//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Great Conspiracy // by YoungQuillMaster //------------------------------// Twilight and Dusk, along with all their friends, joined together in front of the plank as the sailor ponies readied to extend it; Dusk and his friends in cloaks, concealing their visages from everypony else. The plank moved out slowly, the ponies quickly jumping onto it, walking towards the port as several of the other ponies jumped over the gap and fastened the ship to the dock. Twilight turned towards Galleon while Dusk hurried over towards his captain, Frigate. “Can you keep everypony on board here? We might need to sail again rather soon, if not just to return our visitors to their home.” Twilight said to the aged captain. “Of course your majesty, my ponies will stay here at the ready. I… I also suppose it has to do with what happened on the ships when you met our visitors?” Galleon asked. “Yes, that is part of it, but mostly because we might need to return to sea at any moment to search for the ship we were originally after.” Twilight replied. “Well, I’ll keep my crew here as long as I can, but the refreshers come every three weeks, and the next batch coming in is in three days, at which point this crew won’t be here, so I’d say you have until then to do whatever you have to do here at port.” Galleon replied. “Of course, I understand completely, we’ll work something out before then.” Twilight said finally before walking back towards the ponies waiting for her, Dusk included, as he jumped off the plank of his ship and joined the group. “Do you really think this will work?”Dusk asked as Twilight joined them. Twilight just looked at him with a raised eyebrow, causing him to cough nervously. “R-right, same mind, sharing the basic essentialities of each other’s thoughts.” Dusk answered his question. “Your majesty…” a guard said, limping up to them, “the… the guards that were left… at port are down.” The pony stated, “Some sort of spell seemed to cause us pain without explanation.” Twilight and Dusk looked at each other, though Twilight could only see the tip of his muzzle. “Broken reflection.” Both of them said at the same time. Twilight looked towards the guard, thinking as fast as she could for some answer before finally settling on something. “We know what is happening, but we have yet to figure something out that relieves it permanently. Try moving the guards around the dock; it seems that certain positions actually make the pain disappear.” Twilight ordered, the guard nodded and then shambled away in pain. “This isn’t good. They are on the other side for sure, but we have no way of getting there fast enough to stop them.” Dusk said angrily. “Now now, Dusk, keep your temper, we mustn’t let the situation have the better of us.” Elusive chided, causing Dusk to calm down almost immediately. “Sorry, I just think of what we could’ve done that is now impossible.” Dusk explained, calmed downed exponentially. “But really, if we had gone to our side we might have had a chance at catching them.” “True as that may be, it isn’t happening.” Twilight stated, “I’m as disappointed as you about this, but we both know that there is nothing that can be done. We’ll leave some of our guards that have already broken reflection to catch them; they won’t be able to use the same tactic as they did here again if they decide to come back.” “Alright, sounds good.” Dusk agreed, “Now we best get to Canterlot. The only problem with that is that any method that has speed entailed requires interacting with other ponies. If we take the sky chariots the pegasi will not be able to lift us up because of breaking reflection and if we get on the train we’d need our own car to ourselves, and I don’t think any of us can pull off a teleportation spell that powerful and precise.” He pointed out. “True… the only other method is walking… unless…” Twilight bean, stopping as a thought came to her. “Say that last part again.” She instructed Dusk. “What? I don’t think any of us can pull off a teleportation spell that powerful and precise?” Dusk questioned Twilight pointed at him again, a smile growing on her snout. “Exactly, none of us can ALONE.” Twilight emphasized. Everypony looked at each other, until Dusk finally realized what she was going at. “None of us ALONE. Of course, we can’t do it alone, therefore the only other way we CAN do it is…” Dusk began. “Is for us to combine our magical power and use the larger, more powerful magic to get us there. You and I might not be able to do it, but with Elusive and Rarity can just pour magic into the spell structure and we’ll be golden.” Twilight finished. “It might just work out, and if it doesn’t we’ll only be that much closer to getting there.” The ponies nodded in agreement. “Now before we go we need to give the order to the guards, everypony, just stay here and don’t talk to anypony that wasn’t on the ship.” The two ponies galloped off towards the small contingent of guards on each ship. “Well this certainly has been interesting.” Elusive said, “I never expected to meet a pony that had almost my exact interests and my same experiences.” “Indeed, I would have never imagined in my wildest of imaginings.” Rarity agreed as they continued waiting for their friends to return from giving instruction to their guards. “All I know is that there’s going to be a gigantic party after all of this is over!” Bubble commented excitedly. “With two pink party ponies planning particularly perfect parties I don’t see how anything could go wrong!” Pinkie Pie agreed. “There’ll be punch, games, cake, everything we could ever need for a super fantastical party!” “Well it sounds like you have it all planned out.” Female Applejack noted. “Personally I find it kind of confusing having somepony who’s just like me with my same name, nickname and life experiences.” “Not to mention us both remind each other of our siblings.” Male Applejack added. “You really act like a more talkative version of my sister.” “I can say the same about you and Big Mac. The sooner we can figure out a way to separate us by name the better.” Female Applejack said. “Well,” Rarity began, “Why not call our Applejack AJ and yours just simple Applejack.” She suggested hopefully. Both Applejacks looked at her with a raised eyebrow as if the mirror effect was still on them. “Did you miss the part about sharing the same names and nicknames?” Male Applejack asked, causing Rarity to blush. “S-sorry, I was just trying to help.” She explained with a sheepish smile. Elusive walked over to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder, his visage still hidden under his cloak. “It’s quite alright to make mistakes when trying to help, much more so than making mistakes while simply acting rashly.” Elusive stated simply. “I still find it weird how Twilight said that in a way we’re talking to ourselves when we talk between our different sides.” Rainbow Dash commented. “Yeah, it’s really wacked out. Still it’s kind of cool at the same time.” Rainbow Blitz agreed. The two friends quickly returned to the groups, their guards rushing off the boats and onto the docks as quickly as possible. “Alright, we’re ready to get going.” Twilight stated. “Everypony gather around, this might get a bit interesting.” She warned as she and Dusk lit their horns. “Elusive, Rarity, add some of your magic to the mix, we’ll need all we can get for this spell.” Dusk asked; the two unicorns nodding in response as their horns began to glow, their magic streaming around Dusk and Twilight. The air cracked with power as all four unicorns joined in the same mental image, communicated through the waves of magic around them. Slowly the group was engulfed by a white light as the spell began to unfold, the sparks of energy now shooting off almost every second. All at once there was a blinding flash of light, and when it cleared, the twelve ponies and two dragons were gone from the port, small twinkling sparks of magic still flashing where they were. Luna walked back at forth at the top of the stairwell, her sister’s disappearance still eating at her mind. Her ears perked up as she heard the distinctive crackling of a powerful spell beginning to come from the room. She looked around, but she saw nopony anywhere near her, but the sound and the presence of energy told her that something was coming, and then a pain shot through her. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening to some measure. The sound became louder and louder as the first sparks began to form in the center of the downstairs area. The sparks began to spark off and shoot across the room as a small white orb formed. The orb expanded, and quickly engulfed the room, completely blinding the room. Luna opened her eyes once again and looked to where the orb had been and saw the six pony friends and Spike along with seven other hooded figures, which she could only guess the identity of. “Princess Luna, we have a situation!” Twilight shouted as she quickly rushed up the stairs to Luna’s side. “We found out about this wall that seems to function like a mirror.” “And we think that you might know how to take it down.” One of the hooded figures said. The pony flipped his hood off, confirming Luna’s suspicions; a nearly perfect match for Twilight, but instead of being a mare, he was a stallion. “N-no!” Luna shouted, the pain digging deep into her. “Celestia and I… we swore to let the world… exist as it had for all those years before we made that mistake” “Luna, we need you to lower the barrier, the water is already gone, it’s just the mirror effect now.” Dusk pleaded. “If we take down the barrier the main advantage of our opposition is taken away.” “I… I can’t, I’d be making the same mistake as I did all those years ago!” Luna shouted. Twilight reacted quickly and cast a sound barrier spell, blocking the shouts, making the castle silent everywhere except where they were at the moment. “Luna, if you do this we’ll have a better chance of getting Celestia back here.” Twilight said, desperately trying to convince her. “No, I made that mistake once before. I’ll never… let that mirror fall.” Luna rasped as the pain dug into her. Dusk looked around, trying to find something to help him think, when he found one thought that stood out. “Luna, if you don’t lower it,” He began, “Your reflection might just do it to figure out why he’s feeling pain.” Dusk stated. “Who do you want to have the blame, you or your reflection?” Luna looked towards Dusk, a fire in her eyes like non he had ever seen; with such intensity he actually took a step back from the enraged alicorn. “If you leave now, neither of us will have a blame in this. I’d rather take that option.” Luna countered angrily as she struggled against the pain. “We aren’t leaving Luna. We believe that removing that barrier will help both sides find who they’re looking for.” Twilight stated firmly. Luna gazed at her with the same look as Dusk, but she was prepared and gave the glare right back. “If you won’t help us, maybe your reflection will.” “You’re no better than they are!” Luna shouted, tears beginning to pour out from her eyes. “You think you can bring balance by taking the contents of both side and putting them all on the same side? That’s not balance, that’s destruction!” Luna shouted, though none of the ponies knew what she was getting at. “I’ll never lower that wall, not now, not ever, that would only accomplish their purpose!” She roared. “Luna, this is the finding of Celestia we’re talking about. If anything, that would be against those ponies’ plans.” Twilight pointed out, feeling wretched inside at the knowledge that she was causing pain to one of the monarchs of Equestria. “No, they want to join the two halves! You all are accomplishing their plans by allowing yourselves be on the same side! Don’t you see?” Luna shouted; her pain, like bolts of lightning slicing through her body, made her quake with each jolt. “You’ve played right into their hooves! You fell to the temptation to have another like you to walk with! You have no earthly idea what you are causing by being on the same side!” “Luna, please, lower the wall, it will make their main advantage disappear. It’ll be forcing them to fight on an even playing field!” Dusk pleaded. “NO! I will not fail, I’ll stay strong, and so will my reflection!” Luna roared as she writhed in pain, sweat forming on her brow as she fought on. “Luna, please, do this for Celestia, she needs you!” Twilight shouted, trying to get through to the lunar princess. “Please, we need you to lower the wall!” Luna looked at Twilight, her gaze void of rage, leaving only the eyes of a pony in anguish, her body tormenting her constantly. She gave a roar of pain, and then lit her horn, the blue aura forming around it. “No! Please don’t make me fail!” Luna pleaded with the ponies around her. “I don’t want to break it again!” Her voice was weak as she continued to pour strength into her magical aura, her body rejecting all order to stop as it sought its only known method of relief. “I’m sorry, Luna,” Dusk and Twilight said in a whisper, “So sorry.” Luna looked at the two, their heads hung as her horn continued to grow brighter as the spell manifested. She gave one last power yell, and then a blast of magic shot up, passing through the palace’s ceiling before it shot towards all direction as a field of indigo energy that covered the sky briefly. Suddenly the world shook, water rose and fell violently, objects that weren’t fastened to something solid fell down to the ground. The ponies looked at each other in concern. After several minutes of this violent reaction, the world grew still, and eerily quiet, as if anticipating the next wave, yet none came. The pony near Luna simply looked at each other, unsure at whether it had been the wall breaking or Luna struggling to not lower it. “Why… why did you have to force my hoof?” Luna whimpered. “I failed all those years ago, and just when I come back from banishment you make me fail at something that had not posed any temptation since that first time.” “Celestia will understand, Luna.” Twilight comforted the weak lunar princess. “We’re just doing what we though best to get her back.” “We really are sorry, Princess Luna.” Dusk said gently. “We were only trying to do what we thought was right, we didn’t want to cause you any pain. Trust me, if we had known another way than this we would have taken it whole heartedly.” “I know,” Luna replied, “But this was one point I thought I was strong on ever since it was first explained to me. I never once thought that I’d fail in it, yet here we are, and I have failed my sister, myself, and Equestria as a whole.” “What do you mean by ‘first time’?” Twilight asked, “You mean to say that this wasn’t the first time the wall has been removed? And failing your sister, yourself, and Equestria? What do you mean?” Luna closed her eyes and sighed. Slowly, but surely, she rose to her hooves, looking as regal as ever. “There is much to say, please, follow me to a place where we can discuss this in a more private setting.” Luna then turned and walked towards one of the door, the other ponies quickly following her. The soon arrived at Luna’s private study, were each pony took a seat. Luna looked around her at the many tomes, storybooks, and other pieces of literature. “So what is it that you wanted to talk to us about, Luna?” Twilight asked as she got a bit more comfortable in her cushion, fully expecting a long story to follow. “It all happened so long ago…” Luna reminisced, “It was rather early on into our reign over Equestria, a time of hard feelings, various contentions between families for land rights. After Discord, everypony was in a rut in one way or another.” She continued. “But, there was one thing intrigued my sister and I: a region of the world where ships would report that whenever that got close, another ship would come and block them. We had no idea what might cause a group of ship to always attempt to block intruders, and such dedication that no matter how many ship sailed at the same time there, there were always a ship blocking each one…” “The mirror effect,” Twilight inserted, “Both side wanted to get over, but neither side could since the other wanted to do the same.” “Indeed,” Luna agreed, “But we had no way of knowing that. No book of records says what happened next, only memories of my sister and me. This story has never left our mouths before this moment, but I believe that with all that has transpired that you should have an idea of what has led to all this.” Luna sighed, and dove into the story.