The palace's interior came to them slowly. First they saw the curtains, dyed yellow at the top and fading to dark blue. The colours seemed to be moving with the time of day as if they represented who was ruling at what time. Then they saw the regal red carpet and upon it, the Princess of the Day.
"Come with me, after I will show you to your rooms as you will be staying the night."
She held up a hoof and nearly decked a passing guardspony who slid to a halt and stood ramrod straight at attention.
"Would you kindly escort this filly to the Guard's Barracks where her parents were told to wait?"
"Of course, ma'am."
Sweetie Bell was ushered away by the guardspony but she slipped out from under his leg and jumped into her sister's embrace.
"It's alright, Sweetie Bell. I'll be right here when you get back with mum and dad? Go on now. Go with the guard."
Sweetie Bell nodded and hugged her sister tighter before loosening up and moving away. Or at least she would have if Rarity had been willing to let go of her.
"Rarity?"
"Oh, sorry!"
Sweetie Bell kissed her sister on the cheek and was once again ushered away by the guardspony. She looked back only once.
They followed Celestia through the corridors of the palace. A flurry of activity surrounded them constantly as ponies rushed to and fro. Guards galloped through the halls and elder unicorns carried stacks upon stacks of scrolls, anypony's guess where and for what purpose. Twilight's mind galloped along with them. As they walked, Pinkie Pie was being carried along by a yellow aura supported by the Princess.
"Princess?"
Twilight would do anything her mentor asked her. She was sure of that. She just wanted to know why.
"Not here, Twilight. I promise I'll explain everything soon."
Applejack was not happy about being taken away from her family when they might need her. She wanted a reason for all of this. The storm, the sudden departure, all of it.
What's a'matter. Can't walk and talk?
She figured she could keep her mouth shut for another two minutes.
Rainbow Dash winced as her muscles screamed at her to stop. She was running on adrenaline and sheer force of will but it was fading rapidly. There was no great task to accomplish here. Just following her friends. Her eyes were only half open as she blindly followed the blond mane in front of her.
Pinkie Pie moaned and her rear legs twitched.
"Pinkie Pie, are you in any pain?"
Twilight's bottom lip quivered and she looked over at Celestia who still appeared indifferent to her condition.
Why isn't she doing anything?
"Princess."
"That did not sound like a question."
"Pinkie Pie needs a doctor."
"I can clearly see that, however doctors work far too slowly for what you all need to be prepared for tomorrow."
She looked back and in her eyes Twilight saw a single tear forming in her eye before she blinked it away. Her voice was unchanged but Twilight saw in mentor's eyes something that frightened her into horrible silence.
She was afraid.
They all entered a small room somewhere near the back of the palace. It was built on a overhang that over looked the forests and plains north of Canterlot. It was late afternoon and the sun's orange light poured into the room and made it feel warm and comfortable. It didn't help.
Celestia set Pinkie Pie carefully down on a sofa and the aura of yellow light around her intensified. A series of sickening pops and snaps were heard and Pinkie Pie's eyes went wide and unfocused as her body was reassembled. She was lifted off the sofa for a second before the yellow aura disappeared and she fell down and bounced off on the cushions onto her feet where she swayed side to side. Her eyes spinning in their sockets.
Celestia let out a breath no one had noticed she had been holding.
"Never any reason to doubt me," she muttered under her breath before turning to the group before her. She made to clear her throat to get their attention but paused a moment. They had leapt to Pinkie Pie's side and were burying her with love.
"Are you alright sugarcube?"
"We were all so worried!"
"Yeah Pinkie, you okay?"
Pinkie Pie shock her head and smiled, bouncing up and down on the spot. As she moved the group cringed at the snaps and pops of Pinkie testing out her legs and back.
"Huh, I feel FANTASTIC! Hey, you know what this calls for?"
She took a deep breath to shout it out at the top of her lungs but she was cut off by a reluctant hoof held out by the Princess of the Night.
"As much as we would certainly benefit from a celebration of health and merriment, the situation at hoof requires a more serious tone."
She stepped out from the shadows in a way that reminded Celestia very strongly of a certain someone.
"Sister, you begin."
Celestia took a breath and was about to begin before Pinkie Pie interrupted.
"Wait! Where's Gummy?"
Celestia frowned and mouthed the name to herself. A look of deep confusion set in before she smiled and held up her hoof. Gummy was firmly attached to the end of it and swayed slightly and the Princess's smiled turned to a giggle.
"Fear not. He found me."
The alligator dropped off and waddled over to his pink maned caretaker and bit onto her hoof where he stayed. He moved about as if he was nodding but in reverse.
Celestia began again.
"I've gathered you all here to ask your help. No, beg your help."
Twilight brow shot up into her mane and she made to make her point but she was held back.
"I've already asked so much of you in the past that it doesn't seem fair that whenever a crisis threatens the world I must call on you six to solve it."
"We'll do anything for you!" Twilight blurted out.
"That's just the problem my beloved student. You would do anything I asked you and your friends would follow you to hell and back again. This time I want to tell you why."
Applejack's expression turned to a slender smirk.
Finally.
"What threatens the world isn't something I could ever hope to contend with, it is an evil from ancient times so powerful it destroyed the greatest race of heroes to have ever lived. To understand what I mean I must tell you of a time before my own. Before even my mother's.
Back before there were ponies like you know them today there were the Alicorns and the Draconequus and over them were the Humans. They stood on two feet and had hands like a dragons, although if you asked a human about it he would say dragons had hands like they did. I do not know where they came from but from what my mother told me, they were not from this world originally. They had come to teach us, to uplift us. Humans you see, see time differently than we do and they had a plan to create the perfect world for us. They taught us how to use and control magic and in fact how to move the sun and moon on our own. How to control the weather and the world around us. Life was good. They were very powerful beings in both magical ability and technological prowess. From what my mother told me, they were gods, able to shape the world as they saw fit.
I do not how long this paradise lasted but as should be apparent it ended thousands of years ago. Some thing saw this perfect world and became jealous of the pure happiness our world exuded. Jealousy turned to hatred, hatred to loathing and it became a black star of pure malice. It came to our world and sought to destroy it. It was said to possess the greatest concentration of magical ability seen in the universe. Magic as you know comes from the emotions we keep closest to our hearts. Yours, Twilight, comes from love. The Darkness, as it was called, got its power from the opposite, hate. The world was plunged into battle and nothing my people or the draconequus did could stop it. We were driven to the brink of extinction.
But the humans, bless their spirits forever, came the aid of the world. They were not very numerous, my mother tells me they inhabited a single city on a mountain, but they pushed back the Darkness with their most powerful gift. You see every human was born with the ability to nullify magic. For example, no amount of magical talent you or even I could possess could ever harm or have effect on a human. They naturally produce an anti-magical field from their bodies. They used this ability to drive the Darkness back from our cities and lands until they had it contained. It cost them greatly as they foresaw that if but a single speck of Darkness remained their plan would fail. There were some hundred left when they made the ultimate sacrifice to save the world they loved so much. They formed a prison out of their own bodies to contain the Darkness forever. It required every human in the world. They all committed as one and sealed the Darkness away.
All but one. That human, Lucien, had a love for us that ran deeper than anyone, including his farsighted friends and companions, knew. He stayed behind to save my mother from a shard of the Darkness that had escaped the humans sight. With his cunning and incredible power, he fought and destroyed it all on his own. But it made him late to the forging of what is known as the Door. Where the humans made the prison sits a door behind which the Darkness waits. Lucien wasn't included in the Door's creation and as such it was never completed. He stayed behind and guarded the Door and to this day he fights with the crack in its design where evil spills out into our world. That storm you suffered was but a drop of water in the ocean he holds back every day. Every day for the last untold thousands of years. He buried or destroyed any evidence of humanity in the time he had to spare. He said everyone should just forget that the Door even existed. He said it would make it easier."
Celestia looked out the window and then nodded at Luna who took over.
"Lucien was and still is the most powerful being we know, and know personally I might add. Back in the elder days when Celestia and I were young, the Darkness was not as dangerous it is now. Not as active. He had time to himself, he had time for us, he taught us... everything. He was always there for us, our first real friend. But he became more distant as time went on. He always knew just what to say or do to bring us joy but his time with us became more and more sporadic. Weeks turned into years, years to decades, decades to centuries. The last time I saw him was ten years before... before I became Nightmare Moon. What brought you here was a note he sent us just today."
She read the note to them and the words seemed to hang in the air after she was finished. The sun had dipped below the horizon and painted the sky. The clouds hung in the air like so many streaks of pink cotton candy and the range of colours fading day to night looked beautiful. None of them noticed. Luna got up to raise the moon and Celestia looked at each of the six ponies before her.
Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep on her back, her leg twitched and she nuzzled the soft pillow beneath her, a smile across her face.
Fluttershy looked up and squeaked at the Princess's gaze. She had been attending to Angel the entire time.
Rarity was looking at the door, she sighed and turned to find the Princess's stare boring into her.
"Sorry, just a little... distracted."
Pinkie Pie had never been the pony to sit still for an extended period of time. The Princess recalled hearing a faint, "Too much exposition," and only now noticed she had left to the back of the room where she was drawing a gingerbread house. She sniffed and rubbed her eye with a hoof and looked up to meet the Princess's stare. Celestia's stare softened at the sight and she moved her eyes over to Applejack and Twilight.
They were the only ones who had listened intently, for different reasons.
"So yer asking us to do what now?"
Twilight gave Applejack a sideways glance but didn't say anything. A small mirage appeared in the middle of the room, like the air was boiling. Pinkie Pie stopped her whimpering and watched intently.
The air burst into flame and a single note was thrust out of the ball of fire before it went out, leaving the note scorched. Rainbow Dash's eyes opened and she started at the sight of it. It fell through the air and landed at the feet of the girls who could just make out the hand written message.
Dear Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity,
Now that you have the back story to the problems of the world I need you to come to the Door at your earliest convenience. I am sorry but my work here will prevent a direct teleport and the skies are not the safest way to travel. You are going to have to hoof it. I look forward to our meeting. By the way Celestia I suggest you check on the artefact that was sent to your most trusted student. I'm sure it will help you understand.
Lucien
Twilight frowned and looked up at Celestia as if to say, 'what?'
"He does that. A lot. Remember, he has likely seen the end of your adventure and knows exactly what to tell you. Trust him as I do. He has not led me astray and i doubt... I know that hasn't changed now. You are all very tired-"
Rainbow Dash managed to suppress most of a snort that escaped her nose. She smiled sheepishly at Celestia who decided it wasn't an issue for tonight.
"You are all very tired and will need all the strength you can muster for you leave tomorrow. Goodnight."
She turned to Luna who had walked back in from the balcony, the night sky shining behind her.
"I'm going to show them to their rooms. Have a good night, sister."
Luna's deadpanned expression betrayed nothing.
"You as well, Celestia."
Luna said she would take care of the packing and maps that they'd need, to Twilight's ire and admiration It was, after all, her usual responsibility. They bade each other goodnight and blew out the lone candle lit in each of their rooms.