It had been three days since Freedom Fighter had revealed himself and explained where he had come from. Since that time, the girls had all been unnaturally quiet and reserved. The story of how Freedom Fighter came to be had made them all reflect on their own sheltered lives and compare them to Freedom Fighter’s. Never before had they seen such suffering and depression in a single individual.

However awful it was to learn about, however, it was now over, and the girls had to go on with their lives. The Gala was still coming up, after all, and personal matters still had to be attended to. Twilight had to go up to Canterlot Castle early on to help set up the Gala. With her gone, their affairs had quickly became individualized. The girls had all separated to go and do their own things to get ready, such as baking fancy apple treats--Much to Applejack’s disdain--and experimenting with extravagant perfume--Much to Rarity’s delight.

However, just because the affairs were personal now, it didn’t mean that everything was hectic. For Fluttershy, everything had been taken care of relatively early, and she was left alone in her cottage to reflect on the events that had occurred.

Out of the three stallions that had entered into her life lately, two of them were on her mind. The first one was Freedom Fighter. Since she had first met him she knew that there was something off about him, something shatterable, something sensitive and heartbreaking about him. His introverted tendencies were too similar to her own to ignore. Being alone in corners, having rapid mood swings, and having a touchy attitude, she knew that there was something secret about him. She hadn’t inquired about it, however, because she knew that it would feel uncomfortable for him. She knew that bit as well. But now she was rebuking herself as she went about the house performing her chores.

She should have realized. She should have acted on it! She should have done something sooner, rather than later, and maybe he wouldn’t have been so vulnerable when he finally did expose himself. All because of her inability to act on a prompting! If only she hadn’t been so shy…

If only she hadn’t been so shy...she might have spent more time around the other stallion occupying every waking moment of her life.

Fluttershy had seen Noble Blade when he was much younger, and had seen him transform from a fledging adolescent to a strong and fearless protector. He was constantly pressing himself to reach beyond the point where he already was because he never thought he would be good enough. But Fluttershy saw in him what he refused to see in himself: he was good enough for her.

There was indeed a limit to self-improvement. If it got to the point where you didn’t feel good about anything that you did because you thought that you could do better, then you would eventually start to really believe that no matter what you did, you would never be good enough.

Fluttershy thought about him every chance she got. Everything about him, though he may have had the simplest features, entranced her because those unremarkable features were all on a pony like Noble Blade.

She admired the messy mane he had, long and thick and full. His pale blue coat that went so well with every other color of blue on him. The deep, deep blue eyes full of warmth and life. His fuzzy voice that sent goosebumps up her spine every time he spoke. The way he shuffled and made an adorable shy smile when he was around her. Did she really make him so nervous by just being there in the same room as him?

But it wasn’t just those aspects about him that she was entranced by. It was the way he acted as well. Out of all the colts and stallions she had ever met, Noble Blade was by far the best gentlecolt out of all of them. He showed love to everyone in the ways they wanted to be treated. He was generous with his money, and warm-hearted to strangers. He would never hurt anyone out of pure spite. Never.

There was simply no doubt about it in her mind. She was crushing on him hard, and had daydreamed of him and her meeting on the bridge outside her home for a tender and romantic kiss, reflected in the water beneath. The daydream edited itself automatically as day by day she dreamed and thought of it and imagined the perfect buildup to a tender kiss.

Noble Blade would trap her by placing both his hooves to the side of her. Fluttershy would halfheartedly try to take his arms away, but Noble would keep his arms steady and strong. As she would try to escape the arms to her sides, she would rub them up and down and feel how firm they were. It would continue up his arms to where she was caressing his shoulders, and to where she was rubbing the back of his mane. For his part, Noble would begin to rub one of his hooves through her mane, and gently caress her face down her cheek to her jawline with the other. He would lean in, press her back so the edge of the bridge so that the stone was pressing into the small of her back. And, with a blush and a smile on both their faces, they would lean forward and lock their lips.

She wanted to imagine for herself the pressure of his lips on hers, and for how he would caress her when he did. He would lean her against the side of the bridge, still kissing her, and would press his whole firmly muscled body against her own.

Every time she thought of that amazing scene, she had to suppress an exhale of giggling laughter and she started to fondle her mane nervously, right next to her face. It was a fantasy that she couldn’t remember having with any other stallion that had entered into her life before.

But how would he know that she loved him? What could she do? When and how could she finally, passionately declare to him in the loudest voice she could summon that she loved him with all the fire in her soul?

Noble Blade had taken over running Twilight’s castle in Twilight’s absence. He had volunteered to help Spike in the chores he was doing, and Spike had halfheartedly tried to say that, as he was Twilight’s number-one assistant, he would be the one in charge of cleaning. But Noble had pointed out that, whereas Spike was expected to help, Noble just wanted to do it. Besides, this way Spike wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. So Spike, outwardly begrudgingly but inwardly relieved, agreed to let Noble Blade clean up in the kitchen after meals.

Noble was grateful for the work. It allowed him to take his mind off of the events of the day before. But as much as he wanted not to, it still invaded his mind.

Freedom Fighter had taken to staying inside of his room 24 hours a day. He didn’t come out for meals or for meetings with Spike or Noble Blade or Firestorm or anyone else. So instead, the three of them took turns entering his room and conversing briefly with him before he would eject them from his room.

Noble Blade had volunteered to make most of the meals for Freedom Fighter himself, as a result of his compulsive desire to help others. He was suspicious of the activities Freedom Fighter was doing locked in his room with all of his sharp and deadly weapons, but each time he came in, he couldn’t see any new scars on his body, or fresh blood on the bedsheets. He was glad for that, at least, but it still concerned him every time he was about to enter his room, such as where he was now. After exhaling in worry, he knocked. Hearing no response, he assumed he could proceed.

He entered Freedom Fighter’s room holding a tray of food with his magic. As he came in, he observed that Freedom Fighter was out of his black skin and was lying on his bed, exposing all of his maimed and scarred body to Noble Blade. His left metal arm was limply drooping off the side of the bed, and his face was pressed into the bedsheets.

“Are you doing okay?” Noble Blade asked him as he came in. He set the tray of a sandwich and a collection of crackers down on his nightstand and sat down next to him.

Freedom Fighter didn’t answer him. Instead, he moaned in the back of his throat, then coughed hard and rolled onto his back. His chest convulsed as he coughed some more, then it stopped after a while. Even the smallest sound in his throat made him hurt extraordinarily.

“I said, are you doing all right?” Noble asked him. “You haven’t been cutting yourself more?”

Freedom Fighter slowly shook his head no. The thin, ragged mane to the sides of his face moved with him.

“I’m just concerned for you, Freedom. Are you going to think of anything to say to me?”

“I was having a perfectly normal discussion with myself before you came in,” he slowly let out of his head. His lips were firmly pressed together.

“Whenever you talk to yourself, you end up hurting yourself in some way. Is there any way I can help?”

“You’re doing fine just bringing food to me here.”

“I’m concerned. You’re alone in here, with nopony to see you talk to yourself or possibly hurt yourself.”

“That’s the way I like it.”

“I know that. But how do I know that you’re not doing anything terrible to yourself when I’m not watching?”

“Why, Noble, I’m hurt. You’ve hurt me down inside of my stomach. I thought you trusted me to keep my word.”

“Please! Please try to understand that I want the best from you.”

“You’ve dropped off food for me. Go away.”

“But--”

“Go away, Noble. Now.”

“You heard him,” Freedom Fighter said in his normal voice. “He’s kinda miffed right now. Leave me alone to starve to death, and then you can just pick up my inert body the next time you come in and deposit it down the trash can. That’ll be the end of it.”

Noble Blade gazed on his maligned and mangled body sadly for a little while longer. Then he stood up from off the bed and came to the door. Before he left, he called over his shoulder, “I always know where you are, right?”

“You know where to find me.”

“If I catch yourself bleeding out of someplace that wasn’t there before--”

“I know.”

“I love you.”

“Get out.”

Noble Blade looked over him for just a little more with immense pity before he closed the door to his private room and walked back to the kitchen. Once he arrived there, he donned an apron and gloves and started to wash the dishes in the sink.

How could he have been so selfish as to keep Freedom Fighter a secret? Noble Blade was better than that. He only wanted the best out of all of them, both Freedom Fighter and the mares he had connected with. He had thought that meant isolating his friend from prying eyes, trying to use vague language so that the girls wouldn’t become suspicious.

But looking back, he realized that the more cryptic he was, the more he had fed the fires of curiosity in them to the point where they would erupt into a bonfire. By allaying curiosity, he had instead made it stronger!

Why was it that whenever he tried to do something, it always ended up being not as he intended it to? First it was rescuing Twilight from the Noxxa. Their plans had gone askew many times in the process. Then it was making introductions with the Mane Six. He had come across as patronizing and upper-classmen-like. He couldn’t make that good of an introduction after all. Then it was insulting Rarity at the flying competition between Rainbow Dash and Firestorm. Then it was coming across as a shy, awkward pony when he had talked to Fluttershy. Then it was when he had talked with Firestorm about his own awkward problems with Rainbow Dash. Had he actually been helpful for his friend, or had he just come across as overbearing and authoritative? He hadn’t tried to be so one-dimensional, but it had happened anyway. Why?

And then it was recently, with his reluctance to share his friend’s secrets.

It was like he knew what the right thing to do was, but after he did the thing, he was always assaulted by this feeling of, ‘You didn’t try hard enough. You didn’t do good enough.’ He knew that was just his way of thinking, given to him by his father, and it was simply instinctive to think that way about himself. There was nothing wrong with trying harder. You always needed to try harder. Right?

Like how he needed to try harder with being around Fluttershy.

Oh, Fluttershy…

She was the most beautiful thing he had seen before. He had seen the beauty of the Sultan’s wife in Saddle Arabia, and he had seen the purity of gems and crystals all over the world. But the purity of them fell short compared to the wonderful color and sheen of Fluttershy’s eyes. The adorable way she would simply look at the ground and play with her mane and blush. It made his head feel fuzzy and faint. And how she would sound talking to him, and the smiles she would bestow upon him, and the way she relaxed in his arms when he had held her.

But what he couldn’t understand was how he acted while he was around her. Why was he so stupid? Why was he so dull and uninteresting? How did she ever fall for him in the first place?

The two conflicting thoughts ran around his head in circles. Which should he focus more on, helping his friend, or loving Fluttershy? He didn’t know which one took prevalence, and it anguished him to think back on it and wonder what would happen if he detracted from either one.

On the one hoof, if he focused more on expanding his relationship with Fluttershy, Freedom Fighter might feel even more isolated and distraught than he was even at the present, and it would make him look insensitive to his feelings.

But on the other hoof, neglecting Fluttershy was a sin in his mind. If he didn’t keep up the momentum with him and her, their interconnectedness might be irreparably damaged, and he would never get with her.

No matter which choice he made, he would fail. No matter what he did, something would go wrong because of him. Why was he like that? Why was it that he tried his hardest to love others in equal capacity, but everything still crumbled because of him? It was like the harder he tried, the more likely he was to fail. No matter what he did, he would never be good enough. On his date Fluttershy had said that he was good enough, but he refused to believe it. No matter how well you did at something, there was always room for improvement.

While he washed the dishes with that thought in his mind, he heard the doorbell ring at the front of the castle.

“I’ll get it!” Spike’s voice said from the other room, and he could hear the pitter-patter of Spike’s footsteps as he ran to the door. He heard the creaking of the doors as they slowly opened, and he heard Spike say, “Um, hi, Fluttershy. How are you?”

Fluttershy! He dropped the dish he was holding in the sink in shock, and almost jumped out of the kitchen, flinging off his apron and gloves. Sure enough, once he came to the front door of the castle, he saw the angel herself standing there behind the small stature of Spike’s head.

“I was just wondering, if, um, Noble Blade was here--” Fluttershy started to say, but she cut off when she saw him. She instantly smiled, blushed and pushed her mane in front of her face. “Oh, um, h-hi there, Noble.”

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Noble Blade asked, coming nearer. He stopped when he was about three feet in front of her, trying to show his respect for such an angel’s aura of beauty.

“I came to ask you...um...t-tonight, do you, um, have anything going on that you need to do?” she asked him demurely.

“Not in particular, no,” Noble said.

“Well, I, um, wanted to know if you’d...if you’d like to, um...oh, gosh…”

“What is it?” Noble asked, offering a smile to reassure her.

“If you’d like to come to my house...to, um...learn how to...to dance?” She withdrew her head inside her mane even more so the only thing he could see was a single aquamarine eye. “Y-you don’t have to, of course--”

“No, no, no!” he quickly said. “No, I’d…” he shuffled his hooves. “I’d love that.”

Her demeanor changed from nervous to joyous in an instant. “Oh! Well, um, is it okay to come at five? Because I’ve got, um...other things to do for the rest of the time, and I’d really like you to come.”

“Five o’ clock. Yes! Yes, that sounds good!” Noble agreed quickly. “I’ll be there.”

She blew a breath of relief. “Oh, good. Angel Bunny really told me I had to get a yes out of you. I guess I’ll just, um...I’ll, um, go now.”

And she backed awkwardly out of the castle and shut the door. After the door closed, Noble could have sworn he heard a triumphant giggle from outside, as well as a small, celebratory whisper of “Woo hoo. I did it!”

Noble’s heart melted. It was too adorable for him to stand.

A tap on the shoulder made him turn around. Spike was still there, and had seen the whole exchange. He was looking miffed for some reason, and his arms were folded.

“Spike?” Noble asked, concerned. “Is there...something wrong?”

“Oh, no,” was Spike’s sarcastic reply. “Everything’s just so happy for you. Good luck.”

The unexpected venom in his voice made Noble nervous. “Is there something you’re not telling me, Spike? It seems like everypony’s letting out secrets now. Me with Fluttershy, Firestorm with Rainbow Dash, Freedom Fighter with his backstory--you might as well join the crowd.”

Spike kicked the ground. “Look, I know that you’re not, well, trying for this kind of attention from literally half of the girls, but…”

“But?” Noble gently prodded.

“But I can’t help but hate you for it!” Spike furiously hurtled the words at him. “You’ve had it easy, haven’t you? All of the girls throwing themselves at your hooves. Twilight. Fluttershy. Rarity. You’re just the next big, hot topic for them. The biggest problem for you is holding them off of you, while I try my hardest to get Rarity’s attention and she doesn’t care for me at all!” He threw his hands up and begun to pace. “I mean, I’m kinda glad that you’re not going off and falling in love with her as well, but that just makes you look like an even bigger jerk than usual because you get that kind of stuff all the time, and you just...shrug her off like she’s just another pony, and not the wonderful, amazing, perfect pony that she really is!”

The words were meant to hurt and they did. “They didn’t throw themselves at me!” Noble protested. “And I’m not--”

“You want to know what I’ve had to deal with, Noble? When I help out Rarity, I can hear her mumble your name under her breath. “Oh, Noble. Noble Blade, such a gentlecolt.” And how do you think that makes me feel, huh? Compared to you, I’m just average, normal Spike in her eyes.”

“Look, I didn’t try--” Noble tried to say, but Spike wasn’t done yet.

“Oh, look at me. I’m Noble Blade, everypony. I’m soooo humble and I’m so strong at the same time! I’m so gold-dang perfect that I fall in love with Fluttershy the instant I look at her. B-b-but I’m still humble, though! I’m still humble! I’m supposed to be this indestructible warrior of Equestria, but I’m also the guy that knows what to do with all the mares! Be better, everypony! Always be better than who you are now!”

“Since when have I ever acted like that?” Noble demanded of him. He lapsed into archaic language. “For I have never said I’m humbler than thou.”

“And that’s another thing!” Spike said to his face. “Speaking fancy like that doesn’t make you look good. It makes you look pretentious and snobby.” Spikes voice went into a mockingly deep Canterlot accent. “It pleaseth me to make thy acquaintance, my most esteemed lady, for thou art truly regarded highly amongst all the stars in heaven. Now, please, let me know what thou thinkest o’ me and my way of speech, for I truly am weak and lowly. Can thou not tell so by the way I speak?”

“That’s just an involuntary thing! Rude and snotty--that’s what I’m trying not to be!” Noble Blade exclaimed indignantly. He was losing control quickly “Where is this attitude coming from, Spike? Just a few days ago you were saying that you liked having me around. Did I do something wrong?”

“Seeing the way you’ve been acting makes me sick,” Spike said in disgust. “So far, you’ve claimed to be strong enough to be a servant of Celestia, but why are you strong in the first place if you lock up and stutter around your crush?”

“Is that not what you do as well?” Noble angrily asked of him. “What about you and Rarity?”

“Rarity, for the record, is distracted by you,” Spike said, and there was a sliver of injury in his eyes as he said it disguised in anger.

“So what would you like me to do about this?” Noble Blade asked of him, a little hotly. “I’ve done nothing to Rarity!”

“I want you to stop acting the way you do around them,” Spike said. “So sickeningly right all the time.”

“How can I choose wrongly if I know the right option?” Noble asked of him.

“I dunno! Just...just give up, all right? You’re better than this. You’d be a better pony if you just didn’t go for any of the girls at all.”

Noble’s heart broke. The thought of losing Twilight and Rarity as friends...the thought of losing Fluttershy...it made him tremble in place. His angry temperament was extinguished in an instant. “You can’t say that,” he whispered.

“Yes, I can!” Spike growled. “It’s your fault that there were divisions between them in the first place! Rarity and Fluttershy screaming at each other in the spa! That was all your fault!”

“I never wanted them to fall for me!” Noble Blade pointed out.

“You don’t sound all that happy about it.”

“I hate it when mares try to go for me, actually. I wish they wouldn’t, but it did, and I’ve just been trying to keep things safe! I’d switch places with you in a heartbeat!”

Spike looked jolted at the statement, but he set his face hard again. “Me, too!” he said vehemently. “Tell me, Noble. Why is it that it’s so bad for you to have attention from all the girls?”

At that moment, Noble honestly didn’t have much to say. Why was it like that? What kind of suitable answer could he give?

But as he thought that, he felt something in his mind--something that wasn’t him--give slow words to his mouth. It felt foreign and outside the body, but it also felt incredibly natural and accepting to his thought process.

“Because think of it from their own perspectives, Spike,” the force making him talk said out loud. “Not mine. I just want to understand everypony the best I can!”

Spike gave a skeptical raise of an eyebrow.

“Imagine,” Noble said, and it wasn’t his own words now, but instead the strange but benevolent force that had taken over his mind, “that you’re a young mare, eager and eligible for a partner. And think that this stallion comes into your life, young and fair to your eyes.”

“Okay,” Spike said, tapping on his fingers. “The stallion is you. You’re defending yourself. And you’re offering this long-winded explanation for it. I want to see where this is going.”

Noble continued, slightly hurt by his words. “You begin to pine over him, obsess over him, think out your sentences before you say them to him. Every time you see him, your heart skips and goes a little faster than usual. Walking while you’re near him becomes a manual response instead of an automatic one. One day, you go and you tell him that you’ve had a crush on him for however long it was since you first saw them. You’re hoping, hoping against hope itself, that he’ll love you back. And he opens his mouth to speak to you, and your heart freezes. And he admits that...he’s not interested. Your insides...shatter, in-in pain.”

Noble’s own throat almost closed as he then realized that he wasn’t just talking about Rarity or Twilight’s feelings towards him at that point.

He was at the same time voicing his own feelings he felt towards Fluttershy. And his fear of what would happen if he were to ever say something permanent to Fluttershy.

The new force that was taking over his speech wasn’t done, however.

“Your throat tightens, your eyes burn, your stomach clenches as you realize that this stallion that you’ve loved will never be yours and all of your imagining of a better life with him was all vain and foolish. And, see, the stallion sees this in the mare’s eyes and he doesn’t know what else to say to her except for that pitiful and useless word, “Sorry.” And he doesn’t want to hurt her, he doesn’t want to see her hurt so much because of him. He’s simply telling the mare that she’s not the one for him, but he doesn’t know how to say it so that it doesn’t hurt. He feels like the guiltiest thing in the world, because it’s all him that’s hurting them. It was his features that drew the mare’s attention, and it was his behavior that reeled her in--and it’s his words that fracture her heart. It’s his fault. All of it. He didn’t want to, and he didn’t try to, but he did it anyway, and he now has an upset and angry mare to prove that all he is is just another scumbag. It pains him to see it, but what else could he do?”

Spike still looked at him sulkily, but his stare wasn’t as hard as before.

“Now, imagine that this happens to both Twilight and Rarity--and to half a dozen other mares he’s encountered when he’s been sent to the fringes of the world, in small rural villages and in isolated cities to the far west. Imagine the guilt that he feels when he tells them that no, he won’t be with them, and that no, he does not love them. He sees the light in their eyes die, and he feels bad for making them feel bad. It’s not their fault at all for falling in love with him, it’s his. It’s all his. And it’s because he feels so guilty that he doesn’t know how to act around mares and instead plays the safe route of being shy and humble. It also makes him uncomfortable in relationships, because he’s just so...scared of messing up yet again that almost anything that he does, he feels sorry for himself. He hates himself for even the smallest thing he does, Spike. He hates himself so much!”

It surprised Noble to hear himself speak so vulnerably. In normal circumstances, he wouldn’t speak so passionately. But this new influence that made his mouth open and close and cause the vibrations in his throat necessary to form words had by then overtaken him.

“I don’t want to hurt anypony, Spike. But I don’t know how to please everypony in the process. I don’t know how else I can prove myself. And I don’t want to be destined to a life of mediocrity. I want to prove myself a good pony to others. But how? How to go about doing it? I know not, and it causes me anguish to know that.”

Spike’s face had visible softened by then. “Oh. Oh, um, s-sorry ‘bout that,” he said, scratching the back of his head.

“Don’t be!” Noble cried. The strange feeling that had possessed him had started to dissipate. “Please, I beg of you! Don’t be! This is exactly what I needed to let you know! Thank you, Spike! Thank you so much!” He violently shook Spike’s hand, making him shake up and down. After the forceful handshake, however, he set him up straighter. “You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah,” Spike mumbled. He tapped his fingers together. “Listen, I’m sorry about what I said earlier. That was uncalled for. I was just trying to, well...to defend Rarity. I just want to show you that I actually...well, matter. Of course nothing’s your fault.”

“No, that’s fine,” Noble agreed quickly. “You were angry and impassioned. You were trying to show your determination to love Rarity more than my piecemeal attempts to make Rarity my friend. You’re fine.”

Noble’s influencing friend had left by now, and Noble’s mind was the same as it was before the influence had come in and forced his mouth to talk. It confused him. Who was it that had done it to him? What had happened? Weak in the knees all of a sudden, Noble Blade sat down on his rump.

“So.” Spike smiled sheepishly. He sat next to him. “What now?”

“For me, or for you?”

“Both of us. I-I mean, you’re not going after Rarity, right?”

“I suppose not.”

“So you’re not...well, you know…”

“Yeah.”

“So you’re still going to try for Fluttershy.”

“Of course!” Noble said emphatically.

“How can I just...tell her that I...I love her?”

“ ‘Tis simple. Talk with her. Tell her yourself.”

“Dude. You haven’t done that with Fluttershy yet.”

Noble’s face turned pink. “I know. But I, ah, plan on doing that soon.”

“How you gonna do it? Get on your knees and deliver this long, flowery speech to her?”

“Um...well, I know not about the knees. It seemeth to me a silly thing.”

“But for real, though. Your archaic language sounds snotty. Don’t use it to profess your love to her.”

“WHAT!” Noble Blade recoiled his head so far back he almost fell over. “Thou dost dare insult my completely intellectual method of communication? Depart from thence, heathen!” Noble shouted jokingly, pointing to the side. “Thou art unworthy of standing in mine most esteemed presence. Wherefore, I do declare, thou miniscule reptile, that thy criticism is unwarranted and unwelcome. Begone, for thou hast pointed out flaws in mine mindset. Away with thee! And again I say: away with thee!”

Spike began to snort with laughter. “Naw, for real, you sound...you sound like an old wizard in Ogres and Oubliettes!”

Noble let loose a bout of hearty laughter. “I overdid it there, right?” he asked when he was done.

“I suppose so.”

It wasn’t Spike who had spoken.

When Noble Blade heard this, he froze and looked to the sides of his face suspiciously. “I advise caution, thou delinquent reptile. It appeareth to me as though we are not alone in this place. Be cautious; be constant.”

“That actually sounded a lot like--”

“I know who it sounded like. And Firestorm’s not all that good at hiding.”

“How’d you know it was me?” Firestorm’s voice asked, then Noble heard him wince and say, “Shoot!”

Noble Blade looked up. There he was, hanging from the ceiling by his legs like an overgrown orange bat. He held a video recorder in one hoof as he drooped over a buttress.

“How long have you been there?” Noble asked him shrewdly, tilting his head.

“Over an hour.”

“What have you been doing?” Spike asked him.

“Hanging around.” He snickered.

“You saw all of our discussion?” Noble demanded of him.

“And recorded it for posterity,” he admitted, waving the video recorder.

“DEPART!” Noble screamed somewhat melodramatically, pointing to the side. “AND AGAIN I SAY: DEPART!”

“Yeah, aren’t you supposed to go and try clothing for the Grand Galloping Gala?” Spike shrewdly asked.

“To impress a certain rainbow-maned pegasus?” Noble asked, continuing off of Spike’s point. “Or art thou so focused here and now in thy attempts to embarrass us that thou carest not about making a strong impression at the Gala?”

There was a silence created as Firestorm processed the more productive things he could be doing at that moment.

“I’m just going to go now,” Firestorm whispered loud enough for the two of them to be heard. He retreated back into the buttresses in the castle ceiling. “I’m not even going to offer an excuse why.”

Canterlot Castle was full of ponies setting up the Gala in the spacious Grand Hall where it always was. The decorations were almost entirely set up, the caterers had brought the food to the Grand Hall, and the musicians for the event had practiced and practiced hard beforehoof.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were atop a tall balcony directing the servants to set up the last of the tables. Twilight, helping down on the ground, could see that Octavia Melody was up on the stage with the rest of her musicians as usual, but there was the DJ pony she had as a roommate next to her as well, setting up sound systems for her and her companions. Twilight was a little confused by her presence. DJ Pon-3, or whoever she was--wasn’t she disgusted by incredibly fancy events like the Grand Galloping Gala?

And weren’t her glasses pink instead of green? Where had the new glasses come from?

Twilight only let her thoughts dwell on her for a moment, however, as she directed workers to help set up tables and spread tablecloths over them. What was really occupying her mind was Freedom Fighter. But not just what he had answered by taking off his second skin. What really was making her mind churn was the questions that arose from it.

Twilight had noticed that when he had earned his Cutie Mark, there was a tremendous noise and a rainbow that had appeared out of nowhere. It could have simply been a herald announcing the anointing of himself as the savior of his tribe. Or, it could have been…

No.

No, it couldn’t be.

Twilight almost gasped aloud, but her eyes dilated inward until they were only small dots in the whites of her eyes.

What if it had come from the Sonic Rainboom?

All the way back when Twilight and her friends were fillies, they had all earned their Cutie Marks at the same time by a small Rainbow Dash when she had performed a Sonic Rainboom. Twilight thought that they were the only ones to have earned their marks when that happened. But what if...through some remarkable feat...the Sonic Rainboom’s radius had expanded to the corners of the known world and reached him right as he was in the middle of that battle?

Freedom Fighter would then be part of the Cutie Mark bond that the girls shared!

But what if it wasn’t just him?

What if every Guardian of the Sun had gained their Cutie Mark just as the Sonic Rainboom had appeared above them?

It was an incredible thought, but one that made sense. The three of them seemed to be closer than brothers, closer than even lovers. They all seemed to simultaneously be a part of each other. Much like Twilight and her friends.

How did Celestia know?

How did Princess Celestia know that Freedom Fighter was on the opposite side of the world, and send the father of Noble Blade to rescue him?

She was suddenly bumped in the side by a table being carried by several white-bodied servants. “Oh!” one of them said. “Excuse me!”

“No, no, no!” Twilight said quickly. “You’re not--” She noticed Celestia standing above her on the balcony, and she had an idea. “You’re not unforgiven,” she said, loud enough for her to hear.

Twilight then turned her head up and saw Celestia twitch her ear and wince, and Luna widened her eyes and stumble mid-step. They knew. They knew something about the Unforgiven.

Five hours later, Twilight had entered the same room as Princess Celestia, who was setting up a long line of lace on the bannisters near the entrance door. She was unrecognized at first, but as she came closer, she gave a little cough to announce her presence.

Celestia turned around, and the magic she was supplying to keep the line of white lace in the air cut off, dropping it. “Why, Twilight! What is the matter?” she asked.

“Well, everything’s just fine,” Twilight said evenly, rubbing her hoof along the bannister. “I’ve got some questions for you, though.”

“What is it you would like to know?” Celestia asked with a smile.

“It’s...well...It’s actually about...Freedom Fighter,” Twilight admitted.

Celestia’s face was as calm as ever, although her mouth twitched at the corners uncomfortably.

“We were just learning about who he was, actually,” Twilight said nonchalantly--or tried to, but was really bad at being nonchalant. “You know, going and seeing for ourselves what happened to him. It was...it was, well…”

“Haunting,” Celestia finished for her.

Twilight started, slipping backwards for only a moment.

“Freedom Fighter was a unique case in all the years I’ve been a princess of Equestria,” Princess Celestia admitted. “I had not considered the presence of other lands far beyond Equestria that I needed to direct my full attention to. My greatest concern was for Equestria. But after Freedom Fighter was rescued from imminent danger, my thoughts and concerns were expanded significantly beyond Equestria’s borders.”

“How did you find out he was in danger in the first place?” Twilight asked.

“It came to me in a dream to search for the Unforgiven, who was prophesied to come and restore peace to his tribe by extinguishing the influence of the Noxxa,” Celestia replied. Her hooves shuffled uncomfortably, however.

“But Princess Luna was still in the form of Nightmare Moon,” Twilight pointed out. “And she was still banished to the moon. How did your dreams show you anything special if she wasn’t there to direct them?”

Princess Celestia looked uncomfortable. “Not every dream has to come from Princess Luna.”

“But if it didn’t, how did you know how to take the dream seriously?” Twilight asked her.

“I don’t know!” Princess Celestia snapped suddenly. “I don’t know why the dream has to matter so much to you!”

“Because I think Freedom Fighter--and the rest of the Guardians of the Sun--are connected to us!” Twilight cried.

Celestia blinked, then set her face. “Explain.”

“A little while back, Firestorm, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash went on a friendship mission to the Castle of the Two Sisters,” Twilight began. “And while they were there, they discovered a carving on a compartment hidden beneath the thrones. That carving had the Tree of Harmony on it. And on all ten of the branches of the tree, there was an Element.”

Celestia’s face broke into a wavering expression of worry.

“Going off on the claim that we’re all connected, Noble Blade’s Cutie Mark is a sword with Fluttershy’s Cutie Mark butterfly wings on the sides. And Freedom Fighter’s Cutie Mark was received as a circular rainbow appeared in the sky.”

Celestia looked at the ground to avoid Twilight’s gaze. She started to fiddle with the decorations on the bannisters.

“And Noble Blade’s father says that your vision came from Faust herself,” Twilight finished. “Which could also be the one responsible for connecting the three of them to us, as well. Are you sure that there’s not something you’re telling us?”

“I can’t tell you,” Celestia corrected her. “I was instructed not to tell you.”

“By whom?” Twilight demanded.

“I can’t tell you that either.”

“Why can’t you let us know? We appear to be central to all of this!”

“Your time has not come yet,” Celestia said.

“My time?” Twilight asked incredulously. “When will it be, then?”

“Oh, my. I shouldn’t have said that,” Celestia whispered, putting her head down.

“Celestia, please,” Twilight begged. “This concerns me as much as it concerns you and your own place. We have to know!”

Celestia’s face creased in anguished thought. Twilight could almost see the cogs turning behind Celestia’s head and flowing etherial mane. Her mouth pursed together, her head turned to the side, her hooves shuffled around.

Finally, Celestia looked up. “After the Gala, you and the rest of your friends must see me. I will explain everything then.”

“You promise?” Twilight asked.

“I promise,” Celestia promised her. “You and the rest of your friends shall know everything after the Gala. For the moment, however, there are more pressing matters.”

“What could possibly be more pressing than this?” Twilight asked.

“Well…” Celestia started, then held up a long string of lace. “Should this go on the doorknobs as well as on the bannisters?”

Twilight only gave her a look of disapproval. Celestia gulped and tried to keep a smile on her face.

Sister!

Celestia? What art thou doing in mine head? Depart!

This is serious news, sister. Twilight is becoming curious of the Ten Elements. We’re separated now, however. She went off to help clean up a spill on the second level. I don’t know how much longer the two of us can continue to communicate like this in the future, though.

Didst thou make mention of the Ten Elements? Did I hear thee correctly?

Yes, Sister. Mother told us to not to reveal it until the Prophet came and told us the time when Father would rise. But now, I fear it may not come at the time we wish.

There hath been bountiful opportunity to relay the information to them before, Sister. Why didst thou not--

Didn’t you hear me? I just said--

But Twilight and her friends hath proved their worth before, have they not? And why hath we concealed it for so long?

The dangers presented would be too much for them, Sister! If Twilight and the Guardians knew about their destiny, pronounced from before the universe began--

Thou needest not remind me.

I promised them I would reveal the truth after the Gala. That is when they would all be together, anyway. Much more convenient that way.

After the Gala? How wise of thee, I suppose. And not after any of the other Galas they hath been in before?

That was before the Noxxa were on the move! When Twilight was abducted by them only a few weeks ago, that was the first time they had been seen up and about in years! The Noxxa were safely contained before, but now, with them going close enough to Saddle Arabia’s borders to hijack Twilight’s train...it means that the time is drawing closer. We don’t need the Prophet to declare the time to let us know.

But the Prophet hath great power! If thou darest cross him, it could spell bad news.

A few minutes ago, you were saying that we should have let Twilight know sooner!

Twilight should have indeed known sooner, but what about the Prophet? We didn’t cross the Prophet before when we knew him personally. Why must things happen now, of all times? I was finally looking forward to some relaxation and comfort.

Maybe the Prophet is on his way now.

Yes, maybe. We hath not seen him since he disappeared back into the lands where he came from with his brother, but he may very well be on his way back now, of all times.

Don’t be sarcastic, Sister. Now that we both know the levity of the situation, we can make a plan.

Plan?

It’s not as though we reveal this information to them and then do nothing more. We must prepare the way for them to be found.

The Ten Elements?

Precisely.

But thou knowest what that meaneth? That when the time comes for the Ten Souls to be reunited, then shall the earth quake and tremble, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The land itself shall be rolled together as a scroll, and Armageddon's advent shall occur.

Yes. We must be prepared for that eventuality.

That means that...father shall come.

Yes. Father. But we shall stop him.

With all ten Elements?

If it must be so.

Even with the tremendous power Father wieldeth?

The Elements are the only thing that can stop him now. Mother said so.

And where is Mother now? Where hath she been all these years?

She is watching us. Watching, but never interfering with our own affairs. Learn to have faith, Sister.

I require not faith. I have faith already. What I require now is knowledge.

If you have knowledge, your faith is meaningless, because then you know it, and you don’t possess faith in it anymore. Faith doesn’t mean we have to have a perfect knowledge of everything. Faith is hope in things that are not seen but are true anyways.

I have to go. I have to decide where a refreshment stand should be.

Farewell, Sister.

And you.