"You were...born here?" Rarity echoed, looking around the valley.
"That's right, my little ponies," Princess Celestia said. She smiled wistfully. "I can still remember the smell of Father's vegetable soup...the rough stone walls and wood floors of the cottage where Luna and I grew up..." She looked around and sighed. "Long since gone, of course. I've preserved the valley itself to the best of my abilities, but the cottage where we grew up...that's been gone for over a thousand years."
"You had a father?" Pinkie Pie asked, jaw dropping.
"Yes," Celestia said with a musical laugh. "And a mother, too. Just like any other pony." She smirked. "What...did you seriously think my sister and I were goddesses that preceded all creation?"
The ponies looked around at one another. "Well...yeah," Pinkie admitted.
Applejack scratched her head. "Yeah, uh...real wistful an' all, Yer Highness, but uhh...whut're we doin' here exactly? An' why was that airship shootin' at us?"
Celestia frowned. "I have no idea who was in that airship or why they attacked us, but I promise you, they will face justice. Especially if they've done what I think they've done. As to why we're here..." She took a deep breath and trotted toward the far end of the valley. The others followed her. "Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash journeyed here in search of the Tomb of the Unknown Prince. It is the resting place of my father, but it is also an extremely powerful magical apparatus that...that only an alicorn can activate."
The others gasped. "So...that light in the sky?" Twilight Velvet asked.
Celestia nodded. "Ponyhenge is connected to my father's tomb," she said. "It is a complex magical array. If...if the light in the sky hadn't stopped so abruptly, I wouldn't be so worried. But..." She looked back at the ponies. "Something has gone wrong...I can feel it."
"So...what was this array supposed to do?" Rarity asked.
Celestia pursed her lips. "That...is complicated," she said. "And we don't have the time for it right now."
After a few minutes' walk, they came upon a marble edifice flanked by phoenix flame torches. "Oh no," Celestia said, drawing to an abrupt halt and raising a hoof.
"What is it?" Fluttershy asked. She followed Celestia's gaze and gasped. "Oh my..."
Just beyond the carved arch, a pile of rubble blocked the entrance to the tunnel beyond.
Celestia frowned. "Whoever did this...they will pay dearly."
* * * * *
The candles flickering over Twilight Sparkle's desk danced with the changes in the room's air currents as Inner Light entered and set a steaming clay cup beside her. The warm scent of spiced apples filled her nostrils. "Mmm..." Twilight looked up, setting her quill aside. "Thank you," she said.
"I must thank you," Inner Light said. "Your designs for that cider press...when you first began building it, I thought you were mad, but...I must admit, the results are more than impressive." He sat on a bench along one wall of the study, looking around at the dozens of sheets of parchment affixed to boards that covered every wall that wasn't occupied by a bookshelf. "I will never accustom myself to your astonishing intellect and productivity," he said. "When first you crossed my threshold in the spring, I thought you a madmare."
Twilight took a sip of cider and looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "And now?"
Inner Light grinned. "Now I know with absolute certainty that you are a madmare," he said. "And without question the most brilliant, most amazing alicorn I have ever known."
Twilight blushed.
"So...you have been sequestered in your study since midday," Inner Light said. "What has so possessed you?"
Twilight sighed. "I'm...just working on some ideas," she said. "I'm...trying to figure out how to rework Starswirl's time travel spell. To put enough of my own power into it to...to send myself back where I belong, and remove the elasticity component." She shook her head. "Something was powerful enough to send me here, so there has to be a way back. I just..."
Inner Light stood and trotted over, grazing a hoof lightly across her back. "Is remaining here with me so abhorrent to you?" he asked softly. "These past seven moons...I have not been as happy in many centuries as I have since you arrived."
Twilight looked at him and ducked her head. "It's...it's not that," she said. "It's just...I don't belong here. I shouldn't be in this time. I could...I could change history. I could destroy the future. And...and I miss my friends. My friends...they're everything to me."
"And I am nothing to you?"
"I didn't mean that!" Twilight said hastily. "I..." She shivered suddenly. "When did it get so cold in here?"
"Night fell a long time ago," Inner Light said. "Come...finish your cider and rest. You need your rest."
"You're right," Twilight said with a sigh. She drank her cider slowly, savoring it, then extinguished the candles. She followed Inner Light to the spacious bedroom and crawled onto the large bed, levitating the thick blanket over herself. Inner Light smiled and lay beside her, sharing the blanket and her warmth.
* * * * *
"Shit," Daring Do spat.
"You said it," Rainbow Dash said.
Daring sighed. "Diggin' our way outta here's gonna take hours. Maybe days."
"Don't reckon you brought any explosives, huh?"
"I don't make a habit of carrying explosives," Daring muttered. "Besides...it'd probably just make this worse."
"Dammit...! We gotta get outta here!" Rainbow cried. "Dong-knock could be miles from here by now! There's no tellin' where he went!"
Daring started laughing. "Dong-knock!" She slapped her good hoof on the ground, then rolled over on her back, clutching her stomach. "Dong-knock!"
"Uhh...you okay there?"
Daring gasped and wheezed. "All these years...all the times I've butted heads with that obnoxious walking pile of bullshit...I never once thought...of calling him...DONG-KNOCK!" She completely lost it and collapsed into a helpless, giggling pile of fur and feathers.
Her laughter was infectuous; within seconds, Rainbow Dash was right beside her, laughing her fool head off.
After several minutes, their laughter subsided; they lay on the floor, letting out the occasional wheezing giggle. Daring rolled over and sat up. "I needed that," she said.
"Heheh...yeah...me too." Rainbow sat up, flexing her wings and grimacing. "So, uhh...I guess we just...start diggin'?"
Daring sighed. "I guess we don't have a choice..."
* * * * *
Twilight Sparkle flew halfway up the cliffs, smiling as the warm spring sun shone down on her face.
Inner Light joined her, smiling at her. "It is a pleasant day," he said. "Too pleasant to stay inside, cooped up in your study."
"You know, you're right," Twilight said. "I have an idea!" She turned to face him. "Let's go on a trip."
"I beg your pardon?"
Twilight flew a lazy circle around him. "Let's fly out to the pony tribe lands!"
Inner Light flinched. "I...would rather not..."
"Inner Light," Twilight said with sudden sadness, "you shouldn't shun the ponies. I know...I know how you feel about them, but...trust me when I say that there is harmony within the ponies. They just...they just don't realize it yet." She shook her head. "Besides, this whole hermit lifestyle...it's no way to live. You need to get out of the valley once in a while...make some friends!"
"I have you," Inner Light said. "You are all the friend I need."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "I used to be just like you," she said. "Come on, let's go to Unicornassus. We can use that disguise spell I came up with. They don't need to know you're an alicorn! Besides, I'd love a chance to talk to Willow the Wise again."
Inner Light sighed. "Very well. For you...I will meet with the unicorns."
* * * * *
Princess Celestia studied the pile of rubble. At length, she sighed. "I guess I have no choice," she said. She turned to the group. "All of you...stand back."
"What're you gonna do, Your Highness?" Spike asked.
"I'm going to clear a path," Celestia said. She raised each hoof and removed the golden slippers she wore, levitating them into a neat pile at Twilight Velvet's hooves. She stretched each leg, then cracked her neck. "I have not done anything like this in quite some time..."
"Uhh...Ah think we'd best be movin' back, y'all, like th' Princess said," Applejack said, ears flattening as she cantered back ten paces from Celestia. The others followed suit, Rarity bringing Celestia's shoes with her.
Celestia backed up five paces, then spread her wings, raising herself into the air. Once airborne, she drew back another ten pony lengths before rocketing forward, undulating her body so that her powerful hind legs faced the obstruction. Her hooves began glowing with a bright, golden light...
The very earth shook as Celestia's hooves impacted the marble. With a deafening *crack-BOOM*, a plume of marble dust and hundreds of chips and pebbles of stone sprayed out of the opening, along with a blinding golden flash.
When the dust cleared, two pegasi, coated in white dust, blinked identical rose-colored eyes.