The large doors were slowly enveloped in a golden glow before silently swinging open. The room revealed was a huge, semicircular, and surprisingly undecorated, room. With only a few shelves along the walls, a large oval carpet, a few objects scattered around, and the bed pushed to the farthest corner of the room. The large, white alicorn known by all as princess Celestia was sitting on one of five pillows that were on the center of the carpet.
“Sunny, how many times do I have to tell you? You don’t have to knock if I call you over myself. Come on in.” She beckoned with her hoof, then stopped upon seeing the zebra behind Sunny. “Oh, and who is this you brought?” Her eyes quickly glanced over Kamari and lingered on the curved brand on his face for a moment, before softening and turning back to Sunny.
The white pegasus had already walked in the room and was making her way towards one of the pillows, “This is Kamari, he stayed at my place last night. I didn’t think you'd mind if I brought him here with me.”
Celestia thought for a second. “That’s fine, more ponies would actually be better,” she looked back at Kamari, “Kamari is it? Come in, you can sit next to Sunny if you wish.” One of the pillows floated closer to the pegasus, then the doors closed behind Kamari as he walked over to the pillow.
The alicorn looked back towards Sunny. “I’m sorry to call you here so suddenly, but I have something I need to discuss with you.”
Celestia cleared her throat, “As you well know, nearly 1,000 years ago, my sister, Luna, was corrupted by darkness. She had tried to cast an unknown spell and it had... powerful, side effects. To stop her from destroying Equestria, I harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony to seal her within the moon,” she paused for a few seconds before continuing. “However, the spell has grown weak in the last few years and I fear that somepony may be trying to release her. Normally I would go myself to fix problems like this, however I may have... overprotected the keys to her prison.”
“Keys?” Sunny asked, “How would you even use keys to unlock a prison on the moon?”
“Good question. Each ‘key’ is an enchanted stone. When a specific spell is cast through each of them, the path to the prison will open. Normally, just opening the path wouldn’t be enough for Nightmare Moon to escape. But I fear that with the spell weakening, she may be able to break through,” Celestia replied, raising her hoof to silence the pegasus.
“I put the keys inside four different towers. These towers are designed to be nearly impossible to get though. One of their more obvious effects, is to cancel all magic used in or around them. This includes my magic, If I enter any of the towers I’ll be powerless. I can’t let that happen,” Celestia said, looking between Sunny and Kamari. “Most ponies don't know, but Equestria is nearly always being attacked by some sort of evil and my magic is all that's keeping them out...” She stopped, softly smiling at the pegasus before her. “So… Sunny, I want to ask you to gather a group of ponies and lead them to these towers to gather the keys before anypony else can.”
“Why me? I don’t even know where the towers are,” Sunny asked, looking towards the alicorn in confusion.
“Sunny, I wanted you to do this because there isn’t anypony I trust more, and I think you’re the only pony who could remember the spell to open the last tower. I have a map that has the locations of three of the towers on it. The last one I’ll show you once you have the first three keys” She lifted a scroll off of one of the shelves behind her, then unfurled it. It showed a detailed map of Equestria and the surrounding lands. Three small dots were scattered across the map. Two were deep within the EverFree Forest, and the other was in the ocean off the coast of the Zebraharen Plateaus. Celestia looked at Sunny’s thoughtful face. “You don’t have to do this Sunny.”
“No, I’ll do it.” Sunny reassured “I was just thinking…” She paused for a bit, then blinked and shook her head. “Anyway, who else do you want me to bring on this… journey? Do you have anypony specific?”
Celestia smiled and brought a quill from another of the bookshelves then marked a few places on the map in differing colors of ink. “Thank you Sunny. Here, the blue spots are where ponies are who I think will help you.” Celestia gestured as she talked, pointing to the indicated fresh marks with her wing. “The green ones are ponies who might know something that could help you, and I traced over where the towers are in red to make it easier to see.” She rolled the map back into a tight scroll and hoofed it over to Sunny. “I would also advise taking Captain Swift with you, he will be able to protect you from anything that may threaten you on your journey.”
Kamari listened from where he sat next to Sunny, when he had decided to come with the pegasus he had not expected this to be what Celestia wanted help with. This seemed a lot more important than anything he had heard of before. He was just one zebra, and an exiled one at that. What could he do? He shook his head, When they left, he would just thank Sunny for taking care of him and hopefully find a place to stay.
He was startled out of his thoughts quickly as Celestia turned her attention to him. “Kamari, would you be willing to help Sunny with this?” Celestia asked. “She will probably need all the help she can get. I know that It’s a lot to ask, and you don’t have to.”
“Uhh…” Kamari thought for a bit. While he didn’t think that he could help much, Celestia herself had asked him to do it, and he couldn’t really turn her down. “I’ll do it...”
Sunny turned to look at him in surprise. “Are you sure? This isn’t going to be a quick thing, and it sounds like it might get dangerous.”
“Sunny, I’ve been drifting from town to town for over a year now. I don’t have a job, I don’t have a house, and I don’t have anypony that cares about me,” he sighed before continuing. “Even if it’s dangerous, at least I’ll be doing something important. Besides, I have to pay you back for helping me last night.”
“Good.” Celestia sighed in relief. “There’s one last thing.” She levitated a small blue sapphire over to the middle of the three ponies. Both Sunny’s and Kamari’s manes and tails started flowing in a nonexistent wind like that of Celestia’s. Magical energy was almost flowing out of the small gem.
“What is that?!” Sunny asked in surprise, grabbing at her mane. “It feels so weird.”
Kamari was also trying to hold his mane in place, “I definitely have to agree with Sunny here.”
“Over the last three or four-hundred years I’ve been putting a little bit of my magic into this sapphire every morning after I raise the sun.” Celestia said. “As you can see, It’s gotten quite powerful.” She placed the blue gem in a small bag, instantly Kamari’s and Sunny’s manes, decided to obey gravity again and fell back into their normal positions. “If anypony touches the sapphire, they will temporarily gain access to all of that magic.” Celestia turned to look at Sunny. “This includes pegasi and earth ponies… Sunny, if you touch this, you will be able to cast magic as if you were an alicorn for a few minutes. I think you’ll be able to put that to good use.”
“I’m going to give this to you as a last resort. I don’t think that you will have any need for it, but I’d like for you to be prepared for anything.” She lifted the bag with her magic and placed it in front of Sunny.
“Umm… Thank you.” Carefully, she grabbed the bag and put it into one of her saddlebags pouches. “I don’t really know what to say to that.”
Celestia chuckled. “You don’t need to say anything, just go get ready for your journey.” Her magic enveloped the doors again, swinging them open. She then gestured with one of her white wings for them to leave. “Come talk to me again tomorrow, I want to go over some more of the details, but I have other duties to attend to right now.”
Her two guests quickly got up, bowed, then left. The doors stayed open after they had left the room. As they walked down the hallway, they were passed by a lavender unicorn trotting the other direction towards Celestia’s room.
“You know… You didn’t have to agree to help me right?”
“Yeah.” Kamari sighed “But you’ve been really nice to me, and, like I said before, I’m really not doing anything besides getting kicked out of everywhere. It would be nice to do something good for a change.”
Sunny laughed a little. “It’s still a big decision to make. I’ve never heard of anypony doing something like this quest in the last thousand years…”
Kamari was about to answer when they walked through a doorway into what he assumed was the royal guards sleeping barracks. Large beds lined the walls of the long room, ten or twelve on either side. Ponies were still sleeping in a few of the beds. While others were either lying on their bed, reading, or were walking around with their armor already on.
“Is Captain Swift here?” Sunny asked the nearest guard who wasn’t sleeping.
The guard was in the middle of strapping a piece of armor on. The armor was obviously uncomfortable to wear, and it seemed to limit the pony’s movement. “No, he left for his early morning training like he always does. You can find him in that room.” He said lazily pointing one of hooves towards a door on the other side of the room. “Oh, before you go, could you grab that last piece for me?”
Sunny slipped her wing under the gold horseshoe and placed it on the bed beside the stallion.
“Thanks.”
Kamari struggled to walk through the mess of armor pieces that were strewn around the floor, while Sunny just glided over the clutter to the far side of the room, and waited for the zebra to get there. A few seconds later he stumbled over the last few pieces littering the far side of the room.
“You would think that the royal guards would keep their room cleaner,” He said, shaking a small piece of armor off of his hoof.
“Well, they are still a bunch of guards living in the same place for days or weeks,” Sunny said. “You shouldn’t be that surprised.”
“Yeah,” One of the unicorns near them said. “Only two of us seem to care at all about the cleanliness of our barracks. Me, and the captain.” He pointed at the bed across from the one he was sitting on. It was well organized and, like he said, clean. “Hey!” With his magic he grabbed one of the boots sitting in the middle of the floor and sent it sailing towards one of the sleeping guards. “Wake up, and clean up your bed!”
“Gaaaah!” The unfortunate guard jolted awake and fell off the bed, his blanket wrapping around him in a tight cocoon.
“Anyway, I’m guessing you’re here to talk with the captain?” The unicorn asked. “He should be practicing in that room right there.”
“That’s what we’ve been told.” Sunny said. “Thanks anyway.”
******
Clang!
Sparks showered off of the metal plates hanging on the training dummy. A flash appeared behind the dummy.
Clang!
The plate dented. Another flash.
Clang!
The entire sheet of bent metal tore off of the dummy and landed on the floor in front of Sunny who was standing in the doorway.
“Um… Could you please grab that for me?” In the center of the room, a small earth pony was leaning on the dented training dummy, panting. He was wearing purple armor with gold borders and had a sword nearly twice as big as him laying on the ground beside him.
Kamari walked around Sunny and into the room. He picked up the metal plate, which was now a V shape, and shoved it across the room, surprised at how heavy it was. “Here.”
The captain stopped it with one hoof and slammed another down on the other side, bending the metal more or less back into a flat sheet. He then picked it up and strapped it back onto the dummy with some rope from a pile nearby. “Thanks.” He picked up his sword and leaned it against the dummy then turned to look at the zebra. “I haven’t seen you before, I’m Swift Blade, Captain of the Royal Guard.” He performed a small bow, “What’s your name?”
“I’m Kamari” Kamari hesitated, not sure what to say. He fidgeted for a bit before turning to Sunny. She sighed, then said.
“Swift, could we talk to you?”
“Sure.” He kicked the sword, making it spin around before he caught it in his mouth and slashed it into the dummy again. Leaving the sword hanging out of the dummy’s side “About what?”
“Celestia asked me to go on a quest and suggested I ask you to join me for protection.” Sunny was about to continue when Swift lifted a hoof to stop her.
“Ok.” He said before pulling his sword back out of the dummy. “When do we go?”
“Uhh,” Sunny hesitated, caught off guard by his quick response. “We haven’t decided yet.” A moment of silence. “You’re going to agree just like that? You didn’t even hear all of it.”
“I don’t need to.” Swift laughed. “I trust Celestia, and I know that Celestia trusts you.” he turned and pointed the huge sword at Sunny before swinging it back around and sheathing it on his back. “Just give me some time to get ready,” he was about to walk out of the room when he stopped. “Wait, about how long is this trip going to be?”
“Honestly, we have no idea.” Sunny replied. “Just expect it to be a long trip. A few months or so.”
“Oh,” Swift tapped a hoof on his chin for a few seconds. “I guess I’ll have to appoint a temporary captain of the guard if I’m going to be gone that long.” He leaned his head out of the training room. “Shining Armor! I’m going on a trip, you’re captain ‘till I get back!”
“Kay!” Shouted a voice from the other room. Clearly this wasn’t that odd of an occurrence, nopony seemed even a little surprised by the sudden announcement.
Swift turned back towards Sunny and Kamari, “If you two come back in an hour or so, I should have everything ready.”
“I don’t think we’ll be leaving that soon. I have to get ready, and I want to go over things with Celestia again before we leave. Be prepared to leave sometime tomorrow, we’ll come get you when we’re ready,” Sunny beckoned Kamari with a wing. “Kamari come on, we should go back to my house. I need to start packing.”
They walked in silence for a few minutes before exiting the castle, at which point Sunny jumped into the air and started gliding back towards the house they had left earlier that morning.
******
Kamari decided to explore Sunny’s house while he waited for her to gather supplies. He had offered to help her of course, but she brushed off the offer saying that he wouldn’t know where anything was, and it would take longer to explain it than for her to get everything herself.
After walking around the house a bit more he had to agree with her decision. It was hard enough just not getting lost, let alone trying to find a specific item or even room.
The first floor was larger than he expected from what he saw the first night. The house was laid out in a giant backwards ‘C’ shape. The kitchen led into a dining room, and a hallway stretched out backwards off of that. Doors lined the hallway, each one leading to either a closet, a guest room, a bathroom, or an empty room. A large set of glass doors in the center of the left side of the hallway led out to a grass yard surrounding a fancy stone fountain.
The back of the house was a single 2 story library, with stairs on either wall leading up to the second floor. It looked like the stairs were added after the rest of the house had been built. It was clearly designed with a pegasus in mind. The walls of both floors were filled with books of various sizes and colors, and additional bookshelves were scattered around the bottom floor as needed for more shelf space. Even then, there was a sizable pile of books near the back wall of the room.
The second floor looked similar to the first, hallways filled with doors leading to mostly empty rooms or bathrooms. The main difference was above the kitchen was an open room, with couches along a few of the walls, and beyond that was a single ‘bedroom.’ The room took up the entire space above the hallway Kamari had stayed in last night. He had to assume this was Sunny’s room. The door was open and she was flying back and forth across the huge room grabbing things and placing them in the center of the room in a pile.
He walked up to the doorway and knocked lightly on the open doors. “Sunny? You sure you don’t want any help with that?” He asked, watching as she added a few books to the growing pile. “That looks like a lot of stuff for us to carry if this is going to be a long trip like Celestia said it would.”
Sunny stopped, hovering above the pile and looked back and forth from Kamari to the pile. She sighed, “Yeah… I wasn’t really thinking about that. I was just trying to think of anything that might help for this journey,” she slowly looked over to the zebra standing in the doorway, her pink mane hiding the majority of her face. “Could you help me sort out the more important things?”
“Of course, I would love to be doing something other than wandering around a mostly empty house for the rest of the day,” he replied, walking over to help her sort through the pile of random stuff. This was going to take a while.