Paradise Sundered

Chapters

Reunion
The Founding
The Fall
victory?
Sundered
Eclipse
Chapter Nine: Perspective (I)
Chapter Nine: Perspective (II)
Epilogue
Victory!
New Arrival

Reunion

Chapter Two: Reunion

Prime Minister Custard Cranium had indeed gone to prepare a party. How that mare managed to pull together a party in the few hours before sunrise bewildered Celestia. What, does she have party supplies stashed around the camp or something? I just don’t understand her.

As the party wore down, the festivities gave way to competition. Competition, in turn, degenerated into arguments and sporadic fights. These, Celestia broke up as quickly as possible. The three tribes eventually withdrew to their encampments. Upon visiting them, each leader gave Celestia much the same response; they were going to move out at first light to get away from the brutish pegasi, weirdo non-earths, or snooty unicorns.

Celestia held on to hope, though. In her experience, most ponies held no grudge against the other tribes. Instead they preferred the company of their own to the other groups who were strange and thus uncomfortable to be around. Their differences drew lines through the camp, dividing them by breed. But that could be changed, and she’d be the one to do it. After all, she had “the power to change the world.”

As she made her way through the camp, she was pleasantly surprised when she saw three little fillies from the three different tribes playing together under their mother's watchful eyes. Maybe I’ll need to change it less than I feared. These three might just be the start of a great, good thing. I just hope that it spreads. “Hello, it’s so nice to see the little ones getting along isn’t it?”

“Ah reckon you’re right and say thankya.”

“Oh yes, Celestia, the three tribes are much better off together; we would have never survived alone.”

“Um, it’s... nice.”

“Well ladies, you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“Wise Wafer, mah Lady.”

“Trefoil the Thinker, my Lady.”

“I’m Corporal Chrysanthemum.”

Celestia suppressed a chuckle. That mare must have had an interesting time in the “Glorious Dominion of the Sky’s” military. “I must say, it’s heartening to see levelheaded ponies bringing up their foals to be more accepting.”

“Ah’m just tryin’ ta do what’s right. Right girls?” There were two nods of assent.

“Well, I certainly hope that you can spread that mindset. Keep up the good work, ladies.” With a great yawn, Celestia trotted off to get a nap; she had only gotten a few hours last night, after all.

She woke up a few minutes before it was time lower the sun. She couldn’t seem to sleep through that, no matter how tired she was. She was surprised to see that the camp wasn’t still bustling with activity. I guess that they really were serious about leaving at dawn. While she lowered the sun, she expanded her magical senses. She took pride in the fact that she could perform this spell better than Luna could, on account of having a larger reserve of magic. Her senses enveloped just over a thousand square miles, and there, on the very edge, she could barely make out Luna and a faint smudge of unicorn magic that she assumed to be Starswirl.

Celestia was surprised that they were so close. Once again, Luna’s student has proven more adept than expected. I really should stop underestimating him; he is the one that figured out how to turn the Discordant ponies back with an ingenious blend of loyalty and honesty.

Soon she felt them begin to move again. They ate up the miles, around three at a time. After the second teleport they briefly stopped as Luna raised the moon. As she did, her magical aura — already the most powerful presence she could feel by far — outshone all the living creatures for miles around. I didn’t know that happened whenever she rose the moon... how have I never noticed before? Hmm, I guess it’s only observable if you’re looking for it. Now that she was paying attention to it, Celestia truly felt her sister’s aura for the first time. It’s amazing, even from here I can feel something off of it. It feels like rejuvenation and calmness. Hmm, do I do that whenever I raise the sun? She noticed that while she had been lost in thought, Luna and Starswirl had come within one or two jumps of arriving. She quickly took flight to welcome them.

Starswirl and Luna materialized from their last teleport only a few steps away from Celestia. “Celly, it is you!” She nudged Starswirl. “I told you it was her.”

“Your eyes are better than mine,” he relented.

Celestia closed the last of the distance between them and gathered her sister in a hug. “Luna! I missed you.” She pulled back. “It’s kind of difficult to catch up with what’s happening during the heat of battle.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Then, as if by some unseen cue, they both blurted out. “I just missed you so much!”

Celestia laughed. Luna blushed. Starswirl was content to let the two sisters have their moment.

“On the way here I didn’t see any sign of Discord’s corruption; it looks like we’ve finally done it!”

Celestia wrapped a wing around Luna and pulled her in close. “No, you’ve done it. Thanks to you, we can finally focus on unifying the tribes and making this world a paradise.”

Luna pulled away and fixed her sister and looked her in the eyes. “There’s something you should know. Starswirl is no longer my student.”

“Oh no! What did he do? It wasn’t dark, forbidden magic, was it?” she said with a smirk.

“How I’ve missed your sense of humor, Celly. No, as you may have guessed, Starswirl and I have become romantically involved.” Luna deadpanned.

Celestia’s hind legs failed her.

“Wait, WHAT?” both other ponies gasped.

Starswirl spluttered out a few unintelligible phrases before noticing that Luna was smiling broadly.

“And that’s how you mask your feelings, Celly. No, I realized that I can teach him no more, and keeping him as my student would not be fair for either of us. Besides, you both know that my one true love is the night.”

Celestia put a hoof to her chest. “Luna, you wound me.”

“How could you have not fallen for my charms? Is my beard not long enough?”

Luna looked at him like he'd grown another head. He stared right back, starting an impromptu staring contest. It lasted all of four seconds before Celestia’s self-control failed and she started laughing. The mirth spread like wildfire, leaving them all in stitches. The huge weight of impending doom evaporated while they took a rare moment for themselves.

Their laughter gradually died out, trailing off as their sides started hurting. Starswirl thumped his chest a few times and coughed. "Whew, I haven't just let loose like that in, hmm... When was it that we were working on adapting Laughter?"

Luna stared off into space. After a moment of consideration she responded. "Three, perhaps four months ago."

"There's been a sore lack of joy here too.” Celestia looked back into the moonlit camp.

For a while after that they were quiet. Starswirl idly crushed some grass beneath his hoof. Finally, he broke the silence. “So, Celestia, what has been going on around here?”

“Well, the last few months were the harshest. I think that it was because after all these years of chaos, ponies decided enough was enough and finally tried to stop it. When the pegasi formed into an army under General Typhoon, Discord really stepped up his game. The horrors Discord unleashed didn’t distinguish between the tribes, and everypony suffered. Luna and I rounded up everypony we could find and brought them here, in the hope that we could survive until Discord became less destructive.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at Celestia. “I think he wanted to know about the more recent goings on, sister.”

“I was getting there,” she shot back. “Luckily, we found you and saw how you managed to turn back Discord’s influence. That’s when Luna had her big idea. Then she made you her student to help her with it, and you know what happened then better than I do. Meanwhile, I came back here and organized the refugees. Sometimes I had to fight off one abomination or another. Luckily, they weren’t organized and didn’t seem to communicate with each other.”

Celestia shook her head slowly, sighing. “What were much worse were the fights in the camp. At first, they flared up nearly every week, but they have grown less frequent as everypony got used to each other's differences. The last major brawl happened about two and a half weeks ago. There have been some minor scuffles since then but nothing involving more than a few ponies.” Sagging, Celestia continued. “It’s still far too many...”

She shook herself, getting back on track. “Now they all intend to go back to their homes at first light. You know what, I think I’ll give them a few extra minutes tomorrow.”

“Maybe a little time apart will cool the tensions between the tribes. What do you think, Luna?” Starswirl wondered.

“I certainly hope so.”

Celestia brought a hoof to her face. “I can’t believe I almost forgot! Luna, have you ever watched me raise the sun, magically I mean?”

“I don’t think so... Why?” She gave her sister a small push. “And don’t be so hard on yourself! There’s a lot going on; you can’t keep track of everything. In fact, you do better than anypony else I can think of.” She looked over at the extravagant tents in the center of the unicorn encampment.

“Hey, I take offense at thaaaa...” Starswirl’s retort was cut short by a huge yawn.

Luna gave him a sidelong glance. “No offense, but you’re more an advisor than a leader.”

“Ah, you are right. Have to deal with too many ponies and I’d crack. I don’t know how I’m going to manage a growing filly... But I digress. You were saying, Celestia?”

She cleared her throat. “Where was I? Oh yes, you really should check when I raise the sun. If what happens when you raise the moon happens when I raise the sun, you’ll want to see.”

Luna leaned closer to her only information source. “Why, what happens?”

“Well, your magical aura expanded significantly. I’ve never seen a flare of magic that bright before.”

Luna’s eyes gleamed with anticipation. “That sounds like something that would be interesting to study. I’ll be sure to watch from now on.”

“Well, while you two discuss your super-equine powers, I will be going to get some sleep. Some of us don’t have earth pony resilience.” Starswirl trotted away to find somewhere to rest. The alicorn sisters watched him go then turned to each other. They had a lot of catching up to do.

Hours later, when the sounds of the first ponies awakening began to drift across the camp, Celestia and Luna looked around. They were surprised how the time had passed so quickly while they were reminiscing.

“Sister, isn’t it time for you to raise the sun?”

“You have to lower the moon first, and while you do, I’ll see if the flare happens as you lower the moon as well.” A golden glow sprang into life around her horn.

“Good idea. We should learn all that we can about our powers.” She began to lower the moon.

Celestia magically scrutinized her sister. “Hmm, no pulses, intense or otherwise.”

“Well, lowering the moon has never seemed as taxing... no, as involved, as raising it.” A cobalt light enveloped her horn. “Your turn. See if you can raise the sun slowly. I want to have as much time as possible to study whatever happens.”

Celestia nodded. As the sun gradually crept above the horizon, Luna intently studied the magic that was indeed pouring off her big sister. The feeling was like nothing Luna had experienced before. It feels, vital... like new growth and springtime. I wish I could just drink in this sensation forever or at least find some way to replicate it.

Halfway through, she realized that she had been ignoring the other part of the process of raising the sun, the actual sun rising. She quickly shifted her attention towards the glowing orb and was rewarded with the knowledge that the same type of magic that was around her sister was surrounding it. Then, all too soon, it was over.

“Celly, that was amazing,” she breathed.

Then the camp came alive. Pegasi began barking orders, unicorns commenced calmly packing their belongings, and earth ponies started gathering into large groups.

Luna glared at them. “They really can’t stand to be together for another second, can they?”

“It’s not all hopeless. Just yesterday I saw three adorable little fillies of each tribe playing together. It’s mainly the leaders that are keeping the old resentments burning. The typical pony is, at worst, disinterested in the other tribes. They just go with what their leaders say because they have nowhere else to go, and the other tribes probably wouldn’t take them in.”

Pop! Starswirl flashed into existence in front of the alicorns.

“Sorry about the intrusion. I just didn’t want to have to get through all that.” He gestured to the milling throng of ponies

Celestia looked out over the multitude of equines. “Yes, I can see how that would be difficult.”

Then the earth ponies began to leave, galloping back toward their usual fields in a thunderous exodus.

Starswirl covered his ears with a noise-reduction spell and had to shout to be heard. “All these ponies seem loud enough to shake the very leaves from the trees!”

Once the stampede was far enough away, Luna spoke up.

“We’ll have to find some way to get them back together you know. They probably won’t do it by themselves.” Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a flurry of movement. Several squadrons of pegasi were moving to one side of the massive cloud bank. “What are they doing?”.

“Yesterday when I was talking with General Typhoon, he said that they would be taking the improved clouds to build the capital for their ‘Glorious Dominion of the Sky.’ I couldn’t tell him no without a huge argument, so I let it pass.”

Celestia received two very confused stares.

“Yes, Typhoon is still in control of the pegasi, and he has convinced enough of them that being a warrior tribe is the path they should take.”

“That is... problematic.”

Luna nodded in agreement with Starswirl.

The three watched in fascination as the pegasi split into teams that went to work with military precision. One group circled rapidly above the cloud layer to create an updraft. Another group flew in front of the soon-to-be cloud city to make an area of low pressure, making it easier for the pegasi pushing it. In order to keep up the necessary speed, they had to fly in a loop that took them weaving through their comrades responsible for the updraft.

Luna watched them fade into the distance with a small smile on her face. The smile did not go unnoticed by Celestia.

“What are you so happy about?”

“Me? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking that, while I don’t agree with what they are doing, I can still appreciate how precise they are.”

“Well, that’s great, but we should really get to work on a plan to unify the tribes. As they know me best, I should probably go around to all of them. Luna, you should come with me.”

Starswirl lifted a foreleg. “Question. What about me?”

“Well, you should stay with the unicorns. Try to convince them that the correct course of action is unification. But stay away from the earth ponies; right now they’re quite suspicious of unicorns and their magic. ”

He winced. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’ve been thinking though, Luna...”

“Yes, Starswirl?”

“Now that I’m no longer your student, do you think it would be prudent to train an apprentice of my own?” He spoke confidently, but both sisters noticed his right hind leg give a small twitch.

“Certainly! I would encourage you to spread your knowledge. Just make sure that whomever you take on is worthy. Perhaps a standing challenge of some sort that must be passed?”

Starswirl pondered this while watching the unicorns finally begin to canter off towards their forest home.
“I think I have an idea, but I will continue to consider it. Now, Luna, I need to get back to my family.” He paused. “The time we spent together was magical...” This drew snickers from all present. “But we both knew it wouldn’t last forever. I’ll be sure to keep in touch. I suggest meetings to discuss progress on unification every fortnight. Now, I must get back to my wife and daughter.”

Luna’s face drooped, but she knew that he was right. “Long days and pleasant nights.”

“And may yours be twice as many. You too, Celestia. Good luck with your project. Something tells me you’ll need it.”

“You’re probably right. Well, this short time has been a pleasure, Starswirl. Perhaps we will get to know each other better in the future.”

The three shared a moment. Then Luna gave a small nod. Starswirl vanished and reappeared at the tail end of the unicorn procession.

Celestia went to comfort her troubled sister. She laid a wing over her back.

“There, there. Don’t worry, he’ll be back. He said so himself.”

“I know, I know. It’s just since we got back and found that Mom and Dad were... were...” Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.

“I know that hit you hard, but you have to get past it. Not everypony you love will be taken from you while you aren’t looking. You’ve got to stay positive.”

“I’ll... try,” she sniffed.

“I know how to take your mind off things. Let’s go back to the fort. You can show me how you made the Elements!”

Luna cleared her throat. “Y-yes, I’d like that. I could show you the changes we made to the design of the fort. It looks more like a castle now, actually.” Luna’s face brightened considerably at the mention of showing off one of her pet projects.

“I can’t wait to see it!” A sudden gust of wind buffeted her, and she heard a faint, “I’ll race you there!”

Her wings flared. “Oh, it is on!”

Pop! Ting! Ting! Ching! Ping! Cling!

Both Celestia and Luna stared incredulously at Starswirl. After a few seconds, Luna managed to sufficiently collect her wits to manage a question.

“What are those?”

“These are bells. Have you heard of them?”

Celestia burst out laughing. Luna glared at her. “It wasn’t that funny,” she said with a huff.

“Oh, you stepped right into that, and you know it.”

“She is right. That question was poorly worded. Quite unusual for you.”

Rolling her eyes, Luna said, “Fine. Why are you wearing bells all over yourself? Tell me. I beg you.”

“You recommended a standing challenge, and this is it: to become my apprentice, a unicorn must remove all the bells from my robe and hat.”

Luna began to scrutinize the bells for enchantments while Celestia asked, “What’s to stop them from just cutting the strings?”

Luna’s horn glowed brighter as she dug deeper through the myriad gossamer strands of magic. “It looks like nothing...” Her eyes widened. “Wait. No, there’s a subtle enchantment that will stop another unicorn’s magical field dead in its tracks.”

Celestia experimentally swung a cushion at the him, only to have it stop dead. “So, how are they supposed to do it? I’m interested.”

“If you check even closer, you’ll see that it doesn’t stop all magical fields, just telekinetic ones. How it’s going to work is the soon-to-be apprentice will see the anti-telekinetic field and release their hold just before encountering it.”

She tried again, this time letting go just before the point the cushion had stopped last time. It kept going and lightly hit him in the side of the head. “Um, Luna, how do you feel about this plan? It seems to me that it might end up with Starswirl here in more pieces than he started out as. If that was something sharp...” She let it hang.

Luna waved a hoof dismissively. “Oh, I’m sure he’s got that detail worked out.”

He nodded. “You’re right. Although, I would hope that if they are smart enough to figure out the way to get through the enchantment, they would also be smart enough to place an animate contact blunting spell on their cutting implement of choice. But, in the off chance that they overlook that detail, I have devised a failsafe spell. It will activate when something small and fast passes through it and stop whatever it is.”

Luna started searching the room for something that would be small enough. “It’s very taxing, though; it may even knock me out when activated, so I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Luna stopped and her ears went flat. “Oh, um... Sorry about that.” He waved her concerns off, and she sighed in relief. “Right then. Is it a modification of the stasis spell I showed you?”

“Yes, actually, changing it to affect the area around the object, me in this case, rather than the object itself was quite simple really. I thought that if I could envision the area around myself like a suit of...”

Celestia saw that the conversation was going to quickly become a discussion of theoretical and applied magic. She knew she had to interrupt before they built up more conversational momentum. Sitting down conspicuously at the table, she coughed and said, “Well, it looks like you’ve got this all figured out.” She swept a wing towards their places at the table. “Shouldn’t we get to the discussing unification plans?”

“You’re right, Celly. We have gone off on quite a tangent.” Luna sat on one of the two soft cushions left.

“My apologies.” He made his way to the table as well.

“It’s not a problem. So, Starswirl, how are the unicorns? What are their feelings?”

After getting comfortable, he responded. “Well, they have changed their approach from hiding to fortification. Now, instead of hiding, we are constructing a castle. Everypony thinks that because we held off Discord’s creatures we can stop the natural predators, and honestly, they are probably right.”

Celestia shook her head. “That’s not quite what I meant. Have they discussed the other tribes at all?”

“No, nothing substantial. There has been the occasional mention of them, but for the most part, nothing.”

Luna’s wings flared. “See, Celly? I knew we should have been out there trying to change their minds sooner.”

“Relax, Luna. They’ll come around eventually. It’s not like we can change the world overnight.”

“Maybe you can’t...” Luna’s eyes narrowed, something was wrong, Celestia was smiling just a bit too much. “You set that up, didn’t you?” Her sister’s smile grew wider. “How do you do that? I’m smart. I swear I’m smart.”

“You are, but I’m your big sister. That and you’re better with the subtleties of magic than the intricacies of conversation.”

“Yes, well be that as it may, I can still tell when we’ve gotten off track. I say that we should get out there and get to work.”

“You’re right, we should. Let’s get a good night’s sleep and begin in the morning.”

That is exactly what they did. The two sisters traveled between the tribes spreading the message of a unified ponykind, but whatever progress they made during their time with one tribe was lost with the others. They tried splitting the tasks so that there was always one of them with each tribe, but they soon discovered that neither Luna nor Starswirl alone had the charisma to sway enough ponies to make a difference.

Many years passed, and eventually both Luna and Starswirl became frustrated with the lack of progress. They both still tried, but neither gave of themselves to the extent that Celestia did. Luna took to a more in-depth study of their astrological powers while her former student took up chronomancy.

Celestia guided the pegasi in their warlike ways to deal with the non-sentient dangers of the world, especially the wolves. Luna thought that this might be more than simply an effort to keep the pegasi from turning on the other ponies or the griffons. But when she remembered what had happened, she secretly hoped that it was.

To keep up this campaign, they required an abundance of food — after all, an army flies on its stomach. In an attempt to stop raiding for food from becoming commonplace, Celestia promoted the use of part of the army for agricultural weather control. They took to this method with clockwork precision and exacted tribute from the earth ponies, precisely three quarters of the increase in production.

Griffon attacks had abruptly ceased after Celestia had teleported directly into the center of their largest eyries, put out the sun, and, positively glowing with power, demanded that all attacks on ponies end. They had never seen a pony like her before. She was large like they were and had both wings and a horn. Since the Griffons were used to being ruled by those that were most powerful, they quickly acquiesced to her demands.

All the progress in other areas only served to highlight their utter failure at unifying the tribes. That was until the meeting when Celestia had her fateful idea.

Author's Note

Version 3.0! As of 7/31/13
I’d like to thank my editors/prereaders: SlyWit maker of back story, Cynewulf The Pony parted in Three Ways, AntiquatedAnnomaly shrinker of heads, and thefirewarde lurker of the chat. You guys are awesome, and should feel awesome.

The Founding

Chapter Three: The Founding

Journal entry 1

Another project, another journal. This time the big idea came from Celestia, and what an idea it is. What a plan indeed. It is the type of plan that only the desperate or foolish would place their hopes in. While we are most definitely desperate, I can only hope we are not fools.

Last night when Starswirl stopped by to meet with us, he did so without his signature bells; his standing challenge had finally been met. Who knew it would take so long? Where have all the imaginative unicorns like Silver Spear gone?

As it turns out, there is more than one way past anti-telekinetic wards. Specifically, never using telekinesis in the first place, but rather incapacitating him, followed by simply walking up to him and removing the bells by hoof. Clover the Clever took him by surprise with her ingenuity, truly living up to her name. By using her friends’ abilities to supplement her own, she devised a way to bypass the intended test entirely. Her earth pony friend Smart Cookie’s herbal expertise allowed the cookies to quickly knock out a grown stallion. Private Pansy supplied them with an electric shock (to keep him from magically counteracting the effect) for the cookies, which was contained by a small application of binding magic. The low-level, easily broken, imbuement of loyalty could only be used to connect the electricity to the material, but not without changing its properties, so Smart Cookies’ baking expertise also played an important role.

According to Starswirl, Clover said that she’s been secretly meeting with her foalhood friends over the years. Perhaps this is a widespread phenomenon; that would make the coming process much easier.

As these three mares’ collaboration shows, the way to accomplish our goals may not be the one that is most obvious. That is what sparked Celestia’s idea. We need to think more outside the box (or as the newly elected Chancellor Pudding Head would put it, “in the chimney”). Our more standard methods of persuasion — talking, pleading, reasoning, and reprimanding — have done nothing for us but waste time. So now we will begin a more forceful approach.

As Celestia pointed out, Discord united the tribes more in a few months than we have managed to accomplish in years. Some kind of designed hardship might be able to do the same. According to Celestia, the infighting ebbed when Discord was unwittingly targeting food. This led us to the hypothesis that if we limit the food supply, the ponies will then be forced to band together for survival. What we came up with is project W.I.N.D.I.G.O.S. (Worldwide Intense Natural Diversion Inverting Gross Oppressive Speciesism) This plan takes advantage of the easy method available to us to reduce crop growth, Celestia’s aura. Varying its power is something that she has learned to do seasonally. We intend to use the lack of growth magic to our full advantage by severely limiting crop yields and slowing ponies’ metabolisms. I will then help the ponies survive the famine by drastically increasing my restorative aura to combat the negative effects of malnourishment.

I cannot imagine that this will be pleasant.

We are well aware that this process may take a long time because there will be no clear enemy to band together against. But we must take the long view, even when it is painful to watch them struggle. I will have to work hard to remember that and steel my resolve. Celestia and Starswirl think that this will work, and I can’t disagree with them, I just wish there was some other way.

But that is neither here nor there. Tomorrow we begin preparatory measures. We will begin to get the tribes used to seeing us less and spread rumors that we will be leaving to combat a dangerous foe in a distant land. Meanwhile, Starswirl will spread tales of “windigos.” It must be subtle, otherwise ponies will wonder at the strange coincidence of them “appearing” so soon after he starts speaking of them. We are only comfortable with a few offhoof comments around the right ponies, such as his new apprentice and perhaps the few ponies that are both sympathetic to our cause and in a position to do something about it later on.

Journal entry 2

Phase one is over. As of now, Celestia and I have “left to deal with a distant threat”. Now we will observe and wait to start the second stage of the plan.

Journal entry 3

Those devious unicorns. The day after we left, they put on a grand show; they went out at dawn and quite visibly lit up their horns. When they did the same at dusk, I had to force myself to not go and throttle them. So, now they’re claiming to be the ones controlling the sun and the moon. Preposterous! Even if they could compile their strength together, the range they could achieve would still be limited to that of the strongest among them. To make matters worse, they are asking for, no, demanding food from the earth ponies in return. Princess Platinum just had to make this more difficult. Now we will have to wait for this situation to calm down before we can expect them to start banding together.

Journal entry 4

The wait was longer than expected. It took till late autumn for the tensions to reach a reasonable level, and how will they notice anything odd if we start now? It would just look like an early winter. So now we must wait until mid-spring to reverse the weather. Looks like I will have plenty of time to continue my research into Celestia’s astrological powers. This might be a blessing in disguise; perhaps we won’t need to blanket the entire world if we can discover a way to make the effect more local. Time to dig out the old notes.

Field Notes on Alicorn-Specific Magic

Observation # 112
Thinking back on how I noticed small irregularities in the intensity of Celestia’s solar aura (Obs # 56-64), I see that this may be a possible solution to the area-of-effect problem. Tonight, I shall begin tests to see if I can replicate the phenomena in a more orderly manner. If tests are successful, I will bring up the possibility with Celestia.

The last few nights of testing have provided the results I had hoped for. It took five nights of practice, but I finally managed to concentrate my restorative magic into a much more limited area. In my morning telepathic conversation with Starswirl, he reported feeling unusually healthy and rejuvenated. This information brings with it a measure of cognitive dissonance; on one hoof, I’m glad I could make him feel better, but on the other, I’m sad that he’s getting on in the years. Meanwhile, it seems more and more likely that our connections to the heavenly bodies have granted us with negligible senescence (Obs # 76-87), both an amazing blessing and a tremendous burden.

Tomorrow I will bring these results to Celestia and see about getting her to replicate them.

Observation # 113
After a week of practice, Celestia mastered the aforementioned technique. This is great news! Our plan will work so much better with our new abilities. Now to wait for Spring to implement stage two.

Journal Entry 5
It's almost time to start the next phase. The first harvest is just coming in, but with our interference, it will also be the last. We'll both make forays out of the fortress (although, with Celestia's stylistic input, it is becoming even more palace-like) to make our own observations. We can't totally rely on Starswirl for information. After all, information is power, and for this to work we need all the advantages we can get.

Week One: Unsurprisingly, they have yet to guess that this will continue for much longer.

Week Two: Largely unchanged.

Week Three: The pegasi have taken to removing the clouds instead of bringing more; the snow was not helping the farmers much. Both they and the unicorns are still demanding food from the earth ponies, who give it grudgingly. Meanwhile, Celestia and I have taken to making as many snow-laden clouds as possible and sending them in on the wind. We reason that, the more uncomfortable they are, the more quickly this will all be over.

Week Four: As was to be expected, the unicorns turned to Starswirl to solve their problems. He gave them a perfectly reasonable method to make their token gardens produce more food: expose the crops to high concentrations of generosity-based magic. What he left out was that it would be an almost total waste; there is simply not enough growth magic to give. As a result, a few of their plants briefly flourished, but the small yield could do nothing to offset the ravenous hunger of a population. Of course they would make Starswirl shoulder most of the burden: he is the most skilled mage they have available. The strain of being forced to make it look like he’s doing something productive isn’t good for him. He’s getting older and shouldn’t be made to do this, but they seem intent on running him into the ground, claiming “Survival of all should be on the forefront of everypony’s mind.” They seem to think that he’s just being generous for them, but his sacrifice is for so much more. It’s for all ponies of the future, and it’s wearing him down. At the end of the day, he lacks the strength to contact us. I would have feared the worst, but I’ve been able to make my way into his dreams. I would typically avoid doing that, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He looks terrible, though...
I don’t know how much longer he can go on like this.

I wish I could make this easier for him, but I don’t know if I can focus the healing any more. Even if I could though, I couldn’t bring myself to leave anypony out. My heart still breaks whenever I see a foal whimpering from hunger or a mother or father give up their supper to allow their foal a few more mouthfuls.

Week Five: The unicorns' gardens are completely barren, and the pegasi are similarly out of locations to scavenge. Even the once plentiful wheat fields have withered and died. Now that they are both completely reliant on the earth ponies for food they should, if past precedent is to be trusted, begin to band together. Good thing too, keeping up this unnatural... configuration of my aura is exhausting. Even worse, the strain from all of Starswirl’s exertions has taken a serious toll on him. The situation looks... It doesn’t look good. In this, I envy Celestia and her immense strength. But the end is in sight! The tribes have called for a summit early next week.

Week Six: I can scarcely believe it! Those utter foals! The leaders of the tribes have forgone diplomacy and have decided to go it alone. This is in spite of their various advisors’ best efforts to persuade them to follow a path of unity. Now the three leaders and their advisors (sans Starswirl, for he is much too weak) are going out to search for an end to the blizzards and relentless cold. If they do make it to the edge before they see reason (a prospect that seems ever more likely) Celestia can just widen the area of effect. We have put too much into this to fail, and, despite my best efforts, the first casualties have started happening. I worry that soon Starswirl will join their number. But their sacrifices will not be in vain.

They made it out. The bullheadedness of Commander Hurricane, Princess Platinum, and Chancellor Pudding Head would put any minotaur to shame. How they made it despite Hurricane's compulsion to destroy every cloud, Platinum's general aversion to dirtying herself, and Pudding Head's often circular route will forever be a mystery; they only seemed to make progress when we weren't looking. When it became apparent that they would make it out, both Celestia and I decided to forgo all subtlety; she went out and started to make a massive blizzard, one for the record books, while I stayed here to come up with scare tactic spells... I'm thinking that rapid spontaneous generation of ice and ghostly apparitions should force them to work together. If this doesn't work, I fear that all we have lost will be for nothing.

Journal entry 6
I don’t know what happened, but I am eternally grateful. Just as all hope seemed lost and it seemed that we had utterly failed ponykind, Clover's magic blazed to life and banished my enchantments. Simultaneously, from far in the north came a tremendously powerful wave of an unidentified type of magic. While I am proud to see my pupil's student becoming so adept, I sincerely doubt that it was her magic that so rapidly changed the mindset of her superiors. No, that change, I believe, is thanks to the mysterious other magic — not that we will tell them that.

It appears that I now know what my next project will be.

First we must get the ponies back on their hooves. The six of them have taken to calling the new land Equestria, not terribly original, but infinitely better than Dirtville. They have already started migrating the tribes there. Meanwhile, Celestia has been relaxing her control of the temperature as more and more ponies arrive. Only once the vast majority of them have been relocated we will “come back” because Celestia says we need to wait before they see us again or suspicion might be raised.

“Three cheers for Celestia, The Golden Light, The Fabulous Dawn, The Life Giver, and Mistress of the Sun!”

“Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!Hip Hip Hooray!”

“Three cheers for Luna, The Soothing Balm, The Weaver of Dreams, and The Mistress of the Moon!”

“Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!”

The six mares responsible for the formation of the fledgling country, Equestria, all approached the two sisters and bowed low. Starswirl was conspicuously absent. The journey had taken a toll on him, and his health was in a sorry state. For most ponies though, the absence of one old stallion was not enough to dampen their jubilation.

Princess Platinum, the mare primarily responsible for the celebration, began her speech.

"Lady Celestia, Lady Luna, allow me to formally welcome you to our new land. We—" she gestured to the other five mares with her "—are in agreement that you, both of you, displayed the foresight and knowledge we lacked.” She sighed, ears turning back. “Therefore, we have unanimously agreed that you should be our leaders.”

Clover the Clever stepped forward, shooting a glare to Platinum. “We have recently come to realize that it is only through tolerance and friendship that we can continue and prosper. I am deeply ashamed that it took a threat as dire as the Windigos to make us—” she rolled her eyes at Princess Platinum, and Celestia had to stifle a chuckle “—realize the error of our ways.”

Then Chancellor Pudding Head took over. “Yuperooni! You two were all like, ‘You ponies need to work together!’ And we were like, ‘No way, earth ponies can go it alone!’ But, turns out we couldn’t. My bad.” With a bounce, she returned to her spot.

Smart Cookie made her way to the front. “What Ah believe our Chancellor means is that if we had simply listened to what y’all said in the first place, we would’ve never been in such a fine mess. We feel that with your great wisdom and foresight, you two’d be the best leaders we could hope for.”

Commander Hurricane glumly hovered up to say her piece. “Um, yeah, so we welcome your benevolent rule, which I’m sure will be awesome. Because you’re awesome and stuff. So I’ll step down from command and let you take over ’cuz that’s the right thing to do.” She settled back to the ground with a huff, looking away.

All too soon, it was Private Pansy’s time to speak. It took her several shaky steps to make it into position to address the soon to be Princesses, and when she opened her mouth, nothing more than a small “Eep” escaped.

“Don’t be afraid, my little pony. You have nothing to fear.”

Encouraged by the calming words, Pansy gulped and in a wavering voice said, “I... We all would like for you to find it in your hearts to take the responsibility of running the country. We’re willing to accept any terms you might, uh, impose.” She gulped. “That is if you want to...”

Princess Platinum stepped up and actually helped the nervous pegasus back to her place before finishing her speech.

“My associates and I feel that you showed you would stand up for ponies everywhere, regardless of tribe, during the time of Discord. After that, you tried to show us the right path, but in our stubbornness we ignored you. We beg for forgiveness and ask: will you stand up for us now and guide us to a brighter future?”

Two ponies of each tribe processed out from the sides of the crowd. Slowly, the pair of unicorns brought the tiaras while the pegasi carried the gold and ebony shoes balanced in a line across their spread wings. The heavy torques were borne by the stout earth ponies.

While they were coming, Celestia flicked her eyes to her sister then quickly up. Nopony else would think anything of it, but Luna understood exactly what her sister wanted. Her horn’s brief glow went largely unnoticed, as most ponies were focused entirely on Celestia.

[Yes, Celly?]

[Do you think we should? This might be our best chance.]

[Are you really considering turning down a coronation?]

[No... I just feel like we don’t really deserve this, after we caused so much pain and suffering.]

[You can’t let all our hard work go to waste. As distasteful and heartbreaking as it was, this is what it has bought for us. Everypony’s sacrifices] especially Starswirl’s she added, but only to herself [need to be made worthwhile.]

[Oh, I will. I will do better for them. And I will make this worth it.]

Luna let the spell slip away; the last pair had arrived. The silence from the gathered ponies was an oppressive weight, one Luna could not gather the nerve to overcome. But Celestia played on the silence, letting the tension build. Just before the crowd’s nervous energy boiled over, she lit up her horn, and her thunderous tone carried both authority and warmth but none of the doubt she had been expressing just moments before.

“I accept this great responsibility that you have offered me, and I pledge to provide for and protect all ponies in my care. I will strive to be worthy of the trust you place in me. Let us now build our country to be a paradise for all, a land with ample food and where predation is something no pony need fear.” At that a hint of steel crept into her voice.

The applause was absolutely deafening. The wild cheers and stamping of hooves from the gathered ponies rocked the valley. For several minutes the jubilation precluded any attempt at conversation, not that anypony felt particularly inclined to talk when there was so much merrymaking to do. Eventually the revelry drew to a close, in part due to the desire to hear what Luna had to say, but largely because their legs and throats had become exhausted.

Celestia turned to Luna, “So, my sister, what do you say?” At that, the rest of the throng grew quiet.

“I, too, accept. I wish for all ponies everywhere to be safe and want for nothing more than to do what they love. I feel greatly honored that you would find us to be worthy of your trust and respect. I shall endeavor to be there for you whenever you are in need. May this be the beginning of a joyful era.”

Again, applause resounded through the valley. For a few minutes, Luna was able to drink in the adoration of the crowd. Eventually though, the already spent ponies’ cheers came to a ragged end.

[If only Mom and Dad could see us now...] Luna thought to her sister.

[What would they think? Their girls can control the sun and moon and now run an entire country.] Celestia raised an eyebrow. [And speaking of seeing, how did you amplify your voice? I didn’t see you use magic.]

[I was actually wondering about why you used unicorn magic. Voice amplification is essentially air manipulation, so I figured I’d use pegasus magic.]

[Never really thought of it that way... Oh look, here comes Princess Platinum again.]

“Ahem. Now that you are the true royalty, I implore you for a dispensation,” she said and took a deep breath. “I would greatly appreciate you allowing me and my kin to retain our titles. It would be most generous of you, and we would be forever in your debt.”

Celestia held her head high, looking down at the former princess. “Platinum, I am less than impressed with many of your past actions.” Platinum gulped. Looking her in the eye, Celestia’s tone softened. “But recently you have begun to make up for all that. I will give you this request. Be sure to use it to make a fresh start.”

“Oh, but of course. You’ll see,” she said with a nod, stamping a hoof.

“See to it that you do.”

“Yes, my Queen.”

Celestia’s eyes widened at that. “Oh, no. Simply ‘Princess’ will be fine. Right?” She looked over at Luna.

“Yes, that sounds alright to me, and there can’t be two queens. Besides, everypony knows that Queens are the evil ones.”

“Speaking of evil... Now we face the arduous task of managing a new country's bureaucracy.”

“My Princesses, if I may.” Platinum waited until they nodded for her to continue. “You may want to adopt the tradition of hearing petitioners, and what better time to start than now?”

Luna looked at Celestia and shrugged.

“That sounds like a marvelous idea. I suppose we should get started then. There are a lot of ponies here and I don’t feel like adding more hours to the day would be very appropriate.”

Clover the Clever stepped forward, head bowed. “Princesses, I would like to offer my help with this undertaking. While I’ve never organized such a massive group before, I would gladly try to lighten the load for you, weeding out the less important requests and making sure everypony arrives in an orderly fashion.”

“Your help would be greatly appreciated. Form them into two lines please,” Celestia said, looking out over the crowd. “We want to help to as many of them as possible.”

For the rest of the day, the two newly royal alicorn sisters received an endless stream of petitions and requests. Land usage was decided on, acreage was allotted, disagreements were settled, foals received blessings, and even a few marriages were held. During their break for lunch, Luna remarked that more than half of the appeals she had heard would have never come up if they had a basic set of codified laws.

Once the day was done and Luna’s moon shone forth, most of the ponies left in the lines returned to their homes, many of which were still unfinished. Once the last few stragglers had been satisfied, Celestia and Luna, who were mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted, flew lazily home to their castle.

As they arrived, Luna yawned loudly and said, “We still don’t know what that magical emanation was. How long do you suppose setting up a country will take?”

“I have no idea. But I’ll tell you what: if you can think of some laws while you search for whatever caused it, I’ll hold down the fort, so to speak.”

“I can do that, I’ve only got a vague idea of where to look...”

“North?”

“North. So I should have plenty of time to think.” I just hope that I can keep my mind occupied...

“Sounds like a plan. Oh, and good night.”

“Thank you. I do try. Sleep well.”

Celestia went straight to her bed and fell blissfully asleep. Luna though, first went to Starswirl’s old quarters. He was occupying them once more, this time as an invalid rather than one of the world’s primer magic users. She opened the door and was quietly greeted by his wife, Eveningwatch, and his daughter, Crepuscular Glimmer, who was by now a young mare. They ushered Luna into the room and over to his bed.

“He said to congratulate you on the plan succeeding, whatever that means.” Eveningwatch whispered.

He didn’t even tell his family. He put so much of his life into this, and they don’t even know why he’s like this now, not really. Luan blinked back tears, looking at him on his bed. Starswirl lay on his bed, lightly dozing. There was a crack on his horn that ran nearly its entire length, and his once dark green coat was streaked with silver. This just isn’t right, she thought as she came closer to him.

He woke up at Luna’s soft approach. “Luna, you didn’t need to see me. You’ve got a country to run and many other important duties to do in the morning, do you not?”

The soft protests from her friend only made Luna wish for the past more; his once strong voice was a dry rasp.

“Celestia will be taking care of that for the time being. I need to find out what the outpouring of magic from a few weeks back was.”

“You don’t mean the one from my student, do you? No. No, I can tell you don’t. You mean the other one. How I wish I could see what it was...”

“Don’t strain yourself. You’ve done more than enough, given more than your all. Even your family has payed the price. This...” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “This isn’t fair to either of you,” Luna said, gathering Starswirl’s wife and daughter under her wings, “and it feels wrong to not let you know why your husband, your father, is in this condition.” Feeling Glimmer shaking against her side, Luna leaned down to nuzzle the filly, shushing her softly.

From her other side came Eveningwatch’s voice, hard and brittle. “Luna— Princess Luna, what are you talking about? Are you saying that this... this could have been prevented?”

Starswirl nodded at first, and his wife took in a sharp breath. Then he stopped and started shaking it instead. He motioned to Luna, and she began to tell them about Celestia’s dream for a paradise for all ponies, and how, despite their best efforts, it wouldn’t come together. Then she told them how the three of them had taken it upon themselves to make sure it did, no matter what.

She begged his and his family’s forgiveness for their success demanding Starswirl give so much, and when they granted it, it felt like a weight had been lifted from her heart. They assured her that they understood this must remain a secret; luckily they could see how that information could bring the fledgling nation down.

By then Starswirl was once more asleep, and Luna left quietly to get a few hours of rest herself, leaving him with his family.

Author's Note

8/24/13 Revision.
I’d like to thank my editors/prereaders: Cynewulf, Antiquatedannomaly, SlyWit, and A Zapping ZapApple. You guys are awesome and should feel awesome.
For any of you that don’t know what negligible senescence is, here's a great video.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to be awesome!

The Fall

“I’ll start at the very beginning.”

“It’s a very good place to start.”

“We crystal ponies came north centuries ago. The history books say that we split from the earth ponies because we are more in tune with the actual earth than they are. They connect more with the plants and soil than the rocks. Well, actually, some stayed behind, and became... How did Brilliance say it? Petra culture lists?”

“Petraculturalists?” Rock growers?

“Yeah, that. Anyways, the rest made their way north. The records don’t really say why, just that it felt right somehow. The journey wasn’t hurried, but after years of wandering without knowing where they were wandering to, they started to give up. But then they discovered the Krustallos Gate, and they knew that this was where they were meant to be.”

Luna’s look of confusion at the mention of the landmark stopped her retelling of the story.

“The Krustallos Gate is what the settlers called the two big spikes of crystal that they found. On their own, they wouldn’t be too exciting, but what’s between them is! Three really big gems — and this may sound crazy, but trust me — that float in mid-air with only earth magic keeping them there.”

“That is hard to believe.” Earth magic levitating gems? Some kind of repulsion field? Antigravity? There’s just not enough to go on. “I don’t know how that would work, but I’ll believe you. I just wish I could study them; they sound interesting and unique.”

“No need. Most of us aren’t unicorns, but we aren’t slouches when it comes to our type of earth magic.” Her ears flattened against her skull. “I am still one of them, right, even with these?” One of her wings flicked out.

Her eyes pulled at Luna’s heart; she remembered when she too had grappled with this same question. “Yes, child, you are. I’ve been this way for many, many years, but, in my heart, I still consider myself an earth pony.”

“Wait, you can’t be much older than my mother before...”

The strange unicorn that her father, the king, had called Sombra was yelling. Ponies often did that in court, so she only paid attention when he stomped around and started demanded something.

“…after all that I’ve done, you should be giving it to me. But you never could appreciate what I’ve done for you, what power I had. What I can do now dwarfs anything you’ve ever seen. Now give me the Crystal Heart!”

That was new. Ponies don't usually talk about it, except for around the Crystal Fair, but that was months away. No pony knew exactly how it worked, but, in times of trouble, it would protect them; there was no way that her father would give it to this rude loudmouth.

“Sombra, you’ve changed.” Her father’s eyes narrowed. “When you were helping our craftsponies complete the palace years ahead of schedule, I tolerated your abrasive mannerisms. But since you’ve come back from the south, you’ve done nothing but spout unicorn supremacist nonsense. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to have something as valuable to the security of the empire as the Crystal Heart. It stays below the palace in the Glittering Caves, where it belongs.”

“Oh, you don’t seem to understand. I’m not asking for the Heart; I’m taking it whether you say so or not.” A terrible, dark aura enswathed his horn, crackling and popping with sickly light. Her mother was trapped in place as onyx crystals sprouted up around her hooves. All around her, guards were rapidly encased by crystals springing from the floor. “Now, you will give me the Heart, or your wife will regret it,” Sombra continued, his voice low.

Her mother did her best to keep the terror out of her voice, but it wavered regardless. “Whatever happens, don’t allow him to get his hooves on it. Run! Try to use it before it’s too—”

Silencing her with a strike across the face from his armored foreleg, Sombra smiled. “Now don’t go giving him any ideas.” He turned to look at the king. “And don’t even think of running.” His horn blazed once more, a twisted mockery of light, and the throne room doors were swiftly covered in jagged obsidian.

The filly huddled in a corner in terror. Her father positioned himself none too subtly between Sombra and herself.

“Cadence, I now know why you have those wings. Fly! Fly away, get help, and don’t look back.”

But she could not summon the strength of will. The sights from around the room poured into her, and she could do nothing but tremble. Her mother was trapped. The guards — some of them her friends — were locked in crystals. Small but growing pools of blood spread from them. She was paralysed.

He laughed once, a harsh bark. “You fools, there’s nowhere you can hide, nowhere you can run, that I can’t reach you. I’ve spent years honing my skills before I returned. I know the land better than any of your pathetic guards or your puny subjects. More than that, I can control it!” While he spoke he conjured more power to his horn and released it in a beam at the throne.

The change that came over the crystal was both swift and terrible. The slight hum of magic that came from the crystal vanished, leaving behind an empty nothing. Both her father and mother’s bodies lost their translucence, and their defiant expressions turned first to shock, then abject terror.

“Yes, you can see now that I was right. Unicorns are the superior breed; all others deserve to be nothing more than slaves. Now, give me what I want, or she will suffer.”

“Why? Why do this? You clearly have the power to take it yourself.”

“Oh, I do. It’s just so much more satisfying if you fetch it for me, slave.” A warped smile dominated his face.

“Don’t do it! Be strong for our ponies!”

He wheeled on her. “That is enough! I will not tolerate an insolent slave. For daring to speak against my will, you die.” His horn’s dark aura once more flared to life, this time much more powerfully than before.

Her mother’s retort was cut short. Her words suddenly spilled out at an impossible rate for a few seconds. In five, she went silent. In seven, she slumped over, her heaving sides moving at a freakish blur. By ten seconds, that too had ended.

But Sombra’s terrible spell did not end there; no, he let it go on, delighting in the looks of horror and revulsion on the faces of the king and his daughter.

Soon, the body that had been Cadence’s mother was a bloated corpse. Sombra watched with grim fascination as the body rapidly desiccated. In little under a minute, all that remained of the queen was a shriveled mummy.

Her father, a stallion Cadence had not once seen cry, was weeping. Great wracking sobs shook his frame. “You... You monster! How could you? My sweet Melody...” A wordless howl escaped his throat as he charged the stallion that had just killed his wife in cold blood.

He did not make it more than halfway. Sombra caught him within a cage of crystal and laughed; it was a cruel, heartless thing, apt to cause fillies like herself nightmares, a fact that she would soon learn.

Once more, he activated his terrible spell, this time within the cage. She heard her father hammering on the walls, a rapid staccato that trailed off to nothing. In the end, it was useless, and he too succumbed to the same fate as his wife.

Sombra looked no more tired than when he had stormed into the room. Casting such massive spells seemed to have cost him nothing at all. If anything he looked more energized. He dropped the cage back into the floor, and Cadence’s father, who had died while leaning against the wall, fell to the ground. The shriveled husk burst into a cloud of dust on contact with the floor.

Sombra stepped right through it as he leisurely made his way over to the trembling filly.

“You certainly are interesting. I’ve only heard of two others of your kind.”

The filly could do little more than shuffle backwards away from the terrifying stallion before her.

“I’ll make a study of you when I’m done taking over th—” His gaze settled on her cutie mark, and his face contorted. “No! It can’t be your destiny to control the Heart. Its power. Belongs. To. Me! With it, I can do anything! I’ll remake the world in my image, I’ll...”

But something he had said was working its way through her mind.

Do anything... anything? Even bring back my parents? She dared to hope the Heart could.

Reaching out with senses nopony else had, she could feel the citizens in the city. They went about their daily lives unknowing of the drama playing out in the throne room of the palace. More than that, she sensed the connections between them. All the ponies were linked in a vast and powerful web, each one a nexus linked to many others. Above this network hung the Crystal Heart, but it was also somehow her as well. This duality didn’t bother her, not now. She had a job to do; she was going to save her parents.

The love and compassion, hope and joy that the ponies shared was an ocean of power just waiting to be used. She had been aware of this resource since soon after her wings had come in, but she had never felt a need to do anything with it. Now that she had motivation to use it, it somehow felt like the most natural thing in the world. Drawing power from the vast array of at her disposal, she took a large measure into herself.

“... I will be able to crush any that stand in my way. And as soon as I figure out how to wrest control of the Heart from you, I may even become an alicorn my...self...” He stood stock-still when he turned back to Cadence.

Though her wings were still, she floated high over him, and her eyes shone with the radiance of pure magic.

Taking the power she had and dividing it in two, she directed it through the Heart into the rapidly fading lines that connected her to her parents. Two beams shot from the Heart. The light passed through soil, rock, and crystal as if it were not even there. The twin beams engulfed her parents’ corpses, and briefly she could feel the connection with them strengthen.

But it was not to be. As she would learn, some things can't be changed by even the strongest of magics. As the crushing failure became more and more obvious, her resolve faltered, and with it went her connection to the magic.

Sombra finally closed his mouth and shook his head as if to clear it.

She was engulfed in swirling darkness. As it cleared, she was stunned to find her ability to project magic gone.

“Now we can't have any more of that, can we? Somepony could be hurt.”

She made a dash for the balcony to try to escape, but just as she took flight, shackles wrapped around her legs and dragged her back to the ground.

“I can't have you flying off just yet; I need to study you. Your power is impressive, but you clearly have no idea what to use it for. But I do. Now, let's see just how your magic works.”

Luna watched, dumbfounded, as the once hopeful filly's eyes filled with tears, and she degenerated into a quivering wreck. Moon and Stars! What happened to her? Reaching out with a wing, she gently embraced the traumatized filly. Hugging her close, she let Cadence sob into her side for the better part of an hour, soothing her softly all the while.

Eventually Cadence’s tears ran out, and Luna finally though it would be safe to speak. “Oh child, what have you been through?”

“... Don’t want to talk about it.”

“I won’t make you,” Luna whispered, nuzzling the filly’s cheek.

Cadence took a deep, shuddering breath. “But I will, for my ponies. It’s what my mother would have wanted. Just... not yet.”

“Of course. Take your time.” “Would have wanted”? Is her mother gone?

“I think talking about something else might take my mind off it.” She sniffled. “I’ll just, um, pick up where we left off. Where was that again?”

“Most of you aren’t unicorns, and you have studied the magic of the Krustallos Gate. How are most of you not unicorns?”

“Well, hundreds of years ago, before we left, a few unicorns who really liked gems married into our herd. It didn’t last very long though, so the bloodlines are really thin. In the past hundred years or so, there isn’t usually more than one unicorn alive at a time...” Her face fell. “And sometimes that’s one too many.”

So it was a unicorn that did this? I don’t want to make her go through whatever is tormenting her again; I’ve got to get her off the subject. “So, what about the magic of the Gate did you learn?”

“Oh, um... Well this isn’t about the Gate exactly. That’s a bit more advanced than I’ve learned about yet, but we know that the magic of the earth is unusually strong here. It took decades to figure out why, but in a geode it’s this: the wind carries water, which contains a small amount of magical energy from the sun, up from the south. It gets left here as snow and ice. But, our researchers tell us that the magic wants a more permanent home. As the snow and ice slowly melt, the magic seeps into the ground. Over time, the buildup has formed huge crystals.”

“So, you’re telling me that the crystals are basically solid, unfocused magic,” Luna said, already visualizing what Cadence had told her, seeing the flow of her sister’s aura over the world. “And how many of these are there?”

“Well, there are very few like the Gate Stones, but there are tons of more normal ones. Most houses are made of hollowed out crystals, and so is the palace.”

Luna’s eyes widened. “That must look very... pretty,” she commented, thinking instead of the amount of magic locked in the walls of their homes. Even if there was very little magic in them, by virtue of mass, it would be dangerous to try using it. It’s a shame I’d have to be crazy to use it; the possibilities would be endless.

“It does... It did.” Once more, she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

“Hey. Hey. Your auntie is here for you. I won’t let anything happen to you. You trust me, don’t you?”

“Yeah... I trust you.”

“Are you ready to go on? I won’t push you.”

“I guess.” She sighed. “I can do this. I will do this. I’ll make Mom proud...” Cadence swallowed hard. “You remember how I said that there’s usually only one unicorn at a time? Well, that’s how it is now. His name’s Sombra. He left a long time ago, right after the Great Southern Lights.”

“The what?”

“The Great Southern Lights, you know, gigantic rainbow flash from the south.” She paused. “Actually, it probably covered where you came from.”

Rainbow flash, years ago? It must have been the Elements! Wait... How did she know where I came from? “Honey, how did you know where I came from?”

“Well, I don’t think much of anything lives north of here...” Luna facehooved at not thinking of something so obvious “... but I could also kind of feel you coming. And speaking of honey...” Her stomach rumbled as if on cue.

“Let me get you something to eat.” Luna searched through her saddlebags. “Ah, here they are.”

“What’s that?” she asked, looking at the dull brown, lumpy thing in Luna’s hoof.

“It’s a banana nut muffin.”

Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Riiiight, your food is made from plants.” She grabbed the muffin with her telekinesis, and she dug in with gusto.

“Um, what else would it be made of?”

“Crystal.” She said between bites. “We can grow them to be soft, and they contain growth magic, just like this.” She gestured with the muffin. “These are good! Are there any more?”

Luna hoofed over the rest of what should have been her breakfast. “So, you could feel me coming?”

“I’ve always been able to feel lots of ponies to the south, and yesterday I felt you coming north.
You’re just so much bigger than other ponies. Not that you’re fat or anything! Maybe deeper?” She munched with a perplexed look on her face.

Luna smiled. “It’s okay, little one. I know what you mean.” She waited for her to finish eating. “So, he went south, and...?”

“And that’s the last time anypony saw him until about two months ago. He just showed up and barged into the throne room then started ranting. He demanded to be given the Crystal Heart, and then my dad said he’d never give it to him, and then he got really mad, and, and...” She took a few deep, steadying breaths. “And then he k-killed them. He killed all of them. And for what? A stupid rock.”

It took Luna a second to register what Cadence had said. Murder? What horrors has this filly been through? She can’t be more than ten. Rage filled her. How dare he do this to her? “This will not stand. Not while I draw breath.” With calmness that belied the inferno within, she got up and walked outside. Confused, Cadence followed her out.

Luna looked around, then, when eyes failed her, she turned to magic. She winced as the already glaring landscape doubled in brightness. So much power! I can’t pick out anything in all this. Staring down at the filly at her hooves she asked, “Where?”

“Where... what?” Cadence asked, looking up at Luna.

“Where is he?”

She looked around then pointed. “About sixty miles that way. On the other side of those mountains But—”

Luna’s wings flared in preparation for flight.

“No, wait! You can’t go now! He’ll... He’ll get you too.”

“We’ll see.” Then she took off.

“Wait! Don’t! He can draw power from the crystals, all of them! Please!”

This new tidbit of information brought Luna up short. If he can use the crystals as a separate source of power and there is this much latent energy just sitting around here... that could have ended badly. She turned back and landed beside the filly. “Tell me what I need to know.”

She shrank back and her voice wavered. “Princess, you’re sounding like... him.”

Luna took a step back, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to! I just... Forgive me?”

Cadence nodded slowly. “You’re just trying to help. But if you go now, you’ll just end up like... like them. Please, please don’t go.”

“After what he did to you and what he can still do to everypony else there, I have to,” Luna responded, staring in the direction Sombra lay.

Cadence’s mouth went dry. “You have to know what he can do. I won’t let anypony else get killed for my mistakes.”

“Killed for your mistakes?” Luna quirked a brow then shook her head and wrapped the filly in a hug. “There is no way that can be true, Cadence.”

“It is, though,” she moaned, limply accepting the hug. “I was too slow and too dumb to save them. And I could have done it if I had just thought of the Heart in time.”

Giving Cadence a nuzzle, Luna said, “Don’t blame yourself for this. You’re just a foal; it’s Sombra that’s responsible for their deaths. You hear me? It is not your fault.”

“Yeah... yeah, sure.” She shivered, though it had little to do with the cold. “So, what do you need to know?”

“Anything you think is important first. If I can think of anything specific, I’ll ask.”

“I guess you’ll want to know how he... kills.” She shook her head and shuddered. “I’ve seen him do it two ways, by growing crystals around or... through them, or by... by...”

She began to hyperventilate, her breaths coming in short, gasping hiccups. Luna wrapped a wing around her too, drawing her closer.

“It’s alright. I’m here. You don’t have to say it.”

“No, I do... I’m not really... sure what the other thing he did was. But there is no way I can watch it happen to you too. I guess he made time go really fast or something.”

The crystals should be easy enough to dodge, but the temporal compression could be problematic. Unless... “Did he have to trap them when he did that?”

Cadence nodded.

Thank goodness he hasn’t figured out how to bind it to a body along with paralysis. If I can stay mobile, I’ll be safe.

“What about defenses? Surely you had some sort of guard who fought back.”

“Well, he has armor, but he can kinda turn into smoke...”

Luna’s head tilted at the news. “That’s a new one...” Luna’s mind went to work on figuring out this strange concept. Hmm, it’s probably not so much a smoke as an energy field. You can’t strike energy, but contain it, maybe...

“I’ve got to talk to somepony. This just got a lot more complicated.”

Cadence looked around. “Um, are they invisible? Can you do that?”

Luna was suddenly reminded of when she had met the unicorns for the first time. Her sister had asked a very similar question.

Shaking the sudden memory off, she replied, “No, she’s just very far away. I can talk to her mind-to-mind. This won’t take too long, I hope.” She prepared the spell, the enormous distance making it take disproportionately more energy than she was used to.

[Celestia, we need to talk.]

[So formal, this must be serious. Has something gone wrong?]

[It has. I may need to use the Elements.]

[I hope it doesn’t get that bad, but if it does, the Elements are yours. And stay safe, Luna,] she added.

Luna let the spell end, and grumbled something under her breath.

Cadence’s ear flicked. “What’s an inverse square? Is it inside out?”

“Never mind that. I have to stop this ‘Sombra’. And I’m going to do it now.”

“No. We are going to stop him. Well, maybe you’ll do the stopping mostly, but I’m coming too!”

“Is that so? Give me one good reason why I should let you come with me into danger.”

“I’m not just a little filly. I’m a princess too, and my ponies need me. Plus, if my ponies see me coming back for them with somepony like you, it could give them enough hope to let me use the Heart right this time.” She paused for a second then burst out, “Ha! That’s two!”

Luna laughed. “You’re smart. I’ll give you that, but no, I can’t let you get hurt.”

“But...!”

“No! Trust me; this is for your own good.”

She sighed, her little wings drooping. “Fine.”

“Good, I’ll be back when this is all over.” With that Luna leapt into the sky, and with several powerful strokes of her wings, she raced away.

The smaller, pink alicorn followed after her once she was out of sight.

Luna flew low and fast, the cold wind ripping at her fur. I can’t go at this like I would approach one of Discord’s creatures; this will be more like back when Celestia fought Silver Spear. I’ll need to fight just as smart as he did. I can use time magic to cancel time magic, and flight or teleportation to avoid any physical attacks. And though it may not be an Element, the element of surprise will be a great asset.

As she crested a mountain, she got her first glimpse of the once great Crystal Empire. The plane was a desolate wasteland, pockmarked with jagged, black crystals. In the distance, she could see what looked like a line of ponies heading underground, presumably to mine for crystals. Her attention was drawn by the six roads, along which the city was constructed, to the dark spire at its center. The tower practically resonated with power.

There’s so much energy stored in that one building that it dwarfs even Celestia’s unicorn magic! Speaking of Celestia... What is she doing? The sun, only up for an hour by now, was speeding across the sky. Suddenly, it appeared to be afternoon. Trap! Panicked, she cast a spell to escape, teleporting backward and up several thousand hooves. The sun’s speed became imperceptible once more. A time dilation bubble? But why? And more importantly, how thick?

She formed a long pole out of the snow from the mountain below her then teleported it to where her best guess of where the effect started. Most of the snow on either end fell normally, but towards the middle, it fell slower and slower; at the middle it appeared not to move at all. Satisfied with her answer, Luna teleported inside. I’ll need to be more careful in the future; a mistake like that could cost me badly.

She scooped up some of the snow that had fallen inside then set it hovering in a thin ring around her. That ought to do. Now, on to the palace. She set off once more, paying close attention to the roundness of the ring as well as looking for motion from the tower. She was halfway there when a dark stallion leisurely strolled out to the balcony. He seemed to look out into the distance, and Luna put on a burst of speed to take advantage of his momentary confusion. He started going back inside — Did he not see me? — but then turned back. So it begins! I should give him a chance to surrender, though I doubt he’ll take it.

She focused her pegasus magic, and when she spoke, her voice echoed back from the surrounding mountains. “Sombra, your reign of terror and oppression is over! Surrender now, or face swift retribution!”

She nearly received a crystalline skewer through the neck in reply.

“So be it!”

She ascended to give herself more time to avoid incoming crystals and directed a beam or ice towards her opponent. The beam encased in a thick shell of ice but he quickly shattered it. The self-proclaimed King threw the glistening shards back at her, and she was forced to bank sharply to avoid them.

Well, that didn’t work. I’ll need to do something more…lethal. Gathering her power, she built up a writhing inferno several times wider than herself. As she cast it towards her adversary, she also set an illusion of herself flying off to the right an upwards angle, but she blitzed after the fire. Let’s see if I can take a page from Silver Spear.

As she flew behind the firestorm Luna ignored the sweltering heat; she had to concentrate on keeping the illusion flying believably as well as aim at where she guessed Sombra to be. Whatever defense he’s planning must surely be prepared by now. I just hope it’s not spherical. She broke left and focused as much as she dared on the projection. I’ve got to distract him as much as possible, here’s something he won’t be able to ignore. She added a layer of “magic” around “her horn” and then began to add more. In seconds, there appeared to be four distinct levels of energy surrounding it. As the fireball crashed against the newly formed wall, Luna made a wide beam of pure silver light shoot towards the foul creature.

Luna saw a crackling beam of darkness sweep up the “powerful” beam of light. What type of magic is black? It must be some type of death spell! she guessed, and a pit settled in her gut. When the death spell intersected her illusion, Luna played out her “death”. While the projection fell from the sky, she stealthily glided to the balcony behind her enemy. She picked up speed, intent on crushing his neck into the railing to end his wretched life quickly. It’s more than he deserves, she thought grimly.

Just before her hooves connected with him, he blurred and became insubstantial. Luna couldn’t stop in time; she crashed into the railing. The force momentarily stunned her, and her fiery onslaught winked out. She cried out in pain then shock. My magic’s being drained! I’ve got to get off of here! Racing against the drain from the tower, she scraped together enough magic to cast her panic spell. The next time she blinked, the palace was in front of and below her. She shook her head, trying to regain her focus.

Luna felt, rather than saw, the dark energy as it sliced through the air towards her. She dove and tried to teleport once more, but her normally vast reserves of power were gone, and the beam tracked with her. As darkness took her, her last thought was, I’m sorry Celestia.

“I’m sorry, Celestia, I didn’t intend for it to take so long to return… Wait, how did I get here?”

Her sister slowly turned to face her. “Honestly, I don’t see why you bothered coming back. I was doing just fine without you. I’ve got what I always wanted; all my little ponies working together, and they love me for it.”

Luna reeled. “B-but I put so much work into making this dream a reality too!”

“Making my dream a reality. Go play with the moon or something. I don’t care.”

How could she say that? We’ve always been inseparable. Tears were streaming down her face as she fled the palace.

Luna threw herself into perfecting the night sky. Constellations took shape, meteor showers streaked through the atmosphere, beautiful auroras graced the heavens. But no matter how fantastic the phenomena or how gorgeously she painted the sky with her imagination, nopony cared. Every rejection hurt more than the last, and eventually she stopped even trying. Her one real calling, nopony cared for. What was there for her to do?

“Luna! Aunty Luna! Wake up! I need you!” The words came to her while she lay, hopeless, in a forgotten meadow.

Somepony needs me? But... nopony needs me.

She opened her eyes. There, in front of her, was Cadence. She wasn’t in a meadow; she was still in the far north. But didn’t I stop Sombra then return to... That doesn’t even make sense. That spell must have been some kind of mind trick! She shook her head clear and noticed a black fog billowing up behind Cadence.

“Get down!”

The filly luckily did as she was bidden, dropping to the ground at Luna’s hooves.

Luna reared up on her hind legs. She imbued the air with as much pegasus magic as she could muster then sent a wall of air forward with a flap, pushing the smog away. Out of the inky depths, Sombra condensed.

His horn blazed with dark power, and, before she could react, Cadence was surrounded by a similar field. Her eyes went wide as it took hold of her, and she reached out for Luna’s hoof before vanishing with a pop.

When her hoof grasped only empty air, Luna felt her blood turn icy. “Cadence, no!” Her glare focused on the dark stallion before her. “What have you done? What have you done?” she screamed.

“She became more trouble than she was worth, so I removed her. But you are too weak to be a problem, and soon all your powers will be mine. Without magic left to protect you...”

Tears streamed down Luna’s face. She can’t be gone. She was so young. I barely got to know her. How could I let this happen?!

Sombra had called her weak, but now she felt anything but powerless. The sorrow and rage she felt at such an injustice filled her; she could use it.

There was retribution to be had.

Luna barely noticed as her eyes blazed white, vaporizing her tears as she wept. Warnings from the past were the farthest thing from her mind as she harnessed the newfound power. Silver light poured forth from her, obliterating all the darkened crystal for miles around.

As Sombra struggled to rebuild his power base, Luna summoned the power of the Elements. This monster will pay for what he’s done.

Author's Note

12/15/13 Revision.
Again, thanks to antiquatedannomaly, Cynewulf, and SlyWit.

victory?

Chapter Six: victory?

From their place in the palace, the Elements responded. She could feel the link to them open wide, allowing the nearly endless flow of power to pass through her. The power filled her up and gave her what could only be referred to as “the sight”. Everything became clear to her. From the expanding wave of her magic, just now obliterating the last of Sombra’s influence, to the hole in time where Cadence had been, to the chronomancy surrounding her quarry, and even the massive and risky spell he was weaving. The effect didn’t stop there; she could feel every facet of every house, every hair on every newly freed pony, and every settling speck of dust. It was almost too much for her, but she once more succeeded in focusing entirely on what she needed to do. She focused all of her magic and all of her mind on one thing.

Him. That monster.

He was trying to escape, but she saw her target, and he was hers. A brilliant ray of power lanced forth, and there was a titanic outpouring of energy from him before it connected. She paid it no mind; her goal was getting rid of the tyrant that had taken Cadence.

He became incorporeal just as the power of the Elements crashed into him. If she hadn't been so focused on what she was doing, she might have laughed at the last, pathetic attempt to save himself. The Elements seized him despite his lack of a physical manifestation, trapping him within a coruscating vortex. Luna tightened it around him, tightened it into him. Luna crushed down harder until she could feel that the strain would end his wretched existence. She didn’t want that; it would be too light a punishment for a monster like him. So using the almost limitless power at her disposal, she cracked open a nearby glacier hurled him in, sealing him away to rot for the rest of his miserable days.

As power left her, Luna slowly settled to the ground. The feeling of drive and confidence went with it; now she only had her sorrow. She barely felt the rushing of the wind or the thunderous crash of air filling the voids left by the absence of a city.

What she had seen gave her a faint hope — a fool’s hope — one she felt obligated to pursue. The hole in time let Luna know that Sombra had not simply killed Cadence, just sent her forward. Could it be that he only displaced her for a short while? She desperately hoped so, but deep down, she knew that it wasn't to be.

This is my fault. I should have made sure she didn't follow me. I should have struck harder. I should have just started with the Elements. I failed her. I took her under my wing, and told her I'd protect her, but I couldn't save her.

Luna gazed at the place where Cadence had been, where she would one day be again. I will wait for her. It's all I can do... without abandoning Celestia.

She went back to her campsite and brought her supplies back with her. Then, she waited. For days, she waited. Waited and thought.

On the third day — or had it been four by then? — Celestia contacted her.

[Luna?] She waited for an answer.

No answer was forthcoming. Luna stared through bloodshot eyes at the same spot that she had for much of the last thirty hours.

[Luna? What's wrong? Are you okay?]

[I... I'm fine. But... I failed.]

[What do you mean? The Elements activated and gave everypony a fright. It took me days to calm them down, even after warning them. How could you not have succeeded?]

"It took me days to calm them down," how can she care about something so, so trivial? [I mean that I wasn't strong enough or fast enough or smart enough or ruthless enough. I couldn't protect her or them.] Luna could feel her sister's shocked silence through the link. [What? Not what you were expecting?] she asked bitterly.

[Oh, Luna, what happened?]

[I don't want to talk about it; it's still too painful. I need some time.]

[Are you sure? I can be there right away, if you need me. Wrap things up here, then fly as fast as my strength will allow. Maybe even teleport there, do you think—]

[Don’t bother. There’s nothing you can do. I just... I need to think.]

There was a pause before her sister continued softly. [Take as long as you need. I’ve got everything back here under control.]

Luna didn’t respond, and, soon after, she felt the link fade. Snapped from her reverie, she decided that now would be a good time to eat; she was starving, now that she thought about it. She opened her pack only to find there were only a few meals left. I packed for a week. Has it really been six whole days?

As she ate one of her few remaining meals, her eyes were once more drawn to their resting spot. She knew that, with the amount of power Sombra had had at his disposal, he could have sent her easily decades, possibly even centuries into the future. Something had kept her here, but now reason must prevail. I don’t have enough food to get back without foraging along the way, and I’ve spent far too long here already... It just feels like by giving up, I’m abandoning her.

She quickly packed what remained of her supplies. She heaved a great sigh before turning south. Home. Maybe there I can put all of this behind me. But I will not forget her. I will find some way to make this right.

She took to the sky then ascended to the prevailing northerlies. She didn’t want speed; she wanted to fight the wind. It didn’t make much sense, but she felt that she needed some sort of penance for her failure.

When she arrived at the palace three days later, her coat and feathers were a royal mess; her ethereal mane seemed to be the only clean part of her.

As she landed in the courtyard, the few ponies there bowed at her arrival then went about their business. She walked to the door of the throne room and opened it. Inside, she found Celestia laughing at Pudding Head’s antics in explaining some point or another.

“Celestia, I’m back—”

Her sister slowly turned to face her.

Luna froze. The scene before her was eerily familiar to something she would rather forget entirely. She tried to banish the sense of déjà vu and the memories that came with it. It can’t be real. It can’t be real. It can’t be real.

“Luna! You’re back!” Celestia took in her sister’s appearance. “What happened to you?”

Of course it wasn’t real. She would never abandon me. Luna let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “It’s... complicated.”

“Hang on just a second.” She turned back to the petitioners and government officials. “I’m sorry, my little ponies, but I must talk with my sister. I promise to get back to you all tomorrow.” She headed over to Luna. “Let’s go somewhere private. My quarters?”

In response Luna wearily began walking there; Celestia fell into step beside her. The trip passed in an awkward silence, Celestia not knowing what to ask, and Luna not knowing where to begin. But they eventually reached their destination.

“So... Um... Three?” Celestia finally asked.

“Yeah... Three.”

“Wait, isn’t that what you were hoping for?”

“It was, but it just all went wrong so fast.” Luna sighed and shook her head. “I meant three as in three of us.”

“Three of us? Like us us? Yes, of course! I knew that magical burst felt familiar, but I never would have guessed another one of us!”

“Well, it was, but the situation was... it was bad, very bad. When I found her she was... broken. I think she crashed into the ground from exhaustion right before she could reach me. And she was young too, not much more than ten, I’d say.”

“But that magic, she must have been fully realized, right? But how?”

“I guess the Earth is more generous than the Sun or Moon. Other than that, I have no idea. But she was abused, malnourished, and emotionally scarred. She was even worse than Starswirl... all that blood.” She shuddered, trying to shut down the memories that came with talking about it. “I managed to heal her, though. You must have felt it, right?”

“I wondered what that was; all of a sudden, your influence seemed to shrink down to nothing. I think even the few ponies with me felt something too. If you healed her, though, how come you’re so upset?”

“Her parents had been killed, murdered right in front of her, I’d guess. And it looked like she’d been kept captive, maybe even tortured.” She cut off her sister’s questions with a wave of her hoof. “No, just let me finish this. It was an evil stallion, a unicorn, that did it. He also took over the whole Crystal Empire — though from what I saw, it looked more like a city state — and enslaved the populace. I went to stop him. I thought I went alone. But she must have followed me, and actually ended up saving me, but—”

“Wait. You’re telling me that a unicorn was beating you? You have nearly sixty years of experience with magic, and you used the Elements! How could you be losing? And how could a filly have done anything to stop somepony like that?”

“Like I said, it’s complicated. But long story short, I used the Elements too late. She’d already been hit, not killed... but it feels that way. She’s gone, just gone. He flung her through time, and with the power at his disposal, she could even be gone for centuries.” Luna hung her head, and murmured, “We could have been a family. Finally, somepony that would be able to bear the millennia with us. But he took that from us, maybe not forever, but you know...”

“So... Now what? We just wait? Or is there any way to fix this? And what about the ponies of the Empire? Are they safe? Do they need help? I can organize a relief effort!”

“No, no, don’t bother. Just before I stopped him, he sent it somewhen else. I was distracted at the time, but I think he said something about trying to become an alicorn, so he probably tried to follow her. So now all we can do is wait. Even if I could tell when he sent her, I doubt we have enough power to get then. It’s out of our hooves.”

Celestia put a foreleg over her sister’s withers. “Luna, you sound like you’re giving up. That’s so unlike you. Come on, we can figure out this together.”

“No! Don’t you get it? There is no solution. There is no magic fix. I failed, and now we both have to pay for it.”

“You can’t blame yourself for what he—”

“Don’t play that game with me. I could have stopped him, and I didn’t. It’s that simple.” Luna snapped, glaring at her sister.

Celestia calmly met her gaze. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. At least not yet. Maybe I’ll take a walk, go see Starswirl.” She headed for the door.

“I’ll be here whenever you’re ready,” Celestia called after her.

Luna closed the door quietly and started walking to Starswirl’s room. As she arrived, an earth pony doctor exited his room. He hastily bowed.

“Welcome, Princess. I hadn’t heard you’d arrived.”

“Rise. I only just returned, so that’s not very surprising. How is he?”

“His situation is...” he searched for the right phrase “... one of a kind. Yes, that fits. We’ve never seen such a powerful unicorn use all their power, and honestly we weren’t quite sure how to go about treating him. That led to some... complications. Don’t worry! Don’t worry. He’s stable now.”

“Explain. Now.” He flinched at the ice in her words. “I apologize. That was uncalled for.” Luna sighed. “I am not feeling like myself lately.”

“Yes, uh, not a problem, Princess. So, how do I put this? When the other doctors tried to heal him with their magic, it didn’t go very well. You remember the crack on his horn? It got worse. We’re worried any more magic done to him could extend it all the way to his skull. The others said something about resonance and severing will from the body, most of it went over my head.” He waved a hoof over his hornless head. “But what I did get sounded like any more would be quite a risk. We’ve just been using herbal remedies and making sure he gets his rest.”

Luna silently opened the door a crack and peeked inside. Through the gap, she saw Starswirl and Eveningwatch curled up next to each other. I guess I can wait until morning to talk to him. She closed the door with a soft click.

She started heading to her room, but then she remembered that her stock of paper and quills was running low. She headed to a storeroom first.

She didn’t feel quite up to sleep yet; her mind was much too active from dragging up the painful memories of her failure, to learning that her old student couldn’t be healed, and the still disturbing parallelism between her return and the nightmare imposed on her by Sombra’s magic.

She entered her room with a stack of parchment and a bird’s worth of quills. She lay down on the soft carpeting, and began to write.

At first, she worked on drafting the tax codes she had brainstormed what felt like ages ago. As the night wore on, she began nodding off; it was dull, monotonous work. Got to finish these tax codes before I turn in.

Oh, you just don’t want to go to sleep because you’ll see it again.

I know me too well...

Maybe writing it out will help me get some closure. Besides, Celestia will want to know more about what happened.

She pulled over a new sheet and began to write.

I had set up my tent and was just falling asleep when I heard a muffled impact a good distance away. It jolted me awake, and I decided to investigate...

... but I passed straight through him and into the tower. It sapped my strength, just like the crystals from before. I panicked and teleported away, but the damage had been done. I could feel the dark energy cutting through the air towards me, and I tried to teleport again, but I’d lost so much energy I couldn’t manage it. So I did the only thing I could. I dove, and tried to evade. His aim was unerring though, and...

She stopped writing. What she had seen was just a trick, a horrible trick; it would never happen. There were ponies like Starswirl and Eveningwatch that cared for her and her night. There was no reason to worry Celly unduly, right? No, of course not.

...it knocked me out.

When I came to, it was because Cadence shook me awake. That’s how she saved me, sister; without her intervention, I might still be up there, waiting for you to rescue me. But you already know the cost. If we aren’t there when she returns, she’ll need to find some way to run her country. There’s no way that she’ll be ready so soon after the death of her parents and at such a young age. We need to be there for her. There for all of them.

She put down her quill. It was late, very late. Yawning, she rolled up the scrolls and tied them off using ribbons emblazoned with her cutie mark. It took little more than a thought to send them to her sister’s door.

She stretched as she got up, each joint protesting lightly after being in one position for so long. One light flap and she landed softly in her bed. Then she remembered what a sorry state her coat was in. Ponyfeathers. I should have washed first. Cleaning these sheets is going to be such a has— Oh right, Princess. Still, this is going to make the cleaning pony’s job more difficult than it shou...

Celestia woke up just before dawn. Her mind buzzed with questions and worries as she washed up and preened her wings to perfection.

How did an entire empire of ponies go unnoticed? If I had gone, would everypony have been saved from being thrown Stars know when? How can I make this right? Luna said that all we could do was wait, but if that’s all we can do, I will do it right. Their return will be a met with a warm welcome. They will be in need of guidance, which I— we will provide.

Yes, it’s good to have a plan, she thought while she opened the door. She was stopped by the sound of rustling parchment. Luna must have left me a note before going to bed. There it was, sticking out from behind the door. Grabbing it with her magic, she started down the hall, only to stop a second later. There, underneath Luna’s seal, were the words “Eight of Eight”. She slowly turned around in not entirely faked horror. As the label implied, there were seven other scrolls sitting to the side of the door where they had been pushed just out of sight.

These aren’t a simple note, are they? They must be laws, taxes, and regulations. I’ll get to them later, when I’m not so busy. She gathered them up and dumped them unceremoniously on a desk in her room. Looks like I know how I’m getting to sleep tonight.

She started walking again and ran through her agenda for the day. She still had to conclude her abruptly ended meeting, distribute land, hold court... Why does making everypony happy seem to require so much micromanaging? Oh well, at least there’s another marriage scheduled for today. That’s just what I need to take my mind off all this.

The day passed much like those before it: Celestia talked to the ponies who needed things, and she directed other ponies with matching talents to them. She went out and allocated land and started reorganizing the pegasi into an effective irrigating force. As the day wore on, she wondered where Luna was. Shouldn’t she be up and about by now? But she brushed it off; her little sister must have been exhausted, between how far she had traveled to staying up till who knew when working on all those papers. If Luna wanted to take a day off it was fine with Celestia. Besides, she had important work to do; one of the pegasi had mentioned hearing wolves in the forest. Wolves. She hated wolves. Her wing idly brushed along her thigh; some things you never forget, even after so much time.

It seemed that her earlier efforts with the pegasi hadn’t been entirely successful, which wasn’t surprising, but it was disappointing. I suppose that it will take a while before the entire Everfree is a safe place, but by the Stars, it will be one day. To that end, she went about finding anypony that would be able to secure the forest.

Obviously, her first choice was Commander Hurricane.

It took an hour of flying around and asking many groups of pegasi, but she eventually found Hurricane atop a cumulonimbus far to the east of the forest. She looked to be in the process of cloud sculpting. There were griffon caricatures, a few manticores, a hydra, and a pack of wolves. Celestia landed on the cloud and gave a soft “Ahem.”

Hurricane crushed the last scorpion tail into place with significantly more force than strictly necessary. She wheeled on Celestia. “What do you want? I mean, what do you want, Princess?”

The venom in her voice took Celestia by surprise. “What’s wrong, my little pony?”

“That!” Her own outburst seemed to catch her off guard. “Never mind, it’s nothing, really. Just get back to running Equestria or something. I’m sure you’re really busy,” Hurricane spat.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound like nothing. You can tell me... I’m here for you.”

She turned away, “No, it’s nothing... You just... go.” Little twitches ran across Hurricane’s wings.

“Just let me help you. I only want to help.”

“Well, some help you are! I had a life. Now I just have this.” She punched the cloud manticore’s foreleg, and it burst.

“There’s nothing wrong with cloud sculpting; it’s a perfectly fine art form, and there are plenty of—”

“Not sculpting! This!”

Before Celestia could even ask for clarification, Hurricane burst into action. She blitzed under the three-legged manticore, one wing dragging through the cloud beneath her. Celestia felt a massive charge being pulled up from the cloud. As Hurricane slid to a stop in front of the faux wolves, she whipped her wing out of the cloud. A blinding sheet of lightning arced through the path her wing had traced, and the entire pack was wiped out in one strike. The concussive blast from the thunder nearly blew Celestia over, but Hurricane somehow caught hold of it and used it to catapult herself backwards. She hurtled through the air on her back on an intercept course with one of the griffons. Just before impact, she curled into a ball and bucked straight back through the vaporous neck, obliterating the head and upper torso with it. She flared her wings and cut her speed to practically nothing in the next instant. Then she fell into and through the cloud.

Over the years, Celestia had seen many fights and participated in quite a few of them. She’d seen drunken fights, she’d seen duels of honor, she’d been through skirmishes with inequine horrors, and she was, for all intents and purposes, a god slayer. None of that had prepared her for what had just happened. In the space of a few heartbeats, one pegasus had wiped out half the targets. And it felt like she wasn’t done yet; there was a twisting, gathering sensation coming from the cloud below.

Hurricane burst from the cloud beneath the hydra with another crack of lightning. She speared straight up through its center and emerged from its back.

What happened next would stay with Celestia for the rest of her life.

An inverted tornado pulled itself out of the cloud and followed Hurricane’s flight path. It ripped the hydra into pieces which appeared to fly off in random directions — until they each struck and crushed a manticore. The tornado followed in her slipstream, a path that looped around the lone griffon. It started to make the turn, but, when it self-intersected, it collapsed with a muffled boom, crushing the figure into an unrecognizable smear. Hurricane skidded to a stop directly in front of Celestia, lightly panting.

For once, Celestia had no idea what to say. She just stared at the pony before her and the wrecked cloudscape that was slowly merging back together.

“This. This is all I have. You took everything from me. Fighting was my life! It was what I did. It was who I was. But your kingdom doesn’t have any room for a pony like me. You just want kittens and flowers, not what I do.” There were tears in the corners of her eyes. “And you know what’s funny? You want to know the best part? I know you’re right. It sounds like a great future... just not for me. I don’t belong anymore.” Hurricane fought a losing battle against her tears.

“Oh child, I—”

“’M not a kid.”

“No, I suppose you’re not. But you’re hurting, and I can help. I came here to ask you to be the Captain of the Guard. A pony like you can be relied on to keep everypony else safe, and you’d get to use your rather... special... talent. What do you say?”

Hurricane tried to hide a sniffle behind a cough. “You... you really mean it?”

“Of course. I need ponies I can rely on to help me take care of the kingdom and all the ponies in it.”

“Yes! A thousand times yes! You have no idea... Just, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I just wish that some of my other subjects problems were this easy to solve.” She paused, contemplating her next move. “You should head back to the castle and see about gathering a group of able bodied stallions and mares on the way. After all, you’re going to need a Guard to be the captain of.”

“Heh, yeah. Don’t worry, Princess; I’ve got a few ponies in mind. I’ll have you a full battalion in no time.”

“Thank you, Captain, I’ll see you back at the castle.”

“No, thank you! But I’ve got to go. I’ve got to find some lieutenants. Thundertop, Biting Wind, Downdraft... I’ve got to get going!” She galloped towards the edge of the cloud. Just before the edge, she skidded to a halt then turned back sheepishly.

“Um, I can go right?”

A smile and nod were all it took; she dove backwards over the edge.

As she was so near to the rivers, Celestia had decided to parlay with the river serpents. It was only courteous to ask your neighbors for permission to build towns and cities along their domain. Hopefully, I can find Sodarayg, he may be a bit gruff, but he’s kindhearted.

She saw that they had drifted directly over the fork in the river as she left the cloud. Well, this place looks promising. I might as well start looking here.

And so she began to search anew.

Author's Note

12/19/13 Revision.
Again, a big thank you to my editors: Cynewulf, AntiquatedAnnomaly, and SlyWit.
Thanks for reading, and see you next time.

Sundered

Chapter Seven: Sundered

Luna awoke just in time to lower the moon. By now she was able to do it while only half awake, and it wasn’t surprising when she almost immediately fell back asleep. When she finally pulled herself fully out of the realm of shadows, it was after noon. She could tell because her west facing window was letting in much more light than it should.

So bright. She idly covered her head with a wing. The smell assaulted her sinuses. Ugh, I really need to get washed up—

She scrambled to her hooves, silently cursing. A quick check of her sister’s aura confirmed her suspicions; it was at least two in the afternoon. On a typical morning she would have spent a good twenty minutes getting cleaned up for the day. This was not a typical morning; it wasn’t even morning at all. Consequently she did not use her normal routine, instead she teleported out of her regalia and into her tub. She caught the nearly explosive wave of displaced water, and started swirling it around on her coat, heating it as she did. She added soap and scrubbed even more vigorously. If anypony saw her now they would have mistaken her for a dirty snow pony, if not for the wings that were being magically preened. It was an uncomfortable process, but it was much faster than doing it by mouth.

It only took five minutes, but it felt like five minutes too long. She rushed to her door, then remembered that it wouldn’t do to be seen in a rush. She slowed to a brisk trot and gathered the various pieces of legislation she had drafted while levitating her regalia back on and stepping back into her silver horseshoes. As she yanked open the door, she thanked the stars that she could multitask so well. Trotting through the hall, she went to look for her sister... and maybe chew somepony out for not waking her sooner.

As she walked into the great hall-turned-throne room, Luna saw something she hadn’t noticed the night before; what was apparently her throne was carved out of one block of onyx. An involuntary shudder ran down her back. That will have to go.

Celestia wasn’t on her golden throne, or anywhere else in the room for that matter. She approached one of the ponies there, and asked where Celestia would be. The answer left much to be desired. Either in the courtyard presiding over a marriage, or out allocating land, or organizing the pegasi, or maybe treating with the River Serpents, or...

There were far too many places to check, so she simply used her magic to try and sense where her sister was. That proved useless too; her sister wasn’t within range. That left Luna with a choice: search for her — which could take hours, or get to work on legislation — possibly with Starswirl’s help.

In the end there was no choice. There was much to be done, and she’d already been doing what had amounted to nothing for far too long. With a sigh, she headed back to grab the laws she’d drafted.

Luna arrived at Starswirl’s door with scrolls and quills in tow. She knocked softly. It was in a rhythm that had happened quite by accident, years ago.

“Come in, Luna.”

She opened the door and walked in. Eveningwatch was nowhere to be seen, and Starswirl was standing by the window.

“Are you sure you should be out of bed?”

“I’ve been confined to that thing all day. I needed to stretch my legs, work out a few cramps.” He sunk into a squat and extended each leg in turn, each knee making an audible crack. When he finally turned to face Luna he had to put a hoof to his head. “Give me a second, just till the room stops spinning.” When he opened his eyes, he noticed the cloud of scrolls she had with her. “What do you have there?”

“Just some things I’d like to look over with you.”

“Some?”

“Okay, maybe a lot.”

“Let’s get to it then. Where do we start?”

“I was thinking of beginning with my plans for integrating the old nobility with Our co-rulership. You’ve been with them for the longest by far.” She spread a scroll in the air before him. “How do you think they’ll react to this section here?”

. . .

It should have been tedious, mind numbing work, but with an old friend it went by much faster. It got awkward when after only a half hour Starswirl needed to lie down, but as good friends do, they got past it. They barely noticed when his wife came back carrying the groceries. But they did notice the tantalizing aroma of apple cabbage stew. It made Luna’s stomach growl rather loudly.

“Did you miss lunch... again?”

“Um, well. About that...”

“Breakfast too?”

“In my defense, I was asleep at breakfast time.”

Eveningwatch turned away from the fire with the pot of stew. “I hope I made enough for a very hungry Princess too. You might want to add something to those about getting a good cooking staff. You’ve got this huge kitchen, but nopony working it.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

They all ate in relative silence, Luna because she was too hungry to do anything but eat, Starswirl because eating and talking at the same time would be more than he was up to, and Eveningwatch because she knew that anything she said would only be met with one word responses.

When they had finished eating, Luna picked up the next scroll from the unfinished stack. “So, where were we? Ah, grain and—”

“Sorry, Luna, I don’t think I can.”

“Don’t be. I think I can take care of the rest by myself. See you tomorrow?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Right. See you then. You too, Eveningwatch.” She gathered up the parchment, and left. It has been a while; maybe Celly is back. She circled the mostly empty castle for a while, looking for her. Eventually her route took her past her sister’s room. The door was open a crack. Maybe she’s in there. She poked her head in.

“You in here, Celestia?”

It seemed that she wasn’t. Oh well. Might as well leave what I’ve got done here, while I can. She crossed the room to her sister’s desk. There was already a haphazard pile of scrolls on it. They looked like... hers, and they didn’t look like they’d been opened. She must have been too busy today. Yeah, she must’ve had a lot to do, she’s not even back yet. Right.

She left her stack of scrolls in a neat pile next to the others, then quickly fled the room, trying to suppress the irrational thoughts assailing her.

Over the years, Luna had found few things more relaxing, or at least calming, as writing. It made her impose order on her thoughts, and look at things in a rational light. When she made it back to her room it is not a surprise that she started a new journal. Her old one was close to finished, but more importantly, the recent events seemed to draw a clear line across her life. Everything seemed to be falling apart.

Her best friend was — she hated to admit it — dying. She had found what could have been the only other pony that could share the burden of the ages with her and her sister, only to have her snatched away. To top it all off, she had been forced to live through what amounted to her worst nightmare. Stars above, it had felt like it had lasted years!

She began to write, again starting with discovering Cadance. Perhaps through repetition she could find closure.

An hour later, it didn’t look that way. There were underlines and notes in the margins, all displaying how massively reckless and stupid she had been. It wasn’t pretty. She had known that there were things she should have done differently, but looking back and naming them all... made her feel sick. And she wasn’t even done yet.

With a disgusted grunt, she hurled the journal at the bed.

“Having trouble with a new spell?”

She jumped so high that her head nearly collided with the ceiling.

“Gah! Celestia! Are you trying to kill me?” She glared while her sister chuckled.

“...Sorry, but it’s just... it’s just so easy to get you when you’re working.”

“I’m not in the mood right now.”

“Well, excuse me, Princess. I was trying to lighten the mood.”

“This isn’t the type of thing that just goes away with a joke.”

Celestia’s ears flattened against her head. “You’re right. I don’t know what else to do, though. If we really can’t change any of this... I don’t know what else to do.” She sighed. “It helps to just not think about it, keep yourself busy.”

I wish it were that simple. I can’t even look at you without being reminded. I can’t think of editing without remembering. I can’t even raise the moon without it being there, in the back of my mind.

She didn’t say any of that though. Instead she asked, “What do you need? Unless you just came to see if I was okay.”

“Are you okay?” She asked softly.

No! How could I be? “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“Right. To business. I’ve put Hurricane in charge of forming the Royal Guard because there have been reports of wolves. But they aren’t ready yet. Think that you could maybe...?”

“Of course. I’ll get on my barding.”

“Thanks. Stay safe.”

As Luna buckled on the armor, her sister left. While the pieces snapped together, Luna couldn’t help but be reminded of the good old days. They may have seemed like Tartarus at the time, but what I wouldn’t do for another chance.

She made her way out into the clear spring night. It would be a very bad life choice for a wolf, or any of the forest’s predators, to show their face tonight.

March 4
Entry #3

It took me two days to finish my recounting of the events in the north. It wasn’t any less painful than before. I hope that one day it will be, but for now it seems that any bit of joy is tainted by an accompanying sorrow. Today, when I met with Starswirl to discuss the finer points of some proposals, he was struck with a sudden migraine.

But I digress, this journal is meant to make me feel better, not worse. It turns out that Celestia turning over the organization of the Guard to Comman Guard Captain Hurricane saved me a great deal of work. She was always quite competent. Brash, but effective. I can put my plans away for now; she has it under control.

Now I have more time to focus on other things, mostly laws and the like. Some of Celestia’s stopgap methods won’t last too long. It’ll need replacing in a few months to a few years. I’ve got to get everything ready for when it’s needed. There’s just so much to do! I’ll need to limit my time doing other things, like writing in here. No more than three times a week, serious work comes before something that just helps me.

March 28
Entry #9

Well, the castle is filling up rather nicely. We’ve got a nice staff now; most of them don’t have any training, but the unicorns that do are teaching the others. It’s nice to see them instructing, rather than lording over. If this is what we have to look forward to, I can be glad that We accomplished something worthwhile. There I go again, all those proclamations I’ve had to write are getting to me.

Speaking of proclamations, why does Celestia always seem to go first? It’s not like

No, these are supposed to be about the good, not the bad, or anything else.

Magic is good, so there’s that. I’ve almost got the transformation spell Sombra used figured out. I can’t help myself, it’s just too interesting to not try. It’d be nice if I’d stop remembering what happe

No, that’s just reinforcing the memory, I’ve got to stop that.

April 27
Entry #19

April showers bring May flowers, but We don’t see why most of them need to be scheduled during the night. How are ponies supposed to see my beautiful sky with so many clouds in the way? It’s almost like they don’t care.

Our research has gotten to the point where I feel confident that I can disassociate like he did without taking half of the castle with me. Still, We think it best to go somewhere secluded, just in case. I can barely wait to write down Our experience with it; it’s been too long since I’ve used a truly new spell. If it works (which it will) I’ll show Celly on the way back. Hopefully she won’t be too busy with anything at dawn.

How cou

Why woul

We thought that this was over. The writing through tears. It’s been almost a month since I’ve really cried. Things haven’t been great, but they’ve been getting better. We haven’t seen her much with all that’s been going on, but how could Celestia have forgotten me so soon? We thought that We would give her a nice surprise. What would be a better way to show off the spell than rematerializing right next to her? But what she said. She can’t really feel that way, right?

No. No, she can’t. I must have missed something. Yes, there was some other context I missed. That must be it.

But even so, there was truth to what she said. Terrible, biting truth. Everypony does look up to her with awe, respect, and love. They adore her, as well they should. But for Us? It’s just not there. They bow, but the act is reflexive, not heartfelt. They applaud, but it’s always on cue. They go out at night, but only when they must.

This is almost like how the spell the nightmare happened. We’re growing apart; they’re rejecting me. I will stop this. I had no control before, but this time, things will be different. I’ll take the initiative, and make Our night as good better than ever before.

May 18
Entry# 28

It has taken all of Our free time, but We have finally come up with the best possible plan. They’ll be bedazzled by sparkling meteor showers, wowed by graceful comets, awed by gleaming auroras, enamored with resplendent constellations. Above it all, the moon shall hang in the sky, a beacon of light to drive out the frightening shadow of night. Yes, they will see how beautiful and wonderful Our night truly is.

June 2
Entry# 31

It’s finally done. It took, Stars above, more than two weeks, but I finished everything. We need a night or two of good rest, then We can begin.

June 5
Entry #32

It begins! Soon. Soon, all will know the wonder of my dark and jeweled sky.

June 11
Entry# 35

In Our nightly flights around the castle grounds and the surrounding towns, We have noticed less ponies dreaming. We thought that this was a good sign. But no. Today, one of the towns sent a petition to me. One hundred and thirty four signatures. One hundred thirty four lines of fire across my heart. They all wanted Us to stop.

We lost Our temper. It hurt, how loud I yelled at them. Their ears will heal, ironically, thanks to Our aura.

Everypony owes me their lives for getting them through the unnatural winter alive. Not that I could ever let them know; that would ruin Celestia’s great paradise. We can’t let that happen, can We? No, despite it all, Equestria is for the best. I won’t jeopardize it, not just for myself.

June 18
Entry# 37

So, I’m not surprised that Celestia started to take notice of the other petitions. Most of the towns have sent them in by now. Each time hurts, just like the first. Of course she was understanding and caring; it is her way. But does she really understand? I doubt it. She’s surrounded by her devotees, whereas I only have Starswirl, Eveningwatch, and occasionally their daughter.

And that doesn’t look like it’ll last much longer. Starswirl is in rough shape. The crack on his horn hasn’t healed, and it’s gotten infected. Horn rot is rare, and hard to pull through, even for a younger, stronger pony. Things look bad. We stay with him most of the time now, praying, hoping for him to make it through this. The doctors are doing their best, but, well, there isn’t much they can do.

We tried convincing him to let Us to try to heal him — after all, what I can do seems to break all the rules of magical healing anyways. But he adamantly refused. He said that if somehow it went wrong, I’d never forgive myself. He’s right of course.

I hate this, being powerless.

July 11
Entry# 42

Starswirl is dead. It happened a few days ago. We knew it was coming. Why? Why did it have to be so soon? He wasn’t old, not really.

The last few days have been spent with his wife and daughter. I comforted as much as I was comforted.

Celestia, of course, announced a national day of mourning. Most ponies think it’s because he’s he was a great mage. They’ll never know he gave his life for their future.

During the cremation, as the smoke rose up, We gave him Our last gift. A constellation. We will make sure he’s never forgotten.

July 25
Entry# 48

Our project has fallen by the wayside. Not that it was doing much more than make everypony hate me. We simply couldn’t muster the sparkfireenergy I don’t even know. Whatever it is, We didn’t have it. Sister finally noticed. She spent a few hours with Us today. It was tense. Could she feel that?

Still, she did have a good idea. We’ll try what she suggested. We’ve never thought to use Our dream walking to stop nightmares before, though now it seems obvious.

Helping others always lifts Our spirits; this seems like just the thing We need.

August 16
Entry# 57

Driving out bad dreams continues to bring Us joy! The looks of gratitude We receive from the ponies We assist warm Our heart. It’s a shame We didn’t start this sooner. We worried that it would be an intrusion on their privacy. But it isn’t, not if they want to be helped. We thought that if We opened Ourself to so many minds, We would lose Ourself. But the Stars have smiled on me! It is as if We were made for this.

September 4
Entry# 69

Looking back on the past few weeks, a disturbing trend seems to be emerging. We don’t want to be too hasty though, surely We must just be forgetting something.

September 9
Entry# 73

How did We not see it earlier? All of them, all of them, have been set at night. Not once has a pony’s nightmare been set during Her day. Even subconsciously they fear Us. What did We ever do? It’s not fair! They owe Us their lives, but are they grateful? No! They revere Her more.

But We can figure out a way to change that. This is a problem, a problem that We will solve. It’s just a matter of time, and application of magic.

September 28
Entry# 81

Yes, this plan is coming together nicely. Thanks to all our notes, We are close to being able to replicate Her aura. Then We just need to be able to hold both at the same time. It shouldn’t be a problem. Not for the Element of Magic.

Looking more like Her will be foal’s play. They’ll see Our beauty, and Our unparalleled glory will be known. Soon, I can feel it.

October 14
Entry# 86

We’ve finally succeeded in replicating Her aura. It felt strange, but not unpleasant. We suppose We will get used to it. Now We just need to balance the two. A delicate task, but one that We are uniquely suited for.

October 15
Entry# 87

Today, She visited Us. She wondered what she felt last night. I reassured her that nothing was amiss, that I was nearing completion of a particularly intense spellcrafting session. She said that she couldn’t wait to see it.

Don’t worry Sister, you will. You will.

October 31
Entry# 96

Do they seek to add insult to injury? They began constructing what is essentially a temple to Her. Did they think We wouldn’t notice? We can see it from Our room! Its foundation is shaped like her cutie mark! How could we not notice that? We will not let this go.

Now is the time for action.

Luna flew out into the evening. As she flew, she gathered all of her power. What she was about to do was unlike anything the word had seen. That didn’t bother her; she’d already done similarly improbable acts before.

They think She’s so great? Well, let’s see what they think of her after this!

Her body lost its definition, blurred, then resolved again. She was larger now, proportioned much like her sister. It was a relatively simple transformation, and she did it with little more than a whim.

What she focused on was the lunar aura. It was one with her, and one with the moon, and if she felt for it, she could direct it as she pleased. So she did.

Luna let it flow through her, like a river of liquid silver. But as it passed through her, she allowed her burning desire for the love and acceptance that only her sister received to burn it a dark gold.

The moon’s color gradually changed as it rose above the horizon, sliding from pearly white to a ruddy orange.

She saw that the field below was dotted with homes. Let them greet their Princess. They will see Us, and they will love Us.

She waited, impatiently, for several minutes. Why do they keep their Princess waiting? She cast her senses out. They dare sleep through Our arrival? In one of the houses to her right, she felt a pony having a nightmare. Her first instinct was to go and help her through it, but a second later a different idea occurred to her. She didn’t know why, but this one seemed much more appealing, especially when she saw that the dreamer was being chased during what else — the night. She reached out all around her, and twisted.

The night filled with soft whimpers and groans. In beds everywhere ponies were plunged into the darkest dreams they had ever experienced. Those of them that were strong willed struggled back to wakefulness. Many of them would have wished that they hadn’t, because what they saw when they awoke was even more terrible by virtue of being real.

Their children, spouses, siblings, any that still slept were being slowly consumed by darkness. Most tried to help, only to find that there was nothing they could do. The inky blackness seemed to be pouring out from inside their loved ones.

Outside, Luna waited for the transformation to finish. If they couldn’t see how glorious her night was, she would make them see it.

Yes, tonight was going to be a good, night. As the changed ponies left their houses and joined her, she felt ecstatic. Walking among them, she addressed her new devotees.

Now the hour has come at last

The soft and fading light

Has crossed the west horizon

And has bidden us goodnight

And what a lovely night it is

To walk a moonlit field

To see the softer shades

That are by starlight now revealed

So why is it that now,

When all is quiet and at rest

When candles glow and all the world

Is at its very best

The ponies of Equestria

Should lock themselves away

To shun the moon and wait instead

For Sister's sunny day?

In umbra Luna est

Am I so wrong to wish that they

Would see things like I do?

And am I so wrong to think

That they might love me too?

Why shouldn't they adore me?

Is it not within my right?

I'll not be overshadowed!

Mine is not the lesser light!

I've waited long enough now

For them all to come around

And though the Sun may plead and threaten,

The Moon will stand her ground

And all will know the wonder

Of my dark and jeweled sky

When all the world is wrapped

In an eternal lullaby

So say goodnight at this,

The final setting of the sun

Tomorrow dawns in darkness

The nighttime has begun!

Author's Note

As always, my thanks go out to my prereaders/editors Cynewulf and AntiquatedAnnomaly. I'd also like to thank SlyWit for letting me use his world.
The translation for the Latin is:
In umbra Luna est = The moon is in shadow. Nocte! = Night!

As you hopefully gathered, the lyrics are not mine, they're by ponyphonic. I did receive their permission. (It wasn't easy getting their attention. Let's just say that captchas were involved.)

Thanks for reading! See you next time.

Eclipse

Chapter Eight: Eclipse

Celestia ran. The dark, dense woods boxed her in, giving her no room to maneuver. This was their ideal terrain. She fled, but to no avail; all her movements felt sluggish, uncoordinated. The colors seemed muted, almost like the life had been sucked from the world around her. Just like it would be from her, any second now; she could feel their hot breath, hear their excited growls.

There, up ahead, was a clearing. If she could just reach it, she could esc—

The wolf collided with her, sending her sprawling. The rest of the pack immediately followed, encircling her. They dove in for the kill; she felt them ripping at her, tearing at her flesh, until—

Celestia ran. The wolves were after her, and they were gaining. She needed to slow them down somehow, but there was nothing she could do. One grabbed hold of her tail. She bucked out, and felt its face cave in. The brief pause proved to be her undoing, as four more took the fallen wolf’s place. Her wings instinctively flared as she prepared to fight. Catching sight of her wings out of the corner of her eye, her panicked thoughts ground to a halt. Wait, I could jus— Then they took her down. Jaws closed around her neck, and—

Celestia ran. Right behind her, wolves! She had to escape! But the multitude of trees kept her from reaching any appreciable speed, and the wet leaves were treacherous underhoof. They were going to catch her any second now, she could tell. Got to escape! Run! Got to escape! Ru— What am I thinking, I’ve faced worse than wolves before. Something’s wron— One of her hind hooves got trapped in a root. She screamed in pain and shock as her leg dislocated. The wolves pounced on their fallen prey. There was a wet crunch, and—

Celestia ran. The woods were too dark to see more than vague outlines of the trees and branches as she fled. So, make some light. She tried, but the spell fizzled. Even the brief glow of her horn was enough to ruin her night vision, and she crashed, face first, into a tree. She fell in a heap. Is this really how it ends? Lost in the woods? What about all the ponies depending on you? What will happen to them? The wolves surrounding her all flinched, as she flared as bright as the sun. Celestia looked at them, and saw not predators, but targets. She was on her hooves in an instant. There were nine targets to deal with. Nine hoof sized orbs of pure white fire sprang into existence, turning the darkness bright as day. They hungrily sucked at the air, filling the night with a low roar. Before any of the wolves could react, she sent a globe of fire crashing into each of them. They burnt through hair, hide, and bone as if they weren’t even there, and left smoking, perfectly round holes through each of them.

Celestia ran. The woods were too dark to see more than vague outlines of the trees and branches as she fled. So, make some light. She tried, but the spell fizzled. Even the brief glow of her horn was enough to ruin her night vision, and she crashed, face first, into a tree. She fell in a heap. Is this really how it ends? Lost in the woods? What about all the ponies depending on you? What will happen to them? The wolves surrounding her all flinched as she flared as bright as the sun. Celestia looked at them, and saw not predators, but targets. She was on her hooves in an instant. There were nine targets to deal with. Nine hoof sized orbs of pure white fire sprang into existence, turning the darkness bright as day. They hungrily sucked at the air, filling the night with a low roar. Before any of the wolves could react, she sent a globe of fire crashing into each of them. They burnt through hair, hide, and bone as if they didn't even exist, and left smoking, perfectly round holes through each of them.

Celestia’s sides were heaving. That was much too close. But... How did I get here? ...What’s happening?! As she watched, the corpses began to melt into the ground. Soon everything else did too, trees and rocks softening and blending into the ground.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

She didn’t wake from her nightmare as much as burst from it. Globs of darkness were flung through the room where they hissed and spat as they evaporated. Thoughts about what they could be were far from her mind at that point; there was something far more distressing that had her full attention.

A feeling of wrongness permeated the air. It felt almost like her sun was up, but it was the middle of the night. She reached for the strange aura in the sky, but it slipped from her grasp, like water from oil.

It’s a combination of our auras! That shouldn’t be possible! What’s even going on? I’ve got to find Luna, maybe she saw what happened.

She stumbled out of her room, trying not to display her unease which grew with each second. Her composure only lasted until she heard the first shriek as she passed the staff quarters. She bolted to help. Slamming open the door, she was shocked to see the room’s inhabitants being engulfed in darkness. Some seemed to be struggling against it, while others simply lay like the dead as it swallowed them. On the far side of the room an earth pony mare was trying to help one of the afflicted.

“Who’s there?” she demanded. Celestia sent a globe of light to the center of the room, drawing a gasp from the mare. “Princess! Oh, thank goodness you’re here! Can you help them?”

She nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

She went to the nearest victim, and studied him. This dark fluid obviously can’t be removed by hoof; she wouldn’t need my help otherwise. First order of business needs to be stopping more of it from spreading, so, where’s it coming from? The inky blackness looked like it was seeping out from between his feathers, leaking from under his coat. As she watched, he started to cry. The tears were midnight black, and they coalesced into the rest of the cocoon engulfing his body.

I’ve got to get rid of this, and fast! She sent out tendrils of magic to probe the creeping darkness. It felt cold, but also strangely familiar. More than anything though, it was monstrously complex. She turned the feelers more tangible, and tried to pull, but they just slid through. Yeah, that would have been too easy. She examined the magical construct more closely. It doesn’t seem designed to harm the pony. But what is it supposed to do? She couldn’t make heads or tails of it, there looked like there was some kind of transformative effect... but it wasn’t the main focus of the spell. She looked even deeper, actually within the pony’s body. The spell was centered around the heart, she saw, and it seemed to be made of... loyalty? No. That isn’t loyalty. That’s a mockery of it. It’s... How do I get rid of that? It’s siphoning off of them, and powering the spell, but it’s attached to them too closely. Attacking it directly would just be too risky!

The darkness was up to his neck now, and steadily rising. I’ve got to do something! Maybe... She wove a spell. This wouldn’t try physically touching it, but attempt to draw it away. She imprinted the bed beneath him with as close an approximation of the darkness that she could make, as well as a huge quantity of pure loyalty. Please, just stick together.

She reached down through the darkness and pulled the stallion up. The inklike substance flowed closer to the bed — only to rush back, and swallow his face completely.

“No! Don’t you die on me!”

Her ears flicked. Wait... is he still breathing? She placed him back on the bed, and leaned in to listen. He was breathing; somehow, the black fluid wasn’t smothering him.

She felt the transformation aspect of the spell activate, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement. All across the room, and in many other areas of the castle, she noticed similar effects activating. She took a step closer to the door, and forcibly teleported the mare from across the room behind her.

“Woah, what—”

“Stand back; I don’t know what will happen.”

The sleeping ponies started twitching, then went still. The darkness drained back into their bodies, but not without leaving behind changes.

The first one that Celestia noticed was that they looked grey. Oh Stars, not again! He can’t be back. I— We would have known. But he was never one to follow the rules... And the auras feel messed up, who could do that but him?

Thinking quickly, Celestia cast the reversion spell, hoping it would work this time. It crossed the room like a wave, flowing straight through the changed ponies, instead of pushing out the supposed influence as it should.

They seemed not to notice the ineffective spell; all their attention was focused on Celestia’s light hanging in the middle of the room. Rather, they were focused on avoiding it. Most of the pegasi, like the stallion she had tried to save, were covering their eyes — which Celestia saw to have pupils more like a cat than a pony — with their now batlike wings. The earth ponies resorted to using their forelegs. Most of the unicorns, however, were busy unraveling it. As she hadn’t bothered to make it resilient to a magical counter spell, it quickly failed, plunging the room once more into semi-darkness. They turned to face the door, and Celestia readied herself to defend her charge.

As one, they began to walk slowly to the door. Keeping herself between them and the mare, she slowly backed out into the hall. “Stay back, I’m warning you.” They continued on, not caring that their princess and the most powerful being in the world had ordered them to stop. She prepared a spell to knock them back if they got violent. They stared, dull eyed at her as they shuffled through the door. Five more steps and I’ll do it. Four. Three. Oh Stars. Two. Abruptly they turned down the hall and continued on.

The mare looked between Celestia and the receding group of ponies. “Should we follow them?”

“No, you could be hurt. You need to get somewhere safe...” They’re headed that way, and if this did happen to almost everypony that was asleep, avoiding the areas they’d be coming from would be the best choice. To the throne room then. “You should head to the throne room.”

“Yes, Princess.” She headed off in that direction.

“Wait!”

She turned back, and headed over. “Yes?”

“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” Celestia laid her horn across her withers, and a soft golden line of light appeared on the floor to her right. “That line will take you to the throne room, and if you step on it, I’ll know you’re in trouble. Also, if anything else steps on it, it’ll turn red to warn you.”

She looked up in awe. “Thank you, Princess!”

“Don’t thank me yet. You seem like a very level headed pony, so I need you to count on you to take care of anypony you find that isn’t stricken with whatever this condition is. Hopefully I’ll find some guards to send your way.”

“Don’t worry, Princess; you can count on me!” She set off again.

Hopefully Luna hasn’t left yet. Together we can stop this, whatever it is. She cast her thoughts out, searching for Luna’s mind.

Silence.

Her fear ratcheted up to a whole new level. She hasn’t not been there since... fifty maybe sixty years ago. That just doesn’t happen. Asleep, unconscious, it didn’t matter, she’s still there.

She broke out into a gallop, rushing through the halls towards Luna’s room. A few times she was forced to leap over groups of changed ponies in her path. They didn’t so much as look up, nor did she spare them a second glance. Luna was in danger, or worse, something had already happened to her. She burst into her sister’s room, and looked for her. She wasn’t there, but the window was open, the curtains flowing in the soft night breeze. She looked out the window, at the cleared section of forest, and the foundation of the admittedly extravagant temple being built there.

There had to be some sign of where her sister was. It had been a while since she had cast a locating spell, but it was simple, really. She envisioned a pathway that followed where Luna had gone, starting a few hours ago in this room.

A hazy beam appeared in the room, starting at her sister’s desk, before crossing the room several times. Looks like she was pacing. Then flew off. She was about to follow the path of the beam, when behind her there was a crash. She wheeled around, ready to defend herself if need be. Thank the Stars.

The door slammed closed. “Sergeant Thundertop, reporting for duty, Your Highness!” He threw a quick salute. “We believe the castle has been secured.” He stood perfectly straight, only briefly glancing at the ribbon of light passing through the room and out into the night.

“I hope by secured you mean that all the changed but not hostile ponies have left.”

He nodded. “Yes, Princess. Captain Hurricane’s orders. What would you have us do?”

“Have Sergeant Biting Wind and Sergeant Downdraft gather their troops; they need to make sure that everypony in the throne room is safe.” There, promise fulfilled, if a little later than I’d hoped. “You and your ponies need to guard the grounds, just in case they come back in a less hospitable mood. Then have Hurricane and her battalion fan out and see just how widespread this attack... no, phenomena, is.”

“I’m sorry, Princess, but Downdraft is, well, one of them now. As are nearly a third of all our number.”

So many. “Please, do the best you can to keep everypony safe. Dismissed.”

“Yes, Princess.”

Celestia turned back to the window, and the path that led to her sister. I’m coming for you, Luna! Hold on!

_________________________________________________________________________________________

This is not good, not good at all. The path of the beam was weakening. Already it was dimmer and thinner, but up ahead she saw that there were holes in it too. She put on a burst of speed, and the air around her screamed its displeasure. She ate up the remaining distance in roughly a minute. The beam of light had faded away to nothing. There was nothing of note nearby, except for a town off in the distance.

Luna, where are you?

She threw out her magical senses, searching for anything that could give her a hint to Luna’s location.

Oh, Stars! What in Tartarus is that? In the town directly in front of her was a knotted snarl of magic shot through with angry reds and jealous greens. It was so fundamentally wrong that it barely seemed possible. What Discord had done was strange, random, sometimes incredibly dangerous, but never truly malicious. This, though, seemed to want nothing more than for every evil in the world to befall you. Preferably at the same time. It reached out in all directions, small tendrils of power that stabbed out into the distance.

Then it pulsed, and moved. It ripped across the distance, rapidly closing on her.

Celestia shot up as fast as she could, and surrounded herself with as strong a shield she could make. She braced for impact. As it got closer, she saw what was giving off the field, a dark and glittering tornado. It roared below her by thousands of hooves, racing back along the path of the beam, leaving a trail of dark magic that warped the ambient magic of the world.

It’s headed right for the palace! She looked around for a moment, hoping for some sign that her sister was safe.

Such a sign was not forthcoming.

I’m sorry, Luna... They need me.

She turned back, and gave chase to the maleficent whirlwind.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

In the distance the twister had stopped and simply disappeared. She was still out a few minutes by air, but now that she could see the palace, she teleported the rest of the way. It was off a slight bit, and she fell a dozen hooves onto the roof, cracking the slate tiles. She easily absorbed the fall, and was off in a flash to alert the guards.

Pop! “Somepony get me a guard! There’s so—”

At least three spears stopped in their flight towards her, various auras holding them in place. They quickly returned to their respective owners.

Hurricane burst into the air. “You four! What were you thinking?! You almost killed Princess Celestia! You’re going to be court martialed and—”

“That’s enough, Captain Hurricane. I’m fine, and it’s good to see that your guards have both great reaction time and control. They’re going to need it. Have every available unicorn ready to set up a shield; something powerful is coming this way.”

Hurricane landed in a bow in front of Celestia. “We know, Princess. Our scouts reported a highly suspect tornado. We sent some ponies to investigate; they should be back in a few minutes.”

“Captain, whatever that thing really is, it is far too dangerous to risk anypony else on. Once I leave, call everypony back to the castle. Put up the shield. Nopony in or out until I give the all clear. This is something only I,” or Luna, “can face.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Make it so.” In a blaze of light, she vanished, and reappeared ten thousand hooves in the air. A purplish haze marked her destination. She dove, gathering speed. If she had learned anything about combat, it was this: Strike first, strike hard. Make your first blow your last.

To that end, she gathered all her power, ready to obliterate whatever was threatening her ponies. Through her watering eyes, she spotted motion. It looked like there were ponies down there. She revised her plan of attack from a crushing hammer blow to a piercing lance; collateral damage would not do.

What were they doing, though? It looked almost like they were razing what little of the temple had been built. But why would they go after that, not a target that makes any sense? Unless... they’re trying to get to me? Who would want that though? She hoped it would become apparent soon, as she was only moments away from needing to either pull up, or attack.

A wall fell, and revealed the source of the disturbance. Another alicorn? No, that’s Luna! What happened to her? She looks different.

She let her power fade, and called out, “Luna! I’m so glad I found you! I was so worried—” A massive force crushed her to the ground, pinning her there. She let out a muffled “Oof!”

“Is that so, ‘Sister’?” Luna didn’t look away from the ponies that were busy reducing the temple to rubble. “Because from here, it looked like you were choosing them again.”

Luna’s horn was glowing. The aura surrounding her body was the same color. Celestia put two and two together, but they didn’t seem to work out to anything that made sense. “Luna, what’s going on?”

The force doubled; she felt her ribs groaning in protest.

“Who gave you permission to speak? As I was saying before you so thoughtlessly interrupted: You gave up on me. I could tell what that spell you were following did. You knew that I was there, somewhere. But did that wasn’t enough for you was it? If I really mattered to you, you wouldn’t have come back. You would still be out there, looking.”

“Luna, listen to yourself! I had to come back, there was no sign of you and this was heading straight for the palace. I had no choice!”

“There is always a choice, and you chose them. You always chose them. Just like they always choose you. But that ends now. You are finished. You can’t blind them to the truth any longer. I am your better, and I always was. You made the clumsy mistakes, and I always had to save you.”

“All of this can’t be your doing. What’s behind this?”

“You underestimate me, ‘Sister’. All this is mine. The sky is mine, the ponies are mine, and you are mine too.”

“Luna, this is insane! Something’s wrong with you. You need help!”

“It looks to me like you’re the only one that needs help. Look at you. You can’t even stand. I, on the other hoof, have put you, in your rightful place. You were supposed to be the solution. But you turned out to be even worse.”

“What are you even saying? Luna—”

“STOP CALLING ME THAT! They only named me ‘Luna’ because of you. You remember, don’t you? They thought it was cute. ‘You are named after the sister of the stars,’ they once told me. Well, I’ll have none of it! I’m disgusted to be associated with you. I’m leaving that behind now. Just as the day is gone for good, that name will be too. I am reborn as Nightmare Moon!”

“Lu- Can’t you see how wrong this is?”

“You think it’s wrong to claim what’s rightfully mine? You think it’s wrong to have ponies adore me too? You think it’s wrong for the night to last forever?”

“Night... Forever? That’s insane! You’ll kill everypony, everything!”

“You would think that. You think you’re so special, but I can do what you did, only better. Look at what I’ve done.” She pointed at the discolored moon. “Behold! The glory of the night, my glory.”

“All I see is a pony that refuses to see reason. That... That travesty won’t last a week. Please, stop this!”

“Stop? I’ve only just begun!”

“I’m begging you. Don’t do this.”

“What, and let you take back your place in the spotlight? Over my dead body.”

“Don’t make me stop you. Don’t make me fight you. We’ve always been close, but I won’t stand for this.”

“Stop me? ‘I won’t stand for this.’ Ha! You can’t even stand.”

“I... will do... what I must!” She smashed through Luna’s restraints in a blaze of power and stood, panting. “Now end this, or I will end it for you.”

Luna, no, Nightmare Moon, threw back her head and laughed. “Go ahead. Try. Raise the sun.”

Celestia violently shook her head. “That’s not what I wanted at all! It’s supposed to be night now. Just put things back right.”

“Are you daft? I did not ask you; that was an order. Try. To. Raise. The. Sun. Or do you want me to do something drastic?”

If this doesn’t qualify as drastic in her eyes, I certainly don’t want to see what would! She reached beyond the curve of the world, and found her charge. She pulled, as if starting a new dawn. A light pink glow appeared low on the eastern horizon.

Then promptly slid to the north. Celestia was stupefied; never before had something gone wrong when raising the sun. She tried again, harder this time, trying to drag it into place, but to no avail. It was like trying to push water up a hill with her bare hooves.

While she fumbled with the sun, Luna laughed like a madmare.

“I can keep you from the sky! Anypony can see that I am your better. Yes, the night will last forever!”

“We could have talked about this, but you’ve gone too far: you’re risking lives, and done Stars know what to the ponies here and at th—”

She was struck from the side by an unrelenting force, sending her through a scaffold and miraculously not into anypony. She came to rest against a pile of rubble. As she lay there, stunned, one of the changed ponies walked up and mechanically dropped a piece of the fallen scaffold on her, then walked off to retrieve another.

Shaking off the attack, she regained her hooves. Luna was walking through the path of destruction towards her.

“Any more of this and I will fight you.”

“You seem to be operating under the impression that I want to avoid that.” Her wings flared, and the sky filled with storm clouds. “You’re wrong!” She punctuated her words with a massive bolt of lightning.

Celestia barely had time to throw up a basic shield before it hit. The bolt skittered off the surface, and flew off at a random angle.

“Come now, if all you do is defend, how will my victory be remembered as glorious?”

That... that can’t be my sister. There is just no way. She pushed her senses through the barrier, searching for a weakness to exploit. What she found though almost made her drop her barrier against the onslaught of attacks.

Hanging like a tattered cloak around the pony before her were three of the elements. What had once danced along her coat like a second skin was now a shredded ruin. Kindness was worn down to nothing, and was completely detached from her, only held from escape by wispy filaments of Loyalty. The Element of Magic itself was separating from her, seemingly repelled by the new veneer that clung to her sister. A pathetic mixture of envy, rage, and sorrow permeated her being.

Everything that made her her is gone.

My sister is gone.

Nightmare Moon paused her attacks momentarily. “Pretty princess not like what she sees? Your tears betray you, as you did me! That is how history will remember you — Celestia the Betrayer.”

“No, the only ‘betrayer’ here is you!” She punctuated her words with a gout of blue fire.

Less than halfway there, it froze into a solid block. “All these years, and you still think that is an effective attack? This will be over—” her eyes widened before she dissolved into a purple mist. A hunk of marble that must have weighed tons crashed into the place where she had just been, and embedded itself a full ponylength in the ground.

No sooner than the dust had cleared, the bolder vibrated, crumbled, and exploded, throwing rocks everywhere. Celestia was pelted by the stones, several striking her head, briefly stunning her. Many of the surrounding ponies weren’t so lucky. They went down before staggering to their hooves again, and limping off to continue their work.

Nightmare Moon reformed behind the crater excavated by the detonation. “Oh, so this will be a memorable fight after all.”

Got to distract her. Maybe knock her out, try to fix this. With a blinding flash, her shield went up. Masonry crashed against it, but she didn’t care. It was a ruse. She just hoped that the golden barrier would make it too hard to notice any flaws in her construction of the illusory replica of herself.

From on high, her eyes locked on her adversary, who was still facing the wrong direction. That didn’t last more than a second though. Damn, she’s good. Whoa! A swarm of ice spikes, each the size of her leg, hurtled towards her. She quickly tucked in her wings to provide a smaller target, and dove. The majority of the barrage missed her, but a couple passed through her tail, and one went between her neck and shoulders, grazing her.

She couldn’t let that bother her though; she had a goal to achieve. She leveled off, the speed from her fall driving her towards her quarry quick as an arrow. She could tell she had Her full attention now, barreling towards Her so fast. She wouldn't suspect a second distraction, would she?

Golden chains of force snaked out of the shield behind her. Celestia commanded them with a single commanding thought: bind. Then she reached out through the swirling miasma of corrupt magic and locked it down to prevent any escape through teleportation.

The chains wrapped around each limb, and pinned her wings against her barrel. She roared her defiance to the sky, and struggled mightily against the restraints. The one holding her left hind leg shattered under the strain, only to be replaced by another, then another. The new additions bound her legs together, and she fell heavily to the ground. A bluish glow appeared inside the chains, and pushed outwards, but it was no use there was no room to gather force or momentum.

Celestia landed beside her demented sister. She was screaming curses of outrage, her voice colored with contempt. Her sister’s aura clamped down around her muzzle, and she went silent, rather than mumble incoherently. Instead she fixed her captor with a gaze of pure hatred. Celestia took a step back in shock. Oh Stars, what happened? Those eyes aren’t even equine anymore!

That momentary shock was enough; the will holding her wavered, and so did her body. It transformed into a haze and sunk into the ground.

What just— Where did she go? She cast out her magical senses to find her fleeing opponent, but they were instantly overloaded. The fog engulfed her, and the temperature plummeted. She had never felt so cold; a snowy mountaintop felt like a balmy summer day in comparison. The sudden shock took her breath away. She let out a gasp which promptly froze. Ice formed on her tongue, and had her eyes not reflexively closed they would have iced over as well. Her body screamed for her do something, anything to get out of this freezing deathtrap. She took a step, stumbled, and tried to right herself with a flap of her wings, but they spasmed. She fell in a twitching heap, her shivering doing nothing to alleviate the unnatural cold.

The pain seared away all rational thought. Everything ceased mattering, her world was the pain and her desire for escape. It was hopeless, she’d lost all sense of direction, and actually moving was in the realm of fantasy. Her mind offered her one last thought: This is how it ends - for all of them.

A roar of defiance ripped from her. It could not end like that. She would not allow it. Now with a focus, her magic was able to manifest. Her body grew warmer and her convulsions stopped. The oppressive presence doubled its efforts, but it was in vain; there was no stopping Celestia now. She began to glow faintly, then progressively brighter. Flames licked along the surface of her body. Her normally pink mane and tail deepened to a fiery red, then ignited. The transformation swept across her form from both sides, and when the two fronts of fire met it exploded outwards, pushing back the darkness.

With one mighty downstroke she punched through the freezing fog. Barding of fire armored her, and flame danced between her primaries as she ascended, trailing drops of molten gold. The haze rose after her, shrinking down and condensing into corporeal form.

“You think that can stop me? You’re delaying the inevitable, ‘Sister.’ Look at you, fleeing like a coward.”

“Fleeing... or drawing you off?”

Nightmare Moon looked around. Their brief flight had actually taken them quite a distance over the Everfree forest.

“Here, there, it matters little. You will still lose. Then the night will last forever!” She threw back her head and laughed until it was cut off by a shield materializing around her. “So, you seek to hold me. Like everything you do, it is a most unwise plan of action.” The stars in her mane glinted like diamonds as they flowed to the edges.

Her mane separated into three star tipped whips which went to work breaking the shield. Each crushing blow spread cracks farther and farther over its surface. Under such immense strain it simply shattered. Celestia began to conjure another, but the Nightmare was too fast. The flail like strands were already partially through its radius. They peeled it back easily, like the rind of an orange giving way to a knife. Then they came after her.

She threw herself into a corkscrew to avoid the first, then teleported away as the second intercepted her path. In the split second it took to regain her bearings, the third stabbed out at her. Purely by reflex, a wall sprang up between her and it. Unfortunately it crashed through the wall, and hit her dead on, throwing her back through the sky. Her barding guttered and died from sustaining such a ferocious hit.

She shook her head to clear it from the tumbling, and righted herself in the air. Clearly, static blocks are out, she thought as the other two stretched out to attack her again. They came in like pincers, but Celestia batted them off course. They corrected, and came at an even steeper angle. Without the time to redirect them, she grabbed and threw herself out of the way with a burst of telekinesis. They passed through where she had been just an instant before, partially obscuring her view of her attacker.

I need this fight on my terms – now! She directed a beam of pure force at Nightmare Moon, and the challenge was met. The beams locked. It became a struggle determined by whoever had the greater power. This was a fight that Celestia knew she would win; her sister was stronger that most unicorns by an order of magnitude, but she was stronger still.

Slowly, the darker beam was pushed back. If I can get her to waste everything she has on this, maybe there’ll be a chance. The opposing ray of power subtly changed, she could feel the difference at the point where they converged. It gained rage, and relentlessly smashed its way up the stream of her magic. She pushed harder against it, and turned it back. Then it gained something else, jealousy, whether for her greater magic or for some other aspect she couldn’t tell. The foreign type of magic worming its way up hers felt revolting. She redoubled her efforts, and drove the offensive beam back.

The strain that Celestia was under was immense, but bearable. Any second now, it’ll be over. I’ll find some way to purge the darkness from her, and everything will go back to normal. Just a few... more... hooves!

Except it stopped. Something else joined in on the other side of the attack. It felt like desperation. That’s not right! Magic doesn’t work like that! But there it was, barreling down on her. Her mind raced for an escape, but she was a hair's breadth from being tapped out. Only one option seemed workable, and it was so stupidly, beautifully simple that it might just work.

She conjured a pile of dust next to her sister’s face, and blew it at her with a gust of wind.

A few things happened in the space of the next second. First, Nightmare Moon flinched. This knocked the two gargantuan beams out of alignment. The force of Celestia’s attack pushed it further and further off course and it missed her by a wide margin. It kept traveling, though, an colossal force with nothing to stop it. It cut a huge gash in the earth, obliterating a massive swath of land. Then its edge clipped the shield surrounding the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters, shattering it instantly. It continued on unabated, as if smashing through scores unicorns’ work was inconsequential.

Nightmare Moon raged as she cleared her eyes. “YOU LOWLY CRETIN! I HAD YOU AT LAST! MY VICTORY IS NIGH, AND SUCH A PATHETIC TRICK WILL NOT SAVE YOU THIS TIME!”

She faded into a fog once again, but this time faded from view as well.

Did she turn invisab— She’ll freeze me again! She focused on fire, and called it to herself. The barding kindled anew, but it was dimmer than before. She steeled herself for what was to come.

The wind began to blow away from her. It wasn’t a natural breeze, she could tell that immediately. It intensified, howling around her, pulling at her fur. Her armor sputtered and died, and breathing became a chore. It was like suddenly being flung high above where any pony had the right to be, and it was getting worse.

Celestia started pulling air to herself, but she only succeeded in slowing the exodus. She dove for denser air. She needed to breathe, and she felt that she was on the edge of stalling out. She nearly made it to the ground, but the inexorable pull finally stole all of her lift. She fell for a second before landing in a clearing. The impact drove the already sparse air from her lungs.

She lay in the dirt, wheezing, as Nightmare Moon slowly faded back into sight.

“A fitting end for one who burned too brightly. Snuffed out. You will be forgotten. But I will...”

She stopped listening. The sound barely reached her anyways. She tried to think of some escape, but her mind wouldn’t cooperate. Her thoughts swirled ineffectively, always coming back to one in particular. I can’t let my ponies down, not so soon after they started working in harmony. Something about it... it seemed important. She spared a glance at the still pontificating Nightmare. There was no harmony here. She’d shredded it, and... and... It was right there. Barely hanging on. Just waiting to be made whole.

If she had thought about it, she would have dismissed the idea as crazy. It wasn’t possible to use Elements that weren’t the greater part of your nature. But she didn’t think. She just grabbed at them. They looked so lonely, and so pretty...

Nightmare Moon didn’t even notice their absence; they only remained on her out of habit, not a real connection.

As they floated over unobserved, she reached out a hoof. I just wanna touch it. Looks like a soft blanket. The three Elements made contact with her outstretched limb. It wrapped around and hugged her tight, then spread out and flowed over her granting new strength. Her wings shot up, and air rushed in. She breathed in the dankest, sweetest breath of her life.

This would be easy. She had the Elements now. There was no problem that they couldn’t fix. The armor of negativity around her sister would be foals play for something that could defeat a reality ignoring god from beyond the world.

She pulled, and they responded. The link slammed open and power thundered into her.

Simply put, it felt divine. This was the power to change the world. She just needed to know what to do, so it fed her information. In a heartbeat she knew everything there was to know about the magic clinging to her sister. She knew how to dispel it, weaken it, strengthen it, replicate it, move it somewhere else, bind it to a tree, like that oak over there. It weighed sixty three thousand one hundred ninety two and three sixteenths pounds. There was currently a ladybug on one of its leaves. It was thirsty. It could get a drink from the bucket of water that had just fallen over in the castle. Based on its projected airspeed, crosswinds, and the puddle’s rate of evaporation, it would make it there nineteen minutes after its depth was no longer dangerous.

Too much! It was too much! It was tearing her mind apart! But the deluge of information continued unabated. She had thought that the sense of clarity and insight from the other times they had been used was the extent of it, but she was finding out that it wasn’t even half of the full experience. It seared through her. Where the pain from the bitter cold had been immense, this was something else entirely. It tore at her soul, bits and pieces of her were swept off in the flood.

Let it end! Just make it stop! Make it stop!

The Elements gladly set to work. The pent up power rushed out in a prismatic lance. Her supernatural acuity let her see just what the spell was designed to do. From the outside, it was impervious to any and all attacks, but on the inside where she was... It was a delicately balanced work of art. A finely balanced network of leylines, support structures, power transfer and dispersion junctions. Everything interconnected in the grand spell. She could see it all, just like everything else, but change it? Such a thing was beyond her. Even the smallest error, one crossed line, one missed connection, and the energy released could wipe out everything in a hundred miles.

She was reduced to an observer. The chromatic spear pierced the Nightmare’s side, and her mouth formed an “O” in shock. The magic then turned upwards, and shot to the moon. Celestia, Nightmare Moon, and the moon were linked like that for a moment. The Nightmare’s body crumbled and was drawn along the beam. As it broke down, an image formed on the moon, and its color faded back to normal.

Then it was over. The flow of energy stopped. In the palace, six gems became little more than rocks, to the surprise and dismay of everypony that was there to see it. In the forest, Celestia toppled over, unconscious.

Author's Note

I’d like to thank my editors/prereaders Cynewulf bearer of impressive words, and AntiquatedAnnomaly recaller of facts. You guys are awesome, and should feel awesome.

Chapter nine is... well, it's coming, but with school it'll probably be delayed. Sorry about that.

Chapter Nine: Perspective (I)

Today was the day! Streamline did his best to keep his feathers from rustling, but they gave a small twitch despite his best effort. He hoped that none of the ranking officers saw, but that concern seemed insubstantial. It didn’t matter, whatever small punishment he received would be worth seeing Slipstream inducted into the newly formed Royal Guard. He’d spent years working with her, getting her ready, and when it looked like there wasn’t going to be a military organization to join she’d been heartbroken. Their mother, Airstream, had been relieved, but she’d always been a worrywart.

The newly formed Royal Guard had been looking for recruits though, and his sister was more than willing to join. All of the hours they’d spent together, working towards getting her ready, culminated in this one ceremony. One by one, as they put on their barding, it grew closer to her turn. Then it was, and she wore the heavy armor almost reverently, like she was afraid that she’d somehow sully it. He gave a little inner chuckle. It would get dirty alright.

Once this was over, she was getting his biggest “I’m proud of you” hug.

...

Days turned into weeks, and missions and sorties were run. His sister was doing well, loving every minute of the experience. It was bound to lose some its charm eventually, but he made sure to keep all of his reservations to himself when they talked. And they talked a lot. Despite never being sent on the same missions in the Everfree, they had more time than ever to be together. During his enlistment in the Air Force of the Dominion he’d barely had time to see her. There was always a mission or combat drill to do, and there were his less than official activities that also took up his time. But now they saw each other every day. They swapped unusual stories from their patrols while waiting for lights out in the barracks and sometimes kept going till they were shushed by their comrades.

Life was good.

Then it changed. No, it ended.

In the military, you never want to see a ranking officer try to look kind or apologetic. It can only mean something has gone horribly, terribly wrong. Seeing Biting Wind like that was not a good sign, especially because she seemed to be walking right this way. It felt wrong, but more than anything, Streamline hoped that Wind was here to talk to one of the other ponies here. He looked around. There was nopony else. Where was Sudden Gust? Hadn’t he been right there? But the barracks were empty save for Biting Wind and himself.

He ran, but the bunks refused to be left behind, and the door remained forever beyond reach. The soft sounds of hooves on stone just kept getting closer and closer. And then he was being turned around and told that Slipstream was gone and it had been a cockatrice and she was flying and she fell and shattered and he was sorry, but she was gone.

Time blurred and his mother was crying and yelling at him. She was right, it was all his fault. He should have never gotten Slipstream interested in soldiering, and her blood was on his hooves. Except she didn’t even have blood now, she was hunks of rock now and couldn’t even receive the proper services. The final flight was something that only the worst criminals were ever denied.

The burial was almost worse than the fact that she was dead. Her soul would never be free, trapped in the ground. He bore watching it all for her sake. It was his fault that she would never see the sky, feel the wind beneath her wings. He could give her this, at least, no matter how much it hurt.

And then it was over. But it would never be over, not really. No, she’d always be dead and it would always be his fault.

He’d walked from the service, walked until he was sure nopony would find him. The ground here was nice and hard. It would do. He rose in what would be his final flight, keeping his eyes closed all the while. Would this be high enough? He wanted to be sure that he’d join her in the ground, the only fair thing to do. A few more half-hearted strokes made sure of it. Then he closed his wings and fell.

His mind raced as he plummeted. If only I’d trained her more. Or never encouraged her in the first place. Why did it have to be you? You always drove mom crazy, but she loved you more than anything. And dad’s trying to play it cool, but underneath the stoicism he’s broken, hasn’t moved a hoof unless he has to.

A small part of him wondered what his parents would think when he couldn’t be found. “Are you so selfish,” it asked, “that you would take their only other child?” Did that matter? They probably hated him. He sure did.

But deep down he knew they weren’t that petty. Could he really heap that much more pain on them to relieve his own?

His wings snapped out, grabbing the air and jarring him, forcing his eyes open. Oh Stars, the ground was right th—.

He crashed head first into it. Stone being applied to his head had the expected effect, jolting him fully awake. Consequently, the darkness encompassing the majority of his body flew across the room, repelled from his coat like two north poles of magnets forced too close together. Instinctually his hooves shot up to his head, clutching at the pain. He bit back a yell, only letting out a pained grunt.

“We got another one!” His ear flicked around to the sound, a male voice. He thought it might be Zephyr.

“Thank the Sun and Moon!” A mare, but he’d have to open his eyes to be able to tell which one. “On your hooves, soldier!”

His training from his time in the Glorious Dominion of the Sky’s Air Force — or the G-Dots Air Force as it was called when there weren’t any officers around — got him to his hooves despite the pain. “Yes ma’am!” Oh Stars, what was that? Slipstream... why? He hoped that they thought that his tears were from the pain.

“Open your eyes, soldier! We’re under attack!” Really? That’s strange. Why aren’t there sounds of battle?

His eyelids snapped open, and he winced even at the low torch light. Scanning for threats, he saw that some type of dark liquid was swallowing up the other Guards, making them all look like black mummies. What in Tartarus is that? Then another thought, what if it really is from Tartarus? That stuff just didn’t look natural, not one bit. Nothing should be that dark; there wasn’t the tiniest glint off of it like a normal fluid would have. Magic. Why did it have to be magic? I can’t fight that. Magic must defeat magic. But we have so few unicorns, the wusses.

He turned to the door, apparently where the commanding officer was. “Ma'am, what do we—” It felt like a sudden stall. The world fell out beneath him. It was Biting Wind.

“Listen soldier, I don’t know what you just went through and I don’t want to know.” Her voice softened. “I sure didn’t think that I could have ever imagined what I went thr— No.” She shook herself. “I’ll just tell you what I told the others, what I keep repeating to myself. It helps. I swear it on my primaries. Repeat after me: I will not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total oblivion. I will permit it to pass beneath my wings and lift me. And when the fear is gone, I will be soaring all the higher.”

He supposed it had worked; at least his breathing had slowed down to a normal level. “Thanks, Sergeant,” he tried to look past, rather than at her. “What’s the situation? Why aren’t you helping them? Well, finding somepony to help them.” He flicked a wing towards the guards behind him. There was a soft moan from over his left shoulder.

She glanced at Zephyr before looking back at him. “We don’t know what’s going on. I only just woke up too." She flicked her head toward Zephyr. "He's one of the lucky ones that were awake when this started. Give him the sit. rep."

He complied. "Approximately half an hour ago, the palace came under attack. We have yet to ascertain the identity of the enemy, but we know that they're powerful." His voice dropped, became grave. "Worse, it seems like they have captured Princess Luna."

Streamline gaped as years of discipline lost to grogginess and shock. "What? How?"

Zephyr's tail flicked in agitation. "Unknown, but she's clearly in distress. Just look at the moon." He waved towards the window across the room.

“We don’t know that for certain; it’s completely hearsay,” Biting said.

Zephyr stared at her incredulously. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right? There is no way that color is natural. You think Luna did that because she’s safe?”

“You will maintain proper military discipline at a time like this,” she snapped. “But — and this stays completely off the record, understood — no.”

Wow, she sounds almost as shaken as I feel. He shook his head. Now that they mentioned it, the natural light did seem to blend abnormally well with the torchlight. Streamline carefully made his way between the packed cots, being sure to avoid any stray limbs. Biting Wind's voice came from across the room, making him flinch.

"Buck up, stallion. They can't hurt you, just like we can’t seem to do anything to this stuff,” she waved a hoof through the darkness around a sleeping pony.

He went the rest of the way at a normal pace, not entirely reassured, but following orders nonetheless. He reached the window and hesitated. Just look up, how hard is that? Apparently it was pretty hard. Looking at it would make it real. But... he had his orders. He forced his head up and saw it.

The moon hung in the sky, huge, bloated, discolored. That is not good. With a sigh he turned back to Biting and Zephyr. “So, now wh—”

The pegasus next to him awoke, and the cocoon of inky blackness exploded outwards. It covered the room and got in his eyes. The now volatile liquid obscured his vision, so he never had a chance to dodge the suddenly airborne pegasus, and the two of them slammed together. They went down in a screaming tangle of limbs. While the darkness hissed and spat as it evaporated, Streamline figured out that he wasn’t under attack and began to extricate himself from the other pegasus. He held out a hoof to help her up.

His eyes widened. “Tempest? That you?” She shuffled back along the ground until her back was to the bunk she’d been in. Her gaze darted around the room before finally settling on Streamline who was still proffering his hoof. He kept his voice low. “Are you okay?”

She sprang up and wrapped him in a crushing hug. “You’re alive! Oh thank the Stars!” She kept her death grip on his neck, whimpering half-recognizable words.

“Well, I won’t be for much longer if you keep this up,” he managed to choke out. She dropped back to all fours with a sniff, then immediately went back in to nuzzle his neck. He stood there enjoying the feeling of her breath through his fur, for seconds, minutes, he wasn’t sure. Then it was over, interrupted by a not very subtle cough catching his ear.

“Listen up you two. I’m really sorry to break this up, with whatever you just had to go through...” She looked down so she wouldn’t have to see them looking at her, wings interlocked, his head resting atop hers. She stomped and looked back up, “But we have a job to do, and it doesn’t involve making lovey-dovey eyes to each other. Now, Streamline” — he hastily threw a salute — “you’re one of the best scouts we have, so you’re on reconnaissance. And Tempest” — she saluted as well — “we don’t have nearly enough ponies guarding the perimeter. You need to...” Her eyes narrowed. “What the hay...? Positions!” She and Zephyr dropped into fighting stances, wings flaring.

Streamline and Tempest’s training kicked in. As one, they blitzed across the room to Biting’s side, taking positions in the air on either side of her. He scanned the room, thoughts whirling. Is it an attack? Wish I had time to get armored up! The room seemed half empty. But then something caught his eye. It was difficult to be sure, but it looked like the darkness covering the remaining ponies was rippling.

Then it intensified. There was definitely something going on with the wings, and maybe something at the ears too, but what? His eyes widened in shock. Oh horseapples, what’s happening? The darkness sucked back into the pony, leaving it with changed. The wings were now leathery like a bat’s and the ears were much larger.

Zephyr spoke up. “Uh, guys? Does anypony know what the hay just happened?” In the dim light, Streamline saw all the ears in the room swiveled to face them.

“Shut up!” Tempest whispered through clenched teeth.

The ponies flopped out of their beds as if they were still mostly asleep. Those nearest the torches covered their faces, hissing. Streamline saw the glow of a unicorn horn and prepared to dodge a spell, but the only things sent flying were the torches. They sailed out the open window, plunging the room into darkness. The only illumination came from the door at their backs and the window, leaving the light level in the room woefully inadequate.

He hovered in the darkness, afraid to land. Oh well, at least I’m harder to hit up here... unless they can hear me. A memory of their ears came back to him. Yeah, they can hear me. Being in the air lost its appeal, but since he couldn’t see, he could land on top of one of his temporary squad mates. He blinked slowly a few times in a vain attempt to improve his night vision. He blinked again. Across the room, rows of faintly glowing eyes stared back at him. They were slowly coming closer.

Biting Wind gave out orders, quick and low. “Back to the hall. The door’ll make a chokepoint.” In pairs, one flying, one on hoof, they backed out of the room. Taking up defensive positions in the hall, they waited for an attack.

Zephyr mumbled something under his breath. “Corporal, if you have something of vital tactical relevance, I suggest you spit it out, now,” Biting Wind growled.

His eyes flicked between her and the door, which the glowing eyes had nearly reached. “I said ‘How do we know they’re hostile?’ ma'am! We were in there for what, ten, fifteen seconds? They had plenty of time to attack. So... why didn’t they?”

Her jaw worked up and down, as it often did while she was thinking. “I... That’s... No.” Her tail gave an annoyed flick. “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. But just in case, try to incapacitate. If they escalate...” She didn’t need to explain further.

Streamline forced himself to relax; tension would only slow him down. He took a deep breath as a foreleg emerged into the light. Breathing. Breathing is key. Never know when you’ll get a breather in a fight.

As the pegasus came fully into the hall, he winced and shaded his eyes with a wing. He made a beeline along the wall for the nearest torch sconce and leapt for it. The torch clattered to the ground, flames guttering. The squad watched warily, dividing their attention between the door and the odd pegasus, each wondering if this was a distraction or a strange bid for obtaining a weapon. Rearing up, the pegasus brought his hooves down on the torch, extinguishing it but also splattering himself with burning pitch. He set off down the hallway with tiny flames dancing on his legs, seemingly uncaring of that fact.

Zephyr glanced between the door and Biting Wind before breaking ranks and bolting after the pegasus. Biting never took her eyes off the door, but yelled after him, “Idiot! It’s a trick!” Zephyr made it to the receding pegasus and tackled him to the ground, then began beating the flames out with his hooves. The pegasus took it unflinchingly.

Shouldn’t they have attacked the second he broke ranks? Waiting doesn’t make any tactical sense. They’ve had so many missed opportunities... I’ll risk it. “Ma'am, I don’t think they’re hostile.”

“What?” she snapped, without taking her eyes off the door.

Tempest came to his defense, “I... I think he’s right. They’ve had several golden opportunities to attack.” She gulped. “They could’ve — hay, they should’ve torn us apart in the dark. But they didn’t.”

“You’d better pray that you’re right. That room is still half full, and I’m not too hopeful about facing that many with a full squad.”

The rest of the room emptied out into the hall, turning the direction that the first pegasus had gone. Their gaze passed over the would-be defenders without a spark of recognition before ambling off, passing the singed pegasus and Zephyr.

All three of them let out a collective sigh of relief. Tempest spoke up as the last one, the sole unicorn, walked by them. “So... if they’ve reacted that badly to lights so far... shouldn’t we try to get rid of the lights? They could get seriously hurt.”

“Like me,” Zephyr called from down the hall. “Well, I’m not that bad, but seriously, I think I burnt my forehooves.” He hissed in pain. “Oh yeah, definitely burnt. Don’t mind me. I’ll just sit here, being burnt.”

Biting Wind spoke up loudly. “Ok, I’m modifying your orders. Tempest, you head after them. Put out any torches they’ll encounter; I don’t want anypony else to have to play hero.”

“Yes, ma'am!”

“Streamline, you go the other way, do the same. When you’re done, sweep section three. I’m going to take Mister Sarcastic here to medical. Hopefully, he isn’t the only medic awake.” He balked. Did she just say section three? Like all of it, not section three, alpha to section three, delta?

Zephyr piped up, “Do you have any idea how hard it is to patch yourself up? It’s nearly impossible! Especially if one of your hooves is already bandaged!” He sighed. “Anyways, what’re we going to do with this one?”

Streamline finally spoke. “Maybe you should just get off of him and see what he does. And ma'am, did you mean, uh, all of sect—”

“Yes I did. We’re sorely low on scouts, so we need each of them to cover a much larger area.”

Well, this’ll be fun. “Yes ma'am. I’ll get right on it.” He saw Zephyr take to the air, hovering a ponylength above the floor. The pegasus got up and followed after the distant group.

Tempest gasped. “Oh ponyfeathers! I’ve got to hurry; they’re almost to the next torch!” She wrapped a foreleg around Streamline’s neck and drew him closer, pressing her forehead against his. “Stay safe,” she whispered, then took off so fast she left a few feathers floating to the ground.

“You... too. Dang.” He threw a quick salute, not really caring if Biting saw it or not. “I’m heading out to check all of section three.” His wings hurt just thinking about it, but he set off down the hall anyways, snuffing out torches as he went.

When he made it to the end of the hall, the window at the end offered him a choice. He could either go through it and take a left, towards his mission objective, or he could go out and to the right, towards his parent’s cloud house.

He didn’t even glance left as he leapt through the window. If they charge me with dereliction of duty, so be it. He passed a few towers and some cloud houses on his way to check on his sister. The unicorns had made some noise when the first pegasi had parked their homes above the castle, something about it “unbalancing the aesthetics,” but the Princess arranged an amicable compromise. Now they were spread out in a supposedly “graceful” way. He didn’t care if it looked pretty, what he did care about was that it placed their house on the other side of the castle from him and his goal.

Luckily, he made it without being spotted or at least without being stopped. Unfortunately, the house faced away from the castle, so he had to fly around it to get to the front. When he came around the side though, he saw that the door was open. The door should not be open. The door was never open.

His blood turned to ice-water. He landed and called out weekly, “Guys? You’re here, right?” A faint breath of wind was all the response he got. “Mom? Dad? Slipstream?!” What if they turned too? And what if... what if they fell? He dove off, racing for the ground.

The lack of any sort of stain on the flagstones allayed his worst fears, but only for a moment. They’re not dead, but what if it’s permanent? He touched down, breath coming in short heaves. I should’ve never checked. Why did I have to check? He walked aimlessly back towards the center of castle, muttering under his breath.

“...pass under my wings. And when the fear is go—” He recoiled when an armored pegasus landed directly in front of him. He bowed his head, ready to accept whatever punishment was headed his way.

“Oh, I’m sorry! Did I startle you, Streamline?” Wait, that voice, that’s... Pansy continued, “I just saw you coming out of your parents’ house and I knew that couldn’t be your assignment but I didn’t say anything to anypony. Then you fell off and I was so worried about you! But then you landed and started walking, and I know how much you hate walking, so why are you walking?” She paused for a breath and then said in a lower voice, “Is your family... gone?” He simply nodded. She wrapped him in a hug, her barding digging into him painfully. “Oh you poor thing!”

“Ow,” he said simply.

She jumped back. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you, I swear! You’re in enough emotional pain as it is. It makes me feel awful to add physical pain too. And why aren’t you in your barding? Are you going to run away? Because if you are, you’re going the wrong way. You should probably try—”

“Pansy, you’re doing it again.”

She raised a hoof to her mouth and barely squeaked out, “Sorry.”

“I’m not running away. I was actually just going to get my barding. Then I’m going to sweep section three. Then I’ll come back and report in. Then I’ll go back to my parents’ house and cry.” He smiled weakly. “See, I have a plan. Woo.”

“That doesn’t sound good! I could help you get your barding or I could...” she bit her lip. “Sorry. Doing it again.” She rubbed a hoof against her other foreleg. He managed a small laugh. “Uh... Glad I could... help?”

“You did, a little. That just looks so out of place when a big, hulking guard does it.”

“What...? Oh! The barding. Right.” She nodded back at the castle. “Speaking of barding, you should go get yours. Just don’t walk in, that would look odd. And coming in so late is already bad enough. You should get going right away! Maybe you should make up a story about why you’re late, just in case. I can make one up for you. Let’s see... You were on the way when—”

He put a hoof on her shoulder. “Pansy, you have no idea how little I care right now.” She looked at the ground and whimpered. Oh great, now I went and made her sad. When would I ever do that? “Sorry... There’s just a lot going on.”

She didn’t look up and gave a little sniffle. “Yeah. I should get back to my post, I guess. Good luck getting your armor.” She turned around and slowly flew off, never looking back up.

Streamline left at a slightly different heading than she had, angling himself to pass over the armory. When he arrived, the quartermaster hoofed over the barding wordlessly. He watched dispassionately as Streamline equipped it. Then Streamline left, not having said a single word and not sure if he was glad to have escaped repercussions or not.

As he exited the building, he noticed a golden beam of light coming from Luna’s tower that passed out over his section of forest. Am I completely incapable of catching a break? He decided to start his search as far away from it as possible, just to be on the safe side. He started in section three, kilo and began to work his way out from the castle.

Making his way down the subsection, he didn’t notice anything unusual aside from how the forest looked different by the light of the ominous moon. He started back, only just able to make out the tops of the tallest towers. This is insane! Being out this far with only — he looked to either side — only one other guard in sight. If anything happens, we are so dead. Then, he heard the low howl from behind him that was in no way like a wolf’s. He turned and saw in the distance a colossal, dark tornado. It raced along under the golden beam, and he was uncomfortably close to it.

He stared, stupefied, for a few seconds, then said the one thing on his mind. “Buck!” Turning tail and fleeing, he angled downwards, trading altitude for speed. Silently cursing the aerodynamic shortcomings of the barding, he blew past the treetops. He clipped a few branches, but kept on flying, zipping over the unfinished Solar Shrine.

He could feel it gaining without even looking back. A disgusting feeling spread over his body, and his wings felt like they were infested with mites. Winds grant me speed! Please, I don’t want to die! The sensation grew more and more intense, his wings itching, burning. Breath coming in ragged heaves, his vision contracted until all he could see was the forest ahead of him and the castle that was growing closer far too slowly. The feeling reached a fever pitch, then vanished. Streamline cried out in relief, but a burst of air turned it to one of shock as it slammed him down into the treetops. He was dimly aware of the barding’s enchantments pulling his wings in and covering each of them in a thin shield.

He slammed against a branch and felt the barrier around his left wing crumble. Tumbling end over end the rest of the way, he crashed into the ground, right side first. The shield ran out, dumping him the last half hoof to the ground. Groaning, he staggered back to his hooves. He scanned the dark forest. “I’m alive... Well, doesn’t that beat all?” He didn’t need special training to tell him that the ground wasn’t where he wanted to be. Gotta get airborne ASAP.Now, where... is... an... exit? There!

With a grunt, he leapt back into the air and flew out of the small hole he’d left in the canopy. Taking a second to orient himself, he located the castle. What he didn’t see was equally important. How come there’s no sign of that tornado... thing? Shouldn’t there be a ton of uprooted trees? “Well, if there was ever anything worth reporting, this is it.” He set off for the castle. I just hope there’s some good news, like maybe that was all of it and it’s over. That’d be the best.

“... slamming me through the treetops. But I picked myself up... and came back to report right away.” Streamline gasped out. “Do you need any clarification... ma’am?” He couldn’t tell if Hurricane was looking at him with respect or amusement, but he was too tired to care. Please say that there’s time to rest.

“Good job, Specialist Streamline.” She cracked a smile. “I can see your dedication thanks to all the leaves and twigs still in your barding.” Just as fast as any trace of humor had appeared, it vanished. “But seriously, we still don’t know what’s going on. There could be more of these things. That could have been the first shot. There could be more on the way! We just don’t know.” She glanced down at his side then poked his left wing. He winced. “That’s what I thought.” She tossed her head in the direction of the door. “Go get that looked at. If it’s sprained I can’t have you flying on it.”

Streamline looked towards the door that Hurricane had indicated. Then he noticed the throng of civilians and guards on the periphery of the room. Whaaa...? How’d I miss that? I’m losing it. How long can I drag out a trip to medical? He turned to go but was stopped by Hurricane speaking up again.

“Hey, Stream, you done good.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “You didn’t hear this from me, but there might be a promotion in your future.” She drew back. “Now get going. Time’s a wastin’.” Streamline nearly smacked himself in the face when he saluted. A quick down stroke lifted him partially into the air, but then his wing cramped and he promptly fell flat on his face. He heard the distinct sound of armored hoof hitting a face. “Ow! Don’t make me make walking an order.”

He pushed himself to his hooves with a grunt. “No ma’am. I’m walking.” He went through the crowd, grateful that they were kind enough to get out of his way. He got out into the hall and was well on his way to medical when he faintly heard Hurricane yelling about four ponies apparently doing something wrong. Not my problem.

As Streamline walked into the infirmary he noticed that it was nearly empty. The only others in the room were Zephyr, who was laying on a bed, facing the door with his forehooves hanging off the edge, and two ponies asleep on the beds. Zephyr looked up from his bandaged hooves. “Hey, didn’t think I’d see you again tonight. Get into a fight with a tree?”

Oh no. “No, I just got back fro—”

“Don’t think I’m going to leaf that alone. It looks like it was a pretty twig fight.”

Streamline snorted. “I just need you to tell me if my wing’s sprained or bruised.” That won’t be enough to stop him... Uh... “What happened to those two?” He nodded at the sleeping ponies.

Zephyr motioned him over, making his bandage fall off. “Blasted gauze! You know how hard it is to bandage yourself? It’s—”

“Almost impossible, I know.” He sighed as he walked over. “Just check my wing.”

“I never expected such treetment from you.” He chuckled a bit. “Hold out your wing.” Streamline did, wincing. “Let’s see, you’re definitely going to need to preen, but you must’ve known that. Give me pitch. Up first.” Streamline twisted his wing as if to ascend, and stars danced across his vision. “Wow, that bad huh? Really made you bark in pain.”

“Zephyr.”

“Yes?”

“I hate you.”

“... Well, that makes this next bit even more awkward.”

Streamline exhaled heavily then breathed in deeply. When he finally spoke, his tone was strained. “Zephyr, if you make one more pun, just one, I swear on all of my feathers that I will break your left wing. I have no patience for this tonight.”

Zephyr’s wings shot up. “Whoa! No need to get violent! I’ll stop.” He looked up. “Damn. This looks really bad.”

“Why?”

He waved his currently un-bandaged hoof around. “Well, you see how my hooves are all burnt and stuff? Well, I can’t really use them right now, and... with a response like that, I need to feel along your margin to see if you pulled anything. So...” He jerked his head back towards his wings.

Streamline’s face scrunched up. “What’re you tryin’ to say?”

Taking in a deep breath, Zephyr started out slowly, “I’m... going... to... need to... touchyourwingwithmywing.”

“You need to do what with my—” His entire frame sagged. “Well doesn’t this just fit with the rest of my day perfectly?” He turned so that his left wing was facing Zephyr who shuffled around to get a better angle. “Just do what you have to.” They glanced at the other two ponies. Both of them were still asleep.

“Don’t worry about them. They had a bowl of hops each.” Streamline sighed. “No, you should worry that somepony else will walk in on us,” he said as he laid his primaries on Streamline’s carpal joint. He began gingerly working his way back towards the shoulder.

Almost immediately his wings started to rise unbidden. Sputtering, Streamline glanced at Zephyr, but he was intently studying the ceiling. Dammit, why does that feel good? Tonight is officially the worst night ever. First that stupid, horrible nightmare, and then smashing my head, and then my family’s gone, and then I make Pansy cry, and then, then I get chased by a buckin’ demon tornado thing, and then I crash... “And then to top it all off, I get felt up by a doctor.” Tears glinted in his eyes. “And it hurts.” His wings stood straight up, leaving his left one feeling ready to break off.

Zephyr hoofed him in the side and then winced. “Ow! I don’t know what you had to go through, but I think we all lost somepony. Well, I hope they aren’t gone gone, but...” He looked down at the floor. “Anyways, it sounds like you’ve been through Tartarus and back, so I’m really sorry if I said anything wrong.” He glanced back up. “I’ve got good news, bad news, and a bit of advice. Which do you want first?”

“I don’t know how much news I can take, so how about the advice?”

Zephyr laughed. “Good choice. So, something that broke through the barding’s shields probably drained most, if not all of its charge. It was probably heavier after, right?” Streamline nodded. “Yep, that’s what I thought. Now, you can’t be wearing depleted barding, that’d be really risky. This is kind of uncharted territory. As far as I know, there aren’t any regulations for what to do in this situation... yet. After what you pull — completely within regs — there will be, though.”

“I’m listening.”

“Instead of going and picking up a new set of barding from the armory, why not just...” he gestured vaguely, “wander around the castle and look for a unicorn to recharge it?” A sly smile spread over his face.

Streamline chuckled. “Maybe you aren’t so bad after all, when you’re not being insufferable.”

“I try. Now—” He went to bring his hooves together, only barely stopping them from touching. “Ha! Remembered that time. Anyways, I’ll give you the bad news first, get it out of the way. You’re going to have trouble ascending for probably a few weeks. Also, it’s just a bruise, so you can, and because of the lack of reserves right now, you will, be going back out on patrol.”

Streamline rubbed his temple with a hoof. “And what’s the good news?”

“It’s just a bruise, so it’ll get better!” Streamline opened his mouth to reply, but he got cut off by Zephyr. “Yeah, I know that was also part of the bad news. Basically, you’re just going to have to suffer through it.”

“Great, just great. Well, I think I’m going to take your advice and—” His ears swiveled to the door. “You hear that?”

“Yeah, sounds like somepony’s coming. Maybe you should get going, just in case they’re looking for you.”

The door slammed open and an earth pony guard thundered in. “Where is he?!”

Streamline’s wings flared and he cringed. “Oh, buck me! I didn’t even do anything yet!” He paled. “I mean... umm... uh...”

The guard shook his head. “No, not you. Adamant Resolve! We sent for him a few minutes ago! Where is he?”

Zephyr raised an eyebrow. “That so? He’s right over there, but Streamline’s the only pony that’s come through recently.” He looked over at Streamline. “You forget to tell me something?”

“No... I don’t think so...” Oh, great, I might’ve missed that. That’s it, I’m doomed. Again.

The guard waved his doubts away. “No, we sent another unicorn. Can’t seem to rely on them for anything though. Like this one. Lazy bum’s asleep!” He crossed the room to Adamant’s side and was just about to shake him awake when Zephyr imposed himself between the two. He hovered, giving the guard a withering stare.

“Oh no you don’t!” He pointed back at Adamant. “This stallion is in no shape to be up. I don’t know the specifics, but when he woke up he exploded his bed or something.”

The guard snorted. “And? So?”

“Well, aside from some minor puncture wounds from flying shrapnel, he took a pretty big piece of wood under the right shoulder.” Zephyr sagged. “Honestly, he’s lucky to be alive. If he hadn’t been in the same room as Pansy, he would’ve bled to death. Some idiot thought it was a great idea to try to pull it out.” He wiped a fetlock across his eyes. “I just can’t... Do they forget everything from basic?”

“So,” the guard began, “you’re telling me that he’s definitely out of commission.” Zephyr nodded. “Well great. I can’t wait to report that. He’s the third best shield caster.” He thought for a second. “Barrier caster? Whatever they call it, he’s really good at it.”

Streamline waved his right wing. “Hey, this on a need-to-know basis or...?”

“No, Princess Celestia gave the order for all combat ready unicorns to cast a shield around the castle. We’re not supposed to go outside it, too dangerous or something.”

“I’d say! You didn’t see what’s out there.” He shuddered, but inside he was jumping for joy. Yes! No scouting! More importantly, no more flying! He couldn’t stop himself from thinking the rest though. I’m just going to lie down on a nice, fluffy cloud and relax. The memory of Slipstream’s usual response to a hard day of training robbed him of his breath.

“Hey, Streamline, you ok? Not having a breakdown, are you? You’ve got that thousand hoof stare.”

“Huh?” Oh, he’s talking to me. “No. I’m...” He drew in a ragged breath. “I’ll be fine.”

The earth pony cut in. “Well, you better make it quick. Get yourself cleaned up. There’re so few combat-ready troops that anypony that doesn’t at least look busy is getting chewed out really badly. The officers aren’t doing anything about it yet but I guarantee that they’re keeping track somehow.” He blinked a few times at that. “I’ve probably been gone too long already! I’ve got to go. I suggest you do too.” He nodded to each of them then galloped out the door and down the hall.

They both watched him until he rounded the corner. Without turning in the air, Zephyr said, “Excitable fellow, isn't he?”

Streamline’s gaze didn’t leave the hall either, but he nodded. “Yeah. Any idea who he was?”

“Not a clue.” He nudged Streamline with a back hoof, mindful of his injured wing. “He’s probably right though. Go. Look busy. Use plan armor.”

Streamline looked up at him. “What? When did it get a name?”

“About thirty seconds ago. It’s got an acronym and everything! Awesome. Removal.” He cleared his throat and Streamline thought it sounded like he said “of.” “Myself. Off. Recon.” Zephyr groaned. “That sounded better in my head... Wait, does anypony with a higher rank than you have a name that starts with an ‘R’?” Zephyr found himself on the wrong end of a disapproving stare. “Sorry, I’ll let you go. But first, can you grab that for me?” He pointed to a bucket of water.

Streamline walked over and grabbed it. “Why, you thirsty or something?”

“Um, no. Well, a little, but more importantly, we need to get some ice on that bruise.” He sighed and said mostly to himself, “Sometimes I wonder if only medics have any sense.” He stared intently at the bucket. “Okay, now toss up the water— just the water, mind you. You’d be surprised how often ponies throw the bucket too.”

“I’m not an idiot,” Streamline huffed as he reared and tossed the water. It passed directly in front of Zephyr. As it did, he slammed his wings together with a massive downstroke, pushing him nearly to the ceiling and dispersing the water into a very dense cloud which immediately started raining.

“I’ve got this,” Zephyr said from the ceiling. He tucked in a wing and fell sideways through the air. As he passed through the cloud, Streamline could feel him pull off a quick one-and-a-half revolutions. The cloud dispersed in a wave of hot, humid air, and ice chunks of various sizes fell to the floor. Zephyr landed, balancing on his hind legs and flapped a few times to steady himself. Streamline felt his mouth hanging open and quickly closed it. Zephyr gave a mock bow. “Thank you, thank you. You’re too kind.” Slowly, a smile spread across his face, then he started laughing. He quickly got ahold of himself. “Sorry, it’s just that we medics have to do that a lot. Typically we use the roof, but I didn’t want to make you have to fly up there.”

Streamline looked up at the ceiling and judged it to be a couple hundred hooves high. “Yeah, thanks for that.” He scooped up a chunk of ice and tucked it under his wing and sighed. “That’s much better. Ya know what? I take it back. You’re not so bad.”

“Thanks. See ya around? Hopefully in a less professional way.”

“Maybe. I’ll think about it.” He sketched a quick salute, which Zephyr returned, then left. He seems like a decent enough pony. Just overfond of puns.

He trotted through the halls with no particular destination in mind. As he moved, he kept repositioning the melting ice, occasionally spreading his wing out and letting the ice rest on top, despite the pain. As time went by, however, he began to feel like he was doing something wrong. Damn conscience. Can’t even slack off when I have a good reason to. He turned down a hall that would take him to the armory. Might as well get that out of the way.

The hall led into a small open-air courtyard filled with unicorns. They all looked varying degrees of exhausted; some were leaning on pillars or walls while others sat on the ground. As he walked in, one pushed herself to her hooves and fired a beam of magic into the shield overhead. Hmm, she isn’t wearing barding... and she looks almost like... no. No way. “Excuse me, miss. I couldn’t help but notice that you aren’t part of the Guard. How is it that you know shield spells?”

She started to speak but got cut off by one of the guards. “I wouldn’t expect a pegasus to know a very important pony. She is Clover the Clever, student of the late Starswirl the Bearded, advisor of Princess Platinum, and one of the mares primarily responsible for Equestria’s existence. Maybe you’ve heard of her?”

She glared at the guard who had interrupted her. “That’s enough, Resilient. I’m sure that he meant no disrespect. You on the other hoof...”

“Sorry, Miss.”

Streamline waved it off. “Don’t worry about it. It’s been a long night and I don’t want any more trouble.” Luckily, Resilience didn’t say anything else, so Streamline continued. “Anyways, I’m glad to finally meet you. Pansy’s said so much about you.”

Clover laughed. “I bet she has! So, knowing Pansy and her less than enormous pool of friends, I’d guess that you are Streamline.”

“Living up to your name I see.” Clover chuckled weekly at that. “You okay?” He looked around. “You all look wiped out.” Several ponies grunted in affirmation.

“Don’t worry about us; we’ll be fine. But you look awful. Is your wing okay?” She looked at it intently. “Hmm. Is it a bad bruise, or is it a strain?”

“Uh, it’s a bruise. I got thrown into a tree by an evil, magic tornado.” Resilience and several other guards laughed.

Clover wheeled on them. Though the effect was lessened by her stumbling, it was more than made up for by the venom in her voice. “And just what are you laughing at? This stallion is hurt, and you think that’s funny? What is wrong with you? He’s clearly telling the truth. Look at this, and this, and this!” She pointed to various twigs and leaves still stuck in his barding. “You think he did this for authenticity?” She stared down each of the guards that had laughed until they apologized to Streamline.

Great, that didn’t get me any points. What did I get myself into?

She threw a foreleg around his neck and said, “Come on, let’s go talk about this somewhere where there aren’t so many neighsayers.” She walked him through the middle of the group of unicorns and out the other side.

I wonder if she feels the daggers they’re glaring. If she does, she’s doing a remarkable job of hiding it. They entered the hall opposite where he’d come in from, and Clover let out her breath in a rush. He ducked out from under her foreleg. “You didn’t have to do that you know.”

“I didn’t, but Pansy is my friend. You are Pansy’s friend. Ergo, you are my friend.” She nervously shifted back and forth, blushing. “... Well, at least I hope so.”

“I don’t see why not. You should meet my marefriend, Tempest. You’d probably like her.”

Her ears turned down. “Oh. Yeah. You’re probably correct. Based off the previous friend of a friend logic, it makes perfect sense. Now that you’re my friend, and she’s your friend, by extension she can be my friend. Perfectly logical. So, you were saying something about a magical tornado?”

Well, that was weird. Is she always like that? “Don’t forget evil. It was definitely evil too.”

“Could you describe it? I could use some data. Knowledge is power after all.” He gave her the same report he’d given to Hurricane, filling in some more obscure details she asked for while she took notes with chalk on a wall. As she looked over her notes, she said, “You mentioned that your barding’s thaumaturgical reservoir is depleted.” He nodded slowly. “I could recharge it for you. I did help design it, after all.”

Streamline did a quick double take. “Wait, you helped make the enchantments? Well, I should thank you for that. I don’t know what would’ve happened without it. My wing could’ve been broken or worse. So... Thank you. And don’t worry about recharging it; I wouldn’t want to impose. You already look pushed to the limits.” He gestured down the hallway. “I was actually on my way to get a new set. Unfortunately, there’re a lot of empty sets.”

Clover looked back at the courtyard. “I know what you mean. We have so few unicorns as is, but tonight... By my calculations, we won’t be able to keep this up for more than a few hours. Five would be almost impossible.” She groaned and rubbed her temple. “I just hope that Princess Celestia can stop whatever is the cause of all this, or, better yet, rescue Princess Luna.”

“We can only hope.” He looked down the hall. “I should really get going through.” He shook, and some of the few remaining twigs and leaves fell to the floor. “It was nice meeting you. See you later?”

“I’d like that... Well, good bye,” she added softly.

“Bye.” He turned and walked off towards the armory. Well, if anypony’s going to figure out what to do about a magical tornado, it’s her. Continuing to the armory, Streamline was disquieted by the lack of guards he encountered. How come those unicorns were pretty much the only other guards I’ve run into? I know we’re short, but this is ridiculous! Was there some order I missed or something?

As the armory doors came into his view, he saw the quartermaster in the middle of locking them. “Sir, why are you leaving?”

He turned to face Streamline then turned back to unlock the door. “I was leaving because everypony’s been reassigned to critical areas. But based on your barding’s condition, I doubt you knew that. It’s completely depleted, right?”

“Yessir.” Great. Just great. I’ve been missing orders all night, haven’t I? He banged his head against the wall a few times. Why. Can’t. Anything. Go. Right.

Without turning, the quartermaster said, “Quit that, you’ll give yourself a concussion.” The lock clicked and he pushed open the door. “Let’s get you another set.” Streamline complied and followed him in. Making their way to the section with barding closest to his size, the quartermaster sized up the damage to the armor, tisking and grumbling to himself. They stopped in front of the armor rack and as Streamline took off his barding, he calmly bore the stern reprimands he received. “Soldier, do you know how much work this will be to repair? Some of these gouges go nearly through the entire plate! The dent on the left side alone will probably take me a few hours to hammer back into shape adequately. What with it being so drained of charge, I’m of half a mind to just melt it down and start over.” He facehooved. “And that’s assuming that we survive the night.”

Well, that’s a grim outlook. Maybe an accurate one too. As he set the heavy barding on the floor, his gloomy thoughts were suppressed by relief, and he couldn’t help but sigh. “I’m sorry sir. I’ll try to avoid crashing at nearly lethal speeds in the future.”

“Specialist—” he said through clenched teeth “— you are pushing your luck.”

“My luck?” I have luck? “Luck. Ha. Ha ha. That’s actually funny, uh, Sir.”

The quartermaster lifted a hoof and looked like he was considering striking Streamline when he took a single, deep breath and settled for kicking Streamline’s discarded armor with a disgusted snort. “Just get your armor and get out!” Grumbling, the quartermaster took the ruined barding away.

Streamline hurried into his new barding, wincing as he was forced to contort his wing to get it through the slot. He sighed in relief as the enchantments took hold, dulling the pain and covering him in the faint tingle of the identity-obscuring illusion. Hearing the returning hoofsteps of the quartermaster, Streamline quickly left while it looked like there was time to escape any further beratement.

He made his way towards the throne room, calling to mind any contingency plans that might be relevant. Distressingly, only some of the worst case scenarios seemed to be good fits for what was happening, as the casualty rate was astronomical. Well, at least the portculli are all installed. I don’t think we’d have enough troops to guard everywhere without them. He rounded a corner and nearly crashed into one. “And apparently they’re all down now. Perfect.” Down the hall, he thought he saw a tail sticking out into the far-off intersection with another corridor. “Hey,” he yelled, “think you could open this thing?”

The tail disappeared and was replaced by a head. “What’re you doing out there?” she yelled.

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“Not interested. And I can’t do anything about it. This post isn’t going to watch itself. Just fly in.”

Grumbling to himself, he evaluated the wall before him. Well, it’s not too high. And I could just walk across the roof once I get up there. He winced, anticipating pain as he unfurled his wing. There was a small twinge, but it was much less than before. Thank goodness for unicorn enchantments. He took off and rose to the height of the roof then landed gently on it, knowing that despite the reduced pain, he was still injured.

Trotting across the roof, he searched for the place where he’d entered the throne room, but the tiered roof and the towers blocked his view. Okay, I think it’s over that way. He trotted off towards the center of the castle. Occasionally, he came across gaps between the building’s roofs, but he leapt up to the progressively taller ones. As he made his way closer to the center, a racket started up. Is that... cheering? Yeah, it is. After he’d landed on one of the tallest roofs, he saw the battlements of the inner castle and, more importantly, what was happening beyond them.

Enormous beams of magic lanced through the sky, one a brilliant gold, the other a silver-streaked indigo. They crashed against each other, throwing pony-sized sparks through the sky. The guards on the roof were cheering for Celestia, as who else could be sustaining an onslaught like that, while flying no less? Streamline stared, awestruck, at the titanic display of power. Whoever Celestia was fighting must be immensely powerful to have held out this long, but it looked like the fight would be over soon — the darker beam was being driven back.

Then it resurged. It swelled and somehow became darker than the void between stars. Barreling down on the source of the golden beam, it smashing its way towards Celestia. Cries of dismay turned to yelps of panic as the beams knocked out of alignment. The dark, larger beam ripped through the forest towards them, obliterating a wide strip of land. We are so dead. We are so dead. It thundered past, just brushing the edge of the shield, yet even such a small portion of its power was enough to instantly collapse the shield before it moved on.

We’re alive? Blinking a few times in shock, Streamline sprang into the air, the pain in his wing forgotten. There might be ponies over there that needed help, and he was going to be there to give it. Quickly winging his way over to the gash, he was surprised by just how little collateral damage there was. It looked clean-cut. There’s no debris. No scorch marks. Nothing. Whatever was there is just... gone. He shuddered. If anypony was there, they’re beyond help.

He turned back and saw that a good deal of other ponies staring at the chasm as he had just been. Slowly, they all seemed to come to the realization that there was nothing to be done.

Hurricane’s commanding voice roused them all to action. “Everypony, back to your posts!” Her voice dropped dangerously. “This could be it.”

Streamline hurried towards his best guess for where he was supposed to be. He saw a few other scouts flying off to one of the same fallback position he was and assumed that he was right. Ignoring both Hurricane’s call for a meeting with the brigade leaders and his slightly throbbing wing, he caught up with the group.

Razorwind questioned him as they flew back to their positions on the throne room's roof. "Where have you been? Why didn't you report to your post when the shield went up? Were you—"

"That's enough, Razor," Microburst cut in, imposing his small frame between the two other stallions. "I heard about what happened to him when I was briefed earlier. This guy's been through Tartarus and back. Had to go to Medical, probably Requisitions too, right?" Streamline mutely nodded as they touched down. "See?"

"But that shou—"

Microburst whipped his head around to stare Razorwind down. "Shut it. Tonight's been far too long already. You will not add to that. Is that clear?" His voice sounded tired, but dangerous, almost like he wanted an enemy that he could actually fight.

Looking over the stout stallion, Streamline saw Razor gulp before responding, "Yes, sir. Absolutely, sir."

“Still, Streamline.” Microburst turned back to face him. “Though you’re all beat-up, you were absent for too long. You’re probably going to be facing minor disciplinary action... assuming we survive. Which we will,” he quickly amended. “Now, fix your plumage. If you think you can pull off combat maneuvers like that, you’re wrong.”

“Yes, sir.” He sighed. Turning so that he would still be able to keep watch, he began preening his bruised wing. He winced sporadically, but the pain repressing enchantments kept the exercise bearable.

As he started on his less disheveled wing, a slight, but unmistakable tingle came from his armor. Along with it came the feeling of “return” and “home”. Glancing around, he could see that about half of the squad was turning to head back to the command post. Great, now what? He fell into step with the departing guards. On the way, they passed a squad of archer unicorns who wished them luck as they headed up to take their place. The way they said it sounded so... final. They continued on in silence, only broken by their hoofsteps and the occasional clearing of a throat which never amounted to anything. Before too long, they were standing at attention before Captain Hurricane. They waited while other pegasi scouts filtered in through the civilians. Streamline assumed they were from other, farther away posts.

When they had all assembled, Hurricane addressed them. “Alright soldiers, I’m going to level with you. You all know we’re down in numbers and facing a powerful and unknown foe. You all saw the shield come down. You know what’s on the line.” Several guards grunted in affirmation, but Streamline saw that many of the civilians were wide-eyed. Hurricane also noticed the crowd’s unease and moved to address it. “I’m not going to sugarcoat this: the situation’s bad. But, we will do everything we can to protect you. Isn’t that right, soldiers?”

“Yes, ma’am!” they thundered.

“Will we let anything past us?”

“No, ma’am!” they roared.

Hurricane waited for the echoes to die before continuing, softer than before. “I didn’t think so.” She took a deep breath and started pacing back and forth in front of their ranks. “Each of you knows why you’re here. You all represent the best scouts of your respective divisions. Tonight, you’ve had to cover more sky than ever before, and you’ve done so admirably. We now know this isn’t an isolated attack, and I salute those of you that escorted the refugees from the surrounding towns. But one of you...” she stopped directly in front of Streamline. “One of you did more than that.” Is she... motioning me forward? Yeah, she is. Okay, remain calm. He stepped forward and Hurricane resumed her speech. “This is—” she looked up, brow furrowed “—Streamline. Tonight, he’s been through Tartarus. He’s lost his family—” I never said that! “—discovered one of the enemy’s weapons—” More like was nearly killed by it. “—and nearly had his wing broken before facing down a manticore—” What? “—to bring us back the information.” It clicked. She’s trying to make me into some sort of rallying symbol! Okay, one, that’s kind of brilliant, because we really need one, and two, how the hay does a rallying symbol act? Um, let’s see... He tried to adopt the look of easy confidence that he’d seen on his father. Hurricane gave him a slight nod as she continued. “His courage and dedication is matched by all of the Guard. With us here to protect you, you don’t need to be afraid. We will never, never let anything harm you. We will make it through the night, and we will stop whoever is behind this.”

Streamline surveyed the front row of civilians, trying to catch their eye and maybe give them some confidence. Luckily, he didn’t need to; many of them were looking amongst themselves and giving each other small, confidant nods. Just before he started to fidget under so many watching eyes, he caught himself. Spotting Hurricane flicking her eyes between him and the ranks of guards, he stepped back with what he hoped was an inaudible sigh.

Hurricane turned back so that she was only facing the guards once more. “Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk deployment. It will be basically the same, except for those of you in squadrons three, seven, and nine. You will...”

As he was in squadron five, Streamline put into practice the fine art of listening for key phrases while not paying attention. As his mind wandered, his thoughts turned to his family, something he couldn’t afford when he was expected to remain stoic. He forced himself to think of what Biting Wind had made him repeat earlier. I will not fear. Fear is the little-death that brings total oblivion... Uh, stuff... Pass over my wings and I’ll be soaring higher. Dang it! How’d it go again?

“... and will be pairing off with three’s. Everypony knows” — Streamline’s ear twitched towards her — “what’s on the line. Now, get out there and find out what’s going on. It shouldn’t be too hard, considering that the attacks have been about as subtle as a supercell.” She paused before adding, “And don’t get yourselves killed; it’s not helpful at all.”

That got a few, quickly stifled chuckles from among the guards before they set off. Most chose to fly over the crowd, but a few, including Streamline and Razorwind, trotted out and down the halls. Once they’d gotten down the hall, and the other pegasi had split off to go their separate ways, Razorwind took a few quick steps and planted himself in Streamline’s way. Giving a low bow, he proclaimed, “O hero of our time, had I only known of your might and power I would have never thought to be so inconsiderate to you before.”

“Razor,” he huffed. “I didn’t ask for that, and I didn’t claim to have fought off a manticore. That was all Hurricane. Now, can you just let it drop?” Brushing past the still-bowing pegasus, he picked up his pace towards the nearest tower.

“Hey. Hey!” Streamline heard hooves scrabbling on stone as Razorwind hurried after him. “Our deployment’s that way, featherbrain.” He pointed back at the hall they’d just passed.

“I know that, Razor, but my wing really is hurt, and I’d like to avoid making it any worse than I have to.” He continued down the hall, leaving Razorwind behind. “Now, I’m going to use that tower to get as much altitude to start off with as possible. You can just be on your merry way down that hall, and we don’t have to see each other till we report back. Sound like a plan?”

There was silence from behind him for a few seconds, then the sound of retreating hoofsteps. He allowed himself a sigh of relief as he made it to the tower’s door. Placing one of his golden hoofguards on the lock, both glowed briefly, and he heard a click. After locking the door behind himself — he wouldn’t be responsible for a security breach — he climbed the spiral staircase. Wow, I wish there were some torches or something; it’s pretty dark in here.

Exiting the staircase, Streamline found himself looking directly out at his family’s house. He stared through the window at it for a few seconds before tearing himself away. Opening the ornate glass door to the balcony, Streamline strode out into the night. Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply as he spread his wings, letting the air currents play over his feathers. He breathed out. Then, he opened his eyes and took off.

Barely a minute after he’d gotten airborne, a strange feeling tugged at him. It felt like gravity was no longer pulling exactly down, but had been shifted slightly ahead of him. What the...? His eyes widened. A thin, blinding, line of pure magic speared out of the forest. He knew at once that it must be the Elements of Harmony. Their activation was not the sort of thing that could be mistaken for anything else. With that realization came another. The princesses are okay! We’re saved!

Recalling how exhausted Celestia had been after using the Elements late last winter, he realized that they would likely be in a similar state now, except this time, both of them were in the Everfree forest.

As he watched, the beam cut out. Focusing in on where the beam had come from, he tried to memorize its location in relation to various hills and tall trees; he’d need to be able to find it later.

Nodding to himself, he doubled, then tripled his speed. Typically, he would prefer to save energy for later, but this situation required speed. If I don’t get there in time, then the only ponies that I know can help my family... No. I will get there in time. He pushed himself harder. Also, that’s a little selfish of me.

He lost himself in the rhythm of flight. The minutes passed and the miles disappeared. As he passed a line of three unusually tall trees, Streamline slowed down. It was around here somewhere, but what if they moved? He scanned the ground for any sign of them and noticed a shock of white in a far-off clearing. Putting on a final burst of speed, he rushed to his princesses’ aid.

As he got closer and could make out more details, it became increasingly clear that something was wrong. Celestia wasn’t moving at all, and Luna was nowhere to be seen.

A pit of dread settled in his stomach.

Author's Note

A big thank you to my two editors, Cynewulf and AntiquatedAnnomaly.

Chapter Nine: Perspective (II)

“Princess, are you alright?” A pause. “Princess!”

Celestia struggled back to consciousness. Somepony needed her. Why couldn’t he have waited a few minutes? I still have to raise—

Her eyes snapped open, and she sprang up. Trees, underbrush, a small clearing, this was the Everfree, not her room. Her gaze settled on the guard that had woken her. Why is he staring like that?

“Your Highness,” he began, “where is Princess Luna?”

She didn’t answer, instead inspecting her surroundings. They were exactly as she remembered them, down to the crushed grass where she’d crashed and the broken branches from the influx of air. Looking up, she saw the moon, still high in the sky, despite it being past time for her to raise the sun. It still bore the image of her sister. No. Nononono. Stars, no. Luna, why? There had to be some sort of explanation. What was it Luna said? Something like, ‘Usually, the simplest explanation is the truth?’

She looked back out into the forest and yelled, “Very good, Luna! You almost got me. This is all very realistic, but then, you’ve always had the eye for details.” She waited for her sister’s response. Waited for a full minute. Finally, from behind her, the guard spoke.

“Um, Princess, I don’t mean to intrude on anything, but... what are you talking about?”

She turned back to him. “Oh yes, he’s a good touch too.” She kept her voice loud enough to be heard by Luna, wherever she was looking on from. “You chose a good rank, not too high, not too low. Very believable. Ha! He seems familiar too.” She lowered her voice and gave the guardspony a looking over. “Jet Stream, right?”

“Streamline, Your Highness. Jet Stream is my father.” He scanned the forest around them. “Princess, you don’t seem... well. I won’t pretend to understand that I know how the Elements of Harmony work, but I remember how exhausted you were after using them last. I highly recommend getting out of here as quickly as possible; if I’m remembering correctly, there’s both a hydra lair and a timberwolf den only a few clicks from here.” He stretched out his wings, grimacing when the left reached full extension.

“What did you say?”

“There’s a hydr—”

“Not that.”

His eyes widened. “I’m sorry, Your Highness. I should have never tried to guess what the Elements did. That was out of line. I cry your pardon.” He bowed his head.

Celestia barely noticed. She did feel like she’d just used the Elements. In fact, it felt much worse than usual. About twice as bad, now that she thought about it. Almost like she’d been forced to use them by...

Herself.

Her legs gave out, and she collapsed. Distantly, she heard Streamline yell something, but it didn’t matter. “Luna. Sister. Why?” she breathed. “What happened to you?”

“You don’t know either? We all assumed that she was captured, but—”

“No.” Her soft-spoken word silenced him. “No. I... She...” Tears brimming in her eyes, she looked to the moon.

Streamline followed her gaze and saw the moon’s newest features. “Wait... are you saying that she’s... gone?” She didn’t respond, simply cringing. “Princess, I’m so sorry.” He reached out, hesitated, then gently placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Your Highness, I... I have a little sister too. She means the world to me, and I don’t know what I would do if I lost her.” The hoof fell away. “Tonight, she was changed. Subverted? I don’t know how to describe it.” He sighed. “The only thing keeping me going right now is the hope that you or... That you can save her. Please, you have to get up. Princess. Your Highness, we need you.”

“She should be safe,” Celestia mumbled.

“What?”

“Your sister. She should be safe.”

He took a few deep breaths before managing, “Thank you. Thank you so much, Highness. But, how do you know? Was that what you used the Elements to do?”

She winced and looked away. The last few moments of the fight ran through her mind.

A chromatic spear pierced the Nightmare’s side. Her body cracked, dark tendrils of power writhing from the wounds. Slowly, she was pulled into the beam, a wordless, soundless howl forever incomplete as her body was destroyed.

She pressed her head against the ground and took a few deep breaths before answering, “It’s complicated, but... yes.”

“That’s okay, Your Highness. You can explain on the way.” She stared at him. “Or not.” He checked the forest behind him. “I’m sorry, Princess. I don’t know what to say. I just know that we need to get out of here; every moment we wait brings us closer to some monster finding us.”

“Then leave.” She waved him off.

“Your Highness, you know I can’t do that. I swore an oath to protect you, your si-country, and all its citizens. Right now, that means getting you back to safety."

I could order you to leave, she thought as she stood. She knew it wouldn't work; he would disobey it no matter how hard she pushed, and she was in no mood for a fight. "Fine, we will head back to 'safety'. The castle. How far?"

"Ten to twelve minutes hard flight," he answered reflexively. Her horn glowed, and he shouted, “Wait!”

They reappeared only thirty hooves above the ground, giving them barely enough time to get in a single downstroke before hitting the ground. Celestia was gasping in exertion. “That wasn’t... supposed to... happen.” She tried again, but the aura around her horn flickered and died.

“Your Highness, you’re exhausted. It will likely be a few minutes before any of the other guards get here, and a lot can happen in a few minutes. Please, we have to leave. I’ll do my best to ease your flight.”

“Yes. You’re right,” she said. “Thank you.” It sounded forced to her, and it was, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t say anything. She unfurled her wings and shook them out. A few weak flaps later, she was slowly making her way back to the castle.

Streamline joined her a few seconds later and took the lead. “Isn’t this much better? Nothing much to worry about up here. Only thing I can think of offhoof is a cockatrice, but nopony’s...”

Her wings locked halfway through their stroke, and she plummeted. Old instincts kicked in, and her flight stabilized moments later. I won’t be jumping at everything, will I?

Streamline swooped down to her side. “Princess! Are you okay? Was it a cramp? I could try to assist you more.”

She shook her head. “No, don’t. You just reminded me of something. Something I hadn’t thought of in a long time.” She sighed. “Let’s go. I have something I need to do.” More like a few things.

“Yes, Your Highness.” They set off again.

This time, Celestia felt a slight updraft. “You don’t need to do that.”

“I must respectfully disagree. I can’t have you falling out of the sky now; you’re too important.” Pointing out two rapidly approaching specks of white, he said, “Besides, I’ll be able to rest soon enough.”

As they grew closer to the castle, more pegasi joined them and the flight grew easier. Each of them had much the same reaction when they joined the formation, gaping at her before gathering their composer. Celestia wasn’t surprised. If she looked even half as bedraggled as she felt, she would be a pitiful sight indeed. Not only that, but she could feel the melted torc resting awkwardly over her right leg.

She pushed her discomfort from her mind though and focused on what she was going to say.

“Make way for Princess Celestia of Equestria, The Golden Light, The Fabulous Dawn, The...”

She walked right past the guard, not waiting for him to finish announcing her arrival. A mass of ponies rushed towards her, only to dead in their tracks.

She brushed past them. Keep putting one hoof in front of the other. Get to the throne. Reassure them. Keep putting one...

“My word! Whatever happened to your mane?”

She looked over her shoulder to see who had broken the silence, but then she saw her mane. Its normal pink was gone, replaced by a swath of pastels. She stared at it for a few seconds before dismissing it and continuing on. Does it even matter?

Reaching the throne, Celestia turned to face the crowd. They needed to be reassured. As she looked between them, she noticed that more than a few were fidgeting, while others looked around the room. There were a few coughs. Some conspicuous ones came from the nobles.

Her wandering thoughts snapped back to the present. I’ve just got to make it through one speech and then... something.

“CITIZE—” She flinched as all attention instantly focused on her. “My little...” No, that isn’t right.

“Today is a dark day. Princess Luna is...” What is she, really? Banished? Imprisoned? She might as well be dead. “My sister is gone. The terror of the night was her doing. Many of you were taken by her” — a shiver ran through a portion of the crowd — “or had loved ones who were.” She looked over to where Streamline stood.

“I managed to purge the darkness from you, but I could not cleanse my sister.” She looked down, bowed her head to the crowd. “I failed her, and I failed you.”

From behind, a pair of forelegs wrapped around her neck, driving her to her knees with an, “Oof!”

“Silly Celly, you didn’t fail us. You only failed Luna. But she’s your sister, so that probably made you sad, so here’s a you-aren’t-really-that-big-a-failure hug and a feel-better hug rolled into one.”

“Thank you very much, Puddinghead,” she responded through clenched teeth. “Now, I have a speech to finish, so could you...?” She made a shooing motion with her hoof. Puddinghead nodded quickly, then waggled her own hoof back and forth, just as Celestia had. “Puddinghead. Go. Please.”

“Okay, boss mare.” She leaned in closer and whispered, “But you might want to turn up the heat; ponies don’t like standing around in the cold.” She breathed out heavily and a small cloud obscured Celestia’s vision. She straightened up and saw Puddinghead already peeking out from behind the throne.

Turning back to the crowd, she noticed that she could see most of the ponies’ breath. Oh Stars, what if I still can’t raise the sun? Steadying herself, she addressed them. “As I was saying, I’ve failed, and if you want me to step down, I will.”

A chorus of “No’s” and “never’s” rang out. Among the nobles, it was far less enthusiastic.

“So be it.” She looked away from the crowd. “I just want this nightmare of a night to be over. When I find what really did this to Luna, you will know. Now please, find your families and be with them. Do it while you can.” She walked slowly from the throne to the hallway leading to Luna’s room. Nopony dared to approach her as she passed.

While she made her way to investigate what could have possibly lead to Luna’s actions, Celestia reached for the sun. Much to her relief, it rose smoothly. She stopped for a moment by a window and looked out at the dawn. “Why would you deny them this?” she asked the moon. It didn’t answer. “Fine then, I’ll find out soon enough.” It probably wasn’t even her, not really. She had been acting a bit strange lately. An idea struck her. It must’ve been something that she unleashed through a spell gone awry. That has to be it. Maybe... Maybe there will be some way to reverse it in her notes!

She picked up her pace until she was nearly galloping through the halls. She skidded to a halt in front of Luna’s door and yanked it open. She collected herself and walked inside.

Luna’s room looked just like when she had left last night, just without the golden path weaving through it. She pulled open drawers, searching for the one that held Luna’s notes on her magical research. It was a surprisingly difficult task. Most of them were filled with papers that she skimmed to be sure they weren’t important to her search. Gradually though, she found there was order to the stacks of paper and the binders of notes. Each drawer was separated down the middle by two binders, each of which had a summary of its contents on the first page. The papers next to it were always related to the contents of the binder. With that knowledge, her search sped up considerably.

After searching through three-quarters of the room, she found it, a drawer that was different. This one had a stack of papers and three binders. Picking up the first one, she checked what it was about.

“Disassociation through energy transfiguration and consciousness retention” headed the first page. Under that were descriptions of how Luna had felt while interacting with the magic when she’d encountered it during her fight with Sombra. That’s where you got it? Luna, why would you use this magic? He was evil!

As she read on, it became apparent that Luna had similar reservations. She noted how, despite retaining a vague feeling of how the consciousness sustaining bit of the spell worked from observing him start to cast it, she had started from scratch. In fact, it looked like any time her research had even seemed close to that feeling she’d stopped and tried something new. Looking at the dates, Luna’s progress seemed far too slow to have developed the spell. Only a page after Celestia thought that, there was a breakthrough in Luna’s notes. It was hastily scrawled, in stark contrast to the rest of her writing. She’d utilized her ability to dreamwalk, which was apparently a form of consciousness projection, using it to project onto herself.

She managed a short laugh. “Typical Luna.”

She flipped through the rest of the binder, but nothing seemed to be capable of making her sister lose herself. The spell was, in effect, a transformation. It was monstrously complicated, but it should have been safe.

Flipping to the final entry, she saw that it was about how Luna was just about to test the spell. But that was it. There was nothing else, despite there being plenty of pages left.

Checking the next binder, she saw that it was the notes on alicorn-specific magic that Luna had needed her help with. She put it down quickly and picked up the last one. This one seemed to be a journal. Looking at the first date, Celestia saw that it had been started right after Luna had returned from the Crystal Empire. She read through it, grimacing whenever she read something that had been struck through.

“They did care about you, Luna. They did!” A date caught her eye.” Wait, this is the day that she tested the spell. Did she write what happened in here instead?” She read on and felt the blood drain from her face. Her heart froze solid. A memory stirred.

She was sitting out on her balcony, having just raised the sun. Below her, bathed in dawn’s light, her light, was her fledgling country. She looked out over her kingdom, with its few roads connecting the scattered villages and towns. In her mind, it grew. Dirt paths became grand highways linking cities filled with ponies that never had to fear for their safety, never had to play Pony and Griffon to prepare for an actual griffon attack. And in her heart, she knew it would happen. The Stars had said that she would be able to change the world, so she would. A ghost of a breeze blew through her mane, and a faint smile touched her lips. “Surely, there is nopony as lovely and so well beloved as I. The Stars have blessed me. How can I let that go to waste?” She walked inside.

The memory faded away, leaving her staring at the pages. A drop of water hitting the paper startled her out of her stupor, and she dropped the journal back in the drawer. Out in the hall, a hoof stopped just before knocking on the door. Slowly, it lowered, and an ear was laid against the door.

“Luna, I’m so sorry,” Celestia sobbed. “It was never supposed to happen this way. I just wanted to help everypony. Why did it have to cost you?” She collapsed on her sister’s bed and breathed in, hoping to smell Luna. There was nothing but the faint aroma of clean sheets. Celestia heaved a shaky breath. “Why did it cost you?”

Burying her face in the comforter, Celestia found no comfort. Crying softly, she lay there until sleep eventually took her.

Celestia lurched awake and fell off the bed. She found herself in the dark blue embrace of... a blanket. She ripped it off and stood, surveying the room. The bed was in disarray, many drawers were hanging open, and papers littered the surfaces of the desks.

Luna would have a fit if she ever saw her room looking like this. She set to cleaning, putting everything back in its proper place. As she reversed the damage she’d done to Luna’s carefully ordered system, she passed by one of the drawers, not even glancing in it. Around half an hour later, she was done. Only one remained open. She looked between it and the door, wishing somepony would open it. Nopony did.

Even though she could feel what time it was, she walked to the window and looked out. It was early evening. She briefly considered going out to meet with her friends and advisors, but she quickly discarded the idea. No, they can handle things for a day. I need to stop making excuses.

She went to the lone open drawer. Luna’s journal sat inside, still open to the page Celestia had been on when she’d dropped it. She let her gaze rest on the pages, not taking in the words. When she finally picked it up it almost surprised her.

She read the first line on the page then remembered how she had nearly ruined the ink with her tears. She adjusted the book’s position to be more in front of her than below.

This time, she read a paragraph before stopping. I’m not just going to start in the middle, am I? I can give this the time it deserves. She flipped back a page. Like I never did for Luna, she thought sourly.

Flipping back one page at a time, she watched the dates creep back to when Luna had returned from the Crystal Empire. I saw her battered and nearly broken, and what did I do about it? Did I rush to her? Console her? Spend any time with her? A single, choked laugh escaped her and she nearly cried then and there. She restrained herself, though, and began to read.

Her restraint only lasted three pages. As she read, she found she had lots of time to think, as her vision often became too clouded by tears to make out the words. Did I really miss the signs, or did I just... not do anything about them? Deep in her heart, she knew that she’d seen them. I pushed her aside. I let my goals come before her well-being. I... I didn’t love her. Her thoughts tumbled around in her head, but they kept returning to how she could have intervened... and hadn’t.

As she reached where she had left off, she noticed that the sun was insisting on setting. Carefully, almost reverently, Celestia set down the journal. As she lowered the sun, she sent up a small light spell. She picked up the journal again and read a few lines. Off-balance, she stopped. Something's off. She poked around, sniffed the air. Cocking her head to the side, she listened intently. The only sounds that reached her were the faint sounds of ponies readying themselves for bed. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Despite that, her unease only grew. Her wings flared in agitation, sending a tickle of air across her back. It also sent a tickle of recognition across her mind.

It wasn’t that something was there that shouldn’t be. Rather, something was missing, but it wasn’t so much a thing as a feeling. The sensation of motion that always accompanied the moonrise hadn’t come.

Celestia realized that she had been staring at the pages before her without really seeing them for well over a minute. Shaking herself, she wondered, How long will it take to get used to that? It’s... It was what sent me to bed so many times. Thousands? Tens of thousands? Something like that. She chuckled weakly. Luna would have to work out the math once the question came up.

Focusing once more on the journal, she picked up where she’d left off. Coming to the summer months, she recalled how the nights had become more glamorous and less restful. Now, seeing it from Luna’s perspective, she understood why. Not knowing what to think, she continued reading. Eventually, late at night, she fell asleep on her hooves. The light went out, plunging the room into darkness as the journal fell to the desktop.

Celestia awoke, crying out, “Luna, I didn’t—!” She found herself reaching out to both the tatters of both her sister and her dream. In it, Luna hadn’t been a cackling madmare. She had simply been her little sister, and she had been pleading for help.

Celestia brought her hoof back to her chest, closed her eyes, and gradually slowed her racing pulse. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she crossed to the bathroom. She reached out to open the door with her magic and walked out into the hall. Her eyes shot open in realization when she heard her hoofsteps echoing down the corridor. Turning, she saw the door to the bathroom was on the opposite side of the room.

“Right.”

On her way back across Luna’s room, Celestia sent up a light, and as she opened the bathroom door, she created another. The sight that greeted her was pathetic. In the mirror, she saw how her usually pristine coat was disheveled and dirty. Her regalia had been reduced to melted lumps. But what really drew her eye was her pastel mane. Its colorful, shimmering length waved gently over her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed at it. So, this is to be my scar, my constant reminder of what I have done? It seems so... paltry. Well, if this is to be it, I should at least make an effort to see it. With a small force of will, she made her mane flow ahead of her and was immediately reminded of Luna.

Sighing, she went to remove her ruined jewelry. Her tiara ripped painfully from her head. She welcomed the pain, letting it bring her fully awake. She tapped the torc a few times, thinking. It hadn’t been designed to be removed. It also hadn’t been designed to be covered in armor made of magical fire. I may as well finish the job. She called on fire to melt it the rest of the way off. As the flames tickled over her neck, the gold softened. The lights she had put up gradually dimmed, then winked out. A moment later, the fire died too, plunging Celestia into darkness.

Did my magic just... give out? That hasn't happened in years. Decades even! She mentally plumbed the depths of her magical reserve and found it to be practically empty. It’s not that surprising, really, she rationalized. After all, I did use a tremendous amount of magic during th— the other day. Add to that whatever the Elements did to me, and it’s not that surprising at all.

Celestia sent up another light then slipped a hoof behind her cooling, semi-molten torc and pulled. It came off in large globs that she tossed into the onyx tub. Once it was all off, she got into the tub and scrubbed herself down. As she continued to get ready for the day, her stomach growled. Now that she thought about it, she realized that she was starving.

She doused the light as she passed through her sister’s room. Walking the halls in the pre-dawn light, she allowed herself time to savor the stillness. See, Luna? I appreciate your night.

She stopped.

Did I just make this about myself? I did. And even after seeing what she went through. It made caring about something like not eating for a couple of days seem petty. As if trying to prove her wrong, her stomach clenched again. But it reminded her of the time she had spent with Luna in a mountaintop cave, and she hung her head. As she trudged on, she raised the sun, taking solace in the fact that she still could. Had that particular ability been tied to her unicorn magic, it would have been a disaster piled on a tragedy.

“... but I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that despite all the possibility for unfortunate accidents, there were only a few major injuries.” He smiled hopefully.

Celestia blinked. The look on that stallion’s face seemed to call for some sort of affirming response. “Oh, yes. Very good.”

That didn’t seem to placate him, as he cleared his throat and asked, “Forgive me, Highness, but when will you be visiting the victims?”

Was that his question? Celestia wondered. He came in, introduced himself, said how sorry he was that Luna had gone bad — not as sorry as I am — and then... Ah, but who is he to know what it’s like to lose a sister? I’ve known Luna easily twice as long as he’s been alive. And she didn’t go bad, she just made a mistake. How is that her fault? Everypony makes mistakes sometimes. Hers was just bigg—

A cough interrupted her musings. “Sorry, dry air.”

The air didn’t seem too dry to Celestia. “Perhaps you should see the pegasi about that. I’ll be seeing them as soon as time allows.” He bowed and backed away. Celestia resisted the urge to yawn, but allowed herself a sigh as she surveyed the court. To her surprise, it was already early afternoon. Unsurprisingly, there were still many, many ponies waiting to talk to her. The next was already introducing herself.

This was going to be a long day.

The day was a haze; there were only a few things she could recall with clarity. One stood out more than the others, likely because she had been thinking about it for most of the night. It had been a simple question, but it turned her blood to ice. Soon after hearing it, Platinum had offered to take her place for the rest of the day. Celestia was grateful for that; she may have broken down in front of everypony without the intervention. Or had the intervention happened because she had broken down?

Celestia shook her head. It didn’t matter. What mattered was how dawn was coming and the moon, her sister’s moon, still hung high in the sky. Staring at it, at the image of her sister, the question burned in her mind. “Celestia, what will you do about the moon?”
What will I do about the moon? I should not do anything with it; it’s not my place. Yet I must. It’s not natural for it to stay up for so long, three days already. But I don’t know what to do. Would I just... reach for it?

That seemed like a reasonable place to start, as it was how she raised and lowered the sun. Reaching out, she subconsciously grasped the sun. She forced herself to let go of it and let her astral senses expand. Minutes later, the feeling she got from the space her senses went through changed. It felt more restful, peaceful. She knew that this was Luna’s domain. As she felt her way closer to the center of her sister’s part of the sky, the sensation changed, became more restless and angry. She reached the source, the moon.

Beneath the rolling jealousy and hate surrounding the moon, Celestia felt deep sorrow and hopelessness. More than that, she felt her sister, a welcome change from when she had fought her. At first, it gave her hope. Perhaps Luna was changing back. But the writhing sea of negative emotions surrounding her seemed to suggest otherwise. Perhaps, she thought darkly, she was blocking herself off, and, now that she has no body, she can’t anymore.

I just wish I could do something for her. At the edges of her mind, she felt the first hints of the sun needing to rise. I will do everything in my power to help you, sister, but now, I must do this. She extended her aura to encompass the moon. Through the roiling malaise surrounding it she could find no purchase. Try as she might, she could not grasp it like she could the sun; her sister threw her off each time she tried.

Celestia couldn’t blame her. The whole thing was wrong. There was nothing she could do about it besides apologize and beg forgiveness, even though it wasn’t deserved.

She let her emotions pour into her aura, looked to the moon, and sang.

Fate has been cruel and order unkind

How can I have sent you away?

The blame was my own; the punishment, yours

The harmony's silent today

But into the stillness I'll bring you a song

And I will your company keep

Till your tired eyes and my lullabies

Have carried you softly to sleep

Once did a pony who shone like the sun

Look out on her kingdom and sigh

She smiled and said, "Surely, there is no pony

So lovely and so well beloved as I"

So great was her reign and so brilliant her glory

That long was the shadow she cast

Which fell dark upon the young sister she loved

And grew only darker as days and nights passed

Lullay moon princess, goodnight sister mine

And rest now in moonlight's embrace

Bear up my lullaby, winds of the earth

Through cloud, and through sky, and through space

Carry the peace and the coolness of night

And carry my sorrow in kind

Luna, you're loved so much more than you know

Forgive me for being so blind

Soon did that pony take notice that others

Did not give her sister her due

And neither had she loved her as she deserved

She watched as her sister's unhappiness grew

But such is the way of the limelight, it sweetly

Takes hold of the mind of its host

And that foolish pony did nothing to stop

The destruction of one who had needed her most

Lullay moon princess, goodnight sister mine

And rest now in moonlight's embrace

Bear up my lullaby, winds of the earth

Through cloud, and through sky, and through space

Carry the peace and the coolness of night

And carry my sorrow in kind

Luna, you're loved so much more than you know

May troubles be far from your mind

And forgive me for being so blind

The moon calmed, and Celestia found that she could take it into her grip. She gently wrapped it in her embrace. It wasn’t quite a hug, but it would suffice. Guiding it down, she continued.

The years now before us

Fearful and unknown

I never imagined

I'd face them on my own

May these thousand winters

Swiftly pass, I pray

I love you; I miss you

All these miles away

May all your dreams be sweet tonight

Safe upon your bed of moonlight

And know not of sadness, pain, or care

And when I dream, I'll fly away and meet you there

Sleep…

Sleep...

Letting go of her sister was the hardest thing she had ever done, made worse by how easy it had been. Without thinking about it, her aura flew back to the sun. Celestia lay down and let the tears flow until she could remain awake no longer.

Author's Note

If you haven't heard this song, you're missing out. In fact, without it, Paradise Sundered would have never existed; it was my inspiration. I highly recommend giving Lullaby for a Princess a listen.

Another big thanks to my prereaders, AntiquatedAnnomaly, who is setting up an epic you might want to see, and Cynewulf.

Epilogue

I hate being hypocritical.

Celestia lay on her bed, staring at a slew of dusty, old books. She already had most of them memorized, so she wasn’t sure why they were all open. She supposed it was because today was The Day. It wasn’t the first time Celestia had found herself in a position that nopony else could truly appreciate. Still, preparing for hundreds of years and then finding herself unable to do anything when the time came was maddening.

Looking over the open books, she was faintly surprised. Her writing had changed over the centuries, matching the vernacular of the time. Whenever she read from the older books, it felt normal and strange at the same time. She knew that the words and phrases were different from what she used now, but she remembered writing them as if it had happened weeks ago.

I’m just glad that there’re still some things that manage to surprise me.

Celestia glanced over at the one book that she wasn’t done writing in. Though it lay at the most recent end of the line chronologically, it was written in the same style as the oldest of them. It had occupied all of her attention for the past week. Responding to that letter a minute ago had been done hastily to get back to being indecisive about to write next. To be fair, it had been on her mind since she finding Her, The One. That She had been so young had been another surprise, but the Stars’ message had been amazingly clear once she had thought about it.

At least, she hoped.

Now, her Faithful Student was going to do what she could not. All she could do was write.

What am I even writing, she wondered for the thousandth time. Is this an apology? A cry for forgiveness? Informing her what’s happened?

Whatever it truly was, she knew it must be perfect. That was why she had already burnt, thrown out, or otherwise trashed more versions of this one book than she cared to remember. This would have to be the one, however, as there simply wouldn’t be time to do it over again. She knew what she still had to add; she’d built the final plan over the past months and years.

She picked up her quill.

November 26

After seeing how well writing a journal went for Luna, you’d think that I would be more hesitant to start one for myself. But, after days of having to hear how sympathetic everypony is, I couldn’t take it. Hearing that they’re sorry for me just makes it worse. I failed Luna, not the other way around.

I shut myself down. You’d be surprised how well I can hide my feelings now. Or, maybe you wouldn’t. I have had a lot of practice.

It’s helped, for the most part. Only a few dozen ponies try to cheer me up now. First and foremost among them is Puddinghead. Bless her heart, she tries. Largely though, ponies try to avoid me. I’m learning what she went through, the fear in place of respect, the bows being automatic rather than natural. Still, I dare not soften my mask... Doing so would only end in tears. Tears and sympathy. Sympathy and guilt.

January 18

Now I see why the pegasi still prefer the oral tradition to the written word. Without unicorn magic, writing would be a hassle. Speaking of unicorn magic, it seems that I do have another, less visible scar. When I tried to teleport out here, to Cloudsdale, I just couldn’t do it. Clover suggested it was possible that the Elements may have burnt out the majority of my magic. That certainly seems possible. Should I also mention that the Elements themselves are little more than rocks now? Luna would know; she was always so good at this sort of stuff.

Come to think of it, I don’t even know why I’m here. The only reason I had for coming was to help heat the city. Pegasi may be particularly tolerant of cold, but they have their limits, and homes made of clouds are not known for their insulation.

I guess I just needed to get away from the castle. “The castle.” Who am I kidding? That castle was always Luna’s. Anyway, Platinum and Clover will be able to take care of anything that comes up while I do what I can to help. I may not be able to do it all at once, but in small blocks might work.

Now, if only I could get a hang of managing both of these auras.

March 2

You’ve never had a civil war fought in your name, have you, journal?

I didn’t think so.

As bad as it sounds, it feels worse. I want to just admit that they’re right, that it was my fault, but if I do... If I do, everything would come crashing down. This conflict — I don’t know if it really qualifies as a war — is already dividing the races. Can I admit guilt without destroying everything we worked for? Can I let this destroy everything we worked for? No.

No.

I’m sorry, Luna. I’m sorry, Clover. I’m just so sorry.

April 7
“Solar Era” 1

It didn’t last long. There were so few that sympathised with Luna that it’s a surprise it even lasted this long.

What do I feel, now that it’s over? Relieved that the senseless bloodshed is finished? Disgust that it even happened in the first place? Both? Neither?

Then there’s the response the citizenry had. The parade. To their credit, they demanded banishment, rather than execution, for the prisoners that were captured.

I went to them, the prisoners, told them to go with my blessing. They spat at me, and I allowed it. I let them hate and rage at me for hours. But it gradually faded. I think, by the end, they understood. But who am I to guess at what lies in the hearts of ponies? If only I had known what was in Luna’s heart...

October 31
Solar Era 1

One year.

November 1
Solar Era 1

What does it say about me, journal, that I could only manage two words? An entire day and only two pathetic words. She deserved better, more, not what happened a year ago and not what happened yesterday.

The Night of Nightmares.

Never has something been so aptly named. I didn’t allow myself to sleep, fearing what it would bring.

Luna, if only you were here to guide me as you guided so many others. Dear Sister, I would never let you go, never again.

But I digress, as I often do now. The citizens all gathered, yesterday, to recount the horror stories you subjected them to. I listened for hours, felt like years. I’d heard some of the stories before, of course, but I’ve never understood how a pony so kind as you could think of such horrible, awful things, how you could subject anypony to such torture. As I listened to them, one after the other, I noticed something I never had before. All of them, every single one, all of their nightmares had one thing in common. Each of them was alone or had been abandoned. If only I had seen your loneliness.

How could I have been so blind? And when I failed you, Sister, why? Why? Why not speak up? Now we’re both relegated to this anguish for Stars know how long.

This nightmare won’t last only a night.

April 17
Solar Era 11

A messenger of the Stars came, bearing a prophecy. “On the longest day of the thousandth year, the Stars will aid in her escape, and she will join you.”

I knew it would be a long wait, but this...

The ponies I see around me, their great-great-great-grandchildren will be dead, buried, and long-forgotten before even half that time has passed. Must I wait so long for you to join me once more? Every night, every time I raise the moon, it hurts.

To live a thousand years this way is...

I almost wish she had ended me.I wish she had killed

I wish she was here.

January 15
Solar Era 48

This year, I was finally dragged out to “enjoy myself” by the new chancellor. Bread Pudding (no relation to Puddinghead) is trying to follow the precedent set by Puddinghead, cheering me up. For the record, he’s doing a terrible job of it. I can forgive him for reducing my load of paperwork. How was he to know that is one of the few things that I can do to feel near to her again?

Stars, that seems bleak when penned.

At least he hasn’t tried to stop me from singing you back to sleep, Sister.

But I cannot abide by this mockery, this besmirchment of Luna’s good name. This vile, repulsive, repugnant, unpalatable, intolerable, contemptible piece of shit that he dared to drag me to, this “Hearth’s Warming” play.

His chancellorship will not last the week nor will that abomination ever be seen again.

January 16
Solar Era 48

He didn’t know. He simply didn’t know.

I have never felt as old as I do now. How do you explain to somepony that their whole life has been filled with cruel lies?

Apparently not as I tried to.

If the pony who once turned down the title of “The Orator” by giving a speech can’t convince who is supposed to be her trusted advisor that her sister was not a queen leading the windigos to destroy us and was not, in fact, evil, what does that mean?

What more can be done than explain how Luna wept herself to sleep at night, how she had not wanted to bathe the world in ice but had to be convinced, how the one truly responsible was standing before him, guilty as sin?

His only response was a look of pity. It was not one given out of sympathy for loss. No, this was a look one would give the hopelessly deluded. I don’t even know what to do.

Luna, I need you to help me make sense of it all.

June 20
Solar Era 58

Nopony understands. Not a one. All for nothing.

October 31
Solar Era 58

If I cannot save Luna’s memory, perhaps I can save her. Damn the Stars and their thousand years! I will find a way to free her myself. I may no longer have the magical might. I may no longer have the Elements. I may be attempting the impossible. But I have the time. Oh yes, time I have. I’ll spend it all to hasten her return by just a day.

September 12
Solar Era 103

The years have nearly paid off. I am almost done, just need to find the perfect three. A unicorn, powerful, wise, magical. A pegasus, fast, passionate, kind. An earth pony, strong, indomitable, loyal.

When I do, oh Luna, you’ll be back. Accursed Stars, I’ll show them!

Soon now.

October 3
Solar Era 103

Tonight, Luna, tonight I will see you again.

They’re at the door, waiting like good fillies. Friends already, look at them. They don’t, no, can’t consider that Luna is responsible for that. Already taking her gifts for granted. Just like everypony always did. Like I did.

No more.

These three will bring you back. You’ll see how clever I was, piecing together everything. I took your research places it never went. Aren’t you proud? You will be, when you’re back.

Time to make the trade. See you soon, Sister.

(October 4?
Solar Era 103)

Of course Sister you’re worth more more than three yes more so much more. I can get more many more much more it will be enough this time. Of course you’ll see. You’ll see me and I’ll see you and we’ll be together! I like that. Together. together together together together together gather the fillies and colts together bring them to the mountain together send them away together then we’ll be together yes good We’ll show them that you’re good. We’ll do it... together! hahahahahaha That’s how we’ll laugh at them for being wrong. And we’ll do that together too! I should get them now. Yes. No? You’re right I do need them to be perfect. You do give the best advice. Nothing but the best for you. Don’t worry I know where to look.

(October 21?
Solar Era 103)
Dear Luna,

I write to you, tonight, rather than sing. I cannot bring myself to do it.
Forgive me.
Were they worth too little?

This will be my last entry. I have done too much and too little. I have ended too much and not enough. I have killed hundreds. I thought they

It does not matter what I thought, only what I did. So many parents left without their foals. So many tiny beds empty. So many stains on my soul.

Their parents will not forgive me. I do not forgive myself. What I did cannot be forgiven.

If I were to hear of some insane criminal who had done even half of what I had done, I would not hesitate in my sentencing. I will not hesitate with my own.

When you return, Luna, I would beg for you to remember me as I was.

Goodbye.

November 7
Solar Era 103

Some goodbye that turned out to be. I couldn’t even get that right. My unfortunate resistance to poison kept me going until “help” arrived. Still they remain, watching me, preventing me from attempting it again. There’s always more of them. They never sleep.

I think they were told that it was an assassination attempt.

They would stop me if I tried again. I don’t know why, though. Don’t they know I deserve it? I know everypony knows of what I did... Stars, what I did.

Maybe they think it would cause more unrest if I die. I don’t even know anymore. I just want it all to be over. I can’t lead. I can’t help. There’s nothing for me. Why didn’t they just let me die?

February 9
Solar Era 104

Can you see them, Luna? Do you watch them die from the cruel prison you have been relegated to? This war they fight over us... my fault, like everything else.

Do you cry for them?

I wish I could, but all I feel is numb. I wish I could understand, but nothing makes sense. I wish I could see you, but...

April 19
Solar Era 104

The rain outside can’t wash away the blood of thousands. That blood was spilt in my name by my “supporters”.

I can sink no lower. Sending you away, murdering, instigating wars... What have I become? I just wanted to make everypony safe and happy. I just wanted you back.

These things are beyond my limits. I know that now. Do you hear me, Stars? I know my limits.

And I know what happens when I go beyond them.

Never again.

May 12
Solar Era 144

I should go out, according to (Chancellor) Feldspar. The ponies need to see me helping, he says. But I “helped” Equestria right into this situation. I can’t trust myself to do anything but the same again.

Equestria is on shaky hoofing as it is. I keep getting reports of griffon incursions. Many pegasi are wounded, and we are slowly losing control of the weather. If this situation isn’t changed somehow, the winter will surely bring famine and more deaths than even the war. Without you here, Luna, it will be so much harsher than what we put them through.

I have to do something.

I want to help.

Maybe there is something I can do, something small, something within my limits. Give a speech, provide an example... I can’t do all of it on my own, but together, we can.

May 16
Solar Era 144

I truly have become selfish. “Find a family you can help. Help them, and they will help you in turn,” I said. “I will lead by example,” I said. How could I have guessed what awaited me at the first household I visited?

That earth pony couple and their daughter, no older than Luna was when our lives were upturned, opened their door to me and invited me in. Their filly, Greener Fields, spoke to me so bravely, so like you.

She lost her older sister in the war.

I wept. There, in front of them all, I wept for her, for you... but mostly for myself.

And that little filly, so like you, comforted me.

I did the only thing I could. I took them back to the palace with me. I gave them your rooms. I don’t know if I could live without Greener Fields, having met her. That filly fills a sister-shaped void in my soul.

February 28
Solar Era 145

Today, my Faithful Student said how she was glad to get away from her old home. She said that it was easier to live with the memories being distant. She couldn’t have know what that would mean to me... or perhaps she could. That filly always surprises me.

The rest of the day, I could only see where Luna and I had sat together, where she had read, where she had leaped from the balcony and taken flight. The memories are all still here. They pull at me every day.

Some of the memories have teeth. When I look out and see the great gash left in the earth I...

I should not be in this place. It was yours and later ours, but it was never mine.

Luckily, being the princess of an expanding country has its advantages. Building a new capital city in a more central location will be a welcome decision, I think. A third of this one’s population is completely mobile, and the other two thirds would gladly accept leaving the Everfree and not needing to be on guard all the time. Everypony will see this as a good and wise decision.

I don’t know if I should laugh or cry at that...

January 25
Solar Era 152

I am surprised it took my Faithful Student so long to bring up how she was a substitute for you. But after that play, thankfully changed for the better, she did mention it. Bright mare that she is, she probably knew all along and never said anything until today. Greener Fields said she knew that she was the little sister I had lost and couldn’t forget and that, to her, I was the older sister she could barely remember.

Things changed after that, not much, but they did. Somehow, speaking of that unspoken arrangement altered it, and it won’t be the same again, I fear.

June 3
Solar Era 153

We both saw this coming. She was growing up. Greener Fields needed to live her own life.

She left me a present, a doll of you, made it with her own hooves, I think. I must have crushed the poor thing when I hugged it. It looks a little flatter now.

I think it is time for a change of scenery. The new castle is mostly complete, last I heard. I think I will go, support the builders and so forth.

September 7
Solar Era 154

Stars, it’s been a while since I last wrote in you, journal. You’re supposed to provide an ear... or page, I suppose... to listen to what nopony else will, right? Since Greener Fields left, I just realized stopped fooling myself. She was just a way to make things right by finally being a good older sister.

And you won’t judge me, journal, when I tell you my darkest secret, will you?

There were times, weeks even, when my Faithful Student was all that mattered, when I even forgot you, Sister. It was only when I felt you beginning to wake from the peaceful slumber I put you in and you raged again that I remembered you.

I would rage too, Luna. You deserved better than a sister who forgets you.

Greener Fields deserved better than a teacher who used her as a crutch.

Equestria deserves a better princess than I can be.

What does everypony see in me? Everypony I love ends up hurt or alone or both.

I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before I find out how I hurt Greener Fields.

It will be just like how I hurt the stallion in charge of building castle Canterlot. After being there so long, after “helping” so much, after just being me, he lost the ability to direct his workers. They only look to me now. I don’t know why. I’m no architect. I’ve never built a castle.

Luna did...

I think it would be best to simply remove myself. I can go up north to keep watch for that little filly and visit the small guard contingent who do the same so thanklessly.

May 12
Solar Era 538

Luna, could you ever forgive me? I don’t even know how long my most recent crime against you has gone on for, and that is a crime unto itself.

I no longer sing you to sleep for your sake. I don’t even do it for my own. It has simply become a... a habit, a thing I do reflexively.

I will try to recover the feelings I once had, but it has just been so long...

November 13
Solar Era 982

Too long, journal. Centuries too long. I have spent most of my life waiting. Waiting for Cadence. Waiting for some message from the Stars. Waiting for you, dear Sister.

At last, I wait for Cadence no longer.

But it has been far, far too long. Generation after generation has gone past and faded, but only now does the one pony who will not fade away appear. If only she had been here before.

I suppose that late is better than never.

As I write, she is curled up at my side, asleep, finally peaceful. When the guards brought her back, she was crying about her “auntie Luna”. The guards were understandably confused. Once she laid eyes on me, she only said “auntie” and ran to me.

What could I do but comfort her and take her under my wing?

The poor filly doesn’t seem to be quite complete. Her memory has gaping holes in it. From Luna’s journal, I do not think it would be wise to try filling them in. Some things are best forgotten, I think. But deep down, I believe she knows that something is wrong. She clings to me even now in her sleep. It is as though she fears that I will leave her.

Fear not, Cadence, my niece. I will find a way to make this right.

Because perhaps... I dare to hope... she is the answer to my prayers. Perhaps she arrived so close to Luna’s return for a reason. The Stars work in mysterious ways, after all. I am living proof of that.

She whimpers in her sleep on occasion, and I cannot help. That is something only you could can do, Sister.

She had nopony. I had nopony.

We have one another now.

I think things may be looking up.

October 31
Solar Era 983

For the first time in so very nearly ten centuries, I have had more of a connection to my sister than the cold reminder of her quietly seething moon as I am forced once more to go through this “celebration”. This year, this beautiful year, I am able to cradle to my chest a pony who was embraced by you, Sister.

There are some things that not even a Faithful Student can replace, though I do so love Sunset for trying.

But she is not my darling little princess Cadence. I don’t know that I have ever thought of anypony as a daughter before, but raising this wonderful child for nearly a year, taking care of her and trying to fill in some of the gaping holes in her past... I call her daughter deep in the recesses of my mind.

Soon, Sister, we will be a family just like we dreamed so long ago.

November 13
Solar Era 983

Today was the day we decided to call Cadence’s birthday. When she blew out the candles on her cake, I nearly wept. The poor filly... She didn’t need to tell me what she wished for. It was the same thing she wishes for every night. But despite her wishing, the memories do not come. Whether that is for better or for worse I can only guess.

If only I had been there with Luna when she went north. Maybe then none of this would have happened.

June 24
Solar Era 987

This was a long time in the coming, I suppose. Oh, Sunset, I am sorry. I let you become the latest addition to the list of those I’ve hurt. If only I could make up for what I did, for what I should have done.

I wish for the days when Sunset was my Faithful Student, and she and Cadence could play together without jealousy. Those were the good days. Watching the two fillies play was always such a joy... But looking back, I can see all the signs.

That seems to be the story of my life. Always “If only I had known.” Always “If only I had seen.” Always “If only I had been there.”

This time, if only I had known how slighted, how unimportant Sunset felt beside Cadence. If only I had seen Sunset taking Cadence’s crown for what it was, a cry for attention. If only I had been there for her when she needed me.

Poor, poor Sunset. Now she, too, is beyond me, gone to a place I cannot go.

She was so like you, Sister.

And Cadence was like me, I think. When she found that her friend whom she had known since her arrival was gone, she went to keep watch by the portal. She says she will keep watch every time it opens, and I don’t doubt her for a minute.

August 26
Solar Era 990

Dear Stars, it has begun, a sign at last. I would have never thought... a tiny filly. She is the one. The one who will reunite us.

The Stars truly wanted to attract my attention, a Sonic Rainboom, the first in ten or so generations, and a flare of magic the likes of which I have not seen in three or four centuries, on the same day, no less. They led me to her.

She must be it.

I did not see it at first. I thought that she would just be my newest Faithful Student and maybe, I hoped, a companion for Cadence.

But when I walked from the room, I was stopped dead in my tracks from the revelation. Her cutie mark was the Stars themselves. There have been others with stars as their cutie marks, but these circumstances... It can only mean one thing.

She must be ready.

January 16
Solar Era 991

I can’t help but think that She doesn’t... understand the point of this latest version of the Hearth’s Warming play. She only seemed to care about the “windigos” and how their biology worked and the spellwork behind the Hearth’s Warming Heart. There were no questions about how the ponies could live apart like foals usually ask.

I am beginning to wonder how She can be The One. I thought that She would be... more, somehow. She is so intelligent and perceptive, but She is just missing something. It took so long for Her to get along with Cadence, but after they bonded, things turned around, so I remain hopeful.

But there are so few years to get Her ready. She will be so young...

June 20
Solar Era 1000

Tomorrow. It is all out of my hooves now.

Luna held the slim volume in her hooves, not trusting her magic yet as her form continued to fill in. Celestia watched as a range of emotions crossed her sister’s face. Shock and sorrow were predominate among them. Sometimes Celestia caught a hint of anger from the twitch of her sister’s ears.

When Luna reached the last page then looked up, Celestia could not read what was in her sister’s eyes. Luna slowly closed the book and laid it down. Then she rose and wordlessly walked from the room, not closing the door as she left.

Celestia watched her go and reached out weakly as her sister left her. Then she slowly pulled her hoof back to her face and began to weep into it.

She lay like that, sobbing, for a time until she felt a light contact on her nose. Blinking her eyes open against the tears, she saw a butterfly had landed on her. When its wings flicked open, she saw a pair of pink and midnight blue flecks.

Celestia’s breath caught in her throat. She surrounded the butterfly in magic and felt a thread, strong and true, trailing out of the room.

Deep, wordless joy filled Celestia as she leapt up and galloped out of the room, following the magical string.

Luna was waiting.

Author's Note

And so ends the story of the two sisters. Together after so long.

To everyone who stayed with me, I thank you for your patience. To my editors, Cynewulf and AntiquatedAnnomaly, who helped me improve my craft, I thank you. And a special thanks to SlyWit as well.

And to see where this story leads, you need look no further than this.

Victory!

Paradise Sundered

Chapter One: Victory!

“It’s over. It’s finally over!” Celestia slowly turned to her sister. “Luna...”

“I know... Wait, can you feel that Celly?”

“Feel what? Oh, oh! The connection, it’s back!”

“Yes!” Luna beamed ear to ear. “I can feel it’s supposed to be day.”

“You take down the moon. I’ll fix the sun.”

Celestia looked at the orange sky. The Elements hadn’t fixed all the damage Discord had done to the world. The sun and the moon were still whirling around in erratic loops, often eclipsing one another, Discord’s latest subversion of the natural order. The sisters reached out, and the motion of the celestial bodies slowed. At Luna’s coaxing, the moon slid beneath the horizon. Celestia searched the sky to find her charge, feeling like she was stretching an unused muscle. A few moments later, the sun came to its spot high in the sky.

“Luna, you make it seem so easy!”

Luna blushed and hid behind her ethereal mane. “It was nothing special, really.”

“Nonsense, after all these years, your skills haven’t degraded at all. You should be proud!”

“But, Celestia, look.” She pointed behind her sister. “Those things are still here.” Celestia turned to look. A flock of notebooks flew over a distant field, raining symbols and glyphs that gave them a headache just glancing at them.

Luna shook her head to clear it. “The Elements didn’t do their job! And I was so sure of my design.” Massaging her temple with a hoof, she looked at the ground. “My failure will get so many ponies hurt trying to clean up this mess.” She looked back up at Celestial. “Wait. Wait, I can fix this. I know how!”

Celestia blinked a few times, trying to guess what her sister had thought of this time. “You’ve thought of a way to improve the Elements? Or did you conceive of a new field of magic... again?”

“No, nothing like that, I just realized that by reworking the original Elements’ ley lines into a more stable matrix and then rerouting their primary power channels into a central—”

Celestia cut her off with a wave of her hoof. “If you change these—” she pointed at the dimming gemstones in their barding “—will you be able to get rid of this?” She gestured vaguely at the madness running rampant over the countryside.

“Um, yes. Yes, it will. Sorry, I got a little carried away there.”

“It’s okay. Anyways, you go and get Starswirl. I know that together you can rework the Elements to banish all of Discord’s remaining atrocities. Meanwhile, I’ll be gathering up all the ponies I can find and bringing them to the refugee camp. Hopefully the pegasi and unicorns haven't gotten into another fight over the cloud bank shield.”

Luna gasped. “Again? How did the first disastrous fight not teach them a lesson?”

Celestia slowly shook her head. “It boggles my mind more than any of this ever did.”

“Reworking the Elements won’t be easy, but the worthwhile things never are. I... I had better get working on them right away.” Her sister’s wings flared as she turned and made to leave.

“Luna, wait.”

She stopped and looked back. “Yes?”

Celestia walked to her sister and touched foreheads with her. “You did more than anypony could ask — more than I could have dreamed — and you’re gladly willing to do more.” She choked up, blinking back tears. “I’m proud of you.”

They embraced. It had been far too long since there had been time for them to be together without some disaster to avert. They stood side by side, their necks crossed, feeling the other’s breathing and savoring the simple fact that they were together.

By the time the hug ended, both of them needed to wipe away tears.

“Luna, you should go. The sooner you improve the Elements, the better off everypony will be... Just... hurry back.”

Luna nodded and looked away. “Farewell.” Without another word, she leapt into the air, kicking up a cloud of dust. Celestia tried to respond in kind but ended up sneezing in the sudden dust storm. Before she could regain her breath, Luna was already too far away.

She allowed herself a small sigh then turned in the direction of the refugee camp. There’s still a lot to do, but... now the world can finally become a paradise for my— no, our little ponies. Just as I always meant it to be. She departed more slowly than Luna as she went to gather up the tribes. Soon, she thought, I can feel it.

As Luna hurtled through the air, she couldn’t help but let out a wordless cry. Everything is going to be alright. For the first time in... well, far too long, things are looking up! Discord is gone, and soon all of this — she dodged under a burning rain cloud — will be too. I just wish I’d thought of this earlier. The idea buzzed in the back of her mind, taunting her with its grace and simplicity.

She wove through a forest of floating ice-trees as she rapidly approached her magically hidden and warded base. It was where she and Starswirl had worked for the past few months while her sister guarded the refugee camps. At least, it seemed like months. It was hard to tell — under Discord, time had grown soft and become more of a suggestion than a rule.

She slowed as she came over the valley that she knew the base to be in — not that she could see it, as her spells were still in place. When she landed, she extended her magical senses until she could feel her finely wrought wards. They resembled a dome arching over the fortress at their center. She had crafted them during the height of Discord’s reign and had never assumed that they would survive this long.

The wards opened to her touch, allowing her passage inside. At their parting, Starswirl teleported from the top of one of the towers to meet her.

“Luna! You’re back! The Elements must have worked, right?”

“Yes, they did! But... not completely.” She grimaced. “They only turned Discord to stone. All the destruction and chaos he caused remains.”

“That is... problematic.”

Starswirl adopted that look — one eye closed, the other staring off into space — as he processed this information. “Well that’s better than nothing, but now what do we do? By my calculations, under current conditions, the stockpiled food will last a few weeks at most.”

Luna focused on the Elements. As their primary creator and the Element of Magic, she had a deep connection with them. The fact that the physical forms of the three elements Celestia wielded were many miles away was of little consequence. The true power of the Elements came from the emotions behind them, and those emotions were what she would work with. Her mistake had been an easy one to make; the Elements of Harmony seemed like they should all have the same level of power and work together in all things.

But relying on all the Elements equally had left them crippled. Her new design would allow the Element of Magic to assist all the others, as it was the most powerful. This would leave the other Elements better able to work on the important tasks that they were individually suited to.

She began weaving the prismatic beams of light that symbolized each of the Elements into a pentagon with Magic at the center. Luna nodded to them, and Starswirl smiled in return, reaching for them with his magic. He held the ethereal strands perfectly still after she laid them down, lest they drift and ruin the spell crafting. Working with Starswirl like this made Luna smile despite the crushing weight of the strain that was required to rearrange the Elements’ pattern. She had never been able to work like this with Celestia; her sister was all power and no finesse.

They worked through the night, Luna only pausing to raise the moon and stars. Mere minutes before it was time to lower them for the morning to dawn, Luna gave the Elements a critical looking over. Starswirl could tell that she was pleased with what she saw by the small glimmer of pride in her eyes.

A silent acknowledgment passed between them — it was time.

Starswirl tightened his hold on the strands of light as Luna prepared a spell that combined all the elements that she had learned during her time with the unicorns. This was a spell that Arcane Pride, one of her tutors, would have deemed impossible. But Luna had discovered something they had not known. The will of which her teachers had spoken of was much more than they had thought; it was actually an Element unto itself.

It was common to all the other Elements, reaching through them all. They depended on it and it on them. Without each other, they were but pale shadows of themselves. It reminded Luna very much of her sister and herself. Always they had been together, relying on one another to get through every trial and tribulation. The bond between the Elements would be as strong as their sisterly bond, allowing the Elements to overcome whatever would stand against them, just as she and her sister had.

Yes, the bond that she shared with her sister would be what bound the Elements as well.

But if anything went wrong in this process, it was very possible that the Elements could be destroyed, and even Luna didn’t know how long it would take to remake them.

One by one, the Elements settled into their places. Sweat poured off of Luna’s brow as Kindness settled in. Generosity, Honesty, and Laughter soon followed it as Luna guided them to their new homes in the emerging web of ley lines and nexuses. Starswirl’s vision grew dark around the edges, the only thing in his sight and mind the nearly finished web before him. Luna fared little better, trembling as she dug her hooves into the ground, her horn bazing in the darkness as Loyalty joined the others. Its addition to the matrix caused a change in Magic. It took on the characteristic associated with loyalty, namely binding together what was once separate. With that, the Elements held together of their own accord.

“Starswirl...” Luna panted. “We’ve done it.”

He took a minute to breathe before responding. “It was quite the undertaking.” He huffed, looking up to the moon. “But we have done it. Again. Now... shall we give your sister a surprise at sunrise?”

“No!” She paled. “I would never! That would be... It would just... just no.”

Starswirl flinched.

Luna’s expression softened. “You just don’t understand. Activating the Elements without Celestia’s permission would be like draining all of your magic without your consent. Worse even, they’re bonded directly to her soul as mine are to me. I might be able to, but I can’t think of anything more abhorrent.” She shuddered. “No, I shall ask her.”

Despite her recent expenditure of such great quantities of magic, Luna still managed to cast the quite complex telepathy spell.

[Celly?]

[Luna! Are they ready so soon?]

[Yes, they are!] The giddiness in Luna’s tone came through the mental link. [Shall we give our little ponies a surprise this morning?]

[Yes! They’ll be so happy to see the last of Discord’s madness end.]

Luna began to lower the moon. [Shall I do it as you raise the sun?]

[Oh, yes. That would look spectacular! Let’s give them a show they’ll never forget.]

[Of course we will! Be ready.]

Luna flew up to the top of a nearby mountain and landed, facing east, on the peak. As the sun began to rise, Luna reached for the Elements. They felt different. Better. When the sun had risen fully above the horizon, Luna activated them, and her eyes glowed a brilliant white. Rainbow waves of power radiated from her and swept across the land, reverting or dispelling Discord’s travesties as they washed over them.

Celestia glided around the edge of Ghastly Gorge, on the lookout for anypony seeking refuge in the meager safety that it provided. While the gorge was not the safest of places typically, Discord’s reign had been anything but typical. The natural predators of this area had proven adept at keeping some of the terrors at bay. Flying madness-inducing notebooks seemed to be a delicacy to Quarry Eels.

Ponies of all tribes huddled in small groups around the periphery of the ravine. Their expressions of hopelessness were replaced by elation at the news that Celestia brought them. She directed them to the refugee camp nearby, and as they left her, some bowed while some sang of her victory. She tried to remind them that it was as much Luna’s victory as hers, but she found that once a pony was singing, it was nigh impossible to get through to them.

After hours of searching, when Celestia could find nopony else, it was nearly time to lower the sun. She headed towards camp to make sure that everypony had arrived safely. Luckily, the worst injuries were some minor bruises from a stampede of crockery.

She surveyed the camp. There was little damage to the magically reinforced cloud bank. The pegasi and unicorns had done their best to protect the earth ponies that grew their dwindling supply of food. Despite their best efforts, though, it was still a problem which was going to become disastrous soon if Luna took too long improving the Elements.

Above, Airstream and Jetstream caught her eye. They’d just had their second foal, a filly, she remembered. Now she’d be able to grow up in a safe world. Ponies like them were what had kept her going through it all, what made the past months bearable. Guarding them through the worst of Discord’s reign, they had come to know and love her and she them, despite their infighting. As she trotted through the camp, ponies galloped up to her, bombarding her with questions about what had happened.

When the vast majority of ponies had gathered to hear the news, Celestia took to the sky. She gained a good deal of altitude to more easily address them all at once and lit up her horn to amplify her voice.

“My little ponies, I bring you good news! Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony, is defeated! Soon, his madness will end!”

A wild cheer rose up from the gathered ponies. The din of stomping hooves and yells almost matched Celestia’s own volume.

She descended to talk to the leaders of the three tribes. As usual, General Typhoon rushed up to her first.

“So, you finally gave Discord the old one-two.”

“Well, it was really Luna that—”

“Whatever, how much longer are we going to have to stay here with them?” He pointed at King Chromium and Prime Minister Custard Cranium, who had only just arrived.

“How rude! One does not intrude on Lady Celestia in such a barbaric way.” He bowed.

Custard Cranium glared, pointing a hoof at Typhoon. “Yeah, you can’t hog her all to yourself, you big bully!”

“Fine! You can have her.” He flew up to his little filly, Hurricane, who was hovering nearby. “We pegasi don’t need anypony else!” With that they flew off.

“Why, how terribly uncouth! We unicorns would never be so crass,” Chromium said, turning up his nose. Both Celestia and Prime Minister Custard Cranium looked at him like he was crazy. King Chromium, of course, didn’t notice and continued like nothing had happened. “Lady Celestia, you said that this madness was nearly over. How soon do you expect things to go back to the way they were?”

“I don’t know, and I certainly hope that things don’t go back to ‘how they were.’ Can’t you see how much better off everypony is with all three tribes working together?”

“Better? With these... these ruffians! I should think not!”

Custard Cranium turned up her nose, mimicking Chromium. “Rough? I’ll have you know that my coat is naturally silky smooth.”

Chromium shook, grinding his teeth together, and one of his eyes developed a twitch. “I... that isn’t what... Ugh. Lady Celestia, by your leave.”

When will he learn that’s not what I want — even if it does have a nice ring to it. She nodded. Now with permission to leave, King Chromium cantered away. He appeared eager to save his daughter, Crown Princess Platinum, from the gauntlet of funny faces that Pudding Head was submitting her to.

“Well, good thing they took the booooring questions. So, did you make Discord explode? And then did Luna make him explode? Did you explode him twice?”

“What? No. The Elements of Harmony trapped him in stone. Why would you think that?”

“Oh, no reason. Well, bye!” With that, she galloped off with her daughter, likely to plan a “Discord’s Defeated” party for the coming day.

Celestia sighed. Maybe now I’ll be able to get some rest before raising the sun. That would be a pleasant change of pace.

An hour or so after nodding off, she awoke to the sound of her sister’s voice. But it wasn’t coming from anywhere around her, rather, it was in her head.

[Celly]

Huh, what...? This had better be good news; we won’t last much longer otherwise.

She concentrated on the link. [Luna! Are they ready so soon?]

[Yes, they are! Shall we give our little ponies a surprise this morning?]

Thank the Stars and Moon!

[Yes! They’ll be so happy to see the last of Discord’s madness end.]

As Luna lowered the moon, Celestia wondered if she would ever get used to the peculiar feeling it gave her. It was like something massive yet nebulous was passing directly over her.

[Shall I do it as you raise the sun?]

The sooner the better.

[Oh, yes. That would look spectacular! Let’s give them a show they’ll never forget.]

Celestia trotted over to the eastern side of the camp. She didn’t need to, but it somehow felt right to be closer to the sunrise — if only a little. Plus, it silhouetted her against the rising sun to everypony watching. She gracefully ascended to bring forth the dawn, and as sunlight broke forth over the mountains, Celestia felt the Elements activate once more, tugging at her chest from the inside.

In the distance, the sunrise seemed to explode with a blinding flash. Then waves of power rushed over the land faster than anything could hope to run or even fly. In mere seconds, they had covered half the distance to the camp. The ponies there all braced themselves for whatever was to come. Celestia, however, smiled.

As the expanding rings of power washed over Ghastly Gorge, the assorted winged fruit flying around it returned to normal and splattered on the ground. The pulses passed through the ponies and kept going, erasing all traces of Discord’s madness and chaos: the polka dotted ground, the mailboxes that threw sharpened plates at anypony foalish enough to get close, the rolling stones that were now little more than balls of moss, and the band-saw-grass. Celestia slowly descended to the jubilant cheers of the assembled ponies. “Celestia and the sun!” they chanted.

Celestia let the feeling of adoration wash over her. In the back of her mind, a voice whispered that she should have waited for Luna to be a part of this praise, but the reasonable part of her shut it down.

After all, the madness needed to be stopped as quickly as possible — right?

Pop!

Luna turned around to see a haggard-looking Starswirl standing behind her, the familiar flash of teleportation just fading.

“That was amazing! If the Elements weren’t the most powerful magic in the land before, they certainly are now.”

“I’ve got to get back to Celly. She might need me.”

“Luna, you’re exhausted. You flew here with all possible haste in full barding and went the whole night and day doing burdensome work. You cannot seriously be considering flying the hundred and fifty miles back to Camp Hope.”

Luna grimaced like a foal caught with its hoof in the proverbial cookie jar. “Starswirl, my Faithful Student, you know me well, and... you are right, of course. Come, let us rest for the day.”

She cantered down the mountain then, taking to the air with a small jump, glided to the fort. Starswirl attempted to teleport, but found that he lacked the thaumatologic strength. With a sigh, he instead turned around and started the long descent.

When he finally arrived, he was unsurprised to find her snoring on the doorstep of the fort. Starswirl gently levitated his beloved mentor to her bed then went off to his own room to sleep.

Starswirl woke a few hours before sunset. He went to their meager larder and, with a sigh, retrieved a bowl of oats.

Ugh, oats for breakfast... supper... again. Well, at least the earth ponies can grow crops again without most of them turning into quills.

While he ate, Luna ambled into the room. Never taking her eyes off the table, she mutely levitated her food to her seat. She took bite after bite staring off into space, not looking at him. It wasn’t an uncommon behavior; she usually looked that way while deep in thought. But as time passed, she went from not looking at him to looking away from him, and her ears drooped.

“Luna,” he asked at length, “what’s troubling you? Shouldn’t you be glad?”

“I am, but I’ve been thinking. After last night, it has become clear to me. You have surpassed all my expectations. You have learned all that I can teach you. You are... no longer a student, Starswirl.” She choked on a sob. “And so, I must release you from my tutelage.” Tears streamed down her face. “You may find your own path.”

Watching his friend and mentor break down like that placed a terrible weight in his gut. At the same time, his mind raced.

Not her student?

The thought was strange. Until Discord, he’d striven to learn all that he could. Ponies looked to him as a well of knowledge, but Luna — Luna was a legend. She’d escaped from captivity while opposed by at least half a dozen skilled unicorns. Now she was saying that he’d learned everything she had to teach.

That just doesn’t sound possible.

But more importantly, she was distraught. That simply wouldn’t do.

“Luna, Luna.” He put a foreleg over her shoulder. “Luna, you must be mistaken. You could still teach me about... Well, I still need to learn... There’s...”

She only cried harder as her head sunk to the tabletop. Her mane pooled around her head, limp and lifeless.

“Hey, don’t be like that. There’s no need to be defeatist. Just because you won’t be teaching me doesn’t mean I’ll disappear on you. What did you think you were to me? Just a source of knowledge?” He shook his head. “Do you really think that I’d vanish when you didn’t have any more to teach?” He covered one side of his mouth and whispered, “Not that I thought it’d be over quite this soon.” He straightened up. “Listen, I’m your friend, and I won’t abandon you.” He drew her gaze with a sweep of his foreleg. “I can see it now. We can expand the horizons of magic. Side by side, we’ll make new discoveries and make the world a better place.”

She wiped at her eyes. “Thank you. That... that sounds nice. But what about your family? Little Creps’ is only a few years old. She needs you.”

“My wife and child will always come first, but I will be there for you.” He helped her up and started for the door. “Come on, if we leave soon, we might make it to Camp Hope before moonrise.”

She went to stand by his side. “Yes, let’s go.”

They departed in a series of line-of-sight teleports, blinking in and out of existence as quickly as their magic could take them. But soon after clearing Ghastly Gorge, Starswirl called for a break.

“I’m sorry, Luna, but I need to rest. Yesterday took a bit more out of me than I thought.”

Luna paused. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that you, too, have limits.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me.” He glanced at the setting sun. “You can still make it in time if you go on ahead.”

“Nonsense.” Luna stamped the ground. “We shall arrive together.”

“Yes, Luna.” Starswirl knew better than to argue with the Bearer of Loyalty on as issue like this. Consequently, Luna ended up raising the moon a dozen miles outside of camp. When they arrived a few minutes later, only Celestia was there to welcome them.

Author's Note

Latest (and hopefully last) revision as of 3/25/14.
First of all I’d like to thank SlyWit. He allowed me to set this story in the same universe as Paradise, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Second, I need to thank InuHoshi-to-DarkPen for the beautiful cover art.

I’d also like to thank my editors/prereaders: SlyWit creator of universes, Cynewulf the AfterPony, AntiquatedAnnomaly knower of the mind, and thefirewarde raiser of flags. You guys are awesome and should feel awesome.

New Arrival

Chapter Four: New Arrival

In the morning, Celestia awoke to the sound of something rummaging in the kitchen. She went to find and shoo out whatever woodland creature had found its way inside. But she was surprised to see that it was Luna, who was, strangely enough, already awake.

“Well, this is unusual... This project has you more excited than any other I can remember. Though, to be fair, I didn’t see you much back when you were working on the Elements of Harmony.”

“I wish that were all it was... I didn’t sleep much last night.”

“Starswirl?” Celestia guessed. Luna nodded and continued to pack, head down. “Get over here, you.” Celestia opened a wing to her sister. Luna walked over, and they embraced, albeit awkwardly due to her bulging saddlebags. As they hugged, Celestia whispered, “We knew this would happen, eventually.”

“But it shouldn’t have to be so soon.”

“No, it shouldn’t. But life is rarely fair.”

“Now that I’ve seen him, I almost don’t want to go.”

“No, you should. Starswirl’s a stubborn one; he won’t go anywhere for a while. You focus on finding out what’s going on or went on or... Just try to keep your mind off it.”

Luna pushed her sister away. “Are you asking me to forget him?”

“No, not at all... Just try not to worry so much. Okay? I’ll find the best doctors I can for him.”

Luna sighed. “I’ll try... And sorry for snapping at you; I should have known better.”

“Think nothing of it, Luna,” Celestia said, waving a hoof. “You’re under a lot of stress. But the longer you wait, the harder it’ll be to leave. And think: who knows what you could find out there?”

“Well, I’ve got this one idea, but it’s too strange and wonderful to believe.”

“Is that so? Do tell.”

“I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I’ll give you a hint.” She looked her sister over for a few seconds, contemplating. “Three.”

“Three? What sort of a hint is that? Hey, get back here!”

But Luna had already trotted to the nearest balcony and jumped off.

Celestia followed her as far as the railing and stood there, looking at her.

Luna suddenly looked sheepish as she hovered back up. “What? I’ve always liked doing that. It’s pretty much why I built it. But soon I won’t be able to because it looks undignified. I had to do it one more time. For old times’ sake.”

“I get it,” Celestia said with a laugh. “I was just thinking how I’m the one more known for jumping off things.”

“Well this is no mountain, but I do just fine.”

Looking from her sister, to the north, and finally back in the direction of the field where they had been coronated, Celestia sighed. “Whatever happened to the good old days, when our biggest concern was finding food?”

“I don’t know, but I’m off to find out what else the world has to throw at us.” With that Luna turned and soared off, bobbing her wings in farewell.

Luna soared through the crystal-clear sky. Her destination was many hundreds of miles away, and she hoped to arrive by nightfall — well, a regularly scheduled one. After many years of flight, she had learned a trick or two about long distance travel. I’ve got to get up out of this low-altitude air; the northwesterly direction of the upper atmosphere will help me get there quickly. She gained altitude until she reached the level where the winds reversed themselves then turned slightly east so that the winds would carry her more or less due north. As she settled herself in for the long flight, her mind turned to the most exciting topic known to ponykind... taxes.

... and with a standard currency, the system would run much smoother... But what if the griffons do eventually decide to attack? Celestia and I can’t be everywhere at once. We’ll need to fund an army of some sort, and they’ll need equipment, like spears and barding. What to use for it though, iron? No, too heavy, difficult to enchant. Steel? Heavier still, but we could use less of it, but it’s even worse for enchantments... Ooh, I’ve got it, gold! Its ease of enchantment can be used to counteract its material shortcomings, with plenty of charge left over... Humph, off-track again, got to stay focused on tax codes.

At least I wasn’t thinking about him this time.

Curse you to Tartarus, brain. Now I am thinking about him. I’ve just got to get my mind off it, like Celly said.

She started paying attention to her surroundings, something she often neglected to do while deep in thought. The ground far below was covered in snow, and the shadows cast by the few trees were comically stretched. Seeing that, Luna realized that she should land and make camp for the night. She was close to the source of the strange yet familiar magic. Tomorrow, I’ll start an organized search, she thought as she pitched her tent. After she finished with the tent, she lifted the moon from below the horizon. Given her mood, it was unsurprisingly subdued. Sighing to herself, she settled down to rest.

Just as she reached sleep a muffled whump startled her back to awareness. Springing up, her wings flared as she took a battle-ready stance. Poking her head out of the tent, she shivered from the blast of frigid air. Looking through the whirling snow for the source of the disturbance, she spotted something off in the distance. What could that be? As usual, Luna’s curiosity overruled her desire to sleep. Approaching an unknown… thing without the proper safety precautions could be disastrous. What if it’s dangerous? She gathered a large portion of her power and formed a protective bubble around herself. She also prepared to teleport vertically a thousand hooves if the shield was somehow not enough. Feeling confident that she was prepared for any situation, she set off towards the source of the noise.

Working through the huge snow drifts, Luna decided that perhaps she should fly the remaining distance. With a small shake of her head, she leapt into the sky and cautiously glided through the blizzard. When she finally got close enough to make out what it was, her heart skipped a beat.

No...!

A pit of icy dread settled into her gut, and her wings locked up, her whole body paralyzed by shock.

Her momentum carried her within ten hooves of the trembling and softly groaning form. The fall had barely fazed Luna, thanks to the shield absorbing most of the impact. What she saw before her did. I wasn’t prepared for this!

Regaining her wits, she quickly made her way to the figure on the ground and noticed some more disturbing information. She was bleeding from the mouth, and each leg was shackled to chains that were still connected to some sort of rock. Worse still was her clear emaciation; Luna could count all of her ribs, some of which looked broken from the crash.

Looking at the pitiful pony before her, Luna’s mind went into overdrive. I’ve got to get her some help!

There is no help around here.

My first aid kit! It’s back in the tent. I can’t leave her like this; she could hurt herself, freeze, or worse. I can’t help her without leaving, and I can’t help if I stay. Teleporting back blindly is just too dangerous. Gah! I need more time! Wait, time. Time spells. Stasis! That can buy me some time. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to set up around here, so...

“This won’t hurt a bit,” she whispered to the comatose filly. She cast a short-duration stasis spell on her. Instantly the filly stopped moving and became perfectly black. Satisfied with the results, Luna swiftly took flight to retrieve her entire camp.

With the tent set up around the immobile form and the first aid kit levitating at the ready, Luna waited for the spell to end. Seconds later, it did, with a bright flash and a pile of snow appearing seemingly from nowhere. Luna quickly tossed it out of the tent and set to work.

She applied an antiseptic salve to the multitude of lacerations covering the twitching form. Saving her limited supply of bandages, Luna only applied them to the worst of the wounds. She went to remove the multifaceted, glassy shackles, but was surprised when she couldn’t grasp them with her magic. Pushing that aside for later, she turned her attention to the last major injury she could rectify, a broken wing. Using one of the poles from the tent as a splint, as the supplied ones were too short, she bound the wing into an immobile but largely comfortable position.

Looking at her patient, one more thing caught her eye; the rocks on her horn hadn’t fallen off. That was strange, given that Luna had been forced to turn the wounded pony over while looking for injuries. It was typically considered rude to touch another pony’s horn, but, given the circumstances, Luna figured that an exception could be made. She went to brush off the jagged shards with a hoof.

She recoiled when her hoof made contact. They just tried to drain my magic! What are these things? Picking up a scalpel with her magic, she tried again, only to have it fall to the ground once it made contact.

“Looks like I’m doing this the old fashioned way.” Grasping the knife with her mouth she set to work at scraping off the annoying crystals. Her efforts were once again in vain, as she could not use enough force to remove them without damaging the horn itself.

There is no problem that can’t be solved with the correct application of magic. What do I know about crystals...? Not much, just how the crystal glasses at Platinum’s banquets were sometimes shattered by somepony singing a particular note. Maybe I could do something similar with magic. No, no, no. There are far too many ways that could go wrong, they are attached to her after all, and there are too many harmful frequencies of magic that I can’t risk just blasting them till they break. What else do I know...?

An idea formed in her mind. One second should be more than enough. Forming a very precisely shaped spell in her mind, she cast it on the sleeping form. The pony vanished, and the crystals and shackles, as well as a hairsbreadth of the outer layer of her horn, fell to the ground. These Luna pushed away with a powerful flap of her wings. Then the mare reappeared, exactly one second later. Smiling at her victory, Luna set about disposing of the offensive objects.

With some delicate air manipulation she pushed the scattered items into a pile. Then she started bombarding them with energy. Starting with as low a frequency as she could, she began to work her way up. She was so focused on her work that she didn’t notice the other mare begin to cough.

After a few minutes of magical onslaught, the crystals cracked and crumbled to dust. She’d finally found their weakness. Well, it turns out I could have just done that to begin with. That was a perfectly safe amount of magic. Very convenient. Turning around, she stared at the scene before her. The great wracking coughs that had shaken her while Luna had been working had reopened a great deal of her larger wounds. She lay still, barely breathing, in a small but growing pool of blood. Most worrying was that a good deal of it looked to be leaking from her mouth.

Acting purely on instinct, Luna reached out to the lunar aura. Focusing it on the smallest area she had ever attempted, the strain drove her to the ground. Please, be enough, she thought just before losing consciousness herself.

A soft whine caused her ear to flick in annoyance. I don’t want to wake up. It’s not quite time to lower the moon yet, and yesterday was sooo tirin— She leapt to her hooves. Looking towards the source of the noise, she saw that her patient was trembling in her sleep and occasionally whimpering. Luna sighed. At least she no longer looks like she’s just about to reach the clearing at the end of the path. Quietly making her way to the filly’s side, she looked her over, checking for injuries. Finding none, she silently thanked the Stars.

But the filly was still wracked by tremors. Is she having a bad dream? Luna wondered. Expanding her senses, she could almost physically feel the filly’s anguish radiating off her. Pain, sorrow, and hopelessness poured out of her.

What she found only on the surface was enough to make Luna realize that perhaps just waking her would be the kindest choice. She laid a hoof on her side and gently rocked the filly back and forth. “There, there. Everything will be—”

“AHHH!!! No, I didn’t! I wouldn’t! I... I...” Looking around, her eyes settled on Luna.

“You’re safe, child. I’ll protect you.” Luna waited for the trembling filly to take in her appearance and have the implications sink in.

“You’re... like me.” She rustled her wings and tipped her head. “What does it mean?”

“I don’t know, yet. But some have called it destiny, and, for now, that will suffice. But tell me, what happened to you?”

She flinched. “Don’t want to talk about it.” She scrunched down into a tighter ball. Luna barely heard what she said next. “Nopony can help us...” She looked down then quickly back up when she noticed that she was encrusted with dried blood and dirt. The filly jumped up, shrieking, one wing flaring, the other catching on the splint. She flinched again and looked back to find that her wing was bound up. Glancing back at Luna, her eyes pleaded for answers.

Luna backed off, giving the filly her space. She kept her voice soft. “I healed you.” And I may need to do even more if there is an “us”...

“But... There’s so much... blood.” She looked equal parts queasy and horrified. “Even the Royal Doctor couldn’t do this.” She carefully made her way around the bloodstained earth, getting as far from it as possible. That brought her close to Luna.

Giving her a small grin, Luna said, “We alicorns can do strange and wonderful things. Watch.” She opened the tent flap, motioning for her to follow. The filly eyed her and then looked outside. Luna stepped outside, holding the flap open behind her. Following her out, the filly’s head was bowed, and her eyes were wide as she scanned the early morning darkness. Almost casually, Luna lowered the moon, sweeping it back and forth a few degrees at the same time.

Seeing the shifting shadows, the filly’s eyes were drawn to the sky. “No. Way.” She turned to stare at Luna, who smiled down at her.

“Yes, way. Just let me help you, please.” She held out a hoof, and, when the filly shied away, her smile faded. “Whoever did this to you must be stopped.”

She shuddered. “He can’t be stopped. So many tried...”

“None of them were me. I can help. I will help, You just need to tell me how.”

“I don’t think that anypony could stop Him alone.” Gulping, her eyes started to water, and she rubbed at then almost angrily.

“Child, you don’t know me. Unless — and possibly even if — it is an army, I won’t need help. One stallion shouldn’t be more than I can handle.”

“Stop calling me a kid!” yelled the small filly. “I’m the princess of the Crystal Empire!” Her voice broke.

What’re the chances of that? “Is that so, princess...”

“Cadence. Well, Mi Amore Cadenza, but only my da—” She gasped as if she’d been bucked in the chest.

Luna’s heart lurched. She looks pitiful. I’ve got to comfort her up somehow, get her mind off whatever happened. Maybe a story, like Mama told? What have I got...? Making the Elements? No, that’d be a boring story. Escaping from the unicorns? No. It should be happy... I don’t suppose it really needs to be a completely true story though.

She kept her voice low and calming; it wouldn’t do to have the filly be startled. “Cadence? Cadence! Do you want to hear a story?”

She hid her face with her mane. “Mm hm.”

“Ok, then. Not too long ago, in the faraway land of... actually, it didn’t really have a name yet. Anyways, in this far-off land, where I came from, there lived three groups of ponies. They didn’t get along very well. My sister, Celestia, and I had been trying for a long time to get them to work together. But often all we could do was stop fights from breaking out.

“Imagine how disappointed we were when we had to go away before we could make a lasting peace between them.”

She peeked around her mane. “Why was that?”

Luna fell back on her old excuse. “Trouble with dragons.”

“Ooh.”

“So we had to go far to the southeast, home of the dragons...”

…

“So you see, that’s how I became a princess as well. Princess Luna of Equestria.”

Cadence jumped up, hugging Luna around the neck. “Really? You’re a princess too? Are we related somehow?” She fell back to her hooves. “I mean we’re both royalty, and...” She gave her wings a flap — or tried to, as one was still trussed up — and looked pointedly at her horn.

Looking down at Cadence, Luna’s heart went out to her. This poor child... all alone. Her parents couldn’t have just left her, so they must be... gone. Luna swallowed heavily. And for her, the pain is fresh. Biting her lip, Luna tried to find her voice. “Why, yes... I’m your auntie Luna... Now tell your aunt, what happened to you? I need to know to help.”

Just as quickly as her hopes had risen, her mood darkened at the mention of the past. Cadence swallowed heavily, and her breath came in short gasps as she shrank back from Luna. “... Don’t want to remember.” Luna sank to the ground, folding her legs beneath herself, and spread a wing, beckoning the wide-eyed filly over. It took Cadence a long moment before she took the first step towards the comforting embrace, but, once she took it, she raced to Luna’s side and buried her face in the older alicorn’s coat. As she held the blood-caked filly, she felt her shaky breaths even out over a few minutes. Eventually, Cadence looked up and met Luna’s eyes. “Auntie...” she began, voice quavering, “I think I should... tell you. My par—” A blank look settled over her face as her eyes moistened, and her whole body went rigid.

Luna gently squeezed the small filly with her wing. Stars, when I find the monster that did this to her... “It’s okay, Cadence. It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything of you don’t want to.”

Cadence wiped at her runny nose. “No,” she said, voice small. “I have a... duty. I’ve got to tell you. I have to do the princessy thing. I will!” she practically yelled. She fell silent at her own shrill voice, and, a moment later, she continued quietly again. “I will. This might take a while — there’s a lot to tell.”

“Let’s get you cleaned up first. And I guess we should take that splint off too.”

Luna moved over to her side and went to pull the bindings apart, only to have the her scramble away.

“No! I can do it myself!” She struggled with it awkwardly for a few moments before resorting to magic. Somehow she only managed to tangle the wrappings more.

“Just let me help with that; I’ll have it off before you know it.” She reached out to undo the knots.

Cadence flinched away again, this time bumping into the tent wall. “Nonononono! I’ll do it.”

Luna backed away a step. “I don’t have to touch you if you don’t want. I can remove it in a split second from right here.”

Cadence kept her gaze on Luna warily, her stance tense. After a few moments, her shoulders slumped. “I guess that’s okay.”

Luna’s horn flared, and the brace appeared in a flash on the ground. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” At the burst of light, Cadence backed away, eying it, then shook her head. Luna smiled down at the blood-encrusted filly. “Now, let’s get you cleaned up. That sound like a good idea?”

A brief glance down was all it took to make Cadence look back up, shuddering. “Yeah. Yeah, it does.”

Scooping up some snow with her magic, Luna quickly heated it until it steamed in the frigid air. Cadence stepped underneath and let out a sigh as the warm water flowed over her. They had to repeat the process several times, but eventually all the dried blood came out of her coat, restoring it to its normal pink.

Luna opened the tent flap and beckoned with a forehoof. “Come in out of the cold. Let’s hear what you have to say.”

Shaking herself mostly dry, Cadence entered the tent, sat down, and, with a sigh, began her story.

Author's Note

12/15/13 Revision.
A big shout out goes to antiquatedannomaly for the help with Cadance, and to SlyWit as well.
Thanks also to Cynewulf for the help with Ch 4 version 2.