Little Consequences

by Skijarama

First published 25th of May, 2018

Princess Rainbow Dash and her friends have found themselves in the newly restored Crystal Empire, and now struggle against the forces of Queen Chrysalis and the enigmatic King Sombra in an effort to reclaim Canterlot and save Equestria.

In the aftermath of the fall of Canterlot, Princess Rainbow Dash and her friends have found themselves in the newly restored Crystal Empire, seeking a power that they can use to push back Queen Chrysalis and save Equestria. But with the history of the Empire shrouded in darkness, finding this power will prove a challenge.

To make matters worse, a shadowy presence lurks at the edges of the Empire, and the Changeling Swarm will only take so long to discover where the last remaining princess has gone. The pressure is mounting, and even though she feels she isn't cut out for this, Rainbow Dash must step up to her station and lead her friends, and the Empire, to save Equestria... or lose everything she holds dear.

Cover Art was drawn up by the absolutely incredible Novaintellus. They are one of my favorite brony artists, so please, go show them some love!

Never thought I would write a story that necessitates this, but beware the spoilers in the comments!

Nightmare

“It truly is beautiful, isn’t it?” Princess Celestia asked, looking on at the endless, gloriously green hills with a soft smile and gentle, mesmerized eyes. Her sun shined down on the area, illuminating it all in a bright and comforting glow. Barely any clouds populated the sky that day, white, fluffy, and completely docile. Flowers of enumerable species and colors danced ever so gently as a subtle breeze washed over the serene landscape, and a few petals were set loose upon the currents in the air. She shifted slightly on the blanket she and the two others mares rested on, and looked down at the pegasus that casually rested the back of her head against Celestia’s barrel. The mare looked back up at the alabaster alicorn and put on a small smile, her rainbow-colored mane shifting slightly over her face from the movement.

“It is. Kinda barren though, isn’t it?” Rainbow Dash asked before returning her attention to the endlessly sprawling hills. “I mean, there’s not really anything here. Just us.”

“If we are being honest,” Princess Luna cut in with a small smile of her own while nibbling on a banana. She swallowed her bite before pointing at the other two with the butt of her snack. “Do we really need anypony else? We’re with family.”

Rainbow Dash gave a small shrug and chortled. “Hey, you got me there,” she admitted before looking straight up into the sky again. “Yeah… this is nice. Open skies, simple land, and my family…” a small smile worked its way onto her face as she spoke.

“Open skies, indeed,” Celestia noted before craning her head down to nuzzle Rainbow Dash atop the head affectionately. “Open enough for you to perform a sonic rainboom? It has been quite some time since you stretched your wings, after all.”

Rainbow’s relaxed smile turned cocky and confident. “Oh, yeah. Easily! Just gimme a minute to load up, kay?” she said before sitting up from Celestia’s side and turning to a small wicker basket that she had by her side. Peering inside, her mouth watered at the sight of a pasta and potato sandwich on sourdough bread with a side of crispy potato slices, cooked just enough to have a nice crunch. Licking her lips, she withdrew the contents and got to eating.

Luna play gagged at the messy display, though the mirthful smile on her face could not be missed. “You really like odd combinations, don’t you?” she asked, eyeing the meal with a mix of confusion and mild disgust.

“Odd is good,” Celestia countered Luna’s statement with a playful smirk of her own. “After all, What fun is there in life if one cannot cut loose and just be odd from time to time?”

Luna shrugged at that. “I suppose I just have to deal with enough oddities in the dreams I visit each night. The depths of a ponies mind can be strange and twisted indeed.”

Rainbow swallowed a slice of potato and nodded. “I can attest to that. One time I dreamed that Twilight had three heads, and each one had a different personality. They all talked over each other and I was so confused.”

“Huh… I wonder why you had such a dream…” Celestia pondered before shaking her head.

“Oh, I can tell you why,” Rainbow proclaimed before taking an enormous bite out of her sandwich. After a few seconds chewing, she gulped the contents, burped lightly and kept talking. “I love the mare, but holy cow can she ramble sometimes. Give her a new book and she won’t shut up for hours if it’s good, and double that if it’s a bad book. She’ll be verbally tearing it apart for days if it’s particularly offensive.”

“That sounds about right for my faithful student,” Celestia outright laughed before closing her eyes and taking a long, deep breath. Rainbow finished off her sandwich with one more giant bite, then nudged her adoptive mother in the ribs.

“Eyes open, mom. It’s time for my big performance!” she declared, standing up and starting to do a few stretches. Celestia opened her eyes and smiled at Rainbow, just watching her go about her warm-ups. One one of her stretches, Rainbow caught a glimpse of Celestia’s face and paused. There were tears in the alicorn’s eyes, and Luna was looking away almost as if she were ashamed.

“We… cannot watch, I fear,” Luna said regretfully, chucking the slowly decaying peel of her banana away.

“Huh?” Rainbow asked, confused. She straightened her posture and looked back and forth at the two of them in confusion. “Why not? What’s wrong?”

“Rainbow…” Celestia sighed, her smile slowly fading. A fly flew up out of the grass and softly landed on her cheek. Celestia’s eyes lowered, and dark rings began to fade into existence under them. “...You cannot waste time putting on a show for us. Equestria needs you…”

“Mom?” Rainbow asked, a small nervous tremble in her voice. “What are you talking about?.”

“Forgive us, my niece” Luna added with a firm look crossing her face. Another insect came up from one of the flowers, landing atop her ear and buzzing its large wings. It was a wasp. “But it is time to wake up.”

“Wake up?” Rainbow choked out. The air turned cold, and a harsh gust suddenly blew by. Rainbow grunted and shielded her face with a foreleg as swiftly rotting flower petals were stolen by the winds and sent flying past her. Among the petals were insects of all sorts, the buzzing of their wings drowning out everything else. With her heart hammering against her chest, Rainbow managed to squint through the swarm, which was only growing thicker and thicker, smothering the world in darkness and buzzing. She could feel them crawling over her skin, into her fur, into her ears. Her entire body shuddered with revulsion and she shook herself on reflex. “Aunt Luna! MOM?!”

She narrowed her eyes and managed to make out their forms looking back at her. They had both closed their eyes, their bodies quickly being completely enveloped by the insects. They spoke in unison, many bugs crawling into their mouths as they did so. “Wake up, Rainbow Dash. Wake up and save Equestria.”

There was an explosion of green fire from directly under the two alicorns, swallowing them whole. Rainbow’s eyes widened and she screamed out in fear, taking several steps back to avoid the ominously reaching green fire. Celestia and Luna vanished like dust amidst the flame, and two reptilian eyes snapped wide open to glare at her. A shadowy silhouette appeared it’s long, crooked horn igniting with putrid magic. The creature it belonged to laughed a sadistic, blood-chilling laugh, the light on its horn lurching forward in a beam of energy directed at Rainbow Dash.

The light was blinding.

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes with a sharp inhale through her nostrils, her hooves, which had been resting on her chest, tightened and curled up into the blanket she was tucked under. Her gaze was met with the dust-covered roof of an old, unoccupied house carved out of blue crystals. From her position on the floor, she could see a reflection of the room she had been sleeping in, and there were a few stripes of yellow sunlight along the floor. Taking a moment to collect herself, Rainbow slowly sat up and looked around the room.

Twilight Sparkle was still asleep in her own bedroll just to Rainbow’s right, snoring peacefully and holding Spike, also still asleep, close to her chest. Beyond her, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were sharing a sleeping bag, while Rarity had kept to her own. In front of Rainbow, against the dusty wall, Thorax slept with little Wind Whisper curled up against his chest. He was still disguised as Squall Dreamer and was using his leathery bat-like wing like a blanket for the small thestral filly he rested with. Over in the right side corner of the room, Starlight Glimmer could be seen, also still asleep, with a blanket draped over her and her back turned on the room. To Rainbow’s left was Fluttershy, one of her eyes cracked just slightly open and looking at Rainbow questioningly.

“Bad dream?” the timid yellow pegasus asked in a very quiet whisper. Rainbow nodded and slowly lay back down, her head thumping onto her mostly emptied saddlebag, which had passed for a pillow during her sleep.

“Yeah. I’m okay, though. It’s no big deal.”

Fluttershy nodded slowly, a strand of her long pink mane falling in front of her face. “Okay… are you sure?”

Rainbow nodded again. “Yup,” she replied simply before glancing to her right at Twilight and Spike. She took a few moments to just look at the unicorn, watching her sleep and taking some comfort in her presence. After a little bit, she looked back up at the ceiling. “You sleep okay?” she quietly asked Fluttershy.

“I’m a little stiff, but, um, yes.”

“Same,” Rainbow muttered before sitting up again. “You get some more rest, alright? I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Fluttershy shifted slightly as Rainbow stood up, her brow furrowed. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, where are you going?”

“Just right outside,” Rainbow replied with a reassuring smile. “Need some fresh air. It’s kinda musty in here.”

“Oh… okay.”

Rainbow slowly and quietly made her way for the front door of the abandoned crystal house, carefully opened it, and slipped outside. Once the door was closed, she took in a long deep breath and turned around. Her eyes were greeted by the sight of a beautiful, perfectly smooth crystal road with a surface like a dark blue mirror. Across the street, she could see a line of yet more Crystal Houses, some of them red, and some of them blue. Lush grass rested beyond the edges of the street, with healthy bushes and lovely trees dotted about. The sky overhead was perfectly clear, with Celestia’s Sun slowly inching higher into the sky as time went on. Rainbow frowned as she thought about that, and how Queen Chrysalis was presently in charge of day and night. It was an unsettling fact, given that she could skew the day and night to her advantage. With that worrying thought in her mind, Rainbow lowered her gaze from the sky and to the streets before her, where a few ponies were trotting by. They all looked at her warily as they passed, giving her a very wide berth.

She sighed. It had been like this since they showed up the previous day; the Crystal Ponies were afraid of them, not sure what to make of her or her entourage. As a result of the anxiety and fear, none of them had been helpful at all in answering their questions about the Empire, or the power it supposedly held that could help defeat the Changelings back in Equestria.

Rainbow couldn’t help but cringe and shudder with disgust as she thought back on those creatures and what they had done to Canterlot and her family. She trailed her eyes along the street she stood on, then up the towering Crystal Palace at the very center of the city. She took in another deep breath and glanced over her shoulder at the door of the house, thinking of the ponies slumbering on the other side.

“Well,” she thought out loud, a small, reassured smile replacing her disturbed cringe. “At least I have them, eh?”

With that comforting thought nestled firmly in her mind, Rainbow took some time to sit with her back against the wall next to the door, and just enjoy the morning air...

Planning

Maybe ten minutes later, the front door of the house swung open, much more loudly than when it had closed not long ago, and Rainbow Dash stepped back inside with a firm look on her face. She cleared her throat quite loudly and let her wings fan out somewhat. “Okay, time to get up everypony! We’ve got work to do!” she announced loudly, the disturbance drawing disgruntled and sleepy sounds from all of the ponies that she had just woken up.

Applejack sat up and glared daggers at Rainbow, though she didn’t object beyond that, slowly picking herself up off of the sleeping bag. Pinkie Pie was already standing up and stretching, quietly complaining about how stiff her neck was. “Yeesh. Floors are not good for sleep, huh?”

“You’re preaching to the choir, darling,” Rarity let out an indignant huff as she sluggishly rose from her rest as well, blinking away her sleep. “But I suppose it can’t be helped.”

Thorax’ eyes opened wide the moment Rainbow had spoken, and he seemed to be wide awake already, while Wind Whisper, still curled under his wing, groaned defiantly and pushed herself closer up to his chest.

Fluttershy, for her part, didn’t really react beyond slowly sitting up and letting out a cute little yawn.

In the back of the room, Starlight visibly tensed before sighing and getting up.

Lastly were Twilight and Spike, the former looking groggy but quickly coming to her senses, while Spike just kept snoring. Rainbow smiled slightly at the baby dragon, a little charmed by his stubbornness, before looking back to the rest of the room at large. “Take five minutes and wake yourselves up. After that, we need to figure out what our plan is.”

Thorax frowned and looked down at Wind Whisper, who was still determinedly refusing to open her eyes. He then looked back to Rainbow Dash. Their gazes met for a second before Rainbow glanced at Wind apologetically. Thorax spoke up quietly, his own gaze shifting down to Wind. “We should talk in a different room. The kids still need some rest.”

“Not… a kid…” Wind Whisper mumbled drowsily, half-heartedly thumping a hoof against Thorax’s chest, making him chuckle.

“You’re my little sister, kid. That’s close enough.” He rebuked light heartedly, reaching down to nuzzle the filly atop the head, though anypony paying attention would not have missed how he cringed as he said those words.

“Point taken,” Rainbow conceded the point while glancing over at Spike, who was still passed out under the blankets, which Twilight was now carefully tucking around him with her magic. Rainbow lifted her eyes from the baby dragon to the Unicorn above him, who was currently looking down at Spike with a solemn look on her face.

“Let the kids rest.”

“Alright, let’s go over what we know,” Twilight started once everypony had gathered in a room that looked like it had once been a dining room, maybe another ten minutes after they had woken up. They were all sitting on their haunches in the middle of the room, forming a loose circle with Twilight standing in the center of the assembly. Her posture was tall and she had a firm and authoritative look on her face. She looked around to make sure everyone was listening, then got started. “While we were hiding out at the Castle of the Two Sisters, Princess Luna was able to get in touch with me via a dream, urging us to come here. She said that the magic of the Crystal Empire could help us drive back the Changelings that invaded Canterlot,” she shifted slightly to look at Thorax, making him squirm just a little in guilt, but she quickly moved on with her recap. “The problem is that we have no idea what that magic even is, how to find it, or how to use it.”

“And that’s not even mentioning just how reluctant the locals are to talk to us,” Rainbow chimed in, her forelegs crossed and a small, frustrated scowl on her muzzle. “And they all look kinda depressed, now that I think about it.”

“Depressed and paranoid. It makes sense,” Twilight noted. “After all, from their point of view, they were living under the rule of a tyrant who treated them like slaves, and then, in a flash of light, that tyrant has disappeared with a bunch of strangers waltzing into their town asking for help. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I know I’d at least be skeptical about the situation.”

Rainbow’s brow furrowed at that, and she put a hoof to her chin as she went into thought.

“So,” Starlight picked up, lifting a hoof to get Twilight’s attention. “We need to find a way to earn the trust of these Crystal Ponies, then.”

“Ah would reckon a good way to do that would be provin’ that we ain’t lyin’ bout them bein’ gone for a thousand years,” Applejack suggested, adjusting her stetson on her head. “We’d need some evidence, though.”

“We’d also need to prove we aren’t their enemy,” Fluttershy spoke up, gently brushing a hoof down her mane to straighten out a few stray hairs. “I mean, even the bad guys can tell the truth, sometimes,” as she said this, she grimaced when the stray hairs proved remarkably stubborn.

Luckily, Rarity was on the case. She leaned over with her horn lighting up, gently flattening out the irksome hairs. Fluttershy nodded gratefully, and Rarity smiled in response before clearing her throat and chiming in. “We could try to do both, couldn’t we? For proof about their absence, we could try showing them that history book we got from the Castle of the Two Sisters.” She suggested, looking at Twilight curiously. “It was written some time after the Empire vanished, was it not? Perhaps if we find out who’s in charge, we can show it to them as proof, and maybe a gift or something of that nature to show that we’re friendly?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Twilight nodded her head and smiled slightly, though that smile was quickly lost in favor of a disgruntled frown. “The problem there is figuring out who’s in charge. The ponies here don’t know or trust us, and so they probably won’t point us to the leader or even let us in to see them.”

Starlight’s brow furrowed in thought as a notion occurred to her. “And that’s assuming they even have a leader right now. From what we know, they were ruled by King Sombra before he made the Empire disappear, right? Well, a king is a single supreme ruler. If that’s the case, their throne is empty and they’re without a leader.”

“So we’d have to prove it to the whole Empire at once instead...” Rainbow grumbled, sliding a hoof over her face in exasperation. “Ugh… how are we gonna do that? This place is pretty enormous,” when she removed her hoof from her face, she noticed that everypony was looking at her thoughtful. Taken aback by the sudden attention, Rainbow set her hoof down and narrowed her eyes. “...What? Do I have something on my face?”

“Rainbow, You’re a Princess. Can’t you try and use your status to get their attention?” Rarity tried questioningly, fidgeting with her front hooves.

“Wh-what?!” Rainbow gawked at her like a deer in a train’s headlight. She took a moment, clamped her jaw shut and shook her head. “I mean… I could, but I don’t think that they would just believe me when I say ‘Hey, I’m Princess Rainbow Dash.’ My status won’t help us here right now, not to mention I don’t like flaunting it around like that…” she sighed and shook her head.

“Oh…” Rarity shrunk back a little and sighed.

“It’s okay, Rainbow. We understand,” Fluttershy assured the pegasus with a gentle smile. “We can think of something else.”

“As long as we’re on the topic of Rainbow bein’ a Princess, though,” Applejack chose that moment to cut in again. “Do we have a way of gettin’ in touch with the rest of Equestria? They’ve been havin’ to trudge along without a single Princess for guidance for over a week. Ah reckon the whole country is goin’ to go into chaos if they go like that for much longer.”

Rainbow lifted her head and then looked at Twilight. “Maybe…” she muttered in a quiet voice, an idea beginning to form somewhere in the back of her head.

Twilight shifted a little anxiously on her hooves from the hard stare she was receiving. “Uh… Well, what’s your idea?” she asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

Rainbow’s face twisted a little before she spoke. “Okay, so, you know how Spike has that Dragonfire messaging thing? He can belch out letters and send them to other ponies?”

Twilight’s eyes lit up in realization the moment Rainbow finished speaking. Her eyes shimmered with a certain giddiness while she clapped her forehooves together. “Right! Spike could be our line of communication with his Dragonfire!”

“Yeah. So, here’s what I’m thinking; If you can write up copies of that spell, we can send those copies to the mayors of each of Equestria’s largest cities, starting with Manehattan and working our way down. Once they have copies of the spell, they can make use of the spell and we can keep in touch with them. Then we can make sure Equestria is preparing for the changeling swarm and keep things organized and functional,” Rainbow explained before her eyes took on a somewhat pleading look. “But, ah, that’s gonna be hard on Spike’s stomach, I bet.”

“I’m sure he can handle it,” Fluttershy gave her vote of confidence with a small smile. She then shrunk a little. “Um, I mean, if he wants to, that is.”

“I’ll ask him what he thinks when he wakes up,” Rarity suggested simply.

“Works for me,” Rainbow nodded before looking back at Twilight. “Anyways, let’s get back on track here, eh?”

“Right,” Twilight agreed and cleared her throat. “Before we can start looking for the magic of the Empire and figuring out how to use it against the changelings, we need to earn the trust of these ponies and get them up to speed. I actually have an idea for the first part, at least,” she explained before turning to Rainbow again. “In the book, it says that the Empire is able to project the feelings of its population far and wide. I’m sure Equestria could use a Morale boost, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that you are one of the most amazing ponies to watch when it comes to aerial performances. If you can put on a good show for the ponies here, it might at least let them know that we’re not an enemy, and boost their morale and, by extension, the morale of everypony back home.”

Rainbow smirked happily with an eager and cocky glint in her eyes, her wings already twitching with excitement at her sides. “Heh, now you’re talkin’ my language. I could fly into the sky in the center of the city, put on a totally awesome show and end it off with a Sonic Rainboom. That would draw attention from everypony in the city, and they’d be dazzled by it.”

“That would be so cool!” Pinkie chimed in, bouncing across the circle to smirk into Rainbow’s face, making the pegasus in question lean back a little. “Oh, I could set up an enormous, super-duper exciting outdoor party under where you’ll be flying! That would help ease everypony’s stressed nerves!”

“Good idea, Pinkie!” Twilight agreed, and everypony else seemed okay with the idea. Rainbow used a forehoof to gently push Pinkie out of her personal space. Pinkie got the hint and bounced back to her original space, though she remained standing. Twilight rolled her eyes at that before speaking again. “Can anypony else bring something to this little surprise party? Anything and everything to help ease tensions and prove that we’re not the bad guys would go a long way.”

“Huh… well, while Pinkie and RD are preparing the party, ah think ah could go and gather up some berries that I saw hangin’ around the edges of town. Fluttershy, think you could help me with that?” Applejack suggested with a hoof on her chin and looking at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy smiled gently and nodded. “Oh, yes. I can help you with that.”

Applejack smiled warmly, pat Fluttershy on the shoulder than looked back at Twilight. “It ain’t apples, but ah reckon ah can make some good juice out of ‘em if I can get somethin’ to smoosh ‘em in. A big barrel or sturdy basket, maybe, plus a strainer or somethin’ similar.”

Rarity lifted a hoof a little too eagerly. “I can try to find something you can use, and Spike can come with me. We can also look for some stray gems along the way. I’m sure Spikey-Wikey is hungry after a week without eating any gems. Pony food only does so much for him, I think.”

“If he’s up for it, sure,” Twilight agreed with a nod. “I think I’ll stick with Rainbow; I can make sure everything is organized and going smoothly,” she then shifted and looked at Starlight. “What about you, Starlight? Is there anything you can add to this?”

Starlight shrunk back from the sudden attention but nodded. “Uh… well, uh…” she looked at Rainbow Dash hesitantly and visibly gulped. The entire room went quiet, and a subtle tension began to grow in the air.

The two of them hadn’t spoken to one another since the group had left the Castle of the Two Sisters; not directly, at least. They had always kept a noticeable distance, only ever getting close when they needed to for one reason or another. Starlight licked her lips and steeled herself. “I-I can try to put on some magic lights for Rainbow’s flying. Maybe it’d help broadcast what’s happening to the empire at large, and add some extra, uh, ‘wow factor’ to the performance?” she suggested shakily, not taking all of the attention very well. “But that’s just one idea! If there’s something I’d be better suited for, just let me know!”

“I…” Rainbow paused and looked at the floor, taking a deep breath and forcing down the burning sensation in the back of her head, doing her best to drown out that voice that kept whispering into her ear.

Make her pay.

Rainbow looked up again and noticed everypony looking at her. She took one more deep breath to calm herself, set her jaw and nodded. “I think that’s fine, Starlight. Just try not to make the light’s distracting for me, okay? I don’t exactly feel like dealing with another broken wing thanks to you,” she said, venom dripping from her words. She instantly cringed and looked away, her shoulders hunching up as she realized what she had just said. “I… ugh, sorry. That was uncalled for.”

“Rainbow…” Fluttershy muttered weakly, her voice laced with concern while her forehooves fidgeted nervously over her chest with her ears pinned back against her head.

Starlight, too, shrunk back, looking anywhere but at Rainbow. “...Yeah.”

A tense silence filled the room for several moments. Thorax cleared his throat, making everypony jump. “Woah!” Applejack yelped, then chuckled slightly. “Heh, wow Squall. Ah almost’ forgot you were here. Ya were as quiet as a fly on the wall.”

Thorax frowned at Applejack, then shook his head. “Uh-huh. I think I’ll stick to the edges of the city and keep an eye on the area outside. We don’t want any Changeling scouts or infiltrator’s slipping in, and I’m sure they’ve got some looking for us right now.”

Rainbow hesitated slightly, then nodded. “Alright. Let us know if you see anything suspicious, okay?”

Thorax nodded. “Right,” he said before standing and turning for the exit. “I’ll go get started right now. Uh…” he paused and looked back at them sheepishly. “...Could one of you keep an eye on Wind Whisper while I’m out there?”

“I can,” Fluttershy volunteered with a gentle smile.

“Don’t forget that yer helping’ me gather berries,” Applejack pointed out before smiling up at Thorax. “We’ll both look after her.”

“Alright. Thanks, you two,” Thorax smiled and gave a friendly nod, then bowed to Rainbow before turning and taking his leave. For a moment, everypony was quiet. Then Rainbow stood up.

“Alright, we’ve got our plan! Let’s get to work!” she put a hoof out before her and smiled in anticipation to the gathering of her friends. Twilight wasted no time in putting her hoof on Rainbow’s, the rest of them, sans Starlight, swiftly joining in. They all looked back at Starlight expectantly, making her fidget in place. After a moment, she inched forward and gently set her hoof on top of the rest.

“Alright! Let’s throw party!” Pinkie Pie declared cheerfully before the group lifted their hooves into the air and gave a loud, unanimous cheer.

Well, save for Starlight, who just kind of stood there awkwardly.

Author's Notes:

Fun Fact: The first 6 chapters were written in advance before I made this story public. Just figured you all ought to know.

Berries

Wind Whisper begrudgingly returned fully to the waking world when she felt a hoof gently nudging her shoulder. She groaned groggily and opened up one eye to look at who had disturbed her rest, and beheld Fluttershy smiling down at her with gentle eyes. “Hello, Whisper. It’s time to get up, now,” the butter-colored pegasus said in a gentle, relaxing murmur than quelled some of Wind’s irritation at being woken up.

With a very wide-mouthed yawn, Wind Whisper sat up and stretched, her little bat-like wings fanning out to their full length and shaking a little bit with the release of tension. Even at her age, her wings were notably larger than one might find on a pegasus pony of the same size. She clicked her tongue a few times and folded her wings back up against her sides while looking around the room again, taking note of the increased activity. Her expression grew a little worried when she didn’t see Thorax anywhere. “Uh… where’s my brother?” she questioned uneasily, standing up.

Applejack came up to Fluttershy’s side with the latter’s saddlebags held in her mouth. Fluttershy noticed and bent her legs a little so Applejack could help her put them on. Once the strap was out of the farmer’s mouth, she looked at Wind Whisper to answer her question. “Yer big brother is out on the edges of town, makin’ sure none of those pesky Changeling varmints get the jump on us,” she said with a reassuring smile. “He really wants to keep you safe. Yer real lucky to have him for a brother.”

Wind’s ears drooped a little at that, but she nodded in understanding and put on a small smile. “Yeah, he’s amazing…” her voice was quieter than before, and her smile wavered a little.

“And he’s asked us to keep an eye on you until he gets back. We’re going to be heading out towards the edges of town to pick some berries for a party Pinkie is going to put on in the center of the Empire,” Fluttershy explained, standing tall once Applejack was done with adjustments.

“Oh, okay. Uh…” Wind looked between the two of them, unsure. “Alright. Maybe I can help?” she finally asked, giving one of her shoulders an absent-minded shrug.

Applejack looked down at Wind with an analytical glint in her eye. “Hmm… maybe. We’ll see.”

“It’s not like we’re harvesting apples from your orchard, Applejack,” Fluttershy pointed out gently with a frown on her face. She put on another smile and looked down at Wind again. “I’m sure she’ll be just fine, and if she wants to help, I think she can.”

Applejack conceded the point with a shrug. “Alright, point taken,” she then looked at Wind questioningly. “Do ya happen to have saddlebags of yer own, Wind?”

Wind shook her head, one hoof scuffing against the floor. “No…,” she said in disappointment. She then put on a small, hopeful smile. “I can still help though, right?”

“Yes, of course, you can,” Fluttershy assured her with a nod. “You can always just add what you collect to our bags.”

“Okay,” Wind nodded, puffing up her chest a little bit in an effort to show that she was ready for the task ahead. She then glanced past Fluttershy and squinted at Rarity and Spike as they were going out the door. “Where are they going?” she asked, taking a few curious steps around Fluttershy to better watch them leave.

Applejack looked over. “Oh, Rarity and Spike have their own job their doin’. They’re gonna go get some barrels or big baskets or somethin’ so that ah can break down the berries we’re collectin’ and get some nice juice out of ‘em.”

“And the berries and baskets will be taken to the very center to the Crystal Empire, where Rainbow Dash will put on an aerial performance to impress the local ponies,” Fluttershy continued. “Pinkie Pie is going to arrange a big party, too! But, uh…” she glanced over at Pinkie, who was looking at a clipboard, her eyes burning with intent. “...How are you going to make this into a party, Pinkie? I mean, we’re not in Ponyville, and you’re far from all of your supplies…”

Pinkie flashed Fluttershy an enormous grin and gave her eyebrows a very cocky waggle. “Oh, Fluttershy, don’t you worry about that!” she said in a sing-song voice before stuffing the clipboard into her mane, where it promptly vanished, never to be seen again. “Where there’s Pink, there’s a way, and I’ve got a lot of pink to go around!”

Twilight, from across the room with Rainbow, snorted and rolled her eyes at that remark. “The sad part is, I believe it.”

“Wait didn’t you try to study her once?” Rainbow asked for clarification, glancing over at the pink mare in question. “I remember the basement being all kinds of screwed up- ouch!”

“Yes,” Twilight replied before jabbing her hoof firmly into Rainbow’s ribs. “And we don’t talk about that. Ever.”

“Haha, well, Y'all have fun with that,” Applejack cut in with an amused smirk before trotting over to her own saddlebags, which were resting against the wall by the door. “We should get on outta here and get to them berries. They ain’t gonna pick themselves.”

Fluttershy nodded and looked down at Wind one last time. “You ready to go, Wind?”

Wind Whisper nodded with an eager look on her face. “Yeah! Let’s do it!” she exclaimed, giving her leathery wings an adorable flap of excitement to be doing something productive.

Fluttershy giggled behind a hoof.

“Woooaaah…” Wind Whisper breathed while crouching down in front of one of the many bushes poking up out of the grass near the edge of the Empire. There were still perhaps three hundred yards separating where they were gathering and where the snow of the Frozen North began. A similar distance divided their current spot from the edges of the Empire’s construction. The grassy fields gently rolled into small hills, and with the unique flowers, bushes, and trees seasoning the region, it was a sight to behold, especially when contrasted against the Frozen North.

The bush in question was about as tall as a full-grown pony with vibrant green leaves. On the branches were numerous berries of various colors; blue, red, pink, purple, and more. The berries were, much like everything else in this place, shiny and had sharper edges than their counterparts in Equestria. Curious, Wind rolled out her tongue and stole one of the berries from the bush, giving it an experimental chew. It was interesting, to be sure. The outer skin of the berry was hard and crunchy, like a hard candy, and it was similarly sweet and sugary. Once her teeth penetrated that skin, though, her mouth was flooded by a gush of incredibly sweet and delicious juice that made her shiver in delight. Wind squealed through her sealed lips, her eyes closing as she savored the taste with her wings flapping joyfully at her sides. Quickly swallowing, she eyed the bush like a predator stalking its prey, licking her lips. “Oh, my gosh, THESE ARE AMAZING!”

“Yeah, they are!” Applejack agreed, having just popped one into her mouth as well. “The hard skin’s gonna be a bit tough to work with, but Ah think Ah can manage. Let’s get to gatherin’ Y'all.”

“Man, these things are as good as Lunaberries…” Wind muttered to herself before quickly stealing another berry off the bush, then cantering over to stand next to Fluttershy, who was trotting for one bush with a particularly dense population of Crystal Berries. Fluttershy overheard her comment and smiled warmly in agreement.

“Oh, yes, I had some juice made from lunaberries while in Hollow Shades not too long ago. It was great, too, although maybe a bit sourer than these.”

Wind grinned, fondly remembering the berries of her hometown. “Oh, yeah, lunaberries are definitely sour, but they’re so good-” she abruptly cut herself off, then looked at Fluttershy with wide eyes when she fully processed the mare’s previous statement. “Wait, you were in Hollow Shades?”

“We sure as sugar were,” Applejack stated from a little ways ahead, sitting down by a bush and sliding her saddlebags off of her back to sit directly under a dense bunch of berries. “We needed a doctor for Rainbow’s wing. Hollow Shades was the closest town, so we went there. It was a nice place if a little bleak at first glance.” she lost her smile and scrunched up her face once she realized how she had phrased that, then looked over at Wind apologetically. “Oh, uh, no offense, hon.”

“You needed a doctor?” Wind asked, her eyes lighting up a little. “Which doctor did you get, which doctor?!”

Fluttershy giggled again at Wind’s energy, then put a hoof to her chin. “I think she said her name was Moonflower Balm,” she said, frowning slightly. “I might not be remembering that right-”

“That’s my mom’s name!” Wind said happily, smiling up at Fluttershy eagerly. “How was she doing? Was she doing good? What about my sisters?!”

“Oh, uh, I didn’t know you had sisters, but Moonflower seemed to be doing just fine. She was friendly and seemed happy, and she helped start the healing process for Rainbow’s wing,” Fluttershy replied happily, taking some small satisfaction in seeing the little filly beam at the information.

“Hang on a sec,” Applejack cut in, starting on her bush. “Ya mean to tell us that you didn’t know how yer folks were doing?”

Wind Whisper immediately lost her smile to a small frown, and she idly kicked a stray pebble with her hoof. “Oh, uh, I haven’t seen mom in…” she hesitated, what was left of her smile swiftly fading away. “...in… um… at least a year?”

“Say what?” Applejack asked incredulously. She kept speaking even as she continued to pluck berries from the bush and drop them into her saddlebags. “Ya haven’t seen yer mom in a year?”

“But why?” Fluttershy asked in surprise, wide-eyed. “Did you two not get along? Was she, um… not good to you?”

“N-no, we got along! I love mom, she’s wonderful!” Wind replied quickly before scuffing the ground with a hoof again. “I just… live with my big brother in Canterlot. I went with him when he left to go join the new lunar guard.”

“And yer folks let that happen?” Applejack asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. “That doesn’t seem like the best place for somepony yer age, sugarcube.”

Wind Whisper flinched away and shook her head, almost looking like she was ashamed of something. “I may have kinda, sorta… stowed away in my brother’s moving wagon… without telling my parents? A little bit?”

“Whatever for?” Fluttershy gently pressed, lowering herself down to be closer to Wind’s eye level.

“And why didn’t Squall send you back?” Applejack furthered, her brow furrowed in confusion. “With how much he seems to care for ya, it seems weird that he wouldn’t send you back to your parents. They must’ve been worried sick!”

“Um… he didn’t send me back because I... begged him not to. I told him why I went with him, and… he said he'd talk to our parents. They gave him permission after a little while of talking through letters. I didn’t want to go home, because… you said it earlier. I’m lucky to have him, and… when he ran off to join the guard… I didn’t want him to go away... I didn't want to be away from him...” As she spoke, Wind Whisper gradually shrunk down more and more, looking more and more upset as she spoke. Finally, Fluttershy decided that enough was enough, and put a hoof to Wind’s shoulder.

“Oh, uh, you don’t have to say anymore,” She stated to the filly with a warm, sympathetic smile. “I can see this is upsetting you. I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have brought it up. Maybe we can talk about something else, instead?”

Wind nodded and looked at the berry bush that she and Fluttershy were now standing in front of. “Sure…” she mumbled before quickly snatching a berry off of it and chewing. Her features lit up a little from the sweet treat, and she managed to put on a smile. “So, uh… how many of these things do we need?”

There were a few seconds of awkward silence before Applejack decided to answer Wind’s question. “Dunno,” she said bluntly while looking over everypony’s saddlebags. “Two sets of saddlebags worth won’t be enough for a Pinkie Party, even if she’s working with limited supplies. We might have to make multiple trips.”

“Alright,” Fluttershy nodded at Applejack, then looked down at Wind Whisper, who still looked rather somber. “Come on, Wind. Help me fill these up,” she said while sliding her own Saddlebags off and popping open the flaps.

Wind gave a weak nod and sat down in front of Fluttershy. “Okay.”

“She was a stowaway?” The unassuming, small green lizard thought to himself as he scurried away back towards the snow through the grass. Once he was sure he was far enough away, the lizard was consumed in a swirl of green fire that quickly grew in size until the visage of Squall Dreamer stepped out of the embers, a thoughtful, distant look on his face. Thorax looked down at one of his disguised hooves and grimaces. “...I really don’t know her, do I?” he muttered under his breath before looking back over his shoulder to spot the three ponies still working at gathering berries. From this far away, they were little more than colorful dots among the hills. “I’m sorry, Wind…”

Shaking his head, and resolving to fix this mistake at a later time, Thorax snapped his wings back out and took to the air, resuming his patrol around the southern edge of the Empire, his eyes glued on the frozen wasteland beyond. “I won’t let anypony hurt you, though,” he growled under his breath, trying to build some determination and resolve, though he still felt his heart withering at the thought of trying to stand against the swarm that would inevitably come after them. Growling more at himself and his own cowardice, Thorax stopped in mid-air and slapped himself across the face. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes so he could clear his thoughts. When his eyes opened again, the dark slits that were his pupils dilated slightly.

“I promised you that I’ll protect you until you have your brother back, even if you never heard me make that promise. I won’t go back on my word..."

Stretching

Rainbow’s wings trembled and twitched at their tips as she stretched them out as far as she could, while at the same time pressing her chest down into the ground and keeping her hind legs extended. A satisfied groan slipped past her lungs as her muscles loosened up, a few loud pops emanating from her back and shoulders. After a few seconds of holding that pose, she stood up tall and went on to her next stretch, all with Starlight and Twilight watching from not far away. They sat on their haunches with their backs against one of the enormous supports that held the rest of the Crystal Palace aloft.

The three of them were, at present, situated in the large plaza that rested directly beneath the Crystal Palace, with the enormous bulk of the palace over their heads offering some lovely shade from the surprisingly warm sun. At the edge of the plaza, crystal ponies could occasionally be seen trotting by, shooting the group anxious and wary looks.

Choosing to ignore the distrustful looks of the locals, Twilight looked at Starlight with a worried expression on her face, noticing the awkward and uneasy expression the other unicorn was displaying. “Hey, how are you holding up?” she asked gently, drawing an absent shrug out of Starlight.

“Meh. The Princess still hates me, so I’ve been better,” was her bluntly delivered response. Her ears fell flat against her head as she glanced at Twilight, then looked at Rainbow Dash again with a frown steadily growing on her face.

Twilight’s face turned stern with disapproval. “She doesn’t hate you,” she stated firmly, shifting to look at Starlight more directly. “I know she doesn’t.”

Starlight shook her head and sighed before returning her attention to Twilight. “Well, I mean, the way she talks to me isn’t exactly friendly,” she countered while casually gesturing in Rainbow’s direction. She then let the hoof lazily drop back down to the crystal below, a slight ‘clunk’ sounding upon impact. “Not to mention the she’s clearly still sore over that broken wing I gave her...” Starlight lowered her gaze, her face contorting with some small vestiges of guilt.

Twilight’s ears drooped and a small sigh slipped out of her lungs. “She is upset about that, yeah…” she muttered, her voice quiet. She wanted to say more, but Starlight simply looked on to Rainbow again, signaling that the conversation had come to an end.

More crystal ponies passed by, a group of three. They all looked tired and downtrodden, looking almost fearful of the three mares under the palace. A little colt poked his head out from behind one of them, curious about the new ponies. His mother worriedly ushered their foal away with their forehoof while eyeing Rainbow Dash almost accusingly. Rainbow noticed the look, and it was the last straw for her. She growled under her breath and came out of her last stretch to shake her head. “Ugh… all of these sour looks are really distracting,” she complained sharply before looking towards one such pony, who took a few scared steps back when she saw the impatience in Rainbow’s eyes.

“Just ignore them,” Twilight offered softly, rising from her seated position and trotting over to Rainbow’s side. She put on a reassuring smile an placed a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. “If our plan works, then we won’t have to deal with those sour looks for a whole lot longer. Just focus on stretching, okay?”

Rainbow sucked in a deep breath and let it out. Then she nodded, resuming her stretches without another word. Twilight backed up a little to give Rainbow some room, then turned her eyes to look out at the streets again. Among the sparkling streets and occasional pony, she caught sight of a certain blur of pink zooming their way. “Heads up. Pinkie, six o’clock,” she called over to Rainbow, who didn’t waste any time in lifting a few feet into the air with a flap of her wings before turning around to watch. Sure enough, Pinkie came sliding to a stop in front of them all, kicking up a cloud of dust from the momentum and making Twilight couch a few times. Hanging from Pinkie’s lower jaw was a large basket, stuffed full of what looked like various types of party decor and a folded blanket with a red and white checkerboard pattern. She put the basket down and grinned.

“This place has a lot more party supplies than I thought it would! Sure, some of it is really sharp, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t meant to be used as confetti, but hey! It sparkles and shines in the air really nice, so, it’s confetti!” she announced before reaching down to dig into the bag to show them her loot.

“That’s kind of a small basket, Pinkie,” Starlight commented hesitantly, stepping up and looking at the basket with a critical eye. She then looked at Pinkie, questions burning behind her eyes. “It doesn’t look like that much to me.”

Pinkie flashed Starlight a devilish smile that sent a chill down the other mare’s spine, then began withdrawing item after item after item from the basket. The amount of stuff she pulled out of it should not have been able to fit, and yet... “Well, mizz Starlight Glimmer, we’ve got… four bags of standard confetti, three bags of flat crystal shards to act as sparkly confetti, we’ve got two bags of streamers, we’ve got four cakes, all boxed, we have three trays of cupcakes, two trays of muffins, a pumpkin pie…”

Rainbow Dash stuck out her tongue in revulsion at the mention of the pie.

“Oh!” Pinkie grinned while pulling a stack of seven picnic blankets out of the basket. “We also have blankets for picnic-style eating and, last but not least…” she reached deep into the basket, with half of her body vanishing completely from sight within. There was the sound of something falling over and crashing from within the basket, and anypony listening in could have sworn they heard a cat yowling in surprise from inside the basket, as well. When she came back out, Pinkie Pie was hauling an enormous, silvery-blue canon on bright pink wheels back up with her. She thumped it down next to her, the wheels creating spiderweb cracks in the ground, and grinned at Starlight. “My party cannon.”

Starlight’s jaw fell to the floor. For a good few seconds, she mouthed helplessly like a fish before pointing at the basket and, in a weak voice, managing to utter the words: “But… how?”

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. “Haha, please.”

“Just roll with it,” Twilight whispered to Starlight with a small smile. “Pinkie Pie is… an enigma.”

Starlight could only give a very rigid nod before gulping and backing very slowly away from the pink creature that she was convinced had no right calling itself a pony.

“Nice job finding all this stuff, Pinkie,” Rainbow complimented with a warm smile, not even looking concerned by what she was seeing at all. She eyed the various pieces of party decor and snacks curiously. “How long until it’s all set up?”

“Oh, I can start loading my cannon right now. And once this bad girl is all nice and full, all I need is the order to fire, and BOOM! This whole area will be ready for one super-duper doozy of a party!” Pinkie declared eagerly, turning and stuffing the pie down the barrel of her cannon.

“Won’t that damage the decor, though? And…” Starlight’s eye twitched as Pinkie dumped a tray of cupcakes into the barrel, next. “...The food?”

Pinkie snorted. “Allow me to repeat myself: haha, please.”

Twilight chuckled lightly at the flabbergasted look from Starlight, then gave her a sympathetic smile and a pat on the shoulder. “Trust me, it’s better for you if you don’t question anything Pinkie Pie does.”

“She speaks from first-hoof experience, you know,” Rainbow gave a cheeky little grin with that comment, although she quickly lost it to a more apologetic one when Twilight turned an irked glare on her. Not exactly eager to anger the bookish mare, Rainbow set herself back down on the ground and nodded at Pinkie, getting back on topic. “Go ahead and load up. I’ll let ya know when it’s time.”

Pinkie Pie gave an exaggerated salute and went back to stuffing anything and everything she had gathered into her party cannon, humming a little tune to herself as she went. Rainbow then turned to Twilight and Starlight, opening her mouth to issue some instructions. She hesitated, however, at the sight of Starlight, with that infuriating sensation of tingling and burning on the back of her scalp rearing its ugly head again. Her pupils dilated instinctively and she knew that the look on her face was anything but a pleasant one, given how Starlight instantly winced and shied away from her. Rainbow quickly caught herself and shook her head to dispel the burning, then focused. “Okay, Starlight, you should start practicing your light spell. Just make sure it isn’t blinding,” she said bluntly before turning to Twilight. She paused, and then looked at Starlight again, and the next word to leave her mouth was considerably more gentle. “...Okay?”

Starlight hesitated, then nodded, glad to have a good reason to excuse herself, and quickly trotted a little ways away. Her horn lit up with a cyan aura as she went, and already some soft shimmers were appearing in the air over her head. Rainbow then turned to Twilight but went rigid when she saw the disapproving frown on the unicorn’s face.

“You have got to do something about this tension,” Twilight said sternly while advancing towards Rainbow. Every step made the pegasus shrink back. “Every time you two interact, it feels like any moment something might snap, and if it does, it’s going to be bad for everypony,” Twilight stopped when Rainbow fell to her haunches and looked down at the ground, not able to meet Twilight’s gaze. Biting her lip, Twilight took a deep breath, then sat down and put a hoof to Rainbow’s chin, drawing her eyes back to look into Twilight’s. “We don’t want a repeat of the train, Rainbow,” she continued in a far gentler tone.

Rainbow’s ears pinned back, and her eyes started to water a little at the memory. She shook herself, though, and lightly pried Twilight’s hoof from her chin. “I know, Twilight… I know,” she sighed heavily before looking up at the bottom of the palace. Pinkie Pie, who was still loading up her cannon, looked over at the two, her expression contorting into one of worry. She then got a small smile to replace her frown and reached back down the barrel of her cannon. After a moment of rummaging around, she procured a sizable cupcake with vanilla frosting, which she then offered to Rainbow with a hopeful shimmer in her eyes. Looking at it for a moment, Rainbow managed a small chuckle and took the pastry. “Thanks, Pinks.”

Pinkie smiled happily. “Anything to make my friends feel better, Dashie,” she said before looking at Twilight, who smiled back in thanks.

“That’s very nice of you, Pinkie,” Twilight said, looking to the pink mare with approval. Pinkie beamed right back before peering down into her cannon again. While she did that, Twilight returned her attention to Rainbow Dash, her smiling face replaced with one of thought and confusion. “Why do you still act so hostile towards her? You know she didn’t do anything wrong, don’t you?”

“Yes, Twilight, of course I know,” Rainbow replied with a grimace before nibbling some more on her cupcake. After a few seconds, she swallowed and kept going, leaning forwards a bit. “And the truth is that I don’t know why I’m still so hostile towards her. I know she’s innocent. But every time I look at her it’s like…” she paused and tilted her head as she tried to think of a good way to describe it. “It’s like... I dunno. I just get angry, despite knowing she's fine. I look at her, I see the face of the mare that took my parents away and...” she sighed heavily and wolfed down what was left of her snack. Once it was swallowed, she set her hooves down under her and shook her head. “...and sometimes I can't stop myself from reacting. Like earlier, when I told Starlight that I didn’t want another broken wing because of her. I didn’t mean to say that, Twilight, but I did.”

Pinkie looked over at Rainbow sympathetically, then looked past her to examine Starlight, who was still practicing her light spell, creating sheets of slowly shifting light in the air that vaguely resembled an aurora. Pinkie hummed quietly in thought before speaking. “Maybe you know she’s not a big meanie, but you don’t know her,” she pointed out in a surprisingly straightforward manner. Rainbow glanced up at Pinkie with a raised eyebrow. The party mare let a smile appear on her face before she continued. “I mean, when you and I first met back in Ponyville, I’m pretty sure you didn’t really like me very much. If we had never seen each other again after I pushed you to Applejack’s place, I’m sure you’d just see me as a loudmouthed hyper screwball.”

Rainbow and Twilight shared a glance, then looked back at Pinkie with thoughtful looks on their faces. Rainbow cleared her throat. “Well, I mean… that’s not untrue,” she admitted sheepishly. Pinkie’s smile grew.

“So that means that you need to become her friend! Talk to her, get to know her, play some crazy party games, the works! Maybe when you do that, you can stop scowling like a bitter, rotten apple every time you look at her, and she can stop being terrified of your every move.”

Rainbow glanced over her shoulder at Starlight, thinking the idea over. She still felt that burning in the back of her head, as strong as ever.

Make Her Pay.

“Shut up.” she thought bitterly to those echoing words, then looked back to Pinkie with a small smile. “You might be onto something there, Pinkie. I’ll give it a try a little later after we’ve got the Empire to trust us.”

Pinkie’s grin grew even more. “You’re welcome!” she sang out before returning her attention to her party cannon and setting to work stuffing things inside of it. Rainbow chuckled in amusement, then rose back to her hooves.

“I’m going to get back to my stretches. Let me know when AJ and Fluttershy come back, okay?” she said to Twilight, looking her way.

“Sure thing,” Twilight replied. She then turned to give Pinkie an appreciative smile as well before backing off to give Rainbow Dash some room, the pegasus having gone back to doing her stretches.

Performance

It was maybe thirty minutes later when Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Spike finally joined Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Starlight under the palace. The first group to arrive was Rarity and Spike, with Spike quickly latching himself onto Twilight in a warm hug, his spirits significantly lifted. Rarity explained that she had made good on her promise to get him some gems to eat while they were out and about, and he had claimed they were the best gems he had ever eaten. They had also acquired a couple of decently sized baskets and, thanks to some foresight from Rarity, a strainer, to make sure that the juice Applejack made wasn’t littered with fragments of berry skin.

As if on cue, Applejack and Fluttershy came back with Wind Whisper arriving a minute before them. The little thestral was absolutely buzzing with energy, having eaten several more berries than she should have and acquired a weird sort of sugar-high. Outside of that, the two adults of the group each carried two pairs of saddlebags, one slung over their backs, the other dangling by the straps from their lower jaws. Each one was full-to-bursting with crystal berries and emitted a mouth-watering aroma. Upon arrival, Applejack had wasted no time in collaborating with Rarity to get the baskets ready for berry-stomping (although Rarity had insisted on cleaning the farm mare’s hooves, first, claiming that ‘nopony wants dirt in their juice.’)

Now, everything seemed to be in order. Even now, with Applejack stomping away in one of the baskets, a small crowd was starting to gather in the plaza. The crystal ponies looked on with curiosity, skepticism, and confusion. From the center of the plaza, Twilight looked over everything one more time, running through her mental checklist again. “Okay, I think we’re good to go!” She called after a few seconds.

“Good, this waiting is killing me,” Rainbow replied with no small amount of eagerness in her voice. Twilight smiled back at her, then looked over at Pinkie Pie with a knowing look.

“Pinkie, I think it’s time. Fire your cannon.”

Pinkie Pie beamed. “Yes, ma’am!” she replied before galloping over to the aforementioned engine of party decoration. She slid to a halt just behind it, made a few adjustments to its angle, and then slammed her hoof down on the firing mechanism. There was a loud bang from the barrel of the cannon, followed shortly by an enormous mass of confetti, streamers, and all of the miscellaneous objects Pinkie had stuffed inside of it earlier. In a matter of seconds, the entire plaza, including the parts beyond the underside of the palace, looked like it was host to a gigantic outdoor picnic/birthday party hybrid. There were dozens of blankets laid out flat upon the ground, each one housing one or two baskets filled with sweets and food. Joining the baskets were plastic or paper cups that were just waiting to be filled with crystal berry juice. Several of the crystal ponies backed off a bit in surprise at this, but remained in the plaza, the group of foreigners now having their undivided attention.

Starlight’s eye twitched in abject confusion as she looked at the decoration. “What? How? How is this possible?!” she babbled out, putting a hoof to her temple to try and quell a rising migraine. “That’s easily ten times the amount of stuff you shoved into that canon only a little bit ago! HOW?!”

Pinkie Pie casually leaned up against her party cannon and fluttered her eyelashes at Starlight with a smug smile. “s’what I do, Glim Glam. s’what I do.”

Twilight chuckled slightly at her friend’s antics, then turned to the stars of the show. “Rainbow, Starlight, you two can get started whenever you’re ready.”

Starlight blinked away her confusion and nodded, her gaze briefly shifting to look into the back of Rainbow’s head uneasily. Rainbow did a couple of last-second stretches before also giving a sharp nod. “You got it. You ready, Starlight?” she called back, turning to look at the mare in question.

“As I’m going to be,” Starlight replied shakily. She chuckled weakly, then gulped. “Just, uh, give me my cue.”

“As soon as I’m in the air, that’s your cue,” Rainbow advised simply before taking a deep breath. “Whew…. Alright. Let’s do this thing!”

“You go get ‘em, Rainbow!” Applejack cheered, halting in her stomping of the berries as she did so.

Rarity, who was sitting next to Applejack’s basket with the strainer in her magic, gave a thankful nod to the farmer for halting her stomping, as juice had been splashing against her face, then smiled encouragingly to Rainbow Dash. “We all know you can do this, darling!” she called out.

“Yeah! Get up there and show these crystal ponies why you’re the best flyer in Equestria!” Pinkie Pie shouted before giving a few loud whistles.

“You rock, woohoo!” Fluttershy voiced her own encouragement in her typically quiet manner.

Rainbow puffed up from the shouts and praise, slowly unfurling her wings and letting what little there was in the form of a breeze pass through her feathers. Twilight came up to her side along with Spike, smiling. It was Twilight who spoke. “Go on, Rainbow. Go on and show these crystal ponies the awesome mare you are.”

Rainbow blinked. Then her grin widened. “You got it!” she said confidently before kicking off of the ground with a mighty flap of her wings. The force of her launch created a gust of wind that blew outwards, kicking up a small amount of dust. Starlight was quick to gallop after Rainbow, her horn sparking to life to create the auroras she had spent the last half an hour perfecting.

Already, Rainbow Dash had gained some serious altitude in the open air around the towering palace. After a few seconds, she stopped flapping her wings, halting her ascent near the top. As her momentum came to a stop, she pivoted backward in an almost lazy backflip, looking down onto the plaza beneath her. She could still see the remnants of that multi-colored trail that she left behind in the air, and she could see the eyes of the ponies in the plaza looking up at her in surprise.

She couldn’t help it; she giggled like a little filly as her altitude began to drop. All of these ponies watching her put on a daring aerial flight performance reminded her of her dreams to become a Wonderbolt. In the back of her mind, she wilted and remembered that she could never become one of her foalhood heroes. Her duties and responsibilities as a princess had to take priority.

I had better make the most of this chance, then, she thought to herself before flapping her wings again, rocketing her back down towards the ground at ludicrously high speeds. She focused on the arch leading to the underside of the Palace, and stuck her tongue out as the first of her many dangerous stunts began. The ground was coming up fast, and she’d only have a split-second to pull up and make her manuevor work. With her heart racing, Rainbow snapped open her wings to their maximum length and spun upright. The wind caught her wings at the perfect angle, allowing her to alter her trajectory just before hitting the ground. She swooped up and shot under the palace and over her friend’s faces, like a thread through a needle, before blasting back into the sky on the other side.

All the while, Starlight made her way towards the edge of the plaza to better keep track of Rainbow’s position, so she could ensure that the light show she was creating wasn’t distracting while still lending a certain ‘wow factor’ to the performance. A minute ticked by, and then two, with Rainbow continuing to perform stunning aerial maneuvers that were unquestionably impressive. From the edge of the plaza, Starlight spied several large groups of crystal ponies approaching with awe and curiosity at the display. It’s working, she mused to herself before returning her full attention on her aurora.

After maybe fifteen more minutes, Rainbow Dash decided that it was time to wrap this up. The crowd around the palace was quite large at this point, and she was getting winded. She growled with disappointment at her slightly decreased stamina, a byproduct of how long she had been stuck on the ground after her wing had been broken. Still, if it was time to end her performance, she figured she should end it right.

With a flourishing spiral, she gained altitude one more time and, like before, stopped flapping her wings and brought her ascent to a stop high above the tip of the palace. She rotated in the air and analyzed the structure of the building, determining the best angle and the best route to take. “Okay… okay…” she took a deep breath and launched herself down again as fast as she possibly could. The air lashed against her face, forcing her to squint against the wind. She grit her teeth even as the wind pulled back on the edges of her lips, making her cheeks billow out. She felt the air trying to stop her, a pressurized cone forming in front of her. With a growl and one more hard flap of her wings, she pushed through.

Down below, the now massive crowd of gathered onlookers gasped in awe and wonder when, just above their palace, there was a blinding flash. That flash dimmed quickly, allowing the onlookers to see the bright ring of prismatic colors that expanded from the very top of the heart of their city. The mare who created it was now leaving a shimmering and sparkling trail of glowing rainbow light in her wake that persisted for many seconds after she had passed, and she capitalized on that. She flew in a descending spiral down the palace, creating a spring-like shape around it before, with a fanciful flourish, she came to a stop just in front of the crowd with her wings outstretched. Countless condensed water droplets on her wings sprayed forward from her sudden stop, hovering in the air and allowing a few small rainbows to appear in the air around her before slowly fading away.

The crowd was silent and awestruck. Rainbow grinned when she saw their faces; they were dazzled alright. With a giddy laugh, Rainbow did one more backflip from her position in the air and landed on her hooves before the audience, standing tall. Then, with a proud smile, she bowed.

There was a moment of silence.

Then another.

Somewhere in the crowd, somepony began stomping their hooves on the ground in applause. Then another, and another. In no time at all, the entire crowd was roaring with applause and exclamations of praise. Rainbow stood back to her full height and closed her eyes, just soaking it all in and basking in the moment. The cheers, the hoops, the hollers, the whistles… all of it. She committed this moment to memory as she opened her eyes, beholding the ecstatic faces of the crystal ponies. She couldn’t help herself, and put on a massive grin. “It sounds like you all enjoyed that, didn’t you?!” she shouted to be heard over the roar, which only got louder in response to her call.

“That was amazing, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie Pie squealed in delight from Rainbow’s side before tackling her with a hug. Rainbow gasped from the impact, having not seen Pinkie approaching, but smiled nonetheless. Pinkie Pie then grinned at the crowd, still latched on to Rainbow’s side. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! The flying may be over for now, but this party is just getting started! Go on and make yourselves comfy! There’s snacks in the baskets and, if you need something to drink, bring a cup over to Applejack and Rarity! Those two have got you covered!” she announced before gesturing at the two aforementioned mares, who both waved.

“What’s this a party for?” Somepony in the crowd called out, sounding a little confused. Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes as though it were a dumb question.

“Well, it’s obviously a ‘Congratulations for coming back’party! Duh!” she declared before pausing and releasing Rainbow Dash. She put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Wait… maybe it’s a ‘Congratulations on being free from King Sombra’ party?”

“The point is,” Rainbow cut in before Pinkie could confuse herself, even more, looking to the crowd again. “This party is for all of you. So go on and have some fun! Pinkie,” she turned to the party mare with a hopeful smile. “Do you have something that can play party music?”

Pinkie Pie’s grin returned with gusto. “Haha, please."

Information

To say that the party was a resounding success would have been a gross understatement. It didn’t take any time at all for word of the event and the generosity of these strangers to reach all across the empire, drawing many curious ponies to the scene. They were greeted with a plaza packed with ponies laughing amongst themselves, nibbling on tiny pastries and enjoying drinks of crystal berry juice.

Surprisingly, Pinkie Pie had managed to convince somepony in the empire to let her borrow their vintage record player and, at present, had a specific vinyl playing on it - her own personal party mix. Apparently, she had packed it along in her saddlebags when they had left Ponyville. The upbeat tunes, while a bit scratchy due to the old nature of the record player, was more than enough to have drawn a few ponies to a small area reserved for dancing.

Pinkie Pie was proud to say that this was some of her finest work; especially considering her limited resources.

Things had been going for a good hour now, and the mood in the area was light and cheerful and the plaza was packed. Rainbow looked on from the shade beneath the palace, a small smile on her face. Pinkie had really outdone herself today, hadn’t she?

“Um, hey, Rainbow,” came the quiet voice of Fluttershy from her right. Rainbow glanced her way, her smile widening when she spotted the pegasus in question slowly trotting up to her side. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“Nah, you’re good Fluttershy. It’s kinda loud out here, isn’t it? How are you holding up?” she asked, casually leaning against one of the massive supports.

Fluttershy gave a weak smile. “Oh, I’m fine. Pinkie convinced me to dance for a few minutes, and, um…” she shook her head, a slight blush of embarrassment spreading on her cheeks. “I just want to get away from the noise for a bit.”

“I bet,” Rainbow nodded and looked at the ongoing party again. Her smile slowly began to fade away, replaced with a tense grimace. “...I’m gonna have to step up and talk to all of them here in a little bit…”

Fluttershy was quick to catch on to Rainbow’s anxiety. With a sweet smile, she came closer and wrapped a foreleg around her shoulders in an effort to comfort her. “Oh, you poor thing. Don’t worry, we’ll all be nearby to cheer you on.”

“I’m not scared of the attention, Flutters,” Rainbow dismissed, although she did lean into the hug without complaint. “I’m just… not sure I’m the best pony to break the news to them that they’ve been gone for so long…”

Fluttershy gave Rainbow a reassuring squeeze before pulling back a little. “I understand… I’m always afraid if I have to do any kind of public speaking, too…”

“Heh, yeah, I know that. You kinda start squeaking like a mouse,” Rainbow chuckled weakly before she let a forehoof up to her face. “Ugh… I just hope these ponies really can help us…”

Fluttershy looked away, her expression drooping. “I hope so, too…”

The last song on Pinkie’s collection ended, and with it, all of the music came to a stop. The dancing stopped and many of the ponies in the crowd began to look distinctly peeved at the sudden end in the beats. Rainbow took one more deep breath. “It’s time… here goes nothing,” she muttered before lifting into the air on her wings and flying at a decently slow pace to hover above the bulk of the crowd.

“Good luck,” Fluttershy gently called after her from the ground. Rainbow smiled back, then focused on getting into position.

The ponies below caught sight of her and watched her with confusion, skepticism, and curiosity. She grimaced inwardly from the distinctly negative emotions, then cleared her throat. “Ahem. Attention everypony! Up here!” she called out, drawing the eyes of everypony else who had yet to look at her. She took a second to get her thoughts in order, then continued.

“For those of you who were late to the party, my name is Rainbow Dash. The ponies with me are Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Wind Whisper, and Rarity. We also have a baby dragon named Spike and a bat pony named Squall Dreamer with us. We’re not from around here, clearly, and I’m sure you’re all pretty curious about why a bunch of strangers suddenly came waltzing into your empire after your last king vanished in a big flash of light, right?”

The ponies in the crowd began to glance at each other uneasily, a few muttering to each other. Some of them began to look suspicious and skeptical, while others still looked angry or saddened at the mentioning of King Sombra.

Rainbow felt a bead of sweat forming on her brow.

“Well, first of all, there is something everypony should know…” she continued slowly, making sure she had everypony’s attention. “This place, here? The Crystal Empire? Well… there’s no easy way to tell all of you this… But because Sombra was kind of a sore loser, it’s been gone for a thousand years. It vanished into thin air, and everypony inside of it went along for the ride. So… welcome back, huh?” she tried to put on a small smile to ease the blow this news would deal, but it didn’t work. Audible gasps erupted from many of the ponies in the crowd, and Rainbow was sure she could hear a few of them trying to withhold sorrowful cries.

She sighed guiltily and slumped in the air. “Yeah, that wasn’t alright. Sorry… Okay, look,” she lifted her eyes and wore a more determined expression. “The issue of the Empire’s absence can be dealt with later. First… my friends and I need the Empire’s help.”

“With what?!” somepony in the crowd angrily shouted, stepping forward. Her entire body was shaking from the bombshell she had just had dropped on her. “Who are you, anyway? Why are you here?!”

Others in the crowd loudly voiced their agreement with the sentiment, and the once happy eyes of everypony around Rainbow quickly turned into looks of suspicion and anger. She lifted her hooves in front of her in a placating gesture. “Woah, Woah, take it easy. I’m not your enemy, okay? We’re from Equestria… I’m…” Rainbow bit her lip for a moment, trying to figure out how to dissolve this situation. An idea came to her, though she absolutely hated it. Still, it wasn’t like she had any better options right now.

Her face hardened again and she straightened her posture. “I guess I should more formally introduce myself, shouldn’t I? Alright. I am Princess Rainbow Dash of Equestria, adopted daughter to Princess Celestia, and I have come here to the Crystal Empire on behalf of Equestria to seek the Empire’s aid against an invading enemy!” she loudly declared, and the bitterness in the crowd was quickly washed away into curious silence. Rainbow, relieved by the more docile ambiance, searched the crowd for a few specific faces. She saw them quickly; Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Whisper were all crowded together in one spot, giving her reassuring nods and smiles, although Twilight’s eyes were pleading with her to proceed with caution.

“So…” Rainbow continued a little awkwardly, snapping out of a trance she didn’t realize she had fallen into. “I guess this is the part where I ask you all to take me to your leader.”

There was a deafening silence throughout the plaza, and the ponies of the Empire looked between each other anxiously. The silence dragged on and on, and Rainbow could feel herself starting to lose some of her smile. Finally, one of the ponies in the crowd, a pale brows stallion with a silvery mane and tail, slowly stepped forward to be a bit closer. “We… don’t have a leader.”

Rainbow sighed and lowered herself down to the ground. Her hooves clopped heavily against the crystalline surface of the plaza. “I was afraid of that… well, who here is the closest thing to a leader? Who has the most authority?”

Again, silence. The stallion shuffled back and forth on his hooves, looking down at the ground as if he were ashamed. “I can’t remember…” he mumbled, his ears drooping to lay flat against his head.

Rainbow blinked. “Uh, what? What does that mean?”

“None of us can remember much of anything before King Sombra came to power…” another pony, a mare chimed in, her voice sounding tired and weak. Her coat was a dull gray and her mane and tail were similarly dull shades of purple. Her blue eyes looked like they may have once been vibrant, but were muted and washed out. In truth, that seemed to be the case for everypony, now that Rainbow really looked. Odd… they had been so colorful a minute ago. The mare cringed and shook her head with an uncomfortable shudder working through her. “And I don’t want to remember a single minute about the time he spent ruling over us. But even those times are…” her words trailed off as she searched for the right words.

“Murky?” The stallion offered gently, to which the mare could only nod, along with many of the others in the crowd who were within earshot.

“So, wait,” Starlight cut in, stepping up from somewhere in the crowd, her eyes betraying her utter disbelief. “You mean to tell us that none of you can remember anything? Anything at all?”

“Well… we know our names, the names of our friends and family, but…” the mare closed her eyes and sighed. “Everything else… it’s just darkness, shadows, chains, pain and… and his voice… that terrible voice...”

Rainbow furrowed her brow in thought. The entire population of the empire had amnesia. Well, this was going to make things difficult. “Starlight, please tell me you have a spell that can fix memories?” She looked at Starlight with a pleading look, hoping the magically gifted mare could offer some solution. Starlight could only shrug and back away when she saw Rainbow’s pupils dilating again. Puffing out a breath from between her lips, Rainbow looked around again.

“Why do you need our help, specifically?” the mare asked slowly, perking up a bit with curiosity. “I mean, why didn’t you go to one of Equestria’s other allies? You have to have some, don’t you?”

Rainbow glanced at her for a second. “I…” she hesitated and scuffed a hoof along the ground. ”I’m not a hundred percent sure if I’m being honest. My friend, Twilight, was the one who convinced us to come here.”

Taking that as a cue to step in, Twilight left the others and cantered out from the crowd until she was next to Rainbow Dash. The crowd muttered to each other a bit while waiting for her to get into position, and she glanced at them sheepishly. She soon got a hold of herself, though, and spoke up. “Before we came here, I was contacted by Princess Luna via a dream. She’s a prisoner of our enemy right now, so she didn’t have much time to tell me what the plan was. All she did was encourage us to come here to the Empire and try to break the spell that was sealing it. If we were successful, we were to look for some kind of… ‘power’ hidden here, one strong enough to help us take back Canterlot. But she didn’t elaborate…” she explained before glancing at Rainbow.

“So… does that ring any bells? Super powerful magic in the Empire?” Rainbow called out to the crowd, hoping for some valid answers. A few moments passed in silence before the stallion spoke up again.

“Well, I know there’s a library somewhere in the city. I passed it on my way here. Maybe you can-” he started, but then stopped talking when he saw the enormous smile that had suddenly grown on Twilight’s face.

“A library! Of course! Where is it?” the unicorn practically squealed like a little filly in a candy shop while eagerly trotting in place, making the stallion take a step back in mild alarm. Rainbow couldn’t help herself and had to lift a hoof to her muzzle to stifle a chuckle that was threatening to explode out.

“Oh, uh…” The stallion managed to regain his composure, then gestured down one of the streets. “It’s that way,” he said before offering a bashful shrug. “I don’t remember exactly where though… I only passed it once. I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine, we can find it,” Rainbow nodded to him in thanks before turning back to look at her friends. They seemed to be eager to get a move on. Nodding, Rainbow then turned back to the crowd and spoke loudly to ensure she was heard. “Thank you for the information, ponies! I think that’s the best we can do for now. We’re going to head to the library and do some research on the Empire. If we’re lucky, maybe we can find out a way to help you all get your memories back.”

“If you can do that, we’d be in your debt,” the mare said with a small, hopeful smile, her voice gaining just a bit more energy at the prospect. She then glanced back at the crowd of assembled ponies and sagged a little bit. “But… until then…” she sighed and began to slowly trudge back to the crowd. “All we can do is say good luck.”

“Hopefully, we won’t need it,” Rainbow replied before nodding to the crowd at large. “Okay, you should all get a move on, now. Party’s over.”

There were a few grumbles of disappointment from the crowd, but the ponies began to trot back out into the city proper, probably to go for lunch or their homes. Rainbow took in a deep breath, then let it out while her friends gathered around her.

“You did good, Rainbow,” Twilight offered with a smile, draping a foreleg over the other mare’s shoulders. Rainbow hummed and leaned into the embrace, opting to not say anything for now and just enjoy the contact.

“Indeed. Now we just have to find this library,” Rarity added while glancing down the street that the stallion had indicated. Her brow furrowed with uncertainty. “And hope it has what we need.”

“It’ll be a starting point, at least,” Twilight said before releasing Rainbow and nodding to the group at large. “So… to the library?”

Everypony, sans for Starlight, voiced their agreement. “To the library!”

Author's Notes:

I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how hard this chapter was to write when I sat down to work on it. I must have rewritten the second half at least three times before It was where I wanted it to be. I hope that my indecision and the migraine this chapter gave me didn't bleed through my writing and ruin it for you.

Library

It took a little while, but they eventually found the library standing near the heart of its city block. It was a gorgeously crafted building, carved immaculately from sky-blue crystals, with two expertly made griffin statues acting as gargoyles on either side of the thick, darker blue door. Tall windows allowed a glimpse into the building, and already Twilight was prancing in place with excitement.

It was a big library.

“Okay, Twi, reign it in,” Rainbow playfully chastised while cantering up the stairs leading to the door. “We’re not gonna get anywhere by walking in place and making excited noises.”

Twilight stopped prancing and pouted pitifully at Rainbow, who could only snicker in response. The others joined in with amused chuckles of their own before, as one, the group entered the library.

The sight of the interior was more than enough to steal Twilight’s breath and make her feel weak in the knees.

The inside of the library was easily three stories tall. There was the entrance level, which housed a small study area off to their left, a reception counter to their right, and a staircase leading down into a cross-shaped corridor lined with rows upon rows of books. Framing the sides of the staircase were two walkways that followed the cross-shape, and each one housed yet more bookshelves. Towards the back of the enormous main room, those walkways had more stairs leading up to yet another level, full of more shelves and more books.

“It’s just… I can’t even… there are no words!” Twilight breathed out, bringing her hooves up to her cheeks and grinning delightedly.

“It’s a library,” Rainbow replied in a deadpan. “There are a lot of words.”

“Don’t take this away from me, Rainbow!” Twilight whined, turning and smacking her unrepentant friend on the shoulder. Rainbow Dash merely laughed and took a step back to get out of smacking range.

Rarity chose this moment to cut in. “Ahem, darlings, please. As wholesome and adorable as your banter is, we really should be starting our search. This library is massive and we cannot afford to waste… any… time… woah” her voice slowly trailed off. She shuddered after a moment, her eyes going wide and unfocused.

“Rarity, are you okay? you’re… oh… oh, nelly…” Applejack began, then fell to her haunches, her eyes mirroring Rarity’s. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash followed in short order, falling to their haunches and breathing heavily. They each lifted their hooves to cover their eyes while their ears fell flat against their head.

Frightened by what she was seeing, Wind Whisper did all she could think of and backed away. Her ears folded back and she shrunk herself down fearfully. “Wh-what’s happening?!” she asked in a whimper, then turning to gallop and hide behind Starlight, who was still on her hooves. Starlight glanced over her shoulder at the filly, then to Spike, who had been standing next to Twilight. Her eyes were the image of unease.

The baby dragon stepped back slowly and flashed a reassuring smile at the two. “It’s alright; they’re just having a flash. They’ll snap out of it in a bit,” he explained simply.

“A flash?” Wind Whisper asked quietly, poking her head out from behind Starlight a little bit. Her ears perked up just slightly, and the fearful shaking in her voice decreased. “What’s a flash?”

Remembering what Twilight had told her of the phenomenon, Starlight stepped to the side and lowered herself to be closer to Wind’s eye level, putting on a small smile of her own. “They’re having a vision of another life or something like that,” she said, trying to sound reassuring. In truth, she was still unnerved by what she was looking at. It was the eyes, mostly...

“Basically, yeah,” Spike confirmed, walking up to Wind’s side and putting a claw on her shoulder. One of his fangs poked out from his lip as he widened his smile. “It’s kind of really complicated, and to be honest… I don’t really understand most of it. But Starlight summed it up pretty well. They’re seeing something from another life, another time,” he then glanced at Twilight and Rainbow, his smile fading ever so slightly as he remembered the days when Twilight had fallen into a coma.

“Well, let’s just hope that whatever they’re seeing turns out to be worth the delay…” Starlight commented in resignation before falling to her haunches. The entire library fell into a long, tense silence while they waited for their friends to awaken from their flash...

“I just… I don’t even know what to… There are no words…” Twilight breathed out in awe and wonder, looking on at the beautiful assortment of books before her in a blissful trance. Her legs felt weak and her heart fluttered in her chest. Pinkie Pie was close behind her, followed by Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike. All of them were also visibly impressed and awestruck by the library they were seeing, wearing wide smiles with twinkles in their eyes.

Their moment of sightseeing was disrupted, however, when from their right, a calm voice coughed. They all looked in the direction of the sound to see an aged gray mare with a dull pink mane and tail. On her flank was a cutie mark of a scroll illuminated by golden light. Her old, wrinkly eyes were framed by simple yellow reading glasses. She eyed the group curiously. “Can I help you?” she asked in a calm, patient voice.

Twilight’s smile returned in full force, and she eagerly cantered up to the other mare. “Yes, we’re looking for a book!” she said, gesturing up at… everything.

“Smooth, Twi.”Rainbow Dash though from her side of things.

The mare’s expression flattened with bemusement. “We have plenty of those,” she replied matter-of-factly, gesturing towards the books with a deadpan expression on her face. Twilight didn’t really seem to register the snark, her eyes trailing past the mare to all of the books on the shelves. She could feel her heart fluttering yet again.

“You do… you really do…” she cooed, starting to spin in slow circles just so she could look at all of it, a dazed and euphoric sparkle in her eyes. The librarian glanced past her to her companions, hoping for somepony a bit less smitten to step up.

Applejack rolled her eyes and decided to take over the conversation at this point. “We’re lookin’ for a history book,” she began, trotting a bit less energetically up to the librarian with a friendly smile. “Something that might tell us how the Empire might have protected itself from danger back in the day.”

The mare blinked, her brow furrowing with thought. “Yes, of course…” she put a hoof to her chin, and her eyes narrowed as she started mumbling quietly. “History… history…” a proverbial light bulb went off, and she perked up significantly. A smile spread across her face. “Ah, yes!”

The group smiled expectantly at her.

She just smiled back and said nothing.

Twilight’s smile faded slowly, and her eyes began to show a flicker of disappointment. “Which is, uh, where exactly?” she pressed, giving a forced, hopeful smile.

The mare blinked and looked around at their surroundings, her smile fading away. “I… I can’t seem to remember…” she admitted, then looking at the group with fear welling up in her eyes. “I’m not sure I even work here…”

Rainbow Dash brought a hoof up to slam into her face. Hard.

Twilight, though disappointed by the mare’s answer, didn’t lose her optimism. She perked right back up and nodded to the others. “We’ll just take a look around. I’m sure we can find it on our own,” she said before turning to descend the central staircase for the lower level.

“Let me know if you find anything,” The mare called after them before turning to trot away, seemingly without any clear destination in mind. Pinkie Pie watched her go for a moment, a sad look of pity on her face. Said look was swiftly replaced by her usual grin.

“I like her!”

The vision abruptly shattered, and everypony returned to reality.

The group collectively gasped as they came out of their flash, each one reacting slightly differently to their abrupt awakening. Fluttershy fell forwards as her forelegs gave out, and she squeaked out in discomfort when her chin bumped off of the hard crystal floor. Applejack swayed in place, but a quick shake of her head dispelled her dizziness. Rarity brought one hoof up to her temple while the other held her up, shaking at the elbow joint. Pinkie Pie just blinked her eyes open and giggled. “Haha, it’s always so tingly!” she snorted before looking at the others.

Twilight sat bolt upright when she came to, sucking in a sharp breath before, like Rarity, bringing a hoof up to the side of her head. Rainbow Dash had a similar reaction, though she kept both of her hooves on the floor.

A second later, Spike ran up to Twilight’s side, his claws clicking against the floor, then grabbed Twilight by the foreleg to get her attention. “What’d you see?” he asked eagerly before looking over at Rainbow Dash.

Twilight groaned and brushed his claw away before shaking her head. “Ugh… I saw…” she grumbled before blinking a few times to clear away the fog in her vision. “I... saw us. All of us. We were coming here, to this library and looking for… a history book.”

“A history book?” Starlight pondered out loud, looking out at the library’s rows of shelves. She cringed as it really clicked with her how many of them there were. “Well, if we have to learn about the Empire’s power, that does seem like a logical place to start. This library is giant, though...”

“Yeah,” Applejack nodded, shakily rising to her hooves. “You said it. Seems like Ah had the same idea. Asked the librarian to give us directions,” she scrunched up her muzzle and scowled. “Well, Ah thought she was the librarian…”

“But nopony's here,” Wind noted curiously, cantering over to the rail of one of the walkways and propping herself up on it so she could look around. She squinted out at all of the rows of shelves, then looked over her shoulder at the others, her face reflecting her perplexion. “It’s just us.”

“She’s probably not here right now,” Rainbow replied, standing up and dusting off her flank with a few flicks of her tail. “And it seems like she didn’t even know if she worked here. We’re in the same scrape our other selves were… searching blind.”

Twilight seemed to be okay with this notion. “Then we should get looking right away!” she said while standing back up as well. Her eyes trailed down to look at Spike, who was still clutching her leg. She remembered something then and looked back at Rainbow. “But actually, you, Spike and I have something we need to do before we can do that, Rainbow. We need to find some spare parchment or something so we can get in touch with Equestria.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened and she slapped a hoof to her forehead in realization. “That’s right! Spike’s Dragonfire!” she exclaimed as she remembered. Lowering her hoof back to the ground, she nodded to Twilight sharply. “Alright. We’ll divide our efforts then. Twilight, Spike and I are going to look for spare parchment and writing tools. The rest of you,” she turned to the others. “Get started looking for a history book on the Empire, or maybe study on it or something.”

Wind Whisper let herself down from the rail and lifted a hoof high into the air. ‘Oh! Question!” she chirped, drawing the group’s attention.

Fluttershy smiled softly and trotted over. “What is it, Wind?” she asked softly as she approached.

Wind Whisper lowered her hoof. “When is Squall going to come back?” she asked simply, a big smile on her face. “I’m sure he can help you look for books.”

Fluttershy’s brow furrowed, and she glanced over her shoulder at the others. “Oh! Um… I don’t know,” she replied honestly, shrugging her shoulders. “He’s out standing guard, though.”

Rarity shook her head sharply with a sharp ‘mm-mm’ sounding from behind her lips. “Now now, darling, I’m sure he’s been on watch for quite long enough. Fluttershy, why don’t you go get him?” she suggested before smiling down at Wind. “I’m sure our youngest traveling companion would be delighted. After all, I know that my little sister would hate to be apart from her family for very long.”

“Yeah, same here,” Applejack added, a fond look coming over her face. “Apple Bloom’s a strong filly, but she’s a family gal, that’s for sure,” she looked down at Wind and shot her a wink. She then looked at Fluttershy. “Ah think Rarity’s right. Go on and get ‘em. The guy deserves to spend some time with his lil sister.”

“Oh, I’d love to!” Fluttershy smiled widely and then looked at Rainbow Dash, who merely nodded in confirmation. Fluttershy then turned back to Wind Whisper and knelt down so they were eye to eye. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon with your big brother,” she stated before playfully poking the little bat pony on the nose.

Wind Whisper snorted and backed up a bit, her face scrunching up. “Pfft! Hey, that’s my nose!” she complained, covering the offended spot with a hoof.

Fluttershy giggled merrily and nodded. “It is…” she then turned and looked at the door. Her smile faltered a little, but after a moment, she pulled herself together and started for the door.

“Be careful, Fluttershy!” Twilight called after her, prompting the pegasus to stop part way through the door. She glanced back at Twilight, nodded, and then slipped out of the library. The door closed behind her, the sound echoing across the entire building. Once she was gone, Rainbow turned back to the rest of the assembled group. She caught a glimpse of Starlight, still standing awkwardly to the side of the room. Their eyes met.

There was the burning in her head again…

Make her pay.

Grinding her teeth together behind her lips, Rainbow forced down that infuriating compulsion yet again before glancing at Pinkie. The mare left no room for hesitation and smiled at Starlight. “Hey! Starlight! You should help Rainbow and Twilight look for stuff.”

Starlight’s eyes shot wide open, and she gaped at Pinkie in disbelief. “Wha- huh?” she stuttered, then turning her eyes to look anxiously at Rainbow Dash. “Uh, no, no, I don’t think they need my help! I should stick with you-”

“Oh, go on~” Pinkie urged her, sliding over and nudging her in the ribs with her elbow. “We’ve got history covered. Besides…” she then whispered directly into Starlight’s ear, loudly enough for Rainbow to hear, “I think Rainbow wants to talk to you.”

Rainbow Dash felt her heart withering in her chest. “Pinkie, you are gonna be the end of me,” she thought to herself, deflating at the thought. Still, Starlight, though hesitant, wound up nodding her head in resignation and slowly trotted over to be close to Twilight. Barely suppressing a protective snort, Rainbow tore her eyes from the two unicorns and addressed the group at large. “Okay, we all know what we’re doing. Fluttershy is out getting Squall and bringing him back here. Twilight, Starlight, Spike and I are going to try and get in touch with Equestria, and the rest of you are looking for history books. Wind Whisper, you should stay with Applejack; she was watching you with Fluttershy earlier, right?”

Wind Whisper nodded adorably, a smile appearing on her muzzle. “Uh huh! She told me all about how she farms apples and stuff!”

“Okay, so yeah, stick with her. Okay gang, let’s hop to it!” Rainbow said loudly. There was a general vocalization of agreement from the assembled ponies before the research group splintered off down onto the lower floor, already splitting up to scour the library at large.

Rainbow watched them go for a moment, then turned to Twilight, Spike, and Starlight. ignoring the burning in her head, Rainbow turned and started to trot along one of the walkways, gesturing with a wing for the others to follow her. “Alright… let’s go."

Brother

Squall was easy enough to spot, thankfully. Being one of the only two ponies in the Empire with leathery wings sprouting from his back, he stood out like a blemish against the backdrop of the rich blue sky at the edges of the empire. He was hovering high in the air, his wings beating rhythmically while his eyes intently watched the snows in the distance for any sign of danger. Fluttershy gulped and took a deep breath before approaching him gingerly, not quite sure how to greet him.

They’d traveled together all week, sure, but if she were being honest with herself, she didn’t really know Squall very well at all. He just kind of showed up after Canterlot fell with his little sister in tow, with Rainbow and Twilight insisting that the two of them come along when they evacuated Ponyville. It was perplexing, frankly.

Still though, despite her mild trepidation, she eventually drew close enough to him in the air that he spotted her. He rotated in place to face her, his eyes locking onto hers. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “Hi… uh, Fluttershy, right?” he asked, his hooves slowly lifted to fidget over his chest while she nodded in confirmation. Putting on a small, friendly smile, he continued. “What do you need?”

“The others want me to bring you back. We could use some help searching the library for information on the power we need from the Empire,” Fluttershy replied while nodding slightly in the direction of the city. “Plus, your little sister probably wants to spend some time with you.”

Squall hesitated and looked away. His hooves wrung themselves and he starting chewing on his bottom lip for several seconds. He jumped as if startled, likely remembering that Fluttershy was waiting for him to reply, then cleared his throat. “Oh! Uh, I-I shouldn't. I should keep watch out here. We need somepony to act as the alarm in case Queen Chrysalis shows up, right?” he asked nervously, letting off a very fake laugh after a few moments.

Fluttershy’s brow furrowed at his reaction. “But… she’s your sister. You really should go spend some time with her. I don’t see anything bad out there,” she said before glancing out into the frozen north and quivering a bit. “I mean… aside from all of that cold, freezing snow.”

“The snow’s the problem,” Squall pointed out with a small hoof gesture. “The blizzards out there are thick. Something could hide out there and you’d miss it unless you were looking. I don’t wanna take any chances, okay?”

Fluttershy looked at Squall sternly, her eyes narrowing somewhat. “...She told me how much she really looks up to you, you know,” she said pointedly while drifting closer to his side. “How she cares about you and loves you so much, she stowed away in your moving wagon when you went to join the Lunar Guard because she didn't want to be apart from you.”

Squall lowered his gaze and sighed, his shoulder slumping in defeat. “She did, huh? Ah, guess it’s for the best…” he shook his head before raising his eyes to look out at the cold snows again. When he spoke again, his voice was cold and distant. “Fluttershy, tell me… do you have any siblings? Brothers, sisters?”

Fluttershy gave a soft ‘mhmm’ and smiled. “Oh, yes. I have a younger brother named Zephyr Breeze. He’s...” she lost her smile to a disappointed frown. “...Kind of a pain.”

Squall just laughed at that, his face showing genuine merriment from that comment. “Heh… sounds like a little sibling, alright. A pain in the flank, but you still…” he hesitated and put a hoof to his chest, his ears falling flat against his head. “...You love them with everything you’ve got… and just hope that you’re setting a good example. That you’re everything your brother or sister needs you to be…”

“She seems to be perfectly happy with just having you around though,” Fluttershy noted, some of the intensity draining from her expression. “And from what I can see, you’ve earned her respect and admiration. You’re a really good big brother.”

“I’m also a really bad little brother.”

Fluttershy perked up and tilted her head in confusion at that remark. She shifted to better look at Squall’s eyes and inhaled softly when she saw the guilt burning in them. “Huh? I thought all of your siblings were sisters, and that you were older than all of them,” she finally managed to say, shifting to be upright again.

Squall winced as if struck, then shrugged. “W-well, he wasn’t my brother by blood. We aren’t related or anything, but…” he sagged heavily. “...yeah. We hung out a lot growing up… He was always kind of hard on me, trying to get me to stand up for myself, to grow a backbone and thicker skin. He pushed me around, talked down to me, even beat me up a couple of times...”

Fluttershy’s hooves shot up to cover her muzzle. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said solemnly, reaching out. “That sounds awful-”

“But just as often as he beat me up, hurled an insult at my face or pushed me to the ground… he stood up for me. He’d protect me whenever somepony else picked on me, he taught me how to fight, how to defend myself… he helped make me who I am...” Squall continued before sighing gently and looking over at Fluttershy. “It was his way of showing that he cared about me… I guess he knew he couldn’t protect me forever…” his eyes lowered, and Fluttershy swore she could see tears welling up in them. “…and how did I repay him for everything he did for me? ...I left him behind, and now he has to suffer the consequences.” he looked back towards the city, his eyes betraying a kaleidoscope of emotions waging a war in his heart. “So… you understand how I feel, right?”

“Um… sort of,” Fluttershy replied meekly, her own hooves fidgeting over her chest and her eyes trained on the tip of her tail gently bobbing around beneath her.

“I just… I’m worried that I’m not what she needs me to be,” Squall continued, looking back at her with pleading eyes. “She’s my little sister, and I want to make sure I do good by her… but…” he brought his hooves in front of his face and scowled bitterly at them in disgust. “Considering the fact that I ran away from somepony that I looked up to like a big brother… even if I really disliked him sometimes… I dunno...” he slumped and looked down at the ground far below them. “...Is that the kind of pony my sister needs right now?”

Fluttershy bit her lip for a moment before her eyes lit up. Her smile returned in full and she gave an encouraging nod. “Well, I know that you’re out here, diligently standing guard to make sure nothing bad can slip into the empire to hurt her or your friends. You, all on your own, bravely swooped in and safely carried her out of Canterlot while the Changelings were invading,” her smiled widened and she drifted a little closer. “I think you’re everything she needs you to be; strong, brave, and you will do anything to protect your family. I don’t think there is anything more a little sister could ask for in their big brother.”

Squall looked at Fluttershy with wide eyes. He gaped at her, mouthing like a fish as he struggled to find his words for several moments. Eventually, he sighed and nodded. “I mean… I see your point, but…”

“But nothing,” Fluttershy cut in, putting a hoof to his chin just as he tried to drop his gaze again. She tilted his head so they were eye-to-eye. “You are a wonderful brother, and Wind Whisper is lucky to have you…” she then retracted her hoof and winked at him. “Plus, you can always come back and stand guard later. You’ve been at this for hours… you should rest your wings.”

Squall looked at her disbelievingly for several moments. A small sound escaped his throat, like a cough. He made the sound again, before bursting into a fit of laughter, clutching at his gut. Fluttershy, a bit taken aback by his outburst, drifted back a couple feet, but soon enough his laughter began to die away. He slowly managed to right himself in the air and wiped a hoof over his eyes to remove some tears that had spilled out from his uproarious laughter, and smiled at her. “Fluttershy… you might not seem like it, but you make a darned good motivational speaker when you want to be!” he complimented her before shifting and started to fly at a leisurely pace for the Empire. “Come on, let’s go. You’re right; my wings could use a rest.”

Fluttershy let a small, delighted squeak slip past her lungs, then turned and began to lead Squall deeper into the city towards the library. While they went, Squall cast one last furtive glance at the snow-blasted wasteland in the distance.

The frozen wind and snowflakes lashed against Pharynx’s chitin like a relentless onslaught of chilling daggers, drawing a pained hiss out of him. He squinted to see through the blizzard that had sprung up out of nowhere, but his eyes were just met with various shades of white and, in a few rare spots where stone jutted up out of the snow, black. A shiver worked its way through him, and he swore bitterly under his breath. “Dang it, Thorax… why did you have to go into a blasted arctic wasteland?!” he growled before pushing on.

He had been following Thorax’s trail for almost a week, now. It had taken him about a day after Chrysalis sent him off to figure out that his little brother had fled with Princess Rainbow Dash and her assortment of friends, first to the Castle of the Two Sisters in the depths of the Everfree Forest, and then north into this snow smothered landscape. He had followed their trail the whole way and had been sure he was catching up. However, as soon as the grass gave way to snow, the trail was lost among the never-ending blizzards, and Pharynx was slowly coming to grips with the fact that he was hopelessly lost. Another shiver rattled his body and he felt a sharp throb worm it’s way slowly through his head. Growling, he shook himself a bit more in an effort to raise his body temperature before looking around for some shelter.

He was able to find a suitable location after a time. It came in the form of a small cliff-side that formed a rocky overhang, with the winds harmlessly rushing by. He secluded himself underneath the stones and curled up as tightly as he could, trying to keep warm. A quick flick of his magic saw his physical form disintegrated in a swirl of green fire. When the flames faded, he had changed his form to that of a thick-furred yak. Already, he could feel his body temperature rising, and he couldn’t help but sigh in relief. Sadly, he knew he couldn’t maintain this form for long. He only had so much energy to work with, and without a proper source of love to keep him fed, he had to use it sparingly.

After several minutes, he dropped his disguise, returning to his normal self. He regretted the decision, his chitin quivering and his instincts yearning for that heavenly warmth to shield him from this cold. He ignored the urge to don the yak form again, however. Starting to shake again, his purple eyes glared out at the frozen north, narrowing with disgust and anger. He was getting nowhere fast in his search for Thorax, and he was starting to question which was worse; perishing to the snow, or to the ferocity of his queen.

Thorax...

He thought of his brother, and of their last meeting. He remembered the resolve Thorax had shown, the commitment to his suicidal mission to protect some meaningless filly out of a sense of guilt. He could remember feeling a flicker of pride in his chest as he looked upon his little brother, who once was a cowardly nymph that shied away from even the threat of raised voices, standing his ground and refusing to budge, even in the face of certain failure.

Pharynx humphed dismissively, narrowing his eyes at the snow. His pride in Thorax was not important anymore. Queen Chrysalis’ orders had been perfectly clear…

Chrysalis eyed Pharynx critically for several moments, then turned her back on him. “Now, I have a special mission for you.”

“Mission, your majesty?” Pharynx asked and hesitantly lifted his head so he could look at Chrysalis. She casually glanced back over her shoulder at him and flashed him a sadistic smirk.

“Yes. I want you to hunt down and find your runaway little brother of yours, and bring him before me to answer for his betrayal.”

“But, my queen,” Pharynx licked his lips, his mouth suddenly going dry. “I… I don’t know where to look, or even where to start. I’m not an infiltrator or scout. I’m-” Pharynx’s words hitched in his throat when green fire erupted along Chrysalis’ horn, and she turned on him with fury in her eyes.

“YOU ARE MY DRONE!” she roared furiously, encasing Pharynx in her magic and forcefully hauling him to float before her in the air, his front legs pinned to his sides. She snarled angrily into his face, her lips curled back to reveal her teeth. “And I thought you just said you would do anything for me! So unless you were lying to me, then I expect you to start somewhere! I couldn’t care less what your position in the hive is, you are a drone, and you will serve your queen without question, so if I tell you to do something, YOU DO IT! Do you understand?!”

“Y-yes!” Pharynx gasped in terror, nodded quickly. He instinctively squirmed in her grip as adrenaline began pumping through his veins and his heart hammered against his ribs like a blacksmith working on his newest masterpiece. “My sincerest apologies, my queen! I spoke out of line!”

“You are doing a lot of apologizing today! How about I give you a reason to be sorry?”

He clutched a hoof to his chest and screwed his eyes shut, shaking horribly as the memory of that indescribable agony resurfaced in his mind. That horrible pain... pain caused by having the energy sucked right out of him and consumed by Chrysalis... It was the worst thing he had ever felt in his entire life, and it was the worst fear he had ever felt as well. He would do anything to avoid suffering such pain again.

Anything.

All he had to do was catch Thorax… his little brother, a traitor that he had willingly allowed to escape. Catch the traitor, and bring him back to Chrysalis for punishment.

Of course, to do that, he had to brave the snows...

“This is all your fault…” Pharynx seethed under his breath. “Thorax… you idiot. You stupid, foolish child!” his voice began to rise and shake along with his temper. He rose to his hooves, turned and slammed one of them into the stone surface of the cliff-face. Pain danced up and down his leg, but he was too blinded by his rapidly building rage to notice or rightly care. “You should have come back with me! You should have given up on this stupid crusade of yours! You’d have been punished, but I could have made sure you lived! Now we’re both trapped out here in this stupid BLIZZARD!”

He slammed his hoof into the rock harder and harder, over and over, his voice rising with each strike. “We’re trapped in this blizzard, and if I can’t find you, we’re both going to DIE, do you understand?! YOU! KILLED! US!” his hoof struck the stone one more time, creating a spider-web crack in the surface for several inches in all directions. At the top of the cliff, some snow was shaken free from the force of the impact, plopping to the ground not far away. Pharynx stopped then, panting and shaking uncontrollably while struggling to calm himself down. Finally, he pulled his hoof back from the wall and stared at it.

There were fresh cracks all along the surface, and as his anger slowly bled out of him, he could feel pain starting to flare up all over his leg and shoulder. Groaning in discomfort and cursing his own stupidity, Pharynx settled down onto the ground again and curled up. A heavy sigh escaped him, and he closed his eyes to try and get some rest.

Time passed him by for a while, the blizzard never letting up. The cold continued to bite into his chitin. The wind never stopped howling in his ears. If he listened carefully, he thought he could hear an animal howling in the distance. He shivered and curled up tighter, clutching his wounded hoof close to his chest. The air was getting colder if that was even possible, and Pharynx felt his heart rate accelerate. His wings began to erratically twitch and buzz on his back in irritation and unrest, and he could feel his spine and neck tingling. Something was out there...

No longer able to keep his eyes shut, he snapped them open.

They widened to the size of dinner plates at what he beheld.

A colossal, towering mass of smoke and darkness was visible in the distance, working it’s way farther north. Shadowy tendrils licked away at the snow, and two glowing green eyes with crimson pupils could be seen glaring ominously from the top of the mass. Pharynx huddled deeper down, the blood draining from his face. “What in the world is that?!” He thought to himself, sweat forming on the back of his neck and fear swelling in his chest.

The shadow stopped, and those horrifying eyes suddenly turned to look directly at him. Pharynx went completely still, a whole new chill working its way into his veins along with a shaking unrelated to the freezing cold. He watched the amorphous mass of darkness as it eyed him, praying to whatever would hear him that it would pass him by. He knew that this was not something he could defeat, especially not as was now. For a time, the two locked gazes, waiting for the other to do something.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Pharynx could hear a voice quietly laugh in amusement. The mass of darkness turned it’s eldritch eyes away from him before pressing on, soon disappearing amidst the swirling snowstorm. A harrowing howl reverberated across the frozen north, and then everything fell silent, save for the roaring of the wind.

Pharynx released a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding in a sharp gasp, relief washing over him like a tidal wave. He took a few seconds to compose himself, then stared out into the snow, his anger and hatred having been replaced with a wholly different emotion.

Fear.

“Brother… for your sake…” he muttered with that newfound fear swelling in his heart. “I hope that I find you before that thing does…"

Starlight

Make her pay.

Rainbow Dash grimaced angrily when those words echoed in her head again as she glanced to her right at Starlight. The other mare was doing her absolute best to look extremely busy with the blank piece of paper she was holding in front of her face with her magic. She noticed Rainbow looking at her, gave a fake smile, then dug her nose deeper into the parchment in an effort to hide from Rainbow’s undoubtedly bitter expression. She watched Starlight for a moment with a skeptical scowl, then shook her head and deflated before returning her attention to the shelf.

This basic pattern had been going on for the last ten minutes. Ever since Fluttershy had left to get Thorax and the rest of the group began searching the library, Starlight would take every single possible opportunity to try and hide or slip away, usually by making herself look busy with her nose in a book or scroll. She wasn’t exactly good at being inconspicuous, however, Rainbow or Twilight would always notice her evasive behavior and call her to get back to it. She would sigh, nod, return to work, and then the whole process would repeat.

It didn’t take a genius to tell that Starlight was hoping they wouldn’t notice so she could slip away to another part of the library and get away from Rainbow Dash. The awkwardness and tension in the air were not at all helped by the fact that Twilight and Spike were very conspicuously absent from the two, leaving Rainbow alone with Starlight. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what they were doing, either, and Rainbow found herself both glad that they weren’t letting her delay what she had to do, and very angry because she had to do this in the first place. She glanced at Starlight again as the mare returned the blank parchment to its shelf with her ears folded back.

Rainbow perked up a little. “Oh, uh,” she suddenly spoke up, pointing at the parchment with a hoof. “We’re looking for stuff just like that. Blank parchment.”

“Oh, yeah right,” Starlight smiled sheepishly and gave a short, shaky laugh before levitating the parchment off of the shelf. She hovered it in front of her eyes for a moment before rolling it into a scroll and balancing it on her back. “Huh… maybe we should have brought our saddlebags…” she mumbled before looking around for Twilight and Spike. Her thoughtful expression morphed into one of confusion and discomfort when she realized that they were nowhere to be found. “Uh… where did they go?”

Rainbow groaned deep in her throat with frustration and looked up at the ceiling. She fell to her haunches and loosely flailed her forelegs at the roof in exasperation. “You mean you didn’t notice them very casually sneaking off? Really?” she dropped her forelegs and stared flatly at Starlight. “Yeah, they went and left us alone together. Real classic, Twi…”

Starlight’s eyes widened somewhat at that, and a small spark of fear danced in her eyes. “What?! Why would they leave us alone together? That’s a stupid idea!” She exclaimed, sounding appalled. Her eyes shot wide open and scrambled back a few paces when she saw the disapproving glare that Rainbow was shooting at her. The scroll of parchment slipped off of her back and struck the floor, sounding far louder than it had any right to be. The two eyed each other for several moments before Starlight decided she was brave enough to speak again. “Uh, I didn’t mean that Twilight’s stupid or anything. She’s not, really. I just meant that… um…” she swallowed heavily and backed up another step.

“Look, just stop talking for a second, would you?” Rainbow snapped, and Starlight compiled without hesitation. Rainbow closed her eyes and took in a deep breath through her nose. After a moment of holding it in, she let it out through her mouth in a long, heavy exhale. The burning in her head that had swelled up with Starlight’s unintentional insult began to fade away into the background. She opened her eyes to look at Starlight again. “As for why they left us alone… It’s because, like Pinkie said, I need to talk to you… They’re making sure I don’t procrastinate.”

Starlight blinked and looked at Rainbow skeptically. She shifted back a little more, just in case. “Okay… what do you need to talk to me about?” she asked, her tone of voice indicating just how little she was believing what Rainbow said.

The pegasus turned to her left so she could again look at the bookshelf, trying to think of how to breach the subject. She found the words, eventually, and began talking. “I want to know more about you. I need to know you for who you are…” she finally managed before glancing solemnly in Starlight’s direction. “And not what I was afraid you were going to be.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow, slowly inching forward while her ears began to lift back up. “What you were afraid I was going to be? You mean how you thought I was… the same Starlight that traveled in time and-”

Rainbow lifted a hoof to signal Starlight to stop talking, and she did. Rainbow gave a small shrug and let her hoof drop back to the floor. “When the girls and I went to Manehattan to find you, I already had an idea in my head about who you were… I thought you were some kind of psychologically disturbed powerhouse with a grudge against my friends and I for some reason. I was worried that you might try to go back in time all over again…” she looked down at the floor and awkwardly brushed a hoof over the smooth surface. “I know that I was wrong about that, now, and I am sorry for attacking you on the train… but I don’t really know you. All I know right now is that you have the same face and voice as the mare who went back in time, changed history, and… killed my parents. And every time I look at you…”

She looked at Starlight with a distant look in her eyes, making the intensity in the unicorn’s eyes fade a little more when she saw just how confused Rainbow looked. But there was far more than just confusion. She was scared, too. “...That’s all I can see. And every single time I see that mare, I just want to…” she screwed her eyes shut and sucked in a breath as the burning in her scalp flared up again at the thought.

Make her pay! The compulsion shouted, a small headache starting to build in her skull.

“Shut. UP!” She was quick to snap back before dismissing the repeating words and taking another deep breath to calm herself. When she opened her eyes, she could see that Starlight had retreated again, looking about ready to turn and run the other direction.

Rainbow let out another heavy sigh and looked at the shelf next to her, unable to meet Starlight’s gaze. She absently lifted a hoof to nudge one book that stood all on its own over the surface of the shelf. “...Every time I see you, I want to… hurt you… I want to make you pay…”

“Every time?” Starlight asked, her other eyebrow shooting up to join its twin. She watched as Rainbow nodded, then brought a hoof up to her chin. “Every time… That doesn’t sound right. There’s no way that should be happening.”

Rainbow’s hoof twitched slightly, and the book she had been prodding toppled over to thud loudly against the shelf. She turned to look at Starlight with a raised eyebrow of her own. “Huh?” Was all she could think to ask.

“Look, I can totally understand it if you have some… ah, lingering feelings of doubt or bitterness over what happened to your wing,” Starlight winced and looked away as she said that, her ears falling a little bit. Despite the visible display of guilt, she kept going. “But if you know that I’m innocent, you shouldn’t be feeling so angry towards me all the time,” she looked at Rainbow Dash again, and a little hint of venom slipped into her tone. “Not unless you just have a very poor grasp of reality.”

Rainbow frowned angrily at that remark before shaking her head. “I’m just gonna pretend you didn’t call me an idiot there and say yeah, you’re right, I shouldn’t be so angry and hostile towards you, but I am. I’m hoping that getting to know you better can help with that.”

Starlight’s frown also deepened, though not with anger. She brought a hoof up to her chin and let her eyes wander as she thought. “...Tell me, Rainbow. Does your anger towards me feel… normal for you?”

“Uh…” Rainbow blinked and took a step back. “What do you mean?”

Starlight’s eyes shifted around a little as she tried to think of a good example. When one came to her, she looked deeply into Rainbow’s eyes. “Okay, think about Queen Chrysalis for a second. She invaded Canterlot so she could turn it’s population, your subjects, into food to be farmed. She then went and imprisoned your adoptive mother and aunt, probably after fighting them, which means she had to hurt them. Then, to top it all off, when you and Twilight tried to rescue the other Princesses, Chrysalis tried to destroy you two outright. If Twilight hadn’t been as fast as she was to teleport us out, all three of us would have been reduced to ashes. All of that has got to be really upsetting to you, right?”

Rainbow nodded, her brow furrowing as she thought over what Starlight was saying. “Yeah, of course, it's upsetting. I’m angry at Chrysalis and scared for my family. What are you getting at?”

Starlight took a couple steps forward, her posture starting to radiate with a bit more confidence. “What I’m getting at is this; Every single time you talk about Chrysalis and what she’s done, you don’t talk about hurting her or making her pay. You never look as angry when you mention her as you do when you even glance in my direction. You talk about trying to rescue your family and saving Equestria, and you’ve seen her atrocities first hoof. But with me,” Starlight put a hoof on her chest. “You want to hurt me every single time you lay eyes on me, you said. You want to make me pay for a crime committed by a different mare who doesn’t even exist anymore. Don’t you see? That’s not a rational feeling, and it’s inconsistent with everything else I’ve seen in you, everything I know about you.”

Rainbow blinked, her eyes going a little wide. “So… are you saying that…” she breathed out, slowly rising to stand at her full height as the realization began to set in.

Starlight pointed at Rainbow with her expression lighting up with a hint of hope. “I’m saying that, somehow, you might have had your hatred for me implanted into your mind from an outside source. Like, somepony put a spell on you and it’s forcing you to feel this way towards me! It’s not how you would naturally feel, not at all. And if that’s the case, if it was a spell or something similar, then that means I might be able to find it and get rid of it. I’d just need to get a good look and-”

“No.” Rainbow suddenly interrupted her, her eyes narrowing and her pupils dilating.

Starlight blinked and set her hoof down, the hope in her eyes dying away to be replaced with surprise and confusion. She shifted back slightly, looking timid. “But… what do you mean no?”

“I mean ‘no’. You’re not touching me with magic,” Rainbow said firmly, stomping a hoof on the ground for emphasis. “Especially not because you had a little bit of a hunch. Absolutely not!”

“I…” Starlight began, then went silent when Rainbow’s glare grew in intensity. She quickly clammed up and looked down, taking a few steps back with her ears laying flat against her head. “I’m sorry… I forgot… you don’t react well to magic, do you?” she asked weakly, all of the energy from a moment ago having been replaced with melancholy resignation.

Rainbow shook her head slowly. “No. I don’t. It takes me back to the day I lost my parents…” she admitted before looking down and closing her eyes. “...Mom said it’s similar to PTSD. She tried to help me work through it for a while when she first adopted me, but we never got anywhere with making it better. So just…” she looked up at Starlight again, an apology in her eyes. “Just don’t, okay? I appreciate the offer, but my answer is no.”

Starlight nodded slowly and said no more. Rainbow watched her for several seconds before releasing a heavy sigh. She pointed vaguely at the parchment that was still rolled up on the floor. “We’re wasting our time. Let’s take that parchment to Twilight, okay?”

Starlight nodded. Without a word, and with the scroll of parchment floating in the air behind them, the two mares trotted out of that row of shelves to look for Twilight and Spike somewhere in the many aisles of the Crystal Library.

Author's Notes:

A little bit shorter than I was hoping it would be, but oh well.

Trust

It didn't take Rainbow and Starlight very long to find Twilight and Spike a little deeper into the library. The two of them had both managed to find several sheets of blank parchment as well, making for a total of eight sheets. Enough to reach out to four cities, each with a copy of the Dragonfire spell. With these number figured out, Rainbow insisted that they get to work as soon as possible.

While they searched for writing tools, however, Twilight started giving the two of them skeptical glances rather frequently. Every time her eyes met Rainbow’s, the pegasus looked away as if in shame, usually moving to put some more distance between herself at Twilight. After a short few minutes of searching, though, they managed to find some very antique writing quills and inkwells, still full of ink and ready for use in a soundproof study room in a secluded part of the library.

They took these supplies to a nice spot on the second floor, overlooking where the rest of their friends were still looking for history books. Rainbow sat down in a chair next to a short round table, letting out a relieved sigh while Twilight and Spike set down the ink, quills and parchment. Starlight, who had tailed behind them a bit, looked on from a short distance before clearing her throat. “Ahem, ah, I think my job is done here. I’m going to go help the others down there, okay?” she said simply, gesturing over the rail.

“Okay. Let us know if you find anything,” Twilight answered simply with a friendly smile. Starlight hadn’t even waited for a response, starting for the downward stairs at a brisk canter, leaving Twilight, Spike and Rainbow Dash alone. Twilight’s eyes narrowed very slightly and she turned to look over her shoulder at the pegasus in question. “So… how did your talk go?” she asked leadingly, turning fully to face Rainbow.

She gave a dismissive grunt while unrolling one of the sheets of parchment. “It went badly,” she stated simply without tearing her eyes from the page.

Spike glanced at Twilight, then back to Rainbow before speaking up. “Uh, how badly are we talking, here?” he pressed, coming up to Rainbow side and sitting down on the edge of the table. He looked at her with worry and curiosity, noticing how tense she looked.

“Can this conversation wait?” Rainbow asked sharply, picking up the quill and shooting Spike a hard look. “We’ve got more important things to worry about then the drama between me and Starlight.”

“Maybe, but it’s still a big deal,” Twilight countered with a disapproving grimace. “Just give us the highlights. We can go more in depth later, okay?”

Rainbow snorted, sighed and relented. She put the quill down and flopped back into the chair. “Ugh! Okay, fine. In short, I tried to ask about her past or something, she asked me why I wanted to know, I told her about the problems I told you about at the palace, and then she…” she paused for a moment, her brow furrowing. With an exasperated groan, she leaned forward and let her face fall into her hooves, propping them up by her elbows on the table. She didn’t speak again. Twilight and Spike shared an uneasy glance before Spike gestured for her to say something.

Twilight nodded and began to inch forward. “Rainbow?” her voice breached the newfound silence, making Rainbow’s ears twitch. She felt Twilight’s hoof on her back, and her voice came again, gentle this time. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Rainbow lifted her face and looked into Twilight’s eyes, which were very close to her own. She then lowered her gaze and leaned closer to the other mare. Taking the hint, Twilight wrapped both of her forelegs around Rainbow, giving her a gentle squeeze. Taking comfort in the contact, Rainbow managed to find her words. “...She came up with a theory about that, and… I’m worried that she might be right.”

“Theory?” Spike asked, quietly nudging the writing supplies to one side before walking closer on top of the table, his clawed feet clicking against the hard surface. “What kind of theory?”

“She thinks that my anger towards her is caused by a spell of some kind,” Rainbow managed to say, closing her eyes and thinking back. “And thinking about it, it just makes so much sense…”

“A spell that compels you to act hostile and aggressive towards Starlight…?” Twilight asked thoughtfully, leaning back a little bit and tilting her head. “But… who could have-”

“Discord,” Rainbow interrupted her simply, looking down and over at Spike. She noticed how the two of them were giving her questioning looks, so she elaborated. “He’s the only one it could have been. I mean… when he took my personality and flipped it on its head… one of the only things I can remember from that whole time was... just the most incredible anger I’ve ever felt. Anger towards Starlight. But, also…” Rainbow leaned closer to Twilight again, prompting the other mare to hold her tighter. Rainbow shuddered and closed her eyes. “...Even worse was how scared I felt. I was afraid of what she might do if I didn’t find her. All of these feelings started when he confronted me in the Canterlot labyrinth. If Starlight’s right, then… he left something in me, even after you used the memory spell to put me back to normal.”

“That would explain a lot,” Twilight mused, gently patting Rainbow on the shoulder and slipping back a bit. “Between how you went from confident and self-assured to terrified of Starlight basically overnight, how severely you reacted to just seeing her in Manehattan for the first time, how you were quick to discard Applejack, Rarity and I’s opinions on Starlight as soon as something came along that cast a tiny amount of doubt on our analysis...” she listed off, her ears drooping with each item she went over.

“And what happened on the train…” Rainbow muttered, nodding along and closing her eyes. She felt her blood run cold as she remembered that entire incident, and the consequences of her actions. She felt her eyes moistening up when she recalled the bruise she had put on Twilight’s face…

“Rainbow, it’s okay, that’s in the past,” Twilight offered gently, tightening her hold on Rainbow significantly and nuzzling her on top of the head. “It’s in the past and we already forgave you for it.”

“I know…” Rainbow managed to reply before opening her eyes. She sniffled weakly and wiped a foreleg over them to clear away a few tears that were threatening to form. “But if I really am under a spell, then how long until I can’t resist the urges anymore? How long before I lose control and lash out at her again? How long before I repeat my mistake? And what if we can’t fix it next time?!” With her voice rising in volume, she shifted back slightly to be eye-to-eye with Twilight, revealing the desperation that had creeped into her face.

“We won’t let it come to that,” Spike assured with a toothy smile, putting a claw on Rainbow’s shoulder. “And neither will our friends downstairs.”

Rainbow managed a weak chuckle at that. “Heh, I know… thanks, Spike. But, if I’m being perfectly honest,” she looked at Twilight with a shimmer of despair. “I don’t know if there’s anything you can do about it.”

Twilight’s brow furrowed slightly. She looked away for a moment, catching her lip in her teeth before tentatively speaking her thoughts. “Well… what if we tried a counter spell?”

Rainbow’s ears instantly folded flat against her head in response. “Yeah, Starlight already offered to do that, and… I said no.”

“...What if I made that offer?” Twilight ventured carefully, drawing an alarmed glance from Spike and a curious one of Rainbow. She opted to keep speaking. “Rainbow, if this aggression of yours comes from a spell, we need to get rid of it.”

“I know, I know, but…” Rainbow very gently nudged Twilight back, breaking the embrace so she could lean fully back in the chair and sigh heavily. “You know how badly I react to magic... “

“I do…” Twilight gave a grim nod, her own ears folding back. “But the way I see it, we can either try to undo the spell, and set off your flashbacks… or leave it alone, and watch you go through a similar experience to the one you went through on the train. And if we can’t stop your attack, then just like you said, if might be even worse next time,” she set her jaw and hardened her expression with resolve. “I don’t know about you, but I would do almost anything to keep you from going through all of that again. It was…” her eyes lost their intensity, and she looked down at the floor. “...It was hard for me, too, knowing that all of the pain you had to go through was partially my fault.”

Rainbow shifted in her seat, leveling a hard look at Twilight. “No, no it wasn’t, Twilight. It was all on me. I’m the one who made the mistake, I’m the one who attacked Starlight, and I am the one who doubted you,” she stated firmly, causing Twilight to look back up at her in surprise. “So don’t you dare take any of the blame for what was my mistake.”

“Does it really matter whose fault it was?” Spike asked sharply while stepping around to put himself between the two. “I mean, it’s all in the past now, and we have a way to make sure it doesn’t happen again, right?”

Twilight shifted slightly, looking a little taken aback by Spike’s input. Rainbow stared into the back of his head for a moment before sighing heavily and leaning back even more into the chair. “You’re right, Spike… it doesn’t matter. And we do have a solution…” she muttered with resignation before looking into Twilight’s eyes. “Okay, Twilight… I trust you… once we’ve gotten back in touch with Equestria, we can see about getting rid of this spell?”

Twilight nodded reluctantly before stepping forward, making Spike sidestep a few paces. She wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow in another hug while nuzzling into her shoulder, a gesture that Rainbow dash was only all too happy to return. As the two of them sat their hugging each other, Twilight felt the shakes permeating Rainbow’s body. With a what she hopes was an assuring smile, Twilight leaned back and flashed lightly ruffled Rainbow’s mane with a hoof, earning a grunt from the pegasus. “Hey, you don’t need to be scared, Rainbow. You know that I would never do anything to hurt you, right?” Twilight asked in a quiet whisper.

Rainbow lightly nudged Twilight’s hoof out of her mane, causing it to fall and rest on her shoulder. “Yeah, I know,” she replied, managing to weakly return Twilight’s smile. “That’s why I’m letting you do this.”

Rainbow then pulled Twilight back into the hug. The two of them were content to just sit there and share the embrace for a little while with Spike awkwardly standing off to one side. He crossed his arms and began to tap his foot against the table impatiently, like he was waiting for something to happen.

Eventually, Twilight withdrew from the embrace to arrange the writing supplies. She didn’t get very far, and squeaked in surprise when Rainbow pulled her in one more time, even tighter this time. Still, Twilight didn’t fight it, and resumed returning the hug. She chuckled weakly after another few seconds. “You know, if we want to get in touch with Equestria, you kind of have to let me go first.”

“Twilight, just shut up for a minute and let me hug you,” was Rainbow’s only response, burying her face into Twilight’s shoulder and tightening the embrace. For her part, the bookish mare just gave her eyes another roll and let Rainbow have her hug.

“Oh, alright. It’s not like I can say ‘no’ to you, can I?”

“Heh. nah,” Rainbow said, her voice muffled by Twilight’s shoulder fur.

From the side, Spike rolled his eyes and let out a frustrated groan. “Oh for Celestia’s sake, would you two just kiss already!” he snapped, throwing his arms wide.

“SPIKE!” Twilight shrieked, quickly scrambling out of Rainbow’s embrace and blushing furiously. Rainbow, now blushing as well, lowered her hooves and shot a very irked glare in the baby dragon’s direction.

“What?” he asked innocently with a shrug. “I’m just saying what everypony else is thinking.”

“Spike,” Rainbow said slowly, lifting a hoof to rest on the table. “How about I loudly announce that you and Rarity should kiss when you’re mooching up to her?”

Spike started blushing furiously and clasped his claws behind his back while taking a few steps away from Rainbow Dash. A lopsided grin appeared on his face and a very weak, nervous laugh slipped out from between his teeth. “Oh, uh… point taken,” he shakily admitted.

“It better be. Now get off the table, we have writing to do,” Rainbow retorted while making a ‘shoo’ gesture with her hooves. Spike sagged a little and hopped off of the table, looking a little dejected. With an aggravated snort coming out of her nostrils, Rainbow turned to look at Twilight.

The mare in question had a hoof on her chest and was looking at everything but Rainbow Dash. She had her lower lip caught in her teeth and her eyes were shimmering with uncertainty. She noticed Rainbow looking a moment later and let out a small sigh. “I’m sorry about that, Rainbow. That was… a bad way for me to react to that.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, Twi… I know you’re still trying to figure things out for yourself,” Rainbow replied softly before looking down at the paper and sighing. “...Let’s just get to work, eh?”

“R-right,” Twilight replied quietly before trotting up to Rainbow’s side. She pulled a sheet of parchment over with her magic, as well as one of the quills. She hovered the tip over the paper for a moment, her face scrunching up. “Okay, you write down your message, I’ll write a copy of the Dragonfire spell. That sound good?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded while pulling a sheet of parchment and a quill towards her as well. “Let’s do it. We’ll want to contact Manehattan first. I’m sure AJ and Rarity will wanna know how their families are doing, plus it has the biggest population of any city in Equestria. It needs to take Priority. We’ll also want to contact Cloudsdale. We might need the weather factory.”

“Good idea.”

With that decided, the two set to work writing down what they needed to in silence. Only rarely would they hear their friends talking to each other, their voices drifting up from the lower floors. In this quiet environment, even with something as tedious as this, Rainbow was able to find some degree of comfort and relaxation.

Every time she looked to her left at Twilight, she found the source of that comfort.

Whisper

“Dreamy!” Wind Whisper squealed in elation upon seeing Squall trotting into the library with Fluttershy, the heavy doors swinging closed behind them. She had shot from Applejack’s side once she had heard the door opening, unsteadily hovering in the air and giving her wings a good workout to keep herself aloft. Now that she saw him, she launched herself from her elevated position to slam directly into her big brother’s chest, hugging him tight and knocking him onto his rump from the force. He yelped in surprise before gasping, the wind having been knocked out of him quite thoroughly.

Fluttershy giggled behind a hoof at the display before trotting a little closer. “You see?” she whispered quietly to him before nudging him in the shoulder and trotting down the stairs to meet back up with the others, sharing a quiet greeting with Applejack as she passed.

“Heh. I guess so,” Thorax muttered in reply before smiling down at Wind, who was still happily snuggling into him. “Wind, I’m glad to see you too, but I can’t breathe,” he managed to say in a strangled voice, causing her to let him go with a bashful smile.

“Oops. Sorry,” she apologized sweetly.

“It’s no problem,” he replied, thankful for the sweet air that came rushing into his lungs, before rising back to all fours and dusting off his flank with a few quick flicks of his tail. “Fluttershy said we’re trying to find a book or something. That right?”

“Uh huh!” Wind nodded before eagerly hopping up onto his back and resting her chin on top of his head between his ears. She pointed at the stairs. “The books are all down there! We’re looking for a history book.”

“Ah,” Thorax nodded simply before breaking into a canter for the stairs. He hesitated at the first step, though, and shifted a bit so he could look back at the little filly. “So, uh, how have things been while I was gone? Everything okay?”

“Mhmm,” Wind hummed with a small nod, leaning back a bit to give him a bit more room to look at her. “Princess Rainbow Dash put on a big and amazing show in the middle of town! She did a, uh… what did she call it? Sonic boom?”

“Ah, a sonic rainboom,” Thorax corrected, remembering that little detail with a thoughtful look. “Yeah. I saw the explosion and the lights. I was kinda worried that we were under attack for a second. But then I heard the applause and figured it was probably fine.”

“It was incredible!” Wind gave her tiny wings a few flaps and gave Thorax a beaming grin. “And it was pretty, too! Oh! And before that, Applejack, Fluttershy and I ate some berries. They were so good...” her eyes slowly rolled into the back of her head and she let her tongue hang out, quite pleased with just the memory.

Thorax was about to give a comment when the clip-clopping sound of hooves on the stairs drew his attention. “We were gatherin’ them, mostly,” Applejack called out in correction from about halfway up the stairs, flashing the duo a charmed smile. “Wind was the one who ate a lot. Heh, and Ah think she had enough. She was buzzin’ like Pinkie Pie for a little while.”

“That’s…” Thorax looked between the two for a few seconds with a raised eyebrow, trying to imagine the filly on his head acting like Pinkie Pie. The mental image was not just hard to fathom but was also distinctly disturbing. He banished the image and forced a smile. “...Worrying.”

“But they’re so gooooood,” Wind whined, pouting down at Applejack in disapproval, who nodded with a coy smile.

“Ah know that. But if ya have ‘em too much, they won’t be as special, eh?”

Wind’s pout grew, but she conceded the point with a very small nod while once again resting her chin on Thorax’s head. He gave a light-hearted laugh before looking down at Applejack with a more serious look on his face. “So, how’s the search going? Any luck?”

Applejack shook her head. “Nah, nothin’ yet. Ah reckon It’d be goin’ quicker if RD and Twi were helpin’ us,” she replied pensively before glancing up to the second floor. “But they’re gettin’ back in touch with Equestria. Just sent out their first letter a little bit ago. Ah saw the smoke.”

“Ah,” Thorax followed Applejack’s gaze for a moment before beginning his way down the stairs. “Well, now I’m here to help. Where have you guys managed to look?” he asked pointedly, Applejack falling into stride next to him as he went deeper towards the shelves.

“We’ve only covered the first layer,” She replied, narrowing her eyes at all of the shelves. “Without knowin’ how these things are organized, we’re goin’ in blind, and there’s a LOT of books in here.”

“No kidding… alright, I could try looking around at the other parts of the library. Maybe I can find some clue about how all of this is supposed to be organized,” Thorax suggested while absently gesturing up at one of the many bookshelves with a hoof.

“If ya think that’ll help, then be mah guest,” Applejack nodded before smiling at Wind Whisper, who smiled back and gave a tiny wave. Applejack playfully reached out a hoof and ruffled Wind’s mane, making the filly giggle. The look on Applejack’s face was one of reminiscence. “Heh. Ah’ll be frank, yer little sis is a right pleasure to be around.”

Wind reached out and grabbed Applejack’s hoof before it could fully retract before very lightly clamping her teeth down on it, smiling as she did so and making an adorable ‘nom’ sound. Applejack laughed before tugging her hoof away and nodding at the two of them. Thorax glanced at Wind, then chuckled. “Heh. I’m glad to hear it.”

“Alright, let’s hop back to work. That history book ain’t gonna find itself. We’re lookin’ for somethin’ about the empire, or how it might have protected itself from danger,” Applejack explained before cantering off to meet up with Pinkie Pie next to a partially searched shelf. Thorax nodded in confirmation, then hooked a sharp left into one of the many rows of shelves, his eyes scanning the names of the books.

“Help me keep an eye out, Wind, okay?” he asked quietly, and Wind replied with a short hum and tiny nod. For a good few minutes, they were content to slowly trot through the rows of shelves, scanning the countless books for something that matched the description Applejack gave.

After a good ten minutes, though, Thorax’s mind drifted from the task at hoof to the little filly riding on his shoulders. He thought back to what he had overheard her telling Applejack and Fluttershy earlier, and he felt his pace starting to slow. Wind didn’t seem to notice, her eyes intently focused on the books around them.

“Well, now’s as good a chance as any to learn more about her, I guess…” Thorax thought before coming to a complete stop. Wind, curious, looked at him and lightly swatted a hoof against the side of his head.

“Hey, why’d you stop?” she asked inquisitively before setting her hoof down again.

“Wind, can I talk to you for a second?” Thorax asked with what he hoped was a fairly casual tone of voice. He shifted and sat down so that Wind could easily slide off of him, which she did. She trotted around to stand in front of him, looking perplexed.

“Uh-huh. What’s up?”

Thorax took a subtle deep breath to ease his nerves, rallied his thoughts, and began talking. “When she came to get me, Fluttershy mentioned that you told her about why you live with me and not our parents,” Thorax began gingerly, careful not to come off as scolding or harsh. “I just want to know what all you told her.”

“A-am I in trouble?” Wind asked nervously, looking down at the floor and shrinking a bit. Her ears fell flat against her head, and Thorax instantly felt a spark of regret burning in his chest for bringing it up.

“No, no of course not,” he reassured her gently before giving her mane a comforting pat. “We can trust these ponies, but I would like to know what you told them, okay? You’re not in trouble.”

Wind lightly scuffed the floor with a hoof, looking to have been at least somewhat soothed by his words. She looked up at him. “Um, I told her about how, when you left, I went with you. You know, by hiding in your wagon,” she started in an unsure tone of voice. Thorax gave her an encouraging nod and she kept going, gaining a bit of confidence as she went. “Well, uh, I told her why I wanted to stay with you, too and that you managed to convince mom and dad to let me stay. I mean…” she put on a smile. “Who would want to be away from you? You’re just the best big brother ever! You’re strong, brave, smart, and you’re always there for me when I’m feeling sad! You’re like my own personal guardian angel, or a knight in shiny armor or something. I always feel safe around you, you know?”

Thorax was barely able to maintain his smile as she spoke. “None of this praise belongs to me.” He thought bitterly, his eyes drifting down to look at his reflection in the smooth floor. He saw those two ice-blue eyes that weren’t his own looking back at him. Somewhere in his mind, the memory of the real Squall Dreamer struggling against him and succumbing to his cocoon was stirred.

In his mind, Thorax replaced the image of a gray bat pony with that of a black, chitinous Changeling. He felt a chill run down his spine before he snapped out of it and returned his eyes to Wind. She was tilting her head, looking puzzled by his lack of a response. He smiled down at her encouragingly after a moment. “Well, I dunno about all that,” he said with an exaggerated tone before reaching out and pulling Wind into a hug, one which she was all too happy to return. “But hey, I’ll take the compliments.”

Wind leaned back and playfully poked Thorax on the nose, making him recoil and scrunch up his muzzle. Wind giggled. “Boop.”

“You’re adorable, did I ever tell you that?” Thorax replied mirthfully. Out of curiosity, he refocused his eyes so he could see the pink haze of love energy that Wind would surely be letting off. He was almost floored and his jaw almost fell slack when he saw just how thick the love in the air was around her. Seeing such a thick cloud of pure and unfiltered love made his tongue flutter in his mouth and his stomach grumble. Wind didn’t seem to notice, instead nodding sharply.

“Yuh-huh! Plenty of times.”

Refocusing his eyes back to normal, Thorax looked back down at Wind again. “Well, it’s true,” he gladly assured her while ruffling her mane before letting her go and slowly adopting a slightly more severe expression. “Anyways, I know I said I trust these ponies, and I do, but in the future, I want you to come to me before you tell them about our past or family, okay? I don’t want to spill all of our secrets, you know?”

“You mean like mom’s super secret Lunaberry Juice recipe?” Wind asked with a sparkle of recognition in her eyes.

Thorax smirked. “Yeah, kinda. Just talk to me first next time, okay?”

Wind gave another nod and ‘mhmm!’ before looking at the books to her right. For a second, she just stood there, looking at the books. Thorax let his smile drop from his face and stood up, about ready to get a move on. However, he paused when he saw that the smile on Wing’s face was beginning to dwindle, and a more despondent look crossed her features. “Um… Squall?” she asked in a quiet, timid voice.

“Yeah?” Thorax asked quietly, protective instincts making him inch closer to her and put a hoof on her back. “Is something wrong, kiddo?”

She hesitated for a second. “Um…” When she looked up at him apprehensively, tears had started to form in her eyes, and her lip was beginning to tremble. “Do you think mom, dad, Sheen, Echo, and Luster are okay?”

Thorax’s smile immediately fell away and his ears folded flat against his skull. “Sheen, Echo, and Luster… her sisters.” he thought to himself before sighing heavily. “They’ll be okay, Wind. They’re tough…”

“I hope,” he added mentally.

“What if they’re not?” Wind asked, her voice starting to break with emotion. She scooted closer to Thorax, who just watched and listened with his heart feeling like it was caving in from sympathy and, more importantly, guilt. “W-what if they got hurt by those changeling things? What if we never see them again?” Tears began to freely flow down her cheeks, and she turned to stand on her hind legs, propping herself up on Thorax’s chest. “What if I never get to tell them that I’m sorry for running away? Or that I l-love them, or… or...” she couldn’t say any more, burying her face in his chest and openly crying.

Thorax just sat there for a few moments, taken off-guard by how suddenly Wind’s demeanor had changed. He looked down at her, momentarily at a loss. “This is my fault,” he thought to himself, thinking back on Canterlot, the role he had played in the city’s invasion. Slowly, he sat back down onto his haunches and put his hooves on Wind’s shoulders.

“Wind,” he said gently, grabbing her attention. He unfurled both of his leathery wings and pulled her tightly against his chest, using the leathery appendages like a blanket, hiding the crying filly from the world. “It’s gonna be okay, Wind. I promise. It’s all gonna be okay.”

“B-b-but…” Wind stuttered, leaning back a little bit and looking into his eyes.

“No buts,” he told her in a quiet, firm voice, squeezing her tighter against his chest and tightening the veil his wings created. “Everything is going to be fine. We’re going to make sure of it…” he leaned down and nuzzled her atop the head before whispering: “I’m going to make sure of it. I’m going to stop the Changelings no matter what.”

“P-p-promise?” Wind barely croaked out, gazing deep into his piercing ice-blue eyes, which softly glowed in the shade provided by his wings. He nodded and gave her a small smile.

“I promise, Wind.”

She didn’t say anything else, instead opting to bury her face in his chest again and quietly sob away her tensions and fears. Thorax didn’t move or say anything else either, just sitting there, holding Wind Whisper, and letting her work through her feelings.

“I just hope this is a promise I can keep...” he thought to himself, giving the crying filly in his hooves and wings another reassuring squeeze.

Author's Notes:

Showing off the anxiety issues that I made a point to bring up in the last story.

When she isn't feeling sad or scared, Wind Whisper is just the sweetest thing, isn't she?

History

It had been perhaps half an hour since Thorax returned, and since then nopony had managed to find what they were looking for. Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike were still upstairs, deliberating on what the last city they should contact should be. Applejack had a stack of books as tall as she was that she was working through one at a time. She’d read the title on the front cover, and then nose it off of the stack when it turned out to have nothing to do with their search. Fluttershy and Rarity were working together to more carefully sift through the shelves. Pinkie Pie had bounced off deeper into the library about ten minutes ago, declaring that she ‘had a hunch.’ Thorax and Wind Whisper were also somewhere else among the shelves, while Starlight kept to the central intersection with Rarity and Fluttershy.

After getting down to the last book in her pile, Applejack cringed and looked up at everypony else. “Okay, not to be a downer, but is anypony else startin’ to think that this might be a lost cause?”

“I’d hardly say that,” Rarity countered with a roll of her eyes. “Honestly, Applejack, we’ve only been looking around for an hour and a half.”

“Ah know,” Applejack snorted before pulling another series of books off of the shelf and stacking them up. “Ah just think our time could be better spent. Ah, mean, Twilight and Starlight found the spell that sent the Empire away. Can’t they just use that same thing to find the power we need to fight off the changelin’s?”

“It’s not that simple,” Starlight cut in, trotting up to be closer to the conversation. Applejack raised an eyebrow at her in skepticism. “What we were looking for was an active spell, while I’m assuming the power of the Empire isn’t a spell, but a power source with some smaller spells woven into it. Finding the sealing spell over the Empire was only possible because it was huge and decayed from a thousand years of neglect. If we had tried the same search, I dunno, thirty years ago, we could have trotted right by and nopony would have even noticed.

“And even then, it takes an enormous spell for even a well-trained unicorn to sense it without a physically visible presence. It’s why I couldn’t, for example, track Rarity down wherever she went by just using a spell to look for the power source in her horn or look for any time she uses telekinesis.”

Rarity looked up from the tome presently floating in front of her eyes with a deadpan look. “That’s not creepy at all, darling.”

Starlight ignored her. “Look, put simply, finding the Empire was a special case. That same technique won’t work here,” she finished her explanation to Applejack. The farmer sighed and nosed another book off of her pile.

“Alright, ah understand.”

Rarity’s deadpan look gave way to an impressed smile. She put her book back on the shelf and moved towards Starlight. “You know, Starlight, I’m curious; how did you learn so much about magic? From what I’ve heard you were never formally trained.”

Starlight blinked and shuffled uneasily on her hooves. “Oh, uh, I was self-taught. When… Sunburst left Sire’s Hollow - my hometown - I thought that, maybe, I could follow him to magic school. I just had to prove that I had what it took to be enlisted. But there weren’t any prerequisite classes for magic at home, so I had to do my own research...” a small cringe appeared on her face. “But… well… focusing on that was easier said than done. I just couldn’t figure out why he didn’t stop to say goodbye or anything… I started feeling angry instead of sad or hopeful and lost focus. I started trying to justify why he left so suddenly, I started feeling bitter and-”

“Starlight,” Rarity cut her off in a firm, quiet voice, putting a hoof on her shoulder and looking her in the eyes. “I know it can be easy to ramble, especially about a passion, but…” she reached her hoof from Starlight’s shoulder to her cheek to brush away a tear that Starlight hadn’t even realized was there. “I can tell this is painful for you to talk about, so you can stop now. I know what I wanted to know.”

Starlight nodded unsteadily before wiping the back of her foreleg over her eyes. With that done, she gave a weak, broken smile. “R-right… sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Rarity said simply before turning to glance at the shelf next to her. An uncomfortable grimace split across her face. “At any rate, though, we should probably-”

“HEY! EVERYPONY!” Pinkie Pie’s suddenly voice rang out from the complete other side of the library, cutting off Rarity’s sentiment and eliciting a wide range of responses from the other occupants. The pink spazz-ball of a mare herself came rocketing back into the intersection with a thick, leather-bound book clutched in one of her hooves, which she waved frantically around in the air. “I THINK I FOUND SOMETHING!”

Not far away, Fluttershy covered her ears and whimpered quietly in response to the sudden noise. “Um, Pinkie Pie? Could you maybe not talk quite so loud? Please?” she asked before closing her eyes and gently rubbing her ears in an effort to ease their pain.

“Oh, sorry!” Pinkie replied with an unfazed grin before waving the book around again. “But no, seriously, I found a book!”

Up on the second floor, Rainbow Dash stuck her head over the railing to shoot Pinkie an impatient scowl. “Pinkie, to paraphrase the flash we had earlier; there are plenty of those,” she said in a very sarcastic tone of voice.

“I know, but look!” Pinkie reiterated and then held her find high over her head so she could gesture to it with her other hoof. Doing this required that she very awkwardly stood up on her hind legs, swaying around like a drunk giraffe. “It’s called ‘history of the crystal empire!’ That’s what we’re looking for, right?”

“Wow. Concise,” Rarity commented under her breath, eyeing the book curiously.

Up above, Rainbow glanced over her shoulder at Spike, who was clutching the last of the letters in his claws with Twilight by his side. “Go ahead and send that,” she urged him before hopping over the rail and gliding down to the lower floor with her wings. Spike gave a salute, stood tall and breathed green flames over the scroll, sending it and the spell rolled up inside of it off to its destination. Twilight smiled at him approvingly, patted him on the head and then teleport down to stand maybe fifteen feet away from Pinkie Pie.

“Nice job, Pinkie! Let’s have a look,” She praised before calling the book out of Pinkie’s hooves with her magic. It came to a stop in front of her face, where she flipped it open to the table of contents and started reading. Rainbow touched down on her right, while Starlight, Rarity, and Fluttershy came from the left. Pinkie stayed where she was, and Applejack came to stand next to her.

“Okay, let’s see here…” Twilight muttered under her breath, lifting a hoof to the page as she went along the list of sections. After a few moments, she lowered her hoof and inhaled through her teeth in realization. “Ooh, yeah. Okay, there’s a lot to cover, here. I’ll need to skim each of the sections and see if I can find any leads. It’s probably going to take a while.”

Rainbow didn’t look pleased to hear this. “This is a thick book,” she pointed out, craning her neck down to look at it from the side. She cringed when she realized it was at least three inches thick. “How long will it take, exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied with her posture deflating. She turned to the next page and wilted even more. “The writing here is more than a little out-of-date, and it’s in a style I’m not very familiar with, which could throw me off a little bit. At best… maybe twelve hours.”

“And at worst?” Starlight hesitantly asked, glancing past Twilight at Rainbow Dash, who was thankfully focusing solely on the book and the mare holding it.

“At worst…” Twilight sighed and closed the book with a heavy thump, some dust scattering from the pages. “A few days,” she said heavily, glancing over her shoulder at Starlight.

Rainbow grit her teeth in agitation upon hearing this. “A few days? We can’t afford to wait that long!” she growled while taking a step to the side and looking at Twilight more directly. “The changelings might find us before then! And what are we even supposed to do for a few days while we wait for you?”

Twilight turned to Rainbow regretfully, not quite able to meet her gaze. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, Rainbow, but this is the best I can do right now… I’m sorry,” she apologized quietly, her ears lowering and her posture growing timid.

Rarity chose this moment to insert herself back into the conversation. “It’s better than nothing, Rainbow,” she was quick to point out, circling around towards Rainbow Dash. “And while she’s working on that, maybe we can keep scouring the library. It is possible that there are more history books then this one, or maybe something on the magic of the empire itself. If that fails, we can also ask around the Empire some more. Maybe the local's memories will come back with time.”

Her words did the trick, and the frustration in Rainbow’s eyes faded somewhat, though she still didn’t look particularly happy. “Okay… alright, you got a point on me there, Rares. Pinkie, where did you find this one?” she asked, pointing at the book in Twilight’s aura while looking towards Pinkie.

“Oh, I found it right over-” She began in a chipper voice, pivoting to point somewhere in the library. However, then went silent and rigid, her eyes widening a bit while her foreleg began to twitch back and forth at the knee. She glanced down at the limb, then back up to her friends with a puzzled look. “Huh. My knee’s pinchy,” she said matter of factly before sitting down and reaching her other hoof down to massage the knee joint.

“Uh… what?” Starlight raised an eyebrow while looking Pinkie Pie up and down. “Your knee is pinchy? What does that even mean?” she asked incredulously, gesturing vaguely at Pinkie.

“That something scary is about to happen,” was the all-too-casual response from the party planner, who smiled happily as she spoke. A second ticked by. That smile slowly faded away when she saw the unnerved and frightened looks on everypony’s faces, and it dawned on her that they really didn’t want something scary right now. For several tense seconds, a heavy silence blanketed the room. The air felt like it was getting cold.

Starlight was the only one not looking nervous. With her brow furrowed in confusion, she glanced at each of the ponies and one baby dragon. “Uh… what?” was all she could really think to say.

“Pinkie sense,” Twilight answered simply, looking up towards one of the windows anxiously, worrying that a Changeling might come rocketing through at any moment. Was the sky getting darker? No, no, of course not... “It’s a long story. Ask me later.”

The sound of galloping hooves on echoing throughout the library caught everypony’s attention. “Uh, guys?!” the voice of Thorax called in an uneasy voice from one of the rows of shelves as he came out at full speed, Wind Whisper curled up on his back and looking around fearfully. “Don’t the rest of you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Applejack asked, no small amount of trepidation in her voice.

“That…” he paused and put a hoof to his chin, coming to a stop a few paces away from the farmer. He pondered for a few seconds, trying to find the right words to describe it. “I don’t know how to describe it… It’s like the air’s getting hard to breathe.”

“I haven’t noticed anything like that…” Fluttershy whimpered, shrinking down and moving to press into Rainbow’s side for protection. The other pegasus reacted by draping a wing over her on instinct. “Is it bad?”

A muffled scream from outside cut Thorax off before he could open his mouth. All eyes turned to the doors of the library. Now that they were listening, more such screams could be heard from outside, and they were growing in number. Thunder boomed in the distance, and a low, harrowing howl rolled over them. Rainbow felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and her mouth began to go dry.

Thorax slowly looked back towards Fluttershy and shakily answered her question. “It’s usually pretty bad, yeah.”

Hysteria

“Squall, I’m scared…” Wind Whisper squeaked out, curling up even more on Thorax’s back while tightly curling her hooves around the back of his neck. “Make it stop…”

Thorax looked back at her for a moment, then looked towards Rainbow Dash with a pleading look in his eyes. Rainbow could only look back at him, unable to form words. With her eyes slowly narrowing, she released Fluttershy from her wing and started for the doors of the library. While each one was hesitant, the rest of the group began to follow her. She pushed the doors open once she reached them. As soon as she did, she staggered back a step from a rush of biting cold air and the rumbling of thunder. She covered her face with a hoof until the rush died down, and looked out on the city.

A peach colored mare went scrambling past the library, whimpering in terror and rushing deeper into the city, casting fearful looks over her shoulder constantly. “What the…?” Rainbow muttered before looking in the same direction as the mare. As she did, lightning blasted across the sky. She almost immediately regretted her decision when she saw what was happening. Her blood ran cold in her veins and abject terror began to spring to life in her chest.

For at the edges of the Empire and moving towards the palace was a mind-numbingly colossal mass of shadowy smoke. Tendrils of pure darkness licked at the ground at its base, creating sparks of purple, red and green magical energy. Near the top of the dark form were two green eyes with blood-red pupils that looked out upon the city and its inhabitants with a ravenous hunger. It’s pupils narrowed into slits and glowing ominously, purple and green electricity crackling around them. In the air high above it, as it drew deeper into the city, the pristine blue sky that had been a constant for the last two days was being smothered by clouds colored like fire and smoke. Already the sun had been blotted out.

“W-w-what is that?!” Starlight asked, fear evident in her voice. Rainbow glanced over her shoulder and saw all of her friends looking on at the darkness with similar expressions of horror and fear. Starlight shifted back into the library a few steps, looking about ready to turn and run as far away as she could. Rainbow looked back towards the dark form and gulped heavily.

“I have no idea! But I get the feeling it’s not friendly,” she said shakily, her ears pinning back against her head and her body quivering.

Another mare went scurrying by, looking over her shoulder and screaming long and loud. “No! NO! Please, no! Not him! ANYTHING BUT HIM!” she cried out in a hoarse voice, tears in her eyes. In her hysteria, one of her hooves didn’t land quite right in it’s step, and she tripped forward, falling to the road beneath her hard. She slid along for several feet, curling into a ball and covering her head with her hooves, her panicked wails finally drawing somepony to act. Applejack was on the case almost instantly, jumping down the library’s steps to the road below before galloping to the mare’s side and offering her a hoof.

“It’s alright, Ah gotcha!” She said to the mare, who took the offered hoof gladly and got back to her hooves. She turned to keep running, barely sparing Applejack a thankful nod, but the farmer kept a hold on her before she could run off again. “Hey, wait a sec! what is that thing? Do you know?” she asked when the mare looked into her eyes in desperation, her breathe coming in rapid, hysterical gasps.

She looked momentarily baffled by Applejack’s question before yanking her hoof away and scurrying back several steps. “You don’t know?! How could you not know?! It’s him!”

“Ah ain’t from around here,” Applejack pointed out before another gust of powerful wind rushed by at the same moment that more electricity blasted across the sky. The earth trembled from the volume of the thunder, making the mare cower down onto her belly, her eyes locking onto the sky.

”That’s King Sombra! The king of shadows, of monsters! He’s all of our worst fears come true! He’s come back for us! He’s come for his slaves!” she lowered her eyes from the sky to gaze dreadingly at the moving mass. If she wasn’t hyperventilating before, she was now. “Please, no… No, no! S-somepony has to do something!” she reached out and grabbed Applejack by the shoulders, shaking her violently. “I don’t want to be put in chains again! Please don’t let him put me in chains again! I’ll do anything! PLEASE!”

On the steps of the library, the mare’s words echoed in the ears of all those who heard it. Wind buried her face into Thorax’s mane, crying fearfully. “Squall, please, make it stop! I’m scared!” she weeped, shivering uncontrollably. Thorax looked back at her before lowering down to rest on his belly and nudging Wind off.

“Wind. Hey, Wind!” he said, but when she didn’t respond beyond crying harder and clinging tightly to his mane, his voice gained more force. “Wind, listen to me! Hey!” he finally pried her off of his mane and set her down in front of him. She looked up at him, struggling to contain her terrified cries. “I need you to go back inside and find somewhere to hide, okay? Best hiding place you can find. Do you understand?”

Wind Whisper shakily nodded, sniffling heavily. “W-w-what about you?” she questioned, reaching out to him. Another blast of thunder echoed all around them, and she shrieked in alarm before latching onto his chest as tight as she could, refusing to let go.

“I’m going to do my job,” he said before glancing at Rainbow Dash, who was still watching the darkness with a look of awe and horror. “I’m going to do whatever Princess Rainbow Dash tells me...” he then looked down at Wind one more time. “Now get inside! GO!”

Wind reluctantly released her hold on Thorax and then sprinted back into the library, sobbing as she went. Thorax watched her go, then turned to glare at Sombra while grinding his teeth.

“Sombra’s alive…?” Twilight choked out, finally finding her words as she watched the darkness spread. Another haunting howl sounded, echoing across the entire empire and shaking it to its core. The mare, who had been crying with her face pressed into the street, shouted and pulled herself against Applejack as if she were a lifeline.

“It looks that way…” Starlight muttered with despair, shrinking back somewhat.

“Help us! PLEASE!” The mare begged, her grip on Applejack tightening even more.

The mare in question looked back towards the others for a moment, trying to get a read on their condition. They all looked absolutely terrified by what they were seeing… But in the stances of Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Thorax, she could see defiance and resolve burning just as strong as that fear. Applejack returned her gaze to the mare and nodded. ‘We’ll do everything we can, Ah promise.”

The mare looked at King Sombra again, whimpered deep in her throat, then barreled past Applejack and the others, disappearing into the library to hide. As the mare passed, Rarity shot Applejack a questioning look. “Not to be rude, Applejack…” she then pointed a trembling hoof at Sombra. “BUT HOW IN THE HOOF ARE WE SUPPOSED TO STOP THAT?!”

“We gotta try, don’t we?” Applejack retorted, cantering back up to the others. “We came to the Empire because we need the power here, right? So we can’t let Sombra have it!” she stated while stomping a hoof down for emphasis. “And Ah could never look at mahself in a mirror again if we just left these ponies to their fate! They’re terrified!”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes and turned to Twilight, Starlight and Thorax. “Twilight, Starlight, with me,” she then turned to Thorax, looking him hard in the eyes. “Squall, take everypony else inside and you keep them safe. You hear me?” she ordered simply, her undertone making it clear that mistakes were not an option here.

He recoiled slightly. “Wait, what? B-but, I want to help!”

“And you can do that by keeping my friends, and your sister, safe!” Rainbow countered sharply, stepping up to him and putting a hoof firmly on his chest. “I’m not arguing with you on this.”

“What?! Hold on just a darn minute!” Applejack demanded incredulously, cantering up to Rainbow Dash with a disbelieving snort and flabbergasted eyes. “Ya want us to stay behind?!”

Rainbow looked at Applejack severely, giving Thorax a light shove towards the library doors. “No offense, but without the Elements, most of us are sitting ducks against something like this. I am not letting you get hurt!” she snapped before looking around at all of the others. “Any of you! Now get inside! That’s an order!”

“Rainbow…” Fluttershy began, reaching out to her fillyhood friend timidly. Rainbow turned to face her, the intensity in her gaze not wavering for even a moment.

“Inside, Flutters,” she reiterated, nodding towards the doors. “You’ll be safe in there.”

Fluttershy slowly nodded before shooting forward and wrapping Rainbow in a tight hug, one which Rainbow greedily returned. “Just be careful, okay? And come back safe...” she whispered in a shaking voice. Rainbow gave her a firm, reassuring squeeze.

“I will…” She replied quietly before backing out of the hug and flaring out her wings. “Now go! All of you!”

While the rest of the group retreated back into the library, closing the doors behind them, Twilight trotted up to Rainbow with an unsure look on her face. “Rainbow what is your plan?”

Rainbow’s brow furrowed, her eyes lingering on the door for several moments. “Simple enough,” She turned back to the two unicorns as she spoke. Her eyes briefly rested on Starlight.

Make her pay.

Could you maybe shut up for five minutes?

Quickly dismissing the fire in her skull, she gestured to herself. “I’ll fly up to his head and try to get his attention. Once I’ve done that, I want you two to see if you can drive him back to the edges with magic. If we can manage to push him out, then…” Rainbow looked to Twilight, a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes. “Twilight, I know this was always more your brother’s thing, but if you and Starlight can drive him back, can you create a barrier to keep him out?”

Twilight’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates and her jaw fell open. She stuttered over her words for several moments before finding them. “Wh-what?! You want me to create a barrier over the entire empire?!” she shrieked, a hoof flying up to the side of her head with bewilderment. “I’ve never tried anything even close to that!”

Another blast of thunder echoed around them before the sky grew even darker. “Do we have a better plan?!” Starlight pressed, glancing back at Sombra as another bone-chilling howl rolled over the empire. Everywhere his shadowy form touched seemed to become tainted. Crystal went from smooth, pristine and bright to jagged, coarse and dark. The sky was slowly growing dimmer and dimmer, every shimmer of hope and light being snuffed out. A frigid wind was starting to pick up as well, drowning out the terrified screams in the city even as the temperature around them dropped with every second that ticked by.

Twilight bit her lip and folded her ears back against her head, racking her brain desperately. “I… I don’t!” she finally admitted in a shout to be heard over the roaring winds.

“Maybe Starlight can help you,” Rainbow suggested, glancing at Starlight sternly, a warning in her eyes. “Lend you power or something. Now let’s go!”

Twilight, still looking unsure of herself, nodded and stepped down from the stairs at a brisk pace, heading out into the middle of the street. Rainbow and Starlight lagged behind a little, with Starlight looking at the other mare hesitantly. “Are you sure about this?” she asked in a trembling voice.

Rainbow’s eyes left Twilight and rested on Starlight intensely. “Totally,” She replied in a low voice before drawing a little closer so she was right in Starlight’s face. “But let me be perfectly clear… if Twilight gets hurt out there, and I find out that you could have prevented it…” she narrowed her eyes and growled deep in her throat. “...Let’s just say taking Discord’s spell out of my head won’t be enough.”

Starlight visibly paled, then nodded. “U-understood…”

Without another word, Rainbow turned and lifted into the air with a flap of her wings. She locked her gaze on Sombra and bared her teeth. “Oh, no you don’t You are not about to take over the Empire again!” she thought. With that determination in her mind, she took off at a pace she knew the other two could keep up with for King Sombra.

Author's Notes:

Fun fact: this chapter and last chapter were originally one and the same. However, due to it feeling a little rushed, I split it up into two halves and extended those halves to be a chapter each.

Is it bad that I had a lot of fun writing the sequence with the mare panicking in Applejacks's hooves?

Sombra

“Maybe this is a really stupid plan,” Rainbow found herself thinking as she got closer and closer to Sombra. In his current state, he was even more enormous than he had looked from a distance. She started to feel dizzy as she drew closer, like an ant next to a dragon. So vast was the difference between them that Sombra didn’t even acknowledge her once she crossed his path. His eyes were locked on the palace, the heart of the city. To him, she probably was no more than a puny pest to be ignored.

She ground her teeth together in anger at the thought. “Okay, big guy…” she snarled under her breath before launching herself directly at his eyes as fast as she could. The colorful trail she left in her wake was what finally drew his attention. A low growl echoed all around her, making the very air itself quiver. “I can feel that in my throat…” she thought to herself. Rainbow then put on an extra burst of speed, intending to plow her front hooves into one of his eyes. Those plans were dashed, however, when a crimson horn emerged from a short distance above his eyes, crackling with shadows and purple electricity. Rainbow course-corrected just in time to evade being struck by a beam of what she could only describe as dark magic.

She did a little twirl in the air in the hopes of provoking him into following her, shooting him a cocky grin as she did so. “Ya missed me, big guy!” she called over tauntingly before sticking her tongue out and launching herself higher into the air. She would have made some good distance, too, had her tail not been suddenly ensnared in a shadowy magical aura. She let out a startled yelp when he tugged her down, his magic expanding to encase her entire body.

He spoke, then. His words were deep and distorted, like what Rainbow imagined a ghost or a phantom to sound like. “You are not of my empire…” he rumbled, tightening his grip on Rainbow. “Who are you?”

Of course, Rainbow Dash didn’t hear him. She was busy screaming and thrashing in his grip, desperately trying to shake off the oncoming flashback. But, just like always, she was powerless to stop it. Sombra’s eyes gained a spark of curiosity, then, and he observed her for several moments.

“LET HER GO!” came the voice of Twilight from far below, making Sombra blink. He looked down, only for a lance of lavender magic to strike him on his horn. A small flash of light erupted from the point of impact, and he let off a pained shout which echoed all around him for miles. His hold on Rainbow was shaken, then released, allowing the gaping pegasus to enter into a freefall. It only took a second for reality to reassert itself in her mind, allowing Rainbow to regain her bearings and shift around, entering back into stable flight. She shot Twilight a thankful nod before rocketing high into the sky at blindingly fast speeds.

Sombra turned his furious glare down on Twilight, his horn crackling once more to life. His voice let off a deep, ominous snarl, and Twilight lost and all bravado she had gained from her momentary victory. Sombra’s red horn sparked dangerously, and he reared back, preparing to counter Twilight’s attack with his own. Twilight exclaimed in alarm before ducking to one side, barely evading the attack. When it hit where she had been, a dark pattern spread out from the center of the impact, looking almost like veins. The visual similarity made Twilight gulp, and a pit formed in her stomach.

Another blast came shooting down for her, and she was just able to form a bubble shield around herself to stop the blast from hitting her. The impact created cracks in her shield and kicked up dust for several feet around her. She gasped in discomfort, scrambling back and taking her barrier with her. Sombra’s beam was unrelenting, and more cracks were forming in her shield.

“Starlight, a little help?!” she shouted, pouring energy into her barrier to mend the damage. Starlight entered the picture, galloping from where she had been hiding behind a nearby house, her horn sparking dangerously with magical energy. She raced by Twilight and fired off a blast of her own at Sombra’s horn. The attack hit its mark, ending his spell and drawing another pained roar from him. The mass of smoke that was his body retreated several yards while his eyes closed. It looked like he was shaking his head.

Starlight fired another blast, not giving him time to recover. Again, her spell hit its mark, and again, Sombra fell back. His horn sparked to life while Starlight went to prep another spell of her own. Thankfully, Sombra didn’t get to fire it off. Twilight dropped her barrier and launched her own beam at Sombra’s horn. When it hit, there was a sickening crack that echoed all across the empire, making the two unicorns cringe. Fiery cracks began to spread across the appendage, and shadowy mist bled out from the damage. Reeling in agony, Sombra glared down at the two before his horn crumbled into shadowy dust, disappearing back into the smoke. When the next beam of magic came from Starlight, it passed uselessly through him, his body shifting around the beam.

Starlight’s eyes went wide with horror. “That’s bad!” she stated the obvious before grabbing Twilight with telekinesis and jumping to the side, taking cover behind the house she had hidden behind earlier. Shadowy smoke went rushing down the street where the two of them had been a moment later, tarnishing everything it touched. The two of them grunted on impact before Starlight turned an impatient eye to the sky and released her magical hold on Twilight. “Where the hay is Rainbow?! She’s supposed to be helping us!”

Twilight, winded, squinted up into the cloud-smothered sky for several seconds she looked, then smiled confidently. “I think I know what she’s doing. She’s gaining altitude!”

Starlight turned to Twilight, her face showing her bewilderment. “For what?!” She demanded in exasperation before their view of the sky was obstructed by more dark smoke. Sombra’s eyes emerged from those shadows to glare down at them. A cheshire grin full appeared beneath them, showing that he had two very sharp fangs in his maw.

“Found you...” he chuckled darkly, his body encircling Twilight and Starlight, trapping them. His eyes narrowed and his grin widened.

“I wouldn’t look so cocky if I were you,” Twilight retorted, putting on a snide grin of her own in the hopes of throwing Sombra off. She let her horn light up and spark with energy. “You have no idea what we’re capable of.”

“Clearly…” Sombra began before the smoke rushed in, smothering Twilight and Starlight before either of them could let off a spell. Their frightened screams became muffled and silenced even as they kicked and struggled. He smirked down at them, delighted by their fear. “Neither do you.”

Just then, there was a blinding flash of light from Sombra’s center, heavy winds exploding out from the source. A ring-shaped, prismatic explosion expanded outwards with that winds, illuminating everything within the Empire. The glass in many nearby windows shattered, and the air resounded with an ear-splitting boom. At the same moment, a blue pegasus-sized bullet shot down to where Twilight and Starlight were at supersonic speeds, scooping the two out of the darkness before launching back into the air.

It had all happened so fast that, to an onlooker, it may have looked like Sombra just exploded in rainbow light. In the sky, Twilight blinked in an effort to get the spots out of her vision. Her ears were ringing and her head was throbbing. Once her vision cleared up, she tried to figure out what she was looking at. After a moment, she realized that, far below, the shadowy form of King Sombra had had a sizable rift made in it, with the remains of a sonic rainboom emanating from the core of his being and still expanding. It was then, watching as those shadows swirled back several hundred yards towards one of the outermost districts of the Empire and starting to reform, that Twilight realized something.

She was very high up.

She let out a panicked squeak and flailed out her forelegs, desperate for something to hold on to, her height-panicked mind oblivious to the foreleg tightly wrapped around her barrel. Rainbow grunted when one of those wildly flailing hooves smacked her on the cheek. She tightened her hold on Twilight to get her attention. “Twi, calm down! I gotcha!” she shouted to be heard over the wind rushing in their ears.

Twilight did calm down, looking up at Rainbow with wide eyes. For a moment, she just looked. She saw the sheer determination and focus in Rainbow’s eyes, how her mane was flapping wildly in the wind, and how Starlight was also being held by her other foreleg. After a moment, Twilight managed to find her voice. “Whew… nice timing, Rainbow. Thank you,” she sighed, relief washing over her.

“Yeah, don’t thank me yet,” Rainbow rebutted before curving around and lowering herself, Twilight and Starlight to a rooftop a few blocks away from where she had pulled off a tactical rainboom. Sombra was still reforming in the distance, his voice roaring and screaming with rage and pain. Rainbow cringed, her confidence melting away. “I think I only made him mad,” she said shakily.

“He’s too strong,” Starlight fearfully added while taking a few shaky breaths. “His body is mostly made up of that dark smoke, and it looks like he can make his shape into whatever he wants. Any attacks we throw at him, he can just bend around them. If he brings out his horn for magic, we can fight back, but he can make it vanish, too. He did that earlier, and when he did, our magic became useless.”

Rainbow nodded stiffly. “That’s not good,” she muttered absently, her ears folding back a little. She turned to the other two hopefully. “Ideas?”

“I think we’ve made about as much progress as we’re going to make. He hid his horn, and I can’t think of another way to attack him,” Starlight sighed, shaking her head. “We might be stuck, here…”

Twilight lowered her gaze a little bit while those two talked, hesitation creeping into her stance. For a few moments, she just stood there, trying to martial her senses. She then gulped heavily before lighting up her horn with magic. “Rainbow?” she began in a shaky voice. Once she had the other mare’s attention, she looked into her eyes. “The barrier; I might be able to do it, but I have to do it now.”

Rainbow looked back towards Sombra, who was still reforming. She grimaced when she saw that he was still in the Empire, only just within its limits. “...We’ll lose some of the Empire if you do,” she warned calmly, through her voice made it clear she had no other ideas. She then turned back to Twilight and nodded. “But we can’t be picky. Do it.”

Twilight nodded slowly and began channeling magic into her horn. She reached out with her magic while trying to gauge the distance between where she stood now and where Sombra was. After a second or two of thought, she had a distance and lifted her horn to point at the sky, the glow on it intensifying dramatically. Rainbow and Starlight had to shield their eyes, backing away several steps.

Twilight grit her teeth and growled in her throat before a beam of lavender magic shot high into the sky. It then exploded outwards, beginning to form a dome of magic, the edges of which were reaching down to encase all but a small crescent of the Empire. Sombra, still reforming, opened an eye to look at what was happening. That eye widened in shock. It then narrowed and was joined by its twin, an infuriated howl sounding from him before he charged forward, ramming into the edge of the barrier just as it met the ground.

Twilight let out a gasp and cry of pain when Sombra collided against her barrier. Cracks appeared on the surface and she crumpled to her knees. Sweat poured down her neck and she gasped and groaned with strain, slamming both of her eyes closed. After a second, she opened one eye a little bit to squint at the damage. “Gah! I d-don’t know if… if I c-can hold it-” she gasped when he struck it again, some of his shadowy form leaking through a few small holes in the barrier that she was very quick to patch up.

Rainbow watched in awe, slowly turning in place to look at everything Twilight was creating. All around them, purple light was filling the sky, shimmering brightly and forcing the fiery clouds Sombra had made to disperse, allowing the blue skies beyond to show once again. Sombra impacted the barrier another time, and more cracks appeared across the whole thing. Twilight cried in pain, closing her eyes and curling up even more. Sombra’s enraged screams and howls of indignation finally snapped Rainbow out of her trance, and she shook her head before looking at Starlight.

“You gonna help her or not?!” she demanded, flaring her wings open for emphasis. Starlight, not needing to be asked twice, nodded and sparked her own horn to life, adding her power to Twilight’s spell. Pale blue light began to weave in with Twilight’s, closing gaps wherever they had formed and smoothed over rough surfaces. As this went on, Twilight’s uncomfortable gasps began to ease off, and she finally opened her eyes to look at what they were doing.

Sombra growled on the other side of the barrier before tackling it one more time, this time bringing out his horn and sending a massive beam of dark magic against the smooth surface at the same time. It cracked; but only slightly. Starlight grit her teeth, a bead of sweat forming on her brow before the cracks mended themselves. It was with that effort that Sombra ceased his attempts to force his way through the barrier, glaring at them from beyond, his entire body shuddering with contempt.

“We can’t keep him out forever,” Starlight muttered, eyeing the shadowy king in the distance wearily.

Twilight chuckled weakly. “Maybe not…” She mumbled under her breath before slowly getting back to a standing position, Rainbow was quick to move to her side and help her up, making sure she didn’t fall over. “But we can make sure it isn’t easy for him.”

Rainbow, still holding Twilight up, glared over at Sombra in the distance. She then flashed him a wide, cocky grin. “That means get lost, Smokey!” Sombra merely narrowed his eyes for a few moments before they disappeared back into the smoke. The mass of darkness then slowly began to lower to the ground, spreading out around the edge of the dome. Soon, surrounding the entirety of the Empire, save for a small crescent of abandoned buildings that rested outside the barrier, a thick layer of darkness watched and waited for an opening. All was silent for several seconds. Then, Rainbow looked at Twilight. “Twi, are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” she waved Rainbow off, still a little shaky on her hooves. She then shot Starlight a thankful smile. “Thanks, Starlight. I owe you more than one…”

“You’re welcome, but…” Starlight’s own smile faded away, replaced with a look of unease. “You’re right. We can’t keep this up forever,” her horn sparked a bit and she shrunk away from it a little.

“Well, how long can you keep this barrier up?” Rainbow asked carefully, circling around to stand in front of them, worry written on her face when she looked at Twilight.

“If he stays docile like right now?” Starlight began, looking up at her horn uneasily. “...Maybe a week?”

“And that’s assuming we can keep ourselves awake and fed,” Twilight furthered, grimacing as a small tingle of pain started dancing down her spine. “But if he starts attacking again… I’d say less than a day.”

Rainbow looked at the two for a few moments before she cursed under her breath. She trotted over to slam her hoof into the edge of the roof, an agitated shout ripping out of her lungs. “Dang it! What are we supposed to do?!”

Nopony had a good answer. Many seconds came and went as she stood at the edge of the roof, taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. Eventually, she actively looked down into the street to check the damage. She raised an eyebrow when she saw a large group of several dozen crystal ponies down there, looking up at her, Twilight and Starlight with wide eyes and gaping jaws. Those looks of shock slowly began to give way to relieved and happy grins. One of them began stomping his hooves in applause, as did another, then another. In no time at all, the entire assembly was shouting and cheering their gratitude, causing Rainbow to back up a step in surprise. She blinked before looking back at the two mares on the roof with her.

They, too, seemed caught off guard by what they were hearing. They shared a glance, then looked back over at Rainbow. “They’re cheering us on…” Twilight said quietly.

Rainbow blinked and looked down into the crowd again. Listening to their cheers, hearing their applause, seeing the thankfulness and relief in their faces… it put a smile on her own. She watched as some of the ponies below rushed through the crowd to find loved ones, crying tears of joy when they found them, checking each other over to make sure they were okay.

Something stirred in Rainbow’s heart, and her posture straightened. “Well, then…” she started before turning back to Twilight and Starlight. Her smile gained an edge of confidence and firm resolve. “We can’t let them down now, can we?”

Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter took so long. I've had it written for a few days, but due to some family members visiting, I have been focusing on spending time with them rather then editing this. All the same, here you go.

Hunger

Thorax’s tongue fluttered and danced erratically in his mouth. His nostrils flared and he had to struggle against the urge to start licking at the air. His stomach growled loudly, announcing his discomfort to Wind Whisper, who was hiding under a desk behind him and curled up tightly into a ball. She eyed him in concern but chose to remain as still and quiet as possible, like he had told her when he came back in.

After they had all been ordered back into the library, Thorax had immediately sought out Wind Whisper making sure she okay and the standing guard over her. The roars of King Sombra were heard beyond the walls for quite some time, and Thorax found his resolve dissolving with every passing minute. After a time, those monstrous sounds had died down, as had every other noise beyond the walls. The eerie silence would have made Thorax tremble at the possibility that Princess Rainbow Dash and the others might have failed, that there would be nothing but darkness and despair beyond those doors.

But then he glanced out a nearby window, letting his eyes adjust for a moment. When his sight came back into focus, he had seen an insanely thick layer of love energy blanketing the window, obscuring what his normal vision saw as slowly clearing skies. The more he looked, he realized it was inside the library, too, rising up from the floor and filling the entire building with a thick haze of deliciously pure love. It wasn’t just love, of course, but other comparable emotions were woven into the mix. Respect, admiration, relief, and gratitude were the big ones, and their presence made one thing clear to Thorax.

Everything was fine.

Probably.

Not that he could actively reveal that he knew that without drawing some unwanted attention to himself. So he chose to play along, acting afraid and standing guard over Wind. He glanced back at her every now and then to give her reassuring smiles or nods, and every time he did, she seemed to relax just a little bit.

The rest of the group were off to his left, each one coping with their anxiety and the passage of time in their own little ways. Fluttershy was busying herself by tending to the frightened mare from earlier, who had identified herself as Scarlet Heart. She was still terrified, but thanks to Fluttershy’s assurances and some help from Pinkie Pie, she had managed to tone down her hysteria to simple anxiously pacing off in one corner of the library.

Rarity was looking through the history book they had found intently, hoping to maybe find some useful information before Twilight and Rainbow got back. Spike was by her side, trying to help wherever possible, though for the most part that amounted to reading with her. She seemed pleased by the company and effort, giving Spike small, charmed smiled every now and then.

Meanwhile, Applejack was also pacing somewhat deeper in the library, though not out of just fear like Scarlet Heart. Applejack was impatient, frustrated and worried for her friends on the outside, and it showed in the stiffness in her muscles and the perpetual scowl on her face. She constantly looked at the door, becoming visibly more and more agitated as time went on.

Thankfully, the wait finally ended when the doors to the library suddenly swung open, banging against the walls rather loudly. All eyes flew over to watch as Rainbow Dash came trotting in, looking a little tired and battered, but otherwise fine. She turned sharply the moment she was passed the doors and gestured for somepony unseen to go past in a ‘you first’ motion. Twilight and Starlight then came trotting in, their horns glowing brightly with sweat pouring down their foreheads. They were also looking a little worse for wear, but the fact that they were there at all was a huge relief to the others.

“Twilight! Rainbow!” Fluttershy called loudly in relief before galloping up and throwing her forelegs around the latter mare in a surprisingly tight hug. Rainbow yelped in surprise and stumbled back a few steps before returning the hug tightly. Fluttershy took a shuddering breath in before leaning back and checking Rainbow’s body for wounds. “Oh, I was so worried about you two. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Easy, there. I’m alright, Fluttershy,” Rainbow assured her with a small laugh before gently prying her off. She reached over and ruffled Fluttershy’s mane before looking over at Twilight. “We’re all okay. For now, anyway…” her voice lost some of its confidence and she glanced over her shoulder to look outside.

“What does that mean?” Rarity asked in a hesitant voice, sounding like she didn’t really want to know. Spike decided he didn’t care much to wait for an answer either way and bolted over to Twilight, giving her the same tackle-hug treatment that Fluttershy had given Rainbow only a few moments ago.

Starlight answered in Twilight’s stead, clearing her throat and peering up at her horn. “We were able to force King Sombra to the edge of the Empire, then Twilight and I used a super-sized barrier spell to keep him out. The thing is…”

“We can’t maintain the field forever,” Twilight finished, shaking on her hooves a little from Spike’s collision. She wrapped a foreleg over him and pulled him closer, nuzzling the top of his head in relief. She lifted her gaze to the others after a moment and let Spike go. “If we don’t find another way to keep him out, then we’ll all be at his mercy when the barrier fails,” her eyes then drifted to the history book still floating in Rarity’s magic. She pointed directly at it. “Find anything useful?”

“Nothing yet,” Rarity sighed, closing the book with a heavy thump and a sad shake of her head. She passed it over to Twilight, expecting the other unicorn to take it in her magic. Twilight’s incredulous look and gesture towards her already occupied horn made Rarity rethink her decision, laughing sheepishly. “Ahem, ah, research was always your area of expertise, Twilight.”

“Then we can’t waste any time,” Rainbow agreed, nodding sharply and looking around the library carefully. “We need a spot that’s quiet and isolated so that these two can focus on their spell and Twilight can do her research without any distractions.”

Twilight looked over at Rainbow with a dubious look on her face. “Rainbow, the spell isn’t that fragile. We don’t need an isolated room or anything like that. The middle of the library should be fine for now,” she rebuked bluntly, making Rainbow flinch.

Spike rolled his eyes and shot Twilight a sly smirk. “Oh-hoh! Wow, Rainbow’s really getting protective,” he said playfully, poking Twilight in the ribs with a claw.

Rainbow coughed loudly and shot Spike an annoyed glare while Twilight gave him a disapproving smack on the back of the head. He just chuckled and stepped aside, removing himself from their path and the effective range of their hooves. Fluttershy tittered behind a hoof, much to Twilight and Rainbow’s chagrin.

Thorax watched them all from a little ways away, a relieved smile on his face. He then turned around and lowered himself to his belly to coax Wind out from under the desk. “Hey, we’re safe now. You can come out, Wind” he called gently, offering her a hoof.

Wind shot past the hoof and tackled him, tightly holding onto his neck in a bone-crushing hug and breathing raggedly into his shoulder. He quickly brought his own hooves and wings up to return the embrace, nuzzling her atop the head in an effort to ease her distress. She tightened her grip on him, and his eyes refocused to let him see more love drifting off of her in copious amounts. Reminded of just how hungry he was, his tongue started to wriggle in his mouth again, moving like an angry snake trying to squirm out of a cage. His stomach grumbled loudly and he physically went rigid with strain, struggling to contain his desire for food. I can’t eat. Not here, not now!”

“Squall?” Wind asked in a timid whisper when she noticed how tense he had suddenly gotten, leaning back to look him in the eye. “What’s wrong?”

“Stop being cute, stop being cute,” Thorax repeated to himself in his head over and over. Despite his best efforts to appear fine and confused by Wind’s question, the extreme discomfort he was feeling made his face twitch and his smile falter. Wind saw this and put a hoof to his chest, leaning up a little.

“Dreamy?”

“It’s nothing,” he quickly dismissed her, his words slipping past his clenched teeth in a strained hiss. He shook his head and screwed his eyes shut, trying to shut out all of the love Wind was throwing at him- no, not him. This love was meant for Squall Dreamer, not Thorax. Thinking fast, he lifted a hoof to his neck to rub at it, twisting his face in fake pain. “Just, ah… made my neck a little sore when you hugged me is all. I-I’ll be fine, Wind, no worries.”

“I hurt you?!” Wind gasped, reaching out to his neck with her hooves. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! Is there something I can do?”

“You really don’t need to,” Thorax tried again, trying to gently push her away. She was stubborn, however, pushing back against his hooves and reaching out for him.

“But Squall-”

‘Wind! Stop it!” Thorax suddenly snapped in a voice that was far louder and angrier than he had intended. Wind Whisper gasped and then scrambled backward and away from, her ears going flat against her head. For several seconds, everything was absolutely silent. Wind blinked, then began to slowly lower herself down to the ground. Her eyes were shimmering with fresh tears, and her lower lip began to twitch and tremble.

“Wha…” she hiccuped slightly, scooting farther away from him. “What did I do wrong?” her voice was a quiet whimper, and Thorax could tell from the silence behind him that everypony was watching them.

He saw the look in her eyes, and immediately, felt an overwhelming sense of guilt building in his chest. With his own ears falling to rest flat against his skull, Thorax lowered himself down to his belly, his eyes never once leaving Wind Whisper. Gingerly, he reached a hoof out to her while letting a reassuring smile spread on his face. “Wind… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you,” he offered her carefully.

She shuffled back just a little bit more, sniffling quietly. She couldn’t quite look him in the eyes. “...I’m sorry, Squall… I made you upset… I’m such a bad sister...”

Thorax felt his heart go cold at the sound of her voice and the words she just said. He scooted himself forward a few inches, pleading with his eyes for her to come over to him. “Hey, that’s not true at all,” he chastised her gently. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Wind. You’re the best little sister a pony could ask for, and that’s a fact.”

“But… I made you mad...”

“And I’m sure I’ve made you mad a few times,” he countered her, praying to whatever would listen that he was right about it. “We’re all on edge here, but that’s not an excuse for me to take it out on you…” he inched just a little bit closer. “I yelled at you, I shouldn’t have, and I am very, very sorry. You didn’t deserve that,” he could almost touch her now, he was so close. “You’re a wonderful little sister, Wind, and I love you very much. C’mere…”

Struggling to contain a sob, Wind Whisper finally relented and eased herself into another hug with Thorax, burying her face into her shoulder and crying quietly. Thorax did his best to comfort her for several seconds, shushing her and petting her mane. He nuzzled her atop the head, then put his muzzle next to her ear. “Don’t you ever call yourself a bad little sister again, okay? Just don’t…” he whispered into her ear before slowly turning around. Just as he had suspected, all of the others were standing around, awkwardly waiting for them to finish their little moment. He gave a sheepish grin. “Ah, sorry you all had to see this,” he called out softly, pulling Wind a little closer against his chest. “We’re okay over here. You girls do whatever it is you’re doing.”

Rainbow and Twilight narrowed their eyes skeptically, while Starlight simply nodded uncomfortably. Fluttershy had a hoof up to her mouth while her eyes showed off her sadness at having to see a little filly feel like that. Rarity looked like she wasn’t sure if she should feel offended by Thorax’s outburst or charmed by how quickly he had acted to make up for it, while Applejack merely held a frown of solemn understanding on her face. Pinkie just looked uncomfortable and confused, looking around as if to find something she could use to make this situation less depressing. Nothing presented itself, of course. Spike, for his part, just watched the scene playing out from Twilight’s side, awkwardly pressing the tips of his claws together.

Eventually, Twilight broke the silence. “If you say so…” she said with an understanding tone of voice, although her eyes conveyed a certain intensity which Thorax received clearly. With that resolved for now, however, Twilight opted to slowly trot down towards the center of the base floor of the library with Rainbow, Spike, and Starlight following close behind. She looked at the others with a small smile, and they fell in behind her, eager to learn what their next step was going to be and how they could help.

While they did this, Thorax slowly released Wind Whisper, patting her on the head a few more times for good measure. She was letting off love again, and it made his stomach growl very uncomfortably. He grimaced before slowly getting back to his hooves. “Hey, why don’t you go and see if you can help Princess Rainbow Dash?” he suggested softly, nudging her towards the group. “It’ll take your mind off of things.”

“Wh-what about you?” Wind asked in a still shaking voice, scuffing the floor with a still-shaky hoof. She looked up at him questioningly, still upset.

“I’m going to go get us all something to eat. We’re low on Applejack’s rations and, to be honest, we could use a meal that isn’t apples. Variety is the spice of life and all that, eh?” he explained to her while turning for the door. “I won’t be long.”

“B-but…”

“Hey,” Thorax interrupted her softly, giving her a warm, reassuring smile. “Tell you what… if you help them out, then when I get back, I’ll give you some of those crystal berries. How’s that sound?”

That was enough to diminish some of her sorrows and put an eager smile on Wind’s face. Her anxiety washed away at the thought of those luscious berries, and her tiny wings gave an excited flap. “Oh, okay!” she said, galloping up to throw one more hug around his shoulders, nuzzling into his neck. “I love you, too, big brother…” she whispered to him. He chuckled and returned the embrace before setting her down and scooting her along the floor towards the others with his wing.

“Alright, run along. I’ll be back soon,” he said before cantering for the door.

“Bye, Dreamy!” Wind called after him, waving energetically before hopping down the stairs and using her wings to stabilize her descent. Thorax smiled back at her before slipping out of the front doors of the library, closing them behind them.

As soon as the latch slid into place, Thorax fell to his knees, his breaths starting to turn into ragged gasps. His pupils dilated and his stomach growled even louder, his entire gut flaring up with pain. The air out here was so saturated that it took everything he had to suppress his need to feed for even a second. Desperate for cover, he half galloped, half stumbled into a nearby alleyway out of sight of the entrance of the library. He was maybe three meters into the alley when his instincts finally overcame his self-control. His disguise vanished in a swirl of green fire, and the form of Thorax the changeling replaced that of Squall Dreamer the thestral.

His long, forked tongue flicked out of his mouth while an almost savage-sounding hiss of hunger and anticipation sprang from his lungs. His tongue was writhing in the air and tasting all of the love that was there, and he almost passed out in ecstasy when he realized just how much there was. He wasted no time, opening his mouth as wide as he could and pulling in as much as possible, greedily gulping down mouthful after mouthful of pure, unconditional love. His legs began to feel like jelly, and a sense of euphoria overcame him as his stomach was gradually filled up.

It was bliss.

But it wasn’t enough. Of course, it was never enough. The hunger of a changeling could never be satisfied, not truly. But this love in the air didn’t even decrease from how much of it he was consuming; if anything, it was still getting thicker. It was endless, an all-you-can-eat buffet of love. His eyes went unfocused and rolled up into his skull even as his legs crumpled beneath him. He fell to his haunches and tilted his head up, eating and eating and eating.

It tasted so good. He needed more. More, more, more, MORE! The whole world was fading around him. All thoughts that didn’t involve him eating everything he could right then and there melted away. He had never felt so good in his life...

The sound of hooves clopping against crystal somewhere behind him snapped him out of his trance. His heart rate spiked dramatically and panic bubbled up immediately in his chest. He clamped his jaw shut, severing the stream of love that had been flowing so freely down his throat. Despite his disappointment, he stood and restored his disguise as Squall Dreamer as quickly as possible, hoping he hadn’t been seen. He looked over his shoulder, seeing a crystal pony stallion trotting by the alley. Based on the mostly casual look on his face, Thorax was relieved to surmise that this pony had seen nothing. The two shared curious glances before the stallion disappeared behind the other building framing the alley.

Thorax released the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, then licked his lips, tasting some leftover energy there. He had never, in his entire life, had a meal that big before. He was still feeling light-headed from it all, and he drooled a little when he looked into the air and saw that the energy was still thick as ever. “This place…” he murmured, leaning against the wall of the building to his right while he caught his breath. “If we can get rid of Sombra… this place would be any Changeling’s dream!” he then paused, his veins going cold as a thought occurred to him. In the back of his head, he made an amendment to that notion.

This place would be every changeling’s dream.

Including Queen Chrysalis.

Author's Notes:

Fun Fact: The first sentence of this chapter is very worrying when taken out of context. ;)