Part 1
“I was glad about that because I wanted him and me to be together,” Velvet Aura said, reading her book out loud. She typically did this to practice her speech, as she had a speech impediment that she was working to get rid of. She was laying on a pillow, as comfy as a little unicorn pony like her could get. She had to keep her book afloat with her magic because whenever she’d leave it on the ground, her glasses would fall off as she tried to read. Velvet swiftly continued reading her book, “Miss Watson, she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. By and by they fetched the nig-,”
Velvet was quickly cut off from reading by a loud thud, coming from the window of the room. Velvet looked at the window and dropped the book in fear. Her eyes shrunk, her ears lowered, and her body cowered. “Sorry!” a familiar voice cried out from outside the window, “I guess I should remember to use the door.” Velvet scowled with a grunt of frustration as she stood up. She slowly walked to the front door and opened it to see her pegasus friend, Zephyr Sky. Zephyr gave a nervous grin, “Heya, sorry about that! In Cloudsdale, our windows are just openings in the houses, so I’m used to just flying through them!”
Velvet rolled her eyes as she sighed, “It’s fine. What do you want?”
Zephyr looked at Velvet, offended by this, “What do I want? Can’t a filly come by and say hi to her friend without her assuming that she wants something?”
“Normally, yes,” responded Velvet, “But when it comes to you, you never come by unless you need help with something.”
“Oh come on,” Zephyr said, rolling her eyes, “Can you blame me?” Zephyr looked upon the observatory building that she was standing in front of, “This observatory is so isolated,” Zephyr looked back at Velvet, “Seriously, is this even considered part of Ponyville?”
“Technically, no. It’s outside Ponyville’s borders,” said Velvet, shaking her head, "I can’t have the light pollution of the town messing with the observations. And why do you care? You can fly here.”
“Yeah, but it’s still pretty far from my house. It’s a ten-minute flight,” Zephyr said.
“Well? What do you need?” asked Velvet, getting to the point.
Zephyr looked around the area in suspicion before leaning closer to Velvet and lifting her hoof to cover her mouth as she spoke, “Let’s talk about it inside.”
Velvet raised an eyebrow before she walked out of the way to allow Zephyr to enter.
Zephyr quickly grabbed a box that was sitting next to her and trotted inside. The box was purple with green tree-like vines painted on the sides. Velvet looked at the box curiously as Zephyr stopped at the center of the room and placed it down. Velvet closed the front door and walked toward Zephyr, staring at the box as she did, “I assume that’s what you need help with.”
“Yup!” responded Zephyr in enthusiasm.
“Well, what is it?” asked Velvet as she looked up at Zephyr.
“It’s a box!” Zephyr said.
Velvet gave Zephyr a disappointed look, “I know it’s a box, Zephyr. But what does it do? Or what do you need help with?”
Zephyr blushed, “Oh, right,” Zephyr’s face cleared up as she put on a smirk, “Prepare yourself, you may just lose your marbles.”
“Go on then,” Velvet said, patiently.
“Supposedly, in this box lies the very souls of King Sombra’s 104th Canterlot Advancement Squad,” Zephyr said, barely holding in excited giggles.
Velvet’s bored expression faded as her eyes widened, she carefully drew closer to Zephyr, a smile crawling across her face, “You don’t mean the squad that Princess Luna supposedly locked away inside a box during King Sombra’s invasion of Canterlot, do you?! You mean to tell me this is the one?!”
“That’s right…this is…Pandora’s Box!” Zephyr said.
“OH…MY…HOOFNESS!!! NO WAY!!!” Velvet gushed as she leaned her face close to the box.
“I knew you’d lose it,” Zephyr said, looking at Velvet’s excited expression with pride.
Velvet quickly stood up and looked at Zephyr, “This is incredible! How did you get your hooves on this?”
“Out of curiosity, I may have snooped around Prince Terrenus’ castle a bit,” Zephyr tittered, holding her hoof to her mouth.
Velvet looked at Zephyr with concern, “Zephyr! You know better than to get anywhere near Prince Terrenus’ castle! What if he had caught you?!”
Zephyr sniggered and waved her hoof, “Pft, it’s alright. He wasn’t even there. I don’t know where he goes, but I noticed he leaves for hours at a time some days. It’s all about waiting until that happens. While I was sneaking through his castle, I stumbled upon his old artifacts room. There, I found this box.”
“Still though, that was dangerous. You know what the Princesses said about getting near Prince Terrenus,” Velvet said, walking a bit closer to Zephyr.
“Yeah yeah yeah,” Zephyr placated, waving her hoof back and forth, “Enough about that. How about this box?”
“Well…what about it?” Velvet asked, unsure what Zephyr wanted from her.
“Well come on, I wanna open it. I thought maybe you may know how to,” Zephyr said, still bubbling with excitement.
“Are you sure that’s such a good idea? There’s a chance I could do it, sure. But do we even know what opening it will do? We shouldn’t mess with artifacts if we don’t know their purpose,” Velvet said, lifting a hoof.
“It’ll be fine. It’s just used to view and talk to them. It doesn’t do anything else,” simpered Zephyr, simply trying to get Velvet to open the box without regard for consequence.
“If you’re sure,” Velvet said as she looked up at the shelves of books that line the entirety of the observatory walls.
Velvet’s horn began to glow as she used her magic to pull many books out of the shelves. Books swirled around the room, all coming towards Velvet so she could read the titles. Those that she was not looking for were quickly sent back to their original spot on the shelves. “Aha!” Velvet exclaimed as she came across a book.
“What is it?” Zephyr asked, tilting her head.
“A while back, I actually meddled with an unbinding spell,” Velvet said as she began flipping through the pages, “I believe this spell could be the best thing for opening the box,” Velvet stopped flipping through the pages and looked at Zephyr, “Now are you sure that opening this is a good idea. This DOES possess troops from King Sombra’s army.”
“Yes, Velvet!” Zephyr said, nodding.
“Alright,” Velvet nodded as she looked down at the book.
Velvet’s horn glowed as she began casting the spell. The magic connected to the box, causing it to glow as well. Zephyr watched in anticipation, while Velvet waited cautiously. Finally, Velvet released her magical grasp on the box. Velvet and Zephyr watched as the box began spinning. The pair of ponies carefully backed away from the object as the top opened like a lid, revealing a bright shine coming from inside. The bright light prompted the ponies to shield their eyes with one of their front legs. The light was quick to fade as the box stopped spinning, allowing the ponies to put their legs back down. The pair looked at the box with curiosity. The box sat still, not moving an inch unlike before. “What happened?” Velvet asked, looking at the box.
Zephyr turned to Velvet with an unsure expression, “I was about to ask you the same thing.”
Velvet slowly began to approach the box. One hoof after another, very slowly. She peeked her head out, trying to look into the box. As soon as she caught sight of the bottom, loads of black mist began spewing out of the box. Velvet backed away as quickly as she could, gripping onto Zephyr as the two screamed. Black incorporeal beings began circling the room at high speeds as Velvet and Zephyr starred in fear as more and more of the entities spewed out. “I thought you said it’s just for talking to them!” Velvet scolded Zephyr.
“Oh, did I say I knew what it did? I may have been lying just to get you to open it,” Zephyr chuckled guiltily.
Velvet groaned in frustration at Zephyr’s carelessness, “So you had me open an ancient artifact without knowing what it does?”
“Yeah, but it was for research, or something,” Zephyr placated.
“Dang it, Zephyr!” Velvet yelled as she quickly ran towards the door.
“Ah! Wait for me!” Zephyr said urgently as she ran after Velvet.
Zephyr and Velvet found themselves outside and turned around to look at the observatory. The beings began to fly out of the windows and head towards Ponyville. “Those things are heading towards town,” Velvet said, watching in worry.
“Maybe that’s not a bad thing. There’s probably no evil intent with those…weird…ghost things,” Zephyr chuckled nervously, sweat dripping down her face.
Velvet turned to Zephyr with a scowl, “Are you kidding me?” Velvet shouted, “Those ghost things, or whatever, are ponies of King Sombra’s army! Of course there’s evil intent!”
“Oh, right,” said Zephyr, admitting Velvet is correct.
Velvet looked in the direction of Ponyville in worry before she turned back to Zephyr, “You shouldn’t have taken that box from Prince Terrenus’ castle!” Velvet rebuked, “If this ends up being a mess, YOU have to deal with it!”
“Why do you expect ME to deal with it? You’re the one who used magic to open it,” Zephyr responded.
“Because YOU told me that it was safe,” Velvet said as she pointed at Zephyr.
“Okay, that’s on me,” Zephyr admitted, “But it’s too soon to assume that there’s anything to worry about. We should go over to Ponyville and check it out before we assume something bad has happened.”
Velvet sighed, “Okay, you’re right. Let’s go to Ponyville and check it out.
The pair quickly found themselves in Ponyville, looking upon havoc as the black entities were all over the place, causing mayhem of all sorts as ponies fled and ran. “Nevermind, looks like this IS something to worry about,” Zephyr commented.
“Oh…my…Celestia!” Velvet said as she watched in worry.
Ponies run around, being chased by the entities. Some of the entities vandalize the town while others pick on the citizens. Zephyr turned to see Pinkie Pie running out of Sugarcube Corner, chasing an entity who has stolen a batch of cupcakes. “HEY! THOSE AREN’T FOR YOU!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she chased the being, “They’re for Rainbow Dash’s birthday!”
“Oh no, they’re taking the cupcakes too!” Zephyr exclaimed in worry.
Velvet turned to Zephyr with a scowl, “There are more important things here than cupcakes, Zephyr!”
Zephyr turned to Velvet, “Um…yeah, you’re right,” Zephyr said, tapping her chin with her hoof in thought, “Maybe we should get Hazel Bloom and Twilight.”
“Good idea, you find Hazel Bloom while I try to find Twilight,” Velvet said, turning away from Zephyr, looking around for any sign of Twilight Sparkle.
Zephyr does a salute on her forehead as she quickly flew up in the air, “Aye Aye, Captain!” Zephyr then began to fly in the direction of Hazel’s flower shop.
Velvet galloped around the town, trying to find any sign of Twilight Sparkle. Eventually, Velvet saw Twilight from a distance. Twilight was trying to fire magical blasts at the entities swarming around a building. Velvet quickly stopped in her place, "Twilight!” she shouted.
Twilight took her focus off the entities and turned to Velvet. A quick stroke of relief washed across her face as she quickly galloped towards Velvet, stopping in front of her, “Velvet! What is going on around here?”
“Zephyr found a strange box at Prince Terrenus’ Castle and I opened it for her. It released all these…things,” Velvet said as she looked around at the entities in worry.
“Prince Terrenus’ Castle?! Why was she over there? And WHY did you open it?” Twilight shouts, giving a hint of disappointment in Velvet’s actions.
Velvet turned to Twilight, “Zephyr told me it was safe. And honestly, it’s on me that I believed her.”
“Well, what should we do?” Twilight asked, lifting an eyebrow.
Velvet placed a hoof on her chin as she thought for a moment. An idea popped into her head as she looked at Twilight with a determined expression, “I think I remember reading an old book that contained a spell on how to capture incorporeal entities.”
“Really?” Twilight said, smiling in admiration, “That’s incredible. Do you think you can cast it?”
“No, I didn’t memorize the spell,” Velvet said, “I didn’t think I would ever have use for it. Looks like that was wrong,” Velvet said, rolling her eyes at her lack of foresight. She looked at Twilight with a determined look, “I told Zephyr to get Hazel Bloom. Meet with them and try to keep these things from causing too much more trouble in Ponyville. I’m gonna head back to the observatory and find that book.”
Twilight nodded, “Alright,” she quickly galloped away, heading towards Hazel Bloom’s flower shop.
Velvet Aura began galloping towards her observatory, intent on cleaning up this mess that she started.