The Engineer’s Wings

by Keeper of time RD


Chapter 20: The Nightmare Begins

The appointed hour came, and ponies gathered at the town hall. At first, fun was had by all as they waited in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. Friends talking, music to dance to, food and snacks galore, it was truly a party worthy of passing time as they awaited the main event.

Once they’d arrived, Rainbow Dash was quick to seek out Twilight Sparkle and pass along what little they’d learned about the Elements of Harmony. Scootaloo eventually found her way over to the punch bowl on one of the snack tables, where her friends were.

Sweetie Belle was bouncing up and down, jittering like she had the mother of all nervous twitches and smiling ear to ear.

The young pegasus asked the obvious question. “Sweetie Belle, are you alright?”

“Ifeelgreat!I’veneverhadthismuchsugarinmylifeanditfeelsamazing!” Sweetie blurted out, then disappeared leaving a dust cloud where she’d been as she galloped off along the edges of the room like a rocket on legs.

“Apparently she’d never had a Pinkie-party-level sugar high before,” Apple Bloom answered casually before taking a sip of fruit punch and passing a fresh cup of punch to Scootaloo.

“Wow. If she’s never made herself sick with candy before, it makes me too afraid to ask what she’s been doing for Nightmare Night all these years.”

“NightmareNight?IloveNightmareNight!Rarityplaysdressupwithmealldayandwemakeallkindsofcostumes!It’ssooomuchfun!” the unicorn answered as she finished her laps around the room and stuck back in her spot like a rubber arrow that had just hit the ground.

“That’s nice and all, but have ya ever been Trick or Treating?” Bloom asked.

The Sweetie only tilted her head and asked, “What’sthat?”

“This year, we’ll all go together and we’ll show you then.”

“Sweet!Ican’twait!infactIdon’tthinkIwill!” And with that the unicorn of the group darted off toward her older sister already asking what ‘Trick or Treating’ was.

The two Pinkie party veterans couldn’t help but giggle as they watched their sugared up friend while casually sipping their punch.


Then the mayor stopped mingling among the crowd and went up to the podium that had been set on a small stage in front of a set of double doors. The brown mare with the gray mane cleared her throat and said, “Thank you, everypony, for coming! This year, Her Highness has chosen to grace our humble little town with the honor of hosting the Summer Sun Celebration! And so without further ado, please welcome Her Highness, Princess Celestia!”

The crowd hushed, the songbird quire chirped like a blare of trumpets, and the curtains shrouding the balcony just above the mayor opened. The regal white alicorn stepped out onto the balcony, and the ponies in the crowd greeted her with a hushed awe. Without a word and with a kind smile, Celestia’s horn began to glow with the golden light of her magic.

Then her eyes shot open in surprise, her gaze drawn to the high window through which the moon could still be seen.

Naturally, the crowd did the same. Murmurs began to make their way through the crowd at the obvious observation until somepony finally said it out loud. “The mare in the moon is gone!”

From all around, a slow and dark cackle filled the room.

Stamping her hoof, Celestia demanded, “Show yourself, Nightmare Moon!”

“And come trotting right into your trap? No, I think I shall pass on that idea. But do not fret. My friends shall come play with you soon enough!”

Celestia lowered her head thoughtfully and whispered to herself, “But she’s been banished for a thousand years. Nightmare Moon doesn’t have any friends.”

That was about the moment Twilight had made her way up to the balcony. Joining her mentor she asked, “Trap? You had a trap planned? But you made it sound like you thought I was worrying about nothing when you ordered me to make preparations here in Ponyville!”

Right then, the front doors of the town hall crashed open, and a pegasus stallion of the Royal Guard flew in. Spotting his princess, he darted over to her, and while still gasping for breath he said, “Princess! Canterlot is… under attack by… actually we’re not sure… what those things are.”

Expression drained out of Celestia’s face as she donned the emotionless mask she’d used in past battles. Yet she muttered, “I was certain she’d come straight for me. She knows I’m here, but that means she also knows there’s nothing of value to her in Canterlot…”

For a little while the Princess went quiet, finally keeping her thoughts to herself. Then Celestia’s horn glowed brightly for a moment, and she muttered again, this time not by accident but clearly intending to be heard by her pupil. “That can’t be right,” she said. “Nightmare Moon’s magic is still centered on the moon. She’s clearly broken the banishment spell. Why would she stay on the moon?”

In response, Twilight Sparkle wondered aloud, “How did she even get to the moon? Don’t targets of banishment spells reappear more or less in the place they were banished from? No matter where their essence was imprisoned? But if she is there, even if we had the elements, could we use them if we can’t even reach her?”

A moment of revelation flashed in Celestia’s eyes. Quickly turning to the purple unicorn at her side she said, “Twilight, I trust you are aware of the ruins to the southeast of here?”

“The castle of the two sisters? Yes, princess… Wait, you really did plan this as a trap all along, didn’t you?”

Rather than answering the question, the princess leapt down to the ground floor with everypony else, and in a commanding tone said, “Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash! Gather your friends and go the ruins of the castle of the two sisters! You know what you need to find there! Guards! Half of you will remain here and defend this town if anything hostile appears! The rest of you will be coming with me to defend Canterlot!”

Then she set her gaze on three fillies and startled half the room when she gave one last command out loud. “Scootaloo! Come here, I have a task for you and your friends as well!”

Apple Bloom spit out her punch.

Sweetie Belle suddenly sobered up from her sugar rush.

Even Scootaloo raised a curious eyebrow. While all three fillies could guess why the princess of all of Equestria would want something from their orange friend, none of them knew what the princess would want from the other two.

Once they’d come close, Celestia leaned down and spoke softly enough that only those nearby could hear her when she said, “Scootaloo, take your friends and go to the Ponyville library. In the basement there should be a hidden chamber. Find it, open it. If it’s still there, there should be a book that will tell you the location of the final treasure linked to your goggles.”

Lifting her head back up and once again speaking aloud, Princess Celestia added, “All of you, once you have found what you’re looking for, rally to the inn Twilight is staying at. I will send instructions to you there once I’ve confirmed my suspicions in Canterlot.”

With that the princess and half the royal guards in the room disappeared in a flash of teleportation magic.

* * * * * * *

The three Cutie Mark Crusaders and six mares ran through the streets of Ponyville. Among the mares, most weren’t surprised to see Applejack, Fluttershy or even Rarity accompanying Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Although most didn’t seem too clear on why Pinkie Pie was tagging along. When asked on the matter, she answered with, “I can’t let anything bad happen to you before I’ve even had the chance to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party!”

Anything else the adults may have said was lost to the Crusaders as the two groups went their separate ways, the six adults galloping off toward the lift to get down to the Everfree Forest, while the three fillies made their way through the moonlit streets to the library.

Although once they reached the front door of the library, Scootaloo slammed a hoof against her own forehead.

“What’s wrong?” Bloom asked.

“If we’re looking for secret stuff I should probably go get my goggles that see through secrets,” she groaned at her oversight. “I’ll be right back. You two get started without me!” And with that the young pegasus galloped off toward her house instead.

“Great, so what do we do now?”

Sweetie Belle shrugged and answered, “Well, Princess Celestia never told Scoots to get her goggles. So maybe we can find the hidden compartment without them.”

“Oh! Good point! Maybe we can even find it before Scootaloo gets back!”

With that the two set about the task of searching for the hidden secrets of the library.

The first obstacle to confront them was the simple fact that the door to the basement was locked. After a bit of searching, Sweetie Belle found the key in a desk in the library’s loft. In the basement they found a bunch of machines, although the only one they could identify was the water boiler.

They didn’t have long to search before they heard the telltale and oddly motor-like hum of their friend’s wings returning.

“Cool!” Scootaloo said when she came down the stairs and beheld all of the old machines. Although her goggle clad eyes were quickly drawn to the far wall and she added, “Bingo!”

“Do you see something?” her friends asked as she darted over to the wall that had caught her interest.

Tapping on the wall between two machines quickly made it clear that Scootaloo had found a part of the wall that sounded more hollow than the rest.

After a moment of looking the area over, the pegasus stepped back, sighed and said, “There’s definitely magic in the shape of a book on the other side of that wall. But I don’t see any magic linked to opening it. The compartment must be locked mechanically.”

“So maybe one of the machines in here opens it?” Sweetie Belle thought out loud.

“Naw, Ah doubt it. If all we had to do was flip levers and push buttons at random, somepony else would have opened that chamber a long time ago!” Bloom countered.

“That’s probably true. But I don’t feel anything on the fake wall, so it has to be opened from somewhere else. So unless you have a better idea, I say we go with figuring out what all these machines do,” Scootaloo said.

Turning her attention the ceiling, the young mechanic took note of where the pipes coming off of the boiler went and frowned. Some of the pipes disappeared into the ceiling, no doubt going up to the library for normal use. Some of them went to a few of the other machines around the room, and some of those machines had pipes that came off of them. But none of the pipes disappeared into the wall with the fake section.

Then there were the machines that didn’t use steam power at all and must have been built to run on electricity or magic. The goggles allowed Scootaloo to see that two of the machines had enchanted power sources. Seeing as magic could do just about anything, she figured she’d try her luck with the one to the immediate left of the fake wall.

Finding only one switch on the machine, she flipped it to the ‘on’ position. A few lights flickered to life and a roll of paper began to rotate while three tools drew three straight lines on the paper before the machine began to spit the feed of paper out of a slot just below the roll.

“I think somepony is supposed to have the funny hat on,” Sweetie Belle suggested, pointing a hoof to a metal hat thing hanging on the side of the machine.

Using her magic, the unicorn took the metal helmet with all the lights, doohickeys and wires tethering it to the machine. And as soon as Sweetie put the helmet on, the tools began to wave back and forth making the lines on the paper feed all wavy. She made her horn spark a few times and smiled.

Scootaloo only cocked her head and said, “I don’t get it. What’s it do?”

“I think it measures the magic of the pony wearing the hat!”

“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised it didn’t open the secret door. With only one switch it would be way too easy to trigger on accident.” With that said, she turned it back off and moved on.

Apple Bloom pushed a large lever on another device. Puffs of steam began to come from the motor on the device, and two pumps in glass chambers came to life. Water began to flow through the glass tubes connected to the pumps. And as the farm filly experimented with the dials and buttons on the control board, the water changed route, burners came on and off, and currently empty chambers opened and closed.

“Neat! But Ah think it’s just a fancy potion making set,” she concluded.

Next Sweetie Belle picked out a machine that was topped with two glass spheres and a glass tube between them. Turning it on the spheres lit up with lightning, and electricity began arching silently between the two spheres.

“Oooh! It’s like those fancy pegasus machines!”

Scootaloo smiled. “We do like electricity based machines! But…”

All three fillies looked to the fake wall and sighed, “Still no open door.”

* * * * * * *

Several hours later found the three flopping down on the floor with glossed over eyes, gazing through the ceiling.

“We’ve tried everything!” Sweetie complained.

After a round of agreeing moans, Scootaloo asked, “Do you think we could use dynamite?”

“…You want to use explosives in a library?”

“Well, Celestia did tell us to get the book. She didn’t say HOW we had to get it. And there’s no magic in the fake wall, so it can’t be indestructible, can it?”

“With all the electrical stuff around, we could probably just set the whole library on fire,” Apple Bloom suggested sarcastically.

“Oh yeah! That probably would be easier than trying to find somepony willing to give us dynamite!” Scootaloo responded perking up at the idea.

“Ah'm pretty sure books burn too,” Bloom pointed out the flaw in her own plan, while slapping a hoof to her own forehead.

“Oh… Right… Dang!” Scoots said, slumping back down.

After another long moment of nothing, Apple Bloom piped up again. “Is it just me or are some of those stars different?” she asked, pointing her hoof to the ceiling.

The fact that the ceiling had been painted like the night sky had been a moot one up to this point. So much so that Scootaloo hadn’t even let that fact register in her mind until now despite having been staring at it for several minutes. But now that Bloom had made her think about it, she traced her friend’s hoof to the part of the ceiling in question.

At first she didn’t see what her friend was talking about. But when she looked at the ceiling as a whole she noticed that almost all of the stars had been painted as five-pointed stars. Almost, but not all. Where Apple Bloom was pointing there was a four-pointed star, and near that was a six-pointed one, and even ones with seven and eight points.

“I think you’re right! But… I don’t usually fly at night, and when I do I just use a compass. So I’ve never gotten around to learning the constellations.”

“My studies did include the constellations,” Sweetie said. “But I don’t remember any of the four star ones looking like that. So if it’s supposed to be a real one, it’s not one of the commonly known ones.”

A smile suddenly appeared on Apple Bloom’s face. “That’s because it’s not a four star constellation. It’s a five star one!” she said. “If ya use the five-pointed star in the middle of them, too, it’s the Northern Cross!”

“Let’s see, if that’s the Northern Cross…” Sweetie said, trailing off. Tracing her hoof away from the odd stars, she started tracing out the patterns of the stars off to the side of the oddly pointed ones. “Pegasus… Delphinus… Yep, that’s the Northern Cross alright!”

Apple Bloom cheered as if she’d answered the pop quiz at school correctly.

But Sweetie Belle frowned and said, “Okay, so it’s the Northern Cross. But how does that help us open the secret room?”

For a moment the trio of fillies went back to staring at the ceiling. Then another piece of information that had seemed useless at the time flashed in the back of Scootaloo’s mind.

Jumping up, she practically shouted, “Apple Bloom! You’re a genius!”

“Ah am? That’s great! Uhh… Care to tell me how Ah’m a genius?”

“The stars in the constellation are numbered four through eight! And the machines are numbered one through ten! But I didn’t notice before because they aren’t arranged in that order! But…” she trailed off as she ran to one side of the room. “Four! Five! Six! Seven!” she read off of the machines as she ran the pattern of the Northern Cross’s stars, turning them on as she passed by. “And eight!” she announced proudly when she arrived at the machine just to the right of the fake wall.

When she turned on the last of the devices, an additional mechanical whir was heard, and the fake wall suddenly slid into the floor.