Dust & Rainbows

~One Year Ago~

“S’been a rough year, mates,” Zee starts.

Her breathing is still labored as she reclines back in the front passenger seat of her E-Type.

“We’ve managed,” Sunny says as she muscles the car through traffic.

“Still no power steering, huh?” Lightning remarks from the seat next to mine, and a chorus of dry chuckles answers her.

Zee scoffs and gestures blithely with her cane. “Told our lass I ain’t ruinin’ a classic, an’ I’m ‘oldin’ to it.”

I shake my head and turn to watch the city of Canterlot pass us by. We’re heading north towards the docks, I know that much, but I have no idea where we’re supposed to be ending up.

“So… you gonna tell us what’s going on with you, Zee?” I ask as I turn back to her.

Zee frowns, then shrugs and toys with the gnarled knot that makes up the top of her cane. I notice now that it’s not just ornate, it’s actually covered in symbols like the ones tattooed across her unscarred skin.

“Arabus all but killed me,” Zee says finally. “M’nerves are shot, muscles too… heart’s barely functional, but I got medication f’that.”

“Even then, she’d be dead without magic,” Sunny added grimly, and Lightning and I both blanch. “Just the act of beating tears up her heart, so I have to be around to lay healing spells on her now and again before it gets too bad.”

“Seriously?” I turn and stare at Zee who nods.

“Aye, tha’s as it is, luv,” Zee admits with a bitter sigh. “Ain’t much left’a me now, but I got this tidy lass t’thank f’keepin’ me outta hospital.”

“She should still be in the hospital,” Sunny said the words with a kind of bitter tightness that suggested this wasn’t the first time she’d mentioned it.

“Not yet,” Zee says with the same rote tone, “not til our lass is awake.”

Our Lass.

Zee’s love, and one of my best friends, is this world’s version of Twilight Sparkle.

Brilliant, mad, and powerful, among a variety of other things, she was also a good person, deep down. She had rescued Sunny from her abusive mother, fought to defend us, and strove to find a place where we all belonged.

And Storm King had used her.

Manipulated her.

He had poisoned her with dark magic and left her shattered after draining it from her before the Elements of Harmony had apparently defeated him.

“So she’s still…” Lightning trails off, but Sunny and Zee both nod.

“The Seal of Harmony is keeping her alive, but only just,” Sunny says. “The Bell of Tambelon was a real nightmare of an artifact though, as it turns out.”

“The what?” I lean forward on my elbows. “You mean that little brass bell she always wore?”

“It was Grogar’s Bell, mates,” Zee clarifies. “We pulled together some research courtesy’a Gilda’s witch n’that lot beyond the gate, aye? That thing weren’t just a bell.”

“It was a focus,” Sunny’s knuckles tightened so hard on the wheel that the leather creaked and her knuckles turned white. “A vortex that channeled the sum total power of a dead kingdom, Grogar’s kingdom… a necropolis that was filled with dark magic.”

“Shit,” I lean back and let out a slow breath. “What was it doing to her?”

“Killin’er,” Zee’s reply is subdued. “But not natural-like, aye? It was turnin’er into a monster, a demon-thing like Grogar… s’why she was changin’ like she was.”

“Son of a bitch,” Lightning swears, and I reach out to take her hand as she clenches her teeth. “And I’ll bet he knew exactly what was going on.”

“Aye, I’ll ‘appen tha’s true,” Zee agrees. “Pops took us all for a ride mates… can’t tell ye ‘ow sorry I am I brought ye all inta this shite.”

“Not your fault, Zee.”

I say the same words at the same time as Sunny Flare, and we share a surprised glance that warms a little after a moment.

“If anything you’ve been worse off than any of us,” Lightning offers weakly. “I mean, think about it… you were raised by that psychopath, you’ve had him whispering in your ear since you were a kid.”

“She’s right,” Sunny says softly as we turn onto one of the warehouse roads, and she reaches out to put a hand on Zee’s and to my surprise their fingers lace together. “You’re too hard on yourself, Zee… this wasn’t your fault, okay? Twilight wasn’t your fault.”

“Mayhap I’ll buy that when I see’er awake,” Zee says quietly.

We park in front of a large warehouse. There’s a set of fencing around it that looks relatively new, along with a slew of ‘No Trespassing’ signs. Beyond the fences is an open, barren lot of cold concrete, and the warehouse itself looks like it’s halfway to falling in on itself.

Every single door and window is plastered with boards nailed to the jams and tape with bold letters stating ‘Condemned’ on it, and it certainly looks condemned.

Hell, the place looks friggin’ haunted.

“Where are we?” I ask as I step from the car.

“Place I bought off’a that orange-haired lass with the fins,” Zee groaned softly as she stood from the vehicle. Sunny was at her side seconds later, giving her a hand up as Zee braced her weight against her cane.

“Adagio,” I muttered, shaking my head.

The eldest sister of the Dazzlings, a trio of Sirens from Equestria who, once upon a time, had threatened Canterlot with their magic, were now some of Sunset’s staunchest allies. Adagio herself was, mind-blowingly, one of the six Elements of Harmony.

“Aye, tha’s it,” Zee nods as she hobbles towards the gate with Sunny Flare in tow. “This place’s got all manner’a defenses they’d built up back when they were trainin’ t’kick us in the nuts.” Zee chuckles wanly at that, then heaves her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. “Now? It’s a safe place f’our lass, and there’s loads’a magic sunk into the stone by now.”

“Helps with working other magic,” Sunny supplies helpfully.

“Guess it’s probably not dangerous if you’re keeping Twi’ here, huh?” Lightning asks with a weak chuckle, and Sunny gives her an arid smile. “Yeah, thought not.”

“Still,” I cut in, “you’re keeping her in a collapsing warehouse?”

“Eh…” Zee makes a vague gesture, then nods for me to follow her.

Sunny Flare pulls the gate open a few feet, enough to permit us entrance, and I go in with Lightning on my heels. As Sunny follows us, she closes the gate and I hear a faint snap of energy from the metal.

“The hell?” Lightning says as she and I both turn at the noise. “That an electric fence?”

“Enchanted, actually,” Sunny says with a smile. I still can’t get over how much she’s changed from the simpering shrieking zealot that clung to Twilight’s every word. “That noise was the warding circle re-engaging.”

“Nice,” Lightning smirks. “You’ve gotta teach me how to do that.”

“It’s extremely precise magic,” Sunny warns quietly, but I just shake my head at that.

“Don’t sweat that, Sunny,” I wave away her concerns with a laugh. “Lightning isn’t like me, she’s actually smart.”

“C’mon babe, don’t-” Lightning starts, but I silence her with a look.

“I’m kind of an idiot, Dusty,” I say grimly. “I try but the fact is… I kinda fuck up a lot.”

“Ain’t more’n me,” Zee cackles, slapping her hand across my back, and I can’t help but smile. “Now c’mon… let’s go see our lass, aye?”

I nod and follow, trailing behind Zee with Lightning and Sunny taking up the rear. At first, I can’t even tell where it is that Zee is heading to because none of the doors seem to be open, I start to wonder if maybe one of them is just made up to appear locked when Zee whole form just… ripples.

It’s only for a moment, but it’s like she passes through a soap bubble, there’s a slight distortion in the air around her. I grit my teeth and keep walking, determined to follow her, and sure enough I pass through some kind of barrier, and for a moment it feels like someone is stretching super-thin saran wrap across my whole body, and then there’s a sensation of something snapping and it passes.

And a gasp leaves my lips.

The warehouse isn’t falling apart, it’s standing tall and almost polished. The walls are whole and intact, the doors are barred and reinforced with steel, and the windows are caged in metal.

Curling, graffitied symbols in strange curvilinear designs done in a riot of colors across the walls gleam and crackle with magic, and the air is thick with a scent like spice and incense.

“What the fuck,” Lightning’s mumbles as she steps through the barrier beside me and stares up at the warehouse.

“Well we ain’t been sittin’ ‘round with our thumbs up our arses all year, y’know,” Zee says with a certain smugness as Sunny steps through alongside us, a small smile of her own on her face.

“No shit,” I shake my head, smiling weakly as Zee gestures for us to keep moving.

Sunny moves past us to one of the doors and fits a key to the lock, turns it, and that odd crackle I’d hear from the gate sounds off again. It occurs to me that, for as heavy-duty as the place looks on the outside, the magic reinforcing it must have turned this place into the equivalent of Fort Knox.

And it was all for the sake of protecting a single soul.

The inside of the warehouse is wide open, lacking interior walls and with the roof kept intact by the reinforced columns of concrete. All along the edges of the warehouse it was like someone had taken the contents of different rooms and buildings and just stitched them together.

There’s a large, king-sized bed pressed against the far wall sitting on multiple rugs, along with a dining table nearby, and several bookshelves arranged around it. The whole ensemble could have been transplanted out of someone’s master bedroom.

Where the rugs terminated further along the exterior wall there was the beginning of what looked like a laboratory, with tables covered in beakers, bottles, and other chemical paraphernalia.

Past that are more rugs, chairs, tables, and shelves, giving the look of a sitting room or a study, and beyond that ‘room’ was a kitchen.

But the center of the warehouse is what kept my attention. The whole middle of the massive building has been given over to a single purpose. The cold concrete floor is scribed with the most intricate interlocking set of lines I’d ever seen, and I didn’t have to be a genius to recognise a magic circle when I saw one. This one had to be at least a hundred feet across.

Candles burn at equidistant points along its edge and at points inside of it as well, and at the dead center of the circle was a queen-size bed with an IV beside it, and a single occupant.

“Damn,” Lightning takes the word out of my mouth and says it with a whisper of awe and pain.

“Aw man,” I feel a sliver of pain settle in my chest as I stare at the thin figure, barely breathing, on the bed. “Twi’...”

I look down at the circle, then up to Sunny who just nods, answering my silent question, and I cross the circle and move to the bedside.

Twilight Sparkle, the mad mage of Canterlot, and my friend.

If she weren’t breathing, I might think she were dead. Her face is ghostly-pale, and she’s thin as a rail. Her hair is pooled around her in a ragged halo, and every inch of her skin that I can see is covered with lines like the curving branches of a tree.

“What is it?” I ask softly as Lightning moves beside me and takes my hand. “Those tattoos.”

“That’s the Seal of Harmony,” Sunny replies as she moves to the other side of the bed. “It’s the only thing keeping Twilight from succumbing to the poison of Tambelon’s magic, a dam against a tide of darkness.”

“How do we fix it?” Lightning asks, a tight anger to her voice that reflects itself in her grip on my hand. “How do we bring her back?”

“Tha’s the sixty-billion double-dollar question, luvs,” Zee says bitterly. “There’s nowt we ain’t tried as we are, but tha’s not all there is to it.”

“What do you mean?” I look up with a raised eyebrow.

“She means,” Sunny cuts in, “that we may have exhausted what she and I can do, but there are other sources of power in this world that might have the answer.”

“Then why-?!” I cut myself off, realising even before I ask the question what the answer will be.

Why wouldn’t they do it? More like how would they do it.

Zee is all but dying, and Sunny is the only thing keeping her alive. Zee could barely walk without help, and Sunny probably acted as her caregiver as much as her friend. Even if the answer to Twilight’s dilemma was as simple as going to fetch something it would be an undertaking to manage it.

I let out a slow breath, turned to Lightning, and she gave me a small smile before nodding.

“Right,” I say quietly, and grip Lightning’s hand back.

Lightning Dust leans up and brushes her lips over my cheek, loops her arm into mine, and with a small grin, we both look up to Sunny and Zee.

“So,” I start, “what can we do?”