For Silver Stars, there was no waiting. One could not wait when one was gone. Despite this, there was a feeling. The darkness of simple non-existence was denied. Something gently pulled and tugged. Something rubbed gently, and whispered... Something loved him. Something loved him so badly, he couldn't sleep and forget about it all, even if that was what he felt like he should be doing. It was a frightful love. It was a desperate love. It was a love that burned with the force of a sun, and just as stubborn. Every time his eyes, not that he had eyes, began to drift shut, the love would roughly nudge him back to his curious state of semi-awareness.
"You are mine," whispered a voice he could not identify. "I am always yours." Which was it? His blurry mind could not put the two statements together. Did they claim him, or did they thrust themselves at him? Did they really love him? He began to fade away, but the rough pet returned and nudged him roughly until he was laying there in a strange state, neither asleep nor awake. He existed. Surely that was enough?
"Night?" Twilight sat down in front of her marefriend, concern written over her face. "You've been sitting there fiddling with his heart crystal for hours. Don't you need to eat? Drink? Get some stretching at least?"
Night shrank back a little. "No... He needs me. I can feel it. He's so close to the final edge."
Twilight tilted her head with confusion. "He's waited this long. Your touches are just going to disrupt his energy."
Night slapped the ground, making it shake softly. "I know what I feel! Please... Please, Twilight. Tell me you've learned the spells we need."
Twilight lifted a hoof to her head. "As best as I can. They're more complicated than anything I've ever seen before. We really are breaking a rule here, aren't we? It's like I'm re-writing the very cornerstone of the universe with these spells. It scares me, Night. It scares me."
Night spread her wings and laid them over Twilight, drawing her up close. "We're in this, together. Celestia and Luna came to support us. They're on our side."
Twilight trembled softly before a book appeared and she set it down. "We're going to need the girls. The sheer power required will be more than Luna or Celestia can generate in their weakened state, and I'll be busy directing the spell. Rainbow power is the only thing I can think of that'll fit our needs."
Night turned towards the sunny day outside the closest window. "How has she been, raising the sun?"
Twilight frowned. "It's hard, on both of them. They have to work together to get the job done in the morning and night. The longer we wait, the more energy it takes from them. The mixture is as ready as it's going to be. If we're going ahead, we should go."
A new voice spoke from the entrance. "This path is not your own, you should quickly atone. The universe seethes with unseen rage, to stop is the only way to assuage." Zecora stepped past the guards, both slumped over and sleeping. "Please, friend, this must stop, before--"
She didn't finish. Night slammed into her with frightful speed and knocked the zebra to the ground. "Don't presume to lecture us on this!" She straddled the wide-eyed shaman and snarled at her. "We're about to finish, and then we'll have him back, where he belongs, with us, not gone. That was the unnatural part."
Twilight hurried to Night's side. "Night, please. She's our friend. Don't hurt her."
Night lifted a hoof to point back out of the castle. "Then leave. Leave as friends, or stay as an enemy."
Zecora got to her hooves, shaking lightly. "Very well, if this is how you wish it. On your head be it." She turned and walked away with all the dignity she could muster, though clearly shaken by the frightful attack.
Twilight spread her wings in a snap. "Night Watch! That was Zecora. She's been an honored friend and guide. She's never tried to harm or lead us off course. How could you even think of attacking her like that? She was our midwife for Celestia's sake!"
Night gently ran a hoof over the crystal around her neck, looking distant a moment. "Twilight, I'll apologize to her after we have Silver back. I'll do whatever she wants, after he's back. We're running out of time."
With the sound of wings, Celestia and Luna touched down just outside and staggered in, both looking tired. Celestia nodded to the two. "She speaks more truly than she knows. We either act today, or we stand to lose more than we bargained for. Twilight, are you ready?"
Twilight snapped to attention on seeing the royal sisters, even as she struggled to not rush to their aid. "I'll have the girls over within the hour." She vanished in a bright flash, off on her task.
Luna nodded at Night. "You look as tired as we. I have not seen you even touch the dreamscape. Are you well?"
"No," replied Night Watch truthfully. "I'll sleep when he's back. When we can share a bed again." She sank to her belly. "When I've fixed my mistake." Luna began to explain how it wasn't her fault, but Night sprang back to her hooves. "I have gone over the event countless times! Don't tell me it wasn't my fault. It was my direct action. I killed him. I didn't mean to, but I did. If I wasn't there, he could have won. Hay, I put a solid 40% chance he would have figured out how to assume the captain rank as I had, and he'd be flying that ship instead of being murdered in it. I killed him, and there isn't any arguing about it. Let's just fix it..."
Luna put a hoof on Night's back, then pulled her in. "We'll fix it." Night sagged against Luna, for just a moment, she relaxed. "We'll fix it..."
Twilight returned with the others. Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack looked particularly resolute, while Fluttershy appeared nervous, and Rarity was simply ready to help.
"Alright girls, we need the rainbow power to do this right," said Twilight as she looked over her friends. "All you have to do is hold it steady as I work."
Fluttershy shuffled in place. "Is this right?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "As right as pushing the clouds around instead of letting them control themselves. As right as telling the animals when to sleep instead of letting them decide." She thrust a hoof at Celestia, then Luna. "As right as deciding when the sun should rise, or the moon."
Applejack raised a brow. "Huh, never did look at it from that angle. Ya got a point there."
Rarity swept her mane back. "We're here for you, darling. You know that. You just focus on the magic, and let us handle our part. We've got your back, Twilight dear." Pinkie simply snapped a salute and looked resolute.
All eyes turned on Fluttershy and the butter-yellow pegasus shrank under the scrutiny. "Well, if you say so..." She rose back up to full height and joined the others. With an internal flex, they called on the power of rainbows, and became wreathed in bright colors.
Twilight began playing the first part of the spell over her horn and the room dimmed. There were six major portions of the spell, and the first only paved the way for the second, and that for the third. It wouldn't be until the third that things would truly begin to change. She'd never cast a spell that so clearly violated and twisted the rules, but she had begun. To stop would be just as dangerous.
The power of the Element Bearers was tapped as she pried loose the restraints that kept such forces in check. What were laws became mere suggestions around her, and she could feel the universe itself unravel in her immediate vicinity. The rules, all the rules, were melting and becoming ideals instead of assumptions. It was working. It was terrible, but it was working.
The castle suddenly shook violently as a roar echoed out, a familiar one. Rainbow took to her wings. "The bugbear?!" The creature had wormed its way loose when the shackles that held it tight weakened with the binds of reality. Twilight and Applejack flew out to face it, blazing with the power of rainbows. The clash was terrific from the start. It seemed power was uncertain. The bear struck with the force of a crashing world, only to be toppled over with a weak push. The fight was staggering and impotent in wild swings that left both sides dizzy. Twilight tried to ignore it as she entered the fourth stage, trying to set new laws, to impose her will upon the weakened universe and demand it be so.
"And you called me evil for my work." Tirek stepped through the door. He was in his weakened state, not yet gorged with pony magic. "Look at how far you have fallen, 'princess' of magic. You're doing more damage than I ever could dream of." He laughed with amusement until Night crashed into him.
"You tortured him! You beat him! You don't even know who he is, and you hurt him so badly!" She began to slam down her hooves, punching Tirek around the face with blows that might have killed if physics worked properly, but clearly left him dizzy. "His name is Silver Stars. You met him once, and you threw him aside. Monster! He's coming back, and he'll crush you if you're still here! It's your fault the first love he held close was taken away from him." She wouldn't stop striking him even as he tried to ward her away, but she was a mare possessed, overwhelmed with the urge to hurt one that had once hurt Silver.
Twilight winced at a snapping sound, but she couldn't stop. She couldn't delay. The spell had to proceed exactly as written, or something far more dire could happen to them all. She lifted the chalice with wavering hooves and the mixed blood within swirled into a powerful vortex before her. "Night, it's time!"
Night's head snapped up and she gallopped to Twilight's side, leaving Tirek broken on the floor. Twilight found herself hoping he was alright, even if he was unspeakably evil. Night quickly pulled free the heart crystal and gave it one last pet. "Ready. Where are the other fragments?"
Twilight gestured with barely a tilt of her head and Night rushed to gather a jar full of silvery motes. As one, they were hurled into the vortex, where Silver's consciousness would be reforged and brought back to the world. But before that could happen, she needed a body, so she entered the fifth stage... There was more work yet to be done.
Rainbow crashed in through a window, bodily hurled and colliding with the far wall. "I got this," she insisted as she peeled herself up to her hooves and zipped outside to rejoin the battle. Twilight's castle had become ground zero for the distortion of the universe. She hoped it wouldn't grow any worse than it already had.