Southern Storm
Southern Storm stepped backwards carefully, flaring his wings out a little from worry. It might have been a mistake to ask for a cake this big. No, it was definitely a mistake now that he was trying to guide the ponies carrying it through the doors. Even considering that they'd split off the balloon as a separate cake and were going to assemble the whole HMS Firefly in the ballroom, just the hull on its wheeled cart was proving problematic. It just barely fit through the doors, and Storm could practically feel gray hairs forming in his mane trying to make this work.
It took a tense half hour to get both halves of the cake inside, and longer to make sure it was put together properly. It took a winch to position the balloon, and steel spars to hold the cake together, but at least the cake was the last thing that needed to be done. The ballroom had already been strung with blue and yellow streamers from the rafters all the way down the walls, and he and his friends had spent much of the night removing the sun-crystal chandeliers, replacing them with a slew of elaborate paper lanterns - some in the shape of fluffy white clouds, others in the shape of the old, pre-war Wonderbolt insignia, and still more scattered lanterns had been made in the shape of the sun and moon. This last part was a new addition; the entire party was illegal anyway, so Southern Storm had decided to put another hoof in the Queen's eye with a nod to his friends Prism and Midnight, the newly (self)crowned Sun Princess and Moon Prince. The round tables had already been set in a semicircle around the stage, with plenty of room for dancing, the silverware settings were complete, and even now ponies were setting up the punch bowls and the buffet table, so the only thing left was to double-check the guest list.
Southern Storm knew it by heart, of course. Even as he trotted up the stairs to his room, he could probably recite the names of the ponies who had been invited. Given the sensitive nature of the celebration, it was a select number of trusted ponies - though that number had slowly climbed over time. Aside from his new friends, most of the invitees were residents of Little Cloudsdale, descendants of the original Cloudsdale refugees much like himself. Even after all this time, they were a tight-knit little group, that still nursed the old grudges in secret and kept the Loyalist cause - and the old Celestian religion - alive behind closed doors. The idea that one of them would turn informer was simply incomprehensible.
As Storm pulled out the list from his desk and started going down it, making sure to track who had responded to their invitations, he also noted several not-unexpected additions to the list in Shimmerwing's flowing lettering (now that he knew the connection, he could see her changeling nature clearly in how she formed her letters so similarly to the curving, fluid glyphs of her native language). She had already come to him about bringing a few Order members for extra security, and he was glad to see that she'd followed his wishes and only added a dozen ponies to the list. What he was not happy to see, however, was several more names outlined in Talon's scratchy hand. This he had not authorized, especially the last name - Cloudrunner. He felt his gut drop, and took a couple of deep breaths to steady his nerves. It was all he could do to try and forget that disastrous date Talon had set him up on, and now he was going to have to look Cloudrunner in the eyes and pretend that he hadn't run out on that date like a coward.
Storm sighed, trying to push it out of his mind for the moment, and started getting himself ready now. His mane was easy - brush it, gel it, slick it down into his signature coif. Then some powder for the bags of fatigue under his eyes, just a bit of black eyeliner for dramatic effect - but not so much that he'd appear goth - and a single silver loop earring to complete the effect. His clothes were already laid out on the bed, and Southern Storm was soon dressed in a white, ruffled shirt - a risky move, but he had enough credibility to attempt a 'retro' look - and a dark red coat with an open front and a high collar. He looked at himself in the mirror for a moment before his eyes caught the glint of the Element of Generosity sitting on his dresser. "What do you think, Rarity?" he said, rhetorically addressing the softly glowing sapphire. "I know some ponies will say that glam rock is out of style, but I think there's nothing wrong with looking fabulous." Of course he didn't get a response, but he'd seen enough of his predecessor in the stone to know that she would have likely agreed. Storm put the Element in his inside pocket on a whim, and with its warmth close to his heart he felt much more confident that he could make every pony happy tonight - even Cloudrunner. In fact, he rather thought he should have brought more party favors; after all, this was going to be the best night ever.
Prism Star
This really was the best party Prism could think of - even better than the birthday party she'd had a few weeks ago. The ballroom was jam-packed with pegasi, and not even Shimmer's nervous energy or the Order of Harmony guards with their grey brigandine vests and aetherlance carbines could dampen her mood. But as fun as it was, it was also surreal; in a very real sense, this was her first public appearance as a princess. Southern Storm had assured Prism and Midnight that they were amongst some of the stoutest Loyalist supporters in the two kingdoms, and had insisted that Prism wear her crown, though Prism and Shimmer both shut him down quickly at the suggestion of full regalia.
And he was certainly right about Loyalist support. Nearly every pony she met stopped to bow to her, and insisted on shaking her hoof (Prism's fetlock was by now quite sore). Fillies and colts her own age begged for demonstrations of light magic, and one pregnant mare had asked Prism to bless her foal - a strange situation that Shimmer had thankfully saved her from with a false security scare. If nothing else, Prism could tell that Midnight was sharing her mounting discomfort, and she was reminded of the old expression that "misery loves company". Mid and Sour Apple - the latter looking rather dashing with his own vest and carbine, she had to admit - were similarly thronged by supporters and well-wishers, and when Prism and Shimmer pushed their way to the crowd to meet their counterparts, Prism was momentarily stunned by the barrage of camera flashes from ponies hoping to get a picture of the two royals together.
Thankfully, the feedback of a microphone soon rang out from the stage, and everypony quieted down and started moving to sit at the tables or in neat rows at the dance floor. "Thank Twilight the play is starting," Midnight muttered darkly as the four of them sat at a table with a near-perfect view (it would have been perfect if not for the startlingly tall stallion sitting between them and the stage). "I might have snapped if another pony had asked me to interpret their dreams."
"Yeah, well apparently I've been reduced to a stage magician for the fillies," Prism said with a small laugh of shared misery. "Hey, Sour, who was dumb enough to give you an aetherlance?" She winked and giggled at seeing his huff.
"Well, I can't do horn blasts like Shimmer," Sour Apple said defensively as he laid the weapon down next to his chair, its long barrel propped against the table. Designed to be used by an earth pony in the sitting position or a pegasus on the wing, it looked to Prism like a thin tube with a loops to put your hooves through on the underside, with a short, flared stock on one end and a needle-like sight on the other. "I got my qualification just yesterday for the next best thing."
"You look like a proper soldier," Midnight said quietly. "Not sure if that's a good thing." Prism felt she had to agree. It was good that Sour Apple was serious about his role as a Protector, but his warlike demeanor disturbed her a little bit. He'd aged somehow from the nervous colt who approached her and Shimmer on the airship to Las Pegasus. Physically, he was getting older, sure... he was a little taller, and he'd put on quite a bit of muscle from his training. But she wasn't sure she liked the hard glint in his eyes as he surveyed the room, the way he kept one hoof close to that carbine, the way he sat up so perfectly straight in his chair... Sour Apple had somehow become a soldier when she wasn't looking, looking for all Equestria like the Royal Guard of old.
"Shh," Shimmer said quietly. "It's starting."
A spotlight came onto the curtained stage as three small, nervous fillies came out from behind it. Their fur and manes had been powdered into the colors of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and while all three were pegasi, 'Apple Bloom' and 'Sweetie Belle' were wearing lightweight cloaks to conceal their wings, and the latter wore a fake horn. As Southern Storm had explained it, the role of 'narrator' was given to the young selves of the Crusaders, played traditionally by audience members - specifically, the oldest fillies still without their cutie marks. "I'm Apple Bloom!" called out the one in the middle, whose coat and mane had been colored yellow and red respectively.
"I'm Scootaloo!" said a filly colored orange and purple.
"And I'm Sweetie Belle!" This filly was powdered white, with a blue and pink mane. "Together we are-"
"The Cutie Mark Crusaders!" This was called out by all three.
"We were the last fillies in our class to get our cutie marks," Apple Bloom said, "And we tried so many different things to get them."
"But," Scootaloo said with a nervous grin, "We realized one day that our real talent was helping other ponies discover their real talent!"
"So we became the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Sweetie Belle said, squeaking a little from her nerves. "We traveled all Equestria helping ponies. But there were other things we did, too. Even if I wasn't the strongest, I learned magic from Princess Twilight Sparkle herself, and I was a fantastic singer, too!"
"I became a master alchemist," Apple Bloom recited, "I trained with zebras and ponies alike to learn the arts of potion-making and ritual magic."
"And I loved stunts!" Scootaloo looked like she was about to pass out from her nervousness. "But more than anything, I wanted to be like my hero Rainbow Dash! So when the Crystal Empire attacked Equestria, I joined Celestia's navy, and in time I came to command my own airship."
Apple Bloom continued, "Our story begins with my friend Scootaloo, high over Equestria. Flurry Heart sent a massive armada to destroy Cloudsdale, and there was no way to stop it. But a tiny fleet of volunteers assembled in defiance of Celestia's orders, to buy time for the ponies of Cloudsdale to evacuate. We begged Scootaloo not to go, but she went willingly to her death."
Southern Storm
Southern Storm watched the play progressing from the catwalk that had been set up above - in truth, a rickety wooden bridge suspended from the rafters with ropes. A mock 'ship' had been rolled out onto the stage, and the real actress playing Scootaloo was at the helm singing about giving her life for Equestria. This part, admittedly, had always struck him as a bit cheesy - more like Loyalist propaganda than a real picture of Scootaloo as a pony in history.
"What's on your mind, Stormy?" Southern Storm nearly jumped out of his hide at being addressed from behind, and turned to see Cloudrunner hovering lazily near the ceiling with a look of concern on his face.
"Oh, um..." He could feel a hot blush starting to form on his cheeks. "I, I, uh, I didn't know you'd be coming. Talon didn't tell me she was inviting you."
Cloudrunner alit on the catwalk next to Southern Storm, landing lightly on his back hooves before coming forward to stand properly. "You invite me every year. I was actually a little hurt that you didn't this year."
Southern Storm could feel his face get a little hotter, and he looked away - not being able to meet Cloudrunner's red eyes. "I... I couldn't..." he stammered helplessly. "Not... not after I..." Cloudrunner lifted Southern Storm's face, forcing him to meet his eyes. "I want it, I really do, but... but I'm scared."
"What are you scared of, Stormy? Is it really so frightening that another colt wants to be with you?" Cloudrunner sighed. Under them, they could hear the bangs of theatrical cannon blanks going off as the prologue reached its climax.
"I don't..." Southern Storm hesitated. "I don't want to lose you," he finally said in a quiet voice. "I know Talon's probably told you everything by now, so you know how dangerous it is... this thing I have to do."
"You mean saving the world," Cloudrunner said with a little smile, stroking Southern Storm's cheek.
"I... y-yes." Southern nodded. "What if somepony comes for you to get at me? What if... what if I don't come back?"
"'So said Rockhoof, though his heart was aflame, and his words were a mortal wound. And he went to his final battle in shame, for by fear had his love been consumed.'" Cloudrunner recited from the Ballad of Rockhoof. "Poets say that Rockhoof died because he'd given up on love, and he had nothing left to fight for."
"That's... that's a stupid thing to say."
"Is it?" Cloudrunner shook his head at Southern Storm. "Come on... we've seen this play a dozen times. Let's go for a flight, and if I can't change your mind then I promise to leave you alone."
Sour Apple
Sour Apple sat out in the front 'yard' of the manor, looking out at the horizon - he knew he should be inside with the others, that that was important, but... he'd needed the space. Even with all that had happened in the last few days, Sour's mind was still consumed by the Crusaders' Grail. It was what they'd said in the introduction, really - how the Crusaders roamed Equestria in search of ponies who needed help with their cutie marks. It had reminded him strongly of what he'd heard in his vision about the first earth pony; supposedly, if what he'd heard was to be believed, she'd known the secret name and true purpose of every creature that came to her for guidance... just like the Cutie Mark Crusaders themselves.
He'd known since he got his own cutie mark, of course, that his purpose was family. The first time that Midnight had cried out of hunger, the way that it tore at his heart until he finally gave the tiny foal his own food... It had been a moment of perfect clarity for Sour Apple, and his already-bitten apple had told him that no matter what hardships he faced, no matter how little of the apple was left for him at the end of things, he would always do whatever it took to keep the ponies he cared about safe and happy. But he was starting to wonder now if there was more to him than his cutie mark. The Grail had shown him things that had nothing to do with protecting or providing; it seemed to say that Midnight and the strange furless creature, and others besides them, would look to him for guidance. That part, at least, seemed clear, but this insight only raised more questions. After all, Sour Apple had no special wisdom. He didn't have the instinctive insight that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were legendary for, and he certainly didn't know anything about secret names. He was just... a pony. A normal pony with no education outside of lying and swindling and now fighting.
"I'll give you a quarter bit for your thoughts," he heard Midnight say quietly behind him. "It's not like you to just wander off."
Sour Apple turned back with a sigh. "Well, it's not like I have to sit through the whole thing when you've probably already memorized the story, is it?" He smiled slightly and hoped that his deflection would work.
Midnight glared a little bit. "I... I mean I have read what happened already, but that's not the point. What's going on with you? You've been kind of distant ever since you drank that weird potion."
"I guess... I guess I'm still trying to figure things out." He sat down and smiled more genuinely as Midnight came to sit with him. "I know it sounds like I'm changing the subject, but it actually would help if you told me the story. I feel like maybe some context would help."
"Well..." Midnight thought about it for a moment. "You already know all the stuff about Scootaloo, so I won't repeat it. The important thing is what happens to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle after the war. They both ended up getting with Starlight Glimmer and helping found the Order of Harmony, but not having Scootaloo really messed them up. Sweetie Belle got obsessed with time travel-"
"Oh, you mean like you?" Sour nudged Midnight playfully.
"Well..." Midnight sighed in annoyance. "I guess, the difference is that I can actually do it, though. I just don't for longer than a few moments because it's dangerous. As Prism has repeatedly and very angrily pointed out." The unicorn shook his head. "Sweetie Belle wasn't strong enough, and Starlight Glimmer refused to help her at all even though she was supposedly better than even Starswirl the Bearded when it came to space-time magic. So she left Equestria entirely, swearing she'd find her own way, and no pony seems to know where she actually went."
"What about Apple Bloom?" Sour Apple asked.
"She devoted herself to magic to an unhealthy degree... she was already good at making potions, and ritual magic like alchemy and runecraft and supposedly even zebra voodoo, but she started secretly studying necromancy."
"Necromancy?" Sour asked, feeling rather stupid.
His confusion must have been evident, because Midnight sighed up at him and shook his head again. "Communicating with, binding, banishing, or resurrecting the dead, Sour."
Sour felt his skin crawl under his coat at the thought of that. "That... that's awful. How could an earth pony even be capable of doing something like that?"
Midnight shrugged in response. "There's a lot of different kinds of magic other than unicorn magic. Even my own magic isn't really unicorn magic, I think. It's more the, uh..." He made a circular gesture with his hoof, making an expression that told Sour he was looking for the right way to say it. "The alicorn blood, I guess, from Luna. But even outside of ponies' inherent magic, there's other forms of it, too. There's stuff like symbolic magic and rune magic - which I guess is just kind of a different form of symbolic magic - and then there's alchemy that uses the latent magic in-"
Sour Apple cut him off by tapping on his hoof. "Little brother, I don't understand any of that. You're half my age and already way better educated, you know." He sighed. "That's not what I don't get, though... What I mean is more that I can't believe an earth pony would do that. My, um... when I was little, my mom taught me about the different kinds of pony, and she always told me that being an earth pony meant loving and caring for living things. My ancestors tended the trees and plowed the fields, they encouraged the world to live and grow, and it just feels so wrong to think of an earth pony obsessing over death like that." He shuddered a little.
"Well..." Midnight looked thoughtful. "The annotations I read in my book said that necromancy doesn't actually work. No pony actually knows what happens to us after we die, after all. But... she created something. All the accounts agree that she created some kind of monster trying to bring back Scootaloo, and she was so horrified that she banished it to Tartarus and swore never to do magic again, other than just brewing potions. She even exiled herself to the Frozen North, because she felt like she didn't deserve to be around other ponies anymore."
"That's awful." Sour shook his head. "But how does the Grail come in?"
"Well..." Midnight seemed to gather his thoughts, cuddling into Sour's side as he did so. "The grail is honestly just a fancy cup. It's the potion in it that matters. Supposedly, when she went into exile, Apple Bloom wanted to do something to repair her legacy and make up for what she'd done. So she started going all over to find the ingredients for some new potion that no creature had ever seen before."
Sour nodded at this. "I know this part. She wanted to help guide ponies after she was gone, so she devised this incredibly complicated formula to try and help ponies who needed to know their purpose."
"But she couldn't figure out what the last ingredient was that she needed," Midnight said. "She thought it had something to do with cutie mark magic, but because of the oath she swore, she couldn't really pursue it. Not until Sweetie Belle came back. It turned out that Sweetie Belle had been studying her own forms of dark magic, trying to increase her power. She came back calling herself Sweet Siren, because she'd discovered how to use her beautiful voice to enthrall and drain ponies just like the mythical Sirens."
"But Starlight Glimmer stopped her, right?" Sour looked out at the sky, seeing pegasi and skiffs flying back and forth between the different districts of Las Pegasus. A couple of skiffs were headed towards the manor - likely late arrivals.
"With Apple Bloom's help, yes." Midnight nodded. "She brought Apple Bloom out of exile to get a potion that rendered the both of them immune to Sweet Siren's voice. When they'd finally defeated her, though... Apple Bloom betrayed Starlight and took her old friend into exile with her. With Sweetie Belle's magic, and Starlight's Staff of Sameness, Apple Bloom had everything she needed for the final ingredient to the potion... her own cutie mark. The Order only has a few bottles of the potion left, but the legend says that there's a magic spring somewhere up north that she used to make the potion, and it soaked up her cutie mark magic. A whole pool of the stuff just sitting in a cave somewhere."
Sour Apple thought about this as he watched the skiffs approach, and considered telling Midnight about what exactly he'd seen... but then he felt the fur on the back of his neck start standing on end, and Sour Apple stood cautiously as he felt a cold feeling of foreboding clamp down on his chest. This must be the Protector's 'danger sense' Shimmer had taught him about. "Midnight... get inside. Now. Get to the others and warn them that something's coming." Midnight looked about to argue, but Sour cut him off quickly as he sat back on his haunches to bring his aetherlance up into the shooting position. "Just go! I'll be behind you!"
Midnight finally ran for the door as the skiffs docked with Southern Storm's cloud island, and Sour Apple's training took over as he started laying down fire in the form of blue-white energy blasts in the direction of the Crystal Army soldiers starting to pour off of the packed ships.