Solaire looked down into the great hall from his perch on the second floor landing. Directly below him, the golden doors leading into the palace proper had been opened and hundreds of ponies adorned in their finest regalia began streaming inside. That was an hour ago, but even now the tide showed no signs of stopping. His eyes trailed the red carpet and the immense line of ponies atop it–the pristine, perfect line that led halfway up the wide imperial staircase to where Princess Celestia was waiting. She wore only a smile and her usual attire, nodding to each guest in turn and exchanging a few pleasantries before sending them on their way with a kind-hearted farewell.

With an exhausted sigh, Solaire turned away from the proceedings below and stared out the round, giant glass window that faced out into the city. Above, the sky had already darkened into a deep shade of royal blue and in the city streets, Solaire could just make out the tiny dots of yellow light moving like paper lanterns on a midnight river towards the palace.

Solaire didn’t have to look to know who it was. “Should you not be down there with your sister?”

Luna gave a bemused smirk. “I could. I should. I suspect she’d like me by her side in these especially trying times."

“It is the nobles. They come armed to the teeth with their fine clothes and their fake smiles, wimpishly attempting to curry favor with the strongest piece on the board in their petty squabble of a game.” Luna gave a flat, half-lidded stare out the window. “Celestia, of course, is happy to play along."

“They do not know what to expect of me,” Luna said, “and as I imagine, they do not know what to expect of you. Is that why you have been hiding up here all this time, Sir Knight?"

“Rarity took the time to assemble that handsome suit of yours,” Luna said in a lilting voice. “She even cropped that scraggly mop of hair that once sat atop your head. With her assistance I daresay that you look half the gentlecolt now. To think that you would repay her generosity by squirrelling yourself away like some sort of opera ghost."

“It is my way of saying that I do not see you as a hideous, deformed creature.” Luna gave her mane a little shake and began walking away. She paused, looking over her shoulder. “But if you wish to continue acting the part, then you are welcome to walk with me."

Solaire stole one last look down into the great hall of the palace. Down below, the unfathomable number of ponies continued to mill about, completely unaware of the conversation that had just transpired above their heads. He held his breath as a small, nagging feeling compelled him to spare a glance towards the princess on the first floor of the hall.

A second passed, and Solaire offered a palm in farewell before following after Luna in earnest. She turned down the first hall they came across, and after a minute of walking the dull drone of noise that floated up from the gala faded into a quiet muffle. Soon, all that Solaire could hear was their own footsteps and his own muted breaths.

“You are either very brave or very foolish to return to your quest so quickly.” The princess kept kept her pace, and could just as easily have been talking to the walls.

“It is the path I walk,” Solaire replied. “And it’s the only thing I have left, really.”

“A fool, then,” she eventually said. “As much as you would like to think you are not defined by your quest, Knight Solaire. You have a kindness; a valor; a quiet strength about you that I cannot describe. Hear it from me if you do not believe it: your curse has not taken these things from you.”

Before he could say something, there came a faint tuneless whistle from the hall just ahead. The pair came to a stop and listened as the whistling grew louder and louder until finally, from a side passage on the right emerged a tiny purple creature walking on two legs. In its hands it held a flimsy book up to its face, concealing its features from sight.

The creature reached the center of the hallway before turning their direction. Solaire estimated that about ten seconds would pass before the creature waddled straight into Luna’s legs.

Solaire and Luna shared a look, and the princess drew in a deep breath before letting it out in one slow exhale. She faced forward.

The purple thing stopped in its tracks. It lowered the book a couple of inches, revealing a pair of emerald green eyes. It looked from Luna to Solaire, before flicking its gaze back onto the princess and then back again.

“Who’d have thought,” said the thing as he shut the book with a twitch of his wrist. “Just the guy I was looking for!”

“Solaire,” Luna interjected, “this is Spike. And Spike, this is Solaire. Might I inquire as to why you were looking for my guest?"

“Oh, right. Well, I’d have done it earlier in the day but Twilight said that he was really busy with stuff and that I’d eventually meet him at the gala,” Spike said with a shrug. He shuffled around the princess and eyeballed Solaire up and down. “And when that didn’t happen, I decided to go look for you myself! You’re way taller than I imagined by the way."

“And you’re very small,” said Solaire, noting that the little creature barely reached his knees. “Are you a lizard, perchance?"

“I’m a dragon, and give me a few years, will ya? I’m gonna shoot up like a beanstalk."

“But hopefully not as stringy, yes?” Solaire smiled as he looked towards the princess. “A talking, purple dragon. Princess Luna, your world continues to amaze me."

“But enough tarrying,” Luna continued. “There is something else that I wish for you to see."

She set out down the hall once more and Solaire obliged her with a silent nod. It did not take long for him to notice the soft click-clack of scales on tile echoing his steps. Its pace quickened, and Solaire gave a downward glance as the tiny dragon named Spike appeared at his side. Or rather, next to his feet.

“So, uh. Yeah,” Spike began. “I hear you’re not really from around here… or anywhere, really."

“Something about you being a zombie knight from another dimension trying to save his planet by keeping a mystic fire burning?”

“Again,” Spike said. “Twilight’s assistant. Nothing really surprises me anymore."

“But you’ll be dropping in to visit every so often? How is that going to work by the way? I mean, I’m no expert but even teleporting between cities is like trying to charge a thaumic battery with only a superconductor and low-grade stasis spell to hold it all together.”

“Talk about taking a risk, right? And here you’ll be, just jumping between dimensions whenever you feel taking a couple of days off? How in the hay do you do it?"

A smirk on his lips, Solaire looked down at the dragon. “Fishing for answers, are you?"

“Good! Because I don’t have them. But now that I’ve time to think about it, I suppose that’s why I’ve been invited to return, yes? I may not have the burning desire to know the inner workings of how I arrived in Equestria, but someone here clearly does.” Solaire twirled the silver ring on his finger. It sat on the middle digit of his right hand, a snug, perfect fit.

“Right,” Spike said with a smile. “Between you and me… and Luna, I guess, Twilight’s absolutely dying to learn from you. She kept going on and on about how it should be physically impossible to hold lightning, but–"

“Yeah, I bet,” said Spike. “And wait, didn’t you technically lose, Princess? The way I heard it, you flew into the air and then Solaire gave up."

“Perhaps,” she said. “Or perhaps Knight Solaire was enough of a gentlecolt to yield the fight to the lady. It was all for the sake of fun, Spike. I was glad to learn that when a literal bolt of lightning entered our duel, Solaire had no intention of using it."

Luna faced forward once more and without missing a beat, she turned left down another hall. Further ahead, Solaire could see two large doors with a lit sconce embedded in the walls on both sides. Without a word, the trio reached the end of the hall and Luna’s horn burst to life in a pulse of blue magic. The doors swung open soundlessly and Solaire was greeted with a blast of chilly, evening air and the sweet scent of wet grass.

As they stepped out onto the grey stone pathway, Solaire immediately caught sight of their destination. A large white tower, seemingly comprised of a single gargantuan block of marble, rose up into the sky as if seeking to spear a hole into the heavens itself.

Spike let out a low whistle. “This is the south courtyard, right? You know, I’ve never actually been out here. The doors were always locked."

“You are correct,” said Luna. “My sister had this place built some years ago. Thankfully she had the forethought and grace to leave the interior in my hooves."

The tower sat in the middle of a massive circle of well-kept grass and unlike the field the guards had trained in yesterday, there were no tall white walls to block the rest of the world from view. Far off on the horizon, Solaire could just make out the sharp outlines of jagged, snow-capped mountains rising up and clashing with the dark, cloudless sky.

They continued walking, their stone path snaking through the grass and planted occasionally along the sides were small, black lanterns letting out a faint blue glow. On a particularly wide bend, Solaire caught sight of the far end of the clearing where grass met a thin strip of white flooring, and where white flooring rounded off into unobstructed, open air. For a brief moment, Solaire entertained the idea of simply stepping off the edge and looking up as the city built into the mountain fell away into the distance.

Soon, they reached the entrance of the tower where two large slate-colored doors barred the way in. The princess’ horn lit up once more, and the iron doors gently swung open on silent hinges.

One by one, they stepped into the darkened tower. Moonlight streamed in behind them, causing their shadows to stretch and dance along the tiled floor. Their steps seemed unnaturally loud in the silence, and only after the doors closed shut with a quiet thud did Solaire realize the pale glow emanating from above. Solaire looked up and saw a large, translucent half-dome embedded in the center of the ceiling. Its surface was covered in ornate, silver designs and inside, tiny blue flecks of light swayed and flickered like fireflies caught in a jar.

Solaire gave a cursory glance around the room, noting just how empty it all was. Nothing adorned the grey brick walls, and the floor, while bearing an intricate half-moon tilework, carried a dull and lifeless sheen as if it had not been polished in years. Stranger still, the only object of note in the room was the rather large, free-standing oval mirror that stood directly opposite of the tower’s doorway.

“Where are the stairs?” Spike asked suddenly, bluntly. “Unless I’m missing something here, Princess, I think your sister gave you a dud tower."

Something akin to a smile flashed across Luna’s lips. She motioned for them to follow with a tilt of her head as she started towards the mirror with a calm gait. Spike shrugged, and Solaire simply looked on as the dragon made his way over to the waiting princess.

“I get it, I get it,” said Spike. “I’m a handsome guy. It’s just something that can’t be helped."

In an instant, where Spike's reflection should have been there was instead a tall, rounded window in a dimly-lit room. The left pane was slightly ajar and the white curtain that hung in front of it flowed and swayed in calm eddies of evening air. Through the window, a crescent moon hung suspended in the sky like a pendulum frozen in time.

“Well!” Solaire said. “That really is quite remarkable, Princess Luna. I don’t consider myself a very cultured man but I recognize art when I–"

His mouth closed shut and he watched as Spike reached a whole arm through the frame. Then two. And with an almost casual flourish, Spike vaulted through the mirror as if hopping a fence and landed on the other side with a muffled thump. He looked back out through the frame.

“Right,” said the dragon. “What’s the point in stairs if you’ve got one of these? Neat."

Solaire blinked and by the time he realized it, Luna was stepping through the mirror as well. Midway through, she craned her head in his direction.

The knight dried his palms on the back of his pants and started after her. The mirror, while quite large, was not tall enough to accommodate for Solaire’s height. Before he ducked through, he shot a quick glance around the back of its frame.

With a sigh and a wrinkled chin, he stepped through the mirror and into the room beyond. In the quiet seconds that followed, Solaire scanned from left to right, his eyes glazing over at the sheer enormity of all that there was to see. On one side of the window, Books and tomes and scrolls and parchment sat upon shelf upon shelf of dark-lacquered wood. The massive bookcase dominated an entire segment of wall, reaching up to the ceiling and bending with the curvature of the room like a small portion of a monstrously-sized snake.

A stout, round table loaded with a mish-mash of papers and scrolls sat firmly in the center of the chaos. A single blue cushion was just visible behind one of its legs and several empty inkpots were strewn around its base.

Solaire had just noticed the silver-framed globe spinning on its own in the corner of the room when the distinct sound of a shelf being pulled open drew his attention. In the midst of his quiet wonder, Luna had wandered to the room’s opposite side where a large, crescent-shaped desk currently sat. The princess stood just behind it, staring down into what Solaire could only perceive as the shelf that was just opened.

Luna’s brow furrowed ever so slightly and in the next second, her horn took light. From behind the desk floated a large sheet of metal swathed in a blue glow. She lay it flat on the desk’s surface and fixed her eyes on the knight.

Without a word, Solaire made his way over to her. He stopped at the edge of the desk and looked down at what she had laid before him.

“Yes,” said the princess. She gestured towards the shaped metal with a nod. “Please, inspect it yourself. It has been years since I have attempted this."

As Solaire extended a hand towards the table, he felt a presence behind his left leg. He looked down and to the side, straight into the face of a young dragon who no doubt wished for a few more inches in the spaces between his ankles and knees. With a smile, Solaire dropped down into a squat and, meeting Spike’s eyes, he gestured towards his shoulder with a point of his thumb

“Can I?” he asked. “I don’t wanna seem forward or rude, or like- you know, it’s not really–"

After a tense moment, Spike took hold of Solaire’s sleeve and pulled himself up fist over fist until he sat square in the center of Solaire’s broad shoulder. The knight could feel the tiny dragon clutch at his collar as he rose once more to his full height.

Solaire angled his gaze at the dragon. “Now let’s take a look at this shield, shall we?"

Even with just his eyes, Solaire knew that it was a remarkable piece of equipment. The top portion of the shield formed a wide angle at the tip and tapered down into a blunted point at its base. Its edges sported a thick, polished silver rim, complete with shiny half-spherical bolts that ran perfectly spaced along its length. The shield’s center, stained a midnight blue, bore no crest and instead reflected the glints of moonlight that fell upon its smooth surface.

With a gentle touch, Solaire took hold of the shield in both hands and lifted it from the desk. It was astoundingly light for its size as if its core was made of wood, but a rap of his knuckles along its face quickly dispelled any doubts about the shield’s make. It was metal through and through, a metal that hummed and shivered with magic, its latent power coursing out and making itself known through a faint tingle in Solaire’s fingertips.

Solaire looked up. “No it’s… I don’t know what to say. I suppose I should start with 'thank you' and move forward from there."

She let out a relieved sigh. “It was my pleasure to make it for you, Knight Solaire. Consider the shield a gift. I trust that you will make good use of it."

“I don’t believe I’ve told anyone that my old one was destroyed,” said Solaire. “How did you know?"

“A princess’s intuition,” Luna replied. "You have two arms and yet you fought me with only one sword. Neither did it escape me that your other arm, or should I say the one that blocked my kick–"

“Yes, I–“ Luna cleared her throat, “–the arm I broke. I noticed that it has more muscle than the other. And of course the fact that you moved your arm to block my kick with a shield that simply wasn’t there.”

Luna gave a closed smile. “If you needed one, Knight Solaire, all you had to do was ask."

Grossly Incandescent

Chapter 7 - Turn Them to Ash

“Ugh. I really should have asked him about that handkerchief while I had the chance."

In the east wing, tucked away from sight in the corner of the large banquet hall sat Twilight Sparkle. Her table was a solitary one, hidden behind the farthest-most marble column and quite literally, separated from all the rest. Hovering in front of her, a small quill quickly scratched down a small series of notes onto a yellow notepad.

“It was like a small bundle of bunched-up cloth. I think it was like a font for his magic or something. I didn’t really get a good look at it and there was so much questions that I needed to ask that I completely forgot to ask him about that."

“Yeah, but I guess I’ll find out eventually, right?” Twilight set down her notepad and looked up at the pegasus seated at the other end of the table.

Despite their secluded location, a haze of sound floated all around them. Dozens of conversations intermingled into a disjointed jumble of incoherent words and laughter, and on the far side of the banquet hall, a small collection of musicians on a tiny stage provided a quiet backdrop of symphonious melodies and tunes.

Twilight smiled. “You know, thanks for sitting with me, Fluttershy. It’s always nice to have someone to talk to at these sort of things. You won’t believe how many galas I’ve been to, spent just reading the latest book or what have you."

“Well, Shiny was always on duty and my dad just came for the food, really. Mom would sit with us for a little while but she’d eventually get dragged away by her friends and we wouldn’t see her again until it was time to leave.

Fluttershy perked up slightly. “Oh, yes. She works so hard on our dresses, I always feel guilty when she tells us we don’t owe her a single bit.”

Fluttershy didn’t respond. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was curled into a tight frown. She quickly rose to her hooves, wings clenched to her sides as she glanced past Twilight and out into the banquet hall.

She stood as well and turned around, watching as pony after pony entered their line of sight from behind the marble column. In their finest attire, mares and stallions moved like drones towards the massive glass windows that comprised the entire east section of the hall. Just beyond was the royal garden but they stared not out into the rows of perfectly-kept bushes, flowers and shrubs. Their gaze drifted upward, up towards the thick haze of descending fog.

It moved with an unnatural uniformity, a falling wall of grey mist that blocked out the night. In silence, the ponies looked on as the tallest point in the garden, a lamp post with a tiny a flame at its tip, made contact with the mist. In the following seconds, not a single breath was taken as the small spot of orange light flickered into nothingness within the dense fog.

Twilight swallowed away the lump in her throat. Within the span of a minute, where there was once a garden was now an impenetrable haze of swirling grey mist. The lights from within the banquet hall caused their own semi-transparent reflections to appear in the glass as if a row of frozen-faced doppelgangers stood just on the other side. There, at the top of the windows, a thin layer of white frost began spider-webbing its way down the massive panes.

She felt the chill on her coat first. Then came the vapid trails of condensation following each breath. Twilight took a step back, her eyes unconsciously drawing towards her friend. For just a moment, she could see the unabashed worry on her friend’s face as the pegasus stared out into the mist.

Fluttershy’s brow furrowed and with a slow turn of her head, she looked to Twilight through a sidelong glance.

In the single room at the top of Luna’s tower, three individuals stared out into the fog that had descended on Canterlot Palace. A single pane of glass was all that separated them from the strange mist. Not one word was spoken since the anomaly had appeared.

Hesitation slowed his hand as Solaire raised his arm and gently brushed his fingertips against the window.

Solaire stepped back, his own expression staring back at him through the frost-stricken glass.

A voice, tinny and distant, sounded out just to his left. It must have been Luna’s.

Another step. The ringing in his ears continued without pause, the high-pitched whine of a silver bell in his skull that would reverberate into eternity. Solaire swallowed away the dryness in his throat, and in his chest the thumping of his heart had grown so sharp and pronounced that it felt like the organ would slip loose of its viscera and plunge deep into his abdomen.

The knight stood stock-still and then sucked in a jagged breath of air. In the following seconds he became keenly aware of the tingling sensation of magic swathed around his arms and shoulders.

He looked down at his hands–his fists–the white-knuckled grips that shook like leaves on a dying tree. Luna stood just to his side, the glow of her horn matching the same aura that had wrapped its way down to Solaire’s hands. A pressure, gentle and tender, pulled at his fingers like ribbons of silk and Solaire looked on as his hands slowly opened, revealing the broken skin on his nail-marked palms.

“Solaire,” Luna began in a low tone, “I need you to tell me what is happening out there. This fog, do you know what it is?”

The tiny form of Spike stood several paces to Luna’s side, his eyes big and his small arms clutching at the lapels of his coat.

There hung a certain tension in the air, a certain wide-eyed, tight-lipped fear that had made itself apparent on the faces of all the ponies at the gala. Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy walked side by side, so close their dresses brushed together and they could hear the other’s breaths in their ears. They moved slowly through the small connecting corridor that led out of the banquet hall and away from the giant windows that revealed only fog. But even then, the fog’s presence still pressed down and Twilight’s heart still continued to race.

They walked in silence, following by some unknown agreement the tumult of voices that only grew louder the closer they drew to the great hall. Celestia would be there, Twilight was sure.

It was not long before the pair reached their destination. They entered the great hall on quiet hooves, each surveilling the room for a distinct hat or rainbow-colored mane. All around them, ponies in their finest suits and dresses congregated in chaotic huddles and clusters, their low tones and hushed whispers matching the expressions they wore on their faces. As expected, the large doors that led out into Canterlot proper had been shut, but high above through the massive circular window on the second floor landing, the fog loomed like an ever-present, uninvited guest.

It wasn’t long before Twilight noticed the guards. They glided in groups along the edges of the room like white and gold shadows, their vigilance made known through their hunting, steely-gazed eyes.

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied. “It could be a lot of things, Fluttershy. A weather malfunction, a rogue storm. A, uh... a prank. Or yes. It could be an attack.”

After a long moment, Fluttershy pointed her nose at the far corner of the hall. “I think I see Rarity.”

Twilight nodded when she caught sight of them as well. They were only tiny specks of color in a backdrop of shapes, but the unmistakable form of Rarity’s curled mane and Pinkie Pie’s blindingly bright coat made it quite easy to spot them among the masses.

“Thank you.” Twilight gave the pegasus a brief nudge with her shoulder. As Fluttershy began making her way into the crowd, Twilight added, “And find out if they know where the others are!”

Twilight took a deep breath and started towards the grand set of stairs on the far left side of the room. At the top stood Celestia and a small grouping of guards, her head lowered as one of the armored stallions whispered something into her ear. The stairs were covered in the more vocal palace guests but Twilight paid them no mind. She squeezed past them with an acquired finesse and a few well-timed ‘sorrys’ until finally she was standing at the top steps, an apologetic smile prepared for the stern-faced guard blocking the way.

In the span of a second, recognition flashed in the guard’s eyes and he quickly stepped to the side.

“Thanks,” Twilight whispered as she shuffled past the guard and onto the staircase landing.

She looked on in silence, her gaze slowly drifting between the four figures in front of her. Celestia faced slightly away from her, just enough that Twilight could see her mouth issuing quiet commands to the three guards standing barely a chest’s breadth away from her snout. At once, the two pegasus stallions nodded, stepped backwards as a cohesive unit and took to the air, the gust from their sudden liftoff tickling at Twilight’s bangs and eyes. She watched them for a moment longer as they shot across the great hall, down a high-ceilinged hallway and eventually out of sight.

Twilight face forward again, just in time to catch Captain Rook dip his head into a slight bow.

“Of course, your Majesty,” uttered the grey stallion. Head still low, his eyes flashed toward Twilight. “But I do not believe I have to look very far.”

Celestia stiffened slightly before she finally turned to face her.

The princess gave only a weary smile. “Twilight Sparkle, perhaps it was foolish to think that you wouldn’t come find me as soon as you could.”

Twilight wasted no time. “Princess, do you know what’s going on? This fog, it’s–”

“I do not,” said Celestia. “It is as foreign to me as it is to you. Though I am not without a plan.”

“I have no doubt in my mind, Twilight. I believe I have felt this before. That night atop my tower, the night we set your soul crystal aflame–”

“–I felt this disturbance, a deep deep dread the likes of which I still cannot explain. How this fog is connected I do not know, but I shall not wait to find out.” Celestia shut her eyes as she drew in a slow breath. She started again in a quieter tone. “My ponies cannot remain here, Twilight Sparkle. Will you help me?”

“Of course,” Twilight answered without hesitation. “What do you need me to do?”

Celestia stepped towards Twilight and looked out into the great hall, out into the sea of ponies below them. As Twilight turned and looked as well, she could imagine the princess looking into the worried faces of them all, wanting in all her heart to extend to them the smallest amount of comfort.

She had to ask. It wouldn’t do if one of the guests re-entered reality and found her hind legs fused to a fountain or statue that wasn’t there before.

“Yes,” Celestia replied, “everything is as you remember. And it should be safe. I’ve received word from beyond the fog that the palace is the only place that has been affected. The school is far enough away from the fog but not so much to alter the accuracy of your jumps.”

Twilight stifled the next question that came to mind. Celestia would never risk marching her ponies through a wall of unknown, possibly malicious, magic. She looked once more up towards the giant circular window directly opposite of them at the far end of the great hall.

“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. My guards will assist you where they can.” Celestia looked to the armored stallion just to her left. “Captain Rook? Time is of the essence.”

At once, the captain stepped away from the princess and towards the crowd of ponies milling about below. He stood at the edge of the landing and without hesitation, his commanding voice filled every corner of the hall.

“Esteemed guests!” he had to have cast an amplifying spell the way his voice cut through hundreds of conversations at once. “As you are all aware, there appears to be a fog of unknown origin surrounding the palace. We have yet to determine its presence here, but some of the guard have reported that it is bitterly cold to pass through! Thusly, a p–”

“Are we in danger?” A mare called out from the crowd. Her outburst was followed by a buzz of murmurs and whispers.

Captain Rook raised a hoof. “Rest assured, everypony! Princess Celestia and all of the Royal Guard are working to ensure that all of you are kept safe! To avoid traversing the fog a plan has been devised to teleport everypony off palace grounds. The location you will be transported to is the courtyard of a nearby school, and as I speak guards are there now clearing the premises of any obstacles!”

Twilight chewed at the inside of her lip as her gaze dragged across the hundreds of ponies below her, catching only snippets and phrases of the captain’s continued explanation. She had already spotted Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie from atop the landing, and it took only a moment longer for her to lay eyes on Rainbow Dash and Applejack as well. The pair stood together, pressed to the far right wall and near the hallway as if they were late coming in.

Perhaps it was instinct that drove Twilight’s gaze upward, upwards once more towards the massive circular window that oversaw the entire hall.

Celestia must have sensed it as well, the way she stood stiff, her eyes focused high above on that one spot directly opposite the stairs.

They faded into existence as if they were ghosts given form; two shimmering figures, a sinister aura radiating off their frames that wavered between a blood-red and the deepest of blacks. Smoke the color of pitch fell in heavy waves off their bodies, and it was with a silent horror that Twilight realized–they stood just as Solaire did.

They were perched like gargoyles on the walkway high above the unsuspecting crowd, the white fog in the window behind them only serving to contrast their unnatural state. One of them took a slow step forward and rested its hands on the railing. The other figure extended its arm into the air in front of itself, and there, grasped in its hand was a long staff of some sort, held vertically as if in offering.

Captain Rook stopped mid-sentence, looking upward. Celestia sucked in a sharp breath. And Twilight stood transfixed as she saw the figure’s staff pulse a pale, malevolent blue.

And Twilight Sparkle stumbled backward, hooves slipping from beneath her. She hit the floor on her side, ears ringing as spots dominating the center of her vision.

She saw Celestia first, the princess’ stance wide and her ears flat. She then saw the bright golden barrier Celestia had projected several meters in front of herself. The barrier stood brilliant and shining and shattered, its center a jagged hole multiple sizes her hoof. Its surface was a spiderweb of breaks and cracks and the entire hall was silent as a shard like glass fell from the broken barrier and to the floor.

And Twilight could only lay there paralyzed as the screams came. She could only lay there as the entire barrier fell and fractured against the tile, and she could only lay there as Celestia rushed forward, her horn aglow as she gently lay Captain Rook to the floor.

Chaos filled the hall as Celestia silently knelt by the captain’s limp form. The screams gave way to panicked shouts and the sounds of hooves scrabbling against tile. And Twilight watched in pained recognition as Celestia carefully removed the helmet from the captain’s head and bent down to whisper something in his ear. And just like that, Celestia began to rise once more.

For just that instant, Twilight could see the muscles working in Celestia’s jaw, could see the fury bubbling behind her eyes. They locked gazes and Celestia’s throat bobbed up and down and with a barely bridled rage, Celestia whipped around, her wings spread wide.

Twilight sucked in a shaky breath, keenly aware of her heart thundering against her ribcage. She remained on her side, light-headed and dizzy. She knew that if she tried to stand she would simply fall back to the floor.

“O-oh,” she whispered out, and then the bile rose in her throat. Twilight swallowed it back down and screwed her eyes shut.

Hooves pressed against her back and she felt herself being pushed and pulled as if to rouse her from sleep.

Twilight let her head hit the floor. The captain’s body lay only a few steps away.

“C’mon, we have to go.” Dash hooked her legs around Twilight’s barrel and pulled the unicorn to her hooves.

“Thanks,” Twilight murmured, returning Dash’s looks with a sidelong glance.

With one last shuddering breath she silently stepped towards the captain’s body. He had been laid down with his back to her, his armor still a mirror sheen as if he had just polished it that morning.

Twilight approached at a careful pace, pushing it from her mind that she had just walked a circle around his spreading blood. She looked down at the body, and then at the massive icicle of a crystal that lay embedded deep in his chest. It was a monstrous thing–roughly the size of her leg–and covered in dozens of razor-sharp crystalline protrusions that jutted out at harsh, tearing angles. It tore through the captain as if he simply wasn’t there.

“Twi, I barely saw it,” Dash began in a low tone. “He was just talking and then I suddenly felt like… sick to my stomach. Then I hear this whoosh behind me and I look up just as that thing flew through the air, and—” she cut herself off. “I didn’t even see the princess put up that shield. It all happened so quick.”

Twilight turned away and looked out into the great hall. The gold and blue banners adorning the fronts of the hall’s large stone columns now hung lifeless. Shards of glass littered the floor, the aftermath of dozens of champagne glasses hitting the floor at once. Most of the gala guests had already made themselves scarce save for the few still pushing at each other to get to one of the exits. She saw the multitude of guards prowling along the exterior of the massive room, steel-tipped spears in their grips.

And standing in the center of it all, staring up at the killers on high, was Princess Celestia herself.

At once, the thicker of the two figures pulled itself over railings, its legs slightly bent as it plummeted several meters and slammed into the tile below like a meteor. Through the cloud of dust the figure slowly rose off its fist and knee and seemingly met Celestia’s gaze through its spiked, faceless helm. The closer Twilight looked the more she realized that it was iron barbs that sprouted from every surface of its armor.

The figure up above bore a more elegant form. Her thin frame was plainly adorned: a form-fitting outfit layered over with a light cloak that fell over her shoulders and ended partway down her back. She moved with grace as she vaulted over the railing, her staff held away from her body as she landed with barely a sound. A cowl concealed her eyes and despite the blood red aura that engulfed the intruders’ forms, Twilight could still make out the pale ivory skin that peeked out from beneath the thinner figure’s hood.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash stood at the top of the grand staircase, worry across both their faces as they took in the scene at the far side of the hall. Horns primed and wings spread, two dozen guards slowly formed a loose semi-circle around the intruders. The guards kept a wide berth and for every unicorn a spear floated poised in the air just above their heads, steel tips all pointing inward at the pulsing red figures.

“An odd place,” came the voice. “You kill one of their own and yet...”

The hooded one scanned its gaze across the guards opposing them and through the silence came a decidedly more feminine voice.

“This is no dream,” Celestia snapped. She paused and took a single step forward, her next words coming slowly as if they were venom leaving her lips. “What are your names? Why have you come?”

“And I am Adria,” said the hooded figure. Her voice was cold and controlled, void of any emotion. “We seek a man who has stepped beyond his means, a man who has within his possession that which does not belong to him. Tell me, horse...”

In a very deliberate gesture the one called Adria slowly tilted her head to the side.

Twilight could almost feel the tension in the air as Princess Celestia gave her response.

“When Knight Solaire came to us he acted with the utmost grace and civility and answered all the questions we asked of him. He even spoke of you, Adria, and of how you turned your blade on him when he considered you a friend.”

Ever so slightly, Adria tilted her head upward. It was with a certain finality when she next spoke.

At once, a visible wave of pressure pulsed from Adria’s staff. It shot outward at a speed faster than sound, a veritable shock wave of compressed force that bent and distorted air. Spears shattered. Guards reeled and lurched, clutching at their ears. And Kirk stepped forward, a ball of swirling red flame held high in an armored palm above his head.

Celestia worked quickly. A bright golden barrier formed around the intruders and Twilight could feel the atmosphere crackle in response as the princess’s horn burned with destructive intent.

But Twilight had only eyes for the one called Kirk. Through the barrier the spiked figure could just barely be seen, both his arms raised as if in offering to the growing flame between his hands. His fingers snapped and twitched and with immense force he bent down and slammed the raging inferno deep into the tile, the flame disappearing from sight.

Celestia faltered. Her wings clamped tight against her sides. And Twilight looked on in shocked horror as the floor of the grand hall erupted in fire.

It hurt to see. The brightest oranges and reds, massive pillars of blazing hot inferno that writhed and twisted through the air like hatred given form.

And It hurt to hear. The explosion of magma, the roar of fire. It didn’t quite drown out the screams.

Twilight let her mind go blank. She could see her friend in the corner of her eyes, could see the way her lips trembled and wings shook.

At once, Twilight spun on her hooves and hooked both her forelegs around Rainbow Dash’s neck. She sparked her horn and focused.

As she funneled every drop of strength into the spell, as her eyes watered and jaw ached, she realized that distance would not be an issue.

“Twilight!” Rainbow screamed, and the two disappeared in a pop of displaced air just as the flames reached the bottom of the stairs.

Art of the Flame of Chaos, which engulfed the Witch of Izalith and her daughters. Erects localized chaos fire pillars.

The Witch of Izalith, in an ambitious attempt to copy the First Flame, created instead the Flame of Chaos, a twisted bed of life.

Grossly Incandescent

by Crack Javelin

Chapter Seven - Turn Them to Ash