"My God - life! Who can understand even one little minute of it?"

"Don't try. Just pretend you understand."

"That's - that's very good advice."

                                                                                                                                   - "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut

***

Silver Dusk, Golden Dawn

Lancy shrugged in his troubled sleep. His dreams were constantly haunting him but the worst part of the torture was that the tormentor remained unknown: as soon as the red unicorn awakened, the last remnants of the nightmare faded into day. And so happened now.

The stallion jerked up, his eyes wide open, a drop of sweat falling onto the plain bed. As Lancy regained his usual serene pace of breathing, he sighed and stood up. He had no habit of falling asleep again after waking up. Awoken means awoken, he had always said.

The sun still hid beneath the thick layer of clouds, mixed with highly dangerous radioactive dust. Lancy idly mused that the very air would have killed a pony of past times; fortunately, modern ponies were immune to the deadly substance.

The unicorn rose from his bed, trotting towards the bathroom. His flat was as plain as any other; he would have hated himself if he were to live in conditions different from what other Stealth citizens had to live in. He wasn't their ruler; he was a mere coordinator. The Sphere reacted to him - and he transmitted its holy energy to the ponies. Nothing more, nothing less.

As cold, refreshing water ran down his body, Lancy thought about Silver Dawn. The black earth pony was different from others: he was struggling. He kept a severe stance of resistance and, Lancy had to admit, managed to succeed. Yet.

The red stallion smiled as he washed his perfect white mane. Yet. Soon, the submission would be complete. Soon, Silver would join him. Lancy wanted the earth pony to join - terribly so. Lancy admired few things: beauty, courage, honour. But most of all he admired wisdom. And Silver had much wisdom to share indeed.

Having finished the morning routine, the Coordinator left the flat and headed for the main square. As it was still quite early, most ponies were asleep. The only ones that could be seen were couples exchanging kisses in the dark alleys which were no longer lit by moonlight but not touched by sunlight yet. Lancy smiled and tried to step more gently. He didn't want to disturb the lovebirds.

Approaching the Sphere, he felt the ever-present sensation of deep respect to the inanimate object. No! Not inanimate! The Sphere was alive, and Lancy knew it. He felt it. As he touched the Sphere, it lit with familiar light and shared its warmth with the unicorn. However, Lancy felt a sudden change in the sensation: like somepony else was draining the energy. Like the Sphere opened itself to another pony.

To another pony.

Another pony.

Another.

Another.

In a moment, the unicorn didn't feel so insecure. But of course! If the Sphere felt another Coordinator about the city, it could mean only one thing: it was the new pony that had arrived in Stealth recently.

Silver Dawn.

Silver Dawn - that was that another pony.

Yet, Lancy couldn't be completely sure about that. He had to check. And that was exactly what he meant to do. But first, he had some business to attend to. Silver must be still with Shining Star, Lancy mused. So, he headed for the House of Wisdom.

***

The House of Wisdom met him with cold and unwelcoming silence. Stepping inside, Lancy found not a single sign of Silver nor did he find the beautiful librarian.

Beautiful. He had never speculated about that word. Sure, Star was beautiful, in the common sense. She was a good mare to sleep with; but... was it the outside beauty or the inside beauty that made a pony really beautiful? In that case, was that strange rebel scientist - Layla - more beautiful than Shining Star? Anyway, he had to protect Silver from that kind of beauty. Sure, he lied to him about Layla and the City - so what? The stallion could have been influenced by those underground delinquents. Without him, they were powerless - Lancy knew how good his army and Intelligence was - but with him... let's say, they could stand a chance.

Finally, Lancy looked at the shelves and, without further thinking, took a book. He knew the book by heart; yet, he had to read it again, in case he were wrong.

As I have thought... the unicorn mused after a few minutes of reading.

Putting the book on the shelf, he left the library, carefully closing the door.

***

As Lancy ascended the stairs leading to Silver's flat, he heard two voices arguing over something: a stallion and a mare. Silver Dawn and Shining Star.

"Hey, Silver, pal, what's going on?" Lancy shouted, trotting through the corridor.

He entered the room. His eyes shone with concern. He was concerned about Silver, after all. Not about that cheap librarian whorse.

"Nothing, Lancy," Shining Star cooed. "Just on my way to leave," she said, tossing Silver a wink and leaving the flat.

After the blue mare had left, silence endured in the room.

Finally, Lancy whispered:

"Hot stuff, don't you think, Silver, pal?" He turned to Silver, making him lower his gaze. He wanted the earth pony's reaction. He wanted to know where his and Star's relationship ended - if it had ever started.

"I don't want to talk about it..." Silver mumbled. "I hate her," he suddenly said, lifting his head and meeting the unicorn's gaze.

Lancy noted that the lavender-maned pony looked into his eyes as a foal would look into his father's. Or... like a younger brother would looked into his elder brother's eyes.

"Wasn't good enough for you last night, huh?" The unicorn asked, closing the door behind him. His eyes showed that he didn't mean that - the question was a fake, provoking Silver to express his honest thoughts.

Silver shrugged and looked through the window. Lancy copied the gesture.

The sun had just reached its zenith, radiating warmth, casting its light on the whole town. The usual hustle never stopped: ponies were moving to and thro, exchanging smiles and glances, talking to each other, enjoying the fine day.

"No, not that, Lancy..." Silver finally said, stepping aside from the windowpane. "Just... I thought she would be more..."

"Mare-like?" The red unicorn finished the phrase.

Lancy chuckled and approached Silver, patting him on the shoulder.

"That's mares, Silver, pal..." The unicorn got lost in thought for a second, reminiscing events of his own past. "Don't take it close to your heart," he continued, becoming serious. "But never, I repeat, never let a mare in your life, Silver, pal," he finished, feeling somewhat doleful. He learned that truth from experience; but he didn't want Silver to climb through the same hardships to get that knowledge.

"I was a fool back then, yesterday," Lancy suddenly confessed. He hung his head low in sincere shame. "I thought you needed a mare for the night but it seems you need more than that," he said, moving towards the door. "I'm sorry," he concluded.

Partly, he acted. He wasn't half as sorry as he showed it. Most ponies were mere actors, playing the parts they were given, weren't they? But partly, he was honest. It was his fault to put Silver to that test. Fortunately, Silver had passed it. He wasn't fooled by visible beauty; he craved for the inside beauty.

Silver silently nodded.

"Silver, pal, I need to show something to you," Lancy added, opening the door. "Come on." With that, he left the room, holding the door for Silver to follow. The black pony trotted out of his flat.

The door slammed behind them.

***

The ponies trotted side by side, enjoying their silence.

A group of foals ran past them, kicking a rubber ball in front of them. A game of hoofball, Lancy thought. He used to play it when he was a foal, too. He looked at Silver, who smiled and shook his head when a visible urge to join the youngsters knocked at his mental door.

As if he were reading his very thoughts, Lancy smiled indulgently.

"We're a bit too old for hoofball, aren't we, Silver, pal?" he asked, still smiling.

"By the way, how old are you, Lancy?" the black pony suddenly wondered, not answering the question, as they walked towards the town square.

The white-maned unicorn was silent. Should he tell him now? And how in Stealth would he tell him if he couldn't explain it even to himself? Twenty-four. Always twenty-four. That was the Sphere's doing, not his! It didn't want to consume him - so it protected him from ageing, simple as that. That was the only explanation he could think of.

The two ponies. approached the Sphere, accompanied only by the sound of hooves hitting stone.

The Sphere was constantly glowing. The light was intense and enticing, flickering and trembling but directing its steady flow all around the square, though it seemed that the mystical light was covering all town.

"Twenty-four, Silver, pal," Lancy said, stroking the Sphere. It reacted by slowly turning red. Red. Like his eyes. Like Silver's eyes. "Always twenty-four," he added after a moment of silence.

Silver opened his mouth in amazement.

"What..." He began.

"I'll explain," Lancy interrupted his stuttering. "But before it, Silver, pal, please, come here." He nodded in the direction of the Sphere.

Silver Dawn came closer to the shining object.

"Touch it," Lancy said, taking his hoof off the object. The red colour immediately vanished. It didn't sound like an order; yet, Silver obeyed.

The earth pony pressed a hoof against the Sphere. The second he touched the Sphere, it turned red again.

Lancy's eyes widened and his mouth fell agape.

"So it's true..." He whispered, staggering back from Silver. He knew it. All the time since Silver appeared in the city, he had known it. He had read the book; he had heard the story his father told him. He knew it. And now... Silver knew it too.

The black pony raised a brow.

"What's the matter, Lancy?" He asked, coming closer to the unicorn and putting a hoof on his shoulder in what seemed to Lancy like a friendly manner. "And what do you mean by 'always twenty-four'? Is it a local joke?" Silver wondered, showing all signs of knowing very well that it wasn't a joke.

Lancy gulped, his eyes expressing utter astonishment.

"It's complicated, Silver, pal," he said. "Or... should I say... brother?"

***

All of a sudden, the world around them turned black. Lancy could sense a fleeting feeling of gunpowder penetrating his nose. He sneezed loudly, gradually coming to a realization that the whole town was enveloped in a strange, yet familiar, noise.

The noise of machine guns.

"Run and hide!" Lamcy yelled at the top of his lungs and pushed Silver towards the Sphere. The Sphere would protect him. It ought to protect him.

The red unicorn trotted towards the two-storey stone building, which was black, dark and unwelcoming to strangers. But Lancy was no stranger in his own town so he threw the large door open with a simple motion of his horn and entered the sombre place.

It was quiet and dark, with nopony around. The whole building, two-storey from the outside, was actually a single big room. The ceiling was placed so high that one couldn't simply see it due to the darkness that reigned regally inside. The walls were dirty and bare, without a sign of a single hoof ever touching them.

However, the red-maned pony knew exactly what he had come for. He swiftly approached the furthest wall and found a small device with a few buttons that was inserted into a small, almost invisible crack in the wall. The buttons were impossible to be pressed with a hoof, but Lancy, being a unicorn, encountered no difficulties.

He chuckled at the irony: while the town was meant for everypony, only unicorns could get access to its holy of holies, the key to protecting Stealth - or destroying it whatsoever.

"Nine... One... Five... Six... One... Nine..." Lancy whispered aloud as he pressed the needed buttons. Of course, he needn't have done it, for it was magic and not a mere password that protected the weapon from being activated. In a matter of a few seconds, a large red button appeared before the pony. He smiled and extended his hoof. He could have pressed the button using his magic but the moment was too glorious to do so.

Too long had he tolerated the Earth Brothers.

Too long had he planned this.

Too long had he been developing the ultimate weapon.

Sure, he had fooled the Brothers to attack Stealth. Sure, some ponies would die in the process of realization of his master plan. Sure, blood would fall.

But in the end, the Earth Brothers would be destroyed. Today.

And peace and prosperity would follow and remain for ever after.

Lancy smiled and pressed the button.

***

Silver got up from the ground. He had hit his head on the Sphere and it hurt greatly, though, he knew he had to act quickly. If life had ever taught him anything, it was the simple fact that if there is shooting around you and you don't have a gun. you have to run.

An array of thoughts rushed through Silver's head. Lancy running away, leaving him, abandoning him... Layla, alone in the underground city, unprotected, insecure... Shining Star... Why Shining Star?

The lavender-maned earth pony knew better than to stand in place and speculate. When a bullet whistled past his head, he took off, galloping towards the large fence that surrounded the town. It was his chance to get out, at last! In search for a hole, a small gap, a crack in the surface of the fence, the black pony saw a gate - a way out!

However, the way was blocked by a scene Silver had never seen before: dozens of ponies - maybe even hundreds - clashed in a violent battle. From the direction of the gate were running countless earth ponies with machine guns and knives, stabbing and shooting citizens of Stealth; from the direction of the town were defending the citizens, many of them in military outfits, with guns and rifles.

The thick black smoke covered the improvised battlefield and the scent of fresh blood was fearful and somewhat intoxicating. The air was filled with cries and shrieks and the whole place was so crowded with bodies, living and dead, that it was nearly impossible to get through.

Still, this is my only chance, Silver thought and, swearing under his breath, rushed off into the unknown with his eyes closed. In a few fleeting moments, a bullet hit his shoulder. The earth pony fell on the ground and groaned. He was in no condition to move. Well, this is what you get for being a fool, he concluded. He tried to open his eyes but sudden weariness enveloped him, and he couldn't move a centimetre.

He considered dying. He didn't feel bad about it, though. He knew that sooner or later he would have to die. The lifeless wasteland left no other option. But he wanted to die later rather than sooner. Only now he realised how much he actually wanted to live.

Suddenly, he felt being dragged by the leg. Somepony was moving him; somepony who was obviously not a unicorn, for he was being dragged by somepony's mouth. When Silver, suppressing the pain and fatigue, managed to open his eyes, he saw that somepony. A brown earth pony stood above him, his long black mane falling upon his shoulders, his red eyes looking at Silver with sympathy.

Red eyes.

The pony was accompanied by four tough soldiers. Though they were useless right now, partly because Silver was injured, partly because they were located beside a large house, with nopony around, everypony concentrated on the battle.

"Ah, what a fine day the Goddesses - may they be damned - had brought upon us, don't you think?" the brown pony said, smiling. "Never in my life would I have thought that I would meet another blessed victim of the radiation!" He carefully looked over Silver Dawn, paying attention to his wounds. "And what a victim it is!" he exclaimed, raising his hoof.

Silver blinked at the sudden display of affection, not fully comprehending the situation.

"You are ever so lucky, young warrior," the black-maned pony addressed Silver. "It is a marvel that I managed to see this red light in your eyes in the middle of the battle," he continued, tossing his mane to the side. "Or I would have killed you," he concluded plainly.

Silver groaned in pain and grabbed his shoulder. Warm blood covered his hoof immediately.

"Oh, I simply cannot let you die here," the stranger exclaimed. "I'm ever so interested to find another deadling, apart from me and Lancy, of course."

Deadling? Silver thought but never managed to ask, for his lips were sealed due to pain.

"Now about your treatment..." the brown earth pony began but his mouth fell agape all of a sudden. His guards were visibly shocked as well.

What is it? Silver tried to whisper but failed. Fortunately - or unfortunately - the answer to his question appeared right before his eyes. An enormous ball of bizarre red substance - much like plasma - was moving in the air towards the gate.

Towards the battlefield.

Most of the warriors didn't notice it. Some ponies noticed it but paid no attention. How they were mistaken! The ball, huge already, enlarged itself even more and enveloped the fighting ponies. Their deaths were quick and visibly painless: they simply vanished, easy as that. Nothing more.

After doing its deed, the plasma ball flew towards the Sphere and the glowing object - Lancy's idol - consumed it whole, glowing red for a moment.

The ball was gone. So were the warriors from both sides. Only the Sphere remained in its glorious beauty.

Somehow, the shock was so great that Silver had forgotten about pain for the time being. Now, however, after the whole performance had finished, the pain returned. The lavender-maned pony's groans made the brown pony and his guards blink and come to their senses immediately.

Clearly, the black-maned pony wanted to say something, for his mouth opened slowly - but another strange scene interrupted him.

From the slowly perishing black appeared a red unicorn, who was carrying a gun in his magical grip, a wide grin plastered upon his face.

"It worked," he said plainly, with a swift flash in his eyes, his red, bottomless eyes.

These simple words somehow managed to establish tranquillity inside the brown earth pony. He turned to see look into Lancy's eyes. His gaze was no longer surprised, his brows no longer raised, his body no longer tense. He reached for his saddlebag and took a cigarette out of it with a refined gesture of his mouth - a gesture only earth ponies were capable of.

"Would you mind lending me a light?" he enquired, addressing Lancy, with the cigarette hanging in his mouth.

Silver Dawn marvelled at how elegantly the stranger managed to speak, even with a paper cylinder in his mouth, looking neither like a bandit nor like a poser.

The unicorn cast a simple spell, lighting the cigarette, which immediately began emitting foul smoke.

"How many times I've told you that it's bad for your health..." Lancy shook his head disapprovingly, as though he were scolding an old friend... or a brother?

"A true actor never fears death, for death is but a fleeting moment in the face of eternity," the brown pony said grandiloquently. "The play is what matters, and I play my part as I see it." He took a deep puff of his cigarette. "You have played your hand, Lancy, it seems, and the joker was yours," he concluded, casting the unicorn an estimating look.

"Or was it?" he continued after taking another puff. "Sacrificing almost all of the town's population - just to achieve your ambition of getting rid of us?" He chuckled. "Passing bold, I say."

"There is a price for everything, Rising Curtain," Lancy replied with a lazy shrug. "We have to pay for what we want to achieve."

Silver Dawn couldn't get a grip on what was happening. Could Lancy... Could he have killed all those ponies? Just to deal with his mortal enemies? And how could he call them enemies if he was talking to one of them simply like that? What was the reason behind this? What is the sphere? Why was Lancy always twenty-four? These questions made Silver's head ache, adding pain to the already painful existence of his.

Lancy looked at Silver expectantly.

"Don't worry, Silver, pal," he said, chewing on his words. "I see you have quite a lot of questions and I'm the one to provide answers. But first of all..." he suddenly stopped and closer his eyes. His horn glowed red and a magic wall appeared before the five earth ponies standing before him. The unicorn jerked his head slightly and, in but a moment, the brown pony's guardians fell down, their throats cut open, blood leaving their bodies.

Rising curtain (if that was the brown pony's real name) didn't look afraid in the slightest. He huffed and extinguished his cigarette.

"What's wrong, Rising Curtain? I thought you adored fencing?" Lancy teased the earth pony, moving closer, his breath falling onto Silver in some way.

"I adore the fencing of the old world," the brown pony replied simply. "You, on the other hoof, managed to spoil it with that magic of yours," he said with a hint of disdain in his voice.

Silver groaned, feeling his shoulder no more. He honestly thought for a second he would die on the spot, with the two enemies too involved in their friendly talk.

Lancy turned his head towards the lavender-maned earth pony.

"Oh, Silver, sorry, pal, my bad. Here you are." He cast a healing spell and Silver's wound was automatically cured.

Too bad he can't restore my lost blood, Silver thought, feeling slightly dizzy, yet, still not on the edge of passing out.

Feeling a little better, Silver tried to rise to his hooves but his attempt was in vain: he fell on the ground with a groan.

"Why, Lancy?.." he only managed to whisper as pain returned to his shoulder.

"Better not to move, Silver, pal. The wound's only healed, not fully cured," the unicorn warned him.

"Why?... What's going on..." Silver said, addressing nopony in particular, mumbling to himself, like a foal who had just been told that Hearth Warming's Eve Pony is not real.

Unexpectedly, Rising Curtain turned to the black pony and looked into his eyes.

"What's going on?" he wondered. "You want to know, Silver... Dawn, was it?"

Silver managed to nod.

The brown pony nodded in return.

"Lancy, shall I?" he asked the unicorn.

"I can't see why you shan't," Lancy replied with a shrug. "Just try to make it quick."

Rising Curtain cleared his throat artistically and began speaking; though, now his speech didn't carry even the slightest hint of medieval antiquity. It was a simple explanation of simple events.

"Lancy used the power of the Sphere to create a powerful magical weapon, based on the technology that almost wiped out the ponykind long ago. Now almost all of his ponies-"

"Citizens," Lancy interrupted.

"Citizens," Rising Curtain corrected himself. "Almost all of his citizens are dead; so are my ponies. Our struggle is no more. It seems that the conflict is finally solved, for the parties have ceased. Time to drop the curtain, don't you think, Lancy?" the red-eyed earth pony turned towards the unicorn and extended his hoof.

"High time," Lancy said and pulled the trigger of his gun.

The bullet hit the heart directly. The brown pony didn't suffer. He fell on the ground as a big lump of clay, colour swiftly leaving his limbs.

"Good-bye, old friend," Lancy said sympathetically. A tear crawled down his cheek.

"Digest a little the wine, of which thou hast taken too much..." the brown pony whispered as he reached for his saddlebag and tried to take out a gun. But he needn't have done it - his heart stopped beating the very second he tried to do so.

"Book of Kings," Lancy stated with no intonation.

"Is... Is all of this true?" Silver asked pleadingly. He didn't want to believe this; yet, he knew this was true.

"Yes, it is," Lancy said blandly.

"Stealth... is no more?" Silver wondered idly.

Lancy turned his head towards the earth pony.

"Not yet. There are a few ponies that were alive when all of this happened. The City is no more, though," he added, knowing what effect it would cause.

Silver Dawn gasped in fear.

"How? How is this- You are lying!" he yelled, suppressing the sharp pain.

"No, I'm not. I had to draw energy from somewhere. And the City was an ideal source. Why do you think I let those rebels live?" Lancy replied with a smile.

"They all just played part in your play..." Silver whispered.

Lancy nodded solemnly.

"For many years have I studied the technology of the Old World - and I have succeeded. The Sphere, whatever it is, gave me immortality - always twenty-four..." he quoted himself. "...And it also gave me the means to put an end to this struggle between the Free City of Stealth and those nationalistic Earth Brothers. I am ever so grateful," he said dreamily and looked in the direction where the Sphere was located with frightening precision.

"But you begged to differ," Lancy said suddenly, turning his head towards Silver. "You were a rebellious actor who didn't want to play his part. No wonder Rising Curtain noticed you."

"He was your brother?" Silver asked, slowly crawling away from the maniacal unicorn, towards the brown pony's saddlebag.

"In the same way you are, Silver. 'Blessed victims of the radiation', he would say," Lancy said, lost in thought.

Using this opportunity, Silver collected all his strength and, with one swift move, leapt towards Rising Curtain's saddlebag and grabbed his pistol. The feeling of steel in his mouth gave him some courage - and power to stand up.

Shaking, stumbling upon the flat ground, the black pony pointed the gun at Lancy.

"Oh, quite rebellious indeed..." Lancy chucked. "Would you dare to kill an immortal?" he wondered, raising a brow.

Silver knew better. He staggered towards the exit - towards the way out.

"I'm not holding you, you know," Lancy said suddenly. His tone was serious. "The play is over; the actors can go home now."

To support his words, he dropped his own gun to the ground.

Not letting his guard down, his gun still pointed at Lancy, Silver moved towards the exit, step by step.

He reached the gate. The way was open. He dropped the gun.

Turning his back on the red unicorn, on the cursed town, on all the dead ponies and living ponies there, he took a few hesitant steps forth and left town. Staggering and stopping every few steps, he went away, towards the frozen wasteland, towards freedom.

His figure got lost in the deep sands of the desert.

Lancy sighed with a smile.

He looked over the empty town. Marks of bullets and the foul smoke of badly-mixed gunpowder were decorating Stealth, adding some dark, sombre beauty to the large lopsided sign above the entrance that read,

WELCOME TO STEALTH