//------------------------------// // Episode 1-7 // Story: Domain of Friendship // by Cold Bolt //------------------------------// “…and as soon as she finished, we rushed over to fix the bridge and catch up with you guys!” Satisfied with her story, Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs as she floated along above Twilight, who took the next few seconds to process everything she’d just heard as she marched along. “Waterwing?” Twilight finally broke her contemplation. “Was all of that really true?” “Hey!” Rainbow protested. To her credit, however, Waterwing nodded seriously. “Hmm…” Twilight spent another moment in thought. “Well. I’m very proud of you both for making it out of all that in one piece… but that means Scarlet Starbeam was right.” Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “About what?” “Nightmare Moon knows we’re after the Elements.” A feeling of dread built up inside Twilight. “The rest could have all just been coincidences, but this one was a blatant trap… which almost certainly means they all were. We need to be really careful from here on out.” At long last, their destination stood before them. Once a proud palace, the Castle of the Two Sisters now lay in ruins; its crumbling walls and ruined towers were overgrown with vines, and the front gate had long since weathered away. As the others filed through the doorway, Rainbow Dash hung back for a moment, landing gingerly a few feet back. “Hey, Waterwing?” Waterwing blinked and turned toward Rainbow, her head tilted. “Uh…” Rainbow averted her gaze, rubbing one foreleg with the opposite hoof. “I don’t think I said it before, so um… thanks. You… probably saved my life back there.” Waterwing calmly trotted up to Rainbow Dash and wrapped one foreleg around her, hugging gently. Rainbow gave a bashful smile, but this was short-lived; as soon as she caught sight of Twilight grinning at the both of them, her cheeks turned a soft crimson and she gently nudged Waterwing away. “Yeah, yeah… I can only handle so much sap at once, okay? Let’s get going.” Waterwing beamed, the two quickly following Twilight inside the castle. The interior looked no better for the time it had spent abandoned; moonlight shone through the crumbled ceiling ten meters high at least, illuminating the dust and debris littering the floor. The hall in which they now found themselves stretched toward a dais at the end on which a pair of magnificent thrones stood, one midnight blue and the other golden yellow. A pair of tapestries hung above these, each depicting a regal-looking pony; one blue, whose crescent emblem stood flanked by stars, and the other yellow, whose sphere of daylight almost seemed to shine from the fabric. The walls were lined with tall doorways, through which staircases and halls presumably led to other parts of the castle. Tank Buster glanced around at the fallen chunks of stone. “Well, this place has seen better days.” Twilight marched to the fore of the group. “We should take a look around. There must be a clue somewhere that will lead us to the Elements.” She turned to face the group. “Nopony should go anywhere alone. Nightmare Moon has got to be lurking around here somewhere, so we can’t be too careful.” Rainbow Dash floated up to a nearby staircase. “Hey, Fluttershy, let’s check out this - ow.” Suddenly wincing in pain, she landed gently and looked back at her injured leg, whose wrapping was a bit redder than it had been a few minutes ago. “Oh no…” Fluttershy’s ears drooped as she flew to Rainbow Dash’s side. “Rainbow… I think you should rest instead.” “Fluttershy, I’m fine! I just need to… ow.” Rainbow winced again. “Alright, maybe taking a breather isn’t such a bad idea…” Brushing some dust away, Rainbow curled up in the shadow of a particularly large fallen ceiling tile and laid her head down. Waterwing gently took a seat next to Rainbow and turned to Fluttershy, pointing first at herself and then at Rainbow Dash. “Are you going to look after her, then?” Fluttershy asked. Waterwing nodded. With that, the rest of the party split into groups to have a look around. Pinkie Pie bounced her way up a nearby staircase, followed close behind by Fluttershy, while Rarity and Applejack wandered down a dimly-lit corridor and peered into a side room. This left Twilight, Scarlet, and Tank examining the dais in the main hall. Tank marched in a slow circle around the blue throne, eyeing it up and down. “So what exactly is this place again?” Twilight tapped her hoof against the slabs of stone comprising the wall behind the thrones. “In the distant past, long before the forest grew around it, this was the royal palace. It was moved to Canterlot almost a thousand years ago.” “Royal palace…?” Scarlet echoed the phrase, looking up briefly from her task of stepping on each floor tile in turn to look over the tapestries above the thrones. “Nightmare Moon did mention a crown when she appeared. Was she truly a member of the monarchy?” Twilight looked over and nodded. “We don’t have time for the whole story now, but she used to be Princess Luna, Princess Celestia’s younger sister. She envied her elder sister’s position for so long that she gave in to her thirst for power and tried to take the throne by force. That’s when Princess Celestia used the raw energy of the five known Elements of Harmony to banish her to the moon.” Tank climbed onto the blue throne and sat down. “So the current Princess Celestia is a descendant of the one from back then, I’m guessing?” Twilight quirked an eyebrow. “Uh… no? They’re the same pony.” Tank stood up. “Wait, what? How does that work? Nightmare Moon said she’d been imprisoned for a thousand years. That would mean Princess Celestia is well over a millennium old.” Twilight stared at Tank quizzically. “Alicorn princesses live for thousands of years. Everypony knows that.” “Oh.” Tank blinked. “Uh… right! Of course.” He gave Twilight a sheepish grin. Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but at that very moment, something caught her eye. “Wait, what’s this?” The three of them gathered around to have a look at what turned out to be an odd-looking extrusion about an inch square on the back of the yellow throne. Scarlet looked it over. “Is that a switch?” “There’s one way to find out.” Twilight gently pressed it inward. Immediately, a portion of the back wall behind them began slowly and noisily sinking into the floor, revealing a staircase leading downward. A faint light came from the room down below. Tank looked over his shoulder briefly. His gaze met Waterwing’s further back in the hall, and when she nodded, he turned back to Twilight. “Well, I doubt this is gonna be as easy as just the one switch, but let’s check it out regardless.” With that, the three of them descended the staircase into the depths of the castle. As soon as the trio reached the bottom of the stairs, Twilight gasped. “Look, there they are!” The hall in which they now found themselves was marginally smaller than the one they had just left. The walls lacked any windows or doors, and upon the dais at the far end sat a short column with a large glowing orb perched on top. Surrounding it were five smaller mounts attached to the central column, on which a series of colorful gemstones sat, one each shining brilliantly in shades of orange, purple, red, pink, and sky blue. The three ponies approached this monument slowly, the better to take in the brilliance of the display before them. “Are those the Elements of Harmony, then?” Scarlet’s eyes lit up. “How beautiful…” “Huh.” Tank shrugged. “Well, that was easy. So much for macguffin hunting, I guess.” Twilight beamed. “This is perfect! Quick, let’s go collect everypony upstairs before Nightmare Moon gets here!” Having turned back to face Twilight, Scarlet winced. “Er… Tank, you may have spoken a bit too soon…” “Huh? Why do you - ?” As soon as Twilight caught sight of the staircase behind them, she stopped mid-sentence and her eyes went wide in terror. Tank sighed. “Because you can’t really outrun someone when they’re already here.” Nightmare Moon towered before them from the doorway, a nasty grin slowly spreading across her face.