//------------------------------// // Darkest Hour Part Two! - Because It's Midnite // Story: Twilight the Third // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// "I apologized for biting you," Moonsilver sighed. "It's hard to think when you're a bat. Brain the size of a walnut, you know." "Yeah, but it really stung and I'm still not convinced I won't turn into some kind of evil undead, or at least an alcoholic after how many bottles of wine you downed-" Twilight was cut off when she spotted motion ahead. A dark figure stepped out of the woods ahead of them. It took a lot of work to look quite as intimidating as that pony did, a dark brown cloak billowing around her in a wind that didn't touch anything else. The shadows and tangle of brush made it impossible to actually get a good look at her. "Servants of evil, I command you to turn back - you know not what lies at the end of this track!" "That's pretty offensive," Twilight said. "I mean we're... well, at least like half of us aren't evil. Maybe two thirds. Gilda, do you count as evil?" "I have seen the future in my brew, and I have seen what you intend to do," warned the pony. "I will not allow this of you." Twilight hesitated and looked at Moonsilver. "Would this be one of those enemy agents you mentioned?" Moonsilver tilted his head, looking at the cloaked figure. "I don't think so. I don't think it's even a pony. She doesn't smell like a pony." "It's a random encounter!" Pinkie Pie gasped. "And I didn't even bring my random encounter party planning kit! It includes an emergency cake with a variety of flavors to entice and amaze any possible partygoer." The newcomer pulled back her hood, revealing her stripes. "Zebra," Moonsilver said. "Told you it wasn't a pony." "Close enough," Gilda muttered, rolling her eyes. "You should be the last one to say that," Rarity scoffed. "The Griffon Empire has been at war with Zebrica for decades over the unfortunate events in Aztrotska." "I'm not really big into politics," Gilda shrugged. "Zebras aren't even native to this biome," Pinkie muttered, pulling a book out of her mane. "Do you think they rolled on chart IV-C for a desert encounter by mistake? Let's try the universal greeting." She stepped towards the zebra. "Baa weep grah nah weep ninny bong!" The zebra groaned and rubbed her snout, getting annoyed. "Do you always whine and chatter when someone is trying to tell you things that matter?" "In my very limited experience, they do," Moonsilver said. "However, the more observant will note that while you were distracted by the talking, my more sensible associate has gotten behind you." Maud's hooves wrapped around the zebra's neck. "Now, maybe you'd like to answer a few questions?" Moonsilver asked. The zebra glared up at him. "I will let her squeeze me blue before I serve an abomination like you," she said, calmly. "Wow," Moonsilver sighed. "That's really rude. I mean, no one judges you for how you were born. Just because I'm a thestral doesn't mean you can call me an abomination." "I think she means the vampony thing, darling," Rarity whispered. "Hm? Oh. Well, that's a private medical condition." "A medical condition?" Gilda snorted, amused. "Haemophilia, sensitive skin, and allergy to garlic. Can't even have Neightalian food! That's the real curse of the undead - you've finally got a great diet plan and you still have to watch what you eat." "Do not be fooled by his clever words!" The zebra struggled, trying to get away from Maud. "His dark mistress will decimate your herds!" Moonsilver rolled his eyes. "Maud, can you knock her out? I don't think she's going to help us and I'd rather not kill anypony." "Equestria will be destroyed unless you heed me!" The zebra gasped as Maud started to increase the pressure. "The evil deed, she-" The zebra went limp. "She'll only be out for a few minutes," Maud said. "Did she really manage to rhyme while passing out?" Rarity asked. Twilight shared a look with her and shrugged. "Let's just tie her to a tree and go," Gilda muttered. "That would leave her as easy prey for the dangers of the forest," Moonsilver said. "Pinkie here has been doing an excellent job giving us a wide berth from the worst of it, but I wouldn't leave a mare out here helpless just because she was misguided." "What, you want to take her with us?" Twilight asked. "Not the best option for us, but maybe the best for her," Moonsilver shrugged. "But gag her. I don't want her alerting anything else, and the rhyming was getting on my nerves." "I've met zebras before, and none of them spoke like that," Rarity put in. "What an odd affectation." "She's probably a shaman," Twilight said, pointing to the mare's golden jewelry. "They're pretty important in Zebrican culture. I'm not sure what she's doing all the way out here, though." "Nobility?" Rarity asked. "More like..." Twilight struggled for the right words, thinking. "Like someone who acts like a bridge." "She lets ponies walk all over her?" Pinkie asked. "No, I mean she connects places," Twilight said. "Half mediator between groups in dispute, half medium between this world and others. I've heard that they can see spirits, talk to the dead, glimpse the past and future..." "That explains the gold, at least," Rarity sighed. "If I could see the future I'd be rich." "You are rich," Maud said, flatly. "Yes, but I'm only as rich as a pony who is good with money. Not as rich as a pony who can see the future," Rarity said, rolling her eyes. "Really darling, it's not complicated." Episode 20 Darkest Hour Part Two! - Because It's Midnite "Really? You went all the way to Baa Ram Ewe?" Rainbow Dash's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Back in flight camp I had you pegged as the type to do something safe and close to home, like, I don't know. Knitting?" "I do like to knit," Fluttershy said, smiling. "But I really like working with animals. And when you got to graduate early to follow your dream, it motivated me to do the same thing." "Cool. I knew I was a trendsetter!" Dash said. She nodded to herself, looking ahead at the forest path. "What's all that junk though?" She pointed to Fluttershy's bandoliers of potions. "She's the royal alchemist now," Sunset Shimmer put in, managing to butt into the conversation from almost ten paces behind them. "It's the best way to keep track of her." "To keep track of her?" Dash snorted. "It's not like she's a criminal." "That's a complicated issue," Sunset Shimmer said. "Not really my department. I handle dark magic, and that's usually just a matter of looking for zombies, brainwashed foals, and somepony cackling madly." Shining Armor gave Cadance a look, then sighed. "Fluttershy isn't a criminal. She was being threatened and coerced by a foreign power to do alchemy for them in a way which was illegal. She's a victim, if anything." "But Miss Twilight saved me," Fluttershy said. Her wings batted at the air softly. "She was so brave, and clever, and pretty..." "Oh really?" Cadance asked, starting to smile. "Wait, Twilight Sparkle?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Purple mare, kind of a skinny flank, always wears a scruffy jacket?" "You know her?" Fluttershy looked surprised. "Miss Dash was involved with another incident," Shining Armor said. "There are a lot of them. Mostly because somepony won't approve funding for a task force to go after Twilight and get her behind bars. Again." "It was awesome," Dash smirked. "Well, I was awesome. Saved the day and everything!" "It was one of the few times that she wasn't in the process of trying to get a world record in larceny," Shining Armor sighed. "Or getting mixed up in dark magic," Sunset said, smirking. "Sounds like trouble," Applejack offered. "She's trouble for somepony, that's for sure," Cadance teased, swatting Shining Armor's leg lightly with her tail. "A certain stallion I know has been trying to catch her for years." "She's not a bad pony," Fluttershy muttered. "She is an idiot, though," Sunset said. "If she was smarter I would have tried to bring her along. Somepony who can escape Canterlot Prison has a lot of useful skills." "The sun's setting," Moonsilver noted. "How can you tell?" Twilight looked up. In the tiny slivers of sky she could see between the leaves of the ancient trees, all she could make out was gray. "I'm a vampony. We can tell." "Fair enough." Twilight looked back at the zebra. Gilda was leading her with a rope, the shamaness glaring and managing to convey quite a few messages even with the gag in her mouth. Unsurprisingly, they were all rude. "She'll be fine," Moonsilver assured Twilight. "I guess. I just never like taking hostages. How long until we're at the castle?" "We'll be there soon. But we might have a slight delay," Moonsilver said. He looked to the side of the path, holding up a hoof. "Look." He pointed. Twilight could just see a huge creature made of what looked like tree branches and dimly glowing green magic, sniffing at the air and seemingly oblivious to them. "What is that?" She whispered. "Timber Wolf!" Pinkie Pie gasped, squeaking with a whispered scream. "They're viscous pony-eating predators!" "...I think you mean vicious. Viscous means thick, like molasses or syrup." "They're both. Tree sap, you know. Maple-flavored apex predators!" Twilight groaned. "We might be able to get around them," Moonsilver said. "But I have a feeling that there's more to this than meets the eye. A predator would never be out in the open without a reason..." He looked at Twilight and glanced meaningfully towards the left and right of the path. Twilight nodded slowly and passed it along to Gilda. "On three," Moonsilver hissed, drawing a thin throwing knife shaped like a crescent moon. "One, two-" "Three!" They turned and attacked the woods half-blindly, trying to flush out ambushing Timber Wolves attempting to be clever and attack while they were watching the one ahead of them. Unfortunately, the wolves did not cooperate by being there to attack. There was growling from above them, in the branches. "Would this be a good time to mention that Timber Wolves like to climb trees?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Hold up," Applejack said, raising a hoof. "This here's some dangerous stuff. Fire thistle." She pointed to the underbrush. The plants there were dark, almost black, with a curiously fuzzy appearance like they had a layer of fur. "Are we talking literal fire, or...?" Sunset Shimmer asked. Applejack picked up a fallen branch and prodded the fire thistle. When she pulled it back it was covered in a haze of black, like iron filings stuck to a magnet. After a moment, there was a spark and they went up in quick, fat flames. "The needles break off an' once there's enough of them, they all go up at once," Applejack said. "The thistle itself don't burn until the fall, and then they catch all at the same time and spray seeds into the air. We had some get onto the farm once. Spreads like, well, wildfire." "I could freeze them," Sunset said. "There's a lot around here," Applejack said. "And what about when they unfreeze?" "Um, excuse me-" Fluttershy offered. Sunset ignored her. "I can freeze a solid layer of ice over them. Like a bridge." Sunset huffed. "It's not even difficult." "Celestia said we should avoid big spells," Cadance said. "Excuse me, but-" Fluttershy coughed. "How are they going to notice ice? It's subtle." Sunset rolled her eyes. "We can just fly!" Fluttershy squeaked. Everypony turned to her. She blushed. "There are three of us with wings." She pointed to herself, Dash, and Cadance. "We can just carry ponies to the other side. We won't even have to make two trips." "I guess that would be easier," Sunset admitted. "I should have seen that option. Good thinking, Miss Fluttershy." Maud punched the Timber Wolf. Her precise, deadly attack hit one of the branches making up its jaw, cracked it in half almost effortlessly, and ultimately did little but annoy it, the broken branch dropping out of the beast and quickly replaced as bark and wood shuffled themselves around. "...It's not like punching a rock," Maud noted. "My usual approach isn't working." "Use your vampony powers!" Twilight yelled, shaking Moonsilver by the shoulders. "Like what?!" Moonsilver demanded. "They're the children of the night! What sweet music they make! That sort of thing!" Rarity yelled. She dropped to her knees and a massive paw swept by, right through where her head would have been. "They are not the children of the night," Moonsilver protested. "Regular wolves are fine. They'd never attack like this." Gilda flapped up and fired several bolts, which did about as much as one would expect to solid wood. "Quick, I need a flugelhorn!" Pinkie Pie yelled. "A what?" Twilight forced a Timberwolf back with a burst of force. "A flugelhorn! It's like a bass trumpet! Didn't anyone bring an emergency flugelhorn?" "Stop saying flugelhorn!" Gilda screeched, clawing at one of the wolves and wincing as she broke a nail, pulling the zebra with her as she stumbled out of reach of the monster. "I guess I'll have to make do with sax," Pinkie Pie said. She reached into her mane and pulled free a saxophone which could not possibly have been there. It certainly could not have fit, even discounting the inflated balloon, party favors, and half-eaten cupcake that fell out (excepting the balloon, which floated out and was quickly lost to the sky) when Pinkie shook it free. "What's she doing?!" Rarity hissed, staying behind Twilight. "How should I know?" Twilight bopped another Timber Wolf in the nose, sending it stumbling back. Pinkie Pie took a deep breath and started playing. Everyone, pony, griffon, and wolf, stopped. The music floated through the air in the way bricks don't, and impacted the ear in the way bricks do. Every note was physically painful, like Pinkie Pie was playing a tortured animal instead of a brass instrument. The Timber Wolves ran away, howling with displeasure. Pinkie kept playing until Rarity grabbed the sax in her magic and threw it into the brush. "What in Tartarus was that?!" Rarity demanded, shivering with disgust. "I've never heard such a horrid thing." "Well, that's why I wanted a flugelhorn, obviously," Pinkie Pie said. "I bought my sax from somepony in Shetland. It was raised by bagpipes and still tries to sing like they do." "I'll make you a deal," Moonsilver said, his ears still ringing. "If you don't do that again, I'll make sure on top of what you're already promised, I'll personally get you a new saxophone and lessons on how to play it." "I guess," Pinkie Pie sighed. "I'll probably never see that one again. It's free now, to run through the wilds with the other mid-range brass instruments. Maybe someday it'll settle down with a nice french horn and have hornlets." "I think it's actually just lying over there." Maud pointed. "No, Maud, it's part of the wild now!" Pinkie said. "Only a foal would try and bring it back to civilization." "Okay," Maud said, deciding it was wise not to argue when everypony was more than happy to leave the cursed thing where it had fallen. Sunset led the way, a ball of fire at the tip of her horn serving as a torch. She could have just used a spell to project a cone of harmless light, but there was a good chance that she'd need to burn anything that tried to jump out at her, so having fire at the ready seemed like a wise decision. "I can barely see two paces in any direction in this gloom," She said. The fog had come in when the sun set, pouring out of the woods like a rising tide of white mist. "You're lucky," Rainbow Dash said. "This stuff's like slogging through mud. There are parts of my house that aren't this solid." She kicked at the fog, some of it swirling away from her hoof, but other bits catching on her, clinging to her pegasus magic like she was trying to walk through cobwebs. "We have to keep pushing through. Any chance you can clear a path?" "No way," Dash said. "Maybe if we had a team of professionals they could hold a tunnel together through this. But just me? I didn't even take weather magic in school. Went straight from flight camp into Wonderbolts training." "I think I can help," Fluttershy said. "Really? You're a cloudbuster?" Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Not really, but, um... this will only take a minute." She stopped and rummaged around in her pack before pulling out a vial and an orange. Fluttershy peeled the fruit and opened the vial, carefully letting a few drops fall onto the citrus. "What are you doing?" Applejack asked, curious. "Just, um, wait a moment please." Fluttershy looked up, and two fluttering shapes swooped through the mist to land on her hoof, sniffing at the orange pieces before starting to nibble on them. "Bats?" Princess Cadance stepped closer to look. "We can't see through the fog, but they can use echolocation," Fluttershy explained. "If I ask nicely they might lead us out of it, especially since they won't have to find dinner tonight." "Can't say I like bats much, but we sure need somethin'," Applejack said. "They ain't, like, secretly vamponies or anything, right?" "Of course not," Cadance said, giggling. "Vamponies aren't real!" Moonsilver sneezed. "They say we should go that way." Fluttershy pointed. "That's the wrong way," Sunset said. "The castle is less than a mile from here, if I have my bearings straight. We need to go north, not west." "The castle is to the north," Fluttershy agreed. "Mister Sounders and his girlfriend sometimes nest there during the day." "So why are we going west?" Sunset asked. "Um..." Fluttershy tilted her head, listening. "They said that we'll understand when we get closer." "That's not very helpful." "They said it sort of in that tone that means it should be really obvious..." Fluttershy said, hesitantly. "Really obvious?" Sunset scoffed. "Please. We're not going to divert miles off-track just because a bat said so. We need the fastest path." She took a few confident steps forwards and yelped as she stumbled at the edge of a sheer drop. Rainbow Dash grabbed her, tried to fly up, and got her wings tangled in the web-like mist. Both ponies plunged over the edge. "Sunset!" Cadance yelled, running for them. She stopped at the edge, wings spread wide, and looked down. The chasm was a yawning, gaping wound in the earth. She could just sense it, even with the wild magic underhoof, with her earth pony magic. It would be certain death to fall. "Can you give me a hoof?" Dash asked. She and Sunset stood on a plane of pink magic, only a few paces below the edge of the gorge. There was a slight curve to it, like it was a section from the inside of a huge sphere. "Hurry it up," Shining Armor grunted, his horn glowing. "Sunset's kind of heavy." Applejack and Cadance helped the two back over the edge. "So, I heard west looks good," Sunset said, once she was on solid ground again. She started leading them that way, pretending she wasn't shaken up at all by a little near-death experience. "I guess that thing is prolly real hard to miss when there ain't so much fog," Applejack noted. "If the bats are laughing, I don't wanna know," Rainbow Dash muttered. "I hate this! Normal fog isn't even this bad." She flapped her wings, hard, and the fog twirled into vortexes of almost solid white lines, like frost hanging in the air, before spreading back out into a dull white mist. "It's the magic," Cadance said. "It's all twisted up. The fog reacts as strongly to pegasus magic as construction-grade clouds. Some of it is actually repelled by our magic." She waved a hoof through it to demonstrate. "It's not surprising you couldn't fly." "It's half the reason the local weather teams always had so much trouble," Applejack said. "You get a storm front off the Everfree and there ain't much you can do to get rid of it. They used to build these big cloud walls to kinda direct them away, but that was back in my momma's day. These days they can barely get the rain to fall on time." "Are we going to have to walk all the way around this thing?" Rainbow Dash asked. "It could go on for miles." "Mister Sounders says it's only going to be a few minutes. There's a bridge close to here." "A bridge," Sunset muttered. "If it's part of a real path, it might make up for lost time. It could lead us right to the castle." There was a crash of thunder. "Is the weather getting worse?" Sunset asked, looking back at Rainbow Dash. "I don't think so," Dash said. "Even with this muck I'd still probably be able to feel a storm front forming." "Let's just keep going," Shining Armor said, keeping an eye to the rear. "The sooner we get to the castle-" Another crash of thunder. Cadance looked up. "I don't feel a storm either. Where's that coming from?" "It's the Everfree," Applejack said. "Celestia knows how all the junk works around here. Runs itself and half th' time it's not even the same season as the rest of Equestria." "If it does start to rain, we'll want shelter, like the castle," Sunset said, and was immediately cut off by more thunder. She frowned and looked up at the unseen sky. "The castle." More thunder. "Cast-iron. Cassandra. Castling. Castle." Thunder. "The forest is... providing dramatic sound effects?" Cadance asked, confused. "I told you, this whole place is basically cursed," Applejack snorted. "Uh, girls?" Dash said. "I think there's a problem. I found the bridge. Sort of." "How can you sort of find a bridge?" Sunset asked, stomping towards the pegasus. "Well, here's where the bridge is supposed to be," Dash said. She was standing between two stout supports. "And that's where it isn't." She motioned over the chasm. "It's still here," Applejack said, looking over the side. "Looks like the ropes broke." "It was still standing a few hours ago," Fluttershy said. "This isn't a coincidence," Sunset said. "This is enemy action." "That should buy us a little while," Twilight said. "Yeah, but have you thought about how we're going to get out of here once we're done?" Gilda asked. "If we had a secret passage to get us this far we would have used it to start with." "Once we're finished, we'll go north and east towards Hollow Shades," Moonsilver said. "It's obvious, I admit, but it's still the best option. If everything goes correctly, things will be over within the next few hours." "I have to admit, it's rather nice having a proper road," Rarity said. "The cobblestones are a bit rough, but it's in quite nice shape for a ruin." She stepped around where a small tree had taken root and was displacing the cobbles. "Better than walking through mud," Twilight agreed. "The ground here is strange," Maud said. She paused. "Stranger than the rest of the Everfree, I mean." "Of course it is," Moonsilver said. "Behold!" He raised a hoof dramatically. The ponies looked expectantly into the fog. He waited a long few awkward moments. "Well, if the weather had any sense of dramatic timing, the fog would have parted so you could see the Castle of the Twin Sisters. Just imagine that it's there, sort of... looming over us." He waved a hoof. Rarity rolled her eyes. "If you ever tire of working for the crown I'm sure you'll make an excellent tour guide, darling." They were barely twenty paces from the castle before it suddenly snapped into focus, a wall of ruined stone rising ominously into the sky, broken towers reaching towards the heavens and gargoyles snarling from the parapets. The effect of it, the building simply appearing, ghost-like, out of the mist made it seem otherworldly, forgotten, like it was hanging in a blank and unfinished space. "The Elements should be just inside," Moonsilver said, his voice subdued. "We made excellent time getting here." "Couldn't have done it without Pinkie Pie," Twilight said. "We'd have walked right over that cliff without her," Moonsilver agreed. "It wasn't here in my employer's time. The bridge had to be new, too. A rope bridge would never last a thousand years. A century old, at most." "You think other ponies have been here?" Gilda asked. "What if they already looted the place?" "There are other treasures that looters would have taken. The Elements aren't easily stolen," Moonsilver reassured her. He and Maud stepped up to the front doors and pushed, the ancient portal creaking open. One of the hinges, seized with rust and age, snapped under the strain, the door lurching in and falling over in a cloud of dust. "Oh my. It's beautiful!" Rarity gasped. "Or at least it was, but you can see how it must have looked ages ago..." She walked in, looking at the walls. "If the tapestries were restored they'd be gorgeous. And these floors are made of the finest marble I've ever seen!" "We can come back later," Moonsilver said. "When we're not on a time limit. I'm sure my employer would like some of this restored as well." He walked to the center of the entrance hall, where a circular pattern was set into the floor in overlapping bands of bronze and steel. The others followed him in, Gilda tying the zebra to a stone banister to keep her out of trouble. "Is that thunderforged?" Twilight asked, tapping it with a hoof. "To protect it from outside magic," Moonsilver nodded. "I'm told that when this castle was occupied, this whole pattern gleamed like gold and silver." Twilight stepped back and tried to take it in. It was ten paces across and the complicated design was hard to parse. But she could just see it. If the dirt and dust were removed, and one looked at it from above, like the balconies lining the walls, it would be an abstract representation of a sun and moon, circling each other. "It's the vault, isn't it?" She asked. "Why would it be out in the open?" Rarity asked. "A bank vault is in the open because the public needs to be able to access it," Moonsilver said. "This vault is here because Princess Celestia wanted to be able to make sure it was never opened in secret." "So how do we get it open? Magic won't work." Twilight tapped on a band of thunderforged steel for emphasis. "I don't even see how to open it in the first place." "It's sort of a puzzle lock," Moonsilver noted. "No physical key or handle. It's like an-" "An orrery," Twilight supplied, slowly smiling. "But laid flat." She moved the sun, just a little, and heard gears moving behind it. "That's clever. More art than a real lock, but things were different back then." "Can you open it?" Rarity asked. "There's usually a trick to it." She looked at Moonsilver. "You said your boss had the combination, right?" "Move the sun to the noon position and the moon to midnight," Moonsilver said, stepping back and letting Twilight take the lead. She did so, and they were diametrically opposed, resting on the same band of steel. "Now push them towards the center of the lock." She tried pushing on the sun, and it didn't budge. "The two have to be moved together," Moonsilver specified. Rarity stepped around to the other side and looked at Twilight. Moving at the same moment, something in the mechanism slid smoothly, the seemingly solid band revealing a hidden seam and sliding along itself, the moon moving into position over the sun. "An eclipse," Twilight said. "Neat! Celestia only schedules them once ever few years." "Push them down," Moonsilver said. "Then turn them completely around, counter-clockwise." When Twilight did so, it was like releasing a spring. Bronze bands moved, sliding back and away. Moonsilver ushered her and Rarity to the side as the vault door seemed to unravel, bands vanishing into what was clearly a very complicated mechanism under the floor. The marble under them rumbled as the final bands moved aside and a huge structure rose from the floor like a stone tree, almost a half-dozen arms supporting stone spheres. "What now?" Twilight asked. "That's them," Moonsilver nodded towards the stone spheres. "As you can tell, the architect had something of a thing for orreries. The Elements are those globes." "There's only five here," Gilda said. "I thought there were six of those things." "It doesn't matter," Moonsilver replied. "Five is fine. Even one is enough, just as long as our enemies can't use them." "I have to admit, I was hoping for something more elegant than rocks," Rarity said. "What's wrong with rocks?" Maud asked. "You know what I meant," Rarity said, rolling her eyes. "Crystals would have been an obvious choice," Twilight said. "They hold enchantments really well and last a long time. That almost looks more like granite." "It's not granite," Maud said. She paused, narrowing her eyes. "I don't know what it is." "Really?" Twilight raised and eyebrow and walked to the closest of them and tried to move it. The thing wouldn't budge. "It's stuck." "It can't be stuck," Rarity said. "It's just a rock. Here, I'll help you." "She didn't mention anything about this," Moonsilver said to himself, flying up with Gilda to make a start at the highest of the stone baubles. "Maybe it's another puzzle?" Twilight guessed. "Or something could have broken a few centuries ago and now they're stuck!" "Don't overthink it," Gilda warned. "Sometimes you just need to use more force!" She slammed into one of the Elements and bounced off of it like she'd run into a wall. "Ow! Feathering-" "It's magic," Twilight said. "Brute force doesn't..." She paused. "Usually doesn't work. It's probably something really simple, like the combination to the lock to open it. If we'd sat there and tried to guess special dates or times we'd never manage it." "Oh!" Pinkie raised a hoof. "I know!" "You don't have to raise your hoof to talk, Pinkie." "No, I have to open my mouth to talk. My hoof doesn't really have anything to do with it. Anyway, what I was thinking was, maybe they just have to be removed in the right order. Like how you have to use the right forks when you're at a formal dinner and if you don't they all look at you funny because you used up your spoons too early and now you're eating soup with a fork and it's really difficult." "That's not a bad thought-" "Not as difficult as eating soup with chopsticks, though." "It's worth a try," Rarity said. "If nothing else it would be wise to try all of them at least once, darling. Even one is enough, yes?" She looked at Moonsilver to confirm. He nodded. "There we are, then. If we can't get any of them free, we can start to panic." They quickly worked in a circle, none of them having luck until- "It moved!" Pinkie gasped. She and Maud carefully lifted one of the globes free of its base. "Let's try to get another," Moonsilver said. "One is enough, but..." "But more is better, yes," Rarity smiled. "You're talking to thieves, darling. More is always better." "Assuming Pinkie was right, we'll need to try all of them again," Twilight said. She started prodding the Elements, trying to figure out a pattern, when there was a popping sound from behind them. "What was that?" Gilda asked, flying up near the roof to look. "Maud had me set a party favor to welcome anypony coming behind us," Pinkie explained. "Enemy agents, right?" Twilight looked at Moonsilver. "Just so. I was hoping we'd have more time, but-" "I think I've got one!" Rarity said. Twilight looked up at a sphere, shakily rising in Rarity's magical grasp. "Be a dear and help me, darling?" The aura shifted colors as Twilight added her strength to assist, pulling it down to the ground. "We should go," Maud said. "What about the zebra?" Gilda asked. "Leave her," Moonsilver said. "She doesn't know where we're going and they'll find out what we've done soon enough anyway. Far better for her than tying her to a tree." Sunset sneezed, glitter erupting from her snout in a sparkling cloud. "When I find out who set up a glitter bomb, I'm going to set them on fire," she said. "You can never get rid of this stuff!" "At least it wasn't something more dangerous," Cadance said. Sunset glared at her. Somehow, despite the fact that all of them had gotten covered in multicolored glitter, the Princess of Love made it look good. Sexy, even. Sunset blushed and huffed, looking away. "Hold on," Shining Armor said, as they neared the door. "I'll go first." "Good idea," Sunset agreed. She didn't want to walk into any more glitter bombs. Or worse - confetti mortars. Maybe even cake trebuchets. The last was unfortunately something she had experience with. By long tradition, any cake which failed to please the Princess was launched via trebuchet into the sun. None had ever quite made it to the sun, and even discounting the frequent malfunctions of the cake trebuchet that caused dessert disasters and frosting friendly fire, the trajectory typically ended up on the side of the mountain rather than in orbit. Shining Armor walked in and tripped over a thin line of ribbon, which was brightly colored and should have been easy to spot but somehow remained all but invisible until he'd already snapped it. "Oh no," He whispered, throwing up a shield and bracing himself. There was a moment of horrible anticipation, and then streamers launched into the air with a soft pop, and a banner unrolled, dropping down in front of them. Applejack looked around the corner. "Welcome Enemy Agents," Applejack read. She frowned. "This whole thing's fishy." "I know," Sunset frowned. "Why would they go to all this trouble? They could have been deadly traps, but instead they're just..." She frowned, trying to find the word. "Fun?" Fluttershy offered. "I've seen this here type of thing before," Applejack said. She walked past Shining Armor and touched the banner. "This is Pinkie Pie's hoofwriting. She lives in town with the Cakes. Sort of a party organizer, moved into town a few years back." "Pinkie Pie..." Rainbow Dash groaned. "Maud's sister. I should have known!" "Should have known what?" Sunset asked, frowning. "Maud Pie is one of Twilight Sparkle's known associates," Shining Armor said. "Please don't tell me she's gotten mixed up in all of this..." "Hey, I found, uh, someone tied up over here," Applejack said. The rest of the group walked in, looking carefully for more party traps, and found a zebra tied to a stone railing. Applejack removed her gag, and the zebra coughed a few times, glaring at the group. "Your sister is very rude," She said, between coughs. "She and her friends took the Elements, meaning we're-" "Screwed," Sunset muttered, looking up at the stand the Elements had rested on, and two empty places. "We did it!" Twilight smiled, as they got free of the fog, at the edge of the woods. The trip out of the forest had been much faster than the trip into it. It was almost like the small eddies and currents in the land that made navigation so difficult were quieted. "Excellently done," Moonsilver agreed. "And we're just in time. All we have to do now is present the captured Elements to my employer and discuss your rewards. I don't think she'd want another Princess, but I think something like a Duchess or Baroness would be fine. She'll need help ruling Equestria, and ponies she can count on. And griffons." He smiled at Gilda. "You might be the first griffon that gets a noble title in Equestria! One for the history books!" "I just wanna rub it into my brother's smug face," Twilight said. "Sibling rivalry," Moonsilver chuckled. "Now that, I think, she'll appreciate." "Hopefully she shows up soon. I don't relish the thought of waiting in the forest to meet a princess," Rarity said. "Why not wait in Canterlot?" "She probably doesn't want to risk guards arresting us," Gilda said. "In case you didn't notice, we're sort of Equestria's Most Wanted." "You are, darling, I'm just a famous and innovative fashion designer," Rarity smiled. "At least as far as the guards are concerned." "What's that light?" Pinkie Pie asked, looking up. "It's just the full moon," Twilight said. She had to shade her eyes when she looked at it. It was like the moonlight was shining down in a spotlight around them. And more than that, there was something about it... "The Mare in the Moon," Rarity said. "It's missing!" "What?" Twilight squinted through the glare. "No, my little ponies," said a voice from all around them. "I'm not missing. I'm right here." The moonlight flared, and a dark shape formed above them, hovering in the air with wings outstretched, mane and tail whipping around her, not in a ethereal breeze like Celestia's, but a gale of phantom winds. "That's not Princess Celestia," Maud noted, unnecessarily. The dark mare landed lightly on armored hooves, looking out over the small group with draconian eyes. "You have all done well. Now, with the Elements of Harmony scattered, there is no way for my sister to defeat me." Her voice was refined, noble, and dripped with hidden venom, sliding around like a snake. "Thank you, Queen Nightmare Moon," Moonsilver said, bowing. "Twilight," Rarity hissed. "We should have asked for more details about the employer." "Thank you, Rarity, I'll keep that in mind for next time," Twilight said, from the corner of her mouth. "And the night will last forever!" Nightmare Moon cackled, lightning flashing around them.