Rainbow Dash was sitting in the cave again, this time waiting for Twilight.
They had taken each other’s medallion by accident last time they talked and she had come here to get hers back. But she also had a question to ask the alicorn. How did she break free of Luna’s control? Cause Rainbow didn’t really know how she broke free. She didn’t remember much except for some bits and pieces. So maybe Twilight knew.
Thinking back, the first thing she remembered was flying at Twilight. Who was in a white stone hallway with a glass room with its door opened behind her. She had her hoof blade extended ready to strike. Then the alicorn teleported out of the way and she flew into the room. But when she flew into the room, she hit something. Rainbow didn’t know what she hit as it wasn’t physical like a pillar or a wall. She felt a wave of something wash over her, then she blacked out.
The next thing she remembered was Luna herself looking into the room with one of her personal guards at her side. She didn’t know which one as she couldn’t see them. But was able to just barely see Luna’s as she had landed on top of something and smashed it. The look Luna gave her was one of disappointment.
“Goddess want me to go in and get her?” The guard asked.
“No, she is useless to us now. Besides, I was going to replace her soon anyway. She’s too unstable.” Rainbow didn’t believe what she heard at the time. But the words rang in her head constantly now. Luna said she was going to be replaced. “But what about the gifts you gave her?”
“She will keep them as I can not remove them. But it won’t matter as Celestia will kill her on the spot.”
“What if she survives?”
“She won’t, but even if she does she won’t remember any of this.” But Rainbow had remembered everything she said and with frightening detail. “Tell general Starlight to retreat. I got what I came for and Celestia will be here soon. Let Celestia think she has won this battle because she killed an unstable pawn of mine.”
She blacked out again.
The next time she came to she saw her target, Twilight, entering the glass room. To finish her off, Rainbow had thought at the time. Twilight looked at her and nodded her head, muttering to herself. Rainbow could not make out all the words the general said as she approached her still form.
“It's all lies on both sides .-Unintelligible- maybe it could work. With her those loyal to Luna -unintelligible-.” The alicorn now stood next to her. Rainbow had been ready for the final blow but instead she felt herself get picked up by the alicorn.
She had blacked out once again, in the hooves of the enemy this time.
Rainbow had expected to wake up in front of a crowd ready to be show off as a victory for her target. But instead found herself in the woods alone with her stuff and she had a huge headache. But she also felt the most ‘all there’ she had ever felt in her life.
Rainbow Dash was broken from her thoughts as a flash of purple magic lit up the cave walls. Twilight appeared with Rainbow’s medallion floating next to her. “Sorry about that Rainbow, I didn’t mean to borrow your medal.” The alicorn said as she walked over to Rainbow and gave her medallion back with her magic. Rainbow gave Twilight’s back as well.
“Now, you wanted to ask me something?” Twilight asked. In the message book she had received a message at about mid day saying ‘want ask’ so Twilight assumed the pegasus wanted to ask something.
“Yeah, I want to know how I broke free of Luna’s control. Was there a spell on me that made me not think?” Rainbow answered as she got up. Twilight put her hoof on her chin in thought. “I’m not sure what I did honestly but, I have an idea.” There was a monument of quiet before Twilight’s eyes lit up as she thought of something.
“I could show you what helped me get free from Celestia and it may help us figure out how you got free from Luna. I’m not too busy as it’s winter.”Rainbow thought she might as well who knows what she could find out by following the alicorn. “Where is it?”
“It’s above us.” Twilight answered. Rainbow tilted her head. “What.”
“Just follow me please” Twilight spend her wings and flew to the cave entrance behind Dash. Pushing some bushes out of the way that hind the entrance from view. Rainbow followed her outside. Twilight pointed a hoof upwards, towards the snow covered topic the mountain. Rainbow nodded to the alicorn and continued to follow her.
Once they reached the top Rainbow looked down seeing only trees and snow below her. At not seeing anything out of the ordinary, Rainbow yelled “I don’t see anything!” At twilight who responded with “I know it’s hidden, just give me a second to find. It’s hard to see it at night and I don’t want to risk lighting my horn up. Lest somepony sees it.” After a minute or two, Twilight saw it.
A vertical gap in the snow was what she had been looking for.”Found it! This way.” She said with a hoof wave and flew down with Rainbow following her.
The Steel mountain Observatory
Was stamped on the double doors in front of the mares. “I thought this mountain was named Greentail.” Rainbow stated eyeing the doors suspiciously. Twilight pushed the door open with her magic revealing a bronze colored hallway with two big pipes. One in the top right corner, the other in the top left of the hallway. Both going down the hallway for a meter before following the hallway as it turned into a stairway that led down.
“Ok Rainbow when we go down there, watch your step and don’t touch anything yet. Let me explain what this place is first or at least what I think this place is. Cause I don’t know what an ‘Observatory’ is and I assumed you don’t as well Dash.” Twilight looked at her rainbow maned companion, who nodded. Then they both started down the stairs.
Once they reached the bottom of the stairs Twilight watched Rainbow’s magenta eyes widen. “Whoa.” Twilight smiled as she had the same reaction as Rainbow Dash when she first saw the room. The room was huge by most standards. It was circular in shape with the walls being a dirty gold color. Lamps hung from the walls lighting up the room, each letting out a small hissing sound. The left wall had what looked like many levers and other things on it. The right wall had a doorway in it that led somewhere. The back of the room had another doorway. The roof was a mess of gears and cogs. Many with their own shape and size. Just looking at it made both pony’s heads spin.
In the middle of the room was a yellow and orange metal sphere as big as Rainbow, herself even with her wings flared out. It had the words ‘The Sun’ on it and around it were five much smaller spheres of different colors and sizes. Each one was a different distance away from the center sphere sitting on a pole that connected to a separate metal ring on the floor. Four of the smaller spheres had even smaller spheres around them. Making Rainbow’s head spin.
“What is all this?” The pegasus asked trying to under stand what she was looking at. “What an Observatory is, I think”
Rainbow made to go into the room but was stopped by Twilight holding a hoof out. “For full transparency there is a grounding stone in the room.”
Rainbow recoiled at hearing that. “That thing will kill us both as soon as we enter, are you fucking insane!” Twilight shook her head. “It's a lie, here I’ll show you.” Twilight walked into the room. she immediately felt her magic get pushed into, what could be best described as a small ball deep in her chest.
Twilight looked back at Rainbow who was standing in the doorway in shock. “See, I’m fine. It just feels weird that's all.” Rainbow, trusting the alicorn, slowly stepped into the room. “That feels weird.” Twilight nodded in understanding.
“Now I think I know why we were told it would kill us. Because I think it broke the mind affecting spells.” Twilight pointed a wing above the doorway they came though. Rainbow looked where Twilight was pointing. Above the doorway embedded in the wall was a black stone. “I came here off of a rumor to find artifacts or weapons to use in the upcoming battle at Saint Silverhoof. When I walked in this room I blacked out. Then when I woke up it felt like a fog lifted off my head. A stone just like that was in the glass room you flew into. When you blacked out I came to the realization that you also had some spell put on you. Although I'm still not sure.”
Rainbow spoke up “No I think you're right about the stone freeing me. Because when I woke up in the forest, my eyes felt open for the first time. If that makes any sense.” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “To be honest I was hoping the stone would kill you.” The cyan pegasus laughed at that. “I was trying to kill you so you’re cool.”
Twilight nodded then sighed “Then I heard Luna and left. When She left I saw you were still there left to basically die. Cause when Celestia would arrive she would have definitely killed you. And you know the rest of the story from there.”
Twilight huffed. “Now that alone is not nearly enough for me to rebel against Celestia. I’d write it off as she knew better. She was a god after all. However” Twilight turned around looking at the spheres again. Then she growled with absolute hatred. “This most certainly is.” Twilight walked over to the left wall that had the panel with all the levers on it.
“This machine is able to predict what the night sky will look like with perfect accuracy.” Twilight said. Rainbow wasn’t impressed by this. “Ok so?” The alicorn turned around and looked Rainbow in the eyes. “It's supposed to be impossible as Celestia and Luna are fighting over the sky constantly. Yet this machine is right every time.” Twilight pulled a lever on the wall.
A loud metallic thunk was heard. Followed by the grinding of gears. The spheres started moving clockwise around the sun in the middle. Now that Rainbow could look closer she noticed the medium sized spheres had different colors. The closest was a grey.
The next one was green and blue, it had one smaller ball going around it. The third one out was the biggest of the medium spheres, it was red and had at least ten smaller balls going around it. The fourth sphere out was yellow and its size was in between that of the red sphere and the blue and green one. It was the fastest through, zooming past the other spheres with its own set of five smaller balls around it. The farthest one out was a little bit smaller than the yellow one and was blue color. It had seven smaller balls around it.
Twilight had walked next to the rainbow maned pegasus during her inspection of the machine. “Isn’t it beautiful.” The alicorn said.
While Dash thought it looked nice, she still didn't understand what she was looking at. “Twilight it’s pretty and all. But how did this make you stop following Celestia?”
“It wasn’t just this Dash. There is a library in that room to the right that holds books that explain all of the science behind this machine.” Twilight said as she walked to the door that led to the library. Then looked back at the pegasus “You coming?”
“Right.” Rainbow caught up to the alicorn.
Twilight pushed the door open with a hoof. “I thought I left the lights on, strange.”
Twilight moved to where she found the lever last time she was here, which was just right of the door, and pulled it. After a second of loud hissing of what the alicorn theorized to be steam, the lamps that hung for the ceiling lit up.
The room was filled with books on metal shelves that lined each wall top to bottom. The floor was the same color as the main room. There was a chair in the middle of the room that had a, once again, metal desk in front of it with many open books on it.
“See all of this.” Twilight pointed to the room at large. “It all directly refutes Celestia’s scripture.”
The alicorn walked over the desk and picked up a book that was bright white with Celestia’s cutie mark in the middle. “I think the spell Celestia had me under stopped me from questioning her and the scripture.” Rainbow walked next to the alicorn without thinking. “But without that filter I started to question all of it. Like why we had seasons or why the moon every so often is in front of the sun. Even why the day is longer in the summer and shorter in the winter.” Twilight put down Celestia’s book back on the desk and pointed at the other books on the desk. “These books explain every question I had with scripture with math and science. They also show that Celestia does not raise the sun. Nor that Luna rises the moon.”
Unknown to both ponies a pair of blue eyes were watching them from the doorway to the main room. They were studying the mares who had entered the Observatory.
The blue eyes were accompanied by a pair of red eyes that were also watching the ponies.
“Twilight do you know who built this place?” Rainbow asked.
“If the rumors are to be believed then dragons built this place.” The alicorn answered.
Rainbow laughed at this. “What?, you can’t be serious dragons are big dumb creatures. There’s no way they built this.”
“Hey! Clocky’s not dumb or big.” Shouted a voice.
It came from the doorway into the library. Both rebels snapped their heads to the door, looking at who caught them.
“Who are you!?” Rainbow shouted instinctively her magenta eyes narrowing on the source of the sound. While Twilight tried to emergency teleport herself and Dash out of the observatory, she found she couldn’t due to the grounding stone that was affecting the area.
“Bloody Hell Pinkie! Why!?”
In the doorway were two creatures. One was an earth pony mare so pink that she had to be the one named Pinkie. The other was a male dragon that was about a meter and a half tall with orange scales. He had two silver horns pointing backwards from his head, which held two red eyes. He was wearing a light brown duster jacket. His face wore an expression of surprise and was looking down at the pink mare. While said pink mare wore one of happiness.
“Because they insulted you Clockly, duh.” The earth pony replied to the dragon’s question as if the answer was obvious. Then she quite literally bounced into the library. She looked like she was trying to get to the desk in the middle of the library but was stopped by Rainbow. Who moved to block the pink mare with her wings out ready to attack.
Twilight, seeing that they had no way out of the room without fighting, with the dragon blocking the doorway. She decided that it might be best to talk to these two. They hadn’t attacked them and they easily could have. But one of them was also a dragon.
When she was a filly the Goddess Celestia herself had told Twilight that dragons were nothing but big monsters that would attack towns and spread heresy to any who listened. She had also taught her that you must attack them on site, before there cursed words could corrupt you. But what if that was just another lie perpetrated by Celestia so she wouldn’t talk to them. What could the dragon know that Celestia didn’t want her to know? That possibility alone was enough to make her want to talk with him.
But with Rainbow slowly getting more aggressive things could go bad. Twilight placed a wing on the pegasus’s back trying to get her to back down. She didn’t. “I’ll say it again. Who are you!?” The pegasus shouted angerly.
“Hiya I’m Pinkie Pie and my dragon friend here is Clockwork. It's nice to meet you.”
Now the pink pony was bouncing in place. The dragon now known as Clockwork spoke up. “Yes I am Clockwork like Pinkie said. And if I’m not mistaken you” he pointed his right claw at the rainbow maned pegasus “must be Rainbow Dash and you” he moved his claw to point to the lavender alicorn “must be Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight nodded while Dash just growled. The dragon continued on “Which leads me to a question. Why are you two here?”
“Well the alicorn’s been coming here for months.” Pinkie interjected mid bounce.
Rainbow answered the dragon’s question first. “We don’t have to tell why we’re here.”
Twilight walked in front of Rainbow and looked her in the eyes. “Clam down Dash I don’t think they’re here to harm us or blown our cover.”
Rainbow’s glare broke at looking into Twilight’s eyes. “How can you be sure?” Twilight turned and looked at Pinkie. “You said you knew that I have been coming here for months now.” The bouncing mare nodded. “So haven’t you stopped me?”
“That’s easy, so you could see that Celestia and Luna are big old meanie liars.” Pinkie answered as if it was obvious.
The dragon spoke up. “Pinkie is basically correct. We let you come to your conclusion about Celestia and how you want to act on it.” Pinkie nodded again. “Yep, so what are you going to do about sunbutt?” Twilight snorted at the use of ‘sunbutt’. She was keeping that one. Twilight chose to answer the pink mare and dragon.“I plan rebelling against her and Luna with Rainbow and others.”
Pinkie Pie held out a hoof towards the dragon. ”I’ll pay you later Pinkie.”
Silence reigned over the group except for Pinkie's continuous bouncing for a second or two. Then Twilight spoke. “So are you an ally? Or neutral, because judging from how you have acted you're not an enemy.”
Clockwork answered the alicorn. “We don’t quite know yet. It depends, mainly it’s because if we do help there is a chance others, who can not fight, may get caught in the middle. But we will help you get a technological edge as you are correct about the fact that dragons built this observatory.” Twilight’s eyes widened when the dragon said ‘Technological edge’. Her mind ran wild with ideas of new weapons she could employ against Celestia.
Pinkie spoke next. “I have an idea why, don’t you come back in three days. Then we can all talk and become bestest friends! But both of you should really get going anyway as it’s getting late. You don’t want to lose your cover.”
The dragon looked at Pinkie questioningly then rolled his eyes. “Let me guess, Pinkie sense?”
“YepRooney”
“Wait what time is it!” Twilight was surprised by the panic in Dash’s voice. “About 9:45” answered Pinkie.
“Shit! I have to report to Starlight by ten.” The cyan pegasus shoved all creatures out of the way and ran out of the Observatory.
Twilight sighed internally. She had to get going to if it was 9:45
Clockwork looked back at the alicorn. “Twilight when we meet in three days, could you bring a list of those who are in this rebellion so I can know what you’re bringing to the table.” Twilight didn’t trust him nearly enough to potentially sell out her friends.
“I am sorry but I can’t do that. I don’t trust you two nearly enough to do that.” Twilight said apologetically. Pinkie wined in disappointment.
The dragon sighed. “I understand. Anyway Pinkie said you should get going and knowing Pinkie she’s most likely right about that.”
Twilight looked at both creatures. “So till we meet again?” As she too started to exit the observatory. Clockwork replied with a “Hopefully” and pinkie with a “yep”.
Twilight exited the area of influence of the ground stone and teleported back to her room.
When she popped into existence she ignored Applejack’s yelp and went to the war map. The alicorn had a lot of thinking to do.