CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN:
DID YOU MISS ME?
STARLIGHT GLIMMER / PRINCESS CELESTIA
Applejack had been working inside the farm when I'd arrived in a panic. She had no idea I was even on her property, but I told her I would explain later, and I quickly instructed her to get me some parchment. Thankfully, she had some paper around, and so I grabbed the nearest quill I saw and scribbled fervently a short message before igniting it with my horn and putting it in the claws of one Spike the Dragon.
Spike/Twilight/Anypony
We found a rune at Sweet Apple Acres. Must be Zephyr. Please come quick.
- Star
Once I sent the letter, I looked back at Applejack and gestured towards the large farm doors before starting to jog back where I came.
"Follow me. I have to show you something." I didn't stop to see her reaction, but I did hear the rapid patter of her footsteps. It didn't take her long to catch up to me -- Applejack was far quicker on her hooves than an earth pony had any right to be -- but I could see the scathing narrow of her eyes as she started to keep pace beside me.
"Sugercube, what in Tartarus are you on about?" she questioned. "And when did ya get here, anyhow?"
"Few hours ago," I told her. "Went here for a workout pretty far into the field as to not bother you, and Cobalt and Violet found me. He wanted to test out his new machine, so I sparred with it, and I accidentally destroyed it. When we went to go pick it up, we found a rune."
"A what?" she asked. "And y'all didn't damage any trees, did ya?" I shook my head violently as I continued, getting irate at the farmer.
"Your trees are okay, Applejack," I seethed, probably a bit harsher than I intended to. "But this rune is probably Zephyr's. He was here, and he could still be around. Twi is on her way, but we have to figure out what this thing is and we have to do it quick."
Applejack gasped, and I could tell she was running the words she'd just been told through her head as we trotted. She didn't say anything for the rest of the way there, and I knew why: Applejack wanted to see this rune for herself, so when the two of us finally reached the hill and began to climb it, I gladly ran up to where Violet and Cobalt were standing with her in tow.
That is, until I tripped and fell flat on my face in my haste to get to them. It didn't hurt too bad, but the embarrassment was painful enough, and I quickly sprung to my feet with a sheepish smile. Cobalt probably wouldn't have let me live it down if the circumstances were lighter, so he opted to point where I had fallen instead.
"Be careful, that section of the hill is raised slightly. I noticed it earlier, but I couldn't tell you why." Applejack, too, seemed to find that strange, and she narrowed her eyes and stared at the raised patch of grass before I spoke up.
"We have much more important grass over here, Applejack," I called to her. I immediately regretted the tone I'd use, and when she whipped up to me with a glare that could have killed us all, I immediately looked away in shame.
"I'm sorry," I told her meekly. "I'm... I'm kinda freaking out." Applejack's face softened, and she walked over to me and gently rested a hoof on me.
"You've been through a lot in the past month, Star," she told me. "I know I get a mighty bit stubborn when somethin's on my mind, but just know that we're all here for ya. Ain't that right, fellas?" I turned to see Cobalt grinning with a hoof held up in solidarity, and Violet with a wide beam and an idle bounce.
"Do not fret, Starlight! With our bond, we shall destroy Zephyr and Melody!" I couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm, and the two of us walked over to the rune they had been observing.
"Thanks, guys," I told them. "I know we'll be fine. Did you all notice anything else about this thingamajig?" Applejack and I walked up to where it was etched in the ground, and her eyes widened as she viewed it for the first time. Her lip slowly coiled into anger at what I knew was the thought of Zephyr infringing on Sweet Apple Acres, and she simply observed its intricate patterns as Cobalt answered my inquiry.
"I don't know anything about runes, but I think it's clear this hasn't been active. The circles have got to be spaces for offerings, I would I imagine. What say you, Vy?" Violet shook her head as she gazed upon it once more.
"I do not have much experience with these thingamajigs," she said, helplessly stumbling over the last word. "I was not learned in runes. I do not believe my time had much science of them, in truth."
I nodded idly as I continued to stare at it. I knew a bit about runes and how they generally worked, but I couldn't even begin to guess what it meant. I was prepared for it to be a long waiting game for Twilight, but as if the universe were answering my prayers, I heard a voice call out from behind me.
"Sorry we're late! We came as quickly as we could. What were you all doing out here?" My eyebrows rose at the mention of "we", and I was surprised to see that Silver was with her, levitating two books at each side. She ran up to the rune with Twilight in tow and unceremoniously pushed me out of the way, studying the pattern with an intensity I'd never seen from her.
"...This is it," she said. "This is the rune I saw in the Everfree." The original four of us all glanced at each other -- we hadn't heard Silver ever mention going to the Everfree -- but she placed both books on either side of the rune and began to flip through them at the same time with her magic, somehow scanning the contents of both books as the pages flew back and forth. The confused eyes only grew more lost, and it seemed as if Silver could somehow sense it as her eyes darted between the books, which I saw now had numerous run illustrations on every page.
"A rune is like an empty math formula," she began. "It has the base problem, but it doesn't have the variables. It's designed to do something, and the offerings you put inside of it are the thing -- or pony -- it does the task to." She stopped the left book on a dime, looking at one of the illustrations. She seemed to be satisfied with it, because she turned to the right one and continued to comb through its pages.
"Zephyr is a master of dark magic, but he was Celestia's apprentice, too. He isn't a slouch when it comes regular magic, and so the possibility hit me the other day... " In a second, she'd found what she was looking for on the other page, and the two rune books settled on a page at either side of the pattern below us. Once I took a look at the two illustrations, it dawned on me what the rune in front of us actually was, and a look at the group saw them coming to the same realization.
"It's a combination rune," Silver explained. "A stroke of brilliance, actually. It's the light magic rune to summon things of like kind interpolated with the dark magic rune to animate a dead body. It changes the formula, because the dark magic rune is supposed to animate the body -- "
"But the light magic rune summons and restores it if it isn't alive," Twilight finished, almost whispering. "Unbelievable. This is why you're all here, and that's also why Sunset and I were inexplicably drawn to Canterlot. We're all Celestia's apprentice."
Zephyr, for all his mad ramblings and demented causes, had truly found a way to cheat death. It was ingenious, and it was almost shocking to think that nopony else had thought of such a thing before he did. We may have finally known why the apprentices had come back with the revelation, but it also put another question into my head that I made sure to put forward immediately.
"This looks recent, though," I told her. "You all came back a while ago." Silver grimly nodded, and she stared at the rune and back to the book rapidly.
"That's because it is recent," she said. "In fact, this can't be more than a week old. Zephyr clearly used this to bring somepony else back, and I have a feeling I might know who it is."
That one was fairly easy to pick up on. Chrysanthemum was always what he was truly after, and it was very possible that he had come here to revive her. A part of me hoped that her return would lessen his motivation for conquest and conversion, thought the rational other part of me knew that such things were wishful thinking.
There was one other thing that was confusing me, however, so I spoke up again.
"That doesn't add up," I told her. "You said yourself that this is for like objects. Chrysanthemum is a single pony, and she isn't like anything else, is she? How would we know for sure that bringing her back is what he was trying to do with this rune?" That got everypony thinking, but to my surprise, Silver answered very quickly.
"This could be his loophole. See, you would need organic parts of the individual to bring them back: simply putting down magical artifacts or something similar would result in failure. They were both married to each other, which is their similarity, so he could have easily put down strands of his own mane to effectively summon himself, if that makes sense."
"How is it that thou know of runes so well?" Violet asked her. Silver nodded down to the books at her feet.
"A lot of reading. I, uh... I've been kind of obsessed with them recently. I saw this exact same rune where I died, and I've wanted to track it down the moment I woke up. But to answer your question, Starlight, there is a way we can know for sure." That got us all curiously eyeing her, and she gestured to the wide orchard around us spun around in an exaggerated manner.
"As I am sure you are aware, it doesn't just plop you back where the rune was. Runes almost have a sense of their own, and so this one is like to, and I quote, "bring the objects close to their shared likeness", which in this case was Celestia, then Hourton, then all of you in Canterlot. For a large number of ponies, like six, it would probably take longer, but if it is one pony, it wouldn't be nearly so. Zephyr had to have had some physical things from Chrysanthemum's body to offer this rune, and even though the rune absorbed most of it, there's a chance it could have dispelled some of that evidence around here somewhere."
"So... we're lookin for a lock of a mane in the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres," Silver glanced over to Twilight, though, who already had a knowing beam I'd come to see many times in my friendship with her.
"Nope! I have a spell that detects any organic matter from a pony, living or dead! It's usually used by guards on patrol shifts, but I figured it out from my brother and used it when we would play hide and seek. It may be a lock of hair, but it could really be anything, including something much bigger. It doesn't take much effort to cast, either: all I have to do is let the spell know I don't need to find you all."
Slowly, her horn ignited, and she closed her eyes and concentrated. We all stayed as quiet as we could for her, and after about fifteen or so seconds had passed, a surge of magical energy pulsed from her horn as she opened her eyes. She looked around the hill, but quickly furrowed her brow as she turned in every direction.
"That's really strange. I don't see anything, which is weird because I know at least Mac and Apple Bloom probably come around here -- "
She looked down, and the words immediately died in her throat. She jumped back in terror, putting a hoof to her mouth and widening her eyes. The group of us looked to her with worried and puzzled glances, but it didn't take long for me to realize just where she had been standing.
It was that lump of raised grass I had tripped over earlier, but I knew Twilight wasn't looking at the strange patch of land.
She was looking underneath it.
My sister gave me sweet dreams.
It was a luxury I hadn't experienced for a thousand years, where the nightmares would arrive in abundance and the restless nights were innumerable. The guilt of what I had done had cast a shadow over me as I slept, but once I was reunited with my sister, she saw to it that the terrors I'd experience would disappear with her power over dreams.
Sometimes, she would visit me. We'd talk for hours and hours in a little pocket of time, the world around us grinding to a halt. The diplomatic and political intrigue would disappear in her realm, and for a night, we could just be sisters again as we babbled on about nothing important.
So when I went to sleep the previous evening, I didn't expect to have a nightmare.
I remember it vividly. I was back in our old castle, shortly after my battle with my sister. It was ruined in dilapidated as it stood today, however, and not a single star hung in the sky. It was darker than usual, too, as the dark blue that usually washed Equestria at night was entirely black.
I heard voices, initially in a whisper but growing louder by the second. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but it was frantic and hurried, and their sharpness like daggers swelled to a deafening pulse. I tried to run away from the castle, but they followed, and soon enough, the chorus of invisible voices grew all around me.
I kneeled down in the grass, covering my ears, but it was no use, as they simply grew louder. The words entangled me like limbs, slowly wrapping around me and pulling me as the whispers grew to words and the words grew to shouts, and the last thing I remember was my own blood-curdling scream far more clamorous than the noises around me as the things that were not there finally pounced.
My eyes shot open with a jolt, and I found myself breathing heavily on my bed. Something was wrong: Luna would not allow me to have a nightmare if she still had control over dreams, and if she didn't, it meant that she was incapacitated and was unable to perform her duties.
I had just experienced my first nightmare in years, but when I glanced up after blinking the sleep from my eyes, I was greeted by a sight far more sinister than any dream could muster.
There was a pony standing over my bed. Her eyes were wide and her gaze was unblinking, and she stared at me as if to watch my every movement. Her mane and coat colors were entirely obscured by the darkness, but I quit trying to figure them out when I saw something near her face.
She was holding a clump of my mane, it seemed, and she had it pressed up against her nose to breathe it in while she was watching me sleep. I didn't imagine she had only just arrived, either, and she could have been in here for hours. I could feel myself shake and my eyes shoot open with terror, but before I could do anything, the pony spoke.
"I missed you," she cooed.
The realization of who my invader was hit me like a train, but just as I moved the first of my joints to react, her horn lit up and I felt a sharp pain shoot into my side. With a yelp, I lept from my bed and attempted to balance myself, and I looked to see that she had launched something into me that was too dark to see. I whipped back around to see her advancing toward me, and so I prepared a laceration spell to end this confrontation once and for all.
But I couldn't.
My magic simply would not work. No matter how much I tried, nothing would come to my horn, and I felt myself begin to hyperventilate as I reached a hoof over to feel what she had stabbed me with. The texture was all too familiar.
It was a piece of Chrysalis' throne, which Starlight Glimmer had shattered months ago. A piece of it that size was more than enough to disable all magic that did not belong to a changeling, and she had sharpened it and launched it into me. She was still advancing towards me, and even through the darkness, I caught a glimpse of a face emotionless as stone.
Quickly, I darted around and ran to the door, grasping a hoof on the handle and shaking it as fast as I possibly could.
Locked.
There was no way out. I could not kick down the door in time, as she was right upon me, and with my magic gone and her magic still very much active, a surprise attack, even if successful, would likely result in harsh reproductions. There was one thing left to do, and it was a tactic that I knew well would not phase the pony who had broken into my castle in the slightest.
Slowly, I turned around, and when I did, I was greeted with the sight of her just mere inches from my face, close enough to feel her breathing.
"Melody," I whispered, able to hear the pleading in my own inflection. "I don't know what you've done to Luna, or anypony else in this castle, but I beg you to stop this. For me." The only thing I could think of was to appeal to her love of me, but to my horror, I felt something slimy begin to envelop both of my back legs as her horn ignited with a sickly grin.
"I am sorry, my mentor," she said stoically. "But I have a task to complete."
I lost my balance as it took the backside of me completely, and I took a hard fall to the floor. The cocoon was spreading around me like a virus, wrapping around my front hooves and spreading over my horn to truly silence it. Just when it had paved over my mouth, however, it stopped at the very outside of my eyes, leaving my vision perfect but every other sense smothered by the cocoon. Helplessly, I felt myself lift from the ground with her magic, and she trotted over to stare me in the eyes. She gazed into them for what must have been an eternity, watching the way my irises glinted in the light of her aura as she tilted her head to get every angle.
"I missed you," she repeated. "Did you miss me?"