Unforgiven Memories

by Hidden Brony

First published 29th of December, 2012

Streak attempts to deal with betrayal, distrust, and love in an attempt to get revenge on the one who betrayed him a thousand years ago. But will he become the monster he seeks to stop? Only time will tell.

Formerly Lost Time Series
Book descriptions past book one will contain spoilers, so be warned.

1: Memories of a Lost Time
Streak was only sixteen when Discord betrayed his fellow immortals and tried to take over the world. He joined the army, where he quickly rose in the ranks, eventually becoming the general of the United Equestrian Armies. He had led his troops to victory, becoming the most respected pony in Equestria. That all changed when he was betrayed by his closest allies. He was wiped from the history books and the war he spent five years fighting was erased from memory.

One thousand years later, he pulls himself out of a realm of nothingness called the Void to find the world he worked so hard to help create has fallen completely under the control of one of his former allies. Now on top of being forced to deal with distrust to and from new allies, worry about betrayal again, and being faced with the fact that even he's not immune to love, he also has to deal with an embarrassing new phobia. Whatever it takes to kill the one who betrayed him.

But how will Streak prevail, and even if he does, will he fall deeper and deeper into his darkness, becoming the very monster he seeks to destroy? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain.

Streak will have his revenge.

2: Flight From Memories
Formerly Vengeance From a Lost Time
Celestia had been exposed and stripped of her power. Due to a clever use of Cadance’s spellcraft, every pony, griffon, and minotaur in every city in Equestria knew Celestia for the monster she was. Streak had won. He even managed to survive winning, despite his fears otherwise.

Or so he thought. He left Celestia’s ultimate fate up to the Bearers, which proved to be a fatal mistake. Celestia was spared, given a second chance as a magic-less version of herself, and within days sent an assassin after him, who was successful at slaying the former general. With his consciousness back in the Void, this time as an insider instead of an intruder, Streak learned how to harness his new demon form.

Unknown to him, his death caused a rift in the Bearers. His body was never found, since technically it was not really there in the first place, which led Rainbow Dash to convince herself that he was only missing. She grew resentful as the other bearers, one by one, stopped looking for Streak. When Twilight gave up the search, it was the final straw. Rainbow started an argument that wiped any trace of their friendship from all their thoughts and actions, going so far as to threaten Twilight were she to ever talk to her again.

After two years of animosity, Rarity had had enough. She brought the two of them together to try and rekindle their friendship. This proved to be a horrible decision, ending with Rainbow Dash in jail awaiting trial for attempted murder and Twilight in the hospital. All the while, Celestia was continuing her vile deeds behind everyone’s back. Coupled with the neighboring Griffon Empire closing their borders, to ponies only, without so much as a word as to why, lends itself to a tumultuous landscape for Streak’s return. A return facilitated by one of the the most unlikely sources.

3: Recurring Memories
Starswirl has returned to Equestria, somehow. On top of this, Changelings have moved in and are attempting to do. . . something. Nopony is sure what. To make Streak's life even harder, his daughter doesn't want him to go running through the countryside looking for either party, instead choosing to remain in Ponyville and attempt a normal life.

How will Streak cope with being a civilian now? No more fighting, no more killing, just sitting in town and having a job somewhere normal. Can he even get a job after losing his cutie mark when he transformed into a demon, or is he doomed to joblessness?

On top of this, Twilight is sure to not be happy with the duo, Rarity will have some kind of issues after being held prisoner by changelings, and Star is starting to feel funny around Sweetie Belle. As if his life wasn't hard enough, he starts feeling an urge he hasn't felt in a thousand years. He wants to hurt something, bad.

All in a day's work for Equestria's only remaining professional soldier, right?

4: In His Memory
Streak is dead. He died with a part of the city of Manehattan, but his sacrifice saved the rest of the doomed city.

He left behind Star, however, and she isn't happy that he's gone. Doubly so since Starswirl is the one responsible. Armed with a secret and versatile form of magic used only by the royal guard's War Mages, she sets off to indiscriminately slaughter those responsible for the Manehattan Incident, starting with Starswirl. But has she bit off more than she can chew? How can anyone hope to defeat the former Bearer of Magic in his own element?

1.1 Streak's Entrance

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Who was he? Where was he? He could not remember. All he knew was the Void.

He floated, blackness, all around him. His hooves flailing and hitting nothing. His eyes straining and not even seeing his muzzle in front of his face. The cold made his fur stand on end. It smothered him, choked him, blinded him. It was nowhere, but you could not escape from it. It was nothing, but was still real. It was empty, but encompassed all of his sight. It was intangible, but its touch was worse than agony. Time meant nothing, it didn't exist in the Void. An instant could be an instant, or it could be a hundred years. The sheer weight of the nothingness around him pressed into him. The Void was hungry, and he was food.

Did he have friends before? Did he have a family?

But the Void was not alone. Some parts of this void were lighter, being just black rather than a pitch black void that sucked all being out of you for just being near it. These black parts he started calling the Ebon. Was the Ebon was left by a friend, to keep him from being consumed completely by the Void? Was it a natural feature of the Void? His every move was agony inside the Void. Bits and pieces of him were torn off by the Void with agonizing patience. It was ravenous, merciless, pitiless, and he seemed like the only thing around for it to eat. The Void was hungry, and he was food.

Why was he here? What exactly was this strange place? What purpose did it serve?

The Void hungered. It ripped at his essence, ravenously devouring every bit of him that it could tear from him. Every passing second in the Void and he grew weaker. Every passing second in the Void and it grew stronger. The Void swallowed everything. Memories, feelings, thoughts, the Void did not care. This was his punishment for a crime he could no longer recall. The Void was hungry, and he was food.

What did he do to deserve the Void? Better yet, what could he have done to deserve the Void?

The Void ate the Ebon, just like it ate him. The Ebon slowly dissolved back into the Void it emerged from. The Ebon was his only ally in this strange place. He was eaten, the Ebon was eaten. He was in pain, the Ebon was in pain. The Ebon knew what he went through, since it went through it itself. The Void was hungry, and they both were food.

Did he have allies out of the Void? Had he always been alone?

He floated into a piece of the Ebon. The Void had been tearing into him for too long. He forgot what it felt like to not be continually consumed. The Ebon strengthened him. The mere absence of pain was a drug so potent that it made the return plunge into the Void all the worse. This was its gravest sin against him. The Ebon was not left by a friend, it was left by his worst enemy. The Ebon felt so good it hurt, then made the Void hurt more. The Ebon was false hope of redemption, and the Void reminded him of that fact. Painfully. The Void was hungry, and he was food.

Why did he not remember anything? Was he going mad? Was he already mad?

The Ebon tricked him every time. He would arrive inside the borders and rejoice, for the pain was gone. The Ebon had not abandoned him. He cried out in agony when he inevitably drifted back out of his 'savior' and back to the Void. Or rather, he tried to. The Void had no sound but a conglomeration of voices, constantly whispering to him with maddening half understood syllables. No feeling but excruciating pain of being torn to pieces by a unyielding ravager. No taste but the copper of his own blood. No sight but the eternal emptiness of the Void. No smell but that of his own death. The Void was hungry, and he was food.

What could he remember? Start with that.

The Void returned, assaulting his essence with an avaricious, insatiable desire for his being. It clove off fragments of his soul, hungrily consuming him alive. The agony was too much to bear and, were it not for the enchantments put on him ages since, he would have fallen into madness long ago. The void tore at everything he was, and only her spells kept his intact enough to function. The Void was hungry, and he was food.

“Her.” He remembered a female. Woman? Mare? Heifer?

Madness would be preferable to sanity in the Void. The mad don't register pain, don't feel the agony of being slowly detached, piece by piece. Her spells kept him alive and sane. They were in the way. He wanted insanity. He wanted death. He wanted some kind of escape. He needed to remember. The Void was hungry, and he was food.

She was a mare. He remembered the sun. The moon. A battle between the two, ending with his imprisonment here. With a sudden final cry that echoed throughout the Void, he felt his memories returning to him. Something both warm and cold simultaneously spread through his limbs, pushing out the pain that had been there for ages. He watched in wonder as the pieces of him riven by the Void were replaced by a red glow. He sat mesmerized in awe as the holes in his chest and shoulders, holes that had taken his whole time in the Void to appear, suddenly disappeared. As the spread down his back, he saw all the wounds there evaporate as if the flesh that was missing was just hiding under a layer of nothingness.

As his left fore-hoof returned to him, he remembered a monster, a mare, a friend, and a betrayal. Pain, not the physical kind he had dealt with for years in the Void, but the kind you only get from the betrayal of someone extremely close to you. He remembered battles as his right back hoof regenerated, two victorious, one lost. The enchantments placed on him by her faded as he regained his being. He felt the void retreating from him, quivering from him in terror and dismay as he grew in strength. The Void could no longer hurt him. Now he had the power, and the Void was afraid. The Ebon, devoid of its sustaining enchantments, shattered into thousands of shards that were practically inhaled by the Void, now devoid of its food source and lashing out for anything else. The Void was hungry, and the Void be damned!

He remembered the aftermath of that lost battle with his right fore-hoof, the distinct lack of death. Not one of his stallions had died. Death wasn't bad enough for their 'crimes,' they deserved far worse. He had gotten worse, and he had beaten it, maybe the others had too. He forced himself to take a breath, air slowly filling his lungs. He felt grass start to appear under his hooves. There was a faint breeze that he could barely feel that slowly built up in speed. He focused on not forgetting anything. He mentally nailed down his foalhood, he tied down his years in the guard, he grasped desperately on his “death,” needing something to hold on to. He gained strength from the righteous fury he drew from his manifold companions who betrayed him and the return of his final limb. He focused on his name, making sure to never forget it again. He forced his thick tongue to move. He needed to hear it.

“Streak,” he breathed out thick and hoarsely, and finally opened his eyes, spreading an explosion of red light to everything that could see him. His body fully reformed inside that light, and Streak knew his reformation was complete. He was back, and he had a mission. He cared none about her power. He cared none about her influence over entire generations of ponies. He knew he had one reason to be alive. He had to kill her.

Or die trying.

Author's Notes:

Alright, I'm re-uploading this chapter with some changes, some foreshadowing that did not exist the first time I wrote this part (Which was a while ago), as well as some changes to flow and pacing that I think make it better. Less fragments, even where I used them on purpose, which is an improvement. Hopefully the revision of chapter 2 goes as well, and I'll be able to finish chapter 3 a lot faster than I have been working on it so far.

Peace out girl scout
-HB

1.2 Unexpected Guest (Revised)

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Streak was panicking.

The forest around him was dark, the dense canopy casting shadows so thick it was almost pitch black. It was far too similar to the ordeal he had gone through scarcely a week ago with the Void. His fear shamed him; he'd been trained to fight worse than this! Hell, he’d gone through worse than the Everfree could ever throw at him! Still, the darkness seemed to follow him, waiting for its chance to devour his essence. Streak shivered at the thought before turning his attention back to his path. Traveling in the Everfree was dangerous during the day, sure, but he could handle himself. He was still wary. After all he didn't want to get into any fights he didn't have to, especially if the locals might be nearby. Any attention was bad attention at this point.

In his attempt to be stealthy, Streak cringed at every leaf he crunched, and every twig that snapped made him jump and whirl to look at what was all too often nothing. He was going to be fine. He'd traveled through the Everfree before, and the worst he saw was a timberwolf. There was no soul ravaging horror hiding just out of his vision, waiting for him to see safety before pouncing. With that thought, he checked again for anything of interest. A clearing, an exit, hell, he’d go for a cave at this point, anything to break the monotony of this unusually long trip. He knew about how long it took to cross the Everfree. It took a half hour less time than he was in the forest, though, and it would help if he knew where the trail was. That was always good.

The foliage in the Everfree was dense enough it made it so dark he could hardly see his trembling hoof in front of his face. While trying to calm his shaking, Streak chuckled at the fact that this was the first time in his life that he was actually glad for his coloring. His grey coat helped him blend in better with his unfortunately dark surroundings, and his black mane would have helped if not for the rainbow streak down the center that was his namesake. Even with mud infused in his coat and mane, you could still easily point out the streak in his mane. He made sure to smear a bunch of mud onto his cutie mark to hide it from sight. It was imperfect, you could still see the shield and stars if you looked hard enough, but it would have to do.

A distant howl reminded him to keep his eyes on the 'trail.' Timberwolves, poison joke, and apparently manticores stalked the woods here. Streak scooted around a patch of unassuming blue flowers that served as a hazard to any trailblazer. Poison joke always seemed to have an ironic or amusing symptom. Such as turning a pegasus's wings backwards. Best to keep your distance. A lot of it.

Suddenly he heard something moving behind him. He froze, listening for any clues as to what kind of soul sucking monstrosity was stalking him.

Books and Branches, the local library in Ponyville, was in complete disarray at the moment. Books were piled up, forming a maze across the floor with wooden floors and literary walls. Novels glowing purple flew through the air, organizing and reorganizing themselves, all the while a baby purple dragon ran as fast as his stubby little legs could take him to put them in their places before his companion, a rather pretty lavender unicorn mare, could magic them away into the next organizational method.

“SPIKE!” the lavender unicorn yelled, her voice echoing around the library she was in. “Where's the 'Foal's Guide to Plot Lines' by Helping Hoof supposed to go?”

It seemed that she decided to actually put something away this time. Her baby dragon assistant, Spike, sighed, “Third shelf from the right, fourth row, third book—” he paused to sprint and grab a book before it was picked back up, “—the same place it was when you asked last time, Twilight.”

“Hehe... thanks Spike,” Twilight sheepishly replied. “Where would I be without you?”

“Doing your own work and remembering things?” Spike grumbled.

“What was that?” Twilight snapped.

“NOTHING!” Spike hastily answered.

The library the two were in was not that large for a library. It had only one floor, if you discounted the second floor due to its nature as the sleeping quarters of the duo, but that one floor was filled with books. Literally, at this moment, since it was Tuesday. Tuesday was re-shelving day, the day that fixed all the errors caused by ponies putting books in the wrong place. They had spent all day pulling books off the shelves and putting them back, usually into the same spot they came out of, sometimes twice. Twilight, of course, spent her time organizing and reorganizing everything. The books are alphabetical by title. Oh, wait, now by author. Oh, wait, now they’re organized by genre. And now they’re in the Dewhoof Decimal System.

A faint roaring sound drifted into the library from an open window. Spike momentarily stopped his frantic sprinting around and looked at the window.

His pause was long enough for Twilight to finish her reorganization. She realized that none of the books had been put away for about ten seconds so she decided to bring Spike’s attention back to the matter at hoof. “Spike! We need to have this done by sundown or you'll miss your bedtime!” Twilight scolded, obviously oblivious to her ‘help’ being detrimental to the speed of his work.

“Erm... Twilight?” Spike began carefully. “That was a manticore.”

“Your point?” she asked. “It's nothing to worry about, it's inside the Everfree.”

“That's why I'm worrying. That roar sounded like pain,” Spike said, visibly shaken. “And we heard it from easily a mile away.”

Twilight's eyes widened, what happened to that manticore to make it roar so loud?

Streak ducked around a tree, causing the creature following him to ram through it. The splinters dug into its flesh, causing it to roar again. Streak desperately wanted to get away from this monstrosity. This was the third tree the monster had rammed through in a row and it kept roaring louder each time.

The beast was hot on his heels, though. Terrifyingly, even with smashing through trees, it had managed to keep up with him fairly easily. He refused to speed up faster than he was moving now, though, because he would not be able to keep up that speed for nearly as long. When he got tired, the thing would actually end up catching him faster, ironically.

“Faust, I know I have never been really devout, but if you can hear me, I need help,” Streak called out. “Send some kind of sign.”

Like magic he heard a rushing, crashing sound from all around him. That was the sound of a waterfall. Water! There was water nearby! That was. . . absolutely useless to him right now. He sighed, he was royally screwed. He turned to run away from where he thought he heard the waterfall; it would prove to be an impassable wall.

He was proved right mere seconds later when he realized he had turned the wrong way. He had misjudged the direction the sound came from, putting him at the top of a waterfall. Perfect, that was exactly what he needed; a fast flowing river and a waterfall blocking his way.

The monster came tearing through the foliage Streak had just dodged through seconds ago, splintering the trunk of another tree. Blood flowed down its face freely from hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny cuts and punctures all over its face. There was nowhere for him to go but down.

He got a good look at the monster that had been chasing him. It was massive, with the top of his head barely making it to the creature’s shoulder. It was hard to make out in the shadows, but it was obviously darkly colored. It seemed to have darkness radiating from its face, which seemed to consist of two hungry, red eyes and a mouth full of fangs the size of unicorn horns. Leathery dragonesque wings were attached to its back.

The beast seemed to sense both his fear and what he was about to do, because it roared and charged, raising a paw the size of a full grown stallion to annihilate Streak, claws extended. He grinned like a madman as a mask over his terror and jumped backwards.

The scene by town hall was interesting to say the least. Twilight Sparkle was attempting to explain her plan to a bored looking pegasus, who looked like she just wanted to curl up and go to sleep. The pegasus she was talking to was easy to spot in a crowd with her sky blue coat and a mane encompassing the full spectrum of a rainbow. Even her cutie mark was colorful, being a tri-colored lightning bolt coming out of a pure white cloud.

“Why are you worrying, Twilight?” the prismatic pegasus pried her panicked pal. “It’s in the Everfree, and we’re not! No problem.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said again – slower so Rainbow might get it this time. “We don’t usually hear manticores from all the way in the Everfree. We never hear manticores from all the way in the Everfree roaring in pain. Something is wrong, very wrong.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “Fine, I’ll bring AJ to town hall so we can go hunt whatever could kick the flank of a manticore. That sounds like a great idea.” With that last statement, Rainbow Dash unfurled her wings and sprung into the air, speeding off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

“When she puts it that way...” Twilight mused.

A few minutes later Rainbow Dash returned with a very peeved looking orange mare following behind her.

“What’s this ah hear about goin’ into tha Everfree?” Applejack inquired of her lavender companion, arching an eyebrow.

“Something’s wrong,” Twilight began. “I heard a manticore cry out in pain all the way from my library.”

“Now wait just one apple pickin’ minute. If this thing is hurtin’ manticores, why are we runnin’ toward ‘stead of away from it?” Applejack demanded.

“That’s what I was asking!” Rainbow butted in.

“We’re stopping at Fluttershy’s place first,” Twilight said, choosing to ignore her loud companion. “She has experience with woodland creatures—”

“She’s literally afraid of her own shadow,” Rainbow deadpanned.

“—and I think with us around she’ll be willing to go into the Everfree to find out what’s wrong,” Twilight continued, ignoring Rainbow again.

“Twi, sugar cube, this is Shy we’re talkin’ about. Are ya sure she’s gonna be the best pony to bring along into tha Everfree?” Applejack asked.

“She stared down a dragon,” it was Twilight’s turn to deadpan this time.

Applejack sat there for a few seconds before replying, “Oh, yea. Well, if yer dead set on goin’ into tha Everfree, ah ain’t stoppin’ ya. Best if we try and bring ‘Shy along as well, you were right when ya said that she’d be a good choice if ya can get her past her fear.”

Streak barely felt the air being driven out of his lungs as he hit the water at the bottom of the waterfall. Pain shot through his head and his vision blurred momentarily as a rock scored a glancing blow on his head, before he compartmentalized the pain and felt it fade slightly.

At least there are no sharp rocks at the bottom, he thought to himself, regular rocks hurt enough. Looking down at his body he sighed. At least the rocks left him conscious and all his legs intact.

After a few seconds of drifting, err... bouncing himself off of rocks, in the rapids at the bottom of the waterfall, things seemed to be getting quieter. Streak looked up at the top of the waterfall, wanting to see the creature one last time before he escaped. He was confused when he didn’t see it up there. He felt disappointed. Surely it didn’t leave already?

His question was answered, albeit in a roundabout fashion, by a splashing sound to the rear of him. Spinning swiftly, Streak fought off a round of dizziness. Through his blurry vision, he saw what could only be that fanged horror from above floating along behind him. The monstrosity roared in his face, splashing him with blood from its injuries.

“Faust damn it, nothing is ever easy is it?” Streak asked rhetorically. The monster responded with another roar. “Nope. Damn it.”

Streak was silent for a moment, before asking, “How the hell did you even get down here without hurting yourself?”

The monster, showing a moment of intelligence unseen to this point, cocked its head and flapped its wings, grinning with those massive teeth of its.

Streak smacked himself in the face with his hoof, making the world spin again. Should have remembered that.

Twilight sat in front of a cottage that looked to be built around a tree. She was in front of a closed and locked door with her hoof firmly planted on her face. The sound of at least five locks clicking closed and a bar being laid over the door were heard from the inside.

“Told ya,” Rainbow giggled.

“Fluttershy, this is important,” Twilight tried to reason with her timid friend.

There was a flash of pink and yellow in one of the windows. “No,” Fluttershy replied through that window before boarding it up with a hammer. Rainbow burst out laughing.

“Ya have no problem goin’ in there for yer little critters.” Applejack tried this time. “Why not go in now?”

“No,” Fluttershy replied again, through a different window this time. Twilight heard the sounds of power tools being used to block entry through this window. At this point Rainbow was rolling on the ground, because she was laughing too hard to remain on her hooves.

“Why not?” Twilight asked.

“Because only two things can hurt manticores: ursas and—” Fluttershy paused to shudder, “—dragons.”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight sighed, “If there’s trouble, we can handle it.”

“And if we can’t?” Fluttershy asked from inside her house, the sound of a welder on full blast floated from inside the now fortress-like cottage.

“You can fly, can’t you?” Applejack asked.

“So can dragons,” She replied, accompanied by the sound of tape being ripped for use.

Twilight realized that Rainbow was braced to launch at any moment, no longer laughing.

“What, Rainbow, are we not entertaining anymore?” Twilight asked sarcastically.

“No, you still are, don’t worry,” Rainbow replied. “But the manticore chasing a pony down the stream to Fluttershy’s house is MUCH more interesting.”

The monster bellowed as it chased after Streak. He had to admit, the tenacity of the creature was to be admired, even if it would potentially mean his death. He was sprinting as fast as he could from the eldritch abomination. He had thought of fighting it, but now with a concussion, he wasn’t going to be able to hold his own against even a foal. He stumbled down what was left of the distributary he had diverted down, little more than a stream at this point.

Had he been able to see straight, he would have realized that he was running toward a very attractive lavender unicorn with a look of horror on her face, but that was not to be, Streak was lucky to see a blur as the world moved around him, acting purely on instinct. He relegated every brain process needed to keep away from the hungry jaws of the manticore to instinct, choosing instead to focus all of his conscious brain power into keeping himself awake and on his hooves. Granted, the latter activities kind of fell into the former category, but you understand.

Now with all that in mind, imagine the panic Streak felt when his hooves didn’t hit the ground when they were supposed to. Also imagine how he felt when he started moving upwards without having wings or flapping them. His mind instantly went into overdrive, taking in as much information as he could to figure out exactly what was happening to him.

The first thing he realized is that he was surrounded by a very pretty shade of purple. Everything else just kind of didn’t matter anymore as he just stared at the purple aura pulling him upwards and onwards.

Twilight easily could have just grabbed the strange stallion and yanked him out of the reach of the manticore, but he was obviously hurt, most likely a concussion from the stumbling and lump on his head, and she didn’t want to make it worse. Granted, the manticore was now more intent on catching its prey than before, spreading its wings to take off after its now airborne meal.

It never got the chance to get off the ground. Rainbow smashed into the hunting cat’s back, driving it into the ground. Twilight pulled the stallion to herself as fast as she dared. The manticore jumped back up and lunged at Rainbow, just to be bucked in the side by the orange farm-mare that it hadn’t noticed until just then, knocking it off balance. It launched itself at Applejack, only to be hit by the prismatic pegasus, driving it to the ground again. The manticore bellowed as it spun for Rainbow, spraying blood on both the mares it was fighting.

“That had better be yours!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, disgusted.

“How dare you?” a timid voice near whispered, somehow with enough force to carry to the melee occurring just outside of her home. “How dare you?”

Fluttershy flew up next to the manticore—somehow getting through her dragon-proofed house—and started telling it off, ”Listen here, mister. Just because you're big doesn't mean you get to be a bully. You may have huge teeth, and sharp claws, and you may be hungry. But you do not—I repeat—you do not! Hurt! My! Friends!” The manticore shied back from fury incarnate. “You got that?” she asked, getting right in its face. The formerly terrifying manticore couldn’t move from fear.

“Well?” she asked.

The manticore growled, “Grr grah rahgrah rrr grr grah.”

Fluttershy continued as if nothing was amiss, “And I am very sorry about that. But you're bigger than she is, and you should know better. You should also know better than to try and eat ponies. That’s not nice.”

“Grr gra—” The manticore tried to explain.

“Don't you 'but I' me, mister,” Fluttershy interrupted, “Now what do you have to say for yourself?” The manticore didn’t respond at first, so she repeated, “I said, what do you have to say for yourself?”

The manticore shied back for a second before bursting out crying

“There, there. No need to cry. You're not a bad manticore, you just made a bad decision. Now go back into the Everfree and think over what you have done,” Fluttershy consoled in a motherly tone.

Everypony was completely silent as the manticore walked back to the Everfree forest, head hung low. Eventually the silence was broken as Streak, who was feeling more than a little loopy at the moment, interjected with, “Look!”

The mares all turned to look at him, to find him flailing around one of his forelegs.

“When I move my leg, the glowy follows it!” he exclaimed with obvious glee.

“Uh, Twilight?” Rainbow said, voicing everypony’s thoughts. “Maybe we should get him to the hospital.”

Princess Celestia sat on her throne, plotting world domination.

Not really being terribly serious about it, mind you. She had enough on her plate with just Equestria, she would never find any time for herself if she took over more territory than she had, not to mention the millions of griffons declaring blood feud on her for breaking the treaty that had been set up a thousand years ago. No, she was plotting world domination because she was bored as hell and had nothing better to do.

At least until now. A scroll materialized in front of her. Ah, another letter from Twilight. Celestia smiled. These were always the highlight of her day. She unrolled the letter and began to read.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Twilight’s at it again. Something is causing issues with a local manticore in the Everfree Forest and she went to fix it. She wouldn’t listen when I told her to just drop it. Could you please get down here to talk her out of it before she gets into trouble she doesn’t know how to get out of?

Your Faithful Student’s Number One Assistant,
Spike

Celestia slapped a hoof to her face. Damn it. At least her day was about to get more interesting.

“Bright Aegis!” She called out. “Cancel my appointments for an undetermined amount of time; I need to fix something Twilight’s done. Again.”

Streak noticed a few things. He had a massive headache, which he had to admit was fairly standard for near-fatal levels of rock to the head. Adding to that standard ‘day after’ list was his sudden and violent need to beat the hell out of anything that supplied light or sound around him, trouble thinking straight, blurred vision, and memory issues. Everything was pretty standard. What wasn’t standard brain bludgeon aftereffect was that constant beeping noise that was driving him insane.

Acting on the previously mentioned violent need to beat the hell out of anything that made noise, he immediately swung his hoof at the source of the noise, hearing a satisfying crack and then. . . nothing. Everything was quiet.

For a grand total of three seconds. He heard a door slam open nearby, stabbing pain into his head with the efficiency of a railroad spike and leading his pain flooded mind to deduce that the door to his room was opened, and quite violently.

“What is wrong with your. . . You broke it,” he heard a concerned voice speak up before ending in a deadpan.

“It made noise,” Streak gritted his teeth. “I have a headache.”

“You broke your heart monitor because it made noise?” the voice deadpanned again.

“Yes, now let me sleep, my head hurts,” Streak said rolling over.

Nurse Redheart walked out of the strange stallion’s room shaking her head and muttering something about “Stallions and breaking things just because they’re inconvenient.”

Twilight stood up when the nurse walked out. “Is he alright?”

“Fine,” Redheart replied. “His head trauma gave him a headache, so he broke his heart monitor. I’m getting some restraints to keep him from breaking the next one we bring in.”

Twilight watched the nurse walk away with questions about stallions and things being broken filling her mind. She filed them into a folder labeled “ask later” and walked into the stallion’s room.

“Hey,” she asked softly, so not to aggravate his headache. “How are you feeling?”

“Hrrrmph,” he said into a pillow.

“Good to hear that,” Twilight said just as quietly as before. “What’s your name?”

“Why do you want to—” Streak snapped, spinning around to look at his converser. Upon seeing who he was talking to, he fell silent.

Twilight was more confused as to why he stopped mid-sentence than insulted that he had snapped at her, “Why do I want to what?” she asked, encouraging him to continue.

Streak, for his part, was speechless. Here, standing in front of him, was the most gorgeous mare he had ever laid his eyes on. Not only that, but she was worried about him. AND he had snapped at her. His mind reeled as he tried to figure out exactly how he was going to get himself out of this situation.

Twilight sat with an awkward smile on her face as she waited for the stallion to continue with what he was saying. Behind that smile, though, was a swirling maelstrom of thoughts. Some were thoughts better left to Rarity, some were ones she thought belonged to Rainbow Dash, and a few she thought could only belong to Pinkie. Is there something on my face? Rarity. Am I just too much for him? Rainbow Dash. Did I forget to do my hair this morning? Rarity again. Does he like muffins? Pinkie. The last thought through her head before she shut them out was undoubtedly her own; Oh, sweet Celestia, I didn’t realize he was this CUTE before.

Streak was still puzzling on how to salvage any possible first impression from this encounter when he noticed the blush on the mare’s face. Now Streak was not a simple stallion. He graduated top of his class in Canterlot High. Actually, therein lies the problem. Streak was always slaving away at something, so much that he never had too much time for mares. He only had one relationship in his life, and he preferred not to talk about it. All things said and done, Streak had about as much experience with relationships as Spike. Hence, awkwardness.

“Erm. . .” Our protagonist everypony! “My name’s Streak. What’s yours?”

And you managed not to make yourself out to be a total creep, he thought, proud of himself.

“Uhm...” Twilight mumbled, all previous confidence stolen by that one errant thought, “I’m Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.”

“Alright Miss Sparkle, or is it Mrs?” Streak asked. Smooth Casanova, couldn’t be more subtle?

“You don’t have to use formalities with me, Streak. Just call me Twilight,” she said with a giggle.

Alright, Twilight, you have got this! This was chapter one in Helping Hoof’s book, Stallions: The Guide. How to get them, how to keep them, and how they think, Now that I think about it, it didn’t go past that whole keep them part.

Oh FAUST that giggle! Is she trying to kill me? Streak thought. Out loud he said, “Alright Twilight. What brings you to my fine abode today?”

Twilight giggled at his foreleg flourish with the last sentence, “Well I kind of saved you from the manticore that was chasing you, so I had to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh,” Streak said, dropping his hoof and rubbing the back of his neck. That’s what that was. Faust damn it! I’m so stupid. He continued, “You were there for that, huh?”

“You don’t remember?” Twilight asked.

“Err... I remember running from the manticore, jumping off of a waterfall to avoid said manticore.” He saw the look Twilight was giving him. That one woman look, you know the one. “I never said I was smart, did I? Anyway, I remember hitting my head at the bottom of the waterfall. Rocks hurt, by the way. I wouldn’t recommend it. The last thing I remember is after diving down a distributary of the river, I saw this really... pretty purple. I can’t recall anything else, sorry.”

Suddenly Streak realized what he just said. Oh, damn it, he thought, There goes my “not creep” status.

Twilight’s face flushed bright red, “Yeah, that’s about what you said.”

“Hmm?” Streak asked, wanting further clarification, but at the same time not.

“You were pretty out of it, and while we were walking over here you said I was ‘Really pretty, like a princess but better.’ ”

Streak buried his face in his hooves, “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Nope, why?” Twilight asked with a sudden mischievous smile. “You want to take that back?”

“No, but—” Streak blurted out before realizing what he just said. DAMN IT! “Er... I mean. Uh. Er.”

Again, our protagonist, everypony.

Twilight’s face was more red than purple at this point, “Er...” Not sure what I intended with that...

Spike was finishing up reshelving his second shelf since he had sent that letter to Celestia when he heard a knock at the door. Spike waddled his way over, giving the door a nice tug open. He couldn’t decide if what he saw surprised him or not. Standing just outside the door to the library was a pony of white and gold. She could have been a statue, if not for the ethereal, billowing, tri-colored mane and tail attached to her. The Princess herself had arrived.

“Hello Spike,” Celestia said with a motherly smile. “You said Twilight was headed to the Everfree?”

“Uh, yeah,” Spike said, rubbing the back of his head. “Though she hasn’t gotten back yet.”

“Do you know where she entered?” she asked.

Spike answered without hesitation. Not only was the mare in front of him the Princess—a Princess, Spike reminded himself, Luna was back now—but she was like a surrogate grandmother. Even if that wasn’t enough, she seemed to emanate trust. “She was headed in the general direction of Fluttershy’s place, if I remember correctly,” he supplied.

“Thank you, Spike,” she said. “That will be all. I’ll stop by when I have Twilight and we’ll try some of your cooking that she raves about,” and with a wink, Celestia had left.

Nurse Redheart loved her job, honestly. She loved taking care of hurt ponies. If you’ll pardon the pun, nursing them back to health was her favorite part of the day. There were days when she got cards from foals, thanking her. There were days she got a hug from a particularly emotional stallion or mare.

Then there were days like today.

Nurse Redheart walked into room 343 only to leave two blushing and fidgeting ponies not even thirty seconds later. Not a filly and colt, mind you, but full grown mare and stallion. She walked into the room with a bundle of rope on her back, fully intent on tying down the errant stallion, only for him to quip, “Shouldn’t you at least let me buy you dinner first?” This made the mare blush more than she already was, if that was possible. As if realizing what he just said and who he said it in front of, the stallion froze up with a face red as the cross on Redheart’s flank.

Today was going to be a long day, she could tell.

A soft knocking sound interrupted Fluttershy’s thoughts.

“Sorry Twilight,” she ‘yelled,’ which for Fluttershy was a moderate talking volume, “Like I told Angel Bunny, orders are nobody can see me! Not nobody, not nohow!”

“Not even me, my little pony?” a calm voice asked from the other side of the door.

“Oh, Celestia!,” Fluttershy exclaimed, “Let me get the door!”

“Oh, that’s fine, Fluttershy,” Celestia said, stopping Fluttershy on the third lock. “Did you happen to see Twilight recently? Spike said she was on her way over here.”

“Oh, yes. She was on her way to the hospital with a strange stallion that we saved from a manticore.”

“A manticore?” Celestia asked. “Wow, she really has grown. Is the poor dear okay?”

“Yes, I sent it back into the Everfree with a light scolding,” Fluttershy remarked, not understanding.

“As much as I’d love to stay and chat, your door is only a little bit locked,” Celestia teased “I should also make sure Twilight’s okay, both physically and mentally.”

Celestia started walking away before she paused, “Fluttershy?”

“Hmm?”

“What did this stallion look like?” Celestia asked.

Author's Notes:

Note 1 - A distributary is the opposite of a tributary, it's a river or stream branching out of a larger river. Look it up if you don't believe me, I even included the link.

Chapter 1.2 v1.3
—Better grammar!
—Upgraded word choice!
—More content!*
—Removed Herobrine!
—Fixed bugs!
—Kicked ass!

-HB

* By about ninety-five words. Every little bit counts, damn it!

1.3 Personal Problem

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

"My champion, you can do so much more than you ever thought possible. You can do more than I thought possible."

It had taken a few minutes, but Streak and Twilight had finally gotten to just chatting rather than sitting around awkwardly. Streak listened intently as Twilight recalled the adventures she had with her friends over the past two or so years since she met them. He could tell she enjoyed her time with them by the twinkle in her eye she got as she recalled one event or another. He reacted to all the right parts; laughing at Pinkie’s antics, gasping when the smoke over Ponyville was revealed to be a dragon, he even included a ‘really man?’ look when she was notified of her brother’s wedding by mail. Eventually, she began to wind down. At the end of her last story, she asked the question Streak was dreading.

“So Streak, what are your friends like? You seem like the kind of guy that has lots of adventures, if the manticore was any indication,” she teased.

Streak debated telling her the truth. He could see it now: Well, let’s see. Brick is dead, Ironhoof is dead too, Wonderbolt had Faust-knows-what happen to him, Sombra went batshit insane and took over an empire in a military coup, Then there's— NO! He was not going to think about her!

Twilight took his brooding silence as a bad omen and opened her mouth to apologize for asking when Streak spoke up.

“My whole life I never had a lot of friends. When I was growing up, the rainbow streak in my hair had other foals branding me as a freak. When I wasn’t getting beaten up to ‘remove the demon,’ I was getting put down by ponies that thought they were better than me. When I finally made it out of my own personal Tartarus, I found that the working world was no good either. Ponies were still treating me like I was inferior just because I looked different. I ended up joining the Guard since I had nowhere else to go. I made some friends in basic that lasted for a long time,” Twilight drank every word Streak said like it was fine wine. “Brick and Ironhoof were both earth ponies and two of the most loyal stallions I have ever met.

“There were six of us, total. Two earth ponies, two pegasi, and two unicorns. We made a good team. The earth ponies were strong, tough, and durable. They started and didn’t stop until they dropped or got dropped, and they didn’t get dropped often. The pegasi were swift and agile. Even when constrained to the ground they could dodge anything thrown at them, both figuratively and literally. The unicorns, however, were the most dangerous part of the group. With the earth ponies stopping enemies on the move, and the pegasi guarding the air, the unicorns were safe to cast the big spells. I personally watched the more powerful of the two rip the scales off of a dragon and impale it with them,” Twilight shuddered at the mental image that gave her. “Yeah, I had that reaction too, I still have nightmares. He wasn’t the most stable of ponies. The other unicorn focused on messing with minds. He learned how to bend them to his will, how to fight them, how to trick them. The two were unstoppable, but as I said, only because they were safe with us around. When they had to focus on keeping things off of them, they were next to worthless to the overall battle.”

“You keep talking in past-tense,” Twilight mentioned. “Why is that?”

“Look around the room and tell me what you see.”

Twilight swept her head back and forth, examining the hospital room for anything out of the ordinary that Streak could be pointing out to her. “I see a stereotypical hospital room, what about it?” Twilight said, confused.

“I see a pony in the hospital, alone save for somepony who he just met earlier that day,” Streak said somberly.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she caught the implications of what he just said. She was about to say something when a knocking sound was heard from the door.

“My faithful student, are you in here?” a motherly voice asked.

“Shit.”

* * *

Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT!

Streak had never run as fast as he was running now. He’d run for his life on multiple occasions and for multiple reasons, but never before had he had to run from four pissed off mares.

Tartarus hath no fury like a mare.

Not the time, weird inner voice thing! Streak berated, Time to be running!

Streak dodged around ponies walking outside, going about their daily lives. He spun around a blue unicorn with a mane and tail split between darker blue and a pale blue. Running around the corner, he jumped over an inebriated looking berry-red pony laying on the ground.

Looking back, Streak saw that the orange mare was still chasing him.

How did this all go to hell so fast?

Where to begin?

* * *

“My faithful student, are you in here?” a motherly voice asked.

Streak's eyes jumped so wide Twilight was worried they would fall out of his head. He involuntarily let out a sentence, “Shit.”

I never said it was an eloquent sentence.

Twilight looked at him quizzically, before turning to the door and calling out, “Yes, Princess. I’ve been keeping Streak company while he recovers.”

The doorknob was enveloped by a yellow glow, turning agonizingly slowly. Streak jumped up toward a window that was left open in his room.

Convenient, he thought.

The door opened, revealing not only Celestia, but all of Twilight’s other friends, as well. They had different expressions on their faces. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both had looks of annoyance on their faces, Rarity and Fluttershy looked like they had seen a ghost, and Pinkie was... Well this is Pinkie, she was wearing a party hat. She’s unquantifiable.

Celestia stepped into the room, before seeing Streak. The motherly smile that she was never seen without instantly fell off her face as she turned to face him.

“Streak,” she said in a strangely casual tone of voice, not fitting the severe expression on her face.

“Celestia,” Streak replied, emotion likewise hidden behind a mask of faux familiarity.

“You know him, Princess?” Twilight asked, confused.

“Yes, Twilight I do. Streak,” Celestia said, still staring at the stallion in question. "You are under arrest.”

* * *

That works as a beginning, wouldn’t you say?

Streak sprinted away from Applejack, but she was gaining on him. Looking away from the orange farm pony, he looked up to see Rainbow Dash flying overhead, waiting for the perfect opportunity to take him out.

He dove into a nearby alleyway, barely missing a yellow earth pony mare with an orange mane. Rainbow Dash was forced to fly close to the ground to avoid losing Streak in the narrow confines of the alley.

Speeding down the alley as she was, Rainbow missed when Streak dove to the side.

This next part is interesting.

* * *

“Yes, Twilight I do. Streak,” Celestia said, still staring at the stallion in question. "You are under arrest.”

Twilight gasped, “What for?”

“Last time you tried this you went with treason, attempted murder, inciting rebellion, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, arson, and attempted murder of the Crown,” Streak listed off. "Did I miss anything?”

Twilight felt faint, “What? Streak, what are you talking about?”

“You missed resisting arrest, escaping from prison, I need to ask how you did that, by the way, vandalism, and disturbing the peace,” Celestia

“Ah how could I forget those, they are so major in the grand scheme of things,” Streak snarked. "and I think I’ll keep my escape route to myself, thank you very much.”

“Are you going to come quietly?” Celestia asked.

“Nah, I’m good. I like being free,” Streak replied, tensing up his legs. "Sorry to cut our conversation short, Twilight, but an old friend has started causing problems, and I must take my leave.” He saluted and dove out the window.

“Bring that traitor to me, dead or alive!” Celestia yelled. "He needs to face justice!”

A tiny voice answered through the window. "Oh, is that what you call it?”

* * *

“She’s waking up!” Rainbow heard a voice call out.

I knew I nap a lot but—Rainbow began thinking, before the chase rushed back to her, she looked around at her friends. She didn’t know what happened. One second she was chasing the stallion her Princess had called a traitor, the next she was laid out on a bed, her friends crowded around her with worried looks on their faces.

“Uh... what did I miss?” she asked, embarrassed.

“You don’t remember?” Twilight asked, worriedly.

“Nope,” Rainbow said, nonchalantly. She noticed where she was. The blue walls. The purple sheets. The lamp on the side table. The disgusting pile of monochrome slush they call food. Yep, she knew exactly where she was. "Somepony want to tell me why I’m back in the hospital?”

“You really don’t remember,” Twilight said, more a statement than a question.

“No,” Rainbow said, getting irritated. "I don’t. Wanna fill me in?”

“Well, Streak was hidin’ in wait for ya when ya came barrelin’ down the alley full tilt,” Applejack said, causing Rainbow to blush. "He jumped out at you and ah’m assuming hit a pressure point on yer wing, because it locked straight up and ya smashed head first into a wall. He got away while ah was makin’ sure you were okay.”

Both Rainbow and Fluttershy looked decidedly uncomfortable. Twilight arched a brow at the pair. “I take it you know what happened?”

“Ye–Yeah,” Rainbow stuttered awkwardly.

A few moments passed before Twilight tried again, “Care to elaborate?”

“N–No. Not really.”

It was Twilight’s turn to be irritated, “And why is that?”

“It’s, erm, well...” Rainbow began, still fumbling uncharacteristically with her words.

An interjection came from the most unlikely source possible, “Oh, just tell her,” Fluttershy half-mumbled.

Rainbow took a deep breath, “There’s an... intimate spot on every pegasus’s wing which causes a wing priapism when hit.” Seeing that Twilight, bless her brain, was still not getting what she was trying to say, even with the fancy words, she snapped in irritation, “He hit my fun button and I popped a wingie, okay?!”

“Oh,” Twilight said, sitting her rump on the ground.

“Yeah, it’s the most intimate spot on a pegasus’s body,” Fluttershy explained. Seeing Twilight’s look she elaborated, “Yes Twilight, even more than there. Pegasi live in the clouds and it can make a wing non-functional for hours if you know what you’re doing. Not–not that I’d know,” She added quickly.

“I’m going to knock his head in when I see him next!” Rainbow fumed, anger washing away any and all embarrassment she felt earlier. "How’d he even know about it? It’s not the kind of topic that pops up in casual conversation!”

“Maybe he dated a pegasus?” Twilight suggested.

“Maybe if that pegasus was a complete whore,” Rainbow scoffed. "I’ve had plenty of coltfriends and have made damn sure they knew that if they got near my wings it was over faster than my leg in between theirs. You only tell that to a non-pegasus if you’re going to stay with them for the rest of your life”

“Oh! Our Dashie with a coltfriend? Do tell me more! The passion, the romance, the—”

“Sex,” Rainbow interrupted with a smirk. “Don’t forget the sex, I know I haven’t.”

Rainbow’s friends all reacted differently to her statement. Rarity gasped dramatically, Fluttershy gave an ‘eep’ and froze, Applejack looked at Rainbow with a raised eyebrow, Twilight went from purple to bright red, and Pinkie... How did she get a cake with “Congrats on the sex” written on it so fast?

Twilight reacted the fastest, “Thenursewantedtoknowwhenyouwokeupandyou’reawake- nowsoI’mgoingtotellherthatyou’reawakebye!” A flash of light signaled the exit of the flustered unicorn.

Twilight reappeared right outside of the door. She fought her blush away as best as she could, managing to return to just maroon rather than crimson. When that was complete, she trotted down the hallway to the nurse’s station. When the nurse saw her she nearly had a seizure.

“Oh, Celestia, you need to keep to your room, you look like you’re in absolutely no condition to be walking around!” She fussed.

“Actually—” Twilight began.

“Oh, this simply won’t do!” The nurse interrupted again. "You must get to your room! Let me walk you back. What room are you in deary?”

“Actually you wanted me to tell you when Rainbow Dash was awake,” Twilight said.

The nurse, who Twilight remembered was named Redheart, was still for a second, “I didn’t realize that brain damage could be contagious, so I guess you didn’t catch something off her.”

“Erm, no. Just an awkward conversation,” Twilight offered sheepishly.

“Can’t be worse than the one you were having with that one handsome stallion. What was his name, again?”

Twilight’s ears drooped, “Streak.”

“Left you high and dry, hmm? Stallions, I swear,” Nurse Redheart mumbled.

“Er, no. Celestia showed up,” Twilight tried to explain.

“Went straight for the Princess, did he? Don’t tell her I said so, but his loss. Besides,” Redheart added with a conspiratorial whisper. "I hear the Princess has been around the block so many times she has mapped most of Canterlot, If you catch my meaning.”

“N–No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. Did not want to hear that! He was a traitor and a murderer. Celestia personally ordered him to be brought to her. He’s the first bounty in Equestria to read ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.’ Always the nice ones,” Twilight said, muttering the last sentence under her breath.

Redheart was quiet for a moment, “Did she say what he did besides treason? Any specifics?”

“No, and she avoided specifics when I asked her about them,” Twilight answered morosely.

“Then don’t believe it,” Redheart said simply.

Twilight’s brain broke and she stood in the hallway, trying as hard as she could to process what was just said.

The best she got was: “What?”

Redheart looked her in the eyes, “What does your brain say?”

“He’s a traitor and a scoundrel,” Twilight answered slowly.

“What does your heart say?” Redheart asked simply.

“I... I don’t know,” Twilight admitted. "Part of me wants to just believe Celestia, but part of me says that I need to understand more about what happened. I know I should just go with what Celestia says—”

“No,” Redheart interrupted, “You shouldn’t. That’s the problem with Equestria, everypony lets the Princesses do the thinking for them. Think for yourself, learn what this Streak did that was so bad that he had the ‘Dead or’ tacked on to his 'Alive.' There’s a reason she’s not telling you what he did. Maybe he’s actually not what she says he is and is an escaped sex slave looking for a new mistress,” she added with a wink.

“I didn’t realize that hooves could blush,” Redheart commented with amusement.

* * *

Twilight sat in the corner. She just couldn’t win. No matter who she talked to they always managed to tease her about her redness. Even Fluttershy suggested sunblock.

"But honestly dear," Rarity was saying. "what even caused this new bust of embarrassment? Did you see a cute stallion on the walk over?"

"Rarity!" Twilight exclaimed, exasperated,

"What? Rainbow can't seriously be the only one of us to actually have some fun!" Rarity pouted. "That's not any fun. So Twilight, any stallions in your life?"

"Not anymore," Twilight grumbled to herself.

Rarity heard, much to Twilight's chagrin, "and where is this mystery stallion that was in your life and why have I not met him?"

"He's on the run for treason and murder," Twilight mumbled.

Rarity was shocked, "The stallion that tried to kill one of the Princesses?"

"I didn't exactly know that at the time!" Twilight snapped. "He seemed like a decent guy up until the whole Celestia incident," she sighed. "And I'm confused as to why Celestia won't even tell me what he did besides evasions and excuses! It's frustrating."

"Attempted murder of the crown not enough for you, Twi?" Rainbow asked.

"If that was all he did she should have no problem telling me because I knew already instead of giving me this 'state secret, stop asking' thing she's been doing."

"We could always ask him," Pinkie interjected.

"Where would we find him? He seems smart enough to not hide out in an obvious spot like the alley we lost him in," Rainbow mentioned.

* * *

Streak scratched his head, maybe hiding in the alley they had seen him in last was not a good idea. He stood up and slunk back along his earlier escape route, going the opposite direction when he hit the inebriated mare still laying on the ground. He looked around for a place to hide for the night, before something caught his eye.

The Everfree would work swimmingly.

* * *

"There is no ‘we’, Rainbow Dash. You're staying in the hospital overnight," Nurse Redheart interjected with a tone eliciting no argument.

Obviously that didn't stop the prismatic mare, "Yeah, no. If my friends are going after a murderer, I'm not letting them go without me."

"And would getting your friends in trouble for pursuing state secrets after being ordered to let them drop help them at all?" Redheart asked.

Rainbow froze, "You wouldn't."

"I take the safety of my patients very seriously, Rainbow Dash. I would.”

Rainbow sighed, “I guess you guys are going on without me,” she grumbled. “not that I like it. Maybe you’ll get lucky and he’ll be afraid of the dark or something.”

“Rainbow Dash! The stallion who attempted to kill one of the Princesses will not be afraid of the dark! That is absolutely ridiculous!” Rarity chastised.

* * *

Streak trembled in a clearing, covering his head with his hooves. Stupid, stupid, STUPID! He had forgotten how the dark had affected him, embarrassingly enough.

Heh, Streak thought. Wonder what Twilight would think of me if she could see me now?

Suddenly he heard talking.

She wouldn’t be laughing at you, the voice said. She’d understand.

Streak froze. That was not his usual inner voice talking. This voice was not masculine and sexy, it was genderless and sorta creepy. Who was this?

Call me the Librarian, the voice responded. And don’t worry, I’m here to help you.

Help me do what? Streak asked.

You’ll be told in due time, the Librarian replied. For now, make sure to tell Twilight.

Streak waited for the end of the sentence, but it never came. Tell her what? he prompted.

Everything.

* * *

Check the forest that accepts no chains, you will find him there.

That was it. No preamble, no staying after to chat. While by the edge of town, Twilight felt a foreign presence invade her mind, causing her to have a minor heart attack. It said one sentence, then it left.

“Twilight, dear?” Rarity’s voice broke through her thoughts. “He’s not in Ponyville, or if he is, he’s well hidden.”

“The forest that accepts no chains,” Twilight murmured, “If you’re chained you’re not free. If you have no chains you’re always free. Always free. Always... Forever! The forest that is forever free! The Everfree Forest!” Twilight whirled around to look at Rarity, “He’s in the Everfree Forest!”

“Twilight, what are you talking about?” Rarity asked, confused.

“No time!” Twilight started running for the forest, “Grab the girls and find me!”

“Twilight! Stop and think!” Rarity tried in vain to stop her friend, but she was already gone into the dark of the Everfree forest.

* * *

Streak calmed himself enough to look around at his clearing. The foreboding trees were encircling a picturesque meadow. The meadow itself surrounded a strange rock. It was taller than Celestia at the tip of her horn and coated in intricate engravings.

As he walked closer to the strange rock, he noticed that the engravings were of a unicorn. This unicorn was depicted vanquishing armies of monsters single handedly while a small army of non-unicorns cowered behind him. It showed him banishing a strange being that looked like someone sewed together many different animals. In another part, this unicorn was pictured sealing away a shadowy unicorn that had other ponies in chains.

Every subsequent picture was like following a history. It ended with this unicorn opening a glowing hole in the fabric of the universe, and disappearing.

Streak glared at the rock, knowing full well who was depicted. He also knew that this rat bastard deserved nothing of what he got.

Cease your reminiscing, she approaches, the Librarian scolded. Although she is not alone.

The Librarian’s words were accompanied by the sound of panicked panting and crashing. Streak turned to face the cacophony to see Twilight’s clearly panicked flight from a timberwolf.

Five minutes, Streak thought. Just five minutes without something happening.

* * *

Run.

That one word dominated Twilight’s mind. There was no ‘fight or’, there was just flight. Her hooves carried her as fast as she could go, but she knew that she would tire soon. Why didn’t she wait for her friends? All of the sudden she felt a presence muscle its way through the wards around her mind again.

Worry not, Mare of Magic, you are useful to me yet.

And with that, the voice left again.

“What... is the point... of having wards... around... your brain... if somepony can just... waltz in like it’s... nothing?” Twilight panted rhetorically. A snapping sound from behind reminded her that there was a tangible threat behind her trying to catch hold of her and eat her. With a terrified ‘eep!’ she redoubled her escape efforts.

Unfortunately, she missed the roots on the ground, causing her to stumble. In that instant she knew she was dead. There was no way she could get out of this. She felt something slam into her side, heard the tearing of flesh as she flew through the air. She landed not five feet from where she was last standing, and was surprised to feel the pain ebb away into nothing quickly.

Shock doesn’t mess around, does it? she asked herself.

Look again, Mare of Magic.

Again the presence left as fast as it came, leaving her confused. Deciding to follow instructions, she looked back at the timberwolf. Shock did not describe her emotions strongly enough when she processed what she saw.

Streak, blood running down his side, stood between her and the timberwolf.

* * *

What the hell are you doing? Streak’s mind screamed at him, She’s the student of Celestia herself! She’ll turn us in in a heartbeat!

So be it, he calmly told himself. I’ll not have more innocent blood on my hooves.

Have it your way, his mind sneered. I’m not going to assist this time. You’re on your own.

With those ominous words, the voice spoke no more.

Streak turned his attention back to the timberwolf and locked eyes with the beast. They both stood there for what felt like minutes, but could have only been seconds, before the wooden monstrosity charged. Streak quickly twisted his body, barely evading a massive bite meant to snap him in half like a twig. Continuing his spin, Streak brought his forehoof up into the timberwolf’s head, using its own momentum to knock it up and to the side. Before it could regain its balance, Streak jumped on its back. It shook like a wet mutt, trying to dislodge him, but he held tight, grinning like a madstallion. Ah, he’d missed this!

Twilight sat to the side, terrified. This stallion, she could believe tried to kill the Princess. The large grin on his face was out of place for the violence he was committing. No matter how hard she tried, she could not avert her eyes.

Streak waited for the timberwolf to stop shaking, then he slammed his hoof into the back of its neck as hard as he could. The timberwolf let out a whimper of pain to go with the resounding crack heard throughout the immediate area. Streak’s grin only widened as he brought his hoof down on the weakened spot on the timberwolf’s neck again and again, only stopping when a thud announced the separation of the monster’s head from its body. Jumping off the toppling body, streak called out, laughing, “Timber!” As the body that was formerly a timberwolf hit the ground near the head both the head and the corpse started twitching.

“No you don’t!” Streak cackled, punting the head into the surrounding forest. The twitching didn’t stop. He turned to see how Twilight was, and his smile fell at the look of horror on her face.

“Twilight—” he was interrupted with a slap to the face. “I guess I deserved that.”

“What was that?!” Twilight screamed at him. “Did you honestly enjoy killing that timberwolf?!”

Streak was still rubbing his face, “It’s not dead, just disabled. Knock off the head, and it will have to—” This time he was punched full on in the face.

“You talk about it so casually! What is wrong with you?” Twilight screamed in his face. “That was a living being! I heard the pain you caused it! How sadistic do you have to be to enjoy dealing that much pain to any creature?”

“Well—” Another slap. Streak was getting tired of these.

“That was rhetorical, and I’m not done yet!” Twilight interrupted.

“I am,” Streak said. This time, when Twilight swung at him, he dodged and caught it. Twilight’s eyes widened. She didn’t even get close. He was letting her hit him.

Almost makes you wonder if he’s more of a sadist or a masochist.

“Twilight, we can talk about this later, but for now? Get in the clearing.”

Twilight was stunned by this sudden show of assertiveness. Every conversation they’d had before, he let her take the lead. Now suddenly he was both deadly serious and in control. She wasn’t sure if she liked it or not.

* * *

“She what?” Applejack yelled. “And ya didn’t stop ‘er?”

“I tried! We have to hurry! That forest is absolutely dreadful, not to mention that Streak fellow,” Rarity moaned, dancing on her hooves in impatience.

Pinkie Pie was uncharacteristically quiet, she just sat there as if listening to something. Suddenly she got a huge grin. “Come on, girls! She’s safe, and I know how to find her.

* * *

In a meadow in the forest, sits a monument to one undeserving. In this clearing sits the Mare of Magic and her guardian. Travel swiftly, Mare of Laughter, for there are terrible dangers that masquerade as friendly faces. I have tuned your foresight to allow you to get your group there in one piece. I can offer no more assistance. The rest it up to you.

* * *

“Whatever do you mean darling?” Rarity seemed stumped. This was not normal odd for Pinkie.

“Yeah, how d’ya know?” Applejack inquired.

“Pinkie sense!” Pinkie giggled. “Let’s go!” With that Pinkie bounced off in the direction of the Everfree.

Applejack and Rarity shared a look before shrugging. Might as well. It was, after, all better than nothing.

Fluttershy sat in the road, forgotten as usual, “Uhm, girls?” She tried to get their attention. Realizing that they didn’t hear her, Fluttershy whimpered and followed closely behind her friends.

* * *

Twilight gasped when she realized where they were. This was the long lost burial place of Starswirl the Bearded! Well, sort of a burial site, as there was no body recovered. She bounced like an excited filly, turning to face Streak. “Do you know where we are?” She bounced around. “This is the Starswirl Memorial! Nopony’s seen it in one hundred years!”

Streak looked at her bouncing around and snorted. He turned to the memorial and spat. “I’d have preferred if it was lost for another century.”

Twilight stopped her bouncing, looking at Streak in horror. “What?” she half whispered. “Starswirl the Bearded was the greatest unicorn to ever live!” Her volume raised as she continued. “He came up with hundreds of spells by himself, not to mention his work with dimensional theory alone shaped the way entire we use magic!”

“Starswirl was a sadistic bastard who was very good at acting,” Streak looked her in the eye. “He enjoyed causing pain more than anyone I have ever met.”

“You talk as if you knew him!” Twilight accused. “Starswirl the Bearded died nearly a thousand years ago trying to traverse dimensions!”

“I spent a thousand Faust damn years in one of those alternate dimensions because of that rat bastard!” Streak snapped. “Do you know how it feels to have your very soul get torn to shreds over a thousand years? Do you want to know what it feels like beg for death or insanity every damn second of every damn day? Do you want to know what this supposedly great unicorn did to me? To all of us? Brick and Ironhoof?”

Twilight looked at him in horror again. “I don’t believe you!” she exclaimed. “That’s impossible!”

Streak tapped his head, “Want to get a good look into my head, Twilight? Want to see that I’m telling the truth? Go ahead.”

Twilight froze. Invading the mind of another pony was the most illegal thing that a unicorn could do. If done without permission, the unicorn loses their magic and is exiled from Equestria. “Do you understand what you’re offering?”

“I Streak of Canterlot, unrepentant rebel, hereby give permission for Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and personal protege of Princess Celestia, Guardian of the Sun, to read my damn mind already.”

* * *

Walking up to the clearing at that exact moment were three mares. Rarity froze at that statement, “Girls, we need to hurry.”

“What, tha whole mind fiddlin’ thing? Twi won’t need our help,” Applejack said confidently, trusting the ability of her unicorn companion.

“Rarity, it’s only illegal if he’s not willing,” Fluttershy muttered.

Pinkie remained silent.

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Rarity fretted. “She feels what he felt, sees what he sees. For all intents and purposes, she is living his memories.”

Applejack’s eyes shot open. Fluttershy let out a characteristic ‘eep!’. Pinkie, however, didn’t react.

“Pinkie darling, are you there?” Rarity asked, worried.

“Three,” was all she said in reply.

“Three?” Fluttershy asked, confused.

“Two.”

“Wait just a minute, what are you counting down for?”

“One.”

“Pinkie—” Rarity began.

“Now,” Pinkie’s voice preceded Twilight’s scream of terror, pain, and betrayal by fractions of a second.

“Damn it, Twilight! I told you not to look at those!”

Twilight looked up at Streak through tear filled eyes. She uttered one word, “Celestia?”

Streak merely nodded.

Twilight shakily stood. She looked Streak in the eye, “You used to be a pegasus.”

Author's Notes:

Cliffhanger! Muahahaha!

But no, seriously, it took me long enough. Six months to write a chapter. I'm pitiful. Hope this chapter at least pretends to show six months of work.

-HB

1.4 Everything I Learned, I Learned in War

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

“This is troublesome. It appears that the Weaver of Fates seeks to find you and snuff you out before you can complete your work. No matter, he is already too late. The strands of fate are already tangling.”

Fluttershy couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She just stared. And stared. And screamed. Oh, did she scream. And scream. And scream. That one sentence played through her head. Over and over. “You used to be a pegasus.” At first she had sat down in disbelief. No, this stallion had no wings. He had no scars on his side from wings. Then Twilight had dispelled the illusion hiding Streak’s scars. There was a thick, long scar along his side, running from shoulder to hip. His wings weren’t just removed, they were torn off, and violently.

And Fluttershy had screamed. And screamed. And screamed.

No, Streak couldn’t be a pegasus. Pegasai have wings. They have wings. Her vision narrowed until she was just looking at the scar across his side. This didn’t happen. Not in Equestria. Finally, mercifully, her vision blackened.

* * *

Streak looked at Fluttershy’s unconscious form with a sad expression on his face. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want to drag innocents into his fight. He wanted the fight to be between him and her, but instead Twilight and her friends were drug into this whole mess. Already, he had mentally scarred one of them, possibly for life.

“We need to get her back to Ponyville,” Streak said, breaking the silence that had descended in the absence of Fluttershy’s terrified wailing. “Get her out of this forest.”

“Dear,” Rarity disagreed. “Our first priority is getting something to cover that nasty gash. As much as it pains me to say it, Fluttershy can wait. You can’t.”

As if by magic, Streak felt a stinging in his side. He shrugged, “I have about five minutes of adrenaline left, and we have nothing to use as bandages.”

Applejack butted into the conversation, “Weren’t we going to find this feller for the Princess? Shouldn’t returning him to prison be the first priority?”

Pinkie spoke up, “I don’t think we’re turning him in, are we Twilight?”

By this time, Twilight had returned from being sick in the forest just outside of the clearing. She looked at Pinkie in surprise, “How did you know?”

“I read ahead in the chapter, silly!” Pinkie replied.

Streak, choosing to ignore Pinkie’s Pinkieness, hoofed Twilight a fair sized branch. “I’m going to be useless in about four minutes, so if we run into trouble, hit it with this.”

Rarity looked appalled, “We will do no such thing! That is so—” She trailed off when Twilight picked it up in her magic and gave it a test swing. “—uncouth,” she finished lamely. “Really, darling?”

“There is much worse coming than hitting a timberwolf with a stick,” Streak remarked.

“I’d rather be safe than sorry, Rarity,” Twilight replied.

“Are you going to be okay?” Streak asked her. “I know what you saw, and it isn’t pretty.”

“I’ll have time for a mental breakdown later,” Twilight replied calmly. “For now, I’m just focused on getting us out of the forest.” Streak looked at her sadly. “Rarity, could you put Fluttershy on your back?”

“Ah think I’m goin’ to be a little better at that than Rares, no offence,” Applejack commented.

“You’ll be needed to carry Streak. He’s a little heavier than Fluttershy,” Twilight said. At Applejack’s glare she continued; “I know you don’t like or trust him, but just go with it.”

“The fact ya think he’ll be carried is what worries me,” Applejack snapped at her.

“Applejack,” Twilight scolded, “He jumped between me and a timberwolf’s claws. I think he deserves a little bit of trust.”

Applejack grumbled, “Still don’t like ‘im.”

Even with her complaints, she agreed to carry him, but only if he couldn’t walk himself. After about five minutes of travel through the Everfree, Streak grunted and stumbled. When Twilight tried to figure out what was wrong, he just waved it off as nothing. After about two minutes of watching him grit his teeth and force himself to walk, Applejack had enough.

“Alright, partner! Up you go!” Applejack called out.

“What do you—” Streak started to ask. Applejack cut him off by ducking under his barrel and lifting him off the ground. “Wha–hey! Put me down!”

“No can do,” she replied. “Yer in no condition to be walkin' right now.”

The rest of the trip to Fluttershy’s cottage was filled with indignant grumbling.

* * *

Fluttershy opened her eyes to see that she was still in her cottage. She sighed in relief. That was all just a nightmare. She’d have to talk with Rarity about it. It felt so... real.

She her bedroom door open. This was unusual. She heard somepony walk in, and turned her head to see Rarity walking in with a wet rag.

“Oh, Fluttershy! You’re awake!” Rarity exclaimed. “How do you feel?”

Fluttershy stared at Rarity in horror. Finally she answered Rarity’s question with her own quiet one, “That wasn’t a nightmare, was it?”

“I’m afraid not, dear,” Rarity draped the cool rag over Fluttershy’s forehead. “We’ve only been at your cottage for not five minutes. Streak’s about to start his story, if you want to join us.”

No. No. No. No no no no no. Say no! “Sure, I’ll be right out.” WHY?

Rarity smiled kindly, “I’ll tell them to wait for you.”

* * *

Dear Princess Celestia,

Spike again. Twilight’s at it again. She and her friends are tearing the town apart looking for Streak, although I personally suspect he skipped town. I’m worried, however, if they do find him, what would he do to them?

Your Faithful Student’s Number One Assistant,
Spike

* * *

Streak smiled encouragingly as Fluttershy joined the semicircle that had formed in front of his prone form. Twilight had taken this rest period to study him, now that she had the opportunity to. His coat was the grey of charcoal, while his mane was black as night. The exception to this was the rainbow streak running down the center of it.

His cutie mark, however, was definitely interesting. It looked almost exactly like Shining Armor’s in shape, but in color it varied widely. It was a black shield with a rainbow stripe running down the center. Over the shield were three stars, one yellow, one red, and one blue.

Rarity, however, noticed her staring. “Darling, you know it is impolite to stare,” she chided.

Twilight turned bright red, “I wasn’t staring! This is the first opportunity I have had to actually see what he looked like!”

Rarity chuckled, “Sure, dear. We believe you.” She turned her attention to Streak. “That is an interesting cutie mark, however. We know someone who has almost the same one.”

“I wouldn’t expect that in the next thousand years there won’t be at least one more pony with a cutie mark similar to mine,” Streak replied. “There really isn’t that many shapes you can make with one.”

Fluttershy spoke up next, “What do the stars represent?”

“Have you heard the saying ‘Service above all’? The yellow star is the exact color of Celestia’s magic. The blue one is for Luna,” Streak shifted on the floor to offer a better view of his cutie mark.

Pinkie walked into the room with snacks, back closer to her more bubbly side. She spoke up, “What about the red one?”

Streak looked at her sideways, “Faust.”

“Who?” Pinkie asked.

Streak froze in place. He stared at Pinkie for a second, then looked to the other girls. Seeing them all clueless, he exclaimed, “That bitch!”

Twilight flattened her ears, “Who are you talking about?”

Streak growled, “Celestia. Has she even mentioned Faust to you, Twilight?”

“Not once.”

“Have any of you even heard of Faust?” he asked.

No answer. Streak was at a loss for words. How could none of them even have heard of Faust?

“How about you start by explaining from the beginning?” Applejack suggested.

* * *

Faust and her Father were traveling in the realm between realms when She had an idea.

“Father,” She said. “Could I make a new world?”

Now her Father, who had made all the other worlds, was pleasantly surprised that his Daughter wanted to follow in his hoofsteps. He agreed, as long as She let Him help, and stuck the first world she made till its end. Faust readily agreed, excited at making a new world with her Father.

They gathered up Threads of Fate to Weave into a new world, which is the world we now know. They worked together to set up the fate of the world. This fate was written in the Tapestry of Fate.

To keep this realm on track, Faust and her Father created four Guardians. Celestia was the first, and was the Guardian of the light, but overt, side of Order. Discord was made next as the Guardian of the dark and overt side of Chaos. Luna was made next to counter Celestia’s overt control on Order, and as such was given control over the dark, subtle side of Order. Finally, Faust and her Father created Chance. Chance was the last bit to balance the others. He worked with Celestia to counter the darkness of the other two, with Discord to counter the Order of the Sisters, and with Luna to balance the overt control the eldest two Guardians had over their elements. These four were tasked with keeping the world going according to the Tapestry, and to keep the Harmony between Terra and the other realms.

Faust, true to her word to her Father, stayed in the realm. She keeps the sun and moon in their cycles, and keeps a record of everything that has ever been done or is currently being done.

* * *

That is an adequate, if in some areas false, accounting of that story.

The whole room, besides Streak, jumped and looked around. Twilight and Fluttershy gave simultaneous adorable ‘eep!’s

“You all hear her too?” he asked.

“Who is that, and how does she keep getting past my wards?” Twilight exclaimed.

I am the Librarian, and my power is greater than even your Princess’s. Your wards are nothing before me.

“Alright, all bragging aside, the Librarian has informed me that I have to tell all you girls everything,” Streak mentioned.

Just the Mare of Magic, the others are unnecessary.

“As I said, ‘all you girls’,” Streak shot at the Librarian.

Mortals. I will bring you further instructions later.

“Yes, Pinkie?”

“Start from the beginning, and tell us everything!”

* * *

One thousand years ago...

* * *

I sat on top of Canterlot’s walls, watching the approaching army. This was no normal army, it was Discord’s army. Stretching farther than the horizon were monstrous creatures not seen before the Chaos War. Manticores and cockatraices, dragons and minotaurs, even griffons and hydras.

* * *

“So what you’re telling me is that manticores, cockatraices, dragons, minotaurs, hydras, and giffons are all creations of Discord?” Twilight asked, obviously disbelieving.

“To be honest? We’re not sure,” Streak chuckled at Twilight’s perplexed face at that comment. “I said we’d never seen them, not that they didn’t exist. We believe he made manticores, cockatraices, and hydras, but dragons, minotaurs, and griffons are sentient. To the best of our knowledge, sentience is out of Discord’s reach.”

“Let him continue with the story!” Pinkie exclaimed. “It’s just about to get good!”

* * *

“Looks like they’re bringing in dragons first!” I called out. “Ready the battlemages! Starswirl, where are you?”

“Look behind you, my friend,” a deep voice resounded behind me.

“Ah, there you are,” I turned around. Starswirl had been my friend for years. He was a deep purple, with light grey hair, neither of which were generally considered attractive. Stop pouting, Twilight. I said deep purple, not lavender. Stop laughing, Pinkie. He tended to be mildly sociopathic, honestly having trouble understanding most emotions, but he was quickly accepted into my circle of friends. “How many of your battlemages can deal with a dragon?”

“Any of them can deal with a small dragon, but once they get big, we’re down to a few dozen,” Starswirl replied.

“That’s a few dozen more than we had last time we tried to repel him,” I acted more confidently than I felt. Honestly, I was terrified. We lost the capital at Everfree without much of a fight, and now we had to defend the only large city remaining in Terra. We were down to the one city I had hoped would never be attacked. I had grown up in the Canterlotian streets, and it pained me to think of losing the city.

Starswirl put his hoof on my withers, “Do not let your emotions cloud your judgement, my friend. If the city is lost, we must abandon it. There is no other choice.”

“If we have to abandon Canterlot, then more than the city is lost,” I adjusted my posture. “Space the dragon worthy battlemages equidistant along the wall, and have the lesser battlemages reinforce the lines. We cannot afford to let cockatraices slip past while we deal with the dragons. The panic alone will kill thousands.”

Starswirl nodded, “It shall be done, my friend.”

‘My friend’. That was Starswirl’s name for me, more than anything. He used it all the time when talking with me, but never referred to anyone else using it. He first started using it during basic training, when I was the only recruit to even talk to him. Judgemental bastards.

“Brick, Ironhoof, reporting for orders!” Ironhoof said in his usual jovial tone. I turned to face them. Brick and Ironhoof were in charge of our Earthwalkers, our earth pony brethren. Brick was aptly named, with his coat the color of bricks and mane the color of mortar. He even had the outwards personality of a brick. Looks are deceiving, however, he was one of the most kind stallions I have ever met. Ironhoof, however, was outwardly his opposite. His coat was a bright white, and his mane was a pale yellow. He seemed to bounce wherever he went, bringing a smile the faces of any soldier he passed by.

I couldn’t help myself, I smiled, “Brick, your soldiers are needed on the wall. We have battlemages that are in need of protection.”

Starswirl cut in, “I have given the battlemages that are capable of taking down dragons red scarves,” at Ironhoof’s sly look, he deadpanned. “It’s the best we have on hoof.”

I decided to intervene before this became one of their regular arguments, “Make sure that the battlemages with red scarves are given priority, but don’t just leave the others hanging. In addition, make sure you reinforce the group at the gate regularly so that the land forces can’t get through”

Brick nodded, “Eeyup. Not my first rodeo.”

“Ironhoof, your soldiers will be in the city, prepared for if Brick and Starswirl’s forces cannot hold the wall. I want Surprise and Blossom to be the first on the evacuation caravans if it comes to that,” I dictated.

Both Brick and Ironhoof gave me a nod of thanks. Surprise was Ironhoof’s daughter, and Blossom was Brick’s. Even though they didn’t show it, I knew they were worried. Both their wives were killed during the fall of Everfree.

“Where are we evacuating to?” Ironhoof asked, in one of his rare serious moments.

As much as it pains me to say it, we need to leave Equestria, “Take them past the western mountains. If Discord takes Canterlot, we need to withdraw completely from Equestria. Start somewhere new and prepare for the betrayal of another Guardian.”

That statement was met with somber faces. Nopony wanted to believe that it could happen, most of all me, but we had to be prepared. Discord was wreaking havoc even while being opposed by Celestia, Luna, and Chance. I shuddered to think what would happen if Chance decided to join his older brother.

Starswirl was the first to speak, “What if it’s—”

“Doubly then. You have your orders, I’m going to check in with the Sisters.” With that, I turned around and left.

* * *

Streak yawned, “It’s getting late, and I’m getting tired. I’ll continue this tomorrow.”

Twilight nodded understandingly, “I can teleport us to my library. I have a spare bed in the basement that you could use.”

Applejack looked at Twilight crossways, “And what if Celestia pays Ponyville a visit? She don’t seem as fond of Streak as ya are, Twi.”

“The last place she’d look for him is in the house of her student,” Twilight responded.

“And when she does look? What then?” Applejack snapped.

Streak stepped between the two, turning to face Applejack, “I understand your hesitance. Where would you like me to sleep? I’m open to pretty much everything.”

“Ah have a barn ya can sleep in,” she replied. “It’s not nearly as comfy as a bed, but it’s out of the way.”

“That would be the first place I would look, and by extension, Celestia would check there first,” Streak replied. “If it’s as you say, it is fairly out of the way and would be the perfect place to hide out for a night.”

Applejack grumbled, “Fine. Go to the stinking library.”

Twilight said goodbye to her friends, fired up her horn, and she and Streak vanished in a flash of light.

* * *

“Rainbow Dash,” Nurse Redheart tried again. “It’s time to wake up.”

Just like last time, Rainbow Dash mumbled something probably rude, snuggled into her bed, and fell asleep.

“Rainbow Dash,” Redheart said again. “You’re allowed out of the hospital now. Wake up!”

Rainbow’s head shot up. “I’m allowed to leave?”

Redheart nodded. “We conducted magical scans throughout the night, you healed fine. I already did all the paperwork. You’re free to go.”

Rainbow shot out the window that Redheart had thoughtfully left open with a shouted ‘I’m FREE!’

Redheart sighed. It was going to be another one of those days.

* * *

Spike woke up with a start. He had fallen asleep writing a letter to the Princess, and had forgotten to send it! He looked around panicked for the letter, checking on top of the table, under the table, on the floor, behind Twilight, on the other table. Wait...

“Twilight!” Spike yelled, hugging the lavender mare. “You’re okay!”

“Of course I am!” she giggled.

“I had thought something horrible had happened to you!” Spike spoke into her fur. “I’m glad he didn’t find you!”

“No, Spike. He didn’t find me,” Twilight began hesitantly.

Spike pulled his head back, “Twiiiiilight?”

“Is the little guy awake yet? I want to get this over with as fast as possible,” a voice called out from the next room over.

“That isn’t... You didn’t,” Spike couldn’t believe it. “TWILIGHT!”

Twilight mumbled, “That could have been better timed.”

“That could have been better timed,” Streak grumbled as he walked into the main room of the library.

Spike looked from Twilight, to Streak, to Twilight again. He wore his confusion plain on his face.

“All will be explained,” Streak began. “But first we have to wait for your other friends to get here.”

* * *

Rainbow looked around in confusion. Fluttershy wasn’t at her cottage, nor anywhere in the general vicinity. Rarity was not at the Boutique. Pinkie wasn’t at Sugarcube Corner. Now Big Macintosh was telling her that Applejack had gone to a get together with her friends at Twilight’s.

“Just missed ‘er. Finished her chores and left not ten minutes ago.” That was as much as he said on that subject, continuing to buck apple trees.

Maybe I can catch up to her if I fly fast, Rainbow thought. Heh, ‘if’.

Within a minute, Rainbow had caught up with Applejack. She had a devious idea. She flew silently until she was right behind an oblivious Applejack.

“Hey AJ, why is everyone gathering without me?” Rainbow shouted right into Applejack’s ear.

Applejack bucked Rainbow right in the shoulder, downing the brash pegasus. “RAINBOW DASH!” Applejack yelled. “Do not startle me like that! Are ya okay?”

Rainbow pulled herself up gingerly, “Geez AJ, someone’s on edge today.”

Applejack looked at her ashamedly, “Sorry, it’s just that Twi’s got us a good conversation we got to have. You’ll want to be there.”

“Well, then we should go,” Rainbow said before taking off. She grunted and landed within seconds, “Guess I’m not flying for a little bit.”

“Sorry, RD,” Applejack appologized. Maybe this is a good thing, she’s gonna charge Streak the second she sees ‘im.

* * *

The second Rainbow saw Streak, she charged. However, he was ready for this. Pegasus met former pegasus, and within seconds, Rainbow was pinned beneath a pile of books.

“Was that really necessary?” Rarity eyed the prismatic pegasus trapped beneath a literary mountain.

“Did you see it ending any other way?” Streak asked.

“Are you okay, Rainbow? Speak to us. Uhm... if that’s okay with you...” Fluttershy sat by the pile.

Spike grumbled, “Gonna hafta put those back in place again.”

Twilight scolded, “Spike, grammar!”

Spike rolled his eyes, “I’m going to have to place those books in a logical fashion on the shelves where they belong.”

Pinkie jumped into the air, yelling, “QUIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEET!”

The whole room stared at the pink party pony.

“Better, it was so confusing reading this chapter when everypony kept doing things at the same time,” Pinkie ignored the stares that comment brought. “First, we address the Rainbow issue, then we get back to the story!”

Rainbow groaned.

Within minutes, Rainbow was caught up with where everyone else was, story wise. She agreed to not attack Streak, if only for now. She was still sore about the wing thing. Then they got to the whammy.

“He was a WHAT?” Rainbow exclaimed.

Streak unwound his bandage to show her the scars on his side. Rainbow took this surprisingly well.“And how did we not see those before?” she asked.

“He had an illusion placed over them to keep them from being seen,” Twilight started to explain. “Wait... Where did that come from?”

Streak shrugged, “I helped a mare repair a cart, and in return she cast that illusion.”

That was a high quality illusion, Twilight thought, I’ll have to find out who that was after this is all over.

“I guess that explains how you knew about,” Rainbow trailed off with a hoof wave to her wing. “That,” she finished lamely. “I can’t believe that you’d even do that!”

Streak grinned, “The only rule to war is that there are none. History is written by the victors, and I intend to be the one writing history this time.”

* * *

I landed in the courtyard of the mansion that had been repurposed into a command headquarters. I returned the salutes of the guards around me before walking into the main hall. Inside the lavish home was the last five members of our command structure. Celestia stood over a map of Canterlot and the surrounding area, listening to Wonderbolt’s scouting reports.

* * *

“Wait, wait, wait,” Rainbow interrupted. “Wonderbolt scouting reports, as in the Wonderbolts? As in the best flyers in Equestria Wonderbolts?”

Streak gave her a blank look, “His name was Wonderbolt.”

Rainbow deflated, “Oh, I had hoped you had met the Wonderbolts.”

“Rainbow Dash, he’s a thousand years displaced, remember?” Twilight reminded.

Rainbow blushed, “Er, of course I remembered!” At her friends knowing glances, her blush intensified, “Just continue with the story already!”

* * *

“As you can see,” I heard Wonderbolt telling Celestia, “there is no true central command. They’re ordered where to attack, and they do it on their own.”

Celestia pondered this for a moment, “This is to our advantage. They may have superior numbers, but we have tactics and training. We have a chance.”

A figure from the shadowy corner piped up, “We’d have more than a chance if you just let the three of us attack my brother’s army.”

“Chance, we all know that the second we do that, Discord will reveal himself. If that happens, the battle is lost,” Celestia replied.

“I don’t think you understand my brother,” Chance said stepping into the light. This was the first real time I had the chance to see him, and was he strange. He stood just shy of six feet tall, he was a pale cream color, with almost no fur on his body. The only fur that I could see was a mat of greying brown not even an inch long on top of his head. His face was smushed flat, and his blue eyes had a mischievous glint in them that never seemed to go away, no matter how serious he was being. “He revels in doing what is unexpected.”

“Which is why we should plan for him to do what is expected, because that would be the last thing he would do,” Celestia tried to reason.

“This is why it is impossible to plan against Discord,” Chance exploded in exasperation. “He does what is unexpected, so we plan for him to do that, but then what is expected is what we’re not expecting, so we plan for that. Then we realize that if we’re expecting him to do what is expected, therefore he must be doing something unexpected. This cycle will never end as long as you try to rationalize my brother’s brain.”

I cleared my throat, “I believe that Chance is correct,” I interjected. “We cannot plan against Discord, so we won’t. We take a chance,”—I grinned at my wordplay,—“that whatever we set up can push back Discord. Wonderbolt, are the pegasai prepared to combat the griffons?”

“As prepared as they can be right now. As long as the battlemages deal with the dragons and cockatraices, they’ll be fine,” Wonderbolt reported.

“As soon as we have aerial superiority, I need you to start dive bombing the land army. All we need is to push them back enough to go on the offensive,” I told him. I turned to Celestia, who was pouting, probably because I hadn’t taken her side in her argument. I walked up and nuzzled her, “I’ll make it up to you, Celly. Promise.”

Celestia got a predatory grin on her face, “Oh yes you will.”

* * *

Twilight sat staring at Streak, who grinned. “Might have left that part out.”

Her friends (minus Pinkie) wore faces of shock to match hers. Rarity was the first to recover, “Applejack?”

“He ain’t lyin’,” the orange farm mare said in disbelief.

“Girls,” Pinkie interjected, “I think he broke Twilight and Fluttershy.”

After a few minutes spent bringing Twilight and Fluttershy back from their statue impersonations, Streak continued.

* * *

“Sister,” Luna called out from the next room, “If you’re done flirting, we need your opinion on something.

Celestia blushed, but walked into the other room. I followed behind her, wanting to see what the other team had come up with.

Luna sat at another table, going over a different set of reports with a pony that could have been my brother. He had the same charcoal coat and black mane, but while I was a pegasus, he was a unicorn.

“Ah, what news from our spies, Sombra?” Celestia asked.

* * *

“SOMBRA?!” The six ponies and one dragon vocally assaulted Streak.

Streak rubbed his poor ears, “I take it you know of him?”

Spike spoke up, “Know of him? We beat him hard!”

Rainbow snickered, “Yeah, I don’t think he’s coming back this time.”

Twilight saw how fast Streak’s face went flat, and realized her friends’ mistake. She tried to run damage control, but was too late.

“Is he dead?” That was Streak’s simple question.

Rarity shuddered, “After what happened to him? I hope so.”

Streak stood up, “This will continue later. I need to be alone.” He walked over to the stairs down, “Call me whenever food is ready, Twilight.”

Twilight listened as the door closed, and his hoofsteps faded as he walked down the stairs. She turned to look at her friends, deciding to run belated damage control, “From now on, when he masks his emotions like he did, we stop going down that conversation path, yes? Now, I’m going to go downstairs,” THUNK. “Right now. You girls think before you speak, okay? You too Spike.” THUNK.

Twilight left her dumbfounded friends in her living room and went down the stairs, accompanied by the thunking sound. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, her hunch about the source was proved right. Streak was punching one of the walls where there were no books or machinery to damage.

“Streak?” Twilight cautiously called out. “Are you okay?”

Streak kept punching the wall, “Okay? Am I okay? No Twilight,” THUNK. “I’m not okay.”

“Hurting yourself won’t help anything,” Twilight reasoned with him. “Talk. Tell me what’s wrong. I want to help you.”

THUNK. “Every single one of them, Twilight,” Streak said with a level voice. “Every.” THUNK. “Damn.” THUNK. “One.” THUNK. “Of.” THUNK. “THEM!” CRACK.

Twilight jumped over to where Streak had his hoof a centimeter into the wall. She looked at him with worried eyes, quickly noticing the wet blood running down her wall. She wordlessly grabbed her first aid kit and bandaged his hoof. Streak, for his part, just sat there with a vacant look on his face. Twilight looked into his eyes, and his mask cracked. He grabbed Twilight and held on to her desperately, crying like a foal who wants his mother. Twilight held onto him while he cried into her shoulder, letting out a thousand years of pent up pain. Eventually, Streak’s sobs subsided, and he reluctantly pulled away.

“Thank you, Twilight,” he whispered. “Thank you.”

“Feeling better?” she asked him.

“Much,” Streak gave her a red eyed half-grin. Twilight counted that as a victory in her books.

* * *

“What do you think is going on down there?” Rarity asked for the thousandth. “He stopped hitting things two hours ago, but they’re still not up.”

Spike just stared at the wall, like he had been for the last two hours. He had disappointed Twilight. He didn’t know what to do. He’d never disappointed her before. He was just... lost.

“I still think they’re banging,” Rainbow reiterated for the thousandth time. “Why else would they be down there for so long? Hugging it out and letting him cry? Come on, he’s more of a stallion than that!”

“Rainbow, sometimes it’s more brave to let your emotions show around ponies than it is to bottle them up and ignore them,” Fluttershy commented.

“Besides, the focus of the story just came on to us and this isn’t a clopfic, so obviously they couldn’t have been doing the dirty. Duh!” Pinkie bounced around the room.

Rainbow stared at her, “Pinkie Pie, you’re so random!”

“Besides this is a scene transition, we won’t be back until—”

* * *

“I think I’m ready to continue telling my story,” Streak said at length.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Twilight asked, worried for him.

Streak grinned, “I am talking about it, it’s just much later in the story.”

Twilight shook her head, “Alright, let’s head upstairs.”

Twilight’s friends’ heads swung to the door when they heard it open. “—now” Pinkie finished.

Rainbow saw their disheveled look and smirked, “Told you. Banging.”

Twilight flushed bright red and started stuttering, “Wha–no, no! I didn’t! We didn’t! RAINBOW!”

Streak chuckled, “I guess this does look incriminating.”

Rainbow’s face fell, “Damn it.”

Pinkie interrupted, “This chapter is already getting long, and we’re not even half way through the first plotline of your story! Chop chop!”

Streak gave her a look before continuing.

* * *

Sombra looked up from his map, “Discord seems to be taking over or distorting the minds of ponies, turning him to his side. Every report but the last talks of a greying of the mane, tail, eyes, and coat on all ponies in Discord’s armies. The latest report speaks of a few ponies here and there that are not ‘greyed out’. We believe that as the morale of the populace of Equestria falls, ponies are joining Discord willingly out of desperation. There appear to be pockets of order inside Discord controlled areas where towns are being built, indicating that he’s providing housing for the families of those who join him.”

“That is the last thing I would have expected him to do,” Celestia mused.

“Which is why he did it,” I thought out loud, “Damn it, he’s smarter than we give him credit for. He’s not staying back on the attack, he’s disguised. He’ll be at the wall in a matter of hours.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Luna said, “What reason would he have to be at the battle today?”

I ignored her, “Wonderbolt, find Brick, Ironhoof, and Starswirl. Tell them to be watching out for gaps in the army. Discord’s out there, I know it.”

Wonderbolt saluted me and flew out the nearby window. I turned to the Sisters, “All of our scouts have been searching for where Discord is hiding. We’ve expended resources getting past the army for weeks while it advanced, looking for his position.”

Chance picked up on my line of thinking, “What better place to hide than the place that’s so obvious that nobody will bother checking?”

Wonderbolt crashed into the room again, “STREAK! You’re going to want to see this!”

I ran to the window and paled. Right in front of the gates was Discord, and he was riding something out of a nightmare. A giant, translucent purple bear, easily three times the size of the walls protecting Canterlot was sitting in a place where it had no business being on such short notice.

“OH CELLY! I HAVE A NEW FRIEND FOR YOUR GENERAL TO PLAY WITH!” Discord’s cackling voice fell through Canterlot like a wave of madness. I narrowed my eyes, that was my name for her. The dragons had stopped just barely out of reach of the battlemages, and were now circling around Canterlot. “LET’S SEE WHAT ORDER’S BEST CAN DO AGAINST MY NEW PET!”

Celestia walked up next to me and frowned, “Well. I certainly didn’t expect that.”

“Or he could be there. Doing that,” I deadpanned. “Damn it, I couldn’t have been right this time? Wonderbolt, gather up the others,” he saluted, again, and left, again. “Celly, Luna, Chance, now is the time to strike at Discord. The six of us will distract that creature until you can defeat him.”

Celestia looked at me with sad eyes, “Be careful.”

I grinned, “I don’t plan on dying yet.”

* * *

“You’re saying that you took on an Ursa Major, probably the most dangerous creature to ever exist, with six ponies and lived?” Rarity asked skeptically.

“Yes, he did,” Twilight answered for him. At her friend’s looks, she explained, “I saw his memories in the clearing, remember?”

While the rest of her friends just nodded and waited for them to continue, Rainbow blushed. “Of course!” she blurted out again. At her friends amused glances, her blush intensified and she muttered, “Just get on with it.”

* * *

I shook my head before standing up. Damn, that bear could hit hard. Wonderbolt was distracting it by flying around its head, while Brick, Ironhoof, and Sombra worked with soldiers to push back the advancing army. Starswirl stood above me, a worried look in his eyes. His horn was glowing blue, charging a megaspell that should be able to, if not kill the ursa outright, at least push it off the mountain. It would land on the advancing army, simultaneously giving us a breather.

“Are you okay, my friend?” he asked.

“I’m just lucky I hit a weak wooden wall, rather than a strong or stone one, or I’d have been liquified,” I responded, shaking the aches out of my wings. “Nothing important’s broken. I’ll be fine until after the battle. Just keep focusing on that spell.” I walked out of the hole my entrance put into the wall. I spread my wings, but was stopped by a hoof to my shoulder. I looked back to see Starswirl with a concerned expression on his face.

“Don’t get yourself killed,” he said. “The army couldn’t take a hit like that.”

I smirked. I knew him well enough to know that he was worried about me, and just didn’t know how to express it correctly. “As I told sunbutt, I don’t plan on dying yet,” I took off to rejoin the fight against the ursa.

* * *

“Sunbutt?” Twilight asked.

“Later!” Pinkie yelled.

* * *

I pulled myself out from another building, “Damn, this thing is tenacious!” I spread my wings, feeling a twinge, but nothing serious. I took a step, and my leg buckled with a grunt. “Damn leg. Damn ursa. Damn Discord!”

“My friend, you’re hurt!” Starswirl ran up to me.

“Spell! I can still fly!” I yelled back as I flew off. I turned forward just in time to dodge a purple paw the size of a house. “WOAH!” I was knocked spiraling by the current of air following the ursa’s paw. I managed to stabilize before slamming into the ground or another house, thankfully. Those things hurt.

I watched as the ursa returned its attention to Wonderbolt, who was having no problems dodging the ursa’s cumbersome attacks. This was one of the moments where I wished I was faster in the air. If the ursa wasn’t so damn big, it would be a lot easier to dodge as I was. I noticed, however, that Wonderbolt was tiring. It was only a matter of time before it got a good hit in, and I was a lot tougher than he was. He might not survive getting hit by this thing, let alone get up.

Starswirl always said I was part earth pony. ‘Tough, and stubborn,’ he’d said.

I watched Wonderbolt, tracking his slowing movements. Right as the ursa was about to swing the swipe that would hit, I struck. My bodyslam to the side of its head surprised it more than it hurt it, and I managed to delay its attack long enough for Wonderbolt to avoid it. We weren’t going to get any more swings without one of us being taken out.

I looked at the exhausted Wonderbolt, and made my decision. I flew up, and dove at the ursa’s eye. It seemed amused by my brashness, and swiped a paw at me. I collided with a massive wall of purple and was sent reeling. I tried to slow my descent, but the hit had left my right wing at an odd angle. I cried out in pain.

Suddenly, my vision was filled with blue. Starswirl had launched his megaspell.

* * *

“One more interruption, what spell did he use that actually hurt an ursa?” Twilight asked hopefully, quill and parchment out already.

“He just used a focused convection beam, switching the harmonic/dissonance ratio from three to four, and arranged the sigil in a braced hexagonal diagram. This caused it to be hotter and faster, combined with the charging factor of seven turning it from a class B utility spell capable of melting rock into a class A offensive spell that launched superheated plasma hot enough to burn through an ursa,” Streak listed off in his head. “If I got my calculations right.”

Twilight and Rarity stared at him in shock, and Rainbow yawned, “Yep, I understood some of those words.”

“You know spell theory?” Twilight asked, excitedly.

“Why does that surprise you? Every single soldier in the army has to learn basic spell theory!” Streak exclaimed.

Twilight scoffed, “Not anymore, they don’t. Most unicorns don’t even know how their magic works, let alone the fine details of it.”

Streak planted his face into his hoof and was about to speak up when Pinkie interrupted, “Everything we need to know from this conversation is learned. Now could we please. Move. On?”

* * *

I woke up much later to the sound of beeping. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was white. Great. A hospital.

“Oh, you’re awake!” I heard a voice call out. “Now don’t try and move, you have two broken legs, a broken wing, broken ribs, a few lacerations, and second and third degree burns across the right side of your body.”

“I should have aimed that spell better. I apologise, my friend,” I heard Starswirl’s sheepish voice.

I looked at him and groaned, “Better have killed the damn thing.”

Starswirl shook his head, “I put a sizable hole in its chest, and it fled.”

I could hear it in the way he said it. He was leaving out something, and I wanted to know what. “Starswirl..?”

He sighed, “There’s also a sizable hole in the night sky.”

I was silent. The sheer audacity of that statement hit me like a ton of bricks. “Starswirl, how the hell did you put a hole in the Faust-damned sky?”

“Luna believes that Discord tied the ursa to the night sky, and any damage dealt to the ursa will damage the sky accordingly. We’ll know when the ursa is healed because the sky will be too.”

“About Discord, what happened?” I asked, almost fearful of his response.

“Celestia, Luna, and Chance were able to contain him. He’s currently petrified in magical stasis.” I did a double take at that. We stopped Discord?

“So that means we won,” I said in relief. “The Chaos War is over.”

Starswirl’s reply was cryptic, “Yes, and now the hard part begins.”

* * *

“The hard part?” Rainbow asked. “How is what comes next the hard part? We had to fight Discord once, and it was way harder to fight him than it was to deal with the aftermath.”

Streak chuckled, “Think about this, you never really fought him. You got lucky while he was toying with you. If he had wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”

Author's Notes:

This chapter... took too long. I actually completely rewrote the Ursa scene about three times because I didn't like it. Hopefully the next chapter takes less time.

I'll say. I got bored waiting for you to start writing me again! And you know what a bored Pinkie is like!

...Save me.

Also, could someone please explain what caused the sudden surge of upvotes? It wasn't a chapter update, but somehow in between chapters, this story went from 6 and 3 to 13 and 3. I'm not complaining, mind you. Just confused.

-HB

1.5 Respect and Trust

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

“I can see it. You’re broken. There were pieces of you that I couldn’t restore. Pieces of you that I didn’t restore. Yet, in your brokenness, you are whole. You are better. You. Are. Mine.”

It took me weeks, so many boring weeks, to recover. My friends tried to make my weeks more bearable, but after Celestia’s visit, I was allowed no visitors. It’s not my fault that Faust-damned Nurse Redcross walked in! ‘No stressful activities’ my ass!

Anyway, the nurse told me that Luna wanted to see me when I was being released. This confused me, I’ll admit, but I went straight to where Luna was. That is, I followed six different conflicting directions from guards until I eventually wandered into her.

* * *

Streak’s retelling was interrupted by a voice.

Streak heard bellowed into his mind, There’s someone at the door!

Everypony in the room heard the door opening. He immediately settled into a combat stance, while the girls all froze, expecting the worst.

What they got instead was Nurse Redheart. She walked in with some papers held in her mouth. “Rainbow Dash, you still have to sign out. You know—” She shook her head, sighing, “—you can’t just leave out the window. We’ve told you this before!”

The girls stared at Redheart in disbelief. Streak just chuckled, “You remind me of Redcross. Nothing seems to faze you. I do have to ask, however, why you aren’t reacting and what are you going to do?”

Redheart laughed, “Oh, Streak. If you had any idea what I’ve done for you already, you wouldn’t be asking that.” She turned to Twilight, suddenly serious. “What was it I said? ‘That’s the problem with Equestria, everypony lets the Princesses do the thinking for them. Think for yourself, learn what this Streak did that was so bad that he had the ‘Dead or’ tacked on to his 'Alive.' There’s a reason she’s not telling you what he did.’ Glad to see you’re following my advice.“

She then added in a stage whisper, “Was I right about why?”

Twilight flushed bright red to her neck before managing to sputter out, “Wha–uh. No! No no no!”

Redheart smirked, “To answer the second part of your question, Streak. I know what you’re planning on doing, and I intend to help you.”

Streak laughed at her, “You have no idea what I’m planning on doing. Nopony knows what I’m planning.”

Redheart never lost her smirk as she leaned in close to his ear and whispered. The girls watched Streak’s face go from amused, to flat, to frowning, to troubled.

“How in Faust’s name do you know that?” He exploded. “How could you know any of that?”

Redheart patted him on the withers, “I know many things I shouldn’t be able to.”

Streak heard the overpowering voice again, pounding on the inside of his skull, Kill her. She knows too much.

Streak growled mentally, No. If Celestia doesn’t know already, she’s on our side. If Celestia knows, then it doesn’t matter. At this point, we need all the help we can get.

Outside of Streak’s head, the conversation was continuing. “Yes Pinkie, even that,” Redheart chuckled

Pinkie’s eyes widened, “I didn’t even ask! How did you know?” Her eyes narrowed, “Did you look ahead in the chapter? Do I say it later?”

Redheart shot a confused and concerned look at Pinkie, “Does she make sense to anypony else?”

“Nope.”

“Nuh uh.”

“Not one bit.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“Um... no.”

Just kill the pink one now and save us the trouble.

“Nopie dopie!”

“Pinkie, did you just... nevermind,” Streak said rubbing his temples, “She’s giving me a headache.”

Redheart smiled fondly at Pinkie before turning her gaze back to Streak, “Why don’t you continue from where you left off? We don’t have long until Celestia mobilizes the guard, I can be caught up later.”

Streak looked at her, confused. “How did you—”

“As I said, I know many things I shouldn’t.”

* * *

Luna turned to me, “We have a bit of a diplomatic issue.”

I nodded, not quite sure how that involved me.

“The sentient creatures of Discord’s army approached us with a plea for a place to stay. Apparently Discord destroyed their old homes, and was giving them parts of Equestria in return for helping. The minotaurs took the land we gave them without complaint, as it was rich in various metals. We negotiated a lease of our land in return for their services as smiths,” she sighed. “The dragons were more than willing to accept living in the gem-rich mountains in return for shipments of gems, along with one egg of each clutch being raised in Equestria.” She held up a hoof to stall my protest, “This was their condition, not ours, and they wouldn’t take no for an answer. I think they mean it as a show of solidarity.”

“The issue we have now is the griffons. They have a very militant and honor-bound culture, and their leader, Emperor Gil, is afraid of the repercussions if we don’t handle this well.”

“What repercussions are we talking about?” I asked.

“If we mess up too badly, the entirety of the griffon race will declare a blood feud against ponies. This will create a war with only one end. Genocide. They will fight until there are no ponies left to kill, or until there are no griffons left to continue this feud. Even if it doesn’t come to that, neither the griffons nor the ponies can take another war at this point. In no uncertain terms, if we hadn’t won that last battle as we did, we would have lost.”

“So we need to negotiate a treaty that doesn’t break down into another war with a people that we were summarily killing not a month ago?” I summed up.

“Precisely,” Luna nodded.

“So how does this involve me?” I asked.

Luna sighed before beginning, “Well, you see—”

Another voice boomed across the room, “We saw your attack of the ursa to save your friend.The griffon peoples have come to see you as a representation of everything griffon in pony society. With something as powerful as the public opinion backing you, you are the best, if not only, choice we have for a negotiator.”

I turned to look at where a figure was entering the room we were in. This figure happened to be a griffon easily the size of Celestia. He looked fairly similar to the griffons I had seen before, but with some noticeable differences. Most griffons had fur that was greyscale or brown, and generally lighter grey or white feathers, and he was no exception. His brown fur reached his shoulders before being overtaken by feathers white as snow. But while most griffons had crest feathers that faded to purple, brown, grey, or green, this griffon had a crest that faded to red.

The second I saw him, I settled into a combat stance, wings flared. I sat there waiting for him to make a move.

Instead, he laughed, “Cautious enough to detect that I might be a threat, but wise enough to hold yourself from charging, realizing that I might not be. I see that my griffons have chosen well.”

“I take it you’re Gil?” I asked, paranoia rightfully seeping into my tone.

Luna gasped, “Streak! Be respectful! He is an Emperor!.”

The Emperor chuckled, waving off Luna’s concern, “No, no, I don’t mind. Respect and trust are both earned, and I have done nothing to earn either from him yet.”

I nodded, still tensed, “So what you’re telling me is that if I don’t do the negotiations, we have no deal?”

Gil sighed, “A griffon is only emperor as long as he can keep power. When a challenge is called, another griffon is literally declaring themselves Emperor. Due to our laws, there can only be one Emperor alive at a time, and the only way for an Emperor to retire is to die. This means that one of the two will die, and the other will take over. The more positive public opinion an Emperor has, the less challengers he gets, and the more time he has to both run the country when we get one, and to rest and recuperate before the next battle.”

“And you’re afraid that if I’m not the negotiator, majority opinion will turn against you,” I concluded.

“Exactly,” he smiled.

“And why do you tell me this? I could just use it against you,” I pointed out.

“Two reasons,” he held up his talon. “One: you seem like a wise pony.” I snorted. “Don’t discount yourself. You are more wise than you think, you just need some refinement. With as wise as you are, you could see the benefits of a partnership between our races, so learning the inner workings of our politics would have happened anyway.”

His second talon went up, “Two: I wish to earn your trust. By opening myself up and showing that my intentions, no matter how noble, are also in a way selfish, I cease to attempt to be the perfect pillar that most leaders think they have to be. No being that lives today is perfect, this war has shown us this. Even one of the Guardians, placed here by the Weaver himself, has turned against us. We need to work together. Both to rebuild, and so that we can stand and fight in the event another Guardian turns.” He looked at Luna, “No offence.”

Luna shook her head, “None taken. As sad as it is to say, it is a legitimate concern in this day and age.”

Gil smiled before continuing, “I intend to be as transparent as I can in the facilitation of this goal, and I ask that you do the same.”

* * *

I groaned in frustration, “How the hell are we supposed to negotiate if neither of us is willing to compromise?”

Gil rolled his eyes, “I’m more than willing to compromise, you’re just being stubborn!”

“Look, there needs to be some sort of limit on cross-border travel!” I exclaimed. “If either of our nations experiences a drastic downturn in their economy, we can’t burden our sister nation with what amounts to economical refugees!”

“And if the opposite happens?” He pointed out. “What if your Equestria experiences an economic boost? Are you going to shut out griffons who wish to take advantage of a new job market?”

“If it protects my Equestrians? YES!” I slammed my hoof on the table, “If there is not enough jobs for both Equestrians and your griffons, I am more than willing. My first thoughts are on Equestria, your griffons come second.”

Gil growled, “I thought that we were trying to be your allies, not your satellite nation!”

I growled back, “I am treating you as allies, you are trying to make us one damn nation! I offered that at the very damn beginning, and you said no!”

“My griffons want to rule themselves, not be subjected to rule by your Princesses!” Gil roared.

“And I’m trying to protect the interests of my damn citizens!” I yelled back at him. “Neither of us can afford another war, you agree to this!”

“Yes I do, which is why I wonder at your willingness to start another one!”

“And how the hell am I doing that?”

“You insult us with your terms!” he exploded at me. “You talk of peace and equality, but you keep trying to shove the griffons down!”

“Any of my terms apply to Equestrian griffons as much as they apply to Equestrian ponies!” I reiterate for what must be the eighth time. “I’ve said this!”

“Perhaps we can adjourn and come back to the table after our tempers have cooled down?” Celestia suggested, walking into the room. “This is the third time that Luna and I have heard you two shouting from halfway across the castle.”

Gil stared at Celestia for a second, before slamming his head into the table. I burst into laughter at both his reaction and Celestia's confused face. Gil picked his face up off the table and glared at me before joining in on the laughter. Celestia just got more and more confused as we kept laughing. Eventually we calmed down.

“I lost fair and square, looks like we have border constraints,” Gil wiped a tear from his eye. “I was sure Luna was going to be the one to come in!”

I grinned, “I grew up with these two around and sleep with one on a regular basis, I know them.”

“Could you please explain what is going on?” Celestia asked.

“We reached a standstill on immigration and emigration policies,” I explained. “And after our second argument on that topic, Gil proposed a competition.”

Gil took over, “You see, we were at an impasse. I wouldn’t have any more and he wouldn’t have any less. Streak suggested getting an outside force to decide for us. I proposed that, since griffon negotiations don’t allow for a third party to intervene, we would play a game of chance. We would argue again, but we wouldn’t stop until either you or your sister intervened. If you came in we would use Streak’s policies. If Luna came in, however, I would win and my policies would go into effect.”

Still grinning, I finished it off, “Since he let me choose, I picked the two of you more likely to come over.”

Celestia just stared at us, jaw opening and closing as if she was looking for the right words to explain our genius. What we got instead was incredulous surprise, “You based our border policy with a neighboring country on a game of chance?”

Gil and I looked at each other before responding at the same time, “Yes.”

Celestia shook her head while leaving, muttering generalizations about ‘males.’

It was a good day.

* * *

Streak stared off into the distance, seemingly looking for the right place to continue the story. Unknown to the mares, there was an argument raging inside Streak’s head.

You are delaying, the overpowering voice growled. You are afraid.

What the hell do you mean? This is important! Streak retaliated.

Important to history is different from important to the task at hand, the voice answered. Your fear is causing delays. Delays we cannot afford.

And what would you suggest I do, oh wise one? Streak asked.

Don’t get smart with me, I am a part of you. A part that wants us to get the revenge we so rightly deserve.

What even are you?

Do you not listen? I am a piece of you.

I’m calling bull on that. To the best of my knowledge, I am not schizophrenic.

You are not. I am... The voice trailed off.

Now who’s afraid? I didn’t take you for a coward.

WHO ARE YOU TO INSULT ME? WHO ARE YOU TO CALL ME COWARD? WHO ALLOWED US TO SURVIVE THE VOID? YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW, DO YOU? I DID! ME! YOU SAT THERE FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF, AND WITH EACH PIECE PULLED OFF OF YOU, I FOUGHT HARDER! I KEPT YOUR CORE SELF SAFE WHILE YOU SAT THERE SNIVELING ABOUT YOUR FATE! I AM STRONGER THAN THE VOID YOU SO FEAR, I AM STRONGER THAN YOU!

If you’re so damn important, tell me what the hell you are!

I AM WHAT MAKES YOU IMMORTAL!

Streak’s brain broke. Immortal? No, not even the Guardians were immortal. Their death was foretold in the Tapestry.

I told you he wasn’t ready.

I don’t care about you or what you think. He needs to know, and if you won’t be the one to tell him, it might as well be me.

You may make him immortal, but you are wrong about being stronger than the Void. The countless swarms of the demons that inhabit the Void are only bolstered with each passing day. You would have been overrun within the next century. Do. Not. Test. Me.

Could one of you two shut the hell up and explain what you’re talking about?

There was quiet before the Librarian spoke up, It is getting late and the mares need to get home.

Streak’s immortality spoke up again, We will meet in person, or as close as we can get, when you next sleep.

Streak was pulled out of his internal conversation by a poke to his shoulder. He snapped back to reality to see Twilight’s worried face.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Streak smiled and looked out the window. It was nearly dark. “Just getting tired, it is getting late. Perhaps we could adjourn and begin anew tomorrow morning?”

His suggestion was met with grumbling approval and yawns.

* * *

Streak opened his eyes to see books. Shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books. He looked around, but the row of books he was in seemed to go on forever. He looked up and couldn’t see the top of the shelves. Looking at one of the thick bound books on the shelf he saw words written on the spine. They read:

Sunny Smiles, Day 9826, Hours 0–12

Curiosity overcame him and he pulled that book out. Placing it on the ground, he opened it to a random page about halfway through. It appeared to be a very detailed accounting of Sunny eating cereal for breakfast while tapping his rear hoof.

Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Lips part three-fifths of an inch. Jaw down two inches.. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Right forehoof up seven inches, left half an inch, and back seven inches. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Lips close two-fifths of an inch. Right forehoof forward two inches. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Rear right hoof up one inch. Jaw up two inches. Jaw down an inch. Right rear hoof down. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Jaw up an inch. Right rear hoof up one inch. Jaw down an inch. Heart beat in. Right rear hoof down one inch. Heart beat out.

Flipping a few pages later, Streak found that it was written like that for nearly a dozen pages. Who could have the patience to write something like this?

“Me, not that I have a choice,” the Librarian said from behind him. He turned around to see a white alicorn with crimson hair and mane, and blue eyes. Her horn was lit with a crimson aura as if casting some spell eternally. His eyes widened and he dropped to the floor in reverence. He was in the presence of Faust.

The Librarian scoffed, “Do not prostrate yourself, your kind are below my notice. My form is inconceivable to the likes of you, so I take the form of the being that is the closest to it, no matter how false they may be. Griffons see me as a pure black griffon, diamond dogs see me as the Allmother. Your ‘Faust’,” she spit the word out in disgust, “is but another form to me. Another skin that I wear to interact with lesser beings such as yourself.”

“Ah, get off your high horse,” the immortal voice responded. Streak whipped his head to look at the speaker. What he saw surprised him. What he saw was what appeared to be what he would look like as a hole in the universe. The immortal was black as the void, and no light seemed to affect him. He seemed to radiate a translucent aura of darkness. “You need him, you need us.”

The Librarian scoffed, “There are thousands more like him in the Void that I could grab.”

“None that are good enough to do what needs to be done, especially not now,” the pony of nothingness growled. “And none that can counter your balancing agent. Face it, Librarian; you’re stuck with us.”

“I thought this was me getting some damn answers!” Streak exploded. “Don’t give me more questions until I have had a chance to ask the questions I have!”

The Librarian turned to him with a look of cold fury. She opened her mouth to berate him when the Void pony interrupted, “You have a valid point. Ask, and we will answer what we can.”

“First,” Streak began, pointing at the pony of darkness, “What and who are you?”

The pony sighed, “I am a demon of the Void. Most of us were created by the Librarian and the Weaver when this realm was Woven, but in the last thousand years, the number of demons has swelled due to mortal interference. I think you know why.” Streak cringed. “Yeah, thought so. These demons are usually the result of a pony losing their sense of self, their identity, to the Void. Demons are eternally hungry for spent magics, and this includes life magics.”

“And you hitched onto my soul for free meals in return for protecting me?”

“Nothing so parasitic. As I said, I am you. Something about the magics Celestia threw onto you to keep you from dying while in the Void allowed you to both become a demon and keep your identity. This is unheard of, from what the Librarian has told me. This is why she has picked us.”

“Okay, question three.” Streak turned to the Librarian, “You said you don’t have a choice whether you write these or not. Why is that?”

The Librarian looked stunned for a second before recovering. “I am bound to the fate of this realm, and cannot leave until it has ended. My job is to record the present and past of this realm for review. This allows us to correct mistakes for the next realm we create.”

“You don’t sound happy about this arrangement,” Streak noted.

“It has been approximately one-hundred and seventy-five million, one-hundred and sixty-four, eighty-nine point eight five three three one seven seven one six eight three three five seven three nine hours since this realm was created. There is a book for every single living thing, from the largest dragon to the smallest amoeba. I am tired of writing the miniscule details of the lives of lifeforms that mean literally nothing.”

Streak was silent for a second. “Well that—”

“That number, if you didn’t know, comes out to almost twenty thousand years. Do the math.”

“Don’t, she already did.”

“Okay, question four.” He turned to the demon, “What is your name?”

The demon was silent for a moment, “I have none.”

Streak raised an eyebrow, “Really? None?”

“He is a part of you, not his own individual being, Besides demons don’t have names,” the Librarian said smugly.

Streak looked at the demon. His nature made it impossible to read his facial expression, but from body language, Streak could tell that having no name bothered him. “Nihility.”

“Nihility?” the demon asked.

“Your name,” Streak smiled. “Nihility means the state or condition of being nothing. I think it fits you. Everyone should have a name, regardless of what they are.”

If he could Nihility would be smiling.

“Question five, why me?”

“I was expecting this to be the first one. Short answer? Me. Long answer? Because you died, we are no longer attached to the Tapestry of Fate. Our lives are our own. Every single action we take makes another piece of the Tapestry invalid. Her hope is that when the Tapestry no longer shows the future, that the Weaver will return, spirit her away to somewhere new, and she will no longer be stuck with this realm for the next eight-hundred thousand years.”

Streak’s jaw dropped, “What if they just decide to axe the realm totally?”

“The Tapestry only deals with the big things. Important people and events, deaths of major figures, wars, famine, the like. The small things, like the death of one insignificant gnat of a pony? That can be changed by what I write. I control the world, and I can kill those you love when they are no longer attached to the Tapestry. The Elements have only one more use with their current bearers Woven, and after that” her voice grew threatening, “the Mare of Magic is fair game.”

* * *

“So let me get this straight, you want me to do... something? Just exist?” Streak asked, incredulous.

“Precisely,” the Librarian nodded, “Just acting, no matter what you do, will change the fate of the world. You are in a unique situation. Just don’t fail me and die early.”

“Or Twilight joins me in an early grave, I know,” Streak growled. “I do this for me and for her, not for you.”

“It matters not why you do it, just that it gets done.” And with that, she was gone.

“Bitch.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Streak left the Librarian’s realm with a new understanding of his demon half.

* * *

Streak opened his eyes to see his candle had burnt out during the night, leaving him surrounded by darkness. His eyes widened in panic, and he curled up in his corner.

Streak, Nihility tried to get through to him. You have nothing to fear.

This did nothing to change Streak’s mood. He remained oblivious to Nihility’s voice as he shook in his corner, abjectly terrified. Eventually the door at the top of the stairs opened up, allowing light to spill down. Streak practically bolted up the stairs, nearly bowling over Twilight, who had come to wake him up. He grinned sheepishly at her, “I, uh, don’t do well in dark places anymore.”

She shook her head, smiling, “What will we ever do with you? The girls are here.”

Streak looked to see the group assembled for his story to continue, including Redheart. Rainbow Dash was smirking at him. “Big bad soldier’s afraid of the dark?” she mocked.

He deadpanned at her, “You spend a thousand damn years in the Void and we’ll see how well you fare, Rainbow Dash.”

“Just... Continue with the story please, Streak,” Twilight sighed.

Streak was silent for a moment.

Do it. Tell them.

He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, suddenly nervous.

Streak, have some courage, Nihility said. You have to tell them eventually, it might as well be now.

Again, Streak opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“Streak?” Twilight asked, “Are you okay?”

Streak sighed, “I’ve been stalling.”

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow, “Well duh, you’ve started and stopped twice already.”

“No, I mean with everything. Telling about the war, telling about the diplomacy, everything I’ve said has been a stall tactic. I just realised that last night,” Streak shook his head. “What comes next, well,” he trailed off. “It’s not something I want to relive. Bear with me here.”

Pinkie sat with a look of absolute horror on her face.

Twilight nodded understandingly, “I know, I saw it, remember?”

Streak shook his head, “You saw bits and pieces. You didn’t get to the bad stuff before breaking down.” He shook his head violently. “I’m stalling again. We’re starting. Now.”

* * *

It all started with a book. That’s it. A small, bound book with no title.

I had gone into Celestia’s room looking for her, hoping that she wasn’t off repelling the remnants of Discord’s army from some hamlet somewhere, when for some reason this book caught my eye. I opened it to find pages of names crossed out. Some I recognised as soldiers, others were obviously griffon, minotaur, and even dragon names. Some thirty pages in, I got to names that weren’t crossed out. Written in the margin was:

Black Forest site full. Old Capital site full. Hasten Void experimentation.

Looking at some of the names, I realised that they were names brought before me by Luna. Missing persons. I took a copy of some of the names as fast as I could before returning the book as to not raise suspicions.

Taking my list of a couple dozen pony and griffon names, I checked missing persons records. Of thirty-one names, twenty-nine of them were reported missing since the end of the war.

This troubled me. Why would Celestia keep a record of the names of missing persons? And what did she mean by ‘Black Forest site full’? Knowing fully that I would regret not asking her and going behind her back, I went to Starswirl.

“Starswirl,” I nudged his sleeping form. He’d fallen asleep doing research again. “Starswirl, wake up!”

Starswirl groaned and looked at me, “What? Celestia’s got all the researchers working on some kind of portal to the Void and I need all the sleep I can get.”

My blood ran cold. “Starswirl?” I began hesitantly.

“You’ve got bad news for me, haven’t you, my friend?”

I nodded, handing him the copy of the names and the note. His eyes looked over them one by one before looking at that last note. “What is this?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” I said flatly. “I found it in Celestia’s room. That is one page out of over thirty. Each name was scratched out, and all but two are reported missing.”

Starswirl grimaced, “That is not good news, have you talked with her?”

I shook my head, “It’s probably nothing bad. Probably taking names of ponies she found and moving them to refugee camps,” I could see that Starswirl didn’t believe that at all, and I knew I didn’t either. “On the off chance that it really is something, I don’t want her to know that I know.”

“But she’s your—” Starswirl began.

“What did I say before the Battle of Canterlot?” I interrupted.

“ ‘Doubly then,’ “ Starswirl said grimly.

“ ‘Doubly then,’ “ I repeated. “What exactly is the Void?”

Starswirl brightened up with the chance to change the subject, let alone talk about his work. “Well you see, the Void appears to be a plane of nothingness! Nothing is there, as far as we can detect!”

I looked at him incredulously, “You’re saying that the Void is a perfect vacuum?”

He grinned like a foal in a candy shop, “It appears so! Now, opening a portal to the Void is not a problem. Opening a portal to the Void that doesn’t suck in everything around it is. On top of that, the portal needs to have a permeable barrier so things can get thrown into it. The researchers are thinking of creating a stabilized self sustaining version and using it as waste disposal once research is done.”

I froze. “ ‘Things can get thrown into it’?” I asked.

Starswirl nodded, “The Princess’s exact wording.” I looked at the list and back at Starswirl. His face fell, “Oh. Well.”

“Shit.”

* * *

I left Starswirl to do his experimentation, knowing that pulling him off would arouse suspicion. My next stop was Wonderbolt. I was hoping to go out to the old capital on the guise of improving my flight. Plus, Wonderbolt was one of the best people I could think to spend a two hour flight with.

“This is grim news,” Wonderbolt said after he was caught up. “You know that you’ll need more evidence before you can bring this to Luna or Chance.”

I nodded, “She mentioned an Old Capital site. I figure that that is much more specific than somewhere in the Black Woods.”

Wonderbolt looked at me sideways, “Everfree is in the Black Woods.”

“Ah, but Canterlot is not officially the capital yet, it’s still Everfree. The capital used to be farther West on the coast before a tsunami destroyed it. Damn near wiped out the population too. That area of the coast was deemed too dangerous to live in nearly two-hundred years ago,” I grimaced. “I have a feeling that that’s where she hid the bodies, if that’s what’s going on.”

Wonderbolt nodded solemnly, “The ruins of Equus are nearly two hours away at your top speed.”

I nodded, “Let’s make it in one.”

Two hours later, I caught up with a thoroughly appalled Wonderbolt. I collapsed on the ground, and pulled myself up to walk even with him. What I saw sickens me to this day.

Bodies. Bodies, everywhere. Most of them are ponies, with some griffons thrown in, a spattering of minotaur here and there, and what I think might have been a dragon at some point based on an intact scale here and there and bone chunks that were large enough to be identifiable.

Wonderbolt looked at me, green in the face, “I think Luna has to see this.”

I silently nodded, appalled by what Celestia had done.

* * *

The girls all had looks of shock on their faces. Rarity was the first to make a comment. “Well, I can see why this is a difficult topic for you.”

Pinkie shuddered, “I’m never reading ahead in the chapter again.” Her eyes widened, “Now I’m really not reading ahead in the chapter! It gets worse!”

Streak smiled sadly, “It does, indeed, Pinkie. It gets much worse.”

* * *

Luna sat, looking at the devastation in horror. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water as she struggled to find the words to express what she was feeling. Eventually, she settled for just interrogating us. “How did you find this?”

I silently threw the list at her. “These were taken from a journal in Celestia’s room. There were easily thirty times that many names written down and scratched out, and half that many names not scratched out. That note about the sites being full was in the margin.”

Luna looked at me in shock, but I didn’t relent, “It says to hasten Void experimentation, and in the orders she gave the researchers, she clearly states that the barrier between the Void and our plane needs to be permeable, so things can be thrown through. All this on top of the fact that there has been a steady increase in monster activity since the end of the war, and as such a steady increase of dead and missing persons. Celestia personally attends to each and every one of these reports, leaving her out of the castle for what can amount to weeks at a time.” I pointed to the mass grave, “Do you see those scales?”

Luna looked green. I kept hammering it in, “Yeah, that is at least one dragon. I’m not sure, because it was flayed alive, ripped apart violently, then its bones were shattered. All of this was after all the ponies its pieces rest on top of were already dead. Presumably by Celestia’s hoof or direct order. Most likely each of these ponies, griffons, minotaurs, and dragon-slash-dragons were killed personally, one at a time.”

“How could she have had time to do this?” Luna asked with tears in her eyes, clearly looking to prove her sister innocent. Hell, I hoped she did it too, but the evidence was damning.

“Luna, how fast could you snap a neck?” Luna’s eyes widened in shock at the odd line of questioning. “It would take you a fraction of a second.” I kept going, “How fast could you make a magic dampening cage? It would take you minutes, if not seconds.” My eyes were misting. It hurt to make these accusations. It hurt more to know they were likely true. “How difficult would it be to incite Discord’s old army to attack a village? Easy, I could do it. How hard would it be for you to teleport some ponies into those cages while you’re fighting off the attack that you orchestrated as a distraction?”

Luna finished for me, quietly, “Effortless.”

Tears were falling down my face, “I’ve been working with Gil so that our races would be ready for another Guardian betraying us. I just didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime, let alone so soon after Discord.” I choked up, “And I had hoped to any kind of divine being listening, whether it was Faust, the Allmother, the Weaver, or whoever, that it wouldn’t be Celestia that turned.

“I guess you don’t always get what you want.”

* * *

We returned to the castle to find that Celestia had yet to return. Small miracles. I gathered all our old squad. They all reacted to what Luna, Wonderbolt, and I had to report as could be expected. Brick sat with no facial expression, but I could catch twitches of fury and despair in his eyes now and then. Poor Ironhoof broke. Just collapsed on the ground and started bawling. Sombra had to be restrained by Starswirl so that he didn’t go hunt down Celestia. Starswirl already suspected, but getting conformation nearly put him down with Ironhoof. I think having to restrain Sombra was what kept him up.

I returned to Celestia’s room to grab the book while Starswirl went down to get the official orders for pushing Void research. The book was not hard to find, having been right where I left it earlier in the day. When I turned around, I saw Starswirl standing in the doorway.

“Starswirl? What are you doing? You’re supposed to be in the labs!” I exclaimed.

Starswirl looked at me sadly, “I’m sorry, my friend.”

I was confused for only a second before there was a golden flash from behind me and everything went black.

* * *

I woke to see the last pony I wanted to see right then. Celestia. I tried to move, but I was strapped back-up down on a table.

“I hope the accommodations are satisfactory?” Celestia asked.

I just glared.

“Listen, you need to understand my side of this,” Celestia pleaded, giving me the sad eyed pout that used to make me cave instantly.

“What good side can there be to murdering hundreds, potentially thousands?” I snapped. “How can you put a positive spin on mass murder?”

She genuinely looked hurt at my accusations, “It was for a good reason—”

“I’m going to stop you right there. Don’t you dare try to pretend you’re the same Celestia I fell in love with. You are a fucking monster, and shall be treated as such.”

Celestia looked taken aback for a second before smiling. “You always were smart. Such a useful tool. A mental nudge there, a glance there, and you fell so hard for me.” She laughed. “You would trip over yourself to make me happy. You were the best tool I think I’ve had the pleasure of using.” Her grin turned wicked, “But with the hammer and the saw, every good tool reaches a point where it has to be replaced. You have just reached that point.”

“Go ahead, then. Replace me,” I spat. “There’s Wonderbolt–oh, wait, he was with me when I found your mass grave as Equus. Oh, but maybe Brick–nevermind, he knows too. Ironhoof–no, he knows too. Sombra could be a good choice, but we had to restrain him from hunting you down. Maybe Starswirl–but oh, I know him. He wouldn’t work with a monster now that he knows what you truly are.”

Celestia grinned again, “Who do you think told me you knew? I already have another tool. You don’t buy a hammer after the last one breaks, you keep a spare in the cabinet for quick access. Starswirl is mine, Streak. He’s always been mine, he just didn’t know it yet.

“I can see it now, my lover betrays me and corrupts my sister against me. Good thing Starswirl was there to stop the vile monster Streak, who had been hiding in plain sight all along. Too bad for Luna, poor dear’s sealed on the moon.” At my look of horror, Celestia grins even more. “I forgot to mention that, didn’t I? I used the same technique I used on Discord to drive him insane on Luna. Oops, did I let that slip?” Her grin was wider than any I’d ever seen on her before. “I thought that I’d leave you awake to watch the punishments of your fellow conspirators. Unfortunately, whatever method you used to corrupt them is irreversible with the level of magic we have today.” She looked out of a window in the side of the room. “Too bad for the mortal ponies, I just had to put them down. Too dangerous to keep them alive, you know. Sorrow and regret and such.”

“You bitch!” I exclaimed. “Why do you do this?”

She turned her grin back to me, “Why does any sadist do what they do? Power, control. I don’t care who I have to walk on to get power, I just want it. You enabled my removal of Discord and provided me with a method to remove my sister from the equation, leaving only one player left to oppose me.”

“Chance.”

“Precisely, but he’ll go down soon enough. With you singing your lord praises and bragging about the power he granted you before you went down. Too bad you refused to surrender, or we might have saved your friends.”

I glared at her, but she just left the room laughing. In the doorway was Starswirl with a look of sorrow on his face. The level of hurt I was feeling must have spilled over into my face, because he opened his mouth. “Streak—”

“Fuck off, Starswirl.”

“But—"

“Fuck. Off.”

Starswirl hung his head before following his new mistress, leaving me to my thoughts.

* * *

On the other side of that window was another room. It was fairly plain, being merely a twenty foot long and ten foot wide cobblestone box. There were three-hundred thirty-six stones on the back wall. I triple-checked. The floor and ceiling were the same cobble, and the whole room was lit with magical torches. They make no smoke or heat, you know.

It was on my fourth count of the cobblestones on the far wall that the door to that room opened. Starswirl walked in with Celestia, who hadn’t lost her grin since I last saw her. The sadistic glint in her eye was new, however, which was probably a bad sign.

My hunch was proved right when there was a golden flash, depositing a thoroughly confused looking Wonderbolt onto the floor.

“Let’s begin with an easy one. Splitting into multiple,” Celestia began. Her horn glowed, surrounding a panicked Wonderbolt in golden glow. The glow intensified until you couldn’t see him anymore. “Alright, I’m supplying the power and the failsafe. Don’t be afraid to mess up, all it will do is cause pain, not damage. In fact, make many mistakes, you learn from them, I hear.”

Starswirl stepped up cautiously before adding his own aura to Celestia’s. From Wonderbolt’s cries of agony, Starswirl wasn’t getting his spell right on the first try. The golden mass shifted, growing wider and thinner, taller and shorter, and contorting into all sorts of odd shapes. Eventually the mass split into two nearly identical masses of similar shape and size from the original one. As Celestia’s aura receded, two pegasai were revealed. One was obviously male and looked like Wonderbolt with his mane and coat dyed dark blue and sky blue, respectively. Even his cutie mark was the same winged lightning bolt. The other pegasus, however was female with Wonderbolt’s colors. Her coat was orangish-yellow, and her mane and tail looked like fire. Her cutie mark was a bastardization of Wonderbolt’s: a flaming lightning bolt.

“Good. These two have no memories of who they once were. This is one way to deal with dissenters, and it gives you an extra functioning member of society each. However there are more ways to deal with them.” With a flash, the ponies that used to be Wonderbolt disappeared and were replaced with Sombra. “In the case of a powerful magic user, you could corrupt their minds, driving them to, say, take over northern Equestria and declare it an independant Empire based off of slavery. This allows you to defeat this ‘menace’ and makes the public love you. Try this now, I know that mind magic was never really your forte.”

Within minutes, Sombra’s eyes were green with a red iris and slitted pupil. Purple smoke was trailing out of the sides of his eyes, a sure sign that he was filled with dark magics. Damn it, Starswirl! I wanted to scream, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

“Slaves,” Sombra growled.

With a flash, Sombra was gone and replaced with Brick and Ironhoof. They looked around in confusion before settling on Starswirl and Celestia. Brick stood up and said the longest sentence I had ever heard him say, “I knew it was ya, Starswirl. Go ahead. Do it. I bet ya can’t look a stallion in the eyes when you kill ‘im.”

A tear fell down my cheek. Defiant to the last. Outmaneuvered, out manned, and overpowered, and Brick could still look that bastard in the eye and give him a tongue lashing.

“Actually, that’s what I want you to do,” Ironhoof looked at Celestia in surprise. “Kill them both. I don’t care how. This is the easiest way to deal with dissenters and rebels. I would know, I’ve killed easily a thousand since the war ended a year ago.”

Wonderbolt closed his eyes, bracing himself for what he was going to do. That rat bastard knows what he’s doing is evil. He doesn’t even want to do it! He’s forcing himself to torture and murder his friends!

The room was filled with fire as Starswirl unleashed his magic. When the smoke cleared, Celestia and him were behind a blue barrier. He looked like he was about to throw up.

Celestia never lost the grin

* * *

Starswirl came to me one last time. “Streak, you have to join her.”

“No.”

“Streak, please! There are things happening that are bigger than our circle of friends! Bigger than Equestria! Join me, and help make things right!” He pleaded.

“She’s a fucking monster, Starswirl. And so are you. Get out of my sight.”

“Streak—”

“What part of go the fuck away do you not understand, you bastard? Did you think that some damned sob story is going to make me change my mind about you after watching you torture and murder my friends?”

“They were my friends too, damnit!”

“If they were ever your fucking friends, then you wouldn’t have done what you have done.”

“I had no choice! The realm—”

“Can go fuck itself. And so can you.”

Celestia joined in, “Looks like he’s not coming back. Starswirl, be a dear and step out of the room. This is personal.”

Starswirl gave me one last look of sorrow before walking out of the room.

Celestia grinned, “I could make this long and drawn out, but I think I’ll make it short and sweet. And painful.” She placed a hoof on my back, holding me down. “Try not to scream too loud, I like it when my victims try and be defiant. Breaking them is... almost orgasmic.” Suddenly I felt a tugging at my left wing. No. NO!

“Tug, tug. pull, twist, wrench, yank, toss~! One wing down~!” Celestia singsonged when I managed to not scream when she tore off my wing. “You’re good at this game! Let’s try round two!”

She went much slower with this wing, dislocating every joint, breaking every bone, and tearing the pieces out one by one. I felt her shiver when I started screaming. I think the ‘almost’ was an underexaggeration. Before long my wing was laying on the ground next my other one, and tears were running down my face.

“Now comes the fun part! Can’t have you bleeding to death just yet!” she exclaimed with childish glee. She teleported a red-hot fire poker from somewhere in the castle and began to cauterize the wounds. Very slowly. Very sloppily. I my screams elicited another shiver from her. She was really enjoying this, wasn’t she?

Celestia left the room, I swear, skipping with joy. Starswirl came in and used some kind of soothing magic to make everything not hurt as much. I think it was a healing spell, but I can’t quite be sure. I did, however, manage to groan out at Starswirl, “Bastard.”

After Starswirl left, Celestia returned, her vicious grin returning to replace her happy one she had when she left. I’m not sure how long it took for her to come back, or why, but it wasn’t going to be anything good.

Her horn fired up and a disk of blackness opened up in front of me. It appeared to be a hole in the universe. The hole was blacker than night, and no light seemed to affect it. It seemed to radiate a translucent aura of darkness. Nothing good could come from this.

“You’ll never guess what Starswirl made~! It’s a void portal with a permeable membrane~!” Celestia sing songed. You get to be the first living thing to visit the Void!” She clopped her hooves together repeatedly in joy. I was, unsurprisingly, less than enthused. Her horn glowed as she layered spell after spell on me. “One of these,” she explained, “should keep you alive to experience every second of the rest of time in the void! Ooh, I’m so excited! I might even drag you out in a few thousand years to see how you did!”

Her grin turned malicious, “Starswirl, if you’d do the honors?”

Starswirl looked at me with immense sorrow, “I’m sorry, my friend.”

“You’re not my fucking friend,” I spat out as I was surrounded in blue. Then everything was pain.

Author's Notes:

So, yeah. I already typed this out once, but me being an idiot kinda ruined it. Hopefully I don't forget to hit save this time. This is being submitted from my phone and without being sent to proofreaders, so please point out any errors you see and when I get to a computer in a few days I'll correct them.

On a completely unrelated note, has anybody else played the CCG yet? So awesome! /)^3^(\ Managed to nab both decks, and even played a round against Ponlver! My life is complete.

Now to your regularly scheduled chapter notes:

Alternate title: Suddenly, Politics.

I mean, seriously. Do you realize how much work was put into making the griffon political system? it seems like the kind of thing that would be made in a day, but I spent months building that damn thing. Fortunately for me, this system of theirs becomes a major plot point way way wwwwaaaaaaaaayyyyyy in the future if everything turns out the way I want it to.

Sweet merciful gods, it takes so much self control to not start spouting every single idea running through my head to anyone who will listen. How do people do this for a living? I'd release so many spoilers that there would be like a chapter that was new content per book.

Also, I love Pinkie HI! to death, but she takes way too much energy to write, especially after running the Warrior Dash. My poor legs.

-HB

1.6 Not a Cakewalk Served Up on a Silver Spoon

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Something something dark side. Something something ultimate power.

There was not a single sound in the room as Streak finished his story. Nopony moved. Shock and horror were prevalent features on the faces of the mares, and poor Fluttershy had fainted partway through his retelling of the dungeon. Eventually someone spoke up.

“I understand now,” Redheart said simply, quietly.

“Understand?” Streak asked.

“Why it is you’re going to do what you’re going to do.”

She doesn’t understand. She thinks she does. She doesn’t know us, doesn’t know our life. Our pain.

Let me be the first to point out how cliche that was. Also, let her think what she will, she said she’d help us and she will.

She could be useful, but something about her feels... off. I cannot sense her.

That could be good or bad.

Explain how this could be good.

If it pisses you off, it’s enough for me.

Exactly.

If I didn’t need you—

Save your idle threats for someone who is afraid of them, will you?

Just let me do me, and you get your fate tangles.

“Streak,” Redheart started cautiously, “are you okay?”

He shook his head, snapping back into reality. “As okay as I can be. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be more than okay when we’re done.”

“You were staring into space. Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked.

Streak put on his best fake smile, “Fine.”

It didn’t seem to fool her, but she dropped the subject, which was good enough for him. Looking to the rest of the room, they were beginning to recover. Rainbow just stared at his sides, where his wings used to be, her own wings tucked tightly against her side protectively. Twilight had a look of absolute horror on her face, staring at nothing. Fluttershy was being woken by a somber Pinkie Pie. Rarity was slowly shaking her head in denial. Eventually Applejack spoke up.

“So what are we doin’ ‘bout this whole thing? Redheart keeps mentioning a plan ya have.”

“ ‘We’ aren’t doing anything. I am heading to Canterlot to confront Celestia,” Streak said.

“You expect us to let you face that monster by yourself?” she countered. “She has stayed in power for over a thousand years, a few o’ those years with Luna co-ruling. If she could fool us all for that long, then do you expect to topple her regime with a single pony?”

“I don’t intend to topple the regime, just the pony,” Streak smiled sadistically.

Twilight didn’t look amused. “If you think you’re going anywhere without us, and with your side like that, you’re wrong.”

“This isn’t an option, Twilight,” Streak swiped his forehoof through the air in a clear act of dismissal. “Every day I spend that she is not dead is one more day for her to throw more into the Void. It’s another day she can prepare for my arrival. Do you think she doesn’t know what I plan? Do you think she’s just going to sit there and do nothing for a month while I ‘get ready’ and rest up?”

Surprisingly Fluttershy was the next one to speak up, and forcibly, “You are not going anywhere until your side is healed up. That is final.”

Streak turned to look at her to see her staring intently into his eyes. Something about her stare was frightening, and he grew uneasy to feel it turned on him. He felt a compulsion to obey her, to stay until he was healed.

Not on my watch.

Streak felt a surge of warmth from his chest spread throughout his body. All of the mares but Fluttershy looked on in fear as his eyes literally darkened, going pitch black. After his eyes, his fur and mane, save his rainbow streak, darkened a few shades. He growled, “Do you think you scare me? Do you seek to intimidate me into playing along with your little game?”

Streak’s body seemed to ripple, getting not larger, but more muscular. His voice changed with his body, becoming deeper and resonating throughout the library, “I have survived hell itself, and you seek to cow me into submission?”

Fluttershy couldn’t look away, she had frozen in fear, as had most of the mares. Redheart walked up to Streak’s changed form and gave him a good shove. “Get out.”

Streak yelped as he toppled over, his natural form and coloring returning before he even hit the ground. He grimaced as his injured side landed on the ground. He picked himself up and grabbed his head, hissing.

“Tell your friend to not do that too much yet. That causes headaches and muscle soreness until you get used to it,” Redheart switched into lecture mode. “You’ll need a few weeks training to be able to use that form with any regularity with no side effects.”

Streak grimaced, “Nihility, stay in my damn head, please.”

I thought it was hilarious.

As if I didn’t need another reason to not do that again.

Twilight looked between the two with a confused expression, “Could someone please tell me what’s going on?”

“This one stays with Streak, I’m afraid,” Redheart stated simply. “It’s not the kind of thing that anyone should know, not even you girls. Suffice to say, we found our reason to keep him here for a while.”

Streak growled, “Not that I like it any.”

* * *

Within the last few days, Streak had moved to be in Fluttershy’s cottage. It was closer to the Everfree, and she was constantly there to tend to his wounded side.

He had found a path leading to a clearing on the second day, and since then it had become his. He woke up before dawn every day and practiced his transformations until Fluttershy came to get him for breakfast. Between breakfast and lunch, he would help her feed her animals. He refused to live in her house as a freeloader. After lunch, he would return to his clearing to practice his fighting. Fluttershy supervised, of course, to make sure he didn’t pull his side too much. He would never admit it, but he was glad to have the company after nearly a thousand years alone. After dinner, he would bathe in the creek. This was the one event where he was embarrassed to have Fluttershy attend. She did it for a completely chaste reason, of course, and used the time to clean his wound and replace his bandages. Still, he would always blush when she joined him in the creek to wash, and made sure to avert his eyes. He was a gentleman, damnit! After he was clean, he would go to bed.

And so he settled into a regular regime. Wake up, practice transformations, eat, work, eat, practice, eat, clean, blush, bed, repeat. It was simple and allowed him to take his mind off things. At least, it was. After about two weeks, things changed.

It was just after lunch. He was in his glade doing warm ups, when Fluttershy gasped. He turned to look, and saw Rainbow Dash walking up calmly. He had been around the brash pegasus enough to realise that something was up. First, she wasn’t flying. Second, she seemed to lack her confidant, almost arrogant, demeanor.

“Rainbow Dash,” Streak called out. “Something is troubling you.”

She hesitated for a second before blurting out, “I need your help!” Her cheeks erupted in red afterwards, obviously embarrassed at having to ask for help.

Streak’s eyebrow rose slightly, “You don’t seem like the type to ask for favors idly. What is it you need?”

She seemed ready to back down, but, with a comforting nudge from Fluttershy, she continued. “You beat me twice. Easily. I want to learn to fight. Not the wimpy self defense stuff they teach in Canterlot, but real, war tested fighting.”

“You realise that this is a daily commitment, Rainbow Dash?” Streak asked. “I’m not going to allow you to skip out, no matter the circumstances, no matter how sore you are. I will walk straight into the center of Ponyville shouting your name, if it comes to that. Are you okay with that?”

Rainbow’s eyes shot open, realizing what an event like that would cause. She hesitantly nodded her head.

Streak smiled a small smile, “Okay, step one: warming up.”

* * *

Books and Branches, the local library in Ponyville, was in complete disarray at the moment. Books were piled up, forming a maze across the floor with wooden floors and literary walls. Novels glowing purple flew through the air, organizing and reorganizing themselves, all the while a baby purple dragon ran as fast as his stubby little legs could take him to put them in their places before his companion, a rather pretty unicorn mare, could magic them away into the next organizational method.

It was a normal Tuesday afternoon for the duo.

A knock at the door interrupted the reorganization efforts, much to Spike’s relief. Twilight smiled at her little assistant’s reaction before opening the door. What met her on the other side nearly bowled her over.

“Shiny!” Twilight exclaimed in glee, giving her older brother a flying tackle-hug. Shining Armor yelped as he was knocked flat, much to his wife’s amusement. Cadance giggled at her sister-in-law’s reaction.

Shining Armor groaned, “Good to see you too, sis.”

This caused Cadance’s giggles to turn to flat out laughter. Twilight finally noticed her old foalsitter, and changed her target.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Both Twilight and Cadance toppled over in laughter as they completed their ritual. Shining Armor chuckled, “Good to see that my wife is up to date on her flank shaking skills.” This earned him a magical swat from both his sister and wife, causing him to yelp.

“What are you guys doing here?” Twilight asked, smiling.

“What, I’m not allowed a vacay?” Shining Armor asked.

“Vacay?” Twilight cocked her head.

“Shining,” Cadance groaned. “He means to say vacation.”

“What? All the cool kids are saying it!” Shining Armor turned his muzzle up in mock indignation, causing the mares to laugh.

However, Twilight couldn’t keep up the happy attitude, not in light of the revelations just three weeks ago. The random bouts of crying and depression had stopped, at least.

Shining Armor noticed her somber demeanor, “What’s wrong, sis?”

Cadance got a smirk on her face, “Does it have to do with a stallion?”

Twilight blushed to her neck, “N–No! No!”

“That sounds like denial~!” Cadance singsonged.

“No! My issue doesn’t directly involve a stallion!” Twilight exclaimed.

“But it does involve one indirectly,” Shining Armor surmised.

Twilight sighed, resigning herself to her fate. “It’s easiest to just show you. Shiny, you remember the memory spell?”

He looked at her sideways, “Of course I do. It’s one of the main ways we gain evidence from witnesses.”

Twilight facehoofed, “Of course, stupid question.”

“Why do you ask, Twily?” he asked.

“You’re going to need it and a bit of an open mind soon.”

* * *

“Alright, you’re going to need to stay here,” Twilight said, standing outside a certain pegasus’s cottage.

“Go ahead, Twilight,” Cadance said before smirking. “But don’t take too long, who knows what Shiny and I could get up to if we get bored.”

Twilight burned bright scarlet as Shining Armor’s ears perked up in interest. Twilight hurried into Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Fluttershy?” she called out quietly. It was about noon, so she knew Streak was either back or on his way back for lunch.

“Oh, Twilight! Are you here to see Streak?” Fluttershy’s timid voice called from the kitchen.

Twilight smiled and walked in, “Yeah, is he feeding animals still?”

Looking around, Fluttershy’s kitchen was fairly normal. It had a table for small meals, ample counter space, some culinary detritus spread out, blenders and such, and a knife block with a knife missing.

Fluttershy shook her head, “Oh, no. We finished early today. Rainbow Dash showed up early and helped us finish with chores. He’s upstairs.”

“Why’s there a knife missing?” Twilight inquired of her companion.

“Streak asked if he could borrow it. He likes to keep it nearby, it makes him feel safer.”

“That makes sense. What about Rainbow? Where is she?” Twilight asked.

“She said something about hanging out at Sweet Apple Acres to get free food from Applejack,” Fluttershy smiled demurely.

Twilight shook her head, “Some ponies never change. I’m heading upstairs to grab Streak, Shining Armor and Cadance are—” Her words were broken off by a thumping sound coming from the front door. She heard Cadance yelp in suprise and angry shouting from Shining Armor. Twilight nearly ripped the door off opening it in her panic, and her eyes widened at the sight in front of her.

Streak was holding a terrified Cadance between him and Shining Armor, who’s horn was glowing. Streak was pressing a knife up to her neck. “Alright, Twilight. You have five seconds, exactly five fucking seconds to explain why you brought an alicorn to my door, or we see if an alicorn bleeds like the rest of us.”

* * *

Streak shook his head as Rainbow Dash flew off to Sweet Apple Acres. Some ponies never change. He turned his attention to his other pegasus companion, “So, need any help with food?”

Fluttershy smiled, “Oh, no. You already do so much around here. Feeding the animals used to be an all day thing.”

She had gotten comfortable around him, probably from the shared baths. Her comfort caused her to talk louder and more frequently as time went on, and now she was talking at her regular volume on a consistent basis around him.

Streak smiled, “Alright, I’ll just bring the animals upstairs their food and be down for lunch.”

Fluttershy nodded and walked into the kitchen, leaving Streak to complete his self-appointed task. He loaded the feed on his back and started filling bowls that Fluttershy had conveniently left at the base of each animal’s house.

Right as he was finishing, he heard Twilight’s voice, “Alright, you’re going to need to stay here.” He looked out the window to see Twilight with a stallion he had never seen before.

A voice he had never heard before spoke with much amusement, “Go ahead, Twilight. But don’t take too long, who knows what Shiny and I could get up to if we get bored.”

Streak’s eyes widened as he saw the speaker. She had wings and a horn, which meant only one thing. Damnit there are three of them.

He walked silently to his room and grabbed his knife. After that it was a simple matter to sneak back to the window and open it without the two hearing him. He paused at the window, going over his options.

Okay, so we have two choices. Unicorn, or alicorn.

My first thought would be alicorn, but that unicorn is allowed to travel with a Princess alone. He is either weak and trusted, or he is both very powerful and very trusted. This complicates things.

Twilight obviously knows the alicorn on a personal basis, and I have a feeling that ‘Shiny’ is not the name that someone like him would go with on a day-to-day basis. She brought her boy-toy?

That seems a likely option, but irrelevant.

Not so, she might surrender if I grab her lover.

Or she could throw him to the wolves and retreat with our location, endangering ourselves and the girls.

This morality thing sucks. Alright, I say we hit the boy-toy and grab the alicorn. All in favor say ‘yea’.

Just do it.

Good enough!

That conversation took place in seconds.

Springing into action, Streak launched himself out the window. He landed next to the unicorn, and gave him a solid buck to the side. Taking advantage of his disbalance, Streak spun and hit him on the horn, fizzling out the spell he was casting reflexively and stopping casting for a few seconds.

Quickly, Streak spun around and smacked the pink alicorn on the horn, disabling her spellcasting as well. He quickly knocked her on her flank and threw the knife up to her throat. He spun in such a way that the unicorn had to redirect his blast or hit her.

Fluttershy’s door was almost ripped off its hinges by a purple aura as Twilight burst out of the cottage, confusion and panic written on her face. He was hurt by her actions, but kept it down in favor of anger. “Alright, Twilight. You have five seconds, exactly five fucking seconds to explain why you brought an alicorn to my door, or we see if an alicorn bleeds like the rest of us.”

Recognition came to the unicorn’s face, “You’re Streak, aren’t you? Let my damned wife go.”

Oh, hell no.

“I don’t think so,” he pressed the knife up higher, causing Cadance to lift her head as much as possible to prevent getting cut. “Tick tock, Twilight.”

Twilight’s thoughts were racing. How could this have gone so wrong so fast?

“You’re hurting, aren’t you?” Cadance asked.

“Shut up,” Streak growled.

“It’s not the physical hurt, but the mental hurt. The emotional hurt.” She continued.

“Shut up!” he snapped.

Do it, she’s trying to talk you down! She’s trying to make you weak!

No, no she’s trying to help!

Don’t be fooled. Nihility is right.

Get out of my head!

“Cadance, what are you doing? Don’t try and reason with him, he’s a monster!” Shining Armor exclaimed.

“I’m doing my job,” was her simple reply. “Someone hurt you, didn’t they?”

“You know nothing of pain,” Streak growled in her ear, “Not yet.”

“Streak, I’m Shining Armor, captain of the guard! Let her go!”

Twilight’s eyes widened, That was the exact wrong thing to say.

“You brought the captain of the fucking guard here?” Streak exploded, “What the FUCK, Twilight? I trusted you!”

Slit the alicorn’s throat first, then throw the knife at the unicorn as a distraction from there—

No, damnit! She had a good reason!

Don’t fool yourself. Slit Cadance’s throat and run straight to Canterlot.

Shut up!

“Damn it, Shining Armor!” Twilight snapped, causing both Shining Armor and Cadance to jolt in surprise. “We need him to calm down, and you pull this!” She turned to Streak, “I was trying to get him on our side!”

“What do you mean, ‘our side’, Twily?” Shining Armor asked, confused.

Cadance spoke up again, “Talk to me, Streak. Ignore them. Who was it?”

I can’t ignore them, they’re in my damn head!

You know I’m right.

“None of your damn business!” Streak snapped again.

“Celestia,” Twilight answered for him.

Shining Armor stared at his sister in shock. “You can’t seriously believe that! Why would Celestia of all ponies cause this kind of reaction?”

Streak felt a growl bubble up out of his throat, but was cut off by Cadance, “Ignore them, Streak. What did she do?”

“She ruined my damn life, now SHUT UP!” Streak pressed the knife tighter into Cadance’s throat, drawing blood. It was red, same as everybody else’s.

You keep making them LOUDER!

Release me! We’ve been training for a month for this reason.

NO! Stay in my head!

“You bastard! Let her go!” Shining Armor exploded at seeing the blood.

Cadance ignored both stallions, “That’s a good start, but I can feel more from you. You radiate hurt. She didn’t just ruin your life, did she? No, she did worse. She ruined your heart.”

Just one quick movement, and she’ll be quiet.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Streak was near tears, Shining Armor could see that. He was getting desperate.

“You need to talk, to tell someone,” Cadance spoke calmly, in direct violation to the panic she felt inside.

“I’ve talked! I’ve told! It doesn’t help! I tell someone and they bring the fucking guard captain on my head!” Streak was speaking in frantic tones at this point, and the hoof holding the knife was shaking.

Shining Armor looked at his sister in shock.

Cadance let out a small gasp of pain before continuing, “That’s because you haven’t left it behind you, Streak. You hold on to your pain, I can feel that.”

“I HAVE NOTHING ELSE!” He exploded before growling, “There are three voices in my head telling me to do different things and only one of them is me.”

Twilight was in shock. Streak was insane? That... was not good.

“Then listen to yourself. Tune them out.”

Kill her. Release me.

“NO!” Streak roared, dropping the knife and pushing Cadance at her husband. “STAY THE FUCK IN MY HEAD!”

Shining Armor took a second to make sure his wife was alright before lunging at Streak. He was simultaneously stopped by a blue barrier, a purple barrier, and a prismatic bodyslam.

Rainbow Dash sat on Shining Armor’s back with a smirk. “Geez, Twilight. I’m not gone twenty minutes and you cause a breakdown.”

Streak sat on the ground with his head in his hooves, shaking slightly.

Fluttershy spoke up from where she was bandaging Cadance’s wound, “Actually, it was Princess Cadance.”

Cadance blushed as she let her horn fade, dismissing the barrier she put between her husband and the distraught stallion, “I could tell he was hurt, but psychosis is a little more than I thought.”

Streak stood up, suddenly having no problems. He pointed at Shining Armor, “You, we’re talking. Alone.” And with that he started walking toward his glade.

“If you think I’m going with you, you’re crazy!” Shining Armor exclaimed.

“I thought I just demonstrated that I was. Don’t make me drag you.”

“Try me.”

* * *

A few minutes of indignant shouting and walking into every root seen on the ground, the duo made their way to Streak’s glade. Streak spit out Shining Armor’s tail and sat down. “Now listen here, you miserable shit. I’m done playing around. I have much to do. A monster to reveal, a friend to redeem, an alicorn to murder, and you’re just complicating things.”

“Alicorn to murder? What are you talking about?” Shining Armor exclaimed.

“I’m talking about murdering an alicorn. Isn’t intelligence a trait looked for in the military anymore?” Streak mocked.

“Now listen here—”

“No. You listen here,” Streak had made his transformation in a fraction of a second. As far as Shining Armor knew, one instant he was talking to the most wanted stallion in Equestria, and the next he was talking to a monster. “I already said I’m done playing around. You’re in the guard, you have that memory spell. You are going to use it, and I’m going to guide you to the right memories. If you even think of trying to grab a memory that you shouldn’t be seeing, I’ll kill you. Understand?”

“And if I don’t?” Shining Armor sneered, “What then?”

“Simple. Then you die.”

* * *

Shining Armor walked back from the clearing with a vacant look on his face. Cadance ran to him, worried. “What happened Shiny?”

He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t find the words to express what’s in his head. Instead, he just closed it.

“He showed you the memories didn’t he?” Twilight asked.

“Memories?” Cadance asked while Shining Armor just nodded his head.

“I’ll fill you in inside, but be warned, it’s not pretty,” Twilight began walking inside.

Shining Armor paused from going inside and looked at Rainbow. “I’m to tell you ‘no matter the circumstances’. I assume you know what that means.” And with that, he was inside.

Rainbow Dash got a huge grin on her face and shot through the air aiming for the glade. When she landed, Streak was back to his regular self, mentally and physically.

“Ready to train, Rainbow Dash?” Streak asked.

“Am I?” Rainbow’s smile hadn’t faded in the least.

Streak smiled his trademark small smile and settled into a combat stance. “Let’s start with a quick warmup spar.”

Rainbow grinned wider. “Get ready!” she shouted, launching into the air.

Taking to the air. She’s utilizing her largest strength, her speed and agility. I need to keep a three-hundred-sixty degree watch, she could come in from any direction. Streak quickly rolled to the right, dodging Rainbow’s swipe by inches. She went left first, patterns indicate she’ll attack right next, then left swiftly, followed by another left for confusion of pattern. He dove to the left, before kicking back to the right before she could compensate for his new location. She’s getting faster, if that’s even possible. She’ll be able to beat me soon if she continues at this rate. He rolled farther to the right, dodging her next attack. Alright time to go on the offensive.

Streak had backed himself up to a tree. Rainbow smirked, obviously thinking she had him this time. She launched herself at him, but was surprised when he didn’t dodge. Instead he kicked off of the tree, knocking her to the ground. Grappling was never her strong suit, as Applejack could attest. Quickly, she kicked him off and got ready for his retaliatory charge.

It never came, instead she got a hoof lightly bumping her nose. “Boop,” Streak grinned, taking advantage of her surprised lockup to push her over like a prismatic statue.

“Not fair,” she whined.

“The only rule to war, Rainbow Dash, is that there are none,” Streak smirked.

“Alright rematch!” Rainbow announced, settling into charging stance.

Streak braced himself for her charge, but it never came. Instead what he felt was something warm on his lips. He froze, his mind not being able to comprehend what he was feeling. His eyes were saying that there was a cyan mare on the end of his muzzle, but his brain wasn’t capable of comprehending that fact. Rainbow Dash smirked and pushed over a locked up Streak in a close facsimile of his earlier feat.

Rainbow Dash laughed at his unfocused eyes and blank look before realizing what she had just done. She immediately flushed bright red. Ohmygosh, ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! What did I just do? I don’t even–Why did I just—

“Did you just—” Rainbow heard a voice from behind her. Turning slowly, Rainbow saw Fluttershy sitting on the trail with a confused look on her face, “Rainbow, is there something you want to tell me?”

Rainbow Dash was so embarrassed she could just crawl into a hole and die. She tried to spread her wings to escape, but found that they were already spread. Blushing even harder now, she wrestled her wings into working condition. Fluttershy just sat there, looking at the shellshocked Streak laying on the ground with concern.

Eventually Rainbow Dash was able to fly away, and fly away she did. A wobbly rainbow trail followed after her. Fluttershy looked from Streak, to Rainbow’s fading streak, back to Streak, before speaking up, “I think that’s enough practice for today.”

Streak merely nodded.

* * *

Rainbow Dash was sitting in her room, pacing back and forth. You idiot! Why did you have to go and kiss him! You don’t even like him like that! Stop being a silly filly!

Her mental tirade was broken by a knock at the door. “Sorry Shy, not accepting guests right now!” Rainbow called out.

“Not even me? I’m hurt, RD!” she heard a familiar voice call back. Her eyes widened.

This was not good. Cloud Chaser. Not that she didn’t like Cloud Chaser, but Rainbow Dash had been friends with Cloud Chaser since flight school, so that meant that there was no way that she wasn’t going to pick up that something was wrong. Rainbow facehoofed and resigned herself to her fate. “Come in.”

Cloud Chaser was already inside, the knock being a bit of courtesy to cover up the rudeness of her walking in. She lay down on the cloud couch and sighed happily. “I have no idea how you make clouds even more comfortable. I mean, they’re clouds. Beds are ranked by how close they can get to clouds. You just–” she sighed in pleasure “—improve them. Clouds aren’t good enough for Rainbow Dash.”

She looked at her conversational partner, expecting to hear a reply. What she got instead was flustered silence. She looked at her longtime friend with a cocked eyebrow before smirking. Rainbow blushed, knowing where this was going. Chaser grinned suggestively, “My, my. Little Dashie found herself a colt, didn’t she?”

Rainbow blushed harder. Even knowing it was futile, she denied, “No!”

“Ah, the sound of denial,” Chaser giggled, faking swooning. “The first step of young love.”

“Chaser, stop,” Rainbow tried to sound intimidating, but it was hard to squeak intimidatingly.

Chaser laughed at Rainbow’s predicament. “You silly filly! You know me better than that!”

Rainbow groaned and slumped over the back of the couch. “Alright, hit me,” she sighed, closing her eyes.

She was met with silence. She opened her eyes in confusion to see Chaser wasn’t there. Rainbow felt a strange mix of relief and disappointment. Suddenly she felt a swat at her cutie mark, causing her to yelp in surprise. She spun around to see Chaser with a suggestive look in her eyes.

“No, Chaser,” Rainbow said slowly. Chaser just walked closer, slowly. “Chaser! No, Chaser–Chaser! No—”

Chaser growled and tackled the mare onto the floor, beginning to tickle her relentlessly. Rainbow laughed and laughed, feebly trying to push away her tormentor. Chaser just grinned more, hitting all the spots that she knew from experience were most ticklish. After a few minutes, Chaser stopped, leaving a hiccuping mare with tears streaking down her face. “Feel better?”

“Cloud Chaser. If you wer—” Rainbow was cut off by a hiccup, causing her to blush. Cloud Chaser sat for about two seconds before succoming to her laughter. The two tried to talk for the next few minutes, but Rainbow was always caught in the middle of a word by a hiccup, causing Chaser to laugh. After a few minutes, Rainbow’s hiccups were finally gone.

“Alright, let’s try again. Who is this stallion who’s got you pacing your floor in worry?” Chaser asked.

“Well, he’s not the problem,” Rainbow started.”It’s kinda me.”

“Rainbow Miriam Dash! Puh-lease. You’re talented, pulchritudinous, and loyal! I don’t think any stallion in Ponyville would have a problem with you!” Cloud Chaser interrupted.

“Pulchritudinous?” Rainbow inquired. “What does that mean, and where did you learn it?”

“I got me one of those fancy word-a-day calendars, it means beautiful,” Chaser grinned.

“I think you just made it up,” Rainbow shot. Unfortunately for her, Chaser didn’t take the bait.

“You’re trying to change the subject. Who could have a problem with you? It’s not those rumors about being the ‘fastest mare’ again, is it?”

“Wha–no! Cloud Chaser!” Rainbow blushed.

“Just making sure,” Chaser held her forehooves up in mock surrender. “But really, tell me.”

Rainbow blushed, and muttered something at ‘Fluttershy meeting new pony’ volume, ”I sorta kissed him.”

“Say again, Fluttershy?” Chaser grinned.

Rainbow blushed even more, before saying ”I kissed him.”

Chaser’s grin grew exponentially, it was kind of creepy, honestly. “My little Dashie finally kissed a colt?”

Rainbow’s blush didn’t recede, “Well, I wasn’t thinking, and I just kinda, did it.”

Chaser laughed, “And how is that a problem?”

Rainbow shuffled her hooves, “Twilight kind of has her eye on him, and he’s shown interest in her too.”

“You’re worried about being a bad friend, aren’t you?” Chaser asked compassionately, giving Fluttershy a run for her money.

“I’m worried about betraying her. We all know she’s interested, we even got her to admit it! We’ve all worked so hard for her to be honest with herself and just go for it, and here I am thinking about ruining it for my own benefit.”

“Alright, this is a simple fix,” Chaser smiled, “I need one bit.”

Rainbow deadpanned, “I’m not paying you for relationship advice.”

Chaser giggled, “Of course not, you’ll keep it. Just get it.”

Rainbow looked at her sideways, but did as she asked. Chaser took the coin and looked her in the eyes. She flipped it between her hooves, showing the sun on one side and the moon on the opposite one. “Sun, you go for it. Moon you leave him to Twilight. Sound like a plan?” Rainbow nodded. Chaser flipped the coin into the air and said, “Quick! Do you want it to land on sun or moon?”

Rainbow didn’t even think about it, “Sun.”

“Then there’s your answer,” Chaser said softly, putting a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Come on, I’ll take you for a flight. Just a slow one, like we used to do when I needed help with endurance flying.”

Rainbow smiled, “I’d like that.”

The duo took off out the front door, making a good pace for a circuit around Ponyville. Neither of them was going fast enough to leave a trail, instead enjoying each others’ company for the flight ahead.

Neither looked back to see the moon face up.

Author's Notes:

So this was unexpected. Using advice from Pen Stroke (don't quote me on this) I just went where it felt right to send the character, even if it didn't fit my story arc. That means that this is as much a surprise to me as it is to you. Side note: The coin scene is my absolute favorite scene in the history of anything.

Also, I have developer chapter names, like this one was 'N-Something, I'll Figure It Out'. Didn't even notice until now that the next chapter is developer titled 'Over the Rainbow'. I have to keep it now.

Also, Rainbow flying with wingboners:

-HB

1.7 Over the Rainbow

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

This is an interesting development. Let’s see where this leads us. Are you still going to go down the path you have set yourself on, or will one of the two mares pull you back from the abyss before you’ve gone too far?

Rarity couldn’t believe her eyes. Rainbow Dash was flying at a leisurely pace. Rainbow Dash, who seemed to detest doing anything but her fastest in the air. Flying next to her was a content looking Cloud Chaser. Rarity just had to know what was going on!

“Rainbow Dash?” she called up. “Is something wrong?”

Cloud Chaser answered for Rainbow, “Nah, just the opposite! She’s got herself a crush!”

Rainbow Dash blushed furiously and shoved Chaser, who caught herself after a few feet, laughing at Rainbow’s distress.

“Oh, really?” Rarity arched an eyebrow. “How is this the source of such embarrassment?”

Cloud Chaser giggled, “You kidding me? Dashie’s never—” Rainbow shoved her again, causing a new bout of laughter.

Rarity, however was not to be dissuaded, “Never, what?”

Chaser landed next to Rarity and stage whispered, “She’s never had a coltfriend.”

Rarity’s expression turned mischievous, while Rainbow’s blush magnified. “Oh reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaly now? I’m so glad you brag about how many coltfriends you’ve had, Rainbow Dash.”

Chaser burst out laughing, “She–Ohmygosh, she actually–That is hilarious!”

Rainbow wanted to crawl into a hole and die for the second time that day. She squeaked, “Could we not talk about this in the middle of the street?”

“Oh, by all means, Rainbow Dash. Let us step into my boutique and have a nice conversation about your love life,” Rarity’s impish grin said everything.

Rainbow groaned, it was not her day today.

* * *

Cadance had a look of horror on her face. The same look that had been plastered on her face since the story went to Equus. Twilight and Shining Armor were just finishing up telling her about Celestia’s ‘punishments’ when Fluttershy led a still shocked Streak inside. Nopony said anything as the duo walked upstairs.

Cadance looked at the stairs, “That poor stallion. To think he had to go through that, and to think that auntie—” a sob cut off her words. Within an instant, Shining Armor was there comforting his wife. She buried her head into his shoulder, “Oh, auntie. Why?”

Twilight knew that nothing she could do would matter at the moment, so she quietly removed herself and went upstairs. She caught the last part of Streak and Fluttershy’s conversation. “Really, Fluttershy, I’m okay!”

“If you’re sure,” Fluttershy hesitantly stated.

Twilight walked into the room, “What happened?”

Streak shuffled around uncomfortably, and Fluttershy sighed, “Well, Streak and Rainbow were training like usual, when Streak caught her off guard and tapped her nose. He took advantage of the surprise to just... topple Rainbow.”

Twilight winced, “That couldn’t have been good for her pride.”

Streak took over. “It wasn’t. She immediately called a rematch. She looked like she was getting ready for a charge, but then,” he trailed off, suddenly unsure of himself.

After a moment, Fluttershy finished for him, “She kissed him.”

Twilight blinked, “Did I just hear you right? Rainbow Dash kissed him?”

Fluttershy nodded. Twilight planted her hoof into her face, and moaned, “Rainbow.” She straightened, “Alright, knowing her, she’s freaking out right now. We need to find her and talk to her before she makes a big deal about this.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, “Rainbow freaking out over this? She was bragging just three weeks ago about her extensive, uhm, experience?”

Twilight flushed red, “Beside the point.”

Streak looked at Twilight, “She acted like a foal getting caught with her hoof in the cookie jar, almost like she was guilty. Why would that be?”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to reply when Twillight cut her off quickly, “No reason.”

Streak looked at her sideways, but said nothing as they left to find Rainbow Dash.

* * *

“No, Rarity.” Rainbow reiterated for the eighth time.

“But Raaaaiiiiiiiinbooooooow!” Rarity whined, “Why not?”

“Don’t feel bad, she won’t even tell me,” Chaser muttered.

“You never asked,” Rainbow pointed out.

“Alright, I’m asking. Who is this stallion?” Chaser asked.

“Uh-uh,” Rainbow grinned, “Too late!”

Chaser groaned and planted her hoof in her face, “At least tell me what led up to you kissing him!”

Rarity’s eyes got really wide and her pupils dilated. Rainbow shifted nervously, afraid of what was going to happen next. All of the sudden, Rarity let out the most high pitched noise ever, “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Rainbow and Chaser dropped to the ground, covering their ears.

“Rarity!” Chaser groaned. “I need to be able to hear!”

“Oh now you must tell me! You must! I cannot not know now!” Rarity was a bundle of energy, dancing on her hooves in excitement.

Rainbow’s face fell. “Alright,” she groaned, resigned to her fate, “Well we were practicing like normal and—”

“RAINBOW!” Rarity exclaimed loudly, causing Chaser to drop and cover again. “You know how hard we worked to set him up with Twilight!”

Chaser moaned from the ground, “And you also know pretty much how hard I had to work to get her to try.”

“Cloud Chaser,” Rarity chided. “You should be ashamed of yourself, setting poor Rainbow up to steal Twilight’s colt!”

Cloud Chaser glared at Rarity, now angry, “No, you should be ashamed of yourself. Stop and think for a second! You’re asking Rainbow to sacrifice her own chance at happiness just so that Twilight can have hers. The same Twilight who, mind you, has likely had quite a while to talk to this mystery colt if she really wanted him.”

Rarity shot back, “So you’re asking Rainbow to betray her friend?”

“I’m asking Rainbow to be selfish for once in her life!” Chaser shouted. “She deserves some bit of selfishness, doesn’t she? She was always the one to play wingmare to me, always the one to soften up the mares and stallions that my sister was always chasing for one night stands. Rainbow Dash has almost always put herself second behind her friends and I’m getting sick of it!”

“Rainbow is one of the biggest braggarts in town!” Rarity shouted. “She’s always talking about how awesome she is, and how much better she is than anypony else! She lords every possible thing she can over every single pony she knows and does anything to attract attention! How is that not being selfish? She isn’t willing to share her spotlight!”

Chaser was silent for a moment, “If you honestly can’t see her past that, then you’re not as good of a friend to her as I thought you were. You’re not worth my time arguing with. When you’ve finally got your head out of your ass and can see Rainbow Dash for who she actually is, you know where to find me.”

She turned to Rainbow, “I’m leaving, and you’re welcome to join me.” Rainbow nodded and the two left a gaping fashionista to think about what was just said.

Neither looked back.

* * *

“Yeah, I saw her. She was with Rarity and Cloud Chaser,” Berry Punch was saying. “They said something about going to Rarity’s boutique.”

Twilight smiled, “Thanks, Berry.”

Berry Punch smiled back, “No problem, Twilight. Tell Rainbow I said hi when you see her, would you?”

After their goodbyes, Twilight and Fluttershy made their way to the boutique. Streak had wisely decided to stay behind, considering his face was posted every other street corner by this point. They arrived to see the door open. Twilight looked worriedly at Fluttershy, who returned the look.

Slowly Twilight walked into the boutique to see a flabbergasted Rarity staring at the door. She walked up slowly, seeing no reaction from Rarity. Twilight poked her in the shoulder, finally getting a reaction.

“Twilight, am I a bad friend?” Rarity’s voice sounded almost broken.

Twilight gasped, “Of course not! Why would you think you are?”

“Cloud Chaser accused me of not being a good friend, and said that when I’ve finally got my head out of my ass and can see Rainbow Dash for who she actually is, I’ll know where to find her.”

Fluttershy let out a soft gasp, “Oh, Rarity. You’re not a bad friend!”

“Oh but I am! I accused Rainbow Dash of being a selfish, stuck up, attention hog!” Rarity bawled.

Twilight thought about what she knew of the brash pegasus, and that description seemed to fit her fairly well on her bad days. “But what did Chaser mean about seeing ‘Rainbow Dash for who she actually is’?”

Rarity sobbed, “I don’t know! I don’t even have a clue! I’m so pathetic!”

Twilight smiled, “It’s okay, Rarity. We’ll figure this out together.”

* * *

The next day Twilight was woken up by a knock on her door. She mumbled into her pillow for Spike to get the door. Spike, grumbling got out of his basket. He opened the door to see Fluttershy. “Muh, yeah?”

“Um, I need Twilight for a second,” Fluttershy was barely audible. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

“Just a sec’,” Spike mumbled, staggering back upstairs. “Twi, Shy.” And he collapsed back into his bed.

Twilight lifted her head and moaned, “It’s too early for a visit.” Looking at the clock she saw that it was nearly one o’clock. Her eyes widened and she bolted downstairs, suddenly wide awake. “Sorry, Shy! I totally slept in today!”

Fluttershy smiled demurely, “Oh, it’s no problem at all, he just needs you for a few minutes.”

Twilight knew immediately who ‘he’ was. She nodded and followed the pegasus back to her cottage. Streak was waiting just outside, and gave his usual small smile. “I need to ask a favor.”

“What kind of favor?” Twilight asked.

“I need you to change what I look like. To whom doesn’t matter, as long as they aren’t a Ponyville resident or regular.”

“Whatever could you need that for?” Twilight asked, confused.

Streak smirked, “I have a reason to go into town, and I don’t want to bring the guard down on our heads.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes at him for a second before slowly nodding. Her horn glowed and there was a flash of purple.

* * *

“RAINBOW DASH!” the entirety of Ponyville was staring at this strange pony they had never seen before. His coat was cyan, and he had a white mane. His cutie mark was a horseshoe, which was ironic because he seemed to have no luck finding the mare in question. Again, the strange stallion shouted, “RAINBOW DASH!”

This time, however he got a reply, “WHAT?” Rainbow Dash stuck her head down and out the bottom of the cloud she was resting on.

He shouted back up, “RAINBOW DASH GET YOUR LAZY ASS DOWN FROM THERE!” The assembled Ponyvillians gasped at his language and attitude.

Rainbow growled and launched herself to stand by the strange stallion. “I’m down,” she said dangerously. “Now what do you want?”

“Again I find the need to remind you; ‘no matter the circumstances.’ “ He gestured around himself and town square. “I said I’d even walk into the center of town yelling your name if it took it, and looks like it did.”

Rainbow’s jaw dropped. She had thought he sounded familiar. She squealed in mostly contained glee and gave him a tackle-hug. The now-revealed, at least to her, Streak grunted as his back hit the ground. He chuckled and whispered into her ear, “Be careful, Rainbow Dash. Rumors spread like wildfire in small towns.” Taking advantage of his position, he quickly nipped her ear.

Rainbow jumped back from Streak’s prone form, fighting to keep her wings down and a blush off of her cheeks. He had to push down a laugh at her reaction, she was cute when she was flustered.

“Come on,” Streak chuckled. “We have the whole day ahead of us.”

* * *

Rainbow was panting with exhaustion. How does he keep going?

The stallion in question was dodging every single one of her attacks with what seemed like ease, and probably was.

“Try varying your attacks more, Rainbow Dash. If you always use sweeping charges, it makes you easy to predict,” Streak lectured.

After a few more minutes of training, Streak shook his head, “This isn’t working. Let’s try something different. How would you fight with a broken wing, Rainbow Dash? Or even—” he gestured to his sides, “—no wings at all?”

Rainbow panted, “Well, I wouldn’t do good.”

“Well. You wouldn’t do well,” Streak corrected, “but as I was saying, you need to learn how to fight without wings as well or even better than with.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “I’m sorry for messing up in grammar class, Cheerilee.”

Streak looked at her with confused eyes, “What does my demeanor have anything to do with this conversation?”

Rainbow giggled, “Cheerilee is the local schoolteacher.”

“That makes much more sense, but back to what I was saying, Rainbow Dash. You—” Streak was interrupted.

“Why do you use my full name all the time? I don’t hear any ‘Rainbow’s or ‘Dash’s when you’re talking to me. Not even a ‘Dashie’ here and there,” that last part was added almost as a whisper.

“Professionalism is needed to maintain a teaching atmosphere,” Streak started, “If I were to use familiar language it could compromise the whole experience, leading to less learning and enjoyment to all involved. Equestrian Army Drillmaster basics.”

Rainbow butted in, “Yesterday wasn’t very professional, but I know I sure as hell enjoyed it.”

She had a little giggle as she saw his brain stop working for a second at her words. He was eventually able to steer their conversation back to training, much to Rainbow’s disappointment.

“Now you need to learn to be as quick on your hooves as you are on wing,” Streak grinned as he walked over to the edge of the glade. “Now I know how hard it is for pegasi to not use their wings instinctually, especially one so naturally talented, so I brought something to help speed along the process.”

Rainbow looked over to where he was and saw a bundle of rope. “Oh, no. No, you don’t,” She said backing up and flaring her wings. “There is no way you’ll ever get me bound like that!”

Barely two minutes later, Streak sat on top of a very embarrassed and very bound pegasus. Streak had ropes around her barrel holding down her wings, but he also had more than that. He had ropes binding all four of her legs, he even managed to get a close facsimile of a bridle using a knot to form a gag in the ‘bit’.

“Are you ready to begin, or are you going to keep resisting?” Streak asked.

“Oh, my,” a quiet voice spoke up from the trail, “You work, uhm, fast. I didn’t mean to interrupt. Uh, I’ll just, go.”

Streak turned to see Fluttershy with a blush on her face that was quickly copied onto Rainbow’s. Streak looked from the bound mare to Fluttershy, who seemed to be having trouble leaving like she said she was going to. “Well, I agree that this looks pretty suggestive.”

After a short explanation of what had happened, and untying Rainbow’s legs, of course, Fluttershy was much less flustered. Rainbow, however, was unamused at Streak’s insistence that the gag be left in.

“Um, maybe you should take off the bridle. If that’s, you know, okay with you,” Fluttershy mentioned.

“I should,” Streak grinned, “and this is going to get me more trouble than it’s worth, but I think I’ll leave it in.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened and she shook her head swiftly, clearly indicating displeasure with the current line of thought.

“Why?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, for a few reasons. First, that thing was a bitch to get in there, and I want it to get some mileage before removing it. Second, look at her!” Streak squished her cheeks together, “She is adorable when flustered!” Rainbow batted the unusually playful Streak’s hooves away, blushing furiously. “Third, I think that she enjoys it.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened again as her blush deepened. Her head shook more vigorously this time, and she took a step back.

“Streak,” Fluttershy put on her ‘motherly voice’.

He sighed, “Fine. But the wings stay bound until I say they can come off, even if that isn’t until we’re done training. Completely.” Rainbow Dash glared daggers at him, and he smirked, “Or you could leave the bridle in today and get the bind taken off when we’re not practicing.”

Fluttershy looked at him in shock, “How could you even suggest such a thing! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Rainbow, however, was mulling over her options silently as Fluttershy berated Streak for what he did. Eventually she blushed the deepest crimson she ever had and nodded.

Streak grinned and took off the bridle. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a trace of disappointment in her eyes for a second. “I was just teasing you, Rainbow Dash. I’d never do something like that to you.”

Fluttershy stared at him in shock, “Why go through all that effort for nothing, then?”

Streak smirked at her as Rainbow replied for him, “He didn’t get nothing. Why do you think me and Pinkie do so much pranking if it gives us nothing?”

Fluttershy deflated a little, her anger abated for then, “Oh.”

Streak looked Rainbow up and down. She wasn’t sure if she was uncomfortable with his circling as he seemed to take in every single strand of fur on her body. Eventually he seemed satisfied, nodding, “You’ll do.”

“Wha—” Rainbow quickly had to dodge a jab from the stallion. “Streak what are y—” she was interrupted by another jab. “Streak!” she whined.

“Defend yourself, Rainbow Dash!” the pegasus named barely managed to dodge another attack. “Every hit I land on you is an hour more you have to wear the bind!”

“Streak!” Fluttershy admonished.

Rainbow grinned, launching her own barrage, “Then every hit I land on you gets me one less hour wearing it!”

Streak roared with laughter, “That’s the spirit, Rainbow Dash! I’ll make a proper soldier out of you yet!”

“Only if you have any bones left in your body when I’m done with you!”

The duo exchanged blows and playful insults and banter for the next few hours while Fluttershy sat on the sidelines reminding them to be careful and scolding them for a particularly cruel barb. Eventually, Fluttershy called a stop to the fighting. The two combatants laughed together while they walked back towards Fluttershy’s cottage.

Streak chuckled, groaning a bit from a nice hit Rainbow got in on his side, “At the rate you’re progressing, you’ll be able to fill the captain of the guard station if you wanted to!”

Rainbow giggled, also grunting a little more than a bit from more than one nice hit Streak had pumped into her side, “Nah, I’m not looking to be in the guard, anyway.”

Fluttershy butted in, “Where do you two think you’re going?”

Rainbow looked at her with a blank expression, “Uh, to the cottage? To food?”

“Fighting works up quite the appetite, especially when it’s like that one,” Streak added.

“Without washing up?” Fluttershy reminded.

Rainbow blushed as Streak sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, “Uh, no?”

“I thought not,” Fluttershy said with a smile as she walked toward the stream.

Rainbow turned to Streak and grinned, “I guess this means you have to untie me now, knot boy.”

“Knot boy?” Streak asked.

“Hey, it’s the best nickname I have for you right now, and I’m gonna use it, damnit.”

Streak shook his head, moving to untie Rainbow’s wings when he paused, an idea flashing through his head. I’m going to get into so much trouble if this doesn’t work in the right way, he thought.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash,” he said, “before I untie you—”

“Do. Not. Bring. Up. The. Bridle.” Rainbow growled, reminding him swiftly that the hit on his side was received shortly after cracking a joke about said bridle.

“Nothing of the sort, I just don’t want you flying off immediately like usual,” Streak said, holding his hooves up in mock surrender.

Rainbow nodded and, true to her word, did little more than stretch her cramped wings. She looked at Streak with curiosity in her eyes. “Any specific reason you want me to stay around, or is it just because I’m awesome?”

“When was the last time you truly cleaned yourself?” Streak asked bluntly.

Rainbow flinched as if struck, “Streak, I clean every day, you know this!”

“I know you fly through a few clouds and let the moisture clean you off. When was the last time you actually sat in water and scrubbed yourself clean?”

“Uh—” Rainbow tried to respond.

“And further, when was the last time you preened?” Rainbow blushed furiously at the personal nature of that question. “Yes, I know it is improper to ask that question, but look at your wings!” His hoof hovered over multiple spots in quick succession, “Loose feather, broken shaft, old feather, another loose feather, a third one here. That was all with a cursory glance! There is no way you could have wings in this condition if you preened regularly.”

Rainbow stuttered for a second before responding quietly, “Uh, well, I never really, uhm, have that much time to preen. Weather duty and all.”

“I’ve seen you do your weather work. The only way you would have no time to preen properly is if you had to do weather for half of Equestria! It’s almost as if you didn’t learn to preen!” At Rainbow’s flinch, Streak looked at her sideways, “Didn’t learn to preen? Rainbow Dash, you do know how to preen, don’t you?”

“Of course!” she answered too quickly. At Streak’s disbelieving glance, she bristled. “What does it matter to you?”

“Rainbow Dash,” Streak started, “preening is–You know what? I’m going to drop this topic.” Rainbow sighed in relief before stiffening at his next words, “On one condition.”

“I swear, Streak, if you even mention the bridle, I will castrate you,” her threat was spoken with so much venom that Streak had to resist the urge to cover and protect himself in case she followed through.

“Nothing of the sort. My condition is simple. Come to the stream with Fluttershy and me after we spar and to preen at least once a week.” When Rainbow’s glare didn’t lessen he continued, “I’m not asking you to preen yourself in front of me, Rainbow Dash. That would be improper. I’m also not asking you to let Fluttershy or me do it for you. I’m asking you to make sure it is done. If you truly don’t know, ask a close friend to teach you.”

“Like you?” Rainbow said with only a hint of venom. That hint was enough of a warning for Streak even though he was planning on replying the way he did anyway.

“Like Fluttershy, or even Twilight. You know she has read up on the subject at least once,” he replied. “Do not ask me, I won’t do it.” Rainbow couldn’t tell if she was supposed to be relieved or disappointed at the news.

Streak continued, sticking out a hoof, “Do you accept my terms, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow stared at the offered hoof for a few seconds before shaking his hoof. Streak smiled and reminded her, “Remember, Rainbow Dash, I can tell if you have been preening. Don’t think you can slip past me.” He got real close to her face, causing her to flush. “Also,” he trailed off as Rainbow’s heartbeat sped up exponentially. She started leaning toward his face, closing her eyes, only to yelp and jump back as he blew in her ear. “Remember to get behind your ears!” she heard the suddenly playful again stallion chuckle as he ran for the stream like his life depended on it.

The way Rainbow was feeling right now? It did.

Unfortunately for Streak, Rainbow was fast in the air. She slammed into him, tumbling down a hill as a mass of limbs, eventually coming to a stop by the shore of the stream. Streak ended up on top, so he smiled, digging his hooves into Rainbow’s belly. She squealed and thrashed, trying to get away from her relentless tickler, but to no avail. Her giggles and thrashing left her tired and out of breath, and therefore in no condition to throw Streak off from his position straddling her midsection.

Eventually she was able to call out through the laughter, “Alright! I give! I give! Uncle!” Streak redoubled his efforts, causing Rainbow to howl with laughter. “STREAK!” she whined. Eventually he stopped but retained his place on top of her. When she caught her breath, she gave him a playful glare, “That wasn’t very nice, mister! How would you like it if I did that to yOU!” The end of her sentence ended unusually high due to Streak tickling her one last time before dismounting.

“Sorry, I just couldn’t resist!” Streak chuckled.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Rainbow pouted.

“You never told me to stop, so it couldn’t have bothered you that much, Rainbow Dash,” Streak smirked.

Rainbow deadpanned at him before letting out a little giggle, “Nothing I ever say or do is going to make you not use my full name, will it?”

Streak gave her the widest grin she had seen on him yet, “Nope!”

Rainbow sighed and looked at her coat, now with twigs and leaves stuck in it. “This is going to take forever,” she moaned.

Streak grinned, “Trust me, it will be faster than you think. Step one, get in the water.”

Rainbow was about to start walking to the stream when Streak, utilizing a trick he learned from Applejack, ducked under Rainbow’s barrel and threw her on his back. “Hey!” she yelled indignantly.

“You’re going to let me do this my way the first time,” Streak commented.

“Aw, come on!” Rainbow pouted at him again.

“Warning, it’s cold,” Streak smirked.

“Wha—” Rainbow was cut off by being bodily chucked into the stream. She surfaced quickly, quite rightly upset with the stallion. “Streak!”

The stallion in question chuckled as he walked into the stream himself. He dove under and Rainbow lost sight of him. She twisted back and forth, waiting to see where he’d resurface. She yelped in surprise as the stallion started picking out debris from the part of her coat that was submerged and her tail. After nearly two minutes, the stallion resurfaced for a breath.

“What are you doing?” Rainbow yelled at him.

He smirked, “Cleaning you, Rainbow Dash, what does it look like?” Before she could reply he was back under.

“Streak,” she pouted, knowing that he had no way of hearing or seeing her.

“He’s unusually playful,” a quiet voice spoke up from the bank. “I think he likes you.”

Rainbow ceased to be a cyan pegasus, and instead turned into a bright red earth pony with stiff, fake wings strapped to her back. Fluttershy had her usual demure smile on her face as Rainbow tried unsuccessfully to ignore the stallion that was combing through her tail at the moment.

When Streak resurfaced a second time, he saw how red Rainbow had become. He immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion, “Oh, no. I was being careful and everything. I am so sorry! I thought I was being good!”

Rainbow looked at him in confusion before realizing what he was implying. She turned even redder and squeaked before pointing at Fluttershy. Streak looked at where she was pointing and let out a relieved sigh, “Not adding ‘sexual assault’ to my long list of offences. That is good.”

“Just, finish up already,” Rainbow muttered

Streak grinned mischievously before teasing, “Why, Rainbow Dash, one could think that you’re enjoying this!”

“Streak,” Fluttershy scolded.

Streak sighed, “Fine, fine. Ruin my fun, why don’t you?” With that he was back under, combing through Rainbow’s tail again, this time undoing as many knots as he could. He was finished before he surfaced for another breath. His next words chilled Rainbow’s blood, “Time to clean your mane. Dunk under, and don’t be afraid to surface for breath whenever you feel the need.”

She swallowed before taking a huge breath and dunking her head under the water. She opened her eyes to be staring right into Streak’s. She had never really taken the time to look at his eyes. They were a rather dull brown, of all colors. It seemed to Rainbow that nature had taken all of his vibrancy and thrown it all into the one strip of color in his mane.

Streak’s face slowly contorted into a smile as he pecked her on the nose before moving to a position that he could pull the detritus that their earlier tumble and tickle fight, however one sided, had thrown into her own mane. She would never, ever admit it, but she had not really brushed out her mane or tail in years, instead preferring the messy, windswept look she had naturally. It was easy, and frankly she thought it looked about as good as she got. However, the look on Streak’s face when she came up for breath led her to believe that she was mistaken.

Streak was dumbfounded. He had said when he first arrived that Twilight was the most beautiful mare he had ever seen, but when Rainbow put any kind of effort into her appearance, she outshone Twilight easily. With her hair no longer knotted and tangled, it was longer than it looked previously and hung straighter. She have him a shy smile more at place on Fluttershy’s face than hers before looking up at her bangs, “It’s not that much of a difference, is it?”

“Ah, uh. Uhm,” that was all Streak could get out at the moment. Rainbow blushed at his reaction before quickly inhaling and diving back under. This snapped Streak out of his stupor and he joined her back underneath to finish cleaning her mane with her.

Fluttershy sat on the shore with a broad smile on her face, for once glad to be forgotten.

* * *

Streak had called a meeting of the Elements of Harmony, and they all knew what that meant. Time for things to get serious. The six mares were inside Fluttershy’s cottage awaiting Streak’s arrival. Inside the cottage with them was Shining Armor, and Cadance, the two having stayed at Twilight’s library for the last day and refused to not be a part of what’s happening.

Finally, Streak walked in. “We have a lot of planning to do, a lot of unknown variables, and a lot that can and will go wrong.”

Twilight nodded, “I think that our first course of action would be to use the Elements on Celestia.”

Streak scoffed, “I won’t go after her with a gentle hand. If I have her at my mercy, she will be dead.”

“Everypony deserves a second chance, Streak,” Twilight sighed. “Would you not like to have your Celestia back?”

Streak growled at her, and Rainbow Dash scolded her, “Low blow, Twi, low blow.”

“It is, however, a valid point,” Shining Armor pointed out. “What if she was affected with some kind of curse or malady, or even some kind of magical monstrosity like Nightmare Moon was believed to be? Would you kill her knowing that there was some kind of way to have your Celestia back?”

“Shining Armor,” Streak continued as if they hadn’t spoken, “You need to remove the guards before I get into the throne room. Spread those memories around to as many guards as you can get your hooves on. The more people know, the harder it is to remove the knowledge.”

Shining Armor nodded. Streak turned to the Elements, “You girls, if you really think the Elements will work, will need to get to the throne room with them before Celestia is dead if you want them used.”

Twilight and Rainbow nodded, while the other four just looked horrified.

Streak looked out the window at the summer forest with a grim look on his face. “It’s time.”

Author's Notes:

Wet mane Rainbow Dash. For, ahem, refrence.

Note to self, turn on safe search before typing in something as suggestive as 'wet Rainbow Dash'. Nothing against cloppers and not trying to hat, mind you, it's just not my cup of tea.

Also, shoutout to Black Sun Eclipse. This dude rhymes like it's nothing. Knighty, make a Zecora emote, just for this guy.

A guardian turned
and everyone burned
forever with hate
that only her death would sate
And now I want more
with the next chapter, you'll soar
for now I must wait
for more of Streak the Great
-Eclipse

Also, I can't resist. Look out for another chapter up within the next day or two. I'm currently working on book two, and just don't have the willpower to resist posting chapters like crazy. You're welcome.

1.8 Valiant stand

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Don’t get too confident. I could rip your victory from your hooves at the last possible second and deprive you of something you didn’t know you wanted until now. You may be untouchable, but they are not. Just as the Mare of Magic is fair game, so is the Mare of Loyalty. It seems you need a reminder of who exactly is in charge, here.

Streak had eschewed a disguise, instead choosing to board the train in his own normal form. Leaving the train, however, he would be disguised, this time by Shining Armor. Celestia would use resources trying to find where he was since he was undoubtedly spotted getting on the train to Canterlot, while the Elements, Shining, and Cadance would escort ‘Change’, the moniker his disguised form from before was to be known as.

On the ride, there was precious little conversation. Most of it was Streak explaining last minute details to Cadance about her part. Eventually, however, Rainbow Dash walked over to him.

“Hey, Streak,” she began nervously, “do you think we’ll really win?”

Streak looked her in the eyes, “It’s all that I can do, Rainbow Dash. If I thought otherwise then I would have failed long ago.”

Rainbow looked at him uncertainly. He knew her well enough to know she had a question she wanted to ask, but was unsure of asking it. Knowing that nothing he did would speed up her decision, he sat quietly until she spoke up. “Do you think you’ll survive winning?”

Streak sighed, “I can only hope so, but I most likely will not.”

Rainbow looked at him in horror before joining him in his seat. She scooted until her whole side was pressed against him. He felt her lean into him, and he smiled. Across the train car, Twilight was watching the two with jealousy in her eyes.

You are foolish to think you can outwit me.

I’m not trying to outwit you. I’m trying to survive and live a quiet life.

The Librarian returned to wherever she was when not bothering Streak. Nihility spoke up.

Do you have some kind of plan set up, or are you just winging it?

Were you sleeping for the last twelve hours? I just went over our plan. Twice.

Not our plan for getting to Celestia, or even our plan for beating her. I heard you talk to Cacance. Do you have a plan for actually killing her?

I assume that 'smack a bitch' doesn't count?

No.

I'll figure something out. You'll probably just come and save my ass.

Not while trapped in the Void.

Wait, trapped in the Void? What do you mean, trapped in the damn Void?

Nihility was silent. Not a sound was heard from him.

Nihility, what do you mean? I thought you were a part of me.

I am. It is... complicated. I shall explain when we get back to Ponyville.

You imbecile! He was not to know!

I think I have a damn right to be informed of things involving me.

I said I would tell you when we got back, and I will.

Streak felt a wave of fury wash over him that vanished as fast as it began. That was not good.

Rainbow felt Streak shiver. "Hey, you okay?"

Streak put on his best fake smile, "Fine."

"Then what's up with the shiver?" Rainbow asked.

"And the fake smile, and the lyin’," Applejack commented.

“Really, Rainbow Dash, I’m fine.”

Rainbow glared at him, and he caved. “Alright, alright. I think I might have pissed off the Librarian.”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow, “And that’s that much of an issue? What can she do, besides hop into our heads and talk?”

“She controls everything. She could cause a sudden shift of wind to blow you off course at high speeds and cause you to crash, potentially killing you. She could cause a rat to bump into a rock, starting a rockslide that hits this train, potentially killing us all. I just pissed off literally the most powerful being in known existence enough that I felt it through the mental link,” Streak sighed.

“What about Celestia? Or Discord?” Twilight asked.

Streak looked at Twilight, “She made them.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. After nearly an hour of staring out of the window and enjoying Rainbow Dash’s closeness, Streak’s train of thought was broken.

“What did you do?” Rainbow asked quietly, so that only he could hear. “What could piss off something that has lived as long as her that much.”

“That’s the part that scares me the most, Rainbow Dash. I just don’t know.”

The rest of the train ride was in silence.

Everything went exactly according to plan. Streak left the train with the seven mares and Shining Armor, and nopony the wiser. Nopony stopped the group, due to only one of them not having significant political power in every breath they uttered. A cursory glance by the castle gate guards later, and Streak was inside the power base of the most dangerous threat to Equestria ever; Celestia herself.

“Alright, everypony remember the plan?” Streak asked for the final time.

“Yes,” Shining Armor nodded, Cadance next to him seconding the motion.

“Of course we do,” Rainbow complained, “We only went over it like, a million times!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight admonished. “Behave!”

Streak would have chuckled at the cyan mare should the situation have let him. He offhandedly noticed that she had kept her hair brushed, a fact not left unnoticed by Rarity.

Streak nodded at them, “Then let us proceed.”

After the six Elements had left, Cadance put a hoof on his shoulder, “Are you sure you don’t want them to know what you really plan? You probably won’t survive.”

Streak looked forward with determination, “I know that, and so does Rainbow Dash, which means the rest of them probably know that I’m probably going to die already. Celestia will fall this day, by my hand or not.”

Cadance went to say something else, but Shining Armor put a hoof on her withers, shaking his head. Streak’s mind was made up.

The overly large doors to the throne room sat open at the very beginning of Day Court. Even with the search for the most wanted criminal in Equestria, the day-to-day functions of Equestria still had to function. This, however, made it the perfect time to strike against Celestia’s reputation.

Shining Armor walked past the line of petitioners in full captain armor. When he got to the front of the line, he shouted using a magically amplified voice. “Guard, front and center!”

The guards were confused to their order, but obeyed nonetheless. With all the royal guards in the throne room in front of him, Shining Armor started his speech. “According to precedents set by Princess Celestia herself over a thousand years ago, an alicorn can be removed from office if they are deemed a threat to the nation.” Nobody seemed to know where this was going, not even Celestia at this point. “I stand here with a signed petition from all six Elements of Harmony, one of the three alicorn Princesses, and the captain of the guard. This petition is for the removal of one of our very own Princesses.”

Hushed murmuring was heard throughout the courtroom, but was swiftly cut off by Shining Armor. “She has been found guilty of over a thousand counts of murder, hundreds of counts of torture, mind control, slavery by proxy, and one count of attempted murder. This alicorn abused her position for the entire time she has had it, and even was caught once.” All in the room, save Celestia, were thinking Luna. Celestia had an idea of what was going on now. “For these crimes she has been deemed a threat to the nation, and with nearly every major power in the Equestrian government backing our cause, the unicorns Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Shining Armor, the pegasi Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the earth ponies Pinkie Pie and Applejack, and the alicorn Princess Mi Amore Cadenza hereby strip Princess Celestia from her rank and her seat.” A gasp was heard from all, even the ever-stoic royal guards. “Day court is cancelled for an unknown amount of time. Guards, escort the petitioners to their homes and spread the word.”

Celestia stood up off her throne, “Guards! Belay that order! Shining Armor, what is the meaning of this?”

“Guards, she has been stripped of her title. Continue as you were,” Shining Armor replied.

“You’ve been found out, Celly dearest,” Streak announced as he walked into the room.

Celestia looked at him in shock. This is not how things were supposed to go! “You!”

Streak grinned, “Miss me, Celestia?”

“Guards, seize him!”

“Continue as you were,” Shining Armor commanded calmly.

The guard was torn between loyalty to the Princess and loyalty to Equestria. Eventually one of them made his choice. He turned to the petitioners, “Move along, citizens. You heard the man, day court’s closed. Let’s get you home.”

That one stallion was enough to get the rest of the guard to hesitantly follow the orders of their commanding officer. The first stallion looked at the shocked look on the Princess’s face, “This is not an accusation to be made lightly. If you’re innocent, you’ll prove it. If you’re guilty, they’ll prove it. One way or the other, we will know for certain.” And he left with the rest of the guards and petitioners, leaving only Celestia and Streak in the room.

“You,” Celestia seethed, “You have been nothing but a thorn in my side since the day you returned. Wasting resources looking for you, having to listen to idiots report that they’ve found nothing from all corners of Equestria. I should have just killed you like I made Starswirl kill Brick and Ironhoof.”

“Go ahead, Celestia. You know why I’m here,” Streak taunted.

Celestia grinned, “You’re here to kill me, of course. I made you into what you are, and that’s a killing machine. You probably didn’t even see different courses of action, did you? There’s always revealing me to the public, but they would never believe you. There’s hitting me with the Elements and hoping that works, but they’re locked behind a door only I could open. Then there’s killing me, which leaves only one issue. Actually killing me. You think you can kill a Guardian? With the combined might of three of us, we were able to imprison one. I hit Luna by surprise, and I don’t like relying on luck.” Her grin turned vicious. “Face it, Streak. You’ve lost. I can undo everything you’ve done. Your death will just be a footnote tacked on to my tally. It will read, ‘Streak, number two-thousand and twenty-four and number four-thousand and three.’ ”

“Oh really?” Streak grinned widely. “You can undo my giving your captain of the guard the memories of what you did. You can undo me giving half of them to Twilight. You can even undo all the people who have had the story explained to them, but do you really think that you can undo a spell that is projecting this conversation, both audio and video, onto every flat surface in every city in Equestria?”

* * *

Cloud Chaser was sitting in her house when everything went wrong. Everywhere she looked, she saw the throne room. She stood up, “What’s going on here?”

Her jaw dropped slowly as she both saw and heard Shining Armor’s speech. “No, no this can’t be happening! She can’t be!”

She was still trying to figure out what was going on as Celestia started talking, “I should have just killed you like I made Starswirl kill Brick and Ironhoof.”

Cloud Chaser was shaking, tears running down her face. No, this was Celestia, the beloved ruler of Equestria. She couldn’t have done what they’re accusing her of.

* * *

In Baltimare, a stallion named Star Hunter hugged his wife and kids. “It’s all right,” he said, trying to mask the shaking in his voice. He had to be strong. “We’ll figure everything out. We’ll be alright.”

* * *

In the streets of Los Pegasus, ponies were wailing in despair. The light that had guided them for generations was just revealed to be evil, by her own words, no less! Where would Equestria be without Celestia?

* * *

Sitting in a bar in the Crystal Empire, a griffon was having a fine day drinking her sorrows away. She had been tossed aside like trash, and even years later it still hurt. Suddenly the walls of the bar were replaced with a large, fancy room. She blinked slowly and turned to the bartender, “I think I’ll close my tab. I’ve had enough.”

The bartender had a look of shock on his face, “Lady, you’ve had two drinks. Plus I think we’re all seeing this. I don’t think there’s enough booze in the world to cause this.”

The griffon stared at the walls as the confrontation inside played out, her face slowly getting harder and angrier. She glanced at the appalled face of the bartender, “I’m closing my tab, I have places to be.”

* * *

Celestia’s smile fell, “What have you done, Streak?”

“I’ve exposed you for the monster that you really are, Celestia. Every single pony in Equestria just heard you admit to killing over four-thousand ponies. That’s murder, Celestia, and punishable by death,” Streak taunted. “Not so confident now, are you?”

Celestia growled, “If I’m going down, so are you.”

Streak laughed, “Do you honestly think I came into this city expecting to leave? How stupid are you? My part is played. I have had my revenge, and I have protected Twilight from forces that you don’t even know are using you as a puppet, at least for now. I am content to die.”

* * *

Twilight’s and Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. He wasn’t even planning on surviving? Not even going to try? They quickly sped up to be the front of the group. Twilight wondered, however, about what the power Streak protected her from was.

* * *

Celestia narrowed her eyes at me, “You dare call me a puppet?”

“I call it as I see it,” Streak mocked. “It’s over, Celestia. It doesn’t matter if Twilight and the girls come back with the Elements to attempt to purify you at this point. At least, not to me. As I said, I have played my part, and you have played yours beautifully. Now it is time for Equestria to play hers.”

Celestia’s carefully monitored rage boiled over at being called a puppet. Celestia screeched in anger, “I shall flay the flesh from your bones! I shall tear you apart piece by piece and feed your remains to rats! I shall visit horrors upon you the likes of which the world has not seen! I have not been defeated, merely delayed! Things will be slower with me in the open, but I will have it all!”

“Celestia, I hear voices and you’re crazier than me,” Streak shook his head. “Go ahead, you get one free shot. Flay my flesh! Tear me apart! Bringeth the horrors! I have beaten the Void, you don’t scare me anymore!”

* * *

Unknown to him, a tear traveled down Star Hunter’s face. His defiance had brought some small comfort to his family, and there was no way he could properly be repaid.

* * *

“I shall scare you soon, Streak! I shall scare them all! No more benevolent Celestia! From now on, I shall slay all that stand in my way, starting with you!” Celestia’s horn glowed, opening massive portals to the Void. They took up the walls, the windows, the ceiling, and most of the floor, save where he and Celestia were standing. “I have created an immortal army out of those I have slain! Their souls feed my army, growing more powerful with each enemy slain!”

Celestia’s horn got a layer of overglow, and somehow Streak saw shapes flying through the air. Shapes that were exactly the same as the Void behind them. Celestia was commanding the demons of the Void. The war wasn’t over, it was only truly beginning.

“Now DIE! Die you insolent gnat! Feed, my children! Tear him apart piece by piece! Make him suffer!” Celestia yelled maniacally. She had finally gone off the deep end. It was about now that Streak figured that Cadance had turned her spell off and gotten the hell out of dodge.

Streak felt himself be surrounded by the denizens of the Void, felt their confusion. Where was the mortal they were supposed to destroy?

“I think this is where I step in,” a familiar voice called out, wiping out all the portals save one that had opened midair. From this portal stepped Nihility. “Miss me, Streak?”

Streak grinned, “Nihility, you bastard! I knew you’d come through for me.”

Another demon walked up to Nihility, “Sir, what do we do? The Creator demands we kill a mortal, but then directs us at the Woken One.”

“This is an easy fix, ignore her. The Woken One is our new Master. Voidborn, attack! Death to the Creator!” Nihility exuded an aura of dominance and respect. He was the strongest, and damned be the fool that challenged him.

The other demon saluted Nihility. The hordes that Celestia had summoned to kill Streak suddenly whirled and attacked her. The raised platform that Celestia and her throne were on was soon covered in an irregular and seemingly shimmering dome of black made of the newly dubbed ‘Voidborn’ demons. Through the black flashes of light could be seen as beams of pure magic tore through the demons. Walls cracked, blackened, wherever the beams hit. Pillars that held up the ceiling crumbled as sections just disappeared.

Streak turned to Nihility, “You realise that there is no way you’re backing out of explaining this now, right?”

Nihility smirked, Streak had no idea how he knew, but he did, “I expected nothing less.”

The door of the throne room was thrown open by a purple aura with a slam. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and their friends ran into the room.

“What is going on?” Rainbow shouted in surprise.

“It’s simple, Rainbow Dash,” Nihility replied gesturing to the dome of demons, “Celestia tried to turn our brothers against us.”

Twilight’s horn started glowing, “Who are you?”

“His name is Nihility. He is me, and I am him,” Streak turned to him. “At least, that’s what I have been told.”

“Do not doubt me, Streak,” Nihility chuckled. “I am as much a part of you as your left hoof.”

“And my wings?” Streak shot back. “If you’re a part of me, you can be removed.”

Nihility was silent. The whole room was silent. Rainbow and Fluttershy had looks of horror on their faces, and to a lesser extent so did the other Elements.

“And your soul,” Nihility responded after a second. “You can still remove that, but you will die. I am a piece of that.”

Rainbow piped in. “This is well and good and all, but what are we going to do about Celestia? She’s not dead, and the Elements are here. So,” she trailed off.

Streak swept his hoof towards Celestia, “Feel free.”

“Wait.” Nihility held up a hoof, “Let me get my brothers out of the way.”

“Celestia isn’t going to just let the Elements be used on her, Nihility,” Streak deadpanned.

“Watch and learn, newbie,” Nihility grinned. “Voidborn! Bind her! Bind her magic! Bind her wings! Bind every bit of magic in her body save the barest sliver of what she needs to live!”

The Voidborn from before, how Streak knew this he’ll never know, flew from the dome and saluted. As one the Voidborn charged, absorbing themselves into Celestia wherever they touched.

“What–NO! Get out!” Celestia started firing more rapidly, hoping to stop the Voidborn’s advance. “Stay away!”

Her bolts slowly lost power, to the point that they barely scorched the walls, and then stopped. When no more Voidborn were visible, she collapsed, no strength left in her limbs.

“What did you do?” Streak asked.

“Everything you do is magic. Breathing, walking, sleeping, even just existing costs magic, since it is a vital part of mitosis. We demons feed on magic. We are just eating it first, stopping it from getting from the Wellspring to her.”

“Clever, I’ll admit,” Rainbow pointed out, “But this room is about to fall apart. We need to use the Elements now, or they will never be used.”

Streak stepped out of their way, gesturing again at Celestia’s now-prone form.

Twilight nodded and the Element of Magic started glowing. Slowly, the other Elements added their glow to the lead Element’s. Right as it seemed that everything was going to work, Streak heard a voice.

You seem to forget yourself, Streak. Don’t think your job is finished. It never will be.

What do you mean?

I mean that you seem to forget your place. Allow me to show you why crossing me is not a good idea, insect.

Streak felt the wave of anger again, and his eyes widened at a cracking sound. He watched as a huge chunk of the ceiling fell in what seemed like slow motion. He traced the trajectory and saw it was heading right for Rainbow, the only mare whose Element had yet to add its glow to the others’. He sprung into action, diving into the oblivious Rainbow. The duo landed where they were not under the chunk of ceiling, but as Rainbow landed, her head hit a piece of rubble, knocking her out.

Streak looked at the remaining Elements, their channeling leaving them lost to the world around them. He couldn’t let them fail. He had to help them. He took Rainbow’s Element off her neck, kissed her on the forehead, put the Element around his neck and joined the other five in their positions. He closed his eyes and let the Element take over. He felt surprise that was not his own, before determination. As the Element glowed, he felt a tug on his consciousness.

* * *

Streak looked around. He was a pitch black void. He could see nothing around him. His breathing began to pick up. Damn it. He was back in the Void, wasn’t he? Any second now, he would feel a familiar agony as he was pulled apart piece by piece.

“Peace, Streak. You are in the realm between realms. You are safe,” a soothing voice called out throughout the vastness.

“Kindness, this is not the time for pleasantries. We had thought you dead a thousand years ago. How do you still live?” another voice demanded.

“Honestly, Honesty! You’re no fun!!” a third voice giggled. “He has no clue what’s going on right now, you can’t be mean!”

Streak whipped his head around, searching for any source for the voices. His panic kept rising, despite the words of Kindness.

“Streak,” a somehow familiar voice thundered, “I grieved for you when she killed you. You have no clue how it feels to see you again.” It was a voice he had never heard before, yet at the same time he knew it.

An authoritative voice spoke over the other voices, “Quiet.”

There was instant silence. This silence did little to calm Streak’s nerves. He was in the dark, he was confused, and he was panicking.

“Mortal, I am Magic, leader of the Elements,” the authoritative voice rang out, “I do not know how you still live a thousand years after Loyalty watched you die, nor do I particularly care. What I do know, is that you are using the Element of Loyalty, an Element that already has a Bearer.”

The familiar voice rang out again, “Magic, he could have not known our laws. Do not punish him in his ignorance”

Streak spoke up quietly, “Ignorance of the law does not mean immunity to the law.”

Honesty chuckled, “I like this mortal.”

Magic continued, “His ignorance allows us to give him a lesser sentence, Loyalty, not give him immunity. He broke our laws, and must be punished. Even he knows this.”

“What punishment would you give him, then?” Loyalty asked. “Dissolution into the Void? He’s already had that, and I will not let you do that to him again.”

Honesty growled, “Know your place, Loyalty.”

Magic was silent for a while. Streak feared the worst, that they would just leave him in this place. After what felt like hours, Magic spoke up again, “We cannot afford to have the Elements of Harmony in conflict with itself, not with the world in the condition it is in. We will cut off his connection to the Elements, preventing another incident.”

“No.” A simple word spoken without inflection. A single word that carried the weight of whole realms behind it when spoken.

Magic was shocked into silence for a second, before responding, “This is not a suggestion, Loyalty. It will be done for the greater good of the realm.”

Loyalty spoke in a flat tone, “I lost Streak for a thousand years. I refuse to lose him again if I can help it. Fuck the realm.”

“You have another Bearer,” Kindness tried to play damage control. “Isn’t she enough for you?”

“Don’t you dare accuse me of betraying my Bearer, Kindness. Do not think I have forgotten that you were one of Luna’s Elements,” Loyalty growled.

“Enough, the mortal—” Magic began.

“He has a damned name, Magic,” Loyalty snapped, “Use it.”

There was another silence. Magic finally spoke up, “We will deal with this privately, Loyalty. I will send Streak back, but don’t think this will be the last you see of us, mortal. I will call for you later, and I wouldn’t want to be you if you don’t heed the call.”

Before everything faded, Streak heard Loyalty’s voice once more, ”Streak, remember this: You and your friends were supposed to be the Bearers, not Celestia and Luna. She knew that. Right our wrong, fix our mistake, however you have to do it.”

”LOYALTY!” Magic roared. ”I’m sending him back. Now. You and I will have some things to discuss.”

* * *

Streak saw words floating in red. They read:

Loyalty

Streak
Laughter

Ironhoof
Generosity

Wonderbolt
Honesty

Sombra
Kindness

Brick
Magic

Starswirl

–Loyalty

* * *

Streak opened his eyes to a rainbow beam shooting into Celestia. He watched as the prismatic beam washed over the terrified Princess. When the light faded, he felt himself returning to the ground, and realized that while talking with the Elements he had floated into the air. A quick check showed the other Elements—Bearers, Streak reminded himself—returning to their senses and looking at the world around them. Rarity was the first to see him standing there, Element of Loyalty around his neck.

“Wha–Streak? How?” she stuttered.

Twilight turned around with confusion. “What about—” she was struck speechless,

Nihility looked at him, “I’ll be damned.”

Streak looked from mare to mare as they all looked in shock between him and the unconscious Rainbow Dash at his hooves before saying the first thing to pop to his head, “I honestly didn’t expect that to work.”

Applejack got in his face, “Why is RD knocked out? Why are you wearin’ her Element?”

Streak got inches away from her nose, “The Librarian decided to be a bitch and drop a damn ceiling on her, and I got her out of the way. She was knocked out, so I picked up her Element and prayed. Any more questions?”

“Just one,” Pinkie said, “No, wait, two. Maybe one, maybe three, potentially more, based on the answers, so I’ll go with two for now.”

“Pinkie,” Streak groaned.

“Did it work?”

Streak looked over at Celestia before asking Nihility, “First priority is my brothers. How many of the Voidborn survived the Elements?”

“All of them. This does not bode well for the Elements’ cleansing having worked,”

“How so?” Twilight asked.

“The Voidborn should have been seen as invaders into her body and been purged. At the best they should have been shoved out of her body, and at worst they would have been destroyed.”

“That’s horrible! The Elements are not weapons, they are tools!” Rarity exclaimed.

“A hammer is a tool, so is a saw,” Streak reminded, “and a wrench, and the knife that Fluttershy let me borrow back at her cottage. They can be used to kill, but weapons are just more efficient at it.”

“Plus the Voidborn are not alive in any form of the word. They do not pull magic from the Wellspring. They do not breathe, eat, drink, or sleep. They do not age, do not die by natural causes. They are, at best, semi-living parasites.”

“This all doesn’t answer my question,” Pinkie reminded. “Nor does it inform me how many more questions I have to ask.”

The group walked over to the prone form of Celestia. Streak looked into her panicked eyes. She knew that her fate was to be decided in this moment.

“Voidborn, allow her to speak,” Streak said. “Allow her a chance to prove that she is truly redeemed.”

“Thank you, Streak!” Celestia gasped out, moving her body to try and hug him. “It was horrible, being trapped inside my own body for over a thousand years, unable to do anything!” Streak batted her away, she gasped, “Streak, it’s me! It’s Celestia.”

“That is yet to be determined,” Streak said levelly. “Even if that is true, don’t expect that a light show and an apology will have me forgive you.” Streak gave her a level stare, “Name the Bearer of the Element of Magic one thousand years ago.”

Celestia looked at him confused, “That was me, Streak.”

“Name who it was supposed to be.”

“Streak I don’t know—” she was interrupted by a slap.

“Don’t lie. Who was the Bearer of Loyalty?”

“Streak, she can’t have known! The Elements weren’t used by anypony but her for the last thousand years until us!” Twilight exclaimed.

“She knew. She knew damned well, and made sure we were all dead!” Streak stomped on the ground. He looked at Celestia, “Ironhoof was Laughter’s Bearer. Wonderbolt was Generosity’s Bearer. Honesty chose Sombra. Kindness found Brick for a Bearer. Magic picked Starswirl. Loyalty chose me. You removed us all from the equation the second you couldn’t manipulate us!”

Celestia’s eyes widened, “How did you–how do you—”

Streak growled, “Do you think that any Element will work for any-fucking-body that wears it? Why do you think that I’m wearing Rainbow Dash’s Element?”

Celestia tried to speak, but no words came out.

“Pinkie, this answers your question. She has not been fixed. Not even close,” he turned to the modern Element Bearers. “My suggestion is to just slit her throat and get it over with, but I leave the decision up to you.”

The Bearers were speechless as he walked over to Rainbow Dash, loaded her onto his back, and walked out of the room.

Nihility watched his other half walk out of the room with sad eyes. “Looks like it’s time for me to leave. My advice, however, is the same. She has caused much pain over the last thousand years, and if you give her the opportunity she will do it again.” He waved his hoof at Celestia and a few Voidborn left her body. “In case you decide to let her live, I have returned her mobility to her. She won’t be able to run for long, or fly, and she definitely won’t be able to use her magic, but she can move around by herself unaided.”

Nihility got close to Celestia’s face, “Do not mistake this for weakness. If you are ever in my presence again, Celestia, I will not hesitate to butcher you where you stand, reformed or not.”

Celestia struggled to her hooves, panting from exertion, as Nihility left with not a glance backwards, portal closing behind him.

Author's Notes:

As promised, another chapter!

Not really much to say here, besides DAMN VOID, YOU SCARY.

1.9 All Over But the Shouting

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Two days later, and Streak was nowhere to be seen. Rainbow had been found in a local hospital, and the other Bearers were visiting her.

“You’re probably looking for Streak.” Those were her opening words.

Fluttershy spoke up, “No, Rainbow. We came to see if you’re okay.”

Rainbow scoffed, “And if I just happen to know where Streak is, then it’s ‘oh, happy coincidence’?”

“You are being incredibly rude, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity scolded.

“Well excuse me. I’ll remember to react better next time someone invalidates a large portion of my life in an afternoon’s work,” Rainbow snapped.

Twilight looked at her sideways,"What do you mean?"

"I mean that my life was two things, Wonderbolts and Element of Loyalty. What do I have now?"

"You still have both of them, Rainbow," Fluttershy tried to console the pegasus.

“Oh, do I? Did you hear Streak’s description of the ponies Wonderbolt was turned into? They fit Spitfire and Soarin perfectly. The Wonderbolts are fake, and my idols are too.”

“You’re still the Element of Loyalty,” Rarity tried.

“And so is Streak,” Rainbow snapped back.

Twilight sighed, “Girls, let’s just go. We’ll be back when you feel like talking.”

The other Bearers filed out of the hospital room one by one, until only Twilight was in the room. She locked eyes with Rainbow. “We honestly came here for you, Rainbow. We are your friends before the friends of somepony we’ve known for a month.”

Rainbow didn’t even look at her, “Yeah, come back and say that again when it’s not your boy-toy they’re looking for.”

Twilight flinched at her friend’s tone. She sighed, “We’ll be back later, Rainbow.”

Rainbow listened to Twilight’s receding hoofsteps, trying to keep the tears from her eyes. She thought back to Streak’s ‘visit.’

* * *

Streak was watching her from a seat in the corner, waiting for her to wake up. She was awake already, obviously, but she didn’t want him to know that yet. She saw the Element in his hooves, and didn’t want to hear about how she failed her friends again, how she failed her Princess again. The prismatic mare didn’t think she could suffer through another failure.

Suddenly Streak stood up. Did she move, did he know she was awake? How could he have known? She was being careful!

All he did was plant a kiss on her forehead, causing her to force herself not to stiffen and alert him to her woken status. He then put her Element around her neck. “Have peace, Rainbow Dash, your work was not for naught. The Elements seemed to think that I was good enough to be a temporary replacement,” he paused for a second, chuckling, before adding somberly, “I am pained that it didn’t work, but knowing you’re okay makes it hurt less. I hope you wake up soon, your friends will be looking for you.” She felt a drop of something wet hit her cheek, and she realised he was crying.

When Rainbow opened her eyes, Streak was gone, leaving just an empty pit in her stomach. She was replaced?

* * *

Streak felt cold, which, thinking about it, wasn’t that odd for his predicament. He could barely feel his legs, and his vision was fading. It wasn’t bad enough that he couldn’t see the other stallion over his body, wiping his blood off of a knife.

It’s funny, when you think about it. I made it all this way, I survived facing down Celestia in her own throne room, only to die now, alone in a ditch. I believe that this is what they call ‘irony’ in some circles.

“It’s funny, really,” the other stallion chuckled, “how easy it was to get you to drop your guard. Just had to tell you that I was from the hospital your mare is staying at and you were all ears. Just a flick of the pastern later, you’re sitting in a ditch with a line in your throat.

“Maybe I’ll head to your mare when I’m done carving up your corpse into itty bitty pieces,” Streak’s murderer chuckled. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had some fun.”

Streak felt the last of his strength surge into his body. There was no way in hell that this bastard was getting anywhere near Rainbow Dash. His murderer kept talking, though, either too arrogant or too stupid to realise that Streak was a threat again, “And to think that you thought you could cross our beloved leader without consequences. She’ll be overjoyed to hear that you went down with the first pony she sent after you. Didn’t even put up a fight.”

What fitting last words, Streak thought to himself as he propelled off the ground. Using the his last bit of strength, he slammed his hoof into his murderer’s throat. He heard choking and gasping as his attacker dropped to the ground, trachea collapsed.

Streak grinned as his vision finally faded faded to black, all energy spent. At least he’d gotten the bastard.

* * *

“Welcome back to the Void.”

Streak looked around in panic, expecting to feel the familiar agony that he had learned over a thousand years in this very place.

“The Void does not attack its own, Premier.”

“Where, where am I?” Streak asked, then jumped. “What happened to my voice?”

Streak felt, more than saw, his conversational partner start walking, “As I said, you’re in the Void. Come with me.”

Streak stood still, defiant, “No! I’m tired of going through on someone else’s plan! I’m tired of not knowing things that anybody else in my situation would know! I’m owed some damn answers!”

The other demon stopped moving. “I guess I do owe you some answers. Very well then, Premier. Ask away.”

* * *

It had been two weeks since anypony had last seen Streak. Rainbow had gotten out of the hospital and was scouring the countryside as far away as Los Pegasus, refusing to believe that Streak was really gone. The other bearers, however, were a different story.

“Rainbow, you’re wasting your time. He’s gone!” Rarity tried to reason with her friend.

“That’s what you think? You think he’s not coming back?” Rainbow growled through clenched teeth.

“RD, don’t lose yer temper with Rares, she’s right,” Applejack said less delicately. “He got what he wanted out of us, and he’s not comin’ back, you have to face that.”

Rainbow whirled at her friend, “You think he won’t come back to m–us?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as caught her friend’s slip up, but decided that she’d confront her later.

“That’s exactly what I’m sayin’, RD!” Applejack exploded. “He told us to kill Celestia, and when we didn’t he left!”

“Do you think this is all about us, AJ?” Rainbow shouted, “How do you think he feels about this?”

“Probably pretty darn good!” Applejack shot back. “He seems to have no problem just leaving us to ourselves!”

“Have you ever seen him cry?”

Applejack scoffed, “He cried alright, he cried when he found the mass grave.”

“Have you actually seen tears fall from his face?”

“I have,” Twilight spoke up quietly.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “Really? When?”

“That first day he was telling his story, when we were downstairs for two hours, he cried pretty much the whole time.” Twilight rubbed her poll awkwardly.

Rainbow looked at her sideways, “That’s once. Once. He cried once around us until two weeks ago.”

Applejack groaned, “Why does that even matter?”

Rainbow ground her teeth together again at her friend’s dismissive tone. “He cried because the Elements couldn’t fix Celestia, does that not mean anything?”

Twilight put her hoof on Rainbow’s withers, “Rainbow, we’re not going to find him, we need to move on.”

Rainbow growled at Twilight, “I thought that you, of all ponies, would want him back.”

Twilight flinched back, “What does that mean?”

“How long did it take for us to get you to admit that you liked him? How little did that end up being worth?”

“Hey! Wait just one—”

“I wasn’t finished,” Rainbow interrupted. “You’re pitiful, Twilight. That’s what it boils down to. You fall for the witty Streak, stay for the angry Streak, but you leave as soon as things get difficult?”

“Pitiful? Leave as soon as things get difficult? I helped him take on Celestia, who was like a second mother to me! Don’t say that wasn’t difficult!”

“Then you get competition and he disappears, and suddenly we have to move on?” Rainbow flipped her now-brushed hair.

“Girls,” Rarity tried to interject into the conversation.

“Get competition?” Twilight scoffed, ignoring Rarity. “You couldn’t compete with me if you wanted to!”

“Girls, that’s enough,” Rarity chastised.

“You’re right! All I have to do is wait and he’ll come crawling to me from your unstable ass!” Rainbow continued, ignoring Rarity.

Twilight gasped, “Petty insults is it? Two can play that game, Miss Breakdown!”

“Oh, the hypocrisy! Twilight the Freakout is calling me Miss Breakdown!”

“Twilight the Freakout?” Twilight sneered. “Do you not have creativity in that head of yours? Check under the thick skull!”

“GIRLS!” Rarity shouted. “I expect better from both of you! You know better than to argue like this, especially with a friend!”

Rainbow snorted, “You’re right, Rarity. I should try to have some kind of class when arguing with a friend. Twilight, if you try to speak with me again I will break all your legs completely in half and use the bones to stab your eyes out, then reach down your throat and pull our your intestines to tie you up with so you can’t escape as I burn you alive and bury you in a patch of Poison Joke. I hope that was creative enough for you.”

Rarity and Twilight stared with wide eyes as Rainbow promptly turned around and took off into the air.

* * *

Twilight and Rarity were sitting in the front room of Carousel Boutique, enjoying some tea and conversation about recent events. “Can you even believe that the griffons still refuse to open their borders to ponies?” Rarity was saying. “That seems excessive, and nopony even knows why they closed the borders in the first place!”

“That does seem like the kind of thing that they would tell us,” Twilight mused.

Rarity looked at the clock. 7:03. Late, as usual. Right as she thought this, there was a knock at the door frame as a prismatic pegasus practically bounced inside in excitement.

“Hey, Rares, I have a day or two before I head back out, you said something about a sleepov–oh, her,” Rainbow began bright and excited, and ended glaring at Twilight.

“What’s she doing here, Rarity?” Twilight scowled.

“Really, girls! It’s been two years, you think that you’d stand to be in the same room with each other! You used to be such good friends.” Rarity chastised, sighing at her friends’ attitudes.

“Like I need to be friends with a useless egghead like her,” Rainbow scoffed.

Twilight glowered at Rainbow, “At least I’m not a worthless blockhead who spends all my time looking for somepony who obviously doesn’t want to be found. Even if he does, it’s obviously not by you.”

Rainbow’s jaw locked as she ground her teeth. Her entire body stiffened as her eyes lowered into a hateful glare. A primal growl burbled out of the enraged pegasus’s throat.

“Oh, did I hit a sore spot, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight gave a smug smile, which was quickly wiped off her face as a hoof slammed into her muzzle.

Rarity looked at Rainbow in shock. In two years, she hadn’t lifted a hoof against Twilight, no matter how heated the argument got.

Twilight grinned, blood running from her nose, “That all you got, Rainbow?”

The taunt did its job, as Twilight was pressed against the inside wall of Carousel Boutique by the throat. The smug look in her eyes was quickly replaced with fear when she looked into the other mare’s eyes. She saw primal rage and hatred, nothing but rage and hatred. Her horn lit up immediately, but Rainbow’s hoof slammed into it, knocking the glow off of it and giving Twilight an even worse headache. After giving the unicorn’s nose a good smack with her forehead, Rainbow brought her hoof down again, right into Twilight’s muzzle. Then again. And again. And again.

Rarity looked in horror as Rainbow Dash beat the ever-living hell out of somepony who used to be her best friend. She bolted out the door, calling for Applejack, who was hopefully nearby at the market and not packed up on her way home.

Rainbow bodily pulled Twilight away from the wall before slamming her into it, knocking the back of her head against it. She repeated the motion again and again, somehow not knocking out Twilight. She pulled Twilight once more from the wall, before launching her through the half-open door.

Outside in ponyville, Cloud Chaser was standing by the Boutique, looking toward the market in confusion. There was a thumping sound from the building after Rarity had left, and Chaser was about to investigate as a thoroughly bloodied Twilight came flying out the door.

The pegasus was about to run to check on her friend when Rainbow Dash walked calmly out of the Boutique. Scratch that, calmly was not the right word. Her nostrils were flaring, her eyebrows were knit, her jaw was locked, and her eyes were filled with hate. Chaser didn’t have to look at Rainbow’s bloody hooves and forehead to know who was the cause of Twilight’s current condition.

Chaser watched in horror as Rainbow drug Twilight by the mane back towards the Boutique. Twilight groaned, “Rainbow… sorry… so…”

“NOW YOU’RE SORRY?” Rainbow screamed at the helpless mare in her hooves, slamming her against the paneling of Rarity’s place of business. “YOU WEREN’T SORRY BEFORE, BITCH! NOW THAT YOU’VE PUSHED ME TOO FAR, NOW YOU’RE SORRY?”

“Rainbow—” Chaser called out, running up to the duo, trying desperately to stop what she knew was going to happen.

“There are so many people I want to hurt, Twilight Sparkle. You, for trying to get me to abandon my friend and for abandoning him yourself. Streak for leaving in the first fucking place. My dad for being an asshole while raising me. You are in the lucky position of being my outlet.” Rainbow slammed Twilight into the wall with each name she listed.

“Rainbow, stop! You’ll hurt her!” Chaser pulled at Rainbow’s shoulder, trying to pull her away from her victim.

“That’s the point,” Rainbow growled, slamming another hoof into Twilight’s horn as she tried to teleport again. “Don’t you fucking leave yet!”

“Rainbow Dash, stop!” Applejack called out, running from market. She had obviously left in a hurry since she was missing her trademark stetson. She was prepared, however, with a bundle of rope.

Rainbow didn’t even notice her friend, focused as she was on the target of her aggression. She raised another hoof to slam into Twilight again, but found it held back by Cloud Chaser. She merely reversed the direction she swung the hoof and backhoofed Chaser in the face, knocking her away. Turning back to Twilight, she brought a hoof into her chest, knocking the wind out of her.

“Rainbow!” Applejack yelled, finally reaching the two. She tackled the enraged mare to the ground. “Stop this now!”

“She’s still moving!” Rainbow struggled against her, trying to reach Twilight, who was laying on the ground, coughing up blood.

Rarity was by Twilight in an instant and helping her stand. “Come on, let’s get you to the hospital,” Rarity said, ducking under Twilight and lifting her onto her back. Rainbow struggled futilely against Applejack’s superior strength, yelling every name under the sun at Twilight’s receding form.

Chaser sat down on the ground in disbelief, one forehoof pressed over the red mark on her cheek. Rainbow had hit her. She never hit ponies, but she had hit her.

Applejack was busy tying Rainbow up in the rope she had brought with a disappointed look on her face. She muttered to Rainbow, “You’re better than this, RD.”

Rainbow just snarled.

Author's Notes:

End of book one.

I'm feeling generous today, and since it's a holiday I decided to just give you chapter nine. You're welcome.

Fair warning, right off the bat book two deals with controversial topics such as homosexuality and domestic abuse, and has the potential to touch onto even touchier topics. Let me put this out now: I have not been abused. I grew up with a wonderful family that is supportive of my life choices. I am also a supporter of gay rights, but I am not gay myself.

Please avoid any comments along any topic that can be seen as offensive, even if it is agreeing with me, since I will remove them all. This includes, but is not limited to, comments on being abandoned at birth, abuse, suicide, homosexuality, self harm, or anything else that I might add or is related to something I might add. Unfortunately, this does include personal anecdotes involving your own experiences with these things as well as opinionated statements, since I refuse to attempt to pass judgement on your comments. Please don't make me click on that delete button, I enjoy getting comments, and really don't want to have to get rid of any of them.