Twilight cavorted in the blessedly normal grass, relief filling her body and mind as she felt herself free of her terror. For what had seemed like an eternity, she had been subject to a bizarre, nightmarish chase by a creature as amorphous as it was horrifying. Even now in the relative safety of the bright meadow she had escaped to, her mind shied away from thinking of it.
Twilight shivered, and slowed to a stop as the wild relief drained away from her and was replaced by practicality. She was standing in a field of tall grass, with the sun high above and nary a cloud in the sky while birds sang and small squirrels darted through the blades. A small part of her mind felt that the types of squirrels present were not native to grasslands, but she was too relieved to be free and out in the open to mind it. To the east, the plains continued, sloping down until they hit the very distant sea. To the south, the grasslands grew scrubbier and more hilly, rising up into highlands. To the west, a forest that menaced with a tall castle still chilled her to look upon.
It was still difficult to imagine that Octavia could have fallen so far. The mare had imprisoned Twilight in a dark dungeon worse than any she could have imagined. She was tortured, mentally and physically in ways that the rather sheltered librarian had scarcely thought were possible. The earth pony musician had easily overpowered Twilight's rather significant talent with some fell force. Her knees weakened a little as she thought about it, but Twilight knew she had to get word to Celestia somehow, to warn her of Octavia's dangerous madness.
Yet between the terror and the relief from danger, Twilight felt herself growing sleepy. Adrenaline had burned a hole in her endurance, and the violet unicorn sat down in the tall grass. She knew she shouldn't wait there, in the wide open, but the field was so peaceful, and she was so tired. “Maybe... Just for a little...” Twilight murmured semi-coherently as she slumped over, and very gently fell asleep against the warm earth.
Twilight immediately awoke to the sound of an explosion, and found herself half-buried in rubble, with a collapsed building around her. Twilight looked around in utter confusion and panic as another explosion rocked the corpse of the building that sheltered her, the sheer light and force of it shattering Twilight's senses for another moment, and in reflex, she teleported.
Out in the street, the building that had been her shelter collapsed behind Twilight as she found herself in the middle of the conflict. Sharp rapports and explosions sounded through the ruined city as Twilight stood and stared. The bodies of griffons and ponies littered the cobbled street, all decked in strange armor and uniforms that she didn't recognize. Twilight herself was dressed in some sort of hard armor that was sort of like plastic, but more pliable. Looking herself over, Twilight found she had some light grazes across her body, but she was in remarkably good shape for a pony that had just survived a building collapse.
Before she could examine herself further however, somepony nearby shouted “INCOMING!” and Twilight was tackled to the ground right as a relatively untouched building nearby burst apart in a hail of stones and glass. Twilight teleported out from under her savior, who dusted himself off and stood up, scowling down at the violet unicorn.
Shining Armor, his face bleeding from a cut just above his eye glared at his little sister, “I thought I told you to keep your head down, Twily!”
Princess Luna stepped smartly through the halls of Canterlot Castle, her metal-shod hooves kicking sparks from the elegant floor in her otherwise well-concealed agitation. She strode with her full, rather impressive stride, while Guards saluted and nobles bowed, unheeded. In short, she was a mare on a mission, and between her brisk walk and an expression that made blizzards seem warm, it looked like it was not a particularly happy mission.
She stormed through the brilliant halls of Canterlot castle, along the shining corridors that were lit with the golden light of the setting sun. She arrowed straight for the Council Chambers, cutting through the corridors for the most direct route, until she came to the elegant doors of the Council Chambers.
The doors were of solid bronze, covered with gold and silver, and had been cast during Luna's absence. They were truly a marvel of Equestrian craftsponyship; they depicted the uniting of the three pony races, and were resplendent with images of the sun and moon shedding light on the great Circle of Counselors. It bore symbols relating to the Elements of Harmony, and mottos proclaiming the virtues of the diarchy, and Luna did not so much burst through them as push them open dramatically.
The entire Circle of Counselors looked up with surprise and, in a few cases, annoyance. They were all the most powerful, well-connected ponies in their various regions. The Manehattan Counselor in particular seemed to have been in the middle of some sort of heated argument, and his agitation at the interruption was clearly visible to Princess Luna. Princess Celestia looked to her sister in an unspoken question, and at the urgency in Luna's eyes, the Princess smiled at the Counselors, “My dear Council members, it would seem my sister has something urgent for my attention. Let us postpone this meeting,” the Manehattan Counselor looked about ready to explode at that, but Celestia continued, undaunted, “Until tomorrow, at least. Thank you, mares and stallions.”
The dismissal in Celestia's tone and gaze was so clear that the room emptied with only the smallest of hesitation, and before long Luna found herself alone with her sister, in silence. Celestia smiled at her younger sister, a genuinely warm smile reserved for family, and asked gently, “What's wrong, Luna? You haven't been this upset since a rogue comet was on-course for Equestria.”
“Somepony has entered into a Star Bargain,” Luna said without preamble, “Several weeks ago, no less.” Luna sounded angry, her voice clipped and taut, while her eyes flashed with concealed irritation, “The signs had been deliberately hidden from me, but whoever it is has claimed enough power to be noticed.” She spat the last word, as if it had been flavored with bile, and it stuck to the room like a splash of acid.
The silence that fell was full of unspoken shock and unease, “A Star Bargain?” Celestia said in soft disbelief, “Such a thing was wiped from the records, expunged in every way... But could that be why...?” At Luna's sharp look, Celestia added, “Twilight Sparkle has been lax in sending her letters for several weeks now. I assumed she had merely become too involved in some project or another, however-”
“Thou thinkest she could have done such a dire thing?!” Luna demanded, her voice thundering in the Council Chamber. “A Star Bargain would give her enough power to-”
“I do not think that,” Celestia interrupted in return, her voice calm but firm, overriding her sister with a quiet authority that was echoed in her dangerously still expression. “If Twilight Sparkle had done so, believe me, all of Equestria would have felt it. Besides,” and now Celestia smiled again, “Twilight would not have made such a foolishly deadly bargain, but she may have attempted to halt the ritual, or confront the offender.”
Luna blinked, “But to interrupt something like that...”
Celestia nodded grimly, “We must find Twilight, I fear she may be in terrible danger.”
“But what is the war about?!” Twilight shouted for the hundredth time, while Shining Armor tied up their wounds with efficient motions of his telekinesis, “It doesn't make any sense! The Griffon Empire declared everlasting peace!” Twilight was pacing in agitation, which made bandaging her shallow grazes an exercise in extreme patience.
They had moved out of the street to the shelter provided by a mostly intact factory of some kind, the design of which was utterly alien to Twilight. Strange robotic arms reached down towards a disabled conveyor belt, while the light of the moon cast dim, ominous shadows over the complex workings of the building's interior.
“And then they broke their word,” Shining Armor said wearily as he focused on wrapping a bandage around the moving, irritated body of his sister, “Because they're griffons. Can you stay still?” His own wounds had been wrapped first, as he had taken some bad cuts on his flank and back where shrapnel had pierced the webbing between the tough, plastic-like plates. Blood stained the fabric already, along with dirt, but he said nothing.
“But why would they break it?” Twilight wailed again, while bandages wound around her scraped legs. She wasn't really bleeding that badly, but Shining Armor had insisted. Still, she made it no easier on him with her agitated pacing and desperate wailing, “Griffons value honor, integrity, and-”
“And they're vicious predators,” Shining Armor interrupted, finally irritated beyond his patience as he finished wrapping Twilight's wounds “Don't you remember the start of the war? The Trottingham Massacre? The Trail of Blood?” As Twilight shook her head again, eyes wide and shocked, Shining Armor sighed and nodded to the floor, “Just... Get some sleep Twily, it'll come back to you soon.”
Twilight nodded, not understanding, but it finally penetrated her thoughts that her brother was at the very brink of his strength. She laid down where he suggested and curled up, clad in her strange armor, smelling blood, oil, explosives and dust.
Immediately, Twilight snapped awake, and found herself back in the grassy field that was being deluged by rain. She was mud from the chin down as she stood up and shook herself off ineffectively. “Shining?!” Twilight called over the sound of the storm, which rumbled ominously as if in reply, “SHINING ARMOR!” Twilight called again, amplifying her voice to carry over the wind and rain, to no response.
Twilight started off in a random direction, disoriented from the storm and the abrupt shift of surroundings. She fought against the force of the wind, which seemed to die occasionally only to slap her with another torrent of rain that stung and blinded the unicorn. She knew she had to find shelter, and her mind wondered if she had only dreamed about her brother and the dark city.
This definitely seemed more painfully real Twilight thought as she staggered through the tall grass, slipping on mud and bruising her aching, cold body with every fall. She felt the ground starting to rise, and with an instinctive reasoning that high ground would be dry ground, Twilight set herself to the climb.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna looked around at the five Elements of Harmony. It was later in the morning by then, so most of them were awake and alert, with the exception of Rainbow Dash who still looked like she had rolled out of bed, and Fluttershy, who hadn't slept much due to a sick animal, and kept yawning. “So lemme get this straight,” Applejack put in, frowning, “Somepony went and kidnapped Twilight usin' the stars?”
“Using a bargain with the stars,” Luna corrected briskly, the Princess of the Night's expression grim, “It is an old, very secret ritual that Celestia and I worked hard to eradicate from history. Suffice to say the cost is very, very great, but the power the stars grant is considerable.”
“How considerable?” Rarity asked somewhat nervously, though the elegant mare concealed most of her unease, “Not that I wouldn't do anything for Twilight, but if something had enough power to overcome her abilities-”
“Enough power that Twilight may not be able to escape on her own,” Celestia said softly, “She will need your help, all your help.” The Princess of the Sun's horn glowed and glass case around the five magical necklaces of the Elements disappeared. One by one the necklaces snapped on around each pony's neck, wrapped in a glow of golden telekinesis.
“Your Elements should lead you to Twilight, and give you an advantage that the culprit cannot stand against,” Celestia smiled at the little ponies that looked to her with concern and determination, “trust them, and trust each other. The Star Bargain is a pact of extreme selfishness, and your bond with each other is, and always will be, far stronger.”
“But where the heck are we going to look?” Rainbow Dash demanded, eyes flashing, “I mean come on, Equestria's a big place, and we don't even know where to start!”
“Um,” Fluttershy put in quietly, flinching as everypony looked at her, “I'm sorry, but Spike did say she said she was going to Canterlot Library,” the yellow pegasus seemed to shrink a little, “It just... Seemed like a good place to start... I'm sorry,”
“That sounds like a super place to start looking, Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie put in, bouncing on the spot, “I bet there'll be tons of clues!” Abruptly Pinkie Pie pulled out a cap and pipe, then a magnifying glass, “We'll be on her trail in no time at all! Why before you know it, we'll be throwing a party and Twilight will be back home in the library!”
“Why can't I be back in the Library?” Twilight moaned to herself as she slid down yet another muddy hill, pounded by more pouring, icy rain. She felt sure that she was entirely too cold and miserable for this to be a dream, but the memory of Shining Armor and the ruined city was still sharp in her mind. “It would be warm,” Twilight said, distracting herself from the cruel, broken city with thoughts of her library, “Quiet, warm, and out of the rain,” Twilight grumbled rather emphatically about the last part as a gust of wind drove a cold hard gust of rain that stung unpleasantly. “Hail,” Twilight corrected herself absently as the weather began to cool further, and the precipitation thickened noticeably.
She knew she had to find shelter; all the survival books Twilight had read warned of the terrifying dangers of hypothermia and frostbite, but the cold and the pummeling of the rain and ice was befuddling her senses. Twilight had completely lost any notion of where she was or where the distant coast could be. She knew she had to move further away from Octavia's dark fortress, but the chattering of her teeth and the numbness suffusing her stumbling hooves made her almost remember the dark dungeons of the mad musician's castle with longing. At least they had been warm.
As if the thought of warmth had been some sort of trigger, a light flared up in the distance. It was so surprising that Twilight almost fell on her face in a rapidly freezing rivulet. The hail had only intensified, and with it had come a chill that was causing thin sheets of ice to form on the many pools of standing water. It made the already difficult ground even worse, and added the threat of lacerations from broken ice.
As such, the light in the distance shone as a beacon of hope, and she was less careful than she should have been. She stumbled and tripped down a hidden slope, down a ravine towards what seemed to be a river of sorts. Twilight tried to teleport, to escape, but at that exact moment a large hailstone hit her horn, causing Twilight to curl up in pain and roll down the ravine unchecked. Every single rock made itself known in her ribs, neck and head, with only her hooves too numb to feel any impact. Dazed and lightly concussed, the last thing Twilight saw was a rock in the icy river approaching at speed.
Twilight woke up with a gasp of pain as she involuntarily attempted to teleport away from a river that was no longer there and ended up triggering a massive, splitting headache. “Oh ho, awake is she?” an arch, cruel voice asked, its harmonics dripping with contempt and amusement. Twilight thrashed violently as she recognized Octavia's silky tones, even before the earth pony moved into her vision, but the purple unicorn found her hooves bound and spread, leaving her helpless in mid-air.
“Like a fly in a web,” Octavia finished for Twilight, who shivered as she felt the alien touch on her mind. She tried to respond bitingly, but Octavia had apparently bound her mouth, with something foul and sticky by the feel of it. “Didn't want you interrupting,” Octavia said as she sipped a glass of something dark and alcoholic-looking. “Besides,” Octavia said, obviously enjoying Twilight's mental repugnance, “I know what you're thinking anyway, your talking would just be a bore.”
Twilight tried to distract herself from the grey mare's cruel, purple gaze by taking in the room, as she had before. It was a sumptuous hexagonal chamber, resplendent with gold, mahogany and red velvet, lit with magnified lamps that cast light throughout the room. The floor was an elegant example of varnished wood art, depicting the night sky in white pine on a dark oak backdrop that swirled with wooden nebulae. The ceiling was painted with constellations that seemed somehow sinister to the captive Twilight.
The furniture was equally rich: two elegant chairs and a beautifully carved table made of some dark wood Twilight didn't recognize, both of which were lavishly decorated with gold and jewels of all kinds. “Lovely, I know,” Octavia said mockingly, “I made it just for you.” There was no obvious door, nor windows of any kind. As soon as Twilight had registered this, Octavia added in a dark, suggestive tone, “No interruptions.” As Twilight's gaze snapped sharply back to the earth pony, she noticed that her captor had acquired a cello.
Yet this was not the same refined instrument from the disastrous Grand Galloping Gala, this was a cello made of dark ebony, with pegs of white bone and strings that glowed with some malevolence that made the magically sensitive Twilight's eyes widen. She winced as Octavia plucked a string, and Twilight's skin pinched in response.
Twilight's eyes pleaded with Octavia as the musician conjured her bow from nowhere and ran it over the first string and pulling a mellow note from the instrument. Twilight thrashed as her skin felt as if it had been lit on fire on one side; every resonance of the string drew fresh agony from her body like poison being drawn from a wound.
Octavia smirked, “You are familiar, I think, with the concept of magical sympathy?” Before Twilight could answer, Octavia finished, “Well this is an instrument I made especially for you, dear Twilight. It resonates with you, but not all of you.” Octavia's smirk widened into a smile that could have given the hailstorm a lesson in chills, “Just your skin.” Sure enough, the place that had been full of fiery pain was darkening with bruise.
Twilight flinched as her attention was wrenched back to Octavia with another stab of pain in her side. The grey earth pony had but touched the bow to the string, and, Twilight realized with horror, she was preparing to play. She tried to shout against the gag in her mouth, but it came out as a gargled choke. Octavia smiled, closed her eyes, and began to play.
Octavia eased herself back from the crystal ball with a chuckle, “Such a brave soul,” she muttered scornfully as she watched Twilight struggle to control her breathing with the pain wracking her mind. The unicorn was only thinking of escape, still, and Octavia felt no anger in Twilight, nothing but fear and confusion. But that would change. Beside her, on a bed, Twilight's body slumbered, twitching occasionally as her subconscious prodded it. Octavia smirked and once again debated about simply ending the unicorn, rather than breaking her.
The image of Twilight giggling and frothing before Celestia, clearly inferior beside Octavia's magnificence, reminded the grey pony why she was doing this. As if on cue, a searing, brutal pain arched Octavia's back as it lanced through her whole body. The grey earth pony spasmed as she fell out of her chair and started to crawl towards the window, which was curtained elegantly in black velvet.
Octavia grabbed ahold of the bottom of the curtain and pulled the whole thing, curtain rod and all, off the wall, letting the starlight in. It was a new moon, so the faint light of the stars passed undiluted over Octavia's prostrated form. Blood oozed from the earth pony's mouth from where she'd bit her tongue, but as the starlight rolled over her, Octavia winced.
Her hooves shone as transparent as glass, while within, stars seemed to dance and mock her pain. It had crept every night up from her ankles to her knees, and Octavia knew full well what would happen if she failed to uphold her end of the bargain to the stars before the strange transparency consumed her utterly. The thought made her shudder, even as she felt strength suffusing her body and soul.
Power she had been promised, and power she had gained: more with every passing day. But every day she felt a little more distant, a little more removed, and Octavia knew she had to propose to Celestia before the next new moon, or the consequences would not bear thinking of. Twilight would have to be broken by then as well, or all would have been for naught. Octavia stood up, her body no longer shaky, and wiped the blood from her lips, which turned troubled for a moment. Then Octavia set her expression and her cello appeared beside her, balancing perfectly as if held by invisible hooves. She took it gently, almost lovingly, then wrapped more of her warped power around herself, and vanished. It was time for the show.