“You already have a plan on how to defeat Discord?” Asked Celestia while looking slightly puzzled.
“You’re damn right; it sprung into my mind just days after that creature turned up.” Cirrus proudly announced.
“I’ve had to deal with a fair amount o’ bad guys in my time, and I ain’t gonna let some mismatched nightmare be the first one that beats me!” Cirrus continued.
“Are you actually going to mention any form of plan, Cirrus?” Raider asked as he grew impatient.
“What? Oh, yeah. Sorry, got a little carried away there.” Cirrus sat back down on his chair as he composed himself.
“My plan… is that we lure Discord to the Everfree Forest so that he gets attacked by a herd o’ Timberwolves!” Cirrus proclaimed smugly.
The looks of anticipation on the faces of the ponies around the room instantly disappeared.
“I think we’ll have to veto that one.” Mumbled one of the injured soldiers to the sound of chuckles from the other troops.
Cirrus retaliated angrily. “Well at least I’m pitching something!”
“He’s got a point, you know, nopony else has a better plan.” Raider admitted.
"But Discord is a creature of immense magical ability, he'd never be tricked into a trap like that, we'll have to come up with something else." Raider sadly confessed.
The group of ponies sat around the table for hours, brainstorming any idea, however stupid or originally promising, but to no avail.
“Well, Ladies, Cirrus. I’m sorry for dragging you out here for three hours for absolutely nothing.” Raider glumly apologised.
“Wait!” Luna suddenly shouted, it’d been the first time she’d spoken since she’d walked into the room.
“What is it, Luna?” Celestia asked.
“What about the Castle library? That must have something in it that could help us. Some kind of magic book maybe?" Luna suggested.
“Hmm.” Raider pondered the idea. “A book of spells maybe, there could be something in there. But it’ll be locked to keep out intruders, and the captain has the keys, and no-one’s seen Captain Steel Hooves since Discord arrived.”
“The messenger pony at Trottingham told me he’d been killed fighting Discord there.” One of the soldiers added.
The soldiers each took off their helmets as a sign of respect to his passing.
“Well, he ain’t such a great messenger then is he?” A voice exclaimed as the door flew off its hinges.
Captain Steel Hooves had just introduced his rear legs to the door, and he trotted into the room confidently, dusting himself off.
“Where did he come from?” Luna asked Celestia quietly.
“I’m not sure, but that’s a good way to announce yourself.” Celestia whispered back.
The soldiers stood up sharply to salute their Captain despite the shock of him being there and their injuries. Raider was big for a stallion, but Steel Hooves was an absolute giant, in height and width, he stood a good half of a full-grown ponies’ height above everypony else and was three times wider.
“C-Captain, y-you’re ali-” Raider stuttered, shocked by his Captain's arrival.
“Stop blabberin’ boy, sort yourself out!” Steel Hooves ordered his second-in-command.
“You there! You said you need the keys?” Bellowed the Captain as he pointed a hoof at Luna.
The Captain had a very loud, commanding voice and presence, he was so overpowering that Luna was too shocked to answer and just sat there dumbfounded.
“Mare! Are you still with me!?” Steel Hooves tried to wake Luna from her daydream.
“Yes.” Luna answered very quietly. “We need the keys to check the library for ideas on how to defeat Discord.” Then Luna spoke more aggressively. “Also, my name isn’t ‘Mare’, it’s Luna.”
“Oh, we’ll get to the introductions later, ‘Luna.” Steel Hooves said as he turned towards Cirrus. “But now it’s time to make a real plan.”
After Raider had quickly mentioned the names of the sisters and Cirrus, Captain Steel Hooves got straight to business.
“So we’re going to sneak into the library to look around the books for any type of reference to a powerful enough magic to defeat Discord?” Steel Hooves gathered.
“Yes,” Luna replied.
“But where would we find such a book?” Celestia butted in.
Steel Hooves answered her. “Well, Celeste, it’ll probably be-“
“It’s Celestia.” She grumbled back with a scowl on her face while Luna tried to stop giggling next to her.
“Whatever.” Steel Hooves continued. “But like I was going to say, a spell book with magic that powerful in it will be in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the library. It’s located on the south side of the Castle library. Here’s the key.” Steel Hooves said as he tossed the key on a string from around his neck onto the table, it slide across the smooth table surface towards Luna while everyone around the table stared at her.
“Why have you given that to me?” Luna asked, looking confused.
“Isn’t that what you’re here for?” Raider asked.
“Well…” Luna stammered. “I didn’t know I’d have to do something like this, I thought we were just coming up with a plan.” She admitted.
“Moving on.” Steel Hooves loudly announced. “You’re the only pony here that could sneak in ‘cos we need a flyer.” Steel Hooves said as he looked around the table to his injured troops. “These three aren’t fit for duty, me and Raider ain’t Pegasi and Cirrus is barely light on his hooves.” The Captain pointed out.
“Oh…okay.” Luna mumbled submissively while looking gloomy.
“Wait, what about me?” Celestia jumped in to spare her sister the worry and responsibility.
“You can’t go ‘cos you’d stand out like a sore hoof, you’ve seen how much Discord likes the night, and with your coat, he’d see you straight away. Luna’s the perfect candidate.” Steel Hooves declared.
Luna looked around the table from the blank-faced soldiers. To the face of Raider, looking forward in anticipation. To the gruff Steel Hooves, almost demanding a 'yes' just by his frowning expression. Cirrus unsuccessfully tried to hide his sadness as he knew that Luna would have to put herself in danger to help Equestria, and he didn’t want the young mare to be under threat as he’d always looked out for her after her parents disappeared, whether she knew or not. Luna then turned to the glum Celestia, the older sister tried to look away from Luna to hide the tears welling in the corners of her eyes.
“Luna…” Celestia started to plead to her younger sibling.
“Tia, I have to do this. We have to make sacrifices sometimes, and I’m willing to take the risk to save Princess Solaria and all of Equestria.” Luna said assertively.
“Good, we haven’t a moment to waste, the sooner we get there, the sooner we get back.” Steel Hooves interrupted the emotional setting by ushering the ponies out of the door and led them to the Castle.
Captain Steel Hooves led his knocked-together group of ponies firstly to the makeshift hospital in the old Town Hall to transfer his wounded soldiers.
“You lot get yourself back to fighting fitness ASAP, you here me?” Steel Hooves ordered.
The wounded soldiers saluted their commander. “Yes, Sir!” Said the largest trooper. “You can count on us, whatever state we’re in, we will serve the Princess till death!”
“Good. I may need you three yet.” Steel Hooves said as he returned the salute and trotted away.
“Those guys aren’t in any shape to fight.” Luna whispered as she followed Steel Hooves. “They’ll just be a nuisance.”
“Well, Luna, as long as they’re a nuisance to the enemy on the battlefield, they will be doing their duty.” Steel Hooves exclaimed without turning to face the young Alicorn.
After another few minutes of silent walking under the ever-present stars, the group reached the base of the Castles’ Library tower. The group craned their necks skyward to stare up at the monumental tower.
“You see, Luna. This is why we need you.” Steel Hooves explained.
Luna gulped as she swallowed her fear and got ready to fly.
“Tell me the plan; I want to know that you remember what I told you.” Steel Hooves demanded.
Luna started to repeat the plan. “Firstly, I’ll fly to the top window of the tower and go inside. Then I’ll descend two stories to reach the library wing; The Star Swirl the Bearded wing on the library’s south side. From there, I’ll look on the shelves labelled ‘Defence,’ then I’ll get out ASAP.” Luna explained.
“Good. You know what you’re doing, now don’t screw it up.” Steel Hooves said, his lack of care for Luna's well-being annoyed the rest of the group.
Luna thought to herself. Can’t he be supportive of me? Isn’t he happy that I’m helping the cause?
Celestia read the worried expression on her sisters’ face when she turned away from Steel Hooves, Celestia hugged her sister to comfort her.
“Don’t worry; we’re all looking out for you.” Celestia whispered into her sisters’ ear.
“Thank you, Tia.” Luna said as she released her sister.
“Now, get up there.” Celestia encouraged her sister. Luna obliged and flew up the face of the tower.
“And take care of yourself!” Celestia shouted after her.
Luna rapidly ascended up to the towers’ top level; she swooped in through the window and gently lowered herself onto the cold, stone floor. As she landed, a sharp clang rang throughout the library entrance hall and Luna froze on the spot as the sound echoed off the walls.
Luna stood as still as a statue so she couldn’t make another sound as she waited for something to happen. Luckily, nothing appeared. Luna let out a sigh of relief and started to fly again, she wouldn’t make a noise while flying as long as she didn’t beat her wings to hard.
As Luna flew slowly through the various library sections, nothing in the grey, drab aisles grabbed her attention, so she continued to creep slowly onward. Luna steadily approached the open gates of the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the library; she crossed the empty hallway between the corridor and the library wing and entered the Star Swirl section. The floor colour changed from grey to a light green shade, the walls were covered in shelves overflowing with books and scrolls containing various magic spells.
In the centre of the circular library wing, a giant hourglass stood, its sand frozen with half in the top section and half in the bottom section. The wing would have been pitch-black if it wasn’t for the large, purple dome on the roof channelling the moonlight into luminescent rays of indigo light, which made it a lot easier to see for Luna.
Luna continued to fly towards the back wall of the library wing when she clipped a scroll with the edge of her wing. Again, Luna froze to spot so as not to make a sound, and again, no more noise happened due to her clumsiness. Luna didn’t know if anything was in the Castle, but she wasn’t going to go around asking questions, it was better to remain cautious. Luna edged towards to shelf labelled ‘Defence,’ if any magic powerful enough to defeat Discord existed, it would be here.
As Luna inspected the shelf, unbeknownst to her, the scroll she knocked started to noiselessly roll down the shelf. With its motion, it collided with many other scrolls and sent them rolling down the shelf also. Luna continued to look for a book of spells. Damn, there’s nothing powerful enough in here, we can’t defeat Discord with these spells. She thought to herself. Then she heard a slight ‘tap’ behind her. What was that? She thought. Is something there?
Luna turned around and saw nopony there, she rolled her eyes. I’m just hearing things.
That ‘tap’ hadn’t been imagined, it was the sound of many scrolls hitting a book, that book then hit the one next to it, then the one after that, starting a chain reaction of a tipping books. Luna heard that dull ‘tap’ again and turned just in time to see the queue of books crash into a weighty tome at the end of the shelf, that giant book then fell towards the ground; Luna let out a squeal and launched herself into a full-length dive to catch the falling book. As Luna slid across the floor, she caught the massive book and the disaster was averted, or so she thought.
“Did you hear something?” Said the voice from down the hallway.
“Yeah, I heard a noise. Let’s check it out.” Said a second voice.
Luna’s eyes widened in horror as she realised that Discords’ minions were coming for her. She released the giant book and leapt up to grab the first book that she flew past. As Luna stormed out of the Star Swirl wing of the library, she looked down the hallway and spotted two stallions with bright red eyes advancing from the dark.
“Stop!” They yelled. “Raise the alarm! Intruder!” One of the guards shouted.
Luna flew out of the window and sent herself into a lightning-quick nosedive towards her group.
“Quick, run!” Luna shouted to her friends.
At first they were confused, but when the alarm was raised and they heard the noise of shouting minions, they didn’t need telling a second time. Luna landed into a sprint alongside her sister while still holding that book that she had quickly grabbed under her wing.
“Back to the art gallery!” Steel Hooves ordered.
Discords’ hypnotised Pegasus minions had started to fly after the group, but they had already gotten too far ahead and the minions couldn’t find them in the multitude of streets.
The group of ponies eventually reached the rear door of the art gallery and entered the meeting room again.
“What do you call that, Luna?” Steel Hooves questioned angrily. “Do you want us all to be killed?”
“Sir, I think we can lay off Luna, after all, she isn’t going an expert in stealth tactics is she?” Raider stood up against his superior for the young mare.
“Well.” Steel Hooves stepped down from his ego’s pedestal. “I guess it’s the best we can expect from a non-combatant. Thank you, Luna.”
“It was nothing.” Luna lied with a growl. She smiled at Raider in thanks for standing up for her.
“The most important thing is that you’re okay.” Celestia said as she embraced her sister. “And you got a book.”
“Thanks, Tia. But I don’t think it’ll be of any use, I just grabbed any book.” Luna admitted.
“We may as well have a look, it might have something in it that can help us.” Raider said very optimistically.
“I highly doubt that.” The Captain mumbled, he sat smouldering in the corner away from the other four.
“Come on, Luna. Show us what you found.” Cirrus said as he leaned forward in his seat.
Luna herself hadn’t inspected the book yet, so she placed it on the table for all to see. She realised that it was a very old book with a greying leather cover, it had a small diamond shape on its’ cover. The title read;
“Myths and Legends of Equestria.” Luna read aloud.
“Oh, that’s great, now we’re chasing a myth.” Steel Hooves muttered angrily.
Raider looked at Luna and rolled his eyes because of the Captain. “Ignore him.” He mouthed.
Luna allowed a small smile to break on her face at the Captains’ expense. She continued to flick through the pages and read aloud.
“Chapter one- The Crystal Empire. No, that’s not it.”
“Chapter two- Arthur of Canterlot. Nope.”
This continued for a while, and as the amount of pages left grew less, so did Steel Hooves’ temper.
“Just accept it.” Se stated depressingly. “There isn’t going to be anything in that book.”
Luna turned the final page and a piece of paper slightly smaller than a normal page fell out onto the table. This page was different as it was hoof-written and drawn rather than printed. It had a pencil drawing that was coloured to show a purple diamond set within a golden circular base, five other diamonds branched off from the base, they were red, pink, yellow, green and blue.
Luna had never seen anything like it; it was almost like a huge, expensive piece of jewellery. No-one around the table reacted to the picture as they didn’t know what it was either, but when Luna said the words on the page, Steel Hooves’ ears pricked up and he shot out of his chair.
“The Elements of Harmony.”