Chapter 7

"Celestia, help!" cried Luna, struggling in Tinkertoy's grip. Celestia looked from Tinkertoy to Discord, who merely shrugged.

"But I can't!" Celestia said desperately. "I don't know how, I'm not old enough to make magic come at will!"

"Then I have no use for either of you," growled Tinkertoy. "Do not expect to find sympathy here, child. I am an old pony. I don't care to spend what precious time i have left teaching fillies to do magic." He tightened his grip around Luna's neck, causing her to gasp. "You have ten seconds."

"Ooh, a countdown!" exclaimed Discord excitedly. "I love countdowns! I'll use my fingers." he held both his hands up.

"Tinkertoy began counting. "Ten... Nine..." with each second, Discord curled one of his fingers. Celestia looked back at the Elements and frantically tried to force magic out, but still nothing happened.

"Eight... Seven... Six," Tinkertoy continued, throwing side glances at Discord, who continued to count on his fingers. Celestia was beginning to panic. She was losing what little focus she had, being unable to take her mind off of Tinkertoy's threat, but if she didn't do something soon, Luna would-

"Five.. Four.. Three," said Tinkertoy. "I've run out of fingers," said Discord, looking disappointed at his clenched fists. He continued counting on his tail. Luna squirmed as Tinkertoy's grip tightened further.

"Two... One... Zero!" Tinkertoy finished. "I am out of patience!" Luna began to choke, clutching at Tinkertoy's arm. Discord made a face and idly picked at his teeth.

"No, no," begged Celestia, tears running down her cheeks. "Please don't!" Luna's struggles slowly lessened as her eyes began to close.

"NOOOOO!!" screamed Celestia. There was a flash of yellow light from Celestia's horn. A beam of energy shot from her horn to the Elements, and then back again. The Elements all glowed, and the air became thick with magical energy. Celestia's mind was foggy. Her horn was glowing again, and a long beam of light shot upwards. It hit the roof, and blew a hole straight through it. What happened next, Celestia could not see, because the light from her horn was blinding her. Her head felt like it was splitting open. The last thing she saw before her vision became pure light was Tinkertoy dropping her sister in surprise.

* * * * *

Discord watched in satisfaction as magic poured from Celestia's horn. "See, Tinkertoy?" he said. "I told you these girls were magical!"

"Discord, you fool!" cried Tinkertoy, casting Luna aside. "She cannot take so much power! Magic is leaking from her horn! Where is it all coming from?!" Indeed, large amounts of magic were seeping from the tip of Celestia's horn, and as they collided with the walls and floor, they went off with a great bang, and destroyed whatever they touched. Soon the outpouring of magic reached the unicorn prisoners in their cages. When the magic came into contact with the cages, the bars melted like candle wax. Curiously, however, the unicorns themselves were not harmed by it. Freed unicorns began running as fast as they could toward the exit.

"My test subjects are escaping!" shouted Tinkertoy angrily, but Discord made no move to stop them. Instead, he was looking up to where the beam of magic Celestia had fired had broken through the roof. It had shot up so high that it had created a hole in the rock formation protecting the laboratory, a hole that was slowly widening.

"Say, Tinky," said Discord slowly. "Maybe I'm crazy, but wasn't the sun setting a few minutes ago?"

"Of course it was," answered Tinkertoy impatiently, walking over to where Discord was standing. "It's 8:30 in the evening, what are you-" His words caught in his throat, however, as he looked up at the hole in the roof, for there, sitting as high in the sky as if it had been noon, was the sun. Somehow, it had been moved, and as Tinkertoy squinted up at it, he could make out a small thread of magic moving from the sun down to Celestia's horn.

"Impossible," Tinkertoy breathed, but he could not deny what he was seeing with his own eyes. This white alicorn standing in front of him had inconceivably managed to pull the sun out of its path in the sky. Tinkertoy's mind swam with the possibilities, but before he could make any kind of decision, he noticed that the magical leakage from Celestia's horn had ceased. Now, the magic had taken a spherical shape at the tip of her horn and was expanding rapidly. Celestia's eyes glowed pure white, and she didn't seem conscious of what she was doing.

"Discord, look out!" exclaimed Tinkertoy, backing away, but it was too late. The magic overtook him and the draconequus, as well as the remaining imprisoned unicorns. Just as before, the magic did not harm them, but the cages were all melted away, and the roof of the underground cavern was pushed upwards and outwards. The rock formation was caught in the magic and utterly destroyed. As the magic dispersed, there was nothing left of Discord's secret base but a gigantic hole in the ground.

* * * * *

Far away to the north, Starswirl was walking down the coast, his eyes on the sea. Tracking Discord had proved more difficult than usual, and the chaotic spirit had managed to evade Starswirl's magic. All he knew was that Discord had been close to the sea, and headed south. So Starswirl decided to search the coast and wait.

As he looked out at the setting sun, it began to move. At first Starswirl thought it to be his eyes playing tricks on him, but as he continued to watch in amazement, the sun rose higher and higher into the sky until it stopped at its noon peak. He could think of only one reason for this celestial miracle.

Alicorns.

Shadows passed before Starswirl's eyes. He looked up, and saw a great host of pegasi flying southwards. Judging from their armour, they were all members of General Thunderbolts elite force, the Seraphim Guard. Thinderbolt himself broke off from the main group and flew down to Starswirl, flanked by two of his guards.

"I assume you've noticed what just happened?" said Starswirl.

"This is bad," Thunderbolt answered severely. "The sun's activity seems to be linked to a disturbance on the Changeling border. My scouts say that something is drawing power from the sun, so I'm sending my guard to keep the peace and stop things from getting out of hand."

"It's alicorns, I'm sure of it!" said Starswirl. "Discord has changed night and day around before, but this is different. This is affecting the sun directly. Head over there and secure the area. I'll be along shortly."

"Right," Thunderbolt answered, and took off, heading south. Starswirl watched him fly off and then vanished. He had a feeling that the state of affairs in Equestria was about to go through a momentous shift. Whether that shift was good or bad remained to be seen.

Author's Note

Whew! Sorry this took so long, but I've been very busy. I promise it won't take as long to get the next chapter out, however. We're approaching the end of Book 1, as Celestia and Luna will come to learn of their place in Equestria.