The battle continues

“What should we do? Should we go look?” Ivy asked.
Her mother sighed. “I think it is best. I am quite certain it is not one of them. They would not just knock on our door.”
A valid point, and so Ivy saw her other sisters agreeing with their mother. A few moments ago someone had actually knocked on the castle gates. Of course they had all jumped up, scared that it might be one of the ponies that was attacking the castle.

But, of course, her mother was right. Those ponies would not knock on the castle door.
“Unless it’s a trick.” Said Ivy.
“Yes, it might be. I think we should check to make sure.” Said Fleur, pondering.
“Yes, Fleur, you are right. I will go. I can check if someone is true to their word or not, and they will not hurt me as long as I remain inside the force field. Ivy, will you come with me?” asked Stelline, while she already advanced towards the door.
“Yes, sure.” Ivy sighed.

Why her? She didn’t want to go out there. What if it was the blue pony, what if she had changed her mind and had come here to kill her after all?
“Don’t doubt me, Ivy.” Said Stelline while they walked through the corridor to the castle door. “I do not doubt you. I’m just… scared, I guess. That it might be her.”
“It’s not her. I think it is someone from the country, asking for help or advice, or maybe someone trying to offer us help. If we lock ourselves up like this, for so long, with this darkness… ponies are bound to start asking questions. So don’t worry, okay?”

Stelline’s words were hardly comforting. Of course, she was right, it was much more likely that it simply was someone from the country. But Ivy could not stop worrying. What if they were able to deceive Stelline? She would not even be surprised. They walked through the dark garden now, on their way to the gate. The flowers were withered from the lack of sunlight, and the trees were bare, their leaves had died and were already becoming one with the earth again.

They reached the gate quickly, and together they opened the doors. The force field became visible in front of them, but Ivy saw through the bubble that a small pony was standing on the other side. Ivy could not be sure in the darkness, but the pony appeared to be either pink or lavender with blue mane. She was certain she had never seen her before.
“Who are you, and what is your business here?” Stelline commanded.

“My name is Marana, your cousin. I come here because I met princess Twinkle Star two months ago in my house at the beach and she bade me to come here after I had visited the royal palace in Madash.” The pony replied.
“She is speaking the truth.” Stelline muttered. She had seen it, sensed it already.
“Please, come inside.” Said Ivy, stepping aside.

The pony took some uncertain steps towards the field, but when she felt she could pass through it without even feeling anything Marana was quickly inside, and the gates could be closed again.
“Welcome, Marana. My sister has told us about you.” Stelline greeted the pony.
“My lady Stelline.” Marana bowed. “It is an honor to finally meet you again.”

“It is good to meet you, too, Marana. I was so relieved to hear that you were alive. Will you not come with us? There is much to tell, and we will be… safer, inside.” Stelline told Marana.
“Safer, from what?” Asked Marana, glancing at the force field.
“We are… under siege. I will tell you all about it once we are inside.” Stelline explained and she led Marana to the front door.

“Have you had a pleasant journey? It must have been difficult to find our country, with this darkness and all.” Stelline said.
“Well, no, to be honest. The darkness… It’s actually coming from here. It got worse the closer I got to this country. Many ponies on the trade route were talking about it. I have to admit it made me doubt my decision to come here, but I trusted Twinkle Star, so…”

Marana did not continue and for a moment Ivy thought she was done talking, but her heavy breathing made Ivy look behind.
“Are you okay?” She asked, but Marana obviously was not. She could no longer walk and was breathing heavily.
“What is wrong?” asked Stelline as she rushed to the pony.
“I… I can’t breathe…” The pony looked up at Stelline, and Ivy screamed.

Tears were flowing out of her eyes. Tears of blood, tears of terror. It couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t. They were inside the force field, right? They were safe here, right? Stelline was screaming for their mother now, and only a few moments later Regina appeared in the doorway. Her skin turned pale when she saw what was happening.
“No… not again, it cannot be…”

But it was. Ivy lost track of time, it felt like hours before Marana’s lifeless body finally fell down on the earth. The disappearing of Marana’s screams and the fading of her breathing left an empty space floating between the queen and her daughters which was only filled when Fleur arrived. “What… happened, mother?” She asked, her voice shaking.

“She… she died.” Whispered Regina, staring at the lifeless body in front of them.
“No. She was murdered. And we all know by whom.” Said Stelline, the anger obvious in her voice. “This force field is of no use now.”
 “Don’t!” Yelled Regina. “Don’t take it away yet. Please. Let us talk first.”
“What good does talking do? We did not get anywhere! We have simply been hiding in here, thinking we were safe, but we weren’t. We weren’t and we’ve known it all along. And now Marana has died for no reason at all except to show us that we were living inside an illusion. And who knows what has happened to the other ponies in the country! They may have died out there while we were here, hiding. I say we stop hiding and fight those ponies!”

Stelline’s speech clearly startled Regina. She was shaking, while she could only stare at her eldest daughter. “But we can’t just walk out!” Cried Fleur.
“We don’t know what they might do! And maybe the force field is of some use. You don’t know! So please, let’s stay calm. Please. Let’s not risk any more lives if we don’t have to.”
“Yes… You are right, Fleur.” Replied Regina. “We must remain calm. We cannot simply charge at them. Let us give Marana a proper place for now and then we will decide what to do.”

“Very well. You have done well indeed.”  The other whispered. Standing on the hill, looking out over the valley that held the royal castle… The other looked even darker than ever.
“He will be very pleased. It will not be long now, before we can finally take them and restore His rights on this world.”
“Yes… The crown will be black now. They are frightened. I can… feel it over here.” Replied Rain. Indeed, she could feel it. The air was full of it.
“I shall inform Him now. Remain here.” Announced the other before she took off. And a blink of an eye later, she was gone.

Rain was no longer able to hide her shivers. She felt cold, so incredibly cold, as if the darkness she had created herself was trying to take over from the inside. She had done it… she had actually killed another pony. She had never done that before… As long as she could remember, at least. But she had never wanted to do it. She had always been willing to do whatever He wanted, but now that she had actually done it… She knew there was no way back. She had done the irreversible, the unforgivable… And she would be praised; she had been praised because of it.

“Why are you doing things you don’t want to do?” A little voice said through the darkness.
“Because, Câlin, I have my orders.” She replied, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible. She did not want the girl to know she was upset, even though she felt Câlin already knew.
“I know you do. But you have a heart as well. Don’t deny that.”
Yes… of course the girl was right. She always was, after all. But she couldn’t let her heart decide now. Not as long as she kept getting flashes of her memory before her eyes without knowing what had happened. She had to obey. It was her life to do so, it had always been and it would always be. And her memory… Maybe it was best if she did not regain it at all.

“I do not have such a thing, Câlin. My heart beats for my Master, your Father. So please, remain silent. We have a lot of work to do. The war is near.” She lectured the girl.
She could hear Câlin retreat into the darkness without saying another word. But the cold did not leave her, no matter how long she waited. The fate of someone who had taken another life… Was it an everlasting cold hiding in your soul, forever trying to take over your soul until death finally relieved you of that fight?

“Mother…” Ivy almost whispered when she entered the throne room.
 It was so silent, she was afraid to disturb it. She did not want to; she did not want to feel uncomfortable, afraid, unsafe… But she did feel those things, even without speaking about them. She had seen what had happened outside. For the second time in a few days’ time had she seen someone die, had she seen someone being murdered. And the images refused to leave her head.

“Ivy. Please come in.”
Stelline was sitting on the couch, while her mother sat on her throne. Fleur was still gone, tending to Aline while Tsuyo had the ungrateful task of taking care of Marana’s body. They had already decided she would get a proper funeral, but now was not the time to worry about something like that. A bigger threat was out there, waiting for them to come out.

“Ivy… Stelline and I have talked. We cannot stay here. We know now, this force field offers us little protection. Our own efforts… They might very well have been useless. They can kill any of us inside here, if they desire to do so. They do not have that desire yet and we should be grateful, for it gives us little time to prepare.”
“Prepare for what?” asked Ivy.

Stelline sighed. “Ivy… there is one final decision a queen can make when it comes to protecting her country. And we feel that decision is upon us now. It is the one final thing a queen of the Friendship Lands can do to protect her country. But it does not… come without a price.”
“What? What is it?” The way Stelline talked about it, Ivy did not feel good about it at all.

“We have to go out, Ivy. We have to… confront them. The thing a queen can do… Is to sacrifice her own life in order to take away the danger that threatens the ponies she is sworn to protect.”
 “Sacrifice…? You don’t mean you… you will be… gone?” Ivy could not even find the words she was looking for. Her mother could not be serious about this.

“Yes, Ivy… I am. They will kill us all if they can, I am sure of it. But not yet sure enough. So we have to go out and confront them, to be sure that it is indeed what they will do. We need to prepare. We need to find a way to get that information out of them, and we think the only way to do that is to go out and declare war on them. Please, my child, do not worry. I will avoid it if I can. But for your lives, for the sake of my country… I will do whatever is required of me. Even if it means passing on to the next world.”