Chapters Early comers were already murmuring to each other when Twilight marched in with the surety of someone for whom the worst has already occurred, she planted herself in the centre where she could shield the most people and began layering on protective spells, not that she expected them to do much against a goddess but hopefully it would deflect the ricochet, Spike was limbering up and stretching, if he was going to die he refused to do it with a charley horse, he settled into breathing exercises to keep his internal fire stoked with curls of brimstone simmering out of his nostrils like an incense burner.
The Apples arrived next, thankfully armed and dangerous. The three apples strolled over and stood next to Spike and Twilight, Applejack eyed her up and down “Ya’ look tense, whuts’ bashed your beehive?”, Twilight nodded in acknowledgement but stayed focused on the box as if the forces of hell were about to pour out of it “If we're lucky, nothing”, Applejack looked at her family who all furrowed their brows and subtly checked all their gear, “An if were unlucky?” Spike huffed a cloud up to the ceiling “Then it might not be our night”.
With a flash of illumination Rainbow arrived on the edge of a nearby balcony and nodded down at the gathering before leaning back in bored readiness. Rarity strolled in with a deeply hooded figure that was assumed to be Sweetie Belle, they stood a foot or two back so Sweetie could lurk in the shadow of one of the support pillars, Applejack met Rarity's eyes transmitting silent emotions and her face shifted from genial to concerned drawing closer to her sister.
With a surruss of quiet Fluttershy made herself known as the crowd parted for her, she shuffled in from the back attempting to conceal herself with an emerald hood but her natural calm like a magnet made it impossible for you to miss her, she joined Sweetie in unobtrusively lurking in the shadows.
The slow rise in volume heralded the arrival of Pinkie Pie who led a marching band through the doors into the space that was rapidly shushed into respectful silence except Pinkie that gave up singing about a Saddle-arabian prince and switched to “Poor unfortunate Twilight, So Sad, So Purple! How’s it going Purple Smart!” She leapt over and threw her arms around Twilight who struggled under the weight and disentangled herself from the glomp, “Nice to see you too, but this isn’t the time Pinkie” The band leader hopped back nodding “I know, that's why I brought snappy just in case, he’s never let me down so far!” unholstering a shoulder bag she pulled out a bright pink winchester rifle brandishing it, everyone took a step backwards and Twilight yanked her arm down “Keep that concealed or you’ll panic people!”
The fan fare started and a more put together and primped Mayor strolled out, she launched into a long speech about how great Ponyville was but all Twilight could focus on was the moon peering in from the sky light above, she held her breath as four glowing orbs merged with its corona. She had expected a loud boom or something dramatic, but all that happened was the familiar face shadow faded away like a bad dream leaving an alien and uninteresting pockmarked surface.
The speech droned on for another few minutes uninterrupted and Twilight began to wonder if everything would turn out fine after all, the mayor reached the denouement of her rambling and gestured for the curtain to be pulled back to reveal her royal majesty. Cheers turned to gasps, Lounging over the arm of the chair was a giant just short of Celestia's height, her unnatural ebon skin encased in a blue and purple alloy that seemed to have been modelled after a spiny stag beetle. Around her helmed head drifted a cloud of winter sky like a hole in reality and her eyes, reptilian and cruel glowed with an inner corpse light as she scanned over the crowd.
“What no applause?” Her voice was smooth and chilling as a glacier, you could feel the freezing power behind it as it skipped the air and arrived directly in your spinal cord. The Mayor trying to curl up out of existence staggered back and shouted “Where’s the princess?”, the figure rolled her eyes and stood, striding forward to the edge of the balcony with her arms imperiously behind her back, “Celestia is gone, banished to her precious orb for all eternity for her temerity, I am assuming my rightful place as ruler, you may now kneel and show your subservience”.
Rainbow levitated into the centre of the room shining like a hearth's warming ornament as she revved up her field “Lady I don’t know who you are but if you think…” The power of their erstwhile leader's voice knocked the wind out of Rainbow Dash’s lungs and she dipped in the air under its weight “What do you mean you don’t know who I am!? I am the Princess of the Night, My return has been foretold in dreams for a thousand years! Has Celestia been allowing you to inbreed or something?”
No one was moving, as if her voice had some power that froze them to the spot, the first to break free was Twilight who spoke out from the crowd, most of the citizenry pulled away from her apart from Rarity and Sweetie Bell who drew closer, Fluttershy crawled along the ground to hide behind her unnoticed, “I know who you are, You are Nightmare Moon and you are no princess of the night, that title belongs to Luna Victrix Ferarum alone.” The Nightmare crooked an eyebrow, then exploded into mocking laughter, hugging herself as her chest heaved up and down. The joke over she slammed her hands upon the railing sending plaster raining down and cracks spidering down the front of the box as the wall started to crumble.
She suddenly lurched forwards leaning over the balcony towards the huddle as they collectively stepped back “Babbling fool I am the ‘untamed victor’! I cast off the name Luna when I cast off the shackles of subservience to my selfish sister! She really has kept you stupid, uniformed and gullible hasn’t she? Let me guess, she wound you up like a toy and sent you tottling off into the ignorant darkness rather than explain your goal or purpose?” Twilight confidence eroded as the words bounced around her skull, Celestia had lied about her sister? Impossible. The implications of such a revelation stunned her into silence, Nightmare pressed “Did you honestly believe that the defeater of Discord would fall to a sideshow like Sombra, That some upstart could just gain control of the moon on a whim? Hilarious. I am the ruler of this kingdom by divine right, despite what falsehoods you may have been fed”.
Nightmare Moon swung her legs over the balcony and dropped 15 feet straight legged to the ground, her sudden movement caused most of the crowd to scatter to the walls as the impact splintered the dais below to kindling. The night queen rose into the air floating gently out of the wreckage to touch down metres from Twilight; Pinkie shouldered her rifle aiming point blank for Nightmare Moon's face and Applejack drew out her axe, unslung her shield then stepped between them. However the Nightmare’s gaze was locked on Twilight “She’s using you, just like she uses everyone, keeps them dancing on her strings for her own gain and amusement. I could do with someone like you, I’ll even forgive this town it's insolence and I will never, ever lie to you. Absolute honesty, both in praise and castigation, all the hidden truths, magic secrets and forgotten lore. All that is required is that you kneel”.
Twilight felt the breathing of the people behind her, two of which were barely out of childhood, if she refused they could die. Also if she was close to Nightmare Moon she could work to temper her harsh rule. But it wasn’t that simple, there was a sticking point that she knew that the moon goddess wouldn’t budge on. “If I agree then it means the sun will never rise again; the world will freeze, the plants and trees will die…”
Nightmare Moon clenched her fists and the light in the hall dimmed ominously “You don’t need the Sun, more lies from the fountain of deception, don’t be a fool” she hissed.
Twilight sighed “As a scientist I can not turn my back on the facts, even if I saved lives today, they would only freeze under your rule, I must say no”.
Several things happened at once, Nightmare Moon reared up to attack as three dark shapes smashed in through the side of the building at equidistant points sending unsuspecting civilians toppling towards the ground, the whip crack of gunpowder signalled Pinkie’s shot that bounced harmlessly off of the Nightmare’s eyeball and embedded itself in an adjacent pillar, a heartbeat later a crossbow bolt that Applebloom has quietly notched impacted harmlessly on her breastplate with a dull tonk. Twilight gritted her teeth triggering her prepared rune and desperately tried to get the thaums to mesh into a shield before the Nightmare could launch her attack.
Nightmare’s arms thrusted forwards sending lightning arcing towards them, Rainbow saw the shield fading into being and dived inside at the last second as the violet barrier snapped into focus just before the tendrils of electricity reached it. There was a screech of glass on glass as direct current danced across the dome, the feedback knocked Twilight off her feet, as surprise began to form she was caught by Spike who pushed her back onto steady footing. Twilights shaking arms pushed forward causing the lighting that was starting to eat through to launch off, earthing through the ground and creating a ring of flames as the wood outside the shield ignited.
The assault ended and Twilight gasped at the resistance vanishing causing her concentration to slip, the shield winked out leaving her mind thumping with a strain induced migraine that made her vision swim, Rainbow launched off the ground directly at Nightmare Moon with her fist cocked for a strike, The Nightmare tutted and started to become indistinct against the background. Instead of connecting, Rainbow sailed wide eyed through the glittering starfield that occupied the space, spinning end over end and smashing through the balcony. A disembodied voice echoed around the room “Such a pity, you would have been better servants than dog food.” The stairfield zipped up phasing through the ceiling.
The towns folk were screaming and cowering, trying to get out of the town hall and away from the creatures, like roiling smoke they were shadowy shapes of great hounds as tall as a person at the shoulder, two flames for eyes and their jagged and shifting jaws filled with a red glow. A man carrying his daughter tried to retreat from one and it melted into an inky blob, zipped faster than the eye behind him and suddenly became solid again, letting loose a bellow like a living inferno.
Granny Smith peered through the fires and whistled through her teeth. “Some party, ‘Bloom and Sweetie, stay with me’. The rest o’ ya go ta’ work!”, Applejack muttered a command word that caused the head of her axe to leave a green energy trail behind it while Bigmac did the same with his hammer, Rarity hastily sketched out pictographs with her fingers on their backs that glowed with an innate blue light “A little extra shielding dears!”. They nodded and leapt through the fire in opposite directions to engage two of the creatures. “I told them I should have brought the mortar!” Shouted Pinkie as she cocked the rifle sending a bullet flying over her shoulder and leapt out of the ring, Rarity was already further enchanting her own wardrobe as she waded untouched through the flames, Twilight was staggering about clutching her head “You could of hit her with a train full of dynamite and not left a dent! I’ll be fine Spike, go help.” He nodded and followed Pinkie to watch her back.
Fluttershy urgently muttered to the baby phoenix in her care as she cowered behind her fringe. It took off flying a loop drawing in the flames like a vacuum and leaving them in the middle of a charred circle before returning and hovering by her shoulder. Out of the corner of her eye the caretaker spotted one of the shadow creatures rearing up over a teenage girl trying to shield her downed parents. In an instant she was before it, Twilight could feel the impossible psychic pressure radiating from her eyes like a radio tower, powerful enough to distort the air with waves of force that wafted through the room, she looked like a siren of legend with her hair buoyed by the radial tide like she was underwater. The Creature reared back and Fluttershy’s feet left the floor, following it face to face, her features grew impossibly angelic and beautiful to the point it hurt Twilight's eyes to look at, it felt like her eyes were the only thing that was real in a shadowed world.
The creature staggered back another step, then seemed to melt away into thin air, Fluttershy gasped and dropped to the floor, Twilight staggered over and helped her up “I’m fine, I didn’t mean to hurt it, just pacify it!” Fluttershy wailed, Twilight patter her shoulder “It wasn’t alive to begin with, it was just a magical construct formed of negativity, its very existence was suffering, when you took that away there wasn’t anything holding it together”. Fluttershy gave a pained and confused look, Twilight sighed “I was a spirit from the air tortured into service, when you calmed it, it became air again”, this passed muster and Fluttershy relaxed a bit.
“Mum! Dad!” behind them the purple haired teen was desperately shaking her parents, Twilight gripped Fluttershy’s shoulder “Go! do what you can, I’ll help the others”, the caretaker strode over and started inspecting the two downed people as Angel climbed on her head and kept a lookout. Twilight pulled a potion from her belt swigging it, she breathed as the ache cleared out from her head and spun around to see what the situation was.
Fast and dirty glyphs had been slapped on the combatants like neon tattoos, Rarity's work, she now stood between the two melees hurling fireworks, glitter, strobing lights and any other distracting illusions she could think of making the creatures split time between swiping and clawing at their own faces. Rainbow Dash was back up hovering in the air, bobbing and weaving about like a weightless boxer, her strikes generated resounding thunder claps that disrupted it's form like a hammer to jelly, scurrying about beneath was Applejack, one arm batting away it's paws with her shield and the other chopping open gashes that leaked dark smoke like a busted chimney.
On the other side Big Mac was smacking around it's partner with his heavy hammer staggering it left and right as it struggled to get footing, Spike has lost his shirt and while favouring his right arm was rending at it with his talons between blasts of green fire that caused it to howl and shift away. Any time its paw would come in for one of them, Pinkie would pop up like a jack in the box and blast it, causing the limb to disperse for a couple of seconds and reform. Twilight started weaving a horrendously complex geometric shape with runic annotations in the design but before she was done an errant blow from Mac's hammer slammed the creature into a pillar that toppled over towards Granny Smith and Applebloom who were carrying wounded people out the door, In a heart stopping instant she realised she couldn't abandon her current casting and catch it fast enough.
Luckily Sweetie Belle rushed forward, her hood and sleeves falling back to reveal her metallic appearance and grasped the pillar round the base in her platinum grip, she grimaced and there was a grinding of metal as smoke rose from her back. In spite of the protest she slowed the momentum, then jerkily started forcing it back the other way eventually sending it toppleong on the creature which parted like smoke before reforming.
Twilight's spell completed and a beam of pure white shot out at Spike and Mac's prey, sinking into it and anti-climatically causing it to drift apart. Applejack and Rainbow's was struggling to maintain its form, with a last slash the apple family blade severed its hollow claw and its skin rapidly split like a slow motion balloon, expelling a cloud of black smoke that vanished into the air.
There was a few seconds of panting before Twilight ran to Spike who was on one knee with blood running down his shoulder that hissed as it ate into the wood, Rarity ran over to Sweetie who was doubled over giving off the smell of burned clutch. Spike forestalled her worry "It's fine, I was careless. Not used to fighting things that can hurt me, but I don't think I'll be of any use for the rest of the night, I'm sorry" Twilight hugged him and stroked his hair "You've done more than enough, everyone else ok!?" Rarity had opened up Sweetie's back and was borrowing tools from Pinkie "Looks like she snapped some teeth off her spinal drive cogs, I didn't expect she'd be doing heavy construction work…"
Twilight was interrupted from enjoying this scene by a shove, she staggered and turned to see a belligerent Rainbow Dash being grabbed by Applejack, Rainbow twisted in her grip and shoved a finger in Twilight's direction "Why the hell didn't you tell us this was going to happen!"
“It wasn’t a waste of time” groaned out Spike as he forced himself up and staggered over to them “Without you Twilight would be facing this alone and without her you would all be lost without a clue” He slumped down next to her and Twilight huffed “But we are lost without a clue, I didn’t get any research done, I don’t even know where to start!” Spike grinned like an idiot producing a battered book out of his trousers “What about with this one I grabbed earlier”. She read the cover ‘Elements of Harmony, a reference guide’ “Spike!? When did...How…” Spike smoothed his ratty hair back with his good hand grinning as much as his pain would allow “Number one assistant five years running, I’m the best of the best”.
Twilight stood back up, thumbing through before turning to the assembled people and reciting “The elements of harmony, while sometimes mentioned as abstract ideals...are also physical objects. It is our opinion they are a weapon created to be the focus of all that is good in Equestria, a locus of its spirit used to drive back threats on a national scale. These virtues are known as Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty and Honesty with the final element being an esoteric truth arrived at when the five virtues are in abundance. The last known successful implementation of these loci was in the defeat of Nightmare Moon...bla bla bla...It is presumed they still reside at the castle of the two sisters at the heart of the old kingdom of Ever Free raised following Discord downfall, but no known expedition has been willing to brave the area due to the massive thaumic disruption caused by the confrontation. Spike this is it, you’ve saved us all!” She grabbed him and he yelped and gently pried her off “Ouch, ouch, still wounded here”.
Granny Smith ruminated "If she's capable of goin' toe ta' toe with Princess Celestia, then she must be pretty tapped to unleash only three dawgs an' flee, you girl's best be off after her before she can gather 'er strength", Applejack stepped forwards "But Granny…" the apple matriarch waved her into silence "Me, Big Mac an' the youngans will watch Ponyville, if Sweetie’s problem is purely mechanical ol' Timeturner tha' clockmaker 'all be able to fix it an’ she can ‘elp out too…"
The women looked at each other, Twilight felt a pang of regret about leading them into this but at the same time a strange feeling of warmth that they would want to come, "Ok girls be at Fluttershy's in a half hour, be ready for the apocalypse." There was a chorus of agreement and they moved outside.
The girls disbanded leaving Twilight to survey the damage; Spike clambered into a packed wagon heading for the hospital, there were three adult sizes corpses under white blankets laying on the ground a weeping woman by one and the teenager from earlier besides the other two, the Major was floating near by surrounded by an arguing throng, spotting Twilight she shoved a bellowing noble over and stepped over him to get to her.
"Twilight Sparkle, at last. What the hell is going on?" Her tone was more panicked than accusatory, Twilight climbed up on a barrel "As you may have seen; Nightmare Moon, a userping invader of legend has returned to commit an act of ecological genocide, she has by some means imprisoned Princess Celestia and disabled the day/night cycle. I am leading a team to seek out a known reliable means to defeat her before she is able to gather her forces. I am relying on all of you to support the Apple family, who I have deputised in light of this crisis, in the defence of the town should any further attacks come its way while we are in Everfree.
Mayor, I am granting you full royal authority to requisition whatever you need on the crowns dime until this crisis is over, if anyone one wants to be part of the problem instead of the solution, imprison them for treason” The mayors face switched from harried to purposeful and determined, “Thank you, your excellency...” she wheeled on the crowd “...All right! You heard the lady if you're not here to help then sod off before I throw you in the basement! Thunderlane, Fluttershys out of the picture but go get the Vet and Mrs Goodbody, she used to be a nurse, take them to the hospital. They can handle the small stuff and take the burden off the staff there. Burnt Oak, round up whoever you can trust to keep a level head and raid the market for sharp objects and foreign tools to form a militia. Mr Ritch, tell the nobles that if every single mercenary isn’t in this square within the hour, then in her majesty's name I will rip up their peerages and drag them by their hair to Ghastly Gorge then throw them in! I will not be the Mayor that lost Ponyville!”
The crowd scattered and she breathed a sigh of relief “I’ve been wanting to do that all day,'' Twilight walked up alongside her “Mayor, if we fail, please pass this book onto whoever comes after us, the less you know the safer you’ll be if Nightmare Moon prevails, the people will need you to shield them as much a possible”. The mayor chuckled darkly as she tucked the package into a satchel “Oh don’t worry about that, I may be a small town mayor but I am no stranger to politicking and intrigue, especially managing dangerously incompetent superiors. Eternal night indeed.” The two shared a companionable silence bemoaning the authority of the clueless. Twilight straightened back up giving the solar hail, holding the palm of the hand out flat towards the horizon in front of the body “Good luck your honour, I pass command of the town back to you,'' The mayor returned the gesture “Good luck to you Excellency, Sol Invictus” They walked off in opposite directions.
***
The six mustered outside Fluttershy's cottage. Their host was wearing her dangerous animal handling leathers and was strapped up with satchels and pouches filled with medicinal herbs, plants and conventional supplies, she also had small reinforced boxes tucked away with useful creatures bunking in them that had volunteered to help her bring the sun back. Rainbow was the first to arrive having slipped into her racing gear with magically light plates protecting her vital areas and resistance reducing lycra everywhere else, her goggles were holding back her hair and her hands were covered up to the finger joint with reinforced gloves. Applejack came along next having added a light backpack with utility items like rope, torches and pinions. Pinkie strolled up in her army fatigues with a tactical backpack, she had opted to leave the mortar behind but had bandoliers stuffed with enough sticks of dynamite to level a small town, Twilight noted the three bars on her arm but didn’t press her as she hadn’t seemed forthcoming about this part of her passed. Lastly Rarity arrived in stylish, form fitting black leathers, she had her work vest over the top covered in pockets filled with tools and supplies as well as a utility belt carrying yet more useful nicknacks, she had with her an elegant walking cane that she claimed to have made for trips to less gentrified areas that carried only slightly illegal enchantments.
Twilight surveyed her team as they made their final checks and adjustments, Pinkie was whistling a cheery tune as she polished the barrel of her rifle and Rarity made some last minute adjustments to how Applejack's backpack sat with some thread. She fiddled with her hands "I...I just want to say, this is insanely dangerous and you don't have to feel obligated to follow me into this…" the magus was abruptly cut off as Rainbow strode passed Twilight slapping her on the arm affectionately, "Stop chin wagging and let's get on with it", the others filed passed her towards the trees, Twilight hugged herself before sighing resigned and turning to leave falling in behind.
The party marched into the eaves of the cursed and shadowed woodland; the trees twisted and writhed like a nightmare, dripping foul effluent from their leathery bows. Following an ancient winding dirt path, they formed a rough arrow with Applejack and Rainbow at the front as they advanced into the gloom. After barely five minutes the wind picked up to a gale that moaned through the trees like a tortured spirit, the moon clouded over casting dancing shadows about them of clawed hands and grasping tentacles, a distant and menacing voice cackled derisively on the air. They continued to press forward undeterred apart from Fluttershy's chattering teeth but even she was not so easily turned aside. Suddenly like a viper strike a bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree causing its blackened frame to waft off a stench of boiling swamp as mournful wolves howled in the dark. "Is this it? She had a thousand years to plan and all she could come up with is spooky noises and jumpscares!" giggled Pinkie over the storm, Rainbow called back "what do you expect from the original count chocula?".
As if in answer to their derision the howling grew louder and was joined by buzzsaw growls; green lanterns lit up among the foliage that encroached on all sides as they backed into a circle readying for combat, Applejack spat on the ground "Timberwolves, moar 'n I've ever seen, this is gonna get tedious; smash 'em ta' bits and they just pull 'em selves back together". Twilight did a quick search through the vault of her mind coming up blank "Suggestions?"
She slapped her palms together drawing them slowly apart, flicks of fire wafted towards a centre point between her fingers gathering a bead of steadily increasing brightness. The light illuminated the humped and twisted bodies of the trees either side as well as the stalking creatures between their gnarled and ancient roots. They looked like animated sculptures of wolves made of twigs, bracken and moss, will o'wisp eyes of green flame burned within their skulls and a miasma of decaying plant matter seeped from them as their boggy chest’s squelched together to create their rattling growl. Their jaws were lined with thorny branches instead of teeth and they were stalking from side to side, slowly closing the noose.
The orb in her hands grew to magnesium brightness and Twilight thrust her hand forward sending it like a falling star into the undergrowth. There was a flash that seared the afterimage of the scene into everyone's retina and a waft of hair curling heat like a swinging furnace door, a heartbeat later there was an ear ringing boom and everything to the left of the path was instantly on fire. The flames licked up the trees that popped and hissed as a millennium of muck streaked sap was boiled off by the flash dried wood as it combusted. The Timberwolves that hadn’t been atomized were fleeing in random directions, yelping and barking in panic as they were consumed from the outside in, the panic spread to the rest of the pack that began breaking off into sporadic bunches that charged away from the apparent danger leaving the huddle blinking about bemused, rubbing their eyes and trying to get the ringing out of their ears.
“Well…” Summated Rainbow “...That was fuckin' awsome”
Angel bunny popped out of Fluttershy's hair, sniffed cautiously before clambering on her head and stomped rapidly and repeatedly, Fluttershy winced out "Bad danger, ow, ow, ow, yes thank you Angel I get it!" The group came to a halt and squatted down as he began miming out something to his caretaker, "Smells like...big...male...cat? Bigger than a cat...a lion? Bigger than a lion...oh my" the rabbit took a running jump and vanished back inside the curtain of her fringe.
"The only feline I know of bigger than a lion in Everfree Forest is a Manticore…" whispered Fluttershy, Twilight recoiled "What!? I thought they were extinct?"
Stooping through the underbrush with Pinkie in the lead they made careful progress, after ten minutes of skulking Pinkie held up her hand and everyone squatted, blood thumped in ears as Pinkie cast about trying to pin down what ever had irked her, there was a panicked squeal from Fluttershy's hair and a paw gesticulated wildly towards amber eyes glaring out of the brush. A jaw full of cruel hooked teeth dropped open as the creature roared in frustration of its failed ambush, its leather wings snapped open and it bounded paws out towards the kneeling group.
In perfect sync Twilight and Rarity wheeled their arms, their fields catching and guiding the creatures mass over head, its shaggy bulk went end over end, slamming into the hard ground back first on the opposite side of them. "Rainbow! Tail!" Barked Applejack as she threw a length of chain with hooks at either end up into the air, the speedster in a chromatic flash grabbed the iron from the air and leap a wide arc over the beasts body, it lunged up to try to catch her between it's paws, bad move; as the Manticores huge paws slammed together a well thrown bolero from Applejack whipped round it's carpuses taking them out of the fight.
Surprised, the Manticore tried to roll on its front to bring it's stinger into play but as the appendage swung round to get into position Dash caught it in a loop going the other way, performed a side flip to tighten the chains grip and leapt backwards fastening the two hook ends together around a tree. Disoriented and partially restrained the beast failed to stand and flexing its tail pulled itself accidentally into a sitting position.
It glanced up and it's gaze met Fluttershy's, hovering just out of reach with slow waves of pressure rolling across the clearing from her eyes, the Manticore tried to struggle out of the hypnotism giving a half hearted growl and wiggling but it was unable to break her gaze. She hushed and soothed as she drifted forwards to Manticore’s lion face, its expression had started drooping and grumbling as its eyes slid shut, Fluttershy placed a milk white hand gently on its brow. She spoke with a voice that reverberated with power "Something attacked it out of the forest, a dark shape.” Drifting slowly down guiding its head to the floor, her feet gently took up her weight on the ground. Fluttershy shook her head; “she has stirred up such anger, what a truly spiteful thing to do” the caretaker murmured, unwinding the bolero from the beasts giant paws she handed it back to Applejack as Rainbow gently retrieved the chain from its tail. The party slunk deeper into the woods leaving the predator to snooze peacefully in the clearing.
***
The treeline thinned out at the banks of a river that seemed to bisect the forest, angry white water charged across their path hammering blade like rocks with enough force to peel skin from bone as the party came to a staggering halt, silently agreeing on a short break while they solved the next conundrum they as one flopped down sighing and muttering in relief.
"It's funny how time turns horror into comedy…" mused Pinkie dreamily as she lay flat on her back gazing into the sky "...rubber bats, floating sheets and dancing skeletons seem goofy to us, but maybe a thousand years ago that's all it took to scare people?", Fluttershy was busy checking in on her passengers who were shaken but still hanging tough "it's not the spooky games that frighten me, it's the callous spite from someone as powerful Celestia, the heavens move at a wave of her fingers but she has no regard for the well-being of others, what could be worth so much suffering?" Rarity had unwound her hair and was combing it out "To prove she is better than her sister by the sounds of it, it's a madness that grips younger siblings at one time or another".
Applejack was running a whetstone along her axe "It don't need to' come to' that, so long as the elder ain't too stiff necked ta' stand aside once in a while", Rarity paused as she re-secured her bun, letting out a wistful sigh and glanced towards home "I suppose your right, I myself have struggled with this, but whatever spats me and Sweetie had, we kept the anger strictly between us no matter how venomous it got". Twilight rose to her feet and chimed in "I don't think the princesses have that option; Celestia is more than the ruler of the sun, she is the sun in some spiritual way, when she laughs the sun dances on the mountain streams and when she cries the sun hangs cold in a winter sky. If the moon is unhappy it's everyone's business, it's weird that the common people of the day allowed things to deteriorate this far". Sensing the shift everyone started standing and preparing for the next leg, Rarity wandered to the water's edge "Yes, well I don't expect the common people had much of a say and the Nobility for most part wouldn’t take notice of another's distress if you died at their fe-YAAAAAA!”.
As Rarity’s shrill scream split the night there was a vertical blast of water like a geyser, a dark shape twisted and writhed within letting loose a low grinding roar, a wall of water knocked everyone back as the water cascaded away from the serpentine form revealing a great amethyst serpent, its spindly arms and needle claws gesticulating furiously in unbridled anger. Its huge form bowed like a withy wand bringing its carraged sized head looming over the fashionista. Its eyes flashed like emeralds with cold malevolence and its vast arched nostrils blasted the ground with near scalding steam, As it shouted it revealed its mouth to be filled with long cruel spikes like a massive angler fish. “You dare trespass on my waters after the insult your kind has done to me this day!” bellowed the creature, Rarity scuttled backwards like a spider jettisoning apologies like squid ink “I must apologise, we simply had no idea this river was occupied, we are terribly sorry for your misfortune and are currently in hot pursuit of a fugitive that seems to have caused a number of incidents in this charming woodland tonight. Rest assured once we have her in custody reparations will be made...”, a clack of jaws from the serpent short circuited her jaw as the creature swung up and folded its arms “Not good enough, I have been grievously offended and demand satisfaction immediately!...” It ran its three prong claw down the side of its muzzle “...That shadow woman has marred my face, I shall bear the scar for all time, if she will not duel me as is my right then I will have to sooth my damaged pride with your blood!”
Rarity got to her feet, her patience wearing thin “Look here, you’ll get nothing but indigestion and eternal night if you foolishly devour us in a fit of pique, I give you my word that once the day is ours your debt will not go unaccounted for”, the creature growled in petulant annoyance “What value does your word have to me groundling! Hollow words and nothing more”. The Fashonisters eyebrow twitched in contained fury, “Applejack hand me a knife.”
The rest were awkwardly drawn along in her wake as they waded across the river with mumbled thankyou’s to the looming creature, Rarity strode back into the woods as a boiling pressure tank of barely controlled fury, after a minute of dead silence Rainbow snuck up to Twilight and half whispered “Why did he want her hair?”, Twilight fiddled with her hands a little bit before gently talking back “Well it meant a lot to her, Lindworms are incredibly perceptive and able to read people like that, also in Niponies culture a topknot was a symbol of a nobles status, to cut it off was to lower ones standing to lesser work”.
Rarity spun round her eyes twitching from beneath her uneven fringe “Bollocks to my standing! What about my branding! That sodding hair is in the logo darlings, its over the fucking door! No one will even know who I am…” The screeching was cut off as Pinkie glomped the incensed fashionista in a hug snuggling her and lifting her off the floor, Rarity tensed in abject fury before relaxing and wilting into the hug, “Thank you very much Rarity” Pinkie enthused backed up with a chorus of furious nods from the assembled crowd. The anger slowly draining away the fashionista disentangled herself “You're very welcome. it will grow back after all but I swear Nightmare is getting my hairdressing bill for tidying this up.” A much more relaxed party continued across the home stretch of dense woodland.
***
The dense and twisted forest finally started to sputter out and emerging from its eves once again they were greeted by a vast chasm, the tail end of Ghastly Gorge. A vast abyss of monster infested darkness like a wound in the world that curled away from them to create a semi-plateau on which was heaped the broken bones of some ancient structure; it's silvered outline under the moon suggested domes and arches, spires and forums, one part citadel to two parts temple that even from it's mouldering remains projected strength, grandeur and opulence.
A freezing wind moaned through the landscape, chilling the soul and echoing into the dark void before them, the moon hung huge and menacing like a cat's eye glaring down at the erstwhile heroins as they searched for a means to cross. "I don't know if you'll have enough rope for this one AJ" Rainbow mused as she peered over the edge into darkness, Twilight was walking along the edge watching both sides "There has to be a bridge, people would come in supplication to the rulers so there must be a way across". Pinkie pranced over to a pair of standing stones "Ooo, a game of charades let's see: get ready for a sprint, push the button and give everything a big hug! He he" Twilight was just scraping together the last of her mental endurance to ask Pinkie what she was ranting on about now when she saw her kneel left foot forward in supplication, stand and salute the sun palm out then perform a wide circle with both hands ending palms up as if she was holding up the sky. Nothing happened and the musician groused in disappointment, but Twilight rushed over and peered at the pictograms that ringed the two broken obelisks "Pinke you genius! How else would you get into a temple!"
Twilight knelt between the two markers, the left foot was biologically closer to the heart and showed you were being honest when presented "Quaero audientia!", She stood and extended her arm "Hail Celestia! Sol Invictus!" Then opened her arms in reverence to the moon "Hail Luna! Victrix Ferarum!", There was an electric thrum and a blade of starlight shot across the gulf bridging the distance. Pinkie slapped her head "Duh, forgot to say please" before jumping carefree onto the razor thin barrier that fizzled but supported her weight, "Let's move it ladies!" She hollered before matching across the abyss spinning her rifle while singing about going to see a spirit in the sky.
With more trepidation the rest gently tested the surface before nervously following along, Rainbow and Fluttershy opting to glide along in the air rather than risk the bridge. When they reached the other side and Applejack, the last of them, stepped off the light winked out leaving them trapped inside the necropolis with no retreat.
***
So powerful was the presence of these ruins no animal dared enter its oppressive aura, halfway between a physical weight and the choking humidity of a muggy day, each felt their skin crawl with the feeling of being watched from every shadow. The melted and limbless forms of statues slouched in alcoves like dying lepers; their flawless marble skin stained with moulds and moss. Streets were blocked by the towers felled by the centuries that had been crushed into jagged heaps of rubble, the once pristine white paving underfoot had burst and ruptured with sharp brambles coiling out of the gaps between.
It was a ragged and forlorn place that fully embodied the fallen aspirations and broken dreams it represented, the remaining shapes and half crumbled structures hinting at the skilled masonry that had once been, the fellowship wandered aimlessly unable to tell temple from toilet. Rainbow launched herself up and perched gently on what seemed to be an old bell tower desperately hoping to see something distinguishable, her eyes lazily scanned over the wreckage until a glint of colour among the grey tweaked her senses. Peering into the darkness she spotted a chapel near the centre of town, a single window intact bearing a familiar crest, "Girls, this way!"
As they approached it seemed to be an annex of a vastly larger structure that while impossible to pick out of the amalgam from the ground was visibly more intact and grand from the air. The window bore the crest of the gold starburst bearing six gems that had been used to represent the elements in the tome. "This must be a reliquary attached to the main castle" submitted Twilight
Pondering Pinkie's wisdom Twilight stopped, only the right person, feeling a little self conscious she ventured "Hello, I am Twilight Sparkle" when nothing happened she felt a not undeserved shrink in her ego that she figured would serve her well, her next attempt was "I am Celestia's student" which didn't sound right either. After a moment of deep thought she snapped her fingers "Ah, of Course 'I am a faithful student', how could I forget" there was a deep thunk as a section of floor depressed sending Rarity hopping for stable ground. With an interminable grind of stone on stone, the floor drew back as an orrery rose up cycling five extended arms to present a set of marble bowling balls.
"Not to turn my nose up or anything but, wasn't the illustration more..er..vibrant?" Said Rarity as she hefted one of the orbs, Rainbow grabbed another one turning it around "What gives? Is Nightmare Moon weak to shot put or something? How are we gonna defeat her with these?", Pinkie walked up to the display and slammed her fist into her palm "I just knew I'd need the mortar! But silly me I had to be practical”.
Twilight closed her eyes and summoned forth the illustration again "No, I don't think launching them at her is the solution, you're correct Rarity…" her eyes opened "...This is not how they previously appeared, plus we're one short; the central element is missing. I'd guess they’re deactivated for storage, I'll need some time to figure out how to reactivate them"
Like the waking shock of a nightmare the Moon Queen's voice jolted their gaze upwards, hanging spider like and weightless with her writhing locks of winter stars about her, she grasped and pulled at the darkness. Adrenaline forced protesting muscles into action, but it was too late; shadows like living ink flowed from the ambient gloom up the figures of Twilight's companions. Rarity and Fluttershy faded away clawing at themselves and shrieking like the passing of a dream, Pinkie struck a match and lit fuse but was consumed by darkness before the stick left her hand, Applejack chucked her axe as she went which got five feet before winking out as well and lastly Rainbow flew straight at Nightmare Moon, her hand outstretched, the cloying shadows smothered her brilliance dragging her into darkness just inches before the Nightmare's sneer.
"Where are they!?" demanded Twilight as she clenched her fists with a crackle of lightning, the Moon Queen raised a placating hand "Safe, for now. It's time we had a little talk Twilight Sparkle" her arm swished sideways and a sudden blast of obsidian fog filled the room. Fresh night air rolled in dispersing it to reveal an empty room and a bare orrery.
Fluttershy awoke from her bad dream, but when she opened her eyes and remained in darkness the caretaker considered if she was still having it. With a gentle buzz her friend the glowfly emerged and began circling her head, there were various rustles and pokes as her crew reported in "Thank you glowfly, I'm glad everyone is ok". From the dim light she could see she was in some kind of obsidian cave, the greenish insect light glinting off of the polished black surface below.
Getting to her feet, the glowfly perched on her head casting a little light before her, a little emerald circle in an infinity of black glass. Fluttershy began calmly walking into the darkness for which she held no fear, regret and shame haunted her every waking moment but the absence of light was comforting and home to many friends, maybe she would meet some if she persevered. She wandered for what could have been hours or just seconds in the never ending darkness, at first she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her but as she approached a sliver of grey light became part of the horizon.
After much toil the light barely grew and when it started to be cut off from view she suspected a cruel trick until a rough wall suddenly loomed out of the darkness; vertical and made of the same material as the ground, it was rough and sharp obsidian, almost certainly slippery but not insurmountable. Touching the icy cold glass texture, she ran her hands along it until she found a groove with a sharp edge. She hoisted up with her hide shoes wedging into a crack, beginning her slow ascent.
Just as she reached the centre of the climb a whine sounded out of the darkness causing her to stop, somewhere below in that vast expanse a baby was crying out in hunger. She glanced wistfully at the light above before sighing and climbing back down, as she lowered herself into the darkness a voice whispered from the back of her mind, leave it . Fluttershy shook the thought off, it was an inconvenience but to abandon a child to hunger and darkness would be monumentally cruel, she reached the base and rubbed her sore and cut hands that had been lacerated by the unforgiving cliff.
With a flare the baby Phoenix launched out of a small cage at Fluttershy's hip and began zipping about like a comet trying to locate the source of the sound, it flew deep into the cave and began circling some quarter of a mile away, it's not worth it . Again the whisper was dismissed, it was out of the way but the baby needed help. She resigned herself to the long fifteen minute trudge across the uneven ground towards the flicker of light in the distance, as she approached the pool of light she saw a naked creature that shared the rough shape of a human boy but it was unnaturally wiry with sallow grey skin and streaked with a foul smelling effluent, it had strands of limp seaweed like hair in random clumps, sharp needle like nails and a hideous malformed face that seemed permanently drawn in an angry scowl. The child opened its mouth in a petulant wail revealing small needle teeth out of red raw gums.
Not to be deterred by something's appearance she knelt down hushing and cooing and extended a hand to initiate physical contact, in response the creature swiped at her leaving a gash on the back of her hand, Fluttershy recoiled in pain but the child screamed even louder and started kicking its legs in fury. Leave the ungrateful beast , Fluttershy doubled down against the voice once again, If she was cold and alone she would want someone to bring her somewhere warm and safe, the child is clearly scared, doesn't know better and is lashing out against an intruder, that does not mean it deserves to be abandoned.
Affixing her leather gauntlets she reached out again as it clawed futilely at the tough hide, placing a hand on its chest it latched onto her arm which made it difficult but not impossible to get a second hand underneath and lift up the creature. Fluttershy held it to her chest and the little goblin released its grip on her arm and grabbed two fistfulls of her hair instead before yanking sharply down, Fluttershy winced but kept her grip on the now chuckling and guffawing creature. Angel came to her aid carrying a silken sash; Fluttershy gently prodded the child's stomach causing it to release its grip and try to block, at which juncture she quickly wrapped it up to keep its arms and legs out of mischief. Angel tied Fluttershy's long hair back out of the way as she affixed the goblin to her front with its head resting on her shoulder where hopefully it would fall asleep.
During the arduous trek back to the cliff face it did not fall asleep, unable to physically harass her the goblin busied itself barking, screeching and wailing directly into her ear. Why continue assisting such a malicious creature? Fluttershy grit her teeth, because it was abandoned in the dark, if that's how it's guardians treated it no wonder it grew up so unruly, I need to be the bigger person and role model empathy and care if I ever expect this child to learn it.
Reaching the cliff face she paused to regain her breath, removed her gauntlets and grasped the chilled glass again. She was tiring faster this time as she picked her way up the sheer face, the sharp edges re-opening the slices on her hand with a mild burning sensation. The goblin passenger had been oddly silent during the climb until half way up, when it sunk its needle teeth into her shoulder, the leathers offering no protection as the points were driven directly into her flesh.
Fluttershy gave a yell of surprise that quickly morphed into a short yelp of terror as her jerk from the attack slipped free her hands from their holds and sent her plummeted backwards towards the floor, she dropped ten foot onto the merciless flint hard stone. Having enough sense to curl her head in Fluttershy escaped bouncing her skull off the ground, however she still slammed spine first into the sharp ridges of the floor with enough force to drive the air from her lungs. She lay fighting to draw breath as the creature cackled maniacally directly into her ear revelling in her suffering.
Isn't this familiar; your struggling to pull yourself out of a deep dark hole but can't help yourself but stop to offer assistance to another wretched person, only for them to spit your face and knock you back down again, delighting in your misfortune, revelling in that you are lower than they. Don't you tire of carrying the burdens of the ungrateful? Comforting those that curse you and healing those that wound you? Don't you wish to be free from the millstones and truly ascend?
Fluttershy's eyes opened and she waited for the world to come back into focus, Angel fussed around with worry and there was a chorus of chirps, squeaks and hisses about her person. Fighting against the pain she sat up, turned the goblin to face away from her and readjusted the sling, with a groan of pain she stood staggering in place "it isn't about me!"
Fluttershy lurched forward slumping against the wall “They are all waiting; the blinded, the maimed, the men locked in the stinking dark, all wait for me”, her frail hand grasped the sharp rock and with a stab of agony from her bleeding shoulder she hoisted herself up, “children with swollen bellies, hiding in ditches wait”. Her feet pushed and adjusting her grip she was hanging from the wall without support, flashes of white hot and freezing cold exhaustion sent tremors through her quaking limbs, but with slow gim determination Fluttershy scaled the treacherous cliff face once again, with every painful inch the swaddled goblin snarled and struggled trying to disturb her balance, her foot slipped and she hung by her arms over the abyss “The poor, the dispossessed, they all wait!”, her feet found purchase and raised herself the last couple of inches to the top, with a pained growl her hand closed around the lip of the cliff and she dragged herself onto the plateau, panting with exertion she shakily stood cradling the snarling hissing goblin who’s inhuman snarled gave way to a plaintive wail as she carried it into the light “I am their hope! A simple outstretched hand!”
***
Bright moonlight fell directly on Rainbows face, the cold radiance piercing her slumber and its intrusion dragged her slowly to wakefulness; she was in a steel cage with a big red button fixed to one side, outside her cage was a dingy stone basement crawling with mould and with several grates in the ceiling that let in the moon. Directly opposite there was a mirror image cage holding an unconscious Twilight Sparkle. As Twilight started to stir a swirl of ash dropped through the ceiling grate and reconstituted into the form of Nightmare Moon, she grinned wickedly.
"We are going to play a little game, in your cages are buttons. You have one minute to press the button; if neither of you do, you die. If both of you do, death awaits you again. However, if one of you presses the button you are free but the other is imprisoned, permanently. The choice is yours, you have one minute"
Rainbow Dash tried to meet Twilight's gaze but the magus stared at the floor and fiddled with her hands, Rainbow heaved a deep breath and took a step back and leaned with forced nonchalance against the bars. In an instant while still looking away Twilight quickly jabbed the button and turned her back to the speedster, an angry claxton rang out with the light dipping to an ominous red, Nightmare Moon gave a slow clap "Cold, Twilight Sparkle, so cold. Condemn your friend to oblivion without hesitation or even an apology".
Rainbow stood up and hugged herself, her voice wobbled with fear "Yeah, looks like she decided to take up your offer", the nightmare strode up to Twilight's cage running her hands across the bars "Really Twilight? You want to become my Lieutenant? Turn your back on this rabble and take your place as my apprentice?" Twilight stood up straight, Rainbow could not see her face but her voice was clear and determined as she performed the Luna hail "Hail Nightmare, Victrix Ferarum. These people have been an annoying distraction and I wish to return to my studies".
With an indulgent chuckle the night queen flicked her hand causing Twilights form to melt away into the shadows, Rainbow let out a held breath and turned a defiant glare on her captor, Nightmare Moon slowly walked forwards with a predatory grin on her face savouring each second of the condemned speedsters misery. Reaching the cage the nightmare rested her hands on her hips "So, looks like you put your faith in the wrong person, my commiserations". Rainbow flipped off the night goddess with both hands never breaking eye contact "She's just doing what she had to you freakishly tall shit lord, now can we get on with this grandma before you forget why your here, If I’m going down I'd rather not hear a rambling story about your bowel problems first”.
Then a sudden impact, sprawling face down on a cold marble floor. With a reflexive twitch her burning lungs heaved air into them with a gasp as her sensitive eyes winced in the blinding light as they tried to adjust. The gap in between had been hazy, a half remembered dream of long drawn out hours as the moon wheeled over head, each moment blurring into the next in an eternity of silence.
Rainbow shakily pushed up off the floor, someone had thrown a snow white blanket over her head so she tried to throw it off, but the mass of material seemed affixed to her scalp, it was her hair; her once vibrant and trademark locks now pale as permafrost and hanging around her knees like a massive overcoat. Her eyes started to focus on her hand in front of her, they were spindly and shrunken with age, lined with wrinkles and blotched with liver spots. She raised the quaking limbs up that shook with infirmity as the vast hallway beyond swam into view.
Pale marble as cold as the moon itself had been worked into a grand vaulted hall, devices of stars had been arranged across the walls in the shape of the skies greatest hits formed of enchanted diamonds casting harsh and unforgiving light. Sable banners bearing a reflective disk behind a sapphire cat’s eye hung prominently from an upper horseshoe balcony; an additional larger and more filigreed version hung behind a silver throne in the centre of the gallery, raised above the floor by a dais.
A long midnight blue carpet led up to the dais foot with silver pylons either side holding ropes of cobalt, there was a crowd pressed in behind this barrier and peering down from the balconies. At the heart of it all sat Nightmare Moon lounging nonchalantly on her throne, Unchanged in her finest battle armour apart from a decadent midnight blue cape that sprawled around her. Rainbow groaned as she forced her stiff body up into a standing position, her voice came out horse with disuse and she harangued the monarch “You again, I hoped your nurse would of got your ancient ass out of that Halloween outfit by now.” There was a gasp of shock from the assembled crowd as they pulled away, but the nightmare just chuckled and stood up from her throne “As full of piss and vinegar as ever Snow Dash? I would call you Rainbow but it hardly seems appropriate anymore”, She strolled lazily passed the assembled throng to bent frame of Rainbow that stooped unsteadily on the cold floor “I even brought your dear friend to meet you, my Adjutant Twilight Sparkle, be polite and welcome her back Twilight'', dressed in rich eggplant robes replete with glowing runes and silver embroidery, a scowling and flint faced Twilight stood up “I am sorry majesty, I do not recognise the person in question” she droned dispassionately.
Rainbow scratched herself lazily “So are we done here?”, Nightmare Moon growled suddenly advancing, her menacing form towering over the former athlete casting a deep black shadow, “Is that all you have to say to one who betrayed you and sided with your enemy?” Rainbow was totally unphased and gave a look up to Twilight that was staring straight ahead with a bored and neutral expression “Tell me, is Ponyville safe?”
Rainbow groaned as she lowered herself back to the floor sitting in a lotus position “Loyalty isn’t something you demand or receive you idiot, it's something you give and have reciprocated in kind. Twilight stood up to protect us from you, so I stood with Twilight against you and when that didn’t work out I laid my life down for her and trusted she wouldn’t just go back to her library or use Ponyville for medical experiments, from what you say and by the look on her face she has swallowed her pride and kept that deal. As long as she continues to fight for what I stood for she’ll always be loyal to me”
There was a gong like a temple bell and the hall was filled with light, the sun rose behind her and the assembled crowd combusted. Nightmare Moon was hit by the light as if struck by a physical impact and skidded backwards leaving grooves in the marble floor, The last thing she saw was Twilights face, an after image as the figure was swept away, winking as all faded to white.
***
The ground shook with a dull impact and there was a rain of pebbles and mud, Pinkamina's eyes slid open; oily brown soil held back by warped and rotten boards of scavenged wood, additional planks floating in a swill of green, brown, black and red underfoot that when the light hit it just right had a rainbow sheen. The grey and heavy sky was obscured by a patchwork work of smoke ranging from choking black, to stinging grey and flesh broiling mustard.
The whine of deafness faded away to the orchestra of war; screams, explosions, wails, gunshots and the occasional roar of a futile charge. Pinkamina slumped down, her rifle in her lap as she squelched into a bolt hole, a layer of filth coating the layer of filth on her mouldering uniform. No matter how far she ran she always ended up back here; first in life, then in dreams, then in conversations and now in living nightmares. The worst bit was the smell; it was a thick meaty smell, a smell you could chew, lightly seasoned with coradite and the stinging horseradish of mustard gas.
I do not recognize this conflict.
Pinkie watched some shadows scurry passed, probably away from another Lieutenant trying to muster up another costly and futile charge "You wouldn't, this was over five years ago, the uprising of the Griffin republic. A couple of Griffin cartels decided they wanted to be a country, so they rounded up an army and rather than go to the hassle of rebuilding their own country, decided to cease some of ours. They annexed Prance, as a protectorate of Equis we had to step in".
Another shadow dashed passed but this time there was a hollow 'pock' noise of a bullet breaching skull, the figure's run devolved into a flail as he slammed into the trench side with a wet splat that became a protracted squelch as they slid across the slick turd brown mud and sank into the ankle deep sewage. Pinkie slunk out of her hole and rolled them over, another young boy just barely eighteen years.
This is decidedly more familiar, I used to grieve over watching so much potential slide into the mud, but really how much worth can they have when the mayflies throw themselves into the flame time and again for naught but greed for the light?
"Hey…" whispered Pinkamina to the corpse "...you needed this deployment like a hole in the head", she gently closed his eyes and pulled him to the side sitting against the dirt wall.Jokes? Oh really.
"Lieutenant! Lieutenant Pie!" A voice cut through the din, Pinkamina spun to see a blood splattered medic crawling through the trench in her direction, her face scrunched up in anger "Fuck you Luna, fuck you for doing this". The medic staggered over collapsing against the wall heaving and panting, he was wounded himself from the leg "It's captain Blinky, she was clipped by a mortar and it isn't looking good, no one knows where Inky is. Marble, Limey and Maud are all on the other side and cut off".
Pinkie walked dreamily away from him as bullets whizzed passed like flies "Don't bother, Inky's dead. She was with Blinky." She strolled through the ruins of the Western line; every rock and discarded can etched into her memory forever on the slow march to the half submerged hovel of the medical centre, the corrugated sheet metal walls standing in sharp relief to the square void of its entrance. A yawning maw of death that grew wider and darker as she approached.
She wasn't afraid, she had walked this path before, passing through the shadows to the circle of lamplight on the further wall. The wooden table had been hastily cleared of its contents that were crunching and cracking underfoot, the lamps brought from around the room to give the desperate surgeons every chance of a miracle, now forming a shrine around the downed captain. The soft pat of blood as it leaked from the shredded flesh through the gaps in the woodwork to the ground, the shallow pants of a dying body clinging to the fading embers of life and the burning of the tears scalding rivers down her face, yes she had been here before.
Pinkamina was a remarkable soldier, there were many inexplicable things she could accomplish, but this was beyond even her power. The only thing keeping her second oldest sister in one piece was the tattered rags of her uniform and the twisted remnants of her spine. Pinkamina approached cupping her sisters head as she stared blankly up at the ceiling with terror and kissed her forehead. "I'd tell a joke, but you might split your sides", there was a twitch and the dying Captain Blairmorite Pie shifted her eyes to meet Pinkamina, who gave a sad smile "If you thought that was good, the next ones a gut buster". Blinkys breathing shook and gurgled out a watery laugh "T...terr..ble" she managed before shaking with a cough that sprayed blood over Pinkamena's hands, Blinky caught her eye again "Th..nks". Pinkamina hushed her sister "It's ok, you can sleep now, I'm here". Blinkys eyes slid shut and she grew still, then came the long rattling exhale as the soul parted ways with the flesh forever.
Pinke forced a smile onto her face "The Griffin's surrendered a few days later and Equis was more prosperous and safe than ever, it was sad you and Inky didn't get to see it but I didn't let that defeat me and kept on keeping on, helping make life a little bit better for everyone". The scene faded away into featureless dark and Pinkie could feel the presence of the nightmare queen all around.
What's the point of this relentless positivity? You have seen with your own eyes the evil and barbarism that lays under the surface, ready to break free at the slightest provocation. You more than anyone have seen the true face of the world in all its merciless cruelty, what use is levity in the face of that?
Pinkie scanned around trying to find her Inquisitor, she clasped her hands earnestly "a laugh can be a very powerful thing, why, sometimes in life it's the only weapon we have! Laughter carried me through a war and the death of two of my siblings. It helped us find the will to rebuild and not give up, hell if the cartels hadn't taken themselves so damn seriously there wouldn't of been a war at all!" No recipient in sight Pinkie proceeded to hug herself, allowing the warmth and joy of life to fill her like Ice Cream in a Sundae glass.
"You know Lu lu, You sound like someone who's desperate for a laugh; Granny Pie said the night could seem scary because it hides things, but the stars shine down to let us know that there's all sorts of fun hidden about if we are brave enough to find it…" Pinkie leaned on the abyss as if she was at a bar and buffed her nails on her uniform "...not to brag but I know the hottest nightclubs where people party all night long, let's skip out on this and have some fun?"
Silence, worse than that, empty silence. Pinkie stood up and started wandering off in a seemingly random direction twirling her rifle "Well fine, I'ma head out then. But you're missing ooouuuttt…" she teased as she vanished into the distance.
[centre]***[/centre]
A loud metallic slam shook Applejack out of her stupor, instinctively she tried to leap to her feet but binds around her wrist and ankles jerked her back into sitting. She was in some sort of rough wood chair, hard backed and deliberately uncomfortable. Thick iron restraints bound her to the arms and legs of it and its feet were bolted to the floor. She tried twisting to see if the wood could be snapped but it was young and green, so aside from creaking in protest it showed no signs of giving.
She slumped back down, it was dark but she had walked these rectangular granite paving slabs before; the birch boards above were the floor to the town hall entrance lobby and its mouldering boarded walls had long benches pressed up against them. Ponyville had no prison but this was one of two disused cellars under town hall that was used as holding rooms when needed, usually when someone couldn't hold their drink or had smoked some strange plant from Everfree. Aside from her chair someone had set up a desk before her with some sort of lighting device attached to it.
She sat for a while listening to numerous heavy footfalls stomping back and forth across the lobby as well as the muffed indistinct rumble of conversation. Finally someone marched towards the cellar entrance, there was a clunk and the mage light on the table spring to life frying Applejack's night vision, the newcomer marched to the table and sat down officiously, a shadow lurking behind the light.
"Jacqueline Apple, you, your family and your associates have been found guilty of high treason in special sessions and sentenced to execution at the first convenient opportunity." The voice was clipped and dispassionate but more importantly, wholly unfamiliar to the Ranger. Not surprising, no one in Ponyville would go along with this distasteful display, they at least had the decency to look you in the eye while they killed you "So thats tha’ justice of the nightmare tyrant? No trials or speaken' in your defence, jus' tha' chop?"
"Well, until such time as Celestia retakes the throne, Nightmare Moon is Queen. Order must be maintained and we can't have a bunch of rebels running about destabilising things. However, in that spirit I have been authorised to offer you an alternative to execution..." There was a ruffling of paper and a sheet of a A4 with a long and lengthy amount of text on it slid forward "...if you choose to sign this confession and read it publicly, state that the lives lost at the event last night were caused by crossfire after Twilight Sparkle launched an unprovoked assassination attempt against the rightful ruler. That in conversation at the castle of the two sisters you were convinced of her right to rule and have seen the necessary proofs. That you are excited at the new opportunities a change in leadership offers. Then you and more importantly, your family will be free to return to your duties, so long as you continue to play ball of course".
Applejack leaned back in her chair with a look of distaste on her face, she felt physically revolted by the whole affair "what's 'er problem? can't keep tha' rabble in lahn', ain't got no legitimacy so she wants ta' extort mine?", The figure sighed in bored exasperation "Look Applejack, her madgesty doesn't strictly need you assistance, she could do this by force, however your word carries a lot of weight locally and your assistance would make this a lot easier, don't you care about the lives of your family?"
"Oh sure, I'm suppose ta' trust the word of a shrinkin' coward and a faceless fink she sent ta' dangle the lives of mah' kin oer' a fire to get me sell mah' soul for her promise she'll leave 'em alone…" Applejack spat on the floor "...her word ain't worth two squirts o' piss, ahm' offended that she thinks I'd sell mah' honour so cheap". The administrator sighed again and reshuffled her papers, she raised a hand bell and rang it prompting some movement above. "Now we have to do things the hard way, how disappointing".
She could hear approaching struggle, her blood ran cold as the breaking voice of a young teenager protesting and struggling against her escorts was dragged towards the cellar entrance. Applejack glared into the light at the shape of the person behind it "the deepest pit o' Tartarus is reserved for slime like you". The Guard dressed in Cobalt armour hauled in Applebloom, his helmet was fashioned after a bat and covered his face leaving holes for two crimson eyes, the whole army hid their faces in shame it seemed, Applebloom had been stripped down to her cotton and was badly beaten with one eye swollen shut.
The teen looked up at her sister in the chair "AJ?" With a barely perceptible nod the administrator signalled the Guard who stuck his gladius into Applebloom's side, the youngest apple gave a screech of pain that settled into suffering wail as the Guard worked the tip of his blade around in the wound. Applejack strained against her restraints, stress forcing out sweat in rivers as instinct drove her to save her sister. Applebloom started begging and crying from the pain. Applejack was hysterical screaming out the sequence of events as best she remember them "Tha' Nightmare attacked unprovoked! Er' dogs killed those people! For gods sake, leave'r alone!"
With a wave from the administrator her Guard drew out the sword to leave Applebloom to bleed out in a sobbing mess on the floor, the shapeless shadow in the light leaned back "You want this to end Applejack, sign and speak. Otherwise the next strike will be a killing blow and we'll fetch your brother". Applejack openly wept into her lap "Whuts', tha' point, if I sell mah' integrity ta' you to save 'er life, whut kinda o' world she gonna inherent, a word without truth?" The shadow swayed to the side chuckling airily to herself, she lounged in her chair "Oh silly, old-fashioned Applejack; we're beyond such childish notions as truth, we've moved onto larger ideals like order, progress and happiness…"
The administrator leaned as far forward as she could "You do understand this is your last chance, your very last chance?" Applejack remained stoically silent glaring at the floor, with a nod the Guard drew back his sword "Ahpple JaAaa…" there was as thump and some watery wheezing before the final rattling exhale. The voice of the Administrator piped back up "Was it worth it? The life of your sister for your precious principals?"
Applejack was sobbing under her ratty hair and thumping the armrests, she croaked out "Alone in tha'...huh...tha' dark...sniff… it's tha' only thing of value" she whipped her hair back and from red rimmed and tear stained eye that shone like the fires of hell she peered straight through the darkness causing the Administrator to jerk back "You tell that bitch that she can tear up all o' Equis, but she'll never have tha' last inch o' me! Never!" She hocked a loogie at the shape in the darkness.
Then you are free.
Dawn burst into the chamber and everything turned to brittle glass, her axe reforming in her hand she swung.
***
The bustle of the midnight traders dispelled the black and empty sleep, clawing Rarity back to her cold, aching body. Her eyes slipped open to reveal the alley wall, shivering she pulled the collection of filthy blankets, cardboard and foil closer. The former fashionista smiled: another night bested.
Nightmare Moon had captured her sister and removed her from her prosthesis so they could study it, her mind stored in perpetual sleep, so long as Rarity behaved of course. Her magic blocked, the former fashionista was to stay in this alley without possessions and publicly debase herself for her daily sustenance, wringing what charity she could from the stone hearts of the citizens of Canterlot. The night whore assumed she would be dead within a month and the beautiful mind of her sister could be dumped without her breaking her word but filthy, weathered, scarred and rail thin Rarity the revenant endured, sustained by familial love and the knowledgeable that each day was a further fly in the ointment for her majesty's displeasure.
She rested a moment mustering the energy to move; haveing stared at the adjacent brick wall of the bakery each dusk every detail had been committed to memory; every pock and dent of it's russet bricks, the scuffs and frozen drips of the slap dash red creosote, even the stains and scum marks near the floor. Often she had watched the mage light that streamed in from the furrowfair cast shadows across its imperfections allowing her mind to wander and imagine shapes or scenes in the contrast. Although this wall had been chosen merely to taunt her with the stench of unobtainable food it had probably taught her more about free expression than 4 years in college.
Shrugging off her esoteric musings Rarity began disentangling her begging rags from her sleeping rags, scraps of food wouldn’t wheedle themselves and she hadn’t scored any leftovers in three days since that woman was about to throw away some unwanted chips. Pushing up off the soiled marble slabs of the alley, Rarity staggered the three steps to the mouth as slumped back down casting her eyes about the busy street, most beggars stared into their laps with shame but she had found a spiritual beauty in her begging.
“Citizens of Canterlot, as you go about your daily lives, you that have so much, spare a thought for those who do not. I am not too proud to take the leftovers of the meal you do not want before you waste precious food and save you the trouble of disposing of it, thank you for your consideration”, a couple of furtive side glances for the spectacle but no food, oh well the day is young.
The hours smeared passed as Rarity plied her trade, she was a tad more aggressive as she was undernourished to a degree that any further starvation could mean the end for her, but it seemed word had got around that she was no common beggar and as people were wary of the Nightmare Queen's displeasure they were actively avoiding her. She had almost given up hope when a cartage came barreling past racing the dawn, not a good move on this battered street. The carriage hit an uneven slab in front of her alley jostling the cargo and causing a large red disk to fly out of a side window, hurtling past Rarity's bemused face and smashing into a pile of bins.
"I say!..." ventured Rarity to the rapidly vanishing stagecoach "...oh well, their carelessness is a gift from the universe", struggling her drained form to a stand she shuffled over to the dented cans and strewn sacks, tidying them away she moved the final sack to reveal a treasure beyond gold, a huge wheel of cheese larger than her head, her mouth immediately watered at the prospect of weeks or months of food. She gave an unlady-like cackle, swiftly disappearing into the alley to stash her prize, kissing the rind and praising Celestia.
Hidden under her sleeping rags she tore off a handful and gleefully nibbled it away, her insides unclenching at the prospect of food, with it safely hidden she resumed her post not to arouse suspicion and went about haranguing for left overs with an energy she had not felt in weeks. Fortune was smiling on her today because she even managed to retrieve a quarter of a salad baguette that someone tried to throw away, so she had even bagged some vitamins, she lounged against the alley wall smiling content that she would be around to inconvenience the Nightmare for a long damn time to come. A stray thought forced a chuckle from her, for all her jewels and finery she had never felt richer than for owning a wheel of cheese.
The former fashionista was just rising to movie back into the alley to settle in for the night when she heard a scuffle and raised voices;
There was a plaintive sob that settled into distressed sniffles, Rarity peered across the way and saw the silhouette of a young girl, clutching a slightly distended stomach with her head bowed. Rarity took a step forward but it was halted by a whisper in her mind, are you insane? She's clearly pregnant, you are really going to share your only food with two more mouths? Rarity ran a hand over her filthy brow, was this really all it took to break her spirit, a little starvation and destitution? As soon as giving became a sacrifice instead of an indulgence her morals shrivelled and she embodied the very vice she had spent the past months haranguing others for.
She took another step, Sweetie wouldn't have been imprisoned for nothing.Don't be a fool! Your stiff neck and martyrdom complex is going to ruin you once again! You can't afford to waste supplies on a dizzy bimbo that put herself in this situation! She wouldn't do the same for you!
"Come now darling, whatever it is, it can't be that bad…" with a start the girl looked up through watery eyes and started back, "...Yes I know, I am not the best put together these days, but the only ghoul to fear is that obsidian sow on the throne" Rarity weakly shook a bony thin fist at the moon. "What...sniff...what do you want?" The girl murmured as she clutched her stomach protectively, there was a brief pause while Rarity cleared her mind of the voices giving a thousand reasons to leave before her face split into a battered smile "To help you; I have and you don't so I am obligated to do what I can for you, otherwise what the hell was any of it for anyway".
Without waiting for an answer the former fashionista turned and hobbled back to her alley, pausing to gesticulate at the girl who bemused and uncertain, slowly followed her waiting at the entrance, there was some shuffling and tearing of cloth before Rarity returned holding a handful of something wrapped up; she stuck it out in front of her "Here you are…" the girl looked at the package, then back at the door she had come from and finally gently took it "What is it?"
The girl looked flabbergasted, but suddenly realisation dawned "You're….Your Rarity Belle the rebel...I can't take your food, you look almost dead! You need it far more than me!" Rarity took the girls other hand and closed it on top of the cheese "One handful of cheese isn't going to make or break my situation right now, but a little kindness is going to radically alter the life of the child you carry, Beside I've been feeling a bit of a failure sitting here all day and no one is useless in this world that lightens the burdens of another so it's good to be pitching in again".
A range of emotions played across the girls face before tearful acceptance dawned "I...I don't know how I can repay you"
She shooed the girl off towards the Western gate who kept trying to stop and have a conversation. Rarity would have none of it, eventually she passed out of sight and the former fashionista slumped exhausted against the wall, her resolve crumbled and the voice came back, Now you will starve and your sister will die soon after. Rarity blew a filthy strand of hair out of her face "Maybe, but we aren't going anywhere fast and that child has a real chance of being someone great…" Rarity turned to face a false dawn from the back of the alley, striding into the light "...for all her money and power the nightmare can't bring joy to one person but I can with a hunk of cheese, that's fucking styling darling".
Twilight materialised a foot in the air and dropped to the floor with a huff as the impact of cold grey stone drove the air from her lungs; she tried to push up only for her hand to slide on the filth revealing an opalescent floor beneath the grime. Her head rotated to give a sideways view of the vast throne room; a rotten blue satin carpet neatly divided on half of the room, stretching from a crumbled arch to a raised obsidian dias in the centre, it was covered in shattered glass and the remains of a long decayed wood throne, whether it had always been stained black or if that was due to decomposition was unclear. The moon hung huge directly overhead, the sky framed by the twisted metal spines that once formed the skeleton of a vast glass dome that displayed the heavens in all their glory, which now had caved under the weight of years leaving only wreckage.
"Get up Sparkle…" groused the Nightmare as she strode passed towards the platform "...we need to talk", her iron boots clicked across the surface and with a wave the detritus flew off the dias into the dark with a crunch. She stood imperiously with her hands on her hips with her reflective cats eyes surveying the damage; the once sumptuous tapestries of her many victories, great work of artistic genius, had devolved into rags on greasy poles while the statues of dancers and celebrants in memorandum of their devotion had crumbled, Twilight watched an odd scene as the armoured creature of darkness seemed to give herself a reassuring hug before assuming her dominant shoulders back and legs spread posture once more.
Twilights synapses fired and a shot of adrenaline propelled he into action as five faces swam through her foggy mind, with a grunt she staggered shakily to her feet tottering about like a newborn fawn, finding her footing her face twisted in aggression clenching her fists as they erupted in flames "Where are my friends!", on hearing her own words she started in disbelief that they had passed her lips, the Nightmare seemed not to notice but held up a placating hand "They are safe, for now. I would have words with you, this doesn't need to end in conflict."
Twilight blinked, the elements were still around her feet, she could still win! Quickly she ducked grabbing one and sent a blast of raw magic into it, the power instantly rebounded shocking her, with a yelp the orb flew up in the air and dropped with a dull plonk. Nightmare Moon sniggered derisively "Dead, the most holy artefacts in out culture and she used them up as they were a can of creosote and now…" she extended a gauntleted hand and the dropped orb flew into her grasp, she gave a slow squeeze causing it to burst into a cloud of dust and fragments; Twilight gave an instinctual lurched forward as her eyes bugging out seeing hope literally crumble before her.
Nightmare Moon dusted off her hands "... Nothing more than rocks. When I said that thy art a wind up toy she had sent tottering off into the darkness that was not banter, ever has she manipulated and used those around her. She knew the elements had spoiled, she knew I would be as mighty as ever and she was sure as Tartarus was not going to be there to soften me up, but she certainly remembered to leave this". The Nightmare pulled out a parchment and chucked it at Twilight's feet, it was the official paper and bore the royal seal, inside was a short message in Celestia's well trained hand.
**
Dearest Sister,
I am overwhelmed with joy at the prospect of your return and hope your imprisonment was not beyond your capacity to endure, I would give the world to be there to welcome you however I expect you would be less thrilled to see me. I have been distracted by affairs of state but thought you would enjoy stepping back into your role of monarch, so if you could fill in for me in Ponyville today, I am supposed to be addressing the populous.
With love, Celly
**
Twilight read the letter boggle eyed, the Princess, instead of drawing her off to a remote location had sent her to the centre of a town, right on Twilight's own head. "I take no pleasure in pointing out…" the Moon Queen cut into her thoughts "...that you have been callously used as a distraction, a pawn sacrifice to keep my attention while she snuck off, I only held back in Ponyville because levelling your own property is foolish and I wanted to see if you could lead me to her, apparently not. My offer however is still on the table; the utter unvarnished truth and a seat next to my throne, if of course you will kneel and aid my cause to bring about nighttime eternal."
Twilight looked up from the parchment; The Nightmare’s fang filled grin flashed like a crocodile's maw "It isn't as bad as you assume, yes there are some logistical problems to iron out but in the old days my celebrants would construct great fires…" the Moon Queen threw up her arms and on the walls all around a shadow play of some grand festival enacted itself "...they would dance, sing and imbibe under the moon, revelling in its passions and mysteries". The rapturous moment passed with her arms slumping down to her sides as the capering shapes faded "That was before Civilization, decency, respectability. Before Celestia put them in chains and poisoned them against me" she hissed.
The bedrock of her life wavering before her Twilight defaulted to her basic instinct, learn and understand. "What is this about? Princess Luna worked in tandem with Princess Celestia to bring peace to Equis, what went wrong?" The Nightmare leapt upon her curiosity and launched into an oddly rehearsed speech "A jealous and selfish goddess couldn't bare to share, that is what happened Twilight Sparkle; in the innocent and halcyon days of the beginning we were sisters and frolicked with the mortals of the world's youth, in the epoch of darkness when Grogar ruled we were wardens, guarding day and night the largest englave of our frightened charges and in the era of madness under the tyranny of discord we were heroes questing together for his Downfall, but when the Titans of old were laid to rest she no longer needed me.”
Nightmare Moon turned away staring up at her charge reciting the liturgy from memory, “I was an obstruction to her perfect vision of sterility and obedience; suddenly darkness was terrifying instead of mystifying, the moon brought madness instead of inspiration and free expression became vulgar and primitive. While my faith dwindled and supplicants came no more to seek my guidance, she sat flanked by her prim and cultivated aristocracy who hung on every word. I had bled, suffered and sacrificed, but they were blinded by the light and I just became Celestia’s shadow, the second princess on which they heaped scorn and derision”.
Twilight crooked an eyebrow, arms folded with impatience “How is what you are doing any better, you throw around the tyrant accusation but here you are trying to coerce obedience by force!?” Nightmare moon just shrugged shaking her head with a heavy sigh escaping her lips “As if I didn’t try other ways, but all you mortals seem to respond to is either lies or force. I have no intention of maintaining some elaborate charade so instead I’m going to tear down Celestria's rotten empire and have you live as you should, children of the night, wild and free under my protective wings.”
Twilight read the letter a third time hearing her mentor's voice speak the words, she meditated briefly on all her experiences with the Princess before shaking her head and screwing up the paper and tossing it over her shoulder with a heavy sigh. As one that was asked if they would like a glass of heady wine with her dinner she simply stated "No".
The shadows lengthened as The Nightmare’s face became dark like approaching thunder, but despite the tang of ozone and the rising of her hairs Twilight pressed on.
“... What you describe is anarchy and abandoning everything we have achieved for the past thousand years, while we may have been in a messed up place then, we are a lot better now and even have a much healthier relationship with the dark hours of the day if you could only see; but you are so entrenched in the past, looking only backwards to old wounds and nostalgic joys you are incapable of seeing the world before you or the possibilities ahead. Any rule headed by you is doomed to fail because of its lack of vision, for the herald of dreams and bringer of inspiration you have lost your way, clouded by a hatred that roots you and shrinks the scope of your ambition.”
Nightmare Moon tightened her fists as lightning sparked from her grasp and shadows poured out of her like a fog, she raised a hand and uncoiled a finger that power arced around. Her face was grim and tight with petulant spite, monotone and hollow her voice reverberated around the hall “You talk too much”. Light started gathering around the Nightmare's extended digit; several small arcs leapt from her hand to the point increasing its brightness. There was a distant smash and the digit flashed just as the connected arm was struck by an axe hurled from the darkness; like a hammer on an anvil the blade sang finding its mark, burning like a green comet in its magical corona.
The impact knocked the finger off course and a bolt of lightning leapt out striking the wall behind Twilight with a defining clap of thunder, there was a shower of rubble leaving a huge smoking hole into the empty air where the wall used to be. One storey above a further crash drew Twilights gaze as Applejack barreled through a priceless stained glass window, landing with a metallic grind like the screeching brakes of a train she scored a deep groove into the stone, sliding in front of Twilight she caught her axe that flew back under its own power and raised her shield “Howdy, Ahm the first here?”
Twilight was stunned, her mind unable to grasp what was happening “Applejack!” The Moon Queen unphased growled and opened her mouth to say something but there was a sudden rush of air. A smear of colour slid in faster than a blink carrying a size 7 boot directly to her lower jaw, caught flat footed Nightmare Moon was sent stumbling backwards fighting for stability as the shape coalesced into Rainbow Dash who backflipped next to Applejack into a ready stance “Caught ya’ that time bitch, sup’ girls”. Twilight's jaw was working but she was struggling to say “Rainbow!”. The Nightmare stomped a foot down that sent hairline cracks spidering through the floor and forced herself upright into a standing posture, she lurched about to make a step but an orange orb zipped past her face and a wall of fire erupted before her causing a momentary flinch. “Are you hurt Twilight?”, the soft voice causing the magus to jump as Fluttershy was suddenly beside her, “Fluttershy what are…” the fire bird dive bombed back into a satchel.
There was a frustrated roar as the Nightmare stepped unaffected through the fire like a demon escaping the underworld, she raised both hands above her head summoning an orb of searing moonlight that winked on like a searchlight, a walking stick flew over the assembled band and lanced the sphere like a dart. Runes along the sticks length lit up and the spell collapsed, the resulting blast causing the gathered heroes to brace against the shock wave and Nightmare Moon to be blown off her feet sprawling backwards as her armour sparked and screeched on the floor, she came to an undignified stop as her head slammed into the wall with a clang. Rarity sashayed in through the arch “Evening all, the parties in full swing I see” Twilight slapped herself in the face and shocked herself into rationality “Rarity, everyone you’ve got to….”
Nightmare Moon kicked her legs and flipped from her back onto her feet, her posture hunched like a werewolf and the star field of her hair flaring and whipping like the dawn of creation, her voice shook the platform like a church organ “If you are quiet finished, Now you will learn the meaning of…”
The group started gathering themselves up, Pinke walked up behind “Well that was a blast!” she grinned,
An inky blob shot up to level with the hall, illuminated in brilliant light hung Nightmare Moon; large sections of her armour were missing, twisted or smoking but the divine obsidian flesh beneath was utterly unscratched. Her fangs had lengthened like an anglerfish and her eyes were orbs of burning magnesium that sparked with lightning. Her hair expanded out merging with the sky itself and waves of gravitational force poured off of her sending clothes whipping and rocks tumbling. She drifted forward, the force of her aura causing the remains of the building to crumble and splinter more as if under the weight of the ocean, the group of friends were buffeted by a hurricane and struggled to hold their footing. The Nightmare only whispered but it was enough to ring ears and drive the air from lungs with its force “Congratulations peccant fizgig, none have assailed me so as to mar my habiliment and equipage in an age, not since King Sombra has that feat been achieved. I shall heap many a malison upon thee in recompense”.
Rainbow gave a battle cry that was taken up by the others, they began a charge into the face of oblivion, Twilight looked on with tortured horror as they passed her, throwing themselves against a Goddess. Tears poured from her eyes and she extended her hand feeblily “Stop! Please!” The moment stretched, then stretched again. Time ground down like a projector running out of steam and while it never truly stopped, the figures hung mid charge as they crawled forward in their glacial run.
THE OTHERS ARE VERY IMPRESSED, I HOWEVER AM NOT CONVINCED.
Twilight whipped her head around, she knew something was there but whatever it was it defied her ability to visualise or comprehend it, it was the singularly most unnerving experience in the students life, for the first time to be confronted by something that defied any attempt to understand it. This localised presence transmitted an air of frustration in some way and if it were a person would probably be standing there with arms crossed.
“What...Who are you?” Twilight queried.
NAMES HAVE POWER TWILIGHT SPARKLE, YOU ARE NOT DESERVING OF THAT YET, BUT I HAVE BEEN CALLED MANY THINGS, IN YOUR LIFE I WOULD BE CALLED….MAGIC. A EUPHEMISM, BUT AN ACCURATE ONE.
The magus ran over to her friends waving her hands in front of their faces “Magic? What's happening, why have you stopped time?”, she started doing a panic dance glancing between...whatever it was, the chargeing group and Luna hanging in the sky like a vision of the rapture.
PLEASE DO GET A GRIP TWILIGHT, I’M SURE YOU HAVE MORE PRESSING ISSUES. THE OTHERS BELIEVE WE SHOULD HELP YOU GET OUT OF THIS JAM, BUT I DON’T AGREE, I'M HERE FOR YOU TO CONVINCE ME AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGEMENT
“If it is no issue to yourself why would you not help us?” Twilight peevishly snapped.
IT WAS BECAUSE OF OUR HELP THAT WE REACHED THIS IMPASSE. WE HAD THE BEST INTENTIONS, AFTER THE SUN AND MOON CAME DOWN AND IN PART STAYED TO GUIDE AND TEACH, ONLY FOR SOME OF THE OTHERS TO OVERTURN EVERYTHING THEY HAD BUILT. WE WERE INSPIRED TO STEP IN AND HELP. BUT THE PART OF THEM THAT IS A PERSON IS GREATER THAN THE PART OF THEM THAT IS TRANSCENDENT AND THEY SOON FELL INTO FOLLY.
Twilight wheeled her hands leaning away from the information barrage “Woah, Woah, back up, you're throwing a lot at me at once. Let's start with the sun and moon coming down, what does that mean?”
IN THE BEGINNING YOUR PEOPLE WALKED AND PLAYED ON THE VIRGIN EARTH WHILE THE SUN AND MOON WATCHED. THE PEOPLE WOULD SING TO THEM AND IT DELIGHTED THEM. ONE DAY A GIRL WAS SINGING TO THE SUN AND THE SUN GREW CURIOUS AND DREW CLOSER, LONGING TO SING WITH THE GIRL THE SUN DREW SO CLOSE THAT THEY TOUCHED, A HORRENDOUS UPSET OF THE COSMIC ORDER TO BE SURE BUT IN AN INSTANT THEY JOINED BECOMING ONE, A SINGLE BEING IN TWO BODIES: ONE PHYSICAL AND THE OTHER MYTHICAL. SO THE SUN THROUGH THE PART OF IT THAT WAS A GIRL ENJOYED ALL THE DELIGHTS OF THE WORLD. THE MOON SEEING THIS WANTED TO SHARE IN THE JOY OF ITS SISTER, SO THE MOON FOUND A GIRL DREAMING BY A STREAM AND MERGED WITH HER. SO WAS BORN CELESTIA AND LUNA.
Twilight stopped writing half way through to stare slack jawed, but feverishly went back to scribbling when the story ended “Wow, No one has any record of the Princess origins, this is monumental….” The pencil dropped from her grip “...Wait, you helped Celestia and Luna, you said the others, are you the 6th element!?”
YOUR CLEAR PERCEPTION AND QUICK WHIT SERVES YOU AGAIN TWILIGHT.
Shoving away the notebook she frantically gesticulated palms up “But the elements were destroyed, nothing more than inert rocks!”
SO LONG AS WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IS HELD IN YOUR PEOPLES HEARTS: TRUTH, LOYALTY, MERCY, JOY AND MAGNAMINTY MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED. WE HAD SIMPLY WITHDRAWN OUR BLESSING FOR CELESTIA'S OWN GOOD.
Twilight blankly stared for a moment as that sunk in and her mind started processing the implications “Right, end of the sentence, what happened that convinced you to stop helping us?”
WHEN WE ARRIVED UNLOOKED FOR AND HELPED THEM OVER TURN DISCORD WE WERE A MIRACLE, WHEN WE AIDED THEM AGAINST KING SOMBRA WE WERE A ‘KEY TACTICAL ASSET’. THEN BY THE TIME CELESTIA CAME WHINING TO US THAT HER SISTER WOULDN’T PLAY NICE WE WERE HER MOTHER AND FATHER. KNOWING THAT SHE COULD JUST CALL ON US TO MAGICALLY FIX EVERYTHING HAD MADE HER LAZY AND ARROGANT, SHE ASSUMED HERSELF UNASSAILABLE AND CHOSEN BY DESTINY, CLOSING HER EARS TO THE WORDS OF OTHERS. SHE IGNORED THE GROWING PROBLEMS UNDER HER NOSE THAT SHE DIDN’T WANT TO DEAL WITH BECAUSE SHE KNEW SHE COULD.
MEANWHILE LUNA GREW SPOILED, DEMANDING AND NEEDY. VICTORY HAD COME EASIER AND EASIER TO THE PAIR SO AS SOON AS A REAL STRUGGLE CAME HER WAY SHE THREW A TANTRUM. NOW LOOK AT HER; UTTERLY CONSUMED BY HER OWN BITTERNESS AND GREED, WHAT A SENSELESS WASTE.
Swaying onto one hip the magus rubbed her chin in though, “So now you're wondering that if you put your power in the hands of another group of people we’ll start using you as a crutch as well, I can see your concern but with Princess Celestia gone there is no one else, it's you or we all die, we can not match the Nightmares power”
OH CELESTIA IS ABOUT, SHE COULD STEP IN AT ANY TIME, BUT DOING SO WOULD CAUSE UNTOLD DAMAGE AND END IN THE DEATH OF ONE OR BOTH OF THEM, SHE’S TRYING TO FORCE OUR HAND AND THAT MAKES ME ALL THE MORE RESISTANT. TELL ME TWILIGHT, WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS?
“Well the books I’ve read suggest...well no they never actually stated they were weapons only that the Princess used them as such, but the books hinted at something greater and this conversation reinforces that. Ideals maybe, Paragons? If the Sun and Moon can be people then why not Ideals”, Twilight shrugged.
YOUR CLARITY SERVES YOU YET AGAIN, YOU ARE CORRECT THAT WE DID NOT INTEND THEM AS WEAPONS AND THAT THEY WERE MISUSED, SO HERE LAYS YOUR TRIAL TO PROVE YOUR WORTHINESS TO ME. YOU MAY MAKE ONE WISH; IF IT WORTHY THEN IT SHALL BE GRANTED, IF IT IS SELFISH OR SHORT SIGHTED YOU WILL DIE HERE.
Throwing her arms up the Magus wilted like a flower as she flounced down on the ground “Gee thanks, succeed or die!”
I DO NOT THINK IT IS BEYOND ANY OF YOUR ABILITIES, YOU WHO HAVE BEEN TOUCHED BY FATE. THERE IS GREAT POTENTIAL WITH IN EACH OF YOU FOR HARM AND HEALING, YOU WHO STRADDLED DESTINY ITSELF. IF YOUR HEARTS ARE NOT OF PURE INTENT THEN IT WOULD BE BETTER THAT YOU FELL TO LUNA HERE. SO WHAT IS YOUR WISH, STICK LUNA BACK IN THE MOON PERHAPS?
Lounging back on one arm she stared up at the moon running through her options, “Don’t be obtuse, that doesn’t solve anything, it just kicks the can down the road and leaves her to ferment more vitriol. We need her on side, things have changed a lot and people love the night now but she is too angry to see it. If only we could get through to her and open up a dialogue, she isn’t an idiot, I’m sure she could be reasoned with” she finished wistfully.
Harrumphing Twilight got back up dusting herself off and straightening her robe, She squared her jaw and confidently declared “I wish the fog of anger and resentment be cleared from Luna’s mind so that she can clearly perceive things as they truly are.”
YOU ARE HARDLY THE MOST SKILLED NEGOTIATOR, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN CONVINCE HER EVEN IN HER RIGHT MIND? WHAT IF IT DOESN’T WORK?
“I’ll just have to trust in my friends to help me and make it work.” Twilight nodded.
AN ACCEPTABLE ANSWER TWILIGHT SPARKLE, SO BE IT
What happened next was explained in many different ways depending on who was asked, Applejack swore blind that it was like the warmth of the sun of a summer's day, Rainbow argued it was like a freedive that never ended, Fluttershy likened it to a warm bath filled with a bouquet of flowers, Rarity the greatest spa day to every be conceived, Twilight rambled on about energy infusions and dopamine rushes however the most useful description was Pinkie Pie who said the feeling could be reproduced with a concoction of ecstasy, lsd, cocaine, a gallon of chocolate milkshake and a sexual escapade with Princess Cadence.
Regardless of what was happening inside, outside Twilight was suddenly at the centre of the last charge of her new friends, from the air gem dust filtered in like sand on the wind coalescing into unique pendants around the necks of each of them as they leapt into the storm of Nightmare Moon. The Moon Queen shoved forth a hand summoning the cold and dark of the abyss that lashed out to annihilate them, but before the blow was struck the gems at the heart of the pendants ignited and a brilliant rainbow of light illuminated the whole forest below, the tortured forces sublimated like dry ice and the friends formed a ring around the Nightmare Queen clasping hands.
“No! The elements were destroyed! It isn't fair!” Nightmare Moon thrashed and twitched trying to escape but unable to leave the ring around her, she twisted to face Twilight seeing her entire life reflected in her eyes. The floating ring gently guided their captive back to solid ground, they spoke in voices partially their own but partially borrowed. Your eyes uncovered, may you see truth. Your ears opened, may you hear joy. Your lips unsealed, may you speak kindness. You mind unbound, may you know loyalty. Your heart unburdened, may you feel generous. Out of the darkness, into the night, may you find faith with inner light.
The rainbow brilliance grew brighter and brighter as the Nightmare went stiff as a board, wracked by a silent scream; finally some resistance broke and her eyes shifted from pointed feral green to a soft, round, soulful blue. Going limp and hanging like a marionette, the unnatural obsidian broke away from around her eyes like flecks of paint to reveal the white porcelain skin beneath, passing like a wave across her form the outer darkness crumbled into sand that was borne away on the wind. The armour melted like oil and soaked into the ground below while the stark starscape of her long locks came alive with nebula, comets and racing stars. Her dark raiments faded like mist leaving her naked as a newborn, every darkness and blemish washed away. As the six friends descended to ground with her in the centre, tears of purest silver overflowed from the corners of her eyes that ran rivers down her face and off her breast to the ground, as she was deposited on the floor she folded and curled up on the ground quietly sobbing and shivering.
The Six friends took up their weight again, unclasped hands, then as one collapsed unconscious.
The first back online was Twilight, her eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright with her new circlet askew on her head, next was Fluttershy, starting awake out of whatever dream she was having. “Is everyone alive?” sounded off Twilight as she slowly tried to rise. “Mmmhm..five more minutes...” grumbled Rainbow Dash, Applejack kicked her up the backside “Get’ up ya’ lazy sack a shit” and rolled over to push off the floor. Rarity yawned and stretched while Pinkie jumped up rubbing her eyes.
“Looks like we’re all still here Twilight, another glorious day in Equis!” Beamed Pinkie, the half asleep Rainbow hid behind her arms attempting to fend off Pinkie's positivity “You’re at an 8 Pinks, I need you at a 4 if I’m gonna cope". A soft sob escaped from the figure on the floor drawing their attention. Fluttershy rushed forward pulling out her supplies “Oh goodness, does anyone have a spare something to cover her with, she must be freezing”
“Indeed there is” everyone turned as the majestic frame of Princess Celestia strode into the hall, as she entered the sun rocketed up over the horizon making her walnut skin radiate a transcendent golden light, her pure samite robes reflected the light out illuminating the darkened hall like a flood light.
Princess Luna cowered behind the others shaking in terror, seeing her discomfort Twilight approached her mentor giving a deep bow, before giving the princess a kick in the shin, it had no real effect but to raise the Princesses eyebrow "Twilight Sparkle, I've never known you to lash out physically at anyone, should I be worried or proud?"
Fluttershy helped Luna to her feet who stood head bowed, Celestia approached and gently cupped her face before tilting it up to meet her gaze. Gold tears ran from Celestia's eyes "I am so sorry, I was such a bitch but I didn't mean to push you away…"
Luna grasped her sister's hand "It was me Celestia, I wanted more and I was so jealous of you, you were always the first to do anything and I was just tagging along, I wanted to prove that I could be the one. After the wars I also ran away, I hid in our childhood, pretending that none of it had happened and the world left me behind as I mouldered in the past, brooding on the debt I felt it owed me."
Celestia dragged her into a hug and they cried into each other's shoulders, after a while Celestia spoke "We had been fighting wars for two epochs without rest, so when the peace came, all the damage and unresolved trauma boiled over. Something had to give and if it wasn't you it would have been me. It took me years to come to terms with it and heal but I promise I'll be with you every step of the way, together as it should have been."
Applejack took off her Stetson and approached "If ah' may ma'am, when mah' ma' 'n pa' died I was so damned angry I would go lookin' for fights in bars just to let it out. None of the shrinks could do nothin' with me till I met Dr Care, if'n yer' lookin' for that kinda thing." Pinkie slid in and hugged Applejack "Yeah, Lt. C is the best for dealing with extreme cases" Applejack gave her a look "I didn't know he served? How'd you know that?" Pinkie wiggled her eyebrows.
The conversation was derailed by a crow of victory followed by Rarity doing an unflattering impression of Sweetie Belle "'Buut wawity, y u needs bolt of fabwick on a battul feewd', hah, one point to me, I am so going to rub this is when…" she looked at the scene of sisterly reunion "...I mean, if your majesties will indulge me, I whipped up a quick slip on to preserve your dignity while we get you to my shop and fix up something proper" Luna took the dress and pulled it over her head, it was simple white cotton and only went to just above her knee but it was enough, "I don't know how I can thank all of you for your over abundance of generosity and kindness" muttered the moon shepard.
Luna marched ahead, "Onwards to destiny then" and led out of the ruins.
***
Everfree forest looked only marginally better in the daylight, at least the worst monsters were asleep as they strolled along in little groups chatting.
..."So, are we like superheroes now?" Rainbow Dash wondered aloud, Celestia walking hand in hand with her sister shrugged "I suppose, I wanted six muscle bound paladins that could crush Drakîn skulls with their bare hands but I got a librarian, a pet sitter, a racer, a beast tamer, a fashionista and a compare so go figure” The sun goddess pondered for a second “However, it is not as if you don't have the horrifying ability to overturn fate and the backing of the elements of harmony as well, you’ve certainly proven your combat prowess too. So feel free to call yourself a Superhero for what it’s worth Rainbow Dash"
Rainbow scratched her chin "Huh Neat. Say, can you do that super stone melting beam o' light stuff too?"
..."I am worried about Sweetie, if this is going to be a thing I don't know if her prosthesis can take this sort of repeat punishment" Rarity sighed repainting her nails.
..."So you're saying there are vast temples to the night now?" A puzzled Luna enquired
..."I mean, it was not the best experience and I may even have some, uh, bad dreams about it; but being tested to your limit and overcoming it, I never knew I had it in me" Fluttershy chattered in awe of herself.
***
Ponyville was like a kicked anthill, barricades had been erected between buildings on the outskirts and mercenaries patrolled the ramparts armed with bolt action and Winchester rifles, even a few civilians with muzzle loaders. People were coming and going from town hall running messages and errands two and frow, the party stood on a hill at the tree line in awe at how quickly the town had mobilised. Luna took a deep breath drawing herself up and marched out of the shadow of the trees towards the main road leading into the town, Celestia hurried after her with the rest of the gang in tow.
“It's Princess Celestia and the others! Wait, who is that!?”
Luna stopped short of the wall “I am Luna Victrix Ferarum, I have come to surrender myself!” Her voice clear and soulful like a wolf howl on the wind. Celestia came up beside her bright and cheerful “Do not fear, the long darkness has passed, my sister seeks an audience to hear grievances and make good as much as she can!”
“Isn’t Luna dead?”
Pinkie chimed in “Weeel, sort of, you know how it is with deities, but let us in so we only have to explain this once!”
Two guys argued back and forth before shrugged at each other then started shouting orders for beams to be moved so an entrance was created, in a short while there was gap that the party could squeeze through into the central promenade. As they walked a large throng slowly gathered coming out of their houses with mercenaries peeling away from their posts to see what was happening. The party gathered on the stage from yesterday's public meeting; Luna, Celestia, Twilight and Pinkie at the front and Fluttershy hiding at the very back.
Luna strode to the podium “Citizens, I come head bowed in shame at the grievous hurts I inflicted on this town, I ask any injured by my madness step forward and claim recompense as is your right”
“Ye’ don’t look lahk the woman who attacked us?”
Luna looked perplexed as she attempted to formulate an explanation, but suddenly found Pinkie hanging off her shoulder “Sooo, it turns out that the two princesses were suffering with PTSD a thousand years ago, I know right, spread awareness to people. But mental health services sucked at the time so they weren't getting any help, so this untreated condition gave Princess Luna a dissociative episode, which turns out for Godesses is really bad because as well as being nuts you turn into an armoured obsidian death machine, buut we blasted her with Quaalude lasers and snapped her out of it and she’s here on the first step of her recovery to clean up her mess!” Pinke gave a big smile and thumbs up to the crowd before sliding back into line.
“So you're saying; you went nuts and wrecked our town and are now here on an apology tour?”
Luna refocused looking straight at the queerant “In a word, yes. My malady does not excuse the wounds I inflicted, as a goddess I must accept the consequences that come with the responsibility.”
Granny Smith muscled through, the crowd parting in reverence “Ah know where ya’ can start, follow me”, before hobbling off through the parting crowd, Luna leapt down softly and followed slowly behind in a procession.
She wound her way through town uphill to the furthest edge from the Everfree where the graveyard sat; enclosed by severe spikes of iron that broke only for a wide arch stood the rows of simple stones bearing the names of the dead. The apple matriarch stopped at the gate and turned to face Luna “Ya’ want to face tha’ consequences of yer’ actions Dream Weaver: There they are” she intoned, extending a gnarled hand. In the centre was a pair of fresh graves, a young girl new to her teen years knelt head bowed between them while Applebloom stood guard nearby, noticing the approaching throng she saluted to Granny Smith.
Luna bowed low “Thank you Goody Smith, Celstia, your dagger of Adamant, I know you carry it”
Scootaloo was lost in grief, she was trying to picture her future but with her parents gone she had no anchor, a musical voice as mournful as the howling wind reached her ears “What is thy name child?”
“Nicely done yer’ majesty” remarked Granny Smith, The Luna Princess gave a respectful nod to the elder and turned to face the crowd once again “Are there anymore claimants?” A moment of silence passed before a boss eyed woman strode out with a thatch of blond hair “Yes, I think I speak for everyone when I say that you terrified the life out of my children and completely ruined the summer sun celebration and I am utterly appalled by your behaviour!” Luna winced at the maternal tongue lashing and the crowd beetled their brows and gave shouts of agreement and hollered criticism, but eventually people settled down and the woman continued “That said, I am happy to hear you are more in your right mind and on the road to recovery. I hope I speak for a good number of us when I say I look forward to you retaking your place when you are fully healed and will sleep easier knowing that nights are guarded once again. Also, if we have missed one celebration, a celebration of your return is a good substitute, but you're paying for it” there was more mumbling of a lighter tone, because any excuse for a party is a good excuse especially if it is free. Luna bowed to the spokesperson "Your terms are most fair, the drinks as they used to say are on me".
Something tickled at the back of Twilights mind, an ancient hymn and quiet suddenly she burst out into song:
Raise our hearts and raise our voices, let the people know all of the choices.
Celestia lept in her voice joyfully soaring as memories rushed back.
Raise our hearts and raise our voices, let the people know all of the choices.
There is a woman who weaves the night sky; See her spin, see her fingers fly. She is the needle and we are the thread. She is weaver and we are the web.
She changes everything she touches, Everything she touches changes. She changes everything she touches, Everything she touches changes.
She has been with us beginning to end, She is our mother, our lover, our friend. We are the children of love and light, We’ll guide the world through its perilous night.
The crowd erupted picking up the chorus and began leading the openly weeping Moon Goddess towards the town.
Meanwhile a gaggle of minor nobility marched up headed by the Mayor. She ran a hand through her grey locks with a put upon ragged expression, coming to a stop beside Celestia and Twilight and extending a hand "Hail Sol Invictus…" she intoned with shredded patience "...look, I'm sorry to butt in majesty but they wouldn't leave me alone."
The woman from earlier that Twilight could only think of as Blancmange flounced forward and started to harang in her needling tone "Your majesty we demand you take…."
Celestia raised a hand that sucked the air out of her lungs shocking her into silence "You demand? Hold that thought. Twilight please submit your findings" Lord Rich and Silver who were at the far back trying to keep an eye on them deliberately took a step away from the rest of the group sensing danger and wanting to make it abundantly clear they were not affiliated.
Twilight whipped out her notebook. “If it pleases your majesty, I was dispatched to investigate reports of banditry to shipments leaving Ponyville as one of my duties in this region. My findings were that for all intents and purposes that Ponyville is a closed financial system, with trade only with the capital....”
Ritch and Silver shared a look, they knew where this was going and took another step away.
“...I have here the trade records for the past year, there has been no fluctuation of price worth mentioning and the income of the farmers has remained static.”
Blancmange broke in “Your majesty please, what has this got to do with these bandits?” Ritch and Silver winced and facepalmed, hearing the slap she turned her pig face about “What?”
Celestia, examining her fingernails with exaggerate calm, instructed “Please Twilight, continue”
The magus took up the thread again “Yes Majesty, As I was saying there has been no increase in wages or increase in value of the goods, however all assembled here, save Lord Silver and Lord Rich, have been incrementally increasing the rental rates for the farmsteads over the past year. My projection is that the situation would be completely untenable within six to eight months.”
“Untenable!?”
“Yes Moneybags…” Celestia glared up at them from under her brow, Blancmange could almost feel her wig curling “....Untenable. Tell me, where was this money supposed to come from?
“What money?” Blancmange was blank faced, but the rodents behind her could feel the ship sinking and we're casting about for an exit.
The air around Celestia seemed to waver “The extra rent money?”
“From the peas...farmers of course!” chuckled Blancmange, there was no way out so the rodents huddled behind her hoping her mass would shield them from whatever was coming.
Celestia, the grass around her feet browning pressed “Yes and where are they getting it?”
“Well, they should reduce their unnecessary spending…” nodded Blancmange.
“Why!?” barked Celestia, sending out a wave of heat.
Too late she realised her peril “I don’t…”
Celestia stalked forward and they all bent away from her “Why would they live in abject poverty on your land when they could go anywhere else for better wages?”
“Well...There's always more workers willing to work for, erm…” Blancmange slowly deflated and shrivelled like a sad balloon.
Celestia grinned like a shark smelling blood “Are there? Twilight?”
“I spoke with the leader of the Bandits, by performing this off the books redistribution of funds they were able to keep about thirty percent of the homesteads operational. With numerous alternatives available at lower rates Ponyville operates on brand trust and ease of sourcing, a third of productive units shutting down would have created shortages that would have destroyed the towns reputation and made it easier to go further afield for goods...” Twilight snapped the book shut “..In short the real problem here is horrendous miss management of Royal Assets”
Blancmange attempted to rally, squealing like a stuck pig “I protest this insult!”
Celestia's voice hit them like a swinging furnace door scalding those who were to close “Protest all you like! You're grossly incompetent and have no grasp of economics! Equis is a metroracy and you have no merit so I strip you of your lands and titles, get out of my sight!"
The moral broke and they ran crying, wailing and threatening back to their estates, Celestia snorted with licks of fire coming from her nostrils. She turned "Lord Silver, Lord Rich as the only two with brains; congratulations your now Earls, the mayor will run the paperwork when she has time and you'll get half the land each, don't fail me."
Earl Silver, a portly man with grey mutton chops rolled his eyes "Good riddance to bloody amateurs, don't worry highness I want there to actually be something to pass on my granddaughter, hail Sol Invictus"
The mayor sighed happily "That was so worth it."
Hearing the Mayor was officially out of action Rarity assumed direct control of the situation; the barricades vanished, silver moon symbols were added next to the suns and blue was hastily added to the decor. Rainbow gathered up the fastest in Ponyville and charged to the four winds heralding Luna’s return. Pinkie rallied the musicians to hammer out sheet music for millenia old songs, luckily most of the tunes they already knew as they had been repurposed as folk ballads. Fluttershy went home to disembark her animal friends and take a long hot victory bath while Applejack relieved the Militairs and Mercenaries after receiving a field promotion from Celestia to town sheriff and after deputising Big Mac went to bed to saw wood.
Meanwhile Twilght ducked into the hospital, Spike was in a bed with his arm in a sling dozing. As she sat on the bed he came round “Hey T. Sparks, the suns still up so I take it we won”,
By dusk there was a massive party in full swing replete with singing, dancing, boozing and gorgeing. Luna after much self abasement and protest had been forced into a flowing midnight blue silk gown; around the cuffs of the bell sleeves were silver moon devices leading up to a corseted top that displayed her slender curvy frame and a asymmetrical hemmed skirt to take advantage of what Rarity called “not legs for days, legs for all eternity’ ending in heeled blue velvet shoes. The sisters stood at the entrance of town saying goodbye’s.
“Will you not stay sister?” Luna squeezed Celestia's hands.
Celstia stood back from the group. “I’ll see you all tomorrow then, goodnight all” and vanished in a brilliant flare of light.
She changes everything she touches, everything she touches changes.
Cadence had spent the night in a bunker while the city was on high alert from a possible unknown threat, cuddling her personal bodyguard and hysterical with a worry that had only slightly abated when the sun rose over the horizon. However a burbling visit from a rainbow haired woman that floated above the courtyard spinning an impossible yarn about demons, shadows and mad goddesses finally released the tension. After declaring that ‘Luna was back baby’ the messenger shot off over the horizon, people were incredulous until the heir apparent Princess Cadance did a little dance, snogged her bodyguard and called for booze signifying that good news was incoming and everyone could go about their day again.
The only further disturbance was a flash of light in Celestia’s bedroom and the scream of “Yes! Yes! Gods damn it YEEEEEESSSS!”, followed by Cadence staggering two bottles in hand passed the guards up to greet her returning aunt, then after some laughing and cheering she staggered back out and off to bed.
She changes everything she touches, everything she touches changes.
The bouncer stood outside the Hot to Trot night club of Canterlot, a shadow was cast over him and he spoke automatically “Name?”, the well known voice of Pinkie Pie spoke up “Oh she doesn’t need to be on any list”.
Vinyl felt the change in the atmosphere the second she entered, at the back of the gyrating and sweating crowd she stood head and shoulders above the rest, a face of worry broke into a radiant smile like a child discovering candy for the first time, behind her a surge of people started pouring into the club. Speaking of worry Strong Arm was throwing people out of the way and shoved his mouth to her ear “Fucking Pinkie is here and she says she has brought the fucking goddess of the night with her!”, Vinyl popped up her shades and leaned forward, by the look of her it was true, the only person with a mop like that was Celestia, trust Pinkamena to pull this. Vinyl finished her drink and stood up approaching the mixing deck, she tapped Neon on the shoulder “Dude, I’m gonna need to cut in, shits about to get mythic. I can feel it”, Neon had spotted who had walked in and said “I’ll stay and help, this could get crazy”.
The song came to an end and Vinyl grabbed up the mike “Hey yo! Everyone having a good time!” The crowd roared in the affirmative, “Cool because I’ve just been told we have an extra special VIP in the house tonight and I think she has a few words for ya!”
Vinyl felt like she had been granted the immaculate high, her brain fizzled with ideas, sounds and wild concepts. As if possessed she stared at the record turning on the deck, for years she had played one record, fading into another when it ended. What if she played two or three records together, or loop a section? What if she manipulated the record manually to intentionally scuff and warp the sound. Holding up the record as if she had seen it for the first time she thought, can I make new music out of old music?
“Fucking ‘ave it!” screamed the DJ and slammed down the record, the speaker pumped out a sound that skipped and jumped about but somehow was constrained to a rhythm, another familiar song kicked in, looping round a hook they knew well that seemed to take on new life layered over each other. Neon had unplugged a deck and blasted the jack with pure manna creating this electrical buzzsaw that dipped and bowed around the duelling melodies that grew and gathered as the two frantically started adding more and more records into the mix. The whole place exploded, this strange recycled music had a powerful energy that made them want to dance and whatever the night goddess had done filled them with energy.
At the middle of the packed mob Pinkie was laughing like a lunatic as she jumped up and down, Rarity and Luna where waving and swaying in this mirrored seductive dance, a space had formed around Twilight who was contorting and jerking like some sort of automaton and seemed almost inhuman in her movements.
She changes everything she touches, everything she touches changes.
...Sky Line sat bolt upright from his dream, he leapt out of bed and went sprinting to his workshop. The resulting hammering and sawing woke his wife Red Line, who stuck her head around the door. “Honey what in tartaras are you doing at 3AM?”
...Juniper Rose rolled over in bed and stared at her writing table, with a groan she dragged herself over to the typewriter and skimmed the three uninspiring pages she had forced out about a teenage vampire romance. She chucked them over her shoulder and stuck in a new piece of paper ‘Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much…’
...Spitball sat looking at his painting of flowers at 4 am. He was desperate to come up with something for the exhibit submission but this was just awful, bland and uninspired. As he stared his eyelids sank, then closed. There was a flash of color through his mind and he got up with a roar and started hurled his paints at the canvas “Bloody, Fucking, Shitty sodding bollocks!”. He stood heaving looking at the explosions of colour. “Actually...that's a lot better....
She changes everything she touches, everything she touches changes.
***
A late breakfast in the Royal suite was a semi lively affair; Celestia, Applejack and Fluttershy had gone to bed sensibly at a reasonable hour and the latter two had got up nice and early to catch the first train. They sat happily chit chatting over some toast. Next down the Table was Princess Cadence who had gone to bed silly but at a reasonable hour and feeling a little worse for wear was powering through her hangover with some orange juice. Next was Rainbow who had gone to bed sensible at an unreasonable hour having done what she described as a victory lap around Equis. Then we had Twilight and Rarity who had gone to bed silly at an unreasonable hour; Twilight looked like tepid death and was chugging coffee and water while Rarity looked amazing as always despite wearing sunglasses inside and sipping on some very potent tea. Lastly there was Luna and Pinkie with their inhuman constitutions that were still rolling from the night before.
“Ugh…” groused Twilight “...I think someone slipped me a mickey.”
The door burst open and Spike strolled in with one arm in a sling and a book under the other, he walked up next to Twilight and cheerfully bellowed “Good morning boss!”, Twilight whimpered and tried to hide under her arms much to the amusement of every one there, Spike rolled onwards “As you are feeling a little under the weather I went ahead and prepare your folio!”
***
Despite her sister's protests and appeals to decorum and propriety, Princess Luna had dragged what the clerk had told her was called a ‘beanbag’ into the throne room and stuck it at the foot of the Dias. She happened to like it as it was black, had stars on and was comfortable, also to Celestia’s chagrin at this moment only had the one party dress to wear in her size so used a cantrip to freshen it up before sitting down to hold court.
Celestia finally gave up and just accepted that a thousand years hadn’t made her sister any less of a contrarian but secretly placed an order for a throne for her in a suitably gothic styling she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist before ascending the golden throne dressed in her royal raiments.
The Journalist came in to snap some pictures of the new Princess and ask questions, like why are you sitting on a bean bag, to which Luna declared that she wasn’t one to stand on ceremony, people could go to Celestia for that. She gave an edited version of events, assuring them that Rainbow Dash would be happy to give a full rendition of the tale with all the sound effects, and stated that she was on a long road to recovery so did not intend to start throwing political weight around beyond the housekeepers for a while, so everyone could relax and if anything would be indulging her patronage of the arts or other non critical areas of control. She finished by saying that if anyone was struggling and needed someone to confide in, her door was open as soon as she had one and she would take supplicants at any time between sunset and dawn.
The journalist were shooed to one side and the doors thrown open, Celestia had expected Rarity to force them into ball gowns, but aside from magically regrowing her trademark hair she seemed to have little to do with their outfits; they were decked out in their combat gear just as they had been when she found them, just with less holes and burn marks. Twilight strode in and performed both the solar and lunar salutes which raised Luna's eyebrows "Hail Celestia Solar Invictus, Hail Luna Victrix Ferarum. We guessed at what your summoned us for and felt this would be the appropriate statement"
Celestia took her place on the right and the six women kneeled. "Arise, Sir Fluttershy, Paragon of Kindness!", Celestia dubbed her and threw the sword over their heads to Luna who caught it without missing a beat and swung it round into a dub "Arise Sir Rainbow Dash, Paragon of Loyalty", the sword sailed back to Celestia who pirouetted to absorb the momentum "Arise Sir Pinkamena Pie, Paragon of Laughter", the sword went end over end into Luna's waiting hand "Arise Sir Jacqueline Apple, Paragon of Honesty", the blade made the short hop back to Celestia "Arise Sir Twilight Sparkle, Paragon of Magic!", The blade was handed to Luna who paused to give special significance to the one it meant the most to "Arise Sir Rarity Belle, Paragon of Generosity".
Celestia ascended the throne and Luna slumped into her beanbag holding the sword, The Sun Queen's voice rang out "I bestow on you the rank of Knight of the first order of Harmony, with the right to commence a leeve at any time. That means you can come and see us directly at any point Rainbow, put your arm down. Rise and serve with honour!"
A small cheer from Cadence and a happy groan from Shining Armor erupted as camera bulbs flashed.
The End
A thousand years of stability they called it, but to her eyes it was truthfully a thousand years of stagnation. Surely; it had been less tumultuous as the ancient powers that had shook the world grew weary and one by one had drifted into a millenia long slumber. However so too had faded the hero, the iconoclast, the inspired genius and the raving lunatic.
Solaris Sol Invictus - Princess Celestia, once living goddess of the sun and steward of the material world, now soul immortal and lighthouse keeper of civilization tightly grasped the tarnished gold rail round the battlements of her grand city keep. It's grubby marble spires illuminated with the warm hues of sunset as the sparks of yellow mage light flickering out from windows and doors, she had heard it described as like unto an ornament in a snow globe, to her it felt more like a mausoleum of past glories.
Around her she had watched the world fall into indolence as her list of potential allies grew thin. The once mighty and proud Empire of Griffonstone had crumbled, its folk becoming mean and petty scavengers. The indomitable and brash Khans of YakYakistan had hedged themselves in and turned their back on the rest of the world, ignoring the concerns of others. The Hippogriff Kingdom had just outright vanished one day without a word. The Tribes of the Buffalo Desert wandered in dreams and spoke with no one. Meanwhile the avaricious and wild bands of the Dragon Lands grew lazier each time she saw them. Even her own kingdom seemed to shrink.
Her subjects had become stunted and timid; darkness and ignorance had crept into the empty spaces on the map as explorers, frontiers men and trailblazers became accountants, bakers and home bodies. As the master of the world that was she had kept them housed and well fed but without Lu... without the mistress of dreams they had lost their inspiration and drive. She had tried to nourish their souls but it was not her domain or skill.
As she walked in the waking world and saw her subjects grow more decadent, while as her mortal body rested her divine eye in the heavens saw ancient titans stir in their troubled dreams, soon to walk abroad once more, but this time the world lacked the fortitude to endure them.
Turning away as the last hues of twilight faded, she pulled out from her tabard the scroll her spy had sent her: a young girl with Aurora hair and the mark of a crystalline heart on her chest. Mi Amore; the herald of love and guardian of the crystal empire had returned unlooked for to the mortal realm. She was a harbinger of things to come and time ran ever shorter, many seeds had been planted and the immortal only hoped that by gathering the last dying embers she could rekindle the flame that had awoken in that cave so long ago.
She hoped for the security of her kingdom, the salvation of her sister's soul and that the ones who were to come could triumph where she had failed, otherwise they were all damned.
***
Cadence staggered through the bustling crowd of canterlot; the bright sun relentlessly dazzled her as it bounced from the marble, whitewashed stone and pale slabs that made up the entire of the heart of Equestria, attacking from every angle the glare broiled the air around her.
Ducking and weaving around the people wandering the narrow streets in their dull finery and tacky jewellery, as she passed they turned their pinched, sneering faces towards her; squawking their self important platitudes, to anyone one else they would seem as vacuous marionettes.
However, since her fight with the sorceress something had awakened in her, the desires and wants in the hearts of others called to her, in her contented little village it had been a novelty to hear the gentle desires of every day folk, but in this shrine of avarice their wanting hearts screamed by the hundreds making her head ring.
Finally pushing out of the choking crowd she stumbled onto the clinical emerald lawn before the cathedral opening to the castle proper; rich with statues wrought in gold and marble it's facade was equal part diorama and shrine. Huffing with determination Cadence steeled herself and stalked forward towards the vast pale ash doors wrought with astral symbols that marked the threshold.
The guards in their mirror-like polished plate armour did not react, almost as if she was expected, that or they had propped up their armour and snuck away for a break. The entrance hall’s dominating feature was the exquisitely mosaiced floor representing the sun and moon in their eternal dance, illuminated by its vast vaulted ceiling that groaned with a thousand enchanted chandeliers. Positioned at its centre, like a part of the installation was a well dressed butler with an exacting pencil moustache and an expectant look.
Jerkily folding like a tin soldier, his cut glass voice somehow failed to reverberate in the space.
Cadence frowned “I’m sorry, my name is Cadence, I would like to speak with Celestia if possible but I wouldn’t want to pinch someone else’s appointment.”
The butler failed to rise “The appointment is for you Excellency, Her Royal Highness advised you may be confused but assures all will become clear in time, Please.”, He swept out his arm to invite her up the staircase.
With crinkled brow Cadence slowly started walking up the stairs, this was all too weird, apparently despite sending no missive and being of little note her arrival had been anticipated, but for all the foresight they couldn’t seem to get her name right. She was sure there had been a mistake but at least she was heading in the right direction.
The stairs lead to a long wide hallway of white marble with red velvet carpets, Cadence rolled her eyes at the fatuous pomp of the whole affair; the lines of intricate stained glass windows blasted her with rainbow light, shoving the accomplishments of the kingdom in her face. Finally in the distance she saw her goal, the distant throne, but was once again was thrown off balance.
When she heard of Princess Celestia her mind had conjured up a big shiny gold crown and a very fancy dress, probably on a very dainty lady who spends a lot of time sewing in a tower. What was currently sifting through a bunch of scrolls was an seven foot tall amazonian warrior with biceps and thighs that could throttle a hippo; bronzed chestnut skin like a bikini model, startling amber eyes and a flowinging cascade of hair that writhed with the colours of the dawn exuded primal power and unshakable control. She was garbed modestly in a flowing white samite robe that covered from knee to elbow, her wide motherly hips were bound with golden cord and a band of pure gold above her brow that kept her unruly mane out of her stoic face.
Without looking up an honest and warm smile cracked her face “Greetings Mi Amore, it's been a long time, though for you it may seem like our first meeting, suffice to say I am very relieved and glad to see you”. Laying down her scrolls she turned her bright eyes on Cadence, as if an exposed blast furnace had suddenly kindled waves of heat poured out from her aura and washed over the teenager, stripping away her defences like a blowtorch to lay bare her very core.
Buckling under the pressure Cadence winced and tried to shield herself from the metaphysical flames with her arms, over the roar of the fire a small voice whispered “...sister”, her reverie was dispelled by two mighty hands grasping her. Suddenly the flames were gone and a concerned motherly gaze searched her face “Mi Amore are you OK? I am sorry, it's been so long since I met another immortal, I forget what influence we can have on each other”.
Cadence brushed off the loose grip and staggered backwards, she was barely into her teens with the sort of stretched chewing gum look of all those destined to be tall. Her skin was a flawless rich peach and her Cyan eyes that could have seemed icey cold, instead danced with the life of a tropical ocean. Her hair was striped with the colours of the aurora and bound tightly in a ponytail by some simple twine, dressed in a ragged summer dress of faded pastel rouge she looked neither stately or immortal.
She raised her eyes like levelling a lance “What are you talking about? My name is Cadence! I came here looking for help as ever since I stood up to that bog witch weird things have been happening to me, now people are bowing and scraping like I’m a visiting dignitary? What's going on!?” Her slight frame heaved as she panted with the over boiling stress.
Celestial dimmed slightly “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought….” She ran a hand through her hair and inhaled, fixing her stoic face in place “...You Cadence are the new avatar of Love, the mark on your chest confirms it, your predecessor Mi Amore was a strong ally and a good friend, you look so much like her...I got excited. I had hoped...I hoped she had come back to me, it would be so nice to see a familiar face”.
Cadence circled her hands “Woah, woah. Avatar of Love? I didn’t sign up for this! I just wanted to protect my home and now you're telling me I have to be a god!?”
A wry chuckle came from the lips of the immortal sun “I said the same thing when Star Swirl laid a similar burden at my feet. Do not worry, I’m not going to saddle you with a bunch of chores as he did, I know it is in your nature to want to help others and that you feel their pain as your own, in time I believe you would have come to serve of your own accord. Unfortunately for us both you have chosen the very last moment to arise, that which has eternal laid stirs beneath us. There is much to be learned and you have no time.”
Cadence crumpled, her perfect face scrunched and haunted as her eyes swung back and forth searching for a way out “I didn’t want this, I just wanted to live in peace, I just wanted my parents back”. Powerful arms warm as a summer's day encircled her, reminiscent of her mother but alien and new.
“It is a sore trial, but you are strong Mi Amore. Together, we will bring a new golden age, you will see, I promise”.
***
Celestia awoke groggy and uneasy, there was a heavy tension in the air that oppressively hung over the world like a blanket, she slogged through her routine and as the day continued the pressure only grew heavier and heavier as if all the world was in a bottle and the cork was working its way free. It got to lunch before she couldn’t take it anymore.
Celestia adjourned the royal court citing her headache and crawled off to her chambers, stretching her body on the sheets as the room spun and wheeled. In dreams she glared down upon the earth from her heavenly vault; a storm was brewing, invisible to mortal eyes, black, tense and riddled with lighting.
She had visions; she saw darkness spread over the land, she saw clouds plummet from the sky and rocks hurtling into space, she saw a wasteland filled with desiccated corpses, she saw armies marching across the land and the world burn. She heard the thump of a heart beat, the rhythm of a crystal tree long forgotten. She saw a child filled with worry stretch towards home, another hauled by unknown forces into a desert, one more lay alone in a dark wood. On an empty farm one more raised her eyes to the sky in hope, one pushed through the sky knuckles on fire and finally the last, hands extended forcing magic upon an egg in desperation.
Six, it was them, it was time. Six, hoping for a miracle and reaching for the impossible.
The cloud burst, probability unwound, the world shifted and six individuals were remade in an instant, their souls lighting up like beacons burning into the sky.
A nearby explosion shook Celestia back into wakefulness as she fell un-regally out of her bed. She tried to stand and tripped over her bed clothes before hauling herself up to the balcony taking fistfuls out of the brickwork. A rainbow stretched out over the skies like a war banner going up, signalling the arrival of the ones who would be to all the world. She blinked blearily around before double taking, the roof of her school had been blown open and a pillar of purple light was rocketing out like a geyser.
Leaping into action her hands performed a series of eye watering gestures before her whole figure imploded with a thunder clap, arriving on the scene with a bang in her dressing gown. An astral storm blew out of the testing room as mages struggled unsuccessfully to contain the wild magic. Her bare feet dug into the paving slabs as if they were snow while she trudged inside, furniture and masonry smashing unheeded on her divine frame like little more than styrofoam, she pushed into the heart of the storm: the Youth Induction Room.
The situation only got more eye opening form there; at its heart was a eight year old girl, she had the death pallor and panda rings of someone that shunned both sleep and the outside with her olive skin almost grey at the edges, her head seemed disproportionately large for her weedy stick frame sporting knobbly knees and elbows. Her razor straight fringe flowed vertically from the updraft and her raven black hair twisted above her as a single stripe of dusk colours burned it's way along her centre parting.
Her eyes were glowing bright white which was not a good sign and a mandala of unstable magic seem to be expanding off her in concentric rings, this was being orbited by a long serpentine dragon shape made of emerald energy that was probably the dead test egg she had some how revived, meanwhile the outward force had pressed the majority of the faculty against the walls as they screamed in horror.
Gritting her teeth Celestia extended her divine will, and like stuffing a sleeping bag back into its carry sack, forced the mysterious arcane forces back inside this strange child. With a sudden inhale the light in her eyes winked out, the spirit dragon retreated back inside its egg which continued to radiate emerald energy and the floating debris, egg and people dropped to the floor. The girl rubbed her eyes before shakily asking “Did I pass?”.
Celestia with her windswept bed head, brick dust covered face and torn pink dressing gown gave the child a crooked grin “I think you’ll do fine, what's your name?”
The child looked around at the destruction and gasped, she hung her head and ruefully mumbled out “Twilight Sparkle”. Celestia gently cupped her chin raising her watery eyes and smiled down patiently.
“Twilight, how would you like to be my personal student?”
***
Cadence peaked around the door frame at Celestia who seemed happily engrossed in paperwork on her throne, she ducked back. She had been summoned, which was new because outside of their personal lessons she had been mostly left to her own devices, she couldn't remember doing anything scandalous recently so what may have caused a royal edict for her attendance remained a mystery.
This musing was interrupted by the soft contralto of Celestia "Your not in trouble Cadance, so stop lurking like a guilty child and present yourself like a deity". There was an awkward pause as Princess Mi Amore sidled in like a crab, bowed, curtsied and cleared her throat.
Celestia rolled her eyes but pressed on regardless "Cadence I have a job for you, I have my eye on a young child of prodigious talent, I am seeing to her arcane instruction but she seems... insular. My track record with helping others with social or emotional problems, if I can be honest with you, is abysmal. It is out of my domain and I can't afford to make a grave error with this one. So I'm sending you to babysit her weekly and asking if you can try to bring her out of her shell a bit?"
Cadence shrugged blankly "I mean I can try, I've never babysat before but a lot of the less well off kids do it, are you sure you want me? Just because Sunset…"
"There are others, many others" Celestia cut across.
Cadence furrowed her brow "....oh, well you've never asked me for anything so I'll be happy to pitch in.”
Celestia fiddled with her fingers “One more thing, there is something...unusual about her magic. Unusual and incredibly powerful. They may need someone on hand that can...contain her if she loses control”.
Cadence folded her arms and quirked an eyebrow.
***
Twilight could not concentrate on the lesson today; she had gone to see her new brother who was very sick, Mom and Dad were very sad and worried, they did not say it but she knew they were worried that he would not get better. Twilight did not care for many people but the thought of her newborn brother dying made her feel cold inside. She did not realise when she had started crying but the vast warm hands of the princess cupped her face.
“Twilight, why is your soul troubled so?”
Twilights lunged forward and gripped the Princess by her waist and buried her face in her robes “Mom had another baby...Dusk, my little brother, he is very sick. Mum and Dad don’t say, but they think he will die. I think so too.”
A bead of sweat rolled down Celestia's stately face as she desperately searched the room in hope that Cadence would magically materialise, lacking divine intervention she stroked her students hair and gave her calmist voice “Do not lose hope, he may pull through”.
“No he won’t, not without help, can you help him princess?” Twilight gazed up with a look the Sun Goddess had seen many times, begging for a miracle that she could not provide.
Celestia gently pushed her away to stand on her own two feet and kneeled so they were both at eye level “Power is not given to me over life and death”, she hated this part as hope gave way to despair and a look of betrayal entered the supplicant's face. Her train of thought was suddenly cut off by a dim green light that tickled the edge of her vision. A crazy idea entered her mind and she licked her lips trying to discard it, but the look on Twilight's face caused her to turn her head inexorably towards the Dragon Egg displayed in the teaching room “However, there may be something you can do.”
“Long ago in the time before time the ancient dragons ruled all the world, in those strange aeons they eventually came to death but left behind many unhatched eggs deep in the earth. When people fled the misrule of DIscord they passed into the barren wastes beyond the mountains hoping to escape the notice of the Lord of Chaos. It was hard living, few survived but buried deep beneath the earth they found the last treasure of the ancients. By mixing their blood with these eggs they were granted the breath, wings and more over the hardiness of the once rulers of our world. This new found strength gave them the fortitude to survive the harsh environs of what we now call the Dragon Lands.
Be warned young Twilight that not all survived the Dragon Blood, some were consumed by it. Also he would be clearly marked by his mixed blood and suffer strange drives and passions, but if you think it is worth the chance then you have my permission to bring the egg to your parents”.
***
There was a long medical talk with mum and dad. Twilight had never seen dad cry like this and it felt so wrong and scary that he was just a person like everyone else. She gripped the Dragon Egg tightly as it pulsed with magic between her hands, afraid to let go of this spark of hope lest it disappear, she didn't cry because if mum and dad weren't going to be strong she would have to instead.
Finally the talk ended, mum and dad were holding each other and Celestia turned to Twilight and extended her hand "It is agreed, give me the egg Twilight", the young apprentice felt something harden within her and all the confusing feelings that made her feel funny went away "No, it's my egg and if something goes wrong I want to be there for Dusk".
Celestia searched her vibrant violet eyes and for a moment, Twilight wondered what she was looking for, finally she relented and turned away "so be it Twilight Sparkle".
Twilight hated the hospital room, the walls were a green that looked like puke and the black rubber floor was all sticky, baby Dusk was curled up on a rusty gurney making this horrible wheezing noise, a device gave off steam to ease his breathing that made the room muggy and hot. The blinds were half closed sending shafts of sickly yellow light into the room. Celestia produced a rubber hose, some sort of pump and a pair of long finely crafted needles, she dumped them in a basin of chemically smelling water before assembling the contraption held aloft in her magic field.
With a flick of her wrist she flung a binding rune on Dawn to hold him still and carefully pierced his delicate ankle with the needle, Dawn gave a watery moan but lacked the energy to cry, blood back flowed up to the pump. On cue Twilight placed the egg on the rough off white sheets and as the second needle went into it she silently prayed to anyone who might be listening. Celestia worked a wheel that drew a glowing green liquid out of the egg and down the tube before a small amount dribbled out a valve, she flicked a clamp and the blood in the pump swirled with green before it became the dominant colour and the ichor was forced into Dusks little body.
Twilight watched as the light faded from the egg and finally the flood of green liquid stopped drawing only air up the tube, Celestia using purely magic removed the needle from Dusk's leg and sealed his wound through force of will. The infant got redder and redder, twilight could see him straining against the binding magic, his mouth opened and a horrible scream came out. Celestia shouted a bad word and started casting lots of spells, but Twilight was fixated on her brother, they were losing him.
Twilight tightened her fists, she'd been here before. Staring down failure and faced with the impossible, that was how she had got here, she hadn't blinked then and she wasn't going to blink now. She saw the path life laid out before her and dug in her heels, gripped destiny by the hair and dragged it screaming and kicking to where she wanted to be. This was going to work, her brother would be fine and there was no two ways about it.
Celestia was boiling with anger, her divine light surged through the small child re-knitting flesh and extinguishing destructive flames, she had broken her back and bled for this word but did it ever give her any gratitude? Why could nothing ever just work!? the casualties of Discord, losing the empire, losing Luna and Sunset. This innocent child was dying in her hands and for all her might she could do nothing but watch him turn to ash and violate the trust her student had placed in her. Twilight would fall and with her the last hope for us all, all the world would crumble into ruin because it JUST WOULD NOT COOPERATE!
But as that dark thought reverberated in her soul stirring some repressed shadow, she felt a lurch as if she had lost her footing causing her magic to wink out in shock. The baby stretched and made a long sigh as like rapidly growing nails, his arms and legs were coated in deep violet scales, the tuft of blond hair at the top of his crown took on a rich emerald sheen, needle like teeth protruded through the gums of his open mouth and his wide blue eyes narrowed into emerald serpentine slits.
Celestia was aghast, she hadn’t done this, she was losing him then suddenly the universe changed its mind and it all went off without a hitch. She turned to see her student Twilight Sparkle; she had glare that could drill through rock aimed straight at the small child on the bed and her arms were shaking with the force of her clenched fists. Trickles of blood dripped on the floor as her nails dug into the soft flesh. Sol Invictus stared with her divine face twisted in bafflement, concern and abject terror; she had been hoping for miracles but now she was confronted with someone who can forge them from sheer determination alone the implications were horrifying, her divine eyes could see waves of eldritch and mysterious energy rolling off of her that distorted the world around her and for the first time she began to have serious doubts as to her blind faith in those who were to come.
One thing was certain, she would have to handle these new gods very carefully lest they break the world before the titans do.
The parents rushed in and after a gasp at their child's new monstrous appearance, softened as he breathed easily and giggled happily which was a welcome change from the quiet melancholy of sickness, there would be an adjustment period but he is alive and that's all that matters. Celestia was dragged out of her ruminations by a small hand tugging at her sleeve, looking down Twilight was smiling back up at her. The goddesses' face softened, for all her power she was only a child after all, she had a good heart, Celestia would just have to be doubly careful not to break it.
“Thank you for saving him Princess” Twilight enthused, Celestia shook her head and placed her massive hand upon her head, ruffling the hair as she spoke “This was your victory Twilight, you were very brave for your brother and didn’t give up on him even when it seemed impossible" Twilight hid bashfully behind her hair. Another stray thought shook loose and Celestia snapped her fingers "You know something interesting; the drakeîn had a tradition that their members would take a new name after surviving the trial of blood, and Dusk Sparkle is no name for a proud dragon".
Her parents turned to Twilight who bit her lip in thought and casting a sideways glance at the tools used in his rebirth, she smiled giveing a little chuckle “How about Spike?”
***
Twilight Sparkle sat with a vast tome propped up on a stand, a single beam of light shone in through a parting in the sun bleached red damask curtains, illuminating the free falling dust that circulated in the room and falling finally on a page of erratic arcane scrawling. She was perched on a brown leather settee in the living room, her usual spot, before a tea stained oak coffee table.
Her delving into arcane secrets was disturbed by a peach forehead rising slowly from behind the book, followed by joyful cyan eyes and a slender nose that perched on top of the hard back cover, the eyebrows waggled. Twilight tried to ignore her but it was just too distracting, so definitely not smiling, at all, she marked her place. "Hello Cadence, Celestia said you would be looking after me today".
Cadence had entered her late teens and already had the kind of impossible hourglass figure that made other women cry into their celery as they watched her casually scoffing a whole tray of donuts, they had forgiven Celestia because she had to fight demons to look that good, but considering Cadence looked better after a day of loafing about than they did after a lifetime of struggle they considered her existence a slap in the face. To compound the problem she often referred to her good looks as ‘a hassle’ and had taken to wearing a formless frumpy hooded top with lots of pockets full of knick knacks and rubber band hair ties over the ever useful dungarees.
"Twilight.." she gently scolded "...you look like a corpse, when was the last time you got some fresh air and sunlight?" she strode passed the young nerdling and gripping the curtains, casting them back to reveal a bright sunshiny day. Twilight whined and kicked her legs "Noooo, there's melanoma out there! I wanna read my book!" Twilight found herself boyed up by arcane forces and dragged in tow by Cadence towards the front door. "Wrong answer…” the embodiment of love chimed “...you say 'why yes Cadence I would loovve to go outside and play with all my wonderful friends'", A very grumpy looking Twilight with crossed arms slowly orbited in front of her as they passed over the threshold into the bright summer's day "Why bother, they never have anything interesting to say and just want to scream while running about or meet Princess Celestia. Whenever I bring up something I'm interested in they call me a weirdo".
Cadence deposited her on the lawn under the oak tree in the Sparkle residence small front garden, giving her a friendly shoulder nudge "That because you are a weirdo Twilight, be proud of that, you shouldn't let other people's opinions of you phase you so much, when you meet the right group of people they'll like you for you". Twilight quirked a sardonic eyebrow as she blinked, adjusting to the light "I am being myself, I want to read my books in peace and not be bothered by stupid people who are mean to me. I’m just not a pretty charming princess like you.” Cadence leaned back against the tree and exhaled, score one for Twilight Sparkle, oh well there was always next time “that's a fair point I suppose. I missed biology class this week, I think it was about the life cycle of bees. Could you fill me in?”.
Twilight also leaned back against the tree and began to rattle off all the factual information Equestria had gathered thus far on the common honey bee. It was not that her charge was isolated; she had her and Celestia, the librarian enjoyed her company and the moondancer child seemed to have taken a shine to her so was rapidly gaining ground in the learning gap that separated them. She felt Twilight would be like a flower bud, all contained potential until the right conditions caused the tough barrier between her and the world to open wide revealing the beautiful person inside.
“Shining!”
Cadence’s eyes snapped open, she had never seen Twilight so animated as she bounced in place flailing her arms. Shielding her eyes from the sun's glare she peered to the peeling white picket fence that marked the edge of the garden; standing in the gate was a tall young man just shy of six foot. He wasn’t a wall of muscle but had that tone of a ballet dancer, a body that was for work instead of for show. His weather beaten and tanned skin told a story of long days toiling under the sun. He had a long shaggy raven mane like a rockstar that hung around his shoulders and a stained, worn flannel shirt covered with pins from every comic, sci-fi film and cartoon going that was undone to give a modest glimpse of his humble abs.
Their eyes met across the sun beaten lawn, they were a soft rose; yielding and shy but with a core like flint that would bend but not break. Like a whisper in her ear a voice breathed ‘she’s beautiful’, Cadence shook her head “sorry what did you say?” the man awkwardly scratched the back of his head as his other hand hung in space “I said you must be Twilight's sitter Cadence, I’m her brother, Shining”, she took his hand as a voice screamed in her head ‘Oh no, he's HOT!’ however she forced her face into a genial smile, he had the decency not to drool over her and she could at least return the favour.
“Hello Shining, I haven't seen you about before, have you been on holiday?” Cadence internally cursed Twilight Sparkle and her tight lipped disinterest in gossip, she would of strangled her if she wasn’t happily swinging from Shinings arm who held her up like it was no effort at all, Her new crush simply chuckled and looked away with a hint of embarrassment “Nah, I wish. I’ve been away in Stalingrad studying defence magic, I was just dropping in to show off my cool locks before they get sheared off once I enlist”. Cadence’s grin grew even more brittle “Oh, that’s a shame it really suits you...” she awkwardly coughed “...anyway me and Twilight were just talking about bees, do you wanna get a blanket and make it a picnic?”.
Shining smiled, shook off Twilight and headed inside, stuff moved about and he called back “I’m impressed you managed to drag her outside, I can barely get her out of her room for some O&O” Twilight gave a good natured whine about being embarrassed by her brother, meanwhile Cadence was struggling to keep her composure as her mind raced ‘He’s good looking, kind, modest, good with kids, a dork and soldier, He must be mine!’
Cadence dragged Twilight behind the tree with a yelp and dropped down to eye level “Why didn’t you tell me you had a...a brother, he so….he's very nice and you seem to like him too”.
***
Celestia sat wearing the face she usually saved for budget meetings as she flicked through a bunch of crime statistics, Cadence had come back from Twilight's house, burst into her inner chambers and started burbling about a boy, it had been two hours now.
“....The way his hair shined in the sun and he has this soft half smile like he’s afraid to fully commit to it, it's so cute!..”
“Mhmmm…”
“...Did I mention that he is going to be a defence specialist in the army! He’s so brave and has these big strong hands!...”
“Mhmmm....”
“...He told me all about...”
“Cadence!” The young Princess stuttered into silence startled by the rebuke, she looked over to the sagging face of Sol Invictus, for the first time seeing it drained of all goodwill. “I may be eternal…” groused Celestia “...but my patience is not, I am happy for you to be so taken with this lad but two hours is beyond even my endurance”.
Cadence muttered an apology into her lap as her cheeks glowed with embarrassment, a moment passed in the vast marble hall only disturbed by the shuffling of paper and scratch of a quill. Suddenly Celestia looked up with a furrowed brow “Has anyone talked to you about sex?”
Cadence spluttered “Sex!? What?”
Celestia fixed her with a serious glare “We don’t need any scandals or unwanted heirs popping up, things have probably changed somewhat since I sook a mate but there are some spells…”
Cadence wheeled her arms “Nope, no, no, no! Were not talking about this, I am not talking about intimacy with someone so old they call them ‘mates’”
Celestia rolled her eyes “I’m just attending to the practicalities…”
Cadence cut over with a level of finality “...Which are well in hand, Thank you”.
There was another protracted silence.
“Is he well hung too?
“Celestia!”
A deep and rich chuckle rang through the vast halls of Canterlot Keep as the sun bathed in the embarrassment of young love.
Celestia was pacing in her private chambers; she would return at the summer sun festival, the Nightmare had inherited L...her sisters flair for the dramatic and wouldn't be able to resist the statement.
The pang of worry returned, what if they didn't like Twilight? What if they were cruel to her and ostracised her like the snobby cows...she took a deep breath. No, Twilight must go, it was her coddling of her that had allowed the young woman to disappear up her own backside, she needed to climb down from her ivory tower, figuratively and literally, and take her place amongst her peers or they were sunk before they even got going.
She was fairly certain she had herded the six who were to come to her staging ground outside of Everfree, she had also placed several maybes just in case she was wrong. The bread crumbs had been laid and she was just waiting for Twilight's nose to come sniffing around the mystery so she could set her on the trail. The festival would be the perfect place for Twilight to meet Applejack, Pinkie-pie, Derpy Hooves, Lyra Heartstrings and Carrot Top, the information about her objective had been put in the most obvious place imaginable.
It would work, everything would be fine, everything would be fine. L..Luna would come back and it would be even better that it ever was. Celestia slumped down on her bed with her head in her hands. They were doomed.
The soft click of heels on marble heralded the arrival of Cadence, there was a weary sigh "Allright aunty, what's wrong now?"
"In my rush to avoid the mistakes of the past I've just made all new ones; Twilight's a damned hermit, I've just excused her while she's grown increasingly neurotic and antisocial, she's just going to lock herself in the nearest library while the Nightmare freezes the world around her. Then what? I'll have to kill my...kill the last hope of my sister returning, who will stand with me then? For all your wiles you're no warrior. I've doomed us all".
Cadence slumped down next to the sulking God queen and prodded her in the ribs aggressively "Firstly, if you doubt my ability again I'll shoulder throw your giant ass over the battlements…" she dragged Celestia to her feet "...Second; have faith in Twilight, you asked me to bring her out of her shell but I couldn't make her a personable extrovert without breaking what was so special about her, beneath that waspish and frosty exterior is a caring, curious and beautiful person waiting to come out, she just needs to find some people that make her feel safe enough to let down her guard."
Cadence fixed her with a look of unshakable confidence "All will be well Aunty", the sun goddess huffed churlishly and hugged her own elbows "How can you be so certain?" The avatar of love laughed as if it were the most foolish question in the world "Because she loves you like a second mother and would do anything to see you happy"
***
I must figure this out, Princess Celestia will be so proud of me if I do.
Twilight had read that time outside was healthy for you, she had also read that over exposure to the sun damages the skin, so she had opted for the logical compromise of lurking in the shadows of trees in the park like a ghoul.
The effect was amplified due to when not getting her designated time lurking in the shadows, she was deep in vaults and laboratories, this granted her naturally the deathly pallor that chubby, rosy cheeked young women spend a lot of money on makeup trying to achieve to protest society's beauty standards. Twilight was the kind of rail thin that only doctors and fashion designers insist is a healthy weight but no one else buys it and animated with all the grace of a marionette controlled by an easily frustrated toddler. She had decided the notion that mages should be ostentatious was a waste of energy so assembled her dour black and eggplant arcane robes using designs for lab safety wear, army surplus and construction worker uniforms to grant her the maximum utility. Her hair was cut at the front using a spirit level to never block her vision but long enough at the back to flag her as feminine more for others convenience than any sort of personal vanity.
She was currently hunched behind a book whose age was only outweighed by it's tedium except for one section in the middle that contained an oddly incongruent account of the events surrounding the begin of Celestia's reign, everyone who didn't sleep through history class knew that Celestia and her sister overturned Discord before throwing down Sombra at the cost of losing the moon diarch with Celestia soldiering on to rule the country. This tome seemed to suggest the rising of a new threat that assumed the mantle of Moon Goddess leading a brief assault against the former capital and being defeated by some unheard of artefacts.
This was of course a demented flight of fantasy on behalf of some scholar but try as she might she could not find any records to contravene this story, her knowledge of this books existence niggled at her and seemed to want to connect some neurons together but whatever she had read that this account brushed against seemed forever out of reach. She was determined to get to the bottom of this as proof of her research acumen to her Princess and much thigh slapping could be had at the folly of old geezers.
Elements of Harmony, something about the name of these mysterious objects taunted her, maybe it was…
"Hey Twilight!"
Obnoxious cheerfulness derailed the thundering engine of her mental acuity as the information rising to the surface plunged down a ravine back into her subconscious. She peered over her book at the grimace of Lemon Drops, ugh, socialising.
Lemon flapped her gums as Twilight cursed internally at this girl's never ending crusade to include her, couldn't she just let her be an isolated academic like she wanted? The diatribe reached a conclusion and Twilight immediately activated her all purpose conversation ejector seat and started fiddling out a rune behind her back.
"Sorry girls, I've got a lot of studying to catch up on, maybe later…" before promptly imploding to forestall any further conversation, rematerializing round the corner she rolled her eyes and headed home wishing she could prognosticate conversations to better avoid them. Something clicked into place and she suddenly remembered where she had heard about the elements, going from a walk to a dead sprint before doubling over panting shortly after and setting off at a more sensible pace for an avid reader she returned to her ivory tower.
Her attempt to dramatically throw open the chamber doors into the circular space filled with dust and accumulating lore that was her home was blocked, quite literally by a heavy object that gave a perfunctory "ouch?"
Not that he was in pain physically because in order to hurt Spike with a door, Twilight would have had to jump off the roof and break it over his head. His taloned arms and legs were coated in thick purple scales up the knee and elbow where they met his purple cotton t-shirt and brown Corduroy three quarter lengths. Spike had experimented with shoes but anything less than a steel foot guard ended up with two obsidian claws sticking out the end. He had taken the time to fluff up his emerald green hair into an unruly pompadour, which Twilight conceded was better than the horrendous mohawk from last month, and his burning copper flame eyes flickered with resigned annoyance.
"Ah Spike, good, fetch me predictions and prophecies, I've had a breakthrough"
With blank faced irritation Spike exhaled a gout of green flame, out of which a book dropped into his waiting claw which he clicked open without a glance, not even bothering to look at the page he recited its contents with all the enthusiasm of someone that spent their whole Saturday night writing it "2:45 DS, break begins, 3:00 DS attend Moon Dancers party". Spike snapped the book shut raising a sardonic eyebrow, ‘damn him for trying to use my schedule against me’ the magus internally groused.
Twilight's sleep deprived and panda ringed eyes swivelled about as she performed the mental gymnastics to dodge between her obsessive scheduling and compulsive punctuality before finally relaxing into a justification. "We don't have time for a break right now, my side project might turn out to be an imminent catastrophe if what that book says is true, however if it turns out to be bunk we can still go to Moon Dancers if you insist, it should take no longer than 30 minutes to find out if immediate further study is warranted, it's our Civic duty to be sure."
There was a brief war of wills as Spike glared at her. "You're sure this is actually important, this thing you've been laughing at as nonsense? This isn't just you weaselling out of socialising, again?"
Twilight winced a bit but pushed on regardless "In the middle of a factual account written less than five moons after the events it describes an incongruent story of an attempted take over by hostile forces and warning of their return one thousand moons hence, this moon. An event I thought was unique to this book, but I believe I have read something that corroborates this story, if so we could be in deep trouble"
"Either this is the most elaborate scheme to avoid a party ever, you've gone further round the twist than ever or there's something to this…" Spike sighed and rubbed his face "...half an hour Twilight, then I'm dragging you there by force".
"Deal, now fetch predictions and prophecies"
Spike gave a mock salute and strolled across the grid of book shelves before scrabbling up a particular one, his talon biting into the scored wood that groaned in protest. Twilight wished he'd use the ladder but she couldn't fault his efficiency, the book was shoved into her field of view which she took up in her magic field to hover before her.
"E...E... Elements of Harmony: mystical objects from prehistory, sometimes referred to as physical objects, religious ideals or people, oblique references are made in the accounts of most pre-record battles or wars. See the legend of Nightmare Moon"
Spike frowned "You mean the fairy tale from nightmare night?..." Twilight blinked "...come on, everyone knows about Nightmare Moon who comes down to terrorise you unless you buy her off with candy…" Spike face palmed "... except of course you because you hate fun and public holidays." Twilights field snatched up the history tome, predictions and prophecies and added a fairytale book and glanced back and forth between them.
The books dropped to the floor as thoughts coalesced in Twilight's head "People didn't forget, they kept on passing down the warning to their children until they forgot what it was they were warning against…" she snapped up the historical tome and recited "...On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal."
A beat of silence passed before Spike exclaimed "Fuck me, that's ominous", Twilight whirled the book in her magic and beat Spike over the head with it. "Language! Now take a letter, we need to warn the Princess"
Spike winced as he scratched the back of his head "It's the summer sun celebration, she's going to be knee deep in dignitaries, cake and organising, plus she did the banishing so she is probably well aware of the situation". Twilight crossed her arms petulantly and gazed out the window up into the sky, every child thinks the moon has a face, but adults insist it's just random shadows the imagination blurs and twists, right now she could feel the white sphere glaring at her and daring her to make her move.
Twilight rotated on her heels "The princess, as perfect as she is, can not be expected to keep track of every event for the past millennia, she has never punished me for diligence and a silly festival could suddenly be demoted in priority once we jog her memory." Spike sighed, rolling his eyes, rolled out the parchment, rolled his wrist with a couple of clicks, dipped the quill in the ink and raised an eyebrow.
**
Dear Princess Celestia Glory Sol Invi No Skip t
I apologise for intruding at this inconvenient time, however that book you lent me had highlighted serious concerns regarding the entity known as Nightmare Moon and if the account is accurate suggest she may launch an attack this very night.
I have cross references if further information is required and I await your instruction.
Keepin it Reel Yours, your faithful student
T-Sparks and Scaly S. Twilight Sparkle
**
With a dull whumpf the rolled parchment was converted into pure energy and drifted like smoke out of the vent at the top of the observatory. An awkward silence descended on the room as Twilight stood expectantly, then slowly started to slump back down as the time stretched on “She’ll write back Spike, you’ll see, she’s never doubted me” Spike had crossed his arms and was glaring annoyed at his watch, they were now a full half hour late for the party “Ah, huh”.
“Loo-oauh-ach'' Spike vomited emerald flames mid word to produce a roll of parchment sealed with the sol invictus crest, he hacked a couple of times as he unrolled it “I hate it when that happens, ahem: Dear Twilight Sparkle, I must commend you on your dauntless vigilance and dedication to study…” Spike grinned as Twilighted puffed up like a smug balloon “...but you really must stop reading those dusty old books!”
Twilight physically stumbled as her internal record scratched, “Spike! Don’t mess about!” She snapped, snatching the parchment as her eyes darted back and forth before reaching the offending sentence, anger and shame warred across her face as she attempted to will the ink to move into a different configuration. As she stood there stuck while her world exploded like a window pane Spike gently slid the paper out of her hands.
“...There is much more to a young woman's life than cloistering herself away in a tower with a dry lore. On the great adventure of life you will need allies and confidants (not discounting the radical Spike of course), to this end I am sending you as my herald to the Town of Ponyville, As you know I am planning to make an appearance there but I am concerned about reports of local tensions between the lords and the townsfolk. I need you to negotiate peace in time for my visit and ensure everything is in order for the celebrations.
But more than that I command you for the love of the Celestial Throne: Make some friends!
Yours With Love, Princes Celestia
Twilight was jolted out of her crisis by an obsidian point jabbing into her ribcage, “If we hurry we can swing by Moondancers on our way up the palace and make our apologies…” Twilight flapped the words into silence, she heaved and sighed before marching smartly to her rolodex, spinning through she pulled out a card near the back “Ponyville Library, Class C, not bad for back water, specialims: Farming, Monstrous Creatures and Folklore. Normally useless bunk but considering the area of inquiry could be promising.”
Spike rotated in front of her growling, “Oh no you don’t, you're not running away to a different library to hide because you’ve been turfed out of this one, you have been ordered to get out of the house and make some friends and your doing that one way or the other.”
Twilight scoffed and rolled her eyes “Oh yeah, so vitally important, I’m getting rather bored of you and the princess butting into my personal affairs, If she wants to waste my time with busy work so be it, but I won't be ignored on this, I can feel in my bones that there is more to this and I won’t stand by and wait while this catastrophe continues to brew, see you at the palace….”
With a deep thrum and rush of air Twilight imploded pulling books from the shelf, Spike’s eyes flared green as he shouted into the empty air “Gyhaaa! I hate it when you do that!”
***
Celestia sat in the heavy darkness of her personal chambers as memories played across her mind as if they only happened yesterday.
In her mind's eye Iron boots thumped into heavy carpet as the queen of the night emerged from the shadows behind her throne; towering over mortals her porcelain skin was enwrapped in cruel iron teased into spines and blades like the chitin of vicious insect. Her head was crowned with a glittering star field as rich as a clear summer night sky that flows about her head like hair in water, for no crown is required to mark her sovereignty.
Her bright sapphire eyes scanned the room, shadows and illusions no obstacle to mistress of dreams, but mortal eyes are not required to sense her counterpart. Shining like a midsummer's day from her radiant mane of reds and pinks like the first blush of dawn carried on an ethereal breeze, taller even than the lady of the night, stands the sovereign of the day. The sun blessed burnt chestnut skin of her flesh swathed in flowing robes of purest silk and the reports of her commanders clutched in her shaking hand.
Princess Luna stared down from the pulpit between the thrones and Princess Celestia stared up from the doorway, the atmosphere was heavy as their wills danced and sparked between them and for the first time, the sun blinked.
Celestia exhaled “So it has come to this; Luna, you must lower the moon, it is your duty”.
In the sky above the moon slid before the sun plunging the world into darkness and illuminating the sky with a blood red corona. Back within the hall the windows imploded as the celestial winds blasted into the room scattering paper, swirling the blade like glass shards and ripping banners from their holders. Celestia, one hand clutching the masonry for stability, extended her other in pleading towards her sister who floated at the centre of the swirling storm of smog and flame. Luna’s pale face is painted with black ichor as tar black tears streamed down her face painting her an unnatural obsidian.
At last her lids snapped open as cold reptilian eyes focused through the storm, glowing with an eerie green corpse light, wreathed in stars grown harsh like midnight over the tundra. Her voice rang out, devoid of night’s gentle embrace, now hollow and cold like the depths of space from a fanged filled mouth.
The effect was ruined somewhat by a blast of searing flame that screams through the air inches from her face, causing her to dip left to avoid it. Stalking towards the throne her hair whipping and kindling into violent reds and yellows as a fire ignited behind her eyes came the custodian of the sun.
“I cannot let you do that, the world will freeze and our people will die, abandon this madness before I am forced to harm you!”
But the night had grown dark indeed and eventually the sun was eclipsed, dropping like a meteorite from the heavens. With clenched teeth and wrapped in solar fire Celestia smashed through the slate shingles of the throne room wearing a deep groove into stone paved floor, the gods flesh suffered no mark but the flame within her flickered and dimmed with injury.
Sprawling onto her belly and pushing up from the floor Celestia cried hoarsely “You give me no choice, I must use these” and extended a shaking hand towards the centre of the room. With a tectonic grind two slabs pull back revealing and complex orrery bearing six jewels, which rises from the floor. A sapphire, ruby, amethyst, pink tourmaline and an orange selenite rotate around a star shaped violet zircon as the arms spun in concentric circles before locking into place.
The gems shone with an inner power and stubbornly remained in place rotating, resisting her will as emotions played across Celestia’s face, finally and reluctantly the precious stones drifted off their stands and began to encircle the fallen Princess who was buoyed up by some unseen force. She drifted up towards the hole in the ceiling as her orbiting friends picked up speed forming bands of bright energy with the tails of light left in their wake and assuming a heliocentric orbit around her core, raising her up.
In the troubled sky Luna crowd to the lightning, completely engrossed in her revelry she does not notice at first, but all too soon her sensitive eyes were stabbed by lances of light. Rising like the sun Celestia shone like a star in the bleak and over shadowed sky as she soared into the heavens. With a frustrated roar Luna grasped at the darkness, cold and terror of the night and threw it like a javelin at her sister.
The moment hangs as tears of pure molten gold flow down the cheeks of the solar monarch while she converses with an unseen voice, before she closes her eyes sweeping her arms in a wide arc that forms the gems into a starburst before her, and pushes.
Like sunlight through a prism a scattering of coloured lights danced across the sky as a pure white beam surged through the darkness of the night queen striking her square in the chest, her body crumpled around the blow and was thrown back up into the stratosphere towards the moon that hung in the sky. There is a deep thrum of power and a scowling face was scrawled across the once flawless surface, then like the universe releasing a held breath the moon drifted on its way across the sky and the sun was slowly revealed at its zenith.
Celestia fell rending at her enchanted hair, plummeting from the sky, but even the rushing wind could not silence her anguished scream.
Tears of Liquid gold reflect the flickering firelight of her hearth, Celestia draws herself up and turns towards the door to make haste to the ruins of their former home.
***
Whistling through the air exactly the way that bricks don’t, painted stark white with golden filigree crawling all over it like a particularly pernicious strangling vine, a carriage hurtled down from the mountain top. At the yoke at the front were two lightly armoured guards that left a wake of white energy ribbons trailing behind them that buoyed and supported the vehicle as they exerted their will to defy gravity.
The two passengers sat as far away from each other as possible, Spike was done with Twilight's shit right now and was glaring out at the open sky while small puffs of smoke curled out of his nostrils belaying his simmering anger. Twilight was starting to feel a little guilty, Spike had only been looking out for her wellbeing and she had been a brat about it, also maybe he had wanted to go to that party.
“Spike I didn’t deliberately try to keep you away from that party, I admit I didn’t want to go but that shouldn’t stop you”
“I didn’t care about the party, they're supposed to be your friends not mine…” Spike turned to look at her “...This behaviour isn’t healthy and I’m breaking my back trying to rehabilitate you and all I get out of your is abuse, scorn and derision.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, I just have better things to do than fraternising and boondoggling, why does everyone keep hassling me to put my work on hold and waste it chin wagging with a bunch of gormsters. Can’t you all just leave me alone.”
There was a roar of flame and Spike was holding a book, “Effects of social isolation include loneliness, depression, a shortened life span, increased illness, hallucinations, and delusions...” he snapped it shut throwing it on the floor in front of her, it was entitled Mental Maladies “...is that what you want for yourself? To become some isolated crackpot up in your tower debating your own imagination over a bunch of esoteric garbage no one gives a shit about!” Spike paused, closing his fist and steadying his breathing waiting for the fire to die down before continuing.
Twilight gazed sullenly at her feet "It's not that bad, I'll...I'll prove it, I can engage people in genial conversation and still have time to get the information I need from the Library." However secretly she was rewinding through her memory for the last time she had enjoyed a conversation with someone that wasn't a teacher or family and so far was drawing a blank.
***
Ponyville was a rural backwater exceptional for two reasons; firstly for being the most wacky and socially accepting town in Equus and secondly for maintaining this whimsical bonhomie despite bordering on the edge of the most dangerous forest in the kingdom. Like radioactive waste seeping into the biosphere evil permeated the hunched and twisted woodland, malformed monstrosities stalked its shadows but thanks to the rangers rarely troubled the deliberately oblivious towns folk.
Under it's eves and radiating out like a throw quilt is a patchwork of rented farmsteads, the magically infused ground great for (sometimes literally) monster harvests and the cultivation of unusual produce such as zap apples, bizarro berries, doom melons, time travelling turnips and triffids.
The centre of town enriched by its trade of oddities to the nearby capital of Canterlot was formed in concentric rings around the town hall, a market stretched south of the town hall to the town boundary with a financial district of sorts made of shops, warehouses and offices. During the towns construction, the fashion has been buildings shaped like objects which is quaint for the business still relevantly trading within, surreal and confusing if the building has been repurposed. This sprawls northward until it hits the river on whose banks the town hall was built. Across the first river and inside the second is the solid mortar and brick of the two up and two down houses belonging to the working people, large enough to be considered a suburbia but still remaining non uniform enough to be small town, beyond the second river lay the vast sprawling estates of the rich land barons who presumably owned all the farmland as well as their commodity trading neighbours, their homes sporting the usual decadence that only the idle and bored rich have the inclination to indulge in.
Both Twilight and Spike were both educated enough to know a class warfare powderkeg when they see one, all it would take is one too greedy landowner or revolutionary farmer to upset the delicate equilibrium and plunge the town into an uprising. Twilight decided to slip in at the edge rather than descend on the town with Royal authority.
***
Spike stretched and bent as Twilight loaded herself up with her gear, thanked the guards as they lifted off and began running through a checklist she summoned as she looked about to get her bearings. However before they were properly able to orient themselves a strange noise faded in from the distance: Bom! Tsst! Bom! Tsst!
On the path into town from the base of mount canterhorn came a strange figure with a bass drum and high hat attached to her back that through some mechanism were struck in time with her foot falls. Around her shapely and limber body were wound various instruments from banjos to flugelhorns that clattered and jangled from her determined stride. She wore an old grey military uniform with gold braids and Aiguillettes on the jacket, at the peak was a kepi cap bearing a single golden sovereign instead of a regiment badge. Underneath its askew visor the rosie pink face sported a skull splitting smile with lively sapphire eyes framed by cascading bubblegum pink curls that spilled out from under her hat like a burst water main.
She lifted her clear and bright voice in a warbling show tune "Ooooooh! I am the music ma'am! I come from down your way, and I can pla-aye!...." She drew level to Twilight slowly grinding to a confused halt "Pian-Pian...Pian...No?", Twilight glanced awkwardly at Spike who eyebrowed at the stranger, time to show him her stuff "Hello, I am Twilight Sparkle".
What happened next was difficult to describe in the retelling despite the use of charts and slides; the woman doubled over then began sucking in air as if a black hole had opened within her while going straight as a board, levitating a clear foot from the ground and various bells ringing out from around her person. Her eyes spun in their sockets and with a blink she was half way back to town running at such a pace that, when later performances of this event were dramatised, a double kick pedal was required.
Twilight slapped herself in the face rolling her head from side to side, "Oh no, you're a real social butterfly, no need for me to worry" smirked Spike as he started loafing towards town.
As they traversed the mismatching and worn cobbles of the boulevard that lead to the centre of town Twilight grew increasingly annoyed at the impractical architecture, a brick or even a muffin was an acceptable shape for an office, how the hell you traversed the spoon shaped house and in what world it would be considered structurally sound and an effective use of space defied the rational mind. Her mood was not improved by the fact that the Streets were barren aside from the large jeering mob gathered around the town hall.
Atop the wooden platform were the nobility; with their gaudy over the top clothes, fashion victim aesthetic and aura of indignant self importance they were clearly new money. Lacking the self assured confidence of the hereditary rich, they jockeyed to hide behind each other while collectively cowering behind the bedraggled and worn out Mayor, dressed in a half ironed ruffed shirt and hastily donned beige chinos she ran her hand through her unwinding white hair.
"I am sorry Mr Sideways, but your homestead is not crown owned land, if your landlord wants to bring in mercenaries to search the place I can not stop him…"
This caused an explosion of angry voices, from the stage a yellow blancmange forced into a corset screeched down upon assembled citizenry, her face turning red as her beehive wig. The gammon features of a rustic returned fire as his gnarled and battered fist shook up at the assembled authority. As both masses heaved and shoved Spike pointed straight over Twilight's shoulder singling out an individual leavering up a cobblestone, this confrontation had gone on long enough and was starting to turn ugly, so she started hastily weaving a rune behind her back.
However, before she could finish, there was an ear splitting crack that caused a collective wince, like startled rodents the two mobs scurred apart revealing a heavy, iron headed battle axe with its blade shoulder deep in the front of the stage, its applewood handle sticking out like the prow of a ship. A voice tinged with local authority snapped through the square like a whip “Enough! There ‘ain't gonna be no riots in Ponyville!” With the crunch of steel on stone, heavy footfalls carried the rattling frame of the new player into the drama; dressed foot to shoulders in well maintained interlocking plates of shining steel, chain patches and a leather baldric, the armour’s upturned collar framed her head allowing just enough room on top for a battered and weather worn stetson to perch on her tightly braided flaxen locks.
Her sunburned and weather beaten face dappled with freckles displayed the stone neutrality of barely restrained rage: she was overall an imposing figure, not exceptionally tall but wide and solid as an oak tree, her emerald eyes scanned around freezing anyone who met them. “I’m try’n prep for the evening patrol and Filthy tells me troubles brewin’ an’ what do I find!? A bunch of respectable folk acting like animals!” A voice called out ‘they were invading our homes’, the figure spun around trying to single out the source “Their doin’ nothin’ of the sort! I spoke with Filthy an’ certain landlords' purses have been raided by bandits, they’ve got the fool idea that folks have been hidin’ gold about their farms. They got every right to just check an’ you should be accommodatin’ unless you got sommit ta’ hide!”
“That said, I can understand your grievance...” A gentleman in an expensive but understated suit stepped up behind the warrior, he had salt and pepper hair oiled back into a respectable quiff, he spun on his well heeled brogues to address the stage “...This is totally unbecoming behaviour for the landed gentry, both the threat of surprise raids and this fracas. I will admit my own bottom line remains mercifully unharmed which I attribute to my respectful and polite dealing with my employees, this sort of heavy handedness will only drive the miscreants to further acts of rebellion”.
There were some quieter but still discontented grumblings from both sides, the armoured figure slung her round shield bearing the device of an apple tree over her shoulder “Thank y’ Mr Ritch, y’all need to cool off! Pick three of yer’ each and I’m sure tha’ Mayor will be happy to help ya’ arrange a time tommora’ for inspections…” She glared meaningfully into the farm folk “...Hopeful the gold ‘all magically ‘turn up’ before then.” A young farm hand stepped forward “We ain’t got none of the money, I promise you AJ”, Mr Rich nodded “Then you have nothing to hide and hopefully it will put your landlords mind at ease and we can stop this bickering to search for the true culprits''.
Twilight decided here would be a good point to insert herself and shore up this arrangement, stepping out of background with Spike looming menacingly over her right shoulder she moved towards the centre “That sounds like a reasonable compromise, I also doubt anyone would be foolish enough to hide the gold they stole from someone on their own land but it doesn’t hurt to be thorough.”
The armoured woman turned crooking an eye brow in suspicion as she yanked the axe back out with a pained squeal of tortured wood, “An’ you would be?”, Twilight closed the distance and shoved a hand out slightly too aggressively and tried to drag her out of practice muscles into a friendly smile “I am Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s Attaché, I was sent here to get everything in order for her visit. This is my Research Assistant Spike''
“Ahm’ Applejack, glad to make you acquaintance” She crushed Twilight's hand in her metal gauntlet, Twilight's smile shifted into a pained grimace. Seeing as the circus was over and royal authority was being thrown about the crowd started to disperse with a small group being shooed into the bedraggled mayor's office, she was glancing between her office and Twilight with a conflicted expression, Spike slid over to have a quiet word and led her inside.
Twilight retrieved her hand and shook it off “So, it seems an inopportune time for a Royal Visit, the Princess did warn me”, Applejack grunted and started leading out of town “Wey’all these things flare up now an’ again, some nob’ gets it into their head to squeeze the farmers for cash and the locals start gettin’ creative to get even. This time is worse, some o’ the landlords have formed a little confederation to drive down wages through market pressure and their tenant’s ain’t happy, but somehow they are all meetin' rent. Meanwhile the extra cash is being swiped by ‘bandits’ to the point that their losing money on the venture, now they're having to hire mercenaries for security which'es more money down the pan, Filthy and old man Silver 'av been tryin' to get 'em to give up this fool idea but their darn' pride won't let 'em give in. Also if I'm bein' honest thievery ain't the honourable response from the common folk neither, legally the land ain't theirs and their under contract, everything that is happening, while cruel is perfectly legal so they got no excuse for banditry."
Twilight had been discreetly levitating a parchment and burning notes into it "So as the sheriff do you foresee this industrial dispute endangering the Princess?" Applejack stumbled and gave a double take "Sheriff!? Landsakes no, I'm just a Ranger, my family watches this frontier…" Twilight blushed and cursed internally "I am very sorry I just assumed with the armour…" Applejack laughed and slapped her back drawing a painted wheeze from the magus "I'm flattered and all, but we don't have watch' yer' call a constabulary here. Canterlot sends people if any real law is required, my kin just stop the beasties of the forest gettin' too bold. Though if you wanna know what's really going on in there you best speak to Fluttershy, lives out in the sticks and is kinda a hermit but she's got a powerful 'fluance over the wildlife..."
Like the sound of a kitchen falling down a mountain, dull thuds and jangles carried a lightly armoured wiry form of a girl round the corner of the country path, she had a red cloak emblazoned with an apple and a crossbow slung over her shoulder. Wearing a mismatch of offcut chainmail and battered second hand plates jury rigged into armour she too sported the freckled sun-beaten look with her garnet hair trussed up in a dutch braid. She jogged up and doubled over panting,
Applejack nodded towards the girl "This here is Applebloom probably callin' me for lunch" Applebloom wheezed out a hello and gave a faint wave, "Tell you whut, come back to my place for a bite, I'll fill you in on the rest and it 'a be nice to have a friend for dinner"
The F word rang alarm bells in Twilight's head and she was just about to bamph out of there before she got sucked into more time wasting, but across time and space she could feel the sardonic and condescending half grin of Spike mocking her and pointing at the letter. She clenched her fists; this isn't a waste of time, it was being efficient, she could have lunch, gather information and fulfil her required socialising obligation all in one go and as long as she kept her other stops to a minimum she would have plenty of time to research before the event.
Applebloom and Applejack looked at each other as the awkward silence stretched on, their potential lunch guest has shut her eyes and seemed to be having an intense internal debate before her eyes snapped open, darted about to regain her bearings and she put on a crooked smile "I do have a lot to do before the Princess arrives but I should have the time for a quick meal, I accept".
***
Twilight sat across from who she had been introduced to as 'Big Mac', he was a giant of a man nearly scraping the roof with his short thatch of fiery orange hair and a body that seemed to have been beaten out of bronze like a statue to the gods. His scarred and marked face was softened by his kindly verdant green eyes as he sat in his lovingly cared for full plate armour inspecting the massive dinged and nicked sledge hammer he carried about.
The home itself, located on the border of the farmland and within charging distance of the forest eves, was the same. Constructed out of blackened and ancient Applewood to be a garrison, with a watch tower, palisades and implements of death hung on every wall, the effect was somewhat ruined by the family photos, school art, knitted furnishings and tasteless knicknacks squeezed into the structure to the point of bursting.
The venerable Granny Smith, old and bent as a willow but still as tough and sharp as flint, had deposited a huge plate of fruit, vegetables and meats that Twilight was slowly excavating as she ate. Applejack has been talking at length at the goings on of the town pausing only to stuff food in and Twilight had constructed a list of people worth checking in with.
The aforementioned Fluttershy seemed to know the most about the goings on in Everfree and any potential sudden monster attacks, Pinkie Pie who had fled her earlier seemed to have a hand in most things socially, if apparently you were able to get a straight answer out of her. Twilight swallowed some brisket "Is there anywhere I could get arcane supplies? I may need to do some advanced casting while in town", Applejack chewed in thought for a moment relinquishing her bread roll "Ya' know, I don't think we have a shop that trades in that sort of area, that said you might want to try Rarity's boo-teak, she's inter' all that fancy magical stuff and might be willing to haggle."
At that moment with a flicker of emerald fire a scroll burned into existence in front of Twilight who caught it in her field, quickly scanning it's contents she dabbed her mouth with a cloth, "It's my assistant, he's finished with the Mayor, I better be getting back to it."Applejack got up to let her out "Ah' understand, duty calls, it's been swell and Ah' hope we get the chance again". At first Twilight was about to brush the sentiment off but the threat of nighttime eternal loomed and for a moment her professional detachment wavered.
As she cast her translocation rite she met Applejack's gaze with fear, sadness and the hint of longing, "I do too" she breathed, before vanishing with an inrush of air. Applejack's brow furrowed at the nature of her departure, Applebloom leaned back in her chair "Ah' like 'er".
***
Twilight slid into existence in the middle of the town as planned, what was not planned was colliding with a high speed object and being dragged by an aetheric undertow across the square before the prismatic aura flickered out and dumped her in the river. Twilight had spent many years studying and refining her craft, so naturally looked down her nose at people who brute forced theirs through sheer willpower. They were powerful but, as this situation showed, lacked control.
Twilight clambered up the bank, the enchantments on her robes causing the water to flow off like a duck's back, her hair however was not so lucky and hung stringy and waterlogged across her back. Like the sun striking a diamond there was a scatter of light as a woman in her prime launched out of the water like Athena rising from the ocean; her minimalistic skin suit exhibiting a lythe body honed to perfection, the burnished brass skin taught over her flowing muscles without and inch of fat anywhere. Her hair was a wild lion's mane sporting every colour of the rainbow held back by a pair of reflective goggles that sat above her rose eyes that flashed with awareness and adrenaline.
Held in her own field of shifting spectra she performed an impossible end over end flip in a wide arc leaving a wide rainbow arch, landing gently on the ground in a cool pose, right before the arc of water drawn after her slapped down on Twilight's head like a wet fish. The magus ducked into her shoulders with the impact, the expression of expended patience not shifting from her face.
The speedster winced "Oops! Sorry about that, you popped out of nowhere".
Twilight rolled her eyes "Yes, that tends to happen when you teleport" and started magically combing the water out of her hair, the girl shifted her weight from one foot to the other biting her lip, her short patience finally snapped and she started forwards "let me make it up to ya', stand still" Twilight opened her mouth to curtly remind this amateur that she knew many spells for drying hair and her help wouldn't be needed but it was too late, with a kaleidoscopic blast the water was thrown free of her hair slapping back into the river behind, the dark locks of the magus where blown strait and immediately snapped back, curling into a tangled rats nest. Twilight didn't need to see to know how bad it was, the stifled giggles from her assaulter was enough.
Twilight's shoulders dropped with a sigh "If your quiet finished? I have things to do", the girl lurched forward and gripped her shoulder "Don't go off like that man, tell ya' what, come with me to the barbers, I'll cover it, wonder bolts honour!" Twilight shrugged off her hand with a snort "As if such an elite strike team would take an unrefined clutz".
The woman crowed "Am too, recruit Rainbow Dash; I'm the fastest on record, a top speed of over mach one"
Twilight huffed at the impact grabbing the object and spinning it around, it was a Canterlot Royal Guard helm, her jaw hung slack "It's not possible, no one is that fast!" Rainbow who had abandoned her hero pose was doubled over desperately heaving in air "Almost...Mach…One…" she took a deep breath as she straightened up trying to gain control of her breathing "....That’s how I can alway be there when I’m needed. So, to the barbers?" Twilight guppied in shock.
***
After some exasperating conversations with the terrified townsfolk, Spike managed to extract Twilights location on a promise he wouldn't eat them, as he walked into the salon he found her feverishly writing notes as her hair was entering the final stages of being teased strait, meanwhile a young athlete of some kind was walking about seemingly recounting a superhero comic, or so Spike assumed.
"...then bam! A massive explosion rocked the sky with huge Rainbow rings, I felt like I was going to be ripped to shreds by the G force as I crested over the city painting the sky! That was how I became a living legend."
Twilight scribbled the final touches and curled up the scroll tucking it away “Fascinating, have you ever been able to replicate it?”
Spike broke in with an amused chuckle "Finally, busy friend making I see?" Twilight stiffened and jumped out of the chair "Friends!? Dammit, side tracked again!" She spun around "I'm very sorry Rainbow but I'm way behind and have so much to do, the story was fascinating and I wish I had time to ask questions but we've got to go!" She grabbed Spike by the lapel and promptly imploded leaving behind a swirl of brimstone. Rainbow blinked "...well, that wasn't very cash money of you".
***
Spike and Twilight phased into existence on the other side of the square, Twilight was muttering and cursing under her breath as she stomped towards Rarity's boutique "This is why I don't socialise, it's nearly mid afternoon and I haven't even gotten to the Library, please say you have had a more productive time!?". Spike strutted blase behind her with his hands in his pockets "You have petitioned Big C to hear both sides of the grievances after the ceremony tomorrow and her staff agreed a ten minute window, the townsfolk agreed so long as I didn't torch them, but the dent to my self esteem was a worthwhile sacrifice for peace in our time".
Twilight nodded "Sterling work, now I just want to get some divination supplies, hit up two locals for a sitrep and finally search the library for the information I need, so long as I don't get tangled up in anymore conversations we should still be fine". The boutique was one of the older buildings, apparently shaped in the likeness of a merry-go-round. Great effort had clearly been taken to try to bring some class to this infantile facade, that while better in its Royal purple and gold, did not disguise what it was. There was a filigreed sign that read 'Rarity's Artifice, Enchantment and Beguilement' above the door, there were numerous enchanted jewellery shops in Canterlot and to see magic used in such base ways always put a bad taste in Twilights mouth, but it was the only game in town so she swallowed her reservations.
As she reached to knock the door swung inwards, Twilight rolled her eyes; she clearly had a showman on her hands. Stepping inside the vast lobby it was sumptuously decorated with rich purple and violet hanging curtains, gold beading and nicknacks of the latest bedouin chic that was currently sweeping the upper classes were draped deliberately about the place giving it a boudoir feel. A far curtain parted and Spike nearly coughed up a fireball; as if painted by a master she was the ideal form of womanhood, firm but not bulky, soft but not squishy, all the right curves in all the right places and a dazzling face with enough makeup to make her sapphire eyes pop without looking unnatural.
She was dressed in something that was technically a business suit but implied both a ball gown and a cocktail dress, professional but alluring and fun, her hair was gathered above her head in a loose topknot with strands hanging suggestively over her face."Welcome to the Carousel Boutique where everything is chic, unique and magnifique", her voice could cut glass like diamonds and clearly had been tutored to highest standards, she sashayed over critically eyeing Twilight "Hmm yes, your in desperate need of a new appearance, it has been a while since I worked in cloth but a fashionista should keep her hand in all mediums yes?”
Twilight shook her head, “There is nothing wrong with my look, you see I heard you dealt in the arcane and lacking a proper supply shop. I was hoping to barter for supplies while I’m away from Canterlot.”
Twilight opened her eyes to an exquisitely made simulacrum of a teenage girl, constructed out of platinum and silver it revealed that she had greatly underestimated Rarity’s skill, it had soft curls of purple and mauve that hung around its face, the eyes contained thousands of visible working parts forming an iris back lit with emerald light, its seamless and elegant design was contained in patterned purple summer dress. Twilight was too exasperated to get properly intrigued and waved her hand at it “Nothing, go back to your task servator”, the construct crossed its arms and its face transmogrified into an angry scowl, is voice took on a discordant quality “I am not a servant! How rude!” This took Twilight aback, she turned to face it and crooked her neck as she peered into its eyes, “You are oddly emotive and responsive for a golem, Rarity must really be a talent”
There was a metallic growl from the servator and thump of hurried footsteps with Rarity arriving on the scene coming up behind it and putting a protective arm around it, her charming mask replaced with venomous annoyance “This is Sweetie Bell, my sister, she had a nasty accident and extreme measures were required”. Twilight felt like a total heel and started grovelling immediately “I am so sorry! I have only read about complete body replacements I never seen one done before, the prosthesis is amazing”
Spike stuck his head up the stairs “Hey? Is everything O.K?”, Twilight gestured him over and took his scaled talon in her hand and led him over “Sweetie Belle, this is my brother Spike. He also underwent a drastic procedure as child and I know how much he hates it when people don't treat him like a person, I really am sorry"
Spike walked forward extending a talon "Cyborg? That's cool" Sweetie took Spike's talon in her metallic grip "So are you part dinosaur?" and shook his hand. Spike barked out a laugh and scratched the back of his head "Dragon actually, apparently there is a whole nation of other Drakîn over the mountains but they aren't very friendly so it's been just me".
Rarity relaxed "Well now that misunderstanding has been cleared up, let's go back to the receiving room" and gently guided the two chatting youths down the stairs, Twilight sidled up "I'll be straight, I've got zero time and I need to grab the supplies and dash, but I've got to know how you pulled off a total body removal, no one has pulled it off in an age!" Rarity rested her arm around her shoulder "Darling, you can raid my supply room anytime, but that story comes with a price, what is Celestia's favourite garment?"
***
Twilight had gone on ahead as Spike and Sweetie Bell finished up, it had been a sacrifice and the sun was starting to get dangerously close to the horizon but the account of the procedure was as monumental as it was a million to one luck that it worked, plus she had gathered some useful reagents so was making progress at last. Leaving the town behind she approached the last house on the edge of the village at the very border of Everfree.
It seemed from another time; Cobblestone walls with a wooden upper floor under a thatched roof that could have been picturesque if it didn't have a saggy, squatted look to it like a hunched creature hiding in the bog. The building lurked under the shadow of the cursed forest among the frogs it emulated; numerous bird cages protruding at odd angles, jury rigged ladders too small for anything larger than a cat criss crossed the exterior and perches hammered randomly into the structure made it look like a fairy tale witch's house.
Dismissing such childish nonsense, she hopped the stones across the river, strode up to the crooked and faded emerald door giving it three decisive raps to announce her presence. There was a silence punctuated by the burring of local toads. Twilight engaged plan B. "Hello! I am Twilight Sparkle; attaché to Princess Celestia! I was advised to consult with a Mrs Fluttershy!?" Still nothing, the curtains were tightly drawn granting no insight. She considered remote viewing but in truth she was just happy that this would be quick. Cutting her losses she picked her way down the lawn stopping just short of the stream hearing the foot falls of someone approaching.
Spike came chuffing up and smoking like a train, his internal furnace powering his endurance, his talons launched him clean over the stream with no effort landing directly in front of her "Caught you again, any luck?" Twilight shook her head “not a peep, it's like no one is here” Spike shrugged “That's a shame, oh well, move on to the last stop I…" There was a loud slam followed by a thin and melodic voice that startled the dosing birds into a flap "A Drakîn!" They both spun to see a cascade of soft pink hair flowing from an angelic buttermilk face down to a simple yellow Kirtle, she was fecund and motherly in figure but still youthful and doe eyed as a maiden. She sprinted down the lawn, snatched Spike’s arm and tugged him after her back into the house, Twilight started after her and followed silently inside.
The interior was an escher-like maze of cages, ladders, perches, feeding bowls, animal beds and ancient furniture. A menagerie of animals both rustic, exotic and mystical hurried about their business causing Twilight to dance a complicated tango across the room, a big brick fireplace filled with ash dominated the far corner. Next to it stood Fluttershy wringing her hands opposite a bemused looking Spike.
“...What I mean...if you don’t mind...is that Angel, my pet rabbit, brought me this phoenix egg, and I’ve been desperately trying to get the fire hot enough to hatch it. But wood won’t do it, so...if it wouldn’t be too much of a bother...I was wondering if you could give it a blast?”
Spike huffed some smoke “Sure I guess, in return we were wondering if you had heard any rumblings of stuff going on in Everfree?” Fluttershy mouthed ‘we’ and turned noticing Twilight, she jumped slightly and her hair fell over her face, she crossed her arms defensively and stared down mumbling “Oh, sorry. I don’t like strangers”. Twilight walked passed her over to Spike, squatting down to inspect the orange egg among the ashes “Don’t worry, I can relate. Tell you what; we’ll get this done and if you could tell us if there have been any disturbances, uprisings or awakenings in Everfree we’ll be out of your hair as soon as possible.” Standing up and staring at the ceiling she ran through everything she knew about phoenixes and did some estimations “Old Aganazzar's Scorcher should do the trick!”.
With a flourish Twilight quickly drew several runes in the air that glowed with a searing intensity, they formed a triangle that suddenly projected a focused stream of flames directly into the hearth that lit up the whole room, the sudden spike of heat causing the animals to duck for cover or flee the room as Twilight blasted the egg with arcane fire. “More power Spike!” she roared over the din, the Drakîn drew a deep breath and his eyes flared menacingly, with a snap of the neck a beam of emerald flames shot out striking the egg that turned from a heated amber to a blinding white, there was a chime like a temple bell and the radiant egg levitated up into the air, Twilight released her spell and snapped down her anti glare shades to watch as the ovum morphed into the shape of a bird that cooled into flickering fire. Like a hot coal it flew circles round the space until the flames spluttered out into bright orange feathers.
The hatchling landed next to Fluttershys face and rubbed cutely against it who giggled and chirruped back to it, she finally met Twilight's eyes “Thank you so much for taking the time to help an animal in need, I only wish I had more to tell. No strange news has reached my ears, at least, not stranger than usual…” She turned and walked to the window, half opening the curtain “...although the wolves have been restless, they claim something is wrong with the moon but that must just be foolishness”.
Spike leant forwards “What do they mean wrong with the moon?” Fluttershy peered her soulful eyes up at the silvery disk huffing gently as she tried to explain “Wolves, as much as animals understand the idea, hold the moon sacred. They still mourn Princess Luna the night mother and see the moon as her last gift to them, they claim it has been angry recently…” She snapped out of the trance and shook her head “I’m sorry, something just ...erm, don’t come across clearly between people and animals”.
“Right…” said Twilight's suddenly clipped voice. She was standing stock still like a statue of intensely controlled emotion “...thank you for your help, Spike we have to go now, we're fast losing daylight. Now Spike Move it!” and shoved him protesting out the door in restrained hurry, Fluttershy shrank at her raised voice but continued to stare at this odd change from the relaxed person that walked in. As Twilight turned away Fluttershy caught her neutral expression drop into soul rending terror, an expression she had seen on her own face many times.
She watched from her window as the brisk march turned into a hysterical charge back towards town in the settling dusk, confused Fluttershy wrung her hands "Was it something I said?"
***
"Twilight slow down!" Spike effortlessly turned and jogged backwards in front of her, Twilight redoubled her pace "Did you hear what she said! It's almost sunset! We have literal hours and we are still no closer to having even the outline of a plan to defeat Nightmare Moon because I've wasted the whole afternoon with frivolous friendmaking, dinner parties and nonsense!"
Spike grabbed her shoulders with a strength that could have torn her arms out of their sockets but instead gently stopped her "It was not frivolous, if you are right then allies will help you a thousand times more than a stack of books, you can't fight a war all by yourself for Celestia's sake", Twilight crumpled and her shoulders sagged, she looked up with tears dancing round the edge of her eyes "I am Celestia's personal student, the prodigy, everyone looks to me as the example of excellence and expects me to have all the answers, it's so much to keep ahead of and I look around and there's no one else that can take over. It is all up to me and if I can't pull through it's over!"
Spike let go and sighed "You're not alone, there may be no one ahead of you, but there's plenty of people behind you all the way, lean on us a bit? Go and finish your investigation with Pinkie Pie and I'll start combing through the Library for you, Ok?" Twilight silently nodded.
***
Sugar Cube Corner was a giant gingerbread house that revelled in the absurdity of its appearance, its giant magically illuminated sign flashed with glaring neon and every facet of its faux frosting and gumdrop decor was illuminated by flood lights in the settling dusk. The screaming saxophone of Baker Street blasted out as Twilight pushed into the establishment; numerous battered and stained tables filled the vast floor with miss matched painted jars clustered round the centre of each giving off flickering candle light. Various farm folk lounged in chairs or on couches round the room as they sipped their beers.
On the stage was a motley band; Pinkie still in her military garb was swaying, eyes closed and grin wide as she fought the sax through the song, in the back wearing a neck high black catsuit up to her purple and blue striped bun was a butch woman attacking a drum kit with an intense expression. On stage left was someone out of Dick Tracy novel, she had long black hair flowing out from her felt Stetson, a grey lounge suit and toothpick in her mouth as she sawed away at a cello, on stage right was an oddly familiar woman with cyan and white hair, she was wearing a baggy hoodie while sliding up and down the fretboard of a magic guitar.
The song reached a conclusion and there was a respectable amount of cheering and stomping, Pinkie exuded at the audience "Thank you! That's all for now but we'll be back after the ceremony!" She skipped happily across the stage over to the back of the establishment and met eyes with Twilight, jerked her head at a door and slipped inside with a giggle. Twilight sighed wearily and squeezing between chairs and patrons picked her way across the floor.
Pushing blindly inside she found that not only was there no light, but in short order the floor dropped away too. Twilight automatically went for a spell but the drop was short and her posterior bounced off a couch leaving her unsteadily on her feet. With a mechanical clunk brilliant light erupted somewhere in front of her silhouetting the presumed form of Pinkie Pie. "I knew it would come to this from the moment I saw you, I never thought someone would unravel my scheme" she explained with an affected noir voice, Twilight stopped shielding her eyes with her arms and engaged her anti glare filters, standing less awed and more peeved "What are you talking about?"
Twilight rubbed her face and groaned "Great so this has all been a waste of time at my most critical hour!", Pinkie blinked confused "Didn't you have fun snooping round the town?" Twilights started weaving a rune "my enjoyment is not important, sinister forces are even as we speak conspiring to bring an end to all we love, now that this distraction is over I will dedicate what little time I have to researching a solution…" then vanished in a spark of purple light.
Pinkie stood in the dark for a second "She doesn't sound like she's gonna appreciate the party at the abandoned Library tonight. Hmm...trouble in Ponyville, sounds like it's time to get the band back together…"
***
At first Spike had assumed the building was built, like many of the structures, to resemble a tree, however more confusing was this was actually a tree with apples and everything. Clearly the tower of a hippy dippy magus at some point, the town seemed to have appropriated the structure and its contents, hence the depth of knowledge regarding plants and cool stories to tell while in an altered state of mind.
Sparing a few moments to ponder if this was the building that had kickstarted the ridiculous trend of architecture in this town, he had spent the past half hour using all his skills to filter through literature that seemingly had been organised by the “shove it in a space it fits” method, luckily after years of cleaning up Twilights study fugues he had gotten quite skilled at it.
He was just flicking through a book that looked promising when his ultra sensitive Drakîn sense of smell picked up a whiff of ozone, experience told him that this was the ionisation of the air that occurred before a teleport happened, so switching from his stooped reading posture to nonchalantly cupping the book with the other arm jauntily against his waist, he waited so he could airily turn as the teleport begun and utter a witticism when it finished, he rotated to see the shape of Twilight expand out from nothing and displace the air.
“Nice of you to drop in Twilight…” The magus didn’t even bother to pause as she strode past him towards the bookshelf grumbling about something or other under her breath “You said that one last Moonday, please tell me that you’ve made some progress”. Spike cursed internally about his slip up “I wouldn’t look at the shelves if I were you…” Twilight let out a yelp of bibliographical horror as Spike breeze onwards “...told you, the whole place is a shambles, but I’ve pulled some stuff worth reading”. Twilight took a moment to push all the air out of her lungs, then sucked in air through her nose and pushed aside all distracting thoughts “Right, we should have a good two hours before we need to think of heading to the ceremony, it's going to be tight but I think that so long as there are not further destrations we can pull this off”.
The universe giggled with schadenfreude as the door to the Library slammed open revealing a team of movers that marched in and started setting up tables and chairs, Spike began beating his head against the book he was holding as Twilight's eyes bugged out and she tried to grab onto the passing events to take control of her life again. “What are you all doing?” She demanded, one of the builders who was unfolding a chair called over his shoulder “Town hall’s full of stuff for the ceremony, no one uses this old place so the Mayor decided to host the party here” Twilight stomped her foot like an angry child “I am trying to use this old place! Has the Mayor no respect for…”
Twilight's indignation was drowned out by the whooping and cheering of a crowd that spilled into the space on a tide of food, booze and good cheer. The magus growled and started weaving angry, spikey red runes in the air that illuminated her scowling face in murderous blood red, realising she was about to do something drastic, Spike grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her out the door before she sublimated the would be revellers. Spike pulled her behind the tree house where she stopped, sagged and slumped down onto the floor and started morosely drawing spirals in the dirt, Spike squatted down next to her “Ok, so that's a problem, what's the plan?” Twilight didn’t look up and kept playing with the dirt, she murmured out in a dead voice “I don’t have very many people in my life but I love you alot little brother. When you begged mum and dad to let you come with me to assist my study under the Princess I was deeply touched…”
Spike stood up with a sick look on his face “Your giving up!? You, Twilight top of the heap Sparkle are just going to sit around and do nothing?”, Twilight muttered into her lap “...I’ve been been blocked at every turn Spike, dismissed by Celestia, piled up with busy work, oh, apparently Celestia already had all the information about the local issues Spike, bogged down by the townsfolk and now barred from my last chance by a stupid party. Unless you feel like chasing them all off there isn’t anything to do but wait and hope that I’m wrong.” Spike shifted from foot to foot as he considered his options, he always had a little voice telling him to crush, kill and destroy which he usually ignored, but for the first time it might be the correct course of action, the discomfort in his side reminded him he still had the book from earlier, pulling it out he smirked “I still have this book, it's called ‘Ele…’” Twilight without looking up, palmed it down and rested her hand on his shoulder “Let it go Spike, go enjoy the party, it might be your last chance, I need some time to myself”.
Spike walked a step “Look Twilight, it's been relieving seeing you make friends with people, I never thought you’d let your guard down around others to get so sucked into a conversation, come with me to this party, you might see them all again, they must be really special.” Twilight looked up at the moon as four stars slowly crawled towards it across the infinite void, an hour and a half to go, “Yeah, It surprised me too, I wish I had met them earlier, maybe I could have found something worth taking a break for after all. It's fine Spike, I don’t feel much like smiling right now”. Spike sighed and continued round the house.