Leyline trotted down the hallway with his cart, silently counting the office numbers until he reached one near the end. He checked the slip of paper clenched in his teeth to confirm the numbers matched. Leyline grabbed a keyring hanging off the overloaded cart, fumbling with it until the correct key presented itself and was quickly inserted into the lock on the door. The brown earth pony took a deep breath, running a hoof through his wildly scruffy black mane in anticipation.
The door swung open to reveal an unassuming office. Empty bookcases lined the walls. The single large window cast a beam of sunlight on the floor, revealing dust motes as they wafted through the air. A small oak desk sat near the back of the room. Leyline trotted around, leaving faint hoofprints in the accumulated dust as he explored the office to his heart’s content.
He unhitched his burden and grabbed a placard precariously balanced on the top of the pile of stuff within the cart. The placard slid neatly into the groove on the front of the door. After a short examination, he gave it a nod of approval before closing the door.
As soon as the door shut, the earth pony proceeded to cut loose a joyous shriek, prancing about the room in unrestrained glee. He set about unpacking the cart in a mad rush, dexterously shelving books and knickknacks and loading various magical and mundane supplies into the desk until it could not fit another item. All the while, he continued to sing and hum loudly and very off-key as he expressed his delight with his new working space.
“Well, you seem to be adjusting nicely.” Leyline whirled around where he stood, the song in his throat cut short as he realized that, somehow, Dulcet had managed to sneak in without him noticing. He gave an unstallionly giggle of pure joy as they trotted towards each other and he wrapped the unicorn in a warm embrace.
“So, what do you think?”
Dulcet pulled away from the hug long enough to read the placard on the door. “‘Leyline Tracer, Senior Mage, Council of Mages.’ It looks like you finally made it.”
“I know! I’m so excited!” As he stifled a yawn, Dulcet noticed the bags under Leyline’s eyes.
“Are you still having nightmares?”
The smile slowly melted from his face, leaving behind creases of exhaustion and hidden fear. “Maybe. I’m waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats but I can’t remember what my dreams are about.”
“I keep telling you to see somepony about that. Have you tried?”
Leyline heaved out a sigh. “What would I tell them? I’m being kept awake by dreams I don’t remember and that it’s making me afraid to go to sleep?”
“It would be better than this. Please, do this for me?”
Leyline rolled his eyes and whined facetiously, “Aww, do I have to?”
“Yes, you do. Musician’s orders.” She gave him a jokingly stern look and poked him with her horn.
“Ow! That wasn’t very nice. After all I have done for you, too!”
“What you have done for me? Who helped you refine all those spells so you could get this job?”
“Who helped you get through high school magic courses?”
“Who kept the bullies off your back during high school?” Dulcet gave a triumphant grin as Leyline sputtered indignantly at her.
“Hey, I could have taken care of them myself! I simply chose not to.”
“Of course you did.”
“What are you implying?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
Leyline gave her a hard look for a second. “You are incorrigible.”
Dulcet giggled in response. “I know.” She darted close to him, kissing away the slightly miffed look on his muzzle and winning a return kiss in response. “Just promise me you will get some help so you can sleep better. I want my coltfriend to be his best for work.”
“Okay, fine.“ The earth pony rolled his eyes again and raised his right hoof . “I, Leyline Tracer, do solemnly swear to find a professional sleep doctor in order to rectify my recurring issue of nightmares.”
“Ugh, you are so formal.”
“Would you like me to change?”
“Nope.” Dulcet nuzzled Leyline. “I wouldn’t want you to be any other way.”
The two ponies held each other close for a while longer, enjoying each other’s company in the decidedly unromantic office. Leyline’s eyes suddenly opened as a thought occurred to his mind. He pulled out of his love’s embrace and glanced at the clock he had set on the desk.
“Ponyfeathers! I’m supposed to meet Rockslide at the diner in five minutes!” He gave Dulcet a quick peck on the cheek as he snatched a small pouch of bits from the desk and bolted from the room. “I love you, Deets! I’ll see you at your place later!”
“Wait! Leyline, I could—” The door slammed shut in his mad rush to meet up with his friend. “—teleport you there.”
Dulcet shook her head and laughed softly at her coltfriend. “I love you too, Tracy.”
Leyline, of course, didn’t hear his fillyfriend’s response as he bolted out of the building and into the crowded streets of Canterlot in his rush to get to the diner on time. For once, he was grateful for his earth pony heritage as he dodged through the crowded streets, his natural stamina and dexterity serving him well as he dodged the ponies around him with ease.
With a final shuffle, the mage smoothly pushed through the door to the diner and slid into his usual spot opposite his orange compatriot. Rockslide peered over a scroll he was reading towards the slightly winded earth pony, an impassive expression etched on his face. Leyline offered a fleeting grin as he struggled to stop hyperventilating.
“Wow, five minutes from there to here, on the nose. How'd ya make it?”
“How do you know how long it took me to get here?”
Rockslide held up the scroll in reply. Curiosity got the best of Leyline as he grabbed the paper from his friend's telekinetic grip.
Rockslide,
Leyline just left council hall a minute ago so he will probably be late. If he had waited a few seconds, I could have teleported him there or let him send you a note. Let him know how silly I think he is for forgetting that he taught me both spells and he should have thought about that before dodging through the streets like an assassin.
P.S.: Tell Tracy I love him too.
P.P.S.: Also tell him not to call me Deets.
Leyline gave an embarrassed laugh and shrugged helplessly as he laid the paper on the table. "What can I say? It just didn't cross my mind."
"Ya know it's even sadder ‘cause you wrote both those spells from scratch."
"Quiet, you."
Rockslide raised his hooves defensively. "Hey, I just calls it like I sees it."
"Whatever. Do you have my package for me?"
"Right here." The unicorn brought a small box from his satchel and set it on the table. "Why'd ya need me to pick this up, anyway? You could’a gone to the jeweler's yourself."
Leyline bopped his friend on the head, careful to avoid hitting his horn. "I didn't want Dulcet to see me there and get the wrong idea." With a flourish, he opened the velvet box. "Or the right one, for that matter."
For once, Rockslide was rendered momentarily speechless before heartily clapping a hoof over his friend's shoulder. "Atta colt! You finally ready to ask her? It's certainly been long enough! When ya gonna pop the question?"
Leyline quickly stowed the box away as he replied, "She has a show about two weeks after the princesses' coronation. It's supposed to be the most important gig of the year for her. I figure if she does well, my proposal will be icing on the cake. If it goes poorly, I'll help her forget about it."
"Ya win either way, huh? Smart move."
"I learned from the best, Rox."
"And don't you forget it. Look, obviously ya ain't gonna pay attention to a word I say today, so ya might as well go home and put your fancy trinket somewhere safe for when the time is right."
Leyline scrunched an eyebrow inquisitively at the orange stallion's suggestion. "Are you sure? I would hate to leave you here."
The unicorn scoffed in return. "Trust me, ya have that glazed look on your eyes. You are locked onto thinking 'bout your fillyfriend and ya won't be any good for talking. Now scat so I can order a meal in peace."
"Thanks, Rox. I owe you."
"Ya always do." Rockslide gave a hearty laugh as the two bumped hooves in farewell and Leyline all but floated out the diner door in a haze of fuzzy feelings. "Finally, that lovestruck dunce is outta here. Waitress! I'm ready to order now!"
Leyline hummed a merry something that only loosely qualified as a tune as he made his way into the tiny apartment where he lived, his package for Dulcet clenched tightly in his teeth. After scanning the room for the best place to hide the gift, he decided to jam it in the crevice between the couch cushions and hope his fillyfriend didn't come over and sit on the couch anytime soon.
Leyline winced as a lancing pain threatened to split his skull. He had never had migraines before, but lately they had been a regular part of his life, along with the nightmares he had been suffering. He grit his teeth and stumbled to the kitchen, where a shelf filled with various medicinal and herbal ingredients for sleep aid and pain relief sat. He deftly popped the top on a few of the vials, mixing the contents together in a small bowl. He lifted the bowl to his lips, shuddering at the thought of what was about to violate his taste buds.
"Leyline..."
The earth pony stopped short. Had Dulcet stopped in for an unexpected visit? He quickly bolted to the living room in a vain hope to re-hide the jewelry box before she saw it.
However, when he got to the front room, it was as empty as ever. He shrugged, thinking he might have imagined it.
"Leyline Tracer..."
He definitely didn't imagine it, and it definitely wasn't Dulcet. He turned to the living room where he heard the the voice. "Who are you? Show yourself!"
A figure coalesced in the center of the tiny apartment, one piece at a time. A fanged grin. A head. An antelope horn. A deer antler. A lion paw. An eagle claw. More and more parts that didn't match started joining together into an ethereal form. Leyline could only sit back, jaw agape at what was appearing in his living room.
Finally, the apparition swirled together into a cohesive whole, stretching as it did so. It opened its eyes, revealing the only colors present on the ghostly presence: one green and one blue eye. It purred appreciatively at the dumbstruck look on the pony's face.
"Well, hello, handsome." The creature, unmistakably feminine judging by the voice, floated down to Leyline. "I have to say, I think I made a good choice this time around, even though you aren't a unicorn. You will make a fabulous host."
"Wha... what are you talking about? Who are you? What are you?"
"A little slow on the draw, though." The figure swirled around Leyline's frozen body, brushing against him suggestively. "I am talking about you helping me in return for something you desperately want and need."
Leyline squinted in confusion. "You aren't really making any sense."
"I'm talking about making you a unicorn, dear."
"Don’t be ridiculous. Not even Solaris could turn me into a unicorn."
Eris gave a flippant wave of her paw. "Oh, please, that fuddy duddy is too reserved to even bother trying. He's not willing to take some chances in life." She floated in front of the stallion, conjuring an ethereal platter covered by a lid. "I, however, have long since unlocked a few secrets." She removed the lid, revealing a small figurine of Leyline as a unicorn, standing on the silver platter. The statuette depicted him as a true unicorn, the usual bulk of an earth pony nowhere to be seen.
Leyline gazed at the statuette in wonder, only to shuffle away, startled, as the minicorn trotted to the edge of the platter and waved to the full sized pony. Its tiny horn glowed, and the pony teleported atop Leyline's muzzle before teleporting right back.
Leyline gave the statuette an envious stare for a moment before looking to Eris. "What would I have to do?"
Eris smirked confidently. "Oh, nothing really. I just need a host body for a few weeks to take care of some business."
"What kind of business?"
"None of yours, that's what."
Leyline rolled his eyes and sat back. "Unless you tell me what you are up to, you can find somepony else to be your host."
Eris pouted and snapped her fingers. "You need to learn theatrics, silly colt. Fine, I will tell you." The draconequus waved her claw and a felt animation appeared in thin air to illustrate. "I need to borrow your physical body in order to gather some items and perform a ritual to give me a body of my own. Horribly limiting, your pony frames are. I would require no more than five weeks' time. I would also appreciate any knowledge your frail mortal mind can offer, if you would be so generous."
Leyline looked at the felt animation, then back at the statuette. "All I would have to do is let you borrow my body for a while?"
Eris flashed a winning smile, her fang gleaming wickedly. "Exactly."
Leyline stood in the middle of the living room, the chance of a lifetime floating before him on a literal silver platter. His longtime wish of being able to cast his own magic was just a favor away from being real. He only had to say yes.
"No deal, Eris."
Eris's smile shattered. "I beg your pardon?"
The beige pony gave the incorporeal chimera a snarky grin. "I believe I made myself clear. I, Leyline Tracer, just told you I want no part of your deal."
"You are turning down my generous offer?! I just told you I could give you exactly what you need, and you deign to snub me?"
The earth pony laughed at Eris's bewildered anger. "See, that is where you are wrong. I don't need a horn. I made it this far without one and I don't see the need for that to change, especially if doing so requires relinquishing control of my body to an ancient demon of chaos who will do who knows what to it, not to mention letting said demon borrow my knowledge. I really don't feel like having anything on my conscience right now, anyway. So, if you don't mind, I would appreciate you taking your asymmetrical derriere elsewhere and haunting a more morally ambiguous soul."
Eris narrowed her eyes, letting out a feral growl. "So be it. If you are going to insult me so greatly, though, I will not let that go unpunished. You know those nightmares you can never remember?" She snapped her fingers.
Leyline was overwhelmed by a torrent of horrifying images. Every nightmare, every terror that had haunted him in his dreams the past couple of months, all of it was unlocked to rampage through his mind. As he sank to the floor, screaming in fear, Eris's visage cut through the nightmarish haze for a brief moment.
"This is but a taste of what you will experience for your impudence. Don't bother getting up. I will let myself out."
"Are we there yet?"
Lyra could see Twilight roll her eyes even while walking behind her. "No.”
“Well, how long do we have?”
Twilight sighed and pointed to a distant gap in the trees. “Over there. There is a chasm that we need to cross, then it’s just a short walk to the old castle.”
Lyra gave a bored grunt and resumed her game of trying to step directly in Twilight’s hoofsteps, like she had been doing for the past couple hours. Left rear, left front, right rear, right front, repeat.... You know, I think she reaches a little more with her right side. She sighed and paused her game to look around the forest. Gloomy and dark, like always. And Twilight pulls out her map in three, two, one... The rustle of paper held in magic confirmed her mental prediction. It had been the exact same for ages, and it was boring Lyra to tears. She tried playing some music to kill time, but Twilight warned her about "needlessly attracting dangerous animals," whatever that meant.
Left rear, left front, right rear, right front, repeat... She suppressed a yawn. If Lyra didn't know better, she could have sworn the scenery was on a loop like a cheap animation. Her back had been itching for ages, as had her hooves, forehead, tail, and one of her teeth, oddly enough. And she goes for the canteen... now. She gave a nearly silent grunt of satisfaction as Twilight pulled her canteen from her saddlebags for a drink. The map and canteen should sync after a couple more times. So monotonous. So boring. So... orderly. If only there was something she could do to pass the time. Anything. Maybe she—
The unicorn was jerked out of her distracted state abruptly when she piled into Twilight, yelping as her wounded shoulder made contact with Twilight's haunch.
“Hey, be careful!”
“Sorry, Twilight.” Lyra backed up and walked next to Twilight to find they were finally out of the woods, and staring at a huge gorge. "Oh. How do we cross?"
"There's a bridge not too far from here. We can cross there." Twilight turned to the right and picked up her walking pace to a smooth lope. Lyra followed close behind, her pace somewhat unsteady as her itching hooves bothered her.
A rickety old rope bridge quickly resolved into view, obviously quite aged. In fact, it looked like it had fallen at one point, the ends loosely retied to the support posts. "Are you sure this is safe?" Lyra ventured.
"Reasonably sure. We crossed the bridge last year with no problem." Twilight glanced across the chasm and slowly made her way across the bridge, the boards creaking dangerously under her weight. Lyra took a deep breath then bolted across the bridge, barely touching the boards as she crossed hurriedly.
"See? Perfectly safe." Twilight resumed her walk towards the center of the ruins, gesturing with her head for Lyra to follow.
The unicorn nodded and followed her companion, looking at the ruins. The ground was cracked, ravines plunging to depths unknown. Sections of the outer wall had collapsed into the ravines, as had various other parts of the castle ruins. The rifts in the ground all branched from one point in the center of the castle, as though someone had taken a hammer to its heart.
They picked their way across the ruined landscape to the front door of the castle, the massive oak slab hanging slack from broken hinges. Twilight barely afforded the door a glance as she went into the ruins. Lyra, however, stopped and examined it, taking in the view of what used to be a magnificent foyer. "Oooh..."
The cracks in the floor continued to get smaller and converge as they moved through the hallways. "Twilight, where are we going?"
Twilight slowed her pace. "Do you remember the riddle Discord gave us?"
"Yeah?"
"It referred to Celestia's first throne. When Everfree was still a city, it was the capital of the nation. The castle here used to have a throne dedicated to the rulers of the country. After Luna's banishment, the entire city was abandoned, the throne included."
"Oh." Lyra hummed nervously to herself as they continued to walk, her gaze wandering to the shattered stain glass windows. Even in their battered and broken state, they still held an aura of beauty about them, their craftsmanship readily apparent.
The duo soon found themselves in a room framed with a high-arching ceiling, the only roof still mostly intact in the castle. The roof had only one flaw: a perfectly circular hole had been punched through it.
Lyra's head was on a swivel, constantly turning this way and that as she marveled at the ruins. "This is so cool! Twilight, do you see this?" She turned to look to Twilight. "How can you not be amazed by this?"
Twilight was still sitting in the doorway, her gaze fixed on a point in the center of the room, where a low-lying mobile was set. Her mind seemed to be elsewhere, so Lyra turned back to the room to resume exploring. She walked to the back, almost stumbling over a fairly large piece of rubble.
She gave the masonry a curious look, since there were no fallen pillars or any other sources for it, other than a small pile of similarly colored stone. She nudged it with her hoof and it rolled to reveal that it was two different colors, divided perfectly into a light and dark stone.
She stepped back to get a better look at the rubble and noticed another odd thing about the room. The rifts in the ground converged into six perfectly aligned cracks, all centered on a focal point just in front of where the throne should be. The floor there had been etched with four silvery crescent imprints. She tilted her head, then trotted over to the set of prints. She placed her hoof on one, discovering the print was much larger than her own hoof.
Lyra turned so she was standing exactly in the epicenter of the destruction, her hooves mirroring the placement of the hoofprints, although her legs were a little too short to reach all four at the same time.
Twilight finally pulled herself from her thoughts and looked at Lyra, realizing where the mare was standing. "Uhh, Lyra? You may not want to stand—"
The floor beneath the green unicorn suddenly gave way and Lyra found herself tumbling into the rift below. However, her fall was rather short and ended with her being roughly deposited in a dank hallway, completely dark save for a feeble glow offered by the crystals mounted in the walls.
Lyra groaned and planted her hooves firmly on the ground before rising again, shaking off the dust that coated her fur from the fall. Twilight’s voice echoed from above her, “Lyra! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
"Can you tell where you went? Can you see anything?"
Lyra squinted into the darkness. "I'm in some sort of hallway. It's kind of hard to see a whole lot else."
Twilight could be heard pacing nervously above her. "You’re probably in the dungeons below the castle. See if you can find a staircase leading back to the surface. I'll look for a doorway leading down to you.”
Lyra heard the dull clip-clop of hoofsteps leading away from the rift. She sighed and looked around, lighting her horn so she could see a little better. The hallway had one barred door within the sphere of her horn's pale glow. Lyra trotted over to it, her hoofsteps muffled by the squish of moss beneath her. She peered inside it to find the age-bleached bones of an earth pony, a rusty shackle still encircling its foreleg. Lyra shuddered as she recalled Twilight mentioning that she was probably in the dungeons. "Well, this isn't creepy at all..." she muttered as she wound her way past false staircases and row after row of cells. After the first lovely surprise, she decided she would be happier if she didn't examine their contents too closely.
Twilight's disembodied voice floated from some point in the distance: "Lyra? Can you hear me? Lyra!" The green mare perked and swiveled her ears, walking towards Twilight's voice in small and careful steps. Eventually she reached a point in the hall where it forked, her colleague's voice echoing through both chambers. She stood there deliberating for a while, even as the calling for her died away and was replaced with a sickening smack, followed by a reverberating tirade of foul language. Lyra figured that was probably a good sign that she should resume looking for Twilight. Eenie, meenie, minie... Lyra went left about fifteen steps before taking another short fall.
Twilight had found a servants' door leading below the castle into the lower levels. She hoped Lyra was nearby. She didn't want to get lost and make the situation worse by having to find both her companion and the exit.
"Lyra... can you hear me? Are you out there? Hello?" The sound of muffled hoofsteps echoed through the chambers in all directions, offering no directional guidance whatsoever. The light offered by her horn only gave the roughest idea of what surrounded her, moss and cobblestone being at the forefront of her observations.
With reluctance, Twilight descended further down the hallway, calling occasionally for her minty compatriot. Her calls were cut short, however, as she noticed her cutie mark crudely scrawled on the wall along with an arrow pointing down the hallway. It seemed to glow in response to her own glowing horn, and she quickened her pace, following the arrows on the wall. Her calls for Lyra resumed, but she was much more focused on the message meant for her.
The arrows lead her down the winding dungeons, a meandering pattern of hallways meant to confuse prisoners of eons past. She kept following faster and faster until she ran facefirst into a massive stone door with a painful smack. She forgot every lesson she learned in etiquette at that moment, a stream of profanity flowing like water as she cursed the door and its builders and their parents' illegitimate relations. She finally calmed herself and looked up at the door, first marvelling at the construction. Twilight blinked as she noticed that the double doors were emblazoned with her cutie mark, color inverted. She shivered as she stood there, carefully raising a hoof to the delicately carved masonr—
Lyra's flailing body bellyflopped onto Twilight's back, driving the both of them to the floor in a two-pony pile of pain and profanity. Twilight laid there, gasping for breath as the equine cannonball rolled off her and coughed terribly, clutching her wound from her fight with the chimera. Twilight finally made her way to her hooves, glaring at Lyra.
Lyra gave an apologetic shrug. Twilight sighed and turned to the doors again, the other unicorn's shocked gasp sounding behind her. She placed her hoof against the doors and cutie mark emblazoned on them glowed. The stone doors ground against their hinges, groaning as they opened to reveal a huge room, large enough to easily house a fully grown dragon.
A dull blue glow caught their sight from across the room. There, in the center, was an ethereal blue cocoon. As the two mares approached, it became clear that it was a magical prison containing none other than Princess Luna. Twilight broke into a run, quickly circling the floating orb and realizing it was feeding off Luna's own magic, performing both tasks of containing and sedating the princess. The orb was drawing visible threads of magic from Luna's horn, looking like a plasma ball as it dispersed the energy into the cocoon containing her.
Twilight gazed, fascinated, at the orb as it pulsed in time with Luna's magical aura. "Interesting. It uses the occupant's magic to contain them. It should be easy to break from the outside. Just break the spell's flow and the spell breaks too."
"Are you sure about this?" Twilight blinked as she remembered she wasn't alone. She looked back at Lyra. The mare was peering at the orb, but Lyra's eyes looked unfocused, like she wasn't seeing it in quite the same way Twilight was.
Twilight shrugged off the nagging suspicion as she positioned herself in front of Luna, sending a curious thread of her own aura to the orb. That was the last thing she saw before a lancing pain skewered her brain where she stood.
Lyra watched helplessly as Twilight curled into a ball, threads of magic trailing from her horn to the now-lavender cocoon ensnaring the princess. The purple mare's veins were visibly pulsing against her skin, the color draining from her face as the focus of the spell's power draw shifted to her. The spell faltered at the insufficient magic source, but it continued to draw from Twilight as the shell thinned around Luna.
Twilight sank to her knees, a trickle of blood flowing from her nostril as her magic ran low. She tried to retch feebly, unable to complete the motion as her entire body went limp.
Lyra bolted to the unicorn and shook her frantically in a desperate attempt to keep her lucid. Twilight's head lolled limply. "Twilight, don't die on me! Twilight! Twilight Sparkle!"
Lyra held Twilight's face upright, looking for a sign of life as the draw of magic started to recede from her horn, nearly depleted.
No!
Lyra's vision glazed over as she retreated inside herself. She found the exposed thread of chaos within her mind and yanked on it as hard as she could. The spell restraining the chaotic beast within her broke like a cardboard wall against a tsunami, flooding her with the corrupt power of Discord himself.
Her vision snapped back abruptly, a whitish haze tugging at the corners of it. She felt her hooves leaving the ground as she was nearly consumed by the power coursing through her veins. She cast her dreamlike gaze over to Twilight's writhing form on the floor, somehow seeing how the spell was pulling away her magic to keep Luna contained. With but a thought, the spell draining Twilight was obliterated in a wave of discordant energy, and the lavender cocoon containing Luna dissipated into, rather unnervingly, sugar, spice, and other things generally deemed to be of the “nice” quality. Twilight passed out as soon as she was relieved of the spell, while the princess was dropped from the space where she had been held, hitting the stone floor with a loud smack.
It was too much for Lyra to bear. She was just a mortal unicorn. She had no hope of stemming the flow of power coursing from every pore of her body. She would have screamed, but that required muscle control she didn't have.
Eventually, the flow of magic ceased and the unicorn was roughly dropped to the ground. Somehow she managed to land on her hooves. "Unhh..." Lyra tottered around woozily for a few seconds, completely disoriented. Luna's and Twilight's unconscious forms pulled at the edges of her vision.
A tiny crackle sounded beneath her hoof as she set it down for balance, and she pulled it back to reveal a small white blur, surrounded by a splotch of red. That’s odd. She squinted at the white blur, which resolved itself into the form of “…A tooth?"
The unicorn blinked a couple times to ensure she was actually seeing a tooth on the floor. She ran her tongue slowly across her teeth to look for the gap. To Lyra's surprise, she found a sizable fang perched with her upper row of teeth. Lyra stopped for a moment to feel her new tooth with her tongue, then shook her head as she stumbled over to Luna to check on her. The alicorn was paler than normal, her usual ethereal, flowing mane markedly absent. Locks of periwinkle blue took their place at her mane and tail. “Princess Luna, are you okay?”
The princess didn’t move, the only sign indicating she was still alive was her breathing. Lyra frowned and walked over to Twilight. “Please, wake up, Twilight.” No response. Lyra looked up the stairs from which she and Twilight came, down at the unconscious ponies, then back at the stairs again. "This is gonna be a long night..."