Where Will You Run to When Your Goddesses Are Gone?

[WARNING: This chapter might be a bit too slow for some people, but I ask for your patience (it's to set things up). It gets much better at the end, I promise.]

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"In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond.

So hold the hand of the person whom you love rather than expecting them to hold yours."

~ Anonymous

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"SPIKE! It's time to wake up!!!"

The poor dragon let out one of his signature groans of annoyance, burying his face harder into his pillow. It was Monday again, and, knowing Twilight, today would be an extremely busy day.

Not only was it the first day of the week (which stressed the poor mare out badly), but three days from today would be the Summer Sun Celebration. So, as a resident of the Ponyville Library, it was natural to see Twilight in such a state of "Oh-my-goodness-where-did-my-pen-go?!?!?"

"Just a second Twilight...!" he groaned in a loud, slightly annoyed voice while throwing another pillow over his head. He could hear the clop-clop of her hooves on the wooden floorboards, which echoed all the way directly up to his ear. After all, his little basket was at the foot of the bigger, pony bed, on an uninsulated surface, which, according to Twilight herself, made for a convenient way to wake him up thanks to the unimpeded...

It hurt the little guy's head just to think about it.

"SPIKE!! Where are you?! I've been calling you for the past 20 minutes! We have to go NOW!" came the frantic sound of her hooves going up the stairs. The purple unicorn was in a cold sweat, her mane already all frayed and messy. Once Spike came into view she proceeded to spray him with another flurry of incomprehensible words mixed in with the occasional eye twitch or grinding of the teeth.

From Spike's point of view, she looked like she was in a mild state of her usual paranoia, which had, thankfully, had not been as severe as it was when she feared she would be tardy for Princess Celestia. Nevertheless, he was beginning to get nervous; he didn't want to go through any of that again. He knew a truly angry Twilight or a paranoid Twilight was never good for anypony, especially those within five pony-lengths of her.

"Okay, okay, sorry!" came the dragon's reply. He stretched and got out of his bed, fixing the bedding and blanket. He was about to walk over to the bathroom for a quick tinkle before a harsh telekinetic grasp took hold of his whole right arm, yanking him up. With a surprised yelp, he landed on Twilight's back, glaring at her. "Hey! I gotta go to the bathroom! Cut a little guy some slack, you know?!"

"There's just no time, Spike! If you had gotten up earlier maybe you would have been able to go, but it's too late now!" the librarian said without skipping a beat. She ran downstairs, making sure everything was turned off before looking into her saddlebags to make sure everything she needed was in place.

Spike only had a few minutes to reposition himself on her back before (while his body was facing sideways in relation to Twilight's orientation) the pony sprung forward, making the little dragon lose balance. He was only able to let out a small sound of surprise before he tumbled down to the ground rather humorously. "Darn it, Twilight, at least let a dragon have a bit of time!" he muttered a bit loudly, half expecting her to be there beside him, waiting.

As it turns out, when he looked up to face her, she was already gone, more than twenty pony-lengths away from where he was. His eyes widened and he scrambled up, dusting himself off; he quickly went to close the library door (which Twilight usually forgot when she was in one of her moods), before chasing after the lavender blur a distance away. "Hey, wait! Come back!!" he called out while going as fast as his legs could carry him.

Ponyville was rather calm today. Ponies were taking it easy: many were sleeping in, while others did a bit of grocery shopping or  To Twilight, it was a surprise that nopony knew it was going to be the Summer Sun Celebration in a few days, which disturbed her (considering the mental state she was currently in). Thoughts moved through her head at blazing speeds. This would be the first year that the festival would not be celebrated the traditional way; for the original nature of the celebration was Princess Celestia's defeat of Nightmare Moon roughly a thousand years back. Now that Princess Luna was cured from the state of Nightmare Moon (hopefully) indefinitely, she herself wondered how it would be celebrated.

Her hurried hoofsteps turned into a moderate canter when she noticed she felt lighter. Glancing behind her, she noticed that Spike was panting and hurrying to catch up after her, having fallen behind (literally) a while back. She rolled her eyes and stopped where she was, bringing a hoof up to non-magically fix her mane up, if even just a little.

Spike arrived in front of her, panting. She rolled her eyes and watched him for a moment before saying, "Tired already? Come on then, hop on my back. Maybe you can get some sleep so you won't be tired later!!" she suddenly snapped in a critical tone.

At this, the dragon straightened up and used the last remaining bit of his energy to leap up onto her back. There, he yawned and buried his face into her mane with his eyes closed, hoping to be able to get some sleep. Her movements eventually made him fall asleep.

———

"Oh, you're awake. It's only been ten minutes or something. Go back to sleep, no rush."

The voice speaking such words surprised Spike to a great extent. He bolted up in his seat immediately, holding his head and looking around with a crazed expression. "What?! Where am I, what's going on?!" He could feel the seat underneath him moving, which freaked him out even more.

"Oh, Spike! We're on the Friendship Express heading towards Canterlot. It's going to stop by a few more smaller cities before we actually get there," Twilight replied, giving him a look that said, "What in Equestria is your problem?", though it was all with good intentions.

He began to relax, nodding a little bit. With a sigh, he turned his gaze out the window, watching the greenery go past in a blur. The faraway scenery was relaxing to watch: the mountains were snow-tipped out in the north, and it was good self-entertainment to guess how many trees were in his field of vision.

There must have been a lot, considering the lush grassland that expanded out in all directions around the train.

"So the Princess saved me a room on one of the towers of the Castle," Twilight began to speak to nobody in particular (though it would have been good to have at least Spike listening...) about what she planned to do when she got there. It was relieving to have an entire hour of silence broken. "The rest of our friends will be there already, so we'll have a really quick get-together celebration and then get to work. After all... isn't three days long enough to have a legitimate reason to have a quick session of bonding?" she asked, half to herself. She glanced up and saw Spike not listening to anything she said, something she constantly found him doing. She rolled her eyes and continued to speak of her plans anyways. "Setting up shouldn't take more than two days. Because we're in Canterlot we'll have enough materials... hmm, yes, materials... Spike, would you happen to remember any place, like a general store or something along those lines, where we could buy some fabric for ribbons? We have to make this big, bigger than anything we've ever done before! Even bigger than the Grand Galloping Gala!" the unicorn said boldly.

Spike blinked over at her sleepily. He hadn't been paying attention the whole time, and was utterly lost. "Well, I think—"

"Attention all passengers. We will be arriving in Canterlot in ten minutes," came the driver's voice over the speakers, interrupting Spike's reply. He lost his train of thought... no pun intended.

"Ah, never mind it, Twi. I forgot what I was about to say..." he muttered to himself, realizing he wasn't even in the mood to answer. He gave a huge gaping yawn, leaning against her; she was still deep in thought about what they would be doing the next couple of days and didn't really pay much attention to him.

A few minutes later, the two arrived in Canterlot. Even now, Twilight Sparkle was still pondering on what exactly they would be doing the next few days, making complicated schedules in her head that could only possibly be fulfilled if each was begun and finished on the dot; this was something everypony knew about her that made her such a difficult pony to deal with or handle sometimes.

Much to her relief, Canterlot was filled with much more energy compared to what she saw in Ponyville, and the aura was drastically different. All over the streets, ponies everywhere were carrying all sorts of things bought from exquisite shops all around, including velvet ribbons for decoration, statues very closely resembling Princess Celestia's solar cutie mark, and ingredients for food for parties. Even the buildings were decorated with yellow and orange ribbons, and the trees were too; everything seemed to be awaiting the rising of the sun the following day, and rightfully so; the Summer Sun Celebration was the most widely celebrated holiday in Equestria.

The lavender unicorn was smiling with glee when she noticed those small things, all while her faithful dragon slept obliviously on her back, standing still like a rock.

The duo cantered through the streets, with Spike continuing to sleep and Twilight grinning uncontrollably. She was getting excited with the prospect of participating in the Summer Sun Celebration, not only because it would be in Canterlot this year, but because it was the first time she would participate in helping set it up in Canterlot itself; it was the Capital of the Equestrian Empire, the place the Princessess themselves called home. They were Goddesses, and this was their city! What an honor it was!

"Well, Spike, here we are!" the unicorn declared with a bright voice, stopping in her tracks. They had been walking for the past twenty minutes just to get to the Castle, partly because Twilight was walking so slowly, but mainly because the city itself was so huge. She had noticed that it had expanded a lot compared to when she once called the place home: instead of just taking up a flatter part of the mountain and extending via pony engineering safely over the edge, some parts were now built into the rock face, and the entrance to the city was much lower down the mountain, thanks to the expansion downhill as well. The river was no longer the site of the entrance.

Once she had said his name he woke up and sighed. "I'm awake, I'm awake..." he mumbled half to himself before the two were courteously escorted to their room by two guards.

The six of them all had their rooms in the same tower, though on different levels of the single winding staircase that led all the way up to the top room, which was Twilight's. It was the very same room Rarity had stayed in a few years back. However, nopony seemed to be in any of their rooms, which made her even more excited. It meant that there were a lot of things to do in Canterlot today!

"Hmm. Well, at least they brought my stuff here for me," she shrugged her shoulders and stretched when Spike climbed off of her.

———

An hour or two after the dragon and the unicorn arrived in their room, Twilight was finally able to finish up with the organization and her personal decorations up on the walls (all six ponies and one dragon would be staying for a while). Spike had gone out by her word so he could go and look for their friends and help them out if needed. It was kind of relaxing to spend the time alone: she knew that.

When she tidied up the last bit of her desk by putting some fresh flowers in a vase, she sat down at the edge of her bed and began to think. The list of things to do that she had assembled while on the way to the castle were still fresh in her mind thanks to her unusually acute memory. So she decided to trot over to her working desk, pulling up a very long piece of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell the way she usually did when getting ready to write something.

Plans in Canterlot for the Summer Sun Celebration, July the Fourth, Year 1022, she wrote, using a more efficient dictation spell she had written herself. Rubbing the feathery part on her chin, she formulated her thoughts properly and began to write them down word for word just as her mind described it. Her handwriting was unusually very neat for a pony of her mental state.

Today is the Summer Sun Celebration, as was mentioned on the top of this... journal entry. The first thing I managed to do was send Spike on an errand to meet up with the rest of our friends, wherever they may be here in Canterlot. Oh, did I mention that I was in Canterlot and I'm the main coordinator for the setting up of the Celebration?!? Oh, shoot, I'm digressing. Calm down, Twilight, calm down... that's it... Okay.

So what I think we should first do is meet up, first of all. Afterwards we will survey the Grand Hall and decide what materials and the amounts we need, and after that we shall consult the Princess to see what her tastes are for the decoration, and then we will begin... oh, that doesn't sound too bad. I guess I'll have to make up some more things along the way! But that's fine! she was about to finish the letter up before she suddenly thought of something. Immediately she jammed her quill back on the parchment.

And one last thing — I'll meet the Princess personally and talk to her about a few things... hmm, maybe find out something else that I haven't learned yet, maybe! I guess I'll go and do that first... she then finished up and put the quill down, satisfied with her letter.

But wait. She blinked in slight surprise. It was one of the shorter letters she'd ever written in her life, and she had no idea that such complicated thoughts that were churning in her head back on the train could be expressed so simply. Either way, she gave a shrug. What was done was done.

She took a small ribbon and rolled the parchment up, tying the ribbon around it to give it a light physical seal. She went over to the nightstand beside the large bed and pulled up her saddlebags, putting the piece of parchment in it. It would be two o'clock in forty-five minutes, so she would be able to eat some lunch before venturing to the Castle right when the courts ended. She imagined there was still a large line of ponies waiting to be received, so going right up to the entrance wouldn't exactly be the best thing to do.

"I think I'll go get myself a daisy sandwich..." she said to herself before ambling out the door, closing and locking it behind her, and then proceeding down the long staircase down the 600-foot tall tower.

When she got down streetside, she looked up the nearest restaurant that met her needs nearby. She sighed a little when she saw that it was on the other side of town, and, after setting a destination spell, she began towards it with a bit of a hurried gait.

The restaurant was part of another larger building complex, which, to the left, was a fabric shop, and to the right, a quill and pen store. But those places weren't her destination: the restaurant and her daisy sandwich awaited within the doors directly in front of her.

It was a modest little bistro, offering many things, from garden salads to tofu sandwiches. On its two adjacent sides were huge windows giving customers a good look of the outside as everything passed, with lights hanging from the ceilings to illuminate the room at night. It was a mighty fine restaurant, much better than most ones anypony could find back in Ponyville, and as a result of the more exquisite Canterlot taste, the prices spiked up as well. But it was of no concern to the unicorn, who would only be ordering a snack.

After being seated down on the table, she opened up one of their menus, all fancy with an imitation leather cover that said "Canterlot Salads and Bakery". Finding the latter part a bit odd, she looked around to notice that there were small slices of cakes and cookies on display, warmed up behind curved glass like most Star's Bucks places a pony could find all around, but there were also much larger, whole cakes, from chocolate to vanilla, unlike most Star's Bucks cafés. Oh, so that's why it's called Canterlot Salads and Bakery. Duh!

Looking through the menu, she noticed that her choice was part of the Appetizers list. After a bit of pondering exactly why what she considered a heavy bit of food was on such a list, she shrugged and gave a soft sigh. The waitmare came by and took her order, and after a few smiles and a request for some extra hay fries, she was off.

From inside, everything looked so calm.

Such a feeling was augmented when her order swung by. She took a sip of her water before smiling wide, taking the sandwich, and biting into it tenderly. It truly was delicious.

She took her time at the restaurant, not noticing exactly how fast time was flying by. By the time she glanced up at the tall clock tower again, her eyes widened. It was just four minutes until the courts would close, and she obviously didn't want to be... tardy!!! Not after last time!

Having finished up most of her hay fries and three-quarters of her sandwich, she paid the fifteen bits price before bolting up and galloping out the door as quickly as possible. She earned some stares from ponies all around, most of them obviously being in the high class and not very keen on such behavior, especially from a relatively younger pony like her. Why didn't I just stick with a restaurant nearer to the Castle in this gosh-darn big city?! It would have made my day so much easier! she thought impatiently to herself while she ran down the street.

Above and to the left, the clock tower stood firm and proud. It was one of the tallest buildings in Canterlot, second only to the Castle, Home of Solar and Lunar Regents, Respectively, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Or at least that was what the long title called them. She didn't truly bother with the formalities anyway, but that was because the Princesses themselves didn't mind. She was Princess Celestia's most trusted student from the Royal Institute for Gifted Ponies, and that was definitely an important factor.

But time was of the essence, and the essence was slowly running out. She was halfway there when the loud "BONG! BONG!" of the bell could be heard, signaling the emergence of the Second Hour After Noon.

Upon hearing the sound, the lavender pony slowed down drastically, panting. Shoot! I'll never make it, and Princess Celestia's going to be busy in her own ROOM by the time I get there! I'm tardy!! Her mindset began to act up again, and she gave a large huff and a pound of her hoof on the ground, her sides still heaving. She never was truly in shape, but then again, she was a bookworm librarian: not really the best profession for someone who would want to aspire to become an athlete like Rainbow Dash in the first place.

The thought snapped her back into reality, and she wondered where Spike and the rest of their friends were. She thought about it for a moment, taking into account all the possibilities of the scenario before she gave up. It was alright; Spike would be back in their room at four o'clock, and hopefully the rest of them would be back in their rooms by tonight.

Up above, large clouds began to gather, coming from beyond the Equestrian horizon. They would be starting to cover Celestia's sun in about an hour or so, according to Twilight's calculations, but by then she would probably be back in her room. She huffed once more, sighing deeply while she continued to wander through the streets.

When she looked up after what felt like ten minutes, she noticed that she had wandered right to the mouth of Canterlot Castle. She looked up at it in surprise, catching a quick glance at the tower she stayed in, and pondered why she didn't just choose the café right in front to save the time.

Noticing the activity in front of the castle had subsided considerably, she picked up her hooves and trotted inside, eager to enter the castle after a long absence. The guards made no attempt to stop her, which made her gleeful; they valued her presence and knew she was the Princess's trusted protégé. When she was a filly she had always taken the privileges that came with it for granted, but now, as a mature young adult, she knew that it was a great honor to be revered as such.

The moment she went in, her eyes went wide. The castle seemed much larger than she had last seen it two and a half years back. The ceiling was a lot taller, and numerous crystal chandeliers hung low, lighting up the halls much more brightly than before. The walls themselves were still made of the castle's signature white bricks, but they gleamed now, as if they had been polished ten times over. The red velvet carpet underneath her hooves was soft and supple, and as she ambled through the entrance hall, with bright windows shining light inside to showcase statues of ponies and tapestries here and there, she found herself going down towards a narrower hallway with more halls branching off of it. If she recalled correctly, she was approaching the throne room where the Princess herself sat (with her sister beside her) when listening to court. When she looked over at the blindingly bright gilded throne with the plushy red throw pillows and hoofrests, she frowned in slight disappointment to see the Princess was not there.

Sighing a bit, she ambled over to one of the guards nearby. She wanted to know when the Princess would be in attendance so she could speak to her.

"Umm, excuse me, kind stallion. Would you know when the Princess will be available? I'd really like to speak to her regarding the Summer Sun Celebration decorations here in Canterlot Castle," she asked the nearest one.

He stood unmoving for a moment, but glanced down at her with a stolid gaze. "She will be back in ten to twenty minutes, Miss Twilight," the guard nodded to her. "I will personally inform her of your visit here."

Twilight Sparkle blinked in surprise; these guards knew her names? She smiled a little, but it was of little to no importance to her at the moment; she just wanted to speak to the Princess as soon as possible. She bid him a quick goodbye before dashing away, over towards the Royal Gardens. If the Princess would be back shortly, she might as well have a breath of fresh air outside where it was nice and cool.

The Royal Gardens were just that: a very classy, colorful, and ripe garden. There were a few greenhouses scattered here and there along the vast expanse hidden behind the castle gates, and there were fancy granite fountains in the places where the wide, winding paths paved through the grass met. Twilight strolled down one of the paths for a while until she was deep enough into the gardens that foliage began to surround her. She now faced one of those fountains, and she glanced over at a rather large plaque molded into the middle tier of the granite, just above eye level. It looked like it was a rather important sign, so she began to read it.

The Canterlot Gardens: Home of plants and animals to be found nowhere else.

She nodded a bit, smirking to herself. That was a bit interesting, but she glanced down at another, smaller note at the bottom.

This is a restricted area. Any ponies venturing inside will be apprehended and be tried for violating the law.

She flinched in surprise. This wasn't something she had ever seen before in all her life. Up until now, everything had been so happy-go-lucky, so carefree, with only a small amount of worries. But seeing this sort of scared and offended her. What could possibly be inside the Canterlot forests that would want to be hidden?

Now that she thought about it, how could there be forests in the grounds of a castle dangling over a three-mile drop straight to the ground? But she shrugged it off; that was just how it always was.

Narrowing her eyes at what lay ahead (deeper forest), she huffed. "Looks like I'll be the first pony to find out..." she smirked and began to venture inside.

Within just a few minutes of her wandering inside, the stone path already began to crumble away, as if it had been eroded by strong winds. She looked around for any sort of damage done to any tree trunks, but she couldn't find anything. The ground underneath her turned into darker, moist dirt, and she continued along for a few more minutes before she sliced the right side of her right hoof on something sharp. Something very, very sharp.

"Owch!!" she yelped aloud and lifted her hoof off the ground, biting her lower lip in pain. She sat down on the ground and winced while twisting her hoof to get a better look at the deep cut. When she saw it, she began to whimper a little. It was so deep that blood oozed out faintly with every quick heartbeat of hers, which made her gulp. Concentrating, she summoned her magic, her horn lighting up with a faint lavender-pink glow. A small cloth from one of her saddlebags floated out, surrounded by her magical aura, before it floated down to wipe the blood from the wound. She put pressure on it using just the cloth, but her wound was just a secondary worry for her.

Right now, she wanted to know what cut her. It couldn't have possibly been loose wood from a tree trunk, because, as she replayed the situation in her mind, she clearly remembered being at least six hoof-lengths from the right side and eight on the left side. It couldn't have been an animal either, or an insect, as she heard no sorts of sounds or sensed no hostility nearby. When she looked over at the scene, limping around because of her throbbing wound, she noticed something unnaturally thin jutting out of the ground, with an extremely sharp edge pointing towards the path; it was what she had hurt herself on. It was no wonder she hadn't noticed it, for it was in the shadow of the trees up above. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it was embedded into the dirt firmly, with small, organized, parallel golden lines travelling through its green surface, which was unusually shiny, now that she gazed at it closely.

She bit her lip and placed the bloody cloth on the ground (her wound had begun to stop bleeding by now), before concentrating on the object. Her horn began to glow brightly, and she closed her eyes with the effort of pulling it from the ground. "Come on, come on...!!!" she strained. Suddenly, a few seconds later, the object withdrew from the ground, into the air where Twilight held it. It was extraordinarily thin, and more lines went along in seemingly random patterns.

The unicorn shuddered and brought it closer to her face. Now that it was out of the ground, she could perceive exactly how light it was: it was no more than a few grams, despite it appearing to have once been part of a large square made of the same material more than three hoof-widths by three hoof-widths in length. She quivered and brought it even closer. There was nothing in Equestria like it. It couldn't have been manufactured by normal pony hooves, nor by magicians if they wanted to. It was too intricate.

A rustle of bushes snapped her out of her thinking marathon. Debunking the noise as nothing more than a bunny hopping along or a bird flying away, she realized exactly what it was she had just discovered. She had to go to the Princess to report her findings! There was nopony else she could go to for help.

Grabbing her cloth from the dirt and shaking it, she placed the unknown object into an empty saddlebag, placing the cloth into the other one. She pulled out a fresh, new cloth, and glanced around briefly before wrapping it around her wound so it wouldn't be so obvious that she was bleeding. She took a breath, limping back towards the castle, hoping she would be able to make it back before her window of opportunity to speak with the Princess escaped her.

———

"Where's the Princess? I need to speak to her immediately!!" Twilight gasped for breath. She was frantically asking the pegasus guard in the doorway to the throne room where the Princess was, and there was no time to be dawdling.

The guard showed a slight surge of worry for the young mare and motioned up the stairs. "She is up in her office, Twilight," he said formally. He suddenly caught a small stain of red seeping through the otherwise clear white cloth, and he called it to her attention. "Do I need to direct you to the infirmary before you do so?"

The agitated mare was already limping towards the staircase, but she glanced over her shoulder to shake her head vigorously. "No! No, thanks, I'm fine! Sorry! Gotta go now though!" she said in her trademark panicky voice, before she went along upstairs.

Upstairs, Twilight was beside herself with nervousness. She leaned up with her left hoof, knocking on the solid, wooden door which led into her mentor's office (it was really her room but it was common practice to call it an office out of respect) a few times, with all of her weight on her bad hoof. To ease it, she quickly put her better hoof back down, lifting the other so as not to put weight on it.

Inside, a soft, smooth voice answered her knock. "Come in," it murmured welcomingly.

The lavender unicorn shuddered, pushing the door open. She trudged in and gazed up at her alicorn teacher. This time, she didn't seem to take notice of the large, magnificent room that stood before her, the very same room she had used to come into whenever she felt restless as a filly. A very large velvet bed stood beside an unlit fireplace, with a window a few pony-lengths behind. That wasn't her priority right now; what her priority was was finding out what exactly it was that she had found.

"Oh, Twilight! I've been expecting you," Princess Celestia's mane flowed gracefully through the air, as if a gentle breeze brought it up and sent ripples travelling down until the tips. Her patient, smiling face gradually turned into one full of worry and uncertainty when she noticed the state of her student. "Something seems to be wrong," she blinked. "Come, talk to me..." she cantered over to the big cushion and settled down, motioning her student to come close and do the same.

Twilight nodded and seated herself down on a smaller pillow her teacher had summoned up for her to sit on. Trembling just a little bit now, the unicorn pulled her saddlebags off and opened one, using her telekinetic magic to pull out the intricate flat piece of material she had found. She held it up to her teacher. "I don't know what this is, Princess. Please tell me you know!" she breathed and brought it closer.

The Princess took the object in her magical grasp, narrowing her eyes at it. It looked very familiar, and she summoned her memories to help her try to remember exactly what it was. Her brain filtered through hundreds of years, and she had to close her eyes to concentrate harder. She knew what it was, she just didn't know what—

And then she found it, along with all the events that led up to its creation.

The alicorn clenched her jaw rather nervously, glancing down at her student. She nearly dropped the sacred object her student had found, and when she opened her mouth to say something, no sound came out.