//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: The Spark to Light a Candle // by SPark //------------------------------// “Derpy, go,” whispered Pinkie. The blonde pegasus nodded solemnly and took to the air, racing ahead of the little band of rebels. In one hoof she held a stick of explosive, in the other a match. She didn't have far to go. While the rest waited amid the buildings that stood nearest the palace, Derpy crossed the last few yards to the palace gate itself. A pair of wary guards stood outside it. They looked at her with narrowed eyes. The gate itself still stood open, though the inner door was closed. “Halt!” said one unicorn. Derpy landed on her hind legs, still clutching the TNT and the match. “What are you...” started one guard. “Muffins!” said Derpy cheerfully, holding up the stick of dynamite. She struck the match, lit the fuse, and flung the stick as hard as she could. It hit the inner door with a thud and fell to the floor. The guards all gaped at it for a long moment, but before they could do anything else it exploded. The sound was the signal for Pinkie and the others to charge. Luna took the lead, her horn blazing. The dynamite had cracked the physical doors, but there were spells to crack as well. She swept them aside with ease. There was no need to save her power now, for at last she would be able to draw on the full might of the moon at need. She clattered through the debris-strewn guardroom, trying to not look too closely at what was there. The dynamite had not just shattered the doors, it had shattered the guards as well. The other ponies were close on her heels, but as they made their way through into the palace proper one of the guards, blood-spattered and with a mad light in his eyes, rose from the floor and leaped at the little band, horn aglow. With a battle cry, the nearest rebel unicorn met him horn to horn. Luna, glancing back, was a bit shocked to see that it was Jet Set, who'd done nothing but complain and whine the entire time he'd been with them. He wasn't complaining now though. His horn blazed, and his hooves lashed out at the guardspony, but he was still thin and weak, as all the mine unicorns were. He was soon being pushed back. The rest of the rebels were still running past him, but another unicorn came up beside him and stabbed the guard in the throat with sudden, shocking efficiency. It was Colgate, her horn now stained bright crimson. “Come on, we can't get bogged down here. Keep moving!” Soon all the rebels were inside. They halted for a moment, looking at the huge reception room, with stairs going up, doors leading to halls, and archways letting out into the frozen gardens. “Pinkie!” said Luna, taking charge. “The stairs will lead to the throne room. One of the doors over there,” she gestured,” goes down into the catacombs, where Twilight is likely to be held. You go that way. Everyone else, fan out and cause as much chaos as you can. We only need to keep everypony here distracted until we find Twilight and get the elements to the throne room.” “Right!” Pinkie Pie bounced with a kind of fierce excitement. “And whatever you do, you five stick together!” said Luna. Then she was off, horn aglow as she dashed towards the distant throne room. “Okie Dokie!” said Pinkie Pie. “Let's go!” She galloped towards one of the doors, with Fluttershy close at her side. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash streamed behind, with Spitfire and a few more of the former pegasus slaves trailing after. Dale and Big Mac, standing with the remaining rebels in the middle of the room, exchanged glances. Dale jerked his head to the left. Big Mac nodded and turned to the right. They each still bore their saddlebags stuffed with explosives. Derpy, grinning a manic grin, the effect only enhanced by the way her eyes wandered independently, swooped down to Dale's side. “Let's go... buck up their muffins, shall we,” Dale asked her with a smile. Derpy nodded enthusiastically and the pair set off, with a few more rebels in tow, to cause whatever chaos they could. “Nightmare! I caught the traitor, Twilight Sparkle. The one that caused all this!” Nightmare Moon’s head snapped up. A killing spell hovered at the tip of her horn, for whoever had dared to interrupt her vitally important work on the ice pony. Then she saw that it was Spike, the little dragon. He was something of a pet project, or perhaps just a pet, and she did not want to throw away the work she had put into him thus far. She stayed her hoof and dismissed the spell’s energies rather than casting it. “What did you say?” “Twilight Sparkle! I caught her trying to get into the palace!” Her eyes narrowed. Two dead mares in one evening? “Have her brought here.” “Yes, Your Majesty,” said Spike, and with a ridiculous little salute he scurried out of the room. When he returned some time later he was followed by a pair of unicorn guards, who flanked a single unicorn mare. A single, impossible unicorn mare, for she was unmistakably Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's prized student, who had opposed her so valiantly and so stupidly when she'd first returned. “No,” said Nightmare Moon, madness and rage flashing over her face. “No! You're dead! I killed you myself!” “Wh-what?” Spike stammered incredulously. “But Nightmare, you told me... you told me she betrayed Celestia, summoned you back, and then ran away. She abandoned Equestria. She... you...” “Shut up!” said Nightmare Moon. She stalked down from the dais, ignoring the suddenly anguished and confused little dragon who scurried aside just before she would have trampled him. Nose to nose with Twilight, Nightmare Moon snarled at her. “You can't be here! You can't be alive! What is going on?” Suddenly a distant, muffled explosion sounded. Nightmare Moon's head snapped up. Then she gasped. “That magic! No! It can't be!” Twilight, who'd been just standing there, dazed, confused, unfocused, suddenly lifted her head. Luna and the others. It must be. They'd come for her. She smiled. Nightmare Moon turned back to her, her teeth bared in a snarl. “You're going to tell me what is going on. You are impossible. The magic I sense is impossible. The things I've been told, all impossible! Tell me!” “No,” said Twilight simply. “Fine. Your cooperation is not required.” Nightmare Moon's mane, a dark cloud shimmering with magic, reached out and wrapped around Twilight, dragging her across the room. In her anger, the alicorn didn't even care that she was marring her beautiful frost; no more than she'd cared about ruining her careful cultivation of Spike. She was far too enraged, and it was better to act on that rage than to face the fear bordering on terror that lurked beneath it. She flung Twilight down roughly beside the throne and fastened her chains to a ring there (a feature that had been added since she had taken this place from her sister). To the unicorns that had brought Twilight in she barked a quick command. “Go! And find out what is going on!” They instantly obeyed, leaving only the two usual guards flanking the door, and Spike, who still stood in the middle of the room, staring at Twilight in blank shock. Nightmare Moon glared at him. “Out!” “But I...” “OUT!” Her horn lit, and Spike immediately scurried toward the door. “Now,” said Nightmare Moon, advancing on Twilight with her horn aglow, “You will explain what in Tirek's name is happening!” Twilight's horn lit in defiance. “No.” she said again, flatly. “You little...!” “Pardon my intrusion, but I believe I am the one you should be interrogating.” Nighmare Moon whipped around, her mouth opening to chastise whoever would dare to interrupt her, but she stopped, gaping, at the sight of Luna standing in the doorway. Luna stood tall and defiant, and though she still felt a flutter of fear in the pit of her stomach, nothing of that showed in her face. Her horn blazed with shimmering magic, sparkles of it hovering around her like the stars on a moonlit night. Her cutie mark too seemed almost to glow, and her coat in contrast was the deep color of the sky just before the first hint of sunrise. Twilight, looking at her, felt her heart leap. In that moment Luna was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. “Luna!” she cried, her eyes shining. “Twilight,” said Luna. “No! You are both dead! DEAD!” thundered Nightmare Moon. Luna laughed suddenly. “I live. It is you who should be dead. You never should have lived at all. You were a terrible mistake--one that I shall rectify posthaste!” With that she leaped forward, galloping across the room. Nightmare Moon charged to meet her. They met in the center of the room, horn to horn, with a crash that seemed to reverberate to the very foundations of the castle itself. Dale trotted down a corridor. The palace was full of such magnificent halls, hung with tapestries or lined in stained glass windows. Quite a few of the windows were shattered where he and his troop had passed. He'd gotten separated from most of the other rebels; the only ones with him now were Derpy Hooves and Pokey Pierce, one of Pinkie's unicorns. “Muffin,” declared Derpy, in this case probably meaning she was going to scout a bit ahead, for she soared down the long hall, while Dale and Pokey trailed behind. “Do you know why... uh...” Dale turned to Pokey hesitantly, his curiosity finally overcoming his manners. “Why she only says muffin?” “Yes.” “Nopony knows why muffin specifically, but... I think it's because of what happened during the battle of Ponyville. She lost her daughter. Nopony on either side was targeting foals, but these things happen. She's never been the same since then. I mean, she was always a little odd, her eyes were always like that and she had quite a few other little quirks. But she could talk like anyone else. After she found her daughter though, well... muffin is all I've heard her say since.” “Oh. I'm sorry.” Pokey shrugged. “Everypony’s lost somepony, I think. I just hope that your Luna can really beat Nightmare Moon and end all this.” “She can,” said Dale confidently. Even now he could feel, through the connection, that battle had been joined. There was no fear in Luna any more; she was holding her own. That was all she had to do; just hold her own long enough for Pinkie Pie and the others to find Twilight... “Muffin!” shouted Derpy in warning, soaring back towards them. Behind her the sound of clattering hooves heralded another squad of guards. “Time for some kaboom,” said Pokey with a grin. His horn lit and he lofted a stick of TNT from Dale's saddlebags to Derpy. “Muffin,” she chirped affirmatively, and Pokey's magic flared again as he lit the fuse, even as Derpy was racing towards the oncoming foe, a squad of Black Corps unicorns. She hurled the stick and flapped madly to a halt in mid-air. It landed in the middle of the squad and exploded in the same instant. She'd gotten very good at timing the fuses so that the enemy had no time to throw the stick back. When the deafening boom faded, the hall was still not silent, for it was now filled with the screams of wounded and dying unicorns. Grimly Dale and Pokey waded in among them. The downed ponies were mostly too shocked and injured to do much magic, and the two stallions made short work of them. They left red hoofprints as they continued down the hall, but the blood soon dried, adding to a knee-high coat of rust they both wore. The little trio had become all too expert at killing the enemy, earth pony Night Guard and unicorn Black Corps alike. “I wonder why we haven't see any pegasi yet?” mused Pokey as they went. Dale shrugged. “I'm just as glad. This would be harder if they could come at us from above.” “Yeah. They're probably away on some mission or other.” “Probably. I just hope they stay away long enough.” “Muffin!” came a shout from ahead, and the two stallions broke into a run. Time to fight again. “This maze is worse than the mines,” said Rarity, her horn lit with a spark of magic. The twisting corridors that lay beneath the palace were only occasionally illuminated by torches. They were also sometimes illuminated by windows cut into the rock, showing that the halls were carved into the mountain itself, running along its slopes for what seemed like miles in every direction. She was leading the way now, with Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack close behind. A little further back, Spitfire and Rainbow Dash walked side by side. Their heads were together in low conversation, the pair in a world of their own, not really paying attention to the other ponies. “What are we going to do, when this is all over, Dash?” said Spitfire softly. “What do you mean?” “I don't know. I just wonder if we really can make things work. With Nightmare Moon gone the world will be a happier place. But it won't undo everything that’s happened.” Rainbow Dash glanced back for a moment at her scarred sides. “Maybe now isn't the time for this,” said said, sounding somewhat irritated. “Maybe. But this fighting... it just keeps reminding me of Ponyville. I keep remembering Soarin.” Rainbow scowled. “Soarin, Soarin, Soarin. Enough of Soarin, Spitfire. Maybe it's time for you to get over him already.” Spitfire glared at Rainbow. “You don't just 'get over' losing somepony close to you.” “And just how close was he, Spitfire? He seems to be all you ever think about. Do you think about him when you're banging me, is that how 'close' you were?” “What?! You know he was like a brother to me, Rainbow! And if I need to get over him, maybe you need to get over your wings already! Earth ponies and unicorns manage just fine without them. You aren't a cripple, and it's not the end of the world that you can't fly!” She was no longer quiet, and she wasn't walking anymore either. She and Rainbow halted in the middle of the hall and shouted at each other, while the other ponies looked on in shock. “That's easy for you to say!” Tears were in Rainbow Dash's eyes, even while they were narrowed with rage. “You still can--you still have the sky! You don't know what it's like to lose that! You can't know! Nopony can!” She turned suddenly and fled down a side corridor. “Oh buck,” said Spitfire. “Oh no! Dashie, come back!” called Fluttershy. But Rainbow was already long gone. Even on foot she was very fast. “We need her!” Pinkie Pie scowled at Spitfire. “Buck it. I'll go catch her,” said Spitfire. Her wings blurred into motion and she shot down the side passage, faster than any of the others could run. “Now what?” said Applejack. Pinkie Pie sighed. “It won't do any good to find Twilight if we don't have Rainbow Dash. So now we just have to wait, and hope she comes back soon.” “Uhm. Not to rain on your parade, but ah don't think we'll get that luxury, Pinkie,” said Applejack. “Listen.” They all fell silent for a moment. In the hall behind them came a faint echoing sound of hoofsteps. A lot of hoofsteps. “Celestia-bucking strudel!” swore Pinkie in frustration. “More guards! Run!” She galloped down the path that Rainbow Dash had taken earlier, the others close on her heels. As she ran, tears gathered in her eyes and streamed back along her face. They couldn't find Twilight. Rainbow Dash was gone. The plan was falling apart and if it failed they would have no second chances. Nightmare Moon would reign forever.