//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Mobians and Equestria Girls 4: The Next Generation // by DarkMaster0224 //------------------------------// (Heroes' POV) (Equestria) (Castle of Friendship) Sonic was the last one through the portal. He tripped on his hooves, landing on his face, "Oh come on. Why here?" Rainbow helped Sonic back up, "You ok blue boy?" "Still true and blue." Sonic said getting up. "Guys, look!" Twilight said pointing at the mirror portal. They all looked and gasped. The glass mirror began to crack. Then it fell apart, shattering the link between the two worlds. "Wait, what the? What just happened to the mirror?" Sonic asked picking up a shard of glass. "I-I don't know." Twilight said, "Maybe we should see the Princesses. They might know what to do." "Twili!?" Shining Armor said running onto the room. "Shining Armor? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked as her brother hugged her. "I was going to ask you the same thing." Shining Armor asked. He saw Jasmine, "Hey kiddo." "Wait, you've met Jasmine already?" Twilight asked. "Yeah, we actually came here before we ran into the Sirens." Jasmine said, "And that's not all." She opened her wings. Twilight's jaw hit the floor, and so did Tails, "Jasmine's an Alicorn!?" They shouted together, "Our daughter is a Princess!?" Jasmine blushed, "It's not that big of a deal." "Wait wait, did I just hear you both say, 'Our daughter'?" Shining Armor asked looking at Tails. "Oh how rude of me, I had so much going through my head, I forgot to introduce everyone… er everypony." Twilight said, "Everypony, this is my older brother, Shining Armor. He the captain of the royal guard." Twilight introduced the rest of everyone, finishing by introducing Tails. "And this is Tails, my… um… husband." Twilight said sheepishly. Shining Armor walked over to Tails and looked down upon him, "So you're the one." Tails' eye dilated in fear, "Y-Yes." Shining Armor's eyes squinted, but then he burst into laughter, "Aw I'm only messing with you." He laughed ruffling Tails' mane, "I'm really glad my little sis has found someone to be with." Tails just blinked with a dull look on his face. Shining Armor then looked at Twilight with a serious look, "Twilight, Equestria needs your help again." "What's wrong?" Twilight asked. "The Princesses have gone missing. Celestia, Luna, and Cadance all were found to have been taken by someone or something." Shining Armor said, "And it only gets worse." "How much worse?" Twilight asked. "Your friends are missing too." He said. Twilight's eyes dilated, "No. No. What happened?" "We don't know much. We found this letter on Celestia's throne." Shining Armor said pulling out a scroll. Twilight swiped the scroll from Shining Armor with speeds that put Sonic and Rainbow's to shame. "It's from Princess Celestia." Twilight said, "Dear Twilight, I was afraid of this, but if you are reading this letter, I have been captured by someone with greater power than even I. It is up to you and your friends to rescue us and save Equestria's fate. Yours truly, Princess Celestia." Twilight dropped the scroll with a clatter. "Twi?" Tails asked the purple alicorn. A single tear dropped from Twilight's eye, "We have to find them." The others nodded and ran towards the door. Twilight and Tails were about to follow, but Shining Armor stopped Twilight, "I'm afraid you can't go Twilight." "What? Why not?" Twilight asked her brother. "With the other Princesses gone, we need you to stay here in their place." Shining Armor said. "But Shining Armor, they'll need me!" Twilight said pointing at her friends. "But without someone to stay in the Princesses' place, citizens will begin to panic." Shining Armor said. Twilight was about to argue, but Tails stopped her, "We'll be ok, Twilight." "But…" Twilight said, but Tails put a hoof over her mouth. She gave up and nodded, "But you better come back." Tails smiled and ran after his friends. Twilight and Shining Armor stood in the throne room and just stared at the door. "They'll be ok, Twi." Shining Armor said. Twilight nodded, shedding a single tear. (Heroes' POV) "Ok so, anyone got any ideas on how to find the Princesses?" Sonic asked. Everyone just looked at each other. "Great, we have no plan." Sonic groaned. Suddenly there was a sharp snap sound from the woods. "What was that?" Dark asked turning to the sound. The group also turned to the sound and got into defensive positions. "Calm down I'm not here to fight, I'm here to help." A voice from the woods said. Soon a pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat and a silver mane with blue highlights emerged from the woods. His cutie mark was a bow and Arrow, but the bow was in the shape of a crescent moon. His feathers had a lighter blue tint towards the tips. He was wearing blue and silver armor that had his cutie mark embedded into the front of it. "Who the hell are you?" Dark growled. "Like I had just said, I'm not here to fight, I'm here to help." The pegasus said, "My name is Artemis Arrow and I'm part of Princess Luna's Royal Guard." He said with a slight bow. "Where were you when the Princesses were attacked?" Sonic asked, "If you're one of their guards, shouldn't you be with them?" "I was assigned to guard something of Princess Luna's. But I have no idea what it was." Artemis said, "I also received this message from the Princess." He pulled out a scroll with Luna's cutie mark on it, "I was told to seek out the Heroes of Dimensions. From what I've heard, you are them." "That's us alright, what does the scroll say?" Sonic asked. "I'm not sure she gave me clear instructions not to open it until I found you and to tell you that it's important that you trust me or else all will be lost." Artemis said looking at the scroll. "Well now that you found us, what does the scroll say?" Knuckles asked. Artemis opened the the scroll, but raised an eyebrow in confusion. "To the Heroes of Dimensions, As you must already know a great evil has shattered our peaceful lives once again and it is up to you and the Bearers of Harmony to save us all, but you all will not do it alone. You will have the aid of my faithful knight guard, Artemis Arrow, and one other. To find this other you will have to follow this map I have provided along with this message. I'm sure you will figure out what to do when you reach the end, I wish you all the best of luck. The fate of Equestria is now in your hooves again." - Princess Luna. "That's the end of it ." Artemis said putting the scroll away. "What did she mean by we'll know what to do?" Sonic asked. "Ugh why do people have to be so cryptic, can't they just make things a little bit easier for us?" Rainbow complained. "Where would be the fun in that?" Sunset said, "Anyway Artemis do you know who this other person is?" "I'm sorry I don't, I thought I was the only one the Princess called to help you, but apparently I was wrong." Artemis said shaking his head. " "If Princess Luna has as much faith in this pony as she says then I say it's worth trying to find them." Silver said. "Silver's right, we're going to need all the help we can get this time." Rarity said, "So how about it?" "You're asking as if we have a choice in the matter." Sonic said smiling. "Artemis I know we just met but-" "Say no more I'm willing to help no matter the cost." Artemis said giving the map to Sonic. "That's the spirit, come on guys let's get moving." Sonic said. With that, the Heroes plus Artemis began to follow the map, but Dark had his suspicions about Artemis. "You ok bro?" Ace asked with concern in his voice. "Yea I'm fine it's just I don't trust this guy and I'm sensing a weird aura surrounding him." Dark said. "Now that you mention it there is something strange about him, but I don't sense any evil intentions within him. If he does try something though we can handle him, but for now just give him a chance." Ace said with a confident smile. "Fine, but one slip up and he's mine." Dark said "I hear ya, now come on we're falling behind." Ace said toward the other. Dark nodded and followed his brother. (Later on in the walk) As the heroes walked the path the map showed them, Artemis noticed Dark constantly looking at him, darkly. He slowed down until he was walking beside Dark, "Hey, I know you don't trust me, but I swear by the Princesses' word, I'm not your enemy." Dark only glared forward. Artemis sighed and walked forward. "Dad, you should give him a chance." Agatha said. "The last few times I trusted someone I didn't know, I lost my sister." Dark said. "But what about mom? You didn't know her always, but you opened up to her." Agatha said. Dark only closed his eyes and kept walking. "According to the map, we're coming up to the Castle of the Two Sisters." Tails said looking at the map. "So, we need to go inside?" Silver said. "Um, no actually." Sunset said looking at the map confused, "It says go behind it. To a small pond." "That was Princess Luna's favorite place to be when she was younger. She visits it in her dreams." Artemis said. "You seem to know an awful lot about Princess Luna." Fluttershy said. "Well I'm her personal guard actually." Artemis said, "And we tend to share stories." "Oh, is there something between you two?" Sophie teased the guard. "Sophie! Mind your own, darling." Rarity said to her daughter. "Yes mom." Sophie said. "There is absolutely nothing between us." Artemis said, "I'm only her guard, nothing more, nothing less." Sophie giggled when she saw a small blush on Artemis' face. As the heroes walked to the lake, the noticed that it was getting darker quickly, until it was night out. "Hey, it was mid-day just a second ago." Lily said looking up at the full moon. "That's because this is the place of the Sister of the Night." Artemis said. "Hey, he's right." Ron called, "If you stand right here, you can see that the sky splits between night and day." And sure enough, the others saw it too. A magic dome of night surrounded the pond area. "Its beautiful here." Jasmine said. Several lightning bugs could be seen flying around the pond. Trees surrounded the pond, and in the very center, an old willow tree stood on a small island. "Ok, so we're here. Now what?" Ace asked. "I don't know. I've only been here with the Princess a few times." Artemis said. "Hey, there's something on that island. Behind its hanging leaves of the willow tree." Lily said. And she was right. Something sparkled in the moonlight behind the leaves. "Perhaps that's what we're looking for." Silver said. "Yeah, but how do we get over there?" Pinkie asked. "We could fly you guys over." Rainbow said flapping her wings. "No. That won't work. I've tried." Artemis said. "Then how do we get over there?" Rainbow said. "Well, one time I was here with Princess Luna, she told me about this place, and how, once every 10 moons, a path to her willow tree would appear." Artemis said. "What does that mean?" Agatha asked. "I once saw Princess Luna move this moon until it was directly above the willow tree." Artemis said, "But then I left because it wasn't any of my business to be bugging what the Princess does." "Ok… So can any of you move the moon?" Sonic asked turning to all the unicorns. They all shook their heads. "Great. So we have no way of getting over there and seeing what the shining object is." Shadow groaned. "If only Twilight was here. She told me once that she had to move the moon and sun at the same time." Tails said. While the adults were busy arguing, the kids were talking amongst each other. "What do you think that object is?" Aric asked. "A rare treasure?" Ron said rubbing his hooves together. "If it is a treasure, you're going to keep your hands off it." Lily said. "Aw c'mon." Ron said. "It may be important to Princess Luna." Liz said. "But does anyone here know how to move the moon? Besides the Princess?" Spark asked. "Well, I have a theory."Jasmine said, "On how we could move the moon." "What?" Liz asked. "Well, Princess Luna and Celestia are both alicorns. And each of them is responsible for either the sun or moon rising or setting." Jasmine said. "Ok. How does that help?" Agatha asked. "I was thinking, since I'm an alicorn, maybe I could have a shot at it." Jasmine said. The others looked at her skeptically. "Well, it's worth a shot. I guess." Spark said. Jasmine smiled, "Thank you, Spark." He smiled, but was quickly shocked when Jasmine gave him a kiss to the cheek. Jasmine turned and looked up at the moon. She closed her eyes and focused her magic on the large lunar object, "C'mon. I can do this." She said to herself. The moon glowed light purple, and began moving. "Look. She's doing it." Liz said. "Um… Is she?" Agatha asked. The moon wasn't exactly going in a single direction, but more of random directions all over the place. The adults noticed this and looked at the kids. "Jasmine! What are you doing!?" Tails shouted. "What... no one else... could do." Jasmine groaned. Her horn began sparking magic uncontrollably. "Tails, you need to stop her. She pushing herself past her limits." Sonic said. "No. Leave her be. She can do this." Spark said. And just as Spark said that, Jasmine's magic began to subside, and the moon stopped going all over the place. With a small sigh, Jasmine raised the moon directly above Luna's Willow Tree, "There, I, did, it." Then her legs gave away. But instead of falling onto the ground, Jasmine was caught in a yellow magic aura. She looked up and saw Spark's horn glowing yellow, "Thanks, Spark." "Look." Agatha said pointing at the pond. A small crystal clear bridge had formed to the willow tree island. "Amazing. A solid bridge made by the light of the moon." Artemis said stepping onto the bridge. The heroes crossed the bridge to the willow tree. When they reached the willow tree, the bridge disappeared. "Well, there goes our way back." Ace said. "Well, let's hope there is another way back." Dark said. "Do you know of any ways off the island, Artemis?" Silver asked. No answer. "Artemis?" Shadow said turning around. Artemis was staring at something behind the willow tree's leaves. "What is he looking at?" Rarity asked. "She's… beautiful." Artemis said. "Who are you talking about?" Rainbow asked moving aside the leaves. "Probably something to do with Princess Luna." Dark said rolling his eyes. "Um… Dark. You need to see this." Ace said looking behind the leaves. "Why do I need to see it?" Dark asked walking up next to his brother. He pushed aside the leave. His nearly lost his breath at what he saw, "Impossible. You all said she was dead. That I killed her." On top of a stone pedestal, was a large blue crystal case. And inside of it, Lilac Steele the Dark Unicorn lay.