The moon shone down over a rocky landscape, gently illuminating the two rows of buildings that made up this village on the northeastern edge of Equestria. It didn't illuminate it too brightly, however; a cloud blocked much of its light. An observant watcher might have found it strange to realize that the moon actually seemed to be following the cloud. And a very observant watcher might have noted that the moon seemed to be maneuvering back and forth behind the cloud, causing the shadows to leap and dance around the village.
"I don't like this," muttered Celestia darkly from the ridge where she spied upon the village below.
"Ka-klack and Nightmare are our best bet to get the Element without anyone noticing," said Shining Armor, deciding to reply to what was most likely just Celestia talking to herself. "They're both extremely skilled at sneaking around. Nightmare can step through the shadows and turn into mist and all that, and Ka-klack is a shapeshifter who's entire life is based around infiltration."
"Yes, they're the perfect pair to commit burglary, captain," said Celestia sardonically.
"They are requisitioning a powerful and potentially dangerous magical artifact for the good of Equestria," replied Shining Armor stiffly. "And stop bringing it up or I will be forced to do something about it. I can charge even you with breaking the law, you know."
"But aren't you an accessory to this crime?" asked Celestia innocently.
"I said stop bringing it up!"
They went back to watching the village, which lasted for all of ten seconds.
"I just don't like this," muttered Celestia again.
"It's the moon thing, isn't it?" sighed Shining Armor.
"Yes! That's not her moon, no matter what she thinks! Letting her control it for even just this is a dangerous, slippery slope."
"Well, do you want her and Ka-klack to get caught and potentially blow our cover, or do you want her to manipulate the moon to provide them with the shadows they need to sneak around?"
"Getting the Element is more important than anything else at the moment," said Celestia, jaw clenched. "So if this is what it takes, then I'm willing to make the sacrifice."
They watched the village in silence again.
"I just don't like this."
Shining Armor groaned and let his head fall to hit the rocky ground. When he looked up again, Celestia was staring at him.
"What do you think of her?" she asked.
"Nightmare Moon?" asked Shining Armor, and Celestia nodded.
"Well—" Shining Armor took a deep breath. "Now that I've actually met her… I understand your feelings about her. She is extremely unpleasant to be around. At best, she's neutral. Sitting around quietly is the best mood I've seen her in, aside from mocking and laughing at ponies. Violence and anger seem to be her default response to anything, no matter how trivial.
"And she's clearly a danger to the kingdom. Just her threats against you are enough to put her in that category, leaving aside the fact that she hasn't exactly been shy about announcing that she wants to stage a coup and seize the throne. Beyond that, she tore that train carriage apart, and it sounds like she nearly killed one of the robbers she threw from the train. She seems to have no respect whatsoever for anypony she meets.
"Add in her powers and the fact that she's just plain terrifying, and I have to agree with you. Something needs to be done about her."
"Exactly!" Celestia pounded a hoof on the rocky ground, forgetting in her excitement that they were supposed to be hiding. "If you distract her after we have the Elements back and powered up, I should be able to blast her head clean off—"
Shining Armor held up a hoof. "I wasn't done yet. She's… not happy, Celestia. She's not like Queen Chrysalis or Discord. None of what she's doing really brings her any pleasure. And I think you know why that is."
Celestia's aggressive lean forward and narrowed eyes were off-putting, but he pressed on anyway. "Whatever you might think of her, she is your sister. She's a copy of Luna, a… a dark reflection, but she was still Luna at her core when she was, well, born.
"And she does love Equestria. In a bit of a twisted way, perhaps, but it's still love. Ka-klack called her a spirit of passion, and I think he's right. It's just a shame that her passion has corrupted her so badly that she sees everything in the dark, because with her power she could do a lot of good for Equestria."
"What are you saying, my captain?" Celestia's voice was like ice, an effect made all the more chilling when compared to its usual warmth. "Are you honestly telling me to forgive and forget with Nightmare Moon? The pony who's first act was to attempt my murder? The pony who stole my sister away for a thousand years?"
Shining Armor let out the breath he'd been holding. He wasn't on fire; that was a good sign, she was showing restraint.
"No. She's done too much, pushed things too far. I know this is a terrible thing to say—and Twilight would lecture me for a month if she heard me say it—but she's irredeemable. The fact that the Elements of Harmony don't seem to have any effect on her other than to suppress her is proof of that. If they can't fix her… nothing can.
"It's a tragedy, and I wish things could be different, because she's hurting inside. Whether or not you want to believe that, it's true. Helping her would be the best outcome to all of this, but… what she wants just isn't possible, and there's no reasoning with her. In the end, I'm loyal to you and Equestria, and that loyalty takes precedence over everything else.
"So… whatever you want to do to her, whether its locking her away in the moon again or something more… permanent… I won't stop you."
"Perfect," grinned Celestia.
"But." Shining Armor held up a hoof. "I heard what you want to do to her, what putting her back in Luna's head will mean for her. And I won't let you do that."
"Excuse me? You won't let me do something? And how did you find out about that, anyway?"
"She talks, and you told me to guard her. So I've had to listen to her a lot. You can send her to the moon, you can even kill her—if you think that's absolutely necessary—but putting her back into Luna? That's not just killing her. That's destroying her—body, mind and soul. I won't let you do that, Celestia. No one deserves a fate like that. That's something a villain would do."
She glared at him, with all the fury of her Princessly might, but he held a steely gaze and she finally turned away.
"Fine," she said in a deep, guttural growl, before sighing and continuing in a normal tone of voice. "You're right. That was my emotions talking. I want her to suffer, the way she made me suffer, but that's not the right thing to do. Thank you for saving me from myself, captain."
"Hey, part of the job."
The sound of metal on rocks caught their ears, and they turned to see Nightmare Moon come strutting out of the gloom, a cocky grin on her face. Ka-klack followed behind her, the object held in one of his hooves glinting in the moonlight.
"You got it?!" Celestia brushed by Nightmare to stand in front of Ka-klack, who proudly held up the shining gem.
"Piece of cake," he said in a totally normal tone of voice, his eyes barely darting towards Nightmare Moon at all.
"Oh, you wonderful little changeling!" Celestia cooed, sweeping him into a hug that more than made up for any energy he might have spent sneaking around the village.
"Nothing for me?" Nightmare asked casually as Celestia tried to walk past with Ka-klack and the Element in tow.
Celestia snorted. "I suppose you do deserve some sort of reward for not just flat-out leveling the town." She leaned forward, peering at Nightmare Moon with suspicious eyes. "You didn't do anything like that, did you? If I go down there and find a pile of corpses, I'll be upset."
"Sister, please!" Nightmare Moon held a hoof to her chestplate, orange light flickering off her armor. "The mission was to go in, locate the Element, and leave with it in our possession. That's all I did, and no more."
"Well, if you say so—"
Celestia stopped mid-sentence. The orange glow surrounding Nightmare had gotten brighter, and in the distance were the faint sounds of a commotion. Pushing Nightmare Moon out of the way, she ran to the edge of the ridgeline to look down on the village.
At the head of the two rows of buildings was another, larger building, seemingly a dwelling for one pony. It was now fully engulfed in flames, and ponies were beginning to pour out of the other buildings as they fought to control the inferno, or at least stop it from spreading to the rest of the village. Slowly, mouth agape, Celestia turned to the innocent-faced Nightmare.
"What?"
"With all five of the Elements together, we should be able to find some clue as to where the last Element, the Element of Magic, is," said Celestia, the case they were keeping the gems in tucked under one wing as she trotted into the room at the inn. "We just need to get them together and—GAH!"
Nightmare Moon, upside down due to extruding half her body from a shadow on the ceiling, turned to give her a questioning look. Celestia opened her mouth, starting to speak, then just shook her head and went about setting up the Elements on the floor of the room.
Nightmare turned to Ka-klack, who was clinging vertically to the wall nearby. "What was that about?" she asked, but the changeling only shrugged.
Celestia pulled each gem out of the case one at a time, arranging them on the floor. After some thought, she decided to go with a starburst pattern, the bottom of each gem nearly touching each other, and spent several seconds carefully positioning them. Finished, she sat back expectantly.
After a moment, she leaned over them, Shining Armor joining her.
"So, um, is that it?" he asked.
"I… guess?" She gave one of the Elements a poke with the tip of her wing, producing exactly no result. "I'm not sure what to do now. I kind of thought just getting them together would produce… well, something."
"Hmmmm…" Nightmare Moon peered at the Elements, leaning out from under the nearby bed. Celestia glared at her, then did a double-take. The Nightmare Moon on the ceiling was still there, watching nonchalantly.
"Try giving them a hug. That might give them the 'friendship' and 'harmony' they need to activate," Nightmare sneered. "Or maybe we just need to break them open to let the happy flowers and sunshine out."
Before Celestia could stop her, she reached out and gave the closest Element a sharp rap with her hoof. There was the expected bursts of electricity, and Nightmare grimaced.
But that little bit of blue light didn't disappear. It stayed in the Element, rolling and crackling. Nightmare blinked at it, then ducked back into the shadows under the bed and remerged with her other self on the ceiling. The electricity in the Elements pulsed for a moment longer, then spread out, forming a crackling web of light linking all five gems. A beam rose from their center, and lines of light began to crawl out from it along the floor.
"What are they doing?" wondered Celestia, backing up as the light spread across the room.
"It's a map!" Shining Armor pointed a hoof. "Look, isn't that Horseshoe Bay?"
"Then that must be Dodge City and Appleloosa to the bay's west," said Ka-klack.
"So if the beam of light is where the last Element is, it's in… the Badlands?!" Celestia groaned.
Up on the ceiling, Nightmare Moon began to laugh uproariously.
"Not just the Badlands, the center of the Badlands," mused Ka-klack, his voice taking on a distinctly female pitch as he buzzed down to hove just over the map. "Pedipalp, didn't one of our expeditions find odd magic in that area?"
"Oh yes, and definitely out of place for the middle of a wasteland." Ka-klack's voice changed again, becoming faster and more enthusiastic. "It was almost half a friendship's worth—"
"I told you to stop measuring magic that way!"
"But friendship is m—"
"Finish that sentence and I'll have the others use you as a permanent test subject."
"… in any case, the magic we detected in that area was much higher than the usual background levels. I believe the expedition didn't find anything out of the ordinary, though. There was a mesa there and they tried tunneling into it, but still found nothing after a hundred feet so they gave up and just marked it as an unexplained anomaly. But if you want to go further I have plans for a drilling machine that—"
"No, Pedipalp, that will be enough. Thank you for the information. Apidae, what did your team find during the exploration?"
"Very little," announced Ka-klack in a third voice, this one deeper and more formal. "The surface was identical to the nearby area as it rose up to the mesa. Air and soil samples came up normal; there were no plants or any significant animal life nearby to test, though that's normal for the Badlands.
"Tunneling into the mesa provided us with no further information. The only oddity was the discovery of a few stones that appeared to have been worked by hoof at some time in the distant past. They were barely identifiable as such, however, and were so few in number that we decided it wasn't significant. The conclusion we ultimately came to was that it was the former site of an ancient temple, and the magic readings were simple fading remnants from that time."
"Thank you, captain, that will be all."
"We live to serve, ma'am." Ka-klack gave a salute, staring up at nothing, then turned back to the map.
"An artifact of such power, right in my hive's backyard," he mused in Queen Chrysalis's voice once again. "I can't say I'm happy about that. Why, if I'd found that before the attack on Canterlot…"
A number of glares came at him/her from around the room, and he/she smiled. "Forgive me for old habits, yes? In any case… thank you for finding this. You're that much closer to freeing me—to saving us. If you require anything else for your trip to the Element, feel free to stop by the hive."
Ka-klack gave a little shake, then looked around, blinking. "Back to Appleloosa and the hive, then?" he asked, and was rewarded with multiple groans.
"Now, now, no need to be like that." Celestia lifted the Elements in her magic, placing them back in the case. "We're on the final leg of the trip now! I'll go get us tickets for the morning train, and we'll be in Appleloosa before you know it."
"OH GODS, THE TRAIN IS OUT OF CONTROL! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
"What the—who let her near the window?!"
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH—"
"But you see what I'm saying, right? I can admit that I made a mistake when I said I wanted to blast that swamp into a desert. Now that I'm actually in one, I think this sunny, burning hellscape may actually be worse than the swamp.
"The difference is, this is fixable! The cost in lives will be high, yes, but the benefits of a canal providing water to this region are immense. The public works alone will bring prosperity to the Equestrian economy as we employ thousands upon thousands to dig the canals, and once that is completed we will have converted this entire vast wasteland into fertile farmland! My ponies will never go hungry!"
The soft snort from Celestia was ignored.
"I understand that, I just don't see the need," said Shining Armor. "There's no shortage of food in Equestria as it is."
"Well, not now, but once Celestia is dead and the night reigns supreme, farming is going to become a bit of an issue. There are various crops that do well enough in moonlight, but their yield is low. To use one example, mushrooms are an acceptable substitute, but the acreage of land needed to feed one pony is much greater than for, say, apples. That's why it's so vital we get started on this now, for the future generations that will come after my rule begins."
The icy pall that fell over the group provided a brief respite from the searing sun as they marched through the Badlands.
"I think I'm going to have to pass on this particular public works project," said Celestia finally, in a bitterly sarcastic tone.
"But think of my subjects!"
Rocks and brush went past as they made their way towards the mesa that Ka-klack assured them was the one the Element's map had shown. The landscape wasn't exactly dull—the mesas were plentiful and picturesque—but there was a sameness to it all that dragged on when you'd spent a full day hiking through it, especially under a brightly burning sun. Even Celestia was privately beginning to think about lowering it a few hours early.
"Better than the swamp, eh?" asked Shining Armor, giving Ka-klack a grin.
"Oh, for sure!" the changeling replied cheerfully. "We used to go on patrols out here all the time, when we still thought you were looking for us. It's like being in my own backyard."
"Not worried about desert hydras or sand snakes, are you?" teased Celestia gently.
"Oh, no, you don't get sand snakes up here. This is hardpan desert, they can't tunnel through it. Down south, where you get soft sand and dunes, is where the sand snakes live."
"Oh, um, yes. Of course."
Finally they came to the base of the mesa, and began to climb the slope. It was a gentle incline, at least, making the going easy. Ahead, in the wall of the mesa, they could see the black square of the tunnel the changelings had dug. And then, at last, they stood in front of it, the end of their journey.
"What a dump," said Nightmare Moon, with a sniff.
"Be nice," scolded Celestia.
"Honestly, she has a point," Ka-klack said, shrugging. "I'm kind of surprised it hasn't caved in yet. It was never built to last, and we dug it quite a while ago."
"Fantastic. So, who's coming with me into the possibly cave-in prone tunnel?" Silence greeted her. "Shining Armor? Not even you?"
"I-I thought I was okay, but now that I'm here, I don't think I can go in." Shining Armor let out a gulp. "I, um, don't do well in caves."
"Seriously?"
"Well, it's not like it ever came up when I was captain of the guard in, you know, a city!"
Ka-klack started to raise his hoof, then stopped, peering at the pitch black opening of the tunnel nervously. After a moment he looked away, eyes downcast, and slowly lowered his hoof back to the ground.
"Okay, that's fine. This whole mess started because of a mistake I made, so I should be the one to end it. And if the tunnel does collapse, we're better off if it's just me in there anyway. If I have to, I can crack the whole mesa in half to escape."
"Ah, wanton destruction. That's more like it." Nightmare Moon grinned at Celestia's scowl. "Don't worry, I'll go with you. No, no. No need to thank me. You are welcome, though."
But at the entrance to the tunnel she stopped, hooves shuffling nervously in the hard packed dirt. A faint aura of static electricity hung around her, crackling and sparking off her coat.
"Not allowed, huh?" Celestia gave Nightmare a smug smile as she continued past into the cool shade of the tunnel.
"I could if I wanted to," Nightmare Moon replied petulantly, but her words echoed hollowly back to her. Celestia was already out of sight.
She lit her horn after a few paces, as the light of her sun faded away. The tunnel had clearly been built to be as temporary as Ka-klack had said; the walls were rough and uneven, the floor treacherous and covered in loose rock.
She paused to examine some of the stones upon the ground. A number of them were grey and smooth, out of place amongst the browns of the Badlands. Their smoothness argued for them to have been worked by hoof at some point in the past, as Apidae had said, but it just as easily could have been the result of erosion.
The end of the tunnel came up abruptly, simply a rough rock wall marked by digging implements. Celestia examined every inch of it thoroughly, but saw nothing other than an ordinary cave wall.
"Is this it?" she wondered out loud.
She didn't notice the whispering at first, until she saw the dust moving under her hooves. She quickly pranced back, watching cautiously as the flowing dust seemed to move on its own. As the movement continued, the source became apparent: a stone slab slowly sank beneath the tunnel floor, revealing steps leading further down into the mesa.
"Hmm… " Celestia studied this new tunnel for a moment. "Well, either this is an invitation or a trap. Either way…" She started down the steps.
After a surprisingly short distance, the steps ended in a new tunnel, this one lined with that same grey stone she'd seen back in the original tunnel. And not too long after that, she found herself in a small chamber.
At some point, it had been no more than a simple box carved out of the surrounding grey stone. But cracks had formed along the edges of the room, letting in what looked like tree roots that now carpeted the floor. These tree roots weren't wooden, however. Instead, they were gleaming light blue crystal—the roots of the Tree of Harmony itself. The roots crept along the chamber floor, reaching from all sides of the room towards the center. At that focal point was a simple square block, upon which rested a translucent gem shaped like a six-pointed star.
"There it is," Celestia breathed quietly.
She started forward, but after a mere two steps found she could go no further. Nothing was holding her back, it was just that whenever she lifted a hoof and moved it forward, it invariably ended up back where it had started. The sensation was rather discomforting, and she gave up after a few moments.
Her magic proved equally unable to gain purchase on the Element, hitting that same invisible barrier. She studied the room for a moment, then shrugged and did the simplest thing possible.
"Excuse me," she called out into the empty chamber, "but I don't suppose I might have that Element? I can bring it back after I'm done if you wish."
Silence was the reply. And then…
It felt like the gathering of some ancient will, a mind slowly waking up after eons slumbering. A whispering breeze turned in the sound of a multitude of insect legs scratching upon stone, turned into the groaning of a collapsing mineshaft, turned into whispers again, answering her question in a voice that defied categorizations like gender and tone.
Why do you desire harmony?
"My…" Celestia licked her suddenly dry lips. "My friends and loved ones fell victim to an unfortunate accident involving the power of harmony. I wish to return them to normal."
Who are you that desires harmony?
"I am Princess Celestia Dawnbringer, leader of Equestria. I once wielded the Elements of Harmony myself, before… before a misunderstanding caused me to lose my link to them. I merely wish to use them once more, just one time more, to save the ones I care for."
And do you deserve to be the champion of harmony?
"I do." Celestia took a deep breath. "I have led Equestria by myself for a thousand years. During that time, I thought of nothing but the good of my people. I strove to provide for them as best I could, to build them a land of peace and harmony. As a result of my sacrifices, I made Equestria into a happy, prosperous kingdom. I gave up everything, even my own happiness on occasion, for my ponies. For their happiness. And I succeeded.
"As far as harmony goes, I embody it as much as a living being can."
There was another long silence. This time, it was broken by the sound of an indrawn breath. Not just any indrawn breath, though. This was the entire mesa, perhaps all the land around it, taking a breath, gathering itself to pass judgement. It rumbled up through the floor, a sound so low and deep and impossibly ancient that it was more a rumble felt in the bones than an actual sound. Slowly it built up, and up, until it seemed the mesa would collapse from the vibrations. Then it faded away, and the voice spoke.
Wrong.
There was a flash of white, and then darkness.
"Because if I was waiting in ambush, I wouldn't just be standing next to the tunnel!" protested Nightmare Moon. "And neither of you would be around to interfere!
"I mean, I'd kill you both. I'd probably possess Shining Armor, sneak up behind you, Ka-klack, and snap your neck. Then use my powers to fly to the top of the mesa, throw myself off, and abandon Shining's body just before it hit the ground. Thus leaving me free to attack Celestia as soon as she came out.
"Or I'd take Ka-klack's body, using his shapeshifting powers, augmented with my own, to turn into some horrible, unthinkable shape. Assuming the sight of such a thing didn't instantly liquify Shining Armor's mind, he would still be in no position to stop me from ambushing Celestia by using Ka-klack's shape to avoid arousing suspicion, blaming 'Nightmare Moon' for what happened to Shining Armor, and then striking when she goes to check on his lifeless corpse."
"And the fact that you've planned all this out in detail is supposed to make us feel better?" asked Shining Armor, mouth hanging open.
"They're hypotheticals! Who doesn't idly plan the murder of everyone around them when they're bored? It's not like—"
A sound came from the tunnel, a long scraping noise followed by the clatter of rocks.
"Look, here she comes now, and I am standing directly in front of the tunnel, in plain sight, obviously not planning any sort of ambush—"
A white shape came hurtling out of the darkness, straight at Nightmare Moon. She managed to get her forelegs up just in time, catching Celestia around the barrel, the force of the impact sending them both sliding back several feet in the sand.
"Ha! You see that? She tried to attack me! I'm sure… she…" Nightmare Moon trailed off. What she held in her forelegs wasn't the living, breathing body of Princess Celestia.
It was a stone statue, Celestia's face frozen in shock.
Another white figure burst from the cave in an explosion of fire, this one moving under its own power, white wings beating furious as it took to the sky above.
Mouth dropping open, Nightmare let the petrified statue of Celestia fall to the ground. In her confusion, she fell back, huddling with Shining Armor and Ka-klack as they tried to make sense of the figure that hovered above them.
Metal lined the flapping wings, metal with a razor sharp edge. Orange and gold armor wrapped around the figure, shining in the light of the sun. The figure's mane crackled around them like living flame, popping and sputtering in the dry air. Yellow eyes, burning like the pitiless heart of the sun and with pupils slit like a dragon's, peered down at them out of magenta orbs. Below those terrible eyes, a fanged mouth grinned widely. A crown like a warrior's helm sat upon the figure's head, and at the center of their chestpiece gleamed a translucent six-pointed gem.
"Well, well, well," said Daybreaker, her tongue snaking out to wet her lips in anticipation. "What have we here?"