> A Long Way From Equestria: Going Beyond Our Duty
>  by Fluttersyke
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 0: A History Lesson
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A Long Way From Equestria


Chapter 0: A History Lesson


By Fluttersyke


Unity


        I have to say, I’m not exactly what you’d call a history buff. My knowledge of the time when Twilight Sparkle and her friends roamed Equestria in peace and harmony was pretty much non existent for the first few months after I escaped from the country I once swore my allegiance to. And I still don’t know a whole heck of a lot about what happened between that time, The Golden Age of Harmony, and my time. The current period of pony history; which we actually came up with a pretty accurate title for: The Age of Arrogance, Depression, and War. 

Really, I’m missing so many pieces of the story that I don’t even know why I’m the one talking to you right now... But there’s nothing for it now, you’re stuck with me; I just hope I can give you a decent understanding of my world.

        Let’s start off with the basics; firstly, one big event I do actually know a bit about is the Stellar War, or Wars (If you’re an egghead like Somepony). Basically, a long time ago, in an Equestria far, far different from this one... two all-powerful alicorns had taken care of ponies for millennia, the were the goddesses of the Sun and Moon and their only goal was to protect the ponies in their kingdom. Unfortunately, something caused these ruling sisters of the land to get into a bit of a... disagreement.

That ‘disagreement’ led to sides being taken, swords being re-invented (and then sharpened), and a great, bloody battle that ended with neither side the victor. There’s a lot more detail than that and it isn’t as black and white as it sounds; neither sister was evil. In fact, given Equestria’s history, you may begin to suspect that no pony is born evil, but that evil itself picks and chooses the ponies it infects. Almost like it is more of a... sentient spirit, than just a descriptive term for a plothole. But back to the story! (Sorry, I’ve been told I go off on tangents quite a bi- )

        *Ahem* Right, where was I? 

The first battle in what became known as the Stellar Wars was fought on Equestrian soil and ended with Celestia, the older sister, retreating with her army to the ancient fortress of Canterlot; where she quickly drew out a territory for her sister to reside in that didn’t directly interfere with her Equestria’s daily life. Luna, the younger sister who had been the instigator of the war, was incredibly eager for peace, and she readily agreed to her elder’s terms. She crossed the large desert to the west with her faithful followers and founding the New Pony Common Wealth, a nation led by Luna and organized by six of her best friends: Twilight Sparkle and the other Elements of Harmony (Who apparently were rather adamant about which side was in the right from the very beginning... I can’t make heads or tails of these old ponies, but I guess these six were quite well known, especially since they repeatedly saved the princess’s plots oh, ten or fifty times before the war began).

        Celestia, meanwhile, organized a new nation of her own. Built around a strong central government ruled by its Empress and its Empress alone, (after this second disaster with her unruly sister, she was done with sharing power) the Celestial Empire claimed a wide swath of land surrounding Canterlot as its territory; a place where no NPCW citizen could tread. For a time, the two nations co existed relatively well, and some ponies began to hope they could one day be reunited...

        Then, the history books get a little fuzzy. At some point in time, one can assume that the balance shifted for some reason, for the sisters went to war once more. This time with the result of the destruction of the NPCW’s capital, the metropolis formerly known as ‘Freedom’, and the creation of a huge, poisoned streak of land with rocky terrain and twisted forests full of deadly creatures that effectively cut right between the two countries. The Badlands, as this hellish strip of real estate came to be known on both sides, was nigh impassable for any but the most seasoned and alert explorers, a fact that effectively ended all communication between the two nations. Don’t go thinking that they actually got over their differences or forgot about each other though, while Luna is no longer ever mentioned in history, the Empress repeatedly passes decrees declaring anypony coming from the west a traitor to be brought before her in Canterlot immediately for questioning. Not that she got many prisoners though, whatever happened to cause that rift in the land, it either wiped out most of the NPCW, or the Empress wants it to seem that way. No detail is ever given on the sisters’ reasons for fighting, and no conclusion is ever drawn as to whether anypony still lives on the far side of the Badlands, or if there even is a far side.

        Given a few secret correspondences however, I know that the New Pony Common Wealth did not die out with the Stellar Wars, but I have no idea if it persevered into present day. Basically, the last record of the NPCW dates back to about fifty years after the very first Stellar battle, after that, there’s nothing written about them for nearly a century. It’s like they just vanished from existence as far as Empire historians are concerned.

Now honestly, I highly doubt that my summary gives you a whole lot of satisfaction, but I’m not here to tell you our history. I’m here to give you the background information necessary for understanding the problems of today, and boy have we got a cart load of those... Nah you’re right, more like a thousand cart loads.

Which brings us to present day, or at least, helps to explain the conditions of present day Equestria. The Celestial Empire is still around; in fact, it’s a super power in a world where the next biggest threat comes from the nation of buffalo to the south, who are severely outgunned.The problem is, the Empire’s a twisted, terrible reflection of what it was supposed to be. Its population is segregated into three different categories: the Model Citizens, the Air Force, and the Soldiers; formerly known as Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies. Unfortunately, the country really does run like that; unicorns reside in the giant city-state of the Capitol underneath Canterlot, with only a few hundred out in the field leading every single branch of the military. Pegasi are almost always drafted into the Swarm, the most effective form of flying death every seen in Equestrian history. Some pegasi are needed to run the cloud cities of course, and there are a few other careers as well, but the job of weather pony has been completely abolished; it’s all cloudy, all the time in the Empire. The Empress decreed that no pegasi should mess with that, which certainly makes sense since the grey, cloudy sky perfectly reflects the grey, drab land beneath it. Moments of sunshine occasionally break through the farther you get from Canterlot, but color in the Empire is a rare thing; it’s almost like the whole damn country was bleached of more and more of its beauty as it grew more and more corrupted. 

But back to the third race, or ‘class’ in the Empire: Earth Ponies. As the ‘unwanted cousins’ of the unicorns, they have two choices, pretty much the only options they’ll ever get to choose for themselves in life. They can either go into production in the fields and factories of the Celestial Empire, or a life long career as a soldier in the Battalion, which constitutes the ground forces of the CE. Given that earth ponies and pegasi are basically treated like crap by every unicorn they come in contact with, it’s a wonder the system has worked for so long. 

I don’t actually know why no pony ever rebelled, and I honestly don’t care, all I know is, somepony needed to tell the entire government to go buck itself, and my friends and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to finally realize what needed to be done; we volunteered for the job as soon as we saw the opening. Now though, we’re in a bit of a jam, and we could definitely use some help. Especially since we already lost our fight.

That’s where you come in. Y’see, I know to you this is just a fun book to read when you’ve got an hour or two to kill, but the messages in this tome are ones that take years to learn, and while you may not realize it yet, the darkness that lurks in the edges of every society, every world, are susceptible to your actions. You have to choose to fight for your friends, stand up for your beliefs, and tell evil to go set itself on fire. Basically, within the pages of this cry for help we fight against a variety of enemies, most with colorful vocabularies, all with a hand, hoof, or entire face in the cookie jar of the dark side. Sometimes we win, sometimes we tie, and sometimes we lose. And whether it be a friend, a family, or a city... we always have a hard time getting back on our hooves.

But enough about us, jeez, we have like a bajillion things to tell you about ourselves in the pages to come. What we need from you is to take the things you learn here, our little life lessons, and use them yourself; draw on our pain and suffering so that your world might still have a chance. You may not agree with what we have to say, but if you find yourself in a situation where you have a clear choice, I ask you to take our collective wisdom into account.

And with that, I think I’m going to pass you off to the first filly you’ll be learning about, Harmony may not seem like much, but she’s got a fire in her heart that, once ignited, cannot be stamped out.

Trust me, quite a few ponies have tried, and those ponies have learned a much more practical lesson from the mare: bullets hurt, a lot.


	End of Today’s History Lesson




	Letter to the Reader: 




Dear Reader,

Today, we learned a little of what happened between the Golden Age of Harmony and now. I’m sure I got an F on the whole ‘impersonal research paper’ thing, but come on, no pony wants to listen to me recite history! 

That said, History is incredibly important; for those who fail to study it... Are doomed to repeat it.

We’d like you to take this away from these pages: Please pay attention to our lessons, they’re usually learned through a lot more hardship than just looking through history books.

(Although, and I’m sure some of you can sympathize with me here, given the entertainment level of history in general, this may be one of the most painful lessons I’ve ever learned.)

Sincerely,

Unity




***Author’s Note***

Hello my Dear readers! 

I am so excited about this story! I hope you’ll take some of the lessons these friends will be sharing with you into account. Sure, many will be borrowed from the episodes of MLP:FiM; but that makes them no less valuable. Sometimes it takes another look at them to get us to realize how much we aren’t following them.

Thank you all so much for reading. If you see an error anywhere or have a suggestion for how it could be improved, please tell me in the comments, or a personal message even. I don’t care if its years after this is out on the interwebs, I’d like to make it as good as possible!

Disclaimer: Any and all constructive criticism will be taken as a learning experience. I want to improve my writing skills because, shockingly, I wish to become an author later in life. Feel free to kill that dream right here and now!

I write in Google Docs, and as such have taken the liberty to create a Hub page. There you can find updates on the progress of the chapters in my story as well as links to each chapter. Just you know, if you're interested ^_^

If you decide to read in the Docs though, please feel free to come back here and give me a piece of your mind! And if you like what you read, be prepared to wield your thumbs in an aggressive manner below!

Inspiration Credits: Kkat, and Somber & The Project Horizons Syndicate. AcoustiMandoBrony for the Title and beginning ideas of this Story. No, this story does mirror the song at all. But the title is a reference to both their song, and to Equestria's fall from what it once was.


Written By: Fluttersyke



***End of the Author’s Note***


To The Hub


> Chapter 1: No Pony Special
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Harmony



I... I don’t really know what I should tell you, and I don’t have much time... 


My name is Harmony, I guess you’ll be reliving the past few months of my life. Have fun with that, I know I didn’t. But if we’re going to have any chance at saving Equestria, everypony needs to lend a hoof. And that means you need to know what we're fighting for.


 So Listen up, ‘cause here’s our story.



***


Duty.

Of all the things that have affected ponies, it is Duty that has driven us to our current state.

Not Duty to each other, nor to family, friends, or strangers.

But Duty to that most lofty of ideals; Duty to the Empire.

A nation stretching from the badlands in the west to the seas in the east, the Celestial Empire spans the continent; striking through the heart of the land once known as Equestria.

That land, where ponies once lived freely and taught each other the virtues of Friendship, is as forgotten as the harmony that characterized it. Maybe the geography is the same, but we’re a long way from those days of sunshine and rainbows.

When the Empire was founded, a veil of clouds built up over the nation, giving the land a sky to match its heart of stone. This shadow, looming over the vast Empire, sums up the life within pretty well. Everything about Equestria is grey, from the dead, barren land itself, to the hearts and minds of the ponies toiling away for their nation day after depressing day.

No pony even knows why the sky closed up; no pony can explain why the land seems to be drained of its color, its life. And of course, that’s because no pony tries to explain it. No pony cares enough. Our curiosity, our virtues, the things that once defined what it meant to be a pony, went down the same drain as our kingdom’s beauty.

A little over one hundred years ago, ponies across the land were united under a country ruled by two benevolent sisters. All three races of ponykind lived in peace with each other. There may have been a few issues, a minor crisis here and there, but the ponies of that time, the Golden Age of Harmony, always stayed true to their virtues, their Elements. Those Elements got them through thick and thin; there was never a problem that couldn’t be solved and never a chance that those protectors could lose faith in each other.

Now?

It’s a different story. Harmony between the three races is long dead. Earth ponies are at the bottom of the ladder, but pegasi don’t fare much better; they’re little more than puppets of unicorn magic now.

Unicorns command all three branches of the military, are the only race allowed to be elected as the Overseer of a city or hold any other position of power, and have made sure to keep the rest of us as oppressed and downtrodden as possible. They hide out in the city below the great marble palace of Canterlot, letting their pegasi and earth pony armies fight battles with only a few hundred unicorns to keep them in line.

Unsurprisingly, The Elements of Harmony may as well be an old pony tale. The six of them are either twisted into cruel reflections of what they once were or gone altogether thanks to the Celestial Empire. Their power was rooted in our ability to work together; they were the tools to access the Magic of Friendship. Today ponykind is so shattered and fragmented that I doubt you could use one of those old things to light a candle.

Surely though, some ponies must still possess the Elements... right?

Wrong.

The Element of Kindness has faded from being rare to downright extinct in the Empire's borders. No pony can muster the effort to care for anyone else. Even families split apart once their children turn ten years old.

Generosity? Ponies have almost no earthly possessions, and even if they did, they certainly don’t have the word ‘share’ in their vocabulary. The only thing given freely is punishment. Punishment for the slightest infraction is dealt swiftly and harshly. Ponies either learn to fall in line, or they fall permanently.

Peals of Laughter are a rare occurrence, a mistake met with harsh words and even harsher beatings by those who associate laughter with a direct insult to their great empire. No pony can enjoy anything but the great benevolence of their Empress, and laughing at Her is akin to a death sentence.

Magic is, and always has been, a reflection of the ponies who wield it. The beautiful energy that once flowed from unicorns and alicorns has become corrupted by its misuse. And physical magic is not the only kind we have twisted. Our actions have altered the innate magic inside everypony, the things that once made us the exception, our compassion and natural gift for working out problems, have died. In their place there is only an empty void, filled with the darker, much more violent magic that allows us to march into battle against any and all who oppose us.

Honesty, perhaps, is the most lacking Element of them all. The Celestial Empire is built on a foundation of deceit and lies; the ponies who live in its towns and cities away from the front lines have no idea what truly goes on in their nation. Their lives are monotonous; they work in factories to produce weapons and supplies for the three branches of the military that keep them safe from the outside world. They do their Duty day in, day out; never questioning it, never even fantasizing that things could be different. Because the Empire’s announcements are the only way they hear about the world outside their lives, and how could their great nation lie?

The final Element, Loyalty, is the most common of them all. Everypony in the Empire is outstandingly loyal to their nation. But that Loyalty becomes corrupted as the ponies who exemplify it grow, because those ponies are Loyal only to an idea. The idea of a benevolent country making way for a brighter future by clearing out the horrors of the present. And that idea does not exist. So, surrounded by thousands of ponies who hold loyalty and its duties as their one and only strength, I find that true Loyalty, earned by ponies, from ponies, is, perhaps, the rarest Element of them all.

And who am I? To tell you all this? What right do I have to declare what is and isn't true?

I’m no pony special, I was just like you for the first fifteen years of my life. Plodding along on a path laid out for me before I was born. But then... then I found that the path others lay out for us may not be the one we are meant to take.

I’m not sure what my true destiny is, but I do know that this cause of ours is worth fighting for. I know that we need to stand together, because finding six ancient necklaces isn't going to fix the problems in this world, not even close. Ponies in this day and age are going to need more than that.

A whole lot more.

My name is Harmony, and this is my story...



A Long Way From Equestria





Phase 1: Going Beyond Our Duty



Chapter 1: No Pony Special








I lowered my head, panting furiously. The sweat ran off my body in rivulets and splashed into the muddy puddle I found myself staring into. What I saw was no surprise. My washed-out charcoal coat, short-cut mane that could just barely be described as ‘yellow’, and stormy grey eyes had so little color already that water could do little to dilute them further. Even with the little wavelets disrupting the surface, I saw all I needed to see.

I saw the same, haunted expression that had been plastered on my face for the past five years. Goddess...  had it really been five years now? All that time spent training... Training to become a killer.

That's not officially what I was doing of course. Technically I was training to join the Battalion, to get the highest position any earth pony could hope for. But that didn’t change the fact that even shooting the animal-like targets gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and joining the earth pony arm of the Empire's military meant I would be killing a lot more than wooden bunnies. Being anything other than a soldier however, was out of the question for earth ponies like me, our one and only purpose was sowing the seeds of our enemies’ demise. At least it was for ponies who showed skill with the weapons of the trade.

I was breathing hard, my sides heaving as I stared into that puddle. I felt as if I had just run for miles... oh wait, I had.

“Harmony! Yer face ain’t gonna be so pretty if you let me catch you staring at it one more time! Move yer ass!” The bellow slapped me back into reality. I had stopped running to catch my breath for a few seconds... but for some reason I hadn’t been eager to start again.

I set off at a dead gallop once more, running as hard as I could to avoid another punishment from the Sergeant.  

All four of my hooves pounded the ground almost simultaneously with each leap, my strides lengthening as I slipped into the serene state of mind that allowed me to ignore my complaining muscles. I kept my eyes forward, focused on catching up to my squad mates.

We were on a huge circular track in the center of the Training Grounds, which took up about a quarter of the Ponyville Encampment, my home. The track encircled an area where the stronger ponies practiced hoof-to-hoof combat, but this early in the morning it was deserted save for the nineteen other recruits sprinting around the field with me. A single lap was half a mile, and I was quickly gaining on the ponies from Gamma Squad, they were just as tired and just as strong as I was, but they lacked the ability to push past it as well as I could.

Each of us had some sort of specialized skill. The twenty recruits destined to be the ‘best of the best’ had been hoof-picked by Sergeant SteelSaddle himself. Gamma Squad was his unit, and he was one of the most feared Sergeants of the Empire.

Most of us could shoot straight, gallop hard, and fight with our standard issue hoof-blades well enough. But all nineteen of us really excelled at one or more of those skills. That’s pretty much all that set us apart from the rest of the Battalion, and what earned our unit the ire of the entire Encampment.

I covered ground fast, but the rest of my squad mates were just as hardy, and just as tired. Given that we did this on a daily basis, all twenty of us could keep going for miles and miles. And we did, thanks to our Sergeant, who liked to add a whole new mile to our routine each week. 

Sergeant SteelSaddle liked to tell us that running was a great way to build up our self confidence and focus on the things that really mattered in life. A time to reflect on how hard you’ve worked towards being the best of the best.

That’s why I hate it so much. I have nothing to think about that could possibly be considered ‘fun’ or ‘happy’. I have very few life stories to reminisce over, my mother had died giving birth to me, and I never knew my father. My mind always wanders while I run, which is another way to block out the need for a break...

My future? That had been narrowed down to two possible paths from the day I was born. As an earth pony, I could either go into manual labor, like industrial production or working the fields, or get into the military and join the Battalion. On my tenth birthday, I was tested to see which path I had more potential in. 

I was put in food production first, the instructors assessed my ability to plow a field straight, my knowledge of growing crops, and my work ethic. I was able to pass those tests with okay marks... but then I was put in a kitchen and told to cook something edible. 

I’m able to say that I taught my instructor a new lesson that day, I showed him it is indeed possible to burn juice.

After that screw up, they forced me into the Battalion shooting test. I had never even fired a mouth-pistol before, let alone one of their bigger weapons. But they got one of the old rusted death machines hooked up on my side and told me to have at the wooden dummies on the range anyway.

The thing was called a rifle, it was a simple design really. Strapped to my right side with tough leather strands, the weapon consisted of a small black box with a long hollow tube sticking out several noses past my side. It was a marriage of steel and magic, the barrel could swivel to aim at any target in a wide area in front of me with smooth precision. It would automatically target the thing I was predominantly focusing on using some unicorn magician’s genius, and let off a perfectly aimed round whenever I stomped my right hoof while holding a steady line of sight. 

Which meant that, to most ponies, it was pretty much useless in battle, who could aim like that while under enemy fire? I think they gave me the weapon as a joke, what good was an earth pony in the army when she couldn’t handle the kitchen?

I had never before looked to the future and seen anything but a clearly lit and guided path down one of two roads. Now, looking ahead and seeing only uncertainty, I was truly scared, I had never had responsibility for myself before. I had to prove that I was good at something, ponies who had no use in the Empire... were never seen again.

So I tried my absolute best with that damned weapon, I remember that day like it was yesterday. Because, of all the things that’ve happened in my life, that’s probably the most exciting to date. As I closed the gap between me and my squad mates, I drifted down memory lane, back to the first time my future changed forever...


***




It was a cloudy, grey morning the day after a big thunderstorm. My tenth birthday.

I had been led from the disaster I had created in the cook house to the big open shooting range on the west side of the Ponyville Encampment. The big earth stallion who had led me here had told me to take a good look around, because if I failed the test, it would be the last time I ever got the chance to see the place I had lived my entire life in.

So I had taken in everything I could, from the center of the camp that still held all the old buildings that used to make up the village of Ponyville, to the miles of tents and military buildings erected in an ever growing circle around it. The camp was surrounded by a several story high wall built from a mix of wood and stone, it was unclear whether it was supposed to protect us earth ponies from surprise attacks, which I had never seen nor heard of this far inside the Empire’s borders, or keep the lot of us contained in case of a rebellion, which seemed just as implausible to me as an enemy assault, who in their right mind could hope to fight the Empire?

These ruminations were driven from my mind as we at last arrived at the training grounds and made our way into the shooting range. My guide led me to the front of the range and then went to stand by the unicorn who would apparently be grading my performance.

I licked my lips, concentrating on the target directly in front of me, a big, hulking piece of wood. The crazy contraption hooked to my side slowly swiveled and pointed in the general direction of the big buffalo target... I kept my eyes locked onto the thing, trying to tell myself that it wasn’t real, and stamped down with my right hoof.

BLAM!

The rifle fired with explosive force, knocking me off my hooves and onto my tail. I had managed to chip away a part of the buffalo’s horn with my first shot, I only had nine more.

The ponies behind me chuckled dryly. That pissed me off, who were they to laugh away my future? I had only one shot at this, I couldn’t mess up! 

The pony who had led me here had told me this was my last chance to prove I could help the Empire fight the evils of this world, which meant if I failed, very unpleasant things would happen to me. I may not like life here in Ponyville all that much, but I wasn’t willing to risk the alternative.

I refused to let these ponies take away what little control I had of my life, I wasn’t going to throw away my future because of one missed shot. I focused in on a small bunny, hidden at the back of the range. No, not a bunny, a dummy. A piece of wood that stood in my way to living a simple life. The smallest target there. I put all my anger, all my uncertainty and fear, into that rabbit.

My tumultuous thoughts came to a standstill, I narrowed my eyes, zeroing in on the offending object. The rifle barrel swung with much greater speed this time, and steadied right on the target I was eyeing.  I didn’t even blink  when I stomped my hoof.

BLAM!

I kept my focus on the rabbit and watched as it was obliterated by the shot, just... gone. I heard the chuckles behind me cut off abruptly.

I forced myself to stop dwelling over it, instead I switched to the next target, a small badger like creature. No, I couldn’t think of these things like that, a small wooden painted picture, closer to the front of the range. 

My imagination was way too vivid. I could see each and every one of these targets as the real creatures they represented, and I couldn’t shoot them without seeing them die horribly in my mind’s eye. My head was a whirling hurricane of such images. I couldn’t block them out, it was a part of myself that couldn’t be cut away, not without leaving a nasty scar.

So instead, I found a small corner of my mind free of the surrounding chaos, a part that I could retreat to and look out at the world with absolute focus without the intervention of my thoughts. I could go around my disgust at this game I was forced to play.

The rifle seemed to respond much easier now, smoothly swinging to my new target.

I zeroed in on the badger with a newfound clarity.

BLAM!

The target  shattered. Before I could dwell on it again, I swung to my next enemy.

BLAM!

And the next,and the next. Never stopping, never questioning my aim. The rifle roared with each shot, as soon as it went off I switched focus to a new painted shape.

BLAM!
BLAM!
BLAM!
BLAM!

I had gone from one side of the range to the other, down went the moose, the Diamond Dog, the antelope, the Zebra. I hit them all, bullets to the torso, throat, head, using all my knowledge of killing shots. It sickened me to think that I could do this in real life if I just went into this same little corner of my mind... but there were only two more, I couldn’t stop now.

I swung to face the last two targets, the pony shaped silhouettes. The first was a full sized cutout of an earth pony ruffian, standing in the middle of the range, I had purposely skipped it. I may be able to focus clearly like this, but I would not allow myself to lose touch with the part of me that hated killing. Killing ponies... That was taking this to the extreme in the moral sense, at least for me. I may not have a whole lot of pony friends, not even enough to count on one hoof, but I knew that ponies couldn’t be evil enough to murder, at least, not all of us.

I pressed my trembling lips together and narrowed my eyes again. An inanimate object was standing between me and my future. I shouldn’t be feeling this horrible about myself! I focused on that thought, but even logic could not quell the bile rising in my throat. I fought to keep my concentration. My determination wavered, but I chose a target, and it hardened.

I brought my hoof down once again, the gun went off with a roar.

BLAM!

The pony’s flank was obliterated, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I fought back my revulsion and turned to the last target, only one more...

It was far in the back, a tiny pony cutout high up on a catwalk across the wooden back wall. It was so small...

I shook my head, struggling to hold it together. I tried to stay locked in my little island of tranquility amidst the sea of roiling thoughts telling me this was just wrong. But I was slipping... I couldn’t do something my very soul was against, even if it was just pretend. 

No! I had a chance to save my future! It was only... my revulsion overpowered my logic.

Only a filly.

The rifle went dead, my concentration shattered. My hopes were crushed, I almost gave up.

But I only had one shot left! 

I looked out to the arena again, and my gaze landed on the buffalo I had missed the first time. I could finish this disgusting test and still keep the peace with my pacifist self... sort of.

I plunged into that calm spot of my mind again, the rifle came alive, magic humming within it. Maybe I couldn’t stop this shooting, but at least I could control what it was I hit. I would not let this change who I was!

I brought my hoof down with a ringing finality.

BLAM!

The entire head of the beast was punched off by the force of the shot, I guess aiming wasn’t the only thing my thoughts controlled.

I had used all ten of my shots, the standard size of the clip in most guns...
And I had only hit nine. Nine out of ten targets. I had tried my best, but it wasn’t quite there. I couldn’t bring myself to kill a little pony, even if it was made out of wood. It was just too detailed, it was sickening, why would we ever have to shoot little colts and fillies in the first place?

My mind couldn’t overcome my heart, I wasn’t that depraved, not quite yet. I kicked a hoof and turned to face my instructors, there was nothing more I could do now except await the fate I had earned with this failure.

Both of my spectators were looking at me with shocked expressions. I didn’t understand, what had I done?

“You told me this filly wasn’t worth shit!” The unicorn on the right said, he had a clipboard floating next him, from what I could see, it looked like he had doodled all over it during previous examinations.

“She managed to set the toaster on fire! She sure as hell ain’t worth shit in the kitchen!” The bigger earth stallion shot back. 

“Well I’ve never seen anything even resembling accuracy with that piece of crap. If you’re looking for the best of the best, I’d consider opening your little club to fillies.” The unicorn said, eyeing the targets I had obliterated.

I was looking between the two with a dumbfounded expression on my face. The big, dull brown earth pony scowled at the unicorn, “You’re an asshole Painter.” But then he turned to look at me and his expression shifted to a more cautious glare, “Look, I don’t know how the hell you just did that. But you’ve definitely blown any records already set in this place outta the water. ”

“But... I didn’t hit them all...” I sputtered, unable to comprehend this change of fortune.

“You just shot nine targets in less than five minutes on your very first attempt at firing a gun. You have an amazing talent with that weapon. Welcome to Gamma Squad, my little markspony.”

I opened my mouth to reply that I had no idea what that was, when an odd feeling passed over me.

You should be happy. Take pleasure in your talent, why should you be ashamed of what you can do?

The thought seeped into my mind... but it didn’t feel like it was mine at all. Instinctively, I shifted into that state of concentration that had allowed me to fire the rifle, the voice in my mind, whether it was my own... or somepony else's was reduced to a faint whisper, and then it disappeared altogether. I had no idea what was happening, but I didn't like it. Was this some kind of sorcery? No. It had to be my mind playing tricks on me... it had been an exhausting day after all... But how could I live life as a warrior now? This was definitely not something I wanted to be congratulated on.

Then again... at least now I had a future, now I knew that I had managed to conquer my fears of shooting in order to secure my life again. Even if I hated the direction it had taken.

I shook the slimy thought out of my head, I may be good at this markspony stuff, but that did not mean I would take any joy in it. As soon as I thought that, I felt a shadow pass over me... not in physical sense, more of a mental whisper, like somepony had been looking in my head and decided they didn’t like what they saw. It was gone as soon as I sensed it, but I was left shivering in fear nonetheless.

I came back to reality, the stallion was looking at me with a confused expression. “Oh um... thank you? Sir.” I stammered, hoping he would overlook the long pause between question and answer.

He raised an eyebrow, but quickly shrugged it off, “Well go pack your bags little filly, I have a lot of work for you in the next eight years. You’re gonna have to prove that you can hold your own against the best this Encampment has to offer.”

With that I was apparently dismissed, he turned his back to me and spoke in low tones to the unicorn. I closed my eyes and hung my head, the best of the best? I was just a simple mare, with no dreams to speak of.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself staring into one of the many rain puddles left by the storm last night.  The face staring back at me seemed... somehow duller than I remembered, as if another shade of grey had passed over my features, permanently.

I shook my head and stomped a hoof into the puddle, shattering the disturbing image. Shuddering, I went to pack my things. Maybe I would have to practice learning how to kill, but I refused to change me. I made a promise to myself that I would never allow this world to corrupt the person I was.


***


I was only ten years old then, I have struggled to keep that promise for five years now. It hasn’t been easy, and it definitely hasn’t earned me any friends among Gamma Squad.

Since that fateful day, my life had been drill after drill of combat skills, stamina building exercises, and practicing with all sorts of weapons in the shooting range. I got over my revulsion at shooting the targets after a few months, eventually realizing it made very little sense to hold back on the dummies when I may need these skills someday. But I promised myself at the very beginning that I would never treat real lives with such nonchalance, and I will hold that promise until the day I die.

We were on the semi final lap now, I was once again in the lead of our little herd, pushing aside exhaustion and flagging strength by losing myself in my memories. Now I came back to myself, putting on a last burst of effort to stay in line with Harlen, who was my one and only rival in Gamma Squad. We raced neck and neck, neither letting the other get too far ahead.

Harlen and I went way back, just like the eighteen other recruits running with us, but until I had joined Gamma Squad, it had been strictly a colts-only elite club, hoof picked by the Sergeant. When SteelSaddle had revoked that rule to admit me, Harlen had been top dog. 

He was a biggish colt with a dull brown coat, his mane was a lighter brown with swaths of white matching his short tail. It was he who had been the most adamant about proving how much better colts were at soldiering than fillies. Specifically, how much better a colt like him was against a little filly like me.

He had challenged me to numerous races, target shooting competitions, and straight out fights throughout my time in Gamma. Unfortunately for him, we were pretty much evenly matched. In races I could keep up with him at long distance until he ran himself into the ground, and still keep going, but he usually managed to out-sprint me at shorter distances. Every time he invented some new twist on the target range however, all I needed was a rifle to kick his butt, I don’t think he won a single shooting match.

So, usually he just came at me, trying to catch me off guard and land a few good bucks before SteelSaddle told him to knock it off. Occasionally I was able to fend him off without a scratch, but more often than not we would both come away with bruises and bloody noses. The Sergeant, thankfully, left it up to me to prove myself to Harlen and the rest of Gamma.

Which, after a year and a half of consistently coming out equally or on top of Harlen in all his ‘colt supremacy’ challenges, I was able to do. Or at least, I had managed to prove that Harlen couldn’t get me kicked out of Gamma by revealing some sort of weakness. And thankfully, it seemed the colt was just above trying below the tail methods of getting me reassigned.

Gamma Squad works pretty coherently now, Harlen still calls most of the shots, which is fine since I have no interest in leading ponies. And he leaves me alone for the most part, only picking on me now and again for old time’s sake.

Harlen ran sideways right into me, smashing me out of my thoughts and off the track. I swore and kept running, leaping back onto the track and rushing to catch up to the colt.

 Harlen laughed over his shoulder at me. When I caught up to him he was still grinning, he said in between pants, “If you had a Cutie Mark, it’d be a giant boulder. It reflects your personality and your agility.”

“And if you had one,” I said as we pounded down the track, “I’ll bet you’d have a flower, because it’d show off how much of a filly you are on the inside .”

He wheezed a laugh and shoved into me again, I pushed right back, insulting each other was pretty much the only sociable thing we did together. I only vaguely knew what Cutie Marks were, it wasn’t like anypony actually had one nowadays.

Before the Empire, you got a little picture on your flank when you discovered your special talent, that would pretty much tell you what occupations to watch out for later on. After the nation was founded, we only needed to know our race to be given a very short list of possible job opportunities, and given almost no free time in which to experiment and find our natural talents. So, as far as I knew, only a few very lucky ponies received a Cutie Mark, those were the ones who truly excelled at the things their race was forced to do anyway, like soldiering for earth ponies, flying for pegasi and magic or leadership for unicorns. Other than that, I hadn’t paid much attention to that particular history lesson.

Harlen and I raced into the final lap neck and neck, now I was fully aware of my surroundings and was giving the run my all, it had been a while since we’d really had a good race. Harlen seemed to have the same idea, we saved what little breath we had for pulling far ahead of the rest of our squadmates. I heard some snickers behind us, our little throw downs had been sources of great entertainment for the Squad in years past, they always encouraged us to have it now and then. Which, thankfully, Harlen usually declined, and instead challenged the pony who suggested it.

But still, every now and then a little competition made the day as close as it got to ‘fun’ around here.

I was running ragged now, the past 27 miles had taken their toll on me, but I knew Harlen was feeling just as tired, and probably a lot more mentally exhausted as well. I narrowed my eyes against the wind whipping past my face, throwing my mane behind my head in a dull yellowish flurry. I threw all my remaining strength into my legs, lengthening my strides enough to start pulling ahead of Harlen. The hot headed stallion snorted and pushed himself to the limit right alongside me. Together we covered the last half mile in well under a minute, galloping as fast as we possibly could.

I shot across the spot where SteelSaddle was standing a few noses ahead of Harlen. I turned and slid to a stop, throwing up a shower of dirt. Harlen skittered to a halt next to me, His sides were heaving and he looked like he was about to fall over. I wasn’t in any better shape, I felt like I had just run a marathon and then some... Which I had.

We caught our breath for a few seconds as the rest of Gamma finished their warm up routine. The Sergeant allowed us all a good five minutes to stop heaving before he gave us our next task. Harlen used that time to growl in between pants, “Best two outta three...”

I grinned and nodded at him, okay, so maybe I wasn’t the competitive type. But there was something about racing that was exhilarating. And it made our morning runs a heck of a lot more interesting.

When the squad was fully assembled in front of SteelSaddle , the Sergeant cleared his throat.

“A’right Gamma, good run today. Way to really put yer backs into it H’s, I expect the rest of you to keep up with them next time! Last pony across the finish line next time gets latrine duty fer the week!” He said, his gruff voice carrying clearly across the empty field.

I cringed, Harlen may be in charge of antagonizing me, but even he couldn’t keep the rest of these colts from eating us alive in return for the extra work. I also felt a surge of annoyance at SteelSaddle’s jibe, “H’s” was how he referred to Harlen and I, since we were commonly involved in whatever he had to announce one way or another. Before I anypony could groan though, the Sergeant started another monologue.

“Oh shut yer whining. You’re all s’posed to work harder than anypony else, if you need more punishment to do that, then that’s what yer gonna get! Now, onto to today’s schedule. Harmony, Harlen, you two will be fighting Lil’squeak and Big Sam in the hoof-blade arena. Darius an’ Fire Watcher will be-” 

SteelSaddle cut off abruptly, he was staring with a grim expression at the sky behind the group of us.

I looked to the east, a huge contraption was just clearing the wall surrounding the Encampment, it flew low over the tents and then hovered directly over the Training Grounds. 

The thing had two cylinders attached to a boxy, boat-like metal hull, the cylinders were topped off by large, rapidly spinning blades that kept the behemoth aloft. The middle of the propeller shafts glowed with the magic of the two unicorn pilots as they steadied the giant vehicle and prepared to land it in the center field.

The wind being kicked up by the thing was enough to make me close my eyes momentarily, it blew my mane around wildly and the dust being thrown around threatened to choke me. 

I’d never seen one of the Empire’s transportation craft before, from what we’d been taught in our short lessons about the nation’s inventions, I knew that these things were extremely hard to create and balance so that they could be held aloft by relatively little effort on the unicorns’ part. Basically, it was an upside down trapezoid with a second story navigation room on top. Troops would be loaded into the large room on the bottom while two unicorn operators kept it aloft in the smaller, many-windowed space at the top.

The craft settled down onto the dead grass and the operators shut off the propellers, it was only then that I realized the thing hadn’t made any noise except for the air rushing past my ears, it was meant for stealth. I cracked open my eyes and wiped the dust off my face, the rest of Gamma squad was doing the same.

The title “Element of Honesty” was emblazoned on the hull. Given that these were incredibly advanced, and very hard to make ships, I guess having such a grand title made sense. The front of the boat-like body gave a hiss and a small portion of it lowered to the ground, creating a doorway With a ramp leading up to it.

Two ponies walked out side by side, an older, dull white unicorn mare and a grey unicorn stallion who looked around my age. The mare held her head high, nose in the air as if she didn’t want to damage it with the fumes of this earth pony pit, I immediately felt an irrational dislike for her.

”Sergeant SteelSaddle I presume? You’ll have to excuse our entrance, but time is of the essence, how quickly can your ‘Gamma Squad’ be assembled for a crucial stealth mission behind enemy lines?” The mare said, eyeing the Sergeant with something akin to disgust.

SteelSaddle balked at her. He looked caught somewhere between anger and disbelief, but he seemed to realize who he was dealing with and closed his gaping mouth. He responded gruffly, “Gamma Squad is right here, and as long as you’re ready, Lieutenant, we can go within the hour.”

The unicorn’s eyes widened, obviously not expecting such competence from the stallion. She most likely didn’t know and almost certainly didn’t care that SteelSaddle was one of the most seasoned Sergeants in Ponyville, and he knew without asking the rank of almost everypony who ever set hoof in the Encampment. Lieutenants were senior unicorns, specializing in taking control of small earth pony or pegasi Squads, such as Gamma,  and running high risk, critical missions all over the Empire and beyond. They were usually old, much older than the young stallion standing behind the mare before us.

That mare narrowed her eyes, scanning the array of ponies gathered before her. She was doing a terrible job of persuading me that my initial opinion of her had been too hasty.

“In that case, make preparations to leave. Time is not something we have a lot of right now.” She said, obviously not liking what she saw in us. 

The other unicorn stayed behind her, as if he was uncomfortable at the amount of attention they were getting from all these strangers. His mane was a fiery red with an orange streak down the middle, mirroring his tail and the color of his eyes. He looked unsure of himself, and very uneasy with all twenty of us staring at him.

“Well? Aren’t you going to introduce yourself to your new underlings, whelp?” The unicorn mare spoke to the younger stallion in a low voice, which carried clearly to the silent ponies listening in.

The unicorn stallion cringed, as if he was actually hurt by her words. The older mare huffed and stomped a hoof before turning to address the ‘underlings’.

“Listen up the lot of you! I am only here to ‘advise’ your leader. You will live and fight under the command of Firelight Sparkle.” She gestured to the unicorn behind her, who looked like he wanted to crawl under a rock and spend the rest of his life there.

I couldn’t blame him, I stood in the middle of Gamma Squad, so I could hear the nineteen snickering stallons, wondering what he’d been named for, his cute wittle mane, or his pretty filly eyes.

I kept still, head held high as I gazed coolly at the Lieutenant in training. He caught my eye, but did not hold it for more than a few seconds. I couldn’t blame my squad mates for making fun of him, after all, unicorns normally only called upon us when they needed cannon fodder, and this stallion was definitely not improving his status by hiding behind the older mare.

He seemed to realize that as well, for he drew himself up and walked in around his elder to face us. His eyes shown with a new determination.

“Gamma Squad, you have permission to make jokes about my name. I doubt the Empress herself could stop you. However, I will be leading this company into battle. And I need your cooperation to accomplish the mission that we have been given.” The fiery maned unicorn looked defiantly out at us, most likely expecting some sort of a response.

No pony gave him one, the snickers were replaced by silence, we were earth ponies, we knew where we stood, this unicorn didn’t give a crap whether we cooperated, he just wanted to look good in front of his superior.

Which he failed at anyway, “Oh for the love of... grow up Firelight. These ponies don’t need to ‘cooperate’, they need orders, and you’d better start giving them.” The veteran Lieutenant said, before walking back into the Element of Honesty. 

Firelight looked taken aback, he turned to look at us, and was met with twenty silent stares. He sighed, seeming to deflate before us, “If that’s the way you all want to be, then fine. But if you want a hard-assed Lieutenant punishing you for the slightest infraction... you’re going to have to keep looking.” He walked into the Honesty with another word, leaving me with conflicting emotions, what was that colt’s deal? It wasn’t like he could actually care what we thought about him.

“A’right, y'all heard them. Get your things packed and meet back here within the hour, let’s show these unicorns how Gamma gets it done.” SteelSaddle spoke to us without his usual shouting. Which was a rare enough occasion, but it was clear he wanted to show these Lieutenants up as much as the rest of his squad.


***





Thirty minutes later, I had a standard issue SaddleBag strapped around my torso, a Hoof-Blade attached to my left hoof, and my Rifle fully operational on my side. Gamma Squad was all gathered and ready to go, we waited in casual formation outside the Honesty, SteelSaddle was already conversing with the Lieutenants in terse tones inside the contraption.

After a about ten minutes of waiting, the three ponies came out of the transport’s hull, “Alright Gamma Squad, I appreciate your speed, now everypony get inside the Honesty and we can get underway. We’ll be in the air for about two hours.”

Firelight Sparkle spoke authoritatively, but his words lacked the condescending tone of the Lieutenant’s. I decided that even if he seemed an odd pony for the job, I preferred following this fiery maned stallion over his elder.

I came to attention, the Squad formed up in two rows of ten and marched into the belly of the beast. We walked up the ramp and into the dimly lit interior. There was surprisingly ample space for twenty three ponies to stand or lie down in the hold, which was good since all of Gamma Squad definitely needed an hour or two of rest after our run. Naturally, Lieutenant Spite went to the front half of the ship and claimed that area for herself. Firelight however, chose a space nearer the rear of the vessel, right in front of me in fact. 

His behavior was strange, dangerously informal, and... refreshing. I had only seen a few other unicorns now and then at the Encampment, calling on some squad or company to follow them into a faraway war. Up until now, I had never thought they worked the same way as us earth ponies did, they had always seemed so high and mighty, able to lay waste to hundreds of us without lifting a hoof. I’d never pictured them having their own pecking order and dealing with the same kind of bullcrap I did on a daily basis.

Once everypony had filed into the hull, the door rose by its own accord, glowing faintly with the purplish light of Lieutenant Spite’s magic. When it closed fully, several small candles set into the walls above us flickered to life, and I caught a faint glow coming from Firelight’s direction.

The Honesty’s blades started up, a dull thumping that quickly accelerated into a loud roar, apparently the quietness of the ship on the outside was more due to unicorn magic than any actual silence on the ship’s part. And why would they waste energy quieting the noise for us? The walls of the hull were seamless, the windows above were supposedly incredibly hard to make and extremely thick, but necessary for the two unicorn technicians up there. They had yet to even show their faces to us, and I doubted they ever would. 

I glanced around the shadowy interior, the colts from Gamma Squad were all either looking as bored as I felt, or already lying down to fall asleep. A few seemed to be having second thoughts about this whole ‘flying in a metal boat’ thing, but there was no way they could back out. The best of the best had no choice but to do whatever was deemed necessary.

I carefully lowered myself to the floor, I was still shaking from the run and there was no point in tiring my legs for two hours. I leaned against the metal wall on my right, my rifle resting comfortably between the hull and my body. Firelight did the same ahead of me, but he turned around so that he was facing me instead of the Lieutenant, who appeared to be shooting him increasingly pissed off glares. I guessed she wasn’t really enjoying his attempts to integrate with the troops. He caught my stare as he knelt on the floor. He smiled a little and rolled his eyes in Spite’s direction.

I frowned, surprised that he took any notice of me. I wasn’t used to being acknowledged by anyone who didn’t want something from me.

He saw my expression and seemed to sigh. His horn glowed faintly, a dull yellow aura glimmering for a few seconds. I saw an equally faint bubble of yellow shimmer into existence around us, the roar of the rotors was immediately dulled.

“Hello, what’s your name?” Firelight asked, his voice easily audible within our little haven of magic.

I glanced behind him, but the Lieutenant had already given up being annoyed and lain down with her back to the rest of us. I decided there was no harm in humoring this stallion for a while. Not like I had anything better to do.

“My name’s Harmony.” I said.

“Harmony? That’s a heck of alot better than mine.” He replied, obviously trying to get a conversation going. Whether out of sheer boredom or genuine interest I didn’t know, and didn’t really care.

“It’s nothing special, just a long dead abstract thought. At least you can find something that resembles your name whenever you want, unicorn.” I said, not caring at the pained look on his face. I knew who I was and what kind of a world I lived in, my name had always been an annoyance, an unattainable, long gone state of affairs. I suppose it wasn’t his fault that things were the way they were, but that didn’t stop me from being bitter about it.

“Well... the Empire is working on making your name a reality you know...” Firelight replied, clearly unsure of how to respond.

I snorted, “Well they aren’t making a whole lot of progress.”

He looked visibly offended, “We just need to get back on the right track, the Empire is the only way we can bring back the harmony of old Equestria.”

I looked him in the eye, “Whatever you say. There is no other options anyway, I’ll follow you into battle,  but don’t expect me to start talking philosophy with you. I am a soldier, and that’s all I’ll ever be.” 

With that a I looked away, closing my eyes and trying to give the hint that this conversation was over. There was no way an earth pony like me could change the way things were; I was powerless to do anything more than march into battle under my superior’s command.

Unfortunately, this stallion wasn’t ready to give up just yet, “Surely you want to change the way earth ponies are treated? Don’t you want to be able to stand up for yourselves?”

I cracked an eye at him, trying to put the full force of my annoyance into the stare, “Earth ponies aren’t good for anything more than dying under your command. We don’t have magic, and we can’t fly. What good would it be if we tried to stand up to the Empire? We’d be slaughtered before we could even raise the white flag.”

        “I’m not trying to raise a rebellion. I want to try and peacefully change how unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies think of one another. Surely united we are much stronger than this separation, we were made to work together.The Empire isn’t the problem, not really, it’s the ponies within it. We’ve lost what our ancestors once had, we’ve lost our compassion for each other.” He said, trying to get me to see his point of view. Kinda hard when I’ve been raised from birth believing I was only a little bit better than the piles of trash thrown off the Encampment’s walls everyday.

        “We are working together. You’re good at leading, pegasi are good at flying, and we’re good at following orders. I don’t know why you’re even talking to me. It’s not like I’ll ever see you again after this.” I said. Hoping that would end the debate.

I was almost right, the debate did end, but my comment wasn’t the cause of it. We had been flying for a good hour now, the hum of the rotors had quickly become a faded background noise, especially in Firelight’s little sound bubble. I had just finished speaking, and my unicorn interrogator was about to reply, when there was a sudden cry from the navigation chamber above.

BOOM!

The whole ship was thrown violently to the left, throwing me onto my side and knocking Firelight to the floor next to me, the faint glowing sound bubble popped, bringing the noise filling the ship into sharp clarity.

We were losing altitude rapidly. At least, that’s what i assumed between the way I felt almost weightless, and the panicked cries from the unicorn engineers above us. 

“We’re going down!” came the cry from above. Sending the earth ponies below into a panic; we had no control over anything up in the sky, and we definitely hadn’t been prepared for this.

Firelight leapt to his hooves amongst the frightened soldiers, “Lieutenant! Levitate the ship! We can keep it up long enough for them to land us!” he shouted across the hold.

Spite had been thrown to the metal floor as well, there was a panicked look on her face, but she met Firelight’s eye and nodded.

The Lieutenant got to her hooves, shouldering past the frantic earth ponies and standing next to Firelight in the center of the ship.

Together, the two unicorns closed their eyes, concentrating. There was a general cacophony of panicked shouts from the rest of Gamma Squad, earth ponies were not used to flying, and falling from the sky in a giant metal death trap was definitely something that set my mind to the brink of panic. But I knew we still had a chance, or at least, I hoped we did. 

“Gamma Squad! Calm down you fillies! They need QUIET!” I shouted across the roar of the rotors. The insult, coupled with the little filly it was coming from, got everypony’s attention. I caught several enraged glares before Harlen stepped forward. 

“Harmony’s right! Shut up, all of you! We can’t do anything, so we might as well let these unicorns do their thing in peace!” he looked around fiercely, staring down any who dared to go against him. None of them were willing to do anything, the situation was too dangerous for petty insults. With the crowd quieted down, Firelight and Spite’s glowing auras were visible around the hull, dull yellow and faded purple magics intertwining around the whole ship.

Our fall started to slow down a bit, and one of the unicorn engineers popped his head down from the hatch above, “Keep us aloft for as long as you can! The right rotor is blown to hell and my mate’s unconscious, I’m guiding us into a clearing!”

There was almost no change in Firelight and Spite’s expressions, but the Lieutenant grumbled, “Make it quick, this hunk of metal is going to kill us all.”

The technician disappeared, the opening above us closing once more. 

We waited for what seemed like hours, all but holding our breath, as we watched Firelight and his superior sweat with exertion, their faces slowly contorting into expressions of intense effort and pain. The Lieutenant’s horn burst into an overglow as she reached the limit of her magical strength, Firelight’s held steady. But after a few more minutes, he gave a grunt as a dull red aura flared into existence around his normal yellow. The craft continued to descend at a steady rate, the unicorn’s magic was only slowing our fall while the technician controlled it.

After what seemed like an eternity, five minutes give or take, there was a jolt as the Honesty crashed down on solid ground, driving into the earth and going several feet before it finally came to rest. Several of my squad mates fell to their knees, Firelight and Spite collapsed altogether as they released their spell. 

I managed to keep my balance, staying on my hooves as the ship shuddered to a halt. The technician cracked the hatch in the ceiling once more, “Lieutenant! We’ve touched down somewhere in the Everfree Forest! The ship is going to take  a while to repair and my partner is down for the count, he looks bad.”

“Well git your ass down here and help us open this door. We sure as hell ain’t going to be able to do anything to help trapped down here!” SteelSaddle bellowed up at him. The unicorn wrinkled his nose in distaste, clearly he hadn’t been talking to us.

“Don’t ever address a Corp Engineer like that again, you sack of manure. I was addressing the Lieutenant, and only the Lieutenant.” The pony above us sneered.

Before SteelSaddle could reply, Firelight groaned and got to his hooves. “Dazzle, get your sorry ass in gear, we have to get the hell out of here before whoever attacked us comes in for clean up.”

“I don’t take orders from you either Sparkle... but you’re right. I’ll get the damned hatch open.” The engineer once again disappeared into the ceiling.

“Friggin’ asshole... what d’you have in mind once we get outta here, boy?” SteelSaddle said, turning to face Firelight.

Firelight stood up taller under the Sergeant’s stare, “We need to get as far from the crash site as we can. Then treat any wounded and figure out where we are and who attacked us.”

SteelSaddle seemed to consider this, sizing the young stallion up.

“Alright then. Lead the way Lieutenant. Gamma, prepare to get the hell outta this thing. We’re following the unicorn, we still have a mission that needs doin’”.




	***


A few minutes later the rear of the Honesty cracked open and fell away from the hull, letting in a flood of afternoon sunshine.Gamma Squad marched out as soon as the coast was deemed clear. I stayed standing near the exit, watching as Firelight and SteelSaddle conversed in low tones to each other. They seemed to come to an agreement and walked over to where the Lieutenant was still sprawled on the ground.

Firelight put a hoof on her shoulder and shook her, trying to wake her up. He didn’t have to wait long, the mare’s eyes shot open almost as soon as his hoof touched her, and she flinched away, lashing out at him feebly.

She coughed harshly and seemed to become more aware of her surroundings. “What... where are we?” She said, her voice raspy.

        “We managed to land safely, one of the technicians is unconscious and the rest of Gamma Squad is awaiting us outside. We thought it would be best to wake you now and let you walk than try to carry you.” The fiery maned stallion said, taking a neutrally respectful tone in the face of her exhaustion.

Spite laughed harshly, “You fool. If I hadn’t woken, then you should have left me behind. Crippled ponies, and unconscious ones, are nothing but a burden to the rest, a true fighting force needs to maintain its strength, even if it means losing a few members who have become useless.”

Firelight said nothing, but he seemed to be bristling at her comments. From my conversation with him before, I was fairly sure he was angry at more than just the lack of thanks.

        “Whether or not we should have woken you, I would like your advice on what to do with the Honesty, at this point it would make the most sense for us to hoof it the rest of the way to our destination. But we’d have to leave the ship here.”

The Lieutenant looked to him with shock, “Are you serious? We can not simply leave this ship. I can’t believe you would dare to suggest such a thing! You know how costly and rare these vessels are! We are lucky our mission was important enough to warrant one in the first place. To leave it in the Forest? Unthinkable.”

Firelight frowned, “The mission is more important than the ship Lieutenant, as are our lives. Our Duty is to the Empire and the ponies who serve it, not the technology we use. Whoever brought us down in the first place is sure to have seen our magic. We should leave while we still can, I just wanted to know if you think we should destroy the Honesty or lock it up somehow.”

Before the shock on the Lieutenant’s face could be expressed into scathing words, the hatch above the four of us popped open once more.”Alright the damned door’s open, but I ain’t gettin’ this bird back in the air anytime soon. Especially with Razzle unconscious....” The Engineer paused, seeing the Lieutenant, “Oh mam’, you’re awake. What are your orders?”

Spite lifted her head in a more commanding pose, seeming to find solace in the Engineer’s automatic respect, “Since Firelight has deemed it necessary to continue this expedition on hoof, I want you and your partner to stay with the Honesty, I fully expect the ship to be operational within the day. When it is up and running, set out to find us and pick us up.” She turned to Firelight, “There, now we can get moving to keep you and your ponies busy and still keep the Honesty.” She said with a smirk.

Firelight shook his head, “What happens when the enemy comes here and finds two unicorns occupied with fixing the most advanced ship in the Empire? Dazzle, that’s just asking for trouble, get Razzle on a stretcher and we’ll take you both with us, we can’t leave anypony behind.”

Dazzle shook his head, “Sorry Sparkle, but the LT’s right, we can’t leave the Honesty here and I’m sure I can get ‘er fixed up with a few hours of uninterrupted work. I’ll lock myself in and work with my magic from the inside, that way whoever comes lookin’ for me is going to be disappointed if they want an easy target.”

Before the grey coated unicorn could respond, the Lieutenant stomped a hoof, “Firelight, forget the arguing, I am your superior on this mission and I believe your lack of experience is clouding your judgment, the technology in this craft is worth much more than all our lives. And we must protect it as such! Now let’s get moving so none of your soldiers wander off in boredom.”

Spite huffed and walked past the ticked off stallion, SteelSaddle remained silent as the unicorns passed him, and then began to follow them. Spite didn’t give me a second glance as she stormed out of the ship and into the sunlight, Firelight gave a quick nod before he followed her, and SteelSaddle stopped in front of me. “Nice work back there filly, you sure know how to piss off a group o’ stallions. Now git outside, we have some marching to do.”


***




In the end, we formed up in two columns of eleven ponies each, with the Lieutenant leading the way. I was in the first pair of ponies, next to Firelight. He seemed determined to prove to me just how serious he was about changing things. I can’t say I cared one way or the other, it only meant I got to hear the Lieutenant rant and rave at us incompetent earth ponies under her breath with each little infraction.

We took off into the Forest about twenty minutes after our crash landing, leaving the stranded ship stuck in the mud with two unicorns still aboard. Firelight set us off in an eastward direction, saying that was the general direction we needed to head anyway. 

The march was uneventful, but walking after that hour spent aboard the Honesty was a nice change of pace. Earth ponies liked to have their hooves on the ground.


***




We continued east for about an hour, taking a single break to allow the two unicorns to catch their breath for a few minutes and drink from a stream. The Forest around us was incredibly menacing, and more than once shots were fired from various places along the columns at the more malicious denizens of the gloomy maze of trunks. 

We were following an old trail that wound through the trees, probably made by animals, or some very ancient ponies, it was about twenty hooves across, essentially a clear trough through the dark twilight of the Forest. Firelight was sure to steer us clear of any Poison Joke patches, as well as several other nasty plants that I had never heard of before. His only comment was, “You don’t want to know...” When I asked him what they did to ponies.

We had been fairly quiet throughout the trot, talking only when necessary and trying to keep as quiet as possible, both to avoid attracting attention from the monsters said to dwell here, and to keep off the radar should our enemies be more widespread than the group that had shot us out of the sky.

So when I heard a twig snap somewhere to my right, I was startled enough to spin and face it automatically, the instinctual movement sending the ponies immediately behind me on the defensive, they turned to look in the direction I was facing as well. 

Unfortunately, we were already in too deep for it to have made any difference.

“CHAAAAARRRGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Came deep, growling bellow from the trees ahead of us.

The shadows on either side of the path we had been following came to life. Massive, lumbering shapes that eerily resembled the targets I had shot at nearly everyday of my life for the past five years detached themselves from the afternoon gloom and rushed the outnumbered and outgunned ponies in the pathway.

“Ambush! Everypony scatter!” I heard Firelight shout as the opening shots of the melee rang out.

“Fight back you foals! These beasts are no match for the Empire!” Spite screamed right alongside the younger stallion. Neither unicorn had enough energy for more than a few spells, and the beasts of the forest weren’t about to let them rest.

I turned my attention to the shadow charging towards me, the creature seemed to be wearing a black cloth over itself, no doubt to take full advantage of the shadows, but I could see where its face was, and also the short war hammer clutched in its mouth, raised to deal a crushing blow when it got in range.

I could almost see the bullet that would tear through the creature rushing towards me, could already hear the sickening thud as the Buffalo hit the ground. The rifle was locked onto the one open point in the charging beast’s defenses, all I had to stomp my hoof. It would be easy, simple. It wasn’t like the thing was going to hesitate when it got close enough to smash me like an insect.

So easy....

The Buffalo bearing down on me seemed to realize the gun pointed straight at his face, but I saw the steel in his eyes as he narrowed them and braced for the end. It was too much.

What gave me the right to take another’s life?

I snapped my eyes shut, throwing myself to the right and rolling onto my back. The rifle’s lock onto the buffalo shattered; the beast lumbered past unhindered but very much surprised. 
 
I couldn’t do it. I had made a promise to myself that I would never kill casually, and I refused to break it now. This battle didn’t even deserve that description; it was going to be a slaughter. There was no way killing that buck would change my squad mates’ fate. I doubted I could ever live down the guilt if I needlessly took a life and accomplished nothing for it. 

I leapt to my hooves and ran to the edge of the path, sliding down into a shallow ditch as bullets began to fly from hidden shooters in the trees.

Firelight and the Lieutenant were in the middle of the path, a wavering force field around them as they tried to use their flagging strength to keep back the Buffalo that had surrounded them. The rest of Gamma Squad were either lying on the ground, dead or knocked out I couldn’t tell, or heading deeper into the forest in an attempt to shake their pursuers.

I gasped as something rushed at me and leapt into my hiding place, panting. I scrambled away and slid out my hoof-blade, hoping it would be enough to fight my foe in such close quarters.

        “Harmony! It’s me! Keep your head down!” Came a warning hiss from the pony in the ditch with me. Harlen was lying on his side, obviously wounded as blood seeped into the dirt around him.

        “Harlen! What happened? Where are you hit?” I asked in the same scared whisper, afraid to draw the attention of the other warriors still fighting the unicorns on the road.

He groaned, “They hit my flank. But I’ll survive; it’s just a graze. We need to get out of here! C’mon, we can sneak out while those two draw their attention.” He started to edge down the shallow depression, farther away from the skirmish.

I glanced back and saw the Lieutenant gasp and crumple to her hooves, the purple side of their shield collapsing under a particularly heavy blow from a large buffalo warrior’s charge. 

Firelight turned to face the new threat, I saw a flicker of flame light up on his horn, casting a dance of shadows on his face, turning it into a terrifying expression in the afternoon gloom. The buffalo about to attack Spite saw it as well, and hastily backed up, scrambling to get away from this new threat, the big beast’s eyes widening in fear .

Firelight saw it too, and his face suddenly lost its ferocity. The fire on his horn died down instantly, and the shadows under the trees seemed to get even darker with its absence. The stallion shook his head, as if trying to dislodge a particularly unpleasant memory.

 “What are you doing? This is a war you foal! Destroy them!” The fallen Lieutenant coughed as she struggled to get to her hooves.

        “Never again.” was all Firelight said, the two of them were surrounded by about five of the big warriors; the rest of our assailants had gone off in pursuit of my fleeing squad mates. Although I was sure there were still a few watching the unicorns from the trees.

        “Harmony! What’s wrong with you? Those two are already dead! We can still get outta here though. We have a chance!” Harlen whispered from farther up the ditch; he was preparing to plunge into the trees and run from the ambush.

I knew it was stupid to stay; I had nothing to gain and everything to lose. But for some reason I kept remembering the conversation I’d had with the fiery maned unicorn before me.

“The Empire isn’t the problem, not really, it’s the ponies within it. We’ve lost what our ancestors once had, we’ve lost our compassion for each other.”

I’d be damned if I left him here now.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Crush them and be done with this mess!” Came the same bellow that had started the ambush. I was guessing the leader was still hiding in the trees somewhere, watching his troops lay waste to my… 

No, not my friends. Lay waste to some Empire ponies, ones who were probably on their way to do the same thing to his people. I was sickened by the realization, but I pushed past it as the warriors surrounding the Lieutenant and her protégé circled; wondering who would make the first move against the two unicorns. I may not like the ponies in Gamma Squad, but so far, the only pony I might be able to call a friendly acquaintance was Firelight Sparkle. And he was about to get wiped from the face of the earth if I didn’t step in.

        “I’m not going to burn you, but that doesn’t mean I forgive you for slaughtering my people. Come and get me, I dare you!” Firelight called, trying to keep track of all five of his foes as his mentor once again attempted, and failed, to stand.

There was a sudden motion from the beast behind him, it leapt forward, hammer raised in a crushing blow aimed at Firelight’s back. The unicorn, however, had been expecting it.

He spun around, a flare of yellow magic from his horn blasting outward. The buffalo looked like it got bucked in the chest, hard. It flew several yards away, landing in a heap on the path behind Firelight. The blast of magic had staggered the rest of the buffalo as well. They opened their circle slightly; allowing me a clear view of the grey coated stallion as he panted, his horn still aglow with power, searching for his next opponent.

He let loose another ball of energy. It blasted into another of the buffalo who had been advancing on him, throwing the beast into the Forest and giving him a moment of respite, or so he thought.

The three buffalo seemed to figure out all at once that going one by one was no way to take this foe down. Firelight cried out as all three suddenly charged him, his magic blasted one to its hooves, but the spell was already too weak to even touch the other two.

The unicorn seemed to realize that at the same moment I did. He sighed, the fire within him that had kept him on hooves this long was snuffed out as the enemy closed in from either side.

It all happened in milliseconds, I realized I was already focused entirely on the fiery maned stallion who had tried so hard to do the right thing. I knew that I had to help, something inside of me had awoken when I realized that, unlike every other pony I had ever met, I actually did care if this unicorn made it out alive.

Save yourself, there is no point in wasting your energy on those who cannot help themselves. Do not turn away from your mission. 

Remember your Duty to the Empire.

The slimy, evil whisper in my head was definitely not mine. But I had no time to feel anything other than a detached fear of it. I had a mission, an objective far more important than any given to me by the Empire. My mission was to save somepony who had shown me a little kindness, a little honesty.

The thoughts in my head seemed to come to a standstill, the adrenaline pumping through my mind slowing down the world around me long enough to pick and choose my shots. 

I analyzed every detail of the buffalo’s motion, I picked my targets, and stomped my hoof with a finality that spoke volumes of my determination to help this unicorn. A finality that the thing in my head clearly despised.

BLAM!
BLAM!

I didn’t stop to watch as my shots incapacitated the two beasts; one shot hittiung the closest attacker in the back of the knee and bringing him down hard. My other bullet exploding into the far opponent’s horn, the sheer unexpectedness and blinding pain causing him to halt mid-charge.

I was already galloping towards them before they could cry out; I knew there were other dangers still lurking in the forest, but there was no way I could waste the element of surprise. I kept up my speed, jumping at the last moment and tackling the dazed Firelight into the shadows on the other side of the path.

BANG!
BAM!

Two shots whizzed into the dirt where Firelight had been sitting, dumbfounded, moments before. I bit his mane and dragged him further into the forest, pushing him over a fallen tree and leaping behind the cover myself. 

Before any more foes could show themselves however, a deep thrumming came into hearing. A strange humming slowly growing in volume.

        “I thought you took that damned thing out of commission!” Came the growled curse of who I assumed to be the leader of this band of buffalo.

The Element of Honesty cleared the tops of the trees from the direction we had travelled from. It seemed to zero in on us, flying  fast towards the skirmish, or what was left of it at least.

“I’m on it boss, don’t worry.” Came a surprisingly normal voice from the trees ahead of the place where Lieutenant Spite was still lying. A big buffalo stepped out into the open, but what was formidable about him was less his size, and more the giant contraption hooked up to his back.

It looked like someone had taken a huge cylinder and slapped it onto a high-tech Assault Saddle mount, the giant barrel could be aimed with almost as much precision as my own weapon thanks to the small magical device set up on the wielder's left eye, and it looked like it fired huge projectiles. The perfect size for the explosion that had taken the Honesty out of the sky in the first place...

I continued to watch from my hiding place behind the log, it seemed the shooters still hiding out in the forest were either too busy watching the ship advancing on us, or they no longer considered me a threat and were searching for my squad mates.

I watched as the big buffalo with the cannon took a steady stance in the middle of the path, lining up his shot with slow and precise adjustments. There was no way the Honesty would ever make it out of this Forest with that weapon intact, but it looked nigh-impenetrable for the little rifle I had.

I would have to take care of the shooter to give us any chance of getting on board safely.

I sighed, and plunged into the focus that allowed me to use my weapon. My barrel twitched into just the right position to send a bullet straight into the buffalo’s rear, giving him a non-fatal but incredibly painful wound that should give the Honesty a chance to reach us.

I raised my hoof to take the shot, hoping that it wouldn’t be too terrible for my victim...

        “NO! STOP!” I felt a large weight crash into me from the left, slamming me into the ground and kicking me across the forest floor. I slid to a stop at the base of a giant tree, winded... and confused as hell.

I scrambled to my hooves, my hoof-blade sliding out as I stomped and searched for my assailant. I found her immediately, an icy blue coated pegasus pony crouched into a combat stance, blocking my line of sight on the cannon-toting buffalo.

        “Wha-who are you!?” I asked, completely stunned to see another pony out here, and a pegasus at that.

        “Don’t kill him! He doesn’t mean to hurt anyone! We’re just trying to protect the families! Please!” Her eyes darted around rapidly, looking for some way to fight me, I realized she had no weapons to speak of, just some worn looking saddlebags bulging with supplies that she handled with ease.

        “Crystal! What are you doing out here!? Get back! They’ll kill you!” The buffalo in the path behind her shouted. He had totally broken his aim on the Honesty, despite the ship being only a few minutes away now and growing closer with each second. Now his giant weapon was focused on one pony and one pony only, me.

I had no idea what to do. I definitely wasn’t about to kill this pegasus, but with that gun pointed this way, she might be my only salvation. “Wait!” I shouted, freezing the Pegasus in her tracks before she could fly away.

        “I can’t let him kill the ponies in that ship!” I said, aware that the Honesty was almost upon us.

        “Then tell them to go home!” The ice blue pegasus said fiercely, “Get them to leave us the hell alone!”

“I can’t do that! No one would listen to me, I’m an earth pony for goddess’s sake!” I shouted despairingly, desperately attempting to stall long enough for the Honesty to arrive. I had no clue; no plan. But I wasn’t about to start shooting these two, regardless of the giant cannon aimed my way.

The pegasus’s eyes widened as she stared at me. Covered in dust and panting from the day’s stress, armed to the hooves with a dangerous glint in my eye; I must look like a frightening soldier, not the helpless little filly I was when it came to deciding where my Duty ended and my compassion began. 

“Crystal! She’s just stalling! Fly outta there or I’m coming in after you and then she’ll shoot one of us for sure!” The buffalo yelled, convinced I was preparing to kill this pony.

I looked over in the buffalo’s direction, and caught site of a flash of brown as somepony snuck past the brute. They were staying low to the ground in the shallow divot on the other side of the path, Harlen!

The brown stallion kept going. But he turned and caught my eye, a sad stare was set firmly in place on his features, he nodded up the path; where the Honesty was already lowering to the ground in a clearing back the way we had come. It seemed to be where the survivors of the ambush had gathered. I guess the buffalo had made their point and were retreating to preserve their energy... or they were getting everypony rounded up in one death trap, just waiting for the cannon-toting warrior to take them all out.

I turned my attention back to Harlen, he could distract the buffalo, give us a chance to....

Harlen continued on, not giving a backward glance as he crept past the buffalo and made his way towards salvation.

I felt that disgusting shadow slither through my head again,
        
You see? No pony is truly worth the effort of caring for them, give up on this foalish fight. Run away; who cares if they destroy the ship, as long as you’re not on it?

”Crystal! Get out now!” The warrior with the big gun tried again. 

The ice blue pegasus was staring at me with conflicting emotions on her face, she must have seen my rapid expression changes as Harlen had turned his back on me; Depression, followed by the disgust at the beast within my head, and then cold determination. We didn’t have to fight these buffalo, they were rational. I could tell that from the way this one was trying to protect the pegasus, we could solve this without any more bloodshed.

I was about to call out to the big warrior. To try and make peace, when there was a hoarse cry from his direction. I looked past the pegasus and saw Lieutenant Spite, biting onto the buffalo’s hind leg with a ferocious expression, obviously trying to distract him.

I saw the sheer terror in the buffalo’s face as he reared up, unable to stop himself as he plunged back towards the ground. I saw the horrible outcome of what was about to happen.

        “GET AWAY!” I screamed at the ice blue mare. The buffalo’s weapon went off a moment later as he stomped the ground, his mechanized Assault Saddle not registering that he no longer desired to shoot his target. A red blast of light flew out of the barrel, screaming towards me.

Either through sheer dumb luck, or because of my warning, the pegasus managed to launch herself into the air and flap furiously away before the projectile flashed past the space she had been occupying. I attempted to leap away, get behind some cover, but something seemed to freeze my limbs in place.

The ghostly shadow that had been plaguing me since my initiation to Gamma Squad seemed to materialize in full force.

You’ve proven that you are too dangerous to be allowed to live. You will never be able to help anyone ever again, you will forever be known as the mare who failed to do her duty when it was needed most. 

The young, bright unicorn stallion known as Firelight Sparkle died today, because of you.

I managed to fall over on my side, feebly wiggling my hooves as I tried to fight the dark powers that were blanketing my mind, the only way I could even think coherently was by retreating to that small, sacred part of my mind. My mental Sanctuary.

I watched, detached from my body, as the end drew near. I had a lot of regrets; but above all, I was startled to realize that there was one thing I regretted more than anything else.

I regretted doing my Duty. I regretted doing what I was told because I was told to do it. And I regretted that my actions in the past few hours had been enough to bring about my death, yet had not been enough to make any real difference. And now, because of my stupidity; Firelight Sparkle was going to die. 

The thought was enough to give me the strength to cry, a single tear fell from my eye, splashing onto the leaves beneath me.

The entire conversation in my head had taken place at the speed of thought; the missile was about ten hooves away now, slowly closing the distance as I watched. Trapped inside the one part of my mind that seemed immune to the Darkness that had taken my body.

My vision seemed to tinge yellow. I watched as the ball of fiery magic seemed to halt a few inches from my face, saw little ripples spread out across the sickly golden membrane that seemed to surround me. 


And then the world imploded.




End of Chapter 1








Letter to the Reader:




Dear Reader,

Today I learned that ambushes suck, explosions are painful, and, more importantly; despite the way someone may look, act, or sound, you have no idea what they are like until you’ve had a real conversation with them. 

The sarcastic looking receptionist could in fact be a brilliant philosopher with a million friends if you but stopped and had a conversation with her, and the popular jock may be an emotional train wreck just a few threads away from snapping when you come in and offer a hoof in true friendship.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. 

You’ll learn to regret it.

Your’s Truly,

Harmony









***Author’s Note***


I would really like to know what you think of this! If you have any thoughts or suggestions on this story, please please please comment! It would be awesome to get some honest feedback! :D

If you liked this at all, please hold out your right hand(Or left, if you feel up to it). Now curl your fingers into a fist. Yes, good. Now stick your thumb straight up. There, now find the icon near the bottom of this page that looks similar to your hand. Eyup, that one. Now click it. Thank you!

Inspiration Credits: Kkat, and Somber & The Project Horizons Syndicate. As well as Alex S's Cutie Mark Crusader's Theme Song Remix.



Written and Edited by: Fluttersyke





(With help from Sorren and Chris, Thanks guys!)





***End of Author’s Blabbering***


(No really, you can go Home now)


> Chapter 2: Revelations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A Long Way From Equestria





Book 1: Going Beyond Our Duty



Chapter 2: Revelations


Harmony

Loyalty.

Throughout my life, I have held firm to a single philosophy. The belief that Loyalty should be earned by ponies, from ponies. The Empire had earned my Loyalty when it gave me a purpose in life. Even if I didn’t particularly like that purpose; it was better than nothing. I swore my allegiance to the Empress, I still believe that it is my Duty to stay true to my country.

I went through my training in Gamma Squad believing that even if I didn’t always see eye to eye with the Empire’s actions, the country was still worth fighting for, after all, the enemies out there, across the Border, were savage, deranged, and most importantly, evil. 

But so far, I had yet to meet any enemies which fit that description.

I was slipping in and out of a hazy state of consciousness, I couldn’t seem to feel any part of my body. It was as if I was simply suspended in a giant vat of nothingness. My mind was a hurricane of thoughts and emotions, spinning out of control as I tried to cope with the dull, neverending ache that pervaded every single part of my being.

I remembered bits and pieces of the events that had led me to this state: the unicorns’ arrival, our trip through the sky, the crash, the march through Everfree...

But I couldn’t quite make sense of my demise. I had been trying to protect the ponies on the flying machine, about to shoot a buffalo soldier in the road... when a pegasus had slammed into me.

Was that even possible? No pony lived outside the Empire, the Empress made sure to hunt and kill any who dared to oppose it. To rebel, to run, was just another way of throwing yourself off a cliff. There was no hope in surviving on your own, and no chance of escaping the hunters even if you could.

How then, could a pegasus pony be on the buffalo’s side? And for that matter, why did the buffalo not rip her limb from limb, isn’t that what savages are supposed to do?

Loyalty to the Empire was not a choice for most ponies, or at least, they had no choice but to be loyal. I had a reason for my Loyalty, it gave me peace of mind to believe in what I was doing, but in reality, there wasn’t much choice; ponies either stayed true to their nation, or they were obliterated.

That’s what we were taught from the very beginning, that’s what should have been true unconditionally. But the mare was a direct challenge to that fact, she was a pony who went against everything I knew about the world outside the Empire.

She was an enigma, she made me question everything I knew about Loyalty, everything I had been told about the world beyond the Celestial Empire’s Border. How could she survive in the world as I knew it? Could it all be a lie?

I was starting to drift off, sinking back into the folds of true unconsciousness. If everything I knew really was a lie... maybe some ponies could find a happily ever after out there, free of the fear and war that made up life in the Empire, maybe we didn’t have to spend our lives fighting. 

But I knew in my heart that I was not one of those ponies. I couldn’t leave my home, the Celestial Empire is where I belong.


***


I kept phasing in and out of reality, I had no idea how much time passed since... since what? I tried to remember the events that had led up to my current state. I remembered the pegasus of course, the buffalo... and the missile.

I remembered falling to the ground, unable to move as the red glare shot towards me. Why had I stayed there? I couldn’t remember, all I knew was I had watched, utterly helpless, as my death drew near. 

And then I had come back into consciousness in this dark, senseless void with no connection to the physical world.

I knew the missile had hit me, had exploded right in my face... no pony could survive that, least of all an earth pony like me.

So... this was death.

I didn’t even try to wrap my head around that thought, could I be dead and still be feeling a major headache? I had no idea, theoretically, I should be either completely gone from existence, or, depending on what I felt like believing, with the Goddess in the Sun. Trapped in this horribly aware state of mind was definitely not what I wanted to experience for the rest of eternity, I had far better things to do than be driven insane because I was conscious.

Okay come on... something’s gotta happen now... anything at all. 

I was left in silence and darkness. There was nothing. Only my thoughts, and my pain. The complete lack of anything interesting, coupled with the throbbing agony that threatened to send me back into a senseless slumber, brought me to a really simple conclusion...

Death sucks.


***




After what seemed like decades of nothing, I suddenly felt myself drifting... upwards, rising through the darkness of my mind and coming back to myself.

I surfaced in a dark state of semi-consciousness. I hadn’t come back to reality randomly, something had triggered my revival... I could hear voices.



        “...You can’t keep this up Crystal. They’re a waste of time and supplies. Besides, it’s not like they’re going to do anything more than try to kill you the moment they wake up.”

        “Shut it Doon, I’m working. You know damned well I’m going to do everything I can for them, I’d be dead if it weren’t for this one.”

        “Tell it to someone who gives a shit. So she yelled at you, she’s still Empire, they don’t change, no matter how different they seem. She would have killed me if you hadn’t-.”

        “I was Empire, Doon. And you don’t see me slaughtering your people. She may be from the north, but she’s different. I just know it, I don’t think she would have killed y-”

The voices cut off abruptly. The pain of trying to hear what was being said was almost too much to bear. My whole body ached, a burning agony present in nearly every part of my physical being, trying to stay conscious through it all was excruciating. I must have moaned out loud from the rush of sensation, alerting the two speakers of their listener and cutting off the conversation.

The talking was what had awoken me from my eternal slumber, the words such a change from the silence my existence had become that they had pulled me stumbling back into my beaten and battered body before I had a chance to fully realize what was happening, and from the feel of it, my physical form definitely wasn’t ready to be inhabited yet.

There was a gasp and a flutter of wings, “She’s awake! Get the hell out of my shed Doon, I don’t have time to argue with you anymore, the answer is still NO.” 

        “Oh for the love of... just don’t get too disappointed when you wind up with a knife in your back.”

There was a heavy stomping of hooves as the gruff voice drifted away, then the opening and bucking shut of a door.

I heard four hooves alight on the ground near me, and the flapping of wings ceased.

        “Here, drink a little of this, it should ease your pain.” Said a soft, kind voice near me. I felt a bowl of some sort pressed against my lips.

I opened my mouth reflexively and swallowed, the liquid sludge tasted awful, but I did feel a little bit of the edge taken off of my headache.

Cautiously, I opened my eyes. The dim light of the outside world stabbed like daggers into my skull, momentarily blinding me and sending me reeling back almost to the point of blacking out again. But I tried once more, peeking out, and adjusted slowly to the gloom, eventually able to make out my surroundings. 

I was in a medium sized room, with walls built out a mixture of wood and metal as if they had been cobbled together from the remnants of other construction projects. The ceiling was the only uniform part of the structure, it was peaked in the middle and made out of rippled sheets of aluminum, it seemed high for the size of the building, like the space was meant to be inhabited by extremely tall ponies... or flying pegasi. The dirt floor was home to several rows of cots, spaced evenly and organized to make use of as much of the room as possible. I was lying on a bed near the wall, strapped down to it tightly, but not painfully. In fact, it was a heck of a lot better than my pile of hay back in Ponyville.

My gaze came to rest on the pony before me. She was standing to the right of my bed, a wooden bowl half full of greenish... stuff, was set on the cot beside her. Her tail was a deep, ocean hue of blue with a streak of lighter turquoise down it. Her mane matched the darker hue of her tail, cascading down her neck and kept in check by a cyan headband.  Her icy turquoise coat and feathered wings were almost uniform in color... except for a small splotch on her flank.

A hollow maroon circle was colored into her blue fur...  naturally, with a ‘Y’ shape drawn in the middle, trisecting the circle and forming an ancient symbol for peace. Overlayed on top of that was a light pink heart, taken together, the marking seemed to fit her concerned smile as she met my eyes, as if she really was as peaceful and loving as her flank suggested.

A Cutie Mark... I had never before seen one in real life. I had joked about them with Harlen of course, but truth be told, I hadn’t even been sure ponies could get them anymore. It definitely wasn’t a common occurrence in the Celestial Empire.
I managed to wrench my gaze away from the Mark, meeting her bemused gaze eye to eye, she was smirking at me, and raising an eyebrow.

“I bring you back to consciousness, and all you can do is stare at my flank?” She asked.

“I- what!? No! I don’t- I was looking at your cutie mark!” I sputtered, trying to grasp the tendrils of thought that seemed to be slipping my grasp, making it really hard to explain myself.

She lost the sarcastic expression, but still had an amused gleam in her eyes, “My cutie mark? I guess that’s kind of interesting, just make sure you keep your eyes up here from now on, alright?”

I nodded hurriedly very eager to change the subject, “I didn’t mean to stare... I’m still a little out of it.”

        “Well gee, I wonder why? It’s not everyday somepony warns you to get out of the way of a magisile, and then takes a nap as the thing blows up in her face.” The icy blue mare said, arching her eyebrow again.

        “I... I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t move.” I said, still fighting the block in my memory, it was incredibly annoying. I had no idea why I had been paralyzed, why I hadn’t at least leapt behind the tree with Firelight... Wait... Firelight! Had he survived the explosion? Had my efforts to save him been worth it?

        “There was a unicorn near me, did you bring him here too?” I asked urgently, cutting off whatever the pegasus had been about to say. 

She blinked, giving me a curious glance before saying, “Well, yes. Two of them, actually. But I’m guessing you want the one that you tackled off the road?”

“I-well... I just want to know, is he okay?” I stammered, not entirely sure why the fiery maned stallion seemed so important. It wasn’t like he would care about me, or even recognize me.

“He’s... alive.” She said carefully, “But he’s in a coma.” 

“A coma? Did he get thrown by the... magisile?” I asked, using her term for the projectile.

She looked me in the eyes again, dead serious. 

“No. He nearly killed himself, shielding you from the blast. You still took a good amount of damage, but the only reason you’re more than a pile of ash is because of his magic.”

I gasped, Firelight had shielded me? Why? And how? He had to have been exhausted from the combined efforts of keeping the Honesty aloft  and then fighting off the buffalo. To try and save me after all that... was not something ponies normally did for one another.

It definitely wasn’t what I would have expected from a unicorn, even one as strange as Firelight.

        “He... saved me?” I asked, trying to sort out my feelings. “Will he survive?” 

        “At this point, I don’t know. He’ll either pull through, or he’ll die. I don’t know how to treat unicorns for being magically drained to such a degree, the only thing I can do is treat his physical injuries and hope for the best.” She replied, ruffling her wings and avoiding my eyes. I got the feeling that she hated being unable to help.

        “Well, where is he?” I asked, looking around the room for the tell tale fiery mane.

        “I have him in a separate room. I’m hoping some rest will be enough to get his strength back, but it’s been three days and he hasn’t stirred.” She said, turning back to me.

I thought about that. There really wasn’t anything I could do for Firelight, I had no magic and no skill with medicine, this pegasus was most likely a far better caretaker, I’d just get in the way.

        “I guess you know more than I do... but thanks. For getting us out of the Forest I mean. What’s your name?” I said at last, deciding this mare was worth getting to know.

        “You’re welcome, my name’s Crystal Heartwing, resident medical specialist here in Vigil. Can I ask who you are?” She replied, raising an eyebrow.

        “My name is Harmony, It’s nice to meet you Crystal... What about a vigil now?” I asked, thrown off by her comment..

        “Harmony? That’s an interesting name. As for your question, you’re in the buffalo town of Vigil, close to the Everfree Forest. 

        “Wow, that sounds... nice.” I said, uncertain how to respond since I hadn’t even known the buffalo built towns...

“Yeah, it’s a nice place. You know you definitely different from most of the ponies back across the Border.”

I frowned at her, “What do you mean? I’m no pony special, and an earth pony anyway. What I seem like doesn’t matter, I’m nothing.”

        “What does your race matter? You’re as important as everypony else, earth ponies are just as unique as pegasi and unicorns.” Crystal said, with absolute conviction.

I just looked at her, she was probably trying to cheer me up... which was both comforting and extremely odd, why did she care? I decided the best thing to do was change the topic.

        “Right. So you were born out here... with the buffalo?” I asked skeptically, okay, so maybe I was judging... a bit. But still, how could a pony live out here away from the Empire?

She raised an eyebrow, “Uh no, sorry. I was born in the Celestial Empire. Same as you.”

        “What? How could you have been born in the Empire? You’re... a rebel!” I said, confused. I had just assumed she had been born outside my home... if you ran away from the Empire, you were supposed to be hunted down until you died from the chase, got killed, or taken captive once again, and then killed. There was no ‘happily ever after’ option with the buffalo. Or even ‘live somewhat peacefully with the buffalo’, you had three choices and three choices only. To do anything else was... impossible. I got the feeling my mind had been running down these paths in endless circles while I was unconscious... And they still didn’t make any sense.

Crystal gave me an annoyed look, I felt I had just lost some serious points with this mare. “Rebel? Let’s figure out who saved who’s butt here, shall we Harmony? As for your ‘question’, the story behind my leaving the Empire is pretty long, I don’t think you would really enjoy hearing it, and I’m not one to torture my patients with my life story.”

I looked her sheepishly in the eye, “I... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean ‘rebel’ in a bad way. I’ve just never heard of ponies actually escaping the Empire before. I’d like to hear your story, really!” 

She looked curiously at me, and I’d like to think I gained back some of those points I’d lost. The mare took a deep breath and then said,  “Well, that’s new. If you’re serious... then let me start by giving you some background on pegasi life up North.”

She settled in, climbing atop one of the cots next to me and getting comfortable, she was apparently quite serious about the ‘long story’ part.

“Like I said, I grew up in the Empire, Cumulus Station to be specific, that’s one of the four pegasi cities still functioning. I lived with my parents, and unlike most families, the three of us really cared for one another. My mom and dad wanted only the best for me, and they wanted to keep our family together, which is something the Empire doesn’t really promote. They always made time for each other though, and for me, despite their busy days keeping Cumulus up and running as the Station’s senior engineers.”

I was amazed that families like that still existed in the Empire, I had never even known my parents. I don’t even know if that was because they were dead, or because they had simply left me in the Encampment to get rid of me. All the recruits in the Military were taken away from their parents at some point, and fillies dropped off straight after birth were actually better received than ten year olds, we seemed to grow up better never knowing anything but life in under the strict hoof of a superior. Getting away from our families permanently helped us focus on our training, and truthfully, most ponies were fine with that. Our Duty did not encourage family bonding... usually.

The mare continued, “I don’t know how much you’ve been told about pegasi life, but we only have a few jobs we can get into, the biggest one is, of course, our military branch: the Swarm. The others are much less popular, much less dangerous and, much less important. The one I wanted to join was the Celestial Couriers. The couriers get reports and messages around the Empire quickly and reliably, without the problems that come with complicated and interceptable magical messages. They get to travel all around the Empire and really see the world, plus they usually stay out of the fighting.” She said, meeting my eyes to see if I was still paying attention.

I was. I didn’t know much about the pegasi. They were almost never in direct contact with the Battalion, if we fought together, it was through our unicorn commanders, not teamwork. As far as I knew, the Swarm didn’t even have control of itself, they were controlled and deployed remotely by unicorn overseers, and from what I heard, that was literal: they had no free will when in battle. I would think that was something they told earth ponies to make us feel better about how much the Battalion life sucked by showing how much worse the pegasi’s life was, but our feelings weren’t normally something the Empire would care about...

I nodded at Crystal, and she continued her narrative, “Anyway, my parents hoped that I would get a job as a courier. That way I could come back occasionally to visit them in Cumulus. They hoped I would be chosen for anything other than the Swarm really, getting to see them would be nice, but it was my happiness that they were really concerned with, and the Swarm just... takes that away from a pony.”

So, it seemed there was some truth to that story after all. I must have made some outward sign of interest at that, because Crystal paused and glanced at me. I cleared my throat, “Um... I’ve heard about that, does the Swarm really mess with your minds?”

        “You could say that. I was never unfortunate enough to experience it first hoof, but my parents told me once... Basically, the Swarm takes something out of you, something that no pony can give back. It-It’s a lot more complicated than that, but suffice it to say, if you join the Swarm in full, you’ll never leave.” Crystal said, extremely unconvincingly. I was willing to bet she knew a lot more than that.

But I nodded all the same, looking her in the eye. She seemed to realize I wasn’t buying her story, and was preparing for my next question with a certain amount of dread. I didn’t think I needed to press the issue, so I said simply, “So, I’m guessing you didn’t make it into the Couriers.”

She shot a look at me, meeting my gaze for a fraction of second before looking away again. The pegasus seemed taken aback, but also relieved. I was pretty sure I’d just earned back some  more points in my favor, too bad we weren’t keeping score.

She ruffled her wings again and smiled at me uncertainly, “Ah.. right, I didn’t. When my tenth birthday rolled around, I was all ready to take the flying tests and accept my recruitment into the Celestial Couriers. I got great marks, I had the speed and skill that would make me an excellent delivery pony... but they put me in the Swarm anyway. Something about a lack of new recruits recently.” She sighed, as if preparing for what came next.

        “My parents were shocked, they couldn’t believe they were going to lose their only daughter after all they’d done to make sure I stayed out of the army. They were in tears when the news came, I was just confused, back then I didn’t really understand what had happened. All I knew was that I had done well, but still disappointed my parents... It was only when they woke me up that night and told me to pack my saddlebags did I slowly realize it wasn’t me they were upset with, it was the Empire itself.”

Crystal had a lost look on her face, as if she was remembering the sadness and confusion of that day.

        “We snuck out of our apartment column, going out the back and quietly trotting through the alleyways until we reached the edge of the mass of clouds that made up Cumulus Station, my parents told me to keep going no matter what, they said it would all be better once we reached the trees. They told me that once we got there we could finally live happily ever after,  together.”

My pegasus companion closed her eyes, her voice lowering to a whisper.

        “I believed them, they had never lied to me before, I wanted with all my heart for this to be over, for everything to go back to the way it had been before my Recruitment Day. So, when they forced me to go first, making me jump off the edge of the station alone and taking off a few seconds after me, I was confused and more than a little scared. I managed to get my wings under control and started flying south, but I kept looking behind me, to make sure my family was there. Everything went well... until we cleared the outer wisps of the thunderhead that made up the Station. As soon as we hit the open air, I felt a terrible headache, like my mind was being assaulted by some invisible force in the night. I heard my parents cry out too, I turned around, trying to see if they were still flying well enough...and then all hell broke loose.”

Crystal shuddered, closing her eyes against the dark scenes playing out in her mind. I had to admit, this did not sound like it was going to end well.

        “The clouds behind my parents suddenly exploded apart, nine dark shadows, vaguely formed like black coated alicorns with fiery red eyes, shot out of them, trailing up and then curving back down to home in on us. I was only a filly, I didn’t know what was going on... I saw the shadows and tried to cry out to my family, but my Dad just yelled at me... he shouted to keep going, and never look back.”

        “I kept on flying, but when I heard my mom scream out, I had to look back, three of the shadowy bastards had flown... straight into her, she was suspended in the air in a floating orb of darkness, crying out for my father to help her, and then she just...  vanished. Gone.”

Crystal gave a small sob at that, but cut it short and sniffed, clearly trying to hold herself together.

“I-I couldn’t believe my eyes... but then I saw my dad, he was already trying to evade another set of shadows, he caught my eyes with a hard look. Just as forcefully telling me in that stare as if he had been yelling, ‘Keep going, don’t turn around, don’t stop, just keep going’. I wanted to turn around... I should have turned around, gone back be with them... But I didn’t, I did as my dad asked, I kept flying, as fast as my wings could carry me, even as I... even as I heard my father scream... and then the silence... the terrible silence broken only by the hiss of the three shadows as they came after me...”

Crystal was visibly crying now, but she still controlled her heart ache with a superpony effort, I got the feeling she had been bottling this up for a long, long time. Strange, that it took a pony from the very place she had lost her family escaping from to get her to open up.

        “I-I never even looked back for him... I never looked to see if he had been hurt or needed my help! I didn’t need to turn back to hear the shadows following me, they cut through the air like ShadowBolts, plowing through the sky towards me way faster than I could go by myself... But I was almost at the treeline, I was so close to my happily ever after.”

“I did the only thing I could think of, I closed my wings and dove straight towards the Forest. My extra speed from the dive, plus the few seconds it had taken them to catch up to me as the others consumed my family and ruined my life forever, had widened the gap between me and those things just enough to let me fly into the Forest a split second ahead of their grasp. Of course, I hit a tree branch on the way down and almost knocked myself out landing in the underbrush, my wing hurt so much I was afraid I may have broken it.”

Crystal stopped talking for a few seconds, shuddered from the memory, she had slowly been regaining her composure after sharing the loss of her parents. She looked around the room for a minute or two, taking in her patients... and getting her mind off that terrible night probably. Then she looked back at me, an uncertain, just barely visible smile turning up the corners of her mouth.

        “Sorry. I just needed a moment. I’ve... never really told anypony all this before.”

I grinned kindly at her, “You need to get this off your shoulders, Crystal, it’s not your fault your parents died. I guess... I guess it’s the Empire’s. No pony should have to witness the death of their family, that’s not how justice is supposed to work.” I was thinking out my response carefully, because I’d never really thought like this before, it was a whole new concept for the Empire to be anything but right. And the things I was hearing... they didn’t sound like the actions of a country fighting to make the world a better place.

Those really only had one conclusion, “The Empire is the problem Crystal, not you. It’ their fault your family died, and while I’m not an emotional expert, I think it would be good for you to tell me the rest of your story, you saved my life, the least I can do is listen.” 

Crystal nodded and shut her eyes against the exhaustion of the night she was reliving, “Yeah... I guess you’re right. I’ve tried not to think about any of this for so long, but it’s been hard... so hard. Thanks for listening... it’s nice, having somepony who isn’t dug into a hole of tradition around here.”

She sighed, but opened her eyes once more, a newfound determination gleaming in them, then said with a wink,  “Well, I’d better finish the rest of my tale, I’d hate to leave you on a cliffhanger.” 

The story resumed once more, “I scrambled to my hooves after hitting the ground, knowing I would find the evil, red eyed, shadowy alicorns that had destroyed my family right behind me... But when I turned back, the three monsters were floating just outside the trees, as if they couldn’t set hoof in Everfree at all.”

“My wing hurt like hell, but I was able to close it enough to keep it from breaking more, I took a step back, but the shadowy bastards just watched me. They didn’t move, didn’t say a word, but I felt... something, getting closer, like a huge storm was brewing up North, and it was heading straight for me. The three shadow ponies stared at me silently, they were the creepiest things I’d ever laid eyes upon. I was only a filly, but I knew that I didn’t want to stay in their sight, and that I wanted to get as far away from whatever was coming as I could... so I turned tail and ran. I didn’t look back, not once, I put all the energy I had left into running for my life, deeper into the Everfree Forest.”

The door on the wall to my left slammed inward, cutting off Crystal in mid memory. The pegasus looked up sharply, watching the door.

        “Well? Are any of these pieces of filth awake yet!?” Came a gruff, angry shout from the doorway.

This lovely greeting was followed by the entrance of the biggest buffalo I had ever seen.

Seriously, this guy had to squeeze in through the opening that Crystal and I could fit through side by side. He had dark brown fur on his shoulders and tan hide covering the rest of his body, his horns were as big around as my hoof, yet short and to the point. He looked around at the cots lining the room and sneered, then his eyes came to rest on me and his expression grew even darker.

        "Finally, your little martyr is up, Heartwing. When were you planning on telling me?" The massive creature said, walking towards us, and simply plowing through the rows of carefully arranged cots.

        "When she is ready to coherently answer your questions Chief, she just came around and at the moment I doubt she even remembers her name." My pegasus caretaker said, leaping off her cot and positioning herself been the oncoming mountain and myself. I was about to protest my lucidness when I realized Crystal was probably on my side. I got the feeling it would be best to play the silent patient.

The buffalo,their Chieftain I guess, stopped in front her, drawing himself up to his formidable height and looking down at the tiny pony before him.

        "You know I am going to need some answers Heartwing. I cannot sit here while the Empire gathers forces just across the Border."

        "I am only asking for another day, she should be better by then and, who knows, the unicorns may awaken as well." Crystal said, holding her ground and glaring up at the behemoth before her. Quite an impressive feat.

The buffalo glowered at her, "Your time is up. But I doubt that sack of manure you’re crying to has anything to help us anyway. So fine, we need to make sure everything is secure in Vigil before we leave anyway. You have one day Heartwing, then these ponies better prove they know enough to help their saviors."

Crystal nodded, and watched as the giant turned and made his way back out the door, slamming it shut behind him with a forceful buck, rattling the walls and ceiling. The icy blue pegasus sighed and turned back to me.

        "I had hoped he'd give me more time, he's usually pretty reasonable. But he has... issues, with ponies in the Empire. We really need to get your friend conscious, especially if you don't know why your squad was sent here." She said.

I agreed with her, if anypony would be able to tell the buffalo what they needed to know, it was Firelight.

        "Can I talk to him? I was able to hear you sometimes when I was out, he’d probably come around sooner if he has a reminder of why he’s in so much pain." I said, the idea was a long shot. And I didn't really think my voice would bring the rebellious stallion back, but I was fairly sure he believed in the things we had discussed aboard the Honesty enough to want to meet this pegasus.

Crystal raised an eyebrow at me and smirked, "Think he likes you that much do you? ...Well, I'm out of ideas, so why not? Just make sure you don't let anyone see you up and free of your bonds, the Chief would have kittens."

She quickly nudged the releases on the straps circling me, the fibrous binds loosened and allowed me to roll off the cot onto my hooves. Unfortunately, my legs weren't quite there yet, they were still trying figure out how this whole 'standing' thing worked.

They did demonstrate the ’collapse on the floor in a graceless heap’ move quite well though. I fell at Crystal's hooves and groaned.

        "Take it easy, your injuries are healed, but strength is only going to back with rest. Lean on me and I'll take you to your friend." The mare said kindly.

I managed to get my hooves under me and shakily stood. I was able to traverse the room, leaning heavily on Crystal, and get through a side door that led into a tiny but cozy room. It was filled with a single cot on the far side, a window, which let in the waning afternoon sunlight still piercing the clouds here and there, to the right, and a table full of various bandages and vials on the left. An unlit torch was set in the wall opposite the window. Resting with his back to us on the bed was none other than Firelight Sparkle.

He was breathing rapidly, various cuts and scrapes, bandaged over, covered his hide. No doubt from the explosion he had protected me from. I took in his wounds and condition as I walked into the little chamber with Crystal, the blue pegasus allowed me to get off of her and lean on the table, I sighed and tried to think of what I could possibly do to help the prone form before me.

        “He’s been unconscious the whole time since we brought you here. I’m pretty sure he burnt out whatever magic he had left in him protecting you.” My companion said, checking a few of the grey stallion’s bandages.

        “Well... crap. He hasn’t woken at all?.” I said, totally lacking ideas at the moment. Crystal shook her head.

We waited there for a few seconds in silence, looking at the unconscious unicorn before us. And then waited some more... each hoping the other would voice an idea to break the silence.

Crystal finally spoke, “Well... uh, I think I’ll just go and tend to the rest of your friends. I’ll close the door, just don’t kill him , or do anything bad okay? I am trusting you to really try and help your savior.”

I smiled, “Oh come on, what could possibly go wrong?”

She rolled her eyes, but turned and walked out the door, gently nudging it closed behind her. I let out a sigh of relief, as much as I appreciated her help, the only thing I could think of doing wasn’t something I wanted to try with other ponies around. Cautiously, I stumbled over to Firelight’s head, steadying myself against the cot he was lying on.

I looked down at the sleeping stallion, I had come in here hoping inspiration would strike me, but as I stared at the pony before me, nothing came to mind. I found myself remembering all that he had said on the Honesty, how he had refused to give up on Spite when the buffalo took her down, even though she had had nothing but scorn for him. Firelight had stood up for his beliefs, no matter how much people tried to bring him down, no matter how foalish his actions seemed to others. 

I didn’t think he was the type of pony who would go down without a fight.

I had no idea what I was doing, but  I cleared my throat and started talking, anything to keep away the thought of having the very first even remotely friendly unicorn die in front of me,

“Firelight... this is Harmony, I don’t know if you can hear me. But if you’re listening, then know this: Your magic protected me, you saved my life, and while sacrificing yourself is noble and all, you have a heck of a lot more to live for than I do. You’re a unicorn, if anypony can change the Empire for the better, it’s someone like you. Us earth ponies aren’t going to do anything, we can’t stand up for ourselves, not with the way things are now, we’re too broken. But if somepony like you really tried to help us out, I think we’d get behind you... you would be a rallying point for all of us, and a pony who hasn’t grown up thinking he’s worth less than manure.” 

I paused, and almost stopped there, but I knew what I needed to tell him now. I gave it one last shot.

        “I don’t know if you can really make a difference.”

I didn’t think it would matter, there was no fighting the Empire. 

But I wasn’t about to tell him that.

        “But what I do know is that if you die now... nothing will change. Ponies will keep living the way they are, blinded by Duty, forever. So make your choice, Lieutenant-in-training, this little filly managed to pull through with your help, I hope you can do the same with hers.”

I backed away from the cot, stumbling a little and waiting for a few breathless seconds, he kept breathing unevenly, nothing changed.

I waited a little longer, but I wasn’t exactly expecting a miracle, Firelight would either wake up in his own time... or- Nope, not going to think about that.

I was turning away, preparing to tell Crystal that I wasn’t able to help him anymore than she could when I heard a sharp intake of breath. 

I spun around, Firelight hadn’t moved, but there was a rigid tension in his body now, as if he was in intense pain, and fully aware of it.

I gasped and rushed back to him, adrenaline and hope overriding the weariness in my legs for the moment.

        “Firelight! Are you awake!?” I asked, coming up right next to his head

He sucked in a breath again, “This... had better be worth it...” he whispered, before his body went slack again, I noticed that his breathing was much more regular now however, he must have drifted off against the pain and the exhaustion of fighting it.

I turned and trotted as fast as my beleaguered limbs would allow, pushing open the small door and staggering into the main room. Crystal was fluttering over one of the ponies who had been brought here from the ambush, Lil’squeak. The icy blue mare immediately looked up at me, she must have read the urgency and giddiness in my expression, because she zipped across the room to alighted in front of me.

        “He’s up, or at least, conscious. You’ll have to wake him again to get him to talk.” I said.

“How did you.. nevermind, we have to get him some medicine!” She said, pushing past me as I attempted to scramble aside.

She galloped into the small space, making a beeline for Firelight’s cot. The pegasus carefully listened to his breathing, then gently placed a hoof on his shoulder and shook him.

He stirred, but stayed silent. 

Crystal shook him a little harder, this time the unicorn shuddered and moaned softly.

“I need you to stay with me... I can help take away most of your pain, but I need you conscious, okay?”

The unicorn groaned softly, but didn’t do much else.

Crystal looked back to me once more, “Can you get the buffalo poulstices on the table in the main room?” She asked, I nodded, but then paused as I glanced at the contents of the table already in the room. Sitting among the bandages and mixing bowls was a small vial, it looked simple, but the red liquid inside it caught my attention, it was one of the deepest colors I’d ever seen.

        “What about that?” I asked, pointing a hoof at the bottle.

Crystal saw what I was pointing at and frowned a little, “Oh, that. It’s just a little concoction of my own, I don’t know what it’ll do for him, none of the buffalo ever allow me to use my own brews.”

I frowned and went over to the bottle, “Well, it certainly looks potent, why not try it out? As long as you’re sure it won’t hurt him, what harm is there in trying out your own work?”

        “Well... I guess it couldn’t really hurt him... Sure, why the hay not, it’s not like I’ll get any other chances to field test it.” She said, eyeing the vial with a calculating gaze.

I picked the vial up in my mouth and brought it over to the bed, setting it down next to Firelight.

Crystal carefully opened it with her teeth and held it up to the unicorn’s mouth. He registered it and allowed the red liquid to seep in. The icy blue mare allowed only a small amount of the potion out before she pulled the bottle way with both hooves and capped it again.

We waited in silence, watching as Firelight shuddered inwardly. Then his horn lit up suddenly in a dull, glowing yellow. A small spark of fire flew off its tip, then a wave of red-tinged-yellow magic flowed across his body. We watched in awe as the various cuts and scrapes covering his back closed up. It was like somepony had just wiped the slate clean, there wasn’t a trace of his wounds left. 

Firelight immediately relaxed, the tension and pain leaving him as the potion shot through him, healing and energizing the battered hero.

Crystal and I looked at one another, mouths agape.

        “What on earth did you put into that? I’ve never heard of anything that can heal someone that fast!” I exclaimed.

        “I-I just put in some things from the buffalo’s pulstices and a few things I knew the Empire used to heal troops!” Crystal said, utterly amazed at the strength of her creation.

        “You didn’t add anything else?” I asked, finding it hard to believe that somepony else hadn’t tried a random mix like this yet.

“Well... I guess in that one I put a few things I found in the Everfree Forest...”

Our conversation was cut off by a violent fit of coughing coming from the bed.

        “Ack ah blah ha ha! Will someone please tell me who decided to pour shit down my throat!?” Came a hoarse croak from the cot.

Crystal looked at the unicorn with an indignant frown, “That ‘shit’ just healed every scratch on your body, so get over it.”

Firelight coughed again, then rolled over, cracking open his eyes as he took in the small room .

        “Didn’t answer my question... “ he trailed off as he took in the two mares before him, his eyes lit up in disbelief as soon as they met mine. “Harmony? You’re... alive?” He asked, in a strange, distant tone.

I blinked, well, I guess somepony did remember me. “Well yeah... thanks to you.”

        “Me... yeah right, I’m glad what w- I, did was enough to save you.” He said, I narrowed my eyes at him, he was definitely hiding something, but at that moment I wasn’t in the mood to pry, I was still disoriented from my three days of recovery, and I could only imagine how he felt.

Crystal stepped forward, cutting off our conversation to make sure our new companion wasn’t about to fall over, “You were really out of it, how do you feel? Are you having any trouble focussing or thinking clearly?”

Firelight concentrated on the icy blue mare, “Actually, I feel great, better than I have in a long time... What the heck did you give me? I should be powerless, and probably dead, after what I did.”

        “Ah ha... well see, I gave you one of my own potions. So I’m not entirely sure what exactly I gave you, I didn’t keep the best of notes.” Crystal said, embarrassed.

The grey stallion frowned at her, “You’re own potion? How could you mix up something that good, and not even know what it was?”

        “Well it’s only because of Harmony here that I even gave it to you! She insisted I try out my experiment on you, I gave up trying to mix my own things a few weeks ago when I finally gave into the fact that no pony would ever use them.” She replied sheepishly.

Firelight gave her a few more seconds of his ‘are you serious’ look, and then decided it wasn’t worth getting upset over, instead, he changed the topic. “Well then... My name is Firelight.” He glanced at me and then sighed and added, “Firelight Sparkle, who are you?”

Crystal blinked at the mention of his full name, “Did you say... Firelight Sparkle? Your parents mistake you for a filly when you were born or something?” She asked, and while I admit I almost burst out laughing right then and there, she actually seemed to be concerned, rather than cruel, like she was sorry he’d been stuck with that name all his life.

Firelight rolled his eyes and sighed again, “Look, I am who I am and I refuse to hide from it. My name is Firelight, okay? The only ponies who call me Sparkle are allowed to only because they can have me killed in the blink of an eye, so I don’t have much choice in the matter. So, now that we’ve thoroughly discussed my name, can I please have yours?”

Crystal gave him an appraising look, “Well Firelight, since you asked so nicely, my name is Crystal Heartwing, I don’t particularly care what you call me, as long as it has a heart, crystal, or wing in it somewhere. Pleased to meet you.”

Firelight extended a hoof, “Well, it’s nice not to be dead, and since it seems like I have your science to thank for that, the pleasure’s mine.”

Crystal bumped his hoof with her own, “Oh I think you can give a fair bit of credit to Harmony, she’s the one that saved your life on the road after all, and I don’t think I could have fixed ‘shot in the face’, or at least, the buffalo wouldn’t have let me.”

Firelight paused, his smile transforming into a look of confusion, “The buffalo? Where? Did we not kill them all already?” 

I stepped in before Crystal could reply to that, “Firelight!” I said tersely, “We happen to be captives of the buffalo right now! Crystal lives with them. And they’ve been kind enough to heal us and not tear us limb from limb, so it’d be great if you didn’t say things like that!”

Firelight Sparkle was at a loss for words for a few seconds, the emotions flickering across his face going from disbelief, to anger, to downright terror. 

“Captives!? Of the buffalo? The buffalo don’t take captives! They take snacks!” He hissed at me, completely unable to make sense of our situation. 

Snacks? Well now that definitely not what I was looking forward to later in life! Would somepony really be cruel enough to heal us, just to kill us at some point in the future? Probably burned alive? My imagination ran wildly with that single sentence, playing terrifying scenarios one after the other in my mind’s eye.

Crystal put her hoof down loud enough to break through my crazy thoughts. “Enough! Buffalo do not eat ponies! Where the buck did you get that from!? How could I live with them if I was on the menu?”

I looked to Firelight, he slowly raised his head to meet her eyes, his face looked close to furious, “Don’t you even know the things you work for!? We had reports of the buffalo burning and pillaging Border towns coming in all the time in the Capitol! There were even tapes of ponies being savagely ripped apart before their families eyes as the buffalo feasted on prisoners! You may think they’re friendly, but as soon as they get hungry and there’s no more prisoners around, you’ll be next!”

Now it was Crystal’s turn to look downright pissed, her face was a dangerous mask of fury, I could all but see fires burning in the pits of her turquoise eyes.  

“Shut your goddess damned mouth! You have no idea how kind these people are! They saved my life! The only reason they fight the Empire is because you idiots won’t call off the war that was started a century ago! I’ve lived here for six years, and never have the buffalo had any intention of hurting me! They gave me the last of their supplies during the famine last winter because I’m a hell of a lot more likely to die of cold they are!” She all but screamed in his face.

Firelight blinked, dumbstruck. He looked at me in desperation, but I had no advice to give, I knew nothing about the buffalo other than they were supposed to be my enemy, and they were really easy to hit with my rifle without having to kill them.

After a few more seconds, he spoke, “B-but... I saw the videos, how can you explain that? Maybe... maybe this tribe doesn’t but...” He trailed off as Crystal’s look dropped from anger to despair with each word.

She ruffled her wings, looking out the window at the sunset, which was almost already over now. “You... you really believe what the Empire says, don’t you?”

Firelight looked at her incredulously, “Of course! The Empire may have some problems, but it exists to protect ponies from the dangers of the outside world, like being on the buffalo’s menu!”

Crystal turned to me, “And you Harmony? After what you saw of the Chief, and me, do you think I’m just an idiot, and the buffalo savage beasts?”

I blinked, and then actually thought about the question, had the Chief seemed like he wanted to rip me apart? He’d been an ass to me of course... but I hadn’t caught any real hatred, just general dislike for ponies, and he hadn’t wanted us here in the first place, he only wanted whatever information we could give him. And Crystal struck as me a smart pony, I doubted she would fight so adamantly for something unless she really believed in it.

I cocked my head thoughtfully at her, “Well, no. I don’t think you’re an idiot, from what I’ve seen. you’re way too nice, and way too good with medicine and persuasion for that. As for the Chief, I think he just wants our info, and then he’s done with us, he didn’t seem interested in me at all.”

Crystal gave me a grateful smile, she seemed incredibly relieved that I hadn’t condemned her and those she cared for as lunatic murderers.

We both turned to Firelight now, it was two against one, and that one was clearly having a crisis of faith. “I-I don’t see how that’s possible... everypony knows the buffalo have twisted into deranged flesh eaters back in the Capitol. It’s... it’s a fact, not a debate, I even read up on them once, after the repeated incidents with settler ponies during the war, the buffalo horde took over most of southeast Equestria before the gaps in history even begin. Their descent into madness is one of the few records that survived the Stellar Wars.”

The unicorn blasted this information out at us so quickly I barely even understood it all, but Crystal seemed to follow every word. “You’re saying that the nation that endures in the condition it does only because it makes the ponies within it believe they need to destroy all other races in the world just to survive, the one that keeps earth ponies and pegasi as little more than slaves in order to make certain they fight without complaint, without free will; you’re saying that that nation wouldn’t have any interest in making sure that the only history its underlings saw was the one that proved it worth the sacrifices to keep up? Don’t you think its weird how a pony like me could survive here and stay on the buffalo’s side if more than a speck of your ‘history’ is true?”

Damn, she definitely knew how to make an argument, I’d give her that.

I watched as Firelight thought it through for several minutes, what Crystal was saying... made absolute sense to me, maybe it was because I had never really taken the Empire’s word without a big helping of skepticism. Or maybe it was because Crystal’s arguments made sense no matter how you thought about them.

Firelight slowly raised his head, there was a dark, scared look on his face, his voice came out in a near whisper, “Do you... really think they could get away with that? Rewriting history? I read everything I could get my hooves on when I was young, especially history books, could-could they have really been lies?”

Well well well, our lieutenant in training was also an egghead, who would have thought? I kept the thought to myself though, clearly, he was on very unstable ground right now.

        “I can’t say I’m an expert on history, but with what I’ve picked up from the buffalo... history is written by the victors. And the Empire is winning this fight, no other nation can stand against it that I know of, they don’t have the numbers nor the firepower. That means the Empire can pretty much tell you whatever it wants, and because you believe in the Empire, its words become law.” Crystal had calmed down now fully, leaning against the opposite wall of the room from me and watching her two guests with slightly saddened eyes.

Firelight seemed on the verge of a breakdown, he had built his life on the belief that even if the Empire may be bad, it was still trying to do good. Somehow, I found it hard to believe that ‘good’ involved rewriting history so that a logical race of people were branded as flesh eating psychotic animals hell bent on our destruction. For some reason, that struck as me as a slap to the face of ‘good’, and for that matter, ‘sane’, I just couldn’t see a reason for it.

Crystal was watching Firelight carefully, his thoughts were clear on his face, going from disbelief, to fear, to straight out depression, it looked like his heart had been shattered into a thousand pieces, and no pony’d been kind enough to give him some duct tape.

        “I understand why you’re trying so hard to believe in your nation, but think about it this way, if the ponies in it believed they might be able to make friends with species who really did want to see ponies extinct, the Empire could have had serious problems.” Crystal said kindly, walking over to the prone unicorn and putting a hoof on his shoulder.

        “What are you talking about? The Empire has no reason to do that! No pony should have to be lied to in order for a government to work! The Empress could just give us the facts and the real reasons we fight! I know everypony would still follow her!” Firelight nearly shouted, making Crystal take a step back and setting me on edge.

        “Firelight, she’s just giving a reason from the Empire’s perspective, maybe that is the reason they did what they did. I know the Empire means a lot to you, and you want to try and help it, maybe now you have a way to, show the Empress that you’ll still follow her even with the knowledge of the buffalo and she might be willing to listen to you...” If she has an ounce of compassion left in her after all these years of tyranny... I mentally added.

The grey stallion still had that haunted look on his face, and I could see the turmoil in his eyes, but he sucked in a deep breath and put on a crooked smile. 

        “You know, it’s not very helpful when a pony who is supposed to be a heartless, uncaring mercenary killing everypony in sight is arguing about how I should believe in the institution that wants her dead.” He said drily, which was encouraging, joking was definitely a good sign in term’s of the unicorn’s mental health.

Crystal smiled at him, “Well, it was either this, or leaving you back at the ambush, which would you have preferred?” the pegasus asked with a raised eyebrow.

        “Well, when you put it that way, I guess I can learn to live with it. But if I survive whatever the buffalo want with me... I’m going to have a few things to say to the Empire...” Firelight said, the uncertainty in his eyes melting away to reveal an unshatterable determination beneath it.

Crystal frowned, “The buffalo will let you go... as soon as they get the information we need from you. They agreed to let me take care of you because of two things, the first, because Harmony saved my life and yours, and second, they expect you to tell them what the buck a squad of earth ponies and four unicorns were doing flying straight towards Buffalo Territory in one of your advanced stealth ship thingys when there isn’t much fighting going on over here. What were you hoping to accomplish?”

Firelight sighed, “Well, that’s not what I was expecting, since I was expecting to be devoured. But I can give them a little inkling of information, I’m not high up in the hierarchy of the Empire so I wasn’t told anything beyond what I needed to know. I know what our goal was, but I have no idea what we were ultimately supposed to accomplish...”

I perked up at this, I’d definitely like to know what this urgent mission had been about, especially since I’m pretty sure that, had Crystal and the Buffalo not interfered, we’d have done some serious harm to them without even thinking about it. I shuddered inwardly, a few days ago I would have tried to keep casualties to a minimum, but I would do the same with any other animal. I would have felt only a little, personal remorse had I murdered some buffalo in cold blood... I had never thought of other species as my equals. I‘d always assumed they were beneath ponies as a rule.

But... seeing Crystal and the Chief interact, plus her adamant belief in their goodness, I could only balk at the complete lack of concern that I may have become a downright murderer if our mission had gone any further... On impulse, I blurted out, “Oh goddess, the mission... What were we here for Firelight? What were we going to do to these people?”

The unicorn looked immensely saddened by the despair in my voice, “Harmony... maybe it’s best if you don’t know. It didn’t happen, and now we know better than we did before. We can make sure this war with the buffalo is ended, there’s no point in worrying about what we might have done.”

I blinked, and sat down on my hind legs, trying to figure out if I actually wanted to argue with him or not. It was almost full dark now, judging by the quickly fading light just barely seeping in through the window. Firelight’s eyes flicked from mine to the torch set into the wall, and with a soft glow enveloping his horn he lit the dry brush on fire, giving us light as we talked into the night. Obviously that potion really had restored his magic.

Crystal spoke up calmly, “While I might normally agree with you, Firelight, I need to know what you were planning. The buffalo need some information, they’re terrified at what this might mean.”  

He sighed heavily, “I guess my life depends on it huh? Alright just... look, I take full responsibility for everything, Harmony and the rest of Gamma Squad had no idea what we were doing, okay? I tried to talk Spite out of it, but she wouldn’t have any of it, said our objective was straight from the Empress herself. Basically, we were going to attack one of the inner towns, Dodge City, and cause as much chaos and fear in as short a time as possible. The Honesty would hide us going in and coming back, it should have been a lightning fast hit and run mission that got us back to Ponyville the next night... But I honestly can’t tell you why we needed to do it.”

Crystal’s eyed him “That’s all? You’re sure?”

        “Of course I’m not sure, but that’s what I was led to believe.” He replied.

Crystal was quiet for a time. There was a distant look in her eyes, as if she was imagining just how much damage the ponies she had saved had been on a mission to cause.

At last she broke the silence, “I see. You would’ve caused a panic, the buffalo would have seen it as a sign that the Empire was about to invade for real. We would have rallied to the Border, to either meet your attack in confused defense, still disorganized from the assault on our center, or we would have wasted hundreds of days worth of harvest and countless days of planning on an attack that would never appear. Clever, but terrible... Why do you ponies insist on making everyone else’s life hell?”

Firelight and I shared a look of surprise, that was an impressive mind for tactics our savior had. I would have never thought such a small mission could have such a great impact... and she was right, it was a terrible, but very, very smart plan. I would give whoever came up with it a nice buck to the face.

The unicorn stallion gave Crystal an apologetic look, one that I mimicked, “Well... it’s not that we want to, it’s... our Duty. I’m sorry, but if I had tried to stop her, Lieutenant Spite would have simply dropped me from the mission. I had hoped I could at least try to lessen the damage she would do to the ponies in our attack group, they needed to be protected, not thrown to the wolves to accomplish our goal. Which was her original plan... ” The fiery maned stallion replied.

Crystal sighed and nodded, “I know that, I was born and raised in the Empire. I know how it works, I just don’t understand why it works that way. Surely there must be some ponies up there who try to make peace with their enemies instead of slaughtering them.”

        “Oh there are dissenters, among the unicorns at least, every now and then. They make a few outspoken remarks... and are never heard from again. You learn to keep your mouth shut after witnessing a few of those. That’s why I devoted time to reading, much easier to learn than to sit through hour after hour of debates and meetings I felt sick just listening to.” Firelight said.

Crystal looked pretty surprised by his remark, “Unicorns speak out against the Empress? Why? You have everything you could ever want in the Capitol...”

The stallion sighed, “Yeah, everything we could ever dream... except cutie marks, except the things that ponies are supposed to live for, like honesty, kindness, laughter... The rebels try to change things, try to show the Empress that we are not okay with the way the Empire is run. Problem is, it doesn’t work very well when you go hollering blasphemies and insults in the streets, and when more level headed ponies see the Empress's Shadows take the dissenters away.. by force, they realize that the Empress may not be looking for change. Anypony who goes against the Celestial Empire, whether they be unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony, are taken away, swallowed up by the darkness, and never seen or heard from again.”

Crystal blinked, clearly not expecting that unicorns ever had to deal with anything more life threatening than missing a party or getting a moldy salad.

        “Here I pictured unicorns were all nice and cozy up in their Capitol while everyone else was forced to suffer for them. I always thought only pegasi and earth ponies rebelled...” She replied, frowning as she had to revise an opinion that she’d probably had since birth... Which, as a matter of fact, was exactly what I was doing at that moment

The unicorn stallion shook his head, “Nope. It’s all planned out by the Empress and the Overseers, they have a unique method for keeping everypony down in every single city. It’s pretty sickening when you realize how much thought they put into it... Ponies are so oppressed by the Empire that they can’t fathom speaking out, they can’t believe in themselves enough to fight back. So like I said, I escaped to my hiding places to read about a time when things were much, much better.”

I looked at him in a new light, he’d been surrounded by shining examples of dishonesty and pretty much downright evil, yet this unicorn was a remarkably level headed character. He did not hide from what he knew was right and wrong, nor did he shy from his Duty to the Empire, even if he had a number of issues with that institution. He just tried to make things better anyway he could.

        “The Empress herself actually talks to you ponies? I’ve never heard of her leaving Canterlot.” Crystal said, curious.

        “Oh no, I’ve never even seen her. As far as I know, she’s never left her palace up there in living memory.  I meant the Overseers go through meticulous psychological study to figure out how to make everypony in every village, town, and camp feel like shit while at the same time keeping them firmly under hoof and obedient. And then they stamp it with the Empress’s approval.” Firelight said, a note of disdain in his voice.

“Well let me tell you, their methods work. You should have heard your earth pony friend here, she thinks she’s worth less than the dirt under your hooves.” Crystal said, smirking at me, and recieving an extremely pissed off scowl back.

“Crystal! I’m an earth pony! I can’t fly and I can’t do magic, it’s a fact of nature, not my self pity!” I said, annoyed that she clearly thought I was being the immature one.

        “Harmony, how can you believe that!? Alright, I can guess how... But come on! Think of everything you’ve done in the past few days! You’re the one who saved my plot from the buffalo snipers! You’re the one who managed to make friends with a pony who should have killed us on sight, you have amazing potential, your race has nothing to do with how useful you are!” Firelight exclaimed vehemently, pinning me with the intensity, the sincerity of his words. Somehow, I couldn’t believe he was lying to me.

And he wasn’t done yet either, “Look, I know they make unicorns seem like gods compared to the other races, but the truth is: we have our limits. It takes just as much energy to do something magically as it would for you to do it physically. Granted, we can use spells that can put our energy towards things you actually can’t do on your own, like creating fire or healing ponies. But the point is, every race has its own talents, you just have to learn to use them to your advantage. And beyond that, every pony is unique, some unicorns are as stupid as those wooden targets I saw you shooting at, and some earth ponies could become the greatest tacticians and planners in the Empire if we appreciated them.”

He paused looking at me with sympathetic eyes, “The point is that you may be the greatest heroine in the world, you could have an amazing talent for getting other ponies to listen to you... But if you never lend a hoof, never stand up for yourself or anypony else, you’ll be stuck forever as a useless little filly, doing as she’s told and never knowing how much more she can be. The Empire chips away at your Spirit... leaves you with nothing left, just a colorless, soulless body. But you’d be amazed at what you can accomplish if you just put your mind to it, it’s your choice and your’s alone to do something out of the ordinary, you are the only one who can stand up for yourself and your beliefs.” 

I blinked. Firelight completed his impromptu lecture and actually blushed a little at the incredulous looks on Crystal and I’s faces. I’d never even considered myself anywhere near as useful as a unicorn would be in the long run. I had to admit, those were some deep thoughts from a stallion not that much older than me. And despite myself I found that some of his points were... logical, they made sense. They fit the pieces of the puzzle that had been constructing itself in my head since I had woken up here, surrounded by things that should, quite frankly, should be impossible. Since I had seen firsthoof that the world was not what the Empire claimed.

I stared at him in uncertainty. I really had no idea what I thought now... my head was still trying to process the fact that a unicorn was trying to get me to believe in myself.

I felt a gentle hoof on my shoulder, and looked up into Crystal’s gentle smile, “Harmony, Firelight’s right. You are a good pony, no one else would have even thought to do what you did back there, and you did it all on your own. No pony helped you or told you to save Firelight, and you had a mare screaming at you to kill me. But you put yourself in danger to save us, you took risks for nothing in return but your own peace of mind, I don’t think I’ve heard of anypony else ever doing things for the simple fact that they’re the right things to do.”

I looked up at her wide-eyed, “But... I don’t even know why I tried to help you two, and you both have more than paid off any debt you owed me! I’d be a pile of ash without your shield, Firelight, and either dead or delirious in the Everfree without your help Crystal.” I said, in truth, I wasn’t quite sure what had been going through my head when all of this had taken place... it was all a little fuzzy, like I was missing some of the things I’d been thinking about in some memories. “I don’t think I’m any different from anypony else... but why do you care? Especially you, Firelight, why do you even bother talking to me? I’m just an earth pony under your command.”

The fiery maned stallion looked at me thoughtfully for a second, as if pondering that very question himself.

        “I don’t really think we’re in a position to be commander and soldier, Harmony... But to answer your question, I care because you saved my life. You threw yourself into harm’s way to get me off that road, I have no idea why; I did nothing for you. You sounded no different from any other earth pony I’ve talked to on the Honesty, yet you did what no pony else would have even tried to do, least of all a unicorn like Spite, who should have been the only pony who cared about me at all.” He was still lying down on the cot, but had rolled onto his stomach, resting with his legs folded beneath him so he could actually look at us without craning his neck.

I had no response for him. What he said was the absolute truth, I had done what none of my squad mates had even considered, I flashed back to Harlen,

Those two are dead! We can still get outta here though. We have a chance!

He hadn’t given the two unicorns about to die a second thought. And then he had abandoned me as well, not even attempting to stop the buffalo wielding the magisile launcher. My only possible friend out of the twenty ponies I had lived 5 years of my life with... and look how well that had gone. What drove me to rescue a completely unknown unicorn from death when the easy way out also involved going back to the ponies and life I was born into?

I had done it... because it had been the right thing to do. Firelight hadn’t deserved to die, he hadn’t been the one to start the fight, he had tried to help everypony else. And when he had needed it most, no one was willing to lift a hoof to save him. I didn’t blame the buffalo, I blamed the ponies who had been my family for half a decade, I blamed the ones who had taken the easy way out, who had refused to acknowledge that there was still some good left in their hearts, despite the kindness Firelight had shown them.

I cleared my throat, “I... I did what everypony should have done. I did the right thing, the normal  thing. I went in to save somepony who seemed worth saving.”

There was a pause as they digested that.

Crystal spoke first, cutting off the unicorn, “Harmony, maybe a hundred years ago I’d have agreed with you, but in this day and age... What you did was extraordinary. Ponies don’t think like that anymore, they don’t give a crap about their friends, their families. And they definitely don’t help strangers after meeting them mere hours before. Firelight’s attempt to save you despite the fact he was on death’s door is the same thing, he was returning the favor. You two are definitely different, very different, from any other ponies I’ve ever encountered. That needs to change...because If no one helps any pony else, nothing is ever going to get better.” Crystal looked each of us in the eye, dead serious.

        “There are other ponies who think the way we do... But eventually, they’re either corrupted by the Empire, or they speak out, and are gone before their words can impact anypony else.” Firelight said sadly.

        “Do you two still want to return? It doesn’t really sound like the Empire will be a healthy place for two rebels such as yourselves in the long run... Maybe you two don’t have to go back... There’s always a need for new help around here.” Crystal said, looking out the window thoughtfully, it was pitch black outside, probably around midnight. Our conversation had lasted alot longer than any I’d ever had before.

Firelight looked at Crystal, his determined eyes giving his words a serious, “I can’t leave the Empire. It may be screwed up, but it’s my home. I don’t know about Harmony, but I have to go back. I have to try it, it’s not impossible, the Empire can change, somepony just has to prove that to the Empress...”

I frowned at Firelight, he was insane to believe that anypony could change the way our home ran itself. But that didn’t alter the fact that I wasn’t willing to stay here either, it would be nice to join the buffalo, to believe in what I was fighting for. But I couldn’t go into battle against the very ponies I had once trained side by side with. I couldn’t go against the Duty that had been ingrained into my very soul from birth. It just wasn’t in me to betray my country like that.

        “I don’t know about changing the Empire, Firelight, but I’m going back too. I was born believing in the Empire, I’m still loyal to my home, whether or not I believe in its methods. Sorry Crystal, but I can’t stay here and help the buffalo destroy the thing I am bound by Duty to defend.”

The blue maned pegasus nodded sadly, but didn’t seem surprised in the least. “I was hoping you might consider it, but it takes either a lot of courage, or a lack of virtue, to leave your home. Neither of you have a shortage of courage, but you’re two of the most virtuous ponies I’ve ever encountered.”

I looked at her in surprise, “Then why did you leave the Empire?”

        “I left because my family, my home, was supposed to be coming with me.” She said solemnly, gazing out at the blackness of the night.

Firelight looked at her quizzically, “You left the Empire with your family? How?”

I shared an exasperated glance with the icy blue pegasus, “It’s a long story Firelight, and I think Crystal’s had enough of telling it today. All you need to know is they left the Empire together... and only Crystal made it to Everfree.”

Firelight still looked confused and intrigued, but he wisely recognized the rather visible DROP IT RIGHT THE BUCK NOW look I was shooting him.

Crystal turned away from the window, “It’s just... a little too personal right now. Sorry, maybe I just feel awkward around unicorns because my time in the Empire. Anyway, it’s time for bed you two, you’ve had an exhausting three days, and now that you’re conscious, you can actually start to recover your strength. Come on now, Doctor’s orders.”

        “I guess we’ll be sleeping here tonight?” I asked, unsure if the pegasus had plans for us once we were fully healed.

        “Yes, and I’ll have to bind you both again, the buffalo are letting me treat you, but we’re not here to make friends. Once you’re healed enough, the Chief will question you, and then allow you to leave Vigil... if you still want to.” She said, clearly hoping we would change our minds.

I shared a pained expression with the unicorn on the cot, abandoning Crystal would be the thing I’d regret most about returning... But it didn’t change the fact that I was determined to go back.

        “Maybe we can stay in touch... somehow...” I said weakly.

Crystal gave me pitying expression, “Not likely, if either one of us is caught, both the buffalo and the Empire will turn against us.”

I sighed, I knew she was right, but it still sucked to find the first nice pony that didn’t double as my commander, and then have her torn away only a day after getting to know her.

I said goodnight to Firelight and walked shakily back to my cot while Crystal took care of him. She blew out the torch in his room and fluttered into the main space, doing a quick check up on several of her patients before getting to me and carefully rebinding the straps that tied me to my bed.

        “Sorry about this... but I should be able to let you up again tomorrow...” she muttered as she worked.

        “Don’t worry about it, I understand the buffalo’s fear... especially with most of the ponies in this room. I hope we can talk again before we go...” I said with a faint smile in the torchlight.

She smiled in return and nodded.  Once finished with my restraints, she took off again, blowing out the rest of the torches in the large room, plunging the area into a deep gloom, she kept only one lit. It was burning softly next to the small door she disappeared into, which was on the wall to the right of Firelight’s, I guessed she slept here, near her patients.

After a few moments in the flickering light of the lone torch, I closed my eyes, my mind was tired from all this thinking of morals and virtues, and my battered body had gone beyond ‘exhausted’ a long time  ago. I literally had trouble keeping my eyes open after I lay down, and after a few minutes, I gave up trying to fight the pull of sleep.

I closed my eyes and fell into one of the most dreamless, and shortest lived slumbers of my life.


***




        “...let GO of me! Who the buck are y- mmmmmmRRRRfff!!!!”

I woke with a start. My eyes shooting open as the cry of distress echoed in my mind. 

What the hay?

Slowly, I made out a soft rectangle light falling across several rows of flat shapes... cots. 

The events of the previous day came back in a flash, I was in the Buffalo Territory! And there were other ponies outside the Empire and... and one of those ponies had just given a muffled scream.

“Wrap her up and then get the rest of these foals as well, we have what we came for. Time to get the hell out of this pit.”

The voice hissed out of the darkness, near where the entrance to Crystal’s room should have been... 

Instantly my mind was on full alert. I attempted to roll out of bed and rush to the poor pegasus’s rescue. Unfortunately I was rather rudely reminded of the straps holding me down, particularly as they bit into my sides, firmly holding me in place.  

Crap.

I had no idea what I was up against, some sort of bandits? What had they come here for? Arrgh! 

If only I was back in the Empire... then at least I would know who was the enemy! Well, at least I’d know who could possibly be sneaking around in the middle of the night and tying ponies up...



If they had had any experience with the Empire, I doubted they would give a second thought about killing Firelight either; Dammit! I needed to help these ponies now! 

From the sounds of it, Crystal had either been drugged or knocked unconscious, because there were no longer any muffled grunts or thumps of struggling, just a scraping sound, like something heavy being dragged across a dirt floor. They were taking the pegasus outside!

I heard muffled hoof beats advancing towards my cot in the darkness, they were purposeful, like the pony making them knew exactly where he was going, and what he was looking for.

I held my breath, hoping against hope that they would go away... The sounds stopped right next to my cot. I saw a pair of evil purple eyes glaring down at me, and nearly screamed when I heard the soft hiss of a hoof blade being released. 

Whoever this pony was, they could sure as hell see me, and they knew I was the enemy.

I tried to think of something... anything I could do to survive the night. I couldn’t come up with anyway out though.

I was outnumbered, probably outgunned, and had the additional handicap of being tied down to a bed... But I was also about to be assassinated if I didn’t do something!

I heard a sudden whooshing sound and caught the flicker of motion as something stabbed downwards. Not pausing to think, I threw myself against the restraints with all my strength, which was pretty pathetic at the moment.

But I had the element of surprise; I heard a grunt of alarm as the whole cot shoved against my assailant, throwing them off balance. 

Then came the burning pain as the hoof blade swept across my side, slicing through my bonds, but managing to make a fairly deep gouge in my flank along with them. I hissed with pain, but I was free! I kicked out with all four hooves, throwing the surprised assassin off balance and causing him to crash into the bed behind him. 

Leaping to my hooves, I fought to ignore the pain in my side as well as the blood starting to drip down it, and jumped to the ground, running towards the rectangle of light, I had a pegasus to save!

I burst out into the night air... and stopped; taking in the scene before me.

Crystal was right there, trussed up like she’d gotten on a spider’s bad side, or perhaps several hundred spider’s naughty list. She was surrounded by the rest of her patients; all survivors of the ambush, all part of Gamma Squad. And all equally unconscious, but not dead... so what had that assassin been doing if not killing me?

I forced myself away from such thoughts, which wasn’t too hard with all the conundrums in the clearing before me, I doubted bandits would care much about Gamma, they’d probably just be ransomed back to the Empire. 

Beyond the pile of prisoners however, ringing the perimeter of the clearing outside Crystal’s humble medical center, were four ponies who seemed to be cloaked in shadows. Their silhouettes shimmered and blended into the darkness of the night, making it extremely difficult to look at one for more than a few seconds. I shuddered as all four pairs of cool purple eyes turned to glare at me.

But even they were nothing compared to the two ponies in the middle of the space, one was a black coated, richly barded unicorn;  who looked at me with a sneering contempt, like I was a disturbing insect he’d just found stuck to his hoof... 

But the other, the one looking at the ponies heaped up outside with an indifferent, almost scornful, smile, caused my mind to nearly explode with outrage, confusion, and above all, hurt.

I had to take a step back, which brought me in contact with the pony standing right behind me. I didn’t have to turn around. I knew exactly what I’d find; the assassin I’d kicked and ran away from. I guess I’d be answering for that buck I’d given him.

But my eyes stayed firmly rooted to the center of the clearing, where, standing calmly with the people who had tried to assassinate me and were in the process of pony-napping Crystal, was the one who had stated mere hours before that he couldn’t give up his Loyalty to the country he’d grown up in. The stallion who had shown me that nothing was ever as it seemed in the Empire... 

If the fiery mane wasn’t enough, the look of horror on his face as I stepped into the faint moonlight identified the stallion clearly; only somepony as good at lying as Firelight Sparkle could be horrified that another was still alive.




***





End of Chapter 2








Letter to the Reader:




Dear Reader,

Today I learned that things are not always as they seem. 

I learned that even though I trust someone, and would put my faith in them on any subject; it’s always good to do some fact checking on my own so that I know I can trust them without a doubt. And so I know why what they say is true.

Your’s Truly,

Harmony










***Author’s Words***


As always, please drop a comment to let me know what you think of the story so far! And any suggestions as to how I could improve it in any way, shape, or form, are more than just appreciated; they are loved wholeheartedly!

Feel free to drop a thumb... er, I mean, please click one of those nifty little thumb-looking buttons down their to state your opinion, power to the people!

Inspiration credits: Kkat, and Somber & The Project Horizons Syndicate. The Internet.


Written, Edited, and Directed by: Fluttersyke





***End of the Author’s Rambling***


To The Hub


> Chapter 3: Execution
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A Long Way From Equestria





Book 1: Going Beyond Our Duty



Chapter 3: Execution


Harmony



Friendship

It used to be that having a friend meant you had somebody who would stand up for you without hesitation; someone who would lend a hoof when you needed it and help you up when you fell.  But these days, Friendship no longer means quite the same thing. Sure, ponies may decide they like one or two others; they may hang out together on the rare occasions when they have a chance to relax. But given the chance to help their friends when they’re feeling down; asked to lend a helping hoof in return for nothing? Things simply don’t work that way in Equestria anymore.

Friendship, true Friendship, is dead in Equestria; the Celestial Empire has made sure of that. There is no reward for helping those around you, much better to sit on the sidelines and pray your acquaintances are chosen for punishment instead of you; the only thing that matters in your life is the Empire, and how you can benefit it.

There is no point in wasting emotion or interest on anypony else’s life. Because there is no one who will ever stand up to help you, and no one who will ever give a damn how you feel or what you’re doing.

Long ago, having a friend wasn’t a term to throw around without care for its meaning. In the time before the Celestial Empire, Friendship was a powerful weapon that, wielded in the face of neigh impossible odds, almost always prevailed.

Almost.

Then came the shit storm that swept the entire world away. I can’t say I paid much attention to those history lessons, and truth be told, I can’t say I care. I got the gist of them, and that’s all I’ll ever need: Some large number of years ago, something happened that provided me with the sorry excuse for an existence I have been stuck with for fifteen years, the end. Yay.

If I really thought about it, I’d probably go insane. Because I would have an uncontrollable desire to go back and give my regards to whatever asshole had caused all this, along with a large amount of bullets. At high velocity. In his face.


***


I leapt and spun around on all four hooves, coming back the ground with vengeance and purposefully putting more weight on my right forehoof.

BLAM!

The head of the pony shaped clay statue blasted clean off; in fact the shot actually blew a hole in the wall behind the target.

I did not pause to congratulate myself. In fact if anything, the fact that I hadn’t taken out the entire pony target pissed me off even more. I slammed my hoof against the unforgiving earth, firing off several shots in rapid succession; my burning anger nothing but a slightly warm feeling against the cold, calculating aim of my mental sanctuary.

BLAM!
BLAM!
BLAM!

There went the pony up in front, a shot straight through the heart. The pony in the far back was actually blown off its mount, it lay broken on the ground with a hole where its smart assed mouth should be. The last bullet had been fired from a crouched position; it tore clear though the first pony I‘d shot, severing it from its mount, before continuing at an upward angle and slicing through several ropes that held a part of the ‘balcony’ up in the back. The three figures on said balcony toppled downward with their platform, shattering from the force of their impact on the hard stone floor of the range.

Something about the sound of shattering pony statues seemed to sooth my anger a bit. It also brought back the unwanted memories of three nights ago, when I had been awoken from my healing slumber in my one and only friend’s medical center. My teeth clenched in anger at the memory... but really, that night was all I could think of, was all I had been thinking about, for three days.

I remembered the terrible sight of Crystal, bound up like a giant cocooned caterpillar, in the middle of all the other recruits.

I remembered the sudden blossom of pain in my back that had rendered me immobile; paralyzed for almost a full day. And the bark of annoyance as the shadow pony in the doorway behind me dragged me to join the rest of my unconscious squad, removing the poisoned dart from my neck and saying it was my own damned fault for kicking him.

I could still feel the shock as I realized that the seven ponies who had so rudely taken the twelve of us prisoner were in fact the six most talented and coordinated fliers in all the Empire. Firelight nonchalantly mentioned their names in passing when he asked what the ShadowBolts were doing so far south. Which meant that we hadn’t been assaulted by bandits, or taken captive by some unknown enemy shadow race, we we’d been ‘rescued’ by the Empire. And guess what the Empire does not tolerate? Ponies who live outside of its laws. Crystal’s cutie mark had spelled out her fate before she’d even opened her mouth.

The ShadowBolts, and their unicorn Commander, had been closed mouth about their objective; probably because Crystal had still been slightly conscious on the ground next to me. They hadn’t answered any of the innocent sounding questions Firelight had asked them, but I highly doubted the stallion was clueless, he must have seen this coming; how else could he have played Crystal and I so well?

The charcoal coated unicorn was who I remembered most of all from that night. Firelight Sparkle had kept an unconcerned, almost sly smile on his face the whole time. The only time his mask had slipped was when he’d realized I was still alive. I kept expecting him to try to come over and free us, to prove that saving his life, and having him save mine, meant enough to call of this level of betrayal.

I was sadly mistaken. Not only did he fail to so much as look in my direction, he actively helped the ShadowBolts as they set about going through the humble medical center for anything of value. Their commander had looked at him with admiration.

I had once again felt the cold despair of hopelessness descend upon my heart and mind.

If fighting and nearly dying together wasn’t enough, how could Friendship possibly survive in this world?

Once the plotholes had finished clearing out the place, they’d rallied under the black coated unicorn, who was clearly the leader here.

The buck gave me the creeps, even paralyzed as I was; his voice was as hard as his cold blue eyes, and his silvery white mane contrasted eerily with his pitch black coat. He gave off an aura of authority that surpassed even SteelSaddle’s as he ordered the six pegasi under his command to begin throwing down sticks and spilling flammable potions from Crystal’s own supply all over her home. His plan was simple and clever; when the buffalo woke to the fire, they’d assume Crystal had died trying to save her patients.

I almost wish she had.

I knew what would happen to her back in the Empire, what was happening to her right now. She was being tortured for information, any information the Inquisitors could think of asking for. By now she must have broken; if she’d held back at all in the first place that is. Ponies didn’t endure the Empire’s torture for more than a few hours without giving up whatever sad hope they had of protecting their secrets, three days was well past that.

I growled and shook my head fiercely. Forcing myself to think about something else, anything else. After mentally fighting myself for a few more seconds as I stood alone in the Shooting Range, I found my thoughts once again stray to that terrible night...

Once the bonfire was all set up, the ShadowBolts had flown into the sky while the Commander set to work condensing the air into two black masses of clouds floating just off the ground with his silvery magic. He’d then levitated all twelve of us onto the larger wispy platform, which surprisingly held our weight without any discernable strain or reaction. I had been completely at his mercy, I couldn’t move an inch; so I just lay there with the rest of the ponies. I thought I’d heard Crystal awaken briefly, but she stayed silent after that, and I couldn’t talk to her without control of my mouth.

When we were in place, the unicorns leapt onto the other cloud,both of which served as light weight, easily maneuverable airborne platforms called ‘T-Storm12 Transports’. Easy to produce with magic and adequate for flying a small number of ponies across a short distance. The ShadowBolts had surrounded us in a kind of honor gaurd; two of the pegasi flying under the platforms of shadow and lifting them up to the sky. A very frightening ride, let me tell you. But fortunately I wasn’t in charge of my facilities at the time; so I could be sick without any physical problems. Flying in the open air really wasn’t my thing apparently. The ShadowBolts underneath us had then flown to the rear of the cloud and put their wings into moving us north at high velocity; I could just barely smell a hint of smoke as we travelled onward. All six ShadowBolts rotated out with the two pushing us while the other four nudged the clouds onto the right path and covering their comrade’s backs.

Throughout the journey, I could only lay there and think. I could only keep imagining what would happen to me, to Crystal, when we got back. Traitors were dealt with so harshly, it was lucky if they even got a day between the notice of their execution, and the moment they stepped up to the Headspony’s noose. I wasn’t sure what Firelight had told his new friends about the two ponies who’d saved him, but I was fairly sure he wanted us dead. Probably to make sure no pony knew that he had some pretty radical ideas about the Empire himself. Even if they had been nothing but lies, his words could damn him for the simple fact that he was right.

Too bad Crystal had an irremovable brand. Her Cutie Mark would mark her as a traitor no matter where she fled to in the Empire, and I highly doubted the Empress would allow her to escape a second time.

So far, I hadn’t heard anything about my kidnapped companion since they’d taken her to the old town hall for ‘questioning’.

Either they were keeping her around for fun, or she was already dead. I prayed to the Goddess for the second option. I’d barely made it through these last three days, and I wasn’t the one locked away far from home. Right now, it felt as if that whole mission, from the Honesty and the ambush, to the conversation by torchlight and the ShadowBolts, was a hazy dream. It was like the Empire had just decided to forget it, and everypony complied without telling me. I wanted to do something, something to make it all seem real. I wanted to show the ponies here what life was like outside the Empire; do something to honor Crystal for helping me, and to make up in some impossibly small way for Firelight’s betrayal...

Your desires, are insignificant. You, are insignificant. You can do nothing for her; you are nothing. Just a passing speck in this vast Empire.

And then there was that.

Probably the absolute worst thing about returning to the Empire’s lands was that I suddenly remembered just what had transpired as I had stood before that incoming magisile. I’d been frozen, helpless, by this asshole. I had no idea where the hell the voice came from; but as soon as I reentered the Empire in the hooves of the ShadowBolts, he had come back into my mind with a vengeance. His wonderfully uplifting comments came whenever I was feeling particularly sad or rebellious; so we had a fairly constant stream of communication since I was pretty sure my mood for the past seventy two hours or so qualified as downright bucking depressed.

You are alone. You are helpless to aid those who need you most. You are Nothing.

Yeah, thanks for that.

The problem was... I was pretty much in agreement with him, and besides, what was the point in arguing? I vaguely remembered my conversations with Crystal and Firelight, but even then I knew that I had never believed in myself. Any belief that I had power over anything, that the things I did would matter, would make any sort of a difference... eroded away before I could even grasp them. I was an earth pony. In this Empire I was nothing. No pony could stand up against the might of the Empress, nor to her exceedingly large army. It was pointless to even hope.

With a forceful shake of my head, I snapped myself out of such thoughts.  Again.

I took a step back from the fire line and glared around at the empty clearing. I had come here to clear my head... right, like there was anyway I could possibly get rid of the crushing realization that this would be my life for as long as I’d live now. I was no longer even remotely pleased to be in the Battalion, Gamma Squad could go buck itself for all I cared; I just wanted to be back in Crystal’s home, talking by torchlight about making things better for everypony...

Dammit come on!

I desperately forced myself to take in every detail of my surroundings, maybe I could drown out depression with study...

The Shooting Range was a simple design, and a perfectly neutral thing to think about. It involved shooting deadly projectiles at pieces of wood. Safe, and harmless...

The Range was set off of the west side of the Training Grounds and about half a mile away from the central running track. As far from the center of the Ponyville Encampment as it could get; almost right up against the large wall that encircled the entire camp. It was arranged into a sort of cross shape, you entered from the right arm, went to the center, and from there had three different ranges to choose from. Each of the three was covered overhead by shoddy sheets of wood and marked out by large, taught tarps, reinforced by magic to keep the bullets within, on the sides and in back. They were all about a hundred yards deep with trees, foliage, and a few ‘buildings’ where the various different targets were magically positioned thanks to spells woven into their frames.

Using the Range was easy, just step up to a fire line with your weapon of choice and blast away. The three sides were each set up for a different type of skill practice; the right was a simple beginner’s affair, with resin-hardened paper cut outs for targets and points assigned for hitting vital areas and such. That was where I’d tested the day I joined the Battalion. The middle range, directly across from the entrance, was an exercise in hitting moving targets. Somehow the unicorns had magicked the flat resin cut outs to move around in endless, unpredictable paths back and forth, which activated the moment you stepped up to the line. It presented ponies with a true test of firing at a living creature. The final range, to the left of the entrance, was a long, wide corridor of forest on one side, buildings on the other. There was, ahem, had been, a large balcony across the back for practice at shooting opponents from a lower position. The test was simple: hit as many of the twenty fully three dimensional clay targets of various species and size as you could in a set time or in a set amount of shots. Every time you stopped firing for more than a few minutes, unicorn magic would reassemble the statues into new and completely randomized species and locations.

This was where I spent the most time shooting, because these ponies looked most like the ones I really wanted to shoot at... I sighed, and looked around. The small clearing was silent. I was the only pony crazy enough to come out here during dinner time.

With a hiss of annoyance, I brought my hoof down one last time.

BLAM!

The bullet only served to blast one of the shattered ponies apart a bit more, but it gave me immense satisfaction that I could still at least hit out at something.

The sound of trotting reached my ears as a familiar voice shouted, “Bravo, Bravo!”

I spun around, searching the clearing for the source of the comment.

Harlen and two of his cronies were walking in to the secluded clearing from the running track, the brown stallion had a smile on his face and was toting a fully automatic assault rifle strapped to his side. I didn’t even blink, I simply stared at him as if he was the absolute last thing in the entire world I wanted to see.

Oh wait, he was.

He seemed taken aback by the lack of a friendly greeting... or maybe it was the death stare I seemed to be unable to stop from shooting out of my eyes. If only it actually worked.

        “Aw c’mon Harmony, Cheer up! There’s gonna be an Assembly today!” He exclaimed brightly, taking up a position a few yards to my right. His two friends went to opposite side of the Range. He aimed down the barrel of his AR, a weapon created to get as many bullets fired in as short a time as possible. The gun was mounted a little above his shoulder, all he had to do was lay his head against the rest, a specially molded and customized piece of rubber attached to the long barrel, and then bite down on two short sticks positioned in front of the head rest to aim and fire the thing. When the two triggers were pressed together, the weapon fired bullet after bullet wherever it was pointed; when they weren’t, it was a harmless piece of metal.

        “Hmm... I hope SteelSaddle  doesn’t kick your flank for destroying the range. But then again, this much damage with five shots should at least impress him before he kills you.” Harlen took a battle stance, narrowing his eyes and sighting one of the many standing buffalo molds. There were still a lot of the life sized clay molds left intact; in fact everything but the pony statues were still standing. Almost as if some extremely pissed off filly had decided to take out her anger on the only species responsible for it, I couldn’t imagine who would do such a thing though.

Harlen took a deep breath and tried to hold himself steady as he bit down on the triggers.





The noise was almost enough to bring me out of my silent anger and smack him. But, given the fact that his short bursts of bullets blasted into only a few of the biggest buffalo targets up front, I felt the anger he was clearly feeling for me and my nearly impeccable accuracy was just enough to let him continue making a fool of himself. He seemed to be under the impression that firing more bullets equaled more hits; unfortunately in his case the extra shots simply went into the ceiling as he failed three times to hold the jittery weapon steady.

After a few more bursts, and a few less hits, he stopped trying and turned to me. His demeanor was significantly less boisterous.

        “How the hell do you use that rifle? This stupid thing just locks on and fires in the general direction of its target! You’re sniping out the supports of the balcony almost half a mile away!”

I was so very not in the mood for this right now. “Harlen, I just pretend each pony is you, and then I blast away.” I said sweetly. Or at least, as sweetly as my raspy, disused voice could muster. I hadn’t talked much at all since my return.

His face immediately darkened, “Look, I don’t know what the hell happened to you with the buffalo, but you’re back now; you’re safe. You are back where you belong and we can help you get over whatever’s bothering you. Just remember, your real friends will always be here for you... as soon as you decide to stop being so bitchy. It’s not like you’ve got anyone else anyway; try not to take your stupid hissy fits out on us.”

I locked eyes with him, “You have no idea what happened back there. Because you ran to save your own sorry ass when there were ponies who needed your help.”

He actually laughed in my face. “Oh you’re a riot harmony, those unicorns didn’t need anypony’s help. And definitely not a stupid little earth pony’s. You should have come back with me when you had the chance, everything would have been sooo much easier for you. ”

I remembered the buffalo aiming his huge magisile launcher at the Honesty,  “You’re right. Maybe I should have gone with you, that way we all could have died in peace, and ignorance.”

He blinked in confusion, “What the buck are you talking about? At least you wouldn’t have been tortured for three days by those psychopathic monsters if you’d come with me!”

I snorted in disgust. Clearly they had already been told exactly what the Empire wanted them to believe; it would be my word against a nation’s.

“Just shut the hell up, you’re not going to listen to me and you wouldn’t give a damn about what really happened anyway. The only thing you care about is doing what you’re told; you don’t think Harlen. And you sure as hell don’t know the first thing about the world outside the Empire.”

He took a step back from me, looking almost... frightened.

“Harmony, you can’t go around saying things like that. You’re lucky I don’t report you to the Sergeant...” He looked genuinely confused at my outburst. There were several shots from the ponies across from us as they tried to hit the static cutouts with nothing more than mouth pistols. Harlen glanced at them and seemed to regain some of his arrogance, sneering at their failure. He turned back to me, “Harmony, you have a Duty to your country. I did mine; you need to learn when to run away from a lost cause. It’ll be a lot less painful for you in the future.”

With that, the pony who’d been my on and off rival turned his back on me for what was probably the last time.

I looked out over the ruin of the range, in a few seconds, the destruction we had caused would be erased by unicorn magic... I wondered if that was how they did it in real life, simply magicked away any evidence of the tragedies caused by the greed of the Empire and made sure everypony forgot about them. I wouldn’t put it past them.

My resolve hardened further... I couldn’t go back to my old life, I didn’t even want to try. Not with the things I now knew about the Empire.

Your life here is the only one you will ever have. You have no power. No freedom.

I flinched as the mental whisper filled my thoughts once more. This life was the one I’d been born to... but it was no longer the one I wanted, regardless of my power to change it. I hung my head and walked slowly towards the exit of the Range.

Was this thing right? Was my only purpose in this world to serve a country I hated?

The Empire does what it must to ensure the survival of Ponykind. You cannot understand the sacrifices that must be made to keep your race on top.

I actually cocked my head questioningly at that, and was thankful no pony was around to witness my mental debate. But then I thought about the statement, did ponies need to be on top? Couldn’t we all just work together?

Ponykind will never be satisfied unless it is the one and only dominant race in this world. It loved and tolerated only those that aided its goals of keeping the status quo, and smashed to dust those who opposed it.

Could... could that really be true? Was it really possible? Were ponies really that greedy and terrible that they chose this Empire over a peaceful, shared, coexistence with other races?

You have seen exactly what your kind  is capable of. You know the answer.

Did I? I’d seen the cruelty of the Lieutenant, the indifference of Harlen, and the betrayal of Firelight... Ponies who took what they wanted, and dragged down anyone who dared to stand in its way. Were ponies like that the norm? Were Crystal and I really the outcasts, the ones who went against common ambition and desire?

The Celestial Empire keeps Ponykind together in the bonds of Duty. Without it, your race  would shatter apart into thousands of meaningless, powerless tribes, to be extinguished from existence by any of the surrounding enemy species.

Was that true? And even if it was, which option was better? To take away the freedom of ponies in order to give them a future, or to allow them free will, and have the entire population wiped out by the people they have bitterly fought for generations?

I trotted mindlessly around the track, turning that question over and over. Surely there had to be some redeeming value, some virtue, still left among us? Were we truly nothing more than a shadow of the great Equestrians that lived during the Golden Age?

You may not look upon those ancient ‘heroes’ with such reverence if you knew their true nature...

What was it talking about? The heroes of the Golden Age deserved every bit of reverence... didn’t they? Then again,  what did I really know about them? A week or so of almost fatally dull history lessons. Sure, I’d loved the topic, but I hadn’t exactly committed every detail memory. After all, when would I ever need to know who had lived a hundred years ago? But the Golden Age had been a haven of harmony, of Kindness, Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity, and Magic; even if I didn’t know much about them, I refused to believe those ponies had a hoof in creating the Empire...

If you’re so sure, ask yourself: where did they go? Did they simply abandon everyone and go somewhere else? Have you ever heard of a different society of ponies?

...No. I hadn’t.

My mind struggled to argue, to find some saving grace... But if a reason existed for the ponies who had kept Equestria safe all those years ago to leave when the Empire formed... I did not know it.

I could find nothing to argue with, there were no arguments left.

How could I possibly to make a difference, when thousands of others only wanted things to stay the way they were? Ponies had made the Empire what it was now. They didn’t want change... I was nothing but an oddity. An eccentric with quaint ideas that no longer held sway in the world I lived in.

A world too fucked up to care about things like ‘morality’ and ‘happiness’.

As soon as I had the thought I heard a faint, dark chuckle. It felt like a spotlight shut off... if a spotlight could make you feel shrouded in darkness. I knew, somehow, that I was now alone.

I let out a long, drawn out sigh. Who the hell cared anymore anyhooves? I’d been doomed to the life of an Empire Soldier for five years, the events of the past week changed nothing. The realization that the ponies I had once thought fondly of, even if I knew nothing more of them a few ancient text book pages, may not have been the heroes I thought them to be changed nothing. Except now I felt even more like shit about my fate.

I’d only made it about half way around the track, bringing me close to the exit of the Training Grounds. I looked down the road that ran straight to the center of Ponyville, lined on both sides by the four pony tents that made up the majority of the west side. This half of the camp was pretty much deserted year round; it was meant for the active members of the Battalion when the army wasn’t involved in a campaign. I don’t think I needed a single hoof to count the number of times in my life that the Battalion had been idle; there was always somepony that needed fighting. The east Encampment was where my own barracks, along with the other squads in training’s buildings, and the latrines, were located. I turned away from the street, my thoughts once again shifting to the fact that I was powerless to do anything here.

I was about to continue for another few depressing laps when an eerie, dark note warbled out from the center of the Ponyville Encampment.

I’d only heard the sound a few times before, it was a very rare occasion when the entirety of Ponyville was called for Assembly.

The mournful bellow continued, rising and falling as a pony with super powered lungs blasted it out. I’d seen the instrument they used to produce the call, a giant horn mounted on a rolling base. It was really useful in getting an entire camp’s attention. I remembered Harlen mentioning an Assembly back at the Range, how the hell had he known?

Speaking of my favorite plothole; the brown stallion and his cronies came galloping out of the Shooting Range at that moment, rushing towards the street. Another glance down said aisle revealed everypony else doing the same; the few ponies living on this side of camp were coming out of their tents and heading in the general direction of the old town at the center of the Encampment.

The three from Gamma Squad raced past me, running down the road as if they were afraid they’d get stuck in the back of the crowd. I narrowed my eyes at the ponies plodding along with their heads down. The horn eventually died out, but its message had been clear, and anypony caught absent from the Assembly would be punished severely. Unicorn magic allowed them to tally who entered the central square, where all Assemblies took place, and who didn’t.

With a heavy heart, I hung my head and marched along with the flow. That bastard was right. I couldn’t even go against a simple instrument. I would be petrified to raise my voice, let alone my hoof, at the Empire.

I was just a simple filly, without the courage to stand up for herself. A stupid filly who had believed that ponies could be good, and would now spend the rest of her life paying the price.


***


I reached the central square in the last trickle, getting pushed and shoved through the mass of ponies jammed into the square as a familiar figure trotted up onto the stage in front of the herd.

        “Now I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.” A voice blasted out, amplified by the dirty white unicorn’s horn.

Lieutenant Spite walked back and forth across the large wooden platform erected in front of Ponyville’s original Town Hall. The Assembly before her filled up the entire square of the ancient village, but of course the soldiers of the Encampment caring nothing for the old buildings surrounding them.

I was near the back of the crowd, on one side of the clear space that ran straight through the middle of the mass of troops. This center aisle was how Spite had walked up to the platform, and how she would leave once she’d said her piece and released us back to our duties. No one would dare to set hoof in that two pony wide space.

Spite stopped pacing and glared around at the people before her. “You are here today to celebrate the death of a very, very dangerous traitor to the Celestial Empire. This agent of atrocity has murdered countless ponies like yourselves in cold blood. She had several of our very own Gamma Squad members in her hooves just three days ago, and was seconds away from slaughtering them as they lay helpless in the Everfree Forest. Thankfully, we have our very own ShadowBolts to thank for freeing those poor ponies and bringing this spawn of Evil to Justice!”

Spite spoke with a rising volume, joyously shouting the last part out. The thunderous pounding of hooves shook the very foundations of old Ponyville as the mob of ponies applauded the capture of a heinous terrorist.

One set of hooves, however,  did not pound the ground. One pair of eyes did not have fierce joy and anger in them as they watched the prisoner being dragged up onto the stage by two earth pony guards.

One voice did not join in the chorus of jeers that greeted the icy blue pegasus mare as she was led, covered in a black hood, hoof-tied with rope, and wing-bound with leather, to the tall pole in the center of the platform.

The one with the long rope hanging off of it, ending at head height right above a trap door set into the floor.

I felt a shadow pass over my mind...

Behold. The Fate of All Traitors.

I was numb, paralyzed by the confliction of emotions that shot through me. On one hoof, Crystal was still alive, she showed several bruises and cuts; no doubt the result of torture and beatings, but she was still standing. I hadn’t ever expected to see her again.

On the other hoof... She had just been turned into a terrifying, murderous monster by one small speech. No pony cared if she had single hoofedly saved eleven of the people in this crowd. Her kindness, compassion, and virtue were nothing to them. She had failed her Duty, and that was far more than enough to damn her.

I was about to witness her death. There were over a hundred ponies between her and I, but they weren’t the thing that prevented me from doing anything more than praying for the pegasus before me.

No, that was the enormous, invisible, and omnipotent threat of the Empire hanging over my head. The knowledge that my Duty bound me to stay in my place. To do what I was told and to forget the things that compromised my Loyalty. That was the force that kept me from even dreaming of helping out this poor pony.

Now you see the future that lies in free will. Inevitably, it comes to this. Far better that the Empire makes such instances as small and meaningful as possible. Less ponies will follow in the hoofsteps of those they see brought down with nothing more than a sentence.

No... please, let her go. It had to know that Crystal was harmless, she only wanted to help ponies. Surely it could tell Spite to call the whole thing off? Tell everypony that this particular traitor had saved the Lieutenant’s own sorry hide, and she was letting her go in payment?

A menacing chuckle bounced around my skull.

There is only one possible response to a traitor; Regardless of their personal merit...

No! Not for her! Not-

Execution.

The crowd roared once more as Spite played them up into a frenzy. The Lieutenant raised a hoof after a moment and calmed them down a bit, enough to move ahead with the sickening show. She gestured at the guard closest to Crystal.

        “And now troops, gaze upon the face of a backstabbing murderer!” She bellowed in her magically amplified voice.

The guard ripped the hood off of the pegasus mare with his teeth. She gasped for breath and frantically looked around, searching.

I felt frozen by the sheer impossibleness of the situation, how had it come to this? Just days ago, I’d been a filly trying to make her way through a brutal training regime day after day.... Now I was attending the murderous spectacle that could only end in the death of my one and only friend.

Crystal’s gaze suddenly zeroed in on me. I had no idea how she could have picked me out among all these ponies, but her eyes locked with mine. I could see the despair, the fear, in her posture. Yet there seemed a certain... hope, in the way she leaned forward, towards me.

But... I couldn’t do anything for her. I was just an earth pony dammit! I couldn’t fight, I was created to obey! How could I possibly help? I had nothing!

Nothing...

Slowly, I glanced down at my side. The rules of the Assembly are simple, you come when you hear the call; no excuses. That meant there was no check point, no security measures. Who’d be foalish enough to make them necessary?

I wondered that intensely as I stared at the gleaming Rifle attached to my side.

You are powerless. What good will a few shots do? You have no hope of survival.

He was right. There was absolutely no way I could even think of using the weapon... The Empire was omnipotent, omniscient. It could not be fought.

You are Nothing, and nothing you will stay. You have no chance of saving her, she is already dead, the Empire demands it.

And my Duty bound me to the Empire. My Duty dictated that I join in the jeering cries of hate and slander that were being hurled at the one mare who was responsible for my survival.

I was nothing against this nation. Nothing to these ponies. I was just a stupid little filly, with dreams that were so impossible, they were crushed before I could even attempt them.

The darkness in my mind seemed to grow stronger and stronger, pushing me further into the depths of depression. There was no hope. No chance of redemption; no way to save the pony before me.

Crystal’s panicked eyes found my dead ones. I saw her mouth a word.

A simple, damning word.


“Help”


I flashed back to the Medical Center, to Crystal’s words....

If no one helps any pony else, nothing is ever going to get better.

The rational part of my mind kicked in... I was no pony special, what gave me the right to decide who lives and who dies? How could I justify killing other ponies so that Crystal could live? What if the Empire was right, what if we soldiers really were building a better tomorrow?

The Empire chips away at your Spirit... leaves you with nothing left, just a colorless, soulless body.

Firelight’s words, even from the mouth of a backstabbing unicorn, were enough to throw away my self doubt.

This pony had helped me when others would have left me for dead. Hell, she was the reason I wasn’t dead in the first place.

I moved out a little into the aisle down the center of the clearing, where there was an unobstructed view of the entire stage.

This was more than just me. Even I couldn’t believe in myself, I could believe that Crystal would do everything to help if our positions were reversed.

My focus shifted from my helpless friend to the agent of her demise.

If I couldn’t aid her in her hour of need, what kind of a pony was I?

You foalish little filly. Friendship is a long dead power. You have nothing compared to the old Magic it once was; this pegasi is a stranger to you. She deserves her death.

I don’t think so. You aren’t about take my first, and only, friend. You son of a bitch.

Impossible be damned.

I aimed, locking onto my target with a cold certainty.

You have a Duty, pony. Do not give it up. It is the only thing you have to hold onto.

Doubt once again clawed at my mind; Duty sustained the Empire. It kept everypony together, kept us from ever needing anything else.

But sometimes... When every truth around you has crumbled to ash,

When the ones you once called ‘friends’ have become your greatest enemies,

When the very nation you are sworn to protect turns around to destroy all that you hold dear...

Sometimes Duty isn’t enough. And when that happens, when you stand on the precipice of change; a single push can send you plunging over the edge.

I closed my eyes, feeling the courage inside of me assaulted on all sides by the terror filling my thoughts.

And then suddenly, I felt a warm glow emit from somewhere in the recesses of my mind... or perhaps from my heart.

Impossible.

It trailed off, faint. And fading fast.

You cannot... exist....

A strange, amazing feeling coursed through me, bolstering my flagging strength and hardening my resolve into an unbreakable will. I felt the brush of a third presence in my rapidly crowding mind. The newcomer seemed to throw itself against the darkness that filled me.

I felt the two others in my head grapple with each other. Light against dark, good against evil.

I struggled to regain my focus, the new found strength allowing me to push past the mental battle raging in my head.

I had to help my friend.

Could I fight the Empire? I doubted it. But the real question was... Could I afford not to try?

The light seemed to grow in strength, pulsing outward and creating a haven of peace in my mind; one that I had already become very adept at using.

I pulled myself into the mental niche, allowing the duel in my head to fade away.

Spite was now standing on the left of the stage, with one guard next to her and the other walking up to the large wooden lever on the platform behind Crystal.

I glanced around, taking in the rest of the scene. All eyes were riveted on the stage, even the four guards that were positioned on the top of the buildings around the crowd were enthralled by Spite’s drama.

        “Mares and gentlecolts! I hope you all learn a lesson today; Treason never pays!” She boomed, laughing cheerfully as she nodded at the green earth pony, who had taken up a position by the lever.

The guard bit down on the lever and gave it an almighty pull; dropping out the floor beneath my friend.

Time seemed to slow down, a scream froze itself in my throat.

Crystal seemed to move with terrifying speed, the look of terror on her face amplified by the acceptance in her eyes. She knew she was about to die, and she knew that no pony would save her.

The guard yelped as the lever was torn from his teeth with the weight of the pony it was holding up.

Spite reared up, causing many of the ponies in the crowd to do the same, and clopped her hooves together in sadistic glee.

Duty may have kept me going this long... but I knew what had to be done. There was no longer a doubt in my mind.

The right thing to do... became the only thing to do.

The light aura seemed to grow brighter and brighter in my heart. And with one last, terrible cry, the shadow that had hung over my thoughts for fifteen years was blasted away.

I gasped in shock. It felt as if a part of myself had been sheared away. A dark, menacing part of myself. My mind seemed to move at the speed of light.

The Darkness that had pervaded my every thought was just... gone.

In its place was only a calm, supporting glow. Almost like what I’d imagine getting a proud, happy smile from a loving parent would feel like.

It was... one of the best things I’ve ever felt. It made me feel needed, proud.

But it was more than that... for once, I felt right.

There was only one thing in this world that could make me go against my Duty, one thing that could give me the courage to stand up against the Empire and all its power.

Loyalty to my friend.

Maybe I was Nothing. Maybe nothing I did would ever matter. Maybe I was destined to die alone and forgotten before I was even buried.

But one thing I was absolutely sure of; I had to try.

My hoof pounded the ground with what seemed like earth shattering force. The rifle roared, but its voice was lost amidst the cheering of the crowd.

BLAM!
BLAM!
BLAM!

I could say that I reacted on instinct, that I was caught up in the heat of the moment. But I loved this weapon because I could think under pressure, my shots went exactly where I wanted them.

The first severed the rope that was about to kill my one and only friend; Crystal fell through the floor unhindered and landed in a heap. Disoriented, but alive.

The second brought the guard near the lever to his knees; blasting into his left foreleg and taking him out of the fight with excruciating pain.

The third... slammed right into the Lieutenant’s ass.

I did not hesitate. I galloped at full speed up the aisle, ripples of realization were spreading outwards in the crowd. But they were far too slow, I flew out of the mass of onlookers, racing to Crystal’s side under the stage.

With a hiss, my hoof-blade slid out and I sliced through the pegasus’s bonds; freeing her wings and hooves.

        “H-Harmony? You... you saved me! The tears streaming down the mare’s face, and coupled with the obvious abuse she had endured during her stay here; they only added fuel to the fire in my heart.

The contented glow filling my head pulsed in time to my righteous anger with perfect harmony.

“I thought you’d given up...” She said woozily, trying to get her hooves under her.

        “I’ll never give up, not anymore. Now come on Crystal, lets get the hell out of here!” I said, helping her up. We climbed back onto the stage using the fallen trap door as a ramp.

I crawled onto the wooden platform and got to my hooves. Now all we had to do was make a quick escape and- Oh shit.

I had turned to find myself looking straight down a large, round barrel inches away from my face.

Crap. In the heat of the moment, I had forgotten about the second guard on the stage.

I risked a quick glance at Crystal; if all else failed, I would be enough a distraction to let her get into the air. I only hoped she would be able to fly away fast enough.

The earth pony guard sneered at me, “Lay your weapons on the ground and don’t make any sudden moves,” he suddenly turned, bringing the large barreled weapon right up to Crystal’s face. “Or she gets it.”

My face must have given my feelings away, because his grin widened, “Yeah, I figured your friend is worth a little more to you, since you’re committing suicide for her.”

        “What are you doing foal? Kill them! They are traitors to the Empire!” Spite shouted from her position on the ground.

The guard shrugged, and then brought his hoof up, preparing to unload his side mounted shotgun into Crystal’s face.

I heard a faint hissssss, and then an orange ball of fire flew from the crowd and exploded into the guard’s side. The earth pony was sent flying off the stage, he crashed into the Town Hall and lay, smoldering and unmoving, in the dead grass.

I blinked, a grey coated, fiery maned unicorn leapt onto the stage between us and the crowd.

        “If you’re going to kill these ponies for saving your sorry asses, then you’d better be ready to face me too!” The stallion shouted, his horn aglow with a pure yellow aura.

"Firelight! You dare defy your Empire? Your parents will have you flayed alive!" The Lieutenant sputtered, obviously thrown off guard.

"If I die for trying to do the right thing then so be it. But I refuse to stand by while good ponies are slaughtered!" Firelight practically snarled in the Lieutenant's face.

"You are the reason this traitor was brought here in the first place! You served the Empire well by telling us that she held secrets... What do you think you'll gain from this!?" She yelled, gasping from the pain in her rear.

"Nothing... but the knowledge that I can do what's right."

Yeah, right.  I thought,  Of course we believe you Firelight.

Without further ado, I turned and leapt off the stage. Crystal had obviously been having similar thoughts, because she was right behind me. We charged up to the Town Hall. I turned and kicked with both hindlegs, bucking the doors wide open before rushing inside.

        “Do we have a plan?” Crystal asked, panting next to me.

        “Ha! Plan? How about run?! And any direction away from that backstabbing bastard is good with me!”

We sprinted to the other side of the building. I worked my magic on the opposite doorway and bucked it open with another forceful kick.

The night air greeted us, as did the sight of several ponies already running around to this side of the building; many of them hastily getting weapons ready as they prepared to take out the murderous rebels.

I stopped short in dismay; the soldiers were blocking pretty much every exit from the central square. We were trapped dead center in the Encampment.

I cried out as a powerful grip suddenly tightened around my middle, and then squeaked in fear as I was lifted into the night sky.

        “Sorry, but I don’t think we should wait around for them to take aim!” Crystal called down to me, she had wrapped all four hooves around my back and was beating her wings fiercely to get us up over the tops of the village buildings.

        “Give me a little warning next time!” I shouted back, fighting back vertigo as I watched my hooves sail over old Ponyville with nothing but air between me and the ground.

Bang!
Bam!
Woosh!

The weapons went off from the crowd gathered in the square, but the bullets whizzed harmlessly passed. Their firearms no where near accurate at this range and elevation.

Despite the situation that was escalating out of hoof at a frightening rate, coupled with my initial fear of flight, I couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling of the wind in my mane and the certainty that Crystal would never let me down.

We soared above the Encampment; I watched as ponies stopped to shoot and then give up when they realized they didn’t have a chance of hitting us.

I was a little surprised that no fireballs followed us, no matter what Firelight Sparkle said, I had made the mistake of trusting him once. I didn't feel like getting screwed again.

After about five minutes, I noticed that Crystal's wings were flapping slower and slower, I wasn't the biggest pony, but I doubted pegasi were designed to be carrying anyone around. And we still had quite a ways to fly if we were going to make it over the towering walls that encircled the Encampment.

        “Set me down near the Training Grounds! I can run to the south gate and escape before the alarm reaches those guards! You can fly out and wait for me there!” I shouted up to her.

        “I am not letting you get caught, not when I can stay with you and watch your back!” She called back.

I opened my mouth to tell her that I was quite capable of handling myself when a distant Blam! sounded from behind us.

Crystal cried out as her entire body, and me with it, jolted to the right. Her hooves loosened and I suddenly found myself plunging downward, screaming in inarticulate terror.


***


I opened my eyes blearily... to find darkness.

Dimly, I heard the sounds of hoof beats and the calls of soldiers; the realization hit me that those ponies were searching for me hit a moment later.

I flailed around, discovering that I was ensnared in the large canvas belly of a collapsed tent. I struggled for several minutes, working myself out of the huge mess of material.

        “Argh! Dumb fabric...” I muttered in exasperation as I flung the last piece aside and finally found myself looking out at the cloudy night sky.

Luckily, I had landed in one piece, and my rifle seemed to be functioning as well. Not that I was about to test fire it.

I looked around and spotted another crashed tent, Crystal!

The glowing light in my heart seemed to swell as I pushed all other thoughts from my mind to deal with my friend’s situation.

I threw myself at the mound of canvas, struggling to move the fabric out of the way until I uncovered the icy blue pegasus. “Crystal! Are you alright?” I asked urgently.

She groaned and opened her eyes, then hissed with pain. “They shot my wing...”

I quickly moved the rest of the tent aside and found a bullet wound in her left wing. Luckily it had passed straight through, but there was a sizable hole in the muscle. Crystal stayed as still as possible, but she saw my expression and asked, “How bad?”

I frowned and described the injury. Sighing with relief, she said, “That’s fine, as long as my bones are in place and the bullet’s out, just bandage it up. It should heal fully once we find some medicine.”

I tore off some of the canvas and used it to tie a compress around her injury. We had been taught this thoroughly in the Battalion’s training course, and tying such knots with my hooves and mouth came fairly easily now.

With her wing bandaged firmly to her side, I told Crystal to rest for a few minutes while I figured out where we’d landed.

I knew it was just an invitation for trouble to stay in one place with the entire Encampment on our tails, but Crystal needed a breather. And I figured it would be best to map out a direct path to the nearest gateway out of the hellhole my home had become.

The support frame for the tent I had crashed into was still standing, so I clambered up the canted canvas ramp and got a good view of the surrounding area. We were close to the Training Grounds; they were a few hundred hooves to the northwest. But I no longer had any reason to visit them, Crystal needed to get to the safety of the outside world as soon as possible.

I was about to turn and go back to Crystal when I heard a familiar voice raised in anger, and then saw a flash as a ball of fire exploded in mid air a few rows of tents away.

“Firelight Sparkle! I command you to cut the shit! Whatever game you’re playing, it will not earn you a higher position in the Empire! I’ll make sure you get stuck in the kitchens for the rest of your goddess damned life if you continue this attack!”

“Listen to me Spite! I’m not fucking around! I will set you on fire if you keep this up! Let these two ponies go and we can go back to discuss my future and get you some of your dignity back in peace!”

Firelight... was still trying to help us? But wait, how had they gotten over here?

...Wouldn’t this just be the perfect argument to have to get the two fugitives to come running into the open to aid their traitor of a friend?

“Your future will be over very quickly if you shoot at me one more time! Now listen! Just teleport back to the stage and stay there until we find these traitors and I will pretend that you stayed in your chambers today like you were supposed to. That is my final offer; I will kill you, even if your parents rend me in two for it!” The Lieutenant shouted.

A pause. Then a heavy sigh.

“You have a deal Lieutenant.” There was a flash of light and a strange Pop! sound.

A matching flash of light near the center of the camp.

Well, there went any small, slight hope I had of Firelight coming to the rescue. The Firelight I’d thought I’d known in the Everfree Forest ceased to exist; heck, he’d probably never existed. Just this little asshole, manipulating us.

...So I was a little surprised when I heard a quieter Pop from behind me. I turned to find a grey unicorn in front of Crystal’s tent.

“Crystal? Is that you?” He asked, his horn already glowing with the spell I was sure would end my friend’s life.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

I leapt without thinking. Pushing off the leaning wooden posts of the tent and flying towards the unicorn who had caused so much strife in such a short time.

“I’m sorry abo-OOF!” He exclaimed as I landed on his back. I recovered quickly and pinned him to the ground with my hooves.

My focus was narrowed to his face, and the rifle barrel followed it. Just a few noses from being shoved in his mouth.

Unfortunately... pinning someone to the ground with the hoof needed to fire your weapon didn’t work very well.

“Harmony! It’s me, Firelight! Please don’t shoot!” He said with a whimper.

How had I ever liked this guy?

“Yeah right, shut it Firelight. Or I’ll blow your brains out your neck.” I said as menacingly as possible.

I wanted to shoot him, to make him feel as dead as I had for the past three days... but it was one thing to shoot someone in the ass to save your friend, and another to blow somepony’s brains out in cold blood.

I felt the little light in my mind glow approvingly as I held my anger in check.

“Harmony, listen to me! I’m on your side! I’ve been keeping Crystal alive by telling them what they wanted to hear when they interrogated her! I tried everything I could think of to protect you two!”

“What a load of bullshit! She shouldn’t have ever been here in the first place! You went to that Buffalo village to find and capture her!” I said vehemently, throwing one of the scenarios I’d come up with over the past three days in his face.

“Wh-WHAT!? How does that even make sense!? We were ambushed! We were armed to take out a village, not extract one rebel! I already told you, we don’t have the resources to hunt rebels!” He sputtered, looking at me like I was genuinely insane.

“How should I know what your plan was? You’re the evil mastermind, not me!”

“Harmony, calm down and think! Why do you think I’ve been ignoring you this whole time? I was playing the part of the Lieutenant. If I was evil, you would have been right beside Crystal in that freaking circus show of an execution!” I felt some of my anger leave.

Stupid logic, why must you take away my fury?

“But why did you let the ShadowBolts capture Crystal in the first place? Why did you help them?” I asked. My cleverly thought out reasons for his wickedness were beginning to fall apart.

“Because of her Cutie Mark! They saw it the instant they entered the Medical Center. I only woke up once I heard her struggling with one of them; I managed to convince them that she was worth more alive than dead, so they knocked her out and tied her up.”

I looked straight into the beleaguered unicorn’s eyes. I saw the sadness and despair of the past few days there, but also the glimmer of hope.

Hope that I would believe him and he could alert Spite to our location as soon as I let him up?

Or hope that I would believe the truth; that I would see that he had been fighting this whole time with words and acts to help us just as hard than I had in the past hour.

There was a rustle of fabric as Crystal got to her hooves and walked painfully over to us.

“Harmony, I was just as much against him as you were. But please think about what you have seen, and what you’ve let your imagination fill in for you now. I think he’s telling the truth.” The pegasus said, she walked to stand by Firelight and looked at me levelly.

“But...” But how could I have been such an idiot?

The anger and hatred of the past three days melted away.

I stared in horror at the rifle barrel pointed at the fiery maned pony’s head. I could see now why Firelight looked different than before, his mane and tail had regained some of their true color, he was making steps toward fixing the damage the Empire had done to him.

Just like I was.

I stepped away, suddenly fiercely thankful at whoever had designed hoof-shot rifles. If I had let my anger get the best of me... I shuddered at the thought.

Firelight got to his hooves and looked at me. He must have seen the horror in my eyes, because he said softly, “Lesson number twenty four, always believe in your friends. Never doubt them.”

“Wh-what is that from?” I asked, fighting to hold myself together.

“Twilight Sparkle’s letters to Princess Celestia. My parents have almost all the original copies framed in our house. Even they have lost their color and spirit.”

I nodded and looked him in the eye. My decision, irrevocably, made.

“I am so sorry Firelight... I just- I couldn’t believe you would go to such lengths to protect her, to protect us. I didn’t think anypony could stand against the Empire. I guess we both proved that wrong... Friends?” I asked, sticking out a hoof.

“Friends.” He said with a smile, bumping my hoof with his own.

“Now that that’s over with... I think we should really work on the hay out of here.” Crystal said, listening to the approaching sounds of the searching ponies.

        “That is a great idea! Let’s blow this cupcake stand!” Firelight said, seeming just a little giddy as he gave my rifle one last fearful glance.

We turned and began trotting down one of the many alleyways between the tents, going slow and steady so Crystal could keep up. The route to the south gate was simple, we would get to the wall and follow it until we made it to the portal that lead to our freedom.

The three of us walked for a good ten minutes, hearing the sounds of pursuing soldiers now and again and occasionally switching rows and hiding in tents to allow the ponies to pass us before continuing.

Only a few hundred hooves from the wall, I rounded a corner.  And stopped dead in my tracks.

        “Don’t move a goddess damned muscle. I told you it was stupid to help this unicorn panzy, Harmony. Now you have become a public menace.” Harlen stood in the center of the row before me, sighting cooly down his assault rifle’s barrel at the three of us.

“In fact, you’ve become my personal enemy. I thought you were smart enough to stay quiet and let the big boys handle things. But now you’ve gone and upset the entire Encampment, do you know how much punishment Gamma will get now? I only wish you could be there to bear it with us.”

He clamped the two triggers in his mouth, preparing to fire the disgusting weapon. Even if we could run back around the tent, it would be no protection against his bullets. Somepony needed to distract him so the others could get far enough away. And that somepony would probably not survive.

Good thing I had already made peace with my friends.

“Go, I’ve got this. Don’t look back; you two can make it out alone. You don’t need an earth pony dragging you down anyway.” I said sadly, never taking my eyes off of Harlen. I’d only have one shot before the entire Encampment came down on our heads; they needed to be as far away as possible.

“Harmony no! We are not leaving you!” Crystal said, glaring daggers at the brown pony before us.

I saw Harlen’s face set, the kind of shift that happens when one pony decides to murder another.

BOOM!

I cried out, expecting to feel the pain bloom in full force.

...Nope, not feeling it. Could I have died painlessly for once?

The fact that my eyes opened got rid of that illusion, as did the smoking hole in Harlen’s side.

With a huff and a clopping of hooves, a large grey earth pony stallion walked into view out of the opposite side of the path from Harlen.

        “S-Sergeant?” I asked incredulously.

        “Never thought I’d be able to make a difference against this son of a bitchin’ country. Thanks fer showin’ me the way, Harmony. Hard to believe I caught the H’s about to kill each other...” He sighed, looking at Harlen’s prone form. The stallion was bleeding from the wound in his side, but he was still breathing at least.

Sergeant SteelSaddle turned to look at the three of us fully, “Now listen here you three, yer not outta the woods yet. I can’t help ya after this. As far as anypony else knows, we never saw each other, got that?”

        “But... why did you do that? Why are you helping us?” I asked, confused. this was the pony who’d told me day after day to believe in the Empire, to never lose faith in your Duty.

        “‘Cause I’m sick an’ tired of fightin’. I don’t jus’ wanna retire, I want to stop this whole damn war. An’ the only way to do that is ta show the Empire that we ain’t gonna take it anymore. I’m not about to become a full blown rebel, but jus’ know I’m rootin’ fer you. Now go, they’ll be here any second with that shot.” He said, dragging Harlen into one of the nearby tents to get him out of sight.

I wondered how the old stallion would explain the hole in Harlen’s side to the rest of the Encampment.

My mental glowing spectator seemed to be expecting something of me. Which I realized I had already decided to do anyhooves as I walked up to the imposing figure before me.

I placed a hoof on my old mentor/torturer’s shoulder, “Thank you, I mean it. I promise I’ll never forget the things you’ve done for us.”

His ears flattened back against his head. Blushing slightly, he said, “Aw don’ worry about it Harmony. Ye’ve always been a good kid. Jus’ glad I got here in time to stop this plothole. He’ll come around eventually and then we’ll have a nice long chat...” He gave the tent housing the said plothole an unreadable glance.

        “Take care of yourself, Sergeant.” I said as the sounds of hoofbeats became audible, followed by the shouting of Lieutenant Spite and the rest of her followers.

        “You too filly, all ah you. I wish ye’ luck in survin’ the days ta come.” SteelSaddle said with a tone of finality.

He turned to face the sounds of pursuit, “EVERYPONY FOLLOW THEM! THER’ HEADIN’ NORTH! LOCK DOWN THE GATE! WE’LL GIT EM FER SURE!”

His bellow resounded throughout the entire camp. With one last look at the stallion standing all alone in the center of the path, I turned and led my friends south; towards our freedom.


***


With the search parties safely heading in the opposite direction, we made it to the south gate in minutes.

Set into the twelve-pony high timber walls, the gate was a simple affair. It was basically a series of straight up and down metal poles crossed at intervals by horizontal rods to form a large, impenetrable square door. There was a large clearing devoid of tents before the gate, which connected with the mane road that cut straight through the Encampment. A long, rickety staircase was attached on the left side of the gate, starting near the small shack there that served as a gatehouse.

Two large chains snaked away from the top corners of the criss crossed barrier through a pulley system, and connected to a large spool in the gatehouse wrapped with enough chain to lower the gate outward to allow defenders a raised platform to fire out from at incoming enemies.

Not that I’d ever even heard a any sort of threat coming this far up into the Empire.

Unfortunately, the gate itself wasn’t our only obstacle; two earth pony guards stood on either side of the barred opening. Even with SteelSaddle’s diversion, they weren’t taking any chances.

Firelight drew us off into the maze of tents before we could be spotted.

        “Alright here’s the plan: if you two can take out those guards, I can sneak into the gatehouse and raise the damn thing so we can leave without any more bullshit.” He pointed a hoof at the small wooden building attached to the wall on the gate’s left.

        “How exactly do you want us to take them out? I don’t want to kill two ponies just because they happened to be put on duty tonight..” I said with a frown.

        “Yeah well my magic’ll do a number on them too. Its pretty and all, but it sure hurts like hell.” He replied.

Crystal turned from her survey of the situation, we had raided a medical supply tent on our short foray over here. Included in that bounty had been a decent amount of experimental healing vials; none nearly as potent as Crystal’s own invention, but together they had been enough to get her wing back into shape.

“I think I know a way... Harmony, if you can distract them for a few seconds, I’ll fly into the cloud cover. Then I can drop down behind them and take ‘em out. I picked a few pointers on hoof-to-hoof combat from the buffalo.” She said with a devious smile.

I looked at her skeptically, “Distract? Does ‘distract’ involve getting them to shoot at me?”

She kicked a hoof in the dirt, “Well... yeah, probably.”

I grinned, “Well sounds like you’ve got the right pony for the job! Just be fast, I haven’t gotten shot yet and I’d rather not start now.”

        “I’ll be as fast as lightning; just try to avoid them after you get their attention, because they’ll probably get off a few rounds.” She said.

        “Alrighty then, let's get to work you two.” Firelight said. He stealthily made his way back into the labyrinth of canvas structures.

I looked to the icy blue pegasus beside me, she nodded and gave her wings an experimental flap. I just hoped she wouldn’t reopen her injury, who knew how strong those potions had been?

I gave her an encouraging smile and then stepped forward, getting a clear field of view of the entire gate.

With practiced ease I slid into my mental sanctuary, only a little distracted by the fact that my mental hitchhiker seemed to be surrounding the space now, as if protecting me.

The rifle slid smoothly to its intended target. I stomped my hoof down almost calmly.

Blam!

The shot sounded incredibly loud in the silence.

It whizzed through the bars of the gate, right through the hole I’d aimed at of course. The thought of shooting the two had never even crossed my mind.

The bullet did the trick though, both the stallion and the mare spun to face me, but I was already sprinting as fast as my legs could carry me to the other side of the clearing. Several rounds pounded into the tents behind me before I leapt to cover unscathed. I only prayed that it had been enough for Crystal’s flight.

I peeked around the tent, and was rewarded with another shot shooting through the fabric next to my face.

Right, fabric does not equal cover...

I was about to make for the next tent when I heard, a soft thump.

“Oof!”

“What the b-” thwack

I peaked around again and found Crystal trotting towards me, the two guards lying in a heap off to the side of the gate.

I galloped towards  the pegasus with a grin and met her in the center of the clearing.

Sighing with relief, I turned to face the gate. We were finally out of here!

...Almost

Six black shapes shot out of the clouds before us. Slamming into the ground and standing in a line between us and our freedom.

“Take another step, and somepony dies!”

The booming voice seemed to echo around the clearing, making it impossible to discern its source. I was guessing a certain black coated Commander was behind it though.

The gleaming barrels of six silenced guns pointed at us. A wall of death.

Needless to say, we froze in our tracks.

“Now take off the rifle and don’t make any sudden moves.”

I couldn’t believe it... we had been so bucking close!

We were literally a few steps away from getting out of here, and these assholes had decided to ruin my life yet again. The six pegasi and their smart assed unicorn master were really starting to piss me off. And not in a good way.

The rifle moved almost of its own accord, training directly onto one of the pegasi in the middle of the ShadowBolts’ barricade. “If you don’t back down now, one of you is going to die. This rifle is sure as hell capable of punching through those rags you call armor.”

“Nopony needs to die today! Put down your weapon and come peacefully, and you will be spared.”

My mouth set in a grim line. Crystal stood by my side, not flinching from the array of weapons pointed in her direction.

“Not gonna happen. Either you step aside, or we go down fighting.”

“You cannot survive this, you will be destroyed, as will the traitor you seek to protect. You have nothing to bargain with.”

I swelled with anger, the little light in my mind seeming to share in my annoyance at Crystal’s ‘traitor’ label. I was the traitor here, she had long since stopped being an Empire pony.

“Then we'll die knowing we did what was right, and you’re going to need a sixth ShadowBolt when we’re through. Just step down, this doesn’t have to happen!”

“There’s no more to say. We will give you one more opportunity to stand down, you have no way out; no chance of survival. There’s no reason for this.”

A small light blossomed from atop the ramparts of the wall.

“You forgot one thing; we have the most powerful weapon of all.”

“And what, pray tell, is that?”

I smiled as the light bloomed and shot towards the ground.

“Friendship.”

My reply was almost lost in the commotion that followed.

“Goddess! INCOMIN- AHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

The Commander must have been aloft in one of those T-Storm things. Because as he had been following the first large ball of fire and tried to warn his comrades, a smaller, much faster bolt of fire flew at him from the ramparts. It set him ablaze; his flaming form fell out of the sky and crashed into a tent, my adrenaline charged mind noticed that the fabric remained unburned.

The suddenness of the shout, coupled with seeing their Commander fall out of the sky, made all six ShadowBolts train their weapons on us and prepare to unleash hell.... just as the first, slower moving Fireball hit the ground in between them and burst outward, a veritable wall of flame rushing towards Crystal and I.

A shield of sparkling yellow energy crackled to existence just before the flames hit, shielding us from the heat that enveloped the six screaming pegasi.

Even if they deserved it... that was a terrible end for Equestria’s finest fliers.

Crystal and I were still looking in mild shock at the bodies when Firelight Poped into existence in front of us.

He turned to look at us and the smile was wiped off his face at our expressions.

“What happened!? Is one of you hurt?” He asked in concern.

Crystal shook her head a little, pulling her eyes away from the corpses, “No we’re fine... It’s just, did you really have to burn them all?”

He blinked, his expression one of complete confusion.

        “Yeah I mean, thank you for saving us Firelight. That was just a little... gruesome.” I chimed in, dragging my eyes away from the pegasi.

        “You do realize that I’m not the kind of pony to cause others needless suffering, right? Remember the lesson we just learned?” He asked. He seemed annoyed.

        “I’m sorry Firelight. I’m not holding it against you, but maybe we should find some non lethal spells for you somewhere...” Our icy blue friend said.

Firelight shook his head, “Gee thanks Crystal, I’m glad you would still hang out with a tortuous, evil pony who likes to set others on fire. But that isn’t me. I’ve had several... issues, with fire before. And long story short, I’ve sworn to never use it as a weapon again.”

I let my gaze sweep over the bodies surrounding him before giving him a questioning glance.

The fiery maned stallion sighed, “They’re not on fire and they’re not dead.  I’ve just learned how to make ponies see and feel like they’re on fire by attacking their nerves and...”

He saw the blank look on my face.

“Well, a bunch of other sciency stuff. I told you I liked to read, spells happen to be one of the few subjects I am fairly sure the Empire left untouched.”

I felt a smile grace my features as I realized all seven of the ponies on the ground were still breathing. Firelight truly was a good pony. I felt a fierce pride for my friend, even if he’d hadn’t actually done anything different.

The little ball of light seemed to share my happiness, swelling with joy right alongside me.

        “Wow Firelight, I’m sorry I ever doubted you.” Crystal said, walking towards him with a smile on her face. I followed suite.

        “I’m glad you know your limits, and your science.” I said with a grin.

The unicorn blushed from the attention to his smarts, “Alright no harm done guys. Now, Let’s get the buck out of this place!” The unicorn said, trotting towards the gate.

With a yellow glow from his horn, the metal barrier cranked upward to reveal the velvety embrace of the open night air.

        “So what’s the plan now?” Crystal asked as we walked towards the exit.

“Well, we’ll have to find a place to lay low for the night; then start putting as much distance between us and the Empire. They probably won’t waste the resources if we get far enough away.” I said.

Both of my friends looked shocked, was it something I said? I thought back over my words... It’d been an honest question.

“Harmony... We can’t just run away! We can lay low tonight, but together we could really do something meaningful! We need to start helping other ponies fight the Empire for the right reasons.” Crystal said, looking pleadingly at me.

“I agree with Crystal, Harmony. We still have a Duty to the Empire; it’s just changed a little. We need to fight to bring peace to this country, we need to show the ponies living here what’s going on outside. I want to stop this madness, it’d be a waste of everything if we head for the hills now.” Firelight said, daring me to disagree.

“You... you guys want to stay near the Empire? To keep running and fighting for the rest of our lives?” I asked.

Strangely, that didn’t seem as bad as it sounded to me... not with these two ponies.

“We want,” Crystal glanced at Firelight, who nodded for her to continue, “To keep fighting the corruption and segregation of the Empire. We want to try and reverse the harm it’s done to everypony... And hell, since we have nothing to lose, we may as well fight with everything we have.”

Wow, that was an incredibly noble picture she was painting... And I found myself believing in it, despite the near impossible amount of luck we would need to accomplish anything like it.

“Alright, I trust you two more than anypony else in the world. I’ll follow you to hell and back; just lead the way.” I said.

Even if we couldn’t possibly pull off our goal without an obscene amount of help... there was no way I’d leave my friends hanging.

“Then it’s settled, now let’s get the hay out of here.” Firelight said, he began the short journey to freedom.

Together, we walked towards the gaping maw of the outside world, almost making it all the way through.

Again, emphasis on almost.

My glowing companion suddenly changed, going from happy, bouncing ball of light; to an armor surrounding my mind. I felt a tide of Darkness beat against that shield.

The clouds overhead suddenly blasted apart. Three smoking trails shooting down to the ground in front of us.

The shadows swirled into more defined forms, three black alicorns took shape before us, their eyes burning red with hatred.

Stupid ponies! I warned you. Now you shall pay the ultimate price for daring to defy me!

The menacing voice was no longer in my head, and it was no longer a whisper. The roar emanated from the dark forms before us.

        “What the fuck!?” Firelight shouted in astonishment.

As one, the three shapes crouched low to the ground, as if preparing to leap straight at us.

        “No!” Crystal shouted in a panic, “Firelight! Shield us!” She cried.

The dark forms shot forward, covering the distance in mere seconds.

Firelight’s magic was faster. The yellow bubble burst into existence the instant before the shapes slammed into it.

You cannot hide behind your Magic forever little unicorn. Just stop fighting, surrender, and perhaps I’ll keep you around for a time.

        “Shove it up your plot! You will not touch my friends!” Firelight shouted at the raging storm of Darkness just outside his wall.

I could see the toll it was taking on him though, he winced each time one of the shapes touched his barrier. Sweat was already pouring off of him from the exertion.

Suddenly I felt an image thrust upon my mind, the first real communication from my new mental companion.

It was a Forest. The Everfree Forest I assumed, although not a part I’d seen during my brief excursion through those woods. I saw an open clearing, surrounded by the iconic dark, scraggly trees that made up the majority of the place. In the center of the clearing stood a homely, two story cottage. It appeared incredibly inviting, giving me a simple, almost silent message through the image; this was our destination.

        “We have to get to the Forest!” I said, frantically looking around at the darkness that surrounded us.

I remembered Crystal’s story; how the shadows following her the night she’d escaped the Empire had seemed powerless beyond the Border.

But the Border was a good five miles or more away from here, with the three of us running against intangible shadows shooting around faster than Crystal could fly...

I didn’t much like our odds.

        “The Forest!? That-That’s Miles away!” Firelight said, groaning from the pressure on his shield.

        “I know! But it’s the only place these things can’t go!” The I said, thinking furiously. I could tell Crystal was terrified of the shadows, she must be reliving that night each time she saw one of the terrifying pairs of eyes.

There was no hope of making it that far on hoof.... We needed another option.

The glowing presence in my head seemed to expand outward, growing beyond my mind and touching my friends.

I felt Crystal’s fear and Firelight’s exhaustion. I felt them flinch from the contact, obviously sensing me and the other as well.

A strange sort of channel opened up between all of us; a shared web of energy that seemed to tie Crystal, Firelight, the glowing presence, and I all together.. An image blasted into all of our minds; the line of trees at the very edge of the Empire, the beginning of the Everfree Forest.

What the hell is this!? I heard Firelight’s thoughts clearly.

I don’t know! But it’s saved me before! I mentally shouted, our thoughts going at the speed of, well, thought.

Firelight seemed to grasp what the strange glowing presence wanted, because he took a deep breath and said, “I sure hope you’ve got enough power to keep us alive!”

The aura of light pulsed deeply, and I could almost see a massive amount of energy enter Firelight. The unicorn gasped in astonishment as he was filled with glowing power.

The shield around us collapsed with a weak fizzle as Firelight’s mind was taken off of the spell completely. The whirling shadows leapt through it, shooting towards us with terrifying speed and fury.

You are Mine!

The shadows swept into us, a howling void seconds away from ripping the three of us apart.

I don’t think so Firelight thought furiously.

A flash of bright yellow reached my eyes the split second before I felt myself torn away from the physical world.

I was swept away feeling stranger than I’d ever felt before. A familiar sound echoing throughout my thoughts.

Pop!


End of Chapter 3




Letter to the Reader:



Dear Reader,

Today I learned that even if your friends seem to be doing everything wrong, even if they have done things you cannot, and maybe don’t want to, comprehend; give them a chance to explain themselves before you make assumptions.

If you have the fortune of possessing true friends, don’t ever give up on them. Don’t ever turn your back on them.

Because together, you can keep each other going long past the point where you would have lost your way alone.

Remember: To assume something... Makes an ass out of you and me.

I’m afraid this is the last letter I’ll be writing to you for a while.

Two of my friends have been clamoring to make their own voices heard, and I’m sure you’ve grown bored of watching a silly little earth pony find her way in a bleak world anyhooves.

Your’s Truly,

Harmony






***Author’s Vlog***


Greetings once again everypony! I hope you’ve enjoyed Harmony and her friends’ struggle against the Empire! But now it’s time to follow a different pony, one who certainly needs some assertiveness lessons!

As always, please feel free to comment, or Message me in anyway possible!

Thank you for reading! Seriously, there’s not much point to write this without somepony to care about this story! :)

Inspiration Credits: Kkat, and Somber & The Project Horizons Syndicate. Also Sweetie Belle!


Written, Edited, Directed, and Dreamed by: Fluttersyke



***End of the Author’s Videoless Vlog***


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