Monday Afternoon
Princess Celestia truly loved the Royal Gardens at this time of year.
Life jostled for room in every corner. Lush grass paths wound between immaculately-kept flower beds that boasted everything from red-pink amaranth bushes to burning yellow-orange dahlias to soft white blue-speckled stargazer lilies. Their fragrance barely tinted the air with hints of passing sweetness.
Weeping willows swayed in the breeze, their full branches casting wide, generous shadows across perfectly manicured and exquisitely comfortable patches of sitting grass.
These days held no springtime chills or autumn winds, even at night, though those cool, easy times were a far cry from the comforting, all-encompassing heat the day was providing her. A hoof-crafted brook gurgled somewhere, feeding the stone-bound pond across the way, where Celestia knew a school of well-fed koi spent their days without a care in the world.
She felt a pang of very deep envy when she thought about them swimming about in their water, serene as silk, unworried about the world beyond their next feeding.
Indeed, the gardens were the most beautiful part of the palace grounds. It was a shame Celestia was currently unable to enjoy them.
The alicorn huffed and looked at the smooth blue sky that stretched infinitely over the pond and past the hedge that encircled the gardens. It looked so clean and pure. The afternoon was growing old, but she still had a while before she would need to lower the sun―and raise the moon.
More than anything, Celesia wanted to go for a flight, to soar above Canterlot and be free from it all for just a little while, but her shoulders felt impossibly tight. She couldn't hold her head quite as high as normal. Her chest ached with each heartbeat. Luna...
The flight would have to wait.
The white mare yawned and rubbed her eyes and the bags beneath them with her fetlock. They ached in their sockets, begging for rest that Celestia could not give. She sighed, grateful that, for once, nopony was close enough to see her so... disheveled.
No gold clung to her hooves or weighed down her head. In fact, she hadn't donned her formalwear for quite some time. Her mane, while still ethereal and magically buoyant, floated a good deal lower than usual, and her stylist would have a fit when she saw the state her coat was in. But all that could wait, too. There was a situation at hoof.
Celestia sighed again, but not in relief. It's time I check up on Luna. I've spent too much time away from her.
She thought about writing Twilight again for the umpteenth time today, but once again, considered the fact that her student could look after herself. She had been groomed to do exactly this sort of thing, after all, and asking for status reports every twenty minutes simply wouldn't do.
Get a hold of yourself, Celestia.
The mare rose to her hooves with a groan, stretched her legs in a very un-royal fashion, and turned away from the garden's beauty, but as she began to make her way towards the palace's gold and ivory towers, a strange, near-inaudible noise broke through the brook's gentle babble.
She froze, one hoof held in the air, and swiveled her ears, waiting for the sound again. A moment passed, and then another, and right as she started to convince herself that she hadn't heard anything...
There. A slight rustling, and... something else?
Celestia didn't need to solve this problem. She had, at her beck and call, over a hundred guards in this wing of the palace alone. It would only take a moment to direct one here as she made her way back to Luna's bed chambers, but something stopped her.
Perhaps it was her lack of enthusiasm to return to the torturous storm of stress and worry that had consumed her last few days, or maybe it was just plain curiosity, but Celestia set her hoof back down on the path as gently as she could and stood perfectly still, listening for the rustling again.
Another rustle. Her ears locked on to it this time. It came from across the flower beds. She began to trot towards the sound, keeping her ears pointed straight at the mystery. Another rustle. The snap of a twig, a little further to the right, closer to the palace. The mystery was on the move.
Her curiosity had been piqued before, but now the situation had her full attention. Her voice of reason shouted that it likely came down to a squirrel or rabbit in a bush somewhere, but she pressed onward.
Now she was past the flower beds and the willows. The only thing left between her and the hedgerow on the garden's border was the stream, and it certainly wasn't coming from there. Another rustle, much clearer and louder this time, and a high, but quiet voice. "–Ow! Stupid branch."
A foal! Celestia had heard foals' voices of all kinds over the centuries and this one could belong to no other type of pony. She tilted her head. What was a foal doing in the Royal Gardens' hedge wall? Perhaps a game of hide-and-seek gone wildly wrong?
Despite her exhaustion, the mare couldn’t help but raise her head and perk her ears. What in the world? Celestia thought. Well, it’s not every day a foal unknowingly breaks into the palace.
She held her breath and began to sneak up on the rustling, walking as lightly as she could. The grass swallowed her hoofsteps perfectly, masking her approach right up to the face of the massive, formidable, and overwhelmingly green hedge.
"...such a fuckin’ pain in my ass, walking across half a goddamn city and—gah! My eye!” the bush growled. “I swear, these fuckin' branches!"
Celestia paused. Apparently, this foal's parents were not doing a very good job at teaching their child to speak with a clean mouth. Her confusion only grew as the growl became a tired, annoyed chuckle.
“Hah. If only those fucks could see me now. Some dick from—ow—nowhere, Pennsylvania stuck in a baby horse’s body, crawling through a god damn hedge trying to sneak into a stupid castle and to find a pretty pony princess…”
The string of utter nonsense threw Celestia for such a loop that a scratched-up colt's tumble out of the hedge's leaf-stuffed branches caught her completely by surprise.
"Oof!" he said as his chin hit the grass, his eyes squeezed shut. "...ow."
Celestia blinked and tilted her head from side to side as she inspected the scratched-up pegasus foal. "What a strange little colt..." she murmured under her breath. Then she spoke aloud. "Who are you, little one?"
"Gah!" The little green colt jerked his head and waggled his legs, tangling them up nicely as he attempted to stand. He tumbled back down to the ground with a grunt, and his head popped up.
Such deep brown eyes, she thought.
They grew to the size of saucers when he saw her and he smiled. "Oh, shit! It's you!"
Celestia blinked. "It's me?"
His ruffled little wings flopped around as he rolled, finally untying his legs and getting them underneath himself. He stood with the confidence of a pony who had just been allowed to leave their wheelchair for the first time in weeks—he clearly knew how to stand, but it took a moment for him to remember exactly what that meant. She also noticed he wore a curious pair of leather bracers on his forelegs.
"Yeah, you. Celestia. Man, that’s lucky. God damn." He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "You look really tired."
For the first time in a long time, Princess Celestia found herself at the slightest loss. After a mind-boggling moment had passed, however, she rapidly reeled in her confusion and threw it to the back of her mind. This is no time to be gaping like a fool. It was a small thing to refocus herself and don a familiar motherly tone.
"What are you doing here, my little pony?"
She spoke those words softly, with all the kindness she could muster, but he jerked as if he had been hit by lightning. His eyes shot up and locked with her own, and in that instant, the utter wrongness of them hit Celestia like a strike through the heart.
A thousand years did not pass without conflict. Not even Celestia could bring about such a lasting peace, and despite her constant efforts to keep it at bay, the mare had seen such times take Equestria in its grip.
Those times long, long ago did not boast armor made of gleaming gold, polished and shown off in extravagant parades. No, it had been forged from cold, dark iron. In those grim days, Celestia had seen countless souls claimed by the suffering that such things brought.
She had seen those eyes in the pegasus that had returned from battle wingless and the prisoner shackled in iron chains.
She had seen those eyes in the displaced as they guided their homeless families to the sides of muddy roads to make way for her soldiers, turning so that she would not see how their ribs showed underneath their coat.
She had seen those eyes in the foal that sat on a threadbare cot wrapped in a thin blanket, shivering and alone, waiting for parents that would never return.
Celestia had not seen those eyes in many, many years but there they were, here and now, staring at her from inside this little green colt's head.
He laughed. "Sorry, but–"
"You're not one of my little ponies, are you?"
His gaze lowered. "No," he said, after a second's hesitation, "I'm not." Then he looked up again. "But that doesn't mean I was raised without manners." The colt stepped right up to her, confident as you please, and stuck out his tiny little hoof. "You asked who I was? I'm Gabriel."
A strange creature, from a place of suffering, made to look like a pegasus foal... he spoke in an accent she had not heard before and of places she knew not to be in this world. It didn't take long to put two and two together.
The interloper, delivered right to my hooves.
A bolt of alarm raced up her spine, and, if somepony were looking closely, they would have noticed her eyes widen slightly and wings clamp closer to her body. Why did Twilight not mention that he was in the form of a foal?
She shifted slightly, nearly shouting for her guards and calling upon her magic right then and there, but she looked him in the eye again and stayed her hoof. Interlopers were never to be taken lightly, but this one... There's something different about him.
With her revelation locked behind a gently pensive face, the princess extended her hoof. "I am Celestia. It's a pleasure to meet you, Gabriel." She watched him closely, ready for any kind of magical buildup or attack. Should he attempt something, he will be sorely sorry.
The colt wrapped his hoof around hers and pumped it up and down once. "The pleasure's all mine, Princess."
How strange. The others wouldn’t have hesitated to take that advantage, but he chooses to shake my hoof, of all things. The momentary thought didn’t stop her from making her first move. "I'm sorry to say, but I must be returning to check on my sister. Would you like to come with me?"
The colt blinked. Apparently, he hadn't been expecting that. "Um, yeah, sure."
The mare turned and began to stride towards the palace doors, taking care to walk more slowly so that Gabriel could keep pace.
"Convenient..." he muttered behind her a moment before breaking into a trot. The foal had to hurry to catch up to her and walk at her side. "Y’know, this palace is a lot bigger than I thought it would be," he said as they approached the massive oaken doors.
Celestia smiled as she lit her horn. "You are far from the first to observe that, little one." She pulled the massive doors open and the two strode into one of the palace's many halls.
"I bet." He craned his neck as they walked, looking all the way up to the ribbed arches that held up the cavernous stone ceiling. “Jesus, that’s tall…”
The guards that patrolled the miles of palace hallway certainly noticed her company, but they didn't do anything besides manage to look stoic and confused at the same time. Celestia hid a smile. It wasn't every day she got to lead a strange, unfamiliar foal past legions of ponies whose job description included keeping strange, unfamiliar ponies away.
"Um, Celestia, if you don't mind me asking, what's going on with Luna?"
It took a good deal of effort to not show any reaction. He knows that I know. It appeared the interloper was a little sharper than she gave him credit for.
Still, the mare smirked a little at the colt's lack of titles, and she wondered if he knew just how few ponies addressed her as such. All the guards, all the staff, all the nobles, and any normal pony for that matter would have forgotten their own names before they forgot to call her 'Princess'.
Twilight still did it, too, even though Celestia had reminded her many times that such an honorific was unnecessary, and even young Cadenza called her 'Auntie'... though with her plans for that stallion of hers she’d been rather distant as of late.
Really, the only other pony to just call her by her name was Luna... who was slowly dying in her bed at this very moment.
Celestia's chest ached and she began her response with a grand understatement. "She had... not been herself as of late," she said. "We were busy with the rule, and I assumed that her moods were because of workload stress, and nothing more." She winced. "I confess, I wasn't nearly attentive enough, and she, well... took matters into her own hooves."
The colt hummed. "What does the whole soul magic schtick have to do with this?"
The issue of the hour. Celestia suspected that she would never truly understand the emotions that had pushed her sister to make such a choice. "From what I can tell, she was attempting to summon a pony she was quite close with... or at the very least, recreate him. Instead, she severely injured herself—and summoned you."
"Oh, fuck." Gabriel looked over his shoulder at himself as he trotted and flopped his wings around a bit. "Did he look like this?"
"It's been a long time since I saw him, but no, I believe he was a deep blue."
“Then why am I green?”
“I must confess I do not know. Perhaps there was something in the spell that decided that color best suited you—unfortunately, the pony best able to answer that question is currently indisposed.”
"Best suited me, huh?" the colt muttered. “That spell had one cruel fuckin’ sense of humor.”
Celestia didn’t quite know how to respond to that.
“So, what, this is all Luna’s fault?” the frowning colt asked a few seconds later. “She forgot to think for a fuckin’ second and pulled a royal fuckup? That’s why all this happened?” He scoffed. “That’s, like, monumentally stupid of her.”
“Yes, Luna has made a grave mistake,” Celestia said, looking down at the colt with an arched eyebrow, “but it is one I suspect she has paid dearly for over the course of the last three days. I will also remind you that you are speaking of my sister.”
The colt shut his mouth. After a few moments of silent travel, he spoke again, his childlike voice filled with gentle curiosity. "So, why haven't you killed me yet?"
The absurdity hit Celestia like a ton of marble blocks and she suppressed a start. "I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific than that, Gabriel."
"You're not stupid," he said. "You've probably got a stack of letters from that student of yours all about me and you're a thousand years old. I'm sure you've figured out that I'm the ‘magical interdimensional monster' you're looking for."
He snorted. "For God’s sake, your sister's dying, and the cure is walking along beside you, but you haven't scooped me up and just teleported me to her or something. We’re just walking there. What're you waiting for?"
Truth be told, Celestia had been acting with caution in the face of an unexpected and thoroughly alien situation. She knew not why Twilight had apparently not seen fit to inform her that the interloper had taken on this particular form, but, whatever he was, he appeared not to know of the danger other interlopers had posed in the past, even to ponies as powerful as her.
I suppose I can assume force is an option, now.
Still, the admission that he understood what his life meant to her only poured more questions into her head.
"Well," Celestia began, "if I had done that, then I wouldn't have been raised with manners, would I?"
“Hah!” The colt barked out a snorting laugh. "No, I guess not. I tell ya, if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't have been so patient."
"...why did you seek me, little one?" Celestia said, looking down at the little foal as he walked by her side. "If you knew that I could kill you without a moment's hesitation, why would you come to the palace at all?"
The colt studied the tiled floor as they walked. "A mix of things, really. Partially because I was tired of pretending that I didn't know what was going on." He tossed his unbrushed mane. "That student of yours, Twilight? She and her friend had this clever plan set up to get me to you. It would have worked, too, if I hadn't realized what they were trying to do.”
Gabriel chuckled a little. “Would you believe that when someone who thinks they locked you in a room sees a broken window, they think you climbed out of it?”
The princess refused to let the barest hint of confusion show on her face.
“Yeah, they thought they had me all figured out. Not quite." He grinned at her, and she caught something of a predator's glint in his eyes. "Still, though, she really gave it her all to get the job done, and I had an unfair advantage anyway. You should be proud.”
That's one of the strangest compliments I've ever received. "Thank you. I am indeed very proud of her," Celestia said, trying to sound gracious.
"It was pretty fun to slip under their radar, actually, but I guess..." he trailed off into a thoughtful stare.
Celestia tilted her head at the gibberish idiom, but she picked up the subtext well enough.
"Foiling her plans wasn't really the point. I just—" he paused for a moment. "She thinks I'm some sorta space monster, and I guess she's kinda right, in a way, but not the kind she's thinking of. I didn't want to have to make her, I dunno, do something stupid. Well, she might have already done something stupid, so I guess something wrong.”
Gabriel looked up at her. “Seems to me like there’s a pretty bad problem that needs fixin’. I just wanted to make things right, y'know? And make ‘em right my way."
On that, I can empathize thoroughly, Celestia thought, nodding as they finally approached the doorway to Luna's chambers. She waved a reassuring wing to the two guards flanking it and lit her horn, pushing the iron-banded doors open. The two entered.
"Well, you certainly have taken the initiative by coming here."
"That was the idea... whoa."
The colt stared, wide-eyed, at the many candle-lit tapestries and diagrams that adorned her sister's sitting room. Celestia would not have chosen this sort of decor for herself, but Luna loved to display her diagrams for the night sky alongside multi-century-old works of art that proudly flourished the beauty of the night, depicting nighttime landscapes and scenes of moonbeam-lit ponies with exquisite detail.
The unwindowed walls' splendor put the rest of the furniture in the room to shame, overshadowing the meager chairs and tables that occupied the half of the room across from Luna's massive desk. Unfinished drafts and designs still cluttered its surface.
Celestia pushed her thoughts on the colt away, moving towards Luna's bedchamber. "Please wait here a moment, Gabriel, I'm going to check on my sister. It would be wise not to touch anything in this room."
"Wouldn't dream of it," he said in an unworried voice while inspecting one of the silver-embossed bracers on his forelegs.
Celestia blinked, caught off-guard by the colt’s candor again. She shook the passing consideration away and stepped into Luna's room.
The candlelight was dimmer here. When she closed the door behind she cast the room into a low, flickering light. The flames threw dim, dancing shadows across the tall, dark walls.
There, in near-solitude, safe from any possible eye, Celestia finally let her shoulders fall. Her head lowered from where she’d been working so hard to hold it, hanging low, and tears began to fill her eyes. Her mane dropped out of the air and lost its blues and greens, returning to a simple pink and falling across her neck. She felt her tail do the same. They feel so heavy.
Then she took another deep breath, wiped her eyes, and walked towards the room’s main feature: a massive four-poster bed, carved from dark oak and draped in flowing folds of night-blue silk. There, Luna lay, beneath a down blanket embroidered with a beautiful map of her night sky.
She looked minuscule in the oversized bed. Her pale blue mane lay, scraggled and tangled, across the pillows behind her head. One foreleg lay on her covers, motionless, and her chest barely rose and fell with each breath.
Celestia sat beside the bed. “Sister? I am here…” she didn’t move. “Lulu? Can you hear me?”
Her sister took a shallow, shuddering breath. One eye slowly opened and blearily drifted around before settling on her. Celestia could hardly see the teal in her eye through its cloudiness. Luna gasped again, twitching her lips, but her melodic voice remained lost.
“Luna, I found the interloper.” A smile spread across her face, and tears gathered in her eyes. She sniffed and wiped them away again. “Lulu, you’re going to be okay.”
“...hhhh,” Luna hissed, “...hurts…”
“I know, I know.” Celestia reached out a hoof and carefully touched its tip to Luna’s. Her sister’s eye blearily followed it, and when they met with an almost-silent tap, she weakly twitched her own hoof.
Celestia smiled and sniffed. “You’ll have to wait a little while,” she said. “There’s a problem with the interloper. It’s not quite what we expected.” The eye swiveled around and met hers again, clouded and uncomprehending.
Luna struggled for air. She huffed an unintelligible word.
“It’s going to be okay, I promise,” Celestia said, “I’ll be back soon. Just rest, okay? I’ll… I’ll be back soon.”
Her sister’s eye remained on hers for a moment longer before slowly closing.
Celestia swallowed a sob and raised her chin, wiping at her eyes once more. Then she stood, forced herself to look away from the still, limp form of her sister, and returned to the doors.
She paused before them, taking a moment to light her horn. Her mane and tail re-lit with a flash, caught by a magical breeze. Celestia cast a glance over her shoulder to check that they were in order and took a deep breath, making sure her eyes were dry and her head was raised before opening the chamber doors.
The colt had moved, but not by much. He stood nearby Luna's desk, examining it at a respectful distance with a careful eye. Though it huddled away, letting the tapestries and beautifully complex charts of the night sky take the stage, the desk was as much an artifact and work of art as anything else in the room. Hoof-carved greatwood, embossed with glittering starmetal and inscribed with runes for longevity. It was one of the few things of Luna's that had survived her long exile.
"How is she?" the colt called over his shoulder.
"She... has not improved," Celestia replied as she strode towards him. Her head felt terribly heavy, and her neck felt incredibly sore. He turned around and fixed a steely look on her.
"I'm, uh… I’m sorry to hear that," he said. There was genuine sympathy in his voice, to be sure, but the expectant way that he spoke made Celestia believe that the concept of a slow death was no news to him. How dark.
He walked to her, completely ignored the table and chairs, and plopped his rear down on the magnificent carpet. Then he held up a foreleg.
“Do you know what these are?”
Celestia raised an eyebrow and seated herself across from the colt, leaning her head down to examine the leather-wrapped around his limb. “I believe that is an enchanted bracer. Why do you ask?”
He huffed. “Yeah, I figured it was magic. I only ask because I can’t get the dumb things off.” He pushed at it with his other hoof, and lo and behold, it appeared to be stuck.
Celestia leaned in closer, examining the silver patterns on the bracers. Ah, binding, draining, with an active-magic trigger. Very clever, Twilight. Her knowing eye followed its swirls and crossings until it found a certain place where the faintly glowing lines met in just the right way. She lit her horn and let just a little bit of magic flow into the pit in the leather.
“Try again,” she said.
The colt pulled at the bracer and it slid right off. “Well, damn, would you look at that,” he muttered and held up his other foreleg. “Please?”
“Of course.” Celestia repeated the process and Gabriel slid the other bracer off a moment later.
“Thanks a bunch,” he said, rubbing at the fur that had been trapped beneath the bindings. “I couldn’t really figure out what they were for, but I really didn’t like that I couldn’t take ‘em off.”
“It was my pleasure,” Celestia smiled politely.
The colt nodded his head and coughed into a hoof. "So, um, about the whole, ah, Luna dying issue—sounds like there isn't any time to screw around with."
"Indeed there isn’t, Gabriel,” Celestia said, shaking her head. “Well, then, what do you suggest? You are the one who managed to break into the royal gardens, after all." And it’s anypony’s guess how he managed that.
He rubbed his chin. "We've got a problem to solve here, and I’d rather not die, so I think it's high time you sent Spike a letter telling all'a them that I'm here so we can sort this out. Twilight and Rainbow and the others'll have regrouped by now. They’ll want to catch up."
How did he know about dragon-fire letters? Had he perhaps seen Spike send one? Celestia elected not to ask why the colt sounded so familiar with the idea. Instead, as she levitated a parchment and quill from a drawer in her sister's desk, she asked her other question.
"Rainbow Dash?" Celestia raised an eyebrow as she began to draw up a letter. "The Element of Loyalty is in Canterlot, too?"
"Yeah," the colt said with a grimace. "Um, I should probably bring you up to speed..."
Spike wrung his claws together. His stomach flipped in his gut and he tapped his feet, rocking back and forth on his heels.
"You don't know what you're implying, Dash! You're putting your hoof down for this 'kid' you haven't even known for two weeks, and you'd let the princess die! You're being hardheaded." The corner of Looking Glass's mouth raised in a disgusted sneer as he spoke.
Twilight gave her support in the form of an astute nod. "He's right, Rainbow, and if I didn't know you, I'd say there was mind-magic at play."
The pegasus visibly resisted the urge to leap into the air. Spike saw her scrape at the ground with a hoof. "I'm not mind-controlled and I'm not the one being hardheaded! That slimy jerk convinced you that this was the only way, and now you won't listen to me!" She punctuated her words with a frustrated snort.
"Yes, you two were awfully eager to slaughter an innocent. You didn't even have the common courtesy to just ask him about all this."
Counselor Hills' tail swished behind her and eyes looked hard and cold, completely void of their usual welcoming shine. Every time they flicked his way, Spike's heart skipped a beat, and he wasn’t even the focus of her rage.
"Oh, of course!" Looking snapped as he rolled his eyes and waggled his hoof up and down. "Why didn't I think of asking the eldritch beast from beyond if we could snap its neck? It's genius!"
Sandy's gaze snapped to his and Spike saw his eyes widen a little. "Be quiet, liar," Sandy hissed. "In anything close to a fair world, you'd lose your Celestia-damned badge for impersonating Ministry workers. Lying and telling me I not only lost my job, but I failed?"
"I'll have you know that it was–"
Rainbow cut him off with an indignant shout. "He what?! You soulless freak, I'll throw you in the dungeons myself!"
Looking Glass jumped a little when Rainbow put herself in his face, but he held his ground. "I'd like to see you try, you raving narcissist."
"Hey!" shouted Twilight, barely stopping Rainbow from leaping at the stallion. Desperation gripped her wavering voice. "None of this matters right now! We have to focus on finding the interloper, because, in case everypony’s forgotten, Princess Celestia’s sister is dying and we’ve lost it." She sent a brief but razor-sharp frown at Looking Glass.
Spike bit his lip hard. Twilight didn't sound like that unless something really bad was going on. The last time he had heard her like that, Nightmare Moon had shown up. He studied his toes and rubbed an upset stomach, trying to ignore the prying eyes on the street. I hope they're enjoying the show, those jerks.
The stallion snorted. “How was I supposed to know it wouldn’t be enough to take its magic and lock it in a third-floor office? I was only gone for two minutes!”
“It’s got wings!”
He jabbed a hoof at Sandy. “She said it couldn’t use them! And I took its magic!”
Twilight grumbled and rolled her eyes. “Regardless, we still have to find it.”
"At least say his name, Twilight," the counselor sneered. “You owe him that much."
"Yeah, do we really want to find him, Twi?" Rainbow's frown deepened as she looked away from Looking. "Do I really want to focus on that so you can drag him to Celestia a second later? Maybe I want to let him escape."
"Rainbow, I–! Rrgh!" Twilight smacked her forehead with a hoof. Spike could see her struggling to keep the raw anger from her voice. "You're making me out to be some sort of soulless killer! I'm trying to save a life! The princess's life! And I don’t like this either!"
Sandy snorted. "You aren't trying to save a life, you're trying to trade one. Don't lie to yourself."
"Yeah, and that's all you're trying to do, Twi. I don't see you looking through any magic books for another way, huh?"
The RBI agent snorted. "That's not how that works, Dash."
"Oh yeah, slugger?” Rainbow spat at Looking. “Are you both suddenly experts on soul magic now?"
“W-well, we researched it enough to know what we need to do!”
Dash groaned. “So why not go find a real expert and see if they know anything? You know, somepony who can actually do ‘soul magic’? Maybe there’s another way out of this!”
Spike grimaced, but not because Twilight dragged a hoof through her rat’s nest of a mane again.
“Soul magic is illegal, Rainbow,” Twilight said, “and for good reason. The only pony our sources mentioned that might be able to help and didn’t die hundreds of years ago is Princess Luna, and that’s obviously not an option!”
A familiar feeling rose in Spike's stomach, like a swirling, burning storm in his gut, and pushed its way up and out. He let out a fantastic belch and a gout of flame and his arms darted forward automatically. Half a moment later, a scroll plopped down into his waiting claws.
No ribbon trailed behind it and no royal seal held it shut—it was just a plain, rolled-up sheet of parchment. He unfurled it and read the short yet neatly-penned note inside. His eyes grew wide.
"Uh, guys?"
"Rainbow, I'm sorry, but we're out of time! There's no point in looking for an alternate solution if the princess we're trying to save is dead by the time we find one!"
"Hey, guys!"
Rainbow Dash showed absolutely zero sign that she heard his call. "You don't know that! You have no idea how Luna is doing right now!"
"Hey! Hello? Anypony?" This was getting out of claw! Why wouldn't anyone listen to him?
"Spike, please be quiet!" Twilight shoved a hoof in his face as she shouted, giving him the barest annoyed glance. "Rainbow, Princess Celestia told me herself that she thought Luna was in critical danger, and she's the only pony we know of who even knows how to do real soul magic! We don't have time to figure anything else out!”
“Yes, Rainbow Dash,” Looking snarled, bringing his muzzle up to hers, “use your brain for once!"
Spike saw a special type of fire burst to life behind Rainbow's eyes. "For once?! Oh, c’mere, you son of a–" That was about all she managed before her hoof rocketed into Looking Glass’s jaw.
“Urk!” The stallion stumbled backwards and collapsed. Rainbow dove forward but Sandy collided with her and the two went tumbling to the cobblestones.
“Agh! Sandy, let me go!” Rainbow shouted, “I'm gonna make sure this jerkwad stays down.”
“Rainbow, stop! Think about what you’re doing!” Sandy said. Rainbow squirmed free and leapt at Looking again, but slammed into a translucent lavender wall.
“Stop! Everypony stop! We can’t afford to fight!” Twilight cried.
Looking finished struggling to his hooves with a cold, absolute malice in his eyes. He wiped blood away from a split in his lip and lit his horn, and Spike knew he was out of time.
"LISTEN TO ME, YOU IDIOTS!"
The group blinked, totally choked off, and turned, wide-eyed, to look at the little dragon, then at the scroll he held in his claws. The violet wall disappeared and Looking’s horn stopped glowing. Twilight opened her mouth, but Spike gave her a pointed look, cleared his throat, and unfurled the letter.
"My dearest student. I wish to inform you that, uh, Gabriel arrived at the palace attempting to seek me out and is currently in my care. Please gather your friends and come to us at once. Gabriel wishes to inform you to bring everypony, including Ms. Sandy Hills, Mr. Looking Glass, and Spike." The little dragon blinked, coughed once, and finished reading. "With much love, Princess Celestia."
Spike's final words hung in the energy-drained air. Twilight's mouth hung open, her expression a near carbon-copy of Rainbow's, whose wings fell to her sides. Sandy plopped down onto her rear and Looking rubbed the side of his head with a hoof.
"Oh, wow," he whispered.
Spike had done it. Gabe wasn't missing anymore and they had finally stopped shouting. So why does it feel like things only just got worse?
Rainbow shut her mouth and swallowed. She glanced at Twilight. "Uh, I guess we had better get going, huh?" she said in a low, gravelly voice.
Twilight blinked. "Yes, I... we...." She bit her lip. "...yes. I guess we should."
"The princesses are in here, miss." The royal guard pointed a wing towards two massive wood and wrought-iron doors. The two stallions already standing before them waited for the guard to nod before they turned around and each braced a hoof against the dark, majestic wood. A creaking groan echoed through the halls, and the candle-lit room beyond appeared.
Rainbow Dash's heart soared when she spotted Gabe, sitting on a cushion near the middle of the room, and plummeted at the sight of the sunlight princess next to him, her head lowered and her gaze attentive to the little foal. It felt strange to see her without her golden regalia—no, it felt wrong.
"...so you can probably guess that things weren’t in all that great shape by the fifth year when–" The colt stopped mid-sentence at the sight of the group. He smiled when he met her eyes, and Rainbow's spirits lightened just the tiniest bit.
Celestia raised her head to face the newcomers. She looked exhausted. "Twilight, my dear student. I am glad you are here," she said, "and to the rest of you, welcome."
Every time Rainbow had seen the princess before, that same smile had seemed so warm and motherly, but right now, she couldn't shake the thought of Gabe's fate from her mind. Surely the princess would be on Twilight's side, right? Her own sister's life was at stake, and it showed. She wasn’t wearing any of her fancy gold stuff and Rainbow had never seen bags underneath Celestia's eyes.
Twilight mumbled something vaguely gracious to the guard, who nodded and motioned with a hoof. The five entered the room, and the doors groaned again. The thin bar of sunlight on the opposite wall thinned to a sliver, then disappeared, returning the massive tapestry on the far wall to its humble, flickering light.
"Hey, guys." The colt waved his hoof.
Rainbow wanted desperately to run to him, scoop him up, and bolt back out the door. Instead, she raised her own hoof and forced it not to tremble. "Hey, kid."
The group began to move towards the two, forming a rough circle of ponies in the middle of the room. Rainbow made sure to seat herself next to Gabe. Sandy moved in at her side, looking sweaty and anxious. She kept glancing up at Princess Celestia with wide eyes, which Rainbow could certainly empathize with—she had felt the same way when she first saw the princess up close.
Twilight and Looking moved to sit beside Celestia, leaving the latter and Spike to sit across from the colt of the hour. The stallion wiped at his mouth again and narrowed his eyes at Rainbow. She glared right back.
A few tense seconds passed where the air hung over them all like a thick, smoky cloth. Everypony listened to the click-click-click of a little dragon's claws tapping together.
Gabe looked around at them all. He seemed so small, surrounded by big ponies, and looked especially tiny next to Celestia. Even Spike looked bigger. If somepony looked in on them now, Rainbow doubted they would even notice the little colt.
Twilight cleared her throat with a little cough. "So, Princess," she said, "what happens now?"
Celestia made the faintest smile. "I believe Gabriel requested your presence, isn't that right?" She looked to the colt at her side.
Gabe nodded, brimming with that calm confidence of his. "Now we talk it out. No lies, no vagueness. We really don’t have time for that anymore.” He looked up at the alicorn sitting beside him. “Celestia? You're up first. Tell us what's going on with Luna."
Rainbow's eyes widened at his blasé tone. The kid didn't even call her 'princess!'
The princess simply nodded once, then straightened her back and looked down at those gathered around her.
"My little ponies," she began, "as you all must know by now, my sister is currently gravely ill. This is because of a forbidden spell she performed some time ago, one I believe was meant to summon the mind and soul of a pony very close to her in years long past. She failed, and instead brought Gabriel here, to Equestria. In doing so, she tore her soul in two, and a considerable piece of it is now in him. If it is not returned, I, ah…”
Celestia swallowed. “I do not believe she will see nightfall."
Rainbow's heart tightened. Some part of her had been holding out that maybe, maybe Twilight was wrong, but to hear it from the princess herself? That was something else.
To her left, the counselor made a little gasp. "So it's true..."
The princess nodded again. "Yes. Gabriel is definitely the interloper, but not a kind we have encountered before."
"Celestia told me about your interlopers," Gabe cut in, "and I can tell you all right now, I'm not some sort of supernatural deity-monster from beyond the stars wearing the skin of a pony. I don't have any mind control powers and I'm not going to remove anyone’s skeleton. I'm just me."
Sandy seemed like she would tip over if Rainbow gave her even the slightest push. "So, you're really not a pony?" she asked with a paper-thin voice.
Gabe took a deep breath. "No. I'm not. I’m not even a kid. Or I wasn’t, at least."
Sandy’s eyes leapt open and she covered her open mouth with a hoof. Her already unsteady breathing became even more staggered.
Not a kid? Rainbow felt her head swell and spin. This whole time, I’ve been treating him like he’s a little colt, but… it kind of makes sense. She shook her head. No, it totally makes sense. Self-sufficient, knowledgeable, sometimes, and he kept talking about ‘when he was younger.’ Geeze, that makes so much more sense.
Looking Glass leaned in, looking cautious. "So what are you, then?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"...I’m just a person. A type of person from very far away."
"And what are your people like?" Looking pushed. "Are they dangerous?"
A hot white flame burst to life inside Rainbow. "That doesn't matter, you snake!" A flash of alarm and regret surged through her when she realized she had just spoken like that in front of Princess Celestia, but the thought faded as quickly as it had come because she realized that she simply didn't care.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, and she was trying to save somepony too.
The investigator met her glare. "I'm only being sure!"
Rainbow began her less-than-polite retort but Gabe held a little foreleg across her front, freezing the angry words in her throat.
"It's fine," he said without looking at her. "Glass, I wouldn't say my people are, by nature, any less complicated than ponies, but Rainbow's got a point. Is that really what you want to focus on right now?"
The stallion pursed his lips and raised his chin. Rainbow could see him struggling to swallow his pride. "...no, it is not. Despite what some ponies may believe, I'm trying to do what's right here."
Rainbow snorted.
"Then start by being honest," Gabe said. "What was your and Twilight's plan today?"
"Erm..." The stallion shuffled his hooves and massaged his jaw.
He had better pick his words carefully, Rainbow thought.
Eventually, he sighed and began to speak in a tone that almost sounded guilty. "Twilight and I were to separate you from Ms. Hills and Ms. Dash. She was to say she needed Ms. Dash's help, and I posed as an agent in the Ministry of Public Health and Family Services."
Looking licked his split lip and glanced up at Celestia, but her face remained as emotive as the stone walls surrounding them. He swallowed and continued. "I took you into the offices and told you to wait, locked you in, and then... falsely told Ms. Hills that she had been removed from the case."
Rrgh, the more he talks, the more I want to smash his stupid face in, Rainbow thought. Again.
His gaze dropped to the carpet. "By the time I returned, you had disappeared."
"What would you have done if I had stayed?" Gabe said. He didn't sound upset or angry at all, just genuinely curious.
"I would have brought you here, to the princess. By force, if necessary."
"Alright." The foal looked satisfied enough, shifting his gaze to the lavender unicorn beside him. "Twilight." She jumped a little when he said her name. "Why were you two doing this?"
"I..." Her voice wavered, but she glanced at the white mare beside her and squared her shoulders. When she spoke again, her voice was steady and confident. "Because we believed we had to. It was the best way to save the princess."
Rainbow would have harped on the 'believed' part right away, but Gabriel moved right along. "And how exactly did you plan on saving her?"
How can he be so calm? Doesn't he know his life is at stake? What is going on?
Twilight's stance faltered and she glanced down at her shuffling hooves for a second before meeting the colt's eye. "Um, based on what we know about Luna's spell, your body contains the torn piece of Luna's soul. All we needed to do was, ah..." She looked up at Celestia and shuffled again. "Free it, by, um, initiating contact."
"Initiate contact?" Sandy said.
Twilight blushed. "I-I mean, all we'd have to do is get the two bodies to touch. Anima Thaumaturgia says that the soul fragment should be desperate to return on its own, since it must have been separated rather, erm… messily when Princess Luna’s spell failed."
“Ah,” muttered Gabriel, “That’s why it feels so weirdly hot in this room.” He glanced at Luna’s bedroom door.
Rainbow couldn't stop herself. "What? We can't just remove it? There's no way to suck the soul out of him or something?" She glanced at Gabe. He had a pensive look on his face as he rubbed his chin with a hoof.
"You don't seem very confident in what you're saying, Twilight," Sandy said. She kept her chin raised, but Rainbow could hear the waver in her voice. How hard was she trying to keep her voice steady?
Looking piped up and Rainbow didn't try to hide her sneer. "She's correct. He contains the piece of Luna's soul. Princess, can you confirm this?" Brown-noser.
Princess Celestia nodded. "I know my sister's magical presence. It follows Gabriel as well. I can feel it." She spoke with a calm, even tone, almost sounding dead. Again, when compared to her usual regal voice, it made Rainbow shiver, but she pushed the feeling away.
"So remove it!"
"We can't, Rainbow," Twilight said. Her voice's frustrated tone made guilty satisfaction bounce off the inside of Rainbow's chest. “Not without killing, um, him.”
"Why not?” Sandy asked. “The elements did it with Nightmare Moon!"
"I... don’t think the elements are an option right now,” Twilight said, her eyes flicking to meet Rainbow’s for a moment. “Besides, that was different. The Nightmare was an entirely different entity than Princess Luna. There were two! When we return Luna's soul, there won't be anything to keep his body going."
The counselor came to her side again, pointing her hoof. "Twilight, are you saying that colt does not have a soul?"
The jab hit Twilight where it mattered. "I'm saying that interlopers do not have souls," she said, sounding defensive, “not like ponies do. Whatever he’s got in him, it wasn’t meant for a pony. It needs help to keep him alive.”
"That's simply not true!" Sandy said, almost cutting the unicorn off, "Gabriel is kind and empathetic! He is far from soulless! I saw him make friends with three little fillies, for crying out loud! How can you say that?"
"That doesn't mean that it has a soul, not like we do," Looking said. Rainbow saw red. "it could just be–"
"Stop calling him an 'it'," she growled, leaping to her feet. "All you ever do is call him 'it'! Like he's not a real pony!"
"But he isn't a real pony!" Twilight cried.
Rainbow came very close to acting on the urge to slap Twilight on the side of the head. She stamped her hoof instead. "Urgh! Person! You know what I mean!"
"He isn't a real person either!" Twilight shouted back, "He's a-a flesh golem with a mind or soul or something from another world, powered by a piece of an alicorn's inner magic! It's the only thing keeping the body alive!"
"Don't talk about him like that!"
"Rainbow," Sandy said, setting a hoof on her shoulder. Rainbow frowned and pushed the hoof away, but kept her mouth shut... for the moment. "Twilight, whatever his nature may be, cruelty is unnecessary. You must know by now that he's not acting maliciously. Why are you so unwilling to look for another way?'
"Because I don’t think there are any," Twilight snapped, her voice hard. "There's no way around this. We’re running out of time.” Her voice softened. “I'm sorry. I really am."
"How can you be so sure?” Sandy looked up at the alicorn. “Princess Celestia? You’ve been around for, um, a long time. Don’t you know anything about this, erm, soul magic?”
“I am afraid not,” Princess Celestia said, her face falling, “Before my sister’s… banishment, there was no need for me to know, as she is more of an expert on the subject than I could ever be. Afterwards, I had no desire to research the magic that had helped... lead to it all. I am sorry, my little pony, I cannot help you here.”
Rainbow spoke up. “That doesn’t mean we should give up. Maybe there’s some scroll or something that–”
"There's no time!" Looking Glass cut in, sounding agitated and impatient to the point of desperation. "I understand that it’s uncomfortable, but we don’t know how long Princess Luna has! We can't afford to gamble with her life."
"So you're throwing away somebody else's!" Sandy said. "I wonder, would you be so eager if it were your foal's life on the line? Or how about Spike, Twilight?"
The little dragon’s eyes widened. He wrung his claws together and looked at Twilight, whose mouth hung open silently.
Looking Glass had no such problem. "I don't have any foals," he said, glaring at Sandy.
Rainbow leaned forward. "Then how could you possibly understand? You heartless bastard."
"It doesn't matter! Yes! I would! Is that what you want to hear?" Looking exploded, shouting hard enough to send spittle flying through the air. "I would give up my own foal to save the princess's life! You know why? Because Luna's worth more!" He stamped his hooves. "She's worth more than you, she's worth more than me, and she's especially worth more than an interloper! She's an alicorn! She's immortal!"
"I don't care!" Rainbow leapt to all four hooves and planted herself in the middle of the circle. "You're going to kill him and you won't even look for another way!"
He shook his head. “We’re out of options. We’re out of time.”
Rainbow Dash felt spittle drop from her lower lip and dragged a hoof across her mouth as she whipped her head around to Sandy. She's been backing me up all day! She's the only other pony with their head screwed on right. She'll know what to say!
The counselor stayed silent, staring at Looking with a twisted-up, disgusted look on her face. Then her wings drooped and she hung her head low. She couldn't even meet Rainbow's eye. Pathetic. "R-Rainbow, maybe–"
"Of course. Of course. I'm the only one who has the guts to do the right thing here, huh? Cowards! You all make me sick!" She glared at every single pony in the circle. I can't believe every one of these selfish mules is keeping their mouth shut. Of all of them, only Celestia returned her stare's strength. The two locked eyes and Rainbow grimaced inwardly. "I can't believe I used to think you were perfect." She turned around. "Gabe, I–"
The spot next to Celestia was empty. "What?" She looked up at the others, and amazingly, horrifyingly, they all had the same flabbergasted look on their face. Even Celestia’s eyes had widened.
Rainbow’s ears twitched and caught the sound of a door groaning shut. It didn't come from the main entrance, so the only place–
No!
She exploded off her hooves in a wild burst of movement and frantic wing-flapping. Her hooves slammed into Luna's bed-chamber doors a half-second after they made a heavy, thudding clunk. Rainbow's whole body attempted to continue its journey forward and crumpled like an accordion. Then she uncrumpled and tumbled to the floor. Not that she could have recognized that, because the whole room was spinning like mad.
She blinked hard. Come on, Rainbow. You've had worse. Shake it off. One by one she found her hooves and got them underneath herself and with a grunt, pushed herself back right-side-up. With one more shake of her head, she raised a hoof and tried the magnificently crafted metal door handle. Clunk. It didn't budge.
"Hey!" Rainbow shouted. She pounded her hoof on the door. "Hey, what's going on? Open up!"
The voice that followed came through the door muffled and quiet. "Rainbow, chill!"
"Kid!" Rainbow pounded on the door some more. It rattled in its archway. "Kid, something's wrong, the door's stuck!"
"That's because I locked it."
"Just wait, I—what?" Rainbow blinked and shook her head. "Then unlock it." She glanced over her shoulder. The others were still sitting in their circle, save for Twilight, who had gotten to her hooves and held a foreleg to her chest. "Don’t worry, I'm not gonna let them hurt you," she said, glaring at them. Princess Celestia rose, graceful as ever, and gave her a sad look. Rainbow felt uncomfortable.
"Rainbow, that’s not–" the wood fell silent for a moment. "Rainbow, you heard them. We're out of time. There isn't another way out of this."
The rest of them began to stand, making their way closer to the door in slow, measured steps. "Rainbow..." Twilight trailed off.
Dash ignored her. "Kid, open the door. You're making a mistake."
"Oh, this is gonna be rough," he said so softly that she strained to hear his words. Then he called through the door again. "I appreciate it, Rainbow, I really do, but this is how it’s gonna be."
"Don't be stupid. Open up." A second shadow crawled up the door and Rainbow turned to see Celestia standing beside her. She suppressed a sneer, but not very well. "Can't you open this stupid door? It's your castle!"
The princess shook her head. "It's Luna's bedroom, Rainbow Dash. It wouldn't be a lock if I could enter whenever I wanted."
"Can't you just force it open? Come on! You're the princess!"
Another shake, slower this time. "This door isn't just made of solid wood and iron, it's heavily warded against magic. If I were to use a spell to force it open, that spell would need to be powerful enough to also force open anything in the next room, including Gabriel and my sister."
Rainbow didn't believe that for a second, but she had better things to do than argue with the princess of the sun. "Rrgh!" She pounded her hoof on the door so hard it hurt. "Gabe! C'mon, open the stupid door!"
"Rainbow, will you listen to me? I-I-I'm trying to–" Gabe stuttered from behind the door. "I... c'mon, Rainbow. Twilight said so. Celestia said so. If there were something they could do, they would do it. I'm looking at Luna right now. She needs help."
"So, we can–"
"Rainbow. I know it's hard. Believe me, I've been on your side of the door. Please, just... it’s my choice. Don't make this worse than it has to be."
"But, I–" Rainbow felt her heart drop into her hooves. “I don’t get it! Princess Luna’s the one who caused all this! It’s all her fault, not yours! You don’t deserve this. It’s not fair! Open the door!”
“Yeah. It’s not fair. Nothing ever is.” His voice was gravelly and slow. “But I’m not going to let her die so I can live, Rainbow. I’m done with that shit.”
“Gabe! What about your friends? What am I gonna tell Scoots and ‘Bloom and Sweetie? Come on!” It felt like somepony was squeezing her throat shut. “What about me?”
"...I'm sorry."
"Kid?" Rainbow knocked on the door. "Gabe? Gabe, don't!" She tried the doorknob and smashed her hoof against the ancient wood. "Kid, don't do this! Don't give up! You said you wouldn’t give up!" Her heart ached and seized in her chest and she just wanted it all to stop. "No, no no!"
Twilight said something but Rainbow couldn't make it out over the sound of her own heartbeat pounding away. She backed up a few steps and drove herself into the door shoulder-first. Come on! Not even a little budge? "Come on, come on!"
Her shoulder ached and complained so pegasus turned around and bucked with all the strength she could muster. The impact vibrated up her bones and into her spine, but she grit her teeth. Pony up, Rainbow. You can do this.
She bucked the door again and winced at the impact, but the wood didn't move. "Nothing?" she growled. "You stupid door!" Rainbow readied another buck, ready to show that damn door who was boss when two hooves pressed together on either side of her head.
"Rainbow! Listen to me!"
Twilight stood nose-to-nose with her. Where the hay did this jerk come from? Spike and the princess looked on from behind, one looking nervous enough to throw up, and the other as emotionless as a marble statue. "Dash, you need to stop!"
"Shove off, you stupid nerd!" Rainbow pushed her violet hooves away and glared at her. "You're not gonna help me, so just stay outta my way!"
"I'm trying to–" Twilight's indignant response got cut off by a tan foreleg across the chest. Sandy gently pushed her backwards, placing herself in between the mares.
"Twilight. Let her be." How can she be so calm? Doesn't she realize what's happening? Rainbow Dash delivered another buck to the door. It remained seemingly immovable.
The unicorn mare stamped her hoof on the lavishly-carpeted floor. "Look at her! What if she hurts herself?"
"I know. But it's not the time. Trust me." The counselor turned around to face Rainbow, who blew multicolored strands of mane out of her own face.
Rainbow took the chance to speak first, letting out the burning acid in her gut. "What, you gonna try and stop me too, shrink?"
She expected a gasp, or an offended retort, or really anything more than the simple thin-mouthed stare that she got. Then Sandy simply shook her head no and lined herself up beside her.
"What?" Rainbow said with her eyebrows raised. "What’re you doing?"
"Helping you." Sandy looked her straight in the eye. Her face was unwavering and just as honest as AJ's.
Rainbow huffed and stamped her hoof. "Alright, on three." The counselor nodded. "One. Two. Three!"
Their buck hit the door with a fantastic thwack and Rainbow's heart practically leapt right out of her chest. "Again! One, two, three!" That time the door rattled and creaked in its frame. "Come on, just a few more! One, two, three!"
Again and again they bucked the supernaturally strong door, and each time, Rainbow could feel that lock getting just a little looser. She didn't care that the rest of them were staring at her with varying degrees of pity. She didn't care that she was trying to bust into Luna's personal chambers. Nothing mattered to Rainbow besides getting in that damn room.
"Nngh!" A buck finally produced the groaning, faintly splintering sound she had wanted so dearly to hear, and a spark of excited hope raced through her chest when she saw Princess Celestia’s eyebrows raise.
"Yes! Yes! We're so close!" Rainbow cried. Sandy didn't look happy, but Dash ignored that. She was helping, that's what mattered. "Alright, again! One–"
An impossibly bright light exploded from the crack beneath the door. It cast the room in black and white, lighting the group from underneath for just the barest of moments. There was a whooshing sound, the light went out, and there was silence.
Nopony spoke. Nopony moved. The doors went clunk and swung open.