“After that, we linked up with the rest of the HLF rebels in the Everfree and managed to hold our own until the bombs dropped.” Shining finished explaining.

“HLF? Human Liberation Front?” Twilight arched an eyebrow. “Why would a bunch of ponies in the Everfree call themselves that?”

“Resistance to her rule had been around for centuries in some form or another, the HLF and the war with humanity just finally gave us a banner to rally around.” He shrugged. “Our thought process was if we could divert the evil cun--”

He trailed off, eyes drifting to Celestia, who merely took a sip from her tea. “Oh, don’t mind me,” she said without looking up, muzzle wrinkling at the styrofoam cup she’d just had to sip Lipton from. “After everything I’ve seen in this realm, I’m one-hundred percent in agreement with your assessment of that one’s moral standing.”

After a moment, he gave a quick nod. “--Well, the thinking was that if we could divert a little bit of her attention away from maintaining the Barrier’s spread, we might buy humanity time to figure out a way through it. We never did find out if we were right or not: if the Barrier ever slowed down or if she was even intentionally keeping it moving slowly in the hopes that humanity would just surrender, but it was something. We couldn’t just sit in the woods and hope for help to appear someday.”

“So...why the bombs, then?” Twilight asked, leaning forward. “I never did find a suitable explanation for why humanity launched their nuclear arsenal at Equestria after your Celestia flew to Tokyo.”

At that, Shining Armor rolled his eyes to her. “She didn’t just ‘fly’ to Tokyo, Twilight. She decimated the largest city on Earth. She intentionally killed more people than any human villain up to that point in about the same time it took them to blink their eyes. The mushroom cloud was visible to the fleet surrounding Equestria from hundreds of miles away. After that, I think they might be forgiven a few spur of the moment choices.”

“I’m more concerned with my double’s reasoning for attacking in the first place,” Celestia replied, cringing as she took another sip from her cup. “She was beaten, cut off from her magic, there was nothing for her to gain in destroying Tokyo. And yet, she did it. She burned a city to the ground, and in thinking of why I can only come up with a few answers.”

Twilight leaned forward in her seat, waiting for the explanation. Shining just crossed his hooves. He already knew.

“Spite.” Celestia shook her head. “She burned an entire city and murdered millions because she knew she was cornered and wanted to kill more before she was taken down.”

Twilight sat back down, eyes wide. “That’s just...so...”

“Evil? My dear Twilight, everything we’ve encountered in our journey thus far would indicate she’d do nothing less. Cut off from Equestria’s magic, knowing she’d have only a finite amount of reserves in her body, she’d want to go out in a large way.” She set the cup down with a grimace, hooves folding up under her chin. “The fact that her reserves were still enough to cause so much destruction is rather concerning...were the same to happen to me, I’d have trouble getting a few teleportations in or raising my sun. How did she get so powerful?”

“Questions we’ve all asked ourselves a thousand times since even before the War,” Shining sighed, taking Celestia’s tea and hovering it over to the small basket they’d been using as trash. Around him, his recruits sat on blankets spread out for an impromptu picnic. Every now and again a soldier would steal a quick look at Celestia, quickly turning away when they thought she might glance in their direction.

“As of right now,” he finally finished, turning back to the mares sitting with him. “I have to ask what your current plans are.”

“Right now?” Celestia smiled peacefully, head still propped up in her forehooves. “I just want to use our newfound power to cure as many Newfoals as possible, then hopefully use that to gain the trust of humanity. From there, reestablishing contact with my sister should be easy enough.”

After a moment of staring, Shining Armor snorted. “Oh, is that all? And here, I thought you wanted to do something crazy or impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible with the will to try, Captain.” She smiled and winked at him as she stood. “And a few good friends to lend a hoof.”

Shining smiled as he followed suit, a few of his soldiers moving to roll up his blanket. He gestured to the inhibitors still locked on the mares’ horns. “We’ll get those off on the surface, alright? For now, let’s just get you up there.” His comfortable smile turned into a frown. “It’s...not a pleasant sight, just so you know. Even after all these years.”

“We’re used to unpleasant sights at this point, Captain Armor.” Celestia said with a smile, then caught herself. “Or...that’s King Armor now, isn’t it?”

Shining smiled and nodded, falling in alongside Twilight as the strange group made their way along the cave, backed up by a whole host of rifle-wielding stallions and mares in modified combat armor: a distinctly-human design fit for a pony. The group all trotted through the dark, remaining close, though few remained closer than Twilight and Shining Armor. He kept looking over to her, as if not quite able to line up the image of the mare in front of him with the Twilight Sparkle he’d grown up with.

Eventually he cleared his throat. “So, how did...” he started, gesturing to his shoulders.

After a moment, Twilight turned to stare blankly at him, then suddenly something clicked. “Oh! Well, my friends and I bore the Elements of Harmony for the longest time, and after saving Equestria a few times, Princess Celestia sent me Starswirl the Bearded’s final spell, solving which unlocked the final potential within me to grant alicornhood!”

Now, it was Shining Armor’s turn to stare blankly at her, a look she withered under. “Sorry,” she said. “I forget myself sometimes, it’s a problem I--”

She cut herself off as a chuckle rose up in his throat. The chuckle rapidly turned into full-on laughter that echoed off the walls and bounced all around them, causing a few soldiers to pause in their step. Tears rolled down his face as he guffawed, wheezing with the laughter. “Oh...oh, god above...”

When he finally noticed her questioning look, he just smiled and shook his head. “She used to do the same thing: get lost in her own little world, then take a second to come back down when somepony asked a question, and it’d all come out in a rush, it’s so...it was so...”

Finally, Twilight realized not all the tears were from laughter. A wing fanned over his shoulders, which he looked down at in surprise. She smiled, nodding to him even as her own eyes shimmered with tears. “It’s okay...” she whispered.

He let in a shivering breath, his voice giving a hoarse crack as he cleared his throat. “We...should be coming up top soon. I hope you’re both ready.”

We are, but I don’t think you are, she almost said, but tucked it away, figuring such talk could be saved for later. “We’ll take it from here.” She said, looking up and blinking as the sun overwhelmed the dim flashlights and eerie glow of the devices strapped on the ponies around her.

They stepped out into a concrete parking lot, the ruins of a gas station squatting behind them. Burnt ruins loomed over their heads, making Twilight crane her neck back on reflex as she gazed up at the remains of skyscrapers beneath an overcast sky. Her pulse suddenly rocketed. Her breath caught in her throat. If ever there was the perfect setpiece for an apocalyptic wasteland, this was it.

“That should do it...” Shining said, pulling out a little remote. A moment later, the devices on Twilight’s and Celestia’s horns gave a little mechanical whine, then clicked open and fell to the pavement. “Just head that way,” he added, gesturing down a large avenue lined on both sides by similar buildings. “That’ll getcha to some of the main camps.”

Celestia nodded. “Might we count on you as an escort?”

Shining could only smile and shake his head. “I can’t risk the shitstorm I’d get for pulling something like that, so do keep it under wraps, yeah? I just came to make sure it was her.”

He looked to Twilight, who seemed to glow under his gaze. “Glad I passed that little test,” she said.

Shining just nodded. “That’s also where you’ll be out of range of the Inhibitors we have planted around this parking lot.” His little smile turned into a smirk. “Pardon me, your majesties, just one final precaution in case you lashed out at us the instant the horn inhibitors were off.”

“I would have lectured you had you not taken such precautions, Cap—your highness.” Celestia replied with an incline of her head.

“To you, princess? I don’t think I’d mind being called ‘captain.’” He turned to head back down the tunnels. “And good luck to you both. Believe me, you’ll need it.”

Celestia smiled and nodded, turning down the roadway as Shining vanished back into the tunnel, the entrance half-hidden by broken concrete. Twilight took a breath, hoping to steady her nerves. The rifle wielding ponies nodded to one another, then turned back to follow their leader. However, at her flank, one of them gave a sudden pause.

“Is it true?” The mare asked suddenly, forcing to Twilight to whirl around and face her. “You’re here to fix what she did?”

After a moment of careful consideration, Twilight responded: “We can’t fix everything she did. The dead are gone, and...some things aren’t going to be fixed without hard work.” She gazed up at the scorched ruins of a once-great city around them, ears folding back at the sheer miles of shattered glass and scorched cinderblock stretching up over her head. Finally, she gazed back down at the guard. “But if we can ease a little bit of the pain, I think it’ll be worth it. For all of us.”

After a moment, the pony guard nodded and trotted ahead, vanishing back into the darkness, though Twilight thought she saw a little extra skip in her step as she disappeared. Finally, she let out another breath and turned back to the street.

“It’s time, Twilight,” Celestia remarked. “Are you ready?”

After a moment, Twilight smiled. “As I’ll ever be, Princess.” She said.

Offering up a smile of her own, Celestia took the first steps onto the blackened pavement, and the pair trotted shoulder-by-shoulder into the city.

Twilight couldn’t help an eerie feeling creeping up her spine as she trotted through the once-great city. Scorched towers loomed overhead, their size and frames conjuring images of the great metropolises they had seen in Lon-done, and Duzzledwarf, and Jeroosalim. But the plywood over most of the windows and the blackened, twisted metal exposed all served as reminders of the horrors committed by a mare she could only hope not to know all too well.

She looked around, confident smile fading. Here, an office building, half-collapsed with plywood over the windows. There, a road that was more undergrowth and potholes than asphalt. She shook her head. What little help they could offer seemed totally inconsequential to this scale. Even if the impossible happened and they could convince these people to let them try, what good could they do?

In the distance, a series of tents loomed, all marked with the now-familiar UN logo. A little girl came walking down the street towards them in a dirty set of jeans and an overlarge T-shirt. Then she stopped at the corner, eyes wide. She watched them as they trotted by, Twilight offering a friendly wave and smile. The girl just turned and bolted back down the alleyway.

“Well,” Twilight remarked. “Too late to back out now.”

“You seriously thought we should just turn around at some point?” Celestia chuckled.

Twilight only smiled up at her friend and mentor. “Of course not.”

After another moment’s trotting, Celestia leaned down. “It’s okay to be intimidated and have doubts, Twilight. So long as you keep forging ahead. “

Twilight swallowed, suddenly grateful to have someone who knew her so well at her side. She diverted her path to press in a little closer to Celestia. “Of course, Princess.”

As they approached the camp, Twilight’s ear perked. Her head swiveled, just catching a shape darting back into the shadows of a building, a rush of someone’s shoe behind a tarp before a door slammed shut.

“We’re being followed,” she said nervously.

“Stay strong, my faithful student. We knew this would be coming.”

As they trotted along the paved path into the heart of the camp, more and more people started paying attention to them. Tent flaps shuffled to the side, only to quickly shuffle back in place. Someone dove out of their tent and started running off. Twilight raised a hoof towards them, but Celestia lowered it with a fan of her wing. With a sigh, they trotted on.

In the middle of the camp, Celestia’s horn gave the slightest pulse, and with a tiny gasp, she turned to one of the tents and ducked inside. Without another word, Twilight followed. Inside, in dim lamplight, they saw a chipboard side table with a few decorations, a photo, some blankets and, as expected, a Newfoal sitting up on a mat. Also expected, the Newfoal took one look at Celestia and snarled, opening its mouth to shout, legs tensing to pounce. In a flash, their magic lashed out and pinned the creature down, Twilight even stuffing a discarded sock in its mouth for good measure.

“Oba-san?” A young voice chimed from the flap on the other side of the tent. A little boy crawled in, his dirty head bowed to fit in, but the moment he looked up his eyes widened. Twilight and Celestia sucked in a breath.

“No...fear...” Twilight said, raising a hoof. “We just want to--”

The boy screamed and dove back out of the tent so fast, Twilight wouldn’t be surprised if he’d managed to skin his chin on the ground. She blinked.

“That was...not the reaction I was hoping for...” she admitted.

“Honestly, I’m surprised more of them haven’t reacted like that.” Celestia replied as she lowered her horn to the Newfoal’s squirming head. “Twilight? If you would be so kind.”

Shrugging, Twilight turned in place to add her horn to Celestia’s, and their magic looped out. She hardly even needed to search at all, her power finding the human buried in the pony almost instinctively.

“And on one...two...three...”

With a tiny grunt, they pulled simultaneously, and just like that, their magic flexed back, the Newfoal’s human soul with it. The mare before them sat up, looking around, eyes spinning.

“That’s getting almost too easy,” Twilight giggled as Celestia stepped forward.

“Hello? My little pony?” She asked, trying to make herself appear smaller before the Newfoal as it shook its head.

The mare blinked, looking around, said something under her breath in her native tongue. Then, her eyes widened upon seeing Celestia.

She smiled. “Hello, my little pony.”

The mare shrieked, grabbing a vase off the chipboard nightstand and flinging it at her. Celestia caught it in her magic, only to have to fend off a flurry of blows from the rampaging, screaming mare.

“Well, she’s not screaming ‘faker’ or anything,” Twilight sighed. “She’s going too fast for me to tell what she’s really saying, but I think it’s safe to say she’s human again.”

“Oh wonderful,” Celestia smiled warmly. “That’s good to kn-” She was interrupted by a cracking shot that ripped through the canvas, grazing the back of her head. Celestia stammered and swooned, raising a shield just as the shot was followed up by another.

“Celestia!” Twilight cried as a sporadic flurry of bullets tore into the tent.

For her part, Celestia reeled, but not before erecting a barrier. The Newfoal dove to her hooves, quivering behind Twilight as shots ricocheted off around them. Canvas shredded, wood and cloth vanished in showers of splinters and sparks. Outside, the angry shouts of men filled the air in the spaces between wild shots.

“Please!” Twilight shouted. “Please, just stop!”

“They’re not going to hear you, Twilight,” Celestia grunted through gritted teeth. At her hooves, the mare screamed, shouting in her tongue. The bombardment continued, bullets bouncing off their shield, until finally, they started to peter out.

Twilight looked up. “Are they...listening?”

“Or they ran out of bullets...” Celestia said, maintaining her shield.

Finally, Twilight turned on her back, peering through one of the holes burnt into the canvas. She could see a man in a dirty t-shirt, holding an old chunk of wood she thought sort of looked like the muzzleloaders she’d seen griffons use, but he wasn’t shooting. He looked around, seeming almost frantic and...confused?

“Oba-san!?”

The trio all turned to the small child crawling in through the flap. His breath raced in and out, his thin shoulders rising and falling. But still, he stood there as the Newfoal rose to her hooves. Eyes far older than the face they were set in gazed over the young one, and the Newfoal reached out. The child flinched, taking a step back, so she paused, her hooves remaining in air. Finally, he leaned forward, embracing her hooves as a smile crossed her face.

“Aiko,” she whispered, and though Twilight thought that was a strange name, the intent behind it was so clear her heart warmed to see it.

Tears streamed down the child’s face as if on command. He embraced the mare as her massive eyes watered, and they sobbed together, hugging like family parted, finally holding eachother after years away.

Twilight wiped her eyes, and any doubt about what they were here to do evaporated as Celestia stood up, ushering the child and the mare outside. Her wings fanned, and the shield shimmered around them all, an excellent idea as an errant shot fizzled off it. The child rose, his hands up, still crying as men with guns rushed forward, all shouting at him. More advanced with their weapons trained on the princess, eyes wide with shock, fingers shivering around triggers.

“I...am Princess Celestia of Equestria!” Celestia shouted, silencing the discordant voices around them. She looked down to the young boy, and her smile seemed to drown out the sun above them as he wiped at his nose to turn a small, shaky smile back up to her. “And I am here to help.”