Chapter 2: Mail Delivery Failure

Pinkie Pie bounced down the streets of Ponyville, gazing around at the vivid, sunshiny day the world had in store for her. She drank in the sights of the other ponies going about their day, the trees dotted throughout the town, the intimately familiar shops and houses, the blue alicorn in the sky…

-She skidded to a stop as Luna descended, landing in front her. "Hello, Pinkie Pie."

"Hey, Princess Luna! Whatcha' up to?"

"I was hoping to discuss something important with you and your friends."

"Well, if it's important, I'll go look for them right away!"

Luna followed Pinkie Pie as she rounded up Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. Once they were all in the meadow by Fluttershy's cottage, Luna spoke to them:

"Everypony, I should let you all know that Twilight has overseen nearly all of the necessary preparations for Equestria's impending disasters, and so she and I have decided to start turning our attention to other important matters. For the next few weeks or so, Twilight will be studying Celestia's enchantments to learn the secrets behind their disease-warding properties, while your friend Rainbow Dash will be exploring new lands with the Wonderbolts." They looked at one another, surprised—they hadn't heard about Rainbow's quest yet. "Meanwhile," continued Luna, "I plan to go back to Sustria and see what kind of damage control I can achieve regarding relations between Equestria and what remains of the Sustrian Empire."

"I have gathered you all here because you are the only ponies I know who have actually been through Sustria and seen the pigs without engaging in battle with them. I would like you all to tell me everything you remember about the pigs and their ways, so that I can take the most diplomatic actions possible when I go to Sustria."

They looked at each other. Their journey to Sustria had been quite brief, and once they'd succeeded in their mission of capturing a noblepig named Lord Reginald, they hadn't looked back. However, Applejack remembered something noteworthy:

"They had other critters as slaves, like goats n' sheep n' whatnot. The soldiers would treat 'em like dirt and kick 'em around, and none of the other pigs would do nothin'."

Luna looked thoughtful. "I remember, long ago, there were several different regions in the south, each ruled over by a different species… It's possible that the Sustrian Empire colonized neighboring areas and built a workforce out of their neighbors."

"Then we should put a stop to it, shouldn't we?" asked Rarity. "Nopony deserves to be treated like that, nor does any sheep, or any llama, or anyone else."

"Well, I'll see what I can do," Luna assured her, "but someone has to keep them organized, and I'll have to make sure I don't leave behind a worse form of government than whatever they have now."

"Maybe we can help," suggested Fluttershy. "After our last adventure, it seems like we can do anything if we work together." The others added their agreement.

"That's a nice thought," said Luna, "but I'm afraid the pigs will almost certainly be extremely hostile, and I'd rather only have to watch out for myself—no offense. If you'd like to help, I'd prefer that you just tell me anything else you might remember about the pigs so that I know how best to deal with them."

So they did their best to recollect how the buildings pigs' cities had been organized, how the noblepigs all dwelled in the great castle in Truffledorf, and how Lord Reginald had expressed a deep distrust for ponies and their ways, including weather control and magic. When they had finished, Luna thanked them for their time, and they wished her good luck before she teleported away.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and four of the other Wonderbolts finished packing their things and flew off towards Ponyville, where everypony would see them off.

"So, Rainbow," said Spitfire, flying up alongside her, "what do you think we'll find out there?"

"Well," she replied, "I've flown out in that direction once before and there's a village called Hoofshore pretty close to the far side of the Everfree Forest. I told them I'd pay them a visit sometime, so maybe we can go there first."

As they arrived in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash scanned the cheering crowd for some sign of her friends, and quickly spotted them.

"Hey, Dashie!" greeted Pinkie Pie. "Luna told us you were gonna go adventuring with the Wonderbolts."

"Yeah, we're gonna discover and claim new lands in the name of Equestria," explained Rainbow, holding her head and wings high with pride. "Twilight wanted just us Wonderbolts to go, so we'd cover ground faster, but I'll be sure to bring you girls souvenirs, okay?"

"Sure, I'd love a souvenir!" squealed Pinkie Pie, and the others agreed. There was a sudden flash of light nearby, and Twilight appeared. Once again, Rainbow Dash bowed to her, and so did the others, until one by one, they all burst out laughing.

"You're sure you packed everything you need?" asked Twilight.

"Yes, mom," gagged Dash, wiggling her back to indicate her saddlebags.

"I gotta say, I'm jealous," admitted Applejack. "It's not every pony what gets to go out 'n see the world."

"Please be careful," urged Fluttershy, realizing she probably wouldn't.

"Things should go pretty smoothly," explained Tyco. "I made some military maps of Sustria under Celestia, so I have some experience with cartography."

"Excellent. Well, then, good luck and happy trails!"

Everypony cheered and waved goodbye as the Wonderbolts soared off over the treetops the Everfree Forest, leaving behind them four thin storm cloud trails and a bright, glorious rainbow.

Since she knew the area best, Rainbow Dash led the others towards Maneheart. Every so often, Tyco would call for a stop, swoop down into the canopy, and make a few notes and marks on his map before putting it away and taking off again.

When they flew over Maneheart, Dash was surprised to see the ponies there looking alarmed by the Wonderbolts' presence. She realized that they must not have heard about the change in the team's allegiance, so she announced:

"Citizens of Maneheart! We have come here by royal order of Princess Twilight!" They breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Rainbow Dash," greeted the mayor, stepping forward. "It certainly has been awhile, hasn't it? What brings you and your new… friends back to our quaint little burg?"

"Princess Twilight wants us to map the area around Equestria," explained Soarin', "and we thought this would be a good place to start."

"Princess Twilight? You mean"—

-"Yes," interrupted Spitfire. "The details are a bit complicated, but Celestia is dead and Twilight has succeeded her as the ruler of the land."

The ponies of Maneheart cheered, and Rainbow Dash realized that they were untroubled by Celestia's passing because they had never known her as a benevolent princess, but only a vague menace from a distant land.

"Yeah," added Rainbow, "it was pretty intense. Anyways, how have you guys been?"

The townsponies treated the Wonderbolts to their finest cuisine as they swapped stories from the past few months. Rainbow Dash was saddened to learn that Perseus, who had trained Twilight in the art of combat magic, had recently passed away after a long struggle with a serious illness. In the back of her mind, she realized that this would soon be the fate of many of the ponies in Equestria.

Tyco compared his maps with those drawn by the locals as Rainbow Dash described in detail her adventure through Canterlot's underbelly to a wide-eyed crowd.

"…and it looked like we were going to win, but then Blast and Tyco showed up. You guys dragged me off to the dungeon, remember?"

Blast smiled. "Yeah, and I also remember you giving Misty a run for her money. It took her wings so long to heal after that…"

The grin vanished from Dash's face. "Hey, can I tell you something? You have to promise not to tell Misty."

"Sure, okay."

Even though Misty was miles away, Rainbow Dash instinctively lowered her voice. "She kind of creeps me out. I don't think she wanted me to join you guys, because she would always glare at me when we were practicing, but she never said anything about it."

Spitfire waved dismissively. "I'm sure she was just miffed that she couldn't fly with the rest of us for all those months. Now that her wings are in working condition again, she's probably over it."

"I sure hope so…"

The mayor offered to let the Wonderbolts spend the night in the guest lodge, but as there was still enough daylight to reach Hoofshore, they declined. They said their goodbyes and took off, the thrill of adventure once again upon them.

At that moment, Twilight was returning to her room with a few of Celestia's journals in her saddlebag, intending to uncover the last of her disease-fighting secrets before the day was over. The moment she started poring over the first journal, however, she felt a pair of eyes upon her and looked up to see a certain baby dragon standing before her.

"What is it, Spike?" she asked.

"Well… um, is there anything I can help with right now?"

"Not at the moment. Thanks for offering, though."

She resumed reading, but he didn't move from his position. After a moment, he went on:

"It's just that everypony's so busy these days, and I feel like I should be helping out—helping you especially, since I'm your number one assistant and all, and… yeah."

Twilight, realizing Spike's dilemma, set down the journal as she racked her brain trying to think of some way for her assistant to make himself useful.

"What about our friends in Ponyville? There's probably something or other that needs doing back there, and I know they'd love to see you again."

His expression brightened somewhat. "Well, sure… but I'll need a lift."

"No problem." She sidled up next to him, prompting him to hop on her back. In an instant, they were back in Ponyville, by Twilight's old place. As she looked wistfully at it, she said "Promise you'll say hi to Owloysius for me, will you?"

"Sure, if you'll promise me something."

"What's that?"

"If you need help with anything—anything at all—just give me a call, alright?"

She was about to reply in the affirmative when she realized she wasn't sure how she would go about doing that. She could teleport back to Ponyville easily enough, but she imagined it would be a hassle to have to track down Spike every time she needed his help. She had, however, the beginnings of an idea for a solution.

"I wonder…" She went inside her house, marveling at how untouched it seemed since she'd left it, and scavenged a few blank scrolls.

"I never did learn the mechanics of your scroll-sending magic," she said, more to herself than to Spike, "but I have a feeling we can get the system working again." She got out a quill and ink and wrote "test" on one of the scrolls, and then concentrated on sending it to Spike the way Celestia used to do.

To her delight, the scroll transformed into green smoke, which rapidly vanished before being coughed up by Spike. As the scroll rematerialized, Twilight unrolled it and saw that the word "test" had endured the process unblemished.

Twilight was eager to get back to her work, and though the thought made her somewhat guilty, she needed an excuse to leave.

"Alright," she said to Spike, "now we just need to make sure it works the other way. Your job is to find our friends, have them write me a letter, and then send it to me. Got it?" He saluted before dashing off, and, with a sigh of relief, Twilight teleported back to Canterlot.

It didn't take Spike long to round up Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and explain to them the test he and Twilight were running.

"So one of us just needs to write her a letter?" asked Applejack. "'Bout anythin'?"

"That's right," affirmed Spike.

Pinkie commenced her characteristic bouncing. "Ooh, ooh! Pick me!"

Everypony gathered around as she meticulously drew a long, curved line, then another at a sharp angle to it, and then more lines still, slowly covering the scroll with ambiguous shapes.

"I'm afraid I don't get it," said Rarity. "Is that a Q?"

"It's a drawing," explained Pinkie Pie, without looking up.

"Oh, I get it!" said Applejack. "It's Little Strongheart, right?"

"Who?"

"You know, that buffalo that we met in Appleloosa?"

"Oh. Nope."

The other four watched, mystified, as Pinkie continued to draw, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"It's definitely a pony…." observed Fluttershy.

"Pinkie, it doesn't matter what you draw," explained Spike. "We just need to send something to Twilight so we know it works."

"I know," she replied, "but I still wanna finish."

As she added spiky hair to the mysterious pony, Rarity exclaimed "Oh! Is it Doseydotes?"

"Nope."

"I give up," said Applejack. "Just tell us, alright?"

"I'm almost done."

As she added the cutie mark, almost everypony exclaimed the answer in unison:

"Rainbow Dash!"

"That looks nothing like Rainbow Dash," sighed Spike, slapping his face with his palm.

Pinkie Pie looked affronted. "Hmph. We'll just see what Twilight thinks. I'm sure she'll recognize her most colorful friend."

With that, she wrote a note on the back explaining precisely what the scroll was meant to test. Then, she rolled it up and handed it to Spike, who held it aloft and blew fire on it, sending it off towards Canterlot "I hope this works," he said as he watched the green smoke disappear from view.

Misty was once again lurking through Canterlot's underground, grateful for the impenetrable solitude it provided. Blizzard will come around, she thought to herself. He'll kill sooner or later… and when he does, I'm going to rub it in so hard.

She yelped as a flash of green whisked by her. It was very faint in the darkness—she might not have seen it, had she not been looking over her shoulder out of instinctive paranoia. The faintest flicker of green lingered in the passageway in front of her, and, determined not to let the enigmatic specter get it away, she flew after it at top speed.

It wasn't easy, but she managed to follow the light by the lingering, sparkling trail it left behind. Soon, she found herself going down a long staircase, and stumbled somewhat, not wanting to scrape her back on the ceiling as she flew. At first, she worried that by slowing down, she would lose the trail of her quarry, but it turned out there was only one path to take.

She passed through a large, round room and ran down another, smaller set of stairs. An overpowering stench threatened to overpower her nostrils, but she pressed on. Then, before her, the light swirled through a room full of bone-white statues of unicorns before descending into—

She gasped. Before her was the partially decayed corpse of Princess Celestia, arranged to look as though it were sleeping. She panicked as the light vanished and she heard the echoing sound of something small and light hitting the ground and rolling a very short distance. Tentatively feeling for it with her hoof, she found that it was made of paper. Hoping that it was somehow related to the green light she had seen and that it might shed some light on the mystery, she felt her way back up towards the long staircase, hoping it wouldn't take her too long to get out.

That night, Blizzard soared across the plains neighboring Canterlot, guided by moonlight. He swerved ever so slowly to the side, making a great circle, before swooping down low towards the tall grass, causing it to part on either side of him before he swung back up again. In short, he tried everything he could think of to convince himself that his motion was aimless.

Unfortunately, he quickly failed at this as he drew nearer and nearer to Ponyville, and as soon as he fearfully realized that somepony might see him, he swooped down into the narrowest alley he could find.

Hating himself for what he was about to do, he snuck from the alley to a shrub, from one dark place to the next until he was outside somepony's window. Driven by urges that he could no longer master, he burst through the glass, startling an earth pony with a cream coat and burgundy eyes. He charged at her, knocking her to the floor as he covered her mouth with his hoof to prevent her from screaming.

Instinct took over as he wrapped his other foreleg around her neck, choking her. He felt his own lungs tighten and his heart pound furiously, drowning out his other senses for several minutes before he was certain she was dead. The feeling washed over him: a horrible, wonderful feeling at taking the life of another pony, a chill filling his very soul as he looked down at her broken, lifeless form, the eyes still open and rolled upwards…

He whipped around in stark terror as he heard a high-pitched laugh behind him. To his immense dread, there, in the doorway, stood Misty.

"Oops, I almost forgot" she simpered. "We don't want anyone seeing us, do we?" She winked at him before closing the door behind her and closed the nearby blinds before turning on the lights.

Blizzard glared at her furiously, which of course made the moment all the sweeter for her. "Sorry for interrupting your fun," she cooed as she strutted up to him, her eyes on the body of the helpless pony he had just murdered. Once she was uncomfortably close to him, she stared Blizzard straight in the face, a devilish fire in her eyes.

"It felt good, didn't it? Amazing, even?"

He turned away. "It's none of your business," he snarled through clenched teeth.

She held her hoof before her open mouth in a mock gasp. "Blizzard, how could you say such a thing? Of course it's my business!" To his chagrin, she sidled up next to him and wrapped a foreleg over his shoulder. "I'm going through the same symptoms, remember? We're like brother and sister, you and I. We're in the same boat. We're partners in crime…"

"I'm going to tell Twilight," he said firmly, half-hoping that by making the statement he could force himself to do the thing. "She'll cure me. She'll make this stop."

Misty cackled once again. "Really? You really think she'll just go ahead and forgive you for committing murder, on your own, under no pressure from anypony?"

"It's my cutie mark… I couldn't help it."

"Oh, please. She'll toss you in a dungeon and throw away the key. I can't believe you're even considering taking your chances with her."

He shot her a look of pure loathing. "You just don't want me to drag you down, too."

She grinned. "You're assuming I've been killing ponies, just like you."

"It's pretty obvious from the way you talk about it."

She shrugged as she helped herself to a snack from the recently dead pony's pantry. "I was waiting for you to break the ice. Believe it or not, I've managed to hold myself over by stomping on little woodland creatures up until now. They were in the forest, though, so what's anypony going to do?"

Blizzard felt nauseous. Not only had he taken an innocent life, but the very last pony he would've wanted to know about it was now rubbing it in his face, mere moments after he had completed the deed.

"Aww, cheer uph!" she managed through a mouthful of carrot. Noticing she was spitting on him, she swallowed. "Sorry. As I was saying, I've made a little discovery that I think will improve our situation tremendously. Do you want to know what it is?"

Blizzard wanted nothing more than to put as much distance between himself and Misty as possible, but he knew in his heart that he wasn't about to confess what he'd done, so he consigned himself to listen to whatever psychopathic adventure she had in store for the two of them. "Alright, tell me."

"I'll do better than that—I'll show you." She withdrew from under her wings a single scroll, which she unrolled and presented to him.

"That's a horrible drawing."

"It's not mine," she said quickly, and turned it over.

He read the note that had been hastily scrawled on the scroll's backside, but said nothing.

"You realize what this means, don't you?" Misty asked.

"I have an idea," Blizzard replied slowly, "but how about you just tell me?"

"You obviously have no idea at all," she retorted, turning her nose up at him. "I'll make it simple for you: all we need to do is find a way to dip our hooves into the communication lines between Twilight and her friends, and then you and I may, among certain circles in Ponyville, assume the role of Princess Twilight Sparkle, ruler of all Equestria.