The afternoon was coming to an end. Autumn had done its work, exposing the branches of the trees of the forest juxtaposing the Macintosh hills. Their previously green foliage now lay on the ground, yellow and withered, giving this place a gloomy appearance.

Swift, in his assuredly impeccable armour thanks to Antares' daily inspection, was wearing his requisite daytime vision goggles, like every other bat pony that stood watch during the day, to protect his sensitive eyes from the sunlight and looking off into the distance.

Another bat pony, Dauntless Halberd, came in to landing near him, his full attention focused on the forest in front of them. "Swift, we have an intruder, get up, we'll make him turn back together before I replace you."

Swift stood up and turned around to see what Dauntless was looking at and talking about. When he did, he noticed that there, at the border of the woods, a stallion wearing the mail pony's outfit, consisting of a uniform and a blue kepi, was walking in their direction. Swift had a sudden nervous laugh. "First the Regicide, then the changeling, and now the mail pony. I’m thankful that the worries in the area are getting lighter."

Without waiting, the duo flared out their wings and took to the air, and with a few flaps of their wings, landed in the middle of the stallion's path. Dauntless was the first to speak up. "Please turn back, there are military manoeuvres being conducted here and as such, the area is restricted to the public."

"Oh, don't worry, I wasn't planning on staying," the stallion said calmly, looking up at Dauntless with his lemon yellow eyes, The stallion’s horn suddenly lit up in a yellow aura.

Not even a second later, the large bat pony collapsed, asleep.

At first surprised, Swift did not hesitate in taking his blade out of its sheath and holding it to the unicorn’s neck to hold him at bay.

Bitter Truth merely remained quiet as he looked at the latest blade to threaten his throat. He then looked up at Swift. "My hooves are covered with moon blood."

Swift remained silent for a moment as he examined this stranger in front of him who apparently knew one of Antares' secret codes. His mind began to gallop at full speed, from disbelief to misunderstanding, unable to arrive at a logical explanation for the situation he’d just found himself in. He eventually regained his composure, or at the very least the best he could muster, to act as if the words the stranger had just spoken held no meaning to him. "Go back, last warning."

"Sir Swift, I'm Bitter Truth, the oracle. Three years, five months and a few days ago, I met with the late Lieutenant Antares and asked her to write a few letters, one of which was for you. I borrowed this outfit to come and give it to you today, but I'm not convinced that the concept of a mail pony, so slow that he delivers the mail five years after receiving it, is all too funny."

Swift's heart wanted to believe what he was being told, but his mind just could not accept it. "She would have told me about it."

Bitter Truth looked down, sadly. "And yet, just like Princess Celestia, she did not do so. Your friend by loyalty, the princess by generosity."

"I can't believe it. There’s no way that Antares, knowing what awaited her, would do nothing to change that!"

"Yet she did so in the end, and no, I’m only an oracle, it’s not up to me to decide who should live or die, every creature is the master of their own destiny. If I hadn't approached her, she would have never had the chance to confide in me her last thoughts so that I could deliver them to the right pony. So if you really consider yourself her friend, so as not to disturb the rest of her soul, respect her decision."

Hearing these words reopened a wound Swift had been trying to hide behind an eternal smile. He almost immediately dropped the sword, which fell heavily to the ground, after Bitter Truth finished speaking. "Give me that letter," he ordered in a dry tone.

Bitter had a fine smile. "One moment, I must first give you her last words." Upon saying this, he suddenly put his hoof on his throat, put on a shocked expression, and began making disgusting gurgling noises as if his throat was filling with blood.

The expected reaction did not take long, the bat pony entered into a blood rage, and with all his strength, he bucked and sent the oracle flying into the nearest tree. Without losing a second, Swift galloped to Bitter and pressed his front hooves into the stallion’s throat, half strangling him. "Do you think you're funny?!"

Despite the pain of the blow and the difficulty in breathing, Bitter did not lose his smile. "How does it feel to be in the Major's sabatons?" he asked between laboured breaths.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Swift blinked, and when he realised that he had been caught in one of his own traps, one that was certainly much more morbid than he would allow himself to direct towards Cute Bite, he could only nervously laugh, taking a few steps back before sighing and sitting down, smiling, yet ashamed to not have seen it coming.

As he straightened up, Bitter’s smile disappeared as he used his telekinesis to take out an oiled envelope that had protected its contents through years and handed it over to Swift. "I asked her to write to you with all her heart."

The bat pony took the letter, cautious about the last statement. He remained still to contemplate the royal seal he was seeing adorning the letter. Antares was the confidant and Lieutenant of Nightmare Moon, so it frightened him that a unicorn could have entered the castle so easily without any sentinel noticing them, made even worse by the knowledge that said unicorn had also been able to approach the royal assassin directly and in private. Using the thumb of his right wing, he broke the seal and gently began to pull the sheet out of the envelope before suddenly freezing. He felt Antares' ghostly presence, her hooves around his neck, hugging him with tenderness. The sensation hit his guts as the weight on his heart formed from her absence fell. Taking a deep, wavering breath to block the tears that came to his eyes, he hurried to read the letter.

I am writing this letter knowing that I will never see you again. My future has been revealed to me, and that of our revered Queen too. And I accept it with a smile on my face.

Without Bitter Truth's intervention, I would have died leaving nothing behind. But our forced meeting with him gives me the chance to leave a farewell letter to my loved ones.

Why did I die defending the throne of our Queen despite everything? For fate had decided so, that I would be the last of the royal assassins. And I have so much blood on my hooves. I never fully recovered from all the murders I carried out at the request of our Queen. There is a scar on my heart for each of the lives I have stolen, each one healed from its previous condition as a gaping wound by you to the best of your ability, and even now I thank you for it. My public life, in the end, was only a pretty facade to hide the murderer who was raised for a fight that will never come. So I prefer not to defy fate, that my life should end as it should have ended if he had not approached me, defending the throne of our Queen at the cost of my life.

I would like to die as I lived. Loyal to our Queen, even after the last day of her reign.

However, I am constrained this night during which you read this letter, to beg you to grant a last request. Save our Queen, help Bitter Truth. Knowing that I was going to die, and that I was going to take the secret to the grave, he told me everything, explained to me what he expected from you. Such devotion to our Queen and the Princess of the Sun, deserves my trust.

I release you from your promise to watch over my sister, the answer to my question gave me a glimpse of her future, a future I didn't expect, and yet one that satisfies me on the eve of my death.

I end this letter on this simple note, now live your life as you wish to live, nothing is holding you back, my friend. It is time to look to the future, to move forward and to leave myself behind as a memory of a past that is now over.

Tenderly,

Your Antares >

Halfway through, he realised that by closing his eyes, he could see her writing this letter, serene, with a peaceful smile on her face. He had to pull the thumb of the wing several times on his day vision goggles so that his tears could finally run down his cheeks. When he finished reading, he put the letter back in the envelope and tucked it under his left wing causing the ghostly presence that had manifested to immediately disappear. "I'm listening," he said dryly, the sense that he had lost his friend once again rendering him unable to be his usual comedic self.

Bitter first took a white silk handkerchief out of his bag and motioned to Swift. "Close your eyes." When he was sure that Swift had done so, he removed the bat pony’s glasses and used his handkerchief to make sure the bat pony's eyes were properly dried. Once that was done, he put the handkerchief away and put down a parchment case he had attached to a shoulder strap. "The enchantment on the late Lieutenant Antares' letter is psychometry, the spell in this case is a more advanced version. Ask your queen to use it on the helmet in the command tent and wear it until the end of the night. Only the helmet, it will be useless for her to wear the armour. No one can know except for you and her, and at no time talk to Pepper Chilly about me. Prescience is both a power that she covets at all costs and that she fears even more. Revealing my existence to her would be like betting the future of this world on a coin flip."

"If you've finished your monologue, leave." Swift’s voice was brittle, his words no longer having their tell tale soul.

"Indeed, it is time for me to take my leave." The tone of the oracle’s reply was neutral, an even tone that lacked the previous humour and sympathy he’d been using. As he turned around, he turned his head back towards the bat pony to add one last thing. "When the time comes, you'll be the only one who knows what to do, come up with a good enough story so that everypony will believe it. Goodbye until our next meeting, Sir Swift."

Swift watched the oracle slip noiselessly into the woods before turning to look at his comrade, who was still sleeping peacefully. He then went over the information in the letter and the request in his mind, taking a guess as to what would be happening tonight. He didn’t understand how the spell would be useful in saving his Queen, but it seemed obvious that it wouldn’t be long before the regicide attacked again. To imagine Nightmare Moon as the next victim of the soul eater, the very thought caused a chill to run down his spine.

After waking Dauntless and claiming that the mail pony and him had been having such a boring conversation that he had fallen asleep on the spot, Swift returned to the camp to see it in turmoil. When he arrived outside the command tent, he understood why.

Princess Luna was there, a sheathed rapier against her left flank, lowering the sun to better raise the moon.