Chapters 1. Perhaps the Strangest We've Seen Yet...
He took a carefree deep breath in. The smell was of ancient nostalgia; disgusting, but familiar… dry, but familiar… humid, but familiar. Rock and stone drowned in darkness and dust as far as the eye could see. Or at least a pony’s eye anyway. The Draconequus stalked his way through the long abandoned tunnels, his tail and horns brushing hard rock, almost giving him a sense of claustrophobia; almost. After weaving his way through the maze, he eventually found the inner tunnels, the ones that Clover the Clever had found completely by accident about a thousand years earlier. It was a dangerous encounter, he recalled.
They were just as vibrant as they used to be.
There was a sharp right turn up ahead, with a strange orange glow around the corner that seemed to appear and then disappear within a few seconds of each other. It was just like he remembered. He made the turn and found small vines with leaves that sprouted from the solid rock walls at astonishing speed. Hundreds of plants lined this single tunnel down to where it opened up into a large room at the end with light from the sun streaming down into it. Then, just as fast as they blossomed, they spontaneously combusted and lit up the tunnel like a thousand violent candles, forcing his gaze away because of the change in light. He grunted in displeasure and the plants withered up and fell into ash.
Clover the Clever could walk through this tunnel without being hurt, because she was small enough to fit through. He remembered watching her keenly that day. She was frightened, but curious; confused, yet fascinated. She had kept her cloak to herself even tighter than usual, and watched every step she made that didn't reverberate as much down the rocky cave.
However, Event Horizon, the Draconequus Spirit of Destruction, was a Draconequus; being a Draconequus, he had to jet through the tunnel before the vines sprouted again and caught on fire.
At the end of the tunnel was a large cave mouth. The ceiling opened up to sunlight that gave way to the brilliant cracks and features of the rocky room. If he kept going straight, the tunnel continued on the other wall, back into darkness. But this time, he once again looked up and appreciated this room. Straight up was a clear blue sky. The sun was directly in the middle, shining. Of course, it wasn’t Earth’s Sun. The yellow star was bigger in the sky; close enough to begin to see surface activity. It was harsher, more demanding. The plants came back: they grew everywhere. They lined the walls, infested the open entrance in the ceiling, even sprouting on a few stalagmites. In a few seconds, the Sun flashed a burst of energy, burning all the visible plants in fire in a temperature spike. The Sun settled down again, and after a few seconds the plants grew back. Then, it flashed once more and the plants burned up.
This was his first portal. It led to a world where the star kept bursting outward with energy violently every few seconds. With each burst, the plants burned up. But somehow, they would grow back in mere seconds when the Sun settled down. Event Horizon still wondered exactly what the rest of the world looked like. He had at one point floated up to the ceiling and poked his head out to look at the surface. All he could see was sand in every direction like a desert, and very small plants that sometimes sprouted up, only to be burned by the Sun’s exploding energy.
He now moved on, going back into the original tunnels, brushing up with darkness once again. He hissed when his eyes had to readjust, temporarily making him blind. After a few seconds, however, he was immersed in the great world of his once home.
One right turn turned him into a hallway that was no longer cave rock. Instead it was a valiant red crystal that bent light in many many different directions. However, inside the walls, was a swirling black essence that darted around it. It seemed to have a mind of its own looking as if it were searching for something. Both walls were like this, where a black cloud of… stuff swirled and paced in the red crystal walls. How deep the crystals went was anypony’s guess, even Horizon had no idea.
Similar to the first tunnel, it also led to another massive room. This was an entire crystal cave mouth; the opening was on the right wall, however, upon entering, instead of the ceiling. Red rigid crystal stalactites protruded from the ceiling and walls. Through the opening, one could see the sky. It was covered up by unnaturally dark clouds that boomed faintly in the distance. In the center of the view, lay an outstretched castle on the horizon. It was made out of this red crystal, as well. The clouds seemed to be blacker the closer they got to it.
This was a different world. Event Horizon sometimes would just watch the view of the castle from the safety of his portal, when two dots in the distance would fly around the building and blast each other with different colored lights.
When Clover found this portal, she had broken, mentally. Seeing otherworldly structures by unknown sentient beings had her dying to know all the answers to her questions. Horizon remembered seeing the longing in her face, but she knew it was impossible to explore. In the cave itself, the crystals were sharp and dangerous off of the path. Even if she made it out of the cave, the castle was easily weeks work of walking, with nothing but barren terrain before it. She frustratedly had stormed back into the tunnels, continuing on her original journey.
Horizon giggled remembering that, whisking back in, himself.
There were other portals, to a few other worlds he had made. Besides Destruction, the vast realm of space was the only other thing that fascinated him. He passed through more tunnels, more rooms with more views of destroyed or doomed worlds. But he had had enough after a while, levitating into his dusty, lonely throne room.
His old throne, made of wood, sat in the middle, abandoned for a millennium. It was a round room, a dead end. The rocks were more jagged here, making it more dangerous to brush along the walls in the wrong direction. Old paintings from ponies more ancient than the tribes were crudely faded on the walls… paintings of him.
But enough of the delay. He sat down in his throne, after blowing on it fiercely, kicking dust up everywhere. He was sort of proud of himself, that nopony had found these tunnels in a thousand years. Getting serious, he rested his arms on the armrest and looked up at the rounded ceiling, dark with cracks, seeping deeper and deeper as years passed.
“Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath, “Why did you call me here…?” A small cyan light blinked slowly on one spot in the ceiling, and Horizon noted it. Hundreds of views opened up before his eyes, of various different places, all projected above him. The images curved with the ceiling curve, and crowded each other, making any single view impossible to differentiate. Using his magical ability, he zoomed in on the section where the cyan light was blinking. The Canterlot Castle, Changeling Hive and Sun views instantly became recognizable as he brought the images closer. He kept zooming in on his library, before the blinking image filled the entire view.
“Alright… what do we have?” he asked, gaining some excitement in the mystery. His old throne room had summoned him, somehow. Despite the fact that he had this same feature in his current domain, for some reason, his old one had called him.
The image was strange. It was another planet, for sure. The sun was a different color, though what, he couldn't tell. The sky was red, the land was red, and there were no signs of life, other than one very obvious thing. Event Horizon tightened his vulture claws as he processed what those weird rocks in the distance were.
It seemed to be a destroyed building, but what looked to be a telescope stretched out of it. It moved, actually, and stopped, as if somepony was controlling it. Horizon immediately understood.
Something involving this world and whoever was on it, was about to cause something really bad. For the first time in a while, anxiety churned in his stomach. Whatever world this was, wasn't being watched in his new domain, so his old one had to alert him.
With no more information other than this mysterious view into another world, Horizon had no choice.
The crowd was impossible. Horizon absolutely hated being this short. Normally, he would just float above all these ponies’ bobbing, multicolored heads, but, he actually had something he needed to get done today. A Draconequus being in the middle of a crowded square was just going to cause attention, that unfortunately, he wanted, but couldn’t work through at the current moment.
The streets of Ponyville had been all abandoned, but there was no silence by far. The town’s square was abuzz with the preparation of… something. Probably another festival; it had a reputation for having the most celebrations out of any area in Equestria, and with the recent coronation of Princess Twilight, it had become an even bigger hotspot for tourists.
Horizon tapped his unicorn horn with his… hoof. The weirdness to this form would never end. Supposedly he was rumored to have been a unicorn before he was a Draconequus, but if he was, it was too long ago, even for him to remember. He tried to remember the name that he used for this form as he was pushing through ponies.
“Excuse me,” he said, barging past a mare who yelped in surprise. She whipped around, but he rushed along before she got to say anything. He was already making lots of new friends.
It took him a whole five minutes to reach the front of the crowd of ponies whizzing around the square, but it was worth it. Princess Twilight Sparkle was indeed at the center with her look of focus as she scrolled through presumably a checklist. There was a temporary stage set up that was elevated about 4 hooves high, with a majestic podium that she was standing adjacent to. He approached the stage and lifted himself up, standing on his hind legs while propped against the side.
“Um… Princess Twilight?” he asked in the most reserved tone he could muster. Every one of his instincts was dragging him toward his normal way of doing things: skip the pony show and destroy this entire setup in maniacal laughter; but he resisted, for now anyway. She twitched an ear at him without moving anything else. A pang of his urge pierced through his nervous system, but he really had to keep himself under control.
“Princess Twilight?” he called, in a slightly louder voice.
She looked down at him from the stage, surprised, “Um, yes?” she had slightly pulled her presumed checklist closer to her.
“Do you have a minute?” Although he really needed like a few hours.
“I’m really pressed for time, it’s a tight schedule,” she said, and went back to her list, levitating a quill from somewhere. Event Horizon’s eye twitched. He would much rather just go up there and teleport her to his old cave against her will and force her see what he saw, but odds are that would cause more problems than solve, he reminded himself.
“It’s kind of important,” he pushed, “Sort of…” he paused, “Your specialty.”
The alicorn was insistent, “I would love to help, but I'm really really preoccupied,” she said, a look of guilt clouding her face, “See if somepony like Rainbow Dash can help you.”
Event Horizon would rather get help from Discord. It would be just as worthless, though, more entertaining.
He climbed up on the stage and forced his way in her gaze.
“You're not understanding, it's really importan—” he realized she was just getting a terrified look on her face.
“Hey, you there!” somepony called from behind him, presumably save Twilight, “Can I help you?” He craned his head back to find the sturdy, irritated, orange mare he had bumped into earlier. He had seen her before here, too. What was her name?
“Oh, no it's fine, Applejack, really!” Twilight said, now starting to sound embarrassed. He couldn't take it anymore.
“For the love of Celestia!” in a flash he had his rightful form again, levitating over everypony. He shot a fierce state of outrage at Twilight, “I need you for something.” There were gasps through the crowds and suddenly Horizon realized he made a really big mistake.
“Who is he?” there were whispers.
“Is that Discord?” more were asking.
That's it.
“I am Event Horizon!” he roared, angry, “The Draconequus Spirit of Destruction.” In his rage, his essence started to blacken the attracting clouds; high energy made lots of particles colliding to form small lightning.
“I am the Keeper of Rui—” a hot blast to his face send him crashing into the ground. He lay there for a second, dazed as his vision crossed and blurred. He could make out the muffled, “Spirit of Destruction, huh? Let's get him girls!” from Twilight, but he couldn't register what she could possibly be talking about, let alone himself. In a sort of mindless reflex, he at least understood he wasn't supposed to be embedded in the street, so he wearily stood up.
A racing blue blur blasted towards him and circled around at an impressive speed. He was just starting to get his clear thoughts back when he felt a tight bind around him as soon as the blue blur dashed. His vision cleared just in time to see the now, blue Pegasus buck him into the air, where at a certain point, the rope around him tightened. The world began to blur again, but this time in a swarm of colors, as he was spun around in the air by a rope, the end of which led to Applejack. Suddenly too late to react properly, he felt her release the rope and transition him into a free moving object through space. The pressure on his back shocked him as he saw the clearing of ponies shrink away. About a full minute passed and soon he stopped ascending and finished decelerating, and start descending and back again accelerating. He did nothing to stop it. Horizon repeated the scene in his head of being blasted in the face in the middle of him talking. It was completely uncalled for, and there was nothing he could do to defend himself.
After what seemed like forever, his back suddenly shattered and his horns suddenly struck something hard and violently vibrated as he hit the ground. The force was enough to slip him out of his conscience and into sleep.
***
A chill, thicker than hot tar but more piercing than a blade swept through the mountainous clearing. The blizzard was everywhere, omnipotent in power. Despite it, however, kingdom rivalry, rivaled its resistance. Despite the terrible storm, the two armies had met anyway. One was led by a headstrong, monstrous unicorn.
His horn was red stained at the top, which led to a blotted grey coat, but a silver plate of armor. His eyes were wild, and his grin was hungry. Soldiers of one type gathered behind him, dressed in heavy iron.
The other leader, stood with his army. His horn was tall and a solid strong green; his summer leaf colored coat was nested behind shined black armor. His eyes were covered, unknown behind the visor. Soldiers of many types stood with him, burdened with iron, leather, even robes.
Despite the contrast, their goal was the same. A sinister purple mist steamed from both of their eyes. The red horned unicorn gave the order to attack first, and the green one responded. Ponies sluggishly fought against the winds that were blowing in a disadvantageous direction for both.
To see them clash, was one spirit. He was far, watching from a distance, atop a snowy hill. The blobs of beings coming together was entertaining for him to watch. The two sides did indeed come together and cried battle cries. The spirit, however, was just watching in great amusement.
That was until another one appeared beside him in a startling flash. It looked like him, though he had never seen him before.
“What you got here?” the new spirit asked, making a telescope appear before him.
“Shh, the show’s started,” the first one said, mockingly, “I’m trying to watch.”
“Hmm…” the new one said, “Just your run of the mill battle, huh?”
“These are finals,” was the response, “I’ve been following the team on the right for weeks, and I’m betting they’re gonna pull through.”
The new spirit looked interested, “Oooo, finals? Why didn’t you invite me? I’m hurt.”
“Not as hurt as that guy over there,” the first spirit pointed in a direction far away and flinched when the blade made contact.
The second spirit flinched as well, cringing, “I’m sure he’s seen better days.”
The first spirit said nothing more, only chuckling to himself at the ruckus that was happening below. The second one continued on watching along with him, silently, also slightly chuckling. It was comforting to know that somepony who looked like him also enjoyed the same type of entertainment. There was no better quality in a friend.
“You know,” the second spirit said, “My gut is telling me the left side is going to pull through.”
“Would you bet on it?” the first spirit asked, grinning. The second spirit nodded, smiling back.
“Of course!” came the response, and his two talons snapped together. A thick fog formed in the battlefield and got heavier and heavier until nothing could be seen of it at all. One peculiar thing about the fog, however. It was pink.
Slightly annoyed, the first spirit exclaimed, “Hey?! How is anypony supposed to see?” He snapped his talons together and the pink fog whisked away. The new spirit was smiling like crazy as the first one looked at him in confusion. When he turned his head back to the battle, the pink fog had consolidated itself above the battlefield, into clouds, booming of thunder. In all the snow blowing everywhere, a brown rain poured straight down over everypony.
“What… are you doing?”
The second spirit started laughing, “It’s a downpour of chocolate rain! Isn’t it hilarious?” The first one shrugged, looking back at the battle. Everypony had stopped in confusion, some slipping on the puddles now pouring. The first spirit couldn’t help but smile. It was funny, he guessed.
“How exactly is this supposed to help the left side?”
“Oh, who cares?” the spirit responded, “Just stirring up some excitement!” The second spirit was indeed getting excited. He snapped his talons together and suddenly the ground underneath the battlefield made a sickening groan. Snow in a few areas suddenly burst into the air as a stream of hot air jetted from below in a geyser. Soldiers everywhere had to dodge once they realized what was going on, but some inevitably flung into the air, though saved by their respective leaders.
The new spirit burst into uncontrollable laughter as he collapsed to the floor and roll back on forth on it along his curved spine.
The first one also joined him, catching his contagious laughter.
The two had about an hour more of tricks and dips, dying of laughter at the sight of the two armies still trying to fight each other while attempting not to be a victim to the mischievous spirits’ tricks. After, the first spirit claimed he had the ultimate one.
Drunk with happiness, he waved his talons at the sky, giving forth a lot of his power towards this one. The second spirit waited in anticipation as the two armies tried to retreat their ridiculous battlefield. Behind the actual clouds of the blizzard, a small orange glow began to appear, and get bigger and brighter. At first, no sound was heard, but then a low, loud rumbling began to creep over all the air.
The new spirit changed from a look of excitement to concern.
“What…” he couldn't hear him between the “doing?!” from all the rumbling. Now, wondering if he had gone too far, he responded, “Just a meteor!”
The new spirit looked shocked, “Are you…?”
A miniature sun appeared to be blooming behind the dark storm clouds as the heat very suddenly dissolved them completely in a matter of seconds. The second spirit dashed away towards the meteor and the two unicorn leaders suddenly leapt into action. The red horned unicorn shifted into a black shapeless form and flew towards the heat rock at high speed. The green one charged his horn, and his magic enveloped the whole thing!
The first spirit now was no longer happy. He was too embarrassed to help, so he had teleported himself away back to the safety of his home.
His head pounding, the Spirit of Destruction grumpily watched whatever was happening from a hill far outside of Ponyville. He couldn’t tell what was going on, but it was a big deal. Celestia and Luna were there, and Twilight looked frantic at certain times, and incredibly bored on others.
When he had woken up, he hadn’t thought about much. Not the vision, not the blast to the face… Horizon was simply trying to collect himself and sulk in the time being. With blatant envy, he eyed the ceremony that was going on down below. I used to be one of them , he thought to himself, bitterly, I could have been down there . It would have been easy to slip in disguised, but no shapeshifting race enjoyed that. Even the changelings, he recalled, got a bit lonely together sometimes, but at least they had each other.
He continued to swirl in thoughts of wanting and wishing, trying his best to ignore the pain in his head, when a few different colors came into view down in the square. They looked like they were from that far out place… what was it called? Saddle Arabia? They had come over once before, he remembered, and didn’t think much of it. Now that he was thinking about it, however, he was coming up with questions he didn’t know he had. The most basic one being, where exactly is Saddle Arabia? He put together the map of Equestria in his head, and couldn’t find it anywhere. So then, that meant that Princess Celestia couldn’t rule over that land, right? Which means that there are some ponies, that don’t know the influence of Princess Celestia and Luna’s forced Western style culture?
What kind of military do they have? Do they have unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, or are they all just… horses? What relationship do they have with Equestria if Celestia doesn’t rule them?
As Event Horizon pondered on these strange inconsistencies, the ceremony continued on below:
… and in the direct middle of it, there was a pretty familiar sound.
He didn’t pick it up at first, but his ears started twitching when he did. It broke his thoughts just as he was about to consider possibly making some sort of recording of him overanalyzing the very fact that these types of ponies existed.
It started out faint, but then there was a low, steady, rocky rumble. He perked his head up listening. It was unmistakeable; inconceivable, and most of all… familiar. He snaked up the trunk of a tree and weaved his way through the crown, poking his head out above the branches to clear sky. Sure enough, a small ball of orange glowing energy was faint in the sky and getting brighter by the second. Uh oh. Watching it come closer, he thought about what exactly to do. His primary instinct was to let it crash into the ground and watch Equestria crumble. That was his dream, after all. But his heart was telling him to go quickly to the square where the ceremony was happening and- on second thought, he would rather have them figure it out himself.
Horizon huffed as he crossed his arms. Perhaps it would teach them a bit of a lesson to have to deal with a crisis he knew about on their own. After all, they didn’t want his help before. Although, when he took a break from his stubborn conclusion to check back on the meteor, it had actually changed trajectory. Instead of heading towards Ponyville, it seemed to have curved in the air, heading straight towards the Everfree Forest. Great. Like that place wasn’t bad enough. Curiosity took the best of him more than anything as he shakily began to levitate towards the place where the meteor would crash. He had never actually seen a space rock before him, for the only time he’s ever gotten the chance to, he left before anypony could do anything except stop it.
It didn’t roar as much, in fact, not really at all. It sort of streaked and hissed across the sky, meaning it was actually significantly smaller than whatever had crashed before. The bright light flashed through the weave of branches, and a loud explosion lit up the sky. Initial pressure made a small burst from the site of the crash. Horizon had expected that, and was unaffected. What did affect him, however, was a sudden tidal wave of magical energy that smashed into his whole body. Shock tingled everywhere as an invisible wall smacked him without warning, sending him flying back into a tree. Once again, he hit his head and blurred his vision for a few seconds, before shaking himself off, watching the forest slowly come back into focus.
“What was that?” he asked himself, out loud. His magical energy was unstable from that hit. It was more active than it usually was, it popped and buzzed and crackled in his veins. Most unusual. He took a pause for a second, half expecting it to go down, but in fact it became more active. Soon enough, he was starting to have trouble levitating, until he couldn’t altogether. Event more strange. He had never actually had too much energy to perform magical tasks. But indeed it was; he tried to summon something physical, only to find that there was so much aura to do so, it blocked itself, feeling like an overgrown tumor in his talons. It weighed them down, but somehow he felt lighter… dizzy. He had to shake this feeling off, as he started to walk where the crash site was.
His muscles began twitching and spazzing as he began to become intrigued. There was nothing in Equestria that had ever affected him like this. There was a gigantic wall of smoke on the outer circumference of the crash site, and when he walked into it, he tiredly flapped his changeling wing to blow some away. The ground was barren, and unnaturally hot. A heat that would normally be dangerous, but he wasn’t feeling it as pain, at least for now anyway. There was still smoke everywhere, and he couldn’t see a thing, much less where the rock was. He got down to the ground and eyed it. He found where the blast direction was by the streak patterns in the dirt, so he continued in, finding it harder and harder to actually move. Ugh , he thought to himself as his entire aura was popping. The smoke was starting to clear now, and what had crashed was slowly becoming visible among the black dirt it had charred around it.
Of course, luck would have it, he heard a voice behind him.
“Hey, it’s you!” that sounded like a familiar mare. He whipped around to see Applejack looking kind of mad, Twilight was beside her and Celestia was behind them. Rainbow Dash was just galloping up to them.
“Oh, brother,” he said, rolling his eyes, knowing where this was going, “You think I’m the one who did this, didn’t you?” Celestia stepped to the front of the ponies and looked rather calm, “If you were not the cause of this, who was?” Horizon lashed his dragon tail angrily. The nerve of them.
“If you must know, I actually don’t know,” he said, gritting his teeth, “I’m here for the same reason you are, I just happened to get here first.” Rainbow Dash let out a snort and started to scrape her hoof against the ground as if ready to charge any split second now, clearly not convinced. Twilight was just quiet, standing beside her former mentor, looking like the scared student she used to be. Applejack was giving him a firm stare, as if weighing if he was telling the truth or not. The Princess of the Sun sighed, “Well then, maybe we should find out to-” she stopped mid sentence and suddenly all of their eyes got wide.
“...what?” he asked, “is it something on my face?”
“Do my eyes betray me?” a voice behind him, again, suddenly said. Event Horizon, the Draconequus Spirit of Destruction, Keeper of Entropy and Ruin, screamed in surprise and jumped up, whipping around.
Somehow, there was a pony standing behind him. Except this wasn’t any type of pony. He stood about as tall as Celestia did, so still shorter than the Draconequus, but his horn nearly reached Horizon’s nose. He had a thick white coat, also like Celestia, and wore unknown armor of polished gold. Engravings decorated it, covering every inch of the plated metal. On the sprouting tips of the center piece rested five shining, brilliant blue crystals. His eyes matched this color, also shining a very powerful, bright blue. Of course, a tall stallion in a white coat dressed in armor wasn’t enough, but no, he had a pair of wings at his side, too. That’s right, a pair of wings and horn.
“Are you Event Horizon, the Spirit of Destruction?” he asked, in a strong voice.
Nope.
Event Horizon dove forward as fast as he could and hid behind Celestia, crunching himself up to have her cover him complete, shaking.
“What’s wrong with you?” Rainbow Dash suddenly looked extremely confused. Violently shaking, he answered, “He knows me… I don’t know him. IT’S USUALLY THE OTHER WAY AROUND!”
“Horizon, stop shaking, you’re digging your horns into my back,” Celestia said, moving away from him, and Rainbow Dash pushed him back towards the mysterious stallion, “How about saying hello instead?” she said. The stallion smiled brightly, “Hey there, Rainbow Dash! Let me get to EV, first!” Dash looked a bit freaked out, but Horizon didn’t have time before the white pony grab his talons and shook them up and down repeatedly.
“It’s so great to finally meet you! My name is Sirius A, but you can just call me Sirius. Gotta say, I’m great fan of some of your work, I loved that time you really stuck it to Sombra.” As he kept talking, Horizon couldn’t let his horror show anymore. Sirius “A” then moved onto Celestia, standing slightly taller than her.
“Tis is a pleasure to meet you at last, too, Celestia, we do have much to discuss,” he said, bowing his head down, and then smiling brightly, “As you can see, I know a bit more about what’s going on here than an ordinary pony should. There are some things you should know about.” Celestia was completely dumbfounded. She could only stare with wide eyes, and nod,
“O-of course,” she stammered, “I’ll be happy to meet with you.” The confusion in her eyes was priceless. The Spirit of Destruction couldn’t help himself as he uncontrollably burst into wild laughter, falling backwards onto the floor. She flattened her ears in embarrassment as Sirius looked back, confused, “What did she say?” Horizon could only make vague gestures with his limbs as he struggled to breathe for air while continuing to make fun of the Princess. Applejack rolled her eyes as Rainbow Dash eyed Sirius suspiciously. The two started talking and began heading back the road that the party came, only Twilight giving Event Horizon an eyebrow raise before turning her back on him and following the group.
Once he got up, he noticed that they were well down on the road by now. He stretched, yawning, relieved he got to make fun of somepony before the day was over. Just as he was about to take a step to go follow them, something grabbed his spider arm. Startled, he turned his head back to see a familiar face.
“Discord?” he said, surprised, “I thought you were out-” the Spirit of Chaos had a very serious look on his face. Event Horizon looked from side to side, getting nervous, “What?”
Discord jerked his arm closer to him, “When that thing hit the ground…” At first Horizon didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he recalled the magical blast that sent his Destructive energy crazy.
“That blast,” he nodded, “What about?”
“Can you teleport?”
“I couldn’t before.”
“Try it now.”
Event Horizon teleported behind Discord and then back again.
“Huh, that’s strange.” Discord nodded, “Indeed… you know I’m starting to get awfully suspicious of this Sirius character.” Now he was starting to sound more like his real self. So Discord heard the whole thing.
“I wonder if-” suddenly a thought crossed Event’s mind, but then he stopped, unsure.
“What?” Discord asked, eyeing him. Horizon shook his head,
“Nothing… it’s nothing,” he shook his head, “What are we supposed to do about Sirius?” Discord stared at him for one more second before shrugging, “Not sure, really. Don’t know who he is, where he’s from, what he can do.” He got serious again, “But he’s pretty dangerous.”
Horizon wasn't exactly sure where that comment was coming from. Then a new thought suddenly popped into his head,
“Did you see his cutie mark?” he blurted. Discord shook his head, “Didn't know he had one.”
“It's a blue sun with eight violent rays,” he described, now recalling, and then smiled, “What do you suppose it means?” Discord only shrugged, “It could mean anything in between bad chef and shark whisperer for all I know.” The two continued on chatting, their conversation on Sirius only lasting a short while before they ran out of details to analyze. It took a turn to the current events in Equestria and about the upcoming Equestria Games. Once they realized they had gotten off track, though, they made a conclusion about Sirius. They didn't trust him, and agreed to keep an eye on him.
Once Discord teleported away, Event Horizon went to catch up with Celestia and the others, teleporting to Ponyville and searching actively for them. He did get stares from the residents, but they had seen him already, and seeing as he posed no threat, for now, didn't lead them to do anything about him being there. Eventually he heard familiar laughter coming from a house dressed up like a cupcake. He peaked inside through the open door and found Sirius next to… That pink earth pony. What was her name?
Twilight’s friends had beaten him so bad when he tried to destroy Equestria, that he swore he was losing memory since then. He had heard her name before, but couldn't find it anywhere in his memory.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome,
A fine welcome to you!
Welcome, welcome, welcome,
Say, how do you do?
Welcome, welcome, welcome,
I say, ‘Hip hip, hooray!’
Welcome, welcome, welcome,
To Ponyville today! ”
Both Sirius and the pink mare recited the lines in perfect unison and skidded in front of Celestia, Luna, the Saddle Arabia Ambassadors, and Twilight and her friends.
“Wait for it,” Sirius said, containing giggles. The wagon behind them that was playing the music, suddenly blasted everyone with confetti from an oven, but then sprayed all the ponies down with what looked to be batter from a cannon at the top. Covered with sticky cake batter, Sirius started,
“Pinkie… did you put cake in the confetti cannon and confetti in the cake cannon, again?” That's right, it was Pinkie Pie.
She started giggling, “Oops, silly me, that's right!” Every pony that was watching burst into pleasant laughter as they wiped themselves off from the thick, but still delicious, substance. Horizon couldn't help but feel that same envy he was feeling before when watching the ceremony. His old anger started to rise up again, as he thought about leveling the entire place.
Once again, however, he had a job to do. For the rest of the night Pinkie Pie had them entertained. Sirius wasn't doing anything unusual besides knowing half the stuff the ponies were going to do or say, and truthfully, it didn't look or feel like he was hiding anything more than what he showed he already knew. It got so boring, Horizon had fallen asleep in front of the house next to the front door, and curled up on the floor. Doing so in tired unawareness, he could only think about how much he preferred his tree.
The night went on peacefully, and morning came without an incident. The sleep had cleared his head, a lot, and for once in his life, he felt good about himself. Nopony had woken him in the middle of the night asking him what in Celestia’s name was he doing, parked outside of Pinkie Pie’s place, so he assumed everyone had crashed there, even the Ambassadors.
Applejack was the first one up after Celestia, who somehow always got up on time to raise the Sun. Seeing Celestia made Horizon realize just how terrible it would be to never in your life be able to sleep in. Literally every other pony could, but her. The Spirit of Destruction shivered at the thought of responsibility.
The day was painfully normal. Apparently news hasn't quite gotten out yet that a male alicorn that arrived like a meteor from space was in Ponyville, and surprisingly, he wasn't attracting any attention, as if no pony had noticed him. Horizon followed the group to Applejack’s farm, where they took a tour, and the town hall. The Destruction spirit would have slammed his head against the wall for the opportunity for something exciting to happen.
Soon, the Ambassadors went back to a hotel they were staying at officially, and the group of Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were left, so the group went back to Pinkie Pie's one last time. The Princesses of the Sun and Moon were going to leave, but decided to stay the night with the friends before heading back to Canterlot. So it had already gotten late and by now, Horizon had mixed feelings. He knew for some reason Sirius was suspicious, but the pony came off friendly, honest and caring.
Although maybe his suspicion came from the fact Sirius hadn't revealed anything about himself other than his name. This fact seemed to restore Event’s faith in his mission. Sirius was really up to something. Or was he? What would he be even up to?
As if on cue, he came into view, approaching Celestia, and mumbling something to her. Then, the Draconequus witnessed something he hadn’t seen in a long time. The Princess blushed, like actually. She had a dainty giggle when he said something else and smiled slightly. Horizon had to stop himself from gasping and got away from the window.
Celestia’s in love?
That can’t possibly be it. There had to be more to that. Suddenly, though, things were beginning to make sense under that theory. The only thing Sirius was up to was trying to find his true Love. Of course, coming from a different world, he would be hesitant to be listing off his alien life. Of course, he would be radiating too much magic, because he just made a long trip between worlds. Could it be that he was actually a genuine, kind hearted soul that came across dimensions to be with Celestia?
When he looked back through the window to get his answer, Sirius and Celestia were staring straight at him.
Uh oh.
The white stallion came up to the window and stared at the Draconequus for what seemed like hours. His face was neutral, and mildly curious, before he just opened it, chuckling,
“You know, if you wanted to join us, yesterday, you could have just come along instead of following us around everywhere for twelve hours.”
“You counted?” he was his only response.
“Just have a good memory,” Sirius said. It was easy to forget that Event Horizon’s energy was now crackling and popping more than ever. The problem was, he had gotten used to it, so he could move physically and ignore it with ease. Unfortunately, all his magic seemed to be nullified like before, again for some reason. As soon as that thought crossed into his mind, he wondered if anypony else with him was having problems. So far nopony has seemed to notice that except him, and Discord sort of implied that he did. However for the time being, he was in an awkward situation.
“Horizon, come on inside,” Sirius now laughed, “I have something important to share anyway, that I want you to hear.” Curious, and relieved to not be dead, Horizon slid through the open window instead of going through the front door.
“What in tarnation is that thing doing here?” Applejack yawned and motioned at Event Horizon. Despite being convinced that he was about to destroy the entire town earlier, apparently him being a threat now was the last thing on her mind.
Earth ponies.
“I'm just—” “—oh my gosh, you're that Even Pie’s son, right?” Pinkie Pie suddenly sprouted up onto his snout. He crossed his eyes to get her in focus, her silly smiling face pretty much filling up his vision, “We’re related!”
“First of all, it's Event Horizon,” he grumbled, unamused, “and second, you have no relative named Even Pie. Trust me, I'm a few thousand years old.” Even though there's no guarantee that I'm actually right.
Sirius clapped his hooves together, “If I could just have everypony’s attention, please.” Everyone did quiet down, and Horizon was thanking the stars he didn't let these ponies talk to him further.
“Listen, as you know… I just arrived to this world yesterday,” he began. Both Twilight and Celestia immediately looked like they were about to say something, but stayed silent. The other ponies were just content with listening.
“Despite this, I… I feel most at home here!” he exclaimed, his voice starting to quiver, “And I just wanted to thank you all, for this wonderful time you gave me!” Now he was starting to tear up. A few seconds passed as Sirius' face melted from a look of shaky gratitude, to just tears.
Resist hugging him.
It didn't help when all the other ponies rushed forward in a group hug, comforting and nuzzling each other. Horizon’s eye twitched, as now he was stressed more than ever. If he didn't join in their little hug pact, he looked suspicious or like a blatant jerk. But, he didn't care much for honesty at this point, so he came forward and stretched his arms across the entire group, putting on the best genuinely happy look he could make. It didn't last long, however, because even though his aura was now so active he felt like he could explode, the warm energies of the ponies seeped into him. For once, it was relaxing, and comforting, and very quickly, turning his fake smile real. Even though they only hugged for a few seconds, Horizon had felt like he had, now… What was that word again? It began with an “F”.
When everypony departed, Sirius still had tears in his eyes.
“I come from a world called Halott,” he sniffled, “It's a lush, beautiful world, bountiful in life, illuminated in precious stones and light.”
Twilight laughed, “Then why'd you come here?” What a good question, Twilight.
“I saw something,” he said, smiling, “That Equestria had that no other place in the universe could.” He was, of course, talking about Celestia. He was a Night in Shining Armor after all. Trying not to let onto the fact that these ponies had just touched his rumored, "to be" heart, Horizon laughed, “Well that was nice and all, but I best get—” he noticed Pinkie Pie staring him down, and stopped.
“... What?”
“You’re hiding something!” she said, leaping to her hooves and getting in front of him, “What is it?!” This was either incredibly ironic, or, an opportunity to let out his genuine feeling of what just happened. Horizon chose irony.
“Not sure what you mean,” he said, laughing nervously, “But I’ll be seeing ‘y’all’ around!” Forgetting he couldn't, he tried to teleport away. Static spiked so high and so quickly, a super sharp tingling feeling bolted all through his nerves, rendering him unable to react properly. Limitless agony stiffened in his bones, racing faster than the speed of sound. For a split second, Horizon’s and Sirius’ eyes met.
Maybe because it was happening too quickly, but Sirius hadn't registered to look shocked yet. However, before the Draconequus could see anymore, a sudden force slammed into him, propelling him out through the front door, back into the sunlight. He hit the ground about two seconds later, and was fully paralyzed for about a millennium.
However, it all calmed down, and Horizon shook himself off. Something told him to meet up with Discord, but what was he going to say? He's a wonderful stallion, with a thing for Celestia? He's touching the hearts of all of Ponyville with his charm, friendly attitude and overall love towards life? Other than his freaky aura, nothing really seemed to be out of the ordinary, and that was also probably just… ordinary of somepony in his situation.
In his brief episode of being flung out of what he knew as “Pinkie Pie’s house”, he hadn't noticed that a group of ponies was starting to gather around him like a dead bird on the road.
“Are you okay?” Actually his head hurt more than ever, and his vision was blurring now.
“Fine,” he said, sitting up, “I'm fine.” He expected the crowd to just go away, but the mint coated mare in front of him, didn't. He rubbed his eyes to get some of the blur out, and it kind of worked. Staring at her and starting to stand now, he asked, “What?” Seemed like he couldn't read ponies' vague facial expressions very well.
“Was it that other white alicorn?” she asked, sounding very suspicious and angry. When he looked around, a few others seemed to be equally as interested in the answer, while, at the same time, others frowned at her tone. Well that was definitely interesting.
“I don't know what you're talking about,” he replied, although he knew they all knew he knew. He just didn't know what else to say. Some of the ponies smirked at him as if he was a part of their hidden cause or something, while others just looked more frustrated.
“We know you know; you were just in Sugarcube Corner!” the mint mare mightily exclaimed, “That white alicorn stallion is there, right?”
“Why don't you go in there and find out for yourself?!” he retorted, “Please address all complaints to:” he paused and summoned a scroll and a pair of reading glasses to read two words on it, before moving it down and glaring at the green unicorn, “Princess Celestia.”
This time, he managed to teleport back to his domain, safely and unharmed. Well for the most part, anyway. The Spirit of Destruction decided that clocking twelve and a half hours stalking an alien alicorn stallion was enough for a while. Although, something strange was definitely happening; and something was odd about where Sirius said he was from.
Being teleported back to his throne room reminded him of what his old lair showed him. It was a barren world, with a ruins of the civilization it once was home to. The heat could almost be felt through the colors. That didn't match Sirius’ description of Halott at all.
Could it be that the appearance of Sirius and the vision of this world Horizon had just the night before were unrelated?
Or was Sirius lying?
Either scenario was equally disturbing and both raised more questions than any possibly given answers.
Weeks had passed since the arrival of Sirius A, from Halott. The news had finally spread all over Equestria, and the results, were unfortunate. Letter after letter was nothing but controversy. Some of them were comforting; the writers showed their support for the Princess, and encouraged her to stay strong. Most of them were angry citizens demanding the banishment of Sirius in complete disregard for what she wanted to decide on the matter. When the letters started to come in, initially, she replied to all of them, feeling like it was her duty that as leader, she address everypony’s concerns.
But, as days turned into a few weeks, everypony from the castle started telling her she was beginning to look worn, tired and sick. After some persuasion, the Princess agreed to stop responding to the negative letters and then eventually to stop looking at them altogether. This meant that an entirely new team had to be made to sort through the letters, something that had not been done before, and she didn’t like it. She cherished the idea of her citizens sending her personal letters, but, her staff was insistent.
Sirius routinely dropped by the throne room, which was easy for him since he was staying in the castle. His visits were the only good parts of her day. He was friendly, caring and actually helpful, bringing her needed things like water and anything else she asked for.
However, outside of his visits, played an endless nightmare. She lay awake for long hours during the night, often questioning herself.
What am I meant to do? Should I banish him to please my subjects? Do I then have to worry about his vengeance? No scenario turned out well in her head, no matter how many she made up.
Celestia had begun to stop eating as much as she used to, and pangs of anxiety would plague some hours of the day. The subjects of the castle began to look frequently worried, but she kept telling them she had a plan, not knowing if they believed her or not. She didn’t believe herself, and highly doubted something would come along and save her.
One particular morning, was when she realized that things had gone further than she thought initially thought. One of the guards came in, looking terrified, saying she had a visitor, who “had made it clear she had all intentions to talk, and insisted she was not a danger.” A knot tied itself in her already sick feeling stomach, when the “visitor” was escorted in by eight guards.
“Chrysalis…” Celestia whispered, hopeless, “Oh no.” The Queen looked outraged, not at being escorted, strangely. She was alone, which the Princess thought was strange, usually she’d have some guards with her. The sight of the Changeling Queen coming into her throne room started making her heart pound. No good could come from this meeting and she didn’t know if she could deal with her right now.
“Celestia!” Chrysalis exclaimed in her cruel, twisted, double voice. It came upon the Princess in that instant. She got up, and galloped full force to the nearest restroom and locked the door with her magic. She shriveled in the farthest corner as it bulged when it surface and then exploded into hot tears. She sobbed for a few minutes, as quietly as she could, letting out the tension from her head and heart. Somepony knocked on the door frantically, asking if she was alright. She didn’t respond, just continued to let it out until she calmed down. When she got up, she said nothing, trying to avoid eye contact and instead heading straight back into the throne room.
Chrysalis did not look any less angry, but was waiting there, instead, tapping her hoof against the long rug.
“S-sorry about that,” Celestia shakily apologized, “W-welcome to Canterl-”
“Spare me,” Chrysalis hissed, “Formalities will not save you.” For a split second the Sun Princess thought she was going to attack her in front of all her guards. But instead, she stayed silent, not wanting to use more energy trying to get her voice to work.
“I’ve been holding back on this visit for a long time now,” the Queen started. What, a week? she thought bitterly, sniffling. Everypony was so bent on exaggerating how long this was going on; not to mention, Sirius wasn’t even doing anything. He made few appearances in public, hardly talked to anypony, and only did acts of kindness to those around him. Only the castle staff really liked him, Luna in particular getting along with him. Celestia smiled for a second, recalling that the two often talk through the long nights, like the best of friends.
“But, that disgrace you’re housing, cannot stay in Equestria any longer,” Chrysalis’ eyes burned as she buzzed her wings, Oh yeah, you’re talking , “It’s about enough chaos that’s come about here!”
The Princess sighed,
“Have you even met him?” Surprisingly that didn’t phase her like it did most ponies,
“I don’t have to, to know he’s trouble. Trouble that you’re allowing.” There was a sliver of worry behind her harsh voice. Suddenly she realized that, despite hating her, Chrysalis was afraid that Celestia was going to let Equestria fall into some sort of chaotic state. Even Queen Chrysalis depended on Princess Celestia to keep Equestria in balance when she couldn’t. How ironic.
“I can promise you,” she started to laugh, entertained, “he won’t and can’t even cause any trouble.” There were hoof trots coming from the door as she realized her sister was coming into the throne room, a neutral expression on her face. The guards and everypony in the room were in complete suspense, their eyes in tight focus.
“You don’t know,” Chrysalis was insistent for some reason, “You can’t know what he-” a surprising burst of anger bloomed inside her. Celestia thrust forward and slammed her head into the Queen’s unguarded face, and, without thinking, in a swift move, swung her foreleg in a clean arc, neatly connecting with her face, tossing the Changeling to the side. Rage was bubbling even hotter as there were gasps around the room and Chrysalis' surprised face looked up at her.
“Instead of being grateful ,” Celestia gritted her teeth, “That I bother to raise the Sun over all Equestria every morning… you come here,” her horn charged up brightly with a deadly spell, “and demand I meet your hateful need!” A small tear escaped her face, “I’m SICK OF IT!”
“Five weeks have gone by!” Celestia continued, “Nothing has happened. Your mistrust of the unknown is now plaguing me !” Chrysalis suddenly became wide eyed,
“You’re in love with him!?”
Oh, great . It was too late to try and cover it up now. No one wasn’t going to believe the creature that fed off of love. Her horn fizzled in power and she backed away from the Changeling,
“Why, yes, actually, but I don’t see how that’s any of your business!” She turned away, once again tearing up. It was unfair. The whole thing was completely unfair. How could this happen to her? The entirety of Equestria hated Sirius… and now they knew she loved him.
Chrysalis got to her hooves, seeming to have calmed down,
“Things have happened, Celestia, things you can't see from this fancy throne room.” She walked to stand beside her; the Princess was looking straight ahead at her throne, unyielding.
“My changelings… They are suffering. There's a disease… a disorder, malfunction whatever you wish to call it,” Celestia began to turn her head slightly to acknowledge her, “Their magic betrays them… Turns on their bodies. But yet I am unaffected…” There was a hint of sorrow in her voice, “My magic cannot help them. It started happening around this arrival of… ‘Sirius’.”
Celestia said nothing, only thinking. Chrysalis only had come here to protect her subjects.
To make matters worse, the throne doors opened and a familiar voice that sent joy into her heart spoke,
“Celestia?” It was Sirius. Both mares looked back and the white Alicorn stood there with beaming blue eyes among the crowd of her subjects.
“Celestia what's wrong?” he began to trot forward. Chrysalis hissed furiously, and blocked his way,
“Come no further blue eyed demon… I can say with certainty that your days are limited!” she cursed him.
“Chrysalis, move!” Celestia nudged her out of the way, and faced Sirius, “I'm fine,” she said, “I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment.”
Sirius smiled his comforting smile, “I was hearing about me in here, and naturally, I got worried.” The Princess couldn't help but smile back. He had a way of really softening her heart.
“I don't care what happens,” he said, looking determined, “There'll never be a good time to do this, so I'm finally gonna do it now.” She widened her eyes, sudden realization hitting her. Before she could say anything, he bowed his head, kneeling before her,
“Princess Celestia… Will you marry me? ”
Celestia tiredly flopped on her bed, her heart racing. The rush of Chrysalis threatening to destroy her relationship was making her blood excited; a mix between anxiety and ecstasy.
She didn't know what Chrysalis planned to do, but, she was certain she was going to fail, possibly all on her own without interference. She was alone. Her changelings weren't going to be of help and nopony else was qualified to— suddenly she sat up in bed.
There actually were a few who could help her, and, out of those, there existed some who would . An unlikely option would be Tirek, but the Princess wasn't even sure if the Queen knew about him. Even if, though, she'd not only have to find an entrance to Tartarus, but defeat Cerberus and find a way to free him on top of it. He was pretty much out of the question.
Celestia wasn't sure how Discord felt of the situation. He had probably heard about the wedding announcement by now, but in all the commotion with the ponies sending her crates full of letters, she hadn't had the chance to check up on him. It was a little strange, though, that he hadn't come visit her yet. Usually, he would be the first pony to get in somepony else’s business. It was also pretty unlikely that Discord would betray her yet again, but, it was possible that, if he indeed helped Chrysalis, he wouldn't view it that way.
After all, clearly, Chrysalis didn't view her actions as an act of war, but, Celestia had full rights to march her army over to her castle, and level it. As appealing as that option seemed, it would be reckless to take it on her part, since there were far more pressing matters to attend to.
There was also that other Draconequus… what was his name? Something about pie. Oh… what was his name? Although it didn’t matter, he probably wouldn’t be much of a threat anyway.
And yet there was a third Draconequus that had proven herself to be trouble in the past, Celestia recalled. Perhaps it would be best to make sure she wasn't against her; even possibly make an ally. The wedding was two months away and the situation was already fragile and prone to huge error. Some extra friends would help minimize catastrophes.
Thanks to Luna’s pep talk, the castle staff’s doubts were cleared and they worked both their normal jobs and towards the wedding planning tirelessly. However, the news hadn't quite gotten out yet about it and considering the never ending stream of letters Celestia had gotten before, she could only imagine how they would react now. She was going to have to address it eventually, but there didn't seem to be a right way.
Sleepiness bore into her eyes as she finally decided to give up trying to keep them open. Being a princess was exhausting, but the sleep that came from it, was rewarding.
Without much delay, she fell asleep.
That was her first mistake.
Somehow, when she woke, light from the Sun streamed through her windows. It was so odd to see the Sun up without having any memory of raising it, that she just lay there, dumbfounded for at least 20 minutes.
Luna had never offered to raise it before and it would make no sense as to why she would start now. In fact, it made so little sense, because Luna had borderline forbidden Celestia to watch over the Night. Her sister was so territorial about their roles, that she was absolutely sure it wasn't Luna.
Celestia got out of bed and left her room, tired, but alert. If Luna didn't raise it, who did?
Her answer sat on the highest balcony of the tower, where she normally raised the Sun.
“Sirius?” she asked him, confused. She shouldn't have been surprised, because he was the only other one who was capable other than her sister, but for some reason, she was. The first thing her eyes locked onto was his cutie mark. It was a blue sun, that looked a lot like hers, but its rays were much thinner. Why hadn't she noticed that before?
“Yes darling?” he asked, looking back at her calmly, as if expecting she would come up here confused. That unnerved her. Why sit here and wait for her to show up? Better yet, why raise the sun at all?
“Were you the one who raised the Sun this morning?” Something was causing her to be nervous and she didn't like it one bit.
“Indeed,” he nodded calmly, “You looked so tired that I decided to help you this morning with it.” She had long suspected that he was powerful enough to do so, after all she couldn't travel through space that far… a few light years. But this was slightly out of character for him. Also, his tone wasn't helping. Something was definitely up.
“Well,” she said, trying not to show how uncomfortable she was, “just ask me next time.” She turned around to walk away, breaking her serious face and instead reverting to her nervous gaze that was hiding behind it.
“Yes, of course,” was all he said before she left the balcony back into the castle halls.
The day continued on as normal: letter answering, appointments, interviews, wedding stuff… the incident that happened this morning gradually got pushed further and further back in her mind. Her subjects finally looked happy. There were still some grumbles about how their magic couldn't work, but, the wedding was fresh on their minds and a big change to Equestria was exciting. Luna, however, was nowhere to be found. Once again, a little strange, and a little out of character.
When she had a free hour, she checked up on Luna in the mare’s quarters. She approached the doors and gave a little knock.
“Luna?” she asked.
“Come in,” was the response. Celestia found her sister over her desk, insanely focused on some scrolls. There were many opened ones, splayed out everywhere, and a few books. She had a large magnifying glass that was attached to a stand and heavy base where she was inspecting the articles.
So she was studying whatever this was, all day.
“What are you… doing?”
“Good timing,” Luna said, not taking her eyes out of the glass, “Come here.” Okay… curiously, she did as she was told and stood over her sister’s shoulder.
The scrolls and books were not Equestrian. The layouts were not of the unicorn wizards of old, or any other recognizable styles in history.
“What land is this from?” she asked, her eyes scanning the pages.
“Halott,” Luna responded flatly. Halott? But how did she—…?
Wait.
“You took this from Sirius’ room?” she asked, alarmed. Luna looked back at her, unconcerned,
“Yes.”
“Um, hello?”
“Look at this.”
Celestia rolled her eyes as she stared at what Luna was pointing at. It was notes taken by presumably Sirius himself. They were describing teleportation magic. It was called “Große Teleportation”.
“It's just teleportation spells…?” she said, thinking that the strange part was that there was more than one type. After all, how could there be more than one type spell for only one action that couldn't be varied?
“Now, look at the equations,” Luna said, removing her arm that was covering them. As Celestia was reading, she began to feel a mix of horror and awe. The equations for the spells required an enormous amount of power, and travelled huge distances… on the stellar level.
“By the gods…” she said, “he didn't use a machine to get here… he teleported here himself!”
“That's why I'm telling you, sister, to exercise caution,” Luna said, “He might be even more powerful than these equations suggest.” The Princess stared at the writing in absolute astonishment. The power needed to make a trip like he did, was more than all of the magical creatures in Equestria combined, by far.
“Additionally,” she continued, “Not only has his writings revealed possible locations for Leiden’s magical spells,” what? , “he speaks of reigning only 500 years on Halott.” That last part confused Celestia.
“What's so strange about that?”
“Well, the reason why I have the magnifying glass,” she said, “is dating the writing. This was written at least 20 years ago.”
She stared at the page blankly, unsure why this was important. Once again, though, it dawned on her what Luna was trying to say.
“You're wondering what happened to his rule these past 20 years.”
“Precisely. He does not say.”
“It must be something bad.”
This sounded crazy, but maybe there was an explanation.
“What if he really wants to make up for what he's done so far, and is just too embarrassed to say?” she inquired.
Luna shrugged, “You would be the luckiest mare in the universe. In the meantime,” she said, brushing the possibility off, “He has possession of that power he holds, but it is not his own. No living being could manage to do a trip like that by himself.”
That was true… the numbers seemed scary, but there's only so much power somepony can harbor.
“Try to find where he's getting that power from,” Luna said, turning back to the books and moving the magnifying glass. Celestia could do that… after all they were going to get married. She could always call it off if there was any reason not to trust him.
“Fair enough, my sister,” she agreed, proud of her. Luna was so smart. Even though she defended Sirius from the crowd, she knew better than to be blind.
“Also,” Luna continued, rolling up a scroll with her magic, “Get this to Twilight Sparkle for testing and further analysis. I cannot seem to completely understand it, and from what I've heard, she is better equipped.”
Celestia giggled thinking about how happy Twilight would be about it. Poor Spike . The baby dragon probably won't see the sun until she figured it out.
“Very well,” she said, taking the scroll, “I have to go in that direction anyway.”
Luna raised an eyebrow.
“Have to check up on an old friend,” she stated, “Keep me posted, also, on Chrysalis. I think she might be trying to crash another wedding.” The Moon Princess nodded and went back to the books. Celestia left, smiling. Now that a plan was in place, it was time to act.
***
Sirius was found in the lobby, greeting the anypony who came in, like he worked for the staff.
“Hello there!” he said to one couple, excitedly, “I didn't know there were two other Suns in this solar system, your shine is blinding me!” He laughed with them and shook their hooves.
What's giving him his power? Celestia practically heard her sister’s voice in her head. Only one thing caught her eye. Sirius’ armor was dazzling in bright blue crystals. They looked alive; they glowed and shined, appearing very powerful. It had to be crystals.
After he had directed the ponies, she approached him.
“Hello Sirius,” she greeted him in a welcoming tone.
“Hey,” he said, looking presently surprised, and then his look softened, “Look, about this morning…”
“Oh, no need,” she said, shaking her head, “It's behind us now. I just wanted to have some tea and chat.” She had never spoken like that before. Maybe she was overdoing it.
He brightened up, “Tea and chill, sure, sure! Let's go!” Nothing suspicious so far. They trotted through smiling faces and happy moods through the castle halls, into the food area. They ordered their tea and sat down, uncomfortably. The table was set for everypony else, while they were actually a lot bigger.
“So, what's up?” he started, eyes bright, squeezing in between the chair and the table.
“So,” Celestia started, trying not to come of bossy, “I want to know a little more about you.” She swore she saw his eye twitch, but he covered it so well it could have easily been missed.
“Sure, what about?” He asked. His friendly tone hadn't changed.
“For starters… how’d you even get over here? You're not from another dimension, so how'd you travel that far?”
He laughed, and for a split second, she thought that wasn't a good sign.
“Oh, that! My entrance was pretty rad, right?” His literal entrance… into the atmosphere… WAS indeed, pretty rad. She looked on with curiosity.
“So, the amount of power it takes to get over here is enormous,” he started, getting a little serious, “So, what I had to do was design a higher form of teleportation magic.” He began to look slightly excited, “So, we gathered enough power back home to pull it off.”
That was interesting.
“Who's ‘we’?”
“A few of my close friends and I gathered it over time.” Maybe he really was trying to redeem himself.
“Oh, really?” she asked, taking a sip of her tea that came, “I thought it was those crystals you wear.” He looked confused for a second and then looked down at his chest plate.
“Oh, these?” He tapped one of them with his hoof, “They're just for show. They're from the Cataclomn star.”
“That's actual star matter?” she practically choked on her tea.
“Yeah.”
Her mind was officially blown. Wait until Twilight heard about this.
***
“It’s actually star matter?!” she said, gasping.
“It is!” Celestia said, wide eyed, “and they still hold some of its power!”
“Boring!” Spike intervened.
“Ohmygosh! Yes!” Twilight was jumping up and down, “I can't wait to see him again! I have so many questions to ask him!”
Celestia shook her head, “Actually, I come with a request.”
Twilight looked interested, “OK…”
Celestia summoned the scroll that Luna had given her,
“It's a gift from my sister,” she said, giggling, “If you thought my tests were hard, be thankful you didn't have her as a teacher.”
Her former student looked like she was about to explode.
“She wants you to analyze its contents and test the spells,” she levitated the scroll over, as Spike groaned an “Oh no.”
Twilight took it and ran to her desk, lighting a candle. Instantly the scroll was open and her hungry eyes were scanning it up and down. Celestia trotted to her desk, smiling, also looking at it herself.
There was that word again.
“Twilight, what's this ‘Grobe Teleportation’, would you know?”
She shook her head, “It's pronounced grossa ; it’s the Germane word for ‘great’ in this instance.” She stared at the scroll again, though this time a little lost, “Except this isn't from Classical Germaney.”
“Correct.”
“This isn't from any of the wizards of old, either.”
“Correct again.” Celestia smiled. Twilight looked anxious, “Where is this from?! I'm sorry, I should know, but I can't figure it out.” Her former mentor reassuringly rested a hoof on her shoulder, “No worries, there's no way you could.” She leaned into Twilight’s ear,
“It's Halotten.”
The purple mare stiffened, freezing completely. Laugher bubbled up inside the white alicorn as her former student stopped cold, completely in astonishment. She only let out a little giggle, though, as Twilight stared down at the page, slowly.
“This… is an alien artifact.” She wasn't asking her, rather just saying it out loud. She then looked at Spike excitedly, who was chewing on his claw nervously.
“Spike, we’re pulling an all nighter!”
Those seemed like the last words he wanted to hear.
“Twilight! Come on, we can't!” he dropped to his knees begging, “I have to live my life dream as a champion sleeper!”
Twilight frowned, “You already lived your life dream as a champion ferret wrestler in Appleloosa.” She pointed her muzzle at a framed photo with Spike holding a ferret and wrestling belt at a rodeo ring.
***
“Um… why are we here again?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“And are we going to get bigger parts in the story later on?” Pinkie Pie built on that.
“You’ll see,” Celestia’s only response was, “Just remain in your composure.”
After Celestia had left Twilight with her all nighter, she had gathered the rest of her friends with her to go take a trip to the Everfree Forest.
Well, all her friends except for Rarity. She didn't need Rarity for anything.
Applejack and Fluttershy remained pretty much quiet, walking silently behind their Princess, as Pinkie Pie hopped every jump she made, going on… about something.
Celestia’s heart soared with them behind her. Had she done this alone like she initially planned, she would more than likely be shaking with anxiety. Pinkie Pie’s chatter made for great background noise and Rainbow Dash’s wing flapping gave her confidence in their security. Applejack’s silence said she was paying attention… she was reliable; somepony to turn to in case of an emergency. Fluttershy’s courage to come out into the Everfree at night gave her the strength to continue on.
“So then, BOOM,” Rainbow Dash was saying, “I blew right past him and straight into the finals!”
“Rainbow Dash, as the Element of Honesty, I'm telling you I don't believe a word you just said.”
“Girls…” Celestia turned back to all of them, and they all snapped their heads up, “We’re here.”
“What? How'd that castle sneak up on us?” Dash exclaimed.
“Maybe if you weren't running your mouth so much…” Applejack started.
“The Castle of the Two sisters?” Fluttershy asked, “Why are we here?”
Celestia nodded, “Great question.” She bit her lip nervously when entering the former lobby. The memories of ancient past dampened the air here, like lingering sorrow. Every detail… heartbreaking, but familiar. The four ponies surrounded her when she stopped in the middle, staring up at the night sky in silence. Their curiosity was louder than the countless crickets chirping all around the forest and the smooth breeze blowing over the stone, slightly ruffling banners and old flags.
“Stay here,” she instructed, “and don't move, whatever happens.” Her words chilled them to the bone. Before anypony could ask what was happening, she began her descent. She disappeared into the deepest of tunnels of the castle and even then she wasn't far enough. The stone had long grown moss that had long died and was now a creeping graveyard for fungi. As she passed through, her horn lit up the lamps on the walls in front of her, so she could find the— there it was. In the midst of all the dirty cobblestone ground, there was a pitch black gaping hole in it. She hadn't seen it in a while, and peered inside.
There was just blackness. An empty energy wafted from it, but an energy nonetheless. Gulping, she stepped down and stretched her wings, flapping them heavily to slow her fall. Her horn lit a small circumference of light, but it was repressed. The darkness here was unnaturally overbearing and cold. When she touched the ground, she shivered slightly and called out.
“Hello?”
There was a silence for about forty seconds. She stood there, uncomfortably the whole time, after twenty seconds wondering if she was even in the right place.
“Hello?” she repeated.
Two eyes opened up in the darkness, glaring at her.
“What do you want?” Her voice sounded like it hadn't been used in a long time.
Celestia got straight to the point.
“Have you heard what's going on?”
Her glare didn't lessen,
“Yes.”
She didn't care. At least she wasn't against her.
“I need your help,” Celestia said.
“With what?” Now the Princess wasn't even sure if she wanted it.
“There's too much going on,” she confessed, “I could really use some friends.” There was some silence as her stare was no longer glaring.
“Sirius…” she said, “He's not going to cause too much of an uproar.”
“Last I recalled, you're not the Spirit of Prophecy,” she said.
“I say this, because this is something far worse coming.”
Worse .
“What?”
“Rainbow I swear, if you keep doing that, I'm gonna get a headache,” Applejack said, rolling her eyes. The pegasus kept doing barrel rolls in the air, flying infinitely in a figure eight pattern.
“Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy was calling, “Stop, you could hurt yourself!”
“Silly Fluttershy,” Pinkie Pie shook her head, “I can't—” suddenly she waved her arms around in panic as she fell straight off of the branch head first. Fluttershy gasped as a rush of wind said Rainbow was swooping in to catch her. She did, but, the two lost balance further and both went crashing into the ground, kicking up dust.
“You two,” Applejack said, trotting over to them, “are made for each other.”
“I'm SO bored,” Dash whined, dusting herself off as she sat up, “why did Princess Celestia ask us to come if she was just gonna leave us in the lobby?”
“Dashie… You're sitting on my face…”Pinkie Pie’s muffled voice informed her.
“How'd that even happen?” Rainbow Dash stood up.
There was a sound of hooves clopping on cobblestone coming from further inside the castle.
The four jumped up and straightened themselves out. For a few seconds, the held their breath, but released it when they noticed Celestia.
She looked terrible. Her mane, usually glittering, was dull. Her wings were hanging limply and her coat had grayed slightly. Her eyes were wide and shaken, even though she looked like she was trying to hide it with a forced smile.
“Princess Celestia!” they exclaimed and raced over to her. Pinkie Pie launched an emergency hug around the Princess’ neck, surprising the other three.
“Pinkie I don't—” Applejack was cut off when she realized Celestia looked more comfortable and wrapped a foreleg around Pinkie.
So, she took her hat off and joined Pinkie Pie, while Fluttershy revealed a bloomed yellow flower and placed it in her mane. Rainbow Dash stood strongly by her side, determined to show her support while the others occupied her in hugs. The Princess said nothing, only embraced their comfort, right in the former lobby of the ruins of her old castle. The four elements noticed that warmth was beginning to return to her body, and her mane started to sparkle and shine again.
When they departed, though Rainbow stayed by her, they looked confused.
“What happened?” Applejack asked, “Are you okay?”
She nodded, “Yes, I wasn't expecting a great experience. I needed to find something out that took a toll on me.”
“Why'd you go in alone?” Fluttershy asked, “We would have helped you!”
Celestia shook her head, “It was for me and me only to do.” Dash had a classic guard pose, sitting tall and still with a straight face and her wings tightly locked to her sides. Celestia extended the wing on her side that Dash was on, and brushed the pegasus closer to her in a wing hug, “I thank you all for complying with my request.”
The rainbow maned mare couldn’t keep her straight face any longer, as she broke her still stiff posture and lovingly hugged her princess around her neck like Pinkie Pie had done earlier.
“Fluttershy, what is this flower?” Celestia asked mildly curious, beginning to walk out of the forest once her and Rainbow let go.
“It's a Sunflower, your Highness,” she answered timidly. Celestia nodded,
“Ah, I knew it looked familiar.”
***
“Spike, calibrate it another negative ten degrees,” Twilight instructed. She took her eye away from the eyepiece as Spike gently turned the wheel. The whole platform rotated very slowly as gears turned underneath. The noise stopped when the platform stopped and once again she looked through the eyepiece, her horn glowing.
“The time is 00:36, the date is February 12th,” she said, levitating a paper and a quill, “We’re looking at an object minus ten degrees latitude from the last.”
Spike was writing also, “Observations?”
“Appears to be an ordinary blue giant.”
“Apparent magnitude?”
“Give or take 1 or 2.”
Spike smirked, “Absolute magnitude?”
“Spike, stop! We're alienating the readers!” she huffed.
“But don't we wanna show off?”
“We’ll have plenty of time to do that later,” she said, looking back at the pages
“Now, let's see how this ‘telereceiver’ magic works,” her horn glowed and stared at the page.
“Scattered they began,
together they fall,
in orderly fashion,
to see it all! ”
A flash filled the room for a moment, and died back down again. She put her paper and quill down and watched the contents of the view.
“Spike take everything I say do—”
“I know, we’ve gone over what to do a hundred times already!”
“There’s an image forming…” she said, watching a faint glow appear, “Blue in color, closer to cyan… I see… a blizzard. Mountains; lifeless; frozen wasteland.”
“Are you sure you're not talking about Shining Armor’s study room?”
She glared at him, “Can you not? I'm having extra planetary visions right now.”
“Vision ; it's only a still image.”
She stared at him, her irritation showing.
“Fight me.”
She dove back to the eyepiece.
“... that's all I can see. The only other thing is this strange, white thin line in the sky that curves as the sky curves.. not sure what it is, but I'll find out.”
Spike was scribbling frantically, “Um… Twilight?”
“Yes, Spike?”
“You know, we’ve been at this for five hours now.”
“Yes, Spike.”
“For the past few weeks.”
She looked up from her telescope,
“I know, Spike.”
“Shouldn't we get ready for Celestia’s wedding tomorrow?”
“That's tomorrow ?!” she yelped.
“Yes, I've been telling you that for the past week.”
She leaped off the platform and her horn supercharged. Quills, scrolls and books suddenly levitated everywhere around the room.
“All that calculating took us two months? This is the very first test!” She began walking quickly out of the observatory with an army of floating papers and quills behind her, “Where did all the time go?”
Spike dodged out of the way as he covered his head,
“So… you’re getting ready now?”
“Yes of course! Now! Where’s my Gala dress? No, wait, where’s the dress Rarity made for me a few weeks ago?”
“Twilight you said you were wearing… never mind, it’s over there,” Spike hopelessly pointed towards her bedroom, “It’s sat in your closet since she made it.” The next hour was spent trying to fit Twilight perfectly in her dress, and perfect, eventually, was right. Her dress was a calm silver blue, lots of flowing fabric glittered with shining stars. Her shoes were a polished silver, making an identical copy of the world it reflected.
“Wow, Twilight,” Spike said in awe, “I dunno how you did it, but you look amazing!”
“That’s not weird to say, right?” she asked, thoughtfully.
“No, why?”
“I don’t want any speculation in the comments section.”
Since Twilight had made herself unreachable for the past… two months, she had guessed by now that she would play no special roles in the ceremony, and would likely just show up. Funny how her former teacher’s wedding would be without Twilight playing a role in it, but, when she thought about it, she more content to just sit and watch, anyway. After all, the last wedding she had taken a part of had landed in an invasion of Canterlot, so she best be ready in the audience, anyway.
After stuffing all of the “telereceiver magic” development in the back of her priorities, she finally caught a grip to be fully prepared for the wedding tomorrow. It was going to be possibly the best day ever!
***
Celestia comfortably hugged Sirius in front of her bedroom, giggling.
“Tomorrow’s finally the day,” she said. Sirius nodded excitedly in agreement,
“I know! I’m so excited; I just hope somepony doesn’t try to ruin it,” he rolled his eyes, catching a smile on his face.
“Oh, we can handle them,” she responded dismissively, “That’s why we have that fake ceremony planned first.” They had planned ahead, keeping in mind Shining Armor’s wedding. It was extremely convenient that Chrysalis had threatened again, because Celestia knew very well what she was up against. She had made absolutely no moves thus far, giving her no choice but to try something tomorrow.
“Right,” he said, “I know, but, I still don’t want anything to go wrong.”
She laughed, “Oh, you’re so funny. In any case, I bid you farewell, Sir Sirius A.”
He bowed his head, “Of course my Princess Celestia, until tomorrow.”
They departed, and Celestia had flopped on her bed once again. Equestria had mixed reactions to her announcing they were getting married. To her surprise, those that were causing the most trouble seemed to die down instead of get more aggravated, but on the flip side, those supporting her had backed down a little, clearly not expecting her to go that far. Regardless, lots of ponies were expected to show up at the wedding. The ceremony was limited to invite only, but they were having a part open to the public later on in the day.
Satisfied, she closed her eyes as sleep rushed on her.
Finally, she was with her one true Love.
For some reason, everypony had been told that the morning ceremony would take place in a wedding hall in Canterlot that was not the castle itself. It seemed a bit peculiar, but, it was no less fancy. It was a Canterlot building after all, so gold lining and limestone walls were just the tip of the beauty of the place.
Twilight and Spike had arrived with the general public, and when recognized at the door by the pony standing outside, she was certain at least she would be cleared for front seats. White ribbons lined the windows with tied bows at the center of every trough of the dip. Bouquets of flowers were attached to the clean white walls with a variety of colors, and two decorated the far wall where the stage was. It was a gorgeous set up, even if it wasn’t in the castle.
After the long train ride, Twilight had closed her eyes in rest, only to be disturbed by an unfamiliar voice.
“Oh my gosh! Are you Twilight Sparkle?” there was a blue mare with a brown plain mane in front of her. She was dressed appropriately for the wedding, of course, in a golden dress that was actually rather plain in appearance, only a few flower images on it.
“Uh… yes!” Twilight said, getting herself back together, “That’s me!” The mare gave a slight bow,
“Sorry, it was a dumb question,” she admitted, “But I just got too excited. I’m such a huge fan of your work!” she bounced. Really?
“Your research on exoplanet transitions is unmatched!” the mare praised her, “It’s gold, every word of it!”
“I’m the only one who’s done research on that topic,” Twilight looked around awkwardly, “But… thank you.”
“My name is Rising Star,” she said, “I can’t wait until we get to-”
“Can we save this for another time?” Spike interrupted, “The ceremony is about to start.” Rising Star dipped her head and trotted away back to her seat as Twilight nodded at Spike in relief.
The room had nearly filled up now, and Sirius had entered through the front, trotting down the long aisle where everypony was to walk. He had a unicorn next to him, dressed in the high unicorn mage robes with green eyes. Despite not knowing him, Twilight felt like she had seen the mage before somewhere. Sirius was dazzling. His armor was a bright silver instead of gold, and his blue Cataclomn crystals were polished and shining.
Sirius and the mage got to the stage where they met the string quartet and exchanged a few words.
Everypony hadn’t started getting quiet until the quartet started playing a famous Coatzart Quartet piece, that Twilight couldn’t exactly remember the name to. After a few minutes, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy came down the aisle with Princess Luna following. They all took positions on stage in respect to Sirius and the mage, who now Twilight guessed was the one making the opening remarks.
She was excited to see her friends playing an important part of the wedding, even though she herself didn’t apparently get the chance to. Something was odd about Luna though. She looked marvelous in her armor, a night blue, but instead of looking cheerful and happy, she apparently seemed suspicious and alert.
There was no time to think about that, though, for soon Mendelsun’s Wedding March began to play from the quartet, and all attention focused on the stage. The usual played out without interruption, the ponies chosen to play the flower fillies and close friends (and Blueblood) came down the aisle and took places on the side of the stage. Celestia, alone, began to walk down after them in extravagant armor. Twilight had never seen her like this before, where she was plated with smoothened gold, and, apparently had crystals of her own that shone like the yellow sun. They were placed in a pentagon formation on her chest plate, and a hanging golden fabric cape covered her backside, lined with white fluff like royalty.
A bit of applause escaped after some “ahhs” of awe as Celestia majestically streamed down the aisle like a shining river.
Sirius and Celestia faced each other and the mage stood between them and cleared his throat.
Twilight had been staring at the mage for a few seconds, still bothered by the fact that she had seen him before. Suddenly a memory seemingly forever ago jumped out at her.
"Hey, you there! Can I help you?”
“Oh, no it's fine, Applejack, really!”
“For the love of Celestia! I need you for something.” Gasps.
“Who is he?” there were whispers.
“Is that Discord? ”
That's it!
“I am... ”
Twilight gasped as she stared the mage in the face.
“That’s-” she was cut off when Sirius suddenly blinked, and the eyes that returned were not his. Solid yellow eyeballs hosted two different sized red pupils, and a long tooth suddenly sprouted from his mouth. He turned his head towards the audience and smiled in an all too familiar voice,
“Surprise!” Audience members gasped loudly.
“DISCORD?” Celestia took a step back and gasped, “What are you doing here?”
“Why I’m just-” he stopped when Celestia’s eyes suddenly flashed green, with a long reptilian pupil slit in them. A green phase whisked away Celestia’s form and gave way to Queen Chrysalis, and a quite startled Queen Chrysalis at that.
“Wait what?” he asked, as there were more gasps.
“Wait, what ?” the mage suddenly poofed into exactly what Twilight had remembered. A pony no longer, a tall, green eyed draconequus stood in between Discord and Chrysalis. Discord also resumed his true form.
“I thought we agreed we were capturing Sirius!” Chrysalis exclaimed in front of everypony.
“I thought you said we were going after Celestia!” Discord retorted.
“Discord, you’re the one who told me that Chrysalis said we were going after Celestia!” Event Horizon butt in, “I’m not surprised in the least to hear that wasn’t true.”
Luna stomped her hoof in a thundering shake, “What are you three doing here?!”
They turned to her and suddenly jumped away.
“Listen,” Discord began, striking a weird pose, “Is that a confused sister I hear?”
“She yells at me, loud and clear!” Event Horizon responded, also striking a weird pose.
Discord jumped up,
“In for trouble!”
“Make it double!”
“Disappear!” Chrysalis smiled, staring straight into Luna’s eyes.
Discord dashed in front of her,
“Bringing chaos at a wedding crashing pace!”
Horizon dashed in front of him,
“Dashing all hope and forcing fear in its place!”
What in Celestia’s name was happening?
“Wait a second,” Rainbow Dash interrupted them, “If Discord was impersonating Sirius, and Chrysalis was impersonating Celestia, where are the real Sirius and Celestia ?”
That stopped them dead in their tracks, as they looked at one another.
“I thought you were supposed to hold Celestia,” Chrysalis glared at Discord, “That is what we agreed upon.”
“Fight me, Chrysalis.”
“Maybe I'll take you up on that offer!” she hissed, buzzing her wings up.
“That's not helping anything!” Applejack shut them down, “If you three don't know, then we have to find out where they are!
“FOOLS! ” Luna roared over everypony, causing the flickering of the lights and mass silence. Her eyes were glowing white with rage, and her voice boomed of the Royal Canterlot Voice,
“You three come here to disrupt us, and can't keep track of the one you're trying to bring to ruin! Now, nopony knows where she is! ” she thundered over to the three shaking beings,
“You better get busy trying to find her, or so help me, nothing can save you from my wrath! ” Nodding and terrified, the three magical beings all teleported away simultaneously, sending the ponies watching in somewhat of a panic.
“Where is our Princess?”
“It's probably the work of Sirius!”
“I knew we should have banished him when we could!” Ponies began to get up and stampede out of the hall.
“Well that escalated quickly,” Spike commented. Twilight stood up to try something, but quickly, a hoof pulled her back.
“Princess Luna!” she gasped.
“Twilight Sparkle, come quickly, with your friends, to the castle!” she stumbled over her words in the noise and then spread her wings to fly through the doors over the crowd. Spike hopped knowingly on her back and met Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash who were on their way anyway.
“What do we do now?” Rainbow Dash yelled over the screaming ponies.
“Princess Luna wants us to meet her at the castle! Get Pinkie Pie and Rarity from the reception hall and meet us there, stat!” Twilight reported, “I'm going ahead to catch up with Luna! I think she knows something we don't!”
The three nodded in determination and Applejack jumped clean out of a window, while the two Pegasai flew out of them.
Twilight ran out the front door while the remaining crowd had just finished emptying the hall. Despite that being a slight shock, the entirety of Canterlot was in panic. Ponies from everywhere were running in complete fear, for very good reason. Clouds had suddenly gathered towards the castle, blackening as it got closer. What's further: the Canterlot Castle had a translucent black bubble around it, looking as if night had fallen on it only.
“Great Celestia!” Spike exclaimed, “Maybe it really was Sirius!” Wow . There was a very high concentration of magic surrounding the castle in that bubble, so high, in fact, Twilight could feel it from hundreds of hooves away.
Twilight rushed her hooves as fast as they could take her, and even then, she spread her wings and used them to accelerate her body. Like a plane doing a take off, soon she did less running and more gliding along the ground at incredibly high speeds.
When she got near the castle, she found Luna standing just outside the event horizon of the black bubble around the building. Thunder boomed up ahead, lightning flashing with it.
“Luna!” she exclaimed, stopping besides her, “I'm here! The others are—”
“There is no time, Twilight Sparkle, look,” Luna pointed with her hoof. Beyond the darkness, the castle entrance lay. The guards that had been posted there were now still and lifeless, their forms encased in stone. Their eyes stared straight ahead, never knowing what exactly had happened.
Absolute horror infested her as she stared at the two preserved guards.
“That means…” she said, “Everypony else in there…”
“Stone,” Luna answered, “except for my sister.” She stuck her arm pass the outer circumference of the bubble and nothing happened to it at all.
“Us alicorns are allowed to pass… this can mean only one thing.”
Twilight didn't know what she was getting at.
“This is the magic of Sirius A,” she answered her confusion, “For alicorns were unaffected by his magic jamming earlier, as well.” Twilight gulped and stared up at the castle. Every pony that had been caught inside there was now preserved in stone, and somewhere in the vast building, Sirius was up there, the cause of it all.
“Spike, we will need you to tell your friends that they MUST NOT enter the bubble,” Luna instructed him, “Twilight and I are going in, to confront him.” Spike couldn't even say anything; he was just wide eyed, holding his head in his claws, but nodded.
“Very well,” Luna gave a small nod and then looked to Twilight, “Let us commence.”
All was still, quiet and dark. No lamps in the hallway had been lit, and the doors shutting behind the two ponies gave a bang that could be heard all throughout the lifeless castle.
“This is perhaps the most unsettling situation I’ve ever been in,” Twilight Sparkle commented in pure anxiety. Luna said nothing, only looking around the main lobby. The inside looked as if it were nighttime, but the sun could clearly be seen out of some of the windows. All was abandoned except for all the ponies frozen in stone in their places. They were doing their normal things, filing, walking, talking… but stuck infinitely at one point in time, clearly unaware of what was coming for them just moments before.
“It came upon them in an instant,” Luna commented, shifting in her armor, “At least they did not watch the transformation.” Twilight couldn't help but agree.
“Let us check the throne room,” she announced, “For perhaps there we may find our answer.” The two alicorns changed their aimless walk to a course in the direction of the throne room. Lifeless gazes littered the halls, some surprising Twilight when she looked certain places. All the lamps were extinguished, making it very hard to see anything except the shape of the rooms and the sunlight outside of the dampening bubble.
“Also, Twilight Sparkle,” she started, who yelped, startled. Luna raised an eyebrow at that and the Friendship Princess Became very embarrassed,
“Sorry… you startled me.”
“Did you work on that telereceiver magic I assigned you?”
Oh yeah, that .
“Yes!”
“What was your discovery?”
She thought back, “It turns out, it allows you to zoom in on far away objects.”
“Oh?”
“For example, for the first test, I saw this star, that pulsated violently every few seconds. And a planet in orbit seemed to respond to it, somehow. It seemed to glow in response, but I don't know what that meant.”
“Interesting… have you heard of Große Teleportation?” Luna suddenly inquired.
“It sounds familiar,” Twilight thought back, “I think I remember Celestia mentioning something about it.”
“Sirius invented a way to teleport astronomical distances in one shot,” she said. Whoa.
“I guess the name makes sense, then.”
“Here…” Luna stopped walking and turned towards her, summoning a scroll, “I'm the only other pony who knows the spell besides Sirius himself; I would feel much better if the Princess of Friendship knew it as well,” Luna levitated her the scroll and Twilight accepted it.
“It's the only spell so far that I've figured out completely from his book,” she said, “and it takes a tremendous amount of power to cast.”
Twilight nodded, “I thought so, but when would I even need it? Where would I get the power to cast it, too?” Luna shook her head,
“I do not know these answers; I just know my heart is telling me that it is safer we both know.” Twilight took a quick look at the scroll to see what was written on it. It took her off guard; it was by far the most bizarre spell she had ever read. Even the unfinished Starswirl spell that had switched the Elements of Harmony couldn't come close to how… empty it was. There were no contents… just… scattered words. “Power of… Power of… Power of…” those seemed to be on separate empty looking lines.
Twilight looked up from the scroll for an instant to see that Luna’s face transformed into suspicious alarm, hushing Twilight before she even got to ask what was wrong.
She took the hint to listen intently and both mares froze, twitching their ears. There were sounds of movement coming from what seemed like the throne room, which was weird considering the silence they had been experience for a little while now.
It sounded like voices.
“You think my sister is going to just fall for that?!”
“Well… yes. That's why I'm doing it.”
Twilight flinched at the response. The first voice was clearly Celestia, sounding like she was upset. Sirius sounded different than she knew him to sound. It couldn't be heard clearly through the closed throne room doors, but there was a hint of a double voice, like Chrysalis had.
To Twilight’s surprise, Luna rolled her eyes, “Well I'm not shocked to hear that at all.”
The Princess of the Night, looking irritated, went to go push in the door.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Twilight stopped her. Luna didn't change her gaze, “He wants us to try and sneak in without us knowing he knows we’ll do that.”
Twilight shook her head, glad the solution came to her quickly, “That's exactly what he wants us to do.” Luna looked focused, though intrigued.
“Explain.”
“Why do you think we can hear him at all right now?” Twilight pushed her to think about it. Now it was Luna’s turn to be lost by Twilight’s words.
“He wants us to think he’s set a trap, which is why he said it out loud. We know now, he has no trap, so, our instinct is to just barge in… to call his bluff. That's where the trap is,” the Princess of Friendship miraculously explained, “In fact… it doesn't have to stop there.” The only way he could have possibly known to say that… or trick Celestia into exclaiming it out loud, is if—Luna finally followed along—
“He knows what we’re doing right now, and exactly where we are.”
The purple mare had been thinking it, but hearing Luna verbalize it by herself sent chills through her nervous system as she nodded weakly. Now armed with new theories and new information, Luna looked more sure of herself, but couldn't hide her embarrassment; Twilight had to save her from doing something she felt was dumb.
“What do we do?” Twilight thought out loud.
The Night mare turned away from the door and began to trot back to the stairs. “We’re leaving.”
It was that simple.
“What?” Twilight now couldn’t comprehend what she was saying.
“He knows where we are, and what we’re doing. We’re leaving.” She continued to walk down the stairs back to the ground floor, and Twilight quickly followed her, her hooves making loud noises in the empty silent hallways.
“What about Sirius and Celestia?”
“We shall come back,” Luna nodded, “When we are more prepared.” At least that made sense.
They walked in silence for a bit, but it was by no means pleasant. Shaking with anticipation and anxiety, Twilight became paranoid that Sirius was going to come up behind, chasing after them in his twisted, double voice. At any moment his shadow would appear over them with a look of outrage and his fury would be too powerful to resist.
It never came. Only the sounds of their hooves clopping on the large empty spaces in the dark hallways of the castle could be heard. They swung open the front doors and right outside the perimeter of the bubble, Twilight found her friends waiting for her.
“Twilight!” she heard Rainbow Dash’s muffled call through the bubble.
“Come quickly, darling!” followed Rarity’s.
The two alicorns didn't change their pace, instead, continued to walk calmly to the edge, both suddenly realizing how sore they were from their tightening muscles.
Before they reached the edge however, a desperate outcry from the far reaches of the castle filled the air, making Twilight’s blood freeze to a stop. It was Celestia. Luna immediately whipped her head around, glaring furiously at where her sister’s voice came from.
There was another cry— she sounded clearly distressed, sobbing from either fear or pain.
Then it dawned on Twilight.
“Luna, don't, it's a tr—” it was too late. The Princess of the Night flung out her wings and launched herself in the air, beating them like an angry eagle. Twilight leaped after her, but was blinded as the Night mare’s horn flared up, supercharged with a magnitude almost as bright as the sun.
“Sister!” Luna called out, speeding to the balcony.
“Luna! Wait!” Twilight desperately tried to catch up with her, avoiding Luna’s horn light.
The blue Alicorn crashed through the floor of the balcony and exploded through the glass doors, thundering to her place in the room to see what was happening.
Twilight flew over the balcony and landed quietly, swooping in the room just in time to see her friend take an attack pose.
Sirius was there, on the far end of the tower room and he had changed drastically.
His face had burn marks on them that were so severe, small parts of his skull were clearly revealed. His coat reflected this as well, sharing in the lethal burns, exposing select parts of his skeleton. His previously shining bright armor had faded, cracked and began to rust. His eyes had inverted: two large black concave holes on his head, with beaming small blue Suns that seemed to float in them.
The crystals, however, were now shining brighter than ever, and they flickered in their glory.
Celestia was collapsed behind him, motionless.
His double voice without the filter of the closed throne doors and the distance from those doors, sounded even more monstrous than Chrysalis. Her voice sounded like harmony: one clear and one distorted voice behind it. Sirius had no clear voice; one sounded distorted and worn, while the other behind it had a terrible scraping sound and barely produced a tone at all, as if a vocal chord had torn.
“That was a very good move, walking away like that,” he screeched, though Twilight assumed that was his normal voice, “But I'm afraid there’s something you need to see.”
Luna’s fury was burning through Twilight’s coat. It projected everywhere, making a sphere of anger that consumed and radiated.
“Luna, we have to get out of here!” Twilight tried to warn her. She had never seen her like this, and it was worrying. Sirius wanted her here, for some reason. Then, Twilight realized that her dear friend hadn't heard her at all.
“I have come here for one purpose,” Luna didn't sound like herself. In fact she sounded like somepony very familiar.
Twilight noticed that the Night Princess’ hooves were beginning to turn black, and her tail and mane were wild— shifting shapes and shades of blue, the Stars twinkling out of control.
She was that angry?
There were small and faint giggles around the room, as shadows began to appear… their eyes a bright red. They extended smiles and gazes, shifting from one wall to the other.
This wasn't anger… this was hate.
“Luna you have to stop!” Twilight now went to go tackle her, but slammed into an invisible wall. Shock rang through her body as her brain was trying to keep up with events.
Sirius apparently looked a little shocked at the shadows that appeared and seeing Twilight blocked like that.
“What?” he had surprise in his voice, “I thought Nightmar—” a very powerful blast exploded from Luna’s blackening horn with no warning or charge whatsoever, once again lighting up the room, thundering in all might. Twilight’s vision was blinded completely by white, and her ears deafened by low frequency rumbling. She told her hooves to cover her ears, for fear that they would pop completely, but couldn't tell if they listened or not, until her vision returned.
When it did, she found herself with her wings flapping, hovering, just outside the tower walls.
She didn't remember feeling like she had been thrown back, and certainly didn't tell her wings to catch her. At this realization, her wings stopped moving and she let out a small yelp as she dropped a bit, but then catching herself consciously.
“Twilight! What's happening?” she heard AJ’s tiny voice call out from below.
“Are you alright?” Pinkie Pie’s high pitched voice pierced through like a thousand bullhorns.
“Luna’s lost it!” she called down below as loud as she could, “Sirius has too!”
“I knew he was rotten!” Rarity responded. Twilight frowned at that, but her attention was quickly diverted.
There was another blast that shook the air which originated from the tower Twilight was just in. Dust puffed up everywhere, clouding the structure. Without saying anything else, she darted back into the chaos to find Luna and Sirius locking horns. Thankfully she wasn't Nightmare Moon, and the blackening of her hooves and horn had stopped.
But her form and eyes were shaking from rage, and her mane and tail were still wildly out of of control, spiking and shifting between the Nightmare and Luna blue.
Sirius on the other hand, coat scarred with searing past burns, practically a skeleton wearing a pony’s skin, was still, calm and looked unphased.
“Cease your captivity of my sister ,” Luna now had a Nightmare Moon’s voice under her own, “Or my wrath will be imminent .”
Sirius’ withered jaw turned a smile,
“As you wish, your Highness.” Now his horn glowed it's brilliant blue and enveloped Celestia’s body. A split pressure of magic burst open as energy formed a small ball in the air and opened into a ellipse.
Inside its bright blue outline, lay a landscape.
It was dry, and red. The sky was red, the land was red, and the sunlight was a bright… blue. It looked barren, lifeless and abandoned except for one obvious thing. There were clearly ruins in the background.
Despite never being told, Twilight recognized it immediately.
“Halott.”
Celestia’s unconscious body was lifted into the air by his magic and tossed into the portal.
Große teleportation .
It sealed up behind her.
In an instant, Luna’s parasitic corruption shivered off of her and vanished into the air as her rage quickly turned to grief; she cried out her sister’s name in a wail that would silence all in Equestria. Their horn lock broke as Luna shrunk back. Twilight leaped to her aid, a magic blast from Sirius’ horn forced her to dodge.
The Princess of the Night was clearly crushed with disbelief, for she lay in a wide eyed heap of pony and armor, making small gasps.
Come on, snap out of it, we need you .
That hope was quickly whisked away when a black red energy ball formed from Sirius’ horn and projected to Luna, completely covering her body. It was only a few seconds before it disappeared, revealing a stone statue… the Princess herself.
Once again, shock had Twilight frozen— Luna was defeated, without so much of a scratch on Sirius!
Then a moment of absolute horror closed on her throat as he turned to her,
“And as for you…” another black red and red ball formed from his horn. In panic, a billion things ran through her mind on what to do. In a crazy moment, Sirius’ stone statue spell discharged, and her eyes got wider as it came closer, quickly.
Something grabbed her, though, and whisked her away from danger, and Twilight watched the floor jump away. The ball missed her and melded into the wall, turning it to gray stone.
She became suspended in the air, until familiar looking arms wrapped around her.
“Discord…” Sirius hissed terribly, “How’d you get in here? This is an Alicorn only club.”
The Draconequus tightened his grip on the Princess, making Twilight relax— she had never felt this safe since this whole thing began.
“Hello? Spirit of Chaos?” he teased, “I do what I want.” The diseased Alicorn stallion gave a glare,
“If you want to join them—”
There was a flash that interrupted the sentence and suddenly Twilight was face to face with Sirius.
His eyes really were just holes in his head, and two small bright blue Suns shine directly at her.
Not to mention, underneath the hairs of his fading white coat, looked to be grains of dust and sand, as if he could be blown away. His blue Cataclomn crystals glowed immensely, displaying their solar power, covering his head in their harsh blue sunlight. This ancient, torn face of alien power imprinted this horrible sight in her mind… but a yellow talon reached down and extinguished his horn magic like a candle.
The alien’s face disappeared from Twilight’s vision, and once again the two were on the opposite side of the room.
Small black crystals formed on Sirius’ horn that were nothing like the crystals on his chest plate. Those were pentagonal in shape, perfect and smooth. The black crystals looked exactly like the ones that had stopped Shining Armor from using his magic some time earlier.
“Compliments from Sombra,” Discord said, calmly, “You know they look great on you… really bring your rage.” Rage was true when Sirius found out his magic was being stuck at those black crystals.
“How can you—”
“Tah tah!” Twilight’s world whirled around as the two jumped over the edge of the balcony and began a freefall towards the ground.
“That won't hold him, won't it?” Twilight guessed as they made their escape.
“Nope!” Discord responded cheerfully.
Down below, it looked like Event Horizon and Chrysalis were waiting with her friends right outside the bubble, still. There was another pony, though, that she couldn't really see from far away.
“Hey there!” Event Horizon called, “I found this pony! Her special talent has to do with cutie marks…” his voice became a blur as Twilight suddenly slipped into an unknown state of mind.
The world sort of faded around her becoming blacker and blacker, until a single image made itself known. It was the Tree of Harmony that showed itself, each of the elements sparkling brightly.
The tree… she thought to herself, what's it trying to tell me?
Suddenly an idea sparked. The spell… the spell! With the powers of… the words were there but not clear. The power… she needed the power, and yet here was the tree. Showing itself; offering itself. The Elements of Harmony glistened in their mysterious power, calling out to her. The power… The power of the Elements! The Elements of Harmony had come to her aid once again! But how? Power of…
Power of…
Then it became clear.
With the powers of Kindness and Generosity,
I ask we make such a journey out of humility .
The two elements shined each of their respective colors on the tree.
With the powers of Honesty and Loyalty,
I ensure we reach our desired destination .
The two elements shined on the tree as well.
With the powers of Laughter and Magic,
I find we make it there joyfully and safely .
The remaining elements also shined, making the tree shine bright like six glowing Suns.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then it became clear, there was not enough power.
She found it, though, around her, everywhere.
Shapeless, shifting, spiking, without reason or pattern. It felt of… plaid?
With the power of Chaos , she continued, smiling to herself, We become successful of this crazy idea .
There still wasn't enough power. But yet… now a different one, one of blazing fire came to her; it felt of ruin, fear and greed.
With the power of Destruction , she felt the spell now beginning to activate, who can stop us, with Ruin itself on our side?
All the names she called upon responded, and when she opened her eyes, she was back to freefalling with Discord.
No longer was she shaken or afraid, but the spell beamed inside her, like a budded flower ready to burst into full bloom.
Discord’s nonsensical power was now being drawn to her, and she felt the pull of all her friends below. With confidence and grace, she was freed from his grasp and soon flying towards the ground, him following.
Her horn lit up as she sped towards the ground faster and pulled up quickly, jetting towards the group of her still friends head on.
“Where are you going?” Discord called, seeming to struggle keeping up.
Twilight felt as light as air, with momentum more powerful than all the power of all the magical creatures in Equestria.
“To Hallot!” she declared, and her form burst out of the bubble’s horizon, speeding past all her friends, nearly blowing them over.
The same portal opened up, with an image in the center beginning to swirl and form. Unbeknown to them, the five ponies and other Draconequus were pulled along with her against their wills, jetting towards the portal. They disappeared inside and it closed up behind them, leaving Chrysalis and the mare that Event Horizon brought, alone in a deserted Canterlot.
After a few seconds of processing what exactly just happened, and concluding that all the ponies had just vanished into thin air, the Changeling Queen eyed the unicorn mare.
“What did you say your special talent was?” she asked her.
She smiled and told her.
As if on cue, Sirius’ angry roar howled from the top of one of the towers, and his blistering, splintered form made itself visible, flapping his fragmented wings to keep him suspended above in the air. Though a dot in the distance, his presence was known all throughout Canterlot now. Chrysalis bellowed her own roar, and her carefully placed changeling army rose into the air at her command. She met Sirius’ outraged gaze, even though the two ponies were miles away.
“Out of my entire existence,” she muttered, “I never thought I would be defending Canterlot.” She turned her to her subjects,
“Down with the blue eyed demon!” she declared as Sirius advanced from above,
“Do not let him escape! No mercy, or forgiveness! The fate of Equestria rests upon our success!” They buzzed past her, charging head on towards him.
She turned to the unicorn mare, “Wait for my signal.”
The response was only a malicious nod.
Chrysalis had a feeling Twilight and her friends would be back… they had to, after all. In the meantime, though, it was now her place to protect Equestria, since only she was allowed to overthrow Celestia.
Her form shifted into the Sirius A they had initially met, clean, strong, powerful and calm, and the two races towards each other at sickening speed.
11. Well That was Unexpected
There was a rush of cold air that blasted them as they passed through the portal. The ponies and Draconequuses slid on… ice? When the portal closed up behind them, a bit of the plaid aura exploded behind them and vanished. The group gasped at once when they found themselves sliding, except for Pinkie Pie who was in mid “weeee!”
Discord and Event Horizon, however, found their balance. The ponies collapsed to the ground, surprised, and after a second passed, appeared to be struggling to get up.
The Spirits of Chaos and Destruction looked on in confusion at the sight of ponies. It was if some invisible force was pushing them down, a heavy weight on top of them. Their legs shook wildly and their eyes looked as if they were to burst. It wasn't until they began turning very pale, quickly , that it dawn on Horizon.
“It's the gravity,” he said to Discord, blurting out the solution.
“What?” for some reason that hadn't exactly made sense to him yet.
“The gravity of this planet is too strong!” Horizon fumbled, watching the ponies slowly die, “Their blood is being drawn away from their heads…”
He flipped through a million things to do, but a simple snap of the talons from Discord turned his whole world upside down. Literally— Horizon yelped as his legs suddenly were grabbed by something that flipped him upside down, putting the floor on the ceiling. The ponies had taken to the air… all of them. They levitated at different altitudes from the ground, gasping and breathing heavily, only Pinkie Pie being upside down with Horizon.
“Gravity you say?” Discord inquired, “Well that's not a problem at all.” As the ponies’ caught their breath, Dash began complaining.
“What…” Dash coughed, “... gives?!”
Discord shrugged, but his shoulders kept going up, detaching both his arms off his body to have his lion paw yank one of Horizon’s black horns, and slam him into the floor at normal gravity.
“Oof!” he gaked, a burst of fire igniting out of his mouth upon impact.
“Thank you Discord,” Fluttershy said, levitating in the air at eye level with him. He grabbed her and hugged her protectively,
“Why of course, my dear Fluttershy! Anything for you!” All of them returned to normal gravity, dropping softly back to the ground.
“You saved us, Discord,” Twilight looked grateful, “I don't know how we can repay you.” He looked slightly embarrassed by that,
“Yes- well, it's nothing, really.”
At that, they took to admiring the beautiful icy cave they were in. There were a few tunnels, each going in a few directions, but all looking carved from some sort of river. They stared in silence, the seconds dropping by before one of the Earth ponies broke the silence.
“It almost looks pony made,” Applejack commented, taking her hat off and quickly putting it back on once she recalled how cold it was, for the rush of cold flooded her head.
“It must go on forever!” Pinkie Pie screamed, and then listened with satisfaction as “forever” echoed down a few halls.
“Oh… my…” Fluttershy said, hiding half her face under her mane, “That would be very bad.”
“Where even are we?” Rainbow Dash shook off her coat, rising up to hover in the air, “Twilight you just dragged us here with that weird spell.”
Now Twilight finally remembered to be confused.
“I saw Sirius open up a portal to a very hot world, that looked like the surface of Mars.”
Rarity approached her, “Twilight, darling, not all of us speak ‘egghead’, I'm afraid you're going to have to use layman’s terms.”
“Don't you mean laypony’s terms?” Applejack asked, to which she received a glare from Rarity,
“I know what I said.”
Discord yawned obnoxiously loudly, catching the attention of everypony,
“You see Twilight, because you favor me oh so much, it appears you used a bit more Chaotic magic than you could handle in that handy teleportation spell of yours,” he reached out and grabbed her cheek.
She looked completely irritated, and responded in a voice of flat disbelief.
“What?”
“My magic may have changed a just a bit of the outcome,” he explained, looking as sly as ever, backing away from the Alicorn, “but only because you took so much.”
She looked from side to side as if processing what he was saying.
“What's the change of outcome, then?”
Discord stared at her in a moment of complete stunned surprise, proceeding to slap himself across the face afterward, clearly agitated. Her pony friends began to shuffle in embarrassment for even they knew the answer.
“Nopony tell her,” Event Horizon was holding the urge to burst out into laughter.
“Um… Twilight?” Fluttershy stepped forward, “We’re—”
“WE’RE ON THIS ICY DEATH TRAP INSTEAD OF MARS!” Pinkie Pie hollered at the top of her lungs, once again listening for the echo through the vast tunnels that disappeared into darkness.
Twilight had closed on eye in the shock her ear was feeling from Pinkie’s screaming, responding with, “Okay… thank you Pinkie.”
“So, once again,” Rainbow Dash hailed the attention of every pony, “Where exactly are we?”
“Good question, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight stood up tall, putting on her leader face, “I'm sure since the Tree of Harmony helped me cast the spell, that it’ll help us n—” her sentence cut short. For a few seconds the entire crew waited for her to finish, their anticipation heightening.
“... help us…?” Rarity edged her on.
“I can't feel the Tree…” Twilight frowned, “It's faded from sight.”
“Well, DUH,” Discord threw his arms up, “I could have told you that.” Twilight’s frown remained, “What… why?”
Now it was Horizon’s turn to slap himself across his face,
“Do you know how far away you from the Tree?” he asked her impatiently, “Do you think it can feel you here? You're on another planet .”
“Wait, we’re stuck here?” Rainbow voiced.
Rarity, Twilight and the two Draconequui shook their heads in response simultaneously. Then the other three looked at Rarity with surprise, to which she looked confused.
“What…? Even I can feel it.” The non magic users were now completely lost, and their faces showed it.
Twilight looked at them, “There’s a concentration of magic, somewhere, and I think it's close by. We might be able to fix whatever happened if we access it.”
“Well that's the best news I've heard all day,” Applejack commented, “What are we waiting for?” The magic users started to look uncomfortable, and Twilight’s answer stopped them cold,
“It feels of Sirius’ presence.”
Stunned silence froze everything as jaws dropped open.
“To be fair,” Horizon stated, “It does feel slightly different than normal.”
Discord shrugged yet again, “Though, really, that could mean anything.”
“Seriously?” Dash threw herself back, sighing, “We just can't get a break.”
“Well, it's unmoving and calm,” Twilight responded, taking position in front of one of the tunnels, “So maybe we have a chance.”
“Maybe…” Fluttershy said, “Or maybe he’ll wind up turning us all to stone.”
“Fluttershy, you are surprisingly pessimistic,” Applejack noted.
“Can we just go?” Dash ushered on, “I just wanna get off this strange death ice rock.”
Twilight nodded, casting a spotlight in one of the icy tunnels, the clear blue walls illuminating as she passed the yellow light over it.
The two Draconequui melded into opposite walls, becoming animated drawings of themselves on each side. Discord became his stain glass shape, while Horizon looked more like a crude cave painting.
The ponies walked along in silence, not a single sound to be heard anywhere except their hooves and breathing. Darkness was closing in on every step behind them, and Fluttershy was having a very hard time skipping constantly ahead of it, constantly bumping into other ponies. A few grunts from Rarity and Applejack caught the attention of the others, while the squeaking of Fluttershy’s “S-sorry!” sparked annoyance of everyone.
Because of how focused Twilight was inspecting the tunnels with her search light spell, it became very easy for the Draconequui to make fun of her, intentionally placing themselves on a spot where her light would pass by, to reveal one of them making a ridiculous face. She growled a few times after making a small gasp, in a while just yelling at them to cut it out entirely. There were a few chuckles from the ponies, but they did stop.
The frozen tunnels let up in a wide clearing.
Twilight expanded her light to fill up the room, making everypony gasp when they found what was waiting for them on the other side. A figure was still and motionless on the far wall, signaling the end of the tunnel, for there was no other place to go but this large, icy room. It was Sirius, but confusingly to Twilight and Discord, (who was back to his normal form (and Horizon, too)) undamaged with burns and scars. His eyes had normal white eyelids, that were closed, peacefully.
He was sitting, just on the floor, his forelegs perfectly in front of him to support his upper body, his back legs just resting on the cold ice. His armor was silver, not gold. Instead of five Cataclomn crystals, he appeared to only have one. His pose resembled remarkably of that of Celestia; still on her throne while she was available. He made no movements when they entered, or when the group eventually approached him.
Curiously, the two Draconequui eyed him.
“He has been asleep for a long time,” Discord noted, “his magic is idle.”
“That's impossible!” Dash blurted, “...unless we time traveled, too?” It was a possibility, and if Twilight had to take a guess, this looked like the past. Before his burns, his excessive amount of Cataclomn crystals, and— another thing bothered Twilight; Sirius looked visibly smaller than how he looked before, though not terribly. This seemed to support the theory of them being in the past. The size change was a large enough difference, though, where she could guess he was actually smaller than Celestia, but still being bigger than her sister.
Luna . Twilight’s thoughts drifted back to watching her turn to solid stone, crushed by the grief of losing her sister to an unknown, and more than likely, restricted place.
If they were still in the same time period, now a doubt thanks to Discord’s crazy magic, she was still in the Canterlot Castle tower, frozen forever in her mourning state. We’re going to save Celestia , she swore, just have faith in us .
Moving out of those thoughts, she placed a hoof on Sirius’ foreleg. It was cold to the touch, feeling as if it hadn't moved in a thousand years, yet she could still feel the hairs of his coat and the small, flickering light inside him that was his presence. It was buried… deep, under layers and layers of thick ice. But it was there, a small flame. It felt of good hearted spiritedness and brief heroism. Then, she realized something critically important, while getting lost in this long lost presence.
“This isn't Sirius A,” she said, confidence growing inside of her, “This is somepony entirely different.” She paused for a moment, giving her friends the chance to pay attention. Smiling, she said the magic words,
“This is Sirius B.”
Upon hearing his name, his eyes flung open, causing everypony to jump back, even the Draconequui. Twilight did not, only stared into them. They were a dull blue, long lost of vibrance. Despite his eyes opening, his soul was still very much in deep sleep.
That was, until his look changed to panic.
He yelped, jumping away from Twilight’s gaze, every joint in his body popping so loud that it sounded of a symphony of firecrackers. Skidding on the ice, he stood defensively on all fours, a look of terror on his face.
“W-wh-who are you?” he stammered out to them, “How do you know my name?”
Confusion stopped Twilight from forming a coherent response. What was he scared of? His legs were shaking as if trying desperately to keep balance on something, and his ears were flat, clearly not a threat, but feeling threatened.
“Well, um…” Twilight didn't exactly know how to answer his question. Catching a glimpse at the two Draconequui, his eyes widened even further, backing himself into one of the corners,
“What are those?!” he said, pointing wildly at them.
Discord’s face of shock melted into irritation as he was to make a reply before Fluttershy tapped him, giving him a stare that clearly told him to stay quiet.
The Pegasus mare then brushed past Twilight, approaching him slowly,
“There there…” she said in her soft voice, “It's okay. We’re not here to harm you… everything is safe with us.”
Despite clearly not being an animal, her tactic seemed to have effect. Sirius B looked visibly more comforted, but still very alarmed.
Fluttershy took care of this by holding her two front hooves out to him in offering after she sat down in front of him. His eyes wildly looked back and forth between each one, before reluctantly resting one of his armored silver hooves in both of hers. She held it, shaking it gently, “My name is Fluttershy. What's yours?”
He looked at her without hesitating, “S-Sirius B… M’am, from Halott.”
“Would you happen to know where this place is?” she asked him softly, smiling.
“W-what do you mean?” he asked.
“What planet this is?”
“Planet?” he suddenly started to warm up, straightening himself. He thought for a moment, and a very long one at that. After some time, he responded, “GIC 13005.” That told them nothing. Fluttershy looked back at Twilight to see if that had helped anything, but with a small shake of the Alicorn’s head, she continued.
“What about the star system?” she pressed further. Now he looked really confused,
“Are you all lost? This is the Cataclomn Star system.” The Cataclomn star system! Twilight thought with a breath of victory— they had made it after all.
Twilight nodded at Fluttershy to stop, and she stepped forward when the mare let go of his hoof and backed away.
“What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be on Halott?”
He looked a little shaken to flick his tail and respond: “Wait… who are you ponies? What are they?” he pointed at Discord and Event Horizon, “and what is she?” He pointed at Rarity, “the rest of you look to be Halott… but you're clearly not from here.”
Twilight frowned in uncertainty at one question in particular, “Rarity? Rarity’s a unicorn.” Sirius B said nothing and instead approached Rarity, inspecting her sides as she uncomfortably shifted,
“Um… excuse me?”
“Where did your wings go?” he asked, mystified.
“Are you telling me you've never seen a unicorn?” Applejack asked, “but you've seen us Earth ponies, Pegasai and alicorns?”
He looked at her, “Earth ponies? I do not know this term… although you are all too big to be of Halott.” Despite sounding calm, Twilight noticed his legs were still shaking. She smiled a bit, amused that an Alicorn from an alien planet would be actually nervous about meeting them.
“Sirius A came to us,” Twilight said, as Sirius B continued to inspect the ponies. He stopped dead, staring at her in horror.
“Oh no,” he said.
The ponies, in turn, stopped in hesitation, getting serious. There was a history behind Sirius A.
“Care to tell us what's on your mind?” Applejack inquired.
***
They sat in a circle. Discord kept detaching his talons and plucking them back on in boredom, as Sirius began.
“There were four tribes,” he started, “a very long time ago. About two thousand years.” Halotten years , Twilight took a mental note.
“There was a tribe of Pegasai and land ponies in the north, and likewise in the south.” No unicorns .
“Halott looks terrible now, but, it was not much better in the past. Even the tribes ponies knew that the planet was barren and substandard, despite never knowing anything else. In joint sarcasm, they called the land ‘Halott’, meaning ‘perfect’ in Halotten. They knew the land was the way it was because of one factor and one factor only.”
Twilight recalled seeing the harsh blue sunlight in the small view she had gotten through the portal. The burns on Sirius A, the heat waves off the land…
“The sun,” she said. Sirius looked at her, frowning.
“Privileged group you are, being from a system with one Sun.” There were two ? Everypony’s eyes widened in surprised. Sirius continued,
“The Pegasai were the most complex life to be seen, able to fly through the air against gravity.”
“That's why he freaked out when he saw the Draconequui,” Rainbow muttered.
Sirius seemed not to hear, and continued,
“We had no war between us, for there were not nearly enough of Halottens to have war. But one day, we received an omen. A mysterious bright light could be seen in the sky. It came out from behind the Jabb cloud.”
“What's the Jabb cloud?” Twilight asked.
He looked shocked, “Did you not see it on your journey over here?” Everypony shook their heads.
“Well you are still alive… I suppose that should have answered my question. The atmosphere is poisonous up on the surface. The Jabb cloud is an enormous cloud of blackness that covered our view what was beyond the planet going out of our system. We have never been able to see what lies beyond it, for it looks like a black space lightning storm.” Twilight was lost in words, living every moment of them. She envisioned herself on the barren, hot world of Halott… to one side of their sky, lay two bright burning blue Suns, the other, was clouded by a mysterious black lightning storm that never seemed to fade.
“It has a very high magic concentration, in fact so strong only Sirius and I could sense it. It has been believed that it is a presence among us, for it never left our sky like the Suns did. Others said it was the lair of a sleeping monster, here long before the Halottens and hasn't woken up. But, whatever it is, some object came from behind it, looking like a meteor,” he kept describing, his voice now becoming more enriched, “And some bright lights flung from its pass down onto our planet, but it kept continuing itself. When they landed in their spectacular booms, the tribes gathered around them. We saw… glowing, blue, vibrant crystals.”
The Cataclomn Crystals . They had arrived from a meteor in space… yet how could they be from the stars like Sirius A had said?
“I do not exactly remember the events, but the tribes of the North combined to one, as did the tribes of the South. Each took back with them their share of the crystals, until somehow I wound up becoming connected with them. I transformed,” he said, looking down at himself, “into what you see here before you today. I was from the Southern Tribes, and Sirius A was from the Northern. We met, eventually, looking practically identical, and united all the ponies of Halott. The crystals gave us mysterious horns, and I, being a land pony, grew Pegasus wings. Sirius A was the first to demonstrate the crystals’ only purpose for us, and using his magical horn, he took control of Cataclomn A, the bigger of the two stars. I quickly took Cataclomn B, but Sirius Major took all my crystals except for one,” he tapped on his chest plate at the glowing Crystal, “justifying his actions by saying he needed more power to control the bigger Sun.” He paused for a second to catch a bit of his breath.
“So what happened to Halott?” Rarity asked.
“Sirius Major went mad. Our job was to keep our stars in rotation. An Alicorn, by the name of Lindous, the Savior, had been with us, keeping Halott in orbit around the Cataclomn stars. But she relied off of no external power, only her own, and consequently unable to keep Halott far away enough for tolerable temperatures. This is why all were powerless when Sirius A broke Cataclomn A’s orbit away from its usual path and brought it closer to Halott. We tried to stop him, but before we confronted him, Lindous abandoned me, disappearing. The day before our world was destroyed, our Astronomers had found this planet, the only one we managed to find beyond the Jabb Cloud. So Sirius was able to banish me here, GIC 13005. I have lay dormant since,” he said, now standing up, concluding his story, “I did not know Sirius would manage to find a way out of the Solar System… but I am not surprised.”
“Well he came to our planet,” Twilight stood up, urgency sparking up again, “And now he’s wreaking havoc on it! He managed to teleport our leader to Halott, and we’ve come to save her! But we landed here, first, and need a way to Halott.”
Sirius B nodded and yawned, “Easy enough. I’m sure, you, alicorn, and your weird powerful magic friends can get us there without much effort.”
He wound up leading the group back out through the tunnels they came in, into one of the ones they skipped over when they arrived in the world before. It turns out, they lead up to the surface. The magic users had to further help the non magic users not die from the poisonous air by protecting them with spells, and they finally saw sky.
The surface was a never ending blizzard. Snow and ice stretched on infinitely in every direction, and winds howled louder than any heard by the Equestrians before.
Sirius had a passage through the tunnels they had used to get to the surface, and the sky was a clear blue.
Two Suns in very close proximity shined doubly bright, but at a very great distance, a blueish tint to their light giving indication they were two giant stars.
Upon surfacing, Sirius looked up in the sky, and became very wild.
“What?!” he exclaimed, shouting over the wind.
“What's wrong?” Rarity responded.
“It's not here!” he frantically searched the sky, but the only visible objects were the two Cataclomn stars, taunting him in their brightness.
“The Jabb cloud is gone! But how could this be?”
***
The Princess of the Sun stared at the scene in front of her. Some of the observatory was rusted and broken, but the telescope looked like it hadn’t been used in… weeks. Scribbled writings with a light coat of dust looked like it had only been abandoned for a little while.
She blew the dust off them, suddenly aware that the movement caused her to start sweating from how hot it was, and scanned the writings. They were in a different language, but the format they were written in from the book that Luna stole from Sirius’ room was the same.
This was indeed Halott, and Sirius A had been here.
Aware of this, she stood still and became in tune to the energy attached to the room. She could feel Sirius’ angry pace, his insistent muttering and frustration.
She could recall the schemes he made… the planets he was watching with his… telereceiver magic.
He was all alone. The last living being on his own world. He was mad.
His scars caused pain everywhere he rubbed the rusted metal on them. His curses made her flinch as she could practically hear him swear vengeance. Once he had left here, however, the once civilization was completely gone, for he was all that remained.
For the past few weeks the entire planet was abandoned: no wind blew, or foal stirred. No chatter of ponies, or downpour of rain could be heard.
For miles, there was nothing but the heat of the binary star system of Cataclomn. Now Celestia was among it all. The history, the pain— the long gone and the just lived; Celestia was trapped on this godforsaken world.
Yet, there were hoof steps that opened the door behind her, terrifyingly causing her to whip around.
“What?!” she exclaimed, spreading her wings in case of emergency, “Who are you?”
The pony looked back at her, “Though I could ask the same of you, I shall tell you… I am your Savior.”
12. Finally, we're getting somewhere
Chrysalis’ back shattered into millions of pieces, instantly numbing the pain in protection. She managed to feel the ground snap up upon impact, throwing up rocks and tar into the air at high speeds. Vision blurring into shades of purple and yellow, she stared blankly up at the form above her.
Sirius A’s horn was glowing nonstop of a levitation spell, and it wasn't until an hour passed by since he started, that the effect of whatever he was levitating became obvious. The Sun was becoming brighter, tinting the world in yellow-orange hue. The temperature was slowly baking the world in a gradual heat increase.
Somehow, Sirius A was getting more powerful. More of his white coat was burning away, revealing his skeleton even further, which was now being stained darker shades of brown. His mane had ignited into a raging blue fire, matching the intensity of his crystals, that were flickering quickly, now.
The heat was so intense, the bubble surrounding the Canterlot Castle had evaporated, freeing the stone curse on everypony inside.
Chrysalis was stunned for a good moment, long enough to witness Princess Luna jet up behind him, wings expanded fully to stop her sudden ascension, and launch another full attack blast. It flashed upon impact, but it did not harm him.
A charged attack started to develop on his horn, and a “head’s up!” from Shining Armor gave Luna enough time to put up a force field.
The blast from Shining’s horn projected to Cadence’s horn who was racing towards Luna. The Princess of Love managed to reinforce Luna’s shield with the support of Shining’s magic just before the impact. Sirius’ attack made contact with the shield, flashing in a bright explosion, but thankfully, the shield remained unharmed.
“Thanks, dear,” Cadence called down below, as Luna flew somewhere out of sight.
A bearded unicorn came into Chrysalis’ sight, “Queen Chrysalis, do you need assistance?”
She shook her head and stood up, muscles screaming, unable to feel her wings.
The most High Unicorns of Equestria in their starry robes surrounded her, and for a second it was amusing to see how short they were compared to her.
“Where have you guys been?” she muttered, unhappy.
“We’ve been communicating with the Cloudsdale and other kingdoms for the past hour. The entire planet is feeling the effects of this battle,” the one who offered help said, looking at the intense exchanges between the Princesses and Sirius.
“The Windigoes, not seen for centuries, have gathered in the Night on the other side of the Earth, unable to make a blizzard in the heat,” one other commented, “but those Kingdoms are coming here, anyway.”
“It was reported that the Dragons and the Gryphons will be arriving from the Western skies,” another said, pointing to the empty Western sky, “The Cloudsdale Pegasai will be arriving from the North,” he pointed the Northern Sky now.
Chrysalis shook her head, “How are entire armies supposed to fight one pony? This is not a war, this is not a battle, this is a fight.”
“We cannot deny anypony’s help,” the original unicorn said, “As unfortunate it may see—”
“Watch out!” Shining Armor’s voice caught their attention to a raging fireball shooting towards them. Chrysalis and the unicorns’ horns lit up at the same time, making a protective bubble that took the impact.
When it cleared, they went back to talking.
“As I was saying, it's unfortunate we do not have a bigger enemy to fight, but, his strength cannot remain forever,” the gray unicorn pushed up his glasses.
Chrysalis stared back at the battle
The Equestrian and Crystal Royal Army were lined up in their own groups, waiting for their command.
The commander would shout, “Wait!”, hold for an opening, and then thrust his hoof down and shout, “Fire!” The Celestian Royal guards fired simultaneously at Sirius in many bright yellow beams. After dodging an attack from a Princess, he set up a shield that blocked them all, and continued his maneuvers.
“We have to stop him from at least moving the Sun,” Chrysalis said, “to buy us more time.”
“What do you think we’re here for?” one of the unicorn wizards responded. Her eyes widened, “I thought you were here to fight!”
They shook their heads, “We are to stop, or at least slow the progression of the Sun coming closer. That is what our Princess Luna has commanded of us.”
“We need more firepower… our strength must grow as his does,” Chrysalis said, “And I have an idea.”
“Well if you need us,” the one with the glasses said, “We will be preoccupied. Do not disturb us. Sun moving is very difficult for us, even together.”
“I do need you,” she said, “And you're not gonna like it.”
“We you told that information so you could understand what it is happening, not so you could command us,” his voice became sharp, “Our Princess is our leader, not you.”
“It's funny you mentioned Luna,” Chrysalis said, ignoring his protest completely, “And it's great you guys can move the Sun… there's a much easier job for you that will have a great effect than attempting to undo what Sirius is doing.” She smiled a twisted smile,
“We must raise the stakes as he does.”
It took them a minute to figure it out.
Then their eyes became wide, “You cannot possibly mean—”
“Dare I say this place is going to be an even worse nightmare if you don't,” she hissed, “Let’s get this party started.” They looked among each other nervously.
“I bet you're feeling pretty stupid for killing Sombra the way you did,” she said, rising into the air, “I would say let’s release the big guy below, but that might actually work.”
One of them didn't get it.
“Wait, so then let's do it!” The one with the glasses shook his head wildly, “Tierk with that kind of power would be unstoppable… we’re better off handling this without him.”
Chrysalis let out her terrible, double laugh and kept rising, “Make that Moon blacker than the blackest night of every terror you've ever had, combined.” With that, she called her changelings.
They let out a green blast that shot straight into the air, but curved down toward him, and wrapped around his body, restricting his movement.
“What?” he looked confused, restricted by every changeling in her army.
“FIRE!” came the first command.
“FIRE!” came the second command.
“FIRE!” came the third command.
The lights were beautiful, between a mix of sickly green, crystal blue and solar yellow.
With renewed strength and a fresh scheme, the Queen of the Changelings shook off the burn her wings were beginning to feel and charged Sirius A head on.
***
“I'm assuming you're from the place he is currently terrorizing,” the “Saviour” asked her.
“If it is Sirius you refer to, then yes,” Celestia said cautiously.
The alicorn’s eyes drifted to her cutie mark.
“You are their ruler,” she noticed, “A yellow sun. One, or two?”
Celestia stared at the burning bright pair of blue Suns, and then back down, “One. The One.”
The Saviour nodded, “He's going to destroy the planet, you know.”
Celestia grit her teeth, “I gathered.”
The Saviour sat down, very unconcerned, “He's mad,” she said, making a circle motion with her hoof beside her head, “He was pretty crazy before he was Sirius, too.”
That spiked her interest, “He was not born like that?”
“No m’am,” she shook her head, “As far as his appearance is concerned.” She took a deep breath, staring out of one of the broken windows at the far, barren landscape, “But it wasn't the Cataclomn crystals that drove him to act like that… that was always the pony he was. The Crystals gave him the power act on his will. Once he did, there was no turning back. It didn't matter if he regretted it afterward, or was apologetic for it.
One planet wasn't enough to fill the void.”
The Sun princess became very still, a relaxing calm settling in her as she heard “The Savior” speak.
“It will never be enough. No matter how well or frequently he parades his power, he must, act on it… let his rage consume him. Let his hate condone the little good in him. Sirius A, is a pony who has a thirst for power,” she said, “Supernova Sirius is the destroyer of worlds, end of civilization, and bringer of Destruction.”
Immediately, despite not knowing the pony before her, she connected the one thing they had in common: Supernova Sirius.
“Why did he deceive us?” she asked, not expecting her to know, “He made so much effort to appear normal. What was the point?”
The Alicorn laughed, which sparked a bit of irritation.
“He tries. He tries to stay away from it. He tries to hide, to fight… but no avail. No matter how far he thinks he can get away from it, he’ll always fall right back down. It's consuming . Can you will away a disease? Can you mentally fight a poison?”
“It's still in his head.”
“It's in his heart . This is why he does not stop,” she got serious, “No more than you can give up your Sun raising. The role you took on is yours, to you, and to everypony. The role he took on is his, to him, and to everypony else.” Celestia remained silent. How could she deny a claim like that?
“My name is Lindous,” she said, out of nowhere, “The Saviour. I kept this planet as far away from the double Suns of death as I could. Sirius managed to destroy all my years of effort.” She walked to Celestia’s side, horn glowing, and leaned on her. Lindous was a very small Alicorn. She was no bigger than Twilight, so her leaning added almost no extra weight. “Have you heard of something called Telereceiver magic?” That was unexpected.
“Actually yes,” she managed to respond.
“Do you know where your homeworld is in the sky?”
She didn't. She used to know the stars, but she wound up forgetting them, meaning there was no way she could figure it out now; the Halotten Sky would be different. Celestia could already hear Rising Star’s voice in her ears about this.
“No… I can't figure it out.”
“That's a shame,” she said, “Maybe they can help you figure it out.” She pointed to an empty space. Celestia frowned, for a second wondering if Lindous was the one who was actually insane.
“Who?”
In response to her question, there was a flash of teleportation in that exact spot.
“Okay, now, we need to find her quickly to—” a sentence was cut short as an entire party of ponies stopped dead.
There was a moment of silence as eyes locked.
“Lindous?!” a pony looking exactly like Sirius exclaimed.
“Sirius?!” Celestia gasped.
“Celestia!” Twilight cheered.
“Discord!” Discord butt in with his own name.
“Event Horizon!” Horizon followed, “The Draconequis Spirit of Des—”
“You're okay!” Twilight rushed forward and hugged her former mentor, and the other Elements of Harmony followed.
“What's swingin’, B?” Lindous oddly said.
“Where have you been this entire time?!” the Sirius looking pony asked, looking frantic.
“Can somepony please explain what's going on?!” Rainbow Dash interrupted.
Lindous stepped up, “Hush! All of you! Gee,” she rolled her eyes as everypony gave her a look of surprise.
“For starters, I want to—” she leaned over to Celestia and whispered, “What's your name, again?” She told her.
“Right, for starters,” she raised her voice, “Celestia, I want you to meet Sirius B.” He controls the second sun, then , she immediately thought.
“My name is Lindous, and I will be your guide today.” There were a few chuckles, but Sirius silenced everypony,
“Lindous, what happened ? Why did you abandon me, and where have you been this entire time??” Sirius stomped his hoof and lowered his head down to hers, glaring.
“First of all, Shiny,” she called him, “I didn't abandon you. You act like I'm the mom who left you on some nut job’s doorstep.”
“Okay, but—”
“Second of all,” she continued, giving him a solid glare, “I got called… by the Jabb cloud. That's where I've been.”
Sirius stopped, giving her a blank stare.
“What?”
Discord’s head popped in between the two of them, and squished them together in a hug,
“Oh, what a lovely reunion!” he exclaimed, “We have the Damsel,” he pointed to Celestia, who shot a glare at him immediately,“The Tag-Along,” he shifted to Event Horizon, “The Brave Heroine,” he turned to Twilight, “and our Reverse Nightmare Moon and Mysterious Witch,” he bumped Sirius B and Lindous in that order.
“Wait, what about us?!” Pinkie Pie demanded, scrunching her snout in anger.
Discord looked at the remaining ponies, “Oh and you guys came along, too,” he waved his lion paw dismissively.
“Gee,” Rarity mumbled, “Thanks.”
“And what,” Sirius B’s voice changed completely into Discord's, “might you be?!” Everypony gasped as Sirius’ eyes swirled yellow and his pupils turned into two red circles.
“I haven't gotten the slightest idea,” Sirius mocked him, looking up at the Draconequus’ head, still in his sarcastic hug with Lindous.
Discord dropped him, completely freaked out, and everypony else laughed, literally at his face.
“How are you even doing that?!” The Spirit of Chaos looked wildly at him.
“Oh I think you know,” Sirius’ voice became dark and dramatic, just like the spirit’s, “... Discord .”
“This is so accurate ,” Rainbow Dash threw herself on the floor with Pinkie Pie in hysterics.
Twilight and Celestia could only hold their laughs back for so long, before joining each other in a party of laugher as well.
Rarity and Applejack seemed to be on the same side of something for once, being both equally annoyed at the situation.
Discord angrily took the abuse with a permanent glare on his face, which only made Lindous crack up herself.
Sirius changed his eyes back to his original, and returned to his normal voice, “Cataclomn Crystal,” he answered his question, “It's good for stuff besides Cataclomn B, too, you know.”
It took a solid ten minutes before everypony was back to being serious again.
“Okay, so,” Twilight looked at Lindous, “what do we do? We need to get back and save our planet.”
“Right,” she nodded in response, “Does anypony here have the spell he used to get out of this terrible place?”
“Twilight does,” Rarity nodded.
Horizon scratched his head and looked towards Lindous, “How do you know he used a spell?”
“He used the Jabb cloud to fuel all the power he needed,” Lindous said, “Me, being trapped inside it, knew this.”
Celestia and Twilight immediately looked at each other.
“He used the Cloud,” Twilight said.
“Not the Crystals,” she nodded.
“How'd he teleport you here, then?”
“He used the Cloud,” Lindous chimed in their brief exchanges.
“What? I thought the Jabb cloud had disappeared!” Celestia frowned.
“Yeah, like just disappeared, like an hour ago,” Lindous said, informatively, “I was just freed.”
“What? Well then why did the Jabb cloud disappear at all ?!” Sirius was starting to sound frustrated.
“The Suns,” Celestia naturally responded, getting stares.
“What?” she got both Lindous’ and Sirius’ to ask at the same time.
“The Suns have stopped orbiting each other,” she said, looking up at them, “They're frozen in their places. The movement was keeping this Jabb cloud active. When they stopped, it disappeared.”
Lindous frowned, “How do you know it stopped?”
“Is everypony here forgetting, I raise my own Sun?” she huffed, becoming irritated, “I know what it's supposed to look like! They're stopped right now.”
“Why do we need this Jabb cloud?” Applejack whispered to Rarity.
“To get back home,” Rarity responded.
“Okay, well we need to get them moving again. I guess Sirius kept them both going while he was here, and then when he left, they took a few weeks to stop,” Lindous concluded.
“You know there aren't any external forces that rotate binary stars, right?” Twilight said, a look of disbelief on her face, “Their gravity keeps them both spinning around each other, or one around the other.”
“Are you forgetting that our Sun rises and falls whenever our leader feels like it?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight gave her a long look.
“... fair enough.”
“Okay, but who’s going to get the Cataclomn stars moving again?” Lindous redirected the conversation, “We only have one Sirius!”
“Are you… serious?!” Celestia exclaimed, stomping her hoof, unbelieving of what she was hearing..
“No, he's Sirius,” she pointed at Sirius B, “Come on, princess, pay attention!”
Smiles began to rip on ponies’ faces.
“No, Lindous,” Celestia put her hoof to her face, “I mean, are you serious ?”
“Yes I'm serious , but he is Sirius .”
Before Celestia managed to vaporize Lindous with a deadly spell, Sirius Minor laughed, “Celestia you can help me with the Cataclomn stars; I'm glad we happen to have a pony who moves her own star for a living.”
It took a few minutes, but finally Sirius B and Celestia faced each other, all other ponies standing back. The stallion took a deep breath.
“Let's do this.”
Their horns glowed at the same time, blue and yellow. Sirius’ Cataclomn Crystal lit up especially, flickering greatly as if it was starting up for the first time.
“I haven't done this in a WHILE,” he noted, while both him and Celestia struggled.
Celestia straight up gasped, her muscles spazzed as her body shook and eyes went wide.
“Cataclomn A…” She said, struggling, “Is HUGE !” Her magic broke immediately, her spell, shattering. Sirius let go of his, and stopped, holding up Celestia’s head with his hoof, “Are you okay?”
She caught her breath for a few seconds.
“Cataclomn A is much bigger than the Sun I raise. I can't move it at all!” She lifted her head.
“Well that's disappointing,” Sirius said, “But neither entirely shocking, nor is it impossible to fix…” he said, breaking away from his spot.
She frowned, “Where are you going?”
He was heading in the direction of the abandoned observatory, “I'll be right back, stay there.”
The rest of the party looked confused but Celestia shrugged.
“What should we do in the meantime?”
***
Lindous’ horn glowed as she projected the images in the air.
The ponies had sat down, watching a live feed from earth using telereceiver magic. Thanks to Twilight’s solid knowledge on the stars, she was able to pinpoint where their home was in the sky, giving them information on what was happening.
Pinkie Pie snacked on popcorn as a war raged in the images.
Dragons and Pegasai filled the orange red skies in a massive combined army, as countless unicorn horns blasted many different colors towards a single point.
Sirius A was practically completely on fire, a blue, bright fire.
Earth Ponies and Griphons marched in orderly fashion towards a completely desolated Canterlot.
A few figures dashed and blurred around it. Though one looked like a formless, blue black energy, that was only seen temporarily as the black shadow of the moon got blacker and blacker.
“They turned her into Nightmare Moon,” Celestia grumbled, “How much do you want to bet it was Chrysalis’ idea?”
“I'm 137% sure it was Chrysalis’ idea,” Twilight muttered in response.
The fight went on, continuing until Sirius finally came back with a chest on his… back.
“What do you have there?” Celestia noticed and stood back up. Lindous turned off the feed and everypony looked at him.
The chest slid off his back and thumped on the rocky, hard, hot ground.
“Something you might be very excited about, or not thrilled with at all,” he responded, sweating.
“It's so hard to move on this planet, I don't know why he did that!” he complained, catching his breath, horn glowing.
The lock on it glowed, and everypony gathered around curiously.
Lindous frowned, “I don't even know what's in there.”
“It's Sirius A’s silver armor,” he said, opening it up, “On days it would be especially hot, he would wear it to reflects the Suns’ light more. It comes with its own Cataclomn Crystals and everything.” Blue light did beam from it, like shiny, bright treasure.
“You want me to put that on…?” Celestia said, getting wide eyed. She had felt the energy of him being in the observatory, with his wicked schemes and harsh curses. Now she was expected to wear his armor.
“No! I will not!”
“What?” Twilight asked, “Why?!”
“So then let Twi do it,” Applejack suggested.
Sirius shook his head, “It is far too big to fit her. The only pony here who can do this,” he levitated the chest plate to her with seven glowing Cataclomn crystals on it, “Is you.”
Celestia took a long look at it, recalling the war happening in her own home. She turned to him and sighed, “I don't really have much of a choice.”
“Alright, so then let's pick up where we left off.”
6. This is going somewhere, I swear
“WHAT?” The disbelief in her voice was priceless, “This is an outrage!” Her torn, scratchy song was suddenly music to Celestia’s ears.
“Yes!” Celestia beamed, ignoring her completely and practically levitated to him, shining. All of her anxieties were gone. Joy and Love rushed through her heart. The two would rule Equestria; her subjects had to accept it. She slaved for them for more than a thousand years, she could do this one thing for herself.
“Wait, really?” Was his response as his eyes widened, completely dumbfounded.
Chrysalis hesitated; she backed away from the pair, in something that looked like fear. At first, Celestia was confused; it was off putting to see the Changeling Queen afraid. Then it dawned on her: Chrysalis had been in a similar situation before, and it ended up with her blasting off into the sky.
Celestia chuckled happily at this as she nuzzled Sirius’ shoulder, who, was not breathing. At first she thought it was just the moment, rushing him, but when she found his face, he was staring. Not at her, not at Chrysalis, but the castle staff that had gathered in the throne room. They looked uncertain and nervous. Many looked away, some looked like they had let some hope go.
She stood up fully, facing them, ignoring the changeling’s now angry, stare.
“What…?” She asked them, confused, “I thought you liked him!” For a second, nopony spoke. Then, after Celestia felt on the verge of confused tears, one of the guards spoke up,
“My Princess, he is kind in heart, don't get us wrong. But our magic is unusable.”
“My horn keeps shorting out, and that's only around him!” Somepony else jumped in.
“He's a good stallion, but we cannot have him stay here!”
Chrysalis now smiled, relieved some ponies were on her side,
“You see?” She asked, stepping forward in a bold move, Don't tempt me , “I told you, he is trouble! Trouble in your own home!” For the first time, Luna showed herself in front of the crowd, and got protectively in front of Celestia and Sirius, dividing them from Chrysalis and the crowd.
“Do you not hear yourselves?” She asked. Everypony was quiet. It was clear they wanted to say something, but didn't.
“Why do you deny your Princess your trust? Why do you deny her her rule? And of most important, why do you deny her, her Love?” She announced in her projective, authoritative voice.
Somepony dared to call out, “Easy for you to say, your magic’s not overloading!”
Celestia flinched thinking about how her sister would react. Possible scenarios included destroying the throne room in rage, to reverting to being the Mare in the Moon.
Surprisingly, Luna remained calm, “You squabble about easily fixable problems. Is it not magic that keeps us safe? And most of all, the magic of Friendship? How long do you think us, of Canterlot , will allow magic work against us?” The crowd’s mood was now changing. Celestia was in a state of admirable gratitude; Luna had come a long way.
“Have we learned nothing of Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony? Have we not seen of the power that our friendship brings us?” she continued, her voice getting louder, “We, are, EQUESTRIANS!” She called, her voice reverberating in the hall, now stirring up the crowd in loud chatter of agreement, “We do not flee from the first conflict; we do not banish those that can teach us!” Even the Sun Princess was getting excited from this.
Chrysalis’ face made it clear that she couldn't be having anything further from a good time. She hissed loudly that stopped the chattering crowd and placed her in the center of attention.
“You may be Equestrian,” she said, “But mark my words, blue eyed demon,” she stared straight into Sirius’ eyes, “You will not marry Celestia!” Before anypony could move, her horn lit up a bright green, and she disappeared in an explosion, the remnants of her teleportation spell sparkling seconds after.
About a full fifteen seconds of silence passed before Sirius said,
“Well… Chrysalis is back,” getting some snickers from the crowd.
***
It was inconceivable; preposterous! Queen of the Changelings, Queen Chrysalis galloped full force in the thick, dark, forest. The one time she had reached her heart out to Celestia, the Pony Princess shattered it to ten thousand pieces!
Not that it mattered. No, it didn't matter. Celestia wasn't the problem. It was the demon. Celestia was an obstacle. The Demon was the finish. He would bring not only destruction to her Hive, but the world!
As she was intent on getting back, a jarring, “Psssst!” came from somewhere. She stopped, sliding a bit on dirt and looked around. It was dark, of course, and lots of tree trunks and branches prevented far sight at all.
“Psssst!” it came again, and she managed to identify which tree it was coming from. Except, when she did, its trunk opened two yellow elliptical eyes with searing red pupils.
She didn't jump, but she took a step back, a bit freaked out.
“Oh, don't look so surprised,” a familiar, annoying voice mocked, “I know you're happy to see me!” A flash blinded her for a second, revealing, an unholy sight.
“What do you want?” she asked, hostility rising.
Discord, the Draconequus Spirit of Chaos, slithered up to her, chuckling, “Hey I'm just here to offer a trade.” She stared up at him, annoyed,
“Hurry up.”
Discord looked annoyed at that, himself, apparently frustrated that “Chrissy” (she recalled that he called her), wasn't playing his games.
“Okay, here's the deal,” he said, getting serious, which was slightly frightening, “You don't like Sirius.” She only blinked in silence, not disagreeing.
“I don't like Sirius,” he said. Now she knew where this was going.
“Oh no you don't!” she hissed, “I would rather get help from—”
“Event Horizon, the Draconequus Spirit of—”
“Destruction,” she finished, watching as Event Horizon dramatically swung down from a tree branch, ruffling leaves. His green eyes looked surprised.
“Have we met before?” he asked. Why do you keep forgetting me? Her eyes drifted to the changeling wing on his back. Memories soared through her brain. Then her gaze caught the smirking face of Discord.
The monster .
“No,” she responded, “I've heard your name around.”
“I know,” Discord said, sounding sarcastic, “Horizon’s name is getting pretty popular these days.”
“It is?”
“Can we hurry this up?!” Chrysalis snapped, impatience suddenly slammed into her.
“Fine, fine,” Discord said, raising his arms up in surrender, “The Dashing Duo, Horizon and Discord, up for sale! The Price? Collaboration…” He smirked again. Discord was tricky. Collaboration for him could mean anything from “slave” to… “slave”. But as she was starting to think about it, there was no way she could take Celestia and Sirius alone. Without the help of the Changelings, she was but one pony.
With Discord and Horizon, she would be… two. In nagging annoyance, she knew very well that Discord would more than likely mess things up for everypony, while Event Horizon would just do his job. Horizon was very determined to contribute to any thing that involved destroying anything: the world, a city, a friendship, a hope...
Discord had problems washing dishes.
It always amazed her how much Chrysalis knew about the Draconequui, a race she should have no business interacting with.
“No,” she said, “If we are to work, you will work under my command.” She was taking no chances.
Discord and Horizon eyed each other.
“De—” Horizon got cut of as Discord slammed his lion paw over his muzzle.
“Wait a second,” he said, eyeing the Queen, “How do we know you can do this right?”
She smirked herself, now, placing her hoof on her chest, “I am Queen of the Changelings. I have not survived thousands of years off of luck.” And she got serious, “and I'm certainly not going to go extinct now!”
Horizon caught onto Discord’s suspicion, “That told us nothing.” That's it.
Her horn glowed and she dragged Horizon’s face to hers as close as possible as he yelped. She stared him dead in the eyes, angry and growling.
“I am older than you, Horizon. It would be wise to listen to me.” He looked slightly intimidated,
“Okay okay… Fine. As long as somepony doesn't have objections,” he looked at Discord, who was looking thoughtful.
“Oh, whatever, as long as she gets us through, I don't care,” Discord responded, throwing his arms up. She couldn't help but be proud of herself. She'd won! But she couldn't show it.
“OK, when should we meet?” she asked, being careful about not to let her position go. Horizon squirmed away as Discord shrugged. I already regret this.
“Very well,” she said, remaining calm, “At the entrance to the hive. Midnight. If you're late, I'm turning you into a changeling.” They were too powerful for that threat to work. But they didn't know that.
“Whatever,” Horizon said, throwing his arms up like Discord had earlier.
They both disappeared and she let out a breath of relief. That could have gone a lot worse.
***
The Hive was in no better condition from how she had left it this morning. Her children were scattered about, many hunched, coughing and sobbing. One source was influencing all of this… A magical energy was inhabiting the walls of her castle, but yet, she could not feel it. Sorrow began to envelop her heart as she felt the urge to mourn again. She had sulked around her castle, depressed she could not even pin where the problem was coming from.
The castle walls began dripping and melting, for some unknown reason. The walls were made out of hardened… Something. She didn't know what it was, for her mother built it, but its original form was a thick black liquid. And it looked just so, the streaks and lumps and bumps could be found all throughout the walls. But now, for some reason, it was melting, becoming a liquid form once more.
It was getting more dangerous to live in her own castle by the day. She rushed up to her throne room, hearing something through the doors. It sounded like the television set.
“Foolish XJ-9 ,” it said, muffled, “you will join the Cluster, willingly, or not! ” She burst through the door, knowing exactly who was behind it. The green floor flashed in her presence, and she found Krookile and Stallct hovered in front of the TV, on the right side of the hall.
“That show is for children ,” she growled, rushing to her crystallized throne, “I told you it was banned in these halls.”
“The whole franchise is for children,” Stallct buzzed with his wings.
She eyed him, seeing his tired form slouched and limp, her only response:
“Fight me.”
She loved the two dearly, but they could be a pain, and very… weird.
Krookile yawned, clearly very sleepy, and buzzed his wings, “Did Celestia agree?”
“No, but, we have help.”
“Ooooo,” Stallct buzzed, “By whom?”
“I cannot say,” she said, and for very good reason. If the hive heard she had invoked the help of Chaos and Destruction, they would be fools not to panic. And now upon thinking about it, she realized it wasn't the best idea to tell the two Draconequui to meet in front of her Hive. She got up from her throne as fast as she sat down and stared at it, unsure of what to do. There was nothing she could do for the hive, and she couldn't go back to Canterlot, for she made yet another threat against it.
For once, she felt stuck; lost. It was a terrible feeling. Anxiety was suddenly beginning to rise as she flipped through ways she could help her subjects. There was nothing. Her only plan was to persuade Celestia, but then the blue eyed demon got in the way.
Until midnight, nothing could be done.
A distant thunder through the thick walls indicated that another part of the castle collapsed in on itself.
“That one sounded bad,” Krookile once again yawned, “Perhaps you should check on it.” Because they certainly weren't.
“I hate you guys,” she said, relieved she'd be able to help something, and lit up her horn for teleportation.
In a flash, she was a large hallway, the far one on the outer part of the castle. A gigantic hole was barren in the black, now gooey, ceiling.
To her surprise, changeling were buzzing about, lifting things and gathering. Even stranger, Event Horizon was floating by it, wearing a hardhat, smiling like a maniac.
“Okay now,” he said, “gather that… stuff, and bring it here!” He kept waving his arms in vague directions, none of which pointed to the giant, gaping hole.
“What are you doing? I thought you couldn't fix stuff,” she demanded, fully knowing he could, just hear his reaction again. He huffed,
“For the last time, Creation is not the opposite of Destruction!” Despite his nonsensical directions and appearance, Horizon was just as equally good at repair and creation. As she thought about that, another thought got inside her head.
“Wait… How did you get in here?” She wasn't even worried about how the changelings could even move, much less lift and do work. He shrugged in response.
Wonderful.
They were already proving themselves to be useless.
She waited impatiently for Horizon to finish, half expecting Discord to show up at some point, but the collapsed part of the castle was fixed, and he had still not shown up.
Horizon started applauding the changelings who had helped, “Great work guys!” They buzzed some acknowledgements, but disappeared into other rooms from the hallway. Well, now that they knew the Draconequus was here, it wouldn't hurt at all to talk to him now.
“We need a plan,” she said flatly, when the Draconequus had come to the ground.
“Already have one,” he said, tapping his forehead with a talon. That was finally some good news.
“Here's how this is going to work…”
