The swirling vortex spread itself wide over the large room and with a roar of wind it released the four ponies it carried from one world to another. Twilight Sparkle felt her knees flex as her legs absorbed the shock of landing and quickly checked on her companions. Trixie and Derpy were dusting themselves off, while Dashiel appeared to have already recovered and was checking over Twilight and the others to make sure they were okay.

“614!” a joyful voice shouted from one side of the room. 143, Trixie’s sister from another world, came charging across the room towards the quartet, her tight black control suit flowing with rippling lines of colour.

“SOMBRAN!” Dashiel yelled, spinning and pushing off from the ground to intercept the oncoming submissive mare who looked to Twilight as her mistress. A split second later Dashiel had 143 pinned up against a wall. The soldier reared and swung back her metal prosthetic wing. A shining blade extended from the pinions and with a swift move swept towards 143’s throat. Only to be stopped a bare inch away from its goal by a field of lavender magic that appeared around it.

“DASHIEL!” Twilight shouted, sweat appearing on her brow as she realized that the warpony’s weapon was actually cutting through her field, if slowly. “Stand down!” Dashiel blinked and seemed to suddenly realize where she was and what she was doing.

“Sorry about that,” Dashiel said, lowering her wing and releasing 143. “I thought you were an attacking soldier.”

“May 143 stand up now?” 143 asked, having let herself drop to the floor after being let go. Dashiel gulped, and looked down with an expression of guilty shame colouring her face.

“Yah, sure,” Dashiel mumbled, looking away from her near victim. “Go do whatever it is you were gonna do.”

“Thank you,” 143 said, getting to her hooves and walking around the mortified pegasus to come stand before Twilight.

“Hello Twilight,” 143 said, kneeling before Twilight. “It is good to see you home again.”

“It’s good to be home,” Twilight said, smiling. “You seem to be doing well.”

“143 has been working with your brother and Princess Cadance,” 143 said, still kneeling but stealing glances over to Trixie. Twilight noticed the looks and felt her heart lift.

“143, would you like to spend some time with your sister?” Twilight asked, hopeful that the broken mare had begun to start taking some initiative with things.

“If 143’s owner permits?” 143 said, trailing off, and Twilight felt a deep happiness as she felt a smile cross her face.

“Of course, 143,” Twilight said. She turned to tell Trixie that she could have some time off, but saw immediately that there was no need, as Trixie was already moving forward to lift her sister up to her hooves. Trixie looked at Twilight, who gave a simple nod and smile of permission.

“Princess,” Derpy said, from the other side. “I hate to leave you alone, but Dinky…”

“Go, go,” Twilight said, making a shooing motion. “Dinky’s waited long enough for her mother to come home. I don’t want to see you for at least three days, okay?”

“As my Princess commands,” Derpy said, dropping into a graceful curtsy, wings flaring wide.

“Go on, before I throw you into a dungeon or something,” Twilight laughed, giving her servant a hug as she pulled Derpy to her hooves. Derpy headed out of the room leaving Twilight alone in the room with Dashiel. The pony was still looking shame faced at the floor and hadn’t moved from beside the wall where she had pinned 143.

“It’s okay, Dashiel,” Twilight said, unsure if she should approach the exile or not. “You thought you saw a threat and you acted.”

“I could have killed her,” Dashiel said, still looking at a spot on the floor. “I was going to kill her. What was she even doing there anyway?”

“I brought them here, of course,” Pinkie Pie said, walking into the room and looking oddly somber, and that never looked good to Twilight. “My Pinkie Sense told me when you were coming home, Twilight.”

Dashiel’s head shot up at the familiar voice, her eyes going wide as she saw the dimensional doppleganger of her beloved wife. Pinkie walked up beside Twilight and gave her a quick hug.

“You, you can’t be… “ Dashiel said, shock making her back up against the wall. “You’re dead. You died in my hooves. Who are you?”

“Silly filly, didn’t Twilight explain multiple realities to you?” Pinkie said, smiling, and Twilight marveled at her friend’s restraint. By now, Pinkie was usually right in a new pony’s face either arranging a party for them or working on making a new friend.

“I know this isn’t my Equestria,” Dashiel said, before frowning. “Actually, I don’t even have an Equestria anymore.”

“Of course you do,” Pinkie said, still keeping herself from touching Dashiel, and Twilight could see the quivers of effort along Pinkie’s back. “This is your Equestria now. I’m not the Pinkie Pie you knew and loved, but I can be a Pinkie Pie for you.”

“I don’t know if I could handle that right now,” Dashiel said, lip trembling. “I married that Pinkamena Pie.”

“What happened?” Pinkie asked, her face showing her need to comfort Dashiel. “Can you tell me that much, at least?”

"She sacrificed herself to save me." Dashiel said, a small smile forming as she wiped away a tear with a wing. "She died, and was turned into a quartz statue, but everypony remembers her, and they always will. With her last breath, she told me to come here, to start over, and I know that even now, she loves me as much as I love her."

"She was a Pie to the end," Pinkie said, giving in to her need to comfort the former Captain, with a hug that the pegasus froze under. "I knew something sad and good had happened, I just didn’t know what. I’ll let you be all gruff and tough right now, but she would want you to let other ponies in when you’re ready. Now if you'll excuse me, I’ve got to plan your 'Welcome to our Universe' party."

Dashiel said nothing, her mouth agape as the party mare happily bounced out the room and towards Sugarcube Corner. "How did she..."

"That's Pinkie for you," Twilight said, chuckling as she remembered her own attempts to quantify Pinkie’s abilities. "Don't even bother trying to figure out how she does it. You’ll just give yourself a headache, or worse.”

“She’s different than my Pinks,” Dashiel said, shaking her head. “My Pinks was strong, a solid fighter. Ya, she liked a good joke, but she had her serious side too.”

“Pinkie’s a good friend,” Twilight said. “Brave, clever, always ready to cheer somepony up so they can do their best. C’mon, let me get you to the guest room, we can set you up with something more permanent in the morning.”

Dashiel and Twilight walked out into the corridor, and through the quiet castle toward the room that Spike had made up for guests, their hooves echoing on the crystal surface.

“You okay?” Twilight asked, looking at Dashiel in concern.

“I don’t know,” Dashiel said, still looking toward the ground. “I don’t think I’m ever going to be okay. I don’t think I deserve to be okay.”

“Everypony deserves to be okay,” Twilight said, torn between wanting to hug Dashiel and not wanting to after seeing how uncomfortable the pegasus had been with the hug from Pinkie. “Well here we are.”

“Ya, would you be willing to hang on to something for me?” Dashiel asked, looking up at Twilight for the first time since they started walking down the corridor.

“Of course, Rain— I mean, Dashiel,” Twilight said, wincing at the verbal faux-pas. “You know, that makes me wonder. You know there’s… another you here, right?”

“How could I know?” Dashiel asked, some sarcasm in her voice making her sound a little like Rainbow. “It’s not like I have some meta connection with all the Rainbow Dash’s across the entire multiverse. What’s she like?”

“Brash, brave, a little reckless at times,” Twilight said, a smile coming to her face as the memories of the times she’d shared with the expert flyer. “One of the truest and most loyal ponies I’ve ever met. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for a friend.”

“Keep her away from me then, okay?” Dashiel asked, one ear, the one that wasn’t deeply torn, flattening against her head. “At least for now. She sounds like a good pony, and good ponies don’t deserve to know what somepony with their name did, especially out of loyalty to Equestria.”

“I’ll keep her away from the castle for now,” Twilight said, and this time she did put a foreleg on Dashiel’s shoulder. “She’s going to find out the truth eventually, you know.”

“I know,” Dashiel said, looking ashamed again, “but if she’s half the mare you say she, is I’d like her to find out about me slowly.”

“Anything special you want me to say to her when she does ask about you?” Twilight asked, not really knowing what else to say.

“Yeah,” Dashiel said, her eyes turning stern like she was talking to one of her soldiers. “Tell her that when I feel up to it, I want to have a one-on-one talk with her, because I do. Maybe she can learn from my mistakes.”

“Now that, I can do,” Twilight said, feeling a little less uncomfortable. That is until Dashiel made a strange sort of shrugging motion and her entire wing separated from her body, right at the wing root.

“Here,” Dashiel said, hoofing over the prosthetic. “I can’t be trusted with this anymore, and you having it will make sure that I can’t just fly away.”

“But, you… Without this you can’t fly,” Twilight said, aghast even as she took hold of the surprisingly light item. “You’re not my prisoner, Dashiel. You might be an exile, but you aren’t my captive.”

“Princess Twilight,” Dashiel said, in formal tones. “I’m an exile. Banished from the land that gave me that wing. I nearly killed one of your staff today with it by accident. Not only do I not have the right to use that wing anymore, I’ve proved I’m a danger with it.”

“If your Princess Celestia hadn’t wanted you to have the wing, she would have taken it from you before we left,” Twilight said, projecting confidence. “I’ll hold this, but only until you feel you’re ready to take it back.”

“Fine,” Dashiel said, rolling her eyes in a very Rainbow Dash way. “I’ll see you in the morning then.”

“In the morning then, Dashiel,” Twilight said, and the maimed pegasus entered the room set aside for guests. “Welcome to the Castle of Friendship.”

The door’s closing mechanism clicked shut behind the pegasus and Twilight walked off, intending to seek her own bed. Their return had been late and only 143 had been up, and that only through Pinkie Pie’s intervention. Twilight saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye as she yawned, and witnessed a pair of batpony guards settling themselves down quietly in front of Dashiel’s door.

Twilight spun on her hooves and walked back toward the door, quietly seething. She had just finished assuring Dashiel that she wasn’t a prisoner and right afterwards a pair of guards decided to stand watch on her door. When she talked to the princess about her guards…

“Oh,” Twilight said, a dozen feet away from the guards who snapped to attention. They were wearing gear that was identical to that of the Royal Guards in Canterlot, except for one vital difference. They were dressed in muted purples and reds, highlighted with golden yellow trim. Those were her colours, the colours that Trixie and Derpy both wore, which meant that these were her guards.

“Good evening,” Twilight said, keeping her voice low to stop it from carrying through into Dashiel’s room. “May I ask what you’re doing here?”

“Princess,” both guards said in unison, snapping off a parade ground level salute. “Standing orders, your Highness.”

“And what are your standing orders?” Twilight asked. She had suspected that this is what Shining Armor and Celestia had been up to before she left, but to actually see a guard, her guard, in action gave her a strange feeling. A feeling almost, but not quite what she felt around Starlight Glimmer.

“Protect anypony inside the castle walls, Princess,” the guard on the left said, his slate grey mane sticking out from his head like a series of spikes. “To that end we post guards outside any occupied rooms, and there are a pair of guards at each entrance.”

“Why wasn’t there anypony outside the room my friends and I returned in?” Twilight asked, trying to find the same balance of authority and gentleness that Princess Celestia used with her guard, and failing utterly.

“Pinkie Pie asked us to stand down from that room, Princess,” the guard said, and Twilight saw a flicker of worry cross his eyes. “She said that she could handle anything and that we might scare a new pony.”

“She was probably right about that,” Twilight mused, thinking of Dashiel’s reaction to 143’s sudden appearance. She shuddered to think what would have happened if there had been actual armed and armoured ponies there. “I think I need to have a talk with whoever is running this guard force I seem to have acquired, but it can wait until morning I think.”

“Yes, Princess,” the guard said. “Would you like an escort to your room?”

“I know the way,” Twilight said, “Before I go, one thing. You are not to impede the occupant of this room in any way. You are to do your level best to make them feel welcome and safe here. They have the run of both the castle and Ponyville. Is that understood?”

“Yes Ma’am!” both guards said at once, snapping to attention.

“Good,” Twilight said, turning and heading back down the corridor toward her own room.

I wonder if I should ask Shaushka to come back to Ponyville and have a word or two with Dashiel?

Dashiel pulled her ear with great care from her side of the door, making sure that she was moving as silently as possible. The “guards” on the other side of her door wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in one of her units, never mind in actual combat. She’d heard them land by her door and had half expected to hear the sound of locks or the scrape of blades on scabbards. Instead they had just stood there, with their backs to her of all things. Even with one wing she could have taken them both.

Rolling her eyes, she ghosted her way around the room, looking for spy holes or any of a dozen ways that she knew of to magically monitor a room. With only one wing she was ground bound, but pegasus magic reduced the weight of her hoof falls until they were almost nothing. Dashiel spent a solid ten minutes looking, five of which were re-checking things when the first check came up empty.

The room wasn’t lavishly furnished but it was decent. A good sized bed, with a night table. A set of drawers for clothing, along with a writing desk and chair beside a window that looked out over the castle grounds. The only really unusual things was the bookshelf that held a random assortment of titles. Dashiel didn’t know who this “Daring Do” was but the titles on the books sounded interesting.

Dashiel make one last pass around the room, checking the small attached bathroom and underneath the ridiculously soft bed. Still finding nothing, Dashiel resolved to regularly check the room as long as she occupied it. Twilight might have known she was going to check and was waiting to cast spying magic later. Dashiel climbed onto the bed and laying back tried to go to sleep.

“Shards,” Dashiel cursed softly, after several minutes of tossing and turning found her just as awake as when she had laid down. “Stupid soft mattress.” The scarred fighter got down off of the bed and proceeded to pull all the coverings off of it. Using the blankets, sheets and pillows, Dashiel made herself a nest on the hard floor. She also made sure that the bulk of the now stripped bed was between her and the door.

“That’s better,” Dashiel said, curling up on the floor, with only the padding of the blanket between her and its hard surface. A thin sheet over her was enough warmth for a pony used to sleeping rough, and laying her head on the pillow she soon found herself dropping off to sleep.

Streaks of fire lit the sky overhead, while the shrieks of wounded filled Captain Dash’s ears. The position she and the 12th Manehatten Rangers held was becoming harder and harder to hold. For four days they had managed to hold the strongpoint that kept the bridge to the south secure. Each time the Sombrans had charged their position, Dash and her teams had thrown them back. They had been tasked to hold the bridge to cover the retreat of civilians.

If they fell, the Sombrans would fall on the civilians like fruit bats on an orchard, and each and everypony of them would be carried off to become part of Sombra’s war effort. Sombra’s troops always seemed to get more numerous, even as her troops got fewer and fewer. The only thing that had saved them in the last attack was that the other side had no fliers, and Third Squad sacrificing themselves to drop a landslide on the attackers. As it was, she was down to thirty effectives, most of them earth ponies.

“Captain,” said one of the privates, a tall earth pony who had already taken a pair of minor wounds. “Air Blaze just dropped streamer signals indicating the enemy is massing for another attack down at the foot of pass.”

“What in Celestia’s name is Blaze doing airborne while the enemy is nearby?” Dash said, shaking her head in disgust. Air Blaze was the last of her pegasus scouts, if the Sombrans had a crystal shard launcher, or got one in position, their weapon would… Dash’s thoughts broke off as she, and the rest of the defenders, heard the distinctive rippling cough of multiple shard launchers going off at once.

“Aw, fuck,” Dash sighed, and swallowing, got to her feet. A minute or two later, the wreck of the pony that had been Air Blaze was carried up by a couple of stretcher bearers.

“Air… Air Blaze re-reporting,” came the bubbling voice of the pegasus. The pony coughed, blood pouring out in a viscous fountain and Dash knew Blaze was done for.

“Report, Scout,” Dash said, in her sternest “Captain” voice, even as her heart was breaking inside. She couldn’t let Air Blaze see the sorrow she felt for the dying scout, she had to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d accomplished something before he went to the Summerlands.

“Re-reinforced,” Air Blaze hacked out, then drawing a shuddering breath, seemed to steady himself. “Enemy is reinforced. Must be... about two hundred of them. Magic cannon, shard… hehe, shard throwers and couple of battle mages with them.”

“Okay, good report, Air Blaze,” Dash said, patting the mortally wounded pony on the shoulder. “Just take it easy and we’ll get you to the aid station.”

“Ma’am, they coming up the trail!” shouted a watchpony at a window. “Oh Celestia, we’re dead. We’re all dead!”

“Steady soldier,” Dash snapped, looking up at the rattled earth pony, weapon shaking in their hooves. “If we’re dead, we’re gonna take a bunch of them with us. Right?”

A choking gasp drew Dash’s eyes back down, and she could see that Air Blaze was finding it hard to breathe. No surprise with the pony’s body shot through in a dozen places. It was a miracle the pony had lasted this long. Dash bent low, looking into her scout’s eyes. At the least she could make sure Air Blaze’s last sight was that of a friend.

“A-an hon-our, Ma—” Air Blaze gasped, and then his head lolled to one side as the air left his body one last time.

“Go with the Light, Air Blaze,” Dash said, fighting back tears before standing back up. “How long until they get here?”

“A couple of minutes, no more,” said another soldier, and crossbows began to thrum as her soldiers began to open fire on the lead enemy skirmishers.

“Okay, get ready to—” Dash began to say, when something struck her head from behind and everything went black. Dash woke up a few minutes later, and the first thing she saw was her wife’s face looking down at her.

“Pinks!” Dash exclaimed, sitting up and rubbing her head. “What are you doing here? What happened?”

“We extracted you,” Maud said, in her monotone voice. “Princess Celestia said she needed you alive, so we tunneled in and got you out.”

“But what about my ponies!” Dash yelled and looked across the ravine toward the embattled strongpoint. Smoke was rising from the structure and even at this range she could see Sombrans climbing up the walls and into windows. The shrieks of the dying mixed with the song of crossbows and magic throwers.

“They collapsed the tunnel behind us,” Maud continued, in that matter-of-fact tone. “They did it so that the Sombrans couldn’t follow us.”

“But… but why didn’t they come?” Dash asked, already knowing the answer.

“Somepony had to hold the strongpoint,” Pinkamena said to her. “At least long enough for the earth pony engineers to finish taking down the bridge. It should be down any minute now.”

Even as her beloved Pinks said the words, Dash could hear the bridge that her and her ponies had guarded for so long, groan, then shriek, as with a rush of air and a cloud of dust the stone bridge collapsed into the ravine and the rapids far below. Dash just sat there, stunned. All that sacrifice, all that heroism. Air Blazer and all the other ponies like him, who had followed Rainbow Dash into hell, knowing that she would fight and die at their side, that she would do everything possible to save them, dead. For nothing more than an empty ravine.

“We’ll wait for you with the rest of the company,” Maud said to Dash, pulling her sister along. “Don’t be too long though, Celestia wants us to make time to Vanhoover as soon as we can.”

“It should have been me,” Dash said, her voice quiet and speaking to nopony in particular. “I should have died with them. Why do I keep surviving? Why can’t I just lay down and die? Why won’t somepony just kill me already?” A growing darkness seemed to close in around the pony, wrapping her in its cloak. The only light to be seen was that of the funeral pyre of the ponies Dash had led, the only sound was that of a weeping pegasus.

“War is hard,” said a voice, from behind Dash. “Scenes like this are why my sister and I have struggled so hard to keep war from Equestria.”

“Who?” Dashiel asked, and turned around to see Princess Luna. Not the Princess Luna that he knew though. This princess was taller, dark blue in colour and with a mane that looked like it was made from a patch of the night sky itself.

“Greetings, Captain Dash,” Princess Luna said, inclining her head to the sitting soldier. “May I sit with you, for a few moments?”

“Of course, Princess,” Dashiel said, indicating a spot beside her. “I’m called ‘Dashiel’ now if you don’t mind.”

“Ah yes,” Luna said, frowning for a moment in concentration. “Your traitor’s name, the one you use to punish yourself everytime somepony says it.”

“How did you know?” Dashiel said, eyes wondering. “Wait, this is a dream, isn’t it?”

“Perceptive, Captain,” Luna said, and with a small effort she erased the scene of war and death from the dreamscape, replacing it with a grassy meadow. “And I know something about guilt and ways that a pony can punish themselves for past wrongs. Yes, I know them well.”

“So, what are you doing here?” Dashiel asked, frowning at the peaceful surroundings. “It can’t be to punish me, or you already would have been doing it.”

“No Dashiel,” Luna said, with a sad smile. “I am not here to punish you. You are doing a far better job of it than I ever could.”

“But I need to be punished,” Dashiel said, getting to her hooves, roaring her rage and sorrow into Luna’s face. “Ponies died because of what I did. I lead them to their DEATHS. They TRUSTED me, and I KILLED THEM. My wife… My Pinks, DIED FOR ME!” Luna kept herself calm in the face of the storm coming from the pony in front of her.

“THEY ALL DIED, and I lived,” Dashiel screamed in rage, and tears began to pour down her face. “I HAVE TO BE PUNISHED. I NEED TO BE punished. Why won’t somepony punish me? Please Princess, please punish me.” Dashiel’s rage collapsed and her along with it. For a long minute the only sound that could be heard was choked sobs.

“Oh, my poor broken pony,” Luna said, gathering the weeping pegasus to her. “To live can be the most dire punishment of all. We who survive are forced to endure the consequences of our actions, and for a pony with even the slightest amount of good in their heart, guilt can be a cruel whip.”

“But, I’m not, a good pony,” Dashiel said, between sobs. “I’ve killed, had ponies die under me. I be—”

“Betrayed your Princess, your oaths, and your wife,” Luna said, her voice holding a note of understanding.

“How do you know all that?” Dashiel said, sobs slowing.

“Derpy made a report before she went to bed,” Luna said, smiling. “So, when your nightmare appeared in the dream realm I was ready to reach out to you. I’m sorry I was not able to intercede earlier but I had to know what you had been through.”

“And now that you do, can you punish me?” Dashiel asked, almost begging. “At least chain me up or something before I hurt somepony.”

“As I said, you punish yourself more than I ever could,” Luna said, and her face took on a look of calculation. “As for chains, you are bound to my realm now and to my sister’s student, so there is no need for physical chains on you. May I ask you a question?”

“Duh, it’s your Equestria,” Dashiel said, wiping away the last of the tears from her face. “I mean, go ahead, your Highness.”

“What did you think of Twilight’s guards?” Luna asked, still holding the pegasus but ready to release her at a moment’s notice.

“Bunch of amateurs,” Dashiel said, without a second's hesitation. “I mean, I’m sure they’re brave and everything, but up against professional soldiers they wouldn’t last a minute.”

“You’re maimed,” Luna said, using the word evenly. “How long would they last against you?”

“About ten seconds flat,” Dashiel said, snickering. “Even without my wing I could take them without working up a sweat.”

“I have another question, Dashiel,” Luna said, looking the pegasus in the eyes. “Would you be willing to work for me? I may be able to offer you a path to the redemption you think you need, if you are willing to become my little pony.”

You know, for a story that started out with a bondage, fetish romp, this story has certainly veered into some serious topics. It is, bar none, the story I find hardest to write and one that I take great satisfaction in getting out a chapter out each month.

A lot of this story, I will admit, has come from reader input or from ideas triggered from reading reader's input. Thank you.

Much kudos and credit as well to my editors: Sandstorm94 and Coyotethetrickster. They kung-fu my scribbles into legibility.

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Canary in the Coal Mine,
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Airar,
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and
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