*Canterlot castle, meeting room 3*

The scroll materialized out of a burst of dragonfire and deposited itself on the table in front of Princess Celestia.

“One moment please. I need to see to this.” Celestia said as she lifted the scroll in her magic. The other ponies in the room stopped speaking as the Princess turned her attention away from them to the parchment.

Celestia was hoping that this latest report from Twilight Sparkle would clear up the whole sun/bird situation in the Everfree. Harmony knows she could use some good news. What she got was not clarity. Or even pleasing. Instead, it raised at least a dozen new questions. And a few very unpleasant memories.

“I’m sorry councilor,” Celestia said to councilor Silver Spire, who was in the midst of pitching a proposal to her for infrastructure investment and improvements around Manehatten, “but something has come up and I need to deal with it immediately. Please provide my seneschal Raven with the details of your proposal, and once I review it, we can resume this discussion tomorrow.”

Bowing graciously, though somewhat stiffly, the councilor responded, “Of course your highness. Tomorrow then.”

Papers were exchanged and ponies were filed out the door. As soon as the Manehatten delegation had left, Celestia raised her forehoves to her temples and slowly massaged them, trying to head off the massive migraine she was afraid she was going to develop.

“Your majesty? Is there anything you need?” Raven said as she approached her sovereign, mentally preparing to write down an order to the kitchen.

“Yes, Raven, thank you.” Celesita said as she looked at her concerned assistant. “Could you please contact the vault and have them fetch me a bottle of Substance M-32. On second thought, make it two bottles, preferably the 487 vintage.

“And… tell my sister I want to see her. Immediately.”

“Of course Princess.” Raven said as she bowed and prepared to leave and deliver the orders to their respective ponies.

‘Okay, this is bad.’ Raven thought to herself. ‘Last time she asked for that stuff was after that whole business with Discord got wrapped up.’

As soon as Raven had left the room, Celestia dropped her head against the table with a resounding “thud,” leaving a deep gash in the wood where her horn had struck.

“Nothing is ever simple, is it?” She asked nobody in particular.

A few minutes later the doors to the room opened. Without any fanfare, a unicorn strode in with a large, shockproof metal case with the hazard symbols for both “extremely flammable” and “highly explosive” in his magic. Approaching the princess, specialist Chemical Hazard set the case on the table next to the alicorn. Hearing a muttered ‘thank you’ from the princess, who had yet to raise her head, the specialist bowed and took his leave.

Finally mustering the energy to rise, Celestia sighed as she broke the mystical seal on the case and pulled out the first bottle of Substance M-32, or as she liked to call it, Golden Sunfire. After their ascension, both Celestia and Luna had learned that regular alcohol just didn’t affect them anymore. So, they had devised a way to produce something that could. Of the many different results, Golden Sunfire was probably her favorite. It was rum. Distilled from pure, concentrated, liquefied sunlight, then fermented using microscopic fire elementals, and aged in basalt-lined tungsten barrels. Beyond the “solahol” content, the resulting concoction carried enough energy in a single bottle to power all of Canterlot for a day, or explosively incinerate anypony other than a fully ascendant alicorn foolish enough to imbibe it. Even exposing it to the atmosphere was dangerous; the concoction was so volatile it would combust with even minimal contact with air, and could burn through solid stone once ignited.

Casting a shield spell around the table, the avatar of the sun purged the atmosphere from within the dome, before thickening and enhancing it to prevent any air or light from leaking back in. Now satisfied that she wouldn’t burn down part of the castle, Celestia cracked the seal on the metallic bottle and pulled out the tungsten cork. Once open, the contents immediately began to produce a beam of light, which filled the space within the shield with an intense, white-hot glow. Raising the bottle to her nose, Celestia sniffed it, inhaling the bouquet of noon sun.

‘Good vintage on this one.’ Celestia sighed.

Holding the container in one of her hooves, Celestia threw her head back and took two very large swigs of the lethal concoction, the flavors of a clear, sunny day, the heat of the desert and all of the colors of the rainbow filling her taste buds. As she felt the warm liquid light hit her stomach, she sighed contentedly.

‘Ah, that helps’

Taking another deep swig from the bottle, and feeling her mood lifting slightly, Celestia picked up the letter again and re-read it. Yup, still said the same thing. Another large gulp of Sunfire followed the first two.

*****

“Princess Luna?” Raven said tentatively as she knocked on the Lunar Diarch’s door, ignoring the two thestral guards stationed on her sides.

When she heard no response, she knocked again. “Princess Luna, its Raven. I’m sorry to bother you, but your sister wishes to see you. She received a letter from Twilight Sparkle and promptly requested your immediate presence. She also sent for two bottles of Golden Sunfire.”

Behind the door, Raven could hear hoofsteps approaching before the portal cracked open, revealing the Lunar Princess.

“When?” The Princess of the Night asked.

“Less than four minutes ago. I came as soon as I sent the order to the vault.” Raven said as she looked up at Luna. Despite the lunar princess’s stoic mask, Raven had spent enough time around the alicorns to know that Luna was also concerned by what her sister had ordered.

“Where is she?” Luna asked.

“Meeting room 3.”

“Thank you Raven.” Luna said as she stepped into the hallway and closed her door behind her.

Bowing, Raven turned and took her leave.

*Canterlot meeting room 3, five minutes later*

As Luna entered the meeting room, the first thing she saw was the pearly, opaque shield spell surrounding the head of the table. Not a good sign. Luna knew that particular shield was meant to not only provide privacy, but prevent anything from entering or exiting the dome, including air and light. Which made it one of the few safe ways to consume Golden Sunfire outside sitting in a volcano. Luna had personally never liked the stuff. It was too hot and bright for her taste. She preferred Black Umbra or Shimmering Starlight.

Approaching the shield, Luna reached out with her magic and caused the dome to ripple. If her sister was drinking Sunfire, she’d have purged the atmosphere, which would make calling out to her pointless. Instead, by causing the dome to ripple, if Celestia was still lucid enough to notice, she’d know that Luna was outside.

A few moments later, the dome emitted a high-pitched hiss as Celestia allowed the shell to slowly permit the atmosphere to re-enter. Once the pressure was equalized, the shield went translucent and eventually faded.

As the shield dropped, Luna spotted her sister leaning on the table with her chin resting on her foreleg, staring wistfully into the now empty bottle of sun rum. Huffing, she tossed the metallic container to the side, which clanged sharply as it struck the floor, a few errant drops of Golden Sunfire burning white hot along the rim of the bottle or melting small patches of the stone floor. Turning her eyes, the solar princess spotted Luna and sighed through her nose.

“Hi sis!” Celestia said with a slightly dopey smile on her face. “How’re you? That’s great. Say, remember that silly little problem I was having with the sun fragment that turned out to be a bird? You do? Good! Well, it turns out that it’s also a pony! At the same time! Isn’t that neat?”

Luna’s heart sank. Celestia had gone through at least one bottle of Sunfire already, and the younger alicorn hoped that she hadn’t started on the second. Looking at the explosives case next to her sister, Luna was relieved to see that the other bottle was still unopened. Celestia could be a cheerful drunk, but she could also get explosively violent.

“That is… interesting.” Luna said as she looked at her sibling, and not quite following what she was getting at.

“Luna, I just said that the raven and pony are possibly one and the same. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Think about it.”

“Sister, we are not sure we follow” Luna said, her mind trying to recall exactly what her sister was trying to get at.

Rolling her head to the side, Celestia stared up at the ceiling, trying to focus her mind through the haze of solahol. The ceiling paintings in this room were pretty drab. She should have Luna touch them up a bit. Make ‘em really pretty.

“Luna.” Celestia said, her grin never leaving her face. “We’ve both been around the block a few times, yes? In all that time, when was the one instance when a pony changed into an animal, and was tied to one of our heavenly bodies. Mind you, it wasn’t a bird, and it wasn’t tied to the sun, but still, think about it. Carefully. When did that happen, and more importantly, WHY?”

“Um.” Luna started combing through her memories, trying to pin down what her sister was getting at. Then, it struck her like a ton of bricks.

“Do you mean?!” Luna gasped, catching on to what her sister was implying.

“Mmhmm. Amethyst Mirage.” Celestia said, her cheerful smile fading into a venomous scowl that she aimed directly at her sister, causing Luna’s stomach to tighten into a painful knot.

“Do you remember the opening act of your rebellion? What you did to my student?” Celestia growled as she lifted herself from the table, a thin line of tears beginning to trace themselves from her eyes. “How you turned her into that… beast… then set her on me? How I ended up killing her? And what you said to me when her corpse turned back into a pony?”

Luna slowly gulped, forcing the knot in her throat down.

“‘Now thoust knows what tis like to have something you love taken from you.’” Luna said, remembering her own delight in causing her sister to suffer. Backing up slightly, Luna raised a hoof defensively. “Sister, we had nothing to do with this.”

“Oh, I know you had nothing to do with this… directly.” Celestia said, her frown intensifying as she stood up and began to walk towards the smaller alicorn, her eyes glowing dangerously, “But, did you leave any sort of record about how to reproduce that curse? Anything that somepony could get their hands on and mess around with? Do. Not. Lie. To! ME!”

“No.” Luna said firmly as she stood her ground, “What Nightmare did to Amethyst Mirage was… unique. She tailored that curse specifically to her soul. Even if Nightmare… we… had created a record of how the curse was performed, it wouldn’t work on anyone other than Amethyst.”

“Besides,” Luna continued, “Nightmare never wrote anything down about that curse. And, we are the only ones who could invoke it.”

“And why is that?” Celestia hissed as she towered over her sibling.

“Because it requires that the caster be directly tied to a celestial body. And as far as either of us know, there are only two beings in existence that have that sort of bond. Myself… and you, sister.” Luna said.

“Are you sure?” Celestia growled as she stared at her sister. “Are you absolutely sure?”

“Beyond a shadow of a doubt.” Luna replied. “We swear to you, whoever or whatever is in the Everfree, it is not related to our shameful act towards Amethyst. It's just not possible.”

“That is a small comfort.” Celestia said as she lowered her head and let out a deep sigh. “But it still doesn’t get us any closer to a solution to what in Tartarus is loose near Ponyville.”

“Maybe… we could be of aid in this?” Luna said as she slowly approached her sister. “You mentioned that the… entity might take the guise of a pony. If this is so, then we might be able to find it in its dreams. Lean about it. Even make contact.”

Celestia sighed and turned to her sister, her expression weary and posture slightly unsteady. She’d clearly consumed too much solahol too quickly.

“At this point, anything we can do to figure out what this thing is. I’ll contact Twilight and let her know what we’re planning.” Celestia said as she turned to draft a letter to Twilight. However, when she lifted the quill in her magic, she inadvertently crushed it.

“Should we contact Twilight? We fear that the solahol is affecting your… coordination.” Luna said with a slight smile.

“No, I got this.” Celestia said as she tried a second time, only to cause the quill to ignite.

“Truly?” Luna snickered.

“Okay, fine. You take care of it.” Celestia said with a slight huff. “I’m going to go lay down for a bit.”

“Yes, that is probably a good idea.” Luna said as she summoned a fresh quill and sheet of parchment.

*Everfree forest*

‘Damn it!’ Dawn Wings swore as she flew over the trees at top speed, her stomach twisted into a tight, angry knot. ‘Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!’

She was furious. She was furious at that unicorn for interrupting her time with Zecora. She was furious at Zecora for inadvertently giving her some small sense of hope that she could have a friend in this sugary sweet hellhole of a world. She was furious at herself for letting all of this get to her. She was furious at the mage that banished her to this nightmare. And she was furious at the world, for dumping her into this twisted, maddening place, cut off from everyone she loved and leaving her with not only no way to get back, but the inability to even communicate with the people around her.

Dawn Wings could feel the rage building up in her. Pulling at her mind, clouding her judgment, just begging to be released.

And release it she did. Pulling in her wings and diving towards the trees, she pushed her rage into her flesh as she called upon the change. Unlike her normal transformation, her rage caused her form to violently expanded as she instantaneously shifted into crinos, slamming through the canopy and breaking into a gallop as she hit the ground.

‘Damn it!’

Channeling her rage into her flesh, the corax lashed out violently at one of the nearby trees, tearing into it with her talons, leaving dozens of deep lacerations in the wood. Again and again she struck, tearing through the wood with blinding speed. It wasn’t enough.

‘Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!’

Flaring her upper wings out, the corax leaped into the air and flapped hard, launching herself backwards. Skidding to a halt as she landed, she focused her mind, and sent spiritual energy down her wings. As she did, an invisible pulse accompanied by a metallic hiss passed up her forearms and wings, causing the feathers on all four limbs to take on a subtle, steely sheen.

‘DAMN IT!!’

Shrieking, she launched herself forward again, slamming the leading edge of her topmost wings into the trunk. Rather than breaking from the violent impact, the feathers carved deep rents into the wood like they were made of sharpened, tempered steel. One slice was followed by another. And another. Images of the unicorn, the zebra, the mage, its Black Spiral Dancer followers, and even her own face flashed over the rapidly shredding wood of the tree’s trunk as she vented her wrath. Her forelimbs and wings became a blur as she poured her rage into violent action. With a shuddering crack, the tree gave out and fell, crashing to the ground.

“Tch.” Dawn Wings hissed as she took a few deep breaths, her anger spent. Looking at the mauled tree, her anger was replaced with a sense of disgust.

She’d let her rage get the better of her and acted like some half-wit garou. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, the corax shifted back into her corvis form and flew out of the gap in the canopy she’d opened.

‘Damn it!’ She thought as she flew off.

*****

Dawn Wings continued to glide aimlessly over the treetops, her rage having given over to depression.

‘What’s the point anymore.’ She thought as she sailed on the wind currents in no particular direction. Below her, the trees gave way to a large canyon, but she was too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice.

After gliding completely free of the trees, her eyes shifted languidly downward, and finally noticed that she had flown clear of the forest. Below, jagged rocks and crumbling talus slopes extended off in both directions.

‘Maybe I should end it all. Just fold my wings in and let gravity do the rest.’ She thought as she spied a particularly unstable looking boulder field near the edge of the cliff. It wouldn’t take much for it to collapse and crush her under several tons of rock. ‘Its not like it would matter if I died anyway.’

She didn’t want to acknowledge just how tempting the idea was. To just let go, and join with Raven and Helios in the Great Sky. Shaking her head, she tried to banish the thought.

‘No.’ She thought. ‘I can’t just give up.’

Still, it was easier to say than to believe, and her heart still ached. So she did what she could to keep her mind off the present situation. She flew.

And as she did, she spotted something out of place in the canyon below. A patch of bright color amidst the rocks, partially hidden from sight. Her curiosity getting the better of her, the corax banked and began to descend into the ravine. It was probably nothing, but even so, it was something to at least focus on and take her out of her own mind for a little while.

As drew closer, she realized that it wasn’t “nothing.” It was decidedly something. Or rather, someone.

It was a corpse. A pony corpse. And from the look of it, it was still relatively fresh.

Swooping down and landing on the rocks by the body, Dawn Wings got a better look. It was a mare with robin-shell blue fur and a mint green mane, and from the angle of her neck, it appeared to have been snapped. Fluttering down onto the body, Dawn Wings walked up to the mare’s head before driving her beak into the soft tissue around the cheek. Pulling a piece of the corpse’s flesh free, she worked the meat across her tongue with her beak before swallowing it: the body was still fresh, probably around 2-3 days dead.

Looking the corpse over again, Dawn Wings was sure she’d seen this particular mare in the nearby town on one of her earlier visits. Skimming through her memories, she realized that she had seen this pony in the market.

‘Poor thing probably fell down the canyon and broke her neck.’ The corax thought. ‘What were you doing in such a lonely place, pony?’

Looking over the corpse a bit more, the corax stopped. Something just wasn’t adding up. For one, there were only minor abrasions on the body. If she’d fallen, there’d be more damage. Looking closer, she saw that the position of livor mortis was also wrong.

‘You didn’t die here, did you?’ She thought as she scanned the body again. ‘No. You didn’t. Someone dumped you here.’

Slowly, Dawn Wings closed her eyes and shook her head.

‘Guess this place isn’t so nice after all.’

Looking at the corpse, Dawn Wings sighed. Depressed or not, there were some things that were too important to ignore. This poor soul had been murdered, and that demanded someone to bear witness. And to her, such a thing was a fundamental law decreed by Raven himself. Flapping her wings twice, she landed next to the body.

“Hello.” She croaked, “I’m sorry that this happened to you. If you’re willing, I can do something to find who did this. But, it will mean that I have to damage you a little bit. Is that alright?”

Dawn Wings could feel the body contemplating it. After a few moments, she could feel it agree.

“Thank you. And again, I’m sorry.” She croaked.

Flapping her wings, the corax flew back up and landed on the pony’s head, staring into the milky retina of its left eye. Without any hesitation, Dawn Wings plunged her beak into the soft tissue and pulled free the aqueous humor. Tilting her head back, the Corax swallowed the fleshy chunk of eyeball whole. The moment it was past her throat, her mind’s eye was flooded with images.

She was inside of a home in the village, walking towards a flight of stairs in what she assumed was a living room. As she was walking, her perspective suddenly tilted forward at an odd angle, causing her to fall to the ground. Looking back over her shoulder, she could see a black, fanged, insect like pony. As she watched, the creature was engulfed in green fire, and as her vision faded, she could see a perfect duplicate of herself standing over her own dying body.

Moments later, Dawn Wings returned to herself.

‘Not good…’

Author's Note

And so Dawn Wings learns about a hidden enemy.

Also, the inspiriation for Celestia's favorite libation is a delightful little chemical called white phosphorus. Sunfire isn't the same as WP, but its still really good at burning stuff. And getting emotionally distraught Alicorns wasted.