- XVI -
Celestia sat down, resting her hooves for a moment. The walk through the city’s edges was taking its toll on her. She’d been at it for hours and hours, losing track of time as she followed Luna’s trail. Luna had begun moving directly towards the edge of the city, her prior penchant for taking meandering routes and exploring gone. She wanted out of the city, as did Celestia.
Celestia rolled onto her side, sighing as she stretched her legs out into the air, her wings spreading open beneath her. It was a rather undignified position, but she didn’t care much. It felt nice to stop and stretch. She’d need to head for the light side of the moon soon enough, anyway. It’d been a long time since she’d taken in the sun’s rays and recharged her energy. Her stomach had finally stopped growling, her biological processes beginning to run on arcane power fully. Celestia smiled slightly, wriggling on her back and waving her hooves in the air, before relaxing and shifting back to a sitting position. She stood up and shook herself, sending a cloud of lunar dust into the atmosphere. Glancing down at her dusty coat, she shrugged. It wasn’t like anypony was going to walk around the corner and see her.
Celestia began following Luna’s trail once more, checking down side-streets occasionally for other sigils or points of interest. As she rounded the corner of a particularly large building, she saw the edge of the city, where the smaller and poorly built buildings began, and a very tall piece of construction started just beyond the final row of hovels.
Celestia stared up at the spiraling ramp that spiked towards space. Glowing runes that shone like stars covered the pyramid-like building, lighting it with a unique beauty that was far different from the regalia and dark colors and lights of Nightmare Moon’s empty city.
Luna had built this.
Celestia strode forward, her mouth dropping open as she approached. The pyramid itself wasn’t particularly well built, but the sheer size of the thing was impressive. What’s more, the runes of a complex magical spell wove their way up the pyramid’s four sides, spiraling towards the unseen topmost point.
Celestia moved toward the ramp that spiraled along the outside of the pyramid and began to climb. She read the runes as she walked towards the top, paying close attention to each etched piece of arcane calligraphy. “What was your plan, sister? What does this do?”
Celestia recognized runes of strengthening and empowering, runes of piercing and reaching, runes to enhance clarity and solidify that which was uncertain.
It took Celestia nearly two hours at a slow walk to reach the top of the pyramid, which finally tapered to a point with a shard of carefully cut glass making the penultimate peak. Celestia examined the glass, noting that the etched surface bore the runes for speaking. Celestia thought back to the runes of the spell she’d been reading on the way up, and it fell into place.
Celestia reached out and touched a hoof to the glass shard, and channeled her energy into the pyramid.
The entire structure lit up even more strongly, white light flowing from the peak of the pyramid and filtering slowly towards the base as Celestia poured her arcane power into the construct. The pyramid trembled and the glass shard began to reverberate, letting out a high-pitched hum that grew and built in power. Celestia closed her eyes as the sound of the humming glass sent shivers down her spine, keeping her focus intact as she completely powered the pyramid.
Finally, feeling the spell of the pyramid come to a head, Celestia spoke softly. “Luna.”
The glass pulsed and hummed, and then began to reverberate. Celestia frowned, and using her horn she pushed some additional energy into the runes of speaking etched on the glass.
The reverberation changed pitch and tone as she gave it more energy, and finally, a high-pitched and tinny sounding voice could be heard, just barely, over the rumbling of the pyramid below her.
“I he—thing?”
Celestia spoke again. “Luna, can you hear me?”
“Jus—ow! I—mething!”
Celestia scowled, trying to boost the clarity of the signal. Using her horn, she etched a burning rune for clearness into the glass shard. The glass began to tremble, growing unstable as it vibrated.
“Luna, can you hear me?”
“Sist—? Is th—ou?”
Celestia laughed, smiling. “Yes! I’ve found an arcane construct that you built on the moon. I’m using it to communicate with you!”
“Cel—ia, it—ard to he—you! Y—aid you fo—a const—?”
“Yes. It’s how I’m speaking with you, but I fear the spell will not hold,” Celestia stated urgently.
The glass began to vibrate more violently, the shard rumbling. Celestia scowled as she listened for a reply.
“Sist—ou a—n the moon!”
“Speak again, Luna. The message is weak,” Celestia urged her sister.
“Y—on the mo—!”
Celestia blinked, squinting. “I’m going to try something.”
Bending down low, Celestia glanced at the closest runes, examining them carefully. She reached out and drew her horn over one of the runes of power, and replaced it with a new rune for focusing. The vibrating stopped.
Celestia stood up, looking at the glass. It was still trembling, but only barely. “Luna?”
“Sister! You must focus on thy surroundings! Look for th—”
The glass suddenly cracked, halting whatever Luna was saying prematurely. Celestia reached a hoof up to the glass shard, intending to mend it with a spell, but when her hoof made contact, her entire body shook. She released the glass swiftly, her mouth opening in surprise.
The vibrating hadn’t stopped, it had simply reached such intensity that it was barely visible. The tone it was producing must have been beyond her own hearing. That meant only one thing to Celestia.
Overload.
Spinning around, Celestia took a flying leap, her wings spreading open as she dove for the lower levels of the pyramid below her. The glass shattered as it shook itself apart, exploding like a bomb and sending sharp fragments everywhere. Celestia cried out as something buried itself in her back, but maintained her glide, hitting a lower platform hard and sliding to a stop.
Celestia collapsed onto her haunches as pain lanced through her lower back, letting out a yelp. She craned her neck to look and noted the crimson blood rolling down her back, emanating from a sliver of glass about the size and shape of her horn sticking out of her. Celestia whimpered, biting her lower lip and looking away from the wound. Steeling herself, she looked again, carefully examining the injury. She used a spell to dull the pain, gasping in relief as the stabbing throb subsided, clearing her head. Casting a second spell, she assessed the damage caused to her, making sure it was safe to extract the broken shard without causing further damage.
Celestia winced. Inside her, the shard was jagged and shattered. She shivered, gritting her teeth, and gripped the bloody glass with her telekinesis, readying further spells of mending and healing. She exhaled slowly, preparing herself.
“One. Two. Three.”
Celestia pulled.