//------------------------------// // XIII - Metamorphoses // Story: Sunrise // by Winston //------------------------------// Sunrise ​    Chapter XIII - Metamorphoses ​    Celestia floated through an infinite field of stars and nebulae surrounding her in a slow meandering cosmic dance, drifting through the vastness of eternity as aimlessly as a bubble swirling on a gentle breeze. There was no gravity. She felt no spatial orientation, no indication of what was up or down. Time seemed to lack definition, as if it was passing both slowly and quickly, or maybe not at all. Although she was conscious of only a few seconds, it didn’t seem contiguous with what she last remembered before it, leaving her with an unsettling feeling of not knowing how long had really passed. It started to dawn on her that maybe she should be concerned about her situation, but before there was a chance for that worry to fully set in, unfamiliar magic surged through her like a bolt of lightning. In an instant it shot down deeply, permeating all of her tissues and infusing them with a sensation of spreading warmth mingled with electric fire and ice – not pain, but something intense enough to be overwhelming, leaving her stunned. This… whatever this was, it was different from anything she’d ever felt. Her back arched, wracking and convulsing involuntarily. Her body was paralyzed and she could do nothing as strange energy migrated and concentrated in her legs. They tingled and their musculature twitched and writhed under her skin. When it finally began to subside, it left behind a feeling that something indefinable was different in her hooves. As soon as it left her legs, the same process worked its way through her withers and chest, but this time with even more pronounced effects. Unfamiliar new tactile senses awoke, a strange awareness of things that were part of her now but she’d never felt before. She couldn’t even begin to understand them or what was happening. All she knew was that it was disturbing, making her feel almost as if new muscles were— A new sensation ripped through her without warning. She felt a pair of sharp bony somethings suddenly erupt from her back, near her scapula on both sides. Gasping and shuddering, she threw her head back, instinctively trying to whinny in terror, and her eyes, glowing brightly with white light, opened wide in stunned surprise. The sudden shock of new parts flooding into her felt like too much to bear, overloading her mind and squeezing out all thought. And so this went on. She was helpless as she burned and writhed, searing with white magical light pouring from her in waves of blinding novae. Finally, after an indeterminate length of time—in this bizarre starry void, she couldn’t tell if this process had taken seconds, minutes, hours—it stopped, fading away until she felt normal again… more or less. She could sense something had changed, but didn’t understand exactly how. Her legs weren’t the same as before. The muscles and hooves felt different. Her back had something attached to it. There was a new feeling against her sides, something soft but slightly scratchy. It was all so confusing, so surreal… so impossible… Gradually, her body loosened and moved under her own control once more. She tried to turn her head and look at herself, but just before she could manage it, there was another flash of white light and everything was gone again. ​    ☙ ☀ ❧     After blinking through her disorientation, Celestia realized she was back on the observation deck, standing exactly where she’d been before the— Stars? Nebulae? Somewhere in space? If it was space, it hadn’t felt devoid of air, although on the other hoof, she didn’t specifically remember breathing. The memories were jumbled, leaving her confused. Was it some sort of magical construct? An illusion? A trick of some sort? It was all so strange. Like a dream, but too real, too… awake. Did it really happen? She didn’t understand any of it. But in any case, she was sure she was back now, so at least that was something. “C– Celestia?” Luna’s voice spoke quietly from behind her. “Is that… you…?” Hearing the voice helped bring her back more fully to reality. “What do you mean?” Celestia turned around. “Of course it’s—” Her words died, leaving her stunned into silence when she saw the deep blue feathers resting against her sister’s sides. “Luna?” Celestia raised a shaky hoof and pointed. “You… wings?” Luna glanced at herself quickly, then looked at Celestia again with an expressionless face while she pointed back. “You too, sister.” Celestia turned her head and looked at what Luna was pointing to. She found her own body bearing wings as well, unfamiliar long white primaries scratching gently against her sides behind soft warm downy feathers in the front. “What happened to us?” Luna asked in a very small voice. “I don’t know.” Celestia suddenly felt numb and bewildered, with pangs of cold fear welling deep inside her chest. “I’ve— I’ve never heard of anything like this.” “I was… in the stars? In a magical space of some sort?” Luna said. “That’s what it seemed like to me, I think. Is that where you were?” “Yes,” Celestia said. “I—” she raised one hoof hesitantly “—I think so?” Celestia tried for a moment to put her jumbled memories of the place back in some kind of sensible order, but it was difficult without some time to think – and the world seemed determined not to give her even a moment. Distant sirens blared intrusively, distracting her. At their prompting, she looked out across the city, and found her and her sister’s recent work still fresh: a thick column of black smoke rising from the still-glowing, burned-open solar thaumocontroller, billowing into dark, ugly clouds. The lunar thaumocontroller’s dome was cracked open like a broken egg, jagged around the edges with razor shards of twisted metal. “What do we do now?” Luna asked anxiously. Celestia hesitated. “I… I don’t know…” “They’ll already be looking for us,” Luna said. “Do we stick to the plan?” Celestia realized she had to make a snap decision. “Yes, we proceed as planned.” She nodded once, although she couldn’t keep her eyes from straying to the feathers at her sides, which twitched nervously in a sensation of increasingly familiar unfamiliarity. “We’ll figure out this new twist later. I don’t know what other choice we have.” “Right.” Luna nodded back. She levitated her waiting saddlebag and tried to put it on, but struggled awkwardly to buckle the strap under her wings. Celestia also tried to put her bag on, and found the new muscles with their new and unlearned motor functions unwieldy and hard to control. With some finagling she was able to partially extend her wings, but not quite get both of them all the way off her sides at the same time. After a few moments of frustration, she resorted to gently grabbing them with telekinesis and moving them out of the way while she strapped her saddlebag around her barrel, then let them flop back to their resting position. Luna handled hers with an equal lack of grace. “Ready to go,” she finally reported, after considerable fumbling. Celestia nodded. “I’ll teleport us.” She drew in power, horn glowing with white-gold light once again, and scried. The vision in her mind’s eye started directly overhead, a bird’s eye view of the buildings around her, which she rapidly pushed toward the city walls. When she tried to pass beyond the walls to look out across the countryside beyond, something tangled in her scrying spell. A sticky feeling blurred her mental vision, filtering the image through what seemed like the telepathic equivalent of a combination of funhouse mirrors and hazy, badly scratched glass. Whatever it was also gummed up her magic’s responsiveness, making moving her perspective feel like walking on warm tar. “Something’s interfering.” Celestia frowned and dropped the spell. “I can’t scry out the destination point. Anything past the city walls is hard to get a good image of.” “The weather control perimeter!” Luna stomped a hoof. “I should have thought of that. It’s why pegasi can’t overfly the city. It inhibits their flight magic. Of course it would interfere with other magic as well, wouldn’t it?” “You’re right,” Celestia said. “We’ll need to punch through it somehow.” “Or just punch it out,” Luna suggested. “I… hmmm.” Celestia thought for a moment. “Well. That would work.” Luna nodded and glanced at the column of smoke in the distance. “As long as we’re already on a rampage anyway… in for a penny, in for a pound, right?” “We don’t really have time to come up with anything better,” Celestia agreed. “So, will you do the honors, or shall I?” Luna asked. “I’ll handle the teleport if you handle the weather control pylons,” Celestia said. “Very well.” Luna nodded. “One moment.” Luna’s horn glowed pale silvery blue. Her eyes narrowed while her mane and tail became deep, slow-flowing midnight holes in space with the pinpoint light of stars shining through. In the distance, a column of blue light formed over one of the weather control crystals. It was dim and diffuse at first, spread out wide. Luna’s horn brightened and the column tightened, growing more intense, quickly turning into a thin, intensely blue-white beam centered right on the hexagonal piece of crystal in the pylon. She brought the beam into focus until it formed a thin line too bright to look at. In mere seconds, the steel superstructure supporting the pylon heated to a cherry-red glow, and the crystal shattered. Shards tumbled from the city wall, refracting sunlight in brilliant rainbow flashes as they rained down slowly in the distance like a shower of glittering diamonds. With a link in the chain broken, the weather control field collapsed and the protective magical curtain around the city fell as the rest of the crystal pylons lost power in a cascade, fading out one after another. Celestia wasted no time once the magical barrier was out of the way. She closed her eyes and cast her scrying spell again, this time having no difficulty in pushing out beyond the city and searching across the countryside. Finding what she was looking for took only a few seconds. “Time to go!” she warned her sister. “Teleporting!” Luna snapped her eyes shut and stood still. Celestia activated the spell, reaching out to grasp Luna in it as well as herself, and they both disappeared from their little observation deck with a bright flash and a loud popping sound. ​    ☙ ☀ ❧     The first thing Celestia heard after the pop of displaced air was scrabbling hoofsteps nearby. “Whoa!” a voice exclaimed in surprise. She opened her eyes to see the pegasus she’d met before, Gale Winds, quickly backing up with her head turned away and one wing held up to shield her face. Celestia looked around. Luna was standing next to her in a derelict barn, dark and musty with shafts of sunlight shining in from overhead through small holes in the roof and gaps in the sagging age-warped siding. “Sorry, I hope that wasn’t too startling,” Celestia said. “It was unexpected.” Gale Winds lowered her wing and regained her composure. “I’m not familiar with unicorn magic. But then, many things have been unexpected lately. I’m not used to the sun rising when it should be setting, either.” “No, it, ummm, hasn’t exactly been a normal day, has it?” Celestia shook her head. “Regardless of what kind of day it is, we should depart quickly,” Gale Winds said. “It’s dangerous, pegasi being in Unicorn Kingdom lands without the correct weather-work permits. I don’t want to get caught out here.” “You’re right.” Celestia nodded. “Very dangerous for us now, too. We’re ready to leave immediately.” “You will still be needing the cart, right?” Gale Winds looked at Luna and Celestia with a puzzled expression. “I don’t remember you having wings last time we met.” “No.” Celestia shook her head. “It’s a strange story and I honestly don’t even understand it myself. But it’s not something there’s time to puzzle over right now.” “Right.” Gale Winds turned and pointed to a cart behind her in the barn, the same one they’d traveled in before, with two waiting pegasi harnessed to it. “Not really my business anyway. My job is just to get you to Cloudopolis, so let’s go.” Luna and Celestia trotted to the wagon and got in. Gale Winds latched the back gate, then walked over to the doors of the barn and pushed them open. The two pegasi hitched to the cart taxied it out of the barn. “Hold on to something!” Gale Winds called back. Celestia braced herself, remembering the last ride’s jolting takeoff. The cart started moving, rolling rough and bumpy on the icy ground at first, then lifting off into the air and smoothing out. They rose up and through a heavy layer of cloud, getting above another patch of rough weather, and were soon comfortably cruising on their way. ​    ☙ ☀ ❧     Sighing, Clover collapsed onto a small couch, the one piece of furniture in her wizard’s den of an apartment that wasn’t covered in books or magical devices. She closed her eyes and rubbed her aching head. Emergency meetings, one after another, nearly twenty-four hours straight! In the wake of the total destruction of the thaumocontrollers, giving direction to Thaumosciences Authority mages running in a blind panic to try to regain some semblance of control and stem further damage was her entire world. Meals didn’t even exist anymore, let alone the luxury of sleep. She’d expected things to get hectic once the two sisters did their deed, but it caught her by surprise to see them be so blunt in their methods. ‘Disable the thaumocontrollers by force,’ they’d said. She left the details to them, trusting that they understood their new-found powers better than she did and would exercise sound judgment as to the appropriate and necessary level of aforementioned ‘force.’ Perhaps being so nonspecific was a mistake, she ruminated, stretching her stiff legs. Not that this was wholly unexpected: there was a certain kind of logic to the loud message that such a shocking display of first-strike power sent. It would have just been nice to know exactly what was coming. And the weather control perimeter… nothing had been said about that. It was an unpleasant complication. Why weather control had to become an unplanned casualty was a question she was eager to hear answered, assuming she ever saw those two again. Just thinking about it made her scowl while she lay on her couch staring up at the ceiling. The city was reeling badly enough, after the overkill they’d wrought on the thaumocontrollers. Did they really need to top that off by trashing their weather control and letting the ravages of winter in as well, filling the streets with snow and— BANG BANG BANG Somepony was not just knocking, but downright hammering on the door, demanding attention right this instant. Clover started and jumped to her hooves. Oh, what now? She scowled and walked over to open her apartment door, expecting a messenger with a summons for yet another urgent emergency consultation or some other such demand on her leadership in this crisis. But it was no simple messenger. Instead, a group of armored royal guards stood at her door, led by a unicorn who was not armored, and not a royal guard. She was the least pleasant sight of them all, with an only-too-familiar pastel fuchsia coat and dark violet pin-straight mane with red streaks, standing at the door with a soft grin and a glint shining in her purple eyes. Clover studied Star Fire’s face for a moment. “Well. Don’t you just look like the cat who caught the canary,” she remarked flatly. “Cardinal, this is the day I’ve been waiting for.” Star Fire’s smile widened slightly. “Is it, now?” Clover asked. “You finally found just the right cream for that embarrassing personal problem?” Star Fire said nothing, and instead turned and motioned to the royal guards beside her. One of them stepped forward. “Cardinal Mage Clover, you are summoned to the Royal Court to appear before Princess Platinum for inquest,” the guard said, reading from a script. “This summons is immediate. Failure to comply will result in being assessed guilty of criminal contempt against the crown.” Clover stared in blank surprise for a moment. “Criminal contempt?” She blinked and cleared her throat. “Oh my. Can’t have that, can we? I guess I’d better go.” “The guards will be escorting you,” Star Fire said, still smiling. “Standard practice for a summons like this. You understand.” “Oh, I understand, Star Fire.” Clover stared at her. “I understand perfectly. I presume you plan to be present for the clown show. I’m sure this is all very amusing to you.” She turned to the guard. “Well, let’s not waste time. I have things to do.” Clover exited her apartment and closed the door behind her, then locked it. She walked down the hallway, and the guards took up positions. Two of them flanked her sides, while one walked in front of her and one behind. Star Fire trailed after them, stalking down the hall like a cat looking pleased with itself all the way to the royal court. ​    ☙ ☀ ❧     “We are informed by Mage Star Fire that your two, ah, research assistants are unaccounted for since the catastrophic events that befell the thaumocontrollers,” Princess Platinum said from her red velvet-lined throne. Although crowded with officials and representatives of the noble houses, the court was eerily silent right now. All eyes focused on the unicorn with a curly green mane who stood alone before the dais, flanked at a distance by royal guards. “That is true, Princess,” Clover replied. “I have not been able to find them.” “Strange, since they were not at the scenes.” Platinum looked at Clover with cold, ice-blue eyes. “These missing unicorns are sisters, I believe?” “Yes, Princess.” “And there seems to be a possible discrepancy regarding some of your recent work,” Platinum continued. “You claimed to be conducting long-range teleportation experiments when confronted in person about the detection of an unusual magical signature.” “I did, Princess.” Clover nodded. “I was conducting such experiments.” “But the forms by which you obtained the transfer of these two sisters to your supervision state the purpose as urgent weather research,” Platinum continued. “Mage Star Fire discovered as much when she pulled the paperwork.” “Oh?” Clover looked over at Star Fire, standing amongst the crowd, and narrowed her eyes. “Is that what you’ve been doing with your time lately? In this moment of crisis, with the thaumocontrollers destroyed, the weather control system down, and qualified mages so badly needed all over the city? You see fit to make digging up old transfer paperwork your priority?” Star Fire scowled, staring back at Clover. “I don’t think it’s your place to second-guess me right now,” she hissed. “I’m not the one who’s been summoned for an inquest.” “Would you like to be?” Clover snapped. “Because it’s starting to sound like there are some questions I’d like to hear answe—” “Cardinal!” Platinum’s voice boomed louder than usual for a moment from a voice amplification spell, commanding attention. “The issue at hoof. How do you explain yourself?” “Apologies, Princess,” Clover said. “My explanation is simple: both were being done. I directed the two sisters to work on their weather research tasks autonomously, while I experimented with long-range teleportation magics that I believed held potential.” “I see.” Platinum nodded briefly. “And you don’t know where these sisters are now?” “I do not, Princess.” Clover shook her head. “You released them from your supervision and returned them to roles in the Thaumosciences Authority as a solarite and an apprentice lunarite, is that true?” “Yes, Princess.” “How long ago?” Platinum asked. “About three days before the thaumocontrollers were destroyed, if I’m remembering correctly?” “Yes, Princess.” “They were accounted for until the attack, after which… they vanished.” Platinum paused. “I do hope nothing untoward has happened to them.” “As do I, Princess.” Clover nodded. “Is there any evidence as to their location or status?” Platinum asked. “Not that I know of, Princess.” “Any reason to think they may have been involved in recent events?” “I don’t—” “Actually, Princess, if I may,” Star Fire interrupted. All eyes in the court turned to her. She was holding several sheets of paper in her magical grip, hovering in front of her. “You have something to contribute, Mage?” Platinum waved for Star Fire to approach. Star Fire walked out of the crowd and joined Clover before the throne. “Yes, Princess. Detections of unusual thaumic signatures. Massive ones, three of them.” She floated the papers over to the princess. “I’m sure you will notice that the timing is quite interesting.” Princess Platinum took the papers in her magical grasp and read through them, while a tense silence smothered the court like a heavy blanket. “Hmm. The second one is the date of the first solar anomaly. The last one is the date of the thaumocontroller attacks,” she said. “But the first? I don’t recognize this being a major event.” “The first, Princess, is the date and time at which Cardinal Clover claims to have been conducting teleportation experiments,” Star Fire said. “In fact, it is the unique energy signature of the very event she claimed was her experiment when I inquired.” Princess Platinum lowered the papers and looked at Clover sharply. “You claim it was a teleportation experiment, and yet it matches the other signatures exactly – signatures whose timing is closely associated with moving the sun illegally and exerting incredible destructive force against vital state infrastructure. I suggest you explain this very carefully, Cardinal, if you can.” Clover said nothing, standing frozen before the dais. Dead silence gripped the court yet again. After a few seconds, whispers broke out among the crowd, followed by growing murmurs. Ponies directed glances and glares of confusion, dismay, and anger at her. “My court and I will have an answer, Cardinal.” Platinum stared at her icily. “The first event: was this or was this not your magic?” “It was not, Princess,” Clover said, in a dry, quiet voice. “Then what kind of magic was it?” “I don’t know, Princess.” Clover stared down at the floor, studying the rich red carpet that covered the stone tiles before the throne. “You don’t know, but you lied to conceal it by pretending it was your own doing?” Platinum narrowed her eyes. “I…” Clover cleared her throat and pawed at the ground with one hoof. “I did, Princess.” A wave of low voices mumbling and murmuring rose from the crowd. “Why?” Platinum demanded. Her horn suddenly glowed with a pale blue aura. “To cover for two young thaumites who I believed made a simple innocent mistake,” Clover said. “Is that so?” Platinum spoke swiftly with a sharp edge to her words. “No. Cardinal, in reality, I see only two possibilities. The first is that I have sorely overestimated the soundness of your judgment. The second is that you are fully aware that there is more to this, which after working with you for so long I greatly suspect is closer to the truth. Either way, whatever is going on has cost the Unicorn Kingdom dearly, and I have grave misgivings about extending you my trust any further. It tastes all the more bitter to have to say that about my own Royal Cardinal Mage.” Platinum was silent for a beat. “What happened to you, Clover?” “They call me clever, not wise,” Clover said softly to the floor, hanging her head. Platinum’s face contorted with anger. “The brazenness! To lie to me when you know you cannot! I promise you, Clover, I will reach the bottom of this and your role will be found out, one way or another! So help me, once I know what charges to have you arrested for, I will. Until then, you are stripped of all duties and privileges and confined to the palace where a close watch may be kept on you.” Platinum turned and motioned to the captain near her. “Guards! Escort the Cardinal to an empty guest apartment. Lock her in. Post sentries and see that she does not leave. Provide her with the necessary meals and personal items for health and comfort, but nothing else. Allow her to speak to nopony. Go! Get her out of my sight.” Royal guards closed around Clover and started leading her away while most of the crowd watched in stunned, dismayed silence. Star Fire stood among them, smiling subtly while her eyes followed Clover out of the court hall.