Dearest Madre,
You will not believe what happened today. Well, actually I suppose you must. After all, you taught me the very historical events that I've now become ensnared in. After I performed the spell I reappeared in the ancient Crystal Empire circa King Sombra's reign. But then I was rescued by none other than...
"Celestia," Starswirl said, finishing his first entry in the book.
"Please, just Tia is fine." She said.
"Okay. We need to get back to the Crystal Empire so you can defeat King Sombra." He said, recalling the historical battle.
"Me?" She asked incredulously.
"Both of you." He said, looking to Luna as well.
"But how?" Luna asked. "We only just managed to escape ourselves. The king knows that the unicorn nation entrusted us to be the reagents of the sun and moon. He captured us to try to take control of our powers."
"We were sent as envoys in response to the Windigos spreading from the Frozen North." Celestia said. "That was when we had discovered that hatred and fear had taken hold of the Crystal Empire under Sombra's cruel dictatorship. These things will be reflected across all of Equestria. The Windigos are but the symptoms of the beginning."
"Our mission now is to return to Princess Platinum with our findings, so that she will task her forces to march on the Crystal Empire and remove him by force." Luna explained. "I was captured before we could escape." She looked at her older sister. "We have already lost too much time. You should have just returned to the princess right away and left me."
"I couldn't just leave you there!" Tia cried.
Starswirl's mind recalled every history book he'd ever read. Records from this era were sketchy at best. Before its return, few even knew that the Crystal Empire had existed at all. But Twilight's written record of Celestia's recollection made no mention of a grand battle between the unicorn nation's army and King Sombra's forces in the Empire. She was quite clear that she and Luna were the ones to solely defeat him.
"No, that's not how you defeated-" Starswirl corrected his tense. "I mean, how you will defeat him." He was again frustrated by their blank stares. "To prevent the necessity of bloody battle and the loss of many lives, you'll use the Elements of Harmony."
"The elephants of what now?" Luna asked. He looked back and forth between them.
"You two honestly have no idea what I'm talking about!?" He asked in astonishment. They both shook their heads. He paced about the room, thinking frantically. How are they supposed to defeat Sombra without the Elements of Har- The answer suddenly became so clear. He knew exactly what needed to be done, and where they needed to go. After all, as his Madre would say, 'knowing is half the battle'. The other half would be getting there. "You can defeat Sombra with the Elements of Harmony. I know where they are. They're in the Everfree Forest." Their confused expression did not bolster his confidence.
"Where?" Tia asked.
"The Everfree- come here!" He said, leading them back outside. Walking back to the ledge overlooking the valley below, he pointed to the dark forest beyond. "There. In the forest to the south of that large meadow." He said.
"There?" Luna asked nervously.
"Yeah. Why?" He asked.
"Nopony goes into that forest." Tia said.
"So neither of you have been in there before?" He asked.
"Goodness no. Folks say it doesn't work like the rest of Equestria." Luna said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Starswirl asked.
"Nopony knows." Celestia said. "Anypony who's ever gone in has never come out."
"Oh come on!" He scoffed. "That's just perpetuating unsubstantiated rumors."
"No, it's true." Luna added. "It isn't a natural place. The way the plants grow, animals care for themselves, and the clouds move, all on their own!"
"Yes. Terrifying." He dead-panned. "But it's where the elements are. So that's where we need to go."
Out in the marketplace of tiny Canterlot village, they passed by a couple of garment booths. The sisters were inconspicuous in their plain, brown cloaks, keeping their identity hidden. Starswirl on the other hoof, was the complete opposite. His ostentatious robe of stars and bells was a real head-turner, and garnered much unwanted attention.
"I need a new outfit before we travel any further." He said, pointing at a plain cape.
"Well don't look at us." Luna said.
"Yeah, we just escaped the Crystal Empire." Celestia added. "I spent the few bits I lifted off the guards to pay for the hostel last night."
"Fine. Never mind." He groaned, moving on from the booth. Passing by a spice stand, he pocketed a vial of table salt. He wasn't proud of it. And he hoped he wouldn't need it. A short walk from the marketplace took them to the Canterlot train station. Or where it would be. His mental timeline of when certain things were invented was a bit hazy. But he was fairly certain that trains were invented shortly before the late Granny Smith was born. Which would mean that they wouldn't be around for another several centuries. But more importantly, it meant that they'd be walking to Ponyville. "We'd better get going then."
Twilight Sparkle always avoided the decadence associated with being a Princess, even after Tirek destroyed her library and she moved into her new, crystal tree castle. Her spouse, Trixie, on the other hoof reveled in it, much to her chagrin.
"But Twilight," She recalled Trixie reasoning one day, "if we don't let our pegasi guards fly us around in their chariots, they'll be out of a job. You don't want to get rid of their livelihood do you?" Twilight remembered the rehearsed pouts on their faces. Certainly she didn't want to take away their jobs.
Trixie was her wife. And their fidelity to one another was never a question. But her suspicions of ulterior motive were confirmed later when Trixie confided that she did enjoy watching the shapely flanks of her chauffeurs as they worked. Twilight couldn't be mad at her. She silently agreed. Indeed there were occasions when the two of them would take extended trips, and the view would excite them to the point of ordering their pilots "eyes forward" until the could relieve one another of the tension in the semi-private chariot.
True to form, Trixie arrived in the Crystal Empire with full fanfare. She was adorned with one of the dresses that Rarity had made for her. In stark opposition to Twilight's humble demeanor, Trixie was one of Rarity's biggest clients. And not out of generosity. Twilight pardoned her flashy lifestyle on the condition that she fund it herself. The guards were assigned to them, but she insisted that anything beyond that was self-raised capital. She would not abide Trixie buying dresses with Canterlot coffers. It was hardly an issue. Trixie made plenty just from simple appearances. Shop grand openings, airship christenings, and the like. Not to mention autographs and photo opportunities. The bits she made left her wanting for naught.
"Princess Cadence," the crystal guard announced, "Princess Trixie has arrived." Cadence nodded in acknowledgement.
"Thank you. Princess Twilight said that she be directed to join her in Princess Celestia's suite." She instructed. He bowed and left to do as he was told. Cadence still did not understand what was going on. Twilight and Celestia had hardly left the room since she arrived yesterday. Stark still seemed to be missing, but Twilight had canceled the search effort claiming that she knew where he was. She sighed in exasperation. She hated not knowing what was going on.
"Oh Twilight," Trixie called into the room, "Spike got your message last night and I came as soon as I heard. Then I took the overnight flight. Ha ha ha!" She laughed at her own joke. She looked around the room. They were both on the bed. They were engrossed in the book Twilight was reading. "Typical Twi." "Twilight." She called again. Her spouse looked up at her name being called as she got closer. "Ooh, what happened to you two? Hit the Canterlot ale a little too hard last night?"
A quick glance at the mirror on the vanity said it all. Celestia hadn't bothered to use any healing magic on herself. She was still feeling self-loathe. Her pummeling yesterday was still evident in her bruised appearance. Twilight's eyes, meanwhile, were red and puffy from her crying spell.
"Trixie!" Twilight climbed from the bed to greet her wife. Their relationship had no shortage of affection. But this hug seemed particularly intense.
"What brought this on? We've only been apart for two days." Trixie asked as she hugged back.
"It just feels like longer." Twilight said, pulling her into a kiss.
"Is everything okay?" Trixie asked. She could tell when something was off with her. Twilight glanced back at Celestia, who gave the subtlest nod of reassurance.
"Yeah. I think everything's going to be okay." Twilight said.
"All right." Trixie said, taking off her traveling hat and sunglasses. "Say, where's Starswirl?"
"Oh, he's... checking out the historical districts." Twilight fibbed. "But he's shared his journal of what he's been up to." She said. "We were just reading up on it."
"Oh? And just what has our colt been up to?"
The trio had walked down the dirt path that would one day become the Friendship Express Railway. After reaching the bottom of the mountain, they crossed the meadow destined to become Ponyville. The large rock formation at the southern border didn't look any younger from how he remembered it. It was a timeless sentinel, marking the boundary of the town. Beyond lay the Everfree Forest.
"All right. I know exactly where we're going. So stick close to me and we should be in and out before dark." Starswirl said. "And whatever you do, don't wander off!"
Twilight turned the page.
So naturally, Tia wandered right into a patch of blue leaves. I tell you, what happened as a result was something the three of us swore to never speak of again.
Twilight looked up from the page. "Poison joke? What happened?" Celestia's expression hardened, pursing her lips. Trixie was confused at the question herself. "What? Did your hair go wild? Did your voice change? Did you horn get floppy?" She asked. Celestia's eyes simply narrowed. "Okay. Fine." Twilight read on.
"What did I just say!" Starswirl snapped.
"What's wrong?" Celestia asked.
"Look!" He pointed at the patch of blue plants around her ankles. She lifted her hooves to see if she had stepped in something. "No, it's the plants. That's Poison Joke!"
"Poison!?" Luna cried. Celestia dashed out of the leaves back to Starswirl's side. "Is her life in danger? How much time does she have? What's going to happen?"
"It's not really poison." He explained. "You're not going to die or anything. But the side effects are... unpredictable." Celestia began to sweat. "Don't worry. I know the ingredients to brew a cure. We can collect most of them while we're in the forest. But first we need to get to the Tree of Harmony."
"A Tree of Harmony? Sounds made-up." Celestia said.
Starswirl silently cursed himself. He had a unique opportunity to shape the course of history. He'd always dislike the name of the tree. He should have refereed to it as the Tree of Bad-Assitude, Or Tree Kick-Ass. Something cool like that. But it was too late now.
The day's sunlight barely penetrated the thick foliage of the tree canopy above them. All around them, sounds emanated from the forest. Creatures that had yet to be discovered, classified or named. His mental catalog ran through all the hostile elements of the area.
"Ooh! Look at this adorable thing!" Luna said. He looked back over his shoulder. A parasprite had happened upon the group, buzzing about her head. "Can we keep-"
"No!" He cut her off. "Absolutely not! And whatever you do, do give it anything to eat." A tiny, shrill voice called out as the parasprite followed them.
"Hey!" It said. He groaned. "Hey! Listen!"
"Just- just ignore it and it'll go away eventually." He said. He tried thinking of what else they might run into. There were Manticores, Serpents, Ursas, (major and minor) even the possibility of a dragon, as he recalled.
"Hey! Listen!" It squeaked again. It was hard to even think with that thing following them. Now, where did he leave off? Oh, right, dragons, and what else? That was when he smelled it. The telltale breath of- "Watch out!"
"Timber wolves!" He yelled as the pack rushed through the underbrush behind them. "Run!" The three of them ran blindly forward deeper into the forest. Celestia lifted a large rock with her magic and slung it back at one of their pursuers. Starswirl glanced back over his shoulder at the sound of it impacting the lead wolf. The rock slammed into it with a sickening crunch, scattering branches and twigs everywhere. In less than the time it took for the rest of the pack to pass, a wisp of green magic had already begun to reassemble itself.
"What in the world?!" She cried.
"That won't work!" Starswirl yelled. "They're magic!"
Luna pirouetted on her hoof, charging her horn. "Avada Kedavra!" She shouted. The green bolt of magic struck the next wolf, brushing off of him like dandruff.
"What did I just say? You can't kill them like that!" He yelled. The wolves were getting closer. The three of them couldn't outrun them forever. Their equine bodies were ideally suited for running, true. In an open field a pony could easily outrun a timber wolf. But the wolves had the home field advantage here in the forest. They'd hunted here daily. The knew every path, every tree. Starswirl tripped over another root, causing the wolves to gain on him further. "Tia, fire!"
"What?" She asked.
"Use fire!" He yelled. Celestia turned and planted her hind legs into the ground behind her in a gambit. It cost her an extra second. But she needed to concentrate. The world around her slowed. The volume of the things around her turned down. Everything seemed to fade away. Luna moved impossibly slowly beside her. Her hooves seemed to hover just above the ground. Her mouth was frozen open in a silent scream. Dead ahead, a timber wolf was nearly upon Starswirl. She met his eyes. She focused on a single thought. A single word. A simple, idea. And she forced it into his mind. His eyes dilated the tiniest fraction in acknowledgement. Now for the spell.
Celestia didn't even have time to blink. The wolf was already mid-pounce, maw wide, teeth barred, and ready to strike Starswirl. She didn't have time to blink, but she needed to close her eyes. She focused on her vision, on the signals being sent to her brain from her eyes, and blocked them out. She focused on the burning pain from her leg muscles and her lungs. And she blocked it out. She focused on the pounding noise of her heart in her ears. And she blocked it out. She was alone in her mind. She was ready. She coalesced the spell in her mind. Shaping it, and its elements. She aimed the shapes in front of her. The wolf was right next to him. She had to be precise. Her horn glowed red.
Fire
Her senses came flooding back as she loosed the gout of flames at the wolf pack. Starswirl heeded her command in his mind. Duck! Nothing about it was pretty. He let his front legs go out beneath him and rolled forward. His head smacked into the ground and the rest of his body flipped over himself. He landed on his back, hard. The wind was knocked out of him. He struggled to gasp. His eyes opened just in time to see the wolf above him. The wolf was on his way down in his pounce. But something was weird. More than just his adrenaline, the wolf seemed to move slower. His normally green eyes were glowing red and orange.
That was when he saw it. Reflected in the wolf's eyes was an incandescent ball of fire moved over the top of his field of vision. It was inches from his face but he felt no heat from it. But the wolf's timber body burst into fire as the arcane blast passed through it. The force of the impact scattered its ashes. She had somehow combined a fire and earth spell together to make a damn meteor. It moved past them and toward the rest of the pack. Before they were incinerated, he felt Celestia's hoof grab him. She pulled him away from the others. She seemed to move impossibly fast.
Further from the fireball, time resumed its normal speed. He realized that she had woven in a temporal warp into the spell, slowing time around the attack. It was how she was able to get to him so quickly. He turned to see the rest of the pack burst into flames in slow-motion.
Luna snuffed out the green auras of the wolves with an exorcising spell before they could reshape themselves from the loose branches of the underbrush. He was in awe of Celestia. He'd never seen such a complex spell manifested on the fly like that. He had more expected a rushed gout of flame thrown past him.
"Come on, we shouldn't linger." Luna said. She was right, he realized. The noise of the fight was sure to attract more unwanted attention from the local denizens.
As they blazed a trail deeper into the forest, Starswirl continued to bop off into different directions, moving in more of a zig-zag pattern, than simply straight forward. He moved cautiously through the bush as he snatched up various leaves and flowers.
"What are you doing that for?" Celestia asked.
"I need to get the ingredients together to treat your exposure to poison joke." He said.
"But I feel fine." She said.
"Yeah. For now." He said, stuffing a star-shaped leaf into his bag. "I only need a couple more things, then I can brew it together for a bath. Be on the lookout for green mushroom with a long, narrow stem and..." He paused, trying to remember all of the ingredients that Zecora had taught him. "And a blue flower with red thorns." He continued to look around for them. "Just be careful when you find the flower though. Don't try to-"
"I got it!" Luna said, grabbing the flower stem with her teeth and yanking it free.
"NO!" He shouted. But it was too late. He'd never seen it happen before, but Zecora had warned him about it. They moved so fast toward them in the underbrush. The quick rustling was the only warning. And then in an instant they were upon them. They got to Luna first. She felt it wrap around her hoof.
"GAH! A snake!" Celestia screamed.
"No, worse!" He yelled. Before Celestia could even react, vines moved like lighting wrapping around her legs and waist. She tried in vain to wrench herself free. But her struggling only caused them to grip her tighter. They tore the mares' simple garments from them. The cold, almost scaly texture felt vile against her warm fur. She looked to her sister, trapped in the vines herself, flailing her hooves. More vines spiraled up her legs, arresting her movement. She continued to try to kick against them, flexing her muscles beneath the fibrous attackers. Tendrils moved higher up her limbs.
"Tia!" Luna cried out as one of the vines tried to pollinate her. Celestia's horn blazed to light. Starswirl couldn't warn her before it was too late. She got one shot off, severing the violator. Smaller vines shot out from the ones wrapping her alabaster waist, wrapping themselves around her horn, pulling tight. She yelled in agony as her head was jerked backwards. The vines absorbed her magic from her horn before she could charge it into another spell.
Starswirl moved slowly. He had to. Any sudden movement would attract vines to him as well. He stifled a shudder as the vines slithered past his hooves. It was torture watching the princesses being attacked. But would be no use to them as a captive as well. He was running out of time. Luna's horn became wrapped as well. Another pollen vine approached Celestia's flank. The flap of his bag pulled back, he pulled out the salt that he had pilfered. With a quick blast of a wind spell, he scattershot the salt out over the plants.
The sound of the plants quickly shriveling was almost a shrill of pain as they receded back into the foliage. The hooves of each mare touched back down on the ground as the attackers vanished from around them. Celestia rushed to Luna's side, leaving her tattered cloak in a heap like Luna's. Luna shied away from her, trying to hide her red face. Celestia put her hoof around her. "Luna, are you-"
"I'm fine." She said, trying to hide her tears in her mane.
"Shh." Celestia whispered, holding her tight. "It's okay. You can talk about it when you're ready." Luna shuddered, falling to her haunches as she wept silently against her older sister. Starswirl just stared with eyes the size of dinner plates.
"Tia? Luna?" He asked, still frozen in shock. Only Celestia looked up at him. His mouth hung open a moment more. He finally found the words. "... Where are your wings?"