Chapter VI: Good Intentions and Severe Consequences

[Canterlot, May 25, 1012 AD; 6:00 PM]

The evening bell tolled throughout Canterlot signaling the beginning of dusk. The Day Court had finished to be followed by the Night Court soon after. The group of ponies ranging from press to politicians made their way out of the throne room. From Celestia’s perch upon the throne, she saw the sea of ponies bottleneck themselves at the rooms entrance. Deep within the mob, she saw a tall white figure parting the ponies as it approached her. Reaching the rooms entrance, the guards took form.

“Halt! The day court has ended and the Princess shall not be taking anymore hearings. You may comeback later to speak with Princess Luna instead,” the guard stated at the tall white figure. Whom he had just noticed had a large white blanket over it.

“I come all this way! All this way! From the Everfree and this is the reception I get? Wow,” A mare with an irritated voice said behind the creature. “Do you know who I am?” the pony asked whilst making her way around the object.

“No,” the guard said blandly.

“You should read more often then,” turning away from the guard, she faced the Princess. “Good evening your majesty, I brought have brought it as you requested,” bowing to Celestia as she made her announcement.

Celestia held a smile to her face, the mare before her had a deep orange coat and a mane and tail that were black and had a dark gray stripe. “At ease Hardline, this is Daring Do. I asked her to bring something very… important to me. Her deadlines are not the sharpest so I have her do her best to make it here after court.”

“Aye, your majesty,” he said as he returned to his position by the door.

The sea of ponies had gone and the guards closed the door leaving Daring as the last pony to be heard. Celestia turned to face Daring and to give her full attention to the mare, “Thank you again Daring for all that you’ve done, if you wouldn’t mind could you tell where you found this?”

Before raising her head she stuck her tongue out at Hardline, who payed no mind, “Well you see Princess, when you requested this task I had one of my associates tip off Ahuizotl who led me in the general direction of this thing,” she said pointing at the object. “It took longer than I had expected, I mean afterall it's been three months. But the oddest thing kept happening, the Everfree itself kept moving the damn thing all over the place. Hiding here and there when I took my eyes off of it. So when I had finally caught it for the thirty-eighth time, I kept pushing it until I broke through the forest, where I was met with Ahuizotl. After this and that and a couple of hours, I made way for Canterlot. Next thing I know there’s this “Grand Railway Theft” and I have to get it again… This was all in the first month by the way,” the tone of Daring was wearing thin as the recollected the previous months.

Noticing her subject’s dismay, Celestia spoke up, “Daring please do tell the rest in a report, and as for payment, please visit the treasury. I’ll have word sent to Penny and you’ll receive your paycheck, I’m also sure we can add a little extra for all the trouble. Thank you again Daring Do, may Harmony guide your way,” Celestia ended her thank you with a smile.

“And to you as well your majesty. And for a report, I believe I sent Princess Twilight my latest book. I finished it a week ago as I made my way over here,” with a satisfied smile upon Daring’s face, she made her way out to receive her pay all the while giving the guard who halted her smug look.

With Daring gone Celestia’s face hardened to stone as she stared at the object before her. After all these years I finally have you, she thought as memory resurfaced. Burning buildings here and there, corpses were scarce, but what really stood out was the emptiness of the whole scene. Celestia quickly pushed those memories back to the back of her mind, I need to focus at the matter at hoof, Luna will want to know as well.

With the thought finished, Celestia sent her sister a message via a link they shared. Nearly as soon as she sent it, her sister teleported to the throne room. She appeared next to the throne, face just as hardened as her sister. “Good evening Tia, I hope Court wasn’t too much of a hassle.”

Celestia’s face softened at her sister’s words, Even despite being in this things presence, it’s good that she’s not overcome with an immediate rage. Afterall, if it wasn’t for it, she wouldn’t have resorted to becoming Nightmare Moon. “The Court was the same as it always is unfortunately, but I’m glad we can finally put this nightmare to rest.”

“Indeed,” Luna kept her eyes locked upon the blanket covered object. “I would recommend we keep it covered; after all, I would hate for my anger to tear it apart,” a hint of sarcasm and anger resonated within Luna’s voice as she spoke.

“Yes, it’d be… unfortunate wouldn’t it. I’d hate to ruin Twilight’s day off tomorrow, but we do need to show her the Grand Archive,” Celestia voiced with a tinge of guilt.

“It’s only fair we show it to her, she’s a Princess of Equestria. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind, sister. She has been begging to see it ever since we mentioned it,” Luna shared as she broke her eye contact with it to face her sister.

“I know. We only go in there if we must. If we kept walking in and out, then at some point it would be found out. The objects in there are too dangerous for anything to get their grasps on,” she said as she began writing a letter to Twilight.

“Do you think it wise to send it down there? After all, the contents of that room are… as you put it when you informed me of it “a threat to the national security of the entirety of Equs? After what happened with Discord those years ago, when he first broke free, do you think it could happen with it?”

Celestia listened and thought about Luna’s concerns, finishing up her letter and sending it off to Spike to deliver to Twilight later, she answered, “It’s a possibility that I’ve accounted for. He would need for some kind of catalyst to break out. As far as we know it could range from anywhere between events to objects.”

“I’ll have the guards place this in a safe location until tomorrow, until then relax sister. This matter shall and will be dealt swiftly,” Luna assured.

“Thank you Luna, I hope the Night Court is bearable. Good night,” Celestia gave her sister a final wave with a hoof and teleported off to take a break.

“Actually, it’s still technically evening,” Luna corrected despite her sister being off. “Knowing her she’s probably teleported right to the kitchen.”

Luna walked down the steps that lead to the throne, he body trembling as she approached the figure before her. Despite all the rage she held, fear came to dominate her emotions. She knew what it could do, knew of its power, knew of its character. Everything told her to flee, she wanted to. Thoughts of hypothetical situations kept coming up, each dark and gruesome. Tears formed, but did not fall as each thought berated her mind. Each of her steps feeling heavier as she continued forward. Before she even knew it she was right in front of it. Emotions battling in her head, reaching her emotional capacity she yelled tearing off the blanket that hid the object.

The revealed figure stood in triumphant pose, it face carried a sense of superiority as it stood looking down upon her. The figure itself was short, immensely short, but the podium it stood on made it look like a giant looking down upon Luna. The figure’s two arms were positioned in a way where it’s right was holding something to its chest, and the other should be holding some sort of stick.

More thoughts arose in Luna’s head as she stared at the figure, if she had only listened to her own recommendation, this would never have happened. Before the first tear could fall she spoke, “Guards! Get this thing out of my sight. Put it somewhere where no one would find it. I want it on high security, protect it from anything. All of you go,” with what seemed to be an oddly worded command said and done the guards hurried to fulfill the Princess’s request.

With the guards gone, the room empty of any other ponies but the Princess, Luna collapsed to the floor as tears streamed down her cheeks. The weight of emotions had overcome her, and the memories and thoughts consumed her. “B-Because of you… I-I did such unspeakable, horrible things. Because of you… I-I turned into, into h-her…” Luna continued to sob and mutter incoherent sentences until she finally passed out.

[Ponyville, 26 May 1012; 8:30 AM]

Rays of light shone through the curtains of Twilight’s chambers and onto the sheets that lay over her. Speckles of dust would slowly fall as the ray of light slowly moved, minute by minute, across the bed. The flight of a bird, just for a fraction of a second, blocked the sun and rendered the room dark. Regardless, the ray continued its way until reaching the princess’s eyes where she opened them revealing-

“Ahh! It burns!” Twilight yelled as she quickly turned away from the light pulling her blankets over her. “Ugh… This is what I get for being lazy and not closing the curtains fully,” she mumbled beneath the sheets.

Taking a few seconds to recompose herself beneath the sanctuary of her blanket, and blink away the incessant green hue that dominated a portion of her sight. She stood up out of her bed, pausing to allow her blood to flow properly. Lastly, she leaned down while prostrating her wings to give her body a good stretch, holding is for a couple seconds allowing her muscles to limber up.

“Mmm… Alrighty then,” she yawned as she levitated her trusty clipboard towards her. “Let’s see what we have in store for today,” she took a quick glance and soon had a large grin plastered across her face.

Reorganize and Inventory the Archive, it said. Just that.

After months of diplomacy, politics, hearings, and the occasional monster, the list goes on and on. She finally had some time to do something relaxing, and most likely some time for herself. Her archive was no more than a couple thousands of books, far smaller than the Canterlot Archive, and even smaller than the Grand Archives that lay beneath the mountain. It should take a mere five hours at most, “I can’t wait to start. It’s been a long while since I’ve gotten to reorganize that place, and it's starting to become a mess. It must be so dusty in there, and I’m pretty sure I left a book on a table.”

Rather than teleport immediately to the Archive, Twilight decided to walk the distance. It's been awhile since I last roamed these halls, with a free day I might as well, she thought as a smile formed upon her face. Before leaving her room, Twilight looked to her left towards the bathroom. Hmm… I could take a bath, but that would be for naught as I will be dusting the Archive. I could brush my teeth now though. But I’ll come back to take the shower… Twilight debated with herself, determining what was most efficient and ceded to doing it later. With the decision made she opened her chamber doors, the guards at the side of it shifting from rest to attention, and took her first step into enjoying a free day.

The trip to the Archive was short and brisk after all it was down the hall, followed by a left and there it was. Teleporting would have been a silly thing since she was so close. Approaching the doors to the Archive, it opened without assistance of anypony. Beyond the threshold of the frame was the Archive. Rows of shelves greeted her as she made her way through, the sun’s rays passing through the skylight and illuminating her path. Dark contrasting shadows formed behind and under the shelves creating a surreal atmosphere. As she expected, small specks of dust fell covering everything from the shelves to the floor. At the middle of the Archive was a round table illuminated by the skylight dome above it. And there, upon the table was a single book attracting all the attention in the room as it sat there like a holy relic. With her eyes fixed upon she treaded the floor, passing shelf after shelf until finally coming before it. “So that’s where my Daring Do book was. I was looking everywhere for this. I was sure I packed it in before I made my way to Canterlot for the meeting last week. Huh… Weird,” Twilight calmly stated as she levitated the book towards her. She quickly dusted it off via magic and teleported it to her room. I need to start reading that, A.K. Yearling gave me that a week ago! Signed obviously. I really wanted to know what her latest adventure was… Oh we-

“Twilight!”

Twilight’s thoughts were quickly cut off by a voice behind her, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

Twilight quickly turned around to face a short, green a purple dragon, “Oh, Spike! What’s up? And what do you mean you’ve ‘been looking everywhere for’ me? I woke up not many minutes ago, maybe twenty.”

“Well… uh… to be honest with you,” he shifted under her eye. “Well you see… I kinda, maybe, sorta, forgot to give you this. Or at the very least leave it in your room, on top of your clipboard,” Spike nervously said handing over a scroll to Twilight.

“Well that’s uncharacteristic for you Spike, your usually always on top of things like this,” Twilight said in slight surprise as she examined the scroll. It was a normal scroll, but that wasn’t her interest, it was the seal that held it shut. She turned it around in her magic, her eyes widening the moment she saw the seal. The seal itself was a simple brass medal with a red strap attached. On the medal itself was an insignia of a sun with two blades crossing to form an “X” and a shield on top of that. The simple fact that this was from the Princess made it important enough, but the addition of the swords and shield made it even more so.

Spike stood in slight awe as he saw Twilight’s disposition shift from relaxed to alert, “So… What’s it say?” He stood there waiting for Twilight to answer, but no answer came only silence. “Twilight? Um… Everything okay? Twilight? Twi? Yo, Twil-”

Spike’s concerned voice was interrupted by a loud groan from Twilight, followed by a determined expression, “Alright… Remember Twilight, national security comes first. Well that and the fact I get to see the Royal Archive after all this time,” she said giving a slight squeal at the thought of entering the Archive. “Spike.”

The dragon jumped at Twilight’s word,” Uh, Yea!?”

“Could you please have my normal Canterlot suitcase prepared. Oh! And don’t forget to put the new Daring Do book in there too. It’s in my room,” With her request made she teleported off.

“Well here we go again… So much for a day off I guess. Now I wish I forgot that I forgot to give her the letter,” Spike grumbled as he made his way out of Archive.

[Canterlot, 26 May, 1012; 12:13 PM]

The doors to the throne opened as Twilight walked through the entrance. Sitting upon the throne was Celestia, with Luna standing to her right. To the right of the room, was an object covered by a white blanket. “Good afternoon Princesses,” Twilight said giving a slight bow.

“As to you Twilight,” Celestia spoke as she smiled upon her former student. “I’m sure you understand the severity of our current situation.”

“Yes, I saw the insignia on the seal, but the message was somewhat vague. What’s going on Celestia? What’s so dangerous to threaten the entirety of the world, but hasn’t done a thing.”

“The thing in question,” Luna said as she walked down the steps toward the object covered by a blanket, “Is this statue.” Casting a simple levitation spell, Luna pulled the blanket off the statue.

Twilight’s eyes widened at the sight of the statue, the creature was out of this world resembling nothing she had seen before. “What is that?” she asked with a hint of caution. How long has it been cast in stone?”

“A little over a thousand years since we used the elements on him,” Celestia said solemnly.

“What did it do?”

“Before Canterlot, was the city Everfree, the first capital of Equestria. When we first met it defeated myself and Luna. The next time we saw it was when Tirek had thrown him at the city. Luna and I had split up to defeat the both of them, but both of us had failed. That was when, with a single spell, he defeated Tirek and destroyed the entire city save for the castle. What lays today is the aftermath.”

“The Everfree Forest. So that’s what you meant by ‘Entropy’ every single time I had asked about it. That spell must require immense power to cause such devastation,” the gears in Twilight’s mind turned as she thought about the magnitude of such a spell and how much magic it would require. “Wait a minute, for such a spell to occur, at least to my knowledge, it would require the energy from an entire ley line to power it!” Twilight’s head quickly turned toward the statue, taking a slight step back from it. That’s impossible. There’s no sign of a ley line ever running through the Everfree. That’s what made its existence such a mystery.

“We came around the same conclusion when we theorized how it had made the spell. What we had found out is that it doesn’t use the same magic as we do. It pulls from something else, and we don’t know what that something else is,” Luna said.

“A new form of magic... “ Twilight’s eyes carried a sense of curiosity as she stared at the statue. Turning away to face Celestia, “Does it have a name? We keep calling it, ‘it’ and it's starting to get a bit bothersome.”

“Its name is Veigar. And it shall be sent to the Royal Archive to be locked away,” Celestia stepped down from the throne and down the stairs. She turned to face them again and launched a beam of dark magic at the throne. A bright flash enveloped the room, and before them was a portal.

“This is the entrance to the Archive Twilight. We only go in there if we must hide something from the world. Nothing more, nothing less,” Celestia said, emphasizing the last sentence. Luna began levitating the statue through the portal, the three of them following after.

What met them was a well-lit white hallway with pedestals throughout holding different objects on them. Each one had a name, but no description. “We have sworn to never use any of the objects that lay in here, and never take anything regardless if we misinterpreted its abilities,” Luna calmly said as they continued through, statue in tow.

It wasn’t long before the reached the end of the hallway though, there were few items most of them being jewels. Looking to her right she saw, “Hey, that’s Sombra’s horn,” Twilight said in surprise. Looking next to it, “Is that his crown too?”

“After the attack on the Crystal Empire, we discovered that before he perished he casted a spell that infused his crown with a massive amount of dark magic. His horn on the other hoof, casted a spell that would have him be revived with the Empire,” Celestia answered as they continued on through.

It didn’t take long before they reached the end of the hall where a double door stood. Setting the statue down, Luna began casting a spell followed by Celestia as Twilight stood and watched. The two alicorns magic enveloped the doors, and a large click could be heard before it opened. Inside was a room filled with a few more statues, all of which were victims to the Elements of Harmony.

“Wow,” Twilight said in awe. “I would have never guessed that this many fell to the Elements. Is, is the Starswirl the Bearded?! What on Equus is he doing here?!” the national icon of magic surprised Twilight. Her idol, petrified. It wasn’t like a statue you would see at Celestia’s school, or the Academy of Magic, it was too real.

“To answer your question Twilight, Veigar,” Celestia answered, a twinge of guilt in her voice.

“What? But you said he’s been petrified for a thousand years? Did he somehow escape?”

“No, Twilight,” Luna said as she put the statue down. She then turned to the pedestal to the left of Veigar. “This staff turned him into a crazed unicorn bent on transforming the world to the epitome of magic. He became corrupt because of it, and we were forced to depart with a dear friend.”

“So even after you two defeated him all those years ago, he still caused harm.”

“More than you can imagine Twilight... “ Luna’s head sulked as she recalled her past. “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have felt so powerless all those years ago. I wouldn’t have turned into Nightmare Moon.”

“I’m- I’m so sorry Luna…” Twilight said with splayed ears. “I can’t imagine what other evils he had committed.”

“He turned one of our greatest scientific mind into another crazy pony bent on changing the world… The pony was Gear Box,” Celestia added, her tone still filled with guilt.

“How did he become an enemy to Equestria?” Twilight asked shocked by the idea that Gear Box, the most influential engineer and scientist, turned evil.

“The object on the right of Veigar lead him down the wrong path,” Luna pointed out.

“What is it?” Twilight asked as she approached the item in question.

“We simply call it the Tome of Veigar. In truth we have no idea what it is, but we do know that it holds inventions of questionable morals and ethics. Countless amount of, as Gear Box coined, blueprints.”

Out of excitement and curiosity, Twilight simply looked over the ‘tome’ as they called it. What she saw was a reflection over herself that mirrored her as she tilted her head. “This thing contains countless amount of information? To be honest that’s kind of hard to believe… I mean it's just so thin- Oh my gosh!” Twilight yelled as the the reflective surface changed from black to white in an instance while at the same time making a buzzing sound. “What did it just do?! What did I just do?!”

There was no time for answers as the tome began emitting sound that slowly grew louder and louder, flooding the room with appeared to be ominous music. Soon after the blue front began changing colors rapidly, following the colors of the rainbow until it became so fast that all that it emitted was white light. The gem that was held on Veigar’s staff also began to glow before it began to shake on its rest. Soon to the dread of the three princesses in the room, the sound of cracks began to silence the music from the tomb.

With fear coursing through her, Celestia said, “No… Not again.”

Author's Note

I know, I know... It’s been a real long while since the last update, but it’s here... Right? We good? I’ve been busy with school, family, friends, fixing up the house, and the list goes on and on. Luckily, it is now summer and I have a lot of time to do this... Wow... I need a proper social life if this is what I do. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this new chapter. It took me a while to write because I lost my notes on how the story progresses, but oh well. C’est Vie.

As per the usual, if you see any mistakes go ahead and point them out. If you want to critique it, be my guest. If you just want to comment, go ahead. Otherwise, have a wonderful time and you do you.