Skyfall

by Viktor Lionheart

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Princess Luna, Original Character, Fluttershy, Adventure, Princess Celestia, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 48495

The shadows of Celestia's past threaten to darken the future of her sister and their kingdom forever

Which is better: to be enlightened and miserable or oblivious and content? At what cost can paradise be bought, and at what point does it cease to be worth it?

Two years after Luna’s return from exile, these are the questions that pass through the mind of Princess Celestia each night as she waits. For over a millennia she has waited; waited for the end of war, waited for the return of her sister, and waited for a single dreadful day and the choice that she would have to make.

But she is not the only one who is waiting, nor is she the only one who seeks an end to the coming conflict. Luna and Fluttershy find themselves haunted by the same secret sin, and though they may not be aware of their connection, they must both choose between seeking forgiveness and doing what they know to be right.

Caught up in a labyrinth of breathing shadows and ancient lies, all three ponies must learn how valuable their loved ones truly are, as well as the ultimate cost of living in Harmony.

Disclaimer: I do not know the artist who drew the picture that I chose, but the image suits one of the central themes of the story. Proofread and edited by the wonderful people who are as follows:

The Journeyman
AlicornPriest
Glassed
Inkiepie
iSmartMan

Published 2012-03-15 00:14:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-25 22:43:01 UTC

The Visitor

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

When I began writing this story, season one had not yet finished, so Luna did not have a canon personality at the time. As such, I came up with my own characterization for our favorite lunar princess, and although it may not exactly jive with her canon self as it is now, attempting to “correct” her personality at that late stage of writing to fit canon Luna would have destroyed much of the significance and plot of the story as I had planned it, and would almost certainly have demanded a complete rewrite from the very beginning. Rather, I hope that you can enjoy her role in this story as much as I have enjoyed writing for her for what it is.

In addition, it may be important to note that certain events of significance to Equestrian History, i.e. the introduction of Discord, had also not occurred until a very late stage in the writing, and are therefore not featured in this work for reasons similar to that stated above.

Rather than change the story to maintain a strict adherence to the canon of the show and thereby create a product that was messy, confusing, and unenjoyable to me as a writer, I thought it better to simply continue writing as I always have, and allow the story to stand on its own for what it is. Thank you for your readership, and I hope that you have as much fun reading this story as I did writing it!

Also, this is my first fanfic ever, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give me to help me improve my writing. Thank you all for your time!

-Viktor Lionheart

Skyfall
Concept and writing by Viktor Lionheart

Chapter 1: The Visitor.

Applejack awoke to the sound of metal clanging against the floor of the kitchen below.

“Oh Angel, are you alright? You must be more careful! You’ll hurt yourself trying to do that.”

It was the voice of Fluttershy, who had evidently decided to wake up early again to prepare breakfast. Applejack groaned as she forced herself out of bed and plodded heavily down the stairs, wincing slightly at the stiffness in her shoulders as they worked clumsily around each other on her way down. Upon entering the kitchen, she saw what had caused the ruckus.

Fluttershy was busying herself about the floor where several half-cooked pancakes had recently landed while a rather disgruntled Angel was trying desperately to remove a substantial amount of batter from his fur. The little white rabbit always seemed to be a font of energy, never being one to stand still for any length of time, especially when he was helping Fluttershy with her chores, and it seemed that in his gusto he had been a bit too enthusiastic in his attempt at flipping the pancakes.

The scene would have been much more amusing if Applejack were not already so accustomed to being awakened in this way. With a heavy sigh, she repeated the familiar mantra she seemed to find herself uttering every morning these days.

“Fluttershah, how many times do Ah have to tell you? Yer mah guest. Ah’d be more’n happy to make breakfast for y’all.”

Right on cue, her pegasus friend replied with her typical infuriating politeness.

“Oh, no I couldn’t have that. It’s the least I could do after everything you’ve done for Angel and I. Don’t worry, we’ll have this cleaned up in no time.”

Applejack opened her mouth to offer a retort, but decided that it was pointless and simply sighed, shaking her head. She never could argue with Fluttershy. Instead, she spent a few minutes helping her friend clean up before beginning the familiar routine of her morning chores.

The yellow and pink pegasus had moved in a few days ago after the most recent “earthshake,” as the ponies had come to call them, had damaged her cottage. While repairs were underway, Sweet Apple Acres was the only place big enough to accommodate Fluttershy and all of her animals. Granted, it meant that the Apple family had to be a bit more vigilant than usual to prevent the animals from eating the crops, but Applejack was happy to be able to help Fluttershy in any way she could.

The day was looking to be an especially busy one for the Apple family. The Summer Sun Celebration was tomorrow, and this meant a prime opportunity to sell their wares. This year was a bit special, however, as they would be donating half of the proceeds to help the ponies whose homes had been destroyed in the earthshakes. Applejack had recruited the help of her close friends for the occasion, but Fluttershy was still finishing breakfast, and Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie wouldn’t be along for several hours. Twilight, meanwhile, would be unable to help, as she was away to Manehatten to oversee preparations for the Celebration.

After Applejack had readied the applecarts, fed the chickens, awakened Applebloom, and milked the cows with Big Macintosh, she and her brother returned to the kitchen, whereupon they were immediately greeted with the enticing smell of fresh pancakes and maple syrup. For a while the three Apple siblings, Fluttershy, and Angel enjoyed their breakfast in silence, all of them still too groggy to be much for conversation, when a sound came at the door. It wasn’t as much a knock as it was a single, deafening impact that would have caused Fluttershy to come dangerously close to hitting the stratosphere had the ceiling not painfully interrupted her sudden ascent.

Applejack hurried to the door. Upon opening it, her vision was filled with a rather noisy mass of pink fluff.

“HIYEEE!” Pinkie Pie squealed, a little too loudly for this early in the morning.

There was now a large, suspiciously Pinkie-shaped dent in the door. Fortunately,
for some reason, Pinkie had been wearing a hard hat that was the same vibrant shade of fuschia as her unruly mane. Applejack simply stared at her friend for a moment, dimly wondering at Pinkie’s sheer cranial fortitude, before offering a response.

She shook her head, donning a friendly smile.

“Uh…mornin’, Pink. What’s with the hard hat?”

Pinkie Pie bounced inside with her usual amount of energy.

“Well, duh. I just came from Fluttershy’s cottage! Mr. Cobble says it’s all fixed for her to move back in, so I decided to come over early to tell everypony the good news!.”

Applejack’s mind unfocused just long enough to picture Pinkie handling power tools. Mercifully, the image only lingered for an instant before being quickly swept away by the sound of Fluttershy’s voice.

“Oh, how wonderful!” Fluttershy chimed, gingerly rubbing her head. “Angel and I were beginning to get homesick.”

Applejack shook away her thoughts of potential Pinkie-related mayhem, happy to welcome her energetic friend.

“Well whah dontcha join us fer breakfast? There’s plenny to go around.”

“Thanks!”

In a single motion, Pinkie bounced into a chair and immediately buried her face in food. As the sun began to climb into the sky outside, the group of friends sat in silence as Pinkie babbled happily away about this and that, and one of them would interject with a knowing grunt or nod whenever she paused to inhale more of her breakfast. Even when they were fully awake, the ponies often found themselves baffled by the unpredictable machinations that dictated the path of Pinkie’s train of thought. Her energy however, was as infectious as ever, and they soon could not help but share some of her enthusiasm as they rose from their seats to face the day’s work.

After the ponies had finished with their meal, they set about the daunting task of harvesting the southern apple field. At about noon, Rainbow Dash and Rarity could be seen walking along the long dirt road to the orchard and soon joined in with the rest of them, Rarity plucking great spreads of fruit with a graceful wave of her horn, and Rainbow speeding by each line of trees one by one, the terrific gale of her wake shaking even the most stubborn apples from their lofty perches. Even with the five of them, along with Big Macintosh and Applebloom, harvesting the apples took most of the day, and they worked long into the night preparing pies, candied apples, and all manner of appletastic treats.

At long last, at about three o’clock in the morning, all was ready for the Celebration. The ponies had loaded their delicious cargo onto the train that Applejack would be taking to Manehatten and now gathered on the boarding platform to bid their friend farewell, an exhausted Applebloom soundly asleep on Big Macintosh’s back. The young pony seemed even smaller than usual as she rose and fell with the breathing of her older brother, like a tiny yellow ship in a vast sea of red. Applejack blinked sleepily, making no attempt to stifle an enormous yawn. She reached behind her, tightening the clasp on her saddlebag before turning to address her friends.

“Thank yeh kindly fer helpin’ us harvest these here apples. I dunno whut we woulda done if it hadn’t been for y’all.”

Rarity smiled back, waving a hoof dramatically in front of her face as thought to dismiss the idea.

“But of course, darling. We wouldn’t dream of having you do all of that on your own, especially when it’s for such a good cause. Although...are you quite sure you can handle everything on your own when you get to the city? I’d be more than happy to-“

“Naw, thanks, Rarity.” She blinked slowly, her jaw working wearily about as though preparing for another yawn. “You guys have done enough. ‘Sides, yeh got plenny o’ work here to keep ya’ll busy. I’ll do jes’ fine by muhself.”

Fluttershy frowned. “I hope we made enough…what if you run out of food?”

“I know, right? I don’t know how anypony could resist buying a dozen of each of those things!”

Pinkie rubbed her stomach enthusiastically, her tongue dancing eagerly across her lips in search of any leftover crumbs from the goods she had the taken the liberty of “quality testing.”

“Well, then I wish you the best of luck in your business endeavor. Please, do be sure to drop by the moment you return – I want to hear all about it!”

As the words left her lips, each of the other ponies offered similar tidings of good fortune before a sudden noise like a bandsaw made them all jump. Rainbow Dash was sprawled unceremoniously across a nearby tree branch and had begun to snore loudly.

Rarity glared indignantly at the unconscious pony and shook her head in disgust.

“…But I think its time we all got some rest. We’ve all got quite a lot of work ahead of us if we’re to do our part in helping the refugees in Ponyville tomorrow.”

To emphasize the point, she used her magic to shake the branches of Rainbow’s tree, knocking the slumbering pegasus to the ground with a heavy thud. Brushing the leaves from her mane, Rainbow took a moment to utter a few choice words under her breath before saying goodbye to Applejack and taking off in the direction of her cloudy home. All of the other ponies did not hesitate to follow suit, each of them eagerly anticipating a soft bed of their own.

After saying goodbye to her friends, Fluttershy quietly gathered her things, giving an affectionate nuzzle to Angel’s sleeping body where he lay atop her back, and trotted out of the kitchen door, shivering slightly as the chilly night air washed over her tired form. Despite Big Macintosh’s offer to allow her to spend another night at the farm, Fluttershy insisted on returning home with Angel, saying that she would be by in the morning to pick up all of her animals. With a final, weary farewell, she turned her back on the Apple Family Farm and began plodding slowly down the road, dreamily enjoying the sounds of night life and the faint aroma of cinnamon pie crust that still lingered in her mane.

The journey was not far, though it seemed to Fluttershy an eternity had passed before she finally saw the familiar lights of her cottage in the distance, warmly beckoning her to the soft blankets that awaited her upstairs. She had put Angel to bed with the rest of her animals and was about to do the same for herself when she noticed the silhouette of a tiny figure standing at the edge of the Forest through her window.

Her first instinct told her to hide, but it was overridden by the sudden realization that she recognized the figure as that of one of her close friends. Cautiously, she double checked through her window to make certain of what she was seeing, then ran outside and walked toward the figure until she was within shouting distance.

“S…Spike? Is that you?”

He did not respond. Perhaps he had not heard her.

“Um…Spike?” She edged closer to the baby dragon. “What are you doing out here all by yourself?” I thought you were supposed to be in Canterlot with the Princess.”

Again, there was no response. He may as well be made of…oh no…

Fluttershy bolted toward Spike, fear quickening her steps.

“Oh…Oh thank goodness, you’re alright. I thought maybe that awful cockatr…wait…who…?”

Before her stood a baby dragon, by all appearances the same age as Spike, but the resemblance to her friend stopped at that. His scales as well as his spines were of deepest emerald green, polished to the point that Fluttershy could see her own dim reflection in the moonlight. The eyes that seemed to stare past the pegasus before him were of a brilliant silver – white, his snout pointed and sharp, unlike the cute, round face of her youthful friend. For a while, the two simply sat in silence until Fluttershy’s curiosity prompted her to speak.

“Oh my! I never thought I would meet another baby dragon. Do you know Spike? He’ lives here in Ponyville. Are you hungry? What’s your name? Are you lost?"

Fluttershy’s excitement was clear in her voice as she rapidly fired one question after another at the newcomer. When he did not answer, something that should have been rather obvious from the beginning dawned on the yellow pony.

“…Where’s your mother?” she said slowly, looking around for any sign of an adult dragon with a faint sinking feeling.

“…ot…ere…”

The presence of the unfamiliar voice had caught her somewhat by surprise. She directed her gaze once more to the little dragon below, noticing that he suddenly seemed distinctly agitated, though for what reason she could not discern.

“Um…sorry, what did you say? I didn’t quite hear you.”

“…not…there. Where are they?”

The dragon’s eyes were unfocused, darting about with no apparent purpose in their movement, as though he were not even aware of her presence. The creature looked around at nothing in particular, then stumbled slightly in a small circle, apparently having some difficulty keeping his balance. His voice was very weak, barely above a whisper.

It occurred to Fluttershy that he may be delirious. Immediately, her motherly instinct kicked into gear.

“Oh dear, I must get you inside right away. You must be starving!”

In one swift motion, she moved to scoop the dragon up in her hooves when he did something that nearly sent her flying backwards in shock. Without warning, he jumped out of her reach with alarming speed. Suddenly, his eyes snapped into focus and glared piercingly in her direction, his tiny feet flying apart in a wide aggressive stance.

It was then that she noticed that this dragon had wings, rather wide for his small size, which he now displayed to the effect of making himself appear much larger than he actually was. He spoke once more, but this time, his voice was clear and sharp, with more than a hint of hostility.

“You! Who are you!? Explain yourself!”

Fluttershy recoiled violently at the outburst. Without hesitating to capitalize on his advantage, the tiny dragon stepped toward her.

“Did your mother not teach you to speak when spoken to? Obey! Tell me your name!”

As quickly as it had come, Fluttershy’s natural confidence in dealing with creatures had vanished at his sudden and inexplicable change in behavior. The little dragon’s words did not suit the childishly cracking voice of the tiny body that spoke them. Instead, he spoke with all the confidence and command of a grown dragon, and it was making Fluttershy much too frightened to be able to speak in return.

He moved to take another step toward her when he paused mid-step, sniffing the air. Suddenly, the dragon stumbled backward. As his eyes stretched wide with what appeared to be shock, he stared at Fluttershy for a few moments before speaking again.

“I…I can smell it…but its not where it’ supposed to…”

The dragon glanced behind him into the heart of the Everfree Forest, then looked down at his own body, as if realizing where he was for the first time. Finally, he cast an appraising eye upon the shivering pegasus mare, who was now partially hidden behind a bush several feet away. When he spoke again, his tone was no longer hostile, but carried a note of surprised fascination.

“…That’s interesting…I suppose I should have considered that…” he muttered to himself, absently patting the front of his body, as though he were looking for something but couldn’t quite remember what it was. For several seconds, he continued to whisper rapidly beneath his breath, occasionally glancing in Fluttershy’s direction as he searched in vain for whatever it was he was looking for.

After a few moments in which the dragon seemed to be lost in deep thought, Fluttershy spoke again. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to be safe in her home behind a locked and sturdy door.

“I…I’m sorry. I-I-I-I’ll just …I-I’ll just go….”

She took off as quickly as she could manage in the direction of her home, but before she could fly more than a few feet, the dragon called to her.

“No, wait! Please! I’m sorry that I frightened you…please, don’t leave…”

This time, his voice had lost all of its former hostility and had taken on a tone of genuine desperation. Fluttershy hovered uncertainly, staring at the young dragon (by far the moodiest dragon she had ever met, she thought to herself).

“Please, I didn’t…didn’t mean to shout…”

His eyes wavered, shifting in and out of focus.

“I have to… have to get back…before…”.

He stumbled as he tried to turn back toward the Everfree Forest, the formerly intimidating figure reduced to a bumbling baby once more.

“Where is it? I just…I need…”

The young dragon managed a few more unsteady steps before collapsing, unconscious, to the ground. All of her fear washed away by a sudden flood of concern, Fluttershy swooped down to get a closer look as a single, feeble moan escaped his lips before he fell completely silent.

He was completely immobile. Fluttershy felt a sickening lump form in her throat when she noticed what was wrong.

“Oh no! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness he’s not breathing! What do I do?!”

Once again, the familiar doubtless sense of nurturing purpose took over as she scooped up the baby dragon, searching frantically for any sign of the baby’s parents. She screamed into the darkness. screamed as loudly as she could, screamed for anyone to help. But no one came.

In a panic, she remembered the CPR training she had received as a volunteer at Ponyville Urgent Care. As she began the first compressions, Angel burst out of the cottage and was at her side in a flash. At first, he hesitated, his gaze shooting nervously back and forth between Fluttershy and the stranger she was trying desperately to revive. Fluttershy had only to look into his eyes for a moment to convey the urgency of the situation. Immediately, Angel moved to race toward Ponyville but stopped short knowing that he would never make it in time. As he whirled about to face Futtershy again, a peculiar pattern in the earth caught his eye – a trail of tiny footprints leading back to the edge of the treeline. Without hesitation, Angel bolted along the path into the Forest.

“ANGEL, WAIT!”

But he had already been swallowed by the wall of trees. Several tense moments passed. All was silent. There were only the sounds of Fluttershy’s frantic efforts to revive the dragon, punctuated by an occasional sob. She knew there was not much time left before….

WHACK

Fluttershy shook her head to clear the stars from her vision. Something small and hard had hit her between the eyes, and now hung limply off the tip of her muzzle. Trying with some effort to focus her eyes in the half- light, she saw that it appeared to be a pendant, ornamented with a single, oddly shaped black gem. The stone was…strangely, mesmerizing; in the depthless heart of the gem shone a tiny, almost nonexistent point of light. Despite the pounding of her heart, some small part of herself could not help but pause in wonder as she gazed into its inky center, but her torpor only lasted for a moment before a blur of motion in front of her caught her attention. She looked up to see Angel, who, judging by his stance, had just hurled the object at her head, and was now gesturing frantically toward the dragon.

The pegasus looked down at the tiny form beneath her, her mind whipping painfully back into reality. As she bent down to continue resuscitating the dragon, his body heaved violently, his eyes shooting open. Immediately, they found the pendant and just as quickly jumped upward to meet Fluttershy’s anxious face in an urgent, wordless plea. He gestured weakly, reaching toward it with a tiny scaled hand, but was unable to manage anything more than a pained gasp to communicate his intent. Whether by motherly intuition or some deeply buried instinct, Fluttershy kneeled to bring the pendant down within his grasp. He leaned forward, grunting with exertion, and his tiny claw began to close as he found the end of the pendant’s chain.

In an instant, all that she knew had vanished around her.

Complete and utter oblivion. A yellow pegasus with a pink mane sat alone in the nothingness, dimly aware that something was wrong – very, very wrong. Who was she? She couldn’t remember. Where was she? She didn’t know. And yet…she was not afraid. It felt peaceful in some strange way that she could not understand, as if she had just awakened from a terrible nightmare and was just now truly aware of her surroundings for the first time. She basked in the eerie tranquility of the feeling with no grasp of how long she sat in this way. From every direction at once, a single word echoed endlessly.

“Fluttershy…Fluttershy…Fluttershy…”

It occurred to her that this must be her name. It sounded foreign to her, but she somehow knew it to be so, knew that it could not possibly be anything else. With this epiphany, other words began to dance through her consciousness in rapid succession, all of them warmly familiar, yet somehow alien. Before long, a series of images joined the ethereal parade. She saw a white pony with a flowing mane of royal purple. Her name was… Ror…no…Rarity. Then, an image of a sky blue pegasus with a multicolored mane. “Rainbow Dash.” She soundlessly mouthed each syllable as the words flowed through her thoughts like foam carried on a river’s surface. And more…other ponies whom she knew, whose names filled her with a strangely detached nostalgia. She frowned, trying to grasp the significance of those familiar outlines. They whispered to her, offering words of kindness, their voices weaving together in a blanket of creeping warmth.

More images, less familiar this time – a grey Alicorn with a beautiful pale mane of white and blue…a castle, a castle wreathed in flame. The images increased in speed, faster, faster, faster. Ponies, thousands of them, beneath a black sky. Chains that seemed to stretch forever. Raining fire. Screaming faces. So many faces screaming. The images flew by in a constant, blinding blur, so fast that it hurt. All of the words, all of the voices she heard blended together in a piercing whine that cut to her very core. The voices screamed within her mind, all fighting desperately to be heard at once.

In an instant, her former blissful calm was replaced by a sudden, all - consuming terror. Above the light and the noise a single voice boomed…a voice that she knew, though she could not remember how. It terrified her. Over and over, louder and louder, it repeated her name.

“Fluttershy…Fluttershy…Futtershy…”

Fluttershy screamed in the swirling horror that engulfed her, but the sound was obliterated by the wall of noise. The voice grew louder and louder still. It was laughing now, so loudly that Fluttershy felt her head would surely burst. She slammed her hooves into her ears, yelling at the top of her lungs, hoping to drown that awful voice beneath her own screams, but it simply grew louder, more manic, great peals of terrifying laughter arcing across her awareness like so many bolts of lightning.

Then, as suddenly as it had all started, all was silent again. The voice that she heard next floated numbly through the haze that still gripped her by the last confused threads of dawning consciousness. It mumbled incoherently for several moments before finally snapping violently into focus.

An anxious white blob danced chaotically before her eyes as she blinked rapidly in the sudden flood of light that assaulted her retinas.

“Fluttershy! Oh thank goodness you’re awake! What happened?! Are you alright? Please, speak to me!”

Fluttershy sat bolt upright, and immediately regretted the decision. Her vision swam, filled with the face of her friend Rarity, her stomach convulsing painfully in a serious of fantastic knots as she fought the urge to vomit. She felt cold, and was keenly aware of a throbbing pain in her temples. Her breath coming in short, frantic gasps, the white unicorn turned to a rainbow – maned pony beside her.

“Don’t just stand there, bring her some water! Oh my goodness, how did this happen?! Pinkie, get a doctor, now!”

Shadows of the Past

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

When I began writing this story, season one had not yet finished, so Luna did not have a canon personality at the time. As such, I came up with my own characterization for our favorite lunar princess, and although it may not exactly jive with her canon self as it is now, attempting to “correct” her personality at that late stage of writing to fit canon Luna would have destroyed much of the significance and plot of the story as I had planned it, and would almost certainly have demanded a complete rewrite from the very beginning. Rather, I hope that you can enjoy her role in this story as much as I have enjoyed writing for her for what it is.

In addition, it may be important to note that certain events of significance to Equestrian History, i.e. the introduction of Discord, had also not occurred until a very late stage in the writing, and are therefore not featured in this work for reasons similar to that stated above.

Rather than change the story to maintain a strict adherence to the canon of the show and thereby create a product that was messy, confusing, and unenjoyable to me as a writer, I thought it better to simply continue writing as I always have, and allow the story to stand on its own for what it is. Thank you for your readership, and I hope that you have as much fun reading this story as I did writing it!

-Viktor Lionheart

This is my first fanfic ever, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give me to help me improve my writing. Thank you all for your time!

Skyfall

Concept and Writing by Viktor Lionheart

Chapter 2 : Shadows of the Past

On a balcony in the castle at the capital city of Canterlot, a lone pony sat watching the sunrise. Princess Luna yawned, not yet fully conscious after her recent slumber, and stretched her wings luxuriously. A gentle summer breeze tousled her hair and played across the soft purple feathers of her wings. It felt wonderful. The sunrise was her favorite part of each day, especially on mornings like this when the brilliant orange sphere of the sun rose though the wisps of deep purple clouds like a giant egg sitting warmly in its nest, casting a calming amber glow over everything it touched. It had become the first part of her morning ritual - she always made sure to awaken early enough to enjoy it in all its splendor, and to give her enough time to bask for a bit before she had to prepare for the day’s duties.

Granted, this may not have always been the case, but to feel the gentle caress of the newborn rays, the reassuring warmth of that ever-shining light – she had forgotten how beautiful it was after being away for so long, and even after the years that had passed since her return, it never ceased to fill her with a reassuring sense of home.

Just as she was blinking away the last vestiges of sleep, a knock came at the door to her bedroom, shortly followed by a voice.

“Luna, dear, are you awake?”

The voice carried the same comfort and warmth as that of a familiar hearth after a long day’s work, but also possessed an unmistakeable air of poise and authority. Luna turned in mid – yawn to welcome the owner of that familiar voice into her quarters.

“Good morning, sis!” Luna said brightly

In the now open doorway stood princess Celestia, as resplendent as ever, despite the obvious signs of fatigue that lined her face. Her horn was glowing, casting a dim light across a brightly colored box which bobbed lazily in the air beside her. Luna’s eyes opened wide the moment they found the package.

Celestia chuckled softly to herself and carefully set the object down before her little sister. As she did so, she settled somewhat heavily next to her sister and made a rather unsuccessful attempt at stifling a yawn of her own. With a weary, if happy sigh, she embraced Luna with a single ivory wing and rested her chin ever so gently on her head, inhaling the scent of her lavender mane.

She had been away for most of the night to Hoofington to deal with an Ursa Minor who had apparently decided that the city hall would make a fine chew toy, and the weight of her journey was just now making itself apparent as she found herself blinking away the persistent call of blissful sleep. This had been the latest in a long string of events that had required the Princess’s attention over the past few weeks – the parasprite infestation in Phillydelphia, the wendigo uprising near Stalliongrad, and the preparation for tomorrow’s Summer Sun Celebration in Manehatten, to name a few. Luna had lent a helping hoof whenever she could, but, young as she was, she still was not ready to assist in many of the weightier royal duties, and was often left to looking after Canterlot while her sister was away on business.

Celestia sighed heavily before she spoke.

“I trust you and Hussar had no trouble while I was away?"

Luna rolled her eyes.

“Aside from the usual, no. I swear, I can’t be alone for a moment without him and half the castle bursting in on me, armed and ready to attack my would – be kidnapper.”

Celestia gave a knowing smile. “It’s only because he cares for your safety. He’s a bit overzealous, yes, but his heart is in the right place.”

Luna pouted playfully, basking in the warmth of her sister’s wing. Suddenly, she remembered what had happened only a short time after Celestia had departed on the previous night.

“Oh, I almost forgot! A message from Ponyville arrived for you just after you left. It said that another of those earthshakes had toppled several buildings on the edge of the town. Nopony was hurt, but I sent a few of the guards to aid in the reconstruction.”

Luna turned to her sister to find an intense frown upon her face. Alarmed at her inexplicable change in demeanor, she began to fidget.

“Oh no! D-did I do something wrong?” she stammered uncertainly, searching her sister’s face for some evidence as to what had upset her.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything right away, I thought you would already be too busy with what you were doing..."

Celestia’s eyes seemed to slide back into focus. When she spoke, it was as though she had temporarily forgotten that Luna was there. She shook her head, looking down at her little sister in surprise.

“What?…Oh, no, no, not at all. That was the right thing to do...” Her voice trailed off absently.

Celestia sighed again, her frown giving way to a gentle smile. She took a moment to gather her thoughts before speaking.

“I’m simply worried about the citizens of Ponyville. The royal researchers have been working day and night, but we still haven’t determined the cause of the earthshakes, only that they seen to be coming from the Everfree Forest.”

Somehow, Luna wasn’t convinced that that was all that was bothering her big sister. Perhaps it was simply a side – effect of her apparent fatigue, but there was something strange in Celestia’s eyes that Luna had never seen before. Just for a moment she had looked completely and utterly exhausted, much more so than she had a moment before, as if Luna could see the weight of every one of Celestia’s long years of rulership on her shoulders. But, more than that, her sister’s eyes shone with…Luna wasn’t sure what, but it sent a niggling sense of worry crawling up her spine. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could ask, her sister spoke once more, all traces of her former mood gone as quickly as they had come.

“Oh, well. I’m sure it’s nothing too serious.” Celestia smiled, nudging the temporarily forgotten gift toward Luna. “Besides, there is something far more important to think about at the moment. I think you’re really going to like this.”

Her train of thought suddenly derailed by the proximity of the brightly colored box before her, Luna excitedly tore into the package. Inside, carefully wrapped in a blanket of deep blue silk, was a small but rather thick book, its pages tattered and yellowed with age. Its dark, blank cover stared back at an intrigued but confused Princess Luna as she blinked slowly, eagerly examining the entire area of the tome. As she carefully opened the book to its first page, she read aloud the simple inscription it bore.

“For my daughters, that they may dance forever in the light”

The moment that the words had left her lips, her eyes came to rest on the elegantly slanting signature below, and immediately went wide with shock as her head jerked up toward Celestia’s smiling face.

“This…” Luna stammered “This was…”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, Luna, it belonged to mother. And now, I want you to have it.”

Luna was speechless. She ran one hoof across the smooth surface of the spine, inhaling the heavy, faintly nostalgic scent of the aged paper. She remembered nothing of their parents – All she knew was that they had died when she was very young and the tiny amount that she had learned on the rare occasion that Celestia spoke of them. Instead, her big sister had always been like a mother to her. Now, as she gazed into the dark, heavy cover of her mother’s book, she felt as though she were touching a part of her past that she had always felt, but never truly known.

For several seconds, she remained lost in thought until she was dragged back into reality at the sound of her sister’s voice.

“I’ve kept this book with me since I was a filly, and it has helped me throughout the years more times than I can count. It was mother’s journal. In it she kept all of her teachings on the ways in which we, as the future rulers of Equestria could maintain peace and harmony amongst our people. Many, many years ago, when you were just a foal, she gave this to me and instructed me to pass it on to you when the time was right.”

Luna remained silent for a few moments as she processed the significance of what her sister had said. She was overjoyed, but also a bit stunned at the suddenness of the gift.

“But…but why now?”

“You’re old enough now to be able to learn quite a lot from her lessons. Besides…” Celestia winked. “I’m going to need your help over the coming months, if things continue with the way they’ve been go-“

Celestia’s breath caught in her throat as her sister lunged forward to hug her.

“Oh thank you, sis! I can’t wait to read it! I promise I’ll make you proud!” Luna squeaked. In that moment, there was nothing in the world that could have made her happier than what her sister had just said.

Celestia chuckled at her sister’s sudden affection, returning the embrace. They remained that way until the moment was broken by a loud yawn.

“Oh my, excuse me. I think perhaps its time I went to bed. If you need anything, Luna, Hussar is just outside. Good -*yawn* goodnight.”

But Luna was already too engrossed in the book to utter more than an idle “G’nigh…”

Celestia lingered for a moment, happily watching her little sister as she read. Even now, her excitement was clearly evident in her eyes as they began darting across the first few lines of slanting text, her hoof hanging in anticipation to flip to the next page. Without another word, Celestia nodded to herself, heading toward the door to Luna’s bedroom.

Hussar, the captain of the castle guard, snapped to attention as Celestia passed him on her way out and did not relax until long after she was out of sight.

To the Princess’s tired limbs, the journey back to her own bedroom felt miles longer than it actually was, and as the heavy wooden doors to her chambers came into view, she could feel her exhaustion creeping upon her with pronounced enthusiasm. Wearily, she magicked them open, plodding stiffly across the velveteen carpeting as she made her way to the balcony at the far end of the room.

Nudging the opulently painted glass doors aside, she turned to face the distant, vast green expanse that was the Everfree Forest. There, as she gazed into the heart of the forest amongst the sea of trees, she could just make out the ruined form of her ancient home. The feeling that poked at her thoughts as she looked upon the jagged silhouette of crumbling walls and ancient towers was something not altogether unpleasant, though it tasted of the faintest bitter pangs of regret, mingled with a longing sense of loss, as though it were a part of a dream that she could never quite remember. The life she had known within those walls, so many years ago, was another life entirely, and some distant part of herself wondered briefly at how much she had changed since the days of her youth, or indeed, whether she had changed at all.

She shook her head, silently admonishing herself for thinking such silly, depressing thoughts as she took a deep, greedy draught of the dewy morning air.

Her thoughts turned to her mother, to the days of her youth, and to the memory of times long ago, forgotten perhaps by the world around her, but never by herself. The wind blew gently through her shimmering mane as she closed her eyes, and, ever so softly, began to sing, just as she did every year on the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration.

“Oh fair, oh green, oh vast land of mine
No more shall you shiver in darkness and fear
For the tyrant king is gone to his sleep
And at last, at last, the smoke has cleared

Oh fair, oh green, oh vast land of mine
No more shall your children be bound in gloom
The Queen and her daughters our victory assured
It shines in the arc of the sun and the moon

Gone are the days of fire and blood
Silent the voice that shattered the sky
Broken the shadow that haunted our dreams
Blind are the eyes that burned on high

Oh fair, oh green, oh vast land of mine
Forever in Harmony together we shine.”

As if to punctuate the last notes of her song, the wind gusted across the distant forest toward the castle, carrying with it the invigorating scent of pine. Celestia enjoyed the sensation for a moment before turning sleepily back to her bedroom, already savoring the thought of wrapping herself in a mountain of blankets and settling in to a long-awaited sleep.

She left the balcony and doused the lamps around her room, leaving the glass doors open wide to allow the damp, earthy scent of early Summer to permeate the chamber. Unbeknownst to the Princess as she made her way to bed, past the trees, atop the crumbling walls of the ruined palace, a lone figure gazed silently toward the her retreating form before disappearing among the treetops an elegant wispy trail of silver light shining silently in his wake.

Celestia removed her crown and slid beneath the blankets of her luxurious bed, sighing exhaustively as she tucked her wings around her body in a makeshift cocoon. In the same moment that her head touched the easily yielding bulge of cloth, her eyelids fell shut as though they had suddenly turned to lead, and the rhythm of her breathing slowed as her mind almost instantly began to drift blissfully off to oblivion.

In the next instant, her blissful repose was shattered as every trace of fatigue, every thought of rest, every source of comfort was ripped cruelly asunder by the sound of a familiar voice.

It took several seconds for Celestia’s brain to properly register why her heart was suddenly pounding in her chest, and why every instinct suddenly screamed for her to jump to her feet. The voice was definitely, paralyzingly familiar, and not in any way that would have pleased her in any capacity. The familiarity the accompanied the cold, regal drawl of that voice was something entirely dreadful and altogether perverse, and as it broke the clammy silence of her bedroom, it cut through her body with all the fury of a winter gale.

“You still haven’t told her, have you?”

The words hung in the air like a fog, choking any response that she struggled to offer. Her thoughts tumbled feebly over one another in a panicked mess, a single coherent word jumping over and over again to the fore front of her mind.

Impossible…this was impossible…

The voice continued, speaking more quickly and this time with a deliberate edge of mock innocence.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy to see me again after making such a fuss while I was away? It’s not as though you have a right to complain after what you did.” The last three words were accented with a tone of biting accusation.

“You…no…not again.”

Celestia could barely speak as she came to terms with what she was hearing. She had hoped, she had prayed, that she would never hear that voice again, that she would never be haunted by the memory of its words, even through all that she had experienced in her long years of life, she had wanted only to forget the sound of that terrible, horrible voice.

The voice laughed, and the sound tore into Celestia’s heart. It made her want to die.

“Please…” Celestia pleaded, aqueezing her eyes shut, willing the voice to disappear and knowing full well that it was utterly in vain.

“Please, no… I’m sorry…I’m so, so sorry…”

As she turned her gaze toward the source of that familiar voice, she was met with two burning green eyes…The eyes of Nightmare Moon.

Changeling

Skyfall

Concept and writing by Viktor Lionheart

This is my first fanfic ever, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give me to help me improve my writing. Thank you all for your time!

Chapter 3: Changeling

“Well, the burns aren’t too bad. Mostly first degree, though it will take some time for your fur to grow back.”

Dr. Grey pushed his glasses up with one hoof – a nervous habit of his – and eyed the pegasus before him with concern. Fluttershy sat quietly on the old couch in her living room as she waited for the doctor to continue his examination.

“Can you tell me anything about what happened?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know wha – ouch.”

Fluttershy winced as the bandages chafed against her wounds.

“…don’t know what happened. The last thing I remember, I was saying goodbye to Applejack at the train station.”

Fluttershy turned to look at the other inhabitants of her living room. Rainbow Dash wore a sour expression on her face and was fidgeting in mid – air, obviously anxious to teach who or whatever had done this to her friend a lesson. Rarity was busying herself in the kitchen with a pot of Fluttershy’s favorite tea, and Pinkie was…

“Uh…Pinkie? Are you alright?” Fluttershy arced an eyebrow.

For no apparent reason, Pinkie was smiling, or at least, she appeared to be, judging by her eyes. It was a bit difficult to tell since her lips had become severely puckered and twitched slightly in a frantic series of tiny convulsions. Meanwhile, both of her ears twirled crazily about like little pink propellers. The overall impression was that of a large, pink bird that was trying desperately to swallow its own face.

With an audible pop, Pinkie’s features returned to normal and the sound of her infectious giggling filled the room.

“Of course, silly!”

She hummed merrily to herself, beaming widely as though Fluttershy had said something terribly funny, but the joke seemed to be lost on everypony else in the room. Rainbow Dash, in particular, wasn’t amused.

“What the hay are you so happy about? Can’t you see what’s going on here?! That jerk who did this is still out there and there’s no way of knowing when or where he’ll strike next!”

Rarity’s disapproving tone floated in from the kitchen.

“I fail to see what you hope to accomplish by shouting about it. I, for one am simply relieved that we found Fluttershy before anything more dreadful happened to her.”

“Me too! If my Pinkie sense hadn’t told me you might be in trouble, you could have been out there forever!”

Once again, Fluttershy found herself cocking an eyebrow in Pinkie's direction.

“Oh…well thank you, Pinkie, everypony…was that what you were doing just now?”

Pinkied tilted her head to one side, her mouth drooping in a puzzled frown.

“Huh?”

“That twitchy thing with your ears – was that what you felt?”

“Oh, that.” She smiled again. “Naw, that’s something new. Dunno what it means yet, but whatever it is, I’m just glad you’re safe!”

Fluttershy waited, but it soon became clear that Pinkie wasn’t going to explain herself further, apparently fully satisfied with her vague response.

“Here you are, darling, drink up!” Rarity placed a cup of tea on the table before the couch on which Fluttershy lay. Dr. Grey got to his feet, adjusting his glasses again.

“It is indeed fortunate you’ve got such a good group of friends to look after you.”

He sighed, turning to dig through his bags.

“Unfortunately, until your memory returns, we don’t have any way of knowing who or what caused this. The only other lead we have in the meantime is this.”

The tall, slate-colored unicorn produced a small lump of metal from his saddlebag.

“Pinkie tells me you were holding this when they found you outside. Can you tell me anything about it? Where it came from, perhaps?”

In the center of the oddly shaped chunk of silver metal was a small, black jewel. It appeared to be some sort of pendant. Fluttershy took the strange bauble, turning it over and over in her hooves. No matter which way it turned, she noticed, it never quite seemed to catch the light.

“Sorry…I’m afraid I’ve never seen this before in my life, Dr. Grey. I have no idea where it came from. You…you said I was holding it?”

He nodded.

“I’ve seen and treated magically inflicted burns before. There are many cases of artifacts or trinkets that, for purposes of mischief or protection, have been adorned with spells. I thought perhaps that this pendant had contributed to your burns or even your apparent memory loss, but as far as I can tell there are no traces of magic about it. Either its magic has already been depleted, or it's just an ordinary gem.”

Fluttershy looped the pendant’s chain around one hoof and lifted it so that the gem hung spinning before her face.

“It’s kind of pretty…”

Rarity blanched.

“Oh darling, that tacky thing? You must be worse than I thought!”

“Well…” Dr. Grey began re-packing his saddlebags. “I’m afraid I must be off for the time being – I’ve an appointment with one Miss Scootaloo. Apparently she had a rather nasty disagreement with a certain bramble patch on her way to school.”

“She’ll be okay, though right?”

Dr. Grey nodded without turning to face Rainbow.

"Doubtlessly. A few scratches and bruises to be sure, but I've visited the little filly frequently enough to know that she'll be right as rain in a matter of minutes."

Dash loosed an exasperated sigh, shaking her head vigorously.

"No, doc, I mean Fluttershy. Fluttershy's gonna be alright, yeah?"

“Ah, yes. She’ll be just fine, thanks to you. And I doubt that our attacker will be returning.”

“What makes you say that? You saw what he did to her – what if he wants to finish the job!?.”

“Rainbow!” Rarity huffed indignantly in the pegasus mare’s direction. “That’s hardly the sort of talk Fluttershy needs to hear right now. She’s been through enough already!”

Without pausing for breath, Rainbow rounded on her, wavering anxiously in midair.

“There’s no point sugar-coating something like this! If it’s gonna happen again, we need to be ready.”

She turned back to face the doctor and repeated her question.

“How can we know she’ll be safe? Shouldn’t somepony stay here with her?”

Dr. Grey took a deep breath, blinking calmly as he responded in his typical slow, stiff drawl.

“That’s entirely up to Fluttershy. Honestly, if the attacker had wanted to harm her further, nothing could have stopped him from doing so. Besides, it’s clear to me that she wasn’t left for dead – her wounds may cover a large area, but they’re actually far less serious than the bandages make them look. In fact, All things considered, we have no evidence to suggest that she was attacked in the first place. Not that I intend to mitigate the gravity of what you must be feeling right now…” He gave a quick nod in Fluttershy’s direction. “…But this could simply have been some sort of accident.”

Rainbow didn’t look particularly satisfied with his reasoning, but she chose not to argue. Instead, she and the rest simply watched in silence as the doctor packed his things into his saddlebags and arranged a series of small, brightly colored bottles on the table in the center of the room.

During the entire exchange, Fluttershy had simply sat in silence on her couch, by all appearances completely oblivious to everything that was happening around her. The gem still hung from one outstretched hoof, dangling mesmerically before her eyes as she stared intently into its depths, searching for something, anything within its smooth, dull surface.

It felt to her as though there was something, something ever so small but nevertheless distinctly there, just beyond her vision, as though it were staring back from a place she could not see.

Having finished gathering his equipment, Dr. Grey turned to face his patient on the couch. He paused for a moment, cocking an eyebrow, then reached slowly for the lazily swinging gem.

“NO!”

Dr. Grey blinked in surprise. Fluttershy sat frozen for a moment, then blushed, embarrassed at how loudly she had spoken.

“I...Oh, my...I-I-I’m sorry…I Just…"

She coughed, clearing her throat.

"...I just thought that I should have my friend Twilight look at it as soon as possible. She knows more about magic than anypony…no offense, doctor.” Fluttershy grinned sheepishly.

Dr. Grey simply stared at her for a few seconds, then shrugged, adjusting his glasses as he did so.

“…None taken...I’ve heard quite a lot about your friend. She’s the pony who vanquished he Ursa Minor a couple of years back, right? It certainly couldn’t hurt to have somepony like that take a look.”

Turning stiffly about, he moved to the door.

“In the meantime, lots of rest and daily application of the salve I gave you should have you up and about in three or four days at most.

“Th-Three or four days?" she sputtered, nearly dropping the pendant in her alarm. "But...But I can’t possibly…”

“Don’t worry, Miss Shy…” He waved a hoof lazily through the air. “I’ve been told that your dragon friend – Spike, was it? – would be more than happy to help you care for your animals.”

Dragon….dragon…for some reason that particular word stuck in her mind.

“If that is all, I’ll leave you in the care of your friends. If you should remember anything, anything at all, please let me know immediately.”

Donning his hat and with a curt nod to the room in general, Dr. Grey was on his way, his tall, lean body casting a long shadow in the light of the sunset.

As the last of the doctor’s words faded from her thoughts and the door to her cottage swung softly shut, Fluttershy released a heavy sigh, taking a long draught of the tea that Rarity had placed on the table before her. She remained silent for a few moments, her eyes looking past her teacup into the floor. Something tugged at the edge of her thoughts, something she couldn’t quite remember that had leapt to her attention at something the doctor had said, then just as quickly vanished before she could grasp it.

It wasn’t until she felt Rarity’s weight pressing into the cushion beside her that she realized that each of her friends were staring at her in concern.

“Are you feeling alright, darling? Is there anything we can get for you?”

She shook her head, suddenly embarrassed.

“Oh, no…really, I’m fine.”

“You sure?” Rainbow zoomed over to the side of the couch. “Just say the word. I could go and get one of Twilight’s books to keep you occupied. Or some food maybe?"

“Ooh! Ooh! I know! I’ll run over to Sugarcube Corner! There’s some fresh baked Carrot Cake that I made this morning still in the display!”

Fluttershy blushed, her eyes darting nervously from face to face. She suddenly was feeling somewhat claustrophobic.

“N-n…N-n-no, thank you, really I’m just-“

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy. You can count on us. We’re here for you.”

“Anything you need, dear, we’ll make sure you get better as soon as you can.”

Pinkie had already made it to the door and was just now stepping outside. For a moment, Fluttershy hesitated, and had been about to respond when she felt her words being softly swept away by the tingling beginnings of an enormous yawn. She blinked sleepily, looking around to each of her friends as the earthy scent of her tea seemed to flood her mind like a fog.

“Ac…” Another loud yawn. “Actually, girls, I think I just want to get some rest, if that’s okay…”

Pinkie stopped in mid-skip, drifting slowly down to the ground like a deflated balloon and looking somewhat disappointed as she did so.

“Thank you all so much for your help. You girls can go, if you’d like. I’m sure the ponies in town need you much more than little old me.”

Rarity gasped, looking at her as though the very idea was absurd.

“Nonsense, darling! We can’t just leave you all alone after something like this!”

Rainbow Dash growled, “Exactly. And don’t you worry, Fluttershy, I’ll find the jerk who did this and teach him a lesson he won’t soon forget. Ooh when I get my hooves on that punk…” She didn’t finish the sentence, but the gesture she was making left little to the imagination.

Pinkie put her two cents in, but her exact words were lost to the others as she had resumed her spastic puckering. Nonetheless, her concern was apparent in her eyes as she and the others stared in her direction.

Donning her most convincing smile, she waved one hoof in the air, stifling another yawn.

“No really, I’m fine. After all, I’ve got Angel here with me.” Fluttershy smiled down at the sleeping form of her long – eared companion. “And besides…all of my animal friends got back from Sweet Apple Acres earlier today – they’ll be more than enough to keep me company and watch over me. You’ve all got important work to do in town.”

Nopony spoke, but neither did any of them seem too convinced.

“You girls go. I just wouldn’t feel right if I hogged all of you when there are other ponies in need.”

Rarity pouted. “Ohhh…very well, if you insist. But promise me that if you need anything for any reason, you’ll let us know, won’t you?”

Fluttershy nodded, smiling despite the pain in her chest. “I promise”

“You sure you don’t need a body - guard? At least lemme take that creepy necklace thing with me – I don’t like the look of it.” Rainbow Dash eyed the pendant suspiciously.

“No, I think I’d rather keep it for now, if that’s okay. Twilight will be back tomorrow, and in the meantime, it might help me remember what happened.”

“Hmph…fine. But Imma take a quick look around outside before I leave.” In a prismatic blur, rainbow Dash shot out into the darkening sky.

Rarity lingered for a moment, staring pointedly into Fluttershy's eyes.

"And remember, darling, at the first sign of trouble, just send Angel shooting our way and we'll be here faster than you can say "Darjeeling.""

With that, the other two followed behind Rainbow at a somewhat slower pace, Pinkie puckering all the way, until the door finally closed behind them with a soft click.

The cottage was now eerily silent, save for the lively crackling of Fluttershy’s fireplace. She sat for a while, blowing on the tea and enjoying the earthy aroma of her favorite blend, but couldn’t quite bring herself to drink it. Some tiny shadow of a thought tugged at the edges of her consciousness – something that the doctor had said still bothered her, but try as she might, she couldn’t seem to concentrate hard enough to bring it into focus.

“Dragon…” She whispered to herself, sending ripples across the smooth crimson surface of the tea. “Dragon…”

“YOU! WHO ARE YOU? EXPLAIN YOURSELF!”

The worlds cleaved through her consciousness like a razor. The teacup shattered on the floor, staining the carpet with its contents.

“YOU! WHO ARE YOU? EXPLAIN YOURSELF!”

She clasped her head in her hooves, writhing in agony. The voice boomed within her mind, careening off of the inside of her skull with explosive force. In her spasms, both Angel and the pendant were knocked to the floor. Angel’s face contorted in anger at the rude awakening, but his expression was quickly replaced with one of shock at the apparent suffering of his mistress. He tugged at her hooves, trying desperately to discern what was wrong.

Fluttershy was vaguely aware of a faint pressure on one of her legs, but it was all but obliterated by the combined pain of her burns and the merciless booming in her head. She felt fear, she felt despair, but she also felt rage. Invigorating, terrifying, passionate, depthless rage, at nothing and everything.

“SHUT UP!” She bellowed. “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”

All was silent.

Angel stared slack-jawed at the pegasus, his eyes filled with confusion and hurt.

Fluttershy panted, shuddering from the recent emotional surge. She opened her eyes slowly, and saw Angel standing in a puddle on the carpet below. She wanted desperately to apologize to him, but the shock of what she had just experienced rendered her speechless. She reached each of her hooves to her head, massaging her still aching temples in slow, circular movements.

She remembered everything – meeting the dragon, trying to revive him, and the pendant…

Her eyes slid to the dull gem lying amongst the jagged pieces of the former teacup. Fluttershy blinked, and once more she was at the edge of the Everfree Forest, standing over the breathless form of the baby dragon. He had grasped the gem, and in a flash of light, she had felt a strange warmth wash over her. The stared at each other in heavy silence for what seemed like an eternity, and Fluttershy watched as the life drained out of those brilliant silver eyes. For a moment, his lifeless body had remained still before it burst suddenly into flame, vanishing in an instant. Caught off-guard by the dragon’s transformation, she had been burned and subsequently collapsed.

As the realization began to sink in, she felt her stomach constrict violently in a spasm of grief. She choked before finally finding her voice.

“No…I couldn’t save him…Oh Celestia, no…”

All traces of his confusion swept away by her sudden sadness, Angel quickly jumped up to comfort her, patting her gently on the hoof. His eyes eagerly searched her face for any sign of what was troubling her, for any hint of what had caused to act so strangely, but she was too consumed by her emotion to respond as the tears began to flow.

“But you did save me.”

Flutershy’s sobs ceased abruptly. In an instant, any lingering traces of exhaustion vanished as her mind sprang to full alert at the intrusion of a paralyzingly familiar voice.

Nearly knocking Angel from her lap once more, she whipped painfully about, searching for the voice’s source
Silence greeted her in every direction. She sputtered weakly, wondering if she had simply imagined it.

“Wha…?”

“It’s all right, Fluttershy…I’m right here”

The voice came from within her mind, and yet, she felt her gaze being pulled toward the pendant once again. For several seconds, she simply stared at it in horror, as though expecting it to suddenly grow legs and scuttle up the side of the couch. Nervously, she reached to pick it up.

“Please don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.”

The voice grew somewhat louder as she gazed into the black heart of the pendant, but did not rise above a gentle whisper. She flinched slightly as the sound of its words seemed to echo off of the inside of her skull. She knew that voice, but… but this was impossible…

“You…you can’t be…is this…some sort of magic?” Fluttershy stammered, half-afraid that she was going mad. It was the voice of the baby dragon, she was sure of it, but it was not angry, nor was it pleading for help. Now, it resonated with a reassuring kindness.

Angel cocked an eyebrow at Fluttershy, wondering who in Equestria she was talking to.

“Yes, Fluttershy, a magic more ancient than any of your generation would know. That is why your doctor friend failed to recognize it.”

The voice was soothing, almost hypnotic. It’s words did not seem to make much sense in and of themselves, but it spoke in more than simple phrases. As the voice resonated within her mind, it seemed to weave a thread of emotions as well, as though she were not simply hearing it speak but hearing it feel as well. The sensation was bizarre, and it was not at all something that Fluttershy was prepared to cope with. She balked at the speed with which this was happening, her mind instinctively focusing on the first question that came to mind, her lips nonetheless tumbling over each other as they tried to ask several things at once.

“But…how? What…where are you? Why can I hear you…why can I hear you in my head?"

“Please, do not be alarmed. It can be a very jarring experience, I know, though I must admit I’ve never seen it from your perspective before.”

As calm as the voice was, Fluttershy could not bring herself to find any comfort in it. She was beginning to panic.

“Breathe. Come on Fluttershy, just breathe, breathe with me. You can feel my intentions, I know you can. You can sense that I’m not going to hurt you. Just…breathe…”

She wanted to scream. Her entire body shuddered with each breath as Angel bounced anxiously away on her lap, chittering desperately up at her. She felt distinctly violated, hearing an alien yet familiar voice inside her head, and though some part of her wanted to trust it, she was far too afraid to listen to her gut at the moment.

“…Hang on, this might be a bit…”

As suddenly as her episode had begun, she felt all of her fear being instantly swept away as her living room seemed to evaporate around her. Without understanding how she had arrived there, she found herself outside, lying by the edge of the Everfree Forest, while just above her…

She gasped, utterly shocked by what she was seeing. There, outlined by the dim radiance of the stars in the deep purple sky above, she saw…herself. The silver chain of the pendant hung about her neck as her other self looked tearfully down upon her, her mouth silently forming a series of frantic words, as though she were begging for something. It was as though she existed outside of her own body - her consciousness hung limp and weightless from the hooves of the other Fluttershy, and as she watched, she felt a peculiar surge of energy bubbling within her gut.

It began as a sharp tingling sensation, almost painful, but slowly seemed to grow and change, filling her with warmth. The black stone in the pendant’s center glinted in the moonlight, swinging tantalizingly before her face as she saw one tiny, emerald - scaled claw rise shakily from somewhere off to her right, grasping weakly at the misshapen bauble. As the tiny fingers began to close over the gem’s surface, it became clear – she was happy. Happy beyond words, and filled with a hope that she thought she would never feel again. As the little green claw finally took hold, the vision faded, and she found herself sitting once more in her living room, breathing heavily as Angel stared pleadingly up from his spot on her lap.

Instinctively, she raised a hoof to wipe her cheek. When she drew it away, she was surprised to see that her fur sparkled gently with a large quantity of what appeared to be tears. They were no longer tears of sadness – somehow she knew this to be true. Rather, she knew they could be nothing other than tears of…

“Joy? I…what?”

“Joy, yes. Joy that you cannot imagine – or, perhaps you can. Sorry about that, not giving you any warning I mean, but I had to show you what I felt when you rescued me. It was the only way I could think of to calm you down.”

Fluttershy simply blinked. Angel was squeaking now as loudly as he could, but she lacked the strength to pay him any heed. She just drooped there, her entire body numb from shock.

“That…that was what you…”

“Breathe, Fluttershy…just try to relax and concentrate on what I showed you…”

This time, without hesitation, she obeyed. For felt like the first time in a very long time, she took a long, shaky breath, and immediately felt her heart begin to slow. Several more times she repeated this rhythm, breathing in great volumes of the chilly night air that wafted in through her open window and exhaling through her mouth.

Soothed somewhat that she had begun to relax, Angel ceased his ludicrous dance, but his expression lost none of its anxiety. He poked at her with one tiny snow – white paw, squeaking softly.

As Fluttershy opened her eyes, her hoof automatically rose to stroke Angel’s long, white ears. The sensation of his fur against hers was pleasant, but she was far too preoccupied to focus on that for the time being. She took one last, steeling breath, and attempted to collect her thoughts, the voice remaining mercifully silent as she did so.

"The dragon..." she thought. "…The dragon that I met last night died and now he’s speaking to me from inside my head…

The thought sent a momentary chill running up her spine, but she suppressed it, stroking Angel’s head a bit more roughly. Slowly, she forced herself to remember what she had felt moments ago, what she had seen through his eyes as she had cradled him in her hooves.

She still was far from being calm, but her nerves had cooled enough to allow her to begin to come to a semblance of terms with her situation and to voice the question that leapt foremost to her mind.

“You…that was you last night when I-”

“Yes.” said the voice, its tone slow and deliberate, but not patronizing. “That was when you saved me.”

“Then…then how?”

“I will explain everything in time, but first I need you to relax and allow yourself to sense what you already know. I mean you no harm.”

She paused, swallowing hard. Giving Angel one final pat on the head, she placed each hoof at her side, bracing herself against the couch.

“Are you ready?”

Not yet sure if she could trust herself to speak, she nodded slowly, holding her breath.

“I’m sure this is extremely unsettling for you, so I’ll let you ask the questions as they come. Just be sure to ask one at a time, and we’ll both get through this as easily as possible. If it helps, bear in mind that this experience isn’t exactly comfortable for me, either.”

She ran over its words several times in her head, somewhat surprised at the thought that the voice was having difficulty adjusting to this…whatever the hay was happening to her. It sounded so calm and confident as it spoke, she almost felt ashamed of how she had reacted. But such thoughts could wait – she needed answers if she was going to make sure that she wasn’t going completely insane.

“Okay…breathing…breathing…”

Without hearing his muffled squeak of protest, she pressed Angel’s fluffy body tightly against her chest, taking comfort in his warmth. As she sensed his frantic heartbeat against hers, she found the words to begin.

“…Are you dead?”

Without warning, the voice chuckled.

“An ironic first choice. Yes and no. I suppose that depends on what you mean by “dead.””

She remained silent, staring straight ahead.

“…Sorry. No, I’m not dead, at least, my mind is still alive. My body did perish however – I’m afraid that’s how you were burned.”

She paused, trying to process what he had just said.

“I am sorry about that, by the wa-"

“How are you talking to me?”

“Ah, that. I told you, didn't I? It’s magic.”

“Don’t lie. Dr. Grey said-“

“Dr. Grey would have no way of identifying this brand of magic unless he spent many years in extensive study. No offense to him – it’s not a matter of intelligence, but simply one of ignorance.”

A few hairs still stood on end on the back of Fluttershy’s neck, but as she listened to the young dragon’s voice, she could not help but begin to feel calmed by its smooth, reassuring confidence. The fact that its words were spoken in the voice of a child still unnerved her somewhat¸ but she did feel more than a bit relieved that the dragon was still alive, at least in a manner of speaking.

“So…did I do it? Did I save you?”

The voice sighed, as though sharing in her relief.

“Yes, you did. In truth, I would have most certainly died if you had not found me when you did.”

“But then…what did you do? What did you do to me…I mean us…I-I mean...me?”

“Don’t be afraid. As I said, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. You see, the form you encountered was a temporary shape at best – it could not have been maintained any longer regardless of the circumstances. But, had it not been for you, I would not have been able to preserve my consciousness in this manner. You saved me, Fluttershy” the voice repeated.

“But…so…” Fluttershy began uncertainly, trying with some difficulty to wrap her head around all of this. “You said that your mind survived, but how? Are you…inside the pendant?”

When he replied, there was a distinct note of hesitation in his voice.

“Not exactly…It seems that a part of me was transferred directly into your consciousness. But fret not…” the voice said, as if in response to Fluttershy’s apparent revulsion at the idea. “I have no influence over you or your actions. Besides, it is only a matter of time before I am strong enough to break free…"

He paused.

"Heh. Sorry, poor choice of words. That is, before I am strong enough to regain my original form. In the meantime, I wish to use what power I have to reward you for your kindness in trying to help me.”

As the last of his words began to fade, Fluttershy felt a familiar warmth wash over her body – the same warmth that she had felt just after he had touched the gem by the Forest. She shivered slightly as the heat seemed to intensify for a moment before leaving with a peculiar tingling sensation that seemed to linger around her bandages before disappearing entirely.

“There now, isn’t that better?”

“Isn’t what…?”

Suddenly, Fluttershy realized that she was no longer in any pain. In fact, she felt better than she had in quite a long time. Slowly, she released the frantically struggling Angel from her grasp, bending down to remove her bandages. Dumbfounded, she stared down at what had once been burned flesh, but was now perfectly healthy. Even her fur had grown back.

Imediately upon his release, Angel bounded to the floor where he fumed in a raucous tantrum for all of a second before he, too, was struck silent by what he witnessed. He sat with his jaw on the ground, rubbing his eyes in a desperate attempt to make sense of what he was seeing. One of them had gone crazy, he thought, but now he wasn’t sure who.

“How did...how is this possible?” she sputtered, experimentally poking at various spots on her chest in search of any trace of pain from what had once been bare, burned flesh.

“The same way that I am able to speak to you. The magic that binds my consciousness to yours allows me to sense your pain, and, to a certain extent, to mend it.”

“Your…consciousness? Then…that voice…was that you? The one who was so… angry?” Fluttershy felt a tinge of fear at the memory of the emotional outburst she had felt. “What…what were you so angry about?”

“Ah, yes…that…this may take some time to explain in full. Before I begin, it may behoove you to explain what is happening to your rabbit friend before he begins frothing at the mouth.”

“Huh?”

Fluttershy glanced down at the floor. Angel was eyeing her with a mix of fear and concern, and had developed a spastic twitch in his left ear. The poor little rabbit’s whiskers stuck out at odd angles, and though he could not speak, he looked as though he were seconds away from a complete nervous breakdown.

“Oh my goodness, Angel, I’m so sorry!”

With a suddenness of motion that made the rabbit leap backwards in alarm, Fluttershy moved to scoop him up in her hooves. After several seconds during which he eyed her hooves as though theye were about to explode, he only reluctantly assented, still twitching feebly.

“Oh dear…how to explain…”

She swallowed, stroking the rabbit’s head. Nodding to herself, she held him at a distance and fixed him with as calm a stare as she could manage.

“It’s…um…you see, I…It’s the dragon we met last night. I…I know it sounds strange but I can hear him. He used some sort of magic to…to put himself into this pendant…but it looks like it messed up and a part of him…is …um…inside…my head.”

The thought sounded absurd to her even as she said it. Angel simply blinked, his ear giving one more pitiful flop before drooping lifelessly to his side.

“I don’t really get it either, but…but…” Fluttershy swallowed, forcing a smile. “He’s still alive! He’s the one who healed me! Isn’t that wonderful?”

Angel eyed Fluttershy’s body, inspecting her for the ugly wounds that he had seen only moments ago. Suddenly, he jumped up to her shoulder, peering into her left ear, as if searching for the dragon who had supposedly lodged himself inside his mistress’s head.

Fluttershy swatted at her shoulder, giggling gently as his whiskers tickled the inside of her ear.

“Angel stop it! That tickles!”

But Angel only continued his inspection with increased vigor. He darted all over the pegasus, searching in her ears, her eyes, even her mouth for any sign of ailment. Finally, he came to the pendant, and, with a sour look, attempted to yank it from her grasp.

“Wha…Angel what are you – ouch, that hurts!”

He simply tugged harder, ignoring her plea.

“Hey…stop it! Stop pulling so hard!”

She reached forward to swat him away, but he nimbly dodged her hoof, jumping beside her on the couch and yanking the pendant along with him.

"Why in Equestria is he acting so strangely?" she thought. "Wasn’t he trying to save that dragon too? He should be happy…"

“Angel, it’s alright! I feel perfectly fine, there’s no need to panic, if you’d just listen…”

Angel glanced briefly up to her face before vigorously shaking his head, resuming his endeavor to pry the pendant from its chain.

Without completely understanding why, she was rapidly losing patience with his antics. She glared down at her little friend, speaking with as much authority as she could muster.

“Angel, I said STOP! You’re acting silly!

Angel yanked harder.

“ANGEL, STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

Fluttershy heaved on the pendant’s chain, sending the tiny white rabbit flying behind the couch. She deftly swung the chain over head, glaring down at her friend as he tumbled to a halt against the far wall.

Angel simply stared, all traces of his former furor gone. He couldn’t believe it. His mistress had never treated him like that before, nor could he remember a time that she had looked at him as she was doing now.

For several seconds, Fluttershy stared furiously down at him without a word, too angry to speak. It wasn’t until she realized what she had done that her expression suddenly defrosted.

“Oh, Angel…I’m so…” she stuttered, searching for the right words.

“Sorry…I’m so, so so-“

But she had no time to finish. Without a second glance, Angel bolted from the room and hid in the tiny house that Fluttershy had built for him, slamming the door with surprising force.

“…Why?” she whispered, staring down at her hooves and the pendant that hung between them.

“Why did I do that?”

As she spoke, her lip began to quiver threateningly.

“I’ve never done anything like that, not to anyone.”

“Don’t let it worry you.”

The voice gave her a start as it floated through her thoughts, its presence suddenly alarming after having been absent for the past few moments.

“You’ve been through a lot and he was acting a bit silly. I must apologize…even under the best of circumstances the binding process can be a bit…draining to the bindee. I’m sure you must be feeling it as well.”

“Oh…Oh, I feel awful…I’d better apolo…”

“…I don’t think that would be wise.”

“What? But I…he was only trying to-”

“No.”

“But…”

The voice sighed.

“How will he learn to listen to you if you are not more forceful? I know that you are a kind soul, Fluttershy – it is because of that very kindness that I still live.”

Fluttershy gazed uncertainly at the tiny rabbit-house.

“But if you are too kind, you will invite others to take advantage of you. I’m sure I’m not the first to tell you this.”

She fidgeted for a moment, then finally ran to the door of Angel’s home.

“Fluttershy, n-“

“Angel, I’m so sorry! Please, please forgive me! I should never have treated you like that! Please come out!”

The door opened.

“Oh thank-

WHACK

A half – eaten carrot bounced off of Fluttershy’s muzzle onto the floor.

“Wha…I…” Fluttershy stuttered, her lip trembling. Her eyes darted first from the tiny door to the gnawed remains of the carrot and back again.

“Well…Well FINE! STAY in there for all I care! I care for you and feed you every day, I make sure you get lots of exercise and try to make you happy, but if you think for one SECOND that I’m going to let myself be taken for granted, you’ve got another think coming, mister!”

Fluttershy panted, her chest heaving wildly with the sudden rush of emotion. She felt angry, but also…relieved, as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It felt good, even as the persistent pangs of guilt called to her from the door of Angel’s home.

A knowing “tsk-tsk” sound echoed in her mind.

“I tried to warn you. Kindness is a wonderful thing, but too much and it can become quite harmful, to all parties involved. Now, why don’t you leave him to his tantrum and make yourself comfortable, I’m afraid my story is rather lengthy.”

Fluttershy walked back to the couch, still annoyed. The dragon was right – she was angry for letting herself be manipulated like that. With a huff, she plunked down on the couch and snatched up her teacup, but didn’t take a sip. She simply sat there, trying to think of some way to change the subject.

The dragon…come to think of it…

“What’s your name?” She was surprised at the realization that she hadn’t known it thus far.

Once again, the voice chuckled softly in her head.

“Yes, always a good place to start. My name is Acheron, Prince of the Emerald Keep.”

Fluttershy’s jaw dropped, her wings stiffening suddenly at her sides.

“Y…Y-Y-You’re a p-prince??”

She straightened involuntarily in her seat.

Acheron laughed, a full-bodied guffaw this time. The sound was pleasing to Fluttershy, the sort of laugh that made one want to laugh right along with it.

“Relax, Fluttershy, there’s hardly any call for such niceties. I haven’t been a proper prince for some time.”

“What? I…what do you mean?”

“Well, I’m afraid there was a rebellion in my kingdom, quite some time ago – long before you were even born.”

“But-“

“But I’m just a baby?” Acheron chuckled again, and this time, Fluttershy giggled a bit it response. She wasn’t sure why, but she was starting to like this dragon. Perhaps it was his voice, or the gentle warmth of his presence in her mind, but she was beginning to get the strange feeling that she had known someone like him for many years.

“As I said, that form was temporary. An accident, really.”

“Accident? How could something like that be an…accident?”

“It’s a bit of a long story, and a large part of it has to do with the same magic that allowed me to bind myself to you. You see, a dear friend of mine was…tempted by a power beyond both our understanding.”

There was a pregnant pause as the voice fell silent and Fluttershy eagerly waited for him to continue.

“How can I explain it so that you can understand…”

Acheron hummed to himself for a moment, searching for the right words.

“It may be simplest, if not strictly accurate, to start with what you already know. I assume you are familiar with a magic known as the Elements of Harmony?"

Fluttershy perked up. “Oh, yes! Actually, I…well, it’s nothing really…”

“Go on. If we’re going to be sharing space for a while, we may as well get to know each other.”

She hesitated for a moment, her eyes darting about the room as if to avoid Acheron’s invisible gaze.

“Well, I…um…I’m actually…the bearer of the Element of Kindness…”

She blushed as she spoke, her voice trailing off absently. Acheron loosed a single sharp, barking laugh in response.

“Well that certainly explains a lot. When I found you, or…I suppose I should say, when you found me, I could sense the power of the Elements within you, though I could not be sure which Element you held. I apologize for my bizarre behavior at the time – I was quite a bit out of sorts due to my…condition.”

“Well, to be honest…I…was a little frightened, when you yelled at me, I mean, but when you collapsed…I-I was just so worried, I-I didn’t know…I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“I can see why the Element of Kindness selected you to be its bearer, Fluttershy, And may I say, I am quite honored to be in your presence."

“O-oh, I…It’s, um, I mean…i-i-it’s n-n-nothing, I was just…I mean anypony would’ve…”

Her cheeks reddened to the point that her coat appeared to be a deep shade of orange, her hooves working rapidly over and under each other as she fidgeted on her couch, suddenly unsure what to do with herself.

“Anyway…” Acheron cleared his throat, for lack of a better word, to punctuate the merciful return to topic.

“I suppose to be a decent houseguest, as it were, it’s only proper that I tell you a bit about myself.”

“Well, I-I mean, you don’t have to if…”

“Nonsense. I wouldn’t dream of imposing on you so heavily as a complete stranger. And besides, I’m not just doing this because I want to learn more about you, as well. I’ll tell you all you’d like to know, but I’ll respect your privacy if you so wish.”

She paused for a moment, her mouth hanging open in preparation for another round of polite protest, but chose not to respond. It may be impolite to pry, she thought, but she really did want to know more about the little dragon, especially seeing as how he was a prince, of all things.

“Okay…if that’s what you’d like.”

“In that case, I’ll begin. Just stop me if you have any questions, alright?”

He coughed, and she thought she could feel him settling in for a long speech. When he began, he spoke slowly and clearly, as though reciting a historical passage from one of Twilight’s books.

“I told you that my friend is responsible in part for my impromptu arrival on your doorstep, but the entire reality of the situation is quite a bit more complicated, and for that I must apologize in advance. The powers that tempted my friend were cut from the same source as your Elements of Harmony well over a thousand years ago. You see, He was a powerful pony, next in line for the throne of a neighboring kingdom. He and I studied the mysteries of magic throughout the world in our youth, and through our research we learned of a source of magic greater than any other in existence. When he learned of this magic - the "Element of Dominion" as we called it - he became obsessed with its power and what it would bring to his kingdom. One day, he simply disappeared, and did not resurface for several years. When he did, I was the first of my kind to see him.”

The fire sputtered in the fireplace, and darkness had fallen outside, but Fluttershy was too engrossed in the story to notice.

“He came to me one night as I flew over the gardens of my home in the Emerald Keep, perched on a distant cloud. He was changed from when I had seen him last, no longer the same small pony I had known. His body was tall, lean, and powerful, and he now had a sharp horn sprouting from his forehead as well as a pair of broad, feathered wings. He spoke to me, accusing me of betraying him, of hiding the element from him. I tried to tell him that I knew nothing of what he spoke, but he was mad – he would not or could not hear me. Supposedly, the treasure he sought was held deep within the Emerald Keep itself, hidden away to keep it safe. He was convinced that I had known, that I had hidden it deliberately to prevent him from gaining power. He attacked, and I defended myself. After our years of separation, I had grown into an adult dragon worthy of my office as prince, but even I had difficulty keeping up with him. We fought for hours, driving deeper and deeper into the castle – my brethren could not come near us such was the ferocity of our battle. At last, my strength failed me, and he burst past me to the place where the last piece of the Element lay hidden. His power, his fury was…incredible to behold. My kingdom burned around me as he and his armies marched through the cities of my kind.”

“My goodness…I never knew there even was a kingdom of the dragons…”

Fluttershy sat in awe of what she was hearing.

“How could…How could your friend do something like that? I…I’ve never known anypony to be so cruel…”

“He told me before his disappearance that his intentions were pure, but in hindsight, he was always the ambitious sort. I should have seen it coming. At least I can say that I did not completely fail in my efforts to stop him. That’s how I ended up here. The pendant you now wear is…was an artifact of great importance to my people. I knew that its power was my only hope in defeating him. I used the last of my strength to retrieve the pendant from my father’s vault and confront my friend one final time. The power in this pendant allows one to permanently seal the magic within another by combining it with magic’s opposite – Entropy.”

“En…Entorpie?” Fluttershy struggled with the unfamiliar word, staring down at the pendant.

“Entropy. You see, the word “magic” is a bit of a misnomer. There are actually several types of magic, though the two most prominent varieties are Entropy, and Order - the variety embodied by the Elements of Harmony. I attempted to use the pendant to stop him, but I’m afraid I lacked the strength and the knowledge to control it. The spell backfired, sealing not only his power but my own as well, reducing me to the form of a baby. For many centuries I slept, aware to some vague extent of the happenings around my resting place, but unable to act. Though I do not know what caused them, it was not until one of the recent earthquakes-“

“Earth…quakes?”

“Yes…is that not what you call them?”

“We call them “earthshakes.” At least, that’s the name my friend Twilight came up with. Nothing like them has ever happened in Equestria before, not that I know about, anyway.”

“Yes, well, they were somewhat commonplace in my time. Anyway, one of the earthquakes must have broken the seal on my tomb, allowing me to escape, which is when I found you. As for scaring you, I’m terribly sorry. I was rather frightened, myself, and seeing as how the last ponies I had met were trying to kill me…”

“Oh, there's no need to apologize. I understand completely.”

“You’re too kind. The anger you felt before was my fault as well. You see, I had not expected to become bonded to your consciousness to such an…intimate extent. I had thought that this was some sort of trickery on your part, but when I felt your sadness, your grief for me, I knew that you meant me no harm.”

“So…you can feel what I feel?”

“And vice versa, I’m afraid. But fear not, I vow to respect your privacy and, of course, I expect you to give me the same courtesy.”

Fluttershy swallowed. Acheron seemed pleasant enough, but she wasn’t sure she liked the idea of sharing her emotions with someone she had just met, and a small part of herself still hadn't managed to get past the fact that she had an individual of royalty living in her head.

“I know it’s not an ideal situation, but I’m afraid that that’s the hand we’ve been dealt.”

Fluttershy nodded, though she still felt uneasy. She decided to change the subject.

“What was his name, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“To whom are you referring?”

“Your friend…what was his name?”

“Ah yes, I forgot…he was called Chronus.”

“Chronus? I’ve never heard of anypony like that. In fact, I’ve never heard of any of this, not the war or the dragons, not even this…Dominion thing.”

Acheron sighed, and Fluttershy thought she detected a heavy note of sadness in his voice.

“I was afraid of that. If I might be so bold, might I ask who the current ruler of Equestria is?”

She blinked, momentarily surprised at the fact that he didn’t know before admonishing herself for forgetting that Acheron had been asleep for the past few centuries.

“The royal sisters, Princesses Celestia and Luna of Canterlot. They’ve…well, at least, Celestia has watched over Equestria for the past thousand years...It's a little complicated..."

At the mention of the Princess’ names, she thought she could feel something stiffen slightly in the back of her mind. When Acheron spoke again, there was a subtle edge to his voice.

“Hmmm…I’m afraid I’m not familiar with those names, though either way I can’t blame them for hiding a memory so painful for both our peoples.”

“…You mean the war?”

“Yes. And no. Chronus’s power, sealed as it is, is a terrible force indeed, and I would have erased all traces of it myself if I had had the chance.”

Another heavy sigh, resonating from deep within her thoughts.

“It seems there is much I need to tell you, and much more that I need to know. I’m afraid that not all of what I have to say is going to be pleasant to hear. I’m very sorry, Fluttershy, more sorry than you could ever know, but I’m going to need to ask for your help once again.”

“I…what?” she sputtered. Something in Acheron’s voice was making her uneasy again, and she squirmed inwardly as her thoughts raced with shades of what sort of “unpleasantness” he intended to deliver.

“How can I…I mean, what can I do to help you? Do you need me to tell my friend Twilight about you? I’m sure that she could think of so-”

“No, Fluttershy. I need your help, because you are the only one who knows about me, and it needs to stay that way if what I fear is happening is actually true."

“Fear? What are you-”

“I know it sounds bizarre, but I need you to trust me, Fluttershy. No one else can know that I’m here, because I’m the only one who can stop the power of Dominion from ever being used again. You didn’t just save me, Fluttershy, and despite what you might think, I’m not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that by your actions, you may just have saved everypony in this world.”

Regret

Skyfall

Concept and Writing by Viktor Lionheart

This is my first fanfic ever, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give me to help me improve my writing. Thank you all for your time!

Chapter 4 : Regret

Celestia commanded her limbs to move but they refused to obey. No amount of effort could tear her away from the infernal gaze of those hateful eyes.

Nightmare Moon grinned, poised elegantly at the far end of the room with only the meager light of the early morning sun framing her features. Even in the half-darkness, her eyes appeared to glow of their own pale green light as their pupils contracted tightly, searching hungrily over her prey.

“I missed you…” she whispered, the frigid loathing that coated her words hanging like icicles from her breath. Her lips barely parted as she spoke, and beneath her voice Celestia thought could hear just the faintest deadly hiss, like that of a snake poised to strike.

Finally, Celestia seemed to find the will to move. Her body automatically slid from beneath her blankets, her hooves meeting the carpet without a sound. She exhaled slowly, her lungs prematurely pinching off the stream of air in her struggle to remain calm, causing a thin, shaky note to whistle through the air as the breath passed her lips.

She loosed a nervous laugh, her lips curling into a hint of a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Dreaming…” The sound of her voice was barely audible, and yet carried a touch more confidence than her first response had. “…This is a dream, and I am going back to bed.”

Despite her words, she did not move a muscle. Whether she hadn’t been convinced by her own weakly delivered attempt at persuasion or if she simply couldn’t force herself to move any further, she remained rooted to the spot, unblinking.

Seeing that she would have to be the one to carry the conversation, the younger alicorn cantered delicately to her sister’s side. Celestia didn’t move even as she closed the distance to naught but a few inches, fixing her dazzling green eyes with her own determined glare.

She sniffed loudly, taking a long draft of the aroma of Celestia’s mane. Her eyes fluttered for a moment as she appeared to revel in its scent before she drew her muzzle to meet that of her elder sister, gazing intently into her eyes at point blank range.

“Well, aren’t we the big, grown-up girl? You weren’t so calm the last time…or so quiet. I wonder just how much you’ve really changed?”

“One warning…” Celestia’s tone was dead calm, almost bored, her confidence now returning after the initial shock. “I’ve had a long day, and I do not intend to lose any more rest on some silly apparition.”

“Always so careless with your words, sister. Or perhaps you’ve forgotten that there’s a difference between dreams and nightmares.”

Nightmare’s grin remained, unwavering at the tip of her snout. Celestia simply stared for a few moments before conceding a curt “Very funny,” regaining her confidence and turning sharply about with a haughty snort.

“Do you think that she will thank you?”

She froze, genuinely irritated this time. What she had said about having a long day was true, and she was not in any sort of mood to deal with her subconscious giving her guilt trips, not right now.

Even if she knew that it was right.

She whipped back about with the intention of telling this particularly annoying figment of her imagination off with a wave of her horn when she stopped cold, her mouth dropping silently open in surprise.

Twilight Sparkle gazed calmly back, though in her features lurked a faintly sinister edge, as though there was no mirth behind the small smile that played across her lips. The fact that her most faithful student was staring at her at eye level rather than from one or two feet below her visage did not immediately register in Celestia’s mind. At the moment her attention was too muddied by simple surprise and utter exhaustion to process that particular oddity.

“Dear Princess Celestia…” murmured Twilight, in perfect mimicry of the young mare’s voice. “…being a good friend means being able to keep a secret, but you should never be afraid to share your true feelings with a good friend.”
The moment that it had finished speaking, the face that looked like Twilight changed, elongating and darkening until Nightmare Moon’s hungry grin greeted her once more.

Celestia’s expression did an odd spasm, so small that nearly anypony could have easily missed it had that pony not been the one who was currently staring her straight in the face. She said nothing, forcing herself not to betray her emotions, but in doing so she prevented herself from mustering the strength to turn away again.

Nightmare Moon simply pressed closer, forcing Celestia to lean back. Her words had struck a nerve, and she knew it.

“Wise words from a young mind, don’t you think?”

“Stop it.” Celestia whispered her tone suddenly dire. She scowled, her mind jumping nervously between anger and shame. Her fatigue was getting to her, she told herself. This was to be expected, but she could deal with this decision when she had the strength to do so, not now when she felt about ready to collapse.

“I don’t have to explain myself to you. You aren’t my sister. She will know when it is time for her to know, and no sooner.”

This time, Nightmare abandoned any pretense of happiness. She scowled, and the fur on the back of her neck bristled with rage.

“Selfish little brat, aren’t you? But that’s what I’ve come to expect by now. You can be so cruel, Celestia.”

“Silence!” Celestia bellowed. Had the command been uttered by anypony else, it would have sounded pretentious, but she had injected so much command and authority into that word that even an Ursa Major would likely not have hesitated to obey.

“I have not spent the last few centuries sitting on my hooves, nor have I neglected the reality of Luna’s involvement in this,” she rumbled, her voice quaking slightly despite her best efforts to maintain her confidence. “I have always done nothing but act in her best-“

“LIAR!”

Faster than she could react, an ebon blur impacted on Celestia’s jaw with a resounding crunch. Immediately, the Princess staggered, the edges of her vision sparkling with a flurry of red stars as the pain from the blow blasted her thoughts apart.

The sudden absence of her rational inner voice left a sizeable void, and that space was immediately occupied by what could only be described as panic. A flurry of individual thoughts flew at one another, colliding explosively as they all muscled to be the first to have its implications realized. In the end, perhaps out of instinct, Celestia’s mind settled into a state of numbed shock, her eyes staring blindly into the carpet.

She spat, her throat convulsing painfully as she turned slowly to face the being that had struck her. Nightmare Moon, her teeth bared in something between a smile and a grimace, stood panting over her. She was clearly exhilarated as she examined the small splash of vibrant scarlet liquid staining the tip of her still raised hoof.

“Y…Y-y-y-you’re…” Celestia stammered, all of her self- confidence and resolve instantly vanishing. The entire façade of her bravery collapsed violently about her as she pushed herself away, her hooves clumsily fumbling beneath her.

The mad cackle that boomed from mere inches before her was deafening, but even if it had been little more than a whisper on the wind, it would have torn into Celestia’s heart with the same degree of savagery as it did in that moment.

Sure, enough, a small trickle of blood dripped from just under the right side of her vision, spattering silently on the magnificent carpet below.

“…you’re real…”

Nightmare sighed, taking care to emphasize her disdain with each syllable.

“Even after all this time you’re still such a disappointment… I’d waited so many years to hear your voice, and now you don’t even have the decency to scream. “ Her grin widened grotesquely. “You will scream for me, won’t you? Just like you did on that night-“

“STOP IT!” Celestia shuddered with a mixture of fear and rage, all of her senses snapping suddenly and violently into focus. “Why, Luna…Why? I was so happy…so happy to see you again…I missed you…I cried every night for years after…after I-“

“I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES!”

Once again, the fog of reddish stars clouded her vision as the second blow connected with her chest. Celestia heaved backward, all of the air being knocked from her lungs with a pathetic squeak. Nightmare didn’t bother to approach, but simply stared in utter disgust as her elder sister clawed at her throat for breath.

“You know as well as I do that you’ve never seen Luna as an equal. She’s always just been a tool to you. Even now you’re simply trying to use her to justify your own cowardice!”

Celestia stuggled just to breathe. Her hooves flailed blindly for a bit before finally finding the ground, forcing herself off of her back. With an agonized rasp, her lungs finally began to heed her commands, and she doubled over, coughing with her head between her forelegs.

“Always acting in her best interest…as if your weakness wasn’t revolting enough; your stupidity is utterly astounding.”

“Luna…Luna please, don’t make me do this again…” Celestia begged between each cough, her words coming in a series of pained gasps. “I love you, little sister…I never wanted to banish you, I hated myself for it the moment I had done it! Please…we were meant to rule toge-”

“You really never learn, do you?” Nightmare snorted, pawing the ground. Her voice took on a high-pitched mocking tone. “It’s always “Luna, Luna, Luna” with you. I’m not Luna, not anymore.” She stepped closer to her elder sister, quickly closing the distance. “And do you know why?” She knelt down to whisper in Celestia’s ear. “Because Luna is dead. Luna died when her big sister failed her.”

“Stop it…” Celestia whispered, her voice now a low growl, her sister’s enormous green eyes filling her vision.

“You. Killed. Her.” Nightmare sang, her warm breath hissing in her sister’s ear. “And in doing so, you made me, big sister.”

Like a child, Celestia shook her head vigorously, squeezing her eyes shut. “Not again…not again…not again…” she whispered to herself, over and over.

“You made me what I am, not once but twice, Celestia. YOU MADE ME!!”

“I said STOP IT!”

What was left of the shaky grasp she had on her wits shattered. In a blind despair, Celestia lunged at her sister, hoping to tackle her to the ground, but her hooves met only air.

Silence. Celestia panted, a mixture of tears and semi-coagulated blood dripping from her face. Immediately upon sensing that her attack had failed, her horn sparked menacingly, every muscle in her body tensing in preparation to defend herself. She whipped about, searching in vain for the source of her torment. But there was no one there. She was completely and utterly alone.

“Where are you?! Stop playing games!! Just STOP IT!!” she sobbed, her magic upturning tables and tearing the drapes from their hangings, searching every shadow for some trace of those horrible green eyes, but to no avail. She bolted to the window, throwing wide the glass doors as she scanned the sky for any sign of her sister, squinting in the light of the morning sun as it climbed above the horizon. Not even a single solitary bird could be seen flying within the sea of cloudless violet-blue.

Even as she turned quickly about to face her bedroom once more, her heart had begun to slow somewhat. She had not fallen asleep – that much she knew – and what she had seen was most definitely not a dream, but that didn’t change the fact that her bedroom was completely empty save for a single very flustered and distressed matriarch.

“Princess!? Your Majesty, are you alright? What’s wrong!?”

The words were accompanied by a loud banging that nearly caused the Princess to magically detonate the door from whence it came before she suddenly realized whom the voice belonged to. She allowed herself to breathe and waited several seconds for her heart to leave her throat just as the banging suddenly ceased.

“Bastion, break down this door, now!”

Acting quickly, Celestia opened the door, causing the guard pony named Bastion to stumble past her in his effort to break into her chamber. Immediately, her senses were assaulted by a very loud and brash streak of furry white noise.

“Princess, you’re bleeding!” Hussar shouted, practically screaming in her face. In a single movement, the Captain dashed past his princess, raring to attack her assailant. His charge ended rather anticlimactically when he saw that she was alone.

“P-p-prince-“

“Hussar, stand down.” Her tone was stern and her speech clipped. She was in absolutely no mood to deal with Hussar right now, or anything else that wasn’t the single driving thought that boomed within her mind.

“Where is Luna? Have you seen her?” she asked to the group at large. Hussar had arrived with a tail of four pegasus guards, and she turned frantically about as she spoke, searching each face in turn for an answer.

Hussar was more than a bit confused at the complete lack of conflict that greeted him in every direction. He simply gawked at her for a moment before remembering himself, not daring to keep Celestia waiting when she was clearly in such a dire mood.

“I…well…we passed her on patrol when we heard shouting coming from your chambers.” He stammered, stiffening as if to inject more certainty into his words. “She was reading in the courtyard.”

“You’re sure?!” She rounded on him, speaking just a little too loudly, but she was far beyond the capacity to care by this point. “You’re absolutely sure that you saw her before you came to me?”

Hussar didn’t move, but simply stared directly into her eyes. His years of faithful service as the Princess’s personal attendant and advisor had gotten him past the almost instinctive urge that all guards possessed to avoid making eye contact with his superiors, though he knew even without seeing the fear in her eyes or noticing her attempt to disguise the miniscule tremor in her voice with sheer volume to know that something had disturbed her. Deeply.

“I’m certain, Milady. She was quite peaceful,” he replied, keeping his tone even so as not to alarm her further.
Celestia looked away, her eyes darting rapidly back and forth as their sight became lost in the depth of her thoughts. Hussar had never seen his Mistress this upset before, and it only took a moment of distressed agitation before he snapped into full-alert. He nodded sharply to the guards in his entourage, silently ordering them to move forward.

“Princess, we must tend to your wou-“

She ignored him, taking off at full speed as he sputtered indignantly up at her, already far below. Without a word, he and his subordinates took flight, launching almost simultaneously after her as she sped over the terrace wall and down to the courtyard below.

This didn’t make sense, she thought. As she found her eyes drawn to the walkways on either side of the courtyard’s ornate perimeter, every instinct screamed that everypony should be running around in a panic, but not a hint of chaos or destruction disturbed the quiet flow of the castle’s staff. Even Hussar had seemed abnormally ignorant, as though he somehow had not heard Nightmare Moon’s voice from within her chambers, despite the fact that he could not have been very far away.

As she passed over the gilded terrace that separated the two halves of the eastern courtyard, her eyes scanned the greenery below for several panicked minutes before they finally found a wispy trail of deep blue poking out from beneath a lone tree. Without a moment’s hesitation, she dived straight for the ground, her wings snapping to her sides as she fell like a bullet from the sky.

When she connected with the cool grass, she stumbled slightly in her earnest, charging forward until the bench upon which her younger sister sat came into full view.

“LUNA!”

The blue alicorn flinched with enough force to send her book soaring high into the branches of her tree, noisily disrupting a pair of birds that had been nesting directly above her.

“Wha…? Oh, sis, you scared-“

Before her book could even touch the ground, any words she might have uttered were lost as she suddenly found herself smothered by her elder sister’s chest. Celestia embraced her sister tighter than she ever had before, smelling her hair, praying that it was real, that her sister was really there with her. Luna spat and struggled to get the taste of fur out of her mouth, but Celestia just squeezed her tighter, murmuring softly and rapidly under her breath. The sight of Luna sitting safe and sound had been like a miracle cure for the aching hole where her heart used to be, and she had absolutely no intention of letting go of that feeling, not when she could feel Luna’s heart beating in rhythm with her own.

At the same time, Hussar and his group of guards landed soundlessly behind her. They began to rush forward, but none managed to travel more than a single step before they were stopped by a single warning hoof from their Captain. Hussar didn’t need to say anything, nor did he need to look them in the eye to command their unquestioning and immediate obedience. Perhaps they could sense it through his seasoned composure, but they got the message that this was not a moment in which they should interfere.

“Fiffter, whut va heckfa oo fooing?” Luna’s words were barely audible. “A cann breeve!”

If Luna wasn’t confused enough, Celestia laughed. Not the normal, graceful, tittering chuckle to which she was accustomed, but a full-bodied, tearful guffaw. She laughed for what felt like hours, the rapid contractions of her chest repeatedly punching her little sister in the face until she managed to wrest herself from Celestia’s grasp, panting heavily and half-certain that her elder sister had completely lost her mind.

After everything she had seen in the past few minutes, the warmth of her sister’s fur, the sight of Luna, just her Luna and not some grinning monster, had allowed Celestia to begin to calm down. She sighed away the last waves of laughter, wiping the tears from her eyes with one forehoof.

“Honestly, sis…” Luna panted, still struggling to catch her breath. “…if I thought you were going to attack me like some sort of madmare, I would have asked Hussar to post a few dozen guards around the courtyard benches. Unless you’ve just got some really good news, I’m going to have to stop you from ever staying out that late again.“

Celestia didn’t bother responding to her sister’s annoyed remark. She simply smiled, then coughed, trying with something less than her usual effortless dignity to recover herself and make it appear as though she hadn’t had a nervous breakdown. At this, some small part of her mind reminded her that she still had no way to account for what had happened in her bedroom, and that she wasn’t entirely sure that she felt completely in control of her faculties, but for the moment, none of that mattered. Luna was Luna, and she was safe.

It was then that she noticed that a portion of Luna’s mane was stained with blood.

“Oh my-” she gasped, immediately losing hold of every happy thought as she sprang forward, examining every inch of her sister’s body for the source of the blood. “What in Equestria happened to you? Where was Hussar?” She snorted angrily, casting a wrathful glance behind her . “He’s supposed to be protecting you!”

“Sister, what are you…!” Luna inhaled sharply as she got a good look at her sister’s face for the first time. “How did your face and get all bloody? And your hooves!”

Luna’s words didn’t register right away. It wasn’t until Celestia noticed that Luna appeared to be completely unharmed that she finally seemed to process what her sister had said.

“My...hooves?” Celestia looked down. Both of her front hooves, especially the left, were stained with blood. On closer inspection, she noticed that a torn clump of fur and what looked to be a scrap of the underlying skin was stuck not to the part of her hoof with which she had wiped her cheek, but to the bottom of the left hoof.

“How…?” She looked up to see a frightened Luna staring back at her. She faltered, and that little part of her mind that had whispered to her before suddenly seemed louder than anything else in the courtyard.

She knew how she had gotten hurt, but…Luna was right here. Then that…

The realization struck her like a hammer-blow. Perhaps Luna noticed the color draining from her face as she stared once more at the bottom of her bloodied hoof, or perhaps it was merely instinct, but she quickly trotted forward to lift
Celestia’s somewhat frazzled mane out of her eyes.

The moment that she found Luna’s pale aquamarine eyes staring directly into hers from inches away, her mind snapped jarringly back into reality. She hesitated, at war with herself as to whether she should tell her the truth or attempt to cover with something less potentially traumatizing.

“Oh…I…Well…” She faked a small laugh, desperately searching for an excuse. It sounded more than a bit absurd, even to her, but she had already made up her mind. Besides, she wanted to have some time to think about it on her own before she frightened Luna any more than she already had with her silliness.

“I was in such a hurry that I’m afraid I tripped getting out of bed. I guess it must have happened when I hit my nightstand on the way down.” Celestia replied without a hint of doubt.

It was immediately apparent that Luna was not convinced. She cocked an eyebrow, still wearing an expression of deep concern.

Celestia inhaled deeply to regain her composure.

“I’m sorry, little sister…I must have given you an awful fright.” She wiped her hooves on the grass, then wet them with her tongue to begin cleaning the mess she had made of her sibling’s mane. “I had an awful dream, and…I…I just needed to make sure you were safe. “

Sensing that his time had come, Hussar cut in with a polite clearing of his throat.

“It’s alright Hussar, stand down. This was all just a big misunderstanding.”

“Milady? If you’ll forgive my impertinence…you seem a bit out of sorts. Are you quite sure-“

“I’m fine, really, and I appreciate your concern, but there’s no cause for alarm.”

“But who were you shouting at?” He stepped forward, an element of genuine concern just barely detectable through the practiced impartiality of his tone. “And your wound-“

“-Is superficial and little else than the result of a bit of clumsy silliness on my part.” She said with a tone that was not unkind, but which clearly indicated that the matter was closed. “Just a bad dream, nothing more.”

At first, Hussar simply stared at her, his face stony and unreadable, but it only took a few silent seconds before he nodded, retreating respectfully to stand among his comrades.

Having finished cleaning her blood from Luna’s fur, Celestia sighed, shaking her head. Luna still stared at her as though Celestia had suddenly sprouted a second head, but for the moment didn’t bother to ask what in Equestria had made her sister fly off the handle like that. Instead, she and everypony else simply remained silent while Celestia collected herself.

Rising to her hooves, she inhaled sharply, and almost instantly seemed to reclaim all of the grace and poise to which her guards were accustomed. It was a show, more than anything else, and Luna was the only one who saw it fully for what it was. Celestia was not alright; something had happened, and she was simply doing her best not to allow it to discourage her charges. Despite her own confusion, she simply chose to keep her questions to herself for the time being out of respect for that sentiment.

Celestia breathed a soft chuckle, her lips parting in a gentle, if somewhat tired grin. She tossed her mane, as though attempting to distract attention away from her face.

“It looks like you were right after all, Hussar. Perhaps I have been stretching myself a bit too thin as of late. I’m terribly sorry for frightening all of you over something so silly.”

She smiled, deftly addressing her most trusted guardian without a hint of her former mood.

“Speaking of which, I could say the same for you, Hussar. I’m sorry for suggesting that you were remiss in your duties in any way. Please, get some rest, and that’s an order. Besides…” she turned back to face Luna. “I’d like some time alone with my sister.”

He didn’t move at first, eyeing the Princess with a single raised eyebrow. An entire conversation seemed to pass between the two as they stared briefly into each other’s eyes; Hussar’s long years of service had familiarized him enough with Celestia for him to be able to read her to such an extent that the ability was exceeded only by Luna herself, and so even he was not completely fooled by her show of confidence. However, he was loyal enough to know his place, and to know that he would not hesitate to serve his Mistress in any capacity when the time came that she would need him. With a blink and a nod that asked, not ordered, his lady to be mindful of her health, he bowed deeply, and each of his guards mimicked his gesture.

The team of pegasi launched soundlessly from the earth and, with a crisp aerial salute, Hussar dismissed his troops and immediately turned toward what was most certainly not the barracks, despite Celestia’s “order.” Celestia watched them go, maintaining her smile until at last the last pair of ivory wings faded from sight. Even after they were gone, she remained staring at the sky, her mind slowly drifting back to the reality of the situation and the fact that she was about to have one hay of a time explaining herself for that little display.

Luna had waited patiently until now, but she wasn’t about to put off pointing out her sister’s condition any longer for the sake of keeping up appearances.

“Celly, are you…

“I’m sorry for frightening you. I can’t imagine how awful I must look…” she chuckled weakly, still not turning to face her. Something in her tone told Luna that she was trying to avoid the subject.

“…Yes, I know, you said that…” Slowly, Luna picked herself up and trotted to her sister’s side, pausing for a moment to blow some of her now disheveled mane out of her eyes. At first, Celestia said nothing, aware of the courtyard around her with only half of her mind. The other half was off in her bedroom, playing what had happened in the past few minutes on a loop like a broken record.

“Hey, Celly, are you…alright?” Luna asked lamely, leaning gently against her sister’s shoulder. She reached one probing hoof forward, placing it gently upon her Celestia’s own before looking up into her face with genuine concern.
Celestia took a moment to respond. When she did, she blinked slowly, smiling down at her little sister but not quite looking directly at her, her eyes staring somewhere past her head into the dirt.

“Of course I am, Lu-

“I mean it.” Luna’s expression was suddenly serious. “You’ve been acting strange for a while now. I thought maybe you were just stressed or tired from running all over Equestria every day…” She swung around so that she and her sister were face to face, looking directly into Celestia’s eyes. “But this is the first time I’ve seen you this upset in…in a really long time. What’s wrong?”

Celestia sighed rather loudly, giving her sister’s forehead an affectionate nuzzle.

“This is what I was afraid of. I’m sorry for losing control…there’s really nothing wrong, I’m honestly just tired and I had a bit of a disturbing dream.”

“That’s not it.” Luna said flatly, shaking her head. “Something really must have gotten to you for you to act like that. If it’s a dream, that might be part of it, but dreams happen for a reason, Celly. You should know that better than anypony.”
She took a single step back, speaking in a voice not quite demanding, but nonetheless expectant.

“Something else is going on, isn’t it? Something’s really bothering you.”

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. She turned away; Luna’s persistent gaze was making her uncomfortable.

“Don’t be silly, Luna. I’m just tired, that’s a-”

“Celly.”

She had not raised her voice, but the single word carried all of the shame-inducing and unspoken authority of a mother’s disapproving glare. With a reluctant jerk that caused part of her flowing mane to fall over her face, she turned back to meet Luna’s gaze. Her sister’s expression was stern, but not angry. Nopony else, not even Faithful Hussar would have dared to speak to Celestia in such a way, but Luna knew better. That sharp perception and fearless honesty was something that Celestia deeply respected about her little sister, even if she was presently finding that particular trait somewhat difficult to appreciate.

“Tell me the truth.” She said evenly.

With that, whatever was left of Celestia’s emotional reserve went spiraling down the drain. In an instant, she felt the fatigue of her ordeal fall upon her like a leaden cloak, and her smile disappeared altogether. Her shoulders sagged, and even her mane seemed to lose some of its shimmer. Breathing a heavy sigh, she stared at her little sister with world-weary eyes and a strange, sad smile that Luna couldn’t quite place.

There it was, Luna thought. There was the same look she had seen just before Celly had given her their mother’s journal. It took a moment to recognize the strange, misty glimmer she had seen in those eyes before, but once she knew, all of her pretended authority slipped easily away. It was more than a bit jarring to see her sister so suddenly deflated, especially with having just seen her run the emotional gambit from panic to insane glee, but grief was not something for which she had been prepared.

Without a word, Celestia lay upon the grass, motioning with one wing for her sister to join her at her side. Luna immediately conceded, sidling up beside her until their shoulders touched, her sister’s ivory wing extending around her body and squeezing her gently in a brief hug. When Celestia spoke, her voice was but a tiny whisper, just barely above the rustling of the grass from the cool morning breeze that rolled across the courtyard from one of its windowed balconies.

“Are you happy?” she muttered.

The question had caught Luna completely off-guard. She spent several seconds searching her sister’s face, half wondering if it had been some sort of joke. Having failed to deduce anything from her sister’s blank expression, she chuckled nervously, and almost immediately regretted the decision when Celestia did not share in her response.

“What kind of question is that?” she asked, coughing quietly in a feeble attempt to cover for her misstep.

“An important one.” Celestia turned the graceful curve of her head to face her sister, her expression serious. This time, her manner and tone had taken on a definite earnest edge, almost as though she were admonishing Luna for treating the question so lightly.

“Are you happy?” She repeated in the same unnervingly direct voice.

“I…yes?” She laughed again, out of reflex more than anything else. “Yes, Celly, of course I am. I mean, I’d be happier if I knew why my sister was having some sort of nervous breakdown and if I didn’t have to worry about her totally losing it and tackling me whenever she has a nightmare.”

Despite her best efforts, Luna’s attempts at humor didn’t seem to be working.

“…Yes, Celly, I’m happy. I’ve got you.” She whispered, giving her sister a gentle nudge in the side with her own azure wing.

For some reason, that didn’t seem to be what she wanted to hear; Celestia’s wing seemed to stiffen slightly as Luna said it. Whether she sensed that Luna was aware of her reaction or if it was unrelated, Luna wasn’t sure, but Celestia lowered her neck to the grass so that her face lay next to her sister’s head, sighing wearily.

“You’ve been sighing like that a lot lately, too.” Luna whispered, though she wasn’t sure why; at some point the scene seemed to have taken on something akin to the silent gloom of a cemetery, and she felt as though speaking any more loudly would be somehow disrespectful. Her sister’s head lay inches away, her shimmering mane fluttering softly in the breeze, flooding Luna’s nostrils with a scent not unlike the daffodils in the courtyard.

“I guess I could ask you the same question, but I think I already know the answer. You don’t usually get all mopey like this unless Hussar gets to the new recruits before you can mess with them.”

Without warning, Celestia loosed a snorting laugh, the warmth of her voice suddenly dispelling the gloomy haze that had settled upon them. The sound was a welcome one to Luna’s ears, and she smiled, glad to have finally cheered her up, if only a little. Celestia’s fondness for mischief was no secret among the more experienced of the castle staff, but (as she always adamantly insisted) her efforts were only intended to inject what she saw as a vital sense of humor into each of her subjects’ lives. A bit of harmless fun here or there was important, even if it did give the good Captain the occasional headache.

“He does have a tendency to be an incorrigible stick-in-the-mud, doesn’t he?…Bless him.”

“That’s more like it.” Luna laughed, honestly this time. “C’mon, Celly, tell me what’s going on.”

Another sigh, though far lighter than the ones that preceded it. It seemed more like a self-steeling gesture than one of defeat.

“Yes, mom.” Celestia chuckled, retracting her wing. Luna blushed slightly and opened her mouth to offer a retort, but she chose instead to simply grin, thankful in a way for the friendly jab.

For several seconds, Celestia just seemed to stare off into the distance, the gentle smile that had graced her lips slowly fading until nothing but a far-away look in her eyes betrayed her thoughts.

“It’s not fair, is it?” she breathed, the words escaping her lips in a breath that felt like it had sat at the bottom of her lungs for years.

Luna blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“It’s not fair.” Celestia repeated, her tone somewhat heavier. “It just isn’t fair, not to you, not to anypony.”
Slowly, she turned her neck so that one gleaming violet eye stared at her little sister from beneath her flowing mane.

“I…don’t think I ever told you how sorry I was, Luna.”

“Celly?” Luna’s expression had softened. That same look had returned to her sister’s eyes, and it was disturbing her all over again.

“Luna, I was wrong.” Celestia’s voice had suddenly taken on a tone of urgency as she jerked upright, leaping to her hooves and bearing anxiously down on her sister. Her head swayed this way and that as her jaw worked in silence for several seconds, her tongue trying to find the words to untangle the knot in her chest.

“I…I never should have tried to use the power of Harmony that night, but it’s so much worse than just that. I never should have treated you as I did to drive you to such a state as…as…” Her words came like a flood, and with them all of her grief, all of her guilt, all that she had held within her behind a wall of smiling silence for one thousand years past came bursting forth.

“Luna, I’m sorry…sorry that I banished you, sorry that you had to go through all of those years alone. I’m so…”

Luna shot to her hooves, her eyes frantically darting all over her sister’s anguished face in alarm. The suddenness of everything her sister was saying was coming too fast for her to process. She was absolutely stunned as she saw the tears begin to flow. She had known that her sister felt guilty about what had happened, but she had no idea why Celestia was suddenly so distraught over something that they hadn’t really talked about for almost two years.

“It isn’t fair…” Celestia repeated “…that you had to go through all of that because of me. That you had to feel such hate and loneliness and rage because I failed to ease your pain. “ Her shoulders shuddered as fat, hot tears rolled down her muzzle.” “I…I failed you. I failed Equestria that day in depriving it of one of its rulers. I fai-”

Celestia fell silent as the last bit of air was suddenly squeezed from her lungs. Her little sister wrapped her in a crushing embrace, silencing her sorrowful confession in mid-thought. She simply sat there, unable to move or speak as the tears still came, running down her neck to splash onto Luna’s face. A blissful eternity passed in silence between them, and in that moment, just for that moment, some part of Celestia felt truly happy. Without hesitation, without fully comprehending what her sister was going through or what had caused it, Luna was fully and utterly prepared to be there to share in her pain. They needed no words to communicate it, only the rhythm of their hearts as they beat in earnest against one another, reaching out through the meaningless and intangible walls of unfeeling flesh to be together in spite of everything else.

Together…the thought floated unbidden across her thoughts, leaving a faint yet inescapable pang in its wake.

She had no idea of how much time passed before she was jarred to attention by a sharp pain on the right side of her face. Luna had slapped her, though not hard enough to leave a bruise. As she stared at her elder sister with that same motherly glare, her voice was nonetheless kind, albeit with a hint of caring chagrin.

“First things first, don’t you ever hide something like this from me or anypony again.” Luna whispered. “How can I help you, not just as a princess, but as your sister, if you never talk about what’s bothering you?” She sidled nearer to her sister until she was close enough to touch Celestia’s slippered hoof, smiling gently. “I had no idea you were beating yourself up so much about this. Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”

Celestia simply stared, still somewhat stunned that she had been struck. She could say nothing, and ultimately resorted to looking away in shame.

“Sorry…I didn’t mean to hit you so hard…” said Luna, reaching out a hoof to caress the spot where she had made contact. “I just…please, Celly, don’t keep me in the dark about stuff like this, okay? Where did all of this come from, anyway? The last time we talked about it…”

“…Was a long time ago, I know, but I’ve never really said it. Celestia nodded to herself, regaining her voice. She swallowed to clear her throat, still not meeting Luna’s gaze. “I don’t know if I ever made it clear to you just how I much I regretted what I did…”

“Celly…Is that what your dream was about?”

To Luna, Celestia seemed strangely distant again for a moment, but it was quickly gone.

“Yes…I dreamt about that night,” she lied. “I was so upset when I woke up…I just had to see you and make sure you were safe.”

Luna paused before responding. As well as she knew her sister, there were rare times that she couldn’t quite read what she was thinking. This seemed to occur somewhat more frequently since she had returned from her banishment, she thought, and perhaps even more so over the past few weeks, but the most that she had ever been able to glean from her sister at those times was that she was “fine” or “just tired.” At the moment, that same frustratingly distant tug at the edge of her thoughts told her that there was something that Celestia wasn’t telling her.

Her train of thought didn’t last for long though, before being broken by Celestia’s nervous laughter.

“What a mess…heh…I’m supposed to be the big sister, not you…I ‘m such an idiot.”
Luna frowned, scowling playfully.

“Well whining about it isn’t going to help. Besides, the great thing about being a big sister is that you’ve always got your little sis to rely on.”

No response. That same, strangely sad smile flickered across Celestia’s lips for an instant before she looked away again, her expression blank.

Once again, Luna found herself silently kicking herself for her poorly placed attempt at lightening the mood. The young Princess was at a frustrating loss for words, and it was making her feel more than a bit uncomfortable. She hated to see her sister so upset, but what she hated even more was that she knew that somehow, she just wasn’t able to find the words that Celestia needed to hear.

“Hey, come on, Celestia, I didn’t mean it. I mean, if you’re really that upset, I could be the big sis for a whi-“

“I don’t have any right.” Celestia spat, her tone suddenly much angrier than was appropriate.
Luna paused for a moment, her plans disrupted by her sister’s violent and inexplicable change in mood.

“I…Celly?”

“What sort of Princess has a complete emotional hissy fit because of some silly nightmare?” Celestia laughed, but the sound was not at all natural. The laughter was that of one at the end of their rope, humorless and hollow.

“And even worse, what kind of hypocrite am I to ask so much of you?”

Luna was taken aback by her sister’s words as Celestia stared into her eyes. But she knew that that anger wasn’t directed specifically at her, nor was Celestia looking directly at her but at the grass behind her head.

“What right do I have when I lack even the strength to ask for your forgiveness?”

“My…forgiveness?” Luna stammered. Depsite herself, Luna was beginning to get the impression that she had completely misgauged here sister’s mood, and it rendered her rational mind unable to do little more than dumbly repeat whatever thought had just crossed her awareness.

“None, Luna. That’s the answer, that’s always been the answer. I have no right to rely on you for anything.”
With a stomp of her hoof, the air seemed to freeze around them, and not a sound save for the chittering of a cloud of birds that had been disturbed by Celestia’s angered gesture broke the heavy silence. Neither pony spoke, nor could Celestia meet her sister’s wandering gaze as it searched her face. She just stood there, panting and staring into the ground as though she wished it would disappear.

Luna simply stared. Some part of herself couldn’t help but be hurt by her sister’s words despite the fact that she knew that that had not been her intent. But she ignored it almost instantly, taking the brief pause in her sister’s rant to collect herself and reassess the situation.

She chose not to speak until she was absolutely sure that she could convey with words what her heart knew to be true. Without a word, she trotted to Celestia’s side and place her head just beneath her sister’s chin, extending one blue-feathered wing to rest upon Celestia’s back. Though her sister did not reciprocate the gesture, neither did she pull away, and so Luna began to whisper as she closed her eyes, willing each and every word to take hold.

“I haven’t forgotten what you told me two years ago, nor do I think I will ever forget, even if you have…” she murmured, leaning gently on her sister’s shoulder. “Weren’t you the one who kept telling me that I needed to stop asking you for forgiveness and forgive myself? And let’s make something clear. Nightmare Moon…”

Luna paused. That name still caused her stomach to turn at the memory of what she had become, if only for a short time.

“Nightmare Moon was a creation of my own jealousy. I wanted the night to last forever because I thought that maybe then everypony would learn to appreciate it as much as the day; maybe then I could have the same love and respect as you. But I was wrong. I already had all of that. It was my fault for being jealous and for allowing myself to use my magic in such a way. I was the one who made a mistake, Celly. You just did what you had to do, and honestly, I’m glad that you did.”
“W-what?” Celestia sputtered, jerking away to gawk at her little sister in surprise.

Luna did not budge from her position, keeping her tone steady. She fully meant every word.
“If you hadn’t stopped me, I would have stayed being someone I hate.”

“But…But I failed. I tried to use the power of Harmony to help you yet I couldn‘t. I-I lost control, and you suffered for it.” Celestia stammered like a young foal. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and so out of reflex she found herself stubbornly trying to justify her own guilt.

“If you hadn’t tried, I never would have forgiven you.” Luna said matter-of-factly.

“But…a thousand years…I cost you one th-“

Luna snorted angrily, stomping the ground, her features fixed in a look of disgust.

“Do I have to hit you again?”

Luna didn’t raise a hoof, but her expression told Celestia that she wouldn’t hesitate to fulfill the threat.

“Honestly, if you weren’t being an idiot before, you certainly are now.”

Silence. They stood apart, and yet the emptiness between them may as well have not existed. Their minds were one, their eyes silently conveying the ebb and flow of their emotions clearly evident to one another as they allowed the silence to speak for them, saying what words never could. Then, in exactly the wrong manner Luna had intended to handle the situation, she laughed.

She couldn’t help it, even as Celestia goggled at her as though she had just suggested that they turn the entirety of Canterlot into a massive pile of swiss cheese, Luna simply laughed all the harder. It wasn’t long before Celestia looked downright put out, scowling as though she were about to scream and opening her mouth to do so an instant before bursting into her own fit of laughter despite herself. She didn’t even understand why they were laughing, but that didn’t matter. Perhaps it was just instinct, but it suddenly made perfect sense to laugh, as though reacting in any other way would have been completely absurd.

“Y-you…should have s-seen your face!” Luna gasped in between bouts. “I don’t think I’ve seen you look that indignant since Prince Blueblood called the palace “tawdry and quaint!”” she mimicked the Prince’s voice perfectly, right down to the pompous accent.

“Well what would you expect?” puffed Celestia, catching on in an instant. “From one of the Baltimare Bluebloods? One can hardly expect a woman to appreciate such fine tastes!”

The words had barely left her mouth before they were both consumed by another riotous giggle fit. The conversation that had taken place moments before had been all but dissolved by their shared mirth. None of that mattered, not the tears or the guilt; only the fact that they were sisters remained. They reveled in the feeling for a while, welcoming the change of pace for as long it could endure before at last, the final titterings of mirthful joy faded to nothing and the silence greeted them once more.

It was not tense, this time, nor was it heavy in any way. The quietude that descended welcomed them like an old friend, and it was welcome in return. For a time, it was all they needed as they warmly embraced.
In that silence, a thought occurred to Luna. She considered her sister carefully before speaking.

“Can I show you something?”

“What?”

“Here, follow me.” With a flash of blue light and a sound like a wave dying on the shore, Luna transformed herself into a sparkling cloud of azure mist. She flew high into the air, where she waited, hovering, for her sister to follow. Celestia hesitated for a moment, then changed as well, into a sphere of amber light. The two rose high above the courtyard of the castle, and higher still, Celestia tailing close behind her younger sister’s cloud. Up she rose with her elder sister chasing her all the way, above the clouds, higher and higher, until the castle was but a tiny speck on the world below. Still higher they rose, until finally, Luna stopped, returning to her original form. With a pop that seemed to dissolve instantly in the endless blackness around them, Celestia followed suit.

Far below, in a fluid mosaic of green and blue, spun the vast land of Equestria. Luna looked at her sister, her expression blank.

“What is pain?” She asked simply, without any trace of emotion in her tone. It was an honest question, asked directly and without hesitation.

Celestia’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What?” Her voice seemed disproportionately loud in the silence of their altitude.

“Pain is frightening. Pain is painful. Pain is inevitable. But above all…” Luna paused to allow the familiarity of the words to sink in.

In perfect unsion, the sisters spoke the words of their mother as they had been written in her journal so long ago.

“Pain means that you’re alive.”

Celestia smiled, gazing in awe at her little sister. Not so little, anymore, she thought.

Luna continued. “When we feel pain, or acknowledge the risk of feeling pain for whatever reason, we are presented with an opportunity. Should we choose to take it, that pain can be molded into something beautiful. Should we choose to ignore it, we doom ourselves to dwell forever in regret, though perhaps in a different form than what would be risked otherwise. Love is beautiful because it exists despite the pain that is inherent in it, yet also because to truly love, be it another being or a particular cause, is to say that one is willing to endure that inevitable pain for another. All of the sacrifices, all of the failures, all of the tears we shed, when endured for the sake of a noble, if temporary, victory, become turned upon themselves and instead enliven the joy of that victory a thousand times over. Likewise, if one looks upon their pain, their failures as just that and nothing more, they will know nothing of joy until their last wasted breath.”

As she finished her speech, she paused for a moment, allowing the last of her words to fill the emptiness. Neither sister reacted immediately, as each was too busy reflected upon what those words meant for each of them. Though they did not share it openly, the thought crossed both of their minds that it seemed rather fitting that the globe below did not intrude upon the silence, as though it, too had been affected by the memory of an ancient pain and was finally grateful to have someone with whom it could share it.

“You’re quite a quick read.” Celestia murmured, immersed in a sea of nostalgia at the sound of her mother’s words.

“And you’re quite forgetful, so it seems.” Luna shot back playfully.

Luna turned away, gazing down at their home, their kingdom. “Mother's view may sound a bit...fatalistic, but I believe that the principal of what she what saying is worth thinking about. Mistakes are a part of life. I knew it before - it’s what I learned when I finally began to forgive myself for my mistake. But I think mother captured the meaning of that fact far better than I ever could. Neither of us is perfect, but that should never mean that we cannot learn from our failures.”

She drifted closer to her elder sister, her body making not a hint of sound as it slid effortlessly through the vacuum. They did not require their wings to stay aloft; here, a bubble of pulsing magic separated them from the icy nothingness and the gravity of their world.

“We both made mistakes on that night, though until today I think I only understood what that had cost me, never what it had meant for you.”

Celestia shifted uncomfortably. Despite herself, she found her gaze wandering through the darkness until at last it rested upon the silver arc of the moon, half obscured by the planet’s shadow. She could see its craggy surface so clearly here, each and every pockmark and crater like a great ugly blister burning across its pale skin.

As if sensing her thoughts, Luna swept around so that her head obscured Celestia’ view. With a gentle nudge of her hoof and a faint pop as the fields of their magic collided, Luna gently redirected Celestia’s gaze to the planet below.

“Look at this world, Celly, at how beautiful it is. No matter what happened in the past, there are millions of ponies down there who love us, and whom we love in return. You said it yourself, every time I had a nightmare about that night, every time I came to you for comfort, you forgave me because you loved me.” She drifted closer to Celestia, close enough to whisper into her ear. “And if we can repay their love by keeping this world safe, then what happened back then doesn’t matter.”

No longer did the walls of their magic isolate them from one another. Luna floated through the endless night with her sister by her side, basking in her warmth as she rested her head across Celestia’s shoulder’s.

“Please, big sister. I’ve already forgiven you. I did the moment that Twilight and her friends released me from the shell of darkness in which I had bound myself. Now you just have to forgive yourself. Think of them” She gestured to the world below. “They need you. Isn’t it a blessing that we can help to protect their happiness? Their future? What would it all mean if you simply gave up on the faith they’ve placed in you? That I‘ve placed in you?”

Celestia smiled the tiniest of smiles, thinking of the many young colts and fillies far below - the heralds of the days to come. She was blessed, it was true, to have had such a wonderful sister, so wise and compassionate despite her troubled past.

“Luna…thank you. I think I’ll be able to rest much more easily from now on.”

Luna beamed, smiling from ear to ear. She did not respond save for offering an affectionate nudge, and leaned against her as they watched the world silently turn. She had said all that needed speaking; the peaceful silence of Equestria below spoke for the rest of her sentiments as it spun ever onward, never turning back.

Celestia said nothing, staring blankly down at her kingdom, the faint nagging threads of guilt still tugging persistently away even through this moment of bliss. Though her sister did not notice, Celestia’s jaw worked silently back and forth, as though trying to decide whether it should, or even could form the terrible truth that screamed within her mind. The infinite blackness of space suddenly seemed suffocating to her, and she could not help but shiver slightly as she wrapped one wing tightly around her little sister’s body. Luna welcomed the gesture, pressing into her sister’s side, a happy sigh escaping her lips as she felt Celestia’s warmth surround her.

Celetia still smiled, but somehow the expression had taken on a note of unspeakable sadness, and for the moment, Celestia was thankful that Luna could not see her face.

“Luna…” she thought. “Luna, thank you. Thank you…but, there are some things you simply cannot understand. I can’t tell you what is coming…it would only make what I…what we will have to do even harder. Soon, I may have to leave you all alone again, all because I wasn’t able to save them. I wasn’t able to stop the evil I feel stirring once more, after so many years…”

She shivered again, and Luna responded by placing her own wing over Celestia’s front, apparently thinking she was cold. Celestia’s thoughts suddenly seemed to skip a beat at Luna’s touch; half of her was thankful for her sister’s ignorance, and yet the other half positively shuddered with the urge to spill everything in one heady rush, as though she would surely burst if she remained silent. But remain silent she did, and though it did not utter a sound to betray her, Equestria stared into her heart like an enormous, probing eye.

Though speaking with her sister had calmed her, it had also confirmed her deepest fears. She sighed, quietly hoping that her thoughts could not be heard in the deafening silence around them as they shouted away inside her head.

“What will it mean, indeed?“ she whispered, inhaling the scent of Luna’s mane. “What will it mean…”

As the last amber shards of lingering sunlight retreated beneath the horizon and the first chorus of nocturnal insects began their song, the tiered belltowers rang their familiar lilting tune to herald the onset of evening in the city of Canterlot. As the lamps were lit throughout the city and the thrum of life slowed slightly in its unending rhythm, the castle seemed somehow separated on its perch on the mountainside, illuminated only by the torches on its walls and the gently glowing beacon atop the arcane library’s single tower. Elsewhere in the castle, torches were extinguished, Luna lay herself to sleep with her mother’s journal lying open on the nightstand beside her bed, and tired murmurs echoed in the empty halls as the night guard relieved the day shift of duty.

Celestia lay once more in her bed, having just awakened from a deep, if fitful, sleep that had been far too long in waiting, anticipating the ritual preparation she would soon undergo for the Celebration in Manehatten. It was never something that she particularly enjoyed; not a trace of doubt existed in her mind that the majority of her day would be spent pandering to brown-nosers and reporters alike, and recent events had left her in no mood to deal with that ordeal. She touched the wound on her cheek with a single hoof, her mind tingling with the last misty traces of a dream she could not remember, but which had nonetheless left her distinctly restless. Or perhaps it was just her nerves, whispered a tiny voice in the corner of her mind, though the rest of her didn’t seem to find it particularly convincing. She would have to cover the wound so as not to alarm her citizens, she thought, releasing a sigh that shook slightly in the silence of her bedroom.

Celestia sat upright, tossing her blankets aside. She knew she could not lay there any longer, nor could she exactly muster the strength to get out of bed. Instead, she stared into the eyes of the only other being in the room. She had sensed it for a while now, but out of sheer strength of will she had forced herself not to acknowledge its presence, and thankfully it had done the same. Nothing was going to stop it now, however, and it knew it as it glared murderously from the shadows.

“You were so close there. She practically begged you to spill the beans, and yet when it really mattered, you just couldn’t bring yourself to trust her. You know she’ll hate you for this, don’t you?” Nightmare Moon hissed.

“You’re not real. I don’t have to listen to anything you say.” Celestia replied in a monotone.

“Not real eh? Then how do you explain this?” The black mare reached for the now scabbed wound on Celestia’s left cheek, but her hoof was swatted away before she could touch her. Nightmare merely chuckled at her sister’s reaction, causing Celestia to flinch slightly, despite herself.

“This…“ Celestia began, gingerly touching the scab with one hoof. “…I did this to myself because I thought I deserved it. I let you taint the memory of Luna that I held so dear during her banishment.” She glared at the thing before her, the thing that pretended to be her sister. “You died when Luna came back to me. You’re not real” she repeated evenly.

Nightmare scowled for a moment, but the expression quickly dissolved once more into a hungry grin. She seemed to regard Celestia with intense curiosity, as though attempting to gauge her reaction before whispering in a low voice, her tone deathly serious.

“Funny you should say that, about me being dead. It seems to me that a lot of ponies you get involved with tend to end up that way.”

Suddenly, the figure of Nightmare Moon twisted and warped. With a faint gurgling sound that reminded Celestia of something slimy and not remotely pleasant to look at, it shrank to the form of a young pony with a blonde mane and white fur. She had no cutie mark.

“You promised…” The child’s voice trembled. “You said you’d come back for me…for my friends.”
Celestia stared down at the tiny foal’s emaciated figure, her eyes dead and cold. A lump solidified in her throat, and she suddenly found herself fighting the urge to vomit.

“Where’s mommy?” The child asked, her voice more insistent this time. “Where’s my mommy? You said I could see mommy! Where is she?!”

“Go…away…” Celestia struggled with each syllable, glaring in horror at the filly as it advanced on her. “You’re dead. You‘ve been dead for over a thousand years.”

“I want mommy! MOMMY, MOMMY, where are you?! I WANT MY MOMMY!!” The filly was crying now, stamping on the carpet with its tiny hooves with such force that Celestia was sure that the bones in the child’s skinny legs would shatter at any moment.

“Shut up.” Celestia growled. “Just shut up.”

“WHERE’S MY MOMMY?! YOU PROMISED I COULD SEE HER WHERE IS SHE?!”

“SHE’S DEAD! THEY’RE ALL DEAD!” Celestia screamed into the weeping child’s face, her nostrils flaring wildly, tears flowing from eyes wide with grief. “YOU’LL NEVER GET TO SEE HER AGAIN BECAUSE I WATCHED HER DIE!”

The filly dissolved with the same sickening burp, elongating into the form of a tall yellow alicorn with a black mane. The mare immediately lunged forward and continued to advance, nearly causing Celestia to fall out of her bed in alarm.
“And yet you did nothing to stop it. How dare you lie to a child like that. You promise her the world and then leave her to die alone in the dust. Is that how you plan to leave my Luna? Is she so worthless to you?”

“Don‘t you dare…” With an enormous effort, she tore her gaze away, fighting to keep her voice from breaking and to tell herself that it wasn’t real, but the sight of the apparition alone was already almost too much for her to bear. “I couldn’t…you know there was nothing I could do…” Celestia sobbed.

“Coward! How long are you going to hide behind your excuses?! Have ten centuries of shame not been enough for you?” Her tone dripped with disgust, falling from her lips like a string of heinous slurs.

“I’m warning you…” Celestia hissed, still not meeting the alicorn’s eyes. “Back off. Now.”

“Or what?!” The yellow alicorn sneered. “You really are just a disappointment. If only you had died instead of me, maybe Luna wouldn’t have to suffer any mo-”

She stopped, unable to speak, as Celestia had lunged forward, piercing her throat with her horn. No blood issued from the gaping wound. Instead, the alicorn simply gawked in silence for several seconds before the color faded from her brilliant yellow eyes and her body evaporated soundlessly on the spot.

Celestia shuddered with each breath, suddenly exhausted from the sheer force of will that her maneuver had demanded. “My mother…my mother would never wish such a thing…” she hissed, her eyes scanning the darkness for any other shadow that might dare to leap forward to challenge her. But the room was silent; not a trace of movement disturbed the suddenly oppressive stillness of her surroundings.

In the sudden absence of sound, her mother’s…no, Luna’s words echoed in her mind. “What would it all mean if you simply gave up on the faith they’ve placed in you? That I‘ve placed in you? If we can repay their love by keeping this world safe, then what happened back then doesn’t matter.”

With a mental slap to knock her still shuddering emotional state back into line, Celestia marched to her balcony; she had had enough. She knew that if the worst should happen, what she must eventually do could not be changed, but she would be damned if she let it hurt Luna any more than it had to.

The night air hit her like a blast of icy water as her magic threw open the glass doors the separated her balcony from the bedroom proper. Despite the fact that it was the middle of Summer, the castle’s location caused it to be almost constantly exposed to high-velocity winds on the mountain’s Eastern side, which was ideal for pegasi deployment and maneuvering , though somewhat less so for stargazing. But such frivolous pursuits could not be farther from her mind at the moment. She shivered slightly, thankful at least to have something to brace her for what she was about to do.

Silently, she lifted off from her balcony in a single beat of her wings, gliding on the breeze until Luna’s window came into view. She alighted on the railing of Luna’s balcony, using her magic to open the glass doors. Luna was fast asleep, one wing stretched unceremoniously over the top of her blankets, and as the night air rolled into her bedroom it sent her azure feathers a flutter, causing her to shiver slightly. Celestia stared for a moment before reminding herself to close the window, swallowing hard as she stepped down from her perch and walked around the foot of her little sister’s bed.

Sandwiched between two luxuriously fluffed pillows of deepest violet, a tuft of blue mane stuck out in front of Luna’s peacefully sleeping face, fluttering slightly with the gentle rise and fall of her chest. It seemed a sin to wake her when she seemed so peaceful, especially with such news as this. But Celestia’s resolve was set. She knew that if she did not act now, she would likely be unable to muster the strength to do it again.

She bent down to nuzzle her sister awake, when yet another familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Let her sleep, little one.” It was a male voice this time, deep and with a certain delicacy of tone that seemed somehow detached from whatever it happened to be saying. She flinched upon the sound’s sudden intrusion before identifying it, her expression hardening as her gaze rose to meet the speaker’s pale, ice-blue eyes.

“You were going to tell her what you’re planning, correct?” It was not a question. The speaker’s face clearly stated that he fully knew what she had intended to do. “I can see it in your eyes, Celestia. Even after all of this time, you cannot lie to me.”

Celestia ground her teeth, focusing on keeping her voice down despite her anger.

“I thought I told you to leave me alone.”

The owner of the voice seemed somewhat taken aback. “You know I can’t do that, not now. We both know you may only get one chance to save her. To save everypony.”

She rolled her eyes, fixing the voice’s owner with a indignant glare. “Oh, so we’ve had a change of heart now, have we?”

He was completely unfazed by her accusation, speaking slowly and evenly. “If she knows about your decision, she will only fight it. Do you want our sacrifice to be in vain?”

“I refuse to keep her in the dark any longer…” she hissed. “…she deserves to know. I can’t do this to her, not again…”

“…mm…da…d…” It was Luna; she had begun to toss about in her sleep. The topmost pillow fell from her face as her brow darted up and down in a spastic jig, one hoof reaching outward as though searching for something.

“Shhh-shhh-shhh” Without hesitation, the grey, pale-maned alicorn to whom Celestia had been speaking cooed in Luna’s ear. “It’s alright, honey…go back to sleep.” Slowly, and as gently as a mother hen setting upon her eggs, he placed a loving kiss on her forehead. As his muzzle came close to Luna’s fur, it seemed to shimmer slightly, dissolving before it could actually make contact. Nonetheless, the moment that he would have touched her, Luna calmed, her breathing slowed, and she was peaceful once more.

“Bless her. She may not remember what I look like, but she still knows my voice…“ he smiled, staring affectionately down at the young Princess’s slumbering form.

Celestia was speechless. She could only stare in shock as the alicorn’s shimmering presence turned slowly to face her as it drifted over Luna’s bed and began to advance.

“You…you…no. S-s-stop it.” She stammered, stumbling over herself as she backpedaled toward the door. “This isn’t real. You‘re just another hallucination.”

“Did you think I had forgotten? That I haven’t watched over you all of these years?” The alicorn whispered, his hooves propelling him forward without ever making contact with the floor. It was eerie, the manner in which her moved without making any sound or visible effort, completely unlike the visions before.

“You’ve grown so old in my absence…and so wise…” he smiled, his face cracking with an intricate network of fine
wrinkles.

“S…Stay back”. “You can’t be real. You died. I saw you die.”

“Yes, Celly, I died. For you - both of you - so very long ago. But now, at long last, I can finally help you both, at least to some degree.” He stopped, inches from Celestia’s face. Slowly, He lifted a single hoof toward his daughter.

“Please…no more…why won’t you just go away…” Celestia did not try to deflect her father’s hoof. She couldn’t even cry anymore; she was simply too exhausted to do anything but allow the shimmering appendage to creep closer.

For an unreachable, timeless moment, her father’s hoof hovered before Celestia’s bowed head, before finally, gently, descending to caress her cheek. The hoof did not make contact, passing instead through the flesh, unable to touch it directly. But it didn’t need to; immediately, without understanding how or why, she knew that this was real. What was left of Celestia’s emotional reserve exploded in a dizzying cacophony of joy, nostalgia, confusion, and sorrow at the her father‘s half-touch.

“You…you’re really here…you’re really…”

“Yes, Celestia, it’s me. I’m here.”

Celestia simply slumped against the wall, her will utterly spent. She tried again and again to direct the fragments of her scattered consciousness into a coherent thought, to ask the obvious question than screamed in the drained void of her mind, yet was unreachable by her tongue. All she could manage was a few feeble squeaks. A single, final tear trickled down her muzzle as she looked up into the face of her father, glowing with a radiance rivalling the most glorious of sunsets. The two gazed at each other, and boundless time evaporated about them. Celestia was a child once more, remembering the feeling of her father’s heartbeat next to her head as she drifted down to sleep. She wished the moment could last forever, but in an instant she was back in Luna’s bedroom, staring at the ghost of the alicorn before her with the sickening weight of grim significance growing rapidly in her mind. As if he knew what Celestia had realized, her father’s own expression grew dark.

“You know what this means then? You know how I must have come to be here?” he whispered, swallowing hard.

Celestia nodded, mustering the strength to speak the words she had known would one day come. The words that meant that everything she loved would now hang in the balance. The words that spelled the end of Equestria as she knew it.

“He’s here.”

Quietus

Skyfall
Concept and Writing by Viktor Lionheart

This is my first fanfic ever, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give me to help me improve my writing. Thank you all for your time!

Chapter 5: Quietus

For what felt like the millionth time, Fluttershy tugged her comforter up beneath her chin, rolling somewhat clumsily onto her side. As her face sank into her pillow, her soft groan of anxiety became muffled by its plush embrace. It was no use, she thought as she involuntarily fluttered her free wing, kicking at the foot of her bed; she simply couldn’t get comfortable.

But it wasn’t that simple, she knew. Nothing about her bed had changed, at least nothing physically. The only difference was that instead of having just one occupant…

She immediately slapped herself mentally, but was unable to quash the niggling unease as well as the mortified blush that had flashed into being as that thought faded. Mercifully, Acheron remained silent, and indeed seemed utterly oblivious to her discomfort. It was a bizarre sensation, to say the least, knowing that he was there, fully aware of every aspect of her surroundings and yet she had no manner of gauging his presence aside from his occasional vocal interjection. At the moment, she found herself almost wishing that he would say something, but he had remained passively silent for the past several hours. The result was that she couldn’t help but feel that he had somehow changed position, or had otherwise disappeared, filling her with a peculiarly mixed concoction of worry and a distantly realized dread.

“Hello?” She whispered hesitantly, her voice shaking near the end as she was startled by the volume of her own speech in the silence of her bedroom. Naturally, there was no response, but she could not seem to shake the feeling that she was being watched.

She shivered slightly, tugging harder on the blankets as she lifted herself wearily from the mattress to survey the room. Not a single sign of motion broke the stiff serenity of her surroundings, every creature safely asleep in their homes and every plant and hanging in its place. The only source of light filtered through the rather small window off to her left, painting the tiny porcelain figurines that decorated her mantle in a ghostly silver light that seemed to make their beady painted eyes follow her intently.

“Stop it, Fluttershy, you’re just being silly.” She whispered. This time, she didn’t expect anypony to answer her; the sound was purely for her own comfort. “What would Rainbow say if she saw you shivering in the dark like a little foal?”

In the back of her mind, something stirred.

“Hello?” She said again, this time a bit more loudly. Slowly, she felt it rouse briefly again, but then drift back into silence.

Was he…sleeping?

She wondered briefly at that; she supposed it made sense, and that definitely explained why she hadn’t heard from him, but the idea of a creature that didn’t even have a proper form sleeping within her mind was something definitely new. It even seemed slightly ironic, but at the moment she was a bit too tired to be able to latch onto that particular train of thought.

She sighed, suddenly so relieved that she at least knew where Acheron was and that he was still alive that she was surprised at how much his absence had bothered her. Strange, when only a few hours ago she had wished intensely for him to disappear, if only for a short time. Her lips twitched into an embarrassed pout as she remembered herself coming to terms with his constant presence in a rather more intimate way than she had previously considered when the time had come to tend to certain…necessary functions. To his credit, he was quite the gentleman, and remained utterly silent throughout, though it still sent a mortified shudder down her spine at the thought of it.

The addition of a new tenant in her home hadn’t exactly been as simple a transition as she had initially hoped. It wasn’t that she resented his presence; she was overjoyed that she had been able to save his life, and he certainly seemed to be a kind and knowledgeable soul. In many ways he even reminded her of Spike, though she had had to remind herself rather often that Acheron was actually much older than he had first appeared. Whether that was a testament to Spike’s maturity, she didn’t know, but even in the very brief time that they had spent together, she felt that she had come to know him as a friend and genuinely enjoyed his company. However, after their lengthy talks, the feeling that he was, in fact, intruding upon her daily life had grown steadily stronger, helped in no small part by the ordeal of the past afternoon. She tried to tell herself that it wasn’t his fault and that the situation was only temporary, but even she couldn’t convince herself completely that this wasn’t bothering her at least a little.

Still, some small part of her couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed at his current silence as she flopped noisily back down onto her mattress, her wings spread wide on either side of her. On the side of her nightstand, a tiny sparkle of silver, just barely illuminated by the edge of the slice of moonlight by her side, caught her attention. With an airy sigh, she reached forward and looped the pendant’s chain around her hoof as she had already done countless times that night, staring deeply into its ebon center.

She toyed for a moment with the idea of waking him (assuming she even knew how) out of nothing else than a desire to find something to occupy her fevered mind, but ultimately resorted to releasing yet another haggard sigh and tossing her blankets to the side where they fell in a heap. She still wasn’t entirely sure she understood how she felt about his presence, not to mention the sudden and rather blunt manner in which he had entered her life. And try as she might, she couldn’t quite grasp what exactly all of this meant for him either, nor was it exactly comforting that he had forbad her from telling anypony else about him. A part of her wanted desperately to talk to Twilight about this. Perhaps she was simply being hopeful, but it seemed somehow to be just the sort of thing with which she would be able to help. Or at least Rarity or Applejack… As close as she was with Rainbow, she doubted that Dash would be able to understand how awkward this was for her, especially since he had been the one who hurt her, albeit unwillingly. And telling Pinkie was right out of the question. Knowing her, she would probably try to throw the little dragon a “Welcome to Ponyville” party.

She shuddered suddenly as that thought dawned in her mind. Oh hey Pinkie, I’ve got this little dragon who lives in my head and talks to me but only I can hear him…

“That’s AMAZING!” she said to no one in particular, perfectly mimicking Pinkie’s voice, though with a significant reduction in general volume. “We can have a big super-duper giganto-hugic party just for him and we can play pin the tail on the pony and eat cake and dance and sing and well I guess you would have to play for him and eat for him and dance for him and sing for him and *GASP* OMIGOSH! It’ll be like having two super-best-friends-forever-and-ever in one! Two friends in one for two times the fun! Oh there’s a dragon in her head but at least he isn’t dead so that’s okay with Pinkie Piiiiiiiiiiie…”

She paused, her mouth still hanging open in the sort of impossibly wide grin only Pinkie seemed to pull off with any consistency. It lingered only for an instant before it drooped pathetically into a weary frown, the faint sigh that escaped her lips giving her the effect of a deflating yellow and pink balloon.

“That was an awful thing to say…shame on you, Fluttershy, for talking that way about one of your best friends…”

Despite the sourness of her mood, it did little to stop a small voice in the back of her mind from reminding her of the fact that she was now sitting in an empty room talking to herself. As if today hadn’t been strange enough, now she was really starting to feel like she was going crazy.

With a frustrated grunt, she swung the chain around her neck and slid somewhat clumsily off of her bed, wincing a bit as her hooves collided with the aged wood of her cottage floor with a rather loud clunk. She was going to need some sort of help if she was going to squeeze any amount of sleep into the few remaining hours before dawn, and right now a cup of relaxing jasmine tea seemed like the perfect way to calm her nerves.

She trudged downstairs, trying her best to make as little noise as possible but her weariness added an extra fifty or so pounds to each hoof as they caused the steps beneath her to groan in protest. With a mighty yawn, she stumbled into the kitchen and began poking around the topmost cupboard for the proper ingredients. Spotting a small bag of jasmine leaves, she reached forward with one hoof, only to send an adjacent china teacup tumbling earthward where it detonated in a shrill tinkling crash.

“Horseapples!” she cursed, before immediately slapping a hoof to her mouth, blushing furiously. For several moments she simply gazed at the teacup’s shattered remains before slumping to the floor with a defeated pout. With a heavy thud, she allowed he head to fall back against the polished wooden panes of her cupboards and sat there for the next few minutes, not even bothering to clean up her mess.

What am I doing?

Was she being selfish? She had tried so hard to keep her mind away from Acheron’s presence, and especially to forget what they had talked about until they could continue tomorrow, after she had gotten some “well-earned rest,” as the dragon had put it. But it was only making it harder to think about anything else. She needed somepony to talk to, even if they couldn’t help her, if what Acheron said was true…She was scared, plain and simple, and absolutely certain that all of this was leagues out of her depth.

Twilight could help. If she could just wait until tomorrow, Twilight might even be able to find some way to make it so that everypony else could hear him too, or maybe even hasten his recovery so that the both of them could be out of this situation as soon as possible. And Twilight might be the only one who would think about this logically, and figure out a solution that she couldn’t see from her own fatigued and frightened perspective.

But…no, she couldn’t just betray Acheron’s wishes like that, could she? Especially if this was so important, and she really had no right to succumb to her own discomfort if he was in the same position, yet-

“Can’t sleep?”

She started violently, her body scooting itself upward so that her head collided painfully with the lip of the counter just above her crown. With a soft yelp, she clapped her hooves over the offended spot, sucking her bottom lip in earnest.

“Owwwwch…”

From somewhere around the base of the throbbing ache, he spoke again.

“Oh dear…I’ve gone and inured you again, haven’t I?”

His voice was as sharp and calm as ever, as though he had not been slumbering, yet there was a genuine bow of concern in his tone.

“Are you alright? I’m terribly-“

“I’m fine just…just please don’t talk for a second.” She winced as she rose to her hooves, gingerly rubbing her head. After several seconds, the pain began to fade and she felt that it would be safe for Acheron to speak without it feeling as though her skull was about to rupture.

“Okay…I’m alright…”

“Are you sure? I can heal it for you if-“

“No, no really, it’s fine…sorry…”

For several moments, there was no response, then a heavy sigh.

“For what are you apologizing?”

She opened her mouth to apologize again out of instinct, but paused before the sound could pass her lips.

“I…was apologizing for, um…snapping at you like that. I, um, I-I didn’t mean to be so rude;
y-you just startled me. A-and…for waking you up.”

Once again, he was silent as he considered her answer. She didn’t care for that too much; it was starting to make her feel vaguely guilty. She could almost feel his reaction as he immediately picked up on her discomfort.

“…and what else?” he said softly. His tone was not accusing, nor even remotely hostile. Rather, it was direct and flat, as though he already suspected what the answer would be, and was perfectly accepting of it.

“I…um…” she began, but her voice trailed off absently. Out of an instinctual need for distraction, she jerked mechanically forward to begin cleaning up the pieces of broken teacup, but his voice cut the motion short before she could even touch them.

“...I can sense your longing for their comfort, Fluttershy. I would feel it even if it were half this strong.”

She froze in mid-movement, still bent awkwardly forward on one forehoof as she stared into the center of the blossom of broken glass. When she didn’t answer, he sighed again, a lighter gesture than the one that preceded it, and one with a mote of comfortingly shared fatigue.

“There is no need to be ashamed. I’d think you foolish if you weren’t at least slightly wary of my motives, much less of everything that I’ve told you. That’s why you’re still awake, yes?”

His matter-of fact candor was not condescending, though it left no doubt that there was no point trying to hide it, not that she really believed she would be able to keep her feelings hidden from him for long anyway. Abandoning the teacup, she leaned back against the cupboard, taking care to avoid the edge of the counter this time.

“…sorry…”

There was a brief silence as she felt a small spark of ire rush across her mind. Starting slightly at the realization that she had somehow annoyed him, she began to speak impulsively.

“I-i-it’s really no trouble, I mean, you staying here and all,” she sputtered, not sure exactly how to begin. “A-and I, um…It’s not that I don’t like you, I just-“

He said nothing, but she could feel his nudge to encourage her to get to the point.

“I really…um, well, that is, if you wouldn’t mind…”

“Stop.”

She paused, her mouth still hanging partly open. The command had caught her off-guard with it’s powerfully direct simplicity. She simply stared at the floor for a moment before swallowing hard to steel herself.

“…I-“

“If you’re going to bring this up again, I must say that I’d rather not waste time waffling. Don’t ask for something like this if you’re not even sure that you want it, much less if you’re ashamed to ask for it. If you’re not going to take the situation seriously, then you have no right to take command.”

“…Well, I really do think that it’s impor-“

“Apparently not important enough.”

She winced slightly. This time there had been a faintly biting curtness to his tone that greatly magnified her guilt. A small wrinkle appeared on her forehead as her eyebrows pushed together and her front hooves met, moving over and under one another in a nervous circle.

“Is that all you wanted? If so, I should like to return to my rest.”

She could almost feel the exaggerated yawn in the back of her mind. Suddenly, she found herself annoyed by his subtly condescending dismissal.

“That’s not fair…” she whispered, staring into the floor.

“I agree,” he countered, not missing a beat. “Perhaps the next time you awaken me in the middle of the night it won’t be to needlessly apologize. I already told you that there was no need to be ashamed, and I do not enjoy repeating myse-”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, a little more loudly.

“Oh? Do tell.”

At first her mind almost instinctively defaulted to the rote submission state with which it was so accustomed and had already prepared several tempting excuses to procrastinate tending to the issue. But before she succumbed, something that sounded remarkably similar to the voice of one Rainbow-maned pegasus prompted her to stand her ground. She puffed out her chest, taking a deep breath as her jaw set itself firmly into position to properly deliver her rebuttal.

“You didn’t even let me ask what I wanted.” She said, nodding sharply.

“You forget the nature of our connection. I already know what you want.”

“Then…then you also know why I want it.”

He paused for a moment as he seemed to consider that. When his response finally came, it was a bit less abrupt and carried an odd little laugh that she couldn’t quite place.

“Heh…Indeed. But that’s hardly the issue here.”

She blinked slowly. “What? No, I mean-“

“I know. Do you-“

“Stop!” She brought one hoof to her temple, rubbing it gently. “Please just stop doing that, alright?”

“Stop doing what?”

“Stop interrupting me. I know that you can feel what I feel, but if you’re not gonna let me finish my sentences, this is gonna get really confusing, not to mention you’re being just plain rude. And I’m just too tired to deal with that right now.”

She planted each of her front hooves firmly on the ground, staring determinedly at some invisible point off into the darkness.

“Just let me say what I have to say, and then we can have a proper discussion.”

Surprised as she was at the determination in her own voice, she was filled with a newfound confidence that told her to stand her ground. Acheron, too, seemed to appreciate her change in demeanor, and remained respectfully silent for a moment to confirm that she had finished speaking.

“…That’s better. As you wish, then. You were saying?” he asked politely.

She relaxed slightly, glad that at least he would be willing to listen for the time being.

“I… think I need to tell my friends about you,” she stated, keeping her tone level.

Once again, he paused before offering a reply, but the wait yielded not a hint of committal from the little dragon.

“…I gathered as much…and I stand by what I said earlier.”

She had expected that.

“…I…” she hesitated but only slightly, forcing herself to ignore the impulse to fidget. “Um, I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss my half of the situation like that. And besides that…well, Rainbow says that I shouldn’t be afraid to do what I know is right, no matter what. Even if…even if I don’t have your permission.”

“Your friend is wise. And I am glad that you don’t feel that you require my permission, but in keeping with the theme of fairness I think that I am still entitled to a civilized debate on the issue.”

She nodded, eager to oblige if for no other reason than to confirm to herself that this was what she needed to do.

“I’m not saying that what we talked about isn’t important or that I don’t trust you, I just really think that my friends would be able to help us. And besides that, I know that it may not be fair for me to complain, but I can’t do this alone…I just…can’t.”

“You’re afraid. It’s only natural, but in case you haven’t noticed, you’re not exactly alone. I can help you.”

She shook her head vigorously. “No. I mean…yes, um, that’s part of it, but it’s not that simple. I’m scared that I’m biting off more than I can chew, but more importantly I just know that we’ll both be better off with as many ponies helping us as possible.”

“We’ve been over this,” he explained patiently. “This isn’t about me Fluttershy, nor is it about
you. I thought you said that you understood that. The fact that I am alive cannot reach the public in any way. How can we be sure that they will not betray us?”

“My friends would never do that.” The response came immediately and without forethought. It had been a simple retort, but the genuine faith in her tone silenced any doubt.

He paused for a moment, weighing her answer. Whether he simply wasn’t feeling anything strongly about the point or was just very good at keeping a lid on his emotions, Fluttershy wasn’t sure, but she was finding it very difficult to read him as she waited.

“You really are so trusting of them, Fluttershy…I wonder if you’ll come to regret that.”

A small chill ran down her spine at the sound of his words. He had not injected any trace of feeling into the bluntly cryptic statement, yet somehow that cold fact had given it the same icy twang of a threat. He allowed that thought to sit in her mind for a few moments before adding evidence to his claim.

“Angel was less than cooperative.” He stated calmly.

It may have been her exhaustion speaking, but Fluttershy found herself distinctly annoyed by his tactlessness. The fact that she could not immediately summon a counterpoint to that argument did not help much.

“…You’re the one who said you would think me foolish if I didn’t immediately accept that you were telling the truth. Besides, Angel didn’t hear the full story,” she whispered, managing with some effort to keep her tone even. “And in a way, he had a right to be angry. I did hurt him, even if it was an accident. I’ll have to make that up to him and explain things properly, but that won’t happen with my other friends. They won’t break a promise to keep a secret, especially one as important as this.”

“Perhaps not willingly, but those who would abuse Chronus’s power are likely clever enough to use your friends to their advantage, as well. I don’t want to take that risk.”

“They wouldn’t get the chance. My friends and I are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, in case you forgot. As long as we’re together, we can do anything with that power. I’m sure that we could get rid of this thing in a flash.” She lifted the pendant before her eyes as she spoke, giving it a hard glare.

“Absolutely not. I already told you that that would be far too risky, and would more than likely make things far worse. That thing absorbs magic like a starving beast, and would drain the essence of anyone or anything trying to destroy it in a heartbeat.”

This was not going well. His reluctance had been expected after their previous discussion, but his
continued stubbornness was quickly and effectively chipping away at her resolve and replacing it with an itchy impatience. She decided to change tack for the moment.

She took a shaky breath, he lips tightening slightly. “Then what about the Princesses? Surely they
can help us.”

“The faith that you place in your rulers seems to outweigh the faith they place in you and your
friends. Remember that they kept the war hidden from you.”

“I’m sure they had their reasons. You, yourself said it was a painful memory.”

“And it will be a painful reality if they fail us.”

She rolled her eyes. “The Princesses have been around for more than a thousand years, or at least
Princess Celestia has. She might be the only one alive who knows anything about what happened to you, and she’s certainly wise enough not to be tempted by power.”

“Even if that were true, what of her sister? You told me that Luna had been led astray before.”

This time, it took her a moment longer to answer.

“That would never happen again. I…I admit, I was scared of her at first, but she was always kind to me whenever I saw her after that… She regrets what she did, more than anything else. She promised me that she would die before repeating that mistake.”

“And I promise you that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Do you think she thought that what she was doing was wrong when she did it? And besides, we have no way of knowing who might be listening in. If we told the Princesses about the Stone and I, it could very well alert those who may be searching for me.”

She frowned, scowling at the floor. Her tone had steadily grown more exasperated over the past few moments and it was just now graduating to full-blown irritated, but she didn’t particularly care at this point; her fatigue and general frustration had put her on edge, and she did not feel that Acheron was being particularly fair.

“I’m only trying to help. My friends can make this easier on the both of us, and would almost certainly be able to find some way to dispose of Chronus’s power safely.”

“Or, they could lead us right into the hands of those who would destroy us and them, as well.”

It was affecting him, too. Fluttershy could sense his own frustration mingling with hers.

“And who is that, exactly? You’ve never been very specific about it.”

“I haven’t exactly been cogent for the past thousand plus years, Fluttershy. Forgive me if I don’t stay abreast of current events. Events which are only happening because I made a sacrifice that I do not intend to allow go in vain.”

“That’s all the more reason to get as much help as we can! You always say that you need to destroy this terrible power, but you seem to have no idea how to do it!”

“That will come in time. Right now, the most important thing that we can do is lie low and gather information. Perhaps after we are absolutely certain that we can safely disclose my presence and the nature of the Stone, then we can ask for help. Doing so beforehand is just reckless.”

“Speaking of time, what happens when you get your body back, huh? Do you expect me to just lie to them until then and expect them to forgive me when I can finally tell the truth? I can’t do that to them!”

“You must if you truly care for them. And if they truly cared for you, then you would have no reason to doubt that they would forgive you.”

“All I’ve got to go on is your word. First you tell me that it’s okay to mistrust you, but you keep insisting that if I don’t, terrible things will happen! And you certainly don’t seem to want to trust anypony else! I’m beginning to think you might just be paranoid.”

“I do not need to hear that from someone like you.” Without warning, his voice had deepened angrily. The very floor beneath her seemed to shake briefly with the barely restrained fury of his tone.
“I have witnessed the deaths of my own loved ones by the hoof of that monster, and I simply did not want to risk the possibility of your dear friends sharing in that fate. You’re welcome.”

Under normal circumstances, Fluttershy would have clammed up behind an impregnable wall of submissive quietude beneath the anger in his normally calm voice, but some part of his wrath seemed to seep into her own thoughts, magnifying her frustration.

“Someone like me? Well it seems we’re both being a little selfish now, aren’t we? I haven’t exactly been nasty to you so far. In fact I find it rather hard to ignore your needs seeing as how you ended up inside my head. And how did that happen? Oh that’s right, it’s because you botched not one, but two spells,” she hissed loudly, completely forgetting that she was in a house full of sleeping woodland creatures.

“You know nothing of magic. You know nothing of the horrors it can create.”

“And you know nothing of my friends! I’ve done nothing but try to help, which is far more than I can say for you. All you’ve done so far is shoot down my ideas and invade my privacy!”

“And sulking is supposed to help how, exactly?”

Something snapped. With sudden ferocity, Fluttershy stomped as hard as she could on the floor of her kitchen, summoning a faint cascade of tinkling chimes from the glassware throughout the room.

“ Well I’m sorry if I haven’t exactly been a perfect host! Maybe I’ll just stay quiet and let you make all of the decisions, just like a good little puppet! Sorry, are you too warm? Do you want me to move closer to the window? Never mind little old me; anything to please you, master!”

In an instant, she felt Acheron finally lose control. His rage ballooned within her mind, fighting savagely with her own as he began to offer his heated retort, but it never came. What happened next was little more than a cacophony or confused sensory blurs.

Acheron’s voice rose in an angry bellow as a shape in the darkness stirred. It had been creeping closer ever since Fluttershy had entered the kitchen, and had just come within pouncing distance as her row with the dragon had started. Neither of the two had noticed its presence, and as it lunged Fluttershy could do little more than scream in shock. The thing collided painfully with the side of her face, knocking her off balance with surprising force.

Fluttershy slammed into the floor, and immediately became aware of a mighty constricting sensation around the base of her neck. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. All the while, the thing from the shadows continued to heave on the pendant around her neck, strangling her in its frantic abandon.

She coughed weakly as a haze of blackness began to creep across the edges of her vision. In a panicked clarity, she flailed her hooves and batted her wings at her assailant, but to no avail. It seemed to dodge every blow with effortless agility, and as she continued to struggle, she felt her movements weakening, becoming steadily more sluggish. Some part of her knew that she didn’t have much time left before she was completely unconscious, or worse.

“…An…g…An…gel!” she croaked, reaching desperately in the general direction of the little rabbit’s hut, but she could not seem to make it out in the darkness.

Angel did not come. Slowly, she felt the last of her strength leaving her limbs as exhaustion began to consume her. Visions of her friends flashed before her mind beneath a steady rumbling that seemed to come from some place deep behind her eyes. Acheron was yelling something, but she couldn’t hear him. As the meager light began to fade, she felt strangely calm, and her limbs fell to the floor as the darkness embraced her.

Outside Fluttershy’s cottage, the scene was eerily serene. The only sounds to break the silence were the soft babbling of the creek beneath the tiny bridge and the occasional peep from its nocturnal inhabitants.

One small frog sat on its pad, enjoying the sleepy peace of its home, and took a deep breath to prepare for its next bout of song. But before it could begin, a sudden flash of light caught the breath in its throat and sent it leaping into the water. With one wary eye, it peered above the water’s surface in the direction of the little mound that served as its caretaker’s home, and squinted as a brilliant greenish light pierced the night as it issued from each of the structure’s windows. It lingered for several seconds before slowly fading, leaving a polarized shadow in its wake.

Not a sound nor breath of movement stirred the night. All was silent.

Code White

This is my first fanfiction ever, so please don't be afraid to give me any constructive criticism to help me improve my writing. Positive comments are also appreciated. Thanks!

Skyfall

Concept and Writing by Viktor Lionheart

Chapter 6: Code White

The scenery seemed to pass by in a steady, unremarkable blur. From somewhere deep in the back of the train car, the sounds of muffled hoofsteps on the rich carpet and the tinkling of glassware from the kitchen beyond floated through her thoughts, mingling to climax in a steady drone which she only partially acknowledged.

Far from her little window, the summer sky had aged to a faint, earthy green as the setting sun began to sink toward the horizon. Long shadows stretched from the distant trees, and seemed to tickle her nose as their shapes danced across the glass. She blinked, paying no attention to the beauty of the landscape beyond, her mind instead out of habit running that morning’s schedule as it had transpired on a tired loop. It wasn’t that she expected to gain anything from her review or to discover some heretofore overlooked misstep. Rather, it was just a nervous reflex, a subconscious effort of distraction, and it was making it all but impossible to drift into the blissful sleep for which she yearned.

Twilight Sparkle sat with her head lolling gently, the faint aroma of spiced tea wreathing the entire compartment in soothing, sleepy warmth. Each time her eyes were just about to close, her cheek would come into contact with the cool glass of the car window, and the jolting vibrations of the train’s passage over the rough iron rails below would snap her back to cogency.

She sighed, drawing another concerned look from her blonde-maned cabin mate, but neither of them spoke. Much of the past hour had passed in this way, with one of them occasionally trying to bring up some bit of casual small talk, but they invariably resorted to the same exchange of noncommittal grunts and the same subsequent silence. Neither of them was feeling particularly cheery, and that was in no small part due to the letter that the pair had received from Spike just after their departure. But for the most part, the two friends were simply exhausted, and didn’t have the energy to try distracting themselves from their thoughts. Instead, they had both resorted to trying to relax, and deciding on their next move when they arrived back home in Ponyville.

At least, that had been the plan. Twilight could not seem to stay asleep for more than a few seconds at a time, and Applejack felt far too pent – up and claustrophobic to sit still. For the fifteenth time that afternoon, the orange mare reached into the overhead luggage rack and began inspecting the hefty chest of bits that constituted her proceeds from her sales of the previous evening. The contents of the chest had not changed in any way, she knew, but the stagnant silence of the compartment compelled her to do something with her hooves, even if it was just a temporary distraction.

“It’s already getting dark…” Twilight grumbled, pushing herself away from the window. She stared resolutely into the bottom of her still full cup of tea, but made no motion to drink it.

Applejack looked up from her work as one hoof continued to organize the collection of twinkling bits into several neat piles. She blinked sleepily at the darkening sky, and then turned to frown in her friend’s direction.

“Golly, is it that late? Big Mac’s gonna give me an earful fer shore. Ah shoulda been back hours ago.”

Twilight sighed once more, lying back until her head connected with the polished oak panels of the compartment wall with a soft thud.

“Well, we would have been back sooner if we hadn’t been held up for four hours.”

Applejack simply shrugged, turning back to her work.

“It cain’t be helped, shug. We weren’t th’ only ponies who had to wait.”

Twilight frowned, her horn sparkling faintly as a bubble of purplish mist enveloped her teacup and carried it into the air before her lips. It hung there for a moment, bobbing gently, before she set it back down again.

“She could have at least said something. I had everything under control. I did have everything under control, right?”

Applejack cocked an eyebrow.

“Are you askin’? Or are you tellin’?”

Twilight’s frown deepened slightly.

“Well, if I missed something that warranted a full search like that, then I’d imagine it was a pretty egregious oversight.”

“Well did ya?”

“Did I what?”

“Did ya miss sumthin’?”

Twilight stared at Applejack in silence for a few seconds, but she could not quite place her friend’s blank expression.

“I don’t see how I could have.” She stated, shaking her head. “I took special precautions by recruiting as many delegates as I could find. So long as everypony did as they were told…”

Applejack raised one hoof to silence her, shaking her head.

“Twi, relax. I only meant that I know you never coulda missed somethin’ like that.” Applejack looked up just long enough to give her a stern, but not unfriendly look. “You were stressin’ about this like I ain’t never seen you stress before. Heck, you even planned out the exact location of every popcorn stand by their operator’s sales record for the past three years six months in advance. The Princess wouldn’t have asked ya tuh do sumthin’ this big if she didn’t trust ya.”

Turning back to her pile of bits, she moved the counted stacks into the chest on the floor and moved on to sorting the still formidable remainder on the table before her. She was just about to reach into the center of the pile when she blinked as a thought seemed to occur to her.

“Whut, you think the Princess doesn’t trust you or sumthin’?” she asked incredulously.

Twilight chuckled softly, but there was a vaguely false quality to it.

“It’s not so much that. I’m just worried that…”

“Worried. If Ah had a nicker fer every time I heard that word from you...” Applejack flashed a tired grin. “Ah’ll say it again. What makes ya think that search had anythin’ tuh do with you?”

Twilight pouted involuntarily. Though she knew that her friend was just as right as she had been an hour ago, she still felt a little put out at being dismissed so easily.

“…Sorry, shug…” Applejack muttered, suddenly embarrassed. “Ah didn’t mean to treat ya like a foal. I just don’t want ya tuh git all worked up over nuthin’, that’s all.”

“You don’t think it’s weird that everypony’s luggage wasn’t searched when they arrived as well?”

“Ah think it’s a bit strange, yeah, but nuthin’ worth losin’ sleep over. Ah mean, they didn’t find nothin’ dangerous, right?”

“Maybe. But I still don’t like it. I thought that the Princess would let me know if something was amiss, you know?” Twilight said, toying with her teacup again.

“This wasn’t yer fault, Twi.”

“I know that.” She countered, a little too quickly. “But don’t you think something felt…off?”

Applejack abandoned her piles of bits, leaning back against the bench on her side of the compartment. She stretched, resting the back of her head on her forehooves as she lounged somewhat awkwardly on her backside.

“Well, now that ya mention it, the Princess…she did seem kinda…I dunno…”

“Distracted?”

“That’s the one. Not that I can blame her fer not stickin’ around to say hello, but doesn’t she usually at least stay to watch the festivities?”

Twilight loosed a heavy sigh, scratching her head with one hoof. “Typically, yes. But she barely said anything before she disappeared. Though to be fair, I was kinda preoccupied, too.”

She jumped slightly at a sudden snort from her hatted friend.

“Ah’ll say. Whut was it you said tuh that fry dealer that made him cry like that?”

Twilight blushed, shooting Applejack an annoyed glare.

“It’s not my fault if nopony but me is familiar with the proper and legal method of positioning food – related business outlets in accordance with the mandates of Manehatten law as dictated under paragraph…”

Her jaw hung pompously open, ready to continue her lecture, but Applejack’s mirthful stare silenced her.

“…okay yeah, maybe I was a little harsh…” She admitted, gazing once more into the bottom of her teacup.

“Don’t pay it no mind, sugarcube. That’s a lotta responsibility the Princess is placin’ on yer shoulders. I’d think ya weren’t pony if the stress didn’t get to ya just a little.”

“…Thanks, AJ.” Twilight breathed, though she didn’t seem entirely convinced. “Still…I wish I knew why…”

This time it was Applejack who sighed.

“How many times do I gotta tell ya to quit yer frettin’? I’m shore the Princess had a good reason to have our bags inspected. Even if it does mean we have to get home a little late.”

“I know, I know” she breathed, finally pushing the teacup away. “I just wish it hadn’t taken so long. That was worse than the time they had to search everypony’s luggage after Pinkie brought an entire suitcase of “industrial grade high-output” party-poppers on our trip to Canterlot last year.”

Applejack shuddered slightly.

“Ah can still hear the screamin’. Rarity wouldn’t let up for nearly a month about how her mane would never grow back.”

She stretched with a grimace, rending the air with a series of loud cracks and pops before replacing the chest of bits in the overhead rack.

“Still, it’s over with now and they didn’t find nothin’ worth worryin’ over.” Out of nowhere, Applejack shot her a wry grin. “Why, are ya worried everypony’s gonna blame this on you?”

Twilight gave her a puzzled frown, too tired to pick up on the hint.

“What do you mean? Why would they blame…”

Her eyes shot wide as the meaning of Applejack’s jab sunk in.

“Why would you say that? Did somepony say something? “That’s not fair!” She jumped to her hooves, nearly upsetting the table as she launched into her practiced stress-pace. “I didn’t know about the luggage check until the last second! I had nothing to do with-“

Applejack cut her off with a sudden snort of mirth.

“Heavens tuh Betsy, girl, that was a joke! Sheesh, did anypony ever tell you that you worry too much?”

Twilight simply blinked.

“Twi, fer Pete’s sake, jes’ relax. Everythin’ went fine, Ah Promise.”

Twilight loosed a sigh of relief, slumping back down into her seat.

“I certainly hope so. I’ve never had to organize something like that for such a big city before.”

“Well, Ah reckon yeh did a bang-up job, regardless.” Applejack shifted onto her back, placing her hat on the table between the twin benches that lined either side of the compartment. Reaching behind her, she prodded at the arm of the bench for a few moments as if to fluff it, and then laid her head to rest against it before turning her gaze toward the darkening sky.

“All Ah know is I done counted that money at least a dozen times now, and it hasn’t once had the decency to change it up. Maybe it’s time Ah got some rest like I planned in the first place.”

“You’re not worried?” The question had come a bit more quickly than Twilight had intended. It took Applejack a moment to answer, and when she did, her expression was blank.

“Worried or no, t’aint gonna help nopony to sit here and fuss about it. Ah reckon it’ll all make more sense when you’ve gotten some sleep. You must be twice as tuckered out as Ah am.”

“…I am pretty tired, but…I just…” She leaned forward, resting her head on her hooves.

For several moments, neither of them spoke. Slowly, Applejack opened one eye and gazed in silence at the brooding unicorn. It hovered there for a time until one orange-coated hoof reached forward to make contact with that of her lavender friend.

“Seriously, Twi…” She muttered, a bit more softly. “Ah’m shore she’s jes’ fine. A few hours delay ain’t gonna make any difference. Ain’t nothing we can do fer her here, so you might as well put it outta yer mind as best ya can.”

Twilight didn’t look convinced, though her hopeful grin showed that she appreciated her friend’s words. Even though she hadn’t directly said it, Fluttershy’s condition had been worrying her ever since they had received Spike’s dragongram (Spike’s idea. Twilight still wasn’t sure that she liked the term.). Rarity’s polished vernacular made an inspired attempt at assuaging her immediate panic through the unfeeling paper, but it helped little, especially since Twilight’s overactive mind had been left to stew for well over an hour on their return trip. To be fair, she knew that her imagination had probably blown the extent of her friend’s injuries grossly out of proportion, and Applejack’s patience did help to calm her somewhat, but she still felt guilty that she had not been there to help when it had happened.

“We’re almost home, shug…” Applejack mumbled through a rather loud and lengthy yawn. “Jes’ sit tight for a little longer and Ah promise everythin’ will be alright.”

“Mmhm.” Twilight yawned in response, reluctantly stretching out on her own bench. It was not a very comfortable resting place, but the long hours of waiting and worrying had already taken their toll. She closed her eyes, basking in the earthy warmth of the summer heat.

“Let’s try to git some rest while we can. Knowin’ Fluttershah, she’ll feel right guilty if she finds out how much you’ve been fussin’ over her.”

Twilight opened one eye, looking over to her friend. Applejack didn’t’ look back, but she could tell that the orange mare was just as worried as she was, even if she wouldn’t show it.

“Thanks, AJ.” She whispered, closing her eyes once more.

============================================================================

“Oh, come on.” Twilight groaned as they plodded forward for a few meager inches before sitting heavily back down on the rough grip-cloth that covered the floor of the station landing.

Twilight tapped her hoof impatiently, her jaw twitching oddly as she suppressed yet another mighty yawn. The orange mare beside her seemed to share her sentiments, if not her outright fatigue, and issued a heavy sigh as the portly stallion in front of them took a single step forward before settling once more into place. As she stared at his corpulent backside, she couldn’t shake the impression that she was standing behind a small yet impassable boulder, and for all intents and purposes he may as well have been such an obstacle, if the past twenty minutes had been any indication.

“Now, don’t git yerself all worked up, shug. Fluttershah’s jes’ fine; Rarity said that Pinkie checked up on ‘er this mornin’, remember?.”

Funnily enough, she didn’t seem entirely relieved, either. The orange Earth pony typically contained herself a bit more successfully in times of stress than her studious friend, but even she hadn’t been able to keep a touch of uncertainty and something that sounded remarkably like ire from her tone.

“Well, she’ll die of old age before we can get to her if this line keeps up the way it’s been going…” Twilight spat.

Applejack gave her that same silent look that she used when one of her friends had said something that they didn’t really mean. One eyebrow climbed high onto the top of her forehead while the other burrowed accusingly into the leaf-green iris below, perfectly complementing her knowing frown.

“…S-Sorry…” Twilight breathed through another yawn, this time unable to restrain it. “I just hadn’t exactly planned on having to wait in line with half of Ponyville before getting off the darn train!”

She raised one hoof to gesture at the crowd at large, shouting at no one in particular as she did so. They stood at the far end of one of several long lines of ponies that each extended before a pair of royal guards. The line moved forward at a snail’s pace as, one by one, the guards stopped each pony and thoroughly searched their luggage.

This was the second time they’d been held up on their return journey. Some of the other ponies in line shared her sentiment and voiced it for all to hear, though most, Twilight included, were more concerned about why the guards were there in the first place.

“Honesty, what’s all the fuss about? Why would they need to search everypony’s luggage twice?” Twilight huffed, pawing the ground in frustration. “And why do I know nothing about any of this?”

“Calm down!” Applejack snapped. For a moment, she glared in her friend’s direction, then sighed heavily, hanging her head.

“Guh…sorry, shug, Ah didn’t mean to bite yer head off…” She rubbed the back of her neck with one hoof before tugging on her applecart, pulling it up behind her to make room for the ponies behind and being careful not to disturb its meager remaining contents.

“You got a point though…” She cocked an eyebrow, leaning to get a glimpse of the front of the line. “They look like they’re bein’ real particular ‘bout their searchin’. You shore the Princess didn’t mention anythin’ ‘bout this ‘fore we left?”

Twilight shook her head, adopting a frustrated frown. “Not a word. Like I said, she disappeared right after raising the sun this morning.”

Applejack simply scowled at the back of the portly stallion for several seconds before snorting irritably.

“Well whatever it is, I’m shore the Princess has a good reason for all this…” Applejack sighed, tugging her nearly empty applecart a few steps forward before sitting dejectedly back down behind the bulky wall of grey fur in front of them.

“I know yer worried, hon. I am too, but we ain’t got nothin’ to gain from causin’ a ruckus. Best just to sit tight and ask what all the hoo-hah’s about when we get the chance.”

Twilight’s expression darkened, though she knew her friend was right. As much as her imagination ran wild with countless horrible scenarios concerning her friend’s condition, her logical mind forced her to acknowledge that Fluttershy was stable for the time being, and in good company. If they could just be patient until they could see somepony they knew…

It was then that a thought occurred to her that made her stand on her hind hooves to scan the crowd.

“Hey, wasn’t Rarity supposed to meet us here?”

Applejack’s ears perked up before she began to mimic her friend’s behavior.

“Now you mention it…she’s not one to be late. Where the hay is that girl?”

She had scarcely uttered her last words when the ivory mare’s posh voice rose in a shrill huff somewhere off to her left.

“My good sir! If I am forced to remind you one more time to keep your hooves to yourself, then I will demonstrate directly to your unkempt visage just how irksome an unfriendly hoof can be!”

Applejack’s ears perked up and her rear legs involuntarily tensed. She knew that tone; Rarity was about to smack somepony. At the same time, Twilight’s head swiveled in the direction of the commotion just as the crowd began to clumsily part before the tide of noise.

“Get out of my way! Remove yourself from my presence this instant!”

“Miss, I must ask that you do not-“

It was a deep, masculine voice, but despite his obvious earnest and his stern, tempered tone, Rarity did not seem willing to listen to a word he had to say.

“That is Lady Rarity to you! If you had any manners at all, you would know how to address a lady!”

With a pompous harrumph, Rarity’s slender snout parted the line before her like a blade through butter. Ignoring the irritated mutterings of those she passed, she flipped her tail in such a way as to smack at the face of the very annoyed royal guard that followed in her wake.

“Miss, if you refuse to comply, I shall be forced to-“

“Lady!”

Smack

“Miss, Stop that this insta-“

“Disgraceful. Is this how the guards are trained these days?”

Smack

“You…you just hit a member of the royal guard! Miss, this is you last warning!”

“And this is yours! A gentleman does not-“

The white unicorn stopped with her mouth open in mid-lashing as she caught sight of her two friends not five feet away. In an instant, Rarity demonstrated her unnerving ability to pull an emotional one-eighty and abandoned her previous disgust in favor of her most charming smile.

“Twilight, darling! And Applejack! I’m so happy to-“

“LADY RARITY!”

The volume of the guard’s voice was so severe that it even caused Rarity to lose her composure for a moment. Immediately, he caught himself, blushing angrily as he cleared his throat. Twilight simply stared onward in a stupor; she was still a bit too tired to be able to process what exactly was happening.

“Lady Rarity…” The guard repeated a bit more quietly, drawing closer in a vain effort to hide his words from the sizeable crowd of onlookers that the two had picked in their passing. “You are placing us all in incredible danger. If you had bothered to listen to even a single word of what I had-“

But Rarity pounced on him before he could finish.

“Oh please. If it’s really so important, why didn’t you just call her to the front of-“

“Listen to me, you stupid woman…“

Whether she simply sensed the approaching explosion or was just frightened into action by the murderous glare that flashed across Rarity’s expression, Twilight wasn’t sure, but Applejack immediately jumped between the two, adopting an aggressive stance.

“HO there! You best watch yer attitude, else somepony's gonna say sumthin’ she regrets…” She warned.

The guard simply glared at her, but Rarity nodded impetuously from behind the orange mare.

“That’s what I’ve been-“

“Ah wasn’t just talkin’ to yer friend here, shug.” Applejack cocked her head to shoot a warning glare behind her, much to Rarity’s surprise. Applejack, too was tired from a long trip with little else to do than worry, and she was in no mood for Rarity’s dramatics, however justified or unjustified they may be.

She turned back to face the guard, softening her expression somewhat.

“Ah’m mighty sorry ‘bout her, sir. She can be a might…heh...stubborn.”

Rarity moved as though to protest, but was silenced by another firm look from Applejack.

“Now…” she breathed, taking a moment to steady herself. “If’n Ah heard y’all right, you said we was all in danger?”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight hopped forward, jostling Applejack aside with surprising force.

“What kind of danger? Does it have to do with Flutter-”

“Twi. Not now-”

“That’s it, isn’t it!?” Several of the surrounding ponies were now staring at the unicorn with concern, whispering nervously amongst themselves.

“Did she say danger?”

“Why are we being held here?”

“What is wrong with that mare?”

Twilight ignored them. She lunged forward, forcing the guard to backpedal by several steps. She hadn’t exactly had the capacity to tidy herself up by much after awakening to yet another endless line of obstacles, and the expression on the guard’s face clearly indicated that he half-expected this deranged-looking mare to assault him at any second.

“Why is everypony being held up in line?”

“Twi.”

“You’re looking for something, aren’t you!? Did you identify Fluttershy’s attacker?”

“Twi.”

“But-“

“Heavens tuh Murgatroid, girl, let ‘im talk!”

Twilight opened her mouth to continue spewing question as they came to her mind, but the desperation in Applejack’s voice caused her to snap it shut again.

“What is wrong with you two?” Applejack barked, stamping the ground with both forehooves as she glared first at Twilight, then at Rarity. “Honestly, here we finally have somepony who might know a thing or two ‘bout whut’s goin’ on here and you won’t quit yer yappin’ long enough tuh hear ‘im out!”

Twilight simply blinked at first, her jaw hanging open in silent protest. As she whirled about, looking at each pony in the crowd in turn, it was the still-frozen look of taut alarm on the guard’s face that snapped her back to reality. She hung her head, silently scolding herself and trying to force herself to calm down.

Applejack’s right. Keep it together, Twilight… she thought. Rarity would be far more upset if this had anything to do with Fluttershy. Don’t go jumping to conclusions.

For several moments, Applejack continued to glare at each of the two unicorns in turn, then turned her caustic gaze to the crowd. Soon, all of the onlookers turned sullenly away with many an awkward cough and a shrugging of shoulders.

Satisfied that they would not be interrupted again, Applejack turned back to face the guard. She nodded silently, prompting him to speak. With a small cough and a deep breath, the guard seemed to regain his composure and spoke in a low, quiet monotone.

“Thank you, Miss.” He nodded at Applejack, glancing askance at the unicorns behind her. “As I was trying to say, I was ordered to command Miss Twilight Sparkle’s attention as discreetly as possible upon her return to Ponyville.”

With a tiny gesture of his wing, he hinted at a small bulge about the size of a scroll in his left saddlebag.

“I must ask that you follow me immediately, Miss Sparkle.”

Twilight blinked. Before she could answer, Rarity stepped between them, puffing herself up like a large, disgruntled bird.

“Not so fast, my good sir. You still haven’t told me why you need to see her. And In case you were unaware, her dear friend recently had a frightful encounter in which she was seriously injured. I think that under the circumstances-“

“Miss…” The guard caught himself, sighing heavily. “Lady Rarity…” he hissed, making only a half-hearted attempt at disguising his sarcasm. “You must trust me when I say that this matter takes priority. Princess Celestia herself ordered me to ensure that Twilight Sparkle was informed of…the matter at hoof…the moment that she returned to Ponyville.”

“What?” Twilight sputtered, her eyes darting between the guard’s face and his saddlebag. “That’s…that can’t be right.”

“Those were the Princess’s exact words, Miss Sparkle. We cannot delay.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” She was doing her best to keep her voice steady, but it still trembled slightly nonetheless. “Why are you-“

“I’m sorry, Miss Sparkle, but I cannot say any more than I already have at present. We’re too exposed here.”

Without another word, he stepped away, clearing a small space in the adjacent line with a wave of his hoof. He paused for a moment, gazing expectantly behind him as he waited for her to follow.

“One Master Spike is waiting at the landing entrance to receive you. I will take you to him.”

“Spike’s here?” Twilight asked, cocking an eyebrow at Rarity. The white unicorn merely stared at her for a second before comprehension dawned in her crystal-blue eyes. She blushed, chuckling sheepishly.

“Oh, didn’t I say? He arrived this morning on the train before you, dear, which was just before we contacted you. He’s been waiting with me at the gate…that is, until your train arrived. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be here to greet you as I promised. As you can see, I was a bit…delayed.” She shot an icy glance in the guard’s direction which he thoroughly ignored.

“Never mind that.” Twilight shook her head, suddenly concerned at the apparent gravity of the situation that the guard’s secrecy had conveyed. “What’s this about? Did Spike say anything to you?”

She shook her head. “Not a thing. All I’ve been able to gather from this one,” she gestured lazily in the guard’s direction. “…was that he needed to see you for a very important reason. Something about a message.”

“That is correct.” The guard nodded curtly. “Time is of the essence, Miss Sparkle. I assure you, this will not take long, and as soon as we are finished, you may go to see your friend.” Once again, the exchange between the guard and the group of mares was beginning to draw attention, and he was clearly very anxious to leave. He took one step farther away from the group, gesturing pointedly with his muzzle.

Twilight didn’t budge, one eyebrow still arced high on her forehead as she looked between Rarity and the guard. Applejack stepped closer, looking the guard over as though she smelled something that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on.

“Ah don’t get it. If the Princess needed to speak to Twilight so badly, why didn’t she jes’ say sumthin’ at th’ Celebration? She could’ve easily-“

“I am not at liberty to say.” The guard’s curt response cut her off with a rather biting finality.

Twilight paused for a moment, eying the guard with an appraising eye. Whether he really didn’t know why the Princess was being so secretive or he had simply been ordered to say nothing more on the matter, she couldn’t tell, but the hardened set of his jaw and the faint spark of desperation in his eyes did tell her that something was bothering him. Whatever was going on, he clearly knew something that she didn’t, and that something was making a highly trained member of the Canterlot Royal Guard nervous. That was never a good sign.

She opened her mouth to say something, but simply ended up closing it again as she worked her jaw back and forth in thought. After a few seconds, she sighed, shaking her head. It was clear that the guard took his duty far too seriously to be reasoned with at the moment, so that left her with only one remaining course of action.

“Guh…fine. If it’ll get me out of this line, I’ll go. But I do need to see my friend as soon as possible.”

The guard seemed to relax slightly, stepping further away to clear a space for Twilight to follow.

“Miss Fluttershy is fine, I assure you. A guard has been assigned to her home and is there looking after her as we speak.”

“That’s…encouraging…” she replied with something less than enthusiasm. “So…wait, you know about-“

“I am fully aware of her condition, Miss Sparkle, which is all the more reason to deliver the Princess’s message as I intended. I think you will agree when you know more.”

“…if you say so…” she whispered, suddenly even more concerned. Whatever this was, it didn’t seem likely that it would be good news. “…come on, girls, we better see what this is about.”

She stepped out of line, moving toward the small gap that the guard had formed. After only a moment’s hesitation, the two friends behind her exchanged a quick glance and silently followed suit.

Immediately, the guard leapt between them, snorting heatedly.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Applejack simply blinked, confused at the sudden aggression.

“Whut now? Don’t tell me ya done gone an’ changed yer mind after all that bluster.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean” he replied evenly. “As I said, I was to command Twilight Sparkle’s attention when she returned to Ponyville.”

“Are…are you saying that we cannot accompany her?” Rarity huffed.

“The Princess mentioned only Miss Sparkle when she gave me my mission. You are not entitled to any information until such a time as she sees fit-“

“Hang on…” Twilight cut him off with a wave of her hoof. “The Princess trusts my friends as much as she trusts me. I’m sure that it’s alright-“

The guard rolled his eyes, his patience clearly at an end.

“I cannot speak for the Princess, Miss Sparkle, and neither, with all due respect, can you. They will not leave the premises until they have been processed.”

The word “processed” seemed to take a few moments to sink in. When it did, Applejack scowled so fiercely, Twilight could have sworn she saw the guard flinch just slightly despite himself.

“Whut? Ah went through this riggamarole once, already! You cain’t seriously expect us to wait in this here line when our friend’s been injured! We’ve been delayed long enough as it is!”

“Your luggage has not been searched. All passengers are to be-“

“How dare you!” Rarity stomped forward, matching the guard’s wrathful glare. “Are you suggesting that my friend here has something to hide? Are you even aware to whom you are speaking?”

“Bearer of the Element of Honesty or not, she is not excepted from the laws of Equestria, nor are you or anypony else. You will both subject to the proper searching of-“

“Oh, is that right?” Twilight blinked innocently. She knew that this guard was just doing his job, but his gruff nature was grating on her nerves, and she had just about gotten sick of waiting to get things done.

“Then in that case, I had better wait in line here with everypony else!” she chirped, darting back into place.

The guard looked as though he was about to swallow his tongue.

“Miss Sparkle, I-“

“Oh will you make up your mind?” Rarity quipped, instantly catching on. “Either we all go or no one goes. Your choice.”

“She’s right. I wouldn’t want to break the law, especially if I felt like I was getting special treatment or something. I’m sure the message can wait until my saddlebags have been properly searched.”

The reddish hue that painted the guard’s face was deep enough to match the tint of the few withering apples that still remained on Applejack’s cart. For several seconds his opened and closed his mouth in silent fury, then loosed a heavy, grunting sigh, squeezing his eyes shut. Before he spoke again, he took a moment to carefully examine both Rarity and Applejack, eyeing them each warily as if deciding how to best incapacitate them if they should become dangerous.

“Hurry up…” he grunted, trotting forward without another glance behind him.

Unable to hide a little personal satisfaction from her relieved grin, Twilight cantered after him with her friends in tow. The members of the surrounding crowd did not seem particularly pleased that a group of three mares was being escorted like celebrities to the front of the line, but the group paid them no heed.

As they walked, Rarity attempted to fill them both in as quickly as possible on what had happened while they were gone, and what exactly Fluttershy had been going through. The letter that she had had Spike send had been thorough, but it still left some questions unanswered, not the least of which being how she had been found. It did not take long, though, with the guard leading the way, to reach the head of the line, and as they neared it, Twilight spied a tiny purple-scaled hand waving frantically in their direction. It would surface for little more than an instant before dropping back out of view, but the cracking voice to which it was attached left no question as to whom the hand belonged.

At last, the final line of ponies parted before them and the instant that Twilight had stepped out from the wall of bodies, something small and warm collided with her chest.

“Spike!” she gave the dragon a friendly hug.

“Hey guys! What took you?” the young dragon beamed.

Rarity opened her mouth to respond, but was silenced by an annoyed glare from their escort. Immediately, the guard walked to speak in hushed tones with another guard that had apparently been waiting with Spike at the station entrance. Twilight eyed them warily for a moment, but could decipher nothing from their rapidly moving lips.

She started slightly, having momentarily forgotten why Spike was there.

“Sorry about the wait, Spike.” Twilight grinned sheepishly as she glanced in her friend’s direction. “How were things in Canterlot?”

She only tried half-heartedly to hide the concern in her voice. Nonetheless, Spike seemed completely unbothered by her distress.

“Oh, the usual stuff.” He dismissed the question with a nonchalant wave of his hand. “You know, welfare reports, cataloging artifacts, that sort of thing.” Either he wasn’t concerned or, more than likely, it hadn’t occurred to him that something was wrong. Spike was a matchless assistant, but he had always been a bit oblivious.

“Oh, and Spitfire taught me some new moves.”

“That’s great, shug!” Applejack trotted to his side, rubbing one huff in an affectionate tousle of his spines. “Jes’ make sure ya tell me ‘fore ya go showin’ off tuh RD” she grinned. “Ah cain’t get enough o’ that face she makes whenever she hears yer getting’ personal lessons from her idol.”

Spike had grown up a bit over the past two years. He was just now passing through the first awkward stages of adolescence, and his tiny wings had come in just after his eleventh birthday. They were still a bit ungainly, but he flew well enough for his age. His frequent trips to Canterlot had afforded him the opportunity of working with some of the most talented fliers in Equestria, after all.

Twilight sighed impatiently, pushing Applejack away.

“No…I mean, that’s great, Spike, but I meant “how were things with the Princess,” specifically. I was told she had a message for me?”

Comprehension dawned in Spike’s round green eyes. “Oh, yeah!”

He made to reach into the small satchel that he carried on his back before pausing and looking to the guard that had escorted them.

“Whoops. I gave it to you, didn’t I?”

The guard took a few more seconds to finish whatever it was he was saying before turning back to face the group. His comrade nodded silently, snapping a crisp salute before running off toward the town proper.

“Indeed” he nodded. “You’ve done well, Master Spike, but we can take it from here.”

An odd little grin cracked Spike’s lips for just a second.

“As you wish, sir Bastion.” Spike bowed deeply, speaking with an overly pompous air that drew several confused looks from the surrounding ponies. “Shall I escort you anon?”

The guard named Bastion cocked an eyebrow. “That…won’t be necessary…thank you.”

He stepped away, trotting out through the archway that served as the entrance to the station boarding platform. With a flick of his muzzle, he gestured toward the town and waited silently, watching each of them in turn.

Spike simply shrugged.

“Fun guy, dontcha think?” He said to no one in particular.

“Spike…” Twilight whispered, leaning in close to her dragon friend. “You don’t know anything about what’s in that message, do you?”

“Huh? Oh no, sorry.” He shook his head. “I tried to read it before you got here, but every time I did, that guy practically had a fit. All I know is it’s a white ribbon message. Must be pretty important.”

He paused, eyeing her warily.

“Hey, Twi, you alright? You look awful.”

“Spike!” Rarity scowled. “It is ungentlemanly to speak to a lady in such a way.” She glanced at Twilight’s mane. Almost immediately, her front hooves began to twitch slightly, as though she were barely resisting the urge to tidy every wayward strand.

“I’m just worried, that’s all” he protested. “You guys look like you’ve barely slept.”

“It’s alright, Rarity” Twilight sighed. “We’re just exhausted; it’s been a long couple of days.”

“We cannot delay for any longer, Miss Spar-“

“YES, I KNOW, thank you, captain obvious!” she snapped, panting heavily.

Spike simply blinked at her with a vague expression of something between shock and concern.

“I guess so…Remind me not to tell you that I haven’t gotten around to re-shelving the historical figures section of the library yet.”

Applejack nudged Twilight gently with her muzzle.

“Come on shug, we better get moving. We don’t wanna attract any more attention here.”

She sighed, taking a moment to steady herself.

“I don’t think he’s gonna let you guys come with me…” Twilight muttered apologetically. “I guess Fluttershy will have to wait. Again.”

“Don’t let it worry ya none, shug. Rarity, Spike and Ah will go and see her while you finish up whatever it is you and colonel stick-in-the-mud have gotta do.”

“Alright…in that case, here…” Twilight reached into her saddlebags, resurfacing with a small purse of bits ensconced in a bubble of purple mist. With a wave of her horn, she placed a small pile of bits in Spike’s hand, and withdrew the rest into the bag once more
.

“Go to Sugarcube Corner and pick up some of Fluttershy’s favorite cakes - she likes the pineapple ones - and wait for me at her cottage. Tell her I’m really sorry and that I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Don’t worry, Darling, I’m sure Fluttershy will understand. It’s not your fault that Princess Celestia assigned such a brute as her mailcolt.”

“Thanks, guys” Twilight said as she trotted after the guard, who still stood silently waiting at the gate. The moment that she drew near, he cantered ahead, his head swiveling this way and that to make sure that they were not being followed. With a wave and a wish of good luck, she saw her friends off and resigned herself reluctantly to the task at hoof.

The center of Ponyville was not far from the station, and so it did not take more than a few minutes of silent walking before the familiar silhouette of her favorite tree came into view. At present, it looked a little worse for wear, having apparently lost some of its lower branches in the recent earthshakes, but it would always look like home to her. Despite her general frustration with her situation, she couldn’t help but feel slightly warmed at seeing it once again after being away for the past two weeks.

As they trotted up to the aged wooden door, Bastion paused, extending one ivory wing to block her path. With a low grunt, he took off high into the air, circling the tree and surveying the area for several moments before landing once more, nodding to no one in particular.

“Apologies, Miss Sparkle. I had to ensure that the perimeter was secure.”

“Thanks” she spat, not caring to disguise her impatience. “Where’s the letter?”

Without a word, he opened his saddlebag with one wing, withdrawing a long scroll bound at the center with a plain white ribbon. As it floated into the grasp of her magic, she couldn’t help but stare at it in wonder for a moment. The Princess had familiarized her with the color-based hierarchy of royal scrolls, but never before had she seen a white ribbon attached to one of her mentor’s letters.

“Are you alright, Miss-“

“Yes, thank you” she muttered, pushing past him. With a steadying breath, she trotted through the door, taking care to close the door as quietly as she could before drawing a small, rickety stool from the desk across the room. She plunked down heavily on its surface, much to the stool’s creaking chagrin, and unfurled the letter. All the while, Bastion stood watch outside, occasionally glancing in through the window.

The paper was the same thick, faintly perfumed gauge which typically housed the Princess’s missives, though even at a glance, she could tell that its contents were anything but pleasant. Princess Celestia’s leisurely, slanting scrawl had a peculiarly hardened edge, as though she had pressing a bit too deeply into the paper when she wrote. But before she could even begin reading, her eyes were drawn to a vaguely disturbing image located in the center of the paper.

Twilight held the paper at a distance to get a better view of the image. The picture was expertly drawn, though it showed no evidence of artistic flair or stylization. It was a single, asymmetrical, dark gem attached to a long chain, like a pendant, with no apparent decoration save for a few crudely carved notches around the base of the gem. It was a striking object, somehow both elegant and ugly all at once. She stared at it for a few moments, memorizing its every detail, before continuing.

My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

I apologize for the confusing nature in which circumstance has forced me to contact you. You must be wondering why I could not simply speak to you in person at the Celebration. Such is the nature of the news I bear that it mandates that the information contained herein remains between the two of us, and the two of us alone. You may remember my lessons, however brief, on the different varieties of magic that exist throughout Equestria. The most prominent variety is that which flows through the Elements of Harmony. However, contrary to what you have been taught, this magic was not always the most powerful magic known to pony kind. Long ago, in the time before my rule, there existed other forms just as, if not more powerful than the Elements. I do not wish to alarm you, Twilight, but I have reason to believe that an artifact of such power has recently appeared in Equestria and is more than likely to be associated with the recent spree of disasters occurring throughout the land. The one in question, if my memory serves me correctly, looks something like the image below.

“More powerful than…” Her voice trailed off absently as her vision hung briefly on the image of the peculiar pendant once more. Her eyes moved ever faster as her academic mind thrilled with a mixed sensation of fear and archaic curiosity.

This is an object of tremendous power, and it was sealed away long ago for that reason. If this were to fall into the wrong hooves, the results could be disastrous. As such, I must devote every effort to finding it as soon as possible to mitigate any potential damage. I cannot know for sure where this object is located, but I have reason to suspect that it is somewhere in the vicinity of the Everfree Forest. If you should, at any point, become aware of this object’s presence, notify me immediately. DO NOT attempt to handle it or analyze it in any way, and DO NOT allow anypony else to come into contact with it if avoidable.

I am deeply sorry for involving you in this, Twilight, but it is of the utmost importance that this situation be handled delicately. If it is known that such a power exists, I fear others will either panic or try to seek it for themselves. You may post copies of this picture and tell others that it is missing, but treat it as a strictly non-magical royal family heirloom that has been stolen by an unknown thief. This will maintain consistency with the story being provided to the public by my guards around Equestria at this very moment. You must share the truth with none aside from the other Element Bearers. If somepony should find it before you, please inform the nearest guards of the situation so that they may observe the pony or ponies in question under the pretense of providing protection against the aforementioned thief.

Also, a warning: If one of the Element Bearers does accidentally come into contact with the object, they are to come with you to Canterlot immediately. It is imperative that you do not delay in this case, for the magic contained within the gem is by its nature at odds with the magic of the Elements. I have no way of knowing what would happen if two forces of such power were brought together, but I assure you that it would not be good.

I apologize in advance for my presumptuousness, but I have instructed Bastion to escort you on your investigation. He is an able soldier and he is more than capable of assisting you.

I understand that all of this is very sudden and warrants further explanation. Please, at your earliest convenience, gather your friends and come to Canterlot so that I may speak to you privately.

Twilight exhaled, not realizing that she had held her breath as she read the last parts of the letter. She read the letter again more slowly, then a third time to make sure she had read it correctly. Something was wrong. Aside from the obvious, Twilight had the feeling that the Princess was hiding something. She had said “if memory serves me correctly,” meaning that the princess had seen the artifact before, and up close at that, judging by the detail of her illustration. But, what had happened the first time it had been sealed away? Why was this the first time she had heard of such an object?

She groaned, letting the paper fall to the floor as she held her head in her hooves. As if her day hadn’t been troublesome enough as it was, now she had a pounding headache to contend with.

“Miss Sparkle?!”

Twilight nearly hit the ceiling at the sound of Bastion’s muffled voice. She tumbled from the stool, cursing loudly as it shot out from under her, slamming into a nearby bookshelf and jarring several of its topmost tomes from their roost.

The door flew open, slamming against the library wall with deafening force. In seconds, Bastion was standing over her, extending a hoof to help her up.

“Miss Sparkle, are you alri-“

“ARE YOU INSANE?!” She snapped, smacking his hoof aside and glaring at him from her position on the floor. “You nearly killed me!”

The guard backpedaled frantically as she leapt to her feet.

“A…apologies, Miss, I-I just saw that you-”

“MOVE.”

She was beyond caring about staying on pleasant terms with her new companion at this point. She shoved past him, making for the door as quickly as she could.

She remained stonily silent as she bolted out the door, running as fast as her legs would carry in toward the edge of town. None of it made much sense, but she reasoned that there wasn‘t much point in worrying about what exactly Celestia had meant when she said that that object was more powerful than the Elements of Harmony; it would have to wait until she could meet Celestia in person.

Without another word, Bastion followed quickly behind her. She scowled when she heard his hoofsteps, but did not turn back to face him.

“So let me get this straight.” She hissed, her brain working furiously. “You already knew that Fluttershy had found this…thing…and you were gonna wait until I read your precious letter before you let me see her?”

Bastion blinked in surprise for a moment before he answered.

“You agree that this matter takes priority then-“

“Priority over what, exactly?!” She skidded to a halt, whirling angrily about. He only just barely managed to stop before slamming into her, and as a result he was just inches away when she began screaming in his face.

“You mean to tell me that you knew what kind of danger she was in, and you just sat by and watched while you waited for me to get back?”

"That's not what happ-"

"Why didn't I know about this sooner? If I had been able to be here in the first place, then-"

"The Princess did not want to alarm you while you had other duties to worry about" he said evenly. "It was her wish that everything proceed as normal until it was necessary for you to-"

"And another thing!" She spat, ignoring his efforts to keep the conversation calm. "If you already found this thing, why the hay are you still searching everypony's luggage? We could have been here hours ag-"

“MISS SPARKLE!”

Despite her ire, the force of Bastion’s voice hit her like a sledgehammer. He scowled deeply, though this was not the impotent frustration that he had displayed at the station. This time, he was truly angry.

“Do not dare to think that you know how to better handle this situation than a mare who has watched over this land for more than ten of your lifetimes” he rumbled, his voice low and deathly quiet.

“And do not dare to think that I, as one of the forsworn guardians of Equestria, would ever willingly put one of Princess Celestia’s subjects in danger. Is that clear?”

Twilight said nothing, but simply scowled at the ground. Bastion simply glared at her for a time until he seemed to remember himself, coughing awkwardly as he tried with what grace he could muster to resume his military impartiality.

“Apologies, Miss Sparkle. I did not intend to…lose my temper” he muttered. “I should have been more thorough in my previous explanation with regards to my awareness of Miss Fluttershy’s condition.”

Much to Twilight’s surprise, he bowed deeply, getting down on both forehooves as he prostrated himself before her.

“Please forgive me for my oversight. I should have explained that Miss Fluttershy is perfectly safe and that we have the…object in question under careful observation. There is no immediate danger, I promise you” he said, his words muffled somewhat as he was speaking into the ground. “We were simply ordered to make you aware of the situation before bringing you into contact with the object in the case that we should locate it before you. The Princess is being very careful to minimize potential fallout.”

“Oh…well…that’s, um…that’s a little different, then…” Twilight stuttered. They had not made it past the center of Ponyville just yet, and the guard’s behavior was drawing quite a few wry stares that were making her uncomfortable.

"That is why we are still searching, and that is why you and your friend were held up in line. Until we confirm that the object in question is the genuine article, we cannot afford to be careless. Do you understand?"

Suddenly, she felt horrible, like a child being reprimanded by their father. She looked away, idly pawing at the ground with her hoof.

"...Y-yes...You're right. I-I'm sorry..."

“Then you agree that it would have been foolish to allow you to proceed without understanding the danger?”

“Yes, yes I do. I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn't have yelled at you. Just…just stop doing that.”

“Do you accept my apology?”

From somewhere off to her right, a husky female voice called out.

“WHOO! Go get ‘em, Twilight!”

Shut up Vinyl.

“Yes, yes, of course! Just get up, already!”

Bastion said nothing, but immediately obeyed. Without so much as a nod in her direction, he sped off in the direction of the shabby dirt road that led to Fluttershy’s cottage. After only a moment’s hesitation, she stomped off after him, blushing furiously.

This is going to be a long night, she thought.

As the two ponies sped away from the library and disappeared from view, a lonely figure sat on his porch, watching them with amused curiosity. He smiled to himself, getting up from his seat with a satisfied groan and ambling leisurely back inside his home. As he walked, he whistled merrily to no one in particular. Though he wouldn’t have said it out loud, he was feeling a lot better than he had in quite a long time.

This is going to be a perfect night, he thought.

Next time on Skyfall: Chapter 7: Revelation

Revelations (Part 1)

Skyfall

Concept and Writing by Viktor Lionheart
Chapter 7: Revelation

At the far end of the room, the little object silently taunted her from its perch atop its pedestal. Princess Luna scowled at it for a moment, daring it to defy her as she took a deep breath and tried to focus.

This is easy. She told herself. Just stop fooling around and do it already.

As her lungs filled to capacity, she pinched off the stream of air and held it. Almost immediately, she felt her heartbeat begin to slow, and the tug of energy beginning to pour into her horn. The flow began as a steady trickle, then slowly grew, a faint azure light collecting in a tiny point at the peak of her vision. She exhaled, and as the air left her lips, the weight seemed to melt from her shoulders, peeling away until the very ground seemed to disappear from beneath her hooves.

Floating…She was…floating. It was eerie, in a way, as though she was slowly submersing herself in a depthless pool of water, feeling the air dissolve into a clammy, clinging blanket that perfectly fitted the contours of her body. Her skin tingled pleasantly as she reveled in the feeling, the sudden influx of magical power that surged from within her gut. It had been far too long since she had had to focus this intensely to accomplish anything with her magic, and the heady rush of exertion made her mind run wild with possibilities.

No…don’t get distracted. There’s no way to brute force this.

Luna drew another long breath, holding it for a moment before letting it go, shaking herself mentally to regain her focus. Slowly, the flood of giddily inspiring magic ebbed slightly, and stabilized. It felt strange, even a little silly, to have allowed the sensation to consume her over something so little. Her lips twitched slightly at the flash of embarrassment, but she suppressed it, and instead tried to tell herself that the ease with which she otherwise could have handled such a menial task was exactly the point of this exercise.

“You remember. It’s the same method, essentially. Simply will your objective to happen. Do not try to bend the magic to your will, but rather, allow it to follow its natural course. Magic like this is no mere tool, Luna. It is very much alive.”

The words seemed to come from far away, barely audible above the rumbling fury of the silvery fluid that swirled slowly around her. Though it was a bit odd to witness the flow of magic around her with her eyes open, it was not a situation to which she was entirely unaccustomed. The rhythm and flow of the current was as familiar to her as the face of an old friend, and she had seen it many times before whenever she had attempted any of her more demanding spells. But deep below its surface, concealed beneath the myriad roiling eddies, was something new, something that she had heard countless times before but had never truly taken the time to appreciate. It was speaking to her, too, though its voice was much softer, much less distinct. She strained to drive all other noise from her thoughts, but the whispering call only seemed to shy further and further away, taunting her from the edge of her awareness.

“I…I still can’t make it out…” she frowned, her eyes beginning to water. “It doesn’t sound any different than-“

“You’re over-thinking it,” the voice called patiently. “Relax. Do not think of them as separate words, but a constant flow of sound. The rhythm will come naturally.”

She nodded, biting deeply into her bottom lip to force herself not to blink. There, at the center of her vision, the silhouette of the object of her attention sputtered angrily, the shining bands of energy splitting chaotically away as the thing seemed to repel every bit of magic that came close. Her instinct told her to reach toward it as she had always done, to guide the strands of silver energy closer, but she forced herself to be patient, to wait for the sounds to resurface. For an instant, she had the fleeting impression of a young schoolfilly struggling to grasp her latest lesson. With a powerful effort, she swatted her frustration away, trying instead to focus on taking slow, easy breaths.

“That’s it. Do not think of this as magic. It is something far more visceral, far more intimate.”

Slowly, the sensation of weightlessness returned, and she found herself once more surrounded by the tittering cacophony. The object shivered slightly, like a wary creature surveying its surroundings, unsure whether it was safe to reveal itself. As the familiar shape once more began to resolve, the sounds grew louder, and she found her lips moving in rhythm of their own accord.

“Meccus…Sentra…Crosum…Tosk…”

She paused, silently testing the weight of each syllable as they repeated themselves on an endless loop. Gradually, her voice grew more confident as the motions became familiar.

“Meccus…Sentra…Crosum…Tosk…”

“Very good. Once more.”

“Meccus…Sentra…Crosum…Tosk…”

“Again.”

“Meccus…Sentra…Crosum…TOSK!”

As the last word left her lips, the vase atop the pedestal at the far end of Luna’s bedroom shot high into the air as if by its own motivation. It hovered there for an instant before warping fantastically, its fragile porcelain shell ballooning explosively, then collapsing over and over again in a mad aerial dance. With a final, resounding pop, the object abruptly ceased in its display, snapping violently back into focus.

As the vase settled gracefully back down upon its perch, its elegantly curved mouth humming in a low, steady tone as its sides continued to vibrate, Luna held her breath, enthralled by the sight of her creation. Where once had sat a squat, dull, age-faded bit of quaint decoration now stood a shining example of the artistic prowess of the pre-Harmonian era at its peak. Every aspect of the object’s physiology had been completely repaired, even the jagged crack that had traversed the entire length of what was now a beautifully drawn image of a dancing dragon with scales of deepest ruby-red.

“Wow…” Luna breathed, her mouth hanging open as though to say something else, but any other words she might have uttered were lost to her wonderment. She darted to the vase, levitating it gently with her magic, examining every nook and cranny of its ornate anatomy with childlike rapture.

“Wow, indeed…” the voice behind her agreed. “That was, what, your third attempt?”

Luna did not turn to face him as her tail gave a small twitch of annoyance.

“Give me a break. It’s not like I’ve had hours to practice and study. I only just heard about this today.”

The voice chuckled warmly, this time drawing Luna’s attention briefly away from her work. She couldn’t help but grin slightly as the alicorn behind her smiled a tiny smile.

“I meant that it’s extraordinary that you’ve been able to grasp it this quickly, Luna,” her father said, gliding silently closer. He, too, took a moment to study the little vase, appraising it with the same small, yet friendly grin. “True, you did use a bit more energy than was necessary, but still…this is amazing…not even a trace of damage…”

Luna blinked thoughtfully as an idea occurred to her. Not bothering to draw on the power of the arcane language this time, she closed her eyes, effortlessly probing beneath the thin layers of paint, examining every tiny granule and imperfection below the vase’s surface. At least, she tried to do so; despite herself, her eyes popped open for a moment, blinking rapidly in surprise. She caught herself, shaking her head at what must have been an obvious oversight, and closed her eyes once more.

Again and again she launched the fingers of her consciousness into the glittering material. Sure enough, she came to the same result no matter how thoroughly she searched. The porcelain was perfect. Impossibly so; no crafter she knew of, however skilled, could have ever forged such a masterpiece.

“…It’s…It’s not just been fixed…” she stammered, stepping backward as she eyed the impossible thing with increasing wonder. “It’s not even old anymore. How is that…?”

“As I said...” the ghostly alicorn nodded, still smiling gently. “There’s no topping the original thing.”

Without warning, Luna’s face cracked wide with a hungry grin. Her entire body suddenly felt fully and intoxicatingly alive. She was inspired, and eager to test this new source of power on anything within hoof’s reach. She spun about, her eyes sweeping the room for anything on which she could focus.

With an excited little snort, Luna selected a tiny doll from its place atop the dresser by her bed. Immediately she focused, forcing all other objects out of her awareness, and tried with some effort to slow her breathing. Almost instantaneously, the streams of silvery magic flashed into existence around her, and with them, the welcoming sound she sought.

She exhaled, holding a single thought in her mind, allowing the muscles in her face to relax as her lips began to move unbidden once more. The sounds and their constant melody came more easily this time, and she found the syllables within seconds.

“…Valera…Erus…Urso…Havim…” she chanted, smiling triumphantly as the doll immediately obeyed. Its tiny limbs shot out from its body, hovering erect for a moment before they each began to twirl in rhythm with her voice. It rose from its seat, spinning gracefully through a series of pirouettes, its dance becoming increasingly inspired and energetic as her chant continued. With a leap and a final, twirling flip, the doll landed at the edge of her dresser and concluded its performance with a dainty bow before clumsily flopping down on its back to move no more.

“Fantastic…this is fantastic!” she chirped, positively giddy with anticipation. The doll had barely finished its dance before her eyes began anew in their search for another subject with which to experiment. In moments, her gaze was drawn to a small, dark shape upon her nightstand, and her excitement sputtered slightly as recognition sank in.

As though sensing her thoughts, her father turned his attention away from the restored vase, following Luna’s line of vision to the little book on the table across the room. He did not move, but simply watched in quiet curiosity as she trotted forward, gently lifting the tome into the grip of her magic and idly turning the tattered yellow pages.

Suddenly, he frowned, leaning closer to get a better look at the object. Luna, however, paid him no heed; she was far too preoccupied to notice much of anything besides the crumbling tome before her.

“...Is that…?”

His features drooping somewhat, the pale alicorn slid nearer to his daughter. As his eyes fell upon the slanting, elegant text that covered the aged paper, his face tightened slightly, though only for a moment.

“Aurora…”

“Huh?” Luna blinked, her attention disturbed by her father’s sudden proximity.

With the same eerie silence that always accompanied his movements, he leaned closer, his silver-blue mane drifting before Luna’s face.

“…Hm…So she kept her promise. Good,” he whispered, his voice utterly devoid of any emotion.

Luna relaxed slightly, gently transferring the book into the grasp of her father’s magic. As she did so, she couldn’t help but notice a peculiar look in the pale alicorn’s eyes. The knowing weight in his gaze seemed to give his features a slightly harder, though not unkind edge. In a way, she thought, he resembled an elder lion, grizzled with age yet never completely relaxed, always watchful for its next meal. The thought sent a tiny chill shooting down her spine; her father was definitely a King in every sense of the word, and even without a proper body, he was a distinctly intimidating individual.

She shifted uncomfortably. Testing her ability to use the ancient form of magic had distracted her from the looming awkwardness of her father’s presence in her chambers. Now, in the lull following the heady rush of her success, the feeling was returning full force, and she found herself looking away as he silently examined the little book.

“What’s wrong, Lulu?”

Luna started slightly as his deep, delicate voice slid over the familiar name. Only Celestia had ever called her that.

“W-What?”

“You look troubled.” He cocked an eyebrow, then added, “Is my company so unpalatable?”

That same heavy look lingered in his eyes as a tiny sliver of white cracked through his lips.

“…I-I…N-n-no, I…” she stuttered, suddenly furious with herself, though she wasn’t exactly sure why. Immediately, she swallowed deeply in an effort to swat aside her childish fluster, but to no avail.

“I never…” she whispered, one hoof working spastically up and down her right foreleg. “I-I did not mean to-“

But the rest of her sentence was lost beneath the sound of her father’s delicate laughter.

“Perhaps you are not so skilled with words as your abilities may suggest,” he chuckled. “I wonder if Celestia finds it so easy to reduce you to a stuttering foal.”

“H-hey! That’s not-“

But that only seemed to heighten his mirth. At a loss for words, Luna blushed furiously, yet before long her lips began to twitch in eagerness to join in the laughter. She finally settled on swallowing again, tossing her mane to the side as though to shake aside her discomfort.

“That wasn’t fair. How the hay am I supposed to know how to respond when you put it so bluntly like that?”

“Perhaps,” he whispered, his expression losing some of its levity. “But in my experience, such things have a way of festering and can lead to a great many hurt feelings when left untended. Which is why I must say that I do not think it proper for me to demand anything from you of which you would not willingly give. Your time being included.”

Luna stepped forward instinctively, her mouth opening wide to offer her retort, though she did not find the gesture nearly as encouraging as she had hoped.

“I never said that you were bothering me…” she muttered, half-apologetically. “And it’s not like I mind. I just-”

But she was interrupted by a harsh squeal from the far end of the room. For a second time, Luna started violently, completely losing any traces of composure she still retained.

Her condition was not helped by the guilt-heavy expression on her sister’s face as she emerged from behind the heavy mahogany door to Luna’s chambers. She paused, eyeing Luna with a curious intensity for a moment before her gaze shifted suddenly to her father, and finally to the small, dark book that still hung motionless in the air.

“I’m…sorry…” Celestia began uncertainly. “Is this a bad time?”

Before Luna could respond, her father stepped forward to greet her sister.

“Not at all, Celestia. Is everything alright?”

As seemed to be his wont, his tone had effortlessly cast aside any trace of the preceding conversation in favor of adopting a very stiff, businesslike demeanor. It unnerved Luna somewhat that her father could change tracks so easily like that, and she found herself pausing as she had several times earlier that day to wonder dimly at the fact that she could not read anything from the anomalous alicorn.

Of course, whispered a tiny voice at the edge of her thoughts, that does make a certain sort of sense. I only just met him, really.

She wondered briefly if he shared something like the subtly nauseating twinge of worry that festered in the back of her mind at his unexpected frankness. She was conflicted, half thankful that Celestia had returned to ease the tension, half annoyed that their conversation had been interrupted, and otherwise angry with herself for causing the look on her sister’s face with her own clumsy floundering at failing to hide how uncomfortable she was feeling at the moment.

It will have to wait, whispered that same little voice. Just be glad she’s here.

Without another moment’s hesitation, Luna shook aside her misgivings, adopting a hopeful grin. She gently took hold of the little dark book and replaced it upon the nightstand by her side.

Celestia’s gaze lingered on the two for a moment longer before she sighed heavily, closing the door with a wave of her horn. As the heavy slab of wood swung on the massive iron hinges that supported it, the same sharp, grating squeal split the air before ceasing with a heavy clunk as the locking mechanism fell into place.

“Yes, yes, more or less…I’m sorry I had to run out like that,” Celestia breathed, walking slowly toward the window of the spacious room. With another flick of her horn, she undid the clasp on the tiffany windowpanes, throwing them wide to allow a warm breeze to filter into the room. She stood there for several seconds, reveling in the feeling of the fresh flow of air through her mane.

Seeming to compose herself a bit more completely, Celestia began to turn about when her gaze caught for a second on the shining porcelain vase.

“What…” She squinted, moving closer. Like the other two alicorns before her, she too levitated the object before her wondering eyes, turning it over to examine its entire surface.

“...Father, did you do this?”

The elder alicorn simply smiled, casting a hinting glance toward his younger daughter. Her excitement returning at her sister’s apparent fascination with the object, Luna immediately beamed.

“What do you think?” She asked brightly. A tiny, prideful grin cracked the edges of her mouth, but she did not take particular care to hide it.

Celestia seemed to take a moment before the full meaning of Luna’s question set in. When it did, her brow shot skyward, and the vase wobbled dangerously as it nearly fell from her grasp.

“Luna?! But how…?”

“I’m surprised that you have to ask,” her father stated matter-of-factly. “Your sister’s talents are formidable indeed.”

Celestia seemed positively floored. Her face contorted in an odd series of spasms as it struggled to express all of her emotions at once.

“You…you taught her?” she stammered, her gaze leaping from father to sister. “You taught her without my permission?!”

In an instant, Luna’s smile disappeared. She had expected praise, maybe a bit of surprised congratulation. She had not expected her sister to sound angry.

If her father shared her surprise, he did not show it. Instead, he frowned slightly, raising a transparent hoof-like extension to bid Celestia fall silent.

“Before you fly off the handle, I had a very good reason,” he explained patiently. “Your sister is and always has been, as you put it, enthralled by the world of magic and exploring its applications. I simply thought that this would be an effective ice breaker.”

Celestia’s jaw twitched slightly, but her tone remained controlled.

“Did you not also think that there was a reason that she had not studied the Word?”

“It’s okay, sis…” Luna offered a placating smile. “We both know why it was outlawed, and we were not about to do anything reckless. Besides, I’m the one who agreed to it. I thought that maybe-”

Her efforts did not seem to have the intended effect. If anything, Celestia looked even angrier.

“And what possessed you to think that breaking the law was a good idea? That by itself was reckless enough. Those laws exist for a reason.”

With a spark of chagrin, Luna’s own lips curled into an annoyed frown. She had never been fond of the motherly tone that her sister was currently employing.

“It’s just a vase, Celestia.”

“That’s not the point, and if you really knew what you were talking about, you’d be aware of that.”

“I’m not an idiot, Celly! I am aware of the danger. And I’m sure our father is perfectly capable of teaching me.”

“I don’t want to hear-” Celestia spat, but before she could utter another word, the breath seemed to catch in her throat. She paused for a moment, taking a long, deep breath in the heavy silence before continuing. When she did, it was with a visibly appreciable degree of self-control.

“…Yes. Yes, you’re right…I’m sorry.” With that, her anger seemed to disappear in favor of the same weary weight that she had carried with her upon her entrance. She ran one hoof tiredly across her face, her horn glowing dimly as she pulled on the thick alarum cord beside Luna’s bed. Almost instantaneously, a youthful unicorn mare in maid’s attire appeared with a muted pop at Celestia’s side.

“How may I assist you, Lady Luna?” the mare inclined, bowing deeply.

“It’s for me, actually.” Celestia gestured to draw the maid’s attention. “On second thought, I’ll need something a bit stronger for tonight. Please have Dark Roast prepare some of his coffee for me.”

“As you wish, milady.” With another dainty bow and a flash of light, the maid was gone.

“Celestia?” Luna’s annoyance had gone, and she now eyed her sister with a puzzled frown. “What’s wrong? What’s…tonight?”

Celestia took another deep breath as though to steady herself. When she spoke, she stared at an invisible point between the two of them, not truly speaking to one or the other.

“Major Chevron’s unit has located the Stone,” she whispered, her tone flat.

“What?!” The elder alicorn’s translucent form jumped forward several inches. “Already?”

Celestia simply nodded. In mere seconds, the room had seemed emptied of its air, its silence suddenly oppressive and grim.

“Was…was somepony hurt? What do you mean he located it?” asked Luna, her eyes frantically searching both faces for any sign of hope to remove the lump from her throat.

“Thankfully, just one. And her injuries are not serious.”

“W-wait…that’s a good thing, isn’t it? This is good news!” Luna said hopefully, alarmed at the dire expression on her relatives’ faces. “Isn’t it?”

Her father said nothing. Though neither pony confirmed it, she could sense that he and Celestia both knew that they were thinking the same thing.

“Perhaps.” Celestia muttered. “But I’ve not ordered the guards to cease in their search just yet. I never expected to find it this quickly.”

“Nor did I. What about him? You said that Chevron found the Stone, but-”

“Nothing.” Celestia shook her head, her features taut. “Not a sign just yet.”

“Hmm…That’s very bizarre. I don’t like that at all.”

“There’s no need to go jumping to the worst case scenario just yet,” Celestia replied sternly, more out of an effort to keep herself from openly agreeing with her father for Luna’s sake than anything else. “I’ve had the property in question under constant surveillance since we first learned of the discovery, and the Bearers are being escorted by a full flight of guards as we speak. For now, the Bearers are safe and we have the primary threat under control. His power is severely limited without the Stone.”

“So what will we do?” Luna fidgeted slightly as she spoke. “What’s happening tonight?”

“Tonight,” replied Celestia, regaining a bit of her confidence, “we will be entertaining the Element Bearers, seeing as how it was Fluttershy who found the Stone.”

“Fluttershy…” Luna’s brow shot skyward as the name connected with a face in her memory. “That sweet little pegasus from Ponyville? The Bearer of Kindness?”

“The very same. Don’t worry, Luna…” Celestia’s tone softened somewhat at the alarmed expression on her sister’s face. “She’s been examined by Ponyville’s top physician and seems to have suffered little more than some minor burns and a bit of lost sleep. We’ll have her checked out at the Mendwell Hospital before she leaves.”

Luna sighed in relief, but a crease of worry still marred her brow.

“Where is the Stone now?” Her father’s cold, all-business tone cut through the momentary lull, bringing them jarringly back to topic.

“It’s on the way here, father. Major Chevron is carrying it personally with him to Canterlot with an escort of thirty guards.”

“Separately from the Bearers?”

“Of course. It should be arriving at any moment.”

“Then we have no time to waste.” He nodded briskly, turning to address his youngest daughter. “Luna, I’m sorry but we will have to continue our lessons at another time.” He paused, then added as an afterthought, “If that’s alright with your sister.”

Celestia did not immediately respond. Whether her mind was on other things or if she simply was still not fond of the idea, Luna wasn’t sure, but her sister’s jaw worked back and forth in silence for several moments before she spoke.

“Fine. I’m glad that you two have something in common…” she sighed. “And I’m sorry for blowing up before, just…just be careful. You need to make sure that she understands the danger that comes with using that power.”

“I already told you, Celly, I -“

“As you wish.” He shot an oddly distant glance in Luna’s direction that she couldn’t quite place. “In the meantime…” his gaze lifted back to rest on Celestia, “are you prepared?”

“…There are a few points about which I would like to speak with you. We can talk about it on the way down.”

“Wait…what do you mean “we?”” Luna looked first at Celestia, then to her father. She didn’t like the way her sister had said that. It almost sounded as though-

“I’m afraid that I have other work that cannot wait to be attended to, Luna. I’m sorry, but I’m going to need you to see to it while father and I handle the current development.”

“What?!” Luna stomped the ground with one hoof despite herself. “Don’t be ridiculous. I can help-“

Celestia’s hoof shot upward as she fixed Luna a firm, but not unkind look.

“I know, Luna. It’s not a question of your ability or your right to have a say in this case. We simply cannot afford to have our nation come to a complete stop, especially at a time like this.”

“But…” Luna scowled. “There’s no need to keep me in the dark, either. I need to know just as much as you do about what’s happening.”

“Now Luna, do not be stubborn. We have no intention of excluding you,” her father chided. “Besides, this is nothing more than a briefing of sorts. The Element Bearers will be made aware of the current situation insofar as it pertains to them, and we will ask them a few questions about the circumstances surrounding Fluttershy’s discovery of the Stone.”

“Insofar as it pertains to them? That’s a little vague. What does that mean exactly?”

“Exactly what it says. They will be told what they need to know, and nothing more.”

Luna blinked a couple of times as she processed what that meant.

“…I don’t know if lying to them is wise at a time like this, Chronus.” She hovered uncertainly on that word for a moment. Across the room, Celestia’s expression gave an odd spasm as though she were about to protest at Luna’s use of their father’s name, but she said nothing.. “Wouldn’t it be safer, given the circumstances, to give them the full story?”

“I don’t think so, Luna. Not at this time.”

“Celly?”

Luna had not expected Celestia to be the one who answered. She regarded her sister with a look of wary curiosity.

“At present, their understanding of the Elements must be maintained. Don’t worry; I will take measures to ensure that they do not try to use their power in such a way that they would be put in harm’s way. Any alternative may only endanger them further and would only make this more difficult for everypony involved.”

“She’s right, Luna,” Chronus said. For now, maintaining their perception is a necessary evil. If we can handle this discreetly, we can minimize any potential fallout.”

“...Hang on…” Luna squinted as though she thought she could pick out some minute, betraying detail of Celestia’s expression. Something about her sister’s tone had put her off.

“What do you mean by “potential fallout?” The two of you seem like you’ve talked about this before.” , she rustled her wings irritably, suddenly distinctly annoyed. “Why wasn’t I involved when this was first discussed?”

“Frankly, you were asleep.” Her father chuckled a bit as he spoke. “Had I been able to time my arrival with a bit more etiquette, we would have involved you in the conversation as well.”

“I’m sorry, Luna. We would have discussed this later today, but I wanted you two to have some time to get to know each other a little and I’m afraid things are moving quite a bit more quickly than we’d anticipated. We’ll make sure to involve you in all of the planning from here on in.”

Luna’s frown deepened slightly. She was starting to feel like a bit of a fifth wheel in their little trio.

“But what kind of “fallout” are you worried about? It’s not as if any of them-”

“Another time.” A vague note of impatience had crept into Chronus’ tone. “If we’re going to be ready, we need to move quickly. I’m sorry, Luna, but your questions will just have to wait for now.”

“Which brings us to your duties for the night.” Celestia blinked, and as she did, a heavy scroll burst into existence before her eyes, bathed in a soft pinkish light from her horn. Her eyes darted nimbly back and forth in silence for several seconds before she nodded curtly to herself as though to confirm what she had read, and then she levitated the object into Luna’s grasp.

“I have outlined everything that needs to be tended to on that list; I trust your judgment as to which matters take priority.”

Luna’s lips still clung stubbornly to the front of her teeth in a sour expression, but she did not voice her displeasure. Instead, she took the scroll dejectedly from her sister’s grasp and began to read the topmost line of the leisurely, elegant text of Celestia’s hoofwriting.

“That said, I do have a word of advice. Mayor Thunderhead’s request for financial assistance concerning the replacement of equipment at the old Cloudsdale weather factory should be given attention as soon as possible. I trust you remember what happened in the city last week.”

Luna nodded, her expression suddenly serious. “That reminds me. Bon Appetit should have finished analyzing the yogurt by now. I would like to keep the old machines for study, myself. I’m curious as to exactly how a device dedicated to forging thunderclouds managed to conjure up a storm of something so delicious.”

Chronus cocked an eyebrow, clearly at a loss for words. At this, Celestia loosed a tittering little laugh.

“As would I. In the meantime, duty calls.” She turned quickly about, trotting to the door as it opened with a soft pinkish glow. “Good luck, Luna. This should not take too long, but if you need any assistance, I have informed Second Lieutenant Blitz that he is to be at your side for the evening. He should be arriving soon.”

“…Thanks…” Luna muttered, her eyes not leaving the scroll. She knew the lieutenant; enough to know that he was even more humorless and less companionable than Captain Hussar.

Celestia paused for a moment her gaze lingering first on her sister, then on the vase by the window. She said nothing, but simply continued out the door and began to close it behind her, her father floating by her side.

Just before the door fell closed, Celestia turned her head, watching her father with a curiously intense look.

“Yes?” he said simply. Celestia wondered if he already knew what was on her mind.

Luna’s eyes remained fixed on the center of the paper, no longer reading the text but staring through it as she focused all of her attention on the door. She heard Celestia begin to answer, but her words were lost in a muffled heap as the heavy door clicked shut behind them.

The instant that the door had fallen closed, she loosed a heavy sigh, allowing the paper to slip from her grasp. It s wooden handle clattered to the floor, rolling several feet so that the heavy paper paved a path to the foot of her bed, but she paid it no heed. She would attend to it soon enough; something else was on her mind at the moment.

Lifting the ancient journal once more before her eyes, she began to leaf through the pages in search of a single particular page. Something about that page had leapt forth from her memory the moment that she had seen it after performing her spell on the vase.

In seconds she found it, staring at the single line of text that it bore. No decoration nor trace of ink marred the ancient paper, save for a simple inscription set into its center in tiny, hastily scribbled letters.

Raza Idun Nakoume. Never forget who you are.