First that dust nearly burns my perfectly coiffured mane and loses me half my gems, she thought, tiredly rummaging through her spacious closet, and now it rudely interrupts my beauty sleep? All that’s come of that confounded dust is me losing my gems and my fabulousness! She fished her dressing gown out of the closet and quickly wrapped it around herself, trotting slowly to her bedroom door as she did so.
She made her way down her stairs, annoyed that her early morning gem hunt was probably now out of the question, but her annoyance was pushed from her mind when she heard the shouts of her friends through her still open sitting room window. Twilight’s library was not too far from Rarity’s boutique, and while she couldn’t here exactly what was being yelled, she could recognize the frenzied shouting of Rainbow Dash anywhere. If something’s made Dash lose her cool, she thought, worriedly, then something must have gone very badly wrong. Did someone get hurt?
* * *
“SPIIIIKE! Where are you? If you’re just trying to play a prank on us by hiding where we can’t see you, then here’s some news: IT’S NOT FUNNY.” Rainbow Dash was hovering around, still frantically searching the grass of Twilight’s back garden, despite the fact that nearly fifteen minutes of searching by the ponies had brought up neither scale nor tail of the baby dragon.
“Dash is right, Spike!” chimed in Pinkie Pie, her round eyes re-scanning every square inch of backyard for Spike. “I mean, I appreciate a good prank more than anyone, but even I know there’s a limit, and that limit is usually when, y’know, everyone thinks you’re dead! I mean, I’ve only hit that limit once throughout my entire history of pulling pranks on everypony, and everypony was so super-duper mad once they found out it was a prank! Not that we’ll be mad at you or anything...okay, we may be a teeny-weeny bit mad, but you should come out anyway!” She paused, thinking for a second. “Okay, someone else should try this whole convincing Spike to come out thing because I’m pretty awful at it.”
“It’s not that your bad at it, sugarcube.” said Applejack, also quickly re-searching the ground with her eyes, despite having given up trying to find Spike in the back garden. “It’s jus’ that there ain’t no place for that gosh-darned dragon to come out from! We’ve been lookin’ round this garden for near fifteen minutes, and haven’t found a buckin’ thing.” she sighed, looking over to Twilight Sparkle, who was still searching for her number one assistant at the far end of the garden, a look of supreme worry on her face. “I dunno where he’s gone, but one things fer sure, he ain’t here.”
Rainbow Dash landed in front of Applejack and nodded. “You’re right, AJ. We need a new plan. Although it’ll take a more convincing pony than me to get Twi’ to stop this search.”
Applejack sighed again, her eyes still fixed on the worried unicorn. “I’ll go talk to her. You go check on Fluttershy, the poor girl ain’t moved since that blast.” She turned and headed towards Twilight, trying to figure out a kind way to convince her to give up the search. Gonna be a hard sell, she thought, but all this pointless scurryin’ around ain’t gonna help no-one.
Applejack sighed again, her eyes still fixed on the worried unicorn. “I’ll go talk to her. You go check on Fluttershy, the poor girl ain’t moved since that blast.” She turned and headed towards Twilight, trying to figure out a kind way to convince her to give up the search. Gonna be a hard sell, she thought, but all this pointless scurryin’ around ain’t gonna help no-one.
As Applejack walked towards the restless unicorn, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie turned to the still unconscious body of Fluttershy. Dash could once again see the slow movement of her breathing, in addition to the slight fluttering of her eyelids. “I think she’s waking up,” said Dash. “She’s tougher than she looks...but that still isn’t all that tough.”
“Should we splash some of the water on her?” Pinkie Pie asked, motioning her head to the mostly empty pails near Twilight’s back door. “Always helps me wake up after a night of partying!”
Dash shook her head. “Nah, we’d best let her come to on her own. Should be any minute now.” She turned back to Applejack, who was already talking to Twilight. “I’m more worried about Twilight, to be honest. She’s been friends with Spike for years more than us, if it turns out that her experiment has hurt Spike, she’d probably be as guilty as hell.”
Pinkie Pie took another quick glance around the garden. “Where could he have gone? The big boom was enough to knock us all onto our hinds, but Spike was so much closer! For all we know, he could’ve shot up into the sky like a rocket!”
“I don’t know what happened, Pinkie.” Dash replied. “What I do know is that Twilight is the smartest out of all of us, and if she’s spending time searching where Spike isn’t, she’s not spending time think about where Spike is.” She sighed, turning her attention back to Fluttershy. “I’m sure AJ will talk her down. She’s the Element of Honesty, after all.”
On the other side of the garden, Applejack had finally got Twilight to stop searching fruitlessly around the garden, but she still couldn’t get her to calm down. “He’s not here.” she said, tears forming in her eyes. “He’s not HERE. Where has he gone, AJ? That blast was strong enough to knock us all down but he was so much closer! And he’s so much lighter than us! Who knows where that blast took him? He could’ve been shot into the middle of the Everfree Forest for all we know! We need to find him, he could be hurt, or...oh Applejack, I can’t bear the thought of it! And it’s all my fault!” Twilight collapsed to her knees, her slow sobbing overtaking her worried speech.
“There there, sugarcube,” Applejack said, trying to reassure the purple unicorn. “I’m sure he’ll be fine, that little’un has been through worse.”
“How do...you know...AJ?” Twilight said, between sobs. “You can’t know...that he’s okay.”
Applejack sighed, and placed her hooves on Twilight’s shoulders, looking her directly in the eyes. “Look at me, Twilight. Truth of the matter is, I don’t know. But we ain’t never gonna know unless we figure out a new plan for findin’ him. An’ we need you fer that. We put our heads together, and I’m sure we can figure out where that blast took him. What I do know is that sittin’ around here or searchin’ the same spot’a’grass ten times ain’t gonna help anyone, ‘specially not Spike.” She paused, hoping her tough love approach had not been too hard on Twilight, but her words had had an effect - Twilight was already getting to her feet, and her sobbing had stopped.
“You’re right, AJ.” she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I’m about as useful as a quill without ink if I sit here crying. Can’t argue with the Element of Honestly now, can I?”
Applejack could see a slight smile forming on Twilight’s face, and was relieved to see that her friend had pulled herself together. “Ha, that’s more like it, Twi’. Keep ya spirits up, we’ll find him soon enough. C’mon, let’s go see if Fluttershy is awake yet, we’re gonna need all the help we can get.”
Twilight nodded, and followed her friend to the other side of the garden.
* * *
Rarity had planned to gallop as fast as her hooves could carry her, but this was before she had realised that a dressing gown wasn’t the most gallop-friendly item of clothing. She had slowed to a canter when she reached Twilight’s garden, but once she saw Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash standing over Fluttershy’s lifeless body, she sped up to a gallop once more.
“Dash! Pinkie! What happened?” she said, speeding towards them, panicked and out of breath. “I heard the most awful sound, and then I heard you all yelling at the top of your lungs! Is Fluttershy okay? That blasted dust didn’t hurt her did it?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “She’s fine.” she replied. “Well...she’s alive, at least. She’s a lot better than she was twenty minutes ago, anyways, we think she’s gonna wake up in a minute. But that’s just the start of our problems.” She paused, a somber look on her face. “We can’t find Spike. After the explosion he just...vanished. We’ve been searching the garden since it happened but he isn’t here. Our best guess is that the blast shot him quite a distance, but we have no idea where.”
A look of horror appeared on Rarity’s face. “Spike’s GONE?”, she said, shocked. “Well, who’s going to help me in my gem hunts?”
Dash stared at Rarity, a look of disbelief on her face. “Well, of course, that’s why we’re all so worried.” she said, sarcastically, “Clearly this is a disaster for you.”
“Wow, Dash, I never knew you cared about me so much!” Rarity replied, oblivious to Dash’s tone. “Come on, let’s get searching, he can’t have gone far.” Rainbow Dash placed her hoof on her face. Mental note, she thought, despairingly, Rarity is not one for sarcasm.
“Don’t bother,” said a voice from behind them. They turned to see that Twilight and Applejack had rejoined the group, both with determined looks. “We’ve searched every blade of grass in this garden,” Twilight continued, “and Spike’s not here. So we need to start figuring out where else he could’ve gone.” She looked towards Fluttershy. “Fluttershy’s okay, right?”
“She’s waking up, Dash thought it best to just let her recover on her own.” Pinkie Pie said. “You wanna hear our theory? We think the blast rocketed him up into the sky. Which is great, because I’ve been looking for a faster way to get into the sky, balloons are so slow!”
“You’re really thinking about using this after what happened?” said Rarity, shooting a stern gaze at Pinkie Pie. “I think we’d rather avoid another one of our friends rocketing off into the sky, you know.”
“Well obviously it’ll be better when Twilight experiments with this stuff some more.” Pinkie replied, “Then I’ll get just enough of a boost without being shot into the moon!”
“Be reasonable, Pinkie Pie, Twilight’s never going to go near this dreadful stuff again after tonight, isn’t that right Twilight?” Rarity said, looking at Twilight for support.
Twilight avoided her gaze. “Well, I’m not going to be doing anything at all until we’ve found Spike.” she told no-one in particular. “Pinkie Pie, that’s not a bad theory. But if the blast had shot him straight up, he would’ve come straight back down.” She shuddered at the thought of Spike taking such a long drop back into her garden, but quickly pushed the thought away. “And anyway, that would only have happened if he had been above the explosion. He was at the side of it, so if we figure out where he was before the blast, we’ll at least get an idea of what direction he went in.” She paused, as another thought popped into her mind. “Of course, the dust does have some magical power, so maybe that did something. Teleported him or made him invisible or something like that.” Applejack looked at Twilight and smiled, seeing she was back in thinking mode. “So if we go back to where we placed the dust...”
“BOOMDUST!” yelled Pinkie Pie, stopping Twilight’s theories in their tracks. “It needs a proper name after all. It made a big boom, and it’s pretty dusty, so it’s a totally cool name.”
“Okayyy....” said Twilight, shaking her head. “So, if we go back to where we placed the...Boomdust, and see out where Spike was standing, we can at least get half an idea for where to start looking. Let’s go have a look...”
“Oh, Twilight, your window is broken.”
The ponies turned their heads to the ground at the sound of Fluttershy’s voice. Her eyes were open, and she was very unsteadily getting back onto her feet, a task which was made more difficult after Pinkie Pie leapt on her in a loving embrace. “‘Shy! You’re awake! Girl, you missed some really cool stuff! There was fire and an explosion and a big boom and...”
“Pinkie Pie, give the poor girl some air,” commanded Applejack, grabbing Pinkie’s tail with her teeth and pulling her off the yellow pegasus. “Fluttershy darlin’, you okay? The blast knocked us all on our hinds but you’ve been out of it a hayuva lot longer. And don’t you worry about the window, we’ve got a mighty bigger set of problems here.”
“Oh, uh, sorry Applejack, it was the first thing I saw after I opened my eyes. What happened? How long have I been out?” said Fluttershy, in a quieter voice than usual.
“Twenty minutes or so,” replied Rainbow Dash, who had started hovering impatiently, waiting for the end of Twilight’s interrupted plan. “Don’t rush yourself getting up, ‘Shy. We’re still hearing the end of Twilight’s plan for finding Spike.”
“What? Spike’s gone?” Fluttershy said, horrified, suddenly jumping to her hooves. “We need to find him! He could be lost or hurt or...”
“Don’t worry,” Dash responded, “Twilight’s got a plan. Or at least half a plan. Isn’t that right Twi’?” She looked over at Twilight. “I said, isn’t that right Twi’?” she said, more forcefully.
Twilight Sparkle was not listening to Rainbow Dash, because she was busy looking at the broken window that Fluttershy had pointed out. There were four windows that faced the back garden on Twilight’s treehouse, and the broken one was second from the top. Twilight knew it didn’t look right. If the blast had smashed one of the windows, it would’ve smashed them all, or at the very least the ones below it. So why is only the one window broken? Even then, if it had broken the windows it would’ve cleared all the glass out entirely, not just leave a hole...wait a second.
She looked back at the spot where the Boomdust was, and tried to remember where Spike was standing. He was standing between the pile and the house, which means the blast would’ve thrown him towards the house. Her eyes widened as she realised what had happened.
“The window!” she yelled, galloping to her back door before any of her friends could respond. Bewildered, Applejack rushed after her friend, the other ponies following close behind. Twilight burst into her house, taking the stairs up to the second floor of her library three at a time. She reached the top, noticing the broken window again, getting a chance to look at it a bit closer. A hole in the window, like something had been thrown through it... she thought. And if I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was a the rough shape of a baby dragon. She turned to bookcase that faced the window, to see it in disarray. A pile of books had formed after having fallen from the shelves, and Twilight knew that it certainly wasn’t like that before. She rushed over to the pile, and began magicking the books away as fast as she could, until, halfway through the pile, she heard a familiar noise.
She looked into the half-cleared pile to see Spike, nestled within the pile. The sound that she had heard was the sound of her number one assistant snoring, as he slept soundly in a makeshift bed of books. She sighed in relief with the knowledge that her number one assistant was alive and well, as well as feeling impressed that he made it through the ordeal with barely a scratch on him. A baby dragon is still a dragon, she thought, and dragon scales are pretty damn tough.
She heard the clip-clop of her friends making her way up the stairs, and turned her head to see that Applejack had got there first. “Twilight,” she said, “What’re you doin’? I thought you were planning...”
“Shhhh!” Twilight shushed her friends as the came up the stairs, and motioned towards the pile of books. “I found him.” she whispered, “he’s fine. The blast shot him through the window, he ended up here. He’s sound asleep.”
“He’s asleep?!” said Dash, receiving another shush from Twilight. Lowering her voice, she whispered, “The blast knocks most of us out for a bit, but Spike gets catapulted through a window into a bookcase and falls asleep? That’s crazy.”
“I dunno, Dash.” Applejack replied, also keeping her voice down. “Sounds just like our Spike to me.” Everypony looked at Spike sleeping in the books, and all breathed a sigh of relief. Spike slept on, not knowing of the all worry and woe the ponies had suffered in the last half hour.
* * *
“Well, at the very least, that was certainly an interesting night.” Twilight Sparkle said to her friends. Half an hour had passed since they had found Spike. Now, instead of sleeping in a pile of books, Twilight had carefully used her magic to carry him to his cot, leaving his sleep undisturbed, and the ponies had gone to Twilight’s sitting room to talk about the day’s events.
“Interesting, certainly.” replied Rarity, a look of disapproval on her face. “Fun, almost certainly not. Still, at least we can say fare-de-well to all of the Boomdust nonsense.”
Twilight gave Rarity a disbelieving look. “Are you kidding?” she said. “There’s still so much we don’t know about it! It’s full of magical energies, I could probably get a better handle on what’s going on if I use a lower quantity next time...”
“Next time?!” Rarity said, bewildered. “You honestly want there to be a next time with this infernal material? Surely not, Twilight. I’m not stepping foot in that death trap of a cave ever again!”
“Uh, fer the record, I’m with Rarity on this one, Twi’.” Applejack interjected. “I mean, this is probably a bit too dangerous for us to be messin’ with.” She grinned. “Although, I imagine we’d’ve all been a bit less shocked if you hadn’t said “Nothing will go wrong” about a million gosh-darned times.”
Twilight laughed, and replied, “Well, if you think about it, nothing did go wrong! I was expecting the fires - you guys did excellent work in that regard, by the way - and no-one was badly hurt. And I understand if you don’t want to go back to the cave, Rarity, but if you just tell me where you found it...”
“I will do no such thing!” Rarity said, indignant. “I’m not having you experimenting on such dangerous things, especially when it could backfire just like it did tonight! I think it’d be safer for all of us if we just don’t waste time thinking about this...Boomdust stuff again.”
“That’s not how science works, Rarity!” Twilight responded, her voice going a bit louder. “You have to take risks, you have to experiment on the unknown! The Boomdust is far too interesting to pass up, its uses could be limitless!”
“All that Boomdust has done for us so far has caused a lot of damage to your backyard and could’ve killed that poor Spike!” Rarity argued back. “That doesn’t sound like limitless uses to me!”
“Hey, I know you guys are arguing, and you should stop, but I’m LOVING the fact that the name Boomdust has caught on.” chimed in Pinkie Pie, with a wide smile on her face.
“Pinkie’s right, guys.” Fluttershy said, quietly. “You should stop arguing. It’s late, we’re all tired, this isn’t really the time to be having this conversation.” She paused. “I mean, well, that’s what I think.” she said, sheepishly, “But if you want to keep arguing I...suppose that’s fine. But I’m heading home.”
“I’m with you, ‘Shy. I’m beat.” said Applejack, yawning loudly. “There’s lots of apple-buckin’ to be done in the morning, and I gotta’ get my rest.
Twilight got to her feet, also with a yawn. “They’re right, Rarity. We’ll continue this in the morning, we’re all a bit cranky. It’s been a long night.”
Rarity shot Twilight a glare. “If it weren’t for you and your experiments, I would’ve been all tucked up and asleep in bed for at least the last two hours.” She sighed. “But yeah, I suppose you’re right. I’ll see you tomorrow, Twilight, but don’t expect me to agree with you then just because I’ve got a good night’s sleep.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me, Rarity.” said Twilight, with a smile. “I like a challenge.”
Rarity laughed, and bode her friends goodnight. Five minutes later, the rest of her friends had followed suit, leaving Twilight alone in her sitting room, still thinking about the events of the night. Even if Rarity doesn’t show me the caves, she thought, I can still let Princess Celestia know what we’ve found. Maybe she’ll get some of the professors from Canterlot University to investigate it. She yawned again. But I suppose that can wait until tomorrow. My bed sounds a lot more inviting right now. Exhausted, she climbed the two flights of stairs to her bedroom, and collapsed onto her bed, instantly falling asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
* * *
The sun had risen on a new day in Equestria, and the streets of Canterlot were already filling with ponies, the hustle and bustle of a new working day slowly growing. The ponies on the streets were moving slightly quicker than usual - most were busy in their Full Moon parties the night before, but the full moon was, by no stretch of the imagination, an official pony holiday, so work would start as normal. Of course, ponies being ponies, most expected shops to have slightly later opening times and for the day to be a bit more sedate than usual.
Like the average workpony of the morning, Princess Luna had a slower start to her day. While she did not spend the previous night partying, her infiltration into Celestia’s chambers was an exceptionally tiring ordeal. The guards had not noticed her early retirement to her bed, but her late awakening had certainly caught their attention. Luna heard the guards call before she’d even descended three stairs from her sleeping platform.
“Good morning, ma’am!” said the larger of the two guards, with a clearly forced look of concern on his face. “You know it’s ten-thirty already? It’s not like you to sleep in, ma’am, is everything okay? Are you feeling unwell?”
They fail to notice the opening stages of a royal coup, Luna thought, but I sleep for thirty minutes longer than usual and they’re on it like wild dogs.
“Oh, I’m feeling quite fine, bodyguard. Quite wonderful, in fact! Nothing like a nice sunrise to get you ready for the day, and my sister has become quite adept at making that happen.” She flashed a smile at the guards, before turning to her pantry, grimacing as she trotted to her already cooked breakfast. Three years of singing praises of my sister to everyone. Forget being trapped in the moon for a thousand years, this is worse torture. Her grimace turned into a grin. Still, this’ll be the last day of that, if all goes to plan.
She knew exactly what she was expecting to find in her pantry - the royal cooks had Wednesday mornings off, so a simple daffodil and daisy sandwich was today’s breakfast. Of course, this being the Royal Palace, the flowers in the sandwich were of the highest quality, all grown and picked in the palace’s grand gardens, and the bread freshly delivered to the castle every morning from Sour-dough's bakery, widely considered the best bakery in Equestria. The quality of the food, however, was not what was on Luna’s mind. If last night’s events were the true test of her magical ability, then today would be a test of her persuasive talents.
Despite her library being very expansive, there was no book on her shelves that went into great detail about the Elements of Harmony, and it was the Elements that caused Luna the most worry. She’d been defeated by them twice before, and yet she still had no idea how she would defend herself from them, should their power be harnessed again. She’d only had one idea as to how to gain more information, and that was to ask the one person who could possibly know anything of great detail about them - Princess Celestia herself.
She sat at her dinner table, and took a bite from her sandwich, thinking carefully. She knew that even asking Celestia about the Elements was a risky move, almost certainly causing suspicion from her sister, and the question would have to be carefully worded. Luna didn’t need much, just one flaw, one weakness in the Elements she could exploit, but she knew it would be difficult to coax such a thing from her sister’s mouth. I’m essentially calling her bluff, Luna thought. If she trusts me as much as she claims, then she should have no problem giving me some information, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t. I do certainly know that she would never admit to my face that she still harbours any suspicion of me, though, so maybe she’ll just tell me to save face, assuming that I would never have the resources to pull it off. She grinned again. Ironically, sister, you gave me all the resources I could ever need.
While the library was a massive help in Luna’s forbidden spell research, she knew that Celestia would’ve limited what books she had access too - it would certainly explain why there was no mention at all of the Elements of Harmony in any of her books. It was her initial plan to use her invisibility to sneak into the Grand Library of the Royal Palace, but this was at a time when her research into invisibility was at its infancy, and due to the sheer value of the antique texts in the library, it was one of the most guarded wings of the entire palace. She had almost given up on her plan altogether, thinking that her power would never be strong enough to take down Celestia, but it was her big sister who had given her a lifeline. After being told by the guards that Luna had spent most of her free time studying in the her own library, Celestia had invited her to accompany her on one of her monthly visits to Canterlot University, thinking that she would find the trip of great interest. Luna took her up on the offer, knowing that her and her sister’s definitions of “great interest” varied quite wildly. She hadn’t expected to get full access to the university sacred halls, and wasn’t even expecting to glean anything new about magic from her visit there at all - Celestia’s visits to the university were mostly of an administrative nature, and most magical breakthroughs would generally call for the Princess to be called to the university immediately, rather than summed up in a monthly meeting.
Luna’s only real plan during her visit has just to keep her eyes and ears open, to look, listen, and perhaps learn. And she learned a lot. Apparently, the last few years had been rife with breakthroughs in modern magic, and most of these breakthroughs were the talk of the university. After only an hour within the university’s walls, she had learned of a lot of new discoveries, straight from the mouth’s of the over-talkative professors - it was from them that she’d overheard the concept of storing magical energies within gems, something that had never been attempted by anypony until recently, and something which many ponies thought was unique to the magical gemstones of the Elements of Harmony. It was here where she’d also heard the low mutterings and rumours of a new forbidden spell being discovered, a spell which would be one of the most important elements of her master plan.
Were it not for you, sister, this plan would’ve been dead two years ago, Luna thought. There would be no magic-blocking gem, there would be no soul linking, and I probably would’ve given up on this plan years ago. I suppose that’s something I should make sure everypony knows once I become Queen - careless talk costs lives.
Her thoughts returned to the task ahead of her. The takeover of Canterlot could easily be completed without the information she required, but then it would just be a matter of time before the Elements would track her down. The perfect version of her plan, however, was exactly the opposite - it was her plan to track the Elements down. After she took control, Ponyville was her first target, but if the Elements of Harmony were still in play, it would be a difficult target to hit. There is no good way to ask Celestia about them without making me look a bit suspect, she thought, but hopefully her determination to keep up her fake trust towards me will make her talk.
She finished her breakfast, and trotted back into her main hall. “Bodyguards! You wouldn’t mind accompanying me to Celestia’s chambers in an hour or so? I need to talk to her about something.”
“Not at all, ma’am.” the smaller guard said. “Just let us know when you want to head there.”
She nodded, and took a quick glance at her clock. Ten-forty five, she thought, perfect. I’ll be in Celestia’s room by quarter to twelve, get the information I need, then knock that foal from her throne. She grinned to herself. Midday is when it will happen. She will be struck down when the sun is at its peak...when HER sun is at its peak. Poetic justice is a such a lovely thing.
* * *
As midday approached, the forests around Canterlot were brimming with life. The birds dawn chorus had long since ended, but their song was still easily heard from the trees, and the rustling of the rabbits and squirrels was happening at a near constant rate. The sun shone bright in the sky, bathing the entire forest in a glorious light, giving the the lush summer grass an incandescent shine.
While Spitfire was always usually always the first to appreciate a beautiful summer’s day, this time, she had other things on her mind. She and Soarin’ had been in the forest for three hours, practising and tweaking some new flying tricks for the ever-approaching Grand Galloping Gala, and even with that three hours, and time they had spent in the previous week, they still hadn’t been able to master the outrageously choreographed tricks that their teammate Tyco had come up with.
“I mean, come on Soarin’,” she said, indignant. as they sat in the shade of the trees, taking a break from the morning’s training. “How in the hay does Tyco expect us to do six barrel rolls and three front flips within the space of two seconds? Even IF we manage to do it, if we were moving at that speed we’d probably just look like a pony-shaped blur to the audience!”
“Ah, don’t worry about it, Spitfire.” Soarin’ responded, with a determined look on his face. “It’s the same thing that happens every year. Tyco thinks of a new move, we both complain that it’s impossible for a week or so, then we finally nail it, perfect it, and make the crowds scream about it. We’ll get it down soon enough.”
“If we keep up with that pattern, then one day he’ll tell us to do something that’s ACTUALLY impossible. And when we screw it up and end up face down in the dirt, I doubt there’ll be much cheering going on.”
Soarin’ chuckled. “Do let me know when we actually reach that point, will ya? I haven’t got a specific day marked on my calendar for my retirement, but it’d be good to know in advance when that day is.”
Spitfire laughed with her teammate, enjoying the fact that she’d finally got some alone time with him. Tyco was supposed to be with them in the forest that morning, but, as usual, we was sound asleep when Spitfire went to get him, and she made very little effort to wake him. I don’t know what it is, she thought, but Soarin’ always acts so macho when any of the other boys are around. He probably doesn’t want to show weakness in front of them. But he’s far nicer like this, I think. Laughing and joking. If one of the other stallions even heard him mention the word “retirement”, he’d probably never hear the end of it.
“Seriously though,” Soarin’ continued, his determined look having returned, “We just need to focus and we can get this done. At least we don’t have Tyco around yelling at us every time we mess up. Well, not yet, anyway. Was he even lucid enough to tell you when he was getting his hind down here?”
Spitfire shook her head. “Nope. He was up quite late, y’know, full moon parties and everything.”
Soarin’ sighed. “So we should expect him about five-ish then. Marvellous.”
“Five-ish? That’s pretty optimisitic, dude.” Spitfire said, with a smile. “The foal could probably sleep through the end of the world.”
“True enough.” Soarin’ said, smiling back at Spitfire. “Right, you about ready to get back in the air? We need to figure out what went wrong that last time. Can’t have you crashing into me when we do this at the show, can we?”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “I beg your pardon? You crashed into me! I was perfect the whole of that last run!”
“Don’t worry, Spitfire,” Soarin’ said, jokingly, “I know what you ponies are like, all it takes is one cute little bunny to appear from the grass and you lose every ounce of your focus.”
“Ohohoho!” Spitfire said, with a smile on her face. “Well, maybe you’d keep your focus better if you concentrated more on the flying and less on checking out my hind when you think I’m not looking!”
“Ah, well, uh...I never...” Soarin’ stammered.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you like my personality too. Come on, time’s-a-wastin’ and the clouds are calling.”
Spitfire jumped from her spot under the tree and shot straight into the sky, leaving a bewildered Soarin’ on the ground. She giggled to herself. Did I just make him blush? Embarrassment is probably quite a new experience to him, she thought, glancing behind her to see Soarin’ take off, in hot pursuit. I do like the guy, but, dear Celestia, is it fun to watch him squirm.
* * *
Just as planned, Luna and her bodyguards had arrived at the door to Princess Celestia’s chambers at the stroke of eleven-forty five. The guards had already entered the room to announce Luna’s arrival, and Luna knew this would be the last chance to figure out what she was going to say. She was less worried than she was and hour ago, however, since she’d thought of quite a nice way to explain her interest in the Elements to her sister without drawing much suspicion. The Elements of Harmony defeated Nightmare Moon, but that’s not who I am now, she thought. At least, not yet. At the moment, I’m just Celestia’s sister Luna. Making that distinction could be the key to this conversation.
The guards returned from Celestia’s chambers. “You can go in now,” the smaller one said. “We’ll be right outside the door if you need us, ma’am.”
Luna nodded. “Thank you, bodyguards.” she said, as she trotted past them through the open door to Celestia’s room. Hopefully, that’s the last time I’ll have to thank these imbecilic guards for anything.
She entered the chamber, seeing that her sister was seated in the middle of the room, her eyes focused on the book in front of her. Luna quickly looked at the bookshelf where her magic-blocking gem was hidden, and was relieved to see that the books hiding it had not been moved. Off to a good start, she thought. She cleared her throat, getting her sister’s attention in the process as she moved her eyes from her book.
“Luna! My dear sister, it’s nice to see you!” Celestia said, with a wide glowing smile on her face. “It’s funny that you came to visit me today,” she continued, “I was planning to drop by your chambers today and congratulate you for last night’s fantastic full-mooned sky.”
Luna smiled back at her sister, and said, “Haha, you always check up on my skies, Cel’? Making sure I’ve not lost my touch?”
Celestia shook her head. “Oh, not at all, Luna. I just love the full moon, that’s all. Makes the night sky look so lovely.”
Trust me, sister, Luna thought, bitterly, the moon looks a lot less beautiful when you’re trapped inside it for a thousand years. She trotted over to her sister, and sat opposite from her. “My bodyguards were very complimentary about it too.” she said, keeping her forced smile on her face. “It’s weird, I wasn’t completely happy with it after I’d finished, it certainly wasn’t my best work.”
Celestia laughed. “Well, do let me know when it is your best work, because that’s a night sky I wouldn’t want to miss. Now then, I assume you have something you want to talk to me about? It’s been quite a while since you’ve been in my chambers without me summoning you.”
Here goes nothing. “Well sis’, you know that most of my spare time is spent in the library, yes? I’ve been doing a lot of research on all different types of magic. I find it fascinating to learn about it all, clearly I’m more of a unicorn than a pegasus.”
“Haha, well that’s perfectly fine, Luna, the world of magic is certainly an interesting one. You should see some of the new things going on over at the university, I’ll make a point to take you back there sometime soon.”
“I would love to visit it again, Cel’,” said Luna. “Perhaps with a bit more of a...comprehensive tour? I felt that I barely saw any of it last time I was there.”
The smile faded ever so slightly from Celestia’s face. “Well, that could probably be arranged, but don’t expect to get into every nook and cranny. A lot of the work going on in there is top secret, even I don’t know some of the things the professors are researching in there!”
Luna gave an awkward laugh, and continued. “The thing is, during my research of all things magical, there’s one thing I couldn’t find any mention of with my library. The Elements of Harmony.”
Celestia’s smile faded even further. “Ah, yes. I wondered if your studies would ever lead you there. I made sure there weren’t any books about it in your library due to the, ah, unfortunate circumstances of your encounter with them. Frankly, I thought that you would never want to speak of them again.”
A very cunning excuse, sister, Luna thought, just trying to protect me from the big, nasty, Elements of Harmony? “Well, yes...” she continued, “That was what I figured. But, well, you can’t exactly study magic without them cropping up at some point, so I thought I come to you to ask about them. I mean, you’d probably have more knowledge about them than anypony else.”
“Well Luna, I can tell you what I know, but....” The smile had all but disappeared from Celestia’s face. “Are you sure that you’re comfortable talking about them? I mean, we can’t really go into detail without talking about...well, without talking about our “disagreements” of the past.”
Okay, that’s the best chance I think I’m going to get. “The way I think about it, Cel’,” she said, looking her sister straight in the eye, “is that it wasn’t me you were “disagreeing” with. You used the Elements of Harmony to stop Nightmare Moon, and a thousand years later, Twilight Sparkle and her friends used them to stop her again. But I’m not Nightmare Moon, I’m just Princess Luna. Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon are two completely different ponies, in the same way that you can say that you and I are different. So, if the reason you’re reluctant to talk to me about it is because you think it’s inappropriate to tell me about the weapon which defeated me, then I’d respond by saying that it didn’t defeat me, it defeated Nightmare Moon, so you shouldn’t feel like the subject is inappropriate.”
There was a few seconds of silence, but to Luna, the seconds seemed like days. Will she buy that? she thought, waiting in agony for the Princess’ response.
Celestia closed her eyes and nodded her head. “You’re right, Luna. You and Nightmare Moon are two different ponies. If you’re comfortable with it, then I’ll be glad to tell you all I know.”
Luna widened her smile at Celestia’s words, but she was shocked that it had been so easy to get her talking. Was that seriously the only reason she didn’t want to talk to me about it? Because she thought it would make me uncomfortable? I mean, she could be lying to hide her suspicions if she thought I was planning something, but surely if she had any suspicion at all, she’d make up a good excuse to keep quiet. Is that really all it took? Is it possible that she...genuinely trusts me? She pushed the thought away. If she trusted me, she wouldn’t have kept me prisoner in this castle for three years. There’s something more going on here, but I’d better not pass up this opportunity.
“Thanks, Cel’, I really appreciate it.” She took a breath, getting ready to ask her first of her planned questions. “So, my first question about them is this - you used all of the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon the first time around, so why didn’t you just use them again the second time? Why did you entrust it to Twilight Sparkle?”
“Well...there’s two reasons for that, Luna.” Celestia said, her smile starting to return. “Firstly, I wanted to teach Twilight about friendship. Her magic was powerful, and I knew if anyone could wield the Elements, it was her, but I knew she wasn’t powerful enough to use all six at once. I figured it would be a good way to hone her skills while showing her that there was more to life than studying, and it worked. The bonds those young ponies made with the Elements of Harmony are still as strong as they were three years ago.” She paused, breaking Luna’s eye contact for a second. “Having said that, the second reason I didn’t just use the Elements again was probably a bigger one. You see, no one pony, regardless of their magical ability, can ever use the combined power of Elements of Harmony more than once. Even if Nightmare Moon hadn’t kidnapped me that night three years ago, I’d already used their power to defeat her the first time, so here was really nothing much I could have done to stop it. I chose Twilight to do it because she was had more magical potential than any filly I’d ever seen, so I figured choosing her as my successor to wield the Elements of Harmony was as good a choice as any.”
Luna nodded to her sister’s words, but she had long since stopped listening. No-one pony can use the power of the Elements of Harmony more than once? she thought, barely containing her excitement. That means Twilight Sparkle and her silly friends can’t stop me! They can’t use their power again! THIS IS IT! This is the weakness I was hoping to discover, and I got it on my first question! She tried to keep calm, but she was actually struggling to not laugh out loud. And you’ve just told me, sister! You’ve given me all I need to win! I can’t believe how easy that was, my foalish sister has a far looser tongue than I could ever have hoped for! Staying in character, she searched for absolute confirmation of this weakness. “So, you’re saying that, should Nightmare Moon return, Twilight and her friends couldn’t use the Elements to stop her either?” she asked, trying to keep an interested look on her face.
Celestia shook her head. “Not in the way you know of. The Elements still remain tied to their minds and hearts, making them a bit more powerful than the average pony, but they couldn’t use their combined power again.”
Luna couldn’t believe her luck. This is too easy, she thought, she might as well have said: “Oh, Luna, if you’re planning on plunging the world into everlasting darkness again, don’t worry, no-one can stop you, you go right ahead.” She glanced again at the clock. Eleven-fifty five. Let’s see what else I can learn.
“Did you know that beforehand?” Luna asked. “I mean, the fact that they couldn’t be used again? Was it written down in an old book or something?”
Shaking her head once more, Celestia said, “When I first used them, I had no idea that it would be my only chance. After Nightmare Moon’s first defeat, I tried to learn as much as I could about them, even making a point to find an uninhabited part of the forest to try to use the power again. I just couldn’t do it. There’s no hard evidence that it was because I’d already used them the once, but...” she paused, looking away from Luna, thoughtfully. “I could just feel it. The Elements of Harmony have a weird way about them, it’s like...it’s like they told me that I could only use them the one time.”
Luna nodded, still keeping a faked look of interest. “So, you say the Elements still affect the pony that uses them long after?” she asked.
“Yes, they do. Generally, they just improve your special skills. Like the fillies in Ponyville, for example - Twilight is a master of magic, far more powerful than most adults. Rainbow Dash is an expert flier, some say she’s better than our very own Wonderbolts now! And it’s the same for Fluttershy and her rapport with animals, Rarity’s tailoring skills, Applejack’s adeptness on her farm, and Pinkie Pie’s skill at...well, being Pinkie Pie, I suppose.” Celestia’s smile had returned at the thought of her protege’s friends.
“Does that mean the Elements are still within you, sister?” Luna pressed, knowing that any attempts to stay subtle were no longer necessary.
“No, they aren’t.” Celestia replied, frowning slightly. “Five hundred years after Nightmare Moon’s defeat, I felt their presence leave me. Let’s just say...it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I’d rather not go into it, if you don’t mind.”
“I understand.” Luna said, again glancing at the clock. One more question, I think. “Well, what about Twilight and her friends? Will they also lose the Elements over time? I mean, I’d highly doubt they’re going to be around five hundred years from now.”
Celestia looked back at her sister. “This is the one thing I don’t know.” she replied. “My best guess is that when the six fillies pass on from this world, the Elements will leave them and go back to their place at the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest. To be perfectly honest, sister, I actually hope that is the case. Nopony should ever have to experience the ordeal of losing their Element, it’s quite a trying event.”
Luna nodded, trying to keep a thoughtful expression, but she couldn’t help smiling at this new revelation. I was planning to kill those blasted fillies anyway, she thought, but now I have another reason to do it. They’ll lose their Elements of Harmony, and all I’ll have to do is walk into the Ancient Castle and claim them for myself. She closed her eyes. Okay, sister. I think it’s time to show my true colours.
She leaned forward in her seat. “So, Celestia,” she said, making no effort to hide the widening grin appearing on her face. “Hypothetically, if Nightmare Moon were to return to this world today, with the plan of bringing everlasting night, then all she’d have to do is kill Twilight and her friends, collect the Elements of Harmony for herself, and you would have no defense against her?” Luna was now grinning from ear to ear. “I mean, if the past is anything to go by, her power almost eclipses yours, right? Without the Elements to help you, she could probably knock you right from your throne!”
Celestia’s smile vanished from her face, clearly taken aback by her sister’s statement. She opened her mouth to answer, but was stopped by the chiming of her clock, as it signalled midday’s arrival.
Ding. Ding.
Celestia looked at her sister, and Luna looked right back.
Ding. Ding.
Luna’s grin had turned into a full on evil smile, her bright white teeth bared.
Ding. Ding.
Celestia’s face had changed from a look of shock, and had contorted into a look of pure horror.
Ding. Ding.
I think she’s finally realised what’s going on, thought Luna, but she’s three years too late.
Ding. Ding.
Oh, Princess, your face looks quite the picture. Luna had started giggling to herself.
Ding. Ding.
On the last chime of the midday bells, Celestia could see the laughter of her sister. Luna was giggling hysterically, her giggling soon turning into full blown laughter, eventually becoming a maniacal cackle, the noise of which reverberated from the walls of the otherwise deathly silent room. Celestia’s look of horror intensified, as she realised what she had done.
Luna’s cackling abruptly stopped. “But of course, sister, that’s only hypothetically speaking, right?” she said, an evil smirk on her face. She closed her eyes, and her horn flashed, activating the link between her and the gem, hidden just to her left.
There was a sudden pulse, and the city of Canterlot was suddenly colourless. The yellow of the sun, the white of the walls of the palace, and the bright hues of every pony’s body within the city walls had all become shades of grey. Luna could feel the pulse moving quickly through Celestia’s chambers, and, in a matter of seconds, everypony within the city had felt it. After a split second, the colour snapped back into the city. If anypony had blinked in that split second, then they would have missed the sudden monochrome flash, but nopony had missed the pulse of magical energy that had covered the entire city.
In Princess Celestia’s chambers, there were a few seconds of silence before Celestia adressed her grinning sister. “Luna...” she said, weakly, “...what have you done?”
“The question, dear sister, is not what I have done.” Luna replied, the smile leaving her face. “The question is, what are you going to do?”
Luna leaped from her seat, straight towards her still horror-stricken sister. Mid jump, she could see her sister try to defend herself, but the pained look on her face told Luna exactly what she needed. She collided with her sister, knocking her straight from her chair, and onto the floor, upturning the reading table in the process. Pinning Celestia’s shoulders to the floor with her hooves, she finally came face to face with Equestria’s ruler, with her true intentions as plain as the sun in the sky.
“I couldn’t help but notice you trying to use magic to defend yourself just then, Celestia.” Luna shouted, her face inches away from her sister’s. “I’m truly sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t allow that.” she continued, her voice lowering to a low hiss. “I’m sure you can see it’s simply proportional response. You stole my freedom for over a thousand years, so I’m banning you from magic. I’d actually say I was being quite generous.”
In her zeal, Luna had forgotten the fact that her big sister was twice her size, but was quickly reminded by Celestia’s retaliation. She felt the blow from the princess’ hooves hit her stomach as she was kicked across the room, straight into one of the many bookcases lining it’s walls.
“GUARDS! GET IN HERE!” Celestia yelled, galloping for her chamber door, but her blow had only stopped Luna for a second, and she was quick to react to her sister’s escape attempt.
“Not so fast, Princess!” Luna yelled, her horn glowing bright. Celestia stopped dead in her tracks - Luna had used her magic to fix her to the spot. “Forbidden spell number four!” she shouted, manically, “Suspended animation! Oh, it’s a shame, I had honestly hoped to do this without having to cast it, even a pony as unforgiving as you deserves a little dignity.”
She could hear the yells and hooves of the guards outside as the came to investigate the disturbance. “Celestia, I really don’t think guards are necessary, do you?”, she said, her horn flaring again as she used her magic to lock Celestia’s chamber door. “There we are,” she continued, slowly trotting around her sister’s frozen body. “No rude interruptions. We’ve still got to finish out little chat, haven’t we sis’?” She once again was face to face with her sister, and laughed at the fact that the look of horror was now frozen on her face. “Don’t worry, you can still talk. But my magic can only hold that door for twenty minutes at most, so talk quickly.”
There was a second’s pause before Celestia spoke. “...what did you do? What did you do to my magic?”
Luna smirked. “I blocked it. And it’s not just you, it’s everypony in Canterlot. Every unicorn within this city is banned from their magic. It’s a new law of mine. Oh, and to answer your implicit next questions, no, I’m not going to tell you how I did it, and no, I won’t tell you why it’s not blocking me.”
“A new law of yours? After two minutes of keeping me fixed mid-gallop, you’ve already appointed yourself judge, jury and executioner of Canterlot?”
“Personally, I prefer the word Queen. It kind of bundles all of those titles together.”
Celestia laughed. “You think magic is the only power this kingdom has to offer? The guards outside will be going to get help right now, the soldiers of the Pegasus Flying Corps will tear this room apart to save me! You surely can’t think confronting me in my own chambers with nothing but twenty minutes of solstice can get you the throne?”
Luna’s smirk had faded. She spread her wings, and hovered up to her sister’s eye level. “Oh, but there’s so much more to it, dear sister. Three years in that fake prison you made for me only added to the anger I had amassed from a thousand years trapped in the moon. I find that, given the right motivation, and plenty of free time, you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.” She grinned, and moved closer to her sister’s face, staring into her eyes. “The desire for revenge is a massive source of motivation. And I’ve had plenty of free time.”
“Luna, think about what you’re doing. Like you said, you’re not Nightmare Moon, you’re just Luna! Your magic is strong, but you can’t think you’re powerful enough to fight the entire military force of Canterlot! Not even Nightmare Moon would be able to stand up to that!” Celestia was pleading, trying to bring her sister back to Earth.
Luna paused, still grinning. “You’re right, Celestia. Canterlot has quite the powerful army. Quite surprising really, since there’s been nothing out there to defend yourself from. At least, until today.” Her face was now centimeters from Celestia’s. “But you’re right. I’m just weak little Princess Luna at the moment. You’ll see soon, though. Not only will I have enough power to beat your armies, but I won’t even need to beat them, because they will be my armies. Today, everything of yours will become mine. Everything that was rightfully mine in the beginning.”
Celestia couldn’t hide the fear in her voice. “There’s no way you can gain that kind of power. The stars can’t help you this time, Luna.”
Luna’s grin had again turned into an evil smile. “No, the stars can’t help me.” she said, enjoying the look of fear in her sister’s eyes. “But you can, Cel’. You might not know it, but you’ve already helped me a great deal. I might even go as far to say that you were indispensable to my plans. But you’ve still got one more part to play.” Forbidden spell number five, she thought, with glee, as she placed her hooves on the sides of her sisters head.
“I’d like to say that you won’t feel a thing, dear sister,” she said, drinking in the fear from the princess’ eyes. “Well, actually, I’d hate to say that, because it would be a lie. You will feel a thing.” She smirked. “If you weren’t frozen, I’d tell you to brace yourself, because this is going to hurt, sis’.” Luna closed her eyes, and her horn grew brightly.
All Celestia saw was her sister’s manic eyes before knowing nothing but pain. She screamed, a blood-curdling, deathly scream that echoed from the walls and rang in her own ears. She felt like her soul was being ripped out of her skin, that her mind was being boiled within her head, and her body was being torn limb from limb. Luna saw her sister’s screams, and laughed along with them, the sounds of Celestia’s screaming and Luna’s laughter reverberating throughout the palace halls in an eardrum-shattering discordant melody. “YOU THINK THAT YOU KNOW POWER, PRINCESS CELESTIA?” Luna yelled, over the continuing sounds of her screams and wails. “I’LL SHOW YOU POWER THAT WILL BREAK THIS WORLD IN HALF!”
The glow of Luna’s horn died down, and she released Celestia from her magical binds, seeing her sister’s body drop limply to the floor. Luna could feel new power coursing through her veins, and felt the power of two royal unicorns invade her body. She had expected to get a rush from what she had done, but the feeling she had was indescribably perfect.
She look upon her fallen sister. The slow, pained breathing she saw proved that her sister was still alive, but barely. Good, the dark skinned unicorn thought, barely alive is exactly how I wanted her. She walked to where her sister lay, leaning over to whisper in her ear. “Forbidden spell number five...magic drain.” she hissed. “Nightmare Moon’s escape was helped by the stars, but there’s more than one way to get that much power, dear sister. And I knew that your power would be more than enough. You should tell your professors at the university that their hushed whispers should be hushed even quieter.”
Celestia did not respond, as she lay on the floor of her chambers, her eyes half shut. Luna moved from her sister’s side, and looked at the afternoon sun through her sister’s grand window.
“Do you remember that old nursery rhyme, sister? The one our parents used to sing to us?” The standing unicorn turned back to look at her sister. “I’ve long forgotten the name of it, but I realised long ago that the whole thing was a metaphor for those damn Elements of Harmony.” she trotted back to her sister, leaning forward again to whisper in her ear. “There’s one line from that song that seems very apt here. It’s near the end. Do you know which one I mean?” She smirked. “ “Magic makes it all complete.”. Because that’s how you feel without your magic, don’t you? Incomplete. Like some large part of you is dead to the world, feeling like just an empty shell, feeling like your soul has been stolen.” She glared at her sister, her voice taking a more venomous tone. “I know that feeling well, dear sister. You might not have known, but a side effect from being imprisoned in the moon is the loss of one’s magic, and I was there for a thousand years. So how does it feel, Princess? How does it feel to know that your very essence has been stolen today?” She smirked, and turned back to the window. “I’d open your eyes and look at your sun, Princess.” she said, the venomous tone still infecting her voice. “It’s going to be the last sun you see for quite a while.”
She laughed, a high-pitched cackle that pierced Celestia’s eardrums. The fallen ruler opened her eyes, and was hit by the bright light of the blazing sun. She looked at where her sister was stood, in front of her grand window, laughing manically to herself, and her eyes widened in shock. She had expected to see Luna on her viewing platform, but the pony that she saw at her window was no longer Princess Luna. She was looking at a different pony, a taller, darker skinned pony, with wings and horn a similar size to her own. She was looking at a pony that scared her more than any other, an unstoppable, infinitely powerful pony of supreme terror.
Princess Celestia was looking at the pony known only as Nightmare Moon. She watched in terror, as the pony cackled to herself, before all she knew was darkness.