Chapter 21: Rise to the top

Her little world was shattered on more than one occasion, before this whole war started she was nothing but a yellow pegasus, living her comfortable life, with her comfortable friends, house, animals and never had to raise a weapon meant to specifically harm a creature. The change happened so quickly, and all because of some strange magic she had no idea of. Even right now the timid mare was going through the worst, agonizing pain she’d felt in her entire life. Fluttershy looked like an undead at this point, blood soaked bandages covered most of her right hind leg and her back. Dozens of small bruises or cuts were littered over her ruined body, even her face was no exception, one misguided shrapnel from a cannon ball almost hit her left eye, leaving a cut right under it.

In comparison Rost almost looked as good as new, just minor cuts along his legs and back, most of them were a reminder from those bat creatures they faced at the entrance. He felt incredibly guilty, it was his duty to save this chunk of ice that his people called a home, not hers. Fluttershy shouldn’t have any injuries at all, from the mare’s stories Rost could tell that she had enough. Currently they were sitting in the main room of the lowest floor, waiting for the pegasus to catch her breath.

After another ten minutes of absolute silence the yellow mare took a deep breath, calming herself noticeably, “Alright… I think I’m good to go… this shrine is testing us somehow, and I don’t want to lose against the twisted minds of these demons.” She let the last cogwheel fit into its place, hearing another satisfying click. The machine began to make soft noises, similar to buzzing of angry bees. One of the buttons lit up, a faint light coming from behind it however that was possible, but it wasn’t the one that lead to the second floor as they would’ve expected it, instead the small pyramid lit up.

“I guess we’re going straight to the top then… strange, why would they have a second ‘test’ floor if they let us go to the highest one anyway. It seems like another trap… but we can’t really do anything else,” Rost stated. He pressed the button and both stepped on the platform. The entire thing seemed to move upwards, the cogwheel at the side steadily elevating them. “Be careful, Fluttershy. We don’t know what they are capable of.”

She just nodded, seeing the second floor pass as they went upwards, it seemed like the entire floor just consisted of one large door, it was a double door decorated with black gems, maybe obsidian, but she’d have to ask Rarity for a more precise identification. Another short surge of sadness rang through her as images of one of her best friends flashed into Fluttershy’s mind. Their weekly visit to the Spa, their quiet tea meetings in her boutique or a simple small talk during a busy day of work. She’d always felt that the fashionista understood her the most, even more so than her childhood friend.

The end of their ride came into view, she could see the clouded sky of this land, and the freezing wind already whipped into her face. The platform came to a halt, stopping at some sort of plateau that also was the top of the mountain. Large golden bars functioned as a barrier around the flat area. They were almost five meters high, and Fluttershy could tell that they emitted the same kind of magic the invisible barriers did back on the first floor. Lit torches were lined up on them, hanging at a two and a half meter height. She had no idea how they still burned after all this time, especially with this freezing wind outside. The floor was unnaturally flat, this plateau was certainly not here before these demons invaded this shrine. Strange paintings were on the ground, a flaming ball with tribal looking markings on it, an eight-headed serpent that carried what looked like a giant sacred bell on its back, and a grey fox with nine tails, all of them had a mask tied to it, some of them frowning, some of them smiling. The end of each tail looked like it was covered in ink, in its, with razor sharp teeth covered mouth, was the grip of a giant sword, it branched out on each side with a right angle, four on the right and four on the left, and the tip looked similar to them. It had the appearance of a lightning rod, especially because the ‘branches’ were colored in a yellow hue. All of these creature looked like powerful, evil beasts, and she was glad that these twin demons seemingly weren’t part of this ‘monster trio’.

A thunderous roar pierced through the the windy twilight, sending a shiver down Fluttershy’s spine. Then she saw something approaching, two.. owls? They looked relatively small, for about five seconds until they hovered over them. Their appearance froze her blood solid, this… shrine was nothing against the terrifying aura both emitted.

Rost seemed to have the same reaction, slowly backing off, “T-The Golden D-Demon Lechku and the S-Silver Demon Nechku… they are really here… t-there is no way around this.”

Both had the appearance of demonic, menacing owls whose body parts were composed of mechanical clockworks, and even other parts based on the same theme. Lecku’s body consisted of an analog clock with normal numbers, while Nechku's was a clock with flipping pieces bearing old numerical symbols. Fluttershy couldn’t really read them, but it looked like it ranged from zero to nine on three slots, and above this clock was a decoration piece of a night sky with a crescent moon and stars. Same thing for the golden demon, a small symbol resembling a beautifully crafted sun adorned the space above the normal clock.

Her eyes wandered further down, only increasing her confusion, these things should not exist, it was simply unnatural. Visible under the clocks were a mass of cogwheels and mechanisms, and hidden underneath these were their deadly talons with razor-sharp claws, pulled up behind the mechanisms. Atop the clocks, the arms of Lechku and Nechku were present, scrawny but also riddled with muscles, they were surprisingly small and short compared to their bodies. On the side of their chests, under a weird cloth piece, looking like an ancient toga were owl wings, enabling them the ability of flight. They were by no means natural, each individual feather reflected the light of the numerous torches, it could have been beautiful, if those demons weren’t several times bigger than the timid pegasus.

Their heads had one of the most noticeable features, each demon ‘blessed’ with an eye of their respective demon's color, the other one hidden under a silver or gold framed monocle. On the side of each demon's head was a turning gear used to externally control the mechanisms in the demon's body, Lechku and Nechku turned them once, but the mare couldn’t see anything changing, so it was unclear what function they had. The silver demon also bore a mustache above its beak, coupled with the top hat each demon had and the cane they held, Lechku and Nechku were given a formal, almost classy appearance, in a very twisted sense of the word.

They had so many similarities, yet so many differences. The small details were important, for example the silver demon used his pointy owl-like ears to hold the top hat in its place. Both hats had some sort of spinning device in them, spinning clockwise in Lechku’s and counter clockwise in Nechku’s hat. They weren’t really hats either, a large golden or silver plate, then this device, and on top of it a smaller plate, connected with four thin columns. So they were more of a hat-like protection for this strange thing. It didn’t stop there though, from the different colours, to the fact they both had a different eye covered by the monocle to the different canes. The silver cane was more like a scepter, having a crystal ball of some sort attached to the straight wood, and the golden one was more like a classical cane that she’d seen before.

Rost shivered madly, all the anger, frustration and fear came back to him. His sword was drawn, held shakily in his mouth. Fluttershy stood oddly still, not really fearing those demons, they were the only thing standing between her and her best friends. This wouldn’t hold her back.

Before she could do something though, the brown stallion galloped forth, preparing to attack the demons head on, “Rost, no! We don’t know what they are capable of!” It was too late, he jumped towards them in a mighty leap, his sword aimed at the silver demon’s head. Then they saw a glimpse of their true power, both tilted their head slightly and the clocks in their chests suddenly stopped… and so did Rost.

Her expression would’ve been a shocked one, if she could move her body. Everything was plunged into a negative colour, gone was the harsh wind, gone was the subtle movement of the sky. It looked like the entire world just… stopped, probably not everything since not even these demons could control the time of an entire planet just like that, but it was enough to be very, very dangerous. They moved calmly, their large wings flapping steadily, bringing them ever closer to Rost. They stopped right before him, observing the intruder that dared to oppose them.

Nechku raised his silvery cane, and in one quick motion pierced it through the brown stallion’s chest. Even the tip was almost as large as his heart, and that was the exact thing the demons had been aiming for. Fluttershy couldn’t even realize what was happening as the time returned back to normal, gaining her usual yellow colour.

The stallion looked down on himself, his eyes bloodshot and full of fear, as he saw the giant cane pierced through his chest, a cough escaped him, bringing a load of crimson with it. It began to saturate his coat as Rost slowly slid of the cane. The only sound except the steady flapping was the dull thud of his body impacting with the stone floor. Instantly the pegasus rushed over to him, holding the dying earth pony close, “ROST! No! Please… we… we wanted to do this together!”
She sobbed into his coat, the tears landing on his now almost… serene face. The brown stallion was completely still, only twitching lightly, “Heh… here I am… the proud… warrior of… our tribe, dying in… the hooves of a… beautiful maiden.”

Another cough escaped him, staining his coat more and more, “Fluttershy… I am… truly sorry. Please… grant me one, last wish...”

Fluttershy nodded shakily, it all happened in a matter of minutes. Those beasts were just staring at them with an unforgiving gaze, almost mocking those pathetic creature for daring to oppose them, “A-Anything...”

This brought a faint smile to his bloody lips, only whispering at this point. It became harder and harder to breath, and he was getting dizzy from the burning pain in his chest, “Tell… tell… your friends… that I… couldn’t bring… bring an end… to your problems. I failed… to rescue… this wonderful pegasus, and I’m truly sorry...” Those were his last words before Rost went limp in her arms. Fluttershy could see his coat quickly losing colour, his body slowly losing warmth, she released a strangled cry while holding her now dead friend in her arms.

It caused the demons to back off slightly, they wanted both of them dead as quickly as possible. The golden demon raised one claw to his top hat, flipping the whole thing and holding it upside down before his body. Then the cane, held by his other claw tapped against it lightly. If Fluttershy wouldn’t be so lost in her emotions, she’d be terrified, it was a giant bomb, already with burning fuse, the demons were about to throw it towards the pegasus. This would be her end, but… maybe that wasn’t so bad… the mare had forgotten why she was here… why she tried to run from her inevitable death.

The most important moments of her mind flashed before Fluttershy’s inner eye. Her first day in Cloudsdale’s School for Young Pegasi, the moment she met Rainbow Dash, one of the mare’s best friends ever since. Her first time on the ground, seeing all those wondrous creatures was truly amazing. Her Farewell Party before she left the flying city to live on the ground, Rainbow Dash even helped her to find a new home. It was a bit rustic, but had enough space for Fluttershy’s plans, she’d never forget the joy she felt that day. The memories continued with her first group hug with her now best friends in the world. Shortly after… they met Twilight Sparkle and everything went downhill after that.

Her eyes were reduced to pinpricks as she returned to the real world, hearing the mechanical ticking of those damned demons. It was already too late though, she rolled to her side, but the impact of the bomb send her flying nonetheless. She impacted with the fence, getting something similar to an electric shock, only that it hurt a hundred times more, it was enough pain to make her see stars for a moment. She didn’t hear the cracking sound until it was once again too late, the ground seemed to give way around her. Fluttershy still couldn’t move freely, only seeing the gaping hole the bomb left right where she laid just a few moments ago. Splits and cracks formed around it, the impact affected the entire floor.

Then she was gone, falling into the darkness with a surprised scream, alongside the ruble and rests of the broken floor. Worst of all Rost was still up there, his… last wish, she wouldn’t forget it! Even if this were her last moment, “Girls… I’m sorry… I should’ve been stronger… and now all hope is lost.” She continued to fall in now complete darkness, the hole seemed to be so tiny now, and the mare wondered where she’d land. Maybe there was a chance she wouldn’t die… in her shock induced panic she didn’t even think about the set of feathery wings on her back, sailing down into another unknown threat.

Meanwhile, far, far away, in a cozy bed the infamous Twilight Sparkle startled awake like a little filly. The lavender mare’s right forehoof touched her neck, those sensations… the feelings the Nightmare showed her… it had been… intoxicating. It wasn’t just mere pleasure, no, it was something greater, something Twilight wanted to feel again. Maybe this was how Rainbow Dash felt after one of their little ‘fun times’.

The first thing was her morning routine which consisted of showering, combing her mane, and eating something. It may sound boring to do the exact same thing, in the exact same order every, single morning, but it was one of the last ‘normal’ and stable things around her. Plus showering gave her time to think, it was more of a ‘standing under the warm water and pondering’. It could give her thoughts the ability to flow around freely, maybe she wasn’t seeing things from the right point of view, this could all lead to a very, very painful end of this rebellion if the lavender mare wasn’t careful. Sure, all of Twilight’s friends were loyal for now, but none of them was under any sort of spell, except the little chaos energy she used on Rainbow Dash, and the communication spell for everyone, but that wasn’t affecting their minds, most likely.

Loyalty wasn’t something natural, it never had been for the pony race. Her offer was just the best for now, if ponies like Silent Flare would notice that she faltered, or considered any compromises they wouldn’t be so loyal after another good offer from… Celestia. Her mind fell into these patterns very often recently, analyzing every last detail, as the name of her former mentor fell Twilight remembered what the Nightmare said… But that could’ve been a lie, this ancient being was not a force to be easily trifled with, and it wouldn’t make any sense that Celestia had… that kind of feelings for her.

She chuckled a little while looking in the mirror and combing her hair, so what? Even in the highly unlikely case that it would be true, she was far too deep into their immortal game to back out now. This Nightmare was likely even older than Celestia from what she’d heard about it, it offered great power, but never without a price, and the prices were always very, very expensive. The lavender unicorn was not too thrilled to give this being her soul or something crazy like that. Having the power of Celestia was enough reward for her, and seeing her severed head hanging from the palace’s balconies surely wasn’t too bad either.

After that she’d see… those threats she talked about sounded serious. It was true though, Twilight rarely bothered herself with learning about other lands. She knew just basic things about what was beyond the frozen north, or the two big oceans in the east and west of Equestria, or even beyond the famous badlands, the land even beyond the home of dragons. The lavender mare had to keep these things in her mind, but she knew that the Nightmare would help her out, all she needed to do was ask. It was similar to her connection with Luna, but even stronger, it was like the Nightmare was directly watching her every step through Twilight’s own eyes. A little bit unsettling, but she had worse, it wouldn’t hurt to cooperate to eliminate their mutual enemy.

It wouldn’t hurt at all…

The Princess of the Night chuckled to herself, observing the busy action of her subjects. It was extremely satisfying to just watch them do their work, not with fear in their hearts, but anger, pure unadulterated anger directed at her precious sister. Luna’s Children of the Night would be returning in full force soon, the very best warriors amongst the ranks of the civilians receiving a drop of her unlimited power. A little army consisting of thestral who naturally were physically stronger than normal ponies, and way better at flying, their innate magic was amplified by a margin, and all that from a tiny sliver of her own magic.

The blue demi-goddess remembered the last time she infused a little bit more power into a lovely couple, right before she was banished. The resulting bloodline was just as strong as it was on that very day, resulting in Silver Night. A shame that he was born as a pegasus, unicorns just proved to be more effective during combat, especially due to their flexibility and wide variety of tools at hoof.

There was no time to think about the past though, focusing back onto the now calm, but busy streets of their newest city. No barracks were needed, due to the whole population joining her voluntarily, sure, some were still loyal to her sister, but they already rotted in a cell beneath the city. Manehattan was known for its high security, underground prison that nearly covered the entire sub floor of the massive city. All of the newly reformed citizens bowed deeply as they saw her, doing their jobs and keeping the burning passion alive. All blacksmiths were working overtime, trying to equip the new recruits or making sure the old weapons stayed deadly enough for the rest of Celestia’s army.

Some of Capone’s mercenaries could be seen here and there, hiding in the shadows and ensuring that everything went according to plan. Identifying them as members of his organization was actually fairly easy, their dress code was… unique. Always wearing a suit, or a coat thrown over their shoulder.. Most of them wore some kind of fancy accessory, a fedora, a pinstripe hat, a golden pocket watch, maybe even a combination of said things. Also, some of them developed a habit of smoking cigars whenever they wanted to intimidate somepony, kind of pointless in Luna’s opinion, but she couldn’t tell them to stop anyway, if their boss was doing it, the habit instantly became ‘well mannered’ in between their ranks. The demi-goddess just learned fairly recently what those strangely brown things were, and she was not pleased at all about the explanation. A dried plant imported from Saddle Arabia grinded into a rough powder and pressed into these ‘cigars’, addicting after a while, and it tasted absolutely disgusting. She’d given up asking why it was so appealing though, let them kill themselves for all she cared, really.

Her work in this city was nearly done, just selecting a few strong individuals and bless them with her power, and use them to reinforce their reign in this city. All thestrals, even immediately after their transformation, were undoubtedly loyal to the Lunar Princess. She would soon travel to the next city, spread the truth, and have some exercise with Celly’s oh-so-precious Solar Guards. Her partner said to minimize casualties, but since they were trained guards it technically wasn’t a casualty to let their bodies explode like a firework. Not that she’d do such a thing, since that would just scare the population, but it sounded strangely enticing. Sometimes the blue alicorn missed the guidance of the Nightmare, but since the day of her return it remained silent, she had a quiet suspicion who her next host was. It would only benefit their plans though, with such power they were essentially two alicorn against a single one, with Twilight being extremely smart and talented in the use of chaos magic it became even better. There also was Discord… not her most pleasant ‘business partner’ from the past millennia, but Luna couldn’t deny that he was powerful, sometimes more than any of them could ever realize. The draconequus knew how their immortality worked, he practically knew everything there was about them, Discord was the literal God of Chaos after all. Without the Elements of Harmony, ridiculous as they were, there was almost nothing that could potentially stop him. They were hidden in a very, very special place though, only accessible for her, Twilight and possibly Rarity, she hoped they wouldn’t need them though, even if it meant sharing their rule with... him.

Fluttershy would scream her soul out, but the prior events just… stole her voice, rendered the now helpless mare speechless. She had lost yet another friend, they didn’t know each other for very long, but their connection was strong, maybe more than she would ever realize. There wasn’t any reason to deny the inevitable, the yellow pegasus would die here, she didn’t even know where she was, it was just black, and the hole she fell in also stopped existing as far as she could tell.

Her innert magic might save her, but it would probably hurt even more because she wouldn’t die immediately, no, for her weakness she deserved suffering. Fluttershy couldn’t save her friends, this land, and not even herself. Was everything she had achieved until now completely irrelevant? Her wings flared instinctively as she thought about it, there were still ponies relying on her… all of her friends were in grave danger. Even if the mare would die now… she would find peace in the fact that at least she tried.

Apparently Fluttershy’s timing was just as perfect as it was unfortunate, her wings slowed down her fall mere moments before the timid mare impacted with solid mass. Pegasi’s bodies were a little different, lighter, able to store wind in between their feathers and even coat, that way they could survive falls from extreme heights. It was like a waking call, she screamed like a madmare, all the pain, emotional and physical came back to her. It didn’t make her sad though, no tears flowed down her cheeks, the only thing that boiled in her now was anger, pure wrath of a pony with nothing to lose. The floor, or stone beneath her cracked, it seemed like this wasn’t the bottom of the mountain. Fluttershy couldn’t tell how long she’d been falling, maybe an hour, maybe just a few minutes.

Before she could scream again the next fall ended immediately. It was a fairly small room, walls decorated with the same kind of beasts that were drawn on the floor of the top plateau. Intricate details and complex designs, if those drawings didn’t literally radiate a sense of ‘evil’ Fluttershy would stare at them in awe. Their forms were unlike everything she had ever seen, but this was not the time to appreciate the finer art of this demon shrine. The entire room was empty, except a tall mirror in the middle of it. She couldn’t help it but approach the unknown object, its glass was framed with pure gold with strange carvings, some of the symbols seemed familiar. She had seen them on the bottom floor, but still had no idea what they were or what they meant, maybe it was better that way.

Fluttershy sighed, “Twilight would know what to do… she’s so smart.” Her thoughts involuntarily wandered to the lavender mare, especially to their last moment. It was still terrifying to even think about it, but there had to be a reason. If the rebel leader wanted to kill her, she would’ve done it without a second thought. Maybe Fluttershy was here for a specific reason, or Twilight just liked sick games…

The surface of the mirror was absolutely flawless, but apparently it was no mirror. Even though she was standing right in front of it, no reflexion of her could be seen. It only showed the plain iron door in the back end of the room. The glass also seemed to glow faintly, barely noticeable. Her hoof approached the material, expecting to stop on the solid mass, but to her surprise it went through the mirror. She immediately pulled it out, the glass looked just as normal as before, and so did her hoof. So the timid pegasus did it again, poking at it with her right foreleg. Some kind of magic that much was sure, but what purpose did it serve? It felt like some sort of liquid, wet, but at the same time try, she wasn’t sure if a word to properly describe it even existed.

Somehow Fluttershy had a really, really bad feeling about this. One of the things Rarity told her, during one of their weekly gatherings, was to never meddle with unknown magical artifacts from the old age. This thing was practically screaming ‘trap’ or horrendously dangerous. What did she have to lose though? Rost was dead, and she could not hope to defeat those demons alone, so why not try to use that mirror thing, whatever its purpose was.

Slowly, but surely her left front leg sunk into the foreign ‘fluid’, it felt very weird, but it seemed like it was worth a shot. This thing must’ve been locked away for a reason, the demons did not want anypony to find it. She move her front leg around, trying to find anything on the other side, or wherever this thing would lead her. The timid mare took a deep breath and whispered, “O-Okay… Here goes nothing...” Then she leaped into the mirror, her whole body being swallowed by its magic.

A stream of colours followed, random objects flew past her, dissolving into nothing, it was like the world was drifting away from her. Faster and faster did everything vanish until only she remained in this endless stream of pure magic. Fluttershy shut her eyes tightly, the raw energy burned on her coat, attacking her very core, but she wasn’t going to just fade away! Her friends were waiting for her, even after all this time. Just as the burning began to hurt really bad, another warm sensation began to sooth her body, it couldn’t be anything other than her rosary. It had saved her life multiple times now, and even seemed to have some kind of sentience, it did guide her in that death parkour after all. Her eyes didn’t open though, in fear that it might destroy whatever her trusted weapon was doing or rather, preventing.

Then everything stopped, and she tumbled out of the mirror, landing on the cold, hard stone floor. Her eyes opened hesitantly, seeing her life beads returned to normal, another whispered thank you came right after. The weirdest part was that Fluttershy wasn’t even scared, this was by far not the scariest thing that happened to her over the course of the past weeks. All the involuntary ‘adventure’ made this look like a relaxing situation. As the yellow pegasus looked around she was more than a little confused, it was the exact same room, with the exact same mirror standing in the center. Nothing had changed, a thought that made her frown, “So it was all for nothing...”

A quiet rumble could be heard from outside, this noise… she’d heard it somewhere before… Fluttershy carefully walked over to the iron door, opening the heavy gate just a little to peek through. The next moment was just as world-shattering as the first time a demon attacked her. The mare stumbled backwards, away from the slowly moving platform, with two… very familiar looking figures on it. Pale yellow coat, long, light pink hair, and a completely brown, short haired figure, both equipped with two faintly glowing, red pieces of intricate crafted metal.

Fluttershy saw herself… and more importantly, Rost! She was on the verge of a breakdown, breathing frantically with tears threatening to overwhelm the timid mare, “H-How i-is this p-p-possible?! H-He died in m-my hooves… What’s going on?!”

She got back up, still wobbly on her hooves, but this… this wasn’t the time for a panic attack! The yellow mare wanted to cry, wanted to fly over to him begging for forgiveness. There was just one way this could be possible though… time travel. She was by no means any kind of magic expert, but there was no other way! And this meant… that the demons would kill Rost again!

Nothing made sense anymore, if she was in the past, and was given another chance to save her friend… why wasn’t she there the first time he died? If there really was something like multiple timelines, or timeloop… things, then there should’ve been a Fluttershy rescuing Rost the first time, but then it would be a paradox. If one Fluttershy would’ve saved him the first time, she would’ve never fallen down that hole and travel back in time with this mirror, but then the Fluttershy… from the future aka. herself, would not be here right now and couldn’t save him because there would be no need to save him!

Her head started to hurt, this was way too complicated for a simple pegasus like herself. The only thing she did know was that.... Past-Fluttershy and still-alive Rost were in danger and she couldn’t let them… herself hanging…. ugh.

The pure white fashionista entered their stronghold, her face lit up with a certain impish glee. She had just returned from Manehatten, this portal magic Luna showed them was still incredibly useful, even after all this time. Watching Luna barking out orders had been amusing, just a few weeks ago she’d have never even dreamt about this. Having the means of defending herself and her friends made this whole thing worth it. Of course it was never easy to end a life, but after what happened in the garden of the castle the seamstress was sure that Celestia was the one at fault. Their leader just wanted to talk with her, and the alicorn initiated a full assault on one single pony.

Rarity was sure now, Celestia needed to be stopped, no matter the cost, and if that meant ending the lives of her subordinates, then so be it. The only things she really missed, was the weekly chats with Fluttershy, who was still nowhere to be found, and more importantly, her family. The unicorn’s parents were always up and about, travelling somewhere in the world, but she hadn’t had the chance to look for her sister. The Boutique was empty, save for a few crayons, but Sweetie Ball, and seemingly all other civilians simply vanished. Maybe the Sun Princess took care of them, making sure they were out of their reach, that made it even harder for her, her dearest friend in the hoof of this tyrant. All of the sudden her mood changed, gone was the little skip in her walk, gone was the smile on her pure lips.

The town square was no longer filled with happy ponies busy with their day to day lives, the bustling streets were now just empty alleyways without a purpose. It wasn’t as abandoned as before though, with Manehatten under their control they had free access to a lot of willing soldiers. Some volunteered to move to Ponyville, increasing the local production of weapons and food by a margin. About three hundred ponies, excluding the five remaining Thestrals and the last of Silent Flare’s highly skilled rebels. Those functioned as mentors for the civilians that barely knew how to hold a sword in their mouth or magic.

Silent was the commanding force in the training units, making sure everything was in order, but he couldn’t help but to join in on some occasions, leaving a few unconscious newbies in his wake. Pinkie and Silver Night trained them in close combat which was very funny to observe since well… Pinkie was Pinkie, crazy martial art style compared to the brutal efficiency of the Thestral, even with her slightly less hyperactive personality. Rarity’s job was a bit of a mixed bag, teaching the unicorns the basics of elemental, chaos and light magic, and explaining what they could do with that power. She wasn’t as good as Twilight, not by a longshot, but it was enough to teach them the very basics, Morning Blaze also helped her a lot.

She spotted her pink friend teaching some kind of grapple to a very tired looking earth pony. Rarity smiled again, approaching Pinkie directly, “Well darling, I do have to say that I wouldn’t have expected you to teach close combat.”

Pinkie just giggled and let go of the stallion, “It’s all in good fun, isn’t that right?” Her answer was a simple groan, enough for another giggle out of the cheerful mare. “Let’s just walk and talk a bit. We haven’t had the time for that in ages!”

Both excused themselves from the small group of rebel-in-training, and walked towards the edges of their citadelle. Nothing would be able to attack them in a wide radius around the city, these archmages were also still around from time to time, especially that Captain Winterlight. Rarity wasn’t really sure what to make of him, but he seemed alright, if not a bit shy.

The fields and nature that surrounded Ponyville were still perfectly harmonic, even the critters didn’t seem to care that it was more or less a war zone. Maybe it was the unique magic that had a soothing effect on the animals, or it was just that Twilight radiated this confident aura that even they felt safe next to her. Neither Rarity nor Pinkie could explain what exactly made their lavender friend that… alluring, almost like some sort of succubus, a stark contrast to her former self, but they still trusted her.

“Pinkie, darling, how are you feeling? This black magic that surrounded you looked awful,” The fashionista stated, a genuine look of concern on her face. Hearing the agonizing scream of her friend that day just made her hate Celestia more. She and Pinkie were probably not the bestest of friends, their behaviour was just not compatible in this world, but Rarity loved her all the same. All of her beloved friends had something that only they excelled in.

Her pink bouncing friend shrugged, “Eh, it was pretty bad, but after this bat pony doctor gave me some blue glowing medicine it vanished. You don’t want to get hit by that though, it burns like, uh… like candles on a birthday cake! Just on your coat, and every simple touch feels like another stab through your chest.”

“How were you doing that predicting though? It almost looked like you could see into the future to evade her attacks, at least for a while,” Rarity asked, it had been very interesting to watch, using that for their advantage would be incredibly useful.

“Pinkie Sense! Just happens from time to time, and I can’t really control what I want to predict or sense,” The energetic earth pony shrugged again and continued to bounce further away from their headquarter. Trying to explain Pinkie Pie was the same thing as trying to solve a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. It made around the same amount of sense, does random things, but somehow works when needed.

“I see… well, darling, was there anything specific you wanted to discuss while we're here? We have a lot to do lately, so this break is very welcomed.”

Suddenly the pink mare stopped bouncing around, a rare occurrence, especially in the presence of her friend. Her walk slowed down considerably and she sighed deeply, “You can read me like an open book, huh? I’ve just… I had this feeling that… well something dangerous will happen sooner or later. Not for me, I would take a cannon shot for all of you, but… I don’t know, it feels like something will happen to Lady Twilight.”

“You know she doesn’t like the title, especially not with her friends,” Rarity replied. “Besides, what gives you the impression that something bad will happen to her. She’s strong, and we’re there to help here.”

“It just feels more appropriate… and like I said I don’t know. I’ve had this feeling since we broke the siege of Ponyville right after we took over the city. Twilight is smart, insanely smart, maybe even too much for her own good sometimes, but she also has a strange sense of justice. It started out as an act of vengeance against the tyranny of Celestia, and now it’s a full-grown civil war. It just feel so… disproportionate. Of course I will always be there for her, she rescued me twice after all, but I wonder where this is going to end. With us taking over the entire land, the world? Or will something far greater come into play and end this? I don’t know Rarity, but I want all of us to be safe.”

“Pinkie, I… I had no idea you thought that way. Maybe you have a point though, we see it through a rosy lens, she saved all of us at least once. We are her friends, and forever will be… I guess I could talk to her later today.... Ask her to tone it down a bit. Gather our strength and end it cleanly, without any more bloodshed,” The seamstress said, already sunk in thought. To be completely honest, she had not expected something so… profound from her pink friend, it was far from silly though.

“Thanks Rarity,” Pinkie gave her a quick hug and began her normal bouncy pace once again. It was time to limit the consequences for all of them, before this war would consume all of their happy thoughts...