Chapter 28: Crimson Rose

The two of them expected a lot… especially after talking for an hour straight, but not three different weapons pointed at her new friend. Scarlet was extremely fascinating, while she always maintained a certain ‘classy’ aura, she was actually quite shy and thoughtful. From what Applejack had picked up during their conversation, it had been a lot worse before her transformation. As soon as they entered their camp though, well… everything escalated rather quickly.

The small group wasn’t too comfortable around bat ponies, it seemed. Who could blame them though? Thestrals were Nightmare Moon’s children, frighteningly strong, fast and agile. The perfect natural warriors, even without any additional training. Applejack stepped in between Scarlet, who was showing her fangs and hissed at the ponies out of shock, and her other friends, pointing their beads and swords at her, “Wait, wait, wait, wait! Now calm down, everypony! Scarlet here didn’t come to fight with ya folk!”

“Who?” Sharpshot replied, his tone obviously showing his confusion. This mare appeared out of nowhere with his friend, and just happened to hit it off so ‘great’ with her? The fact that she was, in fact, a loyal member of their enemy's most dangerous elite force did not help at all. “She is one of those creatures that attacked you earlier!”

“That is not true…” Scarlet said, her voice rather soft again, resembling her usual composure. “I helped Applejack, and I even ordered them to give you supplies. I am not your enemy, and just want to talk to all of you.”

Fluttershy and Rost sheathed and stowed away their weapons as well, apologizing for their rushed actions. Especially the yellow pegasus seemed much more prone to do something like that nowadays, her ‘stay’ in the icy land of Rost’s ancestors changed her, more than any of them could even imagine. She spoke up after everything settled down, “We are sorry. I guess we should not judge a book by its cover. We were certainly not expecting a pony from the rebellion to help us, especially after what happened yesterday. How did you two… well, get to know each other?”

“Uh… w-well, ya know, it… k-kinda happened! That’s not important anyway! She said she wants tah help us out!” Applejack managed to sputter out, still very much confused about her feelings for this mare.

“Indeed,” Scarlet started once again. “I felt that… Luna’s and Lady Twilight’s rebellion just… isn’t right. I may not know much about this civil war myself, but I am familiar with the basic tactics of war. It won’t end pretty for harmony if we don’t do anything against it! That’s why I wanted to help all of you, and help myself to forget all of this.”

“Why should we trust her?” Rost asked, he and Fluttershy sat closely together, giving each other warmth and comfort, a rare treat these days, especially with so much fear and confusion. They couldn’t just recruit any random pony that pretended to be friendly.

“I believe Scarlet, we can trust her,” Applejack simply stated, looking at the stallion.

“So what exactly are you?” Sharpshot interrupted, looking at her in curiosity, rather than anger. He always gathered as much knowledge as possible, about his friends… and foes. He wasn’t sure what that mare was yet… but he would at least hear her out, for Applejack.

“I am a bat pony, a normal pony… transformed by a drop of Princess Luna’s power… or Nightmare Moon if you want to call her like that. My name is Scarlet… Scarlet Nightshade. I’m looking forward to this.”

“So do I…” Applejack murmured, until she noticed that subtle smirk on the yellow pegasus’ lips. “A-Ah mean we! We look forward to it, heh… getting tired all of a sudden! Maybe we should discuss plans after some rest.”

The lavender mare stopped her relaxing walk with Spike for a moment. He stopped as well, looking at his friend in confusion. After a while she smiled faintly and nodded, obviously relieved about something. Her number one assistant cocked his head and asked, “You alright, Twilight? Did something happen?”

“Hmm? Oh, I guess you could say that yes. I just got a telepathic message from Silent Flare, informing me that their combined groups just came back from Baltimare and Fillydelphia,” Twilight answered, looking genuinely relieved about that fact. Everything was going well for them, and nopony had to be killed anymore… until they made their last move. That could wait for a little while though, Canterlot was effectively cut off from the rest of Equestria, except through the air, but there weren't too many pegasi in the capital, mostly unicorns and wealthy earth ponies that made themselves a name in the business world of the farming industry and gambling, like in Los Pegasus… although you would definitely see more pegasi there.

“You can talk to ponies without actually talking to them? Also… that might be a dumb question… but who is Silent Flare, and why was his group in Baltimare and Fillydelphia?” Spike was even more confused than before about this whole thing. They seemed to be all over Equestria already… Twilight really built something big here… like really, really big.

“It’s actually quite a simple spell, but I don’t want to bore you with the details. The rest… might take a little longer to explain, but I will tell you everything you want to know. No more secrets, no more abandoning my friends, especially not you. For now though, would you like to meet Princess Luna? She said she’ll be here in a few minutes, alongside everyone who helped us along with all of this.”

“Y-you mean Nightmare Moon?” The teenage dragon asked in concern, shrinking back a little, despite his recent growth spurt. He was likely just a tad smaller than the alicorn now, since his height even allowed him to look Celestia into the eyes without looking up, but her horn obviously made the difference. “Y-you know… I’d rather have a look at S-Sugarcube Corner, get something to eat and all that.”

“Spike… she is not the same as in those old stories anymore. She is just a pony like you and me… with the obvious factor of immortality, but still. She has fears and desires just like we do, so there is no need to be afraid. She is on our side… but alright, I won’t force you. Maybe get something to eat, and join us afterwards in the town square. It’ll be alright, I promise.”

With that the mare teleported away with a slight smile, happy to see the rest of her friends again. They had earned a small celebration since everything went so well… a party would definitely lift everyone’s spirits by a margin. Frankly, Twilight could use that as well… and maybe get some private time with Rarity, who was obviously still in need of a reward~ She also didn’t forget her Dashie, oh this would be a delight.

The now solo dragon blinked twice and shrugged. That didn’t sound too… convincing, but he trusted Twilight. First he would definitely get something sweet though… maybe a cupcake or something.

Pinkie Pie’s ears twitched as she stepped out of the portal alongside her friends. Silent took notice of the frantic twitching, “Hey Pinkie, did you have too much coffee this morning? You know, a mare like you should definitely stay away from that.”

“No, silly! That’s my Pinkie Sense! Ear twitching means that somepony wants a cupcake! Speaking of them… I haven’t made any in quite a while,” She gasped in an exaggerated manner. She didn’t bake anything in quite a while, the pink mare vaguely remembered allowing some bat ponies to run her shop for a while, since the Cakes weren’t here, and she was busy a lot. Wait… her shop! “MOMMA IS COMING!”

With almost super-sonic speed the mare was gone, bolting off towards Sugarcube Corner. It seemed like the entire population, including all the new workers sighed in relief, Pinkie Pie just had this effect on ponies… it made them happier, and feel lighter in these dark times. And definitely hungry for baked goods… that called for a big party!

Ten minutes later Sugarcube Corner was producing at their peak again, Pinkie immediately showed her new co-workers everything she knew about baking… willingly or unwillingly. To their shared surprise, it was working excellently. Her energetic spirit just created this cozy atmosphere, and everypony just couldn’t help it but kick their speed up a notch. A lot of ponies were drawn in by the returned (temporary) owner as well.

Needlessly to say that Sweetie Belle was amazed by all the baked goods that her sister’s friend had produced. Her little eyes focused on the full counter from their table in the now slightly crowded, but not overrun shop. These ponies came from a lot of smaller and bigger settlements, especially from Equestria’s biggest towns, but still worked towards a common goal. It seemed to work, they all had a tolerant mind set as well.

“Hey Pinkie,” Sweetie shouted over a few ponies. “Mind giving me another- hmppf!” In that moment a ‘strawberry twist’ cupcake was already stuck in her mouth, and happily devoured as well. A raised, pink hoof from the other side of the crowd could only be described as the hoof version of the normally claw exclusive ‘thumbs up’.

Rarity could only chuckle at their combined antics. Peaceful moments like these were so rare lately, and all they could do, was enjoy every second of it. She definitely wanted to talk to Twilight this evening though… she was still curious about that reward. She wasn’t entirely sure whether or not she should be excited, since the lavender unicorn was quite hard to read, but her voice when she said that sounded… very convincing. Once again the gentle bell sounded that signalled yet another eager guest.

Her eyes lazily wandered over the mass of ponies, some thestrals were there as well, just far in between. Then… her eyes stopped at a rather tall one… no, wait… scales? Purple and green scales that reflected the light in a rather interesting manner. Wasn’t that Twilight’s assistant? She had just heard the first part of their conversation. He definitely looked rather… nice, muscular, but also far from stupid. Hmm…

Spike noticed the gaze that was fixated on him after a while by pure accident. The moment he spotted who exactly decided to stare at him, the drake felt like dropping dead at the spot. An absolutely gorgeous mare! Flawless, alabaster coat, lucious purple hair that curled like gentle waves on an ocean of beauty. Perfect figure, as well, she wasn’t the typical ‘model’, but her curves were still at all the right places. From the outside he definitely sported a rather goofy, dreamy eyes expression right now, visibly blushing as well.

The fashionista, despite her obvious sex appeal, was quite inexperienced when it came to things like this. Sure, she had her corny romance novels, that always ended in… quite an erotic situation, or with someone dying off around the end, but this was real life! She never had quite a… serious relationship, always just something to relieve stress here and there. Rarity had always wanted to wait for ‘the one’, now Twilight was… becoming more and more like this vague figure in her head, and this dragon was looking… not bad at least, despite her knowing literally nothing about them. Feelings were just that stupid sometimes…

She gave him a slight smile which could have been enough to give him a heart attack at this point. Luckily though, that did not happen, and he carefully made his way over to their small table. The dragon looked quite unsure about the situation as well, so he wasn’t that experienced as well, if only she knew…

“Oh hey Spike!” Sweetie Belle greeted him first, in between a mouthful of her delicious frosted good. Honestly, how could anyone ever not want something like this? She would rather die than never eat sweets again!

“H-hey Sweetie Belle,” He was unsure what to do next. Would it be rude to just… sit down next to them? They seemed to be content like that, and Spike was way too polite to interrupt a family moment. Even though he would do absolutely everything just to talk to this mare for a bit.

“O-oh, h-how rude of me! Please, sit down,” Rarity offered with a smile on her face. It was slightly soothing to know that he was just as nervous as she was, or he was a veeerrry good actor. As the dragon took the offer, the mare subconsciously leaned a bit closer. “I am Rarity, and it looks like you already know by younger sister.”

“My name is Spike and yeah…” Spike thought about it. He more or less helped them to break out of a prison… a rather comfortable one, but still a prison. “I think… we haven’t met the… last time I was in Ponyville.”

“He helped Scootaloo… mhmm… Applebloom and me to escape!” Sweetie said in between yet another bit of cupcake. That filly sure had a lot of appetite for sweets… that made a moderate amount of sense with that name… somewhat at least.

“Oh really?” Rarity asked, genuinely interested, leaning closer and closer with each positive trait that she noticed. “Tell me about it. How did it come to all of this?”

“You want to hear… Oh,” Spike stated, nodding. He was either too nervous, or too oblivious to notice her coming closer, and that certain gaze she was sending into his direction. The mare seemed unsure what to think about him, so the dragon could absolutely not screw this up!

Twilight arrived at the town square a few seconds later, already seeing Luna, Silver, Rainbow and Silent. It seemed like Pinkie was absent, but the pink mare would definitely be around somewhere. Suddenly she heard something like a miniature of firework and confetti appear out of nowhere, showering the surprised mare in it.

A pink blur was visible in her peripherals for the fraction of a second, and now a cupcake was standing in front of her, neatly placed on a paper plate with the words ‘Happy We-Survived-Everything! Party this evening!’. The lavender mare let out a genuine giggled, snorting at her friends antics, oh she missed all of them, even though they had been separated for merely a day. She had never thought it would be possible to ‘miss’ friends, her younger self had never wanted something like this anyway.

Now? She was either one of the most loved, or most hated ponies in the eye of the population. Not a bad trade, not at al… and she would show everyone that they were in the right. Millions of ponies had already decided for themselves, more joining willingly every day. The others? Still not hurt, but convinced by Luna’s elite thestrals and Capone’s mercenaries. The former boss of a crime syndicate had played such an important role in their plans so far, that it was hard to believe that he was doing all of this just for the money, but who was she to judge?

“Ah Twilight! ‘Tis wonderful to see you again,” Luna exclaimed, approaching the mare. The two of them couldn’t help it but share a short hug, they have truly grown closer over time. It seemed like the Nightmare wasn’t such a big fan of that, but Twilight really could not care less.

“It is also good to see you are back unscathed, Luna. Although you don’t really have to fear any injury, but still… it hurts me as well when my friends get hurt. In the end we did it though! Manehatten, Stalliongrad, Baltimare, Fillydelphia, Vanhoover, Las Pegasus, all those cities are under our control now, peacefully, I might add. Now we can prepare our last assault to end this war, and to bring true peace to this land, together.” It was true, now that she thought about it, the only time they had killed ponies, was the Nightmare of Canterlot, when Celestia had used Pinkie as bait, and she paid the price for it.

“Indeed, but for now we can relax and rest. Everypony deserves a little break after this, especially since our dear Pinkie seems to be in high spirits once again, now that the city is so lively. I presume you received your invitation as well?” Luna said cheerfully, unusually relaxed for the demi-goddess. It didn’t happen often that she could just lean back for a second, and take a deep breath, especially now with such good friends at her side.

“Yeah, of course! I really have no idea how Pinkie does all this, and I really don’t want to find out. Maybe one day, but for now I’m just looking forward to it! I heard that her parties never leave anyone unhappy, ever. Pinkie takes that very seriously, and not even I want to mess with that. Let’s look forward to the future, and see what it holds for us.”

“True words, Twilight, very true indeed.”

“...and we need the last part of the blade to have at least a small glimmer of hope,” Sharpshot finished up their combined explanation. Their stories had been different and exotic, but all four of them seemed confident. They just had to succeed, Equestria could not take the reign of Nightmare Moon, or ‘Luna’ as Scarlet called her. “So… now that you know what we have to do, any ideas where this Coast of Despair is supposed to be?”

Scarlet remained quiet for a while, rubbing her chin thoughtfully, “I might… The moon tribe was a wide spread culture hundreds of years ago. Their technology was said to be legendary, some describe machines that wouldn’t even work with our current knowledge! They did this Arcane Tinkering without magic, they trusted a mysterious energy, and apparently, after hearing your stories… the Nightmare had something to do with it, I’m sure.”

“What exactly are you hinting at?” The grey pony asked, half eager, half sceptical about any new piece of information they got.

“The Ark of Yamato.”

“The what of what now?” Applejack intervened, cocking her head. She obviously liked having Scarlet around, maybe more than she would admit, but most of the stuff she was talking about was… a little too complicated and out of this world for her taste. Not that she would mind a taste of— Nothing! Absolutely nothing!

Scarlet giggled a little, “The Ark of Yamato. Yamato was the name of their ancient capital. The Ark was some sort of… boat, an airship, to be more specific. It was built for exactly one purpose, to bring its inhabitants to the moon and the stars. Ancient legends tell unbelievable tales and journeys that the moon tribe had with this legendary ship. A rainbow bridge was said to be the entrance, pure spectra as a manifestation of the divine. The ponies of the moon tribe were something greater than mere ponies before they suddenly vanished.”

“So… some of their descendants could still be… alive?” Sharpshot asked, more and more curious about the full story behind all this, but unfortunately Scarlet wouldn’t know all of it.

“No, probably not. As the events of Rao’s diary happened, as the Nightmare took control, and slaughtered the tribe… not all of them did actually die right away. Some of them were able to flee into the Ark of Yamato, they probably had more similarities with divine beings, than ponies at that point. The Nightmare had been smarter though, some of its strongest creations had hid themselves in the Ark… and slaughtered every last one of them. The point where the Ark crashed, where countless demons escaped and brought darkness over the world was known as the Coast of Despair.”

“D-demons?” Fluttershy hid herself a bit more in Rost’s coat, she wasn’t so easily scared anymore… but those creatures were pure evil, and had absolutely no mercy in them.

“Yes, like Lechku and Nechku, they were part of the strongest demons that escaped. The crashpoint is now located about fifty kilometers south of Baltimare. That’s where we should look first. If you take me with you, at least. I can also teleport us past this barrier, since I am quite skilled, if I am allowed to say so myself.”

All of them looked at each other for a moment, exchanging silent opinions until Applejack spoke for them, “It would be a pleasure, Scarlet. We might not be the fanciest of troops, but we’re gonna be a damn good team!” Her friends nodded, happy to have another (mostly) trustworthy ally. Their mission could not fail at all costs, the fate of Equestria was at stake.

While Scootaloo had run off with Rainbow Dash after a while, and Sweetie Belle went with Rarity, the yellow earth pony filly was the last one of the trio. Feeling left behind, and kind of depressed, she decided to wander around for a bit. Solo activities were ‘the best’, after all. Her two friends finally reunited with their idol or sister, but what about her?

Where was the one mare that was most important in her life? Where… was Applejack? Sure, her other family was in Canterlot, but at least they were safe, and did not have to worry about too much. Maybe they did… they probably already noticed her absence in horror. She did only vaguely mention her insane journey to search for her sister, after all. In the end, that didn’t really matter though, the people here were all nice, and her family would be alive until the end of… whatever this was. Applebloom wasn’t stupid, far from it, but she couldn’t really wrap her head around all this. Both Celestia and this Twilight Sparkle, and even the slightly creepy other princess… Luna, was nice. Who had started this… fight? Was that what it was? No… something more, definitely a lot more. Maybe somepony around the town square could help her understand it better, it could possibly lead to some clues regarding Applejack as well… perhaps…

She looked around, there were definitely a lot of ponies around the town square now. More than there ever were before Ponyville got evacuated for some reason that she still didn’t understand. Then the yellow filly saw a pony that stuck out… somehow. Strikingly light blue coat, white, silky hair that was falling down her shoulder, rather short tail and a rather luxurious figure. Her ears were different as well, a lot pointier, with a bit of fluff on the top end.

What was the worst that could happen? The filly shrugged, walking straight across the town square, and stopped right before the mare. Suddenly she also spotted her… fangs? Why did a herbivore need fangs? She took a deep breath, and began to speak to the mare that was apparently patrolling through the city, “U-Um, pardon me. Ah j-jest wanted to ask ya somethin’”

At first the mare didn’t even notice that the filly had talked with her. Then she smiled at her, showing off the full beauty of her razor sharp fangs, “Of course, little one! What’s your name?”

“Ah’m Applebloom,” She replied, sounding slightly nervous. Those teeth looked really… really sharp. Of course the filly knew that it was rude to judge someone based on how they look… but this was slightly unsettling.

“Nice to meet you, Applebloom! I’m Azure Skies, and don’t worry, I don’t bite… much,” The bat pony giggled at her jokes, then realized that a little filly like her would most definitely not understand a joke like that. “Actually I don’t bite at all, heh. What did you want to ask?”

“W-well, now Ah have two questions. First one… might sound a little weird, but… ya aren’t a normal pony, right? S-sorry if that’s rude! Just… your ears ‘n fangs look kinda exotic. Second one… um… what is… what is really goin’ on with Equestria?”

“No, no, it’s fine! I guess I am not a normal pony anymore. Princess Luna took the best of us, and offered us a once in a lifetime chance! She turned us into bat ponies, an ancient resemblance of her finest warriors, really exciting, if you ask me, hehe. There is no need to be afraid though, those fangs are just… um… actually I don’t really know. I just turned into one yesterday, so I don’t really know what our diet actually consists of. I guess I’ll have to find out later,” The mare sounded happy at least, quite confused, but happy. “Anyways, regarding the second question… I don’t think you’re quite old enough for that yet. A… lot of stuff happened in the last few months. Maybe it would be better to just be on your way.”

What?! All this talk and now yet another pony wanted to avoid the topic?! “Ah’m pretty sure Ah can handle it! Please, Ah need tah know more about this!”

“Oh dear… alright, just don’t say I didn’t warn you beforehoof,” Azure replied, beginning her tale, everything that happened since the return of ‘Nightmare Moon’.

“Oh my,” Rarity chuckled as Spike finished up his story. The three little fillies apparently made a lot of trouble during their short time together, but she was infinitely grateful that he took them with him regardless. He was a real gentledrake, always let her finish her sentences, well mannered, and quite good looking… not that Rarity had thought about that during their talk! He was Twilight’s little brother after all, a handsome brother, but still. She felt somewhat conflicted by that… especially since there were definitely some feelings of attractions towards Twilight as well. ‘Her barn door swung both ways’ like Applejack would have said. “That is certainly quite the story. Things definitely… went a bit out of hoof after we rescued dear Pinkie.”

A silent ‘thank you’ landed on their table… in form of a cupcake with a heart symbol on it. In the middle were the letters S + R and outside a ‘Thank you! Come to my party this afternoon, all of you!’ Spiked cocked his head, how exactly was the pink mare doing all of this? Some kind of magical spell? Was she really a disguised unicorn? The best answer was probably: Pinkie. There was no logical explanation for most stuff the cheerful ball of energy did. Then this letter… S + R… S + R… the dragon’s eyes widened. This pink devil.

The fashionista’s cheeks were noticeably reddened as well, chuckling awkwardly, “Ehehe… our P-pinkie knows how to make a joke. A-anyways, I’m really grateful… that you rescued my little sister.”

“What does S + R mean?” Sweetie Belle asked, staring at the cupcake with a longing gaze. There could never be such thing as ‘too much sweets’. “Ohhhh, I get it! It means Spi—” That’s when she got kicked into her left hind leg, not enough to really hurt her, but certainly enough to distract the young filly. “Ow! Hey! I only wanted to say that It means Spik—”

Another kick, followed by a frustrated groan from the young unicorn, “Fine! I’m leaving! I’m sure Applebloom is more fun than you guys! See you in the boutique, Rarity!” Sweetie grabbed the cupcake with her mouth and raced off. These stupid ‘grown ups’.

“Heh, I guess that was the right thing to do, huh?” Spike asked with a nervous smile, trying to get that stupid heart message out of his head. Pinkie would definitely pay for that one! Maybe with a prank… no, the pink pony was probably the inventor of pranks… dammit.

“Whatever do you mean, darling?” Rarity answered, giving the dragon a wink. He was quite charming indeed, especially in times like this it was hard to keep a well mannered pony around that was not war crazy or running away like a chicken. “Well, now that we have a bit more privacy… why don’t we talk some more? It sounded like you have some stories to tell.”

“Heh, there’s nothing I’d like to do more,” Spike replied, his cheeks definitely even redder now. This would certainly be interesting for the dragon that just hit puberty.

“Oh yes, before I leave. Have you seen Morning Blaze?” Twilight asked her alicorn partner, a trace of curiosity in her voice. She could just rely on their magic connection, but it didn’t always have to be this complicated, social interaction was important, after all. Not that she really had any interest in that particular topic, but ponies demanded orders and actions from the rather simple mare. She never really wanted all of this in the first place, vengeance, and a quiet life with Spike would have been enough for her, but now… there was no turning back, they were almost done, their goal in clear sight.

“Indeed, I did. She said she needed some time to think and in case you should ask, Blaze is in the east fields outside of Ponyville. I don’t know why, but it seemed like she’s hoping to talk to you in private, to catch up, perhaps?” Luna replied, looking at her friend with a neutral gaze. This lavender unicorn was never failing to amaze and impress her… for a mortal creature, at least. Her magic reserves were nowhere near alicorn level, but they could still outmatch even the strongest and most powerful unicorn by a landslide.

“Yeah, I better go check. I promised her we would talk more after Stalliongrad, and she behaved herself after the initial… let’s call it difficulties. I’m really not thrilled to hurt anyone not directly involved into my personal vengeance, so she did agree to help me out on this. Anyways, I’ll see you at Pinkie’s party!” With those parting words Twilight disappeared into the shadows, still in quite a good mood, especially now that everything rapidly ended in their favor. So far Equestria proved to be quite prone on betraying their beloved sun goddess, until now they had never faced a really intelligent foe, one did not want to take over using blunt force, but deception and clever tactics. Although a good chunk of magical skill did not harm at all.

Luna only shook her head with a faint smile on her lips, “The youth of today, always so eager. Good luck, Twilight, social interaction is just as difficult as the hardest battle you will ever face.” It would take a few more hours for the party to be set up and really start, especially since the entire town would participate, as far as she could predict the pink mare and her antics. Most people were extremely willing to help, good Equestrian citizens that were actually, genuinely willing to go along, that was… definitely a change of scenery for the former insane alicorn. She had noticed those… laughing fits returned less frequently, maybe this… adoration and friendship helped her. An answer only the Nightmare could answer, but even if she could, Luna would never exchange another word with that vile creature.

Another minute later the lavender mare walked right up to her friend, she had decided to walk the last few meters, shadow travelling was always startling the ponies around her. This time Twilight just wanted a calm conversation… with her former good friend, “Good day, Blaze.”

The yellow mare didn’t react at first, just staring into the distance, towards Equestria’s capital, to be more specific, then she sighed, “Do you… regret it sometimes?”

“What do you mean? This rebellion, killing ponies, those dark powers?” She asked in a rather calm tone, sitting down next to Blaze. The sun was as dim as ever… but the light was still warming them. Telling the time wasn’t exactly easy, impossible for non unicorns, but they still had enough time to really talk about everything. This.. was something she genuinely missed, ending the day with Morning Blaze, after a long training session, just gazing into the sunset, letting the last rays of the sun warm their coat…

“All of it… this entire thing. It feels… it feels like this will be the end of us all. Not just Celestia, but also us. I don’t want to convince you to stop, not after everything we went through, but be careful, I have a bad feeling about provoking Celestia even further,” Morning answered, her voice held this rather… ominous undertone in it. Like she knew something Twilight did not, that alone was relatively unlikely, but the lavender mare would never underestimate her.

“Honestly? Yes, yes I do regret most of the things I did. Especially since… Shining Armor had to die for my mistakes… that will haunt me for the rest of my life, and it really should. I also dragged you into all of this, you were my only childhood friend… except Spike,” Finally she had said it, talking about her feelings of guilt made it… somewhat easier. “All of my friends now as well… Rainbow Dash especially… but she is much happier now, Rarity and Pinkie needed a while, but I think we came to an agreement that makes both of them happy as well.”

“I really missed this, to be honest. You were one of the best students I ever had, and you… have grown on me during our year together. It had been shocking to see you… change that much, growing angrier and angrier at Celestia, but… I know that you are just trying to do the right thing, in your own way at least. I can’t confront the princess directly, due to my debt to her, but I will still support you, despite our differences. Shining Armor was a good soldier… and he knew the risks to confront you in this state. It happened, and it can never be reversed, but we have to look forward… no matter how much it hurts. Maybe we will be able to put all of this behind us… once this is over, and Equestria is rebuilt to its former glory. With you on top or not, I will stay here.”

“Thank you Blaze, really… it means a lot,” Twilight said, smiling faintly, the two of them continued to reminisce, thinking about their happier days together, and just relaxing after the past few days. The real storm was still waiting for them, so nobody could really predict what would happen, once the time has come.

About three hours later Twilight and Morning returned to the townsquare together. It had been a nice and long talk for the two of them, reminiscing in the good old times. They were over, but they agreed on getting closer again, training together, working on spells and so on. Of course… after this whole ordeal was over. Morning Blaze was not a fool, she knew that her former student had to do this, for various reasons. The yellow unicorn also knew when she lost though, and this definitely counted as a loss, but… maybe that wasn’t so bad. Her loyalty was somewhat unclear, and she was eternally grateful for what Celestia had done to her, but her reign was a sinking ship, and it would drag everyone into this abyss that would refuse to leave her side.

Their jawlines dropped as the center of Ponyville came into view. The first thing they saw were colours… a lot of colours, and streamer, definitely a lot of them too! Happy decorations, cakes everywhere, drinks, people walking around in party hats, some people had even agreed to walk around with plates and serve some food. This… was most definitely Pinkie Pie’s ‘magic’. Nopony could understand or explain it, but the pink mare just had her ways to make everyone… every single one.

As if on queue streamers exploded around Twilight and Morning Blaze, eliciting a quiet yelp out of the two. Suddenly both were wearing a cute party hat, a yellow and red one for Blaze, and a lavender, blue, pink-ish one for their leader. They couldn’t help but giggle had their friend’s weird antics, but who could blame her? She was just trying to make everyone happy, especially since they were approaching their goal, Canterlot. This was one of the last opportunities to have fun, genuinely enjoying their time together. After that they… would either rule a country, or end up as cold corpses on a smoldering battlefield.

“Hey guys! Welcome to the party, can’t stay, gotta bounce!” Pinkie literally bounced in front of them, giving both of them a quick hug, and then raced off to some other party guest. She definitely had plenty of those, it looked like the entire town had decided to join the unexpected festivities… not that Pinkie would have given them a choice to refuse, Twilight figured.

“Hey Morning, wanna meet up with Spike and celebrate for a while?” Twilight asked, already spotting her now ‘bigger’ brother. He was at least one head taller than everyone else, even Luna was now smaller than him. Then she realized that they were chatting, together with Rarity, whose gaze landed on Spike more often than not, interesting. Maybe that would give both of them some time to relax, Twilight would definitely not mind the two of them getting closer, it was nice to see that he overcame his ridiculous fear of Luna pretty quickly though,

“Nah, I’d rather look for Silent. He is not really a celebratory pony, and he gets angry when others annoy him with that. I’ll make sure nothing happens,” She stopped before wandering off, her voice softer than before. “Oh, and Twilight? Thank you… I really missed our talks.”

“Anytime, Morning, anytime. Enjoy the party while you can, we’ll have a lot to do,” The lavender mare replied, wandering off herself. This really was the perfect opportunity to have some fun before the storm. Maybe Dashie would be up for some fun as well, hehe… but she figured that it would be better to talk with Luna, Spike and Rarity first. Especially to see what kind of interests Rarity had towards her brother. Not that she didn’t trust the fashionista, quite the opposite actually, but it was still good to be informed about such things.

A minute later she reached the small group, who were telling stories of their adventures from the past weeks, hearing the tales from an alicorn must have been quite interesting for Spike. At least he didn’t seem to fear Luna, a fear that most of her subjects still had, at least somewhat, maybe it was just very careful respect, like for Celestia, but more honest, “Hello guys, how are you all doing?”

“Twilight, darling, so good to see you!” Rarity said, managing to not steal a glance at Twilight. She still wasn’t sure of that would be appropriate in his sister’s presence… not that she had anything inappropriate in mind, she was a lady, after all. Still… the possibilities were there, especially for such a handsome gentledrake. “I think we are all doing just wonderful!”

Luna and Spike nodded in agreement, looking quite satisfied with the party so far. A real Pinkie Pie party indeed. The teenage dragon was the first to speak up, “You were right, Twilight. I shouldn’t have thought of Luna as Nightmare Moon, and it turns out she knows a lot about this ancient dragon magic!”

“Does she now?” Twilight asked with a slight smirk on her face. The lavender mare probably knew everything there was about that magic, all of its drawbacks, advantages over regular magic, and even the specific amount of Magic used up by the most common spells. Yet she wouldn’t be so foolish to steal her friend’s spotlight, that was completely unnecessary, and plain out rude,

“Indeed,” Luna answered happily, her left hand holding a ‘vanilla explosion 2.0’ flavored cupcake, apparently one of Pinkie’s newest creation. It was simply fantastic, and the blue alicorn would most definitely ask her how she could create such divine baked goods. “I have fought countless battles against invading dragons from the Southern Lands, and know most of the common Dragonslayer spells. An interesting kind of magic, but it is new to me that dragons are able to cast it with just their innate magic. We definitely should look into that before going to Canterlot. That could be quite useful indeed, only if Spike is agreeing to it, of course.”

“Sure!” Spike nodded, a puff of emerald colored flame escaped his lips. “I promised Twilight that I would help where I could, that includes helping her to win this war. I’d probably not be a big help, but I will do everything I can.”

“Just don’t do too dangerous stuff, Spike… all of you. This is a thing between Celestia, and me, well… and technically Luna, but I don’t want any of my friends to be hurt, or even die. Too many sacrifices have been made already, even most of the Solar Guard didn’t deserve it. We’ll end it quick, and painless,” Twilight replied, a lot more thoughtful than usual. Without the Nightmare constantly suggesting violent things the mare could think a little more clearly. Maybe accepting any of its power had been a bad idea in general… Order and Chaos… those two forces always were in perfect balance… she had to be carefull. “Anyways, let’s not think about that for the moment! Let’s enjoy the party. Rarity, how did your afternoon with Sweetie Belle go?”

“Oh, ehehe… well, I guess you could say it has been quite interesting. Wouldn’t you agree, Spike?” She said with half lidded eyes, again focused on the tall lizard next to Luna. He really was quite something.

“Y-yeah! It definitely was,” The dragon answered. They all began to talk about their own afternoon, now including Twilight, it seemed like everypony was enjoying themselves, and the night was still young. This was maybe the last opportunity to really have a few carefree moments, before the very fate of Equestria would be decided.