PonyProse II - Winds of Change

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight

Prologue

There were dozens of thoughts and feelings streaming around her brain, too many to come from one pony simultaneously. When the hubbub died down, she could indeed feel six separate minds nestled in her head, crowded around her own but not restricting it. She turned her attention to each of them, one by one, forming six gentle bonds. They probed her in return, gently testing the bonds one at a time.

"W-what are you?" she tried to say out loud, but her mouth would not move and the question instead echoed within her consciousness. The six alien minds shifted slightly, and she could sense muffled thoughts passing between them. Finally they all replied together; their combined six-layer voice was unnerving to begin with, but after a few syllables it became smooth and the layers meshed in perfect harmony.

"We are your guides; we are the paragon of Equestria."

"W-where did you all come from?"

"We've always been right here inside you, waiting for this moment. You have faithfully been our vessel since you were born and we thank you." Suddenly the combined alien presence swelled in her head and their collective voice grew louder. "Now is your time; this is the moment we've been waiting for, the moment your life has been leading you to all along."

"You've been controlling my life?"

"No, only guiding you to ensure your safe arrival here, now." A distressed voice unexpectedly rang out, but it did not come from within. Somepony was in trouble. The voice called again and this time she heard it clearly:

"I can't do this alone! Do you think you can help me?"

"Who is that?" she asked the six strange minds. "It sounds like they need help!"

"Relax," came the soothing reply, "we can handle things from here." Taking a gamble, she surrendered her conscience to the six. They assumed full control of her body and opened her eyes once more. A second distressed voice, deeper than the first, called out from somewhere to the left.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do! I can't help you!" The six channelled their thoughts through their host's mouth and spoke aloud:

"But we can."

Chapter One

She didn't care that the hills and cliffs twisted into impossible shapes as they arched overhead. She didn't even notice to be honest; she was too busy trying to read a signpost that had just erupted out of the ground off to her right. The long grass swished around her face as she made her way over to it. There were words, but only the first two weren't obscured by dirt.

"Water... born," Brightlight Bluesky read to herself. "Hmm. Water born? That makes no sense." The words seemed familiar though, and as she tried to remember where she'd heard them before, the dirt on the signpost started flaking off and falling into the grass. "Ah! Let's see now... water born of deep... deepest dread," she recited as she recalled more of the phrase, causing more of the dirt to fall.

"Yes, that's it: water born of deepest dread. Then comes..." She strained to remember the next line. As she succeeded, the line was revealed on the ever-cleaner signpost. "Oh, that's it! By a mighty power shed! I knew I knew it," she squealed. Her joy was short-lived however; most of the sign was still filthy and illegible. "Hmph!"

She sat herself down in the grass, facing the signpost. The surrounding mountains began to twist and writhe, slowly edging higher into the gathering clouds. The long grass gradually disappeared, the soil inexplicably replaced by a sea of water. When Sky opened her eyes again, she jumped at the sight of an ocean encircling her little patch of grass. The mountains had become islands, cut-off from each other. Worried, she turned back to the signpost and in desperation she tried to brush the dirt away with her hoof, but it was stuck fast. The words could only be revealed by her remembering them.

"Water born of deepest dread, by a mighty power shed... ah-ha! I know not why you're here with me, so let my eyes your secrets see." The mountains-turned-islands continued spiralling into the sky, which grew steadily darker as the clouds thickened. The grass island continued to shrink as the ocean crept closer. Sky scooted herself closer to the signpost. The dirt covering the next line started flapping loose.

"Er... I don't know why you fell to earth... cryptic darkness cloaks your... birth?" A thunderclap pealed from high above her head as the islands bent their towering peaks towards the grass patch. The loose dirt released its grip on the wood and the line was revealed. Seeing that she got it right didn't do much to cheer up Sky; she was nervously peering at the restless clouds and leaning mountains.

"Oh come on, think, think! What comes next?" Her grass island was now barely able to accommodate her and the sign. "Um... I wish to help.. no, aid! I wish to aid your... wait, that's not it at all." No more dirt fell. The mountain peaks crashed into each other directly above Sky's head, making her jump. From underneath they looked like the arms of a six-pointed star centred on the signpost. "To alleviate... yes!" She cheered as enough dirt crumbled away to expose those two correctly-remembered words. "To alleviate your mother's plight, I need the way... or is it path? Path! I need the path to her in sight!"

With a dreadful moan the mountain star began to crumble at its middle. Little pebbles began raining down around the grass patch. Sky looked up to see larger and larger rocks plummeting out of the blackened clouds.

"Wait, no, I remember it! Don't squash me, I know it, really I do!" She turned back to the signpost. Eight lines had been revealed, but enough dirt still clung to the bottom of the wood to hide two more. "So for her sake I ask of you..." One more line came into view. Massive boulders started splashing into the ocean, drenching the grass island. Sky brushed her sodden mane out of her eyes. "A shining light to... oh please Sky, come on, what does the shining light do?" She screamed as a boulder the size of her bedroom crashed into the water close enough to wash her off the island. The signpost stood alone on the surface of the ocean, which was whipped into a frenzy by the incessant cascade of rocks.

Sky found herself desperately treading water as she spluttered to clear her mouth. She needed to recall the last words of the verse. Then, as if by magic, there they were, burning brightly in her head.

"To guide me true!" She screwed her eyes shut as a rock big enough to crush a house slammed into her and the signpost.

She felt nothing. Gingerly her eyes eased open. Everything had gone back to how it had been when the signpost first appeared. The six mountains sat in a circle around her, twisting into the cloudless sky but not in a threatening way. The endless field of long grass was restored and the ocean was nowhere to be seen.

The signpost stood before her, clean of dirt and words. Sky slowly approached it as words began to form. She couldn't help but laugh as she finally realised where she knew the verse from. "I remember what this is now, this is the spell Princess Celestia just taught me!" As she spoke, the words became solid and Celestia's disembodied voice read out the verse in full.

Water born of deepest dread,
by a mighty power shed;
I know not why you're here with me,
so let my eyes your secrets see.
I don't know why you fell to earth;
cryptic darkness cloaks your birth.
To alleviate your mother's plight,
I need the path to her in sight.
So for her sake I ask of you:
a shining light to guide me true.

A gentle breeze rolled down off the mountains, nudging Sky's mane to the left of the signpost. She followed its lead and saw a wooden door standing all by itself in the grass. She giggled; it was her bedroom door. She trotted gently towards it, but stopped when it growled. It was a strange noise, like the wood was alive and angry about something. Hesitantly she edged closer, until it flung itself open with a crash and a booming voice bellowed her name. She yelped in surprise as she was abruptly dragged forwards, through the doorway and into the blackness beyond.

Chapter Two

"Psst, Sky, wake up," came the voice again. This time it didn't boom, and it sounded familiar. The filly drowsily cracked open an eye and was startled to find her brother staring at her. She rubbed her face on the pillow to clear her vision.

"Bee? What do you want?" she croaked. "What time is it?"

"Sunrise isn't for another few hours yet," came the groan-inducing reply, "but I'm not sure there'll even be a sunrise," came the eye-widening admission.

"What? How can there not be a sunrise?" Sky started levering herself into a sitting position. Clearly something was perturbing her brother and she wanted in on it.

"Follow me and I'll explain," the stallion huffed as he stood up and left the bedroom. Sky could hear him trotting down the corridor at a brisk pace before turning into his study. Papers were rustled, drawers were slammed and curses were uttered.

Now thoroughly intrigued and almost half-awake, Sky slid off her bed and stretched her wings, yawning impressively. While slowly ambling down the corridor, it occurred to her that Bee was wearing his orange vest and cloak, which he normally only wore when he was studying something out-of-doors. Feeling even more intrigued, she redoubled her pace towards the study.

As she stuck her head through the door, her magic reflexively saved her face from a heavy book. She floated it gently to the floor and looked up to see Bee rifling through a bookcase, lobbing the heftiest tomes haphazardly across the room to get them out of the way.

"Bee, stop that! Why are you throwing books around? You hate it when I do that!"

"You only do it when Celestia's told you to read over some old spell book or another and you're bored after five minutes," he muttered back. His eyes lit up as they located the correct item of literature. Feeling hot and bothered after his canter back to the School, he shrugged off his cloak and vest. He searched the pockets of his purple undercoat for his vanished glasses, going as far as taking that off too in order to pat it down fully. Deciding his glasses must have fallen off unnoticed during his frenzied rummage, and were now hidden under the books and paper strewn about the room, he gave up his search and plonked himself down at the big wooden table in the middle of his study.

"Um, Bee, you know you're reading in the dark, right?" Sky reappeared in the doorway, having shambled back to her room to adorn her sleepy head with the big red bow it usually sported. Her brother hadn't realised the light being off was the main reason he was now struggling to read the book he'd been searching for. He started standing to go and turn it on but Sky shook her head and said, "Don't bother, you smashed the bulb with the books you threw around. Here," she sighed as she floated a lit candle into the study and positioned it on the table next to the book, "use that while I go find another bulb."

"No wait, I need to talk to you," Bee suddenly called out. The old book's yellowed pages kept threatening to rip as they were violently turned this way and that. "Did Celestia ever say anything about eclipses? Or spells for locating somepony you want to find?" Sky stood staring, stumped.

"Wha- eclipse? What in Equestria is an eclipse?"

"Something that used to happen, a long time ago," Bee replied. He continued under his breath, "They had to occur at least twice a year, sometimes as often as five times in one year. That's what Celestia said, so why can't I find any record of them?" It took him a few more minutes of browsing to realise that the book, and no other book in his possession, was anywhere near old enough to mention these fascinating heavenly events, absent from Equestria's skies for centuries. He rubbed his eyes in frustration, starting to feel a little tired himself now that the thrill of the chase seemed over.

"Bee? What's wrong?" Sky was finally lucid enough to cotton on to the fact that her brother was really quite anxious about something. "Why were you outside this late? What did Celestia talk to you about?" She inelegantly stuck a hoof in her eye and rubbed vigorously to dispel all remaining drowse. "And what the hay is an eclipse?"

"Right..." Bee inhaled deeply. "Sky, I don't think we have a lot of time, so listen carefully and don't interrupt because I will not be repeating myself." The filly magically dragged a stool from across the room and installed herself on it, ears up and pointing forwards. The flickering candlelight lit up her wide brown eyes. "Celestia and I sat for I don't know how long out by a stream over there somewhere," he began as he gesticulated towards one of the shuttered windows. "She told me all about her brother and sister and how... don't look so surprised, you've always believed the so-called old mare's tales about Night Mare Moon. Yes, her. She's Celestia's sister, Princess Luna, but she went a bit mad a thousand years ago so Celestia banished her to the Moon using the Elements of Harmony. Anyway... stop gawping like that, you knew the Elements were real too."

He realised that it wasn't exactly the best time of day to be flooding his little sister with stuff like this, but it was now or never.

"So basically, Luna went mad because her power over the Moon and Celestia's power over the Sun got out of balance with each other. That normally happened and they were rebalanced two or three times a year, sometimes more." He closed the old book and turned to face Sky directly. "But to balance those huge powers, something called an eclipse had to happen. In the middle of the day, the Moon would rise and go in front of the Sun. How much of the Sun was covered depended on how badly the imbalance needed to be corrected. Sometimes the Moon just covered a small bit, making it look like somepony had taken a bite out of the Sun." He leaned forward dramatically, causing Sky to tense up. "Sometimes, the Moon covered the whole of the Sun, making it look like a blazing ring of fire in the sky, and the day would go dark as night." He straightened up again. "Eclipses normally lasted less than five minutes, but could be as long as seven and a half minutes. In any case they weren't really that long or frequent, meaning the pony responsible for them didn't need to do his job that often."

"Celestia and Luna's brother?" asked Sky quietly. Bee nodded.

"Prince Temporal. His power was necessary to bring the Sun and Moon together and to rebalance the powers of his sisters." Bee scratched his chin. "Celestia didn't say much about what happened to Temporal, but he felt underappreciated and worthless due to only being needed at most five times a year, for at most seven and a half minutes at once." Bee dropped his scratching hoof into his lap as he blankly gazed at the wall. "He didn't realise how important he really was. Without his eclipses to fix the imbalances between his sisters' powers, the problem got so bad that when Luna eventually started to feel underappreciated for her work as well, her anger was able to corrupt her entirely."

"Night Mare Moon," Sky whispered in awe. "So, why did he leave and stop eclipsing?"

"He didn't leave. He was banished." Sky gasped. "Celestia and Luna worked together to imprison him in a ring of mountains somewhere. He had become corrupted in his own way, never helping to look after Equestria except for those few fleeting moments when his sisters requested an eclipse. He went a bit mad, like Luna would do much later on, and had to be stopped. I don't know what he was doing, or threatening to do, but it was obviously quite serious." Bee eased off his stool and walked to the nearest window. He opened the shutters and moonlight bathed his concerned face, which grew more concerned as he saw how late it was getting. "I think he just got fed up with being so uninvolved with Equestria on a day-to-day basis that, in his corrupted state, he figured a good way of becoming more involved would be to explore the darker sides to magic."

"But why is all of this so important right now, tonight?" Bee considered his response carefully.

"Because after a thousand years of Luna's power being absent from the world, the prison that both the alicorn sisters put Temporal in has begun to fail. He's on the verge of escaping, and I think Celestia will need our help to stop him."

Chapter Three

The filly's mind was reeling. Apparently, Celestia really did have a sister on the Moon, as well as an evil-sounding brother out of nowhere. Now, Bee was telling her that this powerful alicorn was breaking free of his sisters' mountain prison, and Celestia needed help stopping him; but a word Bee had just used confused her.

"You think she'll need our help?"

"Yes, I do." He turned away from the window. The moonlight cast a solid shadow of him against the far wall, with the candlelight's erratic shadow flitting around it.

"But why think? Did she say she needed us or are you just assuming she will?" Bee looked down at the floor.

"I've never heard Celestia sound so worried in all the years we've been here, Sky. Whatever it is exactly that she's planning on doing, it will be difficult and thinking about it upset her." He looked back up to meet Sky's gaze. "I want to be there for her, even though I'm just a pegasus, an eyesore of a pegasus, and your magic isn't any great shakes. We might be able to do something, anything to help." Ordinarily Sky would have angrily retorted following that jibe at her magic, but she was distracted by what he'd said right before that.

"Oh Bee, please, we've been through this. You are not an eyesore, nor are you a mutant, a freak, a monstrosity or any other big word you try to shut me up with. Yes, you're very tall and you're black and yellow and your wings aren't feathery, but do you know what that does make you?" She slid off her stool and trotted over to him. "That makes you Wonderwhy. That makes you my brother. You'd be the same pony whatever you looked like. Celestia says the same thing too." Her stern expression softened. "But don't just believe me, hear her say it herself. Let's go help her out!"

Bee wasn't sure how to navigate the maelstrom in his head. He hadn't meant to say 'eyesore' but it was almost automatic. Moving to Canterlot hadn't been easy; in such a prim and proper environment, somepony like him was usually regarded with either fear or contempt. Initially he'd tried to make himself appear less threatening by choosing orange and purple work-clothes, and sporting a watch with a bright-green pastern-strap. Often though, these just exaggerated the problem. Nearly everypony he saw on a day-to-day basis was fully used to his looks by now... and yet whenever he went out in public, unless it was an obscure hour of the day, he saw worried backward glances and hasty crossings-of-streets through his glasses. They were the most austere component of his attire, being a modest brown to match his eyes.

He shook himself to return to the here and now.

"Thanks," he replied quietly through a weak smile, "but I don't even know where she is. She got up without warning and sped off."

"Huh. Maybe she doesn't want us with her after all. If she did, surely she would have told you where she was going?" Sky frowned. "But why would she want us, exactly? It's true: my magic isn't that strong or amazing yet, and you don't have any magic you can control. So what use would we be? She'd take some royal guard unicorns, surely."

Bee looked around the dishevelled study. He could clearly remember every conversation he'd ever had in here, including those with Celestia. He remembered the times they'd spent together: researching his past, helping Sky to develop her magic, discussing low-level matters of state over casual lunches. He turned back to his sister.

"Maybe she doesn't need royal guards. Maybe she just needs a friend or two." He knelt down and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "I asked you if you knew any tracking spells; if you do, now's the time to use them." Sky bit her bottom lip. "Perhaps you learnt one in case you were ever lost? Maybe Celestia taught you something about locating other ponies in case of emergency?" Sky sadly shook her head.

"Sorry Bee, I can't think of any. I don't think she ever did." Bee sat down heavily.

"Well, there goes that plan." He turned his head back towards the old book on the table, in danger of being soiled by candle wax. "We must find some way to get to her. She was really upset, she was actually crying. I haven't see- Hay!" Bee yelped as his front left hoof suddenly flew out from under him, sending him sprawling across the room.

"Oh dear, Bee I'm sorry," Sky apologised after running over to see if he was alright. "That wasn't on purpose. Actually I don't know if that was me, but I think it was. I'm sorry!" Bee looked up at her quizzically.

"That was you? Why in the world did you do that?"

"I'm not sure it was me, I felt my horn twinge when you said Celestia had been crying, and then you-" Sky began explaining, but she was abruptly cut short by Bee flinging his foreleg and smacking her on the muzzle. "Ow! Bee, I said I was sorry!"

"So am I!" he exclaimed, "I didn't do that deliberately either!" He suddenly noticed a pale blue glow around his sister's horn. "Your horn Sky, it's glowing. You're doing this after all!"

"What?" Sky crossed her eyes to look at her own horn, which was giving off its usual light signifying its use. "How strange, I'm not trying to use magic right now."

"Was it something you said? Or something that I said?" Bee asked, getting cautiously back on his hooves. Sky thought about it for a moment.

"All I can think of is... I was reminded of this one weird spell Celestia taught me the other day. It's the one she wanted me to practise while staying in Canterlot, instead of going to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration."

"What does it do, apart from give my hoof a mind of its own?"

"I don't even know, there's this short poem I have to say, and I have to completely relax and clear my head of everything else. That's what Celestia said, but every time I tried it with her, nothing happened. My horn glowed and I felt as if I was using magic, but it never did anything." Bee looked at his jumpy hoof again.

"Maybe you should try it now, properly. Say your poem, whatever it is, and maybe something sensible will happen after all. I'll try and help you work it out, okay?"

Sky nodded before moving to the open window, so she had as much empty space in front of her as possible, just in case that would be needed. She started breathing slowly and deeply. She closed her eyes and tried to empty her mind of everything, until only the five-couplet spell was shining behind her eyelids.

"Take your time Sky. No point rushing it if that stops it from working properly."

As she focused, Bee noticed that not only her horn was giving off a gentle blue glow. The white moonlight streaming through the window behind her was coloured a vivid cyan as her entire body shone blue.

"Your... horn... is glowing Sky, you look just fine so far," Bee called from across the room. "Whenever you're ready, give it a go, but try to keep it under control." He anxiously leant more weight on his miscreant of a front left hoof to hold it still.

With a final deep breath, the alicorn filly stretched out her little wings at right angles to her body, both of them individually glowing too. As calm as could be, she began her intonation:

"Water born of deepest dread, by a mighty power shed..." Bee's hoof gently tried to ease itself off the floor. Because he was expecting it this time, and because Sky was in control, he managed to remain perfectly balanced as his hoof raised itself into the air. His foreleg extended as his hoof started drifting away from him. With a shock, the realisation hit him: his hoof was reacting to the spell because the first couplet referred to water, originating from sadness and released by a 'mighty power'.

Sky's spell was meant to be performed on alicorn tears.

"I know not why you're here with me, so let my eyes your secrets see..." To stop his elevated hoof from pulling him off-balance, Bee performed an awkward tripedal shuffle in the direction it was pointing.

"I don't know why you fell to earth; cryptic darkness cloaks your birth..." The spell sounded more and more like one intended for use by ponies wishing to know why an alicorn was sad. Bee didn't think alicorns cried that often, he'd only ever seen Celestia do it once; so maybe an alicorn tear's existence guaranteed that something was seriously wrong somewhere.

"To alleviate your mother's plight, I need the path to her in sight..." Bee's errant leg led him to the window opposite where Sky was standing. Struggling with his one controllable foreleg, he opened the shutters and let his hoof stick out into the night.

"So for her sake I ask of you: a shining light..." Slowly the filly opened her eyes. Her irises had lost their usual brown colour and had become the same bright blue as her glow.

"... to guide me true," she finished quietly.

With a subdued whistling sound, her glow left most of her body, converging on her horn alone, before shooting out of the tip as a short-lived pulse of intense blue light. It travelled straight across the room and disappeared into Bee's affected hoof. This too began glowing bright blue as it tried ever harder to pull him out of the window. Then, he saw where exactly it was pointing: following his shiny blue hoof with his gaze, he found himself looking directly at the bank where he and Celestia had conversed earlier that night.

"Bee?" Sky called timidly. She was completely back to normal. "Are you alright? What's wrong with your hoof now? Do you know what those words meant?" Bee curled the side of his mouth facing her into a grin.

"Sky, go and put the rest of your usual outfit on and then follow me, and bring my work clothes too. I don't know how cold it could be where we're going."

"Wait, how will I find you?"

"I shouldn't be too hard to spot," Bee laughed as he waggled his glowing hoof. With that, he unfurled his huge wings and launched into the night, half flying, half being dragged through the sky over Canterlot.

Chapter Four

Remarkably few ponies saw the cone of pale light beaming into the air that night, given the lateness of the hour, and those that did assumed they were seeing things. Brightsky, on the other hoof, took its existence very seriously and dutifully flapped her way over the rooftops of Canterlot towards it. Wonderwhy soon came into view, standing next to a stream with his blue hoof pointing straight up into the air. He lowered his leg when he saw Sky approaching.

"How can you move your leg now?" she asked as she dropped his work clothes on his back before touching down next to him.

"It pulled less and less strongly as I got closer to here; now, I can barely feel it trying to point towards the water." Sky frowned as the light from his hoof faded completely. "Huh, well now I can't feel it doing anything." Bee experimentally rotated his pastern.

"But, there's nothing here," Sky observed. "Now what? And what did that spell actually do, apart from make your hoof blue and drag you across the town?"

Bee sat down on the grass, almost exactly where he'd been sitting with Celestia.

"Your poem mentions water that's created from sadness, and it asks the water to lead you to its mother. Obviously water doesn't actually have parents; what it means is the pony whom it came from."

"Water that came from a pony? Eww!"

"Oh honestly Sky, not that sort of water. Think about it: water created by sadness? From a 'mighty power'?"

"Oh, does it mean a tear?" Bee mockingly clapped his hooves, prompting Sky to magically pick up his work clothes and throw them over his head.

"The mighty power bit refers to alicorns," he chuckled as he yanked the clothes off his face and started putting them on. He was surprised to hear a soft rattle as he swung his cloak on. Turning around, he spotted his glasses lying in the grass. "You found them!"

"They weren't that hard to find, I just had to sweep the books off your floor."

"Thanks anyway." Bee nestled them on his nose and turned back to Sky. "Yes, so that spell guided my hoof here because when I was talking to Celestia, and she started crying, one of her tears fell on my hoof... but now that we're here, I'm not sure what to do." He kicked up a tuft of grass in his agitation. "Now I'm sure she wanted us to follow her, why else would she have taught you that spell just a few days ago?" He looked at his hoof again. "Maybe one tear just wasn't en- That's it!" He made Sky jump as he whipped around to face her again. "Do you think you could do the spell again, here?"

"Uh, I guess so, but, why would it be any better here?"

"Because when she was upset," Bee said as he fished around in a pocket, "I gave her this... um, this... aha! This hoofkerchief!" he proudly declared as he tugged it free. "She washed it off in the stream for me, so I think that maybe, just maybe, there'll be enough of her tears left close to here, in the water."

Sky looked doubtful, but she did agree that Celestia must have taught her that spell for a reason. Maybe this was what would finally free her full magical ability?

"Okay, I'll do it, but stand back from the water because I don't know what it will do." Bee did as he was told. Sky went and stood with her forelegs practically in the stream, believing that she would be protected from whatever might happen and that being in close proximity to the water would somehow help.

She cleared her mind and built up her magic like she had in Bee's study. He watched as her little wings once again stretched out to either side of her body, while her white horn took on its customary glow: the same luminous vivid cyan that featured across roughly half of her blue-and-white coat. She closed her eyes to block out all sights except the poem, bright and clear in her mind.

"Water born of deepest dread, by a mighty power shed..." Bee jumped backwards in shock when his sister spoke, for it didn't sound much like her. Well, it sort of did, but at the same time it sounded like somepony else. Several someponies else, actually. Her voice sounded way too powerful for such a small body, and it was almost like a group of ponies speaking all at once, which was impossible.

"I know not why you're here with me, so let my eyes your secrets see..." Ripples travelled across the stream, radiating out from where Sky was casting her spell. They were unaffected by the stream's natural direction of flow, which actually seemed to be slowing down the more Bee looked at it.

"I don't know why you fell to earth; cryptic darkness cloaks your birth..." Suddenly the ripples became small waves, and the stream's natural flow completely halted. Each multi-tonal syllable of the spell spawned a new wave, bigger than the last. As the waves began to splash over the opposite bank, Bee had a dreadful feeling that this was a terrible mistake. The spell had caused his hoof to drag him across Canterlot; what if it caused the contents of the stream to blast over the banks and sweep away the whole town?

"To alleviate your mother's plight, I need the path to her in sight..." The waves were now being whipped into a frenzy, each one taller than Sky and still growing. The dark line in the grass on the opposite bank marking the extent of the waves' reach steadily crept further away from the stream. Bee was about to step in and tell Sky that it might be wise to stop, but before he could she began the final couplet, and with it came an intensifying roar from the stream. A hole opened up in the water right in front of her, and it quickly grew as the increasingly tall waves drove more and more water away from the filly. Her whole-body glow was much brighter than it had been in the study, and little white sparks were appearing at the tip of her horn.

"So for her sake I ask of you..." Bee was now more than slightly scared. He clearly heard those words emanate from multiple points around him, and the waves had amalgamated into a continuously-maintained semi-circular wall of water, rising several average ponies above his sister.

"A shining light..." With those words Sky opened her eyes again. Instead of simply her irises being blue, each entire eye was now just a featureless blue disc, emitting twin beams of blue light into the hole created by the waves.

"To guide me true!" came the final shout, each of the multiple voices clearly audible and definitely not coming from Sky's mouth. The wall of water imploded and refilled the hole in the stream, but the beams of light from her eyes had some sort of repulsive effect on the water. She carried on staring intently at the opposite bank, but as the water fell back into the stream it never got closer than about three feet to those beams. The result was a curtain of falling water with a constant hole bored though it. Before all the water could fall back into the stream, Sky's all-body glow migrated forwards so that it only shrouded her horn, as before, but this time it spread outwards from the tip in a sustained ring of light. The ring extended into a cylinder that tunnelled perfectly through the hole in the falling water, entrapping the last remnants of the curtain within its circumference. When Sky's body and horn had stopped glowing completely, and her eyes had returned to normal, there was a tube of water hovering a few inches above the now-normal ebb of the stream. Its walls were kept in place by a thin double-ring of Sky's magic.

"Did... did it work?" Sky asked in her normal voice, albeit with a wobble. Her legs didn't look too stable either. "Bee? Do you know where... the Princess is..."

Bee got to her just as her legs gave out. He caught her with a hoof and a wing before she hit the grass.

"Well done you, Brightlight Bluesky. Well done you," he whispered as he let her head slide gently off his wing. He stood staring down the supernatural passageway hovering above the stream. He gingerly placed a hoof inside; the double-ring of magic made the whole thing solid inside and out, despite essentially being made of liquid water. The other end of the tunnel was not blocked by the sloping ground, as Bee expected. Instead the tunnel ended in a bright blue disc with swirling white streaks slowly circling around its face.

He bit his bottom lip as he struggled with the quandary: should he leave Sky here, prone on the grass, and trust that she'd be alright sleeping under the stars until and if he got back... no, that was silly, he could just carry her back to the School and put her in bed properly. Just as he decided on that course of action however, the tunnel flashed a pulse of light along its length, and the open end suddenly retreated several inches as the double-ring wall started to decay. Water fell into the stream as it was released from its role as structural support.

Without another thought Bee tore off his cloak and gently wiggled Sky's free as well. He tied them together into a makeshift hammock. He held the loose corners in his mouth after rolling Sky into the middle of the material, and carried her into the tunnel. He had to crouch, which made keeping Sky suspended off the bottom of the tunnel difficult, but he was spurred on by further splashing noises behind him, indicating the tunnel's collapse was accelerating. With a deep breath, he stepped through the blindingly bright blue-and-white disc of light at the end of the tunnel, which would lead him nopony-knows-where.

Chapter Five

Lethal magic setting the very air ablaze? An airborne duel accompanied by a thunderous soundscape? The end of the world?

A simple argument?

Of all the things Bee dreaded stepping into once past the blue disc, the very last thing he could possibly have expected was there to greet him: nothing.

After the brilliance of the disc, he was completely blind in the sudden dark. He turned around to check it was still there; a pallid circle was inscribed on the wall, its faint glow barely illuminating his surroundings.

Fearful of walking any further into the silent gloom, Bee waited for his eyes to adjust. He carefully set his sister down to ease the toothache caused by carrying her sling. After a few minutes he could make out that he was in some sort of cave, the ceiling shrouded in stalactites, the ground criss-crossed by tiny rivulets of icy water. He only now noticed that the air was hardly balmy either. His cloak suddenly seemed a very attractive prospect, but he couldn't bring himself to tug it out from under Sky.

A few moments of chilly silence later, Bee felt sure the sprawl of cave to his left was ever so slightly brighter than that to his right. After gathering the loose corners of her sling in his mouth again, he carried Sky along the damp passageway, hoping to find nothing hazardous in the dim light. It didn't take long to reach the cave entrance, which revealed the ponies' new location to be a mountainside. Bee grimaced as a strong wind suddenly whipped around the assembled peaks. It was unlike any range of mountains he'd ever heard of: apart from the one his cave was sheltered in, Bee saw only five mountains. Depending on how you viewed the scene, the peaks either described the rim of a circle or the corners of a hexagon. Far, far below the cave, Bee could just about see the grass hugging the base of the mountain. Indeed, it looked as if the entire plain enclosed by the six mountains was covered in long grass.

"Bee?" His sister's unannounced stirring almost made him drop her sling. "Where are we? Why is it so cold?" She squirmed in the fabric, gently scraping away at her closed eyes. Bee set her down next to him, but back from the lip of the cave's mouth.

"I'm not sure where we are," he said, straining to be heard above the wind without resorting to shouting, "actually I have absolutely no idea where we are. All I know is we're on a mountain."

"Why?"

"Your spell, Sky, it led me here." Hearing this immediately roused her curiosity and she was fully awake. She squinted in the harsh breeze, unequipped with the vague protection afforded Bee by his glasses. The Moon, despite having seemed to be on its way down to make way for morning back in Canterlot, was high in the sky here, hovering directly above the centre of the grassy mountain-rimmed plateau. Its light seemed a bit more intense there than everywhere else, so much so that Bee could have sworn a veritable column of moonlight was hanging from above. "I'm guessing whatever made your spell bring us here is down there."

"Wait, I know this place..." Sky mumbled to herself, too quietly for Bee to hear. She didn't want to say anything loudly until she was sure of herself.

"So, feel awake enough to have a quick fly in this weather?" The wind punctuated his words by picking up speed as his question ended. "I don't think there's a way down from this cave by hoof."

Sky nodded slowly, then more vigorously as she remembered why they were here. She hesitantly extended her wings, testing the wind's speed and direction, both of which proved too unstable to judge accurately.

Bee quickly separated his cloak from hers, dismantling the sling; they would need all the protection from this wind they could get. After helping her to adorn her cloak without it blowing away and swinging on his own, Bee started sliding down the mountainside, using his wings to brake and steer. Sky opted to be fully airborne, jerkily dropping in altitude to keep level with her brother. He soon decided to go fully airborne too, so he could catch her quickly if the wind gusted violently.

It took more than ten minutes of heart-stopping airtime to reach the grassy plain. They were both out of breath and suffering from cramp where their wings sprouted from their backs, but they didn't pause before trotting towards the shaft of light.

When they were only about a furlong from where the shaft met the ground, they could see a slight rise in the grass. The small hillock presumably marked the exact centre of the plain, and it sported a little stone building. Every few seconds a dome of pale gold light flashed into existence around the outcrop, before fading away again. Sky gasped.

"That looked like Celestia's magic!"

"Let's go," Bee replied as the wind speed crept up another notch.

They hadn't gone much further when the humble wooden door which had faithfully guarded the building's face for however many generations was abruptly relieved of duty. A sizeable explosion from within the building removed it from its post. Having been annihilated, rather than simply knocked off its hinges, the door's demise made Bee and Sky pause their approach. Another blast with a bit more power behind it rocked the building, sending out a concussion wave that flattened the grass of the plateau and whipped Sky's mane into a frenzy. Bee's more modest mane lost all of its usual tidiness too.

They saw a figure back out of the ruined doorway, bolts of pale gold blasting from their long horn every few seconds to coincide with the dome's regular appearance.

"Princess Celestia!" the approaching ponies called out together. She seemed to hear them because she flared her wings in response, but she didn't break concentration for one second. She continued firing regular bolts of magic into the building, causing the dome to flash into existence every time.

Bee motioned to Sky that he was going to go on ahead to see what was happening, and that she should wait here. Talking was now too much work in the howling gale. Shivering, Sky hunkered down in the grass and nuzzled her face between her forelegs. Her wings stretched forward to cover her flattened ears for good measure.

Celestia noticed Bee's slow crouching advance, and after a few more blasts of dome-inducing magic, more powerful than before, she extended her wings and fought her way through the storm towards him. He started a similar effort to meet her halfway but she shook her head at him.

He tried to block as much of the wind as possible with his substantial wings, but the cold seemed to magically bite straight through to his bones. Celestia landed in front of him with markedly less than her customary level of grace.

"Bee!" she said loudly, just shy of having to shout despite being right by him. "I trust you two made use of a certain spell!"

"She pulled it off amazingly, although it dumped us in a cave up on that mountain!" Bee bellowed back while pointing over his shoulder. Celestia smiled.

"It's in the nature of the spell to safeguard the caster, it would never have led you directly here!" Bee nodded in response. He peered around the alicorn at the little stone building, which still emitted small explosions very frequently.

"So what exactly is here? What's making all that noise?"

"My brother." Bee froze.

"What, right there, in that building?" Bee jumped as another, larger explosion rocked the alleged prison. "With all due respect it doesn't look capable of containing a corrupted alicorn!"

"The physical building extends deep underground; there are numerous doors and labyrinths, impenetrable and inescapable for the most part," Celestia called back, forced to raise her voice, "but it was always the magic shielding my sister and I put in place which formed the true impasse to our brother's escape!" Dust now billowed out of the building after every explosion, only to be wrenched into the sky by the ever-strengthening tempest. The dust created a thickening wall, swirling around the column of moonlight focused on the prison.

"Were you giving that magic shielding a boost just now?"

Celestia nodded as the largest explosion yet distended all four walls of the little building, which now seemed on the verge of total collapse. The concussion wave raced across the plateau, buffeting all three ponies who were struggling to keep their hooves on the ground anyway. Sky peeked out from between her hooves and saw her brother standing dangerously close to the building with Celestia. She was on the verge of tears, not knowing what would happen next or if any of them would ever even get to see home again.

"It will not hold him back much longer," Celestia struggled to confess over the din, "it was designed to make use of Luna's power too! For as long as we were both present in Equestria, this prison was maintained by passively drawing on our power! Now that it's been deprived of Luna for a thousand years, it has weakened enough for him to escape!" The roar of the wind was now joined by a constant stream of cracking, shattering and creaking from the building, which became more visually stressed with every passing explosion. "Bee, we have to move back! The only thing that can stop him is my sister returning to us, but until that happens we can only stay out of the way!"

Right on cue, the valiant little building gave up its centuries-long battle with its lone inhabitant. A final bone-rattling blast disintegrated the structure and swept Bee clean off his hooves. Celestia managed to get airborne just in time to ride the shockwave, rather than suffer its full force, and guided her clumsy flight towards the terrified filly hunkered down in the grass.

"Brightsky!" The young pony looked up at the sound of her name. "You aren't safe here! You need to head back to the cave and use your portal! Once you're back in Canterlot, destroy it so my brother doesn't have..." The wind whisked away the rest of her words.

"But Princess, there must be something I can do!" Now the filly really was crying. "There must be a reason we're here! Bee's big and strong and I can do magic, even though it's not very good yet, there has to be something we can do!"

"I had hoped so," Celestia shouted back. "You must have released some deeper power when you cast that portal spell, no ordinary magic could have done it! Do you remember feeling anything unusual? If so, now's the time to call on it again!" Her sudden high expectations made Sky feel even worse.

"I'm sorry Princess, I don't remember, I really don't remember even doing that spell, but I know I must have because we're here..." She totally broke down at this point and buried her head in the grass again. To round off her distress, her mind was suddenly racing.

There were dozens of thoughts and feelings streaming around her brain, too many to come from one pony simultaneously.

Despite her frustration at having failed to finally reveal whatever secrets her student had concealed inside her, Celestia couldn't be upset with the filly. She was terrified out of her mind and in terrible danger. Perhaps she should never have come at all.

"Celestia!" came a sudden bellow from near to the building, barely audible over the storm. She looked back towards the dense dust wall swirling around the moonlight shaft to see Bee, crawling away from the ruins of the prison. His body and wings were pressed as flat against the ground as he could manage. "He's here, he's out! We need to move now!" Sure enough, a dark silhouette could be seen striding slowly around the edge of the destroyed building. Upon closer examination however, it did not seem to be alone. Celestia gasped as she saw a second figure, notably smaller than the first, curled up and unflinching in the eye of the storm, surrounded by stony fragments that once incarcerated the Prince.

Entrusting Sky to do as she was told, Celestia struggled back towards Bee through the wind and dust, which was starting to become painful as it grazed away at her eyes and wings. She began building up a bolt of magic in her horn to project at her brother but the power seemed to leave her horn as soon as she gathered it there. Looking along its length, she was devastated to see that the dust appeared to be siphoning her magic away. Grains of dust glowed gold as they struck her horn, carrying off any magical energy she summoned as soon as it was ready for use. A rolling, thunderous laugh echoed around the ring of mountains as the standing silhouette stopped studying its comatose counterpart, and instead turned to face Celestia.

"Bee, I'm going to need your help to hold him off as long as possible! My magic is being drained by this dust!" Bee stood up from his crouch slowly, to avoid being caught off-guard by any sudden extra-violent gusts. "I'm not sure, but I think I know why the dust is stopping my spells! The prison was enchanted to absorb and retain the magic my sister and I put into it, to keep it strong for longer should we be unable to maintain it for a while! The prison is now in countless specks of dust, flying all around us! It hits my horn and deprives me of my magic before I can use it!" She lowered her head and shielded her face with her wings, but she found that in order to properly protect her horn she had to enclose it so much that it became impossible to project magic without her wings being in the way.

The shadowy figure began to advance out of the dust vortex. The moonlight shaft emphasised his fierce red-on-black coat.

"I can't do this alone! Do you think you can help me?"

Determined to prove himself useful, Bee staggered a few feet upwind of Celestia and dug his hooves deep into the grass. Drawing himself up to his full height, he tenderly unfurled his wings to form a protective screen for the Princess' face.

He only lasted a few seconds before the pain set in. Being sheets of tough hide supported on bony ribs, rather than being feathery and soft, his large wings were incredibly effective at stopping the dust. However with the wind blowing this fast the dust was more like a cloud of rocks striking his wing membranes. He'd sensibly kept them close to his body and as streamlined as possible; flared out as they now were, they experienced the full abrasive force of the storm. Hot tears pricked at his eyes while a faint redness coloured the dust streaming off his wings. With an angry cry Bee admitted defeat and clasped his wings to his shoulders. The pain didn't let up though, because the damage had already been done. Dust continued pummelling his half-shredded wings, no matter which way he turned to face.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do! I can't help you!"

Celestia winced at the sight of Bee's wings and the undeniable redness, however faint it was, that tainted the air around him before streaming away in the wind.

Suddenly a voice rang out across the plateau from somewhere behind them. Bee recognised it as being a bizarre amalgamation of the multiple voices he'd heard when Sky had cast the tear tracking spell back in Canterlot.

"But we can."

Chapter Six

Princess Celestia whirled around to see who had spoken, and was shocked to see little Sky standing before her. Although her mane, tail, and wing feathers were being blustered about by the wind, she stood firm and unmoved. Her eyes were seemingly unaffected by the punishing dust, wide open and staring intently. They had once again lost their features and appeared only as two white beacons of light. She started walking towards Celestia and Bee, whose own eyes were struggling to remain open against the wind and the pain from his wings.

"Brightsky?" Celestia asked as quietly as she could while still being coherent over the wind. The filly walked right up to the Princess, who squinted against her eye-lights.

"Equestria is in need of our services once more," came the six-layer reply, easily audible over the wind despite the filly not appearing to shout, or put any unusual effort into her speech at all. Celestia bowed her head as she realised who it was talking with the filly's mouth.

"I wasn't expecting you here tonight, I didn't even know you could harness a pony's body like this!" she called above the gale. "In fact I wasn't aware you had this degree of sentience! Are you here to incarcerate my brother?" The filly shook her head.

"You and your sister did an admirable job the first time without our assistance, and you two can do it again now. Even though he was unprepared and hence unresistive previously, we are still not necessary."

"Then why are you here?"

"Years ago, we realised that Prince Temporal would inevitably regain his freedom, so we abandoned our bodies of stone and took on a living form of flesh and blood." At this, Sky nodded towards Bee. He saw the gesture through his half-closed eyelids and turned to face the filly directly. He shook his head, not understanding. "A pegasus colt, much like any other, was to be born the day we took this decision, however we saw something special in the pony he could one day become. We designated him as our vessel, and just before he was born we suitably modified his body to be able to accommodate us." Bee opened his eyes fully in surprise before being forced to squint again. "Not anypony's body is capable of supporting all of our combined six-fold magic. We had to adjust you suitably. You were not a unicorn, but your future sister would be. We altered her body before birth too, and withdrew our presence from you."

"My sister was meant to be a unicorn?"

"Seeing as she was destined to be magical already, our presence tipped the scales in favour of her being born an alicorn," the otherworldly voice explained as Sky walked closer to Bee. "We guided your life prior to your sister's birth, and we've guided hers too, with the intention of you both arriving here and now, safely."

All of this was a bit overwhelming in Bee's current condition. He sank to the grass, his legs folding underneath him. Sky walked right up to him and lifted his chin with a foreleg, so that they were eye-to-eye. Hers had dimmed their light to avoid blinding him, and he could see her irises; they were no longer their usual mix of brown and dark orange, but a subtly fluctuating rainbow of colours.

"Wonderwhy, we did not intend to make certain aspects and periods of your life as miserable as they were, due to the modifications we had to make to your body. Our sole desire is to preserve the harmony in Equestria, and your personal, sporadic disharmony was not sufficient to make us reconsider. Temporal's escape had to be prevented whatever the cost. Your body's redesign was only partly under our control; some of your features were unfortunate side-effects of our power." Sky glanced briefly at Bee's disintegrating wings, still effusing a fine red mist. "We hope you will forgive us in time." Bee lethargically moved his head from side to side, before he summoned the strength to give it a proper shake. He uneasily rose to his hooves, keeping what was left of his wings hugged close to his body.

"That doesn't matter now," he croaked as loudly as he could to be heard over the wind, "what matters is we actually do prevent his escape. What's the plan?" He'd finally worked out he was speaking to none other than the fabled Elements of Harmony, and he didn't care for grievances about his past while they were present and, hopefully, about to save Equestria.

"My understanding is that you never perform magic by yourselves," Celestia chimed in. The Elements nodded.

"We are tools to be used by ponies seeking to preserve harmony in Equestria, and on our own we can only subtly affect the world."

"But, after all these years, my ties to you have weakened and I cannot command you," Celestia lamented.

"You don't have to," the Elements said with a smile. Their eyes dimmed to Sky's usual brown, and she looked up at the Princess and her brother nervously.

"Th-they want me to use them, b-but I don't know how," she blurted. "I'm not strong enough to control them!" Her eyes reilluminated.

"We will show you how," the Elements chorused. "It will only take a moment."

"Pity you don't have that moment," came a gravelly voice, making everypony jump. "Even though I'm curious as to what exactly your great plan is, I'm not going to wait around any longer." A bolt of red magic crashed into the grass between the three ponies. The blast instantly burned a large patch to a crisp while throwing the ponies away from each other.

The caster landed heavily in the middle of the burnt area, panting.

"Oh, these pathetic wings of mine," he grumbled. Out of the thickest portion of the dust vortex and with the moonlight shaft behind him, Prince Temporal was now revealed for all to see. His hooves were a luminous red too while his eyes were a pale yet piercing opal blue. His mane and tail were expectedly ethereal, but instead of long and flowing, his mane was fairly contained between his pointed ears and his wavy tail didn't extend below his hocks. As well as being a striking gold, his mane and tail were significantly coloured with a vibrant indigo hue. He sported eight grey circlet bands, two on each leg, housing small black jewels which erratically shot sparks amongst each other.

He folded away his surprisingly thin and svelte wings, which were clearly too slight to easily transport his thick and powerful body through the air. He looked up and caught sight of Celestia straining to build up any useful magic in her horn.

"Looks like the prison you so strenuously put together just for me has turned against you," he laughed in his scratchy tone. He turned to Bee who was struggling to stand. "What are you even doing here? Ha, I think you look as out-of-place in this world as I do!" Bee turned towards the shattered prison and staggered away from Temporal. "You'll find nothing of any use there, my freaky pony. And as for you," he shouted, rounding on Sky who was walking back towards the scorched grass, "I take back what I said earlier. Tell me what you think you can do to stop me, exactly." He flared his wings and made his sharp-tipped horn glow red. "I wish to know exactly how futile your plan is, so that I can laugh accordingly loud."

Sky stopped walking towards the Prince, reilluminating her eyes again. With the Elements back in control, her horn started glowing with magic of its own. Instead of her usual blue though, it was a whole rainbow of colour.

Get to the prison before he loses interest in us, they telepathically said to Bee, who had been making his way there anyway. That other pony lying in the wreckage is an innocent earth mare who ventured too close for her own good. We don't know how she found this place, but by the time she had the magical shielding had weakened enough for Temporal to pull her through with his own magic. He intends to use her as a hostage; Celestia would never do anything to put one of her subjects in harm's way like that. Rescue her and stop Temporal from having that leverage.

Bee struggled onwards through the thickest of the dust vortex, inadvertently gasping every time a particularly strong gust of wind tore at his reddened wings. Blissfully he stumbled out and the wind mercifully abated. The air was clear.

He was in the eye of the dust vortex, where the moonlight shaft brightly lit up the wrecked prison. The pony in the middle of the room was as still and quiet as the air.

Bee walked up to the blue body, and was relieved to see the mare was breathing. She had some obvious bruising and other damage to her coat. Her relatively short mane was a mess, and her tail was splayed on the floor around her. Her eyes were lightly closed, and the more he listened, the less sure Bee was that her breathing was satisfactorily deep to keep her alive.

She was only injured when the prison failed, Temporal didn't do her any harm on purpose because that could have made her a less valuable hostage. He's careless by nature, and didn't bother to protect her in any way as he belligerently escaped. Try and get her to safety while we occupy him, the Elements said inside Bee's mind. He looked over his shoulder to see the Elements manoeuvring his sister's little body at a breathtaking pace as she ducked and dodged and dived through the storm. The Elements still hadn't yet managed to enable Sky to fully utilise them, so her only attack was to shoot small bolts of magic at the Prince. At least every shot hit its target, unlike the Prince's strafing bursts of red magic which couldn't ever find the agile filly. In terms of aerobatics, he was massively outclassed.

Bee whimpered when he saw the trail of red spots left in his wake by his dripping wings. He knelt down and gently nudged the blue mare's shoulder with his hoof.

"Hay," he whispered, "can you hear me?" She groaned encouragingly. "Hello?"

The earth pony twitched her head. Bee was about to consider carrying her out of the prison's carcass when her eyelids unexpectedly flicked open. Her eyes flashed around the room before she jumped to her hooves, almost collapsing again as her face screwed up in pain that seemed to be from either her shoulders or back.

"Can you walk?" Bee asked calmly but firmly, to get her attention. She opened her eyes and shivered when she saw the imposing black-and-yellow stallion standing beside her. "No wait, please don't be frightened of me, I'm with the good guys here." She seemed to relax a little, then stiffened again when she saw his reddened sides.

"Oh hay chaff, what happened to your wings?"

"Never mind that, can you walk? I'm here to get you to safety and I need to start carrying you right away if-"

"I'm fine," she said quickly, before giving him a quick smile. "I can walk myself."

"Follow me and stay quiet," Bee said as he nodded in response.

"What, so that I don't hear you?" bellowed the rough voice of Prince Temporal as he skimmed low over the prison. Bee immediately noticed his horn was glowing red.

"Move!" he shouted at the earth mare, throwing himself forwards to shove her out of the nearest hole in the shattered walls. She hit the grass just as Temporal unleashed his magic, missing her by inches. The bolt hit the wall, which collapsed inwards before Bee could pick himself up. He scooted away as fast as he could in a half-crawl but didn't quite manage to get his left back leg clear of the falling masonry. He yelled as its lower half twisted excessively under the crushing weight of stone. Temporal landed clumsily in front of him, panting again. He caught his breath just enough to mock,

"I hope you think that mare was worth your leg, freak!" Bee couldn't hold back the tears at all anymore. The pain from his wings, the pain from his leg, the dawning realisation that he, Sky and Celestia had seemingly failed and were never going home; it was all too much. "Ha, pathetic, just like that sister of mine," scoffed the Prince. "And those Elements of Harmony. What have they done to me? Apart from ruffle my coat, that is." He shook with laughter that echoed off the sides of the dust vortex which still spiralled into the sky, while the moonlight shaft continued to brightly highlight every detail of the prison.

A thunderous crash erupted from above as the moonlight suddenly dimmed. Temporal craned his neck upwards and saw a mysterious six-armed star above the top of the dust vortex, covering most of the Moon. Standing on top of the star was a tall alicorn, rearing up on its hind legs, silhouetted against the Moon.

"Celestia! What magic is this?" Temporal roared upwards at the alicorn. "What have you got there covering the Moon?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Celestia asked as she cantered into the prison and quickly stunned her brother with a bolt of gold magic. He was thrown sideways into the building's last standing section of wall, which promptly toppled and buried the Prince in rubble. Celestia turned to Bee and levitated enough masonry to free his leg. "You've done all you can Bee, I can cast spells in the eye of the storm so you can go now. Get yourself and that mare to safety!" She finished in a surprised yell as Temporal burst from his rubble pile and swept the prison with a thick beam of red magic. Celestia managed to flap her wings and jump over it, while Bee just stayed lying where he was and the beam passed over him. He then gasped in pain as he tried to stand up. His wings would not stop their relentless red dripping and his twisted back leg was unable to support any of his weight. He spotted the earth mare a short distance away and started hobbling towards her.

"Oh no you don't!" yelled the Prince as he shot a red bolt at Bee, which was deflected by a gold pulse from Celestia.

"You've done enough to him Temporal, your quarrel is with me!" Celestia yelled back as she unleashed a merciless barrage of magic on her brother. He expertly deflected her shots with retaliatory blasts of his own.

The earth mare hobbled forwards to meet Bee. He tried to smile through the pain.

"Can you walk any better? Did that wall hit you at all?"

"What?" she whispered back in shock. "Are you seriously asking me if I'm alright when your own wings are falling off and your leg is facing the wrong way?"

"Yes." She was taken aback by the bluntness of his reply. Her mouth curled into a small smile of amazement.

"C'mon. You said to follow you, so show me the way out of this crazy place."

Bee started awkwardly shambling in the direction of the mountain which sheltered the cave he and Sky had arrived in from Canterlot, but as he turned to face the mountain he was startled to see that it had moved. Out of the dust vortex, he could now see that the six mountains bordering the grassy plain had grown substantially in height and were all bent inwards. Their peaks met right above the dust vortex, forming a six-armed star over the whole plateau. The mysterious alicorn that had stood atop the star was gone.

"Did you see who was up there?" Bee asked the mare, nodding at the mountain star. Before she could answer the alicorn in question landed right in front of the pair. She was as tall as Celestia and Bee, but her wings were far bigger. They were also, bizarrely, translucent enough to see through. Then Bee noticed the blue-and-white pattern of the alicorn's coat, and the rainbow glow around her horn.

"Sky?"

Chapter Seven

The alicorn's eyes dimmed and the rainbow aura of her horn faded. Bee could only stare dumbfounded into those massive orange-brown eyes, now inexplicably directly level with his own.

"I did it Bee!" Sky squealed, excitedly pawing the ground with her forelegs. This action almost tipped her over. "Oops, hehe. How in Equestria do you use legs this long as easily as you do..." She noticed his crushed leg.

"Sky!" Bee called sharply when he saw her face react to his leg. This was no time to get sidetracked. "What's this mountain thing going on? What's going to happen now?"

"Bee..." She'd lost all her enthusiasm at the sight of Bee's leg, and now his wings too having looked up in response to her name. He raised a foreleg and redirected her face towards his. Her expression made him start to tear up again.

"My body doesn't matter Sky, nothing matters now except stopping Temporal. The Elements said they would not be needed to stop him, his sisters could do it again." He dropped his foreleg back to earth to take the pressure off his ruined leg. "But I've just watched Celestia fighting Temporal face-to-face, and it's a total stalemate. Plus the effort she put into holding him off before we arrived has got to be counting against her now. I think Temporal's going to win if we just wait around for Luna to reappear, which doesn't look like happening after all." He squinted as the Elements took back control momentarily, illuminating Sky's eyes.

"Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about night-time eternal," they chorused. "Some legends are grounded in fact, Wonderwhy. Once Luna has returned, albeit in the form of Night Mare Moon, the prison will reform by drawing on her power as well as her sister's. All we have to do is bring her back."

"Bring her back?" Bee asked sceptically. "So, you're just going to shift some stars around and she'll return?" In response the Elements turned so that Bee could see Sky's cutie mark. It was the same as it had always been, a vivid blue heart containing three white stars and a white crescent moon. Only now did it mean anything special.

"No, but your sister will. Brightlight Bluesky obtained her cutie mark late one night while casually stargazing, correct? This is her destiny Wonderwhy, and we are here to help her fulfil it." They turned back to face him again. "We need a bit more time though, we have almost tapped into her mind sufficiently to allow her to cast the final magic. Time is of the essence now; we have maybe five minutes before Celestia faces certain defeat."

"Is Temporal actually going to go so far as to... kill her?" Bee swallowed heavily.

"He won't have to." The reply even caught the attention of the earth mare, who hadn't really been listening due to not understanding much of what was being said. "There is one way in which Celestia can re-imprison her brother all by herself, and she will do it to protect her subjects from his wrath despite the cost."

"Her life?" Bee gasped.

"By channelling every last scrap of her magical power into the prison, including the passive magic of her soul that sustains life in all ponies, she can successfully reform the physical prison as it once was, as well as the magic that did most of the work in keeping Temporal secured." Bee refused to accept this.

"Whatever happens tonight, Equestria will need her guidance in the days to come. We absolutely cannot let her do that." He suddenly had an idea. "Could anypony's passive soul magic rebuild the prison, or just hers?" Sky's eyes dimmed for just long enough for her to cry out,

"Bee, no!" before the Elements retook control.

"Your heart is noble Wonderwhy, but only Celestia can do this." Bee shook his head.

"She won't though. I'm going back in there to buy more time while you finish getting ready to release Luna." He gestured at the earth mare. "Get her out of here too." The Elements thought for a moment, but were duly reminded of the situation's pressing urgency by a flash of magic zinging past from the prison.

"Equestria would do well to find more ponies like you Wonderwhy," they finally replied. "Your caring nature has the potential to bring more harmony to the land, but there will be no harmony at all if Temporal wins tonight. Go now, we will be as quick as we can, but should we be too late, know that we will not forget you."

Bee bit his lower lip and resolutely nodded. He saw his sister's eyes dim for a fraction of a second before the Elements dispelled her control.

"Wait, let me speak to her a moment. I promise I'll be quick." Bee couldn't help but start to cry quietly when his little sister's big eyes reappeared with all their familiar softness. She immediately started crying once back in control of her body.

"Bee, please, don't go back there, it's too dangerous! Look at you, I wouldn't want you to go back even if you weren't hurt at all!" She tried to say something else but took a moment to choke up first. "I don't want you to go Bee, I want you to stay with me." He understood that she meant this literally and figuratively. "I don't want to lose you now, or ever! You're my brother and I love you too much to lose you! You might not ever leave that place if you go back now..." Her gasping breaths precluded the possibility of any further speech.

Bee sat down on the grass, awkwardly shifting his back leg so it didn't hurt more so. He watched as Sky sat down too, her enormous wings settling on the grass to either side. He raised both forelegs and gently held her face between them.

"Sky. You have made my life so very special. Life is one great big adventure, and I couldn't have asked for a better partner to accompany me on the journey for all these years. But now, I have to explore this part of my adventure by myself. Yes, my journey could end here, tonight, but if I don't willingly take that chance, everypony's journey could end against their will. You know I have to do this." He leant forwards and hugged her tight. "You mustn't be too upset if it's my time to stop my adventure tonight, because it will mean that your journey carries on, along with everypony else." He sat back from her again, and managed a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders despite his tears and his pain. "And hay, if this journey ends for me, maybe another will start. I could have a whole new world to explore, and I'll be happy knowing I've allowed you to stay and explore this world for as long as you should." Sky bit her lip in a concerted effort to calm down, but she couldn't in the face of what might soon happen. She stood back up and offered a hoof to pull Bee up too. He lightly kissed her between the eyes. "Whatever path I walk after this is done, I will always love you. Now, go and shift some stars. We've got us a world to save."

"I love you too Bee." She sniffed loudly as the tears finally slowed down. "But... try to come back to me, hmm?" He smiled and nodded back. Without further ado her eyes lit up once more as the Elements took over again. Bee was stunned when they blinked and one more tear eked out to soil Sky's muzzle.

"Go," they whispered, before flaring their huge wings and powering off into the air. Bee turned to the earth mare when she said,

"They told me in my head, somehow, that the way out is over there." She pointed to the correct mountain. "I can take care of myself, now you go take care of the Prince." She nuzzled his shoulder gently. "Thank you, be careful and good luck... Bee." With a mock salute she turned and hobbled away.

Drawing in a deep breath, Bee turned and sized up the serious amount of hobbling he had to do himself in order to get back to the prison.

He didn't take as long as he thought he would; his sense of duty was just enough to dull the pain from his wings and leg. By watching the deflected bolts of magic, and seeing which colours shot out of which bit of the prison, he tried to work out where exactly the Prince was. He had to sneak up behind him; he wouldn't last five seconds if he gave himself away. The alicorn battle had heaped convenient piles of rubble everywhere which Bee used to conceal his approach. The air was starting to clear around the prison as the entire dust vortex seemed to be rising off the ground, towards the apex of the mountain star. Bee managed to get within ten yards of the duel before there was no more rubble to act as cover. He could hear Celestia breathing heavily, and while the Prince also sounded tired it wasn't due to magic exhaustion like his sister. He still had plenty of fight left in him.

"You grow weak sister," he growled, "all you're doing is delaying the inevitable." Celestia caught sight of Bee's bushy tail peeking out from behind the pile of rock that Temporal was striding past as he readied another powerful assault. His ruined wings made a brief appearance over the top of the pile, signalling to the Princess.

"You're right brother, it's about time for the inevitable." She flared her wings and aimed her horn. "So at your request, behold your inevitable defeat!" She sliced into the paved floor of the prison with a concentrated beam of her gold magic, collapsing the floor in front of the Prince into the first subterranean level of the dungeon. With wings too weak to rapidly fly above the collapse, he had no choice but to jump backwards, ending up right beside the rock pile.

"Pah, you intend to defeat me like that?" He was surprised at his sister's immediate shake of the head in response.

"Like this!" Bee shouted as he hurled a hefty rock into the side of Temporal's head. The momentary stun gave Bee enough time to stand up, jump forwards, and grapple the Prince around his shoulders and neck. The tackle sent both ponies sprawling across the ground. "I may not have magic but I won't let you walk all over us!" Bee kept one hoof on Temporal's throat to stop the glowing horn from pointing at him. He used his two remaining good legs to restrain the Prince and occasionally get a hit in. His bad leg meanwhile was kept out of the way as much as possible, but it was still the recipient of targeted kicks from Temporal. Celestia let loose with golden pulses whenever the struggling stallions were in a position for her to get a clear shot at her brother, but she was mostly taking the welcome opportunity to relax the strain on her exhausted reserve of magical power.

"Insolent fool!" the Prince choked out as Bee scored another hit on his neck while levering more pressure onto his throat. High above, unseen, Sky stood atop the mountain star. The dust vortex was now blitzing around her, but it wasn't a bother. She opened her eyes, shining two intense beams of light up at the Moon, before a cone of rainbow light exploded out of her horn. The apex of the mountain star trembled and began to crumble. She extended her wings in preparation for its eventual collapse. "There is nothing you can do! My sister has tired and you are dying as we speak. Those wings don't look ready to heal any time soon, and that leg would look better off in a dump." Suddenly he stopped thrashing. "Allow me to help you with that." With a minute twitch of his head, his horn was angled at the floor. It shot a thick beam of red magic that imploded the ceiling of the level below, taking the stallions with it. Bee was thrown off the Prince and was unable to stand again before Temporal levitated some rubble from across the room and used in to pin him against the wall. "How would you like me to remove that leg then?"

A golden blast exploded over the back of the Prince's head as Celestia dropped into the room.

"Leave him you coward!"

Temporal pouted.

"But we were having so much fun. I don't like ponies that interrupt my fun." His horn glowed, but there were streaks of black in the normally-red aura. "Let's see you do that again without a soul, Celestia!"

"No! Don't!" called Bee from the corner. He had managed to wiggle his head free of the rocks holding him against the wall. "Leave her soul alone!"

"Fine," Temporal said quietly, "I'll have yours." Before Celestia had the chance to blast her brother again, he whipped around and released the pent up magic from his pointed horn. The shot landed smack between Bee's eyes and sent him crashing backwards through the wall and into the next room. Temporal had a second to laugh before Celestia brought the ceiling directly above him cascading down. This event exposed the whole area below where the old prison building stood. Celestia looked up and saw large chunks falling off the mountain star as the actual stars which were encompassed by Sky's rainbow cone began to twinkle more vibrantly.

Temporal exploded his way out of the remains of the ceiling and saw the stars for himself.

"No, that's impossible! What are you doing?"

"Nothing, it's the Elements of Harmony you should ask," replied Celestia as she flew out of the hole in the ground which marked where the prison had stood, and would soon stand again. "The Elements and a little filly called Brightlight Bluesky."

With that the twinkling stars did the unthinkable and moved across the sky. They disappeared behind the Moon just as the mountain star crumbled completely, forcing Sky to leap into the air and withdraw her rainbow cone. For a second the Moon flashed brighter than usual.

Just like that, the image of the Mare in the Moon disappeared.

Night Mare Moon was back in Equestria and the prison knew it.

Before he could muster the required strength in his diminutive wings to jump out of the prison, Temporal was forced to watch as the dust vortex suddenly glowed cobalt blue. He cried out while Celestia laughed; they both recognised the colour of their sister's magic aura. The vortex thinned and lengthened, screaming down towards the prison. As it hit the ground the golden dome of Celestia's magic burst back into being, absorbing the colour of Luna's magic until it was a blend of the two. Within the now greenish gray dome, the decoloured dust clumped together into solid shapes. These quickly refined themselves into stone bricks, which wasted no time reassembling the destroyed prison.

Temporal shouted with rage as the walls built up around him and infused themselves with his sisters' magic. Before the ground floor repaired itself, Celestia walked into the melee of flying bricks and looked down at her brother. He tried to shoot a bolt at her, but the very air within the prison was now resistant to his power.

"How?! How can you outshine my power so effortlessly?"

"Outshine?" Celestia shouted back while laughing. Her horn glowed gold. "I think you mean... eclipse!" With a final effort she pumped as much of her remaining magic as she safely could into the prison's magical defences. An invisible force took hold of the Prince and drove him straight down through the floor, and through every one of the countless floors thereafter. The bricks flew in to heal the holes within seconds, shutting away Prince Temporal from the world once more.

About a minute more passed and the deed was done. Celestia found herself on the ground floor of the secure prison, standing quietly but proudly as it had done for untold centuries. The greenish gray dome was in place over the building and all of the internal barriers, physical and magical, had regenerated themselves.

The newly reappointed wooden door creaked open as the Elements walked in. Celestia turned to face them, and once they'd come to a stop she gracefully bowed.

"Thank you most sincerely for your assistance." She was surprised when the alicorn facing her bowed in return.

"Thank you, Princess Celestia, for safeguarding the harmony of our land." Closing their eyes and lowering their head, they continued, "And thank you dear Wonderwhy for the willing payment of your life to safeguard the harmony of our land."

"Bee!" Celestia exclaimed. She ran down the refurbished stairs against the side of the building and along the corridor to the room where she'd last seen him.

What she found was a stallion's body lying on its side, but it didn't look as if it still contained a life.

"Bee?" she called as she approached. His wings were all but gone after he'd been forced through the stone wall, and the hock of his left back leg looked like somepony had tied a knot in it. His glasses had exploded when Temporal hit him with that final blast, leaving dozens of tiny scrapes all over his blackened face. Sure, some of his face was naturally black, but not this shade.

Celestia sank to her knees just as the Elements walked into the room. She turned around in a sudden panic.

"Wait, don't let... Sky see him," she finished with a mumble, realising it was too late. Sky's eyes dimmed as she forced the Elements out of the way. She didn't dissolve as Celestia thought she might, instead walking over and lowering herself to the floor alongside the Princess. She slid a hoof along the floor until it was in contact with Bee's chest, then she laid her head on Celestia's shoulder. The Princess felt gentle drops as Sky began to cry without a sound. "He was brilliant, Brightsky. Even with his wings and his leg the way they were, he jumped on my brother and refused to let go while I got some strength back in my magic." Sky nodded her head without lifting it from Celestia's side. "Not many ponies would have tackled an alicorn like that."

"Bee." That was all Sky could say before she started sobbing. Meanwhile, in the furthest corner of her mind, the Elements of Harmony looked on.

"He's not yet lost to us," they said as they gently took back control of Sky's body. "That attack from Temporal was intended to cleanly sweep Wonderwhy's soul away, but as usual the Prince was not focused enough. Although his body is defeated, there are traces of Temporal's magic still there, and within them, traces of soul." The Elements lifted their head from Celestia and gingerly probed Bee's ribs with their outstretched hoof. "We cannot bring past ponies back to life, that is a disruption to the harmony of life and death, however Wonderwhy is not entirely past yet. The traces of soul that remain are enough to reconstitute him, as he was, but not his body." The Elements turned their head to Celestia. "If we are to save him, we need some other pony's passive soul magic to purge Temporal's presence, and to rebuild the parts of Wonderwhy's soul that deal with maintaining his body. His soul can be salvaged from what is left here, but not his body's life essence."

"Can I be of any service?" asked the Princess. The Elements shook their head.

"An alicorn's life essence is incompatible with anything else. It would do more harm than good." Their eyes dimmed as Sky rubbed at her muzzle to dry her tears.

"Can I do it?" she piped up. "I know I'm really a unicorn, but is my life stuff okay to use for Bee?" Her eyes illuminated as her head tilted in thought.

"Your life essence may be just the thing, Brightlight Bluesky. It is young, which will give Wonderwhy's soul much needed vitality if he is to pull through." The Elements frowned. "But because you are young, you may not donate too much of it. Your living body will replenish its life essence, but the maximum amount we can put into your brother now, without harming you, is insufficient."

"I'll help."

The two alicorns turned to see the earth mare standing in the corridor. She'd been wiping her eyes but quickly stopped once spotted.

"He almost lost his life saving mine. It's only fair that I return the favour." She strode into the room as best she could given her own injuries. "And yeah, I didn't go and find the portal or whatever it is to Canterlot. That little show you put on? Wouldn't have missed it for the world." She sat down across from the alicorns on the other side of Bee. "Oh look at you, you big klutz, I told you to be careful," she whispered as she rested a hoof on his shoulder. The Elements nodded at the earth pony.

"Brightlight Bluesky's youthful essence combined with your strength of spirit will give Wonderwhy an excellent head-start in his recovery. However," they cautioned as they stood up, "we cannot guarantee that Wonderwhy will pull through after this. Healing is an extension of the natural cycle of life and death, and we cannot interfere by relieving Wonderwhy of his wounds. By restoring his soul we will give him the best possible chance of recovery, but in the end it will still be up to him." While mentally showing Sky how to use them for this delicate procedure, they told the earth pony to keep her hoof on his shoulder, before one of Sky's hooves joined it.

Her horn glowed with the Elements' rainbow aura as Sky felt her whole body tingle. Faint waves of rainbow light pulsed down her leg and into Bee's shoulder. The earth mare looked inquisitively at her own pulsing leg. With each wave of restorative magic that entered his body, Bee's black-and-yellow coat faded to a uniform white, as did his tail and what was left of his mane.

"We are purging Temporal's magic and freeing his soul," the Elements explained. "Because none of his original life essence remains, his body is like a blank canvas. We will work it as necessary, the same way we worked it before he was born." They smiled. "He will be the same basic shape, but he will no longer be a strongly-coloured giant. His mane, tail, coat, and eyes will be a perfect blend between yours," they said as they probed Sky mentally and looked at the earth mare physically. "Although, he will be a grounded pegasus. Returning his wings counts as healing, which we cannot undertake. We think the rest of his body should heal in time, but his leg will always trouble him." The pulses of light stopped. The Elements withdrew their hoof and nodded for the earth mare to do the same. "We are unsure how his senses will heal themselves. Specifically, his vision and sense of smell; his eyes and nose were directly in the path of the attack." They shrugged. "We shall see... even though he may not."

Everypony looked at the stallion that now lay before them, hard-pressed to recognise him as Wonderwhy. His nickname Bee certainly wasn't appropriate anymore.

"We hope this helps make up for the disharmony he was subjected to because of the body we originally gave him," the Elements said. "And now, Brightlight Bluesky, it is your turn." Her eyes flashed back to their usual state in her confusion. "Yes dear filly, you need no longer bear us within your young head. Our work here is done, and soon we shall be needed elsewhere to defeat Night Mare Moon. Brightlight Bluesky, we now completely withdraw ourselves from your mind and your soul. Live as you were meant to, in the body you were meant to." A rainbow glow shrouded her body, too opaque for Celestia or the earth mare to see through. When the glow lifted to float against the ceiling, a little unicorn was standing in the room.

We can take care of your sister. Ensure Wonderwhy, Brightlight Bluesky, and the earth mare get safely back to Canterlot through the portal, and then destroy it before you come to check on us in Ponyville. Until then, Princess Celestia, the Elements telepathically said, before fading away altogether.

"Wow," stated the earth pony, looking at the new Wonderwhy and Sky, who giggled as she looked herself over.

"I think I can get used to this, but I'm going to miss flying," Sky said as she turned to look at the stallion that was apparently her brother. He'd just started breathing again, and his frequent cough didn't sound very healthy. "But not as much as you'll miss it, Bee."

Chapter Eight

Colours. A vibrant swirl of colour was all he could see, without form or definition. It had started with a spiral of black and red that seemed to come from a distance, before growing to fill his entire field of view. Now he was suspended in a void of light. He looked around and discovered that he had no body; he was but a point in this ever-shifting world of shapeless hues.

Sounds. From everywhere at once he heard a sound so familiar, it was like a memory. A whistling, screeching sound. It didn't take him long to place it as the red-and-black swirl's sound as it had whizzed through the air towards him. After that though he remembered nothing, save for this bizarre, dimensionless space.

Feelings. Suddenly he could sense something soft supporting the body he didn't have. It was warm, and comforting. Another soft thing lightly covered the front of his body, as if he was lying down in a bed. He didn't know what to make of these sensations, given that he clearly had no body and was not anywhere near a bed.

The world of colour dimmed suddenly, becoming nothing but a gradient from black to white. The intermediary gray surrounded him, with blackness off in one distance and brightness off in another. He felt a gentle tugging towards the light, and as the tug rapidly accelerated into a rushing force, propelling him along at what may have been a great speed, he heard a quiet voice in his non-existent head:

One day, Wonderwhy, but not yet. One day, not yet.

Then the brightness was upon him and he shot through.

The total darkness following the blinding light surprised him. He tried to open his eyes but something soft was tied around his head. It took him a moment to realise that he even had a head again. Experimentally he sent out instructions to shift his legs, one by one, and three of them responded. A head and three legs, he thought, that's not a bad start. What else have I got here?

He could rotate his head through a small arc, meaning he had a neck, but the narrow limit of movement was interesting. He tried to shrug his shoulders, and again was met with limited success. A tail twitch was achieved even though he had attempted a full-on swish. So, everything is accounted for except one leg. Could be worse I guess.

Then he started remembering. The mountain star, the prison, Celestia and Sky and... Temporal! What had happened to the Prince? The last thing he remembered was the earth mare telling him to be careful before he went back to help the Princess. Guess I messed that up somehow, he mused as he unsuccessfully tried to move his back left leg again. This time it hurt, and then without warning everything hurt.

His involuntary groan provoked a commotion off to his right. The sound of hooves on a wooden floor was pleasant confirmation that wherever he was, he wasn't alone.

"Bee? Can you hear me?" What better pony to be there with him, too!

"Is that you Sky?" he asked as he tried to turn his head to the right. By now he had established that he was indeed lying down in a bed, flat on his back. He was unable to fully rotate his head to face the voice he'd heard, nor was he able to stop his head from sinking into the pillow.

"Yes! Oh Bee, you're awake! Does your leg hurt much?"

"Ha, I think so, but I can't tell what exactly is hurting right now. I think everything is." He winced as his back twinged along its whole length. "Wow, how long have I been lying flat like this? My wings are so numb I can't even feel them." He stopped smiling partly because his face was now hurting too, but mostly because Sky didn't respond. "What's wrong? Haven't you ever had numb wings? Of course you normally lie on your side when you sleep, as do I, but wow this is incredible. I can't get them to move at all, I can't feel them in the slightest."

"Your wings aren't numb, Bee. They're not... anything, anymore."

He stopped smiling altogether. He rolled onto his right side as much as he could to face his sister and to expose the middle of his back. Gingerly, he slid a foreleg over his back, as far as he could without his shoulder hurting too much. He remained silent when he found nothing on his back at all, apart from two small areas of very rough skin. He cleared his throat.

"Ah. I see." He could remember the searing pain he'd felt as his wings disintegrated at the prison. Still unable to remember anything after that mare had wished him luck, he could only assume that his wings hadn't managed to stop disintegrating. Sky jumped slightly as he exhaled sharply. "Well, at least I still have my leg, right?" He finally managed to get some movement out of the damaged limb.

"Oh Bee," his sister whispered as she rested her head in front of his to nuzzle him gently. "Wait, does that hurt your face?"

"Wow, my face is broken too?" He lifted a hoof to his head and carefully felt around. Everything seemed intact, although there were many small cuts and grazes, and he couldn't tell what was going on beneath what he now knew to be a thick bandage strapped around his head. "Is this here for any particular reason? Can I get rid of-"

"Wait," came an unexpected voice from further away. Bee's ears twitched.

"Princess?" Slightly heavier footsteps crossed the room. "What's wrong with my head such that I have to have this on? And where are we?"

"You're home Bee," Celestia replied, now at his bedside too. "This is your own bed, at the School." Some mild creaking and shuffling indicated the Princess was seating herself on the floor next to Sky. "What do you remember?"

"Um... you were holding off your brother, and... I was escorting the earth mare away from the prison. Sky met us on the way in her Elemental transform, then she left to prepare the final spell to release your sister." He paused. "The earth mare bid me farewell as I started back to the prison to help you... and that's it," Bee finished, conceding defeat. "I can't remember anything after that. So did we win?"

"Thanks to you we did," the Princess replied. "You were wonderful. It's such a pity that you had to... pay so highly."

"You mean my wings and my leg?" Bee tried to shrug again; it wasn't easy with his constant all-body ache. "I can get used to that. I think. I mean flying is great and all, but as long as I have three good legs I can still get around, right?" It wasn't hard for Sky and Celestia to detect the false bravery in his voice. He would probably be more upset over the next few days, once it had all had a chance to sink in. "Is my leg facing the right way now at least? Hehe, the earth mare pointed that little quirk out."

"I saw to it that you were tended to by the finest medical hooves in Canterlot," said the Princess softly, "it's the least you deserved. Your leg will always be problematic but it looks unremarkable, as will your back in time." She drew a sharp breath before continuing. "There were some things, however, for which no treatment could be found, and the extent of which we do not know. We are learning their full extent now as you do."

"Hmm. Such as?"

"By now you should have noticed the-" Her sentence was interrupted by a series of coughs from Sky that were receding into the distance. "We had some refuse in a box just outside your room, collected from various kitchens around Canterlot. Sky opened it when you woke up, as per the doctor's instructions. She's just gone to dispose of it now." A sigh. "It seems you have not retained your sense of smell."

Bee's head sank back onto the pillow.

"Great. I thought something was wrong when you said this is my room. I can always smell that funny 'old book' smell around here, but now..." He flared his nostrils experimentally. "Nothing." He gave his nose a quick rub. "Anything else I should know about?" He tapped the bandage on his head.

"You suffered the brunt of my brother's final attack with your head. The Elements of Harmony suggested that you may be unable to smell once recovered..." The end of the statement was a long time coming. "Or see."

Bee gently massaged his scorched forehead with the back of his hoof. He was almost fresh out of feigned bravado by now. He was putting a brave face on for the Princess and for his sister, who'd just returned from her rubbish run by the sounds of things, but he wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. I'll have time to ruminate on all of this, he thought to himself, but now I need to be strong.

"So what do I actually have left, exactly?" he said with a small laugh. "No wings, one leg of limited use, a senseless nose... and now my eyes might be useless too?"

"What you have left is your life, your sister, and your world," Celestia listed off. "I'm hoping you find that adequate compensation," she said with a low chuckle for the benefit of Bee who couldn't see her smile. "You have Brightsky to thank for your life, as well as the earth mare. They donated some of their bodies' life essence to restore yours. Your soul is your own, but technically your body is a blend of theirs." At this Bee extended a foreleg as far as his tender shoulder would allow. Sky shuffled forwards and nudged the proffered hoof with her muzzle.

"Guess I owe you one Sky," Bee said gently. "And that mare. It'd be so disappointing if I've gone blind, I was hoping to see her again in daylight and without a dust storm or a raging alicorn hogging my attention." He smiled broadly. "If I'm honest she didn't look that bad given the circumstances, in daylight I'm sure she's even-"

"What, exactly?" The question and accompanying chuckle startled Bee, his sudden twitch making his body hurt anew. "Relax, you big klutz, it's just 'that earth mare' who so happened to save your flank. Well, you did save mine first, so, call it even."

"H-how long have you been here?" spluttered Bee, suddenly going noticeably red.

"For every single one of the three days you've been sleeping off your big night out." Gentle hoofsteps crossed the room, stopping at the bedside. "You really had us worried for a while. Well, not me obviously, I know exactly what tough stuff you're made of thanks to me." She chuckled again before whispering, "I'm glad you're alright though, I never got to say thank-you properly." She rested a hoof on his shoulder before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Right, now you owe me."

"I'll keep that in mind," Bee said with a renewed broad smile. "I'm guessing your name isn't Earth Mare."

"Duh," she said with a laugh. "Valorous. Before you say anything, yes, it is a bit more like a stallion's name than a mare's but I like it. I think it fits."

"No no, it's fine," Bee said quickly, "great in fact. Very fitting. But you do realise my name isn't in fact Klutz, right?"

"Eh, I dunno. That seems fitting, too." Bee couldn't help but laugh. "Besides, I can't call you 'Bee' anymore. Well I could but it doesn't fit very well."

"Oh?"

"Obviously. You've got your sister and me in you now, remember? Your sister looks new too; the Elements restored her body to what it was going to be before they got involved. They wanted to restore you too, but, there wasn't anything left after the Prince was done. We had to start almost from scratch." Bee considered his next question carefully.

"Well, in case my eyes are now useless, what are your exact colours in daylight? I registered some different shades but the only colour I can think of is blue."

"Well that's good, I am largely blue. Princess, what would you say?"

"Hmm. Your coat is either a moderate cobalt blue, or a brilliant sapphire, depending on the light. Your eyes are... a luminous, vivid hue of cerulean," she described as thoroughly as she could for Bee's benefit. "Your mane and tail are part light gray, and partly a darker, moderate blue." Figuring Bee would also be interested to know what his sister now looked like, the Princess continued. "Brightsky, turn around so the sunlight catches you better through the window... yes, there we go. Your coat is a solid white, while your mane and tail are partly the same luminous vivid cyan that half of your coat used to be. The remainder is equally luminous and vivid, but a darker, stronger blue." With a subtle laugh she finished, "Your eyes are the same though; that intriguing, strong orangey shade which is almost brown."

Bee had been nodding away throughout the speech, trying his best to picture these descriptions.

"Oh, and I'm a unicorn now," Sky chimed in, "like I was supposed to be all along."

"And me?" Bee asked. "If I can't see, I'd like to know what I look like too."

"For starters, you're more refined than you were," Valorous said. "You're still tall but not as tall as the Princess. Your mane is kind of a mess to be honest, but your tail is more restrained than it was. Not as bushy." She added quickly, "It all works well together, don't worry."

"And my colours?"

"A fine blend of these two fine young ponies," Celestia said with a smile at Sky and Val. "Your coat is similar to the sort of blue you see in permanent mountaintop ice, while your hooves, mane and tail are a brilliant version of the blue you usually see in cornflowers."

"I would have said it's a sort of purple," Sky mumbled.

Bee drew a deep breath and whistled it out.

"Wow. So, now what am I to do? I don't think I'm in any fit state to continue my researching for you, Princess, but I'll go mad if I have to stay in bed."

"Well, I know you love what you do, but I of course understand that you need some time off to recuperate. You remember you sent that letter to one of your friends down in Ponyville about a week ago? Basstrot, wasn't it? I've heard through Saving Grace that he and your other acquaintances have already found you a place to live in Ponyville. I'm recommending you go and spend some time in the fresh country air, to be with your friends, and to continue your research at a more relaxed pace."

"I helped too," Val said cheerily. "I've always been a bit... uh, troublesome, shall we say? I live down in Ponyville too, and Gracie often helps me out if I'm in a bit of a pickle."

"Wait, you know Saving Grace? And you call her Gracie?" Bee was surprised. Saving Grace was a unicorn mare who had been stationed in Ponyville for some time. She was a sort of experimental Royal Guard representative posted to the town by Celestia a while ago, to be a first-response protective spell caster should anything dramatic arise before the Royal Guard could arrive to sort it out. This duty made her a very serious individual, and Bee's years of knowing her while she'd lived in Canterlot made it almost unthinkable that she'd let anyone call her 'Gracie'.

"Of course! As Ponyville's resident guard or whatever, she's nearly always rescuing me from my more... eventful outings. Although I must say even she would be impressed at where I managed to end up three days ago."

"To help you cheer up," Celestia said as she walked closer to the bed, "I've left some tickets to the forthcoming Grand Galloping Gala on your table here. Take them with you to Ponyville and invite your friends along."

"Thanks," Bee mumbled.

"What's up?" Sky queried.

With a huff, Bee raised both forelegs to remove the bandage around his head. He heard all three ponies by his bedside draw breath, no doubt to advise him otherwise.

"I need to know everypony," he said quickly before any protestations came forth. Silently he fumbled with the bandage until it slipped off his head and dropped to the floor. Celestia, Sky and Val held their collective breath as the stallion's eyes slowly eased open. Once similar to his sister's eyes, they were now a grayish aquamarine. With a blank and emotionless expression on his face, his eyes swept across the room. If he was able to see, he was looking out of his bedroom window, then at Val who was returning his stoic countenance. His gaze shifted to Celestia and his sister, without ever giving away any clues as to whether his sight had been spared or not.

Finally, as his head turned to the right, he directly looked at the Gala tickets on his bedside table. Next to them was a little teacup, filled to the brim with dirt. A freshly potted flower stood proudly in the soil, having been set there as a little get-well gift from Sky. The glorious orange bloom stared right back at Bee's unflinching face.

"Marigold," he whispered as he suddenly cracked a broad smile. "My favourite."