De Umbris et Astris

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a glowing purple blob standing next to her. Wait a minute! Purple blobs usually don’t have a horn…. Or wings… and they most certainly don’t glow…

“Where am I?” she asked with a weak, trembling voice. Her sight slowly improved and she found the strength to move her head. Beside her stood what appeared to be a lavender alicorn. Aside from the unique visitor it was an ordinary hospital room; the walls painted white; a monitor to depict her heart and magic rate, the latter being fairly low, not to forget a table with a few chairs for visitors.“Oh, so you’re finally awake,” she said, “You’re in a hospital room, in Ponyville’s hospital to be precise. I’m Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?”The volume of Twilight’s voice made her cringe and sent a sharp pain through her head, adding to her headache.“My name is Serene Blaze,” she hissed through her teeth, “and could you do me favour and not speak quite as loudly; my head hurts more than that one time I tried to compete with the gryphon at that drinking contest…”.At this a slight blush showed on Twilight’s cheeks.“Nice to meet you Blaze”, she whispered, “so now that the official part is done could you maybe tell me what exactly happened out there?”Blaze began, “Well my memory is still blurry, all I can tell you is…” She didn’t get any further for a group of five ponies, followed by a quite unhappy nurse, entered the room.Oh Celestia why, Blaze thought and in a matter of seconds all of them broke out into questions, causing her headache to grow even further.“What’s your name? Where are you from? Uhm, are you feeling better now? What the hay happened to the town?” The cacophony of questions paralyzed Blaze and every attempt to figure out who was asking what was in vain.Twilight, who had been startled by the entrance, was quick to calm down her friends.“Girls, please be quiet for a moment, we’re in a hospital. Now I know you’re all as eager to know everything as I am, but we can’t disregard her condition. Blaze, these are my friends Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.” She pointed her hoof at each of them as she announced their names. “And girls, this is Serene Blaze who, according to a few observers, saved Ponyville from certain destruction.”As she had finished the introduction the door burst open and a doctor furiously entered the room.“Now everyone who isn’t either a princess or injured leaves this room immediately.”Under severe protests the five left again, Pinkie dragging a get well balloon behind her.“Princess,” he said with a bow at Twilight, “How is the magic therapy going?”“So far we’ve made good progress; as you can see she’s finally awake, though whatever spell she used drained every single drop of energy from her body and I can’t do much about that.”“You’re lucky that Princess Twilight has arrived just in time to take care of your treatment. We don’t really have experience with such magical injuries in our small town hospital. I assume that it would be for the best if you don’t cast any spells for at least half a week,” the doctor explained in a calm voice,”Do you agree Princess?”“I absolutely agree with you and I’ll personally make sure that she obeys your prescription,” Twilight quickly answered.“Well, that’s all for now. Please do tell your friends not to rush in all at once again,” he mumbled, lost in thought already.“I will. On your way out could you tell my assistant Spike to send a letter to Princess Celestia with a request for assistance?”The doctor nodded at the request and made his way out of the room.“So…,” Twilight smirked, ”before all this chaos broke out you were about to tell me what exactly happened?”Blaze sat up in her bed, took a deep breath and began to report.“So I was wandering around in the mountains when I noticed an unusual black cloud over the Everfree. It stayed there for some time and then flew away again. I saw Ponyville in the distance and out of concern I came here to make sure that everything was fine. Alas, when I arrived here some chimera-manticorish thing was attacking buildings and terrorising the population. I decided to take action, but after several failed attempts at killing it I was forced to use a powerful spell which got me into this condition.”In the meantime Twilight’s intrigued demeanour had fallen into a worried frown. Blaze saw the wheels turning in her head while Twilight was lost in thought after the report.“Princess?”“Hm?”“You said that I’m finally awake. How long was I unconscious?”“Two days, more or less; which reminds me that you should eat something.” Twilight levitated a tray from the table to the bed. Noticing that her empty stomach was desperately calling for food, Blaze began to stuff her face with whatever food there was.“Also,” Twilight wasn’t sure if she should be understanding or disgusted, “you saved most of Ponyville from certain destruction, so there’s no need to be formal. Just call me Twilight.”Blaze raised an eyebrow at the offer which sounded more like a command, but after a moment she shrugged and continued her meal.Twilight was impatiently waiting, barely able to keep herself from asking questions until Blaze was done.On the spot she removed the tray, pulled a chair next to the bed and made herself comfortable.“I’m curious, Blaze; you know, I’ve studied magic for almost my entire life, cast spells too difficult for most unicorns, but I’ve never been knocked out for two days straight. For a few hours maybe, but never much more. So could you tell me how you ultimately defeated that monster after your other attempts had failed?”By the end of her question Twilight had gotten so excited that she was sitting on the very edge of her chair.Blaze looked into those big pleading eyes and she could feel Twilight’s thirst for information.“I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share that information with you, prin…uh…Twilight”Twilight’s ears dropped.“Now no need to tear up. I can’t tell you any details, but since you’re a princess I guess I could give you a few hints.”The ears went back up again.“The spell I used was an ancient binding spell which sends its host to Tartarus. No blood, no body, no mess, but as you can see it takes its toll which is why I only used it as a last resort.”The hint was more than enough for Twilight. In fact as Blaze finished her explanation Twilight jumped off her chair and dashed out of the room, using her wings for additional speed.Huh… that was odd… For the first time since she had woken up Serene Blaze was alone in the silence of her room. No magic for at least three days and guarded by a princess… well I guess it could have turned out worse. Though I wonder where she ran off to. I bet those friends of hers could tell me. She looked at her ragged cloak laying on one of the chairs. The fabric had been demolished during her fight and being close to the magical tension of her spell hadn’t exactly helped. I wonder if anypony in this town would be able to make me a new one.The opening door pulled her out of her thoughts; an orange earthpony and a cyan pegasus entered the room.

_______________________

“Would ya care to tell us why Twilight left the building as if Celestia herself had landed outside?” the orange one asked.“Your guess is as good as mine, Apple…John?” Blaze said hesitantly.“It’s Applejack!”“Oh, sorry,” Blaze tried her best apologetic smile.“And I’m Rainbow Dash, and we’re here because we want answers!” the pegasus rashly added.I don’t like how this is starting, Blaze thought, still trying to keep up her smile.“I’ll try to give you those, so go ahead!” Blaze could imagine what she was in for and took a big sip from her water.Rainbow hovered over the bed and until she was face to face with Blaze.“First off, how come you incidentally came here at the right time to save the village from destruction? Secondly, I overheard Twilight uttering something about how unicorns shouldn’t be able to kill whatever that thing was. Care to explain? And what the hay happened to your cutie mark? When AJ carried you here we saw those weird symbols and no one was able to figure out what they mean, but it doesn’t look natural.”Not to mention that it was freaking me out. Rainbow took a deep breath and gazed into Blaze’s eyes, waiting for answers.Applejack made a quick jump, grabbed Dash’s tail and pulled her away from the bed.“Easy there Rainbow, don’t wanna accuse anyone of anything just yet, do we?” she hissed, tail still in her mouth.“It’s quite alright, Applejack,” Blaze grumbled, “You’ll simply have to take my word for it— before anyone can prove me wrong or right that is. I’m not gonna answer the other questions though, it’s definitely none of your business! Now before anyone utters more conspiracy theories I’d like to get a report on casualties and damage.”Rainbow Dash was visibly fighting the urge to tackle Blaze and Applejack’s friendly smile had morphed into a perplexed frown. She recollected herself and answered in an absent tone.“There have been no casualties, just a few burns, cuts and bruises. As for the damage, six houses and the school yard have been destroyed, but they’re already rebuilding that. Overall Ah’d say that we were damn lucky. Ya’ve gotta understand though that we can’t just take your story as it is. Too many coincidences if yer asking me…”As Blaze was about to retort to the lingering accusations a giant blue radiating orb engulfed her, blocking her from view. In a matter of seconds it disappeared again and all that was left were two dazzled mares and an empty bed.

_______________________

Hundreds of thoughts tortured Twilight’s mind as she shot through the streets of Ponyville, flying straight to her faithful library. On her way out of the hospital she had pulled Spike with her, knowing she’d need her assistant if she was to solve the mystery.Replacing the demolished library door by a more stable model had been one of her first actions during her short breaks from keeping that unicorn from dying and organizing the town’s reconstruction.From afar she pushed it open with her magic so that she could fly in full speed. Before colliding with one of the shelves she cast a quick spell to stop herself mid-air. Still panting from her effort she sat down and levitated a dozen books from all parts of the library around her for closer inspection. Good thing that the monster didn’t cause any damage to the library; some of these books are irreplaceable and of great value. Behind her Spike was mumbling something before taking position at her right side.“Why did you drag me here like that Twilight, I was just having a nice conversation with Rarity,” he said with an annoyed tone.“According to that unicorn Serene Blaze, there is a spell that can send all sorts of creatures to Tartarus; I can’t believe I haven’t heard of it yet, but she wouldn’t tell me more. So what I need you to do is bring me all the books about ancient binding spells that you can find while I start going through these ones.”“Sure thing Twilight, sounds impor…burp.” He didn’t get any further as a scroll enveloped in green flames appeared in front of him. Twilight pulled it from his grasp and opened it.“So, what does it say?” He could see the growing worry in Twilight’s eyes.“It says we’ll be there shortly; gather the elements for an emergency meeting.”A bright light flashed outside signalized that Princess Celestia had teleported in front of the library.Twilight’s worried frown deepened as she tried not to step on books while making her way to the door.She only got halfway there  before the door was pushed open by a golden aura. To Twilight’s surprise, both Celestia and Luna had come to visit. What aggravated her worry were the sorrowful frowns on both of their faces outmatching her own.