It was a long and awkward escort out of the castle. The guards didn't need to know what went on in the Princess' throne room. They didn't seem especially broken up about that fact, either, but it obviously didn't stop them from guessing, judging by the stares Calmany felt on his back.
He couldn't tell the guards apart individually, due to all the enchantments, but it was apparent that at least two of them knew him by reputation. That was fine with him. It was much better for them to think it was a spectacular mistake, rather than a tragic one.
But still their judging stares made him burn with shame. Perhaps not the embarrassment they were intended to instill, but for once, he felt it was wholly deserved.
Cirra walked silently next to him as he pulled the cart. It was frustrating, not being able to speak, not being able to comfort him. Despite everything she wrote, he still seemed to blame himself for everything. But paper couldn't convey her sincerity. It couldn't convey real forgiveness. Not the kind he would accept.
If she was honest with herself, Cirra would have to admit that it wasn't just the lack of vocal chords that made her frustrated. With no mass, every step she took was a chore, as she gripped the floor to pull herself forward. Flapping her ghostly wings once would leave her in midair in a very difficult position to get out of. And right now, she couldn't even use the cart to stabilize herself, since the leader of their little escort made it clear that Calmany would not use whatever "magic" he supposedly used to get them there.
Though she could also see his eyes occasionally track her movement next to him, so that order was probably for everypony else's sake.
Still, with all her constant frustrations, she couldn't get herself to blame the stallion that started this whole mess.
I knew what I was getting into. As failures go, this one is a lot better than I was expecting.
And despite everything that made her life objectively, scientifically worse, her spirits were somehow better than yesterday.
Heh. Spirits.
This whole thing seemed so... out of context. There was no frame of reference anymore. No memories telling her how to do things, how to feel things.
Cirra had no sense of touch. That familiar weight on her hooves, the feeling of air brushing past her coat? That was gone, completely. But she still knew when her hoof was touching the ground, and she knew that when she smacked Calmany on the back of the head for being an idiot, it wasn't actually hard enough to do damage. She could also sense the wind that blew through the drafty halls of the castle. And through her. But that wasn't touch. It was just confusing.
She had no sense of smell. But she knew one of the guards had skipped their shower this morning. She could hear, but her ears never twitched when the shouting of the nobles in their petty fights got too close to their group. She could see, but the sun never burned at her eyes. She could taste the air. But she would never eat again.
Oh, Princess Celestia sent both of them to this Twilight Sparkle. Her old body was going to be put on life support. But if Celestia herself didn't know how to do something so fundamentally... fundamental?
Celestia isn't just the pony who raises the sun and moon. She's the Alicorn. If she didn't know what to do with my "soul," then nopony else will. No, Twilight is probably a nice pony, but we're going there to get quality-of-life stuff. Like being able to talk.
It wasn't just the alternate senses though, that made her frustrated and nervous. It was the new ones. The ones that her brain knew nothing about, and made her feel charged with static. She felt it the most when looking at Celestia. Or just being in the same room with her.
But she felt the same thing when other pegasi got close, like one of the guards that were still accompanying her.
Is it just that I'm a bundle of pegasus magic? That I can sense I'm supposed to be in a body? But then why can't I just go to my old one and be done with all this? For the third time that trip, she jumped at the wagon, slamming into her body. And just like the other two times, she passed into it, but didn't stick. Worse still, her hooves wouldn't see her body as anything but solid, pushing her right back up.
Cirra grumbled as she redid the complex upside-down maneuvers that would get her on the ground again.
"The definition of crazy is doing the same exact thing twice and expecting a different result."
She whipped around, looking at the guard commander, who had whispered into her ear.
"I can't imagine what you're going through, miss, but... promise me you won't obsess about it. That never ends well for anypony."
Cirra started opening her mouth as if to speak, grimaced, then nodded.
I knew it wouldn't work. I just can't stand being... stuck. No matter what my body's like. She looked over at Calmany. Not like being stuck with him. It's different than the normal "pegasus gets stuck on the ground" feeling. Things have actually been quite interesting with him around. I'm just... bored.
She tried to take a deep breath. It didn't work. Which is weird, in a body like this. Something feels different. Urgent. Like I need to do something, and fast.
But Celestia said I was stable. Not in danger. It's probably this weird static I'm feeling everywhere, making me feel jumpy.
They stepped out of the castle's wide front doors, the guards leaving them to the crowd of Canterlot's Celestial Avenue.
Calmany turned to Cirra's ghostly silhouette. "So... do you want to walk there, or do you want to fly? I know you said you aren't that fast, but..."
I grabbed the pad of paper and his quill from the back. "We're taking the winds."
He gulped with a worried expression, but his eyes shone. "All right then. The fun way."
In all fairness, it took around the same time a normal pegasus could fly between Canterlot and Ponyville. It wasn't all that far away.
And if Cirra thought of it properly, the cart did make her dive much faster than she would have otherwise been able to. Still, it felt faster. And she couldn't take advantage of those winds to get back to either Canterlot or Hollow Shades. Not unless she wanted to go the long way around. It almost felt a waste not to take them.
But it did have the unintended side affect of catching the attention of a pegasus passing though the area. One blue-maned weather pony with a rainbow mane who was rather irate and curious why an earth pony was flying higher than she was.
Calmany was not taking it particularly well.
"U-um, miss... You see, we were-"
The pegasus raised an eyebrow. "We?" She looked at the front of the cart, where the harness was suspended by seemingly nothing. "And I'm not 'miss.' I've never been a 'miss.'" She sighed, looking back at him. "You really don't know who I am, do you?"
Calmany nervously scraped his hoof against the wood. "Um... should I?"
She gritted her teeth in frustration, closing her eyes before releasing the tension again. "Sorry, you're probably a nice pony. The name's Rainbow Dash. Used to be the best flyer in Ponyville."
"Um... used to be?"
Rainbow pinched the bridge of her nose with a hoof. "Look, I'm trying to be nice, but it's really hard when this weird science pony just showed me up with a cart and a freaking piece of cloud."
He jumped up, glaring. "She is not... uh..." Then he realized that it was a phenomenally stupid thing to do in a cart thousands of meters in the air. "Oh, Celestia."
Calmany sat back down before his hooves betrayed him. But he kept his eyes on Rainbow Dash.
Who was now looking at the front of the cart again. "Wait... her?"
He covered his face with his hooves. "Right... you would have no way of knowing that, would you? Her name is Cirra."
Rainbow suddenly felt extremely awkward. "Uh, hi? You, uh... beat me fair and square, so... I'll just have to challenge you later! Or something." She sagged. "I'm not good at this sort of thing."
There were a few moments of awkward silence before Calmany spoke up. "Um... she can't talk, and unless you can give her a piece of paper or something..."
She snorted, tensing, as she whipped to face him. "And how do I not know you're just pulling my leg, huh? Trying to make me look bad? Weak? Well it isn't going to work."
Inwardly, Cirra cringed. This was going downwind fast.
Calmany finally broke. "It's my fault, all right? I got her stuck like this! I don't care if you believe or not. I don't care what you feel like. I just need to get her to Twilight Sparkle. Maybe then I won't have ruined her entire life."
Rainbow stood there in shock, anger forgotten. "I'm... uh..."
"You're right. I'm Doctor Calmany, the 'weird science pony.'"
"No, um... I wasn't thinking right-"
"I'm the worst kind there is."
Rainbow flew over and smacked him in the face.
Cirra rolled her metaphorical eyes. Finally, somepony does it.
"No! You don't get to say that. Why are you here again?"
"Well, Princess Celestia-"
She narrowed her eyes. "That wasn't what you said the first time."
"Um... I need to get her to Twilight."
"Why?"
"Because Princess Celestia-"
"That's wasn't what it sounded like when you shouted at me earlier. Look-" Rainbow Dash landed on the back of the cart, sitting next to Calmany. "I don't tell ponies this, and this doesn't leave this cart, but... if I said I was the best flier in Ponyville - and I am the best flyer in Ponyville, don't get any ideas on that - why would I even stay here? Why not go back to Cloudsdale? Why not go to Manehattan, where the Wonderbolt headquarters are?"
She paused, waiting for Calmany to respond. When none came, she decided to continue anyway.
"Because I have friends here, idiot. And one mare in particular I have to make sure keeps safe. Where would you be if you didn't care about Cirra here?"
"In a dungeon in Canterlot?"
Rainbow smacked her forehead with a hoof. "All this, and you still don't get it. Even if it wasn't for the Princess or whatever, do you really think you would have abandoned her?"
"Of course not! It was my fault-"
Rainbow glared at him. "Don't you dare insult her like that. Is this some sort of chore for you? No."
She sighed, allowing him to relax again. "Dude, I actually kinda like you. Your heart's in the right place. But your skull's thicker than mine."
She suddenly tensed. "And if you say anything to anypony else, I'll knock you so hard, you won't know which way is north."
Calmany raised a hoof. "Umm..."
Her hoof met her face again. "Pegasus thing. Don't worry about it. Now let's get you to the place Twilight's staying."
"You know her?"
"Kinda. She's sorta cool. Pulled a nice trick on me when we met this morning. See that big tree building over there? That's where she'll be. Come on, there's a welcome party for her in a few minutes." She twisted in midair before flying off.
Calmany nodded absently. Pulled a trick? Like a prank? From what I've heard, I expected Celestia's student to be a scholar.
Still, this "Rainbow Dash." On the surface, she had seemed like every other pegasus from one of those big cities, always rushing to prove themselves. About half the pegasi he met claimed to be the "best."
But something about Rainbow gave him pause. Why did she open up to him, when they barely knew each other? Her threat seemed real enough, but why go through the trouble at all?
Well, based on what Celestia said, they might not be in Ponyville all that long. It was just for the Celebration. But if he saw her again...
At least she might be pleasant company while they stayed.
Cirra flew them off in the direction of the tree Rainbow pointed them to. It was an... odd place. It was clearly a building, with windows, doors, and balconies, but it was at the same time a living, growing tree. There must have been spells to keep it living, of course, but what kinds of spells those were eluded her.
That fact didn't surprise her, but from what she knew of, at least, unicorns didn't know that many spells to keep things living. That was usually an Earth pony's job.
To be fair, there were a lot of earth ponies in this town, at least from what she could see up here. Twilight would be in the relative minority.
Ponyville itself was surprisingly small. Cirra knew that Ponyville had a "small town" reputation from her travels, she assumed that it would be more... medium. Canterlot was incredibly close, after all. One could almost say that Ponyville was a Canterlot suburb...
Oh, wait. Canterlot doesn't have any sort of farmland. It's on a mountain.
Cirra flared her wings just above the street, letting the weight of the cart bring her gently to the dirt road, right outside Twilight's temporary residence. The sign next to it read, "Golden Oaks Library."
Calmany smiled. "She's staying in a library? Now that's more what I was expecting."
Cirra looked at him oddly. He didn't notice, probably due to the bright sunlight, but he explained himself anyway.
"Even though I haven't exactly met her, there were quite a few rumors about the Princess' student. It seems at least one of them is still true."
He got out of the cart, and she silently parked it in the grass right next to the library.
Calmany stopped right before the door, taking a deep breath before turning to the faint outline of a pony behind him. "Look, I'm sorry... I know you don't want me to blame myself, and I think I understand. But please... just bear with me when I end up doing it again. Every one of your frustrations...
"I've worked on that project for so long, it's become a part of me. Even my cutie mark is so closely related... From your perspective, the machine did this to you, not me, but from mine - I am the machine. In every way that matters."
At that moment, Cirra truly cursed her lack of ability to contact him with anything more than her hooves. I never even looked at his cutie mark before he put that stupid lab coat, and I was even teasing him about it. Like I didn't even care what mattered to him the most.
And now I can't even comfort him properly.
She internally cringed when she remembered striking him. Now her previous anger at his "stupidity" seemed a lot more shallow and undeserved.
"I know you want me to stop with the guilt stuff... but until we can actually talk face-to-face... until Twiight can at least fix something, I'm going to let it go. Push it aside, until we can deal with it properly." Calmany looked up, trying to see her face in anything but a vague outline.
Cirra nodded, and with relief, found that he seemed to get the message.
"All right... let's go see this Twiight."
He opened the door.
"Or... perhaps the entire town."
Calmany vaguely remembered Rainbow Dash's words about there being a party for Twilight Sparkle here, but neither of them expected the sheer volume of ponies that occupied the room. More ponies than either of them expected to even fit, based on the outside of the library, but somehow fit comfortably within.
And yet, there was nopony with a description that would fit Twilight Sparkle.
Still, neither of them had the time to ponder any of these issues, as they were swept into the room by a fast-moving ball of pink.
"New ponies! Welcome! I should throw you a party!" The blur resolved into a pony. "Wait, I'm already doing one of those. But you already know about this one, and surprise parties are better! Can you just go out there and forget about this one for... oh, I dunno, three minutes?" She looked between them, grinning expectantly.
"Uh... I'm not a unicorn, so I can't erase my own memories. Though that would be an interesting project, if really irresponsible."
The pink pony's grin faltered for about three milliseconds. "Oh well, I'll just have to make this party abooouut.... three point two times more fun, then!"
Calmany blinked, his brain finally catching up to the absurdity of the situation. Cirra was too busy trying to figure out how Pinkie grabbed her.
"Oh, silly me! My name's Pinkie Pie! What's yours?"
"Uh... Calmany. Technically Doctor, but I'm not a medical one, so I don't usually call myself that. It makes ponies confused."
"Oooh! We have something in common then!"
Calmany did a double take.
"We both make ponies confused a lot!"
"Oh. Right."
She grinned. "See what I mean?" She turned to Cirra.
"And don't worry, I can get your name later."
"Her name is Cirra." Calmany looked around at the ponies gathered there. If any of them were fazed by Pinkie seemingly addressing empty space, they didn't show it.
"Oh! Thanks, Mr. Calmany! Now I can update the banners properly." She looked around at the decorations, all of them lacking any sort of lettered banners. "Oops, well, maybe next time."
Calmany frowned. "Shouldn't you know, if you set them up?"
"Of course! Parties are serious business."
He raised a hoof. "But-"
She leaned closer, winking. "But making ponies smile at those parties is much more important."
He stared. ...That either makes no sense at all, or is extremely profound. Though I'm not sure which option is less terrifying.
"Oh! She's coming! Everypony be quiet!"
The lights went out, and they waited for Twilight.
Cirra tapped Calmany's shoulder, and he excused himself, apologizing to the soft-spoken pegasus he had been talking to. He set his glass of punch down on a nearby table before whispering to his invisible companion. "What is it?"
Calmany took the paper she offered, scanning it quickly. "Twilight Sparkle left the party?" He glanced back at all the ponies in the library, having fun. Everypony here was so friendly to him. More than he was used to. Or at least more active about it. Most ponies in Hollow Shades kept to themselves, nice or not. At the same time, though, this was the perfect time to talk with the pony that was most likely to help Cirra the most. The sooner something could be fixed, the better. Anything would be better than nothing.
"No, you're right. Let's go talk to her."
He walked up the stairs cautiously, knocking on the door before opening it slowly. "Miss Twilight?"
There was a groan and some rustling as the purple unicorn sat up in bed. "What?"
Calmany cringed. "Sorry about that. I thought you would still be awake."
Her glare softened. "So you aren't just trying to get me to 'party?'"
"No... not particularly. Princess Celestia sent me-"
Instantly, the mare was wide awake. "Princess Celestia‽"
He held up a hoof. "This is supposed to be for after the Summer Sun Celebration. But since it looked like you were free, I thought I'd discuss it with you early."
Twilight groaned again. "That's just it. I don't have time. I might have finished all my duties for the Celebration, but it's barely an hour until the sun rises, and that's not enough time at all for the research I need to do. If that prophecy is true..."
She shook her head. "Sorry. You don't need to worry about that."
"Do you need help? I may not know much, but if you need another mind on it, I'm here."
Twilight looked down, embarrassed. "Not many ponies actually believe me on this one. Princess Celestia dismissed it! But I know it's true. More than three, independent sources have uncannily similar stories, and it all points to something incredibly bad happening at this Summer Sun Celebration." She looked up at him. "What was your name again?"
"Oh! Right. Calmany. Technically a doctor, but I don't like that title, since it's not even in my main field."
Twilight tilted her head. "What is your main field?"
He shuffled his hooves. "Well, I guess you could call me an inventor, but I've only really worked with one area - nonmagical teleportation."
She looked at him with sudden interest. "Does it work?"
Calmany cringed, looking to the side, where he knew Cirra stood. "On non-living subjects."
Twilight missed his reaction. "Well, that's certainly very interesting. What prevents the transfer of living subjects?"
"It leaves the wellspring behind."
Twilight's eyes widened suddenly, and she lifted a hoof to her mouth.
Calmany gestured towards his companion, and Twilight started to notice the small glimmers that gave away the fact that something was there. "This is Cirra, a very nice mare, and the reason the Princess sent me to you." He hung his head. "I just wish I saw the problem before she got involved."
Twilight just stood there, frozen, until a piece of paper was shoved in her face from midair.
"Let's focus on the prophecy thing. You said there was a deadline?"
Twilight looked up from the paper. Now that her eyes had adjusted, and her brain had accepted the concept, the mare's outline was more clearly visible. A mental reevaluation and a quick glance at the moon reestablished her resolve. "Right. So, you both know about the story of the Mare in the Moon, right?"
Calmany nodded. "Of course. I always thought it made a neat allegory with the Equestrian Flag. Light and Darkness, Day and Night. And then Celestia taking both roles. But that's usually just an allegory. Are you saying there is some evidence otherwise?"
Twilight smiled. "Great! You're not totally opposed to the idea. The flag is also important. But it's not everything. So the third thing. I'm sure everypony here knows of Nightmare Moon. The story told to foals?"
He chuckled. "Yeah. Those stories were always kinda fun."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, a lot of the stories surrounding her about Nightmare Night are kinda ludicrous. But if I've learned anything when researching legends, it's that all of them are based on something that is true. And with powers over the moon, alicorn status... even illustrations are uncannily similar to what that second sister looked like after she gave in to her jealousy, and tried to create imbalance."
Calmany looked at her thoughtfully. "Hmmm.... do you have any of those books of legend here?"
Nodding, Twilight floated the book over, opened to the illustration. "Just the Mare in the Moon one. I had much more information about the Nightmare Moon legends, but they were scattered over so many different sources, they just weren't portable enough."
He scanned over the text, Cirra floating over his shoulder. "A thousand years? Is this the deadline you were talking about?"
Twilight nodded. "Exactly. This is the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration. But why would it be only the thousandth if all the history books say that she has ruled for longer than that? And what was it celebrating in the first place? The defeat of Nightmare Moon is the only thing that seems plausible."
"I see why you're worried. And even if you end up being wrong, I don't think there's any harm in preparing. But I also don't think we have any chance against an alicorn."
Twilight took back the book, turning a few pages before hoofing it back to him. "Right here. It says the only way to defeat her is to use the Elements of Harmony. If we can find them, whatever they are, we might have a chance."
Calmany frowned, looking at the page. "There's no description. What are these 'Elements?'"
Twilight flailed her hooves in the air. "I don't know! And I haven't gotten the chance to research anything since I got to this crazy town!"
The door suddenly burst open, admitting a small dragon wearing a lampshade on his head. Twilight sighed. "What is it, Spike?"
"Come on, guys! You'll be late for the sunrise!" He shook his head, noticing the books. "Seriously? You roped him into this, too?"
Spike sighed. "I swear, I'm telling the Princess if this goes much farther." He turned away, rolling his eyes. "At least I can say she made one friend."