Chapter 17
The old pony sisters castle
Outside waiting for Big Mac, Luna turned to the sky. “Time for the night to fall “she said, turning to the others. “Do you mind if I scare Starvoid a little?”
“Not at all” Gilda said with a smile. “Let her know we will come visiting soon.”
“That was my plan” Luna said with a gin, sitting down and letting her powers find the moon. Once she latched on Luna smiled, feeling a presence who tried poorly to hide.
“Evening Starvoid, how are you doing?”
“I will stop you… you know that… the borders are closed and my army is looking for you.”
Luna smiled. “Your army? You don’t have one Starvoid. The changelings… helped us out… Chrysalis got tired of you terrorizing her subjects and decided to help us out… for what it’s worth Starvoid, I suppose I should warn you… only one more artifact to go… my friends say hi and wishes to tell you that we’ll be stopping by soon.”
Starvoid on the other end of the magical hold got wide eyed, and then tried looking tough. “Even with you coming I won’t fall… last time the holders got lucky, now I know what to expect… you will not defeat me.”
“I guess we’ll see” Luna said smiling, letting go of the moon, letting it hang in the sky once more.
Looking to the left she smiled as she saw Celestia’s constellation. “By sunrise tomorrow you will be back Tia… you have my word.”
Applause made her turn around, seeing everypony cheer as Big Mac came out, a huge sword lying over his back.
Luna smiled widely. “Thank Faust” she breathed. It was almost over. “All right everypony, gather round.”
They all did, sitting in a circle around Luna, who got out the crystal Chrysalis had given her. “Time to head home” she said with a smile. “But before we do anything I would like to ask you something… in the old Pony sisters castle there is an artifact… an artifact for me… it is protected by many spells and enchantments, but the moment I get near it…” Luna frowned, not sure how to say what she needed to say.
She cleared her throat and tried again. “Right now Nightmare moon is simply a voice in my head. When I came back the bearers of the elements purified me, or so they thought. What they really did was banishing Nightmare Moon from my body… but the elements themselves can never kill anypony. Turn enemies to stone, banishing them to other places or simply changing the way a pony think, this is all possible for the elements to do, but they can never destroy something so bad that it cease to exist… Nightmare Moon was purified… all up to 99.9 per cent. But that final piece of her still exist in me, and Starvoid have been feeding her magic ever since our journey started, making her stronger. When the holders freed me from Nightmare Moon’s control, most of her power stuck onto the armor of night… and I really need it back if I am going to help in the battle with Starvoid.”
“All right” Trixie said nodding. “And I suppose you want that armor back?”
Luna nodded.
“And I suppose you lay that armor at the old castle?”
“It was safe there” Luna said. “And far away from anypony she could influence. And once I get near enough the part that’s still within me will go to the rest… and she will be back.”
“So should we help out defeating her?” Derpy asked.
Luna shook her head. “No… as I said the elements can’t destroy something completely, only imprison or turn it away… Gilda asked me something at the start of our journey… if it truly was Nightmare Moon who wouldn’t let go, or if it was me… I need to do this; I need to deal with her… for good this time.”
“We are here for you your majesty” Gilda said with a small salute, everypony copying her, stating their agreement.
“All right then” Luna said, levitating the crystal she had gotten from Chrysalis into the middle of the crowd. “Then let us do this.”
Luna’s horn blazed alive, her eyes glowing white as she unleashed her power into the crystal. The world around the group spun around and soon they all yelped as they fell backwards, inside a large hallway.
“What was that?” Soarin groaned.
Trixie spoke up. “Teleportation crystal… the concept is simple enough… there are two in a pair. One is small and can be taken around, the other is large and is placed in an unknown location. As long as you have a smaller one with you, one can charge the crystal with magic power and the crystal will bring you with it to the other crystal’s location… but to use enough power to transport 9 at once, that is impressive.”
Vinyl grinned as she sat up. “Well Princess Luna is pretty amazing” she said, turning to Luna who sat up blushing at the praise.
“Well… no time to dilly dally, I want this to end tonight… it’s down this way.”
Walking down the hallway the group looked around. “Wow this place is impressive” Vinyl said speaking up.
“Eeyup” Big Mac said agreeing, looking towards his left where the vines of an unknown plant had taken over a window and most of the floor under it.
“You should have seen it in its glory days” Luna said smiling. “When the sun shone at its brightest and reflected through the stained glass windows, it was like you walked through a sea of rainbow mist. And at night we lit up fires at every column, the light twisting and making the hallways come alive.”
Luna smiled at the memory, her smile dimming as the group walked into a large open room.
“The old throne room” Luna said. “The elements rested there.”
She pointed to the pedestal in the middle of the room, the others noting the five pedestals.
“Why only five pedestals? There are six elements” Vinyl asked, counting the pedestals a few times to make sure that she wasn’t missing one.
“The elements had to be earned, just as you earned your artifacts… The element of magic is hidden until it’s wielder accept and realizes who and what the group of friends are and represent.”
Luna turned to them all. “A group of friends, who will always be there for each other.”
Everypony looked at each other, smiles all around.
“I suppose that’s true” Trixie said, adjusting the crown. “Being friends with somepony is nice I suppose.”
“Oh stop acting tough” Gilda said with a smile. “We all care about each other.”
“Wich makes your ability to use the elements even stronger” Luna said with a smile. “Now follow me, we are almost there.”
“There where?” Spitfire asked.
“The armory” Luna said. Walking after Luna the group walked past the throne room, through what Luna told them was a dining hall, Spitfire noting that under all the vegetation in the ceiling you could see something shimmer.
Pointing it out Luna told her that it was probably the old chandelier, not thinking more over it.
Then Luna stopped. The group walked up to her side, seeing a large double door.
“Is that the place?” Soarin asked.
“I’d say doy here, but I think it’s pointless” Gilda said, not being able to shake the feeling of dread that made her shudder.
Luna took a deep breath and walked up to the door. Closing her eyes she found the lock and opened it with magic. A click signalized that the door opened, and Luna braced herself as in the back of her head, a deep sinister and familiar laughter filled her head.