Inferno stood up from the ground and shook her head a bit. After a moment, she gave a slow look around the group of ponies and other various creatures around her.
"Not all of you—" she tried to start, but was immediately cut short.
"Now I just know you have a most wonderful story to tell, but must it be in such a drab place as on a muddy, dusty, dirty old road? I mean, is it too much to ask for a little decòr la natur?" When the others just stared at her, she continued. "Honestly, you ponies would probably just eat grass from the ground if I was not around!" Her horn glowed for a moment, letting out a small whirring sound like a sewing machine running at 9000 rpm, and in front of their eyes, a giant pavillion materialised around them, accompanied with a large cloth that she laid on the ground, a selection of fluffy pillows and finally, a small tray of vegetable entrées. "It's my emergency gazebo. I keep it around for such emergencies. Oh and do not worry, the vegetables are fresh. I renew the supply every morning."
The rest of the ponies were still staring at her with their mouths agape, but they soon took their places on the comfortable silken pillows and reclined in comfort. Rarity gave a curt look around her. "It's a rushed job, but it must do. I wish Twilight Sparkle would learn to reserve my services in advance for these magical emergencies. And she's usually such an organised mare." She allowed her well-toned body to gently set itself down on one of the largest pillows, and after getting up a few times to make sure it was perfect, finally stopped fidgeting and nodded to Inferno. The ashen unicorn had only moved enough for the carpet to be laid down, otherwise just looking at the events with a blank face.
"Not all of you know who I am, or why I am with Twilight Sparkle," she started again in her host's voice. Several of the attending friends of the purple unicorn felt shivers run down their spines as the all too familiar voice spoke to them with an aeons-old voice. "I am called Inferno. That is not the name I was born with, but it is what I have been called for a long time now, and my original name has lost it's meaning for me."
"I think it was cute," interrupted the smirking Princess Luna. The rest of the group only gave her a nervous stare, and she let her smile vanish as a small purple tint rose to her cheeks. "Sorry..." she muttered.
After a small, uncomfortable silence, the fiery unicorn began anew with her dull, emotionless voice. "As a young unicorn, I was a student and a friend of Princess Luna. She taught me almost everything I know of magic, apart from the few snippets I learned from the scarce secondary sources at my disposal. I lived my life helping her perform her duties, and also acted as her confidant. This was long before the events of the first Night Mare Night."
"Y-you mean when Princess Luna became... t-t-the N-night..." Fluttershy couldn't finish her sentence. She was only able to take an audible gulp of air and whimper, and look at the monarch next to her with dread.
"You may use the name in our... I mean my presence. I consider all of you my friends and also saviours as you helped me to break the grip that wretched power held over me. Night Mare Moon is no more. There is only I, Luna." A collective sigh escaped many of the ponies around her. Luna gave a small, regal nod to Inferno.
"There was a dangerous fire in the Royal Canterlot Archives, the first library that we had assembled over the years. Apparently it was some rebel Discordian cell that wished to destroy the little order the Princesses had wrought in the years after the defeat of the King of Chaos. I was with Luna that day, attempting to save what I could from the blazing... inferno. Princess Luna got caught under a collapsing story, and I rushed to her side, teleporting her to safety, but not before a burning support beam fell on my back in turn. The other rescue workers managed to pry me loose, but my former body was so badly damaged that I would not have survived the night. The pain was... intense." Still her voice stayed emotionless and cold as she described her last living moments. " Princess Luna stood with me outside the library as the last of the flames died down."
"I blamed myself for what had happened. It is likely that I would have survived or gotten out with only a few burns and a singed mane," The Lunar Diarch said, her usually boastful voice slowly growing quieter. She could no longer look at her old friend, opting instead to stare at the intricately woven carpet beneath her forehooves. "I... I could not let my most precious student perish in saving me. I gave her an option: On my chest was an ancient fire ruby, shaped over centuries to resemble the shape of a heart. It was not unlike the one carried by Miss Rarity even now." She lifted her eyes a bit and her horn glowed a soft blue as she gently lifted the amulet in question a few inches higher on the white unicorn's neck. Rarity's eyes shot open in surprise, and she gave a small yelp as she felt the tug of the golden chain. Before she could speak, Luna let go of the amulet, allowing it to fall back against its owner's chest. "A fire ruby of that shape is very rare, also called a Heart Ruby."
As Luna spoke, Rarity lifted the amulet up again to once more observe it's beauty. Almost on instinct she turned to the baby dragon seated to her side and muzzled him, giving him a small kiss on his scaly forehead. Spike didn't even smile at the show of affection that would normally lead to him learning to fly with his tail alone.
"Like all gems, it has a small amount of inherent magic that can be used to heal even the deepest of wounds," the Princess explained. Rarity turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow but didn't speak. "I tried to soothe the burns on Inferno's body, but the damage was irreparable. I did what I could, but merely managed to numb the pain. That is when Inferno made her request."
"I asked Princess Luna to use the gem as a receptable for my consciousness. The magic has long been forbidden for its uses for malevolent magics, but I knew there was no such danger with my dear Princess. That is why I told her to make it my phylactery, to keep my mind intact so I might keep her company and help her with the little power I had. She agreed."
"Inferno's body turned to ash in my hooves as the magic took hold," the Princess of the Moon said, her voice heavy and sullen. "But when I touched the ruby, I could hear her voice clearly in my head, speaking to me, thanking me for what I'd done. For years after, I held the gem close to my own heart, hoping one day to restore her to a corporeal form... But then... the events of the Night Mare Night took place, and I could no longer remain with Inferno." She gave her old friend a pleading look, as if trying to apologise for leaving her alone for a thousand years. The fire-maned unicorn's expression, however, remained as blank and sad as before.
"For years I was alone in a storage box deep withing the bowels of Canterlot Castle. Over decades I learned how to project an astral image of myself to walk unseen among the corridors. The tether that connected me to the ruby did not allow me much freedom, but I could at least walk to the battlements to watch the sunset and look up to the moon—"
"Please... Inny... don't." the blue princess said in a weak voice. "I never meant for you to be alone. The few times I was lucid during my exile, my thoughts were with my sister and you, because I knew you were the only two ponies that would still remember me as I was. I'm so sorry you had to be alone." Small tears rolled down her angular cheeks as she lowered her head to rest on her crossed forehooves. "I wanted to come see you, but Tia told me that you were protecting her favourite student from harm. After all these years you were still helping ponies and I had been away for all those years and..." Applejack walked over to her, and almost let her hoof stroke the star-filled mane of her ancient ruler, but stopped mere inches away. Her hoof would not move forward, and started to shake. After a few moments of uncertainty, she managed to overcome her trepidation and wrapped her hoof comfortingly around the alicorn's neck.
"Ah know it's been a harsh time for y'all, but the way Ah figure, we're all here now, so let's not let it go to waste." Her voice was as gruff as always, but carried an undertone of sincerity that went past all the meager defenses in the mind of the troubled Princess. To everypony's surprise, Princess Luna buried her head in the farmpony's blonde mane and sniffled helpless apologies to nopony in particular. Applejack stroked the the monarchs mane as she would any other worried pony's, and tried to whisper reassurances into her ear. The soothing words got caught in her throat as the magnitude of Luna's grief almost crushed her too. The rest of the group fared no better, their expressions ranging from fear and apprehension to sympathy and pain.
Once again, the only pony not to show any emotion was the ashen pony standing right in the middle of the circle. Instead, she continued her story, her voice betraying no sign of sadness for her crying friend.
"I had also formed a connection with the element of fire due to my accident. Whenever a fire was lit inside the castle, I could feel it and control it. From the smallest of candles to the raging fireplaces in the royal kitchens. In the coldest of winters I made sure the ponies inside stayed warm, and in summertime I made sure the foals had enough light to read their fairytale books deep into the night. And whenever I felt a pony in danger from fire, I was there to help. I never could quench a fire, but in those rare occurences that threatened the life of a pony inside the castle, I was able to infuse them with my essence to protect them. In doing so, I would instead tether myself to them instead of the ruby that had for so long been my anchor in this world. One of those ponies was Twilight Sparkle."
"Hey... waitaminute!" Rainbow Dash, already confused about the emotional overflow if the Princess, flew over to the ashen unicorn. "You telling us that Twi was in a fire? Why wouldn't we know about it? And she doesn't have any signs of getting hurt or anything!"
"When she was younger, the young unicorn accidentally set the drapes of her bedroom on fire while practicing her magic. The curtains soon consumed her bed and other furniture, and the filly panicked and hid inside a cupboard. I flew to her side and spread my aura of magical fire around her, shielding her from harm. After the fires were extinquished by Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle was found cowering in the ruins of the cupboard. She was covered in soot and ash, but physically otherwise sound. The mental scars she suffered were far worse, and she would not even speak to anypony for several days. It is then that Princess Celestia removed her memories of the incident to allow her mind to heal, intending to explain what had happened when the filly had grown up and could understand the events."
"So... the Princess actually changed Twilight's memories?" asked Rarity in an incredulous voice. The other mares gave the ashen unicorn a reproachful look, but it was the baby dragon of the group that got up and walked angrily to stand face to face with Inferno.
"How could you do something like that?! Messing up with somepony's head?!"
"Princess Celestia told me it was imperative to protect Twilight Sparkle," the fiery unicorn said in her calm, flat voice. "Would you have preferred for your foster sister to have suffered the mental trauma for years, not knowing how to work it out?"
"Yes... well... no... but it's still wrong!" Spike's voice trembled, but his voice had lost much of it's muster.
"Those were the two options. Princess Celestia chose to protect Twilight Sparkle's mind, and I agree that her choice was the correct one."
"B-but... does that mean that the Princess can change anyone else's mind?" asked the dragon. "Has she done that to us too?"
"Spike..." Rarity said with a frown forming on her brow.
"NO! I lived in Canterlot Castle all my life! If she did it to Twi, why wouldn't she do it to others as well? Even... me?"
A bright glow surrounded the tantrumous dragon-whelp's tail and pulled him bodily to hang in front of Rarity. "Hush now, Spike. You know that the Princess would never do something like that unless it was absolutely necessary. We. Are. Talking about. The Princess!" She stared at the small dragon straight into the eyes, with her own pupils dilated from horror at the thought of what Spike was suggesting.
"I'm... sorry," he said, still hanging by his tail in midair. "But... it just feels like there's too many ponies inside Twi's head all of a sudden."
"Shhh. I understand Spikey." Rarity gently stroked the dragon's cheek. "And that is why all of Twilight's friends are here to help her, are we not?" she said, followed by a hearty "U-huh!" from the others. "We shall do everything in our power to make her well." She allowed Spike to fall back down, and he took his place once again next to the white unicorn, making sure she was between him and Inferno.
"Since that day I have remained with Twilight Sparkle. I never interfered with anything she did, only surfacing during the few times that she completely lost control of herself, and only a few seconds at that. That changed a few weeks ago."
"Y'all talking 'bout the dam thing and Twilight going... erm wrong in the head?" Applejack asked. None of the ponies noticed how Pinkie's face turned a lighter shade of pink than usual as she lied down even lower behind Fluttershy.
"It is rare that I can take control of a pony after the first time I protect them from fire. But the events that took place were on a completely different scale that I thought possible in this era. She was assaulted by old magic, far older than Canterlot and even I. But i knew how the curse worked and was able to break it, or to be more precise, burn it away. There are few magics that I cannot unravel. It was one of my talents when I was still alive." The unicorn's voice betrayed no sign of pride as she spoke.
"So that's why the basement was all burned up." Spike uttered in sudden realisation. "Twi refused to tell me what happened, saying it was nothing serious."
Princess Luna had managed to compose herself a bit after her emotional outburst. "We... I... met with Inferno that day, for the first time in a thousand years. And... I didn't think we'd meet again in a long time. When I heard that you had returned today, I rushed here, but I didn't know what had happened."
"Since the events of that night a few weeks back, I regained some of my consciousness. I followed quietly as Twilight Sparkle kept researching curses and black magics long into the night, and began anew after barely getting any sleep. She became obsessed with Neighgyptian and Saddle Arabian history and folklore, trying to puzzle out the trouble she'd gone through. She cried often, and spoke to her image in the mirror several times, always rubbing her fractured horn."
With every word the flame-maned unicorn spoke, Spike seemed to grow smaller and smaller, almost curling into a ball next to Rarity. "i... didn't notice anything. She... she just said she wanted to be alone and wasn't feeling well... I thought... I... that she'd get better and needed to think and... and..."
Princess Luna looked at the baby dragon, but decided to talk to her old friend instead, her eyes never leaving the suffering ball of scales. "Is it normal for you to sense so much of your surroundings?"
"No, my Princess. I usually lie dormant, only catching glimpses of the outside world when my host weakened in some way. I do not try to take control unless there is no other way to ensure the safety of my charge. But for some reason, since I took complete control over Twilight Sparkle, I felt more awake than ever before while possessing a pony. I could share all of her senses, even hearing a few of her most pressing thoughts: Shame of her failure, regret for losing control, loathing of herself for hurting a loved one, anger for whoever had written the book and caused all this... and the fear of losing her friends because of her deeds."
Everypony around tried to protest at the words she spoke, talking and shouting over each other, calling out how stupid and unrealistic the unicorn's thoughts had been and how wrong she was, that they'd never abandon her and knew how bad she felt and wasn't to blame. Except for one pink pony, who just silently sighed and looked away. When the cacophony of voices finally grew quieter, Princess Luna raised her voice over the shouts, not yet resorting to her majestic royal speech. "I am sure you will all get a chance to tell her your sentiments when she returns. But for now, we must concentrate on In... getting her back." Luna had clearly meant to say something else, but none of the assembled called her out on it.
"Today was different," Inferno said. "Twilight Sparkle woke up feeling ill and sweaty. Her vision was blurry and her ears rang from the moment she got up. She emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet and sat under a cold shower, not even feeling the cold water. She walked down the stairs, not even bothering to dry herself off, and then all the candles inside the room started burning blue. A large wave on nausea took her over and several strange patterns danced in her vision. Her legs gave way and she fell on the floor. Cramps wracked her body and she coughed out blood, and then... she just shut down. I woke up from the floor as Spike was shaking my shoulder with a worried expression. I felt the floor start to smolder under my mane and tail, and I ran outside as fast as I could, feeling my fire burn like ice on my back. And then you came here to meet me."
Her last words rang in the cold quiet of the autumn night. None of the ponies could speak, their mouths agape with horror. Then they all started talking and shouting at once.
"How can you be so calm—"
"I felt off since morning—"
"Oh dear..."
"So how can we save her—"
"What do we do!?"
Their words of panic and horror mixed into a chaotic crescendo, until Princess Luna shouted over them: "QUIET!" Her shout loud enough to topple Rarity and Spike into a heap and Fluttershy to cower next to Pinkie Pie. "I understand your worry, but panicking serves no purpose. I suggest we try to calm down, even as hard as it may be, and try to think of a solution. First of all, we should go inside the library and start searching for anything that might give us a clue of what has transpired."
A new, deep voice spoke for the first time since Inferno had started her story. Zecora had listened raptly to the words of the burning unicorn, only observing the speaker and the ponies around her.
"Princess Luna, for research there is no need.
For I have words for you to heed.
The flame of blue and the morning ill.
Are sure signs of a malevolent will.
Since morning have I felt its touch.
Only witchcraft can cause things such."
"You are Zecora, the herbalist from the forest I believe?" Princess Luna looked at the zebra with a cocked head. "I know that the events have a clearly magical origin, but witchcraft? That is unheard of in Equestria."
"In your land yes, but not so much in mine.
I am all to familiar with these forces malign.
They call me a doctor In my native land.
But that is not all, you must understand.
I am taught in witchcraft, but only to heal.
And in doing so I am able to feel.
The touch of evil in the water and air
The touch that has corrupted this here mare."
"So you trying to say some witch has cursed Twilight?" shouted Rainbow Dash. "But weren't curses supposed to be a bunch of hooey?"
Luna seemed to ponder things for a while before speaking: "I... would not like to admit it, but now that Miss Zecora has brought the idea up, the similarities between Twilights earlier affliction do coincide with what the people of Zebrica call curses and hexes."
"I left my own country, defeated and shamed.
A cursed creature I was named
You see, I have not always spoken as thus
Without the hex I could easier discuss."
The zebra lowered her head and pawed the ground nervously, wrinkling the soft carpet, her usual bright smile gone from her face.
"Y'all tellin' me that this hocus pocus witch thing is real? And that y'all can't talk like we do cos of some hex that was put on you?"
Zecora lifted her head up and gave Applejack a nod.
"Oh deary me," Rarity said. "Darling, I only thought you did it to sound exotic and mysterious."
"Well to be honest, I have a confession
It really doesn't hurt in my profession." The zebra said and threw the fashionista a sly wink.
Luna cleared her throat. "Witchcraft, the oldest of magics. Those are the things Twilight Sparkle was studying when she was taken over by the curse."
"Say what?" the chromatic pegasus shouted. "You telling us Twilight was a witch?"
"Yes and no. She did learn several techniques and practices of the old magic while under the influence of the cursed book. And according to Inferno's story, she continued her studies afterwards."
"The juju she took from me, the yellow pills.
Are a source of power for the witches' wills.
And the mojo she used to construct the dam of stone.
Was done with the power of earth she did loan.
I warned her of the peril in those pieces of tass.
But did she listen to me, that little dumb a—"
Rainbow Dash had clearly heard what she needed. "So Twilight's not a witch. That's all I wanted to know. So all we gotta do is find those witches who did all this and smack them around a bit until they reverse whatever they did? So, we split up and start looking. Fluttershy, you take the edge of Everfree and ask the critters if they've seen anything. I'll—"
"Unfortunately, there is more." It was Inferno's turn to interrupt the impromptu planning. "First, let me assure you that Twilight Sparkle is still alive somewhere in here." She tapped her forehead with a hoof. "Because I would not be here either.. Secondly, we have only a limited amount of time. For me to possess a living creature takes a steady supply of magical energy. Usually, I would only be around for a few minutes for fear of endangering my host. This is not the case now, as I cannot recede. That is why I am using Twilight Sparkle's quintessential presence as a source of nourishment, whether I wish to do so or not."
"Say what now?" asked a confused Applejack.
"What Inferno means," Princess Luna said with a quiet voice, "is that she is burning Twilight's life force as long as she remains in control of her body."