Chapter 40
Sweat was flowing down from every angle of Twilight’s face, as she heavily gasped for air. The huge bag of custom pyrocraftery on her back, as she walked—almost crawling—to Mayor Mare’s office in town hall, was too much for her after all that running around from earlier. Still, she knew she had nothing to lose now that she had her key and, more importantly, the fireworks.
Arriving at the mayor’s office, a relieved smile was put onto her face, as she saw it was open. She let it fall down at the door. Magic-nullifying spells, NEVER again.
“Oh, Twilight, good to see you,” said Mayor Mare, looking up from her desk. “You sure took a while before you got here. Did something hold you up?”
Twilight kept her head down, looking at the floor while panting heavily, yet with a small smile. “You have no idea…”
As the smile of the sun started to set and the shadows got longer, the town center of Ponyville that was filled with busy stallions and mares alike earlier that day, was soon full of four-legged zombies, ghosts, mummies, witches, and insurance consultants—one scarier than the last. Twilight herself chose to go with her Starswirl costume from last year again.
Princess Luna—or Nightmare Moon, rather—has already been welcomed by the civilians of Ponyville with great response. The great wave of solidarity was too much for the princess, putting her dark and shadowy appearance into a huge contrast with the thankful pride tears she wiped off of her face.
But even the happiest devil is still a devil, so it didn’t take long before she started chasing after little foals that didn’t give her any candy, though she ran just fast enough so they still had a chance.
“Enjoying the night, Princess Luna?” Twilight asked her as said princess was embracing the fillies she chased in a playful hug, sharing a cheerful laughter with them.
“Oh, We most certainly are, Twilight Sparkle,” the princess confirmed, looking up at Twilight. She motioned the children to go, and stood up.
“I don’t know if you have any ideas about this, but I need to ask you,” Twilight said.
“What is it?”
Twilight coughed and blushed a little. “It’s hard to explain. The entire day was just... strange. I’ve met so many ponies, and they all acted weird.”
Luna nodded. “Ponies not showing up? Loan-sharking? Spiked food? Nuts?” She smirked. “Perhaps even feeling unlike yourself as well?”
Twilight blinked. “Yes! How do you know?”
The princess giggled behind a hoof. “Oh, We are so sorry, Twilight Sparkle. We just couldn’t resist asking Discord to, how do the youngsters say, ‘spice things up a little.’ We hope you can forgive us.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, but then allowed herself to smile too. “Okay, I guess life isn't fun without a little pranking now and then. Anyway," she said, her face becoming straight again, “I need you to make a decision. Choose wisely, as this may affect the outcome of tonight.” She brought out three different small cubes, each with a different color, and showed them to Luna. “Red, Green, or Blue?”
The princess raised an eyebrow. “What are these for?”
Twilight shook her head. “Just pick one.”
Luna brought a hoof to her chin, considered her selection of choices, trying to find any hints as to what would be the best one. Overlooking any detail, anything that could be an indication of the answer, and thus picking the wrong one, could lead to serious consequences.
After a minute of considering the colors, Luna nodded to herself. “Blue. We pick the blue cube.”
Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, the glow around her horn intensifying for its duration, as she picked up the blue cube. A second later, a huge blue explosion could be seen from the night sky.
Princess Luna stood mouth agape, staring at the decaying light. Twilight was worried she wouldn’t be happy about it, but only a moment later the unclear expression on the princess’s face turned into a childish laughter. “Oh, this is positively astounding, Twilight Sparkle!”
Twilight blushed. “Ah, it’s nothing… Just a little something I’ve been working on for the past few weeks…”
A pleading grin appearing on Luna’s face. “Can we try it?”
“Of course! That was the idea anyway.” Twilight brought out a small bag, and poured its content onto a silver tablet. It was dozens of tiny cubes, each with a unique color on it. “It’s simple, just pick up a cube and switch the trigger on the inside of it to launch a rocket with that color.”
Like a child that got a new, expensive toy, Luna started fiddling around with the collection of blocks. She created beautiful patterns like it wasn’t something new at all for her.
“More!”
The amount of simultaneous light flashes started to increase, and also the volume on the explosions.
“More!”
A first batch of ponies was starting to look away from the sky, afraid the flashing lights might give them a stroke, or the soundwaves threatening their ears with acute hearing loss.Twilight started to get concerned as well, and tried to reach out to the princess, but her callouts were completely ignored by the tunnel-visioned alicorn.
“MOOOORE!”
Luna jumped onto the tablet of cubes, and activated them all simultaneously. Dozens of rockets were launched up to the night sky. The explosion that followed shattered vision and hearing with the equivalent force of a thousand friendships.
And then there was silence.