//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Luna vs. a Tiny Italian Car // by totallynotabrony //------------------------------// August 12, 2015 New York had been a bust. By midmorning when we dove into downtown traffic, the spell signal had already faded. We’d sat there in a traffic jam with Luna growing more and more agitated in the backseat. Breaking free of the city by the afternoon, Luna had tried the spell again and come up empty. With no better destination in mind, we’d continued northeast, perhaps in the vain hope that Tirek was working in that direction for some reason. If he’d jumped to Philadelphia, then NYC, the next place looked like Hartford, Connecticut, or Boston. There was not much discussion in the car after the second failure. We just drove, and ended up on the outskirts of Boston that night. The next morning, we sat. The hotel’s check out policy was 11 am, so we had a while before being forced to vacate or pay for another night. Luna looked rough. It must have taken a lot of upkeep to preserve her princess air. Even with her rumpled coat and wings, her eyes looked worse, hollow and haunted. Maria and I were quietly looking at the atlas and plotting courses back home. I only had so much vacation time, and Maria’s veterinary business always had customers dependent on her. We decided that if this wasn’t wrapped up by the end of the day, we’d have to find a way to tell Luna. “If we don’t have anything to do but wait, we might try seeing the city,” Maria suggested. “How can you think of tourism at a time like this?” Luna asked. “Well, what are we supposed to do?” I said. “We can’t do anything until Tirek pops up again.” “We must remain vigilant. We cannot afford to relax. Are you losing your resolve so soon?” Maria and I probably shouldn’t have glanced at each other just then. Luna got up off her bed and approached. “Do not tell me that this has become too arduous already?” “Well, we aren’t supposed to be here,” I said. “By now, we were supposed to be on our way back home.” “So this is inconvenient for you? The fate of my sister is ruining your vacation?” Kind of, yes. “We can’t do this for too much longer. We can’t drop everything. We have jobs. We have commitments.” “And is my sister not more important?!” I could throw away my job and whatever money it cost to keep up the search, without any guarantee that we would be successful and rescue Celestia. Maria might be better off, running her own business, but her bank account was tied to mine. “Is money more valuable to you than a life?” Luna snarled. “Fine, then.” With a pop, a bar of gold materialized in the air and fell on my foot. I yelped and jerked back. From research I had once done for a story, I knew the average gold brick weighed about twenty five pounds. “Where did you get this?” Maria asked, staring at the gleaming gold, embossed with the royal seal. “And wouldn’t you like to know?” said Luna. “Though if it should cost more, I would pay any price for Celestia’s safe return.” My foot didn’t seem broken. I picked up the brick. “At current prices, this is worth about half a million dollars. Well, maybe less since we’d have to find someone on the black market to avoid suspicion, but still…” I hated to accept it and confirm Luna’s idea that we were terrible people, but that was more than enough money for me to quit my job and become a professional Celestia-rescuer. “Okay,” I said, “But now that hotels, food, and gasoline are covered, we still don’t have a plan. Why can’t you ask the other princesses or the Elements of Harmony for help? Surely they’re wondering where Celestia is by now.” “You are my help,” said Luna. “And I expect you to spare no effort.” “Do you want your sister found or not?” Maria said. “You want a veterinarian and a government building inspector to locate and rescue a magic princess from another world from an evil villain.” “We three are the best option,” Luna argued. “Tirek does not know that we are in pursuit. Bringing in others could jeopardize our surprise.” That was a point, but I was still far from confident. “Couldn’t you at least tell them what’s going on and caution them about rushing in?” “You know Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna. “Okay, yeah, but even if things go bad, she and the others can fix it.” “We will do this my way,” said Luna. “With Celestia indisposed, I am the leader.” “And leaders have subordinates to give them advice,” I retorted. Luna stared at me. “Noted.” If we weren’t going to do anything else, Maria and I took advantage of the downtime to watch Netflix on my laptop. Luna brooded on the other side of the room. “Arguing with her is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick,” Maria muttered. I laughed. We were a little too soon in relaxing, however. Luna’s head shot up. “There they are!” We instantly flew into action, throwing things into bags and rushing out of the room. Using the compass, we determined the direction of the day was west, and zoomed off down the highway. Springfield was in western Massachusetts, and we were there in less than an hour. Luna directed us down sidestreets. “We are very close.” Maria passed me my pistol as we pulled up. I shoved it behind my back and covered it with my shirt as we got out the car, letting Luna out of the back. Moving at a trot, we went down the block and headed for the next. Luna had her wings up and kept her knees loose. Rounding the corner, there they were. Tirek was about the same size as Celestia, his red and black colors not quite vibrant, but looking better than the show had depicted him straight from Tartarus. Celestia looked wizened and sickly, her mane limp and dull. A glowing chain that I presumed was forged of magic bound a collar at her neck. “Tirek!” Things after that happened faster than it takes to tell. Luna charged. A flash of surprise went across Tirek’s face and he caught a blast of Luna’s magic squarely. It knocked him over and he jerked Celestia’s chain along with him. She took the opportunity to struggle, but he held tightly. Luna readied another attack, but had to drop it to defend when Tirek launched one of his own. The beam of magic bounced against a shield Luna threw up and broke windows in the houses on either side of the street. My gun was out and level, but Tirek summoned a huge pillar of magic and vanished before I could fire. Luna stood, breathing hard and looking furious. She’d blown her surprise and gotten little in return. People were appearing in windows and already I heard sirens. Maria and I stowed our weapons and hustled Luna back to the car. “So close,” she growled. “You got a piece of him,” I tried to comfort her. She ignored me. Maria made it to the driver’s seat first and started the car. “Where are we going?” I considered it and shrugged. “The trend has been north. If we’re wrong, we might be able to catch back up later. Luna, ideas?” That seemed to get through. She looked up and I handed her the atlas, which had a map of the whole US on the first page. She considered it. “What do you know about Vermont?”