//------------------------------//
// Chapter X 
// Story: Friendship Was Magic 
// by Error732 
//------------------------------//

After five days spent mostly underground, a shanty would have appeared as a palace to Applebloom. Castle Celestia, though, seemed too large to have been conceived by mortal ponies.

The citadel of Canterlot still bore the name of its owner's late sister, as Castle Luna still lay in ruins in the Everfree Forest. Yet, not everything about it remained unchanged; the once perpetually ivory tower now lustered onyx at night, an enchantment Luna had commissioned to suit her preferences while not wholly ejecting Celestia's legacy. The reigning princess had granted Twilight and Applebloom an audience to take place during these nocturnal hours, so Applebloom's first impression of the castle was of a hole taken out of the stars.

The moon cast unnaturally long shadows, here; the silhouettes of rooftop gargoyles crawled across the marble threshhold, and the shadows lingered a little bit too long after the gatekeepers opened the door. Still, they stepped unsteadily onward, to a room encircled by towering columns and topped with a skylight whose color stains had retreated for the night. Moonlight streamed steadily downward, to a dais engraved with the Sun and Moon about its edge.

Princess Luna stood wretchedly atop it, perspiring under the pulsing magic of her horn. "Step closer, visitors," she commanded in a deep, crackling voice. "I entertain few visitors, but I make an exception for my sister's pupil."

Cowed by their sovereign's candor, Applebloom and Twilight Sparkle approached the platform and knelt. Princess Luna stormed with exertion. Her mane, once a stream of blue mist, whipped violently and fumed over her trembling frame. Bags puffed under her reddened eyes, which stared unyieldingly upward.

"You may speak," grunted the Princess. "I have concentration to spare, but little time."

Twilight Sparkle rose. "Princess Luna, we wish to humbly ask you to consider our proposal. We come before you today, after much magical research, in the hopes of altering the past."

"Impossible," said the Princess. "The past is immutable."

Twilight Sparkle cued Applebloom to present the book and journal of notes she had distilled in the past week. "I beg your pardon," said Twilight Sparkle, "but I have reconstructed a nine-century-old spell from the archives of the Canterlot library." She neglected to mention that the spell was invented during the Princess's millennium-long exile.

"If you truly have such a spell, why consult me? Even I cannot deny the will of one who controls history."

Twilight bowed her head once more. "It is beyond the power of normal unicorns to cast. We hoped that you might cast it."

Princess Luna's strain intensified. "And why should I do this for you, if I am even able? What change does history need so sorely that you would distract me?"

Applebloom took this opportunity to volunteer, "We want to prevent Princess Celestia's assassination."

The princess's horn unleashed a blinding flash, and she reared up on her hind legs. The dais shimmered under her, and the moonlight slowly waned from the skylight. As the last beam left the pedestal, the effect ended, and Princess Luna fell to her feet in exasperation.

"Since Celestia's death," gasped the princess, "the duties of night and day have fallen to me alone. I am not the pony my sister was. The Sun does not heed me readily, nor even the Moon and Stars since she passed. I tire of the cycles, yet I must uphold them for the sake of the kingdom. I have no time to travel, to idle, to sleep, nor even to mourn, much less to entertain the fantasies of deluded ponies who torture me with thoughts of my late sister. I will view this spell, and you will regret your impertinence if it is anything less than you say."

It was not a request. The Princess pointed her horn, and invisible forces snatched the spell book and journal from Applebloom's grasp. The spell levitated in front of the princess's nose while the scrolls of notes orbited in a perfect ring about her. Her eyes burned violet as the pages of the book flipped. Her audience watched with rapt attention as the princess absorbed the volume from cover to cover and again as the documents collected themselves and lay themselves at Applebloom's hooves.

Luna's voice lost its regal tenor. "I am pleased to learn that my sister's faith in you was not misplaced."

* * *

Applebloom and Twilight Sparkle spent the next several days in the castle. The spell would require many preparations, and the princess could not ignore her duties to perform them. The palace staff was put at their disposal, an arrangement well-suited to Twilight Sparkle's meticulous nature. She commissioned braziers etched with cryptic symbols, emulsions of exotic salts, and an array of other odds and ends whose pattern no one could discern. The technicalities left Applebloom feeling inept, but Twilight assured her that she was responsible for the endeavor in the first place.

Finally, on the night of a new moon, Princess Luna joined them in her sanctum, where the preliminaries had been arranged. She surveyed the room.

"Well done," she said. "What must we discuss before we begin?"

Twilight Sparkle ran the princess through a litany of magical jargon, stopping to clarify the occasional ambiguity in her notes. They deliberated at length before settling some of these, but in the end seemed confident in their conclusions.

"Then we're ready. Applebloom, have you anything to add?"

Applebloom was stunned that the princess would consult her, given her complete inexpertise in all things magical. "No, but I wanted to ask something before we start."

"Then do so."

"When the spell's done, how will we know it worked? Will we feel it?"

"We won't feel anything if it works, Applebloom," said the princess, coolly. "If it works, the universe will reset, and we, as we are, will cease to exist."

"Oh," said Applebloom. "Well, what should I do while it's going on?"

Said Princess Luna, "Close your eyes. Think pleasant thoughts of better days."

Applebloom did as she was told. Her eyelids fell, and through them she saw the flicker of brilliant light that followed.  And then only darkness.