//------------------------------// // Rainbow Road // Story: The Mask of Despair and the Face of Hope // by Wings of Black Glass //------------------------------// I cast, and we blinked into reality. The throne room in the Royal Palace at Canterlot materialized around us. I let out a held breath, Sable stumbled slightly and shook his head to clear it. “I could not have done that.” He was clearly impressed. I looked around as Sable got his bearings. The princesses were not here, neither were any of the guards or administrators. A quick glance outside one of the windows revealed the cloud was here as well, flooding the city in a grey mist. “Follow me; I think some of the higher towers are above the fog.” I galloped off, Sable right behind me. Our hoofsteps echoed off the palace walls, the only sound as we ran. I headed towards the tallest spire first, hoping somepony here figured it out before the effect overcame them. I glanced out one of the small windows as we climbed stairs, the fog didn’t reach all the way up, and I saw a few other spires cleanly. That was good. Unfortunately, we didn’t meet any unaffected ponies on the way, even when we reached the top and stepped out onto a balcony. I didn’t see any ponies on any of the other spire balconies either. “Where are the Princess’s bedrooms? Maybe they are still there?” It was as good a guess as anywhere else to look, many of the ponies in Ponyville were in their bedrooms. The cloud must have descended sometime during the night. It took me a moment to identify the bedchambers from above. “There, and there.” I pointed to them, Luna’s first, both of them were just below the limits of the cloud. Maybe the effect was less pronounced right at the edge? It was a shallow hope, but right now it was all I had. “Hold on.” “Wh-?” I teleported us both right into Luna’s room. “-y? Oh.” Luna’s chamber was empty, the bed still made. She hadn’t slept in it, she might have been anywhere in the palace, that could’ve been problematic. Celestia’s room wasn’t far away; I didn’t bother teleporting this time. I charged out without waiting for Sable; he would catch up. Beneath the sounds of our hoofsteps, I heard something, a voice? I couldn’t make out what they were saying. “Do you hear that?” I slowed to listen better, Sable stopped beside me, tilting his ears. He pointed down a hallway; I had been just about to turn down it when I heard the voice. “That way, there’s somepony awake.” It was still in the direction of Celestia’s bedroom. We bolted off together, the voice getting louder and clearer as we approached. “Steady Luna, steady. It is just an illusion.” It sounded like Princess Luna, talking to herself. “She can’t hurt you anymore.” “Luna!” I called out as we rushed through the open door. Luna was pacing at Celestia’s bedside, the white Alicorn was still quite unconscious. The dark blue Alicorn turned to face us, trembling visibly. “What fresh new torment is this?” Princess Luna blinked and stared at us, and then scowled at something unseen. “It won’t work, I know you aren’t real anymore.” My heart sank. “This does not bode well. She’s just as out of it as everypony else.” Sable stepped forward and waved a hoof in front of Luna’s face. Luna snapped out her own and swatted Sable’s aside, snarling. “Get back! I won’t let you touch her!” Sable backed quickly away. Luna stood defiantly between Celestia and us, eyes locked on us. Something clicked in my mind, this wasn’t like what was happening to the others. “What do we do now? Are we the only ponies in all of Equestria still functioning?” He made to leave, stepping out into the hallway. “Sable, wait.” He stopped and looked back. I took a step closer to Luna, slowly. “Luna? Can you understand me?” The dark blue Alicorn tracked me with her eyes but said nothing. “Luna, we’re real. We are not a trick. We’re here to help.” “What are you doing?” “Look at her; she’s defending Celestia, not falling apart. I think she’s resisting the curse.” I met Luna eye to eye. “Luna, tell me what you think is happening.” “It’s Nightmare Moon. She’s doing this.” Panic seeped into her voice. “She’s trying to come back. She’s coming for my sister.” “You’ve beaten her before. You can control this. Take deep breaths.” I reached out to put her hoof on Luna’s shoulder. When the Alicorn tried to swat it away I gripped Luna’s arm. Holding steady even when the taller Alicorn tried to pull away. “If I weren’t real, could I take your arm?” This brought Luna to a standstill, breathing hard for a moment as realization dawned in her eyes. “Twilight? You’re real?” Much of her strength left her, the tension being just about the only thing holding her upright. I held her steady, and even Sable came over to brace the princess of the night. “This isn’t some horrible nightmare?” “This is no dream, even though it most certainly is a nightmare.” Sable spoke first. “This is Despair’s work.” “Come on; we have to get her above the fog.” “Fog?” Luna mumbled, still trying to fight off the effect. “Hold her steady, and I’ll get us back up to the balcony.” Sable nodded, using one glass wing to hold Luna upright. The air around us popped as my teleport materialized us back outside. The cloud below still obscured the city. Nothing seemed to have changed. “Luna, are you feeling better?” “I think so?” Luna wobbled visibly, her balance shot. Sable caught her arm before she stumbled. “My mind is clearer, but it is still hard to focus.” “She’s still very weak. The stress of fighting off the fog must have drained her.” Sable’s theory made as much sense as anything I could think of. “Twilight? Stardust? What’s going on?” At Luna’s question, I went to the edge of the balcony, pointing out into the distance. “We don’t know for sure, but we think Despair has finally set his plan in motion. It’s like this in Ponyville too. We think it’s everywhere. As far as we can tell, only Sable and I are immune.” “Celestia!” Luna stumbled again, trying to rush to the balcony edge. Sable held tight, making sure she didn’t fall off. “You have to get her out of the curse!” “I’ll be right back.” I nodded and teleported back to Celestia’s room. Without Luna drawing my attention I could see that Celestia was in pain, whimpering quietly in her sleep. I knew there wouldn’t be any point in trying to wake her while still within the influence of the cloud. So I lifted Celestia from the bed, wrapped her in the blanket, and brought us both back to the high balcony. “Sister!” Luna broke free from Sable and ran to Celestia’s side. I set the princess in the blanket down, she twitched but did not wake. Luna ran her hoof through Celestia’s pastel mane gently. “She isn’t waking up, what's wrong?” “It’s possible the effect is stronger in her sleeping mind than in reality.” Sable shrugged. Luna closed her eyes to concentrate, her outline glowed faintly. I could tell she had entered the dream world. Sable stood beside her, observing the princess. “Give her a moment.” I softly cut him off before he could ask. Several long minutes passed, Celestia twitched several times but did not stir. Luna blinked and the glow dissipated, she shook her head sadly. “My sister will not be able to assist us. Her doubts drown her. I cannot rouse her.” Carefully Luna placed her sister, still wrapped in the blanket, against the wall by the door, far from the edge of the balcony. “So, it's just us.” Sable went to the railing and looked out at the faded world. “What kind of power does he posses that can affect the whole of Equestria? Even the princesses?” “For all of our vaunted powers and experience, in the end, we are not that different than most ponies. Our feelings and emotions are just as volatile and profound. If anything, we might be more vulnerable to this, as we have eons of doubts and trials for the curse to draw on. We never even considered such an avenue of attack.” “So why were you resistant?” Luna had no answer for me. “Because she shares something in common with me.” Sable turned back, meeting Luna’s gaze. “You have been at your lowest, at the moment where you were pushed beyond sanity and hope. Yet you have fought Nightmare Moon off before, so when Despair tried to bring her back…” “I was able to hold myself together.” She nodded, and he bowed back filled with renewed respect. At that moment I saw an unsaid connection between the two of them. “Even then. What do we do now? We don’t know how Despair is doing this. Or even where he is.” “A spell of this magnitude would be far beyond any normal pony, maybe even beyond you.” He gestured to me. “Despair might have been reckless with his power, but without outside aid, he could never manage this.” “Could he have recovered the Alicorn Amulet?” “It must be.” Without waiting for the other, we both cast the tracking spell. My heart jumped to my throat when the little arrows above both of our horns pointed definitively south. “That's a bad sign.” Sable deadpanned. “I can only guess he’s back at the lake. I can’t teleport that far to a place I barely know. How are we going to get there?” “Before we can do that, we have to discuss what we are going to do when we meet him in the field.” Sable hardened his voice, and it was clear what he meant. “At this point, we can no longer afford mercy. If he does not surrender, we will have to take him down by force.” Luna agreed with him, and I dropped my head. “I know you don’t want to hurt anypony, Twilight.” Luna placed a comforting hoof on my shoulder. “But look at what he’s done! This kind of threat can only be matched with a resolve to do what has to be done.” Slowly, sadly, I nodded. There was no other way. If he did not surrender, then Despair must die. “How are we going to even get there? It will take days to get there by hoof, faster by wing but we’ll all be exhausted by the time we can get there.” I paced, Luna looked out over the fog, and Sable looked skyward as we all considered the problem. “I think I have a solution.” Both Luna and I turned to face Sable. “In the book Sunburst gave me was a spell called ‘Rainbow Road’ which creates a magical path between two distant points. It allows rapid travel along this road.” “That’s perfect!” “I know that spell!” Luna interjected. “There is a problem, however.” My enthusiasm waned as she continued. “It requires one caster to anchor it at this end, and another to guide it as we run along the road. If we use this spell, one of us has to stay here to keep the path lit.” Silence dropped between us like a stone in a well. “I’ll do it.” We both looked up at him. “I’m the weakest of the three of us, the least experienced.” He was right; I had no alternative. “No, Stardust.” Luna stood before him. “It has to be me. We can’t overlook the fact that I am not immune to his curse. I am safe here for the moment, that is true. But if I descend into the mist, my fears and doubts will threaten to overwhelm me again. I would only be a liability on a battlefield. I cannot go with you.” Luna glanced between the two of us. “You two must face Despair alone.” Sable nodded, I could see the uncertainty on his face, he clearly doubted he was up to the task ahead. With some more confidence than I might have in her position, Luna stepped up to the railing. “Ready, Stardust?” He took a deep breath to steady himself. “As I will ever be.” He nodded towards her one last time, his most respectful bow. “Begin.” Luna concentrated, magic gathering at her horn. Sable’s magic joined hers, and a glowing vertical circle appeared in the air before them, hovering in the air just off the balcony. A beam of multicolored lights just wide enough to stand on, glowing in a dozen shades of a dozen colors, shot off to the southern horizon out of the bottom of the circle. Sable put one hoof on the railing, ready to leap into the shimmering circle of light. “Once we step upon the road, don’t stop running!” “I’m right behind you!” Sable nodded once to me and charged down the road. Where he crossed the threshold of the spell his body became light, rocketing down the path in the sky. I turned to say something to Luna, but the Alicorn was focusing solely on the spell. So I leaped into the circle without saying goodbye. Everything around me became colors, I felt my body shift past a physical form, and my hoofsteps shone as I raced down the path. A pinpoint of light on the road ahead of me resolved into a spectral image of Sable Stardust as I caught up to him. His body shone with silver light, a bright star where his heart should be, little lightning bolts erupted from each hoof as they struck hard on the glowing path. I glanced down at my chest, a similar star upon my own heart. When I looked back, I saw Canterlot castle vanishing into the distance at incredible speed, on my flank I could see my cutie mark shining brightly. I looked forward at Sable, expecting to see nothing on his thigh. To my surprise, there was something there, a tiny gleaming dot of golden light. It was too small to make out its shape, if it even had one. Sable didn’t look back at me, focusing on the road ahead of them, he hadn’t seen the light there. I intended to tell him later, once this was over. We ran, surrounded by stars and light. Below us, Equestria was awash in grey clouds and mist, the land utterly invisible from up here. Above us, the sky was a deep red and blue, somewhere between night high above and day at the horizon, with a few scattered stars still visible. We passed a mountain capped by snow and ice, with more waiting ahead. Sable guided the road through the peaks and cliffs. “Twilight, look!” He gestured with one wing off to the side, his words causing the air to shimmer. “It's beautiful!” An aurora of greens and blues in vast sheets of colors rushed over us. We ran now amid the ever-shifting veils of light atop a glowing rainbow, surrounded by the glistening snow-capped mountains. I had to admit; it was quite astonishingly beautiful. If only we had the time to enjoy it. The path turned again as we cleared the mountains, leaving the aurora behind, and Sable began to descend towards the distant village of Pinewood. The velocity we must have attained to reach here so quickly! There was something strange ahead of us. I couldn’t see it before, but the clouds were swirling around a central point. Not so far away now, as we ran so swiftly upon the rainbow road, the clouds were dark and menacing. As we drew closer, they deepened and darkened until they were nearly pitch black. This must be the center of the curse; I could see the clouds on the other horizon becoming grey again. Sable saw it too, and he circled the black fog once before diving under them. The rainbow road slammed into the ground, burning a magical pattern into the soft surface as we materialized back into the physical world. I took a moment to gather myself and take in the surroundings. Sable was panting, the exertion of the spell and the run pushed him hard. We had landed in some kind of crater, on the edge I could see jagged outcroppings of stone topped by wilting pine trees. The clouds directly above were entirely black, with a burning red line where the blackness gave way to the grey, it was a giant circle overhead which seemed to bleed fire down towards us. The ground beneath my feet was soft, like fine sand or ash, the footing here was terrible. Large boulders and stones were scattered about the crater, a few sported large glowing red runes. At the depression in the center a small bonfire burned, and next to it a single pony sat. He stood and turned towards us, a triangular object in silver and red glittered on his chest. A face like blackened charcoal met my eyes. He cracked a horrid smile, a cruel white arc on his scarred face. Despair was waiting for us. “Oh, time for the final boss!” “Spike, this wasn’t a game! … But yeah, this is where it all comes down to our final confrontation.” “Don’t leave us hanging, dear, please do tell.” “Brace yourselves… this wasn’t pretty.”