In Which We Are Introduced to the Alicorns and They Play a Game
Celestia looked around. It was about Midnight. She saw a shadowy figure between the trees.
"Fauna!" She gasped under her breath, and grinned. Right then, the figure turned toward her, then bolted. Celestia chased her through the thick forest. They ducked and weaved through trees and branches. suddenly, Celestia tripped over a root of a tree, and fell to the ground. By the time Celestia got up, the figure was gone. Celestia looked back. That root wasn't there a few seconds ago.
"So, you wanna play it that way, do you?"
Celestia was very obvious in the dark, her skin was stark white and her rainbow colored mane glowed brightly in the of the Night. She flew up high above the treetops. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the reflection of the moon shift in the ocean. With a determined look in her eyes, she darted toward the water. When she hit the surface, a huge splash came up behind her and she shot straight down. She looked up, and saw a beautiful, majestic alicorn, lit only by the faint blue light of the moon. Her skin glistened as the light reflected off of her wet coat. She floated above the water, and then, without warning, she disappeared into the blackness.
Celestia shot out from the water and frantically looked around. There didn't seem to be anypony around for miles. She flew up again, hoping that she could spot the graceful alicorn. Looking back down at the ocean, there didn't seem to be any disturbances.
Celestia flew back down to dry land, where she shook herself off. She looked around, to see if she could spot anypony from there.
Right then, she saw a figure rushing toward her. She flew up, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision that would surely have left her stupefied. She looked down to her attacker, whose figure was held high with strength. Her enemy looked up, and her eyes met with Celestia's.
"I've got you now," said Celestia, proud of her soon-to-be capture. She sprang at the figure, who stood her ground, waiting for the opportune moment. When Celestia was so close that she could perhaps reach out and touch her, the figure jumped backward, sending Celestia crashing face first into the solid ground.
When Celestia managed to stand up, seeing stars, she looked up to see that she was now face to face with the strong figure. Celestia was seeing triple now, and could barely stand up straight.
"C'mon Celeste," The figure chuckled. "You were practically asking for that one."
"Terra, if I could see straight, I'd hit you," said Celestia with a mix of anger, playfulness, and a bit of dizziness.
"If you could see straight, I wouldn't be this close to you," Terra retorted with a smile.
Celestia tried to move forward, but tripped in her dizziness and fell over her own legs, face first once again.
"Well, I'm off," said Terra a little too nicely. "Good luck! You may need it..." With that, Terra galloped away.
When Celestia finally had her bearings, she stood straight and decided this was getting more difficult than she thought it would be. With only a few more hours of Night, this could only end two ways. But the rainbow maned pony was headstrong, and for her, it could only let it end one.
Celestia flew up once more, and with determination, she flew straight back down again, diving into the forest. She saw Fauna again through a clearing. This wouldn't be easy.
Once again, she dashed toward Fauna, weaving in and out of the trees, never taking her eyes off the prize. Reacting quickly, Fauna sprinted as fast as she could, trying to get away. Nearly half of a mile away, Fauna stopped in her tracks and turned around. She saw Celestia gaining on her, and quickly tangled some branches and vines together in front of her to shield herself. Just then, she looked up into the sky to see a bright figure in the dark of the Night. Celestia spread her wings and shot toward Fauna, and without time to escape, Fauna was trampled by the glowing alicorn.
"Got you!" Shouted Celestia with glee.
"Nicely done," Fauna congratulated. Her gold coat shone beautifully, reflecting the light of Celestia's Mane. Her brown and gold mane blended in with the darkness around them. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to catch me. Well done, Celestia." The white pony bounced with Joy. "But don't forget, you still have four left." Though Celestia didn't want to believe it, Fauna was right.
"You're in luck, though, 'cause now you've got me on your side." Though Fauna was usually more modest, it was no secret that Celestia was no athlete.
"Now it's time to get serious," said Fauna, determined. She closed her eyes and put her hoof gently on a tree beside her, and she felt a wave of energy flow through the forest. Grass, trees, everything connected and sent signals to Fauna. Celestia saw magical rays of gold light coming from the root of the tree, and every tree around them glowed gold for a few seconds.
Fauna opened her eyes and began to speak. "Terra is just outside the forest, about sixty trees away," Celestia always admired how she could do something so amazing. Though, this was not the best way to find Terra, for she also had a similar means of finding ponies, though to a much further extreme. Terra sent out vibrations by stomping on the ground, and could feel everything around her. Celestia found this amazing, but when Fauna used her alicorn power, she did it with such grace, as if she were speaking to the nature around her.
"The best way to sneak up on Terra is from the sky," said Celestia.
"Not with that mane, you stick out like a sore hoof." They laughed together, and Celestia knew this was true.
"I'll distract her then," said Celestia as soon as the idea popped into her head.
"How is that going to work? As soon as she sees you she'll go running."
"Good point... Oh, I know! You distract her!" Celestia responded, knowing for a fact that this idea would work much better.
"Celestia... That wouldn't work for the same reason..."
"Oh... right. What if she thought you were still on her side?"
"No chance," responded Fauna, grimly, "She could feel your crash landing on me from miles away."
Celestia put her hoof to her head and thought with all of her alicorn might.
"I know," concluded Celestia. She told Fauna her idea, and it became obvious to both of them that this one would work.
***
Fauna flew up to the sky and spotted Terra, exactly where she thought she would be. She flew down toward Terra, and landed right behind her. Terra turned toward her, but only for a moment, because as soon as Terra saw her, she turned right back around and headed into the forest. Terra was the slower of the two, but every time she stepped, she shook the ground and left hoofprints behind her, making it hard for Fauna to run. Fauna spread her wings and glided over the ground, but as soon as they entered the narrow forest, she was back to running on the uneven terrain.
In the forest, Fauna had the upper hand, and Terra knew it, but it was easier to run away when there wasn't enough room to fly. About half of a mile into the forest, Fauna knew this would be the perfect time to strike. Directly in front of Terra a huge mess of vines came out from the dark forest and ensnared her. She was stuck. The rainbow maned alicorn walked out of the shadows, and put her hoof on Terra's snout.
"Tag," Celestia said gloatingly.
"Yay! Great job Celeste! I knew you could do it!" Terra shouted happily. "Who's next?" The cheerful alicorn had a bright look in her green eyes. Her grey coat and brown and grey mane were hard to make out in the dark of the Night.
"Aquaria is probably our best bet," responded Fauna.
"Fauna and I will fly up and look for her, you just stay down here," Suggested Celestia.
"But I wanna help!" cried Terra.
"We know you want to help, but you won't really do us much good," replied Fauna, halfheartedly. She hated to let her friend down.
"It's okay though, we'll go get Aquaria and then come right back to have some fun!" Celestia assured her. The two agile ponies flew up high and looked to the water. They saw no shifting or shimmering, and concluded that she had to be too far down for either of them to get to.
Fauna flew to the surface of the water and tapped it lightly with her hoof, sending a ripple out. A few second later, about ten fish rose to the surface.
"Hello, friends," She said sweetly, "Would you all please go find my good friend Aquaria and bring her up here?" Without skipping a beat, the fish dashed downward. In only about a minute, the graceful blue alicorn broke the surface of the water, with hundreds of fish now chasing her, hopping out of the water and falling back in. Aquaria glared at Fauna and Celestia, and shot for the water, galloping on its surface.
Celestia and Fauna spread their wings wide and flew at Aquaria in pursuit. They were gaining on her, and Aquaria knew that she couldn't keep this up. She fell down into the water, and the others stopped in their tracks. Aquaria then darted out of the water, flew up toward the moon, and bolted back for the ocean. This was their chance. Celestia dashed toward Aquaria as quickly as ponily possible, and collided with her at full force, knocking them both down to the water. Aquaria landed on the surface, while Celestia fell into the water.
Terra, watching from the air nearly a mile away saw Celestia go down. Knowing from experience how long it took the alicorn to recover from a hit, she knew that if someone didn't save her, she would drown. Aquaria would be the only one who wouldn't endanger her own life in the process, but she was seeing stars as well. Terra shot to the water with every ounce of speed in her body. When she broke the water, she began to fly much slower, but knew she had to keep forward. She saw Celestia's shining mane in the dark water. With determination, she picked up speed and grabbed Celestia, and began to fly back to the surface. She had barely enough air left to make it to the top, so with as much strength as she could sum up under the deep and dark water, she threw Celestia up above the water, and blacked out.
When Celestia's unconscious body broke the surface, Aquaria, now with her wits about her, noticed Terra wasn't holding her. Aquaria swam down into the water and spotted Terra. She snatched her up and flew back up. In an ordeal that only took a total of about a quarter of a minute, Aquaria came up to the surface, Terra in hooves.
***
When the alicorns made it back to solid ground, Fauna and Aquaria ensured that the others were still breathing, and waited for them to awaken.
"What happened?" Celestia coughed when she awoke, "Is everyone alright?
"Terra saved your life, that's what happened," the nature pony explained.
"Aww, it was nothing," Terra lied.
"Nothing?" Aquaria responded, "You nearly died! I'm so glad your okay. If you had drowned, oh, I don't know what we would have done," The blue coated pony alicorn had a look of worry in her eyes, which gave everypony a feeling of sadness. Her purple mane floated gently in the wind.
With only a few more hours of Night left, the alicorns Considered calling off the game, but while planning what to do next, their next target presented herself to them.
"Hey, you four, you're taking way to long, so I thought I'd make this a little bit more fun. So come on! Come at me!" The new competitor had a light purple coat and a mane comprised of cyan and iris. Immediately, the group dashed at the new competitor, and as quickly as she arrived, she disappeared. The alicorns stopped in their tracks.
"That's cheating!" shouted Fauna to the open air.
The new alicorn reappeared a few hooves away. "Cheating? If that's not hypocrisy, I don't know what is."
"We'll get you, Magicka." Celestia then scowled at the alicorn, and sprinted at her. Magicka disappeared again, and reappeared next to Aquaria.
The water pony turned toward her and jumped into the bushes. "AHH!" she screamed, scared out of her wits.
"Hah! Got ya!" gloated Magicka, and then teleported away again.
"This isn't fair, Magicka! None of us can catch you if you're going to teleport away the whole time!" Celestia cried.
"Oh, I see, when Fauna or Aquaria use their powers, it's okay, but when i do it, it's just unfair. What, can't handle a bit of a challenge, girls?" Magicka disappeared again.
"Let's not worry about her, girls, we'll never catch her," concluded Fauna.
"Only one left then," replied Celestia, and they all knew where to find her.
They all flew up toward Timeshift Mountain, the tallest mountain in all of Equestria. It was named for the fact that Celestia and Luna used it to drag the sun and moon across the sky. When they got to the top, they spotted Luna, blue mane flowing in the moonlight. Celestia flew down at Luna and tackled her.
"Quit it!" Luna cried. The moon began to shake in the sky. Luna regained her bearings and held the moon steady. The majorelle blue coated, steal blue maned alicorn began to talk to Celestia, but continued to gaze at the moon. "It's hard enough to do this without the help of Magicka while she's playing with you crazies, but i told you already I'm not playing!" Luna cared more about her job than anyone else. She knew that if she was even a minute behind schedule, she would set the entire world out of balance.
"Come on, Luna," the bright maned pony joked, "I have the same job that you do and you don't see me being sour all Morning!"
"It's different for you," explained Luna, "In Morning, the deer, bunnies, almost all of the animals play in its light. But at night, they sleep, and only the wisest of creatures stay awake."
"So what?"
"'So What?' I'll tell you what! All of the animals love you and your sun so much, and they shun me. What glory is there in being an alicorn if no one appreciates my work? What fun can I have when i give and give, and the others only take, without thanks? When i get no recognition? How can i take joy from this?"
"Luna, calm down," Celestia interjected. "I know it's difficult to have such a huge responsibility, but you know they all appreciate night. Without it, when would they sleep? When would they cool off from the harsh heat of my sun? You just need to learn to have fun."
Luna knew that Celestia was right, but as they talked together, Luna began to set the moon, and Celestia realized it was time to rise the sun.
"Well, I guess that's game over, then." Celestia then stood next to Luna and rose the sun.
