It's A Magical Life

Dreaming seemed to cause a lot more harm than good for Angelica. At least three nights a week she would dream, mostly about distorted situations similar of what happened to her earlier in the week. Occasionally she would experience a very vivid and realistic dream about her wildest fantasy of sightseeing in the lands far below.

One of her most vivid and fairly recent dreams took place in a desert. Judging by Angelica’s studying of the areas of land in the Great Portal, the desert was most likely somewhere in the humongous expanse of the San Palomino Desert, or perhaps, even the Badlands. The desert was very windy and rainy, which was very peculiar because she also learned that deserts rarely experienced much rainfall, let alone full on downpours. But then again, it really was just a dream so she pushed these abnormalities to the back of her mind.

All she could see in front of her was black. Eventually she came across a heavy forest, darker than even the desert. Soon her dream shifted into a field, then finally into a large cave near sheer cliffs, outside of which the same downpour was still going on. The cave had sun rays coming out of it, like a mini-sun was shining within its depths. The sun was in the shape of a pony, but Angelica couldn’t tell if it was an alicorn or not. Among the cave were copious amounts of gold and other precious metals. She felt calm and peaceful looking into those rays. She had to go closer…

Suddenly all around her, she could hear the screams of ponies, making her ears ring. Looking around she could see nopony except the red eyes of a creature, far up in the sky and blinking right at her. The eyes were the absolute most frightening thing she had ever seen, subconsciously or not. She heard innumerable harsh whispers and laughter in her ears, giving her horrible thoughts she couldn’t shake out of her mind. Hopelessly trying to escape, she ran towards the light of the cave, thinking it could somehow shelter Angelica from what was inside of her. Before she could enter the cave, however, she slowly lifted off the ground and into the abyss of the black clouds. As she rose higher, the clouds became lighter and lighter. Eventually everything went white and she woke up in her bed, real sunlight flowing through her windows. She had this dream many times, unfortunately.

Angelica would then talk excitedly with her friends for hours later that day, with a surety that her subconscious was trying to tell her something. She would rack her brains as hard as she could to go into as much detail as possible to make the dream sound like it was nothing ordinary. Her friends, although pleasantly amused and admirable of her mind’s ability, had learned to put up with the outrageous theories she came up with and absentmindedly nodded their heads in agreement. Angelica knew her friends would never fully understand her from the beginning, and didn’t even speak up when they ignored her rambling, but she couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed. Angelica began to ignore them in response whenever they tried coming around her home at the tower, looking to invite her to hang out with them or go to a party. Her ignorant friends would eventually figure it all out and apologize. At least Angelica hoped they did.

Even when she tried talking her dreams over casually with a couple close colleagues while working at the Sanctum Hall, they shrugged off the dream too. They warned Angelica the pursuits of her silly subconscious were going to drive her insane.

What was even worse, however, was what became of her day dreaming.

One balmy Thursday, on the third afternoon after the Princess’s rushed visit, Angelica was snoozing gently in the soft clouds outside of Sanctum Hall, her head propped up against a wall and her minty colored mane covering her face so the sun was out of her eyes. The sun was very bright indeed. The late-Spring rays from the sun were enough to reduce any remotely tired pony to a sleeping state.

“Um…Angie?” said a voice. A lemon-yellow colored Alicorn appeared around a corner. Angelica was loosely called ‘Angie’ by her friends and co-workers and had a knack for being pursued by other ponies simply because she seemed to go missing a lot. If Angie felt like sleeping in a secluded alley, she wasn’t hesitant to do so.

He started towards Angelica with a look of ‘you-better-wake-up-right-now-or-the-Overseer-will-have-your-flank’ on his face. He stopped right in front of her so his shadow loomed over her, at an attempt to wake her up from her snoozing state.

“Hey, Angie...it’s the Overseer! Back to work!” imitated the colt in the Overseer’s mare voice. Angie continued to sleep as though she hadn’t have heard him.

The colt rolled his eyes, knelt down and nudged her repeatedly, her mane slowly moving out of her eyes so the sun would shine into her face. The colt shot an annoyed look over his shoulder, scanning the area quickly for the Overseer. Angie finally opened her eyes (she had been awake the whole time) but quickly closed them as the colt looked back at her face. Break time couldn’t be over already. She was just waiting for him to give up and leave her alone.

“Pwfft,” exclaimed the colt frustratingly. To Angie’s fortune, he stood up and hurried away back around the corner. Angie muttered happily to herself, “success,” and did a sort of sleepy foreleg thrust.

Because there were no vehicles up in The Magic Sanctum, and all the sounds of hooves from passerby out in the roads were muffled from the clouds, Angie could have easily drifted into a light slumber if she really wanted to. The distant ‘piff piff piff’ pattern the alicorns’ hooves made when they walked on the streets outside the alleyways was great white noise. Knocking out for ten minutes or so would never be so easy…

A clock chime broke the air of peace that was felt in the sunlit alleyway, which made Angie shoot bolt upright onto her hooves. Break-time, which Angie primarily used to snooze, began at 2:15pm and ended strictly at 2:30. Hurrying out of the alleyway into the front of Sanctum Hall, she glanced up at the large clock tower in town square, hoping her ears had lied to her. Sure enough, the clock read exactly 3:00pm, an unspeakable amount of time after she was supposed to be back in the GP lab, typing her written reports on the hurricanes of Equestria. Angie sighed heavily and opened one of the great fifteen-foot doors to the Hall. A large WANTED poster of Absissa, the alicorn who has escaped three days ago, was stuck to the side of the door. Angie didn't understand what good a WANTED poster did in the Sanctum when Abby wasn't even in the Sanctum herself. The simple mindedness of someponies...

Attempting to return to her workplace as quickly and inconspicuous as possible, Angie walked quickly through the lobby towards a door leading off into the hallways. The lobby of Sanctum Hall wasn’t very big, but the ceilings rose up at least twenty feet. Elaborate diamond chandeliers hung from the high ceiling; each lit with dozens of candles with magical purple flames. Large oval windows encompassing the room made the candles very unnecessary in the day time, but nopony questioned this—the candles never burned out.

The alicorn behind the circular front desk looked up from her work and rolled her eyes as Angie slithered past. Angie felt her face warm up a little, embarrassed for being late getting back to work again. When she got through the doorway, out of sight from everypony in the lobby, she broke into flight down the long, slowly curving hallway. She couldn’t afford to waste time following the ethical code and simply walk.

As her mane whipped behind her, hundreds of portraits flashed past on one wall, each of past overseers of the Magic Sanctum. Beginning with Princess Celestia herself and ending with the current overseer, Carol Majoris, there were five hundred and nineteen of them—Angie had counted them one boring morning. Making up the other, inside wall were many doors, leading into different meeting rooms and offices. Luckily, Angie didn’t smash into anyone coming out of them in her reckless journey, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t in enough trouble as it was.

Finally, after about a minute, she landed into a natural walk at the end of the endless hallway, shook her mane out of her face and turned the knob of a small and very heavy door.

The lobby of Sanctum Hall may have been big, but that was nothing compared to the size of the room Angie just stepped into. Three stories tall and about a quarter-acre in size, the room was as big as a warehouse. Space this great room took up was not wasted; many colorful and complicated machines sat throughout the room, all making different noises. All over the room were twenty or so alicorns with sky-blue colored vests, walking, flying, and talking seriously amongst one another, caught up in the work they had before them. By far the largest object in the room was the Great Portal, which stood at the far end against the thick crystal walls. As large as the portal was, it was completely silent. Every machine in the room interconnected with each other and the Great Portal.

The Great Portal was currently showing great grey and purple swirls of clouds pouring rain on palm trees next to an ocean. The trees were being ripped apart and uprooted by a huge hurricane. The GP had been around the same spot for several days, where the GP team had previously been studying erosion. Putting the erosion aspect on hold, the interest had been switched to the temporary hurricane. Rainbow Dash could have produced another sonic rainbomb in the middle of Fillydelphia and the entire team wouldn’t have known anything about it.

Angie couldn’t even begin to understand how these important machines worked and kept the GP going. All she had to worry about was writing down every bit of information she was told and put together in fancy reports. Those reports would be used by whatever source needed them. It was hardly a dull job, because she always loved writing, but it was definitely important. Without a journalist, how would the public be informed of what was going on below them?

Rooms with the amount of magic as this one still had their fair share of curses: reverberating noises. Angie took care to close the door quietly but that still didn’t stop the echo from sounding throughout the huge room. The Overseer, who was talking with the room supervisor, took a quick look at Angie and then motioned for her to come over to her. She smiled sheepishly at the Overseer and obediently followed her gesture.

That’s it—she was in for the yelling of a lifetime. Angie could barely feel her legs as she walked. Mrs. Majoris was not someone to cross. She fired somepony once simply because she forgot to wear her vest one day.

It was a downright miracle she hadn’t fired Angelica for being late three times before. A fourth time was basically a slap in the Overseer’s face.

“Thank you, Callisto,” said the Overseer with a smile to the room supervisor, who went back to work. Mrs. Majoris was only a head shorter than Princess Celestia. She was fairly pretty for a mid-aged mare, with her classy chocolate mane and windswept tail, and even had kind eyes for such a stern alicorn. Every rose had its thorn though, and Mrs. Majoris had more thorns than the whole bush. She turned to Angie, who had just arrived in her presence.

“So…,” said the Overseer quietly.

Angie said nothing. She was afraid of the Overseer but always looked her in the eyes.

“Do you know what time it is, Miss Angelica? You were supposed to report back here over thirty minutes ago.”

“I know, but you see, ma’am—” started Angie, but the Overseer interrupted, “Are you aware of the importance of your journalism position here? Everypony here is too busy to tackle two jobs at once. If you aren’t here to note take of the Great Portal’s findings, somepony else is going to fall behind on their work. When I interviewed you for the job, I told you we give everything our very best—nothing less!” She was looking at Angie with her eyebrows raised, very irritated indeed.

Angie nodded curtly and attempted to speak again, choosing her words carefully: “Of course, ma’am. But I’ve just had so much on my mind recently, and it’s been intrusive on my nighttime rest. I take naps during the day…because my mind keeps me up at night. I mean no disrespect to you or the…progression of science within this building. I’m just not…raining with a full cloud, you know?”

This was very true. Even though she had been dreaming often, falling asleep took much longer than it used to. Lately she had gotten at most four hours of sleep a night; she was just too anxious going to bed at night.

“Like what, Miss Angelica?” snapped the Overseer. “What is on your mind that is causing you this much distress?”

Angie explained the dream as best as she could, feeling more and more foolish the longer she went on. She sure hoped nopony else was eavesdropping.

When Angie finished rambling about on her dream, the Overseer looked at Angie with a bit of concern, her facial expression much softer. “Miss Angelica,” she began softly, “if you are experiencing some mental disturbances, you should have seen a doctor by now. I understand we all go through some stressful situations in our life but we can’t let them get to us and interfere with our work. The day will break for you once you learn to face the dark and turn on your flashlight. Maybe perhaps a period of time off would do you some much needed good.”

Angie knew she had screwed up for real this time. She fully expected to be yelled at but didn’t fully grasp what would happen if she was actually fired. She didn’t make much from this job but she loved it. She had to change the Overseer’s mind…

“I won’t let this happen again, I promise,” Angie said sincerely. “I-I don’t need to see a doctor—it’s not really that bad—I’ve actually been quite ahead on the hurricane report—”

The Overseer interrupted again, shaking her head slowly at Angie’s pleadings. “But you have still slacked off on your duties for a fourth time, Miss Angelica. I greatly appreciate your excellent work and determination but we cannot afford for it to happen a fifth time. I am sorry. Submit whatever notes you have taken today and vacate the building.”

Angie hung her head, feeling angry tears appear in her eyes. Looking down at her chest, she noticed she had also forgotten her vest she was supposed to be wearing. Water under the bridge…it wasn’t like her stupid attire mattered at this point. There was no use arguing any further—that would just dig an even deeper hole.

“Fine,” sighed Angie, finally aware and feeling very stupid at the other ponies watching her conversation with the Overseer.

Angie heard the Overseer say something about who would be temporarily being able to replace her position, but she ignored her. Anger coursing through her magical veins, she turned her back to the Overseer and went over to collect her notebook she used for work, which was sitting on a nearby table. Taking care to slam the small heavy door behind her on her way out, she continued on down the hallway and out of the building, not stopping to turn in the day’s note taking.

Nothing in the world seemed to be going right for anypony. Even at 260,000 feet in the most magical city known to ponykind, everypony was still under the weather.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

Evening fell upon the skies of the Magic Sanctum. The twisting and wispy colors caused by the particle reactions in the atmosphere were beginning to appear, throwing a giant blanket of green and purple over the giant tower and the surrounding buildings around it. One by one, stars began to creep into view as a vast full moon rose over the eastern horizon. In whatever turmoil that was happening in the lands of Equestria below, Princess Luna seemed to be carrying out her job just as ceremoniously as ever.

Angie was strolling down one of the lamp-lit paths of a park. The park was much different than a park down in Ponyville: instead of a dirt or paved path, the path beneath Angie’s hooves was a hard crystal material made out of the clouds around the Sanctum; where grass would normally be, puffy streams of clouds shifted slowly, rooted to the spot by alicorn magic; sculptures and some picnic tables neatly placed were also upon the ‘grass’ area. Because of the light the color display in the sky was giving off, the light from the park lamps weren’t very effective. Angie, was so used to this natural routine that she continuously walked without looking up once. She grew to enjoy this time of solitude, for the peace she felt at dusk in this quiet park was just what she needed to mull things over.

Being fired from her dream job at Sanctum Hall was indeed something to ponder continuously, even though it didn’t help. Angie kept asking herself, under her breath, what she could have done differently earlier that day, gritting her teeth and feeling warm in the face each time she thought about being told off in front of the whole GP team. Orion, the colt that had tried to wake her while she stubbornly slept in the alleyway, was a friend of her that also worked in Sanctum Hall. Because he left work to go fetch Angie on his own steam, the Overseer punished him as well, ignoring his explanations of how he was trying to be a good friend. He had to dust and shine all five hundred and nineteen Overseer portraits in the hallway Angie had raced through. Orion was most likely still there, polishing away. This, above feeling sorry for herself, upset Angie the most. If only she had just got up off her flank and listened…

“The day will break for you once you learn to face the dark and turn on your flashlight,” the Overseer had said. Although this made perfect sense to Angie, she didn’t feel like she needed a doctor—that was only for truly crazy people. She had to solve this problem for good by striking its roots…but how…

Angie continued along the path, which was very long and winding. Nopony else was in the park, since it closed at dark. Not like it mattered anyway—she never had any trouble with law enforcement alicorns kicking her out. However, Angie still felt slightly paranoid, like something bad was about to happen any second. She kept checking behind her thinking the sensation was telling her someone was going to sneak up and scare her. Assuring herself that nothing was wrong, she trotted on. She about had enough of these stupid empty worries. They just caused her annoyance and embarrassment, finally getting her own job taken away from her. Maybe her dreams really were full of nonsense…

“No, Angelica. Your intuition has never failed you before, so why should it now?” said a wise and very old mare in her mind.

“My ‘intuition’ has alienated me from most of my friends, lost me my job and sent me insane!” Angie replied to the voice, whispering angrily to herself.

“Alienated *you*? You have alienated them! Why do you insist on staying angry forever?”

“I will not be angry forever. I’ll get over it, my friends will get over it, and I will find a new job. Just give it time.”

“Time…” rasped the voice softly “…can both be healing and destroying at the same time. Time, Angelica…can be your worst enemy. What really is the ultimate mender is…action.”

“And do what? Crawl back to my friends and accept I’m just going crazy? Brownnose to the Overseer like an attention hungry puppy?” Angie said through gritted teeth. “People owe me a break. I’m tired of always being the one who helps everyone and takes everything. Leave me alone, you stupid conscience.”

Angie, feeling satisfied with herself, held up her head and looked at the sky at last and thought for a minute. A childhood memory of looking up at the stars and wishing for a better future replaced the battle with her conscience. Even though she knew wishing magic didn’t exist, the child in her heart still believed. The child still believed in those tiny, shimmering dots. Angie closed her eyes, made a heartfelt wish, and opened them.

Expecting nothing but still feeling a stab of depression for seeing everything around her exactly the same it was before, Angie sighed tiredly. She pawed the ground forcefully in distress, enjoying the dent she made.

A very deep booming sound echoed from beneath the clouds, shaking the ground she had just dented slightly, like an earthquake. Angie, who had just sat down on a nearby park bench to undo the hair on her long tail, fell off the backless bench onto the ground in surprise. She stood up warily, listening intently to her surroundings to see if she could hear anypony else reacting to the shockwave. The hair on the back of her mane was sticking up, giving her goosebumps.

“Action…”

“What on Celestia’s green earth is going on—” said Angie slowly. The echoing of the great booming noise could still be heard, fading very slowly.

Sounding throughout the area, just moments later, were a series of chimes. Much louder than the clock tower, these chimes could be heard all over the Sanctum, magically magnified to announce one thing: the arrival of one of the Princesses.

But Princess Celestia was just here three days ago...why would she or her sister be returning so shortly? Racking her brains a bit, she wondered if it had anything to do with the alicorn that had gone missing a few days ago. Maybe perhaps they had found her and tied her up. The thought was amusing to Angie, picturing Celestia and Luna tying ropes around the defeated alicorn. It seemed plausible, though; nopony could run away from the Princesses for long. Running away from the Sanctum with alicorn magic was one thing…but trying to evade forever was impossible. With all the magic the Princesses and ponies down in Equestria had at their disposal, not even a powerful creature like the infamous Absissa would have been able to fight for very long.

But then another thought crossed her mind: what if this was an entire different situation? What if…what if this was another search? What if…

Something inside Angie’s mind clicked.

“Action…”

The cave in her dream was a real place. She had seen the image at work a while back in the Great Portal, when a pegasus had been eye to eye with a dragon—what a memorable day that was—and also all the gold within the cave. The cliffs in her dream also matched the cliffs she saw in the portal. This had to be the location of the wanted alicorn, who was most likely hiding from the search of the Princesses. The directions to get there were explained in the shifts her dream took. Yes…it all made perfect sense! Angie would be a hero, her mental blockade would be solved and all would be well again. All this relied upon one action: notifying the Princess.

Apologizing briefly to her conscience and smiling at the sky, Angie jumped off the ground and took flight in a very Rainbow Dash like fashion. Angie had to be the first one to see the Princess before she got pushed to the back of the crowds that were going to be forming momentarily. Even Princess Celestia, as important as she was, didn’t hesitate to give ear to a pony with a serious comment or question like Angie’s. She would give her full undivided attention to Angie if she spoke up about where Absissa had gone.

Rocketing over rooftops of businesses and streets below, she could see a great number of alicorns filing out of the buildings into the street. She could see none of the expressions on their faces as this height, but the chatter amongst them was excited. Seeing as everypony in the Magic Sanctum was a winged creature, and flying was the fastest form of travel, they all started shooting into the sky like Angie.

The airspace was becoming more and more crowded; thousands of young alicorns with the very same mindset Angie had were doing barrel rolls and tricks in the air, showing off to neighboring ponies who cared to look. She heard two of them collide and couldn’t help but laugh to herself. The noise was light and cheerful, like the air of an upcoming celebration or great party. Angie couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement in the uproar.

Catching up with Angie was her friend Serena, a tan filly with a wavy, charcoal black mane and dark purple eyes. She smacked Angie's flank to let her know she was there. Angie craned her head sharply around in a scowl but immediately dropped the look when she realized it wasn’t some rude colt trying to antagonize her. She returned to staring determinedly ahead.

“You’re gonna have to fly faster than that if you want to meet the Princess, Ang’!” the filly shouted animatedly over the rush of the wind. “I caught up to ya without even tryi—” Serena was cut off as Angie playfully whipped her in the face with her long tail, without looking back.

“Oh so we’re going to play that game, are we?” said Serena, spitting one of Angie’s hairs out of her mouth. Serena pushed forward even faster so she was horn to horn with her friend. She looked at Angie competitively, ready to race.

“Sorry, Serena, but I’m not in the mood right now! I need to see the Princess first about a very important issue! If we weren’t flying at seventy miles an hour among...oh for Celestia’s sake—” A small group of colts were gaining on them, eying Angie and Serena with cheeky grins on their faces and shouting stupidly at one another. Angie returned the grin as Serena rolled her eyes at them.

“Mor-ons,” Angie said musically to Serena, her fake grin faltering into gritted teeth. Serena nodded her head and laughed loudly, throwing her mane out of her face. “Listen, I’ll catch up with you later, Serena. I am not standing with those jerks for the Princess’s entire visit. I apologize for the fact I’ve been avoiding you lately. Tell Miranda and Io the same!” Angie bumped horns with Serena and sped up as fast as she could go, using every last ounce of her second wind. Serena, confused as to what had just happened yelled something in her direction but the great rush of wind made her voice impossible to hear. The loud chimes were still ringing all over the city, making the matter worse.

Every time Princess Luna or Princess Celestia visited the Sanctum, uproars similar to this occurred. Everypony wanted to be the first one to meet the very beings who brought the day and night to the Earth each day. In a way, the princesses were like celebrities, extremely famous and only appearing in the Sanctum so often when they were absolutely needed. The message was usually a lesson or announcement that everypony in the Sanctum needed to hear, hence the reasons why chimes were stationed throughout the city. Although the Overseer along with several other alicorns disagreed with this, Princess Celestia made the law herself, so it was to be obeyed. Nopony dared to defy Celestia, after all.

Angie began her descent, slowing to a light flying pace over the midst of a vast open area where the crowds would soon gather for the arrival of one of the Princesses. Several lamp lit posts littered the area like landing lights at an airport. The lot was U-shaped, able to easily fit the sixty thousand alicorns that resided in the Magic Sanctum. Leading into the center of the ‘U’ was a magnificent golden road, which ran about two hundred feet. This road connected with the Front Door, the enchanted entrance to the Sanctum, where the Princesses entered. For the safety of everyone, the Princesses had charmed the force field around the Sanctum so nopony could teleport themselves out or into the Sanctum, the Princess included. So as a result, the Princesses had quite a journey before them each time they decided to drop by for a visit.

Already in place were dozens of muscular and surly looking alicorns, bracing themselves for the approaching hurricane of ponies flying towards them. One hundred times more effective than regular crowd control officers, the alicorns were able to conjure invisible barriers with their permissible magic so nopony invaded the Princess’s space while she spent her brief visit speaking to the ponies. The officers talked to one another in hushed tones, evidently excited as well for the arrival. Other than the officers, the Overseer and her executive board, who were standing reverently beside the Front Door, Angie was the only pony there. She was amazed she had beaten everyone.

Angie finally came to a halt just before the magic barrier, landing with a soft ‘piff’ on the soft clouds. She carefully made sure was as centered as possible so the Princess would walk through the gate and hopefully notice her standing there first. Listening to the uproar of the huge crowd of alicorns behind her, which were growing louder quickly with each passing second, Angie stomped the ground impatiently.

“Come on..come on..come on…hurry up Celestia...,” Angie breathed to herself. She scanned the monstrously tall silver gate that made up the Front Door, transfixing her gaze on the crevice between the gates. Maybe if she stared hard enough the blasted thing would open…

Hearing the crowd just a couple hundred feet behind her, and noticing that the Front Door still hadn’t opened, Angie knocked hard on the magic barrier, trying to gain the attention of one of the officers who were standing outside the barrier. The noise sounded like somepony was rapping on glass. “Excuse me, sir! I have a question I need answered!” she yelled towards one of the closest officers. Even though the barrier was solid, it was not sound proof; sound flowed crisp clear through it. One of the officers heard her and flew quickly over to Angie to attend to her.

“What?” spat the officer, whose shadow loomed over Angie.

Angie stared at him for a split second because of his rudeness, but answered anyway with an important tone: “Hello, sir. I need to speak with Carol Majoris about something extremely important. I’m the journalist in Sanctum Hall. Could you please let me speak with her shortly before the Princess arrives?”

The officer’s eyebrows rose, like he suddenly took notice to who he was speaking to. He dropped his ugly look he was giving her immediately and nodded.

“Of course, Miss…Aimee is it?

“Angelica.” corrected Angie.

“Ah my mistake—yes—Miss Angelica the Articulate…of course. Well I’m sorry, but your business is going to have to be put on hold until the Princess leaves the Sanctum. The Overseer—” Angie’s heart sank “—cannot be bothered at this time.”

Alicorns began to land in mixed companies all over the lot, conversing loudly with one another. Angie sighed deeply as the officer who took notice of the crowd and galloped away, back to his position. He raised a hoof to Angie and shouted “I’ll be standing here the whole time!” Angie returned the notion, but privately wished she had something hard to throw in his face. What was she supposed to do now? Angie intended to transfer her message to the Overseer, the only pony that would believe her, who could have transferred the message to the Princess. She had no other choice but to simply comment during the Princess’s speech, knowing she would very well be ridiculed for feeding the Princess information from a dream in front of sixty thousand ponies.

As the crowd grew larger and larger, the chimes heard throughout the Sanctum faltered, leaving only the chattering of the tens of thousands of ponies. Luckily, nobody gave Angie any trouble. She gave a stifled hello to a few nearby ponies that recognized her but didn’t bother saying anything else. All she cared about was to see the Princess approach the crowd, and somehow, impossibly, get her undivided attention and speak to her.

“FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS—” said an ear shattering voice that hushed the entire crowd. The Overseer, who was speaking into a microphone, jumped in surprise at the magnitude of the volume and cursed. She hastily twisted a knob on the microphone so her voice could be easily heard.

“To those who retained their eardrums—” the Overseer began, a wave of laughter rippling throughout the crowd. “Please give heed to my words: the Princess will be here momentarily for a quick appearance. I want all of you—” she waved her foreleg over the entire crowd— “to give her your full attention!” She ended her presiding orders with a sort of forced smile and handed the microphone to one of the executive board members. The crowd broke into applause. Although still bad tempered from losing her job, she couldn’t help but feel a bit of concern for the Overseer when she noticed the expression on her face. The Overseer’s smile had been replaced with a grim expression, like she was about to be sick. Angie felt a rock hit the bottom of her stomach.

A screeching sound immediately followed, coming from the gates of the Front Door. The intensity of the crowd’s cheering heightened even more. Rushing over the threshold wasn’t Princess Celestia, but Princess Luna.

The crowd became wild, delighted by Luna’s rare appearance but soon faltered a bit when they realized the condition she was in.

Dripping from horn to hoof in water, Luna was limping along the golden road with the look of uttermost horror in her blue-green eyes. She sputtered for a bit, trying to catch her breath from the speedy journey she just partook in. Nobody in the crowd was cheering now. Instead, gasps and whispers hissed between everypony, questioning Luna’s shocking entrance. The Overseer rushed along to help, accompanied by a few of the crowd control officers.

“No…no, Carol…gentlecolts, thank you…I’m alright,” breathed Luna, trying to push away the alicorns who were trying to prevent her from collapsing. “I just need to catch my breath…” Angie saw the officers return to their posts, silently looking at one another like they had just seen a ghost. She heard the Overseer say something to Luna about her back leg, which was causing her to limp. “My leg…will heal. I have more concerning matters to discuss at the moment than my petty injuries,” Luna said with a snort, finally catching her breath.

“Fellow alicorns of the Magic Sanctum,” roared Luna over the sea of ponies. Her voice was magically magnified ten times louder than normal, without the need of a microphone. “A predicament beyond any comprehension of ponykind is unfurling beneath us. It is by me and my elder sister’s unavoidable decision to inform you of this catastrophe.

"A mare, who my sister and I had been informed of, had unlawfully vacated this city approximately three days ago. She has abused her powers to bring forth the ancient dark magic curse known as The Abscission."

A shockwave of gasps, nervous laughter and looks of horror struck the faces of everypony. Was Luna for real? Nopony was familiar with the curse, but the Princess’s harsh words were still too outrageous to believe. What was The Abscission?

Luna had a fire in her eyes greatly resembling Nightmare Moon while she spoke, which made it very hard to convince everypony that she was joking. Angie had been at the great assemble three days ago when Princess Celestia had arrived, and she too shared that blaze in her eyes because of the news that somepony dared to defy her laws. Absissa was a first class mare, meaning she was among the larger, more privileged alicorns in the Sanctum. Angie, who was second class, was about a head and horn shorter than the first class ponies. This made up the majority of all the alicorns in the Sanctum. Angie didn’t really understand why size was equal to respect, but she learned to just accept it. The system hadn’t changed for thousands of years.

Angie had known Absissa since childhood, although she was considerably older than Angie was. Abby the Great, an excellently generic name extension she was given at her coming of age ceremony, was around Big Macintosh’s age. Unsatisfied with just ‘Great’, Absissa self-proclaimed herself as “Absissa the Almighty”, thinking she was some supreme being like the Princesses. Absissa always half-joked of overthrowing the Princesses and becoming ruler of Equestria for a day, but everypony saw it as a full-joke. The other half of her truly wanted the position. Despite her gorgeous looks she was extremely unpopular, turning her nose up to even fellow first class alicorns and preferring to live in the outskirts of town, instead of in the great tower. Nopony had really seen much of her much over the past many months. Now, everypony in the Sanctum finally knew why. Angie knew for a surety what the grim expression on the Overseer’s face was telling.

Absissa had been plotting. Also extremely witty and intelligent, she had somehow devised a way to obtain the ancient Abscission curse and use it. She also had managed to somehow reduce the very riser of the night to a heavy limp. Somepony had to stop her. Thinking of Princess Celestia, who was probably battling Absissa this very instant below with some sort of curse-defying magic, Angie smiled boldly. As grim as the situation was, she knew Princess Celestia would find a way out.

Luna, noticing the confusion in the crowd raised her voice so she should continue her speech.

“The Abscission is among the most feared branches of dark magic an alicorn can learn. No unicorn or magical creature on the land below has sufficient abilities to perform the curse, no matter how intelligent and cool-handed they think they might be. Strictly the most capable and intelligent alicorns can partake of the studying of this magic, which has been extinct for thousands of years, back when the infamous Discord still ruled the land and skies.” She started walking around the inside of the U-shaped area, trying her best to hide her limp to those who hadn’t had a chance to notice it yet.

“The dark magic has been shut away from the Sanctum, down in a section of Canterlot known as the Archives. If we were able to separate the lock from the key, nopony on the Earth below would be able to learn the curse, and nopony in the Sanctum who could potentially use the curse could know the incantation. But of course…” Luna stared at the ground with the same fire in her eyes, taking a deep breath before revealing the final words of her sentence: “…our efforts have failed.”

Luna raised her head and looked around, misty eyed at her fellow alicorns. The hatred that glowed in her eyes had gone, and was replaced with a look nopony thought was possible on one of the Princesses. Luna was fearful.

“The Abscission, fillies and gentlecolts—” the whole crowd was dead silent, hanging onto every one of Luna’s words, “—negates all magic. The storm the curse is hidden within, which has grown from the size of a small town, has evolved into a monster than threatens to cover the entire land of Equestria. All magical creatures below the clouds have found themselves stripped of their powers. Including me...and my sister. It is only a matter of time before that magic spreads to the Sanctum and envelops everypony. There..."

Luna paused for a very long time.

"...Is no known way to stop it."

Luna’s voice echoed over the heads over everypony. Every alicorn in the crowd, the Overseer, officers and all, were rooted to the spot. Everypony both young and old suddenly felt closer to each other, like they were all one great family. Random ponies throughout the crowd that were completely strangers to one another rested their hooves on one another’s shoulder, trying to silently tell each other that they were all in this together. A oneness never experienced before in the Magic Sanctum was in their hearts, horrified at what may happen in the near future. Even young alicorns too small to grasp the concept of this apocalypse were silent and closer to their friends and families. The magical alicorn blood that ran through their veins interconnected like the cords among the Great Portal, all making just one emotion run: love. They may have been born into different classes, but they were all going to suffer the same fate.

The Overseer was silently crying, not even bothering to retain her look of importance. Her executive board members were doing the same, looking ghastly over the heads of the crowd. The crowd control officers, as big and tough as their muscles and badges made them look, had the look of pouting children on their faces. Angie, who had finally been found by a few of her friends, was embracing them tightly, feeling all hope would be lost in the world if she let go of them. Somewhere in the distance she could hear a clock chiming ten o’clock into the night sky.

It was several minutes before Luna spoke again. She felt the same emotions as everypony in the crowd did, yet she was still not finished with her speech.

“My fellow alicorns…” Luna said finally, in a much softer tone. Angie didn’t even notice that Luna was barely ten feet in front of her now. She had her eyes closed tightly and her forlegs banded closely around her friends. Luna continued, “Because of the absence of magic in the land below, my sister and I are virtually powerless, not being able to use any form of magic to eradicate the curse. Because of this, we have no clue as to where this mare may be hidden at the moment—”

Angie’s ears were finally aware of Luna’s words, and how close she was speaking to the crowd. The raspy, female voice sounded through her ears once again.

“…Action…”

“—so I ask of you, my dearest alicorns, if there is any information regarding the information about this mare’s whereabouts or how she obtained access to the Canterlot Archives—please...”

It was now or never—Angie broke free from her circle of friends and raised her hoof into the air. Luna, hesitating for a moment, hurried closer to Angie, obviously shocked that anypony would respond. Angie felt intimidated when Luna’s dark, blue-green eyes were focused only on her instead of the whole crowd. Angie’s friends stared wide-eyed at Angie, along with everyone else in the crowd. Whispers hissed through the crowd once more.

Luna said nothing, waiting for Angie to speak first. Angie trembled, half wishing she had done nothing, but then she thought of the poor ponies in the land below. If Angie was going to make herself look ridiculous, telling Princess Luna in the flesh her silly nightmare in front of sixty-thousand ponies, then she was going to get it over with. She couldn’t bear holding in the fear any longer.

“A cave, your majesty,” Angie said quietly, looking hopefully into Luna’s knowledge-hungry eyes. “On top of a tall mountain, near a forest—I saw this all in a dream I believe to be a premonition. There are gold and jewels in the cave, like it’s some sort of hideout.” Angie decided to leave the bit about sunlight out, seeing as sunlight radiating from a cave made no sense. Angie heard a couple of her friends sigh, like Angie had just screwed up big time. Luna, however, looked as though she entirely believed Angie.

“Dragon Cave?” Luna questioned Angie seriously. “Dragon Cave was searched yesterday by Celestia. “Did you see anything else within the cave in your premonition?

Angie had no other choice but to tell Luna the absolute truth.

“I saw a pony radiating light. Like the sun. In the premonition, I saw with my own two eyes the glowing image of a pony. I don't know what it means...” Angie finished, looking hopefully up at Luna, whose face was just stuck with a very peculiar expression. She ignored the feeling of huge embarrassment from the crowd.

“A glowing image of…a pony,” Luna repeated, making Angie go red in the face with embarrassment. Angie knew she wouldn’t understand…

“The Spirit of Honesty,” Luna whispered to herself, understanding entirely.

“Miss Angelica,” Luna called Angie by name, “please come with me.”

Angie felt all color leave her face. Go…with Luna? Where? Was she going to punish her for wasting her time?

Obediently, Angie felt herself move through the magic barrier and found herself right next to Luna, who had transported her through. Nopony could believe their eyes what they were seeing. The officer who had denied Angie access to the Overseer earlier was gaping at them. The Overseer looked like she had just seen an alicorn with seven heads.

“Carol!” Luna called gleefully over to the Overseer, “Please contact my sister. I believe a Code ‘R’ is in order. My sister is in the far reaches of the Badlands, where the storm hasn’t quite hit yet. You will find your magic of telekinesis still effective.”

The Overseer, as confused as she was, obeyed and put a hoof to her head, like she was on some sort of telephone, waiting for the other line to pick up. She whispered a simple sentence to herself and then closed her eyes for a moment. A few seconds later, she opened them again and motioned at her executive members to follow her. They hurried through the solid barrier like a waterfall, towards Sanctum Hall.

Everypony in the crowd was as confused as Angie was. Princess Celestia was coming now? Code ‘R’? Why was this silly filly named Angelica outside the barrier and with the Princess? Who was going to be with the ponies on the Earth below? All these questions were soon drowned out of their minds when a series of chimes sounded through the air again, like hours before.

Princess Celestia was on her way.