“Where Celestia?”

The gawking of the group at the adorable cuddling scene is quickly brought back to reality as the creature asks his question while still laying down and holding the knight in his arms. They group all hesitantly look at each other trying to figure out what to say. Luna steps forward and decides to be mostly truthful.

“She’s in Canterlot. That’s where we’re going as well. Would you like to accompany me?”

Blazewraith stands up and places Force down gently. Walking up to Luna he gives her a discerning stare while tilting his head. After a few seconds he leans forward and all of the girls tense up.

Only to immediately relax when they watch him rub his cheek along her own cheek and neck. Luna leans into it with a smile. The creature then leaves the cave, squats down very low and leaps into the air. Twilight and Force stare a bit perplexed while the rest of them just seem surprised. The elf goes higher and higher, further and further, until he turns into a small dot and disappears in the distance. “Well at least he’s heading in the right direction. That is the direction of Canterlot right?”

“That is correct, Rainbow Dash. I suppose we’ll just have to continue without him and assume that he’ll be there waiting for us.” Luna answers the pegasus while walking ahead and resuming their journey.

“Why’d you tell him that’s where the Princess is though? I thought it was supposed to be a surprise!” Pinkie bounces on her tail, facing backwards so she can look directly at the alicorn.

“Well, I didn’t expect him to just leave on his own. Luckily there’s no way Tia is already there, so she should be fine. I mostly just didn’t want to lie to him. She is technically on her way to Canterlot.”

The group continue their walk through the Everfree for several minutes until they reach the edge of the forest near Ponyville. As soon as they breach the treeline and leave the forest they hear something zipping through the air, almost like something heavy is falling. They all look up and search for the source of the noise only for a sudden crashing sound to land a few feet away from them.

“Not there.” Nyxblade stomps up the dirt towards the group of ponies, coming to a stop right in front of Luna. Looking down at her with his chest puffed out.

“Where? No lie.”

“I didn’t lie. That’s where she said she was going. She must’ve stopped somewhere along the way for a break or maybe you just missed her. There’s no way you checked the entire city that fast. Why don’t you just join us since that’s where we’re heading anyways.” Luna maintains eye contact with a determined look.

After a few seconds of silence the wraith relaxes his posture. “No. I wait.”

As soon as he says that he just leaps into the air again and disappears. “I can’t believe how quickly that form is adapting to using mana. He’s barely even using his physical strength when he jumps like that. He’s coiling mana around his legs and compressing it like a spring when he crouches. He’s even releasing it in bursts out of his feet while he goes through the air.”

Twilight conjures a notepad and quill, immediately taking notes. The rest of the girls just laugh at the fact she can still act like this despite how bleak the situation is looking. The group continues into Ponyville until they reach the library. Once there they unpack the hot air balloon and load up Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity into the basket. Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Luna use their wings to help speed up the contraption as they float to Canterlot.

It’s only when they’re about half way through their journey when the burner for the balloon starts spitting out bubbles instead of fire. The girls in the basket start to panic until Twilight reassures them. “It’s alright girls, despite how it looks this isn’t that dangerous. Without the burner we just won’t be able to maintain this altitude. In these conditions we shouldn’t drop out of the sky or anything. I’d estimate that we have another 30 to 40 minutes of flight until we land. I’m not sure how we’ll get everypony up to Canterlot without the balloon though…”

“I could bring all of you up in one trip with my telekinesis alone. It wouldn’t be much trouble.” Luna offers while gliding next to the slowly descending basket.

“Oh Princess we couldn’t ask y’all to do something like that for us. Rainbow and Flutters can just bring us up one at a time.”

“Dear Applejack, I assure you I would barely even notice. Just because I’m a Princess, that doesn’t change the fact that I could carry all four of you up there without magic. With magic it’s not even a challenge. It’s no trouble at all, I promise.”

As if to prove her point Luna ignites her horn and a blue bubble appears around the entire hot air balloon. A few seconds later the balloon stops descending and starts to actually regain its lost altitude. She’s lifting the entire balloon and its occupants with just her magic and she doesn’t even seem to be bothered at all. Her face is like she’s not even using magic.

Applejack whistles at the display and Twilight's eyes light up with stars at the display. It’s not a feat that should surprise the unicorn, but she very rarely gets to see an alicorn flex their magic outside of their domain. Just another couple of hours and the group would arrive at Canterlot Mountain.

A group of four wake up in a bed that they all just barely fit on together. “What was even the point of having us change into those “pajama” things if you were just going to strip us a few minutes later?”

“Because Nightmare, when you get a gift, unwrapping the present is one of the best parts. Besides, you still have the shirt on. Now c’mon c’mon get up you lot we’re already on the verge of running late. We gotta get dressed for dinner.” Ignis claps his hands as he sits up in bed, Force grunting in her sleep in disapproval. Luna opens her eyes as she goes from laying on top of the elf to laying on her back as he sits up.

“That’s a very rude way to wake up your Goddess, Ignis.” She calls out with a deadpan voice while staring at the ceiling.

“Yeah yeah, not my fault you wouldn’t wake up any other way. It was either that or I lick my finger and stick it in your ear again.”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Very suddenly the Queen is fully awake and standing, getting dressed. With a chuckle Ignis also gets up and begins getting dressed.

The three women look around with surprise on their faces as they take in the elf’s dining room that nearly rivals the royal dining hall at the castle. “Oh two more women? Wait, but didn’t you all sleep in the same room?” Tala points out the obvious as she spots her brother and the ladies walking into the room.

“Yep. Father, Tala, this is Nightmare Moon and Unstoppable Force. All three of these lovely ladies are my wives.” The elf has a bit of a sheepish grin as he nervously scratches the back of his head. Unsure of how his family will react to his polygamy.

Tala looks stunned and the other man in the room starts to belly laugh as he looks at the harem. “You really managed to pull off the impossible, huh? Your mother alone was enough to keep my hands full. I can't imagine how in the world you handle three. Although if the marriage is open I wonder if that girl from the Count’s family is still interested in you? I believe her name was Ember?”

“Even if she is, I doubt it’d work out. She’d have to be willing to come back to Equestria with us.” Ignis tries to shoot down the idea as politely as possible while also sighing in relief at his fathers positive reaction to the news.

That’s one informational bombshell down, let’s see if handles the other one with nearly half as much grace. Ignis thinks to himself as they all sit down and food is brought out.

“So besides having a very active love life, what else have you been up to in this Equestria place?” The Patriarch asks his son.

“Well, I’ve become quite proficient with the Bladesong. I never stopped my arcane studies either, I’d wager I’m probably stronger than Natasha or even Elminister himself, nowadays. Their plane is so different compared to ours though, they have their own magic system that doesn’t involve the Weave in any capacity. It’s fascinating, honestly. They have their own fuel for magic inside their bodies called mana, and they’re able to use that to cast anything they can come up with. They aren’t restricted by spell levels or slots.”

Before his father can respond Tala stands up, slamming her hands on the table with sparkles in her eyes. “What?! Really?! Can we have a demonstration or does it only work back in their plane?”

Ignis holds up his hand as it’s enveloped in a dim silver aura and suddenly all of the candles and table ornaments light up in the same silver before floating into the air. He starts to flick his hand around in the air and all of the objects form a single file line before zipping down and orbiting slowly around the drow girl. She looks around and follows the objects with a look of wonder.

After a minute or so he puts everything back. Can’t distract the girl for too long or the food will go cold. “We can do some much more extravagant demonstrations afterwards, but I’m afraid they can’t really be done indoors. We’ll have to go to the arena.”

“Wait so you can also use their mana? Even though you’re here?” Tala still looks like she’s lost in a fantasy as Father questions Ignis.

“Oh yeah. Both of you probably can as well. I apparently had quite a reserve of the stuff when I showed up. It definitely takes some getting used to though. Although in this form Luna is probably the only one of these three that can still use mana. She has a bit more practice.”

Everyone looks at the elf with varying levels of confusion and surprise. Luna, Force, and Moonie are all wondering why he mentioned so much earlier than he initially planned. Tala and their father look confused at what he means by “this form” and “practice.”

Ignis looks up from his food and sees the facial reactions all around him. “Ah shit I didn’t mean to bring that up this soon.”

“What do you mean by “this form” Ignis?”

“Uh, well. Uhm. You see, right now I’ve casted True Polymorph on all of them. I thought it’d be a bit of a smoother introduction if they were in more familiar forms when we first met. It was their idea, to be fair. I admitted being a bit nervous about it and they offered to stay Polymorphed for our first trip.”

“Why is that? What do they normally look like? They’re not Mind Flayers or something are they?”

“What? Father, no! Gods above I would never be caught dead with an Illithid. Listen, let's just table this for now and we can show you when we do the magic demonstration, deal?”

One awkwardly quiet meal later and the group found themselves in the Natume Arena. One of the upsides for being the clan of bladesingers means they often host combat tournaments, so their arena is quite exceptional. It’s large and features several defensive wards for the structure itself and the audience. Although when there’s no competitions going on the local Eilistraee worshippers use the arena for training. There’s currently a little over 50 Clerics and priests.

“What do you think would be a good demo spell, Luna?” Ignis rubs his chin as he thinks of a good demonstration.

She whispers something in his ear and his face lights up. “Oh that’s a good one!”

He lifts his hand into the air and his eyes glow bright with silver as this spell will consume a great deal of mana. A few seconds later and a beam of magic shoots up before splitting in over 50 smaller beams that scatter in the arena. They all track down and hit every single person inside the structure. There’s a few yelps of panic until they realize the spell didn’t hurt them.

Then they look at their allies and they all realize every single one of them has a pair of wings. “I guess technically our magic can do this as well, but not on a scale like this.”

All of the drow present that feel brave enough, including Tala, take to the skies with their new wings for several minutes before landing. Next he points a finger into the air and several massive balls of fire appear in the air above the elf. All of them are the size of a house and they number well over 10. Tala and their father look on in shock as Tala actually stumbles backwards at the sight.

The elf cycles through a few more spells before his father asks about his wives. With a sigh Ignis looks back at Luna and with a flash of light she transforms back into her alicorn form.

“Ignis, son. Look I know I probably never said this enough, but you know I love you right?” The elf nods and sighs. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that before I said this. Son, that’s a horse.”

Luna giggles as the fathers reaction is almost spot on with what Ignis predicted. Ignis just looks at Luna and speaks to her. “Hey Luna since it’s nearly sunset why don’t we show them one of Equestria’s most powerful spells. Hit em with your speciality. Just make sure to put it back when you’re done so you don’t freak out the entire realm.”

Everyone looks on in confusion at the alicorn. Luna ignites her horn and starts to float into the air from the intense output of mana. Her eyes light up and her mane turns from her normal blue hair into her starry ethereal mane. Suddenly the orange sky that had been slowly turning into a sunset is transformed into the middle of the night. The moon high in the sky and thousands of stars decorating the black canvas.

As soon as the spell channels and Luna’s mana overwhelms the arena every single drow there instantly recognizes the feeling of presence. In a swift singular motion every single worshiper there drops down to one knee and puts their right fist against their left shoulder, purely on instinct.

Tala looks up from her bow at the alicorn then looks down at herself in complete surprise at how automatic her response was. She eventually mutters out, “Th-The Dark Maiden herself? Wha….huh?”

Ignis’ face immediately turns into a small o face as he realizes he forgot an important detail. “Honestly it’s been so many centuries since I thought about it, I completely forgot the presence of your mana is the same as Eilistraee.”

Once he remembers that he remembers that he brought something with them with the intention of returning it. It’s served him extremely well over the last few centuries but it belongs here. Back with the elves and the temple. Unsheathing the Moonblade causes the followers to all release another gasp.

Ignis walks over to who he thinks is the highest ranking cleric of the order that’s currently present, and he presents the Moonblade to them. She gulps in hesitation before taking the blade without a word.

After that he walks over and decides to show them that he truly doesn’t care what form she takes by giving her a deep kiss in front of everyone. It’s only then that the implications of everything truly slam into Tala and the others. He had the Moonblade and he’s married to The Dark Maiden. He’s Her Chosen.

They all bow down again, but this time facing Ignis. He immediately puts his hands up, signaling them to relax. “Woah woah there’s no need for all that. Listen, it's a bit complicated to explain, but I don’t think Luna here is actually Eilistraee. I think she’s just the equivalent of her for their plane. Equestria isn’t even linked to this place, I had to use a very unusual method of transportation to get us here. So let’s just all relax.”

Ignis hears a man clear his throat and looks over at this father. “I think I’d prefer it if she was The Dark Maiden, it’d be much easier to accept that my son is married to a horse if she was our Goddess.”

“Dad! There are no elves in Equestria. No humans, no tieflings, no dwarves. Even if there was, I probably still would’ve fallen for these three, but that’s besides the point. Did you expect me to just wallow in loneliness over there for multiple centuries? Now apologize to my wives, they’re not horses, they’re ponies. For them the term horse is the word used to describe a whore. A Whorse if you will. Anyways now that the cat is out of the bag do you two wanna ditch the human disguises?”

With an enthusiastic yes Ignis dispels their polymorphs and everyone just seems a bit confused on where to go from here. Meanwhile the lovers from Equestria are all just looking at each other fondly.

Force, Luna, Twilight and her friends all land on the edge of the floating island of Canterlot. Fluttershy turns around and eep’s in fright at how high they truly are, she’s unable to even see the ground. The group looks around for Ignis and after not seeing him Luna ignites her horn and Celestia flies up and lands as well.

Instantly spaces tears open and Discord appears before the group. “I’m surprised you all figured everything out so quickly! I’m so proud of how you all have improved. Now that all of you are here it’s time to really put the pieces in place.”

“What’s your game this time, Discord?! Now that we’re all together and I know my friends are with me you don’t stand a chance!” Twilight stomps her forehoof on the ground while yelling at the draconequus with a look of determination.

He smirks at the unicorn before laughing. “Oh that’s a good one! As for what the game is, let me get all the pieces in place like I said. I don’t want to explain this more than once.”

With a snap from the chaos God suddenly the entire population of Canterlot, including the entire royal guard, is teleported from the shelter below, inside the mountain to up here in the city. Another snap later and every single pony present loses their horns and wings except for Celestia. Next up a giant glass dome comes down perfectly covers the edge of the floating city so no one can jump off the island.

“Now, all the pieces are in place! The game is simple young Twilight. You and your friends simply have to get to the Elements. You have until this floating city reaches that little camp of yours in the far West that consists of the thestrals plus the population of Ponyville. If you haven’t retrieved the Elements and bested me before we arrive then this place will plummet thousands of feet down and land on that camp.”

Everyone looks pale at the idea of this place falling so far and landing on hundreds of ponies. They all realize that without wings or horns that fall would kill all of them as well. “Now then for all my Canterlot locals here is the game for you. Anypony who takes out one of the element bearers will be safely transported off of the island and onto the ground below. Along with their family and the family of one other friend of their choosing. To make things fair I’ve taken away everypony's magic and their flight so you’ll all have to get creative.”

Discord then looks over at Celestia who has a horrified look on her face from all of the stipulations listed so far. “And you. Sunny. You have been allowed to keep your horn and your wings for one special reason. Your goal for this game is to avoid that corrupted bladesinger who is trying to claim your life. I don’t want you to be defenseless so I’ve allowed you to keep your normal magic and such. You will also need to be present at the finish line with the rest of the bearers so you’ll want to get rid of that creature one way or another. Lest you risk the fate of the world, of course.”

All of the civilians and guards look at each other in horror as they overhear certain groups talking about which element bearer they’re going to go after. Saying things like they have to think of their families here. They can’t risk their own lives on the assumption that everypony else will also let the bearers through. As everyone goes through these discussions all of the ones that seem to have decided on hunting the element bearers slowly lose their colors and become dull monochrome versions of themselves.

Luna looks at Discord a bit confused. “What am I supposed to do?”

“What do you mean dear Luna? You don’t have a role to play, that’s why you lack your horn and wings. You can choose to stop one of the bearers or you can choose to try and help them reach their goal. If I were you though I’d probably choose to help your sister. She’s gunna need it.”

With that Discord holds up his arm and gives one last announcement to all of the players. “Good luck, everypony! Let the games begin!”

Following a singular snap everyone is teleported to a random location throughout the massive capital city. The civilians and guards are even distributed throughout the city for the sake of fairness, this prevents any single element bearer from getting ganged up on too quickly. The bearers themselves are also separated and sent to random corners of the floating city.

The first thing anyone hears after the teleportation is an ear piercing screech as they watch a familiar wraith-like creature fly across the sky chasing a white alicorn. Luna looks around as the city devolves into mayhem, civilians and guards that have decided to help the bearers are fighting with the ones that are trying to stop the bearers. The only thing she can think to herself watching this depraved sight is,

“This is the beginning of the end.”

Author's Note

I said I was gunna take a break tonight and not write, but then.... I got bored. So I wrote anyways! Just like Luna said, this is the beginning of the end. One way or another this arc will be resolved by the end of this event :)

Thanks for reading! <3