The Smallest Star in the Sky
The Smallest Star in the Sky
King Solaris watched his two daughters racing in the distance, and smiled. How long had it been since he had seen them playing together like this? Both their manes had been still and one color. But then his smile faded as he felt a slight tug of imbalance coming from the ground far below. The Scarred Mare had obviously gotten bored again, and was probably in the process of painting the moon green or completely changing the position of Manehattan. These imbalances were becoming more and more regular. He sighed.
"There is nothing we can do dear," his wife, Queen Galaxia came up to stand beside him. "Equestria is no longer our responsibility."
"I know. But she is getting either stronger or weaker. I am just afraid what will happen when she gets completely fed up of-"
"That is no longer our responsibility either. But we can still hope."
"Yes. Hoping is the most powerful magic we can perform. Let us hope it works."
Cadance awoke from her nightmare with a start. It had been exactly the same as all her other ones. She would be flying through the Everfree Forest to the castle of the Two Sisters, when the sisters themselves would appear before her. They would keep saying "Find the six!" And Cadance would never know what they meant. Then her wings would disappear and she would fall to the ground. Then she would appear, with her flaming mane and empty eyes, and the ground beneath her hooves would turn into a swamp and shadows would creep up her legs and tail and mane. She always woke up before the shadows reached her face. The jolt from waking up caused Cadance to bang her head on the damp, stone wall behind her. As she rubbed her head, she remembered something. This time the dream had been different, and instead of the castle of the Two Sisters, she had been flying towards a dark ravine in the ground. Above the ravine had been the hazy image of stars in the night sky. One big one, with five smaller ones surrounding it. It seemed...familiar to her somehow. Six stars...could this be the "six" Celestia and Luna kept talking about in her nightmare? The bigger star, she remembered, was the same shape as the one on her husband's cutie mark, but how could he be connected to...
"...Twilight!" Cadance gasped in realization. The Scarred Mare must have performed a memory spell on her, because now she remembered about the Elements of Harmony.
"I have to find them!"
Cadance began to pull on the chain that surrounded her back hoof.
**** **** ****
The Scarred Mare frowned as she rotated the left-wing tower of Canterlot Castle to the position of her liking. She felt a pull of magic energy. Her mane flared up.
"Which pony dares use magic in my kingdom?" She snarled. "A teleportation spell, was it? No-one has used that spell since Twilight Sparkle!" The very name made her even angrier than she already was.
"Then who was it that-" She growled and flared her wings. "-Mi Amore Cadenza!"
The angry mare charged up her horn and went of to meet the threat.
**** **** ****
Cadance heard a clatter and jumped, looking behind her.
"Cadenza, how nice of you to drop by my private quarters..."
Cadence snapped her head back round to become face to face with an empty, scarred eye. She yelped and took a few steps back. The mare drew herself to her full height.
"And may I ask, where is it that you think you are going?" She charged up her horn and it glowed with what Cadance recognized as King Sombra's magic. Without waiting for Cadance to reply, she laughed and started circling around the princess.
"Not the Crystal Empire, is it? I'm afraid that was demolished a few years ago, my friend."
Cadance kept her eyes held on her challenger. " Not the Empire, no."
"To free your husband, perhaps?"
"No."
Cadance flinched when the abomination of jealousy leaned in close to her and spoke telepathically.
The Elements? Why ever would you need them?
Cadance stood up tall, but she still wasn't as tall as the Scarred Mare, and this made said pony smile.
Why would you want to defeat me? Things have been so peaceful recently. I wouldn't want to break that tranquility with a battle.
The mare's horn stopped glowing as Cadance took a step back. Her smile disappeared as she stood up. Her mane flared up even fiercer and her eyes narrowed.
Very well. Go and find the Elements, if you can. Then meet me back here for the battle!
She opened up a door that Cadance had missed, and it led outside. Cadance quickly flew through it and headed off for the Everfree Forest
Despite herself, Cadance smiled. "Alright. A battle it is. One against one!"
**** **** ****
The Scarred Mare growled as she prepared herself for battle. She needed something to ensure she would not lose to the Elements. Then she heard a voice in her head. "You will never lose to the Elements?" She repeated. "Oh Rainbow Dash, I will win!" She smiled as a protest came from a country voice at the back of her mind. "You five...you should have kept quiet! I now know how to defeat her. I just need time to find the right spell. So I may have to meddle with Cadance's journey a little bit..."
Cadance didn't know where the ravine was, but she knew that was were she would find the Elements. It was becoming dark, so she stayed above the trees. The six stars would appear soon so she would know where to fly. Now, though, she just had to hope she was going in the right direction. The moon was almost out, and she stayed still, waiting. But then, it started to get brighter. The moon was disappearing and the sun was rising again. Cadance only had time to gasp before her wings evaporated-for real, this time-and she plummeted to the ground. She landed hard on her front-right hoof and it fell beneath her. She had sprained it. A simple healing spell could fix that.
"I have to find the Elements first!"
Cadance looked at the rising sun and breathed out calmly, but heavily. It would seem she had to move the sun out of the way and raise the moon if she wanted to continue. At least the Scarred Mare hadn't taken away her horn. She decided, since the sun was already being moved, she would have to push the sun away by moving the moon.
"Come on, it can't be harder than activating the Crystal Heart. You've done this before, nevertheless without somepony pushing the sun the opposite way."She muttered as she focused on the sliver of moon she could still see. It was easier than she thought it would be to grab hold of the moon with her magic, but the weight she felt when the sun pushed down on the moon was overwhelming. She couldn't simply have a strength match with the Scarred Mare, so she decided to outmatch her in the amount of magic she used. She closed her eyes and concentrated, pulsing more magic into the moon, it was working, because the Scarred Mare obviously had left to do other things and prepare for combat, but the sun still had its own weight to match. She finally managed to get the moon halfway to the top position, but the sun was still visible. She sighed and let her determination flow through her, and grabbed the sun as well as the moon in her magic and passed strength from the sun into the moon.
Cadance collapsed on the ground when her chore was done, exhausted, only to find that the ground beneath her was a swamp-just like the one in her nightmare. She made to gallop out before any shadows could get to her, but winced as she remembered her sprained hoof. She didn't have the energy left to heal it, and so she limped towards the special constellation in the sky.
Cadance made it to the ravine, but almost collapsed again when she saw there was no way down. She was about to give up when she spied something on the ground. A discarded potion bottle. Inside was a purple liquid, only enough for one sip. She picked it up, wondering what it was. As soon as her magic touched the bottle, it changed to white. Cadance gasped.
"A time potion! Could this lead me to the Elements?" She raised it to her lips, unsure, but it was her only hope, and so she tipped it into her mouth. Her eyes flashed and all she could see for a second was white, until it faded and she realized that the ponies standing before her were none other than the five princess minors.
"How are we supposed to get down there?" One of them asked. Cadance listened in, until she heard a series of squeals and squeaks coming from below her. A pink pony was bouncing down a flight of stairs.
"Take the stairs, silly!" Pinkie Pie giggled.
The vision ended, and Cadence looked around for a flight of stairs, but could see none. The stairs had been directly below where she was standing, but there were none there now.
"Unless..." Cadance wondered.
She took a deep breath and put one hoof gingerly out into the ravine. It struck something solid though nothing was there. A spot of ground appeared where her hoof was. She took another step, and another, and a flight of stairs slowly appeared before her. She raced down them, eager to end her journey.
When she reached the bottom, she saw what you couldn't see when you stood above the ravine. A magnificent tree, made from crystal and silver stood before her. She saw in each of the branches, small coloured gems.
"The Elements!" Cadance gasped. She reached out to the nearest one, only to be knocked back by powerful magic. As she got up, groaning, she saw a blue box with six keys inserted into it. It was open, but it was empty.
"I need the Elements of Harmony!" She told the tree. "Can you please give them to me?" She got no answer. Though a magical tree, it was still a tree. Sighing, she reached out to touch the box. As soon as her hoof made contact with it, it glowed.
Cadance snatched her hoof away as it started to change shape. A glowing rainbow trail snaked from the Elements to the Element of Magic, which went from a sun to a moon. The trail surrounded the box and then died down, revealing the box to be closed once more and have a single key hole.
"A tiara!" Cadance was half glad that the key hole wasn't in the shape of her tiara, because she didn't have it on her. But then again, who's tiara was it? She glanced to the Element of Magic pulsing in the middle of the tree, and her mind sparked.
"Of course!" She reached into her mane were a second, plainer, silver tiara was disguised as a hair clip. It had lost it's magic since the anniversary, but Cadance had still kept it since the Scarred Mare didn't take it off her. She slotted it into the box and the box glowed once more. The light enveloped Cadance and she gasped at what she found inside.
**** **** ****
The Scarred Mare finished placing on Nightmare Moon's old armor and sighed contentedly.
"Finally. This armor gives me the power to beat Cadance!"
"You called me?"
She whipped around to find Cadance with her wings back and her hoof healed. She was wearing a saddle-bag and the contents scared the evil pony, but she hid it.
"Cadance! I assume you are ready to start the battle?"
"Yes!"
"Perfect. Then let us begin."
The Scarred Mare teleported them both to the throne room, which had been stripped of furniture and had been given a makeover with black, red and silver crystals.
"Ah yes. I thought you would feel more at home surrounded by crystals, and so I did something nice for you!"
" Your efforts were wasted!" Cadance screamed as she shot a beam of blue light at her enemy. It bounced of the armor and the Scarred Mare smiled.
"Oh, we've started have we? Very well!" She shot an identical beam of red light towards Cadance, who blocked it with a heart-shaped crystal shield. The shield broke down into pieces of lethal crystal and shot at the enemy, who snarled and melted them with her fiery tail. She then sent streaks of fire towards Cadance as she whipped her tail which was now glowing white hot. Cadance dodged them and slid along the floor.
"You WILL lose, Scarred Mare!" She shot another beam of light which hit the mare in the neck.
"No, you will lose!" She conjured black lasers out of her eyes which bounced off a mirror Cadance created.
"Enough games!" The Lady of Jealousy surrounded herself with fire, and shot towards the Crystal Princess at full speed. Cadance dodged by flying to the side, but the ball of fire followed her. She climbed higher and higher until she was face to face with the fire.
"YAAARRRRGGGGHHH!" The ball of fire cried as it crashed into Cadance, who plummeted to the floor. The fire subsided and the mare prepared to perform her final spell.
A weak princess shakily reached for her saddle bag which had landed beside her after her fall. She almost touched it but a bolt of red lightning prevented her from doing so. She looked up to see her enemy triumphantly levitating five unconscious ponies in front of her.
"Finally! I'm free from these pesky little voices. This armor supports me enough so that I no longer need these! Speaking of which, since they are of no use to me, you may have them back."
"What's the catch?" A weak Cadance replied.
"All you have to do is defeat me."
"That's easy, with the Elements." Cadance drew out the six things she had found inside the box from her saddle bag. The Scarred Mare laughed.
"Stupid girl! Those keys are not the Elements! Even if you did have the Elements, using them to destroy me would mean destroying these five pathetic ponies as well!"
"These keys ARE the Elements! I felt it as soon as I touched them. The spirits of the ponies who once held them are strong inside each one!" Cadance levitated the keys-the Elements-and spun them around herself, creating a bubble of light that protected her.
"Didn't you hear what I said? You will destroy these ponies in the process!" The Scarred Mare sounded panicked.
"You know as well as I know that the Elements would not destroy their owners!" The mare knew it all right. But, as the rainbow that would destroy her came rocketing towards her, she smiled, and cast one last spell...
The Scarred Mare was finally destroyed. The room returned to normal and Cadance's singed wings became healthy again. Her magic returned and the keys clattered to the floor. Despite the circumstances, the triumphant princess collapsed in gratitude. Suddenly the keys came to life once more, and began to glow. An orb of white light appeared and she had to cover her eyes. The light faded away with a final rainbow flash, and the pony that now stood before Cadance smiled.
Cadance rushed to hug the pony that had just appeared. She started to sob due to the ordeal she had faced and the pony let her cry a bit before wiping away her tears and putting her front hooves on her shoulders.
"Well done, Mi Amore Cadenza." Princess Luna said.
After Luna reversed all the spells that the Scarred Mare had cast on Equestria she called on the returned guards to prepare for a grand celebration in honor of the Crystal Princess. Luna corrected the positions of the sun and moon to the right ones to reveal that it was actually 8:00 am in the morning. There was just enough time to go around all the towns making sure everypony was okay. The celebration was to be in the evening and everyone who was anyone (even the dragons and diamond dogs) were welcome to attend. The castle ballroom was expanded to 10x its already massive size and everyone in the newly awoke we castle was busy.
At the celebration, Cadance asked Luna a question as they sipped their punch.
"Luna?"
"Yes?"
"Where is Celestia?"
"Ah." Luna's face fell. "Well, Celestia wasn't able to return to Equestria."
"Then how come you were able to?"
"Celestia...was needed to join Those in the Sky as her ruling time was up. Mine wasn't, but I decided to go with her anyway out of loyalty. I came back because someone needed to rule Equestria."
"Rule Equestria? What do I do, then?"
Luna smiled. "The Crystal Empire was not, in fact, destroyed. It was hidden by a glamour spell and the crystal ponies have been there ever since. I am sure they would like it if their princess returns."
"I can't wait to get back." A deep voice from behind them said.
Cadance whipped round.
"Shining!"
"Oof!" Shining Armor grunted as Cadance bowled him over in a big hug."I missed you to, Cadance."
As Cadance and Shining Armor were reunited, a thought occurred to her. The Princess Minors were not here. They had never been here in the first place. The Elements hadn't destroyed them. So what had? She remembered The Scarred Mare's smile as the rainbow came towards her.
The Scarred Mare had sent them to the same place she sent Twilight.
Cadance couldn't save them.
Author's Note
Whew! One-shots can be pretty tiring.
Anyway, even though I do have something planned, I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to create some art for this story? If you're interested please PM me.
Of course if the story already has art by the time you read it the above request is invalid. Thanks for sticking with me!
