Upheaval: Reckoning

Chapter 11: Effigy

In its centuries of history, FangBreaker Fortress had seen more than its fair share of executions. The Equestrian Legion valued unflinching duty and discipline. Ponies who failed to embody those virtues were looked upon poorly and swiftly punished. Deserters, spies, rebels and those whose incompetence brought about the deaths of many all met their fate at the end of a noose. Hanging was a traitor's death and a punishment that didn't end with merely the criminal's corpse. The shame of the crime often continued to haunt the families of the condemned. The ponies of the Barrier Lands were not above casting some of the blame on a criminal's parentage or even ancestry.

As she walked the passageway that led from her cell to the fortress's main courtyard, it was that last sentiment that gave Pyre Valor, at least, a vague twinge in her chest. Her parents were still back in Bastion City. They had survived the siege for sure. She had confidence in the Legion's protection. She knew that even without being told.

That didn't stop an annoying pony from telling her anyway.

"Your parents are still alive and well, you know," Twilight Sparkle said.

Huddled against a corner of her cell, Pyre Valor rested her head against a wall without paying attention to the purple unicorn. She now genuinely believed that she was better off having the guards beat her up than put up with this. "And why should I care about them, nag?" she asked. "I just ruined whatever shambles of a name they had. Oh, and I would have let the wolven kill them if the siege had succeeded."

"Do you really care nothing about them at all?"

"What's going on here, Twilight Sparkle? You come in here and start pestering me for what? Entertainment? How did you get the guards to let you in anyway? Did you convince them that you'll torture me with your inanities?"

"I just…I just want to understand you better!"

Pyre leaned forward from her corner. Her face was so swollen and bruised that even scowling hurt her. "We haven't become friends, Twilight Sparkle!" she hissed. "Don't think that, because of what happened before we ended up here, I'm going to 'open up' to you!"

"Oh, I know we're not friends," Twilight replied.

"Then stop wasting my time and yours!"

"There has to be more to this, Pyre Valor!" Twilight insisted. "You'll be executed tomorrow. I can't accept that as the end!"

"You've only known me for about a month. What could you possibly know about how it all ends? Tomorrow will be a conclusion that has taken all my life to reach."

"So that's it? You're just going to walk out there and hang?"

Pyre Valor leaned back on her wall. It was late and she was tired. This was only her second night of being able to sleep without being angry over the division or being possessed by Nightmare Moon. It was probably also her last and she didn't want to waste minutes of it talking to Twilight Sparkle. "Yes," she said quietly."What else do you want, Twilight Sparkle? The pony who kept kicking your flank is going to die." She let herself smile wryly. "You should be dancing jigs not making it sound like you're going to miss me."

Twilight reared up and struck the bars with her front hooves. "Don't be flippant!" she said angrily. "I haven't even beaten you yet!"

The smile disappeared momentarily as Pyre Valor processed the information. Beaten her? The idea hadn't even occurred to her. She had come to respect the annoying purple unicorn's magical power and focus. That Twilight could stand up to Nightmare Moon, even for a short while, made her worthy of the Legion's uniform. The idea of some form of rivalry…"Is that what this is about?" she asked. "You don't want me executed so you can have the pleasure of killing me yourself?"

"No!" Twilight answered indignantly. She looked aside, unable to meet Pyre's questioning look. "It's not about killing you," she continued, more quietly this time. "But I… I've never wanted to beat anypony before. Not in my entire life." She looked at Pyre Valor as she went on. "You asked me before if I've ever looked at another unicorn and asked myself 'How can I beat her?'. The answer was never. Not until you came along. Ever since that day, I've thrown myself into study and training so I can beat you. I've never studied that way before. That kind of drive and focus…pushing myself and imagining that scene when I win…" Her voice trailed off. Several seconds passed before she completed the sentence. "I liked it…" she said softly, almost just to herself. By the time she was done, she looked embarrassed and unsure of herself.

Pyre Valor laughed.

At first, a look of confusion spread across Twilight's face, but the sheer scorn in Pyre's laugh turned that confusion into anger. "What's so funny?" she asked, her face already reddening from rage and embarrassment.

"That was pathetic!" Pyre said derisively. She walked up to the bars of her cell so she faced Twilight directly. Her laughter subsided. She was serious before she spoke again. "Nightmare Moon called me an insect when she first possessed me," she said. "But she was scared when she faced you. I was an insect and you were a threat! Yet here you are talking about your lofty goal of beating me in single combat!" Her hooves shot through the bars so quickly and suddenly that Twilight had no time to react. She grabbed the purple unicorn by the mane, and then pulled her closer, slamming her face into the bars. "Protect Equestria, no matter the cost and no matter who pays it!" she growled. "I almost lost sight of that goal because of you. You don't get to make that mistake. Not when you get to live while I die! Put it above yourself and whatever small, pathetic, personal goals you might have!" She let the stunned unicorn go and walked back to the corner of her cell. "I'm just one unicorn mage. Tomorrow, I'll just be a corpse. You'll have more enemies ahead. Stop feeling sorry that your little spat with me ended before you could get the upper hoof."

Twilight had no answer. She was still rubbing her forehead painfully when Pyre shouted for the guards.

Pyre Valor reached the section of the passage that connected her branch of the dungeon with the branch Blademane was put in. The brown stallion had been led out as well and now walked behind her as they continued. Their guards surrounded them like a wall of silent, moving metal. She looked to Blademane and noticed that he had been severely beaten up too.

"Are you alright?" Blademane asked. The genuine concern in his tone was another thing that actually felt painful for Pyre.

"Does it matter?" she asked in return. "We'll both be dead soon."

"True."

They walked on silently for a time. They could see the light from the courtyard at the end of the passageway when

Pyre spoke again. "Tell me something, Blademane," she said.

"Yes?"

"I am never going to be able to return the sort of loyalty you've shown me. You knew this from the start. No more silent treatment. Now that we're so close to the end, tell me why you've come this far."

Blademane answered first with his usual silence. Pyre was about to prod him when he decided to speak on his own. "I never expected you to reciprocate," he said. "At the start, maybe I did. But it wasn't even about that in the end. Has it really not occurred to you that I might actually believe in your cause?"

"It could have if you actually talked," Pyre replied.

"My fault then. To be fair, I didn't believe in it right away. I thought that you'd eventually calm down, marry Vanguard Clash, and be a quiet, productive legionnaire."

"You were wrong."

"In more than one way. I agreed with you. I never said I did. I didn't have the courage to be as outspoken as you were. I got my chance to change that when you two fought."

Pyre Valor looked behind her and found the stallion smiling for the first time she had known him. She looked away when she felt a smile beginning to curve her lips. "What a pair we make," she said. "The mare who talked too much and the stallion who talked too little."

"Thank you, Pyre Valor."

Pyre nearly stopped in her tracks at that. "What could you possibly have to thank me for?" she asked.

"Giving me a chance to say something I would never have if I spent the rest of my life serving in the Legion. You said all the words and made all the decisions. All I needed to do was stay by your side. Thank you for that."

"Now you're talking too much, Blademane."

Both of them fell silent when they finally made it out to the courtyard. The open space was full of legionnaires today, all present to see the execution of the two "villains" of the wolven invasion. Any other work around the fortress save for guard duty, had been delayed. As Pyre walked past the rows of legionnaires, she looked straight ahead and towards the gallows. Though she didn't look, she could tell that, somewhere amidst the crowd, Vanguard Clash was watching, as was Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps they were even watching together. On the gallows, she saw the imposing figure of the prince of the Barrier Lands himself.

It wasn't until she was climbing up the wooden stairs of the gallows that Pyre Valor noticed something strange. There was no hangpony around. The nooses were prepared, but the only pony on the structure besides her, Blademane and their guards was Prince Terrato. Was the prince going to hang her himself?

With Pyre Valor standing at the center of the gallows, Terrato gestured for the guards to remove her horn-lock and then leave. "You have some nerve pushing me as you have, Pyre Valor," he said. His voice carried over to every pony present. "Hundreds of your fellows are dead by your betrayal and you aided Nightmare Moon, an enemy not just of Equestria, but of the Eternal Herd itself. Every Black Rose rebel has paid with his life by hanging, but I think something different should await the pony who has done more."

Pyre held her prince's gaze without flinching. She wasn't going to lower her head in contrition when she felt contrite over nothing. When Prince Terrato remained silent, she decided to speak for one last time.

"Terrato wait!"

Before Pyre could utter a word, she spotted another alicorn fly towards her, landing right next to the prince. She didn't recognize the white coat and the pink mane, but she could tell who this alicorn was. She braced herself for the rage, the same rage that had smoldered within her nearly all her life. But, to her surprise, all she felt was a mild annoyance, and it was more because Princess Celestia had interrupted the procedures than any anger towards the worst of Equestria's alicorn rulers. For a frightful moment, Pyre Valor considered that she might have unconsciously forgiven the nag princess. She realized, however, that it wasn't forgiveness that sapped her rage. She was simply spent. She had thrown what she had at the nag princess and her foul edict, and she got the results she wanted. The anger had been slowly dissipating even when Nightmare Moon had still possessed her. Now, she just wanted to get things over.

"Celestia, I thought you had your fill of hangings from your time in Bastion City," Terrato said quietly.

"You told me yourself that my division was wrong, Terrato," Celestia said. "This pony has done terrible things, as had those rebels in Bastion City, but what end do their deaths accomplish?"

Terrato lowered his voice before replying. "Why don't we ask her?" he suggested. He turned his attention back to Pyre Valor. "Do you wish to be spared, Pyre Valor?" he asked.

"No," was the quick and sure reply.

Celestia shifted her attention to Pyre Valor and couldn't help but take a step back when she met the fierce stare of the condemned unicorn. "Pyre Valor," she said. "Do you honestly wish to be executed like this?" she asked in disbelief.

A spark of her old rage lit up in Pyre Valor. "Like this". Celestia certainly had some nerve looking down on her. Terrato took only one look at her and he quickly understood. He stepped between his sister and the condemned unicorn.

"My sister hasn't quite grasped the way things are in the Legion," Terrato said to Pyre. He glanced at Celestia briefly before continuing. "I think you understand why there's no hangpony around and why I had your horn-lock removed."

"I understand perfectly, your highness," Pyre replied.

Terrato raised his voice again so that everypony in the courtyard heard. "The pony who has done more than the Black Rose rebels should be dealt with in a manner different from them. Pyre Valor, you've spent your life taking matters into your own hooves. It's only fitting that your death be of the same manner."

Pyre Valor dropped to her knees in response. "This is an honor I don't deserve, your highness," she said.

"I've heard your reasons from Vanguard Clash and Dreadstep's reports," Terrato said in return. "Not only that, you could have run off when you had the chance. A lot of Black Rose rebels certainly tried. Instead, you performed one last favor for the Legion. Crazy as it may sound, I can actually respect that."

After that, Pyre stood up and jumped down the gallows. The ponies closest to her gasped and backed away, fearing an attack. Indeed, Pyre's horn began to glow a deep red as she intoned a spell.

From the crowd, Twilight Sparkle moved forward, her horn already glowing with a spell of her own. She knew it! Pyre Valor wasn't just going to fade into nothing like this! She wasn't…

A blast of deep red flames engulfed Pyre Valor at the end of her spell. The flames quickly consumed her mane, tail and coat, sending clouds of smoke spiraling upward. She dropped to her knees, her face twisting in terrific agony, but she didn't so much as let out a cry of pain.

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, her spell fizzling out before it could be completed. She watched in horror even as the heat and smoke obscured her view. "No!" she cried out. She moved forward again but somepony suddenly grabbed her from behind and held her still. With a cry of rage and frustration, she looked at who it was, and found Vanguard Clash. He looked at her sadly before looking back to the burning spectacle. Mollified somewhat, she followed his gaze.

"And that's why you make them white-hot."

She remembered Owlsight's words as she looked at the flames. A white-hot blaze would have consumed Pyre Valor quickly and without suffering. The white unicorn had chosen to lessen the intensity of the fire spell. "You foal…" she said with a sob. "This doesn't make up for anything!"

Atop the gallows, Celestia moved forward but Terrato blocked her path. With nopony to stop him, Blademane jumped down from the gallows and hugged the burning unicorn. The flames blazed even fiercer and engulfed him as well.

Though the crowd had been surprised at first, they soon realized what had just happened and went on to calmly watch the scene. Through it all, neither Pyre Valor nor Blademane made a sound. It was hard to even tell if they had already died because of their silence. Not a single pony spoke as the two burned so that the only sound that could be heard was the crackling of flames.

The blaze eventually died down, leaving behind vaguely pony-shaped masses of ash that crumbled into an indistinct pile. Terrato stared at the pile grimly and then motioned for some guards. "Gather their remains," he told them. "Mark their graves with what exactly they did."

As the guards hurried to do his bidding, Terrato passed by his sister, who was still looking at the smoking pile in confusion. "I don't understand," she said softly. "Why did she want to die so badly?"

"Want has nothing to do it," Terrato replied. "Get some rest, dearest sister, we'll be at the Heartland before the day's end." With that, he flew off. Celestia glanced sadly at the smoking pile one more time and then flew after him.

As the crowd began to disperse, both Twilight Sparkle and Vanguard Clash continued to look on. A few more tears ran down Twilight's cheeks when she finally turned away. She wiped them away angrily, silently reminding herself that she despised Pyre Valor. It didn't work. She noticed her friends already coming over, concern and confusion mixing on their faces. She felt a foreleg go around her shoulders.

"Save your grief," Vanguard said. Even his normally stoic voice cracked. "We all knew that this was going to be the end of it, her most of all. If you have a shred of respect for her, you should be glad that his highness granted her the honor of ending her own life."

"Is that what honor's supposed to be?" Twilight whispered harshly. "Do you want something like that, Vanguard?"

"Dying for something I believe in?" Vanguard asked. "When the time comes, perhaps. Put this scene behind you, Twilight Sparkle, you wouldn't want to go home with a burning mare in your thoughts." He let go of Twilight once the others had come close enough and then moved on.

A few hours later and Vanguard was making his way towards Storm Brew's newly rebuilt bar and brewery. The ashes were supposed to be buried in marked graves, but a discussion arose among the higher-ranked officers as to what that meant. A lot agreed that blank tombstones should suffice. Somepony said that a plaque of sorts should mark the site as a warning for others. Another said that placing such a mark would only plant the seeds of Pyre Valor being called a hero. Yet another argued that such a scenario may not be so bad.

Through it all Vanguard was only interested in finally laying the unicorn to rest. The squabbling only reminded him that, ultimately, Pyre Valor had gotten off easy. She did not have to live and deal with the events that she had helped set into motion. As he approached Storm Brew's, he found a familiar purple unicorn already sitting by the bar. Twilight wobbled slightly, and then looked up at him with a half-smile before waving a hoof. "Vanguard!" she called out. "About time you showed up! Does it take that long to bury a pot?"

Storm Brew had walked over to Vanguard before he could reach the bar. "How much as she had?" he asked.

The white unicorn rubbed her messy mane with a hoof. "I gave her a mug that's a quarter 'Good Stuff' and three quarters water," she replied. "She's made it to half the mug. Rounding up that is. Super strong magic and zero alcohol tolerance…wonderful mix we have there."

"Thank you," Vanguard said. He took a seat next to Twilight, but didn't order a drink of his own."This better not become a new habit of yours, Twilight."

"Then unicorns should stop lighting themselves on fire!" Twilight snapped. She stared morosely at her drink and looked like she was about to take another pull but stopped halfway.

"I must admit, I didn't think her death would affect you this much," Vanguard said.

"She was such a nag…" Twilight mumbled. "Right down to the end she was mocking me. How did you ever put up with that?"

"There was more to Pyre than just her anger over the division. If you had only met her a couple of years earlier…she would have been happier knowing you."

"I doubt it," Twilight replied. "We would have never gotten along."

"Not as friends," Vanguard insisted. "You would have been great rivals. Sparring duels in the day…boasting and comparing victories in the night. I would have never heard the end of it from her when it came to you."

"She would have liked that kind of relationship?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"Of course. She'd probably prize it more than some friendships."

"I'll never understand her." Twilight looked at her mug and tried to take another pull again. This time, the mug made it all the way to her lips before her she set it down with barely a sip. Some time passed before she ventured to talk to Vanguard again. "Say Vanguard?" she asked.

"Hm?"

"Does your squad still need a unicorn mage?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I want the job."

"Why the sudden interest in Special Operations?"

Twilight paused briefly, likely trying to form an answer despite the alcohol fog in her mind. "I'll be able to do a lot more in a small special squad like yours," she said. "Especially against somepony like Black Rose who doesn't act through giant, predictable armies."

"That's a good reason. I hope it's the real one and not because of something Pyre said or did.

"Well…there might be that too."

"Ask me again when you're sober."

Twilight pushed the mug away and stared at Vanguard intensely. "Is that all I need to do?" she asked.

Vanguard rubbed his temples and let out a slow exhale. He had expected this somehow. He didn't know why, but he did ever since his mother brought it up. Twilight could do the job. She needed a bit more experience, but she was certainly going to get that soon. She was already working with specialized groups anyway, as were the rest of her friends. It was now also obvious that, since she already asked, he couldn't ignore this anymore. "What you need to do is to go home, Twilight Sparkle," he answered.

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but Vanguard raised a hoof to interrupt.

"As soon as you make it back home, go talk to all the friends you left behind when you got banished. Reunite with your family. Reconnect with your old life. Once you've done all of that, ask yourself if you still want Pyre Valor's old job. If the answer's still yes, ask me again. I'll give it some serious thought then."

A smile crossed Twilight's face. "I'll do that then!"

"Have you made all the preparations?"

The smile disappeared. "Uh…let me check on that!" She ran off, leaving behind the still half-full mug of watered down "Good Stuff".

Vanguard shook his head and turned his gaze skyward. "Even dead you're causing me problems, Pyre," he said softly. He walked off to finish his preparations too. Earlier, he had received his latest orders from Commander Dreadstep. He and Scarlet Rabbit, as well as a few more Special Operations squads, had business in the Heartland.