---

The scent of dew on leaves and blades of grass pervades the cool breeze billowing our manes like hoisted flags. The air of summer tickles my coat and supple skin, making my eyes squint as the sun assaults my vision. Night Light’s mane was billowing just as violently past mine, sitting in her buckled seat while leaning into me for comfort.

The chariot ride towards Canterlot was uneventful save for this small minute thought. Everything in time slowed down despite how fast we were going. We were just low enough below the cloud cover that the sun couldn’t warm us. The Pegasus River stretches from Canterlot to the edges of Las Pegasus, serving as a waypoint on where to go as the hanging city cloaked behind cloud cover.

Neither me, Night Light, nor our chauffeurs said a word along the way thus far. We had to be close by now. We had flown past the last vestiges of the Everfree Forest, and the clouds were starting to part from one another at greater distances. Soon, a giant patch of burnishing blue and grandiose gold from Celestia’s morning sky revealed the mountain ranges just beyond our sight.

Hanging from the edges of these majestic peaks with its ancient foundations embedded into the earth was Canterlot once more, still as affluent and profuse as I remember. Amber and violet-hued domes—some of which blended concurrently like a smoothie—crowned the tops of the many towers looming over the skyline. Its pristine streets of smoothly cut colored Marble and Granite.

Foundations of buildings elevated into four separate levels, the lower of which contained the majority of the population housed in. The higher echelons of the foundations hosted far fewer buildings. Until it eventually stopped at the Royal Palace of the Princesses.

Some of the blocks in the lower quadrants were still under heavy construction. A reminder of the damage it had suffered during The Great War.

I can’t remember where I heard this from. I distinctly remember a Canterlonian saying: ‘The higher up one goes in its levels, the more expensive but enriching the experience becomes.’

The Chariot began to slow down as it approached the first level of the foundations. Even from up high, I can still see where we were going. Our destination still stood out from the rest of the beautiful city like an ugly blemish.

That damn charcoal-colored pyramid still stood over the rest of its neighboring buildings with ease, many ponies venturing far away from it except those who worked there. Greeting us was an empty street in front of the main entrance that the chariot descended gingerly into. The wheels landed with a soft ‘thud’ as they came to a grinding halt in front of S.M.I.L.E. Agency.

I sighed, releasing a breath I never realized I was holding.

“... Are you gonna be okay?” I asked Night Lighty softly, leaning into her.

“I should ask you that. You got punched last time.”

“I promise to play nice. I won’t do anything stupid.” I reassured her. Her eyes lock on me for a few seconds before sighing, her gaze dropping as low as her ears.

“Okay then. Let’s go.”

The suited ponies pulling the chariots waited for us to disembark, looking behind their backs wordlessly as they watched us getting out. As we got out, they soon nodded to each other before taking off forward again in a quick ascension.

“... They’re not escorting us?” I asked aloud in confusion.

“Guess not,” Night Light speaks from my left, my eyes still trained on the chariot disappearing from view. “But she might.”

Her tense words forced my gaze to look down, and I felt my blood run cold.

Bon Bon was advancing towards me with a deep scowl, her lips sealed with eyes narrowed. Behind her were two suited ponies with black square-rimmed glasses covering their eyes.

They carried an aura of diligence and capability to them, ones that are not to be trifled with. And Bon Bon looked like she was just barely containing her fury at me.

I chose to stay quiet. Night Light opted the same, Bon Bon getting closer with each step.

She eventually stops just a meter in front of my face. I could hear her methodical breathing through the nostrils as her acrid stare chilled my soul.

For a few long, dreadful seconds of total silence, she was content to stare into my eyes and search within the inner crevices of my mind for any intrigue, discontent, and ulterior motives.

She found only a tired stare, unwilling to be scared anymore.

After all, her stare was nothing compared to the fear of what we were trying to prevent.

“... Follow me. Both of you.” She spoke slowly and with stern authority in her tone.

Something in my synapses flares up at those words. My limbs move without resistance.

Me and Night Light trot behind as she twisted around and marched back towards the pyramid. The agents flanking her trotted slowly behind, losing their pace just enough to get behind me and Night Light.

Another sensation of the neurons snapped, screaming at me.

Something isn’t right.

I gazed over at Night Light from the corner of my eyes, seeing her marching alongside me in a matching cadence. She looked more than anxious; she was downright terrified.

She felt it, too.

Both of us were unable to resist. It was something in the way she stood, the way she stared, the way she spoke. It was as if our brains had no choice but to obey.

She wasn’t just an interrogator. She was a veteran.

But not from The Great War, oddly enough.

A veteran of a different light

We marched past the front gate, Bon Bon waving a badge at the guard in the booth as the latter waved us in. As we trotted past the barbed wire fences surrounding the prism-like structure, the brain screamed at me again.

Something isn’t right.

“... Is, uh,” I gently spoke up, carefully choosing my choice and tone of words, “Is… everything okay?”

No response. No flinch. No twist in the neck. No passing acknowledgment of my words.

Soon, we were at the front doors leading inside the building, which had opened after Bon Bon once again brandished her ID Card.

Showing it to the security window off to the side, the guard inside also nods as the doors open to the sides with a smooth ‘swoosh.’

Inside was an airlock compartment that led to another pair of doors. Upon stepping inside, the doors behind us closed automatically. The air felt stiff here as if the atmosphere had gotten thicker.

Bon Bon stared blankly ahead. Her voice finally slips with a singular, atonal command.

“Now.”

THWACK!

A cry of pain escapes my lips, following a heavy strike to the side of my head. I could see stars and blinking lights as I felt my body collapse to the ground in a heavy thud.

Thwack!

I heard another cry, from a familiar voice above me as I felt the floor tremble a little from another impact. I felt limbs poking and prodding and another momentous weight shoving me down further into the floor.

I can’t see. My eyes ache in cadence to the headache-hurting too much to open.

I can’t remember what happened, apart from the sensation of limbs dragging me off the floor.

---

My heavy eyelids lift themselves, but I strangely feel no sensation on my hooves as I try to stand up. Sensations are drowning in a half-dream.

The body has no command. I only remember craning my neck up. It’s hard to see. I can’t tell what is going on.

A bright light shines from a hole in a wall, the sky illuminating the interior. The visions carry a forgotten memory.

I can only hear a horrid screeching sound, along with metal rupturing and tearing apart.

I was surrounded—by rusted metal walls. One of which was blown open from something. I don’t know what caused it, but I feel like I should.

I crane my head further upward. Sickly green energy is glowing above my head. I soon realized the same one from my dreams.

I can’t help but feel an overwhelming premonition of fear blanket me, paralyzing me.

My eyes lock into the center. The energy burning within grows darker in the center, expanding its borders with volatile luminosity. But the core is absent of light.

I see death. I see death befalling millions.

I saw the death of cities.

I saw the death of countries.

I saw the death of worlds.

I saw the death of everything.

And it stares.

Eternity trembles back at me.

As if in fear.

It wants to speak.

Words failed to form.

But images manifest in front of me, embedded into this malevolent canvas of unbridled energy like a woven tapestry.

Like patterns on a quilt, weaving through its seams to form a mural. Shapes began to change into images before my eyes.

Images of obelisks of glass and steel stretching into the heavens, perforations of grids overlapping grids, streets crossing streets.

A concrete jungle stretching on a seemingly endless horizon.

Then, it is gone.

A bright light encompasses them.

The monuments of civilization sunder into disintegrated atoms, a shockwave pulverizing the rubble that remained.

The brightness forces me to close my eyes. It’s as if someone is shining a lamp on my face.

Sensations are returning to me. The light is dimming to a cold pale.

I can only remember my mouth speaking before it all disappeared, but no sound came out of it.

Yet the word burns with a searing brand in my frontal cortex, screaming at me with an urge to remember.

Manehattan.

---

SPLASH!

“GAAGH—Ptft, sptfh Pfuaagh! F-FUCK!”

Ice-cold water splashes across my body, assaulting my nerve endings in freezing fire.

Nails are piercing and corroding my brain within the skull. I lift a hoof to pry them out, only to realize I cannot move any of them.

The piercing migraine behind my eyes makes it hard to process what just happened.

My body is shivering intensely from the cold and is somewhat in shock. I blink several times to remove the stinging liquid from my eyes and see a dull grey room with a lamp shining on my face.

Slosh!

“Ayiahagh—HACK! Hugkh!”

More of it dribbles down my arms and torso as collateral damage from the secondary onslaught next to me. My eyes drift to my right to see Night Light; bound, drenched, coughing, and shaking furiously with her wet bangs concealing her face.

That was when I noticed I, too, was bound.

This time, all four appendages bind each other together in an elaborate web of cuffs. Painfully so, squeezing them over one another to avoid escape.

My vision returns. Me and Night Light are bound together side-by-side in a different interrogation room.

Here? It was pitch black, save for the very narrow beam of light shining down on only me and Night Light from a Lamp sitting on the table in front of us. My eyes scrunch painfully at its light, the brightness too much for them to handle.

I cannot see who else is in the room with me. Looking around only yielded darkness. Looking ahead punished me with a torrent of light against my burning pupils.

The sensory overload was too much.

Between the morning fatigue, the dread of what’s to come later in the day, the migraine from the ambush, the shivers from the assault of water on my body, and the burning of the eyes from the blinding light.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!” I screamed with a tenacity that I didn’t know I still had within. The demand bellows out, but I hear no reverberation of the echo. It was as if the entire room was in a vacuum, completely void of noise.

Thump!

I feel a hoof from the darkness strike me just below my solar plexus, leaving me dazed, gasping for breath, and nauseous in the stomach. The pain was making my head swim.

“No, stop!” Night Light cries beside me, “Stop hurting her, please!”

“Fine,” I hear a cold feminine voice acknowledge her with indifference.

Ckoom!

“Gahgh!”

Tckoom!

“Hugh—Ugh-... HUEURAGH!”

Hearing Night Light vomit next to me drove me to action. I inhaled deeply, tears streaming from my eyes at the pain as I struggled to breathe oxygen in my system.

As the first gasps of fresh air trudged down the pipe into my lungs, a few words stumbled out my mouth in reflex.

“Fucking… Kill you…”

“Shut up!”

Thwack!

Another slam to the side of my torso knocked me off the chair, a searing blanket of pain covering my waist.

“Sit them back up!”

Hooves from the darkness hook beneath my body and hoist me up on the seat facing the lamp, my tortured body still unable to combat what is truly happening.

It feels like I am in Tartarus. Being punished for my past crimes.

A sudden reprieve from the onslaught allowed my hearing to somewhat return. It still couldn’t shake over this… vacuum. Whatever kind of room we were in, it was one designed specifically to overwhelm the senses.

Or, at the very least, it was maybe designed to block out the screams of the tortured?

The latter was what my mind was going for at the moment.

I hear Night Light’s ragged breathing return to a somewhat normal pace as she too was lifted onto her seat. Soon both of us were panting, freezing, in pain, dazed, confused, and goddesses knew what else. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out I was suddenly poisoned.

I try to scrunch my eyes ahead at the bright lamp shining on my face. The pupils have somewhat adjusted to the sudden onslaught at this point and have assessed two certain facts that I can see.

Bon Bon is sitting in front of me, and she is not alone.

Standing beside her on both sides were probably the same agents that escorted and ambushed us inside the main airlock. Memories of what had transpired are all returning to me, and a cold wave of rage seethed in me.

It was tempered by the very sudden, and very real threat of retaliation if I tried to say anything. My lips sealed themselves shut.

I look over at Night Light, who was also gazing at me. Both of us made eye contact for a brief moment until we heard Bon Bon clear her throat ahead of us. Both of us instinctively gazed forward.

“Alright. Listen to me very carefully. Because I am not going to repeat myself. My friends here don’t know you two like I do, so they are kindly giving you one last chance.”

She spoke in a completely different manner than she did yesterday. Whereas she was aggressive but somewhat forgiving she was now seemingly cold-hearted and impassable. A stone-walled facade of disciplined hyper-aggression, slowly stalking their prey until they pounce with killer intent.

I remember the scowl on her features when she first approached us. How she sized us up. If I were to see the eyes now, I would expect them to carry a murderous look.

“You two are not going to speak until I say you are allowed. If you speak when you are not allowed to speak, I am going to hurt you badly.”

No reply. Me and Night Light stared ahead with shivering bodies and shaky breaths.

“You two are going to be asked some simple fucking questions that I want some simple fucking answers to. If you do not give me simple answers, I am going to hurt you badly.”

My brow furrows slightly. But still no reply from either of us.

“If you two try to lie to me, or deceive me, or trick me, or stall for time, or try any kind of stupid bullshit with me… What is going to happen, Sunshine?”

“... You are going to hurt me.” I quietly repeated.

“I am going to hurt you what? I am expecting precision here, Sunshine.”

“... Badly. You are going to hurt me badly.”

“That is right,” Bon Bon drones along, “Now Night Light, if you don’t give me what I want, or if you speak when not allowed, or if you step out of line in any way… What is going to happen?”

“Y-you are going to hurt me. Badly.” Night Light stutters, quickly catching on.

“That is right,” Bon Bon affirms in an almost sing-song voice. “Now that we are all on the same page here,” She stands up from the chair.

A portion of her hooves is seen in the light as she uses them to support her weight on the table, but her face hides behind a cowl of darkness.

“You two have a lot of fucking explaining to do.”

No response. My brow furrowed deeper to cover my vision from the light.

“Night Light,” Bon Bon’s gaze locks onto the former, “you in particular need to step up your game. From what I am hearing from Grim Hooves, you are slowgoing and inconsistent with your story thus far.”

My eyes stretched to the right, seeing Night Light tight-lipped and breathing at a haggard pace. Still dripping and shivering from the assault of ice-cold water.

“I bet you are probably wondering where Grim Hooves is right now, don’t you?” She asks directly. Night Light nodded mutely.

“I-I am more so wondering why we are locked up in a box.” she stutters.

“Well, because he did a little research on you. Research based on what you told him. And you know what he told me after he was done comparing your notes, Night Light?”

Again, no words but rather vigorous shaking of the head.

“He told me that you were either a liar or a traitor.”

Silence.

My eyes were piercing through the side of Bon Bon’s temple, the latter paying me no mind as she was conducting a killer stare of her own against Night Light.

“So tell it to me straight: Are you nothing but a liar? Or are you a traitor?”

They then dart back to the latter revealing her sitting stock still, face unmoving, and features paralyzed in fear.

I wanted to scream. To lunge at Bon Bon’s throat in instinct.

My mind screamed at me in defiance.

You know you can’t. And even if you could, what good would it do anyway?

I ground my teeth together, waiting with bated breath as Night Light swallowed a tick chunk of saliva.

“I… I don’t know what you mean.” Night Light finally spoke, voice level and atonal.

SLAM!

Hooves slam the table from the darkness, instantly startling both me and Night Light as we jumped in our seats.

The lack of reverberation and light in the room had failed to dull the impact of it. My hock joints clashed violently with the metal underside of the table as they jolted up. Wincing and struggling to move, I found myself in even more pain than before without even taking a hit.

But the impact did not come from Bon Bon.

The force came from somepony lurking in the shadows, just outside of our view. Obscured by the cowl of primordial black surrounding us.

Bon Bon remained steel-faced, and unflinching in her resolve. Just as fast as the slam came, it disappeared into the dark.

It took us a few seconds to calm the racing hearts in our chests with fast, shallow breaths.

“Night Light,” she starts, “remember what I just told you,” finishing with cold intention.

It wasn’t a question. It was a threat.

“Now, I am going to ask again: Are you a liar, or a fucking traitor?”

The atmosphere was suffocating. Nopony dared to make a sound for what felt like an ephemeral eternity.

My head remains still, but my eyes lock onto the bangs concealing Night’s face. She remained just as petrified as I was, breathing through her nostrils slowly to calm herself.

Looking back at Bon Bon, she carried a facade of menacing calculation, tempered with impatience by the slow nature of the task at hoof.

A ticking time bomb chasing another ticking time bomb, both of which could explode at a moment’s notice.

Eyes drifting back to Night Light, they see her hanging her head ever so slowly. Her ears droop down to her temples as she finally whispers.

“... I am a coward.”

A block of ice sank into my stomach upon hearing those words.

“What was that?” Bon Bon presses.

“I am a coward.” She repeats, a little louder.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“It should.”

She speaks those two words with conviction. As if they were the most obvious puzzle pieces to put together. My heart flares up with sorrow and rage.

And put together the pieces, Bon Bon did. I could see her frown in the light, her gaze almost as dark as the shadows surrounding her. Almost.

“So you abandoned your comrades then. And you left them to die. And you admit to it by saying you are a coward?”

Silence. Night Light sags her head toward the table.

“Answer me.” Bon Bon commands.

I gave no effort to hide my curiosity anymore, twisting my head to see Night’s bangs cover the entirety of her face now.

“... Yes. I am a traitor, and I am a coward.”

Synapses flare.

“NO YOU ARE NOT!!” I screamed.

BLAM!

A Hoof knocks the wind out of me again, striking my stomach hard enough to send me toppling backward in the seat still tethered to it. My skull painfully connects to the concrete-like floor, the nails piercing my head from the migraine now searing it inside out.

I remember screaming. But I heard no sound from me. Only the sound of Night Light pleading.

Voices are muffled, though, it's hard to make everything out. I am hearing frantic shouting as well as tears being wailed. It feels like everything is underwater, and I am suffocating.

My lungs tried to breathe, but they could only feel a burning agony just below the diaphragm. My brain tries to grasp reality, but I am seeing darkness along with a swinging, dancing light.

Hooves hook underneath me, hoisting me up to sit back upright.

I felt a painful prick in the side of my neck, along with a warm numbing fluid being fed intravenously directly into the bloodstream. The skull, just seconds ago throbbing with the worst headache I could remember, now being coated in a soothing blanket of warmth and healing.

It felt almost euphoric.

Sensations are returning to me one by one. I could feel myself still tethered to a cold, stiff metal chair with my hooves tied together in front of my waist. I could see dark shapes in the shadows morph into coherent silhouettes, resembling familiar ponies. I could hear the wails of anguish from Night Light as she sobs with a plight of guilt and mercy.

“Please stop, please stop…” She mumbles to herself between choking gasps. Droplets of tears splash the table. Two hooves from the dark reach out and grab hold of her neck gently, injecting the same fluidic substance that they fed me.

As the needle is finished and disappears from the light, Night's sobbing slows to shallow breaths. Those then lost their fast pace and eventually devolved to slower, deeper breaths of calming relief.

From pain to sorrow, to calm, to slight euphoria. All in less than a minute.

My thoughts were getting groggy and strangely heavy, but they came through with a sudden clarity that I never acquired before. In a few flashing spasms of lights and images blurring about in my cortex, I could see a few repressed memories of my youth pass by.

Days of me kicking pebbles down the streets.

Days of me throwing rocks at lakes.

Days of me flying above clouds to see how high I could go before tiring.

They left as quickly as they arrived. Like a speeding train carrying cars of memories. The youth disappeared beyond the pale, down further the track is soared upon. Never to be seen again.

Vision returns to me, and I see Bon Bon sitting in front of us as both I and Night Light eventually calm down. The pain of the headache was still somewhat there, but I could at least think without struggling to.

Maybe that was the point? Some kind of truth serum?

“Feel better?” Bon Bon asks in a sing-song voice, mockingly as if she were a mother trying to coddle children.

“Wha… did you feed us?” Night Light slurred.

“Just some anesthetic. And a little concoction we created here at home, designed specifically to counter liars. Like you.”

The facade eventually broke down to a not-so-well-hidden wrath.

“But I am going to take your word for it Night Light. You are both a coward and a traitor, fine.” She rolls her eyes, “But what I want to know is how.”

“... How what?” She dared to ask.

“How were you able to stay in the game as long as you did? How were you able to do so despite all that you had done? How were you able to convince your squad that you were fit to lead? How were you able to stomach the fact that you left your comrades in arms to die to save your skin?”

Silence. Each accusation that was thrown at Night Light was met with no resistance, no counterclaim. Nothing but a surrendering acknowledgment.

I looked on in horror. Each of these were accusations and horrid misdeeds that I would have never associated with Night Light before. And all of them were met with no refusal.

It is true. All of it is true. And she could not be more ashamed of it all.

Tears started to pool in my eyes. I ached for her.

“And you,” her gaze then locks onto mine with a blighted tone.

“You are not exempt from blame either—Each time you stall, or distract us with semantics, or drone on and on about how you feel about everything—that is time that we have wasted when it could have been spent protecting Equestria. And I am done!”

She growls the last word as she starts to lean over me.

“I am done with you fucking around with this stupid petty bullshit. I am done with you trying to think you are above consequences. I am done with you playing this bullshit ploy of amnesia.”

She pauses for a breath, sinking her head for just a second before relocking eye contact.

“I know you told me yesterday that you would have told me where the bomb was by now, but here is the catch Sunshine,” She leans forward.

“I know you’ve been lying to us as well!”

Staring back in a defiant scowl, I spoke the next words through gritted teeth.

“Have I now?”

Bon Bon looks off to the side and gives one swift nod.

A hoof from the darkness once again reaches out. It took all the vestige of my strength left to not flinch at the sight of it.

But instead of striking us or the table again, it delivered a manilla folder that was packed with papers. It looked thick enough to contain a novel’s worth of words.

Without a sound, Bon Bon places the folder on the table and opens it to gingerly inspect its contents, a far cry compared to what she acted like just minutes ago. She was meticulous and deliberate in her movements, suddenly flipping through page after page.

She finally pulled a series of documents stapled together with black and white photography inside. Pulling open the first page reveals a small Polaroid picture.

She slides it towards me. As I leaned into the photograph to inspect it, Bon Bon began reading from the stapled stack.

“June 12th, 1014—You and your squad return from Hjortland after the raid to warn Canterlot of the upcoming attack it will suffer. You flew from Hjortland to Vanhoover, before catching a plane towards Las Pegasus.

“There, you were boarded on an express train to Canterlot that arrived just two days later. All and all, the entire journey from Olenia to Equestria took three days, with two left to spare.”

My eyes widened and my heart quickened its pace as I saw the contents of the photograph.

“There, you met and talked with Princess Celestia herself.”

In black and white, standing regal and tall, with majesty and grace in her posture. The flowing mane and tail are frozen in time in suspended remembrance. Her eyes were tired, staring ahead with sagging greyish bags that contrasted the foreground of her alabaster coat, betraying her fatigue and her resolve. But despite the toll she took, she still carried that same smile that she wore for her ponies to see.

It betrayed her as well. The smile was not what it used to be. She was not what she used to be.

I stared at the photo for a long while, while Bon Bon continued to read off the stapled stack before me.

“During this talk, you made sure that Celestia herself was aware of what was to come and gave her ample time to prepare for the upcoming attack. It was during these talks that she was finally familiar with your mission and what you are trying to do. And it is during these talks that she finally recognized you as ‘Heroes of Equestria,’ giving you each the “Royal Seal of Valorous Diligence.

“... And the attack never came.”

I looked up, brow arched.

“You wouldn’t know because you were transferred to Las Pegasus on a plane that afternoon on June 12th. As for why you were transferred there? I will get to that in due time.”

I frowned as she continued to flip through the stapled stack.

“Night Light,” she suddenly pivoted to a new target, “Based on what you told Grim Hooves yesterday, it is safe to assume that you and your ‘Garuda’ Squadron were the sole nemesis to both the Strigon Squadron and Aigaion. Am I to assume that is also a lie?”

Night was quiet for a while, before answering with a low voice. “... That is true, yes.”

“And am I to assume that these ‘Strigons’ were also present in Las Pegasus as well?” She pressed knowingly.

Again, there was hesitance before she answered. “... Yes.”

“Alongside the Aigaion?”

“Yes.”

“And you fled? Alongside with your wing ponies?”

No reply at that time. And no amount of hesitance would change her mind.

“... I was told to.”

“... You were… told… to retreat and abandon the airspace?” Bon Bon asked in jaded disbelief.

Again, no reply…

“That doesn’t matter, Night Light. You still abandoned your comrades. You abandoned several squadrons to fight for themselves as you fled away like cowards... As you said.”

“...”

“And you dare to say that somepony told you to do that?!” she asks with a poorly masked rage.

Night Light’s bangs concealed her face, but I could tell. She was doubtful of herself.

“... Like I said, Night Light, you are either a liar or a traitor. But now? I am starting to believe you might be both.”

No response. Night Light hangs her head in defeat.

My mind travels back to last night, listening to her tell me the story of her cheating death over Mead Lake. How she evaded everything thrown at her and miraculously made her way home.

But this? It was a complete contrast to that story in every way.

“... I am not a traitor.” Night Light suddenly speaks up.

“Come again?” Bon Bon challenges with a raised brow barely visible in the shadow.

“I am a coward, but I am not a traitor!” She speaks up louder, with indignance.

“I am sure you are, but the fact remains Night Light. You abandoned your-”

“I AM NOT A TRAITOR!”

The lack of echo in her scream diminishes its power somewhat. But the way she spoke the words left Bon Bon wordless for a few short moments.

“I fought for Equestria! Just like everypony else! I never stopped fighting for her! I never stopped trying to defend her! I never wanted to leave her behind!”

The outburst left Night Light panting, failing to compose her breathing as she awaited for swift punishment.

But nothing happened.

Bon Bon stared quietly at Night Light, both locking eye contact with one another for a long while.

“The fact remains.” Bon Bon answers coldly. Slowly. “You. Left.”

No response from Night.

“But… I admit, I am digressing.” She shakes her head. “Night Light’s… Cowardice,” she speaks in disgust, venom dripping from her tone. “It is not important.

“What is important is finding that bomb right here, today. No more Bullshit. And no more stalling.” She trades looks with both of us until she eventually stops at me.

“Sunshine. Let’s start with you, shall we?” She fakes a friendly tone. “Why don’t you start with your meeting with Princess Celestia? Remember as to why you were transferred to Las Pegasus afterward?”

“... I was ordered to. By Celestia.” I admitted in a quiet tone.

“Correct. We need to know why.”

I arch a brow once more. “Why not ask her, yourself?”

“Celestia doesn’t lay privy to S.M.I.L.E. asking her questions about the war. She is adamantly refusing to go into details about it, as of right now. And Luna was not present in this meeting as well, nor was any other Princess. So this task falls onto you, as the sole survivor of your squad you served with who was in that room at the time. She ordered you to go to Las Pegasus… Why?”

Here we go. You knew this would happen and there is no stopping it now. It’s time to confront your past once again.

I sighed.

“And I assume you want me to be short, direct, and get straight to the point?”

“You learn quickly.” Bon Bon spoke with a mocking reverence.

I look to my right. For once, Night Light’s Bangs were no longer concealing her features. Revealing a timid, but enraptured curiosity. Not too dissimilar from the curiosity she had from last night.

Except this time, I was going to tell her all my worst days. If not now, then sooner rather than later.

Words form in my head effortlessly, as if someone were whispering to me.

Time to remember why you forgot.

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