//------------------------------// // Stolen Child, Alicorns, Near Deaths (not in that order) // Story: The Element of Magic // by PlutoMilo //------------------------------// Translations of the Shakespearean will be at the bottom of the chapter. The alicorn was short - about the same as a large earth pony. They would barely reach the bottom of Twilight’s chin if they stood up straight. Their fur was dark blue and orange, like the cusp of a beautiful sunset. Their mane was the color of a sunrise, pink and orange, glittering with white specks like stars. Sky blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. Their armor was the same color as their coat. A second pair of hoofbeats sounded on the stairs. They were two minutes late for the Celebration and Twilight could only futilely hope that was the Queen arriving. Perhaps she would be able to explain the sudden appearance of an alicorn previously unknown to Equestria. Her wishes were dashed like a candle being extinguished. A pitch-dark horn appeared on the stairs, slowly giving way to another alicorn that wasn’t the Queen. This one was much taller, the same size as the Queen. The alicorn was midnight black and wearing the most ethereal blue armor Twilight had ever seen. If it could even be called such, the mane floated above their head like purple early morning fog. Bleached white fangs poked out from their mouth and deep purple reptilian eyes dilated dangerously at the sight of her. The dragon shivered until the tips of her horn-crowned head. That was before unadulterated rage like she’d never known exploded out from the alicorn with the force of an earthquake, leaving Twilight gasping for air. Waves of anger wafted from Nightmare Moon -- because who else in Tartarus could that possibly be -- as she stalked forward, the metal of her armor clashing awfully with the tiled floor. “Master, prithee halcyon down. We hasn’t yet to maketh our announcement,” the smaller alicorn said in Old Ponyish. Twilight jumped to her feet, not knowing when she’d fallen, and made a break for the balcony. The guards need to be warned! They were all in danger! She was seized in the alicorn’s Magic. Muscles that weren’t fully recovered from the ordeal the night before cramped. She’d been set fire to, thrown into the flames of Tartarus to burn for eternity. Her throat nearly tore as she screamed from the overexposure. Surely someone would hear her. Surely the crowd couldn’t be loud enough to cover her cries. Her sense of balance failed her when Nightmare Moon dropped her in surprise. She managed one stumbling step before she keeled over, cracking the tiles underneath from the sheer pressure her bulk exerted. She trembled and twitched uncontrollably, unable to speak and unwilling to move. No one heard her. “Pathetic. This is what mine own sister sends to vanquish me? Mine sister uses beasts still? T’ seemeth the Queen hasn’t learned.” Nightmare Moon rumbled in displeasure, stepping over her prone body to emerge on the spotlit balcony. The curtains parted for the alicorn. Screams split the air as Nightmare Moon appeared. Her foreboding chuckle silenced the voices of panic which seemed to amuse her further. “Nay queen. Nay traveling lamp. Thee poor poor things. What shalt thee doth without thy savior, hmm?” Silence. Not a single pony shifted. And then, “Well? Citizens of Ponyville?” How ironic it was that no citizen of Ponyville was in attendance. All of the ponies below were the richest from cities and settlements far away. “Nightmare Moon!” Twilight could hear the tremble in Spike’s voice and she cursed the Gods for her son’s foolish decision, “You’ll be lucky to be alive when my mom gets through with you!” The alicorn howled with mirth, bending down to peer over the railing, “Such a brave brave knave. Bid us thy nameth, child.” “My name is Spike Sparkle and my mom is a dragon! You can’t defeat her!” The small alicorn standing sentry next to her spun around, a glowing spell on the tip of her horn. A headache ripped through her mind like lightning. She was dunked into Tartarus’ inferno once more as Nightmare Moon lifted her for the crowd to see. “What? This blinking idiot?” Nightmare Moon cackled, “Such a thing cannot defeat the Eternal Night. Heareth us anon, citizens. From this moment forth, the night shalt lasteth forever. Mine own daughter Nova and we shall ruleth from our wonderous castle in the Everfree liketh fusty times. Cometh Nova! Showeth the world our power!” With that, Twilight was effortlessly tossed into the beautifully decorated chandelier, bringing crystals, streamers, and silver chains down as her weight caused it to detach from the ceiling. Ponies screamed and scattered, crowding against the walls as Twilight crashed through the floor. Her horns protected her from the sharpest bits of the chandelier, having caught and tangled it above her head. She wheezed, fear rendering her claws clumsy. Distantly, without the aid of a microphone, Twilight heard Mayor Mare order the guards, “Seize her!” even though she wasn’t supposed to be ordering anyone around. It was the half a second hesitation on the guards’ part that cost them everything. Pure Magic expanded above the room, knocking every unicorn, guard or not, to the ground. Twilight roared, unable to avoid the backlash. “Mom!” Spike yelled frantically, digging through the shattered crystal, “Mom! Nononono!” “Get away!” she wanted to tell him, “Save yourself! Run!” but all of the air was still knocked from her body and she could only muster a faint groan. A shadow dropped down in front of the wreckage. Nightmare Moon’s voice was horrendously close but Spike continued his reckless dig into the crystal and chains. “So thy mother very much is a dragon. How peculiar of thee, Spike Sparkle,” the alicorn said in smooth dark tones, “Such loyalty and bravery did display before us. Thee wonnetht run? Standing before us?” And her child, Spike Sparkle, in his clipped Canterlot accent declared shakily, “I will run when Tartarus freezes over.” “No!” Twilight wanted to shout, “No! You will run now!” But the stones pressing against her chest prevented her from drawing breath. Gray spots floated across her vision. The alicorn hummed, and Twilight got the impression she was surveying the silent crowd, “Such bravery,” she repeated, “None of thee dareth to speaketh except this child. None of thee dareth to saveth this beast except this child. The Queen hast hath raised cowards!” The last word echoed as the alicorn boomed. “Spike Sparkle shalt maketh a wondrous Captain of the Night Guard. How fusty art thee, Spike Sparkle?” Twilight finally found the strength to begin shifting the crystal, heaving nigh fruitlessly against it. Her claws fumbled and slipped, fumbled and slipped again, and she was ready to cry from the injustice of it all. Above the crater she was in, Spike remained quiet. Nightmare Moon snorted approvingly once more. “Thee holdeth up well ‘gainst intimidation-” the alicorn cut herself off as something exploded from the ground and hit her armor. The wave of nausea that flowed over Twilight told her Spike likely tried to do something with his Earth Magic. Nightmare Moon cackled again, sounding extraordinarily pleased. The dragon gripped the heavy metal band that most of the crystals dangled off of and shoved. Her claws did not slip. She finally had enough room to woozily sit up. “We hast chosen well. Cometh Princess Nova, hence with us.” “Aye, mine own Master.” Magic thickened in the air as Princess Nova charged her horn for teleportation. Twilight screeched and recoiled, reaching out to blindly grab onto Spike. Her claws swiped nothing but air. That enough had her cracking open her eyes past the shooting pain. Horror-struck, she watched Princess Nova, Nightmare Moon, and Spike vanish in a flash of starlight. “Spike!” She bellowed so loudly she tasted copper in the back of her throat. But the pain could not compare to the crushing feeling in her heart when she realized her son, her entire world, had been stolen from right in front of her. Her vision faded to gray as she hauled herself out of the broken crystal. How dare she. How dare someone steal from a dragon. Her claws dug into the floorboards, causing them to splinter. Smoke poured from her mouth like water, billowing up to obscure her glowing eyes. The dragon roared again, shaking the roof. Ponies screamed, scattering like the flies they were. She was weightless. Gravity was nonexistent as her eyes unseeingly wandered. She took a strange step forward like she was moving through water and not air. She howled her fury for all to hear, a stream of bubbles escaping her snout. She was going to drown, but she didn’t care. Her world was gone, stolen, so far away she might as well have been walking upside down because nothing made sense. Gravity slammed back down and air expanded her lungs. Red crawled in from the corners of her vision. The dragon inhaled, tracing the Magic that wrenched her world away. The Everfree. The trail led there, to that old shriveled Leyline. The dragon ran at the wood separating her from the outside. Planks cracked and broke as she smashed straight through the door. For some reason, the image of a banister stood out starkly in her mind.  Her claws dug furrows into the dirt as she hauled her body forward. She crashed nose-first into gold metal so shiny she could see her reflection. The dragon snarled, twisting to go around. Nothing would stand in her way. She wouldn’t allow it. Celestia raised a hoof, trying to placate her student, only for the dragon to hiss and snap down with sharp teeth, ripping parts of her armor to pieces and denting it deeply. Gasps rose all around from all the ponies. The dragon did not care, spitting out the metal. Celestia put her hoof back down, flaring her wings in warning as her eyes narrowed. Something in the dragon made it pause as it took in the only being that was the same height. That hesitation didn’t last very long and the alicorn’s eyes widened in shock as the dragon lunged. Instinctively a pearlescent wing moved to shield her face. Claws and fangs slid off of the reinforced feathers and the dragon growled. It spun in place to begin its headlong charge into the Everfree, giving up on fighting the alicorn, eyes glowing like lamps. It probably would've reached the forest within minutes if Celestia hadn't captured the beast in her Magic. The dragon howled, enraged as pain assaulted it, preventing it from escaping. Purple flames hotter than anything known to pony-kind sped toward the alicorn's face and she didn't manage to shield herself in time, leaving her ethereal mane smoking. The alicorn dropped the dragon to throw up a transparent half-sphere that the flames harmlessly rolled off of. The dragon threw open its wings, growling and snarling like something possessed. It roared before taking flight, throwing one last hateful glance at the being that dared to try and stop it. Soon it blended in with the night sky and was lost. “Bloody fools!” Lieutenant Buckler roared, spittle flying from his mouth. Celestia hid a grimace with practiced ease. “There was an order! Why didn’t any of you follow it? I want answers, soldiers!” He howled again when no one responded. “I saw some of you move when she gave that order! Why didn’t you follow through?!” The alicorn thought that quite hypocritical considering the earth pony hadn’t done anything either. Thinking about it, it wasn’t really like he could do anything, to begin with. Who thought it’d be a good idea to promote cannon fodder up the ranks when the pony couldn’t even cast spells? “As you were, Lieutenant,” Captain Armor said sharply, “That pony was not qualified to be giving orders.” As Queen, she was to remain impartial on matters such as this, but a small part of her couldn’t help but agree with her Captain. Good soldiers listen to orders, that was true; however, the orders needed to come from a reliable source. Equestria would’ve descended into chaos if all of her soldiers listened to anypony without a single thought for themselves. “And she was the only one that did when we are all sitting on our arses!” The Canterlot-born earth pony cried, “Imagine that, Captain! A civilian! Giving orders! Because we're all too bloody useless!” Now that comment was a bit of a stretch. As her Captain said during the debrief, he had tried to evacuate civilians but the dragon and the two unknown alicorns had gotten in the way. It wouldn’t be fair of her to judge a pony for things out of their control. Her mood soured at the thought of her sister and her sister’s so-called adopted child. Celestia had thought a thousand years confined to the moon would’ve been enough for her sister to see the error of her ways. Clearly, her sister’s experiments with creating artificial alicorns had done something to her psyche. The earth pony, Nera or Nerva or something like that, had most definitely made Luna worse of a pony than before. That brought her to her most glaring problem. The assignment Celestia gave her student seven years ago should’ve made her student hope, if not yearn to return to being a pony. And yet the only thing the assignment made the dragon do was drop every single little thing, even failing multiple tests to take care of what now Twilight Sparkle called her son. Her student had even named the pitiful thing and took it everywhere with her like a small filly would with a stuffed animal. The alicorn broke numerous Magical laws to get what her student most desired and the beast that had taken over the brilliant-minded unicorn suddenly thought of the dragon-turned-pony as her own child. Her student had assured her many times she was fine being a dragon, but Celestia could see behind those unnaturally slit eyes to the pony ones crying out in helplessness. What happened tonight only confirmed her initial suspicions. The Beast had quietly lain in wait until Celestia’s worst enemy returned. Either Twilight would beat it back, and then deal with her sister like she hoped she would, or her problem had multiplied twofold and not only had to deal with a senile alicorn bent on world destruction, but she also had to deal with a mindless rampaging dragon who desperately wanted to tear Celestia’s head from her shoulders. At least it wasn’t anything she hadn’t handled before. She could only hope her student could resist her sister’s deceptions. She knew from experience her sister spoke lies as easily as a spider spinning a web. Magic had chosen her student so many moons ago. Hopefully, the Elements could tell her student was still a pony under all of those scales. Twilight Sparkle was one of the most brilliant minds Celestia ever had the pleasure of guiding. Dare she say, her current student would probably be better than Star Swirl the Bearded if she weren’t a dragon. Her successor would usher Equestria into a new era and go down in legends as the second most powerful leader. A student could never surpass the teacher after all. It wasn’t like her student had an affinity for the sun, not like her predecessor. Sunset Shimmer showed so much promise at a young age. But Twilight had more, so much more. She was momentarily brought out of her musings by her Captain. “I said ‘As you were’ Lieutenant,” Captain Armor snarled, “Stand down before I have you court-martialed.” “This is a gross breach of national security,” the earth pony huffed before settling back into formation. “Might I add that you’re not even on duty, Captain?” Her Captain of the Guard shoved his sallow face into the earth pony’s, “Know. Your. Place. Soldier.” “For the Love of the Moon, I’m your XO,” the earth pony muttered under his breath. Shining Armor was one of the best Captains that ever served her. Meticulous in choosing recruits and notoriously known for not giving second chances, Captain Armor would make his predecessors proud indeed. Her troops were the best drilled they’ve been since the war with the Crystal Empire eons ago. As married to his job as he was, she could tell the loss of his little sister hit him hard. He was more surly and angry than most of her little ponies, but there was a drive in him that made the alicorn respect his dedication. If Celestia ever found enough power to be able to change her student back, her Captain would be the first to know. “Your Divine Majesty,” Captain Armor intoned, bowing low, “How would you like us to proceed, my Queen?” “First thing shall to be secure the borders of Canterlot. We cannot allow the enemy to enter our Capital.” It couldn’t hurt to be cautious. “It will be done, your Majesty.” As the guards retreated, Celestia sighed. First things first. She would need to deal with her sister’s loose experiment. For all the good that her sister passed on the mantle of Stars onto the fake alicorn, that’s all that the experiment was: a fake alicorn. At least Cadence had ascended naturally and accepted Celestia’s mantle of Love with grace. The old ruler inhaled deeply, charging her horn to scry. Slowly but surely an image of a dark blue coat dusted with the faintest of orange appeared in front of her. Good, the experiment was alone. Celestia took flight, tracing the Magic that tethered the subject of the scry to her horn. The Magic of the Everfree, once welcoming and spoke of home, slithered over her like numerous cold snakes. She beheaded the tendrils and scorched the stumps with the power of the Sun like one would do to vanquish a hydra. The unnatural forest Magic recoiled as if it didn’t expect the alicorn to take such drastic measures. Celestia almost scoffed at the thought. Magic wasn’t alive. She descended through the trees toward her target. The fake alicorn screeched, firing off a frankly pathetic beam of Magic that easily reflected off of Celestia’s armor. It was almost too easy to pin the smaller pony to the forest floor and put it to sleep. Even in slumber, the pony tried to fight, eyelids twitching and limbs jerking. Celestia incased the experiment into a bubble and teleported back to the outskirts of Ponyville. If the old alicorn had been paying more attention, she would’ve felt the enraged fury of an alicorn deep in the Everfree Forest. But when had Queen Celestia ever paid attention to things beneath her notice? She was vaguely aware of running. Her muscles burned and both of her shoulders smarted as she careened into trees. Her claws ached as they pounded into the ground and into tough roots. Why was she running? Was something chasing her? No. No, something had been taken and she was getting it back. What was she trying to get back? Twilight came to just as she jumped clear across a small ravine that she never would’ve come close to, let alone try to jump. She shrieked in midair, groggy and panicked, her suddenly flailing wings and tail throwing her trajectory off and sending her into a boulder. Her horns glanced off painfully and she twisted to the side to avoid the rest of her body following the same fate. Her shoulder met no resistance and with dawning horror, Twilight realized she’d just twisted straight toward the ravine. Her back claws skidded, carving into the dirt. She screamed again, her world freezing as she gracefully fell over the cliff. The wind whistled in her ears and every muscle in her body clenched. She couldn’t have opened her wings even if she tried. There was a loud rumble and Twilight could only dreadfully think, “Avalanche!” before she smacked painfully onto a sideways spire of rock that definitely hadn’t been there before. The sound of her scales meeting the rock made some distant part of her mind cringe. Her vision flickered as she rebounded, tipped off, and continued her fall. Someone far far above swore, vehemently and loudly. Her back smacked against another pillar of rock, breaking numerous spines and cracking scales. Somehow, by the gods’ design or some other blessed string of fate, she didn’t fall off. She gripped the rock so hard her claws carved white lines into it. Talons scraped against the stone as Rainbow Dash landed. “Well, ain’t you all fricked up. What happened? You were doing fine until the jump.” Twilight could only moan miserably in pain, shuffling gingerly until she could take the pressure off her back. Everything was jelly, it hurt to move. She should really exercise more. Being a hermit that lived in a tower had its downsides. “What? I just woke up,” Twilight coughed, “Sleepwalking? Last thing I remember…” she trailed off, casting her mind back. Right, the Celebration. The Queen was late. Alicorns! Nightmare Moon! Spike! Twilight jumped to her feet, nearly pitching off again as her vision whited out at the action. Rainbow Dash steadied her with a worried look. “Woah! Hey now, let’s get you back to camp first.” “Spike! I need to find Spike!” She almost slipped again as she shouted. How could she forget something like that? Her son, taken by literally the worst nightmare anyone could think of. All alone in the Forest. The trail was growing faint and cold. If she didn’t follow it now it would be lost. Immediately Rainbow Dash’s expression darkened, “Someone took him? Come on. You can explain when we get back to camp and then put together a search party.” “You don’t understand,” Twilight babbled as she mindlessly followed Rainbow Dash. She needed to go. Right now. “He’s-” “You’re right,” The griffon interrupted with a kind face, “I don’t understand. But I will, alright? Everyone at camp will listen. Let’s get you away from death first. Fluttershy! A little help here, Twilight might have a concussion, for real this time.” The dragon wanted to snarl. She did not have a concussion! She didn’t want to go to camp. What she wanted was Spike safely in her arms and this whole thing to be a dream. Smoke issued from her nose, but she quailed under Fluttershy’s intense glare. “You cannot find Spike if you’re dead,” Fluttershy said softly, taking the wind from Twilight’s sails, “Come.” The larger hippogryph remained on the rock in case she had to catch Twilight while Rainbow Dash took the lead and guided Twilight up the cliff. At the top, Lady Applejack had paced a circle into the foliage, and the earth pony sighed in relief at their appearance. “Gave us quite tha fright there, Taskmaster. You okay?” The reaction was so at odds with how the earth pony had been treating the dragon it made her head spin more than it already was. She was certain Lady Applejack despised her guts, so why in Equestria was she sighing in relief at her wellbeing? Rainbow Dash grunted, “Concussion probably. Broken scales along her back. Might be a good idea to check her wings. She has an announcement to make back at camp. Spike’s been taken.” Lady Applejack nodded, completely unperturbed, “‘Ight then. Let’s go.” Twilight raised her head, forcing the mush that was her brain to memorize where the trail ended. Spike. Mom is coming.