Six

Twilight gazed around her, the loud thud of the Royal Hall doors shutting behind her still echoing dully throughout her senses. It seemed to the others that she was acting as though she had just awoken from a long, deep sleep, or had been walking in a trance for a very long time and had only just found the mental fortitude to snap herself out of it.

The shock of the situation had gotten to them all. They had just been dealt some serious, grave news. Six days. That’s all the time they had.

“This don’t make no sense,” Applejack stated. “None of this does.” She turned to Twilight, who still had that vacant expression on her face. “You’ve read a ton of books in your life, haven’t you? Who were those… things? The Whatever Army? Have you ever read anything about them?”

This seemed to be the magic ticket that brought Twilight back to her senses. She blinked once, twice, then swiveled her head and focused her gaze on Applejack. She thought for a minute, then replied. “Not much, I’m afraid. I’ve been through the entire Royal Archives throughout my stay as Celestia’s royal student, and in all my studies I’ve yet to read about more than a mention of them.”

“What was the mention, then?” asked Fluttershy.

“Well, in I believe it was The History of Great Equestria Volume IX, there was a very brief- probably less than a page long- section describing an army of great power that had once been native to Equestria, and had been what was essentially Equestria’s standing army in case of invasion from any nations who decided they had a problem with Equestria.”

“Was there any sort of mention of Nightmare Moon in that text?” Applejack asked.

Twilight racked her brain trying to remember. “Nothing that I can recall, which is what concerned me at that point in time. Their role in the story, so to speak, just abruptly ended. I believe there was mention of Celestia’s predecessor, Princess Astra, and that she had not been very supportive of the role that the Army had played in Equestria. It didn’t make mention of what role she had in their removal from the nation, just that they had come to a mutual agreement for them not to ‘interfere’ in Equestrian matters anymore.”

“It didn’t sound too mutual, from the tone that they used,” Rarity remarked.

“No, it didn’t… Which is why I’m rather confused as to what the real reason for their banishment was. And if it truly did have to do with Nightmare Moon and their failure to defeat him, then what does that say about Princess Astra? I mean, just because they failed once, doesn’t mean they couldn’t regroup or something and try to go against her again. Why did she banish them to Tartarus without allowing them a second chance to defeat her?”

“I don’t know,” Applejack replied, “but it looks like they think we are their second chance.”

“We do have the Elements after all,” Twilight acknowledged, “but we couldn’t even kill her with the Elements the last time.”

“We also weren’t trying to kill her,” Rarity reminded her. “We were only trying to drive the spirit out of Princess Luna. Death was not on our mind. Really, it never is.”

“I think that was our problem” said Twilight. “We were too narrow-minded. We weren’t trying to come up with a permanent solution to the problem- only a temporary one. And that’s come back to bite us in the flank.”

They walked out of the castle, silent at Twilight’s last words. They had unwittingly put themselves in the exact same predicament that the Hellas Army had put themselves into almost ten thousand years previous. Granted, Twilight and the other Elements hadn’t been banished to Tartarus for failing to destroy Nightmare Moon, but their actions had allowed her to continue to exist, and now she had come back. Who knows what she was planning now that she had once again reconstituted her physical form-

“Wait a second!” Twilight exclaimed, stopping suddenly a few feet outside the castle doors. “I just thought of something.”

“What’s that, darling?”

“Well, think about it. If the Hellas Army really has the ability to raze all of Equestria to the ground, how did they get banished to Tartarus? Couldn’t they have just used their powers to, erm, “convince” Princess Astra that exiling them was not the wisest course of actions for her to take?”

“And for that matter, if they really could turn Equestria into an eternal wasteland, how were they not able to defeat Nightmare Moon? Shouldn’t beings with that much power available to them have been more than capable of dispatching one pony-spirit-thing?”

Twilight thought for a moment. “It may be possible that back then, their power was not as great as it is now. Ten thousand years is a long time for anyone with power- magical or otherwise- to hone their craft, or even just let their powers advance naturally.”

“Plus,” Fluttershy added, “we don’t know anything about Princess Astra. What was her role in all of this?”

This threw Twilight off. “Are you saying that Princess Astra could have had a hoof in the Army’s not being able to defeat Nightmare Moon? Why in Equestria would any royalty want a being as evil as Nightmare Moon running around unchecked?”

This question perplexed all of them. Equestrian royalty had long been tasked with keeping the populace safe from harm. It was the reason why the Royal Guard had been established, along with keeping the royalty themselves safe.

“This is something that definitely merits further study,” Twilight continued. “But how are we going to-” And then the answer came to her. “There has to be something in the Royal Archives that can help us with this. I’m not entirely sure about how, but we really don’t have much of a choice now. We have to take any avenue that we possibly can. There’s no other option. We can’t play this one safe.”

“Let’s go back to Ponyville first, though,” Rarity replied. “We need Rainbow for this one.” She yawned. “And we should probably rest for a bit while we’re there. I understand how important this is, but we’re not going to be as effective poring over dusty, ancient tomes if we’re too tired to read straight.”

It was as though her words triggered something in Twilight; before this, she had been feeling wide awake. Now, though, it seemed as though every bit of strength had just been sapped out of her. She nodded sleepily. “We can rest a bit on the train ride back to Ponyville, and then we’ll take a proper rest when we get back to Golden Oaks.” They all agreed to this, and began to head back to the Canterlot train station.

A few hours later, they stumbled back into the library, bleary-eyed and groggy. As hard as they had tried to rest on the train ride back, sleep had almost nearly eluded them, despite their beliefs that they would fall into near-comas as soon as their eyes had closed. They had finally fallen asleep though, but only for about half an hour before the train arrived back in Ponyville.

As soon as they closed the door, Rainbow walked in from the kitchen. Her expression was pretty close to what they felt their own looked like.

“Did you not sleep well either?” Twilight asked, coming close to slurring her words a bit.

Rainbow shook her head. “And this, coming from the pony who can nap literally anywhere. It’s like there’s something… ominous in the air. I just couldn’t get to sleep.” She yawned rather hard. “So… how did it go there? What did Princess Celestia want with you all?”

Twilight swallowed hard. She did not want to have to bring such dire news back to her friend, not after everything that she had endured over the past weeks. However, it would have been a huge disservice to her, considering she was part of the Elements as well. She would be just as necessary as the others in bringing this whole thing to a close. So, Twilight steeled herself and told Rainbow everything.

The expression on Rainbow’s face changed as Twilight explained what had taken place. At first, her eyes widened. Then her jaw slowly became unhinged, becoming more and more gaped as Twilight went on. Finally, when she told her about the final verdict given by the Army, Rainbow let out an involuntary gasp.

“Wait wait, so let me get this straight,” Rainbow said when Twilight had indicated that she was finished. “So we only have six days to do this? When the Elements haven’t been able to fully finish her off before, and not even when this Hellas Army couldn’t do it in what? Ten thousand years? And now that they have all this power, why not just go after her themselves? Why are they dragging us into this?”

“I think they are going to be helping, but probably more in a behind-the-scenes way. They want us to do all the dirty work. Though I don’t know how we’re going to be more effective than they are. From the power level that I felt in the room, they are some seriously powerful beings. I don’t think the Elements could put a dent in them, if they weren’t on our side.”

Rainbow sighed. “Why is this happening…? Why did Nightmare Moon have to come back?”

Twilight didn’t try to offer her an answer for this. She didn’t even know the answer, herself. Her gaze wandered around the library. She went through a mental checklist of all the books she had in her collection, trying to think of a single title that could help them figure out what to do.

She walked over to the far-left bookshelf and used her magic to grab a book from one of the topmost shelves. She went over to her study section and sat down, setting the book in front of her and beginning to leaf through the pages.

“What ya got there?” Pinkie asked, bounding over to her.

“It’s my own copy of The History of Great Equestria Volume IX. Princess Celestia gave me the entire 24-volume set shortly after I became her student. I used to read through these books obsessively. It was my opinion that if I was to become the best student Celestia ever had, I had to first know about whose hoofsteps I was following in.” She flipped to a section a little over halfway in, then began to read. A few moments later, she frowned.

“This can’t be right,” she muttered. “I must be in the wrong section.” She flipped back to the beginning of the chapter, then began to peruse its contents. Once she reached the end of the chapter, she scowled and continued on to the next.

“What’s wrong, darling?” Rarity asked.

“I know that this is the chapter in the book I read in the Royal Archives that mentioned the Hellas Army,” Twilight replied almost absentmindedly, “but in this copy, there’s absolutely no mention of them at all. It’s as though they never existed.” While still reading, she magic-ed volumes seven and eight over to her, as well as volume ten. Once she had satisfied herself in volume 9, she went through the other three volumes at a blinding pace, her expression becoming more and more annoyed and confused.

She finished a few minutes later, and sighed. “There’s nothing. Nothing at all in any of these volumes about the Hellas Army. And I know for a fact that they’re older than a few hundred years. That’s as far back as the beginning of volume seven goes, is about 300 years before the period of time that was chronicled in that section of volume nine that I’d read.”

“So if what they were saying about Celestia’s predecessor- Astral, or whatever her name was- is true, then maybe the books you have were even more whitewashed than the copies that are in the Royal Archives.” There was a knock at the door just then, and Applejack excused herself to go see who it was.

Twilight thought of something just then. She turned to Rainbow. “Where’s Spike?” she asked.

“Upstairs sleeping,” Rainbow replied. “I’ve been up there a few times to check on him. It’s weird, though. I haven’t heard any sort of noise the entire time. He hasn’t come down to get snacks or anything. He’s just been sleeping the whole time.”

Twilight frowned. Spike was normally a rather heavy sleeper, but he was still a growing dragon, and she could remember multiple times when he would get up in the middle of the night to get food because he woke up hungry. Still though, she tried to not put too much stock in that. She didn’t want to get worked up over something that would turn out to be nothing. She had way too much big stuff on her plate to be worrying about the small stuff too.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I’m not exactly an expert on baby dragons. I think it may have something to do with the fact that it’s consistent night outside though. Spike normally sleeps all the way through the night, and only wakes up when I make noise waking up in the morning. Now that there is no morning, his body might just be telling him he needs to sleep more because it’s not daytime yet.”

“This is probably heaven for him then,” Applejack joked as she walked back in. She was not the only one who came in, though. Twilight saw additional movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see who it was.

“Oh hi Derpy,” Twilight said, trying to manage what she hoped managed for a passing smile. “What brings you over here today? Do you have a package for me?”

Derpy nodded. “It came into the post office last night and I completely forgot about it until this morning. Sonata- she just started working at the office a few weeks ago as my assistant- reminded me about it when we got in this morning- well, as much of a morning as it is, with there being no light- and I figured I’d get it to you while I still had it on my mind.” She nudged it in Twilight’s direction.

Twilight levitated it over towards her. “Sonata, right, you said her name was? Was that the pony I saw you with earlier when we were at the train station?”

Derpy nodded. “Sonata Dusk, her full name is. She lives in Canterlot, so she has to take the train in to work every day. I meet her over there so she doesn’t get lonely on the trip from the train station to the office. She’s really nice. Rather quiet, but that’s fine with me.”

Twilight opened the package, and felt a genuine, unforced smile cross her face. “Oh wow, this is the book Zecora said she was going to send me! Potions and You, Volume XIII! This is the last one in the set, and I’d been looking for it for forever!” Her smile dwindled quickly, though. “I wonder how Zecora is doing… She must have made it back to the Everfree Forest safely, right?”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Pinkie replied. “She’s a tough zebra. She can hold her own.” She didn’t sound a hundred percent sure of herself, though, and Twilight knew why. Who knew what Equestria would be like now that Nightmare Moon was back to full power?

Something occurred to her just then, and she turned to Derpy. “Say, Derps. Whatever happened to that old friend of yours? The one that you always used to be around before he just up and disappeared from Ponyville?”

“Oh, you mean Time Turner? I don’t quite know where he went. He said he had to go home for something, and that it was really important. He left me a rose before he left. It’s beautiful. I’ve been taking really good care of it…”

“Isn’t he like some kind of really smart pony? Maybe he’s got something in his writings or inventions or something that can help us with beating Nightmare Moon?”

Twilight thought about it for a minute. The more she mulled over it, the more it made sense to her. “I’m not exactly sure what he could have that could help us, but I did say that we would take any road that even felt like it could lead us to our proper destination, right? Plus, when I was over there interviewing him for that book I was doing on Ponyville’s citizens, I saw an awful lot of gadgets in his living room. It could just be that he’s got something that can help us.” She looked at Derpy. “Are you sure you don’t know when he’s going to be back?”

Derpy thought for a second. “I’m pretty sure he didn’t say when. I do have a key to his house, though. We can go over there later and see if there’s anything that catches your eye.”

“You have a key to his house?” Rarity asked, a bit askance.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Derpy asked. “I’m his companion. We’re practically inseparable, when I’m not at work and he’s not off doing some grandiose experiment. He’s really great with Dinky; they get along incredibly well.”

“I’m sure you two are great together,” Twilight said, cutting off any headway the conversation could have made. “That’s not remotely what we’re here for, though. When do you think we can head over there and check things out? We’re all incredibly tired, and I’d really love to get a nap in before anything major happens.”

“I’ll stop by after I get off work,” Derpy replied. “I have to get back to the office anyways. See you all later!” She walked out the still-open door and flapped her wings a few times before taking off into the air.

Twilight turned to the others and let out a massive yawn that she’d been suppressing the entire time Derpy had been over. “We really need to try to get some rest.” The others agreed and dispersed to various places around the library.

As it turned out, their exhaustion had finally taken more of a toll on them than their bodies could handle. Within a few minutes, they were all fast asleep, completely dead to the world around them.

A few hundred leagues away from the Golden Oaks Library, though, an entirely different scene was playing out.

Nightmare Moon’s ears were burning. Someone was talking about her, and rather fiercely as well. She could almost tell that it was the Elements. No doubt plotting her very demise. She laughed to herself. There was nothing that they could do about it now. She was far too powerful in her new body.

She looked down at the thought of her new body. She scowled at her appearance; it was far from being the sleek body that she had been expecting when the ritual had taken place. It was a pony they were using for the sacrifice, after all, so shouldn’t it have been a pony body that she was in?

That was unfortunately (for her) not the case, though. Her body was similar to her old form, but it did have some very… Changeling-esque aspects to it as well. The body structure was very similar to a Changeling’s structure, and she could almost feel as though there were supposed to be holes in her legs similar to a Changeling’s legs, though fortunately enough her legs were hole-free for the time being. Her horn was also shaped differently from normal; it was the regular length, but it was shaped similarly to a Changeling’s horn. This gave it the aspect of looking tacked-on, as though whoever had created the body had made a mistake in making the horn and accidentally formed it too long, but still slapped it on and just hoped that nopony would notice the error.

The doors to Chrysalis’ royal hall opened, and Chrysalis entered the room. She wore an expression of disgust and angst, though this was how she had looked the entire time since the ritual had finished. One of her most trusted Guard members- Adriu, she thought his name was- had not been seen since the ritual, and Chrysalis was beginning to fear the worst.

Chrysalis stepped up to the royal throne as the doors finished shutting behind her. “My spy has returned from Canterlot, and he brings very dire news.”

“How dire?” Nightmare asked, in a tone that suggested that the news being brought wasn’t very dire at all.

“Celestia has visitors in her Royal Hall as we speak. Something about an Army from way back when-”

Nightmare laughed, and it echoed throughout the chamber. “The Hellas Army? They’re still around? Last I heard, they had been banished to Tartarus for failing to kill me.” She smirked. “Dear old Princess Astra… She was a good pony, but she had no idea how to run a country. Her or her sister, Princess Maenon.”

Chrysalis had heard Nightmare speak of Celestia and Luna’s predecessors, and she knew of the disdain she held for them. She wasn’t quite keen on hearing of this again, so she headed Nightmare off. “Are you concerned about their return?”

Nightmare scoffed. “Like I said, they couldn’t beat me the first time. And unlike the Elements, they weren’t just out to drive me out of Luna’s body. They were out for blood. Murder. And they couldn’t do it.” She glanced at a large ancient-looking clock face that was positioned at the head of the Hall. “It’s almost time, Chrysalis. We need to prepare.”

“Prepare for what?” Chrysalis asked.

Nightmare smiled a glowering smile at her. “We’re going to take a trip to Canterlot. It’s about time our new subjects met their Queen and their God in person.”