At Moon Dancer's Party, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Minuette, Lyra, and I realized that only we stood between a cursed Celestia, a conspiracy in Canterlot, and the coming of Nightmare Moon. Could we, with Shining's help, save Equestria?
At Moon Dancer's Party, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Lyra, Minuette, and I realized that only we stood between a cursed Celestia, a conspiracy in Canterlot, and the coming of Nightmare Moon. Celestia had managed against the geas to train me, appoint me as her crown representative, and send me to oversee the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville. But she'd prevented the royal guard from helping me. Could we, with Shining's help and a hoof-ful of crazy Ponyvillains, save Equestria from nighttime eternal?
A novella about the second bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
I reclined under a tree on a red-checkered tablecloth, a breakfast picnic spread to my left and an open book under my right hoof. I levitated a whole-wheat daisy sandwich. A warm breeze ruffled my fur, auguring for a pleasant hot day.
Just I as took a bite, a brown stallion in a blue postal uniform and peaked cap trotted up. “Are you Princess Celestia’s personal protege?”
I grunted and waved my hoof as I worked to swallow quickly. I started to cough and grabbed my lemonade. The sour helped. “She doesn’t usually call me that.”
A gray aura levitated a package wrapped in yellowed craft paper tied with dusty string. “This must be for you.” It landed with a book-like thump and emitted a cloud of dust, flipping a spoon that had been in the way.
I read the mailing label. I shook my head and started, “That’s not me—”
“You are her personal protege, right?" He tapped a piece of paper. "Says 'Or Celestia’s Personal Protege'". The delivery instructions specified that it be delivered today, but it had been franked with a royal seal ten years ago—prior to my entrance exam to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. “Sign here.”
I wasn’t going to say no to a book. I mean, who would, especially from the Princess? I tore off the paper, looked at the cover, and groaned. Myths and Sciences, Multi-site Equinepological Discoveries. The pretentiousness of the emerald-eyed gold-gilt unicorn on the cover did not bode well for hard science. Had Celestia planned the fluff in her curriculum that far in advance? My annoyance faded, though, as I remembered the book had been intended for a previous protege that had not made the grade, or quit, and disappeared.
Who was this Sunset Shimmer?
I absently took a bite from the sandwich, skimmed the forward, then reversed the tome to the index. Timing: it was a clue! Not the ten years ago, but today, the day before the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration. I scanned for anything related and didn’t much notice the sun creeping into my shade, nor that my drink, sandwich, oat scones, and hay fries disappeared as I grazed unconsciously.
“And the harmony has been maintained in Equestria ever since?”
I stopped and tapped my chin with my hoof. “Elements of Harmony? I know I’ve heard of that before, but where?" The pink-maned mare was obviously one of Celestia’s ancient ancestors, but the histories didn't go that far back. I shook my head. And this Nightmare Moon character had the same name as the cannibal winter harbinger in some Nightmare Night celebrations, though that was usually a winged oryx, not an alicorn. Celestia had prepared me to see these connections; the cannibal boogy-mare that scared little children was the only one that correlated to tomorrow’s celebration.
I huffed, stood, and threw my picnic remnants into my right saddlebag. I chewed on an errant bit of my mane, waiting for the next connection. Right! I remembered a book amongst the many given me by my mentor at Hearths Warming Eve: "Predictions and Prophesies!”
I galloped off, at the last instant remembering Myths and Sciences. It flew up behind me and shoved itself into my empty opposite saddlebag. Connections. Connections! It was obviously some sort of test.
“There you are, Twilight!”
I actually screamed, though I quickly squelched it and skidded to a halt before an array of my unicorn college friends who blocked the sandstone pavement road. There stood Lemon Hearts, a hefty chartreuse-maned yellow mare, plus bubbly blue doll-sized Minuette, and Twinkleshine—who with her pink mane and off-white coat reminded me of the good sister in Myths and Sciences, minus the wings. Always the first to speak up about matters of right and wrong, she of course reminded me of something I had forgotten in the heat of the chase. “Moon Dancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard. You wanna come?” She leaned forward to let her sarcasm drip so she didn’t have to add, You, who led Moon Dancer to believe it would be a good idea to have a party in the first place…
I looked at the girls. I looked at the book. A test. “Oh, I’m sorry, but I’ve got a lot of…”
Twinkleshine’s blue eyes bored into me. I looked up into the sky, seeing the sun and thinking of Nightmare Moon who wanted to bring eternal night.
“Ughhh!” I began pacing. Celestia was testing me. “I’ve got to study!” but Twinkie held her ground as I paced. Sensing my body language, the other two spread out and turned sideways, blocking my dodge to the left as Lyra Heartstrings trotted up. I noticed that she, like the other three, had a brightly colored foil-wrapped present, tied with a bow, balanced on her back. At home, I had a red one that had taken me a hour to wrap, even after reading how. “Ughhh! Look, Celestia sent me this book ten years ago…”
When I finished, Minuette chuckled and said, “That’s quite a story. And probably important, too, but Moon Dancer is really putting herself out to thank you and us, mostly you, for getting her out of her depression about her grade in Astronomy class, you know, and you helping her keep from flunking.”
Lyra, the queen of green—minty green—piped up, “Yes, some story. There’s something mysterious and urgent about the whole thing. Look, I’ll go to your place and talk to the little guy—” her name for Spike “—and find Predictions and Prophesies and have him look up these, um, elementary thingies.”
“I’ll write it down.” I got out a sheet of paper and jotted instructions.
Lyra watched the moving feather quill and parchment, pacing with me. She said, “You’ve got really bad handwriting. It would improve if you didn’t depend on the little guy.”
The west castle courtyard, surrounded by white-brick gold-topped towers and cottages, had the skimpiest of all the castle ramparts. Protected by the precipice that was the tall mountain that Canterlot itself was built-upon, only a decorative picket fence lay between the grounds and a half-mile drop to the Ponyville Plain. A few pegasi guard patrolled the skies and kept the dirigible yachts and pleasure zephyrs outside the royal radius. Moon Dancer could throw her party on the green sea of grass amongst pony-shaped topiary trees because she was the daughter of a duchess with lands aside Horseshoe bay. Moon Dancer had become Princess Celestia's ward when when the princess' good friend had passed
The girls got ahead of me, beyond the trees. I could hear Minuette say, “Hey Moon Dancer! Look at this spread, huh?”
“Thank you so much for coming!”
I couldn’t get the connection between the wicked night mare and the cannibal winter-harbinger out of my mind.
“—miss one of our best friend’s parties, now would—”
“Is Twilight coming…oh, I see…”
Her tone struck me like a brick. I bucked the clouds gathering in my mind and trotted into view. The table had Lemon Hearts written all over it, from the chartreuse and yellow streamers, to the pink cloth, to the balloons and confetti stars. Moon Dancer's strawberry cakes looked home-baked and frosted—lopsided and lumpy, and more impressive by the work that implied. Some of the hay fries looked a bit burnt, but I could smell the rich molasses and lemons in the fizzy punch drink. Moon Dancer had likely studied the recipes like she would have studied state changes in organic chemistry. The kale, field greens, tomatoes, and carrots were arranged artfully like a provincial market stall.
The dejected red-maned buttercup-colored mare went from looking down and walking away, to effervescent. “Twilight!” she cried, dashing around the table. She remembered herself when she got close, though. “Hi.”
I said, “Hi.”
“I am glad you could come.”
“Me, too.”
And we stood there looking at each other, Moon Dancer probably thinking as I did that there ought to be a party small talk 101 text somewhere. Funny how much we were alike: We liked studying and problem solving. We were both runts, both smaller than petite Minuette. We both had two purple stripes in our mane and tail. When she refused to wear her glasses, which was most of the time, ponies remarked we had similar “bone structure.” We were practically sisters in all but blood, except that she came from wealth that could pay for schooling and I came from wealth of love and not much more, here thanks only to a full-boat scholarship. Our similarities were probably the reason Celestia asked, cajoled, and finally all but ordered me to befriend her ward.
Lunettes made a good study buddy. (My nickname for her also means glasses. Whether you agree or not, puns are a type of wit.)
“You two!” Lemon Hearts said, breaking the awkward silence. Magenta magic reached out to crystal punch cups, plates, and napkins. All at once, a dozen or more items of food and drink collected and poured themselves, and swished out unerringly to each party-goer. If there was one magic Hearts was good at, it was levitating things regardless of number or weight. Best anyone could guess, her cutie mark hearts had to do with strength and multi-tasking.
Both of us caught a punch. I got hay fries and Lunette some strawberry cake, with fragrant double-frosting.
Hearts strode up with five different things orbiting over her back. “And so,” she continued, “Would you be-lieve that Twilight has a lot of studying to catch up on, thanks to our favorite princess?”
“Our only princess,” Lunettes amended, magic briefly appearing above her nose, where her glasses ought be. She was myopic, not that she ran into things, much.
“Just look at this,” Hearts said, grabbing the new book. Within minutes, the six of us lay on the lawn, hooves gathered under us, eating like little piglets and taking turns leafing through the book and commenting about the circumstances of its delivery.
“And it’s even more mysterious,” Harps—that was my nickname for Lyra Heartstrings—said as she cantered into the party. Spike, heavily loaded with books and scrolls, bumped along on her back. “The little guy has talented little hands. You should be proud of him.”
“Aww—” he said.
I cut Spike off, before he could encourage her further, asking him, “—so you found something?”
“Hard not to, Twilight, with your detailed notes and cross-references. Say, could I have some— yow!” He ducked as a punch cup and cake rocketed to a halt inches from his hands. “Uh, thanks.”
“No problem,” Hearts said. (Lemon Heart.)
“Look at this. Elements of Harmony.” He opened a book to a page that talked about magical gems linked with a prophesy, and a cross-reference to, “Lunar Tales and Crazes, which I had out because of your folklore project. Read this.” He picked a strawberry off his plate, licked his claws, and opened another book, then continued out loud, “The Mare in the Moon, myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria, defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the moon. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime—”
“Eternal!” I cried.
Harps said, “Ooo,” and visibly shuddered. “Too much coincidence!”
Lunettes and I looked each other in the eye. The same instant, we said, “Nightmare Moon.”
Minuette said, “Jinx!” We all groaned reflexively.
“The mare in the moon—” I said.
“—is nightmare moon,” Lunettes completed. “And the 1000th year anniversary is tomorrow. I don’t believe in coincidence.”
I was up and pacing in a circle around them, their heads and eyes following my worried promenade. “Am I right here? Am I seeing something or am I deluding myself? Why would Celestia want my predecessor to have this book on this specific day? Ughh! I’m missing something!”
“You aren’t,” Lunettes said. The others concurred.
I stopped. We never agreed on anything. I huffed. “Spike, take a letter.” Within a few minutes, our group missive was ready, delayed only by spelling out "precipice" and "imperative." I was getting him a spelling book when this was over. He spit out a curl of green flame. The glowing cinders turned to gray smoke that spiraled up and out toward the main castle keep.
It wasn’t five minutes later when a large shadow passed over us. To a one, we jumped away from its path in instinctual fear of a soaring predator. Perhaps if we spent more time with pegasi, we’d get over that. Huge white wings braked with a familiar thunder as Princess Celestia alighted on the green within our circle. I curtsied on one knee as she folded her wings. She wore her full regalia of a jeweled crown and breastplate, and sharp fleur-de-lis golden horseshoes that would be dangerous in a fight.
“Twilight Sparkle…, Lady Moon Dancer.”
When I looked up, my friends had shrunk back and still held a stiff bow. That I had summoned the princess, instead of the other way around, spoke tons to the tension and awe they displayed. I wasn't special; it was the situation, surely. I met her magenta eyes as her parti-color mane swirled in an ethereal wind. She seemed oddly pleased. “Your majesty.”
“Are these your friends?”
I didn’t have a good definition for the word, but said, “Yeah.” As the princess scanned plates of half-eaten sugary and fried foods, scrolls, and stacked open books, I added, “From school.”
“My dearest, most faithful student. You know that I value your diligence…and that I trust you completely…”
I felt my cheeks heat as they undoubtedly turned bright red.
The princess nudged the copy of Myth and Sciences with a hoof. “But you simply must stop reading these dusty old books!”
Minuette exploded in laughter and fell hooves up.
While the others looked in horror, the princess walked over and looked down at the cackling blue pony who had tears streaming out of her eyes. She said, “I gather, you concur?”
“I—I couldn’t have said it better, your majesty.”
Celestia turned to me and mouthed, “I like this one.”
I just sputtered. “B—but, but, we’re on the p—precipice of disaster—”
Loudly, the princess said, “As I was saying, there is more to a young pony’s life than studying, though doing so at a party does seem innovative, however I have a more important task for you, Twilight Sparkle.” She looked over her shoulder to a dainty white messenger bag emblazoned with her solar cutie mark and levitated out a scroll in her cornflower-colored magic. She unrolled it in front of me, and it displayed a wax seal, official royal purple ribbons, and her florid signature. “I need you to go to Ponyville and oversee the arrangements for the Summer Sun Celebration.”
I read it and said, “You’re appointing me as your crown representative?”
Lunettes commented, “Twilight Sparkle is the most organized pony I’ve met.”
“Indeed, Lady,” the princess said.
“I’m nineteen.”
“And it is about time my protege do something besides study.” She smiled at everypony in turn, then added, “And take your friends. They will prove an asset. I’ve arranged accommodations at the Golden Oaks Library for you, but you may use my name to pay for anything else you need within reason. There’s transportation waiting in the main courtyard as soon as you can pack.” She flared her wings.
“Wait!” I cried, stopping the princess from leaping into the air. “I understand my duty, but you read my letter. The mythical Mare in the Moon is Nightmare Moon, and I’ve got solid evidence she’s about to return to Equestria, tomorrow.”
The princess shuddered. Though she rarely raised her voice in anger, I had managed to incur her wraith once or twice. What happened that moment absolutely could not be construed as anger, though it would have been her royal right. Her mouth moved, and though it might have been the heat of the afternoon, a shimmer blurred her lips as she chewed on words that didn’t come out. She took a visible deep breath and said, “I. Cannot. Talk about it.” She flapped her wings and hovered, looking away from us all, adding, “You are my only crown representative. Go to Ponyville.”
She teleported away with a bang.
Harps said, “That was very odd. Her lips blurred.”
Twinkie said, "That's because she's cursed." (That was Twinkleshine, by the way.)
Everypony but Harps said, "What?"
Harps started bouncing up down. "Crystals! The pony protagonist touched a cursed artifact and became possessed by the wrath of a demon who started a conspiracy to enslave the world!"
"There's no such thing as a curse."
"It was a best seller!"
Twinkie said, "I'm taking Meta-ology and Spell Optimization. Modern nomenclature uses the word 'curse' to refer to a class of spells that rely on contagion and usually consist of parasitic self-reinforcing syntax. They often trigger on behavior and are cast in anger, usually as punishment. "
The blurring was undoubtedly magic and it looked involuntary. "You think she's under a cur—spell?"
Everpony said, "Uh-huh" and Harps added, "And only the best villain could affect an Alicorn."
I nodded. "Which brings us back to the the books Celestia just dismissed, and the bothersome timing of it all."
Lunettes pushed up her non-existent glasses and said, "You've missed the most important clue."
I blinked at her.
"The crown representative speaks for the crown, gives the princess' orders by Her commission with Her full authority. Look at that scroll. You act in her stead. The only other alicorn in Equestria is not a princess. As the only C. R., in her absence—in a succession crisis—you'd become the crown regent. A princess in all but blood."
I had to blink away threatening tears. How could she! "I'm not qualified!"
"Don't worry. The peerage would fight it."
"Why would Princess Celestia do that?"
"She's cursed?" Twinkie hazarded.
Harps added, "And she knows it. Oh, my." She practically vibrated. Even so, I could tells Harps worked hard to not sound enthused.
The full implication hit me. A chill traveled along my spine and prickled my scalp. My fur must have risen because everybody looked at me as I said, "The Princess has known about it for at least ten years and has been unable to communicate about it."
Harps said, "Oh, oh, oh! And it is a double conspiracy! She's been secretly training us to be able to save her and all Equestria!"
Minuette corrected Harps. "Mostly you, Twilight."
In a monotone, Lunettes added, "If this proves wrong, it's going to be embarrassing."
Twinkie smiled. "We'll just blame Lyra."
"Fall pony, yet again. So what's the master plan?"
Minuette would fetch a magic detection and removal device from her father's factory. Twinkie would get counter spell books and Lunettes anything she could find on the nightmare pony. Harps and Hearts had researched Nightmare Nights in a folklore course and would pull reference books. Spike would pack while I found my brother.
My BBBFF (Big Brother Best Friend Forever), Shining Armor, had just graduated the Academy and had earned his commission as a lieutenant in the royal guard. Finding him at the headquarters in the castle proved difficult, until I found an old sergeant who took me seriously when I waived the scroll with official seals before her nose. I found him out of uniform at The Hey Burger Joint just outside the bailey gate in downtown Canterlot, sharing a meal with his off-duty comrades. It was still strange to see his blue and indigo mane clipped short for his helmet, but his coat was perfect white and his hooves shiny blue. His magenta eyes alighted on me. He smiled as he pushed his beer away. "No more of your little stories while I'm not here, Crystalline, okay? I'll be right back."
I went and sat in a red leather booth. As I took off my saddlebags, he joined me and said, "Too much studying?"
The weight thumped loudly on the yellow Formica top. I launched into today's revelations.
He gave one of those half-grimace half-smile looks you give your little sister, I suppose, when she's told a whopper.
"Ughhh! I'm serious."
"Celestia is in danger?"
"Equestria's in danger. And I need someone to help me inform her guard."
"I'm not sure I believe you, so how will they?"
"I should've shown you this first…" I levitated out the scroll and and unrolled it in front of him.
His red magic took it. He read it, flipped it around, brought the seal to his eye. "Is this real? It's bad news to be caught with counterfeit—"
"Did you notice my name in big swooooopy calligraphic letters and her signature in real ink?"
"Did you make this—?"
"No! It's hard to believe the princess made me a crown representative, but she did. And if something happens to her..."
He clopped his hooves on the table and swore, "Sweet Celestia!" He glanced at his hushed friends who now stared at us. A waitress, dressed in yellow that clashed with her purple coat, curved discreetly away from our table. In a near whisper, he said, "You'd be the primary suspect.”
That implication silenced us awhile. Then I thought of what Lunettes had implied. “Cadance would fight me.” She was the other alicorn in Equestria.
“Twily, we’re commoners. Mom was an itinerate laborer and Dad a stevedore that taught themselves to read. They migrated to Canterlot during the reconstruction. As far as the peerage is concerned, we’re practically peasants. They would force Cadance to fight, or if they don't like the smell of Cadance's earth-pony village upbringing, they'll appoint a regent of their choosing to challenge you.”
Cadance was the world’s best foal-sitter. She'd attended upper school with Shiny as if she were a normal unicorn without wings, always trying not to be treated special. She had taught me that the only good things to have in your life were the things you earned.
What had I done to earn this?
I said, “You believe me now?”
His forehead was sweating. “What I am is worried. It just sunk in that the princess assigned many of the royal guard around the city for the holiday, and she's not going to be here. The rest are on normal duty here in the castle. Crystalline was just complaining that the princess was only taking carriage guards to Ponyville—pegasi. And the princess denied her request to attend her on the journey.”
“Shining, you make it sound like she is isolating herself. Remember, she scoffed at what I found—”
“—but made you a crown representative.”
“Her only crown representative. Perhaps, with her out of the city, I could order more guards to Ponyville?”
He rested his head on the table and sighed, something I'd seen him doing when he thought about difficult things, like when he and Cadance broke up for a week, or when I blew the wall of my room into the street with my chemistry set thanks to rubber pellets he'd bought me. “It’s not going to work. We studied command structure documents in the academy, and this one—” he tapped his blue shiny hoof on the scroll "—is limited to the orders she gave you. If she is isolating herself, and directing you to Ponyville, alone, she will have registered her wishes with the provost." He got up. "I will go find out."
"Wait. I'll be leaving from the castle courtyard in a half-hour."
"It won't take me ten minutes to track her down."
"And if it is true, and the princess planned this out, could you convince some of your friends to come to Ponyville?"
"There's just a few of us on leave. Just a moment." He trotted over to his friends with the scroll in his magic. At first there were smiles and congratulations, then silence. The white spike-maned albino unicorn Shiny called Crystalline nodded, flipped down her sunglasses and galloped out the door. I met Shiny at the door, where he tucked the scroll into my saddlebags and briefly embraced me. "I'm going to request leave from the provost, Twily."
He galloped across the cobblestone street, parting wagon- and hoof-traffic alike. In moments, he passed through the bailey gate, under portcullises that suddenly looked ominous.
I met Spike outside my ivory tower, loading my used junker of a wagon with notebooks and suitcases in the hot summer sun. He adjusted the harness behind my shoulder and across my chest, then gave the big four-wheeler a push to get me started. I was quite a sight, a runty purple unicorn sweating as she pulled a dilapidated earth pony's market wagon, and though nopony said a thing, I could feel eyes on me as I passed through the mercantile district and rolled past the townhouse mansions of the wealthy. Me, Twilight Sparkle, Crown Representative, theoretically first in line for the succession. When a wagon wheel caught in a rain gutter before the bailey gate, I almost cried. An earth pony guard trotted up and pushed the wagon forward as I lifted the heavy thing with my magic back on to the road.
The girls came running when I entered the courtyard. Hearts magicked me out of the harness, saying, "You could have asked your friends for help, you know."
That was actually a foreign concept, I thought tiredly. Nice idea, though.
She pulled it the final distance to the three chariots, each staffed with two white pegasus carriage guards. As we loaded up, I learned that many of the books everypony looked for were already on branch loan to the Golden Oak library. Nothing slightly schizophrenic about that, right?
The pegasi were insisting we leave when Shining finally showed up.
Between breaths, he said, "It's worse than I feared. Provost has specific orders about what you are doing with your commission through dawn tomorrow, 'to satisfy the peerage.' Nopony is assigned to a Ponyville detail, and everypony is assigned here as if it were a normal day. Leave was cancelled for a bunch of ponies I thought would be free. I have half-convinced my superior to substitute me for a royal courier this evening, but he may decide…" He shook himself hard enough to flap his mane. "I will be there, little sister. You are in the service of the princess, now, Twili; assure her safety!"
He turned and rushed back through the open castle doors. I heard him faintly say, "And your own."
Talking between chariots pulled through the sky in close formation proved challenging, and hard on the throat, but the short jaunt a few hundred feet above the red-bricked Ponyville Way road to the hamlet was long enough to decide who would do what. Ponyville consisted of about a thousand buildings in alpine stucco half-timbered style, with mostly thatched roofs, except for a few with red tiles or bronze sheathing. There were some multicolored tent-like structures, too. Immense farmlands and orchards surrounded the settlement, and followed along the Way as it curved east skirting the dark canopy of the Everfree Forest.
A poor pony with a scholarship didn't get to travel much. Ponyville looked a lot different than I had imagined it would from reading Quaint Towns of Equestria. A bit worn out and dusty to be entirely quaint, but that could be the stifling heat affecting me. From my aerial perspective, I saw the backs of ponies of every pastel color as they ran their errands and lent a bustling demeanor to what ought to have been a sleepy place. I saw cameras and flowered shirts: tourists here to witness Celestia raise the summer sun. A few ponies pulled carts with barrels, pots, or sacks labeled OATS that might be destined for the all-night parties tonight and the celebration tomorrow. Funny how from above you could see the cutie marks on both sides of a pony, like the rose on the flanks of a mare pulling cart of the sunflowers and gladioli.
My loaned transportation set down on the town's circular thoroughfare that was a browning well-munched lawn between the clock tower and the aging city hall. The paint looked fresh on the three-story round tower and north wing, but some of the gingerbread scrollwork was missing near the roof, which itself was missing plenty of red shingles, enough that it probably leaked. Great swaths of windows reflected the westering sun.
As Spike unloaded, I told our steeds, "Thank you, kind sirs. Are any of you off-duty after this? By my authority, I'd like to invite you to stay over for the celebration tomorrow." And so I added two more, albeit carriage guards, to my resources.
Looking around, I got only an impression of calm, as if nothing that I had imagined could happen here. What was special about Ponyville? Why might the Mare in the Moon return here? The town wasn't even a century old, far younger than the legend. Was Celestia compelled to come here? Again, why?
A gray-maned tan mare with a blue ribbon scroll cutie mark trotted down the steps towards us. She adjusted her half-glasses and green ascot as she said, "Do you bring news of the Princess?"
"She's not here?" Not in Canterlot. Not in Ponyville. Not good.
She gave a tired middle-aged sigh, then perked up her smile until her violet eyes glimmered. A politician, and not hiding it. "We have the finest accommodation booked so she can rest up for the morrow, far enough from the parties to be quiet but accessible. Excuse me," she raised a hoof. "I am Mayor Mare." She pronounced it Mar-eh, olden pony for the sea-like marks on the moon.
"Twilight Sparkle, ma'am," I said, levitating over my commission scroll for her to read.
The earth pony read it and quickly executed a perfect half-curtesy of an elected official to a royal. "Your Excellency."
Political address and peerage titles weren't high up on my study list. Despite infrequent visits with the princess, I avoided mingling with everypony above my station; with all my academics, I had no time for friends. I felt a nudge on my flank. Lunettes had butted her flank against mine. Apparently, I had frozen like a rabbit seeing a fox. She pointed her muzzle, twice.
"Uh, please, no titles. The princess just gave me a job; I'm nopony special." I rubbed my neck nervously as she released her curtesy.
"Miss Sparkle, then. How may I assist you?"
"We need a list of who's responsible for what, Madam Mayor. Spike?"
"Ahead of you, Twilight," he said, touching a red quill to his tongue. Dragon spit was a dark green. Mare stared at him, as did most on first sight of the little crystal-eater, but in a few minutes I had everypony organized and assigned tasks, until an extraordinarily loud gasp made us all turn and gape.
A wide-eyed plump pink pony with unnaturally curly hair gaped back, then galloped away with earth pony speed rivaling that of a downhill locomotive. Mare rolled her eyes and said, "That's our party events organizer, Pinkamena Pie. "
Mineutte saluted and galloped off, with the mayor shouting after her, "Sugarcube Corner, if you lose her!"
With Hearts trotting toward the convention space in the town hall with the mayor, Twinkie off to find the lead mare of the weather patrol, Harps searching for the music director's cottage, and Lunettes having volunteered to supervise Sweet Apple Acres Catering (because she insisted she could author a thesis on kitchen science after preparing her party), that left me having our stuff delivered to the library.
It proved to be a massive tree—a golden oak, in fact—green with lush growth on the outside, hollow and carved into comforting wooden rooms inside. Somepony had painted acanthus leaf scrolls, flowers, and hearts that warmed the already homey nook's walls and ceilings, matching the alpine decor of the town. I could love this well-stocked rustic library, very easily.
I set Spike to pulling all our cross-references from the shelves while I did what I do best, research! Soon the available space was littered with open books and weighed-down scrolls, and I had notes started in about five notebooks. Spike took care of turning away the handful of patrons that showed up during the afternoon, except one who somehow snuck by.
"Wha'cha doing?" came a voice.
I jumped my own height, shrieked, came down on a pile of folklore periodicals, slid over and landed on my side, stunned. I heard Spike chuckling. Blue eyes, set in a pink face with curly pink mane, swam into view deep well inside my personal space. I smelled bubblegum.
"Twilight Sparkle?"
"Pinkamena—?"
"Oh, you can call me Pinkie! Wha'cha doing?"
"Other than being scared witless and falling over, researching something very important: the Elements of Harmony. There's supposed to be a book here on loan from Canterlot library, but I can't find it, so I'm making do. Silence would be nice, since this is a library."
As I levered myself up, and found the book I was reading, Pinkie smiled and went to the shelves, browsing. Minutes later, while I was again concentrating, she dropped a tome in front of me with a bang. Once again I shrieked and scrambled away, only to land hard on my stomach.
"The Elements of Harmony, A Reference Guide," she said.
"Where did you find that?"
"It was under E," she sung, hopping around like an idiot kangaroo, inordinately happy with herself.
"Ughhh!"
"My bestest friend from kindergarten, Minuette, told me to come here and invite you to our Party 'Til Dawn party at Sugarcube Corner because she said you wouldn't come unless I invited you. So will you come, huh, your most excellent excellency-ness, huh, will you, huh?"
This was Ponyville's event Pony? I flipped to the plates in the middle of the book and saw a colorized etching of six gems set in a gold star broach reminiscent of my cutie mark. I sat up with new hope and decided to humor the mare. "I have some very important research to do here, to help the princess, but maybe a little bit later I'll stop by for 15, 20 minutes."
The library door slammed open, knocking aside Spike, who happened to have been standing there, chuckling. As he stumbled away, a big blue pegasus, wings flared, filled the doorway. She looked around and stated, "Awesome... if you're an egghead."
Twinkie trotted in behind the pegasus, her mane and tail a mass of poofed-up unruly pink curls. She said, "Twilight Sparkle." Sotto voce, she added, "I'll explain later."
"So you're here to protect the princess?" Magenta eyes examined me. Despite pegasi-light bones, she easily out massed me by 50%, all in rippling muscle. "Large power in a small, um, eh, horn." She chuckled. "Count me in! Not the book stuff, though." She reared, wings flared, shadowboxing and high-hoofing around the room. "You can rely on me in a pinch. Fastest thing on wings in these parts, hehe."
"Be at the City Hall thirty minutes before dawn, with your weather team."
"Roger that, Your Excellency, ma'am." She saluted and shot out the door, leaving a palpable afterimage of her rainbow tail before I could protest the title.
Pinky said, "Rainbow Dash is the best."
Lunettes dragged herself in next. She got five steps inside, kicked a few books out of the way, and flopped down on the floor. She almost looked pregnant. "Spike, get her some antacids." To her, I asked, "That bad?"
She had her dark square-rimmed glasses on, but when she moved a hoof, they fell on the floor. "No, no, no. No. I've eaten in some of the best ethnic dives in the Factory District, like at the Laughing Gryphon. This was some of the best down-home-style cooking I've ever had, and soup to nuts, all made from apples—the family name. I couldn't stop eating… A bad idea, in retrospect."
She put her chin on her legs and closed her eyes as a minty green pony appeared in the doorway, accompanied by a late-twenties pale yellow pony with a half-blue half-pink mane with a flip at the ends. She looked impeccably groomed, almost stylish. "This is Bon Bon, a T.A. from my first year at the university. She's a good friend, and she's volunteering to help out."
"Always in the service of the princess," the green-eyed mare said with an appropriate curtsey and a keen intelligence in her expression.
"Call me Twilight, please."
The mare nodded and said in a soprano voice, "And we brought someone else." She looked behind her.
"The music director," Harps clarified.
Looking around the edge of the door was a pretty yellow face with striking turquoise eyes. Pink hair flopped across her face. "If this isn't a good time?" she whispered. Her head was so low, I had the unmistakable impression she cowered outside.
Then she spotted Spike returning with a flask of antacid tablets. "It is a baby dragon!" With a yellow flare of lithe enormous wings, the pegasus burst into the room, knocking Harps into Bon Bon, who slid to the ground. Her hooves skidded to a halt just in front of Spike. Somehow, she missed touching one book or magazine.
The mare, by any standard, was tall. Taller than many stallions. Though not exactly thin, she exuded an elegant daintiness out-of-proportion to her near giant-size. She possessed natural good looks that made her handsome, not exactly classically beautiful; enough so that I suspected every stallion and most mares would eye her with differing degrees admiration and envy. She said in a sweet voice, "I've never seen a baby dragon before!" She hugged in her shoulders as if she were being physically hugged. Her eyes closed in bliss. "He's so cute."
Spike puffed out his chest. "Well, well, well!"
She gasped, and folded herself into a reclining position before him. "Oh my, he talks. I didn't know dragons could talk. That's just so incredibly wonderful I, I just don't even know what to say!" She shuddered and closed her eyes in bliss again.
I sighed. "You, take it into the other room."
She was up. "Wait, wait. What's his name?"
"I'm called Spike."
"Hi, Spike. I'm Fluttershy. Wow—"
"You two. This is a library; the other room; now. Leave Moon Dancer the antacids."
As Lunettes crunched loudly on the medicine, our last missing friend arrived. Hearts cantered in, turned in a three-quarter pose and smiled. She wore a blowzy yellow sun dress that matched her lemony complexion, with frills and lace at all four legs, flowers on a white shirt bib. Similar purple, yellow, and red flowers adorned a floppy straw sun hat. "I couldn't resist, I mean literally, Rarity, the stage and event decorator insisted. She's got quite a boutique, nice as any I've seen in Canterlot."
"And her decorations?"
"Spectacular. More glitter than I'd prefer, but otherwise very tasteful and fitting for a state visit. Do you like it?" She preened.
"Lovely," I replied, turning away before rolling my eyes. I found myself, muzzle to muzzle with Pinkie Pie. "Time to hit the books, ladies."
Pinkie said, "And don't forget the Party 'Til Dawn party!" She held up a hoof to shield her voice and whispered, "You're going to need a map of the Everfree Forest," then trotted out from the building.
I shook my head and tapped the book about the Elements of Harmony. "Ladies, look at this."
I had locked myself into the librarian's loft at the top of the hollow tree. I found a bed there, but even with a pillow over my head, I couldn't block out the sound of music below. When I hadn't shown up to Party Until Dawn, the perky pink party planner and two dozen pastel ponies had brought the party, tables, decorations, food, punch, and musicians to the library. Thump, thump, thump resonated in my room, despite the insulating effect of the wood structure. I'd bailed after I'd poured myself a chili cocktail. Who put a bottle of hot sauce that looked like tomato juice amongst the bottled fruit juices? This Pie mare intended to poison me. It had only gotten louder. I hoped my friends had been wise enough to find sleep elsewhere. Excepting Minuette, the party animal; her peals of laughter rivaled the party planner's.
"Ughhh!" I flung the pillow at the door, rolled on my back, and stared out the window. The moon was edging toward the horizon, bright and full. The mare darkening it's gray face resembled a pony face. I'd never realized that before, but "mare in the moon" was a double-entendre. I grabbed my notebook and my drawing in my magic. I sighted along the pencil, then drew another concentric circle around my sketch of the moon.
Four stars had definitely gotten closer. It couldn't be an atmospheric aberration. And the prophesy stated, "On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape."
A few hours ago, the princess hadn't shown up, yet. That was good, I hoped.
A hoof banged at the door. Probably Spike again. Someone named Berry Punch had brought a barrel of something that proved quite strong; poor Spike was acting loopy, and he kept insisting it was improper not to be out having fun celebrating the impending sunrise. If it was him knocking, he was off to bed, no excuses.
I opened and saw a blue-maned white unicorn in bronze armor. I jumped and hugged him around the neck, despite the metal. "Thank goodness. The ponies in this town are all crazy!" I jumped back. "Tell me you brought troops. Please tell me you brought troops."
"Just Crystalline, Archer, Twin Forks, and Night Flyer. Those ponies and the two carriage guards you commandeered and likely the two bringing Celestia here. With me, three unicorns, an earth spear pony, three possibly five pegasi."
"Celestia isn't here?"
He turned and stared at the party ponies dancing downstairs. "She isn't."
"Are we too late?"
He shrugged.
"Our research implies the Nightmare Moon is a alicorn, like Celestia, maybe just as powerful."
"Not good."
"And the prophesy is coming true." I led him to the window and showed him my notes and the stars.
He stomped a hoof. "Why's Celestia making this so hard?"
"The curse."
"We're going to find out soon."
We went and mustered our meager troops, such that it was, adding our half-dozen college mares, Rainbow Dash's five-pony weather team, the brother and sister earth-pony caterers, and Bon Bon who claimed some surveillance training. Shiny spoke with another dozen ponies who volunteered to watch inside and outside the city hall and warn of anything suspicious. We had no idea how Nightmare Moon would attack. She might be in disguise, magical or otherwise. I feared if we scared the monster off, she might attack when we weren't prepared. This meant I had to allow a herd of a couple hundred ponies inside. The rest would have to watch through the windows, or just be on the green to listen and see the sunrise outside.
Soon Fluttershy was rehearsing her bird choir. The white unicorn Rarity pulled in a dainty cart with two hot urns, one with mocha and the other with chocolate. The smell of much needed coffee filled the air as she unharnessed herself, and started primping the decor. Spike started murmuring nonsense about her beauty. She had classic looks, but was over 25 and wore way too much makeup for my taste. It must have been the alcohol; I had to hush him as ponies began streaming in.
Shiny was out back, awaiting the princess. Two pegasi guards were in the balconies, the rest positioned outside. Nothing could happen without being seen. Unless, it had happened already, since Celestia still wasn't here. I cantered over to the windows. The sky had colored and the moon would soon alight on the horizon.
The four wandering stars practically touched the moon. I started pacing in place, but stopped when I heard a hooves rushing up, halting a foot away. Time Turner had spotted the princess' chariot with his telescope. Two minutes at most.
I wasn't sure whether to be happy or more worried. I glanced nervously at the girls, strategically placed to catch any intruder in restraining levitation if necessary. Suddenly, Pinkamena Pie stood next to me, startling me enough that my heart jumped into my throat. "Isn't this exciting? Are you excited, 'cause I'm excited, I've never been so excited— well, except—"
Mayor Mare banged a gavel, saving me a further harangue. "Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!"
Even limited for "safety reasons," ponies packed the place. Their cheers thundered while stomping hooves rattled the windows. I butted Pinkie Pie forward into the crowd, using my horn to make my point, and cleared firing room as, heart racing, I began calculating my two spells, based on the room, focal distance, and power. The first would be raw magic projection, which required simple analytic geometry. Since Hearts—champion levitator that she was—would be better able to grab the princess and shove her behind the metal wall we had erected for that purpose, I chose teleportation, which required three-dimensional calculus I had not quite mastered. That spell would likely fail, but would make a horrendous distracting bang if I could not move the princess.
As the mayor continued over the voices, I glanced at the moon—
"In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise and celebrate this, the longest day of the year!"
—The stars flared brightly and disappeared beyond the limb. No, no, no—
"And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria…"
—The moon's mare vanished; the dark pony face utterly disappeared. I gasped, the numbers in my mind fizzing into a jumbled matrix of negative zeroes, all prep gone in a mind-scrambling adrenaline rush that left me shaking.
I looked back at the stage as the crowd quieted.
Fluttershy hovered before her rainbow flock of two hundred birds, a conductor's baton in her mouth. "Ready?" she said around it. Rarity stood on the second floor balcony stage, a rope in her light blue magic.
Outside I heard a muffled bang and a crash, then shouts.
The mayor took this as a signal and announced, "Princess Celestia!" Fluttershy's fanfare filled the auditorium.
Rarity pulled the drapes to an empty stage. She looked around, trotted behind the draperies, then past the stage. She trotted into the shadows.
This could not be good.
The mayor waited a few beats as Fluttershy's choir dissolved into disharmonious disarray, then said, "Remain calm, everypony, there must be a reasonable explanation!"
Rarity gave an unladylike shriek and galloped out, hitting the balcony railing in her terror, just managing not to tumble over. An instant later, an black-armored, midnight blue alicorn landed with a loud thump as Rarity cowered before her.
She malevolently surveyed a room packed with unprepared ponies. One sound might set off a stampede that would trample dozens. My worst nightmare stood there, blue mane flowing in the same ethereal wind that animated Celestia's and twinkling like a smoky sky full of stars. Her eyes glowed blue-green with electricity.
My shock wore off, as it did that of the girls and the others we'd prepared. They looked at me and I gave the double nod for levitation restraint.
"My beloved subjects! It's been a thousand years—"
I shouted, "Nightmare Moon! What have you done with the Princess?" I often did the equations for levitation spells in my head; familiar numbers danced and swirled instantly across my vision.
Rainbow Dash jumped into the air, but big sister Apple caught her tail. "Hold on there, Nelly!"
The alicorn focused on me. "What, am I not royal enough for you?"
On queue, the carriage guards flew at the alicorn from the side and above. Nightmare Moon shouted in dismay and shot a beam of magical force, knocking both away. With the intruder distracted, the six of us, mostly Hearts, painted her with our magic. We pulled her legs and wings out from under her as hard as we could, trying to maim her if possible. Hearts managed to flip her head over hindquarters. Minuette laughed in glee, cheering the six of us on. The weather team swooped in with rope, while big sister Apple ran up the stairs spinning her own lasso. She was some sort of rodeo star.
Spread eagled midair, Nightmare Moon screamed and thrashed as I yelled, "Release the Princess now!"
Shining's unicorn guard dashed in the doors and exits. Crystalline's mane had been burnt away. In an instant, the three unicorns played beams of raw magic on the alicorn that ought to have rendered her unconscious.
Unfortunately, she was an alicorn.
Dark swirling storm clouds formed in seconds and filled the upper reaches of the building. Thunderbolts shot out, lighting fabric and decorations on fire. One hit Shining, spinning him into the crowd.
It was enough. Ponies bolted for the exits. One knocked me against the wall, knocking the air out of me.
My magic snapped, as did everypony's.
The alicorn began cackling. "Does my crown no longer count?"
Crown?
She wasn't lying. She had a three point crown that was more than just a crystal tiara, it was made of diamond as black as night itself. She righted herself, blue magic forming an aura around her head as she powered something immense. "Remember this day, my little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last fore—"
Clang!
Bon Bon, swinging from a wire suspended from a grappling hook struck Nightmare Moon in the helmet with her back hooves. Though armored, the impact broke the alicorn's spells, including the storm clouds. The momentum sent the tall light-boned creature into the rail—barely missing Rarity—up and over, then sideways down at the podium.
She unfurled her wings, rolled, and missed the floor by inches. Mayor Mare and any pony not already terrified, jumped away.
With an incredible raging roar, Nightmare Moon screamed, "I will make you love me!" She circled once, clasped her wings to her sides so that she hit the upper windows with her armored withers, and crashed through. Glass tinkled to the balcony as, with powerful downstrokes, the nightmare apparition rocketed into the night. Rainbow Dash and her weather team shot through the shattered window in pursuit, one after the other, whooshing like loosed arrows.
"Twilight!" cried Minuette.
I looked. She and still-smoking Crystalline had cleared the floor around a white unicorn stallion. The albino pony yelled, "The lieutenant's not breathing!"
Injured ponies littered the wooden auditorium floor. All except one were limping, or at least moving. The shock of the living nightmare left me numb as I got myself moving. That brought me to no-longer-laughing Minuette first and I said, "Go outside and call for doctors or nurses." I shouldered a tan stallion and a rone mare in my way, frozen by what they'd witnessed. "Help the fellow on his knees. You, lead those three foals under the table outside. Now!"
I was no less stunned than they. My brain kept insisting, wake up! This is some sort of lucid nightmare! The broken white lump laying there could not be Shiny. Stuck by lightning. Not moving.
Shiny d—
My gallop returned and I landed in a sliding skid beside him. Feathery red lines—like someone outlining a stick of a myriad branches using a red quill—inked his side, right leg, and neck. It radiated from a melt hole in his armor at the tip of his shoulder. His chest did not rise at all. I lifted his head in my magic, "Shiny." His eyes stayed closed. "Shiny!"
Moon Dancer slid in beside me as I screamed, "Somepony, get a doctor!"
She pushed me aside, tossing away his helmet and withers plate. She proceeded to roll him on his back. After putting an ear to his chest, she put both front hooves on his sternum and pushed down, hard.
"No!" I said, but betraying Lemon Hearts caught me in her aura and pushed me helplessly aside.
As I tried to get up, Lyra tackled me, keeping me down. "She's magic pre-med, Twilight," she said, arms around my neck as I struggled.
My big brother. Dead. Because of me.
After a dozen pumps, Moon Dancer looked around. "Get me a pegasus. Get a storm cloud in here. Electricity stopped it. It'll start it, too."
Hearts hugged me on the other side and whispered in my ear, as if she were reading my mind, "It's not your fault." That she could think so generously of me astonished me.
"I brought him here, didn't I? Celestia certainly made getting anybody in the line of fire difficult, but that didn't stop me."
Lyra Heartstrings' magic wrenched my head away, breaking my horrified stare at Shining, making me look into her eyes. It was a kindness that infuriated me, and she compounded it by saying, "You had to save the princess."
"Some good that did!"
"Twi!" Lyra began crying, then hugged me hard, placing her head so I could not see my brother. "No."
Moon Dancer said, "What do you mean, no weather pegasi?"
Right, I'd sent them in pursuit of Nightmare Moon.
And then I realized what I was doing and my whole body went cold. Celestia had lectured me, how many times, about freezing up when things went out of my control? She told me, hysteria and fear of failure would prevent me from finding solutions and would guarantee failure. Like the time I froze when I had tipped the vulcanization cauldron in my room as a foal. Had I righted it, even if I'd burnt myself, I would have avoided the explosion that by all rights ought to have killed me.
If there were a way to make a spark of electricity, there might be a way to save my brother.
I encased myself with a levitation spell and shoved out so hard it made a bang. Both friends slid away. Lyra had made the point that if I looked at my brother, I'd falter, so I simply concentrated on the numbers that would bring raw magic to my horn, then refined it with the equations used to produce fireworks-type effects. I knew such things made ponies' manes stand on end, thus it was related to lightning.
Twinkleshine moved into my field of vision, blinking at my horn. "I see what you're doing. Talk it out while you work it up. You know it's something I'm good at." She was good with spell technique, and had often worked with the each of us upon difficult homework and projects, sometimes to the point of not completing her own assignments. She'd once stood up for me with our Metaology teacher, Linkages, and gotten herself sent to the dean before the teacher admitted the error in his equations. She thought in equations; I thought in numbers.
By this point, my horn felt hot. I was sweating, but I did as instructed and she followed along. An aura blossomed above her head as we began refining each other's reality equations in a back and forth chant.
Suddenly, in response to our last phrase, Lunettes said, "Yes, right. Of course!"
I turned to face her just as she lifted her hooves from Shining's chest. A spark cracked from her horn down between his ribs.
He spasmed, then yelled as if he'd been bucked square on, launching himself in the air with a hindquarters kick that would have knocked Lunettes out cold had she not jumped back. He thrashed twice more and rolled to his feet, toddering. He yelled again, "Horse apples! Did somepony throw me off the roof?" He groaned as we dashed to hold him from falling over. "Celestia, that hurts. My ribs feel broken." He shook himself.
"Shiny," I said, getting in front of him, getting him to look at me.
His eyes began clearing and through tears he focused. "I really hurt, Twily."
"Thank goodness."
"What happened? I'm burnt!" He looked at the lightning strike on his right shoulder, which looked like somepony had branded him with a hot poker. His right hoof was charred where the lightning had exited. "The princess!?" He looked around, seeing the destruction left by the stampede and watched ponies tossing water on a huge burning fabric bow. "W-What happened?"
I'd failed. But at least I had my big brother.
"Right, right, she arrived. She landed." He closed his eyes tightly in pain and shook his head. "My ears are ringing. Right. Her chariot landed, but when she stepped off, a beam of rainbow colors struck the ground in front of her, throwing aside her carriage guards. The magic wrapped around her like, like, rainbow frosting being squeezed from a pastry bag around her, encasing her in a tornado of bright light. Twin Forks discharged Minuette's spell disabler, but it did nothing. Crystalline fired off the generic counter-spell you suggested, but it backfired and set her on fire. Then something exploded. When I got up, where Celestia had stood, stood that blue alicorn. She flew inside and transformed the door into bricks."
Talking helped. Shiny seemed clearer; he'd stopped shaking. He opened his eyes when Twinkie levitated a bowl of water to his lips. My school friends were all there, pushing against Shining, supporting him. I realized that Harps and Bon Bon were on either side of me, performing the same service. I, too, had been shaking.
My friends. I began blinking, trying to keep away tears.
Then a new thought struck me. "Princess Celestia transformed into Nightmare Moon?"
"Uh…" Shining angled his head, unsure.
I turned to the other royal guard who had formed around me. The water brigade had put out the flames. Some nurses from the local hospital tended the other hurt ponies. The mayor, the Apples, Rarity, and Pinkamena surrounded me in the next circle, themselves surrounded by a few dozen townsfolk who had overcome their fear. Hovering near the chandelier was Fluttershy and her flock of circling birds.
"Did she?" I asked.
"I think so," a carriage guard said, fluffing his white feathers at the memory.
Night Flyer, a pure black pegasus with charcoal eyes said, "But the explosion knocked us all down. I never saw both together, but…"
I looked beyond the wrecked auditorium, through the windows. It was still pre-dawn, but something had changed. I looked again and noticed the moon moving slowly upwards.
A cursed Celestia taken over by dark magic?
That conflicted with everything we had learned from the books. But the books were still the only hope: a castle of the "Royal Pony Sisters" somewhere in the Everfree Forest, and a mysterious rainbow collection of powerful magical gems. Though it differed from what we expected, some it had come true; the prophesy, for example, had triggered off like clockwork. Celestia had trained me. We all agreed my analysis—our analysis—was correct. It was a plan. Time for the next steps.
"Does everypony agree that Celestia is gone?" I asked.
I received a collective chorus of reluctant, unhappy yeses and nods. Many ears laid back.
"In that case, that makes me responsible for fixing this as Celestia wanted me to."
Mayor Mare gasped, then curtseyed deeply. Shocked, I looked behind, thinking for one happy hopeful moment Celestia had appeared.
The other ponies started imitating Mare. In a single wave, as if caught in a collective bout of hysteria, everypony cried, "Princess!"
But there wasn't one. Celestia was gone, maybe gone for good. Tears streamed from my eyes as an indescribable weight of shame washed over me. I'd failed my most important test. "Not a princess!" I screamed.
Lunettes was up and leaning into my side, again, comfortingly. Then Harps, and Hearts, and the rest of my friends all around me.
Lunettes said, "The honest truth is that 'Princess' is indeed incorrect. You're actually Equestria's Crown Regent, now."
"I am a complete failure, don't you see that?!"
"And you believe that?" Shining said, wobbling around and standing before me. His magenta eyes captured mine. "Really? It was your finest moment, my sister. But no plan survives contact with the enemy. My academy instructors taught me that, so trust me when I say, what you arranged here could have worked. It did not. Now we try again."
Tears continued to stream, but I said, "Okay."
Shining saluted me and might have stumbled, but for Mayor Mare stabilizing him. "In the service of the princess!" The other royal guard followed suit.
I sniffled, took a deep breath, and swallowed hard. "Right, right, of course, in the service of the princess, enough already!" I said and Shining let go of the salute, but kept his eyes focused on me.
Celestia had commissioned me. She had seen that I had this tool and my friends.
I could do this.
To keep my emotions at bay, I launched right into my train of logic that the most logical thing to do was find Nightmare Moon and restrain her somehow. Until we could, the best lead would be the one Celestia had given us. "Find the castle. Find the elements. Find a way."
Pinkamena Pie piped up. "Did you find that map of the Everfree Forest?"
I rolled my eyes, but said, "Actually, I did. Spike?"
"I'm here," my assistant said sleepily, but holding his eyes unnaturally wide as if that could help him stay more awake. He was a baby dragon—a slightly pickled drunk baby dragon. He took out a quill and pen, but after wetting the nib with spit, I grabbed it in my magic.
"My first order as Crown Regent is to name Cadance as my successor. What's her full name?"
Shining supplied, "Mi Amore Cadenza," and I wrote, concentrating on legibility with my tongue sticking out to the side.
Under my breath, I murmured, "I'm not ever going to be a princess. Not ever. Second order: send the royal guard to reinforce us. Who should we ask for?" I asked Shining, who listed guards and unicorns, and added the paramilitary Wonderbolts, also.
I then reared and crushed the nib of the quill between my hooves, rubbing the expelled ink into the frog and edge of my hoof. Ponies used wax seals these days, but I didn't have one. I dropped the open scroll on the floor and stomped the one mark that would be unique to me alone below my signature.
"Night Flyer?"
He grabbed the scroll in his mouth and dropped it into a messenger bag. "Your Highness!" he said, and shot into the air, leaving through Nightmare Moon's exit. I did not feel like a "highness" but stopped my retort about titles when Lady Moon Dancer nodded. It was the correct title, apparently, and if it reassured everypony else but me, it would be ineffective to contradict their feelings. My friends had my back in ways I would have to work to comprehend.
"Okay, my little ponies, let's go find that monster."
As we exited city hall onto the circular ramada, our hooves made a hollow sound. Confused birds trilled pre-dawn songs and I could hear crickets, despite a murmuring crowd. Shining limped beside me with my five friends trailing us. Spike had fallen asleep on my back, prone, claws pressing into my skin but not so hard it hurt. When Mayor Mare followed, she sped up to pass me, but I blocked her with my body. "Celestia would to do this."
A stallion asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle—"
"Where's the sun—" came voice in the crowd, but a green-haired orange mare shouted, "Where's our princess?" That triggered a growing rumble of agreement, many ears going akimbo, and a few sobs.
At the edge of the ramada, I reared and banged the planks hard with my hooves. That restored quiet, though Spike began snoring. I very slowly descended to the grass, thinking furiously even as I halted a few feet from the crowd harshly illuminated by the moon and the bright twilight. A cool breeze tossed my mane and brought the scent of jasmine. It would get colder without the sun.
"I want to tell you the truth, but it would scare you."
And it did, for a few paled and shrank back, giving me more room.
"Princess Celestia worried that something bad might happen today. She trained me to find and rescue her if it did, and gave me the tools to do so. I have already called for the royal guard. I will do my duty and find Celestia and rescue her. In the meantime, I suggest you remain indoors, or talk with Mayor Mare if you want to volunteer to help us. Mayor Mare will tell you anything she feels is important."
As I continued walking toward the library, somebody asked, "Who is she?"
Shining Armor stopped and said loudly, "The Crown Regent, appointed by Celestia."
Mayor Mare spoke loudly and grabbed the shocked attention of the crowd. Most looked toward her, so I sped up. Everypony from the circle accompanied me, including the townsfolk that had gathered and heard my declarations. Fluttershy flew overhead and the Apples and Rarity followed behind. Even the party pony followed, bouncing enigmatically as if she had springs for hooves. Her inability to sense the seriousness of the situation was making me suspicious of her, though perhaps she simply wasn't mentally stable.
A half block away, I said, "If the elements are the key to controlling Nightmare Moon, she probably knows it, too. It's even more likely if it's Celestia corrupted by dark magic."
Lunettes said, "Nighmare Moon is roughly half Celestia's mass."
"There is that. Not impossible, though."
Rainbow Dash, and only four of her weather team, glided in to land before us, kicking up a cloud of dust. The rainbow-maned powder-blue pony fluffed her wings with annoyance, but noticed my distress because she started with, "I'm pretty sure that Muffin just lost her bearings. Nopony got more than singed. That alicorn is not only awesome-fast, but wily. She flew into the Everfree and we lost her in the trees and darkness." Her magenta eyes studied runty little me as she paced along at my side, until she nodded as if satisfied with what she saw. "Nerves of steel."
"Numb. I assure you. It's taking everything I got to hold it together."
"Ha! That's the secret we're not supposed to tell. I like you, Twilight Sparkle." She nudged my shoulder with her right wing. "Nightmare Moon disappeared a half mile south of Fluttershy's cottage."
"Oh, dear, no," Fluttershy said.
As we stopped out front the Golden Oaks Library tree, I watched Fluttershy descend daintily and alight beside me. I said, "I'm sure she's nowhere near your home."
"No, I was thinking, um, there's an old road entering the forest there. The trees grow darker and gloomier each year, but never quite covers it up. I really would not want to follow her in there."
I magicked the door open and everypony swiftly filed in. I ushered a brown-maned mustard unicorn doctor to Shining's side, then climbed four stairs and faced the crowd because I was simply too short otherwise. "Is there anything special about the Everfree?"
"You ain't from these parts, are ya?" the sister Apple asked. "Beggin' your pardon, Your Highness—my name is Applejack, by the way—but everything is special about that there forest as in especially bad."
Rainbow Dash said in a low voice. "Nopony who has ever gone in has ever come out…"
"Rainbow! At least one pony lives there just fine, a black-striped white pony named Zecora. It is a might dangerous, though."
The townfolk nodded. I looked at Shining. The doctor dabbed a wet bandage on his burn and I smelled an herbal concoction of lavender, strong tea, and the cheesy scent of mold. Though he winced, he managed to keep a neutral expression that said, dangerous or not, we had no choice.
"Has anypony heard of a Castle in the Everfree?" I spoke over the murmurs, "We must find it. The one thing that reputedly can control Nightmare Moon is supposed to be there. We must find it before she does. This zebra—"
"Is a mighty shady character."
"How dangerous is this forest?"
"The plants grow—" Applejack began.
Fluttershy piped up from the back, "—the animals, all manner of magical beasts, care for themselves—"
"—and the clouds move all by themselves," Rainbow finished. "Seriously, there's always storms or mist. Sometimes it snows in summer or rains in winter. Its seasons tick by its own clock. It's totally messed up."
Something Rainbow said made me remember seeing a mare from about a 100 feet above that I later learned was the event florist Roseluck. That was how we could find the castle! "Rainbow Dash, if you looked down on the forest do you think you might see a castle?"
"I suppose we could, weather permitting. If it isn't completely overgrown with vegetation, I'm sure we could find it."
"The books imply it has high towers, arched ramparts, and may have been built on a rocky hill.
"Might have to kick some Everfree cloud butt to find the place, but we'll do it."
Shining called the four carriage guards to join Rainbow. "Work with the weather team. Arrange how to search and stay within sight of each other at all times. When you find it, leave a scout and return quickly. We can then fly in the chariots and some pegasi wagons. Go now."
"Wait! Try following Fluttershy's road. I doubt if her disappearance in that direction is a coincidence. Don't be seen, if you find it."
Rainbow Dash and the four guards saluted, flew over the herd without touching the ceiling, immediately followed by the weather team. I heard the beat of wings as they launched skyward.
That worked well, I thought, looking at the worried but eager faces of the unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony volunteers that packed the library. So unlike Canterlot, which consisted mostly of unicorns. These folk seemed so much less affected and competitive than I was used to, living in a harmony that did not even require a full time constabulary. My friends were talking amongst the group, finding out what they could do. Everypony looked ready to do what I asked.
Celestia didn't run Equestria. Her ministers did. I would follow her example. I cleared my throat, quieting the crowd, and said, "It may take 15 minutes, it may take an hour, but either way I need to be able to travel to the castle. Girls?"
Lunettes, Hearts, Harps, Minuette, and Twinkie stepped up to the stairs.
"We need chariots and Pegasus wagons, food and water, lanterns, and other stuff you think we might need. We also need to assure the townsfolk are reassured. Find volunteers and get it done."
They saluted, almost in unison, and got about it. I descended the steps to Shining's side, marveling what it was like not to have to be organizing everything, especially things I had no business organizing because I wouldn't have an idea where to start. My big brother, swaying and dirty from skidding across a floor and the blood, looked suddenly very old. "I think you need to stay here."
The doctor nodded as he finished putting a gauze square on the lightning strike using a magical tape that held without looking gummy. He knelt to examine Shining's burnt hoof.
Shining said, "I don't want to agree."
"But you will, I'm sure, especially since I want you to send Crystalline, Twin Forks, and Archer. You tell them what you want them to do, but I need them to let us deal with the Elements of Harmony."
He nodded tiredly, "Celestia loosed that arrow. I'll tell them to let it seek it's target unhindered. But consider their advice."
"I'd be stupid not to."
"And you are anything but that."
I chuckled, then gasped when I noticed Bon Bon standing beside me when I hadn't noticed her approach. She performed a practised curtsey and said, "Your Highness, Lieutenant. May I speak with you were we won't be overheard?"
Shining seemed to understand a code I didn't catch and led us to the kitchen. I levitated Spike onto a small green sofa and waited a moment for the doctor to finish brushing out a gel on his hoof. The noise filtered through the door, but much reduced.
Bon Bon looked over her shoulder and said, "My name real name is Sweetie Drops—Special Agent Sweetie Drops. I work undercover for MEL, the Monster Elimination League. It's a secret organization set up by Princess Celestia to deal with the increasing influx of magical creatures that have gotten into their head that Equestria might be a new land to conquer. I do wish the princess had put us on this job."
"As I said last night, she was cursed and barely outwitted the geas enough to get me and my friends here." I looked beyond pink and blue-maned agent to see Lyra standing in the doorway, agape.
Bon Bon continued, "I was here on assignment, assessing Fluttershy who has quite a menagerie of creatures, some very magical, that she controls. I'm convinced she is entirely harmless at this point."
Thinking of Lyra, I asked, "And us? At the university? You were a teacher's assistant."
She smiled. "Astute of you. Not 'us', you. When you took your entrance exam, the magic anomaly you generated had ramifications across Equestria as far as Tartarus, where it compromised security measures. Celestia directed us to monitor you. Rainbow Dash apparently triggered your anomaly, and that trigger affected you and four others that day, all of which you've met since you arrived. I don't think it's related to Nightmare Moon, however."
"That explains you having a grappling hook and being able to knock over Nightmare Moon when we failed?"
"I am trained in infiltration techniques, and I have my talent which I call 'sour drops.' I can make ponies not want to see me; served me well as a shy foal, now even more. I thought I should offer my services, since you are in fact my superior, now."
"I'm going to need someone to scout the castle."
"Understood, your Highness. May I go prepare?"
"Please do."
She bowed and turned to the door, where she saw Lyra waiting. Minty green did not look happy. Bon Bon ne Sweetie Drops stopped, took a deep breath, and trotted business like toward her.
As she passed, Harps rotated to watch her, and said, "Are you saying our whole friendship was based on a lie…"
"Uggh!" I shook my head, and started to follow.
Shining said, "This is probably one these times when it would be kinder to let others handle their own problems, and be there afterward if necessary."
"You didn't appreciate Mom meddling when you had problems with Cadance, did you?"
"No."
"I'm going to see if anypony actually needs my assistance," I said. Outside, I sent Shining's friends to him, and then proceeded to say yes to all manner of things about which I hoped my friends knew what they were doing.
Rainbow Dash zoomed in the doorway, causing ponies to dodge right and left. She skidded to a halt in front of me. "Found it!" she declared. "It's covered in jungle and in ruins, as if somebody took a huge hammer to it. It's in one of the perpetually clouded over misty areas, so I can see why nobody reported it, either. Gotta map?"
An hour after Nightmare Moon's appearance, two chariots and three wagons carried twelve passengers: the girls, agent Sweetie Drops (who seemed a cheerful terms with Lyra, again), Shining's friends, the two Apples, and the doctor. We also carried spears, food, torches, and plenty of rope and digging tools. We had eight pegasus, including Fluttershy who followed in the far rear wearing a dark "dangerous mission outfit," though the bunny ears ruined the effect. The vehicles smelled of drying paint, and we were all smudged at least somewhere. Rarity had organized magically spray painting the gold chariots, and anything else volunteered, with splotches of dark blue, purple, brown, and gray. She'd even gotten dark suits for the carriage guards, and soot to darken their feathers since they were all a bright white color.
We were all about as incognito as might be hoped for. I watched over the railing as a misty mote swam into partially veiled view ahead. Around it and us, a dark sea of trees and mist spread out toward the horizon. The canyon river that became the Ghastly Gorge to the south, traveled within a much less grand canyon, forming a crack visible in the moonlit landscape that curved around higher ground. Rainbow had veered us south from Fluttershy's road. We dropped lower into the geologically forced cut between the trees. Far below, the water glittered in the light of the full moon at the zenith. But ahead... Further clouds slid aside and unveiled more shadows of something that could not have grown naturally. Suddenly, I could see silhouettes of conical roofs above towers, then a flying arch that had been smashed in the middle. Instants later, swirling mists hid it from view. In comparison to the white masonry of Canterlot, this Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters looked sullen and moody. Had it ever had a cheery facade, that had long ago deteriorated.
The trees thinned as we neared the rock outcropping upon which the castle had been built. A lone white carriage guard waved nervously at the very edge of the gorge, insanely visible under the moon but hidden from view from the castle by trees. We set down on a wide flat weedy meadow amongst lightning struck burnt trees on the east side of the canyon, a few minute trot from a bridge a weather team member had reported.
We had not more than disembarked, when shadows started moving in the forest and the occasional snap of stepped upon wood sounded. A sour vomitous smell wafted on the breeze.
The clatter increased. Celestia had a bamboo garden that sounded like this on a windy day. It came from the scary-looking gnarled trees, and also a jagged outcropping that marked the edge of our burn-scar meadow. Then suddenly with an almost marimba-like patter slightly north, cutting off the route toward the bridge and castle.
Steel and wood clanked as ponies grabbed spears. Applejack had her lasso spinning. Lyra and the doctor jumped over fallen logs that were scattered in piles all around, trying to get to a safer position.
Fluttershy's wings whooshed as she shot upward toward dangerous visibility. I gabbed her moonlit silhouette in my magic. "No!" I said as quietly as I could.
She whimpered. "Timberwolves!"
"Yeah," I heard Bon Bon say, exasperated. I looked as she threw a torch over the rail of a chariot, but for all the strong motion of her head, she had clipped the side. It spun sideways, forcing Lunettes to dodge aside as Bon Bon dipped for another.
A wooden monster as tall as a house crashed through the trees into the clearing. A sickly green magical miasma surrounded a creature composed of logs, branches, and leafy twigs. It looked dog-like, an abstract collection of pieces that could be construed to be a tail, paws, and a flat head—with triangles of sticks for ears, sharpened pegs for teeth, and yellow-green luminescent fog for eyes. Condensation dripped like melted metal from its jaws, causing the ground to sizzle. It had no joints, no ligaments—nothing physical holding it together.
"Celestia on a pinhead! What happened to my matches?" Bon-Bon cried.
The creature stalked us. A second and a third stepped from forest.
Archer and Crystalline loosed a force spell on the leader, but their beams passed through it with all the effectiveness of jabbing a hole through beach sand, displacing parts and little more. Aiming for legs only changed its footing.
"Spears!" called Archer, and they reached for them with their magic. Even Applejack's lasso could do little more then grab a branch out of the whole beast.
The girls backed behind a stack of burnt lumber. Oddly, the monsters stopped and howled.
Sounding desperate, Bon-Bon said, "Fey, foonicorns!" She had a torch in her mouth. "F-fire spell, fleas?"
Twin Forks charged and struck the first beast, breaking apart its muzzle. The clack echoed in the canyon. Instead of wood crashing to the ground, the wooden parts acted like a series of magnetic bars. The pieces clumped and formed drooping chains. The timberwolf shook its head, and as it did, the displaced wood took on a life its own, rising, rolling or going end-over-end, climbing quickly back into the original position in its jaw or muzzle.
The MEL agent made a frustrated sound. I suddenly connected the tar-soaked fabric of the torch with Bon Bon's request.
In the five seconds it took me to solve the spell equations for fire, Archer and Crystalline both struck a timberwolf with similar temporaneous results. Crystalline's adversary, however, caught her spear in a sweep of its paw, ripping it from her magic and whacking her shoulder. She whinnied piteously as she fell over, then bucked herself away as best she could before the creature could bite her. Saliva hit her, though. She rolled vigorously to scrape the burning stuff off.
My equations balanced with a click; ethereal numbers spun superimposed across my field of view. The head of Bon Bon's torch burst into spitting flames. Hearts caught two other torches Bon Bon had flung out, then the four left in the chariot. With ease, I skewed an axis of the equation, stretching out a thread of fire from Bon Bon's torch—even as she charged forward—connecting Heart's torches like a chain of brilliant daisies.
Bon Bon charged Crystalline's timberwolf, waving the whooshing brand. The creature immediately backed, growling . Cued, Hearts flung her torches outward, making them hover outside of the sweep of the paws of the other two timberwolves, and then the two more who joined the pack, creeping from the area near the bridge. Each backed reluctantly, but only so far, and would not retreat. Instead, they tried feinting and dodging around the flaming obstruction. As pack hunters, of what prey I could only guess, they swiftly grouped together, coordinated, and started communicating with churrs and yips.
I readjusted my spell and focused it at the nearest timberwolf.
I felt a return jolt as my magic backfired, singing my my muzzle. The resultant cloud of burnt hair smell left me coughing. I now understood the origin of the word "backfire." I'd forgotten a basic tenant of unicorn magic; made of rainbows, my magic could not directly injure or kill a living thing. More surprising, this told me that timberwolves were alive and not some sort of evil golem.
As Hearts waved her torches more and more desperately, I noticed none of the timberwolves' movements looked random. Most of it was toward the ponies who sheltered behind any scattered wood that consisted of a dozen pieces or so.
"Move away from the piles of wood!" I called.
Retreating, Archer and Twin Forks grabbed torches from Hearts while Night Wings assisted badly limping pale-white Crystalline, who, with her burnt-off mane, had taken the brunt of the abuse. We left behind the chariots and wagons. And our supplies.
And the Elements of Harmony book!
I rushed forward, grabbing the book out of the chariot. Two timberwolves charged me. I had snagged the leather-bound tome when Hearts chucked torches at the two. Suddenly I felt the sickly sensation of no weight, which my inner ear insisted could only come from falling, like off a cliff. Hearts was apparently taking no chances: she threw me hooves over hindquarters tumbling upward before the snapping jaws of the converging timberwolves could do little more than make my tail wave.
Fluttershy caught me at the top of a parabolic trajectory as Hearts' stamina faltered. My weight pressed the pegasus back. Not a strong flyer, the two of us began gliding down at an alarming rate. She kept repeating, "Oh my, goodness! Oh my, goodness!"
The jumping timberwolves smashed together. Timber scattered as Rainbow Dash, rocketing toward us, matched our speed with a canvas-like snap of flared wings. Both of them flapping in unison, I came down like an autumn leaf.
Fluttershy said, "Sorry girls. I'm not used to holding anything more than a bunny or two."
Beyond the view of yellow and blue wings, clattering branches and logs bounced, rolled, and and came to an inanimate stop. My book plopped a full pony-length behind me.
"We'd never leave a friend hanging," Rainbow said, rearing as she faced the monsters, fluffing her feathers then snugging her wings against her body.
The rest gave a rousing, "Uh-huh!"
"Thank you. Thank you, everypony," I said, watching as the remaining three timberwolves formed a group as we retreated toward the bridge. I grabbed my hard won book as we retreated further, watching as the wrecked remnants of the timberwolves started creeping along the grass and began to reconnect.
I gasped. "It's a timberwolf nursery!"
"Oh! That might explain the varmints," Applejack said. Her brother added, "E-yup."
The path along the canyon narrowed, forcing us together. When I was sure the timberwolves were no longer a threat, I stopped and lay down. I realized my legs were shaking.
"Not used to flying?"
"No. Nor falling. After that, I'd never want to learn to fly, even if Celestia insisted on giving me wings."
Twinkie spoke up, "And please don't go scaring us like that again."
"I won't," I answered as the girls went down beside me. I wouldn't, not until I needed to again.
As the doctor tended to Crystalline, the guard spread out. I started a simple light spell and looked at the muddied book for which I'd risked my life.
Well, it was my book and I was going to read it!
I opened it and turned to the plates. Even under reddish light, the drawing of the six differently colored gems, arranged in a five-point star around a sixth central gem, looked familiar. They were set in a piece of jewelry, and each gem looked like it couldn't be larger than a cherry. Items imbued with magic tended to be massive, like a staff, or a piece of armor, or an obelisk. Static magic required a complex structure to compensate for not being in a living being.
I took a deep breath, feeling calmer. I leafed to an important part of the text. The Elements of Harmony apparently had counterparts in those aspects that formed a harmonious relationship. The author gave them names like kindness, generosity, honesty, laughter, and loyalty. The last element was unknown, however. It would reputedly appear when a metaphoric spark, generated by— or able to be generated because— of the relationship between the five, summoned it. I'd read the book twice last night; it contained no further instructions on how to use the gems, only that the mythical pony sister had used them. The author relied on allegory to explain the magic, and I could not ferret out the hidden meaning.
It really didn't sound like any magic artifact I'd ever read about.
I sighed, closing the book and looking at the ponies around me. In my concentration, Lunettes and Minuette had lain beside me, pressing against me. The rest of the girls, and the others, had closed in as best as the path would allow. I had a shadowy contrasty view of a herd of night-grayed blue, yellow, green, and beige ponies around me, all watching me, eyes glittering in the moonlight.
I said, "I don't know what I'd do with out you. Any of you. A day ago, I would have not understood, even been confused by it all. But you've changed me."
They nodded quietly.
I levered myself up, and they followed. "Time to find and rescue a princess."
In response, something very feline and undoubtedly huge roared. I jumped around in one leap, facing the sound that emanated by the bridge. The pegasi were in the air, and the guard formed a line leaping over some of us, spears again mounted.
A leonine form, with a thick curved tail, separated from the forest and again roared.
This was clearly an animal, and the guards weren't about to take a chance with an approaching enraged beast… with the tail of a scorpion. A manticore. Its species became obvious as it began flicking a spike-like point forward of its body.
"Wait," cried Fluttershy barely loud enough to be considered a cry at all. She corkscrewed out of the sky with amazing agility, across each of the spear ponies, causing them to halt or rear. "Wait!" she said again. "Wait!"
As Fluttershy turned, Harps trotted up beside her. Minty green asked, "It's hurt, isn't it?"
Bon Bon stood beside me, nervously pacing in place. She hissed, "Lyra, Lyra, don't do this."
Fluttershy alighted and answered, "He is a he. Can you not see how he is limping?"
"Yeah, I can. Poor thing…" Lyra giggled.
The beast slowed as he closed, until he padded to within swiping range and sat. He roared again, loud and strong enough to muss Fluttershy's hair. I had begun to shake, when Fluttershy said, "Shhh... It's okay. Oh, you poor, poor little baby."
Rainbow Dash and Hearts said in unison, "Little?"
Harps said, "Oh, such a sweet little kitten."
I had a vision of that sweet little kitten taking a swipe with four claws out and cutting my friend to ribbons. Bon Bon said under her breath, "I'm going to kill her for this."
Fluttershy stepped closer, well within stabbing range of the scorpion tail. As she sat, the manticore raised a paw the size of my head, but turned it up for Fluttershy to see.
It was Bon Bon who had said something about Fluttershy having some power of empathy over woodland creatures. I still shuttered when the yellow pegasus said, "This is going to hurt for just a second."
She ducked her head and tugged something with her mouth. Again, the creature roared. For instant I thought he was about to eat the beautiful pegasus in a single bite.
He licked her affectionately. That he undoubtedly had a cat's sandpaper tongue, and was slicking up Fluttershy's mane, did not make it look all that enjoyable. Harps sat and clapped her hooves together in glee.
All of it in the view of the castle—were the mist to clear just slightly more. But with the air having cooled more than seasonable, thanks to Nightmare Moon's "nighttime eternal," newly formed clumps of fog rose out of the gorge and spread.
Her hair spiked with cat spit, Fluttershy sent her animal patient on his way. She and Harps tittered with each other discussing something I couldn't hear.
Where a grand stone arch had once crossed the gorge now lay remnants of bridgeworks in a pile of stone, carved steps, and a short roadway. Drilled into the brick surface, poles held taut a rickety rope bridge with a dodgy looking wood slat bed spanning the drop.
I walked up, careful of the weeds growing between the ruined stone and brick. Heedful of my footing, I looked beyond the edge of the ruined roadway down into the inky darkness . The water rushed at the bottom, muted by our height above the turbulent flow. I swallowed hard.
I heard hoofbeats and saw Bon Bon, and thus heard Harps say a matter of factly, "…and you're not the only one with a secret, y'know. I'm great with animals!"
"Yan, yan, yan. Ya think you know someone," Bon Bon muttered to herself. To me, she said, "I'm going to scout, as we agreed."
"As am I," said Twinkie. I was about to say no, when the fog around her thickened suddenly. "One of my few good tricks," she said, "especially in this humidity," and promptly disappeared.
I had been looking at Bon Bon, but then I had found myself needing to look at Twinkie who I now couldn't see. And now Bon Bon was gone; her sour drops talent in play. I heard the light tap of her hooves on wood, then on stone beyond.
Then I heard Twinkie crossing. She stumbled halfway, and I heard the rope make straining noises. Then I heard hooves on stone and tracking through mud.
The rope kept making straining noises.
I got closer and looked at the rope tied to the posts.
The posts were covered in something slimy. No, oily! The ropes visibly slipped under their own weight, moving like a boa uncoiling. I moved to the left of the southernmost post get a good view of both and grabbed the ropes in my magic.
The hard surface underneath me shuddered and gave way. A levitation spell wasn't a rope; it didn't stop my fall.
This was falling off a cliff, for real. I screamed as my levitation spell snapped.
What had been precisely cut stone brick that had fit together without need of mortar, suddenly liquified into sliding gravel and sand. Instinct to lunge only shoveled the loose ground from under me. I landed flat and scrabbling. The bridge abutment receded while bouncing gravel, falling faster than me, pelted my legs and face. It was like swimming in a sea of toy marbles, each clacking loudly together, except these were sharp.
Were there a time I needed my teleport spell to work, it was now. I worked the calculation, despite the non-linearity of my recession from where I needed to appear; solving for time was my only real choice.
Pegasi filled the air.
Hearts appeared on the bridge and leapt into the air toward me. She smacked down with such force it sent a wave of clattering rock to swamp me, forcing me to close my eyes as I scraped further toward an inevitable precipice. Alkaline dust bit at my tongue. An instant later, she shouted, "Grab on!"
She struck me, outstretched legs going around me, as her faster velocity shoved us into an embrace. I lunged, getting my legs around her chest as hers went around my neck—and my rear legs slid out into the air above the gorge. Hooves hit my rear as two pegasi pushed down to keep me from sliding further.
We jerked to a stop and Heart's chartreuse mane flopped over my eyes. Hearts' size and strength kept me from ripping free. Bits of brick and gravel rolled over us as Hearts grunted. "Gotcha!"
Perhaps due only to desperation, I solved the spell equation, neon numbers flaring in a chrysanthemum firework burst behind my eyes. As a red flare from my horn lit Hearts' triple-heart cutie mark, I let the spell loose.
I felt an instant of in-between blackness, just long enough to know wherever I was it was unbearably frigid. The next instant, I saw gravel arcing through the air as a force drove both Hearts and me into the ground. At least we weren't slipping. A bang echoed from the gorge.
I heard a carriage guard grumble something angrily about "unicorns." I could feel Hearts' voice through her neck as she said, "If that was a teleport spell, it didn't help much."
Hooves again pushed my behind.
We jerked, suddenly, inching upward. I looked up. Applejack had wrapped a rope around the greased pole, which now lacked a rope bridge. Between her and her red workhorse brother, the two blondes pulled the rope, ratcheting us upward.
Soon we were on the roadway of the bridge abutment. No longer trusting of what had seemed firm ground, I and everybody else scrambled back from the bridge.
As Applejack untied Hearts' haunches, I said, "Thank you. That must have hurt."
"Like being cut in two," she said.
"Applejack, and, uh…"
She filled in, "Big Mac."
"Yes, and Big Mac. Quick thinking. Thanks."
She doffed her rodeo hat and bowed, "T'weren't nothin'." She put the hat back on and said, "But, begging your pardon, Your Highness, but perhaps it would be a might better if'n you let one of us go ahead of you from now on."
Her brother added, "Eyup."
"No," I said, turned, and walked up the roadway only close enough to see the pole, and look at the disintegrated side of the abutment. "No. I wasn't acting stupid. I looked first and saw nothing amiss." I gasped and faced the herd. "I walked into a trap! Whilst landing in the timberwolf nursery might have been inconvenient luck, I think we walked into three traps, and..."
I thought about my friends and what had transpired. Maybe I was putting hope above reason. Thinking out loud, I added, "And, that we handled two of them may be related to the Elements of Harmony we're searching for. Lyra handled the Manticore; I think may align with the element of kindness. It was Lemon Hearts that immediately jumped into action when the bridge abutment disintegrated; she may align with the element of loyalty. I triggered my trap with my magic when I used it on the ropes. Not sure what that means, but intuition tells me it means something."
I looked down, thinking it through. What element did that mean I aligned with? Was it wishful thinking to think I was aligned with any element, and did it matter? Was alignment a key to manipulating the magic we needed against Nightmare Moon? Did missing a pony aligned with an element prevent the magic from working?
So frustrating.
I looked up at everypony. An equally frustrating conclusion to finding traps was, "Nightmare Moon knows we're here. And we can expect to find more traps."
In the resulting silence, seemingly in response, I heard a voice from the opposite side of the gorge. A fog bank hid the castle. Twinkie faded in and out, muted and not completely intelligible.
"Ugggh! How are we going to get across there?"
Rainbow Dash flexed her wings in reply and said, "Duh!" She shot into the air and then down into the gorge. Night Wings followed. In a minute, Applejack and Big Mac were tying the ropes to the poles and carriage guards were checking the ropes on the opposite side. Two pegasi went heavily across on foot before they let me and the rest follow.
With me at point, Twin Forks and Night Wings on either side, I clearly heard Twinkie say, "—but why now—?" Moving fog banks going in opposite directions slid aside, revealing a pale pony with a pink mane, and three ponies in midnight-blue pasteboard caps and and light-blue gowns, academic regalia reserved for formal occasions.
"Twinkie!" I called.
"—The library is not going to just disappear—"
But her voice had faded. One academic looked at us with eyes that seemed to glow yellow. Fog condensed and rolled our direction, completely obscuring the scene. Night Wings swooped in. Moments later, judging from the crackle of sticks and his curses, he crashed into the branches of a tree off to the left.
As I tried to think of some variation of a fire spell that might dissipate the fog, I heard, "Even if that's true, helping my friends end the nighttime that will last forever is far more important, don't you think— What?"
Hooves pounded the ground coming toward us. The fog simply vanished directly ahead as Twinkie came galloping out of the resultant tunnel, the green magical aura surrounding her horn lighting the way. As she skidded to a halt before me, she immediately turned.
She shuddered and said, "I was sure it was the metaology dean and the two professors under him. I was convinced it was them. Then I said no to their generous offer and they just, they just—disappeared."
She was loyalty. She had to be aligned with loyalty. "It was a trap laid by Nightmare Moon."
Twinkie shuddered again, and turned to face us. "I think I'll leave scouting to someone more qualified…" Her eyes looked up, then her face followed, her voice petering out.
"I agree with that suggestion," said a gruff voice, above.
I heard dozens of hooves shift as we all looked up to see a fancy brass-clad chariot pulled by two carriage guards, accompanied by two pegasi royal guards. In the carriage stood a grizzled purple mare with a white mane and blue eyes that reflected the moonlight. She wore armor, with a rank I was sure exceeded Shining's. Shining stood beside her on the chariot, looking miserable as it set down. The officer jumped down before the chariot stopped rolling.
She had flown down in full view of the castle. "If Nightmare Moon wasn't sure we were here, she is now," I said.
"Twilight Sparkle, I presume?" the officer asked, approaching me.
Shining followed her and stumbled, clearly in pain. He said, "This is 1st lieutenant Bright Noon."
"You, and the rest of your group, cross back over to the other side. Officers and guard, assemble around me."
I looked at the mare; my mouth had dropped open. Night Wings had returned, shaking leaves from his wings. When he and the other guard started trotting toward the officer, my jaw snapped shut. I said, "No. Don't." I said it in dismay, the thought of yet another of Celestia's numerous tests failed, but it came out sharp enough to be construed as a command.
Eyes wide, expression grim, the 1st lieutenant turned to me and said, "Young filly—"
Lunettes stepped out between me and the officer, like a royal minister, careful not to obscure my view of a petitioner. "Ma'am," she said and dipped her head. "Are you aware of to whom you are speaking?"
"Guard, assemble at my side, now!"
I went from dismay to frustration. "I asked for re-enforcement and I got this?"
"Lieutenant Twin Forks, please escort this filly across the bridge." Dismissing me, she turned to the other guard who had nonetheless slowed their approach toward her.
"No," I said, grabbing Bright Noon's muzzle in my magic, turning her to face me.
Lunettes said, her voice still proper and level, "Ma'am, you are addressing the Crown Regent."
Bright Noon's expression went from shocked at me grabbing her chin, to a smile, then a smirk. She coughed, then started laughing, the sound growing louder. Only the whip of her tail showed annoyance. She shook her head. "I saw your orders. Princess Celestia sent you to organize the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville, nothing more."
I asked, "Do you understand the situation we face?"
Shining said, "I tried to explain—"
"Quiet," Bright Noon said, "I don't need to know more than that a powerful unicorn with a flight spell kidnapped the princess and is holding her in that ruined castle. Between me and my troops, we can handle that."
Lunettes had levitated a paper out of her saddlebags. I recognized the parchment of my commission paper. "Sir. You are mistaken on all accounts. Her Highness—"
The 1st lieutenant chuckled.
Lunettes continued, "—was commissioned by Princess Celestia and personally trained for this eventuality. This verifies her commission."
Bright Noon waved a hoof dismissively. The paper had been heading her way, but Lunettes detoured it to hover in front of the 1st lieutenant's pegasi royal guards and carriage guards—long enough for them to read the gist of it and see the signature. Lunettes sped it back toward Shining's friends and my carriage guards.
When a blue aura formed around the paper, Heart's stronger red aura prevented Bright Moon from grabbing it.
"Enough," the 1st lieutenant said.
Iinstead of looking at their putative commanding officer, her troops were staring at me.
Beside me, a blue aura lifted a thin branch by one end as Bright Noon added, "If you insist on acting like a foal, I am going to treat you like one." The makeshift switch swatted my flank.
Or would have, had it not hit the surface of something like a soap bubble surrounding me. The shield spell lit up bright red where struck. A crackle of energy expanded in a ring of orange and traveled with a wobbly woob sound to coalesce on the opposite side with a sizzle. Shining made a pained groan, as if he'd felt the strike, his eyes half-closed in concentration.
"Indeed, enough," I said as Rainbow Dash grabbed the switch—flashing in a rainbow streak past at full speed—just as Shining's spell ended with a pop. There had been an officer who had been obviously the oldest and most senior of Shining's friends. Time to delegate. "Crystalline?"
The battered mare stepped from the stunned group that had obeyed Bright Noon. "Your Highness?"
"What is your rank?"
"1st lieutenant brevet, ma'am."
"You are now a captain. Kindly take the 1st lieutenant aside. Please explain to her that we are facing an alicorn and ask her what she feels she can do to contribute—"
For the second time tonight, I went weightless. A blue aura surrounded me, lifting and sliding me through the air toward the bridge. "That is enough, Twilight Spark—"
Her blue aura flickered out and I landed walking. Meanwhile, I heard a grunt and looked to see every unicorn's magic paint the officer. By consensus, mostly Hearts overpowering the rest, they tossed Bright Noon into the air, flipped her, and with strong agreement, slammed her against the ground causing her armor to make a loud metallic bang.
As I walked toward her, I said, "Applejack?"
"Yes, Ma'am," she said enthusiastically, pacing me, her lasso instantly out, spinning. She wasn't going to be nice.
When I stood above the hooves-up officer, looking down into her blue eyes, I asked, "Are you insane?"
Her eyes stopped wandering and focused on me. She breathed hard, one huff after another coming out like a growl through flared nostrils. "You—!"
Applejack's lasso snapped her mouth tightly shut, clacking teeth audibly together before she could say something she was going to regret. As our rodeo star hogtied her with the other end of the rope, I said, "What I sent for was help. After I rescue the princess, I will let you explain to her what you thought you were doing instead. Should I fail, blame it all on me."
I turned to the others, only to have everypony not occupied bow to me on one knee.
I inhaled sharply. I would never be comfortable with this. I wanted to roll my eyes, but knew better than to disrespect the gesture. I nodded and said, "Since Bright Noon saw to it that Nightmare Moon certainly knows we're here, let's go meet her at the castle. Suggestions, please. How should we best do that?"
Crystalline ordered Shining to accompany us despite his injuries, and stayed back herself to guard the 1st lieutenant with two carriage guards. If our efforts failed, someone besides Bright Noon needed report what had happened.
Because of the fog, and Twinkie's inability to clear more than a couple pony-lengths around her, we were forced to approach packed too close together and roughly in a line, slowly following the remnant of a centuries-old stone road chiseled into blocks the diameter of a wagon wheel. By the suggestion of the guard, anypony who could do a force spell prepared it. If attacked, we might be able to knock Nightmare Moon unconscious. Big Mac dragged a rope and log sledge with rocks and large branches that could be levitated or kicked at a target. We would reserve spears as a last resort as our best theory still was that Celestia had been turned by dark magic into Nightmare Moon.
Our small army marched up the hill through shifting clumps of fog. Guards flanked us and led the way as we meandered around stunted trees and bushes that littered what might of one time been grand lawns. As we approached, the sound of our hooves and the scraping of the sledge echoed back, giving us our first sense of the enormity of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Then moonlight glinted off of broken glass, a dark ruby color in this light, set in a spooky tower that rose as high as the tallest of trees. Flying buttress ramparts came into view next, shining bluely against the moonlit sky.
As we neared the top of the hill, we rose out of the thickest fog, revealing ancient devastation on an incomprehensible scale. The castle had not collapsed due to abandonment and centuries of neglect; no, someponies had visibly smashed it. A tower lay shoved over broken in sections, like the stacked blocks toppled by an angry foal. Trees and ivy strangled the remains. Holes the size of houses were blasted through the ramparts, most far above ground level. Buttresses and flying bridges, knocked loose, had fallen in lines going deep into the keep. Through a doubly collapsed bailey wall, we could see crushed buildings in the inner courtyard. Undoubtedly, more damage lay obscured from view by mist and intact walls. I began worrying that we needed archeologists more than needed royal guard.
Bon Bon appeared out of nowhere. The guard immediately closed in around me, the pegasi shooting into the air. The MEL agent waited until I came to her with Shining on my right and Twin Forks on my left.
No, she wasn't an illusion.
She genuflected and said, "Your Highness. The castle appears unoccupied, best as I can determine not being a pegasus. I say 'appears,' because I triggered a number of illusions coming up here, and my thaumaturgometer indicates it's all fresh magic. I encountered illusions of a forest of flesh-eating trees that could move their limbs like tentacles, and something more intelligent that tried to convince me to run a new security agency tasked with Tartarus security. I've seen such horse apples before. I think I tripped any that might bother us during my investigation. Ma'am, I also found a building named the Hall of Harmony which contains a giant clockwork device resembling an image I saw in one of your books."
"Gems?" I asked.
"Uh, not exactly."
We exited a dark corridor into a three-story hall half the length of Celestia's throne room. The roof had exploded down to one side of the hall, opening half the ceiling to the light of the bright moon. Massive stone columns from which travertine casing had long ago crumbled, buttressed the remaining ceiling and walls. Despite the dirt and vines that had invaded the Hall of Harmony, it looked like it might remain intact for a few more centuries. Slime and moss hung from cracks and ledges. Much of the stained glass had been blasted, shattered. The jagged teeth of what remained glittered where the mist had wet it. In the middle stood a pristine mechanical device: a round thin-waisted gold pedestal with glittering radial arms. It stood in a hatch in the floor on a threaded cylinder. Neither it, the cylinder, nor the clockwork visible beneath looked as if it had been exposed to the weather as did the soil-littered floor, invaded by scrub bushes and sickly ivy.
The pedestal held six white marble spheres. Each had a six-point star inscribed upon its face at the equator. The five on the arms were dwarfed by the giant sphere on the central pedestal.
None were gems.
My hoof falls echoed as I walked toward it, picking out a path through the debris. The warmth in my limbs drained out of me, along with the determination in my soul. Thoughts began spiraling downward, like numbers in a failing spell. We're too late. Nightmare Moon destroyed them. I began to shiver and had to sit down. My eyes began burning and soon I felt a rivulet down my cheek. Was Celestia gone for a thousand years? Nopony would survive a thousand years of night with no way to grow food.
It was all my fault. I hadn't risked everything. I hadn't gone as fast as I could. The only excuse for not being here on time should have been that I died trying. I fought a sob that forced its way up—even in failure, I remained responsible for everypony, for saving them from Nightmare Moon, for seeing it to whatever end I brought about by my actions.
My throat closed. I must not cry.
I couldn't do it; tears came.
Harps sat by me on the right, gazing up at the marble spheres. "I read a Daring Do novel where—"
"Not now, Lyra." My voice cracked when Minty Green turned her amber eyes toward me.
"—where Dr. Caballero got to the monastery atop Grand Glacial Mountain before Daring did. He took the original pegasus feather and controlled the weather. Like you, Twilight, Daring had naught but intelligence and cunning. It's how she prevailed in the end."
From the left, Twinkie said, "Since when does Twilight Sparkle ever fail?" I glanced over and she sat with compressed lips making an "Huh? Huh? Huh?" dopey expression, her pink mane shaking with her effort. She added, "I mean, really?"
Minuette snorted and wormed her way between Twinkie and me, assuring that I'd have to butt into Twinkie to avoid her, which I didn't do because she'd just fill more space. She laughed, "As I'd answer our princess: I do concur! Setbacks, piffle."
"Say," Hearts spoke directly into my ear with her warm breath. I jumped and turned to see a red aura light around her yellow horn in the sea of her chartreuse mane. "Those marbles would probably hurt if we hit Nightmare Moon with one." Her magic pulsed around the closest marble sphere and it lifted like an egg out of a spoon. It was easily half her rather large height and had to weigh four times what she did.
Or maybe not. It made a glassy coconut conk on the stone.
Lunettes said matter-of-factly, "Your Highness, it's hollow." She squeezed in on my right, laying her cheek against mine, leaving me a Twilight sandwich. "You're our glue, Twilight Sparkle. Equestria's glue. Time to be sticky."
For the moment, I really needed their warmth. For a moment, it kept the baying of the hounds distant. I took a deep breath and blinked away the tears that certainly wet Lunettes' cheek, too. If I could always have my five moons orbiting my sun…
I gasped. There was a thought and, and, and… I stood up, grasping for the flittering, maddening idea that refused to alight. "Uggh!"
I began pacing. How did Celestia deal with such pressure! I went back and forth in front of my friends, near the edge to the hatch from whence the pedestal had screwed out of the floor. I noticed the remainder of the troop watched; pegasi hovered above the others near the door. They saw my tears, but if it bothered them, I saw no sign. Shining lay on the ground, watching intently and giving me a smile, and Bon Bon was walking up to me.
I stopped at the moon-white marble sphere, shot through with varying grey veins of sparkle. The thing appeared translucent, but could just as easily been opalescent. I lifted my hoof to tap it, but the effort to lightly touch the metal of my shoe against what might be breakable glass stopped as if I'd touched a transparent rubber outer shell.
I tapped harder, and got closer to the visible surface.
I lay so I could look underneath, and it seemingly levitated over the floor like repelling magnets. I jumped up and tapped even harder, and went deeper. "Is it magic?"
Bon Bon had watched me experiment. At the question, she reached her mouth into a saddlebag and brought out a forked branch. It was hoof-sized and made of silver, despite having bark and it's end showing growth rings. She waved it in a circle. While I could hear a faint buzz, it rattled Bon Bon's teeth. She replaced the device and said, "No fresh magic; very little over all. They may not be the gems you expected, but they haven't been touched in years, at least according to the thaumaturgometer. Our alicorn perp didn't do this."
I reared and rolled the sphere until it touched the cylinder and stopped. I adjusted my hooves and applied all my weight until I pushed as hard as I could. Harps, Hearts, Lunettes, Minuette, and Twinkie crowded around and copied me. Once we kept it from rolling, I said, "On three: one, two, three—"
The covering instantly popped. The sphere dropped the short distance to the dirty ground. It made a glassy hollow scrapping sound as it rolled into a divot, forcing us back.
I tapped it. Definitely hollow.
Before I could even ask, Twinkie levitated another sphere down, while pegasi gathered the rest by clamping their legs around them. Of particular interest was that none of the pegasi could even push into the transparent covering. I had Bon Bon test it also, but to her and the rest it might have as well been diamond.
I tried opening one using a few combinations of the six of us friends, three, four, even five at a time. While any of us could press in, and more of us could press further, it took all of us to release a sphere.
Echoes of ideas in the book about the elements ricocheted around my head. Somehow only we six could release the spheres. Did that mean we were aligned with the elements?
The big sphere in the center was completely different from the five. Not only did it prove to be solid, heavy, and mineral through and through, it had no protective barrier. And it wasn't marble except in appearance. Nothing we had could scratch it, and even with the big ponies lead by Big Mac—who deployed a makeshift winch—nothing could budge it. As best we could tell, it wasn't itself actively magical.
Bon Bon stood next to me, nodding her head and looking at all the sudden industry, a big change from ten minutes ago. She had a half-grin, which caused me to ask, "Did I miss something?"
"That's it, Your Highness," she appraised me with magenta eyes, "You aren't missing anything, except perhaps self-confidence. Self-confidence comes with stupid bravery or hard-earned experience. I doubt that Princess Celestia started her reign getting it all right. She probably made some very bad mistakes; this curse may be one of them, who knows? Persevere for all of us because I think you have the right stuff. With the help of your five friends, I think you'll go in the right direction even if we never get Her Majesty back. I, for one, have leaned on Lyra more than once to find where I lost myself. Her kindness of heart is extraordinary. Please value her as much as I do."
I didn't realize I had been glancing away. When I looked back at Bon Bon, she had again vanished.
I looked at the five smaller spheres, at my five friends chatting, then the five spheres. I pulled the book on the Elements of Harmony from Lunettes' saddlebag. I opened it in front of me as Lunettes trotted over and levitated her black-rimmed glasses on to her nose. I read aloud for the both of us, "When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed."
Lunettes said, "I'm thinking that we 'revealed' the five spheres. The five are now present, like your five friends."
"I'm thinking something like that, too. A spark will reveal the sixth unknown element."
"And you're thinking that's something you have to do?"
"Uh-huh. And between Twinkleshine and me, I think I have the spark spell pretty much assembled in my head."
Lunettes said, "42," and grinned.
"Huh?"
"That was the number that balanced the equation for me. The spark? Shining Armor?"
I hugged her. After a moment, she returned it, strongly.
Lunettes stepped back and addressed the herd, pushing up glasses. "Everypony!"
I said, "I have an idea. Please, stand back. I don't know what will happen."
Applejack said, "Come on now, y'all. She needs to concentrate. Everybody back away and clear the room."
The five spheres—hopefully, possibly, maybe cocoons containing the elements of harmony—would respond to a not-at-all-metaphoric spark. And if not, maybe the result would give me an idea. If not, maybe I could dig something else out of the book's musty pages.
I began concentrating, solving terms and plugging in values, trying to bend the physical world to my will. The numbers started spinning, but kept spilling out. I had missed a term, but I felt a breeze and opened my eyes. Not even moving in synchrony to my forming spell, the spheres had begun dancing in place. In moments, they lifted from the ground and began to rotate, then move.
I jumped back. Even so, a sphere barked my nose. I stepped back as the spheres began orbiting a point, faster and faster as I looked on in dismay. I smelled ozone and heard the crackle of electricity.
The electricity wasn't from me. My numbers shot apart, spell 42 lost. I turned toward the herd at the entrance to the hall.
They looked on blankly. No horns sported an aura.
They were as clueless as me! Together, we all realized that none of us had spun up the spheres. I felt a sudden chill not at all metaphorical.
Frigid cold.
That made me remember the black nothingness of my teleport spell. Without thought, I leaped blindly back, up, over, and toward the center of the whirling white marble spheres into what proved to be—
In non-dimensional space, all points intersect except as separated by time. The alicorn and I passed through the singularity at the same instant; essentially we touched horns. When unicorns touch horns, the intimacy lets us sense each other's magic.
It may have been a teleport spell, but its equations were by-far more elegant and simple, and a magnitude more powerful, than anything I'd ever experienced. Revelatory. The pure mathematical beauty of alicorn magic left me more stunned than finding myself skidding and spinning on my right side across a floor to fetch up against a wall. As Nightmare Moon had fled Ponyville city hall, she had yelled, "I will make you love me!"
For a moment, I did.
I was so stunned by the thought, neither the frost that dusted my coat in prismatic fractal patterns in the moonlight, nor the frost-steam that curled up around me as I stood could distract me. In an instant, I'd learned so much—assimilated so much—it rivaled Celesta's personal lessons, though without those there'd have been no leap.
And suddenly, I understood what Nightmare Moon felt: she thought nopony loved her, not even her sister. If she were truly not Celestia transformed by dark magic, but the book's sister moon left alone in the night, then loneliness had driven her mad.
As I stood I thought, if Night Moon (or whatever she had been called before the "Nightmare" moniker) and Celestia had shared the responsibility of raising the moon and the sun, the story really showed not one sister restoring harmony—but two sisters violating harmony and sinking into disharmony.
Nightmare Moon swooped down above a circular stone stage in the far reaches of another shattered great hall. Beyond her, a cracked but otherwise intact multistory window showed a starry night sky and the shifting mists that surrounded the castle. She flared her wings. She flapped loudly a half-dozen times, braking while pivoting to face me, all the while with the five marble spheres orbiting her rapidly.
Sister Sun had demonstrated disharmony by using the elements, reputably "the most powerful magic known to ponydom," to chain the moon. It neatly explained Celestia's curse.
Alighting, her electric green-blue eyes locked onto mine. Frost steam billowed around her as her mane waved in what Celestia had once referred to as "the ethereal zephyr of the magic pulse." Stars twinkled amongst her dusky blue hair, making her look god-like.
The problem with the theory was that Celestia had no sister.
The spheres spun slower and slower as we stared one another down. After about half a minute, the spheres made glassy skidding noises and soon came to rest before her.
Worse for the sister theory was, first, the etymology of Celestia's name: she was named for the sun, the moon, and the stars, not just the sun—despite her cutie mark. Second, the book implied that six were needed to wield the elements, not one. Six had released the spheres.
The alicorn began laughing malevolently. Obviously, she had a screw loose...
Or was herself also cursed and not entirely in control of her actions.
Both testable suppositions. I squared my shoulders, getting them to crack, and said evenly, "So, you said you would make us love you?"
Caught by my non-sequitur, she blinked and her jaw moved wordlessly.
I took a step and added, "How well is that going to work if the night will last forever? Food requires sun. Starving ponies are a notoriously unforgiving lot." I took an additional step after each sentence.
Nonplused, she blinked at me. "My moon is very bright."
Her attention wasn't on the spheres. The longer I stalled, the more likely my friends would find me before I needed them. "Oh, come on. The sun is thirteen magnitudes brighter astronomically. That's 400,000 times brighter."
"I'll make it brighter."
"And turn it into another sun? Wouldn't that defeat your purpose?"
"It—it will not! I will make it sufficiently bright enough and no more."
"Is that even possible?" I asked, still stepping closer. When she didn't immediately answer, I added, "Have you even planned what you'll do if we let you win?"
"Let me—let me? You will submit to my w—!"
I scoffed. "Even in your olden pony time, love could not be forced."
"Enough!" she yelled, stomping a hoof that clattered due to the spiked armored shoes she wore. The sound echoed as her anger visibly agitated her luminous mane.
I mirrored her anger, stopping and crouching. Could I get her to do something stupid? I pawed the stone with a hoof, scraping the metal of my shoe as loudly and as for as long as I could. I did it again.
Her mouth opened and her eyes narrowed.
It was a stallion move, but it had her attention. I pawed the ground again, even more loudly, staring into her eyes and breathing as loudly and angrily as I could.
She stepped onto the stage stairs, her limbic system engaging. "You're kidding?"
I snorted as forcefully as I could, flaring my nostrils, puffing myself up as much as my scrawny self was able, then charged forward with a powerful kick on my rear legs, head down, horn level with the granite floor.
She stood in front of the stage steps. "You're kidding, right?" This was where a thinking unicorn would have simply blasted me with a force spell, but no—she crouched.
I had to get to the spheres; I had to make the spark.
Instinct winning over intelligence, Nightmare Moon leveled her horn and charged.
She didn't even flinch when red magic lit my horn. Teleport first. I applied alicorn-magic term simplification to my lethargic numbers; they spun up like caffeinated fireflies circling a dozen racetracks. As I galloped at full bore, the virtual magical racetracks expanded to circle my head, intersecting at a point sighting down the length of my muzzle. I focused on the stage. The air around me turned icy and smelled of an impending blizzard. I galloped harder.
In two heartbeats, the longer-legged faster alicorn would spear me with her longer, sharper horn.
One heartbeat left…
The numbers and time itself slowed, as if rushing against a terrible headwind. The spear of the purplish blue spiral corkscrew horn grew incrementally closer and closer but at an asymptotically slower rate.
Ice crisped my mane.
The numbers ground to halt, the number 66.28 in the center, red hot and flaming. Solution for distance. Time stopped.
Now passed in an instant of complete darkness.
I galloped on the stage; reflex shock kept me from launching myself through the curved curtain window behind it. As I dropped my flank to the ground to brake, an ear splitting bang echoed and rattled the glass. With finesse I didn't know I had, I spun to face into the hall through which Nightmare Moon still galloped. A thick mist rose around me. A headache speared through my right eye. I raised a hoof to rub my forehead and found frost silvered my fur.
The spheres! Inert and pale in the moonlight, they lay arrayed around me. I started spell 42. A spark. I worked up the equations and calculated the sums as Midnight Moon's forebrain caught up with her hindbrain. Her tall shoes made an outrageous screech as she came to a halt and looked over her shoulder with pure venom.
As she flared her wings and shot into the air, I groaned, "Just one spark. Come on! Come on!"
The black and purple alicorn reached ceiling level and banked around to target me like a rabbit in a raptor-like glare. I couldn't trigger the spell in time. In desperation, I applied the alicorn-magic term simplification I'd experienced in Nightmare Moon's teleport spell, knowing yet neither theory of use nor concept of application. What I got was an approximation, an estimation that warped the neon-red numbers suddenly haywire behind my tightly shut eyes into fractal spirals and mathematical roots I was hard pressed to solve, and for purposes I had no time to determine. I felt myself flush and overheat, sweat beading instantly in globules across my coat. The air turned thick and steamy.
I smelled ozone.
I heard a Nightmare Moon cry, "No!"—the instant the world whited out.
For a moment everything was an unbearable bright white, shot through with faintly jagged blue stained-glass lines vibrating prismatically. When it cleared, I found myself twitching and spasming, ears buzzing, my heart beating in my chest as if it wanted to explode out of my ribs. I smelled burnt hair despite the iron scent of blood. My right side was scrapped free of fur and cut. As I jerked, cringing pain told me at least my right rear leg and nose were both broken.
Nightmare Moon's "No, no!" brought me back to my senses, enough so that despite my jerking muscles I was able to leaver myself into a sitting position and look to my left.
A black thundercloud filled the upper reaches of the great hall with boiling roiling turmoil. Though it blocked out the moon, a rapid strobe of crackling electric-blue inter-cloud discharges lit the stage. The spheres had levitated on their own accord with a faint rainbow nimbus pulsing around and connecting them. Behind the spheres stood the alicorn, shaking, helmet scorched. A red glowing gash caused her breastplate to separate and fall to the ground. Flames in her mane flickered out, leaving red and yellow embers eating the ends and consuming stars. She stared aghast, ignoring all but the activity of the spheres.
Part of me thought that a term-simplified force spell might knock Nightmare Moon out, but the other part sat mesmerized as much as she was. It was working. I had provided rather more than the required spark, but it was working. They spun slowly and vibrated—
—And with a pathetic diminishing whine, the spheres settled lifelessly to the stage with a ceramic-like clack in front of Nightmare Moon. It was as if the last of their magic—retained since sister sun had broken harmony by attacking her sister moon—just drained out. A detectable, meager essence drifted on the winds of the storm that I had fomented and blew toward me to ruffle the bangs that lay across my forehead.
The warmth of my body drained with similar finality. My ears flopped down and my mouth dropped in horror. "But... where's the sixth Element?!"
Realization bloomed across the monster's face as a distinctly carnivorous smile. "You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me?" She reared, cackling. "Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last fore—!"
I heard the distinctive puff of a pegasus-kick against clouds.
A torrent of rain flooded the stage. Her billowing star-studded mane collapsed in a wet mess as the alicorn mare dropped to all fours to keep from being buffeted over in the deluge that cascaded in rivers down the stage stairs.
As Rainbow Dash came swirling out of the cloud, her rainbow tail leaving a rainbow afterglow, I heard voices faintly calling from the stairs behind. "Don't worry Twilight, we're here!"
Relief and a sense of unstinting support washed over me. And happiness. All the benefits of friendship that yesterday I would not have been able to name, nor understand I could expect.
Rainbow Dash alighted behind me in a crouch, saying, "What's with your family and getting struck by lightning today?"
I couldn't help but smirk. Determination renewed, I turned back to swamped Nightmare Moon, but first glanced down at my bloodied broken lower leg—then at my scorched and blackened cutie mark.
One big star.
Five small stars in orbit around it.
Sum: Six.
Despite my pain, my whole body turned to gooseflesh. Fur stood as a wondrously chill frisson traveled up my spine. A universe of rainbow numbers, each a bright star, each the smile of a potential friend, bloomed for the first time in my head and implanted themselves permanently in my heart.
A half-smile grew on my face. Revelation. Understanding. Certainty. Q.E.D. My special talent wasn't magic after all.
I faced Nightmare Moon. Recovered, she reared again, her laughter returning. She smashed down upon the spheres, tips of her hooves pointed at a perfect attack angle to cleave any crystal.
A red magical membrane flashed as she struck a shield spell. A crackle and balloon-like woob sounded as she bounced sideways and lost her footing on the wet stage; wings gyrating uselessly, she crashed inelegantly and slid aside. Shining clearly moaned as the a bright ring of yellow reverberated through the shield spell bubble. Pegasi had carried him through the broken roof on a sling sewn from an ancient worm-eaten tapestry.
Behind me, my herd burst into the room through doors, windows, and the roof. My friends. As they galloped to my side, Nightmare Moon struggled to regain her stance. Suspended on a wire, a beige pony with pink and purple locks swung a kick at her head; the alicorn ducked but immediately flopped over again with a meaty thump.
"Let her stand," I said, also struggling up despite the broken leg, and as I spoke I realized, probably a couple broken ribs. I'd been thrown half-way across the hall. Hearts' aura supported me, lifting me up as the throng pressed against me to keep me steady on three legs. I finished: "She has clearly lost."
Nightmare Moon was up and rearing again when I shouted, "Shining Armor, don't waste your strength on the spheres."
When the red aura around them popped, the alicorn stood there nonplused—and not doing anything as if she expected at trap. I waited a few seconds, sighed, and grabbed a sphere in my magic. I was about to levitate and hammer it down, but the slight squeeze of my magic imploded it. Opalescent gravel splashed into a puddle. The spheres had become a mineral husk, a vacated cocoon, as fragile as the shell of an empty egg.
Everypony gasped; even Nightmare Moon returned to all fours.
Around me, I looked to Hearts on my left and Lunnettes on my right. She tentatively smiled as she pushed her blocky glasses up her nose. Beyond were Harps, joined by Bon Bon who looked ready to grab her away, and Twinkie, and Minuette who started to laugh at the absurdity of my confident and crooked expression. Beyond her were Night Wing and the other guard. On my left were arrayed the Ponyvillians, the Apples, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, and beyond her that bouncing pesky pink party pony—who—who—had somehow gotten here with the seamstress Rarity, who'd probably sewn together Shining's aerial sling. My herd and my friends. Warmth radiated into my soul.
"You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that?" I captured Nightmare Moon's electric gaze in my own. I flared my magic. With a touch the other spheres shattered like glass ornaments. Shards and gravel tinkled and bounced despite the rain upon them. "Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here."
As Nightmare Moon heard, she puffed up with a laugh, dismissing my pronouncement. A shield spell formed between us and her. As her horn lit, the combined unicorn presence working in harmony pinioned the alicorn, wrenched out her wings, and flipped her upside down. They began spinning her midair to prevent her from targeting spells.
"You see," I explained, "when friends come together for whatever purpose, they generate harmony. Amongst us, we have exemplars of the elements of loyalty, of honesty, of generosity, of kindness, and of laughter. These ponies got through every challenge you threw at us."
Nightmare moon grunted and screamed, sounding nauseated. "You still don't have— the sixth Element—! The spark— it didn't work!"
"But it did! A different kind of spark than lightning or electricity." I hobbled forward then faced the herd, turning my backside rudely, dismissively, toward Nightmare Moon. By the glow of unicorn horns alight, with pegasi ready to kick lightning from the strobing clouds above, I addressed them. "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends!" With Hearts' help, I faced around, my leg elevated to my side. "You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the—the spark, that resides in the heart of us friends, it brings forth the sixth element: the magic of friendship!"
"No!"
"I know this," I said, watching inside as the rainbow numbers coalesced into faceted gems that glowed with the light of their own sun, "because the magic of friendship is my special talent."
On cue, six gems appeared one by one from the tip of my horn: Red, pink, orange, blue, purple, and violet. With a whoosh, they began orbiting above my head. I felt a tug and felt myself become suspended. My friends gasped, and I looked to see the five of them float upward behind me as the orbits of the gems expanded to include them all as well as me. A white nimbus surrounded us. Soon we floated half-way between the ceiling and the floor. The whoosh-whoosh-whoosh increased as the gems spun faster and faster. The single orbit split into two, intersecting in front of me. The gems became a thrumming rainbow blur, sucking up air from below and generating a gale that blew our manes and tails straight upward.
"What's happening?" Harps asked.
I looked down at the stage. "I think that the elements have decided it is time to break the curse their misuse caused. Girls, I think we must be in harmony with this purpose. Are we agreed?
"Uh-huh!" they answered—in harmony. Suddenly, the gems spun so quickly, they encased us in a sphere.
"All we can do now is trust where they lead us."
In the sudden turmoil, the levitation spells on the alicorn broke. She fell to the stage with bruising force, spinning through puddles, but her dizzy eyes tracked us. She cried, "No!"
For the second time in my life, I became more magic than pony. The ethereal zephyr infused every cell—energizing my body—the magic pulse wiping away ego. The first time this had happened, I had wreaked havoc throughout Canterlot, breaking open a castle tower, growing Spike from an egg to an adult, and amongst other things, cracked a fissure through streets, and a few buildings, to the edge of the mountain and beyond, running as far away as Tartarus. I had been a foal. I had been without friends. I had had no control.
Celestia had saved me. She had seen my cutie mark appear, had arguably influenced its appearance.
She had surely understood its significance.
Cursed, she had lied about my special talent—but had worked to see it realized.
A whine and a buzz, like a triumphal symphonic chord, wiped away my ability to hear. A bright white light lit the hall harshly wherever I looked. I saw a rainbow of light spear up and arch downward toward Nightmare Moon who tried to scramble away, mouth working soundlessly.
I became all magic and no flesh—and ceased to experience anything.
Shining said, almost pleadingly, "Twili, please look at me. Twili…"
I raised myself shakily to a sitting position. "Ugh, my head." I groaned, then said, "Strike that. Ugh, my everything." Skin, muscle, and abused tendons had all tightened and begun aching. I felt drained.
"Oh, Twilight." His magenta eyes glistened in the purple of dawn and the moonlight beyond the windows. He lay before me, his injured side facing away so that I saw only a few lightning streaks coloring his white coat. He touched his burnt blue hoof to mine. Beside me, the doctor worked, cleaning the wounds on my side with a bandage. My leg looked swollen; it had been immobilized with a stick and reddened bindings.
I remembered my friends and was up on three legs so fast I saw stars. Shining was up and supporting me, despite his injuries, as I found Hearts, Harps, Minuette, Lunettes, and Twinkie, all groaning and in various stages of levering themselves from the floor. Before each lay a single jewel. Hearts stared down, her magenta eyes almost crossed, at a red gem that had three hearts carved into its surface. Minty Green opened her eyes, startled, and then smiled at a green gem carved with a lyre sporting curly arms. "Oh, yeah," said Twinkie, levitating and spinning around her blue three-starred gem. Each gem had the bearer's cutie mark emblazoned upon it.
At my hooves lay a totally different beast. The jewel was larger than my hoof and likely-as-not weighed a pound. It was a spiky purple six point star with five diamonds sunk partially edgewise into its surface like moons rising over a twilit sea. I raised it in my magic and it began to spin of its own accord before my face.
Shining said, "I thought you were probably spouting a load of mumbo-jumbo when you explained what you were looking for, but I figured, with you, with your commission, there had to be something important."
"Without you, without my friends, without my everypony, I could not have succeeded."
I faced the stage. Lying there in drying puddles, simply sleeping as indicated by the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest, lay a radically changed pony under the gaze of two carriage guards. But for her three-point black diamond crown, a distinctive ink splotch on her flank, and a crescent moon cutie mark, I might have believed the young blue-grey filly was somepony else. She could be but a couple of years from being a foal. Her dark blue mane, burnt short, lay inert over her shoulders. Around her, her armor lay in faintly smoking exploded bits.
She looked angelic.
I had my doubts, especially when I tried to put down my element of harmony. It slipped from my magic and held itself in front of my face at a pony-length. At a Minuette's gasp, I turned and saw the other gems rising of their own accord, floating before their recipients. "Is everypony all right?" I asked.
The ever-wary guards, ears perked forward, closed in around us. The Ponyvillians joined up with each of my college friends, oddly gravitating towards an element whose bearer matched their personality. Pinkie and Minuette were, of course, already friends.
Harps asked, "What does it mean? Did we solve the mystery but miss the grand conspiracy?"
As the gems switched to orbiting around the group of us, I said, "I don't know, but I think we're going to find out." I again looked at the slumbering form on the stage, but the brightening of the sky caught my attention. Sunrise appeared ready to begin, but there was no Celestia to accomplish it.
Right. Of course.
My front legs shuddered with fatigue, but I made ready.
The gems suddenly halted east of me in a formation that resembled my cutie mark, placing me at the middle of the herd. The elements levitated all of us, even Shining and the Ponyvillians, shifting me to the front. This time, however, when the Elements drew friendship magic from our bodies, like multiple prisms with a sun behind us, it felt nowhere as intense. Beams from each pony hit the five smaller elements, which collimated them into five beams focused on the star gem, from which shot a rainbow torrent through the window, across the ramparts and lush forest growth, to the horizon. Thusly, the sun rose in a blaze of beautiful sunshine.
We had raised the sun!
The eastern brilliance increased. A dazzling rainbow-halo grew around the sun, blotted it out, and grew closer. A luminous sphere then passed through the glass as if none of the jagged remaining panes existed at all.
We settled gently to the ground as the sphere alighted and faded. The curse had always been two parts. And since the young mare on the stage wasn't Celestia…
I hobbled forward on three legs, Shining pressing on one side while Lunettes pressed on the other. Rainbows swirled on the sphere and danced like oil on the surface of water, dimmed, and then dissipated like smoke, revealing— "Princess Celestia!" I cried.
The white alicorn gasped as the magic released her. She stumbled and righted herself, seeing the ponies arrayed before her in this ancient court hall. She smiled, then focused on me and frowned. "Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it!"
As everypony genuflected, I embraced her. She felt real and desert hot. I felt her breathing, her heart pumping, her feathery wings rustling, adding to the warm embrace. Yesterday, I would have felt proud... recognized... relieved. Today, I knew how my parents felt when I woke up in the hospital, that day after the explosion. Twilight-the-foal had blown the side of our Canterlot apartment into the street. She had been in the room. It had been her chemistry experiment gone awry.
Had the "child" of a thousand years ago learned her lesson? Today's Celestia was not yesterday's Celestia. She was free to be somepony else.
Free... to be somepony else…
"I broke the curse," I whispered into her fur, which smelled like recently ironed linen—she had been imprisoned on the sun. As she folded her wings, I added, "Yesterday, I was your faithful student."
Today, perhaps not so much.
We separated. The Elements of Harmony settled between the two of us to the floor, at my hooves, with a crystalline clatter. My friend and my brother again steadied me. I looked from Celestia's wings to her royal purple eyes. Her green, blue, and purple mane swirled like something alive around her head. To her face, I continued, "Today, I don't know who I am."
To my utter surprise, she genuflected to me. On one knee, wings flared, head bowed, she said, "Twilight Sparkle, I am now your student. You are an inspiration to us all." Around me, I heard a mass of ponies once again genuflect.
For a vain moment, I imagined a copperplate etching in a future history book. Me, a bloodied, broken, runt of a paladin, alone standing while a princess and the ponies of the realm—arrayed in a ruined palace under the light of a tardy sun—bowed to me. I raised a hoof to my mouth to stifle the laugh that tried to rise at the absurd vision; but for Shining and Lunettes I would have toppled over. That would have been absurd.
I looked and saw myself indeed living that that future vision. Pastel ponies bowing. "Thank you, everypony, but I haven't earned this."
"That's our Twilight Sparkle!" Minuette laughed.
"Somewhat dense," Hearts added.
When nopony rose, I turned to face my friends and the herd. "Please," I said, tears in my eyes. I genuflected instead to them, barely able but for magic that now held me up. "I am only what I am at this moment because of you, my friends. Please. Stand."
As I watched them stand and heard Celestia do the same, I smiled. My friends had heard me. The rush that caused felt good. Unfortunately, it also led me to faint.
- - -
Though I woke a few times on the floor of a chariot, the cloud didn't lift until sometime later in the Ponyville hospital. Unicorn healing spells would accelerate my recovery, but the doctor still had to manually set the cannon bone in my leg and plaster it into a cast. A few dozen butterfly clips, styled like pink butterflies, and a purple-dyed astringent-smelling herbal poultice served to repair my scraped side. My ribs were bruised, not broken. I would remember forever the crack and pain when the doctor set my broken nose, but thanks to my dark complexion, with the blood cleaned up, I looked pretty normal.
The rest of my therapy consisted of feeding me up on everything from apple fritters to hay burgers, making me drink a ridiculous amount of lemonade and tea, and forcing me to sleep away the afternoon.
I didn't complain.
It was Lunettes and Rarity who had persisted until I woke to inform me what had happened since the dawn. Lunettes told me that Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna had come to a rapprochement. The Elements of Harmony had regressed Luna to fifteen years of age. As a result, Luna remembered the bad times as if they had happened to another Luna. The pair vowed to rule together whatever their jealousies or their disagreements.
At their declaration of forgiveness, Minuette and the crazy pink party-planner pony had reared, clopped hooves, and shouted, "Do know what this calls for? A party!"
Thus, I was standing, leg on a roller crutch, as Rarity fussed and pinned and hemmed a "fabulous" green taffeta and crinoline dress on me while nattering on about Canterlot and how we'd be best of friends. Her work left no doubt she was a Manehatten-level designer. No fabric touched my wounds and it sparkled tastefully.
Lunettes went on about her morning research at the Golden Oaks library on the elements. We speculated whether we'd been chosen or earned the right to be the second bearers of the Elements of Harmony. The first pair of bearers had failed miserably. Now the magic's requirements had changed. I wasn't sure I liked the implication that the magical devices were sentient and purposeful.
And locked to us six.
I also didn't like that it made me, and by extension us, responsible for a magic stronger than alicorn magic. I mused out loud whether we were therefore responsible for bringing harmony to all of Equestria.
Lunettes said, "Yes," and Rarity agreed, "Mmm, Mmm," with a pin cushion in her lips.
What I didn't say was that that was Celestia's job. It felt treasonous to think my responsibility superseded hers. I clearly remembered how a herd of unicorns had neatly overpowered a mad alicorn and rendered her magic useless. We'd done it on the second try; perhaps Nightmare Moon had been inexperienced, but nonetheless!
What did it make me?
Rarity insisted on fussing with our hair before we left the hospital, making us look like differently-colored twins. We had similar bone structure, similar hair stripes. Wearing similar couture, we could pass as closely related, except that Lunettes was 20% bigger than me—probably better fed growing up.
The day had proved sufficient to repurpose much of the Summer Sun Celebration preparations. I saw plenty Welcome Princess Luna banners and blue streamers. From the hospital, illuminated by the orangy westering sun, I saw a gold-gilt coach-and-six descend from Canterlot with two alicorns and head for the silhouette of City Hall. I was happy to miss the pomp and ceremony, though with Minuette at the reins, neither pomp nor ceremony was likely.
We walked into town, taking the roads and avoiding crossing lawns and other difficult shortcuts. Rarity spoke to the ponies who passed on errands or headed for the festivities. Perhaps because of our dresses, no one recognized us. All were friendly; so different from the more stratified unicorn-majority of Canterlot. I saw both poor and wealthy ponies, judging from the houses, the wagons, the clothes; but that seemed not to matter to those who passed and greeted one another.
By the time we saw the festival around City Hall, the podium stood vacant. The crowd had spread to the food tables; the alicorns mingled with the crowd. Even reduced to a young age, Luna towered over all except giant work-ponies like Big Mac, or the lithe shrinking-violet Fluttershy. Luna and Fluttershy shared a rather lost look I empathized with. As I ventured closer, my friends noticed and gathered around with hugs and encouragement.
Then Celestia's eyes locked on me, her regal head a periscope above the crowd. I read an apology on her lips to the crowd as she disengaged from them. Shiny and Spike followed her, but she said something and they stopped. Spike held Shining's leg and stared toward me. I noticed the gold bar on Shining's red dress uniform had been replaced with a silver one.
Then everypony noticed Celestia's gaze. Mayor Mare loudly announced, "Her Excellency, the Crown Representative, Twilight Sparkle and Lady Duchess of Horseshoe Bay, Moon Dancer."
I'd been demoted; not far enough. My cheeks colored, nonetheless. Ponies bowed, though I'd have preferred they hadn't. I quickly plated on four additional Ponyvillians like gold onto base metal. Applejack and Pinkamena joined Rarity, bounding over; Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash settled from the sky with wing beats that sounded loud in the hush. It was as if they sensed I needed protecting.
I wanted to feel that was the case, anyway.
Cordially, Celestia said, "You look much improved."
I looked at the cake crumbs gracing the white fur on the right side of her face. "You look like you're enjoying the party."
Her golden magic whisked the chocolate away with a little smile. With a glance, carriage guards fluttered on down and placed themselves to discourage the crowds from following us as we walked. "Two sets of friends. So much more than I hoped for," she said. Soon we were on the red brick Ponyville Way, which after a few leagues ended at Canterlot.
I stopped. "You planned this?"
She chuckled and kept walking. My roller crutch clicked as it crossed between bricks, louder than the clatter of everypony's hooves. "'Planned' implies more than I was capable of, but I did see the signs and influenced what I could. Did you know that all your Ponyville friends earned their cutie marks the exact same day you did—thanks to Fluttershy and the action Rainbow Dash took to protect her?"
"Awesome!" Rainbow said, strutting, wings flared. She looked confident in the late afternoon sun. "I mean—Your Majesty, really? What did I do?"
"You created an odd synchronicity, Rainbow Dash. Your 'awesome' sonic rainboom triggered a certain powerful, magically-repressed, late-blooming unicorn to nearly destroy Canterlot—but I'll let Twilight tell that story, herself." Celestia winked at me, her eyes sparkling because as we walked north, she looked toward the sun. "What was important, though, was that her cutie mark appeared before my eyes. And... I recognized it."
I asked, "From the books?"
"That was another sign. Luna and I used the Elements of Harmony just as we harvested them, together or alone. That they now required six bearers to use them; that odd texts anonymously appeared that detailed the gems' usage and a 'legend' referring to me and my sister; that somepony gained an Elements of Harmony cutie mark near the time a certain 1000-year prophesy would be fulfilled—all led me to believe you could break the geas I was under."
"It wasn't a curse?"
"Twinkleshine."
The vanilla-colored pink-maned pony trotted up, smiling.
"You showed particular aptitude in the semantics of this type of magic. I'll let you explain it later.
"Twilight, I was hopeful you and your friends could free me and my sister. My biggest worry was that you might fail to meet the five I expected to become your friends. It was another sign that that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash moved to Ponyville without my influence. Then, of course, you did something different."
"Yeah." I chuckled at the irony. "'Different.' You make it sound almost predestined."
As we passed Sugarcube Corner, the scent of cakes dosed with orange and cherry liquors waft toward the road. Celestia answered, "No. Much could have gone wrong. Luna destroyed our castle when she lost her sanity; the same ruins you saw today. That you succeeded in mastering Nightmare Moon is a testament to your diligent study, quick thinking, astute planning, and good friends. I don't think your predecessor, Sunset Shimmer, would have handled the needing friends part quite as well. It is remarkable. I know because everypony involved told me what happened to them today."
I sighed. "As should I. I'll write you the story about—" I began, looking at the ponies around me, all mares. The golden light made them all look special, and they were. My friends. Any of my herd could have been hurt or been killed had I managed it wrong or had we not worked as a team. My eyes burned as tears threatened. "I'll write you the story about my sisters in all but blood." I choked up. This is what you, dear reader, are now reading.
Celestia continued walking, though my friends had stopped when I'd gazed at them. She said, "Why so glum, my faithful student? Are you not happy that your quest is complete and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?"
"That's just it." I sped up, got in front of the princess to block her path. I looked into her purple eyes as she lifted a querulous eyebrow. Her particolor mane swirled around her head, blown by a warm summer breeze. My friends gathered until we all blocked her path. I took a shaky breath, put one hoof forward, and said, "My quest was to free Princess Celestia from a curse. My Princess Celestia was bound by a geas to bring harmony to all of Equestria, and she did... for a thousand years."
Except for the wind whistling in the eaves, the twitter of a bird, and a dainty whimper from Fluttershy, it was quiet for numerous heartbeats. I began to count the earthquakes in my chest.
Celestia asked. "Am I not her?"
"You're the result of me breaking the curse. I don't know you—"
"—or trust me?"
Lunettes and Rarity gasped behind me. Curiously, I heard hooves as my herd moved closer to me, touching me, even the newest of my friends. My words were treasonous. I felt both in-danger and dangerous at the same time—the Elements of Harmony stirred in the petite saddle bags in the waist-ruffles of my dress and clattered faintly.
A half-smile appeared on Celestia's face. "The none of us are the ponies we were yesterday, however long ago that was." She looked away at the sun she would need to lower soon, then into my eyes. "True, I'm no longer under the geas to bring harmony to Equestria, but I've lived long enough to understand the overwhelming importance to me and to Equestria that I continue to do so. I've learned my lessons and am confident I control the venial side my twenty-something self could not."
I looked at her. She looked at me. As the Elements of Harmony quieted, I decided my gut feeling was right: I could trust her, for now. I nodded.
Celestia snorted lightly—a release of tension, not mirth. "You, however, have matured beyond expectation. You're more changed than I. The Elements of Harmony chose you because the essence of your cutie mark is to bring harmony to discord wherever it may exist. For this reason, Twilight Sparkle, I expect you to continue as my crown representative." In other words, she trusted me in turn. As for the job…
Celestia cantered around us as I began stuttering. "I—I'm not so sure I'm qualified..."
"All the more indicative that you are. And with such diverse friends—" She glanced back over her shoulders. "—perhaps more so." She flared her wings and continued. "Did you really think I was training such a special unicorn to be an academic? I made that mistake once with Star Swirl, a long time ago."
Point taken. "Are there some books about being a crown representative I can read?" I asked, barely able to keep up for all my pains and the crutch.
"Somewhere. But it's going to be make-it-up-as-we-go. This is about power sharing, about helping Equestria through the many problems my recent, um, disability started." She slowed down so we walked in tandem, again. "There are three princesses now. I expect that number to change. Eventually we will rule together, but for now that's me and will occasionally be you."
No, no, no, no—
Either I said it aloud or it was apparent on my face. "Twilight Sparkle, I've trained you well. Today you graduated to advanced studies. Consider your new role as on-the-job study. There will be tests."
"I'm not so sure I'm cut out to be a Canterlot bureaucrat."
"You don't want to leave you're friends behind?"
My face colored. I'd been thinking that, too.
"I want you to stay in Ponyville; any of your college friends can continue their studies here if they like. I expect reports on your findings on friendship sent to me. And... I'm going to grant you the royal lands south of Ponyville, including our old castle."
"What?"
"Lady Cloud Dancer. Please explain later why Twilight needs to be a member of the peerage if she ever needs to succeed me."
"Yes, Your Majesty—"
"What!? Succeed—you? You're immortal. You've lived a thousand years!"
"Somewhat more than that, but I was picked for my job, too. So, I reserve the right to pick whomever I choose. I think that the title Her Excellency the Crown Representative, Lady Duchess of Everfree, Twilight Sparkle has the right ring to it. Trust me on this."
"I—I— Lands?"
"Have you seen the Everfree forest?"
Not such a great boon, after all. "Point taken." Then I thought, the castle probably has a library...
"Everfree's denizens are the least of the dangers facing Equestria. You, young lady, rattled the foundations of the world when you got your cutie mark, to Tartarus and beyond. News of today's revelations won't help. There are plenty of unsavory characters saying about Equestria, 'Oh, isn't this an interesting morsel?' If you're still worried that you need to earn your title, you'll get plenty of chances to do so. You'll be my little purple troubleshooter."
Unfortunately, Celestia would prove prescient—but that's another story.
Breaking the extended silence, the pink party-planner pony shouted, "Isn't this exciting?" Startled, we all turned to see her bouncing. "Are you excited cause I'm excited; I've never been so excited, well, except for the time that I went—" She gasped for breath. "—But I mean really—"
