“What Happened?” Celestia asked, as a duo of princesses and an entourage of ponies from Ponyville ran down the halls of the courthouse, following the guard who had summoned the princess of day.
The guard shook his head and continued to lead the way. “I don’t know, your highness. It was time to changed posts so my partner and I went down to the arcane artifacts vault. But when we got there we found the guards stationed there had been knocked out, the vault door open and all the defensive spells had been removed! Naturally we agreed that one of us should come and fetch you right away, so I’m not sure what my partner may have found investigating the vault. Oh we should probably grab a medic on the way back while we’re at it.”
Nodding to the guard, Celestia said, “Yes, take care of that, sir. We will tend to the vault. And please find Captain Ruby Spear as well.”
“Yes your highness!” After a rushed salute, the guard pealed off from the group and darted down a different hall as they left the courthouse wing of Canterlot Castle behind.
“I can’t believe I fell for that,” Celestia muttered as they continued toward the vault.
“What do you mean princess?” Twilight Sparkle asked of her mentor.
Celestia shook her head slightly. “The dampening field in the courtroom that prevents high level spell casting also kept me from noticing all of my defensive spells on the vault were being undone. I should have left the courtroom as soon as I handed the trial off to the judge.”
“Ah wouldn’t mind knowing how that shadow puppet even got in the courtroom. Didn’t those other unicorns have to do some fancy magic mumbo-jumbo just to let that magic helmet work?” Applejack asked.
“Unfortunately that type of dampening field is only meant to prevent high level magic from being cast within it, so that unicorns don’t have to go without their levitation spells. And as you saw those maintaining the dampening field can create bubbles that are outright exempt from the magic dampening. While a shadow puppet couldn’t be cast within the field, technically, there’s nothing stopping somepony from casting one outside of the field and walking it in. Granted the puppet wouldn’t be able to cast any high level magic while in the field but that’s about it,” Twilight Sparkle explained.
“And nopony thought to check if there were any shadow puppets coming in?” Applejack asked with a scolding look in her eyes.
Celestia bowed her head slightly. “I thought that I had made arrangements to have those attending the trial scanned for dark magic. I guess the guards didn’t think to check the prosecutor.”
Looking up at her mentor, Twilight asked, “I have another question. Who is Ruby Spear? The name sounds familiar but I can’t seem to place it.”
“Ah yes, I don’t know if you ever met him but he served under your brother. Once Shining Armor became the prince of the crystal empire, I needed a new captain of the royal guard. Having led several scouting missions into the badlands, Ruby Spear was one of the few who had actual combat experience before the changeling invasion incident, so he came highly recommended to fill your brother’s post.”
Hearing Celestia’s word brought a frown to Luna’s face, but rather then voice her thoughts on the matter the princess of the night took advantage of the fact that they had rounded the last corner between them and the arcane artifacts vault. “I believe we have more pressing matters, sister.”
“Halt!” a voice called out from inside the vault. A second later a royal guard stepped into the doorway to the vault and on seeing two princesses approaching lowered his spear. “Oh good it’s you.” Nervously eyeing those with the royal sisters, he held up a hoof and added, “Princesses only, beyond this point.”
“It’s all right, Twilight and her friends may enter,” Celestia assured the guard.
The guard raised an eyebrow and asked, “Even the fillies?”
Twilight Sparkle nodded. “He has a point princess. There are a lot of dangerous artifacts in there. Pinkie Pie and the Crusaders should stay out here, everypony else, don’t touch anything!”
A collective ‘Aww’ came from the four excluded ponies, as the rest went into the vault.
“Do we know what was taken?” Luna asked, taking note of the otherwise pristine condition of the vault.
“No princess, I haven’t dared venture far from the entrance given the lack of backup. All I can say for sure is that there is nopony else here now.”
“Let’s see here… if I remember correctly…” Twilight mused. “Ah ha!” she exclaimed grabbing a clipboard in her magic. With a flash of magic she had copied the pages of the clipboard and levitated a page to each of her friends. “Here’s a copy of the inventory sheets. Each pony take an aisle, and checkmark all the items that are still here then we’ll know what they took.”
Rainbow Dash looked down at her sheet and then at the extraordinary length of the aisles. “Inventory… great… Is it too late to wait outside with Pinkie Pie and the crusaders?”
“Yes Rainbow, get to work. And remember touch nothing!”
* * * * * * *
With everypony gathered in the Canterlot Castle throne room Twilight Sparkle gave her report. “From what we can tell, the only thing missing is a pyre stone.”
“A pyre stone? The crystallized magic of a fire demon of the badlands?” Celestia asked.
Luna’s eyes went wide as she put the pieces together in her mind. “Shadow fire,” she muttered, although her utterance went unheard by the rest of the room.
Twilight Sparkle nodded as she answered, “That’s right, princess. According to the logs it was kept for research purposes as a ‘dangerous resource.’ I took the liberty of looking into the records to see who’s checked it out recently, but as far as I can tell there aren’t any suspicious names on that list.”
Closing her eyes, Celestia calmly said, “I see, so we need to figure out who took it, and where they might go with such a thing.”
“Ah!” Twilight Sparkle cried as she suddenly collapsed to the ground. Her friends rushed to her side uttering her name in equal surprise. “Ponyville,” Twilight gasped as she struggled to sand back up, ultimately settling for pulling herself up into a sitting position.
“What?”
“Ponyville, they went to Ponyville! I just felt somepony break the protection spells I had on the display case holding the elements of harmony,” Twilight explained.
“Then what are we sitting around here for? Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash shouted.
Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “It’s too far. I can’t teleport that far!”
“Perhaps so. Guards! See to it Miss Twilight and her friends are brought to Ponyville as quickly as possible,” Celestia said. Turning to Luna she added, “Sister?”
“Agreed,” Luna said with a nod, and almost immediately the two princesses disappeared in a flash of magic.
* * * * * * *
Appearing just outside the Ponyville library, Celestia’s horn flared with power once more and a wall of golden light surrounded the library, forming a bubble around the building.
With little more then a nod both Celestia and Luna charged their horns with magic and approached the front door. Finding the door unlocked a simple push opened it and revealed Spike curled up of the floor just inside, sleeping peacefully.
“Sleep spell?”
“Sleep spell,” Luna confirmed.
A glance across the room and the two found the display case for the elements of harmony was undamaged, but open. The golden tiara and most of necklaces each bearing a colored gemstone that were the elements were resting in their places. However, the element of honesty was missing from the set. Both sisters raised an eyebrow at the observation.
A pulse of magic came off of Luna’s horn, meant to disrupt invisibility spells, and filled the room. With nothing hidden in this room the royal pair looked to each other. “I’ll take upstairs, you take down?” Celestia suggested.
“Agreed.”
With that they searched the library room by room, and room by room they came up with nothing, ultimately meeting back in the main room. They were sharing the fruitlessness of their searches when a pounding noise drew their attention outside.
“Hey what gives!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she knocked on the force field baring her path, with Scootaloo sitting beside her.
“Sorry about that, we were hopping to catch the thief red hoofed. But it seems they left before we arrived,” Celestia said, as she dismissed the wall of golden light. Looking about but only finding the two pegasi she added, “Where are the others?”
Dash looked up to the sky and squinted as she answered, “I’d say you have about two more minutes before those slowpokes pulling the pegasus chariots catch up to me.” Giving a flutter of her wings she added, “Obviously I didn’t need a ride.”
“She gave me a ride,” Scootaloo volunteered.
“So they got away with the elements?” Rainbow Dash asked as they returned to the library.
Luna shook her head. “Not really. And it seems that they want to be found this time as they only took one.”
“Why only take one? And why does that mean they want to be found?”
“The elements of harmony are meant to be used as a set. With even one absent their power is useless. As for why that means the thief wants to be found, I suspect Twilight will be able to answer that for thee.”
With a pulse of magic from Luna’s horn, a similar glow surrounded Spike and a moment later he awoke. “What happened?” the youthful dragon asked through a rested yawn.
“We were hoping thou could tell us.”
“Whoa! Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia? What are you two doing here? Whatever’s going on I swear I had nothing to do with it!”
“Relax, nopony is accusing you of stealing the element of honesty,” Celestia said.
“Oh, that’s a relief… wait? Stealing the what?” Spikes words trailed off as he looked over to the open display case. “Oh man, Twilight is so going to kill me!”
Celestia wrapped a hoof around the young dragon and smiled softly. “I doubt that, though I suspect she’ll be happier if you could tell us something useful.”
“Oh, right! Umm… Let’s see, there’s not much to tell. Twilight went to the trial and left me in charge here, so I did my library assistant gig. There was a knock at the door. I went to open it and bam! Next thing I know you’re here.”
“So you didn’t even catch a glimpse of who was on the other side of the door?”
Spike hung his head and said, “No, sorry.”
The sound of chariot wheels outside announced the arrival of others returning from Canterlot and they soon filled into the library.
Once the new arrivals were up to speed on the situation Twilight walked over to display case. “I don’t understand. Why only take one? The elements are connected, given the time to set up a powerful enough tracking spell I could use the remaining elements to locate the missing one.”
“And no doubt walk right into a trap when you go to it,” Luna said.
“True, although it’s not much of a trap seeing as we’ll know that going in. Besides what choice do we have? We need the elements back together. Don’t we?” Twilight countered.
Celestia gazed out of a window for a moment and took a deep breath. “Luna, I believe we have work to do. Twilight make the preparations for the spell.” With a nod of her head she motioned for her sister to follow her outside.
Once outside Luna asked, “Of what do you speak?”
“It is time,” was all Celestia said as she pointed to a nearby clock tower.
“Oh,” Luna said, as the glow of her sister’s magic flared and the sun dipped below the horizon. With Luna’s own magic flaring to life, the moon quickly took its place in the night’s sky.
A look of concern flashed in Celestia’s eyes as she turned to face her sister. “Luna, please stay with Twilight. When she finishes finding the missing element of harmony she and her friends will go after it… and given your expertise I’d prefer you were by their side when they do.”
“And what of you? Thou doesn’t exactly sound like you intend to sit this out.”
“I intend to check on a hunch. If I am mistaken it will be a total waste of time. Hence my hesitance to share the thought with Twilight and her friends.”
“And if thou are correct?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Then I will be able to disarm the trap well before we are expected to arrive.”
“Forgive me sister, but that sounds more like something I would do. Or have I been mistaken in noticing thy preference for allowing others to defend Equestria, often with little more aid from you then cryptic advice?”
With a sigh Celestia answered, “You are correct in noticing that I prefer to have others to do what they can for themselves. However, given the nature of the path he left for us to follow I expect his plan will account for Twilight and her friends, so I expect that they will not be able to retrieve the missing element in time to matter. And after the events of today, I’m convinced that it’s you that our foe wishes to face. I hope to surprise him.”
“Are thou certain that you do not wish my company, sister?”
“Yes, with the elements separated, those who wield them are vulnerable. I can’t be in two places at once, but we can.” Celestia didn’t wait for a response as she disappeared in a flash of magic.
“Why did you have to pick today of all the days to be erratic, impulsive and foolish? That’s my job…” Luna sighed, laughing slightly at her own ending joke as she returned to the library.
* * * * * * *
With the sunset Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash took the reminder of how late it was to take the crusaders home while they waited for Twilight to prepare her spell. Now the five ponies, a princess and a dragon whelp stood watch as Twilight made her final adjustments to the elaborate drawings she’d added to the center of the library floor.
A bang on the door startled everyone. “I got it!” Spike called as he rushed over to the door. Thinking out loud, he added, “I wonder who would come to the library this late at night?”
The answer turned out to be a pegasus stallion of the royal guard, looking dead tired and a little singed around the edges. “Oh thank goodness! Princess, there’s been a disaster in Hoofington!” he said as soon as he saw Luna.
“Then report. What kind of disaster?”
“That’s just it, we don’t know! It was some kind of magic spell. A giant black and purple fireball fell from the sky. Our unicorns of the local guard station tried to stop it, but it just punched through shield spells and counterattacks with ease.” A shiver ran through the guard’s body as he continued, “It was terrible, it landed in the middle of an empty street, but the blast still set half the town on fire… fire… everywhere…” the guards words trailed off as his eyes grew distant.
“What about the ponies?” Luna asked.
“I… I don’t know Your Highness. After the blast, I was the least injured of the pegasi, so my commanding officer sent me to Canterlot to report this to a princess. But there was too much fire as I flew away, I couldn’t tell if the building near the center of the blast were still standing or not. But I can’t imagine a blast like that would be without casualties. It look like… like an attack.” Taking a moment to force his body to stop shivering he added, “Who attacks a whole town? Why? What should we do?”
“Return to Canterlot, by my orders send two squads of pegasi and one squad of unicorns to Hoofington to help put out the fires and engage in search and rescue. Also send flyers to every town to warn the local guard stations to be on full alert. Finally, be sure to check into the infirmary as soon as you can.”
“Yes Your Highness. Umm, what’s going on back there?” he asked, pointing to the wild light show coming from Twilight Sparkle’s magic.
Luna smiled. “A very good chance that we are about to find out where the attack came from.”
The five remaining elements of harmony shimmered from their places in Twilight’s magic array and light covered the unicorn’s eyes. Waves of magic tore through the room like gusts of wind, scattering any lose papers to the edges. When the magic died down and Twilight Sparkle’s eyes came back into focus on the world around her she said, “It’s in the Everfree Forest. More precisely the ruins of the castle of the royal pony sisters.”
With a raised eyebrow Luna said, “With a tracking spell of that magnitude I’d have expected a more precise location then that.”
“So would I. But I felt a ton a magical interference coming from there as well. I’m guessing that’s why the tracking spell wouldn’t zero in anymore then the castle,” Twilight said, with a nod. Taking the golden tiara with a purple gem that was the element of magic, Twilight passed out the remaining elements, each to the pony who’s cutie mark shared the shape of the gemstone on their respective necklace.
Then looking to her friends Twilight said, “Alright girls, here’s the plan. We get to the castle of the royal pony sisters, find the element of honesty, and put an end to all this trouble whoever we’re dealing with has been causing. And if needed, Princess Luna can distract the villain while we get the element.”
Luna smiled. “You presume that I will not have dealt with the scoundrel myself by the time you have found the missing element. Regardless, I approve of this plan.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she darted out the door.
With that the ponies charged out into the night. “Right… I guess I’ll just stay here and clean up this mess then,” Spike groaned and grabbed his trusty broom, scowling at the ransacked room around him.
* * * * * * *
The traveling party walked surrounded by an almost complete darkness. Only the purple and blue glow of Twilight, Rarity’s and Luna’s horns allowed them to see where they were stepping, save Rainbow Dash who flew slowly, just overhead of her companions.
Rarity looked up through a rare part in trees and caught a glimpse of the dark gray overcast clouds. Little of the moon’s light pierced the clouds so that they were almost indistinguishable from the darkness of the forest canopy. “Why does it have to be overcast? It’s dark enough with all these trees blocking out the moon’s light,” she complained.
“Hey don’t look at me,” Rainbow Dash said in response. “I’m already told you that Everfree weather does whatever it wants, all by itself.”
Taking advantage of the small talk, Applejack asked, “Hey, Luna?”
“Yes?”
“Ah was wondering, why do ya think they took the element of honesty?”
“Considering that the element they took is bait for a trap I doubt that they cared which one they took. But if I had to guess, I’d imagine it is because those who walk the path of darkness tend to consider honesty to be the most difficult to corrupt and thus the most troublesome of the elements of harmony.”
“Honesty is the most difficult to corrupt?” Applejack asked with a slight smile on her face.
“Perception and reality aren’t always one and the same. Those new to the path of darkness may ‘think’ that honesty is the most difficult to corrupt because it is too simple a concept, but that doesn’t mean they are correct.”
Tilting her head to the side Applejack gave a bit of a glare to the princess of the night. “What do ya mean ‘Too simple?’”
“I mean just that. Even with the simplest of understandings of honesty, something is either true or it is not. The ways of darkness however rely heavily on deception, lies, and half-truths, and honesty clearly opposes such things. However, if thy run in with Discord is any indication thou already knows that even an honest heart can be manipulated.”
Bowing her head slightly and allowing her trusty cowboy hat to slide forward just a bit, Applejack said, “Yeah, I guess that means kindness would be the hardest to corrupt then huh?”
“Quite to the contrary, actually. While Fluttershy may certainly hold her head high that she never lowered her mental guard, allowing Discord’s mind control spell in unnoticed, kindness, even in its purest form can quite easily be led astray.”
“So, princess, what element is the most incorruptible in its purest form?” Twilight Sparkle’s question drew surprised looks from her friends. “What? I can’t be curious?”
Luna gave a small laugh and then answered, “No one element can claim that title, for in their purest form three of them are truly incorruptible, honesty, loyalty, and magic. Honesty, as stated before, seeks the truth, something truly incompatible with the ways of the wicked. As I’m sure Rainbow Dash can tell you, true loyalty first requires loyalty to what is right and just, then to any whom will join you in pursuing what is right. But to know what is right requires that same unrelenting pursuit of the truth as honesty. By now I would suspect that you, Twilight, already know the truth of the element of magic. It has no virtue of its own, but instead seeks to hold the other five elements in balance, and thus in its purest form would also be anchored to the truth through honesty and loyalty.”
“But what of the other elements? Surly they can be resilient as well,” Rarity asked.
With a nod Luna answered, “Any virtue worth holding can be resistant in the face of darkness. However ones such as kindness, generosity and laughter by themselves do not seek the truth, as they bend more to the whims of the heart than any hard truths. Both kindness and generosity can inspire completely opposite actions and yet remain true to themselves, based solely on the heart of the one wielding them.” Shaking her head she added, “And you need only look to the age of chaos to see the misery that Discord’s pursuit of laughter brought to everypony.”
The traveling party walked in silence for a moment as they took in Luna’s words. Rainbow Dash was the next to speak, although not on anything quite so philosophical. “Uh, heads up, we got company!”
Looking to the darkness beyond the light of their magic users’ creation, they saw that Dash was pointing at a multitude of eyes looking back at them. One set of eyes lunged forward and somepony shouted, “Timberwolves!”
* * * * * * *
Emerging from the trees seven ponies found themselves standing at the ravine that separated the castle of the royal pony sisters from the rest of the Everfree Forest. Their manes and tails were ruffled and they all had minor bruises and cuts.
“Ah swear, sometimes that forest is as gentle as Fluttershy, and sometimes it’s as rough as a rodeo! How in tarnation did it pick tonight of all nights to ambush us five times!” Applejack grumbled as they started to make their way across the old rope bridge to the other side of the ravine.
Looking to the castle ahead Luna responded, “Of that I can not say. However, on the up side all of the creatures we fought were native to the forest. With no shadow puppets among them we may yet have the element of surprise on our side.”
“Then we move ahead quietly from here on out,” Twilight Sparkle said.
Everypony nodded in agreement and began creeping slowly toward what was left of the castle’s front gate. A haunting sense of familiarity struck Luna as the ages had done little to change the layout of the castle. Though vines now climbed many of the outer walls, and the roof had collapsed in many places, even setting hoof in the main courtyard caused a memory to flash in Luna’s mind, showing how it had been when it was new.
Going into the entrance hall several sets of eyes fell on the stone array where Twilight and her friends had first found the elements of harmony. Luna’s eyes found their way to the gapping hole in the roof that force yet another memory to flash in her mind, reminding her how it had formed in the first place. Shaking the thoughts from her mind, Luna took note that erosion had made the hole larger over the years.
“Hey, would ya look at that!” Applejack called out in a whispered tone, looking through what remained of a window.
As everypony gathered around to see what had the farm-pony’s interest they saw a deep purple glow coming from what remained of a tower off to one side of the castle.
“Isn’t that where we fought Nightmare Moon the first time?” Fluttershy asked, ducking down so she couldn’t see the tower in question anymore.
With a nod Luna answered, “And no doubt where the trap awaits us.”
After passing glances among themselves, Twilight asked, “Princess, should we search the rest of the castle for the element?”
“You are welcome to try, but considering that the element of honesty is the bait for that trap I suspect such an effort would be pointless. Last I checked one places the bait in the trap, or hath that tradition changed over the centuries I was away?”
“No, the bait definitely still goes in the trap. Well, at least when you’re pranking it does,” Pinkie Pie said slightly too loud for the whispered conversation that had preceded it. “What?” she asked after noticing the glares coming her way. “Oh right, quiet,” she added in a whisper that would have made Fluttershy proud.
As they neared the tower Luna extinguished the light form her horn. Twilight and Rarity quickly followed suit. Rainbow Dash gave a slight groan as she realized that the plan to go up the stairs in complete darkness would force her to land and feel her way up like everypony else, but she still followed her friends without further complaint.
A faint light appeared as they neared the top of the stairs. Luna came to a halt for a second, before creeping ever so slowly around the last bend. One by one pony’s heads appeared, peaking into the remains of the room at the top of the stairs.
From the narrow point of view afforded them, they were able to see a pyre of black and purple flames at the back of the room. Six obsidian rods marked the edges of the ring of fire on the ground, and yet the dark flames were being drawn up into a large fireball hovering just above the magical pyre. Sitting in front of the dark magic flames was Nightmare Moon, who currently seemed to have a deck of cards that was laid out before her in a formation that hinted at a game of solitaire.
Luna surprised most everypony, as she announced her presence by firing a beam of magic right at Nightmare Moon’s chest. Most everypony, a black aura surrounded Nightmare Moon’s horn and a small shield of dark magic appeared just in time to block the shot. “What took you so long?” Nightmare half asked, half sneered.
Luna answered by walking forward. Twilight and the others also came forward but remained a step behind the princess of the night. Now fully in the room they were able to see one last detail of significance, the white alicorn laying on the floor, scared by the burn marks of a magical battle.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight shouted as she started to charge forward. A blast of dark magic striking the floor right in front of her stopped the unicorn in her tracks.
At the sound of her name the solar princess groaned and opened her eyes slightly. The sign that her mentor was still alive was enough for Twilight to obey the threatening look coming form Nightmare Moon and back away.
Nightmare Moon gave a slight cackle and said, “Oh don’t worry, I want her to live long enough to see her kingdom burn.”
“Enough!” Luna shouted, slamming a hoof to the ground. “I sense too much power before me for you to be a mere puppet and yet you still hide behind a false skin. If you intended to incite my wrath by threatening my sister and my kingdom, thou should at least have the gall to face me with your own face!”
Pausing for a moment, Nightmare Moon looked into the cold anger in Luna’s eyes, and truthfully saw that there was more impassioned anger burning in the eyes of Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Very well,” Nightmare conceded. “I will give you the face you can truly direct your hatred toward.”
With those words the nightmare alicorn became shrouded in darkness, the flowing starlight mane and tail shrank and became more corporeal, her body shrank and the wings shriveled away into nothingness. The alicorn’s form became that of a unicorn stallion. An unnatural shimmer made it reasonable to guess that his coat and mane might not normally be the shade of black they were now and a slight red glow made it unclear if his actual eyes were red or purple.
Taking a step toward the stallion, Applejack said, “Good, now that we’re being honest, how about ya tell me what ya did with the element of honesty?”
The stallion gave a cynical smile and answered, “Oh don’t worry, with the magics at play here, you’ll never find it so long as I live.”
At the stallion’s words, Celestia’s eyes suddenly opened fully and she muttered something too quietly to be heard. Noticing her sister’s reaction Luna frowned, as whatever her elder sister perceived eluded her.
Looking away from Luna, the stallion sighed and said, “I was hoping your friends would realize that they would be useless without their precious elements, but since they came I suppose I should give them somepony to play with.”
With those words a dark aura surrounded his horn and six shadows appeared, taking the form of the six spirits of harmony, only differing from them in appearance by having black coats.
The stallion and his shadows charged forward. Luna and her companions charged forward and battle filled the remnants of the ruined tower’s top room. (Save for Fluttershy’s case as she chose to lead her shadow on an odd dance-like chain of motions, where the shadow endlessly attacked her and she endlessly dodged away.)
As ponies and shadows fought around them, Luna and the stallion circled each other while trading beams of magic. Both were proving too accurate with their shots and were forcing the other to block the incoming beams with magical shield spells rather than dodge.
With the battle dragging on beyond mere seconds, Luna accepted that her opponent had proven himself to be her equal in a shooting fight and that it was time for a change in tactics. Seeing as she was blocking his magic blasts anyway, Luna opted to charge her opponent.
She had only closed half the distance to her target when he vanished in a flash of teleportation magic. On instinct Luna checked her natural blind spot and sure enough a blast of dark magic was coming at her from behind. The dark magic sailed through empty air as Luna also vanished in the flash of a teleportation spell.
Appearing beside her target, Luna immediately fired a powerful blast of her own magic. Luna’s blast also found only empty air, as her target vanished with another teleportation spell and leaving her attack to slam into the wall beyond. The resulting explosion sent even more stones of the already crumbling wall falling into the darkness beyond the tower.
With another missile of dark magic headed right at her, Luna once more teleported across the room. This time she didn’t bother to attack the moment she reappeared, nor was she surprised by the flash of teleportation magic that greeted her as her target once more teleported away. Rather than give chase again, Luna blocked the stallion’s counterattack and simply glared back at him. He responded by giving a smirk as if to say ‘what are you going to do about it?’
Why does he insist on remaining in a ranged fight? Luna thought to herself. As if to answer, a vision played in the back of her mind, showing a sword and a shattering scythe. Ah, so he wasn’t holding back in the cave. So he knows I am his superior at close quarters combat. So I just need a way to-
Luna’s thoughts were interrupted as one of the many gasps and squeaks coming from Fluttershy became a pained cry. Looking to the source of the sound, Luna saw Fluttershy falling backwards as if she’d taken a punch to the side of her face, and Rainbow Dash looking as if she’d just come out of a dive, now fighting both shadowy pegasi. Four of Fluttershy’s friends called her name as she hit the floor back first.
In a radiant flash of purple light all six bearers of the elements vanished, reappearing together by the stairs. As the shadows turned to face their opponents once more Twilight summoned a dome-like shield around herself and her friends.
Inside the shield Rarity and Pinkie Pie rushed to check on Fluttershy, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack took defensive positions at the edges of the shield. On the outside the six shadows gathered around and began pounding and kicking at the shield, causing cracks to form in the protective spell.
“ENOUGH!” Luna yelled with the ‘royal Canterlot voice’ so loud that somewhere in the Everfree Forest a zebra decided that she was mistaken in thinking her brew needed more of the ingredient she was about to add.
Back in the castle ruins, a light blue light radiated from Luna’s horn. High above, the overcast clouds parted and the moon filled the hole in the cloud cover. Within seconds the once half-moon became a full moon and silver light poured through the hole in the clouds, bathing the tower ruin in soft silver light.
The shadows attacked the shield again, Twilight’s shield spell shattered, and then everyone froze. The silver light filling the ruined tower suddenly intensified, causing every pony and shadow to stop and look up, just in time to see a massive beam of silver light coming down from the moon.
Had there been an observer watching from the edge of the ruined castle they would have lost sight of the tower for a few seconds as it disappeared behind the veil of silver moonlight.
Within the tower, the six shadows evaporated in the intense moonlight, the stallion cowered under a small square shield of shadow magic that was crumbling at the edges, and Pinkie Pie’s voice was heard saying, “Wow that tingles!”
As the beam of light faded the five wielders of the elements gathered around their injured friend. “She’ll be alright,” Rarity said.
Luna stood, glaring at the stallion. In response he gave a laugh and said, “Impressive, but your rage isn’t strong enough to beat me. Not yet anyway. I will admit that I was a little caught off guard by that stunt, saw it coming a mile away with Celestia, but I didn’t expect that much light magic from the spirit of night.”
“Thou art a fool if it had not dawned on you that the moon’s light is mine to command,” Luna said, shaking her head slightly.
A sinister smile crept on to the stallion’s face. “Perhaps, but casting on that level must be taxing. I should know, Celestia only managed it once before she burnt herself out. My second shot got through, set Hoofington ablaze if I’m not mistaken. Let’s see if you can do it again, or if Ponyville will burn!”
As a dark aura surrounded his horn, he pointed a hoof at the black pyre at the back of the room and the dark fireball hovering over the blaze launched into the sky.
“No!” Luna yelled as her horn once more flared to life.
Another beam of silver light shot down from the moon, intercepting the fireball in the skies over the Everfree Forest. The two spells canceled each other out in an explosion, ending with the fiery embers evaporating in empty sky.
“Impressive, you’re still standing, clearly you have the endurance for battle.”
“What can I say? I was always the better fighter then my sister,” Luna responded.
Looking over to the shadow fire pyre, the stallion saw that the dark flames were still being drawn upward, forming a new dark fireball. “Clearly, that much is true. But I wonder if you can defeat me before the shadow fire has recharged? Will you have the strength left to stop another shot if you can’t?”
Luna flinched but stopped herself from fully taking a step backwards. Her eyes fell to her sister. Celestia was fully awake, but clearly too weak to stand. Deciding to try things her sister’s way, Luna answered, “Why are we even fighting at all? What do you hope to gain by causing all this misery?”
“It’s not so much what I hope to gain. It’s what I hope the master gains. As for me, I want to see Celestia’s tears as she realizes that she is the source of her kingdom’s weakness. I want to see your rage burn brighter then the cities as they burn down! That is what I want! To see Equestria burn!”
Luna closed her eyes. “You wish to see the depths of my rage? Very well, you shall have it!” Blue light once more shimmered around Luna’s horn. A dome of blue light appeared entrapping Twilight and her friends within a shield spell and three rings of light appeared on the floor, arranged in a triangle pattern around her.
“Luna, no!” Celestia whimpered.
“Princess!” Twilight and her friends called out.
However, after their initial reactions both Twilight and Celestia raised an eyebrow as they recognized the patterns of the light on the floor to be three summoning circles. The stallion also took notice of the magic array and briefly contemplated what the princess of the night could be summoning that she deemed necessary for her rage. Yet as the seconds ticked on the three more adept magic users realized their first assumptions were wrong, as summoning inanimate object didn’t take this long, only summoning other ponies did.
The stallion took a step back as he recalculated the risks and rewards of allowing Luna to finish her spell. On one hoof Luna had promised her rage, if she gave in to her rage then for all intensive purposes his mission was a success and all else was moot. On the other hoof he was already outnumbered seven to one, and while only two of his opponents were powerful magic users, if Luna was summoning three more powerful unicorns he wasn’t sure he’d be able to defeat them. His eyes fell to the shield holding back Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The fact that Luna was keeping her friends out of it as well was enough to make the allure of impending victory too much to resist, and so he stood back and waited.
* * * * * * *
A sound that could be likened to a high pitched crystal chime echoed through the bedroom, causing the filly sleeping in the bed to pull her blankets over her head. Much to the filly’s dismay she was now awake enough that her ears were able to find the source of the sound. The resulting realization that the sound wasn’t coming from outside her house but inside her very room made her pull her blankets off and sit upright.
Scootaloo’s eyes locked onto the dressed just beyond the end of her bed and the soft blue light coming from the top drawer.
“Wha-huh?” she muttered as she crept toward the dresser.
As annoying as the sound was to Scootaloo, something about both the light and sound coming from the drawer felt like it was calling out to her. The orange filly placed her hoof on the handle, and then she hesitated as she tried to think what was supposed to be in the drawer. But the problem was that Scootaloo wasn’t the type of pony to dress up on a regular basis and she’d used the top drawer even less frequently, so she’d forgotten what, if anything, she’d put in there.
Scootaloo swallowed hard as her instincts told her not to open the drawer, and yet the voiceless call of the light and sound tugged at her and somehow comforted her. Finally opening the drawer a smile appeared on her face. A silver vest with matching wing guards was glowing like crazy.
Quickly donning the vest, Scootaloo flexed her wings within their armored sheaths, and as soon and she had fastened the last strap of the armored vest a ring of light appeared on the floor beneath her. As the light washed over her, Scootaloo’s main and tail waved slightly as if a slight wind was coming up from below her. Even with nopony around to hear her, the filly said, “Luna, I’m ready.”
* * * * * * *
“What the hey?” Apple Bloom griped as she finally pulled her head out from under her pillow. Glaring angrily as she searched for the source of the noise that had awoken her in the middle of the night.
Her anger turned to confusion as her eyes fell on her closet and the ribbons of light pouring out through the cracks around the doors. Getting out of bed the farm filly marched across the room. “Don’t ya dare tell me that, after humiliating me for days, that glow in the dark potion finally started working.” Pausing for a moment she thought out loud, “Wait a minute, ah don’t keep my potion making supplies in there. What’d I do, spill something on my bow?”
In the back of her mind Apple Bloom knew that guess couldn’t be right either. Regardless, she opened the closet and began digging through the strangely large pile of pink bows, searching for the source of the light and noise. Pushing aside several more pink bows Bloom smiled. “Ya never said it glowed,” she said as she beheld the silver armored saddle.
Wasting little time Apple Bloom put on the armor. “Okay, what now?” she asked, despite being the only one in earshot. As if in response a ring of light appeared on the floor beneath her. “Oh, that works.”
* * * * * * *
Blue light danced through Sweetie Belle’s bedroom like a disco ball, unanswered as the filly slept soundly, oblivious to the light and noise filling her room. Suddenly jolting upright, she cried, “I’m up! I’m up!” The waking haze filled her mind and she looked out the window into the dead of night and added, “Wait, why am I up?”
Finally taking notice of the light and sound, Sweetie Belle’s first response was try to glare at the horn on her forehead and mutter, “Don’t tell me I fried my nightlight again.” Looking to the light in question she found it still glowing steadily.
By now Sweetie’s body had woken up enough that her ears told her the sound was coming from her dresser. Looking over she saw the silver circlet sitting on top of the dress was glowing, the mirror behind it only adding the disco-ball-like effect of the light coming off of it.
“Well that’s new,” Sweetie Belle whispered as she got out of bed and approached artifact.
Sitting up she took the circlet in her front hooves and bowing her head she lined up the hole in the circlet’s crest with her horn. The moment she had placed the circlet properly on her head a ring of light appeared on floor.
* * * * * * *
Luna had been channeling the summoning spell for almost a minute, and one by one the rings of light suddenly flared brighter, signaling that spell was ready on both ends. The delay didn’t really matter to Luna, as her opponent had had more then enough time to attempt to break the spell, but had chosen to stand by and watch with curiosity.
Finally the third ring of light flared up. Turning to the six ponies behind her, Luna said, “Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, forgive me.”
Before the three could figure out what the princess of the night meant by her words, Luna’s horn pulsed with magic and the three rings of light became columns of blue light so bright that nothing could be seen through them. As quickly as the columns of light had come, they faded, revealing the cutie mark crusaders standing where the summoning spells had been.
And yet, the end of the summoning spell was not the end of Luna’s spell work. The magic around her horn pulsed again, this time a small hole opened in the shield spell around Twilight and her friends, and the crusaders disappeared in a flash of teleportation magic, only to reappear within the shield spell. As quickly as it had formed the hole in the shield spell sealed back up, once more forbidding even magic from coming or going.
“Twilight, protect your friends, and guard these three. I shall need them shortly.” With the princess’s words Twilight Sparkle felt the flow of magic being pushed her way.
With a nod Twilight accepted the magic and poured her own magic into the flow. The shield spell changed from blue to purple as the unicorn took control of it and made it her own.
Turning to her adversary Luna said, “As for you, I believe you asked me to sign your death warrant.”
“Luna, don’t do this,” Celestia pleaded weakly.
Luna shook her head. “I am sorry sister, but he hath played us into a corner. The only way to stop him here and now is to best him at his own game.”
The stallion had been sitting dumbfounded, the look on his face practically screaming ‘who in their right mind summons children to a battlefield?’ The conversation between the two royal sisters snapped him out of his confused pondering and he restored his guarded stance.
Closing her eyes, magic once more wrapped itself around Luna’s horn, but instead of the soft blue light of before it was a dark aura like that of the stallion’s magic. In her mind Luna was doing more then just indulging in angry thoughts, she was feeding her magic into her anger, letting it take on a will of its own.
I knew you would need my power again someday.
Just shut up and kill that stallion already.
Ha! At least we can agree on that much.
The darkness surrounding Luna’s horn spread, causing her coat to darken as her body grew in size until she was the same size as Celestia. When she opened her eyes, the nocturnal eyes of Nightmare Moon gazed out and a wicked grin formed on her face.
As the dark magics of Luna’s transformation faded, the stallion saw the bloodlust in Nightmare Moon’s eyes and his own smile turned into a frown. ‘Game over, I win. Now I just need to figure out how to survive my victory,’ he thought to himself.
Magic flashed and the stallion disappeared with a teleportation spell, only to reappear in the same place, being violently thrown to the ground. Looking around he spotted a dark glow lining the edges of the room. With the force field protecting Twilight and her friends also blocking the stairwell the only way out was to physically jump out of the ruined tower. Given how quickly Nightmare Moon had set up the teleportation-blocking field, that idea didn’t appeal to the stallion very much either.
“What’s the matter? You practically begged to face me. Yet now that you look death in the eye you try to fee,” Nightmare Moon cackled.
The stallion knew better then to try to reason with the nightmare alicorn before him, for she was a creature of blind rage, an instrument of death and destruction and nothing more. But one fact remained, Nightmare Moon was Luna, and Luna had used a great deal of magic, so if he could just weaken Nightmare, perhaps she wouldn’t be able to maintain the spell preventing his escape.
The darkness returned to the stallion’s horn and a spear of dark magic formed and hovered for a second before being launched at his opponent at high speed. Nightmare Moon’s speed proved nightmarish as she sidestepped the attack with ease, letting it bounce off of Twilight’s shield spell. On the other hoof the stallion barely had time to raise a small shield spell to block Nightmare’s counterattack.
“Is that truly the best you can do?” Nightmare Moon taunted, as her target staggered back a few steps.
Nodding slightly he answered, “Yes, you do deserve my best don’t you?”
With that darkness once more flared from the stallion’s horn, quickly becoming a sphere that shielded him from view. The orb quickly melted away, revealing six of the stallion. The six dark stallions quickly spread out each summoning a dark spear of their own, threatening to attack from several sides at once.
“You’re plan is to use the darkness against me? You’re kidding right?” Nightmare Moon said, raising an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed.
“The darkness gives me strength just as it does you, let’s see who is the favored champion of darkness.”
Raising a hoof to her forehead Nightmare Moon sighed. “Why must I always be surrounded by foals?” Slamming her hoof to the ground, a building rage was heard in Nightmare’s voice as she added, “Do you not realize that darkness bows to light? That unlike my sister’s pathetic day, that blinds all with it’s endless light, the night is balance? You foal! The night is not balanced by the day because the night already is balance! It is already both darkness and light! And I am the night! The night’s darkness is MINE! The night’s light is MINE!”
With her enraged words the dark aura around Nightmare’s horn tripled in size. A shift in the light made everyone look upward to see the hole in the clouds exploding outward, clearing the skies over the whole of the Everfree Forest. Every star in the night sky twinkled brightly… too brightly.
“Oh my…” Celestia muttered, and drawing on what little strength she had left she wrapped herself in a layer of golden light.
As they realized what was about to happen Applejack and Rarity hugged their younger sisters in such a fashion as to force their faces into the fur of their elder sibling’s chests. Even Rainbow Dash wrapped her wing around Scootaloo in a hug that mostly obscured the filly’s view.
“Hey!” all three fillies complained.
“Y’all are too young to see this,” Applejack answered on behalf of the adults.
Rainbow Dash’s wing my have prevented her from seeing the room around them but it didn’t stop Scootaloo from looking up at the cosmic display unfolding overhead. The reason for the strangely bright twinkle of the stars finally became apparent as millions, if not billions, of tiny beams of silver light descending on the ruin. As some of the beams began slamming into the shield spell just over her head, Scootaloo willingly buried her face in the fur of Dash’s side.
The beams of light filled the room like a torrential downpour, and although the bulk of the shots were converging on the six shadowy stallions many of the shots were striking within the ruined tower seemingly at random.
Twilight’s knees buckled from the assault on the shield spell under her command. Cracks formed in the purple shield, and then a blue light mended the cracks. Turning her head Twilight smiled at Rarity as she felt her friend’s magic flow into her own, the blue light reinforcing the shield spell matching the blue glow of Rarity’s horn perfectly.
Of the six shadowy stallions, the five shadow puppets evaporated away under the under the starlight rain besieging the ruin after a couple of seconds. With the decoys gone the starlight beams focused all the more on the remaining target. Even with his magic no longer divided, cracks began to form in and spread through the dark shield spell protecting him.
The shield around the stallion finally shattered and the torrent of starlight beams thrust him to the floor, pummeling him relentlessly.
A full seven seconds after the first beam of starlight struck down the last volley of light magic landed and an unusual silence came over the ruined tower. Aside from the spots protected by shield spells, if there was a single stone left un-singed by the magical barrage Twilight couldn’t find it.
Feeling a fluctuation in the magic flowing around her Twilight looked over to Rarity. Seeing the fatigue in her friend Twilight Sparkle gave a nod, and Rarity withdrew her magic from the shield spell. The blue swirls in the shield faded and the spell returned to the pure purple of Twilight’s magic.
Nightmare Moon walked over to the crumpled mess of a stallion lying on the floor. Among the noteworthy observations of her target was that every single leg was bent in places that shouldn’t bend at all, and even the joints were bent in angles they shouldn’t go. Every inch of the stallion’s body was covered in cuts and bruises, his coat was stained with his own blood and even the weak rise and fall of his chest betrayed his broken ribs.
And yet he looked up at Nightmare Moon, his eyes burning with spite, and said, “Nightmare Moon is reborn… I… still… win.”
Are you really going to let him beat you when the means to fully humiliate him are mere yards behind you?
My dear Luna! With that much spite you’re starting to sound like me! I like it!
Leaning in close to the stallion, Nightmare Moon gave a spiteful smile and said, “No, you will die a total failure.”
Slowly she stood up fully and then Nightmare suddenly turned and fired a beam of magic that cut through Twilight’s shield with terrifying ease. “Crusaders! To me!” Nightmare Moon commanded.
Applejack and Rarity tightened their embrace on their younger sisters, preventing them from even considering obeying the command. Rainbow Dash didn’t appear to move, but Scootaloo felt the wing wrapped around her relax. Realizing she could push free in a heartbeat, Scootaloo hesitated for a moment, as she trusted Luna greatly, Nightmare Moon not so much. But ultimately she decided to trust that this was what Luna had meant when she said ‘she’d need the crusaders shortly’ and bolted forward.
As Scootaloo drew near to Nightmare Moon, the grin on Nightmare’s face turned into a frown as she realized what the order she’d given out of spite truly meant. “No! Wait! Stay back!”
In a last ditch attempt to save herself Nightmare Moon gathered magic into her horn trying to do the quickest thing possible, grab the orange filly in a levitation field. But it was too late, even as the dark aura appeared, silver light erupted from Scootaloo’s armor. The light wove itself into a chain and lashed out, and the instant the chain of silver light connected the two ponies the dark aura of Nightmare’s magic flickered out and she became paralyzed. Finally the chain of light seemed to sink into Nightmare Moon’s body and tendrils of darkness started leaking out, seeming as if they were being forcefully pulled out of her as the darkness was drawn down the surface of the silver light.
The moment she saw the silver light coming from Scootaloo’s armor, Applejack looked down at Apple Bloom and loosened her grip on her little sister. Quickly giving a thankful smile Apple Bloom ran toward her friend.
Looking up at her elder sister with pleading eyes, Sweetie Belle said, “They need me sis.”
With a sigh Rarity let her leg go slack, allowing Sweetie push free and run forward as well.
The tendrils darkness being pulled down the chain of silver light reached Scootaloo’s armor and she gave a pained cry that sounded born of surprise more than true pain.
As Apple Bloom came within range her armor also released a silver light that formed into a chain. As Bloom’s chain stuck to Nightmare Moon the darkness started to be pulled down her chain also, and receded halfway up Scootaloo’s chain. Nightmare began to squirm as best she could, given her paralyzed state.
When Sweetie Belle caught up to her friends silver light came from her circlet, completing the triangle formation of chains binding Nightmare Moon. The darkness receded up Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s chains as it was pulled in yet another direction. Nightmare Moon gave a truly pained cry as cracks of silver light began appearing throughout her form.
With one final cry Nightmare Moon shattered like an eggshell. The fragments evaporating like some kind of dark steam as Luna collapsed to the ground.
With a little help from Twilight Sparkle, Celestia was able to stand up. Leaning on her prized student for support Celestia took a step forward and asked, “Luna, are you alright?”
“I have had better days.” Motioning to the three fillies around her Luna quickly added, “Though, seeing as my failsafe worked, I can not complain.”
As the crusaders approached their pegasus friend Sweetie Belle asked, “How about you Scoot? You okay?”
Ever since the silver light had retreated back into their Luna-gifted artifacts Scootaloo had been hanging her head downward, eyes closed and her body trembling. When her eyes shot open fire could practically be seen burning within them as she glared at her friends. Rage burned in her voice as she yelled, “No, I’m not okay! It hurt when that dark stuff touched me! What the heck took you so long! And why the heck am I so angry all of a sudden!”
Bowing her head low to the pegasus filly, Luna said, “Forgive me, Scootaloo. I believe that is my fault. I did not anticipate that you would challenge Nightmare Moon alone and I designed the artifacts to be used as a set, to literally tare my darkness apart. But by facing Nightmare alone for as many seconds as you did the darkness was only pulled in one direction, and so it was able to reach you.”
“Well, stop wasting my time telling me about it and fix it already!” Scootaloo snarled.
“Yes, I suppose the explanation should have waited until after the remedy,” Luna said with a slight chuckle, as a soft blue light surrounded her horn.
High overhead the moon brightened and a shaft of focused moonlight came down, encompassing both Luna and Scootaloo. Their manes and tails lifted upwards as if they were standing in an updraft. Sparks of dark magic began coming out of both of their bodies, evaporating like dark steam in the moonlight.
Scootaloo visibly relaxed and the anger-born tension in her body melted away in the soothing glow of Luna’s cleansing light as the magic pushed the unwanted anger out of her.
Turning to the other crusaders, Luna said, “Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, even though thou seem fine you should probably join us, just in case.”
The two fillies entered the focused moonlight, lined up beside their pegasus friend and joined her in closing their eyes and basking in the warmth of the magic flowing all around them. With the complete absence of any dark magic being purged from the two, it was clear the Luna’s precaution was unnecessary.
At that moment the ring of dark fire withered and died out, and at the same time the darkness of the stallion’s coat faded, causing his coat to become bright red and his main and tail became pink. His cutie mark became visible as a golden spear with a red gemstone imbedded in the spear-point.
With the attention of the adults drawn to the lifeless stallion on the floor, Celestia realized the true purpose of her sister’s distraction. Now that all three fillies had their backs turned to the corpse mere feet behind them, none of them noticed when Celestia used her magic the straighten out the broken legs, close the eyes and even push the blood on the floor back under the body. Although it still looked badly beaten, she hoped it would no longer be traumatizing when the young eyes inevitably scrutinized the scene around them.
Having channeled the purifying light spell far longer then needed, Luna finally released the spell and the shaft of moonlight around herself and the crusaders faded.
Celestia and Twilight wasted no time turning to the ring of arcane etchings carved into the floor where the shadow fire had been and quickly removed the obsidian channeling rods from the formation.
“Ya got to be kidding me,” Applejack muttered as she approached the spot where the shadow fire had been. With the dark artifacts removed, the only thing left in the center of the burnt out ring was a puddle of molten gold and an orange gemstone in the shape of an apple. “It was right here all along…”
An aura of orange light appeared around Applejack and the gemstone, growing brighter with every step the farmer took toward the gem. Finally in a radiant flash the gem and puddle of melted gold vanished, reappearing as a necklace on Applejack’s neck, fully restored to its former glory.
Looking at the artifact hanging from her neck she said, “There ya go. Ya just needed an honest heart nearby to fix yourself, didn’t ya?” Turning to Luna, Applejack asked, “Why did he try to hide it in there? Seems kind of dangerous to put it here if all I had to do was come over to this side of the room to fix the element.”
Luna shook her head. “Actually it makes perfect sense, with the shadow fire bound to his own life hiding the element both physically and magically, there was no way for us to retrieve it while he still lived. Well… assuming that he wasn’t going to just stand idly by to let us dismantle the shadow fire spell directly anyway.”
“Wait! Does that mean he’s… dead?” Sweetie’s voice squeaked, as the filly darted to her sister’s side, putting her big sister between herself and the dead stallion.
A round of grim nods answered the question as the adults begrudgingly admitted what the fillies were looking at was a dead body.
“He looks like he’s sleeping,” Apple Bloom said in a low voice.
“Yeah, except for the part where he’s not breathing,” Scootaloo said, leaning entirely too close to the stallion’s motionless body.
Both fillies gave a surprised yelp as Twilight suddenly wrapped them in her magic and lifted them away from the corpse. “Stay back girls, touching dead bodies isn’t good for your health.” Setting the two down with the rest of the group, Twilight turned to the princess of the night and said, “Luna, did it really have to end this way?”
Luna gave a grim nod. “The rules war are written by the evil. He forced us to defend our subjects, he set the conditions of the battle, he bound the shadow fire to his life. No, his actions ensured that he couldn’t lose, so long as he lived.” With a quick sigh she added, “And even then, he knew his survival was optional to his victory condition.”
Stepping up to her sister’s side, Celestia asked, “Speaking of that, how did you know his true intent was to restore you to being Nightmare Moon?”
“With the forms his shadow puppets took, he didn’t exactly make it hard to guess.”
“And yet, knowing that you still gave him what he wanted. Was it truly necessary to use dark magic against him?”
Bowing her head slightly Luna answered, “She’s stronger them me, because she is right about one thing. The true essence of the night is both light and darkness. But unlike me, she isn’t afraid to use the darkness. Perhaps someday I will figure out how to wield the full fury of the night without fury, but at the moment that wisdom eludes me.”
“I see, but why give your failsafe to them? They’re just fillies, children shouldn’t have to carry such burdens.”
“Sister, once again you let your precious light blind you. The darkness would give them no quarter just because they are young. Why should they be asked to just lay down and die without even the chance to fight and save themselves just because they are young? I have seen the light in their hearts, and it shines just as bright as the ones you choose to burden,” Luna answered, motioning to the six mares around them.
Turning to the crusaders, Luna added, “However my sister is right about one thing. It was wrong of me to give you this burden without fully telling you what I was asking of you. Now that you have seen the true purpose of the artifacts I gave you, I asked again. Will you be the chains the bind my darkness should I ever falter again? Will you be my lunar crusaders?”
This time the three did not answer right away, instead they huddled together and whispered among themselves. When they broke their huddle Scootaloo seemed to be the one nominated to speak for them. “We want to keep being your lunar crusaders even if it means we have to face scary stuff every now and then. But we have one condition, if this is going to be more then just fun and games, then you totally owe us a trip to the ice cream place or something.”
Glancing up at the starry night sky, Luna smiled and said, “Hmm, seems a little cheap for what I’m asking of you, not to mention that ice cream at this time of night would wreck havoc on your sleep cycles. So how about I add your names to the VIP guest list so you can come and go from Starlight Castle whenever you please. Also, after tonight I think I should modify the enchantments on your equipment to better protect you should one of you need to face Nightmare Moon alone again. So what if I treat you to ice cream some time latter in the week when I stop by to do that?”
Scootaloo looked back to her friends, each nodded. “You got a deal!”
Sitting down next to her sister, Applejack said, “Ya know, Luna made a really good point. It’s way past your bedtime. Come on y’all lets get these three back home and to bed.”
“Seriously? How can you expect us to be tired after all that!” Apple Bloom responded, and yet even the mere thought of the hour made her yawn sleepily.
With a bit of a sly grin Applejack said, “Oh, well Ah was going to carry ya, but if you ain’t tired Ah guess you could walk all the way back home yourself.”
“Actually AJ Ah am feeling a little tired,” Apple Bloom quickly admitted.
With that the six spirits of harmony and the three crusaders started to leave. Pausing at the stairwell Twilight Sparkle turned to ask, “Celestia, Luna, aren’t you two coming?”
With a nod Celestia answered, “I will catch up to you in a moment, there is something more that I wish to tend to with my sister first.”
Twilight gave a bow and took her leave of the ruined tower’s upper room.
Looking at her elder sister, Luna said, “Forgive me if I delay your topic, but might I first ask as to why this stallion looks familiar?”
“His name is… was Ruby Spear.”
“Your captain of the guard?”
“Yes, and that does explained how the security lapse at the trial happened.”
“Indeed,” Luna said with a nod. “So what was it you wanted to talk about?”
“Are you really alright?”
Looking over her sister’s scars, Luna smiled and said, “Compared to you I dare say I walked away without scratch. So yes, I am fine.”
With a devious smile Celestia turned and as she walked away she said, “Good, then I’ll let you clean up here. Oh and you remember that vacation you owe me? I’m leaving first thing in the morning. You’re first duty will be to find a temporary captain of the royal guard for me. I’ll worry about a permanent one once I get back.”