that decision,” the guard said, and Twilight could see that he was tensing up at the sight of the abyssinian and masked figure.
“Then take us to someone with the authority,” Sunset declared. “We can help, and there’s no time to waste. I know the same tracking spell as our disgraced princess here, and-” She was immediately stopped when someone came up behind her and smacked her on the back of the head. “Ow!”
“Behave yourself,” Revan snapped, looking down at her.
Tobias took the lead and stepped forward, inclining his head to the guard. “My companion’s harsh words aside, she’s right. We can track down the kidnapper and help deal with them.”
The guard looked at Tobias, then after a few moments he sighed. “I can’t make that decision, but my sergeant can. Come with me.”
“Give us some time to collect our things and we’ll be right out,” Tobias said, and in a single motion, he and Revan moved as one to the stairs. Sunset followed close behind.
The guard watched them go and shook his head. “Mercenaries…we don’t need their scum…”
“They saved me yesterday from being attacked,” Twilight said quickly in their defense.
The guard looked a bit taken aback by this. “So, you’re the mare that got attacked by those group of hooligans yesterday.” She nodded in response. “I had no idea.”
A few minutes later, the three came back down, now all geared up and ready to go. “We’re ready, sir,” Tobias said.
The guard nodded. “I can’t believe I’m doing this…alright, follow me.” With that, he turned and began trotting down the path.
Twilight wasn’t sure why, but on an impulse, she decided she would tag along. She quickly told Maple what she was doing before she rushed out of the house after the four. The guard didn’t say anything about her tagging along, so the five of them walked down the street, and quickly they reached the guardhouse near the center of town next to the town hall, the only building that was modeled nearly identically to the one in Ponyville. They entered, and the guard told the group to wait while he got the sergeant. Sunset sat in one of the lobby chairs while Twilight did the same. Tobias and Revan stood nearby as the chairs here wouldn’t fit them.
Eventually, an older, surly looking unicorn stallion with light lime colored fur and pale blue mane and tail stepped out of the room where the guard had entered. He looked over at the four and scowled. “Alright, which one of youse is da leader of dis here mercenary group?” he asked in a semi-thick Manehattan accent.
Twilight watched as Tobias gently put a paw on Revan’s back, pushing the masked being forward. “This is our leader, sergeant,” Tobias said. “Revan.”
The sergeant looked up at Revan with a stern expression, looking him up and down before he said, “And what can youse do to help us?”
Tobias turned and pointed to Sunset. “She can use a tracking spell to find them.”
“My guard tells me youse like teh get paid fer yer services,” the sergeant said. “Why shoulds we? Youse mercenaries are as dishonest as dey come.”
“Why you little piece of-” Sunset began, but when Revan held up a hand, she stopped.
Tobias then looked the sergeant and took a step forward, his expression hardening. “Let me ask you something. Have you ever been unable to have a guaranteed meal? Have you ever had to ration your own food to the point of malnutrition? Being in the Guard, I expect you could get paid by just sitting on your rears and doing nothing. Our time is precious to us. The longer we’re without work, the more we have to spread our money thin. We’re offering a service for a price, and it would seem you’d ignore a means of finding these foals just because you look down on mercenaries. Or is it because, like Jason Wright, two of us are not ponies?”
The sergeant’s score turned into pure rage. “How dare youse accuse me of being like these Ponyville rats?!”
“We have expenses to pay, same as you!” Tobias snapped back, tail puffed behind him as he took another step forward. To her surprise, Twilight saw the sergeant take a step back. Tobias pointed a finger at him in an accusing manner. “You can hate us all you want, but we don’t want any harm falling to those foals! Our rates are not as high as you might think!” He pulled out a piece of paper from a pocket on his coat, slamming it down on the desk and causing a crack to form on the wooden surface. “See??”
The sergeant hesitantly took the paper and looked over it. He pursed his lips, then looked up at Tobias. “And does your silent leader agree wid dis?”
Revan then stepped forward, his heavy boot ringing out as he stepped beside Tobias. “Fifty bits for an emergency hiring fee, no refunds on that, two hundred to get the job done, paid out half now, half upon completion. Any expenses we incur are also paid for. And the Shadow Dawn group guarantees that until the contract is complete, we won’t betray our employers. Even if one of your princesses offered us all the power and wealth in the world to stop, we wouldn’t.”
Twilight thought about it, and could actually see things from their point of view. Mercenaries did odd jobs; that’s how they lived, after all. In a way, the stereotype about mercenaries ditching other clients for a bigger paycheck made sense. Which is what made Revan’s last sentence so jarring to her.
She decided to speak up for them. Standing, she walked over and stood next to the two. “These three saved me from assault yesterday,” she reminded the sergeant, “and they didn’t ask for anything in return. Why not take a chance? I failed to do that with Jason, and Ponyville did too. Why not be better than we were?” Truthfully, she was playing on the guard’s belief that they were better followers of Harmony than she was.
“And this way, if it is a trap, why risk your own guard?” Tobias mentioned. “From what I’ve seen, you’re spread thin enough as it is. Not enough of a budget to bring in fresh meat?” He grinned slightly at this.
Time passed as the sergeant seemed lost in thought. A half minute later, the sergeant nodded. “Fine, we’ll hire youse teh help.”
Tobias nodded and presented the paper to the sergeant. “Just sign here, and we’ll start. One hundred and fifty bits upfront. If we fail, you get the hundred back and you don’t have to pay us the two hundred.”
The sergeant mumbled something under his breath, and picked up a pen.
Sunset sat at the bottom of the now destroyed tree house, focusing her magic. Nearby, she heard the angry country accent of Applejack muttering something while the posh accent of Rarity was also speaking with worry. Aside from them, a single pegasus guard, her fellow mercenaries and Twilight were waiting silently. Sunset continued to search, looking through the magic left behind by the foalnapper to try and lock onto its current location.
Whoever had come here, however, must have been earth ponies because their magical presences were always the weakest out of all the tribes. She’d always struggled with them, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t succeed here. She was stronger now, her ambition to be better driving her to reach new highs in her personal magic training.
In a while, she had something. A small strand of hair had been left behind, and she locked onto it. Picking it up with her magic, she wrapped it around her horn’s grooves and concentrated. Instantly, the presence of the individual was found. She opened her eyes and stood. “Found them.”
“Where??” Rarity asked.
Sunset turned with a scowl towards the unworthy former element bearer. Still, she realized she had to behave here or risk losing the new money they’d be getting. “North,” was all she said as she got up and trotted away, heading in said direction.
Her two new companions swiftly took up positions beside her on either side. Sunset was surprised at how swift Revan was, especially when he was wearing such thick clothes for a warm early summer morning. He seemed light on his feet and used his surroundings to his advantage quite well. Of course, Tobias was much lighter and moved much swifter. She could see that Revan received his movements from Tobias, probably as some sort of training.
The group ran through the streets of Maretime Bay, making their way down the large boardwalk. Sunset almost ran into a smoothie stand at one point because she was so focused on following the source of her tracking spell. Once she was close enough to the general location, she pointed towards a large building that loomed over the town. “There. They’re in that unfinished building there.”
“What in tarnation is that building?” Applejack asked.
“Canterlogic,” Twilight explained. “A few ponies are trying to make Maretime Bay more profitable by creating a startup business by combining their resources. I think Filthy Rich has been funding most of it-”
“We can get lessons later!” Tobias interrupted as he looked over at Revan. “I’ll scout ahead!” With that, his speed increased and he leaped onto the tops of the houses and buildings, running deftly on the rooftops while making his way towards Canterlogic.
“My, isn’t he limber?” Rarity pondered.
“He’s an abyssinian, what did you expect?” Sunset snapped back.
“Enough,” Revan chided her sternly.
Soon they approached a chain link fence that surrounded the Canterlogic building. Sunset now realized that this was meant to be some sort of factory, but for what she had no clue. The gates had been busted open with a broken chain lock on the ground. Tobias was waiting nearby, arms behind his back. In a quiet voice he said, “Someone is in there, and they’re talking constantly.”
“Constantly? What about?” Revan asked.
“Sounds like they’re rambling on and on,” Tobias said.
Sunset watched as Revan looked back at the others who’d come with them. She did as well, trying to see what he was seeing. So far, she only saw a ragtag group of ponies, such as Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, and the mercenary group. “Did you get a good look at the kidnapper?” he asked
“Earth pony mare, older, pink fur, frazzled purple mane and tail, with a diamond ring for a cutie mark,” Tobias quickly said.
“That sounds like Spoiled Milk!” Applejack said.
“Who’s that?” Tobias asked.
“She’s the ex-wife of Filthy Rich,” Twilight explained.
“Why in the world would she foalnap our sisters?” Rarity asked, an angry expression forming on her face.
“We’ve had some trouble with her,” the mare guard, a dark brown furred and black maned pegasus named Quick Pace, finally spoke up. “We’ve had been investigating her for possible drug use. Rut or Bronco, we can’t be sure.”
That elicited a reaction from the other ponies, specifically various looks of horror and disgust. Tobias, however, simply nodded. “If my knowledge of pony narcotics is any indication, it sounds a lot like she took Bronco. She had dilated pupils, was talking nonsense, and she was pacing back and forth.”
“Did ya see our kin?” Applejack asked.
“No, but I thought I heard someone crying, and it sounded like children,” Tobias replied.
“It sounds like she’ll be hard to reason with,” Revan said in a thoughtful tone.
Twilight nodded. “If she’s on Bronco, she’ll be behaving erratically and she won’t be able to think too much.”
“She couldn’t have acted alone,” Quick Pace said.
“I didn’t see anyone else, but they could be hiding,” Tobias said. “There’s a lot of wooden boxes in there and other places to easily hide.”
“Hired help?” Rarity asked, giving a sideways glance towards Tobias and Revan.
“She did get a nice settlement in the divorce, I heard,” Quick said.
Tobias had ignored the look Rarity had given them and was instead looking at Revan. “You got any ideas, boss?”
Revan was looking at the unfinished Canterlogic building, and while Sunset couldn’t see his face, she guessed that he looked thoughtful underneath that mask. After a bit, he spoke. “If this Spoiled Milk is indeed inside and high on some sort of drugs, we can’t go in weapon’s blazing.” He turned quickly to Sunset and pointed at her. “Sunset, do you have a spell that can detect living beings?”
Sunset nodded, a bit surprised that Revan had spoken to her. “I do, but at this range I might not be able to tell if it’s a sapient being or a sentient one, only if it had some sort of pulse.”
“There shouldn’t be animals on the premises,” Twilight said. “I saw some animal repellent stakes just outside the perimeter.”
“Use the spell, Sunset,” he ordered briskly.
Sunset bristled a bit at the tone of his order, but complied, turning towards the building, closing her eyes, then casting a spell that expanded to the unfinished building and several meters beyond. Immediately, she could detect several heartbeats. Three were together in a basement, which was probably the foalnapped fillies. Their heart rates were elevated. One had a dangerously high heart rate, and she figured that was the pony called Spoiled Milk. However, there were eight other heartbeats inside the facility. Their heartbeats were a lot steadier. Two of them were in close proximity to the three elevated heart rates.
She opened her eyes and turned back to Revan. “Twelve total,” she reported. “The three fillies I believe are in the basement area of the building. I believe Spoiled is in there, but she’s got six others working with her. They’re scattered throughout the building. Two are near the fillies.”
Revan nodded as he absorbed this information. “You can’t tell what the status of the fillies is from here?” he asked.
“They have a bit of an elevated heart rate. That’s all I know.”
“Shouldn’t we be bustin’ in there and gettin’ our kin back now?” Applejack asked with a scowl.
“We can’t risk the fillies in there,” Quick said. “If this mare’s right and there are two ponies standing guard over the fillies, the moment we ‘bust in’, they could harm the hostages.”
“Stay back and let us handle things,” Revan said sternly to the family members of the foalnapped teens.
“You cannot simply expect us to stand by and do nothing while those three are held prisoner by somepony!” Rarity exclaimed testily.
“That’s exactly what I expect you to do,” Revan replied in a calm tone, although with his mask distorting his voice it was a bit harder to tell.
“You’re a civilian, ma’am,” Tobias explained further, “so if you interfered, you could put your family members in danger. We and the guards here can handle this. The guards are professionals, and we’re experienced mercenaries.”
Rarity was about to say something, but Applejack pulled her back. “Let ‘em be, sugarcube. They’re right.”
Sunset inwardly smirked a bit before she turned back to Revan and Tobias. “Anyone got a plan?”
Revan and Tobias glanced at each other before the latter picked up a stick and began quickly drawing something in the dirt. Sunset quickly realized that he was drawing an outline of the building. When he was finished, he offered the stick to Sunset. “Where’d you detect the other heartbeats?”
Sunset took the stick and quickly drew circles where she’d detected the heart rates. “The fillies and two others were in a lower part of the building like I said, right here,” she further explained while she drew a larger circle around the northwestern portion.
“There is a set of stairs in that general direction,” Quick said.
“Tobias, think you can sneak over in that direction and take out the guards before getting to the fillies?” Revan asked.
Tobias grinned, showing his sharp feline teeth which made Sunset shiver. They were the teeth of a predator about to go on the hunt. “Consider it done.”
“What are we gonna do?” Sunset asked.
“We go in stealthily and distract the hired help,” Revan explained. “We give Tobias enough time to get the fillies to safety.”
“I’ll go with him,” Quick said, stepping forward. “I’m well trained in hoof-to-hoof self defense and can disarm an opponent easily.”
“Good, always nice to have backup,” Tobias said, flashing a grin to the mare.
Revan nodded, then turned to Sunset. “Limits of teleportation magic, go,” he said authoritatively.
Sunset straightened almost automatically as his tone reminded her somewhat of Celestia’s when she addressed the guards back in Canterlot. “Line of sight only for places I’ve never seen before,” she began, “and I can’t teleport where objects already are.”
“Matter can’t occupy the same space, logical,” Revan said. “How fast is your casting time?”
Instead of telling him, Sunset decided to show off and teleported a few feet away, then a few yards away, then into the air, then back to her original position before she began falling. “That answer your question?”
Revan stared at her, then she heard him sighing. “You wasted precious magic to show off,” he said in a disappointed tone.
Sunset’s pride was instantly hurt by this. She got defensive. “My magic doesn’t run out as fast as your average unicorn, thank you very much,” she said. “I can last a long time!”
“We’ll discuss your theatrics later,” he said. “Now then, while the guards are trying to negotiate with the perps, you and I should go, find the six on the main level, and take them out of commission. And Sunset?”
Sunset, still a bit bitter by being lectured on someone who knew less about magic than she did, looked at him begrudgingly. “What?”
“Lethal force is authorized only if needed.”
That made Sunset’s stomach turn and she fought not to lose her breakfast. She kept her face stony, however, and simply nodded. She’d never taken a life in all of her travels around the world, as she had relied on her magic to subjugate anyone she met without killing. Still, she could only assume that, like Tobias, Revan was a predator species underneath that mask and those thick clothes. “Right,” was all she could say.
“Do you really need to do something so vile?” Rarity asked, having clearly overheard the conversation.
Sunset heard a shift in Revan’s voice, and she didn’t need to be an empath to understand what the tone meant. He was angry. “Kidnappers or anyone working for them will receive no mercy from me. Especially those who are stupid enough to be on drugs. They’re cowards who hide behind the innocent.” He reached down to his belt where Sunset saw him putting his claws around a strange looking metal device that she guessed was a weapon. “I won’t try to kill them, but if there’s no other choice, I won’t hesitate.”
Sunset shivered. She could tell that, aside from that pony from a few nights ago, he had taken his share of lives. Living out in the Badlands, it was kill or be killed. Sunset had learned that for most of the world it was the same. Equestria, for all its flaws, was a rare oasis of peace, even if that peace came at the expense of underpaid nonpony workers and undercurrents of xenophobia and speciesism. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. She could do this if needed. “Understood,” she said, and she was dismayed to hear her own voice shake slightly.
“Tobias, you and Quick move out,” Revan ordered as he pointed to Sunset. “You’re with me. Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity, you stay back.”
“Ah don’t like stayin’ back, but alright,” Applejack conceded.
With that, Sunset and Revan split apart from the group while Quick and Tobias went towards the other side of the building. As the former two approached the building, Sunset looked at Revan. “Just so you know, my detection spell is still active, but I can’t cast anything else while I’m doing it right now.”
“You cast and lead me to them, and I’ll knock them out,” Revan quickly replied.
She nodded and the two continued forward. She was once again surprised by how stealthy that Revan was. He wasn’t as good as Tobias, who had appeared to vanish into some nearby brush, but he had good control over how much noise he made, which was very little. A part of her wondered if the mask he wore had something to do with it, seeing as it was the only part of him she could somewhat detect with her magic.
As they walked towards a side door which hadn’t yet been attached, Sunset began hearing an echoing voice coming from the interior of the building, and she knew right away that whoever this Spoiled Milk was, she was definitely on Bronco. She knew the effects of the narcotic, and a lack of a filter was one of them.
“…coming, I know they are, but they won’t find the foals, oh no, no no no. They should be made to suffer like me. I hate them all, hate them all, hate them all! Hush, can’t let them find me, so shut up, mouth! Gah!”
The voice continued to mutter random nonsense after that, but it allowed the two to enter. Just as Tobias had said, there was only one pony visible, and she looked crazed as she walked back and forth on an upper walkway that looked freshly constructed. Despite the crazed look, the mare had a haughty manner about her, looking down her nasty looking nose often at the stacks of full pallets that had boxes piled high on each, creating a maze in whatever warehouse this place was currently.
Sunset took the lead, moving quickly out of sight beneath Spoiled’s high ground. She still had the heartbeat spell on passive casting, and the others with Spoiled weren’t moving, at least not yet. She led Revan quietly into the shadows and waited for him to join, which he did quickly enough. The two then began moving quietly down towards the first location.
The first creature they found was actually a dark green but burly earth pony stallion with a frightening visage. Or it would have been frightening to Sunset if it hadn’t been for her experience in the world. The monstrous Sandworms in the southern deserts near Klugetown were scarier. Thankfully, this pony was looking away from them, so all it took to subdue him was for Revan to remove the strange metallic weapon from his belt and bring it crashing down onto the pony’s head. With a moan, the pony slumped forward, being caught by Revan before he put the pony down.
“I seeee yoooouuu,” the crazed voice of Spoiled Milk came from above, which prompted Revan and Sunset to press themselves against the pallets. They listened as Spoiled continued. “I see eeeeveryyyythiiiing. Hee hee hee. One…two…three…four…five…and six is probably in the bathroom again, that stupid brute.”
Sunset relaxed a bit, although this meant that the other five were in sight of Spoiled. Drugged or not, she could still alert the others here to their presence. If that happened, they’d be in for the fight of their lives if the other five converged on their position.
After the mare’s voice became quieter, the two moved again, approaching a second target. This target was a dark pinkish red pegasus mare who was floating in the air with a bored expression on her face. She passed the two slowly, which gave Revan the opportunity to bring his metal weapon down onto the mare’s head. Once more, he caught her and set her down out of sight before the two slipped into another spot between a pair of large pallets.
They managed to take out a unicorn stallion before Spoiled’s voice came crying out, “Look at that! Some little insects have flown into my little web! They’re here!”
In the distance, a pegasus stallion suddenly flew into the air towards what Sunset realized was a small cloud. He stepped onto it, quickly looked around, and spotted Sunset and Revan. He shouted out a warning, and two pairs of hoofsteps began galloping towards them. The pegasus leaped up on his cloud and came down. A bolt of lightning came out of it, right down towards Revan.
Not needing to cast the detection spell anymore, Sunset dropped it and brought up a shield around the two, causing the bolt to shoot off elsewhere. It struck a window and it exploded in a shower of glass and bits of the metal frame.
Two other ponies came around a corner, one a unicorn mare with a powerful magical presence and an earth pony mare who looked strong. Sunset saw Revan draw out the other weapon from his belt, but before he could do anything with it, another bolt of lightning impacted Sunset’s shield along with a blast of powerful offensive magic from the unicorn.
Left with no options, the two began moving back towards a place where they wouldn’t be in sight of the pegasus and his aerial attacks. The unicorn continued her assault against Sunset’s shield while the earth pony mare jumped at the shield, impacting it hard. All she got for her troubles was her being thrown back. That didn’t seem to affect her in the slightest, though, as she got back up and began to bash heavily at the domed shield.
Sunset was a powerful magic user, that much she knew, but even she had her limits. Three powerful assaults, one from above, was quickly beginning to drain her. Inwardly, she cursed herself for having shown off to Revan earlier. She tried to figure out a way to teleport her and Revan without hurting either of them, but when she remembered how her healing spell had left her feeling even more drained than normal, she knew that wasn’t an option.
“You poor, simple fools!” Spoiled said with a cackle. “Thinking you could defeat me! ME!”
Sunset’s mind raced, looking for any options she could think of. Her eyes darted about while Revan stood there, both weapons in his claws as he simply stood there, his hood now removed to reveal that the mask he wore covered his entire head. He wasn’t moving, which infuriated her, but her frustration turned to confusion when he said, “Open the shield and let me out.”
She looked at him incredulously. “What? Are you insane!?”
“Don’t argue. Do it. And cover your ears when I’m out.”
The tone of Revan’s voice was somehow calm and collected, although she thought she could detect a hint of tension in it. She hesitated for a second, but nodded. A hole appeared in her shield near the back where there was the least chance of being attacked. Revan dove out and Sunset brought the shield back up just in time to avoid a bolt of electricity from another lightning bolt that would have entered the shield had it not been open.
She had barely covered her ears with her hooves when a loud familiar sound rang out. The lightning suddenly stopped and she heard somepony cry out, followed closely by something crashing into a pallet. The earth pony and unicorn briefly stopped and looked back.
Sunset took the opportunity to drop her shield and fire a blast of offensive magic at the earth pony, as she was the closer threat. Her magic enveloped the mare, causing her to yelp briefly before falling unconscious.
However, that yelp had alerted the unicorn, who faced them again. Sunset tried raising her shield again, but part of the enemy unicorn’s blast caught her and sent her sprawling back into her own shield. Her loss of concentration made her drop the shield. Dazed and confused, she moaned as she tried to get up, the impact having knocked the wind out of her. Another explosion rang out and the unicorn screamed in pain.
When she came back fully to her senses, she looked and saw that the unicorn was writhing in pain on the ground, holding her head in her forehooves. Her horn was gone, and Sunset could see blood and bits of horn scattered on the ground. Revan walked past her and made his way to a set of stairs.
Only to stop and aim his weapon up. In a dark voice, he growled, “Let the filly go.”
“Ah ah ah, not gonna happen, you monster,” Spoiled said with what sounded like insane laughter.
Sunset quietly got up and tried making her way to a spot where she could get a teleportation spell off, but the sound of a whimpering filly made her pause. “M-Mommy…why…?” the filly’s voice asked.
Sunset saw Revan’s normally glowing blue eyes turn a menacing red, as did the glowing lights around where she suspected his mouth was. “You monster,” he growled.
“I’m no monster!” she shouted, sounding angry now.
“Mommy, you’re hurting me!” the filly cried out.
Sunset couldn’t believe that anypony could have fallen so low. A part of her wondered if pony civilization was even worth saving at this point. She was quickly running through her options when three other mares came barreling into the unfinished building, looking up in horror at whatever Spoiled was doing. Sunset gritted her teeth as Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack all looked slack jawed at the pony above. “Sweet Celestia…” Twilight muttered, eyes full of disbelief.
“Ahaha! Here they are! The architects of my demise!” Spoiled said.
Sunset quickly walked out and moved in front of the three ponies. Here, she got a good view of the scene before her, and she understood what was going on. Spoiled had a knife against the neck of a pink teenage earth pony filly with a tiara on her head. She looked completely terrified and her eyes were bloodshot from crying. Sunset turned and whispered, “Get out of here, damn it!”
Twilight, however, ignored her and raised both her hooves, standing on her back legs. “Spoiled, please…you don’t have to do this…”
Sunset looked more closely at the mare, and saw just how far gone she was. Her mane, which had probably at one point been rather well kept, was drenched in sweat, her pupils were shrunken, her eyes bloodshot, and she had a crazed expression on her face. “Look who’s talking, you complete and utter failure!”
“Let the filly go,” Revan demanded.
Sunset was about to attempt a teleportation spell up there when she saw a sight that nearly made her sigh in relief. Tobias had jumped up from a spot behind the walkway where Spoiled held her daughter captive and was sneaking towards them. She also saw Quick moving three filles away, a unicorn, a pegasus and an earth pony. Spoiled looked at the masked creature before her. “I know what you are, freak,” she giggled. “My eyes are opened now! I can see so much more!”
Sunset saw Revan’s hand clench a bit as he raised the weapon higher. “Don’t make me use this,” he said darkly, the color of the eyes on his mask becoming a more menacing red.
She didn’t seem to care as she was laughing. “Take that ridiculous thing off,” she said with a smug tone. “Do it, or she dies!” With that, she pressed the knife to the filly’s neck, drawing a bit of blood.
Slowly, Revan lowered the weapon. He put it back on his belt and slowly began to move his hand towards the front of his mask. Spoiled’s expression turned almost gleeful, and it was due to this distraction that led Tobias to silently land behind her with a nimble leap before he kicked the hoof that was holding the blade away, sending it falling to the ground below. Spoiled turned in shock only to receive a fist to the face, dropping her like a sack of potatoes. He quickly knelt and picked up the trembling teenager filly along with the now unconscious mare, quickly leaping over the railing and landing expertly in front of them, a smile on his lips. “Anyone expecting a delivery of a crazy mare and an innocent filly?” he asked, gently placing the filly down while nonchalantly tossing the unconscious mare to the ground unceremoniously.
As Applejack and Rarity ran up to their sisters, Quick walked up and looked at the unconscious Spoiled. Kneeling down, she opened one eye, then opened Spoiled’s mouth. She slowly stood back up and nodded. “Yep. She took Bronco.”
Sunset looked over at the four foals and two older mare family members. She saw the pegasus standing near the pink earth pony filly, trying to comfort her in some way, or perhaps it was that both of them were trying to find comfort in each other. She felt something on the back of her head, and when she looked up, she saw Revan looking down at her. His eyes and mouthpiece were back to glowing blue. “You did well,” he said.
Sunset stood proudly and nodded. “Of course,” she said.
Revan didn’t reply, but instead he turned to Tobias and nodded at the abyssinian. “Good job to you too,” he said.
“Thanks,” Tobias said.
“Thanks,” Tobias said.
“Abuse of a foal from a mare with no soul, your judgement day is nigh.”
“For what you consume “shall become your tomb “as a tree may you see with new eyes.”
As the sound of the echoing voice faded away only to be replaced with the casting of magic, Revan removed the weapons from his belt, looking for the source of said magic while Tobias drew the rapiers on his side and Sunset and Twilight both ignited their horns. However, the sound of magic being cast came not from the unicorn and alicorn, but instead came from the unconscious Spoiled. Everyone turned and watched as she was engulfed in a strange glowing white light. Sunset watched in horror as the pony began morphing. The transformation quickly woke the mare who began screaming in utter agony and fear.
The transformation started at her back legs, which quickly began to turn into a pair of strange rootlike appendages. Spoiled tried to run, but seemed to be unable to do so, now rooted firmly in place to the concrete floor. She screamed for help, but the transformation only increased, until finally her scream was cut out when it engulfed her entirely, leaving a small oddly shaped tree in place of what had once been a living, breathing mare.
Nobody spoke for a bit, everyone too stunned to speak up. What eventually broke the silence was Revan taking a step forward, looking down at the new tree with roots and trunk breaking through the concrete. He looked at it, then Sunset watched as he looked up at the ceiling. “It couldn’t be her…”
“Revan, what do you mean?” Tobias asked, placing a paw on Revan’s shoulder. The moment he did, though, Tobias’ tail began to puff. “Revan?! You’re shaking!”
“It’s her…it’s Queen Majesty…” was all that Revan said. The way he said it sent shivers down Sunset’s spine. Because the tone of Revan’s voice was one of fear.
While looking through the mirror, the alicorn raised an eyebrow. She’d been watching the scene at the new building in Maretime Bay, mostly curious to see what kind of creature a human was. No doubt he had some skill, and his weapons were something to behold, but she doubted that he was any threat to her.
But then he’d mentioned her ancient name. The name from when she’d been a unicorn princess long before her ascension, then subsequent capture and imprisonment in stone by an enemy even she hadn’t been able to defeat at the time. She leaned forward and looked at the mask more closely now, something about it feeling familiar. She tilted her head and scowled. Everything about him was unreadable by even her most powerful detection spells, but the face mask that he wore was different. It was as if only the surface of the mask was covered in the same material as his clothes.
“So…it’s your doing…” she said in an uncharacteristically angry tone, her horn beginning to glow. “You were wise to hide from me, my old foe…” She collected herself and faced the mirror again, focusing closer on the human, a smile crossed her lips. Queen Majesty, the former queen of Ponyland and denizen of Dream Castle in Dream Valley touched the mirror serenely. “You’re hiding something…and I’ll find out what it is. My dear human boy…”
