Ponyville
Twilight and Rainbow flew down from the clock tower as Celestia’s sun was rising in the distance. As much as Rainbow insisted that they had time, most of Ponyville was still on fire. The safety measures would have protected the ponies in the town, but not the town itself. The first priority had to be insuring that the ponies were safe. The town could come after. Now that the threat had been neutralized they could deal with the fires. For that, they needed water and lots of it.
“Rainbow, I'll go sound the all clear. Can you give us a rainstorm?”
“No problem, how big do you want it?”
“Heavy downpour, about thirty minutes will work fine.”
“Got it, back in five.”
The cyan mare with the golden wings was off. At her speed, five minutes was a very conservative estimate. Twilight knew from several test runs Rainbow could easily fly to Cloudsdale and back in ten seconds, and that was if she was not trying. She never told Rainbow this but she hated when they were apart. Twilight was too afraid if Rainbow ever actually knew, she would never leave her side again. That could get embarrassing, and quickly.
The emptiness quickly returned to Twilight. She hated this feeling, the feeling of being away from Rainbow. There were times when it could not be avoided, such as now. However, it did not change the fact that without Rainbow by her side she felt it. Almost as if a piece of her was suddenly not there. It hurt more than she cared to say.
Those were thoughts she could not afford right now; she was a Princess of Equestria, not a little filly missing her friend. Twilight focused on the task at hand. She had to get to her basement and sound the all clear. Let the ponies know that the threat had been eliminated. She flew faster, gaining a little more speed in order to get the signal out.
Arriving at her house she quickly regretted blowing a hole in the side of the bedroom. Sure, it was expedient, but would the door have really cost them that much more time? Her actions reeked of Rainbow’s influence. Speaking of doors, she finally noticed just how her daughter had set off the alarm spell. The front door was shattered inwards. Judging by the destruction outside, it looked as if Night had accounted for herself well. Even if she did get a little overzealous. Twilight smiled as she realized that she was not the only mare in the family that Rainbow was influencing. She made a mental note to tell Rainbow about how well Night did, such stories always did make her wife proud.
Twilight made her way down to the basement, it was a simple process to sound the all-clear signal, but she quickly decided not to do it just yet. With half the town burning down it would be more dangerous to bring them up now then to wait for the rain to put out the fire.
Twilight received a much-unexpected surprise as she arrived at the basement, Rainbow was already down there waiting on her.
“Finished already?”
“What can I say, I had some motivation.”
“What’s that?”
“I had something worth getting back to.”
Twilight knew where this was going, however, they did have a half hour to kill before they could do anything else, so she gave in. “Really, what would that be?”
“Oh, a sexy little egghead,”
“Is that so, where might you be hiding her?”
“Funny Twi.”
Rainbow grabbed Twilight around the waist and dipped her into a long draw out kiss. When they finally broke apart, Twilight was panting for breath. “Too bad we only have thirty minutes.”
“I know right.”
…………………………………………………
An hour later Twilight was addressing the town ponies on top of the hill overlooking Ponyville. She gave them a complete rundown of events as she knew them, asking others to come forth with their information to fill in the gaps of knowledge she did not have. Ponyville had long since grown accustomed to such disasters. It was standard procedures to have a town debrief afterwards. Although, normally they would take place in the Town Hall, for obvious reasons that was not an option right now. As such, it was being done on top of the hill, the backdrop of the ruined town served as an explanation point.
Nopony interrupted the speech; they had all been through this sort of thing before. It was standard procedure to let Twilight give the rundown and then ask questions later. The few times somepony had broken this rule, Twilight removed their mouths for them. Given, at the time she was anything but happy, the whole incident involved the new CMC, a dragon, and a slice of cake. Still, it got the message across.
Rainbow could not help but smirk as Twilight completed the briefing by saying the rain took an hour to put out the fires. While some fires did take an hour to be extinguished, just not the ones burning down the town.
“So, any questions?” Twilight asked.
Rarity spoke up first, “What were those things?”
“From the looks of them they were Shadowbeings. Anything else?”
“Ah Twi, I think she wants you to explain what they are, not just what they're called.”
Twilight glanced from Rainbow to Rarity; the look on Rarity’s face was enough to tell her Rainbow was right. “Oh, sorry.”
“Shadowbeings are servants of old, they spend their whole lives living out of the sun's touch as it is an anathema to them. Light will hurt them but sunlight will kill one, well sunlight and powerful magic. As such they tend to prey upon weaker creatures at night.”
“Why were they here?”
“That's a good question, as of now I cannot answer that, normally Shadowbeings are solitary creatures, only a few have ever been seen in Equestria or anywhere else for that matter. To see this many, all at once… it’s unheard of.”
“Wait Twi, we have seen this many before. Don’t you remember?
Twilight turned to Rainbow with a puzzled look in her eye.
“You don’t remember, Yes, Rainbow’s time to shine!”
“Just get on with it, captain ego!”
“Alright, can’t blame a girl for trying, anyway we saw this many in Tartarus, some forty years ago.”
A light bulb went off in Twilight’s head. “Of course! I knew they seemed familiar.”
Upon the mentions of Tartarus the townsfolk started to worry, whispers of devils, monsters, and the like started to spread through the crowd. Twilight cut off everyone with a loud bang from her horn.
“None of that! Any concerns you have will be addressed one at a time in an orderly fashion. That’s the point of this after all!”
There was always a great concern when individuals gather in large groups. Individual thought and rationality would lose to group mentality; panic and fear would take hold in ponies that are normally reasonable and rational. Fortunately, Twilight was well read on such phenomenon. Yes, the individual could be prone to irrational, illogical behavior. Which would often result in even the best and noble ponies performing horrible acts.
While this would be the negative side of such gatherings, the reverse was true as well. Provided there was a strong, elegant leader. Ponies could overcome their fear for the greater good. In such times they could be persuaded to forgo their own personal needs to serve the greater good of the community. Indeed, such a leader would have untold power, it could be used for evil depending on the nature of the pony who took charge.
Fortunately, Twilight Sparkle was the noblest of ponies. She had a well-developed sense of mortality and was genuine. Such attributes shone through into her speeches, they calmed the moods and the nerves of the ponies that listened to her. The respect the town held her in only served to increase this.
“I know you're scared. An enemy that should not have been in such numbers attacked us without provocation. However, it happened. What is important now is that we come together, not grow apart. But, I cannot make you do this. So I leave the question to all of you. Will you panic and spread fear, or will you show these creatures that Ponyville is made of stronger stuff? The choice is yours.”
A ripple of agreement passed through the citizens of Ponyville, sure, they had been caught off guard, but so what? They were strong, and they were resilient. This was Ponyville: home to Princess Twilight Sparkle, home to her family, home to the Hero’s of Equestria. Such creatures would not overcome them.
“We're with you Princess!”
“You can always count on us!”
“Anything for Princess Sparkle!”
“For you!”
“For Ponyville!”
“Ponyville! Ponyville! Ponyville!”
Twilight smiled, this was her town, these were her friends, her family, she would be damned if she would let anything happen to those she loved under her watch.
The meeting soon came to an end. The ponies broke up into smaller groups, each talking about what they could do to help each other rebuild what was lost. Twilight walked over and joined Rainbow and Night.
“Nice speech, Twi.”
“Thanks, I had some inspiration.”
“Really, what?”
“More of a who.”
She leaned in and kissed Rainbow on the cheek.
“That’s nice and all mom, but what if they come back?”
“I doubt they will Night, Shadowbeings don’t exist in large numbers outside Tartarus, I'm sure that force we saw would have comprised just about all of them left in the world. They shouldn't be back. Besides, they can only be active at night, and they are only really a threat during a red moon. We don’t have one of those coming up for years.”
“Why a red moon?”
“The red tint of the light increases their power. But like I said, there is no real threat there. I will augment the system to be more effective next time. We'll be fine. ”
Night considered this for a while before turning back and taking a long look at Ponyville. A new sense of melancholy washed over her. “It’s all ruined, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean, dear.” Rainbow looked concerned, she did not like seeing her kids in such heartache.
“I was going too… I should have been married today. But, we lost everything…”
Twilight smiled, “My daughter, you have learned so much and made me so proud, however, you still have more to learn. That down there.” She gestured at the ruins of Ponyville. “That’s just stuff, brick and mortar. It’s not Ponyville.” She wrapped a hoof around her daughter and turned them back to the ponies in the crowd behind them. “That’s Ponyville. It is the individuals who make the community, not the other way around. Never forget that.”
“Besides, do you really think I would let my foal's wedding be ruined by something like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like I said, it's just stuff. I can fix it easily.”
“You can???” Night jumped up, she knew her mom was powerful, but fixing a whole town?
“Of course she can, give your mom a little credit after all.” Rainbow walked up and rubbed her muzzle against Night’s.
Night was excited by this prospect. She had written off the wedding, but now, now it could go ahead, although, now that the opportunity presented itself there was one thing she wanted to correct.
“Mom, wait one second.” As she ran up to Twilight, who was currently on her way to the center of town, Twilight turned around and looked.
“Yes?”
“If it’s not too much trouble. When you rebuild the park, the red looked awful, can you change it back to blue?”
“What happened to red being Dawn’s favorite color.”
“It’s my wedding, he'll understand.”
Twilight smiled at her daughter, she knew a lie when she saw it, but she did not say anything about it. “Sure honey, I liked it blue anyway.”
“Me too, Thanks mom.”
“Do me a favor and keep everypony away, this will be a lot easier if I don't have to worry about anypony else.”
“Ok, thanks!”
Night turned around and flew back to the crowd. “Everypony, Can have your attention!”
Rainbow watched her daughter speak to the crowd; there was so much of Twilight in her that she could not believe it. It made her proud that Night inherited the best of the mare Rainbow so loved. Hearing her speak, Rainbow had to admit; Night was better at it then Twilight. Night was definitely a natural on motivating the crowd, briefly, Rainbow wondered if it had something to do with her unusual cutie mark. She dismissed that, whatever was with that girl it would come in time. When Night began to explain what Twilight was about to do Rainbow started to worry, she did not doubt that Twilight would be able to pull of such a feat. But she had expended herself so much already. It was not easy to raise the sun and moon every day. Luna and Celestia had taught Twilight how they did it. When Twilight had tried her hoof at it, it had left her exhausted. Today, not only did she reach out to the sun, she brought a piece of it back to the planet. After that, to try something like this, it would drain her so much. Rainbow resolved to not let her do it alone.
Rainbow shot straight up, she zoomed over the destruction that Ponyville had suffered. Nigh a building was left untouched. Most of them would have to be scraped and completely rebuilt from the ground up if somepony would go about it the usual way. Of course, what Twilight was about to do was anything but the usual way. Rainbow quickly spotted the alicorn in the center of town.
“Twilight!”
She looked up at her wife, relief flooding her face. “I was hoping you would come.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Just stay by my side.”
“For you Twi, Always.”
Twilight began concentrating, this would require three separate phases, the removal of the debris, re-imagining of how it should be, and recreation of what was. Removal was easy. She reached out with her magic, slowly expanding her mental focus over each and every square block, until it encompassed the entire town. This was only her mental concentration; she would have to spread her magic like this afterword to do the actual rebuilding. For now though, Twilight concentrated on what was abnormal, what was not correct. It was easy enough to see. When something is not in its correct state it longed to be that way, leaving an aftereffect of what it should look like left over. As such, objects that were ruined, objects that were broken, burnt, or destroyed stood out, to those who knew what to look for.
Twilight broke those down to their base components. It would have been easier to simply remove them altogether but she would need those components for phase three. For phase two, Twilight concentrated on the residual energies of what should have been, the after images of what was, what had been destroyed. This was the hardest part. Twilight needed to concentrate on every object in town at the same time. Painting a mental picture in her head of what the town should have looked like. It was almost too much for her, almost. Had it not been for a golden wing that wrapped itself around her at that moment, she would not have succeeded.
Rainbow normally loved to watch Twilight in her element. The mare had always been impressive when it came to magic. It was Twilight’s special talent. In much the same way she knew that Twilight loved watching her fly. The two of them rewrote the books when it came to what they were best at. There was not a pony alive that could challenge Twilight at magic, nor could one ever hope to beat Rainbow in a race. Well, not a fair race anyway.
This time was anything but a normal time, they were both still exhausted from yesterday, and with only a few hours sleep last night, Twilight was nowhere near fully recuperated. Rainbow had been there when Celestia let her raise the sun one day. It was exhausting for anyone trying, the great distance to the target increasing the difficulty exponentially. Not only was Twilight going off of so little sleep, she had reached out to that distant object and brought apiece back with her.
Having been married to the mare for so long it was easy to tell that things were not going well. Despite hours of listening to her lectures, Rainbow had only basic knowledge of magic. This advanced spell, rebuilding a whole town, Rainbow knew nothing about this. However, the sweat pouring off of Twilight's face spoke volumes about the level of stress she must have been under. Rainbow had no doubt that Twilight had the capability to pull of something like this, in much the same way Rainbow could build a house if she had to. However, experience and knowledge were two separate things. She was sure Twilight had the knowledge but she knew for a fact that she did not have the experience.
There was very little Rainbow could do to help her wife. She had magic, lots of it, in her wings. Unfortunately, speed and protection would not help Twilight at all when it came to things like this. All she could do was be there for her. Provide moral support, this situation was alien to a mare like Rainbow; she was not one for sitting around doing nothing. This would go double when the mare who was trying to help everypony was her wife. True, she did not know what to do, however, that did not change the fact that she wanted to do something.
Suddenly Twilight began visibly weakening, most ponies never would have known, most would not have seen the signs. Rainbow did, she knew every inch of Twilight, every tell the mare had. This was bad; this was the first sign that Twilight was in over her head. Whatever she was doing it required too much concentration. Rainbow’s decision was made for her at that moment. If she could not directly help Twilight, she would do so indirectly. Rainbow ran over to her wife and wrapped one of her golden wings around her. She would be Twilight pillar of strength, the immovable object she could always lean on, the one constant in her life that would always be there for her. After everything they had been through together, it was the least she could do.
As the wing wrapped around her body, Twilight found a new reservoir of strength. The physical act magnified Twilight’s power a hundred fold. The pillar of strength that was her wife, it removed the uncertainty about this task, knowing that somepony like that loved you; it gave her all the strength she needed. Suddenly, concentrating on Ponyville proved to be the easiest thing in the world. The mental image completed itself in Twilight’s mind at a level of clarity she never knew would be possible. Over the forty-six years she lived here the two of them had seen every inch of the town, the memories of the times spent with Rainbow flooded her mind. Using those memories she was able to paint a picture of the town with more accuracy than a photograph could have captured. Step two was complete. Twilight only had one more step to go.
Shimmering Night watched the town with grim fascination. For the first thirty minutes nothing happened. She could see her mom’s purple magic radiating in the center, but it did not appear to be doing anything. At precisely the thirty minute mark, that all changed. The aura from her mom began expanding dramatically, it grew street by street, block by block, until it encompassed the entire town. Once it was fully expanded the real show started. Each building began reconstructing itself, atom by atom, brick by brick. It started off one at a time, magic began enveloping around the destroyed parts, glowing brightly as matter would come together to fix what was missing. It was slow going at first. Then it truly started to pick up, within minutes three buildings were fixed, then seven, then fifteen, then thirty. It seemed her mom was either getting better at it as time passed or was showing off. As this was not Rainbow’s doing, Night highly doubted the latter.
One hour after Twilight had walked into the center of town the last building was repaired. It was not just the buildings though, as the ponies would discover when they got home every item they owned would be fully restored to how it should have been. The side effect would be those items that were broken before the fire would also be fixed. It was a nice surprise for everypony. There were a few items that were not returned to how they were. It had taken a little extra concentration but Night’s wedding was once again, blue.
Rainbow’s grip was the only thing that stopped Twilight from falling down. While she had the power for this, it was absolutely exhausting. “You ok, egghead?”
“I will be… I might have overdone it there.”
“You think?”
“Funny Rainbow. Can... can you take me home?”
“Of course.”
Rainbow leaned down and lifted up the alicorn on her back. Twilight had definitely grown over the years. Alicorns were naturally taller than other ponies, however, this was a weight Rainbow would bear forever if it made Twilight’s life the slightest bit easier. She would gladly carry her anywhere.
On the way home Twilight had passed out on Rainbow’s back, she chuckled a little as small amounts of drool began wetting her shoulder blades. Fortunately, they made it home before anypony found them. Briefly, Rainbow had been hoping the hole in the side of the house would still be there, it would be a lot easier to fly her directly to the bedroom. She should have known better, Twilight did not make mistakes like that. Rainbow shrugged as she carried her wife through the front door and up the stairs. Gingerly placing her on the bed; she lay down next to her. Rainbow was not tired, but she would never leave Twilight alone. It was more than just the pinkie promise she had made, she loved this mare and would be here when she woke up, or when she had to wake her up for the wedding. Whichever came first.
Shimmering Night flew into town; most ponies were still gawking about the sudden reappearance of their town in almost perfect splendor. She only wanted to find her parents. As soon as the magic faded back she was off. Twilight and Rainbow Dash would be in the center of the town. She should find them there. Unfortunately, by the time she arrived, there was no sign of them. Save for a strong residual magic residue, which was an indication of the sheer amount of power that had been expended here.
“Where did you two go?”
She facehoofed, of course they would have gone home. This much magic expenditure, that level of power, it would be impossible for anypony else to even accomplish it. Her mom was not anypony, she was Twilight Sparkle, but even she would be exhausted by such an attempt and Rainbow would NEVER leave her side at such a time. Night flew to her parent’s house; she just needed to make sure they were ok.
Finding the front door left open was a little disconcerting, however, it did mean she had located them; either that, or some burglar was about to have a VERY bad day. She went in, immediately running up the steps to her parent’s bedroom.
“Hey Night, keep it down ok.”
Night paused and looked at her parents on the bed, Twilight was completely passed out. Rainbow lay next to her, warming her wife with her own body heat.
“Is she ok?”
“Twilight will be fine, she is just exhausted.”
Night laughed a little at that, Twilight had pulled off the impossible, books would be written about this, and she was just ‘exhausted.’
“I'll let everyone know, and don’t worry about the wedding, it can wait until tomorrow.”
“No.”
“But…”
“No buts, your mom did all of this for you, for the wedding, so do you think she would be happy if you rescheduled it? Besides your brother and sister will be in town soon. The wedding continues as planned. No delays, no rescheduling.”
“I don’t want to have it if she cannot be there.”
“We will both be there, She will not be at her best, but she would not miss it for the world. Go, get everything ready, I'll wake her before it starts and make sure we get there on time to do our part.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, just remember to pick up Day and Aurora from the train station, ok. They should be in at noon.”
Shimmering Night began crying, she really did have the best parents in the world. “Thanks… for everything.”
“No need to thank me, you should really thank your mom when she wakes up though.”
“Of course and don’t worry, I will make sure nopony disturbs you two before its time.”
“Thanks.”
Rainbow lowered her head and kissed Twilight on the cheek. She wrapped a wing around the mare in a heartfelt gesture that told anyone who saw it, ‘She is under my protection, you will have to kill me to lay a hoof on her'.
Night smiled as she left her parents in peace, she had a wedding to get to after all.