I stare at Luna.

I laugh nervously, waiting for Luna to assure me that this is all some kind of horrible nightmare, and that Beakbreaker’s safe and sound.

Luna’s silent.

She’s... She’s not joking.

“Twen... Twenty five years?” I ask.

Luna nods.

“B... but that’s not possible! I was just knocked out a few days ago. How could–”

“Silverspeak, I know this is difficult for you to understand-”

“What about Beakbreaker? Where is she?! Is she dead?!”

“No.”

“But you said–”

“I said that Las Pegasus had been destroyed. I did not say your wife was among the departed. I know you want to see her, but you must understand what is going on.”

I don’t care about what Luna has to say; all I want is to see Beakbreaker. So much has happened so quickly that the thought of learning more is nauseating. But, hard as it is, I force myself to hold my tongue as Luna speaks.

“Twenty five years ago,” Luna says, “we were attacked by a pony called Iron Hoof, who was a general in the Equestrian army. Once he served our country with valor and honor, but as time went on, he began to demand that our forces subdue and eliminate other countries that could rise against us.” Luna shakes her head. “My sister and I tried to counsel him, to help him see the error of his ways, but he would not heed our words. Before we could remove him from his office, he rallied his supporters and staged a coup, launching an attack on all of Equestria.”

“Why?" I ask. "Why destroy the country he wanted to protect?”

“To demoralize its population, perhaps. Or to throw the two of us into turmoil while we tried to deal with it all. I know not why he did it, only that with the help of his followers, he was able to bring Equestria to its knees.”

“How could he do that? He’d need thousands, maybe millions to pull off such an act.”

Luna's face hardens. “He had few followers in the beginning. Some wanted power and wealth. Others joined because they had similar beliefs. But chief among his allies were the Arch-dragons. They were his hammers, destroying city after city in both fire and ice. When it was revealed that they had aligned themselves with Iron Hoof, thousands joined him, feeling free to come out and state what they truly felt and believed. Together, Iron Hoof and his allies swept across the world. Those who refused to join him were forced into his army and became cannon fodder, and all those who were not ponies, whether changeling, gryphon, dragons, or merponies, were taken.”

“Where?”

"We do not know." Anger simmers in Luna's voice. "In Iron Hoof's eyes, ponies are the only ones fit to rule. Everyone else are threats to be eliminated.”

“But why hasn’t he been stopped? Why hasn’t the army defeated him?! The Bearers, you, Celestia, Cadance, why–”

A hoof presses itself against my mouth. “We fought him, Silverspeak. No sooner had my sister and I escaped Canterlot then we rallied our forces and allies. Together we pushed Iron Hoof to the brink of defeat.” For a moment Luna’s full of life and passion, relishing memories of victories and triumphs. “We would have won... had Iron Hoof not unleashed weapons we had never seen before.”

“What kind of weapons?”

“Devices more terrible than anything we’ve ever seen,” Luna says quietly. “Weapons that can annihilate entire cities in moments. Explosives that rip the earth asunder and reduce mountains to rubble.”

That... that can’t be possible. The Equestrian army has always been at the forefront of weapons and defense technology, but we had nothing that would cause such destruction.

Luna wipes away a tear. “We had pushed Iron Hoof to his last fortress. We outnumbered him a hundred to one. My sister, Cadance, the Bearers, and I led the charge. But Iron Hoof had prepared for our attack by obtaining dark stones, the same kind that once formed Queen Chrysalis' throne. With their combined might, all our magic was useless, and what was to be our greatest victory became our greatest defeat. Iron hoof’s forces rallied and overrun us. Only my sister and I managed to escape. The Bearers, Cadance, Flurry Heart, Shining Armor, and so many others were taken prisoner. Equestria fell in a month. The rest of the world, within a year."

Luna closes her eyes, struggling to keep her composure. “The Crystal Empire was our last stronghold. It was protected by our greatest spells and the mightiest warriors from what remained of our forces. It was there that we hoped to fight off Iron Hoof’s forces and finally turn the tide... but there were too many.” Luna sniffs, rubbing her snout. "What was left of us came here, the one place where Iron Hoof cannot find us.”

“Where, Your Majesty?”

Luna’s magic pulls the curtains aside, revealing a building-sized window. Beyond it is an endless blackness peppered with countless pinpricks of light. A cave or cavern, perhaps? Are those lights from glowing worms or iridescent... wait. There’s something in the darkness. I go to the window and squint at it.

Sweet Celestia... I’ve seen it before in pictures and photos from books. It’s a planet.

It’s Equestria.

“We’re... we’re on the...”

“The moon, Silverspeak,” Luna says, “in the same caverns where I was imprisoned as Nightmare Moon. Now they serve as a safe haven for all who oppose Iron Hoof."

The planet bears little resemblance to the images I’ve seen of it: the once-vibrant blues, greens, and grays are gone, replaced by dull, ugly browns and blacks. It’s the splitting image of a dying world. Or, more accurately, a dead world.

From here, it looks as though nothing could survive on the planet’s surface.

“How many?” I ask. “How many are up here?”

“Ten thousand,” Luna says. “I lead the resistance with Ember of the dragons and Thorax of the changelings.”

“What about Celestia?”

There’s no answer.

I turn and find Luna drooping once more.

My stomach churns.

“No one fought harder, or longer, to save Equestria than my sister,” Luna says. “Losing Equestria and so many of her subjects and allies almost destroyed her. Yet, she refused to give up, constantly searching for a new Tree of Harmony.”

“A new Tree?”

“Though the original Elements were destroyed by Sombra long ago, Celestia believed that another had survived, somewhere in the furthest reaches of our world. I begged her not to go, but she would not see anyone else fall to Iron Hoof.”

Luna walks to the windows and peers out towards the planet. “She gathered her greatest warriors and magic casters, and set out to find such a tree... That was two years ago. We haven’t heard from her since.” She bites her lip. “If my sister found the Elements of Harmony, their magic would restore everything Iron Hoof has destroyed. But our forces are too few to mount an effective campaign against his forces. We rely on hit and run tactics to slow him, but we are only delaying the inevitable. If we do not find my sister or the tree, Iron Hoof will simply overwhelm us... He will win.”

I barely hear Luna. Equestria destroyed... the Bearers and other royals captured... Celestia gone... I... I don't think I can take anymore. I need to get away for a while, to calm my nerves. Only then can I make rational decisions about what I need to–

Wait... among the rush of information, I’ve forgotten about the only question that matters.

“Princess... you said my wife didn’t die in Las Pegasus. Where is she?”

Luna’s silent.

“You said she’s not dead–”

“She was in Las Pegasus when it was attacked, but escaped... though not without injury.”

“What?!”

“One of her legs was badly injured,” Luna says. “It needed to be replaced with a prosthetic similar to your own. But once she healed, Beakbreaker joined our resistance, becoming our chief medical officer and head surgeon. It was she who healed the wounded and gave implants to those whose bodies were mangled.”

I gulp, fighting to keep from throwing up at the mental image of Beakbreaker being hurt, of whimpering and trying to move with a shredded and mangled... No. No, I can’t think of that. “Where is she? In the medical wing with Silver Scalpel?”

Once again, Luna’s silent.

“Princess-”

“When a transport went down deep in Iron Hoof’s territory, Beakbreaker went with a rescue party to evacuate the wounded. We received word a short time later that their own craft had been shot down. That was a year ago. We haven’t heard from them since.”

Oh Celestia, no! “Are you telling me that my wife–”

“Iron Hoof would have no reason to kill Beakbreaker,” Luna assures me, “for he has been constantly taking skilled researchers like her. He has been working to refine and upgrade his program for assimilating prisoners into his army. It would work against Iron Hoof’s interests to end Beakbreaker’s life.”

Beakbreaker... She's in the hooves of that maniac?!

“I’m sorry if this is too much for you to take in all at once,” Luna says softly. “But the sooner you know what’s going on, and why others despise you, the better off you’ll be.”

It’s hard, but after taking another deep breath, I force all my worries and fears aside so I can concentrate on the moment. “Is that what you meant when you told the guards I wasn’t a traitor?”

A nod.

"But why? Why would they consider me a traitor? I haven't–"

Without a word, Luna turns to a wall, using her magic to project a screen onto the wall. She's showing me a recording. In it, an enormous crowd stands in an open stadium, thousands strong... maybe hundreds of thousands, all wearing the black and red uniform I saw at the fortress.

The recording zooms in on a podium flanked by golden statues of ponies. There's two ponies there, one of them talking into a microphone. Is that Iron Hoof? I lean in, squinting my eyes to get a better look. The pony who's speaking raises his hooves, veins bulging from his neck as he yells to the crowd.

Wait.

No...

The pony on the podium, he's... he's...

Me.

The recording shows me continuing to shout, my black and red uniform blowing about as I gesture wildly, met by the silent cheers of thousands. And then the recording stops, only for another to appear, showing another rally inside another stadium at night, the walls illuminated by dozens of torches shining high into the darkened sky. And there I am again, speaking and shouting, and met once again by cheers. And then more appear, and still more, in a palace, a field, a town, a city.

I see myself boasting and yelling with the fury of a mindless fanatic.

“You were Iron Hoof’s voice,” Luna says quietly. “You spoke for him, telling others of a new world, and the superiority of ponykind above all others, of how the technology you embraced would take us all to utopia.”

I say nothing.

“Your wife suspected you were under magical control, forced to give those speeches and sway thousands to Iron Hoof's side. She never believed you would do such a thing willingly. Neither did your acquaintances, including my sister and I. And from what Green Wing told me after your recovery, it seems you were. You were also kept in stasis when you were not speaking, so as to slow down your aging process as much as possible. But those who lost family and friends to your words didn't care if you were speaking of your own free will or not. They wanted to see you silenced. Permanently.”

I lean against a pillar, wishing there was a hole I could crawl into and never come out.

“We are having a council meeting momentarily,” Luna says. “I will inform the Resistance and my fellow leaders of your situation. Until then, you should remain here for your own safety.”

I don’t answer as Luna leaves, giving me one last glance over her shoulder before she departs, leaving me alone in the temple.

Celestia... The Bearers... A war the likes of which Equestria has never seen... And I helped make it all happen without knowing it.

Breathing deep, I push the thought aside. Grief will try to claim me for all I did, and for a quarter of my life that I will never get back. But all of that has to wait.

Only one thing matters now.

I look out the window and across the moon's rocky surface to our world sitting in the void.

Beakbreaker’s somewhere down there.

When I first got my horn back many years ago, I immediately wanted to learn how to use a spell so that I could find my wife in an emergency. The problem was, such magic can only be mastered by high-level unicorns, and such mastery was always beyond me. But I have to try. It's going to hurt like tartarus, but I have no choice.

If this spell helps me find Beakbreaker, I'll endure whatever pain comes my way.

I close my eyes, constructing Equestria in my mind: the landscapes, lakes and rivers, oceans and continents. Towns and cities, small outposts, all of it fill my mental map of my world. When it's done, I then mentally creating Beakbreaker. Her glasses, every stripe upon her skin, her earrings and tail. No detail is too small or too insignificant to leave out. The more detailed I am, the better my chances of finding her.

At last, Beakbreaker floats before me.

I gulp.

This is going to hurt.

Taking a deep breath, I focus.

Beakbreaker... come to me.

An ache hits me. A strong one. I try to ignore it, concentrating as I focus my magic on seeking out Beakbreaker, starting to scan an entire world for the one I seek.

Beakbreaker... show where you...

Pain... oh Celestia, pain! Oh, it hurts! It hurts! Oh Celestia, it hurts! I can't... I ca–

“...eak? Silverspeak, can you hear me?”

What...

“Silverspeak? Can you hear me?”

That voice. It's the doctor...

“Silverspeak? Can you-”

I groan, rubbing my eyes before opening them. I'm not in Luna's chamber. I'm not in the base's hospital either. I'm lying on a cot in a gazebo, the white lattice walls embraced with curtains of vines and greenery. Warm, green light shines through, coming from an unseen sun.

Where am I? Is this the Moon? Some chamber Luna has made for those who want a glimpse of a world that no longer exists?

I have the strangest feeling of deja vu. I've been here, but I can't remember when or where...

“Silverspeak.”

I look up to find the doctor standing beside the cot, along with... Princess Luna? Why is she here?

“Your Highness? What's going on? Where am–”

“Silverspeak, listen to me very carefully,” Silver Scalpel says. “What is the last thing you can remember?”

“I was in Luna's chamber,” I say, trying to bring the memory back. “I was... was trying to cast a spell that would help me find my wife.”

Silver Scalpel's face drops. He glances to Luna, who’s equally worried, and then back to me. “Silverspeak, please tell your full name, where you were born, who your parents were, and who your wife is.”

“Why?”

“Please. It is very important.”

“Silverspeak,” I say, the information coming easily. “I was born in Saddle Lanka to my mother and father, Brassbloom and... and...” That's odd; I know who my father was, but I can't recall his name. It's on the tip of my tongue and... Wait! I remember! “Copper Bottom! He was my father.”

The doctor tightens his lips. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because your father wasn’t Copper Bottom. He was Goldplate.”

What? No, that can't be right. I wouldn't forget my father's–

“Let's continue,” Silver Scalpel says. “If you had to sum up your life up to this point, what would it be?” He puts his hoof to his chin.

“I... I wanted to become an alicorn, and I did, briefly, before my wings and horns were removed.” The memories are clear and easily come to me. “Then I became a cyborg during a war with Queen Chrysalis and her changelings, and married Beakbreaker. And now I just learned that I was magically mind controlled for twenty five years, helping a despot commit genocide.”

The doctor nods, relieved, but still worried. Luna’s the same.

“Doctor, what’s going on?”

“Silverspeak, did you experience any headaches just before the war? More specifically, when you cast magic?”

“Yes, I did.”

Silver Scalpel bites his lip. “On a pain scale of one to ten, how severe were they?”

“A three... seven at the worst.”

The doctor nods. “I’m told you used magic when you escaped from the outpost. How badly did it hurt then?”

“Ten,” I say.

“And when you tried to cast magic in Luna's chambers?”

“A twelve, maybe more.”

Silver Scalpel gulps.

So does Luna.

Fear rises in me as I try to sit up. “Doctor, what’s–”

“Silverspeak... please listen to me very carefully.” Silver Scalpel’s talking slowly, as if to a child. “When you were first brought to this base, I did a medical check on you. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, considering your age, but there was something that caught my attention: some kind of anomaly inside your head.”

Anomaly?

“I wanted to do more tests, but I was ordered to wake you up instead. When I came to the temple to bring in you in for those tests, I found you having a seizure on the floor. You were taken back to the infirmary, and I scanned you again.”

He pauses.

“Silverspeak... I found a tumor inside your brain.”

W... What?

“I operated immediately, hoping to cut the tumor out, but it’s spread through your brain, implanting itself like roots from a tree. I... I couldn’t remove it.” Silver Scalpel points to Luna. “Her Highness tried using her magic, but the tumor... it's too advanced.”

Silver Scalpel gets closer to me. So does Luna.

“Silverspeak, your tumor... I'm sorry. It’s terminal.”

I stare at the pony before me.

“As best as I can tell, it’s been growing for a very long time. Decades, possibly. If we had caught the tumor before Canterlot, we could have removed it, but it's too late.”

It takes me a few moments to remember how to talk. “You mean... I'm going to...”

Silver Scalpel doesn't answer. Neither does Luna.

I suddenly feel light, as if my mind and my soul is trying to leave my body.

“How... How long?”

“It’s hard to say,” Silver Scalpel says, “There are many factors, things out of our control–”

“How. Long?”

months.” Silver Scalpel rubs his face. “Three months. Four at most. If you try to use magic, less than a month.”

I stare at him.

“If you remain here, we might be able to buy you a little more time. Your body will fight the tumor best if it’s resting.”

“We are in the astral plane,” Luna says. “Silver Scalpel put you in a coma, and I am in agreement with him: it is best if you remain here.”

I look down at myself. My body looks normal. I feel normal as I ease myself off the cot and walk to the gazebo's entrance. It's in the center of a beautiful garden surrounded by endless plains of grass that stretch to the horizon, all lit by a mid-morning sun.

It should be beautiful.

It's not.

“Doctor... Your Highness... I’d... I'd like to be alone for a while.”

The two nod. A flash of light, and they're gone.

I'm alone.

I sit before the gazebo, looking out towards a field that's not real, to a sun that doesn't exist, and an endless sky that only exists in my mind.

A warm breeze flows through my hair.

I am going to die.

Grass sways in the wind.

I should feel something. Anything. But I feel nothing. There's no grief, no sorrow, no fear, just an all-enveloping numbness.

My plans, my hopes, my dreams, even the war seems so unimportant now. A cruel joke, even.

I look out towards the horizon.

I am going to die, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I don't know how long I sit outside the gazebo. The bright crispness of mid-morning slowly gives way to the faded warmth of afternoon, and then the coolness of oncoming night. Night soon falls, the sky filled with countless, shining stars, illuminating the garden. Crickets chirp.

I ignore them all.

I'm on a journey into the unknown, an unwilling traveler heading to the far and distant country from which none return. Paradise could be there, where I would be reunited with my parents, never to be separated from them again, even unto the ending of the universe and time itself. Or there could be torment, suffering that put Tartarus to shame as I'm cast inside by a god I do not know for violating laws I know nothing about.

There is another possibility: there's nothing at the end of this journey. No paradise. No perdition. No reunion with my loved ones. Only nothingness that consumes body and soul, dissolving all who come into it: families, couples, parents, children, until they are gone.

Forever.

The warm wind continues to caress me.

It’s easy to sit here and do nothing. I should be thinking, trying to figure out what to do. Do I accept the inevitable and try to face it with as much grace as I can muster? Do I take any treatment, no matter how irrational, in the hopes of buying just ten more minutes of life? But even if I obtained that ten minutes, what would I do with it?

What do I do with the time I have left?

There's a soft glow behind me, then hoofsteps as someone walks forward.

“Silverspeak?”

Princess Luna stops beside me.

“How do you feel?”

I shrug.

“It’s shock,” Luna says. “Silver Scalpel told me it's common in situations like these. It's the brain's way of protecting you.” She sits beside me, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Do you want to talk?” she asks gently.

“What’s there to say?”

She studies me, her eyes going towards my cheeks. “There's no shame in crying, Silverspeak,”

I haven’t felt the need, but I appreciate her concern.

We sit together under the night sky.

“Princess?”

“Yes, Silverspeak?”

“Have you ever been with those who die? Those who are in comas or unconscious?”

She nods.

“What happens when they die?”

“They fade away,” Luna says softly.

“Where do they go?”

Luna looks to the sky, studying the stars and the endless space beyond them. “I don't know.”

A star shoots through the heavens above us.

The night goes on.

“What’s going to happen?” I ask. “As the tumor progresses?”

“Diminished capacity for thinking,” Luna says quietly. “Memory loss. Personality changes. At the end, you will fall into a coma and never wake up. If you stay here, all that will be avoided. There will be no pain or suffering.”

"Is there anything Silver Scalpel can do?" I ask. "Anything at all?”

“He is looking into into treatment options. But they will not cure you, Silverspeak. At best, they could buy you a little more time, but they are much more likely to do more harm than good.”

“So there’s nothing he can do.”

Luna nods. “Even with magic, the risk of damaging your brain while trying to remove the tumor is too great. Should he or I have made a single mistake, you and I would not be talking.”

“You mean I'd be dead.”

“No. You would be a vegetable, not knowing who you are or what was going on. At worst, you would be aware of what's going on, but become paralyzed, unable to say or do anything."

That, too, should frighten me. But it doesn’t. And I have no reason to doubt Luna, but I find her explanation difficult to accept. “I mean no offense, Princess, but I thought an alicorn like yourself could easily cure a tumor.”

“In ages before ours, the most powerful alicorns could do such a thing,” Luna admits. “But I do not have the gift of healing. All I can do is keep the dying comfortable until the time comes for them to pass. It is my sister who was blessed with the gift of healing. It is not at the level of our ancestors, but–”

Wait...

“Princess... If we were to find your sister, could she cure me?“

Luna turns to me. “Silverspeak, you know my sister–”

“Could she?”

I can tell Luna doesn't want to crush my hopes, for she takes a few moments to reply. “It is possible, yes. But it is only a chance, Silverspeak. My sister has cured many illnesses, but never anything as severe as your tumor. And her ability, while great, does not match those who came before us.”

“But it's still a chance.”

Closing her eyes, Luna tightens her hold on my shoulder. “Silverspeak, what remains of your original body is wearing out. If you did not have this disease, your passing would likely come within the next ten to fifteen years. And even if my sister can heal you, it will only delay death for a short time. No matter what we do, you will still pass. It is inevitable.” Moving before me, Luna puts her other hoof on my other shoulder as she opens her eyes. Hers is the gaze of a pony who has seen much, and wants to comfort while not sugar-coating her words. “Do you understand me?”

I nod. I know I won’t live forever. I may have wings a horn, but I do not possess the immortality that alicorns enjoy. And even if I did, the gift of eternal life would be meaningless if Beakbreaker was not there to...

Wait.

Easing her hold, Luna pulls back. “You should sleep now, Silverspeak. You need the rest.”

“Your Highness... You told me that Beakbreaker is valuable to Iron Hoof. That means he'd want to keep her close. If I were, say, to go to him, I could find out where she is. And if Iron Hoof took Celestia captive, I could find out where she is, too.”

Luna realizes what I'm saying, but I keep going, not wanting to give her a chance to interrupt me. “I can pretend to have escaped after you and the others tried to execute me. I would be pretending to join up with him, gain his trust, and use my talent on his officers, and find out what they know.”

“But your talent will not work on him.” Luna shakes her head. “Iron Hoof will see through your ruse. No one who has tried to infiltrate his inner circle has succeeded.”

“But I’m different. I’m the one who helped his army grow. If he wants to rule the world after his conquest, he needs to keep his followers in line. I’m his best chance of doing so.”

I can almost see Luna’s mind going through my words and my logic.

“Your Highness, I can't sit aside and do nothing while Beakbreaker's out there. If I can find her, and Celestia, then I can die knowing I helped bring an end to Iron Hoof. Even if I fail, I'd rather die trying, than to die knowing I did nothing."

I gently hold my princess' legs.

“Please... give me this chance.”

Luna thinks. Her face is a mix of pity and contemplation. I understand that; if I were in her position, and a pony in his mid-70’s asked to go on a military mission, my answer would be a resounding no. But I have logic backing me up. This is an opportunity for Luna to find out where her sister is, and to help bring an end to the war.

It's an opportunity impossible to pass up.

“I cannot stress how dangerous this plan is, Silverspeak,” Luna says. “I do not wish to see your life end with a gun to your head… But you speak the truth.” She sighs. “If this is what you want, then I shall do everything I can to make it a reality.”

My heart pounds. "Really?"

She nods.

I try to speak, to thank her, but the words die within me. This is what I need: not promises of a painless death, or that things will somehow work out in the end. What I need is hope, and Luna has given it to me. Not hope for myself, but in that I can save the one I love from the nightmare our world has become. And in the process, perhaps save so many others from that nightmare as well.

It's hope that will help guide me through all that's to come, no matter how difficult it may be.

Gulping, I look to Luna, wishing I could tell her all this, but I still can't find the words. Yet, as I look into Luna's eyes, I see that she understands.

I see hope in her, as well.

We sit together on the warm grass as a star shoots through the sky.

The end may be coming, but it doesn't seem so dark anymore.

Author's Notes:

End of Act 1.