Entry 033 - First Ascension (Part Six)

Gypsy Breeze and I pursued Midnight Dreamer towards the wings of the stage.

I couldn’t confront Breeze on her plan in case the pony ahead or those around us heard what was said, so I forced an apology out for the friend I’d clashed with and kept moving until we saw the stage lights. The chant of Semi and Mole’s names were just dying off when we climbed the stairs up and were positioned beside Midnight by the two testy guards following us.

Mole and Semi were already getting into their locations on the podium, both facing out into their adoring crowd. The audience was more like one great, breathing beast from up here with the bulbs in our eyes. The pair were both laboriously breathing out of nerves and fear, while Overlook hosted the facade with a foalish grin across his face and a dance in his step.

From our vantage point, we couldn’t fully see the clocks. There didn’t seem to be a way for us to truly tell from our side who was winning when the match began. Annoyance at putting myself in a position where I’d be kept in the dark set in immediately.

“It’s that time, my little ponies.” Overlook took great pride in telling the crowd, “After this last battle, either Molasses Candy or Semi Skimmed will be crowned the next pony to ascend to the Gardens of Equestria, to live out the rest of their days with the Princesses. I’m certain you’ll be rooting for both of them, so please give them one final thunderous applause before they sing their last song, “We’ll Meet Again Someday.”

The goddesses might as well have thrust a spiked egg up my nether parts! It was hard enough knowing Mole was inches away yet completely inaccessible to me, while she faced the possibility of winning this contest and facing an unknown danger. To have her sing the first song we’d sung together too was gut-wrenching. I turned my head away in fear and shame, looking at Gypsy instead who moved up beside me with her ears flat, a surprisingly sympathetic expression on her face despite everything that had happened moments ago.

“I’m sorry,” she called to me over the claps and whistles from the hoard. There were tears in her eyes before she began to speak, but as if self-conscious she turned her head away to avoid my gaze. “I know what she means to you. It… It wasn’t supposed to be her up there. I don’t know what happened.”

I blinked at her, not knowing what to say. Was I supposed to repeat that I had forgiven her? That I was sorry again for attacking her? That I couldn’t blame her for what was about to happen? Undecided, I just blinked at her until I heard the music start up, the crowd whooping briefly before they stopped to listen to the two mares sing their first lyric.

“We’ll meet –again- someday,
So don’t you go –a-getting- blue,
Don’t know when, and I don’t know where, but I know, every road,
Will lead me back to you.”

Taken back to my first day in the Stable, I recalled how Molasses comforted me on the Ferris wheel. She hadn’t known me more than a few hours, I’d been an absolute bitch to her, and yet she’d treated me how I saw her treat everyone. With tolerance, affection, and laughter.

“I have –no special- sense
But I trust –that- new skies will come,
Dark and grey- will -not last forever, you’ll see,
Until then, this song is what I will hum...”

Now up there, facing potentially our last day together, she was singing as beautifully and heartily as ever. It was as though the last week had never happened, we were back near the top of the Stable. I was terrified once more and she was there trying to soothe me with her voice. The mare on stage glanced across to me as she sang, her green little torches glowing in my direction. It almost destroyed me braving a smile to assure her that it was going to be okay.

“Carry-on –as- if I were there,
Tell me stor-ies -of pranks and fun,
Write me letters about all the good times you had, and stomp your hooves,
You’ll never be outdone...”

When I looked away, Semi Skimmed caught my eye. She was struggling with the lyrics, trying to keep up with the song but it was clear she didn’t know it as well as Molasses did. Selfishly, I found myself wanting her to succeed, although a part of me swiftly felt ashamed for hoping it. I hadn’t given her previous night a second thought until then, but as I watched her perform I wondered if Procrustean was out in that audience, observing, knowing he’d stolen her last night for himself…

“So don’t cry.
Don’t sigh.
Smile.
And make others smile too…”

A gasp breezed across the company in the dark, my talons tightening on the floor as I feared what that might mean. I tried moving to the farthest side of the wings, hoping I could get some hint of the score. The only clock I could see was Semi’s and it had passed the full way around! She was winning, I had to assume that there was still a chance for Molasses, even if it put another friend in danger.

“And when I –fin-ally come home,
We will party, from dusk til’ dawn,
And will sing this bright song,
With all of our hearts…”

“We-We…” A hiccup on the words caused Mole to break from the song, flicking her eyes up as she tried to recall the next line.

Without missing a beat, the minstrel filtered through from the rigs and lighting above, building up a stallion before her. It created a new vision of my marefriend’s long-gone father, I knew the visage from the minstrel I’d seen on the Ferris wheel. The red glow flying through its particle body instantly started to warn her that she was in deep trouble if she didn’t find the next lyrics.

I started forward, unable to stand by idly and let the spectral monster choke the life from my love. A guard shifted in front of me, pulled out his baton and menaced it at me. It didn’t stop me but a sharp pain on my tail did. I snapped my head around, Gypsy’s teeth holding it with the gas blue tip flicking angrily out of the corner of her mouth. She tugged, pulling me back an inch and I gritted my beak to growl while clenching my claws. I was ready to push her off—

“—And make others smile too…” That honeyed sweet song returned to my ears as the mare found her place with her duet partner. I spun back around and gawped as the red minstrel turned green, appeased although it still stuck around in case Molasses slipped up again. Gypsy’s molars released my tail and the guard relaxed several seconds later once I proved I was going to behave. There was no reason to panic for the sugar mare now.

I noted Semi’s head turned to Molasses with great, terrified eyes as she understood what this meant als well as we did. As relieved as I was for my girl, I now felt sorry for Skimmed. She was in the firing line presently. There was no way Moley could win with a slip like that!

“Tell my -old friends- ba-ack home,
I was singing -this song- out loud,
And was laughing about all the things that we’ll do, hugging you,
I will be back, I vowed...”

The song was nearing the end. I found myself wishing I could suddenly develop a psychic power to tell my mare to slip up one last time just to secure the gap between the mares. Either way, I was squirming, eager already to race onto the stage, grab my girl and sprint away to safety. After that, we could form the plan to save Semi Skimmed.

“And when I –fin-ally come home,
We will party, from dusk til’ dawn,
And will sing this bright song, With all of our hearts.
Every gold road...
...leads me right...
...back...
...to you, baby.”

The instrumental end continued to serenade despite the loudest ovation of the day blowing up the hall. Ponies were leaping, squealing, shooting magical sparklers from their horns. The minstrel, seeing the filly complete the rest of the song, drifted away like sand off of an open palm, caught by a light wind. Mole watched it go, gulping at how close a call that had been for her, then squinted as the bright lights fell on the two of them.

The Overstallion raced onto the stage with pomp and circumstance. Dreamer zoomed past me to join him as they brought the two mares down from the pyramid and onto the front. It wasn’t long before I’d be feeling that warm body safe on my feathers, I thought. I felt happier tears urging up from the wells I believed I’d suppressed long ago when I’d been hardened by the harsh Wastelands.

However, Dreamer turned only once to me as she helped Molasses down from the stage. Only once. It was all I needed to see because, from her expression of surprise and concern, it was the first inkling I got that things were not alright.

“What’s going on, Gypsy?” I whispered, moving again. Gypsy’s leg blocked me once more. The guards grew bothered with my behavior, telling me and her that if I couldn’t act civil, I’d have to leave. Breeze told them I’d be good on my behalf, but I didn’t care. Something was wrong.

The crowd was chanting a name.

I was so absorbed by this, I didn’t notice Gypsy had ignited her horn. Overlook was trying to settle them, to confirm the knowledge they had and I didn’t. The tune over their head ended bitter-sweetly and the stage darkened. A light shot across to the clock that had gained the most points, highlighting the winner of the contest. Its owner had stepped down and now standing up with the aid of Midnight’s leg. Molasses great green orbs rushed to mine, holding my view for a few seconds, then to the audience where I knew she’d picked out Lumbah. Was she urging a rescue?

I believed she was. I needed to spring into action and would have if my muscles had obeyed me. But when I tried, I couldn’t move! I was locked to the spot, only my eyelids, and vital bodily functions still working, the rest of me as still as a rock. I knew the spell, I knew the caster, and at that moment I mentally cursed her with every dark thought I could conjurer.

The overstallion regained control of the crowd to make his announcement. I was unable to block out his words. I was unable to stop him from speaking them. I could only stare at Mole and plead to Celestia. Please, no. Make this some cruel trick, a joke, a form of torture against me. Anything but this…

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” Overlook boomed, his voice amplified to the point that it shook the walls, “What a show! What a show, indeed! But of course, there can only be one winner. Thank you to all the ponies who have performed here tonight, thank you to the crew backstage and the musicians who have performed wonderfully. Thank you to Princesses Celestia and Luna themselves, always looking down on us. However, the pony ascending into their pure garden this month is…”

Insanity seeped into mind. Why had he stopped? Was the next name he was about to yell not enough torment for me? Did he need to test me this way?

The drummer in the pit started a constant thunder. The crowd yelled the name of the chosen one once more. The pause gave me time to think of murderous thoughts, to promise I’d stuff their vocal cords into their stomachs for speaking her name. In the red mist, Gypsy moved up into my line of vision. A downpour dripped from her cheeks, a whimper slipped from her lip as she told me she was sorry. I didn’t accept it this time.

I looked out to my glowing princess one final time. Her eyes were ahead, on the spot I’d once sat. She couldn’t look at me anymore, I found myself presuming. I’d failed her. I was no longer worthy of her pretty green eyes.

“... MOLASSES CANDY!”

No.

No, no, no.

I was not going to have this. They were not going to take her away from me. The moment the first syllable of her name was uttered, I was prepared to cut throats and eat bullets to get her off of the stage and out of this hell. Ponies would hate me, there would be friendships and alliances lost but it would all be worth it. At least Molasses would be safe.

I was prepared, but I could not move.

Gypsy’s magic flared and cruelly she lifted my forelegs against my will, forcing me to applaud the decision, only my eyes able to show the true anger I was feeling with this ultimate betrayal. She joined the clapping too, trying to wipe away the stains in her amethyst cheeks as she turned about to face the stage once more. She kept her tail tucked between her legs and avoided at me again. She must have known I was continuing to send fire and loathing upon her through my staring eyes.

Overlook was speaking again, but I was not listening. A pressing need to escape this hold on me had my mind racing and my blood pumping in my ears. Helplessness wasn’t a MacRural trait, a MacRural fought to the end or died trying. Outside, I was a statue, but inside I was wrestling in the magic with every ounce of strength in my body. My nerves burned with the endeavor, my eyes watered hotly and my skin perspired under my fur and feathers. The magic around me went from feeling like a rippling tingle to the sensation of sharp sewing needles puncturing every follicle of my body. Oddly, the amulet around my neck began to feel a lot lighter and for a brief moment, I thought I’d lost it, adding to my anger.

Gypsy spun back to me sharply, an unreadable expression on her face. I noticed that she wasn’t staring directly at me, but at my talons which has stopped clapping while everypony else around me was still cheering. I tried to flex a claw and gasped as the toe curled in and back out, inexplicably not feeling like my own but still in my control. I couldn’t laugh at my achievement, nor could I yell, but gathering back some power over myself boosted my pride and desire to win. I was going to do it, I was going to get my girl back.

Glancing lower, I could see that the weightless medallion had not tumbled off of me yet had slipped out of my suit. It hovering in front of me with a slow spin while strange black and neon-purple energy swam up and down it, flowing along the chain connected to me and into me. In a less chaotic state of mind, that might have been enough for me to remove it and throw it away there and then, but I couldn’t. Even if I could have moved more, I would have still kept it on. It was helping me! It was giving me the power to fight back against Gypsy. It wanted me to succeed.

Breeze had other ideas. I saw her teeth grit as her magic flared even stronger, angering me deep within and forcing me to try harder. The sting of needles turned into tiny knives, each trying to cut a little deeper into my body, but I was not in the brawl alone. The artifact around my neck spat and poured more of its own energy into me, its efforts proving to be working when I was able to reach my claws out towards her. In my blurred rage, I was thinking about taking her horn and snapping it off, stopping her from using the damned thing. She took a step back and finally one of the applauding guards took notice of the duel between us, giving a startled cry out.

“Hey! What do you two think you’re doing?” He stepped out in front of me, facing Gypsy, missing the bizarre effects my augmenter was producing. He was only seeing the glow around Gypsy’s horn.

“Drop the magic right now or you are in deep trouble!” His yells caused Midnight and the other guard to take notice as well, the pair of them inching closer to help if the need came. Past the flank of the first official, I could see the blonde mare trying to weigh her options, looking between them and me as I regained more of my abilities by the second. My talons were curled into fists, my beak was bared and I could hear my breath growling in my throat.

“... And so, we would like to thank our contestants once more for all of their hard work getting this far into the battles,” Overlook persisted, unaware of the coming hurricane backstage, “thank you to everypony who works tirelessly every time behind the scenes to make sure that these contests go smoothly. Finally, the last congratulations to Molasses Candy! Let us all send her off to her ascension with the Stable Prayer…”

“I won’t ask again,” the guard between us levitated out his baton and swayed it fearlessly over Gypsy’s head. The guards could not see that my hind feet were pushing me forward and were not listening to my protesting grunts against the magic forcing me back. Gypsy’s eyes darted about once more amongst them and then at me, her ears flopping back.

“Don’t,” she uttered. Her magic simmered away into nothing.

The pains and pressures in me dissipated, the invisible shackles fell away and my body lurched forward. Suddenly having unexpected control again caused me to tumble into the authority in front of me. He started to turn, furious that I was interrupting his arrest when my clawed hand snatched him by the helmet and pulled him up. My wrathfulness was in charge and there was no bringing it back down.

My wings beat as I pulled the struggling stallion up, my temper surpassing my strength and surprising both of us. In an attempt to defend himself, the guard launched the baton away from Gypsy and towards me, the intended target being my head. But my senses were sharper and I had seen what he was about to do before he had known he was going to do it.

I lifted the guard into the path of the coming bat. He had no time to stop it and cried out as his own weapon struck him hard in the back.

“Stop!” cried out Gypsy to my deaf ears. I couldn’t give anyone a chance to stop me. Flapping, I dragged the stallion about by his helmeted head and threw him, barrelling down his colleague as they rushed to rescue their partner. The two tumbled over each other and collapsed into a heap by some rigging, groaning painfully.

Snorting lividly, I turned back around to face Breeze, who urgently pushed a startled Midnight into the curtain to safety. There, Gypsy faced me, shaking her head, backing up. The ponies out in the audience continued to chant, unaware of the rescue plans being enacted behind the scenes.

Rescue and revenge.

I opened my beak, hissing in an inhale of air, preparing sharp claws to strike.

“D-Don’t,” she whimpered again, her horn glowing once more.

I couldn’t let Breeze stop me again. The fury in me burned from my chest, through my limbs, all the way to my talons. I was ready and prepared to slash her open and in my red haze, I wasn’t focusing on what she was doing. I had lost all sense of the reason why I wanted this in the first place. All I had was a voice in my head, screaming to do it. Do it! DO IT!

“I will love you, no matter what,” she half-sobbed, half-sang.

Like a spell, her words broke me, froze me again, though my wings still kept me airborne. For a second, she let me realize what I was about to. The mare had once found me, nursed me to health, been my protector and friend. I had loved her. She had loved me.

And I was preparing to kill her? Why? I dropped my guard ever so slightly and that was all she needed.

Her horn blasted at that moment and my chest took the full force. The world span at a dizzying speed as I pinwheeled head over arse until the ground hit my back hard.

I squawked sorely on my back, tears blotting my eyes as I tried to get myself back up on to my elbows. I whimpered achingly as a yellow and purple visage came into view, floating over me. I tried to reach out to her and she responded in a heartbroken voice.

“Oh, little bird…”

The vision blew up in bright, strong light, blinding me. My body warmed and the distress ebbed away, fooling me into thinking I was being healed for a moment. Suddenly, however, my mind shrank back, my head felt woozy and my consciousness drifted. I tried to talk, but my beak only clicked wordlessly. The light around me dwindled away and I sank deeper and deeper into a dark, unending cavity as the last line of the hymn echoed around me...

There was nothing for such a long time. For once, it felt calming.

I was not afraid of the black silence and solitude, it was comforting to shed the weight of the world on my feathery shoulders and only need to keep breathing to survive. For so long, since the fateful day I left my home in Trotland, I had not had a waking moment of peace. Everyday since then had been an endless circle.

Fight. Flight. Regret. Survive. Repeat.

Fight. Flight. Regret. Survive. Repeat.

Fight. Flight. Regret...

I opened my eyes to gloomy daylight. Even the constant cover of clouds could have their brighter days, but this light did not batter away my retinas after my long stay in the pitch-black. The clearing I stood in was an old town square, with building surrounding it wonkily yet sturdily made from bricks and mortar. The reminders of what trees had been stood in charred black husks, although some pine trees further outside of the square still remained, like the last warriors of a by-gone race. There were wells in the corners of the square as well as a platform towards the building designated as the town hall. I knew what this place was. I was home, Lochgoilhoot Village, and all was not well.

Though the structures still stood, smoke poured out of many of the doors, windows, and roofs. Many of the fires had expired and the odd few still burning were not far from dying out. The acrid stench of charred wood was only outweighed by one other sickening smell, that of incinerated flesh and spilled blood. Among the wreckage of glass, splinters and strewn belongings lay rotting corpses of the town’s final inhabitants.

I’d been here before. Not just this place, but the very day. I knew what I was about to find and yet I still wanted to prevent it, to change my past, to fix my future. If I could correct where things went wrong, then maybe I could change more of my mistakes.

I hurtled forward, leaping over the burned and mutilated carcasses of the ponies I’d once been a neighbor to. It was as though a battle had torn through town and no pony in Lochgoihoot had been strong enough to defeat the enemy. There were stallions, mares, elderly ponies, but no foals. I noticed it somehow as I dodged the dead, tears in my eyes and vice around my throat. Not a single child.

My foot caught a steadfast limb and I stumbled with a shocked cry, my front and face eating bloodied dirt. Letting out the build-up of pain in my lungs, I risked opening my eyes and found the glassy, soulless pupils of a familiar pony staring back at me. The scars, paler and bloodless, were still visible on Peely Wally’s corpse, while a new one, an open, black and sticky gash, stretched across his throat. There was no healing that, nor any big brother coming to exact revenge.

I spotted his sibling Driech not far from him, although the only part that actually resembled my former bully was the cutie mark of a grey stone house on his flank. Somepony had taken a great dislike to him, as was judged by the huge stone plant pot left, partially cracked, where his head had once been, remains of skull and face leaking from beneath it. The rest of the body was bruised and cut, he must have fought pretty hard before the end. Somehow, despite everything I’d suffered at his hooves, I felt remorse. Then again, this had been the village where I’d grown up. Seeing it mangled and disfigured made my gut clench in anguish.

In a fit of shock, I somehow kept moving, pushing back the last meal struggling its way up my gullet. Someone cried my name but I ignored them. I knew my heading and nothing could stop me. Nothing. No-one.

My first fearful cry came at seeing the door to my childhood home broken open, a singular hinge keeping it attached but not upright, twisted and rendered out of place. Somepony, a horse friend of my Pa’s who he insisted I called ‘Uncle Fixer’, sat dead beside it. He was the least butchered pony I’d yet to see. The way his head drooped and his mane fell over his eyes, he could easily have just been sleeping in a usual drunken haze.

“Pa?” I called hesitantly, wanting to hear something that might give me a glimmer of hope. To be called ‘Ella’ again, to be treated to a rendition of a badly sung song, to be offered a swig of whiskey before it was the proper age to drink, anything…

I was given nothing. Not a croak. Not a whimper.

Stepping over the sleeping family friend and whispering an apology to him, I moved on inside.

“Pa? Mag? I- I came back. I--” My pathetic calls stopped short. The tumbled and destroyed room faded out of my vision. I only memorized bits and pieces. The table had been shattered to smithereens. My Pa’s old record player had been battered and broken. A shattered lantern had half-attempted to burn the shack down, only to leave a small cremated circle.

The only thing left in my vision was a griffon. They lay face down, wings spread out like a bird of prey shot down by poachers. Everything about him was the same, the spots of grey and white in his darker blue feathers and fur, his always-slicked back head quills, the one white-furred sock for a hindfoot. There was no mistake. Motionless in the center of the room was Jackdaw MacRural.

“PA!” I raced to him, tried to lift him, roll him, revive him, but once more I was too late. He was frozen to the touch and locked up. Rigamortis had turned my pa into a statue of the strong, silly father I loved. His head nearly toppled away when I turned him, revealing the killing blow that took my old man away from me. I buckled back, screamed, retched, and tossed my stomach up into the long-dead coals within the fireplace.

He was gone. The griffon who had shaped me into the griffoness I had become was gone. There was nothing I could do. I sank back into a corner, hugging myself in my wings and sobbing deeply, staring at the only male I would ever love so deeply in my life. Even in grief, however, I remembered what happened next.

I turned my head to the door as Periwinkle came in cautiously, rifle readied for an attack. When she saw the dead griffon on the floor and my reaction to him, she replaced the weapon and rushed to me, gripping me by the shoulders.

“Crow, Crow, come here,” she reached around and hugged me. In a past life, I’d accepted it, I’d wept into her feathers and cried for my father to come back, knowing he was gone for good. This time, however, I was wiser. I didn’t know who Periwinkle was back then. I knew now.

I grabbed her by the feathers and flung her back, furious that my might only had the effect of forcing her to stumble back. Like a supernatural echo of the past, she did not react to my angry attack, only turned and examined the body and the room.

“A cut neck? So she didn’t…” Forgetting that train of thought, she reached for me again. “We have to get out of here Crow. This attack was made by raiders, I’m sure of it. They didn’t destroy the place completely and the wells weren’t tainted. It’s highly likely they want to use this place as a camp. We have to--”

“Fuck you, Periwinkle,” I snapped, batting her claw away as she kept stretching for me, “I’m nay going noplace with you. You’re a- You’re a BITCH!” I partially screamed the words, tears falling like bricks as I yelled over her. “You’re the reason my Pa died! You’re the reason I lost my family! You’re the reason I lost my WINGS! EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT!”

“... But I have a plan. The Steel Rangers, they’ve come to Trottingham, see?” She kept talking and acting like a recording of the griffoness I’d known that day, careless to my words as she produced a paper she’d stuffed in her pocket. “It came to the post office, the raiders had been through everything else but ignored this. They’re looking for griffons, they want to clean up Equestria! We could enlist, we can get our revenge on the scum that killed my mother, and your dad. What do you--”

“What do I say? YOU WANNAE KNOW WHAT I SAY?” I was not agreeing this time. I was not going to hug and kiss her and let her act like my heroine while she used me for her end game. Not this time. “FUCK YOU!”

I bared my talons, screeched a murderous caw and kicked forward, slashing both sets of claws through her. I wanted blood, I wanted vengeance, but the evil ex-griffon-friend turned into dust the moment my knives penetrated her. She disappeared through my swipes, every single crumb of her body drifting into the blackness once more. Within a second, she was gone, and I was left to look about the oblivion I was trapped in once more. She had gotten away again.

I screamed, released all the realized anger built up within me, then collapsed into a broken, miserable heap.

“We are still as close as any sisters could possibly be…”

Something was in the darkness with me. With her back to me, a mare with an aubergine mane and eggshell blueish coat spoke to the oblivion around us. I’d seen enough images of this mare on the sleeves of my Pa’s old records to recognize her.

“...I cannot tell you much, but I can promise answers will be coming soon…” Coloratura murmured to the dark.

“A-Are you a ghost? Where are we?” I asked fearfully, unnerved by a long-dead pony talking with her back to me. There wasn’t a chance in Tartarus that I was going anywhere near her. Yet even yelling to her was regretted after I did it. Her ear turned towards me as she heard me and she moved, spinning about to face me as she spoke again.

“...Trust Cloverleaf… She will come through for us. The future for all of us is bright…”

I screeched out at the sight of her face, or the space where her face was supposed to be. Rara’s face was gone, not blank nor ripped off but replaced by a constantly moving, always illuminated visage of something else entirely. Something green.

Rara was a Minstrel.

She continued towards me, the minstrel-dust swirling and growing across her head until it had covered her skull, ears, mane, and neck in the glowing material. It didn’t stop there, it kept on swarming and devouring her, ensuring it would turn her into one of them before she’d get to me. Not wanting to be next, I spun on my heels and ran deeper into the thick choking darkness. No matter how hard my feet pounded on the invisible ground though, I was going nowhere. I dared to look over my shoulder. Minstrel Rara was always gaining on me, the last inch of her hoof engulfed in the emerald matter.

Fearing that on foot was not fast enough, I leaped into thin air and flapped, urging my wings to get me away. I dared to fly upwards, believing I’d be safer away from the hellish pony if I climbed as far from it as possible. The higher I felt myself getting, though, the harder my chest pounded and the woozier my head grew. I checked below me to see whether I’d shaken the minstrel, only to see it swelling.

I squealed as I saw it growing to come after me. Its body filled out, its luminous scales flickering and its soulless eyes focused on me. I whimpered, trying to struggle further away, but it felt like I had a lasso loop around my ankle, keeping me from getting away, and all the time the creature’s terrifying growth spurt brought it ever closer to me. When I next looked down, the being’s form was changing, the tiny dots making up its body turning Coloratura into her partner.

“... All I care about is that you've just taken the best, most hopeful thing we had in our lifetimes and have thrown it away…” Songbird whimpered up at me, raising her hoof. “... I hope you forgive yourself…”

“Leave me alone!” I shouted and attempted to swoop out of the way, narrowly dodging their swiping leg as it nearly hit me. I dived down before they could ready another swing, pulling up and behind them, hoping I’d been fast enough to confuse them. I hadn’t. The minstrel turned, its shape shifting once more.

“...She had a name,” moaned the giant moving effigy of Gypsy as she wheeled around and came for me. “Memory Breeze. She was supposed to be safe here, Crow. Safer than out there...”

“I’m sorry,” I blubbered, hoping the few words might be the spell that halted the beast of this abyss. Its foreleg drove down at me again, threatening to stomp on me, but before it could I spotted my escape path. Without hesitation I darted through the open legs of my blown-up friend and banked up again, trying to escape to the skies, hoping the black might finally break away.

“When they call it love then what will you do?
When they boil your faces in a horrible brew!”

Minstrel Mole batted me down fiercely the moment I recognized her voice and turned. I tossed and tumbled through the air, flapping to try and regain my control, but the momentum was too strong. I hit the obsidian floor on my back between her hooves. I groaned out, then cried as I saw the face of my dearest pony, masked in green and leering at me.

“The Gardens of Equestria will be all burnt up,
And monsters will turn you into a terrible stew,
Soooo... Watch out!”

“Mole, no!” I rushed to my feet as her hoof raised to trample me down. It came down hard. I was a fraction too late. My tail got caught under the stamping foot, I shrieked at the torturing sense of capture and spun around, grabbing it and pulling. Three tugs later, I fell back, but the tip of my tail was already infested with green busy lice multiplying up towards my body. Bawling again, I batted urgently at them.

“know what lies beyond the doorway, griffon. I know that it is not a place of ascension, it is a place of our own destruction. We’re already in the Garden of Equestria. I intend to keep it that way.” Minstrel Molasses became Procrustean, lowering his massive head and sneering at me as he already sensed victory. I fell backward and rolled around like a foal’s clumsily clowning toy, scrabbling to get the Minstrel particles off of me. Yet the more I struggled, the more of me they covered, spreading from my tail to my talons. Kicking at my claws with my hind paws spread the curse to all my limbs and within seconds my legs were no longer my own.

The Minstrel ahead of my changed one more time, forming the short beak and the pretty, long feathered features of the griffoness I despised.

“If you are going to fight, (and Crow, I know you are going to fight) then fight with every single bit of your being that you have.” With that, Periwinkle watched as the final Minstrel bugs buzzed about my body, spread across my throat and beak with the speed of wildfire. I wanted to scream, I needed to scream, but I had no mouth.

My last view in this dark and desolate place was the minstrel face of Periwinkle, once my Snowbird, now my tormenter, watching as my body and my sight was fully dissolved by the tiny, wicked lights...

I opened my eyes and took a solid block of heavy air into my greedy lungs. A noise of panic slipped out with the exhale before I opened my eyes and foolishly stared into artificial light.

I was on a familiar hard mattress with a lumpy pillow. Above me was a nearly clean metal sheet, the underside of the next bunk bed. To my right, the paintless metal of a cold wall. I was back in the cells of the Stables.

Waking from a nightmare had fogged my brain. I had to retrace my steps through the mind-buck I’d just been through in order to pick out the pieces of reality. My Pa? Still dead… I sighed regretfully. I couldn’t change that, no matter how many times I went back. Periwinkle? Still a bitch. Gypsy? She was just… Wait.

“Oh, little bird…” I remembered the moments before the horrid dream. The fight, the blast, the betrayal!

And I remembered Molasses.

“MOLE!” I shot up, almost knocking myself into another state of unconsciousness on the above bunk and leaped out of the bed. Pounding on the cage door, I shoved my beak through the gap and yelled at the top of my voice.

“HEY! GUARDS! You have to let me out, there’s been a mistake! I was manipulated by a wee bloody bitch, ye have to believe me! I’M INNOCENT! PLEASE! I HAVE TO SAVE MOLASSES CANDY!” I knew it was a stupid idea. I knew, of all the moments in history when somepony had cried out their innocence, it had always fallen on deaf ears whether true or not. I was desperate. I was about to lose everything.

Over my ragged breaths, I heard hooves clopping along the corridor towards my cell. I wasn’t so far away from the entrance to the cells this time, they only had one occupant here it seemed. Me.

“Please, I’ll tell ye why, I’ll fly reet back afterward, I promise ye, just let me--” I stopped my pitiful mewls as Procrustean’s face slid into my view. I froze, he stared, and for what felt like an eternity, we did nothing. My heart pumped so hard in my chest that it felt like I was about to choke blood.

“Please--” I started.

“‘If a mare kisses with an evil enchantress’,” Procrustean uttered, almost melodically, “‘They’ll all find they fall into evil trances.’ An evil enchantress? Is that what you are, Griffon?” I backed away slowly as he started towards the door, his mouth briefly preoccupied with the keys to it. In a sharper state of mind I might have forced the door the moment he unlocked it, but my head was swimming with confusion. Why was he singing that song?

“You’ve put two of my stallions in the hospital ward. You very nearly disrupted the finale of an ascension battle--”

“Procrustean, you know there’s no Garden of Equestria, you know Molasses Candy is in deep trouble, You’ve--”

“DO. NOT. SPEAK. WHEN. I. AM. SPEAKING, GRIFFON!” Each word was slammed into me like a buck to the breast as Procrustean shoved his face into mine, forcing me to fall helplessly onto my back. I drew in a deep breath and held it, wide eyes stuck on his enraged figure. The vein in his neck pulsated as he snorted vigorously and glared at me. Then, with a long, slow sigh, he put the anger back in its cage for the time being.

“Do you know what you are, Griffon?” he asked of me when his temper was finally locked back up. I stayed quiet, not wanting to give him any reason to release it again. It seemed like a wise choice. “You are different.”

He slipped backward until his rear found the bunk and he perched on it, his expression now as relaxed as if he were telling a story to a child. “You and your friends are strangers. You are not the same as us.”

“Us?” I enquired. It got a sharp look, but none of the fire from before.

“The T-Thirty ponies. Surely you see it?” He held out a hoof at me. “We have grown in this Eutopia. We have become smarter, we look out for one another, we do not kill unnecessarily.” I almost snorted at his last point, remembering the battering Swept Floor received. “Your arrival has brought unwanted changes to my Stable. We’ve lost loved ones before their time and have already seen some of our own ponies corrupted by your presence. Ponies like… Molasses Candy?” A grin slipped onto his muzzle. My gut hurt as I eventually saw what he was implying.

“You know,” I managed to whisper through a clogging throat.

“Do I know that you had corrupted that tiny airhead and forced her to be a disgusting degenerate like you?” He spat the words like bile. “Of course I do. I have been watching you two. The amusement park. The bathhouse. Acquisition of Sciences building…” He let the evidence sink in as I felt my world dropping faster than it had in my nightmares. Every time I thought somepony I loved was safe, every time I trusted myself not to ruin things, it only got worse. I closed my eyes and slipped against the wall, sitting in the pit of my despair.

“Are you gonna kill me, Procrustean?” I asked eventually, unsure which answer I preferred more. He took his time to reply.

"Kill you? Ponies would be too suspicious of somebody as ...different as you going missing, Griffon. You are still useful to me. I still need to know where the missing minstrel is and what your scumbag friends are plotting.” A short chuckle, almost as dark as his eyes staring deep into my own before he leaned onto the bed frame.

“Your little pony, your precious, little, filthy filly-fooler might be gone very soon, but there are still other ponies here that you care about. Elmwood? Gypsy Breeze? I will make life here very difficult for them if you do not comply with my every little whim."

“You've been a thorn in my side for too long,” the bastard continued, checking his PipBuck idly. “Pushing and prodding in all the wrong places, it's no wonder you ended up where you did. However, you are in my domain, Griffon. If you don’t start playing by my rules right this instant, I am going to really start hurting you. You know nothing, yet.”

“If…” I gulped, swallowing my words, “if I cooperate… you’ll nay harm them… Aye?”

"If you cooperate." A twisted grin and a rough pat on my leg was all that followed him standing up. "You’re free to go, Crowella.” He stepped out of my way, leaving the door open and my exit clear. I didn’t trust him, I anticipated a trap, yet seconds moved on, half a minute passed and nothing happened. Realizing nothing was going to happen without my involvement, I lifted myself up onto aching limbs and walked past the grisled horse to the door.

“You won’t get to her,” Procrustean said from behind me. “The Ascensions will take place in,” he checked his PipBuck, “less than ten minutes. I’ve placed guards everywhere to stop you, whatever your plan was. I hope you made your last goodbye to your degenerate hussy count.”

I wanted to fight him and rip out his heart the way he was tearing out mine, but my eagerness to defy him and save Mole was greater. Not looking back, I saw the doorway out of the corridor and headed for it. I stormed through the guard’s station, zipping between the ponies as they each looked startled to see me free already. By the time I was into the Stable’s beating heart, I was running.

I raced through the Beret Sector into the fountain square and stopped sharply at the sight in front of me. Crusty hadn’t been lying, a herd of his guards blocked the entrance to the Yearling Sector, stopping and checking everypony wanting to get through into the section. They were checking PipBucks and only letting through those that had to be there, one pony complaining as she was refused entry. I cursed, paced beside the fountain and tried to come up with a new plan. Luckily, it came to me quickly and without another thought, I twisted towards Le Grande Sector and pounded towards the ramps that would take me up to Mole’s candy store.

There was nopony stopping me, although some did call out ‘The Guardian Griffon’ as I sped past on my wings. I reached Mole’s shop in barely a minute but didn’t stop. It wasn’t a destination, just a landmark. As soon as I passed that, I knew which alley to turn down, then whistled through it until I reached the very end.

While I hadn’t forgotten the hidden buttons in the brickwork that Elmwood had found, I struggled to recall where they were.

“Come on, where are yeh— Ah!” I pushed at the stones until I found the ones that sank in and listened to the false wall whistle and clank softly out of the way, revealing the secret path briefly before the holograms covered it all up. I jumped through the sheet of light and turned into the darkly lit hallway, not knowing where I needed to go next. I only had guesswork from here on and thus zipped along in the direction I’d taken to rescue Molasses twice before now. Please, I begged the goddesses, don’t make this second time unlucky.

But as I sped through the maze of corridors, I zoomed past the gateway I knew led to Western Maintenance warehouse, it wasn’t my next destination this time. I lifted my PipBuck and checked two things, first, the time and then the map. I had five minutes left.

The map showed me the Stable display but the dot highlighting where I was blipped outside of the diagram, within the rockwork where no paths were supposed to exist. I had no mapped route I could follow from here, but a spin of the wheel beside my PipBuck helped me scale down the display and see more of the Stable. I could see from the direction I was pointed in that I wasn’t far from the Hydroponics Houses that Whithers had shown us. The rock face led right past it, so there had to be an entry into it. The Changelings below couldn’t possibly live on love alone.

The corridors led on as I used my PipBuck as a guide, dashing through the lanes as urgently as my straining body would take me. Even outside, life hadn’t been as reactive or as distressing as it had been in the past week, and the tensions were taking their toll on my body. I couldn’t stop, however, I had to save Mole and as I gained on the area where the Hydroponic Houses would sit near, I only had less than three minutes left. I hectically sought a door through, punching my body at walls for a button that would let me into the area. Time was ticking down, I wasn’t going to make it.

But then I turned a corner. At last! There were three doors leading into the farthest corner of Hydroponics. I swooped down to the first large square, passing over a great grate with water splashing beneath it into the housing area. I only briefly noticed it though, as I quickly hammering the door release button to open up the entrance.

Nyooooom~

What? No! I slapped the button again, hoping this was a mistake.

Nyooooom~

The door repeated its negatory sound and remained locked up, denying me access as the timer counted down. Frantically, I tried the next one.

Nyooooom~

No, no, no, no, no. I had one last door. I prayed this would be the one. I punched the button. I smacked it again. I slapped it until my palm hurt.

Nyooooom~ Nyooooom~ Nyooooom~

“NOOOOO!” I kicked, hit, scratched and slammed myself into the door desperately, but nothing I did made a difference. I had two minutes remaining and I had hit a dead end. There was nothing left, no plans and no options.

I dropped, every inch of me hurting and I didn’t care. I would have suffered worse to get my filly back, I would have given the wings off of my back, lost my talons for good, exchanged my life for hers to save her. Yet I couldn’t do anything. Dropping to the ground and clenching my fists, I cursed that I couldn’t be smarter.

I couldn’t, could I?

There was still a box of Mint-Als in my saddle-bags, given to me by Whip-poor-will. It was the longest of long shots but I needed the tiniest bit of hope right now, and this was all I had. Still shaking with a sob quavering in my chest, I took the box out of my bag, broke the seal, popped the lid and shook the white pill-like spheres. Some clarity left in my mind stopped me from taking the lot, however, I poured out four into my palm and crunched madly. The taste of mint swept over my mouth, and with it came a wash of lucidity.

Mint-Als. The drugs that sweep your mind of all the clutter, tidy it into all the proper places and leave a sprig of mint in its wake to let you think clearer. Like all drugs, over-using and overdosing them were dangerous but I ignored the warning labels and the cautioning bong from my PipBuck. Instead, I focused on what was important. I concentrated on Molasses.

The sound of running water filled my ears. The images of the fish streams around the greenhouses came to mind. The water for those had to come from somewhere, so I moved out of my dismal spot and pushed myself over to the grate, examining it. The water was flowing calmly below, definitely traveling under the doors into Hydroponics. I clicked on the light of my PipBuck and gasped out my relieved thanks as I saw the fish from the ponds swimming in the waters below. My delight was further rewarded when I grabbed the metal grate and found it lifted with a bit of effort, not locked down.

I swung the gate fully open, gulped as much air as my lungs could carry and dropped in, the harsh kiss of cold water swallowing me. Thankfully, I fit in the canal and blinking ahead, its shape seemed consistent. Even with the glow of my PipBuck, the channel was dark but a promising shaft of light flicked ahead. The only problem was, I had not had that many chances to swim! You couldn’t find a lot of pools or lakes that weren’t irradiated in Equestria and even if you could, griffons weren’t made to swim. Regardless, I didn’t have the time to learn, and as the fish brushed curiously and uncomfortably against me, I used my legs and wings to propel me to the exit.

Even then, I wasn’t going fast enough. Each time I lifted my head to look towards the end of the tunnel, it still seemed to be miles away. Bubbles popped from the nostrils on top of my beak until my chest started to complain from the lack of oxygen. I opened my mouth to breathe and was forced to drink a liter of the stream for my error. My body was punishing me, my mind was clouding up once more, and the fear of dying here started to creep in.

Attacking the walls with my claws to pull me along, I found something cylindrical and solid. A pipe led all the way ahead as my lifeline! I grabbed it and pulled myself along, like climbing sideways, my throat and breast aflame. I had no air left, I was fueled by Mint-Als and the need to reach Mole before my heart stopped.

Yet, as though I jumped through a portal, the ceiling above me was suddenly no more and a welcome illumination lit the surface above me. I flapped and punted my way to the top, and broke through the film into the huge cavern of glasshouses, gasping to refill my water-logged lungs with oxygen. I heaved myself out of the stream onto a concrete path and panted sharply, checking my PipBuck. My eyes stung, I had to rub the water out of them with an agonized leg as I looked at the time. I was within the last minute, probably less and had no time to get through the Hydroponic fields and the Acquisition of Sciences building in time to save Mole.

Fortunately, Mint-Als were still on my side, not only boosting my mental capacity but my confidence as well. For the first time in years, flying was not the most troubling thought on my mind and in a flash, I had shaken out the water from my oiled feathers then taken off. I climbed over the tops of the greenhouses but kept to the few shadowed areas of the cavern wall, trying to avoid anypony below who might see me. Sure enough, I hadn’t misjudged Procrustean’s cunning, as I spied two guards loitering at the back entrance to the StableTec Science building where Mole and I had shared a smooch. Neither had spotted me as I followed the wall around and up, not once daunted by the height.

I reached the windows of the top-level with seconds to spare and pushed my face onto one to see inside the tiny gaps. I could see inside the main room, where a hoard of scientists were all facing the direction of the Ascension Room. I could hear a sole singer, my breathless wheezing catching in me as I heard Molasses’ voice.

“... I found out,

that I am not on a single track.

My journey,

Is more than a fade to black...”

Swinging from window to window, I discovered the portholes stopped before the next room and nearly swore out loud.

No. I couldn’t get this close only to lose her completely. There had to be another way. I urged my wings to carry me around the top of the building, ignoring how they felt broken and useless once more. There were no side windows into the Ascension Room and not a single stairway or door that would let me in. Not willing to give up, I took myself a bit higher, until I nearly hit the ceiling of the cavern, then dropped onto the dusty, moist roof.

Ahead of me, a pyramid-style skylight and an access doorway off and on to the roof. I whizzed across to the glass roof first, finding a bird's eye view of the top floor. Although not above it, I could now see into the Ascension Rooms. A small crowd had gathered, miraculously including the Candy siblings, all watching an Ascension Chamber. Inside it, on a chair, alone, sat my mare. For a second, I felt relieved to see her unharmed.

“Love will hurt, and love will be kind,

It can open eyes, and it can blind,

I fought to win love, and that is how,

I discovered I know nothing about love now.”

To my horror, I realized that Molasses had come to the end of her ascension song. It was now, or never.

But when I turned to try the door, I wished I hadn’t stopped to look through the window. I pushed the handle and it jarred, not moving an inch.

“No…”

I fumbled for a bobby pin and my screwdriver, dropping one then the other in my shivering hands.

“No, no, come on you stupid bitch!” I pushed the pin in the lock, nudged the screwdriver through, and wiggled them. Muffled by the glass, I heard Overlook call out to my imprisoned pony.

“May you be with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna soon, Molasses Candy.”

“No!” I squawked and pushed at the pin hard to get a reaction. I got one.

The bobby pin snapped in the lock.

“NOOO!”

From the Ascension Rooms below, I could hear the machines starting up. A whirring, whistling, whining drone grew louder and louder, making the entire roof vibrate. I twisted and leaped across to the window, throwing my weight on it, hoping it would shatter. It didn’t even buckle.

In the room, I saw ponies shielding their eyes as Mole’s chamber lit up with electric blue light. Inside, her head was held high, her eyes were closed and yet the tears on her cheeks were illuminated by the flashing lights.

“NOOO! NO! NO! NOOOOO YOU BASTARDS! STOP!” I screamed, pounding the glass, scoring my claws over it. All my efforts were in vain, I failed to create the smallest crack and the pulsating sound was so loud that not one pony noticed me screeching down obscenities at them.

It was just as Molasses had described to me. The runes on the floor around her were bright with powerful magic. Showers of sparks erupted all around her. I watched her swallow her nerves one last time, waiting for the moment it would all end.

In the tearful blink of an eye, she was no longer flesh and fur. Every single atom of her body became a white, sparkling light, and those lights exploded into more lights until nothing resembled the filly I loved more than anything else in my life. I might have cried, in fact, I am certain I did, as I watched the fireflies that were once my pony dance in the jar for the enraptured audience bathed in their glow. The last essence of my love twinkled for a second before the stars were caught by a vacuum, the specks shooting up through the cone and up. Helplessly, I watched Mole’s lights whisk up the clear pipe before me, through the roof and woosh up towards the ceiling.

She flew high, her illumination nearly brighter than all of Hydroponics. Before too long, her beam went out, and that was it.

She was gone.

In the Ascension Room, ponies began to sing. Her siblings did not show any remorse, Maud still looked emotionless, Bubble was even laughing. Unable to look at them anymore, I rolled onto my back against the glass, covered my face with my wings and choked on the tears spilling out of me.

I’d lost her. I’d been so close, but not fast enough. Not smart enough. Not strong enough.

This was my punishment, I decided. I’d hurt so many and it had caught up with me. I would have to live every day for the rest of my life knowing I could not save Molasses. My heart of pure gold. My claws clenched, my own heart felt cracked and splintered, I wanted to scream…

“Crow?”

It took me a while to let my wings lower and my glazed eyes look across the rooftop at Big Lum. The changeling’s pony form was dressed up as a scientist, but he still looked like a superhero attempting a bad disguise as a normal pony citizen. His face was forlorn, his eyes downcast as he trod from the door he’d managed to open, across to me.

“They did it, Lum,” I muttered, not caring that my headband was slipping over my eyes. “she’s gone. She’s really--”

“Crow. Stop. That wasn’t Mola--” For some reason, the hope he was about to impart got stuck in his throat. He bit his bottom lip so hard that I could see the blood drain, looking up at the small hole the clear Ascension pipe led through in the rock. I had stopped crying and was now sitting up on the glass, giving him my full attention.

“What was that you just said?” I asked, not sure whether to believe my hearing. He composed himself and looked me straight in the eye.

“That was not Molasses. She’s safe. I need to take you to her but you have to comply with me.” He wasn’t lying. I wasn’t sure how I knew at that point, all I knew was that Lumbah might have been one of the few ponies left I could trust. I had hung out with liars, cheats, and thieves my whole life, and this stallion wasn’t one of them.

“If not her, then who?” I queried softly, climbing off of the glass to avoid exposing myself if I hadn’t been caught already, walking towards him. “Who made that sacrifice in her place?”

Lumbah regarded me with a deeply lonely expression and let a blast of heatless flame change him from a mild-mannered science pony into the body of a female pony I knew well. She might have worn a bone for a cutie mark, and the scientist’s clothing might have been replaced by a guard’s uniform, yet the despondent expression on their face gave them away. It was still Lum, disguised as Officer Bones. He couldn’t pull off his partner’s gruff demeanor even if he tried.

He didn’t have to tell me another thing. I could see there and then who had taken Molasses’ place. I thought fate had been cruel to me, but it had been crueler to Big Lum because now he was forced to disguise himself as the pony he had loved and lost. Antennae, for all her faults, had been better than I could have ever hoped to be and Lumbah was suffering for it.

I should have reached out, but knowing Mole was still here made me anxious to see her. He was aware of this, as he managed a weak smile and dropped his helmet visor.

“Follow behind me, act as though I am escorting you out of the building, and don’t speak to anyone. Got it?” He turned before I could agree and led the way off of the rooftop into the Sciences building.

The journey out had been mostly undramatic. Lum, as Bones, led me through a stairway I hadn’t known about. It avoided most of the commotion from the ascensions. Unfortunately, as we got into the white lobby, an annoyingly pink stallion was lollygagging about the exit with a smoke.

“Oh, hey, it’s the bird!” he cheered as we marched past, scampering down the stairs beside us. “What are you going to do now my sis is gone, huh, huh? Guess you’ll need to find a new friend! Good luck with that!” He stood on the curbstone, waiting for my retort and I grit my beak. Somehow, I managed not to break his nose. Somehow, he managed to rub Lum up the wrong way instead.

What Bubble Candy saw next was Officer Bones wheel around on her heels, storm past me and produce her baton, raising it above her head. The colt squealed like a stuffed pig and fell over the step, losing his smoke in the process. She stopped short of him, snorting and snarling as he cowered beneath her. Then, moving only her head down to him, she uttered a few very simple words.

“I hope the rest of your life is more pleasant than you are, Master Candy.” She threatened him with a shake of the baton one more time, before returning it to her holster and returning dominantly to me. “Come, Crow.” I didn’t need telling twice and followed quickly with my tail between my legs, briefly glancing back. The Candy boy had made a wet puddle on the pavement and wasn’t daring to move until we were at least out of sight.

“That was bloody brilliant, lad,” I muttered, “but are you alright?”

“Little shit had it coming,” Lumbah grumbled darkly, turning us into a brickwork corridor that led us to another supposed dead end with a sewer cover within the cobbles. He lifted a hatch that led to the sewers and let me go first, waiting until I’d completed the climb down before he came in after me. Once the cover was shut above us, he restored his true changeling form and took to wing, giving a silent nod onwards.

For almost a quarter of an hour, we followed the winding drainage tunnels, the dampness from my previous swim still chilling me under my Stable suit and fur. I kept conversation to a minimum, I didn’t know what to say and I was too anxious to see Mole, hold her tight, never let her go. The sewer lanes soon looked more familiar and not too much longer after I had noticed that, he ushered me into the briefing room for our band of outlaws. However, it was unoccupied and the passageway to the catacombs where the changelings lived beneath the Stable was open wide.

“Through here?” I inquired cautiously, reminding myself to be respectful. Lumbah nodded once, keeping shtum. With a soft gulp, I stepped through the gateway carefully and followed the short passageway into the huge hive for the hidden race.

As I walked onto the ledge, changelings whipped by from cave to cave, some carrying goods, some wearing Stable suits, some wearing nothing at all. A few regarded me suspiciously, others smiled and one even gave a cheery wave. I looked about the cave system between the pillars and squinted in the low light, before shrugging to Lumbah to show I still hadn’t a clue how to find my mare. He left the ledge and hovered, pointing straight down.

“Ground level. Fly down with me and I’ll show you.” I heard his words, I looked down, and I scrambled back from the edge in fright. The Mint-Als had already worn off, even after a triple dose and while I was already feeling the craving for more, I’d also lost my confidence to fly higher than a gnat’s fart.

“I-I’ll meet you down there. My wings are tired, laddie, I-I need to walk it off for a wee while.” He cocked his brow at me but gave an understanding nod and buzzed off, declining to the ground so easily that I envied his ability.

What followed was another half an hour of me crawling, inching, tiptoeing along the narrow winding paths down. I was cursing the changelings who had made these yet not invented a banister, while some of the flying bugs stopped to look and chuckle at me. At one point, three of their wild and untamed children thought it would be funny to whirl about my head until I nearly lost my balance. I had to crouch to feel safe and an adult gave the terrible trio a scolding for teasing me, urging them to apologize, which they did, before whizzing away giggling in a manner that suggested they were not as sorry as they had claimed.

Finally, I reached terra firma once more and short of kissing and worshipping it, I breathed out an eased sigh and looked about for Lum. On the ground level was a small village, almost similar to the one I’d grown up in but far more quaint and with less vegetation. The buildings had been put together with the remains of what they could find, including old tools, discarded metallic waste, and broken rocks. They’d managed to create the basic essentials every village needed with these, including a general store, a sheriff’s office, food vendors and a medical center.

I moved through their village, changelings landing all around me, as I glanced from temporary building to temporary building seeking out the muscular Tunnel Bug. I called out his name twice, without response, and frowned in discomposure at being in unfamiliar territory without a guide. My discomfort was short-lived, however, when I heard my nickname called out from behind me.

“Captain?” I very nearly did not turn around, in case I had misheard, or some changeling had said it unwittingly, or I was being cruelly harassed by one of them. I couldn’t face away forever though. When I heard my nickname repeated I spun to face the speaker, breaking down the moment I saw her beautiful pea-green eyes and her pretty worried expression. Despite everything I’d put my body through that day, I ran, and so did she, and we collided in the middle, clinging to one another in an unspoken vow that we would never let go again.

“I thought I’d lost you, Moley,” I sniffled, stroking her mane as strongly as I dared and trying not to drown her by weeping on her. The little brown fuzzball snuggled fiercely against my shoulder. She blinked droplets from her own eyes as she looked up at me once more.

“You nearly did.” She looked around at the people of the Under-Stable around us and then back to me. “They’re changelings, Captain—”

“I know, Moley—”

“But they can change, and Antennae, she changed into me, and now she’s been ascended and—”

“Moley,” I repeated, firmly, “I know.” I clutched her to my breast, clucking tenderly to her, and lifted my head to the changelings gathering around us. Out from between them, Lumbah revealed himself, with Pons following him, and behind them, Gypsy Breeze. The last time I’d seen her, I’d wanted to hit her. Now, I was too discombobulated and exhausted to fight her, even if I wanted to.

She moved in beside the stallions and stood her ground, glancing at the filly I was refusing to let go of. Her eyes regarded her carefully, almost with tender, fond kindness, but when she spoke, she spoke to me.

“I’m sorry for the fights and for using magic on you, Crow. I didn’t want to, but you were going to ruin our plan.” She sighed hard and lowered her head, shaking it gloomily.

“We were never going to let her be ascended, Crow. We needed somepony to be our eyes and ears up there and the Tunnel Bugs knew from the patterns of the Ascension Battles who were likely to be ascended. Antennae knew the risks as well, I didn’t ask her to sign up to the plan, she did so before I had even thought of the idea.” She stopped and turned to look to Lumbah, reaching her hoof out to his back as she saw the hurt in his expression.

“Molasses will stay with us now,” Pons spoke up, promising me as he looked around at his fellow Villagers. “We’re going to look out for her. She’s a Tunnel Bug, she’s one of us.” Many heads nodded strongly as Molasses turned about in my hold, gazing around at all of them. She settled her sights on Lumbah, then ducked under my arms, escaping from me so easily as she trotted towards the muted bereaved changeling. I followed behind her quickly, not wanting her to get too far away from me, but she didn’t wait for me until she got to him. Instantly, she embraced him compassionately, which surprised him somewhat, but he accepted it and cuddled her back.

“We’re going to get her back, Lummy,” she told him, having to stand on the tip of her hooves to hold his cheeks while touching her nose on his. “We’re gonna find a way to get to Antennae and save her from all the bad stuff. I promise.”

“Aye,” I included feebly, “we are.” Although it was Mole’s sentiment, Lumbah smiled thankfully at both of us, giving Mole a squeeze.

“Thank you,” he muttered softly, before lifting his head to the ceiling and pulling back his emotions. As I reached out to touch his shoulder and offer my own condolences, a soft hum began. It started with one changeling, then the next, and followed through the rest of the villagers until everybody was holding a single note. As they did, each creature glowed with a small, gentle radiance, the last to do so being Lum himself.

Understanding what was happening, he lowered his head and opened his mouth, the note forming words, creating a song. He sang, and his fellow changelings sang with him, Gypsy, Molasses and I joining in when we each realized it was a song we knew.

We were all feeding Big Lum our love to fix his woes the only way these changelings knew how.

Together, we all sang for the loss of Antennae and her safe return. As a community, we sang to heal Lumbah and his shattered heart. As a lover, I sang for the glad return of my pony. As a griffon, I sang knowing that things were not going to be the same again.

I was going to make sure of it.

Footnote: Quest Completed - A Star is Born
Quest Perk added - Feel the Need - Items are +10% easier to locate now

Quest Failed - A Pox On You And I
Quest Penalty - Poxy will trust you 20% less from now on

Quest Begun - Acquiring Science
Quest Completed - Acquiring Science
Quest Perk added - Magical ponies in your party will have +10% stronger magical attacks

Quest Completed - Bitch Snitch
Quest Penalty - Whiskey will trust you 10% less from now on

Quest Begun - Stop The Ascension
Quest Failed - Stop The Ascension
Quest Penalty - Lumbah will be +10 more cautious in future missions

Antennae (Bones) has left the team.

Quest Begun - True Love Ways
Quest Completed - True Love Ways
Quest Perk added - Smarter Now - Crafting Medical items becomes +5% easier.

Quest Begun - Ascend, Crow
Quest Begun - Under-Stable

Level Up!
One Mare's Loss... - 1+ to Charisma

Level Up!
Lab Crow - 1+ to Awareness

Author's Notes:

Music for this chapter; True Love Ways - Buddy Holly · The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Click here to listen to it!

Huge thanks to my brother, Synesisbassist, who helped me figure out how to wrap up this chapter. For a long time, I was stuck on how to get Crow, Mole, and Gypsy in the right places for the big finale, but he helped me work out the right direction and even wrote some of the dialogue you see coming from Procrustean up there. He really is a great writer, click here to find his stories.

Quick thanks to Salty Alty (Link!) and Official Fallout Equestria (Link!) for editing.

The 'First Ascension' story might be one of the longest parts I've written but all of this is proving essential to the plot. Part six will be the final part of the 'First Ascension' story. There's a lot to unpack in this chapter so if you want to read and then discuss it, come to my Discord! https://discord.gg/cQkyDSN

Also, if you're enjoying it or you want to put your thoughts across, please share your ideas, comments, and horse noises below!

As always, thanks for reading and I'll catch you in chapter thirty-two!

All good things,
Scar

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