“Distance: 3500. Target remains stationary.”
The Princess of the Night coldly regards the abominable creation before her through the reinforced windows of the Concordia’s bridge. The surrounding ponies, all members of the Night Guard, remain silent, nervously waiting for their Princess’ orders. Though they’re no strangers to Luna’s brooding moods, in this particular case most of the officers are afraid to speak even a whisper lest she turn her building anger toward them.
“...Wing A will move forward for a bombardment. Wing B will ready torpedoes should the target deign to move. The Concordia will remain here, with all armaments at the ready.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
The ponies on the bridge begin to carry out their respective tasks without hesitation. Orders are quickly relayed to the rest of the fleet while the Concordia’s commanders prepare her own offense.
By its outward appearance, it’s easy to mistaken the ship for merely being one of the world’s largest luxury superliners. As the official mode of long distance transportation for the Equestrian Royalty, no expense was spared, and stepping inside is akin to entering a grand five-star resort. Many diplomatic meetings with world leaders have occurred in its staterooms, and the many ballrooms have held their fair share of lavish parties for the Nobility. But beneath all the pomp and splendor lies perhaps the most powerful weapon in Equestria’s arsenal.
Hidden away behind the ship’s gold-lined outer decorative paneling are 24 standard cannons, 4 heavy cannons, and 8 air torpedo tubes, giving it more combined firepower than any airship built to date. Though deemed excessive by some, especially when Equestria attempts to preach peace in all its dealings, in a world with war-hungry griffons and minotaurs, irate dragons, hydras, mythical beasts and other unmentionable monsters clawing at the gates of Tartarus, speaking softly while carrying a big stick is sometimes the most prudent policy.
And there is no bigger proponent of said policy than Princess Luna, who spearheaded the Concordia’s construction shortly after her return from exile. Her cyan eyes watch as the first battle group moves into firing range of the enemy vessel. She knows through experience that though her sister has a kind heart and always looks for the best in others, there are some who will only be brought to understanding through submission, such as this arrogant little foal of an alicorn and her dangerous toy...
“Wing A, within firing range!”
Luna closes her eyes and breathes out.
“Begin.”
Immediately, a chorus of cannons across five ships rings out, breaking the silence and filling the sky with light. The Harbinger shows no sign of movement as it weathers the punishment, explosions rippling across its hull and smoke starting to obscure it from view.
Her eyes narrow. “Wing B, fire torpedoes.”
“Understood, Your Highness! Wing B, torpedoes away!”
Ten air torpedoes streak toward the gathering black cloud from the second group of airships waiting nearby. The weapons, though much slower than a cannon’s projectile, are far more destructive by several orders of magnitude and capable of limited magical guidance. A single torpedo hit is a guaranteed kill against a standard airship, and all ten find their mark on the Harbinger, painting the sky with a display of light so grand that for an instant some of the ponies still in Canterlot’s streets mistaken it for the risen sun.
“Hold.”
The din of the cannons ceases, with only the echoes of prior explosions still sounding out through the cold winter sky. All the ponies watch intently as the shining light and thick smoke obscuring their target begins to disperse...
...Only to reveal the great vessel, completely unharmed and surrounded by a deep purple magical barrier, which shines for an instant before flickering and fading away. A pall of stunned silence hangs over the bridge. A few of the officers risk a glance over to their Princess, only to find her expression unreadable as she taps one of her hooves in thought.
With a spark of light, the familiar distorted image of Twilight Sparkle appears before Luna, a radiant smile on the smaller alicorn’s face.
“As you can see, conventional weapons have no effect. The entirety of the Harbinger is protected by a Level 8 magical ward, constantly channeled via the integrated Arcane Resonance Chamber, or ARC for short. I don’t even need to be present for it to function! Isn’t that amazing?”
“Not particularly,” the Night Princess yawns. “We expected as much.”
Twilight’s smile fades somewhat. “...Oh. Well, you seem confident now, but I think you’ll change your mind once you see what else I have in store!”
With a somewhat maniacal giggle, her image fades away once again.
“...Recall both groups to rally behind the Concordia. We shall be moving to the focal dais. Captain Haze.”
A bat pony stallion salutes. “Highness!”
“You shall be in charge of the bridge in the interim. Maintain a defensive formation until further ordered.”
“Understood!”
With a swish of her tail, Luna turns and leaves the bridge, heading to a secret room buried deep within the ship’s countless winding corridors.
~~~~~~~~~
Your jaw nearly hits the deck as the smoke clears and the massive stone ship remains unharmed.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me...”
The rest of the ponies around you are in a similar state of shock. Once the battle started, you couldn’t resist getting a better look and were drawn away from the controls to the rail to take a seat with the rest of the crew. As always, Celestia is by your side, her magenta eyes following the action intently.
“...It’s not unexpected. With the amount of magical energy running throughout the vessel, a barrier being present was a near certainty. Luna’s merely testing the limits to see how best to approach the situation from here.”
Applejack looks over to the alicorn, her little sister held close in her hooves. “The Princess ain’t gonna hurt Twilight, is she...? With all this cannon fire an’ torpedoes, an’ warships an’ whatnot flyin’ around, ah’m startin’ ta get worried...”
You can see the others turn their attention to the bigger pony, looks of concern on their faces.
Celestia smiles and shakes her head. “No. Regardless of how bad things get, Luna will not harm her if she can avoid it. Though on the outside she may appear to be overly serious and severe, I can assure you, underneath that bravado rests a gentle, if somewhat mischievous heart. I imagine she’s actually having fun playing with Twilight like this.”
Rarity looks down at Sweetie Belle and combs out a tangle she spots in her mane with a levitated hairbrush. “Well, as odd as that sounds, she is your little sister and you know her best...”
Rainbow shrugs, the motion nearly toppling the little orange pegasus perched atop her head. “Yeah, plus Twilight’s pretty tough when she wants to be. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“Yep, yep!” Pinkie nods with a smile.
“I... I hope so...” Fluttershy mutters before looking away.
“Looks like they’re regroupin’.”
You turn your attention back to the action at the sound of Mac’s voice to see the smaller airships starting to move away to safer positions. The Concordia itself begins to pull forward and the Harbinger responds, moving toward the distant battle group at a glacial pace. It’s so slow you have to really focus to notice it’s even moving at all.
“...Huh. That’s weird. For some reason I expected it to be really fast,” you mutter.
Mac chuckles. “It ain’t even got engines’re anythin’, so ah don’t know where you got that idea from.” He glances over to Celestia. “If it wants ta move at all it needs ta use spells, right?”
“That’s right,” she replies. “I can see that some of the runes inscribed near the back are related to manipulating the wind and were likely intended for propulsion. But to move an object of that size using the wind alone...”
“Yeah, it can’t be easy,” you say.
“But... but...” Fluttershy squeaks, drawing everyone’s attention. “If the ship is so slow, how was it able to reach us so soon after we came out of the clouds?”
Hey, wait a minute, that’s a really good point. How did Twilight...?
You hear that distinct sound resembling the ocean and thunder rumble in the distance once again, and everyone suddenly falls silent. Where the great stone ship once hovered in the boundless pre-dawn sky is now a sheen of light black mist, which quickly wisps away to reveal only the shining stars beyond...
You hear murmurs of disbelief from the assembled ponies as they search for any sign of the now vanished Harbinger.
Mac rubs his eyes as he peers around. “Am... am ah seein’ this right? What in tarnation...”
“Yeah... it’s really gone,” you stammer. “Don’t ask me how.”
Celestia shakes her head in disbelief. “It’s typical Twilight. Instead of addressing the issue she decided to bypass it entirely.”
You turn to Sun Horse, her ears folded back with worry. “What do you mean?”
“Instead of attempting to craft a spell that would be able to move it at a decent speed under its own power, she’s opted to use short-range teleportation magic to transport the entire ship wherever she pleases in quick bursts. It’s a tremendous waste of energy, but for Twilight it likely makes perfect sense. Even as a filly, her immense latent magical power skewed her understanding of how to properly manage and conserve one’s magical reserves. She’d use vast amounts of magic to accomplish the simplest of tasks, because she believed if it was available to her, why not utilize it?”
Applejack perks up. “Oh. Ya mean like how she kinda teleports around all over the place for no good reason sometimes?”
“Yes, that’s one example. Most unicorns find teleportation an extremely taxing spell to cast, but she does it with ease. If you were to describe an average unicorn’s magical capacity as a bucket of water, Twilight’s capacity would be that of an entire well... not infinite, but seemingly boundless to most. And now, after her ascension, it’s only increased, though how much is difficult to say.”
You think back to what Twilight told you during the wedding about how draining her power was like emptying the ocean into a bunch of buckets. At the time you thought she was bluffing, but to see her able to pull off stuff like this...
“Whoa! What the hay?!”
Rainbow’s outburst pulls your attention back to the sky just in time to see a multitude of thin dark clouds from the storm below you rise up like lances to impact several of the armada’s airships. The cloudy spears crash against their hulls like waves upon the shore and coat them with a strange black mist. While the impacts don’t seem to cause any direct damage, it quickly becomes apparent that the affected ships are having difficulty maintaining their speed as they attempt to flee...
~~~~~~~~~
The nearby intercom crackles, “Your Highness, forgive the interruption, but there’s been a development.”
Princess Luna opens one eye, her concentration broken. “Is that so? Report.”
“Several retreating vessels in both Wings have reported being struck by an unknown energy weapon. Though they’re indicating no damage, the engine output of the affected ships is falling rapidly, and re-tuning seems to have no effect. At the current rate, they’ll be completely unable to move in roughly three minutes.”
“A weapon forged of that accursed storm... have the affected ships retreat as far as they are able. Has the enemy re-emerged yet?”
“No, Your Highness.”
The Princess frowns. “Hiding within the clouds... how cowardly, Twilight Sparkle. We expected better of thee.”
With a yawn, she stretches in the center of the great empty room, her countless reflections from the perfectly curved mirrored walls moving with her.
“Captain Haze, open the shutters.”
“Right away, Your Highness,” the intercom crackles again before falling silent.
There’s a cold rush of air as the panels of the room’s far wall fold back and pull away to reveal the vast sky beyond. The alicorn’s mane and tail flutter wildly in the wind as her cyan eyes regard the scene before her.
The dark clouds continue to swirl below, while the light of the not-yet-risen sun shines directly in the east. It highlights the frames of the unfortunate ships in Wings A and B that were struck by the strange weapon. They limp toward the Concordia’s position, their turbines barely turning now that their engines are starting to fail.
Luna’s hoof taps the mirrored floor in annoyance. “Our patience is wearing thin. SHOW THYSELF!”
The Princess’ Canterlot Voice rings out above the sound of the wind, then fades away to nothing. The reply comes quickly in the form of a crashing clap of thunder followed by an explosion of dark mist which dissipates to reveal the Harbinger once again. Strange purple lights shine within its wings, and in an instant multiple bolts of lightning leap from the vessel toward the fleet’s crippled airships. They penetrate each ship’s helium frame with surprisingly surgical precision for such a chaotic element; the damage inflicted so severe that the frames can’t be easily field patched. The affected ships immediately begin to lose altitude and plunge into the storm below as their helium escapes, leaving only a clear swath of sky between the Harbinger and the fleet’s remnants.
The intercom crackles to life again, Captain Haze’s desperate voice distorted by static.
“Wing A has been wiped out! Wing B, units 1, 3, and 4 sinking! We just lost eight ships!”
Luna sighs. “Remain calm. Are they sinking in a controlled manner?”
“Y-Yes, Your Highness!”
“Then instruct them to follow protocol and steer to the Canterlot fields to avoid damaging the city. The remaining units of Wing B are to retreat and stay out of the battle. The Concordia is to move to the enemy’s port side. Is that understood?”
“Yes, understood!”
The intercom falls silent again as the ship begins to move, repositioning itself to the Harbinger’s port side. Unlike the stone vessel, the Concordia remains amazingly fast for its size courtesy of its eight oversized third generation engines. In no time at all, the Harbinger’s profile comes into view, the spinning, rune-covered sphere at its center reflected in Luna’s eyes.
“Well, what did you think?”
She turns her attention to the newly-appeared, yet distorted figure of Twilight Sparkle standing nearby. The smaller alicorn prances around her with pride, her head held high.
“In addition to conventional weapons not being able to damage the ship, the Harbinger makes use of several types of new magical weapons! Storm Torpedoes, as you’ve seen, have the capability to disrupt the magical engines of ships or temporarily quench the magical fires of dragons, leaving them helpless! And the eight Lightning Cannons are not only faster and more accurate than standard heavy cannons, but they don’t require ammunition either!” She rears up and clops her hooves together. “Oh, the field tests are working out even better than I imagined! I can’t wait to see Anon’s reaction!”
Luna rolls her eyes. “Indeed, it is quite an effective demonstration of our Progenitors’ most blasphemous designs. Though we admit, we are curious... how does the ship’s movement operate?”
Twilight perks up. “Oh, it’s simple! Thanks to the power of the ARC, the Harbinger can teleport short or long distances depending on the desired destination. It takes time to charge, of course, but if you run the calculations, the charge time is offset by the ability to instantly travel to the destination point. It’s much faster than moving using conventional engines!”
“We see. And this ‘ARC’ thou speakest of... it would be the sphere in the center of the ship, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right!”
“As we suspected.”
The Night Princess’ horn begins to shine, and Twilight giggles in response.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to try to power through the barrier and damage the ARC. It’s not possible. That initial high-powered magical blast you struck the ship with earlier did no damage aside from moving it around a bit, so I don’t see what you’re intending to accomplish here.”
Luna smiles. “How fortunate, then, Twilight Sparkle... thou shalt learn something new this day. Sister has always told us of thine eagerness for new knowledge, so we hope this will be to thy liking.”
Luna’s body glows with a pale blue light, which is in turn reflected and amplified by the room’s many mirrors, and the smaller alicorn has to shield her eyes and turn away at the sight or risk being blinded.
“W-What? What’s—”
The intensity of the magic banishes Twilight’s projection before she can finish speaking. Luna closes her eyes and concentrates, pouring more and more magic into the room...
~~~~~~~~~
To say that the surprising reappearance of the Harbinger and its subsequent sinking of most of Luna’s fleet had most of you in shock and / or hysterics would be an understatement. A good wave of panic rolled throughout all present on the Dawn Star’s deck at the sight. You would’ve run back to the controls to get the ship the hell away from here had an outstretched white wing and its pretty alicorn owner not talked you down.
But what’s happening now, with the great blue light gathering within the Concordia’s depths, has you all completely stunned, with the exception of Celestia who watches the proceedings with her full attention.
“What’s happening...?”
You ask the question to no one in particular. However, Cel’s ears flick when she hears you speak and she calmly answers, “This is the Concordia’s great secret. I told you before that with an alicorn at the helm, its role changes. There’s a focal dais located within the ship which acts as a powerful magic amplifier. When charged by one of us, it can produce an energy which can reduce even a mountain to mere cinders.”
You turn to her, mouth agape. “...Why in the hell would you guys ever need a weapon like that?!”
She closes her eyes and sighs. “In truth, it’s never been used. But I believe the answer to your question lies before us.”
Your attention shifts back to the action just in time to see a blinding blue beam of energy, about three times the size of the previous one, fire from the open bay in the Concordia’s bow. The purple shield around the Harbinger immediately returns, only to be shredded away by the massive surge of magic as it washes over the great stone ship.
It’s a direct hit on the central sphere. The energy beam peels large pieces of stone from its surface, erasing some of the runes there and causing others to flicker and fade, but it doesn’t manage to penetrate the armored exterior before dissipating. The Harbinger is left scorched and scarred in the sky, pushed even further away from you by the attack. The wind runes positioned across its wings shine with a teal light as it attempts to reorient itself and recover, but it seems Luna has other plans.
The Concordia turns to face the Harbinger’s new position, then charges forward as the blue light within shines forth once more. Again, the great energy beam fires and again it finds its mark upon the sphere. The defensive purple shield is washed away before it can even fully form, causing the ship’s structure to face the full force of the destructive power directed against it.
This time, the damage extends far beyond mere surface scratches. The beam punctures a hole at its closest point of impact, allowing the magical energy to flood inside the sphere before it dissipates. Though there’s no discernable exit wound, the large spider-web cracks beginning to form across its surface don’t bode well for its continued structural integrity. The many magical runes are randomly flickering now, as if they were individual light bulbs in a malfunctioning traffic sign, and the ship wavers in place, seemingly unable to properly level out and remain stationary. It’s clear now that another hit will likely cleave the great vessel apart.
“Holy. Buck.” The cyan pegasus is the first among you to speak, her thoughts interrupted by a purple tail smacking her in the side. “OW! Hey!”
“Watch your language! There are fillies present!” Rarity gestures to Scootaloo, who still remains perched atop Rainbow’s head. You doubt she even heard it considering the stars in her eyes and the fact that she’s just muttering ‘So. Awesome.’ over and over again.
Celestia giggles and then nudges you with her wing. “See? I told you Lulu would be more than capable of handling the situation.”
“Yeah... I guess you were right.”
“Not only that,” Mac drawls, “but she managed ta push the ship out away from the city, so when it breaks apart it won’t hurt anypony. Your Sis’s a sharp one, all right.”
Celestia nods, a smile on her face. “Yes, that she is.”
~~~~~~~~~
Twilight watches in horror as the Concordia bears down on her for one final follow-up attack, its great energy weapon nearly charged. If her previous observations hold true, it takes roughly 103.25 seconds from the moment the last burst dissipates before it can fire again. It should be... no, it WILL be enough time—!
Just as the light from the enemy ship’s bow shines its brightest, Twilight initiates the teleport. The Harbinger vanishes, moving to the safety of the storm clouds once again. It’s not a permanent solution; far from it, but it will buy her the time she desperately needs to form a plan.
She sighs and runs a charge of energy through her horn, linking to the aether currents flowing throughout the ship to assess its condition. It still somewhat hurts for her to use magic after breaking the Geas at the wedding, but she needs information!
She winces in pain as the spell completes, and the findings are grim. The ship is falling apart. It’s not so much the physical damage sustained that matters, it’s the incantations themselves that are breaking down. If this continues, the vessel will fall out of the sky in roughly half an hour, whether Luna intervenes again or not.
“I don’t understand... I... I did everything right, didn’t I?”
The little alicorn sniffles and blinks away a few tears in the quiet but lonely bridge.
“Every future I saw brought Anon and me together. Every single one. It’s... it’s not statistically impossible that I happened to live out one that didn’t, but it is improbable based on the sample size, so I don’t understand...”
She shakes her head, a few unintentional chuckles escaping her lips.
“You’ve really bungled this one, haven’t you, Twilight? What can you do? Luna knows where you are, and she’ll start breaking the storm apart with magic soon. You can’t dodge her attack, you can’t block it, and you can’t teleport far enough away to make a difference... it’s hopeless, isn’t it?”
She turns and trots away, ears folded back and lost in her thoughts. Her hooves carry her down the long bow corridor to the Arcane Resonance Chamber, and what she sees when she gets there causes her to burst into hysterical laughter. She laughs, and laughs, and laughs until the tears start to fall.
It’s a wreck. The damage is irreparable. Maybe there’d be a way if she had her full power, but as things stand, the end of the Harbinger’s maiden voyage is fast approaching. The giant hole in the upper portion of the sphere and the pieces of the structure still breaking off and falling inside are a testament to that fact.
She sniffles again, but oddly can’t stop smiling for some reason.
“Maiden voyage... tonight was supposed to be my maiden voyage. I... I was supposed to be married! I was supposed to present this ship, and my maidenhood, to him! It was all for him!!”
The alicorn princess collapses in the chamber, the tears falling freely.
“But she wouldn’t allow it... she wouldn’t allow it... she wouldn’t allow it... AND SHE’S NOT PERFECT!! She’s lazy... she doesn’t strive, every single bucking day, to better herself! To be more, to learn more... she doesn’t deserve him, she barely knows him, yet she loves him so much I can’t... how, how, how, HOW is it possible?!”
Her voice echoes throughout the chamber, but no reply is heard. The little alicorn shakes her head and leans against one of the walls as she lets out a deep sigh.
“Maybe... maybe I’ll never know why. Maybe this is the one answer I’ll never be able to find. ‘You’re not good enough.’ I... I should probably just accept it. It just is, Twilight, and the ‘why’ doesn’t matter...”
A piece of the upper portion of the sphere breaks off and crashes to the ground nearby, startling her from her thoughts. As she recovers, her eyes meet the Shard still resting upon its pedestal in the chamber’s center. On a whim, she trots over to it, her violet eyes reflecting its deep crystalline surface.
“If only I could’ve seen all you had to offer me. I know I only scratched the surface...”
Her eyes close and her horn begins to glow, surrounding the Shard in a soft ruby aura.
“Luna will take you away from me in the end, to cast the great knowledge you hold back into obscurity out of fear. But just one last time... show me my future. Even if it’s a lie like Celestia says, I want to see myself with Anon just one last time...”
There’s a hum of magic in the air as the vision starts to form in her mind. Though she can’t see it, the Shard begins pulling the light around it away into the ether, ever so slightly. The effect fades as the alicorn opens her eyes and stumbles back in disbelief, fresh tears streaming down her face.
“There’s... there’s a way...” She wipes the tears away with a forehoof and laughs. “That’s so cruel, to show me there’s a way when it’s only a lie...”
She doesn’t want to believe, but already her eyes are scanning the room looking for the signs she was shown in the vision. And one by one...
“There’s a way... there’s a way... THERE’S A WAY!!”
With a beat of her wings, she takes to the air and exits through a side passage to return to the bridge. The Dark Star Shard remains in its place on the pedestal, faintly shining in the room’s ever-dimming artificial lights.
~~~~~~~~~
Princess Luna channels a very different spell as she stands upon the Concordia’s focal dais. Instead of her magical energy beam, she concentrates on manipulating the wind to break apart the storm, using a combination of unicorn and pegasi magic to accomplish the task. It’s much more difficult than usual due to the storm’s magical nature, but visible progress is being made and sure enough, what was once an unbroken dark vortex is beginning to whittle down to nothing. As the clouds fade away, Canterlot’s eastern quarter comes into view along with the expanse of fields adjacent to the mountain where most of the fleet crash landed after Twilight’s attack.
The Princess of the Night scans the clouds as yet another section of the storm breaks off and wisps away. There aren’t many places left where the Harbinger can hide now. As she moves to start on the next section, the telltale sound of the ship’s teleportation rings out, and it’s suddenly before her.
The Princess smiles. “Ah, so you finally reveal yourself, Twilight Sparkle. We hope you are ready to end this game and return the Shard to us...”
Her magically-amplified voice easily travels to the nearby ship, but no reply comes back.
“Twilight Sparkle, we tire of this—”
The Harbinger’s eight lightning cannons fire, but the bolts safely dance off the light cyan shield that forms around the Concordia’s frame. Luna shakes away the momentary dizziness caused by fast-casting the barrier spell before laughing with glee.
“A most pitiable effort! Though we do admire the boldness present in thy attempt!”
She begins to charge the beam spell, the light swirling all around her and reflecting upon the dais...
And then the screams begin.
Countless shrieking pony spirits spill forth from the hole in the Harbinger’s central sphere, moving with unholy speed toward the Concordia and a surprised Princess Luna. Her position within the focal dais and her concentration upon the beam spell prevents her from dodging as one enters the ship through the opened shutters and passes through her chest. She cries out and collapses, the immense pain freezing up all of her senses. With a spark and a nearly deafening high-pitched noise, the spell she was channeling misfires and the energy meant to be directed toward the Harbinger begins to flow back into the ship itself, shattering the many mirrors around the dais and surging into the vulnerable superstructure.
She can feel the vessel shudder as her vision fades and she loses consciousness...
~~~~~~~~~
You’re powerless to do anything but watch as the hull of the Concordia grotesquely distorts before being nearly torn in half by the radiating magical energy flowing from the bow section. A series of explosions cascade across the frame as the onboard ammunition stores ignite, and thick clouds of smoke begin to billow from the ship’s many fatal wounds.
“Oh my goodness...”
“No...”
“LUNA!!”
The ponies around you all cry out in horror, but Cel nearly jumps over the rail in an attempt to aid her sister. Only a quick tackle from you that ultimately brings her to the deck stops her, though she struggles against you the entire time.
“Let me go, Anon! I have to reach Luna!”
“Stop it! You can’t fly, remember?!”
Rainbow jumps up, flaring her wings. “Maybe she can’t, but I can! I’ll— what the hay, get off!!”
Your hand reaches out to grab her colorful tail, pulling her back to the deck before she can get going.
“Shut up and listen to me! You can’t go out there, there’re goddamn ghosts all over the thing! If you get touched by one of ‘em you’re gonna pass out and fall to your death!”
Applejack removes her hat and tears her eyes away from the scene, focusing the emerald orbs on you. “Well... we’ve gotta do somethin’! If we don’t...”
Rarity peers over the rail, a look of terror on her face. “The... the ponies in the city will be...”
The great airship begins to capsize and fall toward the earth below. You follow its course with your eyes and there’s no doubt about it... if it continues like this, it’ll crash right into the eastern edge of Canterlot.
This is bad. What do you do? What can you do? The Harbinger and ghosts surrounding it are one thing, but what could you do to stop the Concordia even if you managed to get near it?
As if on instinct, you touch the Orb of Ascension, still safely held in your jacket’s pocket.
“She’s right, Cel. We have to do something...”
The alicorn’s gaze meets yours, and what you find within her beautiful magenta eyes nearly causes your heart to quake.
The conflict within her expression is so deep it leaves you breathless. At the same time, she pleads with you to both give her the Orb so that she can save her sister, and to never give her the Orb because she fears, from the depths of her heart, all that will come after. Her indecision travels between you and roots your feet in place; your legs now unable to move even if you wanted them to.
“I...”
Your hand reaches into your pocket and you see her breathing hitch.
“I’m...”
Your palm wraps around the soft fabric incasing the stone.
“I’m sorry.”
It’s all you can think to say as you focus your will and move toward her. She’s nearly crying, but she doesn’t turn away from you as you approach.
You hold the Orb out to her, its incredible magic almost palpable, even to you, and the world goes white.
~~~~~~~~~
Luna’s eyes flutter open, only to shut again as the smoke clouds them. The first sensation to return is the freezing pain in her chest, as if an icicle has been driven through her. The second sensation is a slight feeling of weightlessness, which can only mean one thing.
“Ah, we are sinking. Wonderful.”
The pain she feels is very nostalgic, but she ignores it for now, opting instead to reach a hoof out to the nearby intercom, which surprisingly still works.
“Captain Haze. Status report.”
The radio crackles a bit, and the stallion’s distorted voice answers back, “Your Highness! Thank the Moon you’re safe! We’re currently sinking, and we can’t control our path! All non-essential staff have evacuated to the lifeboats as per protocol!”
Luna smiles. It’s nice to have experienced, competent officers on hoof in situations like these. Indeed, one thing she’ll never understand about her sister is her insistence on sending a rag-tag group of arguably neurotic mares to address some of the Kingdom’s biggest crises...
“Very good. Have you determined where we will impact?”
“Yes, Your Highness, though we’re trying to avoid it, we’re on a collision course with the Eastern Quarter residential district.”
Luna’s smile fades. “And what is the status of the evacuation on the ground we ordered?”
“Only 75% complete, Your Highness.”
She sighs. “We see. Well done staying at your post given the situation, Captain, but all remaining staff are to evacuate effective immediately.”
“Understood. Your Highness, do you need assistance? Should I send a team to you?”
“‘Tis unnecessary. Simply see to it that everypony on the ship is safe, and do not trouble yourself over Canterlot.”
“I... I see. As you command.”
The intercom crackles again before shorting out, one of the small fires nearby likely claiming a critical piece of it. Luna pushes past the pain and staggers to her hooves, which is slightly difficult due to the now less-than-level floor and the angle at which the ship is tilted. She looks down to her chest to see the black splotch from where the ghost passed through her, and she grits her teeth in anger.
“Accursed spirits... how dearly we wished we’d never have to encounter thee again. Your punishment over this matter shall be severe, Twilight Sparkle...”
She turns to see the streets of Canterlot approaching through a hole in the frame. There’s not much time left. She glances around, the shattered mirrors of the focal dais shining in the firelight, and rolls her eyes at the sight.
“Of course the dais would be destroyed. Verily, we cannot make things easy for fair Princess Luna, now can we?”
The alicorn’s horn begins to shine as she pours vast quantities of magic into a spell. She doesn’t stop when the incantation completes, instead supplementing it with more and more power; as much as she can muster.
For if this is going to work, she’ll need to use everything.
The ground is fast approaching, but still she channels.
Her starry mane and tail fade to their original azure color, but still she channels.
It’s only when the screams of the ponies trapped in the residential quarter reach her ears that she finally casts the spell, and in a brilliant flash of light the entirety of the Concordia vanishes from the sky without a trace.