The filly's mind was reeling. Apparently, Celestia really did have a sister on the Moon, as well as an evil-sounding brother out of nowhere. Now, Bee was telling her that this powerful alicorn was breaking free of his sisters' mountain prison, and Celestia needed help stopping him; but a word Bee had just used confused her.
"You think she'll need our help?"
"Yes, I do." He turned away from the window. The moonlight cast a solid shadow of him against the far wall, with the candlelight's erratic shadow flitting around it.
"But why think? Did she say she needed us or are you just assuming she will?" Bee looked down at the floor.
"I've never heard Celestia sound so worried in all the years we've been here, Sky. Whatever it is exactly that she's planning on doing, it will be difficult and thinking about it upset her." He looked back up to meet Sky's gaze. "I want to be there for her, even though I'm just a pegasus, an eyesore of a pegasus, and your magic isn't any great shakes. We might be able to do something, anything to help." Ordinarily Sky would have angrily retorted following that jibe at her magic, but she was distracted by what he'd said right before that.
"Oh Bee, please, we've been through this. You are not an eyesore, nor are you a mutant, a freak, a monstrosity or any other big word you try to shut me up with. Yes, you're very tall and you're black and yellow and your wings aren't feathery, but do you know what that does make you?" She slid off her stool and trotted over to him. "That makes you Wonderwhy. That makes you my brother. You'd be the same pony whatever you looked like. Celestia says the same thing too." Her stern expression softened. "But don't just believe me, hear her say it herself. Let's go help her out!"
Bee wasn't sure how to navigate the maelstrom in his head. He hadn't meant to say 'eyesore' but it was almost automatic. Moving to Canterlot hadn't been easy; in such a prim and proper environment, somepony like him was usually regarded with either fear or contempt. Initially he'd tried to make himself appear less threatening by choosing orange and purple work-clothes, and sporting a watch with a bright-green pastern-strap. Often though, these just exaggerated the problem. Nearly everypony he saw on a day-to-day basis was fully used to his looks by now... and yet whenever he went out in public, unless it was an obscure hour of the day, he saw worried backward glances and hasty crossings-of-streets through his glasses. They were the most austere component of his attire, being a modest brown to match his eyes.
He shook himself to return to the here and now.
"Thanks," he replied quietly through a weak smile, "but I don't even know where she is. She got up without warning and sped off."
"Huh. Maybe she doesn't want us with her after all. If she did, surely she would have told you where she was going?" Sky frowned. "But why would she want us, exactly? It's true: my magic isn't that strong or amazing yet, and you don't have any magic you can control. So what use would we be? She'd take some royal guard unicorns, surely."
Bee looked around the dishevelled study. He could clearly remember every conversation he'd ever had in here, including those with Celestia. He remembered the times they'd spent together: researching his past, helping Sky to develop her magic, discussing low-level matters of state over casual lunches. He turned back to his sister.
"Maybe she doesn't need royal guards. Maybe she just needs a friend or two." He knelt down and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "I asked you if you knew any tracking spells; if you do, now's the time to use them." Sky bit her bottom lip. "Perhaps you learnt one in case you were ever lost? Maybe Celestia taught you something about locating other ponies in case of emergency?" Sky sadly shook her head.
"Sorry Bee, I can't think of any. I don't think she ever did." Bee sat down heavily.
"Well, there goes that plan." He turned his head back towards the old book on the table, in danger of being soiled by candle wax. "We must find some way to get to her. She was really upset, she was actually crying. I haven't see- Hay!" Bee yelped as his front left hoof suddenly flew out from under him, sending him sprawling across the room.
"Oh dear, Bee I'm sorry," Sky apologised after running over to see if he was alright. "That wasn't on purpose. Actually I don't know if that was me, but I think it was. I'm sorry!" Bee looked up at her quizzically.
"That was you? Why in the world did you do that?"
"I'm not sure it was me, I felt my horn twinge when you said Celestia had been crying, and then you-" Sky began explaining, but she was abruptly cut short by Bee flinging his foreleg and smacking her on the muzzle. "Ow! Bee, I said I was sorry!"
"So am I!" he exclaimed, "I didn't do that deliberately either!" He suddenly noticed a pale blue glow around his sister's horn. "Your horn Sky, it's glowing. You're doing this after all!"
"What?" Sky crossed her eyes to look at her own horn, which was giving off its usual light signifying its use. "How strange, I'm not trying to use magic right now."
"Was it something you said? Or something that I said?" Bee asked, getting cautiously back on his hooves. Sky thought about it for a moment.
"All I can think of is... I was reminded of this one weird spell Celestia taught me the other day. It's the one she wanted me to practise while staying in Canterlot, instead of going to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration."
"What does it do, apart from give my hoof a mind of its own?"
"I don't even know, there's this short poem I have to say, and I have to completely relax and clear my head of everything else. That's what Celestia said, but every time I tried it with her, nothing happened. My horn glowed and I felt as if I was using magic, but it never did anything." Bee looked at his jumpy hoof again.
"Maybe you should try it now, properly. Say your poem, whatever it is, and maybe something sensible will happen after all. I'll try and help you work it out, okay?"
Sky nodded before moving to the open window, so she had as much empty space in front of her as possible, just in case that would be needed. She started breathing slowly and deeply. She closed her eyes and tried to empty her mind of everything, until only the five-couplet spell was shining behind her eyelids.
"Take your time Sky. No point rushing it if that stops it from working properly."
As she focused, Bee noticed that not only her horn was giving off a gentle blue glow. The white moonlight streaming through the window behind her was coloured a vivid cyan as her entire body shone blue.
"Your... horn... is glowing Sky, you look just fine so far," Bee called from across the room. "Whenever you're ready, give it a go, but try to keep it under control." He anxiously leant more weight on his miscreant of a front left hoof to hold it still.
With a final deep breath, the alicorn filly stretched out her little wings at right angles to her body, both of them individually glowing too. As calm as could be, she began her intonation:
"Water born of deepest dread, by a mighty power shed..." Bee's hoof gently tried to ease itself off the floor. Because he was expecting it this time, and because Sky was in control, he managed to remain perfectly balanced as his hoof raised itself into the air. His foreleg extended as his hoof started drifting away from him. With a shock, the realisation hit him: his hoof was reacting to the spell because the first couplet referred to water, originating from sadness and released by a 'mighty power'.
Sky's spell was meant to be performed on alicorn tears.
"I know not why you're here with me, so let my eyes your secrets see..." To stop his elevated hoof from pulling him off-balance, Bee performed an awkward tripedal shuffle in the direction it was pointing.
"I don't know why you fell to earth; cryptic darkness cloaks your birth..." The spell sounded more and more like one intended for use by ponies wishing to know why an alicorn was sad. Bee didn't think alicorns cried that often, he'd only ever seen Celestia do it once; so maybe an alicorn tear's existence guaranteed that something was seriously wrong somewhere.
"To alleviate your mother's plight, I need the path to her in sight..." Bee's errant leg led him to the window opposite where Sky was standing. Struggling with his one controllable foreleg, he opened the shutters and let his hoof stick out into the night.
"So for her sake I ask of you: a shining light..." Slowly the filly opened her eyes. Her irises had lost their usual brown colour and had become the same bright blue as her glow.
"... to guide me true," she finished quietly.
With a subdued whistling sound, her glow left most of her body, converging on her horn alone, before shooting out of the tip as a short-lived pulse of intense blue light. It travelled straight across the room and disappeared into Bee's affected hoof. This too began glowing bright blue as it tried ever harder to pull him out of the window. Then, he saw where exactly it was pointing: following his shiny blue hoof with his gaze, he found himself looking directly at the bank where he and Celestia had conversed earlier that night.
"Bee?" Sky called timidly. She was completely back to normal. "Are you alright? What's wrong with your hoof now? Do you know what those words meant?" Bee curled the side of his mouth facing her into a grin.
"Sky, go and put the rest of your usual outfit on and then follow me, and bring my work clothes too. I don't know how cold it could be where we're going."
"Wait, how will I find you?"
"I shouldn't be too hard to spot," Bee laughed as he waggled his glowing hoof. With that, he unfurled his huge wings and launched into the night, half flying, half being dragged through the sky over Canterlot.