It was in the earliest hours of the morning that the line to the royal proclamation chamber had finally trickled away, and the Princess of the Night and her personal guards were left by themselves. The two Antrozi, more commonly known as bat-ponies, hung from the the ceiling as they watched their mistress internally struggle with something. She sat on the throne brooding, wondering what she should say to her sister. Being her usual self she had allowed her passions to overtake her, and instead of further opening her sister's mind on her concerns about Bunsen Burner she had driven her away and put a wedge between them. Perhaps the first step was the least difficult in theory: apologize. Everything else after that was still very much shrouded in her thoughts. Answers were not swiftly coming to her, and she grew impatient very quickly. With a frustrated snort she stood from her throne and began to stride towards the southern chamber doors. Silently the guards detached from the ceiling and glided down to just in front of the them, pulling them open to allow the Princess immediate access to the hallway outside.
"Thank you Umbra, Nox," she said with a sigh as she attempted to bury her thoughts deep.
"It is what we are here for, your grace," Nox replied, while Umbra grunted his agreement.
"Pray tell," the Princess said before initially stopping herself, only to relent and continue on, "Pray tell, when it comes to pass that the two of you are divided on some matter, how do you mediate your conflict?"
The two guards, who were now walking just behind the Princess, glanced at each other. "Nox attempts diplomacy," Umbra gruffly declared, "but more often we tend towards my form of negotiations."
"And that is?"
"The first to draw blood makes the decision, with the advice of the other," Nox said airly.
"Though we suppose that would not be of help in the quarrel you must face with your sister," his brother added.
The Princess looked back to them and sighed once again, "No, it would not."
Princess Celestia had been pondering in her Solarium for many hours since her talk with Princess Luna. It was a chamber that she only truly frequented in times of great inner turmoil, as she didn't wish to bring any troubles into her personal chambers to sit heavily on her shoulders. The room was made mostly of glass, both clear and stained, that channeled the light of all the heavenly bodies in the sky into glorious patterns on the walls, creating a natural and ornate tapestry of changing color and intensity depending on the weather and time of day. The wonders she had seen on this wall helped to soothe her state of mind time and time again over many years. Now, however, her mind was more deeply troubled than it had been in some time. On any other night she would have noticed the beauty of the walls and their fresco composed of deep violet, royal blue, and the pale light of the full moon, but her world was focused inward in totality. Before her, at the center of the Solarium and its focal piece was an enormous bronze sundial. Of a magnificent size, its span from crowning point to its indicating point was a distance of twenty-five feet. It had been crafted and built for her near the rise of the second Equestrian period, after the disbandment of the Solar Empire. To anypony else the piece would be an abyss in time, but to her it was an inanimate companion, nearly as inseparable to her as she felt to Philomena. The three of them had been traveling for over six-hundred years in time, and they had seen so much together.
Time. The Princess' shoulders slumped as she continued to look down at her sundial from her utilitarian, non-gilded throne, thinking of the personal meaning that word had to her. Time, the great gnawing canyon into which all things were drawn to their ruin, save for her and her sister. It had never been on her side. Though it could not touch either of them, it found new ways to hurt them over and over again. It had stolen her friends from countless years. Her students had been lost to its grasp: Clover, her first, Fairy Flight, Abd al-Salaam. She even missed the lost and fallen students, Sunset Shimmer among them. Even those of them who had been blessed with descendants were dying out day by day, consumed and ravaged by the toothy maw that made them old and frail, and here she remained. Here she remained. Now she feared that time, like a tatzlwurm, was ready to rumble up from below and come crashing down to destroy and devour an even greater prize; it was coming for her kingdom, all of Equestria and the lands beyond. In the deepest corners of her mind she could now hear the voices of nature itself, screaming in warning of an imminent threat to everything, and she believed it to be the Ruined. They would surely come with great sorcery and power, all to return to subjugation those species they had once ruled.
She closed her eyes, and then exhaled as she opened them again. Her eyes were filled with a cold wrath that only a mother’s mindset can bring when their children are threatened; she would not stand idly by and see any child of her country or any others' harmed by them: no matter what forces of Tartarus they would summon, whether demon or dead, they would all be brought low by her power. If Discord could indeed be imprisoned and defeated twice, then they could most definitely handle the ones he had overthrown. Plans had been drawn up, evacuations would be put in order, and the full might of the Equestrian military would be ready to go anywhere to defend their borders, and she would stand with them in the field like she had not done since the time of the Empire. She would push them back and, if need be, destroy them before they could harm anypony or anything she cared about. Her horn lit up with golden power. Her sword with its wavy, fiery blade appeared once again, elegant and deadly. She had given the human the hilt before, but now if his kind was determined to harm hers, she would give them the blade.
Princess Luna trotted with a determined pace now as she made her way to the Solarium. She didn't know if she had overlooked some evidence that she could use to convince her sister that humans were yet innocent, but she still had to appeal to her sister to stop her from going to war against at least the one she had met. Adam could not have possibly attacked Bunsen Burner without provocation, but what more could she say to- She growled to herself as her mind kept circling back to the same questions over and over again. If nothing else, she would be able to speak with conviction she thought to herself, even if she couldn't be sure of what she was entirely convicted of. The anomaly that the earth pony had spoken of, that much she could be certain of as a possible greater threat. Even if it was caused by humans as surely he'd think, it was bound to be of greater importance than an invasion, surely? "Wait out here for my return," she said to Umbra and Nox, as they opened the doors for her. It was once she had entered the room and the doors had closed shut quietly behind her that she saw what her sister had been doing. A golden sword hung in the air before the white alicorn. As she inspected it she brought it up to the light of the moon to investigate its patterns further. That blade. Luna hadn't seen it since-
A dark purple and cobalt great sword slammed into the castle's stone wall. A tapestry was thrown in her direction, but her blade sliced through it. The other blade, golden orange, was there in front of her, upraised to defend it's wielder. Jab after jab she made, her sister jumping around them and parrying them away from her center. Finally their blades locked. She struggled to twist it around and stab at her pink maned sister's barrel, but it was fighting the very blade that was doing everything in its power to hold them in place; complete deadlock.
“You are a failure and a weakling, dear sister!” her lips parted as she spoke to reveal her newly pronounced incisors. Her sister was barely holding her blade high enough now, and soon both weapons would come back towards her, piercing her through. Her boast continued, “I will drown out your precious little Sun, and veil the land in my glorious unending darkness! All shall love me and despair! Tremble before the might of Nightmare Moon!” She laughed maniacally, and shadows fell.
The Princess visibly fidgeted as the memory jolted through like an electric current, there one moment, gone the next. Her eyes misted over for a second as she unconsciously began to fall straight back into it; the darkness, the despair, the rage, the final memory of a burning multi-chromatic power unlike any she'd felt before, and then oblivion. She shook her head harshly to be rid of the compulsive thoughts. She had to focus now on the task ahead. She took a few wavering steps forward, and then her gait strengthened. She was ready, more or less. Wherever Adam was, she hoped that he was keeping himself safe, away from Equestria's law and reach.
Even as she uttered the first word of her prepared introduction, a soft and gentle 'Sister', the thoughts she'd had of Adam reached into the back of her brain and tugged hard on her brain stem, Luna.
She saw the mare's sword dissipate and she turned to ask her what was wrong, but all her attention was now turned inward: it was Adam, and he was alive! Thank the starry vaults! Her joy was quickly turned to dread when she heard him call to her again, an edge of desperation in his voice, Luna I need you! Help me!
The chill of imminent danger ran down her back, she involuntarily puffed her wings. The summons had come, but she could not have foreseen that it might be under such circumstances, no, not at all.
Please help! We're all going to die!
Once again her mind was involuntarily drawn into memory. Once again she saw before her the battered, broken, dying form of her dearest friend Orpheus, unable to do anything but witness his last moments on the earth. Still further back her mind tumbled as she remembered him as a young colt, so vibrant and full of life, inquisitive and carefree in all things. She could see him now, standing before her in both unspoiled youth and grown to his prime.
"It's not too late for him like it is for me," he breathed heavily as his eyes filled with tragic weariness.
PLEASE HELP US! SOMEONE HELP US. WE NEED YOU.
She took a step back as the intensity of the horror in his mind had increased five-fold. It was almost too much to bear. Her sister called to her again to ask what was wrong.
Orpheus remained, his hoof reaching out to her face, holding her chin gently in place. "There’s no need for tears, purple lady," he murmured gently with a broken smile. The name. The one he had given her as a sweet foal, and which he'd made their secret name for her. Tears formed on her face all the same. "He still lives," he now said with a stronger tone, "You can yet save him. Go, my Princess! GO! Remember your oath! Be his champion, just as you were once mine."
YOU PROMISED, Adam's voice cried hopelessly, YOU PROMISED.
"Luna, please talk to me," Princess Celestia asked in a worried, fearful tone, "What is wrong? Do you feel the danger, too? Tell me what is happening to you!"
In one moment of crystal clarity all thoughts and memories fell away, leaving the Princess of the Night in the still calm between dread events, right in the center of it all, able to act or not act as she chose. She looked her sister in the eyes for one brief moment, tears staining her face. Silently, without any exclamation of why or what she was doing, she turned to her left and began running towards the glass wall at full gallop. A slice formed in the space before where she would collide with the translucent segment she was aimed at. She leaped straight into the rend in space and time, and was gone without a trace to parts and places unknown.
Princess Celestia was now herself filled with fear and dread as she was once again left alone. Now it seemed time had taken her sister from her, stripping her of her most trusted equal and ally, and just when she was certain she would need her most. There in the false serenity at the eye of the storm, she was forced to wait and see what was yet to come, all while feeling more and more powerless as to what she should do with every minute that went by.
"So what's et like," Vinyl asked as she gave a tug on the wrench in her magic's grip.
"What's what like," Bon Bon asked as she stared out the window into the darkened Ponyville beyond, now simultaneously bored with how little was happening and tense with the possibility of the end of the world mere hours away.
"Livin' with Lyra," she clarified as she tightened down the hex bolt she had been working on, " 'Er music is just so...extraordinary. Ah've got a bit of a musician's crush on 'er work."
"Weeell, living with her is frustrating at times," Bon Bon said frankly as she quickly glanced over her shoulder at the unicorn before looking back outside, "She's always leaving things out, whether it's her notes, books, or lyre, just for any old pony to trip over or accidentally destroy. She's an utter mess somedays, and it frustrates me to no end when I pick up after her all the time like she's my child." She then turned back to Vinyl and waved a hoof at her to add to her point, "I've even floated her rent a few months now and then!"
She paused, and her hoof went back down to the floor. Her agitation clearly defused, she sighed heavily, her eyes now filling with an almost guilty expression, "Still, she always was sweet in her own way; helping me bake when I got behind on orders when I was sick. She even made a piece of hers dedicated to me when I was having a heavy bout of seasonal depression last winter. Now she's gone away, and I'm not sure what's going to happen to her."
Initially shocked by the rollercoaster of surprises Bon Bon had laid on her, Vinyl set the wrench down and moved away from the other ponies working on the Space Cork's components. She came up to the earth pony and sat down beside her, "Sounds like she kinda became a sister ta yah, eh?"
Bon Bon laughed a little at that, "I don't know. Maybe. I could definitely see the parallels: looking out for her like I have, bonding with her like I did."
"Ah never had one personally; mum ended up ‘avin' me as the third of four, all brothers. I saw the older two become real mates after they stopped tryin' tah kill each othah, and lil Treble an' I got along well, but et wasn't in the same way, y'know? We didn't 'ave that kinda bond." She slyly glanced at Bon Bon before she socked her right on the shoulder, "Maybe Ah envy ya now more than evah!" Bon Bon gave a little smile to her after she rubbed her shoulder to make sure it was okay. "Jus' know tha you'll always have tha bond, no mattah what distance separates the two of you," Vinyl said with a smile and a confident spark in her violet eyes, "Yer thick as thieves! Tha' means yer close from anywhere."
"Hey guys," the group of ponies heard Rainbow Dash call from above, "I've got soldier types coming in. Looks like they're headed for the outskirts of town!"
Everypony stopped what they were doing at that pronouncement.
Ditzy Doo had just finished welding a piece of metal to the exterior structure of the Cork to guide its rotation while it turned, as well as to ensure that it didn't go off-balance. She quickly shut off the torch and pulled back the hood she had been wearing to look up at the ceiling, "How far away are they now?"
A door to the Emporium's attic opened up from above, and Rainbow's head peeped down at the eight of them, "They just passed Sugarcube Corner running like the wind! I don't know what those ponies' training is, but they were galloping pretty darn fast. Bunsen's right hand stallion was leading the pack."
Ditzy ripped the welding helmet off and threw it to the ground, made sure the fuel and oxygen on her lines were off and then tossed them too, "We have to stop them! The anomaly will have grown larger by now, and they don't know where to look for it. Their entire patrol could stumble right into it and be lost forever!"
"But the doo-hickey isn't even finished," Applejack pointed out, "how can we help them if-"
"Somepony grab the remaining parts, a screwdriver, wrench, and the ohm-meter," Ditzy yelled as she went to the nearby workbench and picked up what looked like a large remote with a glass screen on it, "We'll have to finish building it in transit. Most of it's simple stuff anyway. Somepony grab the blueprints! Twilight-"
"Already on it," she responded as she lifted the device up off the welding table in her magenta grip.
"We need to move now if we even want to try and catch them," Ditzy yelled over her shoulder as she burst out the back door of the Emporium, "Let's go! Go! Go!"
Rainbow Dash was already flying overhead, taking the initiative to burst after them and trying to flag them down. She just hoped she was fast enough to reach them in time.
The RSD troopers were now blazing past the town's edge towards the Everfree. Lieutenant Swiftfeet surmised that if the Ruined One had been staying at the cottage owned by Bon Bon at the forest's edge all this time, it was entirely possible that he had been discovered near there, which was also how he was able to maintain such a low profile until the last few days. Whatever lay ahead of them, whether the anomaly that pegasus mare had spoken of, or an amassing Ruined army, he hoped he was there in time to stop the threat.