Hearts against the Monarchy

by Chalanceless

Chapter Three - A Fork in the Road

Twilight Sparkle had a difficult decision to make. Theoretically, she still had time to climb out of the hole she had dug herself into. If she claimed to have acted out of self-preservation and sweetened the deal by helping the Eclipse capture the Hearts against the Monarchy, Twilight still had a chance of getting out of here without ending up in a maximum-security prison cell. Of course, Twilight would rather eat her own horn than help a pony who just attacked her, but what other option did she have?

She could help out the Hearts against the Monarchy. She could help them escape. After all, they were hardly a threat. Without the help of the mysterious voice’s magical powers, the five ponies would not have even made it into the Vault, much less stolen anything from it. The net result of this episode would be a harmless zero if she could convince the Hearts to leave without… whatever it was they were trying to steal. Optimistically, Twilight could probably incapacitate the Eclipse; pessimistically, Twilight’s abilities could at least allow her to stay out of the enemy unicorn’s hooves. Everypony would come away from this safely, and nopony would get hurt (much).

When you think about it, it was all academic.

“Get out of here!” Twilight shouted at the Hearts, who looked at her, dumbfounded.

“We ain’t leavin’ here without the Elements of Harmony,” Applejack said defiantly.

“The what?” Twilight looked at her quizzically. Elements of Harmony? Were they some sort of ancient magical artefacts? Twilight had never heard of them before, and she was a walking, talking encyclopaedia of all things magical. Where were these ponies getting their information? The name ‘Elements of Harmony’ sounded vaguely familiar, but Twilight couldn’t think of where she had heard it.

The others glared at Applejack for disclosing that information. “Never mind that,” Rainbow Dash said. “We’re not leaving.”

“Get away while you still can,” Twilight insisted. “This unicorn is an Eclipse. One of the highest-level unicorns alive. I can only buy you so much time.”

“I’m afraid we can’t go quite yet.” Rarity led the other Hearts out of the way and back toward the pedestal.

“What part of this-unicorn-is-going-to-kill-you-all don’t you understand?!” Twilight growled.

The Eclipse’s eyes darted back and forth between Twilight and the Hearts, her eyebrows raising higher and higher all the while. “What is wrong with you ponies?”

“Um, everypony, I there’s an extra Element here…” Fluttershy mumbled, but nopony heard her over the rapport between the other ponies.

“Nothing’s wrong with us!” Twilight shouted at the Eclipse. She turned to the Hearts. “Get out of here already! What’s wrong with you?!”

“Um, everypony… the Elements…”

The Eclipse, one of the most terror-inspiring ponies in Equestria, facehoofed. Actually facehoofed! “You must be the worst terrorists ever. Of all time.”

“I’m not with them!” Twilight yelled, stamping her hooves.

“I almost want to let you girls leave,” the Eclipse groaned, her head hanging low. “You all are just so sad.”

“Shut up!” Rainbow Dash said, walking up next to Twilight. “You’re just one of Celestia’s dogs, you dumb ellipse!”

“I think you mean Eclipse,” the ‘ellipse’ corrected.

“I’m surprised you even know that word,” Twilight said to Rainbow Dash.

“Hey, I’m on your side!”

“I’m not on anypony’s side! Now get out of here while I stall her for you. Go!”

“It sounds like you’re on their side,” the Eclipse remarked.

“Well I’m not!”

“GIRLS!” Fluttershy yelled, surprising everypony present. They all looked to her, and followed her hoof to where she was pointing. “There’s a sixth Element of Harmony here.”

The Eclipse scoffed. “Everypony knows there’s only five Elements of Harmony.”

“I didn’t even know there were Elements of Harmony,” Twilight said in monotone. Again, the name was on the verge of recalling memories for her.

The Eclipse smirked at her with the kind of smugness that invited a high-velocity hoof. “Well, it’s not the kind of thing they tell school fillies.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Girls,” she said to the Hearts without looking away from the Eclipse. “I’m going to wipe the floor with this mare. You better leave now if you don’t want to get vaporized.”

“For the last time,” Rainbow Dash said. “We’re not leaving.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie cheered. She picked up one of the stones that apparently was one of the Elements of Harmony. “We have an extra Element to carry. I know! We can share! You can carry the extra one.”

Twilight groaned in resignation. “If it will get you to leave before you get yourselves killed, sure!”

Suddenly, the room filled with bright, blinding light. Turning to stare at the source, Twilight saw the Elements of Harmony shatter and transform into golden-wrought jewellery – five necklaces and a diadem – inset with gems in various shapes. None of these shapes held any significance to Twilight, save for that of the diadem, which was the spitting image of her cutie mark. The diadem flew over to Twilight and set itself on her head. The necklaces each sought out a specific member of the Hearts against the Monarchy; did the gems correspond to their cutie marks too?

The six mares were appropriately surprised. The Eclipse was, in a word, flabbergasted.

“Wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh,” she stuttered. “Th-th-the Elements? How d-d-did you…? Nopony has been able to use them for a thousand years!” After a moment of sustained spluttering, she steeled herself and grinned. “No matter. Only two of you are unicorns, and neither of you has the potential to wield the power of the Elements.”

“We’ll see about that,” Twilight shot back over he shoulder with a confidence she didn’t know she had. Out of nowhere, she felt a sort of warm energy welling up inside her. Her earlier doubts had faded away. Now she knew she could win. “The rest of you, go.”

The Hearts hesitated, no doubt reluctant to leave one of the Elements of Harmony behind with her. However, they nevertheless galloped up the tunnel Twilight had entered through. The mares all glanced at her as they left – Pinkie Pie embellished her exit with a joyous wave of her hoof before she bounced away.

“Do you really think you stand a chance against me?” The Eclipse sneered as Twilight took an aggressive stance opposite her. “Do you think you can fight me, Phoenix Flare the Eclipse, as an equal?”

“Wait, Phoenix Flare…” Twilight knew where she had heard that before. “You graduated from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns seven years ago, right?” The Eclipse nodded proudly. “I’ve seen photos of you with awards.” The Eclipse acknowledged this with even more pride. “I didn’t recognize you without the braces and the greasy mane.” Phoenix Flare broke down into a furious mess of mutterings and stutterings. “Weren’t you voted most likely to become a crazy old cat lady?”

“That’s it!” Phoenix Flare roared, her eyes blazing with almost literal flames. “You. Are. Dead.”

With a snarky kind of cockiness most unbecoming of a unicorn of the Canterlot aristocracy, Twilight said: “Not yet.”

And she added a wink that drove Phoenix Flare over the edge.

The mare burst into flames. Literal, actual flames. It was magic, obviously, and so the fire was probably meant to do more harm to Twilight than herself. Oh my.

The Eclipse, with all the magical finesse of Equestria’s brightest minds, charged at Twilight head-first. The lavender unicorn only just barely managed to dodge the flaming battering ram. A rush of heated air hit her in the side and knocked her off balance. She tripped over her own hooves and fell in a heap against the crystalline cavern wall. Before she could get even one hoof flat on the ground, Phoenix Flare had already turned around and begun a second charge. Not wasting a second, Twilight threw up the strongest barrier she could, but the lavender wall shattered without even a moment of resistance, sending Twilight skidding down the tunnel.

Ignoring a plethora of stinging scrapes and aching bruises-to-be, Twilight Sparkle forced herself to stand upright. This unicorn was far stronger than Twilight had thought. The Eclipse had gone through her shield like Shining Armor went through a box of donuts. Sure, Twilight knew a lot of spells, tricks, and enchantments, but her magic’s true virtue was versatility, not power. She could perform a spell for every niche, but in terms of brute strength… Unless she could outthink Phoenix Flare, she was going to end up as a unicorn flambé with a side of broken horn. She needed some kind of edge over her, some kind of ace-in-the-hole, some kind of–

–help?

Oh not you again, Twilight thought.

Did you forget that you have a powerful magical device on your head? Twilight’s mind went to the diadem perched on her head, but the voice corrected her. Not the Element of Magic, the hair clips. You completely forgot them? Twilight mentally ridiculed the mind-reading voice for asking her what she was thinking about. Oh. Right. Haha. You will be surprised. You will receive the deus ex machina you were searching for. Before Twilight could finish wondering how to use the hair clips, the voice supplied her with this information. Just say ‘twinkle, twinkle, little star’. And hurry up, because your little friend looks like she is waiting to play. And so she was; Phoenix Flare the Eclipse was approaching, slowly walking with a calm smile as the fire enveloping her crackled and danced.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,” Twilight said quietly. Trite, she thought. But before she could heap any more abuse on the magical objects, the little stars twinkled, twinkled, and an arc of magical runes curved out from the hairclips tucked beneath her ears and in front of her eyes. The arcane runes formed an electric blue visor. Judging by how the Eclipse didn’t react to this, Twilight was the only pony who could see this phenomenon. As she focused on Phoenix Flare, the matrix of arcane runes locked onto her as well. The stars began annotating several points on Phoenix Flare, or rather her the magical flames around her. It was giving her readouts on the enchantments, including their respective magical wavelengths. Suddenly, Twilight knew how she was going to win this fight.

The Eclipse now stood face-to-face with Twilight Sparkle, unaware of Twilight’s newfound advantage. “Had enough?” she snarled. “Ready to die like a dog?”

Twilight grinned, her confidence restored. “Not by a long shot.” And she did something very un-Twilight, something very stupid. She headbutted the Eclipse. She plunged her horn into the magical flames until it collided with the Eclipse’s. As soon as she made contact, she released a magical pulse that resonated through the other unicorn’s body. The pulse matched the wavelength of one of the enchantments in Phoenix Flare’s fire armour, cancelling it out. Specifically, the part of the spell that prevented her from being burned by her own flames.

“What did you– Ow! Ow-ow-ow-OW!!!” Phoenix Flare screamed as she was scorched by her own flames. There was probably a lesson in there, or at least a joke. The Eclipse collected herself and stamped her hoof. The magical flames were extinguished. Phoenix Flare looked positively dreadful: the ends of her mane were still smoking, patches of her pink coat were blackened, her cloak was simply ruined, and her eyes were positively livid. “You. Face. Dead.”

Twilight blew back the Eclipse with a burst of pure magic, creating a safe distance between them. Phoenix Flare countered by loosing a hail of green magic bolts. As the Eclipse’s horn glowed in preparation for each shot, the stars identified their wavelengths, and Twilight matched Phoenix Flare shot for shot with her own pink magic. Their barrages negated each other with a spray of sparks.

“How are you doing that?!” The Eclipse raged. “It’s impossible for a lowly unicorn like you to stand on equal ground with me! Me! I’m an Eclipse! I’m Celestia’s greatest servant! You’re practically a foal!”

Twilight held her head high and proud. “Then maybe being an Eclipse isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” She didn’t feel it was necessary to mention that, until she had actually met and been threatened and attack by one, it had been her dream to become an Eclipse. Oh well. There were plenty of other career paths she could take.

“We’ll see about that.” The Eclipse lowered her horn and began charging magical power. When the stars analyzed the energy output, Twilight realized that there was no way she could simply cancel out the next spell; the sheer magical power was beyond what Twilight could safely use without risking exhaustion. Maybe being an Eclipse was all it was cracked up to be. Twilight only had so much strength. If only she knew some combat spells. She never had any use for them, but now…

The runes that stretched across her field of vision suddenly reorganized and reshaped themselves into Equestrian script. Reading at a speed only achievable by black-belt level eggheads, Twilight saw that the stars were telling her how to manipulate the crystal infrastructure of the Vault. The same way the owner of the voice had. This had potential.

Phoenix Flare’s horn shone with the brightest of white lights, blinding like the corona of a lunar eclipse. Appropriate. Even her eyes were glowing. Just as she was about to unleash her devastating spell, Twilight marshalled all of her magic power and turned it upon the crystal ceiling and floor of the tunnel. Using the spell she had just read, she reshaped the crystal to form a column in front of the Eclipse. Phoenix Flare saw what Twilight did, but her magic had built up past the point where she could just stop. The spell needed to be cast, or it would backfire. Nevertheless, Phoenix Flare tried to suppress her magic, and was nearly disintegrated in the process. The magic concentrated at the tip of her horn exploded in her face. Phoenix Flare was knocked clear through to the other end of the tunnel, where the Elements of Harmony had been kept. This was extremely fortunate for her, because the explosion caused the tunnel to collapse.

Twilight sighed a breath of relief. She was safe. For now. She still had to make it out of the Vault. But now she had the advantage of controlling it.

Twilight should have known this was way too easy.

Emerging from a crystal hallway that she made herself, Twilight found herself at the entrance again. But she couldn’t leave yet, because she could hear somepony down one of the halls. Somepony was pleading for their life. Very quietly.

Fluttershy.

Twilight followed the soft echoes to their source. Fluttershy must have lagged behind the other Hearts and gotten lost. And then she had been found.

When Twilight rounded the corner, she saw Fluttershy cowering beneath Phoenix Flare, who was looking worse than ever. Her cloak was in tatters, her coat and mane were falling out in patches, and her horn was cracked. Come to think of it, Phoenix Flare looked pretty cracked too.

“Where is the purple unicorn?!” the Eclipse snarled, like an animal. She held a knife to Fluttershy’s throat. The emerald aura flickered faintly, and her magical grip on the blade shook and shuddered almost as much as her captive.

“I’m right here,” Twilight announced. Phoenix Flare turned, and when Twilight saw her expression, she instantly realized she had done exactly the wrong thing.

“You,” she said incredulously. “You!” she snapped. “YOU!!!” she screamed. She turned to Fluttershy and pulled away the knife. “It looks as if I have no further need of you.” Her eyes burned with a kind of anger Twilight had never seen. The Eclipse raised the knife over her head and cackled. “And now you die.”

BANG

It wasn’t a conscious decision. Twilight wasn’t even aware of what she was doing, nor would she be aware of what she had done for quite a while afterward. She hadn’t planned on running at the Eclipse. All she had seen was the problem, the evil unicorn about to kill a defenceless pony. She hadn’t intended to fire the gun; she didn’t even see the gun until she was holding it in her magical grip. One of the Hearts must have dropped it when they made their escape; maybe it had been Fluttershy’s. All Twilight knew was that it was the solution to the problem in front of her, the evil, evil unicorn about to mercilessly kill a defenceless, defenceless pony. She didn’t even think it was possible for her to pull the trigger. Twilight wouldn’t have believed it could happen without the evidence before her: the smoking pistol floating next to her, the three bullet casing lying on the crystalline floor, the corpse with a dark hole just below its horn, and the blood splattered all over Fluttershy and spread out behind the corpse with a mix of skull fragments and grey matter.

Fluttershy was in tears, overcome with emotion and relieved to be still alive. The gun dropped to the ground. Twilight stared at the scene in front of her until her eyes lost focus and it all became one huge blur. Her ears rang, her entire body went numb, her ability to feel the magic around her was completely deadened. Before her mind went completely blank, she had one final thought: what have I done?

Rainbow Dash was – if she were to be believed – the coolest, most awesome, most radical pony in all of Equestria. From the tip of her cyan nose to the ends of her rainbow-striped tail that matched her mane, Rainbow Dash just oozed awesome. No, wait, not oozed. Oozing isn’t cool. She radiated awesome. I mean, just look at her cutie mark: A cloud with a three-coloured lightning bolt. What’s cooler than that? To top it all off, this super-amazing athletic pegasus was the fastest thing in all of Equestria. She was the only pegasus in living memory to have ever performed a Sonic Rainboom… not that she knew how to do it again, but that’s not important! If only she could do it again, it would be a great help for the Hearts against the Monarchy. If only. But that’s all the stuff that she was proud of. She was significantly less proud of a certain fact about herself, something that disgusted her to her very core…

“Do I really have to wear this?” Rainbow Dash nudged the lacy hem of the overly elaborate yellow dress that currently disgraced her with its fluffy layers of skirts and poofy sleeves. “I hate all this frilly froufrou stuff.” The prissy pegasus at her side shot her a glare of disdain. Ugh. Her chaperone. Rainbow Dash was no longer allowed to mingle with high society unsupervised after an incident involving a wedding cake, a griffin marching band, and an attempted (pronounced ‘failed’) Sonic Rainboom. Even worse was the fact that she didn’t even want to be here in the first place. What was so cool about some dumb play-musical-opera thing? Nothing.

Rainbow’s chaperone brought her to a balcony overlooking Canterlot Castle’s theatre. “Announcing the Lady Rainbow Dash,” she said self-importantly while the lady grimaced at the being referred to as such. So what if she was the daughter of the Warden of the South? The last thing she needed was to be led around like a prize poodle at a dog show. The two pegasi found their seats among other nobles, celebrities, and assorted other ponies too pretentious to care about this play, or whatever it was. These dopes – Rainbow Dash included – were only here for appearances; it was important for them to be seen at such events. Oh, the pettiness of the social élite. Rainbow hated it, but the daughter of an important politician couldn’t afford to not be here. The only pony on the balcony who seemed to be enjoying herself was a young unicorn mare next to Rainbow, who was staring intently at the closed stage curtains. She wore a simple pink dress that Rainbow supposed matched her lavender coat (despite being every colour, Rainbow Dash understood as much about colour theory as Pinkie Pie did about patience). Rainbow’s eyes trailed up to the mare’s mane, tied up prim and proper, its pink and violet stripes…

It took all the restraint learned in her ladylike upbringing for Rainbow not to scream.

What in the hay was that mare doing here? Here, of all places. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what terrified: the fact that she was sitting next to a Celestia-hugger who could rat her out to any number of the ponies around them, or that said Celestia-hugger would see her in a frilly froufrou dress.

The unicorn turned, and Rainbow’s heart jumped into her throat. “Why, hello again, Lady Rainbow Dash,” she said with a cool, though amused expression. Her eyes slid down from the pegasus’ face and down to her dress… and Rainbow Dash’s heart dropped into her stomach, dissolving into a soupy mess that sat in her like concrete. “I almost didn’t recognize you with an actual manestyle.” Rainbow Dash’s usually unkempt mane had been piled into swirling mass atop her head; allegedly it was the latest style, though Rainbow had a deep suspicion it was some cruel joke.

“What are you doing here?!” she growled at the lavender mare.

The unicorn mumbled something under her breath, was quiet for a moment, then her horn glowed. Rainbow’s pelt stood on end as she felt a wave of energy pass over her. There was no doubt about what it was: magic. “You cast some kind of spell?”

“Yes. Nopony can hear us now, but act normally, because everypony can still see you.”

“So… what are you doing here?” Rainbow repeated.

“Can’t a mare just watch a play without having her motives questioned?” Not when she’s smirking like that, she can’t.

“C’mon. Everypony here is either made of gold or has a title worth as much.” She waved her hoof at the ponies around them. “For crying out loud, there’s some mook three rows behind us with a crown.” The mook in question was a stuffy-looking unicorn – a lesser prince – surrounded by Royal Guards.

“I have connections,” the lavender mare answered, or rather, didn’t. She relented under Rainbow’s glare. “Fine. See the unicorn in front of the ‘mook’?” The cyan pegasus turned around and saw him. He looked kind of familiar, kind of like… “That’s my brother.” That would do it.

Rainbow Dash turned back to the lavender mare. “I still haven’t heard your name yet.”

For a moment, the unicorn looked as if she were going to say something snarky like ‘that’s because I haven’t said it yet’. She reconsidered. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

Finally getting an answer out of her gave Rainbow Dash just the slightest bit of satisfaction. Not that there was anything she could really do with this information, but it was a start. “So,” Rainbow began her inquiry, “If your brother is a Royal Guard, your family must be pretty high-society, or whatever.”

“Trying to get more information on me?”

Rainbow’s face glowed red with embarrassment. Was she really that obvious? “What, are you some kind of freaky mind-reader now, or something?”

Twilight Sparkle smirked, the corner of her mouth turning up just as suspiciously as she had. “Perhaps.” This mare really had a thing for not answering questions, huh?

There was something off about this mare. “You are way too calm for an accomplice to theft of magical artefacts,” Rainbow told her, receiving a shrug in return. “You know that you could be executed for that, right?”

Twilight gave the pegasus her best know-it-all look. “Of course I know that. I’m willing to bet I know much more about Equestria’s legal system than you do. But I have no reason to be afraid of that. You, however, have only a short time before the authorities crack down on your little group and put an end to your shenanigans.”

So much for Rainbow’s sense of security. Losing colour faster than a ghost drinking bleach, Rainbow Dash grabbed the front of Twilight’s dress and forced the unicorn to look her in the eyes. “What did you tell them?”

Before she could interrogate Twilight Sparkle any further, Rainbow’s hoof was enveloped in pink magic and pushed away with so much force, she nearly fell over. Twilight watched her coolly as she stumbled quite un-coolly. “You should watch yourself. You’re lucky my brother didn’t see that, otherwise you’d be a seven colour stain all the way from here to centre stage.”

And with that in mind, Rainbow decided to drop all further questions about Twilight and her criminal record. Rainbow glanced to her other side to see if her chaperone had noticed. Nope. If Rainbow didn’t know better, she would have sworn the prissy old pegasus had fallen asleep. She turned back to Twilight. “So, uh, speaking of the stage, what is this play thing about?”

Twilight’s cool and collected veneer dropped away instantly. “What do you mean?! How can you not know anything about The Ballad of the Regal Sun?! I thought it was required reading all across Equestria.”

“Not in Cloudsdale. Don’t worry, reading about Commander Hurricane founding the city is just as boring.”

Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. “The Ballad of the Regal Sun is the best thing ever written. It's the life story of Princess Celesita. I can’t believe I’m at a live performance of it, complete with orchestra.”

Rainbow groaned, spying the crowd of instrument-wielding ponies standing before the stage. “There’s music too? Ugh.”

The lavender unicorn droned on. “I never thought I would get this chance. So few theatres are willing to perform a twenty-four hour play.”

“WHAT!” Thank goodness for that soundproofing spell. “This play takes a whole day?!”

Twilight looked baffled at Rainbow’s outburst. “Of course it does. How else can you tell the story of everything Princess Celestia has done for Equestria? You seriously don’t know anything about this play?”

Her voice thick with sarcastic condescension, the member of the Hearts against the Monarchy replied, “Do I really strike you as a fan of the princess?”

“How could you not be? The princess has given everything to Equestria. She overthrew Discord; she established our modern society; she conquered the Crystal Empire; she’s fought thousands of monsters and even forced the dragons to surrender. She raises and lowers the sun and moon every day and night, and she saved the world from Nightmare Moon. How could you not be a fan of Princess Celestia?!”

“Well,” Rainbow began, “How about the fact that she runs a corrupt country where the aristocrats – privileged little unicorns like you – make the pegasi fight their wars and force the earth ponies grow their food and make everything for them. And how about the way she lets her stupid nieces and nephews rule while she sits back and does nothing. Tell me, when was the last time you saw Princess Celestia do anything? Prince Blueblood does all the speeches; there’s some ditzy mare with a stupid name who does all the diplomatic stuff; and can that old guy back there seems to be using up all the Royal Guards, even if it is just so he can stand up straight.” Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth to argue, but no sound came out. Rainbow Dash pressed on. “This play is just a load of propaganda and crap to convince dumb ponies like you to love the princess. Didn’t you get attacked by one of her personal students? How are you still a fan of Princess Celestia?”

“Just because an Eclipse does something wrong, it doesn’t mean the princess is to blame,” Twilight muttered quietly.

Rainbow scoffed. Weak. “It’s just like what the Hearts’ leader, Lyra, says: if Princess Celestia really cared about us ponies, Equestria wouldn’t be how it is now.”

A peculiar darkness fell over Twilight’s face. “Did you say ‘Lyra’?” she asked quietly. “As in, ‘Lyra Heartstrings?”

Rainbow suddenly realized what she had let slip in her tirade against the princess. The play finally began and the opening notes of from the orchestra pit drowned out Rainbow Dash’s curses.