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by Church

Part II- A

“You’re a monster!”

Twilight Sparkle unfastened the safety belt from around her waist and made way for the Princess of the night. The ship was idling between Luna’s stars, or what were once thought of as Luna’s stars, but were now alien in nature and had adopted almost an entirely new syntax. Here, millions of miles away from the now decimated planet of Equestria, an unpleasant conversation was to be had.

“You killed her! How could you!? How could you not turn back!?”

Twilight stopped a few paces away from where Luna sat. The room was filled with the chatter of the Royal Guard, who were busy fiddling with the various instruments at the control panel in an attempt to figure out how they functioned. They had been trained for this exact situation, but not for this exact crisis.

And obviously, neither had Luna.

“The ship is in working order,” Luna said as if she had not heard Twilight at all. She stared out over the console, into the abyss of the galaxy.

“Listen to me!” Twilight screamed, a tear loosening itself from her tear duct and dripping down her face. “Answers! I want them... we all want them!”

“The ship,” Luna said again in a cool whisper, “has been kept a secret for many a century, Twilight Sparkle. And yet, right away, you knew what it was. How?”

Twilight groaned apathetically. “I think you and I both know just how many different types of books have fallen into my lap, Princess. I’m sure that I’ve come across a book about the plausibility of interstellar travel once or twice. And yet, I didn’t realize that, perhaps all along, we’ve had the technology for it. So I’ll tell you one more time, Princess Luna,” Twilight inhaled, and took a menacing step forward. “we want answers!”

Luna’s hooves rubbed the armrests of her captain’s chair. “I don’t have them,” she said emotionlessly.

“What?” Twilight cried incredulously. “What do you mean you don’t have them? Do you mean to tell us you murdered your sister for absolutely no reason at all!?”

With this, Princess Luna grimly rose from her chair and turned to face Twilight Sparkle, her expression dark and mighty. “I did not kill my sister, and bringing her along so that she could die in my hooves would have made little difference, Twilight Sparkle. I find your tone with me appalling, and you are quick to jump to conclusions. I wisely suggest you scurry on back to your friends until we get to wherever it is we’re headed.”

Twilight stole a quick glance back at the elements of harmony, who were honestly feeling a bit cheated after so many years of bearing that title.

Twilight turned back to Luna. “Wherever we’re headed? You mean you don’t know!?”

It appeared as though lightning were being spewed from Luna’s tongue. “As it turns out, Twilight Sparkle, we were prepared for this about as much as you were.”

Twilight only frowned. “I don’t see an excuse in that.”

Luna turned about as if the courtesy to look Twilight Sparkle in the eye were too hefty a task. Princess Luna, keeper of the night, was infamous once again in a light that was not to her liking.

“There is no excuse in that,” Luna said as she hung her head. “There are no excuses at all.”

Luna had cooled drastically. Her look of dejection summed up an experience that not a single pony in Equestria had seen coming. A bolt of electricity shot out from the control console in the background, shocking an unfortunate member of the guard, which evoked a strange yipping sound from his throat. Luna saw this out of the corner of her eye.

“Strange weather,” she said.

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, when a hoof abruptly cut her off from behind. The elements had come to her side, and they had decided to put an end to the earthquake before the divide it was creating became too wide for them to cross. All of their eyes glistened with fresh hurt. Twilight turned round and saw them, and she could say nothing to those eyes.

Applejack stepped forward as Twilight accepted a hug from Fluttershy.

“Princess Luna,” Applejack said. She sniffled once, and she silently cursed herself for not acting civilly before the Princess. She gathered herself an continued. “Ah don’t think ya were prepared fer this. Ya just... ya just...” And Applejack added this tentatively, “Ya just saw yer sister...” She couldn’t finish that thought.

“Look, what Ah’m tryin’ ta say is,” Applejack picked up where she left off, “none of us coulda seen this coming. But we’re here to help. Ah mean, ya do want our help, don’tchya?”

Luna half-turned, and she caught sight of Applejack’s gleaming emerald eyes. “Do we want your help?” she asked rhetorically. “This depends. Does this mean you trust us? Or do you mock us?”

Applejack was unsure of this. She turned to her friends, who had seen the same things that she had seen, who had heard the same things that she had heard. Their eyes said everything, as each contained within them the flashbacks of recent events. The elements all, albeit hesitantly, bowed their heads in unison.

“We trust you,” Applejack said.

Luna laughed. It wasn’t a zealous laugh by any means, but instead an exhausted one. She looked to the grimy tiled floor of which she had been standing on for some time. The self preservation unit designed for this ship had not done a remarkable job by any stretch of the imagination. Still, strangely, Luna found this fitting.

“Then please, please, we require your help,” Luna said as she lifted her gaze from the floor.

Twilight Sparkle stepped forward once more. “I realize that we still need to talk about this, but for the sake of the situation, I suppose it will have to wait.” Twilight wiped a tear away. “What can we do, Princess?”

Luna wasted no time. “We have not yet been outside of this tower, but we imagine the town below to be in a stage of chaos. Shining Armor and Princess Cadance should be handling the situation, but that isn’t enough. We need a head count, which means that everypony is to be designated a place for rest until we get everything else settled, and there is much to be done in that department as well. The Royal Guard is not enough. This ship needs to be thoroughly cleaned before it is deemed sanitary, and the only way to do that is if we have everypony pitch in.

“Twilight. We want you to be in charge of getting everyone situated into a house. We are sure that the guard has, by now, found the paper necessary to scribble down who goes where. You will be assisted by Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy frowned. “Oh, dear, that sounds dangerous, and I don’t think-”

“We’ll do it,” Twilight cut in, taking hold of Fluttershy’s hoof.

“Good.” Luna turned to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow Dash saluted the Princess involuntarily. “We want you to help with our food situation. The guard should have told the nurses of Canterlot where the food has been preserved, somewhere in this vessel’s cellars. We want you to find a nurse and see what you can do about help. If you can, find the Wonderbolts, as they would be quite resourceful as well.”

“T-t-the W-Wonderbol-” Dash was cut off as Applejack’s hoof came flying in to clasp it shut.

“Consider it done!” Applejack exclaimed.

Rarity purposefully cleared her throat. Pinkie Pie stood at her side, smiling, though what reason there was to do so was unclear.

“What of us, Princess?” Rarity asked, referring to herself and Pinkie.

“We are glad you asked,” Luna said. “As of right now, we are not in touch with some very important members of the community. We ask that you find them. We have prepared a list for you to follow, and we hope that, among the chaos, you are able to locate them.”

“Sounds easy!” Pinkie exclaimed jubilantly.

Luna called a member of the Guard over, and he proceeded to hand Luna a small scroll, presumably the list Luna was speaking of. She graciously accepted it and the guard scrambled away, back to the impossibly large control console of the ship.

“Take this, these are the ones you are to find.” Luna handed Rarity the scroll, and Rarity unfurled it to take a peek at its contents.

“The first one is...” Rarity mouthed the first name to herself. In disbelief, or rather shock, she then looked at Twilight. Just to be sure, she performed a double take. Positive she was thinking of the correct individual, Rarity’s mouth dropped. “Oh my.”

Twilight Sparkle exploded through the front doors of the tower, flinging two Guards harshly to the ground. She had descended ten flights of stairs in a matter of seconds. She looked terrified. It was as if her tail had been set aflame, and the water being used to douse it had instead been gasoline.

“Spike!” Twilight shouted out in despair. She had forgotten about her personal assistant, her brother, her family, and, in a sense, the seventh element of harmony. This, above all things currently, saddened her the most. If Spike hadn’t made it...

“Spike!” Twilight shouted again, this time louder. A mob of ponies had formed at the base of the tower, mostly Canterlot nobles, who were currently complaining about the nasty conditions of the town. They were being held back by the Royal Guard.

An already overworked Fluttershy came limping from out of the tower’s base. She had descended those stairs as fast as she could in chase of Twilight. Exhausted, she crossed to the purple unicorn who was frantically shouting Spike’s name into the mob.

“Oh, Twilight, we, oh dear,” Fluttershy sucked in a particularly large chunk of air. She exhaled. “We, um, should be coordinating everypony to... um...”

By the time Fluttershy had reached the middle of that thought, she realized that she had lost Twilight Sparkle. Rather, she never had her in the first place.

“Um, I guess we could find Spike, but I’m sure that Rarity and Pinkie Pie can-”

“Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy looked to Twilight Sparkle.

“Can you lift me? Can you lift me over the crowd so that I can get a better view of things?”

Fluttershy considered this. “Um, no, I don’t think I can-”

“You have to try, Fluttershy,” Twilight pleaded, fresh tears beginning to well in her eyes. After a moment’s hesitation, she added, “Please.”

A long, tired look at Twilight’s forlorn expression gave Fluttershy chills. It was difficult for the poor mare to make such decisions. But Fluttershy could never abandon her friend for any reason.

“I’ll do it.”

Twilight smiled. “Thank you.”

Fluttershy flitted over to where Twilight was standing. The crowd was growing feverish, and the sight of the elements appearing through the doorway was causing unrest. A pegasus thought he could be sneaky, and he used his wings to climb over the guards and approach the tower. Unfortunately for him, a Guard who (ta-da!) also had a pair of wings tackled him to the ground, where he was immediately apprehended.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Fluttershy asked one last time. “We do have a job to do...”

Twilight could think of nothing else but Spike. That mission would be over with before anything else could be accomplished.

“Yes. Please, just get me above the crowd and we’ll go from there.”

Fluttershy, who had almost recovered from her trip down the stairs, nodded. She grabbed hold of Twilight’s hooves. Twilight latched onto Fluttershy and readied herself to be dangled in the air.

“I’m ready,” Twilight said.

Fluttershy’s wings beat vigorously, and soon, Twilight Sparkle was being lifted into the air.

“Do ya think she’ll be okay?”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash raced down the road, dodging various obstacles strewn about the path here and there. Ponies were blocking off the streets and had become obstacles themselves. The closer they got to the food storage facility, the more barricaded the roads became. Soon Rainbow Dash would have to fly them there. Applejack hated flying.

“Who, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked, referring to the pony in question. “Yeah. She’ll be fine. And Spike is fine, too. It’ll all be okay.”

Applejack scrambled over a toppled barrel with nothing in it. “Ah hope so.”

Both ponies kept running toward their destination. They’d constantly make detours, normally shifting sideways, to avoid clogged streets. Overall, the method wasn’t very effective. Rainbow Dash was itching to fly. Soon that’s what it would have to come to. Both of them knew it, though Applejack didn’t want to admit it.

Rainbow Dash was almost unwilling to ask something about Applejack. It had plagued her mind since she left the tower, and on a few occasions since she has had the opportunity to ask, but she hadn’t. Twilight’s predicament got her thinking. Three of the six elements had family. Pinkie had family, but they had separated long before this crazy expedition. It was safe to assume they were dead now. Still, the three mares that had family were Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack. Applejack must have thought about her family as Twilight left, but she had failed to acknowledge she ever did. She appeared calm. This was Applejack’s nature, of course. But how long would it take before she decided that she needed to go looking for her family?

“Dang nabbit,” Applejack cursed as she came to a screeching halt. “We can’t get through here.”

Looking farther along down the street, Rainbow Dash and Applejack could see a cavalcade of ponies completely blocking off the main path. Applejack drew in short, sharp breaths. It was beginning to become clear that there was nothing more they could do.

Rainbow Dash sidled up to Applejack’s side.

“Hang on,” Dash said, simultaneously grabbing hold of the flustered earth pony.

“Dash, no, wait, there ‘er other ways ta-” Applejack’s hooves were freed from their comfortable location on the ground. “Whoah nelly!”

“We’ll be there in a flash, don’t worry!” Dash said, which was a promise she could very well keep.

“Dash, put me down, put me down, put me-”

In a few simple, powerful wingbeats, Rainbow Dash was making quick time to their designation, and Applejack could be heard screaming as they flew over a large population of the ship’s residents.

Pinkie Pie merrily skipped down the corridor. The occasion didn’t call for skipping by any means, but she did it anyway.

“Okay,” Rarity said as they strolled along, “we need to keep our eyes peeled. We’ll look for a specific person on the list, but if we also remember the others on it, we can look for them as well. So, who’s after Spike?”

Rarity took a look at the scroll and immediately looked away in disgust. Pinkie took the opportunity to snatch it away from her and look it over. She read the name below Spike’s.

“Prince Blueblood!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Don’t ever say that name again!” Rarity fired back, shutting Pinkie’s yap with a forceful hoof. Her mane fell over her eyes, and she shooed it away with a breath. She then looked Pinkie in the eye.

“If I lift my hoof from off of your mouth, you will not utter his name. Got it?”

Pinkie nodded in agreement.

“Good.”

Rarity relieved Pinkie. The eccentric pink mare immediately began to chatter.

“You know we’ll still have to go get him, right? Ooh! And I didn’t say his name, either! Are you happy?”

Rarity frowned. “Today isn’t going to go my way, is it?”

Pinkie giggled. “Probably not!”

Pinkie Pie and Rarity continued on down the alleyway in search of the important ponies on the list. The two ponies continued their search, each with now opposing viewpoints on the mission.

“Put me down, Fluttershy! We’ll hoof it!”

Fluttershy set Twilight Sparkle down in a small clearing in the streets. A crowd of ponies had recently dispersed, and so they were given a bit of leg room. Fluttershy collapsed. She panted on the ground like a sputtering fish, having performed her duty valiantly, albeit exhaustively.

“Should I carry you?” Twilight Sparkle asked, looking at the poor yellow pony with a hint of regret.

Fluttershy tried to say yes, but her ability to articulate words had been notched. Instead, she shook her head yes, a task that was done with great difficulty.

“On it.”

Twilight threw Fluttershy over her back. She had once carried a particularly large boulder, so, in comparison, Fluttershy was very easy to carry. Twilight speedily trotted away with Fluttershy, and they began to wade through parts of the crowd somewhere in the downtown district.

“Where have we looked already, Fluttershy? Better yet, where haven’t we looked? Any ideas?”

Fluttershy could barely speak. “Not really...”

Twilight frowned. She had to think. Where would Spike go? If she were Spike, where would she be? She went through a list of the things that Spike enjoyed doing and that didn’t help her any. She went over a list of the locations where Spike most likely would have been located and that helped her none. So what was there to do? Twilight had to think outside the box.

Then, it hit her. She had gone through all of the locations where Spike was likely to be, but had failed to think of the locations where Spike was unlikely to be, which, interestingly enough, is where Spike was likely to be.

And so, Twilight Sparkle thought back. If she were Spike, she would be doing the same thing Twilight was doing right now. Spike would be looking for Twilight. So, now that she had cleared that up, she thought of where she was likely to be.

“The tower!” Twilight shouted aloud.

Twilight’s horn began to glow immediately. Fluttershy flopped around helplessly on her back.

“Hang on, Fluttershy!” Twilight commanded. Her horn then flashed a bright purple, illuminating the dimly lit streets of the domed village.

And then, to the shock of the audience gathered round the two mares, both Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle disappeared.

Contrary to whatever Twilight may tell you, teleportation is not a fun experience. The side effects are normally, but are not limited to, dizzying sensations, a sense of disorientation, vomiting, and in extreme cases, body swap. But Twilight Sparkle was an expert, and so they both came out all right in the end. Well, almost. Even though Fluttershy had almost gotten used to the spell, her body was weak, and upon exiting the spell, she slipped from atop Twilight’s back and hit the ground, too dizzy to see straight. Twilight carefully picked her friend back up and slung her over her back. She looked up.

They were back where they had started.

The tower was now brimming with ponies wanting answers, wanting in, wanting a piece of the Princess. The Royal Guard was doing their best to keep them back, but they kept having to call in more and more of them with each passing minute. Twilight hesitated. She wasn’t doing what the Princess asked of her. Everypony else was but her. She was being selfish.

And so, Twilight was torn. The Princess had entrusted her with a duty, and she blatantly dismissed it because she had to find someone who was either here, or not, no matter what. But she hated to think he was all alone. What she did was act on impulse. If that can’t be sanctified, then there wasn’t much else to it. Spike needed to be found, yes, but he would eventually be found if she had done what she was supposed to do.

Twilight realized she had reached an impasse.

There was work to be done, yes. But that work would be executed poorly if she were to perform in her condition. She was experiencing a sort of existential crisis, one that couldn’t be averted no matter how hard she tried. Spike would not leave her mind, and she kicked herself for not even remembering him as soon as she stepped hoof onto the ship. How was she to find him in this catastrophe? Twilight looked about, and he wasn’t among the mob congregating out front.

And so a crestfallen Twilight Sparkle simply stood out in the middle of the street, waiting for a hero. None were forthcoming.

That is, unless you count the dragon of the hour, who came scuttling in from teh shadows. He stopped a few paces away from Twilight, who wasn’t looking his direction.

“Tw-Twilight?”

Twilight Sparkle gasped. She looked to her right, where a timid young purple dragon stood before her, scared out of his mind. He had been searching for hours, and had come to the tower hoping that Twilight would be there. In fact, he had seen Twilight and Fluttershy leave. They did not notice him.

But it didn’t matter anymore.

“Twilight!” Spike yelled in elation.

Twilight was shocked. Her search had ended with him finding her. It was curious to think about, for days ago she would not have given this a second thought. That thought was-

Spike was alive.

Fluttershy flailed around on Twilight’s back, for she was spun in the wrong direction. She ended up falling off. There she just lay, happy, exhausted, and relieved, all at the same time.

“Spike! Oh, thank Celestia, Spike!” Twilight cried in exaltation as the wave of emotion she was experiencing caused her to collapse into the claws of the small purple dragon. “Thank Celestia you’re here, Spike!” And they fell into an emotional embrace.

Twilight suddenly looked up from Spike’s shoulder in surprise. A strange sensation consumed her, and through her tears of utter relief, she came to an awkward conclusion. That conclusion was, sadly enough, that she didn’t have Celestia to thank anymore.