Meanwhile…
In Canterlot, a white Alicorn with a Sun Cutie Mark abruptly sat bolt upright on her throne, her head picked up from its accustomed slump on a forehoof while the Secretariat of State droned on about what some visitors from Britannia across the sea were going to see and events they would attend during their visit in Canterlot. Her ears also pointed up, swiveling around to catch any sound.
The magical ley line node underneath Canterlot; in fact, under Canterlot Castle proper, had just sang a pitch perfect note of incredible power. It had resonated within her very bones, and then, just as quickly, vanished.
The Throne Room doors then banged open as Princess Luna burst in at the run, cantering to a stop in front of Princess Celestia.
“Did you feel that?” Princess Celestia asked her younger sister earnestly.
“I had, My Sister. Didst thou…er, did you also? What could it have been?” Luna asked, puzzlement evident in her voice.
Celestia smiled in spite of herself as Luna lapsed into Old Equestrian, then caught and changed it.
“It was sort of hard to miss, Luna, especially since my very bones seemed to resonate with it.” Her head and ears swiveled around. Then she pointed in a particular direction with her right hoof. “If I’m not mistaken, and I never am, that came from Ponyville,” she said, gesturing emphatically with her right foreleg.
Luna’s face took on an exasperated look. “What, again?” she said intensely, glaring at Celestia. “What is it about the Six that causes every magical superpower in Equestria to go seek them out?” she said heatedly, as her hoof found the bridge of her nose in frustration.
“Are you jealous, My Sister?” Celestia asked, concerned. The emotionally charged accusation made her uneasy. Things like that in her younger sister had in the past sometimes caused unintended consequences. One of which was Nightmare Moon; well behind them, but still indolently raised and nervously fretted about on occasion. Luny wasn’t one to seek out destructive power because of envy’s own sake anymore, but yet…
“I was right in the middle of the Big Boss fight when that happened!” Luna said irately, as Celestia relaxed imperceptibly. “I froze for a second when I felt that, and it took advantage of my pause and wiped me out! I’m going to have to start again from my last autosave, now.” She turned around, headed to her apartment dejectedly. “Two and a half hours, wasted. If Princess Twilight Sparkle only played videogames, I would give her a good trouncing for my troubles! Every time, I swear…” she said, as the Throne Room doors closed quietly behind her at a flick of her aura and cut her off.
Princess Celestia sighed in relief, and then stared chuckling. Soon, she was laughing in unrestrained joy, as the Court looked on in confusion.
Celestia finally managed some control, as she wiped her eyes. The Court had managed to excuse itself as she had rolled around on the floor of the Throne dais, laughing helplessly.
Well, it was worth it just for that, Celestia considered, as she composed herself before calling back the Court. Still, I need to go to Ponyville and see what Twilight is up to. Besides, I so want to get a real good look at that castle of hers…
“Synergy. The interaction of forces, elements, or energies that exceed the contributions of the individual items alone.” Twilight explained. She continued to stare at Sunset Shimmer.
“Me?” Sunset asked with trepidation, as she slowly shifted her weight from side to side in a slight but remarkable fidget while she leaned against a wall. A white cat on a set of shelves looked at the nervous pony contemptuously. Not that Opal didn’t do that with most everypony.
“Uh-huh. You’re the catalyst. Remember when your Rainbow Dash showed me that video of them transforming during the music they were playing? Then the battle with the Sirens, and how the Power accepted you, brought us all together to defeat them?” Twilight asked rhetorically for the benefit of the other ponies.
Sunset nodded.
“You were the Final Element we needed to stop them, right? Once it was over, you found out you transformed like they did when you all played together afterward, right?” she said, her face lively.
Sunset nodded again. Everyone at home had just accepted it as the way it should be with her. There were more animated discussions between her and Dash about which of them was best lead guitarist, (and on which songs), than what made them change. It had been strange how her friends didn’t focus on it.
“Just now…you became our catalyst!” Twilight declared, pointing at her with a front hoof. “If things stay consistent, like I think they have, we can transform now as we need to.” The pony Five smiled in assent, accepting Twilight’s pronouncement in full.
Sunset now stared at her, her unease building quickly. Normalcy seemed to be out of her reach no matter what planet she stood on. All these strange changes…
“No. Really.” Twilight said earnestly.
“So what am I Twilight?” Sunset said fearfully. She had given up ambition and power, once she had discovered how much better friendship filled the emptiness inside of her. But having given them up, it was upsetting that now all sorts of unusual powers were suddenly leaping toward and into her in a mad rush.
Twilight sensed the conflict inside the tangerine pony. She didn’t have any fuzzy words of comfort to offer, but she did have a possible explanation she thought might help.
“Unique. Your experiences, your past, your salvation, everything has combined in you to make you a pony that changes and enhances Magic in an inconceivable way. That terrible time when we fought each other had to have been the point where it all started. You wore the Crown, but you couldn’t wield it, even after your, er…transformation. It came back to me, even while it sat upon your head. Then it empowered me and your Five to defeat you, but not to destroy you, thank Celestia!”
Sunset smiled slightly at that. Twilight’s compassion had been, (and still was) so comforting, it was hard to remember that up until that moment, Sunset had been working very hard to harm the purple Alicorn. Very, very hard, with all the considerable harm she could muster.
“You were changed back, all of you, but not completely. And then your girls helped you learn about the Power of Friendship that they had, right?” Twilight continued.
“While Snips, Snails, and I re-set all those bricks back in the front of the school…” Sunset said grumpily. They had a journeyman bricklayer volunteer to come to show them how to re-lay the first course after three tries to get it perfect; all the other courses depended on a masterful job being done with the first ones. After that, it was just hard, not outright impossible. And it did keep them from being arrested.
“And then we faced off against the Sirens. All Six of us couldn’t break their spell on everyone, remember? Then you took the microphone; and Vinyl spun a record for you with that crazy car of hers. You sang that very song you were just singing. You led us where we needed to go, and then the Magic transformed you again. Not into an insane she-demon. You became one of us; some blend of pony and human and Magic that somehow allowed you to tap into that Rainbow Power that is in all of us, too. ALL of us! Both sides of the Mirror! With it, you helped us defeat the Sirens, Sunset...”
Wide eyed, Sunset Shimmer considered it. “I’m some kind of…”
“No, not some kind of anything, Sunset. Someone. Somepony. A being of two worlds. I can almost put my hoof on it. Not quite yet, I have to think about it more, maybe do some studying about it later. But the answer is close; I can feel it.” The intense emotion Twilight was radiating was almost physical.
“Princesses have to do some real heavy lifting sometimes, don’t they, Twi?” Sunset Shimmer said wryly. Twilight and the others started to laugh.
“It’s not a Sun or a Moon, but sometimes it’s harder, figuring out ponies. Or people,” Twilight said frankly.
Rarity walked up right then. She flipped her mane, just to show off the barrette with the three gems aligned in it. The conversation was becoming maudlin and far too serious. Time to get it back on her favorite kind of track.
“Well, Twilight, since everypony is now properly cotured, we can go back,” she smiled ostentatiously. “I really should entertain a fashion show of this new look soon, though. There’s a wonderful, endearing, youthful hipness to this design ponies would enjoy having themselves.”
Sunset Shimmer rolled her eyes at that. Yesterday, she saw a commercial on the television that proclaimed exactly the same thing at a certain chain clothing store. Human Rarity almost passed out in apoplectic indignity on hearing it. And now her pony self was about to pitch it herself on her own line.
Not exactly the same was right.
A few minutes of discussion later, they decided to walk on back to Twilight’s castle, rather than have her teleport all of them back, so that they could show off Ponyville to her. Sunset Shimmer agreed readily, grateful for some exercise and time to think.
Sunset was surprised at all the features of the town. The human world almost put the entirety of the planet within arm’s reach. Even so, as teens, they had societal limits there. The Carousel Boutique of Rarity’s, for example, was extremely interesting. But there was a real big difference between just working at some place, as opposed to owning the store, and it showed in every detail pony Rarity put into her business.
AJ’s family still owned an apple farm in the human world, though human Granny Smith also worked at the school cafeteria, not exclusively on the farm alone. Here, the Apples owned the whole shebang, lock, stock, and barrel after barrel of delicious apples.
Fluttershy didn’t understand why animals had to live at a shelter. With uncharacteristic vehemence, she said so too, grousing about “… stupid meanie…” county laws and ordinances Sunset had tried to explain regarding animals that had nothing to do with her situation on Equestria.
Pinkie Pie still worked in a small bakery with a Mr. and Mrs. Cake, both there and here, and did everything from unloading the delivery truck, or cart, to baking, sales, and babysitting a set of twins. She was the one pony that could easily interchange with her doppelganger.
The big shocker was Rainbow Dash. In Equestria, she was part of Cloudsdale’s local Weather Team tasked to Ponyville. In the other world, she worked at a television station handling the national weather reports. Rainbow Dash, (pony), really felt very sorry for her counterpart when Sunset told her. Making weather was infinitely preferable than writing copy about it, no matter how well it paid.
Sunset was the odd one out. She made sure she had paperwork declaring herself emancipated after she crossed over the final time, and was an office assistant part-time at a brokerage firm. That was to cover her small but well-valued investment trust she had invested there, and lived off of. She had slagged the gold bits she brought with her into obscurity, and found an exchange to take the nuggets and exchange them for cash. She had also been the one to take Twilight’s original coinage funding and put it to work for the Dazzlings as they hit hard times. Currently, she was now helping her own girls develop their portfolios. A few people there at the office wondered about the girl with the “magic touch” in investing, as she answered phones, handled mail, and occasionally wrestled with toner cartridges and a replacement drum unit for the copier.
Then they came to a large, low building, with a ball and pins outside. Sunset stared in frank incredulity.
“A bowling alley?”
“Yep. It’s pretty fun, too, though Rarity won’t set a hoof inside,” Twilight laughed, glancing at the fashionista.
Rarity made a scoffing sound, (although it sounded remarkably like she was carefully pronoucing every letter), as she flipped her mane contemptuously and looked away.
Sunset continued to stare. “Why such a big place for a game only Unicorns can play?”
Twilight waved a hoof pointedly towards Applejack. “AJ is our anchor in our foursome. She’s a consistent 250 score kegler. We wouldn’t know what to do without her.”
Applejack smiled, crossed her front feet smugly. Pinkie Pie hugged her with a big mugging grin.
Sunset Shimmer turned to look at Twilight. “Seriously?” she asked, astonishment in her voice and on her face.
“She has a real wicked hook to the left just before the pins. AJ has to throw straight down the last right hand arrow marker on the lane, almost right on the edge of the gutter to accommodate it. They won’t let me test the lane with my aura for how much oil they applied on it first; something about ‘unfair’ and ‘cheating’…though the rules say nothing about checking that by testing my ball for it after I bowl.” Twilight said with a slight smirk.
“But,” Sunset said, as she lifted her right forehoof, flat up, and wiggled it.
“Oh, that. Exchange force manipulation,” Twilight said in a matter-of-fact, almost bored tone.
“Could you try that on me again?” Sunset said helplessly. She watched as a cream colored Unicorn pony wearing a black bowling shirt in purple trim and starlight mint candies as a Cutie Mark walk up the steps, then pull open the levers on the doors with her aura to go inside. Sunset felt her eyebrows try to crawl up into her maneline.
Twilight had been looking where Sunset had, smiled when Sunset looked back at her.
“Pinny Lane is on another league team, scores even better than Applejack…and has never once used her horn to roll a bowling ball.”
“You’re kidding. You have to be kidding,” Sunset declared as she shook her head.
“Rarity, do you mind waiting outside?” Twilight challenged, a slight smile on her face.
Rarity again flipped her mane with a hoof. “Darling, as much as I despise ‘bowling’, I am not going to hang about outside like some…trollop…while the rest of you are in there. I am going along, and that’s final,” she sniffed haughtily, as they walked up the steps and Pinkie tugged a door open.
“Well, at least y’all be inside for once. Who knows, maybe y’all sign up with us for Wednesday,” Applejack chuckled.
“I am not about to chip a hoof playing this barbaric game…” Rarity said self-importantly, just before the doors sighed closed behind them.
The pony behind the counter jumped up and set the copy of The Foal Free Press he was reading down as they walked in.
“Hey, wouldya look at that! ‘Princess Sparkles Sparklers’! You want I should set up a lane for youse guys? Ya didn’t bring yer bags wid’cha…” the large pony behind the counter said heartily, despite the heavy Bronxian accent.
“No thanks, Mr. Kingpin. We’re showing a friend around Ponyville. We’ll grab a cider at the restaurant and watch from the gallery for a bit,” Twilight said to the big, cheerful Earther.
“Youse guys suit yerselves, then. Princess, I’ll be over here if ya need sump’tin.” He turned back, sat down, and opened his newspaper again.
As they walked the galley, Rainbow Dash pointed out three ponies at a lane; one with a long toffee-colored mustache, beard and mane, his rather large friend with a short brush cut mane and graying mustache wearing tinted glasses, and a third with tired eyes and a long face even for a pony.
‘Don’t those guys ever go home?” Rainbow asked. Applejack shrugged non-commitedly.
“In my world, some guy called a girl ‘Princess’, he wouldn’t hear the end of it for months,” Sunset Shimmer said ironically, chuckling, looking back at the Earther behind the counter. There were racks and racks of multi-toned hoof shoes behind him, and a board with locker keys hanging from it.
“But she is a Princess,” Rarity said quizzically. She had thought the place would be a dark, moldering, dust encrusted hive of scum and villainy. Instead, it was almost scrupulously clean, decorated cheerfully, very well lit, and the polished wood floors of the lanes and approaches gleamed invitingly. A herd of fillies and colts shouted for joy as they rolled balls between cushions inflated and placed in the gutters of one lane. Even the counters and tables were immaculate as they sat down at two four-place tables; Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy going to the order window to place the order for seven mugs of ‘Applejack's Best’.
One thing was certain…it wasn’t a library. The thunderous explosions of pins being struck resounded throughout the place.
“This looks almost exactly like that place near the car dealership,” Sunset though out loud.
“Cars?” said Rainbow Dash, setting down four mugs, one each in front of Sunset, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy’s three went to her, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, who looked at hers with a practiced eye. “You said something earlier about Vinyl and that car thing. What are cars?” she asked, confused.
“Never mind, it’s not important, and kinda hard to explain,” said Sunset. Rainbow nodded gratefully. Saved her the time to try and figure it out, then.
The Apples had changed their routine slightly when it came to cider pressing time. Flim and Flam had almost ran them out of business with their machine during the contest for the most cider made. When that fell apart, the two confidence ponies beat a very hasty retreat with the contraption, only to lose a wheel a quarter-mile down the road. The two of them abandoned the machine up against the fenceline they knocked down while they beat a hasty retreat before the local law enforcement took them in. And Applejack, helping out as usual, strained and pulled with Big Mac's help to put the huge contraption in the barn, storing it for the sheriff lawpony who had no place for it.
Three months later, the brothers showed up in Ponyville and started asking discreet questions about the thing. Yes, it was still here, and yes, it still worked. Unfortunately, it was now liened for three months of storage fees and a summary judgement for orchard damage sustained in the fracas. They could always pay the lien off later, after a short time in the Ponyville stir for criminal damage to property...
They gratefully signed the thing over in the plea deal, and quickly put their heels away from Ponyville...for a time...
The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 currently handled the heavy lifting at cider time now. Hooked up to the power grid, ponies took their own shots bucking apples for their own cider under the watchful eye of Granny Smith, who still set the standards for the apples going into the feed hopper of the machine. A huge amount of the burden picking the apples came off the family, with not one eyelash thickness in loss of quality. Not to mention the nice little spell Twilight had found one day that put a plugged keg of cider into stasis until it was re-opened, fresh as the day they drove the plug home into the barrel.
The old machine was still ponypowered by Big Mac, but now was set to producing a premium orchard cider with Applejack's own name on it. A pony could now get the very best cider made on the planet for a premium price. And that product took off like a homesick Pegasi. When the trees that once held the vampire fruit bats recovered and their new fruit added in, the premium cider would be ridiculously good, for a ridiculously low retail price, which on the wholesale level was ridiculously higher than the usual profit they got for it.
Applejack took her mug up, sniffed it, and then sipped it, making a silly fluttering noise with it as she inhaled air alongside the cider. Swallowing, she held the mug up to the light, like she was x-raying the liquid inside through the wooden mug.
“Not bad. Last year’s stock, about a third of the way in during the pressin’. Sure kept well. Mostly Dixon champagne, red delicious blended for sweetness, and a few of Granny Smith’s best for the tart. Touch of honey that Apple Bloom accidentally knocked in it while tryin’ to get her Cutie Mark in cider pressin’.”
Rainbow Dash had followed her tasting example. “Some macintosh?” she asked, frowning.
“Not in this cider, far as Ah kin tell, sugarcube. But Ah don’t watch Big Mac all the time. He’s ornery enough to toss one in each pressin’ jest for braggin’ rights,” she said with a chuckle.
Fluttershy spoke up. “He’d never do something like that. He’s too nice.”
Pinkie Pie was oblivious to everyone, drinking hers happily. 'Applejack's Best' was a treat she wasn't about to squander, even being a good friend of the owners...or a relative, depending on how you looked at it.
“Y’all didn’t grow up with him, sugarcube. He’s a nice enough feller, but sumtimes…” she drawled out, as she took a drink.
“I sing with him in the Ponytones; and he’s always very polite and nice to everypony.” Fluttershy pressed. From Flutts, that was almost an angrily shouted declaration…
Sunset tuned the next table out, as she watched Pinny Lane step up on the lane apron.
Pinny put her right forehoof on a ball in the return…and watched, incredulously, as it stuck to her hoof. She lifted it up neck high, sighted down the lane…and with a slight push she imparted to it with her left front leg, swung the ball behind her, accelerating down the approach at a canter. Sliding to a stop, her right foreleg now moving forward low and hard along her side, she set the ball down on the approach just beyond the foul line with an almost imperceptible thump, as her body slid to a stop just behind the line; her follow-through had her lifting her right foreleg along the plane the ball was on now down the lane, slightly crouched, her left rear leg stretched behind her for balance.
The ball rumbled quickly down the lane, hooked slightly, and slammed hard into the slight gap between the number one and number three pins. The formation exploded with a deep sound of maple wood pins clonking against each other, bouncing everywhere, as the ball continued to slice through the pin set. One pin bounced up and hit the side wall, then spun lazily on its side in the middle of the cleared space. A large red “X” appeared on the scoring display above the pins.
Pinny broke down her follow through, then rump-bumped her fellow bowlers near the scoring table, a huge grin on her face.
Sunset Shimmer stared, her eyes wide. That was impossible!! Not once during that controlled precision display did Pinny Lane use her horn.
Her head swung towards Twilight, eyes bright.
Twilight stared at the lane Pinny used morosely, eyes moist. “I’d be happy if I could just not leave open frames. Never mind almost always rolling strikes. Just no open frames…”
“How?” Sunset started to ask...
“Oh, yeah…exchange bonding. A scientist guy we know, ’John Smith’, figured it out. Ponies can hold objects with the flat of a hoof. You have to put some work at it at first, learning the mental focus and concentration for it, but similar to how the air helps a Pegasi fly, you can mentally get objects to stick on your hoof. Very fine muscle coordination, not so easily or so much, but if you’re persistent enough, a bowling ball is easily manageable.”
Twilight sadly watched the blue-maned Unicorn sit down as a teammate took over. That one used her aura on her ball. Twi sighed.
“I thought being so good at Magic would make this easy. I ended up with a nickname for a couple of months.” She sighed again heavily, took a large swallow from her mug.
“‘Princess Gutterball,’” she said quietly; almost a morose whisper.
Pinkie almost choked on a mouthful of cider, but managed it down without spraying the precious cargo. Pinkie had only said it once, but it spread better than a weaponized infectious disease. She apologized later after it stuck so easily.
Twilight snorted in disgust, then sighed again ponderously. “With a lot of practice, I got the ball to go down the alley pretty consistently. Shortly thereafter, I picked up a new one,” she said pensively.
She took a big pull on her mug. “They call me the ‘Kindly Princess of the Seven-Ten Split’ now...”
Sunset Shimmer almost bit a hole in her cheek trying not to laugh out loud. Flutts had both hooves clamped over her mouth, eyes wide with compassion. Applejack was trying to look distracted watching other bowlers, not wanting to put her honesty to the test right at that moment. Pinkie had a foreleg on Twi’s shoulder in understanding. Rarity was in utter shock at the outrage. And RD, also listening in, started laughing loudly. She hadn’t come up with it, but once Twilight had said it, she slipped it in wherever she thought she could get away with it.
Twilight shot her a poisonous look. Then painfully smiled at Sunset.
“However, when my friends tease, they really tease,” she said calmly.
Luna picked up the controller, restarted her game.
In a few minutes she set the controller back down, the “Game Over” screen on the flat screen monitor glaring at her in triumph.
I’m far too unfocused now, she thought, as she shut it down. Sighing grumpily, she rubbed her eyes with a hoof, as she considered the gaming equipment.
Some of the best gear bits could buy, she thought. And such a clodhoof now trying to use it.
She sat back down on the floor against her bed, tried to relax. The pleasant but odd hum she felt along her skeleton was distracting. The hum that started the moment the Canterlot node was charged. It had been slowly dissipating since then, but that it happened at all…
Luna stood up, stretched, as a pair of noticeable pops sounded from her spine. For some reason, hers always did that…
She fell onto her bed, rolled over, and snatched a book off of her bookshelf with her aura. Maybe a little reading would help. It was getting to mid-morning, and though it was late spring, she would really like to get some sleep in before Her Night began…
And this one usually did it. Starswirl could be so utterly pedantic, verbose, and dull at the best of times in his writing; though he had been the exact opposite in person. Two minutes of his Magic: an Analysis, regarded by her as his most tiresome work, and her eyelids would start to drag. Three minutes more, and she would be out.
Tibbey was already fast asleep, hanging from his perch. She envied his ability to nod off at a drop of a hat.
She flopped the book onto the bed. It fell open easily. It didn’t matter what chapter and paragraph it opened to, they all had…
Intriguing. The book had fell open at the part about ley lines.
Ley lines…the magic resonance lines that crisscrossed Equestria under the surface of the planet. The odd pony, ‘John Smith’, also known as “The Doctor”, had done some research into them as well trying to figure out Magic. Whether far apart, or concentrated like they were around Ponyville, Canterlot Castle, or the Castle of the Two Sisters in Everfree, ley lines could be found for the most part everywhere. Most were simply lines. On occasion, when a line terminated or crossed with another, they formed a resonant node. Some were small, barely bigger than the lines themselves. Under Canterlot Castle, the four line node was simply massive. And it was surrounded by equally as impressive crystal of all kinds, though only some was of the same gem quality as that found in Splendid Valley. Starswirl himself pointed it out, taking four paragraphs to get to that point, as usual.
Crystal of all kinds…especially those expressed as gems and gemstones.
She thought back. Crystal had been part of Magic since the beginning, she recalled. King Sombra had become obsessed with crystals and their magical properties, enslaving Crystal Ponies to feed it. Right up to the point Celestia and Luna had to deal with him…permanently.
The pendants of the Sirens, the rubies they wore, for example. They resonated with the voices of the Sirens, allowing the creatures to manipulate ponies with the music, and feed off the energy they created through negative emotions.
The Alicorn Amulet boosted Magic tremendously, though at the cost of the Unicorn or Alicorn using it becoming emotionally unstable, as it established resonance with its wearer.
The Elements of Harmony, now once more returned to the Tree of Harmony, were the most powerful example of all. In the possession of just the right ponies, in their resonance, the Magic they produced…
Luna shuddered involuntarily.
In the possession of just the right pony or ponies, they could stop almost anything, she thought. Or anypony.
She sighed again heavily, a lingering pain behind her eyes. Nightmare Moon was gone. And for the most part, forgiven and forgotten. She herself, through the tantibus, had been the one most merciless to herself about it, and so, by association, the Nightmare. Everypony else had given it up, mostly…though the caricature of the Nightmare still danced in front of ponies eyes on Nightmare Night. That was so far from the terror of the reality, even Luna herself now joined in the festivities. She had started to make inroads on the candy offerings, asking for bits instead, which she then donated to foals hospitals and orphanages, old ponies homes, and other such works. The gift cards were growing, which delighted her, and were far less wasteful, though a small sample of sweets continued to be offered along with them, as tradition demanded.
Her thoughts turned back to the resonance. Unicorns and Alicorns tapped the lines for their energy when using Magic. Most did so without knowledge of it; the power used to float a toffee or gumdrop to their mouth was negligible, say, compared to invoking diaphanous wings, firing magic bolts, or moving through time itself. Some of the most powerful of spells barely made large nodes tremble with the energy being drawn through them. The excess energy filtered into the air itself, giving Pegasus wings an edge to bite.
Magical devices operated the same way. Twilight’s revision of the Magic Mirror rumbled the node between two to three, and that was while fully powering a magical portal. In ‘normal’ mode without Celestia’s Book and the Machine energizing it, the Mirror could only manage a connection for a sparse three days every thirty moons, and barely trembled a node at one to one and a half; slowly storing energy for the next activation, it couldn’t be felt at all.
But the one today. The node hadn’t trembled. It had vibrated with resonance, a drawing so deep, it had literally hummed from the power transfer. Nor was the shift clumsy. The node had been entirely in harmony with the tap, almost, well, ‘happy’ that it was being used that way!
Something that could make a node ‘happy’ while shunting power at the fifth level? Extrordinary!
Luna didn’t understand it. Both she and Celestia had lived upon this planet a long time. And from her own experience, as well as Celestia’s reaction, neither of them had felt anything like this before. The strange feeling persisted in their skeletal structures. A strange, pleasant feeling…
She got up, turned toward the window of her apartment, pulled the heavy dark curtain aside for a moment with a hoof, and gazed out in the direction of Ponyville. Tibbey barely moved as the room brightened for a moment. The bright, broad lawn obstructed her direct sight line from her room to the town, but she knew where Twilight’s Castle was.
What was the Princess of Friendship involved in now? She wondered quietly. She hadn’t been joking about how every esoteric type of Magic seemed to seek out the Mane Six for whatever reason. This felt like another example of more of the same.
Princess Luna, the Princess of Kind Dreams, wasn’t exactly disconcerted by the prospects of Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Friendship being involved in powerful Magic. Being chosen by the Elements gave a very good indication as to their true hearts. She owed her own salvation to them; not just once, but twice. But she was a Defender of Equestria herself, now, and as part of that oath between all of them; Celestia, Discord, the Elements of Friendship, Princess Cadance, Doctor Whooves and Derpy…she had a duty to at least make an inquiry. If Twilight and the others were too close to the situation, and things seemed to be a bit awry, she could then involve Cadance as the group’s Auror and discover the truth through her.
She nodded as she decided, letting the curtain slide back into position. Sleep, and the boss battle could wait.
Her horn’s aura glowed blue as she brought her saddlebag from her bedroom. She smiled as it alighted gently on the couch.
Now, for a few more items...