//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Felix Draconis: Lux et Tenebrae // by xanshriekal //------------------------------// For the fifth time this afternoon there was a knock at the library's door. Twilight yelled and threw her book down, “Agh! How is anypony supposed to study with all these visitors?” She got up and stalked over to the door and opened it with a huff of her magic. “Yes? What do you-” The royal guards stood outside with the chariot. “Oh! Oh my, I'm so sorry. Please come in.” She backed up and three guards entered. Two of them carried a large jeweled chest with their magic. Outside, two pegasi stood watch. “Ms. Twilight Sparkle,” the pegasus said. “We have brought this to you, by order of the princess.” “Is that the Elements of Harmony?” Twilight asked. She'd seen the chest once before, back during the discord incident. “Only Princess Celestia or Princess Luna can open that.” “It will open when you and your friends are present. I was told you have an assistant?” “Uh, yes. Spike!” she called, hoping the dragon wasn't having one of his naps again. They waited a moment while some noise came from the kitchen. It vaguely sounded like someone saying 'hold on a moment.' Twilight bristled at him before turning back apologetically to the guards. “Uh, just one moment, sirs.” They didn't respond and she flashed off. The sound of pots and pans crashing to the floor along with an inexplicable cat's wail came from the kitchen, followed by a purple unicorn shoving the baby dragon out as he protested. “Here we are, one assistant,” she said, puffing her chest out. “You could've just waited,” Spike grumbled. “Spike!” she hissed and he sighed. “Well, hey fellas, what do you need?” The guard was rather unimpressed. “You know where to find Twilight's friends, correct?” The dragon nodded. “Please bring them here, quickly.” Spike saluted. “Aye, Aye, sir! Ah, but what about Rainbow Dash? She disappeared with you guys yesterday.” “Ms. Rainbow Dash is with the princess. Please bring the others. The princess has need of the Elements of Harmony.” The dragon saluted again and ran off. Twilight looked back at the guards confused. “But how can we use the elements if Rainbow Dash isn't here.” “I'm sorry, Ms. Twilight,” the guard said, “My instructions were to bring the chest and your friends together. Once they are here you will open the chest and retrieve the contents. Then we will return to the castle with the chest.” “But how can we open it or even use the elements without all of us here?” “Not that it is my place to presume the princess' intentions, but I believe she has made arrangements for that.” “Well,” Twilight said, hoof to her chin in thought. “I suppose if those are the princess' instructions she must have made sure the five of us can open it. Oh well.” She looked back at the guards, who were stoic and silent as ever. “Um, is there anything I can get you to drink?” “No, thank you.” “Right,” she said. The awkwardness was building slowly. “Um, in that case, I'll just be over here, if you need anything.” The guard nodded and she walked back to her book. It may have been awkward, but Twilight was a master egghead. She could read even if the world was ending around her and had actually done so at one point. Fifteen minutes later the door opened. Her friends had finally arrived and Spike looked a little annoyed. “Look, we'll go back to get you a sofa later, Pinkie,” he said, apparently the end of an argument. “Uh, what?” Twilight looked up from her book with an eyebrow raised. “Don't worry about it, Twilight,” Rarity said, hoof over Pinkie's mouth. “Now, what is this all about? It's not usual for the guards to show up uninvited like this.” The others nodded in agreement. The pegasus guard indicated the chest as the unicorns set it down. “Princess Celestia has sent this to you. She was very specific in her instructions. You are to remove the contents of the chest and then send it back with us.” “Alright, then, let's see what it is,” Applejack said. She reached a hoof over to open the shiny box, not quite recognizing it. She landed her hoof on the latch, but it wouldn't open. “Huh, must be stuck.” She grabbed it in her forelegs and pulled harder, trying to pry the latch off with her mouth.” “That's not going to work, silly Applekjack!” Pinkie giggled. “What d'ya mean it ain't gonna work?” “That's the chest for the Elements of Harmony, dear,” Rarity said. “Yup!” Pinkie chimed. “So we all have to open it together!” Applejack shook her head and set the chest down. “Well how in the hay is that supposed ta work? We're missin' Rainbow.” Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin. “My guess is that Princess Celestia had Rainbow activate her part already.” “So what're we supposed ta do?” Twilight shrugged. “I dunno, pass it around?” “Well I already tried, so somepony else go,” Applejack said. She picked up the chest and handed it to Rarity. The unicorn tried using her magic delicately on the latch and then the gems. The box remained shut tight and she shrugged and passed it to Pinkie. Pinkie set it down and began examining it from all angles, literally. She pounded on it, tossed a cake at it, jack-hammered it, begged, and finally collapsed on top of it. Nothing opened it and she humphed, moving on to something else. Twilight looked at Fluttershy who stepped over and tried knocking politely. Immediately she jumped back, crouching behind her hooves, but nothing happened. Twilight sighed and looked up to the guards, but they had already left. She had no clue why and paced around the chest. “I don't get it. What are we supposed to do?” She picked it up and shook it furiously like a filly at Hearth's Warming. With a small click the top opened and a small sheet of paper. “Huh? That's not the elments,” she said. Rarity levitated the paper over to her. “It says, 'Meet me in the forest castle tonight.'” “What! Lemme see that,” Applejack demanded. Rarity passed it over with a shrug and the farmer read it over. “And its signed RD.” “RD!?” Pinkie jumped over, knocking AJ aside. “It's from Rainbow Dash! She must be on a secret mission from the princess! She's probably zooming all around Equestria, but she'd have to be sneaky, so she can't zoom like normal cuz then she'd leave rainbows everywhere. But if she was flying slowly it'd be weird.” Pinkie sat back on her haunches staring at the ceiling in thought. “And she can't get from Canterlot to here if she goes slowly. Maybe Princess Celestia made her invisible! But if she was invisible then how would we know where she was if we got there? How would she know where she was?” “Ah, right then,” AJ said after a moment. “Then I guess we'd better get going.” “So early?” Rarity asked as Twilight threw the paper into the fireplace. “Remember last time we tried to go there? It took us all day!” Applejack said. “Well, it was dark out,” Fluttershy said. “And Nightmare Moon was getting in the way too. It shouldn't take us all day to get there.” “Then we've got plenty of time to prepare,” Twilight said as she opened the door. “Here you go sirs. Everything is in order. Please thank the princess and let her know we're on it.” She levitated the chest to the guards who took it back to the chariot. The pegasus bowed to her and they flew off. “Right then,” she said as she kicked the door shut with a back leg. “Spike, let's make a list: Preparations for the Everfree Forest.” * * * Celestia sat across from the human. Dinner was fine as always, but conversation was lacking. Finally, a human had returned to Equestria. After all those years they'd come back. As kind and loving as she was, she had never got over her distaste for humans. When she'd had to banish Nightmare Moon she had been heartbroken for a hundred years. A hundred years before that Yarrel the Malignant had rallied the other dragons around him to destroy Equestria and enslave the land. She and Luna had killed him with sorrow in their hearts. The only pony to ever warrant the death penalty, Star-Crossed the Mad, had killed so many and defiled them, and yet she cried for days after sending him to the dragons (in the end she had not been able to kill him herself). But the humans had been just like Discord. They had defiled the land and tried to enslave everything from ponies to dragons. If that had been all, though, perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad. For a little while she had been able to hold back the tide of progress by appealing to the other races and the few humans left who still cared about the land. The humans caught on, though, and spread their propaganda to the other races. That was when she and Luna had moved and banished every human from the world and then sealed it off. She still felt no remorse for that, just as there was no remorse for imprisoning Discord. The land would not be abused. But here sat a human. A human in Equestria for the first time in millenia. She had done nothing wrong and very few other ponies knew about her. The land didn't even reject her, as had been proven that morning. If the land still bore a grudge against humans, they would not have survived the morning's ritual. Even so, Celestia didn't trust her. Not only had she and her husband broken through the barriers around the world, but they had come with strange and powerful magic. They were strong enough to rival the princesses and had claimed that others waited back home. If this was an invasion, it was a rather polite one. Although, it was really more like they were just putting pressure on the princesses: be friends or else. As far as politics went, this was relatively normal. Still...something about this human, about both of them, was a little off. There was something else here, something that she felt like she missed, but it was getting late and she couldn't put her hoof on it. Maybe in the morning she would figure it out. A dark sparkle caught her eye and she turned toward the window. The evening star was showing and she could see the guards beginning to assemble on the plinth outside. The sun was getting low and it was time for the evening ritual. Again, not really necessary, but Celestia could feel the land pushing them toward it. Like this morning, the land wanted something, was waiting for something. She looked back to Savannah, who had apparently felt the night's arrival. She was looking a little more perky and her gaze was on the darkening sky. She'd only been here one day and already syncing with the land's power. Luna would be up soon, and Celestia guessed that Savannah was already saying good morning to Daniel. She stood and walked to the door, Savannah joining her after a moment. They walked through the corridors softly, toward the stone plinth. Savannah broke the silence, “Princess Celestia?” The alicorn raised an eyebrow. “Do you know of any other deities?” The princess was surprised at the question and thought for a moment, pausing in mid-step. “No,” she said. She continued walking again, feeling the land pulling her to the stone. “Why do you ask?” “I was just wondering. It might have something to do with how we cam here,” Savannah said. She didn't say anything else and Celestia let her keep her silence for now. The pull of the land, wanting to turn to night, was very strong now and already she was preparing the spell to lower the sun. The two of them walked out on the ancient stone to find Luna and Daniel already there. The alicorns' horns were glowing as they stepped into place on opposite sides of the magic circle. Day and night had reversed since this morning, but the scene was otherwise unchanged. The pony illusions melted off the humans and the princesses raised their horns to the sky. “THIS IS THE HOUR OF TWILIGHT,” Celestia said, her voice piercing across the land with the last rays of the dying sun. “THIS IS THE HOUR OF DAWN,” Luna replied, her voice falling over the land like a mist. She nodded to Daniel and he stepped into the circle to meet Savannah. Immediately the magic circle began to glow as before, with wisps and auroras of yellow and blue. The humans met in the center and sat, locking hands as they had done before. Luna looked to her sister to see her eyes and horn glowing. The magic was surging up and Luna couldn't deny it either. The land wanted something. Being back in Equestria was strange enough after a thousand years away, but to feel the land waken like this was different. The last time she had felt the land call out was during Discord's reign. Back then six ponies had sacrificed themselves to bring Luna and her sister back from the heavens. Back then the land had cried out in vengeance and had granted the sisters with the powers of the Elements of Harmony. This was similar, but the land wasn't being very clear. There was nothing to declare vengeance on, but the land still wanted something. She could feel it trying to reach up and out. Was there something outside the world that it wanted? By now the amount of power around had taken on a life of its own, leaving Luna free to take a closer look at the magic. The sigil in the stone had flared up again and the wind was beginning to swirl. Luna closed her eyes and looked out with mage-sense. She could see the magic of the land flowing into the stone from all over Equestria. It was stronger than this morning. She traced it up into the sigil, which acted as a sort of magical CPU (Twilight would have loved the chance to study this). From there some of the magic was shooting through the alicorns and she could see the opposing spells casting themselves through her and her sister. Celestia, a blazing white silhouette, was also examining the spell. Luna thought. The white blaze nodded. Luna looked at the center of the magic circle, past all the matrices and frames. In the middle sat two flames, one white and the other black. The flames had a vaguely human shape, but it seemed they also had wings. Power was flowing into them from refining nodes around the circle. The nodes were drawing some power from the land and some from the princesses and some from the magical gems around their necks. It was being changed and channeled through the humans, shooting up into the sky. Luna asked. Celestia replied. Luna concluded. Celestia nodded. the white princess said. They watched as the sun set and the moment of twilight approached. The winds were gales now, but the princesses could barely feel them. The magic of the sigil was changing. Whatever the land was trying to do, it was getting ready to do it. Luna watched as the nodes moved around the circle and new matrices formed, faster and faster now. It was almost exponential and if her instincts were right, it was likely timed for twilight. She chanced a look back at the sun and confirmed: there were only seconds left. Suddenly the magic running through her shifted and a torrent of raw power rushed through her. She heard herself screaming, or maybe it was her sister. She could sense the guards trying to approach but their attempts at help were so feeble they were barely even blips to her mage-sense. She strained to look upwards at the final spell matrix above the humans and nearly staggered in surprise. The white princess reacted in shock and immediately they grabbed control over their magic. The land fought back. On the scale of microseconds the princesses took control over the torrential flow of magic and closed off the channels to the sigil. But the land had other plans. Just as she shut down the flow to the sigil, the land stopped giving her power and in that moment the sun set. It was twilight. The sisters scrambled to rally their own power, trying to force the sun down and the moon up by sheer force of will, but their familiar heavenly bodies wouldn't listen and in the moment of twilight, now approaching half a second, the portal was opening. Celestia cried, The white blaze coalesced into an alicorn and a new stream of magic flew from it to the portal, binding it. Immediately Luna responded with a blast of her own power. The land raged against them, but the ties had already been severed and as long as they held the gems, the humans were powerless to help it. The alicorns were winning and the portal began to close. The land's power faltered and fell apart and in the last moment of twilight, just before the portal closed, a new spell shot forth from the human flames in the center. The spell, it was a tiny thing, entered the portal as it closed with a thunderclap. On the stone, the winds raged with the force of a small hurricane as the magical backlash exploded outward. Ponies watching said they could see the pressure wave race away and down in Canterlot nearly every window was shattered. Ponies there rarely took storm-proofing measures. The humans were blown to the ground and the sisters collapsed, heaving. The glow of their horns faded, but the moon was up and moving. Guards and advisers came running out as soon as the winds settled. The princesses struggled back to their hooves amidst concerned nurses and guards. Luna looked across the stone to Celestia, who was staring at the humans. “That...spell,” she said, out of breath. “Luna, that spell...did you see...what it was?” The night princess shook her head as the nurses brushed her down. A large bucket of water found its way over to her and she plunged her head in, drinking heavily. She came up with a gasp and took several breaths. “Nay, sister. I only saw that it was the humans' spell, not part of the lands' magic.” She took another drink, this one more composed, before walking toward the humans. She poked them while Celestia took a few moments to recover. Despite common perceptions, the two alicorns were equal in power and therefore equal in exertion. “They knew what the land was trying to do,” Celestia said, her face now dripping water. “Guards, wake them.” The guards moved over with buckets of water and unceremoniously dumped them on the humans. They stirred and sat up slowly, clearly somewhat grumpy but not as drained as the alicorns. “Good evening, Your Majesties,” Daniel said. He looked up at the princesses and then smiled as if he had heard a good in-joke. “Looks like things didn't go quite as planned, eh?” The princesses frowned at him. Savannah didn't pay him any mind but looked closely at the princesses and then at the sigil on the ground. “What was that spell thou cast?” Luna asked. Daniel knotted his eyebrows together for a moment in thought. “Oh, at the end there?” He relaxed against Savannah who looked a little annoyed at him. “It was a communication spell, no big deal. Once we recover a bit we'll send the second half and things'll be alright.” “Communication spell? You plan on summoning the others here!?” Celestia perked up regaining some of her poise. Daniel shook his head. “No! Geez, I don't know what humans did to you in the past but we're not trying any of that. It's just a spell to let the folks back home know that we're doing alright.” “Then why didst thou say there was a second half?” Luna inquired. She had a good idea what this spell really was. “Because that's part of procedure,” Savannah said, standing up. She was still looking at the sigil instead of the royal pony sisters. “Send home two messages so that no one thinks anything strange is going on wherever we are.” “And if you don't send the second part?” Celestia asked. Savannah shrugged. “Someone comes looking.” “So it summons your whole family?” “No, just one person. Just coming in to check up on things. Sometimes they have a partner, depending on what we already know about the location.” She sighed and looked up at the moon, drinking in the power of the night. “Was thy spell successful?” Luna asked. Savannah shrugged again. Daniel stood and said, “We couldn't tell. The portal was closing too quickly. We don't even know where it was trying to open up to.” The princesses relaxed a little. “Very well then,” Luna said. “We will consider the implications of this. But for tonight, thou shalt spend the night in the dungeon. The barriers around our world were nearly shattered because of thee.” “Are you serious?” Daniel demanded angrily. “I know you sensed what was happening here tonight. None of this was our fault at all. We had no control over that magic.” “We know,” Celestia said. The guard ponies gathered around the humans. “But we cannot risk you sending another message home. And if the land needs you for its purposes, then it is best we keep you away from it for the time being until we can figure it out.” “Besides, with this display of power and lingering sentiment the ponies tonight will be quite agitated,” Luna said. “I will not be able to watch over you. And I suspect Savannah needs rest.” The girl shrugged at that. “Very well, princesses,” Daniel said, placing his hands behind his back and allowing the guards to lead them away. “But don't ask us to help you with those gems.” Luna looked down at Savannah's gem for the first time that evening. For the past day she had felt a large reservoir of power inside, enhancing her every spell. But now it looked dull and she couldn't feel anything from it. A glance at Celestia confirmed the same was true for her. Either the gems were empty, burned out, or they had somehow been sealed from the alicorns. With no reserves to call on and not much power left after the foiled ritual, Luna prayed to the land that the night be a peaceful one. * * * Author's Note: I will be making major revisions in the next few days to the earlier chapters. I say major revisions, but it's more like rewriting. I want the other chapters to be more like this one--told from the ponies' point of view. That means I'll be cutting a lot and rewriting what I don't cut. It also means that there will be less exposition about Equestria. I also plan to cut out a lot of the exposition regarding human history save the stuff that's needed to explain the magic of the humans. My goal here is to try and make this more ponified and to help readers feel less lost at the beginning. After all, the readers are more similar to the ponies in that these humans are strange and new and come from a world that is unknown, so it makes more sense to tell the story from a familiar perspective. In the meantime, thanks for reading this far. Leave me a comment if you have some feedback or an opinion about my proposed editing.