For what felt like hours, Spike lay on the ground, lungs burning, head spinning, thoughts running wild. Luna was injured. Twilight was unconscious once again. That meant it was up to him to defend his companions from the dangers of the forest.
The thought would have terrified him in the best of times, and these were not the best of times.
Spike sucked in a deep breath and tried to organize his thoughts. One thing at a time. He heard Luna moaning faintly and struggling to her hooves. He pushed himself up and rushed to her side.
"Thank you," Luna gasped, wincing with every movement.
"Don't move." Spike dashed over to his backpack, which had fallen off his back at some point during the fight. He rummaged through the pockets until he found some long bandages. He ran back to Lunas. "Here. We can use this to..."
As he looked at the mess that used to be Luna's wing, he couldn't help but grimace. It was broken in at least two places, and feathers stuck out at impossible angles. Luna took the bandages in her magic and said, "Find me some sticks. We'll do our best to set the bones."
After a few tense minutes and some barely stifled whimpers, Luna's wing was bound to her side. The pain in her face subsided, only to be replaced with exhaustion. Spike piled a few spare sticks and forced a green flame from his mouth. The fire illuminated a small circle around them as the last of the sun's rays disappeared. Spike felt it was far from adequate.
"It appears Celestia has taken care of the moon for me," Luna observed, settling into the grass near the fire. "You should check on Twilight before long."
Spike looked over at Twilight's still-prone figure. Her breathing was steady, but otherwise her body was still. To his surprise, her eyes were open when he walked over, looking at nothing in particular.
"Twilight!" He gave her a quick hug. She didn't respond. "How are you feeling? Are you hurt?"
"No, Spike," Twilight answered, voice dull. "I'm fine."
Spike knew she was lying, and he knew why, but he couldn't decide how to approach her about it. "We got Luna's wing set," he said at last. "She think's it'll heal just fine."
Twilight closed her eyes and curled her body into a ball. Spike silently cursed himself. Why would she want to hear about that?
He heard Luna heaving herself to her hooves, and she walked over to join them. "Come lay by the fire," she said. "This cold isn't good for your health."
Twilight stood and walked near the fire without saying a word. Spike busied himself finding bigger logs, and soon the fire grew big enough to illuminate the entire clearing. Twilight didn't say a word the entire time. Her thoughts were lost in the darkness.
At last, Luna cleared her throat. "Twilight," she said, "I would like to know what you thought was happening when you ran away from us."
Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and turned her face away. "I..." she started, and then stopped. Spike scooted next to her and patted her foreleg. She moved it out of his reach.
"What's done is done," Luna said. "We might as well share everything we learned."
Luna couldn't see from across the campfire, but Spike saw Twilight's eyebrows furrow in anger. "You want to know what we learned?" she asked. "We learned that I'm too dangerous to be trusted. That whatever... whatever happened to me is turning me into a monster!" Her voice ended in a shout. Luna stared evenly back at her. "How can you be so calm?" Twilight demanded. "It was my idea to take the rings off. I broke your wing. I... I tried to...." The tears welling up in her eyes became too strong to hold in check. Twilight's anger broke into agonized wails. She collapsed, sides heaving, sobs echoing through the clearing.
Spike felt his heart break for her. He couldn't stand to see his closest companion in such pain, and yet he felt so powerless to comfort her. There was no denying what she had done, and what she would have done if he hadn't intervened. Though she buried her face in her forelegs, he could still see the small scratches on her cheeks where his claws had dug in, redirecting her bolt at the last moment.
Luna said nothing until Twilight's sobs had faded to whimpers, and her heaves reduced to trembling. "Twilight Sparkle," she said at last, "what you are feeling now.... That is how I felt in the days after you and your friends defeated me as Nightmare Moon." She paused to give Twilight a chance to respond. When Twilight said nothing, she continued. "My anger and jealousy had driven me to believe the only course of action was to destroy everything my sister holds dear. I spent many days hidden behind Canterlot's walls, wondering how I could face that world again."
At last, Twilight looked up, eyes red and puffy from the tears that still trickled free. "What saved me, Twilight, was you," Luna said. "Celestia would sometimes show me your friendship reports. I read about you and your friends, and I started to hope that, maybe, you would find it in your heart to forgive me for what I tried to do to you. I wasn't sure what to expect when I came to Ponyville that Nightmare Night, but your trust gave me courage."
Twilight sat up, wiping the tears from her face. "I'm glad I could help," she said with a quavering voice, "but... I don't know if I'm ready to forgive myself just yet."
Luna nodded with a smile. "I understand. That will, perhaps, be the most difficult task of all. You should know, however, that I do not believe for a moment you attacked me, any more that I believe you attacked Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy. What you attacked was something else - something only you could see. Please. I would like to know what it was."
Twilight rubbed a hoof against her foreleg and looked down. "I.... It's hard to describe," she said slowly. "The spell I cast worked - that's what led me here in the first place. But as I cast it, something... went wrong. Something...." She winced, pressing a hoof against her forehead. "Something shiny. Or shimmery. It's... difficult to describe. You and Spike, you disappeared, and instead there were two monsters. Like shadows with glowing red eyes."
Luna nodded. "That sounds very much like the creatures I encountered in your dream."
"It does," Twilight agreed. "I don't know why, but just looking at them terrified me beyond anything I've ever felt before. I was certain they wanted to destroy me, so..."
"So you ran," Spike finished, giving her another hug. "Of course! That explains everything!"
Twilight nodded. "The world seemed so much bigger after that. I thought I was flying over great forests and mountains, and then over..." Her eyes went wide. "A plain! A big, open plain, just like you saw in my dream." She looked around the clearing and deflated a little. "It's... not nearly as impressive in reality, is it?"
"I believe we have learned something valuable, then," Luna said. "Whatever has affected you can make your friends appear to be hostile creatures. The incident with your friends in the cave was no mere happenstance. It also affects your perception of space and time."
"What I don't understand is how that happened," Twilight said. Now that she had a problem to focus on, her worries seemed to fade into the background. "What's the pattern? Rainbow Dash and the others ended that vision by removing the rings. You ended this one by putting them on." She let out a long sigh. "If I could just figure out what the trigger is, we could avoid them happening entirely."
"Well, maybe that thing will give you some clues." Spike pointed toward the stone obelisk, and the two alicorns turned toward it. Faint green lines now wound their way across the stone's surface until they formed a picture - a group of pegasi, manipulating the clouds.
"Interesting," Twilight said. "I wonder why we didn't notice it before?"
"Notice it? You were standing on top of it when you-" Spike stopped himself before he said something that would upset Twilight. If he'd said too much, Twilight didn't let him know.
"I mean these markings," she explained. "They must only appear at night."
"Markings?" Spike turned his head sideways. "What are you talking about?"
Twilight turned toward Spike, confused. "These green markings," she said. Spike only frowned. "You can see them, can't you?" Spike shook his head. Twilight turned to Luna, who nodded. "Strange. Maybe only ponies can see them?"
"Not just any kind of pony," Luna answered as she rose slowly to her hooves. "I've heard of these stones before, but never seen one myself. They react to the magical traits of nearby ponies - in this case, the power of pegasi."
"Pegasi?" Spike repeated. "Hey, you had a whole stack of notes about pegasi." He wracked his brain, trying to remember as much as he could. "It was during the time of Clover the Clever, I think. It had to do with how pegasi control the weather."
Twilight nodded. "That's what the pegasi in these markings are doing. And look." She pointed to the shape of the clouds. "It looks like an arrow."
Luna peered closer. "It does, indeed," she agreed. She used her magic to retrieve a quill and parchment and began to sketch the designs. "As alicorns, we carry the pegasi's power with us as well. That must be why we are able to see these marks, but not Spike."
Twilight began to pace. The familiar action put Spike at ease. The old Twilight was coming back. "So I was researching ancient pegasi, and now, my spell led us here, to this obelisk that only shows these markings to pegasi. There's no way that's a coincidence."
"There was a pile about alicorns, too," Spike said quickly. "Well, sort of. I... didn't really understand a lot of it. But I remember some spell diagrams. Oh, and a picture of those rings."
Twilight glanced at the golden ring that circled her body, mind already churning away. Pegasi and alicorns, she thought. "Spike, did I have any research on unicorns or earth ponies?"
"Unicorns, yes," Spike answered. "A lot about unicorns, actually. There was a bunch of stuff about magic. I didn't really understand it, but it talked about how, after the founding of Equestria, the unicorns found better ways of casting spells. There was a lot about early Equestrian history, too."
Twilight nodded. "Whatever I was looking for, it was old, like this obelisk," she said. "If only I could remember...
"I believe we have remembered plenty for one evening," Luna said. "I think it would be best for us to rest. The day has been... difficult."
Twilight couldn't hide the guilt from her face, but she nodded. "OK. I'll try." But she knew sleep would evade her. The pieces were there, but how did they fit together? As she curled up by the fire, Spike nestling against her side, her mind continued to work. Unicorns, pegasi, alicorns, relics....
She grimaced against her will as a sharp pain stabbed between her eyes. She shook it off. This was once puzzle she refused to leave unsolved.