Canterlot
Present day
“We must reach the city’s edge quickly,” said Luna, as the group trotted rapidly through the streets of Canterlot. “Once there, you seven will reconvene with Spike and go somewhere safe. From our difficulties in dealing with Iron Shod, I can only assume my sister has encountered difficulties in dealing with Cogspin – I will go to aid her however I can.”
“Are you sure about that, princess?” said Rainbow Dash. “I mean, if Celestia couldn’t handle it – no offense -”
“I will brook no argument, Rainbow Dash.” She spoke to the entire group. “Two of you have sisters, and Rainbow has a filly for whom she cares as a sister.” The three fillies in question were on their respective elder sisters’ backs, sleeping soundly. “The three of you have proved today that there are no lengths to which you will not go to protect your family. The same is true for me. I will ensure you are safe, but after that I must go to my sister.”
Applejack nodded. “Family is the most important thing, no matter what. I get that.”
Luna’s reply was interrupted by the sound of an earth-shattering explosion. Everypony swung their heads around to look at the source, and saw a tongue of flame billowing out from the windows of the throne room. As they watched, the tower’s roof collapsed, smothering the flames before they caught.
Luna looked to the group of ponies behind her, then back to the tower. Behind her, she heard somepony shout, “Go! We’ll be fine!” She didn’t note exactly who, but lifted off and winged towards the tower, her mind consumed by panic.
Back on the ground, the four mares and three fillies watched her go. “Should we go help?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Applejack shook her head. “If Princess Luna can’t take care of it, we sure as hay can’t do nothin’. We need to get these girls to safety, and I don’t know if we can find any of that ‘round here right now.”
Rarity nodded. “Agreed.” They turned around.
Only to find themselves face to face with three familiar ponies who had just rounded the street corner.
“Well isn’t this a surprise,” said Shimmerthread, grinning nastily, as Macaroon leveled her horn and Grain Chaff scuffed his hoof on the ground.
Princess Luna set down on the ruined remains of the Throne Room. The entire ceiling had collapsed, as had the walls, knocking the throne from its raised dais. All the windows had, unsurprisingly, been completely eradicated. The floor of the room was covered in stone rubble.
Luna grasped a stone slab and lifted it with her magic, hurling it off of the tower in her desperate search for her sister. Nothing but more rubble lay beneath, so she lifted a second slab and hurled it away. Stepping into the room, her hoof struck something long and cone-shaped.
Lifting it, she found a brass effigy of a unicorn’s horn.
Whatever else happens, she thought, her expression grim, we were successful. She cast the horn away with a look of distaste.
With another stroke of magic, she lifted away a slab of stone the size of a table, and saw something separate from the ash-streaked remains of the throne room. A cluster of small white stones.
She picked one up with magic and examined it. When she prodded it with her hoof, it crumbled away into dust. She looked down at the pile.
It sat next to a large piece of rubble, shaped like a dome. There was definitely a space underneath the object. With mounting horror, Luna lifted the shattered stone fragment, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found Celestia underneath, three unconscious ponies beneath her outstretched wings. The alicorn’s barrel rose and fell with steady breathing. Luna felt another pang of worry when she noticed that Celestia’s horn had shattered completely – a final symptom of hornrot. Recalling her encounters with the condition before her banishment, Luna remembered that the stump would eventually fall completely to dust and skin would grow over the remnant.
“Celestia?” she asked, putting a hoof on her sister’s shoulder.
The elder alicorn raised her head. “Lulu! Are you all right?”
Luna smiled. Typical Celestia: never worrying for herself when there were others nearby. “I am fine, Celly. The better question is how are you? What happened here?
“He had a helical converter, Luna. He stabilised it somehow, and when he died, it went off.”
Luna raised an eyebrow. “A helical converter? But then why is the damage restricted to the throne room?”
“Is it? Thank the gods.” Celestia smiled in relief. “I do not know, and I do not intend to question it.”
Luna looked around her sister for the first time and noticed that she lay on a circle of relatively unblemished stone, not to mention intact carpet. “How did you survive the blast?”
Celestia pointed to a nearby slab of rubble. “Under there.”
Luna turned to the rubble and lifted it, revealing the Platinum Crown. It glowed white hot, the glow increasing as she watched.
“It had been layered about with spells by millennia worth of kings and queens, of not only Equulaneum but Roan as well. Many of those were protective spells. I redirected them onto myself and a small radius around me, providing just enough energy to escape the blast alive.” She reached up a hoof and touched the spot where her horn had been. She flinched a little. “But not intact, it seems. Channeling that much power must have been the final straw.”
As they watched, the Crown’s glow increased until it produced enough light to illuminate the sisters’ faces. One by one, in a circle around the rim, the crown’s gems cracked and fell out of their frames in shards. Then, with one final snap, the Crown itself fell to liquid, forming into a pool of molten platinum on the ash-scarred floor and rapidly losing its heat to the cool night air.
Celestia chuckled. “I suspect several of the protective spells I siphoned must have been protecting the Crown from being liquefied by the sheer amount of power that had been forced into it. With those gone, well…” She trailed off. “And did you meet with success?”
“We did. The fillies are safe.”
“Good. We-” Celestia was interrupted by a fit of coughing.
“Celestia! We must get you to a physician immediately.”
“It’s not that bad. You must tend to these mares first.”
“By Tartarus I must! Your ordeal is unique. There is no way to tell how it may affect you.” Luna pulled Celestia up and supported her with an outstretched wing. “I will bring them with us, but we must get you downstairs to the court physician’s office.”
Twilight, Pinkie, and Poison were lifted into the air by a trio of dark blue magical clouds, and Luna led Celestia down the hall towards the stairway at the end, the three unconscious mares trailing behind.
The two groups of ponies stared back and forth for what seemed like an eternity.
“Fluttershy,” said Applejack, “You gotta take the girls and make a run for it. We’ll hold ‘em off.”
Fluttershy swallowed nervously, and nodded. “You can count on me.” Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack all handed over their younger sisters to Fluttershy. Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom woke up during the transit, to multiple reassurances from their sisters, but fell silent at the sight of the three aggressors. Scootaloo continued to sleep soundly.
Ensuring Scootaloo was well situated on her back, and the other two were remaining close by to her hooves, Fluttershy set off. No sooner had she done so than a bolt of magenta magic erupted from Macaroon’s horn and rocketed off in their direction. This prompted Rainbow Dash to tackle her from above at a considerable rate of speed, which in turn caused Grain to charge at Applejack and Shimmerthread to vanish in a blink of acid green magic. Applejack ran to intercept Grain, while Rarity spun around searching for their third enemy.
After a moment, she spotted a similar green flash atop the roof of a building behind them, in the direction Fluttershy had gone. “Oh no you don’t!” she called, galloping off in the direction of the flash.
She followed the teleportation flashes down the streets of Canterlot for what seemed like hours, though in reality it was probably only several minutes. It was after that period of time that she lost track of the flashes of magic that she had been using to track Shimmerthread.
Her increasingly fearful searches were interrupted by a whisper from a nearby alleyway.
“Rarity!”
Rarity turned to see Fluttershy, with the three fillies, hidden behind a cluster of garbage cans. She trotted over and joined them.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “Are you? What happened?”
Rarity grimaced. “Shimmerthread teleported away. She was going after you. I followed, but I lost her right out there.”
Fluttershy paled slightly. “D-do you think she gave up?”
“I doubt it. You may have lost her, but she’s still looking. I’ll stay with you in case she returns.”
Fluttershy nodded, swallowing nervously.
Applejack met Grain’s charge by dodging to the side and kicking him in the flank as they passed. Grain had clearly expected a head-on charge, but Applejack could see that if she tried that, Grain’s horn would have gored her. This way, he stumbled a couple steps and fell on his face. In the moment it took him to recover, she had turned and was facing him again.
“Grain, why are you doin’ this?” she asked, before he could charge again. “Why would you work with a fella like Cogspin, to bring down the Princesses of all things?”
Grain scoffed. “Why am I doing this… Tell me, Applejack, what do you know about your family history?”
“What does mah family have to do with any of this?”
“Just answer the blasted question.”
“Ah know Granny Smith and her folks came to Celestia askin’ fer land and she gave them what’s now Sweet Apple Acres. That was somethin’ like eighty years past now.”
The two ponies had begun circling each other. “And before that?”
“Before that, the Apples weren’t nothin’ big. Nothin’ ta know.”
“That is where I would disagree. Have you ever heard of Malus?”
“Cain’t say Ah have,” said Applejack guardedly.
“Well, you have now.” Grain removed a piece of paper from his saddlebags and levitated it over to Applejack. “That is him.”
Applejack looked at Grain suspiciously, then took the page and unrolled it. It was an ornate portrait of an earth pony stallion, with the same build as Big Mac. This pony, however, had a dull maroon coat and neatly cropped, slicked-down mane the color of tree bark. He wore a fancy-looking suit that, in Applejack’s opinion, made him resemble a penguin. The corners of the portrait were decorated with an image of a large, worm-eaten apple, which Applejack assumed was the stallion’s cutie mark.
She set down the portrait. “And who’s he?”
Grain stopped pacing, and to Applejack’s surprise, sat down. “Sit, and I will tell you a story.”
Applejack complied, somewhat hesitantly.
“Several millennia ago, there lived a mare by the name of Barley Chaff. Earth Pony, so of course still somewhat looked down upon at the time. So you can imagine the implications when she was impregnated by a wealthy unicorn aristocrat. He left her alone, denied she ever existed, with nothing but her farm to support herself and her triplets. These foals were named Wheat, Rye, and Millet.”
“Hang on,” interrupted Applejack, “this sounds like your family history, not mine. Where’s all this goin’?”
“Patience. As I was saying, she had three young foals to take care of, and no one to help her do it. It wasn’t like today, where a pony in that situation could get a retail job, help from a family member, or if worst came to worst, an allowance from the government. She had her farm, and that was it. The moment those three foals were old enough to pull a plow, they were out doing just that, because their mother, she was weak. Could barely keep the place going.”
“There was one exception,” continued Chaff darkly. “Millet. He was obsessed with the art of alchemy. Nopony knows why, maybe he wanted to invent something to help his family, maybe he just didn’t care about them at all. In the end I suppose it was the latter – he created something and took it to Equulaneum. That is here, by the way. Whatever he made, it was amazing – he was accepted into the inner circle of the King himself. Incredible, for an earth pony then. He was showered with riches and land, and what became of Barley, Wheat, and Rye?”
Chaff snorted. “Nothing. Millet did not so much as contact his family. They remained impoverished, struggling to keep a failing farm afloat.”
“Yeah, this is a real sad story an’ all, but what’s it got to do with Celestia, Cogspin, or me?”
“Wait, and all will become clear to you. It was five years before the other Chaffs even discovered that their brother was still alive. Rye had come down with a bad disease. Tuberculosis, as I understand. Wheat had gone to Equulaneum to seek treatment, and met his brother in the street. After discovering Millet’s success, Wheat asked him to help with Rye’s ailment. Do you know what Millet said?”
Applejack shook her head.
“’He’s your brother. You deal with it.’ His exact words, recorded in the Archives. Wheat left Equulaneum without so much as a bit to his name, let alone a cure for Rye. Rye died within the month. Within the next year, Barley fell ill as well. Of course, knowing their options, they sent word to Millet. They received no response over the next seven months, over which time Barley’s condition worsened. Wheat was left working an entire farm to provide for his ailing mother, because Millet Chaff decided his money and fame would be better turned inwards. She died as well, at the end of those seven months, and Wheat Chaff was alone. He did marry eventually, though I don’t know when or to whom, because he is a distant ancestor of mine.”
“Ya seem to have reached the end of your story, and Ah still haven’t heard the relevance.”
“Not quite. Millet Chaff changed his name after he arrived in Equulaneum. Do you want me to tell you what he changed it to?”
Grain gestured to the portrait by Applejack’s hoof. “Malus Apple. Your entire clan was founded on the basis of betraying family in need. Bad enough were it not my family. As it is, well…”
“That’s it? This whole thing has been about a three-thousand-year-old grudge against mah family?”
“You know what they say; Blood Always Tells.”
Applejack spluttered indignantly. “Ya cain’t hold me responsible for the actions of a pony as has been dead three thousand years! It’s not like Ah agree with what he did – on the contrary Ah find it despicable, and Ah can’t name a single member of the Apple clan who’d say different. Frankly, Ah consider bein’ compared to somepony who’d leave his family in the lurch like that personally insulting.”
Grain Chaff rose to his hooves, and seemed to be about to say something, when he was interrupted by a vaguely magenta blur. Applejack felt something strike her head and collapsed to the ground. She slowly rose to her hooves, her head spinning, and spotted Grain lying on his side, seemingly unconscious, while Rainbow Dash stumbled around in a slightly dazed fashion.
Had Applejack been able to watch the event in slow motion, she would have seen Macaroon jump from the roof on the far side of the street, land on top of Grain, propel herself from his head and vault over the diving Rainbow Dash, then land and immediately leap off of Applejack’s own head, coming to rest on an awning immediately behind her.
Applejack shook the cobwebs from her brain and turned to face Macaroon, who had positioned herself immediately beyond the reach of the ponies on the ground and was blowing raspberries every few seconds.
“Git down from there, ya varmint!” she shouted. This produced no result, not that she had expected it to. So she did the next thing that came to mind: she picked up a hoof-sized stone from the ground and pitched it at Macaroon.
Macaroon hopped to the side and the missile sailed harmlessly by, impacting on the stone wall behind her. Another raspberry soon followed.
“That won’t do any good,” said Rainbow Dash, apparently having recovered from her crash as rapidly as always. “She has the Pinkie Sense.”
“Really? Aw, hay. What’re we supposed to do now?”
“I don’t know. But the bright side is, as long as she’s here, she’s not going after the girls.”
“True enough.”
Macaroon suddenly flicked her head to her left, as if something had caught her attention. At that moment, a cloud of greenish-purple mist appeared immediately over her head, coalescing into a sizable, heavy-looking stone. It dropped down the short distance onto her head, and there was a brief moment as a look of surprise crossed her features. Then, her eyes rolling comically, she fell off the awning stiff as a board.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash followed the direction Macaroon had glanced and were surprised to see Spike.
“Spike to the rescue!” he declared, strutting confidently towards them. Then he looked around. “Hey, where is everypony else? They’re not-”
“No,” said Rainbow, “Everypony’s fine. We sent the fillies off with Fluttershy once these goons,” she indicated Macaroon and Grain, both of whom were still unconscious, “showed up. Then Rarity went off after Shimmerthread. But how about you? How did you get here? I mean, not that we’re not glad to see you or anything.”
“Princess Luna sent me a letter saying it was safe to come in to the city. We should go find the others.”
Applejack nodded. “But what about these two?” She indicated the two unconscious ponies. “Ah don’t think we should just leave them lyin’ around.”
Rainbow Dash flew over to Grain and hoisted him experimentally. “I can take them back to the castle, get ‘em put away. You two go find everypony else and bring them back.”
“Is it safe at the castle?” asked Applejack.
Spike nodded. “Luna said it was.”
Applejack, too, nodded. “We’ll go find Rarity, Fluttershy, and the girls, then.” Rainbow took off carrying both unconscious ponies. “They all went thataway,” Applejack pointed off in the relevant direction, “an’ it looks to be just a straight shot with no turns or forks or anythin’, so I reckon if we find one we’ll find… the rest.”
Spike picked up on Applejack’s hesitation. “What’s wrong?”
“Rarity went off chasin’ Shimmerthread, not Fluttershy. If Shimmerthread went off in the same direction…”
“Uh oh.”
Applejack nodded, and the two hurried off in the direction of their friends.
Rarity looked carefully out into the streets. “I think the coast might be clear, Fluttershy. We should head back towards the castle.”
“Are you sure?” came the reply. “I think it might be safest to wait until we’re absolutely sure.”
Rarity shook her head, looking back. “We have no way of being absolutely sure without risking revealing ourselves to Shimmerthread should we happen to be wrong.” She turned back to the street. “This way we can sneak back without alerting-”
Rarity was interrupted by the tiniest of sounds. Any other pony might have missed it altogether, and Rarity herself might have if not for her nervously attuned senses. It was less a yelp and more of a whimper, but it induced her to turn back anyway.
Fluttershy lay on the ground, unmoving. In her place stood none other than Shimmerthread. The three fillies backed away from the newcomer, each bearing a frightened expression.
“Fancy meeting you here, little miss wannabe,” said Shimmerthread mockingly. “Cogspin expected you back weeks ago.”
Rarity stepped forward, ushering the girls behind her. “What do you want? You’ve lost. Cogspin’s dead.” Of course, she had no idea whether this was true or not, but she hoped that either way she could get Shimmerthread to believe it, and perhaps give up.
Instead, Shimmerthread chuckled. “Cogspin always said that we haven’t lost until we’re all dead. He chose each and every one of us for our will, and our strength." She paused. "Well, except for the Flim Flams. We had an empty slot to fill and a limited time to fill it." She shook her head. "But they don't matter. We won’t be working together, but we won’t stop until one of us wins once and for all.”
“Yes, well, as… interesting… as that sentiment is, that’s exactly the reason you will never win. You no longer work together. As long as my friends work together, we can defeat any villain such as yourself, elements of harmony or no.”
At this, Shimmerthread laughed aloud, a cruel sound that befitted exactly what Rarity knew about Shimmerthread. “You’ve never faced a villain such as me, Rarity Belle. And I strongly doubt you ever will again.” At this, Shimmerthread’s horn glowed bright green, powerfully enough to throw off sparks. Her eyes followed suit, and her saddlebags opened, releasing a mass of… thread.
“Thread? Your secret weapon is thread?” said Rarity incredulously.
Shimmerthread simply grinned nastily, and the strands of thread exploded toward Rarity, encircling her in a whirlwind of multicolored strings. Grinning confidently, Rarity employed a basic severing charm, similar to one she would occasionally use in her workroom to cut a pattern from multiple layers of cloth simultaneously. It cut through the whirling strands of thread like butter.
And had no effect on Shimmerthread’s construct as a whole. Rarity tried again, cutting through another swath of thread. As before, the halves of the severed strands became entities of their own, encased in separate auras of acid-green magic.
Impossible, thought Rarity. Nopony can reliably control that many individual objects at the same time, not even Twilight. Yet that didn’t change what she was seeing.
She felt something wrap around her hind hooves, and cut it with magic. It was a strand of pale blue thread. The severed pieces, no longer than a couple of hooflengths, rejoined the swirling cloud of thread.
“I am unique!” shouted Shimmerthread. “When I was young, Cogspin granted me great power, to do with what I wish. And what I wish right now, is to have my revenge for his death.”
Rarity severed another thread that was wrapping itself around her forelegs. She suddenly realized something: The thread in Shimmerthread’s cutie mark was the exact same color as the ink in Poison’s. That must have been what Princess Luna noticed. But that means- Another thread, this one once again on her hindlegs. That means Shimmerthread is also an Irex. The whirlwind contracted. Oh no.
A thread looped its way around all four of her legs, zig-zagging in a cross pattern. She cut it, but the remainder tightened around her fore and hind legs and unbalanced her, causing her to fall to her side. This was what Shimmerthread had been waiting for: The whirlwind of thread began to collapse as the threads snaked their way over her, forming an almost cocoon-like structure.
The light in Shimmerthread’s horn and eyes dimmed, but she continued to grin triumphantly.
“And to the victor, go the spoils,” announced Shimmerthread. An aura of magic surrounded Sweetie Belle.
“NO!” Rarity tried to shout, only to be constricted by the thread. But somepony did shout just that, and Rarity flicked her eyes towards the alley’s entrance. There stood Applejack and Spike, the latter of whom had shouted.
“You let her go, you scoundrel!” shouted Applejack, as they charged the snidely grinning Shimmerthread. Spike grabbed onto Sweetie Belle, attempting to pull her out of the magical aura. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo joined him, while Applejack simply charged Shimmerthread directly.
“I don’t have time to deal with you. Begone!” shouted the unicorn, summoning a more intense green glow from her horn. A wall of magic appeared in the alleyway, knocking Applejack off her hooves. Her momentum carried her across the ground and past Shimmerthread entirely. At the same time, a ripple of magic passed through the aura surrounding Sweetie Belle, throwing Spike and the other Crusaders away with a sound like a firecracker.
“Until we meet again.” Shimmerthread bowed, and a blast of magic deflected a second attack attempt from Applejack, without interrupting Shimmerthread’s demeanor at all. Then, with a zap and a flash, both Shimmerthread and Sweetie Belle vanished into thin air.