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World of Ponycraft

by Capn_Chryssalid

Chapter 6: Chapter Six

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It was a strange thing, to be forgotten for a thousand years.

It also led to some interesting rumors and misunderstandings when, after said millennium, you were expected to return and fulfill certain roles in society. For Princess Luna the matter was not so much one of culture shock, it was just simply the world had learned to get by without her. Token efforts and ceremony that had been commonplace in a forgotten era was now seen as strange, alien, or at best archaic. A thousand years ago, her reign over the Equestrian night had been mundane. Uncelebrated and unappreciated, but mundane. Not so in the modern Equestria. Not so in Canterlot, seeped as it was in the Light of the Sun.

Contrary to popular belief, and some courtly rumor, she did not wake up at dusk and go to sleep at dawn; she was not a Pony Nosferatu who recoiled or burned in the light. Her typical itinerary was to wake up several hours before the moon was scheduled to rise over Equestria, calmly eat breakfast, and then see to her duties in a timely and efficient manner without need for rush or anxiety.

After dutifully seeing to her appointed rounds, she would retire an hour or two after her sister awoke and brought the sun to its seat above. She did not live in constant darkness, nor was she a ghost, flightily moving from place to place while others slept. Her itinerary was a matter of public record, and like her beloved sister Princess, she traveled under escort. There was no secret to her coming and going, and for what little it was worth, she held an open court for any to attend... not that anypony chose to.

Her popularity, she had seen over the last year, remained roughly the same as always. Pony society and norms had changed, "progressed" as some called it, in quite a few ways, but not in many ways Luna found terribly endearing. She had spent her first few months of freedom reading about the worldly developments that had occurred over the last thousand years, the better to be aware of changes in etiquette and procedure.

Half a year after her return, she and her sister had "jointly" announced the return of the Lunar Court, and that The Princess, Luna, would again assume "near full" responsibility for the night sky in Equestria. There had even been a fireworks display. A historical society had performed a Classic Ritual of the Moon in her honor as well, though Luna had been too polite to point out how inaccurate their recreation had been.

The old ways, it seemed, were dead and buried.

Why dig them back up?

Instead, Luna drank tea and finished her grape leaf salad, the only pony present at the banquet table. The food was excellent, as always. A pair of servants stood a discrete and proper distance away, ready to tend to her needs; one of them, an elderly mare with a coal black coat, carried a tray of sweets as the next and final course. Four of the Royal Guard stood at attention at the room’s cardinal points, blue eyes alert but disinterested. They may as well have been statues.

The paintings and frescoes on the walls were better company. At least they were mildly entertaining. So much of Canterlot had been rebuilt over the last thousand years, the city was unrecognizable. The old walls of the old palace had been bare, except for constellations, faceless statues, and inlaid geometric shapes to tantalize the eye. At some point, picturesque scenes had become vogue, with fanciful renditions of olden times – all quite inaccurate – and everywhere, the Glory of the Sun repeated in paint and oil.

Setting aside her plate, Luna closed her eyes and felt the tug of the Moon on her soul. It was always there, day or night. It had a Name. Elune.

The wizened servant left the tray of sweets for the Princess to pick at. Luna had never possessed a sweet tooth; nor did she feel the need to indulge herself with sugar cubes or salt lick. She left the processed pastries, preferring slices of fruit. They were, of course, fresh and delicious; the finest one could acquire in Equestria. Cleaning her palate with two small spoonfuls of mint ice cream, she signaled that she was finished with her late afternoon "breakfast" and that she would be continuing according to her posted schedule.

The guards promptly detached from their posts to escort her, two in front, two in back, as she made the same trip through the palace halls as she had the day before and the day before and the day before. It was late and she could hear voices, see the ponies chatting in other rooms or in balconies overlooking terraces and squares. Many were already tired and yawning, exhausted from playing courtly games from dawn to dusk. They would not be awake and active for much longer.

Unexpectedly, Luna soon noticed four Royal Guards rounding a corner, blocking her normal route; they fanned out without a word, clearing the area for their escort. Celestia rounded the corner, her face lighting up as she saw who she had, not so coincidentally, run into. Tall and regal with a mane and tail that flowed and shined like a captured aurora, the elder of the Princesses smiled amiably and trotted up to her younger sister.

"Luna! I was hoping to run into you." Which meant, of course, that she had planned to run into her. It was Luna’s experience that her sister rarely hoped for things that didn’t, mysteriously, also happen. "I have a little surprise for you!" she added, teasingly.

"A surprise?" the Moon Princess inquired, shying away a bit.

"A delightful one. Please. This way. You’ll love it!" Her tone was light and airy, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. It was an impression that couldn’t be further from the truth. Seeing her little sister’s hesitation, Celestia glanced back, behind her pearly white wings. "Is something the matter? This isn’t a bad time, is it? I can postpone the surprise, but…"

"This isn’t a bad time, no," Luna replied, keeping her voice soft.

"Good," Celestia assured her, sharing another luminescent smile; the kind that turned stallions to putty in her hooves and that made mares want to practice for hours to vainly try and emulate her; to try and recreate even a fraction of their Princess’ radiance. Luna had lived longer than Pony civilization. She had never managed the feat and had long since given up trying.

"This way, if you please!" her sister continued, urging along their guards. The stallions responded immediately, and Luna – the smallest of the group by a hoof – keep pace at a brisk trot.

Celestia led them, or her rather, to a large balcony overlooking a marble plaza flanked by walls of ivy. Motioning Luna forward, she flowingly stepped to the side, letting her small sister see what was below. At first, Luna didn’t quite see it. There was nothing really peculiar to be seen. Only after a few moments, did she realize that it was the guardsponies below that she was supposed to be observing. They were training; some in their armor and some without.

There were pegasus guard detachments making aerial passes as each other in mock duels, only to circle up and around to dive down on would-be enemies below. Unicorn guards stood back, casting magical attacks that slammed into shields, either in front of themselves or others. Well muscled Earth pony guards, meanwhile, sparred with hooves and imported blades. It was no wild melee either. Luna was quick to note that these were coordinated displays meant to impress.

She arched an eyebrow at her elder sibling. "Big Sister?"

"I have thought about your request from a few weeks ago," Celestia explained, watching the stallions below with one imperial indigo eye. "You have been very patient and understanding and you’ve made due without raising a word of complaint since, but… perhaps you were right. Especially in light of our new conflicts with the Horde and... other threats. I’ve looked into the matter, and decided that it was time you reinstated a guard of your own."

"Really?" Luna asked, genuinely surprised. She couldn't help but wonder if she was being jerked around by the tail. "You mean it?"

She’d requested her own guards simply because it was more efficient to have ponies who were accustomed to the same hours she kept. Cycling in and out Celestia’s sun loving guardponies wasn’t working out. Most were exhausted halfway through their assignment rotations. They would never do for full time security or for enforcing her dictates during her ruling hours.

"I do," Celestia warmly replied. "I know you’ve been hoping to visit Darnassus and the Temple of Elune there. You will need proper retainers for the trip." She coughed politely, and raised her voice to address the warriors below. "If you could present yourselves, gentlecolts?"

Immediately, every pony below stopped, turned, and saluted. "Yes! Princess!"

Within moments, they had arranged into four neat squares, officers in front and divided by brotherhood. Like tri-color flags, unicorns on the right, pegasi on the left, earth ponies between. Armor flashed over their not-yet-uniform coats and manes. As one, they stomped their right front hooves in salute and gazed up at their Princesses.

"These are some of our finest new recruits," Celestia said, one eye hidden by her flowing mane, the other narrowing slightly as she evaluated her sister’s reaction. "Pick any twenty you like, plus a master-at-hooves. They’ll be the core of your new Night Guard."

- - -

Fluttershy squeaked and covered her head as another one-ton block of stone flew by, crashing into the magical shield around them. The masonry projectile split on impact, mere hoof-lengths away, falling away and down into the dark abyss below. Even though she could fly, when she wasn’t scared out of her wits, that sort of drop was not something she even wanted to contemplate.

The unicorn guardpony to her left showed no such hesitation as he continued pressing forward, horn glowing and trailing radiant white fire. There were three of them, one to Fluttershy’s left, another on the opposite side of the bridge guarding Rarity, and Captain Morning Star in the middle, behind Rainbow Dash and Applejack. They were each projecting magical defense shields to ward off incoming Twilight Cultist attacks. They were also helping to keep the bridge stable.

Fluttershy glanced down at the matrix of energy and stone that was the so called "bridge." When Morning Star had mentioned his colts "putting up a new bridge" she had imagined them using ropes and planks. That was probably a bit silly. The Cultists defending the castle were expecting an attack, and would never just let someone rope up a rickety new bridge like the old one.

The guards instead used their magic to construct an entirely new structure out of arcane energy connecting the two sides of the gorge. Enchanted stone was floated into place as a series of mid-air anchors. Bit by bit, the bridge was extended, and now they were almost to the other side. This activity had not gone un-noticed or un-appreciated by the evil ponies squatting and scheming within the castle ruins.

More Fiendish Pegasi had attacked, swooping down to try and slash and spear the unicorns while they built the arcane bridge. Then, after the first section went up, they used their cultist unicorns to hurl heavy stones and blocks of rubble. One of the Guardponies, caught unprepared, would have fallen to his death if Dash hadn’t been fast enough to jump down after him and pull him to safety. The cultponies seemed to have an unending supply of stone to throw at the bridge builders, and now they were close enough that Dark Unicorns were racing forward to cast volleys of shadowbolts.

'Oh dear, oh no, what if I get knocked off the edge? ' Fluttershy couldn't help but wonder, fighting the urge to tremble. 'What if I get squashed by a rock? Or hit by one of those mean cultist pegasi? What if the magic holding the bridge up fails?'

Life, it went without saying, was hard when you had an overactive and treacherous imagination.

Fluttershy couldn't help but see herself getting splattered or crushed or falling, screaming, into the dark abyss below, her wings freezing up at the worst possible time. Heights did not suit her in the least, and it was an almost unfathomably long way down. On a good day, she'd have been hard pressed to overcome that fact, but now there were dozens of very mean ponies out there out to do rather unkind things to her. She wanted to help her friends so badly, and she wanted to help heal the damage done to the world with her new talents, but danger was something she doubted she would ever get used to.

'Why does everything have to be so gosh darned scary?' she wondered, eyes widening as she saw through the arcane energy of the bridge beneath her hooves. Her wings tightened up and her legs wobbled.

"Just a little longer!" Morning Star yelled, fixing one of the enchanted stone blocks into place. Arcane energy swirled around it, marking the marble with intricate designs and runes. Two other blocks, one to the left and one to the right, were also being fixed into place.

Fluttershy reeled as two volleys of shadowbolts hit from both sides and almost at the same time, the shadowy energy wounding her friends, the nearby guards, and even the flying pegasi overhead. Closing her eyes, she offered a quick prayer to nature; when her eyes reopened, the world was shrouded by a greenish haze. The Emerald Dream. Strange, far off shapes produced an alien horizon. Fluttershy was careful not to delve too deeply into the Dream, or too far from her friends, for much of the Other World was still under the thrall of the Nightmare. Focus. She needed to focus.

A familiar shudder of fear passed through her, swamped by determination.

Calling on the natural powers of regrowth and rejuvenation, she pleaded for the Dream to open itself to her friends and lend their bodies aid. Dark energy was expelled from wounds, and scars quickly faded as empowered healing processes restored lost vitality. The invocation of such power was not without a cost, however, and Fluttershy felt her inner reserves start to flag a bit.

"We’re almost there!" she heard Dash yell. "I can fly across!"

"You’ll be out of range of healing!" Twilight yelled back over the dim of the battle. "Pinkie Pie! Focus target X!"

"Sure thing!"

"As soon as the bridge activates, Applejack, Dash, finish off square and circle!"

"Nipple!"

"Pinkie! For the last time, it's a circle, not nipple!!"

Embarrassing slang for certain party marks aside, Twilight’s orders weren’t debated. Applejack and Dash hunkered down behind their shields, though it did little against the magical onslaught being tossed their way. Twilight and Pinkie directed arcane fire and elemental fury down on the closest Dark Unicorn, marked with an X. Fire and nature elemental shocks ripped apart her dark robes, but she still kept casting. A counterspell interrupted her moments before her next shadowbolt volley could be completed, and finally, after a barrage of arcane missiles, the Dark Unicorn mare fell, cursing in tongues.

The other two Dark Unicorns, seeing their comrade fall, didn’t seem to care to rethink their strategy. Tumbling blocks of stone flew over their heads, thrown by their kin in the rear. They continued to form a magical vanguard, blasting everyone and everything in range with dark void magic. A guardpony pegasus overhead cried out at the last volley hit. He fell from the sky, unable to fly, but Rarity quickly caught him in a Levitate spell, turning a doomed tumble into the abyss into a gentle glide back to the safe side of the chasm.

"None can defy the will of Cho’Gall!" One of the Dark Unicorns screamed. "Your bones will be made into kindling! Your-" He stumbled, silenced.

"Oops! Wind Shear! Sorry!" Pinkie giggled, summoning up another elemental lightning bolt.

"DONE!" Morning Star cried. "Anchors are in place. Extending the bridge!"

The three blocks of stone glowed and wrapped themselves in protective energy. Magically frozen in midair, they burned brightly and from grooves in each one, a line of blue light extended. These speared the other side of the chasm, and from that impact point, solid stone grew out and up. Rainbow Dash was already across by the time the final section of the bridge materialized, plowing into the Dark Unicorn to their left. Applejack, meanwhile, had charged across the gap and slammed into the talkative unicorn Pinkie Pie had interrupted just moments before.

"Celestian dog!" he cried, jamming a hoof into the mare’s face. "You dare to-?"

"Eyup!" Applejack answered with a grin, pummeling him and interrupting another spellcast. After a few seconds of melee, both Dark Unicorns were down for the count.

"Move! Move! Move!" Morning Star yelled, and Earth pony guards surged around him, across the now complete bridge. Pegasi continued to battle and swarm in the air, some crashing and entangling into grappling, scuffling swirls of feathers, fury and steel.

Evaluating the situation, Twilight galloped forward, pirouetting around as she marked targets in midair. Unable to ping them, she had to point with a hoof and trust in her friends to be watching her for their next set of targets. Fluttershy followed close, wings flapping as she kept a few inches above the magical bridge underhoof. Now that it was in place, it was supposed to be nearly indestructible. They had managed to cross; now they just had to keep from being swamped by insane cultists.

A polymorphed pegasus fell out of the sky, bearing a skull marker –

"I got this one!" Rainbow Dash yelled, rushing forward and leading with an Avenger’s Shield. The sheep turned back into a Fiendish Pegasi, and the group started taking it down. Twilight must have planned to clear the air again, while the Earth pony guards finally got a chance to do their job. It made sense, Fluttershy supposed. The Pegasus guards had been fighting all this time and many were hurt.

"X! Incoming!"

Another polymorphed pegasus fell, this time picked up by Applejack.

With only two physical damage dealing enemies at a time to deal with, Fluttershy made the decision to conserve her magical energies as best she could. Rarity would probably be doing the same, and Pinkie Pie’s nearby mana totem was helping to restore spent energy. A quick Swiftmend on Dash kept her in top shape as the fiendish Pegasus she had been holding down finally stopped thrashing. Soon the skies began to clear, as more Pegasus Guards than Cultists flew overhead.

One white bodied guard flew low, dipping his wings in thanks, a maneuver all pegasi learned in school. Dash waved to him, and it looked like she was only barely able to stop herself from taking off to follow him as he slammed into and past another Fiendish Pegasi high overhead. Fluttershy looked around, turning in a circle, her heart racing. For once, they weren’t being hit by spells or curses or having giant boulders thrown at them. The rush of adrenalin in her system, and the proximity of her friends, had kept her indulging in her first impulse: also known as 'bolting and hiding.' Now that the immediate danger seemed to have passed, replaced by the promise of future danger, she was feeling the urge again.

She quashed it.

"Everyone okay?" Twilight asked, gathering them closer. "Everyone get ready. We still haven’t see that Blood Diver pony we were warned about."

Dash laughed, dismissively throwing back her mane as she laughed. "I bet he ran like a scared little chicken when he saw us coming!"

"What’s wrong with little chickens?" Fluttershy muttered, just enough for the other pegasus to hear her. "If you were small and defenseless, you’d run too."

"I do hate to interrupt," Rarity spoke up, a worried note to her tone of voice. "But I believe that is him up there."

She pointed.

"Oh, oh dear," Fluttershy whispered, hiding behind her mane.

Why did all these ‘boss’ types have to be so scary?

A dark, deep laugh filled the air. "What have we here? What cute little fillies!!"

Black wings, twice the normal size, flapped as the bladed form of Blood Diver hovered in the air. Morning Star had called him a ‘former Royal Guard’ but he was a far cry from the uniform white pegasi that flew above in their golden armor. His body was dyed black with blood red marks and streaks that became more concentrated and bubble-like around his face and eyes. Great hooked scythes curved around his forelegs and a spiked bit and bridle adorned his lower jaw. Every piece of barding he wore had something jagged sticking out of it, and in height alone, he rivaled or maybe even surpassed Celestia herself. Shadowmagic wafted from his wings as he flapped them, lending a demonic air contrasted by the otherwise normal blue eyes studying his prey.

"Let me see," he continued in a deep rumble. "Which of you should I cut up first? The pink one? The purple one? The white one? How nice of you to color code yourselves for me."

"Why don’tya try me on fer size, ya big galoot!" Applejack taunted, bracing herself in a defensive stance. "Come on!"

The huge pegasus smiled, a vicious grin full of triangular teeth. "You, then. The orange one."

- and blasted down towards the warrior. Fluttershy was already casting a preemptive regrowth spell, having attuned herself to the ebb and flow of life force in those around her. She felt that link shudder as Blood Diver slammed a bladed hoof into Applejack’s shielded side. The edge was deflected, but the force of the blow alone was enough to break or dislocate a pony’s arm. Whatever evil magic this insane pegasus had acquired, it had made him immensely strong.

"Ya’ll ain’t so tough! Is that ah’ll ya got!?" Applejack was forced back, her hooves digging into the ground. Blood Diver slammed both front hoofed into her, grabbed onto her barding, and head butted her. The blow was partly blunted by one of Rarity’s Power Word: Shield spells, but Blood Diver was merciless in pressing his advantage home. He hardly seemed to notice when Rainbow Dash, mace between her teeth, bludgeoned him in the back of the head and then brought down a Judgment spell to boot.

He hardly seemed concerned when Pinkie Pie detonated a elemental fire spell that engulfed half his body. He hardly flinched when a quartet of arcane bolts buried into his flank before exploding like magical grenades. He ignored the seemingly marginal damage and concentrated in trying to pound the apple farmer into a fine paste. It was all two healers could do to keep their friend alive.

"Dash! Taunt off!" Twilight yelled, seeing the problems Rarity and Fluttershy were having. Applejack was taking an incredible beating, kept up only by flash healing and shielding. Fluttershy could see her friend’s reasoning. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had needed to exchange tanking duties on Sniffles during the fight with Catnip. Maybe something like that would work here, too.

"Taunting!" Dash complied, branding the side of the insane Cultist Pegasus with her Hand of Reckoning. A blazing hoof of pure light caused the evil pony to spin, in great pain but not otherwise hurt.

"I’ll pick my teeth with your wings!!" Blood Diver roared, whirling on her from the same spot. His ebon wings swept back and started to vibrate.

"Twiiii-light-" Pinkie yelled.

The unicorn mage was in the middle of a lengthy cast, her horn swirling with three different colors. "Just a moment!"

"Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!!" Pinkie was frantically pointing at the ground.

Stretching out behind Rainbow Dash, the ground was starting to tremble and glow. Twilight, caught up in her spellworking, was standing close to the strange phenomenon. Lifting a hoof away from the rumbling, glowing ground, she stared, dumbstruck.

"What the… ooff!"

Her question was interrupted by a pink blur, knocking her aside and out of the way.

A moment later and a tempest of wind, a literal maelstrom of black fire and feathers shot past, leaving a deep gouge on the ground. Twilight and Pinkie continued to roll away from the attack, preventing them from taking any damage. Fluttershy, having once seen something similar, raised her voice.

"Um. Dash." She cried, but clearly no one heard. "Dash, maybe you should…"

"Face him away from us, darling! Away from us!" Rarity yelled. "Oh dear! Not another one!"

"One more time!" Blood Diver snarled, snapping one of his wings out. Black energy congealed into a cone of feather-blades that fired away from him, catching Dash as she tried to face him in another direction. Applejack was on his back, trying to keep him in a choke hold, but he knocked her off with his other huge wing, this one no longer vibrating with built up energy. Fluttershy concentrated on keeping her pegasus friend up. That ‘black wing wave’ had caught Dash's right side, and she was stumbling back, bleeding.

"Horse-feathers!" Dash tried a last ditch protection spell. "Divine P-!"

"Die!" the Cultist chortled, producing a black X with his blades. "Die! Die! Die!"

Weakened as Dash was from the feather barrage, there was no healing through it –

Fluttershy gasped, feeling the disturbance in the Emerald Dream as her friend spun through the air and fell, hitting the dirt. The rainbow-maned pegasus bounced, once, giving a single strangled cry. Blood Diver immediately turned, having forgotten about the downed paladin, and laid into Applejack with his scythe-hooves. They were still wet with blood.

"WHAHAHA!" He chortled, tongue lolling out and dribbling. "One down!"

"He killed Dashie!" Pinkie Pie pointed, accusingly, at the evil boss pony.

"You… bastard!" Twilight snarled, getting back onto her hooves, eyes wide and terrified. "You BASTARD! DASH!" The unicorn forgot all about her magic, and made as if to run towards her fallen friend. "DASH!"

Amazingly, Pinkie Pie popped up and stood in her way.

"This isn't pin the tail on the pegasus, Twilight! You don't wanna get that close," the pink pony reminded her, mercurially switching from mirthful in the face of danger to determined and unflappable. The violet unicorn came up short, a stunned look on her face as her memories from a 'party leadership' book warred with her natural grief and shock and fear.

"We've got a battle-rattle-hate-to-tattle rez," the pink shaman explained with a grim smile. "Remember?"

Twilight did; she turned to Fluttershy, a question on her lips -

The druid was already almost done casting.

"B-rez incoming," Fluttershy squeaked, hoping she was heard for once. Fishing a maple seed out of her bags, she blew gently between her lips, letting nature’s wind carry it to Dash’s prone form. The pegasus was still, and didn’t flinch as the seed touched her side, found a wound, and entered.

"Rebirth," she whispered, the ritual complete. Just another second or two was all she needed – this was a gift nature did not bestow easily or often. Fluttershy's eyes burned bright green, and the power of the Emerald Dream flooded into her... and into her fallen friend.

"AAAAA!" Rainbow Dash shot back up, rosy eyes wide. "AAAGH! I… I hate losing, but I hate dying even more! I'll get you for that, you big jerk!"

"Eeergh. I forgot about the druid," Blood Diver growled, seeing the in-combat resurrection. "No matter. I’ll crush you fillies one by one!" He laughed, kicking off the ground and taking to the air even as Dash tried to barrel into him. Black feathered wings propelled him higher and higher, building up more and more dark power –

Fluttershy saw it, not with her eyes, but within the flow of magic.

"Twitchy Twitch!" Pinkie Pie chirped from somewhere close by. "Something's gonna fall! I wonder what it is? Or where it'll land?"

"EEP!" Scrambling away, Fluttershy jumped, just as a titanic crash hit the ground where she had been standing. A corona of dust lifted up and away from the impact site, revealing Blood Diver, his bladed front hooves buried in a crater.

"I missed?" He looked up, frowning. Rearing up, her crossed the sickle-blades attached to his forelegs, the sharpened steel making a distinct 'ting-ting!' sound. One was still covered in crimson, and the other hungered for the same. He spared the frightened druid a hungry, mad look, and then grinned viciously and headed back for Applejack.

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief and got back up.

This was scary! They were in trouble! Her legs started to wobble again as her training and rational mind quailed, shocked silent and pushed aside by her urge to freeze up or flee or hide. They were doing something wrong. Even before getting hit by that feather barrage, Rainbow Dash's health had dropped too quickly for their healing to keep up. If Blood Diver could do that to the pegasus paladin, then he could do the same to Applejack... and if anyone else died, there wouldn't be a combat resurrection available via Regrowth!

'This isn't good. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared!' Fluttershy shakily got off another heal as Applejack crashed into the oversized cultist pegasus. Sparks flew as she tried to block his furious strikes.

'I'm scared but...'

'But...!'

Fluttershy's eyes narrowed, just a fraction. 'I see it. I see it. There!'

But she was also the most experienced of them all when it came to pve, and party battles. After being abandoned after that disaster at Razorfen in the Barrens, she had been forced to make her way back to Equestria by herself. As a healer trapped in enemy territory, that had meant the safest thing was to follow along with or team up with other groups. Very few turned down a willing healer. It also meant she had been dragged along by her temporary companions onto dozens of dangerous side quests and other adventures. It was the only way to get back home.

And now, after all that, she wasn't going to fail again.

This wasn't going to be like Razorfen!

"Twilight!" She yelled, raising her voice loud enough to be heard over the din of battle. "Applejack! You have to keep moving him!"

"What?" the warrior yelled back, glancing from around Blood Diver's side. "What'daya mean?"

"Of course!" Twilight, now that she knew what to look for, realized it, too. The longer Blood Diver was kept in place, the faster his attacks became; he frenzied when he wasn't being moved!

"Applejack!" Their unicorn leader came up with a plan. "Keep backing up! When he uses his wings, you have to get out of the way! And keep facing him away from us!"

"But ah'll get dazed!"

"That doesn't matter!"

"R-right!" the apple farmer confirmed, already backstepping as she tried to tank Blood Diver's furious assault. "You got it, Twi!"

Applejack was immediately proven right in one respect. The moment she started backing away, she got dazed, clocked on the side of the head as her much larger enemy sidestepped and overshot her. It slowed her down, but with heals up, she was able to keep fighting. Forced to follow her, however, Blood Diver's frenzied attacks became much slower and more manageable. He had to advance with three legs on the ground, like any other pony, leaving him with only one sickle-blade to attack with.

Fluttershy cast another rejuvenation spell, but saw Rarity's flash of light do the job a half-second before her own nature spell hit. After a second or two, the golden pegasus healer even allowed herself a moment to catch her breath, calm her nerves, and conserve her mana. She had guessed right. With Applejack moving Blood Diver, healing was much more manageable.

"Just die already!!" Blood Diver howled, his black wings vibrating with an audible drone.

Applejack nimbly sidestepped, avoiding the cone of destruction unleashed by Blood Diver's left wing as it shot forward. Feathers infused with shadow magic and pegasus wind currents became dark crescents of death. The nature of the cone attack made it much harder to avoid at range than in melee, but as long as he was facing away from the five other ponies in the party, that didn't really matter.

"DIE!" Blood Diver screamed, surging forward his right wing to produce an identical cone of destruction. Again, Applejack noticed the attack coming and jumped to the right. The 'black wing wave' missed entirely.

Frustrated and disgusted with how he hadn't been able to kill the armored cowpony, Blood Diver let loose an angry roar and took to the sky again. He soon vanished into a cloud of dark smoke up above, disappearing amid the many dueling and fighting pegasi.

"I'm going Ret!" Dash announced, tossing down her shield and mace and reaching back to grab a larger sword of foreign design. No sooner was it in her mouth, however, than she noticed the tug of targeting energy directed down at her.

"Dash!" Twilight yelled, before Fluttershy could open her mouth.

"Yeah! I know!" She said it as she moved, shooting off in a rainbow colored flash. Instead of being content with just dodging the dive attack, however, she blasted off towards where the Royal Guards were fighting the Earth pony zealots and cultponies. She hovered over a group of them clustered together, turned around, and shook her behind up at the sky.

"Oh," one of the cultists on the ground looked up. "This is gonna suck-"

"RRRRRAAAGGGGHHH!!!"

A rainbow blur shot away at the last millisecond. Just like before, when Blood Diver had tried to crush her, Fluttershy saw a ring of smoke tumble up from the impact point made by the huge pegasus. The concept of friendly-fire didn't seem to mean much to the big jerk. He'd just flattened four of his own ponies.

Rainbow Dash got the achievement [Look Out Below!]
Applejack got the achievement [Look Out Below!]
Pinkie Pie got the achievement [Look Out Below!]
Twilight Sparkle got the achievement [Look Out Below!]
Fluttershy got the achievement [Look Out Below!]
Rarity got got the achievement [Look Out Below!]

"Who-hoo! Achievement Spam!" Dash cheered, triumphantly swirling around like a missile on a sugar high.

"I'll rip you apart with my bare hooves!!" Blood Diver emerged, callously tossing aside one of the cultist ponies he'd impaled on his sickle-blades. Like a stampeding buffalo, he bulled right past a pair of embattled Royal Guards, insane blue eyes now bloodshot and focused entirely on the ponies that had so humiliated him... by not dying like they should have. Applejack interposed herself between him and the rest of her party, charging right into his side with a grunt.

"Come on, ya scruffy lookin' varimt!" she yelled into his chest, hammering a hoof into his face. "Let's get back ta our square dance!"

"Whose scruffly lookin?!" Blood Diver roared, once again taunted to perfection into focusing on the party's apple buckin' tank.

The fight was, as everyone realized by this point, entirely dependant on Applejack. As long as she kept him facing away and moving, and as long as she side stepped his cone attacks, then things were looking good. Fluttershy saw Rarity switch to Shadow from Discipline. There was no point having two healers up for this fight. If Applejack made a mistake, she'd be killed no matter what anyone else tried to do. Fluttershy took a few tentative steps forward, to keep the warrior in range of her healing.

Everyone else, meanwhile, focused on the slowly but steadily weakening Blood Diver. Rainbow Dash's strikes were much more telling with the big human-made claymore enhanced by her retribution talents. One Crusader Strike scored soundly, ripping off a line of the enemy pegasus's barding and robes. A follow up judgment brought down a lance of Holy Light to punish the wicked pegasus. Pinkie and Twilight continued their magical bombardment, and now, friendly shadow magic entered the fray as well. It all came together into a perfect storm of magical and physical dps.

The only one not doing actual damage was Fluttershy, and she was content with that. A quick look over to her side, and she saw that Rarity's form was now obscured by a dark, ominous shadow, making her appear almost translucent. The colors of her eyes had inverted, leaving frightening white pupils within pools of pitch black. Her mouth moved as she chanted words with no sounds, wracking and dooming the mind of her target. Fluttershy knew about shadow priests, but had never seen one in action before. They resembled warlocks somewhat, and seeing her friend as one was...

Well, it was scary. Just like a lot of things! Scary!

Blood Diver shook his upper body as a Mind Blast trapped his head within a corona of dark energy. He tried, again, to hit Applejack with his two wing-blasts, and again she dodged them without taking damage. Badly mauled by the six mares, he roared, spittle running down his chin, and took off for one more dive.

Unfortunately for him, by this point everyone knew what to look out for. Pinkie Pie's tail twitched furiously, hard enough to shake her entire rear, helicopter-like, into the air. She bounded away as the huge pegasus came down, missing her by a good margin. Emerging more slowly from the crater he had punched in the earth, the oversized pegasus cultist was immediately met by more and more attacks. Fluttershy found herself silently hoping he would cry uncle or surrender or even fly away. He didn't have to fight to the death. Dash would probably want to chase him if he tried to escape, if only to get revenge for his killing her before, but he could make it. Probably.

'Why? Why won't you just give up?' she wondered, seeing him laugh and charge, madly, back into Applejack. 'Why are you making us do this to you?'

The group knew how to fight him. He was almost done for. Finally, seeing him near collapse, Fluttershy ran forward, unable to just watch him fall - like Catnip had - without at least getting some answers.

"You can give up if you want!" she cried. "We don't have to kill you! Please, you-"

"Give up?" Blood Diver snarled, looking back at her even as he fought on against Applejack and Rainbow Dash. He smiled, and spat the spiked bit out of his mouth with enough force it tore free and hit the ground. Instead of saying more, or explaining himself, he just laughed, deep and loud... and went back to the fight, scoring a painful slash that nearly caught Applejack's eye.

Fluttershy reared, summoned nature's power, and healed it.

No matter how pointless it was to keep fighting, the huge pegasus continued. Finally, he fell forward, not in an attack, but in a slump, nearly burying Applejack under his sheer, muscular mass. He'd been blasted and burned and shocked and cursed and slashed, and finally, all that was catching up to him. One foreleg raised, weakly, to land just one more bloody blow, but it fell limply to the ground.

Applejack shifted under the huge pegasus stallion, dropping him onto his back, but not roughly. Fluttershy, despite imagined terrors of him lashing out at her with one last dying attack, rushed forward to be closer. She could feel it; see it. He was still breathing. He was still, just barely, alive. Applejack had lowered her guard only slightly, and Dash was crouched and inching forward, still wary.

Fluttershy raised a hoof, without even thinking about what she was doing, to try and heal him -

Only to have her magic rebuffed. Rejected.

Blood Diver was still laughing, even as he died. "Save it. Druid. ...Save it."

"Why didn't you give up?" Fluttershy asked again.

"There's... no point... telling you that," he managed to say, and coughed up black blood. "You." He turned his blue eyes to Rainbow Dash. "See to... my body." He laughed again, relaxing.

"Celestia..." he scoffed. "...'Princess'... you..."

That last word, his last, evoked a few last dying laughs and then he was gone.

Seeing him fall, the other Cultists in the Courtyard panicked and ran or flew as fast as their legs or wings could take them. Numerous Royal Guards pursued, particularly among the pegasi detachment, but the rest stopped at the order to secure the area. Unicorns quickly began erecting defensive wards and stone barricades. The six friends from Ponyville remained around the defeated pegasus boss's corpse.

"You gonna do what he asked?" Pinkie Pie asked, breaking the silence. She was looking at Dash, her expression even as she held back the urge to celebrate their victory.

The chromatic paladin frowned down at the dead body.

"Um, if you don't want to..." Fluttershy began. Maybe one of the guardponies could give last rites?

"He asked me, so I guess I gotta," Dash replied, scratching her mane and grinning as she came to a decision. "That's part of my job, now. I can't just say, 'Nah! Find someone else!' Even if I kind of want to."

"He-he!" Pinkie Pie grinned, giving the pegasus a little nudge with her cheek. "He sure did tear into you back there! Maybe that means he liked you?"

Dash's ears twitched and her wings preened. "Yeah right! Why am I always the one who gets beaten up in these things, anyway!?"

"If this adventuring business is anything like in the movies, the colorful pony is always the first one to end up in trouble," Rarity observed, her mind elsewhere as she levitated out a wax-coated seal from within the fallen Blood Diver's armor. "Ah ha! This must be that 'Mark of Command' that Captain Morning Star spoke of. Tacky looking thing if you ask me."

She floated it over to Twilight, letting the other unicorn take up the loot distribution. The mage looked around, making sure the area was safe, and signaled for Spike to cross the bridge and join them with a magical light-flare. No doubt he was unhappy about always being kept back and out of danger, but they were all in agreement that it couldn't be helped. He was a dragon, but still little more than a baby one, and the thought of anything happening to him was something none of the ponies present wanted to consider.

"It looks like the area is clear, so..."

Twilight's magic ran up and down the fallen pegasus, finding and identifying any potential magic or gold worth salvaging. Like the other Twilight Cultists, Blood Diver had a pouch full of foreign mint. He also had some items of his own that stood out.

One of the sickle blades he had used was bent and broken, but the other was intact. With a little force, it detached, proving it had a handle as well. The sickle was actually more like a sword, slightly curved and still very sharp, with two jagged sections midway up the blade. Unlike imported swords, this one had a bite-bit instead of a hand-grip and guard, making it easier for a pony to use in his or her mouth.

"The identify spell says this is 'Highdiver's Hoofblade,'" Twilight stated with a 'hmm.'

"Highdiver?" Applejack asked, and green eyes fell on the pony they'd defeated. "Ya can't mean this fella?"

"Captain Morning Star did say Blood Diver was a name he gave himself," Twilight confirmed.

"Hold up. I know that name!" Dash interrupted, sounding upset. "This pony..." Her expression became upset, then disappointed, as she glared down at the cultist pegasus. "Highdiver. He won the Young Flyer's Competition when I was just a little filly. The one right before I got my cutie mark. But... he wasn't huge like this. He was a little big, but normal sized for a stallion."

Her eyes narrowed, accusingly.

"What happened to him?" she asked. No one had an answer.

"I'll see if there's anything else," Twilight hastily replied, using the search and identify spell again. "Here!" She found and levitated out a small item, remarkably intact despite the fierce battle. It looked like a pocket watch in a sturdy metal case.

"Compass of the Fallen Scout," the unicorn stated, her identify spell imprinting the knowledge of the item left on it by its previous owner. "It has a lot of stamina, so I think this is a tanking trinket? Probably also a compass."

"There's something else, too," she continued, concentrating a bit more. Her magic soon picked out one last thing of note, but it wasn't a piece of armor or weaponry. It was a roll of paper, now slightly stained by blood, and wrapped with string. Finding something written immediately caught Twilight's attention, and she put the sword and trinket down to carefully unravel what she had found.

"Oooooh!" Pinkie groused, leaning over her shoulder. "You usually only find important stuff on bosses! Like recipes. Or schematics! Or plans! Or patterns! Or designs!! Dibs on any schematics! Or any candy related recipes! I've heard these cultist ponies have really mind blowing brownies!"

"Now, don't crowd her, Pink!" Applejack scolded the hyperactive shaman, as curious as anypony but not about to crowd Twilight to satisfy her curiosity. "We'll find out when we find out."

"I can't imagine why this brute would have any jewelcrafting designs or tailoring patterns," Rarity spoke up, now that the topic was out there. "Ah, but if he does..."

"I don't think it's anything like that. It isn't just one note," Twilight told them, undoing the string and letting the papers separate in the air. She unrolled them, noting that one had been wrapped in an extra layer of parchment to protect it. Bringing them to eye level, she started to skim and read.

"This one is... a note from someone calling himself Voidhorn..."

Blood Diver,

You are to continue to oversee the defense of the surface while we delve into the Mysteries Below. Work has continued slowly, and we require more slaves to continue excavation. There is no getting around this. The Princess has no doubt heard of our attempts to alleviate the labor shortage, and will be sending her guards to investigate the ponynappings. They will soon end up here. Hold them at bay, kill them if you wish, but we must have fresh bodies for the work ahead! So long as the slaves get through, I don't care what you do or how you do it. Take Catnip with you. Her little pet has taken to urinating in the most inconvenient places and I detest manticores. Disgusting creatures, shedding everywhere! My eyes water just thinking about it.

Ambassador Mo'grog should be arriving soon as well. Extend to him every courtesy, and whatever you do, do not stare at the wrong head when it speaks. Politely welcome him to the castle and send him below. I will deal with him as I did the others.

Lastly. DESTROY THIS LETTER WHEN YOU FINISH READING IT. I can not repeat this enough. No one destroys these things. They just leave them for idiots to read when they die. How hard is it to toss it in a fire or throw it off a cliff or, I don't know, just crumple it up and eat it or something. Do not just tuck it into a pocket and forget about it! I don't want any damned mercenary types finding this and thinking: "Oh, hey, I think we should go kill this Voidhorn pony, I bet he had lots of gold and loot." That is about the last thing I need right now.

Your Friendly Overseer and Exalted High Priest,
Voidhorn

The six mares exchanged half-lidded stares.

"OH!" Pinkie Pie suddenly yelped, bouncing straight up. "Twilight! That reminds me! I still have that letter you sent me before, saying you had a 'treasure trove' of books in your library!" She started patting herself down. "Where did I put that?"

"...as for the rest," Twilight continued, rolling that note up. The second paper was the one safely wrapped up to preserve it. There was a second note inside, this one wrapped in gold string. It must have been important.

"Found it!" Pinkie Pie announced, and tucked the paper back away. "...I'll take care of it later..."

Twilight finished looking over the note, and her expression fell.

"These are..." she hesitated, but saw all her friends watching her intently. Fluttershy inched a bit closer to try and see for herself. Twilight sighed. "These are orders from Princess Celestia, with her own signature. From... a year ago."

"A year?" Dash asked, "Before the Cataclysm even. I guess he was a Royal Guard back then?"

"That's right," Celestia's student confirmed, eyes moving as she re-read the scroll. "The orders are to report for duty on the border, as part of the Cartography and Exploration Society of the Royal Guard. She expresses her thanks for all his hard work, that she is honored to have ponies that are willing to part from their families to serve Equestria... and here, at the bottom, she hopes to see him in Canterlot again when he returns..." She paused, re-reading it a third time. "After ten years."

"Ten years!" Dash asked, surprised. "Why so long? And what's a Guardpony doing with, uh... cartography? That's making maps, right?

"It is," Rarity answered, pondering the question herself. "I can only assume he was sent to map something on the border?"

"Um, maybe Captain Morning Star would know?" Fluttershy quietly suggested. "He is a Royal Guard, too. That's just a suggestion, though. I wouldn't want to pester him."

"That's a good idea," Twilight agreed. "We'll head over and get some answers."

Her friends agreed, and they quickly settled on the gear to distribute. Applejack took the "Compass of the Fallen Scout" as a trinket, further boosting her stamina and providing a chance to absorb damage, and Dash took the deadly "Highdiver's Hoofblade." On him, it was a one hoofed weapon, but a regular sized pegasus couldn't hope to wield it strapped to a foreleg. It would be her new Retribution weapon; an improvement over the older foreign made "claymore" despite being, effectively, the same sort of big killer sword.

Captain Morning Star was waiting for them in the middle of the forward camp.

"You're back," he said, in lieu of a warm greeting. Still, he raised a hoof in 'hello' as the six mares approached. "That was good work taking care of Blood Diver. Without him, we have the enemy pegasi on the wing. Did you find a Mark of Command on him?"

No sooner were the words out of the unicorn's mouth, than a light engulfed Applejack and Rarity. They had both gained a level. Twilight joined her friends in congratulating them, and stealthily took out her interactive magical map. As expected, it was showing a quest completed: [35] "One Small Step For Ponies (1)"

Odd - what did the (1) mean?

"Now that the Courtyard is secure," Morning Star continued, bringing up the follow-up quest. "We need to push into the Chapel and then the Observatory. Be on the lookout for Royal Guards fighting Cultists. I've ordered my colts to help you out if they meet you in the field. Our goal is nothing less than to completely dismantle the Twilight Cult in Everfree Forest. Come back to me with anything you find."

And there it went: [35] "One Small Step For Ponies (2)"

"This map is the most amazing thing I've seen yet," Spike said, having crossed the arcane bridge with some trepidation and avoided the various fallen pegasi and other cultponies that remained in the courtyard. He didn't seem particularly concerned by any of it, despite his young age. He was wearing a new bag over his shoulder, like a backpack. It was a gift from Rarity: a new enchanter-only bag, more spacious than a normal mageweave bag, but only able to contain de-enchanted materials.

"Excuse me," Fluttershy spoke up, mewing a bit when the serious faced Royal Captain faced her.

"Yes?"

"I, uh... I was wondering if..."

"What's this Cartography Society Group thing?" Rainbow Dash demanded, making up for the timid pegasus's apprehension.

"The Royal Cartography Society? What does that have to do with anything?" the Captain asked, and listened intently as Twilight explained what they had found. He hadn't shown any surprise at hearing that Blood Diver was actually Highdiver, or that he had been sent to Equestria's borders. They all waited for him to shed some light on what may have happened.

"How many of you have been outside Equestria?" he asked after a long pause.

"We have," Dash answered, pointing to herself and then to Fluttershy.

"Did you actually leave the country, or did you just use a mage portal?" Morning Star asked, guessing it was the latter.

"Well, just the mage portal," the paladin admitted. "What does that matter?"

Fluttershy kept quiet. She had seen a certain something when she came back home. Captain Morning Star noticed this, but didn't draw attention to the druid. His eyes hardened.

"As far back as our records go, the borders of Greater Equestria have been fixed and impassible," he explained. "There are no settlements out there, and all travel is discouraged. The area is like Everfree Forest. The weather is wild and uncontrollable and monsters and barbaric griffin tribes make it hostile to ponylife. Most dragons roost near the mountainous border areas, too. As a result, very few ponies visit the border, and we prefer it that way."

He frowned and hesitated, but ultimately relented on telling them the truth.

"If you keep going north anyway, you will eventually encounter strange... structures. The land is marked by ancient magic. Old magic. Beyond anything ponies have ever used." He glanced at Fluttershy, guessing at what she had seen when she crossed that land. "Before the Cataclysm, that magic prevented ponies or other lesser creatures from leaving or entering Equestria. A few adult dragons have been observed coming and going, but in a thousand years, no pony was ever able to cross. We were not even able to see what was on the other side of the border."

"At the time... the barrier that encircled Equestria was called the Sun Wall," he said, stiffening. "A bright light would prevent anything from breaching it, no matter how high or how low. It could not be flown over or dug under, and it reflected the world back like a giant mirror. Royal Guards posted to the border are there primarily to keep order among the griffin tribes and to investigate any dragon crossings."

"So the Cartography and Exploration Society," Twilight speculated. "Was just a cover up to keep anyone from going to the border? And sending ponies there for a decade... was to make sure they wouldn't spill the secret?"

"Correct," Morning Star primly replied. "Though rotation assignments are a political and not military matter. As you may have realized, all maps published within Equestria bear the seal of the Royal Cartography and Exploration Society, including the one you took out a minute ago, Miss Sparkle. They all designate areas safe to settle in, and areas to avoid. I assume Her Majesty did not believe the border regions to ever be safe enough for pony settlement."

"It was all... um... destroyed..." Fluttershy muttered behind her pink mane.

"What was?" Rarity asked.

"The border areas. The Sun Wall," she explained softly. "When I flew over the border, everything was destroyed."

"Also correct," The Captain answered. "During the Cataclysm, Deathwing shattered the Sun Wall. We don't know how, exactly. When the magic came apart, it did so with a bang. The entire area is a wasteland. I would not recommend a visit."

"Fluttershy, you physically crossed the border?" Twilight asked, amazed.

"I didn't have a choice," the shy druid replied.

"That doesn't explain why Highdiver went from being a guard there to... to becoming that!" Rainbow Dash pointed accusingly back at the fallen cultist, far larger than any normal stallion. "It doesn't explain why he joined up with these evil ponies!"

Captain Morning Star shook his head slowly. "I don't know. Sometimes there are no answers."

"That doesn't mean there wasn't a reason!" Dash snapped back. She turned around and trotted back to the corpse. "You guys go do whatever with that Mark we got. I'll take care of this."

The Royal Guard watched her go, and faced Twilight. "Miss Sparkle." He held out a hoof. "The Mark of Command, if you please. We have class specific shoulders and headpieces available in exchange..."

- - -

She stood over the fallen pegasus, head held high.

Rainbow Dash extended a hoof, reaching for the Holy Light within, seeking the Light without. Why had she been asked to do this? She wasn't Holy. It wasn't fair to ask her to do things Holy Paladins were supposed to do. Her resolve, unsteady, reflected in her ability to wield the Light. It refused to aid her or bend to her wavering will.

Piqued that her own powers would be giving her trouble, Dash thrust her hoof out again. The will and the fire were there within her. It was easy to call on the Light's Grace when she was racing across a battleground carrying a flag or chasing down an enemy or diving down into a group of bad guys. It was easy to feel Righteous and Zealous when fighting for a just cause or in defense of her friends. It was easy to fight.

It was a lot harder to forgive.

She reached out again, an inner glow radiating from her hoof. She knew what to do. She had been taught what to do. The dead pegasus lay before her, the earthly remains of Highdiver. His sunset red and orange coat and mane were visible now, as the dark malaise that had empowered and corrupted him began to flake off. Somewhere within him was a spark of redemptive holy light. Somewhere within him was a pony who had basked in the sunlight.

Rainbow Dash was just the worst possible paladin to ask to find that spark and draw it out.

'You killed me,' she couldn't help but think, angrily. 'You actually killed me!'

And yet, she was alive, thanks to her friends. And Highdiver was dead.

'You killed me. If it wasn't for Fluttershy...'

She gritted her teeth, feeling angry again.

'Maybe Celestia would forgive you, but why should I?'

Wincing at her own thoughts, Rainbow Dash tried again. There had to be a spark of goodness in there somewhere, no matter how deeply buried. Celestia's Light fell on all, sinner and sinned. It judged, but it also forgave. She had to Be the Holy Light. She had to want to save this cursed and damned pegasus, this bloodthirsty cultist that had cut her down without a moment of hesitation or remorse. It was a lot easier to say than do.

Her foreleg lowered and she felt the heat from the other fires nearby. The Royal Guard unicorns were burning the other fallen pegasi. As a bare minimum, that was what was required. Ashes would scatter, returning to the winds to fly one last time. Why should the worst of them, the one that had led his wingponies to their doom, what right did he have to ask for last rites?

"I can't... do it...?" she realized, almost painfully.

Staring at the body, she saw a Royal Guardpony approach, levitating a magical torch. It would consume the fallen pegasi as thoroughly as any crematory on Cloudsdale. She could always just trot away, say she had done what she was supposed to do, or at least shrug and say she'd run out of time. Or some other excuse. The magical fire would do the rest. Her friends wouldn't blame her.

"Give her a moment, if you please," a voice cut in, and Dash lowered her head as Rarity trotted up close by. The guard acquiesced, moving on.

A few silent seconds passed before Dash noticed the fashion loving unicorn was back in her Discipline spec, and without the shadowform from before. She was silent, too, despite the fact that Dash had expected to either be berated for taking too long. They didn't have all day, after all, and their next stop was the one Rarity most needed. The Nightmareweb Spiders were around the crypts. Of all her friends, the pegasus would have expected this one to be in a hurry to get there and acquire the silk she needed. Instead, Rarity just stood there.

Huffing, Dash reached out with the Light and tried again.

'I forgive you,' she thought, reaching out for that lost spark of light. 'I'll forgive you. I will. Just do something. Reach out to me. Show me where you are.'

The Light Within her was strong. She'd been told as much, so it wasn't just her being boastful, either. Her instructors had told her she had great potential as a paladin. She loved the Light and she Believed in herself and what she was doing. She wasn't Afraid of the dark places the Light would require her to go; to cleanse. Even Paladins of the Silver Hand had seen Celestia's Light in her. Why? Why was this one thing so hard?

Again and again she tried, and again and again she failed.

"I know!" she said, turning to the waiting Rarity. "I'm trying, okay? I've almost got it!"

"I never said to rush yourself," the other pony replied, closing her eyes.

"You were thinking it, I bet," Dash grumbled, and stomped her hoof in frustration. Blanching at having to ask for help, the rainbow pegasus tried to be coy. "Maybe if... we both do it it'll go faster?" she suggested.

"I doubt that will work," Rarity replied with a shake of her head. Facing the paladin, she frowned prettily. "I think I can guess what your problem is, but I don't think I can really help with it."

"And what do you think my problem is?" Dash asked, hotly. "Please, tell me how I'm messing up!"

"Sometimes, you have to give something up to get something back," the Element of Generosity told her.

"Give something up?" Dash scoffed and glared at the fallen pegasus. "I'm supposed to give something up AND forgive this big jerk, even after what he did?" She turned her red eyes to Rarity. "Give me one good reason why."

Rarity shrugged. "I can't."

"What kind of answer is that?" Dash dismissed it, and tried again to demand that the Light bend to her will. Commanding the power within her wasn't that hard, but it failed to produce results in others. No matter how hard she tried.

Slumping down onto her stomach, she shook her head; it was impossible.

Next to her, another pegasus pony, a colt, groaned. His foreleg was cut, a long of red stretching almost from hoof to elbow, bisected by another horizontal cut, forming a cross. He was in obvious pain, and finally lay down in a more dignified fashion, tucking his legs under him. Holding up his free hoof, he began to summon the Light to heal himself -

"No!" A voice commanded, stopping him. "Rainbow Dash must do it." Heavy boots sounded against the marble floor as their instructor circled them. "Healing oneself is easy. Healing others is not. The Light exists in all things, and it pierces the deepest darkness. It is conceit to believe only in the Light Within Oneself."

"Maybe she just can't do it?" she colt asked with a snigger, only to wince in pain. "Come on already, Dash! Just heal me already!"

"I've been trying!" she yelled back, forcing herself back up onto her hooves. "Maybe if you weren't such a jerk-flank then I'd have done it already!"

"No!" the instructor's voice boomed again. "Sympathy is irrelevant to the issue of salvation. The Light will Save. The Light Alone will Redeem. We are merely conduits for it."

He paced, the sound of his boots distinct in her memory.

"A great man, the Lightbringer himself, once said this: 'The Light is Grace.' For all our pride, we do not deserve it, no matter our race or station or birth or breeding. No human or dwarf or elf or pegasus is without flaw. The Light shines into and through these flaws; the Light Loves. The Light Punishes. The Light Smites. The Light Shields. The Light Forgives. The Light ...Loves. It loves us because we strive to be worthy and we seek to assist others. It loves and flows through us, as paladins, because we try and because we believe. Every day. Prove yourselves worthy of basking in the Light you worship!"

The boots stopped pacing.

"No matter how swift you are, no matter how fleet of foot or hoof or wing... no matter how powerfully you wield a mace or sword, no matter how strong your faith in yourself... a paladin who can not heal others, a paladin who can not see the Light in others.. is no paladin at all!"

Rainbow Dash looked down to her right foreleg, where a cross shaped cut had been healed. She had not healed it herself. Her partner had, and while it had taken longer than he preferred, she had returned the favor. That was how she had learned the pony version of 'Lay on Hands.' Even if he had been a jerk-flank. Even if she hadn't liked him. Even if she was only there because the instructors wanted all new pegasus paladins to know "the full range of spells, holy or otherwise."

She had done it.

'The Light's Grace... Celestia's Light. Her Forgiveness. I am a channel.'

Taking a deep breath, she reached back and picked her new sword out from its sheath on her back. Drawing it out with her mouth, she placed it on the body she had looted it from.

'If you want to feel Her Light one last time... I'll do what I have to do. I'm not doing this for a new weapon. That isn't why I came here. Well... it kind of is, but it isn't the only reason! I bet She'd say: redeeming a pony is more important than any amount of gold or any cool new sword. Right?'

Thrusting out a light blue hoof, Dash channeled the Light through her.

'So just believe me already! Yeah! You killed me..! But I forgive you, because I stand in the Light! And I want you to stand in it, too!'

Raindow Dash smirked at her own words - they had been pretty cool, at least in her own mind - and she didn't falter when nothing happened. It took a moment, a single long second, and then something bright echoed within the body of the dead cultpony. Her Light felt it, reciprocated, willing, and the two merged and flooded into the shadows. A faint pair of wings emerged in the whiteness, flickering... almost invisible...

Opening her eyes, she saw the body of Highdiver, purified, and burning in a pyre of holy fire.

Faster than even the magical flame, the pale bonfire consumed the earthly remains. Instead of smoke, pure white ash caught the wind, billowing away and crackling. It felt good, and a pit in her stomach seemed to lighten. Rainbow Dash sniffed, and wiped a few embarrassing tears from her cheeks. This must have been what the instructors had talked about before. Redemption, not just for one's allies, but of the sinful as well.

She felt something warm brush up against her and saw Rarity, still quietly watching and waiting. She had understood what was missing after all. Generosity. Redemption and Forgiveness was Generosity. It was the Grace given to them by the Light. Rarity, of all ponies, had understood that.

As the last few embers that had been Highdiver returned to the sky, Dash sucked in a breath.

To her surprise, the sword she had won - and willingly sacrificed - was still intact! Flawless and undamaged, despite the holy fire consuming all the scraps of armor and barding and cloth that had once been on the pegasus's body. The sword survived. Dash reached for it, better to test the heat with a hoof than her lips. Amazingly, it was cool to the touch.

She picked it up, examining it.

It had the same name, 'Highdiver's Hoofblade' but it felt lighter. Better. Cleaner. There was something else, too: an unearthly glow from within the steel An enchant!

"Crusader?" she heard the name. "I guess that fits!"

Stepping away from Rarity, seeing the other mare's grin, Dash blushed a bit.

"I knew I just needed a little time to get it!" she assured the fashionista with a wide grin. "Thanks, Rarity... for waiting and... stuff..."

Rarity's smile became more playful. "Actually, I originally just came over to show you my new circlet!" She pointed to the beautiful gold and platinum headpiece she had gotten in exchange for the Mark of Command. "Isn't it simply divine? It matches my eyes, too!"

Dash's expression fell into one of disbelief. "That... that was why you came over?"

"You don't think it's a good enough reason?" the pretty white unicorn asked, sounding genuinely confused. She turned around to head back to the others, a smile on her face. "Oh well! Come along then! We have silk to gather and nasty ghosts to... well, bust!"

The pegasus paladin sighed, rolling her eyes, but followed along.

Rarity continued to fiddle, getting the circlet just right around her horn. "I just wish this had some gem sockets..."

Seeing all her friends waiting for her, Dash lowered her head to hide her smile. They were all ready to head out, but not a one of them said a word at having to wait. They didn't need to. They all understood that she had something to do, and had been willing to trust in her to do it. Feeling better than she had in days, Dash took point alongside Applejack.

‘I guess if there is a pve group I’d be a part of, this would be it… and it is fun to be with my best friends out here!’

She looked up, shading her eyes against the gradually setting sun in the sky.

- - -

Princess Celestia waited as her little sister demurred over having to pick her own guard, a brooding silence eventually giving way to wary excitement over her upcoming trip and her regaining her old responsibilities. Luna was a smart filly. Even with much of her memories of Nightmare Moon and the distant past either sealed or erased, she was as intelligent and cunning as one would expect from an eternal Aspect.

Seeing her with her little forelegs up on the edge of the balcony, though, she looked so young! Celestia wondered if she would start looking her age within another few years, or whether it would be another hundred or thousand? Or would she return to normal when all her memories and powers came back?

There was so much to consider. So much to plan for.

"Big Sister," Luna said, after watching the assembled guards and picking out a few that caught her eye. One of those sharp green eyes settled on the sun Princess. "Is this really alright?"

Celestia smiled, reassuringly. "Whatever do you mean?"

"These ponies," Luna replied, looking back down without pretense. "They signed up to be your guards, didn't they? Not mine. They're all looking up at you. ...not me."

"We're standing next to each other."

"I can tell the difference." Luna sighed, closing her eyes as she did so. "Maybe this isn't a good idea."

"Luna." Celestia lowered her head to speak to her sister in more hushed tones. "These young stallions wish to serve Equestria, not me."

The iris blue alicorn scoffed. "You are Equestria."

"That's where you're wrong," the elder sister added a bit of authority to her voice, to make sure Luna was listening; so she knew that this was important. "Some of my guards may sign up to protect the sun that warms them, or that feeds the crops their families grow, but I know others join to defend their land, their people, their homes and their loved ones. Equestria is all these things. It is them. It is me." She tried to nuzzle her forlorn sister, but Luna recoiled a bit. "And it is you."

"Your night sky brings them rest and peace," Celestia continued, trying to get through to her only sibling. "Equestria would not survive with my Light alone in the sky."

Luna knew this, academically. She knew it spiritually. But emotionally? Green eyes narrowed, glanced down guiltily, and then hid behind lavender eyelids.

"I know," she eventually said, relenting, but her voice was still tinged by sadness and doubt. "But...still..."

Luna's jaw set, stubbornly.

Celestia sighed very softly, and motioned down with one gold-gilded hoof. She had to do it twice to make sure Luna was following and not just looking away.

"That stallion down there. Third regiment, on the left, front row," the Sun Princess said. Her target was a tan coated pegasus. "His name is Dead Weight. Not the best flyer, but very strong, or so I hear. His family makes horseshoes in Cloudsdale."

"That unicorn there. First regiment, on the right, back row," she continued. "His name is Bullhorn. He came from an orphanage in Manehattan."

Luna's ears perked up; Celestia could tell she was wary, but interested in where this was going.

"Can you guess what other stallions here are from Manehattan?" the regal Princess asked, glad to have her little sister's attention again. "That one," she pointed, down to the front, to a dignified but well built pony with an orange-blond mane. "Regiment Two's master of hooves. His name is Marrs Orange. His family is one of the wealthiest in eastern Equestria."

"The fruit moguls?" Luna asked, and gave her sister a calculating, suspicious look. "How... do I know you aren't making this up?"

"I guess I could be," Celestia admitted, still smiling amiably. "Do you think I am?"

Luna pursed her lips, but eventually smiled back, though it was a shy, small smile, laced with lingering nervousness. She pointed down at the guard ranks. "That one. Regiment Two, third row, second from right."

"That one?" She seemed to be referring to a large Earth pony. "Bricks. Construction workers. Ponyville."

"To his right?"

"Gold Rush. His family is Canterlot Nobility. He's the youngest son of-"

"Two spaces to the left."

"Bread Basket. Farmers. Stalliongrad."

"To his left, the row behind?"

Celestia indulged her sister, as she asked ever more quickly, probably hoping to catch a stutter or other indication that her sister didn't know each and every would-be guardpony down below. It was typical of her inquisitive and skeptical nature. Like Twilight, Luna didn't easily just 'believe' what she had been told, not without evidence. This wasn't a poor trait to have, in Celestia's opinion. Skepticism was healthy and warranted in a leader. Sometimes, however, it was taken too far.

"You know every pony down there," the Moon Princess eventually realized, not so much surprised by that fact as she was slightly confused. "All eighty four of them. Their backgrounds, too. ...Why?"

She had been expecting this question minutes ago.

"Because," Celestia explained, "Every colt who enters my guard is beloved. I make a point to know their names, and to know the families who will miss them when they leave home." She looked out over her loyal subjects, extending her smile to them. "If I could, I would return all of them home, alive and better for their time in my household. When I see the faces of some of these stallions, I remember their fathers. And their grandfathers. And their grandfather's grandfathers."

"Some..." she said, more softly. Sadly. "Some do not return to me." Celestia briefly closed her eyes, feeling the weight of years lost and orders given; sons never returned to their farms and homes. Orphans who would never become fathers. All for the Equestria of which she was but a part.

"The least I can do is to know who I am sending into danger."

Luna was staring up at her, green eyes wide. Finally, she looked away, contemplative.

"I see," she said, thinking. "It has been a long time, Big Sister, since..." She nodded to herself as she stared down at the assembled guards. "I'll do the same. My ponies may start off as yours, but I'll love them just like you do. I'll honor their service to Equestria."

She raised a hoof high over the balcony, gilded in moontouched silver.

"PRESENT!" The four older, master-at-hoof ponies demanded.

"HAIL! PRINCESS LUNA!" The eighty guards-in-training saluted in unison, stomping their hooves in a single, sharp battle-chorus. Celestia ducked her head slightly, seeing a genuine smile on her normally dour sister's face.

Looking up at her own setting sun, the Princess Aspect felt a slight shiver.

The cold air, perhaps.


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--- Gratuitous Author Notes for Chapter (6) ---

Thanks for the reviews and comments all. For non WOW readers, and at the suggestion of some readers from equestriadaily, I’ll add a little section here to clear up some of the terms used in the fic. I’d planned that even unfamiliar people would get the general meaning by reading the story, but I’ll make sure by adding this here. If any unfamiliar stuff slips through, feel free to ask about it in a review, and I’ll edit this section of the chapter to add it in.

PVE – "player versus environment/encounter" – In story, characters use the shorthand slang 'pve' to refer to fights against enemies that aren't powerful members of the other faction (Alliance/Horde). Most encounters in the world fall under the term 'pve' - including all the combat in this story. Many who do PVE don't like to do PVP.

PVP – "player versus player" – In story, characters use the shorthand slang 'pvp' to refer to fights against enemies belonging to the other faction (Alliance/Horde). The skills for fighting other "mercenary adventurers" are different from those of fighting most raid bosses and the like, involving more dynamic use of stuns and snares and interrupts, to mention a few. Many who do PVP don't like to do PVE.



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Dungeon Journal Entry:

Blood Diver (pegasus; Champion of the Equestrian Twilight Cult; aka 'High Diver')

(all Phases)

Fury of the Blood Diver (frenzy effect that stacks if Blood Diver is stationary, increasing melee haste by 5% per stack) - keep moving him around
Black Wing Wave (used twice in a row, causes un-resistable physical damage in a cone) - always face Blood Diver away from ranged

High Dive (Blood Diver takes to the air, crashing down on a random target not at the top of his aggro table, killing anyone within 5 yards of the impact) - avoid the High Dive!

Achievement: [Look Out Below!]
Slay three Twilight Cultists with Blood Diver's High Dive attack.

Next Chapter: Chapter Seven Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 44 Minutes
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