The Canterlot castle was enormous inside. Even if we were only in the main entrance, I wasn't expecting this much space. I didn't know anypony there, except for Crystal, Snow, and Gust. I suddenly noticed that Celestia was standing at the top of the stairs, greeting guests. She looked strange without her horn or her wings, even though I had seen her in Ponyville yesterday.
Gust guided us up to her, “Hello, Celestia!”
“Hi! How are you, Gusty?” Celestia greeted him. “Who are these two ponies?” Celestia smiled at Crystal and me.
“I’m Starry Inkwell. This is Crystal Night, my friend. We’re from Ponyville.” I nervously smiled up at the princess. “Gust is my uncle.”
Celestia nodded, “What brings you to Canterlot?”
“Crystal and I wanted to explore Equestria. We decided to start in Canterlot. Do you know my uncle?” I asked. They had been talking like they were old friends.
Glancing at Gust, then back at me, Celestia laughed slightly, “We've talked here and there.” I wasn't sure what that meant, and my confusion must have showed on my face because Celestia laughed again. “We've known each other for quite some time. I even introduced him to Snow.”
My mouth dropped in shock. I turned to Gust and Snow, “You met because of the princess and you never told me!” Gust, Snow, and Celestia laughed. Crystal was just as astonished as I was.
Gust shook his head, “See you, Celestia.” He started walking off to the ballroom. We all followed him.
I was so glad Celestia didn't recognize me. "Hold on!" Celestia called to us. Spoke too soon. "Aren't you the pony who talked to me? But, you aren't an earth pony. Did you lie to me?" I pretended like I didn't hear her and continued walking, Gust and Snow were talking and didn't hear her.
I heard Celestia sigh, "See you in the ballroom." She turned back around to greet other guests.
Two pushed open the doors to the ballroom. And I thought the entrance hall was huge. The ballroom was probably twice as big as the entrance hall, even with the small orchestra on the stage, and the small tables dotted around the room. Soft music was playing and there were tons of ponies everywhere. They were all dressed up, their manes put up elegantly, and I felt terribly under dressed. Then I saw that not everypony was as fancy as some, and I started to fit in.
Crystal and I kept close to each other; Gust and Snow had wandered off somewhere in the room the second we had entered. I decided to just enjoy myself. There was a strange happy-sad energy about the room. Everypony was trying to be happy during a sad occasion. And I was the one who caused the sadness. But I was fixing it.
Eventually, everypony that was going to come, was here. Celestia came in and walked onto the stage, “Good evening everypony. Well, as good as ‘evening’ can get with the sun still up... I greatly apologize for that, but there’s nothing I can really do to fix that until this problem gets solved. Which I hope it will quickly. Now, everypony, it is time to dance... for hope.” Celestia smiled at all of us.
The orchestra played a little louder now, and everypony was now dancing with a partner. I didn't have anypony to dance with, so I just danced by myself. A strangely familiar voice from behind me asked, “Would you care to dance?” I turned around to see a dark green stallion holding his hoof out to me. I know I've heard that voice somewhere before. He was wearing a tux, bow tie, and fedora.
“No, but we could talk if you wanted.” I suggested.
“That would be excellent.” He smiled, somewhat creepily as we started to walk around the room, “You still don’t know who I am?”
“I still don’t remember who you are. I know I've seen you before.” I turned my head towards him. It was almost as if he was missing something. Then it hit me, “Midnight Ace!” I jumped away from him, but he just followed me, “What do you want? Where’s your horn?”
Midnight laughed, “I can ask the same of you. Where do you think my horn went?” I didn't feel like questioning him further. It was pretty much impossible to get an answer out of him. “I’m here to tell you something. I know why you’re here, Star. I can get it for you without anypony noticing. Because Celestia has her eye on you, it will be almost impossible to leave this room without anypony following you. I can get it for you.”
“How do I know you aren't just going to tell the princess the reason I came?” I asked.
Smiling, Midnight stopped walking and looked at me. “You’re asking why you should trust me? Well, here’s your reason.” He galloped away and opened the door to leave the ballroom. He screamed, “What is that!” Everypony, including the guards, immediately stopped what they were doing to go see what he was screaming about. Once there was a large enough crowd, Midnight somehow managed to slip out of the crowd unnoticed and I saw him galloping down a hallway before he disappeared. I decided to just act casual and I slowly trotted towards the crowd, acting slightly afraid.
Celestia cleared her throat to get everypony’s attention, “There’s nothing there, don’t worry. Whoever screamed was probably trying to get us excited. Back to dancing.” The orchestra resumed playing, and I gave up on Midnight. He had randomly left and now he probably wasn't coming back.
I started walking around the room again and saw Crystal, “Midnight Ace is here. He was the pony who screamed. I’m not entirely sure what he’s doing, but he talked to me, then left.” I told her quietly so nopony could hear.
"Star, I do feel slightly guilty. I was the one who distracted you when you were casting the spell." Crystal muttered, staring at the floor in shame.
"Don't worry, we're fixing this." I whispered back.
"Correction: I'm fixing this." Suddenly Midnight Ace was next to me, hiding something under his tux. "Well I'm fixing this part, at least."
I turned to look at him, "Is that what I think it is?"
"If you think it's a certain element of harmony, then maybe." Midnight said so quietly I could barely hear him.
Crystal's eyes doubled in size, "Did you-"
"Shh!" I whispered, "I was wrong about Appleloosa being next, okay?" Crystal was taking deep breaths, trying not to panic. I returned my attention to Midnight, "Why'd you get it for me?"
"Oh, Star, you aren't the only pony in Equestria who wants their magic back. Mine disappeared the second I came above ground. This is the only help you're getting from me, but I do need to tell you something still." Midnight looked at me and leaned in close. Whispering in a barely audible voice, he told me, "That peach can only last for so long. The second the peach is rotten, the reverse spell will no longer work, and Equestria will be stuck like this." I felt something in my dress and realized that while talking to me, he had somehow managed to slip the magic element of harmony to me. Nopony noticed, not even me.
"So I'll hurry and find everything." It didn't seem much of a big deal to me.
Midnight shook his head, "Time is running out, Starry Inkwell. And if you cared to actually understand what the book was telling you, you would know that you can only collect the items once. If you get them out of order, the spell won't work and will return them to wherever they came from and you cannot collect them again."
I nodded. Midnight leaned closer to me and lifted his left hoof and looked down at the watch, "Time is running out." A chill ran through me. He was dead serious. Time was running out, what was I doing wasting time at a dance? I started to walk away, but Midnight stopped me, "I control how long you have, and the longest time is two weeks. One week and six days starting..." he looked at his watch again, "Ten minutes ago." He smiled before disappearing in the crowd.
Crystal was still in shock, eyes still widened, "You. Stole. An element of harmony?" She whispered, incredulous. I just nodded in response. Crystal looked as panicked as she was when her wings disappeared.
I found Gust and Snow walking around the ballroom slowly, talking to each other. I made my way over to them, “What time is this over?”
Snow answered, “Midnight. Why?”
“Because it ended ten minutes ago and I’m getting tired. And I've changed my mind. We aren't staying in Canterlot. We’re going to get on a train and head to Appleloosa.” I told them.
“Okay. But there might not be a train leaving at ten past midnight, but let’s go anyways. If we can even get some sleep with the sun still up.” Gust said. Gust and Snow walked out together, Crystal and I followed behind.
When we got to their house, Crystal and I undressed, and then tossed our satchels on. After saying goodbye, Crystal and I headed to the train station. I pulled the book out of my satchel and made sure that Appleloosa was next on the list. I was right this time. I walked up to the counter and asked, “When is the next train to Appleloosa going to get here?”
The stallion looked at a schedule that was posted inside the office, “Five minutes. How many tickets would you like?”
“Two tickets, please.” I said. I slid the bits to him and in return he slid back my tickets. We waited for the train to come. We had one week and six days to get everything, which means that this won’t be as simple as I had thought. When we got on the train, I saw fourteen circles that looked drawn on around the peach in the center of it. One of the fourteen was shaded a different color than the rest. I didn't need to be a genius to know that It was counting down the days until the spell wouldn't work and Equestria would be stuck like this.
I gazed out the window and saw Midnight Ace leaning against a light post. He was tossing a peach up in the air, it was bitten into. Suddenly he looked up at me and stared at me. He winked just before a magenta pony walked in front of him, when she was past him, he had disappeared.
I laid down on the seat to sleep for the night. A world without unicorns or pegasi would last 13 days at the least and forever at the most. I prefer 13 days.