“So wait, just how far do we have to go to get to the changelings?” Rarity asked, clearly having second thoughts.

A guard laughed and said, “If I was to guess, probably 500 miles.” Rarity fainted at this, and I wondered how long it would take before she went insane with the amount of things we had to do that involved getting dirty.

“Wait a minute, that’s gonna take a couple of months!” Scootaloo said. “He’ll be able to fortify Equestria in that amount of time!”

“Yes, but it’s our only shot. If we stay, Equestria won’t have any hope when we get captured.” I explained. We had set up a small camp in the forest nearby, and Twilight had made a magical fire that couldn’t be seen unless you were within a hundred hooves.

“Dang, I think the last time I was out camping in the forest was when I went through selection.” Phalanx said. “And that time, I was praying to Celestia that I would be not found by the trainers.”

“Wait, what do you mean by ‘selection’?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“The Royal Guard is some of the best trained soldiers in Equestria. It takes a lot to get in.” Shining Armor said. “They use selection to see who’s really fit for the job.”

Phalanx nodded and frowned, giving a sigh. “Claymore, you were a darn good guard. It’s a shame you had to go so quickly.” He said. Phalanx turned to me, and said, “Here, take this.” He got out a book and tossed it to me. “Never got a chance to write in it, he’d want someone to use it.” The book felt a bit heavy, and I set it down.

“Say, what else is in that book, ‘The Power of the Cutie Mark’ of yours?” Shining Armor asked. I grabbed the book, and went past the introduction. Why hadn’t I done this before? A few diagrams showed the hometown of the fillies in the prophecy, us. I turned the page and I a glimpse of something about Rabil, but I was interrupted by Ditzy Doo crashing into the ground.

“Sorry!” She said. “I just don’t know what went wrong.”

“It’s fine Mom, everyone makes mistakes.” Dinky said.

“Thanks, little muffin.” She said, ruffling Dinky’s mane. My father walked up, and noticed the bow in my mane.

“That was your mother’s, I think.” He said, as he sat down. “It looks good on you.”

“Thanks.” I mumbled. “Ah just wish Ah knew why this all has to happen, Ah mean really, couldn’t have he just been sealed away forever?” I thought aloud.

“I’m sure we’ll find out in due time.” My father said.

Pinkie Pie bounced into the clearing and said “Dinner!” Everyone was hungry, including me, which I hadn’t realized. Phalanx dove into his meal, which earned a laugh from one of the guards.

“I’m sorry, I just haven’t had anything decent to eat, because I don’t think of those rations as meals.” He said, and Shining Armor chuckled.

“Just don’t get yourself choking, little colt.” Shining Armor joked, and Phalanx Spear glared at him.

“What do you mean by little colt?” I asked, my mouth speaking before my muscles could stop it.

One of the guards explained to me, “Phalanx Spear here is the youngest to ever serve in the Royal Guard. He’s just twelve.” That was surprising, he didn’t seem to look twelve. He looked older, yet I noticed the size of him compared to the other guards was somewhat smaller. Twelve, by the way, was the age in Equestria when you officially became an adult. I think I actually had turned eleven the day before, but I didn’t care.

“Wait, why would the guard recruit such a young earth pony?” My father asked, genuinely curious.

“Apparently I have some very good defensive skills, along with good strategic ability. For example, I saw a way that the pegasi could have taken Stalliongrad back in the days before Celestia.” Phalanx said.

“You’re kidding, right? Stalliongrad couldn’t have ever been taken, the defense was too strong.” My father said.

“If the pegasi had softened up the defense, then surrounded the city, they could have easily overtaken it.” Phalanx said, “The reason why they didn’t take the city was because they were too headstrong and wanted to fight immediately.” My father looked generally impressed. He turned to me and got on to another topic.

“Well, Apple Bloom, I just want to say this. I am really impressed by you and your friends, you’re eleven yet you haven’t gotten Cutie Marks yet. But the determination and friendship between you has made you refuse to give up. That I have not seen for a long time.” He said. While it did make me feel happy, it still was embarrassing, I was nearly an adult without a Cutie Mark. That didn’t happen often with ponies, and Diamond Tiara had been more than happy to tease me about it, along with teasing Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

“Hay, I got my Cutie Mark about three months before I turned twelve.” Phalanx said. “But then again, your Cutie Mark’s gonna be much more important.” He grinned as he said it.

“Well, I’m out. Probably we should get some rest before we get moving tomorrow.” Scootaloo said.

“You know, it would be more advantageous to move during the night, just saying.” Phalanx said. Shining Armor hooved him, and got up.

“Maybe sometime soon, Phalanx. If you’re so eager to do stuff during the night, I think you should take up sentry duty.” Shining Armor said, walking over to one of the tents. Phalanx sighed a bit, and sat down, watching the forest. I went into the tent where Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and I were staying, and Sweetie Belle was already asleep.

“You think we’re gonna actually be able tuh defeat this Rabil?” I asked Scootaloo.

“I don’t know, Apple Bloom. But right now I’m pretty tired.” She said as laid down. “See you in the morning.” I tried laying down and falling asleep, but my sleep offered no solace.

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My surroundings faded into view, and I immediately recognized it. It was Canterlot Castle, and it was dark, like it was the middle of the night, and no lights were on. I looked down and saw my own hooves, and I was strangely calm. Every instinct said to leave, but I decided to walk up the stairs to where the throne room was, and waiting there was Applejack and the others, and was that Celestia? A figure in the window talked, saying “Twists and turns are my master plan, then find the Elements back where you began.” It looked like the statue I had seen nearly a year ago in the gardens, Discord was it?

“What a fun essay that was.” I muttered, and all of the ponies stopped and turned to me as if they heard me...

“You... How dare you come here.” Rainbow Dash shouted, and I was confused. What had I done wrong? The doors slammed shut, and I started to get nervous, real nervous.

“Come on, Ah’m Apple Bloom, remember?” I said, trying to stop their gradual advance on me.

“Yeah, you’re the meanie who went and caused all this!” Pinkie Pie jabbed, her mane not its usual poofy self, but rather straight. What was happening?

“What did Ah cause?” I said, backing towards a window, I was prepared to smash it if need be.

“For one, I died because of you.” Celestia said, with a smile that did not look friendly.

“Angel died because of you!” Fluttershy said, with her normally shy face being replaced by one of hatred.

“Ah didn’t do anything!” I protested, they were maybe 15 hooves away now.

“You did everything wrong!” They all said in a deep voice, and I realized their eyes didn’t have pupils, and they looked bloodshot. I tried smashing the window, but it was as tough as a rock. As they slowly closed in, I started shouting.

“Help!” I exclaimed, but only an evil laugh replied to my pleas.

Just as they were about to get their hooves on me, a voice shouted “Apple Bloom, get up!”

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“Apple Bloom, snap out of it!” A voice shouted as my eyes jerked open. Phalanx was standing in the background, and Scootaloo looked worried, really worried. I noticed it was bright outside, and I hadn’t had a vision.

“What was happening Apple Bloom?” My father asked worriedly.

“Just a bad dream.” I said as I got on my hooves.

Scootaloo scoffed, “Bad dream, it sounded like a horrifying dream. You were shouting for help, and you wouldn’t get up.” I walked outside, and most of us were packing up the tents. Sweetie Belle was with Rarity talking about something, and a question dawned on me that I had been too nervous to ask for a long time.

“Scootaloo, how come we never see yer folks?” I asked her, and she looked immediately defensive.

“Well they - uh...” Scootaloo tried to explain, but I glared at her, and she sighed. “Look, I don’t know my parents. I’ve grown up in Ponyville never knowing them, for all I know, my mother could have been Derpy.” I was about to correct her on that, and decided it wasn’t worth it. “I mean, you guys are my family pretty much.” That was a hard hitter, yet I somehow wasn’t surprised.

“Well, Ah’m sorry Scoot.” I said, and she laughed a little.

“What are you sorry for? You didn’t do anything wrong, I mean I really don’t know what it’s like having parents, the only one here who can say what it’s like is Sweetie Belle.” Scootaloo said, and I realized her and I were alike in that regard.

“Apple Bloom, could you come help me take down this tent?” My father shouted over, and I walked over. As I helped him collapse it, he bluntly said something. “Apple Bloom, look I haven’t been there for most of your life, and I don’t think I’ve earned the privilege of you treating me as your father. You can look at me just as a fellow companion with this whole,” he searched for the right word, “ordeal.” I realized I had been thinking of him that way, and it didn’t seem to affect me that much. It seemed that affected Applejack and Big Macintosh a lot more though.

“Look, yer still mah Pa, and what better time to start than now, but Ah think you should talk to Applejack and Big Mac about this more than you should to me. They knew you, Ah really haven’t since a day ago.” As we finished packing the tent into a saddlebag, he sighed a bit.

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind, Apple Bloom.” He said and we walked to where everypony was gathering. Phalanx seemed to realize something and raced over to Twilight.

“Twilight, can’t Rabil just send a letter with a tracking spell to Spike?” He asked hurriedly.

“Don’t worry, I already have it taken care of. I actually blocked Spike from receiving any letters at all.” She replied, much to Phalanx’s relief.

“Is everythin’ ready to go?” I asked.

“I believe so, Apple Bloom.” Phalanx said, and turned to Shining Armor. “Captain, everything’s ready?” He asked for confirmation.

“Yeah, whenever you want to get going.” Shining Armor replied.

“Well then let’s get goin’, Rabil surely is takin; advantage of time.” I said, and we started heading towards where the map said the Changeling Jungle was. As we walked along through the forest, Twilight spoke up.

“You know, this reminds me of Star Swirl the Bearded’s poem, ‘The Land’s Heart’.” She said.

“Star Swirl the what now?” I asked.

“Star Swirl the Bearded, he was the inventor of anamorphic spell.” Twilight replied, expecting she was reminding me of something.

“Uh...” I said. Spike nudged her, and she seemed to forget about me not knowing about some unicorn who was apparently bearded.

“Anyways, the poem was written when he first came to Equestria, and it seems fitting.” She said, expecting once again for us to know. She huffed and said, “The poem went like this:

The land’s beauty is unfathomable,

The gentle hills become low plains.

The mountains stand in the distance,

overlooking the land.

How saddening it is to think,

That all the lush seen,

Can be extinguished with a the hatred of another,

From the will of different ponies.

How troubling it is to see,

That the difference of one’s appearance,

Can cause an entire forest to become frigid and cold,

Mirroring the souls of those who walked through.

How true it is to know,

That because of the differences of ponies,

That this land can become a wasteland,

Just like our first home.

How hopeful it is to dream,

That one day we might all agree,

We are all the same,

And we must treat each other as we treat our own.”

“That’s a poem? I thought they were supposed to rhyme!” Scootaloo said, and Twilight shook her head.

“Star Swirl the Bearded didn’t use a lot of rhyming in his poems.” Twilight said. Scootaloo was about to reply when Phalanx made a motion with his hoof.

“Stop!” He hissed, “Get down!” We listened, and I was going to ask why when that question answered itself. A voice was arguing with two others.

“Listen, I can be of real use to you, you should just -” The voice protested, cut off by a deeper voice that laughed.

“We have no need of a businesscolt that does backstabbing for a living. We can do it just fine ourselves, and we don’t need your bitch of a daughter to nag either.” The other voice said.

“Please I’ll do anything you want!” The voice begged.

“Shut this scumbag of a colt up for me would you?” Another voice said. A cracking was heard and the voice screamed.

“Shit, what do we do?” A guard asked in a harsh whisper, and Shining Armor replied back in the same tone.

“Sounds like there’s another, let’s take them out.” He replied. Within five seconds a few of the guards snuck forward, and one of the voices was talking to another pony.

“You won’t be missed, little filly.” It said, but then it shouted, “Who’s there!” The two voices screamed but stopped, and the guards shouted the all-clear.

“Who are you?” One of the colts asked the filly, who sounded like they were sobbing. As we walked over, Scootaloo raced ahead.

“YOU?” Scootaloo shouted, then I raced ahead, just to see Scootaloo hoof the filly in the face.