Hearts against the Monarchy

by Chalanceless

Chapter Two - Magic

Theoretically, Twilight’s day could get worse, but failing the downfall of pony civilization to a race of frog people or books being outlawed, she couldn’t imagine anything making an impact at this point.

“Dash, why in the hay did you bring her?” the southern mare said, pointing at Twilight.

The five black-clad mares had managed to evade the soldiers chasing them. This would have been completely irrelevant to Twilight’s life if not for the fact that she had been dragged along with them. Having gotten over the initial shock of being kidnapped by terrorists, Twilight was growing more and more annoyed; the pegasus who had grabbed her was now sitting on top of her to keep her from running off, huddling with the rest of her group in a not-so-spacious storage closet.

“Hey, I didn’t exactly plan on it,” the pegasus answered. “We were being shot at, if you don’t remember. I panicked, and it just sort of happened.”

“Well it needs to un-happen,” the southern mare said bluntly. “Fact is, she’s got no use as a hostage, and we can’t just get rid of her…”

“We can’t very well let the poor dear go,” returned another mare, the unicorn. “Perhaps if we tied her up and left her somewhere she could be found once we’ve left…”

Twilight was tired of being referred to in the third person, among other things. “Who’s her? I have a name, you know. And speaking of names, who in Celestia’s name do you think you are?!”

The mares reacted to her shouts with varying degrees of shock; one of the pegasi even jumped behind another mare in fear. In contrast, the boldest among them – the southern mare – stepped forward. “We don’t do nuthin’ in Celestia’s name, thank you very much, ‘specially reveal ourselves to military mares.”

Twilight scoffed. Anti-monarchists, then. If they thought she would be impressed by their open defiance of authority, they had another thing coming. First, she pushed the pegasus off herself with a less-than-gentle burst of magic. Next, she used her deft arcane abilities to remove the hoods of the five terrorists. As she stood up, Twilight Sparkle absorbed every detail of her kidnappers’ faces. The raspy-voiced pegasus was light blue, with magenta eyes and a distinctive, rainbow-patterned mane. The quieter, quivering pegasus was pale yellow, blue-eyed, and had a long, pink mane which was convenient for hiding her face. The energetic earth pony was all pink, except for her cerulean eyes, and her mane had the consistency of cotton candy. The unicorn stood apart from the others with her dull white coat that was groomed to perfection, her azure eyes framed by expensive make-up and fake eyelashes, and her beautifully stylized mane that looked as if it had taken more time than the planning for this terrorist raid. The southern-sounding mare, who Twilight evaluated was the leader of this pack, was orange with green eyes and straw-coloured mane, and a quick look down showed that this mare was more muscular than the average earth pony.

The terrorists reacted to their unmasking as one might expect, more shock and general discontent. This complicated things. Now they definitely couldn’t let her go.

Twilight, brilliant as she was, didn’t consider the repercussions of her spell. She grinned haughtily. “Now how about we put some names to those faces.” She lit up her horn menacingly. Threatening ponies was out of character for Twilight, but she was riding the high of getting the upper hoof on her captors.

To their credit, the terrorists took the lavender unicorn’s threat in stride. They turned away from her and whispered to one another urgently. From what Twilight overheard, the mares had resumed their discussion about what to do with her, albeit in much graver tones. This did not bode well.

On the other hoof, eavesdropping on the mares finally gave Twilight their names. Advantage: Twilight Sparkle.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie (yes, the pink one. How did you know?) held up a light bulb. No, Twilight had no idea where she got it either. “I have an idea!” Pinkie Pie shouted. She slammed a rough map of the area down in front of Twilight. “We can ask Purple McBossypants where the Vault is!”

“WHAT?!” The terrorists all turned to face Twilight. “What makes you think I’ll help a bunch of terrorists like you?! And I am not a bossy pants!”

“Of course not, silly,” Pinkie Pie said. “You aren’t even wearing pants.”

Twilight’s brain stalled. “I… I… I…” Twilight tried to stammer out a reply, but gave up. She looked to the others for help with their comrade, but they avoided eye contact, mostly by facehoofing. “Um, anyway, I’m not going to help you find anything.”

Pinkie Pie changed her tune in an instant. “Okay.” The energetic pony narrowed her eyes. “I bet she doesn’t even know where the Vault is.”

“Of course I know where it is!” Twilight said angrily.

“Bet you don’t!”

“I do too!”

“No, you don’t!”

“Yes, I do!”

“Nope!”

“I do so know where the Vault is!” Twilight was positively fuming. She stomped on the map, smirking smugly. “It’s right there.” It should be mentioned that Twilight was only making an educated guess (the only kind she ever made), as the location of ultra-secure Vault wasn’t public knowledge. The tunnels beneath Canterlot Castle had many secret places the Vault could be hidden, but she based her estimate off a laundry list of logical points that would take too long to elaborate upon. Also, Shining Armor told her once that it was right under the center of the castle.

And then she realized what she had done.

“Thanks, McBossypants!” Pinkie Pie said. She hopped around Twilight and began pushing her toward the door. “Now you’re coming with us.”

“What?!” came the predictable response from everypony else in the storage closet.

“What what?” Pinkie Pie ‘answered’ cheerfully. “We can’t just let her go, cuz she saw our faces, and she probably heard our names when we were talking, and if we let her go, she’ll probably report us to the military, and then we’d get caught, and that would be bad, so we should bring her with us, that way she’d be an accomplice and wouldn’t be able to turn us in without getting in trouble herself. We’ll be partners. In crime!”

Twilight was impressed by Pinkie Pie’s ridiculously long, but logical run-on sentence. Partially because she was able to say it without breathing in. Twilight stayed silent as the other terrorists grudgingly conceded to their comrade’s reasoning and filed out the door with their prisoner in tow. The five mares donned their hoods again and whispered to each other as they snuck through the halls of the barracks and down into a network of darkly-lit tunnels which led underneath the main castle. Of course, Twilight had no intention of helping her captors in any way whatsoever. She was waiting for an opportunity for escape. As soon as the terrorists looked away, or if they came across a guard, Twilight would disappear faster than a box of donuts at her house. Shining Armor really liked donuts.

All in all, Twilight was sure she would get away from these crazy ponies. After all, she had the perfect plan…

…or not.

The terrorists had almost reached the Vault and still without incident or chance for Twilight to escape. These terrorists must have been the luckiest in the world; there had been no traces of a guards, or soldiers, or anypony who could deal with them. Twilight figured most of the castle’s personnel must have been dragged to the prince’s military demonstration as her brother had. In addition to this, the ponies guarding her hadn’t taken their eyes off her once. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had her held at gunpoint. Laxly, but there were metal tubes of death pointed at her nonetheless.

Twilight finally reached the point where her boredom and curiosity could no longer be contained. She asked the question that had been rattling around her head for ages now. “So, who exactly are you?”

“We’re champions for justice, darling,” Rarity said. “We’re the Hearts against the Monarchy.”

Twilight Sparkle looked at her captors bemusedly. “That name is… really lame…”

Rainbow Dash shrugged in response. “We didn’t choose the name. I wanted to go with ‘the Super Radical Order of Awesomeness’, but nopony else agreed to it.”

After giving a patronizing look to Rainbow Dash, Twilight turned her thoughts to what she just said. ‘We’? ‘We didn’t choose the name’? How big was this group? This meant that this group was just a smaller part of a larger organizational structure. And if this group was trying to access the castle’s Vault – a treasure trove of Canterlot’s most dangerous magical artefacts and secrets – what greater plans did these ‘Hearts against the Monarchy’ have in store?

Maybe she was about to find out. To Twilight’s great dismay, they had arrived at the Vault. The tunnel widened into a round, open atrium, and opposite the entrance was a massive wall of solid bedrock, smoothed and polished enough to please even the most neurotic of OCD patients. Needless to say, Twilight approved. Set into the bedrock, where the wall met the floor, was a crystal disc so big a dragon could pass through the hole it filled. The crystal was unlike any Twilight had ever seen. Crystals were ideal vessels for storing magic and excellent mediums for enchantments, so Twilight was more than familiar with just about every kind of gem used for spellwork. But not this one. Acting like a prism, it shone with colours from each and every point of the spectrum as light refracted off its many facets that shrank into nothing at the gem’s central vertex. Such was the crystal’s brilliance that Twilight couldn’t even determine its opacity; it could be clear as calculus (take that simile whichever way you wish) but Twilight would go blind before she figured it out. The shimmering vortex of a million rainbows seemed to give off its own glow that was simply unnatural, even in the world of magic Twilight lived in. She immediately forgot her plight and found herself consumed by an insatiable need to discover the nature of this wonder among magical wonders.

Without any prompting from the Hearts against the Monarchy, she cantered ahead of them and stopped in front of the Vault’s crystalline door. The tip of her horn sparked as she performed a preliminary evaluation of the enchantment so strong she could almost taste it.

If what Twilight did could be likened to her magical presence brushing up against the crystal’s, then the crystal’s response rammed into her like a raging minotaur.

Her knees buckled and she sank to the ground, her head swimming in magical feedback. When she regained full agency of her senses, there was a pegasus beside her, speaking softly to her. Fluttershy, her brain reminded her.

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, her voice quavering with concern. When Twilight managed a nod (or maybe the nerves in her neck had been giving out), she appeared relieved. Twilight could not help but think the pegasus was a little too nice for a terrorist.

After forcing herself to stand again, Twilight turned around to face the others. “What was all that?” Applejack asked.

“That crystal is quite possibly the most enchanted object in existence,” Twilight answered. “I almost passed out just trying to identify the spells.”

“What does that even mean?” Rainbow Dash interjected.

“It means that gem has so many spells cast on it, my brain almost shut down trying to sort them out.”

“Ah got no idea how magic works and all that, but Ah’m guessin’ you can’t get us in there.” Applejack did not seem happy at this prospect.

Twilight shook her head. “I couldn’t even begin to dispel those enchantments.” She launched into full egghead-mode. “Every spell constantly creates a small magic pulse, like a ripple. More complex spells create multiple ripples, and spells can be interlocked, creating overlaps.”

The Hearts were lost at this point, all except for Rarity, who as a unicorn had basic magical knowledge. “And how would you describe this door?” Nice to see somepony was following along.

“Imagine the whole thing is ripples. It’s like every ripple overlaps with every other ripple at every point, and I can’t even count how many ripples there actually are. From what I can tell, the spells originate from six sources that aren’t even there anymore, and the enchantments are actually renewing themselves. Even if we waited here for a thousand years, the spells would still be as strong as they are now. If I hadn’t experienced this myself, I would have said it was impossible.”

You are surprising clever, came a disembodied voice from nowhere. As they usually do.

Twilight froze. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“That voice?”

“What voice?”

“I just heard a voice.”

“I hear voices too, but they mostly help me with set-ups for comic relief.”

At this point, everypony was just a little bit weirded out. Except Pinkie Pie, because she was the carrier.

They cannot hear me, the voice said. I probably should have told you that before you made a foal of yourself, but this way is funnier. And you got to learn a little more about your friend, so we all win.

‘They’re not my friends,’ Twilight thought back. She figured that was probably how this worked.

Ooh. Cold. And here I thought you were trying to help them get into the Vault.

Twilight had no real response to that. It seemed her priorities had shifted in the face of a magical mystery.

Thankfully, she didn’t need to articulate a real response. Yay telepathy. Well if the Vault is going to be this much of an obstacle for you, that can be easily fixed.

And all of a sudden, the colossal magical presence behind her disappeared. Twilight wheeled around and saw that the crystal had flattened out into a two-dimensional curtain of light. “Is that what I think it is?” Nopony answered, so she elaborated. “It’s a self-contained dimension. The door isn’t a door, it actually is the Vault.”

Applejack walked up beside her, staring intently at the rainbow-coloured portal. “Are you tellin’ me if Ah walk through there, Ah’ll be in the Vault?” Twilight nodded slowly, still amazed by recent events. “Well that’s all Ah need. Girls, time to get what we came here fer.” And without further ado, the Hearts against the Monarchy went past Twilight and entered the Vault.

Twilight had a choice to make. Either she could leave now and probably get off scot-free, or she could follow the Hearts into the Vault and try to stop them from raiding the place, breaking a slew of laws in the process.

“Aw, buck it.” Twilight galloped into the portal and disappeared with a pop.

For a two-dimensional location, the Vault was much bigger than Twilight would have imagined. Also, the Hearts had gotten a bigger head start than she had anticipated. She ran through the shining, crystalline halls searching for the five terrorists, but to no avail.

“Where are they?!” Twilight said aloud. Her voice echoed back at her, added to the mix of noise that bounced off the rounded, high-arching surfaces of the Vault’s interior. It infuriated Twilight to no end that she could hear the other ponies, but she had no idea where their voices were coming from, or where they were going.

Talking to yourself? You will go crazy if you keep that up. Well, crazier. It took a moment for Twilight to realize the voice was the one from before and not yet another one of the echoes coming at her from every direction.

You know you are never going to find them if you just run around willy-nilly, the voice commented as Twilight kept trying to follow the Hearts.

Twilight stopped in the middle of a hallway and yelled at the disembodied voice. “You’re not exactly helping with your criticisms, you know!”

But what if I were to help you? As the voice spoke, Twilight caught the wall to her left rippling and shifting out of the corner of her eye. As soon as she turned her head to get a better look, the wall returned to its static, solid state. If you were to do a small favour for me, I would happily guide you to the others.

“It depends on the favour.”

Oh, just a triviality. There is a small trinket that I need to have removed from here. It is nothing anypony would miss. In fact, nopony but myself knows that it is here. All the same, I wish for it to be gone from these crystal halls.

Twilight weighed her options. Though she was loathe to allow the Hearts against the Monarchy run rampant in the Vault, she was equally disinclined to steal government property. She reminded herself that she was already up to her ears in trouble just by being here. And if what the voice said was true, nopony would miss this object, whatever it was…

“Deal.” Twilight decided that the ends justified the means in this situation.

Excellent. I knew you would see things my way. The voice chuckled, and the wall melted into nothingness to reveal a tight passage that intersected with another enclosed hallway. Wasting no time, Twilight hurried down the passage and glanced down both ways of the intersected tunnel. One led directly back to the Vault’s entrance; the other ended in a tiny chamber containing a small chest, like something out of a fantasy novel. This development irritated the lavender unicorn to no end. This voice, or rather its source, could clearly control and reshape this labyrinth; Twilight had been manipulated from the beginning. The only reason she couldn’t find the Hearts was clearly because this voice’s owner wanted her to strike a deal.

Cursing the voice in her head, she came over to the treasure chest and prised it open with her magic. Inside the chest was a pair of star-shaped hair clips wrought from gold. Twilight lifted them out and turned them over. Fused to the underside of these hair clips was a fine coating of diamond dust. Clearly were for function, not fashion. No doubt they held some sort of magic-related purpose, but Twilight had no clue what that was. She had never seen magical accessories of this sort, and the sheer atmosphere of magic within the Vault prevented her from attempting any accurate detection of it.

Good. Now put them on. I will open the way to where the other five are headed. Twilight mentally bristled at the hint of satisfaction in the bossy voice. She clipped to golden stars to her mane, just below her ears, and banished all further thought of them from her mind. The wall behind the chest soon dissolved, revealing a steep slope that led down to the bowels of the Vault. As she stepped into the tunnel, she wondered what exactly the Hearts were after that was important enough to be kept in the least accessible part of the already inaccessible Vault.

Descending through the dimly lit passage, Twilight turned her thoughts to the voice she’d been hearing. She remembered old mare’s tales from books she’d read, rumours about a ‘Ghost of the Vault’. Supposedly, somepony (or in some accounts, something) had died in the Vault, usually as a result of getting lost, though grimmer versions chalked it up to murder. In any event, the ghost was believed to whisper in the ears of anypony who entered the Vault and lead them astray. Allegedly, Prince Blueblood himself had once been lost in the Vault and was only found after a search and rescue by the entire military. Although, it was said in very hushed tones that it less to do with ghosts and more with the fact that the prince couldn’t find his reflection in a mirror if he didn’t have his horn pointing at it. That said, even a sceptic of the supernatural like Twilight Sparkle found her situation eerily similar to those in the stories.

Twilight was roused from her thoughts by the sound of five ponies galloping through the echo-inducing crystal halls. She had finally caught up with them.

The incline came to a stop, and Twilight hit the levelled floor in mid-gallop. She exited the passage, entered a new chamber, and slid out in front of the room’s only other entrance, cutting of the five mares in black.

Needless to say, they were not expecting this. One of them tripped and hit the ground with a thud, quickly followed by the others who tripped over her. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Twilight could help but grin at the bumbling mares and their foiled plans.

The first one who tripped was also the first to stand up again. “How in the hay did you get ahead of us?” Ah. The raspy tones of Rainbow Dash. The others were now picking themselves up behind her.

Twilight’s grin widened. “Never underestimate a determined unicorn.”

“Seems ya don’t know when ta quit there, girl,” Applejack said, glowering at her.

“What are you trying to steal from here anyway?” Twilight looked around the room. The only feature was a pedestal that supported what appeared to be five perfectly spherical stones each with its own unique marking that was worn down to a shadow by the passage of time. They looked older than time itself. “There’s nothing here worth throwing away your lives.”

“Hey, we’re just following orders.” Rainbow Dash took a step toward Twilight. “Now if you’re done yapping, we’re going to get what we came here for.”

Twilight matched Rainbow Dash and met her face-to-face. “You are going nowhere.”

“How very right you are.” The average blood temperature of the room dropped to just about freezing. A seventh voice, cold and quiet as a whisper, had joined the other six. The Hearts turned around, and Twilight leaned to the side to see past the cyan pegasus blocking her view. They all stared at the newcomer in a mélange of surprise, disbelief, and terror. But none of them was more frightened than Twilight.

The pony who had just arrived was a young unicorn mare. Black bangs fell over her face, obscuring her emerald green eyes. From what Twilight could see of her coat, it was an uncommon metallic pink colour. However, the only feature that drew the lavender unicorn’s attention was the mare’s clothing. From her head to her tail, the mare was covered by a white cloak with golden yellow trim; she was hooded, her head encircled by a diadem, and the cloak was held in place by a sun-shaped clasp where her neck met her chest. There was no mistaking it. This mare was one of the highest-level unicorns in all of Equestria. Second only to their mentor, Princess Celestia, one of her protégées. An Eclipse.

The Eclipse’s horn lit up with a brilliant, burning light. She was about to attack.

Twilight’s mind went blank. There was no time to analyze the situation, no time for any thinking at all. A spark ignited inside her and she left her body in the hooves of pure, unhindered instinct. With a wave of her horn, Twilight threw the Hearts against the Monarchy out of the line of fire. Without a moment’s respite, the Eclipse’s spell was upon her, an inferno of yellow flames. Without thinking, Twilight countered with a blast of wind that drove the fire back in her attacker’s face. The other unicorn negated her own spell.

“So it’s going to be like that, huh?” The mare’s face was twisted into an ugly snarl.

Twilight said nothing in rebuttal. The Eclipse’s attack had awakened something in Twilight, and though she didn’t know it yet, that same spark awakened something else too. A sixth stone had appeared on that pedestal.