//------------------------------//
// Destiny 
// Story: The Great Brony Migration 
// by Laichonious the Grey 
//------------------------------//

	He had always liked nighttime. The soft moonlight. The peaceful shadows. The lack of a murderously hot sun. Laichonious enjoyed a little morsel of the night as he walked back to the palace from the wagon, two large crates floating in clouds of rose tinted telekinesis before him. The last few weeks were a blur for him. Crates stenciled with the still-unfamiliar High Equestrian characters probably could have told him where they were from and what they contained. It wasn’t important though. Twilight knew what they were and where they came from, she always seemed to know everything. He remembered little from that fateful day when Luna saved the bronies. He entered the the palace through heavy, wooden double-doors tucked away on the side of the south wing. He marveled at this ability to levitate such large and heavy objects, it was not even three days ago he struggled to lift anything heavier than a stack of books. Twilight assured him that this was normal.
Laichonious felt very lucky to be alive. Apparently, he had succumbed to Spectral Sickness, like all of the others, and lost consciousness. They found him locked in one of the storerooms where Celestia had left him. The Princess herself apologized for that; it had been one of the most awkward apologies he had ever received. The weeks that followed were straight out of his fondest dreams.
The soft clicking of his hooves on the marbled floor of the palace hall echoed in the dim expanse. Sconces of blue-flamed torches, casting a ghostly aura about the hall, were fastened to the walls at intervals of about five sceptres, just enough so that the light began to fade between them. The red unicorn was privileged to be working with both Twilight and Princess Luna. It was a humbling experience. Both were kind teachers but they were equally relentless and demanding. They pushed him to give his best and he certainly didn’t want to disappoint. Twilight had taken on several bronies as apprentices -- those who were advancing quickly in their studies -- but as far as he knew, he was the only brony, besides Cereal, being taught by Luna. Her knowledge of the runes was perfect; every nuance, every rule and stipulation, was at her beck and call. With the faintest of effort, she could make the runes dance to her tune. If he could understand only half of what she knew, he would easily surpass even the wizards of legend.
“Can you place those crates over by the far wall, please?” Twilight’s voice emanated from down the hall. Laichonious soon entered a large chamber brightly lit with starlights. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the wide, arched opening, he could feel Luna’s presence. It was a subtle thing and the only way he could describe it was the feeling of walking through the front door of his home. It was familiar, soothing. When he was this close to the Princess, he could feel the bond tugging at him. That too was hard to explain and he wasn’t the only brony who felt it.
Twilight’s smiling face appeared around one of the crates he was holding. “These the last ones?”
“Eeyup, crates fifty-five and fifty-six,” he replied.
The lavender scholar consulted her list and other scrolls. “Fifty-five and fifty-six,” she made neat check marks next to their entries, “Excellent! Those go right over there. You can go ahead and prop the lids open and I’ll be around to check the packing lists and make sure everything is accounted for.” She trotted back to the other side of the room where a few of the palace workers were leaving through another arched passageway. 
Laichonious set the crates down in their requisite spaces next to all the other seemingly identical crates, making a neat horseshoe around three walls of the room two crates deep, pried the lids open with two concentrated bursts of magic, and then released the leylines he held with a soft sigh. As always, they left behind an emptiness. A short-lived emptiness, for Luna’s presence filled that void. If the room were pitch black, he still would have been able to point right at her. The Princess of the Night sat on a satin pillow next to a large window that offered sweeping views of the mountains and valley beyond. She faced towards the interior of the room, however, appearing to watch the activities of the studious lavender unicorn, yet her full attention was not on the room at all. Her eyes seemed to be looking through the wall; she was thinking, or perhaps even conversing with her sister, though Celestia was resting in her tower. 
An enigmatic smile blossomed on her face as she raised a midnight wing to him. A summons, even one so subtle, from the Princess was welcome. The brony trotted to the Princess of the Night and bowed with one knee touching the marble floor. “Svasmodir,” he intoned.
Luna’s smile deepened, motioning him to join her by her side. He did so dutifully, and she lowered her head to speak softly. “What troubles you, young alkris?”
A simple question, but Laichonious had learned quickly that when immortals are involved, nothing is simple. By all accounts, he shouldn’t be troubled at all; dreams were coming true right before his eyes. Magic was real. Equestria was real. It was everything he imagined it to be, and more. Luna could see right through him apparently, for all that he tried to put up an unconcerned and content front, he felt apprehensive about his future and confused about the past. Luna waited patiently for his answer, after all, she had all the time in the world. The soft muttering of Twilight’s compulsive checking slipped around the room, providing a backdrop to his thoughts.
“I....” The red unicorn fished for his words. “I suppose I... just don’t understand what happened to Celestia. And, well, what happened to the humans, why did we lose our magic? Are we in danger of losing it again? What does it mean for us, now that Earth is beyond our reach? Can we bring it back? Can we change the path once we set down it?” Questions fell out of his mouth one on top of the other, some of them surprised him.
Luna’s soft laughter reminded him of moonlight dancing on a rippled pool. “Heavy questions for one so young.” She paused, letting her wing fall on his shoulder. “What drove my sister to do as she did, is at once simple and complicated. She is full of love.”
Laichonious frowned at the floor, then looked up to meet her gaze. “I still don’t understand.”
Luna lifted her head to look out of the tall windows on the far side of the room. “Celestia is a generous soul. She loves all and cares for the well-being of even those who despise her.” Her expression softened as she seemed to peer into the depths of the past. “A thousand years is hard for you to understand, and even to us, it is no small amount. She was alone for all of that time. Alone when I should have been there for her. What is worse, I forced her to banish me, and even this, she did out of love. When faced with the possibility, even the mere shadow of one, that I may be lost to her again... her heart nearly broke. She was afraid. Fear can make even the wisest ruler abandon reason. Out of love, she kept from me a dark secret. Out of love, she carried the guilt of a thousand years and countless lives. When she hid from me the memories locked in the Vault, she had to play host to a cancer of dread. Because those memories were not her own, she could not see them clearly. In the end, she misinterpreted my memories and so determined that the humans were the root of my transformation into the Nightmare. Would you not do everything in your power to save a loved one from a fate worse than death?”
Laichonious frowned again at the floor, unable to meet Luna’s piercing gaze. “I don’t know what I would do,” he said quietly. He sighed. “I don’t think I’m brave enough to make a decision like that.”
“Hmm. It is not a question of bravery, young alkris.” Her wing of ebony feathers settled heavily on his shoulders. “It is a question of love.”
The red unicorn’s mouth quirked as he looked up into her face. “You say love, but I feel like you mean responsibility.”
The dark princess raised her head to look out of the windows again. “Yes,” she muttered distractedly, “it can seem like a great responsibility to love.”
“Would it have been better if we hadn’t come?” As soon as the question left his lips, he wished he could take it back. Luna did not react, other than a sharp intake of breath as if stung.
“No...” She paused, breathing deeply. “No. Eventually, we would have returned to the Vault. Celestia would have tried to protect me in the same manner. Only without you, I would never have known what to do.” Her voice began to take on a deeper tone, her normal frostiness began to melt, and Laichonious watched in awe as the impenetrable armor of an immortal fell away. “We are ultimately lonely. Immortality is not an easy burden to bear. I... I have watched thousands... hundreds of thousands of ponies live their lives from start to end and no matter how much I loved or how deeply I cared, I could not stop the march of time.”
The large room, with its crates and starlights, began to fade from his perception as he became entranced by Luna’s voice.
“It may be hard for one so young to understand. As time goes on, it seems to grow in its haste. We feel the weight of the eons passed as we go through the days to come, and there is no sweeter feeling than love in the present. I can recall with perfect clarity, the lives and faces of all of my children. I know their names and I love them deeply still. Even if they are not here.” She turned back to him, her eyes like the great expanse of time itself. “The bronies are my children now, they will thrive under my care. And this they will do... because of love. Had you not come when you did, how could we have been healed? For a thousand years, Celestia toiled in the perfect isolation of immortality. For a decade after, she would not let me into her thoughts; she would not let me comfort her. Her soul was broken, though she would be the last to admit. I was heavy with guilt and, like the day and night, we were separated. I was in no state to help her and she was incapable of restoring what I dearly missed.”
“But we caused so much trouble... and we paid for it,” Laichonious said, his head sinking.
“Adversity is the catalyst for change. It is not necessarily what happened that is important, but what we learn. Look at me, young alkris.” He did so and the tension in his shoulders melted at the sight of Luna’s warm smile. “We were freed from prisons we had built for ourselves and yet did not have the keys. Celestia and I are once again truly reunited, harmonized if you will, and we have the bronies to thank for it. Whatever may come, remember: We are not the sum of our mistakes, we are the result of our constant triumphs. If even we, immortals who have lived for thousands of years, make mistakes, how is it that you would require so much perfection from yourselves?”
Laichonious broke eye contact and sheepishly rubbed at his foreleg. His eyes found Twilight, working her way through the many crates that lined the room. She levitated various odds and ends in her telekinetic grip. Out of one crate, she took lengths of different metals, all encased in a protective packaging of straw. She tapped them on the side of the crate, one by one in a practiced manner, nodding to the soft tones they made. He thought about Luna’s question as he watched Twilight go about her task. The lavender unicorn worked her way through four or five crates before he could answer the Princess.
“I don’t know about anypony else,” he began, then carefully picked through his words, “but I, feel like... I should know better... I see so many others living what appear to be blissful lives while I struggle to put one hoof in front of the other... maybe, if I were perfect... then I would have more control over my destiny. If I could just do the right thing, the right way, at the right time--the first time--then... I could be happy.”
“Spoken like a true unicorn,” Luna chuckled lightly. “Do not worry about the future, you need only work for today, think of tomorrow and remember yesterday. Your sentiment is noble and your heart in the right place, but, if you linger too long on what you cannot control, you will lose the tenuous hold you have. This is a lesson I learned, at a heavy price.”
He knew, of course, that she spoke not only of her own children, but also of the humans who perished because of her actions. The red unicorn shuddered under the midnight wing. “But the past is full of so much heartache, most of it avoidable. And I remember my mistakes. I remember, and I can do nothing about them.”
The Princess laid on her cushion with a soft sigh, inviting him to sit next to her with a nod of her head. When he had, she wrapped her wing around him again. “It is good to remember,” she said finally. “It is better to learn, but most of all, it is best not to repeat.” She fixed him with a stern gaze. “This includes, in my definition, reliving the past. You should not forget about the hard times you have had, they are an essential part of who you are. But I cannot stress enough, that you mustn't dwell on them. Like the dark secret that almost consumed Celestia, they will canker your soul and destroy you from within. To say that you can do nothing about your past wrongs is a lie. You can do something about them. I may not be able to take back what I did. I may not be able to bring my children back and be the mother they should have had. I may not be able to fill the void of a thousand lost years, but I can prevent it from happening again.”
Laichonious flinched at each of the terrible iterations of Luna’s past. In light of them, his own foibles seemed petty.
Luna’s expression softened again. “Magic can be the same way. Though it has faded from your world, that does not mean it is lost forever. The humans I knew, I loved them as I did any of my subjects. It pains me to learn that I was the cause of so much pain and suffering.... Did you know that, after my banishment, Celestia poisoned the Great Trees?” She waited for his nod. “My fall sealed the fate of magic on your world. But knowing this, I can do better, and work to restore what was lost.”
“So, you think the magic can come back to Earth?” Laichonious asked breathlessly.
“Of course. That does not mean, however, that it will. There is a reason why your kind allowed the magic of old to die. My fall, and the closing of the ways between our worlds, only accelerated a process already in motion. The paths we choose are up to us to change. Some are harder to leave than others, but eventually there will come a time when it is too late and we must accept the consequences.”
Laichonious weighed her words carefully in his mind. “Does this mean, we should move on? If the people of Earth want nothing to do with magic, does that mean it is truly dead?”
“It may be,” she said in a kindly voice. “Do not lose hope, young alkris. Though you are far from your home, there is much you can do to help. Having the bronies here in Equestria might be enough to pull our worlds together again.”
“How? I mean, what can we do?” Laichonious drew little circles with his hoof in front of him. On a whim, he decided to draw the shapes of the World Tree and the various runes of power. The lines he drew glowed a deep red as if he were cutting the stone beneath his hoof and exposing a liquid ruby core. “How can us being here change what’s going on there?”
Luna extended her hoof and began to draw other lines around his. They shone with the pure light of a full moon, a stunning sapphire against his vibrant ruby. She wove her lines into his, braiding the bindrunes with angular knots and adorning the World Tree with symbols he did not recognize. “What happens when one throws a ship’s anchor into the sea?” she asked, still drawing.
Laichonious kept drawing, moving on from the runes of power to inscribe a circle around the Tree, incorporating the circle Luna made into his own. “It holds the ship fast,” he replied.
“Correct,” the princess said mysteriously. “Now suppose that there are two ships, one is anchored while the other is tethered to the first. What do you think will happen when the tides come in?” With a grand, sweeping gesture, she drew an arc in sapphire from the Tree in front of him, to an empty space in front of her. There she began to draw another Tree, but different from the first. Its gnarled trunk took form, sprouting roots and branches that curved up and bent down to meet on an invisible plane.
Laichonious watched this new development and pondered the scenario. Finally, he finished the braid around Yggdrasil and began a new inscription along the arc Luna had made. “I suppose that, if the ropes tethering the anchorless ship to the first and the ropes for the anchor are strong enough, they would stay put. It would be dangerous though. If the tethered ship has too much line, it could drift into the other ship or even tangle its own trim and line.”
“So, what would be the best solution?” His eyes were fixed to the drawings he and Luna made, but he could sense a smile in her words.
“Well, I would have the sailors of the anchored ship reel in the second and lash it good to the side. Or if we could, I would give an anchor to the other ship.”
Luna began tracing back over the arc she made and braided the ruby runes into a flowing cord. “The sailors on the anchored ship are not on the one floating free, and yet, they can influence its course, even if it be much larger than they. All they need is a firm hold, a strong anchor and a rope.” She paused, placing a hoof over his own to stop him from drawing another line. Under the arc, she drew the bindrune of holding and took her hoof away. The drawing should have disappeared without their hooves touching it, but the bindrune let it stay, glowing in the stone. She gestured to the Tree glowing blue. “Here we are, on Sebbia, a ship anchored in magic on the chaotic sea of the cosmos.” She gestured to the Tree glowing red. “There you were, on Earth, a ship that has lost its anchor and drifts out on the tide. For the sake of analogy let us say, that you, the bronies, swam the waters that separated the ships and took with you a single rope each.” Her platinum-shod hoof swept over the arc where he had written BIFROST and she had written HOPE. “Your humanity provides the link between our worlds, and now that you are a part of us, anchored to the magic, you can pull your world back to calmer waters.”
“That’s beautiful!” Twilight breathed.
Laichonious blinked and jerked his head up to see the glowing drawings reflected in the lavender unicorn’s eyes. Twilight had gone through every crate and organized all of their contents into neat groups and stacks in the middle of the floor.
“Would you like me to remove it?” Luna asked, standing.
“No, no. I like it. I think it fits nicely with this room’s new purpose,” Twilight replied, tracing a few of the runes with a hoof.
Laichonious stood and looked over Twilight’s shoulder to the supplies in the center of the room. “So, what’s all of this stuff for?”
A huge smile split the lavender scholar’s face as she turned and cantered to the piles of seemingly random odds and ends. “This,” she said, gesturing with a hoof, “is the beginning of a makina laboratory.”





Frantic hooves pounded through the cobbled courtyard of Canterlot Castle. They carried a red unicorn past a pair of Nocturne Guards, not slowing at their startled calls. He stumbled on some of the uneven stone as moonshadows played across the street. It slowed him only a few beats before he redoubled his efforts and galloped even harder.
“GUARDS!”
Fear lanced through his body as the Royal Canterlot Voice crashed down the street from the castle behind. He had really done it now. Was that Celestia shouting? Of course she would have told her. How could he have been so stupid? The street rushed passed him in blurs of muted color, the stars above seemed to mock him where they hung, motionless in spite of his mad dash. His eyes watered. He wasn’t crying, it was from the wind, stinging his eyes. It wasn’t from the throbbing in his cheek either. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!
He had to get out. He had to get far away. Somewhere they wouldn’t notice him. Somewhere they would need to look hard to find him. Most of all, he had to get there fast. His hooves clambered on the paving stones of the street, the cadence of his flight echoing off of the sleeping buildings of sculpted and ancient stone. To his burning ears, the echoes were far too loud, as if an army were close on his tail. His hooves scrambled even more across the pavement for fear of pursuit. Where was he going to go? What was he going to do? The shrill cry of a train whistle pierced the air. Laichonious skidded to a halt, panting in the cool night. Again the whistle screeched over the sleeping city. That’s it, the Shinespire Flyer! With his lungs burning, he ran down another wide road. He followed a path well known, for in the year he had lived in Canterlot, he had seen just about every nook and cranny of the ancient city. His legs complained and he had a cramp creeping into his flank, but he ran as fast as he could.
Two rights, a left, another right. The cobbles flew under his hooves, the buildings naught but colors streaking past. He charged into the ticket house of Regent Station, blinking at the bright gas lights and polished brass. The red unicorn jerked his head around like a startled bird, looking for the ticket master’s booth. With a cry not unlike the startled squawk of perturbed turkey, he located the booth and scrambled to the only lit window. He tripped only twice on the way and roused the sleepy light-blue unicorn on the other side of the glass by running his face into the window.
“Ow... Uh, hello!” Laichonious mentally hit himself in the face.
“Mm-what...” the ticketmaster yawned, “...can I do for you sir?”
“Yes! Is there a train leaving right now?”
The sky-blue stallion rubbed at his face and studied the chart of departures and arrivals on his booth wall. “There’s, let’s see, ah the Flyer is leaving platform four in ten minutes. After that, we have a Luxor coming in an hour.”
“Great. I’ll take the Flyer. How much for a one-way?” The red unicorn floated his depressingly small bag of bits from his jostled saddlebags.
The ticketmaster paused in stamping a new ticket. “But, you don’t even know where it’s going.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he replied waving a hoof.
The ticketmaster shrugged. “Alright, well, uh,” the stamper came down on the poor, defenceless yellow paper of the ticket with a destiny-laden kru-thrump. “It’s twelve bits for third class, eighteen for second and twenty for first. Oh, wait... sorry, midnight Flyer rates are cheaper, mmm.” He pursued a list on his desk.
Laichonious practically danced in front of the booth, constantly shooting glances at the entrance, just waiting for the flash of Radiant Guard armor. “I’ll take third class, please.” His voice may have cracked from the strain of not shouting, he couldn’t be sure. He extracted twelve bits from the bag and shoved them under the window through the little opening. 
“Uh, that’s only eight bits for the midnight run,” the ticketmaster said, shoving four bits and the ticket back at the frantic red unicorn.
The bits zipped into the bag with enough force to nearly tear the stout burlap. In a single fluid motion, the coins were tired off in their brown cage and the bag disappeared into the curious black saddlebags. “Platform Four?” the runemaster asked, not bothering to glance at the ticket.
“Yeah,” the other unicorn replied, stifling a yawn.
Laichonious glanced at the entrance again as the sound of hooves and a single stuttering voice drifted into the structure. A tiny squeak escaped from his throat at the distinctive flash of Radiant armor in the gas light. He bolted for the platforms, leaving behind a bewildered ticketmaster. In short order he found Platform Four and rushed along the sleek, red-lacquered train cars. He dashed into the open door of the first car in third class, only two cars from the end. The brony was temporarily blind in the dark interior of the car, the only light coming through the windows from the bright lights of the platform. He bumped into several of the lightly cushioned seats and from one, he heard the soft snort of a sleeping pony. Eventually, with his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he found a seat in the corner at the back of the car, where he could see all of the entrances. The runemaster allowed himself a moment to relax, wheezing from his frenzied flight of the castle.
A few moments passed, the whistle at the head of the train gave two short calls. The door at the head of the car slid open, nearly stopping the red unicorn’s heart. An earthpony in a red-trimmed, silver-buttoned, black jacket and conductor’s hat swept his gaze over the car, noting its occupants. He went over to the sleeping pony and roused him with a soft word. The metallic katchingk of a hole puncher came and went, another soft word and a nod, and the passenger was snoring again. The conductor trotted down the car and in a kindly voice asked, “Ticket, please.” He held out a hoof, fastened just above it was a hole puncher wrought of silver. Laichonious floated the ticket over to the puncher and slid it into the waiting slot. After a quick study of the ticket, the conductor hit the button protruding from the puncher with another katchingk. “We’ll be arriving at Grand Central in six hours. Enjoy your ride,” the conductor said, as the red unicorn took the ticket back.
Laichonious smiled weakly, mumbled a thanks and sank back into the hard seat. The conductor left the car, through the door right next to his seat, as the whistle gave a long then short burst. The car shuddered as the engine began to pull away, chugging slowly. He looked out the window at the empty station, stone pillars sliding past. In the shifting light of the moving train, he looked down at his ticket. Stamped in bold characters it read ONE SEAT-3rd-ONE WAY  REGENT TO GRAND and underneath, in flowing High Equestrian:


MANEHATTAN