Hearts against the Monarchy

Chapters

Chapter One - Friendship is...
Chapter Two - Magic
Chapter Three - A Fork in the Road
Chapter Four - Season for Change
Prologue - Once Upon a Time...

Chapter One - Friendship is...

Hearts against the Monarchy
Chapter One --- Friendship is…

“The fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends.”

An Introduction to Twilight Sparkle

Enter: Twilight Sparkle. Twilight was a lavender unicorn whose straight indigo mane and tail were streaked with stripes of purple and magenta. She had a voracious appetite for books, and her violet eyes blazed with incredible intelligence, though constant accumulation of magical knowledge occupied parts of her brain better left to other tasks…

Twilight Sparkle has always been a model Equestrian citizen: bright, dutiful, and above all, unquestioning of the perfect world in which she lived. She was born to an all-unicorn family of high standing, which put her relatively well off, even in the aristocratic core (and capital) of Equestria, Canterlot. Her parents had been city officials before they had passed away, and her older brother, Shining Armor, was a well-respected member of the royal guard. Twilight Sparkle herself was a student of the magical arts who had only just graduated from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns as our story begins…

“I’m home!” Twilight Sparkle walked through the front door and announced her presence. It was just after noon; Twilight had just come from her graduation ceremony, which had lasted almost too long for Twilight Sparkle’s attention span. Almost.

“How long was that ceremony?” Shining Armor said, coming in from the next room over. “Any longer and I would’ve thought they’d kidnapped you. I was about to organize a rescue party.”

Twilight looked at her brother bemusedly. Her BBBFF (big brother best friend forever, for those not in the know!) was almost as good at exaggerating as she was. Fortunately – especially in this case - Shining Armor was missing that particular psychological quirk that made his sister a ticking time bomb for disastrous overreaction. In fact, Shining Armor was as different from her as it was possible without one of them secretly being either a changeling-sheep hybrid, or a cyborg-ninja-dragon. Where Twilight was scrawny and bookish, he was big and burly, even for a stallion. Though their manes and tails had similar colouring styles, his were varying shades of blue, and when it came to neatness, Shining Armor was a sight that could make an aristocrat faint. Twilight once tried to devise a spell to tidy up her brother’s messy mane, untidy tail, and scruffy fetlocks; that day she discovered that there were limitations to what magic could achieve.

“The ceremony wasn’t that long. I mean, the professors did talk a little more than I thought they would, and the whole thing was scheduled to end an hour and a half earlier than it did, but ” The lavender unicorn set down her saddle bags on the floor. Careful as a munitions expert, she removed her diploma from a pocket and magicked it away to the ornate frame in her room that she had prepared just for this occasion.

“Hey,” Shining Armor interjected. “I wanted to see that.”

Twilight sighed. “You could have told me that before I sent it upstairs.” With a glow of her horn, she reversed her previous spell and the diploma returned, a feat that was impressive enough to justify her diploma on its own. She floated it over to Shining Armor, who took hold of it with his own rose-coloured magic.

He visually drank in the details written out on the most important piece of paper in Twilight Sparkle’s life. “Well look at that. ‘Graduated with honours’… ‘top of her class’… a note about ‘record-breaking marks on examinations… more than 100%.’ I think somepony needs to redefine the term ‘teacher’s pet’.” He looked from the diploma and back to its owner and flinched at the sight of a scowl that could wilt flowers.

“I am not a teacher’s pet,” she denied.

“Oh really? I bet you were the only one who sat through that entire graduation ceremony.”

“How did you know?” Twilight gasped, surprised at her brother’s correct assumption. Unsurprisingly, nopony else in Twilight’s graduating class had neither her near-infinite attention span, nor her astronomically high capacity to listen to the self-indulgent academic ramblings of professors old enough to have met Star-Swirl the Bearded. The former students had been eager to leave, and seeing as they had already received their diplomas by that point, they started to disappear as the ceremony-turned-lecture rolled into its third hour. It was the perfect opportunity to use their newly-qualified skills; some literally disappeared, turning invisible and sneaking out while the professors were occupied with their speeches; others, the more qualified among them, simply teleported away, leaving nothing but a momentary flash of light in place of a severely bored unicorn. When the last speaker had drawled to a stop, Twilight Sparkle was the only pony who hadn’t left, still listening attentively, as if the professor had been reciting the recipe for an immortality potion.

“Are you serious? I was just guessing.” Shining Armor facehoofed. “I’m proud of you, Twily, but… you really are something else, aren’t you.”

“If by ‘something else’, you mean ‘the smartest unicorn in Equestria’, then yes.” She grinned, overly pleased with her diploma and the glowing compliments her professors had given her, especially the ones given when they realized she was the only one who had listened to their end-of-the year speeches.

“You’ve got that right,” Shining Armor laughed. He passed the diploma back to Twilight who either sent the diploma back to her room, or reversed her reversal of the original spell. Magic is hard. “The problem now is what are you going to do now that you’ve got the highest magical qualification in Equestria. With cred like this, you could just walk into the Astral Society. Oh, and speaking of which–” Shining Armor’s face fell. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh? What’s uh-oh?” Twilight asked. “What did you do now?”

“Why does it have to be my fault?” he asked, frowning. “I mean it sort of is my fault, but…” Twilight gave him a patronizing look and he capitulated. “Okay, I guess it is my fault. I sort of left some things back at the castle, namely some things I was supposed to give to you…” He grinned sheepishly. Twilight wondered exactly how exactly he had been planning to try to pass that off as ‘not his fault’.

“What exactly are these things you were supposed to give to me?”

“A letter; somepony gave it to me directly while I was at the castle this morning, and I forgot to bring it home with me. Also, a ticket to the Royal Equestrian Theatre’s production of The Ballad of the Regal Sun for the day after tomorrow.” Shining Armor shrank under Twilight’s withering gaze, but was relieved when her face lit up as she processed this information.

“The Ballad of the Regal Sun?! That’s my favourite written play! How in the wide, wide world of Equestria did you manage to get a ticket this late?” Twilight could barely contain her excitement; she bounced up and down on the ends of her hooves, like a filly promised a week’s worth of candy.

Shining Armor chuckled at her foolish behaviour. “As a member of the Royal Guard, I happen to have friends in very high places.” He walked over to Twilight and put a hoof on top of Twilight’s head to stop her erratic jittering. “Listen,” he began, pausing to make sure she was listening. “I have to go to the city square now; the prince is holding a military demonstration in an hour, and the Royal Guard has to stand up there and look pretty with him. Nopony but the royal family’s going to be allowed in the castle, so I can’t get the ticket or the letter then, and after that will be too late. You’ll have to go to the castle barracks and get them. Can you do that?”

Twilight nodded, dislodging Shining Armor’s hoof. “How am I going to get in though?” she asked brightly.

“I almost forgot about that,” he said, hitting his forehead. His eyes darted around the room, searching for a piece of paper and a quill. He found them a moment later and floated them over, and after scrawling a quick note and touching the tip of his horn to the paper, he passed the paper over to Twilight. In summary, the note explained who she was, why she needed to enter the castle, finishing with a magical seal in the image of Shining Armor’s stars-and-shield cutie mark. As an expert magician, Twilight instantly recognized it as an identification spell – the mark resonated with her brother’s unique magical wavelength. Failing extenuating circumstances, the mark would allow her entry into the castle barracks on Shining Armor’s behalf.

Slipping out the door, Shining Armor called out a goodbye, then proceeded over to Canterlot Square. Twilight grinned and shook her head at her brother’s forgetfulness. Oh well, she was planning on a walk anyway. A walk to the park for a peaceful reading session, but this would do too. The Ballad of the Regal Sun! She was ecstatic at the chance to finally see a live production! Unable to wait any longer, she dashed out the door, picking up her saddlebags as she went and stashing away Shining Armor’s note. She was almost at the other end of the street before she went back to lock the door. Perhaps the siblings weren’t that different after all.

=#=#=#=

“No unauthorized ponies beyond this point.”

“I’m telling you, read this note. I AM authorized.”

Twilight Sparkle was at the end of her patience. Standing at a security stop in front of the Canterlot Palace’s Royal Guard Barracks was an earth pony stallion who she assumed was the dumbest pony in all of Equestria – he was also barring Twilight access to the barracks. The dopey-looking stallion was a mix of colours Twilight couldn’t be bothered to describe, all stuffed into a can of golden armour, his rifle leaning against the road stop.

“No unauthorized ponies beyond this point,” the dumbest pony in Equestria repeated.

Twilight groaned. What was this pony’s problem?! The letter clearly gave her authorization to enter the barracks. What was she to do now? If she couldn’t get in soon, the castle would close for the night, and she wouldn’t be able to get her ticket in time. Her temper rose as she glared at the sole obstacle between her and seeing The Ballad of the Regal Sun live. Of course, an accomplished magician such as herself could probably find a way to sneak inside. She could override the security spells and get in and out without anypony noticing, but what if somepony did? There would be a warrant for her arrest, and she would have to live out the rest of her life as a fugitive, forced into self-exile in some god-forsaken land until a government assassin finished her off. Then she’d never see The Ballad of the Regal Sun!!!

“What seems to be the problem here?”

Twilight turned around to see a mint-green unicorn mare with a seafoam-coloured mane. Before the blockhead stallion could repeat the line he was so fond of, the newcomer flashed him a security badge, and he thankfully shut his mouth. As the mare passed by Twilight, she grabbed the note from Twilight. “What’s this then?” She scanned the note, and pushed the piece of paper back in her face. “Let her through.”

The guard opened his mouth to protest, but the mare jumped down his throat again. “What does it say on the badge?” she said sternly, waving the plastic card in his face. “It says do what I say, cuz I know what I’m doing.” She reached back and pulled Twilight along with her. “She’s a mare just out of Celestia’s School,” she said as she shuffled past the speechless stallion. “I’ll gladly take the blame if she turns out to be a terrorist.”

Well this is a convenient turn of events, Twilight thought thankfully as the mare led her away from security.

“Sorry you had to go through that,” the mare said suddenly, as soon as they were out of earshot of the obstinate stallion. “Some ponies can be so slow.”

Twilight acknowledged her with a nod. “How did you know I went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? I just graduated today.”

“Your posture.” The mare imitated her stiff, straight-backed attitude. “They still drill that into you from day one right? ‘This school is for sophisticated unicorns, and sophisticated unicorns don’t slouch’. I graduated from there myself a few years ago, and I only just learned how to relax again.”

“You inferred that just from my posture?” Twilight asked, amazed.

“Well, you could have been a noble too, but if you were, you would’ve been yelling about your mother being the duchess of wherever, and how you’d have him turned into glue if he didn’t let you in immediately,” the mare said with a laugh.

Twilight joined her with a sheepish giggle. She looked back and forth to make sure nopony heard her. Making fun of the nobility was dangerous in most cases, or at least inadvisable. Canterlot’s unicorn aristocracy took itself seriously, even by the standards of Twilight ‘Stick-in-the-mud’ Sparkle.

Twilight’s lookout for eavesdroppers drew her attention to the fact that she was now inside the actual barracks. The conversation had distracted her from where she was walking. She also became aware that she had no earthly idea where to go from here.

“Well, this is where we part ways,” the mare said, coming to a stop where two hallways forked off in opposite directions.” To Twilight’s despair, she started to walk away, but hope was restored when she wheeled around and asked: “By the way, do you know where your brother’s office is?” She waited exactly half a moment to wait for a response, then snatched the note (which Twilight didn’t realize she was still magically holding this whole time) and concentrated for a moment. Her horn shone amber for a second, and Twilight felt a faint magical pulse pass over her. This obviously told the mint-green mare something, because she smiled at her evident success and returned Shining Armor’s note. “You’ll want to go that way,” she projected a… something-shaped magical image that had five stumpy appendages, four tucked away and one pointing down the hallway. She continued to give instructions, which the… something… demonstrated, turning to point its outstretched appendage where she indicated. “Take the first right, go all the way down the hallway, then a left, and you should be right there.”

“How did you know that?” Twilight asked, looking at the bizarre magical image out of the corner of her eye. She shook her head, dismissing the absurdity of it all, and looked at the mystifying mare straight-on. “What kind of spell did you use?”

“Oh, that’s simple,” the mare said with the air of somepony opening for an explanation. “It was just a bit magical resonance stuff. You know all about magical wavelengths, right? Of course you do. You did just graduate from Celestia’s. What I used is just a magnified version of a resonance identification spell. I assume you’re familiar with them, seeing as there’s a resonance mark on the note you came here with. I sent out a pulse that pinged off magic traces in the area, and using the resonance from the note as a reference, I located the area with the highest number of matching spell traces.” The mare grinned. “Brilliant, isn’t it?” This mare struck Twilight as a bit full of herself, but figured that the mare’s high regard for herself was more or less justifiable. She reminded Twilight of somepony, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out whom...

“Magical resonance happens to be my special talent. If it goes ‘ping!’ then it’s my thing!” With a wink, the mare turned her side toward Twilight, showing off her lyre cutie mark.

“I get the symbolism,” Twilight said, engrossed in the discussion of magical theory. Somewhere in the back of her head, a voice was trying to remind her of her original purpose here, but she ignored it in favour of their dialogue. “Magical resonance and wavelengths being compared to harmonics and sound frequencies. I noticed that your spell functions similar to sonar, like a bat uses.”

“You don’t miss a beat, do you?” the mare answered, startled at Twilight’s accuracy. “I’m an engineer, so I would have gone with submarine, but that works too. But not that we’ve had enough of staring at my flank—” (Twilight blushed) “—we should both get back on track.” She took a step, but once again turned back. “I’m Lyra Heartstrings, by the way. Next time you’re around, you should visit me. I’m with the Arcane Engineering department. Come and see me if you ever need a helping hand with something.”

“A helping what?” Twilight was perplexed. She knew every word in the Equestrian language (and quite a lot of words in quite a few other languages), but she had no idea what this mare was talking about.

Now it was Lyra’s turn to blush. “Hoof. I meant hoof. Helping hoof.” She laughed in an embarrassed manner. “Anyway, come and see me some time, ya hear?”

“I will. Oh, and my name’s Twilight Sparkle,” she added.

Lyra smiled. “Nice to meet you, Twilight Sparkle.” And she galloped off down the hallway, leaving Twilight alone with her mission to pick up her things from Shining Armor’s office. Suddenly, Twilight found herself less excited about it than before.

She set off to her destination with her head lost in thought. Twilight wasn’t an antisocial pony. Really. It was just that she had more important things to do than participate in stuff like small-talk and friendship. She found the things other ponies talked about blindingly dull, and though she did not know it, the feeling was mutual. Lyra Heartstrings was the first pony outside her family that she actually enjoyed speaking with. Their interaction had been short, but discussing a topic she was interested in with somepony who was equally interested filled her with a sort of warmness. It was like Princess Celestia had raised the sun inside her and refused to lower it, like what Nightmare Moon had done when she wrested control of the moon from its rightful owner. She smiled, thinking about how Lyra had invited her to visit in the future. This kind of invitation was alien to Twilight. Nopony had ever shown her any kind of amicable interest before. Was this… friendship? Twilight Sparkle was knowledgeable in many fields, but friendship was not one of them. She would have to do some reading on the subject. Were there any books on friendship? Who else would need such things; it seemed everypony but Twilight had a grasp on the concept. Whatever this phenomenon was, Twilight was determined to study it. If this was friendship, then friendship was… Twilight searched for the right word…

Her train of thought derailed. She had found herself outside her brother’s office. Inside was the reason she was here. Right.

Obviously, the office was locked. Twilight inspected the surface of the door, her eyes coming to a rest on a crystal embedded at head height. A wavelength recognition device. I bet Lyra knew this was here, she thought as she pressed the resonance mark to the crystal’s facet. The gem recognized the wavelength and the door clicked open. She stepped inside.

A pair of envelopes, one no doubt containing the ticket, the other a letter. They rested upon the desk, right where one would expect. What was unexpected was where everything else was, and how nothing seemed to be where it belonged. Shining Armor’s office was the messiest thing Twilight Sparkle had ever seen, and she had seen botched dissections in her biology courses that looked like a scene out of CSI Detrot.

Suppressing the urge to go full-OCD on the room (are eyelids meant to twitch like that?), Twilight snatched the two envelopes off the desk, stuffed them in her saddlebags along with the ever-useful note, and ducked out of the office before she ended up bursting a blood vessel.

After making sure the door was locked, Twilight was about to depart and make her way home, but her attention was drawn away from that ambition by a commotion down the hall. There was shouting, and shooting, and all matter of noises. Possibly the loudest of them was the clip-clop clip-clop of four, no, five ponies running…this way…

She turned her head too late. Five ponies, probably mares, overtook her in an instant. Twilight felt herself being grabbed and spun around. When her vision refocused, she was staring at a platoon of very angry-looking soldiers pointing rifles in her direction… and she could feel the barrel of a gun pressed to her temple.

“Get any closer and the mare gets it!” A rough, raspy, but female voice bounced through Twilight’s ear and into her considerably large brain, hurting all the way through. Looking sideways at her captor, Twilight saw she was wearing black clothes that looked thick enough to be bulletproof. A quick look around let her see that the remaining four mares wore similar outfits.

“Ooh! Ooh! What does she get? A present? I want one!” The high-pitched, fast-paced questions came from a mare with similar qualities; she bounced around like lightning in a bottle. Tufts of her pink mane and tail stuck out from her clothes

“That’s not quite what that phrase means, darling.” This time the speaker was a unicorn mare with a refined, ladylike stance that distinguished her from the others. Her voice was slightly accented, but Twilight wasn’t familiar with the exact cadence.

“I don’t think they’re listening to us,” came a whisper from her right. Twilight could barely see the mare; she was quivering beside the mare threatening Twilight, with her wings fluttering nervously. A pegasus then.

“Girls, y’all better get ready to run…” The last of the five mares, one with a southern accent, started backing away while motioning for the others to do the same.

A shot rang out. A magically-accelerated bullet whizzed off the ceiling above them. “Dammit!” The gun was pulled away from her head, a strong foreleg grabbed her around the chest, and she was lifted into the air. Before she knew what was happening, she was being flown away from the soldiers, who were now in pursuit. Beneath her, the rest of the interlopers galloped at full speed, loosing an occasional shot at the pursuing soldiers.

What have I gotten myself into? Twilight asked herself as she was carried helplessly down the hallway and farther into the madness that seemed to epitomize today.

She only knew the half of it.

Chapter Two - Magic

Hearts against the Monarchy
Chapter Two --- Magic

“When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed.”

Theoretically, Twilight’s day could get worse, but failing the downfall of pony civilization to a race of frog people or books being outlawed, she couldn’t imagine anything making an impact at this point.

“Dash, why in the hay did you bring her?” the southern mare said, pointing at Twilight.

The five black-clad mares had managed to evade the soldiers chasing them. This would have been completely irrelevant to Twilight’s life if not for the fact that she had been dragged along with them. Having gotten over the initial shock of being kidnapped by terrorists, Twilight was growing more and more annoyed; the pegasus who had grabbed her was now sitting on top of her to keep her from running off, huddling with the rest of her group in a not-so-spacious storage closet.

“Hey, I didn’t exactly plan on it,” the pegasus answered. “We were being shot at, if you don’t remember. I panicked, and it just sort of happened.”

“Well it needs to un-happen,” the southern mare said bluntly. “Fact is, she’s got no use as a hostage, and we can’t just get rid of her…”

“We can’t very well let the poor dear go,” returned another mare, the unicorn. “Perhaps if we tied her up and left her somewhere she could be found once we’ve left…”

Twilight was tired of being referred to in the third person, among other things. “Who’s her? I have a name, you know. And speaking of names, who in Celestia’s name do you think you are?!”

The mares reacted to her shouts with varying degrees of shock; one of the pegasi even jumped behind another mare in fear. In contrast, the boldest among them – the southern mare – stepped forward. “We don’t do nuthin’ in Celestia’s name, thank you very much, ‘specially reveal ourselves to military mares.”

Twilight scoffed. Anti-monarchists, then. If they thought she would be impressed by their open defiance of authority, they had another thing coming. First, she pushed the pegasus off herself with a less-than-gentle burst of magic. Next, she used her deft arcane abilities to remove the hoods of the five terrorists. As she stood up, Twilight Sparkle absorbed every detail of her kidnappers’ faces. The raspy-voiced pegasus was light blue, with magenta eyes and a distinctive, rainbow-patterned mane. The quieter, quivering pegasus was pale yellow, blue-eyed, and had a long, pink mane which was convenient for hiding her face. The energetic earth pony was all pink, except for her cerulean eyes, and her mane had the consistency of cotton candy. The unicorn stood apart from the others with her dull white coat that was groomed to perfection, her azure eyes framed by expensive make-up and fake eyelashes, and her beautifully stylized mane that looked as if it had taken more time than the planning for this terrorist raid. The southern-sounding mare, who Twilight evaluated was the leader of this pack, was orange with green eyes and straw-coloured mane, and a quick look down showed that this mare was more muscular than the average earth pony.

The terrorists reacted to their unmasking as one might expect, more shock and general discontent. This complicated things. Now they definitely couldn’t let her go.

Twilight, brilliant as she was, didn’t consider the repercussions of her spell. She grinned haughtily. “Now how about we put some names to those faces.” She lit up her horn menacingly. Threatening ponies was out of character for Twilight, but she was riding the high of getting the upper hoof on her captors.

To their credit, the terrorists took the lavender unicorn’s threat in stride. They turned away from her and whispered to one another urgently. From what Twilight overheard, the mares had resumed their discussion about what to do with her, albeit in much graver tones. This did not bode well.

On the other hoof, eavesdropping on the mares finally gave Twilight their names. Advantage: Twilight Sparkle.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie (yes, the pink one. How did you know?) held up a light bulb. No, Twilight had no idea where she got it either. “I have an idea!” Pinkie Pie shouted. She slammed a rough map of the area down in front of Twilight. “We can ask Purple McBossypants where the Vault is!”

“WHAT?!” The terrorists all turned to face Twilight. “What makes you think I’ll help a bunch of terrorists like you?! And I am not a bossy pants!”

“Of course not, silly,” Pinkie Pie said. “You aren’t even wearing pants.”

Twilight’s brain stalled. “I… I… I…” Twilight tried to stammer out a reply, but gave up. She looked to the others for help with their comrade, but they avoided eye contact, mostly by facehoofing. “Um, anyway, I’m not going to help you find anything.”

Pinkie Pie changed her tune in an instant. “Okay.” The energetic pony narrowed her eyes. “I bet she doesn’t even know where the Vault is.”

“Of course I know where it is!” Twilight said angrily.

“Bet you don’t!”

“I do too!”

“No, you don’t!”

“Yes, I do!”

“Nope!”

“I do so know where the Vault is!” Twilight was positively fuming. She stomped on the map, smirking smugly. “It’s right there.” It should be mentioned that Twilight was only making an educated guess (the only kind she ever made), as the location of ultra-secure Vault wasn’t public knowledge. The tunnels beneath Canterlot Castle had many secret places the Vault could be hidden, but she based her estimate off a laundry list of logical points that would take too long to elaborate upon. Also, Shining Armor told her once that it was right under the center of the castle.

And then she realized what she had done.

“Thanks, McBossypants!” Pinkie Pie said. She hopped around Twilight and began pushing her toward the door. “Now you’re coming with us.”

“What?!” came the predictable response from everypony else in the storage closet.

“What what?” Pinkie Pie ‘answered’ cheerfully. “We can’t just let her go, cuz she saw our faces, and she probably heard our names when we were talking, and if we let her go, she’ll probably report us to the military, and then we’d get caught, and that would be bad, so we should bring her with us, that way she’d be an accomplice and wouldn’t be able to turn us in without getting in trouble herself. We’ll be partners. In crime!”

Twilight was impressed by Pinkie Pie’s ridiculously long, but logical run-on sentence. Partially because she was able to say it without breathing in. Twilight stayed silent as the other terrorists grudgingly conceded to their comrade’s reasoning and filed out the door with their prisoner in tow. The five mares donned their hoods again and whispered to each other as they snuck through the halls of the barracks and down into a network of darkly-lit tunnels which led underneath the main castle. Of course, Twilight had no intention of helping her captors in any way whatsoever. She was waiting for an opportunity for escape. As soon as the terrorists looked away, or if they came across a guard, Twilight would disappear faster than a box of donuts at her house. Shining Armor really liked donuts.

All in all, Twilight was sure she would get away from these crazy ponies. After all, she had the perfect plan…

=#=#=#=

…or not.

The terrorists had almost reached the Vault and still without incident or chance for Twilight to escape. These terrorists must have been the luckiest in the world; there had been no traces of a guards, or soldiers, or anypony who could deal with them. Twilight figured most of the castle’s personnel must have been dragged to the prince’s military demonstration as her brother had. In addition to this, the ponies guarding her hadn’t taken their eyes off her once. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had her held at gunpoint. Laxly, but there were metal tubes of death pointed at her nonetheless.

Twilight finally reached the point where her boredom and curiosity could no longer be contained. She asked the question that had been rattling around her head for ages now. “So, who exactly are you?”

“We’re champions for justice, darling,” Rarity said. “We’re the Hearts against the Monarchy.”

Twilight Sparkle looked at her captors bemusedly. “That name is… really lame…”

Rainbow Dash shrugged in response. “We didn’t choose the name. I wanted to go with ‘the Super Radical Order of Awesomeness’, but nopony else agreed to it.”

After giving a patronizing look to Rainbow Dash, Twilight turned her thoughts to what she just said. ‘We’? ‘We didn’t choose the name’? How big was this group? This meant that this group was just a smaller part of a larger organizational structure. And if this group was trying to access the castle’s Vault – a treasure trove of Canterlot’s most dangerous magical artefacts and secrets – what greater plans did these ‘Hearts against the Monarchy’ have in store?

Maybe she was about to find out. To Twilight’s great dismay, they had arrived at the Vault. The tunnel widened into a round, open atrium, and opposite the entrance was a massive wall of solid bedrock, smoothed and polished enough to please even the most neurotic of OCD patients. Needless to say, Twilight approved. Set into the bedrock, where the wall met the floor, was a crystal disc so big a dragon could pass through the hole it filled. The crystal was unlike any Twilight had ever seen. Crystals were ideal vessels for storing magic and excellent mediums for enchantments, so Twilight was more than familiar with just about every kind of gem used for spellwork. But not this one. Acting like a prism, it shone with colours from each and every point of the spectrum as light refracted off its many facets that shrank into nothing at the gem’s central vertex. Such was the crystal’s brilliance that Twilight couldn’t even determine its opacity; it could be clear as calculus (take that simile whichever way you wish) but Twilight would go blind before she figured it out. The shimmering vortex of a million rainbows seemed to give off its own glow that was simply unnatural, even in the world of magic Twilight lived in. She immediately forgot her plight and found herself consumed by an insatiable need to discover the nature of this wonder among magical wonders.

Without any prompting from the Hearts against the Monarchy, she cantered ahead of them and stopped in front of the Vault’s crystalline door. The tip of her horn sparked as she performed a preliminary evaluation of the enchantment so strong she could almost taste it.

If what Twilight did could be likened to her magical presence brushing up against the crystal’s, then the crystal’s response rammed into her like a raging minotaur.

Her knees buckled and she sank to the ground, her head swimming in magical feedback. When she regained full agency of her senses, there was a pegasus beside her, speaking softly to her. Fluttershy, her brain reminded her.

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, her voice quavering with concern. When Twilight managed a nod (or maybe the nerves in her neck had been giving out), she appeared relieved. Twilight could not help but think the pegasus was a little too nice for a terrorist.

After forcing herself to stand again, Twilight turned around to face the others. “What was all that?” Applejack asked.

“That crystal is quite possibly the most enchanted object in existence,” Twilight answered. “I almost passed out just trying to identify the spells.”

“What does that even mean?” Rainbow Dash interjected.

“It means that gem has so many spells cast on it, my brain almost shut down trying to sort them out.”

“Ah got no idea how magic works and all that, but Ah’m guessin’ you can’t get us in there.” Applejack did not seem happy at this prospect.

Twilight shook her head. “I couldn’t even begin to dispel those enchantments.” She launched into full egghead-mode. “Every spell constantly creates a small magic pulse, like a ripple. More complex spells create multiple ripples, and spells can be interlocked, creating overlaps.”

The Hearts were lost at this point, all except for Rarity, who as a unicorn had basic magical knowledge. “And how would you describe this door?” Nice to see somepony was following along.

“Imagine the whole thing is ripples. It’s like every ripple overlaps with every other ripple at every point, and I can’t even count how many ripples there actually are. From what I can tell, the spells originate from six sources that aren’t even there anymore, and the enchantments are actually renewing themselves. Even if we waited here for a thousand years, the spells would still be as strong as they are now. If I hadn’t experienced this myself, I would have said it was impossible.”

You are surprising clever, came a disembodied voice from nowhere. As they usually do.

Twilight froze. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“That voice?”

“What voice?”

“I just heard a voice.”

“I hear voices too, but they mostly help me with set-ups for comic relief.”

At this point, everypony was just a little bit weirded out. Except Pinkie Pie, because she was the carrier.

They cannot hear me, the voice said. I probably should have told you that before you made a foal of yourself, but this way is funnier. And you got to learn a little more about your friend, so we all win.

‘They’re not my friends,’ Twilight thought back. She figured that was probably how this worked.

Ooh. Cold. And here I thought you were trying to help them get into the Vault.

Twilight had no real response to that. It seemed her priorities had shifted in the face of a magical mystery.

Thankfully, she didn’t need to articulate a real response. Yay telepathy. Well if the Vault is going to be this much of an obstacle for you, that can be easily fixed.

And all of a sudden, the colossal magical presence behind her disappeared. Twilight wheeled around and saw that the crystal had flattened out into a two-dimensional curtain of light. “Is that what I think it is?” Nopony answered, so she elaborated. “It’s a self-contained dimension. The door isn’t a door, it actually is the Vault.”

Applejack walked up beside her, staring intently at the rainbow-coloured portal. “Are you tellin’ me if Ah walk through there, Ah’ll be in the Vault?” Twilight nodded slowly, still amazed by recent events. “Well that’s all Ah need. Girls, time to get what we came here fer.” And without further ado, the Hearts against the Monarchy went past Twilight and entered the Vault.

Twilight had a choice to make. Either she could leave now and probably get off scot-free, or she could follow the Hearts into the Vault and try to stop them from raiding the place, breaking a slew of laws in the process.

“Aw, buck it.” Twilight galloped into the portal and disappeared with a pop.

=#=#=#=

For a two-dimensional location, the Vault was much bigger than Twilight would have imagined. Also, the Hearts had gotten a bigger head start than she had anticipated. She ran through the shining, crystalline halls searching for the five terrorists, but to no avail.

“Where are they?!” Twilight said aloud. Her voice echoed back at her, added to the mix of noise that bounced off the rounded, high-arching surfaces of the Vault’s interior. It infuriated Twilight to no end that she could hear the other ponies, but she had no idea where their voices were coming from, or where they were going.

Talking to yourself? You will go crazy if you keep that up. Well, crazier. It took a moment for Twilight to realize the voice was the one from before and not yet another one of the echoes coming at her from every direction.

You know you are never going to find them if you just run around willy-nilly, the voice commented as Twilight kept trying to follow the Hearts.

Twilight stopped in the middle of a hallway and yelled at the disembodied voice. “You’re not exactly helping with your criticisms, you know!”

But what if I were to help you? As the voice spoke, Twilight caught the wall to her left rippling and shifting out of the corner of her eye. As soon as she turned her head to get a better look, the wall returned to its static, solid state. If you were to do a small favour for me, I would happily guide you to the others.

“It depends on the favour.”

Oh, just a triviality. There is a small trinket that I need to have removed from here. It is nothing anypony would miss. In fact, nopony but myself knows that it is here. All the same, I wish for it to be gone from these crystal halls.

Twilight weighed her options. Though she was loathe to allow the Hearts against the Monarchy run rampant in the Vault, she was equally disinclined to steal government property. She reminded herself that she was already up to her ears in trouble just by being here. And if what the voice said was true, nopony would miss this object, whatever it was…

“Deal.” Twilight decided that the ends justified the means in this situation.

Excellent. I knew you would see things my way. The voice chuckled, and the wall melted into nothingness to reveal a tight passage that intersected with another enclosed hallway. Wasting no time, Twilight hurried down the passage and glanced down both ways of the intersected tunnel. One led directly back to the Vault’s entrance; the other ended in a tiny chamber containing a small chest, like something out of a fantasy novel. This development irritated the lavender unicorn to no end. This voice, or rather its source, could clearly control and reshape this labyrinth; Twilight had been manipulated from the beginning. The only reason she couldn’t find the Hearts was clearly because this voice’s owner wanted her to strike a deal.

Cursing the voice in her head, she came over to the treasure chest and prised it open with her magic. Inside the chest was a pair of star-shaped hair clips wrought from gold. Twilight lifted them out and turned them over. Fused to the underside of these hair clips was a fine coating of diamond dust. Clearly were for function, not fashion. No doubt they held some sort of magic-related purpose, but Twilight had no clue what that was. She had never seen magical accessories of this sort, and the sheer atmosphere of magic within the Vault prevented her from attempting any accurate detection of it.

Good. Now put them on. I will open the way to where the other five are headed. Twilight mentally bristled at the hint of satisfaction in the bossy voice. She clipped to golden stars to her mane, just below her ears, and banished all further thought of them from her mind. The wall behind the chest soon dissolved, revealing a steep slope that led down to the bowels of the Vault. As she stepped into the tunnel, she wondered what exactly the Hearts were after that was important enough to be kept in the least accessible part of the already inaccessible Vault.

Descending through the dimly lit passage, Twilight turned her thoughts to the voice she’d been hearing. She remembered old mare’s tales from books she’d read, rumours about a ‘Ghost of the Vault’. Supposedly, somepony (or in some accounts, something) had died in the Vault, usually as a result of getting lost, though grimmer versions chalked it up to murder. In any event, the ghost was believed to whisper in the ears of anypony who entered the Vault and lead them astray. Allegedly, Prince Blueblood himself had once been lost in the Vault and was only found after a search and rescue by the entire military. Although, it was said in very hushed tones that it less to do with ghosts and more with the fact that the prince couldn’t find his reflection in a mirror if he didn’t have his horn pointing at it. That said, even a sceptic of the supernatural like Twilight Sparkle found her situation eerily similar to those in the stories.

Twilight was roused from her thoughts by the sound of five ponies galloping through the echo-inducing crystal halls. She had finally caught up with them.

The incline came to a stop, and Twilight hit the levelled floor in mid-gallop. She exited the passage, entered a new chamber, and slid out in front of the room’s only other entrance, cutting of the five mares in black.

Needless to say, they were not expecting this. One of them tripped and hit the ground with a thud, quickly followed by the others who tripped over her. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Twilight could help but grin at the bumbling mares and their foiled plans.

The first one who tripped was also the first to stand up again. “How in the hay did you get ahead of us?” Ah. The raspy tones of Rainbow Dash. The others were now picking themselves up behind her.

Twilight’s grin widened. “Never underestimate a determined unicorn.”

“Seems ya don’t know when ta quit there, girl,” Applejack said, glowering at her.

“What are you trying to steal from here anyway?” Twilight looked around the room. The only feature was a pedestal that supported what appeared to be five perfectly spherical stones each with its own unique marking that was worn down to a shadow by the passage of time. They looked older than time itself. “There’s nothing here worth throwing away your lives.”

“Hey, we’re just following orders.” Rainbow Dash took a step toward Twilight. “Now if you’re done yapping, we’re going to get what we came here for.”

Twilight matched Rainbow Dash and met her face-to-face. “You are going nowhere.”

“How very right you are.” The average blood temperature of the room dropped to just about freezing. A seventh voice, cold and quiet as a whisper, had joined the other six. The Hearts turned around, and Twilight leaned to the side to see past the cyan pegasus blocking her view. They all stared at the newcomer in a mélange of surprise, disbelief, and terror. But none of them was more frightened than Twilight.

The pony who had just arrived was a young unicorn mare. Black bangs fell over her face, obscuring her emerald green eyes. From what Twilight could see of her coat, it was an uncommon metallic pink colour. However, the only feature that drew the lavender unicorn’s attention was the mare’s clothing. From her head to her tail, the mare was covered by a white cloak with golden yellow trim; she was hooded, her head encircled by a diadem, and the cloak was held in place by a sun-shaped clasp where her neck met her chest. There was no mistaking it. This mare was one of the highest-level unicorns in all of Equestria. Second only to their mentor, Princess Celestia, one of her protégées. An Eclipse.

The Eclipse’s horn lit up with a brilliant, burning light. She was about to attack.

Twilight’s mind went blank. There was no time to analyze the situation, no time for any thinking at all. A spark ignited inside her and she left her body in the hooves of pure, unhindered instinct. With a wave of her horn, Twilight threw the Hearts against the Monarchy out of the line of fire. Without a moment’s respite, the Eclipse’s spell was upon her, an inferno of yellow flames. Without thinking, Twilight countered with a blast of wind that drove the fire back in her attacker’s face. The other unicorn negated her own spell.

“So it’s going to be like that, huh?” The mare’s face was twisted into an ugly snarl.

Twilight said nothing in rebuttal. The Eclipse’s attack had awakened something in Twilight, and though she didn’t know it yet, that same spark awakened something else too. A sixth stone had appeared on that pedestal.

Chapter Three - A Fork in the Road

Hearts against the Monarchy
Chapter Three --- A Fork in the Road
“I can’t decide!”

Twilight Sparkle had a difficult decision to make. Theoretically, she still had time to climb out of the hole she had dug herself into. If she claimed to have acted out of self-preservation and sweetened the deal by helping the Eclipse capture the Hearts against the Monarchy, Twilight still had a chance of getting out of here without ending up in a maximum-security prison cell. Of course, Twilight would rather eat her own horn than help a pony who just attacked her, but what other option did she have?

She could help out the Hearts against the Monarchy. She could help them escape. After all, they were hardly a threat. Without the help of the mysterious voice’s magical powers, the five ponies would not have even made it into the Vault, much less stolen anything from it. The net result of this episode would be a harmless zero if she could convince the Hearts to leave without… whatever it was they were trying to steal. Optimistically, Twilight could probably incapacitate the Eclipse; pessimistically, Twilight’s abilities could at least allow her to stay out of the enemy unicorn’s hooves. Everypony would come away from this safely, and nopony would get hurt (much).

When you think about it, it was all academic.

=#=#=#=

“Get out of here!” Twilight shouted at the Hearts, who looked at her, dumbfounded.

“We ain’t leavin’ here without the Elements of Harmony,” Applejack said defiantly.

“The what?” Twilight looked at her quizzically. Elements of Harmony? Were they some sort of ancient magical artefacts? Twilight had never heard of them before, and she was a walking, talking encyclopaedia of all things magical. Where were these ponies getting their information? The name ‘Elements of Harmony’ sounded vaguely familiar, but Twilight couldn’t think of where she had heard it.

The others glared at Applejack for disclosing that information. “Never mind that,” Rainbow Dash said. “We’re not leaving.”

“Get away while you still can,” Twilight insisted. “This unicorn is an Eclipse. One of the highest-level unicorns alive. I can only buy you so much time.”

“I’m afraid we can’t go quite yet.” Rarity led the other Hearts out of the way and back toward the pedestal.

“What part of this-unicorn-is-going-to-kill-you-all don’t you understand?!” Twilight growled.

The Eclipse’s eyes darted back and forth between Twilight and the Hearts, her eyebrows raising higher and higher all the while. “What is wrong with you ponies?”

“Um, everypony, I there’s an extra Element here…” Fluttershy mumbled, but nopony heard her over the rapport between the other ponies.

“Nothing’s wrong with us!” Twilight shouted at the Eclipse. She turned to the Hearts. “Get out of here already! What’s wrong with you?!”

“Um, everypony… the Elements…”

The Eclipse, one of the most terror-inspiring ponies in Equestria, facehoofed. Actually facehoofed! “You must be the worst terrorists ever. Of all time.”

“I’m not with them!” Twilight yelled, stamping her hooves.

“I almost want to let you girls leave,” the Eclipse groaned, her head hanging low. “You all are just so sad.”

“Shut up!” Rainbow Dash said, walking up next to Twilight. “You’re just one of Celestia’s dogs, you dumb ellipse!”

“I think you mean Eclipse,” the ‘ellipse’ corrected.

“I’m surprised you even know that word,” Twilight said to Rainbow Dash.

“Hey, I’m on your side!”

“I’m not on anypony’s side! Now get out of here while I stall her for you. Go!”

“It sounds like you’re on their side,” the Eclipse remarked.

“Well I’m not!”

“GIRLS!” Fluttershy yelled, surprising everypony present. They all looked to her, and followed her hoof to where she was pointing. “There’s a sixth Element of Harmony here.”

The Eclipse scoffed. “Everypony knows there’s only five Elements of Harmony.”

“I didn’t even know there were Elements of Harmony,” Twilight said in monotone. Again, the name was on the verge of recalling memories for her.

The Eclipse smirked at her with the kind of smugness that invited a high-velocity hoof. “Well, it’s not the kind of thing they tell school fillies.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Girls,” she said to the Hearts without looking away from the Eclipse. “I’m going to wipe the floor with this mare. You better leave now if you don’t want to get vaporized.”

“For the last time,” Rainbow Dash said. “We’re not leaving.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie cheered. She picked up one of the stones that apparently was one of the Elements of Harmony. “We have an extra Element to carry. I know! We can share! You can carry the extra one.”

Twilight groaned in resignation. “If it will get you to leave before you get yourselves killed, sure!”

Suddenly, the room filled with bright, blinding light. Turning to stare at the source, Twilight saw the Elements of Harmony shatter and transform into golden-wrought jewellery – five necklaces and a diadem – inset with gems in various shapes. None of these shapes held any significance to Twilight, save for that of the diadem, which was the spitting image of her cutie mark. The diadem flew over to Twilight and set itself on her head. The necklaces each sought out a specific member of the Hearts against the Monarchy; did the gems correspond to their cutie marks too?

The six mares were appropriately surprised. The Eclipse was, in a word, flabbergasted.

“Wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh,” she stuttered. “Th-th-the Elements? How d-d-did you…? Nopony has been able to use them for a thousand years!” After a moment of sustained spluttering, she steeled herself and grinned. “No matter. Only two of you are unicorns, and neither of you has the potential to wield the power of the Elements.”

“We’ll see about that,” Twilight shot back over he shoulder with a confidence she didn’t know she had. Out of nowhere, she felt a sort of warm energy welling up inside her. Her earlier doubts had faded away. Now she knew she could win. “The rest of you, go.”

The Hearts hesitated, no doubt reluctant to leave one of the Elements of Harmony behind with her. However, they nevertheless galloped up the tunnel Twilight had entered through. The mares all glanced at her as they left – Pinkie Pie embellished her exit with a joyous wave of her hoof before she bounced away.

“Do you really think you stand a chance against me?” The Eclipse sneered as Twilight took an aggressive stance opposite her. “Do you think you can fight me, Phoenix Flare the Eclipse, as an equal?”

“Wait, Phoenix Flare…” Twilight knew where she had heard that before. “You graduated from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns seven years ago, right?” The Eclipse nodded proudly. “I’ve seen photos of you with awards.” The Eclipse acknowledged this with even more pride. “I didn’t recognize you without the braces and the greasy mane.” Phoenix Flare broke down into a furious mess of mutterings and stutterings. “Weren’t you voted most likely to become a crazy old cat lady?”

“That’s it!” Phoenix Flare roared, her eyes blazing with almost literal flames. “You. Are. Dead.”

With a snarky kind of cockiness most unbecoming of a unicorn of the Canterlot aristocracy, Twilight said: “Not yet.”

And she added a wink that drove Phoenix Flare over the edge.

The mare burst into flames. Literal, actual flames. It was magic, obviously, and so the fire was probably meant to do more harm to Twilight than herself. Oh my.

The Eclipse, with all the magical finesse of Equestria’s brightest minds, charged at Twilight head-first. The lavender unicorn only just barely managed to dodge the flaming battering ram. A rush of heated air hit her in the side and knocked her off balance. She tripped over her own hooves and fell in a heap against the crystalline cavern wall. Before she could get even one hoof flat on the ground, Phoenix Flare had already turned around and begun a second charge. Not wasting a second, Twilight threw up the strongest barrier she could, but the lavender wall shattered without even a moment of resistance, sending Twilight skidding down the tunnel.

Ignoring a plethora of stinging scrapes and aching bruises-to-be, Twilight Sparkle forced herself to stand upright. This unicorn was far stronger than Twilight had thought. The Eclipse had gone through her shield like Shining Armor went through a box of donuts. Sure, Twilight knew a lot of spells, tricks, and enchantments, but her magic’s true virtue was versatility, not power. She could perform a spell for every niche, but in terms of brute strength… Unless she could outthink Phoenix Flare, she was going to end up as a unicorn flambé with a side of broken horn. She needed some kind of edge over her, some kind of ace-in-the-hole, some kind of–

–help?

Oh not you again, Twilight thought.

Did you forget that you have a powerful magical device on your head? Twilight’s mind went to the diadem perched on her head, but the voice corrected her. Not the Element of Magic, the hair clips. You completely forgot them? Twilight mentally ridiculed the mind-reading voice for asking her what she was thinking about. Oh. Right. Haha. You will be surprised. You will receive the deus ex machina you were searching for. Before Twilight could finish wondering how to use the hair clips, the voice supplied her with this information. Just say ‘twinkle, twinkle, little star’. And hurry up, because your little friend looks like she is waiting to play. And so she was; Phoenix Flare the Eclipse was approaching, slowly walking with a calm smile as the fire enveloping her crackled and danced.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,” Twilight said quietly. Trite, she thought. But before she could heap any more abuse on the magical objects, the little stars twinkled, twinkled, and an arc of magical runes curved out from the hairclips tucked beneath her ears and in front of her eyes. The arcane runes formed an electric blue visor. Judging by how the Eclipse didn’t react to this, Twilight was the only pony who could see this phenomenon. As she focused on Phoenix Flare, the matrix of arcane runes locked onto her as well. The stars began annotating several points on Phoenix Flare, or rather her the magical flames around her. It was giving her readouts on the enchantments, including their respective magical wavelengths. Suddenly, Twilight knew how she was going to win this fight.

The Eclipse now stood face-to-face with Twilight Sparkle, unaware of Twilight’s newfound advantage. “Had enough?” she snarled. “Ready to die like a dog?”

Twilight grinned, her confidence restored. “Not by a long shot.” And she did something very un-Twilight, something very stupid. She headbutted the Eclipse. She plunged her horn into the magical flames until it collided with the Eclipse’s. As soon as she made contact, she released a magical pulse that resonated through the other unicorn’s body. The pulse matched the wavelength of one of the enchantments in Phoenix Flare’s fire armour, cancelling it out. Specifically, the part of the spell that prevented her from being burned by her own flames.

“What did you– Ow! Ow-ow-ow-OW!!!” Phoenix Flare screamed as she was scorched by her own flames. There was probably a lesson in there, or at least a joke. The Eclipse collected herself and stamped her hoof. The magical flames were extinguished. Phoenix Flare looked positively dreadful: the ends of her mane were still smoking, patches of her pink coat were blackened, her cloak was simply ruined, and her eyes were positively livid. “You. Face. Dead.”

Twilight blew back the Eclipse with a burst of pure magic, creating a safe distance between them. Phoenix Flare countered by loosing a hail of green magic bolts. As the Eclipse’s horn glowed in preparation for each shot, the stars identified their wavelengths, and Twilight matched Phoenix Flare shot for shot with her own pink magic. Their barrages negated each other with a spray of sparks.

“How are you doing that?!” The Eclipse raged. “It’s impossible for a lowly unicorn like you to stand on equal ground with me! Me! I’m an Eclipse! I’m Celestia’s greatest servant! You’re practically a foal!”

Twilight held her head high and proud. “Then maybe being an Eclipse isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” She didn’t feel it was necessary to mention that, until she had actually met and been threatened and attack by one, it had been her dream to become an Eclipse. Oh well. There were plenty of other career paths she could take.

“We’ll see about that.” The Eclipse lowered her horn and began charging magical power. When the stars analyzed the energy output, Twilight realized that there was no way she could simply cancel out the next spell; the sheer magical power was beyond what Twilight could safely use without risking exhaustion. Maybe being an Eclipse was all it was cracked up to be. Twilight only had so much strength. If only she knew some combat spells. She never had any use for them, but now…

The runes that stretched across her field of vision suddenly reorganized and reshaped themselves into Equestrian script. Reading at a speed only achievable by black-belt level eggheads, Twilight saw that the stars were telling her how to manipulate the crystal infrastructure of the Vault. The same way the owner of the voice had. This had potential.

Phoenix Flare’s horn shone with the brightest of white lights, blinding like the corona of a lunar eclipse. Appropriate. Even her eyes were glowing. Just as she was about to unleash her devastating spell, Twilight marshalled all of her magic power and turned it upon the crystal ceiling and floor of the tunnel. Using the spell she had just read, she reshaped the crystal to form a column in front of the Eclipse. Phoenix Flare saw what Twilight did, but her magic had built up past the point where she could just stop. The spell needed to be cast, or it would backfire. Nevertheless, Phoenix Flare tried to suppress her magic, and was nearly disintegrated in the process. The magic concentrated at the tip of her horn exploded in her face. Phoenix Flare was knocked clear through to the other end of the tunnel, where the Elements of Harmony had been kept. This was extremely fortunate for her, because the explosion caused the tunnel to collapse.

Twilight sighed a breath of relief. She was safe. For now. She still had to make it out of the Vault. But now she had the advantage of controlling it.

=#=#=#=

Twilight should have known this was way too easy.

Emerging from a crystal hallway that she made herself, Twilight found herself at the entrance again. But she couldn’t leave yet, because she could hear somepony down one of the halls. Somepony was pleading for their life. Very quietly.

Fluttershy.

Twilight followed the soft echoes to their source. Fluttershy must have lagged behind the other Hearts and gotten lost. And then she had been found.

When Twilight rounded the corner, she saw Fluttershy cowering beneath Phoenix Flare, who was looking worse than ever. Her cloak was in tatters, her coat and mane were falling out in patches, and her horn was cracked. Come to think of it, Phoenix Flare looked pretty cracked too.

“Where is the purple unicorn?!” the Eclipse snarled, like an animal. She held a knife to Fluttershy’s throat. The emerald aura flickered faintly, and her magical grip on the blade shook and shuddered almost as much as her captive.

“I’m right here,” Twilight announced. Phoenix Flare turned, and when Twilight saw her expression, she instantly realized she had done exactly the wrong thing.

“You,” she said incredulously. “You!” she snapped. “YOU!!!” she screamed. She turned to Fluttershy and pulled away the knife. “It looks as if I have no further need of you.” Her eyes burned with a kind of anger Twilight had never seen. The Eclipse raised the knife over her head and cackled. “And now you die.”

BANG

It wasn’t a conscious decision. Twilight wasn’t even aware of what she was doing, nor would she be aware of what she had done for quite a while afterward. She hadn’t planned on running at the Eclipse. All she had seen was the problem, the evil unicorn about to kill a defenceless pony. She hadn’t intended to fire the gun; she didn’t even see the gun until she was holding it in her magical grip. One of the Hearts must have dropped it when they made their escape; maybe it had been Fluttershy’s. All Twilight knew was that it was the solution to the problem in front of her, the evil, evil unicorn about to mercilessly kill a defenceless, defenceless pony. She didn’t even think it was possible for her to pull the trigger. Twilight wouldn’t have believed it could happen without the evidence before her: the smoking pistol floating next to her, the three bullet casing lying on the crystalline floor, the corpse with a dark hole just below its horn, and the blood splattered all over Fluttershy and spread out behind the corpse with a mix of skull fragments and grey matter.

Fluttershy was in tears, overcome with emotion and relieved to be still alive. The gun dropped to the ground. Twilight stared at the scene in front of her until her eyes lost focus and it all became one huge blur. Her ears rang, her entire body went numb, her ability to feel the magic around her was completely deadened. Before her mind went completely blank, she had one final thought: what have I done?

=#=two days later=#=

An Introduction to Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash was – if she were to be believed – the coolest, most awesome, most radical pony in all of Equestria. From the tip of her cyan nose to the ends of her rainbow-striped tail that matched her mane, Rainbow Dash just oozed awesome. No, wait, not oozed. Oozing isn’t cool. She radiated awesome. I mean, just look at her cutie mark: A cloud with a three-coloured lightning bolt. What’s cooler than that? To top it all off, this super-amazing athletic pegasus was the fastest thing in all of Equestria. She was the only pegasus in living memory to have ever performed a Sonic Rainboom… not that she knew how to do it again, but that’s not important! If only she could do it again, it would be a great help for the Hearts against the Monarchy. If only. But that’s all the stuff that she was proud of. She was significantly less proud of a certain fact about herself, something that disgusted her to her very core…

“Do I really have to wear this?” Rainbow Dash nudged the lacy hem of the overly elaborate yellow dress that currently disgraced her with its fluffy layers of skirts and poofy sleeves. “I hate all this frilly froufrou stuff.” The prissy pegasus at her side shot her a glare of disdain. Ugh. Her chaperone. Rainbow Dash was no longer allowed to mingle with high society unsupervised after an incident involving a wedding cake, a griffin marching band, and an attempted (pronounced ‘failed’) Sonic Rainboom. Even worse was the fact that she didn’t even want to be here in the first place. What was so cool about some dumb play-musical-opera thing? Nothing.

Rainbow’s chaperone brought her to a balcony overlooking Canterlot Castle’s theatre. “Announcing the Lady Rainbow Dash,” she said self-importantly while the lady grimaced at the being referred to as such. So what if she was the daughter of the Warden of the South? The last thing she needed was to be led around like a prize poodle at a dog show. The two pegasi found their seats among other nobles, celebrities, and assorted other ponies too pretentious to care about this play, or whatever it was. These dopes – Rainbow Dash included – were only here for appearances; it was important for them to be seen at such events. Oh, the pettiness of the social élite. Rainbow hated it, but the daughter of an important politician couldn’t afford to not be here. The only pony on the balcony who seemed to be enjoying herself was a young unicorn mare next to Rainbow, who was staring intently at the closed stage curtains. She wore a simple pink dress that Rainbow supposed matched her lavender coat (despite being every colour, Rainbow Dash understood as much about colour theory as Pinkie Pie did about patience). Rainbow’s eyes trailed up to the mare’s mane, tied up prim and proper, its pink and violet stripes…

It took all the restraint learned in her ladylike upbringing for Rainbow not to scream.

What in the hay was that mare doing here? Here, of all places. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what terrified: the fact that she was sitting next to a Celestia-hugger who could rat her out to any number of the ponies around them, or that said Celestia-hugger would see her in a frilly froufrou dress.

The unicorn turned, and Rainbow’s heart jumped into her throat. “Why, hello again, Lady Rainbow Dash,” she said with a cool, though amused expression. Her eyes slid down from the pegasus’ face and down to her dress… and Rainbow Dash’s heart dropped into her stomach, dissolving into a soupy mess that sat in her like concrete. “I almost didn’t recognize you with an actual manestyle.” Rainbow Dash’s usually unkempt mane had been piled into swirling mass atop her head; allegedly it was the latest style, though Rainbow had a deep suspicion it was some cruel joke.

“What are you doing here?!” she growled at the lavender mare.

The unicorn mumbled something under her breath, was quiet for a moment, then her horn glowed. Rainbow’s pelt stood on end as she felt a wave of energy pass over her. There was no doubt about what it was: magic. “You cast some kind of spell?”

“Yes. Nopony can hear us now, but act normally, because everypony can still see you.”

“So… what are you doing here?” Rainbow repeated.

“Can’t a mare just watch a play without having her motives questioned?” Not when she’s smirking like that, she can’t.

“C’mon. Everypony here is either made of gold or has a title worth as much.” She waved her hoof at the ponies around them. “For crying out loud, there’s some mook three rows behind us with a crown.” The mook in question was a stuffy-looking unicorn – a lesser prince – surrounded by Royal Guards.

“I have connections,” the lavender mare answered, or rather, didn’t. She relented under Rainbow’s glare. “Fine. See the unicorn in front of the ‘mook’?” The cyan pegasus turned around and saw him. He looked kind of familiar, kind of like… “That’s my brother.” That would do it.

Rainbow Dash turned back to the lavender mare. “I still haven’t heard your name yet.”

For a moment, the unicorn looked as if she were going to say something snarky like ‘that’s because I haven’t said it yet’. She reconsidered. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

Finally getting an answer out of her gave Rainbow Dash just the slightest bit of satisfaction. Not that there was anything she could really do with this information, but it was a start. “So,” Rainbow began her inquiry, “If your brother is a Royal Guard, your family must be pretty high-society, or whatever.”

“Trying to get more information on me?”

Rainbow’s face glowed red with embarrassment. Was she really that obvious? “What, are you some kind of freaky mind-reader now, or something?”

Twilight Sparkle smirked, the corner of her mouth turning up just as suspiciously as she had. “Perhaps.” This mare really had a thing for not answering questions, huh?

There was something off about this mare. “You are way too calm for an accomplice to theft of magical artefacts,” Rainbow told her, receiving a shrug in return. “You know that you could be executed for that, right?”

Twilight gave the pegasus her best know-it-all look. “Of course I know that. I’m willing to bet I know much more about Equestria’s legal system than you do. But I have no reason to be afraid of that. You, however, have only a short time before the authorities crack down on your little group and put an end to your shenanigans.”

So much for Rainbow’s sense of security. Losing colour faster than a ghost drinking bleach, Rainbow Dash grabbed the front of Twilight’s dress and forced the unicorn to look her in the eyes. “What did you tell them?”

Before she could interrogate Twilight Sparkle any further, Rainbow’s hoof was enveloped in pink magic and pushed away with so much force, she nearly fell over. Twilight watched her coolly as she stumbled quite un-coolly. “You should watch yourself. You’re lucky my brother didn’t see that, otherwise you’d be a seven colour stain all the way from here to centre stage.”

And with that in mind, Rainbow decided to drop all further questions about Twilight and her criminal record. Rainbow glanced to her other side to see if her chaperone had noticed. Nope. If Rainbow didn’t know better, she would have sworn the prissy old pegasus had fallen asleep. She turned back to Twilight. “So, uh, speaking of the stage, what is this play thing about?”

Twilight’s cool and collected veneer dropped away instantly. “What do you mean?! How can you not know anything about The Ballad of the Regal Sun?! I thought it was required reading all across Equestria.”

“Not in Cloudsdale. Don’t worry, reading about Commander Hurricane founding the city is just as boring.”

Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. “The Ballad of the Regal Sun is the best thing ever written. It's the life story of Princess Celesita. I can’t believe I’m at a live performance of it, complete with orchestra.”

Rainbow groaned, spying the crowd of instrument-wielding ponies standing before the stage. “There’s music too? Ugh.”

The lavender unicorn droned on. “I never thought I would get this chance. So few theatres are willing to perform a twenty-four hour play.”

“WHAT!” Thank goodness for that soundproofing spell. “This play takes a whole day?!”

Twilight looked baffled at Rainbow’s outburst. “Of course it does. How else can you tell the story of everything Princess Celestia has done for Equestria? You seriously don’t know anything about this play?”

Her voice thick with sarcastic condescension, the member of the Hearts against the Monarchy replied, “Do I really strike you as a fan of the princess?”

“How could you not be? The princess has given everything to Equestria. She overthrew Discord; she established our modern society; she conquered the Crystal Empire; she’s fought thousands of monsters and even forced the dragons to surrender. She raises and lowers the sun and moon every day and night, and she saved the world from Nightmare Moon. How could you not be a fan of Princess Celestia?!”

“Well,” Rainbow began, “How about the fact that she runs a corrupt country where the aristocrats – privileged little unicorns like you – make the pegasi fight their wars and force the earth ponies grow their food and make everything for them. And how about the way she lets her stupid nieces and nephews rule while she sits back and does nothing. Tell me, when was the last time you saw Princess Celestia do anything? Prince Blueblood does all the speeches; there’s some ditzy mare with a stupid name who does all the diplomatic stuff; and can that old guy back there seems to be using up all the Royal Guards, even if it is just so he can stand up straight.” Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth to argue, but no sound came out. Rainbow Dash pressed on. “This play is just a load of propaganda and crap to convince dumb ponies like you to love the princess. Didn’t you get attacked by one of her personal students? How are you still a fan of Princess Celestia?”

“Just because an Eclipse does something wrong, it doesn’t mean the princess is to blame,” Twilight muttered quietly.

Rainbow scoffed. Weak. “It’s just like what the Hearts’ leader, Lyra, says: if Princess Celestia really cared about us ponies, Equestria wouldn’t be how it is now.”

A peculiar darkness fell over Twilight’s face. “Did you say ‘Lyra’?” she asked quietly. “As in, ‘Lyra Heartstrings?”

Rainbow suddenly realized what she had let slip in her tirade against the princess. The play finally began and the opening notes of from the orchestra pit drowned out Rainbow Dash’s curses.

Chapter Four - Season for Change

Hearts against the Monarchy
Chapter Four --- Season for Change
“Biting off more than you can chew is just what I'm afraid of.”

Lyra Heartstrings. Lyra bloody Heartstrings.

Twilight Sparkle angrily stomped in a puddle as she stormed her way home. The cold, dirty water splashed over her hooves and soaked through the hem of her dress, but that didn't even make it to the bottom of the list of things she cared about right now. She wasn't sure what annoyed her more: the fact that Lyra had tricked her, or that it was Lyra who tricked her. It hadn't made sense to Twilight how the Hearts against the Monarchy managed to infiltrate the Royal Barracks without triggering its magical defences; now it did. Obviously, they had a mare on the inside. A mint-coloured one. A capable mare like Lyra would have had no trouble dismantling a security spell matrix from behind its protective barriers. How did it take her this long to figure it out?

You really should be watching where you are going, said the all-to-familiar voice as Twilight nearly walked into a lamppost. The voice had followed Twilight out of the Vault, much to her dismay. She suspected that the hair clips were tied to it somehow, and the voice had neglected to answer her when she asked if that was the case. If that were so, she had no choice but to grin and bear with it, because there was no way she would get rid of the hair clips. They at least doubled her already considerable magical abilities, giving her knowledge of magic beyond anything anypony could imagine. She understood so much more now. The golden stars had already proved themselves infinitely useful in helping her to erase all magical evidence of her little escapade in the Vault, and of course, the crystal manipulation spell had helped her hide Phoenix Flare’s body—

She cut off her own train of thought. ‘Don’t think about it’, she told herself for the hundredth time. Anytime her mind drifted to thought about… Phoenix Flare, she stopped herself. It was too much to cope with. The gravity of what happened hadn’t even struck her until she was already home in bed. Her memories of everything following…the event… were blurry and indistinct. She remembered Fluttershy had been to traumatized to say anything to the others when they emerged from the Vault. The Hearts against the Monarchy had postponed their escape when they realized Fluttershy had fallen behind. The four mares took their friend away without asking her or Twilight what happened, and Twilight suspected they hadn’t gotten anything out of the timid pegasus since. Fluttershy was probably of the same mind as Twilight, avoiding all thoughts of the corpse behind a wall of opaque crystal…

You are not very good at this ‘not thinking about it’ thing, the voice told her.

‘If you don’t like it,’ Twilight thought back curtly, ‘You can always get out of my head. I’m sure there are more empty-headed mares around who won’t bother you with thinking. That Rainbow Dash seems like she’d have a lot of extra space to share.’

Rowr. How catty of you. And she was so nice as to tell you who her boss is.

Twilight half-groaned, half-sighed. She had done some research, and apparently Rainbow Dash had been an accomplished amateur racer and aero-acrobatic before her father had been promoted to Warden of the South and she had to give up medals and blue ribbons for brooches and pink lace. Evidently, her physical speed and agility didn’t translate into the same for cognitive function. Revealing her leader’s name with a slip of the tongue? It was a wonder the Hearts against the Monarchy were able to accomplish anything. Though, Twilight reconsidered, with Lyra as their leader, maybe—

Yawn. Are you going to keep walking the wrong way, or are you eventually going home? Twilight suddenly realized she had walked past her house about a minute ago. With the voice’s laughter ringing in her head, Twilight disappeared from the moonlit Canterlot street in a flash and reappeared standing next to her bed. Normally it would have been impossible for her to teleport directly into her house (all of Canterlot’s buildings were enchanted to keep just anypony magically waltzing in), but she had a couple of stars to help her out.

Exhausted from staying awake for a twenty-four hour long play, Twilight removed her dress with a lazy spell and dropped in a heap on her floor, too tired to care about fancy eveningwear. She collapsed on her bed as if her bones had disappeared. Twilight Sparkle needed sleep, and she needed it bad. But as her overactive mind would have it, sleep had the night off. Her mind was abuzz with thoughts of everything that had happened over the past few days. So many questions, all without answer.

What was she supposed to do about the Hearts against the Monarchy? She knew enough about them to put them away for the rest of their little pony lives, or even enough to end them. A part of her mind reminded her that she was responsible for enough death— ‘Don’t think about it’. She could have them arrested without implicating herself; there was nothing but their word to say she had been there, and all of the information about the Elements of Harmony her recent research yielded (which was surprisingly little) was adamant that there were only five Elements, so even if she did cartwheels around Canterlot Square wearing nothing but the stolen diadem, she was at no risk of being caught. The diadem, as it were, was lying in a box under Twilight’s bed, defended by every protective spell Twilight knew – which was almost every protective spell that existed. She thought about the other five Elements of Harmony, and the mares who now possessed them. Maybe it was okay for her to allow the Hearts to go free. Even after everything that happened, Twilight didn’t think they were that much of a threat to Equestria. The Elements of Harmony were a set; would they even work without Twilight’s diadem? Twilight had found nothing in her research that could tell her about the properties and powers of the Elements, only that they were what Princess Celestia used to seal away Nightmare Moon.

Twilight rolled over onto her back and turned her head to the window where her eyes found the moon, shining silver as the light from Celestia’s sun reflected off its full, round face. The mare in the moon stared back at her, the dark constellation of craters standing out upon the pale surface of the moon like a black sheep among a flock of white fleece. The moon was the ultimate testament of Princess Celestia’s sovereignty of and devotion to Equestria. How could Twilight deny all that the princess had done for her and every other pony on earth? She refused to allow herself to be affected by what Rainbow Dash had said, but doubt sank in past her mental defences nonetheless. Was it true? Had Celestia truly abandoned Equestria? Was she not everything Twilight had heard her entire life? And were all of Celestia’s personal protégées as vicious as Phoenix Flare? And how did she even know Twilight and the Hearts were in the Vault? Had the Hearts messed something up when they infiltrated the barracks? Had Twilight done something to trigger an alarm? Wondering about it gave her no more answers than she started with.

On top of it all, when Twilight had finally read that letter that had been with the ticket on Shining Armor’s desk, she discovered another decision she had to make. Twilight’s academic excellence had drawn the attention of the Astral Society, the most renowned group of unicorn mages in Equestria. It was an unexpected honour. Unfortunately, it was just another complication for her at the moment. She needed to sort out her thoughts on… everything… and she didn’t need this added distraction. Twilight needed to think… she needed… she needed.

She knew what she needed to do. Twilight nestled her head deep into her pillow, finally ready to sleep. It was then she noticed that the voice had been silent for quite a while. The voice was courteous enough to stay quiet when Twilight was talking to somepony else, but otherwise it had no qualms about pestering her all day. ‘Is the voice asleep?’ Twilight wondered. The prospect of disembodied voices sleeping was dubious at best, but that was a mystery for Twilight to unravel some other time…

After a good night’s sleep, Twilight awoke with today’s plan already formed. She freshened up, made herself presentable, ate a light breakfast, and lay in wait for her target. The ‘target’ galloped down the stairs, his mane in disarray and his armour just barely hanging off him. He was late, and he made his way to the door, but found himself blocked by one eager, determined lavender mare.

“Gooooooooooooood morning, my BBBFF!” Twilight said with a perky smile that screamed eighteen flavours of bad news to Shining Armor.

“Um, good morning to you too, Twily,” Shining Armor said, his face covered in a fine layer of unease.

“I was just wondering if I could tag along with you to work today.” Shining Armor looked confused, so she elaborated. “A career in the Astral Society seems like a perfect career move for me, but I don’t want to commit to anything without examining my other options. There are so many other fields that I could apply myself in.”

“Where is this going?”

“I want you to take me to the Royal Barracks’ Arcane Engineering division.”

=#=#=#=

A short while later, Twilight was back at the Royal Barracks, this time her nervousness was replaced with a sense of purpose. She made sure to stick her tongue out at her ‘favourite’ guard as Shining Armor escorted her beyond the security checkpoint. Twilight waved goodbye to her brother as he left to do whatever it is royal guards do, and she entered the disappointing warehouse that housed the Arcane Engineering division.

Though the exterior of the warehouse was shabby and dull, the inside was filled with colourful machines of every shape and size, and blueprints of crazier and crazier designs hung from anything that could support them. It was all too much to take in at once. Twilight stood in awe, rotating in place and looking all over.

Twilight’s amazement caught the attention of one of the division’s ponies. A beige earth pony with pink-streaked blue hair came over to her and cleared her throat. Twilight spun around and faced forward, blushing pink. “Can I help you?”

“I was… well you see… I was looking for—”

“TWILIGHT!”

Twilight’s immediate evaluation was that one of these machines around her had malfunctioned and fired off some sort of very loud and eccentric mint-green projectile that slammed into her and grabbed her around her middle, gleefully shouting her name. And then she realized it was just Lyra.

“Lyra?” Twilight wheezed. “Could you please let go of me?”

“Oh. Right.” Lyra laughed. She released Twilight. “Sorry about that. I was just so glad to see you again! We have so much to talk about.”

“Who is this?” the beige mare asked. She eyed Twilight with a little more suspicion than Twilight believed was warranted.

“Oh how rude of me. I forgot to introduce you.” Lyra slapped her forehead with her hoof. She put a teal foreleg around Twilight’s shoulders. “This is Twilight Sparkle. She’s a graduate from Celestia’s school. I ran into her a few days ago, and she’s the brightest mind I’ve seen in years.” She reached over and put her other foreleg around the beige mare. “And this is Sweetie Drops, but everypony just calls her Bon-Bon,” she told Twilight. “She’s my number one assistant, and an invaluable asset to Arcane Engineering.

“But now that we’ve covered all that, I need to give you the grand tour.” Lyra put her hooves on the ground and began leading Twilight into the labyrinth of half-built machinery. “As I said, we have so much to talk about!”

That almost certainly sounded like Rainbow Dash had told her about their little night at the theatre. However, Lyra acted as if that weren’t the case. She dragged Twilight through corridors of scrap metal and discarded gems, telling her the name and purpose of every device they came across. It all went in one ear and out the other, which was massively uncharacteristic of her; she was too mentally preoccupied to absorb information like the knowledge sponge she was.

They passed a clearing in the glorified scrap heap. Lyra pointed out two mares inside. “Those are two of my absolute favourite mares, and the some pretty impressive engineers. The one on the right is Octavia.” She pointed to a grey earth pony who looked back at them sternly.

“Stop playing show-and-tell with visitors,” Octavia said. “We’re already behind schedule on our current project.”

“It’s surprising to see an earth pony arcane engineer,” Twilight remarked.

“Octavia is a musician,” Lyra explained. “She can play a cello with just her hooves. She may not be able to do magic, but she’s can handle tools better than you or I could ever hope to, even with our magic. Also, I like having musicians on staff. It makes explaining magical resonance and harmonics easier.”

“Is the pony on the left a musician too then?”

Octavia let out a noise of derision. “By the loosest definition of the term, I suppose. If you can call ruining vinyl records and deafening electronic bass music.”

The pony on the left, a unicorn mare, matched her scoff. “It beats the boring old classical junk you play. Strings are for cats; dubstep is where it’s at.” The whitish mare stuck her tongue out at Octavia and blocked her view of the cellist with her spiky blue mane and violet-lens glasses. Twilight noticed that both mares had musical notes for cutie marks.

“That’s DJ Pon-3,” Lyra said, flinching as the two mares continued arguing. “She’s a bit odd, but nowhere near as much as me! It may seem like they don’t get along, but give ‘em something to do and it’s done faster than you can say electro-magnetic arcano-harmonizer.”

“Except for that current project Octavia mentioned,” Twilight pointed out as Lyra lead her away from the squabbling musicians and deeper into the warehouse.

Lyra laughed uncomfortably. “Well, that’s actually not her fault. The problems are on my end, not theirs. I’ve not been working on it for a while because of… other things.”

“I bet.” Twilight gave her a meaningful look.

Lyra looked back at her and nodded. “Come with me.” They reached a back room, which Lyra unlocked with a complex spell that was suspicious in and of itself. Twilight had her doubts about this back room, but she wasn’t going to leave here without some answers. The room was full of junk just like the rest of the warehouse, but Twilight was sure that anything incriminating was being hidden. Once inside, Lyra locked the door behind them.

Twilight thought about what to say. There were dozens of things she needed to figure out, but she couldn’t decide what to ask about first. Before she could decide, Lyra struck first.

“You should join the Hearts against the Monarchy.”

“What?!”

“You’d be perfect. You’re smart, capable, and you’ve seen what Celestia’s supporters are really like.”

Twilight immediately thought about the Eclipse— and immediately suppressed those thoughts. “Why would I do something like that? You’re criminals! Terrorists!”

“We’re no worse than the ponies in charge. Equestria is supposed to stand for peace, justice, and harmony. I believe Rainbow Dash summarized my thoughts on Celestia and her regime?”

Twilight said nothing, so Lyra continued. “Fact is, if you didn’t have doubts, you wouldn’t be here. Neither would I. If the Hearts against the Monarchy were truly in the wrong, if we were really just making things up and trying to cause trouble, you would have ratted us out already. You’ve certainly had the chance. You haven’t yet, because something Rainbow Dash said has gotten to you. You know there’s something wrong about the way this country is run. This isn’t the paradise we’re told it is. The wars our armies are fighting aren’t the just battles we’re told they are. Celestia isn’t the all-powerful, all-knowing, benevolent ruler spoon-fed to us since birth. She’s a sham. The ponies in charge are corrupt, and everypony chooses not to see it. Canterlot ponies are too privileged to care about the truth, but not everywhere in Equestria is this nice. The farther you get from Canterlot, the worse it gets. Celestia didn’t vanquish all the monsters like the storybooks say. Manticores, hydras, dragons do as they please, terrorizing common ponies while the army does nothing. They’re too busy killing other creatures in other far away lands. The Equestria you know is a fake, a convenient lie to satisfy us and keep us from looking at the inconvenient truths.”

“And what are these inconvenient truths,” Twilight questioned, not altogether sure she wasn’t convinced.

Lyra faltered. “We don’t know yet. That’s why we’re fighting. What I do know, I can’t tell you yet. Join us if you want to find out.” Sensing she still hadn’t won Twilight over, she pressed on. “Think about what you know about us. We haven’t hurt anypony yet, unlike some of Celestia’s pets I can mention.” That was true; the Hearts hadn’t actually harmed anypony as far as Twilight knew, quite unlike the military that okay with her dying as a hostage, and Phoenix Flare had… “We have a mission tomorrow that will show you the true nature of the Equestria you think you know. Come with us. You don’t have to do anything. Just watch.”

Twilight exhaled deeply. “Fine. I’ll just watch. But if you guys try anything funny, I’ll mail you to Celestia myself.”

“Fair enough,” Lyra gladly conceded. “I really hope you’ll join us. We could really use another mare on the inside.”

Twilight thought about that for a moment. A certain letter came to mind. “About how much of an inside mare I could be…”

An Introduction to Trixie Lulamoon

Trixie Lulamoon – better known as the Great and Powerful Trixie – wasn’t just an amazing azure mare with a beautiful ice-blue mane and brilliant violet eyes, she was also the (self-professed) most magical unicorn in all of Equestria. Trixie was the newest recruit of the Astral Society and, as she kept telling the Society, its most valuable member. Well, to say she was a recruit was slightly off the mark. In reality, Trixie had become a member of the Astral Society by winning a bet. It was a typical one of her travelling magic shows, challenging and besting ponies at anything they chose. At the end of the day, a member of the Astral Society claimed that Trixie couldn’t force her off the stage in a magical duel; Trixie accepted on the condition that if she won, she could join the Society. One magic trick later, the stage disappeared, and the Astral Society had no choice but to (reluctantly) initiate her into disciplined ranks of Equestria’s finest sorcerers. Trixie had been scheming her way to further success ever since…

=#=#=#=

“Trixie doesn’t see why she must waste her time waiting here when she could be doing more important things,” Trixie whined to nopony in particular. There were mares to spare and a surplus of stallions, but only a precious few were listening to Trixie; the rest had learned better. All of them were members of the Astral Society. They had been called to the main hall of the Ivory Tower – the headquarters of the Society – and were awaiting… something important, or so they’d been told.

“Quit whining, Trixie,” said a surly, mustard-coloured stallion with a spiky, blue mane. As a rule, he had less than no patience for Trixie; it may be worth noting this was the pony whose wager was responsible for Trixie even being here.

A lilac mare next to him gave him a swift kick to his shooting-star cutie mark. “No need to be so rude, Comet Tail.” Also worth noting, this pony – Sea Swirl – was the one who convinced Comet Tail to keep his word. “I’m bored too. Why were we called out here?” She brushed her two-tint blue mane out of her face. “I can stand around and do nothing at home.”

“Trixie agrees. Trixie does not appreciate her time being wasted. If something doesn’t happen soon, she will leave.”

The ponies around her nodded in agreement, all except for two mares who giggled in unison. “It sounds like they don’t know why they’re here, Twinkleshine,” said one to the other. They both giggled again. “You’re right, Minuette,” said the other. “They have no idea.”

Trixie scowled. “The Great and Powerful Trixie demands to be told what is going on.”

The pair continued their trend of giggling like a couple of school fillies. “We were summoned because we’re the unicorns in the Society,” Minuette began. “Except for the Star Masters, of course,” Twinkleshine corrected. “Of course. Somepony very important is looking for powerful unicorns for a very important reason.” “Not just anypony, either. Prince Blueblood himself is the one interested in us.” Minuette and Twinkleshine tittered simultaneously between each other’s admissions. “Isn’t that exciting?” they said together.

This speech pattern was business as usual for Minuette and Twinkleshine. Just as everypony adjusted to Trixie referring to herself in the third person, they had gotten used to the two mares alternating lines. Trixie secretly wondered if it were possible for either of them to get anything across without the other; nopony knew, as they were alone.

“Prince Blueblood, eh?” Comet Tail scratched his chin with his hoof. “I wonder what this is about. Maybe it has something to do with that military demonstration a few days ago. Something about ArMAREs, right?”

“I don’t know what that’s about,” Sea Swirl said with a shrug. “He probably just wants some powerful unicorn servants. You know, to help him carry his ego around.” This slight was met with unreserved laughter. Nopony in the Astral Society was overly fond of Prince Blueblood. The prince was famously unskilled in the magical arts, and it made him all the less appreciative of the Society and he let them know it.

Speaking of the magically-impaired devil, the hall’s polished oak doors opened wide to the sound of trumpets. A procession of royal attendants filed in, and bringing up the rear was – who else? – Prince Blueblood himself. The Prince held his head high and proud, deigning not to look upon the crowd of intelligentsia before him with his cold, icy eyes. He himself looked as regal as usual, carefully groomed from his perfect hooficure to his glossy, blonde mane with one strand artfully astray. His white coat shone, utterly devoid of any trace of dirt… unlike his reputation. The only thing out of place about him were the mares standing adjacent to each of his gold-and-silver compass rose cutie marks. Their white and gold robes made them unmistakable for anything but Eclipses, but the mares themselves kept their identities unknown with their hoods. Trixie thought the spell masters might be embarrassed to be seen serving a unicorn with no magical skills, but there was something sinister and unnerving how they stood in Blueblood’s shadow, silent and virtually without presence.

“I’m sure you know why I’m here,” Prince Blueblood announced, thankfully loud enough to drown out Minuette and Twinkleshine’s sniggers. “The Crown has tried to quietly control the situation and keep the common ponies from worrying, but rumour has gotten out about the recent troubles plaguing the military. A group of rebels have been buzzing about like so many flies. Before now they were just pests incapable of doing anything of consequence, but several days ago these rebels infiltrated the Royal Barracks and made off with five magical artefacts. They almost entered and exited undetected, but our royal mages detected a magical disturbance and dispatched one of Celestia’s Eclipses. However, the Eclipse has gone missing, and we’ve found no traces of the rebels.”

At the mention of their comrade, the two Eclipses shifted imperceptibly. Trixie’s sense of unease skyrocketed. Looking around, Trixie saw that nopony beside her had noticed. She felt as if her head had been plunged into ice water. Trixie wasn’t known for her ability to detect and identify magic, but even she could feel something off about these mares.

“These rebels call themselves ‘the Hearts against the Monarchy’,” Blueblood continued, oblivious to the demeanour of the Eclipses flanking him. When he named the rebels, he did so with so much disgust, a pony would think he had just watched the entire crowd in front of him vomit at his hooves. “My purpose here today is to recruit an élite task force of sorcerers to track down and exterminate these traitors. I want these ungrateful ponies gone yesterday. Now, who wants to volunteer first for this glorious task and do your duty to your princess?”

Prince Blueblood’s question was met with silence. Nopony said anything, but they were all thinking the same thing: what happened to that Eclipse? The Eclipses were the only group of ponies with more magical prowess than the Astral Society; if these rebels could take on an Eclipse, what chance did they have? These rebels were clearly a force to be reckoned with. There wasn’t a pony in the room particularly eager to throw themselves into this situation, nor did anypony want to be the first one to speak up. Nopony except…

“The Great and Powerful Trixie volunteers for this task force!” She stepped forward with confidence – perhaps overconfidence – the rest of the Astral Society could only dream of. “Trixie is not afraid of these rebels.”

Prince Blueblood regarded Trixie. He looked as if he were deep in thought, which some might call a fire hazard. “You seem a little rough, but you’ll do.” The prince looked past Trixie and surveyed the rest of the Society members. Nopony else spoke up.

“Trixie doesn’t need any help. She can defeat these rebels on her own.” Trixie shot a condescending look back over her shoulder. “These ponies are all too busy cowering behind their books. If you want these rebels gone, the only pony for the job is none other than the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

“Show-off,” Comet Tail muttered under his breath. He stepped forward, smirking at the shock written over Trixie’s face. “I can’t let you have all the glory. I’m in.”

With a deep sigh heavy with exasperation, Sea Swirl joined Comet Tail and Trixie. “You two are making the rest of us look bad.” She smiled. “Guess I should have paid attention in school when they were talking about how to resist peer pressure, eh?”

Not too far behind were Minuette and Twinkleshine. “We don’t really have a choice now, do we, Twinkleshine?” The mares giggled. “Not if everypony else is joining up, Minuette.”

Slowly but surely, more and more ponies stepped forward. Not many, mind you, but still a substantial amount. Enough to form a taskforce. Without further ado, Prince Blueblood gathered up his volunteers and they departed from the Ivory Tower. Amidst the ponies leaving for the castle, Trixie stopped dead in her tracks. She felt as if she were being watched, and when she turned around to check, she saw the two Eclipses staring back at her. Thoroughly spooked, Trixie bolted. The Eclipses watched her gallop away with a reserved sense of interest. Once all other ponies had left, the Eclipses teleported away in twin flashes of light to Celestia-knows-where.

=#=#=#=

More waiting.

Silently, but undeniably, Trixie was furious.

The nerve of that Prince Blueblood. Trixie didn’t care that he was royalty; she was going to use all the magic she possessed to wring out everything in his body that made him think he could make her wait outside his office for hours on end. The prince had led the volunteers to the royal castle and into what was called the Horn Tower. Once there, he explained that the taskforce would have its agents operate in pairs, so as to prevent somepony disappearing into the unknown as that lone Eclipse had. If one when down, the other could get away and inform the rest what had happened. Clearly, solidarity counted very little in Blueblood’s books. He had divided the volunteers according to personnel files the Astral Society had provided him with. Each pony was paired with another until the only one without a partner was Trixie. Prince Blueblood instructed her to come with him to his office, and when they arrived, he told wait outside while he spoke with the mare already in his office. She had been sitting in place with nothing to do since then.

After what seemed like forever, the door opened, and Prince Blueblood called out to her. “Trixie…” he checked a piece of paper he was holding, “…Lulamoon—” The Great and Powerful Trixie grimaced at his use of her full name, “—please come inside.”

Her blue face burning red with anger, Trixie stood up and marched into the prince’s office, slamming the door behind herself. “How dare you keep the Great and Powerful Trixie waiting!” She couldn’t decide who deserved her death-glare more, prissy Prince Blueblood, or the dumb lavender mare with the stupid purple mane who was already sitting in front of his desk.

“Watch your tone,” the prince said, the royal pain scowling at Trixie. “I am your prince, you know.”

Trixie scoffed as rude as equinely possible. “Trixie did not volunteer first to wait in a hall for hours.”

The purple mare beside her spoke up. “Actually, it’s only been fifteen minutes,” she said matter-of-factly.

Trixie opened her mouth to retort, but she looked at the clock on Blueblood’s wall and saw that it indeed had not been hours since the office door had first closed. “Actually, it’s been sixteen minutes,” she said stuffily and turned away, the source of her face’s redness shifting from rage to embarrassment. The other mare rolled her eyes.

“Anyway,” Blueblood said irritably and cleared his throat, “Trixie, this is Twilight Sparkle.” He vaguely waved a hoof at the mare Trixie refused to face. “She became a member of the Astral Society today; I managed to snatch her away from those bookworms just in time, and she has agreed to join our little pet project. She comes from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns with the highest esteem and more awards than I care to mention. I believe she will be a great asset to this taskforce.”

Ugh. Celestia’s school. Trixie had nursed an ugly grudge against that establishment ever since they had refused to let her enrol as a filly. Her magic was ‘too flashy and not enough power’ and the examiners had deemed her to be suited to become nothing more than a cheap conjuror of tricks. Trixie had taken those words to heart, intent on throwing their criticisms back in their faces when she became the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria. And just look at her now, rising star of the Astral Society.

“And why is this little school filly any concern of Trixie’s?” Trixie snuck a glance out of the corner of her eye and was glad to see this ‘Twilight Sparkle’ bristle at her comment.

“She is to be your partner, of course.” Two jaws dropped, and the mares attached looked at one another with equally matching measures of dismay and animosity. Blueblood ploughed on, ignoring the reactions of the mares on the others side of his desk. “You two shall lead the taskforce in charge of eliminating these so-called Hearts against the Monarchy. Under your leadership – with your magical expertise, Twilight Sparkle, and your… tenacity, Trixie Lulamoon – these rebels will have nowhere to hide, and we all shall be rid of them. Your taskforce now has a name: Asystole!” Trixie’s eyes drifted to Blueblood’s desk, where she was not surprised to see a dictionary. She made a mental reminder to look up the word herself when she got home. “Now, I’m sure you two will need lots of time to organize your new taskforce, so run along now.” He dismissed them with a regal nod.

“So we’re working together, then,” Twilight Sparkle said weakly. She didn’t seem to happy at the prospect of that.

That was nothing compared to how Trixie felt.

“Hmph.” Trixie spun around, taking delicate care to whip her tail around and hit Twilight in the nose. It was a classic move right out of a popular high school filly’s repertoire; Trixie had tons of practice dealing them out from her school days, just as Twilight had practice receiving them. “Trixie doesn’t need your help, or anypony else’s.” She strode out of the office as Twilight rubbed her nose tenderly and Prince Blueblood watched the pair with restrained amusement.

“The Great and Powerful works alone.”

Prologue - Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisterswas a regal unicorn who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldestshe used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the youngerand she brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sistersunicorn maintained balance for their kingdomher empire and theirher subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the youngera foolish unicorn stole control of the moon and refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sisterempress tried to reason with her, but the bitternessevil in the youngfoolish one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sisterRightfully, the regal unicorn harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sisterthe evil mare, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sisterempresstookback responsibility for both sun and moon...