//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Lazarus tower // by FacadeArt //------------------------------// Chapter 1 It was a completely normal day in the small town of Ponyville with the sun shining and the citizens trotting around, minding their own business. Looking closely one could see a googley-eyed mailmare chasing letters that were stolen by a soft spring breeze, or a trio of fillies causing shenanigans in a never-ending quest to find their special talents. Overall nothing seemed out of place on this sunny day, perfect for a long nap in the shade of a tree. Still there was one lonely cloud floating on the sky that usually, on a day like this, would have had a certain rainbow maned pony keep it company. Rainbow Dash, the best flier in all of Equestria, winner of the Best Young Fliers Competition and the owner of other boastful titles that may or may not have been made up by her, was trotting around a huge tree that was the Ponyville library. Dash held a book in her hooves and peeked through the windows in a suspicious manner. Nopony had seen Twilight Sparkle, the famous librarian of Ponyville, in three days, which wasn’t actually that out of place. The studious mare had a habit of losing track of time in her research for magic. Usually Rainbow would have just shrugged the whole thing off as another crazy egghead project that Twilight was doing, but there was one small thing bugging her. Yesterday she had discovered that the “Daring Do” book she loaned from the library was overdue for a whole day! At that moment she had expected the hyper-organized purple unicorn to bust through her door demanding that she would return it immediately and face the horrible punishment of paying fees. Needless to say, Rainbow wasn’t too excited about paying fees for some dumb book she forgot to return (after all there was some important napping that needed to be done) but when Twilight was nowhere to be seen after a full twenty-four hours she had gotten worried and decided to investigate. Dash hesitated in front of the door however. She knew that she was basically going to knock on the door and say “I brought you this overdue book that you forgot about and now i’m gonna pay the fees like an idiot when I could have just gotten away with it.” Still there was that cursed thing called guilt that just wouldn’t leave her alone. “Maybe I could just sneak in through the window, put the book back where it belonged and claim that I never loaned it in the first place?” she thought while rubbing her chin with a hoof. Her thoughts were interrupted however by an orange, hat wearing earth pony who had noticed the cyan Pegasus sneaking around the library. “Howdy RD! Whatcha sneaking around for?” Dash jumped into the air in surprise and quickly hid the book she had in her hooves. “What overdue book? I’m way too awesome to do something stupid like forget to return some book!” Applejack just stared. “Um…okay ah never said tha…” “AND even if I DID forget something like that, I would never think of a way to secretly return the book by sneaking through the window like some lame burglar.” At first Applejack just stared some more, but then she burst into laughter. “And here ah thought I was a bad liar!” Rainbow Dash had unintentionally spilled the beans and shrugged in defeat. “Ugh…fine, that’s exactly what I was thinking of doing, I forgot to return this book in time and…” Applejack stopped laughing and took on a expression of disbelief. “Hold on a second there! That book is actually overdue, and you loaned it from Twilight’s library?” “Umm yeah?” “And she hasn’t hunted ya down like some hungry wolf after the cattle?” “Nope.” “How long has it been overdue?” “One day” Applejack’s expression went from concerned to pure horror. “Woah…this is serious, we better go check on her fast!” Both mares knocked on the door and waited, yet there was no answer. “Hey Twi? I understand you’re probably working on some egghe…um… super important magic research thingy but…” Rainbow stood silent for a while before finally blurting out, “IhaveanoverduebookthatIloanedfromyou!” Then she hid behind Applejack, expecting the library door to explode with purple magic of vengeance. Yet the door remained unexploded and, most importantly, closed “Now ah don’t like the idea of breaking into other ponies’ houses but if Twi is in trouble…it looks like y’all’ll have to go ahead and complete that master plan of yours by sneaking in the library thru, the window.” Rainbow Dash was secretly glad that the purple unicorn wasn’t probably home and that she wouldn’t have to hear a speech about how important it was to be organized or how she was too lazy sometimes. The library was unusually quiet however and not even Spike, Twilight’s dragon assistant, answered to the door. Dash flew up to the window and tried to open it with her hoof, but the window was locked. “Its like one hundred degrees out here and she doesn’t keep the window open? Jeez!” So she did what any rational stuntpony would have done: she flew up, took some speed and crashed right through the window. “Holy horseapples!” Applejack shouted when she heard the loud crashing noise above her. “Ah swear, if that was Dash crashing thru the window im gonna…” Then the door suddenly opened revealing the sky blue pegasus standing in the library with a smug grin of victory on her face. “Not even a scratch! Coated with pure awesomeness, i’m pretty much indestructible.” Applejack couldn’t help but facehoof. “You know Twi’s gonna be pretty mad, not to mention ya having an overdue book on ya.” “No she won’t”, Dash answered. “there’s nopony home.” Applejack looked behind Dash at the library. The place was a complete mess with, books all over the place, various magical items scattered on the table and even Twilights bed laying upside down on the floor. “Look what ya did to this place! The books are ruined, those magic thingies are broken and ah don’t even know how ya managed to get Twi’s bed down here!” Dash shook her head “Believe it or not, the place was like this when I crashed through the window. Now either Twilight is having some crazy feng-shui decoration going on…” Dash narrowed her eyes and whispered, “…or there was a struggle here!” Applejack walked inside the library and sure enough, she noticed the sings of battle: scorched spots on the walls that were caused by some offensive spells that were cast during the epic fight. “Y’all ain’t kidding! Something bad happened here all right…something bad happened to Twilight!” “I searched the whole library and there is no sign of Twilight or Spike anywhere.” “That must mean that…they were captured?” “Yeah and that means we have some ponynapping jerk flank to kick!” Dash was about to speed out of the library in anger when she was stopped short by Applejack’s teeth grabbing her tail. “Why does everypony keep doing that when i’m about to leave in high speeds? Ugh, I might have to cut my tail hair shorter if this keeps happening,” Dash mumbled to herself. “We keep doing it because ya always speed out without thinking first! How do ya know who’s behind all this?” Dash held up her hoof and Applejack noticed she was holding a obsidian key with a mysterious symbol of a circle and a crescent moon around it. “C’mon give me some credit AJ! I got this case breaking clue that I found under Twi’s bed and i’m pretty sure it’s not a part of the decoration.” “How is that key gonna help ya find the culprits?” “Duh! I just try this key in every single door in Ponyville! If it opens a door i’ll find the captors! This won’t take long; they don’t call me the fastest flier in Equestria for nothing.” “But if the key is here, how are the captors supposed to get behind that locked door?” “…oh yeah…" Dash landed and crossed her forelegs. "What do you suggest then? Sit here and cry, while Twilight is locked up goddess knows where?” “Ah reckon we ask the princess about that there key.” Rainbow Dash took a closer look at the key and noticed the moon symbol. “Wait, don’t tell me you think Princess Luna is behind this only because this key happens to have a moon symbol on it.” “Ah reckon i dont fully agree with ya but ah know we should tell them about this whole Twilight being captured thing, she being the protégée of Celestia and all.” “With the goddess of the sun helping us, somepony’s going to be real sorry for this.” :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Rainbow Dash had agreed to fly to Canterlot and inform the Princess since she was faster than any train. Besides the princess would probably teleport them back when she told her what had happened. Soon enough, Applejack noticed a flash of light close to the library and saw Rainbow Dash and Princess Luna appear, but what surprised her was that Celestia had not arrived. “Princess Luna? Ah was expecting for Celestia to investigate this…um no offense.” “None taken, Element of Honesty” Luna answered and Applejack saw she was holding the key from before. “I’m afraid my sister won’t be of help in this matter. However, the Element of Loyalty has told me everything… including a surprisingly detailed account of her stunt involving a window.” Applejack gave Rainbow Dash an annoyed look. “This key is…shall I say, a ghost from my past, and, if my suspicions are correct, I know where your friend Twilight Sparkle has been taken to.” Rainbow Dash was about to take off once again. “Then spit it out princess and I’ll go teach these so called ponynappers a lesson or two on how to treat my friends!” A crowd of ponies started to gather around the group when they noticed the Princess of the Night herself was visiting the town. “Hold on element of loyalty, this isn’t such a simple matter…but we will not discuss it here in the open. I will explain everything inside the library.” “Look you can just call us by our names you know.” The group had settled around the table in Twilight’s library to escape from the stares of the passing ponies. Luna placed the key on the table and sighed. “Excuse me your highness, but every moment we spend sitting around is a moment we could be spending saving Twilight.” Rainbow Dash fidgeted around her seat, eager to get into the action of saving her friend. Only problem being that she first needed a direction to charge at. “You are right Element of…umm, miss Dash, we should get to the point right away…” Luna opened a scroll on the table which showed an island with a huge tower made of obsidian in the middle of it. “Long ago, when I was taken by the malevolent spirit known as Nightmare moon, I tried to surpass my sister in many ways during my early stages of jealousy. Mostly I sought to find some way to defeat her and we all know how that ended…” Luna stayed silent for a while thinking about the darkest hours of her life but then she continued. “One of the most important things for me at that time however was to control something that even the goddess of the sun couldn’t control… and that was death itself!” Lighting flashed behind Luna. “Pretty cool effect huh? Anyway, as i was saying, I was attempting to find a way to bring ponies back to life, which required a huge amount of magical study, a lot of testing and A LOT of dark forbidden magic.” Luna pointed her hoof to the picture on the scroll. “That is why I built this research facility, the Lazarus Tower, on a remote island: to hide it from my sister." Luna floated the key in front of the two mares with her magic. “And this is a key to one of the gates that leads to the research facility, the same research facility where resurrection was studied over a thousand years ago. I am certain that whoever has captured Miss Sparkle is after the power to bring somepony back from the dead.” “But what do ya reckon they captured Twilight for?” “The answer is quite simple: Twilight Sparkle is the element of magic and probably the only unicorn alive who could have enough magical power to bring the dead back to life, if such a thing is even possible.” Rainbow Dash stood up from her seat. “Great, so you know where Twilight is! Why don’t you go there and use some of those goddess powers to kick that ponynapper’s flank and come back with Twilight by lunchtime?” “As I said, Miss Dash, the research facility was meant to stay hidden from my sister, and it did until I returned from my banishment and told her about it.” “Are you telling me that huge tower has been there for a thousand years and nopony had any idea of its existence?” “That is correct. You see, I shielded the island with an ancient rune spell that prevents alicorns from entering it. The only way for an alicorn to step on the island was to use Nightmare Moon’s dark magic which, at the time, I had. After your group banished the spirit of Nightmare Moon however, even I cannot enter the island anymore.” “How are we supposed to get there then?” “The island is still accessible by mortals. In times past the weather surrounding the island has prevented ponies from entering it, but it seems somepony has finally found out where it is and is about to use Miss Sparkle to bring back the dead in my old facility.” Suddenly Luna pulled out a map of the facility and pointed her hoof to the central chamber. “The rune which prevents me and my sister from entering the island is located there. Somepony must enter the island and erase it. My sister and I will take care of the rest.” Suddenly Luna’s voice lowered and she spoke in a dark tone. “But do not be mistaken. The island is ridden with dark magic, failed experiments, deadly weather and…suffice to say the island is completely unpredictable. Who knows what a thousand years of dark magic flowing freely has done to the nature there.” Luna closed the scroll and sighed again. “Once you helped me correct my past mistakes by freeing me of Nightmare Moon. It seems yet another ghost of my past cannot be defeated without your help…I do not expect you to accept but…” “We’ll do it!” Rainbow Dash and Applejack said in unison. The princess of the moon raised her head and smiled. “Then I must once again thank you…” Luna sighed in relief. “Thank us when Twilight and Spike are back here sipping tea and that island has been erased!” Rainbow dash answered. “Very well, you will be given all the help I can provide.” “We should probably go tell the others…” Applejack said to Rainbow Dash “I am afraid that is not a good idea.” Luna whispered. Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” “Whoever captured Twilight defeated her, the Element of Magic, in a duel of spells. Needless to say, that pony is extremely powerful in magic and, more importantly, extremely dangerous. My point is that whatever happens, that pony must not find out that you are on the island until you erase the rune!” “Shucks, the only pony who could have stood against that jerk was probably Twilight.” “Exactly. You have no chance against such magic, so you must complete this mission in secrecy.” “You mean we have to sneak into the tower unnoticed and erase the rune and after that you and Celestia will take care of the rest?” “Yes that is the plan. It isn’t exactly easy to stay hidden in a group, so iI suggest that only the two of you go.” Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood silent for a while thinking about the suggestion. Luna had a point. Twilight had lost to this mysterious villain so the pony was clearly extremely powerful. Normal methods of taking out this villain would probably end up in injuries or, even worse, somepony could die. Secrecy seemed to be the only way, unless they could dig up a new Element of Magic out of nowhere to challenge the captor. It was one of those rare cases where less was more: less ponies running around, more of a chance to remain unnoticed. “Ah don’t like it…but ah guess if we were to keep a low profile, we can’t bring much ponies along can we?” “Pfft! Don’t you worry about it. I’m the master of sneaky sneak stuff! Besides I don’t want to carry Rarity around when she passes out after the first sight of some dark magic thingy.” Both mares broke out in laughter while Luna packed the needed maps and the key into a saddlebag. “So it is settled then? You needn’t worry about packing or preparing, for the Royal Court of Equestria will provide you with everything you need!”