Ledger wished he had brought some pain pills as he gained consciousness on the stone floor of the throne room. Not only did a headache ravage his mind, but an all too real pain pounded on the back of his skull. From his peripheral vision, he saw Luna run to her sister, both of them embracing the other. From the middle of his sight, he was aware that the hand he had reached to the back of his skull had come back covered in blood.

He let his hand drop to the floor and stared up at the ceiling, unable to motivate himself to do much else. Eventually, a silhouette cut off his vista, a familiar and angry unicorn. He squinted a little, unsure of which of the two it was. His question was answered as the familiar voice of Twilight Sparkle met his ears.

“You betrayed us,” she said calmly, hiding her anger from all but her face. “We counted you among our allies and you tried to kill us all to save your own skin.”

Ledger responded by blinking at her once, slowly, his face empty.

“You may play the quiet game as much as you like, but we were all witness to your treachery. I don’t know who this filly is, but the Queen is dead. That, at least, I am sure of.” Twilight glanced briefly to Luna, then returned her ire to Ledger. “We have fought and bled for this victory, and we will make sure that the remains of the Queen’s empire is reduced to naught but dregs and ash. We will build a new empire from the dross.” Twilight reared onto her hind legs, her front hooves moving threateningly in the air over Ledger’s head. “That starts with her envoy of fear.”

As her hooves descended through the air to strike the killing blow, she was knocked aside by a bolt of magic. A concussive blast of little strength, but strong enough to move her a foot away from the man. Both Twilight and Ledger looked to the new arrival, though Ledger’s blank expression remained.

Trixie stepped into the room, determination set in her brow. “There is no envoy of fear in this room.” She moved closer to Ledger as Twilight gazed at her, sizing her up.

“You oppose the rebels?” Twilight asked, her voice beginning to sound of fire.

“If the rebels support senseless death, I do.” Both unicorn’s eyes were locked with each other. Ledger gazed up at the ceiling once again, gazed past it almost, his eyes cloudy.

“He betrayed us to the queen. We need to assure he will not interfere again.”

“The queen is dead!” Trixie shouted, her hoof clashing against the ground. “He is no threat to your new kingdom, nor your reforms. His power came from the queen. Without her, he can do you no harm.”

Twilight stared intently at Trixie; Trixie stared intently back. Luna spoke. “She is correct. Ledger brought your victory to you. He locked you in so you could know your allies as friends, so you could summon the sixth element to you. Without him, we would all be under the Queen’s control.”

“He couldn’t have known that!” Twilight said, spinning to her new verbal opponent. “I didn’t know that! The Queen destroyed all her books on the elements. It was only through sheer luck I found mine.”

“Well... actually…” Everyone present turned to Rainbow Dash, save the person of their debate. “He did mention a sixth element when he gave me the fifth back in the dragon kingdom. He said it would summon itself when the situation was right.”

Twilight, slack jawed, stared at her friend. “He… did?” she eventually managed to say, a rebuttal not coming to mind. Rainbow Dash nodded in response and Twilight fell silent.

“Ledger does things occasionally that he means well by. Even if it doesn’t seem like it sometimes,” Trixie stated matter of factly. “But I know he would never try and hurt anypony if he could help it.” Twilight looked solemnly at the ground in response, wordless at last. Recognizing the sense of defeat in Twilight’s actions, Trixie turned her attention back to Ledger.

“Ledger?” She asked, getting his attention. “Are you alright?” His eyes moved to her, but he didn’t seem to focus on her. “Something isn’t right,” She announced to those present, though she meant it more for herself. “Ledger?” She looked him over, her gaze stopping at his hand, palm up and covered in blood. “No no no.” She lifted his head, cautiously and slowly, and spotted the pool of blood that had begun to form on the stone. “Ledger!” she shouted, panic beginning to take her and her mind racing through what to do. He looked past her still. She turned wildly to the others present. “Ledger needs help!”

“What?” came the call of Rarity, more out of disbelief than confusion.

“He did take quite a fall when the elements brought him back…” A.J.’s voice trailed off as she spotted the blood stain on the stone, implications clear.

“We need to get him to the medical wing. Does anyone know where it is?!” Trixie asked, already lifting Ledger carefully with her telekinesis.

“I do!” Luna supplied, already running towards the door. “We’ll have to do it on foot so we don’t make the bleeding any worse.”

With no words, Trixie did as she was told, pulling Ledger along in a steady grasp. After some shared looks between the Elements, they all followed as well, leaving only Twilight and Celestia in the throne room. Silence took it, a welcome change from the cacophony that had echoed through it only moments before.

“I owe him, don’t I?” Twilight asked, looking sidelong to Celestia.

With a worried, soft smile she responded, “I spent most of my time ruling owing debts or being owed debts by somepony or another. So much, in fact, that I almost had to get someone to keep track of them all for me.” Twilight turned to look fully at Celestia again, a look of confusion plain on her face. Smiling still, Celestia clarified. “You get used to it, is what I mean.”

Ledger flipped carefully through the pages of his soft yellow book, empty and welcoming. It had been given with an offer, a promise. He had tried to shrug it off, but it remained lodged at the front of his mind. With a sigh, he leaned in the doorway to his room, happy that Celestia had allowed him to keep it, and waited for his head to stop swimming.

A noise from inside, a soft scuffle, caught his attention and he sighed. He had hoped she’d be gone before he got back. Putting it off no longer, Ledger pocketed his book and opened the door to his room.

Trixie, only half noticing his arrival, looked deeply into the pages of his old book, his namesake. The pages themselves were unmoving, but it kept her attention all the same. Laid out on the table were two face-down cards, opposite the table from Trixie herself. Ledger took his seat next to them.

“You used to smile and mean it. Whatever happened to that?” Ledger didn’t answer the question. He stared at the two cards, almost attempting to hide himself behind them as he picked them up and looked at what he had been dealt. “Look at you now, a plan two years in the making and absolute success, can’t even bring yourself to grin.”

Ledger frowned instead. He’d been dealt a five and a six. Knowing full well what he was walking into, Ledger made the logical call. “Hit me.”

She did. It echoed in the room.

Ledger rubbed the right side of his face as he recovered, trying to ease the pain. Trixie flipped him his ten to complete the winning hand.

She looked at the book silently as Ledger stacked the cards together again and shuffled. He glanced up at her for a moment before looking away again. “I’m sorry, for what it’s worth.”

“I know.” He had expected anger, rage, loathing. He could understand those. Instead, what he got was frustration. He looked to her again as she stared into the book. “I just…” Trixie sighed heavily as Ledger dealt her two cards face-down, then dealt himself one face-up and one face-down.

She looked at them, judging them. Then, after a moment of thought, closed the book and picked up her cards. “You could have dealt them face up.”

“Then you wouldn’t have closed the book,” Ledger mentioned idly. “I don’t want you obsessing over the same debts that have consumed my past two years.”

She levitated the cards apart to look at Ledger between the gap she created. “I just wanted to let you cross off that last name you never got around to. But you wouldn’t let me pay it off.” Trixie tapped the table twice in succession and Ledger dealt her another card.

“What are you talking about?” Ledger shuffled the deck mindlessly as he waited for Trixie’s next move. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“Oh? Then how come my name’s in there, untouched, huh? No ‘paid in full’ or anything.” She tapped the table again, Ledger dealt again. As she collected the card, she glanced at it only momentarily before throwing her hand onto the table, upset. 22.

Ledger grabbed them and began to shuffle again. He seemed ready to deal, but stopped. “Because I never paid off my debt to you. I’ve been up to my neck in debts to you and I haven’t paid off a single one.”

“What? If either of us owes the other, than I owe you a favor.”

“Our very first meeting was you saving me with a teleportation spell.

“Well, sure, but—”

“And then I sent a powerful shadow… thing person to your house so you could read his mind.”

“I guess…”

“And then you came to help me and I drugged you! How could you possibly owe me?”

Trixie sat in silence for a moment. Ledger did much the same, waiting calmly as he moved the plastic cards between his hands, his gloves long since discarded. Then, at last, Trixie spoke. “If it weren’t for you, I’d still be on the streets.”

“I’ve done nothing,” Ledger said, his teeth clenched. He stopped shuffling and held the deck in one hand. His other moved to his temple in a vain attempt to curb a developing headache.

“You’ve done plenty.” Ledger looked to her again, his gaze tired. She looked back much the same. “You’ve done more than anyone else did. I thought I could get you to see that. I thought I owed that to you.”

Both present let silence take the room, neither one having anything to add. Time seemed to blur as they sat there, and it wasn’t until a knock echoed on the door that the world shifted back into focus.

Before Ledger could stand up and open it, it began to swing inwardly. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Octavia entered the room, Spike following diligently behind, holding a large cake over his head. “I just got back from Ponyville,” Octavia explained, not hearing any objections from either of them. “A couple ponies in the cafeteria wanted to deliver this cake to you. Apparently, they heard you helped take down the Queen, wanted to give you something for it.”

Ledger glanced to Trixie for a moment, both of them remaining silent. “Oh crap, I did interrupt, didn’t I? I can just leave this here if you want. We can always talk later or—”

“No, no. Please, stay. I was just finishing up a conversation with an old friend.” He smiled to Trixie. It wasn’t quite real, but she could tell he was trying. He grabbed the book from the table and flipped it open to the final uncrossed name that it held. Removing the pen from his pocket, a careful hand drew a solid unflinching line through the name. “Does that sit well with you?”

“Yes,” Trixie said almost immediately. “Yes it does.” She returned a smile.

“Well then!” Ledger said excitedly, a color to his voice that Trixie hadn’t heard in a long time. “The queen is dead and we’ve got a cake here to celebrate!” He scooped the deck of cards from the table and pocketed them, giving Spike plenty of room to slide the desert onto. “So let’s celebrate!”

The two mares and dragon echoed his enthusiasm, each of them helping to grab drinks and a knife from the kitchen.

That was the last night that week Ledger stayed up far too long. But this time, at least, it was for an entirely different purpose.

Author's Notes:

The end.

Sorry I kept you waiting so long.

Edited by StapleCactus.