> Fierce
>  by InkSparrow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Hurts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



"What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end."








>Empress! Empress, are you ---ere?! This is Candlespark, from the Third Engi---ng Unit. I ---ve an urgent message for you fr--- Captain Twilight Spar--- Empress, can you hear me?!

>Your Empress… She cannot answer to you right now… This is Luna. Speak the message to me.

>I-I’m ---rry, but I NEED to address this ---sage to the Empress. We can’t los--- time!

>She’s … indisposed. You have to trust me, Candlespark.

>I… I… Ok, I will. Tell the ---press we need the Sun as high as ---ble. I repeat, as high as possible. The Captain has figu--- out a way to---

>Yes? Candlespark? …Are you still there?

>---d a bit more of time. Do you rec--- me, Miss Luna? I can--- there are too ma--- This thing’s ---down! Remem--- Sun as hi--------ble! 

>[CONNECTION LOST]





“Miss Sparkle? Wake up.”

The purple unicorn opened her eyes, but remained still on the bed. She sighed. Even after all that time, the morning air and the weak light of the early day were cold. Just during that day. Remembering can be that painful.

“You always oversleep this… kind of day, Miss Sparkle.”  The one standing aside of Twilight Sparkle’s bed was a light blue unicorn with an orange and crimson mane. “And it’s getting late.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She stood up. Her mane was a mess and her eyes looked lost “I don’t know why that keeps happening.”

“No, you actually know…” the unicorn thought sadly. It was the day. That day. The day the first and only real war between ponies began, twelve years ago, and the same day it ended, two years later. It felt like it happened a lot of time ago, but it seemed it had just happened the day before. A lot of hearts broke during the war. A lot of eyes closed forever. A lot of things that mattered disappeared. A lot of parents never hugged their sons and daughters again. “Like my parents…”

“Are you going to the ceremony today, Miss Sparkle?”

“Yes, yes, just… I’m going to take a bath.”

“Is Spike coming with us, right? I don’t see him around…”

“Of course, he’s coming. Oh, and Candlespark…” Sometimes, the blue unicorn didn’t want to hear this part. It felt meaningless “Happy birthday”


——————————


“You bought the cake yesterday, right?” Twilight said to her dragon assistant, who now almost doubled her height, while slowly walking to Ponyville Town Hall. She wore half-moon glasses. She thought it was all the stress which had weakened her sight.

“Yeah. This time I remembered Sugar Cube Corner is closed today… It’s awful. At least it’s just for today and not the whole week like…”

“Spike!” the unicorn interrupted him “Don’t talk like that”

“I’m not talking like something! I just…” They both walked in front of the pastry shop. The windows were shut and, on the closed door, a NO SERVICE TODAY, SORRY sign was hanging. The dragon looked down “Forget it…” He sighed and, after a few moments, he added “I miss her”

“We all do, Spike.” then, barely lifting her head up, she saw a color stream through the air “Oh, there she goes again”

“What? Who?”

They speeded up a bit, so they could watch around a corner. A pegasus dressed in a blue uniform, with cyan wings and a rainbow mane and tail. She was standing in front of a house with a candy sign on the wall. Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof, trying to knock on the door, but she stopped when she was just about to. She seemed very indecisive. She looked down, apparently, whispered “Darn it…” and flew away. Twilight Sparkle was a bit surprised. Every year, Rainbow Dash would knock on Lyra’s door and tell her she’s sorry. And then Lyra would shout at her. Every year.

An aquamarine coated unicorn showed her face through the window just seconds after the pegasus disappeared.

“Rainbow let her mane grow this year. She’s even early this time” the unicorn whispered, walking her pat again “She usually waits to the ceremony to finish… It must feel terrible. For both of them.”

“Good morning, Mayor Sparkle” someone said to Twilight, trying to chin up, maybe. The purple mare waved back.

It had been ten years since they began rebuilding the whole Equestria, and not everything could be made again. Ponyville was placed near the center of the map, so it was almost destroyed during war. The town was almost fully evacuated, but many ponies died as a result, most of all, of air assaults and bombardments. The former Ponyville Mayor died while leading the last evacuations, so when peace came again, Twilight offered herself to take the leadership of the town.

Leadership was her element, after all. Or at least used to be long ago.


——————————


It’s some kind of irony. Everything is some kind of irony. My birthday present was a war and the death of my parents. And my Cutie Mark.

How could such a quaint place like Ponyville turned into such a sad place? I can barely understand, I was just a filly at those times, twelve years ago. I’m even younger than Miss Sweetie Belle. Sometimes I wonder about who started everything. Some ponies say it was the former Princess Celestia, the Sun Ruler, with her greedy tyranny, who began the war, the so called “Pony Schism”. Other say it was Princess Luna, hungry for returning to the throne she believed she owned. I don’t even want to know, I guess no one even wants to know. But one thing is sure: that broke Equestria in half. That made ponies chose about what they were sure they will never be forced to choose: They splitted the kingdom. The ones who were loyal to Celestia remained in the so called Solar Empire, and those who thought Luna had to be the supreme ruler became the Lunar Republic. Yeah, I do know that.

My name is Candlespark. When the war began, dad tried to take mom and me out of town, but we got caught in what they called “lightning bombardments”, where the air forces released explosive magic charges at full speed. The first one erased most of Sweet Apple Acres, as a “warning”. I think Miss Applebloom’s grandmother died that day. Anyways, my parents died trying to protect me from the explosions. Good thing, they succeeded. I guess.

After that, me and other colts and fillies got helped by the Rescue Unit of the so called Peace Corps, which leader was the nice Miss Fluttershy. They took us to a shelter, far away from Ponyville. It was a long and dangerous journey. The air was always red and the soil seemed to explode just by touching it. I have almost no more knowledge of the war itself, other than it ended two years later. When everything calmed down, the ones who had lost our dads and moms were adopted by other adult ponies, so they could take care of us. Miss Twilight Sparkle was the one who chose me. I don’t see her like a mother rather than an aunt or a real close friend, not even after ten years.

And now, every year, in this very day —my birthday— both the Solar Empress and the Lunar Leader come to Ponyville to “the Ceremony”, where they commemorate the end of the war. Or something like that. I honestly think they should stop doing that.

These days I help Miss Sparkle with the library. She’s the Mayor now, so she spends most of the day out. But here is fine. Ponyville Library used to be built inside a tree, but it was taken down during war: the library had been rebuilt larger and wider, and even in the shape of a tree. I have a lot to read. A lot. Maybe I should go visit some friends. It’s the saddest day of Ponyville, after all.

I like to play with Alula or Dinky, though they’re a bit older than me, they’re really nice. Dinky’s sister is pretty funny, as well. Sometimes I like going to Carousel Boutique. I love Mrs. Rarity’s designs, even if I can’t afford them. These times, Mrs. Rarity is out of town with her husband, I think they’re in Manehattan or some busy city like that, doing busy things. She left her sister, Miss Sweetie Belle, in charge of the store. If I’m lucky, I could hear Miss Belle’s angelical voice reverberating all over the place. It’s always a delight.

I don’t really remember Miss Belle when she was a filly; she was in a higher grade than me. She used to hang out with a couple of ponies in some kind of “secret society”, or at least she says so. Miss Sparkle told me once that as well: they used to call themselves The Cutie Mark Crusaders, going through the non-stop adventure of getting their own Cutie Marks. Who were the other two? Oh, yeah, Miss Applebloom and Scootaloo —she doesn’t let me call her “Miss”, for some reason—. Scootaloo’s parents also died during war, she’s staying with the Apple Family, so now she and Miss Applebloom are now like sisters. I don’t know if that’s the saddest thing, or the fact that she is the only one who has not yet reached her goal as a Cutie Mark Crusader.

It must be tough.

Sometimes life binds us with other ponies; sometimes we can forge a powerful friendship which makes us stronger. Miss Sparkle has taught me that. The magic of friendship. However, I’ve learned something else, something she has not ever told me: No magic last forever. In other words, even the strongest friendship ends. And for that to happen, an equally powerful reason is needed. In this case, a war. I’ve heard Miss Sparkle was part of a special group as well, just as Miss Belle. They were heroines in Equestria, called “The elements of Harmony”. They were the best friends but the war parted even their friendship: each one of them chose to stand on their own principles. It hasn’t been the same for them, I guess.

I know most of the former “elements”, besides Miss Sparkle. Miss Applejack, though weak and sick (She says it was Miss Sparkle who almost broke her back and left her like that), still runs her family’s apple farm along with her siblings, and now with her sister-in-law Mrs. Cheerilee and her adoptive sister Scootaloo. I sometimes see Miss Fluttershy working at Ponyville Hospital as a doctor, but the rest of the time she’s taking care of the creatures of the forest. Right now she’s away; I think she went beyond Vanhoover, something about helping the rabbit population in the forest nearby. It’s pretty rare for Miss Fluttershy to leave Ponyville, maybe she doesn’t want to be around these days. And Mrs. Rarity, who, as I said, still works as a very successful fashion designer, even if she’s rarely seen in town. The other two… (They were six?) I have no knowledge of them. Maybe they went far from home. Maybe they died.

I’m tired. Tired of everything. Sometimes not even the brightest day can make me smile. Not even my friends, or Miss Sparkle. I cannot stand this. This town, these ponies. This life. I have to get ready for today’s ceremony, I’ve already decided not to visit anyone. My name’s Candlespark. Yeah, that’s some kind of irony too.


——————————


“What have I become?”

“Sorry?” Spike was ordering some scrolls in the shelves aside the desk. There were a couple of new business licenses to sign that day. New merchants wanted to sell their products in Ponyville, one of them was about zebra handicrafts and foreign stuff. But that wasn’t near Twilight Sparkle’s mind. 

“What have we all become?” the unicorn was looking outside through the window, watching the citizens gather for the Ceremony. “We’ve lived like this for ten years now. We have changed so much.”

“Of course” the dragon took a book to the desk and stood next to the now Mayor “I was pretty shorter twelve years ago”

“I don’t mean that Spike. We are… far now. We barely see each other”

“Oh.” Spike got what she meant with ‘we’. It was ‘we, the Elements of Harmony’. He sometimes thought that was the hardest part of that war. Of the war.

“Rarity’s not coming this year, either”

“What?! I mean… Oh, that’s a shame.” Spike still tried to conceal his feelings. The white unicorn had broken his little heart when she got married. Twilight remembered the dragon got so mad he ran away unto the Everfree Forest and almost got killed by Timberwolves. Again. He cried like he had never cried. He even had nightmares about it. He used to dream about a giant Rarity smashing him with a hoof ‘Sorry, little one, I don’t love you. I actually hate you. Go back to your egg, stupid baby.”

“He still has those nightmares, some nights…” Twilight thought. “But he wants to look brave. And he IS brave.”

“I… wonder” Twilight continued, taking off her glasses “If… maybe we will… someday…” The words ‘be together again’ didn’t come out of his muzzle, but Spike understood them just as if the unicorn had pronounced them. They both sighed.

“What if we could start again? What if I was new again in Ponyville? In these times… would we be as good friends as we were? Would we find a way to do so? Or would we… hurt each other again?”

Twilight Sparkle held her tears.



——————————



“It has been twelve years now since it began” The great white alicorn said, solemnly, looking at the almost inexpressive faces of her subjects “and ten since it all ended. We put our greed for power before what was really important.”

“We all thought each of us were right.” The dark-blue coated one, of the same species continued as serious as her sister “We all ignored the peace we originally wanted, and tried to make the others think the way we thought.”

“After all, that is what happens in a war. Each faction believes it has or it is the right answer, and battles the other one because of it. How fool were we. Even when a ruler wins a war, the people are the ones who always lose. We all should have known that. We should have known it is not worth the pain, the sorrow, the death.”

“I should have known it” Celestia thought, pausing her speech and looking down to the crowd again. She sighed as she perceived everypony’s mourning. She knew it was her fault, her mistake. Her stubbornness blinded her. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could mend everything”. Celestia felt familiar eyes upon her, recognizing the purple eyes of her once faithful student. “I wish... I wish none of you ever forgive me. Please.”

“We knew what can be lost during a war” Luna spoke again, realizing her sister wasn’t able to “But now... Now we feel what is lost. Our Nations may be divided, but our hearts and our spirits stand up closer than ever. Let us commemorate, then, the spirits of everypony who fell during the Pony Schism.”

“A minute of silence” Celestia’s tears began to fall over her cheeks, but her voice stood firm “for the ones who are no longer with us.”

The bell at Ponyville Hall tolled. Everypony tilted their heads while the sound invaded everyplace in town, gathering every feeling into one. Some of the ponies couldn’t resist the urge to cry. Applebloom held her face against her sister’s shoulder bursting in silent tears; as her brother put a hoof on the little one’s shoulder, trying to look at Applejack’s eyes, but they were covered by her hat. Although Rainbow Dash wasn’t in the crowd with her friends, as she stood in front of it as the Wonderbolts’ Lieutenant, she couldn’t avoid having her remaining eye, the right one, soaked in tears. Sweetie Bell was standing aside of Scootaloo, unable to contain the urge to hug her friend. Twilight Sparkle was the only pony in the crowd who didn’t incline her head. The unicorn gazed upon Celestia instead, seeing her tears running through her face, and trying to comprehend her pain. Twilight knew the Sun Ruler blamed herself the most. And it was because of that Twilight wanted her to look her in the eye, Celestia had to know she wasn’t guilty and nopony blamed her for what happened. It was everpony’s fault. Everypony as one.

Twilight Sparkle felt something over her, turning her eyes to see Spike putting an arm around her. The unicorn didn’t even try to smile —Spike knew she didn’t have to—, but she did lean her head against her assistant. Nopony said anything as the fading sound of a bell rang away from the crowd standing at the centre of Ponyville, where a monument had been built. Three ponies —a unicorn, a pegasus and an earth pony— stood there, leaning their heads in each other’s shoulder, forming a triangle between them. The base of the statue represented a sun and a moon as broken figures, smashed symbols, upon which the ponies stood up. A reminder that even if everypony’s ideas are different, they have to remain together.

“What a cute, sad spectacle”

Everypony lifted their head, no one knowing who had said that. Not even Celestia and Luna could figure out where the voice came from.

“I hope you’re all having a good time.”

“Who is this? Show yourself!” Luna demanded.

“Little Lu! Is that you?” In the space between the Rulers and the crowd, a bright metal sphere dug out from the ground. It was black, with a green screen and lighter green lines adorning it. A dark figure could be seen on the screen, but nopony was able to take a closer look because the sphere began moving around, floating silently over the ponies’ heads. “Of course that’s you. You’re still as cute as ever.”

Luna frowned as the voice laughed softly. The sound was low-pitched and a bit creepy. Fear started flowing.

“Excuse me” the purple unicorn said, stepping forward “I am Twilight Sparkle, the Mayor of this town and I respectfully demand your…”

“Sure you are, dear” the sphere approached Twilight quickly. She could notice the figure on the screen was a tall, slender pony. His coat was pitch-black, even his silhouette seemed darker than the place he was transmitting from, almost completely lacking of light. His eyes, however, were of a strong pink. His mane was dull silver “But I’m not talking to you. Not yet. I’m talking to little Tia and little Lu.”

The crowd whispered. “What? Who? Tia and Lu? He’s referring to…?”

“We ask again. Who is this talking?” Celestia spoke this time, firmly. Why did that voice sound familiar to her? “If you don’t want to answer, please, leave”

“Oh, you’re being rude, little Tia. Don’t you remember me?” the voice sounded funny, like he was having a good time. “Of course you don’t remember me. I got thrown to the deepest of this earth a long time ago.”

The crowd’s whisper became louder. Twilight looked at Celestia and the sphere alternately. What was this all about?

“Long ago… Now you remember, little niece?”

“Niece?” Luna was beginning to worry “What is he talking about, sister?” But the white alicorn didn’t say a thing. Her eyes remained wide open and her muzzle unmoving.

“Oh, you do remember me! How nice from you!” the sphere stopped moving and stood still in front of the alicorns “I guess you remember that night, don’t you? You’re such a bad princess, little Tia, such a bad ruler. You were so destroyed after that night you couldn’t even battle against that draconequus, the one that survived the slaughter. And you let him rule YOUR OWN kingdom? HAH! You could barely protect that Crystal Kingdom…”

“Stop…” the Sun Ruler moved again, pressing her teeth.

“…that Sombra colt was no big deal! What happened to you? And then you let your own sister, my little Lu, to go crazy… She was your sister! How could you imprison her? You have no heart, little Tia…”

“STOP” Celestia shouted. Luna was completely doubtful. She didn’t know that pony, who apparently knew so much about their past… But her sister… She looked like she knew the stallion in that sphere.

“Little Lu does not remember, but you do. Do you remember that night? That horrible night?”

“Stop!” Celestia shot a powerful light beam from her horn, but the sphere avoided it. The Wonderbolts stepped forward, ready to attack the artifact at the order of their Ruler.

“Sister! Who is this?!”

“The night!” the sphere said, with an almost triumphant voice. Everypony became quiet “The night when your mother died!”
> A long, long lost relative
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Still here, still you, and I hope you will forgive me. You, with the same eyes seem to come back to ask me about me."







“You should not be that reckless”

“And you should be more understanding about this. We are only going to parley.”

“Yes, your better guards are going to speak as well?”

Both of the alicorns looked each other in the eye. His mane was purple; his coat was of a deep dark blue, shining as it was made of stardust. His wings, mane and tail floated like ethereal. On the other hand, she was white, her coat reflecting light made her look like she was on fire, especially on her legs: splendid crimson fire. Her hooves and mane shared colors with the sunset and the midnight at the same time. Even their sole existence seemed surreal, his body looked like the Universe itself; hers was like heaven. Her crown was of the brightest gold and his was of the most beautiful platinum. The air was very tense.

He was standing there; ready to go away from her Queen.

“You know how they act” He said “I cannot risk battling them alone.”

“Then do not go, my love” She spoke, stepping forward. There were others next to her husband. Other alicorns. They were armored, prepared for war. They were the best soldiers and the bravest warriors in the entire world. The world they almost ruled. There were terrible enemies near the edge of the Earth, with an almost unlimited power. The almost gods, the Draconequi. They threatened their peace, being embodiments of chaos and disorder. And the alicorn King wanted to finish them off, if they went extinct, no one would ever be menace to the ponies. But the Queen had another opinion. “Let them understand we can all live in peace in this world.”

“They will never do that, Galaxia” His voice became sterner. “They will never comprehend, not even the meaning of ‘peace’. But yes, I will try.”

“Cosmos…”

“And if that fails.” There was an eternal silence after that.

“Cosmos… What if you…”

“I will not”

“Mother?” A worried voice behind the Queen said. There was a little filly, a coat of the purest white with a cute pink mane floating behind her head. “Where is father going?”

The King turned to her daughter and crouched, looking her in the eye. He smiled, trying to calm her.

“I have to go, Celestia. I have some King stuff to do. I will be back soon.”

“You promise?”

“Of course, my dear” He stood up and looked at her Queen “I promise.”

He, followed by her elite force, flew up high, towards the horizon. They were gone in a few seconds. The Queen and the Princess gazed up to the sky, pretending the King had changed his mind and returned home, with her family. Then, a firm voice interrupted the moment.

“Oh, I hope he returns soon.”

Everything went dark the moment Celestia turned her head. That voice. That horrible voice. She hated it even before she knew what hate was. There he was, but she couldn’t see him anymore. It was all darkness and cold.

“My dear brother.”





“Empress!”

“Sister!”

The white alicorn was flabbergasted. It was not that night which came to her mind, but another memory. The last time she saw her father. It was the creepy voice of that pony what ruined that moment. The voice of her uncle. Celestia and Luna’s uncle.

“Maqyas” She whipered.

“How impolite from you, Little Tia!” The pony in the sphere answered with a teasing voice.

“Sister! Who… who is this?!” Luna asked her, trying not to be frightened. Celestia didn’t try to attack or response in any way to that strange figure on the green screen of the device, other than stare into the void of her memories.

“Maqyas is his name” She kept her sight pointing to the horizon “He is… Our father’s brother.”

“It’s a shame you call me just like that. ‘Maqyas’. I’m not somepony you knew. I’m your uncle!” The sphere approached the Empress. A smile could be seen on Maqyas’s muzzle. “You should show some respect.”

“Why are you alive?” Celestia asked. There was concern and anger in her voice. Luna was pretty insecure about her supposed uncle. She didn’t remember him. Then again, she could barely remember his parents. They had died a long ago; she was just a little filly back then. But what Maqyas said… The night when her mother died. Even if that ‘uncle’ was dangerous or threatening, she wanted to know something about that day. Everypony else was silent. Both aerial forces were ready for attack at the orders of their respective leaders.

“I bet I know what’s in the mind of each of your subjects” The sphere floated back and turned around so all the ponies in the crowd could see him “I mean… OUR subjects. Why has your not-so-lovely Celestia hidden a relative to her own ponies? Why is there a member of the original Royal Family still alive and not ruling you like it should be? Well, I’ll answer that…”

“You are not our ruler. Celestia is the current leader of…” Twilight dared to say, but Maqyas interrumpted her.

“Of what? Equestria? Hah! Equestria does not exist anymore. My dear nieces have destroyed it. They have torn it to pieces and separated you. Is this your so called Ruler?”

“She hasn’t done such thing.” An orange-coated pony said, lifting her head and showing her face beneath her hat.

“Oh, really? Then… are you part of one nation? Or two?”

“Stop this” Luna stepped forward “I’m not letting you speak to my people until you explain what this is all about.”

“Oh… I’m glad my Little Luna has grown up…”

She was about to answer ‘I’m not your little…’ but she didn’t. She wanted to hear what Maqyas wanted to say.

“Ok, ok. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell all of you how your former Queen met her end. Your father, little princesses, was very… temperamental. Very rude. Very powerful. On the other hand, your mother, that beautiful Galaxia…” Celestia grinded her teeth when she heard that. “She was pretty kind. She was calmed all the time. All she wanted was peace. My brother… Oh, my brother! He was such an idiot…”

“Don’t speak like that, please” Nopony knew Celestia was able to hate, but she was. She hated Maqyas’s voice, she had always did. Even when she barely remembered him.

“Could you please let me finish?” The sphere looked down to the Empress. She spoke nothing more “Thank you.  Anyways, Cosmos, my brother, your King, had… aggressive ideas about the Kingdom. He wanted to join forces with any other country and unite every living being into one sole realm. But what if they didn’t want to join? If diplomacy failed, he would, obviously, make them join. By force! By fear! By magic!” Maqyas seemed to enjoy the sight of confused ponies, the sight of worrying ponies. The sight of despair and fear, which were gaining ground in the crowd. The sphere kept circling around the crowd and even around the two standing alicorns and her forces “But then… there was her.

“Your Queen didn’t want any of that. She wanted a peaceful place with peaceful neighbors of other peaceful kingdoms. Cosmos disagreed with her for so long… But she changed his mind at the end. He gave up to his wife and forgot about his onw plans. And how did the things come out? Terrible! They didn’t become more powerful, they became a small nation instead! WE did! I tried to convince my brother to embrace what we both thought could be the right choice. But I failed miserably. He went to face the only race that could equalize the power of the alicorns of the young Equestria.”

A quick image flew through Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s mind. A strange creature with almost unlimited power. Celestia already had that creature in her head.

“Draconequi”

The sphere came back to where the Solar Empress was standing.

“Cosmos didn’t want to share the same life with such crazy creatures so he went on a mission. He went, along with his Elite force, to exterminate every Draconequus!”

“So that’s the reason Discord’s the last one of ‘em!” Applejack whispered to Twilight. She didn’t know what to think.

“Apparently the King didn’t do what he meant to do…”

“As you might know, just one of that powerful race survived. Nevertheless, the King died in that battle. A large group of alicorns shared his fate. So, he didn’t just make a species go extinct. He almost got his own species extinct!”

“And that’s why there aren’t much alicorns out there…” The Mayor thought.

“Then, everything went to waste.” Maqyas’s voice turned even creepier “I should’ve been the One Ruler of Equestria. But that stupid Galaxia decided she could ‘heal the world’ instead!”

“What do you want, then?!” a stallion from the crowd said in despair. The sphere began floating higher each time, at a low pace.

“When I tried to take what was MINE. YOUR Queen intervened. YOUR Queen stopped me. She left me weak and hurt and barely alive. At the cost of her own life.”

“Sister! Did that… did that actually happened?!” Luna asked Celestia. She nodded slowly as the dark one gasped.

“That night… Little Princess Celestia went really hard on me. She punished me for doing something I rightfully deserved! She threw me into the deepest place in this earth!”

“Tartarus…” Candlespark whispered. Twilight look at her out of the corner of her eye: She thought the same thing. It was him what that mythological beast Cerberus was guarding originally?

“But do not worry, my ponies!” The mocking tone in which he was speaking was annoying and creeping out everyone “I have come again to claim what is mine! And some sort of ordering the chaos my cute nieces have turned Equestria into.”

The crowd couldn’t believe what Maqyas what saying. They didn’t know who he really was. It was some pony who appeared in a metal ball! How could they submit to him? Somepony laughed.

“This land is not yours” Celestia spoke. As she did, the air felt clearer and a warm breeze caressed all those standing in the crowd, calming them. “Nor are these ponies. You were imprisoned for one reason. You don’t care about anypony else but you. ” She hit the ground with her white and golden hoof. The earth shook and an amber aura oozed from her. Her imposing magic was enough to freeze an opponent in sight. “You cannot be their ruler”

But Maqyas was not a normal opponent.

“Please, Little Tia. Do you honestly think you’re going to intimidate me?” The sphere floated until almost touched Celestia’s muzzle and stood still, not yielding at all “I’ve been in the darkest places thanks to you. Thanks to my brother and his lovely wife.” Nopony dared to make a single sound while the two of them stared each other. “Whether you want it or not, Equestria will come back to where it belongs. In my hooves!”

The earth shook again. But it was not the calming magic of Celestia trying to conquer the enemy. It was something physical from beneath the surface. Some ponies ran away, other stepped back but stood nearby. The floor under the monument cracked.

“Nonetheless… I still have some adjustments to do to my stuff, so… Let’s meet three months from here, OK, Little Tia?”

“What are you talking about?” Luna wanted to catch that metal sphere and crush it with her hooves, but before she could do anything, four metal sharp end points emerged from the ground. The sphere floated until it was right above them.

“Think of this as an advance of what is coming soon.” The points, with just half meter long, were shot to the floating device, fitting in the lines that adorned it. There were wires connecting the sphere with something underground. “Be ready. Or not. I’ll crush you anyway. Bye bye”

The image of Maqyas faded, there was a dark green circle on the screen instead, simulating an eye. And with a powerful roar, the ground exploded. A huge black bulk, as high as a house, came from beneath the dirt floor: it looked like a mechanical headless mole; two thick, long arms ended in four sharp grey claws. A pair of short legs supported the entire machine, which exuded steams as a result of its moving. Though the body and the arms of the mechanism were protected by some sort of black metal cape, the legs and the joints seemed built from old tubes and wires. The sphere Maqyas was transmitting from attached itself, aided by the metal points, to the center of the bulk, like a face —or a heart.

“Empress!” The captain of the Wonderbolts reacted, taking position. The whole team followed her.

But before they could do anything, the apparent robot shot its left arm against Celestia, trapping her between its claws. The arm was still attached to the body by thick chains; the bang dragged the alicorn far from her sister, making her crash against a house.

“Sister!” Just after Luna had turned to see the place Celestia crashed, the robot hit her with its right arm, sending her through the air several meters away.

At once, the Wonderbolts and the Shadowbolts took off while the robot retrieved its arm.

Before war, the Wonderbolts were no effective offensive force: they were a mere acrobatic group. But their loyalty made them take part of the battle, they, with the help of the Magical Engineers, became a powerful air force, crucial during the war. The unicorns members of the Engineering Units developed what was called “Air Friction Suit”: when a pegasus with that suit reaches certain acceleration, the fabric would ignite, creating a flaming magic field around the pegasus. This field, in contact with the target, would explode, dealing great damage to the target and thrusting the pegasus upwards without harming him. There were some pegasi whose gear was different from the common AFS; they wore a much specialized suit. Rainbow Dash was one of them, whose suit, the AFS-R5 —the only Air Friction Suit crafted by Twilight Sparkle—, was especially design to make the most of the energy released in a Sonic Rain-boom as useful offensive magic. The cyan pegasus could handle the explosion in such way she could decrease the affected area, creating an even greater and more destructive blast behind her. Spitfire wore her AFS-B1, which made bigger explosions than the rest of the suits.

The first one attacking the mechanical bulk was Spitfire, hitting it right above the sphere in its front. The impact seemed not to hurt it, but it made it lean backwards. The four remaining Wonderbolts (there were just five in the Ceremony because… It was a Ceremony, nothing bad or dangerous should happen.). Rainbow Dash hit it right in the sphere; Fire Streak and Fleetfoot aimed each one to its arms, and Lightning Streak tried to take the robot down by hitting it on its legs. The robot tottered, but, regaining balance, it still attacked the flying pegasi, though they were too fast for it.

The Shadowbolts had a similar gear: their “Casting Suit”, designed by Rarity —so they were actually pretty fashionable—. With small controls near the muzzle, the pegasi could create several spells to attack an enemy or defend themselves: the common Casting Suit had “memory” for three spells, the majority of the users chose an offensive spell, a defensive one and a tactic one, though some picked only offensive ones to give everything in battle. Its magic was not nearly as powerful as the explosions caused by the Wonderbolts’ Air Friction Suit, but it had a wider variety of uses. The four Shadowbolts flew around the robot.

“The legs! Try to take that thing down!” The leader of Luna’s air army, a stallion with a dark red mane, shouted to the others. Two of the others dove, activating their suits and casting a bright purple tangle of magic ropes. When they grazed the robot’s legs, the purple ropes attached to the mechanical limbs, tying up and tightening by themselves. The leader and the remaining Shadowbolt charged to the front of their enemy, casting a violet aura around themselves and crashing against it. With a dark energy blast, the robot finally fell, but before the pegasi could cheer for their victory, a metallic sound made the machine vibrate.

Its arms and legs suddenly turned around, turning its rear part into its frontal part. It stood with its claws on the ground and rose again.

“What? It…” The Shadowbolts’ leader began, but the robot hit him in a blink. It was pretty fast, it just hadn’t showed that to its enemies. With a single swing of its strong arm, the machine took down Lightning Streak, Fleetfoot and a pegasus from the Shadowbolts, a mare with green mane called Hazy Dusk. It lifted up its other arm to hit Rainbow Dash, but a purple aura surrounded the limb.

“The sphere!” Twilight Sparkle said, containing the attack. There were a lot of ponies ready to jump in the battle and try to help as much as they could “Maybe if you detach the sphere, the whole thing will stop!” The robot tried to smash the unicorn with its free arm, but an orange flash took her out of its reach.

“Mah back!” Applejack screamed, rolling on the ground “Mah buckin’ back!”

“I… I’m sorry, Applejack” Twilight apologized, standing up and helping her stand up.

The rest of the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire and Fire Streak, as well as the Shadowbolts, a black coated stallion called Starry Mantle and the former Wonderbolt Lightning Dust, surrounded the robot and attacked the round device, which was now at the rear of the machine. The combined force of all the pegasi cracked the surface of the sphere and tilted the enemy forward. It roared and charged unto the ponies standing in front of it, the ones prepared to fight as well, but it was forced to stop once more. This time, it was a golden aura.

“Luna!” Celestia had stood up from amongst the house debris and now walked towards the robot. Here sole presence shook the ground again; there was definitely anger in her face. Her left wing seemed broken and it was amply bleeding “Take it out now! The material which it is made of is magic-resistant!” The Lunar Leader appeared from the distance, her horn glowing with a dark colored magic.

The sphere abruptly vibrated as it was taken with the night alicorn’s magic. It made a popping sound when it was extracted. Luna cut the wires off, separating the device from the whole of the robot. Nonetheless, the huge machine was still working. It turned around to charge again against the alicorns.

“There!” Rainbow Dash said, diving into the robot’s back. She grasped the point Twilight Said. The sphere could be a core, a center from which the robot took its energy, or something like that. The moment the machine turned around, she saw a green shining figure through the hole the sphere was in before. The cyan pegasus struck the hole, damaging the shining figure with the blast. The attack made the robot fall. “That’s it! It has… something inside! We need to destroy it!”

“Or take it out too.” The Mayor said. Applejack was standing again, but her legs shuddered.

“It’s too narrow for a pony to reach it!”

“I’ll do it, lift me up!” The pegasus took the unicorn; they were right behind the robot in a blink. Twilight surrounded the shining piece, which it was now sparkling violently. She felt her energy was leaving her body, her life abandoning her. “The material is magic-resistant” She thought, just as Celestia had said. Even though, she pulled the object with all of her strength. The robot was just about to turn again, with an arm ready to crush her into the ground along with the Wonderbolt supporting her. The core was taken out.

There was an explosion coming from the center of the robot, through the hole the sphere was in. The limbs froze an instant and then the whole machine fell to the ground, this time remaining immobile. Even then, the ponies stood still, waiting for a surprise attack.

“It’s done” The Empress said with a sigh. Her  and Luna’s subjects gather around very carefully “But this is just how it starts. My Little Ponies…” A tear went across her face. “I’m so sorry my past reached all of you in such a terrible way. I’m… so sorry.” She fell to her knees. She had lost a lot of blood.

“Sister!” Luna trotted to her side, softly placing her horn over the wound on her wing. It magically began healing.

“I… I’m fine. Is everypony else ok?”

Ponyville doctors and nurses were already taking care of the fallen pegasi. Fortunately, they had just minor wounds.

“Pri… Empress.” Twilight Sparkle approached the alicorn with a concerned face “What are we going to do now?”

Silence ruled the place during a whole minute. A lot of things came to the white alicorn’s mind. Her mother dying right in front of her. A Draconequus lying in front of her, wounded and beat. A whole Empire disappearing. The evil taking over her loved sister. She thought of the dangers she had faced. She thought of the dangers her student and her friends had faced. She thought of war. The war that had destroyed her country, her land, her ponies. The war that, once again, was hanging over her. There was no other answer, no other position to take. There was no peace with the enemy, no truce, no ceasefire. With Maqyas, there was only one way to go.

“We fight.” 
> Si vis pacem para bellum (Quest)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"They say she spent her time crying at night. They say she didn’t eat, she spent her time drinking. They swear the sky itself shivered when hearing her cries. So much she suffered for her, even in death she was calling her."







-Seven years after war

She flew over the town in which she used to live. The Hall, the bakery, the candy shop. The library, the boutique, the apple farm. The pegasus could not stare to each one of those places, she had barely the strength; those places held precious memories for her and her friends. Former friends. She felt even the smallest remembrance would make her cry. But she couldn’t cry. She wasn’t allowed to cry. Why would she? She was the toughest of all the ponies in Ponyville! She was Rainbow Dash! A member of the totally awesome Wonderbolts! A warrior of Celestia’s Air Force!

But she was just a pony. That day —Ceremony day— she was just a pony, like everyone else. The Ceremony had finished an hour ago and every citizen had already slowly walked back home. And there it was. A two floor house with a candy sign on its wall. She landed right in front of the door, her heart beating nervously. She sighed, knocking twice on the wooden door. Silence.

“It’s closed for today, please come back tomorrow” A voice answered from inside.

“Lyra? It’s…”

“Ah, you” She said. She didn’t even open the door. She grumbled when she recognized the words from the cyan rainbow-mane pegasus. “Why are you here? You know we…” She paused for a second “…I don’t open today”

“I know, it’s just… I’m here to… I’m here to say I’m sorry, ok?” Rainbow Dash almost shouted to the door. If the wooden piece weren’t in its place, she could have encountered Lyra Heartstrings’ angry stare.

“Oh, you’re sorry! That actually fixes everything, you know?”

“You don’t have to be that rude, ok? I’m trying to be nice”

“Well, you doing this every year is not nice” She stopped. Lyra thought Rainbow Dash would say something —maybe an insult— during the silence she made, but she didn’t “It’s stupid”

“You… You hate me, don’t you?”

“Don’t ask me that. Please, don’t make me answer you that.” the aquamarine unicorn thought, closing her eyes, wishing the cyan pegasus to vanish away.

“No” She finally said “I don’t hate you. That would be stupid too.” Without noticing, both mares looked down. “After all… ponies weren’t meant to hate.”

“So…”

“But” Lyra continued, despite Rainbow’s try to talk “the things you’ve done are still done. You still… killed her”

“But I didn’t mean to!” Rainbow said, putting a hoof on the door “I didn’t…”

“What? I beg your bucking pardon?” She opened the door so fast it hit Rainbow, but before she could protest, Lyra looked daggers at her, shutting her muzzle. “You didn’t mean to?! So what the HAY did you go to war, then?! To hug the enemy until they surrender?!”

“You don’t understand.”

“No, YOU don’t understand, Rainbow Dash” the unicorn, resisting her tears, pushed back the pegasus with a hoof. In other circumstances, Rainbow would have pushed back even harder. But not this time “You thought everything was a joke. You thought when all had finished we would play and laugh again as we always did. But it’s not like that!” She was screaming. Other ponies stuck their heads out of their windows to see what was going on. At the distance, a purple unicorn sighed. “It’s not like that at all, you know?! I… I lost somepony I loved.”

“I know! That’s why I’m here…” Rainbow couldn’t even look at Lyra’s eyes. She just stared down. “To apologize…”

“If that’s so, then why don’t you go and apologize to Cheerilee as well. Or Cup Cake. Or Applejack or…”

“I get it!”

“Well that doesn’t fix anything!” Lyra suddenly felt everypony was looking at the two screaming mares, though she knew few ponies were out on the street at the time. She took a deep breath. “No, I don’t hate you, Rainbow Dash. But I have not forgiven you. I don’t know if I ever will.” She stepped back and slammed the door.

Rainbow Dash stood still as she could hear the unicorn crying. The pegasus herself began shading tears. She whispered “Darn it!” and she flew up, trying to wipe away her tears midair so her Wonderbolts companions didn’t notice her sobbing. Then again, Lyra didn’t hold her crying. She went to her room, slowly entered the chamber and kept walking, until she was face to face with her: a beige mare with blue and pink mane. She was frozen forever in a picture, where she was hugging an aquamarine pony, laughing. The image was crooked because it was the first time Derpy used her camera. Lyra tried to smile. Where was Derpy at that time? She could barely see her around. She approached the picture.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, nor to me. And I know it’s something cruel, but…” She closed her eyes and turned around. She jumped to the bed. “I wish… I could exchange you. I wish Rainbow had died and you were still alive.”


——————————


It took all of us by surprise. One minute I was standing next to Miss Sparkle; the next one a talking black ball had appeared. And the next one, a giant robot was fighting the Empress, Luna and their Air Forces. I ran away, trying to cover from the attacking machine. I heard a crashing sound, but I didn’t dare to turn around, not even my head. Another sound, a metallic one: the robot had hit somepony.

“Let me go! I’m gonna fight too!” an orange Pegasus screamed, but a white unicorn was holding her with her magic.

“You can’t, Scootaloo! Let it all to Celestia and the Wonderbolts! Candlespark!” Miss Sweetie Belle noticed me. She was trying to drag Mis… ehm… Scootaloo away from the battle scene. I finally turned around. The pegasi were attacking the machine, but it seemed a lot stronger than them.

“I need to fight!” Scootaloo was fighting her friend’s magic, fluttering her wings and trotting in the air “Rainbow Dash needs me!”

“STOP! Please! You’ll hurt yourself!”

“Whatcha doin’ here?! Ya’ need to get away from ‘em!” Miss Applebloom reached us, almost without stopping her run. I perceived fear in her eyes, as well as in Miss Sweetie Belle’s. I was hyperventilating.

The crowd that was standing in front of the Empress and Luna was now trying to escape, though some ponies were still facing the danger, trying to battle the robot. I saw Miss Sparkle and Miss Applejack between them. I thought the brave Mister Macintosh would be there as well, but he was getting Mrs. Cheerilee to a safe place.

“What should we do?” I asked, full of concern.

“Run, of course!”

“NO! We stand and we fight!” Scootaloo was getting tired of holding her friend back.

“Calm the buck down, Scootaloo! Ya’ ain’t nothing to a huge thing like dat!” Miss Applebloom hit her softly with a hoof.  The pegasus doubted for an instant.

“F-fine!” She stopped fighting against Miss Sweetie Belle, who put her on the ground. We all stared at the robot. I sighed as I watched Miss Sparkle almost getting crushed by a giant arm, saved by Miss Applejack. Even if the rest of the ponies were running, we just stood there. After all, if the robot wins...

“No, I must not think of that…” I whispered to myself. Miss Sweetie Belle looked at me, worried. The Wonderbolts had improved as an offensive force long ago, I was sure they were a match for that metallic enemy.

“They took it down!” Scootaloo shouted and quickly flew to the place. None of the others could stop her, so we trotted behind her. Everypony else approached, still worried, to the battle scene.

“Did you… did you all hear that? What that sphere said?” An aquamarine unicorn said to nopony. “Are we… again… are we…?” A lot of ponies whispered the same sort of things.

“NO. Please no…” I thought. No, it can’t be. The ponies were not meant for war. We can’t fight again. We can’t…

“We fight.”

Celestia’s voice shut everypony’s muzzle, it even seemed to freeze everypony’s body.

“No… Miss Sparkle?” I stepped forward, looking for my mentor. “Are you… are you ok, Miss Sparkle? What… what are we…?” A doctor stallion came from the crowd, hurrying to reach Celestia and treat her wound. She repeated she was fine, but her wing (Oh my, her wing!) looked totally ripped and was abundantly bleeding. “What’s going on?”

“You heard Our Empress” The unicorn said to everyone in the growing crowd, looking at me with noting more than anguish in her eyes “We… we all have to get ready.”

“No! This cannot be! We were once at… at…” Even the mere word was hated “at war! We cannot take the liberty to… to go through that once more!”

“I… I understand your feelings” The white alicorn said softly. “I know all you have suffered but this… this is different. If only I could do something to prevent you from getting hurt this time. But it’s out of my reach.”

“Sister… This… pony.” Luna said. She had minor injuries but still had a couple nurses working on her. The wounded pegasi were already taken to Ponyville Hospital. “Maqyas. How strong is he?”

“He has almost as much power as I have. Even more. If he could build something like that” she pointed the robot with her head “he may had already built a lot more”

“Ho… Hold on a sec’.” Miss Applejack looked hurt, by the way she walked “Ya’ mean we’ll fight against an army of those?!” The crowd agitated even more.

“We don’t know yet.”

“We need a plan, Empress.”

“We have started already, Twilight Sparkle. We’ve just discovered how to deactivate one of these.”

What? How did they…? I was about to ask, but Miss Sparkle realized Celestia was right. She whispered something I couldn’t hear and approached the dead robot.
“We’re going to think about this a lot, sister.”

“I know. Twilight Sparkle” She turned her head; she was, apparently, disassembling the machinery “I know what you’re thinking. Transport this to wherever you’re able to work while I organize everything else.”

“Sure, Empress”

“Oh, and another thing.” She took a step and got closer to Miss Sparkle. What she said was only heard by the Mayor, Spike, me and Sweetie Belle, who was close enough, like me. “I think we need you. All of you.” There was something in Miss Sparkle’s face I couldn’t figure out, something between concern, sadness and a bit of joy.

“Of… of course, Empress. Candlespark, come here, please” I approached while Celestia turned to speak to the rest of the ponies. Miss Sparkle sighed and, the next moment, we were at the Library. My mentor had magically transported both of us, as well as the broken machine.

“Woah… Miss… Miss Sparkle, you could tell me you were about to do that…” My head spun a few moments. Teleportation always makes me kind of dizzy. The huge metal pieces filled the main room. My Mentor didn’t answer anything to me, so I spoke again “You really are skillful at… this sort of things, Miss Sparkle.” She had disassembled almost half of the robot with ease, whispering things to herself and arranging the pieces in her own order.

“Thank you. I think it’s… practice.” A piece of scroll, a quill and a pot of ink flew through the room to her side, where they stood floating. The quill, surrounded by Miss Sparkle’s magic, wrote several notes. She looked really focused on her work.

“Practice? Where did you practice… disarming giant robots?”

She stopped, looking down for a little bit and sighing.

“During… war, I was Celestia’s top Magical Engineer. I was in charge of a couple of units.” She continued her work, taking notes and drawing plans of the mechanism. She took three more pieces of paper from a table across the room “It was my duty to build effective gear for… the army.” I noticed it. There were certain words which were especially hard to say. Words that didn’t seem to fit in any conversation, but it was necessary to pronounce them. “It was also my job to reverse engineer… enemy’s technology.”

She floated a small object near me. It looked like a dull and broken crystal or gemstone.

“This is the core.” Miss Sparkle explained. Her voice seemed a bit exhausted to me, though she was working really hard and fast “The robot stopped moving when I pulled this out.”

“The core? What do you mean, Miss Sparkle?”

“I can only suppose” She carefully placed everything but the small stone on the ground, walking around the fallen robot without taking her sight out of the object “But I think this is where the machine took energy from. But I can’t figure out how…” She reached a large table, where she normally writes Mayor stuff, and put the core on it. She moved a lamp so she could take a better look at the object “Gemstones have some potential for conserving functional energy for later use. Crystals have that trait too. But this… This is too small for containing such amount of magic to allow the robot to move the way it did…”

Miss Sparkle spun the stone, inspecting it. She closed her eyes and the shine of the magic surrounding the object increased slightly. She almost fell to ground.

“Miss Sparkle!” I tried to catch her with my own magic, but she stood up again in a blink.

“I’m… I’m fine. Don’t worry. I thought I could examine it more… deeply with a spell, but it seems the Empress was right. This is magic resistant. But how could I hold its arm without feeling my energy drained?” She put the stone on the table again. Her eyes were very tired and her breathing was getting heavier.

“Maybe the Empress held its whole body” I guessed “Maybe She held its insides too.”

“Yes, maybe that was it. Nonetheless, we need to appropriately analyze this ‘core’. We need a gemstone specialist” She gave me a look that, somehow, sent shivers down my spine. “And that’s why I brought you with me.”

Miss Sparkle went back to where she had left her notes about the robot and read them several times, like she was trying to memorize everything.

“What? Why?”

“Did you hear what Celestia told me right before I teleported us here?”

“Yes, but I didn’t understand it…”

“Have I told you about the… the Elements of Harmony?”

Here we go again. I rolled my eyes. Yes, she had told me about that a lot of times in the past years. She and other four or five of her friends were bearers of some especially magical jewelry. But after war everything went down…

“Yes, Miss Sparkle.”

“We were six ponies with special features that made us so… unique.” Yes, I thought I said I’ve already heard about that “There was almost nothing that could beat us when we were together. But now… We need all of us. We need the Elements of Harmony back, as Celestia said” No, she didn’t say that. Or at least I didn’t hear that.

“I’m truly sorry, Miss Sparkle, but I think I’m not grasping what’s going on…”

“It’s ok, it’s easy: we need to get back together again. But some of us are far from here” I started to understand what my mentor had in mind. She wanted me to go and find those ponies again, due to my special skill. But that will not work, I know it. Even if I manage to bring them back, nothing guarantees they will get along again and ‘save the world’ as she said they used to. It has to be a joke, I don’t even know what those ‘Elements’ are. Are they the ponies or the jewelry they wore? I’m not that interested to ask.

“But… wouldn’t be faster if you sent somepony like… a Wonderbolt or someone like that? Or at least a pegasus? Even if I can find them, I can’t go fast enough…”

“Don’t worry.” She placed the notes aside and walked towards me, looking me in the eyes “Go tell Scootaloo I have an important mission for you two. She’s one of the fastest pegasus in Ponyville, she’ll help.” The Library door opened suddenly. A purple dragon came in.

“Hey, Twilight, the Empress sent me. She wants to meet you right away.”

“Oh, right… I’ll be there as soon as possible, but I need to do something before.”

“You better hurry ‘cause I think she was going back to Canterlot…” He scratched the back of his head.

“Candlespark!” She almost scared me when she spoke to me again. She rushed into gathering the notes and the plans into her saddle bags, as well as in putting them over her “You need to go to Manehattan —or wherever you find her— and bring her back to Ponyville!”

“What?! Hold on, Miss Sparkle, I…”

“I need to record something for her first, so you go ahead, find Scootaloo or another pegasus friend of yours and meet me at Town Hall, I’ll give you the rest of the instructions there!”.

“Miss Sparkle! Who am I looking for?!” That was an annoying way of giving orders. Miss Sparkle turned her head back at me.

“Rarity, of course!” Then she teleported me. Again.

——————————

The nurses and doctors took care of the harmed pegasi, but Celestia hurried the rest of them to go back to Canterlot. She had sent Spike to the Library —she knew Twilight Sparkle had teleported there— with a message for the Mayor. She needed to gather ponies who would lead the army. It was mentally painful to think that word. “Army”. Ponies weren’t meant to make armies.

“Are you sure we are not rushing, sister?” Luna was healing the white alicorn’s wing. It didn’t bleed anymore, but there was still some damage to repair.

“I’m quite sure. I know you don’t remember him, but Maqyas…” Celestia looked into Luna’s eye, then turned her head to the orange pony that had approached.

“Ya’ need me, yer Highness?” Applejack said to both of the Leaders. During war, she had taken Luna as the true ruler, but she had always been respectful with Celestia.

“Yes. You need to come with us, Applejack.” Luna answered “You were one of the best Captains long ago. We may need your services again.” Applejack sighed. She didn’t want to. Nopony wanted to take part in the coming events.

“Ah… Ah’ll go, of course” The hat pony said, feeling she would regret soon.

“Thank you. We’ll need you. All of you.”

“Wait… who else’s coming?”

——————————

I appeared next to Carousel Boutique. Maybe Miss Sparkle knew that was going to be the first place where I’d look for Scootaloo. Though the three friends used to spend lots of time playing outside, they spent a surprisingly high amount of time helping Miss Sweetie Belle with Mrs. Rarity’s clothe store. It was until I reached the door I realized they weren’t there. Of course they weren’t, I had seen them at the Ceremony.

I turned around to walk back to Ponyville Town Hall, but I suddenly found myself face to face with Miss Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and a Wonderbolt Pegasus with cyan coat and long rainbow mane.

“Candlespark!” Miss Belle said to me “I thought you had gone to Twlight’s”

“Ye-yes, I had. But she sent me back to look for Miss Scootaloo and…”

“Hey! I’ve told you to not call me that way!” The orange pegasus scolded me. The Wonderbolt mare laughed.

“Hah! Why not? It sounds fancy! Don’t you want to be a fancy pegasus, Scoots?” She hit her softly with an elbow.

“D-don’t say that, Dash!!” Scootaloo almost shouted at her. She was actually getting mad. “You know I like adventure and… action and… tough stuff!! Candlespark! I want YOU to call me Scoots from now on, ok?!”

“But…”

“OK?!”

“Yes… Yes… Scoots.” I held my muzzle from saying ‘Yes, Miss Scoots’. I spoke to the Wonderbolt. I thought I had seen her before, but I couldn’t recall quite well “I believe I haven’t met you before, Miss… Dash?”

“What? Of course you have! Every year I got to Twilight’s… Big party!” Oh, that party. That special party Miss Sparkle has with the other mares she mentions as the ‘Elements of Harmony’. That’s where I remembered her from! But I didn’t actually know her name. “I’m Rainbow Dash! How could you forget a name as awesome as mine?”

“I… I’m not sure” It’s not that awesome. Or at least not to me. “Anyways, Miss Sparkle wanted me to give M… Scoots a… quest.”

“YES!” She jumped, fluttering her wings.

“You need to travel…”

“YES!”

“…to Manehattan with me. We will be looking for a pony to bring here.”

“Wut?” She stopped.

“Whoa, you said you’d go with me, Scoots” Miss Dash told her. “I’ve already convinced Spitfire to test you.”

“Yeah… That’ll be more interesting. But Twilight said…”

“Forget what Twilight said! You’re coming with me, don’t cha’?” She put a leg around her. “I’m sorry, Candlespark —Was that your name?— you’ll have to find another pony, heh.”

Another pegasus came, this time she was a Shadowbolt, one of Luna’s aerial minions. She had blonde mane and an attitude very much like Rainbow Dash. Miss Rainbow Dash, I meant.

“Rainbow! What are you doing over here?!” She said, frowning “Your captain send me to look for you, we’re all leaving now.”

“Jeez, Dust, I’m just…”

“NOW.”

“Hey! You’re nopony to give orders to me…!”

(Miss) Rainbow Dash let Scootaloo go and pushed the Shadowbolt with a hoof. I don’t know if I wanted to stay there and watch some sort of fight, but Miss Sweetie Belle took me away from it. Thankfully, I guess.

“If you want, I can go with you.” Her voice actually calmed me down.

“Thanks, Miss Belle, but Miss Sparkle told me only a pegasus could join me. She suggested Scootaloo because she’s one of the fastest pegasus in Ponyville. So…”

“Why don’t you ask that one friend of yours? She’s pretty fast.”

“Who? Alula?” I honestly haven’t thought of her for a mission like that. She’s kind of… weird. But I like her, so I decided to gave her a try “Yeah… I guess she’ll do.”

“There you go! I don’t know what Twilight’s plan is, but take care, ok?” There was hones concern in her eyes. I sighed and smiled trying to comfort her.

“I will, Miss Sweetie Belle.”

I didn’t say who I was supposed to look for on Manehattan on purpose. I thought Miss Belle would freak out and would insist on joining our trip. I trotted all the way back to Town Hall, vaguely looking for Alula. I knew I wouldn’t find her at home, she’s never there. I always meet her when I least…

“Hey, Candle!”

…expect it.

“Alula!” I almost crashed with her “I… I was looking for you.”

“Cool! Watcha’ need?” Her eyes were always happy or excited, I don’t know how she can look like that all the time. “Did you know? There was an attack on Ponyville! Some giant robot tried to…!”

“Yes, I know, I was there…” I said, sighing, to the vanilla-coated pony “Listen, Miss Sparkle wants me to go to Manehattan in the search of a certain pony but I need a pegasus to carry me there. Please would you…?”

“OF COURSE!” She shouted, flying around me “Oh my gosh! A quest! That sounds like fun!”

“It… It’s not that… Forget it. Come on! We need to hurry!” I ran, followed by Alula. Every other pony in the streets had concern tattooed on their face. Most of them were already at home. Nevertheless, when I returned to Ponyville Town Hall, I found almost nopony. Celestia and Miss Sparkle had already gone to Canterlot. “Damn it!”

“Hey, you are Candlespark, don’t you?” a pink mare approached to me. She was wearing a leather pilot cap and goggles. “The Mayor left a little while ago, she told me to give you some instructions. Please, come with me.”

Miss Cherry Berry took Alula and me with her, a couple blocks away from the Hall. My pegasus friend was trotting happily, like she didn’t care about the upcoming war. I just sighed. Miss Berry was the original owner of that hot-air balloon Miss Sparkle liked so much, before my mentor decided to buy it of course. She had a couple more aircrafts, I believed. We walked a couple minutes to Miss Berry’s hangar. There was an elegant wooden chariot in front of the structure. It had green ornaments on its external surface and blue velvet floor on the inside. The two strips of the yoke had small pieces of green gemstone incrusted.

“What... is this?” I asked, though I instantly regretted it.

“I think it’s a chariot…”

“That’s right, Alula” Miss Cherry Berry confirmed the obvious “It’s the Tendershift. The Mayor told me this is what you’ll be taking to do your assignment. There’s a note on the inside and a small box with… uhm… stuff. She ordered you to leave as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Miss Berry” She smiled to us, not so happily though, and left. I leaned over the back of the chariot, with Alula right behind me. There was, in fact, a cardboard box inside, with a note perfectly folded on top. I took the paper and infolded it, willing to read it out loud so my pegasus partner could understand our mission “Ehem… ‘Dear Candlespark, I had almost no time to prepare everything I had in mind for you to carry on this mission, so I will give you only the basic: There are two items in the box, one is the robot core and the other is a recording I made for Rarity. The box is sealed, DON’T OPEN IT. Scotaloo…’ I mean…” Alula made a surprisingly fast sad face. I remembered Miss Sparkle had told me to take Scoots with me, but… well… “ ‘Alula will pull the Tendershift while you ride it. Don’t worry, I casted a spell so Scoo… Alula won’t feel your weight. Hurry up, find Rarity, give the box to her and return to Ponyvile. Don’t wait for her, she will make her way. If I need anything else from you, I’ll let you know. Thank you. Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well, she had enough time for writing such a letter…” Alula said. She had moved already to the front of the chariot, adjusting the strips on her body. I admired her adventurer spirit.

“Here we go…”

I stepped on the chariot while Alula was waiting for my orders. I sighed and closed my eyes. Rarity. Rarity. Rarity. Her face appeared amongst the darkness and I suddenly knew where she was. That was it. My special ability and why my Cutie Mark is a candle…
> Si vis pacem para bellum II (What is coming)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


" ‘Cause she knows that it’d be tragic if those evil robots win. I know she can beat them."








It has been an entire year since the war began. There was a group running away from the battle, the one called the Peace Corps. Under the guide of Fluttershy, the group managed to take the youngsters and the ponies who didn’t want to get involved in war far from the battlefield. At the moment, they were hidden in the forest around Hollow Shades, a small town at Northwest of Fillydelphia.

Hollow Shades had been bombed twice. The first time was under a Shadowbolts’ attack. The second time was during a fierce battle between both sides, the center of the town was completely destroyed that day. Some of the surviving population escaped to the mountains, others to Hayseed Swamps or to another place where they thought they wouldn’t be reached by war.

One of the Peace Corps goal was protecting as may ponies as possible. After failing in arguing with both of the rulers, Fluttershy decided there was nothing else to do but resist what was coming. She divided the large group into several smaller ones, so they could escape the battles a bit more easily. Bon-Bon and Lyra took their group to Appleloosa, trying to find any other pony who could need some help. Time “Whooves” Turner took his to the Northeast, assuring they would be safer near Unicorn Range.

Most of the ponies were scared, some ones barely ate and others just stared through a window or a hole in the wall, like their souls were gone. Even the youngest ones seemed to have no hope. Fluttershy did what she could to calm them down; she wished one of her friends was with her so she could make them all laugh… But she was gone now.

Nevertheless, there was one pony who was not scared at all. In the mornings, she was the first one up; sometimes she spent the first couple of hours chatting with Fluttershy or the pony guarding the house or building they were taking shelter. At first, she was the only filly happy enough to go outside and play, flying around like everything was ok. Other youngsters joined her with time. However, one day Hollow Shades was attacked again.

Nopony expected another attack, since the town’s population was already gone. By the looks of it, some aerial squad had located the town and decided to tear down the ruins. The bombardment didn’t last long because the squad apparently received some call from another place, so they threw two more explosive charges over the town’s library and disappeared right away. A lot of other building had collapsed but, fortunately, Fluttershy’s group was hidden under Hollow Shades’ hall. They had discovered a basement beneath the ruins, so they took it as shelter.

“Calm… calm down, please…” A really nervous Fluttershy spoke to the children “We’re all ok, it’s over now… D-don’t worry.” She started counting everypony in there. Some of them had left the building to look for some food on the rest of the ruins, but she didn’t know if they had all come back “Leafy Wind? Where are you? Leaf- Oh, there you are. Candlespark?”

“I’m behind you, Miss Fluttershy.”

“O-ok… Hazelnut? Has anyone seen Hazelnut?”

“Over here!” Somepony answered from the corner of the basement. He was taking care of a couple crying colts who had got really scared. The yellow pegasus noded.

“Good… Everypony’s here. No, wait…” She carefully looked everypony one by one. “Alula? Where’s Alula?” Everyone looked around, trying to find her “Alula!”

“I think I saw her leaving the basement a couple hours ago.” a light blue filly said.

“Did you see where she went? Did you?!”

“N-no… I-I’m so sorry, Miss Fluttershy!”

“Oh dear… Oh no… She’s just a filly!” The pegasus flustered and trotted back and forth for a couple moments “We… we have to find her! Hazelnut, Twinkleshine! If… if you don’t mind… would you come with me?!” Even in an emergency, she was terribly shy. Both ponies, a green earth stallion and an ivory unicorn mare, ran behind Fluttershy, who left the shelter in a wink. The rest of the adults remained at the place to take care of the foals.

The light blue filly who had spoken with Fluttershy stood still, watching the elders as they ran away. She sighed. Alula was a great friend, she really liked her. Yeah, she was weird most of the times, but she made her smile almost every day; when she felt like she couldn’t handle the situation anymore. She thought it was kind of her fault for not going with her. “Come on, Candle!” She had said to her “I’ll show you something you’ll love!” But Candlespark had refused to leave the basement. 

Was she ok? Candlespark wished so. If she had gone with her, would both of them be alright? Or would both be hurt? …Or worse? She could see her. Candlespark suddenly imagined Alula, roaming amongst the ruins of a large place, looking for an exit. She could imagine her saying “Hello? What happened? Who’s there?” The unicorn wished with all of her heart, her pegasus friend to be fine… Or hurt. But alive. That would be enough. Alula then trotted back to where she was and started to pick up things, piling them up. The unicorn doubted. She wondered why she was imagining that. She tried to erase that silly thought off her mind, but she just couldn’t. It was like she wasn’t thinking about it, but actually seeing it.

“Candlespark?” Somepony asked her. However, that voice seemed to come from far away and not next to her, where the blonde filly was standing “What are you doing?”

When Candlespark opened her eyes, she felt some sort of warmth over her forehead. There was a flaming spark on the tip of her horn. She realized she was not imagining her friend. She had, somehow, found her. Candlespark suddenly dashed through the basement door, making two of the remaining adults go after her.

“I know!” She shouted to the ponies. She met Fluttershy a couple buildings in front of the town hall and Twinkleshine and Hazelnut a bit further. “I know where she is!” Dubious, they all followed Candlespark to the border of the town, to a building that was barely standing, since it had been bombarded several times. That day, the last bomb had torn the west and south walls, completely blocking the entrance.

“Why she would be at the library?”

“I don’t know, but she’s here!” Candlespark answered, hastily. She reached the ruins and started to dig “Alula! Alula, we’re here!” She didn’t notice, but the rest of the ponies, except for Fluttershy, seriously doubted of her and they just stood still for a while, watching the blue filly and the yellow pegasus lifting rocks and throwing them away, trying to clear the way. “Alula?! Alula!”

“Ahm heh!” A voice answered from beyond the rocks. At that point, the four other ponies hurried to help Fluttershy and Candlespark.

“What?”

“I said I’m here! I was looking for… something on the lower levels of the library and then the door was like… Boom! Gone! Just rocks… Then I went down again saying ‘Hey, I could pick a couple more meanwhile’ and when I reached the door again and… Oh, oh! Still rocks! Then I heard you, Candle and then…”

While Alula was telling her library adventure, the stallions of the small group had removed enough rocks for the filly to pass through. With a little help of Fluttershy and Twinkleshine, Alula finally escaped the ruins. She was carrying a big bag with her mouth. Candlespark thought that was the reason of her speaking weird the first time.

“That was cool! How did you know I was here?” The young pegasus said. Everypony seemed to share the curiosity.

“I… I don’t know… I thought of you and then… Then I just saw you in there like I was… watching you…”

“Weeeeiiird~” Alula said, happily.

“Look, Candlespark!” The yellow pegasus pointed at the unicorn’s pot. She turned her head to find out she was not a blank flank anymore. “Looks like you’ve found what makes you special!”

The filly could not speak. She was so surprised seeing her brand new Cutie Mark, she had completely stopped, with her muzzle wide open. The Mark consisted in a flaming candle placed over a tray.

“Oh, no! No my present’s gonna be like nothing!” Alula said, sadly “It’s your birthday today, so I thought about making you a cake, but since I don’t have the ingredients I searched lots and lots of cake books in the library. If you can’t eat them, at least you can see them!” She emptied the bag at Candlespark’s hooves, revealing not less than twenty cookbooks, all of them about cakes and pastries.

The unicorn smiled with a couple of tears on her eyes. She hadn’t had cake since the beginning of the war, and she had told Alula once how much she missed cakes. Fluttershy seemed a lot more calmed. She grinned and caressed both fillies with her wings. She remembered even in hard times, one or two smiles can save the day.

“And what does that Cutie Mark mean?” The vanilla filly asked when they all began walking.

“Maybe” Fluttershy spoke “it means you can find ponies. I mean… that sounds really simple, but maybe… ehm… It’s finding them when no one else can. When everything’s dark and silent and nopony can see… You’d be like a candle, lighting the way.”


—————————— 


A light blue stallion wearing a blue officer suit, which looked too formal for him, entered the room.

“We’re here, we’re here! Sorry of the delay, I stopped for some snacks…”

“As you always do.” A mare with a yellow coat and a flame-like orange mane was right behind him. There were an unusually large number of ponies in that room.

In front of everypony, there were the Rulers: Celestia and Luna. The rest of the ponies were sitting around the table, each of them had a similar reason for being there. They were all remarked ponies from the War, either from the battlefield or back, at the strategy. Applejack, the best leader and fighter Luna had, was at the far left —Her brother would have been at her side, but he refused to go—. Soarin, who had lost his right wing fighting the Shadowbolts, and Spitfire, the ferocious current Wonderbolts’ Captain, who had just arrived, sat next to the hat mare. Some ponies would get surprised by the present of the next pony, a blonde mare called Derpy Doo, who worked in Celestia’s side as an explosive expert, though nopony actually knows where she learnt about that. Sitting aside her, there was Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s best magical engineer. Next to her, there was an aquamarine unicorn from the former Peace Corps and the medical units. Fluttershy was supposed to be there, but Lyra Heartstrings was on the seat on her behalf. The next seat was reserved to Rarity, but another unicorn was using it, a dark grey coated stallion with violet mane called Bright Fate, Luna’s second best magician. Sitting next was the recently healed leader of the Shadowbolts, the pegasus with the dark red mane called Cloudstrike. The two last seats were taken by two pegasi: the first one was a white stallion with bright red mane called Rain Catcher; the second one was a black mare with light blue mane called Evening Star. They were the current Captains of each Ruler’s Royal Guard. While the Wonderbolts and the Shadowbolts were the main air force, the fastest squads, the Guards were the heavier, stronger part of the army. The main body of the attack.

Celestia sighed. It was not meant to be that way. Nothing was meant to be that way. Not even twelve years in the past ponies. Not even at that moment. She had no right to take the good life, the peace and the hope out of those ponies. But, she thought, it was necessary.

“Thank you for coming.” The Sun Ruler began “Some of you witnessed the recent threat our land had received. Other had just heard about it. It may sound quite strange and hard to believe but I can assure you this menace is true. Maqyas…” She stopped for a couple seconds “Maqyas was a powerful being a long time ago and even after he was… punished for his crimes and banished to the deepest part of our land, he seems to have gained even more power than before.”

Luna sat quietly, since she knew very little about her uncle. She was facing the ponies, but her eyes were firmly looking at Celestia’s every gesture. Her sister didn’t want to tell the whole story, Luna was almost convinced of that. But given the situation, she didn’t dare to ask more about Maqyas. Or at least not at that moment.

“Twilight Sparkle, can you tell us something about the machinery Maqyas used to attack Ponyville?” Celestia asked, softly.

“Of course, Empress” The Mayor took a large piece of scroll out of her bag with her magic and unrolled it over the table. There was an incredibly accurate draw of the robot. The ones who didn’t see it in person tried to hide a giggle, but the serious look at everypony else’s face made them shut up. “The… robot was made up of an internal main metal skeleton” She followed the lines and parts of the draw with a stick she had taken out from her bag “It apparently took all of its energy from what I called the core. Right now it’s on its way to Rarity, the best gemstone specialist I know, for further analysis.”

“Why can’t you analyze it?” Rain Catcher asked.

“Well… The core, located in the center of the main frame, was a really really strange crystal. From my knowledge, I could tell that piece was not big enough for conserving the amount of energy needed to move by itself. And since Rarity is quite an expert with crystals and gems, I thought she could figure it out. What I did found about the core is that it has a high magic resist. If it’s deeply manipulated with magic or if somepony tries to handle it while still connected to the machine, the core will continuously drain that pony’s magic and energy. I don’t know what its limits are…”

“Well, that’s what we don’t know” Bright Fate said, alternately looking at Twilight and the scroll “What is what we actually know?”

“Like I said, the whole energy the robot needs to move is taken from the core. If it’s removed, the machine falls. The energy is conducted to the limbs through cables. However, the limbs themselves move with pistons and gears, so, even if we don’t take the core out of it, we can still defeat it if we prevent those parts from moving. The bad news is almost every part of the robot is covered by a thick layer of metal with a slight amount of magic resist.”

“What does that mean? Unicorn magic will do nothing to it?” Soarin said.

“Not exactly. If a unicorn tries to disassemble it using magic, it’s not gonna work that well. But, if that unicorn tries to handle the robot very shallowly, you would be able to fight it. I tried and succeeded in stopping its arm with no magic draining. That’s what it means. On the other hands, the weakest points in the structure are the joints. Since the robot was very agile, it needed to have quick movement limbs, so a layer of metal on the joints would unnecessarily slow it down.”

“So, we can take the core out or shoot at the joints, right?”

“Practically, yes” This time, it was Spitfire who answered “But that guy is really hard, even at the joints or the legs, which weren’t as protected as the rest of the body.”

“Correct. And… there’s another thing. Here’s more of the robot structure” Twilight took another scroll and unrolled it over the first one. That draw was almost the same as the previous one, but it had a lot of empty spaces “These voids are not mistakes. Even if I’ve only analyze it roughly, I realized… this is not concluded.” 

“Not concluded?” Luna asked with a noticeable face of concern “What… what does that mean?”

“These spaces were apparently design to… hold things. To carry tools or…”

“Weapons” Celestia finished the sentence. Twilight nodded. “Maqyas is planning to arm these things with even more harmful pieces. Is that correct, Twilight Sparkle?”

“Yes, Empress. Or at least theoretically.”

“Of course” Soarin said, rubbing his chin with his right hoof “If he, as Your Highness said, was just showing and advance of what’s comin’, he wouldn’t have showed us his whole power. We have to take this” he pointed at the robot’s plans “as a minimal threat. We will see this just as the smallest and weakest of his army.”

“Army? Ya’ say there’ll be more of this comin’ up?” Applejack asked nervously.

“Well… We can only suppose so…”

“There’s… another thing.” Twilight said after a while. It was what she had in mind for the whole trip to Canterlot, it was what really bothered her. “The robot came from underground. That means he could have already set all of his army under Equestria.”

“You mean…” Lyra spoke for the first time “There could be more of these things beneath Ponyville? Right now?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle” The white alicorn stood up. “We have three months to build and prepare an entire army. We have fought in the past and we all lost, because we fought against each other. But now we will battle for our own future.”

“Are you sure, Empress?” Evening Star said, with an almost imperceptible grin on her muzzle “After all… You still want to march towards war?” she made a gesture with a hoof as she said that.

“Would you please shut the buck up?”
“Why don’t you make me, Catch?” she turned her sight really slow to Rain Catcher, who seemed was going to jump over her and start hitting her face.

“QUIET”

Celestia’s voice made them both stood still and regain their composure.

“I… I truly sorry, Your Highness” the stallion said with an honest bow of his head, though her words were not that honest.

“Yeah, yeah. Pardon.” Luna’s Captain said with another gesture of her hoof.

“Please. This is not time to argue. We must smooth things over and support each other.” the Lunar Leader said. She looked back at her sister. There was something in her she didn’t like.

—————————— 

“Are we there yet?”

“Please, don’t start with those again.”

“With what?”

“With those ‘are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No.’ games.”

The trip was taking near five hours, with Alula taking a rest just once. Turns out Mrs. Rarity was not at Manehatten, but in Baltimare; so we saved around two more hours. Alula had been talking about everything she saw. EVERYTHING. I had the nerves ready to explode a couple of tmes because of her. We saw the first buildings in the city a minute later.

“See? We’re already here. Finally.” I sighed. I guided my pegasus companion through the city up to the place I was looking for: the Three-feathers hotel. We landed in front of it. Apparently, Miss Sparkle had casted a very powerful gravity spell on the Tendershift, so the passenger could stand on the chariot unworried about the wind or the movement speed. I stepped out of the vehicle while Alula started to unfasten the strips of the yoke.

“Aw! It’s nice to set my hooves on the ground again!” Alula said with her really loud voice “My wingies are getting tired!”

“You can rest here” I told her, taking the package with my magic “I’ll come back in a while”

“Hay, no! I’ll go with ya’!”

“Fine…”

By the looks of it, Alula was thinking the same thing as me. The place was not near the social level I knew Mrs. Rarity would visit. Not even enter nor standing in. Yeah, it was a nice hotel, but a cheap one. The receptionist mare just nodded when I told her I had a package for one of the guests. She waved her hoof without interrupting her reading —a trashy magazine—.

“Hey… Why do you think that Rarity mare would be here? I mean… Isn’t she one of those I’m-too-rich-for-cheap-hotels kind of pony?”

I didn’t answer that. The hotel had just four floors and looked kind of empty but it was really clean. Not super-luxury clean, but nicely cleaned. We walked upstairs to the room 52, where I knew Mrs. Rarity was staying. I thought it was strange not to see any other tenant in there. When we arrived at the place, I stood still for nearly a minute, looking at the door.

What was I doing? I was sent there by my mentor looking for one of the ponies who would save Equestria? Was that it? I shook my head. That was… stupid. Then again, it was hilarious. Did Miss Sparkle honestly think I would find her friends and make some sort of super meeting where they planned how to bring that evil Maqyas down? I thought we could just leave. I could tell Miss Sparkle I couldn’t find Mrs. Rarity or the other ones. I could tell them they were all dead. I could…

“HEY! RARITY! ARE YOU THERE?” Alula shouted while knocking on the door several times. We heard nothing after that. But I was glad my friend had interrupted me, so I didn’t do any of the things I was thinking. I guess “We have something for yooouuu~!”

“Qui êtes-vous? Qu’est-ce que vous voulez?” a male voice came from inside. I was about to answer him, but Alula spoke before me. Again.

“WUT? Excusez-us! We don’t speak fancy!”

“Please, sir.” I said “We have an urgent package for Mrs. Rarity! It’s really, really important.”

“Oh, no, I know who you are!” a familiar voice responded. Her soft speaking somehow calmed my heart and made Alula smile. “You are one of those despicable paparazzi who just want to get a shot of my belly. But that’s not going to happen, so go away!”

“Her belly? And what’s a ‘papapizza’?” Alula tilted her head.

I knew Mrs. Rarity was a famous pony out there in the big cities, but… her belly? A picture of her belly?

“Mrs. Rarity… I… I don’t know what you mean; I’m here because Miss Twilight Sparkle sent me. She has a very important message for you.” I kind of felt dumb for speaking to a hotel door. I could hear Mrs. Rarity sigh.

“Well, congratulations! It’s the first time you use the name of a friend for one of your tricks. I’m NOT going to fall for that.”

We could hear the stallion’s voice saying something like “Maybe it’s true”. Then I thought of something: we didn’t have anything that confirmed our authenticity. Perhaps Miss Sparkle should have given me some kind of code for Mrs. Rarity to understand. If she refused to open the door, our entire quest would fail. And that would be five hours full of Alula’s talk wasted.

“WHAT? A trick? How dare you say we are some kind of potatopizzas!” Alula hit the door with her forehead a couple times “Listen, ma’am! If you don’t want to listen to us, that’s ok! Then, you’ll live your entire life thinking ‘Was that an actual package from Twilight? What if she’s dead now and I will never see her again? I should have opened the door to those awesomely cute ponies that other day!’ Then you’ll sit down on your super-duper-fancy-diamond-covered penthouse and cry over your delicious hot cocoa while remembering that-”

“STOP! For crying out loud, please stop!” I guess nopony can resist Alula’s talking powers “Honey, would you please let them in?”

“Are you sure? After all the effort of hiding you?”

Mrs. Rarity should have nodded, because we heard a couple of clicks and then the door opened. When I saw him I knew I had seen Mrs. Rarity’s husband before. He was with Miss Fluttershy’s group when we first left Ponyville, twelve years ago. It was a brown stallion with dark brown mane and calmed blue eyes. If my memory didn’t fail me, his Cutie Mark was an hourglass. I honestly never thought of him like someone Mrs. Rarity would marry.

“Yes, I know what you are thinking.” Mrs. Rarity was lying down on a bed behind a pink semi-transparent curtain “Why is such a refined pony as the famous fashion designer Rarity doing in a hotel like this?” The room had no fancy ornaments. In fact, there were no decorations besides the hotel's.

"Yeah! Wow, how did you know?"

"Please, Alula..."

"Are you really here in behalf of Twilight Sparkle?" Mrs. Rarity seemed to forgot the first question. We approached the bed while the unicorn moved the curtain a bit aside. Her mane was shorter than I remembered, but it was perfectly combed as I expected "What do you have for me, dear?"

I was carrying the package with my magic, so I carefully place it on the bed, trying not to sneak over the fragile fabric that separated us. I explained everything that had happened at Ponyville and how the Empress and Miss Luna were planning how to battle that new evil. She remained silent during my speech and a minute after it. Alula glanced around the room and then watched Mrs. Rarity's husband making some beverage.

"It is true? Everything that you said... Is that actually happening?" she finally said. She had opened the package, but I looked away, since my mentor had told me to not look at it. "Fine. Fine, I'll analyze it. Then I'll meet Twilight."

"I hope you don't regret it, sweetheart" the stallion said, taking to her the hot cocoa he had been preparing. "You actually bothered in erasing your traces when coming all the way here."

"Yes, I know, Timey, but... It's Twilight. She... They all need me." her husband had moved the curtain almost completely, so we could see Mrs. Rarity's body.

"Was she that fat before?" Alula whispered to me, looking at the mare's belly.

"Hey! I heard that!" she took a sip of her chocolate; then she caressed her abdomen "And I'm not fat. This is why I'm hiding from the media! They all want pictures and pictures and...! Don't get me wrong, I love the photos, but... This is too private for all those photography sessions! Don't you think, Candlespark?"

I couldn't speak. She was as beautiful as always, but there was something... different with her body. She had a large bump on her belly: Mrs. Rarity was pregnant.