Rainbow crouched low outside the castle, guarding the little foxes hiding under her. She wasn’t sure how long she’d stay like that, maybe days? The safest and most obvious choice was just to take them back to the river, where they could hide under the surface until the danger passed. But some part of her didn’t think these little ones would be terribly good swimmers.
“You think anypony will get hurt?” Apple Bloom squeaked, poking her head out from the side of one of Twilight’s planter boxes. So far none of the guardsponies had dared try to approach, which was probably for the best. She wasn’t sure if they’d be a threat to the ones she was guarding. “They’re probably just showing off with their magic, right? I’ve never known my big sis to go around attackin’ folks.”
“I don’t know,” Rainbow answered truthfully. Some part of her wanted to lie, and tell them everything would be okay, but she just didn’t know. “It’s probably just… occasionally you’ve got to let off steam, you know? We’re all stressed, and confused, and… that’s probably what it was. I didn’t see anypony get hit. I’m sure they’ll be fine.”
“Good.” Apple Bloom relaxed a little, tucking into a corner against the wall and burying her face in her tail.
Scootaloo poked out beside her a moment later, shaking her hindlegs a second before hopping onto the low wall. There she was almost as tall as Rainbow, or at least tall enough to make eye contact. “You think we’ll be changed back soon? I’m getting sick of being so small.”
“Probably,” Rainbow said. “When things settle down inside, I’ll go check on everypony. Twilight said Starlight was here, working with the princess or whatever. That’s why you keep smart unicorns around, obviously. For them to solve the problems they make with their magic.”
“Right.” Scootaloo hopped back down, joining her friends in the dirt. She didn’t seem to care that it was getting on her. Rainbow was just glad for the shade, and the setting sun. She didn’t feel the desperate need to find something wet to splash in anymore.
She felt something then, making her suddenly bolt alert and glance back towards the castle. Was this what it felt like for a unicorn to sense magic? Power blasted past her, a flash of light not unlike the time they’d hit Tirek with the power of tacky colors. She crouched low again, covering the kits protectively with her own body.
It wasn’t necessary. The power passed harmlessly over them, without so much as a scratch.
The winged guards milling about around Celestia’s carriage were not so lucky, however. They froze, before dropping to the ground. They moaned, clutching at their guts, or just collapsed completely. One tried lifting off, and fell limply to the ground a few feet further.
She covered the kits anyway, not wanting them to see this. But she couldn’t look away herself. It was like watching a bad flyer take a difficult maneuver. She knew it was going to be bad, but she had to see anyway.
They changed. Ponies shrunk down one by one, their fur getting bushier and changing colors in subtle ways. One turned yellow, with jagged spikes of fluff. Another seemed to lose their fur completely, covering over in scales like hers, but pinker. They gasped and screamed, sinking away into their armor.
“Woah.”
She hadn’t noticed, but little Sweetie Belle was standing on her hindlegs, peeking over the edge of the wall at the soldiers. Her eyes were wide, horrified. “I don’t think that fixed it.”
“Me neither,” Rainbow said, pushing her with a paw so she fell back to the dirt. How far had that energy gone anyway? How much damage could one spell do?
“Can you three hide here? If you wait a few minutes, those guards should be able to understand you again. If anything happens, ask for their help.”
“Where are you going?” Scootaloo snapped. “I wanna go too!”
“Not this time.” She spun, glowering down at the kit. “I’m going back into the castle to see what’s happening. I don’t want you getting blasted with that weird magic, okay? Just stay out here, and don’t come in unless… unless it gets dark.”
They were so small, she didn’t like their odds against even the relatively inconsequential predators of Ponyville. Would an owl hunt foxes their size? What about coyotes, or stray cats? “I’ll come straight out as soon as I know what’s going on.”
She watched them a moment longer, just to be sure they wouldn’t try to follow anyway. Scootaloo looked like she was considering it, but after a few steps onto open ground she thought better of it and darted back towards the planter-box.
Good, kid. Don’t stick your neck out this time.
Rainbow stretched, then darted forward up the steps. She wished she had her wings, to make the trip in only a few seconds. Running everywhere was incredibly annoying.
Just inside, she passed the same group of guards who had been guarding the front door last time. They weren’t ponies anymore either, though from the sound of it they didn’t seem like they’d be recovering anytime soon. One waved a feeble paw at her, but she didn’t catch what he said. She didn’t much care.
The throne room looked as bad as she’d guessed it would, with broken furniture and little fires burning in the corners. To her surprise, some of the others were still here, sitting in their solitary corners as though they hadn’t had a brawl not long ago.
A quick glance told her that Twilight and Pinkie were both gone, and so she didn’t stick around long. Where else would you be?
Where the action is, obviously. Rainbow turned down a hall, then towards a part of the castle she never visited: Twilight’s lab.
There were more guards here, no better off than the first group. “You,” one of them said, another spiky yellow one. “You’re gonna fix this, right? You six always fix these things.”
“Not me,” Rainbow said. “But somebody buckin’ better.”
The stairs waited for her. Some part of her had known what she’d find at the bottom, albeit with dread rather than anticipation. That same explosion of power that she’d felt had probably started down here. Sure enough, there wasn’t a single pony left standing. Even Princess Celestia, despite her power, wasn’t immune.
Apparently Twilight had weathered the fight unscathed, because she was already here, removing bits and pieces from a broken machine. Rainbow watched curiously for a moment as she spread the crushed pile of metal scrap out around her, sorting the objects around it according to rules she seemed to understand.
Finally she made her way over, slow enough that she didn’t think she’d provoke anything. This wasn’t her territory, she was far from the water now. But Twilight seemed friendly enough to understand she had her reasons.
“Twi,” she said. “You’re, uh… you know what happened down here?”
She turned, barely seeming to look at Rainbow before turning her focus back to the machine. “Yes, sorta. Maybe not? Starlight has a hypothesis, and it’s the best we have. We think Equestria and some other realm must’ve connected. Starlight and the princess pulled more Eevee through, and it… exploded.”
The name was strange to Rainbow, but she didn’t question it. Hearing things she didn’t understand was basically her every day. “You have a plan to fix this?”
Twilight explained quickly, or she tried to. Rainbow couldn’t make much sense of it, except for one truth above all others. It would mean sending ponies out all over Equestria to gather parts to fix her machine—an Equestria that might be somewhat or maybe completely overwhelmed with foxes.
“What about Discord,” she asked, when Twilight had finished. “Couldn’t he just… put everything back?”
Twilight shrugged. “I haven’t seen him anywhere. Half the bits in the treasury says that he knows exactly what’s going on, and he’s not doing a bucking thing to help.” Her nostrils flared, tail whipping about behind her in a way Rainbow’s never could’ve. It made her look so… powerful, so confident. But not as hot as Applejack even so. “Then when we finally fix this he’ll show up a few minutes later and make excuses about how he was on vacation the whole time.”
“Fluttershy didn’t seem too mad about it,” Rainbow said. “Maybe he’s delaying for her.”
Twilight shook her head, turning back to her work. “It doesn’t matter why he’s not helping. Maybe he’s not around, maybe his magic can’t change us back, maybe he’s just enjoying the show and doesn’t want it to end. Whatever his reasons, we can’t count on him.”
“Right.” She might not be able to make sense of what Twilight was doing, but she could smell her confidence and determination. Starlight sat in the corner not far away, looking like a dog who had wet the carpet by mistake. If she’d been the one to transform all of Equestria, Rainbow could understand her shame. That was… how many times had she ended the world?
“What do you need from us? It looked like the fighting was over upstairs. I bet if I’m careful I can get the girls back together.”
To her surprise, it wasn’t Twilight that answered, but the much bigger version of her. The cat stretched, hopping lazily down from a chair and padding over to her. She sniffed at Rainbow, and Rainbow dutifully lowered her head. Their relative positions negotiated, they could continue.
“After any disaster that brings infrastructure down, time is our ultimate enemy,” Princess Celestia began. “Our water supply will remain secure for at least a month, but the same can’t be said for food. Given how many, er… threats Equestria has encountered over the years, I’ve ensured by royal decree that every city and town has two weeks’ worth of food at hoof in case of emergencies.
“Normally that’s plenty of time for the rest of the country to respond. We send relief, rebuild what is broken, send earth ponies to the farms to accelerate an emergency harvest. None of those things are possible right now. Without earth ponies, agriculture fails. Without pegasus ponies and the weather factories, Equestrian climate will eventually collapse, into inhospitable deserts and chaotic storms.”
Rainbow ordinarily wouldn’t have interrupted the princess. But given her own experience, she couldn’t keep quiet. “Maybe Cloudsdale was too far away. I know from experience that foxes can’t walk on clouds. If the whole city lost their wings…”
Celestia winced, expression grave. “Their schedule would’ve put them on the extreme end of the west coast… yes, I think I’ll share your assumption. Until we learn otherwise.”
Twilight pawed at the ground, her fur ruffled, and scent disturbed. “Princess, I don’t know… I don’t know if two weeks is enough time. And we don’t know if this plan will even work!” She looked to be on the same edge of desperate hope as Rainbow herself. If anypony could somehow find a way to magic them out of this, it would be the princess.
Then again, Princess Celestia hadn’t really solved any of Equestria’s problems since her own sister turned homicidal. Waiting for her to intervene probably wasn’t bound for success.
The cat only shook her head. “I have considered what I know. But when it comes to theoretical magic, you were always more informed than I. I’m afraid your plan may be the best we have.”
“Then get the girls together, Rainbow. Or… actually, not yet. I’ll put a list together of what we need, and we can go out and get it all. Maybe… this whole disaster will make Applejack finally relax. Since her sister would’ve been hit by it anyway and all.”
She sighed, levitating a scroll and pen onto the floor at her paws. “If you can get Fluttershy to find Discord for us, now’s the time.”