Chapter 3: Down to Earth
“Wake up, come on. The sun just rose, and we need to get the plants uncovered.”
“Pray, is it too much to ask that you give Us more than three hours to sleep?”
“I don’t care what you lot get up to in that fancy castle, but here we get up with the sun, whatever the sun decides to do. And quit with the royal speech. I’m the First Lady of the Earth Ponies, I’m on your level.”
“Ugh,” Luna said as stretched in bed, abandoning use of the Royal Speech for the moment. “When am I going to get out of here?”
“When you get your Cutie Mark, you know that,” Sour Grapes said irately. “Up you get.” Sour Grapes had a merlot-toned coat with a dark green mane and a blue concord grape Cutie Mark, as well as a perpetually dour expression befitting her name.
“Is Radishred back yet?” Luna asked.
“No, and he’ll get back a lot quicker if you quit asking,” Sour Grapes said.
The mare left the room, and Luna rolled out of bed. The Alicorn Princess had passed her twelfth birthday some scant weeks ago, though she had only been informed of that fact a few days ago. The sun had reverted to the Draconequus’ control, and once again the passage of time was something that could be assessed only by the cadre of scholars and mystics in the academy at Canterlot. For a few weeks after Celestia had gained her Cutie Mark and taken control of the sun, the Draconequus had defied her by placing the moon in a constant solar eclipse. This had allowed for the passage of time, but had also left Equestria with no sunlight at all, which all knew would soon become more disastrous than anything else Discord had wrought thus far in all the years of his confinement. So it was that the Triumvirate had told Celestia to voluntarily relinquish control of the sun, allowing the Draconequus’ capricious and unpredictable movements of the heavenly bodies to provide Equestria with at least some life-giving sunlight, rather than none at all.
After the timeless period resumed, the Alicorn Sisters had been split up, another resolution of the Triumvirate. Luna saw it as punishment for her curiosity, for having fooled the aged Wishwell the Wise and discovered her true nature before the appointed time, although the Triumvirate had not called it punishment. Instead it had been called “education.” The elder Celestia, with her solid grasp of flying basics, had been sent to live with the Pegasus ponies of their ancestral home of Pegasopolis, while Luna had been sent to Coltsdam, the only fortified burg of the Earth Ponies, and their place of Congress. Celestia would learn to fight in the tradition of Pegasus Hoplites and aid them in their war against the clouds that the Draconequus still controlled. Luna, meanwhile, learned Earth Pony politics and the growing of food as she adapted to the basics of flight. The plan was to have them exchange places once Luna gained her Cutie Mark, sending her to learn flight when she was older, so that they would, at last, be trained in the knowledge of all three tribes, and ready to fight the Draconequus. It would be hard indeed to sustain their current existence that long, but everypony toiled in the hope that their deliverance from Discord would come in due time.
Yawning broadly, Luna trotted out of the guest quarters that had served as her bedroom for the last four years. “Good morning, your majesty,” she heard as a greeting.
“Don’t tease me. It’s not morning, and I told you not to call me that,” Luna sighed. “Unless you want me to start calling you “First Daughter” again.”
“No,” Beet Red laughed. Beet Red was the daughter of Chancellor Radishred and his wife, Sour Grapes. She was a few months younger than Luna, and a blank-flank just like her. She had her father’s rusty-brown coat and her mother’s dark green mane. She had been Luna’s constant companion throughout the past four years, and the Alicorn felt as close to her almost as she was to Celestia, who she now saw only irregularly, and never for very long. “It’s so embarrassing when ponies call me that.” She blushed furiously.
The two fillies left the Chancellor’s House, a well-adorned house in the midst of Coltsdam, where the current Chancellor Radishred lived with his wife, Sour Grapes, daughter Beet Red, and her older brother Redvine. Radishred himself had been away for several days, at a convening of the Triumvirate, while Redvine was helping an Earth Pony settlement in another part of the domain. It was a comfortable house across the town square from the Earth Pony Congress. The accommodations were not as large or elaborate as the Palace in which Luna had spent her earlier years, but she did not want for comfort that were still inaccessible to most ponies, as well as more food than was rationed to the peasantry (though not by much). Discord’s machinations had not effected housing, and so the leaders of Equestria were just as well-accommodated as they had been. Food was another story, of course. Although leaders did get more food rationed to them (which some were more reluctant to accept than others), they now ate less even than many commoners had in the days before the coming of the Draconequus. In those days, the Earth Ponies had seen to it that there was plenty for everypony, high and low, throughout Equestria, and although there had been much grumbling over prices, everypony had been largely content.
Luna and Beet Red went through the small, fortified town and out into the fields. Coltsdam was a fortified burg set at the foot of the Foal Mountains, along the Neighagara River, a ways to the East of Canterlot. The “dam” of Coltsdam was a low-lying dyke, which ran up to the fortress walls and forced the river to bend prematurely, creating a small lake from which floodgates led to irrigation trenches that serrated the fields beyond, creating some of the richest fields in the land.
The crops lately had come under threat from frost, of all things. It was something as subtle as a cold front that the Draconequus had sent up towards Coltsdam, something that would be easily dispatched by the Pegasi if they weren’t tied up fighting much more severe weather problems spawned by Discord in his captivity. The cold front meant that every night (which came on average once every eight hours) there was a danger of frost, which would kill some of the crops. After a three hour night, the farmers in and around Coltsdam were out uncovering those crops that were especially frost-sensitive, so that they could receive the sunlight. Beet Red and Luna followed Sour Grapes in a lane through the fields at a brisk pace. Luna trotted on the ground, for although she had finally begun flying in private, she avoided doing so in public to try to stop the inevitable, but it came just the same.
“Look at the filly with the First Lady.”
“Wings and a horn. My cousin was telling me, but I didn’t believe it.”
“She came from Canterlot, supposed to be some kind of unicorn mutant.”
Luna closed her eyes as she walked, but felt the burning gazes of the field-workers. Even after nearly four years here, she was still a curiosity, and she hated it. Initially that had not been so; she had liked the idea of being special when she was littler, and even knowing the burden she was to bear had not been imposing, since she would bear it together with her sister, it had felt almost like a game. Now, away from Celestia and as she grew she began to feel the weight of being different, feeling an inherent wrongness in the way ponies always stared or commented.
Of course, Luna was not alone in Coltsdam. “Get back to work, slackers!” Sour Grapes barked.
“Yeah, what are you looking at, butthead?” Beet Red added. Luna opened her eyes to see Beet Red smiling, and she returned the smile, though she still felt bad. “C’mon, cheer up Luna,” the filly said. “You know they’re just jealous.”
“Jealous or not, they should keep it to themselves,” Sour Grapes grumbled. “There should be a law against it.”
“Just forget about it,” Luna said. “Please,” she added, remembering her manners. Eventually, Sour Grapes and Beet Red detached to work on uncovering a row of tomato plants, while Luna stepped over to the next row and addressed the entire row of tomato plants at once, by magic. With a great many earth-ponies working and with Luna’s magical help, they were able to finish uncovering the frost-sensitive crops in about half an hour. They worked quickly out of fear that the sun would soon set again, and that they would lose all the sunlight, as was all too common. The irregular sun wreaked more havoc on the agrarian Earth Ponies, who had made a habit of rising and sleeping with the dawn and dusk, something that they largely enforced as the chaos came in, although they were obliged to break the habit if daylight or darkness endured too long. The livestock had it worse, with cows, pigs, chickens, and others all terribly confused all the time.
Half an hour into this day, however, it seemed that this day would be a longer one, as the sun was busy spinning around in circles dead center in the sky, as if ranging from high noon to about 1 PM to 11 AM and back again every couple of seconds, though the Draconequus was known for nothing if not for great capriciousness and a twisted malice, so there were never any guarantees of daylight. But the stalwart Earth Ponies often gave little regard for such contingencies, working with the sunlight they were given and reacting to unexpected things only as they came.
Confident that they were going to have more daylight to work with; Sour Grapes took Luna and Beet Red back to Coltsdam as the other field workers dispersed to their homes for a meal. It could not really be called “breakfast” because they might not have time for three meals that day, and also because each meal was composed of whatever rations had been set aside.
As they approached the Chancellor’s House, Beet Red stopped them. “Look!” she said, pointing skyward. “Dad’s home!” A chariot swept out of the sky, ornate and drawn by a pair of Pegasus Knights, bearing Chancellor Radishred.
“Thanks,” Radishred grunted as he hopped out of the chariot. With a veiled snort of contempt, the Pegasi leapt back into the air and flew off.
“What news of the Triumvirate?” Luna asked, rushing towards Radishred.
“Hold on,” Radishred said. “I don’t need any chatter before I get something in my stomach.”
The family returned to the house, seated as Sour Grapes retrieved their rationed meals. Luna stared obsessively at Radishred, desperate for any news of her family or her sister that might come from the Triumvirate. After scarfing down his meager rations: a clump of hay and half an ear of corn, she again accosted him.
“So?” she asked, practically pouncing on the dining-room table.
Radishred sighed. Every time he went on Triumvirate business… “Your sister’s fine. She’s off leading a battalion of Pegasus Knights against a nasty storm coming down from the Frozen North.”
“She gets to have all the fun,” Luna huffed.
“Yeah, fun…” Radishred snorted. “Anyway, most of it was about the two of you. I dunno. They told me not to tell you, but… you’re not gonna stop buggin’ me about it, so here it goes.”
The Triumvirate had convened for their biannual meeting once again, time to consult over leadership of Equestria and to take counsel against the enduring threat of the Draconequus. It was now almost 18 years since the crisis had begun, and yet Equestria endured. The younger generation knew nothing but rationing and hardship, and the malnourishment meant that ponies were more susceptible to disease and mischance, dying before their time. Despite this, Equestria endured: the Pegasi, now hardened by constant war with rogue clouds and storms, were run into a desperate state, but like many creatures driven to desperation, the need to survive caused them to thrive, and so the rebellious heavens never triumphed. The Unicorns, meanwhile, had organized their efforts at maintaining the magic barrier quite well, with a series of makeshift communities all around the barrier that kept the Draconequus at bay as the unicorns worked in shifts. Their children learned no magic but the barrier spell, and so were better at it even than their parents, and the generation that had grown with the hardship did their job well.
The Earth Ponies too had learned to adapt to the hardship. Grappling with infertile lands and harsh weather, their horticultural technique had strengthened and the food supply had stayed constant, if still dangerously low. Luna had seen firsthand the work ethic of the Earth Ponies, of the dogged spirit with which they strove to triumph over adversity, but she also saw the discontent that spread among them. There were whispers among some peasants that perhaps Equestria had failed them as their ancient homeland had failed them, that they should abandon the land to the Draconequus, or that they should begin fending for themselves and no longer help the other tribes, although the vigorous spirit with which Radishred led his people meant that these whispers remained in the shadows.
If the earth ponies were still holding elections, the spirit of discontent might have gained traction, but earth pony politics was nothing if not very tedious and time-consuming, as the political landscape was riddled with formalized factions, each of whom had to have internal elections to put forth candidates, who then went on to win seats in Congress, and within Congress elections were held for the Chancery. With everypony needed working as hard as possible to extract food from the hostile land, elections were impossible, and so Radishred had maintained a 20-year regime, when he originally was supposed to be up for only 6 years. He was now well into middle age, as was Queen Amethyst, both of whom had only recently started their families when the crisis began. Gale Force was ten years younger than either, and she was now well into maturity, though not showing the signs of age that the other leaders were.
For the most part, it was business as usual for the Triumvirate, focused mostly upon discussing the discontent that reigned amongst their subjects, while remarking that discipline had not degraded to the point that anypony was doing anything about it. Compassion was a strong force within the tribes, and although the tribes largely regarded themselves as separate still, the lessons of the Founding Heroines were well-engrained enough that the tribes would not fight each other. The greatest threat to harmony seemed to be a faction amongst the Pegasus Knights, younger and ignorant of the danger, who were demanding a head-on assault against the Draconequus. The older officers, however, who remembered the failure of such attempts, managed to keep that sentiment from gaining traction.
The last point of every meeting since the crisis had started involved a report from the scholars of the Magic Academy, generally to report merely upon the passage of time, the progress of the Alicorn Princesses, or other matters relating to the struggle against the Draconequus. “Let her in,” Queen Amethyst said to the pair of Unicorn guards who stood at the chamber’s door. The doors swung open, and Wishwell the Wise entered. Her aging had proceeded apace in the last four years, and now she was unable to get out of bed, at least under her physical power. Her own mattress, ensconced in the blue aura of her magic, floated into the room. Her mental and magical faculties were still were still sharp, as was her hearing, but as for everything else…
The bed floated forward, eventually bumping into the triangular council table. “Confounded…” she grumbled. “Can’t see a thing anymore.”
“You’re fine,” Amethyst said gently. “Set it down.”
The mattress fell to the floor as Wishwell sat up.
“It is rare to see you for these reports,” Commander Gale said, “I am glad to see you’re still well.”
“I ain’t well,” Wishwell said. “Really I don’t know how I’m still kickin’.”
“I don’t see any kickin’,” Radishred snorted.
Wishwell glared in his general direction. “Earthies still can’t take a figure of speech,” she grunted. Radishred’s face reddened, but he said nothing.
“Your report,” Gale said shortly. The others present all looked at her, for there had been an air of authority in the Pegasus’ voice that seemed strange to those present, a new tone of voice coming from the Pegasus after knowing her for over 17 years. Amethyst and Radishred glanced at each other.
“It has been 18 years, 2 months, 21 days since the Draconequus emerged and disrupted the Count of Time,” Wishwell began. “We issued a report some days ago to Princess Luna regarding passage of her twelfth birthday, and that’s why I’m speaking here personally. It was not long after her twelfth birthday that Princess Celestia gained her Cutie Mark and first harnessed her power over the Sun. Since siblings tend to get Cutie Marks at similar times, Luna will likely get hers soon as well.”
“We know the plan,” Radishred said. “Then we send Luna up to learn warfare with the Pegasi as Celestia comes to help us in Coltsdam.”
“Well, we may need to keep them together more after Luna gets her Cutie Mark,” Wishwell said. “Because of the Elements of Harmony.”
“What do you mean?” Amethyst asked. “You’ve called the Princesses “the Elements” before, but I thought that was because they were born of Harmony. Are there actual, separate Elements?”
“I’m an old, old mare,” Wishwell replied. “But even if I were young, we’re gettin’ way out into murky depths of magical theory. I mean, nopony’s ever created another pony by magic before. Starswirl the Bearded crafted spells for the quickening of new life, and there is an ancient discipline of transmogrification spells for changing the nature of things, even unto changing species. It was theoretically possible, but Celestia and Luna were the first magic-made ponies, and…”
“Your point?” Radishred said, stamping a fore-hoof on the table impatiently.
“I warned you I was old, didn’t I?” Wishwell snapped. “The original point was that this whole Project Harmony thing is kind of cutting-edge in terms of magical theory. The other scholars and me have been debating what will occur, and we know first off that the Alicorns are more powerful than other ponies.”
“Obviously,” Radishred snorted. “That’s why I’ll be sad to see Luna go. She’s got unicorn magic working with earth pony know-how, and she works about as hard as you could expect a blank-flank filly.”
“Luna was always adept at magic,” Amethyst added. “She always worked hard to try and out-do Celestia in magic, so she was always learning all sorts of spells when she was little.”
“Celestia has been an exemplary apprentice knight,” Gale added. “It’s been very inspiring for the troops to see her in action.”
“Now who’s getting off-point?” Wishwell wheezed. “They’re supposed to be powerful; they’re our only hope against the might of the Draconequus. But the powers they’ve exhibited so far, even Celestia’s ability to control the sun, aren’t the power that they’ll use to stop Discord. Their power lies in Harmony, in the bond that exists between them as sisters who were forged from Harmony itself. They are the Elements of Harmony, but the power of the elements has not made itself manifest yet. We believe that this will happen when Luna gains her Cutie Mark, for at that point both sisters will have their full abilities, and with the bond between them, their powers will join and intensify and form the Elements. There should be some visible sign of this, an outward manifestation of their powers, tokens of the Elements themselves that they will bear. What they’ll be I cannot say.”
“But you made them,” Gale interjected.
“I made them, but I didn’t choose what they looked like. Their forms were chosen, though how I cannot say.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Radishred asked.
“Off-point,” Wishwell said dismissively. “As far as the fight against Discord is concerned, it is enough to know that their full powers will soon manifest, and then they should be brought together occasionally to try harnessing that power, before they are fully ready to fulfill their duty.”
“So there you have it,” Radishred said, finishing his account of the Triumvirate’s council. “Nothing you should really worry about.”
“I should totally worry about it!” Luna yelped. “They’re waiting for me to get my Cutie Mark!”
“Exactly,” Sour Grapes replied. “Nothing you can worry about. No force in this world is gonna make you get your Cutie Mark any sooner than you’re supposed to.”
“But the sooner I get it, the sooner we can start preparing to save everypony!”
“I can’t say I don’t sympathize,” Radishred said. “You’ve got a real fighting spirit in you, and usually it’s a good thing to try to push for what you want, no matter who stands in your way, but this isn’t one of those things. You can’t rush it.”
“I can try,” Luna said stubbornly.
“I’ll help ya,” Beet Red piped up, before everypony present turned to look at her. “I mean, I want to get my Cutie Mark too,” she added, blushing.
“As long as it doesn’t get in the way of your field work,” Sour Grapes said. “You two can do whatever you want. But I’m telling you both, it’s a waste of time.”
In the foolishness of foalhood, however, Luna and Beet Red ignored their parents’ advice. “I’m not going to give up,” she said. The two of them had ventured out to the dam on the Neighagara River. The sun was still in the sky, still circling rapidly around the noon-point: high time for it to be taken down. Luna and Beet Red enjoyed spending time out on the dam, it was their place to go when they wanted privacy from Beet Red’s parents, to play in the odd time that they had for play, given all the work that needed done for the feeding of all of Equestria. Luna floated along at Beet Red’s side, for out here there were no other ponies staring at her and making odd comments. “So how do we do it?” Beet Red asked.
“Well, my Cutie Mark should appear like Big Sis’s did,” Luna said thoughtfully. “It was nighttime, we were sleeping, and all of a sudden there was this light, then she raised the sun, the moon disappeared, and her Cutie Mark appeared.”
“So… you need to be asleep?” Beet Red asked.
“Maybe,” Luna said. “I think it had more to do with the time. The sun appears at the end of the night, and the moon appears at the end of the day. I think I just need to try setting the sun and raising the moon at the end of the day.”
“But how do you do that?” Beet Red asked. “Nopony knows when the day’s supposed to end anymore. It just... ends.”
“How about when ponies are tired? Celestia woke everyone up when she raised the sun, so maybe I’m supposed to raise the moon when everyone wants to sleep.”
“That’s worth a shot,” Beet Red said. “At least you’ve got a better idea of things than I do.”
“Well what age was Redvine when he got his Cutie Mark?”
“10?” Beet Red said questioningly. “Nopony’s sure anymore, but that sounds right. Means I’m already behind him…” she said, blushing.
“But you’re different than he is,” Luna assured. “He’s 100% Radishred’s son.”
“I’m an earth pony, daughter of the Chancellor, and I’m named after a crop,” Beet Red said. “What are the chances that my cutie mark isn’t going to involve me being a farmer?”
“It doesn’t help that we have to do a lot of farming, to keep everypony from starving…” Luna trailed off, the sobering reality of her burden beginning to come back to her.
“Maybe I can get my Cutie Mark by helping you get yours,” Beet Red said. “That’s definitely something I want to do.”
“Good, then let’s get to…” the sun disappeared from the sky, while a sickle moon shot up on the southern horizon. Shocked, Luna and Beet Red both looked at Luna’s flank in the wan moonlight; still bare. “Darnit.”
A few weeks passed by, as the Princess and the First Daughter spent all of their free time out in the fields chasing the sun, waiting for the prime moment for it to set. Luna developed trouble sleeping, spending nights at her window gazing out at the moon, silently willing it to move onto its correct course and into its correct phase. While she like most every other pony in the land could not measure the passage of time, when she really tried, she could feel what time it should have been, were all the world correct. She took that for a good sign, and Beet Red agreed.
One day, the two were out repairing a small rope suspension bridge that stood over an irrigation trough, allowing carts to pass from one field to the next. The sun shone in the West as it ascended into the sky, while black clouds threatened from the East. “Looks like a nasty storm,” Beet Red observed.
“Maybe I’ll see Celestia again,” Luna said.
The bridge repair work was a simple enough task, especially with an Alicorn about: Luna magically suspended the planks while Beet Red cut a length of rope from a long coil the two had brought out with them, then bound lengths of rope together and threaded them through the planks.
“That was really worth the trip out here,” Beet Red said, with a sardonic tone that would have made her father proud.
“I can give you a lift back,” Luna offered. Among other talents, Luna was larger and stronger than most everypony her age, including Beet Red. She had flown Beet Red before, and flown the other pony by magic as well. She lacked many technical skills as a flyer yet, but she had, at last, mastered the basics.
“Nah,” Beet Red refused, blushing. “Once you get your Cutie Mark, you’ll be off with the Pegasi and I’ll have to get used to hoofin’ it.”
“Are you sure?” Luna said, spreading her wings.
Suddenly a fierce wind kicked up, blasting up the tilled earth and forcing both ponies to shut their eyes. “Whoa!” Luna exclaimed. Before either could react, a second powerful gust caught Luna’s outstretched wings and sent her flying.
“Luna!” Beet Red shouted.
“It’s okay!” Luna yelled back over the howl of the wind as she stabilized and began to fly against it, some 20 feet up. “I… agh!” she was cut off as an egg came flying out of the clouds and struck her flank, throwing her off kilter and tumbling into the gale as she flapped frantically, trying to stabilize.
Eggs came flying thick and fast after that, chicken eggs, though without whites or yolks, shattering into empty shells as they hit the fields. “Hold on!” Beet Red yelled, struggling to remain steady on her own four hooves. She grabbed up the length of rope they had brought with them, hastily making it into a lasso. The filly swiftly took aim and cast the lasso, half-holding it in her teeth as she let the wind carry it to Luna, who was struggling to stay in place. The loop slipped neatly around Luna’s body, then Beet Red drew the rope back, catching Luna firmly.
“I’ve got you!” she said, straining as the wind attempted to whip Luna away into the West and carry the earth pony off with her. The sky was now fully dark as the clouds rapidly overtook the Western horizon and the dust from the fields swirled with the falling eggs. Beet Red dug in her hooves as she tugged the rope towards one of the thick wooden posts that marked the edge of the rope bridge. She took a few steps tentatively past the post, threading the rope around the post. Somehow, she managed to tie a knot, hitching the rope fast to the post, and Luna stabilized as she was tugged around the sky.
Beet Red had to use her hooves to finish tightening the knot when the wind finally caught her smaller body and threw the filly off into the air. “Red! Red!” Luna shouted, struggling in place, bound by Beet Red’s solid rope-work, though she was unable to see where her friend went in the chaos. Darkness descended further, punctuated only by intermittent flashes of lightning as the storm raged, dying out some minutes later.
The lightning receded westward and the stars came out, the sun having vanished behind the cover of the storm, but the starlight was not enough to illuminate the vast fields. Luna landed, then undid the rope magically. “Red?” she called into the darkness, then leapt back into the air. “Red?” She flew westward, sweeping back and forth, her eyes strained on the ground as she called. “Red? Where are you?”
Luna suppressed a rising sense of panic; it had all happened so fast. The storm had swept up on them so rapidly, and just as quick, her friend was gone, impossible to find in the dark. It would take a long time for searchers to come out this far with lanterns, and who knows what could happen to her by then? She needed light now. Luna lit her horn, but it was insufficient: not bright enough to cast shadows or illuminate all of the fields. “Need more light…” she said, “come on, come on!” She focused on her horn, straining for more power, more illumination. Midnight-blue aura swirled around her horn as a point of silver light built at its tip, then with a “yipe!” the power surged forth, a burst of silvery light that flowed out in a ring, lighting up the entire landscape, all the fields as far off as Coltsdam. Then Luna’s whole body glowed and began to float under its own power. The light burst anew, then Luna emerged with her Cutie Mark, a blotch of black on her midnight-blue flank with a white crescent moon, which Luna discovered not by looking at her flank, but from the light source from the east that caught her eye, a slowly rising crescent moon, of the same degree as the moon on her flank.
“The moon…” Luna breathed, basking in her achievement for a moment. “Red!” she realized, then dashed off. She spotted Beet Red quickly, a patch of red-brown in an irrigation ditch that stood out in the moonlight. She wouldn’t have stood out so cleanly in the sunlight, her coat being hard to distinguish in the muddy waters, but in the gentle light of the moon, the filly was quickly apparent. She was standing, which was a good sign, though she was smeared with mud.
“Luna!” Beet Red greeted as the Alicorn descended towards her. “That light, the moon, was that…”
“Yes,” Luna replied. “Are you all right?”
“You got your Cutie Mark!” Beet Red exclaimed, ignoring Luna’s question and pointing towards her friend’s flank.
“I guess I did,” Luna said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. The wind tossed me into the ditch, so it was a pretty soft landing in the mud.”
“Here,” Luna said. Her horn glowed anew and the mud fell off of Beet Red, revealing a lasso emblazoned on her side.
“A lasso…?” Beet Red said. “Well, I guess it isn’t exactly a farming Cutie Mark. At least it’s not a beet.”
“You earned it,” Luna said. “That rope trick you pulled was amaz-“ she was cut off as she began to inadvertently slide forward, tugged by some invisible force.
“Luna, what are you…?” Beet Red began.
“I don’t know,” Luna said as she slid another couple of feet forward. “I’m not doing this…” she took wing and began flapping backwards, but she kept moving forwards. Beet Red started trotting after her.
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know…” Luna said. “I can’t… stop it!” she said, as the mysterious force pulling her intensified, hurling her westward through the air
“Luna!” Beet Red yelled, but the Alicorn was gone.
Beet Red was left looking towards the western horizon, where the departed storm still loomed.