The Neighcronomicon

Twilight groaned, blinking gummy eyes against the harsh glare of a new dawn. Memories trickled into her waking mind, and another groan of equal parts melancholy and anger slipped from her throat. Complicated and experimental magic was going on the ‘Do Not Attempt’ list, Twilight mentally chided herself. At least the speaking spell (if still kinda experimental) seemed okay to be used.

Reaching for her magic to refresh said speaking spell, Twilight suddenly felt very awake.

Normally, a unicorn suffering the the wear of physical and mental strain to the degree Twilight had would find only a bare shadow of their magic at their beck and call. Twilight acknowledged to herself that her own magical prowess was far greater than that of most unicorns, and years of mental conditioning had left her fairly resilient to the rigors of psychological strain. Days of minimal sustenance and weeks of sundered sleep schedules were not foreign to Twilight by any stretch of the imagination.

Even so, Twilight was astonished by her magic. It was not the wasted sliver of power she had expected to find.

It had grown.

Twilight had always thought of her magic as a building, a library specifically. As she learned new spells, new bookshelves and extensions of the library were created. The size of her mental bastion had grown incrementally over the years, small strides in magical might that expanded what she could do and the amount she could do.

But in the span of a couple of days, Twilight could feel that her magic had grown more than it had in the last couple of years.

Twilight glanced at the bedside table where the Neighcronomicon lay. It had done this for her. Power, raw seething power was hers to grab, if only she’d open the Neighcronomicon again and read. From cover to cover, like every other book she’d touched (terrible literature and half-illegible fan fictions aside), that’s all Twilight needed to let herself do. With trembling hooves, Twilight slowly reached for the tome.

A faint, demure yawn sounded from behind Twilight, and the soft clink of bits changing hooves brought Twilight’s head around to stare behind herself.

“Consarnit Pinkie, Ah don’t know why Ah even bother bettin’ against you.” Applejack grumbled as Pinkie pie stuffed the hooffull of bits into her mane.

“Because as the Element of Honesty, you had a hard time believing that Twilight would willingly engage in self destructive behavior when she’d previously pleaded with us to help her stay away from reading the Neighcronomicon. Additionally, you, like Dashie, have a competitive streak, and indulging in a friendly wager between friends is a safe way to scratch that particular itch.”

Twilight put her head down and rubbed the base of her horn. Partly because she could feel a hornache coming on as the Neighcronomicon extracted its vengeance for being denied, but also to surreptitiously wipe away the tears forming in her eyes. She had asked her friends to help her stop reading once, and she had admitted to herself that it was dangerous to read the Neighcronomicon. The bedding around Twilight sagged and bounced as somepony walked over to her side.

“Pinkie, darling, do you remember what we said about rhetorical questions?” Rarity said as she patted Twilight’s shoulder.

“Oo! Oo! Yes! A-hem.” Pinkie’s exuberant tone vanished, and in an eerily similar voice to Rarity’s Pinkie recited “A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked in order to make a point, rather than to elicit an answer.”

Pouring magical energy into the speaking spell, Twilight chimed in, “I think what Rarity was trying to say was that Applejack wasn’t expecting an answer. And I’m sorry for reaching for the Neighcronomicon girls, I just… wasn’t thinking clearly.”

"It's alright darling; a momentary lapse of judgement, nothing to apologize for." Rarity said, hugging Twilight to her briefly.

With a rattle, the door to the girls shared bedroom slid open, revealing a gangly colt on the cusp of stallionhood.

"Uh, Miss Twilight? My, um, my name is Coal Soot, I'm Smoke Stacks assistant for this, um, jaunt. He, uh, he said that you should come up to the conductor's car and, um, explain why there's only two train cars left." Coal Soot's voice cracked and warbled with nerves, and Twilight found his nervously darting gaze quite similar to Fluttershys.

"Wait, what do you mean only two cars left?" Twilight yelped as Soot’s words sank home. Too late, as the colt had bolted as soon as his message was delivered.

"Oh yeah, you were knocked mostly-kinda unconscious by Fluttershy breaking your spell and didn't get to hear the really neato story I told Mr. Shoggoth." Pinkie chirped, a goofy smile plastered across her face.

“Or watch Pinkie set Mr. Shoggoth on fire, and the dinin' car to boot.” Applejack drawled. “At least you had the bright idea of unhitchin’ the dinin' car from us so we didn’t catch fire neither.”

“Oh yeah, or that either! Hey, Twilight, did you know Braycardi 151 burns blue?!”

Twilight, staring with a mix of shock and understanding numbly responded, “Yes Pinkie, some flames are blue. Depending on the composition of the fuel, fire can appear in many different colors, ranging all across the visible light spectrum...” Twilight stared into space, listing different chemical compounds and what color they gave off if burned.

Pinkie squealed, “I think fire is my new favoritest color!”

“Sumthin’ about that just ain’t right.” Applejack mumbled, watching Pinkie Pie bounce about on the three beds, her mane poofy and springy despite the topic of arson and pyromania.

“Oh Pinkie, darling, that really was too much to tell Twilight all at once, especially this early in the morning.” Rarity softly chided as she stroked Twilight’s mane. Whether Rarity brushed the purple unicorns mane out of a need to put some order into the bed head Twilight sported or in an effort to comfort her Pinkie-shocked friend was only for her to know. Regardless, Rarity’s gentle but sure strokes slowly restored Twilight to a functioning mental state.

"Thank you Rarity. Still, while Smoke Stack asked me to explain things I think I'll need somepony else to help clarify. Rarity, if I could impose on you...?" Twilight grinned somewhat abashedly.

"Of course darling, just let me use the little fillies room and I'll be right with you." With a flick of her perfectly coiffed hair, Rarity slipped out of the room.

"By the way girls, where's Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy?" Twilight asked as she levitated an apple from the group's diminishing stock.

Applejack grimaced and tugged her stetson low over her face. Pinkie Pie gently put a hoof around Applejack's shoulders before responding. "Well, they're next door to us. Um, they kinda took the whole epic battle between ponykind and the darkness from between the stars the hardest..." Twilight noted that, in fact, Pinkie Pie's fur showed a few singe marks and burnt clumps, not too dissimilar from Twilight's own burn wounds. Applejack had a few small bands of white gauze wrapped around her barrel and legs, one of which was tinted red. Bruises, too numerous to count, were a constant theme between the two earth ponies. Twilight winced at a particularly large bruise Pinkie had on her right shoulder, feeling sympathetic pain from all of her minor bruises and abrasions.

"Fluttershy I could buy that about, but Rainbow Dash? I'm stunned I didn't wake up to her boasting or doing Sonic Rainbooms next to the train to trumpet her awesomeness." Twilight said, not pausing in consuming her apple. One decided upside to the speaking spell is that she could talk with her mouth full and not sound like a slob. Sure, she had been forced to put magical theory into practice because the sound of her speaking could cause a pony to burst into tears or fall into a catatonic state from soul-born terror. And Twilight was sure that what she was doing was technically still rude since she was speaking and she was also eating, but only Rarity would take offense and she was indisposed at the moment. It's all about the silver linings and all that, thought Twilight to herself as she levitated a carrot from the bag.

Pinkie Pie shot a nervous glance to Applejack who had slouched down, shoulders hunched and head hanging low, before waving Twilight over to the door. "Twi, you might get a better idea if you, um, see for yourself. I gotta, uh, make the beds."

"Oookay, if you say so Pinkie. I'll see you girls after I talk to Smoke Stack." Sliding open the door to the hallway, Twilight stepped out and cocked an ear toward the bathroom segment of the overnight car. Rarity must still be busy, given the sounds of running water and faint singing. Normally, Rarity's obsession with appearing flawless would irk Twilight somewhat. As it was, Twilight was just grateful that Rarity had something to anchor herself during this 'jaunt'. Moving slightly down the hall, Twilight paused to knock on the door to the cab next to the one she woke up in.

"Yeah, whadda you want?" Rainbow all but snarled through the door. Twilight almost fell to her haunches at the barely restrained anger she heard. Slowly sliding the door open, Twilight did fall onto her flank.

Rainbow was a mess of bandages and bruises. Luckily, neither of her wings bore bandages or other marks of injury, but the foreleg wrapped in a splint and hanging in an impromptu sling against her barrel was a unpleasant shock. Fluttershy was laying nearby, eyes open but unseeing. It was clear to Twilight that the tender pegasus was still locked in a mental battle to resurface, trapped in a nightmare that Twilight had summoned from beyond the void.

"Twilight, preemptive warning; you get ONE apology before I get out of this bed and belt you in the head, capiche?" Rainbow growled. Nodding dumbly, a quiet part of Twilight's mind marveled at the duality of Rainbow's stubborn pride and her strength of will.

Gulping air down a suddenly tight throat, Twilight blinked away the tears forming in her eyes. An apology sprang to her mind, a desire to throw her hooves, very very carefully, around Rainbow and sob words of regret and lamentations into her prismatic mane. But, even as Twilight set her horn buzzing with a fresh surge of magical strength, a much better idea came to her . . . with ghostly whisper in almost her own voice, 'We're such an egghead . . .'.

Squaring her shoulders, Twilight mentally filed away the need to cast Sweet Dreams signature spell again later and go hunt Sparks down for questioning. Looking between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, Twilight met Rainbow's frustrated gaze and held it.

"Back at Canterlot, I occasionally sat with Princess Celestia while she held Day Court. It wasn't every day, or even every week. But from time to time, I would hear about what was going on in the wide world of Equestria from the very ponies who had lived through it. The Princess saw it as a great way for me to gain knowledge of our fair land, and to get used to being around strange ponies. I was, ah, kinda antisocial back then."

Rainbow snickered slightly, but leaned forward and opened her mouth with a questioning expression. Twilight held up a hoof, and Rainbow blew out her cheeks before settling herself again into the pillows piled up on the bed, turning on her side briefly to brush Fluttershy's hair out from in front of the yellow pegasus's eyes.

"One day, about a year before I was sent to Ponyville, there was a disruption to Day Court. At the time, Princess Celestia was listening to Prince Blueblood's, er, request that the city ordinance that prevented him from erecting a twenty foot tall statue of himself on his property be overturned. The doors to the throne room where we were holding Day Court were rather abruptly kicked open just as Prince Blueblood started reading off his sixteenth page of notes and explanations for why he should be allowed to do this, most of which boiled down to 'I am better than other ponies.' Jerk."

"Flanked by a dozen royal guards on either side was a single pegasus with an inky black coat with streaks of dark blue in her mane and tail." Twilight lost focus on Rainbow as she shifted her gaze to the window. Watching the monotonous landscape slip by, Twilight could almost see that day again like a film reel. "She carried a very worn set of saddlebags, and was wearing tattered leather armor, upon which rested a burnished silver amulet shaped like. . . Well, at the time I just saw it as a crescent moon, but now I know it's a copy of Princess Luna's Cutie Mark. The ebony pegasus said 'Specialist Total Eclipse reporting for debriefing, my liege.', before collapsing onto her front knees in an attempt to bow. I was so scared, because when she was saying this I finally saw the blood staining her coat, and the gashes in both her armor and wings."

Twilight shuddered; even after the last few years the memory still gave her chills. "Prince Blueblood was told to leave, then ordered to leave, and finally the Guard captain on duty picked him up with his magic and threw him out. Heh. Princess Celestia almost had me taken away at that point, but some stray thought must have stopped her. Princess Celestia then bade Total Eclipse to give her report."

Twilight noted that Rainbow Dash was leaning forward with an expression not too dissimilar to when she would read a new Daring Do novel. And, noted another bit of Twilight, Fluttershy was stirring softly.

"Total Eclipse told the Princess about a fight, a battle, that had occurred between a rogue company of griffons and the border garrison that she had been implanted in. Twenty battle unicorns, forty hardened earth pony guards, and another forty pegasi, all led by Captain Shooting Star, the very same Shooting Star who had been a Wonderbolt Captain. One hundred and one ponies versus almost three hundred griffons."

"For hours and hours, Total Eclipse told us about that battle. Spells of blistering fire and chained lightning so powerful that the snow for miles melted, the resounding crackle of crossbows fired without stop, and the screams of displaced air as pegasi and griffons warred on the wing. Total Eclipse told us that there was no known reason why the griffons had attacked; the idea that they were a rogue element is the only one that Specialist Eclipse could think of as she flew all the way from the border to here. She had to fly with lacerated wings, more than a dozen broken bones, and after fighting for hours on end. And the reason she had to fly all of that by herself on no sleep or food was because she was the last one standing. The only pony left alive."

"Total Eclipse, who aside from some pained coughing and breaks to drink a thin soup at the Princess's request, had been a model of stoicism, unflinching in her after-action report. So it was that much more startling because she began to cry. She threw the stained saddlebags she wore onto the ground, the clasp breaking open, spilling out all of the tokens of enlistment she had collected. Some were bent or split clean in half, a few had holes in them or had melted. But there they were, one hundred blood stained tokens. 'So I stand here, Princess Celestia, to tell you we failed, no, that I failed. The border guard is broken, and I don't know why it happened! I'm a SPECIALIST, it's my job to see when these things might happen! And because of my incompetence, one hundred heroes lie in the frozen ground of the north, and one foolish pegasus begs your forgiveness in your throne room.' Total Eclipse buried her head in her hooves and bawled like a newborn foal."

Twilight sniffled her nose and blinked the stray tears from her eyes. Again, a small part of her told her there was a presence behind her, that Rainbow was crying too, and that Fluttershy was hugging her. Again, Twilight drew a deep breath and kept speaking.

"Princess Celestia, who had listened to this whole report with a look of controlled concern, rose imperiously from her throne. Orders were dispatched in clipped tones to the guards in the room to begin organizing for a replacement for the lost border guard, and to contact the griffon nation to demand an explanation. The guards all filtered out until it was just me, Total Eclipse, and Princess Celestia."

"The Princess walked down the stairs to stand by Total Eclipse, every inch the monarch of a nation, looking down upon a trusted individual who had failed in their duty. Total Eclipse bowed her head, and hiccuped, 'Please, if you're going to put me in *hic* Tartarus or the *hic* moon, please make sure my little sister is taken care of.' I quailed in my seat, looking nervously between the battered and broken guard, and the Princess who I had never seen look so stern."

"For a moment, I really believed I was about to witness a banishing. But just then, the Princess bent down and lifted Total Eclipse up until the wounded inky pegasus was standing upright again. 'My brave, faithful little pony. I will not punish you for failing your duties to Equestria and Harmony, because you did not fail. Even in the face of terrible, mortal danger, you stayed and fought for your fellow ponies, even though that moon pendant gives you the right to flee such a situation to deliver information to me. You have bled for your home, and though the ponies you watched over and with fell in battle, you didn't let that be in vain.' Then I saw the Princess do something I've only rarely seen."

Twilight swung her head around and found Rainbow Dash's eyes. "Princess Celestia bowed to Specialist Total Eclipse, and even though she didn't say that I should do so, I bowed too. I think the Princess's horn actually touched the floor, which should tell you how low she bowed to this bruised and bloodied pegasus. 'Today, my little pony, you do not bow your head to me, or to the thought of failure. Today, I bow to a great pegasus, whose bravery and loyalty would shame even me.' When she raised her head, I could see tears in the Princess's eyes. 'And, Specialist Total Eclipse, you are not the only one who cries for those lost ponies.' They hugged and cried; aside from when we turned Nightmare Moon back into Princess Luna, I don't think I've ever seen the Princess look so much like a regular pony besides that day."

Twilight could hear crying around her, but she held Rainbow's gaze. "So, today, Rainbow Dash, I will use my one apology to tell you that I am sorry. I am sorry that what I tried to do brought so much calamity down on us. I am sorry that I could not help you stand strong against the shoggoth. I am sorry for the pain you suffered, the pain all my friends felt."

Twilight slowly sank onto one knee, bowing her head to her prismatic friend until her horn touched the floor. "But more than all my sorrow and regret, I am thankful that you are still here. I am glad that nopony was k-killed, or driven insane. You bear such wounds in defense of your friends, and I bow to you, Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, for the perseverance and strength you demonstrate time and time again." Lifting her head Twilight didn't try to hide her tears again.

Rainbow Dash looked thunderstruck, tears running rivulets down her cheeks. Fluttershy was both fully aware and softly sobbing into a lacy handkerchief, but even so her smile was like a lance of purest sunlight for Twilight to see. Turning her head, Twilight saw Rarity dabbing her eyes with the twin to Fluttershy's handkerchief. With a trumpeting blast, Pinkie Pie made use of a polka-dotted handkerchief, and Applejack just sat upright, shoulders back, a broad smile on her face and the shimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. Most notably, Smoke Stack and Coal Soot stood behind the girls, both wearing that sort of “I’m a stallion, so I’m not allowed to display my feelings by crying, but I really wanna cry about this” face.

"Smoke Stack. . ." Twilight began, only for the grizzled earth pony to raise a hoof to forestall her.

"I won't pretend to know what happened to my train, but by the sounds of it you girls were in some right terrible danger. And if the price for all of you to be safe was some old train cars, than I suppose I'm alright with that. " Smoke Stack rasped. Nudging Coal Soot with his hip, Smoke Stack said, "Mr. Soot, set the engines to full burn. We'll be setting these girls down in Coltstantinople by lunch time or I'll eat my hat."

Snapping his hooves together, Coal Soot cracked off a salute with almost military precision. "I'm on it boss! We'll make the Iron Princess fly!" Wheeling about, Coal Soot galloped off, all but shivering with excitement.

Applejack poked Pinkie Pie and stage whispered "Ah think we found another pony who likes burnin' stuff more than you do." Pinkie Pie smiled wider than her head should have allowed, and if it wasn't for Applejack pinning her tail down with one hoof. . . Applejack shuddered at images of the whole train exploding while Pinkie fruitlessly struggled against the farmpony's grip.

"Hey, Smoke Stack, what's with the awesome name for the train?" said Rainbow Dash, just as the conductor was turning to follow his apprentice. "I mean, I'm all for it, but I thought this train was named the Friendship Express or something else lame like that."

Smoke Stack let out a hearty chuckle. "I took Coal Soot to see a movie about pirates and sea ponies a few months ago; real action packed film, good ol' rip-roarin' stuff. He came up with the name for the train the next day, darn kid stayed up almost the whole night writing and scrapping different names." Smirking, Smoke Stack started walking off, still talking. "I'm just glad I caught him before he could write the name on the side of the engine. Best bunker down ladies, this trip is about to get a lot less smooth."

"I suppose we aught to all stay in the same room for that then." Rarity said, hopping into the beds next to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. "Twilight, be a dear and grab our things from the other room? Applejack has her hooves full keeping Pinkie Pie from setting anything else on fire."

Twilight concentrated briefly, and with a flash of light purple sparks, the various saddlebags, satchels, books and knick-knacks from the other room were assembled in a neat pile at the foot of the conjoined beds. As Applejack tossed a hog-tied Pinkie Pie into the bed furthest removed from the doorway, Twilight could feel the train speed up, swaying side to side in an alarming fashion. And continue to speed up, in defiance of common sense or any notion of caution. Folding space, Twilight teleported herself onto the beds, not trusting the rocking floor beneath her hooves to support a nimble jump.

"Man, Smoke Stack wasn't kidding, this is gonna be intense!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, showing every sign of enjoying the marked increase in speed and danger. "Next stop, Coltstantinople! Woo-hoo!!"

"Consarnit Rainbow! Close that dang window! Ah almost lost mah hat!"

Swirling in the dry desert air, the joyous laughter of the six friends drifted away like the smoke of the train's engine.

Ephemeral, surrounded by a far bleaker setting, and only noticed by those who knew where to look or how to listen . . .