//------------------------------//
// Descent and Ascension 
// Story: Breaking The Mold 
// by Bladecaster 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3: Decent

The birds chirped outside of Twilight's window. The light of the sun streamed in. Twilight opened her eyes and blinked, banishing sleep from herself for the day.

"Good morning, Spike." she said. There was no reply.

He looked to wards his bed to which a note was fixed. The note was then covered in a purple aura as twilight magically retrieved the note.

Twilight,

I have gone to talk to Shining Armor about something. It's nothing bad, I promise.

Spike

'Well.' Twilight thought. 'I wonder what's bugging him.'

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

Twilight walked to the door. When she opened it, Applejack was standing in the hall.

"Morning AJ."

"Morning Twi. Everything go okay after last night?"

"As far as I can tell."

"Good. Ah'm a bit worried about ya. Ah think you need to relax a bit before you do any more searching. We're the leaders of Equestria now. We have our royal duties. Speaking of which, Ah believe we all need to be in the throne room in about 20 minutes. Ah sent pinkie to wake up Fluttershy and Rarity to wake up Rainbow. Ah told them to meet us in the great hall. We should get going too."

"I know. I just want everything to go smoothly until we get the princesses back."

"Me too sugarcube. But whatever comes our way, we'll just deal with it like we always do."

"I guess. Let's get going. I hate being late."


/)^3^(\


When Applejack and Twilight arrived in the great hall, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were waiting there, along with Spike and Shining Armor.

"Morning everyone." said Twilight

"Morning Twilight!" said everyone at the same time.

"You girls ready for this?"

"Are you kidding? I was born ready!" said Rainbow mater-of-factually.

The royal trumpets sounded.

"Well, I guess it's now or never, huh?" said Twilight.

"It's just like a party! I've got this!" said Pinkie.

The doors opened into the great courtyard and the six walked through. Before them, all of Canterlot stood below them, completely silent.

"Here goes nothing..." said Twilight to herself as she walked to the grandstand. With a flash, her stack of note cards appeared before her on the podium. 'I've got this.' she thought.

She cleared her throat. "Good morning Canterlot! As you may realize, I am not Celestia. For those of you who don't know, I am Twilight Sparkle. The five ponies behind me are Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. We are the Elements of Harmony."

The crowd was still eerily silent.

"Yesterday, while trying to free Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon, we accidentally trapped the Princesses in their respective celestial bodies: Luna in the moon and Celestia in the sun. We feel terrible for what we have done, and please understand that we are working on a way to bring them back."

There was a cough from the crowd.

"Until then, according to Canterlot law, we are your temporary leaders. Please understand that we are new to this as well, so your patience is much appreciated. Thank you."

Twilight walked back to the rest of the girls, the crowd still silent.

"How did I do?"

"It was fine darling. I'm sure the people are still overcoming their shock."

"I guess you're right."

The six walked into the building and headed to the throne room. When they entered the room, the found the throne chair platform expanded and 6 new thrones were erected. Each one had a different cutie mark on them, relating to each of the girls. The guards snapped to attention.

"Thank you gentlemen, but you may relax now." said Twilight.

"Yes, you're majesty."

"And if you could, just call me Twilight. I'm not sure how the rest feel about the moniker, but for me, Twilight is just fine."

"Yes your Ma- Yes Twilight."

"Thanks."

"This is SO AWESOME!" squeed Rainbow as she flew to her throne.

"Um... It's ok..." said Fluttershy, not looking any of the guards in the eye.

They all sat down and the doors reopened. Outside of them, there was a mass of ponies.

"You may enter." stated Twilight.

All of the ponies looked at each other and began to walk in.

/)^3^(\

Six hours later, the girls walked out of the throne room.

"My head hurts." said Pinkie.

"I know. I'm a weather pony! Not a lawyer!" said Rainbow.

"I know girls. I'm trying to find a solution. Speaking of which, I'm going to the library to do more research. I'll be there if you need me." said Twilight.

"You need mah help again Twi?" asked Applejack.

"If you would like, that would be nice. Thanks AJ."

A few minutes later, they were in the library.

"Ok AJ. I'm going to keep looking here. If you want, you can check in the next section over. nything you find that mentions the Elements, I want to see. Ok?

"Got it. And please don't go all magic and flying books on me again Twi."

"I'll try not to. I'm not sure how I did it or how I can keep from doing it though. It just happened."

"Tell you what. If ah see you doing it, I'll snap ya out of it. Deal?"

"Deal. Thanks."

It was only a few minutes before Applejack found something.

"Hey Twi. Look at this."

"What did you find?"

Applejack brought the large volume over to the table.

"It says here that locking away somepony using the Elements is to be a last resort."

"I knew that. But is there any information on how to undo it?"

Twilight flipped through the pages. Suddenly she gasped and the color drained from her face.

"What? What is it Twi?"

"...Uhhh... It says here that because imprisonment is a last resort and only to be used on great enemies..."

"Ok?"

"There's no known way to undo it."

"... Sweet Celestia..."

"When she Princess Celestia gets back, she's gonna imprison me for sure!"

Applejack was now visibly shakiing.

"N-now hold on Twi. The princesses are understanding. Th-there was no way you could have know that this was going to happen. Th-they probably know that too."

"But what if they don't? What's gonna happen to me? What's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to-"

"Twilight! Stop. You're only making it worse. We'll just have to play it by ear and continue what we're doing. We have to worry about Equestria now and all of the ponies in it. You're a smart girl. You'll think of something. But right now, I think we need to get some rest. It's late.  We'll tell the rest of the girls tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok." said Twilight.

That night, either of the ponies got any sleep.

Author's Note: Sorry about the delay once again. Free time is few and far between for me. I usually work on the the chapter 5 times a week, but even then, I don't get a lot done. I'm trying to allocte time for this alone. In the mean time, any criticism is accepted, as this is my first fic.

-Blade