The sun was nearing the horizon. In a couple hours, Princess Luna was supposed to resume her duties. There wasn't time to waste.
The temple entrance was locked by three large bolts. On one, a lilac blossom pattern appeared. The bolt then came out and floated in front of it. A yin-yang appeared on another bolt, and it did the same. The final one had a gray circle with a white crescent moon embedded into it appear before it too came out. The three bolts frantically circled one another until they came together in a central point. The result was another bolt with a regular crescent moon, which pushed itself back into the door. Slowly, the door split apart. After a moment it pushed inward.
The inside was as Ace remembered it. Lining the walls were statues of various ponies. Along a large spiral staircase were more statues. As the three climbed, Ace noted one difference. The statue of the alicorn that stood in the center of the upper floor had been moved to the top of the walkway. In it's place was a stone statue of none other than Luna herself.
"She's here, I can feel it," Stella said. Luna's magic swirled about the room, emanating from one central point; her statue. Stella approached the statue. "Right here."
"Just what I was afraid of," Ace said. "She's a statue."
"What are we gonna do?" Blaze asked. "If the Princess is a statue, then we can't really bring her back. Not like that, at least."
"There has to be some way to bring her back," Stella said. "I've said it before. Alicorns are immortal. Plus, I can feel her magic. It's faint, but it's there."
"What if we break the statue?" Blaze suggested. "If she's in there, surely we can break her out."
"I would advise otherwise," Stella said. "She's not trapped in the statue, she is the statue. Break the statue and you break the only chance of saving Luna."
"What can we do, then?" Ace asked.
"I might be able to reverse it," Stella answered. "Though I don't know if I have enough magic at the moment."
"Try your best, Princess."
"Alright." She closed her eyes and touched her horn to the statue. Slowly, a blue aura completely enveloped both Stella and the statue of Luna. A mysterious wind swirled around the temple, encircling the unicorn. The magic around Stella began fading to white as her body itself began to glow. Cracks beginning at the point Stella's horn made contact worked their way around the stone, illuminating with the same white light. Once the cracks met on the other side, a bright flash forced Ace and Blaze to look away.
***
The first place Zephyr decided to go was Canterlot. Initially, she planned on following the same route they took at the beginning. She changed her mind once she saw the castle. She landed outside the gate where two guards were doing their duties. Before she passed through, one of them stopped her.
"Do you have business in the castle?" the guard asked.
"I'm here to see Princess Luna," Zephyr replied.
"She's not currently accepting visitors," the other guard said. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to go home now. Maybe you can try again tomorrow."
"But this is important!" Zephyr near yelled. "She may have been taken!" The two guards looked at each other. One of them nodded, and the other went into the castle.
"We're searching the castle for Her Highness right now," the remaining guard said. "May I ask how you obtained this information?"
"Someone I know came to Canterlot for a few days, during the perihelion," Zephyr explained. "When he came back, he said she was abducted, and that it was his fault."
"What was this pony's name?"
"Ace Doughty."
The second guard ran back out and whispered something to the first, who whispered something in return. The second guard nodded and ran off again into the castle. "What does this 'Ace' look like?" the guard asked Zephyr.
"Brown pegasus, red hair, golden lion cutie mark," Zephyr stated.
"Thank you," the guard said. "Now, if you could follow me." He started towards the castle. Zephyr followed him. The gate closed behind her. "As it turns out, you were correct. The Princess is indeed missing. Because of this, the castle will be going into lockdown. And since you seem to be the only one who knows about what happened, you're being brought into the castle for witness protection. Any objections?"
"Are you kidding?" Zephyr exclaimed. "Not at all!"
***
The light of intense magic subsided. A very uneasy Luna was standing on the pedestal where the statue was moments before. Ace and Blaze rushed up to her. She collapsed, but Ace caught her.
"...Ace?" Luna said slowly.
"That's right, Luna," Ace said. "We'll get you out of here, don't you worry."
"Why did you come back, Ace?" Luna asked.
"I don't want anypony to sacrifice themselves for me. Especially not you."
"I shouldn't have brought you to the temple," Luna lamented. "None of this would have happened."
"But you didn't," Ace said. "At least, not in this or the previous times."
"Strange... I remember coming with you on your first journey."
"We'll figure that out later. Right now, we need to get out of here. Stella, can you... Stella?" Ace trailed off when he realized Stella wasn't anywhere nearby.
"Stella...? But I thought..." Luna said slowly. "I thought I was Stella?"
Ace set Luna down and sat beside her. He slowly pieced together what had happened. "You were," he said after a moment. "Then you gave her her own life. And just now, she gave that life back to you."
Luna was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry, Ace," she said.
"Don't worry about it. Rest now, we'll get you out of here. Blaze, can you teleport us?"
"I'm not good with teleportation," Blaze replied. "Sorry."
"Alright." Ace slid his sword under his wing and lifted Luna onto his back. "We'll just have to walk, then."
***
"Do you know where Ace is now?" A Lunar Guard asked.
"Yeah, he went west," Zephyr replied. "Last I saw him, he was in Whinniesburg."
"Thank you," The guard said. "You stay here while we go take care of this."
"Commander Darkfire, sir!" Another guard came up to the first and saluted him. "All are accounted for except Nighthawk."
"We'll have to leave without him, then," Darkfire said.
"Nighthawk? He was with Ace," Zephyr said. "So were Blaze and Chryso-something."
"Those traitors!" Darkfire yelled. "Prepare to move out." The second guard nodded and left the room. Darkfire followed without another word. Zephyr was left alone in one of the castle's few guest rooms. Little did she know, it was the very same room that Ace, Pepper, Crescent, and Cherry stayed in the night before the perihelion. There was a guard outside the door, but after seeing Darkfire's display, Zephyr thought it best not to try her luck.
Instead, Zephyr just went out onto the balcony and sat down. She hadn't planned ahead, and now she was stuck doing nothing while the whole Lunar Guard hunted down Ace. She felt it was the right thing to do, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for Ace. She wondered what they would do once they found him. Would they kill him on the spot? Lock him up for life? Hang him for all of Equestria to watch? There wasn't any chance they would be merciful to him.
And what of the others? Darkfire was clearly enraged by the defected guards. Surely they'd be locked up as traitors at best. And what would become of Stella? She just seemed to come out of nowhere. Maybe she would just disappear the same way before she can be apprehended. Although she did seem pretty powerful. Along with the defected guards and Ace, could they take an entire squadron of Lunar Guards? Nighthawk was a part of that squad, so he could probably give away their weaknesses.
"Zephyr!" Her thoughts were interrupted as a familiar blue pegasus landed on the balcony in front of her.
"Thunder? What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Looking for you," Thunder said. "What are you doing here?"
"I told the Royal Guards everything," Zephyr replied.
"What do you mean by 'everything?'" Thunder asked.
"I told them about Ace and Princess Luna."
"You what?" Thunder exclaimed. "Why would you tell them about that?"
"Ace said it himself that he took her away," Zephyr defended. "Since he wasn't going to tell the guards, somepony had to."
"Ace left to rescue the Princess!" Thunder said. "And now he's going to be killed by the guards of the very pony he's trying to help!"
"If it weren't for him, the Princess would still be here, and the guards wouldn't have anything to worry about!" Zephyr shot back.
"You're never going to understand, are you?" Thunder snapped. "Ace didn't take the Princess away! Something he did is what took her away! That's why he left, so he could bring her back! He didn't want the guards to know because they'd be walking to a certain death! He knows what he's doing, and here you are just making sure he can't get back the Princess and leading the entire Lunar Guard to get themselves killed at the same time!"
Zephyr didn't respond right away. She let Thunder's words sink in. "I never really thought about it like that before," she said finally. The full magnitude of what she just did hit her. She just sentenced five innocent ponies to a certain death they didn't deserve.
"And now, if somehow Ace is still alive when he's brought back, he's never going to forgive you for this."
"We need to do something!" Zephyr said suddenly.
"Alright, let me know when you find some way to stop a squad of pissed Lunar Guards," Thunder said.
"No, not that. We need to warn Ace!"
"How are we going to do that when he's currently outside the country?"
"We just need to get to them before the guards do. Come on!" Zephyr took off full speed, flying straight in the direction of Whinniesburg. Thunder flew right behind. How far the guards had made it or how fast they were going was anyone's guess. But the duo felt sure they could reach Ace before the guards. At least, they hoped so.