Twilight passed door after door as she trotted down the corridor. Breathing in the scent of old paper and poor hygiene, she smiled: the smell of academia, a strange perfume, but as soothing as her mother’s cooking. The college hall was a familiar setting, though this particular building she had seldom entered. The administration hall was one that the title of Celestia’s prodigy had exempted her from. She had never bothered with advisors or admissions, and the only classes held here were graduate labs; all things Celestia handled.
A simple door, with the numbers 101 printed on frosted glass, marked her destination this morning. Opening the door, Twilight found a tiny lobby. The receptionist looked up to greet her, but a voice from behind her interrupted him. “Come on back Twilight Sparkle,” came the voice.
“Charm is expecting you,” The receptionist said, ignoring the other voice, and kindly gesturing towards the door behind him.
While the lobby had been shockingly small, the room on the other side of the door startled Twilight with is size: office, lounge, library, and arcane lab all blended into one space.
“Back here,” the voice called again.
Twilight followed the sound, finding Charm Weaver in the back end of his lab, packing instruments she didn’t recognise into heavy-padded cases. He was an older stallion, but hardly grandfatherly. “So where are we setting up?” Twilight asked.
“Well. I think we should go you to the temple and examine the spell first hoof,” Charm Weaver answered, closing up the last case.
Twilight nodded. “Good start. Need me to carry something?”
“Yes please,” Weaver said, taking up half the cases, he headed towards a balcony door. “Just stack them out here. They will be taken up for us.”
Walking out onto the balcony Twilight stacked the cases with care. Looking up from the task Twilight found herself looking at the old hedge maze. Across the garden stood Celestia’s solarium. She’d seen the balcony for years, but never realized who’s it was. “Pretty view,” Twilight commented. “Though I don’t have the best memories about that maze.”
“Discord, right?” Weaver said.
Twilight started to nod in answer, but froze. Looking over to Charm Weaver she found the same spark of realization in his eyes. In a flash of lavender and orange the two unicorns vanished.
Echoing pops of magic found the two unicorns at the base of the re-petrified Discord. Both Unicorns slipped into that second sight only unicorns had. Walking around the stone god, they found the chromatic shackles of Harmony pulsing around a writhing form.
“He’s still awake in there.” Twilight said, with some horror in her voice. A little movement within the stone told her he had heard her.
“Yea,” Charm answered. Squinting closer to the statue he flailed his horn, manipulating a ragged thread of magic lingering among the robes of newer magic. “Feel this,” he said, stepping back, but holding fast to the old magic.
Stepping closer to Charm Weaver, Twilight followed the strings of his magic. He was holding the dying remains of an ancient spell. Brushing away Charm Weaver’s magic, she took the thread into her own will. She knew Celestia’s magic, and this spell sang of it; Luna’s presence was here too. Twilight shivered, she was holding a spell cast by the sisters; the spell they had defeated Discord with. Her mind crawled along the spell pattern, there were only shattered shards of it left now, and the edges were eroding even as she held them; a year or two and their would be nothing left at all. She took the spell in like fine wine, savoring every fassett, memorising every pattern. The elements of harmony were here too. But far differently than in the spell her friends and her had made. Here they were a subtle addition to the spell, a device for an effect. What she had made was harmony in carna, wrought like iron into a desired function.
“Do you think it’s the same thing?” Charm weaver asked. Then paused to watch Twilight study the spell in silence. How she could read the rotting gossamer was beyond him. In a lab he could have: but even then, not while so close to the torrent of power that was Discord and the spell that held him.
“I don’t know. I have no idea what this spell looked like originally, so I don’t know how much is missing,” Twilight said, running her magic deep within Discord’s shackles, finding more tatters of the old spell, but still not enough to piece together it’s full pattern.
“Can you memorize what’s left of it?” Charm Weaver asked.
“Already have. But why?”
“Oh, my little one, so many questions. Let me free and I’ll answer them,” a tenor voice said in the back of Twilight’s mind.
“I don’t think so,” Twilight answered with a thought. Unfurling her magic form the statue she turned to Charm Weaver, who was watching her with an amused air.
“If the Princesses can show us the original spell, and we can measure the rate of deterioration, we can figure out when it started failing.” Charm answered.
“Brilliant!” Twilight cheered. “Then we can do the same for the other spell and see if it started at the same time.”
Charm Weaver smiled. If only he was forty years younger. “You handle that, and I’ll head up to the temple and get thing set up,” he said. Twilight gave him one of her happy little nods before vanishing in a wink of purple.
Charm Weaver sighed and touched his magic to the stone Discord. “Talking to the pretty mare where we?”
“Aww, do we not feel special anymore? I never said we were dating exclusively.”
“And you said you’d still respect me in the morning,” Charm said in mock offence.
Silence held for a moment, before a long snicked cracked out in Charm weavers mind. “That’s why I like you toymaker. Than and you bring me toys. Too bad you’re not strong enough to let me out of here.”
“Not that I would,” Charm Weaver said.
“Ouch...”
“Yea, yea. Lets pretend that I believe you about not knowing why you were able to escape. Now tell me what you know about the temple at the top of the mountain.”
“Which mountain?”
“The one you’re collecting moss from; Mount Equineous”
“Ahh, I was afraid that was your question. Those pups are going to be back soon.”
“Pups?”
“Younger gods, pups. Those six don’t care too much for me, too much alike I suppose. Rather they didn’t find me like this. Not that they could hurt me, but I’m sure they could find a more uncomfortable prison.”
“You’re being somber. That scares me.”
“It should.”
- - -
Twilight knocked on the door to Celestia’s study, as throngs of ponies behind her washed up through the chambers and halls. The two guards flanking her were the only force providing her with any personal space.
“Come in Twilight,” Celestia’s voice called through the door.
Stepping inside she found a pony of each tribe kneeling before Celestia. They each wore gilded bands of white steel, laced with chain mesh. Beneath the steel a colorful caparison covered them brow to tail and hung down to their canons. Their helms were slick and simple, covering their crown and jaw, with only a bar of metal over their muzzle. More chain and plate hung from the helms, covering their neck two fold. “Arise and go,” Celestia said. The three obaid and filed out of the room with only the slinking sounds of armor. Their steps revealed more barding on their legs, hidden beneath the caparisons. Knee to hoof was encased in articulated steel. Heave sharp plate around the hoof told her they were as defensive and offensive.
“That is the armor of war,” Celestia answered before Twilight could ask. “What you are used to is merely ceremonial.”
“War,” Twilight said as if to taste the word.
“”I hope you can save us from it, but I will not waste the time we have.”
The weight of a nation slid onto Twilight’s withers at Celestia’s words. “I, need the spell you used on Discord,” Twilight said, lapsing back to the last whole thought she had. “We think the same force might have freed him last year.”
“It is a mimic of the cockatrice’s gaze,” Celestia answered stiffly, her mind rummaging the depth of her memory. “I am sorry, I do not know the formula for it. Luna and I just imitated its magic.”
“I never thought about trying that...” Twilight said. She had hoped for a nice spell pattern she could analyze, but wild magic could be made to give her an answer too. Though she would need Charm Weaver’s help. “I need to get up to the temple to see what we can do,” Twilight said, turning to leave.
“While you are here,” Celestia said, pausing Twilight at the door, “I think it would be best if you called your friends to Canterlot. More than likely, we will need the elements, no matter how things turn out. I would have called for them already, but they are your friends”
Twilight nodded, Celestia was right; weather fixing the spell, or preparing for plaguebringer’s return, they would need the elements. She had hoped to keep her friends out of this, but soon she’d need their help. “I’ll send them a letter,” Twilight answered.
Celestia nodded, “I will have the ambassador suite prepared for them.”
- - -
Luna stood at the arrival gate, awaiting the Ponyville train. Her two guards the only ponies near her, despite the bustle of the station. She had escaped the allnight study within the temple just as the moon nagged at her for his morning release. Stifling a yawn, Luna checked the clock again. But her eyes barely focused on it before the wail of the morning express echoed form down the line. Gathering herself, Luna pushed aside her blearness. Twilight’s friends would be here soon, and she intended to put her best hoof forward.
The hissing and clicking of the train finally came to a halt as it’s many doors flung open. Luna scanned the sea of ponies pouring onto the platform, finally spotting Spike waving at her from atop Applejack’s back.
“Princess Luna,” Rarity said and the seven made a polite bow. “I did not expect a royal reception.”
“Twilight had intended to receive you. But she, is on a roll, with her research. We felt it counterproductive to pull her from her work.”
“Ah, well, thank you very much for escorting us. I’m sure there more important things you could be doing,” Applejack said as the group began leaving the station for the waiting carriage.
Luna remained quiet as the took their seats in the carriage, only speaking again once they had begun moving. “Truth be told Applejack. Twilight and Charm Weaver don’t need my help, and Celestia is handling the matters of the state. Getting you all up to speed is the most important thing I can be doing.”
“So what is this big emergency anyway?” Dash asked.