Aurora

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 2

Chapter 1

“THOU ART GOING WHERE!?”

Celestia gave her sister a chiding look, and Luna hastily cleared her throat and said, “I mean, you're going where?”

“I must travel to the gryphon kingdoms for a time,” repeated Celestia. “The dragon migration is passing close to their territory, and there have been several skirmishes. I've arranged for a summit between the two, where I shall serve as an impartial mediator. With luck, I'll be able to stop things from escalating further.”

Luna was silent for a moment. “And thou expectest- I mean, and you expect me to sit on the throne while you're gone, I suppose?” She flushed slightly; apparently she still had a tendency to slip into the traditional way of speaking, despite her recent improvement.

“There are two princesses in Canterlot now, after all,” replied Celestia.

“I must protest, sister. You know I have not truly ruled in well over a thousand years, and these modern customs do not help matters,” said Luna

“I'll only be gone for a month or two. I'm sure you'll be able to handle the royal duties for that long,” said Celestia. “Besides, you've gotten so much better at dealing with the modern world since your trip to Ponyville.”

“A- a month?” repeated Luna with rising alarm.

“Don't worry,” said Celestia with a light laugh. “You'll do just fine. Your night court sessions have improved greatly, haven't they?”

“Only because nopony came after the first one,” muttered Luna sourly.

“That's not true, and you know it,” said Celestia. “Didn't you have several petitioners just last night?” she asked.

“Two,” corrected Luna, but Celestia rolled right over her.

“The advisors will be here to help you. Besides, a lot of ponies with more trivial concerns will probably be discouraged just by the hour, so you'll likely have less to deal with than usual.”

“They're your advisors,” objected Luna. “I have barely even spoken to them!”

Celestia laughed quietly. “I'm sure they'll be more helpful than you believe. It is their job, after all. But I did take the liberty of bringing in a special advisor for my absence. I think you'll find her to be quite satisfactory...”

* * *

“Twilight, don't you think you should go to bed? You've been reading for almost six hours now.”

The lavender pony continued to feverishly scan her book, giving no sign that she had heard her assistant. “Twilight?” Spike repeated. “Twilight! TWILIGHT!”

“Huh? What?” said Twilight, jumping a little. “Oh. What is it, Spike? I'm extremely busy right now.”

“Twilight, you need to take a break!” said Spike. “Can't that book wait until tomorrow?”

“No! Absolutely not! The princess has asked me to advise Luna – Princess Luna, that is – I mean, Princess Celestia asked me, not Princess Luna, because Princess Luna is the one I'm advising, because the princess is leaving – I mean, Princess Celestia –” Twilight blinked and actually looked around the library for the first time. “Why is it so dark in here?” she asked.

“The sun went down nearly three hours ago, Twilight,” said Spike.

“Three hours?! That means I only have... eleven hours left until I have to leave for Canterlot! And I still have twelve more books on law, five on court customs, and eight on history that I have to read! Oh, why did I go to that silly goodbye party when I have so much work to do? No more interruptions, Spike!” she said, diving back into her book.

“TWILIGHT!” shouted Spike again. “You need to sleep. You won't be any good to either princess if you fall asleep during the middle of the day.”

“Actually, Luna is the princess of the night, so I'll probably be sleeping mostly during the day,” replied Twilight distractedly.

Spike faceclawed. “Well, falling asleep during the middle of the night, then. The point is, Princess Celestia said in her letter that she wanted you to advise Luna for your common sense and experience with ponies, not just for your knowledge. You don't need to read the entire library before you leave!”

Twilight didn't respond. After a moment, Spike gave a disgusted sigh and said, “Fine, stay up all night if you want. But I'm going to bed.”

* * *

The first thing Twilight noticed when she woke was that her pillow felt unusually hard and book-like. She picked her head up and discovered the reason: she had, in fact, been sleeping on a book. Must have drifted off studying again, she thought. I wonder what I was reading? She closed the book she had fallen asleep on and read An In-Depth Study of Dinner Table Settings from the Lunar Era emblazoned on the cover. Of course. I have to make sure I'm ready to leave for Canterlot in the-

Twilight jumped nearly a foot into the air, sending her chair flying. “I'M LATE! What time is it?! Spike! Spike, where are you? I haven't even packed my things! I have so many books left to read! Oh, how could I have fallen asleep? SPIKE!”

Her assistant stumbled down the stairs, rubbing his eyes. “Hey, Twi. Time to get up already?”

“Of course it's time to get up!” said Twilight with more than a touch of hysteria. “The carriage to Canterlot is coming at noon! Do you have any idea what would happen if I were late?”

“Do you?” asked Spike, but Twilight ignored him as she dashed past to look at the clock.

“ELEVEN-THIRTY? How can it be eleven-thirty already? I haven't even started packing yet! Where's my checklist?” A look of absolute horror came over Twilight's face. “I haven't even made a checklist yet!”

“You're staying at the castle, Twilight,” interjected Spike. “What do you need to bring?”

“I don't know! What if I need something and I forget it because I didn't have a checklist? What if I forget a book I needed?”

“You could always find it in the royal library,” pointed out Spike.

“But what if the royal library doesn't have it?” shrieked Twilight.

“Twilight! The royal library has at least three copies of every book here. You need to relax a little bit! Even if you forget something, I'm sure you'll be able to find a replacement for it at the castle. There's nothing to worry about.”

“Right. Relax. Right,” said Twilight, hyperventilating.

Half an hour later, Twilight and Spike were waiting outside in the crisp autumn noon as a carriage drawn by two pegasi wearing the uniforms of the royal guard landed. Twilight's saddle bags were stuffed with the bare essentials: three books on the history of Canterlot, another on court customs and politics, several rolls of paper and quills for making checklists, and a spare pair of socks. Still, she was sure she'd forgotten something absolutely critical, no matter what Spike said.

The guards nodded respectfully as Twilight and Spike stepped up into the carriage, then leaped into the air. As the carriage flew towards Canterlot, Twilight pranced anxiously. “What are you so nervous about, anyway?” asked Spike after a few minutes. “You lived in the castle for years. You're Princess Celestia's protege! It's not like this will be anything new for you.”

“This is different,” said Twilight. “Princess Celestia never wanted my advice on anything. And I never really went to court. Too many ponies. Now she expects me to help Luna rule? What do I know about ruling?”

“Probably quite a bit, considering how many books you were just reading on the subject,” replied Spike.

“I just don't know,” sighed Twilight. “What if I disappoint her? What if she has to come back in the middle of negotiations because of me?”

“Stop worrying so much. She wouldn't have given you the job if she didn't think you could handle it. You're not doubting the Princess's judgment, are you?”

“No! No, of course not,” said Twilight hastily.

“See? I'm sure you'll do just fine, then,” said Spike smugly.

Twilight sighed again, but didn't press the point any further, and the rest of the trip passed in silence.

Celestia was waiting for the chariot in the Canterlot castle courtyard. “Welcome back to Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle. You too, Spike,” she said as they approached. Twilight and Spike gave her a brief bow.

“Hello, Princess,” said Spike. “I thought that trip would last forever. Would it be all right with you if I went down to the kitchens? We missed breakfast this morning because Twilight was running late.”

Twilight gave Spike a horrified look, but Celestia laughed and said, “Of course, Spike. A growing dragon needs plenty of food. Thank you for coming, my faithful student,” she said, turning to Twilight. “Your old rooms have been prepared for you. Please, let me accompany you to them.”

“Oh, you don't need to do that, Princess. I'm sure you're busy preparing for your trip,” said Twilight.

“It's quite alright. I'd like to speak with you for a moment before my sister wakes,” replied Celestia, gesturing for Twilight to follow her. “Luna is somewhat nervous about taking the throne without me, although I doubt you'll hear her admit it.”

“Nervous?” said Twilight with a shaky laugh. “I wonder what that's like?”

“Even since her banishment ended, Luna has been very withdrawn,” said Celestia. “She's taken to sleeping in her old palace on the moon, instead of here in Canterlot. It's not good for her, and it's caused... certain other problems, as well,” she said, absentmindedly rubbing her horn. “This mission I'm leaving on is important, but I believe giving my sister a chance to rule on her own for a time is equally important. You must help her do that.”

“Why me, though? Aren't there a lot of ponies better qualified than me to help rule all of Equestria?” asked Twilight, her voice rising to a squeak.

“I have complete trust in you, Twilight,” said Celestia. “You're a natural organizer, and that's all the larger half of ruling is. Besides, I don't believe there's a task in Equestria that you couldn't master if you put your mind to it. Another important factor is that Luna already knows and trusts you. I'm sure that trust will grow in your time together.”

“I suppose so,” said Twilight, although she was hardly convinced.

“Don't worry so much,” chided Celestia. “I'll only be gone for a month.”

Twilight sighed as they came to the staircase up to her old tower. “Everypony keeps saying that, but I don't see how I'm supposed to keep from worrying. You're practically putting the fate of Equestria in my hooves! Well, and Princess Luna's, of course,” she hastily amended.

“I think you'll find it to be much less strenuous than you've expected,” said Celestia. “You might even, dare I say, find yourself getting bored. Besides, I think we've met our disaster quota for the year. I don't expect any trouble while I'm gone.”

Celestia nodded to Twilight as they approached her room. “Everypony here believes in you, Twilight. You and Luna will have all the support you need. In fact, I think you've got a visitor already,” she said with a smile.

Twilight turned and looked behind her just in time to be half tackled by a bright pink alicorn. “Twilight! I didn't expect you to arrive so soon. Oh, hello Princess,” said Cadence, untangling herself from her friend.

“Hi, Cadence,” said Twilight as Celestia chuckled softly.

“I'll leave you two to catch up,” she said, taking wing.

“How have you been?” asked Cadence as Twilight opened the door to her room.

“Good. Sorry I never responded to your last letter. I meant to, but then Celestia asked me to help advise Luna, and I kind of forgot everything else. Where's Shining Armor, by the way?”

“He's still on duty. He should be here before too long. I think he still feels like he needs to work extra to make up for letting the changelings in, especially since we left on our honeymoon right afterwards. He knows better than to miss seeing you on your first day here, though.”

“Has there been any sign of them since then?” asked Twilight.

“None,” said Cadence with a shiver. “I think they learned their lesson. I don't want to talk about them, though. So, are you excited?”

“More like terrified, actually,” said Twilight with a weak laugh. “I'm not sure I'm ready for this.”

“Oh, don't talk like that,” said Cadence. “You're the perfect pony for this job. I think Luna will be glad to see you, too. She's seemed a bit out of sorts, lately.”

“How come?” asked Twilight.

“Well, I heard her and Celestia had a bit of a spat after the wedding,” replied Cadence, lowering her voice. “Celestia was more than a little irked that Luna wasn't here when the changelings attacked.” She sighed. “I can't seem to help but talk about them, can I? Anyway, she asked Luna to stay here in Canterlot instead of going back to the moon every morning, but Luna refused. She said she just couldn't sleep down here. She's been a bit distant towards everypony since then, but I hope you'll be able to cheer her up.”

“Ooh, do you think she'd take me to the moon with her?” asked Twilight, anxiety briefly forgotten. “It would be amazing to see it first hand. And I bet there would be an incredible view of the stars from there. But I suppose there's no air, is there? But there's probably a spell for that, or Luna wouldn't be able to live there. Unless she doesn't need to breathe. Do alicorns need to breathe?”

Cadence laughed. “Slow down there, Twilight. I sure need to breath, but if you can talk at that rate, you might not need to. Anyway, Luna doesn't take anyone up there, as far as I know. I think Celestia goes up occasionally, but she likes to give Luna her space.”

“How come?” asked Twilight, her face falling.

“I never asked. Like I said, she can be a bit distant, even if she's always polite,” said Cadence.

“Luna always seemed friendly to me, once you got her to open up a bit,” said Twilight. “I haven't talked to her since the wedding, though.”

“Well, maybe that's why Celestia thinks you'll be able to cheer her up, then,” pointed out Cadence.

Shining Armor chose that moment to burst through Twilight's door, shouting “Twily! How you doing?” as he ran up to give his sister a hug.

“Hi, big bro!” said Twilight, returning his hug. “How have you been?”

“Oh, I've been great. Working hard, but Cadence makes coming home even better,” he said, giving his wife a kiss. “Say, did I tell you about...”

* * *

The princess of the night sat on her throne, gazing down on Equestria. The irony of her position did not escape her; she had spent uncountable days sitting on this very spot during her exile, plotting her revenge. Now, her exile was entirely self-imposed. The throne was plain, hewed out of gray stone with little attention to detail. Once, it had been a marvel to behold, or perhaps a terror. Her palace, too, was a shell of its former dark magnificence, the product of a thousand years of solitary labor. Turrets, carvings, and outcroppings had been melted down to slag, or blasted out, leaving rough craters. Intricate carvings had been burned out of existence. Statues had been shattered into dust.

Luna did not regret their loss in the slightest. They were the product of a twisted mind, and a reminder of a time she had all too much trouble forgetting as it was. The first time she had returned to the moon after being cleansed, she had obliterated much of her accumulated works in a fit of revulsion. She had kept the structure of her palace, telling herself she would rebuild, so that anypony who saw would marvel in wonder rather than recoiling in horror. At first she had thrown herself into the work, but as the weeks had passed, her progress had slowed, and then stopped entirely. Why bother spending so much effort on something nopony would ever see?

After that, she had tried to abandon her moon, spending more time in Canterlot. But Canterlot would always be her sister's place, and no matter how welcome Celestia tried to make Luna feel, she would always be an outsider. Eventually, she had felt compelled to return to her lunar palace, no matter how much the place reminded her of her many failures; at least it was hers. Her sister had never approved, but she hadn't pressed the issue until the changeling attack. Neither sister had ever encountered any entity except Discord who could come close to threatening them before, and Celestia had wanted them to stay closer to each other, in case a similar threat ever appeared. Luna had argued that from her perch on the moon, she could keep a better watch for any creature coming close to discovering the hidden mechanics of the world. It was a weak argument, and she knew it. If anyone or anything else were ever to uncover the secrets that Luna and Celestia had, it would be immediately obvious no matter where they were.

Luna sensed a ripple in the world as Celestia folded the sun away for the night, which meant she'd be expecting Luna in Canterlot soon. Sighing, Luna spread her wings and sprang into the air. It wasn't strictly necessary for her to be airborne, but she had always found it more comfortable. Peering beneath the surface of reality, Luna found one of the currents that flowed beneath the skin of the world and launched herself into it. A moment later, she was soaring high above Canterlot castle.

Luna was not looking forward to weathering Celestia's latest ploy to tie her more tightly to Canterlot. Celestia had always taken the more public role in ruling Equestria, even before Nightmare Moon. Luna had done her best to catch up on the how the laws and customs had changed from her time, but she was sure there were a hundred little details she had missed. She'd just have to do the best she could, and hope to not cause too many political incidents.

Despite herself, Luna did find herself feeling slightly better as she landed in the castle courtyard. That was how it always was. She knew from experience that by the end of the night, she'd be desperate for the solitude and familiarity of her own palace. She'd return, only to fall back into depression. Still, for the moment, she let herself enjoy the sound of the wind playing through the trees and the dancing shadows cast by her moon.

She was also looking forward to speaking with Twilight Sparkle again, although she wished it were under other circumstances. The little lavender unicorn was one of the few ponies in the modern era who could hold a real conversation with Luna. She had also been the first pony to inform Luna of the discontinued use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, rather than merely cowering; Luna was still annoyed at the hands-off approach Celestia had taken on that particular issue. Still, Luna hoped her sister had judged Twilight's abilities correctly. A princess who had never ruled before and an advisor who had never advised before seemed like a poor combination to her.

Leaving the courtyard where she had landed, Luna made her way down the hall towards her sister's quarters. She would see Celestia once more before she left, but they tended to have their conversations in the evenings rather than the mornings. Not that her sister would admit it to anypony, but she tended to be tired and grouchy when she first woke, and Luna was always irritable by the end of the night.

The royal guards at Celestia's door bowed and parted as Luna approached, and she knocked, waited a heartbeat, and entered. Celestia was sitting on her favorite cushion in front of the fireplace reading a report, as usual. “Hello, sister,” she said as her sister closed the door behind her.

“How are your preparations coming along?” asked Luna, settling herself on a cushion opposite Celestia.

“Quite well. I was just reading the most recent news from the gryphons. There haven't been any more incidents in the past week, thankfully. How are you?”

“Well enough, I suppose,” said Luna. “I still believe this is a mistake.”

Celestia sighed. “What do you think will happen? What disaster do you think will happen if you rule alone for a month?”

“There are any number of things that could go wrong! What if something happens, and I don't know the correct protocol for it?”

Celestia gave that soft laugh of hers which Luna found both comforting and irritating, and doubly irritating because she found it comforting. “You see? You're just nervous. You'll do just fine, and you know it. Twilight Sparkle arrived this afternoon. You should go talk to her. I think you'll find you have something in common at the moment.”

“Oh? And what would that be, dear sister?”

“You're both convinced Equestria will come tumbling down the moment you take it in your hooves, even though everypony else can see you'll do a splendid job.”

“Fine! Perhaps I shall go talk to her. I'm sure she will be a more reasonable conversation partner than yourself.” Luna rose and began an exaggerated stalk towards the door. After a furtive glance to make sure nopony else could see, she looked back and stuck her tongue out at her sister. Celestia promptly threw the cushion Luna had been sitting on at her, and both sisters broke down in a brief fit of giggles.

“Take care of yourself, 'Tia,” said Luna, hugging her sister.

“You too. I'll be back before you know it,” said Celestia, hugging her back.

After saying her goodbyes, Luna walked out to the balcony. With a final brief wave at her sister, she launched herself back into the air, heading for the tower Twilight was occupying. It was time to meet her new advisor.

Chapter 3

The scene before Luna seemed almost unreal. The bright and shining Equestria her sister had created simply did not have a place in it for something like this. Even Discord's brief return had been nothing more than aberration, a fluke accident. This was something much more sinister, an attack from within rather than without.

“Wait downstairs,” she instructed the guards. “I need to investigate... this,” she said, waving her hoof in disgust. “You should go and wake your brother yourself,” she told Twilight, noticing that the little unicorn seemed pale and slightly nauseous. Twilight opened her mouth to protest, glanced at the dead pony, and quickly changed her mind. She nodded and hastily exited the room. Luna sighed. Disturbing as this was, it wasn't the worst thing she had ever seen. She couldn't imagine what it must be like for the other ponies. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to the room.

The first thing Luna examined were the weapons against the walls. A cursory glance told her that they were meant to be held by hooves, dispelling her small hope that something other than ponies had done this. She turned her attention to the pony himself. He was an earth pony with a hammer as his cutie mark, which would help to identify him. Luna guessed that he had been dead for a day or two, not long enough for the body to have started decomposing. There were no signs of restraint, which probably meant he had been held down by magic. The spear had been driven with incredible force, which meant that it had probably also been wielded with magic.

Frowning, Luna turned her attention to the marks on the floor. As far as she could tell, they were meaningless. Any unicorn filly knew that magic was something that came from within, not from runes or sigils. It was obvious that at least one powerful unicorn had been involved, so Luna couldn't understand what the purpose of the diagram had been. Still, something about it seemed odd, almost familiar. She looked closer.

Then, suddenly, she saw. But that's impossible, she thought. That doesn't even make sense! Only Celestia or I could have known how to draw that picture. We would have sensed it if anypony else had grasped the secret. Luna turned back to the shelves, yanking the books off of them. She held them around her, quickly skimming through. Several were theories on the nature of magic and the world, mostly wrong. One seemed to be a journal filled with crazed ramblings; she set it aside for more careful study later. The last was a small, loosely bound notebook. Opening it, Luna discovered a detailed replication of the picture on the floor, spread out over several pages. There were no notes or explanations of any kind.

Luna did a thorough search of the room, but she found nothing else. Sighing, she carefully lifted the dead pony to the side, removing the spear that had killed him. Then, she scoured the floor, erasing all traces of the drawing that had been there. She wasn't even sure what a mortal pony would be able to accomplish with it, but there was no point in taking chances. Taking the journal and the notebook with her, she made her way down the stairs to the guards waiting below.

The guards were huddled around in a loose circle, talking quietly. “Did you find anything, Princess?” asked the commander as she entered.

“More than I'd have liked,” said Luna. “I'll need to read this journal. With luck, it will let us track down the pony who did this.” She gave a deep sigh. “If you'd please, assign a couple of your men to recover the body. Tomorrow, we'll have to find his friends and family so he can have a decent funeral.”

“Yes, Princess,” said the commander sadly. It was a task nopony would envy.

“Commander,” said Luna, stopping him. “We will find the one responsible for this.” She looked every guard in the eye, then nodded briefly and exited the room.

Once outside, Luna wasted no time in flying back to the palace. After a moment of hesitation, she landed on the balcony outside her own room. It was quite similar to Celestia's, although decorated in darker colors, and the servants had kept it spotless even though she hadn't stayed there in months. With a quick burst of magic, Luna lit a fire in the hearth along with several candles. Tonight, she wanted the warm glow of real flames, rather than magical lamps. As an afterthought, she stuck her head out into the hallway, causing a passing servant to jump. “Please inform the commander of the guards and Twilight Sparkle that I am in my room, if they wish to find me,” she said.

With that done, she seated herself at her desk with the two books in front of her. First, she opened the journal. The writing was jumbled and haphazard, but it was clearly written in ink, which Luna was very thankful for.

The journal went on in the same manner for the next few pages. Luna had much more experience with madness than she would have liked, but the writing made even her shiver. She skipped ahead until she found what seemed to be a new entry.

The writing once again deteriorated into gibberish. Luna skipped ahead until she found a new section, when seemed to have been written in an even more agitated state.

The rest of the journal was blank. I guess he's not the literary, introspective type, thought Luna sardonically. So who did we find? Was it the writer, or “him”? Or just some poor, innocent pony? She sighed. Maybe they would find some answers once they'd discovered who the victim had been.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Come in,” she said absentmindedly. The door opened and Twilight entered. “Twilight. I'm glad you're here. There is something I believe you can help me with,” said Luna. She levitated the other book she had taken, sending it over to the unicorn. “Can you reproduce the figure in this book on a large piece of canvas? I know you're good with diagrams.”

“Oh. Y-Yes, I can do that for you, I think,” replied Twilight in a small voice.

Luna stopped and mentally kicked herself. Always the sensitive, caring friend, aren't you, Luna? No wonder everypony likes my sister better. “I'm sorry,” she said to Twilight, getting out of her chair and walking over to the smaller pony. “I'd gotten so wrapped up, I had forgotten how traumatic all this must be for you.” She kicked herself a second time for sounding so impersonal. “How are you feeling?” she finished lamely.

“I'm feeling better now. A bit,” replied Twilight. “I sat and talked with Cadence for a while after Shining Armor left. She always helps me feel better. It was... It was just horrible, wasn't it?”

“Yes. It was,” said Luna. “I've seen a lot of horrible things in my life. A side effect of immortality. It makes it easier, but sometimes I wish it didn't. You should never let yourself grow numb to that sort of thing.” There was a moment of silence. “Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked after a moment.

“No. No, I'll be alright,” said Twilight, shaking herself slightly. “Anyway, was there something you wanted me to do?”

“Yes,” said Luna. “This notebook contains the drawing that was on the floor beneath... Well, in the room. I erased the one we found, but I'd like you to copy the one in here, so I can study it in greater detail.”

“What is it?” asked Twilight, her curiosity starting to displace her lingering terror.

Luna frowned. “It is something they should not have been able to draw,” she said. “I would appreciate it if you would not share this with anypony else,” said Luna. “I don't see how it could be dangerous, but I'd prefer not to take any chances until I know exactly how they gained the knowledge to draw it.”

“Of course,” said Twilight.

Luna sat down next to the smaller pony with the notebook held in front of them. “This a depiction of the world as it really is,” she said. “Rather stylized in an unpleasant sort of way, but still entirely recognizable to someone who has seen it. That would be my sister and myself, or so I thought.”

“What do you mean, the world as it really is?” asked Twilight.

“Beneath the surface of the world, there are... mechanisms that keep the heavens turning,” began Luna. “I don't mean underground. They exist on a different plane of existence, if you will, from the world we see around us. Also, mechanism isn't quite the right word. They're not machine like in any way. It's almost closer to a living organism, although that's not quite right either.”

“But isn't it your job to keep the heavens turning?” asked Twilight.

“It is,” replied Luna, “But we do so with the mechanisms that already existed. We did not create them. We don't even fully understand them. I believe much more can be done with them than either myself or my sister is capable of. Still, the little we can do is more than any other pony has ever been able to, or any creature at all, for that matter.”

Twilight took several seconds to process this. She looked as though she were trying to decide which question to ask fist. After a moment, she decided on, “So, what does all this represent, then?”

“This circle in the middle is the world around us,” said Luna. “This symbol here that looks similar to my cutie mark is the moon, and the one opposite of it is the sun.”

“What's that symbol there mean?” asked Twilight. “It looks kind of like my cutie mark.”

“Actually, it would be more accurate to say that your cutie mark looks kind of like it,” said Luna. “That would be the Element of Magic. The other Elements of Harmony are here, too,” she said, point in a large circle around the drawing. “The Elements are part of the fundamental structure of the world. The necklaces you and your friends posses are just focal points. If they were ever destroyed, they would naturally reemerge in another form somewhere else.”

“These lines around the figure are what we call the deep currents,” she continued. “They allow my sister and I to travel great distances quickly. They also serve to transfer energy from one place in the world to another, although that's one of the things we've never entirely understood.”

“What about this place, here?” asked Twilight, pointing to a large patch that seemed almost like a defect, disrupting the rest of the figure.

“That is called the Breach,” said Luna. “It is the place where Discord first entered the world. My sister and I were never able to repair it. We sealed it off from the rest of the world and created Tartarus on top of it to discourage anything else from coming through.”

“Wait. If Discord didn't come from the world, then where did he come from? And what else is there aside from the world? And who created all this, anyway?”

Luna laughed at Twilight's exuberance. “There are a multitude of other worlds outside of this one,” she said. “Celestia and I visited some of them once, shortly after we gained our powers and defeated Discord. But between the worlds is a chaotic, shifting realm. That is where Discord comes from. As for your other question, a being we call Harmony created this world many eons ago by imposing order on the chaos between worlds. When Discord invaded, Harmony did not fight him, because the battle would have destroyed everything Harmony had created. Instead, Harmony infused all of it's power into the structure of the world, creating the Elements, in the hope that someone else would discover them and be able to defeat Discord without laying waste to everything. Discord was never able to use them, because they run counter to everything that he is.”

Twilight's mouth was hanging slightly open by the time Luna finished. “How come nopony's ever heard all this before?” she asked.

“When we first began ruling, Equestria was... not as kind a place as it is now. Celestia said that ponies needed someone to believe in. She said if they knew we didn't have any idea what we were doing half the time, it would shake their confidence. After that, it just never seemed appropriate to reveal it. Besides, they're comfortable with their own myths.”

Twilight seemed on the edge of responding, but then decided against it. Luna found herself feeling vaguely guilty anyway. Maybe she should talk with her sister about revealing the truth when she returned.

Luna snapped her attention back to what Twilight was saying. “What does all this have to do with the murder, though?” she asked, a trace of grimness coming back into her voice.

“I'm not sure, and that worries me,” said Luna. “This is just a drawing. As far as I know, there's nothing anypony could do with it. What worries me is how they could have drawn this, when no one but me or my sister can see the hidden mechanisms of the world. If anypony else had learned how to see them, I'd be able to sense them immediately. That's never happened, not once in two thousand years.”

“Why not?” asked Twilight.

“I'm not sure,” said Luna again. “I told you before that Celestia and I had tried to teach other ponies to see them, but we never could. I don't even know how to describe it. Seeing isn't even the right word. There's also an element of feeling to it. It's different from any other sense.”

“Well, how did you and Celestia do it?”

A shadow passed over Luna's face. “I don't like to talk about it,” she said. “Let me just say that it was under circumstances we would never inflict on another pony.”

Twilight didn't respond, and the mood in the room seemed to grow darker as both ponies remembered what had brought them there in the first place. After a minute of silence, Twilight said, “I'll start making that drawing for you.”

Luna nodded. “I'll have a large piece of canvas delivered,” she said. “I need to have some reports sent to me anyway.” She walked to the door and stuck her head out. Two guards had been posted there since she'd last looked. She gave her orders to one of them and retreated back inside. Sighing, she made her way over to one of the pillows by the fire and lay down. After a moment, Twilight lay down on the one opposite her.

Both ponies were silent for several minutes. Eventually, Twilight said, “Luna?”

“Yes?”

“Would you stay here in Canterlot tomorrow? I'd feel better knowing you were nearby.”

Luna lowered her head, sighing. She opened her mouth to refuse, but instead found herself saying, “Alright. I will.”

“Thanks,” said Twilight. “I don't know how I'd be able to get to sleep otherwise. Of course, I probably won't be able to anyway, but it'll help.”

Luna's pondering on exactly why she had agreed to stay in Canterlot for Twilight were interrupted by a servant entering with the reports, and another two carrying a large piece of canvas between them. “Put it on the floor over there,” instructed Luna. “I'll take those.”

She settled herself once again at her desk with the reports in front of her. “Let me know if you need any help interpreting anything,” she told Twilight. The smaller pony yawned and nodded, then settled down in front of the canvas with the notebook.

Some of the reports she'd requested were just the usual business of the kingdom, but Luna set those aside for the moment. Instead, she opened the ones having to do with crimes, disappearances, and other odd occurrences. Most were clearly useless: petty theft, property damage, the occasional fight. Almost all the disappearances had a later note explaining what had happened to the pony in question. Sighing, Luna settled herself in for a long night.

It took her nearly an hour to find something that perked her interest. Around two years ago, a unicorn stallion named Midnight Dream had caused a major disturbance at an inn. He had been screaming and raving about visions, and had assaulted several patrons before being restrained. Luna skimmed through the report, looking for more incidents involving the pony. A few dozen pages on, she found another. It appeared he had been forming a cult of some sort, and had been trying to recruit young ponies. When the parents had found out, there had been an outrage. Midnight Dream had spent several days in the castle dungeon before being exiled from Canterlot. There had been another sighting, though, a couple of months after that. This time, he had been preaching apocalyptic prophesies in the town square of a nearby village, but he had managed to elude the guards. After that, there were no more records. Luna found a written description of the pony, along with a thorough sketch.

Excited, she turned to tell Twilight about her discoveries. The lavender unicorn, however, had fallen asleep on the cushion she was seated on, the partially completed diagram spread before her. Luna started to wake her, but then stopped herself. If Twilight had managed to fall asleep after the events of the night, Luna wasn't cruel enough to wake her and send her back to her room. Instead, she wove a spell around Twilight to help keep the worst of the dreams at bay. Then, she fetched a spare blanket from her closet and wrapped it around the sleeping pony. Luna looked down at Twilight for a few moments, smiling gently. Then, she left the room, bringing the report with her.

“Find the captain,” she told the guards outside. “Tell him I need to track down a pony named Midnight Dream. Here's the description. I believe we have a lead...”

* * *

Twilight slowly floated back to consciousness from a rather pleasant dream involving a certain dark blue alicorn. Yawning, she looked around, bemused. Where am I? She thought. Oh, right, I was working on the diagram for Luna- I FELL ASLEEP IN THE PRINCESS'S ROOM!? Jumping up from the pillow she had been sleeping on, she looked wildly around. The sun was visible out a window, and Twilight judged it to be sometime in the afternoon. I slept the whole day in Princess Luna's room!? What is she going to do to me when she finds out?

Twilight took a couple of deep breaths. Calm down, she told herself. Luna was here when you fell asleep, and she didn't wake you, so she must not have minded. In fact, now that Twilight thought about it, the fact that there had been a blanket over her meant that Luna couldn't have been angry. Where is she, anyway? Twilight gave the room a more thorough look, and this time noticed an alicorn sized lump in the bed.

Oh, she thought, walking over to the sleeping princess. Luna's mane still flowed around her perfectly in her sleep; Twilight wasn't sure she wanted to know what her own looked like. One of the benefits to being the immortal ruler of the night, I guess. In fact, looking down at the sleeping pony, Twilight couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was.

Now stop that, Twilight, she thought. Luna's the princess. Thinking about her that way just isn't appropriate. Twilight firmly forced herself to walk away, searching for a mirror and a brush. Besides, she probably doesn't even like mares. NO! Stop that!

Twilight abandoned her search, instead focusing her magic. With a flash of light, she was standing in her own tower. Spike was elsewhere, leaving the room unoccupied. Twilight quickly located her brush and got her hair into a semblance of order. Then she left the room, her mind falling back to the grim events of the night before. Since Luna was still asleep, she set off in search of her brother.

Shining Armor was fairly easy to track down after she'd asked a couple of guards. She found him talking to a pair of commanders in the offices of the main palace barracks. She stood by the doorway for a minute until he had finished, and then walked up to him.

“Oh, hey, Twi,” he said with little of his usual exuberance. Twilight noticed that he had dark shadows under his eyes. “How are you holding up?”

“I'm doing alright,” she said. “I managed to get some real sleep last night. Well, I guess most of it was actually this morning. You look like you could do with some yourself,” she told him.

“Yeah, Cadence said the same thing. I only managed to grab a few hours towards morning. I can't spare the time for more, though, with that psycho running around. Did the Princess tell you we have a lead?”

“No,” said Twilight, perking up. “I must have fallen asleep before then.”

“It's some pony named Midnight Dream,” he said. “He sounds like he could have written that journal the Princess found. If he's involved, he'll probably be hiding somewhere in the city, but we haven't had any luck finding him so far.”

“Listen,” said Twilight. “I'm the Princess's advisor. Why don't you let me organize the search, so you can get some rest?”

“You?” sputtered her brother. “No offense, Twi, but I couldn't possibly leave my duties like that. I know you mean well, but you just don't have the experience for this kind of thing.”

“On the contrary,” retorted Twilight. “Organizing things is what I'm best at. Why do you think I'm here in the first place? Give me a map of the city, and I can organize the most effective search patterns for the guards. Besides, you're not going to do much good if you're falling asleep on your feet, now are you?” she said, poking Shining Armor in the chest.

Her brother started to formulate a reply, but it was clear fatigue was slowing his mental wheels. “Do I need to go get Cadence?” asked Twilight mercilessly. “I can teleport and have her back here in a moment.”

Shining Armor seemed to deflate slightly. “Guess I need to admit that my little sister is all grown up,” he said. “I want to make sure you actually do know what you're doing first, though. Follow me.”

He led Twilight to an adjoining room, where a large map of the city had been laid out on the table. “Pay attention, because I'll only explain this once. I need to know you can handle this, so if you don't get it all the first time, I can't let you organize the search.” He waited to make sure Twilight understood, then continued. “These lines here represent the guard patrols. These shaded areas are the ones we've already searched, but we're not searching houses yet. We have checked at all the inns, so he's not staying there. Now, these symbols here represent...”

All in all, it took Twilight less than half an hour to work out the most efficient routes for the guards to walk. She also took into account that Midnight Dream might not have realized he'd been found out yet, and adjusted the routes to be less conspicuous. She also told her brother to make the guards around the building where they'd found the body less visible, which he admitted he probably would have thought of himself if he hadn't been so tired. After that, all there was left to do was chase him off to bed, although not before he'd extracted a promise from her to work on her combat magic if she was going to involve herself in this sort of thing.

Twilight was in a fairly good mood by the time she'd finished, all things considered. She paused outside of the barracks, considering what the next most important thing for her to do was. Before she could make up her mind, one of the day guards approached her.

“Lady Sparkle?” he said. “We've identified the body of the pony who was killed last night. A carpenter named Oakwood.”

Twilight's good mood vanished like a popped balloon. “Does he have a family?” she asked.

“Just a brother. He doesn't know yet,” said the guard, grimacing. “How would you like to handle it?”

Twilight had absolutely no idea how she wanted to handle it. Telling a pony his brother had been murdered hadn't exactly been on her list of things to study before coming to Canterlot. I need to do it myself, she thought. Nothing else would be appropriate. She opened her mouth to say so, but an image of the night before flashed through her mind, and the words stuck in her throat. She tried to picture herself doing it, and simply couldn't. The guard was still standing in front of Twilight, looking at her expectantly. Panicking, she said, “I'll let the Princess decide when she wakes.”

The guard nodded and gave a brief salute before walking away, leaving Twilight with nothing but a crushing load of guilt for company. Sure, Twilight. The first big responsibility that comes your way, and you dump it on Luna. What an outstanding advisor you are.

Twilight slunk off down the corridor, heading for her tower. Eventually, she'd have to visit Luna's room to retrieve the notebook and the canvas; at least she could fulfill that small responsibility. If she waited until the sun was down, Luna might already be gone, so she wouldn't have to confront her. But then Twilight remembered she'd promised to let Luna know about the dead pony's family herself, which meant she'd have to explain her failure in person. Her spirits sunk even lower as she imagined the look of disappointment on Luna's face.

When she reached her room, Twilight threw herself onto her bed in a manner that would have done Rarity proud. She lay there for the better part of an hour, watching the sun sink towards the horizon out the window, becoming more and more convinced that she had failed completely and utterly, and that she'd be lucky if Luna didn't dismiss her out of hand.

Twilight's brooding was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. She looked over to see Spike entering. “Twilight!” he said. “There you are. I've been looking all over for you. What's going on? I heard a rumor that somepony got killed!”

“It's true,” said Twilight distractedly. “I was there when they found the body.”

“That's horrible!” said Spike. “Do you know who did it?”

“The guards are looking for him now,” said Twilight. I probably screwed that up too, though, she thought to herself.

“Well, I'm sure you and Princess Luna will catch him in no time. Oh! Right, I'm supposed to tell you that the Princess is awake and she'd like to see you,” said Spike.

Here it comes. “Well, I'd better get going then,” she said out loud.

Despondently, Twilight started the walk down to Luna's room. She was dreading arriving too much to teleport, but in what seemed like no time at all, she was standing outside Luna's door. Sighing, she knocked to enter.

“Come in,” said Luna from the other side. She was sitting at her desk again, reading more reports. “Good evening, Twilight,” she said, looking up. “I hear that you took up your brother's duties, so he could rest. My sister clearly knew what she was doing when she selected you to be my advisor.”

Luna's praise made Twilight feel even worse. Taking a deep breath, she said, “There was something else. The guards found out who the dead pony was. His name was Oakwood, and he's got a brother who doesn't know yet. I... I was going to tell him myself, but I just couldn't. I'm sorry.” Twilight hung her head in shame.

“Sorry? What for?” said Luna. Twilight looked up to see Luna giving her a quizzical look. “Informing ponies of dead family members is certainly not a part of your duties as an advisor. I'll want to do that myself, of course.”

Twilight stared at the princess, uncomprehending. “But... But I'm your advisor! I'm supposed to take of things so you don't have to, and I failed!” Unable to help herself, Twilight collapsed into a miserable, weeping pile on the floor.

Instantly, Luna was at her side. “Don't worry,” she said softly, kneeling down beside Twilight. “You did fine. Everything's fine. You're an absolutely fantastic advisor.”

“What's wrong with me?” asked Twilight wretchedly.

“You're still in shock,” said Luna gently, stroking Twilight's mane. “It's a perfectly natural reaction to what you saw. You're suppressing the emotions, so they have to find another way out.”

Twilight huddled against Luna. A distant part of her mind told her she was behaving absolutely shamefully, but she didn't have the strength to listen to it. Now that Luna had named the source of her distress, she couldn't stop it from pouring out. “I could never have imagined something so horrible,” she said. “Even after Discord, I could never have imagined one pony doing that to another. What kind of pony would do something like that?”

“My sister has created a beautiful world, but even she can't make it perfect,” said Luna. “Be thankful these things are rare enough for you to see them for what they are.”

“How long will I be like this?” asked Twilight wiping her eyes. “I don't want to burst into tears at every trivial little thing!”

“Don't worry,” said Luna, “I don't think you'll have an episode quite like this again. The worst of it is probably over. It will take time for you heal completely, but I'm sure it will happen. You're a strong pony inside.”

Twilight nodded. She was starting to feel recovered enough to notice that Luna had wrapped a wing protectively around her, and that it felt rather good. With that realization, the nagging part of Twilight's mind informing her of how inappropriate she was being got considerably louder. Still, she could help but wait a few more moments before standing up. “I'm sorry about all that,” she said.

“Don't be,” said Luna. “Please, come and talk to me again if you need to.”

Twilight nodded. “Anyway, was there something you needed me to do?”

“I'd appreciate it if you could finish the diagram for me,” said Luna. “I'll need to go to night court soon, and I'd like to have a look at it when it's over, if you can finish it by then.”

“Won't you need me at court?” asked Twilight.

“I won't inflict that on you tonight,” said Luna. “This is more important. I'm cutting court to no longer than three hours anyway.”

“Alright. I'd better get started right away, then,” said Twilight, walking over to the canvas still lying on the floor. She settled herself on a pillow and propped the notebook open before her.

The task Luna had set for her was actually quite fascinating, and helped to calm Twilight's mind. Fortunately, she hadn't gotten a good look at the drawing in the room with the dead pony, so looking at it now didn't trigger any memories. The figure was intricate and beautiful, but something about it also seemed subtly wrong to Twilight, although she wasn't quite sure what. Maybe Luna would know what was bothering her when she finished. With that thought, she set to work.

Some time later, Luna stood up with a sigh. “Duty calls,” she said. “Hopefully it won't be too unpleasant tonight. I'll return in a few hours. Be sure to ask the guards if you need anything.”

Luna started towards the door. Before she'd taken more than a few steps towards it, though, there was an urgent knocking. “What is it?” said Luna as she walked the rest of the way and opened the door.

“Princess, you'd better come quick,” said the guard outside. “We've found Midnight Dream.”

Chapter 4

As Luna followed the guard out of her room, she felt slightly guilty at how pleased she was for an excuse to delay night court. No one could blame her, though; this was clearly more important. She held that thought firmly in her mind as she walked down the hall.

“Where did you find him?” she asked the guard leading her.

“Near the outskirts of the city,” replied the guard. “We're not sure where he was coming from or going to yet, but we'll find out. It looks like you were right about him. He gave one of the boys a nasty gash when the patrol tried to bring him in.”

“Is the guard alright?” asked Luna, alarmed.

“He'll be fine. He should be getting it sewn up now.”

“What about Midnight Dream?” said Luna.

“The patrol managed to whack him on the- That is, they subdued him. He hasn't woken up yet, so we haven't gotten a chance to question him. Hopefully he'll be coming to right about when we arrive.”

Luna nodded and increased her pace. She wanted to be there when he woke up. If she could see his reaction before he became fully aware of his situation, it might give her some insight.

The Canterlot dungeon was both smaller and cleaner than rumor might suggest. There were only a dozen cells, and while they were hardly luxurious, they were kept neat. Each was surrounded by a powerful spell to keep captive unicorns from using their magic. As usual, most were unoccupied. Luna passed one pony who seemed to in a drunken stupor, and another two who looked like they had gotten in a fight.

At the very back of the dungeon was Midnight Dream's cell. He was still unconscious, as Luna had hoped, and she took the chance to study him. As his name suggested, Midnight Dream was a pitch black unicorn stallion. His hair was greyish-white, and his cutie mark was a ring of seven stars surrounding a double spiral.

The guard who had brought Luna to the dungeon stood back a few paces and waited. Luna shifted impatiently. After a minute, Midnight dream began to stir. Then, without warning, the unconscious pony let out a bloodcurdling shriek.

Luna took a step back in spite of herself. Not that she had never heard a pony scream before, but this one seemed especially disturbing, perhaps since there was no cause for it. Midnight Dream continued shrieking, twitching erratically. Slowly, he seemed to become aware of the world around him, and his screaming morphed into a laugh that made Luna's skin crawl.

“They can see you, you know,” he said abruptly, staring up at Luna, head tilted at an angle. “They can see you, but you can't see them. I can see them, though,” he said with an insane giggle. “Sometimes they talk about you. In between the screams. Sometimes they scream about you in between the talking. What's the difference?”

“Who are they?” Luna found herself asking, against her better judgment.

“NO! No! Wrong question!” said Midnight Dream vehemently. “They are not who. They are not what. You can't see them. How can you know if you can't see them?”

“Did you kill a stallion named Oakwood?” asked Luna, deciding on a more direct approach “A brown earth pony. We found him in the attic of an abandoned shop.”

“They like the screams,” said Midnight, giggling to himself again. “They never heard them before, though. He makes it so they can hear them.” A spasm of rage flashed across his face, then was gone.

Luna decided that was probably the clearest confession she was going to get. “Who is he?” she asked instead.

Midnight opened his mouth, but only a choking sound came out. “He said not to tell,” he said after a few seconds. “He made it so none of us could tell.”

Luna frowned. Could he be under a geas? How in Equestria would somepony know how to perform one, though? As far as Luna knew, the last bits of knowledge relating to mind control spells had been eradicated several hundred years before her exile. Only the unicorn who had placed a geas on a pony could safely remove it; if anypony else tried, even Luna or her sister, it could cause terrible damage to the pony's mind and memories.

Luna sighed. If she was going to get any kind of useful information out of Midnight, she was going to need to try and speak his language. “How do you see them?” she asked after a moment.

“They're on the edge between dreaming and waking,” he said. “Sometimes they come, sometimes they don't. At first I didn't like them, no, no. I didn't like the screams. I tried to make them stop. But you don't make them stop. They make you start!”

“When did you start seeing them?” Luna asked.

“Before. Before, I didn't see them. But then I saw them, and now I can see them.”

Right. No specific questions, she thought. She still had no idea what “they” were supposed to be. Most likely, they existed only in Midnight's mind, but the possibility that he had been put under a geas made another idea occur to Luna. “Did he make you see them?” she asked.

“NO!” shouted Midnight instantly. “NO! THEY BELONGED TO ME FIRST! HE THINKS HE CAN MAKE THEM HIS, BUT THEY'RE MINE!”

Probably not a magically induced hallucination, then, or at least it didn't start as one, thought Luna. It wasn't hard to come to the conclusion that Midnight Dream didn't have the presence of mind to plan elaborate crimes, which meant that the mysterious “he” was the true culprit, and Midnight was just some poor, insane pony that “he” had found easy to manipulate. Now the problem was getting enough out of Midnight to track “him” down. Geas tended to be quite specific, and a creative pony could usually find a way to divulge the forbidden information, but Luna doubted Midnight Dream would be capable of that.

“Why did he tell you to kill the pony?” she asked.

“He makes it so they can hear the screams,” said Midnight rapturously, rage forgotten. “They like the screams. I can hear them getting closer. He says he can bring them close enough to touch,” he said with a shiver.

“And what will happen then?” asked Luna.

“Then, everyone will hear the screams. And then they'll all know why I scream!”

This was getting her nowhere. Luna decided to try a different approach. “Who else can see them, aside from you and him?”

“No one but me sees them,” hissed Midnight. “They all say they can, but no one but me really does. I can tell,” he confided.

“And who else is there, besides you and him?” asked Luna.

“Who knows? It doesn't matter. None of it matters except them. Nothing matters...” He descended into an incoherent stream of murmuring and giggles.

Luna sighed. She turned to the guard behind her, who was doing a good job of pretending not to be disturbed by the pony in the cell. “I don't think I'm going to be able to get anything useful out of him,” she said. “Find somepony with a great deal of patience and have them work on him until he spits out something intelligible. He's the only lead we have for the moment.”

Leaving the dungeon, Luna grudgingly headed for the throne room, out of excuses to delay night court any longer. Before she could reach it, though, she was intercepted by a second guard. “Excuse me, Princess, but a letter from your sister arrived earlier,” he said.

“Excellent. Thank you,” said Luna, taking the proffered scroll and feeling secretly relieved that her sister had been so quick to respond.

My dear sister,

I was greatly worried by your letter. This is the first time in decades that such a thing has happened in Canterlot. The drawings on the floor are also disturbing, if they do in fact depict what you think they do. I have never made any recordings that a pony could use to draw such a thing, so this matter certainly deserves attention. I have only just reached Griffon territory, and the meetings have not yet begun. If you wish, I can delay my mission and return to Canterlot until this matter is resolved. Please let me know immediately if there are any further developments.

-Celestia

Luna frowned. It would take a lot more than this for her to ask her sister to return to Canterlot. I'm ruling now. This is the sort of thing rulers have to deal with sometimes, so I'd better be able to deal with it. “I'll send a response later tonight,” she told the guard, before starting resignedly towards the throne room again.

Surprisingly, there were fewer ponies waiting for her tonight, even though she hadn't heard everypony the night before. Those that were there seemed to huddle together nervously. Luna wondered how quickly rumors of the murder had spread. She made a mental note to assign some ponies to keep tabs on the city gossip, so she could better gauge the mood of her subjects.

Luna settled into her throne with a sigh, before declaring court open. Even with fewer ponies than the night before, it was slow going. She did her best to give each pony her full attention, but she found her mind wandering despite herself. It was hard to stop herself from endlessly puzzling over Midnight Dream's insane ramblings, trying to pick out any scrap of meaning.

She wished Twilight were there. Luna had to admit that the lavender unicorn was better at this sort of thing than she was. Luna had always preferred looking at the larger picture, and picking over details merely irritated her. In that, she was different from her sister, and from Twilight as well. Besides, having the lavender unicorn beside her made night court infinitely more bearable. Maybe it was just because Luna had grown so used to be alone, but everything seemed a bit brighter when Twilight was nearby. Also, her flank's not half bad to look at, either.

Luna blinked. Now where had that thought come from? Not that she couldn't admire a nice flank, but she hadn't seriously thought about another pony that way since well before her exile, and for good reason. She shrugged uncomfortably and shook herself. I suppose a thousand years on the moon will give everything a bit of novelty, she thought, before dismissing the whole line of thought and turning her attention back to the petitioners before her.

The last pony was finally dealt with after what seemed like a small eternity, although looking at the passage of the moon, Luna knew it had only been a couple of hours. She almost found herself wishing she could suppress her own mind, like she had been able to during her long exile, although she quickly perished that thought. Giving a deep breath in relief, she declared court closed and quickly exited the throne room.

* * *

Twilight hopped up excitedly as Luna entered her room. “Perfect!” said Twilight. “I just finished making the copy a few minutes ago. Tell me what you think! Oh, how was Midnight Dream, and night court?” she asked hastily.

“Night court was long,” replied Luna. “Remind me not to let you get away so easily next time. Anyhow, if Midnight Dream did commit the murder, he certainly didn't plan it.” She briefly related her conversation with the insane pony to Twilight. “Our top priority needs to be finding out who the mastermind is, and tracking him down.”

Twilight's face fell. “I suppose you don't want to look at this right now, then,” she said, gesturing to the diagram.

“Hm? Oh, of course I do,” said Luna. “It's one of our only clues at the moment. If we can figure out where he got this from, we'll be much closer to finding him.” She sat down beside Twilight, who felt a warm feeling flow through her, both from the praise, and from the blue alicorn's proximity. “You're sure this is all completely accurate?” asked Luna seriously. “Even the smallest detail might give me some insight.”

“I double checked it,” said Twilight, flipping through the notebook where each section of the diagram had been drawn in meticulous detail. “I haven't finished triple checking it, though. I hope that's alright.”

“I'm sure it will be fine,” said Luna, waving her hoof. Then she became silent, gazing at the diagram.

Twilight joined her. She had no idea how the diagram illustrated the mechanics behind the world, but to her, it seemed almost organic, like the illustrations of pony physiology she had seen in some medical textbooks. The lines that Luna had called the Deep Currents seemed almost like veins, pumping blood from the organs of the sun, the moon, the world, and other things Twilight couldn't name. The place called the Breach seemed almost like a wound, or perhaps an old scar that still caused pain from time to time.

“I still don't quite understand how this drawing can be a picture of the world,” said Twilight, hoping for some insight.

Luna glanced up. “Think of it like a rough drawing of a tree,” said Luna. “Anypony who's seen a tree would immediately know what the drawing was of, even if there was almost no detail. The real mechanisms are hugely more complex than this, but all the important parts are here. Although this is less like a drawing, and more like the blueprint of a building.”

Twilight nodded, turning her attention back the diagram. Although she had never seen the mechanisms that the drawing supposedly described, she'd gotten a feel for them as she had copied them from the notebook. Now, as she studied them, she began to notice a few places that seemed at odds with the rest of the drawing.

“What's that?” she asked, pointing to a jagged line crossing one the Deep Currents.

Luna scrutinized the place that Twilight had pointed out. “I'm not sure,” she replied. “As I said before, our knowledge of the mechanisms is quite limited.” She looked closer. “It's odd, though. Most of these symbols, I have no trouble recognizing, even if I don't know what they do. I'm not sure what that is supposed to represent, though.”

Luna stared off into space for several moments, frowning as she focused. Abruptly, she stood. “I'd like to go take a closer look,” she said. “I'll be back in a moment.” Luna stood and walked out to the balcony, and Twilight followed curiously. When she'd gotten outside, she sprang into the air. Her horn glowed for a moment. Then, with a ripple in the air, she vanished.

Twilight lingered on the balcony, unsure of what she should do. She waited a few minutes, but before she could make up her mind, Luna came soaring back into sight from above the palace. She fluttered to a landing beside Twilight, muttering something to herself. She brushed passed Twilight and sat back down before the diagram, still muttering to herself.

“Luna?” asked Twilight. “Is everything alright?”

“Hm? Oh. I've discovered... something. A part of the mechanisms I've never seen before. I'm not surprised. It's very faint. I wouldn't have seen it if I wasn't looking for it. But if my sister and I didn't know about it, how could it be on this diagram?”

“Maybe Celestia discovered it sometime during your exile,” suggested Twilight.

“Possibly, but you'd think she would have said something,” said Luna, still frowning. “I'll have to write her a letter. It would be better if I could actually talk to her, but...” she trailed off.

“Don't you travel to and from the moon every day?” asked Twilight. “Why don't you just go over there using the Deep Currents?”

“You can only exit them at certain points,” said Luna distractedly. “The Griffon Kingdom isn't near any. Come over here a moment, would you?”

Twilight walked over to sit beside her. “What is it?” she asked.

“What made you ask about that part, specifically?” asked Luna, pointing to the troublesome marking.

“I'm not sure. It just looked out of place,” said Twilight.

Luna nodded. “Do you think you can see if there's anything else which looks out of place?” she asked.

“I suppose, although I don't know if I'll be able,” said Twilight uncertainly. “It was just luck, as much as anything else.”

She examined the diagram once again. As far as she could tell, the only difference between the marking that had drawn her attention and the ones surrounding it was that the first seemed slightly jagged, whereas the others were smooth and curved. Shrugging, she began to search for other jagged lines. It didn't take her long to find one; they seemed to be scattered around the drawing at random. However, as she found them and pointed them out, a pattern began to emerge. Each seemed to be oriented towards another, so that they formed a sort of web around the center.

“I need to investigate this immediately,” said Luna when they had finished. “I'll compose a letter to my sister detailing what we've learned,” she said, walking over to her desk and pulling out paper and a quill. “Can you make sure it's delivered? I'll probably be busy for the rest of the night.”

“Of course,” replied Twilight.

“Also,” said Luna, her words punctuated by the scratching of her quill, “there are a few things I would appreciate if you could handle for me. They're in that stack there,” she said, gesturing towards a pile of papers at the edge of her desk.

“It would be my honor,” said Twilight, feeling secretly relieved to finally be getting the kind of work she had actually expected and prepared for.

“Thank you,” said Luna. “I hate to leave you with all the drudgery, but I really do need to figure out what's going on as quickly as possible. Besides,” she said, rolling up the letter and standing, “I'm... I'm actually not very good at this sort of thing.” Luna gave a slightly embarrassed look.

“Well, why do you think I'm here?” asked Twilight cheerfully. “It's my job to take care of things like this, so you can focus on the important things. Believe me, I wouldn't want your job.”

“Funny,” said Luna, “I was going to say the same thing.” She passed the letter to Twilight and started towards the balcony again. A moment later, though, she paused and looked back. “Um, you could stay in my room again tonight, if you like,” she said. “If you think it would, ah, be more convenient.”

Abruptly, Twilight's stomach felt as though all of Fluttershy's animal friends had decided to move in and throw a housewarming party, but she did her best to quash the feeling. “Oh, I, um, I wouldn't want to impose on you like that,” she said, forcing a grin.

“Nonsense,” said Luna cheerfully. “It doesn't make any sense for you to keep walking between here and that tower of yours, does it? Please, consider it a favor to me.”

Twilight started to protest further, but her objection got lost somewhere between her brain and her mouth. Before she could think of anything else to say, Luna was out the door to the balcony and soaring away into the night sky. Twilight stood where she was for several minutes before realizing Luna's letter was still hovering next to her. Shaking herself, she walked to the door to deliver it.

Despite Luna's warning, Twilight found the work the princess had left for her to be quite interesting, and a nice change of pace from investigating brutal murders. The mechanisms that kept the kingdom running might not have been quite as grand as the ones managing the heavens, but they were enough for Twilight.

By the time she had finished with the tasks Luna had set for her, the moon was well past its peak, although dawn was still a couple of hours away. Luna still hadn't returned. Twilight briefly considered walking back to her own room, despite what Luna had said, but quickly decided to stay, telling herself it was because she was tired and didn't feel like making the walk. The blanket she had slept under the night before had been put away, so Twilight made a hesitant search of the room for another one. The first drawer she checked was full of socks. Twilight immediately caught herself wondering what Luna would look like in some of them, and slammed the door before she was tempted to take a closer look. Fortunately, the second drawer held the blankets she was looking for. Pulling one out, she wrapped it around herself and lay down on a pillow.

Twilight awoke feeling refreshed. Luna was once again asleep in her bed, but this time, she'd left out a brush for Twilight. After freshening herself up a bit, she left the room, deciding her first order of business should be to find Shining Armor and see if there had been any new developments. As before, the barracks were a hub of activity. Twilight caught a guard and asked him where she could find her brother.

“He's headed down to the dungeon, Lady Sparkle,” said the guard. “We made another arrest this morning. She'll be arriving soon, and he wants to question her as soon as she gets here.”

Twilight's heart beat slightly faster. “Excellent. Thank you,” she said, before hurrying out. Hopefully whoever they'd grabbed this time would prove more useful than Midnight Dream had.

As she opened the door to the dungeons, it occurred to Twilight that she'd never actually been there before. There was a fairly spacious entry room with two guards standing beside the door that led to the cells themselves. Another guard sat behind a desk, with Shining Armor standing impatiently at his shoulder. He looked up as Twilight entered.

“Oh hey, little sister. What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for you," she said. "I hear you've made an arrest."

“Yeah,” said Shining Armor. “I sent a few guards to ask around, see if anypony had noticed any suspicious behavior in the last couple of weeks. They were especially looking for ponies being recruited for some kind of cult. We got a tip this morning. Some kind of meeting that was supposed to happen behind this tavern. The recruiter didn't show, but we managed to grab the pony he was going to meet.”

“How do you know it was the right pony?” asked Twilight.

“We got a description. Also, she bolted when she saw the guards. Didn't put up a fight, unlike the nutcase back there,” he said, jerking a hoof towards the cells. “Apparently she's a real talker, though. Hope she keeps that up.”

Twilight joined her brother behind the desk. A few minutes later, there were footsteps outside the door, as well as the muffled sound of a rather loud voice. The door opened, and Twilight blinked in surprise as two guards marched in a certain blue unicorn pony.

“This is an outrage! The Great and Powerful Trixie demands that you unhand her this instant! You foals have no idea of the kind of power she commands. The Great and Powerful Trixie shall wreak a just revenge upon your people!” She stopped as she caught sight of Twilight. For a moment, Trixie seemed at a loss for words. Then, she managed a hateful, “You!”

“You know her?” asked Shining Armor in surprise.

“She's a traveling performer,” said Twilight. “She came through Ponyville a year or so ago. She, ah, kind of got herself run out of town.” Twilight noticed that Trixie looked a great deal scruffier than the last time she had seen her, and there was no sign of her elaborate outfit.

“Big surprise,” muttered one of the guards.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie has not forgotten the humiliation you subjected her to,” said Trixie. “But now the tables have turned! Her new allies shall not abandon her. They have more power than you can possibly imagine! Power they shall grant to the Great and Powerful Trixie in exchange for her service!”

“Really,” said Shining Armor, walking around the desk. He gestured to the guards, and they deposited Trixie in a chair against the wall. “And what else would you like to tell us about these new friends of yours?”

“That is for the Great and Powerful Trixie to know, and you not to know,” said Trixie defiantly.

“You really have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, do you?” asked Twilight.

“Of course Trixie does!” retorted Trixie. “The Great and Powerful Trixie knows secrets you couldn't imagine in your wildest dreams!”

“Well then, I suppose we can charge you as an accomplice to murder, since you'll have known all about that,” said Shining Armor.

“You- murder- What?” stammered Trixie. Twilight couldn't help but smirk slightly.

“Left out that little detail, did they?” asked Shining Armor.

“Trixie had no idea that they were the ones who killed that pony! Please, Trixie will tell you everything she knows!” she said desperately.

“Start talking,” said Shining Armor flatly.

“Trixie doesn't actually know that much,” admitted Trixie. “They approached her about two weeks ago. Trixie had been... having a bad turn of luck. One day, a unicorn stallion came to her, and told her that he knew a pony who could teach her powerful magic if she would help him.”

“Can you describe him?” asked Twilight.

“He was orange, with a red mane, and a meteor as his cutie mark. He did not tell Trixie his name. He said it wasn't important. He told Trixie that he served a pony who called himself Dawnbringer. Dawnbringer promised to grant anypony who served him great power, and raise them above all other ponies. He said Dawnbringer needed unicorn ponies, to cast some sort of powerful spell.”

“Did you ever meet this Dawnbringer?” asked Shining Armor.

“Trixie never did. That was what this meeting was going to be. He was going to take Trixie to meet Dawnbringer for the first time.”

“What else did you notice about the pony you talked to?” asked Twilight. “Was there anything odd about him?”

“He did seem slightly strange to Trixie. A bit slow, perhaps. Single minded. He did not understand all of Trixie's questions. He also had a habit of repeating himself.”

Twilight frowned, wishing Luna had told her more about mind control spells, and how to tell if a pony was under them. “Is there anything else you can tell us?” she asked.

“There is one other thing. He kept saying that the time of ascension was coming soon. Trixie does not know what it means.”

Twilight nodded. “I'd better go report all this to the Princess right away,” she said to Shining Armor. “She'll probably want to talk to Trixie herself.”

“Trixie had heard that the Princess was not here,” said Trixie.

“Princess Celestia isn't, no,” said Twilight. “You'll be talking to Princess Luna.”

Trixie went slightly pale. “Princess Luna? But, Trixie has heard that she... that she...” Trixie gulped and didn't finish, apparently too horrified by whatever Luna had supposedly done.

“Well, it's a good thing you been so helpful and cooperative, isn't it?” said Twilight with another slight smirk. With a quick nod to her brother, she left the dungeon.

Luna was still asleep when Twilight returned to her room. Twilight glanced at the sun out the window. It was still a couple more hours until it would be time for Luna to raise the moon, but she would undoubtedly want to hear the lasted development now, rather than when she woke. Besides, why should the Princess lounge around in bed when Twilight was up and slaving at the early hour of (she checked the sun again) five o'clock in the evening? Seizing upon a sudden mischievous impulse, Twilight levitated one of the cushions on the floor and tossed it at the sleeping alicorn.

Twilight had just enough time to wonder where exactly that impulse had come from before she was practically flattened by a retaliatory barrage of pillows and blankets. A moment later, she heard a muffled, “Twilight?”

She stuck her head out of the pile of upholstery she was buried under to find Luna looking at her with some concern. “Forgive me. For a moment, I thought you were my sister,” she said. “I was still half asleep. Otherwise, I wouldn't have retaliated quite so... vigorously.”

“I'm fine,” said Twilight, extracting herself. “You and Celestia have pillow fights?”

Luna actually blushed slightly. “It... has been known to happen on occasion. Anyhow, did you have a reason besides pure vindictiveness for ruining my sleep?”

Twilight shook herself, returning her mind to the matter at hand. “The guards have made another arrest,” she said. “A unicorn mare. Apparently she was in the process of being recruited to some sort of cult.”

“Take me there,” said Luna, immediately dropping her mocking tone. “Tell me the rest on the way.”

Twilight did so. Luna seemed especially interested in her account of the pony's behavior, confirming Twilight's suspicions that he might have been under some sort of compulsion. “It is not a simple thing to manipulate a pony's thoughts,” said Luna. “Effective control requires several exposures, spread out over a fairly long period. A cult would provide the perfect opportunity, with the added benefit of making the victims more receptive.”

Trixie was no longer in the main room of the dungeon when they arrived. “She's been taken to one of the cells,” said the guard behind the desk. “Captain Shining Armor is interrogating her further, to see if he can find out anything else.”

“I'll take over from here,” said Luna. “Would you mind waiting outside?” she said to Twilight. “I'd prefer to talk to him alone.”

“Of course,” said Twilight, taking up position by the door. Luna entered the cell block, and Shining Armor exited a moment later.

“Learn anything else?” asked Twilight, nodding in greeting.

“Not really,” said her brother. “She might know something else of use, but if she does, she probably doesn't realize it. Did she always do that thing where she talks about herself in the third person?”

“I don't think it used to be that bad,” said Twilight. “She only used to do it when she performed.”

“Failure will do that to some ponies,” said Shining Armor.

Twilight nodded. “When this is over, I'll try and find a place for her that doesn't involve joining cults or being an obnoxious loudmouth.”

There was silence for a few minutes. Then, Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin as the most bloodcurdling shriek she had ever heard issued from behind the door leading to the cells. For a wild moment, Twilight thought that Trixie's fears about Luna had been justified. Then, she realize that it was a stallion screaming, not a mare.

“There he goes again,” muttered one of the guards. “He's been doing that off and on since we brought him in. Can't get a word of sense out of him, either,” he said to Twilight and Shining Armor.

“That's Midnight Dream?” asked Twilight with some trepidation.

“Yeah,” said Shining Armor. “There's a pony who could commit murder if I ever saw one. Makes my skin crawl.” A moment later, the screaming abruptly cut off; everypony in the room let out a small sigh of relief. Twilight assumed that Luna had dampened the sound, or possibly just knocked out Midnight Dream. Twilight knew she would have been tempted to do that if she had been in there. In fact, thinking about what that pony had done, she suddenly found herself wanting to go in there and do it anyway, just on principle. An image of the scene in the attic flashed through her mind, and a bubble of fury rose through Twilight

She almost opened the door and went in, before suddenly realizing what she was doing. Remembering what Luna had said about her still being slightly in shock, Twilight took several deep, calming breaths, and thought about it logically. Midnight Dream was their most important link to the real culprit, and besides, he was quite clearly insane. Venting her anger on him would do nothing. Slowly, Twilight's burst of irrational rage subsided. She glanced at her brother, thankful that he hadn't noticed anything.

A little while later, Luna came back out. “Twilight. Shining Armor. I'd like to speak to both of you,” she said. They followed her out into the hall. Once they were out of earshot of the other guards, Luna said, “I'm fairly sure that the pony Trixie talked to was under a form of compulsion. I also took the opportunity to examine Midnight Dream again. It's hard to tell, but I believe a compulsion has also been placed on him. It probably destabilized him even further than he already was.”

“Where would a pony learn something like that?” asked Shining Armor.

“I'm not sure, and that worries me,” said Luna. “It's possible knowledge of such things has been maintained somewhere outside Equestria. There are a few ponies who live outside our borders. One of them might have either preserved the knowledge, or rediscovered it.”

“Could it have been hidden away somewhere here?” asked Shining Armor.

“Possibly, but I doubt it,” replied Luna. “Celestia and I were very thorough about that when we first became the rulers of Equestria. I doubt anypony could have rediscovered it here without my sister finding out.” She sighed. “There seem to be a lot of things that it should be impossible for this Dawnbringer to know. Remember, don't mention mind control to anyone. There are enough rumors flying about as it is.”

“Of course not,” said Shining Armor. “With your permission, there are a few things I need to see to.”

“Certainly. Dismissed, Captain,” said Luna. She set off back towards her room, with Twilight following. After a moment, she said, “By the way, did you manage to get through that stack of documents I left for you last night?”

“I did,” said Twilight. “It wasn't as bad as you said it would be, actually.”

“Good,” said Luna. “There are a few I'd like to look through before court. And don't think you'll get out of coming to court with me tonight. I need somepony to make it a little more bearable.”

“I don't mind, as long as you do the talking,” said Twilight. “Too many ponies for my taste.”

The few things turned out to consist of Twilight explaining what she had done last night, since Luna had apparently been already supposed to know that. Twilight was strongly reminded of a filly who had forgotten to do her homework, although she refrained from saying so. A few hours and a large stack of papers later, it was time to go to court.

When they got to the throne room, Twilight took up her accustomed place by Luna's side. She also managed to keep herself from jumping when Luna declared the court open. The doors opened, and the crowd of ponies spilled in.

The usual litany of squabbles and complaints proceeded, with Twilight occasionally giving a quiet bit of advice to Luna, and Luna occasionally muttering a sarcastic comment to Twilight in between petitioners. It was a comfortable routine, and Twilight let herself relax into it.

Around half an hour into court, a pony stepped forward who Twilight recognized. It was Paperstack, the bureaucrat who had been reprimanded for trying to embezzle money from the royal treasury two days previous. Twilight narrowed her eyes, wondering where he had found the gumption to come to court again so soon. “Speak,” snapped Luna sharply.

“Your Highness,” he began in a pompous voice. “A matter of the utmost urgency has come to my attention. I have received information of an incident on the edge of the Everfree Forest, and I believe it may have a connection to the recent... troubles here.” Twilight leaned forward, wary. The last time he had appeared before the court, he had attempted to deceive with a bland and rambling speech. His manner of speaking this time was entirely different.

“And what incident would that be?” asked Luna tartly.

“It seems that an earth pony was accosted by a large gang of ponies, wearing cloaks and hoods. They dragged him away, but the attack was witnessed by a pegasus who I happen to know. He flew immediately to the capital, and not knowing anyone else, he reported the attack to me. I, of course, came here to tell your Highness in person.” He gave a small bow.

“Master Paperstack. Not two days you stood in this very room and attempted to deceive us, as though we were a foal who knew no better. Now you stand here spouting this outlandish tale. Tell us, why should we believe a single word you say?”

Paperstack seemed completely floored. “Well – ah – I just – This is – is a matter of national security! I had to report it as soon as possible. I apologize if my, ah, my previous actions have – have offended you, but please, your Highness, this information is too important for that to cloud your judgment!”

Twilight looked on curiously as the pony sweated and stammered. Why hadn't he simply reported the issue to the guards? Or, if it was a fabrication, as seemed likely, why had he come at all? It was almost as if he'd forgotten about the previous incident entirely. In fact, it was almost as if he were an entirely different pony.

A sudden hunch gripped Twilight. Without asking permission, she stood. Her horn glowed lavender, and a beam of light shot out of it and impacted the pony standing before the throne. There was a burst of green fire, and a changeling sprawled where the gray unicorn had stood a moment ago. He tried to rise into the air, but was instantly tackled by a pair of night guards. The courtroom erupted in pandemonium.

“LEAVE US! NOW!” boomed Luna, and there was a brief stampede for the door. Luna approached the pinned changeling, followed closely by Twilight. “So,” she began. “This is an interesting time for you to appear. Has your queen, perhaps, heard of our recent troubles? Did she think that this distraction might make an opportune time for a bit of revenge? Well, I'm afraid she has gravely miscalculated.”

“No. Please,” rasped the changeling in fear. “The Queen isn't here. I don't know where she is. The hive is still scattered from our defeat. I'm alone.”

“You're alone,” repeated Luna scornfully. “You expect me to believe that you took the place of a bureaucrat and came to my court entirely on your own initiative?”

“A pony sent me,” said the changeling. “He'd discovered what I was. He said if I did as he asked, he could protect me, but if I didn't, he would expose me.”

“Dawnbringer,” muttered Luna. “Describe him,” she commanded.

“All I can tell you is that he's a unicorn, with golden eyes,” said the changeling. “He used a spell that obscured his appearance.”

“And why did he tell you to deceive me?” asked Luna.

“He wanted you gone from the capital,” replied the changeling. “I don't know why.”

“What about the pony you replaced?” piped in Twilight. “What happened to him?”

“They took him. I don't know what they did with him. Please, I don't know anything else.”

Luna grimaced. “Throw him in with the others,” she told the guards. She pointed the other pair of guards, standing by the doorway. “You, call a full alert. A pony named Paperstack has been abducted. I want him found, and I want him found soon. Make sure everyone knows exactly what will happen if we fail. You, go wake the captain. I'll need his help. Now move, all of you!”

The guards saluted and scurried from the room. “How did you know?” said Luna, turning to Twilight.

“Just a hunch,” she said. “I've dealt with changelings before. I know the signs. I wonder why he sent a changeling, though, instead of just using mind control again?”

“A compulsion spell would have left a pony too simpleminded to deceive anyone. Not that the changeling did a particularly good job, either. It's our good fortune that he didn't know about Paperstack.” Luna grimaced. “Also, he may have wanted the captive. You know what's likely to happen if we don't find him quickly.”

“I've actually been trying not to think about that,” said Twilight grimly. “How are we going to find him in time?”

Luna grimaced again and didn't respond. “Come with me to the barracks,” she said after a moment. “I'll want your help to organize the search with Shining Armor.” Twilight nodded and followed her, fear crawling through her. If Luna didn't know if they could save the pony, what hope was there?

The barracks was writhing like a kicked anthill. Both night guards and day guards were hurriedly strapping on armor and picking up weapons. “Has Captain Shining Armor arrived yet?” asked Luna as they entered.

“No, princess,” said a guard. “He should be here momentarily, though.” He was proven correct a minute later as Shining Armor arrived.

“I've already heard the situation,” he said as he approached. “What are your orders, Princess?”

“Send half of your pegasus guards and one third of your unicorns out immediately,” said Luna. “They are to search for any unusual activity. Focus attention on abandoned buildings, and other places a large gathering of ponies could remain undisturbed.”

“What if they've already left the city?” asked Twilight.

“Doubtful. They were trying to get me to leave, which suggests they're still here.”

“I'll see to it,” said Shining Armor, running off and shouting orders.

“What are you going to do with the rest?” asked Twilight.

“I'll keep a contingent here with me,” said Luna. “When we find them, I want to take them with overwhelming force. In the mean time, I want you to look at a map. Search for any likely spot, where we can send patrols.”

“I can do that,” said Twilight, heading for the captain's office.

Twilight cleared the map on the table. Although she'd never really been one to go out on the town, she had lived in Canterlot for most of her life, and had a decent idea of the city's layout. She quickly marked the most obvious spots to search, then began a more thorough examination, looking for any buildings that were isolated or removed from their neighbors.

Luna and Shining Armor joined her after a few minutes. “I've marked the first search areas,” said Twilight. “I'll need your help, though. You know the city better than I do.”

“Sure,” said Shining Armor. “Get a patrol to these areas right away,” he said to a guard by the door, before joining Twilight beside the table.

“Luna?” asked Twilight after a moment. “Why would Dawnbringer want you out of the city in the first place? If the changeling hadn't come to court, no one would have even realized Paperstack was missing.”

“I've been thinking about that,” said Luna, “and I can't come up with an answer. There's obviously more to his plan than simply abducting a single pony.”

“Well, if we stop him first, it won't matter,” said Twilight determinedly.

The next hour passed tensely. Twilight and Shining Armor did their best to ferret out likely hiding spots, but no successful reports came in. Eventually, a guard entered the command room. “Princess?” he said hesitantly.

“What is it? Have you found something?” asked Luna.

“No, Princess. It's Midnight Dream. He's... He's acting strangely.”

“Stranger than usual?” asked Luna sardonically.

“Well, that's the thing,” said the guard. “He's coherent. Talking absolutely normally. And... He's demanding to see you, Princess.”

Luna sighed. “I'd better go see what this is about. Send a runner immediately if you find anything,” she said. “Don't worry, Twilight. I'll be back soon.”

* * *

Luna followed the guard down to the dungeon. She didn't want to be absent at such a critical time, but searching for Paperstack traditionally seemed hopeless. Any additional information she could squeeze out of Midnight Dream might prove critical.

The guards in the dungeon were on edge. None of them liked being stuck on normal duty while their comrades were out searching the streets. Luna gave them a brief nod as she entered the cell block. Trixie was sleeping fitfully, and the changeling was huddled in a corner. Midnight Dream, however, standing calmly in his cell, idly tapping his back hoof.

“Good evening, Princess Luna,” he said as she approached. “I thought it was high time we had a little talk, considering recent developments.”

Luna looked at his eyes, confirming her suspicions. Where before his eyes had been dark red, they were now a bright gold color. Possession, she thought darkly. There hasn't been a unicorn with the ability to do that for at least eighteen centuries. Dawnbringer is even more dangerous than I thought. “You are the one who calls himself Dawnbringer, are you not?” she said out loud.

“Very astute. I expected no less,” said the possessed pony. “A most ironic name, but I have grown to like it. Also somewhat fitting, considering our current circumstance.”

“What have you done with Paperstack?” demanded Luna.

“Now, you don't really expect me to answer that, do you?” said Dawnbringer. “I've been having a discussion with our little gray friend. An unfortunate choice for me. Next time, I shall be more thorough in my research before I attempt to infiltrate your court.” He gave her a small bow. “However, I am quite amused at the lengths you will go to just to save a poor excuse for a thief. You're much better off without him, you know.”

“Do you imagine you're serving justice to the unpunished wicked, then?” asked Luna scornfully.

“Oh, certainly not. I have no illusions about what I am,” said Dawnbringer. “You of all ponies should understand me. After all, did you not once also try to reshape the world in your image?”

Disturbing half memories bubbled to the surface of Luna's mind at Dawnbringer's words, but she forced them back down. “Perhaps you could take a lesson from how that story ended,” she suggested.

“I have,” said Dawnbringer. “In fact, I've studied the story of Nightmare Moon quite carefully. Your failing, it seems to me, was that you gave your enemies far too much of a sporting chance. I do not intend to take my victory for granted.”

“Your victory?” asked Luna. “And what, exactly, do you hope to accomplish by murdering innocent ponies?”

“You'll see soon enough. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.”

Luna gave a barking laugh. “I hope for your sake you have something very good in store. You've blown your cover in a most spectacular fashion. This little game of yours is finished.”

“No,” said Dawnbringer. “This game is only just beginning. I do hope you will continue to be a worthy opponent, though. Good challenges are so hard to come by. Now, I'm afraid I must ask you to excuse me. I have enjoyed our little chat, but I believe I've kept you distracted for quite long enough. Until next time.”

Midnight Dream collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Luna cursed and turned away. The possession had probably stripped him of whatever sanity he had left, cutting one of their only links to Dawnbringer. A nice side effect of our little conversation, she thought. What was his real purpose, though?

Luna started to walk back down the cell block, but then paused. Something was niggling at the edge of her consciousness, like an itch. She suddenly realized it had been there for several minutes, but she had been so focused on Dawnbringer, she hadn't noticed. Luna closed her eyes, and looked around with her higher sense. And she saw.

Fear like she hadn't known for centuries stabbed through her. Gathering her magic, she teleported straight to the office in the barracks. Her aim was off, which was to be expected for such a long teleport, but decorum meant nothing right now. Brushing aside the table she had knocked over, she burst through the door into the command center.

“Luna! What's happened?” said Twilight fearfully.

“Gather every guard still here, and lead them to...” She looked around with her higher senses again, “This point,” she said, jabbing a large house near the center of Canterlot. “Tell them to be prepared for anything. I'm going on ahead. There may still be time to stop this.”

“Stop what? What's going on?” asked Twilight, but Luna was already vanishing with a ripple in the air.

She reappeared in the sky above Canterlot. The night was still deceptively peaceful. There was no sign yet of the horror brewing beneath the surface of the world. It gave Luna a slight hope; there was still time to stop the breach from fully opening. She dove towards the center of the metaphysical disturbance.

There was another ripple in the air, similar to Luna's own power, but much more intense. In the center of Canterlot, the world began to twist and writhe. Then, with a noise like a window pane the size of the sky shattering, it tore open. The backlash sent even Luna flying, forcing her to conjure a shield to protect herself. She looked down, and saw an ugly gash in reality. Beyond, eldritch patterns shimmered and twisted, flickering in impossible colors.

And through the rift came a legion of nightmares. As they crossed over into the world, they were forced to take on material forms. There were winged monstrosities, and massive, hulking beasts, and darting shapes with flashing claws, and a hundred other horrors with no name.

And they screamed, and the city screamed with them.

Chapter 5

A part of Luna wanted nothing more than to simply deny the horror below her on grounds of shear impossibility. This should not have happened. This could not have happened, based on everything Luna had ever known. Ruthlessly, she suppressed her astonishment and terror. She could decide whether or not it was possible later. Right now, she had a city to protect.

First, she reached out with her magic and plucked the skin of reality in a certain way, sending reverberations across the world. It was something she had not done in nearly two thousand years: A cry for help. Although it had been so long, she knew Celestia would not have forgotten. Then, she turned her attention to the creatures below her.

A few of the larger winged creatures had already spotted her, and were charging towards her with shrieking cries. Luna grinned tightly and flew to meet them. Although her greater powers were barred to her for fear of destroying the city herself, if these abominations thought she was defenseless, they were gravely mistaken. Luna reached out, gathering energy from the world in the skies above Canterlot. It manifested as storm clouds, roiling and black.

For a moment, even the screams of the horrors below quieted, as though they were holding their breath. Then, the world erupted in thunder and brilliant silver light. Massive jagged bolts stabbed down from the clouds, swatting the flying creatures out of the sky like so many insects. These were not party tricks, for scaring ponies on Nightmare Night. This was the wrath of an angry goddess defending her world.

Luna swept down. Below her, she saw a column of guards, at least two hundred strong, charging to meet the invaders. Although she saluted their bravery, she knew none of them could be prepared for what they were about to face. They needed something to even the odds. She flew in a circle, sweeping over the column as they closed with the monsters. As she flew on ahead, she called more lightning down from the clouds, blasting into the wave of advancing horrors. Whatever they were, they were clearly able to feel fear. Their onslaught broke for a critical moment, and the guards plowed into them, their shouts just audible over the fury of the storm.

With the royal guards on the offensive, Luna flew towards the rift, blasting any horrors foolish enough to reveal themselves to her. The creatures were still coming through, although slower than in the initial rush. Luna observed the rift with her higher sense. It was not as bad as she had first feared, more of a shallow cut than a deep wound. The celestial mechanisms were already starting to heal themselves, closing the tear. With study, Luna might have been able to accelerate the process, but that was a luxury she didn't have time for. Reshaping the world to seal the gap away was also impossible without destroying even more of the city, although Luna feared it might already be too late for those closest to the rift. There was nothing for it. They were going to have to hold until the tear closed on its own.

Luna set up a patrol around the rift, sending bolts of lightning at anything coming through, and searching for monsters among the houses and shops closest to it. However, she knew the storm she had summoned wouldn't last forever. She had already used up a large amount of its energy in the initial assault, and she guessed there wasn't more than an hour's worth left, if she used her lightning conservatively. After that, she would be limited to her own magic, which, while powerful, wasn't capable of stopping an entire army single handed. Judging by the rate at which the tear was healing, it would take at least until morning to close entirely.

Fortunately, the royal guards appeared to be doing well against the creatures, from what Luna could tell. Deprived of reinforcements and broken up by Luna's attack, the guards were isolating the creatures and bringing them down one by one. She felt a surge of pride for them, and for Shining Armor. In a way, the Changeling attack had almost been a stroke of luck, forcing the guards to whip themselves into shape and prepare to fight real threats.

After several minutes, the guard seemed to have ordered itself enough for a pegasus to approach Luna and ask what her orders were. “Continue hunting the creatures down,” she told him. “We need to have them contained by the time the storm dissipates. I can keep more from coming through until then, but after that, we'll need to form a defensive perimeter around the rift. Once an area has been secured, evacuate the citizens and get them to the palace.”

“Yes, Princess,” said the guard, sounding extremely relieved that someone was in charge. He flew off, headed for the main body of guards.

It was funny how quickly something could become routine, thought Luna. With her storm overhead, the horrors were impotent against her, and she found time to start thinking again. She still didn't know how Dawnbringer had managed to tear a hole in reality, but it was obvious now why he had done it where he had. If he had started sacrificing ponies in some little village somewhere, it would almost certainly have gone undetected, but it would have been relatively simple to contain it. Luna wasn't sure what role the sacrifices had played, but unlike Midnight Dream, Dawnbringer was clearly methodical and intelligent. She was sure everything he had done had served a purpose.

More worrisome was how she was going to hunt him down. The rift he had opened was bad enough, but even after it closed, Luna had no doubt he would be able to create another. In fact, it would probably be considerable easier the second time, like reopening a wound that hadn't fully healed. Now that she knew what to look for, Luna would immediately know where Dawnbringer was if he tried again, which she hoped he didn't realize. Still, she didn't like having to react to his moves.

Luna absentmindedly tried to call down another lightning bolt on an emerging creature, but instead of a single bolt, there was only a brief crackle of smaller sparks. Cursing, she summoned her own magic, slicing the monstrosity in half with a beam of light. She looked up and saw that the storm clouds were now thick and gray, rather than roiling and black. Releasing the storm from her control, she flew down, looking for Shining Armor.

As she had ordered, the guards had formed a perimeter around the rift, and from what she could see, most of the creatures already in the city had been dealt with. Luna found Shining Armor talking hurriedly to a small group of sergeants, and she glided to a landing beside him. His armor had a long slash along one side, and most of the other ponies bore similar damage, although none were badly wounded.

“Princess! Thank Ce- Ah, I'm glad you're here,” said Shining Armor. “We've done as you ordered. We have squads searching for the last of those creatures, although I'm afraid some of them managed to evade us. This section of the city has been evacuated. Most ponies had the good sense to start running before we even told them to. The guards are forming a perimeter around the... whatever that thing is, now.”

“Good work, Captain,” said Luna. “Where is Twilight Sparkle?” she asked, glancing around.

“I sent her back to the palace,” said Shining Armor. “Mostly for her protection, but she's also in charge of the defenses, in case any of these creatures get through. Princess, what are these things?”

“That would be difficult to explain,” said Luna. “However, there are certain things I can tell you about them. As you've no doubt discovered, they're extremely strong, and otherwise dangerous physically. However, they are also vulnerable to magic, and most of them are not particularly intelligent. They will nearly always attack in a straight forward, brute force manner.”

“That's what I've been learning,” he said. “We can keep these things contained for a while, but not indefinitely. How are you planning on stopping them?”

“The rift that they're entering through will close within half a day, at the longest,” said Luna. “We need to hold here until that happens.”

“I could surround it with a shield,” suggested Shining Armor. “It's not that big.”

“That would not be wise,” said Luna. “Their weakness to magic comes from the fact that they are unfamiliar with this world. The longer they stay here, and the more exposure to magic they have, the more dangerous they'll become. We need to take a more aggressive approach.”

“You can count on us, then. You heard the Princess, men! Go make sure our defenses are ready!” The lower ranking ponies saluted and galloped off.

“I shall return to my patrol,” said Luna. “Your pegasi will likely need help holding back the flying creatures. Tell your men to signal if there's a breach in the line, and I'll do my best to aid them.” With that, she sprang back into the air.

Without her storm, the combat became much more personal. Luna knew she didn't have the energy to annihilate each creature that came through. If she wanted to last the night, she'd have to be clever.

A thing covered in twisted tusks with two pairs of bat wings burst out of the rift and charged towards her, shrieking from at least three mouths. Luna folded her wings and dropped below it. As she passed close to the creature, she fired two quick spears of magic into the thing's wing joints. It shrieked in pain and began a spinning plummet back into the rift, dissolving as it passed back through. However, an instant later, it reappeared, this time in the form of a winged serpent that twisted its way into the air. Luna cursed under her breath; she'd forgotten that little detail. She led the serpent on a brief chase until they were no longer over the rift, and then shot a bolt of magic down its gaping throat as it lunged at her.

“DON'T LET THEM PASS BACK THROUGH THE RIFT AND CHANGE FORM!” she ordered as she flew back over the guards. “STRIKE THEM DOWN IN OUR WORLD!” The shout drew the attention of a thing like a massive dragonfly festooned with stingers and barbs, which had been causing havoc with a group of pegasus guards. It darted towards her with blinding speed, but Luna conjured a shield around herself. The creature impacted her shield with a satisfying crunch and fell towards the ground, stunned. Luna dismissed her shield and flew back towards the rift to confront whatever emerged next.

The first breach came perhaps fifteen minutes later. She had just finished dispatching a dragon-like creature with three heads when she caught a burst of red sparks out of the corner of her eye. Diving towards the place where the signal had originated, Luna saw a massive, lumbering creature with six large limbs and a number of smaller ones taking swipes at the ponies darting around it. There were brief flashes of light as the guards tried to repel it with magic, but it seemed to be ineffective. Either this creature was a good bit smarter than its fellows, or it had been exposed to magic before being knocked back into the abyss and reforming itself.

Luna landed behind the monster, which was even more horrifying up close. She spent a moment gathering her magic, horn glowing brightly, then slammed her hoof into the ground, releasing the energy in a burst. An enormous spike burst out of the ground under the creature, impaling it and lifting it slightly into the air. It let out an earsplitting bellow, and then was still. After a stunned moment, the guards raised a cheer. “Thanks for the help, Princess,” said one, approaching her. “That thing was tearing right through us.”

“If you see another one like that, try using magic to throw your spears with extra force instead of attacking it directly,” advised Luna. “In the mean time, get back to the perimeter and hope you don't see another one like that.”

After that, the breaches started coming with increased frequency. The first few, Luna managed to repel without undo difficulty, but each one sapped her strength. Finally, while facing a skittering horror slightly larger than a mortal pony, Luna misfired a spell, only clipping the creature instead of blasting it to cinders. It scurried backwards, hissed at her, and then darted off into the night as Luna let out a curse she hadn't used for at least a few centuries.

Taking wing, she went in search of Shining Armor. She found him with a group of guards just finishing off a thing that walked on two feet, and had an upper pair of limbs ending in blades. He was considerably more disheveled than the last time she'd seen him, as was she herself. “Have all the civilians been evacuated?”

“As far as I know, yes. Anyone with good sense will be long gone by now, even if we missed them.”

“Then order the men to fall back to the palace. We can't hold them here, and if we stay any longer, we'll start getting hit from both sides.”

“Are you sure, your Highness?” asked Shining Armor. “If these things get out into the country, they could maraud for weeks before we track them down.”

“Most of them should make straight for the largest concentration of ponies, which will be us,” said Luna. “The rest... We'll just have to take our chances. If the guard falls, we won't be able to stop any of them.”

“As you say,” said Shining Armor. He saluted briefly, then ran off to find a pegasus guard to convey Luna's orders. “It's done,” he said a minute later. “I've ordered the guard to withdraw in good order. They'll regroup here, and then we'll make our way back to the palace in good order.”

“Well done, Captain,” said Luna. “I'll do what I can to guard your retreat.” She sprang back into the air, mustering what was left of her magical energy. “Forgive me, Celestia,” she murmured, looking out over the empty city.

* * *

Three hours earlier

Twilight cantered out of the palace at the side of her brother, two hundred and fifty of the guard following them. “You can't think of anything?” Shining Armor was asking. “Anything that might explain what has the Princess so worked up?”

“Nothing,” replied Twilight. “We still don't know what Dawnbringer's after, but I can't think of anything that would have the Princess so, well, panicked.”

“I don't like it,” said Shining Armor. “I can't think of any reason for her to want so many of the guard in one place, especially since she's there herself. She's more than a match for any unicorn by herself. She's probably a match for any five unicorns, for that matter.”

“I don't know,” said Twilight. “We know Dawnbringer has some number of followers, but I can't imagine he'd have so many that-”

Twilight cut off abruptly as the world seemed to shiver. “What in Celestia's name was that?” asked her brother. The guards muttered nervously behind them.

“Nothing good. Come on,” said Twilight, picking up her pace.

Then, from across the roofs of Canterlot, came the most horrifying sound Twilight had ever heard. The only thing it brought to mind was the screams Midnight Dream had made in the dungeon, but this was far, far worse. Involuntarily, Twilight stumbled to a halt, and she wasn't the only one. All along the line, guards faltered and cursed, the column breaking into disarray.

“Look! Up there!” said Shining Armor. Above the buildings, black shapes were rising into the air. “What are they? Dragons?” he asked.

“Those aren't any dragons I've ever seen or read about, and as far as I know, I've seen or read about all of them,” said Twilight.

The hellish noises seemed to be getting closer. “Twilight,” said Shining Armor, turning to her, “I want you to go back to the palace.”

“What!?” snapped Twilight. “I've been through just as much as you, if not more! I have a right to be here!”

“This is different,” said Shining Armor. “Besides, if these... whatever those things are get through, someone's going to need to coordinate the defense of the palace. I hope it won't come to that, but if it does, I want someone I can count on in charge. Now go! I don't have time to argue this.” He turned back to the guards. “Form up! The city needs us!” he shouted.

Twilight cursed. She lingered just long enough to watch as the guards charged off, then gathered her magic and teleported back to the guard barracks. It was almost deserted now, with only a few functionaries and pen-pushers remaining. They stared at her as she appeared in their midst. “Gather every guard in the palace and get them to the walls! The city is under attack!” she shouted. As if to punctuate her words, the very walls of the castle shuddered as a massive roar of thunder rippled through them. The guards scattered.

With that done, Twilight headed for the walls herself. The city had transformed. Pitch black clouds swirled unnaturally above the city, and lightning flickered constantly. In the center of the city, a fissure had opened. Twilight couldn't describe what she saw inside, and when she forced herself to look away, she couldn't even remember what it had looked like. All that remained was a sense of lingering horror.

Twilight peered closer. She could see Shining Armor's column approaching the rift, looking nearly insignificant in comparison. Charging out to meet them was a wave of... things. Although they were revealed only in flashes of lightning, Twilight instinctively knew that no book she ever had or ever would read contained such creatures. They were a mockery of life, and whatever they were, they couldn't be of this world.

The lightning quieted unnaturally. Twilight held her breath, fearing some new horror. Then, with a blinding flash, lightning stabbed down from the cloud in a massive wave, sweeping across the city. For a heart-stopping moment, Twilight thought it had targeted the column of guards. Then, she realized it had been directed at the invading creatures. It blasted the advancing wave to pieces, sending the survivors running for cover. A moment later, the noise crashed into the palace, almost deafening Twilight.

Abruptly, Twilight felt the need to sit down. Luna. I've been sleeping in her room. I cuddled with her! And all that time, I had no idea. How could one pony possibly have so much power? Another thought occurred to her. Celestia must be just as powerful. She shook her head, trying not to consider all the implications. There would be time for that later. Despite her shock at the overwhelming display of power, Twilight felt something like hope rise in her since the insanity had started. Whatever these creatures were, clearly not even they could stand against such immense power.

Half a dozen guards cantered up to join Twilight. “Um, what are your orders, Lady Sparkle?” asked the one in the lead as he tried not to stare out at the city too obviously.

“Some type of unknown creatures have invaded the city,” said Twilight. “My brother and the Princess are fighting them below. We must be prepared to repel any that make it past them and to the palace. How many more guards are left?”

“There should be about twenty total, all unicorns,” said the guard.

Twilight nodded. “Assign four to meet me at the front gate. The rest watch the walls for those flying things,” she said.

“Right,” said the guard. He nodded to his fellows, and they hurried off. Twilight tore her eyes away from the scene below and made her way down from the wall, headed towards the main gate. There were other ways into the palace, but they were small and hard to find. Twilight guessed the creatures would make for the most obvious entrance.

Twilight knew the safest thing to do would be to shut the gate tight and only fight if the creatures made it through. She couldn't bear not knowing what was happening below, though. Telling herself there would be plenty of time to shut the gates before the creatures made it up the long ramp to the city, she opened them and stepped out.

She was immediately glad she had. Coming up the ramp was a stream of panicked ponies. Twilight quickly stepped to the side. A few seconds later, the first of them reached her, screaming and weeping. “Quickly! Inside! Everypony inside!” shouted Twilight, trying to make herself heard over the din. “Don't stop in the entrance hall! Make sure there's room for everypony!”

The stream of terrified ponies continued unabated. After a few minutes, four guards joined her, helping to restore order. Although she was glad they were out of the city, Twilight was beginning to worry they wouldn't have room for them all. Canterlot wasn't the largest city in Equestria, and the royal palace was large, but it simply wasn't designed to shelter thousands.

Suddenly, there was a disruption at the bottom of the ramp, and the sound of screams reached Twilight. With a stab of horror, she realized that one of the creatures had broken through the battle and was tearing through the crowd of unarmed ponies below. She glanced at her guards; too far away. She'd have to make due. “To the bottom of the ramp! Hurry!” she shouted. Then, with a deep breath, she teleported.

The bottom of the ramp was a nightmare. Two ponies already lay dead, and as she materialized, the creature killed a third. Its body was the size of a pony's, but it had four extremely long, slender legs jutting out to the sides, which it used in a skittering motion. Another pair of shorter limbs extended from the front of its body, ending in wicked spikes. Its head swiveled towards Twilight, showing row upon row of razor fangs in a mouth that was far too wide. Tossing aside its most recent victim, it came for her.

Twilight stared transfixed at the approaching abomination, unable to move a muscle. The accumulated horror of the past few days seemed to burst forth from behind her mental walls, paralyzing her. This is it, she thought as time seemed to slow. I'm going to die, right here.

No! I can't die! Luna will be upset! It almost seemed funny, in the corner of her mind that was still working. Don't want to upset Luna. She might hit me with a lightning bolt. Thinking of the blue alicorn, she felt a spark of something. Her paralysis lessened just enough for instinct to kick in. As the creature lunged for her, arms scissoring to impale her from either side, a blast of uncontrolled magical energy burst from Twilight's horn. The creature was knocked backwards, crashing through the wall of a shop, screaming its outrage. It scrambled back to its feet and charged her again, but this time Twilight was ready. Gathering as much of her not-insignificant power as she could, she focused into a beam of energy and sent it straight into the creature's body. There was a flash of light, and where the creature had stood, only a settling pile of ashes remained.

A few seconds later, her four guards galloped up to her, panting. “Lady Sparkle! Are you alright?” asked one.

“Yes,” said Twilight. “I'm alright. I am alright,” she repeated, slightly amazed. She was still afraid, but her fear seemed like a distant thing. It didn't paralyze her.

One of the other guards coughed slightly. “Um, my Lady... If you don't mind my saying, that was the hardest thing I've ever seen. When that thing charged you, I thought you were done for, but you just stood there cool as anything, and then blam!”

Twilight actually found it in herself to laugh slightly. “Come on,” she said. “There are still some ponies around here that scattered when that thing showed up. You two, move these poor ponies somewhere out of the way. The civilians shouldn't have to see that,” she said, gesturing to the dead ponies.

Fortunately, Luna and the guards did their job well, and no more monstrosities attacked the palace. The stream of refugees slowly lessened; Twilight hoped it was because everyone had gotten out safely. The thunderstorm also dissipated, which Twilight found more worrying. She hoped Luna was alright.

The next hour passed tensely. Clearly a raging battle was in progress, but from her vantage point on the palace, Twilight couldn't see who was winning. She told herself the fact that nothing approached the palace was a good sign, and meant that the guards were holding, but the longer she went without news, the more nervous she got.

Finally, one of the guards pointed down at the bottom of the ramp. “I think something's moving down there,” he said. Squinting, Twilight saw it too, and although it was indistinct, it clearly wasn't a pony. As she watched, it started up the ramp, approaching quickly with a scuttling motion.

“Get ready. Wait until it's close, then focus fire on it on my signal,” said Twilight. The thing rapidly grew larger, running much faster than a pony could. “Ready... Now!” shouted Twilight. Five bolts of magic simultaneously hit the creature. They didn't seem as effective as they should have been, splashing across the creature's hide rather than piercing it, but it was overwhelmed by volume anyway. It cartwheeled backwards, then lay still. “Knock it off the ramp, just to be sure,” ordered Twilight. They tried to lift it with telekenisis, but it was somehow slippery, and eluded their magical grasp. “We'll have to do it the old fashioned way, then,” she said. The guards marched forward. None wanted to touch the creature, but they placed the butts of their spears against it and heaved. Slowly, the thing rolled towards the edge, and then over. A second later, there was a satisfying crunch.

A few minutes later, there was another one, this one huge and lumbering rather than small and darting. After that, a flier approached the walls and was shot down by the guards Twilight had posted there, with some difficulty. “This isn't good,” said Twilight. “They're getting overrun.”

She was tempted to go down herself, for all the good it would have down, but the thought of the refugees in the palace stopped her. If the guards were, in fact, overrun, she was the only thing standing between them and the invaders.

Finally, after several more nerve racking minutes, a group of figures appeared at the bottom of the ramp, and this time, they were clearly ponies. “They're back!” said Twilight, relieved. After a moment, though, she realized what it meant. “The rift is still open. They must be falling back to the palace.”

Throwing caution to the winds, Twilight galloped down the ramp to meet them. When she saw Shining Armor leading the column, she almost sagged in relief. Running up to her brother, she threw her front legs around him, murmuring, “You're safe, you're safe, you're safe.”

“Hey, little sis,” said Shining armor tiredly, hugging her back. “How is it here? Did any of those things get through?” he asked.

“Just four. We took care of them,” said Twilight. “What's going on down there?” she asked.

“We're pulling back to the palace,” said Shining Armor. “We can't hold them at the rift any longer.”

“How bad is it?” asked Twilight fearfully.

“Not as bad as it could have been,” said Shining Armor. “Our casualties have been amazingly low. We would have been slaughtered in the first five minutes if it weren't for the Princess.”

“Where is she?” demanded Twilight, suddenly looking around in fear.

“Don't worry, she's fine,” said Shining Armor. “She's covering our retreat with a squad of pegasus. Now come on, we have to get inside before more of them show up. How many refugees made it?”

“A lot,” said Twilight. “Most of the city, I think. I haven't checked on them.”

The question was answered as they passed through the gate. The entrance hall was filled with ponies in various states of terror. They seemed to rally slightly as the guards appeared, and a few of them raised a ragged cheer.

“We need to clear out the entrance hall,” ordered Shining Armor. “The guards need room to maneuver. Everypony move back, if you can.”

“The palace is full up,” said one pony near the front. “There's no room to move back.”

Shining Armor gestured to one of the guards. “Open the barracks and let them in,” he ordered. “That should make enough room.”

“Yes sir. Make way! Coming through!” he shouted, moving off.

“The rest of you get to the walls,” said Shining Armor. “Lay the wounded down here. Someone go find a doctor. If you've exhausted your magic, stay here and rest. You'll defend the palace if they break through the gate. Come on! Move it!”

In short order, the entire column was through. “Close the gates and barricade them!” shouted Shining Armor. “Come on. We'd better get up to the wall,” he said to Twilight.

They reached the top of the wall just as a dark blue alicorn landed on it, along with a retinue of pegasus guards. Twilight ran up and hugged the princess, and couldn't help but nuzzle her a little, which Luna returned.

“I'm glad to see you're safe,” said Luna.

“Me too,” said Twilight. “How bad is it, really?” she asked softly.

“Not good,” said Luna. “There are at least a few more hours before the rift closes. They're not coming through as fast as they were in the beginning, but they're still coming. If they come at us one at a time, we should make it. If they group up, though, I'm not sure we can hold them.” She gestured for Shining Armor to join them. “If the defenses collapse, I'll need you to raise a shield around the palace. It won't hold for long, but it might give us enough time to regroup. We can't let them through, not with most of the population of Canterlot inside.”

“Here they come!” came a shout from further down the wall. Twilight looked down and saw a few scattered creatures slowly congregating at the bottom of the ramp. They began to make their way up it in a scattered line. In the sky, a pair of fliers winged their way towards the wall.

“Take down the ones in the air first!” ordered Luna. “Focus your fire on the ones on the ground, and knock them off one at a time!”

As the first flying creature approached, a giant insectoid, it was hit by at least a dozen bolts of magic. Screaming, it plunged out of the sky. The second one was cleverer, and zig-zagged towards the palace, dodging most of the incoming energy. It swooped towards the wall with a triumphant cry. “Shields!” shouted Shining Armor. Several magical bubbles popped up, and the creature slammed into them with a furious scream, rebounding backwards. It was quickly blasted out of the air in turn.

“Here come the ones on the ground,” said Luna. “Remember, one at a time!” she shouted.

The first two didn't appear to be resistant to magic, and they went down quickly, forming a large obstacle on the ramp. The third creature was resistant to magic, but as it tried to scramble over its fallen brethren, the guards knocked the massive corpse off the ramp, with the smaller creature on top of it. The next creature was also taken down without trouble, and the remaining creatures seemed to think better of their strategy. They turned and fled into the night.

The guards raised a cheer, but Luna remained silent. “They'll be back,” she said, “and the ones that got away will teach the new ones. The next attack will be worse.”

For the next hour or so, there were only sporadic attacks, easily turned back. “This isn't good,” said Luna quietly. “They were coming through at a rate of at least one a minute. They're either gathering for an attack, or most of them are running off into the country, which could be just as bad in the long term.”

“If it's an attack, we'll probably find out soon,” said Shining Armor.

As if to punctuate his words, a mass of shrieking came from the city. More than a dozen flying creatures rose into the air, and Twilight could just make out a shifting wave of earth-bound creatures below them. They advanced towards the palace.

“We'll hit as many as we can before they reach the wall. As soon as the fliers get to us, put up your shield,” Luna ordered Shining Armor. “If we can take down the fliers before the other ones reach us, we have a chance.”

The flying creatures seemed to be hesitating while the ones on the ground advanced. Twilight moved closer to Luna, huddling up against the larger pony, and she felt Luna wrap a wing around her. “Luna,” she said quietly, looking up at the alicorn. “If we don't get through this... I want you to know-”

With another scream, the flying creatures hurled themselves towards the palace as the ones below charged up the ramp. Regretfully, Twilight and Luna pulled apart from each other. “READY!” ordered Luna. “HOLD... FIRE!”

Dozens of magical bolts streaked away from the palace. Several of the fliers were hit and fell, shrieking, but more came on. They closed the distance from the city to the palace in seconds, bearing down on the guards. “Now, Shining Armor!” shouted Luna.

Twilight's brother focused his magic, then sent a steady beam towards the approaching monsters. It sped away from the palace, then flattened and curved, interposing a huge barrier in front of the invaders. They shrieked in outrage, and a few crashed against it, falling back stunned. The barrier kept spreading, forming a sphere that surrounded the entire palace. Shining Armor fell to his knees, panting. Even as the shield completed itself, though, the creatures were throwing themselves against it. Cracks rapidly appeared. “Be ready!” shouted Luna. “We'll only get one more shot at this!”

Within less than a minute, the shield shattered. The creatures stumbled through, disoriented for a moment. The guards seized the opportunity to blast another four out of the air, but the remaining creatures seemed to be resistant to magic. They darted towards the wall, shrieking triumphantly. One came straight at Twilight. She stumbled backwards, raising a shield in front of herself, but the creature smashed into it, and it shattered. It landed on the wall in front of her, unleashing a deafening roar. A pair of guards assaulted it with their spears, but they were sent flying by swipes from the thing's massive claws. It crouched, preparing to spring, and Twilight felt the wall at her back.

Then, with no warning, and against all logic, the sun rose. The castle was bathed in light, and the creatures screamed in protest. Rising unnaturally fast, the sun took up a position high in the sky, and creatures, who had never seen it before, cowered down, hiding their eyes. That was why they didn't see the dragons.

They soared down, at least two dozen strong, in all colors and sizes, and at their head flew a radiant white alicorn. In the sudden light, Twilight could see the writhing mass of creatures below, at least a hundred of them. Flying in formation, the dragons swooped down with an earth shaking roar. The creatures might have learned to resist unicorn magic, but dragonfire, they most certainly had not. Even all the way up on the castle walls, Twilight felt the heat on her face. In mere seconds, the churning horde below had been reduced to a blazing inferno.

A spear made of solid, blazing light impaled the creature that had threatened Twilight, pinning it to the wall. A moment later, the sun princess herself landed next to it. Even over the sound of the fires raging below, Twilight could hear the sound of the guards cheering wildly. They swarmed over the remaining creatures on the wall, quickly dispatching them with their spears.

“You never could resist playing the hero, could you?” asked Luna as she walked up to her sister. They regarded each other for a moment, and then ran into a tight embrace.

“I came as soon as I could,” said Celestia. “I'm sorry I wasn't sooner.”

“How did you get them to come along?” asked Luna, gesturing to the dragons, who were now mopping up any horror that they had missed in their initial pass.

“A few very old friends, and a few hotheaded youngsters looking for a fight,” she said. “How bad is it here?”

“Not nearly as bad as it could have been,” said Luna. “Most of the ponies from the city are safe in the palace. I haven't had a chance to count our casualties yet, but I don't think we lost more than fifty.”

“Incredible,” breathed Celestia. “I knew I made the right decision leaving you in charge,” she said.

“The right decision?” asked Luna bitterly. “This should never have even happened. Every pony who died today, died because I didn't see the danger.”

“Don't be a fool,” said Celestia. “No one could have forseen it. I would have done exactly the same as you. Have you determined how this was done yet?”

“No,” said Luna, “But the one called Dawnbringer is even more dangerous than I'd thought. He has the ability of possession. Aside from whatever ability he used to open the breach, of course.”

“That is ill news indeed. I believe I may know the true identity of this Dawnbringer, although I have no idea how he gained so much power so quickly.” Suddenly, Celestia seemed to notice Twilight for the first time. “Twilight! Forgive me for not seeing you. Are you harmed?”

“I'm fine, princess,” said Twilight. “Just a little tired.”

“Of course you are,” said Celestia, frowning. “How long have you been fighting these things? You must be completely exhausted. Both of you,” she said, turning to her sister.

“Don't worry about me,” protested Luna. “I can stay for as long as I'm needed.”

“I think I can handle things for now,” said Celestia wryly. “Go! Get some sleep. I'll need both of you at full strength later. It won't do anyone any good if you run yourselves into the ground. Go on, shoo.”

“Fine,” muttered Luna. “Wake me the instant anything happens, though,” she said, turning away. Twilight followed in her wake.

As though Celestia's words had opened the drain on her reserve of energy, Twilight suddenly felt every single minute of the battle. She stumbled, nearly falling. Quickly, Luna was beside her, supporting her. “Come on,” she said. “It's not far to my room.”

It seemed far, no matter what Luna had said. When they finally arrived, Luna staggered over to her bed, barely keeping herself on her feet, no matter her earlier protests. Twilight followed, and they both collapsed in a pile. Luna halfheartedly tugged a blanket over them. A part of Twilight's brain began to inform her that she was sleeping next to the princess, and was that really something she should be doing? But before the thought could be completed, Twilight was asleep.

Chapter 6

For a while, Luna drifted up and down between sleep and consciousness. First, nightmares would start to bubble up from her memories, pushing her towards wakefulness. Then, she'd pull the pony wrapped in her legs a little bit closer, and fall back into a comfortable sleep. Eventually, she came close enough to waking that coherent thoughts began to form. She's so soft... And her mane smells nice, too, even after last night. Why didn't we do this before? Wait, hold on. What?

Luna's eyes snapped open to find her view obscured by a lavender mane with streaks of magenta. The pony it belong to was curled up tightly against her, their limbs completely tangled together. Haven't woken up like this for a dozen centuries or so, thought Luna sardonically. Though I'm fairly certain the last time I did, the night before was a little more pleasant. She started to untangle herself from Twilight, but was gripped by a strange reluctance. Instead, she found herself pulling the smaller pony closer and snuggling herself back into her mane. It's just a little bit of cuddling, she told herself. I think I'm entitled to that after last night. What harm can it do?

Even as she produced her justifications, though, she knew they rang false. You told yourself you'd never let this happen again, insisted the responsible part of her mind. You can't. You know where it will lead. But even with her conscience clamoring at her, she couldn't bring herself to push Twilight away. I don't want to wake her up, she reasoned. She needs her rest just as much as I do, if not more. I'll wait for her to wake up, and then I won't let this happen again.

Twilight seemed to go through the same process Luna herself had. Ever couple of minutes, she'd squirm a little bit, and then cuddle closer to Luna. After perhaps a quarter of an hour, she woke up enough to realize that somepony was holding her, and that this wasn't, in fact, normal. She raised herself up enough to see Luna's tail, still gently flowing as it always did, and then tried to practically fly out of bed. Since the two ponies were more or less completely entangled, the attempt was less than successful, and she ended up merely facing the other way, her face inches from Luna's.

“Good evening,” said Luna, doing what she thought was a rather spectacular impression of casualness, and forcing herself not to think about – No! You're not thinking about that! “At least, I think it's the evening. Always hard to tell after one of us disrupts the cycle.”

“Evening. Cycle. Right,” said Twilight, doing a rather less spectacular job of appearing casual. Pressed together as they were, Luna couldn't help but notice Twilight's rapidly increasing heart rate, or the blush rising in her cheeks. The situation was spiraling out of control, and the responsible part of Luna's brain finally got loud enough that she couldn't ignore it anymore.

“Now that you're awake, we should probably go talk to my sister and see what she's learned,” she said, unable to keep a hint of regret from entering her voice.

“Right. You're right,” said Twilight, seeming to come back to reality. “We've wasted enough time already.” The ponies awkwardly separated themselves, avoiding each other's gaze. Now that the moment was over, neither one really wanted to acknowledge it. Luna stole a glance at Twilight's back. The battle last night had left her something of a mess, and collapsing straight into bed afterwards hadn't helped matters. “You might want to take a moment to freshen up,” she said. “It's fine. I'll walk to Celestia's room. If you teleport, you can brush your mane and still get there about the same time as me.”

Twilight found a mirror and glanced in it, wincing at what she saw. “I suppose that's not a bad idea,” she said. “I'll, ah, see you in a minute, then.” She glanced at Luna awkwardly for a moment, and then vanished in a flash of purple light.

Luna walked out of her room, sighing. If she was honest with herself, she'd realized what was happening at least a day or two ago. She'd told herself it was just a result of her loneliness, that it didn't mean anything, that she had more important things to worry about, but deep down, she'd known the truth. I promised myself I'd never fall in love with another mortal pony. It can't end well, and it's not fair to her. I need to stop this before it's too late. Part of her feared that it was already too late, though.

The halls were still crowded with refugees, but many seemed to have returned to their homes. The ones she saw bowed deeply to her as she passed, and a few murmured praises, sounding almost worshipful. She supposed she should have expected it, but it still embarrassed her a little. Going from a tale to scare fillies to the savior of the city would take some getting used to. Soon enough, she arrived at Celestia's rooms. She brushed passed the guards at the door and knocked. “Come in,” said her sister from the other side. “Hello, Luna. You're looking much better,” she said.

Luna frowned. “Would you care to explain how you flew all the way from the Gryphon kingdoms last night, stayed up all day, and still look fresher than me?” she asked in irritation.

“Some of us simply have deeper wells of energy to draw on,” replied her sister serenely. She held the facade for a moment longer, then cracked a grin. “Actually, I just woke up an hour ago. I did have the advantage of not having used my entire reserve of magic, though. Anyhow, I've found some things I think you'll be very interested in,” she said.

“What's that?” asked Luna.

“About ten years ago, there was a researcher named Amber Dawn at my academy who stumbled upon the rudiments of mind-control spells. I informed him that the subject was absolutely forbidden, and he promised to cease all research into the area. But then, a few months later, I discovered that he had secretly been continuing his research. I banished him from Equestria, and I that was the last I heard of him.”

“Amber Dawn? That does sound suggestive,” said Luna.

“Yes. He was a powerful unicorn, nearly as powerful as Twilight Sparkle, and with much more experience. He was also driven. He wanted to unlock the secrets behind magic, but for his own gain, rather than for the benefit of ponykind. He told me as much when I banished him. He said those with the power to dominate should do so, and called me a fool for not doing it myself.”

“That would certainly fit,” replied Luna. “But it doesn't explain how he went from the rudiments of mind-control to full possession in just ten years, not to mention his ability to create breaches. Is it possible he found something outside Equestria?”

“Possible, but I find it unlikely,” said Celestia. “Ponies are the only race that still have the ability to use magic, so it couldn't have come from one of the other races. As for lost unicorn knowledge, you know how thorough we were in our search for hidden strongholds or repositories after the unification.”

“True, but I see no alternative. We have no idea how far he traveled after you banished him. The world is a large place, and many ponies who opposed us were scattered to the very edge of it. It's fully possible something slipped through the cracks.”

“Perhaps. I suppose it doesn't make much difference now. The important thing is to figure out how to close the rifts he creates.”

“Agreed. I haven't had much time to think about it, but I think there should be a way, as long as he doesn't damage the mechanisms too badly.”

Luna was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Come in,” said Celestia, and Twilight entered, looking much better. “Welcome, my student. How are you feeling?”

“Much better, thanks,” said Twilight. “Have I missed anything?”

“We were just discussing what to do about the rift, in case Dawnbringer opens another one,” said Celestia. “I understand my sister has been teaching you about the heavenly devices?”

“A little,” said Twilight. “I don't know how much help I'll be, though, since I can't even see them.”

“You might surprise yourself,” said Celestia. “After all, you found a feature Luna and I never noticed.”

“I wanted to talk to you about that, actually,” said Luna. “After the events of last night, I believe those features may be related to how Dawnbringer was able to create a breach.”

“How so?” asked Celestia.

“It's the way they feel. They're like the old breach, like flaws or scars in the mechanism. I think the reason we never saw them before is because they're recent,” she replied. “I think it's possible that-”

Luna cut off abruptly, and both she and her sister snapped their heads to a point in the city. “Do you see where it's coming from?” asked Celestia urgently.

“I have it,” said Luna. “Do what you can to keep the rift from opening.” With that, she dashed out of the room towards the balcony. She just caught Celestia instructing Twilight to go alert the guards before springing into the air. Although alicorns were most noted for their powerful magical abilities, the aspects of the other kinds of ponies were just as heightened within them. A ring of silvery blue light exploded away from Luna with a resounding boom as she crashed through the sound barrier.

Canterlot was bathed in golden light from the setting sun, and Luna absently noted several dragons circling in the distance, but her attention was fixed on a small house near the edge of the city. Not this time, you bastard, she thought viciously as the house rapidly grew in her vision. An instant before impact, Luna surrounded herself in a magical shield, which took on the aspect of a comet due to her speed. She blasted through the roof, shattering the entire second story of the house to splinters, and landed with a crash on the ground floor.

The scene before her was just as she'd expected. In the middle of the room, the diagram had once again been burned into the floor, with another poor pony laying dead in the center. However, this time she was not alone. At the other side of the room lay a unicorn, just recovering from Luna's explosive entry. He was light gold in color, with a darker gold mane, and his cutie mark was a dark orange sun, radiating curving lines.

Luna was in no mood to play fair. Without hesitation, she fired a blast of magic at Dawnbringer, not quite powerful enough to kill. However, Dawnbringer responded with lightning reflexes, deflecting the bolt with a shield. Snarling, he retaliated with a barrage of magical darts, but Luna brushed them aside with ease. Dawnbringer might have been powerful for a mortal pony, but he was no match for an alicorn. Luna fired a series of bolts, shattering his shield and forcing him to dive for cover.

With a burst of golden light, Dawnbringer teleported away. Oh no, you don't. Not that easily, thought Luna. With a slight pulse of magical energy, she found the resonance where Dawnbringer had emerged, and quickly cast a teleportation spell of her own. She emerged in an alleyway near the house, and saw a flash of gold disappearing around the corner. Luna leaped into the air, using her mobility to her advantage. She saw Dawnbringer disappearing into a house that had been partially ruined in the battle last night. Without hesitation, Luna fired a powerful bolt of energy into the house. The top of the house exploded, and the lower floor caved in. Luna flew down, clearing the dust with her wings. Using telekinesis, she lifted all of the wreckage into the air, revealing the floor beneath. Dawnbringer, however, was not there. Luna cursed, casting another resonance spell. She detected a very slight resonance a few blocks from her, but when she teleported, she saw no sign of the golden pony.

Letting out a long stream of curses, Luna hovered in the air, searching for any sign of Dawnbringer, but there was nothing. After a few moments, she resignedly headed back towards the house she had discovered him in. The scene appeared to be exactly the same as the first time they had found the ritual.

Luna gently shifted the dead pony, a pegasus mare, to the side. She regarded the diagram, but saw no difference from the previous one. Disheartened, Luna glanced around the rest of the room. Her eyes immediately fell on a pack lying just about where Dawnbringer must have been standing before she'd interrupted him. Walking over, she opened it. One side contained only a few odds and ends, the sort of thing she'd expect a traveling pony to carry. The other side, however, contained a thick tome bound in dark leather, and on the cover was a motif she knew all too well.

“Of course,” she breathed. “How could we have not seen it before?” Tucking the book close to her, she took wing for the palace. She glanced at the place where the rift had opened as she flew, now a large patch of blasted stone scoured clean of buildings, streets, and soil. However, the rift itself did not reappear. She had stopped Dawnbringer in time.

As she approached the palace, she saw Celestia landing on her balcony. She followed her sister down, and heard her telling the guards that the rift had been prevented from opening, and to tell the other guards to stand down. “That was well done,” said Celestia as she turned to her. “I doubt the city could have survived another breach, even with most of the dragons still here.”

“Dawnbringer got away,” said Luna angrily. “But he left something behind.” She tossed the book down on the floor in front of her sister, who looked at it curiously.

“Of course,” she said, echoing Luna. “This explains everything.”

Emblazoned on the cover of the book were the words, “The Path of Discord,” above a stylized figure of a draconequus. “Discord hedged his bets,” said Luna, flipping the book open. “We underestimated him. We assumed he would be too arrogant to consider the possibility that he might be defeated a second time. Look at this. Mind control. Possession. Forbidden combat spells. This is how Dawnbringer became so powerful so quickly.”

“Discord was always able to sense strong negative emotions. That must be how he found Dawnbringer,” said Celestia, taking the book. “If we can find the method he's using to open the rifts, we might be able to stop him from doing it again.”

“There, look. There's the diagram,” said Luna. She turned the page, revealing a rather gruesome illustration of a pony being sacrificed, along with an explanation. The two alicorns pressed together, both trying to read.

Every pony contains within themselves a spark of the world's magic, obtained at birth and released at death. This is what grants unicorns their magic, pegasi their connection to the weather, and earth ponies their great strength. When a pony's spark is released at death, a brief connection to the heavenly mechanisms is formed as the spark is reabsorbed. This connection can be held open and exploited. Using the diagram on the previous page as a guide, channel the magic of many unicorns through the connection to the places indicated. When the surface of the world has been weakened enough, the gateway will be opened. Each successive opening will take less effort and will make the gateway larger.

Celestia growled. “Two thousand years, and we still know less about our own world than him. Trapped in stone, and still he's wrecking havoc. I should have spent longer searching for a permanent solution.”

“You know it's impossible. Only the Elements have enough power to overcome him, and they can't be used vindictively,” said Luna softly.

“It's not vengeance, it's justice!” the older sister snarled. “Do you doubt he deserves it for what he did to the world? What he did to us?”

Luna laid her hoof on her sister's shoulder, and Celestia seemed to deflate slightly. “I'm sorry,” she said quietly. “I know I should let it go. You'd think two thousand years would be long enough.” She sighed. “You know, I haven't asked you since you returned from exile. Can you still remember them at all?”

“Barely,” said Luna sadly. “I was too young. Mostly I remember the end, after Discord found us.”

“I'm sorry,” said her big sister again, folding her wing around the smaller alicorn. “I wish you could remember the good times, before he killed them. Although, maybe that's the reason I was never able to move on the way you did,” she said wistfully. “We can't let it happen again. You know how Discord thinks. He places himself over everything else. This book isn't just a tool of revenge against us. If Dawnbringer has been following these instructions, you know it will result in Discord's freedom, one way or another.”

“I fear you may be right. Look at these flaws, the ones Twilight noticed,” said Luna, flipping back a page. “They're like cracks in the heavenly mechanisms. Every time Dawnbringer tries to open a rift, the cracks get a little bit deeper. If he keeps going, they'll fail entirely, and so will the Elements of Harmony. Without the Elements containing him, Discord goes free.”

“If the mechanisms were that badly damaged, there's a good chance that the entire world would shatter and be reabsorbed back into chaos,” said Celestia, alarmed.

“I doubt Discord cares all that much,” said Luna. “Like you said, he puts himself first. He might have liked this world as a plaything, but he's probably realized we're too much trouble for him. He can always find another one after he escapes.”

Celestia made a sharp motion with her hoof. “None of it matters. He will not escape,” she said. “We need a plan. So far, we've been reacting to Dawnbringer's moves. If we want to stop him, we have to go on the offensive. How long do you think it will be before he makes another attempt to open the breach?”

“Probably not long,” said Luna. “Hopefully the loss of Discord's book will slow him down, but I would assume that he's either memorized the design he needs, or he has another copy of it somewhere. He'll probably also be more careful next time. He obviously didn't realize we could trace him before, but he will now. He'll stay farther from the palace next time he performs the ritual, even if it means it will be less powerful.”

“It won't have to be very powerful,” said Celestia. “I barely managed to keep the rift from opening this time. I don't know if you'll be able to get to him in time the next time he casts his spell, and the rift is going to be much larger than before.”

“How large?” asked Luna, with some trepidation.

“I don't know,” said Celestia. “It's possible it could swallow the entire city.”

“We need to evacuate the palace immediately, then,” said Luna. “The rift will destroy everything above it when it opens. If the palace is still full of refugees...”

“You may be right, but I dislike the thought of surrendering the capital,” said Celestia. “I don't like admitting defeat.”

“Neither do I,” said Luna, “But consider: If Dawnbringer thinks we're retreating, it may make him overconfident. We can't save the city, but we can turn it into a trap.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “I think I see your plan. I don't like it, but I can't see a better alternative. We'll need to move quickly to evacuate everypony before Dawnbringer tries to open the rift again. You should find Twilight Sparkle. We'll need her help.”

* * *

Just a few days ago, organizing the evacuation of the entire remaining city of Canterlot would have seemed so far-fetched as to be absurd. But after the night before, it seemed almost comfortingly normal. After all, organization was second nature to Twilight, even if she wasn't usually organizing a mass exodus from the capital of Equestria.

First, she needed to round up all the ponies left in the city. Although many remained at the palace, by choice or not, a large number of ponies who still had homes had chosen to return to them. Others had already left the city of their own accord. In the end, it was impossible to make sure she had gotten the word out to everyone, but she hoped anypony who missed the initial announcement would figure it out on their own soon enough.

Then, of course, there was the matter of actually convincing the ponies to leave. The princesses handled that, which Twilight was immensely grateful for. She certainly didn't want to be the one knocking on ponies' doors just as they were going to bed and telling them they had to leave again. However, organizing the evacuation itself was left largely to her. Ponies needed food on the road, not to mention a place to go at the end of it. Twilight did her best to split the refugees between the other major cities, no one city would be overwhelmed.

Lastly, there was the fact that while Canterlot was not the largest city in Equestria, it was easily the wealthiest. Although the lives of ponies had to be the priority, there was no way they could let all that wealth be destroyed, not without triggering a depression after Dawnbringer was defeated. Twilight's primary concern, of course, was for the books in the Royal Canterlot Library. She tracked down every librarian she could find, and even enlisted the guards who had been assigned to patrol duty in the library, putting them to work finding and removing unique texts. She was sure she had missed hundreds, but she finally moved on to other areas after Luna came and personally dragged her away.

Finally, in the small hours of the morning, the evacuation was underway, and everything of value that could be feasibly removed was on its way out of the city. Twilight reached the end of her latest checklist, and belatedly realized she didn't know what to do next. The sudden lack of tasks left her feeling uncomfortable, so she went in search for one of the princesses.

She found Celestia sitting quietly in a small garden near her tower. Twilight had been there before on occasion; it was one of the sun princess's favorite places when she wanted peace and solitude. Celestia didn't turn as Twilight approached. After a moment, Twilight coughed slightly. “The evacuation is proceeding,” she said. “The city should be empty within the hour.”

Celestia nodded, but kept her silence. After minute, though, she spoke. “You know, I built this city, but in some ways, I won't even be sad when it's gone. No matter how far its come over the centuries, I'll never be able to forget why we needed a new capital in the first place. It almost seems fitting that the city should be destroyed now that my sister has returned.”

“You sure there's no chance of saving Canterlot, then?” asked Twilight, unnerved by the princess's casual acceptance of defeat. “You think Dawnbringer will succeed no matter what?”

“Actually,” said Celestia, “We're counting on it. Dawnbringer thinks himself clever. He is clever, to his credit. The kind of pony who comes along once in a generation. But for all his cleverness, he is still a fool if he thinks he understands what we are capable of.”

Twilight didn't respond. She had known Celestia for most of her life. In some ways, she was closer to the sun princess than she was to her own parents. But what was she in the princess's immortal eye? Barely a blink. She was just as much of a fool if she thought she understood the immortal rulers of Equestria.

Celestia seemed to sense her train of thought. “You don't need to be intimidated by us, you know,” she said gently. “We may have abilities that set us apart from other ponies, but at heart, we are the same. Don't think that just because you don't know the extent of our powers, you don't know us.”

“You've lived for thousands of years, though,” said Twilight. “How could you be the same after so long?”

“We change, it's true. But mostly, we forget. From my first thousand years of life, I can remember perhaps a decade total, spread out here and there. And we often remember the bad times over the good ones.” She sighed, looking around the garden. “In fact, sometimes I think it would be for the best if we weren't merely ponies who happened to stumble upon such immense power. We feel the same emotions you do, both the good and the bad. We make mistakes, and our mistakes tend to be... larger than other ponies'.”

Twilight didn't have anything to say to that, so she merely stood, feeling awkward. After a moment, though, Celestia spoke again. “You and my sister are good for each other, you know,” she said.

Something funny happened in Twilight's brain. The speech center seemed to come disconnected from the vocal cords, so what was meant to be a casual inquiry of what Celestia meant instead came out as something like, “Huh buh wuh?”

Celestia chuckled. “You didn't think I wouldn't notice, did you?” she said. “I've known both of you too long for that.” She sobered somewhat. “Luna needs something, or someone, to keep her from withdrawing from the world the way she did before. She doesn't want to admit it, though. Sooner or later, she'll try to push you away. Don't let her.”

“Why?” asked Twilight, the simple question being the first she could articulate.

“I'll let her answer that, when she's ready,” said Celestia. “Just remember: Whatever she says, we're both still ponies at heart. We have the same needs and make the same mistakes as everypony else. Now, come. We should join the evacuation.”

Twilight followed automatically, opening and closing her mouth without making any sound. Celestia knew? And she approved?! Twilight had been operating under the assumption that Luna couldn't possibly return her interest; after all, what was she next to the immortal ruler of Equestria? She had been glad that Luna didn't seem to remember her ill-advised confession cut short from the previous night. But if Celestia supported her, who knew what could happen? Shaking her head to clear it, she followed Celestia out of the garden and towards the main gate. There would be plenty of time to ponder when they weren't busy fleeing the city.

The line of ponies stretched from the front gates all the way out of the city. Most of them seemed fairly stunned. Some hauled wagons full of valuables, whereas other had only saddle bags. Twilight sincerely hoped the princess's strategy wouldn't cause too much suffering in the long run, whatever it was. She comforted herself with the knowledge that she had done the best she could for them.

“I must go and join Luna in patrolling the sky,” said Celestia. “Will you remain here and make sure there isn't any trouble in the line? The guards have been assembling temporary shelters a few miles outside the city. Make sure everypony reaches them.”

“Of course,” said Twilight. Celestia launched herself into the air, and Twilight began cantering up the line of refugees. Fortunately, most were far too scared to cause any trouble, and in less than an hour, they'd left the city behind them.

The refugee camp had been assembled on the far side of a low hill, a collection of large tents set up in neat rows and surrounded by a swarm of smaller tents. Twilight arrived with the tail end of the evacuation, making sure nopony was left behind. She paused at the crest of the hill and looked back, and an unexpected wave of homesickness washed over her. Although her home was unquestionably Ponyville now, Canterlot was still the city she had grown up in. The thought of it being gone was not only sad, but rather disturbing. After all, the royal palace was visible for miles and miles around the city. Even now, she couldn't really accept the idea that it could somehow vanish.

Two soft thumps behind her announced the arrival of the princesses. “Look,” said Luna quietly. “It's starting.”

“Yes,” said Celestia. “Polite of him to wait until everypony was gone.”

“More likely he was waiting until we were out of the way,” said Luna.

Twilight squinted at the city, but she saw no difference. But then, there was a shudder, and a pulse seemed to issue from the center of the city, stronger than the night before. The world in the center of the city twisted unnaturally. Then, suddenly, it was gone. The Royal Palace remained, but now it overlooked only a massive rift, far larger than the first one. Even from miles away, Twilight heard the shrieks of the creatures as they passed through the rift in the hundreds, or maybe even the thousands.

Celestia sighed. “I was almost hoping he'd destroy the palace himself,” she said. “It would have made it easier.”

“He's probably sitting there right now,” muttered Luna. “Shall I do it, then?” Celestia only nodded, sighing again.

The Princess of the Night stepped forward, raising her head and closing her eyes, her horn starting to glow. At first, Twilight saw no difference. She stepped back nervously, glancing at the two alicorns, but they seemed only sad, not concerned. She forced herself to look at the rift, and the massive swarm of creatures issuing from it. In fact, she was staring so hard at the city, she almost missed it. A slight motion in the sky drew her gaze upwards. She frowned, looking at the sky. Twilight had been fascinated by the night sky her whole life, and had memorized the locations of the stars and constellations years ago. But now, something was wrong. Some of the stars appeared to be out of place. As she watched, she realized they were actually moving. And not just moving; they were growing larger.

The scene before her was cast in an eery pale light, rapidly growing brighter. Dozens of stars plunged towards the world, freed from their eternal positions in the sky. Each one was a ball of pure white flame, hundreds of feet across and too bright to look at directly. With no perspective, they moved deceptively slowly. Then, suddenly, the first of the stars entered the atmosphere. It was immediately surrounded by a trail of orange flame and dark smoke, and it streaked downwards and impacted the rift with an explosion that made the ground shake.

Twilight threw up her front leg to protect herself from the brilliant flash. It was followed by several more in rapid succession. A few seconds later, the sound reached her. The shockwave nearly knocked her off the hill, and made her bones rattle. She spared a glance at the rift. It was still there, but the land around it was scorched clean, and of the creatures, there was no sign. The palace somehow still stood as well, although several of the spires were in the process of toppling over.

“The palace too,” said Celestia, although Twilight could barely hear her with the ringing in her ears. “You know that's where he'll be.”

“I know,” said Luna. “I'm sorry.” Another wave of stars streaked down. These impacted in a perimeter around the city, clearing out anything that might have survived the initial bombardment. They marched around the rift, closing in on the palace from both sides. A final trio of stars fell towards the palace itself. But then, they suddenly swerved, falling to the side instead.

Luna staggered backwards. She whispered something, but Twilight couldn't hear. Twilight glanced at Celestia, and recoiled. For the first time, a look of real fear was written on her mentor's face. “Impossible,” she just heard the Sun Princess say over the roar of the distant explosions.

“What is it?” asked Twilight urgently. “What happened?”

“He's done it,” said Luna woodenly. “The thing no one else has ever been able to do. He's learned how to manipulate the heavenly mechanisms.”

“Yes,” agreed Celestia darkly. “He's become an alicorn.”

Chapter 7

“We should attack now, before he can begin to understand his new power,” said Celestia. “He may still be disoriented.”

“Wait,” said Luna. “You weren't there before, when I almost cornered him earlier. He's incredibly slippery, and he knows he's at the disadvantage. If we attack now, he'll run, and I doubt we'll be able to catch him. If he disappears, we'll never find him before he gains full control of the mechanisms. He might even flee this world entirely. He has that power now, if you'll remember.”

“What would you recommend, then?” asked Celestia. “We can't give him free reign.”

“He fell for our ploy this time,” said Luna. “He may do so again. We need to make him think we're frightened of him, and that he has the advantage. If he thinks he can win, I can guarantee he'll fight.”

“Wait. Hold on,” interrupted Twilight. “I don't understand. How could Dawnbringer have become an alicorn?”

Celestia looked at her sister. “If we aren't going to attack immediately, we might as well give her the details,” said Luna. “We'll need to make a plan, anyway.”

“Very well,” said Celestia, nodding grudgingly. “We'll need Shining Armor, and I'll have to see if I can enlist the remaining dragons. I'll meet you back at the camp.”

“Wait,” said Luna, holding up a hoof, but the sun princess had already leaped into the air. Luna watched her go, then gave a small shrug and turned back to Twilight. “We still don't completely understand how a mortal pony becomes an alicorn. After all, we were the only two successful cases we had to study until now,” she said, beginning to walk down the hill.

“What about Cadence?” asked Twilight, following. “I know there have been other alicorns in history, too.”

“They are not true alicorns,” said Luna. “They are not immortal, and they only have the aspects of two of the three races of ponies. Cadence has the abilities of both a unicorn and a pegasus, but not the strength and endurance of an earth pony. They come about by a... different method. True alicorns only arise when a pony learns to control the heavenly mechanisms.”

“How did Dawnbringer do it, though? You said you'd never been able to teach anypony else in two thousand years,” said Twilight.

“We believe it takes two factors, and this seems to confirm our theory,” said Luna. “First, a pony needs a deep understanding of the world. Knowledge of the heavenly mechanisms is one part of that, but it's not enough. You need a deep connection to some aspect of the world. It brings you closer to the underlying mechanisms. You and your friends would probably qualify. The Elements of Harmony always choose ponies who are highly attuned to their element.”

“Really?” asked Twilight, surprised. “How come nopony has ever done it, then? We can't be the first ponies to be really good at something.”

“Indeed. Celestia and I believe the trigger that lets a capable pony break through and connect with the heavenly mechanisms is a moment of pure despair. When you dedicate yourself wholly to a single thing, and see that thing being taken from you, it is possible to deny it so strongly that the world is forced to respond to you. Dawnbringer truly is completely self-absorbed. His moment must have come when he saw the ruination of his plans, or maybe his own death.”

“What was it for you and Celestia?” asked Twilight curiously. “I mean, ah, if you don't mind my asking,” she hastily amended as she realized she has asked something horribly personal.

Luna was silent for a long moment, and Twilight thought she wasn't going to answer. But then she said, “When Celestia and I were very young, our parents were killed by Discord.”

“That's terrible,” gasped Twilight. “I had no idea.”

“You don't understand,” said Luna. Her voice took on an uncharacteristically harsh tone. “He didn't murder either of them himself. He's far too sadistic for something so simple. You've experienced his power in small doses, but it was unimaginably worse when he was unchecked, and he had as long as he wanted to work on ponies.”

“Our family was one of many scattered across the world, hiding from Discord,” continued Luna hollowly. “He found us, although it's not clear exactly when. Over the course of a few months, our parents... they changed. Completely. They began fighting more and more, sometimes violently. They started ignoring Celestia and I, except to scream at us occasionally. Eventually...” She paused for a moment. “Eventually, our father killed our mother during one of their fights. At that moment, Discord removed his influence from our father. When he realized what he had done, he took his own life.”

Luna had stopped walking, and stood gazing off into the sky. Twilight stared at her, unable to speak or even move. “Discord revealed himself to us after that,” said Luna. “He could have easily killed us, of course, but he thought it would be funnier to let us fend for ourselves, and live with the memory for as long as we could. After that day, we dedicated our lives to defeating Discord. We discovered everything we could about the Elements of Harmony, which were just a myth at the time. After more than ten years, we confronted him. And he brushed us aside, effortlessly. He mocked us, and started speculating at length about what he was going to do to us. At that moment, when we faced not only the loss of our life's goal, but the loss of each other, we... connected. It was suddenly the easiest thing in the world to see the elements, and to direct their power against Discord. When we could see again, I had a horn, and Celestia had wings.”

Twilight felt compelled to say something, but couldn't for the life of her imagine what. Luna seemed to sense her distress. “It's alright,” she said. “You don't need to feel sorry for me. It all happened so long ago. There aren't even written records of that time.”

“How could you ever move passed something like that, though? Even living for thousands of years?” asked Twilight.

“It's harder for Celestia than it is for me,” said Luna. “I was too young then to really understand. And... I have other regrets.” Luna was silent for a moment, and Twilight cast around for something further to say. But then the alicorn continued, “I would ask you not to mention this to my sister. She does not like to speak of it. Maybe someday, but not now.”

“Alright,” agreed Twilight shakely.

“Now, we should make haste to the camp.” Luna turned and began walking again, and Twilight followed, shaking her head to try and settle her thoughts.

Some distance from the refugee camp, a fairly substantial bonfire had been lit. Around this bonfire sat Princess Celestia, a massive, ancient dragon, and a rather nervous looking Shining Armor. Luna inserted herself opposite her sister, and Twilight completed the circle.

“I’ve just finished informing the others of our situation,” said Celestia as they joined her. “I don’t believe you’ve met Cinder yet,” she said, gesturing to the dragon.

“I once knew a dragon by that name,” said Luna, giving him a nod.

“Indeed,” rumbled Cinder. “He was my father. He always spoke of you with great respect. It pleases me to meet you at last.”

A hint of a smile crossed Luna’s face. “You seem to have lived up to your father’s name. I am glad to see you here, for more than one reason.”

Cinder gave a draconic grin. “I studied my father’s history well. Many enemies I have fought, but never ponies. That is a lesson our people would be wise to remember.”

“Now,” Celestia broke in. “Since we held off our attack on your advice, would you like to begin?” she asked Luna.

“Certainly,” responded Luna. “Right now, I would imagine Dawnbringer is busy making himself scarce. That might last for another hour or so. After that, he will begin to wonder why we haven’t searched for him. It is essential we give him the right impression, namely, that we fear him. To that end, I suggest summoning the other Elements of Harmony, and in an obvious manner.”

“You don’t plan on actually using them, then?” asked Celestia.

“No,” said Luna. “For one thing, I’m concerned that the rifts may have already caused significant damage to the Elements. If we use them against Dawnbringer, there’s a slight chance it could divert enough of their power that Discord would be able to break free. Unlikely, but we shouldn’t risk it. For another, the bearers of the Elements make rather obvious targets, and even though the Elements afford some protection, a pony as... creative as Dawnbringer might find a way around that.”

“Agreed,” said Celestia. “I assume, then, that the actual strategy will be a simple frontal attack?”

“Precisely,” said Luna. “Make Dawnbringer think we are merely providing cover for the Elements and fear to confront him directly, and it will draw him out. He may have the power of an alicorn now, but he lacks centuries of skill to draw on, and we outnumber him two to one. We should have little trouble defeating him if we can trick him into a confrontation.”

Cinder gave a deep, rumbling chuckle, which Twilight briefly mistook for a distant landslide. “A clever stratagem, and amusing. How humiliating for the one called Dawnbringer, to be fooled twice in the same way. What role would you ask us to play, Night Princess?”

“I can think of no more obvious way to summon the other Elements than by dragon,” responded Luna.

Cinder raised a scaly eyebrow. “You wish one of my people to carry ponies?” he asked.

“No,” replied Luna. “The carriage will be an illusion, with an enchantment that will subtly draw attention to it. We will need one of your dragons to fly with it to Ponyville, land outside, and then fly back. However, the Elements will not accompany him. We will send orders by quieter means for them to go into hiding until Dawnbringer has been dealt with. Be warned, though. Dawnbringer may attempt an ambush. It would be wise to send one of your swiftest fliers.”

The dragon gave another rumbling laugh. “I see. In that case, I shall have to go myself, of course. I trust that is not all you wish from us, though?”

“Indeed not,” said Luna. “More of Dawnbringer’s creatures will have passed through the rift by morning, possibly many more. We can count on your support once again?”

“Of course,” growled the dragon. “These abominations leave a foul taste in my mouth. Destroying them would be a pleasure, even without the thought of the pony sisters owing us a debt.”

“Sister, will you lead the attack once again?” asked Luna. “Dawnbringer may be able to block my power, but he has yet to see yours.”

Celestia nodded. “I will. I think a direct attack may not the best course of action, though,” she said. “According to Discord’s book, Dawnbringer has some amount of control over the creatures. Not enough for any intricate strategy, but enough to tell them to scatter. We need to get them to concentrate, so we can destroy all of them in a single blow.

“You have an idea?” asked Luna.

“If all goes as planned, Dawnbringer will think we mean to use the Elements of Harmony against him. I suggest forming a tight group of guards, as though we were escorting them to the palace. I suspect he will attempt to surround us with his forces and attack en masse, rather than risk facing the Elements himself. I will destroy the greater part of his army, but leave enough to engage the dragons. He will likely try to neutralize my power, just as he did with you, which I will allow. If we then become separated in battle, I believe he will feel confident enough to reveal himself.”

“Excuse me for saying so, Princess, but I hear an awful lot of ifs in that plan,” said Shining Armor, breaking in.

“You are correct,” said Celestia. “The plan is not certain. However, if there is one thing I am certain of, it is that Dawnbringer has an enormous amount of pride. Following on his earlier victories, I do not believe he will be able to resist this opportunity. If he had an overabundance of caution, he would never have begun this scheme in the first place.”

“As you say. I’ll be leading the force on the ground?” asked Shining Armor.

“Yes,” said Celestia. “Take thirty of your strongest unicorn guards. You’ll want to skirt the rift by at least a mile or two. Hopefully nothing will make it past us, but we can’t guarantee that.”

“I’m going with you,” said Twilight, speaking up for the first time. She felt almost surprised at herself for offering, but once she’d said it, it felt right.

Objections were immediately raised from three sides. Twilight raised her hoof, quieting the two Princesses and her brother. “You know I’m as capable as any four guards. This is too important for you to leave me behind.”

Celestia gave the other two ponies a look to keep them quiet, then said, “Twilight, I know you want to help. But consider: you are the Element of Magic. Risking yourself like this would be foolish. If anything were to happen to you, the Elements would be unusable.”

Twilight started to retort that she was hardly more more important than the Princesses themselves. But then, she had a better idea. “Speaking of the Elements,” she said, “How good do you think Dawnbringer’s vision is?”

“His... vision?” asked Celestia. “Quite good, I should think. Our own vision is at least as good as a pegasus’. Why do you ask?”

“How close do you think he would have to be to see that the Elements of Harmony aren’t actually with the guards?” asked Twilight.

“Not particularly close, but I’m sure we can come up with some deception that will-”

Celestia cut off as Twilight’s horn started to glow. There were five bursts of purple light, and suddenly illusory copies of the five missing Elements stood around the campfire. “Can any of your guards do that?” she asked her brother smugly.

There was silence around the fire for a moment. Then, it was broken by the cavernous voice of Cinder. “This one has great courage for one so small, and power as well. You are the one called Twilight Sparkle, are you not?”

“Yes,” said Twilight, with some trepidation.

“I think you would do well to accept her offer,” he said to the two princesses.

They shared a look. Luna glanced at Twilight for a moment, and their eyes met. Then, the dark alicorn sighed and nodded. “So be it. It would be wrong of me to try and protect you just because I... Well, because of your importance to - to all of us.”

There was silence for a moment. “If there is nothing left to discuss, then we should retire. We must all be at full strength for tomorrow,” said Celestia. “Sister, will you see to the distraction?”

“Of course,” said Luna. She turned to Cinder. “If you would accompany me?”

The massive dragon nodded, rising to his feet. “Lead on, Night Princess.”

Luna led them a short distance away from the campfire. She closed her eyes, and a blue glow began to coalesce in the air in front of her. It swirled and expanded, slowly taking on a firmer shape, until suddenly, a carriage stood before her. It was made of an unidentifiable wood, so polished it gleamed like metal even in the dim light, and it was inlaid with gold and gems. Twilight felt transfixed by it; clearly, this was a carriage only the most important of ponies could ever hope to ride in.

“Most impressive,” rumbled Cinder. Twilight looked at him, and as she looked away from the carriage, the spell was abruptly broken. Now that she could think about it, she realized it was similar to her own want-it-need-it spell, but considerably more refined.

“I have heard many stories of your prowess,” said Cinder. “I look forward to fighting by your side come morning.” With that, he spread his massive wings and sprung into the air, the illusion trailing behind him.

Once again, Twilight found herself alone with Luna, and an awkward silence descended. Twilight cast her mind around for something to say, but before she could come up with anything, Luna said, “I suppose my sister is correct; we should retire. We’ll need all our strength for tomorrow.”

Twilight thought she caught just a hint of reluctance in Luna’s voice. “You know, I don’t feel quite like going to bed yet,” she said. “I don’t think I’d be able to sleep anyway.”

In the dim firelight, she could see Luna nod slightly. “I know the anxiety that comes before a battle well,” she said. The alicorn glanced back at the campfire. “It seems your brother is still awake, as well. Shall we join him?”

Twilight follow Luna back to the campfire. She glanced at Shining Armor; he seemed to be holding something, which he quickly stuffed in his coat as he noticed the approaching ponies. “What was that?” asked Twilight curiously as she walked up.

“Hmmm? What was what?” asked Shining Armor innocently.

“That thing you just hid in your uniform,” said Twilight.

“Nothing,” said Shining Armor, sparing a quick glance for the princess. “It was just, um, my canteen. For water. Because, that’s what you put in a canteen.”

Luna chuckled as she settled herself by the fire. “It seems there are some traditions that never change,” she said. “Well? Aren’t you going to offer your commanding officer a drink?” she asked.

“What? Oh, um, of course, Princess,” said Shining Armor. “I just didn’t think you would, you know...”

“Approve? I’ve sat around more campfires like this than you would care to count, Captain,” said Luna. “I know the order of things.”

Shining Armor produce the small bottle and floated it over to Luna, who accepted it and took a generous sip. Then, the alicorn proffered the bottle to Twilight, who took it after a moment of hesitation. She wasn’t quite sure why Luna and her brother were making such an issue out of a water canteen, but she decided it must be some old military tradition she’d never heard of. Shrugging, she upended the bottle and took a gulp.

It took her perhaps half a second to realize that what she’d just swallowed was most definitely not water. Twilight erupted in a fit of coughing and hacking, spraying the burning liquid over the fire. When she recovered, she found Luna looking at her and struggling not to laugh. Her brother was directing a glare at the alicorn, seemingly torn between his loyalty to the Princess and his brotherly instinct.

“Perhaps it would be better if I warned you before offering you whiskey in the future,” said Luna, still suppressing a giggle.

“Perhaps it would,” muttered Shining Armor.

“It’s alright,” said Twilight, in between a few final coughs. “I’m fine. I’ve just never had anything stronger than apple cider before.”

“If you wish to try something new, the night before a battle is a fine time to do it,” said Luna. “You can never assume you’ll have another chance.”

That statement effectively killed the brief lightening of the mood around the campfire. Shining Armor took the bottle of whiskey back from Twilight, and took another swig from it. “I can still hardly believe we’re here,” he said after a moment. “I never would have imagined Equestria was so fragile.”

“Less fragile than you think,” said Luna, accepting the bottle from him in turn. “We survived Discord himself. If he could not defeat us, I do not think his minion will fare any better, no matter how clever he may think himself.”

With slight trepidation, Twilight took the bottle from Luna and took a cautious sip. Being prepared this time, she managed not to immediately cough it all up. The potent alcohol burned her throat, but it also seemed to spread a bit of warmth through the rest of her at the same time. She couldn’t decide if it was pleasant or not.

“It’s different this time, though,” she said as she passed the bottle to Shining Armor. “Even when the changelings attacked, nopony actually died. Equestria hasn’t been involved in a real war for more than four centuries, and we haven’t been in a war we might actually lose for a lot longer than that. Not since... Well, you know... You.”

“It’s true,” said Luna. “Consider, though: Dawnbringer has no more experience with war than any of you, even though he makes it so eagerly. My sister and I have fought wars lasting longer than the lives of the oldest mortal ponies. He may believe he is prepared, but he is not.”

Luna went to take another drink out of the bottle, which had come around to her again, but discovered it was empty. “Forgive us,” she said. “I did not intend to drink all of your whiskey.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Shining Armor. “I’ll probably thank you in the morning. Besides, drinking with company is always better than drinking alone. I should get to bed, anyway. I haven’t been spending nearly enough time with Cadence since this whole thing started. She’s probably waiting up for me.”

“Good night, big bro,” said Twilight. “I guess we’ll see each other tomorrow.”

“Yeah. I guess so,” said Shining Armor. “Sleep well.” He gave Luna a brief nod, and walked off towards the camp.

Twilight and Luna sat beside each other in companionable silence for a few minutes longer, and Twilight began to notice that the world seemed to be getting friendlier, and also slightly blurrier. After a little while, a question popped into her head, and promptly exited her mouth, bypassing any kind of mental filter. “So, where are we sleeping?” she asked.

The question clearly caught Luna off guard, and Twilight had to stifle the absurd urge to giggle as the alicorn stammered slightly. “Well, ah, I believe that the, ah, guards set up a tent for me over there,” she said, gesturing vaguely. “I think they also might have set one up for you?” She trailed off towards the end of the sentence, as though she couldn’t decide whether she should finish it or not.

“Well, if you don’t know where my tent is, wouldn’t it be easier if I just slept in yours?” asked Twilight, mentally congratulating herself on her flawless argument.

“I am sure that if you asked a guard, he would be able to direct you to your tent,” said Luna, sounding slightly surer of herself.

Twilight switched tactics, deciding she was being too subtle. “Wouldn’t you rather have company tonight, though?” she asked. “Because of, you know, the battle and... stuff.”

Luna muttered something under her breath that seemed to be a condemnation of alcohol. "Listen to me, Twilight,” she said, sighing. “We... We cannot keep doing this. I know what you want, because I... No. It doesn’t matter what I want. It is impossible.”

“What do you mean, impossible?” asked Twilight.

“I can never allow myself to become too close to anypony,” said Luna. “It’s... It’s for the best. For everypony. I... I should go.” With that, the alicorn fled into the night.

Maybe it was what Celestia had told her. Maybe it was the false courage provided by the whiskey, or the real courage provided by facing down an abomination three times her own size. Whatever the cause, Twilight was not going to give up that easily. Tonight, she was going to say what she thought, no matter what happened.

Twilight dashed off after Luna. The alicorn was faster than her, but Twilight saw her heading for a large tent with a pennant flying on top. With a burst of magic, Twilight teleported to intercept her. She appeared less than a foot in front of the charging alicorn, and had an instant to reflect that teleporting under the influence was probably a bad idea. Then, Luna bowled her over, and they went down in a tangle of limbs.

Luna gave a defeated sounding sigh above Twilight. She stood, but she didn’t run again. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I suppose you deserve to know the truth. I just... it’s hard. I’ve never really told anyone before.”

Twilight got to her feet as well, but kept her silence. “It’s a simple story, really,” Luna continued. “There was once a pony named Nightflower. She was like you, in some ways. She always loved the stars...”

Luna shook her head. “I fell in love with her,” she said. “I felt like, after hundreds of years, I’d finally found happiness. We spent decades together. But of course, she was mortal, and I was not. She died, and it felt like my heart died with her.”

“That’s what this is about?” asked Twilight. “Luna, I may not know all that much about love, but I do know quite a bit about friendship. I know that if you hold back because you’re afraid of getting hurt, you always regret it in the long run. Always.”

“It’s not that simple,” said Luna.

“Why not?” demanded Twilight.

“Because most ponies don’t try to plunge the world into eternal darkness when they’re heartbroken,” said the Princess of the Night.

Twilight opened her mouth, and then closed it again. “...Oh,” she said after a moment.

“Indeed,” said Luna. “You understand, now. We can still be... friends,” she said, her voice breaking momentarily. “But I can never allow myself to become so attached to a mortal again.”

“What about the stories?” Twilight asked. “About how you became jealous of Celestia?”

“They’re still true,” said Luna, “But it’s not the whole story. Madness isn’t something that happens overnight. After Nightflower died, I became more and more withdrawn from the world. I would go weeks without exchanging a word with my sister. Over the course of years, I became convinced that no one cared about me, or my night. It wasn’t true, of course, but there are certain delusions the immortal mind is prone to.”

“Hold on a minute,” said Twilight. “You’re saying that because being isolated from other ponies caused you to become Nightmare Moon, you want to isolate yourself from other ponies?”

“I’m not isolating myself,” said Luna. “I just can’t let myself become so attached to any one pony. I managed fine for hundreds of years before then.”

“Don’t you see, though? You are isolating yourself,” said Twilight. “You’ve been living alone on the moon for months. You still would be, if I hadn’t come to Canterlot.” Luna said nothing, and Twilight advanced, poking her in the chest with her hoof. “It wasn’t love that caused you to become Nightmare Moon, it was the lack of it. Of course it hurts to lose someone, but it’s worse by far to never love in the first place. You don’t have to let the pain rule your life.”

Luna retreated all the way to the entrance to her tent, her eyes slightly wide at Twilight’s outburst. Twilight herself felt almost like she was writing a friendship report; once she’d started, she couldn’t stop until she’d reached the end. “And another thing,” she said. “In case you’ve forgotten, I could die tomorrow. We could all die tomorrow. And I am not going to risk dying without saying I love you.” Twilight stopped, astonished by her own audacity, but then gave a slight shrug and pressed forward. “It’s like you said earlier. There’s no time for trying something new like the night before a battle.”

Twilight finally ran out of words. Silence hung between the two ponies, and they stared at each other. The silence stretched, and Twilight found herself desperately hoping she hadn’t made a terrible mistake.

Then, without saying anything, Luna wrapped her legs around Twilight and kissed her. Twilight’s mind went absolutely blank. After some indeterminate amount of time, the kiss broke, and she found herself gazing into Luna’s eyes. “I love you too, Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna.

And Twilight found herself not caring all that much that it might be her last night alive. With a huge smile, she shoved Luna backwards into the tent, and then followed her in.

* * *

Twilight stared out at the blasted plain that had once been the city of Canterlot, illuminated in the rising sun. The mountain still stood, as did the palace seated on it, but both were considerably worse for the wear. The palace, once white and gold, had been blackened with ash, and several of the taller towers had crumbled. Situated over the rift, the entire thing looked quite sinister.

Here and there, Dawnbringer’s creatures flew or skittered or lumbered over the bleak landscape. “We were right,” said Luna, standing close to Twilight. “There aren’t nearly enough out there. Dawnbringer is hiding them away somewhere.”

“Where?” asked Twilight quietly.

“Probably the caves under Canterlot,” said Luna. “We had scouts out last night to make sure none got around to flank us, or attack the refugees. There aren’t really many other places to hide an army, after last night.”

Twilight nodded. “He’ll probably wait until we get close to the castle, then.”

Celestia approached, flanked by Shining Armor. “Is everything in readiness?” she asked.

“It is,” said Twilight. “The refugees started moving out an hour ago. They should be well clear by the time the fighting starts. Everyone who’s staying is here.”

“It’s time, then,” said Celestia. “It’s been so long since I’ve led ponies into battle,” she said, sighing. “I have not missed it. Shall we, Luna?”

“Go on ahead,” said Luna. “I’ll join you in a moment.”

Celestia glanced at Luna, and then at Twilight. “Of course,” she said with a slight smile. She gestured to Shining Armor, and they trotted off towards the gathering formation of guards together.

Twilight pressed herself against Luna, and the alicorn leaned down and nuzzled her gently. “I said something last night that I want to take back,” said Twilight after a silent moment.

“What is it?” asked Luna.

“I said we might both die today,” said Twilight, looking out at the rift and the ruins of the palace. “I take it back. Neither of us are allowed to die anymore.”

Luna laughed softly. “Are you attempting to give an order to your Princess?” she asked. “I ought to have you thrown in the dungeon for insubordination.”

“You don’t have a dungeon to throw me into until we’ve taken back the palace, though,” pointed out Twilight.

“A fair point,” said Luna. “Very well; I shall make an exception, just this once. Order accepted.”

They stood in silence for a moment longer. Eventually, Luna sighed, and Twilight knew it was time. They broke apart, exchanging one last gaze, containing everything that needed to be said. “Go,” said Twilight, forcing herself to look away. There was a flurry of wings, and Luna sprang into the air, rising until she was just a dark blue dot circling with the dragons far overhead.

Twilight blinked away a few stubborn tears and went to join her brother. He stood at the head of thirty unicorns guards. Many had armor that was still dented or scarred from the battle two days previous, but each stood proudly, showing no fear. Shining Armor nodded to her as she approached. “You’re ready?” he asked.

“I’m ready,” said Twilight.

“Remember the plan,” he instructed. “You stay in the middle and don’t fight unless things turn really ugly. We’re all counting on your illusions.”

“Don’t worry,” said Twilight. “It’s going to work. We can do this.”

Celestia descended to hover at the front of the column. The broken palace framed her, and she nearly glowed in the light of the rising sun. Silence descended, and every eye turned to watch her.

“Ponies! Many times have I made speeches such as this. I had hoped never to have to make another. For centuries, Equestria has known peace. And yet, when war came upon you, sudden and unexpected, you rose to the challenge! Our enemy thinks you weak. He thinks that since peace is all you have known, fighting is beyond you. But he does not understand. He does not understand that peace is a far greater reward than power ever could be, and that is why today, he will fall. Against us, he will fall! To Canterlot, and victory!”

The hillside erupted with the cheers of the guards. Celestia soared up to join her sister, and the column on the ground rumbled forward. Twilight took her position in the middle, where a space had been left, and called on her magic. Five illusory ponies appeared around her, keeping pace, and the procession moved down into the plains.

In the sky, the dragons scattered, hunting down the few creatures that ventured too close, and keeping a watch for the rest of Dawnbringer’s army. After a few small skirmishes, though, there was little for them to see. Minutes passed. The sun moved farther up into the sky, and Dawnbringer’s force did not appear. Twilight began to worry that he had somehow evaded them, with his army in tow, but she reminded herself that if he was hiding in the mountain under the palace, they would need to get closer before he would emerge.

The tension reached its peak perhaps an hour after they set forth, and then began to decline. It was simply impossible to keep expecting an attack at any instant for too long. The guards didn’t precisely relax, but did seem to stop staring suspiciously at the bleak landscape around them quite as much.

The attack finally came just as they were rounding the rift and turning towards the palace, almost exactly when Luna had predicted. With an ear-rending shriek, hundreds of winged monstrosities burst forth from the mountain, emerging from cracks and fissures. They collected themselves into a great, writhing mass and sped towards the tiny contingent of ponies on the ground below. The procession stopped moving, and several of the guards backed away nervously. Twilight did not. She knew what was coming.

First, the shadows began to shift, shrinking as the world brightened. Twilight felt heat against her back, and she glanced back towards the sun, but was immediately forced to look away by the brilliant glare, far brighter than it should have been. The light and heat grew to a peak, and Twilight heard a great rushing sound. She looked up in spite of herself, and saw a pair of massive, incandescent streamers flash overhead. The sunfire formed a spiraling helix as it darted for the horde of creatures. In the instant before they hit, the streamers blossomed outwards, and for the blink of an eye, the shape of an enormous phoenix was visible bearing down on the enemy force. Then, with a roar that shook the mountain, it exploded into a raging fireball.

The shockwave nearly knocked Twilight off her feet as it struck. The massive fireball rolled slowly upwards, revealing a sky entirely empty of Dawnbringer’s creatures. Before Twilight’s ears had even stopped ringing, the sky once again started to brighten as Celestia summoned more sunfire, directing it at the palace itself.

This time, however, a dark cloud exploded from the mountain to meet the oncoming sunfire. After a moment, Twilight realised it was ash. The sunfire impacted the ash cloud and dispersed it across the sky, but rather than fading away, the cloud continued to grow at a supernatural rate. In less than a minute, it had blocked out the sun.

The ponies around Twilight shifted anxiously. “Don’t worry,” she said. “This is part of the plan. We need to draw him out into the open.” Despite her show of confidence, though, she couldn’t help but feel a deep unease. Even if she knew intellectually that Celestia had allowed Dawnbringer to block her power, she couldn’t help but feel that they were fighting on his terms now. “Come on. We need to keep moving.”

The force began moving forward once more. Before they had taken more than a few dozen steps, though, Twilight felt a tremor run through the earth. It was followed by another one, stronger. The third tremor was nearly strong enough to knock her over, and it didn’t stop. The formation broke as the guards staggered around, trying to keep their feet.

All across the plain, the ground rumbled as it was split open by deep fissures. Out poured Dawnbringer’s army, wreathed in a vale of noxious fumes, many times larger than the force Celestia had destroyed. The flying creatures soared into the air to engage the dragons, while the earth bound monstrosities began to converge on the tiny force of ponies, suddenly outnumbered a dozen to one.

The shaking did not abate, and a small distance away, the ground began to crumble. “Run!” shouted Twilight, doing her best to follow her own advice with the earth heaving beneath her feet. The ground continued to fall into the sinkhole, expanding in a ring towards the rapidly retreating ponies. Twilight felt the ground beneath her crumbling, and she gathered all her strength into a single leap, just catching the edge of the newly formed pit. Grunting with effort, she pulled herself up onto solid ground as the shaking slowly subsided. Miraculously, most of the guards seemed to have avoided the collapse. They turned towards the pit, preparing to confront any creatures that emerged from it. But no creatures emerged. Instead, Dawnbringer did.

His coat was golden, and it seemed to shine with a dark radiance. His mane had been replaced with brilliant orange flames, burning fiercely. His army formed a wide circle around the sinkhole, creating an impassible barrier. Dawnbringer spread his wings, hovering above the awed ponies, and smiled.

“Did you really think you could fool me with such simple illusions?” he asked, staring down at Twilight. “You can’t even imagine the power I now possess. Your deceptions and your stratagems have failed. Your princesses have failed. Know now, as you die, that you have failed, utterly and completely.”

A sphere of golden light appeared at the tip of his horn, swirling and pulsing as it gathered energy. “Shields!” came Shining Armor’s shout. Twilight looked over at him, and they nodded. Their horns glowed, and a barrier of violet light sprung up over the loose cluster of guards. An instant later, Dawnbringer released his attack. A torrent of golden fire poured from his horn and impacted the shield below. The shield bowed inward, and Twilight forced all her power into pushing back. For a second, it held. Then, it shattered into pieces. The backlash knocked Twilight to her knees, but it also dispersed Dawnbringer’s bolt.

Dawnbringer laughed. “You think to set yourself against me? I have the power of a god now!” His horn began to glow again as he prepared another bolt of mystical fire.

Twilight looked over at her brother, lying a few feet away. He was still on laying side, shaking his head groggily. Twilight scrambled up, interposing herself between him and Dawnbringer. She gathered every scrap of magic she could find in herself, gathering it into a bolt much like Dawnbringer’s. As he released his burst of flames, she unleashed a spear of violet light. The two bolts met in the middle and exploded with a violent concussion. Twilight and Shining Armor were both flung backwards.

When she looked up, Dawnbringer was lowering a shield he had been forced to conjure around himself. “A worthy effort, but futile,” he said. “A pity such power was wasted on a unicorn with so little ambition. You could have been truly great. Perhaps you could even have taken my place, if you had tried. But now, you are nothing.”

He gathered his power for another attack. Twilight tried to conjure another bolt to counter it, or even a shield to block it, but her magic was sluggish after her massive expenditure, and it refused to come. She struggled to her feet, even though she knew there was nowhere to run. It was already too late, though; Dawnbringer unleashed a third blast of golden flames, and Twilight could only stare, helpless.

But then, a shield of dark blue appeared in front of her, and the golden flames splashed harmlessly off. A moment later, the alicorn who had cast it slammed into the ground between Twilight and Dawnbringer. Luna banished the cloud of dust her landing had raised with a sweep of her wings as her sister made a more graceful landing beside her.

“You were fools to come here,” said Dawnbringer, glaring down at them. “You still could have escaped. But without your powers, you can’t hope to defeat me. Now, you are trapped along with the rest.”

“No,” said Luna in a voice like midnight. “It is you who have trapped yourself. You think yourself powerful? You have seen nothing.” As she spoke, she moved with her sister to surround the third alicorn. “Your life is the blink of an eye. I have slain more creatures than you could even imagine. I saved this world, and then brought it to its knees. Your power means nothing to me!”

With that, she conjured a swirling orb of darkness and moonlight, and sent it hurling at Dawnbringer. He gave her a contemptuous look and folded his wings, diving. The energy bolt flew harmlessly over his head, and straight into the orb of sunfire Celestia had thrown at him from the opposite side. The two bolts met with an enormous explosion directly above Dawnbringer.

At the last instant, Dawnbringer conjured a shield around himself. He was blasted back down into the pit, and the royal sisters sprang into the air. Without waiting for him to recover, each fired a rapid barrage of magical spears into the crater. The ground shook, and the walls of the pit began to collapse inward. Celestia flicked a beam of energy around the rim of the pit, accelerating the collapse and sending rocks avalanching downwards.

With a roar, Dawnbringer emerged from the pit, blasting tons of rock away from himself with a huge surge of telekinesis. He attempted to conjure another burst of flames, but Celestia sent a swarm of tiny magical darts spiraling at him from all directions, forcing him to conjure another shield. Luna promptly hurled a spear of moonlight at his back. It struck his shield with a flash of light, sending cracks spidering along its surface. Dawnbringer whirled to confront the Night Princess, quickly repairing his shield, but as he did so, Celestia sent a spear of sunfire into his shield from the other side.

Snarling, Dawnbringer focused his magic into a massive, spherical pulse of flames, forcing the princesses to conjure their own shields. He used the opening to surge upwards, perhaps hoping to lose them in the ash cloud he had created. Before he could begin to escape, though, his shield was ensnared by two glowing chains, one of moonlight and the other of sunfire. With twin movements, the princesses sent him hurtling back into the ground, cracking it where he struck.

With a desperate pulse of magic, Dawnbringer called to his army, and the surrounding ring of creatures suddenly surged forward. Celestia landed, conjuring a large shield to keep them at bay, while Luna continued to harry Dawnbringer and keep him from escaping. Celestia’s shield bowed inward under the combined assault of hundreds of creatures. A few seconds later, they were joined by their brethren in the air, who had also responded to Dawnbringer’s desperate call. For a moment, it seemed that Celestia’s shield would be overwhelmed.

Too late, Dawnbringer realized his error. As the airborne half of his army swooped downwards, so did the dragons they had been engaging. In the air, the creatures had kept themselves spread out to avoid being obliterated by dragonfire, but now they concentrated themselves into a writhing mass over Celestia’s shield. The combined flames of more than a dozen dragons rained down on them, and within moments, the entirety of Dawnbringer’s army had been reduced to ash. The flames washed over Celestia’s shield, doing no harm to the barrier specifically designed to resist dragonfire.

Surrounded and alone, Dawnbringer froze, seemingly unsure of what to do. The moment of hesitation cost him. A bolt of sunfire struck his shield from below, fracturing it. An instant later, a spear of moonlight struck him from above. His shield shattered, and Dawnbringer plummeted. He impacted the ground with a dull thud, and did not rise.

Celestia and Luna landed, one on either side of the fallen alicorn. “And so it ends,” said Celestia. “The last time we spoke, I exiled you from Equestria. I tried to be merciful, despite the crimes you had committed, and the dangerous knowledge you possessed. I shall not make the same mistake again.”

“NO!” screamed Dawnbringer, scrambling to his feet wildly. “YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME! I AM A GOD! I AM A GOD!”

Celestia shook her head, and a spear of sunfire appeared in the air above her. But then, the ground began to shake. Celestia looked down in alarm, and threw herself sideways into the air. A moment later, a jet of superheated gas erupted from the ground where she had been standing. Another appeared on the opposite side of Dawnbringer, narrowly missing Luna. Both princesses immediately unleashed magic on Dawnbringer, but the ground beneath him collapsed, and he was swallowed by the earth, laughing insanely.

“Run! All of you, run, now!” shouted Celestia. Twilight scrambled to her feet along with the guards and began to dash away. The ground shook harder and harder, making it difficult to run. Then, there was a massive, earth shattering roar, and Twilight was thrown forward. She looked behind her and saw a huge fountain of molten rock erupting into the air. Dawnbringer hung above the newly formed volcano, and the lava split itself to avoid him.

The princesses renewed their assault, but the lava interposed itself between their attacks, hanging in an unnatural shell around Dawnbringer. Steamers of magma erupted outwards, lashing at the royal sisters, forcing them to divert their energies into protecting themselves. They retreated to a safer distance, but the fissure under Dawnbringer opened wider, ejecting fountains of lava underneath the princesses.

The dragons swooped downwards, unafraid of the heat, but Dawnbringer gathered the molten rock into a swarm of tentacles around himself, and began lashing out wildly. A massive arm of lave slammed into a dragon, knocking him out of the sky, and the rest beat a hasty retreat. The princesses weaved and dodged, trying to fire bolts of magic through the gaps, but the tentacles kept increasing in speed and number.

The sisters were struck within seconds of each other. First, Celestia was caught full on by an arm of lava as thick as a tree trunk. She was sent flying away, her shield shattering. With one of his opponents down, Dawnbringer gathered all of his lava and focused it into a single massive plume. Luna was blasted backwards, her shield vanishing.

She landed several feet in front of Twilight, and did not rise. As though in a dream, Twilight scrambled forward. Before she could reach the fallen alicorn, though, a magical bolt struck the ground in front of her, tossing her backwards. Dawnbringer laughed, descending to hover between the volcano and Luna, framed by the fountain of lava.

“You see?” he asked. “Nothing can compare to my power. Even the princesses are impotent against me! What greater proof of my divinity could there be?”

No, thought Twilight. No, this isn’t right. It can’t end like this! She gathered as much of her remaining magic as she could muster, and focused it all into a single bolt.

Dawnbringer laughed contemptuously. “When will you learn? You cannot defeat me. Nothing can defeat me!” Casually, he conjured a shield as Twilight unleashed her bolt. But caught up in his victory, he’d forgotten that his own magical reserves were still severely depleted. Twilight’s bolt shattered his shield and sent him spinning backwards.

Furiously, Dawnbringer sprang back into the air, largely unharmed. “You! You will pay for your transgression! You will beg to worship me before I am through with you!” he snarled. “You will be the last to die. I shall make you watch as everyone and everything you have ever loved is destroyed, starting now, with your princess!”

Dawnbringer rose into the air, and the lava followed at his command, settling into a spinning ring around him. Twilight stared up at him, desperately trying to call some scrap of magic to herself, just enough for one more strike, but there was nothing. She looked around, but the guards had been struck down or exhausted by their efforts to protect themselves during the battle, and the dragons were scattered and in retreat. There was no one.

No! There must be something! Anything! It can’t end like this. I won’t let it end like this! She reached out, desperately grasping for anything that might help her. And then, suddenly, the world heard her. And for the first time, she saw.

Time slowed, and all of Twilight’s fear seemed to fall away. Calmly, she curiously regarded the new world around her. She could see into the bowels of the earth, where deep veins of magma glowed with an angry intensity in a color that might have loosely been described as red, ripped and twisted where Dawnbringer had forced them to the surface. Beyond that, she could see the moon, floating serenely on its course under the earth, hidden from the world. She looked up, and saw the sun, steadily burning beyond the insubstantial mist of Dawnbringer’s ash cloud. She saw the stars, too, shining cheerfully beyond a thin veil.

She saw all of those things, and recognized them, but they did not call to her. Throughout everything she could see ran a web made of ethereal light. The more she looked at it, the easier it was to follow, until she could see the entire structure of reality outlined in streams of shining colors. It felt comforting, almost familiar. After a moment, she realized it felt the same as her own power. No, it was her own power. They were the veins of magic that ran through the world, that every pony drew their own power from, whether they knew it or not.

Something was wrong, though. In some places, the web was marred by ugly gashes, blocking the power from flowing like it should. Twilight frowned slightly. She could see in her mind the pattern the streams were supposed to follow. Reaching out, she made a few small adjustments, healing the pattern, or shifting it slightly to avoid the damage. Immediately, fresh magic surged through the veins, and waves of power spread from them. The entire world seemed to gain in color, regaining an intensity that Twilight hadn’t even been aware it was lacking before. She absently noted the rift behind her folding out of existence.

There was still one final problem. The world hadn’t been damaged by accident. A pony had tried to kill it, and that pony now hovered in front of her, attempting to gather his power for a finishing blow, unaware of how utterly insignificant he had just become.

Twilight studied the web of magic. All the power she could possibly need was there, but it was behind a veil, and it was blocked by the sun. Reaching out, Twilight shifted the sun to the other side of the veil, and the streams of magic to this side. Then, she tapped just a drop of that power, and directed it at the pony in front of her.

Time resumed. From every corner of the sky, curtains of vibrant colors swept forward, banishing Dawnbringer’s ash cloud. They shimmered and twisted, filling the empty sky with light, and met directly above Twilight. Dawnbringer had just enough time to look up in shock. Then, a shaft of brilliant, pure white light shot down from the heavens. It consumed him in an instant, then faded, leaving only a burning afterimage.

The world came crashing back for Twilight. Desperately, she scrambled forward to Luna’s still form. Twilight pressed her head against Luna’s chest, and sagged in relief when she felt breath being drawn in. She lay down beside Luna and wrapped her wings around the alicorn protectively.

Wait.

My WHAT?

Twilight scrambled to her feet and looked at herself. Two lavender wings emerged from just below her neck, extended fully in shock. That wasn’t the only thing that had changed, though. Her familiar purple mane and tail and been replaced by shifting curtains of violet and lavender light, just like the ones in the sky above her. Something else was different, too; after a moment, she realized that the ground was considerably farther away than it had been before. She had to be at least as tall as Luna, now.

She stood in shock for several seconds. Eventually, she was brought back to reality by a cough below her. Luna was shaking her head groggily, trying to stand. Then she looked up and saw Twilight. For a moment, the two alicorns just stared at each other.

“What... I take it we won, then?” asked Luna hesitantly. Twilight just nodded mutely. Luna looked around, taking in the shifting curtains of light above them. After several seconds, she said, “I like your new look.”

“Thank you,” said Twilight. “Do you mind if I faint on top of you now?”

Twilight was fairly sure Luna replied in the positive, and then the world faded to black.

Chapter 8

The feeling of waking to Twilight wrapped in her arms was growing pleasantly familiar to Luna. She'd had more than a few opportunities to experience it in the past two days, since the alicorns had spent large amounts of time sleeping. This time, though, she finally woke feeling refreshed and recovered from the battle with Dawnbringer. She raised her head slightly and glanced around, finding herself in a pleasantly dark room which she identified after a few seconds as the Books and Branches library. She checked the position of the sun and moon, and found that it was somewhere in the late afternoon. Luna vaguely remembered waking up when light from her sister's horrid ball of fire had blasted into the room, and conjuring a thin sheet of un-light over the window in place of Twilight's wholly inadequate blinds.

She snuggled back down against the sleeping alicorn, in no hurry to rise. Twilight was nearly as tall as she was now, and made an even more satisfying sleeping partner. Now that Luna felt fully restored, she was looking forward to spending some time finding out if Twilight was more satisfying in other ways, as well.

After a few minutes, Twilight began to stir. Grinning devilishly, Luna leaned over and began nibbling on one of her ears. Twilight made a complaining noise and batted halfheartedly at her face. Luna withdrew for a moment, then leaned in even closer and blew straight into the ear.

Twilight jerked up with a small shriek. “Now that was not very nice,” she said, rolling over as Luna giggled. “What time is it, anyway?” asked Twilight, yawning.

“Around four, I'd say,” said Luna. “You could have checked yourself, you know.”

“Oh, right,” said Twilight. She was silent for a moment as she examined the world with her new senses. “It's going to take a while to get used to that,” she said, shivering slightly. “Anyway, I suppose we should get up and see what's gone wrong this time.”

“Oh, I don't think there's any call for that quite yet,” said Luna, pulling her a little bit closer.

“Why not?” asked Twilight obliviously. “You know everypony is barely coping with the destruction of Canterlot, and us being asleep most of the time doesn't help. Besides, I'm feeling much better than I was yesterday.”

“Exactly,” said Luna. “I'm sure everypony will be able to get along without us for another hour or two. In the meantime, there's something I've been meaning to do.”

“What's that? Ah! Oh. Heh heh. Um. You know, being confident and adventurous feels a lot easier with several drinks of whiskey and the threat of imminent death."

Luna giggled. “Have I told you how cute you are when you get embarrased? Remember, it’s important to be confident all the time. Perhaps we could do some... research on it, and you could write me a friendship report.”

“Research. Right. Purely for scientific purposes, of course.”

“Of course,” echoed Luna, starting to lean in again.

There was a noise. Luna almost didn't notice, involved as she was, but the fact that it sounded like a snicker muffled by a hoof drew her attention. She stopped, peering around the dark room. There was a hint of movement in the corner of her eye. “Who's there?” she demanded.

Click.

“SURPRIIIIISE!”

Looking back, Luna could never think of a time in her two thousand years of life when the word “surprise” would have been more applicable. She rocketed straight out of bed in a most unprincess-like manner, with Twilight right behind her. Or, at least, that's what she tried to do. Instead, there was a painful tug on her scalp, and they both fell flat, back where they had started.

“Ooh! Were you surprised? Were you? They looked surprised to me! Did they look surprised enough to you? Sometimes you throw a surprise party for a pony and they come in and you can tell they're not really surprised and they're just trying to make you think they're surprised but sometimes you can tell they're REALLY surprised and I love surprising ponies with parties, but I mean what ELSE would you want to surprise a pony with, although I guess you could–”

“Woah there, sugarcube. I reckon they were pretty surprised, all right. Maybe you outta give 'em a minute or three to catch their breath.”

Slowly, Luna raised her head and took stock of the damage. The lights had been switched on, revealing five ponies and a baby dragon standing around the edge of the room, with various looks of amusement, embarrassment, or cheerful obliviousness on their faces. In addition, her mane appeared to have somehow merged with Twilight's while they were sleeping, with streamers of light waving lazily over her field of stars.

The two alicorns spent several awkward seconds fruitlessly trying to separate their manes. After a moment, Rarity cleared her throat delicately. “Would you two perhaps like some help?”

After a final, fruitless attempt to untangle herself, Twilight gave a shamefaced, “Yes. Thank you.”

“Oh, it's no trouble at all,” said Rarity brusquely, making a brave attempt at diffusing the awkwardness. “I can't say I've ever styled a mane quite like this before, but the principles should be little different. It's simply a matter of... Yes, there we are. That should do the trick.” Luna and Twilight quickly rolled off the bed and stood up, just short of scurrying. “I can teach you how to do it, in case you – Well, in case you should run into any further difficulties.”

“Yes, that might be for the best. Thank you,” replied Luna, gathering what scraps of dignity she could about herself.

“Yeah, I bet it would be for the best, am I right?” interjected Rainbow Dash, abruptly taking up position in midair between Luna and Twilight. “So, spill! You two are, like, an item now? When did this happen? How did this happen? And how come you never let on you were a filly fooler?” Her mind seemed to suddenly catch up with her mouth, and she rapidly sank down to the floor, saying, “I mean, you know, not I would have a reason to care about that, or, uh, anything. Heh heh.”

“Don'tcha think there might be a couple more pressing issues?” asked Applejack, rolling her eyes. “Like maybe exactly what happened to Twilight here?”

“Yeah, right. That too,” said Rainbow. “I guess you guys have had a pretty crazy week, huh?”

“You could say that,” said Twilight. “How much have you guys heard already?”

“Not very much,” murmured Fluttershy. “Princess Celestia talked to us, but she was only awake for a little while.”

“We totally heard about that awesome battle from some of the guards, though,” continued Rainbow. “What's the big idea with telling us to go hide while you guys do all the fighting, anyway?”

“I apologize,” said Luna. “My sister and I wanted to take a more direct approach, and the Elements of Harmony would have been a liability. I would not want you to think I doubted your courage.”

“Oh, um, that's actually alright. I'm okay with hiding,” said Fluttershy while Rainbow Dash grumbled.

“Well, I'm sure it's still an awesome story, even if it doesn't involve me,” said Rainbow Dash. “So are you gonna tell it, or what?”

“Yes, Rainbow. We're going to tell it. Would you mind if we moved out of my bedroom first, though?”

“Oh, right. Heh. Sorry. We'll just wait for you guys to get ready downstairs. Pinkie Pie set up a party.”

“You bet I set up a party! I've never thrown a congratulations-on-becoming-an-alicorn party before, but I figured it's kind of like a birthday party, except with less birthday and more congratulations-on-becoming-an-alicorn.”

“Come on, Pinkie, let's go...”

* * *

Ponies had slowly trickled in over the past few hours, until the floor of the library was absolutely packed. Why do I even bother calling it a library? I doubt I've had this many ponies borrowing books all year. I should just open a club and be done with it, thought Twilight sourly.

At first, it had just been Luna and her friends, and for the first time since they'd found the body in the attic, Twilight had felt like her life was approaching something resembling normalcy. But as the crowd grew, she became more and more uncomfortable. Many were ponies she'd known since moving to Ponyville, by sight if not by name, but all of them now treated her with almost the same air of reverence they gave to Luna. The fact that she suddenly stood half again as tall as them didn't help, either. As the afternoon turned into evening, she became more and more tempted to find a reason to retreat back to her room.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a nudge against her side. She looked down to see Rarity and Rainbow Dash. “Would you perhaps care to go to a quieter venue?” asked Rarity, leaning in to be heard.

“Yes! Thank you,” said Twilight, eternally grateful her friends knew her so well. “Let me just go get Luna.”

“Oh, it's fine, dear, Applejack is already letting her know. She seems just as eager for a bit of peace as you do. Fluttershy already left, the poor thing.”

Twilight followed her friends towards the door, the crowd of ponies parting in front of her. She tried to smile and nod, like Celestia always did, but immediately felt awkward. As soon as she was free of the room, she felt considerably better.

“So, what did you have in mind?” she asked Rarity, sighing slightly in relief.

“Oh, well, I just thought something nice and relaxing might be in order, like a trip to the spa, or-”

“What she means,” interrupted Rainbow Dash, “is, have you tried out those wings yet? Because if not, I totally call dibs on teaching you how to fly. I mean, who better?”

“I believe I can think of somepony,” announced Luna behind Twilight.

“Oh. Yeah. Right,” said Rainbow, deflating slightly. “But I can still give you some pointers on speed, right?”

“Of course,” said Twilight, laughing. She spread her wings curiously. In the time she'd had them, she hadn't been conscious for long enough to thoroughly examine them. They were large, at least as large as Luna's, and the feathers seemed somewhat thicker than normal. “I don't know how much help I'll need, though. I mean, I've read several books on the theory of flight. It shouldn't be overly complicated in practice.”

Rainbow Dash and Luna both raised their hooves and started to object, but Twilight had already given her wings an experimental flap. She promptly shot ten feet into the air, flipped over, and was only saved from landing square on her face by an instinctive teleport. Rainbow Dash burst into laughter, and even Luna couldn't stop herself from snickering.

“On second thought, maybe some help wouldn't be such a bad idea,” she muttered, wincing.

“You must remember that your wings are much more powerful than another pony's,” said Luna, rising slightly into the air. “Even the gentlest flap will be enough to lift you. Try again.”

With some trepidation, Twilight once again spread her wings and gave them a cautious flap. She rose slightly into the air, and then settled back down. “I did it!” she said excitedly.

“You know, it usually helps if you keep flapping them,” said Rainbow.

“One thing at a time, there,” said Applejack. “You weren't doin' sonic rainbooms the first time you flew, now were you?”

“Actually,” began Rainbow Dash, before being subjected to a rather menacing look from the Element of Honesty. “I mean, uh, no, of course not. Heh heh.”

Carefully, Twilight began flapping her wings again, bringing herself to an unsteady hover a few feet off the ground. “Try to relax. If you're too tense, it will throw your balance off,” said Luna. After a few more seconds of wobbling, Twilight began to grow slightly more comfortable with her new airborne state, and her hover grew more stable.

“Don't worry, Twilight. With me and the Princess for teachers, you'll be flying like a pro in no time,” said Rainbow. “Hey, now that you're airborne, we should go hang out at my house!”

“Are you maybe forgettin' that not all of us have wings?” interjected Applejack. “Why don't ya'll come back to the farm with me? I'm sure the family'd love to hear about yer adventure, Twilight.”

“Oh gracious, don't be silly!” said Rarity. “After the ordeal Twilight and Princess Luna have been through, the last thing they need is a trip to a farm. The spa is the place for us.”

“Why would anyone want to go to the spa when they could be chillaxing on a cloud? We can stay low enough that we'll still be able to talk to you guys.”

“Now hold on just a minute...”

Twilight winced as the argument picked up steam. She raised her hoof, trying to get a word in edgewise. Before she could interrupt, though, something like a cross between a chime and a pulse of sunlight made itself known to her higher sense. She glanced at Luna, who nodded.

“I'm sorry girls,” said Twilight, raising her voice slightly, “But Princess Celestia needs us. Don't worry, I'm sure there will be plenty of time for all your ideas tomorrow.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” replied Rarity immediately. “We wouldn't want to take you away from your duties. I'm sure you two have a lot to discuss, what with you becoming a princess and all.”

“Yes, I'm sure there's going to be plenty to – Wait, what? I'm not a princess.”

“Well, of course you are, dear. How many non-princess alicorns have you seen recently?” pointed out Rarity.

“Um, one. Me,” said Twilight.

Rarity was nonplussed. “Why in Equestria wouldn't you want to be, though? Think of the glamor! Think of the balls you could could attend as a guest of honor! Think of your wardrobe!”

“That's why,” said Twilight flatly.

“I have not found attending balls to be a particularly gratifying experience, and this is my entire wardrobe,” piped in Luna, gesturing to her vestments.

“Oh, well, ah, I'm sure you know what's best,” said Rarity, beating a hasty verbal retreat.

“Anyway, I'm sure I'm going to be busy helping Luna and Celestia, but I promise I'll make some time for you girls,” said Twilight.

“Right then, I 'spect we'll see you tomorrow,” said Applejack.

“Yeah, see you later,” said Rainbow, waving.

“Shall we?” asked Luna, rising slightly into the air. Twilight rose hesitantly into the air and cautiously followed her over the rooftops, although she suspected walking would have been faster.

The large part of the refugees had already left, moving on to whatever temporary homes had been organized for them, but a large group of tents still clustered at the edge of town, including Celestia’s large pavilion. Two guards were posted at the entrance, and they nodded to the pair of alicorns as they approached, gesturing for them to enter.

Most of the furniture had been sacrificed along with the rest of the palace, of course, but Celestia had managed to rescue three of her favorite pillows as a small vanity. She looked up and smiled as Twilight and Luna entered.

“I’m glad to see both of you up and about at last,” said Celestia. “I was beginning to wonder if you thought you could make me rebuild the entire country by myself while you two lounged about in bed.”

“You wound me, sister. When have I ever shirked my responsibilities onto you?” replied Luna promptly. Celestia gave her sister a flat stare for several seconds, but Luna kept her flawless mask of polite innocence.

Celestia shook her head with a small smile. “Regardless, there will be plenty of work to go around. Thanks to you two, the number of deaths was far less than what it could have been. Unfortunately, that also means that thousands of ponies have just lost their homes and livelihoods. Combined with the destruction of the wealthiest city in Equestria, we’re looking at the worst depression in several centuries.”

“Surely it isn’t all that bad,” said Luna. “When compared with the unraveling of this entire world, a mere economic setback seems somewhat trivial.”

“It’s true. But keep in mind what this has looked like through the eyes of an average pony,” replied Celestia. “They don’t have the knowledge we do, to make the attack at least understandable. Our prolonged absence hasn’t helped. From what I could gather during the brief periods I was awake, a large number of ponies are still convinced that the world is about to end. There are rumors that we were defeated, and that we’re dying right now. A mass panic would be devastating, especially with so many refugees.”

Luna nodded. “We must make our presence known, then. We need to do what we can to reassure the ponies that everything will soon return to normal.”

“Indeed. In fact, I believe we can do better than that,” said Celestia. “We need to show ponies that even though we’ve lost much, we’ve also gained something.”

Celestia turned to look at Twilight, and Luna followed suit after a moment. Twilight shifted uncomfortably under their sudden attention. “What? Me? What’s so special about me?” she asked.

Celestia gave her a long-suffering look, and Luna rolled her eyes eloquently. “Okay, I guess that was a bad question,” said Twilight, blushing. “But what do you think I can do?”

“The same thing we do,” said Celestia. “One way or another, the next few years will be a time of great turbulence for Equestria. I believe the ponies would benefit from having a third princess to put their faith in.”

Twilight stared blankly. “Princess? As in, me, a princess? But I don’t want to be a princess!”

Celestia gave a humorless laugh. “I’d be concerned if you did. Please understand, Twilight. I’m not trying to give you a reward, I’m asking for your help. You’ll likely find the job as thankless as you fear, but I’m asking you to take it anyway. You could try thinking of it as a new kind of assignment, if it helps.”

“But I don’t know anything about being a princess,” protested Twilight. “What good would I be? You’d just be stuck teaching me princess-y things on top of all your other work.”

“To be perfectly honest,” said Luna, “You’re already better at this sort of thing than I am. I don’t have the patience or the attention to detail to be a good ruler. You’re also better than you think at dealing with ponies, but Celestia and I could do continue to do the majority of public appearances, if it would make you more comfortable.”

“I don’t know...” said Twilight. “I just can’t shake the feeling that something horrible would happen if I became a princess. Can’t I help you without officially become royalty?”

“You could,” said Celestia, “There is another reason, though. As you know, our legitimacy doesn’t just come from our immortality. We are the rulers of not just Equestria, but also of the heavens, or at least that is how the ponies see us. Luna has the moon, and I have the sun. But you have discovered something new, belonging to neither the day nor the night.”

“You mean the lights in the sky?” asked Twilight. “But that was just a side effect from what I did to Dawnbringer.”

“It’s called the Aurora,” said Celestia. “I’ve witnessed it before, although rarely. It can be caused by particularly powerful bursts of magic, although there are more factors which neither of us have ever discovered. However, with your connection to the deep currents, I believe that you should be able to summon it at will, in the same way that Luna controls the moon and I control the sun.”

“So you want me to be the princess of this... Aurora?” asked Twilight.

“Precisely,” said Luna. “I only caught a glimpse of it as I was regaining consciousness. I would most certainly like to see it again, and I doubt I am the only pony who feels that way.”

“Besides,” said Celestia, “You’re going to end up being a princess one way or another. Remember, your brother is technically a prince now. Marrying into royalty makes you royalty as well.”

Twilight was confused for a second, and then nearly swallowed her tongue. “I didn’t- I mean, we haven’t- I mean, I don’t- I mean, how do you even know about that, anyway?”

Celestia managed to keep her calm facade from crumbling into laughter, barely. “You didn’t really think I wouldn’t notice how you two act around each other, did you? Besides, in case you forgot, my tent was right next to Luna’s the night before the battle.”

Twilight felt the sudden, intense desire to melt into the floor. “Oh,” she forced out in a rather strangled voice.

Luna looked as though she were torn between amusement, annoyance, and sympathy for Twilight. After a moment, she settled for, “None of this solves the problem of where the displaced ponies are actually going to go. The other cities can’t play host to them forever, and we can’t go without a capital, either. You were more familiar with Canterlot than I was. How long do you think it will take to rebuild?”

Celestia shook her head. “Unfortunately, I don’t believe rebuilding Canterlot is the correct path of action in this case. The land is going to take years, if not decades, to heal from the battle. Until then, it will remain a blasted wasteland. It’s not an environment to create hope for the future.”

“What, then? None of the other cities are centrally located, and we want to avoid the appearance of favoritism,” replied Luna. "Would you recommend building an entirely new capital?”

“In a manner of speaking,” said Celestia. “Canterlot was always my city. I hoped that it would become yours as well, in time, but now we have an opportunity for something better. I believe the time has come to rebuild our old capital.”

“But the scar there... We tried before, remember? When I first returned,” protested Luna.

Celestia chuckled. “You seem to have forgotten that we now have a third alicorn with us, and one who has already proven herself to be more capable than us at repairing the celestial mechanisms.”

Twilight slowly uncringed as the conversation moved on. “You mean the old castle of the pony sisters in the Everfree Forest?” she asked. “What do you mean, the scar?”

Celestia stayed silent, looking at her sister, and Luna frowned. “The battle against Dawnbringer was bad, but the battle against me was worse. Much worse, in fact. The scar that it left on the world still exists. It twists the energy of the world, which is what creates the Everfree Forest. When I returned, we thought we would finally be able to heal it, but even together, we weren’t strong enough. I... did not handle it very well. The place holds many bad memories for me.”

“And you think I’ll be able to fix it?” asked Twilight nervously. “When Celestia couldn’t figure out how in a thousand years?”

“Remember, Twilight, that neither of us were able to close the rifts Dawnbringer opened, said Celestia. “You did so in mere moments. Every alicorn has an innate understanding of some aspect of the world, and yours appears to be concerned with the flow of magic. If anyone can untwist the energies in the Everfree, it is you.”

“I don’t really remember how I closed the rift,” said Twilight. “I didn’t really think about it, I just kind of did it. I guess I can try, though.”

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” said Celestia. “You’ve already exceeded every expectation I could ever have placed on you, and my expectations were quite high. I think you’ll surprise yourself with your abilities.”

“Alright. If you say so,” said Twilight.

“If that’s settled, I suppose we should start planning,” said Luna, sighing. “As you said, we’ve got a lot of work in front of us. Building an entire city is no small thing.” She suddenly smiled mischievously. “There’s also the matter of Twilight’s coronation, of course,” she said. “If we start preparing now, we should be finished just about the time she finally caves in and agrees.”

Twilight groaned in exasperation. “If you need a new princess so much, why don’t you just get Cadence to do it? She’s good at looking all princess-y.”

“As I said before, Cadence isn’t a true alicorn,” said Luna. “For one thing, she’s not immortal, and she can’t control the heavenly mechanisms, either.” Her grin suddenly grew much wider. “Now that I think about it, I never told you where pegasus-unicorn hybrids come from, did I?”

“Perhaps this is a conversation we should have another time,” broke in Celestia. “As you said, we have a lot of work in front of us.”

Luna’s grin was now positively evil. “But if Twilight is going to be a princess, it’s important that she know these things, don’t you agree? You are, after all, her teacher. You wouldn’t want to withhold any knowledge from her, now would you?”

Celestia covered her face with her hoof. “Oh, get it over with, then. I suppose she would have found out eventually anyway.” Twilight stared at the pair of them in growing confusion.

“You see, Twilight, when a pony becomes an alicorn, the change happens at every level. Normally, when a pony has a colt or a filly, it will be the same species as the parent, or perhaps a grandparent, and it will always be of only one species, even if the parents were different. Alicorns, however, can pass on two of the traits to their children. Which two depends on the species of the alicorn’s partner, but the child will always be a hybrid.”

“I don’t get it,” said Twilight. “I thought Cadence was Celestia’s niece. But... You’re the only other alicorn, and you were still gone when Cadence was born, right? I mean, she’s only a few years older than me.”

“Indeed, you are correct. That would be because Cadence is not actually Celestia’s niece,” said Luna.

Twilight was still confused. “But that still doesn’t make any sense. I mean, if Cadence isn’t related to Celestia, then how could she be a hybrid? Because didn’t you say- oh. OH. Wait. WHAT?”

“I do believe she’s figured it out,” Luna said, smirking. Her sister gave her a look that would have sent any mortal pony fleeing in terror.

Twilight felt as though her mind had run into a brick wall. “But... but... There’s no record of you ever being pregnant, or even having a partner!” she said to her old mentor.

Celestia coughed, flushing slightly. “Yes. Well. With my size, it’s rather easier to hide the early stages, and for the later stages, it’s not particularly hard to arrange some crisis that forces me to leave the capital for a couple of months.”

“But then, who’s the father?” asked Twilight.

“I, ah, I’m not entirely sure,” said Celestia, her blush deepening. “There are... a number of possibilities.”

Luna was barely restraining herself from dissolving in laughter at the look of shock on Twilight’s face. “You see,” she said, “My sister prefers to... What is that delightful phrase all the colts use now? Ah yes, ‘Hit it and quit it.’”

“What my sister is trying to say,” Celestia cut in, “Is that I have learned to love every pony while I can, to avoid becoming dangerously attached to any of them.”

“You have been ruling alone for a thousand years,” said Luna, still struggling not to laugh. “It’s perfectly fair that you’d need to relieve some stress now and then. Besides, your children are always so lovely. What was the name of that delightful earth pony/unicorn hybrid you introduced me to? Blueblood, wasn’t it?”

“Wait. Hold on. Prince Blueblood is your SON?” demanded Twilight.

Celestia sighed heavily, and then simply said, “Yes.”

“I’m... Yeah, I’m going to need a while to get my head around that.”

* * *

Three months later

The setting sun painted the snow laden trees a deep orange as Luna landed in the wide clearing. Winter had come to the Everfree Forest for the first time in centuries, the land grudgingly falling into sync with the rest of Equestria. Already, the forest was tamer than it had been; the supernatural creatures such as the timberwolves were vanishing as the twisted energy that powered them drained away, and the more natural dangers such as the manticores were retreating into the dark depths of the forest and going into hibernation at the unfamiliar cold.

The gathering of ponies that called the clearing their home was still too young to be called anything more than an encampment, but at the current rate, it would grow into a village by summer. For now, taming the forest took priority over beginning construction on the new capital, but soon that would change. Already, tents were giving way to rough wooden cottages, built with the trees harvested as the clearing expanded. Work had slowed with the onset of winter in favor of the heavy blanket of snow that forced the denizens of the Everfree to search for greener pastures, but several hundred ponies still called the camp home. Over the past few days, though, nearly two thousand more had arrived, swelling the clearing with bright pavilions.

Luna’s night guards saluted her as she approached the tent she shared with Twilight. Despite Celestia’s regular nagging, Twilight had point blank refused to have her own guard company formed. During the unfortunately common times that she spent away from Luna, the night and day guards competed over who got to provide her honor guard.

Ducking inside the tent, Luna found Twilight reading some report, as usual. Although the preparations for the celebration were more or less finished, the work never ceased. It seemed to Luna that every time they squelched one crisis, two more sprang up to take its place. All three alicorns spent most of their time flying back and forth across Equestria, putting out fires. Tonight, though, there would be none of that. Tonight was special.

Twilight heard her enter and looked up. A moment later, Luna found herself nearly thrown out of the tent by a flying hug. Fortunately, she’d be expecting it; Twilight still hadn’t gotten used to how powerful her wings were.

“I was starting to worry you wouldn’t make it in time,” said Twilight once she’d released Luna.

“I was as well,” replied Luna. “I was held up for considerably longer than I would have liked in Manehatten. I needed to set the mayor straight about a few things again.”

“Oh, Harmony,” said Twilight, rolling her eyes. “What was it this time?”

“You, actually,” replied Luna. “He was accusing you of favoritism for picking your friends to organize the celebration.”

“What? Has he forgotten that I met my friends while organizing a celebration just like this one?” asked Twilight indignantly.

“It seems so,” said Luna. “I reminded him. Loudly.”

“Well, hopefully we won’t hear from him for at least a couple of months, then. It’ll probably take that long just for his hearing to come back,” said Twilight, laughing. “Anyway, it’s almost time for us to get into position. The sun will be setting in less than an hour.”

Luna nodded, turning and walking back out of the tent. “Where is Celestia?” she asked as they walked.

“Working,” said Twilight. “Don’t worry, she’ll be there, but she wants to keep a low profile. It’s not her celebration, after all.”

“What about you?” asked Luna. “You’re entitled to your own celebration now, after all. You don’t have to share mine.”

Twilight wrapped her wing around the other alicorn. “I’m perfectly happy to share your celebration, Luna. We belong together. Besides, maybe if they give you more attention, they’ll stop gawking at me so much.”

Luna laughed. Twilight had lasted all of two days before giving in to Celestia’s request to be officially coronated as a princess, after the seventh time in a single day a pony had called her one despite her objections.

In the very center of the clearing, a small raised platform had been erected, with a cordoned off walkway leading to a small tent. The crowd was already starting to gather, and they stole looks at the two alicorns, whispering as they passed. Luna hurried along for Twilight’s sake, but inside, she couldn’t help but love the attention. It brought back memories of a time long before her exile, when ponies had craned their necks to get a look at the elusive Princess of the Night, rather than cringing away from her as she passed.

Everyone was waiting for them inside, as Luna had known they would be. Pinkie Pie was the first to get a word in, of course. “Ooh! Look! They’re here, they’re here! Hi Twilight! Hi Luna!”

“Yeah Pinkie, we can see they’re here. Hey Twilight, did I tell you I beat my old record for clearing the sky? Seven seconds flat.”

“Rainbow, darling, this is the fourth time you’ve told us. Some ponies find it rather less tacky to wait for everypony to gather before making announcements regarding their personal accomplishments, so they only have to do so once.”

“Just sayin’, Rarity, but I vaguely recall you tootin’ your own horn pretty darned loud when you got that contract to make all them dresses for the celebration.”

“Yes, well, that was a special case. It was the largest contract I’ve ever sold. I felt an exception was warranted for such an important occasion.”

“Hey, are you saying clearing the sky in seven seconds isn’t a big deal? Do you realize Spitfire’s record is only six and a half seconds? Spitfire!”

“Um, excuse me. I, uh, think Princess Celestia wants to say something. I mean, um, If you guys don’t mind.”

Everyone else immediately muttered apologies and quieted as the sun princess stepped forward with a smile on her face. “It has been one thousand and nine years since the last Winter Moon Celebration. Far too long for one of Equestria’s once most beloved festivals.” Abruptly, she threw her arms around her sister. “I’m so happy for you,” she said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t bring this celebration back sooner. I thought ponies might not be ready for it, but now I see it’s exactly what everypony needed.”

“There is nothing to apologize for,” said Luna, hugging her back. “I’m not sure I would have been ready before. But I’m ready now. Both of us are ready,” she said, looking at Twilight.

“It’s almost time,” said Celestia, stepping back. “This will be a night long remembered.”

“You bet it will be remembered! Just wait until you see the after party I’ve set up! Do you have any idea what I had to do to get Vinyl Scratch to do the 600th episode of A State of Prance from here? Oh, sorry, was I ruining the mood again?”

Everyone rolled their eyes at Pinkie. “Shhh, listen,” said Twilight. “The introduction has started.”

“Go on,” said Celestia. “I will lower the sun at the appropriate moment. Come, everypony. We all have our jobs to do, I believe.”

She exited the tent followed by the rest, giving words of encouragement as they left "It's funny," said Twilight. "It seems like a lifetime ago that I suggested you bring back the Winter Moon Celebration, even though it's only been a few months."

"I believe you made that suggestion in a throne room which no longer exists," replied Luna. "I've lived for thousands of years, but some times feel so much more real than others." She smiled, pulling Twilight close to her.

A few minutes of waiting later, Fluttershy’s birds gave their fanfare. “I believe that is our cue,” said Luna. “Shall we?”

Side by side, they exited the tent to great applause. Luna walked down the corridor, lined on both sides by cheering ponies, and felt complete for the first time in a thousand years. Reaching the stage, Luna raised her hoof, and the ponies quieted, holding their breath in anticipation. Twilight took up position opposite her. Looking into each other’s eyes, they began.

Luna reached out with her senses as she felt the sun disappear from the physical world. The moon was just below the horizon, waiting for her to summon it. She grasped it and spread her wings. As the two alicorns rose into the air, the moon rose with them, framing their silhouettes for the ponies watching.

As the moon reached its zenith, there was a burst of energy from the pony across from her, and the aurora flickered into being, waving its way across the sky until it framed the moon in a brilliant ring of colors and bathing the ponies below in light. For a time, there was nothing but silence. The ponies below stared up, awestruck by the spectacle. Then, in a growing swell, the cheers began, many times louder than they had been before.

Slowly, Luna lowered herself back to the stage, with Twilight beside her. She glanced at her companion and saw delight sparkling in her eyes; even Twilight couldn’t help but take pleasure in the adoration from the beauty they had created. They stood side by side and waved at the crowd before them as the applause went on and on.

Eventually, the crowd began to run out of steam. Luna glanced at Twilight, and she nodded. They faced the crowd, smiling, and bowed to them. Twilight looked down and winked at Pinkie, who bounded off to start the party. Finally, the two alicorns rose into the air. Side by side, they flew away to enjoy the night they had created.

The End

Author's Note

Hell, it's about time.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to read this story. When I started writing this thing, I had no idea how absurdly popular it was going to get. My wildest dreams had it at maybe 200 likes, and here I am at 700 and counting. You people are amazing, and you deserve a way better author than me. Seriously, I'm worse than George R.R. Martin and Valve put together. At least they're working on masterpieces, and I couldn't even finish the last chapter of some lame pony fanfic.

So, holy shit, I'm finally done. That means I get to harass all those authors who started their stories before mine and haven't finished yet without feeling guilty. Yeah, you guys know who you are. Peddle to the meddle, huh? Seriously though, I only say that because I love your stories.

Once again, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed Aurora.

Chapter 2

The sun was going down by the time Cadence and Shining Armor left. Although their visit had taken Twilight's mind entirely off her worries, the sight of the moon beginning to peek over the horizon brought them all immediately crashing back. She rushed over to her saddlebags and pulled out all the books she had brought. After having a slight crisis over which book was more essential for her to read, she settled on one about some of the more obscure details of Equestrian tax law and proceeded to dive into it. After all, it was critical for her to have studied as much as she possibly could before Luna-

A knock on the door interrupted Twilight's reading. She looked up and realized that it was now fully dark, which meant that at least an hour had passed since she started. Princess Luna's here already? But I'm not ready! But I have to be ready! Given her mane a hurried brush, Twilight hurried over to the door and opened it.

“Princess Luna! It's an honor to – Oh.”

“Hi, Twi,” mumbled Spike, stumbling through the door. “Man, they make the best pie in the royal kitchens. I could eat it all day. I guess I did eat it all day.” He let out a groan. “How come they had to put your tower at the top of a bunch of stairs?”

“Spike, you know you're not supposed to eat so much. How come they let you eat so much, anyway?” said Twilight, following Spike as he made his way haphazardly towards his bed.

“New cook. Never seen a baby dragon before. I told him it was important for us to eat as much as possible, so we can grow.”

“Well, you can be sure this is the last time that little trick will work,” said Twilight. “We're at the castle now, Spike! We need to behave appropriately for a royal advisor. What would the Princess think?”

“Actually, this is nothing. You should see Celestia when she gets in the mood for cake,” said a voice right behind Twilight.

Twilight nearly jumped straight out of her skin. “WAAGH! Princess Luna! I didn't see you there! Uh, I mean, it's an honor to, um, see you-”

She was interrupted by a gout of bright green flame shooting just over her head, accompanied by the sound of a hiccup. “Sorry hic,” said Spike. “It was more hic your shout that start hic startled me than Princess Lu hic Luna.”

Twilight hastily surrounded the baby dragon with a magical bubble before he set the room on fire. Then she slowly turned back towards the Princess of the Night, bracing herself for the worst. Luna, however, was struggling – and failing – to stop herself from snickering. As Twilight looked up at her, she lost the battle and burst into laughter. “Perhaps it would be better if I knocked next time,” she said after she had managed to get herself under control, wiping her eyes with her hoof.

Twilight gave a nervous laugh, slightly relieved that she wasn't going to be banished to the moon, or wherever Luna banished ponies to. She took a deep breath to steady herself, then said, “My apologies for not being ready for you. As I was saying, it's an honor to see you again, Princess.”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Twilight Sparkle. In truth, that lightened my evening considerably. And you know there's no need for you to be formal with me.”

“Of course, Prin – I mean – Luna,” said Twilight. “I just thought, since I'm supposed a royal advisor now, I should follow court customs more carefully. I read six books on it before coming to make sure I knew what to do.”

“That might be appropriate when we're in court, but not in private,” replied Luna.

“Speaking of court, won't it be time for the night court to start soon?” asked Twilight anxiously.

Luna's smile twisted into a frown. “I suppose it will. You would not be so eager if you knew what was in store for you, though.”

“I know I'm not as ready as I could be, but I did as much to prepare as I could,” said Twilight. “I read the entire current Equestrian code of laws, as well as reviewing every important legal ruling in the past two centuries. I also read all of Marecus Aurelius' meditations on ethics. I was going to read Whinny the Elder, but I ran out of time. Still, I hope I've learned enough to handle at least a couple of petitioners.”

For a moment, Luna simply stared at Twilight. “I see why my sister gave this position to you,” she said after a moment. “That is not what I meant when I said you would not be so eager, though. You will see soon enough.”

Spike had stopped hiccuping fireballs, so Twilight let him out of her magical bubble. “Why don't you get some sleep?” she said. “And no more pies tomorrow. Alright, I'm ready,” she said, turning to Luna. “Lead the way.”

The throne room looked much as it did during the day, with the exception that Luna's night guards were standing before the throne. Luna and Twilight entered through a side door, without fanfare. Sighing, Luna mounted the steps to the throne, with Twilight following anxiously behind. She seated herself to Luna's right, the traditional place of the trusted advisor. She was practically bubbling with nerves, so when Luna abruptly announced, “WE NOW DECLARE THIS SESSION OF COURT OPEN,” Twilight jumped even higher than she had a few minutes earlier. Twilight directed a ferocious glare at Luna, and another at the guards, who hadn't batted an eyelash.

The double doors at the far end of the room ponderously swung open, revealing another pair of guards, and absolutely no one else. Twilight leaned forward, trying to see where all the petitioners were waiting, but Luna sighed and settled despondently back into the throne. After perhaps a minute, Twilight ventured a cautious, “Where is everypony?”

“This is everypony,” said Luna sourly. “On a busy night, there will be three or four petitioners. Most nights, nopony comes at all.”

“But... But why?” stammered Twilight. “Don't they know they can come? It would probably be faster than waiting to see Celestia, too.”

“Because they shun the night, just like they always have. They shun me.”

Luna sounded so forlorn, Twilight felt the sudden, completely inappropriate urge to get up and hug the princess. Instead, she thought for a moment, and then said, “You know, Luna, in my two years in Ponyville, I've never gotten more than a dozen ponies coming to the library every month. That doesn't mean they don't appreciate me. It just means they don't share all my interests.”

“I hardly think it's the same,” objected Luna. “The night is my life's purpose. It is part of who I am. When they reject it, they reject me.”

“And books aren't a part of who I am?” asked Twilight. “You may have been the custodian of the night for slightly longer than I've been the custodian of the Ponyville library, but it seems pretty similar to me. Besides, I don't think ponies come to petition Celestia just to show how much they love her. They do it because they want her to do something for them.”

Luna gave Twilight an irritated look and opened her mouth to retort, but instead, she said nothing, and her face took on a thoughtful look. After a minute, she looked back at Twilight, smiling. “You always do seem to be able to help me see things in a new way, Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps they simply think my sister is easier to cajole than myself,” she said, taking on a slightly mischievous look.

Twilight laughed, mostly in reaction to Luna's improved mood. “Well, if petitioners are what you want, you'll probably get them tomorrow, since Princess Celestia won't be here anymore.”

“And now, thanks to you, the prospect of a night filled with ponies demanding things from me seems much less attractive than it did a moment ago,” said Luna with a false glare, and both ponies giggled. “Still,” said Luna, “It will be nice to feel needed again. Ponies take the sky moving for granted now. I don't begrudge them, but a little appreciation now and then would be welcome.”

“You know, you should have your own celebration, like Princess Celestia has the Summer Sun celebration. Aside from Nightmare Night, I mean. Something on the longest night of the year. Then ponies could see what you do for them firsthand.”

“There was a Winter Moon Celebration once, before I was banished. Celestia has most likely forgotten, with all the time that has passed.”

“Well, that settles it,” said Twilight. “When she gets back from her mission, we're going to talk to her and bring the Winter Moon Celebration back. I've got a couple of other ideas, too...”

* * *

Luna couldn't remember the last time she had actually enjoyed night court. In fact, the past night had been the most enjoyable since... Well, since the last time she had talked to Twilight, at the royal wedding three months ago. Even after Twilight had gone off to bed in the small hours of the morning, Luna's good mood had persisted. She had closed night court slightly early, since nopony would notice or care anyway, and gone off to the library to catch up on her reading. After all, if Twilight could read so much to prepare for being a mere advisor, what excuse did Luna have as princess?

Unsurprisingly, Luna didn't get through the entire law code, instead getting sidetracked into a few books on prominent artists of the last several centuries. How long has it been since I did anything with my sky? She thought to herself. Celestia said they make charts and maps of it, and I might disturb them if I made changes. It's my sky, though. If I want to make a new constellation or two, why shouldn't I?

Eventually, Luna sensed the moon beginning to sink beneath the horizon, which meant her sister would be waking. She replaced the books in their shelves and made her way once more towards Celestia's chambers.

Celestia was sprawled on her favorite cushion again; if she'd been a mortal pony, her mane would no doubt have been a complete mess. “Morning, sister,” she yawned as Luna entered.

“I just wanted to thank you for assigning Twilight Sparkle to be my advisor before you left,” said Luna. “I honestly didn't think it was possible that anypony could make night court bearable, but she managed.”

“I'd hoped as much,” said Celestia, smiling. “She does seem to have that effect on ponies. I told you you two would manage fine without me.” She yawned again. “Send me a letter about it tonight or tomorrow, won't you? There's about five things that I'm not doing right now that I really should be.”

“Of course, sister,” said Luna, chuckling to herself. “I'll see you when you return.”

“Love you, Luna,” said Celestia.

“You too, 'Tia,” replied Luna, making her way to the balcony.

Luna spread her wings and soared up into the air. Looking beneath the surface of reality with her sixth sense, she saw the flare of crimson energy below the horizon as the sun reentered the world. Luna followed one of the deep currents back to her lunar palace in time to see Equestria sink behind the mountains at the edge of the world.

She waited a few minutes to make sure the moon had sunk completely beneath the horizon, and then reached out once again with her sixth sense, a sense somewhere between vision and touch. She felt and saw the place where there was a slight gap in reality, grasped it, and twisted. In the blink of an eye, the gap rushed over everything, turning it inside out. The walls of the world vanished below her, and back in Equestria, the moon and the stars winked out of existence.

No matter how many times Luna performed the task, the power and intricacy of the heavenly apparatus never ceased to amaze her. Even after two and a half thousand years of life, Luna and her sister had never understood more than a fraction of its complexity. Harmony, whoever he or she had been, must have been a truly exceptional creature.

Looking around her night sky, absent of everything but the stars, a feeling of loneliness swept over Luna. As she walked into her bleak palace, she almost wished she had stayed in Canterlot. Her bedroom seemed especially empty, although it was by far the most decorated room in the palace; her sister had insisted on that. But as she laid down in her bed and closed her eyes, it was not the white alicorn she found herself missing, but rather a small lavender unicorn.

Luna awoke the next evening feeling excited for the night to come, which was something that almost never happened. After giving her face a brief wash and pulling on her various royal ornaments, she decided to leave before it was time to raise the moon, another thing that almost never happened. The sky was still empty of anything but stars, but the path back to Equestria was easily visible to her senses, and barely ten minutes after waking, she was gliding down towards Canterlot castle.

However, after landing in the courtyard, a blanket of anxiousness was abruptly draped over her good mood. She had automatically started towards her sister's rooms, before remembering that Celestia wasn't there. With that realization, the full weight of her position came crashing down on her. She was fully and completely in charge, not just of the castle, but of all of Equestria. I suppose my sister was right, she thought nervously. I never really thought about how much of the ruling she does until she wasn't here to do it.

Determined not to let her anxiety get the better of her, she started off for Twilight's room instead. If Luna was going to rule, she wanted to do it properly, and she'd need to rely on Twilight's knowledge to do that. And, she admitted to herself, talking to Twilight does always seem to make me feel better.

When she reached Twilight's tower, Luna briefly entertained the idea of sneaking in through a window in the hope of a repeat performance of the previous night, but quickly discarded the idea. It wouldn't do to start treating Twilight the same way she treated her sister. Instead, she rapped loudly on the door and waited for a muffled, “Come in!” from the other side.

Even with her knocking, she still managed to surprise Twilight. “Princess! I mean, Luna! I wasn't expecting you yet. The moon isn't even up,” said Twilight, hastily organizing a rather large pile of books which had accumulated on her floor.

“I thought it would be good to come early, to prepare for a true session of court,” said Luna. “I have not had to deal with the laws since my return, and I understand they have grown considerably more complicated in the past thousand years.”

“Oh, they have,” replied Twilight. “The code of laws has doubled in length just in the past century. Princess Celestia believes a comprehensive set of laws will make Equestria fairer, although you can still overrule it if you feel it's necessary. Most cases never even come before the royal court, though.”

“I see,” said Luna. “In my day, we would judge each case ourselves. I can see how that would be impractical now. Why do ponies come before the royal court now?”

“Sometimes they think they've been treated unfairly by the lower bureaucrats, or sometimes they want a special favor. The bureaucrats themselves come by fairly regularly, too. I've read that they tend to compete for favor with each other.”

Luna asked several more questions before glancing out the window and realizing that the sun was setting. “Please excuse me for a moment,” she said, walking over to the other window. She could sense the moon through the walls, of course, but being able to actually see the horizon always seemed to help her when she wasn't on the moon itself. Her horn glowed briefly as she reached out and brought the moon back into existence, setting it on its course around the sky. “Where were we again?” she said, walking back to Twilight.

Twilight gave her a confused look. “Weren't you going to raise the moon?” she asked.

“I just did,” said Luna.

“But... But Celestia has to do so much more than that during the Summer Sun Celebration. The moon isn't even over the horizon!” protested Twilight.

“Well, it wouldn't make for a very impressive show without all that, would it?” pointed out Luna. “Moving the sun and moon is actually quite a bit easier than most ponies think it is, although it's probably even more complicated. It's not a matter of physically lifting the moon. That would be impossible, even for my sister or I. It's simply a matter of correctly setting it in motion.”

“But – I thought – Don't you – Celestia always -” Twilight stammered. She took a couple of deep breaths, and then said, “You do realize you just overturned about a thousand years of theories on how your powers work, don't you?”

Luna frowned. “I'm surprised Celestia never spoke of it. Even if other ponies knew, they wouldn't be able to perform it. Back in the beginning, we tried to teach other ponies to control the heavens, but none ever could.”

“I thought unicorns used to do it by themselves,” said Twilight. “That's what it says in the Hearth's Warming Eve story.”

Luna shrugged. “As far as I know, that's just an old pony's tale. It was already old when we started our rule. Most likely a relic of Discord's time.”

“Well, could you try teaching me?” asked Twilight, nearly bouncing. “Even if it's impossible for me to learn, it would still be absolutely fascinating.”

“I don't see why not,” said Luna. “Later, though. Night court will start soon.”

“Of course,” said Twilight, deflating slightly. “Anyway, where were we...”

After another half hour or so, Luna and Twilight made their way back to the throne room. When Luna opened the doors, the largest crowd she had ever drawn was waiting for her, although it was still considerably smaller than the ones Celestia drew. Still, definitely an improvement... she hoped.

The first ponies up were two farmers from just outside Canterlot who had both laid claim to the same field. Since Luna was unable to determine who had actually laid claim to the field first, and neither had bothered filling out documents, she eventually instructed that the first pony divide the fields and the second have first pick, an old favorite of hers.

The second issue was from one of the bureaucrats Twilight had spoken of, a gray unicorn stallion named Paperstack. He gave a rambling, jumbled speech lasting the better part of twenty minutes on why some obscure point of Equestrian law should be changed. Unfortunately for him, Luna hadn't lived for more than 2000 years without getting a sense of when a pony was trying to pull a fast one on her, and Twilight had studied the law enough to figure out that the result of his request would be to allow him to skim several hundred bits off the royal treasury every month. Luna sent him on his way with a stern reprimand delivered in the Royal Canterlot Voice, and doubted he'd be back anytime soon.

One by one, the petitioners kept coming. Although Luna was genuinely glad to be doing her share again, as the night dragged on, she began to wish a few less ponies had shown up. Twilight apparently shared the sentiment; somewhere around the second hour, she leaned over between petitioners and whispered, “I wish some of these were a little bit more exciting.”

As if on cue, there was a commotion out in hallway. The crowd of petitioners parted in the middle, and two of Luna's night guard entered with a filly between them. Looking closer, Luna saw that they appeared to be supporting the filly in the middle, a blue earth pony, who seemed to be in some amount of distress. “Be careful what you wish for,” she muttered to Twilight, then raised her voice. “What is the meaning of this?” she asked the guards.

“There's been some sort of incident, Princess,” said one of the guards. “Best to hear it from her, if she's up to telling it.” They both leaned in close to the pony they had been escorting and seemed to be trying to reassure her; Luna saw that she was trembling and weeping.

After a moment, Luna rose from the throne and walked down to the filly herself, with Twilight following. She got down on her knees so as not to loom over her, and said, “It's alright. You're safe now. Can you tell me what your name is?”

Seeing the Princess seemed to snap the filly back to reality. “Blue-Blue Blossom,” she stammered. “My name is Blue Blossom, ah, your highness.”

“Can you tell me what's happened, Blue Blossom?” asked Luna gently.

“I-I don't want to talk about it,” she mumbled.

“Please. I need to know what's happened,” said Luna.

“I found...” She shuddered again, but seemed to gather her courage. “I found a-a body! Somepony's been killed!”

* * *

The room had grown entirely silent while Blue Blossom talked, but at her words, whispers broke out all over the hall. Killed? As in, murdered? Thought Twilight. But, that doesn't happen here! I don't think I can remember ever hearing one pony killing another in Canterlot.

Luna was questioning Blue Blossom further. “What did you see?” she asked.

“There's... There's this old shop. Closed. Me and a couple of my friends thought we'd sneak into it. Just for fun, you know? Up at the top, there's an attic. Locked, but my friend Willowisp is a unicorn. She managed to get it open. Inside, there was a room...” The terrified filly curled up on the floor, shuddering. “No! I don't want to think about it anymore! Don't make me think about it anymore!”

Luna sighed and raised herself. One of the guards approached her. “I think I know the store she's talking about, Princess. It's just a block or two from where we found her. Poor thing was screaming her head off. That's the most sense I've heard from her until we brought her here.”

Luna nodded. “Find a room for her, and get one of the servants to look after her. We'll find her family in the morning.” She raised her voice. “I apologize, but night court will be ending prematurely tonight. I hope you understand. Please, if you have further concerns, bring them to my attention tomorrow night.” Turning back to the other guard, she said, “Gather a full squad of the guard and meet me by the gate. Also, tell the commander that shifts are doubled until this matter has been resolved. That goes for the day guard, too.”

“Yes, Princess,” said the guard, running out of the hall.

Luna turned to Twilight. “You'd better come,” she said. “Do you think we need to wake your brother?”

Twilight shook her head. “He's been overworking himself lately,” she said. “Tomorrow should be soon enough. This will be hard enough on him as it is.”

“As you say,” said Luna. “We'd better go, then.”

The two ponies made their way out of the throne room and down to the lower gate. Twilight had to fight the urge to just teleport straight there, but she knew they had to give the guard enough time to assemble a squad. Still, by the time they arrived, she was nearly jumping out of her skin with impatience, and the fear didn't do anything to help. Could there be some kind of new monster attacking the city? She thought, and shivered when she realized that she'd prefer that to the idea of a pony killing another pony.

A full twelve guards armed with spears were waiting for them outside the castle, including the one who had originally come to the throne room. “Follow me, princess,” he said, and the squad moved out. They formed into protective ranks around Luna and Twilight, and although they made her feel somewhat safer, she doubted Luna really needed them.

“Has anything like this ever happened before?” asked Twilight as they walked.

“It happens from time to time, although rarely, thank Harmony,” replied Luna. “I remember there was one just after I returned. Something involving two stallions getting in a fight over a filly. Accidental, if I recall correctly, but I didn't really get involved.”

Twilight shivered. “I never heard about it,” she said.

“Celestia wanted to keep it quiet. She did her best to keep it out of the gossip mill. Everypony involved felt terrible afterwards. They didn't need to be singled out for it, as well.”

Twilight nodded. “I wonder if that's what happened here, too.”

Luna didn't respond, and a few minutes later, they arrived outside a ramshackle old shop with boarded up windows. “Please let us go first, princess,” said the guard commander. Luna nodded, and two unicorn guards pushed through the door, which was unlocked. Their horns lit up, and a soft glow lit the interior. “Looks clear,” one of them said after a moment.

“Right. You four, wait outside and cover the exits. The rest of you, with me,” said the commander. He entered the building, with Luna and Twilight following. The inside was just as run down as the outside had suggested, with nothing but a few dusty tables. However, Twilight noted that the floor was mostly clear of dust. “Over here,” came a voice from around the corner. “There are stairs up.”

The group carefully made its way up to the second floor, which was just as empty as the first. The guards spread out and searched it. “Found the attic,” said one after a moment. After a nod from the commander, he ascended the stairs and pushed open the door. “Right. Let's see what we've- Holy buck! Sir... Dear Celestia. You'd better come take a look at this, sir.”

The commander mounted the stairs, and there was a hiss of indrawn air. “Who would do something like this?” he muttered.

Luna made her way up the stairs, and Twilight apprehensively followed. “I'm not sure you want to look at this, Princess,” said the commander, but after a glare from Luna, he gulped and swiftly moved out of the way. Luna reached the top of the staircase and said nothing, staring grimly. A moment later, Twilight was beside her, and she saw.

The room had been painted entirely black. Shelves were stacked against the walls, holding musty tomes, rows of black candles, and arrays of curved daggers. In the center of the room, an intricate diagram had been carefully burned into the floor, filled with jagged lines and spiky runes. In the middle of the symbol, a brown stallion lay spread eagle. A spear had been driven clean through his chest and into the floor beneath.

“I think,” said Twilight after a horrified moment, “We'd better go wake Shining Armor.”