//------------------------------// // 7 The Alicorn ritual // Story: Tides of Change // by Lightning Haze //------------------------------// [Lightning's POV] Even though I went to bed feeling great, I didn't have a single dream. When I woke up the sun was blindingly shining through an open window. I turned my head away and blinked a few times. "Ughh why is it so bright" I mumbled while throwing a nearby blanket over my head. "Because it's almost noon sleepy head" Stella laughed and took the blanket off me. "Time to wake up" I groaned and reluctantly got up. I walked over to my saddlebag and grabbed my mane-brush. I groggily stretched out my limbs while using magic to brush the knots out of my bed head mane. I turned to look at Stella rummaging threw her saddlebag for something. "Watcha looking for Stella?" I asked. She lifted her bag and shook it upside down, dropping all of its contents onto the floor. She picked up her tiara and set it on the dresser. With a quick glow of her horn, a spell put everything back inside of her bag. "This... " she said levitating the tiara onto her head. She adjusted it so it was perfectly centered on her head. The tiara was nothing spectacular. It is a simple silver tiara with a gem that matched her cutie mark. "So where did Aunt Celestia go? I thought we were going to talk to her about plans of action as soon as we woke up?" I was eagerly looking forward to the Alicorn part of the ordeal. The doors to the room opened and in came a sleepy and slightly agitated looking Luna. "Tis a good question indeed. Tia sent a wake up call to my room and hasn't even the courtesy to show up on time?" Luna said sounding increasingly agitated. A gray mail Pegasus with a blond mane and a cutie mark of bubbles flew in through the open window and kind of crash landed. "Lightning Haze I have a letter for you from Princess Celestia." She handed the letter to me. Then turned toward the table and lunged forward at a muffin. She grabbed the muffin and hugged it. "MUFFIN!" She screamed. Luna and Stella seemed unphased by this. I however was staring in utter shock as the Pegasus ate the muffin. Stella seeing the look on my face just laughed and said "That's just Derpy. She is a long time friend of Luna's." The Pegasus finished the muffin and then flew back outside. The letter was short and very blunt. All it said was meet me in the Secret Royal Library ASAP. Make sure to bring Luna. Stella needs to report to the armory for ground and air combat training with Wonderbolt First officer Arctic Radiance. I read the letter out loud so Luna and Stella could read it. At the mention of Arctic's name Stella blushed deeply. "I saw that blush Stella. Somepony has a crush on a wonderbolt? Well we can talk about it when you get back" I said in a teasing tone causing my sister to blush even more. Stella took a running start and flew out the window. "Follow me I'll show you where the royal library is" Luna grumbled and started walking out of the room and down the hallway. We walked for what seemed to be an hour before we came to a hallway with a dead end. On the wall at the end of the hallway there was the classic Royal Crest of the Sisters. Luna's horn lit up and and struck the wall in the center of the crest. The entire wall slid down to reveal a long and very dark hall way. "And here I was thinking that castles having secret passages was an old foals tale." I laughed and then lit up my horn to make some light. The hallway wasn't very wide so I went in first and Luna sealed the door behind us. After a few minutes of walking we came to a dead end. I looked back at Luna with a questioning look. "It's to discourage pony's that somehow get into here. Just walk through it." Luna said. Cautiously I walked toward the wall and put my hoof up to inspect it. Just as Aunt Luna had said my hoof passed through it. I walked through to reveal a large circular library. Sitting in the middle cautiously looking over a book was Aunt Celestia. She noticed us walk in and motioned for us to come to her. "Ever since I lifted the sun into place today I have been down here planning..." She rolled out a large map in front of us. "This is a magically enchanted map of Concordia. It updates every five minutes with everypony's exact location and any new buildings or large weapons." She said pausing when she realized I was raising my hoof. She nodded to me to talk. "I've read about these before... I thought Equestria was to burn all of them after the last great pony war?" I looked at the map and then back to my aunt. "Your correct we were supposed to, however Luna and I thought it was wiser to keep an eye on all nations regardless of them being ally or foe..." Aunt Celestia looked from the map back to me. "So I take it you want me down here because you know i'm better with strategy then you?" Luna said "Luna i'm not having this argument with you again" Aunt Celestia said in a warning tone. Luna visibly cringed at the sharp tone used by her older sister. Luna stepped toward the map and looked at it closely. "Whoever has taken over the kingdom has secured it very well... however I see a weak point right here" She pointed to a spot on the western border and zoomed in on it using her magic. "There are only 7 guards stationed along this stretch of beach. I guess they never expected someone to come by sea.To avoid detection I suggest we use this small island a few miles off the coast as a base and send in a small squad of five to secure a position for our main troops to land." Luna zoomed in on the island to confirm that it wasn't already taken. "Wow Princess Luna I didn't know you were so good with these kind of things." I said looking intently at the map. I looked up to see a very surprised look on Luna's face. Celestia pulled out the letter from Princess Rosetta and levitated it to Luna. Luna skimmed it over and nodded. "So you need me for the Alicorn ritual then..." She said more to herself then to either of us. "I won't do it. Its too dangerous and that spell is supposed to be banned after Project Radiance was cancelled. Dear sister you know as well as I do that if we mess up any part of the spell that Lightning will either die or become like Him." Luna said in a matter of fact tone. "Wait what?!? Who? Will someone please explain to me whats so wrong with the spell and who 'he' is?" I looked nervously back and forth between my two aunts. "Both of you need to relax. Twilight has made modifications to the spell so that if it fails the worst that will happen is a mild stomach ache. As for 'him'... It's something you need not worry about Lightning... So Luna will you help me with the spell now that you know its fixed?" Celestia pleaded. "If Twilight fixed it then she can help you... I will have no part in the ritual and if you no longer require my assistance I need sleep." Luna turned and left the room. [Luna's POV] I turned and walked out of the room and into the corridor. How could Tia even THINK of using that spell after what happened last time. I was about half way down the hallway when I heard hoof steps behind me. "Luna wait... Please I need you in there... Look I know you don't want to try it again after what happened to your daughter, but that was more than one thousand years ago. Twilight has fixed the spell and Lightning needs to be an alicorn for any attempt at taking back Concordia to be successful." Tia said. The mention of my daughter made me lose it. "You have no idea whats it was like... My daughter died that day because of that spell. Then the next time you convinced me to help you with it we created two demons... I don't want either of those things to happen again. Tia she has no idea what could happen to her... not only could she die, but she could lose her soul or her mind. Could you live with yourself if either of those things happened?" I looked into my sisters eyes hoping she would see reason and abandon this spell. "How about if we tell Lightning whats possible and then ask her if she still wants to go through with it? If she consents will you help me with the spell?" Tia looked determined to get me to help her. "Fine... however, she needs to know everything... even about Project Radiance... even about Starlight." I started to tear up a bit... It had been one thousand and seventeen years and I can still barely say her name... [Lightning's POV] "I will be right back, I need to talk to Luna. Just stay here I wont be long" My aunt galloped out of the room after Luna. I decided to take a look at the books Celestia was looking at when one of them caught my eye. A book of very advanced and powerful spells. There were all sorts of cool spells in there. Invisibility, powerful attack spells, blindness, poison, one to make cake... why is there a spell about cake in here? Just as I was reading the cake spell Celestia and Luna walked back in. "Luna will help with the spell on one condition. You have to know about what it can do to you and then if you consent she will help." Luna nodded clearly holding back tears. "The first time we ever tried this spell... was on my daughter, Starlight... She was no more than a few months old at the time. She was born an earth pony for reasons that none of us are sure about. Tia wanted her to grow up an alicorn, so she and I devised a spell to make Starlight an Alicorn... Unfortunately the spell did not work and killed her. She disappeared entirely." Luna burst into tears and fell to the ground. I felt so sorry for her. Celestia put a comforting wing around her and then looked up to me. "Project Radiance was a project of mine to try and perfect the alicorn spell before Luna returned. After the death of Starlight I became obsessed with trying to perfect the spell. Two young colts by the names of Astral and Arctic Radiance had lost their homes and families to a fire and were wondering the everfree forest. I took them in and helped them. I eventually thought I had the spell perfected and needed test subjects. I used it on the older one Astral and it had seemed to work. Before I took it to Luna I needed to make sure Astral was't just luck, so i tried it on Arctic as well. It seemed to work on both of them, however the spell had an unforeseen consequence... Astral lost his mind and Arctic lost his soul. Astral went so crazy that he killed five ponies. After the murder he was so over-stricken with guilt that he left Equestria, never to be heard of again. Arctic's only side effect is that he has no emotions and is pure evil." Celestia turned to Luna and whispered something I couldn't hear into her ear. "You said Princess Twilight Sparkle fixed the spell correct? The same Twilight that fixed Starswirl's spell?" "Yes, the same Twilight" She said. "I'll do it... however promise me that if I lose my mind that you will kill me before I bring harm to anypony." I said in the most serious tone i could muster. "Okay... Luna I'll set up for it. Take some time and clean yourself up." Luna nodded and walked back into the hallway. Celestia went to a desk and pulled out three different candles each with different markings on them. One was green, one was blue. and the other one was purple. She also pulled out a piece of chalk and set it on the desk. She drew a triangle around me instructing me to stand in the middle. A candle was placed on each vertex. She was finishing placing the last candle when my curiosity got the better of me. "Do the candles represent something?" I asked. "Yes they do. Each represents a race of ponies. The green is for Earth ponies, The yellow one is for Pegasi, and the purple one is for Unicorns." Just as she finished explaining Luna came back in. "I'm ready to start when you are Tia." Luna nodded to her sister. Celestia's horn lit up and burst a stream of magic counter-clockwise forming a circle with the three candles. Luna did the same except her stream was going clockwise. The room around me seemed to start spinning. There were flashes of light so bright that it blinded me at times and then out of nowhere blackness. The blackness did not go away like the light did. It stayed with me, making me feel alone and isolated. I tried to speak, but my voice was gone. I was surrounded by never ending blackness. My heart started beating faster and faster. I felt like my heart was going to explode. Then I saw a small trickle of light. It began to expand and it kept expanding. The light once again was blinding, but it started to fade. I could start to see two very worried looking alicorns above me. "Lightning are you okay?" Both of them said in unison making me giggle a bit. "Well I'm not crazy and I still feel emotions... did it work? Am I an alicorn now?" I said. The looks of relief that past on their faces made me smile. "Take a look for yourself" Luna said helping me to my hooves. I looked into the mirror and on my back were wings. The spell had worked and we were one step closer to taking back my homeland. I felt tears of joy escape my eyes as my two aunts hugged me.