//------------------------------// // Third Movement: Part 2- Solo Soliloquy // Story: Sonata de Equestria // by MyHobby //------------------------------// Solo Soliloquy The sun set over the Everfree, bathing the forest with orange light. Twilight Sparkle watched it from the window of a tall tower, a cloak wrapped tightly around her shoulders. The tree line swallowed up the horizon and obscured her view of the place she truly wanted to see: Ponyville. When the trees also swallowed up the sun, the first star shimmered into existence. She stared at it with reddened eyes. “What have you done to me? What have you done to me? How could you steal such a life? Naught but a star shall he ever be” She looked around the room. Old, yellowed books sat upon dusty shelves. A desk beside the window held a single candle. Aged cobwebs covered every corner, and almost blocked out the staircase with their silky strands. Her pulse rose with every new star that appeared. Her breath caught in her chest, and her throat dried out. She clenched her jaw shut, and her eyes along with it. “I don’t hate you, Twilight Sparkle,” a memory of Sombra said. “I pity you.” Twilight’s eyes flashed open. Her horn glowed purple as she lifted the desk and tossed it across the room with a thought. The old wood splintered as it caved in on itself. She stared at the settling debris. She crossed her eyes and looked at her horn. Her hooves ran up and down its smooth, spiraled surface, feeling out the dark stain that was slowly disappearing. Her eyes narrowed. “Mon… sters… Hiding in the night,” she whispered with a sneer. “Sha… dows… Blotting out the light.” She glared at the remains of the desk, nothing more than a pile of kindling. “Must… turn… everything to right. Can’t… do… it without a fight.” She looked out the window again. Snow fluttered down, coating the forest with a fresh dusting. “Sombra, you stole something away I’d never freely give. You have no thought the things I’d do to see my brother live.” Her horn glittered again, grasping books off the shelves and floating them over to her. “But now my choice is made up, for what I have to do.” The books opened. “I have to make a stand; completely, utterly trounce you!” The tomes revolved around Twilight as she flipped through their pages. She tossed each aside as they yielded no information prior to Celestia and Luna’s reign. “There… must… Be something to know To… re… Move my evil foe Can’t… I… Find some sort of clue I… must… See this long quest through” Her head jerked back as her eyes widened. “Celestia was there back then With Luna by her side They will know his weaknesses And blow them open wide The end to Sombra’s evil reign Is soon about to start I’ll unlock the secrets to His wicked crystal heart” She set the books back on the shelves, each in their appointed place. She marched down the cold staircase as a gust of wind blew snow into the room. “I’ve… had… Enough of this king He… won’t… Reign over anything It’s… time… To take out the trash Soon… our… Magic spells will clash” Celestia looked at her reflection in one battered, cracked mirror. One of her hooves was tangled in her mane. She turned to the doorway as Twilight Sparkle walked in. “Are you feeling better, my faithful student?” Pinkie Pie and Spike walked up, but maintained a slight distance. Twilight turned tired eyes upon them, but broke off contact a second later. “No.” Luna’s ears perked up at Twilight’s next words. “I need to know how to defeat Sombra.” Twilight looked from Celestia to Luna. “Since I don’t have The Journal of Starswirl the Bearded, and the both of you have first-hoof experience dealing with this, I thought I’d probe you for advice.” She sat down and leaned forward. “And information.” Luna made her way over. She sat beside her sister and regarded Twilight with a cool stare. “About Sombra’s crystal heart, no doubt.” Twilight frowned. “That did cross my mind.” She let out a tiny gasp of surprise as Pinkie sat beside her and wrapped a foreleg around her middle. She stiffed for a bit, but soon allowed herself to relax. “Thanks, Pinkie.” Spike walked up on four legs, his tail dragging behind him. “Hay, Twi, do you want me to, you know, take notes?” Twilight’s eyebrows tilted up. “I’d like nothing more, Spike. Thank you.” Celestia bit her lip. Luna floated a blanket over to her, and gestured that Celestia should lie on it. Celestia did so, letting out a sigh. “I suppose it would be wise to start at the beginning…” Rainbow Dash tottered to the side as a wave tilted the boat. She held out a wing to steady herself against the wall. She ignored the lurch in her stomach and continued on. She opened a door on the left side of the hallway. Martial Paw sat inside, his beak stuffed in a book. A very specific book: The Journal of Starswirl the Bearded. He looked up with a smile on his beak. “Hay, Dash, take a seat. This stuff is nuts!” “You’re telling me?” Rather than sit down, Rainbow Dash flopped onto her back. Her hooves swayed in the air as she stared at the cabin’s roof. “Luna’s totally married to Sombra.” “Whoa. I definitely didn’t read that far yet.” Martial ran a talon over the page. “It says she’s married to some pony named Somber Tidings. Heh, sounds like somepony had a hard pregnancy.” “He changes his name,” Rainbow said. “After he cuts his heart out, or something.” “Weird.” Martial flipped back a couple of pages. “That’s what Princess Aura did.” Rainbow Dash rolled twice until she came up alongside Martial. She peered over her shoulder to get a look at the book. “Who?” Martial tore his eyes away from the pegasus beside him. “Sh-she’s this alicorn who was around before… before Discord, it sounds like.” He cleared his throat. “It says here that she ruled the Crystal Empire until her death.” “Death.” Rainbow Dash rolled the word around on her tongue. “Alicorn?” “Search me.” Martial narrowed his eyes. “She cut out her heart with this enchanted dagger, and then the crystal ponies used the heart’s power to cast a shield around their city-state. It had the power to keep Discord out, so I guess her sacrifice worked.” “Holy cow,” Rainbow Dash said. She sat up and turned so that she could look at the book head-on. “The Crystal Heart belongs to a pony?” “Yes,” Celestia said. “And the process is the same Sombra used to extract his own heart.” She looked at Luna. “Although he used a very dark magic to remain corporeal, it seems.” “Princess Aura turned to stardust when she… when she did the deed.” Luna shuffled her hooves. “Starswirl was never really the same after she died.” “She couldn’t find another way to hold Discord back,” Celestia said with a nod. “She gave us enough time to gather the Elements.” “The heart is his actual heart.” Twilight closed her eyes. “So in order to defeat Sombra, we need to shatter it.” Celestia and Luna snapped their heads towards her. Celestia cleared her throat. “Twilight—” “You know there’s only one way to stop him,” Twilight said. “For good.” “What about the Elements of Harmony?” Pinkie asked. “Won’t that do something?” “Aren’t the Elements of Harmony what imprisoned him in the first place?” Twilight shook her head. “He’s had his second chance, Pinkie. We need to shut him down.” “No, they aren’t,” Luna said. “We didn’t use the Elements against Sombra.” Twilight eyebrows rose. She settled down on the floor as Luna spoke. “After the six of us, plus Charcoal the Griffon, defeated Discord, we…” “We drifted apart,” Celestia supplied. “Luna and I kept in touch, but the others all went their separate ways.” Luna let a small smile tug on her mouth. “Summer Surprise and Charcoal returned to what is now Fillydelphia. Zephyr retired from his duty as a guardspony.” Celestia winced at that name. “Apple Butter spent his days in Manehatten. Somber and I…” Luna sighed. “Well, things might have gone better had we spoken more.” She traced circles into the floor as her shoulders sank. “We felt restrained by our duties. He ruled Equestria, and I ruled the Crystal Empire in Aura’s stead.” Pinkie tilted her head. “Well, why didn’t you just visit more?” Luna said, in a very small voice, “The pregnancy made travel very difficult.” “Yeah, that’s the sort of weird thing I’m talking about,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “You’d think somepony would have said something about Luna’s secret lovechild.” Martial blinked. “Actually, they were married.” “That’s beside the point.” Rainbow Dash stretched her back. “Who was this kid? Does the book even say?” “Haven’t seen.” Martial flipped to the next page. “Right now, the six Element Bearers aren’t being very friendly.” “Oh.” Rainbow Dash leaned over his shoulder. “I read this part. Sombra—um—Somber just took a trip over to the griffon kingdom, right?” “Yeah.” Martial Paw looked out of the corner of his eye. “Why? You know what he’s doing there?” “He’s talking.” Rainbow Dash swallowed a lump in her throat. “He’s talking with Tirek, one of the centaur generals. I think he’s making a deal.” The feathers on Martial’s neck rose. “He’s trading magic knowledge for ownership of the griffon kingdom.” Rainbow Dash slowly set her chin on Martial’s shoulder. “Can he do that?” She felt his shoulder sag beneath her. “No, but he did,” Martial said. “He led the army himself.” He clicked his beak three times. “Maybe both Sombra and Tirek were the “slaver king” from our history.” “Well”—Rainbow Dash smirked—“well, I guess it’s a good thing they’re both really, really dead.” Martial chuckled. “Yeah. Thanks for that.” “It wasn’t my fault.” Rainbow Dash put her hoof in the crook of his elbow. “Not all of it, anyway. I guess we killed him with highly-concentrated party.” Martial Paw raised an eyebrow. “Too much of a good thing explodes evil unicorn sorcerers?” “Well, you know…” Rainbow Dash grinned. “A little punch here, a little pin-the-tail-on-the-pony there…” Martial frowned. “This is the part you were talking about. That ‘heart’ scene.” Celestia’s brow furrowed. “He was gone so long, Apple Butter and Zephyr went overseas to find him and bring him home.” She gave Luna a side-long glance, but the other pony didn’t meet it. “They didn’t come back, ever.” “Sombra killed them,” Twilight hissed through gritted teeth. Celestia nodded. “I believe he learned the art of dark magic from the centaurs. When he came to the Crystal Empire, he told Luna that he had an announcement to make.” “So he cut his own heart out,” Luna said in a hoarse voice, “on the balcony, for all to see. He told us that his new crystal heart would protect us far better than Aura’s heart.” “Apparently, ‘safety’ translates to ‘chain ponies up like animals.’” Celestia sneered. “I led a team of pegasi to face him, but with his new power, he tore us to shreds.” She looked down at her bandaged wing. “This isn’t the first time I’ve gone through a healing phase.” “Starswirl said that he knew of a way to defeat Sombra.” Luna took in a deep breath. “But that it came with a price.” “You see…” Celestia ran a hoof over her eyes. She glanced out the window and saw a star sparkling especially bright. “He was there when Aura ascended, and he knew how she did it.” She blinked back tears. “The Alicorn Amulet… For it to move that much power, it will take hold of the mind far more than it ever did to Trixie Lulamoon. It will corrupt both the body and mind far more thoroughly.” Luna placed a hoof on Celestia’s back. “Sister, even as Summer Surprise’s legs crumbled beneath her, even as her very spirit rejected the evil in her body, she never stopped smiling.” “‘It should have been me who sacrificed themselves to give Luna and Celestia power,’” Martial Paw read. “‘But Summer snatched the amulet out of my hoof before I could so much as think of clasping it. That daft girl smiled at me. She had the audacity to say that it would be alright. She said that I still had a part to play. She and that ridiculous Surprise Sensation of hers. She truly believed that she could see the future.’” Martial had wrapped a wing around Rainbow Dash without realizing it. She slid her wing across his back as well. “‘Celestia rushed at her, forbidding her to wear it. She was far too late. Summer blasted her with majestic fire, transforming her into something else. Something more. Summer asked Celestia to take care of Moshe for her, and make sure Charcoal stays out of trouble. She then turned her gaze to Luna, tilted her head, and said that she was sorry. Luna, too, was transformed. She never stopped smiling, even long after life had left her body.’” “G-gosh.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes were wide. “The amulet… That’s why it’s called…” Martial waited for her to continue, but she remained silent. “‘The amulet was designed for collecting and storing power, not expulsing it so thoroughly. Her body couldn’t take the energy channeling through it. I can’t—’” He shrugged. “That’s the end of the page. It looks like he smudged ink on it.” He looked at Rainbow Dash’s face. “Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash blinked back hot tears. “Geeze. Yeah, yeah. It’s just…” She pointed at the page. “This was their Pinkie Pie. I couldn’t imagine losing Pinkie. Not like that.” Martial, after a moment’s thought, squeezed Dash with his wing. “She’s a really good friend of yours?” “Awesome friend.” Rainbow Dash snuffled into her hoof. “Alright, get on with it. Hurry up and get to the part where Celestia and Luna kick Sombra’s butt—” She shook her head. “Wait. ‘Moshe?’ The guy that founded your country?” Martial looked back over the script. “Yup. That’s the guy. The old history texts did mention that he got the idea for our government from the ponies.” Rainbow’s muzzle scrunched up. “But you’ve got a monarchy.” “You guys had that, too.” Martial licked the side of his beak. “Until your other princess came back, I guess.” “Other…” Dash’s pupils dilated. “Oh, crud. Do you think Nightmare Moon had something to do with why we don’t know about Luna and Sombra’s kid?” Martial turned the page over. “One way to find out.” “Our battle was fierce,” Celestia said. “It took us half a day to draw him out of the castle and away from ponies who could get hurt.” Her ears drooped. “You would be surprised how easily an alicorn can lose control of their strength.” “He had monsters,” Luna muttered. “Strange, crystalline monsters. He said that they were Grotesques, the only natural predator of dragons.” Spike’s spines bristled. He scooted a little closer to Twilight as he scribbled. “Um, what are they like?” Twilight stiffened. “Like apes with bat wings and dragon snouts.” She looked down at Spike with a flicker of her ear. “He had statues of them in his tomb.” Celestia sucked in a breath. “Twilight, those were not statues.” Twilight felt every hair on her entire body stand on end. Pinkie lay beside her and hugged her close. “Oh.” “The battle left the city,” Luna said. “His monsters retreated at his command, what we now know was a call to bring his heart to his tomb of safekeeping. We had instructed certain ponies to search Sombra’s castle for any sign of the true Crystal Heart, but it is clear that they never found it.” Luna stared into the distance. “We watched, Celestia, Sombra, and I, as the entire Crystal Empire vanished in a flash of sheer power. It took our breath away. One minute, ’twas there, the next, not. Sombra raged, he dug at the snow, he shouted that we had destroyed it out of spite.” “A falsehood driven by desperation, of course,” Celestia said. “We surmise that Aura Feltsun’s Crystal Heart decided that, once again, drastic measures were needed to protect her kingdom from corruption.” Pinkie turned her eyes to the ground. “She seems like she was a pretty extreme pony.” “You’ll get no argument from us,” Luna said. Twilight lifted her head. “And then?” Celestia shrugged. “With the monsters fled, and the kingdom disappeared, we combined out new alicorn powers and banished Sombra to the ice.” “I believe he was freed long before the Crystal Empire returned.” Luna shook her mane. “He used the link shared between him and his heart to strengthen his ties to this world.” Silence reigned, until Pinkie reigned it in. “What happened to your baby?” Luna froze. She shut her eyes and spoke slowly. “She died. Childbirth. Starswirl said…” “He said it was the stress of Luna’s transformation,” Celestia whispered, “and the stress of the battle, and the stress of the betrayal.” “I don’t buy it,” Rainbow Dash said quietly. “Read it again.” “‘Luna’s child was stillborn.’” Martial shrugged. “What? Is there something between the lines I’m missing?” “Heck, yeah.” She closed her eyes and let her cheek brush against his. “Read the first stinking page again.” Martial kept a talon where they had stopped, then flipped the book over. “‘I am not an old stallion. My appearance and somber disposition are an unfortunate side-effect of being the personal advisor to King Discord, the ruler of our fair Equestria. I blame him for my graying beard, my wrinkled face, and my dismaying lack of companionship.’” “Yeah.” Rainbow Dash opened one eye. “So why didn’t he just say, ‘I’m Discord’s advisor. I’m ugly. Life sucks’?” Martial’s ears perked up. “Because he likes the sound of his own voice. In writing.” “Right.” She smiled as they sat together. “We’ll make a thinking griff out of you yet.” “So… we don’t actually know what the Elements will do to Sombra,” Twilight said. She pulled her eyebrows down. “But we can’t waste any more time.” “We need to find our friends, no matter what we do.” Pinkie nuzzled Twilight. “Any time we spend doing that is the opposite of wasted.” Twilight spun on Pinkie, her teeth bared. “Yeah, well I—!” Her violet eyes met the blue of Pinkie’s. Pinkie’s were sparkling, a dampness threatening to spill out. Twilight lay her head on the floor. “You’re right.” She stood and paced back and forth. “What am I thinking? What am I doing!?” Celestia stood and followed. “You’re in a hard spot right now, Twilight. The decisions you make now decide everything.” “So what do you decide?” Twilight asked her. “What are we gonna do?” Celestia patted her bare forehead. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not quite a princess anymore. I can’t command you to do anything.” “No,” Twilight said, “but I can ask you for your advice.” Celestia smiled. “Well played. I would suggest going to Ponyville. It seems to be a magnet for you six ponies, regardless of events.” Luna tilted her head and sighed through her nose. “It is home.” Twilight turned to Spike and Pinkie. “What do you guys think?” Pinkie looked up at the high-vaulted ceiling. “I have this twitchy feeling in my tail that we can’t stay in the palace.” She looked at Twilight, her tail twitching nervously. “There’s something here that doesn’t like you.” Spike hopped on Twilight’s back and was dismayed to find that the tips of his toes scraped the ground. “I say we go back to Ponyville and hide. Wait for everypony else to show up. Get the Elements put together and then ‘bam!’” He stuck out a fist. “Sombra gets it right in the kisser!” “Twilight Sparkle.” They all heard a voice that sounded like wind crashing through trees. Twilight started moving right then and there. “Okay! That sounds like a great idea, everypony! Let’s get a move on!” A soft snow drifted down, even though the roof was firm and strong. Pinkie whimpered. “I don’t think it likes any of us.” They moved out of the castle at a fast walk and hurried through the frozen Everfree Forest. Martial Paw closed the book. “I guess we can look at it more tomorrow. Goodnight, D—” He tried to get up, but Rainbow Dash gripped him tighter. “Wait a sec.” The skin under his head feathers heated up as he realized how closely the two of them were sitting; she to his left, he to her right. Rainbow Dash felt a blush in her own cheeks, but she ignored it. She slid her right foreleg under his right wing. “Reading’s great and all, but… we ought’a talk.” He clicked his beak. “About what?” She frowned. “I dunno.” He hefted the tome in his talon. “We could talk about books.” She rested her neck against his. “Nah. We did that all night.” He tossed The Journal of Starswirl the Bearded onto his cot. “We could talk about flying.” A single laugh jumped out of Rainbow Dash. “You don’t talk about flying, Martial. There are no words.” Martial Paw turned until he was facing her. He wrapped his other wing around her. “I dunno. ‘Amazing,’ ‘awesome,’ ‘spectacular,’ ‘unbelievable.’” “Good words,” she said. “But I don’t think they’re quite ‘flying’ words.” “Okay,” he said. He brought his feathery forehead to hers and looked into her eyes. “How about ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Dash’?” Rainbow guffawed. She pulled her head back a few inches and smirked. “Are you being serious?” Martial met her smirk in kind. “A few other good flying words are ‘updraft,’ ‘jet stream,’ and ‘wing mate.’” “Ask a stupid question.” She leaned forward, placing her head against his chest. He covered the top of her head with his beak. A smile stretched the corners of both their mouths. “Hay.” Rainbow Dash’s smile turned lopsided. “I think I know what we could talk about.” She put her forelegs over his shoulders, and he put his talons gently against her sides. She drew her mouth close to his beak. “We could figure out how a pony and a griffon are supposed to make out.” His eyes widened. He clicked his beak twice. “I gotta admit, I wasn’t really thinking that far ahead.” He looked at the journal. “How do you suppose Summer Surprise and Charcoal did it?” Rainbow Dash gave the book a brief glance. “At every chance they got.” Martial Paw held back a snort, badly. He smirked out of the side of his mouth. “Not a bad idea.” She smiled and closed her eyes. She inched forward, until he spoke again. “H-hay, Dash?” She opened her eyes with a frown. His beak parted, but then snapped shut. “What’s up?” she asked. “I…” He turned his head away. “I wanna say ‘I love you,’ but I don’t feel like I’ve earned it.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Now you get bashful? Now that we’re… you know. Snuggling, I guess?” The feathers on his ears tilted back as his forehead furrowed. She tilted her head towards his. “So tell me you love me, and I’ll let you know if you’ve earned it.” A glint of steel appeared in his eyes. “I lo—” She opened her mouth and surged forward, wrapping her forelegs behind his head so that he couldn’t jerk back in surprise. Their mouths met, and his breath left his chest in a woosh of air. His talons slid up her back and pulled her close. “Land, ho!” The voice outside the door was accompanied by a knock. “It’s time we got that pony home.” Rainbow Dash and Martial Paw turned to the door, their pulses pounding. Martial frowned and let his wings droop. “Timing really is everything.” Rainbow Dash chucked him lightly in the shoulder. “Not everything. But it helps.” They made their way, wing in wing, to the upper deck. Rainbow Dash peered into the darkness. “I don’t see… Is that it?” Martial Paw squinted. “Yeah. Something’s up.” Captain Tawny drew up beside them. He held a spyglass out to Dash. “Get an eyeful, lass. That there be’s Manehatten.” She looked at the bright city, with its skyscrapers and its never-ending activity. A cloud hung overhead that was far too large, low, and stable to be a normal weather pattern. “That’s Cloudsdale on top.” She lowered the glass. “It’s like, some sort of super mega city. Something’s wrong.” Captain Tawny took the instrument back. “Shall we try an’ dock?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No. No, let’s go a little further south. Closer to Ponyville.” “Ponyville, eh?” The captain nodded. “If ye see an old donkey by the name o’ Cranky, tell him his old friend Tawny says hullo.” Rainbow smiled. “I’ll do that.” Martial Paw watched as a team of sailors brought Gilda up on a stretcher. “So, that was the hard part, right? Just getting back here?” Rainbow Dash looked back at the ocean. “If we can convince the Princesses to give us, like, a garrison of guards for protection, sure. Yeah. It’ll definitely be easier then.”