Twilight's eyes were closed. It did not make a lot of difference considering the moon was but a sliver this night, and the little light that spilled in from the street was largely absorbed by curtains. It just felt more proper to have her eyes closed when it came to matters of magic. Besides, it was easier to concentrate this way. She heard her friends chatting in the common room of the suite on the other side of the door. Pony by pony, she let them fall away until she was truly alone in her mind.
Only then, freed from all that which was not herself, did she appreciate the level at which the spell Luna had cast over her worked on. She felt the princess' presence cover her entire body, and more importantly, her entire being. She had not simply blocked Twilight's horn; it was nothing so simple. Luna had cocooned Twilight with her own magic. She had never quite felt so close to anypony as she did that very moment, and for a second, she could think of nothing else. It was a level of intimacy, however disconnected, that only a unicorn could appreciate. A unicorn, or an alicorn.
The thoroughness only felt flattering for so long, though. It felt like a hug that she couldn't break off. The second she shed that thought, when she realized that this wasn't actually Luna but a construct, a spell she had wrought, Twilight began to panic. She felt trapped. While she had never been given to claustrophobia, Twilight had to force herself to breathe normally using techniques Celestia had taught her. She nearly lost her focus, and the outside world briefly poked its snout in. She spotted some light in the corner of her eye and caught a snippet of conversation from the other room.
"-just resting. I think she will be fine," Luna said.
"She's probably just stressed out," Rarity murmured. "Perhaps the whole ordeal in Scandineighvia was more taxing than we thought? I know a good psychiatrist-"
Then she was back inside her mind, immersed in her thoughts, again trapped in the shell the princess had woven. Something ostensibly created to protect Twilight from the memory Luna carried with her.
It was with this notion Twilight took issue. She knew this was something made to protect Luna from Twilight. To prevent Twilight from reaching out to her. It was an obstacle that had to be broken. A mountain to be climbed. Twilight reached deep inside of her and bunched up all the magic she could find. She cast her mind around to scour every speck of power she could locate, gathering it into a single core of brilliant power. Every ounce of strength that was trapped inside Luna's prison, she heaved against the wall that surrounded her.
Only to find it woefully insufficient. Twilight clutched her head and stifled a groan from the backlash as the energy slammed against Luna's spell and shattered. It felt like she'd stubbed her hoof on a door with all her might, except the pain was on the inside. She forced herself to be quiet and took a few deep breaths before she tried again, shaping the force to a point, trying to pierce the damnable shell.
Again. Twilight tried again, again and again, each time with all the strength she could muster, and every single time broken against the wall as if she were trying to tear down a house with a rubber ball. She lost count of her attempts, and in the end, it was all she could do to keep herself from weeping openly. Twilight lay curled into a ball under the covers, quivering, exhausted on a plane far removed from the physical and mundane. Twice as painful as this, however, was the realization that there was nothing she could do.
Would she be forced to watch the princess descend into depression and madness? Did Luna tell herself that she was happy this way, and envision that this was how it had to be? What if she was right? How could Twilight possibly remain passive and let this happen? She had to act on what little she knew, surely.
And what if Twilight actually loved Luna? Just the very thought made her shiver. She dearly wished that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had never made her consider the possibility, most of all because it made some sort of sense when she thought about it. She felt different around Luna. Nervous in a way she didn't understand. She liked being around the princess, and she had felt something that night two days ago. The memory of the night in the mill was still sharp.
Yet, it was unrealistic. There were numerous impossibilities surrounding the entire subject even before they arrived on the word 'princess'. Furthermore, she had no way to make sure it would be reciprocated, and last of all, it was all useless as long as the memory hung between them. Twilight doubted that Luna would let her see it if she asked nicely. It would simply signal her intention clearly and strengthen Luna’s resolve. No, once she’d recuperated, Twilight would keep trying to break the spell and enter the memory. She would try night after night if she had to. Every night until the day she died.
What surprised Twilight was that she realized she didn't blame Luna any more. She'd shed her anger somewhere, along with the pity and the frustration. What remained was unbridled determination. She had her enemy in this damnable spell, she would put her mind to fighting it, and she would stop blaming Luna for her own shortcomings. She would simply have to get stronger. Find a way.
When Twilight awoke the next morning, the room was still empty. The sun spilled in between the gaps in the curtains where it could, and the unicorn sleepily got on her hooves. She opened the door with an unsteady hoof and stepped into the common room to find the others eating breakfast.
"Ah. Good morning, Twilight," Luna said with barely-concealed trepidation. The other ponies were looking up from the breakfast, all in various states of concern. The exceptions were Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, the only ponies to smile.
"Morning, guys," Twilight said, walking over to grab a bowl of salad. "Clayvale next, huh?"
If there was any tension in the room, it dispersed right then and there as Twilight flashed a grin. Let them think she smiled because all was well. Twilight smiled because she had purpose.
Luna nodded. "I would like to make haste, but as I have not walked these roads recently, I cannot guide us through shadows to speed us along. I have a few other tricks up my sleeve, though."
"Ooh?" Pinkie asked, her eyes sparkling. "Wings? Rockets? Magic? Rocket magic?"
The carriages made good speed down the road towards Clayvale. Luna had managed to secure the use of two small carriages, each drawn by a team of four earth ponies hired by the hotel. The elegant white-painted wooden transports were hardly suited for longer travel, usually only used for taking the most refined of the Belltowners from their mansions to the theater, but the roads were good enough that it did not pose a problem.
No problems outside of Pinkie's rather vocal disappointment, occasionally expressed in the form of songs, that is. The pink earth pony’s skill with impromptu blues lyrics was impressive. For this reason, Twilight was glad she was in the other carriage with Luna and Applejack instead.
"Ah must admit Ah was expectin' some magic mumbo jumbo, no offense," Applejack said, sounding downright pleased.
"Magic is not always the right answer," Luna said with a chuckle. "We should reach Clayvale tonight. We will learn what we can, and take it from there, but the gentlecolts are willing to take us as far as Clopenhagen if it comes to that."
"I'm glad we're taking this seriously," Twilight nodded. "Do you have any theories about Trixie?"
"I do not. I know that it would take an exceptionally clever pony to bypass the wards, but the effects of the, ah, items in my study, that is a lot harder to predict. If we go with the assumption that Trixie tells the truth, though," the princess shrugged and looked out the window. "I suspect we shall soon know."
"And it might mean she was saying the gol'darn truth about killing one of her parents, too," Applejack said evenly, leaning back in her seat.
"That she thought she might have," Twilight corrected her, but she knew it was a weak defense. She looked away. "We don't know the full story."
"She hurt her own family, Twi'. Don't see no excuse for that," was Applejack's response. Twilight could practically feel the orange earth pony’s eyes on the back of her head as she watched the plains pass by outside the window.
"I believe in something, Applejack," Twilight said, lowering her voice a tad. "Something a very wise pony once told me. That in every pony there is a core of decency, something that's worth saving. There's always a story and a reason. We're getting a re-told tale that isn't even complete."
"Ain't sayin Ah won't hear her out. Just that Ah ain't gonna gallop like my mane's on fire over this," Applejack retorted with a huff, ending the discussion. “Not tryin’ to be unreasonable here.”
Clayvale came into view late that very same day, and it was, for lack of a better word, drab. Perhaps it was a side effect of being a township centered around the excavation and processing of clay, but the lakeside town seemed almost muted. The clay operations near the lake were partially magically operated, but a great many ponies were at work there even in the late evening. The majority of the town’s industry was support for the workers and the potteries. Twilight thought it very unlikely that they would find something so grand as a theater here.
What had begun as an investigation had rapidly escalated well past a hunt and into the territory of a wild chase for Trixie, Twilight felt. When the carriages stopped outside the pub Luna had directed their chauffeurs to, they were quick to canter out and down the steps to the cellar entrance. Twilight slipped inside before the last of them had even gotten out of the carriages, trading the orderly yet sooty brick houses outside for a rustic and friendly interior that smelled of smoke and cider.
The locals, mostly stallions enjoying their cider after a day in the quarry, looked up at the mares that piled in with obvious interest. One even went so far as to whistle when Rarity entered, but when the princess ducked in next, the noise died in the poor pegasus stallion's throat as a gurgle. Twilight barely even cared, singling out the barkeep. It was almost routine at this point, and Twilight idly wondered if she could land a job as a policemare if this went on any longer. She trotted up to the bar desk and the stunned pegasus mare on duty who was still trying to get her bearings.
"Uh, can I help you, miss?" the yellow mare behind the bar asked, looking a little lost. Princess Luna did not approach the bar, clearly content to leave it to Twilight.
"I hope so. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and we believe that somepony by the name of Phoenix came by here sometime in the past week. Have you seen her?" Twilight asked, trying to stay calm. Her heart disagreed, rebelling and beating faster and faster.
"Uh, I don't know, I can't say I remember," the pegasus mare said, scratching her withers. "I mean, I don't have the best of memories, but I don't think so?"
"She was at the Frazzled Tail three days ago," somepony called from a table nearby. Twilight looked up to find that the pegasus who'd whistled at Rarity a moment ago was now looking straight at her. "She left town the day after," he continued. Twilight walked up to the table without hesitation. The others stood near enough to listen, but didn't crowd the table, something for which the pegasus stallion looked thankful.
"Uh, you know I didn't mean anything 'bout your friend," he muttered with a glance at Rarity. The fashionista touched her mane and sniffed, but Twilight simply rolled her eyes and motioned with a hoof for him to go on.
"Anyway, yeah, what about her?" he asked, looking back and forth between Twilight, her other five friends and the present princess.
"Everything," Twilight said, staring at him. "We need you to tell us everything."
"Uh," the stallion stalled. He was alone at his table, but he glanced around at the surrounding patrons, most of whom had gone quite still, straining their ears to listen. He gave a nervous chuckle and locked eyes with an earth pony from a neighbouring table. "Hey, Buckles. Does this happen to you a lot? Because I'm getting a little scared here. Usually they ask your name first, right?" This drew a laugh from some of the patrons.
"I'm serious!" Twilight said. "We need to know everything she said, what she looked like, anything she may have done-"
"Twilight's just a little cranky," Pinkie chirped, hopping over to sit down next to Twilight. "She's usually not a yelling angry miss yellingpants, but we really would love to hear the story if you could tell us! Pleease?" The pink earth pony offered the pegasus stallion a wide and hopeful grin, which only served to make him a little more uneasy.
"I'm not ‘cranky’, but this is important," Twilight tried, only now realizing exactly how much attention they were getting from the patrons of the bar. She repressed the urge to facehoof. This was not going like she’d hoped.
"I ain't trying to be unhelpful here, sorry," the stallion chuckled. "I'll tell you what I know. Have a seat. It's not often I get this much attention from a pack of beautiful mares, so I'm just going to pretend that you're not just here for some boring old story."
Twilight shrugged and took a seat by the table, happy that she'd get to hear what she wanted to hear, but Pinkie giggled even as Rainbow Dash glared at the stallion. Soon enough they were all crowded around the table, and the rest of the ponies reluctantly went about their business, noise slowly picking up again.
"Name's Crumble, by the way," the dark green pegasus stallion offered.
"Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said with a smile.
"Pinkie Pie, hi!" Pinkie said.
"Rainbow Dash," Dash said, putting a protective foreleg around Pinkie and frowning.
"Applejack. Howdy," Applejack said with a tip of her hat.
"Hi, I'm Fluttershy," Fluttershy muttered.
"And I am Rarity", Rarity said.
"And I would be Luna, co-ruler of the principality of Equestria and ruler of the night," the princess concluded with a mirthless smile. "Please speak, Crumble."
"Your majesty," Crumble murmured with a dip of his head, no longer able to pretend she didn't exist. He was doing an admirable job of not freaking out. "Can I ask why this is such a big deal for you all? Is she in trouble? The poor lil’ mare seemed awful nice to me, but if I'm going to break any laws by admitting I saw her, I'd like to know."
"She could be in, um, trouble, yes. Danger, I mean. She hasn't done anything wrong," Fluttershy said, looking over at Luna. "Or has she?"
"Stealing ancient stuff nopony cares about isn't very wrong. Only a little, right?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding earnestly curious.
"Oh come on," Twilight groaned. "We're trying to help her, and we need to know what you know!"
"Right, right," the stallion said, throwing his hooves up in a placating gesture. "Just asking. She came into town three days ago. I work as a courier, and I had a moment to spare, so I asked her if I could get her any help or something. She looked a bit lost and all."
"And you make a habit of approaching mares who look lost and lonely?" Rarity asked with an arched brow.
"If I say yes, will it matter?" Crumble asked. When he received no reply beyond an arch look from the fashionista, he merely shrugged and went on. "She asked what the places to be were here in Clayvale, said she needed a scene. I told her the Frazzled Tail was the biggest pub around."
"Then close your damn tab and move your flank over there!" the mare behind the bar shot.
"You know I love you too much for that!" Crumble shouted back, laughing. "Anyway, she didn't have anyplace to stay, so I offered her my couch, and she accepted. She said she couldn’t pay, that she was saving her bits, but I didn’t really care. She talked to Pin Stripe who owns the other pub here and persuaded him to let her perform the very next day. It was a bit darker than the usual fare, even for the weekly horror story nights he runs. I know I left there feeling a little colder."
"It began in the Everfree Forest, right?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, uh, have you heard it?" He seemed earnestly surprised. "We were told it was a once-off, never told before. Huh."
"It was," Rainbow Dash said, annoyed. "Or is, or whatever. What did she say? The story."
Crumble cleared his throat and glanced about before he went on. "Was a right proper horror story. I don't know if you've heard tales of the Everfree Forest, but now I wish I hadn't. They didn’t turn the lights down like they usually do for horror nights, but it didn’t matter none. It felt like I was there, and from looking at others, I wasn't the only one." He chuckled, looking down at the table. "Still not sure if it was a good thing. Gonna have nightmares."
"Trixie, the main character, trudged through the Everfree through the night, scared witless of everything she saw until she hit upon some ruin. She hadn't really meant to find it, she said, but her purpose became apparent when she realized what it was she had found; the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. Heh, I remember one line. 'It all came together in that one moment for Trixie. Every moment of weakness and failure had been a prelude to this moment, she foolishly thought.'"
"In the story, Trixie wandered the castle ruins for hours on end until the sun rose, finding nothing at all. Frustrated yet undaunted, she set about searching the area again, methodically. Finally, she located a staircase previously hidden from view. It was locked with puzzles and riddles, but she eventually defeated them all and descended into the darkness below."
The green stallion's smile wavered a bit. "Let me tell you, there's something wrong with the world when a crowd of grizzled quarryworkers and craftsponies is so silent that you can hear yourself breathe."
Twilight found it all too appropriate that even in the retelling, the table was utterly quiet. Perhaps it was just the fact that the purple unicorn was so focused on listening to the tale and looking for clues – anything she could use – but the other ponies in the room might as well have ceased existing together. She would not have noticed if the room was on fire.
"She found the tomb of a city," Crumble continued. "Collapsed passages. Streets under the ground. An entire metropolis buried under the earth. She knew she was close to where the palace was on the sunny side, above her, and soon found that the palace was a lot bigger down there. Trixie was afraid, but she never doubted that this was her purpose. Within hours, she'd penetrated deep into the ruins of the castle, always haunted by sights and sounds she couldn't explain."
"In the end, she found one door that was sealed with such intricate care that she was certain it was the goal of her journey. It was barred with sigils and tons of other fancy words for magics I don't know about, and Trixie labored with them for entire days. She hadn't brought any food with her, and feared she would starve, reduced to eating moss off the walls. In the end, she won through and went inside."
Crumble chuckled and shook his head. "Then the spell was broken, sort of. The ending was a little weak. I think Phoenix was a little tired or hoarse, because her voice started cracking. Apparently, Trixie found lots of things, ancient artifacts from a lost era, each more beautiful and terrible than the next. She ended up drawn to an orb that entranced her, drew her in, and she knew she had to bring it with her. She reached out to touch it with her magic, however that works," the earth pony shrugged. "And she burned."
"Burned?" Twilight asked. "As in-"
"I said the ending was a bit weak," Crumble interjected. "She said Trixie was no more. Perhaps it was meant to be an open end? She burned until there was nothing but a shell left. It was almost like a moral, her last words before she slipped off the stage. 'She knew she had to shed the last that she contained, her story, before there was nothing left, and she could be reborn.' After the show, I asked her if she wanted to stay, but she said she'd head to Clopenhagen before deciding what to do next. She was talking about considering one last performance in the series."
"Luna?" Fluttershy asked very quietly.
"We need to find Trixie, now," Luna said in a tone that left no room for discussion. "I do not like the sound of this one bit."
"Find 'Trixie'? You're saying this is real?" Crumble sounded almost as fearful as he was incredulous.
"No", Princess Luna lied, voice entirely flat, leaving the green pegasus to decide for himself whether he wanted the headache of considering the alternative. Luna got up and headed for the door, leaving the others to say their thanks before leaving Crumble alone again.
"She left here two days ago, and Clopenhagen is still a little ways off. By carriage, we are faster, but the gentlecolts who have taken us this far cannot pull without rest forever," Luna said as the others hurried to catch up to her in the dark outside. The chaffeurs had left the carriages and were clustered around a nearby muffin stand.
The princess shook her head. "It will still be too slow. We will not make it there before she does. She may already be in Clopenhagen if she has made good time. The city has a large opera house. It would be the natural place for her last performance, and I am getting the feeling that we do not want her to go on stage."
Twilight sighed, walking a few steps to look around the nearby street corner. She could see past the clayworks and across Lake Joy to the brightly illuminated Clopenhagen that shone across the water. "It's so close," she muttered.
Luna followed her gaze, working her jaw soundlessly for a second. "There is a time and a place for everything, I suppose," she finally said. "Sometimes, magic is the right answer. Rainbow Dash, would you be so kind as to tell the gentlecolts to gear up and come with us?"
Dash nodded and bolted over to do just that while Luna walked past Twilight and set course for the lake, ponies in tow. Before long the carriages drew up behind them and followed, Luna at the head of a procession fifteen ponies and two carriages strong.
"You have an idea?" Twilight asked when it became clear the princess would not explain without being prompted. Luna nodded as she picked a route past the brick houses and clayworks, many a pony stopping in the streets to watch them pass.
"I do, and if you wish, you may help me," the princess commented before pointing to a road between two potteries that terminated in the lake itself. "There."
Twilight hesitated even as they all, eight confused stallions included, stopped at the edge of the water. The moon was just beginning its ascent, a thin silver crescent whose luminescence was sparse compared to the riot of lights cast across Lake Joy by the metropolis on the other side of the waters. "You mean to... take us over the lake?" she asked.
"Across, yes. Around, it is a journey of days. This way, it is a matter of a few hours at most," the goddess explained as if it were the simplest of matters. "But like I said, I would like for you to help me."
It hardly mattered whether she angled it as a request or an offer. Twilight nodded enthusiastically. While it was certainly nice to see that Luna wasn't angry with her, that their spats hadn't marred her trust, she wouldn't miss an opportunity like this no matter the specifics.
"Are you actually going to explain before you turn off all the colors of the world around us or bring the sky crashing down on us, this time?" Rarity asked, and at her reminder, Fluttershy shranked back at her side.
"Ah, yes," Luna said, perking up. "I did not mean to keep you in the dark, I was simply thinking on how to go about this. It is my intent for us to create a bridge to Clopenhagen."
"You're gonna make a bridge," Rainbow Dash repeated, deadpan.
"Yes," Luna said. "We are going to make a bridge."
"Let me guess, made of moonlight?" Dash asked.
"Of course not," the princess retorted, sounding almost a little offended at the very suggestion. "No, we are going to use moonlight and magic both."
"Of course," Dash said, shaking her head and trying to stifle a giggle. "Nopony uses pure moonlight."
"Exactly, that would be plain silly," Luna agreed, oblivious, before turning to the stallions hitched to the carriages. "Who is your team leader? Does any one of you speak for the others?"
"I suppose I could?" one of the earth ponies suggested with a backwards glance, receiving a series of nods and shrugs. The stallion, a dark brown with a wheel for a cutie mark, dipped his head. "Spokes, your majesty. I work for the hotel."
"Very well, Spokes. You have been listening, I presume. Do you have any problems with what we are about to ask of you?" Luna queried. “I assume you have not galloped across a moonbridge before.”
"If your majesty says it's safe, then my reply is that we get paid by the hour, so as long as we can take the long way home, I'm happy," Spokes replied, eliciting a hearty chuckle from the other transport ponies.
"Very well. I do intend to collapse the bridge behind us, yes, and I am thankful for your faith," Luna said as she walked over to stand at the very edge of the water. The princess peered over the railing set at the end of the street. "Twilight, would you stand with me? Celestia led me to believe you are not entirely unfamiliar with working together on spells?"
Twilight obediently trotted up to stand side by side with the princess, nodding. "When she was teaching me how to teleport short distances, she thought it would be easier if she showed me the constituent parts of the spell separately, first."
"Very good," Luna said. "Of course, this is slightly different, but considering that you seem to have an intuitive grasp of the other source of magic we intend to pull from, I expect no trouble."
"Intuitive grasp on how to nearly behead my friends, yes, swell," Twilight muttered, but she closed her eyes and reached inside of herself all the same.
It was the first time Twilight sought out the night princess' presence directly in this manner, and she had to ask herself if Luna made a habit of masking her own power. When she sent her mind out from her body and truly saw Luna's spark, that elusive something that made up the magic at her core, it was hard to understand how Twilight could ever have missed her. Where Celestia's magic threatened to blind her, Luna pulled her in, and it was all the bookish unicorn could do to hold her ground.
"Okay, I am going to guide you." Luna's voice sounded distant, though she knew the princess was standing right next to her. "Please do not be alarmed."
Her words had barely crossed the gap to Twilight's ears before the unicorn felt Luna's touch. The princess was all around her, seeping inside the gaps to the core of her being, suffusing Twilight with her own essence. It was as if she'd been plunged into icy water. Twilight gasped, and Luna withdrew a little. Pinkie Pie said something, but it was too quiet to catch.
"I have not done this in a long time, that was a little too much," Luna murmured, deep in concentration. "Let me just..." her voice trailed off. Rainbow Dash snorted and giggled somewhere far, far away.
Finally, they found the middle ground, joined together midway. Luna's grip was strong and cold, but it felt like the princess in so many ways. Protective and implacable, uncompromising and deliberate – and heavy with the weight of the world. Twilight couldn't tell how the princess saw Twilight herself, but she knew her own body was blushing on the outside. It was an embrace every bit as intimate as the spell she wove every night, but it was here, it was now, and it was the princess herself.
Wordlessly, the princess showed Twilight what to do. As surely and precisely as if she had taken Twilight's hoof and led her down the street, they reached out towards the moon. Here, together in their minds, Luna did not shy away from the silvery grey presence that mimicked what hung in the sky outside. When Twilight touched upon the moonlight and reached out with a tendril of her magic, she found that it was the one and the same as the princess. The moon greeted her and all spoke its name. Luna.
"Guide it," Luna said in a whisper, and Twilight felt something pass between them. "Guide me, and show me the way."
Twilight gasped. She nearly lost her concentration completely when she realized that she held the moon in her grasp. If she opened her eyes she thought she might see the whole moon cupped in her hooves. Her heart threatened to leap out of her chest.
"Do not fear me," Luna said. Twilight felt Luna around her, the Luna that was other, yet the same. The presence that surrounded her drew a little closer, becoming a snug blanket. "Do what we set out to do," the princess whispered gently.
Steadying herself, Twilight tried to do just that. With the power she held, it was laughably simple to cast her sight across the lake and see their goal. It was all too easy to draw the line, to paint a broad stroke of moonlight across the waters of the suddenly insignificantly small Lake Joy. Her job done, she realized how pathetically tiny and unimportant it all had been. She drew back a little more, and the plains themselves dropped away. She stopped breathing when she realized what she could do if she could only-
Twilight's eyes popped open from the shock of being alone again. Luna withdrew in an instant, and the moon was once again just an unfathomably distant orb in the sky. The princess looked down at Twilight with a quirked eyebrow, and the purple unicorn blushed a deep shade of red. "I'm sorry, I don't know what- I... I think I lost my head."
The princess offered a gentle smile. "That is quite alright, Twilight," she said before looking out over the lake. "And a job well done. Perhaps you can do this on your own one day."
Twilight had barely noticed that everypony else, Spokes and his teams included, had drawn closer. Locals who had been watching them with curious eyes had approached as well. There were astonished gasps, and Twilight couldn't hold back a squeak of her own as she saw what they had done.
From the edge of the road upon which they all stood, clean across the lake until it disappeared in the glare of the lights of Clopenhagen, a silvery blue plane of light stretched. The bridge shimmered and sparkled, partially translucent with the lake clearly visible even through the light. Twilight stared mutely.
Rainbow Dash, however, was quick to test the phenomenon. She zoomed over their heads and hovered over the bridge, tentatively lowering herself little by little as if she expected to pass through it. When she landed and stood upon it, she tapped it experimentally with a hoof. When it failed to yield, she began hopping up and down on the bridge.
"It's solid!" Dash exclaimed.
"It will only last until morning, but that should be more than enough time for our purpose. Let us get into the carriages and be off," Luna suggested.
"Er, there's a lil’ problem though," Applejack said, indicating the railings at the end of the road. "You going to lift the wagons onto th-"
Luna's horn glowed briefly as she systematically yanked each of the offending metal poles out of the stone street with a series of thunderous cracks. Bits of rock still stuck to the poles as she put them down to the side of the road.
"I am getting a little tired of delays," Luna commented. "I will contact Clayvale and pay the damages out of my own purse if I must, but I am eager to get moving now."
"Right," Applejack said, hurriedly slipping inside the nearest carriage. Clearly she did not want to argue the point with somepony who pulled steel out of stone with a thought.
It took the first of the carriage teams a minute of tentatively approaching and testing the bridge, hoof by hoof, until they dared step fully on to it. When they were finally onto the ethereal construct, however, they got up to speed quickly. Perhaps they were spurred on by Luna's little display, or perhaps it was the suggestion that the bridge had a timed life. Soon enough, hooves clopped and wheels ground against the impossible yet solid moonlight bridge.
"This is a view I don't think I shall soon forget," Rarity said. She had ended up as the third passenger in Luna and Twilight's carriage this time. Outside the windows, Clayvale slowly fell away, and before long, they were in the middle of the lake, the shore distant on all sides. As they were unable to see the bridge under the carriage, it looked as if they rode on the waves of the lake itself.
"Couldn't you just have given us all wings, though? I know there's a spell for it, Twilight cast it once," Rarity asked aloud.
"It is an alternative, certainly, but magical faux wings are not exactly built for speed. Plus, there is no telling if everypony could have handled distance flying," Luna replied. "There were many options, I suppose. I could have blinked us all there with a teleportation spell, but with us being so many, across such a vast distance? It would be a terrible drain."
"And the opera house will probably have closed for the evening anyway," Twilight suggested. "I mean, if we are right, and that's her goal."
"Speaking of which," Twilight continued, pausing to clear her throat. "You know what Trixie did in your study, don't you?"
Luna nodded slowly and sunk a little further down into the plush bench she sat on. "The Star Hammer, it is called."
The words were spoken as if they held meaning, but Twilight had never before in her life heard them uttered. Rarity, similarly, looked curious and uncomprehending. The princess glanced at the two of them, a calculating frown on her lips.
"It is the symbol of my office. It is to me what the Sun Spear is to my sister," Luna said. "I understand this probably tells you nothing, but suffice it to say that it is tied to my very essence. It is a part of me." She swallowed and stared at the floor of the carriage. "A part of me that I do not relish. I should not have left it there, though. I cannot imagine what it would have done to Trixie. I am surprised she even survived."
"It's not your fault, princess," Rarity said, noting her tone. "You can't blame yourself for this, surely? When a pony goes spelunking like that, I mean."
Twilight said nothing, and the princess gave a dark chuckle. "It is rational and objectively correct blame, Rarity, but you are kind to say so. I am to blame, but even if I were not, the knowledge that one of our subjects is hurting, it hurts me, too. Nopony should ever suffer needlessly. This is one of the pillars upon which my sister and I built Equestria. And needless is exactly what this entire situation is."
Silence descended upon the carriage with those words, and Twilight, for the life of her, could not think of a single word or topic to lighten the mood. Eventually, she gave up, resigning herself to stare out the windows with the rest of them. She had never been on a boat, but she imagined it must be something like this, watching the waves pass by. It all descended into a pleasant monotony that threatened to send Twilight to sleep, but just as her eyelids began to droop, the carriage started to slow down.
Rarity poked her head out the window to see what was going on. The fashionista quickly ducked back in, frowning. "Ah, well. I do believe we're coming up on the city, and we have a welcoming committee of sorts. For better or for worse."
"By which you mean 'worse'," Twilight said with a sigh and a yawn.