Even for Twilight, the day began like any other day. She got up, ate some pancakes Spike had made for her, and retired to the library for some important re-cataloging. She would have been quite happy to do that all day, barring any kind of friendship emergency.
Today was not a normal day, and Twilight discovered this after some unknown number of hours when the book she was putting on a high shelf simply… dropped out of her magical grip. With a widening of her eyes, she focused to grab it again and… watched as it crashed to the floor, making her wince. She strained again, but again, nothing at all occurred.
A few perfectly normal speed breaths later (she told herself) she applied a more scientific approach. Could she teleport? No. Change the pencil on her table into an apple? No. Fly? Okay, that still worked, thankfully. Levitate? Not as much. This is fine. There had to be a book on this somewhere. There was always a book.
“Twilight!” A voice floated through the hallways, and a moment later Spike appeared in the doorway, holding a letter. “Twilight! There you are. Princess Celestia sent you-” He came around a table as he spoke, and then suddenly stopped dead, staring at the purple alicorn in front of him.
Twilight turned, looking up from the book she had been flipping through as fast as she could manage without magic. “What? What is it now, Spike? Please tell me this isn’t happening to everyone!”
Spike just pointed at her flank. “Your cutie mark! It’s… gone!”
Twilight paused. Blinked. Looked slowly over her shoulder. Broke out into a rather crazed grin. “Ah. That explains so much. I think.” She hurried over to Spike, taking the letter. “But surely if there’s a letter from Celestia she knows what’s going on and everything is going to be fine. Right, Spike? Everything is fine.”
“My Faithful Student,
There has been a strange occurrence here at the castle regarding Princess Luna. We could use your expertise. If you could come to Canterlot at your earliest convenience, I would be very grateful.”
“Spike, get the girls.”
By the time the train reached Canterlot, it was late into the evening, and the rest of Twilight’s friends had been brought up to date with Twilight’s missing cutie mark and magic. Twilight had at least been relieved to see that Rarity was unaffected by whatever had happened to her, but that relief had turned to more worry as the train ride had progressed.
Sunset was late. Very late. The sun had sank towards the horizon as if ashamed to still be out this late, but it had not disappeared, nor had the stars and moon come out. Twilight was increasingly worried that something terrible had happened to Luna, to have prevented her from raising the moon.
“That’s darned freaky, it is,” Applejack muttered, staring out the window at the half-lowered sun. “Giving me the willies.”
“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation,” Rarity replied, seeming unconcerned but also very much not looking outside. “The Princesses wouldn’t have called us if they didn’t think there was something we could do to help.”
“Yeah! We’ll just swoop in and save the day! Or… night. Or whatever.” Rainbow at least actually wasn’t worried. She just wasn’t sure yet whose butt to kick.
The train pulled into the station, and they stepped out to find Celestia waiting for them on the platform, flanked by a half dozen royal guards. Her eyes immediately went to Twilight’s blank flank, but they flicked back to her face a moment later. “Come, Twilight. We must get you to the castle.”
Celestia had been very evasive on the way to the castle. She’d barely acknowledged Twilight’s missing cutie mark, and repeatedly told them everything would be clear once they reached the castle. As they stepped through the door to Princess Luna’s chambers, they were greeted by… a curious sight.
Princess Luna was lying on her back on her bed. The canopy of said bed had been half torn off, giving a clear view of the swirling stars dancing through the air of her room. The lunar princess was giggling to herself delightedly as she swirled the stars above her. And on her flank, her cutie mark had changed – the moon was now surrounded by a series of six very familiar stars.
“Luna? Luna stole my cutie mark?” Twilight asked incredulously.
Celestia looked uncomfortable. “I… wouldn’t say she… stole them, per se. More that they… came to her. She’s been like this ever since they appeared. As far as I can tell, she’s magic-drunk. When we gave you our power to hide it from Tirek, the spells we used made sure you could channel it appropriately without it overwhelming you. This is likely what would have happened had we not. Once her body gets used to it, she should be fine, but I have been unable to convince her to raise the moon herself, and I do not want to force her. I was hoping you could.”
Twilight blinked. “But… my cutie mark! My magic! How does she have it? Why does she have it?”
Celestia flexed her wings. “I do not know. Perhaps you could ask her. Once she has her faculties back, it should be straightforward to have her return your magic to you but pulling it out of her now would be difficult and may not prevent it from happening again.”
Twilight sighed and nodded, approaching the bed. “Luna? Hey, Luna, are you alright?”
The alicorn of the moon looked at her. She giggled. Slowly, she reached out one hoof to touch Twilight’s snout. “Boop.”
Twilight’s eye twitched. “Luna, we need you to raise the moon, and then we need to you give me my magic back. It’s clearly not good for you.”
“No?” Giggle. “But it’s so spicy! Spicy star magic.”
Twilight watched her for a moment. “I didn’t want to have to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Pinkie?”
A pink blur appeared next to her. “Yes, Twilight?”
“Do your worst.”
A maniacal grin appeared over the party pony, and there was a flash of lightning in the distance. “Oh Luna, we’re going to have so much FUN! Hehehehe.”
