Dusk Falls

Chapters

Welcome to Dusk Falls (I)
Deepsy and Indigo (II)
Letters to Luna (III)
Dusk Falls Isn't A Nice Place to Visit (IV)
Consult Your Local Public Library for Chapter Five (V)
Blood Fog (VI)
An Ocean of Sludge (VII)
Formerly Luna's Problem (VIII)
Wish You Were Here (IX)
Blame It On the Eldritch Demon (X)
Insects In A Jar (XI)
Duskfalorizonication (XII)
Corona Radianza (XIII)
Heart of the Sunrise (XIV)
Dawn Rises (XV)

Welcome to Dusk Falls (I)

For nearly everypony who walks the earth, breathes the air, and relishes in the warmth of the sun, privacy is a luxury. It is a recluse of solitude that even the most sociable pony requires to prevent themselves from completely going off the deep end and drowning. For the ruler of a nation and eldest alicorn in Equestria, privacy doesn’t come easily. In fact, if it’s a luxury to a normal pony then to me, it’s like a nearly unobtainable relic in an adventure novel. Not only strange and mystical, but fictional to begin with.

Privacy was the whole reason I moved to Dusk Falls. Well, it was one of many reasons, to say it was the only one would be akin to deeming myself the worst ruler Equestria has ever seen, and that’s saying quite a lot considering the last two were homicidal tyrants. No, obviously there were other reasons; a desire to get to know my subjects more personally, a means to ease the strain and stress that ten straight hours of Day Court daily could invoke. And then there was the last reason, and perhaps the most important: my sister, and co-ruler of Equestria. She’s a mare that I have and always will love and respect dearly, but siblings fight and when you’re ultra-powerful alicorn rulers, they don’t often end prettily.

Where did our conflict begin from? I don’t really know, to be completely honest. Was it after the fall of the Crystal Empire roughly one hundred and fifty years ago? Perhaps. Regardless of how it had germinated, it had grown into quite the hideous garden of weeds in the years to follow.

I don’t think either of us really wished to go on hurting each other, and we both agreed that a solution had to be devised. Which is where the idea of one of us moving away was formed. My night-ruling sister had made her jealousy of the attention she was denied quite evident and clear, meaning I was the obvious candidate for our little experiment. It seemed so perfect, in fact, if it was not for the hell I’ve had to deal with involving this wretched little town, it perhaps would have worked quite well. I was to move away from the heart of Equestria while Luna takes the central throne in the Everfree, right there in the middle of all the action. Perfect. We both keep the same leadership, but the daily arguments and bickering about the most trivial matters cease.

I’ve seen what Luna can become when she is angry. I have seen her anger flare in times of war and I am slightly ashamed to admit that I am frightened of my own younger sister. Not that she ever harmed me nor even spoke a word of malice to a single hair on my multichromatic mane, but fear isn’t often built on the foundations of rationality.

A life amongst ponies has taught us both that relationships, even the supposedly inseparable bond of sibling-hood, are fragile and delicate. And me and Luna were no exception; while we may have been living amongst the walls of the Everfree Castle, designed to house Equestria’s alicorn sisters alone, it felt more like taking residence in a house of cards.

To have that house of cards topple...it was a prospect that terrified us both.

That’s about all that can be said about our current relationship. If you are expecting an extensive tale of sadness and woe about our epic, violent, unscrupulous rivalry, I apologize for any disappointment. For all intents and purposes this should be none of the sorts. There should be no action or betrayal, nor any recounts of life threatening perils and century old conspiracies.

For all intents and purposes. Yes, for all intents and purposes, Dusk Falls should have been the peaceful and prosperous town that the brochure advertised.

But alas, it was not.

The decision to move to Dusk Falls, of all the small towns in Equestria where I could experiment with a solitary lifestyle, was made quite intentionally on a complete whim. Luna had been insistent on mapping it out, finding the most suitable place after months of extensively tedious research and fervent planning. Late one evening, while I was still sipping my tea at the dinner table and reviewing some of the past day’s reports, Luna barged in carrying in her magic aura a bustling bee’s nest of brochures and advertisements gathered from every small town in a radius of a thousand miles.

“Celestia. Good evening,” she said earnestly, flooding my clean working area with the brochures. You could grind the Tree of Harmony into pulp and still probably not have enough paper to print out the documents Luna thrust upon me.

“Same to you, sister. Have you raised the moon?”

“Yes." Her answer came as a short, venomous snap, "You need not remind me to do my job, as I do no such thing to you. I’m not a forgetful foal.”

“Ah, so you’re saying that our fourteen hour night last month was intentional?”

That had certainly poked a gaping hole in her conviction. She blushed, irritably blew her mane out of her eyes, and pushed the pile of brochures closer to me.

“I trust you have been giving consideration as to potential places to carry out your...vacation…?” she asked, placing particular emphasis on the word, as though it implied some accursed evil.

“Luna, this isn’t the sort of thing that requires intense planning. It’s supposed to be relaxing.”

“Oh, is it?” she pondered sarcastically, “Silly me. I thought it was about showing our subjects that I am just as important a ruler as you.”

“Yes, Luna, I’m sorry. It is about that,” I sighed heavily, finally looking up from my document to give her an apologetic stare that had been perfected by centuries of turning down the wild requests of commoners in Day Court.

“Well? Have you been considering places?”

“No,” I confessed. Reluctantly I turned my attention from my report to the first brochure I found and pointed at it. “There. Looks beautiful.”

“Fillydelphia? Celestia, that one horse town is a disgraceful dump.”

“Right. Then there.” Without looking, I motioned at another flyer, which I later realized was a second Fillydelphia one.

“Are you not taking this seriously, Celestia?! Is this another of your attempts at eternally embarrassing me in front of our subjects?”

“Luna, I am incredibly busy right now!” I snapped, viciously cracking my document so that it was once again open in front of me and obscuring all else. I followed this with a violent sip of my tea, an action also perfected through centuries of repetition.

Wordlessly Luna whipped around and started storming off, leaving the trash she had brought in scattered across our table. If I had mastered the art of looking stoic and unmovable, my sister had mastered the intricacies of invoking as much entitlement, respect, and fear as possible, sometimes simply through her walk alone. As a result, she was incapable of simply entering and exiting a room without making a show from it.

When she was halfway out I sighed and called after her.

“Fine, Luna, we’ll do this now.”

There it was again. Luna’s characteristic aggressive stomp. She should give seminars on it, I know plenty of ponies that would like to be able to command that much presence simply by walking. However, in contrast to her walk and previously snappy tone, she spoke much softer and quieter as she sat down on the cushion directly across the table from me.

“Now...you are sure you want to do this, right?” she leaned forward as she spoke, eyes widening with slight sorrow.

“Do I want to move away from you? Hardly. Do I want to keep fighting with you, and watching our resentment towards each other keep growing? Even less so.”

Luna nodded slowly, and shyly began turning a brochure around and around in her magic. Despite her outwardly hostile looking appearance and mannerisms, my sister can be really meek and mellow when you're simply sitting down with her.

"I feel the same," she agreed, looking at the floor. "I fear I'll miss your company when you have moved away."

I chuckled lightly at this, which was enough to break Luna's gaze with the ground and at least meet my eyes.

"I'm not exiling myself, Lulu! It's not like I'm not going to let you visit me!"

She perked up at that, if only by a quick and sudden sparkle of relief in her eyes. Had she seriously thought that I was going to attempt to cut her off from my life entirely?

“Of course you can visit!” I said, “Just because we might disagree more often then we agree on matters doesn’t remove the fact that we’re sisters!”

“Oh I know. Still, once or twice every several months is a stark contrast to what we’ve always known. But it’s only for a few years, so I suppose it matters little.”

Still she kept that paper in her magic, it must have made a hundred revolutions in the short time since she had picked it up. Over and over I saw the same cliché picture of an orange sunset and the flipside, which was blank with lines across half of it. I couldn’t read the title of the town it was for but I did take a little interest in a strange, intricate looking wheel-like structure pictured against the orange and black.

“Hey Luna...what’s that one for?” I pointed a hoof at it and instantly she stopped spinning it and examined it for a brief moment, and then shrugged and floated it over to me.

“Dusk Falls, it says.”

“Interesting…” I murmured under my breath. In complete honesty, I was actually pretty intrigued at this point. Turning it over to the glossy white side, I instantly realized that it wasn’t a brochure at all but instead a postcard that had somehow gotten mixed up with everything else. On the back it contained a brief paragraph describing the town, making frequent, thrilled sounding mentions of the ‘Ferris Wheel’ proudly emblazoned across its front.

"Interesting," I said again, and this time Luna heard.

“Yes?!” Luna exclaimed excitedly. “Truthfully?”

Truthfully indeed. While I didn’t care much for the cliché nature of the picture itself, the town being advertised looked nothing short of amazing. It was a marvel in pony development and innovation, both a place of amusement and luxury. A ‘town of the future, rooted in traditions of the past,’ according to the postcard.

Having spent shy of a year in Dusk Falls, I can indeed testify that the slogan was accurate. Frighteningly so.

I reread the description several times, the hilariously poetic wording forcing a smile across my face despite how irritated with work and with Luna I presently was. While I pretended to be interested across the following several hours as Luna provided me with every other possible option, internally I knew that my decision had already been made. Dusk Falls would be the place, why I did not and presently do not know. Is it because I liked the look of the town? Perhaps I liked the idea of so much knowledge and hard work being put into mere enjoyment for its residents. Or perhaps even then I sensed something odd and secretive about Dusk Falls that piqued my curiosity. Whatever the reason, I knew that before long Luna would be getting an identical postcard, one that had been sent by myself while lounging under the warm maritime sun.

There’s no eponymous waterfall in Dusk Falls, or at least, there is no waterfall that is actually called ‘Dusk Falls’. The naming of the town is one of Equestria’s great mysteries, and subject to much ridicule and only half-jokingly curious speculation amongst its residents.

The nearest waterfall to the town are Crystalline Falls, which can be seen from just about anywhere in the town, for they tumble from far above, over a protruding cliff-face three hundred feet up. But Crystalline Falls have never at any point in history been referred to by any other name, and certainly not as Dusk Falls. Besides, such a name for a beach town is odd to begin with, the presence of the falls aside.

When looking at a map, a pony would easily be able to spot Dusk Falls simply by moving their hoof at a slight diagonal from the former site of the Crystal Empire to the east coast of Equestria. There, about two hundred miles north of Manehattan, lay the Crimson Coast, so named for its vivid sunsets of orange and red. Along the Crimson Coast, the summers were blistering yet the winters were cold and consumed three months of every year. The entire coast is actually closer to the Crystal Empire than it is to Manehattan, but sailboats have made the distance between the few beach towns almost negligible.

The climate and landscape of Dusk Falls are rivaled only by the beauty of the town itself. A pony could walk into the town after traversing green fields and tall, towering mountains, and before they even reached the beach they would notice that palm trees had since replaced the coniferous pines that made up the surrounding forest. Through that walk, they would pass colourful yet simply constructed buildings and houses, their sidings of bright red, green, or yellow looking freshly painted almost eternally. The only consistency in their colouring was the plain white trim used on the windows and entranceway thresholds of the houses.

But the town truly blossomed at its fullest beauty when one reached the boardwalk. Forming an L-shape, it stretched for some distance across the beach, before turning at a sharp right angle and continuing on into the sea for another hundred feet. All along the side opposite the beach lay beautifully coloured shops and restaurants, with the omnipresent Ferris Wheel looming above it all, like a cozy, frigid little town built in the beautiful shadows of the tallest mountains far north. On a beautiful night, the luminescent spectrum of magically charged lights lining the shops and Ferris Wheel like a Hearth’s Warming Eve tree shone up into the night and lit the lapsing waves in a magnificent, rippling rainbow.

It was on such a moonless and motionless night that a lone chariot carrying myself and my sister swiftly streaked across the skies, passing through a deep ravine filled with lush forests of pine far, far below, a thousand outlines standing in unkempt rows across the vast distance where we had flown from . Soon, we were passing a protruding cliff-face ahead, from which tumbled the town’s tall waterfall into a small lake that would later flow into the ocean. The chariot was being pulled by two strong pegasi belonging to my Royal Guard, their magnificent white coats almost (but not quite!) as regal as my own. Presently, they would be the only two members of my guard stationed in Dusk Falls, and I aimed to keep it that way. I hadn’t come here expecting any sort of entourage, the whole point was to be leaving the royalty lifestyle behind. Luna didn’t like it one bit, and badgered me the entire chariot ride in.

“It’s foolhardy, is what it is,” she lectured, pointing at the guards ahead who I have no doubt were capable of hearing every word my sister spoke. “Two pegasi, protecting the Ruler of Equestria? It’s preposterous, Tia! You’re just asking for trouble!”

“Luna, we aren’t talking about me moving to the Changeling Empire here. It’s Dusk Falls. The most harmful ponies here are aggressive street vendors trying to sell me hay fries.”

“I..I assure you I mean no offense to your guards,” Luna blushed and spoke this sentence a little louder, probably realizing herself that they were in earshot and not wanting to offend them. “I'm sure you two are perfectly capable...but Tia, this doesn’t sit well with me.”

“What trouble do you think could possibly befall Dusk Falls that I, the Princess of the Sun, couldn’t handle herself?”

“I know,” Luna rubbed her temples with a hoof. “I just want you to be safe, Celestia.”

A grin cracked across my face and I gave Luna a loving nuzzle.

“Thank you, little sis, but that’s my job,” I chuckled, and Luna blew her mane whipping in the wind out of her face and pushed me away lightly. Perhaps it was because we were both aware of the fact that by night’s end, we would be six hundred miles away from each other, but it seemed like all of our rivalry and resentment between each other died away on that chariot ride.

I partially wish it hadn’t, for it made saying our farewells to each other all the more difficult. I’d like to say that we began saying goodbye when we were actually...parting ways...but even as the chariot passed the town and made a graceful arc over the ocean while losing altitude, I started to feel a slight tugging in my chest as the thought of what was actually happening fully sunk in. As we continued descending towards the boardwalk below, all my happiness at the prospect of such a drastic and exciting change to my life simmered away, to be replaced with a bitter sense of hopelessness, like the last traces of a beautiful starry night sky being enveloped by the persistent dominance of a growing number of black clouds.

Then again, I'd known this part would be hard. It was the farewell stage, but once it was past I would be fine. I would settle into the relaxing lifestyle of Dusk Falls and before I knew it a year will have passed and I’d be reluctant to go back to Canterlot, the way I thought I would be when me and Luna were planning this whole ordeal.

And as for our relationship...only time would tell us how it changed. We’d tried everything to no avail, and if this didn’t work I truly had no clue what our next course of action would be.

Luna gave a surprised jolt as the wheels of the chariot made contact and we were both lurched forwards a little. I think her surprise was caused less by the impact of the chariot’s wheels and more by what it signified. We looked at each other as we landed, I gave her a sheepish grin and she instantly blushed and looked away in response.

Already ponies were beginning to crowd around the chariot, chattering excitedly as we stepped off. The second our hooves made contact with the wooden street, they all bowed respectfully, until me, my sister, and my two royal guards were the only ones standing.

“Hello, residents of Dusk Falls!” I announced proudly. Dusk Fallians? Dusk Fallites? Whatever, I would find that out later. “Please, pay me and my sister no mind…”

Slowly they relaxed and broke from their bow, but their curious eyes were all fixated intently on their two rulers setting foot in Dusk Falls for the first time.

“...for as of today...I am a resident of Dusk Falls, just like everyone—”

“Ahem!” Luna cut in peevishly. “What my sister means to say is that she is now living here…”

She gave me an aggressive glare, and I could already see that what I had not wanted to happen was officially happening. We were fighting. Again.

“...and continuing her reign over Equestria with no interruption whatsoever.”

Quite obviously, Luna was automatically seizing control of the situation, apparently feeling I was unfit to deal with it. I couldn’t really blame her, considering I had done the same to her countless times in the past with matters much graver than what was currently happening now. Nevertheless, Luna seemed to be trying to make my entrance into Dusk Falls life as quiet and low-key as possible, as if expecting ponies would be too foolish to realize back in Equestria’s core that one of two of their rulers had disappeared.

Ahead the crowd seemed to be parting ways to let somepony through. From a distance I could see that he was a younger unicorn, perhaps twenty five years of age, with a charcoal mane only slightly darker in colour to his grey coat. His mane was carefully slicked back, giving him an official look.

From the corner of my vision, I saw Luna’s eyes grow wide with surprise and realization as she too looked at the approaching stallion. Her mouth opened a little in disbelief and she promptly turned to look at me with her wild eyes.

“He looks...he looks just like…”

Luna didn’t finish her sentence, she instead trailed off the second she caught sight of my raised eyebrow and doubting face. Of course I knew who she was thinking of, but...well, perhaps there’s no way to say it politely, but my sister is prompt to making rash and impulsive decisions. That has always been quite the issue with her, and this to me was no exception.

Quite simply put, Luna tried to find meaning and unveil secrets in ponies that possessed no secrets whatsoever. Considering she had once wielded the Element of Honesty, it was quite strange for her to be so irrationally paranoid of the intentions of other ponies, especially mortal ones that posed no threat to her.

The stallion was bowing in front of us now, a much sloppier affair than the other ponies, as if he was doing it simply out of courtesy whilst internally scoffing at its necessity. Something told me instantly that he was some sort of figure of importance, or he at least saw himself as such. For somepony to feel this way, whilst standing in the presence of two mares who’d seen the earth’s creation and would live long after his own mortal end...to be completely honest, I think I instantly despised this stallion right then and there.

Coming out of his bow, I suddenly realized I’d seen this pony’s photo before, too. The second he said his name, I understood why.

“Greeting, Your Majesties!” he spoke in a vaguely Manehattan accent that made him sound like some sort of mob-boss in those plays Luna used to drag me to, back before...it began.

“Welcome to Dusk Falls! I can’t begin to express how amazed I was when I heard that Princess Celestia, of all ponies in Equestria, was moving into my town!"

"Our town," Luna growled. "Everything under the sun and moon is ours, peasant."

Visibly cringing at Luna's behaviour, I swiftly saw that if I didn't jump in Luna might throw him into the ocean or something. I don't remember when she started calling ponies "peasants" or exploiting the royal "We," but it was something that I'd found greatly troubling in the past and attempted to call her out on it. The end result had always been the same; arguments that quickly escalated to screaming battles, the slamming of doors, followed by two sisters avoiding each-others eyes for the rest of the day and into the next. She claimed she was princess and she could say whatever she damn well pleased, which was true, but far from the urbane behaviour I tried to emphasize. True, perhaps it wasn’t really my place to judge how she should act, and looking back I now wish I was less direct and commanding about it. I must have looked dreadfully hypocritical.

The suave looking stallion ignored Luna (yes, ignored Equestria’s co-ruler) and looked straight up into my eyes confidently. He was actually pretty tall for a mere unicorn, with a long horn that I had no doubt was capable of producing some powerful magic assuming he was adept in its practice.

“You must be the Mayor of this fine town,” I said, stepping forward and, with a glare, Luna stepped backwards in response.

“That I am, Your Majesty. Mayor Kleos, at your service.”

Luna snorted behind me, and with a quick motion of her hoof told me she needed to tell me something in private. Reluctantly, I gave the Mayor a sheepish grin and ducked backwards, next to Luna.

“What is it, Luna?” I hissed once we were both next to the chariot and out of immediate earshot to everypony but my guards, “You’re being incredibly rude!”

“Oh, I’m being rude?!” Luna whispered angrily in response, and pointed an accusing hoof at the Mayor of Dusk Falls peering at us curiously. “Are you telling me this inconsiderate foal is the Mayor of this place?”

“Luna, you really need to be more trusting of ponies. You base everything on first impressions.”

“Is that so unwise? Do you know what my first impression of him is? Who he reminds me of, with his posh behavior and conceited attitude?” she mouthed his name, as if she feared he would hear her say it. “Sombra.”

“Oh come on—”

“No, seriously Celestia! You remember the way that unicorn acted? He was only moderately rude and arrogant, and look what he became! All I’m saying is—”

“Listen to yourself, Luna. You’re paranoid. You sound like a fool.”

I regretted the words the second they left my mouth, but I wasn’t about to back down and give my sister the impression that her behaviour was acceptable. Luna rose an eyebrow and let out an offended ‘humph!’’ before turning away and focusing her attention on anything other than myself. I too sighed irritably, leaving my sister by the chariot and pacing back to Mayor Kleos.

What kind of name is Kleos, anyway? I pondered, the thought automatically vocalizing itself in Luna’s annoyed voice. Is that an inherited name? Surely not, it’d be akin to naming your child ‘greatness’ or ‘hero.’ No, I imagined it was a not-so-humble, self-instated title that he had given himself. Charming.

“I’m sorry about my sister,” I said, offering a hoof which he promptly shook. “We’re both a little tense and nervous about...well, this.”

“I completely understand,” the Mayor grinned welcomingly. “Think nothing of it.”

“We shan’t,” Luna was beside me again, her voice icy and cold. She hadn’t even heard the sentence Mayor Kleos was responding to, instead simply assuming it was irrelevant enough to warrant disregarding. “Now, We don’t have all night! Where will Our sister be staying?”

Okay, at this point I humbly request you to please believe me...my sister isn’t always as grumpy as one would think from what they have read here. There was a time when she was boisterous and enthusiastic, as well as easily bored and even more easily entertained. She was stern and strict with guards when she was inspecting their behavior and training them in the art of combat, but playful and lively the second the moment for somberness had passed. Compared to my Royal Guard, I think that her bat ponies had a lot of fun, and a respect for their princess that went beyond duty and obligation. Luna was silly and likeable...there was a reason she wielded the Element of Laughter. But recently her behavior seemed to have taken a dark turn, her fervor and spirit being replaced with bitter stoicism caused by stress and jealousy. The change I had seen was almost unfathomably abrupt and terrifyingly opposite from what I’d come to know as my younger sister.

“Celestia!” Luna’s yelling voice suddenly jerked me to my senses and I realized I was presently standing completely by myself in the middle of the boardwalk with at least a dozen little ponies staring at me. Mayor Kleos and Luna were both by my chariot, Luna once again sitting in the left side while the Mayor spoke with the two pegasi drawing the carriage.

I trotted over and sat back in the chariot next to my sister, where we both avoided each other’s glances and instead looked in the directions relative to our side of the chariot. In my case, I saw the sparkling light of the magically illuminated buildings dancing across the rippling waves of the ocean about a dozen feet below.

“...that’s right, just a little bit past the lighthouse,” Kleos was telling my pegasi, undoubtedly of the location of my new home. Most of it had all been handled through agreements scrawled onto parchment and mailed across long distances, but I was quite curious all the same as to what my request for a small and private house would entail. The chance of me getting a mansion despite my request was almost a guarantee, and I had seen at least a few large manors when my chariot had soared over the town coming in.

But past the lighthouse I hadn’t yet seen. For all I knew a castle could by lying in wait for me there, and not the small beachside cabin I’d been expecting. At least it would be far from the actual town to warrant a bit of privacy and silence.

“Perhaps we can make an attempt at another first-encounter tomorrow,” I said to Kleos, the prospect of a tomorrow and how foreign it would be sounding strange the second it entered my mind. “For now, I’m quite keen to be settled in.”

“Of course, of course,” The Mayor grinned, giving us another bow and following it with a polite nod to Luna. “Have a safe ride back to Equestria, Your Majesty.”

He came out of his bow and turned, trotting away before Luna had a chance to respond, not that she did anyways.

“I don’t like him at all,” Luna muttered to me as we took off. “Have I mentioned?”

“Oh come now, sister. You’re just making things difficult.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s all I’m good for, isn’t it? Making your life difficult? Don’t listen to me if you want, but this whole town feels...sinister.”

“Luna, we saw the boardwalk and the roofs of buildings, from a bird’s eye view, by the light of the stars. How can you possibly make that claim?” I chuckled in an attempt to sound less confrontational, but I suppose it was a ploy not strong enough to disguise my patronizing remarks. “Can you sense the evil in the air? Perhaps wafting in from the peaceful palm trees by the sea?”

“Obviously not,” Luna said shortly. “I’m just thinking cautiously.”

“No, you’re being paranoid, Luna, and it needs to stop. I can take care of myself, alright? It’s not your place to protect me from evil that is not present.”

Luna said nothing in reply, and the rest of the chariot ride passed in relatively awkward silence. Most of it was spent flying over dark ocean and grey sands, but a blinding beacon of light that was the lighthouse ahead captured both of our attention as we tore past it. For but a split-second the shape of our chariot was broadcast for every seafaring pony to see as we passed in front of the lighthouse, slowly curving with the beach below. We looked to be entering some sort of bay that opened to the south-west, and I would later find out that it was entitled Harmony Bay.

Harmony Bay was the site where much of the water from across the eastern half of Equestria flowed into the ocean, even rivers flowing from landmarks like Neighagra Falls ended their journey at Harmony Bay. It was an area of immense importance and hardly anybody knew of it. Sadly, I must admit that even I had no idea that I was living in a bay filled with the water of dozens of different Equestrian watersystems.

As we tore over the rippling water below, I suddenly realized that I would do good to eventually become acquainted with the two royal guards. After all, they would be the only ones in the town for the majority of the year, and if I was going to be dragging them into the middle of nowhere for a year then I might as well make them feel welcome. Perhaps I would invite them to dinner sometime after settling in. It would be the least I could do.

The rapidly flowing water was an omnipresent din audible even from our great height and over the sound of the wind whipping past us at rapid speeds. The rushing rivers’ looping babbling was a juxtaposing contrast to the slow, repeated drawl of the lapsing ocean waves of the beach. Perhaps I was feeling particularly poetic that night, but it reminded me a bit of the changes in Luna’s character, and how she had gone from so boisterous and active to so stern and immovable, so bound by rules and responsibility that she was hardly even recognizable anymore.

Hardly even Luna.

In the distance, a lone rectangle of torchlight peeked its way through the darkness, a large window on a tall looking but relatively small house. Its roof was angled sharply like an inverted letter 'V,' and painted a hot pink. The actual house looked to be made out of logs that had been painted a beautiful white.

My first impression as I beheld my new home when my chariot started descending was that it was perfect. Small, isolated, surrounded by both palms and pines. We landed by a small and narrow path that snaked its way back to Dusk Falls, the lighthouse, and someplace else that I did not know.

"It's quite small," Luna observed as she stepped off the chariot first, standing in front of the log house and examining it critically. "If you wanted isolation, you certainly got your wish."

So I did. Even with the lighthouse's sweeping beam of light periodically sweeping across the sky, nearly every pony in Equestria could spontaneously cease to exist and I doubt I would ever notice from the porch of my new home. It was only a fifteen minute walk back to Dusk Falls, but the town was still completely out of sight, sound, and mind. Instead, my only company in Harmony Bay was the gentle sloshing of the ocean waves, and faint rustling of palm leafs dancing in the calm midnight wind. If there really was anything sinister about Dusk Falls, I definitely received no early warning from their repeated drone.

The lonely white beach-house was everything I could possibly have wanted. Well, mostly everything, the pink roof wouldn't have been my first colour choice to go against the white logs, but I suppose that was a minor complaint. I would probably have it painted eventually, red or perhaps dark green.

A small porch snaked its way across the front of the house, along the left wall, and finally ending before the right wall began, facing the ocean. It was here that I would frequently relax in the evenings, drinking tea and looking out at the orange water, after I lowered the sun and Luna's moon rose behind me. Those had been the calm evenings during my first few months after moving in, before life in Dusk Falls took a turn for the worst.

Luna led the way down the path and towards the house, but stopped at the steps to the porch to let me go first into my new home. I left the two guards to unload my things from the chariot and trotted down the path, bounding up the three stairs in one leap and landing on the wooden porch.

"Domus Caelestis," Luna whispered, torchlight mirrored in her eyes wide with curiosity. Her words roughly translated to Celestial Home. "This place needs a name, I think."

"Yes, but I was thinking of something more subtle," I said as I slowly eased the pink, round door open. It had been left unlocked by the ponies preparing the home for my stay, undoubtedly the same ones who had lit the torches and filled my cupboards with the necessities of domestic life.

"Pink Sunset," Luna suggested, and this time allowed herself a light giggle. She probably meant the name as a sarcastic jibe, as if the brilliant and silly pink roof was my choosing, and I don't believe I was ever supposed to actually like it. To this day, though, if someone were to receive a letter from Princess Celestia, the return address would read as 1 Pink Sunset, Dusk Falls.

Without any further hesitation, I pushed the door the rest of the way open and slowly started into Pink Sunset, Luna close on my hooves. As evidenced by its exterior, the house had an immensely tall roof, angled sharply in the shape of the letter A. Immediately upon entering, we were in the main room of Pink Sunset, which housed a tall, grey brick fireplace to the right, tall bookshelves and a desk to the left, and a round, rustic looking wooden table in the middle. The back wall was all window, giving me a clear view of both the back porch and the beach thirty feet down. At high tides, I could probably drop a stone straight down from my porch and be greeted with a resolute splash.

Other than my bedroom, which was the wall immediately beside me in the entrance-way, and a bathroom next to the study area with the bookshelves, Pink Sunset was this one singular living room. And although as far as typical houses go it looked quite large from the exterior, once inside it was clear that in reality the best word to describe Pink Sunset would be "cozy."

"Okay, I changed my mind," Luna said, peering up at an intricate wooden chandelier hanging over the round dining table. "I like this place."

"As do I," I said with a gleeful grin, instantly trotting further on into the house. The ocean was magnificently displayed no matter where in the house you were, and the crackling of the fire instantly reinforced the cozy style of the beach house.

The house was for the most part barren of anything decorating the walls, but that would be something that I would swiftly remedy. Likewise, the bookshelves were in drastic need of...well, books, which believe me I had in spades. They covered nearly sixty percent of the leftmost wall, but I had little doubt I would be able to fill them up. Books were basically the only thing other than the royal regalia I was wearing that I left Equestria with.

“So this is it,” I heard Luna mutter, and I noticed she was still standing in the open doorway, all hooves but one still resting on the wooden porch outside. “This is farewell.”

“You’re welcome to stay tonight,” I said, knowing she wouldn’t. “It’s a long flight back to Equestria, Luna. You’ll be flying until dawn.”

“Flying helps me think,” Luna said. “And I think we’ll both have a lot to think about tonight.”

“I’ll put some tea on for us at least.” I said assertively, taking my first steps towards the kitchen by the fireplace. Before I even reached them, the cupboard doors were being flung open by my magic as I searched for both the kettle and the bags of tea.

“Ah, looks like they just left me with black tea, Lulu! Hope you don’t mind the caffeine this late!”

Of course she wouldn’t. Practically every moment Luna spent not sleeping was instead spent with her muzzle in a coffee mug, driving her for a few hours into the day before she eventually slept the rest of the afternoon away and awoke to raise the moon. I never understood why she didn’t simply raise the moon and go to sleep, but she insisted that the night was her duty and to sleep through it would be to insult its beauty.

“Luna? Do you want tea or not?”

“No thank you, Celly,” Luna’s voice finally rung out,“You’re right, I should be gone soon if I hope to be back in Equestria before my first day ruling alone.”

“For the love of Equestria, Lulu, an hour off your hooves wouldn’t kill you!” I floated the teapot onto the fireplace to boil as I headed back to the entrance of the house where my sister was still waiting.

Luna didn’t say anything in response, but looked down sadly at her hooves as if contemplating the literal implications of what I’d just said. Finally, she sighed and took a step into Pink Sunset, lightly kicking the door closed behind her. Next, she removed her silver hoofwear, which I realized would probably mar my fragile hardwood floor. Sheepishly, I did the same and dropped them down next to where Luna had placed hers on a round, green and brown area rug in the entrance-way.

There were two cushions facing the burning fire, and me and Luna each took one and stared into the roaring flames. Neither of us spoke, aside from Luna muttering a distant “thank you” as I poured the boiling water into her teacup.

“I implore you to stay safe here, Celestia,” she eventually said, the words a barely audible whisper. “I can’t shake the feeling that something is amiss.”

I opened my mouth with critical words almost escaping my tongue, but in a lapse of reason I closed it again and nodded slowly.

“Thank you for your concern, Luna.” I said after a pause of several seconds.

“I hope this works,” her voice echoed from the depths of the teacup as she lifted it to her lips.

“Me too,” I agreed, swallowing some of the cooling tea myself. If it didn’t work…

No, it would work. It had to.

“Promise me you’ll write at least,” Luna said.

“As long as you do,” I replied evenly. “Weekly.”

“Of course,” she said, and smiled for the first time all evening...perhaps all week. “How else will I inform you of my drastic changes to Equestria?”

She was joking, of course, but those words had an uncomfortable level of vivid truth to them that would eventually echo through the nation for centuries.

At the time, though, I laughed and smiled, for at that time we were simply two sisters, relishing in a nice fire’s warmth (not that it was needed) and drinking some fine, delicious tea. In that moment there were no subjects, there was no Equestria or Dusk Falls, no fear or jealousy or unfairness. Just two mares at peace. And we both knew that it would only last for a few hours, but we could at least enjoy it while it did.

With the ice between us finally broken, we continued talking for hours. Luna voiced her nervousness at ruling alone for the first time, and I comforted her and told her that if anypony was capable of ruling a nation, it was her even more so than me. I didn’t necessarily believe it to be true, but truthfully I thought Equestria would be fine in her hooves. And it was, for the entirety of my time in Dusk Falls. Luna didn’t dwell any longer on her discomfort with me being alone, but as she looked through the kitchen window at the guards just barely visible beside my door, I could tell she was thinking about it.

Eventually, the sky’s colour started seeping its way through the darkness and I felt the tell-tale light tug of magic from the sun as it willed me to raise it. I rose, astounded by the fact that it was almost dawn already. Luna rose to her feet and stretched, before wordlessly starting towards the front door. When I finally followed her, she already had her silver hipposandals on and was stretching her wings in anticipation for the long flight home. I stood like a statue, watching her as if in a trance.

“Well, sister…” she said, and to my shock leapt forward and gave me an awkward yet well-meant hug. “I suppose this is farewell.”

“Indeed it is. Good luck, Luna. I know you’ll be fine.”

She nodded nearly inconspicuously, and we roughly broke our embrace and resumed our standing positions. There’s really no subtle way to free yourself from a sibling hug, it usually just happens in an overwhelming flood of discomfort and blushing on both our parts.

“Goodbye, Celestia. I hope you enjoy your new life.”

“The same to you,” I said, and then, “If you’re right about this place...if anything seems amiss even in the slightest, I promise I’ll let you know.”

Luna gave an understanding nod, and without another word, turned and stepped out onto the porch. She unfurled her wings, and her horn burst to life as she lowered the moon. Before it was even below the horizon, she had already taken off and disappeared into the dying darkness of the early morning.

It would be three months before me and Luna spoke in person again.

I stared in silence for several minutes at the patch of sky where Luna had vanished, and the tickling sensation in my horn eventually grew to be an unpleasant annoyance. I decided I really should raise the sun. But before I went back into the house and closed the door, there was still one more thing left to do.

“Well, welcome to Dusk Falls,” I turned on my heels to face the two stoic guards. I’m glad I wasn’t drinking my tea as I did, because I surely would have choked a little in surprise when I realized that one of them was a mare.

There are absolutely no restrictions based on any sort of gender nor race in the Royal Guard whatsoever. Luna and I would never even for a moment stand for that. Equestria had gone through long periods of war and strife between unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi, and that was before Equestria was actually a nation and we alicorns were even in the picture. Not long after we were recognized as rulers when we defeated Discord, did Equestria truly become a proper nation founded on a concept of equality. Even if the wars had ended long ago, there was still a lot of work to be done when Luna and I took the throne.

Nevertheless, even today the truth of the matter still remained that the Royal Guard was largely made up of strong, burly unicorn stallions. Sadly, it was almost exclusively this way. So then my surprise at my appointed guard was quite joyous that evening.

Neither of the guards actually vocally responded to my greeting, instead they saluted and kept staring straight ahead. The stallion, a pegasus with a coat too dark to be white but too light to be blue was the first to salute, and the younger, bleached whitish-pink mare with the indigo mane instantly followed suit nervously.

I’d had a greeting on my mind, and had been planning to ask their names and request the formalities and saluting and other arbitrary nonsense to follow my sister back to Equestria, but my words vanished as soon as I looked at them standing like statues on either side of the large round door.

“I...I, uh...have a sun to raise,” I sheepishly muttered, and trotted into the house before my own guard could see the regal alicorn Princess of the Sun blush like the embarrassed school-filly I felt like.

The candles and torches had since burned into a puddle of wax, but as my horn sputtered to life, the traces of morning sunlight danced through the huge, towering windows on the ocean facing wall. It was dawn, and I wouldn’t be getting any sleep on my first day in Dusk Falls, but I doubt my excitement would have permitted me so anyways.

The sunlight broke from the other side of the tall cliff from which the town’s waterfalls tumbled downwards, hidden from me by the tall pine tree forest between me and the town. The morning light catching the sparkling water would soon form a brilliant rainbow the way it almost always did when the sun rose over Dusk Falls. It would be some time before the sun itself was no longer obscured by the tall cliff, but its light knew no limits. The motionless, mirror-like surface of the Crimson Coast waters, true to their namesake, turned to a fiery red as I guided the great celestial body upwards. Eventually, with its orbit set in motion, it started ascending without my aid. When it did, I was finally permitted to stop the flow of magic, heave an immense yawn, empty the cold tea from my cup, and start scrounging my cupboards for coffee to help me through my first day in Dusk Falls.

As I sat down and watched the sky's gradual illumination, the words of warning Luna had spoken first surfaced in my mind, but only for a moment before they vanished the way she had into the night. I think before I even finished my morning cup of coffee, any fear and nervousness I had before dissipated to make way for anticipation and excitement, and the prospect of a fresh, new start on a type of life that I had dreamed of reverting back to in the immature recesses of my mind where such sunny daydreams were allowed to flourish.

Forgetting Luna's warnings of Dusk Falls' dark secrets was probably the first great mistake I made over my first year in the seemingly peaceful town by the sea. For out past the joyous eternal celebrations of the boardwalk nightlife, and below the twilight's red rippling waves, and even within the walls of the boxy, freshly painted houses with the pretty white trim, evil really was germinating, and Equestria's ways of peace would be threatened once again.

Deepsy and Indigo (II)

I took at least an hour to get myself completely oriented with my kitchen, analyzing where everything was, what I had and what I needed to purchase from the general store in Dusk Falls. By the desk I found some parchment and a quill and started making a list, which had to be continued first onto the opposite side and eventually onto another piece of parchment entirely.

Throughout this hour, the guards outside remained at their station on both sides of my door even when I first asked if they wished to come in for breakfast and still after I simply told them to go home. Home, which to them were large ocean houses paid for completely by the royal treasury. Still, they answered not to me but to the Captain of the Royal Guard, who by extension would answer to me and Luna, but I was in no mood to start sending letters so early into my one year’s rest. If they wanted to stand by my door all day, then so be it.

I tried the coffee that had been left for me, or, more accurately, I sipped it a little and nearly choked as I forced the wretched liquid down my throat.

I don’t like coffee much. That’s Luna’s thing.

The guards outside had appreciated it, though, and when I motioned towards a set of mats for sitting, they finally heeded my request to, for the love of the sun and moon, give their poor hooves a rest.

“You two are the only member of my royal guard situated in Dusk Falls right now,” I explained, information they undoubtedly knew but I wished to hear said aloud myself. “And therefore, you are the sole ponies responsible for my safety. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” They both said in sync, and saluted.

“Okay, good. Please, stop saluting at everything. It’s unnecessary,” I smiled warmly and sipped a bit more of the repulsive black liquid in my mug. “Now, despite what orders you may have been given, I am altering whatever they might be. Equestrian Law states that Princess Luna and myself must be under protection at all times, which is really why you’re here in the first place. I mean no rudeness, but I have never understood nor even agreed with this law.”

I took another sip of my coffee and a quick pause to gauge their expressions; stoic and even more stoic, before continuing;

“As such, I really need to request that this business of standing by my door at all hours of your twelve hour shifts is to be halted indefinitely, by my orders. I’m here on vacation, and don’t think I’ve blindly selected you two to be my trusted guards.”

In my magic I levitated up a small file folder and withdrew from it two carefully written documents, paper, not parchment, and started reading from the first one. As I did, I turned slightly to face the stallion guard, who undoubtedly knew what it was I was about to say from my previous sentence.

I actually didn’t, though. I’d noticed the guard’s files earlier that morning, but hadn’t found the time to actually look through them. I assumed Luna had left them because I didn’t remember bringing them myself.

The stallion guard’s name, according to the file Luna had left me, was “Deep Sea,” which I presumed was attributed to his blue coat but personally I thought it was much, much too light of a blue to ever be worthy of the name. It was such a light blue that from a distance it might have been mistaken for white. Perhaps his darker blue mane was instead the source of the name.

“Deep Sea,” I said, already not liking the necessity of the name having to be said in full or else simply sound silly. “Do you like this town? The heat, and sunshine?”

“Yes, your Majesty!” He said quickly, nodding. “Much better than the rainy weather in Vanhoover.”

“Good, I’m glad. And you, Miss…” I took a quick glance at the file, but she answered me before I had the chance to read it.

“Posy,” she said, bowing before me. Her voice was soft and quiet, but her eyes gave off a magnificent glimmer that complimented her small but sparkling smile. She was the exact opposite of what I’d come to expect from the stern, emotionless nature of the royal guards whilst on duty. In the morning light, I noticed that her long indigo mane was highlighted with stripes of dark pink and purple, as was her shorter tail. “Indigo Posy.”

“Indigo, and Deepsy,” I said with a hint of mischief. They grinned back, but Deep Sea looked a little embarrassed at my nickname. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Consider this the start of a one year vacation for both of you.”

They both looked at each other in confusion, and then back at me for some sort of explanation. I chuckled lightly and carried on.

“According to my sister, and, unfortunately, Equestrian Law, you need to be here. That being said, I don’t see any reason why I should require any sort of constant protection in this town which seems completely safe to me. So naturally, this business of guarding my door for twelve hours a day seems unnecessary, and I aim to be rid of it.”

Their confused expressions only further intensified. Deepsy rose an eyebrow and Indigo shuffled shyly and looked down at her hooves.

“Consider this a paid vacation. If I need any sort of royal protection, your services will be required, but if I’m going to have to keep you here in Dusk Falls then you might as well spend it in Dusk Falls, and not on my porch all year.”

What else was I to do? It seemed like the most sensible solution to me at the time. Besides, they seemed pleased about it, if not a little taken aback. I could already imagine the hell I’d have to pay with the Captain of the Royal Guard but I’d dealt with that hot headed stallion dozens of times and had only grown used to his arrogant antics.

“Princess Celestia?” Indigo asked shyly.

“Yes, dear?”

“Are...are we still being paid for our regular work hours?”

“Oh, my, certainly!” I assured with a swift nod and kind smile. “You were promised a daily pay in advance and it will remain unchanged.”

“Thank you very much, Princess Celestia,” Indigo said, but Deep Sea looked a little more skeptical and did not let a smile betray his obvious suspicion.

“With all respect, Your Majesty...” he spoke, his strong yet welcoming sounding voice commanding enough authority to make up for his partners meek and timid demeanor, “...this is all highly unorthodox. We were sent here to protect you and I have no desire to shirk my obligations.”

“I understand, and if this is the way you feel then I invite you to stand beside my door every single hour of your waking moments guarding me from the ferocious threats Dusk Falls has in store,” Smiling mischievously, I examined my empty coffee mug as I spoke with a sly, conspicuous tone of challenge lining the outskirts of my voice. “Personally, and while I do not consider myself a warrior or goddess by any means, I believe I can deal with most threats on my own. But, as I have said, it is your choice entirely.”

Widening my grin and dismissing myself with a quick nod, I whipped around and trotted off the porch, starting down the pathway towards Dusk Falls.

The bright and blinding whites of the morning sky were already fading into a deep blue as I trotted through the path. On my right, tall pine trees towered, the sun poking in and out of their sweet scented canopy. To my right lay dunes of sand layered with spindly and tall grass, eventually flattening first to beach and then to the infinite expanse of the ocean.

After a few minutes of walking I came to a crossroad which veered off in four directions; behind me where I had come, to the left across the dunes towards the red and white lighthouse towering above, straight on towards the heart of the town, and finally to the right, leading in a direction I did not know but was willing to wager lead towards the road snaking through the ravine with Crystalline Falls looming above. If ever I needed to slip out of Dusk Falls without a trace, it would seem like this would be the road to take. The long grove of pine and birch looked quite welcoming and would undoubtedly play host to many a sunday stroll in the year to come.

For the time being, I trudged straight forwards through the crossroads along the path, one that had been beaten in by enough carriage wheels of the years that it had the form of two lines of dirt separated from each other by grass.

The shuffling of hooves where I had come alerted me of the presence of my two guards, but I didn’t turn to greet them and instead kept my head held high as I sniffed in the aroma of pine needles and salt wafting in across the sand. Ahead of me lay a single house erected beside the path and in front of the unpaved dirt roads of the town. An elderly looking mare was sitting on the porch of the house and rose first in surprise when she saw me, before instantly descending in a bow.

I returned her gesture with a friendly smile.

“Fine morning, isn’t it?”

“They always are here, Your Majesty!” she returned my smile with one of her own.

My wide smile didn’t falter as my hooves left the path and touched the road, my trot probably looking more akin to a playful skip at this point. I had ended up in a more rural portion of the town, the dirt streets lined with the same cozy looking log houses with nary a shop to be seen. The Ferris Wheel loomed to my left as I continued down the road which looked like it switched to cobblestone some distance ahead.

“Deepsy?” I called behind me.

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Celestia, if you’d please. Is this part of town where you and Miss Posy will be living in?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Deepsy pointed to a house as we passed, a dark blue affair with a tall palm tree drooping over its roof. “That’s my house, and the yellow one over there is Indigo’s.”

“I do believe this is the only area of Dusk Falls that has houses,” Indigo added. “Other than Mayor Kleos’s home, of course.”

“Indeed?” I asked. If that were the case, then Dusk Falls surely could not have had a population much over two hundred, for spread out across the six long streets in this area there was only around forty houses. Then again, Dusk Falls was a tourist town, it made sense that the number of permanent residents would dwindle when compared to those like myself.

After some distance, the dirt road merged with an intricate and much wider road built from cobblestone. It travelled straight and uninterrupted from the entrance to the town, all the way to the boardwalk. Shops and stands lined it on both sides, and although it wasn’t nearly as busy as the boardwalk had been last night, there were nonetheless many sets of eyes watching me and my escort as I trekked to the right towards the exit to the town where the general store was located. Ponies immediately bowed in my presence, as they undoubtedly would for a short while, but eventually it would thankfully cease.

It had been that way in Canterville, the small community near the castle in the Everfree where me and Luna lived. We strode into Canterville so frequently that eventually ponies became accustomed to seeing us and slowly but surely lost sight of the necessity to bow in praise as if we were goddesses. Neither me nor Luna quite liked it to begin with, but I was the only one truly bothered by it. I think Luna secretly enjoyed the attention, especially considering she was denied so much of it due to her nocturnal way of life.

The tallest building in Dusk Falls was only a little shorter than the Ferris Wheel, and like the Ferris Wheel it was built directly beside the boardwalk. It was clearly visible directly across the main street of Dusk Falls I was now standing on. The word ‘HOTEL’ descended along one side of the five-story building, magically illuminated neon that would be burning bright come nightfall.

But it wasn’t where I was headed, for the general store was located down the road towards the entrance to town. Onwards I marched, with my trusty parchment pulled from my saddlebags and levitating in the air in front of me.

The main street of Dusk Falls, the cobblestone one that travels straight to the boardwalk, was lined on both sides by the same quaint, colourful buildings as I’d seen in photographs and postcards of Dusk Falls. It was like walking through a forest of red, blue, green, orange, and yellow stores and shops, many with entire windows dominating their entire street-facing walls. There were candy stores and post offices, toy shops and book stores, every one looking absolutely beautiful in the late morning sun.

The occasional carriage thundered and rattled by, but the majority of the ponies on Main Street seemed to be content with walking, spotting me, and descending into a respectful bow, before going about their business.

“Princess Celestia?”

“Yes, Indigo?” I asked without turning around.

“Um...where exactly are we headed?”

“I am heading for the general store. You are permitted to go where you please.”

It would seem that ‘where they pleased’ turned out to indeed be the general store as well, for Deepsy and Indigo both trailed behind me as I pushed the glass door open and strode into the store, a friendly sounding bell striking as the door struck it to signal my entry.

“Oh my goodness!” Hushed whispers instantly exploded as the stores customers dropped what they were doing in immediate respect of my presence.

“It’s Princess Celestia!”

“The Sun Goddess herself!”

Shopping for myself was a fairly new experience, most of the time I had servants to run out to purchase anything that I might not be able to find within the walls of the castle. Occasionally I would go myself, if only to break up the monotony of simply doing the same thing every single day, but for the most part it was work saved for ponies whose jobs were to meet me and Luna’s needs.

With that said, I could have just sent Deepsy and Indigo with my list and stayed at home, getting myself acquainted with my new home, perhaps going for a walk down the Crimson Coast, or cracking open the first of what would surely be many, many books that I would read over the year. But no, I wasn’t going to do that anymore. This was a new chance for a new way of life, and I wasn’t going to squander it sitting on my flank all year.

By time the three of us finally left through the doors and back into the busy Main Street, the sun was perched high above the sky and a distant bell was chiming two o’clock. Both saddlebags on my sides were nearly overflowing with the various affairs I had purchased, and still I had needed Deepsy and Indigo’s help in carrying three more bags that I couldn’t comfortably carry myself. Over the afternoon, they had definitely become much more comfortable around me, talking amongst themselves, laughing and joking with me, and straying off to look at the stands and shops as we slowly explored Main Street.

“Your Majesty?” Deep Sea said, while I had paused to inspect some particularly succulent looking oranges at a vendor's stand. Indigo had strayed off someplace else, leaving me and the stern stallion guard alone.

“Yes, Deepsy?”

“You...you said this morning that me and Miss Posy were selected as your guards for a particular reason.”

“Yes?”

“I was...well, I was just wondering...um, for curiosities sake, of course, why we are here with you. I mean, I'm assuming you would have chosen more...”

He stopped suddenly, as if just now hearing what he was speaking regarding his companion and thinking it unfit to say aloud.

“Experienced guards?” I finished.

“Well, I suppose so,” He said guiltily, casting nervous glances around for the tell-tale golden armor aflame with sunlight. Indigo was nowhere to be seen, so carefully he proceeded. “Indigo... and myself, of course... I mean, we aren't exactly the most capable ponies on your force.”

“Capable of what, may I ask?”

My question came unexpected, leaving Deep Sea shocked long enough for me to carry forwards. I wasn’t expecting him to have had an answer for me anyways.

“Capable of feats of strength?” I said, almost coldly. “Deepsy, as much as I respect a pony who can hold their own in defense of themselves and others, it is the absolute least element of virtue I hope to see in any of my guards. Before it comes kindness, honesty, generosity, loyalty, and joy.”

“The Elements of Harmony…”

“Ah, so you know your history,” I said, “Very good. Wisdom is another virtue I admire. But yes. Ponies in the past have made the unfortunate mistake of presuming that because me and my sister wield the Elements of Harmony, they as our subjects are absolved from the opportunity of withholding their teachings.”

I floated a few bits towards the clerk of the stand who had quite obviously been listening to us stealthily. Grabbing three apples and floating one over to Deep Sea, I started walking away from the stand and he followed.

Deep Sea nodded and took a bite from the apple he was holding in his wings.

“Have you known Indigo before now?” I asked.

“Not particularly closely,” Deepsy said, “We were in the same training regiment, I remember noticing her since she was one of the only mares. She didn’t really talk to anyone, she just sort of minded her own business.”

“I can see that.” I nodded, although still I had an impression I had failed to properly answer his initial question. "What exactly is troubling you, Deepsy? Why bring negative attention to yourself so?"

"Well... I just kind of presumed we were here for a reason."

"Like... some manner of undercover detectives?" I blinked. "I hardly think I would be the most appropriate mare for such a task. My status hardly grants me subtlety. No, truthfully I have no ulterior motives to coming here."

If Deepsy had anything further to say, he did not do so as we were both blinded by a sharp and sudden flash of reflected sunlight. Indigo was some distance ahead of us, looking as though she was searching through the busy streets for somepony. After awhile, she caught sight of us and with a few light flaps of her wings soared over the crowd and set down to my right.

“The ponies here are very friendly,” she said, forming a nervous and uncomfortable grin. “They uhh...they were quite curious about you, Princess.”

“Ah yes, well, I imagine their curiosity won’t last too much longer once they realize that I am here to stay.”

I passed Indigo the third apple and we continued walking down the street in relative silence. By time we reached the boardwalk of Dusk Falls, the sky had already started to blend from its vivid blue to a more greyish prelude to the incoming twilight that Luna’s moon was bringing about. Like at dawn, I felt the same tingling in my horn, and I stopped walking the moment my hooves touched the wooden boardwalk.

The carousel and Ferris Wheel were not yet illuminated, and I watched with awestruck fascination as a small congregation of half a dozen unicorns began casting a magic spell which arched as a beam of light and struck the Ferris Wheel. The great wheel started to turn, and as it did it the steady hum of cogs began rising in volume. It was an interesting type of machine, for it would seem that upon magical activation it functioned on its lonesome without constant exposure to any sort of magical energy. Perhaps it was enchanted itself, which would certainly account for the bright and glowing colour starting to flow into the Ferris Wheel.

“Excuse me a moment,” I said in an off-hoof manner. The moment my guards spotted the tip of my horn alight with magic, they began signalling any nearby ponies to step back and give their princess space. I was thankful, for any interruption while I lowered the sun would be less than welcome.

The hulking sphere of flaming gas started its descent, its collision course with the distant waves rippling on the horizon engaged. Nearly every single pony on the boardwalk instantly stopped what they were doing and watched, and even through my intense focus I could see them all gasping in wonder and amazement. They’d undoubtedly seen the painting-worthy duet of the red sun and the waves, but never before had they watched the very cause of it standing amongst their presence and conducting the magnificent celestial dance.

The sun continued to sink. Over the trees, the moon began to rise. The lights of the boardwalk were now almost fully illuminated in the crepuscular half-light, and slowly ponies resumed their business as I lowered my head and my horn and let my magic dwindle away.

As if nothing at all had just happened, I continued walking into the heart of Dusk Falls’ nightlife. A band was playing a joyous song as the same vibrant neon lights on the Ferris Wheel also started to illuminate elsewhere down the boardwalk.

A certain stand caught my eye, and playfully I trotted over and lifted an enormous light pink sun-hat onto my head. Vibrant peacock feathers jutted from the back of the wide brim, and without even bothering to look in the mirror mounted beside the stand I knew I must have looked the perfect balance of playful and regal.

“How many bits for this marvelous hat?” I asked the griffin operating the stand.

“Princess Celestia!” she exclaimed, taking notice of me for the first time. “Oh my goodness! Asking about my hats! I can’t charge the Equestrian Princess of the Sun for such a petty, talon-made—”

“Here’s thirty bits,” I said, ignoring the sign asking for twenty and dropping the respective amount in front of the shell-shocked griffin.

I continued walking with the hat perched atop my head, and not a minute after I had left the stand did I feel a sudden wave of exhaustion overcome me. I realized that I hadn’t slept for more than thirty hours, and was running on nothing more than half a cup of coffee and some Earl Grey tea. The time must already have been almost eight o’clock, and although I was used to staying up quite late I had an overwhelming urge to be back at Pink Sunset and asleep.

“I’m an alicorn princess and the bringer of light and day,” I joked through a yawn, “And yet I’m presently losing a battle against sleep deprivation.”

The best I received was an awkward laugh from Indigo, so I yawned again and gave my wings a quick ruffle. “My apologies, but I think I’ll be flying home,” I said, and then narrowed my eyes at Indigo and Deepsy...or, really, only Deepsy. “Flying home, alone. I’ll see you two tomorrow.”

Without further ado, I took off into the cooling summer twilight and left the neon lights and staring ponies behind. I traced the boardwalk to the street, and the street to the path, and finally the path to Pink Sunset. I flew over the beach aflame with deep shades of red and orange, the Crimson Coast indeed. Like in the chariot, I soared past the lighthouse and eventually into Harmony Bay, where Pink Sunset was standing alone with her porchlight the only source of light amongst the lone pines and palms. The tide was higher than what I remembered it being when I had left, and as I spiraled down lower and lower I could hear the sound of seashells clinking against each other like wine glasses underneath the raised porch of the house.

“Day one down. Three hundred and sixty four to go.”

Letters to Luna (III)

Dear Celestia,

I realize I promised you that I would be writing weekly, so I apologize for my breaking of said promise. Frankly there hasn’t been much of note for me to report of the last month, nor of the two before it that I may have forgotten to mention earlier. I imagine things for you are much the same. I would think that such a vast change to both of our lives would bring about many topics for conversation, but presently I am left with nothing.

As a result, this letter is for the most part a reiteration of the half-dozen others that have come before it, save for one thing I am quite excited for you to hear about!

I know I stated this in my last letter, but, the citizens of Equestria have continued their requests for means to communicate with you, and I continuously tell them that you are on vacation and aren’t dealing with the requests of commoners. They are wholly unsatisfied but leave without so much as passing their problems on to me. I hope that with time this tradition ceases.

With summer presently in full swing, I have been contemplating a festival to celebrate the magnificent, long nights that autumn shall bring in a few months. The Summer Sun celebration has followed you to Dusk Falls, but I think one during the autumn would be another unique way of keeping our subjects aware of the beauty our day and nights have in correlation with each other. This is of course, all speculation, but I am quite optimistic about organizing something new for myself.

In this vein, I wish you luck with your Summer Sun Festival at the end of the month, and am looking forward to visiting Dusk Falls to attend.

Please write back soon. The Castle can get lonely without you, Celestia, and I look forward to hearing from you, even if it is by way of mere words on a parchment.

Love, Luna.

The rain was streaking down the tall windows of Pink Sunset as I read and reread Luna’s letter, casting dancing watery reflections across the hardwood floor. Since the week had begun the weather had taken a sombre turn, overcast at best and torrential rains at worst.

Even with distant lightning visible over the ocean beyond, my attention was instantly drawn to my desk the moment I caught sight of the parchment in my peripheral. It had been the first thing I had noticed when I entered Pink Sunset and began shaking myself clear of the rain on my back. Any thought of the storm blooming outside dwindled in the face of my excitement at hearing from my sister again.

The letter was penned in quick, cynical, cold characters, hardly a contrast to the actual words Luna had written. Her annoyance with our subjects seeped quite clearly through the very drops of ink on the parchment, but I didn’t see it as entirely unjustified. Reading of her plans for a ceremony inspired by my own ‘Summer Sun Celebration’ was enough to put a slight grin on my face as I reached into my desk and withdrew a piece of parchment of my own.

My time in Dusk Falls had already passed into the third month as of that week, and yet only five letters had arrived from Luna over that time. I attempted to initially keep up our weekly agreement but ultimately had to agree with Luna’s condemnation of it being wholly unnecessary.

Listening to distant thunder rumbling over the ocean, I began to write.

Dear Luna,

I am greatly looking forward to your arrival at the end of next month. I hear a play is coming to Dusk Falls and I thought it would be great fun if we could both attend. If my sources are correct, it is to be a dramatization of ancient Equestrian history. That should be entertaining for us, I think.

Hearing you speak of your plans for a wintertime festival similar to the Summer Sun Celebration is intensely exciting, and I wish for you to know that I support it fully and completely! In fact, I look forward to it with rich enthusiasm. If there is anything I can do to assist, please do not hesitate to ask!

Life in Dusk Falls is quite unchanged, since even the first week that I arrived. Mostly it is peaceful, and I’ve been keeping busy the best I can. I find myself looking at my calendar and willing the months to pass just a little faster so that I can come home, if only for a couple months before returning back here.

I hope you’re happy, Luna. Always know that no matter how much distance is between us, this hope will never change.

Your Loving Sister,

I briskly signed my name, and sent it swiftly without rereading it. There was no editing or altering in the art of conversation, and what were our letters but drawn out, formal conversations mailed across the distance dividing us?

Outside, the rain continued to pour down, with the ever present thunder rumbling on. But the storm was hardly foreboding to me, even with the jagged forms of lightning slicing down into the furious waves below. I quite like storms, they are rare instances in which nature is entirely unpredictable.

One consistency I’ve noticed over my centuries in Equestria is that given enough time, regardless of any other circumstances, life eventually fades into a rhythm. Like a waterfall, it’s spectacular and amazing to behold for the first time, but nearly every ensuing minute you spend staring at the rushing water quickly becomes less and less impressive until your mind starts wandering to another thing separate from the majesty of nature before you. It really doesn’t matter how vast and different any change in your life is, eventually it’ll become your new way of living and you’ll cease to be amazed by it.

After only a few weeks in Dusk Falls, my life faded into a rhythm. Even for the Princess of the Sun, the enticing and laidback life of the beach town had the same hypnotic appeal as it did on postcard wielding tourists, fine for a season but a little daunting for a whole year.

Into the third week in Dusk Falls I invited Deepsy and Indigo to stay a short while after their guard duties ended for iced tea. They both excitedly accepted and travelled past the precipice of my pink round door into Pink Sunset for the first time. Overtime, I grew quite accustomed to them, and they too grew to see me more as a friend and less a Goddess, something I was quite thankful for.

During the days, I entertained myself by reading, knitting, exploring Harmony Bay, or meeting ponies on the busy boardwalk. I even tried painting, but I doubt my insipid, generic sunset landscapes beheld any sort of merit to anypony concerned with proper art.

Of course, it wasn't every day a Princess paints your town's sunsets, and one of my paintings eventually started circulating as a postcard for all of Equestria to see. "Dusk Falls through the eyes of a Princess" I think the caption read.

I stopped painting after that.

While I was quite enjoying my life in Dusk Falls, I quickly found myself returning to the word ‘monotonous’ when I thought of expressing it to Luna in the letters we had been sending each other. Obviously it was a word I never actually used, but it was always there, spoken in my mind as her voice.

After three months, I was already starting to hope for change. And, as if fate had been listening to my internal gripeing, change indeed came.

Preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration had already been set in motion, and even when I chose to oversee them I was quite frequently aware of the fact that I wasn’t actually doing anything other than existing in the presence of ponies who were working. Luna’s visit to Dusk Falls in less than three weeks was my greater focus anyways, and I was practically counting down the days until the last week of the month when it happened.

Even with summer less than half-way over, my Sun seemed to be relentless that year, for the weather was terribly hot when it wasn’t storming. It was on such a day that I peeked my head out at Deepsy and Indigo standing guard outside my door and invited them inside for a cup of iced tea. It was something they were more or less accustomed to at this point, and their shifts were less than half an hour from completion anyways, so they accepted without hesitation.

I led the way towards the back porch where the sun was still shining brightly, and they both took a mat and sat looking out towards the ocean, while I ducked inside and emerged a moment later with a jug of iced tea and several glasses, with my pink sunhat perched proudly above my head.

For almost a full minute, nopony said anything as we all looked towards the waves a short distance ahead. In a few hours the tide would turn and those waves would instead be directly under the porch, but for the time being I still had a long and beautiful beach to marvel at as I gently took a sip from my iced tea.

Indigo Posy was the first to break the silence, and she did so first by way of an awkward cough and then a nearly whispered question.

“How...how are you liking Dusk Falls, Princess Celestia?”

“Quite well,” I said. “It’s been quite a long time since I’ve had a vacation. Of course, I imagine some matter of national security will interrupt my stay here before long.”

Indigo laughed quietly, Deepsy took a long sip from his tea and offered no further response.

“And you two?” I asked.

“Uh...interesting, to say the least.” Deepsy finally piped up. I rose an eyebrow and looked at him for further clarification.

“Well…” he continued, “Maybe it’s because I’m used to a big city, but the ponies here are a little...weird.”

“I find them quite friendly,” Indigo responded almost immediately.

“Yes, well, that isn’t what I said, Posy. I agree that they are. But behind their friendliness is a bit of…”

He trailed off and returned his attention back to his iced tea, idly twirling his straw round and around the glass.

“A bit of what?” I asked after a few seconds.

“Nothing. Never mind. I’m just being overly wary, I think.”

“You know, Deepsy, my sister said something very similar when we first arrived. Regarding the Mayor.”

“Okay,” Indigo conceded, “I do find him weird.”

“And why is that?” I asked, bristling a little as a particularly cool breeze blew in from the ocean.

“I don’t really know, to be honest,” she admit, “Overly curious, I suppose. Wanted to know how long we planned on staying here.”

“Yeah. He must’ve asked us at least three times.” Deepsy agreed.

Instantly, I too found that to be a little odd. What reason would the Mayor have to care how long I was staying in Dusk Falls? It wasn’t as though I was getting in anyponies way all the way out in Pink Sunset, with only the occasional evening visit to the boardwalk when I grew tired of cooking dinner or lunch for myself and instead wanted to indulge in some admittedly un-princess-like hayfry cravings.

I had nothing to fear in Dusk Falls. Why then, did the Mayor? Was there some urban legend about the town not boasted by the tourist pamphlets? I would have to ask him sometime.

Eventually, and probably for the better, our conversations shifted from insulting gossip to different matters. I asked Deepsy and Indigo about their lives back home, but they seemed more interested in hearing about my adventures with Luna. Of course they’d read all the history books, but hearing first hoof of Discord’s fall, the end of the Crystal Empire, and the unification of the three pony tribes was an opportunity I doubt they wanted to squander.

Perhaps my status as a rather old mare grants me some justification, but I have always found recluse in memories. Even if a heavy portion of my memories were not pleasant, my sister was a constant in a sea of uncertainty and change, and as such every one of my darker memories were anchored against a backdrop of love and familiarity.

“Why did you move here, Princess?” Indigo’s soft voice pulled me from my reverie. “If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

“Not at all. There are a few reasons why. Most significant, however, would be my sister.”

“Princess Luna? Why?”

“Well...let’s just say we haven’t been seeing eye to eye lately. Hopefully some distance will extinguish our resentment a little bit.”

Silence once again fell between us, while we each took sips from our tea and watched the endless dance of the waves.

“Well, I think I’m done,” I muttered eventually, rising to my hooves again and draining the last of my iced tea. “I believe I’ll be heading to the boardwalk for dinner. You two are more than welcome to come if you wish.”

Without waiting for a response I took off into the air, soaring about two dozen feet above the beach and making sure my sunhat didn’t blow off as I flew. To my left I saw Indigo’s light pink form peeking out from an explosion of sunlight reflecting off her armor, and a quick glance to my right revealed Deepsy in my peripheral, both flying with noticeable effort in order to keep up with the speed my much larger wings allowed me. Across the beach it was a much shorter distance to the boardwalk than the path through town, and the three of us were landing after less than ten minutes of flying.

Over the past three weeks, my presence in Dusk Falls had been gradually met with less and less amazement, and while ponies still bowed upon seeing me, it was now clearly out of courtesy instead of shock and surprise. Such was the rhythm of life, I suppose.

The three of us each bought an order of hayfries and ate them as we wandered the boardwalk with no particular direction in mind. It wasn’t long before the time to lower the sun came, and as before Deepsy and Indigo took care to keep my surroundings clear as my magic grew to life.

My attention was directed almost solely on lowering the sun, but I heard a panicked scream of my name as clear as daylight all the same.

“Princess! Princess Celestia!”

“Get back!” I heard Deepsy bark harshly, but with my eyes locked on the sun I had no idea who or what he was screaming at.

I dropped the sun swifter than usual and instantly whipped around.

Deepsy and Indigo were both holding back a panicked looking mare with an orange coat and mane of red. Whatever fashion she normally kept it in was lost to her frazzled and disheveled appearance. She had evidently not slept in awhile, and yet her eyes were still wide with both fear and optimism.

Around the circle Deepsy and Indigo had created around me, ponies were all gawking in surprise at the spectacle in front of them; the evidently parental-induced panic that had caused an ordinary mare to charge the Princess of the Sun out of desperate need for help.

We locked eyes for a short while, and I saw that the orange mare was gasping for breath and no longer struggling against my guard’s grasp, as if she had calmed down or at least realized the fruitlessness of her attempts.

“Let her go,” I said in a commanding tone. They immediately did as I asked and I next turned my attention to the crowd watching me. “Move along, you all. I doubt this mare wants an audience to hear whatever trouble she has for me.”

“Thank you—” she began as she started towards me, and I turned to her still wearing my stern look.

“I don’t believe you realize the danger you just put yourself in by running at a Princess while she lowers the sun. An interruption while I’m doing so can be catastrophic, so be thankful I’m paying you any mind at all.”

“I’m so sorry. I just...I saw you through the crowds and...I didn’t know…”

“It’s alright. I’m not angry. Deep Sea, Miss Posy, some privacy if you’d please.”

We walked a short distance towards the railing where the boardwalk ended, overlooking the ocean beyond.

“My name is Morning Glory. I...my son...I don’t know, he’s gone missing.”

I blinked several times and rose an eyebrow.

“I see. And the authorities in Dusk Falls haven’t done anything to help?”

“Princess Celestia...there are no authorities in Dusk Falls.”

The wind was still, no stray gusts blew from the ocean below, and yet I felt a shiver travel down my spine all the same. It was true, I suppose, for I hadn’t seen a single guard with the exception of my own.

“I suppose that is true. I’m by no means a detective, Morning Glory. I’ll do my best to help, but I honestly have no experience regarding anything that might be able to assist you.”

“He wouldn’t be the first one, Princess. Ponies go missing in Dusk Falls all the time.”

“I...I see. Deepsy! Indigo!” I called, and the two rushed over. Once they did I turned back to Morning Glory. “Please, repeat what you just said.”

“My son isn’t the first pony to go missing in Dusk Falls. It happens all the time.”

The four of us all fell silent. Somewhere in the distance, a band was playing a joyous tune, but the expressions on our faces couldn’t have been any starker a contrast to its merry melody.

“Mother Epona…” Deepsy muttered. The normally all-business stallion was void of any further comment, and Indigo looked as though she was about to cry.

“I would think that would have been the first thing I would have been told upon arriving here,” I said. “Are you telling me it’s regular for ponies to go missing in the town and no one has done anything about it? Nor even said anything about it?”

“I...I shouldn’t have said anything,” Morning Glory cast a quick look behind herself. “But yes. Most of these ponies are tourists. They don’t stay here for long, so they wouldn’t know. The actual residents...well, they’re a minority.”

“That shouldn’t matter. How many ponies do you suppose have gone missing here?”

“I don’t know. Half a dozen?”

“Half a dozen?” Deepsy gawked.

“Yes. This year, at least.”

“This year?! Then how many in total?”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I whispered. Even at a barely audible volume, every other pony instantly stopped speaking the moment I did. “If what you’re saying is true, I’m expected to believe that ponies regularly go missing in this town, and their family and friends haven’t raised a hoof to even question it.”

“They do. But nothing gets done. Ever. That’s why when I heard you were living in Dusk Falls...I thought you were here to help.”

“I am,” I asserted firmly. “Your son will be fine, Miss Morning. I promise.”

"You'll help?!" Her eyes lit up with unbridled joy at my words, hope seeping past the lines of despair in her face to form a smile.

"Yes, I'll help," I said, and then thought of the delightfully obtuse, overly serious mystery books I had back at Pink Sunset, "I'll take the case."

"Thank you so much Princess!” she gasped, looking as though she wished to hug me. Instead, she slyly fixed her hair and offered me a well-meant smile unfortunately assaulted by her own fear. “You're really every bit as stunning as I've heard."

"Tomorrow morning, I'd appreciate it if you would come to my house so I can ask you a few important questions. Pink roof, about a fifteen minute walk down the beach," I pointed in the direction of Pink Sunset, too far to actually see, but she would get the picture.

"Try not to worry, Miss Morning. Everything will be alright. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

I turned and left her standing there, her expression a strange mix of uncertainty, hopefulness, joy, and unbridled sorrow. My guards on the other hoof, were simply confused.

"Princess Celestia...me and Indigo really could have dealt with this."

"I know, Deepsy, and I thank you both. But, frankly, there's only so long I can spend sipping margarita and penning letters to my sister."

Planned for or not, it seemed excitement had found its way to me in Dusk Falls after all.

Dusk Falls Isn't A Nice Place to Visit (IV)

I awoke an hour before dawn, easing my way into my slippers and housecoat and leaving my bedroom to enter the still dark living room. The ocean waves looked ominous and foreboding in the pitch black light of the early morning, more intimidating than the ferocious storms that had ravaged Dusk Falls all last week.

Beach houses are a bit of a two-sided coin, in the sense that they can be both beautiful and frightening in the same vein. The darkness is quite a large contributor to this fact; the same solitary, isolated beach house can take quite an intimidating turn when there is nothing but darkness in the sky above. It is deathly quiet save for the warbling of the waves and the chattering of the shells below, and sometimes the howling wind bristling the palm leaves outside.

Lighting a torch, I carried it in my magic as I ventured further into the living room and went to select a random book from the hundreds on my shelf, but within moments of sitting down and starting to read I found myself nearly unable to focus on anything more than thoughts of the matters I had agreed to help with.

It was going to be a busy week.

As I sat watching the stars twinkle through the early morning sky, my thoughts wandered to Luna, and a sudden revelation was enough to push me onto my hooves in surprise.

Something was amiss. Luna had said something felt wrong about Dusk Falls, and I had scoffed and brushed her warning away. And then I had promised I would inform her the moment I noticed anything at all was off. And now, something indeed was.

I was halfway through grabbing a scrap of paper when my wits caught up with me and I set my quill carefully back down and took a deep breath.

Nothing was amiss, truly. Not yet. And until I knew for sure it was, getting Luna or anypony else in a frenzy of fear and panic was a foolish decision I would not be the one to make. By the day’s end, I would have plenty more to report anyways, which was of course reliant on the wild assumption that something actually was wrong with Dusk Falls.

Feeling much calmer, I took my torch back to the fireplace and set it down into a nearby sconce, and once again attempted to focus on the words of my book, this time finding it quite a bit easier.

So engrossed was I in the book before me that I almost didn’t see it out my wide ocean-facing window.

Through the blackness of the early morning sky, it came as quick as a lightning strike, but instead of disappearing in an instant, it was still hanging low over the waves as I swiftly turned my head to the window to look. My eyes grew wide with curiosity and my magic hold on my novel sputtered and died as my attention towards it vanished.

I would have liked to have called what I saw fog, but its colour and glowing luminosity robbed me of the ability to call it such. It was a dark, blood red, yet despite its freakish colouring it billowed and twisted much like clouds or mist would be expected to. As peculiar as its colour and glowing light was its position over the ocean. It was isolated in one particular spot, a cloud of blood over an area of thirty square feet, quickly dissipating into the night elsewhere.

It had come as swift as the blink of an eye, not through any means of natural formation. Surely I would have seen it earlier if it had. My eyes had been wide open the moment I had first looked to the ocean, and for the first time I spared myself a moment to blink...

And in the split-second my eyes were closed, the luminous red fog had vanished.

I blinked a few more times rapidly, desperately wishing the fog would reappear. But as I had expected, it did not.

“Not enough sleep...” I shook my head and chuckled awkwardly, although I think the doubt in my voice was quite obvious to myself. What I had just seen was far too vivid to have been my mind playing tricks on me...but it had also been too impossible to be anything beyond my fervent imagination. It was as if I had temporarily lapsed into a dream.

Yes...that had been what I’d seen. I must have fallen asleep ever so briefly and dreamt whatever freakish vision I had just witnessed in Harmony Bay.

With another, more confident chuckle, my telekinetic grip on my novel resumed, and after casting one more wary glance at the ocean, I resumed reading and the red fog faded to no more than a memory of a slightly disturbing dream.

I rose the sun without looking up from my novel, and eagerly waited the arrival of the distraught mother I had met on the boardwalk. To my surprise, she arrived shortly before Deepsy and Indigo’s guard shifts had begun at 7:00.

In the corner of my eye I’d seen her trudging across the beach not even thirty minutes after I had risen the sun, and quickly threw down my book, kicked off my slippers, and dashed into my bedroom to don my royal regalia. I noticed my mane was still a bit of a bed-swept mess, and cursed myself as I looked from my sunhat to my golden crown and ultimately decided on the crown.

A light knocking came at my front door, quick and nervous, as if the pony on the other side was half hoping none came to the door to answer it.

“Coming!” I trilled, fastening my regalia to my chest and placing my hooves into my golden hoofguards (which I had been assured would in fact not mar my hardwood floor.)

With everything in place, I cantered swiftly to the round door and opened it theatrically, offering my warmest and most welcoming smile to the orange mare on the other side.

“Good Morning, Miss Morning Glory!” I greeted. “Welcome to Pink Sunset! Please come in.”

She obeyed without a word, instead communicating her thanks through a shaky, fearful bow. It was slightly difficult to believe this jumpy, shell-shocked mare was the same one who had charged me the night prior as I lowered the sun.

We sat at the round dining table, with its white and blue tablecloth completely free of any blemishes showing it to be of any considerable usefulness. I did not even wait for a moment after she had sat down before I asked my first question.

“Would you like a cup of tea, Morning Glory?”

“N...actually, yes please.”

As with the sun, I did not even for a moment break my smiling gaze across the table at Morning Glory even as I levitated my kettle over to us from across the room, magically raising the heat of the water within so that it was whistling before it even reached the table. I next levitated two delicate tea cups and saucers both decorated carefully with beautiful minimalistic depictions of flora and fungi. They’d been a gift from the ever-humble Breezies, four and a half years in the making for a small set of several cups, saucers, and a teapot, and as such they were reserved primarily for rare occasions.

“Thank you,” she murmured as I filled a cup and pushed it across the table to her, before doing the same for myself.

“You can begin from the top, if you don’t mind,” I said. “Your son’s name, physical appearance, what you were doing when he disappeared…”

“Right,” she said, looking a little taken aback at how quickly I was diving into the matters at hoof. “His name is Dune. Dune Shores. He’s a unicorn, with a sandy coat and a...a vibrant blue mane. I believe the colour name is cerulean. He’s only ten, but he already has a cutie mark; a blue surfboard.”

I chuckled a little and nodded. Only fitting for an energetic young colt living in a beach town.

“Thank you. And what were you doing when he disappeared?”

“We’d gone for a long walk down the beach. There’s a little cove a ways beyond the boardwalk.”

“I see. And you were alone?”

“Yes.”

“The whole time? You saw nopony else on the beach?”

“No.”

“Not even in passing?”

“No.” she said again, more firmly than before.

“So you made it to the cove,” I waved a hoof, “What happened next?”

“We...we stopped there for lunch. Dune finished before me and went looking for seashells alone. After half an hour, he didn’t return, and obviously I started to get worried. I went looking for him... and...”

“And he was nowhere to be found.” I finished for her, seeing the tell-tale signs of tears forming in her eyes. She nodded and I stopped, taking a drink of my tea and allowing her to collect herself.

“I looked and looked, even when the sun had set I kept looking. I walked for miles down the beach, I screamed his name as loud as I could...but there was nothing.”

“Did you check the water?” I asked.

“Wh...why would I...what do you mean?”

“I mean nothing. I’m simply asking if you—”

“You think he may have drowned.”

“I never said that.”

"You didn't have to," she said, choking back a few stray sobs.

"I promised you on the boardwalk I would find him,” my voice did not even for a moment break from its confident, near-monotone. "I have no intention of breaking that promise."

“You’re just saying that—”

“Look, Morning Glory,” I said, cutting her sentence off in a stern, authoritative voice that in another age would have made a raging dragon think twice, “I understand you’re upset,and you have every reason to be, but I need you to focus. Take a minute if you need to, but I can’t help you unless you help me. Do you understand?”

“Y...yes, Your Majesty…” she managed between sniffles. “I’m sorry.”

“This cove...you said it was close?”

“A thirty minute walk south from the boardwalk.”

Then it looked as though I would be going for a bit of a walk that day.

I pressed her for more information, but most of what I received was relatively irrelevant and unhelpful. The basics of the story remained the same, which was hardly welcomed considering how bare they were. What I was thinking, but did not dare say, was that I presently had absolutely no reason to believe young Dune Shores hadn’t been swept into the shifting tides and drowned.

Currently, I was left with no idea how I could believe any different...unless...

“Ah!” I exclaimed in a sudden moment of revelation. I had interrupted Morning Glory, but was too excited to care. “Hoofprints! In the sand! Surely you would have noticed them, correct? Why did you not follow them?”

“They led as far as the beach, and occasionally I thought I saw one in the sand, but he must have been walking close enough to the water that it swept them away in the waves.”

And then the high tides would have come. At their highest, the waves lapsed under my own porch, adding an extra twenty feet of water. As such, after only an hour of searching the tides would have swept even the faint traces Dune had left behind. Nevertheless, Morning Glory managed to confirm even from the sad amount of hoofprints she had seen that he had been walking further on down the beach, away from the boardwalk.

She proceeded to tell me that he was an extremely skilled swimmer, and that even at high tides the waters of the Crimson Coast stretched for almost a quarter of a mile before dropping off into any measurable depth. It would seem that, thankfully, the probability of him having drowned was at least partially disproved by her assertions.

It did not take long for my questions to make the inevitable transition from what concerned her to the greater danger that concerned me.

“Last night you told me that disappearances in Dusk Falls were relatively common,” I recounted, remembering her swiftness to change the topic the moment I called Deepsy and Indigo over and brought the suspicious statement to the limelight. “Would you mind being a little more...descriptive?”

“I...well, there isn’t a lot to say,” she stuttered. “Half the ponies, unless you actually knew them, you never would have noticed them gone.”

“Could it be that they simply moved away?” I asked, forming a quizzical frown as I raised the tea cup upwards and took a hefty swig. “Claiming them as ‘missing’ seems a tad rash, don’t you agree?”

“I guess, but that doesn’t explain why I’ve occasionally seen acquaintance’s relatives asking around about them.”

“No, I suppose it doesn’t,” I agreed. “Of course, it also does not prove that anything foul is at play here. Perhaps it simply means ponies are just miserable at communicating with each other. I know I’m guilty of it.”

“Then what of my son?!”

“Please stop shouting at me,” I said coldly. Not that I particularly cared whether or not my subjects grew vocally upset towards me, but I still had to maintain some image of elevated respect, “Your son is an isolated incident, and I doubt has any connections with anything else Dusk Falls may be facing.”

“Then what do you presume—”

“Miss Morning, in my long life I’ve found it rather rude and counterproductive to ‘presume’ anything,” I levelled. Morning Glory opened her mouth as if to reply, but a loud knock at my door promptly interrupted her. Somewhat thankful for the interruption, I smiled, rose, and trotted towards the door. Already through the painted glass I could see Deepsy and Indigo, and opened the door to let them in.

“Good Morning, Princess Celestia!” Indigo greeted with a smile that Deepsy didn’t share when he saw Morning Glory over my shoulder.

“Good Morning, my guards,” I said, taking a step back to let them in, “Me and Morning Glory were just discussing the circumstances of her son’s disappearance.”

“So I assumed,” Deepsy replied, “Did you learn anything helpful?”

“Well…” I began, and then turned to look at Morning Glory in the living room, “O...outside, you two. I’ll tell you.”

iii

“Drowned?” Indigo’s eyes were wide with horror. “That’s horrible!”

“And also unlikely,” I assured. “The Crimson Coast beaches are shallow for half a kilometer before dropping off. Even a novice swimmer could keep their heads above water in the conditions Morning Glory states the ocean was in that day.”

“Then the other options aren’t pretty,” Deepsy replied grimly. “Do you think he was kidnapped?”

“Normally with this sort of thing there’s a pattern,” I said, “As well as a specific reason.”

“You mean like a cult?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Have you ever encountered something similar, Your Majesty?"

I had, actually. Well, I hadn't. While investigating complaints of small-game population decreasing in parts of the Everfree Forest, my sister once discovered a group of ponies who gathered in a grotto to toss bats, pegasi feathers, goat and deer antlers, eagle talons, and live snakes and lizards into a fire in an attempt to communicate with the Spirit of Chaos, Discord. I remember Luna describing to me the odd, nonsensical assortment of things she had seen, and then asking me to guess what otherworldly demon they were intended for; as if it were some sick game. There was only one being in Equestria that had such a hideous mishmash of discomfitting appendages.

Of course, small animals and discarded deer antlers were one thing, and there was quite a difference between them and the apparently perfectly fine ponies who had seemingly vanished into thin air. If what were happening in Dusk Falls was anything similar, then it seemed as though I had a much more severe problem on my hooves than what Luna had encountered back home all those years ago.

With surprise I realized that Deepsy was still anticipating a response, so I shook my head to tell him I hadn't; a lie, but the truth was hardly beneficial unless my goal was to insinuate fear and panic throughout Dusk Falls. Besides, I had no concrete evidence that what was happening was even anything criminal. It could even be something as simple as a few letters lost in the mail and a significant hyperbole on the part of Miss Morning Glory.

“Are you two saying Dusk Falls has some sort of hexing cult which sacrifices ponies?!” Indigo had been listening quietly, evidently turning our words over in her head and finally speaking them out loud as bluntly as possible.

“No!” I said instantly, “Heavens no!"

“Then what?” Deepsy asked, sounding almost irritated, “What other possibility is there? If what that mare in there said is true, then this town has a history of disappearances and residents that seem quite content keeping quiet about it.”

I didn’t disagree, and honestly I was quite proud of my two guards for having their logical doubts. Too often did I make decisions and receive no resistance besides from Luna, who seemed willing to simply disagree for the purpose of disagreeing. Every other noble and guard, by comparison, were too blinded by respect, duty, obligation, and fear, that my word was final and rigidly correct. And now, here was Deepsy and Indigo, travelling down the route of logic instead of the route of baseless delusions of obligation. While I did not like being talked down on as if my leadership was worthless and ill-gained, I also did not take well to being regarded as perfect. If ponies had their doubts, I’d prefer they expressed them considerately, instead of withholding their tongues out of intimidation.

What other possibility was there?

Well, there were many. None of which were particularly welcoming to think about, and certainly none of which I was about to storm into Pink Sunset and tell Morning Glory about. Nor would I bother saying them aloud to my guards, or the Mayor, or even my sister. Not yet.

Instead, I would take it slow. Gather information. Play a longer game, for if whatever was terrorizing Dusk Falls by the bright, shining light of day really existed, it was hardly going to look at me favorably. In all honesty, it was rather surprising nothing had yet happened to tip me off towards the existence of something probably less than excited to be sharing a town with Equestria’s diarch.

Deepsy and Indigo could help me, too, although to what extent I did not know. They were loyal and reliable, but regardless they were still just glorified bodyguards. And if there was some sort of evil lurking...a monster, a sickness kept hidden from the public eye, or even ritual killings like Luna had seen (albeit on a lower scale) then it would be beyond irresponsible of me to pit them against it without them at least being aware of the dangers. As much as I perhaps needed them to be, they were not detectives or...thanatologists. Hopefully, neither would I be the latter.

I cleared my throat, and abruptly turned back towards the round pink door. My guards moved to follow, but the lifting of a hoof stopped them dead in their tracks as I peaked my head into Pink Sunset.

“Miss Morning, if you could come outside, please?”

Once she was outside, I introduced her properly to Deep Sea and Indigo Posy. Deepsy shook hooves, Indigo gave a polite bow, and Morning Glory took an awkward step back once the greetings were concluded.

“I would greatly appreciate it if you two could escort Miss Morning back to her home,” I instructed, my tone as authoritous as it was benign. “And stay with her, as you so insisted you did with me upon first arriving in Dusk Falls.”

“Princess…” Indigo began warily.

“Is there something about my instructions that confuses you?” My voice was all commanding now, any guise of my request being a choice now gone. “No? Excellent. Then please, have a wondrous day.”

Over the course of the morning, the sky unfurled in a manner quite unexpected considering the fairly cloudless conditions I had raised the sun under. Now, while rain seemed distant and yet to come, the sky was still largely grey and overcast. Bright enough for the occasional pinprick of sunlight to penetrate the veil of mist above, but hardly ideal for a long beachside walk.

Not that I had any mood for relaxation. I intentionally avoided the boardwalk by instead flying down the long path towards the entrance of the town. As I had predicted upon first traversing the road from Pink Sunset on my first day in Dusk Falls, it twisted its way to the entranceway and would have taken fifteen minutes had I not been dashing through the sky a dozen feet above the seldom used dirt road.

Despite the graveness of my situation, it was refreshing to once again have a purpose. I had looked forward to a vacation for years, and yet once I had received it, it was taking the best of my abilities to force myself to its closure. Even in Equestria, when I was swamped with paperwork stacked to the ceiling and was drinking cup after cup of tea in order to stay awake to finish it all late into the night, at least I wasn’t bored.

“You’re terrible.” I chided myself internally. “Bored. So this is excitement? Finding some poor pony’s missing son?”

As guilty as I felt upon considering it, it was. This did feel exciting. Normally, Luna was the one who would deal with Equestria’s underworld; the evil done in the shadows, the slums of cities unfortunately tiered even despite my best efforts to care for all of my subjects. While I was in Day Court mulling over political strife and trade negotiations, Luna was dealing with the macabre side of Equestria so well hidden from the public eye.

It was with ironic justice, then, that Luna was so well loved by the young fillies and foals. I would sometimes see Luna enter our parlour bloodied and bruised from some pony’s nightmare she had been grappling with, clean herself off, and proceed to play with young ponies at celebrations hours later. Neither of us had really known why, but even ponies whose nightmares Luna had never had to battle against were drawn to my sister with looks of admiration on their faces. While nobles with as much wealth as pride shined my hooves, children ran and played with Luna, wearing toothy, exuberant grins. It had been a common sight at weddings, garden parties, or Summer Solstice celebrations.

Well, it had been. Recently, though…

I reached the end of the dirt road, surrounded on both sides by the tall barriers of the stone ravine, with the occasional tree struggling to survive on the unfortunate patch of dirt their seed had landed upon. A tall sign bore the message “Welcome to Dusk Falls!” in large, block capitals, with depictions of the Ferris Wheel and beach filling the remaining area. The road into town was well used, uncountable tracks left behind by carts and carriages dug into the dirt several feet below me. I had only seen Dusk Falls from this angle several times, for it was a road I had no reason to travel down.

My wings carried me to the waterfall in several minutes, and I flew low enough over the lake below for my hooves to drag into the water and shoot a refreshing spray of water upwards. Crystalline Lake, I was once told, had been a larger affair about two decades ago. While the beach had always been the focal point of the town, the lake had remained a welcome alternative for quite some time. Its cooler water was preferred over the lukewarm seawater on blistering summer days, and the scenic beauty of Crystalline Falls attracted tourists from miles around. When the Ferris Wheel had been built on the boardwalk, it laid waste to any desire they had to go to the lake, instead luring tourists with its bright and colourful neon lights and eternally joyful band music.

Town of the future. Traditions of the past. That had been what the postcard had said. It seemed as though the future was priority in Dusk Falls, regardless of what the postcard claimed.

Crystalline Lake had a beach, but it hadn’t seen very much use in a long while. Grass had started to take control of the sand, and a small wooden structure that may once have been a cantina had since been left for dead. The falls themselves were situated exactly across from the beach, separated by the entire diameter of the lake. They could be seen but not touched by anypony unwilling to fly or swim to them. A river flowed from Crystalline Lake towards the ocean, and it was this river that I followed as I continued my flight.

It was swampy and reed-filled, but the symphony of croaking frogs was a fascinating sound which I decided sufficiently compensated for the unpleasant scent produced by the marshland muds. Light grey cranes with patches of red above their beaks turned to regard me with mild annoyance as I flew past, returning to their chattering and foraging once I had been deemed as non-threatening.

Soon the river made contact with the saltwater, and I merged my flightpath so that I was flying parallel with the southward shore. The building wind carried faint, barely audible boardwalk band-song to my ears, and when I turned around I could still see the Ferris Wheel, no bigger than a thimble on the horizon. A few stray drops of rain had started to fall as a faint drizzle, but I was already damp from the water of the lake and came close to not even noticing.

It was midday when I reached what I presumed to be the cove Morning Glory had been referring to. It was a gorgeous, ancient formation of rock which rose alone in a tiny bay, so that the small circle of ocean water was entirely shaded by the cool rock cavern ceiling above. The sound of dripping water joined the light drizzling of rain on the ocean outside as I crept out of the grey and into the black. With no outside light able to penetrate except through the entranceway, I figured it would be nearly pitch-black in the cavern.

I was then, surprised, to find that the walls seemed to be glowing in places with some form of phosphorus luminescence emanating from the stone, giving the entire cave a greenish tint. Upon closer examination, I noticed that the glowing stones were in fact crystals, and the light was fading in and out of them perpetually like the Northern Lights one could sometimes see on a cold winters night at the summit of Canterlot Mountain.

As pretty as the cavern was, it was empty. Not that I had quite been expecting anything, but I meandered back into the drizzling rain disappointed none the less. A few of Morning Glory’s hoofprints seemed to have survived the repeated, persistent motions of the waves, beyond where the tide could have reached. I hardly even paid them any attention as I walked past them, but some subconscious part of my brain must have found something odd about the hoofprints in the sand. For the sake of simple, passing curiosity, I leaned closer into the sand for a closer look.

I was quite glad I did, for what I saw upon careful examination was greatly intriguing. They weren’t a ponies hoofprints, as I initially had expected. I’d assumed that the tide and drizzling rain had contributed to the deformation of her hoofprints, but what I saw seemed to contradict that assumption. A pony’s hoofprint was typically a slight ovoid shape, with a sharp, pronounced V-shape near the bottom. These, however, were longer but seemingly thinner, and lacked the tell-tale V-shape of a pony’s hoofprint entirely. Equally as distinguishing was the deformed nature of the print; it seemed to lack any particular pattern and instead twisted about at random across its elliptical shape. What was even more intriguing was the additional digits above where the heel must have been. It was difficult to identify for certain how many digits whatever made these prints had, for they were faded nearly beyond visibility. It was as though something slightly heavier had made these prints, and did so on feet, not hooves, with three or perhaps four toes.

Now greatly intrigued, I started following the footprints, all the while wondering why Morning Glory’s weren’t visible and why she hadn’t spoken at all of these odd ones. She had said she had looked for the prints, so why then would she not tell me how odd they were?

I had an idea as to why, but had no desire to pursue it when a greater mystery was before me.

Past the cove, the sand started to rise in grassy dunes, which in turn would eventually give way to bushes and then trees. With a growing feeling of dread in my stomach, I pursued the prints further and further down the beach until my worst fear seemed to come true as they turned towards the dunes, with the promise of grass above that would obscure them completely from my view.

I imagined a pony without legs as tall as my alicorn stature gifted me would have slight trouble ascending the considerable incline the dunes rose at, but the mysterious prints from the past I was pursuing seemed to have just as little trouble as I did. Clearly, this meant that whatever I was chasing also had long legs, and was more than likely much larger than a pony and perhaps even taller than myself.

As I had expected, the tracks were all but invisible when I reached the top of the grassy dune, and I looked instead at the sand-turned-grass that rolled on in hills, gaining rocks and steeper inclines until they were now the two hundred foot tall ravine leading into Dusk Falls. With this magnificent sight in front of me, I stood thinking for some time, wondering what the tracks could possibly belong to. Something tall, but perhaps not necessarily large. Something with three toes sometimes and as much as five toes other times, in seemingly no concrete pattern.

They could have been made after Morning Glory and Dune had gone on their walk, or perhaps even before, I had no sure way of knowing for sure. I hadn’t seen any smaller hoofprints that a young colt would have left behind, nor did I see any that would have belonged to Morning Glory, which surely meant that they had either not seen the other tracks, or that they had been made after. I firmly believed that their own hoofprints would have been swept away by the tides, which meant that I was faced with two mysteries entirely.

Where had Dune Shores been going? Had he been following whatever creature had left the odd prints, and if so, why then were his prints not visible too?

I retraced the prints back to the cove, where they soon disappeared as they entered the range of the tides. Where they had come from, it was impossible for me to know.

With the cove and its surroundings revealed to be barren of any actual concrete clues, I sighed and sat down in the sand while the rain started falling steadily. While the odd prints I had found were intriguing, they in no way brought me any closer to finding out what had become of Dune Shores.

I would have to come back another day, and inspect the water. What I would find, I did not know nor had I any desire to find out, but it seemed necessary regardless. I would perhaps scour through some spell books I had at Pink Sunset, for I was quite certain there was at least one that could be used to temporarily allow me to investigate the immediate ocean around the cove more clearly.

Having seen as much as I could see at the cove, I rose from my resting position on the sand, shook myself and my regalia free of any imperfections it had caused, and took off through the rain towards the boardwalk. This time, I didn’t really care if I caught any attention, I was cold and losing daylight. I would have to hurry if I expected to have enough time to speak with Mayor Kleos about why he had chosen to keep knowledge of Dusk Falls’ mysterious happenings from me.

The Mayor of Dusk Falls lived in a mansion grander than even some nobles lived in back home. It was at least five times the size of my house, with well cared for flowers and grass surrounding it on both sides. Tall, imported elm trees stood on equal distances in front of the mansion. I received no answer at the door, so I instead set out on hoof in the direction of the boardwalk, which was almost directly accessible from the back lawn of his house.

I found him after only several minutes of searching, lounging by a railing overlooking the ocean with a drink hovering beside him in his magic. Internally I reminded myself that this was only the second time I had spoken with him since arriving in Dusk Falls, and I was three months late on a promised dinner. Truthfully, I neither liked nor respected him after our first meeting, and it wasn't with the intention to please that I approached him this time, either.

He didn’t see me until I was standing beside him, and he started a bit in surprise, bowed politely in respect, and then met my eyes with a look of respectful curiosity.

“Princess Celestia! It’s good to see you!”

“Likewise.”

“I don’t believe we’ve spoken since...since you and your sister first arrived.”

“Yes,” I said, “You definitely heeded my request for a private house.”

“Perhaps a little too well,” Kleos chuckled good naturedly. “How has Dusk Falls been treating you as of late, Your Majesty?”

“Wonderfully. It’s how you’ve been treating Dusk Falls that is more my concern,” I was in no mood to meander about conversations, or make idle, worthless chit chat. Not when a job had to be done. If I expected concise, quick answers, I knew I had to phrase concise, quick questions.

Before he had time to ask any of his own, I proceeded.

“Why is it that I was approached yesterday by a mare who claims that her son has gone missing, and that nopony here would’ve done anything to help?”

He looked at me in pure surprise. It was clear from his expression he had no idea what I was speaking about. Nevertheless, he answered.

“I imagine you are speaking of Miss Morning Glory?”

“Yes, I certainly am.”

“The mare whose son was swept to sea and drowned? The mare who refused to believe us when we stated differently?”

I bristled a little, not enough for him to notice. I had been the one asking questions. He had twisted the situation to his own advantage in two sentences.

No. There was no advantage above the Princess of the Sun.

“Yes, that is the mare,” I said, pointing at the ocean next, “And that is the ocean her son allegedly drowned in. Shallow for the first thousand feet before dropping off. And I’ve been told he isn’t the first disappearance, either.”

“Told by…?”

“Miss Morning Glory,” I answered emotionlessly. He had spoken of her word as if it were unreliable...as if she were delusional. I hadn’t seen any traces of delusion this morning; I had seen a mare desperate for help and fearful of those in Dusk Falls willing to give her any.

“And I firmly believe her word,” I continued, “So is there something you are not telling me, Kleos? Something about this town that I should know of?”

"Such as?" He was almost challenging me now. I was as shocked as I was indignant, but I hid both with my flat, expressionless glare. Wordlessly I urged his response further.

"Your Majesty... I don't think that I have an answer for you,” he said, “I have no idea what Miss Morning means when she says her son isn't an isolated incident. What do you think she is suggesting?"

“Kleos, have you forgotten who you are speaking to?” For the first time since I'd been away from Luna, my voice rose to borderline hostile as I took a single step towards him. “Or are you simply too insolent to care?”

Kleos fell silent for awhile, not out of contemplation, but out of realization, and his silence was lengthened out of serious, honest regret. Eventually, he formed words which came as careful, cautious whispers:

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” he muttered, sounding as though he meant it honestly and truly, “I’m simply tired of ponies and their superstitions. My frustration wasn’t supposed to be so evident, and I assure you it wasn’t directed at you.”

I felt not even a tinge of sympathy for him, and didn’t bother to offer him any assurance that I forgave him. It was quite obvious that neither of us carried any respect for each other, and I didn’t have in me the capacity to care anyways. Kleos wasn’t the type of pony I particularly strived to please.

“You mentioned you’re ‘tired of ponies and their superstitions,’” I reiterated, quoting him precisely to prevent him from dancing around the question, “What superstitions, may I ask?”

“Ah...well, it’s all quite silly, Princess Celestia. But if you must know, there’s a bit of a legend amongst Dusk Fallians that the waters of the Crimson Coast carry with them a certain sense of doom. There have been a few shipwrecks in the past along the Crimson Coast, before Dusk Falls even existed, and about a dozen or so deaths associated with them. Or so I'm told."

“That much is factual?” I questioned.

“I...I think it’s exaggerated a little, but for the most part, yes. You might actually be able to see some of the wreckage if you look through the waters by your cottage.”

“And the superstition, then?”

“Ah...heh. It’s...like I said, it’s a campfire story,” Kleos chuckled awkwardly and began toying with his jet black mane, “The quick version is, some genius of a pony decided to start spreading the idea that the ships were brought down by something in the water. Yet others say one may have been carrying something that caused her crew to go looney, and now the waters carry some sort of curse. I believe the most popular ship ponies cite as the catalyst of despair was called the Sisyphys.

“Basically, she runs afoul in the sand, nopony knows why. The ship itself was discovered when a particularly odd piece of driftwood floated up onto the beach, and turned out to have a name stenciled onto it. The ship’s still under the water in Harmony Bay, I believe.

"Anyways, it seems now that every time somepony drowns or skips town or ends up on the wrong side of a dangerous situation, every permanent resident in Dusk Falls jumps on the opportunity to scare away every tourist in a thousand mile radius with their cries of ghosts and demons from children’s stories.”

I noted that for once, it seemed as though me and Kleos were on the same page with matters. We were both trying to keep panic and fear at bay in order to maintain a bit of order. It was fascinating to know that Dusk Falls had a bit of an urban tall-tale which seemed to shed a bit of light on the relatively uneasy tone its residents seemed to carry.

“I must admit,” I said critically, “I was hoping for a concrete answer, not some silly campfire fairy tale.”

“I’m just repeating what’s got Dusk Falls so paranoid,” Kleos answered, not even remotely offended by my gibe. “I thought that was the whole reason you’d come to Dusk Falls, at first: to try and put an end to the rumours entirely. The rumours that every single accidental drowning or missing pony is caused by some century old superstitious bedtime story.”

“You speak like somepony who has something to hide,” I thought with words I desperately wanted to express but knew better.

I was willing to bet that if I asked about, I would be met with similar stories regarding Dusk Falls and its history. Perhaps different in some areas, but the general motif would be the same; some sort of supernatural curse or legend told to the residents to keep them blind to something larger. I’d seen it before...even as early back as with King Sombra in the Crystal Empire. The vast amount of ponies who genuinely viewed myself and Luna as villainous tyrants and their own leader as a holy saint had been surprising.

Even earlier, when I was a mere filly, me and Luna were nothing more than winged unicorn freaks in a world of chaos and disharmony, ruled by the Lord of Chaos himself. Discord had fed propaganda and fear into the hearts of every pony so as to make every alicorn born a monster and every barbaric murder of them to be a blessing. As sick and twisted as we had seen it, it was no more than basic nature for everypony else.

Ponies accept what they are given and disregard what is foreign and described to be dangerous. They stick to what claims to be safe and sometimes unintentionally allow themselves to be destroyed because of it.

I wanted desperately to tell all this to Mayor Kleos and demand he told me the truth, but I stayed my tongue and instead thanked him for his time and bid him good day. I then skulked back to Pink Sunset, where I would stay alone with my thoughts until a certain pony bid me an unexpected early visit.

She arrived shortly after I had lowered the sun, alone, and without a flourish of chariots or pegasi guards to announce her presence. I hadn’t even seen her land or approach, I simply heard a heavy rapping on my door. I dropped my book to the hardwood floor and trotted over, curiosity and surprise rushing to my mind as I saw the pony on the other side once I had opened it.

Nonetheless, I did not hesitate as we both leaned in for a quick, well meant but instantly regretted hug, broke off, and stood face to face, and miles apart.

“Hello, Luna.”

She was dressed only partially in her royal wear, a sight I was not quite used to seeing. Her black crown was perched atop her head but her hoofguards and regalia were gone. Her mane was dishevelled from what surely must have been at least several days of flying if she had come from Canterville, and her eyes were bloodshot and carried heavy bags underneath them. Despite her evidently tired appearance, she smiled warmly as she spoke.

“Hello, Celestia. I...I’m sorry to arrive without letting you know...I simply…”

She broke off into awkward silence and smiled, blushing ever so slightly.

“You’re welcome anytime, Luna. It’s been awhile.”

“It has.” she agreed, nodding slowly.

“Are you staying the night?” I asked softly. Part of me was wondering why she had arrived almost three weeks early, but another, larger part of me did not possess the capacity to care.

“I would like that.”

Luna, as it had turned out, had no particular purpose for her arrival in Dusk Falls, and simply had, as she herself had put it, nothing better to do. With peace across Equestria, Luna and I had been enjoying a relatively quiet decade, one made even quieter when ponies had found out Luna alone would be hearing out the problems they brought to her. Working hard to either complete all office work beforehand or shove it off onto somepony else, she had vaguely announced that she would be disappearing for several days, and before any nobles or governmental authorities had time to question her she had quite literally left without another word.

“I imagine I’ll have hell to pay when I return,” she said with genuine wit, smiling and sipping her tea as we sat at the same place by the fire as we had on our first night in Dusk Falls. “I don’t care. It’ll be worth it.”

“As much as I can’t condone your leadership tactics...” I falsely chided, “...I’m glad you’ve come to visit me, Luna. Even if I don’t really understand why.”

She shrugged and stared into the fire for several seconds before responding.

“I don’t really know either, Celly. Things were quiet in Equestria, and I didn’t want to squander my time off doing nothing at home when I could come out here instead.”

“You’re still coming for the Summer Sun Celebration in two weeks?”

“Yes, of course,” she assured.

There was still tenseness as we shared our experiences by the fire, still the odd awkward pause or quick dismissal of a question in a sharp tone, but I genuinely felt significantly more comfortable speaking with Luna that evening then I did any moment of the several years past.

In retrospect, I think my judgement was clouded by the mere fact that the two of us were simply excited to see each other and once that excitement had died off, then we would be back to our unpleasant, bickering selves.

As we talked, I did not make any attempt to pass on the words Mayor Kleos, Morning Glory, or Deepsy had spoken to me, nor did I recount what I had heard and suspected of Dusk Falls. That would have to wait for another, later time. The morning, perhaps, or maybe some distant time entirely.

Either way, it had no reason to be then.

After Luna gratefully devoured a helping of pasta I made for us (even though I myself had already eaten) we set about trying to find proper sleeping arrangements for her. She had made it quite clear that, as happy as she was to see me, she was not sharing my bedroom’s huge double bed. Instead, she found herself quite comfortable sleeping on a few cushions in the living room, clearly expressing her delight at the beautiful view she had as she looked outside.

I did not wait long after Luna had retired before I, too, set down my book and extinguished the oil lantern beside my bed. My mind was flung into dreams almost as swiftly as the last light caused from the dimming lantern faded into darkness. Past the short hop, skip, and jump that was my dreams came a fresh new day, one which had the fascinating distinction of being Luna’s first actual day in Dusk Falls.

Consult Your Local Public Library for Chapter Five (V)

Dawn arrived swiftly to my mind unwilling to dream, and when my eyes opened to the floral walls of my bedroom the magical tug of the sun willing to be raised was already pulling on my horn. I yawned and stretched, my horn bursting to life as I did. Faint glimmers of sunlight were shooting through my window before I had even left my room.

Luna looked up from a bowl of porridge as my door was opened and I stumbled out. We shared mumbled and lazy greetings and directly after she returned her attention to the food in front of her.

“Dune Shores is dead, Celestia,” she said without any context or warning.

I stopped dead in my tracks and simply stared at her in shock.

“That was the colt’s name, right?” Luna continued on eating her porridge casually, as if she had not noticed my bewilderment. “Or perhaps it was Dune Shade?”

“How did you—!” I began to exclaim, but Luna cut me off instantly.

“I spoke with your guards yesterday while I was waiting for you to return. They filled me in.” Luna answered my unfinished question calmly, as if I had simply asked the weather forecast. “As for how I know he is deceased...I spent all last night searching the Dreamscape for his consciousness. I found nothing. No consciousness, no pony. Also, there’s some leftover porridge for you on the stove if you want.”

Either Luna was amazingly not at all irritated with me, or she was intentionally keeping her anger as hidden as possible for some reason I could not know.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier,” I sighed as I shovelled some of the hot cereal into a bowl. “I wanted to wait because—”

“Because you had no cause for concern,” she waved a hoof dismissively. “Because you had nothing to gain by telling me. Because your promises to keep me informed were simply idle words of encouragement to ease both of our fears. I understand.”

“Luna…I was going to tell you!”

“I know you were! When did I say I thought you weren’t? Why would I even say that to begin with?”

With the quick and direct tone Luna had been speaking with from the first sentence she had muttered upon seeing me, it was difficult to tell when she was being sarcastic and when she was not. She was irritated with me, a fool could see that now, but what surprised me most was how calm and collected her irritation appeared. Furthermore, it would seem she had chosen to act oblivious and unknowing all through last night, showing me that any connection I thought had been remedied was just as severed as it had ever been.

Nevertheless, and despite me greatly expecting and dreading so, Luna did not pursue the issue any further, nor did she say any words of derision to me. I had been expecting her to contentedly tell me that she had “told me so,” but she did nothing of the sort. Instead, she pointed to the same seat by my table that I had been interrogating Morning Glory from the previous day and gave me a forced yet weak smile.

“I said that he was dead to get your attention, by the way,” Luna said. “Although what I said about searching for his consciousness is quite true, not to mention troubling.”

“Is it unusual for such a thing to occur?” I had, and to this day still do have, an embarrassingly sparse knowledge of dream magic. Luna had tried to explain and teach me its intricacies, but it was quickly made quite clear to both of us that it was an art we did not both have the ability to share.

“Indeed it is.” Luna sighed. “Even a mind that’s awake has an active subconscious, although it collapses easily and is damn near impossible to actually enter. Dune Shine had nothing. Not even a trace of a somewhat active subconscious mind.”

“You can pinpoint dreaming ponies like that?” I doubtfully questioned. I understood Luna’s ability to dreamwalk, but she seemed to be claiming it gave her a type of omniscience regarding the present state of mind of every pony in Equestria, even the ones she had not met.

“N...not exactly. It’s complicated. Proximity plays a part; sleeping minds in Dusk Falls are easily accessible to me presently, whereas those at home aren’t.” Luna explained. “Think of it like searching for a specific star in the night sky. Except every star is a mind and the brighter ones are the more active ponies; those engaged in dreams or nightmares. Even the least active daydream would be a pinprick in the night-sky sprawl of the dreamscape.”

Luna shrugged, looking as though she were simply hoping that her convoluted explanation made a bit of sense to me, but unwilling to actually pursue it any further.

“That is all very interesting,” I replied after several seconds. “But how does it relate to Dune?”

“I told you. Were you not listening?” Luna rolled her eyes, “I couldn’t find him. He was neither dreaming nor awake. Or perhaps he was awake with no conscious mind.”

“Like, in a vegetative state?” I guessed.

“Yes. Exactly.”

“Well, that is hardly reassuring.”

“...Celestia, what exactly do you think is going on in this town?” Luna asked. I looked up to meet her eyes but she was staring straight down into her porridge instead. Luna’s expression remained unchanged as she stirred her coffee despite it being black with nothing else in it.

“I don’t know, Luna. But I have a feeling it’s something big.”

I was fully aware of the irony in my words, and how reflective they were of what Luna had said to me before, but she once again surprised me by not mentioning it.

“Hope for the best, plan for the worst, I suppose.” Luna sighed. “What of the ocean? Could the young colt have drowned?”

“I don’t believe it is likely.” I shook my head. I’d been over this enough times that I was now fairly firm with my answer. “Unless there is something additional at play. Superstition in this town carries suspicions of monsters or curses from relics of the past.”

“Which are entirely possible. Things have been too quiet for us for too long.”

Luna and I both shared a light chuckle, the former using a sip of her coffee as an excuse to break her joy off short.

“I don’t think it’s an ordinary ponies doing.” Luna said. “Because its been going on for almost a century.”

I am quite thankful I had chosen that moment to take a bite of my porridge, for my temporary start of surprise was quite unrestrained and uncouth.

“What?!” I exclaimed once the words managed to come to me.

“Exactly that, Celestia. I thought you already knew. My apologies, I would have shared sooner but I wasn’t sure if it would be knowledge that would benefit you.”

I gritted my teeth at her subtle jibe but said nothing.

“Where is the graveyard in Dusk Falls, Celly?” Luna asked, her voice echoed and distorted as she rose the coffee cup skyward in an attempt to scour the last drops of liquid from the bottom.

“Beg pardon?” I rose an eyebrow. Luna seemed quite fond of expressing quick, unexplained statements or questions that morning. “I...I don’t believe I know, Luna. Is it relevant?”

“No, I suppose it isn’t,” came her ambiguous reply. “I wonder if it would perhaps be a more suitable course of action if I moved here too, until this all blows over.”

She shyly ran a hoof down the pattern of the tablecloth, looking up at me from her peripheral to gauge my reaction. She surely would have been disappointed then, as I remained stoic and apathetic.

“I mean, I’m assuming you have thrown the concept of subtlety to the wind anyways,” she added.

“I’m not quite sure, Luna. Let’s at least wait until the Summer Sun Celebration to discuss this.”

“I doubt that distraught mother would like to wait that long for you to figure things out yourself.” Luna mumbled. I wasn’t quite sure whether or not she intended for me to hear her remark, but I did nonetheless.

“And you yourself are so convinced that your knowledge would surpass mine in this field?” I returned with increasing sharpness.

“Yes, I am. But it doesn’t matter,” Luna said. Instead of simply countering my challenge, she twisted the topic completely. “If he did not drown, then he was either killed, or is being kept alive for a reason. And, more than likely, all those other ponies are as well.”

As much as I was irritated by Luna’s snarky, self-confident tone, her words carried nothing but the truth. From the moment she had first spoken that morning, it was clear that further leeway in my investigations would only be provided with her assistance.

Besides, Luna had every right to be angry with me, now that I was enlisting her help with the very matters I had scoffed at her for mentioning three months prior, and yet she seemed to be repressing her justified scorn.

“I think any rash actions would be unwise on both our parts.” I finally said, ensuring my words carried a firm and final tone to them which clearly showed Luna that I was in no mood to be contradicted on the matter. “Until we have even the remotest knowledge about what is going on then we do not—”

“Do not what?!” Luna practically shouted, rising suddenly to her hooves. “Take action to stop it? Celestia, don’t be an idiot! Not this time!”

Instantly, she heard herself, took a deep and long breath, and looked to her hooves sheepishly, eventually sitting back down at the table.

“I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”

I said nothing. Luna had always been known to carry a certain level of distaste towards the heavy focus on order and harmony I carried, whereas she believed in immediate action even if all the answers were not yet known to her. This had always resulted in conflict between us in the past, but never to the point of outright hostility. Luna disagreed with me, but went along regardless out of both friendship and respect. We may both have been alicorn rulers, but I was her older sister and she seemed to understand that.

Her apology was well-meant and earnestly expressed, but its necessity still left me feeling disturbed.

“What’s happening to us, Tia?” she asked, sullen and defeated.

“I confess I do not know,” came my equally somber reply. I met Luna’s eyes, wide open with sadness and fear.

“If you don’t want me to stay here that’s fine,” she said, looking away from me. “Anyways, I brought something that may help our communication be a little more...personal.”

She reached down into a bag stowed beneath the table that I had not noticed her to be carrying until now. From it, she withdrew two books; one with a black, featureless cover and spine, which I recognized as the journal I had gifted her almost a decade ago. My logic had been for Luna to use it as a means to express her feelings of inadequacy and jealousy in a private manner. It had been a terrible mistake; Luna had screamed at me, claiming that I saw her as some form of mad pony and this was attempted therapy.

I assumed she had not kept it, but it would seem I was wrong.

The other book was much newer, and it looked as though it had been specially crafted from cork-leather, giving it a hard and durable look to it. She passed the second book to me and kept her journal in front of her.

“I’ve enchanted both of these books. Open yours, Celly.”

I did as I was instructed, flipping to the first page. To my amazement, as I stared at the paper, letters suddenly faded into legibility, looking like fresh ink but was entirely dry to the touch of my hoof. I looked up, and saw Luna smiling with a quill hovering over her own black book.

“Two way journals,” she had written, in dark blue ink.

“What we write in our books appears in both,” Luna explained aloud. “I don’t trust the post office here.”

“But we use crystallized dragon fire,” I pointed out. By my desk I had at least four sizable urns of the stuff. It wasn’t actually dragon fire, but rather crystals with magical properties which practically emulated its effect to a tee.

“I wouldn’t trust that, either.”

We fell silent, listening to the sound of the birds outside calling out their triumphant dawn chorus. It came to me that Luna had not known at all of what I was up against in Dusk Falls when she had left, and she had brought these books as a means to communicate more personally even if it did not have any actual significant necessity. It would seem she really was trying hard to mend our troubled relationship after all, even going to the lengths of inventing a whole new type of enchanted item to assist.

“I...I think I should go home,” Luna said suddenly, stabbing through my thoughts with the abrupt and uncertain tone she had stuttered the brief sentence in.

There was no more to be spoken, and no exlamations of protest I could think of for her to stay a short while longer. Luna wordlessly used her magic to levitate her dishes into my kitchen sink and began to walk towards the door. Together, we crossed my porch until we were a dozen feet down the path leading from Pink Sunset. Quite suddenly, Luna stopped, and the air took on a metallic scent as her horn began to grow with the promise of a long-distance-teleportation spell.

Without consent or hesitation, my horn was alight as well, as I focused on matching Luna’s magic frequency to assist with the trying teleportation spell that would bring her home. She did not say anything further, but the slim ghost of a smile she gave me expressed her thanks with more honesty than any words ever could have stated.

With our combined magic rising in intensity, a perfect sphere of light began forming around Luna, casting cold wind in a spiral cutting through the still early morning air.

“See you soon, Celly..." I thought I heard Luna’s voice call out, but it was so consumed by the drone of increasing magic that I half suspected it to be my own imagination.

In one final flash the sphere lit up magnificently and then disappeared, leaving nothing left.

Almost as soon as I turned around to face my porch again, Indigo came dashing through the sky at a speed I had not known she had been able to fly at. She tore over the tall roof of Pink Sunset and came to a near crash-landing some ways down the path.

“Is she gone?!” she gasped, panting for breath.

“I’m afraid you missed my sister by mere seconds.” I said, grinning. Indigo was almost forty-five minutes early for her guard shift.

“Ah drat. The one day I sleep in. Did Her Majesty Princess Luna find anything? She told Miss Morning she would look for her son’s dreaming mind…”

“She told me that she spent all night looking,” I said, not necessarily anticipating the reactions to what came next. “I’m sorry to say she found nothing.”

“Damn it,” the normally soft-spoken young pegasus surprised me by muttering bitterly. “What’s our next course of action, Your Majesty?”

“Ah...allow me a moment to think.” I said. scratching my mane with a forehoof. We walked back to the house in silence, where we sat on the flourescent orange mats that I had decorated the porch with.

Luna had said that she considered the probability of the terror in Dusk Falls being a pony was unlikely, and I was inclined to agree. Certainly even more so after what she had told me about it being an incident which spanned through the century.

In addition, there had been the strange prints in the sand I had seen; I cursed myself internally as I recalled them all too late, for I was quite certain Luna would have loved to hear of them. Upon returning the night previous, I had briefly scoured through my nature guides trying to find an animal that matched the tracks, but none in the region of the Crimson Coast came close to resembling the oddly large and complex shape of the prints.

It was perhaps too little, but the notion of something I presently had no knowledge of was the only lead to follow.

“Indy...you don’t mind if I call you Indy?”

She giggled and shook her head.

“I would greatly appreciate it if you were to scour the town for as many local accounts of strange creatures in this area exclusively.” I said, and then a sudden thought prompted me to make an addition to my orders.

“Also, if you could visit the local library and pick up any and all bestiaries you can find, that would greatly help our cause. If need be, tell them you’re confiscating them for Her Majesty, Princess Celestia. I’m sure that should suffice.” I added, rolling my eyes and garnering another light chuckle from Indigo.

“What specifically should I focus on?” Indigo asked.

“I do not know,” I said, internally picturing the footprints in the sand. They had been infrequently placed, and it was difficult to know for certain the specific manner in which their creator would have been walking.

There seemed to be something distinctly foreign about their nature, something clear that I was somehow not realizing. I cursed out loud and brought a hoof to my temples.

What was I missing?

“Princess? Are you alright?”

“Yes, Indigo.” I straightened myself swiftly, trading my peevish grimace for a thin and weary smile. “I’m simply frustrated.”

“I’m sorry, Princess…”

“Don’t be. I never said I was frustrated with you,” I said. “Now, I don’t mean to come across as overly commanding, but where is Deepsy?”

“Ah...I’m pretty sure he’s been standing guard for Morning Glory since six.”

“Good. Tell him to continue doing so.”

“Your Majesty...what exactly is going on?”

“I...do not know,” I replied after a pause of several seconds. “And until I do know, I wish to practice utmost caution. What I do presently know is that this town does not feel safe.”

“What Deepsy said about monsters and cults…”

“My sister shares his prediction,” I said, cutting her sentence short for I needed not hear the rest of it. “And her experience in the field leads me to trust her judgement, even if it contradicts what I had been hoping for.”

“Alright. Well, I’d better be off, Princess. Are you sure you don't want one of us to remain close to you for safety?”

“Quite sure. I mean no offense, but I doubt there is anything you can do that I cannot do myself.”

“Probably better, at that." Indigo unfurled her wings and gave me a single, determined nod. “I’ll pass on your orders to Deepsy.”

“Much obliged,” I said. “Actually, maybe the three of us can discuss matters over lunch on the boardwalk later today. Perhaps at one?”

“Sure thing, Princess. See you then!”

With humorous enthusiasm, Indigo nodded vigorously, and took off into the sky.

Finally alone again, I turned and resumed my return to Pink Sunset, although it would be brief, for I had other matters to attend to.

When I left my home, my living room was abandoned in a state of utter disarray, but it didn’t matter for I had found what I had been looking for and my hooves were already itching with anticipation to be moving again. I could always tidy up my bookshelves later on.

It was still quite early as I streaked past the trees and sand below, and a quick glance to my right showed me that the boardwalk was almost deserted at the hour. I passed it in moments and was soon back at the cove where I had discovered the footprints the day prior.

The beach, however, was not the focus of my visit that day. Wielding an old spellbook which reeked of sand, dust, and that odd, indescribable smell seemingly exclusive only to ancient books, I stood as tall and proud as I could muster. Placing the book down in the sand in front of me, I pointed my horn skywards, using my left forehoof to flip the book to the specific page required. The title, Bending Water, was the only thing written in proper Equish, the rest was a mess of runes and characters foreign to most ponies without a specialty in advanced magic.

On the other hoof, I myself whispered them with the same casual tone as somepony might as they instinctively read the morning paper aloud. Within seconds the book and my horn alike were glowing with electrical energy, and although I could not know it myself my eyes were glowing with brilliant white light.

The spell for bending water was in actuality quite simple in principle. I imagined it must have been common in advanced schools of magic, where young unicorns perhaps practiced disrupting the flow of water from their kitchen sinks. Intensified to the immense magnitude of the focused energy of an alicorn, however, it was more than enough to start parting the ocean around the immediate area of the cove, although maintaining it for any length of time would be quite difficult.

Feeling slight sympathy for the boats in the pier by the boardwalk, I grunted in concentration as I began to walk while casting the rather tiring spell. After some time the blinding force of the energy swirling around me lessened enough for me to see beyond, and I continued walking until I was off the beach and now standing on the damp sand where the ocean had once been.

Not knowing quite what I was looking for, I trudged on across the extended beach, with twenty-foot walls of stationary water surrounding me in a half-circle. My horn was still alight with magic and my vision was largely clouded by the energy I was dispersing, but I carried on.

The sight must have been impressive, a lone alicorn standing encased in her barriers of frozen waves, although I imagine the serenity of the scene would have been lessened by my stumbling about half-blinded like a drunken fool. My hooves sunk far into sand, and even with the water parted my fetlocks were still wading through the salt water. I had parted most of the ocean in that small area, but the inevitable foot of water still remained.

With the spell eating away at my magic, I knew I did not have all day, and did not have a very long time before my magic gave out and the waves came crashing back into their right place. Knowing this, I swiftly increased my pace as I searched in vain for something out of the ordinary amongst the sand. Every time I allowed myself a glance backwards, I saw the beach growing further and further away while the line of the coast gradually worked its way into a steeper curvature. Directly in front of me, the towering monolith of water was quite a disorienting and unnatural sight. Pretty, certainly, with the bright morning sun sparkling through the frozen baby blue water, but carrying with it a freakish level of unnatural alienness that even a pony well versed in most fields of unicorn magic would have found a little distressing.

After almost half an hour of searching through the sand, I finally saw something abnormal enough to warrant me giving it attention. Or, perhaps more accurately, I did not initially see it, but rather I heard it. The steady sloshing of my hooves travelling through the dirt was suddenly replaced by a loud, pronounced clop, as my hooves struck down against something hard. Looking down in surprise, I realized I was no longer walking on sand, but on stone. It was a grey patch of stone with hardly any imperfections, stretching in a near perfect rectangle for around thirty square feet.

Fully aware of the spell wavering and threatening to give way, I leaned downwards to take a better look at the stone I was standing on. I would not have been too surprised to find small patches of sandstone on the beach, but this was not sandstone at all. Its grey colour quite clearly showed that.

Instead, it seemed to be an actual slab of stone, no doubt immensely heavy given its dimensions. Upon closer examination, I realized that it was actually not imperfect; the salt and waves had actually weathered rough, fascinating looking shapes and patterns across its surface. My search for some sort of actual pony-made marking, however, proved fruitless. Disappointed, I dug my hooves into the sand and the edge and began digging. It was, however, rather counter-productive, as any pony who has ever attempted digging underwater would tell you. Progress was impossible, especially with two thirds of my focus still resting on keeping myself from being hit by a couple thousand gallons of seawater suspended around me precariously.

Still I clawed at the sand in vain, and found that the slab of stone seemed to always be present as far down as my hoof went. It surely must have been incredibly heavy at the dimensions I could see, but even at that I had no way of knowing how much deeper it went. The minutes spent by the stone slab gradually crept into hours as I walked its perimeter, which after enough time were further evidenced by crevices a foot or two deep that I had dug with my hooves. Even with the apparent weathering of decades of the tides ebb and flow, its corners and sides were clearly pronounced, and too bizarrely straight to be anything natural forming.

For every foot downwards I was able to make with my hooves, another leaped upwards and the shallow water pushed the sand back into place. With my magic diverted on keeping the slab accessible in the first place, it was clear there wasn’t anything else that could be done.

Defeated, and with my horn throbbing and humming out an audible, strained whine, I waded back to the beach and ended the flow of magic as gradually as I could. However, even despite my best efforts the massive amount of water came crashing down at once, creating a sound that would make a thunderclap sound like a pin-drop. A massive wave followed, rippling out to sea and flowing clear past me even as I was standing with my two hind-hooves resting on the grass of the rising sand dunes.

It would wreak further havoc with the pier, and perhaps even the distant boardwalk, but nonetheless I felt quite pleased that I had decided to indeed return to the cove, even if it had only brought about further mysteries and answered no questions. I was looking forwards to coming back with Luna; perhaps together, the two of us could find some way of moving the great stone from its nonsensical berth in the sand.

The moment my magic ended, I fell in a heap onto the ground, partly out of exhaustion but mostly because the grass and sand looked immensely comfortable any my hooves were quite sore and scratched from having spent so much time clawing at rock and sand. A glance up at the sun in the sky provided me with the surprising knowledge that I had spent shy of two and a half hours at the cove, even though it felt like mere moments since I had first arrived.

Along with the spellbook, I had also brought in my saddlebag the cork-leather journal, and I withdrew it and began taking notes. It would be an easier way of relaying information to Luna, already exposing its usefulness in mere hours of being in my possession.

I sketched a brief depiction of the underwater monolith, but as I stated earlier, I am no artist. Underneath I wrote a brief summary of events in shorthoof. Not only was it a quick and efficient strategy inherited through centuries of running Equestria, but it was a nearly indecipherable mess of strange lines and shapes to any malevolent demon being which I had my doubts carried bureaucratic knowledge. Luna’s suspicions of both Dusk Falls’ postal service, and the risk of somepony intercepting dragonfire messages was indeed more prominent then one might imagine. It had been quite a risk during the war against King Sombra, so much so that Luna and I had entire ciphers and codes invented specifically for that battle.

Of course, if one were expecting an instantaneous response to the writing scrawled onto the journal, they would be quite disappointed. I certainly was as I stared at the blank page next to my notes, waiting for Luna’s remarks. I swiftly realized that they would not come until she actually checked, and she was was probably quite busy with work to pay any attention to the journal at the moment.

I stuffed my books into my saddlebag, along with my sunhat which I had to crumble a little to get to fit. In its place atop my head I withdrew my crown and wore that instead. If whatever cult or monster was residing in Dusk Falls thought I was yet another sunhat toting tourist, then I certainly hoped the golden, rune inscribed regal headwear bade them to think twice.

Although I suppose my alicorn stature would have sufficed in this regard.

With my crown on, I spread my wings and flew back to the boardwalk as swiftly as I could, agressive waves still beating the shore as a direct result of the small tidal wave I had caused. The boardwalk itself was thankfully high enough above the water that the tallest of the waves had seemingly still been too short to soak the wood. It was ten to one o’clock when I landed amidst a flurry of surprise and joy from the ponies on the boardwalk. It had been quite sometime since many of them had seen me in public, especially with my newfound lust for secrecy and tradition of travelling in the rain when the streets, beaches, and boardwalk were all relatively deserted of their typical bustling life.

I was keen on having no attention diverted towards me, however, and my firm expression solidified the thoughts I needed not vocally express to the ponies on the boardwalk. Instead, I strode forwards purposefully in the direction of a small looking coffeeshop cafe with its large glass windows directly facing the sea.

iii

“...and it was just lying there in the sand?”

“Yes, Deepsy.” I said, daintily picking away at a salad. The cafe shop we were eating in had a distinctly maritime motif, with anchors, sextons, oars, and other ancient ship parts lining the walls. The sort of tacky charm characteristic of these little beach towns. “I have no idea what it is or how it’s there. How about you two? How is Morning Glory, Deepsy?”

“She’s fine. I’m afraid I still don’t understand why my guard duties suddenly lie with her, though.”

I was tempted to tell him that they laid with her because I said so, but I instead told him precisely what I had told Indigo earlier that morning; I didn’t know, and until I did, I’d prefer if innocent ponies were not at risk of being hurt.

“And you, Indigo?” she looked up from her own fruit salad as I addressed her. “What have you found?”

“From the residents, nothing. They either don’t know anything, or are really good at acting like they don’t,” she sighed. “And the library contained nothing. Nothing at all...”

“Damn,” I said, picking at my salad irritably. Who else could we possibly press for information? Unless…

“Uhh...Princess?” Indigo said uneasily. I looked up and realized that she hadn’t finished before. I had cut her off, and then fell silent, leaving her swamped for how to continue the conversation. I chuckled awkwardly and nodded at her to continue.

“I couldn’t find anything in the Dusk Falls Public Library...but I did end up finding a bestiary for the Crimson Coast. And I do mean ‘a bestiary,’ as in, the only one. And it isn’t even complete. There’s pages torn out of it.”

“Really?” I said in surprise. “If not the library, then where did you find this?”

“You’re gonna love this,” she grinned. “I stole it from the Mayor.”

“What?!” Deepsy and I exclaimed in comical near-unison.

“I payed him a visit this morning to ask a few questions, like you asked,” she explained, trying her best to suppress a grin and failing. “When he left to get me some tea, I had a look around, and saw that. It stuck out, especially amongst all the books about finance and taxes.”

“Indy, I could hug you.” I gleefully grabbed the book and began flipping through it.

It was an encyclopedia of sorts, but an incredibly extensive one that appeared to have been written by a writer who was as much an adventurer and explorer as he was an author. It was extensively covered in personal notes and observations regarding a great multitude of dangerous creatures. The potential threats of monsters were all clearly identified, but disturbingly enough so were explanations on how they could be exploited. An entire section of the book was devoted to using parasprites as means of controlled destruction.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that no several pages had been torn out, as Indigo had claimed, but rather an entire chapter of the book was gone. I felt a trickle of anger as I realized this; the one and only bit of research that could assist me and it was vandalized beyond usefulness. At every turn I was provided with more and more unknowns while dozens of questions remained unanswered. I was making no progress.

“Chapter Five is missing entirely.” I slid the book back across the table to Indigo. “Have you any idea what it contained?"

"No, sorry," she said. "The whole thing is gone?"

"Yes, that's what I said," I said with barely detectable irritability. "I want you to find out what it covered, please. This is deliberate, not haphazard vandalism. This means these pages are being kept somewhere, by somepony who apparently is not the mayor. I doubt he even knows the chapter is missing. Obviously he doesn't care much for it if you stole it with ease."

"But—" Deepsy began in uncertain protest. Evidently my logic must have looked quite hypocritically presumptuous, but I hadn't the time to care for appearances.

"At what point did I say I wished for this to be a topic of argument?" I said sternly. My typical outward cheerfulness and positive appearance was hardly unaffected by the stress that my own regretful obliviousness was created, even if at a multitude of times it was no more than a veil in the first place.

Silence fell swiftly between us. I felt a little guilty for how I had snapped at my guards, but frankly I don’t believe they were weak enough to be offended by it. During the conversation’s long lull, I withdrew my journal and flipped to the page I had written on earlier. My drawing and brief description had since been circled in blue ink, as Luna's hoofwriting stated the obvious below:

"Not natural."

I was standing by the beach in front of Pink Sunset, with the inky tapestry of black waves unfurled before me. It was the dead of night, and yet I couldn’t remember lowering the sun or why I was standing by the beach in the cold with my housecoat fluttering wildly in the wind wafting across the ocean. I couldn’t even remember walking down to the beach, to my knowledge the last thing I had done was lay my head on my pillow and letting sleep overtake me. So why then was I standing with my slippers sinking into the cold sand?

Do you know that sensation one gets when they feel something very large is out of place, and yet you cannot for the life of you find out what exactly is amiss? I had that feeling as I looked behind me at the still, tall form of Pink Sunset, nary a torch or magic light burning to illuminate the dark house, and back to the lapping waves ahead of me.

There were no hoofprints in the sand to explain my current presence by the beach, it was as if I had simply vanished from my warm bed into the cool night. Before I could even begin to make sense of what was happening, I caught movement in my peripheral, and whipped around to see some...thing advancing towards me.

It was...vaguely alicorn in shape, with a coat so black it blended with the starless night almost inconspicuously. But, to call its coat fur would be a compliment, it looked more like something had skinned a pony and was now wearing it over itself. Its colour was unnatural, perhaps in some form it was blue, but it was grotesque and rotting in many places, and without any confirmation I knew that if I were to come in contact with this thing’s coat, my own pearl white fur would be stained with whatever substance it was made from.

Simply put, it looked...false. Like a changeling's pathetic attempts at shapeshifting when it did not have enough energy to do so.

Despite its freakish appearance and alicorn nature, its dark blue mane had no ethereal qualities about it whatsoever, a sure sign that it was not an alicorn through birth nor ascension, but by some other means entirely.

“Nice evening, isn’t it, Your Majesty?” she spoke, in a voice distinctly female and sounding of both youthful arrogance and age-old wisdom. As she spoke, her mouth twisted into an ominous, bloodthirsty smile, and she licked her razor sharp fangs, an action which surely would cut a thick gash in an ordinary ponies tongue.

“What are you?” I said, keeping my ground and refusing to let fear overtake me. Whatever this creature was, I was ready for it.

“Is that seriously how you’re going to greet me?” It cackled, and then its voice shifted to a deliberately mocking shrill, “What are you?!”

It hung it’s head and laughed some more, while I glowered and stared on.

“Oh, I like that! What am I. Hilarious! Whatever happened to the Royal Princess Celestia’s sweet little manners?”

“What. Are. You?” I growled, deliberately punctuating each world as I bared my own teeth, a pathetic answer to this thing’s cannibalistic fangs.

“What a way to greet a complete stranger. With hostility.”

“What is it you want from me? What manner of demon are you?”

"Certainly, I'm not an alicorn, if that's what you mean. If you chose to dream of one then that's your prerogative. I'm no Goddess of Destruction or anything, either, before you start thinking that. What is it you called me? The terror of Dusk Falls? I suppose I'm that, although death, fear, and destruction are hardly my intention. "

I said nothing, but still I kept my glaring gaze locked at the creature in front of me.

“Oh, Princess, relax. I mean you no harm. At least not for the time being. I’m simply reaching out, getting a good look at my...for lack of a better word, opposition.”

The dark parody of an alicorn never once broke her mad grin, instead somehow managing to further enhance its piercing, patronizing intensity. It saw my anger, confusion, and fear, and I could tell that it was enjoying every last moment of it. Still, I refused to break my own intimidating expression, wishing I was standing in anything but a pink housecoat and fluffy slippers soaked with water and sand.

“If you so much as lay a hoof on my subjects—”

“Don’t worry, I would never even dream of hurting them. Not yet. Anyways, I think I’ve overstayed my welcome here, Princess Celestia.”

Suddenly, the creature started walking past me, her hooves trodding into the sand and leaving no trace to betray her presence. As she walked, the blackness covering her form started fading into the dark night around her, so that palm trees and waves could faintly be seen clear through her body.

“No! Wait! I command you to tell me who you are and what you want!”

Amazingly, the creature stopped in her tracks and turned a little to face me through her peripheral, still wearing a smug and self-satisfied grin.

“What do I want? Simply...freedom. And...who am I?”

She turned and kept walking, until her form had vanished completely and I was seemingly left alone.

“You'll have to wait a little to find out, Your Majesty.”

The voice was carried as if by the silent wind, fading away to the sounds of the waves against the shore.

Suddenly, I was leaping upwards with a shocked shout of surprise and fear, throwing my bed covers violently across the room and realizing I was laying in my bed and drenched in my own sweat. My housecoat was hanging by my bed delicately, my slippers carefully placed at their usual spot at the foot of my bed, free of any traces of sand, dirt, or water.

Nightmare. It had been no more than a nightmare.

Certainly, the word rang true. Indeed, it rang so true that I actually spoke the word out loud as I lay in my bed.

“Nightmare….nightmare…”

As I said it, I suddenly let out a laugh, a fearful sob, and a final, panicked chuckle.

“All just a...just a nightmare...a dream. Just a dream.”

But, something told me it wasn’t. That nagging feeling. The one that tells you something is most certainly amiss, something large, something glaring you in the face whilst breathing its icy breath down your obliviously fearful neck. Something was wrong, and it wasn’t something a little more chamomile tea before bed could fix.

That was much more than just a dream.

It was well past midnight, but any chance of me ever getting any sleep was a ridiculous thought I may have laughed at if I were in a less panicked state. Instead, I rolled from my bed, lit a torch with my magic, and carried it with me as I left my room and traversed the short, floral hallway into the heart of Pink Sunset.

From the towering windows, I could see that the night looked precisely the same as it had in my dream, the same starless sky, and the same frighteningly empty ocean being battered by the silent summer wind. I stumbled my way to the study area, resting my candle onto the desk and collapsing with my head in my hooves.

I’m not much of a superstitious mare.. I don’t put too much stock in dreams or prophecies, I don’t truly believe that the ramblings of our barely functional sleeping minds are anything more than a stream of random images generated by our consciousness when we aren’t around to dictate them into any manner of decent organization. Sometimes, a nightmare is simply a nightmare. But this wasn’t a simple nightmare, this was one that had felt too natural, to deliberate, making me feel as though I had just been revealed as an actor in a play I had no knowledge of acting in.

I sat with my head buried in my hooves, thinking, a quill idly levitating above a piece of parchment with nothing more than the words ‘Dear Luna’ scrawled on and looking quite childish even by the relative darkness I had written them by.

There I lay as the traces of dawn slowly crept forwards over the hours past midnight, with nary more than those two words jotted down in a letter I might never send. What was I to write? “Dear Luna, last night I dreamt of a vision in which some malevolent creature appeared, who taunted and insulted me and then left.” What would her response be? Probably something along the lines of: “Dear Celestia, do I need to recommend some better nighttime teas to help you with your nightmares?”

No, I wouldn’t end up sending the letter. It would become tinder for a fire on some colder night, and the memory of my dream probably wouldn’t last much longer than the morning.

Groggily, I rose from my position with my muzzle resting comfortably on the wooden desk, let out a wide and prehistoric yawn, and strode out onto the porch in anticipation of a new day.

Blood Fog (VI)

Dearest sister,

Enclosed in this parcel is a copy of The Beasts and Monsters of Eastern Coastal Equestria, an encyclopedia/bestiary under public domain and written by some of the most recognized Equestrian zooligists and explorers of the past several decades. As you can see, the entirety of the fifth chapter has apparently been removed from the copy that I have sent you, seemingly purposefully given the near-perfect nature of its non-existence.

For reasons we have discussed in person, I will not disclose any details in this letter as to the specifics of my seemingly odd request, but I assure you I will have answers for you when you arrive in fourteen day’s time. This being said, I must ask that when you do arrive in Dusk Falls, you bring with you a copy of this exact same book which can undoubtedly be found in the Royal Library.

I will not discuss this any further for the sake of security, but I assure you it is of utmost importance that you do not forget to bring this book. Thank you very much, Luna, and I greatly look forward to seeing you.

Bye for now,

Celly.

I signed my name proper underneath the childish yet centuries old nickname, and sent the entire two-inch thick parcel and envelope away in a considerable torrent of crystallized dragon fire. In a flurry of green flame the whole affair vanished, in its place a small pile of ash which I teleported outside in a brief flare of my magic.

If Luna had received my letter, I was given no early indication, not even as the week carried on with no further response from her. It was not until I checked our journal for the first time since the day in the café that I realized Luna had responded, although at what point in the four day span I could not have known from the journal.

Like before, her response was kept to a single, choppy sentence, although it wasn’t quite as brief as her “Not natural” response. Instead, she had written in the center of a blank page:

“About Chapter Five; trust me, you’ll love what I’ve found.”

There was nothing else there, just the cryptic sentence which sent a tingle of excitement down my spine. Luna’s ambiguity was irksome, yet understandable. I figured that it would certainly make waiting for her to arrive with the book in ten day’s time more difficult with the knowledge that it would come with information that according to Luna, I would find intensely fascinating.

However, despite my excitement, the remaining ten days of the month instead passed in relatively swift succession, even if they were weeks in which I did little more than sit about by the beach, watching and waiting for things to change in Dusk Falls.

To the average visiting tourist, and even to the residents of the town, my watching would seem quite odd and insane, for to any casual observer more focused on the neon lights than the ponies operating them there was nothing at all to change in Dusk Falls. Perhaps a new travelling band came to replace the old one, or perhaps a large ship with magnificently tall and bright ivory-coloured sails catching the summer wind docked in the pier. Certainly, there was nothing that would warrant the suspicious and scrutinous gaze I was now viewing the entire town under.

The tabloids were quite busy making wild claims of my secrecy and seclusion, as well as of the increase of distance between Luna and I. It was in those weeks when things slowed down slightly that I first noticed them, although they must have been going on for some time. With mild amusement I remember one ‘article’ stooping as low as to claim that a civil war was inbound between Luna’s bat pony guards and my own. Most often, the ridiculous statements of the papers were not taken seriously at all by the public, but I do recall the occasional pony expressing concern regarding Luna and my political accordance. Several times I had been asked if I could be interviewed for various papers across Equestria, but every time I denied them. I figured I could just let the ponies have their fun with gossip and rumours, as long as it did not escalate into anything more then I truly did not care.

Instead, I did my best to avoid them, which was quite simple so long as I did not venture too far from Pink Sunset, although I had been seeing my beach house less and less in those days. I had Deepsy placed on near-permanent guard duty for Morning Glory even after facing backlash from the two of them, and had asked Indigo to continue searching for the missing colt who I had come to decide with certainty was not a specific target but instead a victim of something quite larger. I knew that I would probably be more knowledgeable and competent when it came to extracting information from ponies, but I also knew that subtlety was a large reason why I had not been seeing anything quite strange with my own eyes. Any malevolent being would know in a moment when I was present and any progress in discovering the truth would grind to a halt almost instantly.

While my guards were busy with the tasks I assigned them, I could do little more than wait for some sort of development to be made. I kept a close eye on the state of Dusk Falls and became more of a presence in the public, even if as I have stated it was a disconnected presence with little actual interaction with my subjects. My intention was to convey a sense of assurance amongst the permanent residents of Dusk Falls, the ones who perhaps shared my silent suspicion but were too nervous to have anything done about it.

To my surprise, my increase in public presence resulted in three ponies approaching me on entirely separate occasions, each with stories eerily familiar to what I had heard from Morning Glory. They approached me with barely disguised terror, and were frequently looking behind themselves nervously and starting at nearly every sound from the boardwalk around us. I chose not to comment on it with the first two ponies, but when the pattern cycled a third time I decided it would only help me to press the matter.

“You’re nervous,” I’d said, interrupting the stallion’s description of the weather surrounding the approximate time he returned home to find his wife missing without a trace. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but can you please tell me what it is you’re nervous of?”

As expected, by pointing out his agitation he only became further agitated, but with little more than a warm smile on my part he swiftly calmed down. When next he spoke, his voice was a barely audible whisper I had to strain to hear properly.

“There’s...I dunno. Ever since I moved last year, I’ve always had the impression that I don’t...don’t belong.”

“As in the locals aren’t hospitable to you?”

“I...I’m not sure. I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I don’t really know for sure what it is about them.”

“Would it surprise you if I said that one of my guards shares your sentiment exactly?” I said, remembering Deepsy and Indigo’s brief bickering on my porch which seemed like so long ago. He had begun by saying that they were hospitable but behind it was something more sinister.

I hadn’t seen it myself at the time, but then again at that time I rarely ventured beyond the walls or porch of Pink Sunset. I had no reason to. But now I was beginning to see the inklings of what he had been hinting at. I saw it most prominently with Mayor Kleos, and how I always felt as though I was being presented with slightly modified information which disguised a less presentable truth. I saw it in the smiles of the residents, or in the well established divide between them and the tourists. It was so subtle that I was slightly wary that what I was seeing was not the workings of my own imagination, desperately thirsting for something which was not actually there.

Three days before Luna was due to arrive in Dusk Falls, another major change took place, although it was not necessarily a development for my cause.

I was once again at home alone while the rain fell, a heavy torrent tumbling down from the cloudy and near-black early evening sky. In my magic floated an ancient article about the ship-wreckage which had washed up on the Dusk Falls shore many years ago. Also floating in my telekinetic grip was a small glass of cognac from a sizable bottle that had been gifted to me decades ago but I had forgotten about. While I by no means consider myself one to commonly indulge in alcohol, it did not take long for me to grow sick of tea at the end of every single day and yearn for something stronger.

Despite the disturbing nature of the subject matter I was reading, my mood was quite calm, and so it was with a small start that I heard a loud knock on my door. I rose and trotted over, opening it to the sight of my two guards standing on my porch, coats and manes drenched and with rainwater turning their golden armour into two sets of polished and reflective mirrors.

My initial thought was that it had been quite a long time since I had seen Indigo in her armour, she had taken to not donning it as her role in Dusk Falls moved to demand she look more discrete and welcoming and less separated from the residents. I imagine she wasn’t actually supposed to shun it while on duty, but I was the one who had told her not to worry about it in the first place. Either way I can’t imagine it would have made much of a difference in the end, the golden armour worn by my Royal Guard was not designed to be aesthetically threatening, but rather as a means of reflecting the warmth and comfort I hoped my sun radiated. Of course, it was also enchanted and very well adapted to combat. It was designed to deflect magic blasts instead of absorbing them, although the enchantment’s success was largely skewed in favour of protection against unicorns, and not beings of other magical prowess, but even so it would still be greatly beneficial regardless.

“Good evening, you two,” I greeted. “How are things?”

“Not so good, Your Majesty,” Deepsy said somberly, scratching a nervously dropped ear. “It’s Morning Glory, Princess. She’s...I don’t want to say hysterical, but it seems like the most fitting word.”

I rose an eyebrow, prompting him to elaborate.

“It just sort of happened. She’s packing all her things now, as if she’s going somewhere. I heard your name a few times, Princess, but I couldn’t tell you what the context of it was.”

“She was almost borderline violent,” Indigo said. “Which is why we came to get you.”

“She is simply frightened,” I shook my head. Leaving my crown and regalia behind but quickly slipping into my hoofguards, I crossed on to the porch to join my guards. “It’s been almost a month and we haven’t come any closer to any sort of solution. If she is frustrated then she only has me to blame, and rightfully so.”

I spread my wings and took off into the rain without any further explanation. Whether or not my guards followed me, I did not know nor care, although I was flying at a significantly swift speed and it would have been difficult for them to match it anyways.

Several times during my short flight I heard the roll of thunder in the distance, as another storm swelled in from the ocean. We had been getting them in spades throughout the month; a more severe tropical cyclonic storm had been hitting the south, and Manehattan and Dusk Falls were receiving the tail end of its effects. It had been one of the few weather reports Luna had forwarded to me, detailing the efforts the pegasi were making to drive it back towards the ocean. Luna had instated a temporary conscription in the area on pegasi to assist with the efforts, and her actions were met with unanimous success, minimal property damage and no injuries. Her actual political decision, however, had been met with controversy and even outrage, which saddened and distressed me. How Luna felt of it I did not discover, for she did not mention it in any of her letters and I did not prompt her to.

Morning Glory resided in one of the small houses in the single neighborhood of Dusk Falls in which long-term residents lived. Like Pink Sunset, its tiny size was actually more beneficial to its design, giving it a very homely feel. Unlike Pink Sunset, however, the house was not very tall, and its white trim was paired with a dark blue roof instead of a hot pink. I quite liked the colour matched with the ivory white, if I could have controlled what colour the painters had decided when they first constructed my home, I would have chosen the same.

I walked slowly towards the blue door. I heard the sound of creaking wood behind me, and I promptly turned around to see Indigo starting up the steps behind me with Deepsy right behind her.

“No. You two stay outside, please,” I said.

The door looked as though it had been slammed harder than what it was intended to endure, for the top hinge had been damaged enough for the door to be impossible to close completely. As a result, I was able to push it open, which I did without knocking.

“Morning Glory? Are you in here?” I called instead. The damaged door was pushed open further by the growing wind of the incoming storm, but I hesitated in the entranceway instead of venturing any further into the house.

“She must be gone already,” Indigo said behind me, more to Deepsy than me.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Princess, you took off before we could fully explain. When we left to get you, she practically kicked us out. She said that she was sick of this town and the memories, and that she didn’t feel safe anyways.”

“From the looks of things, she was in quite the hurry to leave,” I observed, leaning my head into the now abandoned house. It had been left in a state of chaos and disarray, but with all of her possessions still present and left for dead. “So much so, that she seems to have set out on foot. I’m going to find her. Deepsy, the chariot I flew into Dusk Falls in...is it still in this town?”

“Yeah. It’s in storage at the town hall. Why?”

“I’m going to look for her. If she wishes to leave I cannot stop her, but I do not want her travelling alone to wherever it is she deems safe. That’s why I’m asking you two to take her and a select amount of her possessions in the chariot to Manehattan. That’s a flight of about six hours, yes?”

“Perhaps only five, but yes,” he said. The traces of irritation were visible in his voice, even if he was quite adept at concealing it. “Are you positive this is a necessary course of action? We would have to stop in Manehattan before flying back, and we might be gone for days…”

“By all means,” I grinned, “Take as much time as you need. Manehattan is a beautiful city with plenty of sights to behold. I wouldn’t have you rush it, anyways.”

“Princess, permission to speak freely?”

“When do you ever not, Deepsy?” I said lightheartedly. “Go ahead.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I would think you’re deliberately trying to be rid of us.”

“Oh I am,” I replied in joking sarcasm. “I dreadfully despise you all with a passion. Come on, Deepsy, why would I do that? I am not trying to be rid of you, I simply need you elsewhere.”

Perhaps it would have been more accurate for me to have told them that with Luna arriving so soon, I wouldn’t need them at all, but I knew better than to needlessly be rude and offensive. My brief explanation seemed to suffice anyways, and coupled with my joking dismissal it looked as though the two were satisfied.

I found Morning Glory some ways down the road leading from Dusk Falls, stumbling along despite being evidently being weighed down by the bustling saddlebags on her sides. I flew above her and spiralled downwards, landing on the muddy path a short distance ahead of her and shaking my wings clear of rain before folding them against my sides.

With the rumbling of thunder and sound of rain beating aggressively on the dirt road, and with her eyes locked on her hooves instead of the path ahead, it was with very little surprise that I noticed she had not seen or heard me land. The moment I took my first step and my hooves made a loud sloshing noise in the mud, however, she looked up and her eyes widened in surprise. It might perhaps have been rain, but I was quite certain she had been crying.

“Princess Celestia…?” she stared at me, saying nothing further.

“I understand you wanting to leave this town,” I said after a brief pause did not elicit any further response beyond the uttering of my name. “I am sorry I have been unsuccesful in easing your fears and helping with your troubles. You have nopony else but me to blame for the sorrow you must be experiencing. But please...my guards are preparing a chariot with some of your possessions. If you must flee, I would greatly appreciate the comfort that you are in the hooves of ponies that I trust.”

“A...a chariot?”

“Yes indeed. My chariot, actually. Pine wood, white trim. Quite nice.”

“I...I don’t know what to...I mean, thank you, but—” her sentence was cut short by a loud clap of thunder directly overhead, and she flinched at the sound. When she had composed herself, she nodded frantically, swiftly reversing her unexpressed decision to deny my help.

The storm was still raging overhead by time I finally got home, and the dark and cloudy sky was darker still with night now overtaking the day. I’d lowered the sun as I flew, although none would have been able to bear witness to it through the thick cover of clouds.

Not long after I’d arrived home, I felt an uneasy compulsion to sleep, not because I was particularly tired but simply because I wished for the next dawn to arrive a little swifter. Or perhaps it was for another reason entirely. To be honest, I was and am not quite sure. Without quite knowing for sure what I was doing, I extinguished the torches I had just lit and made my way into my bedroom.

Even if I was not tired, and even through the angry storm, my mind wandered into dreamless sleep quite swiftly. I awoke in my bed again as if my eyes had been shut for mere moments, but the sound of birds chirping outside to the tune of a light rain in place of a torrential storm quickly gave me the impression that I had at least slept away several hours. It was still the dead of night and much too far for me to arise, but my throat felt parched and dry and I realized I had not even eaten dinner the night prior, let alone dranken any amount of water. And so, with a great yawn, I travelled back into my living room with a glass of water I had taken from my nightstand in my magical grasp.

It did not remain in my grasp for long though, because the moment I was outside it fell from my grasp and hit the ground, somehow not shattering on the hardwood floor even though it really should have.

Outside of my house lay the night sky sprawled as a curtain of stars, which would have been natural, if not for the fact that the night sky was all that was outside my house. The beach nor ocean was there, it looked like my house was simply floating in a void of nothing but the night sky. The door to my porch was open wide and the curtains were flying wildly even though I could feel no wind blowing them. What wind could there have been, anyways?

It was in this direction that I cautiously walked, until I was no longer inside and instead was looking down into more stars where I had grown accustomed to the high tides being.

“Beautiful sight, inside it, Princess?” A voice ominously called behind me. I whipped around with bitter words on my lips, but instantly ceased when I saw who it was who had spoken. Even shrouded in the darkness of my unlit house, I recognized her silhouette immediately. “Hey, Celly.”

“Luna! I’m sorry...you startled me!”

“Yes, I’m sorry, too. A sleeping mind is more prompt to confusion and disorientation, as well as shock and fear,” she grinned devilishly, “I’d be lying if I said I never took advantage of it to have a bit of fun.”

“I’m dreaming?!”

“Well, yes. Obviously. Did you think the rest of our known reality simply decided to rise without you this morning?”

I scratched my bedraggled mane and ignored her comment, instead focusing on the more important question.

“What are you doing in my dreams, Luna? I thought you’d told me you did not interfere with non-nightmares.”

“Oh, but you are in a nightmare, Celly. In your waking mind. Nightmares aren’t always confined to the Dreamscape.”

“Very ominous. What are you getting at, Luna?”

“You’d be surprised how useful the Dreamscape can be, Celestia. I aim to show you, but I need you to focus,” she walked out onto the porch. The starlight, dim as it was, gave her form beyond that of a silhouette, all the while seeming to lend their light into her waving mane which looked as though it were growing in luminosity.

“I’m going to collapse your dream,” she said, “...but I need you to try your best to stay asleep. Can you do that?”

“But...how does one stay asleep when their dreams are collapsing?”

“It isn’t something there exists a particular strategy for. You just need to stay focused on something. An idea or an object or a ponies face. It can be anything.”

“Such as yourself?”

Luna shrugged.

“Depending on the dreamer, how I appear to them can fluctuate. Most of the time it works but it can be volatile. Sometimes I’m dreamt up as a luna moth or a small bat, which can be annoying and degrading. It helps to think of something smaller. Focus on that one thing and keep thinking about it, and try not to pay any attention to the reality I’ll be forcibly destroying around you.”

“Why are we doing this, Luna?”

“You’ll see. Have you an object to focus upon?”

I hadn’t, but I thought of one swiftly. It was not Luna or myself or anything of particular importance. Instead of something significant to me, I focused on the blue housecoat I was wearing. I did not own a blue housecoat, it must have been something my dreaming mind had conjured up, but regardless its simplicity seemed sufficient enough to keep me focused for however long Luna’s dream-collapsing procedure would take.

A loud cracking sound ripped out from above me, and I squeezed my eyes shut while filling my mind’s eye with the image of the housecoat I’d been wearing. It felt silly, doing my best to stay focused on such a meaningless thing, while the sounds of utter destruction tore out from beyond my eyelids, but if Luna had seen it as important then I did too.

I felt not unlike a little child, doing as my younger sister ordered me and too clueless to protest otherwise. No matter what anypony tells you, I don't believe there is a feeling worse than being patronizingly treated like a fool. It was for this reason that I made an attempt not to elevate myself above my subjects. Every foe I'd ever faced took great pleasure in proclaiming their superiority over me; Discord, Sombra, to them I was always a fool, a bore, an adversary of laughable meekness. I did not care so much if they said it, but the same attitude coming from my sister was a bit more concerning. Granted, she was not nearly as deliberate as they had been, and I don't believe anypony else beyond myself would have known.

“Celestia, you can open your eyes anytime, but try not to be frightened when you do so. It is only with intense focus that you can stay dreaming. Think of your object if you believe your mind is growing too confused or otherwise busy.”

Gradually, my eyes fluttered open. The starry sky was still there, but there was nothing else, not even any ground beneath my hooves. Instead, there were more stars far beneath me, with some unseeable surface dividing them from me.

“Blue housecoat, blue housecoat, blue housecoat,” my mind chanted as I adjusted to the odd lack of spacial depth and visible reality. Despite the oddness, it was more the shock of seeing it all that I imagined Luna was wary about. Once my surroundings had sunken in, despite their surreal nature I was quite calm and collected in the face of them.

"Are you alright?" Luna asked.

"Your coat..." I mumbled. "It looks darker here."

"Well nopony dreams with exact precision," her answer was defensive and evidently practiced.

"What is all this?" I motioned to the stars around us. At least, I thought they were stars, the distance between them and the rather small amount bade me think twice about what I was seeing. "Shouldn't an empty Dreamscape be...empty?"

"It is. Hence the blackness."

"Then what of all the stars?"

"Hmm, interesting. You see them as stars? I always saw doors myself. Give me a moment and I'll change my perspective to accompany yours."

"Luna!" I pleaded. By that point I'd had enough of her ambiguity. "Please, explain yourself!"

"Very well. The stars you see, presumably all around you?" she waved a hoof at the sky and our hooves, leading me to believe she now saw the Dreamscape as I did. "They are not stars at all. You are seeing every single dreaming mind in Dusk Falls at this moment."

Luna must have seen the surprise in my eyes, because she quickly perked her ears and took on a grave expression.

"Deep breaths. Stay calm. Think of your object if need be. This is the longest anypony has remained with me in raw Dreamscape, but presently you are very apt to waking suddenly."

"I'm fine, Luna," I said. "So every star I see is...?"

"A pony, yes. I dare not risk entering a dream with you presently, but I do not have to in order to demonstrate why we are here. Do you see it?"

I turned my gaze back to the spacious sky above. What I had noticed before had not changed; still the night sky was unnaturally void of many stars, although knowing that they were all the minds of ponies in Dusk Falls made their dwindling number a little more reasonable. I swept my eyes across them all, seeking some sort of constellation or otherwise pattern in their design. Luna had seemingly noticed it in mere moments, which meant it couldn't be anything too complex.

While no constellations formed from the stars, one spot of the sky above seemed quite different from the rest. While every other area had the stars spaced out at reasonable distances from each other, with only the occasional cluster, this specific area contained a perplexingly condensed grouping of them, perhaps a hundred stars all in the same vicinity. Each single star was considerably dimmer than the other ones, but so many in one place meant that the cluster could even be mistaken for a singular bright light if a pony were to cross their eyes or look to it in their peripheral.

"There?" I ventured. With no spatial reference points, I had to take to pointing at it with a hoof instead.

"Bingo." Luna said with genuine playful energy I'd longed to see from her as of late. "All dreaming minds spaced equally across the Dreamscape of Dusk Falls. All but there. Why?"

"Dozens of minds...all in immediate proximity. Does this mean their spatial proximity in the land of the waking is the same?"

"Yes, actually, it does. If what you are seeing is the same as myself, then you are looking at...perhaps a good comparison would be an aerial map, but showing nothing but the locations of dreaming ponies," Luna rubbed her eyes and next spoke through a yawn, "But, it's a spherical aerial map. The principle is the same."

It was mind-achingly baffling and Luna's explanation did little to assist, but I did my best not to focus on it out of fear of collapsing into wakefulness as Luna had warned would happen. The reason of why we were there was still no less clear to me, but as if sensing my curiosity, Luna's theory was quick to come.

"An impossible amount of ponies in one concentrated place could mean two things: a town meeting at the stroke of midnight, all asleep perhaps due to the pedantic nature of this town's insipid mayor," Luna did not so much as grin despite her joke, instead shifting into further somberness "...Or a grouping of unconscious ponies who have gone missing over the years."

"Yes, perhaps," Though admittedly far-fetched, her logic did not seem incorrect. The population of Dusk Falls did not seem large enough to accommodate both the perhaps thousand stars in the sky, and the hundreds in this isolated cluster.

"I believe something is using ponies, Celestia. As a power source. Perhaps draining their magic, I don't know. I can't think of why else they would be in such sickening proximity and negligible cognitive states."

"The stars are dimmer than the rest," I observed. "Does this mean the dreams are less intense?"

"Yes it does. Too dim for a single one to actually be entered," Luna said. We both realized it in synchronization, but Luna said it first with her ears perking upwards and her eyes widening in realization. "Like Dawn Shores."

"Dune Shores."

"Yes, yes, whatever. Like him."

"Luna, our subjects identities are not 'whatever.'"

"I can't really find it in me to care, sister. Can we stay focused on the task at hoof please?"

"Which is?" I said sharply, stomping a hoof on the unseen ground which made no sound upon being struck. "Your needless lust for ambiguity has left me unable to tell what you actually hope to accomplish."

"Just because you don't understand doesn't make it needless," her reply came with venom. As our irritation with each other grew, I could have sworn I'd seen the tapestry of stars waver and blur as if losing resolve. Luna evidently noticed, too.

"...But enough of this!" she cried. "Are we honestly bickering like school-fillies here, of all places?"

"Yes, you are right," I conceded. "I am sorry, Luna. What's next?"

"We awaken, I suppose. Can you not think of anything else from the realm of dreams you wish to explore? I was hoping you'd be more creative with this opportunity."

I do not recall actually thinking of what came next, nor having any thoughts beyond indignation towards Luna's unnecessary words of derision. But regardless of what my conscious mind was focused on, it seemed that within my dreams my subconscious still had the greater control. Whatever the reasoning, I would later leave it to my sister to figure out, it was her area of expertise anyways.

What I do remember clearly is the same sense of perverse and bone-chilling unease, but not full horror because I did not quite understand what it was that I should have been frightened of. Instead, it was both the taunting familiarity and the similar feeling of confusion that billowed within my mind and bade the finer hairs on my neck stand on end.

"Ah, see, this is fascinating," Luna's voice cut through my confused thoughts, not a fragment of uncertainty or anxiety to be detected in its uninterested sounding drone. "Blood fog! A familiar sight, Tia?"

It rose at our eye level even with an unlimited amount of unsullied space above, below, and around us. Its resemblance to the stuff I had seen weeks ago was uncanny, I was in part surprised my subconscious had remembered it in such detail so as to offer up such a perfect depiction once again.

The thought had not even occurred to me that it was not my subconscious which had conjured it up at all.

"Yes, it is familiar. I saw this fog rise in Harmony Bay. I attributed it to a brief yet vivid dream."

"And you didn't tell me? So much for outright honesty between us."

"Luna, this is not the time nor place for your judgement! Explain what it is we are seeing!"

"How in Tartarus should I know? You saw it!" her wings flared up in her frustration. "Give me a moment, I'll isolate the dream back to the three of us."

"Three of us?"

"You, me, and whatever that is! Now shut up and let me focus!"

She had not actually told me what the process of 'isolating the dream' entailed, so I once again closed my eyes and did the best I could not to focus on the loud groaning and creaking sounds around us, and Luna's magic humming or occasionally spiking in pitch to a sharp whine. Accompanied by her strained magic, Luna's breathing was now heavy and frantic, as if she had just finished sprinting a great distance. I wanted dearly to call out and ask whether or not she was alright, but I could not imagine she would have taken well to any interruptions even if their intentions were good.

As suddenly as the loud surrounding noises commenced, they seemed to vanish just as swiftly. Luna's inconsistent magic flow ceased to be replaced by silence, and her breathing calmed to the quiet nature of a mare at rest.

"Sweet Mother Epona," she gasped once the process had seemingly been completed. My eyes fluttered open and I saw that she had descended to a sitting position on the non-visible ground, this time strictly immaculate and free of even the small interruptions of the stars. Instead we were in a complete black void, featureless with the deliberate exception of the red fog still hanging eerily motionless at our eye level.

There was really nothing else visible to explain Luna's quiet exclamation, and I decided she must have reacted to something she'd felt as opposed to something she had seen.

My suspicions were quickly proven incorrect, however, when she next spoke.

“Celestia look! It’s still here!”

“The fog?”

“Yes! Blood fog!”

“You keep saying that, but it has no actual meaning, Luna,” I grumbled.

“T...this isn’t the place to explain. The point is, I whittled the dream down to just the three of us, and this formless presence still exists.”

“Presence? Implying it is...alive?”

“Yes! An apparently unconscious entity other than a pony, one we inadvertently picked up when I extended your dream to view all the minds of the other dreaming ponies,” she explained. “When I isolated it back to just the two of us, I thought it was a mere projection of your unconscious and would disappear. I did not think it was actually a physical entity.”

“What is it? Can you tell?”

“No, I cannot,” she sighed, “Like with the dreams of ponies, represented as doors or stars, it is impossible for me to know what being it is until I actually enter the dream.”

The fog continued hanging motionlessly, its inactivity an almost deliberate mocking of the confusion and intrigue it caused the two of us. It did not seem content to form into anything more than a shapeless mass of red vapor. Looking at it filled me with the same uneasy feeling even though I had grown quite accustomed to its appearance at that point. I had the impression it was not its sight but a more unexplained knowledge of its power. Fully coming to terms with the fact that Luna might have a snide and patronizing response, I expressed my thoughts aloud.

“It seems to be very powerful. I feel it just by being in its presence.”

“I’m inclined to agree,” she thankfully concurred, “Shall I attempt to give it form? This will more than likely cause you to collapse into wakefulness, but what the hell. It’s worth a shot.”

I wasn’t about to close my eyes and focus on my blue housecoat this time, instead I took a firm stance beside Luna as her horn hummed to life and a tiny tendril of white magic stretched out and slowly began moving toward the fog. The tendril moved gently, at a soothingly slow pace, and it looked as soft as a woolen thread, but nevertheless the moment it came in contact with the red fog, the vapor began to writhe in apparent pain. It was difficult to fully understand what I was seeing, let alone translate that sight to words, but simply put the red fog’s insistence on immobility was quite obviously broken as Luna’s magic collided. In some places it whirled wildly, in others it dissipated into nothingness, and in yet others it seemed like thunderstorms as tiny as a teacup but with no reduction of violence, which blinded the eyes and cast aside the red colour once so characteristic of the fog.

This was the last I saw of the blood fog. There were no theatrical flashes of light or magic to follow, instead I simply bolted into wakefulness back in my comfortable bed in Pink Sunset.

If I would have crossed over into my living room and looked out the window to see the red fog in Harmony Bay, I don’t believe the state of my mind I was presently in would have allowed me to even be surprised by the sight. I was, however, surprised by the sight of Luna rummaging through one of my kitchen drawers the moment I left my bedroom. She heard me enter, but did not actually acknowledge me beyond a quick backward glance.

“No ice-cream, Celly? Seriously?” she grumbled, slamming the magically enchanted ice-filled cupboard shut. “Well? Thoughts on what you saw?”

“I’m sorry I could not stay awake long enough for you to—”

“Oh, you have no need to apologize for that,” she interrupted me with a raise of her hoof, “I’m impressed you made it into a shared dream at all. Not many ponies other than me can do that.”

“So...blood fog?” I asked.

“Neat, wasn’t it? Would it surprise you to hear that I’ve seen something similar?”

“It would. So then you know what it was?”

“Yes. I can even show you,” Luna seemed overjoyed with the apparent condemned knowledge she possessed and I was clueless about. It was not often she had the opportunity to teach the twisted magic she found fascinating, for it was hardly commonly practiced in Equestria at all. “Would you like me to show you?”

“Very much so, yes,” I nodded.

“Excellent. Outside, though. I presume you value these floors.”

Luna led the way outside, grabbing a random book off my bookshelf in her telekinesis and sliding the glass door to my porch open.

On my porch was an ashtray which had not seen any use beyond a cigar the Mayor had once gifted me, and I felt too bad about the faux enthusiasm I had expressed to simply let it sit. Luna placed the book within and placed it on the porch, wasting no time in switching her telekinesis spell into a different spell entirely. Her normal magic aura changed colour to a sickly green, but she showed no reaction to her shift into dark magic nor to the lines of green light dancing in the corners of her eyes.

“What are you doing?” I warily asked, slightly disturbed by her nonchalant use of such execrated magic.

“Enchanting.” her reply was no more than a single word.

True to her word, the book began swirling with the same green light, but it did not take long for me to realize that whatever enchantment Luna was giving the book, it was too much for the actual pathetic bundle of paper to contain. The edges of the paper began to burn, and then the thicker cover began to smolder, too. Soon the book was aflame, although the flames were green instead of orange. It burned like any other book, swiftly becoming mere ash in the tray whose purpose I now knew Luna had foreseen.

“Okay. Now watch,” Luna whispered excitedly.

From the ashes of the book there seemed to be some sort of formation of mist or fog. Fog coloured red. Blood fog. There wasn’t nearly as much as I had seen in Harmony Bay or in the Dreamscape, but it was the same substance nonetheless. It quickly vanished into the dark midnight sky, leaving me with more confusion and one less poetry book.

“What you just saw,” came her much appreciated explanation, “Was the enchantment leaving the book. Waste. By-product. Like a soul with no body to reside in, vanishing into the air in one final ethereal dance, to be lost forever.”

“In context of what you saw over Harmony Bay,” she continued, “A much larger amount of by-product magic waste. Much more than burned books. When I said I suspected something was using the magic of ponies for malicious purposes...that was no baseless assumption, and my belief in what was once a far-fetched theory has increased greatly.”

“Why was it in my Dreamscape?” I asked.

“You’re all questions tonight, Tia,” she smiled, “And unfortunately, I am not all answers. What we saw was another creature of, as we agreed, considerable power. One whose existence we know of, but whose form remains a mystery. To you, and by extension me, its form is only one of what little we have seen of its existence.”

Even if the reveal was less than pleasant, I couldn’t help but be pleased by its mere presence. It was quite safe to say that more progress had been made in Luna’s brief, random early appearance in Dusk Falls than in the months of research between Indigo and myself. We had confirmed quite firmly that ponies were going missing for some twisted yet sensical purpose, and at the claws or hooves or hands of something very much not a pony.

Little did I know, Luna was far from finished that evening. With a smug, self-satisfied grin, she nodded once as the pleasure of the knowledge I had gained seeped into my face by way of a barely visible smile.

“If you thought that was interesting, Celly,” she said, “Wait till you see Chapter Five of ‘The Beasts and Monsters of Eastern Coastal Equestria.”’

An Ocean of Sludge (VII)

Luna, as it turned out, would have arrived in Dusk Falls at around the same time I first set my head to my pillow and fallen to sleep. For the first time in my stay in Dusk Falls, I had reason to enter the immense hotel overlooking the ocean and town, particularly beautiful from Luna’s suite at the very top of the five-story building. We had neglected to make any arrangements on where she would be staying when she paid me a visit, and it looked as though this were something she had taken upon herself to sort out.

Her solution was quite acceptable, for it allowed me—as I have just said—reason to enter the building I had been admittedly curious about. Her suite took up the entirety of the fifth floor, with multiple balconies and even a rooftop garden. I followed her as we flew through the dead of the night, the city streets deserted but the boardwalk bustling with life as usual. We did not speak for the duration of the flight, as Luna silently stopped flapping her wings and glided towards a particular balcony, her hooves touching down in a graceful landing.

She led the way into the suite. The first room was her bedroom, and it would seem we would be traveling no further, for she trotted over to a beautiful rococo coffee table and picked up a familiar looking book off of it.

“Shall we go outside?” she asked, using the book to motion back where we had come. I nodded and we both sat on the balcony. Crystalline Falls were immediately visible, as were the soaring walls of the ravine slicing through the trees and rock.

“Can I ask where you found this book, Celly?” Luna asked once we were both seated. “Because you said it’s under public domain. It isn’t. It was under public domain, but presently it has been pulled from circulation on the grounds of its questionable content.”

I rose an eyebrow but said nothing. I could already see where this was going, and I was hardly surprised it was this point Luna had chosen to jump off from.

“It’s one thing to inform the public of beasts like parasprites or wendigos. It’s quite a different thing when you start informing the public how to bring about mass destruction using them. This book is like a macabre spellbook disguised as an encyclopedia.”

“So I figured. What specifically did you find which piqued your concern?”

“Chapter Five of the book, the one you asked me to focus upon, is entirely devoted to a substance known as the Smooze.”

I nodded slowly. The name was certainly familiar. Not from experience, but rather from passing knowledge; as if I had once read a long forgotten myth about it that I no longer recalled with complete accuracy, but knew enough that its mention rung some bells. From what I could recall in that moment, the Smooze was a sludge-like substance which could be either moderately upsetting or catastrophically dangerous, depending on the specifics.

I relayed these memories to Luna, who nodded to confirm that they were correct albeit rough and non-specific.

“Yes. According to the book, the Smooze is a formless, as you said sludge-like entity,” Luna opened the book, and I could see that she had highlighted and bookmarked many varying areas all concentrated around one area which I presumed was the chapter in question. When she had seemingly found what she was looking for after briefly flipping through, she passed the book over to me.

Depicted across the entirety of one of the pages was a sizable glob of blackish purple. Grotesquely formless as it was, it was not lacking in actual appendages, but it seemed like they did not have any concrete place in the creature's body. It had a mouth and eyes...in fact, it seemed to have many. Or perhaps what I was actually seeing was more than one of the creatures clustering and flowing together like some freakish, otherworldly carnal ritual. It seemed to have other appendages, too, the occasional long strand of sludge stretched to resemble arm-like tendrils, sometimes even complete with claws looking as long and sharp as a longsword blade.

The bottom of the creature was just a mass of tiny tentacles, looking not dissimilar to whale baleen but thicker and of the same deep purple as the rest of the Smooze. Across the dozens of mouths I saw no teeth, but this was hardly enough to reconcile for the otherwise horrifying nature of the pictured beast.

“It is incorrect to call this creature malicious,” Luna said, seeing my widened look of discomfort. “For the Smooze does not have much for an actual brain, and therefore has no conscious thought process.”

“So I presume it does what its instincts tell it and nothing more?” I asked.

“Yes, exactly.”

Instead of meeting my eyes, Luna continued staring out at the still pine trees as she spoke, a distant look of melancholy clouding into her gaze.

“Did I ever tell you about the caterpillar dream, Celly?” she asked. I was a little taken aback by the absurdity of the question, but managed to maintain my composure and tell her that no, she had not. She nodded, sighed, and began her long recount:

“It was perhaps the oddest nightmare I had ever seen, and I don’t believe I have seen one since that has quite disturbed me so. I do not even remember whether it was a colt or filly who had dreamed it, all I remember was entering what seemed to initially be a perfect, peaceful utopia that only an innocent youngling would have the capacity of dreaming with such inspiring vivid clarity.

“I wonder if this child was the son or daughter of a botanist or entomologist, because the thematic consistency of the dream was one of insects. Specifically, it seemed, caterpillars. Upon entering, I was greeted to what seemed to be an ideal world for a creature whose one sole purpose is to eat. There were no predators, no natural occurrences to interrupt their feast. I saw thousands of caterpillars all consuming every leaf in their path. It took some time for me to realize that I was actually viewing a nightmare, and not the opposite I had initially expected.

“I watched as every tree in sight was stripped of all life, and in minutes I was looking at a barren, lifeless plain crawling with millions of these harmless insects which harboured virtually no predatory instincts. And then something quite odd happened. With all else gone and the hunger still in its mind, the caterpillar which this dreaming young pony and I had first noted with curious fascination suddenly and inexplicably turned to the first one beside it...and tore the poor creature apart with fangs it could not have possessed.”

Luna finally looked to me, gauging my reaction. I was quite obviously disturbed, but I believe confusion was the greater focus in the expression I gave Luna in response.

“That is all very...interesting, Luna, but how does it relate to anything?”

“Well, I thought it was quite obvious,” Luna scoffed, blushing a little, “I was drawing an analogy to the Smooze, for the two creatures are surprisingly similar. The Smooze has no malice or instincts, it simply has one thought on repeat in its mind: feed.”

“Feed...on what?” I warily asked.

“Anything.” came Luna’s grim reply. “Or perhaps more accurately—”

“Everything.” I cut in, bringing a hoof to my face and sighing loudly through my nose. Luna’s lack of subtlety and insistence on dramatic flare would perhaps be entertaining to a pony less stressed as I was.

“Yes. Well, situationally, the answer would be yes. However, what the Smooze consumes depends on what it was necessarily created to consume.”

I rose an eyebrow, prompting further explanation from Luna.

“If its purpose is to consume...gems, for example, then it will not rest until every gem in Equestria has been consumed. But if its purpose is to consume magic...or even life...a single liter of it could bring about global decimation.”

Suddenly, Luna’s choice of dramatic flare felt a lot more justified.

“You mentioned it being created to consume?” I prompted. “Created by whom? Or by what?”

“Ah, perhaps a better word would be summoned. Through magic, I would assume,” Luna shrugged. Evidently, the book had not elaborated further on that particular matter. “It needs to be given something of sustenance to actually grow, however.”

“Which is what its ‘diet’ is determined by.”

“Exactly. Celestia, let’s look at the facts fairly briefly, shall we?” Luna cleared her throat and locked eyes with me once again. “One: we know that ponies are going missing, but not killed, and instead kept in Dusk Falls under some sort of coma. Two: we know that something in this town has expressed interest in immensely dangerous arcane magic, and a desire for nopony else to know of what it is they are planning. Hence the library book vandalism.”

“You think that something is harvesting the magic energy of ponies for this...Smooze?” I said, quickly connecting Luna's two points together.

“It lines up with the blood fog. You were seeing the last waste of spent magic, leaving a source of no more usefulness.” Luna said. I remembered with a shudder the book which had been turned to no more than ash, wondering to what extent the demonstration related to the reality of what was happening. “Assuming they were to do so, they could potentially have it in their power to take control of Equestria and kill anypony who stands in their way.

We both fell silent for almost a minute, as we both contemplated the validity of Luna’s hypothesis. It was perhaps still only that—a mere hypothesis—considering what speculative evidence we had to support it, but nevertheless I could see no flaws in the reasoning behind it.

“I suppose it is our most likely theory,” I conceded eventually. “Did the book say anything of how the Smooze was summoned?”

“I believe it touched briefly on how unicorn magic could not be used. Nor changeling or alicorn, for that matter.” Luna shuffled a little, grabbing the book off the table and promptly leafing through it. “Ah yes, here: ‘the Smooze is not of this world. Simply put, magic from this world cannot impact it in any sense.’”

“So then what is thinking of summoning it...isn’t a pony? And is capable of wielding magic beyond that of the conventional sense?” I quickly muttered his name before logic bade me keep the idea in my head. “Discord…”

“...is still stone.” Luna shook her head vigorously. “I thought the same, initially. It’s not him, Celly. Besides, this would be unnecessary for him anyways. You and me both know that we wouldn’t stand a chance against him if he were striking at us from the shadows.”

I nodded in agreement. We had barely made it through our first confrontation with him, but then again we had been young even by the standards of the mortal ponies around us.

“Do you remember the times when Discord ruled Equestria, Celly? When we were just little fillies?”

“Of course I do,” I said. As fillies, all we had ever known was the doom and despair Discord’s corrupt Equestria brought. It wasn’t until we built our own Equestria from the grime and poverty Discord had left behind that we saw anything that even remotely resembled what Equestria looks like today.

“Do you remember the fairy tales you used to read me at home?” Luna pressed on. “Before we were alicorns?”

“Ah...vaguely. Luna, where are you going with this?”

“There were...monsters in them, Celly, the sort of which could never exist in our world,” Luna seemed to be proceeding cautiously, the delivery of her sentences slowing to a crawl. “I didn’t know it at the time, but later in my life I would see them on a nightly basis, but in the dreams of other ponies. I’ve always found it curious how the same creatures seem to always manifest themselves into our fearful minds regardless of the world around us, or whether or not we had ever seen them before.”

Luna shuffled, nervously brushing her blue hair out of her eyes.

“Bluntly put: it seems like the Boogey Mare is always consistent. Even to ponies who have never heard mention of her at any point. A pony raised in a...a cave, would still have nightmares the same as another raised in a city. I have always wondered...where these monsters come from. I think that to presume we know of all there is to fear is...foolish. There is so much more to fear from things not even from our known world; from the deep reaches of the night's darkest hours, or the most isolated corners of the furthest reaches of the stars.”

“Awfully philosophical this evening, aren’t we?” I said with a chuckle.

“Oh, shut up,” Luna responded with a barely repressed giggle. As tense and morbid as our conversation had been, it felt liberating to have some topic to talk with in which we were not bickering or bitterly disagreeing. And presently, it seemed like our conversation couldn’t be any further gone from the ponies, politics, and jealousy that had caused the rift between us to begin with.

"Have you seen anything at all that may serve as a clue towards pointing out what creature we're up against, Tia?" she asked.

"Aside from a strange set of prints on the beach, no."

"Hoofprints?"

"I do not know whether they belong to a hoof or not. Judging from their odd spacing, I don't believe so."

"Could you perhaps depict them for me?" Luna asked.

I nodded, and she rose, trotting into her suite for a moment before quickly emerging with her familiar black journal and a quill. She flipped to a blank page and passed it to me.

As best I could, I sketched the print while recounting the circumstances in which I'd seen them to Luna. She listened intently, while I strained to depict the prints as accurately as I could with just my memory as a resource. When I was finished, I passed the notebook over to Luna for her judgement.

"Hmm...interesting," she murmured to herself. "The spacing is odd. Are you sure these are accurate?"

"As accurate as I could make them."

"They look almost like they belong to a biped," she said, and then shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's quite difficult to say with certainty."

Evidently, she did not think much of the lead I had presented, because she was quick to shift her concerns towards pondering what further could be learned in place of the pathetic information we currently had.

“What is to be done next?” she asked.

“Next? I am to retire for a few hours,” I said, coupling it with a dramatic yawn, “And then, come morning, I aim to show you this town and relax.”

“But we’ve made so much progress, in this one night alone!” she protested.

“Which is why we’re entitled to a break, Luna. Come on, the reason you’re here is for the Summer Sun Celebration in a few days. Otherworldly horror can wait a few days—”

“This is just stupid, Tia. I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” she rose to her feet, grabbing the book, swiftly flipping to the grotesque picture of the Smooze, and waving it right in my face. “This is important. Not...not Ferris Wheels and funnel cakes!”

“Luna, we are important!” I rose as well. My voice raised to a level I had not intentionally brought it to, but by then it was too late to turn back. “That’s why you’re here! Do you have any idea how much I’ve been looking forward to just...being your sister again?”

“Ponies are in pain, Celestia. Equestria might be in danger. Gauge what’s more important.”

I was about to protest, but the words could not seem to arrive. She was right, but the last thing I wanted to lose was a sister. If there was one thing I had been shown, it was that as of late, the only time Luna and I were not at each other’s throats was when there was something of greater threat to the two of us to focus on. When we were alone and with nopony else, we were every bit as bitter and unpleasant towards each other. Was this the relationship we wanted for each other? Seeing ourselves as mere tools for each other? Tools which existed solely for each others benefit, each with our own abilities, divided by a gap so wide it seemed impossible given how similar we were at our cores.

The spatial distance between Dusk Falls and Equestria...the literal distance between us, had perhaps put a stop to our daily bantering, but it had replaced it with something equally as troubling. With so many miles dividing us, and with all the effort that went into simply seeing each other, we were now so alien to each other, even more so than before. We could not do anything as sisters anymore because to do so would require so much planning that the entire point was lost. And when we were together, or when Luna did arrive in Dusk Falls, it wasn’t for ourselves. It was because a task needed to be completed, and we needed each other to do it. Whether the task was a monster which needed to be slain or at least stopped, or a missing colt who needed to be found, it was always priority.

Perhaps once the task was done, and whatever loomed over Dusk Falls was gone, Luna would once again see a day of Ferris Wheels and funnel cakes with her older sister as anything more than childish folly not befitting the mares our conflict had twisted us into.

It was a wishful fantasy, but I saw no harm in carrying onto it a little longer.

Formerly Luna's Problem (VIII)

With the neon lights and loud music constantly assaulting the eyes and ears of anypony in a mile’s radius of the boardwalk, it might seem odd to call what it became by the end of the next day a ‘spectacle.’ But boisterous as it might have been on every other day, I do believe what it became when I descended from Luna’s top floor suite was still something else entirely.

Banners were hung across buildings, depicting the sun rendered as it appeared on my cutiemark. Every store bore a flag depicting either the solar symbol, or Equestria’s flag which showed Luna and I flying in tandem around the sun and moon. This flag was quite antiquated and archaic, and had largely fallen out of use outside of celebrations, which I had mixed feelings of. I had never quite liked how it fashioned us as goddesses, but neither did I like the solar flag that had largely begun to replace it in these celebrations. Luna had been quite expressive of her distaste towards it as well, and as a result I sometimes felt a perverse sense of guilt upon seeing it.

Regardless of my personal preferences, ponies were happily decorating the boardwalk in all kinds of magnificent colours and patterns, and I watched them with a slight grin as I flew overhead.

In contrast to my subtle smile, however, my mind was analyzing the situation carefully. How many of these ponies truly cared about the celebration they were helping bring forth? And how many more truly loathed my very existence, and how I had arrived to interfere with whatever evil their plans had in mind. I could only imagine what they would be thinking; after decades of unbroken success, flawless planning, and beautiful progress, I had arrived from nowhere to lay my flank down by the beach and stick my snout into their matters without hesitation.

Luna had looked down at the preparations from her balcony, jokingly telling me that I might as well let them raise the sun as well, so intense was their determination. And while I chuckled lightly at her joke, my own thoughts were quite a vivid contrast to what her’s seemingly were. I myself was wondering whether or not I would face another near-assault on the boardwalk as I did three months prior, perhaps one with malicious intent in place of maternal desperation. When I expressed this thought to Luna, she smiled and told me that they “wouldn’t be the first ponies I’d pissed off.” To what extent she believed her gibe was somewhat difficult to tell from the emotionless tone she delivered it in even while wearing that thin smile.

Besides, regardless of whether she believed it, it really was true. You can’t rule a nation for a couple centuries and not make a few ponies displeased with the job you’re doing. And then, when somepony like Sombra emerges and things spiral into chaos for a few gruelling years, there are always scars that won’t heal, and ponies who will always use those scars as proof that whatever it is that I am doing to help Equestria, it clearly isn’t enough. No matter how well you believe you are doing something, somepony else will always believe they can rise above and do it better. Perhaps many times they can. I'm not usually in any mood to face death in order to find out.

I had asked Luna if she would like to eat breakfast on the boardwalk, but she denied my request, calling it “commoner food,” and that it was improper for us to consume it so casually. It had birthed yet another squabble between us, one which I promptly cut short before irritation swelled into anger, as it too frequently did even with the most trivial of matters. She had not actually given me a reason for her refusal, leaving me with no choice but to declare it a simple matter of stubborn pride.

Instead, I left alone, finding a quaint little coffee shop and bakery and enjoying a cup of coffee and a bagel. It was quite busy within the small cafe, and the sensation of having a dozen eyes trained on me as I took delicate sips of my coffee was admittedly quite awkward, so much so that I instead rose from my seat and began making conversation with the pony working the counter.

Eventually, Luna decided to leave her suite and look for me on the boardwalk. To the tune of a flourish of gasps I turned to see her enter the cafe and approach me. Ponies in the busy cafe instantly parted ways to let her through wordlessly, too shocked to actually descend into a bow right away, as I had grown quite accustomed to seeing. She wasn’t smiling nor frowning, although the face she gave me as she strode up to the counter was one of well hidden irritation.

“Enjoying yourself, sister?” she said flatly.

“You should try the coffee here, Luna! I don’t even like coffee and I think it’s sublime!”

“That’s great, Celly. Are you quite finished here?”

“I suppose I am,” I sighed. There were at least a dozen eyes on us, and Luna’s irritable disposition was on full display for them all to see. “What exactly is your rush, Luna? Where is it we must be?”

“The unnatural stone rock formation,” she said, withdrawing her journal and flipping to the sketch I had made, with her brief commentary directly beneath. “I wish to see it myself.”

“Very well.” I nodded. Uttering a quick thank you to the stallion at the counter and giving our audience a smile, I followed Luna as she led the way into the sunny morning light. More ponies parted way for her as she walked a short distance onto the boardwalk, but she didn’t travel much further before spreading her wings and lifting off with two heavy flaps. After she had taken flight, she wordlessly slowed to allow me to pass and lead the way. Neither one of us spoke across the entirety of the short journey, the largest interaction we shared across the five minute flight was a quick glance I had cast backwards in an attempt to gauge her expression. Her mouth was twisted in a slight frown and her eyes were narrowed, making her look positively irked, although what from I did not ask.

If this was the disposition Luna always carried when faced with dark magic and otherworldly menace, I was quite thankful it was a problem she chose not to bring to my Day Court sessions too frequently. Nevertheless, this was Luna’s domain and I knew better than to question her about it. I suppose when one has no choice but to surround themselves with dark magic, the best way to maintain any sort of sanity in the long run is to let go of one’s equinity briefly in situations where it simply cannot be of any benefit.

Soon we arrived at the cove, which was every bit as deserted as it had ever been. Luna’s notebook was already opened up and flipped to the correct page, and she cast the occasional glance at it while pacing around the cove. I simply let her investigate the area on her own, as I had done, and diverted my wayward glance at the glistening surface of the water whose strange secret lay underneath the thin but efficient veil of waves.

Eventually, Luna came meandering back to the shore, standing beside me and sighing loudly through her nose.

“Well, shall we do this?” I asked, sensing her impatience.

“Yes please. Why wait, right?”

Quite fortunately for us, I had previously written down the spell that I had used the last time I had been at the cove into my journal, and Luna’s enchantment meant that we still had it even if I had left mine on my desk at home.

“I’ll cast the spell,” I said. “I’m more familiar with it. This way, you’ll have your magic free to investigate the stone.”

“Good idea, Celly.” Luna agreed.

Without any further hesitation, I began casting the spell. Exactly as before the waves began to part, although with a better sense of what area I needed to access I could salvage some of my strength and instead isolate it around a more centralized area. The towering walls of water looked similar, although the area was only as large as it needed to be this time. They were also divided from us by a distance of about a hundred feet, making them look like some shimmering spire jutting out of the ocean.

“Very impressive,” Luna said with awe, as she craned her neck to take in the vertical ocean looming ahead. “The things unicorns come up with…”

Even with a significant portion of my attention directed towards keeping the spell alight, I was still quite capable of leading the way into the shallow waters and towards where the strange stone formation would be. We had to fly a short distance to actually reach it, and even once we did the water had taken a shape like a bowl, permitting entry only through the top.

Or so it would seem to Luna, for while I joyfully flew straight through the wall of water and into unsullied space, she instead chose to fly the long way over the top. I landed by the stone first, and she was beside me in a moment. I pointed out the rippling lines in the shallow water where the sand gave way to stone, and Luna wasted no time in bending down to inspect it closely.

“It’s enchanted,” she said immediately. “Or...cursed, if you’d prefer.”

“But it’s a rock,” I replied, also leaning down to get a look at it even though I knew exactly how it looked.

“No, it’s not a rock. It’s an entrance.”

“An entrance.”

“Do you having hearing problems, sister?”

“I’m simply confused. Why would there be an entrance to anything buried under a foot of water in the middle of the ocean?”

“Precisely why it’s here. Because nopony would expect it.”

“Can we open it?” I prodded it with a hoof, taking care to keep my horn from touching it if what Luna had said was indeed true. With my magic so focused on keeping the wall of water in place, I could not extend it to the stone to search for enchantment as Luna must have, but I carried no doubt towards her judgement. “What lies beyond?”

“What am I, omniscient?” Luna said begrudgingly. I blushed slightly; in my excitement I had asked questions I should have known she’d have no answer to. “You’re free to try. I’m not touching that thing with my magic.”

She hesitated for a few seconds, breathed a weary sigh through her nose, and brought a hoof to rub her temples.

“I’m sorry, Celly. Please, don’t actually try. Not when there’s a chance you might get hurt.”

I arched an eyebrow in curiosity, and Luna elaborated further.

“I am detecting some sort of magical enchantment around it, one which might inflict damage if we try to touch it,” she explained. We’d both seen similar things before, Luna had once been asked to assist with dispelling a curse around a locked safe that had been found by a unicorn couple underneath the floorboards of the home they’d moved into. The curse around it had severed one of the poor unicorn’s horns clean off, and when the Royal Guard was brought in to investigate they’d sent specifically for one of us to see. Luna had enthusiastically travelled for miles to the city where it had been found, and spent several weeks trying to safely dispel the curse around it back home. Once she finally managed to, she found shy of a thousand bits which she gave to the unicorns, and an ancient spellbook of outlawed magic which she had ordered to be destroyed without so much as a second thought.

After what Luna had told me of that incident, I knew better than to doubt her when she warned about dangerous magic.

“Can you eliminate the enchantment?” I asked. A quick throb caused me to grimace as the trying nature of the spell I was casting reared its teeth inexplicably.

“It’s strong, Celestia,” she murmured after closing her eyes and lighting up her horn once more to check the enchantment again. I noticed the ghost of a pain-filled frown tugging at her lips as well. “It’s...stronger than I’ve ever seen before.”

“Verily?” I asked. “And the nature of the magic itself? Unicorn?”

“Difficult to tell, considering I’m doing no more than simply prodding it with my own,” Luna said sadly. “And what’s more, I can’t make any progress in dispelling it unless you’re always here keeping the waves parted.”

“It’s a two alicorn job.” I clarified.

“That it is.”

“And one for another day,” I shook my head and turned away. Another throb had torn through my temples, this time sending a splitting headache through my skull. I did not need to see Luna’s face to know that the same angry expression she’d given me when we were talking on the balcony had resurfaced, but this time she stayed her tongue after seeing the evident discomfort the water bending spell was causing me.

“Are you quite alright, sister?” she asked with concern.

“Yes, Luna, thank you.”

“It’s been almost two days since you’ve rested,” she pointed out. I could have sworn there was a tinge of regret and guilt in her tone. “Perhaps I was wrong to insist we come out here.”

“No, no, Luna. You weren’t. But I think I’m prepared to go back now.”

“Fine by me. I have a few choice questions for the Mayor of this town anyways.”

I turned my gaze from the towering water to look back at her. She was wearing a smug, terrifying grin which implied some form of hostile action beyond simple questions.

“Luna…” I said, meeting her eyes whilst narrowing my own. “I already spoke with him. I’d prefer if you did not...ah…”

I broke off, prompting Luna to raise a hoof to further my reply.

“Sometimes you can be...overly hostile…” It took the best of my ability to stop myself from looking away as her expression changed to one of feigned innocence.

“I mean no disrespect, sister,” Luna said earnestly. “But, if I see fit to ask more questions for him to answer, I will ask more questions.”

“Please, Luna, promise me you won’t be...confrontational.”

“I assure you I only wish to ask him questions.”

“Well then good luck,” I said. “I’m going to rest by the beach for awhile before flying back. I’ll see you around.”

“Certainly,” Luna nodded. Together, we flew through the suspended water. The moment we were through I gratefully ended the spell and allowed the water to fall back down with the same loud slapping noise that it had made before. While I swirled downwards to land back on the sandy beach, Luna did not break her set flightpath with the boardwalk ahead.

I arrived back at the boardwalk only a several minutes after Luna had, and as a result I spotted her deep blue form quite easily. Somewhat to my advantage was the significant empty radius around Luna even with the crowded nature of the boardwalk. I quickly reformed with her; she mumbled a greeting without turning around, it seemed as though her focus was more on the ponies around her and not on myself.

“Quite a lot of tourists,” she commented after I landed. “They stick out like a sore hoof, even to me.”

“They must be here for the Summer Sun Celebration,” I agreed with a chuckle.

“They seem quite happy to see you, anyways,” Luna grumbled, analyzing them with narrowed eyes.

I hadn’t noticed it myself, but after Luna had mentioned it I realized she was right. The common reaction I seemed to be seeing in the faces of the passing tourists was less joy, however, and more relief. The sort of relief one would expect a pony finding water in a desolate desert to express. They had arrived for the Summer Sun Celebration, that much seemed to be a given, but why then would they be so surprised upon seeing me in the flesh?

“Perhaps they were expecting a castle to be here,” Luna suggested, as if reading my thoughts. “And yet here you are, walking down the boardwalk with me as if you’ve been living here since the day you were born.”

Luna proceeded to tell me how she was searching for Mayor Kleos, and how he was nowhere to be found at his home, which she’d already checked. Fortunately, his elusiveness meant she was forced to spend some time searching for him around Dusk Falls. Whether she was aware of it or not, she was presently fulfilling precisely what had fueled our argument earlier that morning; two sisters simply walking the streets of the town. Granted, it was with ulterior motives and imminent confrontation looming on the horizon, and would pass as soon as Luna found who she was looking for, but it would be nice while it lasted regardless.

Several times she had told me I had no obligation to be with her, which seemed to be her subtle way of telling me to leave, but I did not. Our conversations had actually become natural, without foreboding lining their outskirts; as they had been when she had shown up unannounced one month prior. This time, however, there were no untold secrets between each other, and therefore nothing to denounce the lighthearted anecdotes Luna shared of her life back home.

While I was enjoying innocent conversation with Luna for the first time in awhile, my gaze was several times forcibly fixated on the seemingly growing number of tourist ponies, all of whose eyes seemed to be unsubtly locked on me.

I do not recall whether my own mind had conjured up a prediction of what their attention meant, or if it had caught me by surprise, but eventually the first of what would be many ponies conjured up the courage to step into the unsullied circle in the crowd Luna and I had unintentionally formed.

“Excuse me...Princess Celestia?” Amazingly, I actually recognized the beige unicorn mare with a dark brown mane and tail. Her mane was kept in a posh looking bun, and she likewise carried her noble appearance in her dignified attitude as well. I had seen her during Day Court in the Everfree Castle on several occasions. A courtier, if I was not mistaken.

“Yes, darling?” I asked without hesitation, wearing a casual smile that would have appeased her but been meaningless to anypony who knew me beyond the monotony of Day Court. Luna seemed to recognize her as well, and gave a nod of both acknowledging respect, and bitter disdain.

“My name is Fine Line. I...I served in your Day Court?”

“Indeed, I remember you quite well,” I nodded. At the drop of her name, I recalled her identity more clearly. I had correct in believing she was a courtier, it seemed. “Wait...you said served?”

“Yes. Served. Past tense.” she turned her gaze to Luna and awkwardly scratched an ear. “I...ah...resigned, not long after you left.”

Luna let out an indignant grumble and out of the corner of my eye I saw her turn and keep pacing ahead, giving us space either out of respect or out of anger. I had my unfortunate doubts that Luna’s anger and Fine Line’s apparent resignation were not linked, and both of us clearly identified the unspoken correlation between her reign and the end of a previously unsullied career.

She had already crept well into the second third of her life, but it came with surprise to me that she had resigned so early. If this was indeed the same mare I recalled seeing frequently during my Day Court, it was with surprise that I was confronted with this fact; she had been so spry and vocal during the Day Court sessions I had seen her in. Then again, (and with the majority of the nobles I had seen) Fine Line could never lift a hoof again in her life and still have enough bits to live a life above the more humble of subjects, not that I had ever known her to be anything even resembling lazy and apathetic.

“What brings you to Dusk Falls?” I asked, once Luna had travelled beyond earshot and stood watching our exchange from a distance.

“Like most ponies...the Summer Sun Celebration...”

My light chuckle caused her sentence to trail off, and look at me expectantly.

“With all due respect, I find that unlikely,” I said. “If you’re anything like the mare I remember, you’re not here on vacation.”

She blinked in surprise, and then exhaled through her nose and looked to her hooves.

“Yes, you’ve got me, your Majesty. I took the Summer Sun Celebration as an opportunity to come speak with you. If I would have known you were so active amongst this small town community, I wouldn’t have waited for a reason.”

“I understand. So then what was it that you wanted from me specifically?”

“It’s in regards to a trading agreement with the Griffon Empire that was presented to your sister,” I felt a tinge of irritation which I repressed better than Luna had. I had suspected something like this would happen since I had first arrived in Dusk Falls. “Princess Luna turned it down, without presenting any just reason, and at the cost of what could have been ten thousand bits annually for Equestria with little to no notable liabilities. On behalf of several concerned Equestrians, I’ve decided to attempt to sway you into reversing her decision.”

“Do you have the paperwork for me to review?” I said after a sigh.

“I do,” she replied, withdrawing a manila envelope from her saddlebag. “If you could just take a look at it yourself...and forward it back to us, you would be making dozens of ponies very happy.”

“I doubt I will find a reason in here to reverse a decision my sister has already seen fit to enforce,” I said firmly, raising the manila envelope upwards to emphasize my statement. “But I will look regardless.”

“Much obliged, Your Majesty,” she said whilst giving me a curt bow. “If I may ask...when do you plan on returning to Equestria?”

“Why?” I questioned. With a blink my gaze had turned to Luna watching us from beyond earshot, for but a moment before snapping back to Fine Line. “Is it in shambles without me?”

“No. That isn’t what I mean.”

“I know it isn’t what you mean. But I hope I’ve made my point?” I asked. She followed my gaze towards Luna and nodded. “I’ll return when I so desire. I see no necessity to rush back presently when Equestria has been in fine hooves during my absence.”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. My intention wasn’t to offend.”

“Nor was mine to be confrontational,” I assured. Holding the manila envelope up once more, I decided to switch my tone instead of scaring the poor mare any further. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Fine Line. And I wish you luck wherever your life takes you. I quite enjoyed having you in my court.”

“I quite enjoyed serving you, Your Majesty. Thank you for your time.”

She bowed again, and quickly scurried off. She was lost to the crowds in moments, leaving me to wonder how many other nobles and courtiers had been shocked by my sudden departure. It occurred to me then that it had been quite insensitive of me to leave so unexpectedly. I had not even taken the time to say any farewells to my guards, royal servants, or anypony else beyond a select few back home.

Luna rejoined once she saw our exchange was over. Even though she had been kind enough to leave us to talk alone, she was quick to ask me what it was we had talked about, which more or less defeated the entire purpose of the gesture anyways. Nevertheless, I told her, and if she was visibly annoyed by it (which I knew she was) she had no comment.

I myself was practically praying Fine Line would be an isolated incident, but to my disdain I was approached almost a dozen more times by ponies whose problems had already been brought to light to Luna months ago. For whatever reason, her judgement had not sufficed, and my own was apparently needed. It seemed that, simply put, they desired a second opinion. When I was not agreeing to whatever judgement Luna had made weeks or months ago, I was instead telling them what I had told Fine Line. I would ‘look into it,’ which basically only meant I was to once more reiterate what Luna had said but at a later date instead.

I quickly realized the reason for the vast amount of determined looking tourists who had flocked to Dusk Falls. It wasn’t for the Summer Sun Celebration at all that they had arrived, that had been a mere justification for their miles long treks.

Again, whether there was any prompting incident, or if it simply happened out of sudden spontaneous action, I genuinely cannot recall, but after a certain number of ponies approached me on the boardwalk something clicked in my mind and I excused myself from Luna. I flew up until I landed on the summit of a particularly tall looking store, garnishing an embarrassed look from my sister and an amazed look from everypony else.

“Good afternoon, Dusk Falls,” I announced in a loud voice which carried easily across the crowds. “I realize many of you have come with concerns that you wish to express. I would like to make it clear that when I am on the boardwalk, I am not hosting Day Court.”

I had made no prior arrangements, but it more than likely would not have mattered. If the Town Hall had been needed for anything else, my will would have overpowered it with little to no protest.

“Instead, I invite you to attend the Day Court session that I will be presiding over, in the courthouse of this town. From sunrise until sunset, tomorrow. I presume that’s why many of you are here anyways.”

When I landed back down next to Luna, I was too embarrassed to actually gauge how she had reacted. Thankfully, it seemed she had not been insulted by my unorthodox course of action.

“I suppose they are not used to my word being final,” she said. While she did not sound insulted by the actions of our subjects, some part of me knew she had been anyways.

“It shall be an entire day of me just confirming what you have already said,” I replied, detecting her discomfort. “And reminding them that your word is as final as mine.”

“You don’t need to patronize me, sister.”

“Damn it, Luna!” I was nearly gawking in disbelief at her reaction. “I’m trying to help you! Why must you always interpret my actions as some act against you?”

Silence fell, unbroken for a long while. Luna stared at her hooves as we continued walking. Eventually, she trotted ahead in order to face me face to face. She attempted a smile, but it was as unnatural as the dozens of others ones I had grown used to seeing.

“I’m sorry, Celestia. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

If we had not been in public, our interaction may have bloomed to further peaks of personal expression. Even with her forced smile, I could see genuine appreciation in its pained lines. But while it was unmistakably there, it did not last for even a shadow of a moment, before vanishing to make way for the same determined expression she had maintained throughout the entirety of her boardwalk search for Mayor Kleos.

With my spontaneous Day Court plans suddenly set in motion, I realized that I myself had committed the very crime I had grown irritated with Luna for committing. We were both here together in Dusk Falls in order to spend time with each other before the ceremony, but I had just sacrificed the entirety of the next day, as well as the remaining portion of the present one, since I would have to actually prepare the courthouse for Day Court.

With this revelation, I decided to ask Luna something I had been desperately hoping she would not see as folly.

“Luna...there’s a play on the boardwalk tonight. A dramatization of the Crystal Empire’s Fall,” I reported. Part of me was morbidly curious to discover how interpretation of the story that was now ancient history had been carried down throughout the years. “I thought it would fun...and perhaps even humorous, if we could go watch it together.”

“A play?” she repeated, sounding as if I was only being granted a portion of her attention. “I’ll consider it, Celly.”

“With my day completely gone tomorrow, I was thinking we could go later tonight. There’s a showing at—”

“Wouldn’t it just be a less accurate retelling of events we ourselves know better?” Finally she turned her attention to me, instead of painstaking analyzation of the busy crowds. “I prefer not to have the reminder of how misinterpreted our so called ‘Goddess-like-victories’ have become.”

I sighed, succumbing to defeat. At least my suggestion had not been met with outright hostility, which, as pathetic as it seemed, was at least a somewhat success on my part.

“I’ll consider it,” she repeated, hearing my dejected sigh. “Good luck with Day Court planning, sis.”

iii

Not that it had surprised me in the slightest, but Luna had not followed up her word that she would "consider it." I did not bother hunting her down to confirm it, either. Between overseeing the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in two days time, and the temporary conversion of the Dusk Falls Courthouse (which was no more than a humble section of the Town Hall) into what would be my Day Court the next day, I did not return to Pink Sunset until late in the evening. Luna was not there waiting for me, and I was exhausted anyways. I would have been willing to force down coffee and stay awake simply to spend time with her, but if she could not be bothered to make an effort then neither would I.

Angered and slightly saddened, I sat on my porch once I had finally reached Pink Sunset, finishing the last of the cognac I had opened earlier that month. Even though it was approaching midnight, I had spotted many ships sailing towards the harbour on my flight home. None, however, could be seen from the porch. North of the Crimson Coast was nothing but wilderness...perhaps many ships had sailed when the Crystal Empire had still stood, but now they had no reason to come from the Northern waters.

The next day would be difficult and busy. From morning to night I would be preoccupied with hosting Day Court, and when it finally came to a close the Summer Sun Celebration would only be several hours away. It was tradition for ponies to stay awake all night in anticipation of the dawn, which meant it would yet another full stretch of twenty-four hours without sleep for myself. Unless Luna's sudden arrival in my dreams could actually still be counted as sleep, I had not rested for more than two days, and yet I was still awake watching the waves. It was a humorous paradox; if I went to sleep earlier I would be better rested, but I did not actually wish to sleep because I did not wish for the next day to arrive. I had squandered the precious few hours of Luna's visit, aiming to spend them with her and instead only seeing her a select few times and not even getting along with her when I did.

She had planned to return to Equestria the morning immediately following the raising of the sun and conclusion of the Summer Sun Celebration, but perhaps I would be able to persuade her to stay another day. It was worth making an effort, anyways, and at the worst I could just at least convince her to stay if I promised we would be spending the entirety of her time chasing Dusk Falls' infernal conspiracy. Surely we would be able to find some further evidence of the Smooze beyond a mere circumstantial clue within the pages of a stolen book.

I retired long after midnight, sleeping soundly and waking early for Day Court. Quickly, I fixed my mane, donned my regalia, and set out with a piece of toast still in my magic as I began walking towards the town. I was in no rush to actually get there, and as such I’d decided not to use my wings. When I eventually did arrive at the Town Hall, there was already a large multitude of ponies who had begun gathering outside in anticipation of my arrival, but they formed a clear and defined line to the two the moment they saw me approach.

The courtroom had been refit to serve as my temporary Day Court, but the changes were so little that I hardly even noticed. What would have been my throne was the judge’s elevated stand, and it was there that I dutifully walked up to and stood facing the small courtroom as it quickly filled up. In minutes the benches had already reached the maximum capacity of ponies they could have filled, and it was with minor dread that I realized that throughout the day I would have to preside over what every one of the perhaps two hundred ponies had to say.

When all had settled in their places standing beside their benches, I smiled and gave a single nod, and they all sat in unison.

And thus commenced one of the most boring fourteen hour stretches of my life.

I had always loathed Day Court even in its regular form, but to be forced to attend it in such a concentrated fashion was more than straining. As I had greatly suspected, many of them had problems which had already been brought forth to my sister, and as I had known I would I once more repeated what she had already decreed. At least for the most part I did, anyways, occasionally I was presented with an example of Luna’s decisions which, frankly, I thought were ludicrous. These occasions were in the minority, but they did happen and when they did I repeatedly made a mental note in my head to ask Luna why she had decreed it necessary for a farmer to be taxed at no visible benefit to the public, or why some businesses were being forced to stay open for later hours even when doing so was hurtful towards their revenue.

I had no power to reverse decisions Luna had already made..or, rather, I did, but to practice it would require directly confronting Luna, which I would be doing at a later time anyways. As such, when I was conflicted over an issue, I took a note of it and used my tried and true method of telling the pony that I would be “looking into it.” Those three simple words had yet to fail me.

More often than not, however, the more frequent statement I made was that “Luna’s word was equally as final as mine” and that there would “not be an exception.” This was repeated so frequently that after awhile I noticed ponies who had not yet brought forth their concerns rise and leave the courtroom, apparently predicting the same statement once again being made but instead directed towards their problems.

Even after I had set the sun (and taken a short recess to do so) the courtroom was still full of about three dozen ponies. It was already well past seven, but my Day Court session ended up stretching on for an extra two hours.

A couple had been the last ponies to approach me, although there were many more still waiting to be assisted. Had it not been for the gasps and disapproving glares from the remaining dozen ponies, my attention towards the couple before me undoubtedly wouldn’t have faltered, but so rich were the whispered words between them that I silenced the two with a raise of a hoof and rose to my hooves. The gathered company had been stealing disgusted glances backwards at the mare standing in the entranceway of the town hall, and leaning into each other’s ears to ask their certainly justified questions.

While it was almost difficult to recognize her from the deep gash across her face, Indigo Posy had just entered, and I wasn’t about to let her humbly wait her turn as she seemingly was aiming to. My eyes locked with those of Indigo, and she smiled wearily and rose a shaking hoof in a greeting gesture. Even with the simplicity of the movement, she winced a little in pain but kept it hidden behind her weak, forced smile.

A scornful “humph!” was heard from the older mare before me, whose complaints I had clearly stopped paying any attention to, instead diverting the full extent of my attention at the familiar light-pink pegasus in the entrance. Her husband coughed awkwardly, and I finally looked down at them both with a small frown tugging at my lips.

“Out.” I commanded, surprising myself with the sternness in my voice. “Everypony out. I need a word with my friend in private.”

My request was met first with surprise, and then irritated complacency as the ponies rose from the benches and began milling towards the entrance. But whatever had happened to the three ponies I had sent to Manehattan, it was more important than whatever anypony else had to say to me.

“Thank you, Princess Celestia,” Indigo said after the last pony left and the heavy oak door slammed behind them. She began walking down the hall towards me, although she did so with an evident limp and a slight scowl on her face.

“What in Tartarus happened to you?” I trotted up to her so that she didn’t have to walk any further. A long gash had been cut across her face and onto her neck, and her sides were littered with bruises and long strands of medical tape. Only one of her wings was visible, the other was lost to a thick mass of bandages and dried blood. Under the layers of bandaging, there might not have been a wing at all and I most likely would not have been able to tell.

Whatever injuries she had sustained, it was clear she hadn’t given them enough time to recover before rushing back to Dusk Falls.

“Your Majesty, I...we...we were attacked.”

I didn’t try to hide the surprise in my face as I sat down on one of the courtroom benches. Indigo did the same, although she had to sit somewhat awkwardly to prevent her broken wing from making contact with the hardwood bench.

“Are you okay, Indigo?” I asked softly. She looked a little surprised that my immediate response wasn’t to request she further elaborate, but rather was focused on her present personal condition. “Your wing isn’t…?”

“It’s...gone, Princess,” she said, attempting a smile whose insincerity would have been clear to a foal. “I guess I’ll have to switch to the Earth Pony regiment now.”

She had evidently meant it as a joking remark, one whose intent was to break the impossibly thick layer of tension, but it worked only slightly, and was next to worthless when she next spoke.

“Princess, Morning Glory is missing,” Indigo said, her voice as quiet as a breezie, but firm all the same. Despite the melancholic silence in her tone, her words struck me with immense force all the same. For several seconds I could not utter a word, until eventually a single one escaped my lips.

“No…”

“Princess, I’m sorry,” her voice wavered and her eyes watered, but she composed herself and spoke as solemnly as she could. I’d always known her as a very sensitive mare, but it would seem that whatever had happened had caused her to push her own feelings aside. As I’d realized with Luna earlier; when one is dragged to the edge of what their mind can handle, to feel and think is to truly lose one’s sanity for good.

“It’s all my fault,” she muttered.

“What...what happened?” I asked, doing my best to stay calm. A strange feeling swept over my senses, one I had grown used to keeping well restrained. It did not last for more than a moment, but despite its brevity I recognized it immediately. It was the animalistic fury anypony gets when something or someone they truly care for is wronged in a way in which you cannot do a damn thing to help them.

And presently, I had no one but myself to direct that anger towards. For whose fault, other than mine, could this be?

“We were flying, me and Deepsy. She was in the chariot, and…” she shuddered, as if the memory of what had just happened had come clawing its way back to the forefront of her mind’s eye even as she tried to repress the horrible sight.

“I think something hit Deepsy. I didn’t see it, but all of sudden I felt a lot of dead weight on his side of the chariot. When I looked over, he was unconscious and his skull looked like it was bleeding badly.” Once again, a vicious tremor shattered through her, which in turn caused her wing to inadvertently strike the wooden bench. She grimaced but carried on as if nothing had happened. “I might’ve been able to keep it flying, or at least land it, but the chariot hit a tree before I could even react. I must’ve lost consciousness, because when I woke up only Deepsy was by the chariot.”

“Is he alright?” I warily asked, desperately wishing the answer wouldn’t serve to fling me into a state of anger any more than I presently was.

“He’s been unconscious since the crash, but the doctors in Manehattan say it’s because of the magic that hit him, and not because of any severe injuries to his skull. They say should be fine,” she said waveringly. “I hope they weren’t just telling me that…”

Her gaze had been shamefully locked on her hooves since she had first sat down, but they met mine as I extended a hoof and gently raised her head to look into her tired eyes.

“I am very sorry about your wing, Indigo,” I said, and she thanked me, although her words were silent even as her mouth moved to mutter them. Truly, I felt sorry for much more than that, but I had my sincere doubts she did not already know that. I had cleared the courtroom of other ponies for a multitude of reasons, and the clear guilt they would have seen in my expression was certainly one of them. And to draw Indigo’s already guilt-stricken mind towards matters which had clearly cut through her mental state was an insult to any concept of friendship I had built between us.

I wouldn’t vocally dwell on the things I yearned to scream out at the boardwalk and start demanding truths from the bewildered residents of Dusk Falls. Nor did I hope to make any progress by doing so. As much as it pained me, I had no choice but to keep my anger and guilt within me, and try to fashion my alien desires for retribution into as calm of a firm goal as I could.

“Can you tell me what happened to your wing, Indigo?” I asked gently, pointing a hoof at the bundle of reddened bandages.

“When the chariot hit the tree, my harness came off, but my wing was still caught. When the chariot fell to the ground, my wing was still stuck in the harness, but I was tangled up in the forest canopy.”

I recoiled a bit as my mind conjured a visual of what would have happened next.

“Do you know what it was that struck Deepsy?” I asked her.

Indigo shook her head slowly.

“I didn’t see it. But our armour is supposed to deflect unicorn magic, right?” I noticed trace amounts of the same guilt-ridden anger creeping into her voice, too. “Well, enchanted or not, it didn’t do shit for Deepsy. And now Morning Glory is missing, or worse...and it’s all because I couldn’t land the damn chariot.”

“Indigo, please relax," I said as her growing guilt began dragging her voice higher in intensity and pitch and into a panicked parody of what I had grown to expect from her.

"That chariot is designed to safely carry myself and occasionally my sister," I reminded her, "Not the majority of a ponies personal possessions. If what happened is anypony’s fault, it’s mine,” I rested a comforting hoof on her shoulder, taking care to keep it clear of the injuries lining her form. “And yes, your armour could probably deflect a magical energy blast from such a great distance. Something capable of that precision and strength is either one talented unicorn, or…”

I trailed off briefly, as the striking familiarity of my next sentence rung clear.

“...or not a pony at all.” I reluctantly finished. “But whatever it was, it shall greatly come to regret bringing harm to my friends. I can assure you of that without so much as a shadow of uncertainty.”

“Princess Celestia, do you think this was done as a way of...ah...making you mad?”

“Most certainly. But I’m not angry,” I replied. It was a lie on my part, but a well veiled one that she did not seem to catch. “I’m simply more motivated than I was before.”

She smiled—a genuine one this time—and nodded once.

“I am more than ready to help you, Princess Celestia.”

“With respect, no you’re not. Take it easy, for heaven’s sake,” I said. “You lost a wing. I’d think that’s enough of an excuse to relax a bit.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Please, don’t mention it. Do you know what hospital in Manehattan Deepsy is being cared for at?”

“Manehattan General. But they’re not letting him have visitors. They said something about the spell keeping him unconscious being dangerous.”

I doubted it would have been too dangerous to me, nor that any permission to visit him would be kept from me. And the Summer Sun Celebration hardly took priority over the well-being of my friend. I could delay it at best, or cancel it entirely at worst. It might stir up some shock, the tradition had gone on uninterrupted even through wars and plagues for centuries, and I could not begin to imagine the chaos that would emerge if I cancelled it for a single pony in need.

Alternatively, I could let Luna do it. In fact, the thought of her having the honours of performing such a well respected ceremony filled me with hopeful optimism that it might further elevate how she was viewed by our subjects.

After several minutes of searching, I found Luna standing alone on an elevated portion of the boardwalk, gazing up with idle curiosity at the spinning form of the Ferris Wheel. There wasn’t a single pony in a fifty foot radius of her.

“No, absolutely not,” Luna shook her head the moment I had asked her if she would like to cover for me at the Summer Sun Celebration. “It’s your ceremony, Celestia, and it’s to celebrate your sun, not my moon.”

“It’s not to celebrate my sun, it’s to celebrate the peak of summer,” I argued.

“What difference does that make, exactly?” Luna arched an eyebrow. “It’s still a ceremony designed by you, for you.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with its inception!” I protested, flaring my wings in self-defence. “And it’s not designed for me! It’s designed for the sun!”

“Which is why your image is plastered across every flag they’re wielding out there,” Luna pointed out. “Imagine their displeasure when I show up in your stead. ‘Oh, hello Equestria! I know you were expecting my sister, but hopefully I suffice.’”

“Luna...what’s gotten into you? What did I do to offend?”

“Celly, I’m sorry, but I’m quite amazed you thought I would be alright with this,” she turned away from me and from the Ferris Wheel to look at the lonely waves.

“I thought you would like the atten—” I began, and then quickly stopped myself. I cursed myself internally, but the wound had already been dealt by my stupid, senseless words.

“You did?! Seriously, Celestia? You thought I would like second rate attention recycled from your glory? Why do you even want me to do this, anyways? Raise your own damn sun!”

“Do you remember the two guards who accompanied me to Dusk Falls?” I asked. Hopefully the truthful explanation I was about to provide would sway her prideful refusal.

“Yes. I chose them.”

“They were escorting Dune Shores’ mother to Manehattan, and they were attacked. I wish to visit the hospital there to make sure all is well.”

I had been expecting Luna to understand after that, and perhaps accept my request if not to at least assist me, even if it came at the price of her own pride. Unfortunately, she surprised me by having a reaction quite opposite to the one I’d been expecting.

“I...you are joking right now, right Celestia? There are so many things senselessly foolish about that sentence that I’m unsure of how to begin.”

“Luna! What is the matter with you?”

“Did the repetitive stupidity of this town make you forget how to be a leader?” she spat. “First of all, I told you this would happen!”

“You didn’t!”

“I did! When we first entered this town. I told you that two guards was an alarmingly miniscule number. And you brushed my warning off, like it didn’t matter.”

The sad truth of her statement left me without a response, and allowed Luna to further continue her judgemental assault of my choices.

“And now you want to further destroy the respect these ponies have for me by dumping your damnable festival into my hooves, just so you can check up on your incompetent guards?”

“Luna, stop! Keep this between us. Don’t drag my friends into this!”

“Friends? Celestia, they are guards. They’re glorified employees.”

“I’m done speaking with you, Luna,” I said spitefully. “When you wish to stop acting like a child, come talk to me. I’ll stay and raise the sun, but I think you should be going home after the festival is over.”

I turned away from her and started to slowly walk away. Some part of my mind was screaming for me to stop, to turn around, and to apologize to Luna, and yet another was screaming out for her to do the same. I did not stop as the distance between us grew, but I was desperately praying Luna’s apologetic voice would give me a reason to.

It didn’t. When I finally turned around with an apology on my tongue, she had vanished into the pitch dark morning sky.

Time passed quickly, and without fully understanding what I was doing, I flew back to Pink Sunset and dug out my ceremonial regalia that was reserved for the Summer Sun Celebration alone. Perhaps it was out of spite that I decided not to cancel the festival that day. Perhaps it was out of some subconscious obligation to withhold the same tradition every year for hundreds of years that I donned the silver, mirror like crown and regalia, so similar yet so different from the golden variant that I wore more frequently. I don’t truly know. All I know for certain is I was prepared in less than ten minutes, which was fortunate since the celebratory band fanfare had already begun as I was urgently flapping my wings to take my place on the makeshift stage on the boardwalk.

I’d been late for the Summer Sun Celebration several times in the past, although never without notice. My arrival was met with a few relieved, wide eyed gazes as I gracefully came to a landing on the elevated platform.

There was another platform beside me. It had always been there for every year of the festival even through war and strife between Equestria, between other nations, and between sisters. It was the same platform I had once scolded a poor pony for being built lesser. The platform to which my gaze would turn when I stumbled on a speech or needed a comforting smile.

For the first time in so many years, Luna’s position at my Summer Sun Celebration had been vacated.

A feeling of strangeness swept over me. Soon, its alien uncertainty formed into a more concrete sense of understanding and obligation. There was no confusion in my mind about why Luna was not there, nor any delusions of carrying out an obligatory tradition that hadn’t had meaning for so long.

There was simply a problem, manifested as an empty space where Luna had once stood, and a solution to be found through my actions alone.

I had carried out the Celebration after all, and yet tradition had been shattered to nothingness all the same. If this was to be the case, then I had no qualms about further laying waste to the infernal, sacred nature of the ceremony.

“Good morning,” I began. “I realize it is unorthodox for a speech to accompany the raising of the sun. I have always maintained that the Summer Sun Celebration is not a celebration of my reign, my sun, nor myself. As such, I have stayed my tongue during it, and silently raised the sun so that you all could bask in the morning warmth it shall produce. I apologize for making an exception this time.”

My words echoed across the packed boardwalk. There was not a sound to be heard, and although I was using no spell to enhance the volume of my voice, it was undoubtedly heard by all regardless. My eyes swept the crowds, searching for a familiar face. I saw Mayor Kleos, and Indigo Posy was standing a couple rows behind him, looking with expectant eyes. Directly across from the long line of ponies towered the hotel. At the very summit, looking out from the balcony, I could see a hint of two shades of blue, as Luna looked on from so far away.

“I see so many joyous faces in the crowd. You have all come so far to witness what is so natural to me, and I appreciate it greatly. I imagine you are all quite confused why I am taking this opportunity to address you. Well, over the many years, I have been carrying out this same tradition. And every time, I notice that gradually the purpose of the festival is lost on myself. Every time I ask myself why I am doing this, and I cannot come up with a proper answer. It is a tradition whose meaning has been lost to time, and it is now a mere celebration of my own grace.

“It is for this reason that I...I won’t be carrying out the Summer Sun Celebration any longer. I extend an apology to everypony who has come to know this. I know that many have been moved and inspired by the Summer Sun Celebration, but I know that still others are affected differently by the vast shadow that the sun’s light casts.”

She must have taken flight when my gaze had swept across the bewildered faces of the watching ponies, because when Luna swooped into my line of sight I started a little in surprise. With a great flap of her wings, she came to a landing on the formally empty platform. There was no embrace on either of our parts, nor was there even an expression of gratefulness or apology between us. There was not even a glance, but the sight of Luna back where she belonged at my side, and not so far away, was more comforting than any of those expendable expressions could have bade.

Luna’s arrival was met with gasps, followed by applause. It was clear that the meaning behind my words had been lost to the vast majority of the onlooking audience. That seemed fine to Luna, in fact, I firmly believe she preferred it this way.

I was grateful for her return for more reasons than the obvious. It had served as a fine division between the shocked silence following my announced cancellation of the Summer Sun Celebration. The papers would certainly assail my choice in the morning, but my feelings towards how any media perceived me had already been whittled down to nothingness. Or so I was content telling myself.

With no more to be done, and with morning already several minutes late thanks to my spontaneous speech, I took a single step forwards as my horn began to light the darkness with its orange aura. As I rose into the air, so too did the sun before me. Gasps echoed through the street, the band’s triumphant song resumed at greater intensity, and nearly every head was craned upwards to watch.

For the majority of these celebrations, I kept my eyes closed, focusing instead on raising the sun as if I were doing so in circumstances no different from what I faced every day. It wasn’t only practical to do so, it was safer; interruption while such a great feat of magic was being caught could (albeit rarely) result in extremely destructive magic feedback that would momentarily lay waste to any connection I had with my own sun.

This particular time, however, I chose to instead look at the ponies who were looking back up at me. Most of their expressions were predictably similar. Amazement, admiration, jealous respect. The very things that had fueled my decision to end the tradition entirely. Even the ponies I had seen before in Dusk Falls looked with open mouths and wide eyes, which I found humorous since it had been something they would have seen on the boardwalk many times before.

Amidst the predictability, however, my eye caught something very distinctly separate from the rest.

Fire.

In the crowds was a small fire. The sun slowed a little in its ascent as I tried to focus, too subtly for anypony without a stopwatch to discover, but slower all the same. I narrowed my eyes as I strained to see what was burning. To my surprise, it looked like a ponies shape, but slightly larger, more similar to Luna or my height. I initially thought it to be a pegasus, but a horn revealed it to be an alicorn instead.

I cast the sun into the sky swiftly as my thoughts clicked into place. It was an effigy. I swirled back down to the stage quicker than before, where Luna had visibly tensed as she too saw it.

“Celestia, look to the crowd! They are burning an effigy!” she leaned in towards me and growled, her voice low. The fury she had earlier had returned, albeit directed at a source other than myself.

So, too, had a few members of the audience seemingly seen it, because an intense ripple of excitement erupted through them as hooves were pointed where it had been and whispered words culminated into a foreboding drone of fearful voices. Evidently, the effigy had served to bring forth attention, perhaps the same way Deepsy and Indigo had been attacked was to bring forth anger within me. If this was indeed the truthful reasoning, it was lost to Luna and I both in that moment, instead we knew not much more than shock and indignation.

“Luna, it’s an alicorn,” I whispered. “Remember what you said earlier about us pissing ponies off?”

“I...I don’t remember seeing an effigy of myself since Sombra’s days,” she said with cruel, dry humour, "How nostalgic."

Before I could protest and point of that we had no indication that it was of Luna or even myself, she had taken off to track down whatever ponies had lit it. Shocked gasps rang out as Luna soared low above the crowd. I stayed on the stage, looking on, as Luna swept at a height dangerously close to the audience below.

“The Summer Sun Celebration is over.” I announced before things spiraled into chaos. Nothing else had been said to ease their fearful whispers, and as the moments dragged on word of what had briefly been lit and promptly snuffed out was traveling through every hushed voice across the entirety of the boardwalk. Luna had vanished into the night once again, and ponies still remained, dumbly looking on as if expecting me to say something more, or else chattering fearfully amongst themselves.

“It’s over!” I repeated sternly. I had done no more than repeat what I had just said, but the vastly different tone of voice in which I spoke caused them all to scatter in near-unison, nervously trying to fit into a routine even though the boardwalk was packed more densely than it had a right to. The band song ended in a cluttered frenzy of abandoned instruments, as the Ferris Wheel ground to a screeching halt, with pegasi already fleeing from the swinging baskets.

I stayed on the elevated stage for nearly half an hour, simply watching as the crowd dispersed urgently. The boardwalk still remained very busy even as ponies began milling towards the hotel, their homes, or out of Dusk Falls completely now that morning had broken and the festival was over. Having stayed awake all night, I imagined many of them would be willing to head back to their homes or hotel rooms and get some much needed sleep, but many others seemed content on staying on the boardwalk. The diners whose hours had been extended for the Summer Sun Celebration were all filled with ponies that I could see through the wide windows.

I would later presume that Luna had intentionally waited for some of the crowds to die down before she returned, most likely not wanting an audience for what she was about to do, but nevertheless I saw her sweep back over the boardwalk with a flight more purposeful than before. She swirled around in a quick maneuver, landing directly in the middle of the audience. Ponies close to her had barely enough time to dive out of the way as she hit the boardwalk, sending long, spindly cracks in every direction.

It took me a moment to realize that she actually had a set destination in mind. The crowd parted ways fearfully as she stalked her way towards Mayor Kleos, who shirked back a little in fear as she loomed over him.

“You are the Mayor of this town of darkness?” Even despite the distance, I heard her stern voice all the same. The crowd around them backed off even further, so that there was a large circle surrounding my sister and the grey unicorn.

“Y...yes…” he fearfully stuttered. “How can I assist you, Your Majesty—”

“Answer my questions only! Don’t speak otherwise.” she cut in. “I couldn’t care less about what mindless lies you have to disguise what your intentions truly are.”

I had taken off into the air and landed in front of her in the blink of an eye.

“Luna!” I hissed. “What in Tartarus do you think you are doing?!”

“Stand down, sister! Let me address that which fearfully lurks in the shadows like a coward!”

“Just calm down, Luna!” I said in a hushed whisper. I was half tempted to ask her whether she had been drinking, but I already knew that she had not. Something had snapped in her when she had spotted the effigy, it would seem, and her mind had clicked towards the first pony she had distrusted when we had initially arrived in Dusk Falls so many weeks ago.

“Luna…” I repeated, after several seconds passed and nothing else happened. I leaned in towards her, extending a hoof that I’d intended to lay on her shoulder in an effort at comforting her. “He has nothing to do with what you saw earlier.”

“Celestia, I’m done arguing with you today, and I’m done with shirking away responsibility as you so love to do,” she swatted my hoof away and advanced closer towards Kleos; forcing him to take a step backwards in response. “I’m taking action, because even as your friends are assaulted by this menace you chose not to.”

As she turned her attention back towards the Mayor, I watched on in desperate silence. I had no choice but to intervene, to firmly tell her to stop, and yet I knew that I would not be able to without ripping open the wound that had just healed with the Summer Sun Celebration.

“Now, tell me, Mayor, what monster you stumbled upon, and how you managed to convince this poor town to assist in your villainous agenda.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I just—”

“Stop lying to me!”

“Luna, please!” I begged, only for her to ignore me.

When I saw magic spring to life from her horn, and her aura build around the Mayor, I stepped forward. My horn began to glow as well, easily cutting Luna’s magic short. She blinked in surprise as I stepped in front of the Mayor, dividing him from her threatening approach.

“I’m sorry, Luna. I want you to go home right now.”

“Celestia, you fool. Have you any idea how many ponies are suffering right now because you insist on getting all the answers before taking action? I’ve been right about everything so far and you’ve been mistaken, and yet you still treat me like I am a spoiled child—”

“Go home.” I said, bringing a hoof to the bridge of my snout and closing my eyes. “Please. I’m begging you.”

When I next looked at her, Luna was nodding slowly, a small, malicious grin on her face.

“You know, you’re right, Celestia. You can concern yourself with your issues, the ones you see me unfit to assist with.”

“Luna, come on! I didn’t mean that and you know it! But you can’t go about assaulting ponies on a hunch!”

“I can do whatever I please. Who are you, exactly, to stop me?”

“I’m your sister, damn it! I’m a pony who loves you! Is that not enough to validate my feelings towards your actions?”

“With respect, Celestia…” Luna sighed, her head lowering in sadness. “No, it is not. I wish you good luck here in Dusk Falls. Because you’ve made it quite clear to me that it’s not my problem.”

With nothing more to say, Luna turned and took off into the air, but not before giving the Mayor a filthy look. Once her attention towards him was over, he quickly scurried away almost comically, disappearing into the crowd in moments. Luna did not turn as she flew off, and she did not so much as call out a farewell as she vanished into the blinding light of the newly raised sun. I watched helplessly as my sister gradually shrank into a mere blue pinprick against a morning sky of vivid reds and oranges. Soon, even that tiny blue dot was no more. A mere moment, a blink of an eye, and one would have missed her departure, but the impossible stretch of time it had felt in my heart was a vast contradiction to what my eyes had watched unfold.

“She’ll be back, Your Majesty,” A familiar voice said behind me. I turned and saw Indigo standing with her armour on. She’d folded her other wing against her side instead of letting only one poke out from the holes in the armours side. If I had not known her personally, she would have passed for an earth pony easily.

“I certainly hope so. I’ve never seen her so upset with me.”

“You should see me and my older brother on Hearth’s Warming Eve,” she said lightheartedly. With the tension as thick as it presently was, I was beginning to grow very fond of her innocent, well meant jokes. “Siblings always fight. I guess even ones as powerful as you two.”

“How much of our argument did you see, Indigo?”

“Ah...well, I heard all of it.”

So, too, did half the boardwalk, I realized with disdain.

“Was I in the wrong in getting upset with her? Or was she being dangerously thick-skinned?”

“Princess, I can’t speak against Her Majesty Princess Luna like that,” she said, and although she was still smiling I certainly did not mistake what she said as another joke. If she had borne witness to my sister blatantly insulting Deepsy and herself earlier, I wonder if she would have kept the same valueless respect. Something in me believed she would have, even after the perhaps unintentionally hurtful things Luna had said.

“Yes, I suppose not. Thank you, Indigo.”

Underneath the red morning sky I sat on my porch, with a full letter to Luna already written on paper, an ink soaked quill, and my journal.

While I’d seen no justifiable reason why I was obligated to, the letter was largely full of apologetic implications, although I’d refused to explicitly state the words “I am sorry” at any point. Because truly, I was not. Luna had been in the wrong, she had let her paranoia and anger escalate to violence and I had corrected her. That was no cause for apology…right?

I opened the journal with the intention of copying what I had already written into its lines pages for Luna to read when she so chose to reinsert herself into the problems Dusk Falls was facing.

My quill stopped halfway on its journey to the journal, as I beheld the charred and destroyed papers within. With the exception of the journal’s front and back covers, the whole book looked as though it had been salvaged from a terrible fire, one which had claimed the entirety of its contents and left it a mere worthless waste.

I had kept the book safely stowed away in a locked drawer in my desk. There could not possibly have been any fire to damage it from within.

Quickly, I realized what had happened to our two-way journals, and cursed myself for so foolishly not realizing it before. I crumbled my letter, grabbed my journal, and threw them both into a wastebasket as I trotted back into the living room of Pink Sunset.

Wish You Were Here (IX)

The palm trees were covered with a thin layer of snow and frost, which also coated the dying grass, lonely rooftops, and frozen beach sand. Hearth’s Warming Eve had come and gone, and the icy claws of winter knew no limits, not even amongst the beach town so blistering in the summer.

I believe I stated it once before, but for purpose of reiteration I should affirm that Dusk Falls is actually located further North than one might suspect, and as such it was cursed with the same three month winters as much of central Equestria. Much like how the icy grasp of winter slithers its way down from the mountains and into the untamed reaches of the Everfree Forest, the cool breeze that blew in from the ocean during the summer also intensified to a ferocious gale, pushing the palm tree’s large leaves to one side where they promptly froze that way for the duration of winter. And while the ocean water was still too warm to properly freeze, there were certainly no ponies swimming in its frigid midst.

The blood fog hadn’t stopped, though. In fact, it became a disturbingly typical sight as the year inched onwards. It had become so frequent and sizable that ponies other than myself began noticing it, perhaps because it began rising in places other than Harmony Bay. The sight of such a phenomenon would have been a great, extraordinary sight for tourists, but in the winter months they became a sight even more rare than the phenomenon itself.

But, while the blood fog and the sight of carefree ponies in Dusk Falls had become a gradual, rare occurrence, communication with Luna grinded to a near halt. Our promise of weekly communication was a laughable memory; during the winter months, I was lucky if I received any at all. When they did arrive, they were neither welcoming nor belligerent. They were cold statements of fact:

“I have implemented this bylaw in Canterville.” “This winter storm is scheduled for Western Equestria.” “Please review this trade negotiation and forward me your response.”

Personal responses were kept to brief sentences. Luna and I exchanged gifts for Hearth’s Warming Eve, but we did so through packages sent through the mail. With Luna’s warnings of the post office on my mind, I was slightly curious about whether she received her gift at all; the most I received was a letter which said “Thank you” and “Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve, sister.”

Sister.

Normally, it would have meant nothing. But given the state of our relationship, seeing it where my name had once been twisted it from innocence into an accursed, mocking insult. The one Luna loved to finish her sentences with as of late. With personal, face-to-face communication between Luna gone, it had been months since I had heard or read my name without ‘Her Majesty Princess’ quickly uttered before it, let alone any playful scribblings of Tia or Celly.

We had dealt a crippling blow to our relationship that fateful eve. That final petty, bickering argument had been the small gust of wind that had finally blown the house of cards that was our sisterhood down, and a refusal and inability to communicate with each other further had prevented it from being rebuilt for a very long time.

Luna did not ask about the state Dusk Falls nor of the Smooze, and I did not mention it. I knew she was greatly curious, but a stubborn refusal to apologize that we both carried meant that it was now a route of discussion that would only lead to argument and anger.

The state of Luna and my relationship wasn’t the only thing alarmingly different, however. Into the winter months, Dusk Falls had become a very, very different place, and I must confess I am solely responsible for making it so.

Luna may have given up on the town, but I was in no mood to. Not even a week after she had left, I came to the decision that secrecy and subtlety was a wishful fantasy, one which I would be foolish to believe still existed amongst the town. Any evil knew quite well why I was there and what I was trying to do, and I was accomplishing nothing by trying to get by alone.

By the end of summer, the town had become less a tourist destination and more a guard outpost. Signs bearing depictions of ponies gone missing covered every signpost and streetlamp on the boardwalk, some approaching a decade in age and others as recent as months prior. If the frigid nature of the winter would not have been enough to deter ponies from picking Dusk Falls for their vacation, the reputation it swiftly gained as the ‘Murder Capital of Equestria’ certainly would have been. Even though the town was crawling with guards, and nearly every visible surface bore a sad picture of a lost ponies face, the disappearances did not stop. Each one was like a fatal wound that drove my anger further and further until I felt as though I would become as mad as the captured cultists.

Yes, captured. I wish it was as significant a development as it sounded, but frankly not much changed with the literal reveal of what we all knew existed anyways.

At least a dozen ponies more versed in occult tradition than I were brought to my aid, and they came and left the town; some more successful than others. As knowledgeable as they were, I was dealing with something that had existed for more than a century. It was not something that would reveal itself with ease. Nevertheless, the occasional pony was found to be housing some sort of organized madness, and when this happened I was immediately contacted to speak with them. Most often, I could find nothing of use amongst their paranoid ramblings and promises of forthcoming despair. The most notable occasion occurred on the same day as the first snowfall in late November. As it had doubled as my Day Court before, I had ordered a room in the Town Hall to be converted into a temporary holding cell for such ponies, and it was here that I entered on that frigid day, with two guards by my side.

“Good morning,” I greeted the grimacing stallion with eyes opened wide in bizarre insanity. They somehow managed to widen further when he saw me, as his mouth twisted into a threatening snarl. My guards did not waver, and neither did I as I trotted into the tiny room which reeked of mold and waste.

“Yes. Fearsome.” I yawned. I’d seen it all before. “I have several questions, and no patience for anything but answers. Please, don’t waste my time.”

He attempted to spit at me, but I caught it and flung the saliva away with a lazy flare of magic as I narrowed my eyes.

“Don’t.” It was one mere word, but one spoken with enough force that the stallion instantly became still. “I know about the Smooze. I know ponies are going missing because they are being used to fuel it. Lastly, I know that ponies like you are too, forgive my rudeness, foolish, to be doing this on your own.”

He cast a terrified glance behind him, as if expecting to find something there besides the cold brick wall. I had been less than vocal about how much I knew, and more often than not when I conveyed it to these mad ponies their responses were ones of surprise and dread.

This one stallion had been completely silent, however, which was something that I had not observed until then. Typically they flung insults at me, some in a language I was quite certain did not exist outside of their destroyed minds. These were the ponies who had snapped into insanity, rare instances in a cult which seemed otherwise discreet and silent. I had no doubt they would have been silenced by their own cultist brethren if my guards and investigators had not discovered them first.

“So please tell me,” I continued, “What is guiding you all. I spoke with it once, and I know it can communicate through dreams. Tell me its name.”

Silence. The stallion did not so much as move or divert his wide eyed glare away from my own.

“Why are you helping it? What is in it for you?” I asked instead. It would have been too easy if I would’ve learned so simply anyways. Still, my next query was still met with no response.

“Need I remind you that if it’s allowed to form, the Smooze will decimate all life on Equestria in mere weeks? I know you’re not completely heartless. Nopony is. You have family, or friends...ponies who you don’t want to see in danger at your hooves. Why would you take the side of something that promises a terrible death to them all?”

Finally, he responded. I saw his lips move, but the words were spoken too quietly for me to hear. I politely asked him to repeat himself, and amazingly he complied.

“She...she promised that we would be spared. That we wouldn’t fall victim like everypony else.”

Already, I felt a rush of excitement at the first word he had uttered. She. When it had appeared in my dream, its voice had been feminine, but then again its form had been that of an alicorn and it had quite explicitly told me that it was not actually one. But, as excited as I was by this revelation, I knew that it was accidental on the stallions part, and I decided it would be wise not to bring attention to it.

“You were lied to,” I said.

“No, we weren’t!” he rose suddenly. The guards who had entered with me took a step forwards, but I stopped them with a raised hoof and took a step forwards myself.

“The Smooze is mindless,” I said. Under my approach, the stallion had visibly tensed, his previous conviction vanishing. I had sharpened my calmly spoken words with a nearly indistinguishable trace of confrontation, and he had most certainly detected it. “Do you think it has the capacity to discriminate you from everything else it will consume? No. They would all be killed. Anything that lives will die.”

I took a brief pause, gauging his reaction. It was one of growing dread. His mad mind was turning over my judgement of his decisions. I thought his dread was one fueled by guilt, and I decided to open the wound further.

“Mothers, fathers, fillies and foals, innocent ponies who have done no harm. They will all be quite literally torn to pieces by the very thing you are assisting with. Would you like me to show you what that would look like?” I asked, my horn flaring to life. I was casting a pathetic levitation spell, but the stallion had no way of knowing that. He shirked backwards in fear until his back hit the stone wall.

“No...please, no…”

“Surprisingly gutless for a pony accused of murder,” I drawled. “Give me a name then. Please. Help me to stop it.”

“You can’t stop it,” he replied, his voice and body shaking. “It’s already so strong…”

“The Smooze?”

He nodded quickly, squeezing his eyes shut.

“You would be surprised what I am capable of doing,” I responded. “You seem like you regret what you’ve done here. It might help your conscious if you assist me.”

“They’ll...they’ll kill me if I tell you.”

“There are many ponies willing to kill you if you don’t,” came my cold reply.

“It doesn’t matter,” he whispered. “Nothing can help you, even if I did tell you.”

“With or without your help, I’m going to keep this town safe, and I’m not going to let anything happen to my country.” I replied firmly.

“You don’t know what you’re dealing with,” he said it in a shaking voice. “All your power...it won’t make any difference.”

"I assure you that you are mistaken," I said, turning to leave. Before I did, I motioned at the cell with a hoof to the guards. "Please clean this disgrace up. I won't be having my subjects squabbling about in their own filth like the animals they pretend they are."

Needless to say, I returned home more unsettled than I had been when I had left that morning, even if my confident composure suggested the opposite to the stallion and to my guards. I started a fire and sat staring into the flames, lost in thought, for a long while, turning over what I had just seen and heard. The stallion had been guilt-ridden and mad, but this was undoubtedly a shadow of whatever the rest of his cult actually believed. He had been the first to show guilt, so many others had said through smiles that they would soon be “cheering at my broken body” or other taunting and foreboding remarks. I returned their threats with smiles and softly denied their predictions.

My quiet contemplative stature was broken when I heard a knock at my door, and I trotted over to open it. Outside two guards now stood vigil on my porch at practically all hours, now that there was no shortage of them. I opened the door to see Indigo, and I greeted her with a thin smile that most likely did not hide the stress behind it.

“Evening, Princess,” she said, shaking her back free from the freshly fallen snow. “Do you mind if I come in to have a word with you?”

“Not at all,” I opened the door wider and led the way inside. Together we sat by the fireplace, Indigo in the spot long vacated of Luna’s presence.

“I heard about what happened,” I said once we were settled. The Captain of the Royal Guard himself had sent me a formal notice, full of apologies on account of his ‘inept and insufficiently trained’ guards. I’d been tempted to respond with a letter asking for his resignation, too, but ultimately I knew he was only doing what he deemed to be correct, and most likely was correct according to the bureaucratic guidelines that my guards were required to comply with.

“I’m sorry, Indy. I can still ask them to reverse their decision.”

“Nah. It’s for the best, I think,” she said through a sigh. “Not like any more guards are needed here anyways. I’m just surprised it took them so long to make their decision.”

“Well, I’m sad to see you and Deepsy go,” I muttered, diverting my glance from the flames to meet her eyes. “Life in Dusk Falls is going to be a lot more cold without you.”

“Thanks, Your Majesty. I...I actually might stay though. I wanna see how things here shake out. Deepsy though...”

“Whatever they did to him, I’m in no mood to let it go unpunished,” I said firmly. Physically he had recovered fine, but it would seem that whatever had happened to drive him to unconsciousness for nearly a week had also taken its toll on the rest of his mental state. The vocal, duty-obliged stallion had fallen into a state of near perpetual silence, and had resigned from the Royal Guard the moment I began bringing in other guards that could have replaced him. He did so amongst a flurry of apologies, and returned to his home in Vanhoover before the summer had come to a close. I'd been sad to see him go, but I knew it was for the best.

I was more relieved to hear that Indigo had decided to stay then I let on, for with her gone I truly would have been alone.

Perhaps she sensed what I too was sensing. Some great change was coming to Dusk Falls, and it was closer than I was comfortable with. I knew not what it was or what it would bring about, but whether by intuition or by subconscious knowledge, I was not oblivious to the sensation of something great swiftly coming together at a rate my own personal ignorance bade me be terrified of.

I had offered her tea and she had accepted, but mere moments after we had both settled down at my table we were interrupted by a knock at my door.

In a vivid contrast to how I had received Indigo, I suspiciously opened the door a crack to see who it was. When I saw the Mayor standing on the porch, I was tempted to simply close it again, but instead I opened it further only to walk onto the porch to speak with him. I did not like him nor trust him, and I would have felt much more comfortable if he had not been in my house, and so I decided I wouldn’t grant him the pleasure.

“How can I help you?” I asked, not bothering to hide the irritation in my voice. I knew exactly why he was there and I already knew what my response would be.

“Uh…” he stuttered, taken aback by my tone but soldiering on anyways, “I was just wondering...after winter is over, you will be sending your guards home, right?”

“That depends...” I said. “...on whether or not there is or is not a present danger that this town is facing. If so, then certainly not.”

“It’s just...the missing pony signs, and the guards, and the papers have been calling us the Murder Capital of Equestria and such...it’s dreadfully bad for—”

“Please don’t finish that sentence with ‘business.’” I said, narrowing my eyes, “Frankly, I’m in no mood to be listening to this right now.”

“...I...I apologize,” he awkwardly looked to his hooves, clearly regretting having approached me, “I’m just trying to take care of my town.”

“Well, I’m trying to take care of my country.” I countered. “Now then, will that be all?”

“I believe it is,” he nodded vigorously, and swiftly started back down the steps and across my snow covered front lawn. Ignoring the two guards outside my door trying their best to suppress their laughter, I turned and returned to the warmth of my fire, slamming the wide round door behind me.

It would seem Indigo had heard, too, because she was giggling as she sipped her tea by time I returned.

“Princess, you truly are the voice of all the thoughts none of us are allowed to express.”

While I was earnestly entertained by her joke, I did not show it as I took a long and sombre drink of my tea.

“My sister's suspicions wasn’t unfounded. He is most certainly hiding something from us.” I said. “I’m willing to bet he is directly linked with the rest of Dusk Falls’ underground cult.”

“Really? He might seem weird and arrogant, but a killer?” she looked outside at the dark of my porch where he had been. “Forgive my boldness, Princess, but that’s a little presumptuous.”

“Yes, I know, but I merely meant to say that he is at least aware of its presence and is doing nothing about it.”

“Ah. That seems more likely. But I still don’t understand why. What would be the motive?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps you’re right.”

“I can always do a bit of digging if you want. I know you’ve got this place crawling with investigators, but if you need a bit more help I’m willing to give it.”

“Thanks, Indigo,” I said. “But I don’t want you putting yourself in danger, especially when it’s at no benefit to yourself.”

“Well, if the Smooze really is meant to destroy Equestria, that would be pretty problematic to those of us who live here,” she argued with cruel humour. “I consider not being dead beneficial. But you’re right.”

“I’ll certainly have somepony look into it.”

And ultimately, I did not forget the assurance I made that evening. Nor did I regret it, in the grand scheme of things. While it would be several days before it was a thread which turned up anything of note, it would eventually become yet another link in the network of conspiracy slowly unveiling before my eyes.

iii

It was nearly half a year since my first nightmare vision of the grotesque alicorn (and almost nine months total that I’d been in Dusk Falls,) before I was greeted by the otherworldly beast once again.

Like so many instances before, I had no idea that I was dreaming. I found myself on my beach, once again lost in the shadows of a starless night. The air was that of autumn, even though the winter months were coming to a close, and the beach stretched on for miles, uninterrupted by palm trees or rising sand dunes. Confused, I cautiously began walking down the beach, taking note of the unnatural stillness of the water. There were no tides or waves, and looking into the sky I could not see Luna’s moon even if there were no clouds to obscure it.

And once again, the same feeling of uncertainty and bewilderment settled into my brain. I turned my gaze at the ground beneath my slippered hooves. Slowly, and with no shortage of terror, the true nature of the night’s stillness dawned on me in one flourish of unnatural reasoning.

The night was still and quiet because nothing existed to make a sound. Littering the beach were bones and skulls of too many animals to identify, all picked clean by some means that looked grotesquely biological but impossibly precise. It was almost difficult to be shocked by the sight of them, because they did not look frightening beyond the implication of what they actually were. Bones in themselves were not sickening like blood and carnage could be, but the sight of so many without a soul of movement around filled me with fear of the most primal nature.

It travelled down my spine and brought my determined trot to a steady pace and then a sudden stop, as logic caught up with my confused mind.

When I had looked back I saw no trees or sand dunes, but instead an extension of my beach which stretched until the end of the earth. I realized why this was, as Luna’s foreboding words echoed in my ears.

The Smooze didn’t just destroy something. It destroyed everything. I had proven the same thing to an insane stallion a month earlier. Life itself had been the target, and life itself had been destroyed. Now, I was left alone to wander a plain, dead wasteland for eternity, even though the bitter reality was that I would most likely have been the first to fall if this had not been a nightmare forced into my sleeping mind.

As I realized this, my fear dissipated. Why should I be frightened? Especially if this was the intention of those who opposed me? I formed a thin smile as my eyes slowly rose to greet the sound of sand parting under heavy hooves.

Standing tall with her expression entirely untarnished by the signs of maddening emptiness around us, was the same creature from my dreams I'd thought had passed.

And yet she was quite certainly different.

Her appearance was hardly fearsome. In my memory her coat had been dark blue, I now saw that its colour had darkened to a deeper purple. It was a shade similar to the Smooze, but somehow it did not seem nearly as harsh as the near black sludge substance. Her mane was still blue, but with thin stripes of orange and gold, and pinpricks of shimmering ethereal qualities she had been lacking before. Her wings were gone, and her flesh no longer looked like it did not belong on her, and yet some part of me still knew that the creature in front of me was still not showing its true form.

All around her danced a strange aura of red fog, which seemed centralized around her eyes but billowed from her horn as well. It was almost indistinguishable from the blood fog I’d seen over Harmony Bay, clearly showing me where her power had come from and how many ponies had suffered for it. The way it rolled from her eyes and horn and into the air like smoke reminded me of when Luna had wielded dark magic to demonstrate the blood fog months ago. Perpetually, Sombra had possessed it, for his typical unicorn powers had been greatly twisted and corrupted into power so much greater and more vile than what could ever have been natural for a unicorn.

"Top of the evening, Princess Celestia," she said, turning a clean, snow white unicorn skull over and over in her magic. "How have you been?”

It was a disarming question, but the standard answer I gave her seemed equally as unexpected.

“Quite alright. Is this all your doing?" I calmly asked, bringing myself to look up at the beach...my beach, littered with corpses of every species.

"Not yet. But soon enough it will be, Celly," her grin grew further as I snarled. "Been awhile since you’ve been called that, huh? You and your sis really had quite the battle on the boardwalk. Forgive my rudeness, but it was great fun to watch.”

I tensed a little. So it had been on the boardwalk that morning, and it had more than likely been watching me in the flesh for some time.

“If you ask me,” she continued, “You probably should’ve let her attack that stupid Mayor. He’s more than what he says he is, you know. Did you know that he actually believes he’ll be spared when the time comes? Like I said, stupid.”

“Do you expect me to take your word to be truth?” I snapped, even if I was internally conflicted on whether to believe her or not. She did not sound to be lying, and I could not see any reason for her to anyways. Nevertheless, I kept my tone one of anger and my mind in a state of skepticism. "What the hell are you, anyways?!"

"My my! Such vulgar language from a perfect, pristine princess!"

"Answer me!"

She did not vocally provide any response, instead she passed me the unicorn skull in her magic. I refused to grab it myself, and it instead fell down into the sand. There it lied for the shadow of a moment, before sinking deeper and deeper into the sand and disappearing.

The rest of the bones quickly followed suit, fading into the sand and out of sight.

My hooves grew cold, and when I looked down at them I was shocked to see that they were no longer partially buried by the yellow sand, but instead by snow as white as my coat. The whole beach was now snow instead of sand, and the ocean itself was starting to freeze over. The ice stretched out for a distance of about two hundred feet, all along the Crimson Coast, as if the world had begun to freeze under a night that would never end now that the ponies who could have risen the sun had seemingly fallen.

For the first time I looked behind me and saw that Pink Sunset was no more, but its frame was still standing as a decomposed remnant of a long passed time. But no, upon closer examination, it did not look as though time itself had damaged it at all, it looked as though it had been picked clean in the same...biological fashion as the pony skulls littering the beach.

"Much more peaceful like this, don't you agree?" she said, motioning to the wasteland around her. "So quiet, not a single pony to bother us."

"You...plan on murdering them all." I heard myself mutter as if in a different world. I shook my head clear of morbid thoughts and confronted the unicorn beast with an assertive glare.

“Listen to me, please. I don’t know exactly what you are nor what it is you wish, but I assure you that this...” I motioned around us with a hoof, “...isn’t it. My sister and I aren’t monsters, and if only you could tell us what it is you hope to accomplish, we might be able to help you.”

I took a step towards her, for the first time not trying to radiate as much authority as I could and instead trying to accomplish quite the opposite.

By that point, I was willing to try anything.

“Ponies don’t have to die,” I said. “Please just tell me—”

“I consider myself pretty tolerant, Princess Celestia, but you just pissed me off. You can’t seriously be expecting this show of…” she paused, as if contemplating what exactly it was I was showing.

“Mercy.” I finished for her. My temporary foray into kindness ended abruptly as I narrowed my eyes. “I was showing you mercy. You seem to not want it. That’s fine, but to me you are nothing more that a creature of dreams who thinks she is something more than she is. You aren’t fearsome, you’re a coward that hides behind cults and corpses, and when I awake nothing will have changed.”

“You sound so sure of that, don’t you?” she sarcastically observed. I’d done my best to keep my voice firm, but it seemed I had failed.

The landscape around her suddenly twisted again, and I was now standing in the throne room in Luna's castle back in the Everfree. Once again, I was alone. It was difficult to tell whether it was night or day, for the featureless sky burned a fiery red with no celestial bodies to cast the light before me. I knew the significance behind this; with Luna and I dead in this nightmare vision, our respective celestial bodies would never rise, leaving Equestria’s skies in this motionless state forever.

A foolish instinct to call out my sister’s name came and went, and I looked further at the walls instead of at the red sky outside. The castle was in shambles, and the walls were not much more than a distant memory. The bricks still resembled their form on occasion, but for the most part it was clear that Luna’s castle had not been spared from the Smooze’s reach.

Ahead I could see another clump of bones lying near where my throne would have been. Something in me knew exactly what they were even before I was remotely close to it. It was a pony, an alicorn, although it was no more than a mere skeleton with bones picked clean. By what, I knew exactly. I had already seen the occasional trace of the stuff dotting the walls and floors of the castle, flinging and flailing about, too small to have a purpose now that its one purpose was done.

Even if it was a mere skeleton, I knew exactly who I was looking at, because draped across the white bones and skull were my golden regalia. They should have been consumed by the Smooze like everything else, but it would seem they had been left there so that I would bear witness to the macabre prediction without any doubts in my mind.

“Cute.” I eventually said.

"Oh Princess, don't be so glum!"

“Am I supposed to be unnerved by these visions? Because I’ve been more frightened from some of my sisters pranks.”

“Really? The sight of global extinction doesn’t unnerve you?”

“No, because I won’t let it happen. Especially not because of a formless dark purple sludge or a creature who has done nothing but harass me in my dreams.”

“Do you think I...have done nothing?” she rose an eyebrow.

“Your cult, your followers, certainly not. But you yourself? You’re a pathetic being that needs the power of others to be sacrificed to you in order to exist.”

“How about a demonstration then?” her malicious grin had returned. Before I could answer the dreamscape twisted and changed once again. I recognized where we were in a moment as the same star-filled sky manifested itself around and underneath my hooves. Luna had called it an aerial map which showed dreaming minds.

“Let’s see...right there,” she lazily pointed out a sleeping pony represented as a twinkling star. “She looks nice and healthy.”

She disappeared, leaving me alone again. I continued staring at the star, but for a while nothing happened. And then, after several minutes of waiting, it flickered and died completely, nothing but inky blackness where it had been.

“Did you…”

“Wanna see another pony die, Princess?” her voice echoed around me but I still could not see her. “I can do it easily.”

“No. You’ve proved your point,” I said coldly. Truly, I was disgusted and furious, but I knew that it was this reaction that she was thirsty to see and it would not be the reaction I would provide her. “That accomplished nothing.”

“Yes, but it was quite a lot of fun. Keep in mind: they’re all tombstones to me anyways.”

“No,” I said again. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

“You keep saying that, but you haven’t shown me anything to let me believe you’re not another tombstone yourself.”

“You’re going to regret asking me to prove myself,” I said, and this time it was my turn to smile mirthlessly. Whether or not she’d had a response, I did not wait to find out before forcing myself into wakefulness.

I was composing a letter to Luna mere seconds after my mind awoke to my bedroom. It was brief, containing only information she needed to hear. Personal remarks, as starved for them as I was, had no place in the letter I would be sending her.

Dear Luna,

You were right about everything and I’m sorry.

I saw the creature in my dreams once more. I watched her kill a pony with ease just as a demonstration. Its form was a pony again but I still believe it has the ability to change into whatever it pleases. Its magic aura is impossible to ascertain; sometimes it’s changeling, sometimes it’s unicorn, and sometimes it’s another type I have never seen before. It seemed to be able to manipulate dreams with magic I thought only your horn possessed.

Something is coming to a close here. I can feel it. If what she showed me is to be believed, Dusk Falls isn’t all that is in danger. We are facing what you feared; the threat of global extinction.

It seems as though our days are numbered. While having many guards has led to the gradual unveiling of the existence of a cult bent on their apocalyptic goals, it has also led to said cult working twice as hard to bring these goals about.

I ask that you remain in Equestria until further developments are made, because it is only a matter of time before the terror that Dusk Falls’ innocent civilians face will begin to seep into the greater public. Word of the multitude of guards and missing ponies here has already spread and I imagine more fear shall come. Somepony needs to be there to ease that fear, and that pony needs to be you.

This being said, I must also ask that you are perpetually ready to come to my aid swiftly here in Dusk Falls if I need you.

It is as you said yourself. I’ve remained idle for too long.

— Celestia

Once I had sent the letter, I trotted onto the porch and shook my wings which had seldom seen flight in recent months. The guards who had been stationed outside had shifted as if to follow after me, but I shook my head and addressed them briefly before I flew off.

“I don’t wish to return to panic and discord, so please pass on the word that I’m going to be off the grid for several days,” I told them. “Understood?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you. Take good care of my home for me, please.”

They saluted, and without any further ado I took off into the cold midnight air, the specifics of my destination still turning over in my mind. Even in the dark of midnight I could feel the promise of spring in the air; the bitter, freezing days in which the only sound was the drone of the distant wind were now no more, and in several weeks I imagined the snow would finally begin to melt. But whether or not Dusk Falls remained to see another summer was the thought I focused on. Never before had I been confronted with something whose intentions were not to usurp my throne and reign over some organized chaotic reality, but to instead destroy everything without apparent discrimination.

Would Discord have murdered an innocent pony just to prove a purposeless point? Somehow, I had my doubts of that. And Sombra had simply wanted to continue on enslaving ponies and carrying on his destructive, tyrannical regime. Any thoughts of global decimation seemed outside of the bounds of what he deemed necessary.

Even if for a short while everypony reveled in your name, or appreciated what you were worth, why would anypony be willing to fling their entire world into darkness and despair in order to do so? It was a madness I could not fully understand.

At some point during my flight into Dusk Falls I must have settled on my destination subconsciously, and my wings carried me there without my mind fully catching up with why. I was functioning as if in a trance, but it was a trance not of drowsiness but of mute fury and determination.

I flew over the ocean, but only for a short distance, for my horn had begun glowing with an amount of energy that I did not want to discharge in proximity to the town. Instead I flew out over the eerie dark waves for about a mile, before my magic erupted in a glowing white orb and carried me a long distance away from Dusk Falls. The ocean did not disappear as my destination flashed into view, but I could feel the temperature shift a few degrees as my magic took me several hundred miles south.

My glide was taking me oceanwards, so I clipped the angle of my wings and my flight twisted into a full circle. My lonely torchlit house and the rest of the frozen and dead Crimson Coast were no longer there. Now before me was the vast metropolis that was Manehattan. Even in those days it was a city to behold, certainly one with a population that put Dusk Falls to shame and came close to matching that of Canterville. As I flew in the direction of the harbour which separated city from ocean, I half-jokingly told myself I would have been more at peace had I instead moved into this city rather than Dusk Falls.

How terrifyingly fortunate that I did not. I don’t often believe in a concept of preset fate or destiny, but what an amazing coincidence it was that of all places in Equestria I moved to, I picked the one with a century old conspiracy. I shuddered to think of the possible implications which existed if that postcard had not gotten mixed up with the rest of Luna’s tourism flyers.

In the shipyards late at night I could see silhouetted figures still at work looking up at me in surprise as I soared overhead. I didn’t stop, though. I flew over the streets and between the tall, five-story buildings, trying my best to recall where exactly in Manehattan my destination lay. Eventually I found it.

The Manehattan Public Library was, at the time, the biggest library in Equestria besides the Royal Archives in the Everfree. And while I had no personal prejudice one way or another, it just so happened Manehattan was much closer to Dusk Falls and conjuring a long-distance teleportation spell all the way back to the Everfree would be unnecessarily trying.

Besides, I wasn’t in the mood to accidentally run into Luna quite yet, either. Our castle was vast, but equally as vast was my misfortune and bad luck.

In the midnight hours I knew the library would not have been open. It would take many more hours before I could raise the sun and bring about morning, but I did not want to wait that long. The fires of determination were burning strong within me and I didn’t want to let them die down just yet. I landed in front of the proud stone building and quickly trotted up the set of steps , with tall white columns between the roof of the elevated entranceway. The glass doors were locked and the building lay dark. I remedied both of these problems with a flare of magic. The locks on the doors clicked and I pushed them open effortlessly, next shifting my magic back to my own horn and letting light magic flow through it.

If anypony had seen their supposedly serene and royal princess silently breaking into the Manehattan Public Library like some foolish delinquent, I did not hear of it after that night. I’d been in the large building only once but I efficiently navigated my way through it nonetheless, finding the particular section with ease even by the small light of my horn.

While I understood they were stored in the considerably smaller Dusk Falls Public Library, the records I was looking for would have been forwarded to the nearest library to the small town after about thirty years. This was done to keep the small building from becoming too chaotic and crowded, for if every single record detailing the politics of Dusk Falls remained in that town’s library it wouldn’t have taken long for it to have become a clustered and hideous mess.

There were many filing cabinets for the varying small towns close to Manehattan containing whatever political paperwork they no longer kept. Records of development, building construction, and the records I’d come looking for: election data and other documents detailing the political actions of the mayors of these small towns. These cabinets were locked too, but I repeated my earlier magic and flipped through them for several minutes as I searched for the specific town in question.

The amount of recorded information about Dusk Falls was sparse and pathetic, but not unexpected. I'd come into the library not looking for this information, but rather hoping not to find it. It would seem I had succeeded there. It hadn't been forwarded to Manehattan properly, which meant it had probably been destroyed, which meant the information that they contained was information which somepony did not want to be seen. It was like the fifth chapter of the bestiary but on a much larger scale.

It was delightfully suspicious. There was a small manila envelope which contained the small entirety of recorded mayoral history which had somehow managed to find its way from the tendrils of controlled destruction at the hooves of a conspiracy of both supernatural and seemingly political nature. I took out the entire envelope and closed the cabinets, removing any trace that I'd been snooping through them in the first place.

I sorted through the envelope while I trotted my way towards the spiral staircase snaking its way to all four floors of the library. The dry reference articles that most typical library-goers tend to ignore were all located on the topmost floor, and I’d flown the distance up, but I trotted down the metal steps to get to my next destination. The third floor had a great multitude of history books, encyclopedias, and other more accessible information. I spent at least three hours scouring that floor, my eyes scanning every reference book for the two words I was thirsty to see; Dusk Falls. Even with my intense determination, it felt like it was a fruitless search with so many books.

Normally when the town was mentioned, I was disappointed, for the information was hardly interesting and certainly not relevant to what I was hoping to see. I was ready to give up completely when one book caught my attention.

It was entitled “A Brief Maritime History of Eastern Coastal Equestria.” I learned that Dusk Falls had once been a heavily used rest-port for ships traveling between Manehattan and the Crystal Empire, but as interesting as this was it was hardly what caused my ensuing excitement.

It was mentioned by name only, and with no other description. The Sisyphys. For a short while, I racked my brain for a reason why the ship’s name was familiar to me. Had it been a ship I’d owned at one point?

And then I recalled what Kleos had told me.

“The ship most often cited as the catalyst of despair was called the Sisyphys, I believe.”

I nearly cried out in frustration, but I managed to keep my reaction to a quiet mumble beneath my breath.

“Celestia, you damnable fool…” I chided myself. “Of course. How could you have forgotten?”

Subconsciously, I must have simply disregarded the information Kleos had presented to me during that conversation, because I’d seen it as a simple means of easing the fear of the residents of his town. An excuse, for lack of a better word. And while I still had no proof to believe it to be anything more, it seemed there indeed was some fact to the story he’d told me.

Sisyphys turned up a depressingly few amount of results. The occasional book made mention of it (once again by name alone) whilst listing maritime disasters, but any concept of it being a near-mythical legend was reserved to what Kleos had told me. I still had no cause to believe it wasn’t something he’d made up. Fortunately, that thought vanished when I found mention of the ship within a recount of exceedingly insane proportions.

I sarcastically wondered if the author of the bestiary Indigo had discovered was in relation to the one who wrote of the wreck of the Sisyphys, for he certainly shared in the disturbingly graphic and overtly dramatized recounts of factual events.

I leafed through the book quickly until I found information I could actually process into comprehensive logic.

According to the book I had broken into the Manehattan Public Library in order to find, the Sisyphys was a cargo ship which, like most during their prime, almost exclusively ran from the Crystal Empire to the towns dotting the Crimson Coast. The arctic conditions of the Frozen North had made this a considerably dangerous journey, and as such many ships had been lost to the shifting wrath of the ice.

But not the Sisyphys, it seemed, for she ground up not in the ice but on the shores of where Dusk Falls would eventually be erected. There was no indication as to why, but there was frequent mention of the cargo the ship had been carrying. Crystals of magical property, which was to be expected, but also something else entirely.

I suppose it’s worthy to note that this happened during a dark period of Equestria’s time. A period when a certain unicorn tyrant was ruling over the Crystal Empire, a ruler with a particular fondness of dark magic of an...experimental variety. I didn’t find this information in the book, but I doubt my memory needs to be questioned for its validity. I tend to compulsively lie only when asked about my age or while trying foreign nation’s cuisine.

Where it had originally come from, I did not know, but it seemed as though some form of dark magic artifact was being transported by the ship when it had run afoul. Sombra had carried an odd fondness of magic crystals and mirrors, and it was an odd variation of the two that had gone down with the Sisyphys.

It wasn’t named nor was any information provided about it, but the text claimed that some sort of strange, magical device created by Sombra (one of three it claimed, as was the law of myths and fairy-tales) had joined the ranks of the dead at the bottom of the sea. Its design was like a mirror, which I'd seen from Sombra twice before, but its function carried a much darker purpose than mere reflection.

It seemed too strange and metaphysical to have any concrete merit, but I’d been dealing with the metaphysical for too long to disregard this lead.

A form of magic mirror created by Sombra? I’d already seen two. One could cross dimensions. The other merely showed them, or rather showed dimensions in which a less desirable alternative to a pony’s current situation was presented. Bluntly put, one allowed transportation between worlds, another showed a pony’s personal hell.

Horrified, my mind wandered towards the implications of some sort of combination of the two, which seemed to be what this final mirror had been intended for.

Apparently I hadn’t been the only pony to think such a thing to be less than desirable. After I’d scoured the books one final time for information on Sombra’s creations, I found an ancient recount of a Crystal Pony who claimed that the third mirror had been destroyed in order to protect Equestria from the horrors that could have lay beyond. Some being could have used it to travel from their world into ours…

It seemed as though this had already happened.

At the apex of Sombra’s rule, he had no subjects. Instead he’d had slaves, slaves who did not dare defy him. I knew this because I’d seen it. And this knowledge led me to question whether the claims that the mirror had actually been destroyed had any merit to them. It certainly made for a nice, feel-good fairy tale, but it did not clash well with the logic of what actually would have happened.

Besides, Luna had demonstrated it with a simple spell and a poetry book. Dark magic takes a little more than physical trauma to fade from the world completely.

I flew down to the ground floor of the library and trotted back into the streets. The time to raise the sun was creeping upon me, but I came to the decision that I would need at least another hour of night for where I was going next.

In the dwindling few hours of the early morning, when the sun was still below the horizon even if the time for it to be risen had passed, a lone white unicorn mare traveled through the swirling snow.

Obviously, this mare was myself, as I was in the process of using my magic to keep my mane’s colourful and ethereal qualities hidden and my height reduced to that of an ordinary young mare.

I was traveling through an...unpopular district of Manehattan, searching for a shop which I’d heard Luna make mention of several times. One which operated only at rare, random hours of the morning, and one which did not provide a service any lawful entity could have endorsed.

It wasn’t illegal to sell magic artifacts, even ones of a darker nature. Or, more accurately, it was illegal but it wasn’t anything we could have enforced. Every city had its slum, and every slum had one of these back-alley curio shops. Typically, the pony I would have gone to for information would have been my sister, but even with my apology finally being presented I still had my doubts she’d be willing to speak with me.

And so instead I diverted my inquiries to a pony whose trifling knowledge on the subject still outweighed my own.

The shop was...oddly typical considering its strange nature. Whatever one would imagine a macabre shop of cursed magic items would look like, they would be quite surprised by how accurate their imagination truly was. Strange potions, various artifacts, skulls and horns of varying creatures, the place truly was void of any sort of creative uniqueness.

It certainly wasn’t the sort of place a young unicorn would be seen entering, but I strode up to the counter confidently regardless. A old stallion was behind it, looking surprised by my presence. He didn’t look nearly as inherently evil as the wares he was selling, and I reminded myself this was more or less an occupation and not anything personal. Just because my sister dealt with nightmares did not make her one herself. The old stallion narrowed his eyes as I approached, but said nothing beyond a simple ‘Good evening.’

“Good evening yourself,” I returned. In my magic I still had the manila envelope I’d taken from the library, but I’d ripped out several pages from the history books and stuffed them into the envelope as well. Now, I opened it up and withdrew the document in question and passed it to him across the counter.

“The mirror mentioned here. What do you know of it?”

He blinked and tilted his head slightly.

“This is your profession, no?” I asked, sensing his confusion.

“It is,” he admit. “But...I’m afraid I don’t have such a thing…”

“I didn’t suspect you to have it,” I said. “It was destroyed long ago. I simply want information about it.”

“Ah, well, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you, young mare.” he said, shaking his head sadly.

I rose an eyebrow. Before speaking, I dropped my magic and in a flash of light I was back to my alicorn self. I’d donned it to avoid stirring controversy that would have been caused by somepony seeing me wander into the criminal underground of Manehattan. Now that I was alone with a pony who could have helped me, that was no longer a concern.

“You don’t know?” I asked, as my disguise slipped away and I took my first step forwards as an alicorn. “Or you’re unwilling to tell me?”

“Princess Celestia! I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

I held up a hoof and smiled.

“No need for apologies. This mirror has simply piqued my curiosity. I wish to know more about it. If you don’t have the knowledge then I certainly understand.”

“I haven’t heard of such a mirror before,” he admit after briefly reading the paper I had given him. “At best, I might be able to help you with regards to its nature.”

“I’m new with dark magic,” I admit with a sheepish smile. “So that would very much be appreciated.”

“Well, firstly, it says it was destroyed by the Crystal Ponies. That wouldn’t have been an easy feat for King Sombra, let alone some lone brave pony,” he explained. “And secondly, it’s a mirror. Shatter a mirror, and it still works. It just works less.”

“I suspected so,” I nodded slowly. My next question was considerably more subjective and personal. “Does it seem possible to you? A gateway to some...otherworldly evil?”

“Well, to otherworldly evil exclusively? Unlikely. But for otherworldly evil to potentially exploit? Certainly.”

I nodded again and broke my fixed gaze, straightening up and taking a step backwards from the counter. All the information I could possibly have gotten from this strange shop I now had, and I was left with nothing else to do but head back to Dusk Falls and see what I could do with it. I was left with a few interesting ideas, but still nothing concrete.

“Thank you for your time,” I said, and left the store into the snowy back alley streets. Despite its brevity, I felt quite satisfied with my visit into the store and indeed into Manehattan itself, and when I returned to Dusk Falls I imagined more progress would quickly follow suit. In the turbulence of the night I'd forgotten about my letter to Luna, but I recalled it again as I trotted through the snow. I imagined she would be quite interested by what I'd said, and perhaps the one letter would be enough to finally break out childish silence. The static rage that had been fueling my actions was gone, but the determination fortunately remained.

I flew skywards before teleporting once again, but before I could cast the spell I remembered the sun which I’d delayed for a few hours. Luna’s moon still hadn’t been lowered, which led me to believe that if she had taken notice of my neglect, she had chosen to ignore it, no doubt enjoying having her night pushed forwards a few more hours. I rose it when I was high above the waking city, and then in a flash my brief visit into Manehattan ended as I teleported home.

It did not feel like I had traveled anywhere as I teleported. Instead it looked like the entire world had shifted around me. Instantly the ground shifted from a sea of torches into a small cluster of them. I could see the lone light that was Pink Sunset, but I swirled down in a circular fashion towards the house of the Mayor of Dusk Falls. Now, with some information to back me up, I’d finally ask the questions whose answers I would be getting whether he was willing to tell them to me or not.

I noted with humour how Luna-like I’d become over the course of one night alone. I’d have to express another apology to her when I had the chance.

With this thought, I suddenly pulled up from my descent and twisted my flight back towards home. Kleos could wait until the next day. Luna had likely responded, and I was itching to read it. Besides, I had not actually looked at the files I’d stolen from the library, and it would probably be beneficial to do so before barging in with wicked accusations.

The same guards were still at my door, and I gave them a smile as I trotted into my home again.

Luna had written a response after all, but it was hardly the one I’d been hoping for. It was laying on my desk atop a small pile of ash, and I lit a torch and began to read;

Dear Sister,

I understand. Good luck, and keep me posted.

Luna.

It was every bit as brief and abrupt as every single other letter she had sent me as of late. I had apologized to her sincerely, admitted she was right, and practically begged her to forgive me. And yet her response was no more than two words, which merely said that she agreed with my assertion that I was wrong about everything. It was an unpleasant response to a letter that had been unpleasant for me to write in the first place.

In bitter frustration, I crumbled it up and tossed it into my fire as I trotted into my kitchen. My cupboards were predominantly empty and I had continuously forgotten to ask somepony to fill them. I found some canned soup and lazily poured it into a saucepan, more eager than ever to prove to Luna that my work in Dusk Falls was almost over and I would be back on my throne soon.

Whether that creature in my dreams liked it or not, my business with her was almost over, but she would find that out soon enough. As would Luna. I had assumed her assertions that I was deliberately pushing her and her advice away would reveal themselves as foolish to her with the dulling repetition of several month's time, but instead it seemed she was just as keen to distance herself from my affairs as she had been after the Summer Sun Celebration.

Whatever I’d expected would happen by moving to Dusk Falls, it hadn’t been at all beneficial to our relationship. Initially, our relationship had been the only purpose. Were it not for the presence of another, greater problem, I would have dismissed it as an option and flown home already, and it was only because I needed to be that I was still in Dusk Falls at all. I tried to rationalize that if I had simply been there on vacation like I'd intended, my relationship with Luna would not have worsened, but that was a petty excuse and I knew it. The fact that it existed at all and we still could not bear each other did not compliment our relationship, it spat on it and insulted it's worth with crippling honesty.

Soon, I'd be back in Equestria. I did not necessarily know what the next option would be after I was, but I was quite ready to stop wasting my time away from home.

Blame It On the Eldritch Demon (X)

Author's Note

Those of you seeing this in your Feed.... nothing to see here folks. Just me splitting that beast of an 18,000 word chapter into two separate ones.

Blame It On the Eldritch Demon (X)

The sun I rose late set the sky on fire in wild shades of the darkest red. With the old sailor’s idiom dancing in my mind, I took the sky as a warning, one which signaled something large, perhaps not just in the weather but amongst the ponies squabbling about underneath the cosmic crimson ceiling. Somewhere perhaps, a family would rise and realize they were one short...whoever that poor mare was who had been murdered merely for a demonstration, I’d be sure to send my sympathies to her family.

Red sky for mourning, and a subtle eldritch warning. I smiled darkly and sipped my tea, looking out at the still waves disturbingly evocative of the apocalyptic ocean in my nightmare hours earlier, wondering what lurked below the freezing black waters.

I’d promised her she would regret provoking me. I had no intention of disappointing her expectations.

I’d also promised Luna I was remaining idle no longer, but after her emotionless response to my apology I found myself uncaring how she responded to my success. It was likely she wouldn’t care either. I’d probably get a letter that said something like: “Congratulations, sister. You were successful against a glob of featureless black sludge.”

I took my tea to the table and opened the manila envelope with a flourish, letting the contents fan out. Between sips of my tea I read them all over, taking note of the dates on each. They stretched back through more than six decades, and yet much of the information echoed eerily through the years.

And there was only one name. One name across so many years. Only the number beside it seemed to change, but it would seem that Dusk Falls had been ruled by Kleos’ family three generations over, without interruption. If I’d cared to actually ask, I would have found out that Mayor Kleos was in actuality the third in line, his father and grandfather before him had ruled the town also.

At least that’s what the papers said.

There were no photos, but I found it oddly suspicious nonetheless. No records of any spousal relationship or family inheritance existed, not that it would have been information I would have been able to find from the library. Nonetheless, my suspicion on those matters would be confirmed by genealogical records I had ordered unearthed the moment I finished my tea. My guards had managed to turn them up, presenting to me without a doubt that there were no recorded death certificates for any of his relatives, nor birth certificates for any but the eldest.

This meant two things; for sixty years mayoral elections in the town had been fraudulent, and in the eyes of recorded history there had only ever been one mayor of Dusk Falls across those years.

I was almost unsurprised.

Longevity is...disturbingly possible to achieve through dark magic, something I knew existed in the town’s underground in spades. And in my dream the unicorn creature had implied Kleos had been helping her. Which meant she could easily have been keeping him alive to…

To what? I still had no answer to that question.

Then again, the cult in Dusk Falls was certainly one of ponies keen on assisting in bringing this creature to power, as well as bringing some armageddon by way of the Smooze. Such a cult would need a leader, a figurehead, and I already knew that quite a significant portion of the town was not at all what they seemed.

It made sense, but it was still an insane theory without evidential merit. Still, I had enough controversial information to bring it to the Mayor’s attention and ask him to explain himself. But I would do it later, presently I was quite keen to investigate the site of the Sisyphys, and without having to read about it in any books or consult anypony for information, I knew exactly where I would find it.

When I left to find the ship, I did not leave alone. I’d told at least a dozen guards and investigators where I was going and what I was searching for, and they had been more than keen to help. The ones who could not fly behind me were trudging their way down the beach towards Harmony Bay before I had even set out.

The blossoming plumes of blood fog had been in one place over Harmony Bay, and it had been this bay that the ship had sunk in. I easily decided there was no way this was a mere coincidence. Into the cool morning sky I flew, flapping my wings gently and relishing in the comforting early spring air even with urgency of my mission quite clear.

The spell for separating water was so familiar to me at that point that I did not even need the book to cast it. The water split with considerably lesser effort than it had the first two times, in the precise spot I’d memorized from seeing the red luminescent fog on so many midnight mornings. The ocean gave way, and I breathed a sigh of amazement at what lay on the sand’s surface.

I had no reason to be surprised, I’d known it would be there, but the sight of the ship lying on the ocean floor was amazing nonetheless.

The Sisyphys was by no means an impressive ship, especially in its partially decomposed state. It was a simple schooner meant for delivery purposes, the sort of ship that had room only for cargo and a crew of a dozen, at least half of whom would have been slaves. This I noted with relief, it would mean I would not have to scour much and indeed would not have to wait long for something to be found.

The moment the water was parted the dozen or so ponies who had accompanied me were trudging through the near-freezing water, bracing themselves as they leapt through the held waves towering upwards. In minutes the ship was crawling with ponies, and I did little more than watch and maintain the spell while they searched for the mirror.

It was found after less than an hour.

I was lounging against a frozen palm, waiting, when a joyous cry resounded from the direction of the ship and I straightened up, taking flight immediately to check as to why. A group of five or six ponies were stumbling onto the flimsy, hole-ridden deck of the ship, holding triumphantly a shard of glass about the size of a dinner plate. All around it was a magical aura, not red like I’d been expecting but a sickly green. They were holding it on a detached board, and I saw that a pony was nursing a burned hoof in the cold salt water. Even when I grasped it in my magic (taking care not to let the other spell I was holding collapse) it felt uncomfortable, but nonetheless I brought it close to analyze it.

I could see myself reflected in it clearly, as if it were an ordinary mirror, but there was no questioning the magic around it.

“Good work, everypony,” I said. “Thank you very much for your help.”

I took it back onto the beach, still cautiously holding it in my magic, and once everypony was clear of the ship I let the waves fall back down, returning the Sisyphys to its undersea grave. How absurdly simple it had been, finding this bit of mirror, I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. To think, if I would have heeded the Mayor’s advice so many months ago, I could have…

Located a bit of glowing mirror. In retrospect, I realized that I would not have had enough information to put any stock in the glass shard, and I probably would not have even removed it from its berth under the waves.

On my request, a small group of ponies versed in dark magic and occult research had arrived and were promptly dragging advanced looking magical equipment onto my front lawn, taking care to keep it covered from the freshly falling rain and snow. I had told them about the mirror shard, and now it was sitting alone on a table directly in the middle of the lawn while an array of strange devices were placed at almost-comically far distances all around it.

The first thing I needed to know was whether or not this shard would be enough to access whatever realm it bled into. I suspected I was not the first to uncover the mirror, and the shard I’d found was a fortunate oversight from whoever had last plundered the unsullied walls of the sunken ship. It was a small portion, after all, and somewhere I imagined a much larger, much more powerful bit of the magical device was still lying in wait, ready to be activated to allow extraordinary horror into our peaceful world.

I had simply stood on my porch watching while countless ponies mulled over it, prodding it with crystal-tipped devices, taking notes on endless pads of paper, or shooting beams of magic at it from great, controlled distances to see what would happen. While I waited, I wrote a letter to the Everfree Castle, not intended for Luna but instead intended for the Captain of the Royal Guard, asking him to please meet me in Dusk Falls as swiftly as he could. I also asked one of the guards who I thought not to be busy to please run into town to purchase a set of journals from the general store. It was not until long past midday that any sort of verdict was presented to me by the occult investigators milling about, but it was exactly the verdict I had been waiting for.

“It’s dark magic, alright,” A bespectacled, middle-aged unicorn told me, nervously toying with the collar of his winter jacket. “Very, very similar to the sort we’ve observed from ancient research of King Sombra’s age.”

He proceeded to give me a brief description of its nature, one which lined up quite well from what I already knew myself.

“So I figured,” I raised a hoof to stop him once the information began looping. “It’s only a small section though, correct?” I asked.

“It is,” he nodded. “But still one of immense power.”

“Enough for a gateway to be opened?”

My request was met with stunned silence. Even ponies who had not been directly involved with the conversation turned to look with widened eyes.

“Possibly, if we use crystallized magic to make up for the lack of an energy base,” he said, biting his lip nervously. “But, Your Majesty, aren’t we trying to seal the gateway?”

“Yes. But this is a section of a much larger device,” I pointed out. “We’d be closing our own, but there would still be another that will be opened. Destroying this one would do nothing to deter anyone with access to another..”

“True,” he nodded. “I suppose we could. Is that truly what you want?”

“It is,” I confirmed. “Please do so.”

“We’ll be a few hours…”

“Take your time. I’m waiting on the Captain of the Royal Guard to arrive anyways.”

“You’re...sending ponies in?” he gawked.

I didn’t respond. Instead, I returned into the confines and silence of Pink Sunset while I waited for the rest of my company to show up.

The Captain of the Royal Guard arrived long after the sun had set and darkness had overtaken the sky. Still working on into the night, the ponies had flooded my front lawn with magically powered light vaguely reminiscent of those that had powered the neon lights on the boardwalk. More ponies had arrived to assist with preparing the mirror shard gateway, so that by night’s arrival they had trampled my lawn to such extent that there was no more snow at all and I knew that come summer my grass would probably be hideous and yellow.

Not that, come summer, it would be my house at all.

Several chariots swept down from the night sky, pulled by pegasi much more armed than any of the other guards I’d grown accustomed to seeing around Dusk Falls. They stood straight and saluted, while a unicorn stallion only a little shorter than myself strode forwards, looked me straight in the eyes, and saluted himself.

“Your Majesty Princess Celestia,” he greeted, extending a hoof which I shook.

“Good evening, Captain Solar Flare,” I answered instinctively.

“Once again, I extend my apologies regarding that foolish mare who—”

“Miss Indigo Posy is a good friend of mine, and I fully trust that what she did anyone else from your force would have done so in her place,” I stopped him. The last time we had spoken had been from that infernal apology letter he had sent me. However, I knew that what would happen next would be trying on all our nerves, so I quickly diverted the conversation from judgmental confrontation.

“You certainly rolled in the cavalry at my request,” I said sarcastically.

There were at three chariots at best, although they all seemed to be filled with varying degrees of supplies from weapons to excavating material to what looked like explosives. I hadn’t specified why I had needed his presence, so he seemingly had prepared for whatever option it could have been at once. Still, I had a little under a dozen ponies, many of which did not even look like their roles went too far beyond simply pulling the chariots. As for the guards in Dusk Falls, there was perhaps truth in the patronizing remarks Luna had said, and I did not feel comfortable to have a repeat of what had happened to Deepsy and Indigo. It would seem preparation was not a factor in our favor.

Solar Flare was the stern, sometimes hot-headed Captain of the Royal Guard. While his strict attitude earned him humorously ironic observations of his name, he was Captain of the Guard through a period of peace in Equestria, a period that had remained unbroken since before he had even been born. He more than likely had never seen actual battle in his life, let alone whatever eldritch horror I was about to drag him and his soldiers into.

Regardless, he was the highest ranked guard I had and one of the best unicorns I knew, and if I was forced to place my trust on anypony, I did not feel too uncomfortable placing it on him and his loyal soldiers.

iii

I let everypony introduce themselves on their own accord and the glasses-wearing stallion to explain to Captain Flare what exactly was going on. It was well past sunset, at around ten in the evening, when a pony finally knocked on my door to let me know that the portal was ready to be opened.

The single shard of mirror was levitating by itself in the middle of the enchanted crystals throbbing with energy. It stood motionless, suspended in the air without a single trace of imperfection, as if it were laying on the ground instead of floating above it. It was an admittedly eerie sight, seeing it like this, even if I knew exactly why it was doing so. The crystals fueling it were functioning as they’d intended, and yet there did not seem to be any gateway like I’d been hoping there would be.

When I echoed this concern to Captain Solar Flare, he nodded to show he already knew.

“We have yet to activate it. We’re simply waiting for a unicorn from Canterville to arrive.”

“I can do it,” I offered. “I’m the one going through, after all.”

At least a dozen of the milling guards stopped what they were doing to look at me. Solar Flare blinked in bewilderment.

“With respect, Princess Celestia...this is a new development.”

“It is?” I asked, equally confused. I was left wondering why they had expected I'd asked for the gateway to be opened if they did not suspect I was going to be traveling through. “I thought it was to be expected.”

“Your Majesty, we don’t know what lays beyond. It could be incredibly dangerous.”

“Yes indeed,” I nodded. “And it’s trying to claw it’s way into our world. I’m going through to stop it.”

“With respect, Your Majesty...not alone you aren’t,” he shook his head and stood his ground firmly, as if he could have stopped me if I truly had my mind set that I wished to go through. I did not want to provoke a fight anyways

I smiled at his conviction, nodding slowly. Certainly he was right, and I felt a little more comfort delving into the unknown with strong, competent guards on my side.

“Much obliged.” I said. “Gather six of your best guards. Pegasi, earth pony, and unicorn. I trust you’ve briefed them on what we might be dealing with on the other side?”

“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand that myself.”

“No matter,” I said. “I’ll tell them myself whence they’ve arrived. Please gather them swiftly, Captain.”

He saluted and started trotting away, when I called after him.

“On second thought, make that eight guards, please.” I did not know what lay beyond, and while I perhaps could have asked for more, it seemed a better option to have ponies at the ready on the other side just in case.

He assured me he would get them and saluted again. In less than ten minutes time I had before me a small crowd of guards, standing tall with the moonlight reflecting off their armour much stronger than the average affair worn by the guards patrolling the streets or standing outside Pink Sunset. They were not, as Luna had put it, “glorified employees,” they were ponies who were willing to lay their lives to waste to protect Equestria. They were all armed, several with flintlock rifles but most with light and versatile silver sabers. Their behaviour clearly echoed their militaristic nature; they all were looking directly ahead of them, with eyes featureless and expressions stoic. If they had been fearful of the unknown awaiting them, they disguised it professionally.

“Good evening,” I said once they had all arrived, saluted, and stood waiting for my instructions. “I imagine what will be done tonight will be an experience many of you are unfamiliar with, perhaps even frightened of. I do not know what lies beyond the gateway we shall be opening. I do not know if we shall be welcomed or…”

I stumbled a little, not quite wanting to say what the other, much more likely option would be so bluntly.

“Ahem,” I tried again. “How many of you know what the ‘Smooze’ is?”

The word, as perhaps audibly childish as it sounded, registered little reaction from the guards. I hadn’t been expecting it to, but their total lack of both confusion and recognition was still slightly disarming.

“It might not seem like anything that would pose a threat by it’s name, but I assure you it is indeed incredibly dangerous. The Smooze is a sludge-like substance whose instincts are similar to that of a caterpillar. By which I mean it has one purpose and one purpose alone...” I remembered Luna, her metaphor, and the dramatic tone she had spoken in that I had tried my best to emulate. “To feed.”

“To feed on what?” One of the guards from the front row piped up.

“I’m quite glad you asked,” I responded. “It feeds on everything. It will continue to consume everything in sight until there is nothing left. Then, it will consume itself, leaving little to nothing behind.”

The silent night was punctuated by shocked gasps and fearful whispers for but a moment, before the Captain of the Guard narrowed his eyes at them. They instantly fell into militaristic silence, but the fear they’d been so adept at hiding was now plain and evident.

“I feel the need to emphasize,” I carried on. “It consumes everything. It does not destroy it. It literally devours it. One cupful of this stuff is fatally dangerous, and I have reason to believe there is a great multitude of it beyond. I welcome anypony unwilling to accompany me to stay on this side of the gateway. I will not fault any of you for doing so.”

With pride, I watched as none of them broke from their stance. Certainly they had been afraid, but that fear was not giving way to the instinct of flight. Instead, it remained rooted on the urge to defend and to protect the nation we were temporarily leaving behind. I didn’t let my pride in my faithful subjects visibly show, but I felt it plentifully in that moment.

“Are there any questions?” I scanned their eager yet frightened faces.

“What magic do we know affects it?” One called out.

“I have reason to believe…” I paused. The truth of the answer was rather difficult to say aloud after my grim statements moments prior. “I have reason to believe no pony magic has the ability to affect it.”

Once again they exploded into terrified murmurs. I held a hoof up to silence Captain Flare when I caught him about to chastise them in the corner of my eye. I let them have their fearful discussion for several seconds before clearing my throat. It was a nearly silent sound, but they instantly ceased all the same.

“My offer to stay behind still stands. But this substance is trying to claw it’s way out into Equestria as we speak. We either fight it there,” I motioned at the hovering mirror surrounded by the crystals. “Or we attempt to fight it while it tears our world apart.”

“How are we supposed to fight something we can’t affect?!” Another guard screamed, his voice joined by several more agreeing shouts. Captain Flare’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

“No substance is purely invincible,” I asserted. “We will find a way, even if I have to bring the whole sun down onto it all. Now, are there any other questions?”

Silence.

“Thank you all,” I nodded. “Captain, have you anything to add?”

“I do,” he confirmed. I took a step back while he in turn stepped where I had been to address the gathered guards.

“You all heard the Princess quite clear. What we are dealing with is something we know very little about. Exercise extreme caution, and stay as far back from it as you possibly can at all times. Your priority is protecting Princess Celestia, no matter the personal sacrifice. Understood?”

I found his remarks...oddly patronizing, but I cast the childish emotion away as I watched on. They all saluted, thereby indirectly confirming their unwritten contract that practically stated their lives were potentially forfeitable. I had half a mind to tell them to stay behind, but I knew that even at my order it would not happen anyways.

“Well then. Let us be off,” Solar Flare said, as if he were proposing we all go for ice-cream on the boardwalk. “Private Larkspur, if you would be so inclined.”

The young unicorn stallion in question trotted forwards. I couldn’t see his cutiemark beyond the armour, (I could hardly even see his dark purple coat) but I was willing to bet it was some reflection of his apparently vast intelligence on magical practice. Without hesitation he began casting his magic as soon as he was directly in front of the hovering shard of mirror. The crystals surrounding it began pulsating rapidly, and soon the frequency of their lighting accelerated, thus giving the illusion that they were eternally lit.

Suddenly, each crystal exploded in a beam which struck the mirror. In moments a tear began to form, looking quite like the tears Discord had torn when he had hurled poor, innocent ponies into the chaotic hell that lay on the other side.

I couldn’t see what was on the other side of this tear however, instead it looked like a blinding white plain of nothingness. It continued opening until it was an entrance as thick as the round door of Pink Sunset and as long as the house's ocean-facing wall. It was a huge opening none of us quite wanted to venture through. Nevertheless, I was the first to take a step forward, brushing past the wide-eyed unicorn stallion whose magic was still being cast even though the necessity was apparently over.

I stood before the tear for several seconds, before holding up a hoof to signal for Private Larkspur to stop casting magic. He did, and nothing seemed to happen. The tear remained resolute and unchanged.

“Good work, Private,” I said without turning. “I want you to stay on this side of the tear. Who else amongst you considers yourself magically skilled?”

A pretty young mare with a blue coat and neon yellow mane stepped forward. I analyzed her for several seconds, before motioning to the tear before us.

“Stay on this side of the tear with Private Larkspur, please. If it begins to close, help him keep it opened. Get other unicorns if you have to, but don’t leave this spot. Understood?”

They saluted.

“Thank you. Now then, Captain Flare?”

“Your Majesty?”

I withdrew the two journals I’d purchased from the marketplace earlier. I handed one to Larkspur and the other to him. He looked from the journal to me in bewilderment, not unlike how I’d looked from mine to Luna so long ago.

“Two way journals,” I explained. “What we write in one appears in both. ”

He locked eyes with Larkspur, and then they both looked at me and chuckled in awe-filled admiration.

“Impressive, Your Majesty.” Solar Flare said.

“It’s an idea inherited from the best,” I casually replied. “Now then...”

I diverted my glance back at the tear before us. Without any further hesitation, I began advancing towards it. Into the beyond realm I trotted, the dozen ponies hesitantly right on my hooves as we trotted past the threshold and into whatever hell lay beyond.

Insects In A Jar (XI)

We emerged into darkness of the most perfect kind, the darkness which only a complete lack of light can bring about. Darkness so rich I knew we were either in a cave, or floating through the far reaches of space.

I had actually been fearfully considering the latter moments prior. We were using something which Sombra had seemingly not even fully completed, and as such it was alarmingly likely that whatever lay beyond was in fact something which did not exist, a portal which simply led nowhere.

“Lanterns.” I ordered, whilst lighting our surroundings with my horn. Behind us the tear looked just as it had from the other side, the whiteness obscuring my kingdom beyond. Even by the light of my horn I could see that we seemed to be surrounded on all sides by rock, and when the lanterns were illuminated moments after I’d asked for them to be I could see that we indeed were in some cavern which stretched on long past the range of our lights.

Underneath my hooves and in the air I felt moisture and a strange, intrusive scent hung all around.

I took a brief moment to take stock of our supplies; an earth pony near the back was carrying the majority of it. Everypony except myself had a sabre tucked away in a scabbard on their sides, and two ponies were carrying flintlock rifles.

“Captain Flare, what’s the status on our communication with Lark?”

Behind me I could hear him furiously scrawling away into the notebook with a quill. After several moments it seemed he was given a response.

“Seems to be working through the tear," he said. I was left pondering how this could be. It certainly felt quite strange that it seemingly was working between dimensions. To my understanding they only could have worked across one plane of reality. "Where are we, Princess?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I said. “These are your soldiers. You can take it from here if you wish, Captain.”

“Sky Blossom, Blue Nose, take up the front,” I heard hooves shuffle from behind me, and two guards trudged past me a little ways further into the cavern. Sky Blossom was a unicorn and Blue Nose was a pegasus, and both of them were carrying lanterns in their mouths. I was now sandwiched in between the two ponies before me and the two stallions in front.

“There’s a lot of moisture,” An earth pony named Fox Trot whispered behind me. Despite his quiet voice, it echoed across the claustrophobic area.

“There is,” I agreed. “Make sure you are guarding your gunpowder. There’s a smell, too. A strange smell.”

“It’s salt.” The last pony in our small party, a pegasus mare named Ilsley, declared.

“How in Tartarus can you tell that?” Solar Flare scoffed.

“I’ve been living on some rustbucket schooner for three years. Pretty sure I can recognize salt water when I smell it.”

“She’s right,” I agreed. It was a scent I myself had been quite familiar with, having lived so close to the ocean as of recently. “It’s saltwater. That’s what the moisture is. I’m willing to bet there’s ocean above us.”

Like the working journals, this also seemed strange. It was almost as though we had not left the Crimson Coast at all, and had instead teleported into some unplundered undersea caverns. Remembering the odd stone opening, I decided it was not a theory to simply discredit.

We walked onwards through the cavern. The moisture and scent of salt started to become quite bothersome as time went on, so that it became considerably difficult to breathe. Our situation was further worsened by the heat. One might suspect such a cavern to be nearly freezing, and indeed I would have figured the same, but as it was the cavern was so warm it put the sunniest days of my summers to shame. Or perhaps it was more the fact that it was not a sunny heat at all, but a humid one of the most unpleasant kind, making the air feel as thick as syrup, forever hanging above us as we struggled to move forwards.

The cavern seemed to have no end as it snaked onwards, although I thought it to be descending into further depths. The walls were a strange ordeal, they were carved nearly perfectly. I suspected the Smooze to be responsible for this, and I echoed this theory to the other five ponies. If they thought anything of my observation, they did not express it. In fact, other than the occasional request from myself for Captain Flare to check with the surface through the journals, we moved on in uncomfortable silence, the only sound that of six sets of hooves sloshing through the moisture filled caves, echoing across the too-perfect walls.

“Lantern’s almost out,” Blue Nose reported after our descent had crept into it’s first hour.

“Do we have replacement oil?” I asked.

“We do.” Fox Trot said. He was the only pony other than myself wearing anything beyond armour, he also was sporting two huge saddlebags filled to the brim with supplies. “A whole night’s worth.”

“Turn off one lantern anyways,” I ordered when several seconds passed and Captain Flare said nothing. “Private Sky Blossom, give your lantern to Private Blue Nose, and use your horn instead.”

The cavern fell into slightly richer darkness as the lantern was extinguished. I don’t know if that was the reason for what ensued several minutes later, but I guiltily suspected it was.

Quite suddenly during our descent, Sky Blossom lost his footing and fell down. His extinguished lantern detached from his armour, but did not immediately strike the floor of the cave. Instead, it continued to fall on and on, the sound of it finally shattering coming a long while after, as if it had fallen a long distance.

The stallion himself had been narrowly saved from falling into a sudden, vicious drop into empty blackness, managing to grab onto the side of the random cliff and drag his way back up. We all scrambled a little further back, looking warily at the darkness before us veiling the fall that had nearly rendered us one pony less.

I was the first to move forwards, my horn still alight.

It, however, did not seem to light far enough. I could see that the drop off seemed to be quite wide, and my horn’s light showed me that it had some sort of perfect curvature to it, like a mining quarry or sinkhole into the depths of darkness. I leaned over the edge of the precipice, trying to see if there was some way down. Where we immediately were, there was nothing, simply an abrupt fall into pure nothingness, by way of this perfectly carved downwards helix. At the very bottom in the darkness, I thought I could see an ocean of movement, but I quickly attributed this to my eyes still getting used to the changing lighting.

“Do we have a spare lantern?” I whispered behind me. In a moment one was lit and passed over to me. I held it over the edge with my magic, which unfortunately meant I had to stop my light spell. I kept it hovering over the edge for almost a full minute, desperately wishing it would suddenly start illuminating some staircase downwards that I had not seen before. Eventually I decided I was being wistfully foolish, and I did what I originally intended by letting my magic end and the lantern fall into the abyss.

It’s light was never enough to illuminate the full diameter of the abyss, and so I had to settle for watching a small portion of the side closest to us instead of the entire picture. As it fell it illuminated part of the abyss in eerie succession, the darkness giving way and the orb of light growing smaller and smaller as the lantern fell further away from us.

In the brief second before it struck the floor, I saw it. And I do believe it saw me as well, my wide eyes illuminated like tiny moons by the magic I was casting as I peered into the inky darkness.

It had looked as grotesque as it had in the picture Luna had showed me. An uncountable mass of slithery tendrils, some as large and thick as tree trunks and others as narrow and wispy as a spool of yarn, both with the resemblance of worm’s flesh but the same blackish purple colour as the rest of the monstrous creature’s form. I had seen several huge eyes like those of the grotesque giant squids lurking at the ocean’s unplundered depths, all looking up at the source of the interruption, judging me with its cold, thoughtless glare.

And the teeth…

In the bestiary picture, it hadn’t had teeth.

I had only glimpsed one mouth, but then again I had only glimpsed one section for a Manehattan Minute. Its teeth had been narrow and long, arched inwards into this thing’s grotesque midst. It looked perfectly suited in every fashionable sense towards its one instinct, that one terrible instinct. It was not a creature one could plead with, rationalize with, reason with, threaten or sway or outsmart.

I stumbled backwards, in the direction of the guards who had no knowledge of what I’d just seen.

“You’re the luckiest pony alive,” I said to Sky Blossom and laughed in mediocrely disguised dread. If he truly would have fallen over that edge...he would have been fortunate if the height had been enough to kill him.

“What?! Is it down there?”

“Yes,” I said. I thought of its eyes, how they had locked with mine in that one impossible moment. Swiftly, I decided I wasn’t going to be taking any chances.

“Another lantern. Now.” I ordered, reaching a hoof behind my whilst still staring straight ahead at the black abyss before me.

“This is our last one,” Fox Trot reminded me, refilling the near-empty lantern and passing it to me.

“Doesn’t matter. Blue Nose, Ilsley, with me. Unicorns and earth ponies, go back and see if you can find another way down.”

Nervously, the two pegasi shuffled next to me, the three of us teetering over the edge of the abyss. For the first time, I realized I could hear the Smooze underneath us, even if it was at least three hundred feet down. It was a sound like a snake would make, a high-pitched hiss that rarely deviated in pitch but often did in volume. It sounded not unlike a large insect trapped in a jar, fluttering its wings frantically, beating itself against the side repeatedly as it tried to force its way out. What was causing the sound, I could not say, although the mass of whale-baleen-tentacles seemed the most likely source for the disturbing slithering sound.

“Captain Flare, pass me the notebook.”

Swiftly, I wrote down everything I’d seen about the creature and passed it backwards again.

“Uhh...Princess Celestia?” I heard Fox Trot murmur. I turned around. He was motioning towards something, but it was difficult for me to see by the mere light of Sky’s horn. I moved the lantern in his direction to see further.

He had found a narrow split in the path, so small we had missed it when we had first passed by. It didn’t look quite large enough for a pony to fit through, it looked more suited to a creature that could actually crawl directly on it’s stomach, but it did look like it widened out almost immediately after the initial entranceway.

“Do we have pick-axes or chiseling equipment?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Fox Trot nodded, already undoing the clasp of a pick-axe which he had secured to his back.

“Good. Please excavate that and carefully work your way down,” I commanded. “It seems to be the proper way down anyways. Take the lantern with you, and be very careful for sudden drops. Sky, Captain Flare, you go with him. ”

I don’t exactly know when it had been decided that I was now giving the orders, but even the Captain of the Royal Guard obeyed my command without a shadow of hesitation. I turned back to the two pegasi, who were still gazing down into the perfect darkness as if hoping they could see what had instantly intensified the expedition the moment I myself had seen it.

“Don’t worry. We’re not going down,” I said, noting their mortified looking expressions. They hadn’t even seen the creature, but they’d seen how I had reacted, and that was more than enough. “We’re flying directly upwards instead.”

There was certainly saltwater above us, which meant that there was ocean. Recalling the blood fog billowing from the waves and the strange stone figure in the sand, I decided it was the best place to investigate.

“Y...your Majesty…” Ilsley stuttered. From what she had said earlier, she had spent most of her life on the ocean, most likely as part of Equestria’s Navy, and as such she seemed to carry the greatest curiosity and the greatest fear of what we had found in these strange waterless undersea caverns. “What did it...look like?”

“Like Tartarus incarnate,” came my grim reply. “Take my word, and don’t fly downwards.”

From their fearful expressions, I knew they probably did not need to convincing.

For the third time over the course of several minutes, my mind was suddenly tormented by the eyes of the Smooze. It had certainly seen me, peering over the precipice at it, of that I had no doubt. Whether or not it would be pursuing us was a matter of more uncertain concern. Without another lantern to throw down, it was difficult for me to know. I could always shoot an energy blast downward, but that in itself would undoubtedly bring us to its attention for certain. And yet I fancied it could see us through the darkness clearly even if we could not see it, much like the monstrous squids at the ocean’s deep depths, whose eyes the Smooze seemed to share.

In these caverns, if the Smooze gave chase, there would be no defense on our parts. There would only be six swift deaths and so many more with the last of its opposition gone.

I realized in a moment how stupid it was for us to have come down here.

“Solar Flare!” I called behind me.

“Your Majesty?”

“Write to Private Lark and ask him to tell my sister what is transpiring. Tell her if she does not hear from us, she must assume the worst.”

“Princess? Are you sure?”

“Do it.” I said sternly. “I was a fool to come here. If I fall, she needs to know to finish what I’ve started.”

“Understood.”

“Do you have a clock, Captain Flare?” I next asked.

“I do.”

“Good. If we are not back in two hour’s time, go back to the tear. If we have not emerged before dawn, close it and tell my sister.”

He grumbled a reluctant agreement and said nothing further. The sound of the pick-axe being swung filled the ensuing silence.

“Okay you two,” I said to the pegasi. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” They said in unison and saluted.

I unfurled my wings and took off over the cliff. My stomach felt empty at the thought of what I was flying over, but my wings carried me higher and further from what lay in the depths below. By the light of my horn I flew straight up, taking note of how far it stretched in both directions. It was a little difficult flying straight up while keeping the light of my horn trained directly ahead, but I managed to do so without breaking my flight.

Upward through darkness we flew, when suddenly a mass of teeth and sludgy flesh shifted my flight to a desperate careening barrel roll. It had been clumped on the ceiling of the cavern, too, but this time both myself and the pegasi flying on either side of me got a full, uninterrupted view of it.

And it most certainly got a view of us.

It was sticking to the roof and the walls, it hadn’t been simply lying on the bottom of the abyss like I’d expected, but rather was coating every surface of it. My lantern must have illuminated the one pathetic path in which it had not yet congregated, everywhere else it populated in a disgusting display of dominance. This cylindrical abyss was no cavern, it was like an oversized jar containing nothing but the vile beast like one might contain strawberry jam.

Even in the split-second when it had seen us, the sound of its hissing intensified as thin tendrils suddenly stretched downwards, flailing wildly in a vicious attempt to grab us. They were long and they seemed to be aiming for our exposed hindlegs, but we were fast as we angled our snouts straight back down into the abyss we had come from.

We flew back downwards frantically in the darkness, but it was difficult to gauge where we had entered from, now that the lantern had been taken with the flightless ponies further into the depths.

We overshot the entrance we had initially taken, but I had no way of knowing that at the time. Instead, I locked onto the first one I saw and desperately twisted my flight into another tight maneuver in order to make it through. I was grateful the two pegasi who were with me were trained as well as they were, for they matched my flight or perhaps even surpassed it, smoothly tearing into the entranceway and landing perfectly on their hooves.

If they had been frightened before, they were terrified beyond further rationalization now. But they did not lock into motionless fear. They stood beside me as I twisted around to face the entranceway we had just crossed through.

My horn had extinguished without me noticing it, and quickly I illuminated it again. The cavern mouth before us was empty, but I could hear the fly-in-a-jar siren of the approaching beast.

“Get back, get behind me!” I screamed, flaring my wings out. “Flee!”

“Your Majesty, we have orders to keep you safe!” One of them protested. In my panic and fear, I could not care to notice which.

“Just do as I ask!” I barked, although I remembered they did not have a lantern and had no way of making light of their own. They might have stumbled down another cliff and right into another pile of the eldritch sludge. Reluctantly, I’d decided that for the time being, them behind me was better than them stumbling blindly into possible further danger.

The wolf was at the door, for the Smooze had slithered its formless self up the walls and found the cavern mouth we had fled through. It was gripping both the ceiling and the floor with its sticky tendrils, while also slithering closer on the thinner ones on its bottom. It had thick tendrils on its bottom that it could use to push itself at a swifter speed through the claustrophobic caverns, but it was not using them as it approached us. Seeing it so close, the true horror of its being sunk in fully for the first time; it was formless, fleshless, meaning it could drag itself through a bed of nails and feel no pain, no desire to deter its carnivorous pursuit.

Even as it approached us, it was constantly shifting, its eyes coming and going into its disgusting midst.

I kept my wings unfurled and began backing up, twisting my expression into a battle ready snarl. It was not light magic that illuminated the cavern in vivid red bursts, but magic which could have broken solid stone and disintegrated armour like sugar in the rain. And as the Smooze’s multiple eyes focused on my own, and its mouth opened to reveal its blade-like teeth, I let my magic loose with a furious cry.

It flew forward, striking the substance head-on, and doing absolutely nothing.

It was as though I had thrown a crumbled up bit of paper at an Ursa Major. It did not even sway the being from its approach, it continued on advancing towards us without a break in urgency.

I relit my horn and took another step backwards, giving a slight start as my wing struck the poor pegasi who had been too stunned to back up themselves.

“Sweet Mother Epona,” I heard Blue Nose mutter.

“Keep backing up,” I whispered. It was advancing on us slowly for some reason I could not tell. If what we had been led to believe up till then was true, this being could not have been analyzing us as threats or weighing any matter of consequences, and yet it seemed to be moving at a rate only slightly swifter than the one we were backing up at. Regardless of the reason, it allowed me a temporary moment to think. Ilsley had been carrying a flintlock rifle, and while perhaps unicorn magic had no significant impact, sheer blunt force perhaps did.

“The rifle,” I said. “Is it ready to be fired?”

“No,” she muttered. “You said to keep the gunpowder—”

“Alright!” I snapped. We didn’t have time to waste then, especially not on useless rationalization. “Fill it now!”

While the Smooze was not swiftly approaching us, it was still moving at a rate that was always faster than the one we were backing away at, even as I increased the rate it increased its pace to match. There had been at least a hundred feet between us and the Smooze at the cavern mouth initially, but that distance was something like fifty now, and closing fast. Ilsley was fumbling with the rifle, gripping the barrel, doing her best to fill it with the gunpowder while advancing backwards. Not that she had much of a choice, but her grip on the gunpowder keg was clumsy especially with her hooves shaking in fright, and the whole while I was praying she did not drop it onto the water-soaked floor.

“Is it ready?” I nearly barked. The Smooze’s outstretched tendrils were flailing at us practically at a spitting distance, and I did not like the idea of moving backwards into unknown space any further anyways.

“I’m trying my best!” she screamed in a panic, assaulting the rifle with her ramrod.

Even at her urgent pace, I knew the rifle wouldn’t be filled in time. But just as I was about to command them both to turn and sprint, a particularly long tendril outstretched and instantly wrapped around Blue Nose’s leg at least half a dozen times over. The poor pegasus screamed in pain and surprise, and I acted in a moment to save him.

I unleashed a volley of magic beams at the source of the tendril on the Smooze’s formless body. It put my former assault to shame, as a multitude of blasts of the same magnitude struck this one isolated spot.

It dealt no visible damage, but the Smooze froze in spot long enough for a loud explosion and bright flash to assault all three of our ears and eyes. The tendril gripping Blue’s leg splattered across the wall of the cave, quickly reforming and returning to the rest of the Smooze’s body. Ilsley was standing with the rifle pointed upwards in her shaking hooves, smoke billowing out from the barrel.

I did not hesitate as the Smooze had, the moment Blue Nose was no longer being dragged towards the creature’s mouth I let loose with a teleportation spell with no destination in mind. I didn’t particularly care where it took us, so long as it was further on into the cavern and away from the creature.

The moment the three of us had vanished further on away from the Smooze, I was turning my lit horn towards Blue’s leg. There were many thick red gashes, it had gripped him with no shortage of strength and no concept of mercy. It was a miracle it had not severed his leg off completely.

“Are you alright?” I asked, looking into his eyes. He nodded quickly and speechlessly, looking traumatized, but otherwise unharmed. I turned to Ilsley and smiled broadly. “Good work, Private Ilsley. You can go home knowing you saved a life today.”

“Was that the Smooze?” she asked. She certainly knew it was, but seemed to be praying my answer would contradict her.

“That’s it.” Unfortunately for her I nodded solemnly. “As you can see, my magic did little but deter it for a moment.”

“Yeah, and the rifle didn’t actually hurt it,” she murmured, already emptying the spent gunpower and cleaning it so that it could be used again if need be. “It just broke it up a bit.”

She was, unfortunately, quite right. It seemed it had not been the rifle that had hurt it, but merely the force of the impact that had temporarily broken through its plasma form. In mere moments it had reformed, and had I not been so quick teleporting us out I imagined it would have resumed its grip on poor Blue Nose without hesitation.

And that was to say nothing of the range of the shot. We had already been at a distance I would never have advised as safe, and yet even despite the proximity we had been next to unable to harm it. I was left to wonder how we were expected to damage it from a distance if we could not even damage it at such close range.

“Where did you teleport us?” Blue asked, his voice wavering.

“I don’t quite know. Are you good to walk?”

“I am.”

“Then I propose we continue down this path and attempt to find the others.” I worded it like it was a suggestion, but it was clear to the two pegasi that there was to be no argument on the matter. With the Smooze blocking the only route we could have taken to flee to where we had come from, our only other option was to move on forwards and look for another exit.

"Ilsley, pass me the rifle for a moment, please," I said. She obeyed, and I held it in my magic whilst feeding a more permanent variation of light magic into my horn. It was a moderately difficult spell, but in a moment a small firefly-like lantern had latched itself onto the front of the rifle, casting light directly forwards more efficiently than my horn alone could have.

We continued forwards in silence through the twisting tunnels, Ilsley leading about a dozen feet ahead with the rifle pointed forwards, and me trailing at the rear with my ears perked up attentively. Any sense of direction was lost as we trekked on, all I seemed to know was that the path was taking us nowhere close to where we had come. Ilsley was eternally swinging the rifle and my extension our beam of light around, constantly scanning the walls for splits in the path, but alas there was nothing but the route forwards into further unplundered depths.

The Smooze was still behind us, that I knew, and I frequently commanded us to stop while I turned to listen for its hissing sound. That so far had been the only flaw in its design I had observed, the sound of its rapidly moving tendrils which loudly signaled its approach.

The fact that its only notable flaw was something so pathetic was...discouraging.

"Celestia!" Ilsley suddenly broke my somber thoughts as she called out. She was beyond a bend in the path and I could not see her, but her voice carried clearly. "Ahem. Sorry. Princess Celestia."

"What is it?" I asked, coming to a wary halt. Blue Nose had frozen and turned to look back at me, looking unwilling to move forwards himself.

"The path opens up," she said, sounding nervous. "Opens to...what exactly, I can't say."

Curiosity overpowered caution, but I was in no mood to let the Smooze creep up on us. I ordered Blue Nose to keep watching our flank while I moved around the bend also. Ilsley had the rifle pointed directly ahead, revealing not a horrifying sight nor mysterious drop off but instead a fairly ordinary looking, library-like area. Many books lined the shelves, and there was an old wooden table directly in the middle of the room. There was even a fireplace and some rotten wood in one corner of the room. The dampness and humidity of the caves had not done wonders for the room; many of the books were curled with spines that were illegible, and the table looked far too fragile to properly hold any sort of weight.

"What is this place?" Ilsley pondered. "Looks like some sort of study, but why here?"

"It's a shelter," I breathed. There were plenty of books, but also on other shelves was canned food and water contained in musty jars. It looked hardly appetizing, but no more than a few months old. I found a candle on the table and several more on the shelves, and I lit one to pass to Blue while stuffing a few more in the space between my stomach and my golden regalia, and with a moment's contemplation I shoved some random books into Ilsley's saddlebags as well.

"Shelter from what? Maybe the Smooze?"

"Yes," I agreed. "I think you're right."

"Princess!" Blue's frantic voice screamed. "We've got company!"

As it turned out, it did not seem to matter how much guard any of us had raised towards its approach, for if Blue would not have announced it I still would have heard the sound of its hissing approach even though I had not been listening for it. If before it could have been considered creeping up on us, then it seemed it chose to abandon this tact for one of considerably less subtly.

When I tore around and intensified my light to illuminate the tunnel further, positioning myself between Blue Nose and the dark tunnel ahead, I saw it approaching with its massive tendrils gripping the ceiling, walls, and floor, advancing towards us as fast as a speeding chariot in those races one could bet bits on. Even with its featureless, faceless nature, it looked like it was furious, although I knew this could not have been true, and was instead a projection of my own fearful mind. Its many mouths were open wide with the empty depths of its body clearly exposed, and for the first time I realized there were multiple rows of teeth beyond the initially visible ones, just as sharp and only slightly decreasing in size as they descended. It flung itself effortlessly forwards at terrifying speeds, somehow alarmingly precise in its movements even with the wild manner in which it traveled.

“Get back!” I screamed at the guards behind me.

I cast a magic barrier between us and the creature. Surprisingly, it actually held somewhat, for a brief moment of several precious seconds, but more effective than anything we had attempted before. It quickly shattered through, but I carefully noted how barriers operated differently from direct assaults. As brief as the barrier's life had been, it gave me enough time to tear back around into the study area, cast another barrier at the beginning of the bend, and frantically search for a solution.

"The entrance!" I barked. Against my instincts, I moved forwards to investigate where the Smooze would soon be emerging from, but my horn was alight with magic and my mind a flurry of determination. I found what I had been searching for in moments, a loose bit of stone that perhaps was supposed to be operated by some mechanism but was malleable enough that I was able to forcibly move it across the entranceway.

It was a door, a thick one of solid stone, and it was now blocking us from the beast trying to claw its way towards us.

"That isn't going to last," I gasped, slightly exhausted from the heavy magic I'd just cast. I could still hear the Smooze's hissing, but I could also hear the sizzling sound of something else, too. To my horror, the stone was already starting to chip away as it was beaten mercilessly by the creature. This books in this study could very well have been the final clue we would need to determine who was behind all this, but the Smooze would be through before too long, and I knew better than to put knowledge before the lives of the ponies I should not have dragged with me.

"Well then you're gonna love this," Ilsley said, too exhausted and terrified to speak with any actual emotion. "We're trapped in here."

Indeed, she was right. The study was a room with only one entrance, one which I had just been forced to block off. It was only a matter of time before the Smooze was through, and then there would be no stone door to keep it from reaching us.

"We're dead!" Blue Nose cried in defeat. "I don't want to die! Not to that thing!"

"Indeed, it's not a very preferable way to go," I agreed, resting a calming wing on the shaking pegasus. "Nor shall it be. Control your prattling, Private. You have a task."

"What are we supposed to do?" he moaned, shoving my wing away with surprising force. Ilsley tensed at his hostility, but I said nothing. He was having some sort of nervous breakdown and I wasn't about to waste time scolding him for it. But nevertheless it was counter-productive to our cause.

"We are to survive, and we are to do so by remaining calm," I said firmly. My wing once again made contact with the pegasus, but this time it was to force him back onto his feet and off the wet and cold ground.

Once he was back up, stunned but seemingly attentive, the stone gave a sudden aggressive crack, and a heavy chunk of it broke away. In a moment the Smooze had already tried forcing its way through the small opening the missing chunk had made. I blasted it with magic, a worthless move fueled by instinct, and swore bitterly as it began flailing its way through the hole, outstretching impossibly long tendrils in an attempt at grasping us. Our backs were against the opposite wall of stone. I grasped the bookshelves and table and toppled them both so that they fell between us, and then whipped around to turn my attention to the wall. I slid my hoof across it, desperately searching for some sort of imperfection in the smooth stone, a straight line which signaled where an entrance was supposed to be.

I found none. Loudly, the rest of the stone shattered, and the Smooze dragged its way through, the toppled books and other affairs flowing into it and not impeding its movement in the slightest. If in its brain it had the capacity to learn, then it must have realized its mistake prior. It did not simply grab at Ilsley’s leg as it had Blue’s. With several tendrils it wrapped around her entire body. She dropped the flintlock rifle in fright, and it hit the water-covered ground of the study, becoming worthless the moment it did.

Her fearful shout was obscured as it tightly gripped her entire form, hindering her breathing and dragging her towards its open mouths this time without hesitation.

“Princess!” she managed to scream out.

I did not wait to approach it safely, instead I leapt forwards with my horn alight with power and determination fueling my loud scream. The impact of my blasts was in no sparse supply, I fired barrage after barrage of the strongest magic I could muster directly at the tendrils pulling the pegasus mare towards it. This creature may have been a powerful eldritch relic, designed with one murderous purpose alone, but I was Princess Celestia, and I wasn’t about to watch it harm one of my loyal subjects.

Every single one of my blasts impacted it directly, and every single one had virtually no impact beyond the same temporary shock. I had mustered as much offensive energy I could and directed it towards the small patch of tendrils, and the most they had managed to do was detach one of the dozens of wispy tentacles wrapped around Ilsley’s body. When it was destroyed, another replaced it in an instant, even if the necessity was hardly there with so many others presently carrying out the same task.

All my anger, all my determination, and it had done next to nothing.

When the initial instinct to attack faded, and with only seconds to think of another, I formed a teleportation spell. I’d warily put it off before, knowing that the tendrils would still be gripping her even if I managed to distance her from the rest of the creature. She would likely still be killed, only she at least would not be literally devoured by the creature itself.

My teleportation spell sputtered and did nothing. Whatever magic I cast towards her, the Smooze seemed to be effortlessly countering it. I could not impact it, and now that she was in its grasp, I could not impact her.

Before a third solution could reach my mind, I let out a panicked scream as I felt many of its tentacles wrap around my leg also. The leg was flooded with a burning sensation, and I quickly discovered that the Smooze seemed to carry with it some sort of acidic properties that could be felt even by merely coming in contact with it. I fell to the ground, and as I did my horn was plunged almost directly into its midst. I did not realize until that moment how truly close to the creature I was.

When I next went to cast magic, the sensation was as though I did not have a horn at all. I could not even feel the familiar vibration, it might as well have not been there.

“Princess!” I heard Ilsley scream out again. She was too close to the creatures acidic midst, if I did not act swiftly, she would fall victim to the grotesque beast. With the desire to feed the only thought on its mind, my final destination seemed to be the same as hers, which meant I was close enough to reach out and grasp the saber still in its scabbard on her side. It was stuck somewhat in place by the sludge coating both of us, but with all my might I pulled it out and brought it down hard onto the tendrils gripping first her, and then myself. It cut through with great effort on my part, and we both fell to the ground and instantly stumbled backwards. The strong, professionally made blade broke in two the moment it hit the ground, the Smooze’s acidic properties tearing through the steel with disturbing ease. If it had such an impact on pure steel, I shuddered to think how a pony would fare against it.

Ilsley was coughing violently as she tried to force air into her lungs, while I still struggled to feed magic into my horn. It was still covered in the purple sludge, but worst, I could not seem to be able to free it even as I clawed at it with my hooves. It had solidified onto it like cement, and I could feel a strange tingling sensation as if it were corroding.

I didn’t wait any further to try to dislodge the sludge. Instead I took off in rapid flight as Ilsley and Blue did the same, our flight taking us directly atop the creature for one horrible moment as we fled back through the narrow entrance we had emerged from. It was perhaps fortunate that it had advanced so far into the study to reach us, for if it hadn't we undoubtedly would not have been able to outmaneuver its flailing tentacles. The Smooze was pursuing us in an instant, the sound of its tentacles raising in intensity as it flung itself forwards once more. With no magic at my disposal, I could cast no barriers or teleport us any further, and so we had to rely on speed alone to escape it. Me and Ilsley were both covered in patches of the sludge, and I could feel it burning as it had my horn, but fortunately none of it was on either of our wings impeding our flight.

With the rifle-light gone and the candles too damp to be lit, we were flying largely in the blind, but the path behind us was lit somewhat by the Smooze’s strange bioluminescence. It was by this light that we caught sight of a sudden deviation in the path, with one section continuing forwards while the other curved downwards. I tore into the latter path, praying to all above that it led back to the main cylindrical room.

After twenty minutes of exhausting flight, with many a collision with the walls around us that might as well have been invisible because of the darkness, it did. I could see the dancing light of the lantern in an entrance far above, the only light in an ocean of darkness before us. Through open space we flew, twisting into the exposed path and collapsing. Our wings were screaming out abuse at us for pushing them so hard, but I was merely thankful we had made it without anypony getting hurt, not that the corrosive burns coating our bodies could not have been considered painful.

“Unicorns, cast a barrier at the entranceway!” I said, gasping for breath. The first words I’d spoken to them after our rendezvous were urgently barked orders, but Sky Blossom and Captain Flare obeyed without hesitation.

I stumbled back on shaking hooves to look over the precipice once more, now divided by the shimmering barrier. I could see the dim luminescence of the Smooze on the other side, far below, as it clawed its way back up the wall. Its long tendrils were not long enough to fully reach the other side, but it was rapidly dragging itself around the circumference of the abyss towards us.

“We’re moving back to the tear. I’m right behind you all, but get going now!” I commanded firmly, indirectly telling them I was willing to drag them there if I had to. “Private Fox Trot, do you still have that pickaxe?”

Stunned, he passed it towards me. I took it, and gripping it gently began using it to claw away the concrete sludge coating my horn. The entire appendage screamed out like it was a loose tooth as I did, and once it was free from the Smooze I realized in horror that it was loose. Any solid impact and the whole horn could have detached completely. Alicorn horns do indeed grow back, but they take can take months of time I could not spare if the Smooze was this powerful and ready to be unleashed into Equestria. We’d been dreadfully unprepared to descend into these depths, but knowing that the creature was so powerful and that we had so little time to prepare made me grateful we had. It had been stupid and dangerous, but the ignorance we’d have possessed would certainly have been much worst.

I picked away the last of the sludge and dropped the pickaxe with a clatter. Planting both hooves firmly I stood my ground as the Smooze clawed its way closer and closer, coming into view in the entranceway. It shattered through the barrier and advanced closer. I cast a split-seconds gaze backwards and saw that the rest of the guards had all taken significant steps back, except for Solar Flare.

“Captain Flare, I gave you an order to flee,” I said, casting another barrier slightly closer to us. The Smooze hesitated a moment at this one, taking a full ten seconds to break through it. It was enough time for Solar Flare to give me a response.

“Promised I would protect you, Your Majesty.”

“Then get beside me and help me with these barriers. It’s at least a thirty minute sprint back to the tear, and your guards aren’t going to make it unless we can hold this off. You all, move!”

Everypony obeyed me without question, but while everypony else fled and the light from the lantern dimmed and vanished, Solar Flare and Sky Blossom both trotted next to me.

“I can help with the barriers,” Sky said, his horn already springing to life.

“Fine. Thank you.” I said. There was no time for me to chastise him for ignoring my orders, and any help truly was appreciated, moral implications aside.

The Smooze shattered through the next barrier, but I was quick to cast another one. My horn still felt weak and painful from the exposure to the corrosive sludge. If I were to raise a hoof to feel it, I would see that heavy chunks of it had come free, giving it a crude, changeling-like appearance. I knew that to press it any further would cause it to tumble out like the loose tooth it felt like. Every bit of magic I cast further injured my crippled horn. The damage was not merely aesthetic, and I felt it with every ounce of magic I cast.

And Solar Flare must have seen it in my grimace, because when the Smooze broke through the third barrier he cast another before I had a chance to, Sky instantly helping. Even with both unicorns casting it, the barrier was weaker and dissolved after only five seconds, but it was a precious moment in which I could afford to allow little more energy to flow into my precariously damaged horn.

We alternated maintaining barriers, every single one shattering with a loud snapping noise. The only light was produced from our dimly glowing magic barriers, and the phosphorous Smooze slamming itself against them. I had thought we’d found a solid strategy, but my belief was swiftly proved to be overly presumptuous.

The audible noise of the shattering barriers must have gotten the attention of more of the Smooze, because suddenly a larger amount of it slithered its way into our tunnel. It melded with the other clump seamlessly, mouths and eyes flowing between them without it breaking its assault of our barrier even for a second.

Now, every single barrier we cast broke free in the blink of an eye. It quickly became evident that to keep casting the barriers would only result in us becoming exhausted, me losing my horn, and the Smooze killing us all. If we did not move now, we would never have a chance later.

“We need to move,” I echoed my thoughts out loud. “You two go on ahead.”

“No, Princess,” Solar Flare shook his head. “Your life is the priority. Not ours.”

I turned around, looking at the dancing torchlight of the other three fleeing ponies, and then back at the Smooze less than two dozen feet before us.

“You’re not going to be able to fight that off,” I reminded them, although it seemed like a bland statement of the obvious. “It’s going to kill you both.”

He nodded. The shield shattered, Sky quickly created another one that Solar Flare strengthened with magic of his own. They were growing exhausted, I could see it, and every moment spent was a moment closer to death. And if I could not be around to protect Dusk Falls, how many others might perish? It was painful to admit, but I could not save these two ponies without possibly sacrificing thousands more. The only other option would have been teleportation, but with my horn hanging on by mere fibers and with the other two stallions next to depleted of magic themselves, that too was an impossibility. Besides, somepony would have had to stay behind to keep the barriers in place to slow down the Smooze anyways.

“You’re both brave stallions,” I said, swallowing with difficulty. “Equestria will not forget you.”

Against every moral instinct, I forced myself to turn and flee. The poor ponies were left behind in the darkness to carry out their final stand, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to help them. The sounds of the shattering barriers echoed on and on, and I was already dreading when the sound stopped completely. I ran on through the tunnels, breathing shakily from both dread and exhaustion. Before I even caught up with the others I could no longer hear the shattering barriers, but whether or not this was because of distance I did not know, but not long after it had ceased, the cavern walls shook as a much louder explosion echoed through them, coming from a long distance away but carrying well enough that I could still hear it. It took me a moment to recognize it as the sound of the rifle being shot.

There was not another sound after that, but I caught up with the others at where we had entered less than a minute afterwards.

“Captain Solar Flare and Private Sky Blossom are both dead,” I reported somberly. They had been chattering frantically amongst themselves, but had fallen silent when I’d arrived. Now, they looked at me with pleading disbelief.

“You were saying about things “getting any worse?” Ilsley eventually snarled at Fox Trot, abruptly breaking the silence.

“The tear is gone,” he said, hanging his head, as if it were something he could have controlled. “We’re trapped.”

I twisted my mouth in disbelief and looked at the cavern around us. I’d assumed they had not yet reached the entranceway, but on closer examination I realized this was exactly the spot where the tear had been. It was gone now, and the Smooze was presently tearing through the tunnels towards us.

All we could do was keep fleeing, but there was no way we could outrun the rapidly approaching sludge forever.

“Fox Trot, please tell me you have the journal?” I asked, and sighed wearily. Despite the overpowering dread, it was all I could muster.

He didn’t, but Blue Nose did. I took it and urgently flipped forwards. I could see in alternating ink patterns our previous messages, my party’s in blue and the writing from the other side in red.

The last message was in red, and it was scrawled in writing so urgent and swiftly composed it was almost illegible.

“Tear is closing! Crystals are spent. Cannot reopen until fresh crystals are placed. Estimated twenty minutes.”

“Those bastards!” Fox Trot snarled, reading over my shoulder. “How are we supposed to last twenty minutes with that abomination on our asses?!”

The other two ponies instantly exploded in similarly furious, panicked chattering.

“Calm down!” I barked. “Fox Trot, give me all of the spare lantern oil.”

He obeyed, withdrawing several large jugs of the kerosene. I grabbed one, and carried it with me as I trotted back in the direction we had come, the other three ponies nervously following me. It was quite frightening doing so, knowing I was travelling in the direction where the eldritch beast was presently racing from. At a distance of about six hundred feet I stopped and began emptying the entire jug of kerosene directly in front of us. The thin layer of water below became clouded and murky as I poured it, which was exactly what I was hoping to see. I emptied two entire jugs, leaving us with two more.

“Matches!” I commanded. I took one and stepped backwards, doing my best to keep it from falling out of my dodgy magic aura. The walls of the cave seemed too wet to be able to light the match on, but fortunately there was a striker on the box of matches itself.

“Back up, you three,” I said. “Pour a jug of the kerosene, twice at two-hundred feet intervals, and then wait for me. Leave one jug full but use all of the other.”

“Careful you don’t burn yourself, Your Majesty…” Blue Nose warned. I was practically standing in the puddle of kerosene.

“I'm the bloody Princess of the Sun,” I replied with an air of humor, earning a giggle from all three of the terrified ponies.

“Do you know if fire affects it?” Ilsley asked.

“No. For all our sakes, let’s hope it does. Now get moving, you three. Two hundred feet intervals. Use it sparingly. ”

I listened to their hooves sloshing onwards through the cave, locking my eyes straight ahead and lighting my horn. Even the weak spell hurt immensely. I kept the entirety of my attention focused straight ahead, my eyes wide open and my ears straining for the slightest sound.

After a minute, it came. The same terrible hissing sound, as the Smooze tore forwards. I bared my teeth when I saw a chunk of the Royal Guard’s armour still embedded in its midst, already starting to corrode like everything else seemingly had. I remembered the bones in my dream, and wondered if I would see them if I were to retrace my steps back towards where Sky and Solar Flare had made their last stand. In my mind I had no desire to find out.

When it was a dozen feet in front of me, I struck the match and tossed it forwards. I didn’t see the kerosene light as I whipped around, but I certainly felt its heat even as the distance between me and the puddle increased.

A terrible screeching resounded behind me, and I afforded myself a quick backwards glance to see how the Smooze had reacted to the fire. The meaning of the sound quickly became clear, and I realized what it meant as I saw the Smooze began to reform itself out of the pieces that had splattered into the water below.

It had screamed out in pain.

A short distance down the path I caught sight of a small orb of orange light. It was a match, somehow still lit despite the shaking hoof of the pony holding it.

“Ilsley,” I said, panting. “Fire slows it.”

“Nice. Good call, Princess,” she breathed a sigh of relief.

“When you see it, light the kerosene,” I told her. I could still see the kerosene I had lit, but it had diluted with the salt water and wouldn’t last much longer than a few minutes. Even more discouraging was the Smooze, which was passing through the fire now. Either its flesh had built a tolerance to the fire, or the initial heat of the flames had died enough for it to creep through. I remembered how the sudden, unexpected impact from the rifle blast had similarly affected it, and decided it was likely the latter.

The Smooze was advancing on us again, but it was doing so at a slower pace, either injured from the flames or proceeding forth with increased caution. We would have five minutes at best before it reached us. Precious time, but still not enough for the tear to reopen.

I trotted forwards the rest of the distance to the other two guards, who were illuminated by the lantern.

“The fire slows it,” I repeated.

“Where are you going?” Blue Nose asked, as I brushed past them and kept heading down the path.

“Past where we entered. The path continued onwards. If I’m not back when the tear reopens, and the Smooze is right behind you, light the rest of the kerosene and go through, alright? Close the tear once you’re through and I’ll contact you with the journal so you can reopen it.”

“And if the Smooze is behind us before the tear opens?”

“Burn the kerosene and keep running.”

"Need a helping hoof, Princess?" Fox Trot asked, trotting after me. I thanked him, and the two of us both turned and carried onwards at a steady sprint. Soon we came to the opening where the tear had been, but we did not stop, instead keeping our run centered on the path which continued onwards. The path continued on much the same as it did in the other direction, and I didn’t want to leave the others too far behind. Then again, we were likely not going to get another chance to investigate this place, for I doubted our little incursion would go completely unnoticed by something more than the Smooze.

And frankly, I wanted it to be noticed. Two ponies I’d liked had died today and I wanted to meet whatever had taken them from me. Not the Smooze, but whatever beast could possibly find moral justification in creating something so grotesque.

Behind me I saw a sudden flash of light as the second puddle of kerosene was lit. Mentally I calculated the time it would burn, and how long it would take for the Smooze to once again clear the distance. It had taken shy of five minutes for it to reach the first one, and assuming it took the same amount of time we had another ten minutes before we were completely out of time. We were cutting things close, but it seemed like with a bit of luck we might actually make it.

Suddenly, far ahead, I caught a glimpse of light of an odd colour. It was not orange like fire nor was it the black-light colour of the Smooze. It was a neon green that I was quite certain I’d seen before in Dusk Falls.

It took me and Fox Trot about three minutes to finally reach it, but eventually we emerged into a wide opening of glowing crystals. It was easily the brightest area of the caverns, but even it was not without its lurking dark corners. There was no immediate drop off (I took care to check this instead of falling as Sky Blossom had almost) instead this clearing was the same level as the rest of the cavern but much wider. It was covered in glowing crystals that I once again thought were most certainly familiar. I racked my brain for the source, and eventually it came to me. They were the same colour as the phosphorous stones in the cove where Orange Blossom’s son had first gone missing. It had seemed like so long ago since I’d first investigated that cave for clues of what had happened to him, and I never would have guessed the beautifully eerie luminescent crystals would turn up again, much less in a place like this.

I ordered Fox Trot to keep an eye at the path we had come from while I headed into the clearing further. Cautiously, I approached one of the crystals, because I thought I could see something else other than the glowing light. I nearly stumbled back in surprise when I inspected it closer.

Encased in the crystal was a grotesquely decomposed pony.

The last keg of kerosene had lit in that time, but I was too shocked to notice even if it would have been close enough for me to hear. I inched closer to analyze the pony...its eyes were still open, but its pupils looked lifeless. The crystal tinted everything green, even the terrible gashes and abrasions in the poor pony’s fur. Not only did it look severely injured, it looked criminally malnourished. My thoughts were nothing but a mix of fury and fear as I forced myself to keep looking at the pony. My gaze seemed to be eternally drawn to its face, locked forever in a state of pleading fear and desperation, as if it were trying to reach through the barrier of death to beg for me to save it, as if its eyes could—

Suddenly, its pupil shifted.

I let out an audible gasp of surprise, although whether the surprise was of relief or of terror I do not know. I continued staring, wondering if what I had seen was a simple trick of the mind, the light of my horn dancing off it in a particular way that seemed to make it look as though…

No, once again its pupil shifted, and then locked with mine. Focused. And then its eye blinked. Shakily the pony opened its mouth and raised a hoof, but the gesture seemed to be beyond it and took a great deal of effort.

I do not fully know why, but I was filled with an unshakable instinct to speak to it.

“Can you...can you hear me?” I asked. The injuries it had sustained were so severe that I didn’t know what gender this pony was, and I was left swamped on what pronoun to address it by. “You can, can’t you. Don’t worry, I’m here. I’ll get you out…”

Fox Trot must have turned to see what I was talking to, because the sound of his voice nearly caused me to leap up in fright.

"Shit!" he had exclaimed when he saw the deteriorated hoof reaching out, trying to touch me from beyond the crystal. "What in Tartarus..."

"It's a pony," I stated the obvious. Clearly not what he was asking, but the answer he received regardless. "Come help me free it from the crystal. Do you still have the pickaxe?"

"I've got a smaller chiseling kit for excavation," he said, joining me in front of the pony. "It should work better."

"Perfect. Please be careful not to hurt the pony."

Fox Trot nodded zealously and wordlessly set to work with the chiseling kit. The pony blinked several more times at the loud noise of the crystal chipping away, and its eyes became more and more alive with fright as it seemed to be clawing its way into further consciousness.

"Everything is going to be fine," I told it, pressing my hoof to its own which could not make contact through the crystal. A heavy chunk fell and it started in fright. Even with its eyes wide open it seemed as though it could not actually see or hear us too well.

It took a whole of three minutes for the first chunk of crystal to come loose but progress swiftly sped up afterwards. Fox Trot was nothing if not a hard and precise worker, and he made quick work of the rest of the crystal afterwards. Both of us helped lift the pony from the rest of the crystal still clinging onto her with odd persistence. The pony flinched greatly as our hooves made contact with its injured flesh, but it was an unfortunate necessity to keep it from tumbling to the ground and shattering its fragile bones.

"My name is Celestia," I said, as its eyes blinked to adjust to the light no longer tinted green. "And this is Private Fox Trot. He's going to take you home, alright?"

The pony was, impressively, standing on its own, although it was doing so on hooves which were shaking viciously, as if it were about to collapse at any moment. For the first time I noticed a stub of marrow on its forehead, a unicorn horn dissolved nearly into nothingness. The pony was standing, but if we were to get it back to the tear then it would need to walk, too.

"Fox Trot, you need to help this pony walk, understood? Take her back to the tear and go through," I told him. "You need to hurry before the tear closes, so move as fast as you can manage."

"And you, Princess?"

"I'll signal you with the journal so that you can open it again," I replied. I needed to stay a few more minutes to see how many more ponies were encased in these terrible prisons. I would have to send in more guards to free them, but whether or not I would once again accompany them I had not then decided. "Get moving, Private."

He saluted and kicked off his heavy gear, saddlebags, and saber. He was a strong pony, and even with the entirety of the ponies weight resting on him he made quick progress as he disappeared back where we had come.

I turned to the crystals once more when he was gone, inching forwards in fearful anticipation of what I would once again see within the next crystal. It was impossible to tell whether or not the pony we had just saved had been there for a single day or a hundred years with the sad bit of evidence we presently had, but perhaps with another crystallized pony to use as evidence I could know for certain how many needed to be saved if I indeed was going to send more guards in to help them.

As it was now, I had to be leaving soon, even if the desire to investigate the crystals was as overpowering as it was terrifying. I was just about to take a look at another when I was greeted from one of the dark corners of the crystal chamber.

“Just saving the one, Princess?” A voice as familiar as that of a friend addressed me. “Bit cruel to the other ponies here, don’t you say?”

Without having to look, I knew that if I were to inspect the other crystals, what I would see would be quite the same. And in a moment of revelation I knew exactly what these ponies were, why they were here. I bet if I looked at every single crystal I would see Morning Glory’s poor son here, too. The ocean far above us...the blood fog seeping from underneath the waves, it all made an alarming amount of sense. But this time….

“This time,” I said it aloud, needing to hear the words beyond my own muddled brain. “I’m not dreaming.”

“Which means we can finally meet formally,” she said from the darkness.

“You’re a sick monster,” I growled, a blunt, obvious statement, but the only one I could think of through my clouded mind. Truly I was afraid. In my current state, with my horn hanging by a few easily breakable fibers and with thick holes in it, could I truly fight her off long enough to get to safety?

“Guilty, as charged.” she stepped forward into the light cast by the crystal before me. She looked exactly as she had in my dreams, this time with both her wings and horn. She was wearing a barbaric crown with sharp looking spikes that seemed to circle it all around.

“You killed two more ponies today,” I said acidly. “If you think you’re standing on safe ground—”

“If I threw a rock at your horn I could tear it off, Princess Celestia. If you think you’re standing on safe ground I invite you to try your best.”

I said nothing, and across the bridge of silence she approached me further.

“You have two choices, Princess. Fight me here, lose your horn, and become lunch to a mess of sludge, or flee like a coward, with your colourful tail tucked between your legs.”

“What’s your name?” I asked. An unfitting response, and hardly a question that mattered at the moment, but a question I’d wanted the answer to for almost nine months unending.

And, as if it did not matter, she casually told me.

“Hydia. Pleased to meet you formally, Princess Celestia,” she held a hoof, as if I were expected to shake it. I took a single step back and let the name reverberate through my head.

“Hydia…” I said aloud. “Hydia the Witch. I...I read a fairy tale about you to...to my younger sister.”

“Oh, you did? How flattering!”

I twisted my shocked expression into a smug, close-lipped smile.

“You lost,” I recounted, and my smile grew further. I was still terrified, but I truly did find it humorous. “You lost to breezies.”

She did not respond, nor did she break her contempt expression, but I had the impression I had stricken a nerve regardless.

“And you were hideous,” I carried on, nearly chuckling aloud. I felt as mad as Discord and did not seem to care. It had been a long night.“No wonder you take the form of an alicorn. You were a hideous, stout little—”

“Enough!” she snapped. For the first time, I heard anger in her voice. “You think you’re a goddess yourself?”

I had a sharp, witty response, and then I realized she was not talking about appearance, but about power. The last thing I was going to do was flaunt my abilities in order to prove my worth.

“You saw the Smooze, Princess. And you were powerless. You nearly became a pile of bones yourself.”

She wasn’t wrong. I stayed my tongue and let her continue.

“When I release it onto the surface, what exactly are you going to do to stop it? Burn Equestria?”

“You’re from our fairy tales…” I repeated dumbly, choosing to ignore her question since I had no response. “How can that be?”

She shrugged.

“How many of your adventures shall fall into legend and myth when you’re gone? Which by the way, is soon. How much of history can be purged when one attempts to raze the world of life?”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Isn’t it? Tell me, Celestia, what came before Discord? Do you remember?”

Discord had already been in power for a thousand years when Luna and I were born. I had always assumed there had been nothing. Ancient history...if it had existed at all, had been eradicated by time he had fallen. And it would be again, if the Smooze was allowed to carry out Hydia’s murderous ‘raze.’

“But the mirror,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re not from this world, not originally. Did you die in yours?”

“Dying’s complicated when you’ve cast spells on yourself to prevent it from happening.”

“You’re skilled with magic,” I nodded. “A witch. I never knew your species actually existed. You cheated death. But it’s not that easy, is it?”

“I was weak. Defeated twice too many. My power was in shambles, my body broken. I was no more than a disembodied consciousness, but there was a thread...an opening…”

“Sombra’s Mirror,” I nodded again. “That was your ‘opening.’ And you took it. But you still didn’t gain any power. Not the power you have now. You shapeshift, you alter dreams. It’s not magic of your realm, it’s magic of mine.”

Smiling, Hydia used her magic to remove the crown from her head. Her pupils vanished and her eyes flashed red for a moment as she did, but swiftly returned to normal as if it had not happened at all. She floated the crown closer so that I could get a closer look at it, while taking care to actually keep it out of my grasp.

I’d thought it to be a crown of spikes. I’d been wrong. It was a crown circled all around by the severed horns of too many varying creatures. Unicorn. Changeling. Minotaur. And...a blue horn that I’d seen so many times…

Luna’s.

She’d lost it in a vicious battle from a time long passed, not dissimilar to how close I was to losing my own currently. She had been forced to flee, and the horn had never been seen again. Like the wares in the Manehattan Curio Shop I had visited, it was a highly sought after magic relic like the Alicorn Amulet or the Crystal Heart. The power of an alicorn.

Of course, nothing was that simple. Severing a pony from their horn was the magical equivalent of trying to make tea without flames. You could produce a shadow of it, surely, but nothing even resembling the intended product. It took a great deal of research, effort, and dark magic to breathe light into something whose power source had been severed, but once one did…

The fire was lit, and the water would boil.

It explained the dream magic. It explained the shapeshifting. Her magical nature was impossible to trace because it was all of it at once. I’d literally said it to Luna and not realized the implication.

“You’re a being of recycled power,” I said with disgust. “Even the Smooze isn’t powered by yourself. It’s powered by…”

I looked at the ponies trapped in the crystals, being kept alive for such a terrifying purpose. There were hundreds of crystals, hundreds of ponies who had gone missing through the years. Would they all be alive, even the one’s whose ages had perhaps approached the triple digits? Would the crystals keep them alive while sucking away at their power, a sick paradox of an innocent ponies hellish fate?

I crinkled my nose at Hydia and took a step back. The Smooze would surely have made it past the flames now, meaning the tear was surely closed. My mind was already preparing to flee, for if I did not act quickly I would never make it home. Hydia seemed preoccupied with taunting me anyways, and if any moment would have been ideal for me to suddenly turn tail and run it was swiftly slipping. Still, I needed answers and could not think of when else I would be able to get them.

"Why are you doing this? Us ponies have no qualm with you, we would even have forgiven your crimes and helped you if you simply would have approached us. Why would destroying all life be an ideal goal?"

"Ah, Celestia, you have no creativity. And your ideal little utopia, as you see it, sickens me. I'd much prefer to rule over a world as I see fit."

"A world where everything is dead," I said levelly.

"A chance to start again," she matched my tone exactly. "Just like you and Luna did with Discord."

"We salvaged the remains of a world he had nearly destroyed. That's entirely different from wiping it of life so that you can start over as the goddess you pretend you are."

"Your assumption runs on the logic that I am completely alone."

My questioning response was lost to a sudden, terrible screeching sound that resonated through the tunnels, so high-pitched that a splitting headache instantly tore across my skull. I don't fully know how, but I knew that what I was hearing was the Smooze, for the first time making some strange vocal noise. It did not sound like it had emanated from where I had come, instead it sounded as though it was coming from further beyond the crystal room that I had not explored. It hadn't even occurred to me until then that there were several of the cylindrical caverns housing the vile substance. From the grin on Hydia's face, I knew the reason it had screeched, and magic glowing not from her horn but from Luna's on her crown confirmed that she had willingly summoned it.

Our confrontation had been brief, and anticlimactic, considering how long I had been anticipating it. Somewhat guiltily, I considered what I had been expecting; some epic battle, perhaps with the fate of innocent ponies at stake. I don't know if it was because of tradition that I thought of this, but more often than not it truly had been the case. The enemies I had faced were not stupid, and they knew that the best way to gain leverage over me was to put themselves between me and my subjects. Hydia undoubtedly knew this too, but in my present state there would and could be nothing at all resembling a show of power nor battle of wits. I had one option and one option alone, and it was to flee. But I knew that this meeting in the caverns was no true confrontation, nor did it represent either of us at the potential we would both soon be at. I had seen with my own eyes the Smooze, and not even a large amount of it had driven us all back. And she had so much more in wait, soon to be released to devour life on Equestria as I knew it. The worst was quite evidently still to come, and it would not be in these dingy caverns that I faced it.

It had perhaps been the most cowardly thing I’d ever done, but at the moment the fate of my nation mattered more than my personal pride. I turned tail and sprinted back where I had come, whipping the journal open as I ran. It was difficult writing while sprinting, especially by the uneven, flickering light of my horn, but thankfully my request to “openheportalp lease” was understood by whoever was presently staring at the journal. The sprint back felt too long, I couldn’t fly from exhaustion and my horn had started to pulsate in a rhythmic fashion, most of my energy seeming like it was being sucked away simply to keep the infernal thing on my head.

A unicorn's horn is directly linked to the conscious mind. When one casts magic, it requires thought and focus. As such, when the horn is in the process of coming off, the impact on the mind is substantial, if not temporary. The gradual weakening of a horn brings about exhaustion, extreme pain, and eventually loss of consciousness. I was urgently trying to make it out before the latter happened, especially with the Smooze undoubtedly still lurking within the claustrophobic walls of the maze-like cavern.

I somehow made it back to the tear and tore through, back onto the front yard of Pink Sunset, landing in an ungraceful lump with my snout in the mud and snow.

I groggily rose to my feet, every muscle in my body screaming and my horn throbbing viciously. My appearance was met with gasps of horror, and although I could not see myself at the time, if I could have I would have understood why. My sides were covered in thick, deep looking burn marks and abrasions where the Smooze had touched, and besides my horn my regalia was also covered in holes and looked about ready to come undone. My mane, caked with dirt and cemented bits of the Smooze, had fallen away in clumps, again thanks to the seemingly corrosive nature of the substance.

And my horn. Its throbbing was hypnotically painful, seeming to course through every part in my body. My vision made it look like I was underwater, and it was difficult to maintain focus on anything.

“Did everypony make it through?” I asked, although my voice was perhaps difficult to hear as I gasped for breath, my throat feeling like I’d just swallowed a dozen nails. I coughed and repeated it, but looking up I could see the three ponies (and the two who had been keeping the tear open) looking at me with concern from the sidelines.

And standing alone on the porch, I thought I could see my sister, but my vision had already started to swim as the throbbing in my horn became unbearable, like something was trying to use it to rip free from my own mind. I thought of the Smooze that had come in contact with it, wondering with horror if it had somehow managed to seep into my magic flow or perform some other horror my sane mind had not then considered. I managed to stumble into a laying position on the ground as the last of my consciousness faded.

When my eyes next fluttered open, I was greeted not to the harsh sight of the dirt my snout was laying in, but the floral pattern of the wallpaper in my bedroom, illuminated solely by a lone torch far off in the corner, giving the entire room an unpleasantly dim feeling too evocative of the caverns for my liking. Somewhere in the room a nurse was reading a book by the torchlight, but she flung it aside the moment she saw me trying to rise.

“Princess Celestia! Oh thank the stars above!”

“Luna…” I said, smiling wearily. “Where is that damn pony?”

The nurse looked at me expectantly, prompting me to continue further.

“Guess it takes me escaping death just to see her nowadays. Where is she now?”

“Well, Your Majesty...I imagine Princess Luna is in the Everfree Forest.”

I groaned in frustration. A wishful vision of my deliriously fading consciousness. To think Luna had somehow known what had happened was a silly thought.

“How long have I been out?” I asked. My horn still felt sore, but when I felt something gripping onto it I flung a hoof up to it in panic half expecting to find more of the purple sludge. Instead, I simply felt bandages and gauze.

“Almost eight hours, Princess.”

“The Sun?” I asked.

“I suppose Princess Luna rose it.

Regardless, it was night again, a night one day further into the future. One day further in which Hydia had already been more than prepared to unleash her genocidal raze, and by some fortunate twist of logic I did not understand, she had not yet. I pushed the blankets away, and when the nurse attempted to stop me I pushed her away, too, all the while apologizing profusely. The moment I was on my feet, wandering into my living room, I was casting healing magic which coursed, strangely, out of my horn and back into my horn once again. Without the need to flee or cast light or defend my subjects, I instead was able to snap the appendage back into place. It took the duration of twenty minutes, but soon it was no longer a loose tooth, once again the sturdy and proud appendage I’d grown accustomed to.

It was pouring rain again and most of the snow was gone. The weather was as far removed from the picturesque postcard as it could have been. The rain did nothing for my broken mood, so I made my way into the kitchen instead, making breakfast or supper or whatever the hell that meal could have been considered. All I knew for certain was that it would be amongst the last ones I would be eating in Pink Sunset. Perhaps I would visit Dusk Falls again to see how the town had changed, but after what had happened, and what I now knew of what was lying in wait below the ocean waves...

I could certainly pass on that thought.

My next destination was the one I’d been dreading; the bathroom mirror. I fixed my mane the best I could, but I couldn’t grow false hair the way I had fixed the link between my horn and my consciousness. My regalia and crown was lying in a pile in my bedroom, riddled with cracks and holes. My only other option was the much grander mirror-like ceremonial regalia and crown and I slipped it on instead. I had little doubt in my mind that Hydia would be waiting any longer. I had a week’s time at best.

I smiled at the nurse, apologized again for pushing her, and then kindly asked her to leave. Then, I located the journal amongst my fallen regalia, ripping out what I had written about the Smooze and read it over and over again, trying to force into my mind some weakness that did not ask me to burn Equestria in order exploit it.

The words could not lie or give me false evidence, they simply echoed what I already knew, and that was certainly far from comforting.

Author's Note

Hey! Here's some fanart of Hydia by the highly esteemed Cold in Gardez. Thanks a bunch!

Duskfalorizonication (XII)

I cleared my throat and faced the dozens of guards before me, many casting quick, instinctive glances at the now motionless surface of the mirror shard, as if expecting the terrible sludge to come tearing through regardless. Hardly any of them had seen it at all, but word of our adventure had circulated rapidly, and now the nature of the eldritch abomination was quite known by all. Five of the ponies were distanced considerably from the rest, three of them had been by my side in the shadowed reaches of the gloomy caverns snaking their way far below the muddy earth we were standing on, and the other two had remained on the other side of the tear we had made, looking alert and attentive even through the jokingly chastising remarks from the other three for not keeping it open for them to immediately escape through.

Nonetheless, they were all safe now, albeit with a friend less and nopony to report to. Indeed, the Royal Guard was in a state of panic and sorrow after news of Solar Flare’s passing had circulated. I had sent a letter to the stallion’s family telling them of his heroic sacrifice, as well as a depressingly similar one to Sky Blossom’s. They had spared the other four of us from a grisly fate, and I had no mind to let that sacrifice go untold. But it was something I would have to formally deal with in due time, presently I was unable and unwilling to focus on anything but the impending doom looming over Equestria.

The Smooze would be unleashed soon, and the grim predictions we carried of being unable to stop it had been proven accurate several hours prior. Magic had been useless, with the exception of the hasty barriers I had erected which had not injured it but had at least driven it back for several seconds. It’s acidic properties would destroy any blunt weapons we used to fight it (several of its mere tendrils had been enough to destroy a blade in seconds) and the blast from our rifles hadn’t done much more than temporarily slow its approach, and had done nothing to harm it at all. And finally, the only thing that had seemed to inflict pain had been the extreme heat of fire.

We had all been nearly killed by a pathetic amount of the stuff, and I had seen so much more of it within the cylindrical cavern. What had chased us through the tunnels represented a miniscule percentage of it, and yet we had been unable to stop it. It's only weakness required further destruction anyways, rendering it an unwelcome option even if it was our only one.

The Smooze was incredibly swift when it gave chase, nearly indestructible, and worst of all; without a mind with which it could be reasoned with, and without any thought of ever ceasing. I’d faced creatures that were unwilling to reason, perhaps, but never one unable to. At least not one with such potential power. I was expected to wage war against a creature I knew nothing about and had less than a week to prepare for.

“Private Fox Trot,” I addressed. Truly, he was the only pony of the gathered guards I’d needed to speak to directly, but it had been easier to simply have them all arrive. “You were with Captain Solar Flare when you delved into the depths, correct?”

He nodded. There had been a hefty bit of explosives unaccounted for from the chariots when I examined them after I was well enough, and I wished to know to what use they had been put. Primitive and admittedly weak as they had been, I was still greatly curious to see how they had affected the Smooze.

“What happened? What did you see?”

“Well, Your Majesty...the path went down some distance, sometimes at a very steep rate that made it a little difficult to safely work our way down, especially with how slippery and smooth the rocks were. When we finally got to the next opening the Smooze was at least fifty feet below us.”

I bristled a little in frustration. Perhaps the most dangerous and possibly catastrophic solution was to engage it unprovoked in a vulnerable location with no defense, and yet it seemed to be the first thing they had chosen to do.

“And you thought throwing explosives at it was a good idea?”

“Well, Captain Flare did. We were just following his orders.”

I instantly felt sorry for leaping onto an accusatory judgement so swiftly. I was weary and tired, and even my attempt to break up the tension with a grin was most likely met with failure.

“I apologize, Private Fox Trot,” I said. “But you did make an attempt to damage it using explosives?”

“We did,” he confirmed. “Good choice of words with ‘attempt.’”

“I figured." The stallion's gaze fell to his hooves at the firmness of my words.

“And what happened next?” I asked.

“Well, nothing. We were using a highly concentrated mix of black powder, and when we lit it and dropped it, it seemed to be consumed by the creature before it had a chance to ignite,” he recounted. “So we tried shortening our fuse so that it would ignite right before it actually fell...uhh...into the creature.”

“Right,” I waved a hoof. While I was trying my best not to be rude, I didn’t necessarily have the patience for unnecessary details. “And still nothing?”

“Correct,” he said, and sighed as if reliving the ensuing disappointment. “When it exploded, the Smooze seemed to dissipate a tiny bit, but it reformed in seconds, good as new.”

“Damn it,” I muttered. “Then it remains more clear to me now than ever before. I need you to begin evacuating Dusk Falls…”

I hesitated a little, contemplating my orders even as I was giving them.

“...and the rest of Eastern Equestria, too.”

When the Smooze were released, I knew that this would be a temporary solution, and one that would be saving lives but not saving the land that would be destroyed. It would keep working its way inland regardless, growing and multiplying as it did, and in weeks my evacuation order would quickly mean nothing. By time it reached Manehattan, it would be a small sea of death, destroying all in its midst. By that time, nothing would matter anyways, and there truly would be nothing I or anypony else could do.

The evacuation order meant nothing, but it was all I could think to do.

“I’m passing similar orders to every guard force along the Eastern Coast, and by dawn tomorrow I want this town emptied, and every other from here to Baltimare ready to be. Understood?”

There was stunned silence, and so I repeated the one-word question in a sharper tone. Quickly they saluted.

"Secondly...the shard-opening is going to be reconstructed, for there are still ponies trapped within. I need volunteers who are willing to go through with me in order to help them."

Another bout of intense silence followed my words. It would seem that after word of our adventure had passed, every ounce of conviction had fled these ponies instantly. I hadn't necessarily wanted to, but with no other choice I ordered twelve guards at random to prepare themselves and accompany me, while I began feeding magic into the motionless crystals. The tear was opened once more, and I withdrew the ever-useful journals and handed one to the young unicorn Private who had opened the tear last time.

"Larkspur, was it?" I asked, although I gave him no time to answer. "Once again, you get to be the lucky stallion who stays outside. Monitor the journal closely, please, and open it the moment you see from us. Otherwise close it the moment we're all through."

We traveled through the tear once more, emerging in the same section as we had before. With many torches and lanterns now, I could see that the walls of the cavern had been scorched by fire, undoubtedly the flames that had sprung up when the last keg of kerosene had been lit. I led, using a torch to light the way, and soon we were back in the crystal room. Still I took the lead, and quickly found that the entire room was empty, and unchanged from the first time I had been there. I could even see the bits of broken crystal from when Fox Trot and I had broken the first pony out. Fox Trot had actually been one of the few ponies to willingly come along, making him the only pony besides myself to have been in the room before.

I approached crystal after crystal, casting the dancing torchlight at the encased ponies within. By and by they looked the same, decomposed but very much alive. Some were worse than others; the first pony had heavy abrasions but they had looked as though they would heal, but many others had exposed bones in addition to the same acidic injuries. Likewise, many others, whose disapperances I had recalled even in my short stay in Dusk Falls, looked perfectly preserved with little signs of injury. I did not know if perhaps some had died and Hydia had disposed of their bodies—this seemed disturbingly possible—but as it stood every pony in the crystal room was still alive, albeit barely in their comatose state.

"What kind of thing does this to ponies?" I heard a guard mumble disgustedly, not to anypony in particular.

"Time," I replied. "Some of these crystals are ancient. They show signs of being...seventy, eighty years. Perhaps older. They've kept the ponies alive for equally as long—in some sort of stasis, I suppose—to keep seeping their energy, but as you can see it isn't without its side-effects."

"Why are they still alive? Wouldn't their magic run out after awhile?"

"It wouldn't completely," I shook my head. Indeed, I could see his point; the cavern was not that big and there was no logical reason to keep ponies alive who no longer provided any magic whatsoever. But still, any magic was useful magic to a creature of insane greed, and in their present comatose state they would continue providing it until their bodies shut down through the actual release of death. That was the reason for the abrasions; the bodies were essentially tearing themselves apart in an effort to keep providing magic.

I'd seen slavery in Sombra's time, and chaos in Discord's. But this was the first time I had seen such wrathless horror and evil, performed with such particularity and yet without a single shred of acknowledgment towards how revoltingly cruel it was.

In my search of the crystal room, I eventually came upon a pony who I had never once before met, but recognized instantly all the same. I could even still see the young colt's surf-board cutiemark despite the beginnings of the time-inflicted injuries setting in. His young eyes were closed in slumber, but he lacked the heartwarming subtle smile of a young filly or colt in sweet dreams with my sister standing guard. He looked empty, locked forever in his own vacant, unconscious limbo.

"I promised I'd help you," I whispered, lethargically dragging my hoof across the cold surface of the crystal dividing me from this young colt who had suffered so much because of all that I had failed to do. "I'm so sorry."

I brought the young colt to the attention of the other guards, requesting they begin with freeing him. The moment they saw that even a young child had not been spared from such a heartless fate, they worked with greater determination and far richer disgust. Even as the crystal chipped away the young colt remained asleep, although I thought for a fleeting moment I could the ghost of life creeping back into his motionless face. It was difficult to tell by the dancing light of my torch. The guards had brought plenty of warm blankets, but the ground looked terribly cold and damp regardless. Instead, I wrapped him in one of the blankets and shook off one of the heavy saddlebags I was carrying and placed him atop my back instead. A few guards grinned and chuckled at the sight of me overseeing such a serious task with a sleeping colt on my back, but I felt nothing but comfort at their warm smiles. We could not turn back time and stop what Hydia had done, but we certainly did not have to let further despair stand where compassion deserved to.

I knew I could not stay with them during the entirety of the procedure, I still had much to do on the surface and not enough time to do it. Still, assuming they did not wander past the crystal room I could not imagine the Smooze accompanying them, which left Hydia as the only concern. But I had my doubts she regularly stayed in the damp catacombs, and if what she had said of watching us on the boardwalk was indeed correct she was more than likely still on the surface. To be sure, I cast a steady barrier on the entranceway, ordered ponies to keep close watch on both tunnel entrances, gave them explicit instructions to flee if they saw or heard anything, and let them get to work on freeing the ponies. This left it possible for me to leave if I so desired, and not have to worry about any terrible harm befalling them.

They would be many hours working, and they had come prepared as such, but no amount of preparation could assist with the overwhelming fear one would possess while working in a cavern that in some dark depths housed something that had sent their own Princess fleeing. I stayed for almost an hour, overlooking and occasionally assisting, but I could not stay for too long with so much to be done above-ground. After awhile, I wrote for Larkspur to open the tear, left the journal with one of the guards, and cantered down the tunnels back to where the exit was already opened, promising refuge from the damp and unpleasant darkness. I did all this still with Dune Shores sleeping comfortably in a bundle of blankets on my back, managing to garner a few more surprised chuckles and smiles when I emerged back onto the surface.

I trotted back into Pink Sunset and into my bedroom. Once there, I peeled away the slightly damp blankets and gently floated Dune onto the soft bed, quickly replacing the itchy and uncomfortable militaristic blankets with the plush and warm ones of my own. It wasn't as though I would be using the bed myself anyways, and with his mother still missing I could think of little else to do for the time being. My mind had wandered towards Indigo Posy for a moment, she certainly would have been more than happy to accommodate him until Dusk Falls was evacuated, but she had already been a target once before. It was a troubling fact that somepony would be more than willing to kill the young colt simply to further enrage me. The safest place he could be was Pink Sunset.

Under the warm, soft blankets he was now sleeping not in the unnaturally still fashion he had been before, but now with a grin only the most beautiful of otherworldly sights could bring about. I closed my blinds to the streaking rain, extinguished the torch as I left the room, and turned back to the more somber matters at hand.

Every several hours, the tear would again be opened, and several of the same terribly damaged ponies were helped through, back into the beautiful cool night air so different from the claustrophobic world their mind had exclusively known for so long. The moment I was back in my living room, I turned to watch them on the lawn of Pink Sunset with a quill and parchment in my grasp. I had already written up and sent the other evacuation reports to every settlement on the map, and promptly received responses indicating they understood, and so the letter I was composing was not to any of them but instead to my sister.

Dear Luna,

The fact that even now you’re ignoring me is interesting. I’m having difficulty believing how childish you are acting in the fact of such a great threat to Equestria.

I don’t care what you said before. Listen to what I’m saying now. I need your help. The Smooze is soon going to be unleashed into Equestria, and we have very little time. I asked you to be ready to be in Dusk Falls as swiftly as you can manage and that request still remains strong. I will release one of our wartime beacons into the sky, and when you see it get to Dusk Falls as fast as you can manage.

The Smooze is every bit what we feared it would be. I’m attaching a written observation from the journal I brought, but I will confirm here that my magic did nothing, nor did explosives or blunt combat. Its innermost flesh is incredibly acidic, and contact with it results in massive injuries almost instantaneously. It killed two of my Royal Guards. I did however meet the witch of ancient lore, Hydia, in the flesh instead of in my dreams. She claims herself some eldritch demon but it seems to me that she has escaped judgement in her realm by fleeing into ours. Her power has been difficult to ascertain because it is a muddled array of every kind, salvaged from creatures she has slain. Remember Queen Elytra of the Changeling Empire? Or the horn you lost? I now know what became of both of them. It is difficult to say how powerful Hydia is, because I was unable to engage her in combat because of injuries sustained by the Smooze. She briefly mentioned there being 'others,' but I had no time to get additional information. It is heavily probable she was bluffing, although so far everything she has confessed to me has been true.

Now, I can do no more than wait for the Smooze to be released, because nothing seems to be able to stop it. Hydia seems to have been waiting for it to be at its strongest and most plentiful, but now that I know of her plans I don’t imagine she shall be waiting anymore. I shudder to think what further levels of horror the creature could have achieved had we not interrupted.

In the meantime, I am evacuating the Crimson Coast and I need you to be ready to assist me here in Dusk Falls, even if it is a battle stacked against us. Come as soon as you see my signal and waste no time getting here. Bring the Elements of Harmony when you do. I dearly hope we can wield them together a second time.

— Celestia

Knowing I was dealing with a witch lurking over the town, certainly adept in magic as the unicorns of Sombra’s army had been, and able to detect messages sent using dragon-fire, I longed more than ever for Luna’s two way journals. I felt almost indignant and angry as I pondered this; how selfish she had been simply to make a statement.

To be safe, I wrote the letter out twice, ripped the documentation of the Smooze from the second journal, and sent one copy of both the letter and the page with dragon-fire. Then, I asked the fastest pegasus guard in Dusk Falls to deliver the same page and letter to Luna in person. It would take many hours of non-stop flight to get to the Everfree Castle, but at least I had a guarantee that Luna would eventually get my letter.

There was no immediate reply from her, and if she had gotten my letter I knew I would have received one, and I decided I would likely have to wait for the pegasus to arrive in order to get a response. I could have cast a long-distance teleportation spell and spoken with Luna directly, but leaving Dusk Falls for any period of time was an unwelcome thought. I regretfully realized that whatever had happened to my first dragon-fire letter had most likely also happened to the ones from the Royal Guard, and Luna quite honestly would not have known about my excursion at all. I thought of the harsh, accusing words I had used in my letter and instantly wished I could have a chance to rewrite it.

All this had been done before dawn, not that when it eventually did break there was any interruption in the darkness. The stormy sky rumbled and continued to rain in a furious torrent, still persisting many hours after I had first risen and repaired my horn, which had been sometime before midnight. The guards had gathered quickly upon my request, and I had high-hopes Luna would know of what was transpiring before I even rose the sun, even with the extra hours it would take for the spry little pegasus guard to deliver it.

With little ease to be done but wait, I shifted the full focus of my thoughts towards thinking of a way of stopping the Smooze with as little collateral damage as possible. Fire became my go-to solution, but it was unfortunately the most destructive. I considered a solar flare, a sudden, quick burst of energy from the sun which would instantaneously decimate even the seemingly impenetrable creature. If kerosene fire had made it scream in pain, then the flames of the sun would most certainly be enough to finally put a stop to it once and for all. But, even a small flare I summoned in one location would burn half of Equestria with the sheer force of its heat. It was still the only solution, unless the Elements ended up actually working.

I had little hope that they would. Whether we could even wield them a second time remained to be seen, but even if we could I did not know to what extent they would function. Even if they could affect the mindless Smooze, they were artifacts created by ponies, using pony-magic, which I already knew was worthless against it.

So I had largely ruled out the Elements of Harmony as an option, leaving me with no other choice but to try burning it with the flames of the sun itself. It would work, but it would destroy too much to be considered a viable solution. An extension of this plan had to be formulated that would allow the flare to be centralized towards one small area; perhaps just Dusk Falls. I would lose the town and the earth below would be razed of all life for centuries to come, but it seemed better than the entire globe facing quite the same fate.

I recalled the barriers we had cast, which had actually managed to keep it back. I could perhaps form one strong enough to last several minutes, and large enough to encapsulate the whole town. In fact, I knew I could, but it came with one terrible side-effect.

I would have to be within the doomed town in order to keep it alight.

Like a fish in a bowl, or a firefly in a jar, I would be trapped within. But so would the Smooze, and when the flare struck it would destroy everything within the fishbowl, but hardly anything beyond. I could evacuate the town, remain within, and when Hydia released the Smooze I could teleport a tiny portion of the sun’s heat towards Dusk Falls. Because of the great distance it would take even for magic to reach the sun, it would take several minutes, enough time for me to cast the barrier around the town and encapsulate myself, Hydia, and the infernal Smooze within. Assuming I survived the Smooze long enough for the flare to strike, everything within would be destroyed, with little collateral damage towards the rest of Equestria.

It was the best solution I had. And certainly not one I would be sharing with Luna until she herself asked. She would by no means approve, even if it remained the only solution we had. Perhaps with a shield strong enough I could survive the flare anyways, although the damage our relationship would sustain if I did was in many ways equally as daunting.

Shaking my head free of thoughts that could wait for the future, I darted to my bookshelf. I found one which detailed the distance to the sun (helpful for tweaking my long-distance teleportation spell) and another which focused on protection spells and shields so that I could perhaps save myself from the blast.

And then a daunting realization crept over me.

Hydia might attempt the same thing, and save a bit of the Smooze with her magic. If she saved even a bit of it, then it would swiftly multiply as it consumed, making the sacrifice of a whole town useless. She could not be allowed to protect the Smooze the way I would protect myself, and I came to the decision that I needed to either get her on the other side of the barrier before I cast it, or else stop her from casting it altogether. The former was a preferable solution, but after what I’d seen of the thing she had created and the innocent ponies she was torturing, to say nothing of the ones she had already killed, the limits of my mercy were pushed to lengths disturbingly evocative of the battle against King Sombra. Luna and I had, quite bluntly, swept down and killed the unicorn while he tried and failed to conjure up a defense.

There was no heroism in what we did that night, nor would there be any in what I would be doing. There was only a necessary task to be carried out. Desperately, and for the sake of every living thing in Equestria, I hoped I would succeed.

I did indeed get a reply from Luna without having to wait too long, although I did not receive it in the form of a letter. Instead, I received it when I decided to afford myself a brief nap after several of my guards vocally told me I looked as though I could use it. Regretfully, I agreed, telling them to wake me if there was so much as a peep of concern. Of course, even an hour later my bed was still in use, and so I had to settle on the mats before my fireplace instead.

In my dreams Luna arrived, a much faster and more efficient means of communication than the flaws the dragon-fire evidently brought about.

My dreaming mind had placed me back in my bedroom in the Everfree, the one I had left behind nine months prior. It was untouched, but then again it was not actually my bedroom to begin with. I was presented with the sensation of bursting into wakefulness, when in actuality I was simply falling into her organized dream. The moment I was acquainted with my surroundings Luna burst in without a pinprick of subtlety, the door exploding open and nearly flying off its hinges.

"Celestia, oh my goodness..." she gasped when she saw me. "What happened to you? You look like you dragged yourself through Tartarus!"

"Hello to you too, sis," I said with weak sarcasm, stumbling out of my long-vacated bed and onto my hooves. "Didn't you get my letter? Or the ones the Royal Guard sent?"

"No," she replied with a sad nod of her head. "I don't know what happened. I received nothing from them. I told you I don't trust dragon-fire."

"Well, you gave me no other choice."

"No," she said again, this time looking at her hooves in shame. "I suppose that is my fault."

"It's all fine now, Luna. So you know?"

"I read your letter," she withdrew it as proof, although it looked slightly imperfect perhaps because it was merely her mind's memory of it. "So, the Elements of Harmony, huh?"

"Do you think they..."

"No, I don't believe they will. Not against that beast," she said somberly, although she was quick to shift into filly-like curiosity. "What did it look like, Celly? Did it look like in the books?"

"Worst. Multiple layers of teeth, acidic flesh, tentacles of every size."

"And Hydia? You actually met her?!"

"Still in her alicorn form, but yes. I'm more worried about the Smooze than her."

"Indeed. What are we to do?"

I hadn't necessarily been looking forward to it, and so it was with minor dread that I told Luna of my plan. She looked on nonspeaking as I explained, occasionally asking a simple question regarding the magic I had yet to research more fully, or else offering some suggestion. When I reached the solar flare, she finally interjected with something beyond a question.

"Its weakness just had to be fire," she said under her breath. Perhaps it was the construct of the dreamscape, or simply her inability to be subtle, but I heard her clearly. "Celestia, I don't like this plan and I doubt you do to, but...I don't quite know what else to do myself. We could try the Elements, and I believe we should, but I don't think they have any chance of working."

"It's been how long since we've used them?" I asked. "A thousand years?"

"Seems like much longer. I never did like using these things. And I don't think they ever liked me."

I voicelessly agreed with a small nod. Using the Elements of Harmony was not a comforting feeling, if our one and only other use of them had been any indication. I'd been quite certain they would not work at all, and I was instead a fool to have placed our lives in some ancient stones, but by some cruel humor the unpleasant feeling of failure they brought with them was actually a prelude to success. They had an oddly sentient aura about them, and I remember getting the impression that I was only being lent their power regretfully, as if had they voice, they would be giving us an antagonizing sigh.

"But more importantly..." Luna cut into my nostalgic thoughts. For a beautiful moment, I thought my plan was actually going to be met with no resistance from her. "We need to be within the barrier for the shield to work, right?"

"I need to be, Luna. We'll receive the same result if you don't put yourself in danger."

"Don't be foolish, sister."

"Luna...if something...terrible happens to both of us...the sun and moon would..."

I trailed off. Luna tilted her head, and looked on expectantly.

"If we both fail to survive the flare...all our work to save Equestria would be for nothing if nopony is left to raise the sun and moon," I explained. "I'm not saying that it will happen...but it's a possibility that we don't need to present."

"...I don't want to let you do this, Celestia," Luna shook her head. "So don't. I approve of your plan, but I wish to help you after you've cast the magic barrier. So please wait until I'm there in order to do so. I'll set out as soon as I awake."

I knew that, despite my insistence otherwise, Luna would not be swayed from her intentions even if she had to go behind my back in order to accomplish them. Eventually, I had no other choice but to sigh and tell her that I would.

"Just...please stay out of sight in Pink Sunset until the time comes. If Dusk Falls' cult sees both of us here, I'm sure they'll release the Smooze instantly," I said. "We'll evacuate the town and then finish this once and for all. Together."

"Fine," Luna sighed. "What about the...ah...others? You mentioned Hydia claimed she was not alone?"

"I don't know what she meant," I said, looking to my hooves. "What do you know of Sombra's third—"

"Sombra's Third Mirror?!" Luna exclaimed. In her excitement, she accidentally knocked over a bottle of perfume balanced atop a rococo vanity. "It's real?"

"Ah, so you're acquainted," I said. It was troubling to know further how much more prepared I could have been if Luna was not only now reinserting herself into the affairs of Dusk Falls. "Yes, Sombra's Mirror. I used it to find where Hydia has been...ah, birthing the Smooze."

"Using a small portion, I presume," Luna nodded her head vigorously. "Naturally it would reroute to the last place it had been used to access if it hadn't enough magical energy to do otherwise."

I stared at her blankly. With a roll of her eyes, she elaborated.

"Smaller shards, naturally, possess less power. The Mirror itself can be twisted as a means of simple teleportation both within our realm and beyond. The small shard you have could teleport a pony anywhere in Equestria easily. A larger shard can open a gateway to...anything, really. Any place, perhaps even any time."

"Hydia's 'others,'" I breathed.

"Remember our talk about fairy tale horrors being more than fairy tale horrors?" Luna recalled. "The Boogey Mare is consistent, Celly. And now we know why."

"Okay. So the Smooze is perhaps a...Plan A?"

"Perhaps," Luna echoed. Even the mere presence of the possibility was enough for us to both be concerned. "Celly, we need to find that Mirror. And then we need to destroy it."

"We would have to damn near tear Dusk Falls apart just to do so," I somberly said. To my surprise, Luna looked up from her sad gaze at her hooves with what, oddly, looked like a smile indicating some wild idea.

"Perhaps somepony else will do the honors," she grinned devilishly. "If we proceed with your plan, then once Dusk Falls is torn apart three things will remain; me, my ever-so-reliant sister, and the Mirror."

While I wished to merely nod and grin at her innocent gibe, the rest of her sentence carried no reassurance that allowed me to do so.

"If the fires of the sun itself will not destroy the Mirror, then how can we hope to?"

"Like this," Luna picked up a chair and promptly hurled it at one of my bedroom's expensive crystal mirrors. It shattered, and just before I yelled at Luna I realized this was not my bedroom at all and really Luna had simply destroyed my mind's vision of it.

"At the end of the day, it's a mirror, Celestia," she said. "Once we peel away all the enchantments protecting it, we destroy it, and then destroy the pieces, and then scatter them into the deepest depths of the sea."

"Whatever you say." I looked down at the shattered bits of my vanity mirror, wondering if it would seriously be that easy. "I hope you're right about this, Luna."

Luna shrugged. "Statistically, I have been."

"Oh, quiet you." I joked. She didn't laugh and neither did I, and we both fell silent for several seconds, until I broke the silence once again.

"I've missed you these past few months, Luna."

"I'm sorry I...stopped writing you," her gaze fell. "I've been a terrible sister."

"You're not terrible," I replied. "We're just both not very good. Between the both of us, it equates to terrible."

She let out a quick laugh, although it sounded more like a snort, and deliberately distracted herself by picking up the broken mirror shards in her magic and dissolving them from the dream entirely. Then, she looked back up at me, no joy nor urgency in her gaze, but instead a pleading expression.

"You will wait for me before you erect the barrier?"

"I will." I nodded.

"Do you promise?" Luna asked, prodding another bottle of perfume on my vanity. It was a childish thing to say and she knew it, but somehow the power of the words between troubled sisters carried through beyond any other conflict.

"I promise, Luna. We'll do this together."

iii

When I awoke, the first thing I was aware of was the sound of movement in the direction of my bedroom. Knowing very well who it was, I stumbled to my hooves in an instant, flinging my blanket about, where it would have landed in my fireplace if my magic had not flared and thrown it in another direction. I nearly had the urge to gallop into the bedroom, but instead I pushed the door open gently and lit a candle with my magic.

Dune Shores was looking at the gradually opening door with wide eyes, looking absolutely terrified, but the moment I pushed the door open further to reveal who I was his fear turned to amazement and confusion.

"Hello!" I greeted with a welcoming tone and warm smile. "You're finally awake! How are you feeling, Dune?"

"Princess Celestia!" he gasped.

"The one and only," I said, and gave a playful, exaggerated bow. The young colt giggled at my lively theatrics and sat up straight, rubbing the last bit of sleep from his eyes and grinning wearily. "Do you want anything, Dune Shores? Water, food, something to read?"

"You know my name?" his eyes lit up in amazement, the rest of my sentences vanishing in his surprise.

"Yes, I do," I said. I knew better than to mention how Morning Glory had told me so much about him and why, especially when I was in no position to guarantee her safety. She was most likely in the crystal room, being freed by the guards, but I did not know for sure. Besides, the young colt had no further questions about how I knew his name, he just seemed contented at the mere idea.

That was not to say that he was not alight with a dozen questions which he wasted no further time barraging me with.

"Was I the real Princess Celestia? Did I actually raise the sun every day? Had I actually moved to Dusk Falls like everypony had said?"

I chuckled, and with a subtle raise of my hoof he fell quiet and watched me with silent intrigue.

"Dune, I've asked you twice now..." I spoke, kindly and firmly, indicating that despite my good spirits I still wished for answers. "Are you quite alright? I do not know how much you remember, but you have endured a great deal."

"I'm...a little hungry," he confessed. "And my wings hurt a bit."

I'd been suspecting as much. The crystal would have been slowly eating away at his pegasus magic, but it would seem it had been done in small increments, undoubtedly due to a longer goal being intended. The thought of this poor colts life being virtually stolen away from him caused me to visibly grimace in disgust, and unfortunately he too saw it. I cleared my throat and promptly turned to leave. I still had no food in my cupboards, and so I instead trotted outside to find a guard who was not busy to relay my instructions.

When I returned, Dune Shores had already risen from bed and was standing on the cold hardwood floor, inspecting the various affairs I had decorated my room with. He looked rather surprised by how ordinary it all was, whatever grandiose visions his curious young mind had conjured of the home Equestria's diarch, it appeared as though those visions had been subverted. He guiltily whipped around when I entered once more, eyes wide in shock as if I had caught him in the act of stealing from a candy store.

"I've sent for some food, it should be here soon." I assured him. My calm demeanor broke his fear immediately and his tensed stance relaxed. "I'm going to be honest with you, Dune, because I believe you deserve it after all you've been through. Once you've finished eating, I think its best that you go with one of my guards to Canterville. Dusk Falls simply isn't a safe place anymore."

There was a small convey heading out before dawn broke, and my best chance to get him to safety was with them. When his food arrived (hay-fries and a milkshake, which I nearly scolded the guard for) I sent him off in one of the large chariots with my warmest smile and plenty of blankets for the cold ride back.

The convey would later arrive at a point far from Dusk Falls with no notable events and with every single pony accounted for.

Once more, I twisted my relaxed thoughts to pressing matters once I no longer had any thing to distract me from doing so. My hasty research into barrier magic revealed that the best way to keep a long-lasting one active would be to use the same type of crystals that we had used to power the tear. Their strong magical properties made them ideal objects for the practice, and it was by no freak of nature that King Sombra had been obsessed with them. The basic principle was that the town was to be surrounded by several of the crystals, and they would then act as a node of sorts to allow my magic to be situated perfectly across the circumference of the shield. They would keep the magic contained so that I did not need to keep casting it after the initial charge, but I would still have to be in the center of them for the spell to work, meaning I still had to find some other way to survive the solar flare. Swiftly, I ordered the crystals to be erected, taking care to note the urgency that the guards could not be seen placing them. I could not risk Hydia nor any of the cultists seeing what I was planning.

The main and obvious downside was that with the crystals in one concrete place, I would have no way of altering the size and placement of the barrier, and so I had to place great focus in where they were placed. I decided the barrier encapsulating a large portion of the ocean would be the priority, with also enough of the town to allow the Smooze to flow inland. Roughly, the magic barrier would cover a total of sixty square kilometers. With the guards set on their task, all there was left to do was wait.

I truly think Luna had done something to shift the normal cycle of day and night when she rose and lowered my sun, because that night seemed to last for an absurdly long length of time. Eventually I grew tired of simply waiting for things to be done, and I decided there was one more question I would like to have answered before Dusk Falls was reduced to ash. I took off into the early morning darkness, first in the direction of Indigo’s small bungalow but with another direction in mind.

“Princess Celestia...” she murmured, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Suddenly, as if her freshly awakened mind had just stumbled on another thought, she perked up. “Ah! Princess! What happened to you?”

It took me a moment to realize she was speaking about my damaged mane and imperfect horn already starting to heal. The abrasions on my side had healed with speed only alicorn flesh could have achieved, but the other signs of injury were indeed still looming if only as daunting shadows of their former selves.

I had ordered the perimeter of Pink Sunset and by extension the mirror shard to be kept clear of all ponies who were not part of the Royal Guard. I’d completely forgotten Indigo no longer qualified as such.

“I met the Smooze,” I said. “It didn’t go well.”

“No kidding. Are you alright?”

“Fine now, thank you. Would you like to go for a walk with me?” I asked, and gave an enigmatic smile. “To the Mayor’s house?”

“I know that look,” Indigo said, grinning. “Of course I do, I wouldn’t miss it for all the cheese in Prance.”

“Do you still have your armour?” I next asked.

“Yeah. It’s a felony for me to wear it in public now though—”

“The Captain who fired you is dead, Indigo. Until another is appointed, my word is final. And I’m telling you to go put it on, understood?”

She swiftly nodded when she saw that I was not looking to be questioned, and backed into her bungalow to put it on. I detailed what had happened to us as we walked. She listened intently, not asking any questions and keeping her reactions hidden well. In nine months, the sweet, sensitive little pegasus was as stoic as any other guard, but the only difference was she had no reason to be anymore. I realized for the first time how much guilt she was carrying about what had happened to Deepsy and Morning Glory, and it dawned on me how little I had done to help over the months since it had happened.

When I had finished recounting the tale of our excursion, her response was a reflection of the somberness I myself felt.

“So, what are we going to do?”

“I’m going to evacuate the town. Then, I’m going to seal it off and hopefully burn it all with a solar flare.”

If she had been versed enough in magic to know that it wasn’t as easy as I made it sound, she did not say anything regarding it. Instead, she asked a much more daunting question.

“And if that doesn’t work?”

I didn’t respond, although my silence spoke what words had no need to.

Before we trotted up the steps towards Kleos’ mansion, I addressed Indigo once again in a grave tone of voice, bending down slightly so that I could meet her eyes exactly.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen in there, but I think it would be best if you remained out here.”

She blinked, most likely wondering why I had brought her if I’d intended to go alone, but any objections she’d had were not expressed.

“Okay,” she shrugged. “Good luck, Princess Celestia.”

I made my way up the small number of steps in one stride and knocked on the large door without hesitation. I’d imagined most ponies would probably have been still asleep, and so it was with mild surprise to me that he answered the door after less than a minute. He looked drowsy, but greeted me respectfully with a bow anyways.

“Your Majesty! H...hello!” he said, undoubtedly wondering why in the name of sanity I was bothering him so early in the morning but being too afraid to say so.

“Good morning, Mayor. I apologize for waking you,” As determined as I was for answers, I was not above common courtesy. “I simply want to ask you something.”

He nodded eagerly.

“And I wish for answers. Honest ones,” I dropped my smile and fueled my glare with the anger that I still carried since I had awoken from the excursion. “Not the lies you’ve been spewing to this town, to my sister, and to myself.”

Not surprisingly, he feigned surprise, which I was quick to vocally denounce.

“Please, don’t play stupid,” I said. “Now, if we can proceed...you’ve been Mayor this town for how many years?”

“Th...thirteen…” he said. I carefully noted the uncertainty in his voice, as if it were a question he had been called out on for answering incorrectly sometime in the past.

“And over those years, you’ve noticed nothing in the vein of cultists and conspiracies?” I asked acidly. Before he even had the chance to answer, I made a response to the statement I knew he would have made. “And think very carefully about your response, because I’ve had a trying week and I’m not willing to contend with your lies, understood, Sombra?”

He blinked in complete bewilderment.

“W...what did you just call me?”

I hadn’t even intended to say it. It had simply slipped off my tongue and into my frustrated speech, even if it was something I most certainly would never have said aloud.

“More and more like Luna,” my thoughts echoed, a patronizing and taunting chant. I guiltily drove it back, feeling sickened that I considered being like Luna to be an insult. I truly didn’t, but her quick, presumptuous thoughts and volatile anger were indeed something that was not to be desired.

“Perhaps you should come in,” Kleos eventually said, opening the door wide.

Several minutes of strange silence too foreboding to be called awkward passed, and soon I was sitting directly across the wide table from Kleos, who was in the process of waging war with the cork on a bottle of wine. I sat in silence, simply watching as he struggled to remove it. I very well could have helped, but instead I took pleasure in watching with an expressionless glare.

The cork popped off, and Kleos lifted the bottle into the air with his magic triumphantly, before grinning and taking a swig directly from it. I blinked in surprise, noticing for the first time that he’d brought out a wine glass for himself but not one for me. It was as if during the short distance it had taken to reach his porch he had twisted into a completely exaggerated, twisted parody of his former self.

Even sitting across the table from a potential cultist leader, I’d expected the laws of courtesy and etiquette to reign. Were I alone at Pink Sunset, I would have allowed myself a chuckle at my own foolishness.

Kleos had downed a quarter of the bottle of wine before he had even set it down. I didn’t know whether to feel disgusted or impressed. Instead, I narrowed my eyes and said nothing. The bottle was slammed down onto the table with a loud thud and Kleos lazily wiped his mouth with a hoof.

“Can I ask you a question, Princess?”

“Yes,” I said in a voice that was a reflection of the stoic and emotionless visage I had assumed upon first meeting him.

“Do you regret coming to Dusk Falls?”

“No. I’m glad I did. Who knows how many more ponies would have died if I hadn’t.”

“Yes, you are so righteous, Celestia. So efficient at doing away with evil.”

“Only my friends call me Celestia. I’d like to be called Princess, if you’d please.”

“Especially by you, you murderous swine,” I was inches away from saying out loud.

“I’ll call you whatever the hell I want,” Kleos took a swig from his wine and grinned. I glared back, expression unchanging.

“If that’s the case, then I suppose you’ll be fine if I call you what you are? That is, a pathetic puppet to an evil you can’t possibly comprehend?” As my confrontational tone intensified, I had a vivid recollection of this same conversation I had interrupted months earlier. Would Luna have proceeded to call him Sombra, as I had?

It would seem she had, at another point I had not thus known about, judging from the next thing Kleos said.

“Oh wow. So you really are as batty as your sister, huh? The pony who thinks I’m a unicorn whose been dead for a hundred years?” Kleos let out a haughty, patronizing laugh, and my lips curled into a frown.

“You’re damn right I do,” I said, cutting his laugh short with words like steel. “You’ve been ruling over Dusk Falls for decades. The Mayor has been the same pony, hasn’t it?”

“Are you listening to yourself, Princess? Have you any idea how silly you sound?”

“You either found the mirror shard yourself, or somepony else did,” I proceeded as if I had not heard him. “And a weak Hydia acquainted herself with the closest pony she could find who possessed any sort of authority. You.”

“Alright, pretending your little fairy-tale theory is right, how exactly could I be the same—”

“Because of Hydia,” I cut in. I wrenched the winebottle away from him with my grasp, daintily wiping the end with a napkin and then pouring some in a wineglass I conjured up in my magic.

“She’s been using the life-force of ponies for the Smooze,” I continued. “I’m sure she could spare a little to keep your sorry self alive a few years longer to carry out her goal. And why wouldn’t you continue helping her if it meant immortality? Sacrifice a few dozen ponies a decade, and live for thirty years more. Meanwhile, she’s leeching the rest of the power until she’s strong enough to start killing minotaurs and unicorns and changelings, and you’re too stupid to realize it.”

This time, he was without a snappy response. In fact, I thought I saw traces of fear masterfully disguised.

“Coupled with the promise of some chunk of her Equestria, you were motivated enough—and were in the perfect position—to create a corrupt little suburban hell. A few tourists a year go missing, your cultist residents sweep it under the rug, and nopony even notices. Meanwhile, a witch with considerable power is constructing something that will bring about universal destruction, and you’re sitting there brooding over your own pathetic selfishness.”

I knew that I’d hit the head of the nail precisely, and yet Kleos responded with another one of his infuriatingly calm smiles. But I’d seen it all before. Sometimes even nobles tried it with me. It can really be surprising how much of an upper hand you can get on somepony simply by annoying them and making them incredibly irritated. Kleos wanted me to despise him, and fury and hatred more often than not only leads to clouded judgement and poor decisions. If what Luna had attempted were any indication, any rash decisions on my part might not have decent repercussions. We were still in the same predicament we were before.

As if reading my thoughts, Kleos echoed my sentiment.

“Well, assuming Iactually was what you say...I’m not, obviously, but assuming so...what is it you are going to do about it?”

“Don’t test my patience. I promise that with you, it has all but vanished. That’s not a safe place to be standing.”

“That’s not an answer, Celestia,” Kleos pursued, his words eerily evocative of the same ones I had uttered earlier. Behind him the hallway was suddenly plunged into darkness as a torch flickered out. The unicorn rose from his chair, downed the remainder of the red wine, and placed the empty bottle on the table with another slam.

“If I can help it, I’ll spare you, and the rest of the poor ponies you’ve duped into helping you. But if it comes to it...I will end you.”

“You’ll end me?” he chortled. “Are you really too prudish to even be able to threaten me properly?!”

For the first time, I was momentarily left without a response. And then, after a pause of only several seconds, I chuckled and also rose to my feet. Kleos met my glare straight on, without so much as flinching. Instead, he grinned again and spoke;

“Yes, I too find threatening ponies is a lot more effective when you’re not sitting on your fat flank—”

His sentence was abruptly cut off as the bottle and wineglass on the table both exploded. I hadn’t even had to flow any extra magic into my horn, it simply happened as my repressed anger bubbled through my narrowing eyes. A bit of red wine had shot up and stained my white coat, but it was the least of my concerns as I advanced towards Kleos.

At first, the unicorn looked amused by my sudden hostile turn, but genuine surprise instantly flooded his expression as I pushed him against the wall with magic and kept him pinned there with my telekinesis. I then shifted it's focus around his throat, not nearly enough to cut off his flow of air, but definitely enough to prove that I indeed was not going to be sitting on my flank and taking his insults and jibes.

“Listen to me very carefully, Kleos. Not only are you in league with a threat to Equestria, and one I aim to eradicate as soon as I can, but you have the blood of my friends on your hooves. You’ve killed ponies that I liked. Innocent ponies, who have done you no harm. So don’t think me being lenient on killing you is any act of cowardice.”

“It’s a blessing,” I said, releasing him from my grip with a careless push. He fell back against a tall cabinet full of expensive looking silverware, and within I heard a few porcelain dishes shift and shatter. “You don’t deserve an inkling of the mercy I’m giving you. Don’t give me any more reason to withhold it.”

I turned around, leaving Kleos lying in a pile of broken glass and porcelain, wine coating the ceiling and floors and white walls. I imagined his maid would have some questions in the morning, and couldn’t wait for the answers he’d have to invent.

"I know it's you." I thought, and then said it aloud without turning around. “I know its you, Kleos."

“Then why haven’t you done anything yet?” Even after my little presentation, his words still came as taunts.

“Because I can't prove it. And because there are still ponies who need my help. You want a bloodbath, and I don’t. Not in this town. Not where you or Hydia can still harm innocent ponies.” I said, still facing the dark hallway instead of the pony I was addressing

“You’re wrong, Celestia. I don’t want a bloodbath. I want power. And authority.”

“Do you honestly think she would have given it to you? Are you that naive?”

“No. I simply think Equestria could do with a bit of change.”

“And that is why you’re absolutely pathetic.” I said, starting down the dark hall.

“You should’ve let your sister kill me,” Kleos called after me. It was a gross exaggeration of what Luna would have done, but I did not necessarily protest.

“Yes. I should have,” I agreed, and left without another word.

Corona Radianza (XIII)

“Indigo!” I barked the moment I was outside. She followed me as I walked off the porch and started towards Main Street.

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Please pen a letter to my sister immediately. Tell her I need her in Dusk Falls as soon as possible, and that she is to come prepared for battle.” I ordered. Like I’d done with the wineglass, I created a piece of parchment and an ink-spotted quill out of magic alone, and levitated them both to Indigo.

“What happened in there? I heard some shouting and things break. Was there a fight or something?” she asked, furiously scrawling onto the parchment.

“No, we both made it pretty clear we know of each other’s intentions.”

“So then…”

“Kleos is a pathetic pawn,” I said. “He found the mirror shard, and like a genie from a lamp, Hydia emerged. She lulled him into helping her by keeping him alive using dark magic, and promised him rulership. She dangled it in front of him like a carrot, and he was too stupid to realize he was as disposable to her as everypony else. She used him to build up a cult to allow her to come to power and construct the Smooze for her little genocide.”

“Right. Makes sense. What are going to do about him?”

"I...can't exactly prove what I just told you," I said. "But frankly I don't care. Pretty soon this whole town will be ash anyways. I'll order the Royal Guard to deal with him, because I don't trust my own judgement right now."

Indeed, the chains keeping vengeful thought back had already been broken, and it was already a miracle his behavior had not caused me to actually physically injure him or worse, because in those fleeting moments I disturbed myself with how much I would have loved to inflict harm upon him. A brief flare of effortless magic, without so much as a temporary foray from my calm demeanor, and his maid would have had a bit more than spilled wine and shattered glass to contend with come morning.

I didn't like that thought though. Instead, I would evacuate Dusk Falls, and then I would have him arrested for treason, murder, conspiracy, and whatever else I could manage to get away with. It wasn't as though my word would ever be protested against, and I could hardly wait to pass my unobjectionable judgement. I could rest without an inkling of regret in my mind knowing he would be spending the remainder of his days in some moldy, sunless dungeon cell. He should have died seventy years earlier, anyways, and I had no pity to waste on him.

In the meantime, dealing with the impending doom the Smooze would bring about was markedly more important.

“Whatever Hydia has planned, we don’t have a long time to prepare.” I said somberly.

“We’ve had months to prepare,” Indigo pointed out, signing her name on the letter and passing it to me. In a moment it was cast into thin air with my magic, disappearing in a cloud of smoke to appear at Luna’s desk hundreds of miles away. I physically teleported it, instead of the dragon-fire magic from earlier. A bit more magical effort, but I thought it wise to practice my long-distance teleportation magic anyways.

“Yes, I suppose we have,” I murmured, not paying much attention. Oddly, the night air in Dusk Falls seemed to be warming, as if the Sun were making an early appearance before dawn. It wasn’t, of course—I couldn’t imagine the fury I’d incite in Luna if I were to do such a thing.

“It’s warming up…” Indigo echoed my thoughts out loud.

“So it’s not just me. I think our near future is going to be quite...eventful.”

“I think so too,” she said, “What should we do?”

I didn’t say anything for awhile, staring towards the sparsely populated boardwalk in introspective thought. Even with it’s relative silence, the Ferris Wheel still spun and the band played to nopony in particular.

“I think we should get as many ponies out of Dusk Falls as possible, right now.” I said after a brief moment of contemplation. There could be no waiting for dawn. “They need to be swift, too. I believe my barrier will be coming down before the sun rises.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, following my gaze. “Do you think Hydia is going to try and engage you and the residents herself?”

“I figure she will. No battle is fought without a bit of collateral damage. It’s my duty to make sure innocent ponies aren’t among it.”

Briskly, I unfurled my wings and with a few strong beats, I was airborne and flying over the town. I used my magic to cast a deafening, sourceless blast of sound, which rumbled the earth and came quite close to shattering the windows of the houses and shops below. It would most likely wake everyone below, but the guards already flocking towards their previously discussed and organzied positions would do the same moments later anyways. The auditory blast had been a mere signal for them, one which I had already described and conferred to them.

With half the town in favor of the foe I was evacuating the town to protect, there was no way I could have done it subtly, and so doing it swiftly and efficiently was the next most viable option. Soon, the Main Street of Dusk Falls was populated by frightened looking ponies being herded towards the town's exit, casting nervous glances back towards me hovering high above, many chattering in dread.

“Do not panic, nor hesitate! Proceed from this town without delay!” I said, my narrowed eyes meeting the backwards looking stragglers. What they were fearful of had been a mystery, but when they saw me hovering about with my wings unfurled to their fullest, beating the too-still morning air and looking down upon them, their fear was manifested into compliant respect. Their confused, wayward expressions shifted into respectful terror as they twisted theirselves around, turning tail and fleeing with the rest of the ponies around them.

I landed on the empty boardwalk beside Indigo, who must have sprinted a ways to follow me.

“They did hear you when you said ‘don’t panic,’ right?” Indigo said beside me, crinkling her nose and panting slightly.

“Apparently not,” I said. “Indy, I think it would be a good idea if you went down there and gave them a bit of leadership.”

“M...me?” she gasped. “Leadership? Your Majesty, I don’t know—”

“Celestia, Indigo.” I said. If I truly was at risk of dying soon, I at least wanted to be addressed by my own name from my friends. “Call me Celestia.”

“I hardly think I’m capable—”

“That doesn't matter to me,” I said shortly, my patience even with her drawing thin. “Please just do what I ask.”

“O...okay,” she stuttered, and without any further hesitation took off towards the boardwalk in a sprint.

I took to hovering overhead, observing the flocking of ponies down Main Street and out of Dusk Falls, when far off in the distance, a beam of brilliant, deep blue magic was cast, splitting through the clouds with ease and momentarily parting away the dark recesses of the darkness with its icy blue light. The towering beam rose miles above Equestria, and promptly exploded, casting it’s magnificent light on every shadow in Equestria for a brief moment before vanishing back into darkness. The sound lumbered lazily behind, but when it finally arrived it came as a booming shockwave which rumbled the earth below.

It was Luna’s magical battle cry. The signal whose sole purpose was to inform a foe that Equestria’s alicorns were coming, fearless and brave as we so pretended to be for our subjects. Yet any pony would be terrified in those caverns below the sea, and knowledge of the Smooze and of Hydia provided no recluse from the fear I carried myself. With a strange sense of selfishness, I found myself hoping that Luna—as she churned the night with her wings at a quicker rate upon receiving Indigo's letter—shared in my fearful yet not hopeless anticipation.

I stopped flying, and cast my own magic upwards in response. Like Luna, my yellow beam tore up and up, before exploding like fireworks which coated everything in their light. Windows shattered below me, coupled with both gasps and screams from ponies below. They had seen me cast it, and in the sight they hopefully felt sheltered under my white wings keeping me hovering above the small settlement curving around me, instead of feeling terrified by the unnatural magic I was casting.

Luna was on her way, undoubtedly flying as fast as she could. If she had any sense she would know to use her wings instead of teleport, for every drop of magic energy in our horns was a rich, deep reservoir we dared not waste. From the point where I had seen her towering beacon of magic split the stratosphere (or, at least, where I had seen the ensuing rippling echoes across the night sky emanate from) she was some point several hundred miles from Dusk Falls. She must have set out not long after our conversation in my dreams, when she had assured me she would be.

I overlooked the evacuation of Dusk Falls, which was done in swift and orderly fashion, even with the brief amount of time my guards had been given to prepare. In an hour, the town was already largely empty, and I knew Luna would be arriving soon. There was little else to do but accept her at Pink Sunset when she did.

As I was flying rapidly for home, my wings already aching from days of exertion with so little rest, I felt an odd sensation creep into my horn. It was a feeling comparable to having a large insect crawl across one's back, but this terrible feeling was without a physical source to swat away with moderate irritation. I would have paid it no mind, if it wouldn’t have intensified to a pain like the jaws of a dragon within moments. Before I was able to fully comprehend what was happening, it let out one firm, isolated throb which must have rendered me unconscious, because next I knew, I was lying in a small crater in the middle of the cobblestone Main Street of Dusk Falls.

The sensation in my head was one which many unicorns have dubbed a “magical migraine,” typically a headache of intense proportions brought about my massive magical strain. It was entirely possible for the signals of a pony's magic to cross or distort, either by external interference or internal incoherence.

Multiple ponies who had not yet fled were standing far back with eyes wide with shock, but in a moment their gaze was drawn to something more alarming to the East.

Overhead the Sun rose, slowly and gracefully as if I had been the one controlling it. It became clear to me where the sudden magical migraine had originated from, but this unnatural sight was not greeted by the onlookers with confusion, but instead a collective cheer just as my horn began spilling out a thick green substance somewhere between liquid and fog, pattering against the street while also venting into the air as vapour.

I repressed an audible scream of pain and the urge to throw up, and stumbled to my hooves. Even before my horn's pain had fully ceased I was attempting to reassume control of the Sun, but something that was most certainly not my magic had wrenched it from grasp. The stormy clouds seemed to part by themselves as it rose, but there was no refuge in the sight of the sky beyond. The Sun rose to a noon-day position, but the sky only lightened slightly as it did, not as grey or blue, but instead a filthy blood red that was anything but ordinary. The temperature soared further, rising to a maddening, humid warmth, and as long as whatever was keeping the Sun in place remained, I was powerless to do any more than watch.

Something other than myself had done this. For the first time in centuries, the sun had been moved by somepony other than Luna and myself. Judging from the sky, it was something in the town of Dusk Falls itself.

Unless I chose to waste all my magic trying to retake the Sun, it would remain in Hydia's grasp. But I knew that to try to take it back would be a foolish choice. Better to put a swift end to the thing that had wrenched it from me.

On my hooves, and with the strange pain cast aside, I finally looked to the ponies around me, curiously contemplating why they were still here. I looked at their faces, not bearing expressions befitting ponies that had any measure of good intentions within the mad whirlwind spiral that was their minds. Greater evil was coming, and these ponies before me had helped bring it to power. Many were sneering at me or laughing madly at my expense, in fact I seemed to be surrounded by a minuscule army of ponies looking as insane as the stallion I’d interrogated.

My mind was racing as I struggled for both a rational explanation, as well as a solution. If Hydia had manipulated my sun, it meant her power was greater than I could ever have thought. And moving the Sun was likely a simple demonstration, a show of power to all of Equestria that she saw herself just as fit to be their leader as I myself was, carrying with her the power of a thousand unicorns.

Or, seventy years worth of magic from several hundreds. The end result was hardly dissimilar.

I took off as the cultists advanced, a greater urgency having manifested itself. My head was still throbbing in tandem with my beating wings, and my horn felt once again sore and uncomfortable as it had after the Smooze had seeped through it and into my magic's stream, but I ignored it as best I could as I flew back where I had come, towards the center of the town.

As I split the night as a streak of white, there came a most dreadful screech, resounding at alarming volume with its source unquestionably the dark and still ocean.

An eternal moment of hesitation followed, a pregnant pause in the activities of every living thing in Dusk Falls; my beating wings ceased my forwards flight and instead kept me in place, and the last several dozen terrified residents—the ones not baring their teeth like animals or brandishing homemade weapons into the air—who had been filing down Main Street in a cluster stopped in impressive unison to peer up at the lonely ocean. Even the cultists ceased their insane jeering and chanting.

I willed myself to scream for them all to continue fleeing, but the words did not come as I carried on my stationary flight, staring unblinking directly ahead, knowing precisely what was about to emerge. The waves, previously as motionless as a cloudless, starless winter's night, struck up in a frenzy as though some great leviathan of the depths were surfacing. But I knew there would be no tangible beast clawing it's way from the ocean's unplundered recesses. As a great mist swept from below the furious waves (red like the water and sky, the richest amount of the blood fog that I’d ever seen) there followed a foul smell like a marine beast's carcass left to bleach in the sweltering summer sun, picked at my birds and worms alike. It was the smell of rot and decay.

And then, the Smooze began creeping from the waves and onto the partially frozen sand, clawing its way out with the same spindly tentacles on its bottom. I had been expecting a great amount of the stuff, but I had not been expecting a lake of blackish sludge to emerge from the ocean. A collective scream of horror echoed through every terrified civilian in Dusk Falls as they beheld the unnatural substance emerging from the depths of the sea. Fortunately, their horror was more than enough encouragement for them to begin fleeing from the town, and the evacuation swiftly elevated in intensity.

For the cultists, the sight of the advancing sludge brought forth only immense excitement. Spears were raised into the air, as was a reprise of their joyous cheer. Jeering insults were screamed at the fleeing ponies, but they made no actual move to pursue them. Clearly, as Hydia had said to me, they thought their deaths to be a guarantee anyways, and no amount of fleeing could do more than delay their untimely fates.

I knew that I had to cast the barrier soon, for the Smooze had already started dispersing along the beach as well as advancing inwards. I had shifted my hovering flight downwards, and landed on the boardwalk, placing myself at the foremost proximity to the Smooze. In a blast of magic a portion of the rail was disintegrated, and the magic beam continued flying downwards at the Smooze. It showed absolutely no regard for the ensuing impact.

The radius of my shield could encapsulate the town, but not a whole lot more, and I had no way of shifting it. I desperately looked down from the boardwalk at the Smooze that had broken into two separate sections, one southwards in the ocean, as the other began advancing in the direction of the fleeing ponies. Of course, I could only watch for a short while before the struts connecting it to the beach started to be consumed as the Smooze climbed its way up them and across the elevated distance dividing the town from the ocean below.

The boardwalk instantly began keeling as the Smooze’s acidic flesh tore through the old wood, and entire sections started falling in mere moments of coming in contact with it. I took off into the air just as the first wispy tentacles crept over the railing rendered jagged by my blast, and the grotesque ocean of sludge made its way onwards to fulfill its genocidal conquest.

I didn’t care so much about this portion pursuing the fleeing ponies as I did for the other section that was creeping onwards in the ocean’s stream, where the much more populated city of Manehattan lay several hundred miles south. It was advancing quickly through the water, and soon it would be beyond the range that my shield could reach. If I did not cast it soon, I would miss the chance entirely. But the town was still not empty of fleeing ponies, there were still dozens making their way urgently down the town’s Main Street.

Of course, a significant number of these stragglers had no intention of fleeing the town. Instead, they had been directly involved in bringing about its end in favor of Hydia’s vile plans. They’d been promised great things from their rule, and they did not realize the sludge presently consuming the boardwalk would never give it to them.

There was no correlation between them other than that they were all wielding spears or the occasional flintlock rifle. Some were mares, some stallions, I even saw a griffon in their midst, familiar to me as the one who had sold me my sunhat an eternity ago. They did not look like what one would imagine a quote-unquote cultist to look like, but even I knew (and Luna had asserted once before to me) that this view existed mainly in fiction alone. Everypony has their dark and twisted secrets, and it's not often anypony sees them in the limelight.

These ponies were no different. They were the residents I saw everyday, the ones who bowed when I walked past and gasped in wonderment when I rose the sun. They were the ones who lit effigies at the Summer Sun Celebration and helped keep the town's disappearances out of the public's eye. Amongst these gathered ordinary fools I thought I saw the Mayor himself, dressed strangely well for what he knew was more or less an organized apocalypse, but my eyes strayed on them for only a moment as the hissing of the Smooze suddenly spiked in intensity.

As the heavy wooden planks dissolved into the Smooze’s midst, I noted that even as it consumed them it seemed to not be growing in size as I’d expected, but then I reasoned it most likely needed organic material in order to grow larger. The shops and stands that were crumbling into nothingness and then dissolving into less than ash had no life to keep this creature sustained, but the forests of trees, the animals within, and the ponies…

Between here and the closest settlement, there was nothing but rich forests. If it crept any further from the town, I wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it. Within minutes of first reaching the first forests, it would already be vast and unstoppable.

Behind me, the last few ponies were still fleeing, but I could waste time no longer. Instead I remained hovering in the air, with horn bursting to life with magic intended for teleportation. I had no time to discriminate between the cultists and the ponies actually trying to escape, but my mind's instant rationalization was that it was better to allow them to escape then to allow innocent ponies to die.

But before I could teleport them to safety, a stray beam of magic flew at me. I saw no source, but it struck me all the same and I tumbled downwards in a mad spiral, on barely able to salvage the rest of my flight before striking the cobblestone.

I was already under attack, and I hadn't even erected the barrier.

I landed and instantly cast a shield around myself, my mind quickly processing what needed to be done. If I did not take action swiftly, I would perhaps be too distracted warding Hydia off to do so. I could delay no longer, for this one brief moment of several seconds seemed like all I would have.

To anypony watching from behind, they would have seen a great orb of yellow light surround me, looking like perhaps the greatest show of magic, but really was no more than a heavily modified teleportation spell, no different from the one I had just used to teleport the ponies to safety. I angled my horn at the burning red sun far above, and pictured my destination as best I could. Teleportation magic relies greatly on having a mental visualization of a location, yet despite raising it every day, I could only assume what the Sun looked like. From research I knew that the distance I was teleporting (a far off point of its corona) was something like ninety-three million miles, and I also knew it would be little else but a mass of plasma. My magic leapt this gap instantaneously every day when I rose it, but that was magic far different from the simple teleportation I was casting now. It was not magic a pony could find in a spellbook or be taught in a unicorn's school, but another type I myself seldom understood, not unlike the Elements of Harmony.

A point a million miles from the core of the Sun would be hot enough to incinerate everything in Equestria if it were in contact for a split-second, barrier or not, and as such I had to aim my magic carefully. The distance determined in my mind, I let loose with my magic before my overwrought mind thus clashed with my ability to cast the difficult magic. My horn's glow flew upwards in a beam out clear of the stratosphere and into the far beyond.

Even at the quickest speed alicorn magic could operate, it would take shy of thirty minutes for it to reach. But once it did, the spell would end instantaneously and a tiny cosmic pinprick of the most intense burning heat would be teleported straight into the walls of the magic barrier I would next be casting, and nothing would survive, with the hopeful exception of myself.

The barrier erected, I shifted the flow of my magic, the strain of what I had just done not showing in the slightest as my horn's vibration changed frequency. Like the moon revealing itself through heavy clouds the barrier did not immediately reveal itself, but instead gradually seeped into visibility. It was an immense yellowish dome (technically, it was a sphere which crept below us, too) of ever-shimmering magic with strangely electric qualities. It tore through the beach, parting through the waves, splitting trees and boats in half with unnatural precision, circling the entire town and ending where it had began. With one final burst of brilliant yellow light, the barrier was complete, and the magic in my horn came to rest with an anticlimactic sizzle.

The magic dome sparkled once it was complete, looking beautiful and magnificent, a great ironic contrast considering its role in favor of massive destruction. I breathed a long sigh of relief and exhaustion as the last of my magic died off, and still the dome remained, ensuring that none entered Dusk Falls and that none left. I couldn’t risk the Smooze leaving Dusk Falls, and terrible sacrifices would have to be made. I would miss the town, and I knew I would not be alone.

With its link broken by the barrier, the Sun once again began it’s journey across the sky at a normal pace, instead of remaining suspended at the summit of the red midnight sky. Still, it fell agonizingly slow, and I knew that the rest of Luna’s starry sky would be lost to the bloody heavens for hours to come.

The barrier had split part way down the middle of the main street, which meant a portion of the town was beyond the range of the blast. The majority of the shield’s circumference instead stretched across the ocean waves the Smooze was traveling through.

Fresh shouts tore through the town as what sounded like a dozen raised voices beheld the red sky and the dome keeping them all sealed within the town. I had narrowly trapped the Smooze within, but I had trapped at least a dozen ponies within. They all looked to be quite amazed and not fearful in the slightest, and I decided they must have been the cultists who, having no knowledge of my plan, had made no notion to flee the town and were more than excited to see the supposed goddess they had helped resurrect, as well as the eldritch ocean of death she had created.

A foolish, insane gesture, but I hardly thought it to be deserving of the death they would now be facing as punishment. These troubled and mad souls could perhaps have been helped and healed, but it appeared they had unwillingly rejected their retribution.

I didn't hesitate, and flapped my wings harder until I was flying over the jeering crown. Despite their hostile nature, I landed directly before the tips of their strangely constructed spears.

I saw instantly that I had been right, the Mayor was indeed leading this little group of fools. I would have thought seventy extra years of life would have granted him any more than a child's wisdom, but spoiled, selfish minds don't always change. He was, however, holding in his magic a fairly intricate and sizable looking rifle, that was lacking a conventional flintlock mechanism and instead had a bolt-like-contraption protruding from one of the sides. Truly a weapon designed in secrecy, and likely never used on a living creature before.

I was curious about how he had gotten his hooves on it, but nonetheless I did not hesitate. I looked down the barrel for a fraction of a moment, and then wrenched the thing from his grip. It fired once into the air as I tore it away, and then I twisted it in my magic and snapped the thing with ease.

He had no time to formulate a reaction before my magic was upon him, too. I needed to make an example to these cultists, and he would do nicely.

Whether by my intention or not—my mind seemed to be operating in a sickening trance through those several seconds—his clothing caught fire the moment my magic enveloped him, but with him in my grasp there was little he could do to remove the flaming garments. I looked into his terrified eyes for several seconds, and then flung him forwards with my magic.

The other cultists backed away in shock as he hit the ground, his discarded rifle clattering against the street and the sound of cracking bones ringing out as he hit the stone with no measure of grace. My example was made, and their conviction was instantly dead, although still they attempted to prove to themselves otherwise with scowling expressions and shaking spears.

“I apologize for that.” I said. Kleos started squirming as if to rise, so with another flare of magic more precisely aimed I fractured his spinal cord and continued looking down upon them as the first bits of my mane started simmering with flaming heat. I was perhaps no expressing my anger, but it seemed my magic's sparking intensity was doing that job anyways.

One of the cultist's spears accidentally poked it's way into my flesh as I advanced—the young griffon holding it in shaking talons had been too frightened to notice she was even holding it—and even if the pathetic weapon truly posed me no threat I dissolved the thing into ash with a flare of magic regardless.

The moment I addressed them in blunt and dry fury, the remains of their celebratory discourse sizzled away as swiftly as a torch submersed in water. Their wide, bloodshot eyes stared me down as though I had just screamed to them some juvenile insult, instead of an earnest apology delivered in a soft voice.

“You fools don't deserve an inkling of my sympathy,” I said coldly. “Regardless, you have it. Whatever fate has done to bring you to such low levels of selfish desperation, I can only offer my apologies. I understand that you know damn well what that creature is, and have helped bring it to power. Now, you’ll learn what that power entails. I hope for your sakes you...learn swiftly.””

Beyond these jeering faces and at the ends of pointed spears lay young, half-witted ponies dealt a poor hand by either life or their own inner demons, and their choices were neither blameless nor unforgivable.

I was to grant them no further luxury, and I swiftly turned from them to the ponies beyond the barrier.

The divide between these murderers, and the hoof-full of terrified looking ponies on the other safe side of the barrier was enough to make the most placid creature in the universe shudder with rage of the most intense sort. I swallowed with a little difficulty and a lump in my stomach when I saw them looking desperately back at me. I could not imagine what they were thinking when they saw me encased in the shimmering fishbowl of magic; perhaps confusion or even apprehension. They saw the advancing Smooze, and perhaps somehow knew as well as I did that there was to be no discrimination for the acidic death it would soon be delivering to the poor fools before me. No decent pony finds comfort in that feeling, and the crimes of others rarely have merit enough to drive away the goodness and decency in their hearts.

Cultists or not, the ponies on the side of safety perhaps knew the others within the barrier. Perhaps they were even friends, with no knowledge that they were anything more than innocent ponies. I knew this, and the apology I had provided them had not been a lie.

“I see no reason to lie to any of you,” I said, addressing these poor yet temporarily safe residents more so than the murderous cultists, but allowing my voice to be heard by all. “So instead I will be blunt and honest. The last of the witches, a vile creature who calls herself Hydia, has crept from the ruins of her own dead world into ours, brought to power through dark rituals and parasitic magic of her own. I aim to end her, here and now.”

I had turned while speaking and paced the short ways back to the wall of the barrier. The first pony my eyes locked on was Indigo, who was standing as the only pony who was not either visibly terrified or visibly mad. Perhaps it was because she was also the only pony other than myself who understood exactly what was happening, and had bitterly come to terms with it.

She had presented the somber thought herself. For the sake of these terrified ponies, I would give her an answer.

“The vile substance you see is bent on consuming all in Equestria. In the event that I fail to stop it here, I...can give no more advice, beyond the obvious statement. Flee, and carry faith in my sister to succeed where I have failed. The Smooze will not discriminate between you, and no mercy shall be spent on a single living soul.”

I made no mention of the barrier, nor of the solar flare that would be scorching Dusk Falls of life very soon. The heat would be so intense and instantaneous that they would not even have a chance to feel panic or pain when it arrived. It would have been unnecessarily cruel to deprive them of a painless and fearless death.

I knew that while I had a chance of saving myself with whatever magic I had left, there was simply no way I could do so after also waging war with Hydia or driving back the Smooze, let alone saving the dozens of cultists, but I knew better than to snuff what little hope the poor former-pegasus had left. I had briefly mentioned it to Luna, but I figured our best chance to survive the flare would be to wield the Elements of Harmony as a shield for ourselves. With the barrier in place and dividing her from me, I had to rely on my own dodgy magic to parallel this impossible feat.

With so much of the ocean of sludge advancing towards us, and my magic powerless against it, I had no deliberate target. But suddenly, as if my mind's desperate willingness for something material I could defend from had been rich enough, Hydia swept down in front of the approaching Smooze, landing with a few dainty flaps of the wings that she should not have possessed. She did not deserve to be in the alicorn body she presently was in, and now with my horn healed and the motivation of saving Equestria, I intended to blast her clear out of it.

Atop her head was the same crown she had been wearing in the caves, with it's harsh spikes arching upwards. It reminded me of Sombra's crown in many ways, and I reasoned it was possible she had modeled hers after it. Seeing Luna's horn amongst all these others, some still caked in bits of dried blood and marrow, filled me with inexpressible disgust, and yet this witch was wearing them like trophies.

Luna's horn had been the front-most one and was laced with a swirling bit of enchanted metal keeping it well guarded, but right next to it on both sides were two other interesting ones. The leftmost one was the polished horn of what looked like a changeling Queen, and the horn to the right of Luna's was clearly curved at a sharp angle that told me without a doubt it belonged to a particularly formidable minotaur.

There were other varying creature's horns, and many other unicorn's, but the changeling, minotaur, and alicorn horns were clearly being boasted as superior.

"Hydia," I said, swallowing my disgust and keeping my words still and monotone.

"Really, Celestia. This is your plan? Containing it?" she laughed. "You won't be able to keep this shield open forever, you know. Because you won't be able to avoid your own untimely demise forever."

She was right, of course. Even if it took days, exhaustion would eventually set in, even for an alicorn like myself. And when my wings could no longer carry me on a fleeing course, or my horn could not produce any more defensive magic, the barrier would fall and the Smooze would seep back out into the world. It did not tire, and it would never give up. But it didn't matter, for I did not have to stay alive forever. I only needed to stay alive for about twenty four minutes.

Even the cultists did not quite know what to do in the moment, instead they had backed from me and from Hydia and were instead staring in awe like starstruck school-fillies watching a solar eclipse. It was likely that for the first time they were actually seeing the being they had devoted their lives to bringing to life.

While I stood in front of the cowering ponies, at Hydia's back was the advancing Smooze, and nothing but destruction in its wake. She was a picture that I'd expected to see in painted-glass depictions, standing with an apathetic expression and wings delicately folded, while buildings crumbled and fell and waves of the acidic sludge continued advancing. By comparison, I had my wings unfurled, as if by doing so I could shield myself from the death before me.

I took the first step forwards, and with a heavy multitude of offensive magic already springing to life in my horn, I intended to deliver the first blow, too, but Hydia must have seen it in my face and taken the liberty of doing so herself. And as such, the final battle for Dusk Falls began how so many others had, with a colourful collision of dark magic and bright yellow magic of my own, splashing its light upwards with enough intensity to illuminate the resolute barrier far above.

To the tune of the Hotel’s framework giving way and the building falling in a tall cloud of dust, Hydia and my magic collided in two separate beams, one red, one yellow. It was impossible to tell from her quick assault and my hasty defense who stood stronger, but I deflected her beam with ease and it flew skywards, ricocheting off the ceiling far above and becoming lost in the ocean of Smooze.

I returned her assault with one of my own, a quick volley of a dozen arrow-like bursts of magic. She might have been able to deflect several, but not all, and they struck through her quickly-cast shield. They perhaps damaged her, but if so the wounds healed with efficiency seemingly above that of an ordinary alicorn. I saw red mist flow from the wounds and vanish, and reasoned she was probably drawing from the lifeforce of the trapped ponies encased in the crystals, assuming they had not already fled. Which meant that the further I pushed her, the more they might suffer.

To protect myself from Hydia's assault, I had to indirectly inflict harm on others.

After her injuries swiftly healed, she cast a cruel imitation of the magic I had just used, but I was more than experienced enough to deflect it. She snarled angrily and tried, over and over, with varying beams of magic, each one bouncing harmlessly off the shield I cast and flying upwards to either bounce of the dome above or else fade away entirely. As she continued fruitlessly trying to inflict a single bit of injury against me, it swiftly dawned on me that she was entirely inexperienced with the type of magic she was using.

In the impossible fairy-tales of old, it had been quite the same. She had manipulated ancient evils into helping her, gaining dominance not through action but by forcing or tricking other creatures into assisting her. These “fairytales,” what all had thought to be innocent literature for foals and fillies...truthfully had been the beaten voice of some lost history screaming desperate warnings, warnings which lost volume and composure as they bounced across the immeasurable dark depths of eons of forgotten time. Despite so many ages that seemed to have come and gone, and for all the distance across Sombra's Mirror's infinite worlds, her actions were entirely familiar with what I would have expected had I spared a moment’s time to consider them.

Who else was she prepared to bring forth to aid her, if not the Smooze? Would she have delved into the lands of the depths below, where even I dared not go? The prison of hellish evil where the winds seared the flesh and the air seeped life, magic, and hope from a pony's soul? Or, would she have tried to shatter the Element's grasp on the Spirit of Chaos, expecting a reward as Kleos had so foolishly expected as well?

I could not know, nor did I intend to provide her the chance to teach me. She had chosen the Smooze as her homicidal catalyst, and I would make sure it was her final failure.

More magic clashed like blades and spears of energy arcing through the distance between us and lighting the world with its beautiful, destructive power. Before my bloodshot and unblinking eyes was a plain of flashing light, red and yellow and orange in constant battle for dominance in my frantically disorienting visual spectrum. Shields were cast and promptly shattered, assaulting beams struck or did not.

And every moment, I knew that some poor pony down below was suffering because of it. And I was afraid. If I cast any more than the pretty lights I presently was, and unleashed anything more—striking her a fatal blow—she would proceed to save herself with magic that was not her own. I would have the blood of an innocent pony on my hooves. Time and time again I could best her, and time and time again it would matter little for the sake of progression.

But if I ceased the fight and fled, the ponies before me would perish in a moment.

There could be no victory without innocent sacrifice, save for one option, and by no means a decent one. It was a mad idea that even an ignorant fool would laugh at with scorn and derision.

I ended my magic's flow.

The last bits of Hydia's magic struck my fading shield, and the pain certainly registered, but it wasn't a severe blast and I did not so much as stagger. For a temporary moment, Hydia ceased as I had, not willfully but rather in baffled shock. And then, realizing what I was attempting, she chuckled.

“This again, Celestia?” she said, with a smirk and no indication that she saw me as anything more than a naive fool. “Seriously. Are you going to try once more to reason with me? I thought I made my stance clear. You, and everpony else in your kingdom, is going to die. You're delaying it, because you're worthless and can't do anything else. It's not as though you have a single thing to hold against—”

“I know.” I cut her response off with sharp words and a raised hoof. “I have nothing with which I can use to threaten you, nor words to sway you from your delusions—ah...intentions, of conquest. But come on! You've been waiting for more than a hundred years for this, Hydia! Let's talk.”

She blinked. Then, she looked behind her at the Smooze, some hundred feet before us, and then back at me with the same confused smile.

“Talk.” she repeated bluntly.

“Indeed. Leader to leader. Or, mother to mother.”

More silence. I carried on with a shrug.

“Of course I refer to myself as such solely in the metaphorical sense,” I elaborated, motioning without turning around at to the cowering ponies on the other side of the barrier behind me, no longer bearing a battle-ready snarl upon my face, but rather a smug smile. “But I mean it quite literally when I refer to you.”

“You're wrong!” she spat with sudden hostility, the objection convincing nopony, not even herself. It was a pathetic, hastily defended denial, and there could be no bitterness in her words rich enough to sway my patronizing words and expression. And yet, despite the emotional gash I was rending across her soul, no magic flared, as the seconds carried on. My horn was quite ready to have a shield ready in a moment if it did, but it seemed my request for simple conversation had miraculously been met.

“Hydia. Don't lie to me, please. You proclaimed yourself a creature of our fairytales and legends, and a survivor of death itself, and yet something is missing,” I said placidly. “You weren't alone.”

“What do you think you know—”

“You had two daughters, didn't you?” I cut her off once more, and provided her with no time to answer my question. “What happened to them, Hydia? Did you neglect casting your death-salving dark magic on any but yourself?”

She was too stunned to answer beyond a few stuttering syllables, so I carried on as if she had not spoken in the slightest.

“Selfish in the past, and in your present conquest you are selfish now,” I said, shaking my head in disgust. “And even the death of your only loved ones has failed to show this to you. I wonder if you'll ever realize how pathetic you are.”

“And yourself?” she barked. “How many ponies have you watched croak around you without batting an eye? Do mortal lives mean anything to you?”

“I spared the Mayor, and I haven't inflicted harm on your cultists. I nearly perished several days ago saving my guards from your Smooze, and presently I am mourning the ones who have fallen. And I will face death at the hooves of cowardly foes like you time and time again if it means saving my ponies.”

More silence, and I intensified my smug smile further.

“I'm better than you, Hydia. It's factual.”

The Smooze was quite close to us, and without bothering to turn I knew that Hydia was aware. Furiously, she took off into the air without providing a response, or at least not one uttered to myself.

“What are you fools doing?” she hissed, not to me but instead the bewildered group of twenty or so cultists. For the longest while, they had all been standing about, watching our clashing magic's destructive dance, and their leader try and fail to gain some sort of advantage against me.

“Kill her!” she barked.

Of course, it was clear that they had no emotional desire to do so. Any sense of conviction had perished, and dread had settled where it had been. As the cultists warily advanced, so too did the Smooze behind where she had been, advancing towards us with sudden intensity. No longer was it stopping to consume the town, instead it seemed content to simply flow over it as it bounded quickly towards us with its long tendrils, letting it’s acidic flesh pull the buildings apart gradually. Hydia had taken flight just as it crossed where she had been standing, and now it was just myself and the cultists who seemed too frightened to approach me. Despite the commanding tone she had taken, they had clearly seen their supposed new goddess fail against me, and did not seem confident enough to make an attempt themselves.

The Smooze was close enough to us that it's tentacles began flailing madly, and it begun hissing with newfound conviction. It was as though it were intensely excited by the prospect of prey.

I cast a durable dome-like shield that was more-or-less a miniature version of the one encasing the town. In a moment the Smooze was flinging itself against the walls of the magical barrier, but it stayed resolute. Nonetheless, it was nowhere near as strong as the larger one encasing the town and would collapse in due time. We were quickly flooded into darkness as the Smooze coated every the entirety of the dome, dripping with it's putrid acid like a feral animal, but I lit my horn and turned to the ponies, no longer civilians or cultists but instead simply that. Ponies. Perhaps Hydia had been right, and mortal lives didn't matter that much to me in that moment, and it was perhaps to their benefit considering what they had did.

“You’ve made a mistake,” I said to them, “But I’m not above forgiveness. Stand against me and I’ll end you in an instant.”

I pointed upwards at the Smooze, its mouths with too many teeth gnashing against the surface of the dome, tentacles flailing and spewing acid all about.

“You were told you’d be saved. Does it look as though this promise has been kept?” I sternly asked rhetorically. “For all I’m concerned, you’re all the same to me right now: ponies I must save. Don’t act like anything more, and I will have no reason to refrain from doing so.”

Of course, what I was not telling them was that when this was all over with, they would hardly be getting away with anything. It was likely they would not see much beyond four dungeon walls in the years to follow.

Suddenly, the barrier shattered, but the moment it did my horn once again erupted, this time with teleportation magic. The Smooze was still approaching us, for I had only been able to teleport the great multitude of ponies several dozen feet, but it was still better than a sudden, anticlimactic death.

“Pegasi, fly from it. Unicorns, stay with earth ponies and use shield magic to drive it back. Flee towards…” I hastily pointed in the direction of Pink Sunset, which would most likely be the last place the Smooze would infect. It seemed intent on moving forwards in the direction of Central Equestria, as if it somehow knew that further North down the Crimson Coast there would be no life to consume. “...towards there.”

Instantly, the pegasi took off. The Smooze was already almost upon us again. Quickly I trotted the distance backwards to the electric surface of the barrier. Amongst the peering crowd I picked out Indigo and addressed her, already giving my wings a shake to prepare for flight myself.

"Indy, get the Royal Guard here. As many as they can spare. If anypony beyond myself manages to survive the solar flare it will likely be Hydia, so we must be prepared. You also must start moving ponies from the barrier. Now. I'll see you in twenty three minutes.”

She looked a little confused by my oddly specific time, and then nodded when she realized I was referring to the time it would take for my spell to finish its cycle.

I took off, and instantly brought my flight over the sea of sludge, remnants of slowly decomposing buildings jutting out like wreckage from a destroyed warship. The rapidly fleeing ponies were a pinprick of movement which was the only exception of movement to the rolling waves of sludge. They were fleeing down a narrowly converging path between the approaching Smooze and the wall of the barrier, but the road to Pink Sunset remained unsullied by the purple sludge.

The pegasi I saw were safe, for the time being. The unicorns were using their magic to teleport forwards...but in blatant contradiction to my commands the earth ponies had been left to their lonesome to sprint to safety themselves. Abandoned by their own brethren to a grisly fate, and despite their frantic pace the Smooze seemed undoubtedly the swifter.

I cursed these selfish ponies bitterly, but moreso I cursed myself for being surprised. I had trusted them to obey the orders of the mare they were opposing. What had I suspected would happen?

I clipped my wings to give pursuit and help the four or five earth ponies—and the six or seven unicorns, whose magic seemed to be dimming and every teleportation distance gradually shrinking—but before I could come to their assistance I felt something heavy impact my shield. It shattered like glass in an instant, and multicoloured sparks flew forwards from the impact, burning my white coat.

The source of the sudden impact was not a magic blast, but a stray tendril of the Smooze. Another was quick to follow. I dipped below it, but other tendrils followed in the first's wake, and my flight was forced to become equally as chaotic and sporadic. There were so many surrounding me now that it was like a forest canopy of dark purple, blotting out the red sky and all the odd crepuscular light it had been casting.

I flew madly about, determined to surface but finding it impossible with the Smooze everywhere around, below, and above me. My one moment of distracted flying had allowed it to virtually surround where I had been. Eventually the forest canopy became too great, and I knew I could travel forwards no longer.

I fired a beam downwards, for no other reason beyond the added momentum, and then with a few heavy flaps of my wings flew straight upwards. Before impacting with the wall of sludge I cast another shield, more or less centralized around my horn alone, and one of intense heat. Then, I tore straight through it like I had with the suspended wall of water in front of the lonely beach cove.

Instantly, the sensation of acidic corrosion was upon me. The Smooze's plasma form was turned to water by my flaming shield, but when it fell onto my back the feeling of corrosion was no different. I did my best to ignore it and tried my best to focuse on something...anything besides the intense pain during that one split-second that felt like an eternity. I grimaced, my eyes watering despite me having squeezed them shut to save them from the Smooze's persistent assault.

When I finally tore through back into the morning light my white fur was largely gone, and my already dishevelled looking mane and tail were rendered even worse.

As if it had anticipated her move, the Smooze was already flailing upwards with its tentacles the second I was free. I nearly screamed out in panic as I was once more grasped by dozens of them, my wings, legs, and body all instantly biting out in pain from the acidic contact and the sheer pressure of their grasp.

I had no direct contact with the Sun thanks to the magical barrier, but I had flowing in my veins its power all the same. Suddenly my entire body was a bursting flame of intense heat, and the tendrils instantly lost their grip. My injuries healed swiftly, and by time my flight had recovered and I had angled my snout back upwards towards Hydia the flames surrounding me had died off and my coat was back to its pure-white former self.

I flew upwards as fast as I could, until I almost collided with the ceiling of the barrier and flew with my back nearly pressed against it as I traced along its perforated surface.

At the summit of the dome, I looked back to where the fleeing earth ponies had been, now as much an ocean of blackish purple as the rest of the land around it. The earth ponies were nowhere to be seen, and on closer examination I could not see the unicorns or pegasus anywhere, either. I could, however, see that the Smooze was in some sort of mad frenzy where they should have been, flowing about like river rapids with the intensity of a feral wolf. And indeed, the Smooze's goal was quite the same.

Even if the barrier would not have been there, it was clear to me that the unicorns and earth ponies were dead. The ones not earthbound might have been able to outfly it, but with nowhere to go they were simply delaying the inevitable.

I hurled a thousand accusations of blame at myself, even if I knew that I had done all I could to help them in time. If they would have worked together, as I had told them to, they would have been able to survive long enough for me to catch up and help them further. But selfishness and fear had laid to waste this opportunity, and they had died because of it.

My sorrowful contemplation was broken by the sound of wingbeats behind me. I turned in a moment, eager to confront the source with thoughts of both defense and assistance on my mind.

The source, however, would not be dismissed easily, it seemed, and certainly was in no position where my assistance would have been desired. Hydia had been hovering far above the wreckage, looking on with a somewhat apathetic expression, but the moment she had seen that I too had taken flight, undamaged by her gutless cultists or the mindless Smooze, she narrowed her eyes. Whether it was with fear or with anger, it was difficult to say. In direct combat now, she undoubtedly was wondering if she would be able to drive me back without the assistance of the Smooze.

My assault was instantaneous.

With a scream of hate and fury I let loose with a thick beam of solar energy, and struck her directly.

Her flight swirled downwards, taking her alarmingly close to the Smooze, but she managed to recover and respond with a red magic blast of her own. It narrowly missed me, but I’d known it would and did not even bother casting a shield against it.

Despite the considerable distance she was intentionally maintaining from me, I noticed the clear sight of billowing red smoke from Luna’s horn atop her crown. She was drawing more power from the imprisoned ponies, and was about to use it against me.

Before she could fire, I quickly flew at her with great speed, and this time did not even bother allowing magic into my horn. Instead, I struck her with the full force of my body, twisting around and kicking upwards with my hindlegs and sending her flying. She tumbled for some distance, and by time her flight recovered to stop herself from falling into the Smooze, she instead crashed into a tall building that had not yet fallen victim to the Smooze’s assault.

It had been the most successful I had been at weakening her thus far, and I had already prepared to dive into the flimsy building after her, when an audible booming noise caused my attention to be diverted elsewhere. I turned to look in the direction of the distinctly familiar sound, already knowing that my foolishness had allowed my moment of potential victory to pass. Still, I knew very well what the popping sound had been, and some cruel part of me still needed the confirmation.

The Mayor of Dusk Falls had climbed onto the roof of his decaying mansion, which was already buckling and ready to fall. My earlier magic should have rendered him partially immobile, at least through physical means but he still must have been able to use his horn to teleport to a spot of temporary safety.

Indeed, temporary seemed to be the most fitting word, and he himself seemed to know this, too. I could do little else but imagine the sobering moment when his situation finally clicked into place, the moment when he had swiftly learned that any promises that he would have been spared had been no more than heartless lies.

I wonder if perhaps he had ever considered screaming to me for help; despite my position I perhaps would have provided it, and I had been sure to keep the injuries I'd inflicted on him solely temporary and mendable. But he must have disregarded the notion out of pride or obligation, because he was now lying in a building pool of blood spilling onto the shingles of the mansion roof.

Still, I flew downwards anyways and landed upon it just to be absolutely certain. I had already let my opportunity against Hydia pass, and until she reemerged I had time to confirm he indeed was dead. The flimsy mansion roof nearly collapsed with the added weight even despite my cautious landing. An entire section broke free and tumbled downwards, disappearing into nothingness instantaneously.

I remembered the sound of the flintlock rifle booming in the caverns below after the last of the shields had stopped. Had it been used for this same purpose? It seemed a more welcome end than a slow, painful one at the tendrils of the Smooze, but I hadn't contemplated the action until I saw what Kleos—once so full of confidence and conviction—had also done to avoid the acidic ocean below us.

I didn't see any weapon nearby he would have used, but the last bits of smoke billowing from his horn told me all I needed to know. A unicorn could theoretically overload magic into their horn into a burst that was beyond what it could actually handle. As I stated before, with a horn directly linked to a unicorn's mind, forcibly destroying it to such a catastrophic extent in turn had a result that rarely ended in any less than the gruesome sight before me. The loud popping sound I had heard was his magic exploding in a final over-capacitated blast, although it had sounded quite similar to a rifle blast indeed.

Left alone to die on the street, he had done his best to place himself in a position of temporary security. And then, when even that security was gone...

With the sensation of being burned alive by the Smooze's acidic flesh still clear in my mind, I would have had trouble saying I would have done anything different were I in his position.

I felt pity (or some cold perversion of it) but some macabre part of me also felt relief that it wasn't something I could have avoided and indeed was not responsible for. It was appropriate that he had taken his own life out of terror and dread of the gruesome thing he had helped bring about. I kicked off the roof of the mansion, the subtle movement causing the last of the stone to give way and the entire building to fall into the acidic sludge below. The Smooze welcomed his still-warm body with excitement, and I had no mind to watch any further.

I turned to look at the wreckage of the building Hydia had fallen into. She had not yet emerged. Instead of carrying on a purposeless fight, I decided the time to confront Luna had finally come. In many ways, the thought was more daunting than any violent combat that would have ensued had I not chosen to.

Author's Note

Blargh.

Writing extended action sequences is hardly my strong suit, so I admit I was quite skeptical of this chapter. Hence the...longer wait. I've been dreading publishing these finale chapters since chapter one.

Oh well. Hopefully it was somewhat tolerable.

Heart of the Sunrise (XIV)

I flew rapidly in the direction of Pink Sunset under a sky of orange, the shimmering yellow of my barrier interfering with the crimson red of the sky beyond. I suspected Luna would already be there. From my position high above the sky (but only a dozen feet below the rippling surface of the barrier's ceiling), I had a clear view of the Smooze creeping past the boardwalk. The Ferris Wheel was half covered, and I could hear the sound of its metal screeching out in protest as the whole great device threatened to keel over and yet somehow had not yet. The boardwalk had fallen into the sea in large sections, its form tossed about as if it were a cheap rug instead of strong wood that had endured decades of the tide's persistent beating. The Smooze itself seemed unaware of the dome it was contained within as it crept inland, but the same could not be said about the section that had broken off into the water stream. It was beating itself against the side of the magical walls over and over, trying and failing to find a way out.

There would be none. The substance could not break through it as easily as it had my hastily constructed ones in the caverns, which had been performed using an injured horn. I was the only pony who could lift the barrier now, and I wasn't going to. The only chance Hydia had to get the sludge into the world as she planned was to kill me and end my magic's flow.

She had controlled my sun; already her power was greater than I had been anticipating. And with the dome in place and the flare about to incinerate all within...

Luna wasn’t going to take well to my decision at all.

The barrier had missed Pink Sunset by a mere several meters, which meant that the house would be almost amusingly saved from the flare that would destroy everything else. There was an ever-persistent burst of light in the corner of my eye every several seconds, as the lighthouse's bright beam illuminated the shimmering yellow wall directly before it, and I did my best not to be distracted by it as I landed in front of the barrier's edge.

Luna had created a sizable crater in the dirt where she had landed at great speeds, but she was some distance away from it with the magical wall dividing her from the path leading towards the town that I had flown from. She looked greatly distressed at the sight of the barrier, but not confused in the slightest. There was no explanation required of me.

There was, however, the requirement for justification.

"Celestia, why are you doing this?" Luna said with odd calm. "Have you forgotten your promise?"

“I didn’t have a choice. If I waited any further it would have been out of range for me to keep it contained.”

"But won't the shield stop your teleportation spell?" Luna protested, slamming a hoof down against the dome to emphasize her point. It let out an electric hiss but if it caused Luna any sort of pain she didn't show it.

"I already cast it fourteen minutes ago," I said, shaking my head.

"Then where is the flare?!"

"It's ninety million miles from here to the sun. My magic is going to take awhile to reach it."

"How long is awhile?"

"I'd guess thirty minutes."

"Sixteen now," Luna said grimly.

“I’m sorry it has to be this way, sister.”

Luna whispered something in reply, a sharp, angry hiss under her breath.

“What was that, Luna?” I said, not with malice or annoyance but simple curiosity.

“I said you should have trusted me.”

“Luna, at no point would I ever not trust you with my life,” I thought my voice would have been much weaker sounding, all things considered, and I really was surprised by the calmness in which I spoke my assuring words.

“We could have defeated Hydia together. All of this senseless death and destruction could have been avoided.”

“You know that isn’t true, sis. I didn’t know this would happen.”

“Dissolve the dome then. Let us fight together!”

I thought of our conversation earlier, and of the oozing substance devouring all in it’s path, slamming itself repeatedly at the landscape on the other side of the magical barrier, searching in vain for a way out. A way out of Dusk Falls and into the world.

“No, Luna.”

“If you really do trust me, you will.”

Her words struck hard, insulting and honest at the same time. A challenge, a plea, and a taunt all at once. Truthful and yet suspicious, but it would not have mattered to me in the end anyways. I wasn’t about to doom Equestria just to protect Luna’s pride.

“I’m sorry,” I shook my head. “I cannot."

“Then at least I know...” Luna hung her head and turned away from me.

“Goodbye, Luna. In case I don’t survive the flare...I love you, little sister.”

I noticed for the first time that Luna and everything else looked faded and blurry, and realized that my eyes were watering. In my panic, I hadn’t even noticed that my entire world was blurred and illegible. I wiped them gingerly with a sheepish grin, and brought a hoof to the dome. As though sensing the source of its existence making contact with it, the barrier gave a sparkling shimmer for a moment, but remained sturdy and resolute all the same.

The moment my eyes were clear I caught sight of Luna’s horn aglow with magic, and she turned around wearing a sly, smug grin. I followed Luna's magic, and realized with a start that it seemed to be attached to some patch of the shield, so that this one section was tinted a subtly blue.

Cautiously, I raised a hoof to touch this particular section, and felt it pass cleanly through. I was dumbfounded, but Luna's explanation was quick to come.

“I knew you weren't going to open the barrier...” Luna muttered, “I figured I’d have to make my own solution.”

“W...what?! Luna, how did you—”

“A tear, Celestia,” Luna cut me off. “I can’t break your barrier—not the whole thing—but I can at least form an isolated gateway across a tiny place. Using this.”

Floating it delicately before her, she presented the mirror shard. It was glowing not with dark magic but instead with magic of her own. In the reflection the mirror cast I could see myself and my surroundings, but all was tinted with a ghostly blue, like some holographic spell. It looked like the myself and the world around me was not truly there, but instead was all part of some tapestry of glowing blue magic. I hadn’t any clue how it had worked, at best I had made sloppy assumptions that had fortunately proven to be somewhat correct, but it seemed Luna's knowledge had allowed her to manipulate it with much more simplicity.

“Luna, you weren’t supposed to—”

“You can’t order me around, big sister,” she said with sudden intensity. “I'll do what I see fit! Have you forgotten that your decision is not final?”

“I was under the assumption you respected mine enough to not contradict me!”

“You were hence under the assumption I would feel comfortable sitting on my flank while you kill yourself for no discernible reason?” Luna was screaming now, advancing closer and brandishing the mirror shard like it were some ghastly weapon. “Do you truly see me as that pathetic?”

I said nothing. The distant hissing of the Smooze audible even so far from the town filled the silent void between me and Luna, and at some point long out of sight the bass vibrations of another dying building sounded like a pin dropping in an opera house.

“Thank you, Luna...” I said slowly; with cautious gratefulness and firm accusation. What Luna had done had perhaps saved my life, but it had endangered Equestria. She should have known better, “...but you shouldn't have done this. You've given Hydia and the Smooze a route of escape.”

“I'm in control of the tear. I can close it when I please.”

“Luna, what if I were Hydia now?” I pointed out. “You would have let her through without objection. Then you would have sealed the tear. Then, I would have perished in vain when the flare struck!”

This time, it was Luna's turn to be silent. She had evidently forgotten about Hydia's changeling magic. She stood glaring into my eyes with fading malice, and I could tell that in her mind she was stuttering for some response. I decided to spare her the trouble.

“It doesn't matter, Luna,” I said, and sighed. Being scrutinized under her harsh glare was an assault I wished only to swiftly discharge, and I did so with forgiving words. “Truly, thank you. How did you manage this feat?”

“I’m drawing magic from the Moon,” Luna explained, straightening her stance and allowing her bitterness to dissolve only somewhat. She pointed up at the Moon, which I saw indeed was glowing with strange and additional luminosity, slicing through the red sky with its silver light. The night was, in this one isolated place in proximity to the Moon, beautiful and starlit, surrounded by what looked like a sea of murky blood.

But, gradually, the Moon's light was waning, working its way from a burning circle of silver to the eventual promise of nothing but a black orb of nearly nothingness in the sky. Already it was a sad, waning quarter moon, half the size that the abnormally bright beacon in the sky should have been.

“It’s enough to counter your magic, Celestia, but it’s quantity is limited and once it runs out my own magic won’t be enough to keep the tear open.”

“Your magic, slicing its way through mine,” I said. “I'm somewhat intimidated, Luna. What else do you have planned I should know about?”

I had been attempting humour, but the tenseness between us did not allow it to succeed. As such, Luna saw my gibe not as joking but genuine, and let out a short, offended growl.

“Come through, Celestia, and I’ll close the tear,” she said gruffly.

“Alright,” I nodded, and started slowly advancing towards the towering electric dome.

And then, in a sudden vivid moment of startling remembrance, my mind leaped back to another matter. One still unresolved. One that Luna's ease with manipulating the tear had just proven.

“Wait,” I stopped, and cast a quick look behind me at the dust billowing over Dusk Falls and rolling over the top of the barrier. Another quick, jarring vision of the grotesque ponies, Hydia's emotionless responses to their horrifying state, and the magical, glowing white hair-like tremor through space that had split my front lawn in half. All these bounced through my mind to settle on one final determination, and instantly I became firm in my conviction, and furious at my foolishness.

I had assumed magic would not be able to allow for escape when I had erected the barrier, and I had been correct. But in that assumption, I had completely forgotten about the damn mirror that had started the whole crisis to begin with. So determined was I for an instant, simple solution, and so desperate was I to formulate one in the dwindling hours I'd had before it was too late, that I had ignored the most obvious of flaws.

“There are others,” I looked to Luna, telegraphing my dread through my widened eyes. “You opened a hole with the mirror shard, but it isn't the only one! Hydia has one too!”

“No...” Luna said slowly, and then repeated it as a frustrated snap. “No! Celestia, seriously? This is a problem you didn't remedy?!”

“What was I to do?!” I shot back, “Ask Hydia kindly to provide me with the rest of Sombra's mirror?”

“You should have killed her!” Luna screamed into my face, baring her fang-like incisors like a feral animal, her hostile confrontation only divided by the shimmering barrier of light. “What stopped you? Mercy? She doesn't deserve it anymore, sister!”

“No, Luna. Not mercy. I don't care about that anymore. I tried my best to stop her. It's hardly a simply affair when she wields the power of hundreds of ponies.”

“It would have been a simple affair, had you let us fight together!”

“Then come now! Through the tear you so graciously opened.”

“No,” she said, tapping her horn and then pointing to the Moon. “I need to stay and keep it open, for to allow it to close may leave me without enough magic to open it once again. We must hope she will fail to realize the dome is more than a simple delay, or else solve whatever occurs next together.”

To do so would be folly. I knew it, and it shocked me Luna would even express it as an option. Clearly she had her doubts as well—I could see it in her face—but in lieu of losing my life she was willing to wager Equestria's fate.

Yet in the end, it remained my decision, and I knew I felt much more comfortable making it than Luna ever would.

“Come, Celestia, to the side of the living.” she practically begged, driving a hoof into the ground with childlike desperation, all the while with the same fury at my actions still etched on her snarl. It was an oddly natural combination of emotions only Luna could have managed.

“I can’t keep it open forever,” she said. “Look to the Moon!”

I did, and saw that it was indeed gradually dimming in luminosity and waning even further. If what Luna had said was true, then it's magic had been drained for as long as fifteen minutes, with perhaps even less left.

Still, if Hydia escaped...or if she saved even a bit of the Smooze...

“I’ll go alone,” I shook my head and turned to face the direction of the town once more. “I'll...I'll stop her. A few minutes is all it’ll take.”

“Celestia, don’t be an idiot. Or a hero. There is simply no way you’ll have enough time—”

“Look, Luna, I’m going! I’m not wasting any more time fighting with you. I’ll be back before the Moon is empty, I swear.”

“Fine. Go!” Luna flared her wings angrily. Her horn’s magic seemed to increase a little in intensity as her cold glare did, too. "I'll keep the tear open, but hurry! And good luck!

I once again took to the sky, crossing the distance between Pink Sunset and the former site of Dusk Falls’ boardwalk in what felt like mere moments. The only sign that it had existed at all was the Ferris Wheel; while the sound of its groaning metal filled the air (the only audible sound beyond the hissing of the Smooze) it had miraculously not yet fallen. But as I flew past it something below finally gave way, and the heavy wheel broke free, rolling for some distance before tumbling and falling with an immense booming sound into the Smooze which promptly began consuming the metal structure. Some ghost of magical remnants still remained in it, and several times its colourful lights blinked and sparked, before going dark completely. Without fully understanding why, I felt intense sorrow at the sight that the rest of the destruction had failed to bring about. The damn wheel had been whole reason I had paid this place any mind at all, and now it was crumbling into nothingness along with the rest of the town around it.

The moment she spotted me, making my return to the site of battle, she snarled in animalistic fury.

“What did you do?” she screamed. I did not know if she was using some spell to amplify her voice, or if she simply was so furious that it seemed so. “You're not delaying anything with this barrier, are you? What have you done?!”

I returned Hydia’s questions with violence. I had only a goal now, and only a narrow amount of time to do it. No time to stand about gloating about the incoming apocalypse. I flew towards her, my horn springing to life as my wings mercilessly beat the tepid air rich with dust from the destroyed buildings. Just as I physically made contact with her, I also unleashed a burst of rich, solar energy, my mane and body igniting as I did. The combined force of both my magical and physical assault sent her flying madly backwards, but she recovered just well enough to narrowly miss falling into the dark purple sea below us.

No longer on a collision course with the Smooze, Hydia paused her flight long enough to glare upwards at me with an enigmatic frown.

“You're not a leader, Celestia,” she said, hovering over the Smooze at a distance I dared not match. My assault had broken two of the unicorn horns atop her barbaric crowns, and I saw them spilling out the last of their bloody energy through the glowing fibers; ghosts of their former, rightful owners.

Hydia spit out a bloodied tooth and smiled a changeling's fang-filled smile. “Fairy tales about you will the same as those about me. Not a leader, but a warrior. A merciless bringer of death.”

“And herald to a fiery end,” I nodded. “It's like they always say in those old tales, Hydia...”

I smiled a mirthless grin as my mane started to once again ignite into flame.

"Burn the witch."

There was nothing more to be said, but plenty more to be done. As I fired a blast of energy at Hydia, I also allowed a portion of the magic to also flow into my own ceremonial regalia. The enchantment filled the holes in the silver, and also made it form sharp spikes, which would make my forcible collisions all the more devastating. Another group of spikes emerged from my crown, surrounding my horn and serving as both a weapon and shield. It was a barbaric set of armour, but it would be all the more beneficial to accomplishing the goal I only had several minutes to accomplish.

Hydia deflected my beam, and it was consumed by the Smooze below. Seeing me unwilling to play her game any longer, Hydia rose a hoof at the Smooze below her, and to my surprise it began clumping together, not as an ocean but instead forming into some sort of limb-like entity. No longer a formless sludge, this portion was now one extensive tendril which began flailing in a desperate attempt at reaching me.

It succeeded, but I was not grasped by it but instead swatted as if I were some pestersome insect. My body sung out its pain but I felt no broken bones. I quickly clipped my wings as I flew carelessly about, crashing through a delicate building and landing in a clump. I had little time to waste as it began crumbling under the stress of the impact, and I blasted a hole in the stone and took off just as it fell downwards.

I had just enough time as I tore from the falling building back into the dust-filled air to see a flare of brilliant white light. It was the familiar blinding tear, Hydia doing her best to activate the foreign magic. I cursed and made an attempt to pursue her and put the spikes on my regalia into practice.

The tear flickered, faded, and returned in rapid disharmony. Every time it's light returned it stayed illuminated for a split-second longer, and gained more and more form.

Fortunately, with her attention diverted to opening the tear and escaping, she was left open and defenseless. Before the moment slipped I fired.

My magic struck, but I was given no time to make any advantage from the tiny success as the long tendril once again flung at me, flailing at rapid speeds and forcing me to nimbly perform various maneuvers to avoid once again being struck.

I flared my magic not outwards but instead directly back into my horn. The spiked regalia embracing it began glowing with heat, and I shifted my flightpath backwards so that I was flying alarmingly close to the Smooze. It sliced through like a sword, and the tendril snapped only to fall downwards and become consumed by the Smooze again.

Hydia was busy fumbling with the mirror, which she had before her and was trying to activate it's magic in a panic. Light flashed from the reflective surface in blinding frequency, threatening to become resolute in any moment.

I beat my wings and drove myself forwards through the air, colliding with her at a bone-crunching speed. The moment I struck her, everything seemed to happen at once, at a breakneck blur of swift precision and calculation. The spikes I’d created in my crown collided with her as I made contact. Blood was drawn and we were both flung forwards, just as I wrenched the mirror from Hydia's magic and tucked it underneath my wing as I used my spiked hoofguards to prevent her from flying away.

We careened through the air, and suddenly the world burst into brilliant white light, a deafening blast of some great magic spell nearly shattered both my ear drums, and then…silence and darkness.

I looked about, my mind turning my surroundings over still at a strangely calm crawl. The Smooze was gone, but Dusk Falls seemed to still be around me. Or, so it seemed...it looked akin to a ghostly projections, like the reflections I had seen in the mirror Luna had been wielding. What was more odd then the imperfect glimmering of the town, however, was the strange duality of objects existing in its place. Buildings that had long since fallen to the Smooze stood in their half-present glowing glory, but in the same place I could see palm trees and pines, as if the forest that had once stood on the site of the town was there once again.

And, with a start, I realized that if I focused carefully, I could see a heavy crater of charred earth there, too.

In a moment, what I was witnessing was made clear. Luna had claimed that the mirror was a gateway to any place...and perhaps any time.

Below me wasn't Dusk Falls from any one time. It was Dusk Falls from all of them. A thousand variations of the same town, clashing for dominance.

But in the skies above, and the distant reaches of the dark above the ocean, there was nothing but black. No stars, sun or moon, instead an empty cacophony of darkness.

And in the darkness, I knew I was not alone. As I peered over the still, unmoving waves, I saw only a perfect abyss of black, but in that abyss I felt as though there was something beyond the distant reaches of the veil of shadow.

I felt it all around me. Everywhere that should have been sky was this indescribable presence. It was all around, as if the whole of Equestria was a marble being grasped in some great creature’s talon. This realm the mirror had accidentally thrown me into was populated, with what I could not know.

The vision lasted for a moment of only several seconds, and with a sudden lurch I was flung forwards, my impact with Hydia resuming and the red light of the cursed bloody sky divided by my shimmering magic barrier once more contrasting with the blinding white the world had momentarily become.

She looked down at my bewildered expression, gave me a patronizing smile, and then kicked me away with her back legs that were only a little shorter than my own. She yanked the mirror from my grasp, the glass sending a clean, bloody line down my coat as she pulled it from underneath the wing I had grasped it in.

The mirror was again sputtering to life in an instant. I had interrupted its magic before she could use it, and I had every intention of doing so once again

All I had to do was shatter it. Luna had said so.

I shot a single beam, not at her, but at the mirror. It was no devastating blow, but nonetheless it was one she had no defense from as her magic was diverted solely on the mirror. I failed to shatter it, but the impact was enough to launch it from her grip and send it in a dive towards the Smooze.

There was no necessity to dive after it. With another burst of magic I teleported it closer to me, holding it firmly in my magic.

Hydia tensed. She dared not make a single move towards me, for with a simple, subtle action, her last chance for survival would be destroyed.

One final escape, a simple means to save ourselves from imminent destruction. And...a source. A source to so much more evil.

I could not know where Hydia had come from, truly. Some other realm beyond, one adjacent to Equestria. One that this damned mirror had bridged the gap between.

I shot no devious grin upwards at Hydia's hovering form, instead I stared blankly ahead at the mirror as I brought an armoured hoof down onto it. It shattered into dust-like particles of glass. There was no burst of escaping dark magic, as I had been expecting. It simply fell like snow.

“You bitch!” Hydia screamed. She made a move as if to attack me—knowing that my death was now the only way the shield would fall—but I reacted quicker.

Instead of beating my wings to bring myself upwards, I flew in a mad corkscrew, falling to a dive towards the Smooze, for but a brief moment before I let loose with a quick teleportation spell. In an instant the Smooze was gone, or rather it was pushed slightly further back as I myself teleported further above it.

I collided with Hydia with the momentum of my dive and the force of the bone-breaking spiked hoof-guards I had donned. Then, with another buck coupled with a quick burst of forcible magic, I sent her sprawling downwards at the Smooze.

Her recovery had been sloppy, performed on wings not used to taxing flight, and allowed me clear opportunity to strike her with a further volley of similar magic beams she was in no position to deflect. Hydia crashed onto the roof of the town hall, the tallest building before the Hotel, and undoubtedly the oldest and strongest building. It’s ancient Gothic architecture gave it many tall spires, and it was against one that she struck at an alarming speed. I heard her back snap the moment it made contact with the stone. The whole building shook as if it were a boat on a river, even without our presence atop it. I landed moments after she did, and shot another blast before she had the chance to recover to her feet. Hydia’s crown had been knocked off by her impact, and before she could even begin to scramble after it I lifted it towards me in my telekinesis, analyzing it with innocent curiosity.

It was too ferocious and barbaric looking to be beautiful, but it was aesthetically intriguing all the same.

I let it fall onto the stone roof of the town hall. Then, with a firm stomp, I shattered the entire bronze or gold affair and every horn atop it. It exploded in a puff of red smoke.

The moment the crown was destroyed, her alicorn form dissipated. Before me was not the ferocious dark purple alicorn, but instead a feeble, hideous biped creature dressed in rags that might have been clothing at one point long ago. This form lasted for but a moment, before her alicorn form suddenly clicked back into place. Whatever link to power she had gained, it seemed the destruction of her crown had not been enough to bring it fully about.

If she had anything to say, it was lost as a large portion of the roof we were standing on crumbled. I was forced to spring into flight as it gave away. With fingers, not hooves, she began clawing her biped self up the stone spire, large bits of brick and mortar raining down and pattering against the disintegrating roof. When she finally made it to some sort of landing, she stumbled to her hooves, once more in her alicorn form. I effortlessly flew upwards, too, not landing and instead hovering next to the spire, looking piteously down at her. My expression was not one of a victorious rival, but instead a moderately disappointed school-teacher reviewing some hopelessly incorrect yet meticulously attempted assignment. I could not help but wonder at all that could have been prevented, had she only been willing to co-operate with my suggestions for a peaceful negotiation.I could have found use for her foreign magic, and learned so much about whatever adjacent world she came from, and perhaps found a place for her within my own.

And yet I knew it was too late for me to tell this to her once more, for if she did not realize it in that moment herself then no words of mine would ever deliver the information to her.

The spire shook, and across from us the other spire tumbled downwards to join the rest of the doomed building. The spire Hydia had climbed was now the tallest thing in Dusk Falls, and amongst the few buildings not lost to the Smooze, but it was evidently ready to collapse soon, like the rest of the town. Too weak to fly now that her alicorn form no longer bore any merit, she could do little more than cling onto the shaking spire.

I realized how pathetic she was in that moment.

“Do you know what your greatest mistake was?” I asked, as if we were chess players comparing strategies. It was perhaps a little presumptuous to speak as if I had already won, but frankly I was in no mood for courtesy with her anymore. She glared at me with her strange, round eyes against furless flesh, not answering.

“You underestimated how much I was willing to destroy to stop you,” I finished. “Goddesses of Destruction. I suppose that's us both. No matter how much we may deny it.”

For a moment—a brief, fleeting moment of child-like curiosity—I pondered what exactly her past would have entailed. I suppose that by then I knew: sacrifices in her name, my own ponies believing her some hero to end my tyranny. She herself had perhaps been biding her time subtly and slowly, until she could start killing changelings and minotaurs to use for their magic. And then when she herself was powerful enough, she turned her gaze both to the future of Equestria, and the traditions of her own past. She must have figured that what had failed her once could not have failed twice.

The spire suddenly buckled wildly, interrupting my thoughts, and Hydia began scrambling even further up the brick tower. She did so in her biped form, which was still every bit as hideous and ancient as when my magic had first weakened her.

By contrast to her frantic climbing ascent of the spire, I flapped over easily. Beneath both of us was a sea of the dark purple sludge, only the occasional traces of a once frivolous city poking up from beyond. In minutes, even they would be lost to the purple sludge. In several minutes more, none of it would matter, for instead of an ocean of sludge encased in the dome, there would instead be an ocean of fire.

"Hydia…this is farewell,” I said coldly. There was no purpose staying any longer, and no reason to stay and watch her inevitable demise. Her crown was gone, with it her control of the Smooze now no more than what anyone else had possessed...when the spire finally gave way…

Her death would be poetically ironic, how they usually were with these fiends.

She refused to acknowledge my words. I wondered if something had broken in her mind, but regardless she continued clawing her way upwards. Pathetic resounded in my mind once more. More bits of stone broke free, the spire sung out it’s discontent, and soon it became obvious that in mere moments the whole thing would fall. I turned my head in the direction of Pink Sunset, downwards at the Smooze still trying and failing to claw through the barrier, and back towards Hydia.

Pathetic as she had been, it was by her actions that Solar Flare and Sky Blossom had died. It was by her actions that Deepsy had nearly been killed and was now was suffering from injuries no medicine could fix. And it was by her actions that a whole town had just fallen, with Equestria itself being inches from meeting the same grim fate.

The spire crumbled near its base. I hovered for several seconds more, and then turned around to leave the spire behind. I didn’t see it crash into the Smooze, but I heard the sound of the last of the stone striking. I did not turn to see it, instead I flew as rapidly as I could back towards Luna, the tear, and freedom. The flare would be arriving in moments now, and Luna’s moon had virtually no luminosity left.

There was nothing left of the town for the flare to destroy, and the forest leading to Pink Sunset had already fallen victim to the Smooze. I had plenty of opportunities to look down at the grotesque substance as I flew, faster than my wings had ever carried me before, shaking off my doomed regalia which fell into the Smooze. The substance fed on life, and it had just eradicated all of it within the dome. Now, I was the exception, the only living creature besides the Smooze itself. Or so I thought, when a heavy burst of fire suddenly rippled through the few remaining trees below me, garnering an earsplitting screech from the Smooze. Another followed, but the trees had already been razed by the first burst, and instead they exploded into ash from the combined strength of the heat and the acid.

Initially, I thought that the flare had already commenced, but I knew I was mistaken the moment I saw that the fire had a source; Luna standing with her rump pressed against where the tear had been, ignoring the painful electricity coursing through her and lighting the dim blood-tinted morning with her magic. The Smooze was converging towards her, and it was only the burst of flames she was continuously casting that was keeping it from reaching her entirely. The Smooze was a distance of less than fifty feet from the tear Luna had opened, but Luna was no longer on what she had called “the side of the living.” Swirling around her were all six Elements of Harmony, but she evidently had not been using them, instead merely keeping them in her possession so that we could both use them together.

The entirety of Dusk Falls, with the exception of this tiny island of charred earth Luna was standing on, was a dark purple, ever-moving ocean. It had even begun climbing up the walls of the dome, raining down acid that fell onto my back as I swept down towards Luna. In some places I could see the half-decomposed frames of buildings, trunks of trees, and a sickening amount of animal's bones. It was impossible to decide to what animals the perfectly bleached white bones had belonged to, but I knew that amongst them were the bones of the cultist ponies, too.

“Sister!” Luna screamed when she saw me descending from the sky. With panic and fear to thank, she was given no time to disguise the relief in her voice as I landed beside her. “I couldn’t keep the tear open, for the vile sludge was too close!”

“Then what are you doing here?!”

“Our magic combined has a better chance of surviving the flare than you do alone,” Luna explained between exhausted panting. Another bout of flames erupted from Luna’s horn just as a tendril flung forwards in an attempt at grabbing her. I followed suit, but it was clear we were only slowing an inevitable advance.

"Don't look at me like that!" she snapped when she saw my narrow glare. "You're the one who promised we would fight together."

In no position to argue, I stood firmly beside Luna, our eyes both locked at the unpleasant sight before us. The town, forests, beaches, rivers, and oceans were all gone, and there was nothing left but impending doom.

“Hydia?” Luna asked, not bothering to waste time formulating an actual question.

“Dead.” My response was equally as brief. Besides our spitting magic and the drowning hiss of the Smooze before us, there was silence for several seconds. Eventually I continued. “I tried, Luna. I really did.”

“I trust so,” she said simply. “At least your plan saved Equestria from her. Lets hope we can save ourselves from the solar flare. We’ll combine our shield magic.”

Combining magic was a surprisingly straight-forward affair, one made easier when the Elements of Harmony were involved. The moment I had set down beside me, half of the stones had diverted their attention from Luna to me, somehow not colliding with each other as three of them orbited myself and three orbited Luna, despite the fact that our horns were in very close proximity

“Speaking of which...where is it?” Luna barked.

As if the heavens themselves were irritated by her griping, a sudden deafening crack resounded from the sky above, and I felt a sharp, throbbing vibration in my horn, precisely the same frequency as when I had first cast the teleportation spell so long ago.

“Now!” I screamed. “Luna, it’s coming now!”

There could have been no more time to waste on discussion or planning. The Elements of Harmony began glowing in synchronization with both of our horns, which were now quite literally in contact with each other. I felt Luna’s magic stream flow into my own, but for the first time it seemed as though it was willing to conflict with my own. I did not fully understand what was happening, nor was my panicked mind in any state to focus on it, but I felt that with every intense increase in Luna’s magic there was a violent, countering force from my own. It was as if a miniature war was being fought between our combined magic flow.

The flare would be striking at any moment. If we did not remedy the problem and activate the Elements of Harmony, we would both perish in the sea of fire.

Not that my experience in the matter was particularly exemplary, but I knew all the same that any conflict between bearers of the Elements of Harmony would mean they simply could not be wielded together. And yet despite the situation and intensity, something was still wedged between me and Luna, something that was now threatening to destroy us both. There was still a bitter battle being waged.

And, like so many battles had begun and ended with a final shot or blow, it took one very simple thought, indeed, one mere word, for the entire static conflict to suddenly cease. I even said the word out loud, and despite the intensity of the situation I saw Luna smile cheerlessly in my peripheral once I did.

“Sister.”

To say many things promptly followed would be a massive understatement. Our magic erupted into a centralized shield around the tiny circle of life amidst a furious ocean of death, as the Elements of Harmony spun wildly all about us, casting a silver sphere which obscured from us the flames that would have erupted. Our world become one of aggressive white light blinding our eyes, veiling the flames bounding first across the land, and then across the resolute surface of the barrier I had cast. Somewhere far off in the distance a crystal erupted under the stress the barrier was under, and two more followed suit. Even as the magic of the Elements of Harmony coursed through my veins and out my horn, I felt their loss and prayed the others would not suffer the same fate.

The screeching of the Smooze became the only sound Luna and I knew. The sound of the Element’s magic was no small affair, but even it was drowned out by so much of the substance all letting out the same awful scream of pain, bubbling and sizzling away as the heat of the Sun was suddenly and inexplicably forced into the tiny sphere that had once been a town. Dusk Falls had once been a settlement of colourful, white-trimmed buildings, and then it had fallen into a pile of dust and destruction. Now, the dust itself was vaporized, in its place a charred crater of impossibly perfect proportions. The magic of the Elements of Harmony sent coursing jolts of energy into my veins and my magic, not comforting in the slightest but instead feeling like I was being struck by lightning. Nonetheless, it was a welcome alternative to the flames outside.

I had begun counting seconds, wondering when the flames would die down. When I’d counted to sixty thirty times over I ceased, although the time itself had not felt like half an hour at all. Instead, it had all felt like it had happened in the space of an instant. The Smooze had perished in a fraction of this time, and yet the flames were still reverberating off the walls of the barrier with nowhere else to go. Luna and I were trapped in a snow globe of fire.

The last four crystals holding the barrier in place finally erupted in unison, and when they did it collapsed. The force of the flames, now with somewhere else to flow to, was vented upwards into the sky, outwards over the ocean, and far across the land to the West for miles. The forests had been soaked by weeks of rain but many erupted in flames all the same, vicious forest fires that were a mere shadow of the much more severe fate Equestria had avoided.

When the barrier collapsed, our magic did too. We both fell to the charred ground, but the Elements of Harmony were still spinning around us. albeit much slower. Our orb of shield magic dimmed, and the smell of smoke for the first time crossed its barrier to reach our nostrils. It was nearly overpowering as we struggled back onto our hooves to behold the wasteland of destruction before us.

Even lying abandoned on the ground, the Elements of Harmony were still humming with energy. I blinked several times, looked to Luna, and saw that she was equally as perplexed.

Suddenly, a loud noise and bright light interrupted our wordless confused discussion. A white tear ripped across the sky, not straight like a blade but instead in a vicious, jagged line. It projected the same blinding white light that the smaller one had before, but this time it stretched all along the beach, from Pink Sunset to some point far past where the boardwalk had once been. It was spilling out dark magic in an instant, but the waves it was above had fallen motionless, not from inactivity but instead as though they had been frozen exactly as they had been.

For a moment, I did nothing but stare. Then, I looked to Luna and saw that she, too, was doing little else but staring straight before her.

And then, she exhaled as if from mild annoyance. As though what would promptly ensue would just be a bit of an inconvenience.

"There it is," Luna said, and with a few flaps of her wings she daintily flew from the residual grasp of the Elements of Harmony, setting back onto the ground some ways ahead. The Elements flying around both of us fell the moment she did, clattering against the razed ground and flickering for several seconds before extinguishing completely. "Sombra's Mirror."

“No. I destroyed it! What's it doing?” I asked, trotting after her, although she had not travel led much further. Instead, she stood in place with the streak of magic unfurled directly before her, lighting her deep blue coat and refracting strangely through her mane. She did not respond immediately, so I posed my question once again, with added intensity.

“Luna, I saw it shatter! It can't be here!”

“It isn't,” she said, shaking her head. “But the last of its magic is. It's dying away. I feared this would happen.”

“Dying away...” I repeated. “So it is closing?”

“Yes, but gradually. The Mirror is gone, but the magic that allows it to work remains. It's...venting, Celestia. Fading into the skies.”

I squinted my eyes to look closer at the blinding light, and saw that Luna was not mistaken. The tear was brilliant indeed, but its radiance was a dying flame.

“That's good…” I said, unable to keep the uneasiness from slipping into my tone.

Luna chortled rudely.

“Good? Hardly. The Mirror's magic fading into the fabric of our world is anything but good.”

Luna seemed too weary to appear any more than moderately upset by the potential catastrophe before us. She did not answer the implicit question she had presented, and she did not have to.

“Whatever,” she sighed, as if dismissing some thought. “It's...a worst case scenario. The important thing, I suppose, is that the Mirror is gone.”

With her ambiguous, unnerving piece said, Luna turned to regard the land around us.

Where Dusk Falls had once been, there was now a perfect circle of blackened earth, fallowed land never to support life again. Much of the ocean had erupted into steam, and now the rest of it was allowed to freely flow across the created gap as roaring rapids of saltwater. Half of Dusk Falls was gone, the other half that had been beyond the barrier was oddly still standing, albeit in the presence of catching fire from the residual force of the solar flare. Had it not been for the flames, I could have waltzed in, as if what had just taken place had in no way affected me.

But it did. I had risen to my hooves, but I promptly fell back down the moment I did, not out of exhaustion but instead out of a simple lack of motivation.

“What have I done, Luna?” I said solemnly, and then fell into a fit of rapid coughing and squinting as I tried to get the smoke out of my eyes and lungs.

Luna didn’t answer. Instead, she took off without a word to fly over the dead circle that had been a town. I watched her flying until she was a speck on the horizon, a simple task with nothing to sully the view. She was looking below her for any residual signs of the Smooze, any bit of it that had survived the flare. She had returned in less than fifteen minutes, not smiling triumphantly but looking as though she greatly wished to.

“It’s all dead, Celestia,” she confirmed.

“Yes,” I said, looking at the town. “I suppose it is.”

“Don’t look so glum,” she nearly commanded, using her wing to roughly help me to my hooves. “We truly triumphed today.”

“At what cost?” I asked, shaking bits of dust and mortar caught in my own feathers.

“At the death of few ponies, and the loss of brick and mortar.”

She was generalizing, ever so cruelly. Perhaps few ponies had died, but I had destroyed an entire city. A thriving community of potential. The only home to be saved from the hand of destruction was my own, looming sadly behind me with its tall pink roof a vivid juxtaposition to the pure blackness before it. Above Dusk Falls was the same red sky, now scorched with the heat of the last dissipating fury of the solar flare.

Oddly, as I looked up at the red sky, I thought again of the postcard that had drawn me to this town.

Again, it was Luna’s voice that jerked me from my own introspective thoughts.

“I’m going home,” she said matter-of-factually, shaking her wings. After all that had transpired, she was now brushing it all off as in the past. “I suppose you are too. I’ll call for our chariot.”

I watched her disappear, far off in the distance where several miles down the beach the rest of the Royal Guard was waiting, a safe distance from the residual blast. It was there that Indigo and the rest of the ponies had fled to, and it was there that they would have watched in shocked silence as a tower of flames had erupted into the sky like a volcano, lighting the world aflame for a brief several seconds. And then a wall of massive heat would have erupted past them, thankfully not enough to deal any permanent damage. The point where, hours later, I would reconvene with the guards who had fled, as well as the few cultists who had escaped, waiting to be tried for their treason against Equestria. Morning Glory and Dune Shores, freed from the grip of time and reunited once more, mother and son, the injuries they had sustained mere veils which hid the unparalleled joy they felt at each other’s presence. It was as though all my life had become the past nine months had culminated into this small encampment several miles from the town limits of Dusk Falls.

While Luna disappeared towards this far off point of promise, I stood staring at the recently deceased town before me.

And then I turned back to look at Pink Sunset, standing alone and slumping slightly over a bit of earth that had given way into a small sinkhole. The framework of the house was largely intact, and with a little repair it would soon be back to its former self. The flare had left the paint charred and blackened, but miraculously the house itself had not actually caught fire, as if out of some taunting irony.

Alone it stood, its tall and sad windows gazing not at the former town beside it, but at the lonely waves, rippling with the last traces of morning mist disappearing into the warming spring air. From where I was standing I could hear its groaning wood; while the house itself lay undamaged, it would fall into the ocean if something was not promptly done.

I took one final look at the lonely house that had never truly been my home, and then I turned to follow Luna into the still dark remnants of the night that had finally begun to pass, leaving the sun to carry on its course towards the ocean waves.

Author's Note

Dawn Rises (XV)

We lost something that day. It was difficult to successfully say what: certainly, the loss of an entire town might perhaps have qualified, but then again I felt like something else was missing entirely.

It was that sensation once again. The nagging feeling one gets when they feel something very large is out of place. The one that tells you something is most certainly amiss, something large, something glaring you in the face whilst breathing its icy breath down your obliviously fearful neck—

I believe I’m repeating myself. My apologies.

I did not sleep that night. I cannot imagine many of the residents of Dusk Falls did either. The sky still burned red over the barren circle of death, all through the day and into the cool spring night. Even as our chariot left Dusk Falls far behind, it took hours of flight for the sky to change from red to pink and then back to any shade of natural blue.

In several hour's time after it had first ripped through the sky, the white tear would exist only in Luna and my memories. There was no comfort in that thought, of course.

Nor was there any comfort in the knowledge that Hydia was dead. Because if what she had told me was true, then she had been dead before.

For almost the whole ride home, Luna and I did not share a single sentence of conversation nor faltering glance. On the rare occasion that our heads accidentally turned enough for our eyes to meet, contact was instantly broken without subtlety. It was difficult to tell whether she was angry with me or simply unwilling to view the regret in my expression, but I imagine it was some combination of the two. At one point, I offered a sudden, brief, and unprompted apology to her, but it did not elicit any response. Luna could have been ignoring me or she could have been asleep, I do not know for I did not break our unspoken resolve to pay each other little to no mind.

I'd made a mistake, even if things had all turned out somewhat sufficiently. The tale of Dusk Falls would be told as one of loss, but not of tragedy, for the will of the town had triumphed over the evil Hydia had brought about. It would be yet another bit of incredible feats I had performed to be taught to ponies whether I liked it or not.

And I did not like it one bit.

Sombra’s fall had been told by our subjects as a tale of heroism. It hadn’t been. It had been a merciful murder. And this tale would be no different. How many more of my failures would I be forced to watch paraded as victories?

I had assumed Luna's forbearance would cease when we returned to life in Canterville, but it did not. I rarely saw her during the days as she skulked in and out of important summits, never sitting with me and never attending when she could help it. She rarely took her dinner with me in the castle’s main dining room. She rarely accompanied me on my innocent excursions into Canterville. She rarely left her study during the nights.

I would sometimes join her there—if only to assure myself she still existed at all—but our conversations came as forced and deliberate, and she did not stay for long after I had entered, acting like she were some intruder in her own private study.

I often approached her bearing forced smiles and steaming tea and together we both spoke our stilted speeches, but never did she approach me in return. That is, with one notable exception:

It had taken almost three full months before Luna finally approached me, but the ensuing conversation was the one I had been dreading more so than the continued silence of my sister. It was the one I had been doing my best to guiltily dance around with minced words and forced sentiments.

"Why didn't you trust me?"

Her voice rung out against the crackling of the fireplace I had been idly prodding. I had not been facing her as she entered my room, and the short sentence caught me by surprise. She sounded so somber, so...old. If the carefree mare I had remembered Luna as during my stay in Dusk Falls had been a ghost, then that ghost of a mare was further reduced to the mere memory of one the moment I heard her cold and distant voice.

"I didn't have a choice—"

"Don't lie to me, sister!" Luna snapped. "Don't you dare think I'm prepared to stand for it any longer!"

"Luna..." I whispered waveringly as her voice rose in intensity to a shout. Her temperament had been predominantly hostile for a very long time—I had encountered my fair share of nearly-sobbing maids in the halls who had just endured the blunt of Luna’s irritation, their accidental breaches of her self-imposed solitude were rarely taken as any less than some act of defiance.

But never before, even after all those incidents and all the berating lectures I’d given her after, did she turn that hostility towards me. Not until that moment.

"It's okay, because I understand now. It's quite clear to me how worthless you think I am."

"No, Luna. Please. Please don't do this to me again..."

"Yes, you love me, right? That's what you're going to say?"

I did not reply for a long while. Luna looked at me with frantic eyes which made her look as though she was almost begging herself to be wrong. She wasn't. The words had been on my mind and inches away from escaping my lips, as truthful and meaningless as I knew them to be to us now.

"Yes, you love me. I suppose that solves everything then, doesn't it? As long as you love me, why should I care that our subjects see me as lesser?!"

The room seemed to loose what little light the few candles cast as Luna yelled. She was advancing towards me, and from my spot on the floor with my book she seemed unquestionably the greater of the two of us. Certainly, the presence she was known to radiate was in spades in that moment.

"You're scaring me, Luna." I finally whispered.

She stopped her threatening approach without hesitation, and her gaze became cloudy as her eyes started to water.

"...Well, I...I love you too, Celestia," she said lethargically, any of the previous fury in her voice now a mere memory. "But I cannot continue living in your shadow for much longer. Because it's so cold here. All those ponies celebrating your victory out there...as if it can be considered a victory at all. I could have saved them all from your solution, and yet what do I get? I'm trying so hard, but I just wish I didn't have to anymore. I wish I could find a way to end it all."

I felt an odd lump in my stomach as the force of Luna's words hit me with the same force as the ground to a flightless pegasus.

"I don't want to feel like this, but I can't help it. And what you did to me, Celestia..." Luna rubbed her watering eyes with a hoof, "You hurt me, Celestia. Badly."

"I am truly sorry, Luna. Please believe me."

"I do. I know you're sorry, Celestia, and I'm sorry that you have to be. I guess I'm still too weak, and I needed to hear you say it, as if I didn't already know it with all my heart."

"You're not weak, Luna," I moved to nuzzle her, but she purposefully moved away in response. I continued trying to console her nonetheless as I spoke, "You helped save those ponies. And perhaps they don't know it, but you do. And I do. And I will never stop trusting you."

Luna turned away from me, back the way she came, slowly making her way back out of the library and into the darkling corridors as the night continued to grow outside the castle. She halted in the entrance-way. I did not see her face, but I had a clear image in my mind of the hopeless expression on it all the same.

"Celestia...I'm afraid your love isn't enough anymore."

Luna shuffled a little and did not turn around, trying to find the lie in the sentence she had spoken and failing, as I too did the same. I could offer her no more than my promise that I would always be there for her, but what value did that truly carry? Was it anything more than worthless to the overshadowed sister of somepony as revered as I? Would it ever be sufficient enough to alleviate the shame of being feared by so many of our subjects and seen as lesser by the remainder?

"How are we going to fix ourselves, Luna?" I desperately pleaded. I could not bring myself to look up at Luna anymore, not without being flooded with the mare she once was and the relationship we once had, and so I locked my gaze on the hardwood floor instead.

"What else is there to help us?"

Only silence answered. When I looked up, I saw only a dark causeway. Luna was gone, and I listened to the sound of her hoofbeats echo into the silence of the growing night. I would try all though the night to think of something else, something we had not tried. Therapy again, another increase in distance between us, or...or some other solution I had yet to think of. We were traveling too swiftly down an untrodden road into the direction of the unknown, but I wished dearly to be free of any heedless voyage, and to be home instead. And home wasn't a place; I was as much a tourist in the Everfree as I had been in the late Dusk Falls.

I sat in motionless, thoughtful silence for much of the night, dropping in and out of sleep. I did not rise from my libraries floor for the entirety of Luna's beautiful night, but the span between when she had first left me alone and when the sun's tug prompted me to finally push myself to my feet seemed so brief it was almost surreal. But soon it would be winter again, and with it would come the long and cold nights. It was difficult for me to tell whether or not I was anticipating or fearing their arrival.

A soothing, bittersweet sense of assured fate crept over me as I raised the sun. I felt as though I was powerless, and it was an eerily comforting feeling even with the dread it invoked as well.

No matter what further took place between Luna and I, no matter what solution it took to mend our flickering bond, the simple and unchangeable truth was that sisters sometimes fight, and in the end, everything else would be okay.

It was a wishful fantasy, but all that was left for us to do was desperately cling onto it for a little while longer.

Author's Note

“When all else fails, take a vacation.”
— Betty Williams, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

Truth be told, I don't normally feel comfortable talking about my writing through any sort of commentary-like fashion, so forgive me if this final note seems a little awkwardly written.

The titular town was conceived a while ago, but I didn't really think of writing an entire story set in it initially. Its design is a collage of various types of ocean towns, including traditional Newfoundland Fishing communities, Brighton Pier, and that place from The Lost Boys. I even swiped the "Murder Capital of the World" line from that movie. Should note that the titular town was created and named long before I even knew what "Gravity Falls" was. Purely coincidental.

It was with a little surprise to me that many of you cited Luna and Celestia's relationship as a particular strong-point of this story, it was never really my specific intention to thoroughly impress there.

The main narrative itself was an attempt of mine to create a bit of a proper conspiracy-mystery tale, with significant inspiration from various horror literature writings, especially with the construct of the Smooze. I must admit, I felt a little dread upon watching Make New Friends But Keep Discord. Needless to say, I was forced to consider scrapping the Smooze altogether, for I didn't believe I would be able to convince anybody that it could actually be intimidating and dangerous after its G4 incarnation. Hopefully I was wrong.

Anyways, I've already prattled on for too long, so I'll simply end by once more thanking you all for reading. Take care.