What it seemed to be a light rain slowly became a storm as Weather Report rushed back to Canterlot; The storm was getting more and more intense as she approached the city, becoming increasingly difficult to walk on the rain drops. She was using far more of her stamina to keep running on the skies but that proved to be a bad idea, as she gasped for air she ended up choking on a raindrop making her lose her footing and went face first into the ground. She almost passed out on impact thanks to how tired she was, "*pant* *pant* I need some more exercise...." Slowly she got up and continued trotting her way to the city while in the shadows of a few trees a masked pony watched her.
After a few hours she was in Canterlot's main gate. The city was bright as a beacon since the lights in almost all houses were turned on, ponies were way to scared to sleep. Weather started to run along the streets making her way into the city hall.
A few minutes later upon entering the city hall...
"Why is everypony on their houses right now? i thought you guys said y'all would scout everyone here." Weather asked.
"You're back! what did you find!? is there a way we can fix the highway!?" A bunch of ponies surrounded her and were asking a bunch of questions.
"None of you answered my question...." Weather said.
"Everypony was here when you left five days ago, but since the storm died down a bit they just went back to their own homes." The Mayor answered. "Now is your turn to give us answers."
"Not until Celestia is here, i'll go call her." Weather responded.
As she was about to go to Celestia's house the Mayor stopped her and said. "No need for that, she is on the second floor with her kids, my secretary can call her for you."
Weather then sat down on the ground waiting and a few seconds later *poof* a bright light flashes in the middle of the room for a second, Celestia had teleported to the middle of the room.
"Thank goodness you're back! i was starting to worry." Celestia said. "So what did you find."
"*sigh* Ok here is the deal. On my search i ended up on Salvamare, a small village not too far from here. The place was almost completely in ruins and....."
Weather proceeded to explain everything that happened as well as her theory on how they can fix the Apollo highway....
"I think that Elliptical has the Apollo heart, and she somehow is preventing it to come back to its original position. Why would she do that? i'm not sure..." Weather explained. "What i am sure though is that the royal army can definitely take care of Elliptical, and then we can figure out a way to send the Apollo heart back into orbit."
"But how are we going to contact Princess Luna?" The Mayor asked. "The telephone is still a experimental tool , and it doesn't work properly with the current weather conditions."
"I can go on my own." Weather said.
"The guards will never let you in." Celestia said. "My sister only lets commoner ponies inside her castle if they have a special permit, you can request it but it takes about five days to be accepted or declined."
"What!? that's stupid!" Weather said. "Also can't you just go with me? they must let you in without a permit right?"
"I'm sorry but i can't, years ago right when Luna implemented the permit system, i said to her i didn't want to get any special treatment just because i'm her sister." Celestia explained. "So i need a permit as well, and i'm afraid they wont let me in even if i say its an emergency."
"Then you teleport us inside! is that simple." Weather said.
"*sigh* You're right, but were going to need to be quiet i don't want an army of guards following us around."
Celestia quickly went back to the room upstairs.
"Ok kids i need you two to listen, i'll be away for a while and i need you two to behave ok." She said. "Keep an eye on Bottom Heart and by no circumstances go outside ok Adagio?"
"Okay mom, be careful!" Adagio said.
Celestia kissed both on the forehead before leaving with Weather closely behind her.
"Hold on to me." Celestia said.
As Weather held Tia's right wing, they were both teleported in the middle of the throne room.
"Sis....ter?" Tia looked around, there was nopony around and all light were turned off.
Both of them walked around the castle but there was nopony in sight, they went to Luna's room and all the other rooms around the castle but in the end they didn't find anyone.
"This is strange....the place looks spotless." Celestia said.
"You're right a battle definitely didn't happen here..." Weather said.
"I'm sorry Weather but i'm staying, i need to investigate this further."
30 minutes later....
"Chapter one hundred and eight, the very hungry caterpillar is on trial for his war crimes..." Adagio was reading a book to Bottom, but got interrupted by rumbling stomach noises.
Bottom looked down.
"You hungry lil guy? c'mom let's get you something to eat." Adagio said while leaving the room with Bottom closely following behind her.
On the kitchen downstairs they were peacefully eating some snacks when suddenly a huge flash of light comes through the window and the lights go out, Adagio looked outside and saw that the light on the entire city was out. Some of the ponies in the hall started to panic.
"Everypony calm down! there's no need for panic again." The Mayor said. "The same happened yesterday, don't any of you remember? the energy should be back soon."
Adagio and Bottom just continued to enjoy their snacks. A few minutes later they were about to go back to their rooms but then Adagio saw a silhouette go by on the window, it was Weather. "Stay with me lil guy."
They took the darkness in the hall as the perfect way to disobey their mom and go outside. Adagio wanted to ask Weather were Celestia was, while Bottom was just following his sister. They were running after Weather but she was too fast and the storm sounds muffled Adagio's shouts. She then grabbed Bottom and putted him on her back, "Hold tight Bottom!" She shouted and Bottom entangled himself on her mane. They manage to barely keep up with Weather until they were outside of the city gate, but then Weather started to run upwards on the rain drops, leaving them behind. Feeling defeated Adagio lets out a big sigh and beggined to walk back to the city, she stopped shortly after as she heard a scream in the distance and decided to investigate...
Going deeper into the woods everything started to look more and more similar, they were lost. "Oh man, mom is gonna kill me!"
She continued walking for a few more minutes when she noticed that Bottom was shivering, "I'm sorry little guy, *sigh* i need to find a place for us to stay the night." After a few more minutes of walking aimlessly she found a cave entrance. "Perfect!" Adagio said as she putted Bottom on the ground. "Stay here okay? i'm gonna try to find some dry sticks so i can make a campfire." She said while leaving the cave. Bottom shook of the water and was about to sit down on a rock, it was then the he heard a loud thud coming from within the bottom of the cave. He kept note of the sound and laid down patiently waiting for his sister to come back, each minute that passed more and more sounds could be heard but Bottom Heart ignored all of them.
Adagio came back frustrated as she couldn't find any dry material to make a fire.
A few minutes earlier....
Weather rushed out of the city, since there was no sign of the Princess and her royal guard Weather decided to try and face Elliptical on her own again. She ran for a while until she got enough buildup to go upwards and run on the raindrops, not long after that something hitted her out of the sky. She fell on a river and got attacked by piranhas, she tried to defend herself but stopped when she noticed that the piranhas weren't actually attacking her, they wanted to guide her somewhere, so she followed them. She was led through a underwater tunnel and got out of the water inside of a cave. In there a masked pony waited for her...
"Who are you?" Weather asked.
"My name is of importance to you." The pony answered and approached her. "Answer me this, are you familiar with the story of Apollo?"
"No. Why?" Weather asked.
"He was the unicorn that watched over planet earth, he was the one responsible for the night and day cycle. After falling in love with a mare he became negligent, some days were far longer than others while some nights seemed to never end. Until one day the mare betrayed him, he was devastated! broken... He created the Apollo heart a relic that would be responsible for the day and night cycle, not long after that he killed himself." The pony explained.
"...Ok why are you telling me this?" Weather asked.
"You see that unicorn had two siblings, a young colt by the name of Black Star and a pegasi named Elliptical Orbit."
Weather gasped.
"Apollo was a fool, his siblings always warned him about that mare but never listened! and in the end he died for it in a pathetic way. There do is a way for him to redeem himself though but first he has to be brought back to life, and that's exactly why we needed to destroy the Apollo heart."
"You're Black Star aren't you!?" Weather said getting ready to fight.
"Oh you already caught onto it? *chuckles* when my brother comes back he will be our weapon of mass conquest! we will rule of the earth! no, the entire universe!" Black Star let out a evil laugh. "And you've been a nuisance for far too long, now begone!"
As he said that dozens of piranhas came out of the water flying towards Weather, this time they wanted flesh. She managed to dodge them and went to kick Black, but he dodge and she hitted the wall. After quickly getting up she once again had to dodge the piranhas, these things were flying everywhere. Continuously dodging the piranhas Weather was waiting for an opening to try and attack again, on the very first opportunity she kicked a rock up in the air and threw it right in eye socket on Black's mask. He flinched and that's when Weather striked again, this time she managed to hit him from the side and he crashed on the wall.
When he got up even more piranhas came out of the water and launched themselves towards Weather, it was becoming more and more difficult for her to dodge the attacks. She was once again dodging and waiting for an opening when suddenly Black was pushed to the water, Weather didn't saw exactly what happened but she took the opportunity jumped really high and kicked a stalactite that was above the water causing it to fall. It fell directly into Black's back, killing him on impact. His death caused the piranhas to disappear in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke died down Weather saw Adagio near the water.
"Is he dead?" Adagio said.
"Probably...but what are you doing here!? didn't your mom tell you to take care of Bottom Heart!?" Weather asked.
"I am taking care of him!" Just as Adagio responded Weather felt a tap on her left back leg, it was Bottom Heart.
"What the!? what were you thinking going so far out of the city like that? and with you little brother no less."
"Is not my fault you're so fast, i wanted to ask you were mom was but i couldn't keep up with you and we ended up getting lost." Adagio explained. "We were going to rest up in this cave and that's when we heard the noises you and that guy with the mask were making."
"*sigh* Ok kids lets go back to the city i'll scout you two there, you're mom is on the Castle by the way."
"The Castle? why did something happened to auntie Luna?"
"Hopefully no, but only time will tell. Now follow me."
"So that guy was responsible for the Apollo highway destruction right?" Adagio asked while following Weather.
"Maybe, but i think Elliptical is the leader in this plan of theirs. After all she seems far stronger than him."
"How so?" Adagio asked.
"Well when i hitted her she didn't even flinch, a straight kick to her chest and she didn't even move."
"Hum.... that might be an artificial barrier." Adagio said.
"A what?" Weather said.
"An artificial barrier i read about it on a book, ponies of any kind can do this spell. The book said the barrier only protects against physical stuff."
"So in other words only magical attacks will have effect on her?" Weather asked.
"I think it depends on the magic, also i believe environment stuff doesn't count."
"Interesting...." Weather thought.
A few minutes later they were back in the city hall, Weather left the kids there and went made her way back to Salvamare. In the way there she came up with a plan on how to make Elliptical vulnerable enough to attack and she would use the storm to her advantage. First she grabbed Elliptical's attention...
"This ends now!" Weather shouted in the entrance to the village.
Confused Elliptical ran to the gate looking for Weather but she was nowhere to be found. Then Elliptical felt that something cold was thrown at her, it was a lightning rod. It got stuck between her armor and her wings. Elliptical tried to remove it but she wasn't fast enough and lightning striked her back making her scream in agony. Her pain was far from over, as Weather came running and kicked her right in the neck. This time Elliptical did feel the hit, on impact her body crashed on a wall making it fall on top of her.
"Looks like Adagio was right about the barrier..."
Elliptical was trying to get up, Weather felt bad for her and decided to help her get up. That didn't end as expected however as another lightning striked Elliptical, killing her on the process. Weather stared at her lifeless body for a second and removed the rod from Elliptical's back, she then proceeded to bury Elliptical.
While she was doing that she thought to herself....
"Not really sure how you would've been able to bring your brother back to life by bringing misery to everypony else, but i can't help but to think you weren't all that bad. After all you could've easily killed everyone in this village, including me...but you never did. I'm sure there's something else to your story that i'm missing but its a bit too late to ask now...."
After the burial, Weather looked around trying to find the original entrance to the catacombs. Once she found it, she used her strength to move the rubble out of the way. The noise she was making attracted all the ponies inside the catacombs, and they all gathered near the entrance...
"Stay behind me." Carmesim said to Crimson.
"Weather!" Carmesim shouted as the rubble got moved out of the way.
Weather ran to hug Carmesim. "Its kinda over."
"Kind off?" Ponies asked confused.
"Well Elliptical might be gone but so is the Apollo highway, and the only thing that could've fixed it was destroyed by Elliptical." Weather explained.
"So that means we are stuck in an endless night?" Love asked and Weather simply noded.
"Is there really nothing else we can do?" Carmesim asked.
"I-i don't know... listen i'll come back to Canterlot, i know a very smart unicorn there and maybe she can help.... Hopefully"
"You leaving again?" Crimson asked.
"Is ok little tike, when this is all over i'll be coming to visit regularly ok?" Weather promised. "Also everyone, i would recommend staying in here for a while, the storm out there is a bit too strong.
Weather waved at everyone and once again returned to Canterlot, this time heading straight to the castle looking for Celestia. After a few minutes looking around she simply couldn't find Celestia anywhere so she went back to the city hall. In there the ponies told her that Celestia took her kids back to her house as apparently Princess Luna was also there. On the way there Weather saw the royal guard, they were all over Celestia's garden. "They were here this whole time!?"
After entering the house she saw Luna, Celestia and Adagio sitting on the living room talking while Bottom Heart slept peacefully near the fireplace.
"You're back! that means you won right!?" Celestia asked.
"Yeah...." Weather responded.
"The why is it still night time? something went wrong or is it actually night time right now?" Adagio asked.
"Hold on hold on, first let me ask this, why is Princess Luna and her guards here? wasn't she missing or something?"
"*chuckles* I understand your confusion, you see i was already here. I got worried for my sister as i didn't heard any news from her in the past five days, so i came to her house looking for her. And as you know she wasn't here, she was at my Castle looking for me *chuckles*" Luna explained.
"Oooh got it. Anyway here's the deal, the thing keeping the highway working is broken, what do we do?" Weather asked.
"Isn't there a way we can fix it?" Luna asked.
"Wait! Didn't that Black Star guy said that Apollo controlled the sun and the moon while been a unicorn?" Adagio asked.
"Black Star? Apollo? Missy did you disobey me!?" Celestia angrily asked.
"Leave that for later! Black Star was Elliptical's brother and he told me about Apollo, obviously the pony that created the highway. Apparently he was a unicorn, so maybe if a strong enough unicorn try, they could probably be able to move the sun or the moon on their own." Weather said.
"Mom here is the strongest unicorn in this city i just know it!" Adagio said.
"What, me!? Don't try to sweeten things with me, you're still going to get grounded for disobeying me!"
"I'll give it a try." Said Princess Luna.
She concentrated all of her energy in her horn and as she did so her body started to glow and the moon started to move, as the moon slowly went in the horizon and things started to get darker Celestia also concentrated and started to glow. As the moon went down the sun rose. Finally after five days the ponies of both Canterlot and Salvamare were able to see the daylight, the storm also weakened and became just a drizzle. With that a really bright light emanated from Celestia and Luna and as the light grew weaker a moon cutie mark was revealed on Luna's flank while a sun one was revealed on Celestia's flank....