//------------------------------//
// #36 - Secrets of the Crown: Part I 
// Story: Techorse Short Stories 
// by Spirals95 
//------------------------------//


Secrets of the Crown: Part I


Techorse Series: #36


By Spirals95








1,500 years ago

An awe-inspiring castle stood in the middle of the land, a tall, dark structure made to keep intruders out, and the royal family safe and warm within. The building was at its prime, having been used for only one hundred years thus far, and even the ivy vines that sprawled from the forest to the west and east of the castle failed to climb the structure entirely. Over two hundered years had passed since ponies had moved away from their prior homes in the colder, mountainous areas, and had settled into the warmer climate of a new land in order to take advantage of the better supplies of food and easily available water. The dark spires of the building overlooked the large, sprawling medieval city that span a few miles across.

It was there that the remainder of ponykind worked and lived, though not quite with the level of cooperation observed in the distant future. A well known tale told on Hearth's Warming Eve of how the original founders of Equestria cooperated to battle the bitter colds that seemingly followed them from the north was starting to become forgotten. Even though they had lived in harmony centuries before, old habits die hard, and the efforts of the founding ponies had only bought two hundred years of peace.

In fact, the city seemed to be divided into three parts, one was dominated by smaller fortresses and structures where the unicorns practiced their arcanery, a second where pegasus ponies had anchored their cloud houses and built barracks to aid in the defense of the land. The third estate were the earth ponies, whose vast sums of farmland kept the other two well fed, albeit quite thanklessly as they had nothing special about their bodies. In this age, stallions and earth ponies in particular were rather looked down upon, most of the highest ranking merchants and officers were female, and marriage between the three types was considered far more than unholy. Society had unwound once more, and a new solution was necessary to bring the Equestrians back together again in harmony.

King Diurne and his spouse, the primary leader of their new land, Queen Nocturna, watched with a bitter taste in their mouths as their subjects bickered and separated themselves on a daily basis. A brass telescope given to them as a wedding gift served as their way of safely looking down at the town below and watching their people when they could not enter the city themselves. The two had been born to parents of forbidden marriages, each of them had a parent that was a unicorn and a parent that was an earth pony. As a result, the king and queen were born alicorns, out of sheer genetic chance they had come into existence. Fortunately for the realm, sheer chance is frequently turned into good in the grand scheme of life.

Diurne and Nocturna were hailed as being great gifts by a powerful warlock who had descended from the line of the most magically inclined unicorns ever. Starswirl the Bearded as he was called, was a known sorcerer who had claimed to have conquered the forces of time and space themselves, and knew healing magic that could mend broken bones in seconds, which would take other unicorn ponies days to do even with the most powerful casts and magical tools. With him knowing the most difficult magic of healing amongst his other feats, he easily ushered in a new era amongst the early settlers of the land, and they chose the two alicorns as king and queen once their small villages grew into a city.

It was at that point in history, however, when life started to take a turn for the worse. With the old tales forgotten, Earth ponies were being treated more and more as filth as Starswirl continued to preach the virtues of knowing powerful magic, pushing the unicorns up higher and higher in class and power. To prevent everyone from starving however, he also explained how "swift warriors" were needed for peace, and the pegasi easily filled that role. As time went by, it appeared that the alicorns and their ancestors that had brought the ponies together to survive in a new land were quickly being replaced by the glorious power of "peace through magic". The final act of evil which permanently seeped the three types of ponies against each other was when a decree was issued by the king and queen that a school would be built to teach magic, amongst complaints that agriculture was slowly beginning to fall behind. 

Now, unicorns born to other families suffered as they were whisked off to boarding school to learn arcane arts, instead of learning how to be great citizens. Starswirl continued to be a prominent, popular figure, receiving applause whenever he gave a lecture at the ancient college, but drew the jeers of earth ponies. Whenever a large danger arose, such as a monster attack, he would step up and vanquish the beast with little trouble at all. He even contracted the wraiths, a species of spectral being known for fighting monsters on their own terms, to construct a titanic underground prison system called "Tartarus", which ended up being more of a private zoo for Starswirl to observe the monsters he'd fought, than a true prison.

With the earth ponies suffering from terrible neglect, they had begun in recent years to beseech the alicorn royal family to aid them against the other two types of ponies. This broke Queen Nocturna's heart, who could not bear to see any of her subjects suffer, and didn't truly understand why her subjects were even fighting, although she had started to get suspicious. Her husband did his best to lower the taxes on the earth ponies and give them aid in the form of access to the iron mines so they'd have the best farming tools money could buy, but every time he tried, the unicorns and pegasi stomped their hooves and cried that it was unfair for them, who needed that metal and tax exemption "for the army" and "for the schools"! Thus the conditions of the hardest working type of pony got worse and worse, and there was absolutely nothing the queen or king could do about it without risking anarchy.

The royal couple overlooked their balcony through their telescope, watching their subjects at work. They observed an earth pony getting robbed by a pair of pegasi, and grew sad as they watched the unicorn who was supposed to be acting as guard that day do nothing about it out of sheer spite. They stepped away from their telescope, with two eyepieces for them to share, and looked at each other with deep sadness. King Diurne was a strong, large, white stallion with a golden mane, bright as the sun that flowed behind him. His light blonde mustache and beard combo adorning his face was trimmed weekly so that it neither grew too long, nor left blonde stubble on his face. For a cutie mark, he bore a set of white rings in a flare over a broad beam of light. With his blue eyes he looked at his wife of more than 100 years. Queen Nocturna was a dark blue mare, with a very rare set of magenta eyes in combination with a splotch on her flank of purple. Her cutie mark was the peaceful night itself, a patch of darkness with a ray of pure starlight shining through.

"What must we have done so wrong, to see such cruelty amongst our subjects?" cried the Queen, her dark blue eyeshadow running as tears streaked down her face, "They have forgotten the lessons of Hearth's Warming Eve, and harm each other for fun."

"I do not know why this is happening," he answered, "we shall overcome it, though."

The Queen dried her tears and said with passion, "This land was named Equestria so that all ponies, no matter what kind they are, no matter what their special talent may be, could live in harmony."

"And it will be that way!" assured the King, placing a wing around his wife, "As of today, my dear, our discovery has finally allowed us to produce an artifact chamber."

"You mean, they're ready?" she asked, overjoyed, "The values that we have discovered are finally... placed in objects?"

The King nodded, "Upon checking the artifacts, they were glowing and orbiting each other like the celestial bodies. Everything is ready."

They looked at each other with hope for the future bright in their eyes, when a young female voice called out to them from the hallway that lead to their perch.

"Mother, Father? Where art thou?" she called.

"We are outside," answered Diurne, "come out, little one."

A small mare, having just reached young adulthood, blue in color with a mane featuring the stars of space, crawled from the entrance and approached her parents.

"Oh my littlest Luna!" said her father, smiling and walking to meet her, "Your mother and I have some wonderful news."

Her other siblings, three other young alicorns, entered the balcony from behind the shady area that entered into the castle. Celestia, her hair solid pink at the time, was the oldest, and led her two brothers forward towards their parents, one at each side. Darkmatter was the youngest of them all, having only just earned his cutie mark when he discovered his power over gravity. The other one, younger than Celestia, but older than Luna, was white-coated, and was beginning to grow a beard just like his father, although darker golden in color. The four royal descendents gathered together in front of their parents to talk about their discovery.

"What have you discovered recently?" asked Darkmatter, curious as to the situation.

"Come, we'll show you!" cooed the Queen, leading her children inside.

The two royals led their fillies and colts down to a dark, central area of the castle that was used as an observatory during the night. Tall glass windows revealed stone buttresses and statues outdoors that kept the room's walls up. A purple carpet and stone floor on the inside led to a large, circular area raised up from the rest of the room by several steps. Nocturna walked up to the central platform, leading her husband by his hoof, and the two of them tapped their long horns once on the ground at the edges of the inner circle. To the four young ponies' surprise, the circular area opened up by a magical force, and a large, mobile-like device carved of pure white marble ascended from the ground. On each arm of the mobile sat a large, colored crystal, with a large, star-shaped purple one mounted on the center towards the ceiling. The device rotated all of the crystals and arms around each other, and Celestia, being very curious at her age, noted that there were several holes near the base of the structure where more arms and crystals could be mounted if necessary.

"These, my foals... are The Elements of Harmony," declared Nocturna, "your father and I have searched for decades a solution to all of the fighting and despair amongst the ponies we serve."

King Diurne picked up the slack, "Within each of these crystals is a magical response to the six virtues, or Elements, that we have discovered represent harmony between ponies. Those are Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, Honesty, and Loyalty."

"Then what is the sixth purple star?" asked Luna, pointing at the crystal with her hoof.

"That would be the Element only available when all five other Elements are in place," explained her mother, "a spark between the five allows for this one to appear. We call it... magic. Pure magic."

"Wow..." beamed the two colts, their eyes wide.

"Should we discover other Elements, we wish to add them to this mobile," said the Queen, "for now, these six will carry Equestria into the light once more!"

"How will we use them to help the others?" asked Darkmatter, "I want to know!"

"Patience!" declared the King, "For now, all we know is that an immense amount of power resides in these Elements. We must use them wisely, as we have only built containers for a per-existing power, not a solution."

"Does Starswirl The Bearded know about this yet?" questioned the older brother, tilting his head.

The King nearly shouted at him, "No! I mean... perhaps it is best we keep these a secret. We can let your godfather know about the Elements later, after they've been used properly to help the other ponies stop their fighting."

"Oh... very well," said the elder brother, stepping back in surprise at his father's wrath at the question.

Princesses Celestia and Luna looked together at the artifacts swirling around each other with big, open eyes. They wondered what the future might hold for their family now that they had discovered the key to a brighter future for Equestria. Especially curious was the purple star that adorned the centerpiece of the mobile. What would be the purpose of the supposed Element of Magic, and who would get the honor of using it to stop the strife gripping their land?





Twilight Sparkle closed her book on Equestria's history, noting the very important mention of the story that lead to the creation of the play she had participated in over a year ago. To her, that story summarized the struggle that ponies faced to create their home, a tale of strife between the three types of ponies and the evil windigoes that ended up bringing them all together. Replacing the history book back on the shelf of her library home, she wandered back upstairs to her bedroom, where her assistant Spike lay sleeping in his wicker basket bed.

"Wake up Spike!" she called to him softly, "It's almost eleven now."

The dragon slowly lifted his head from underneath his red striped blanket, and crawled out of the basket.

"Good morning Twilight," he said sleepily, scratching his tail as he held it in front of him, "so what are we doing first today?"

She answered with a bright smile, "We're going to go get lunch first. I'm having us take the day off!"

Spike nearly fell over at the news, "Really? Wow, what's the occasion?"

"Today's the day that I finished my first book as a filly," she answered, "also, I kind of wanted to give us both a break after yesterday when that small earthquake knocked all the books off the shelf."

"Yeah, that was a disaster," grumbled the dragon, flicking his tail and crossing his arms in disgust.

"Anyways..." continued Twilight merrily, "I've set up for everypony to meet at Sugarcube Corner for a few cookies and some hot tea. PAL's going to be there, so I thought you'd like to come along."

"Sure!" answered Spike, enjoying any time spent with his robot buddy, "We'll just grab a board game to play."

"I didn't know PAL liked to play board games!" laughed Twilight as she levitated a pink scarf off of a nearby rack and wrapped it around her neck.

"Yeah he does, but being a robot and all, sometimes I think he lets me win," admitted Spike, "I'd like to beat him at Cooperation Castle 2 without him having to go easy on me!"

"Well maybe today's the day!" cheered on Twilight as she pranced for the door, "Come on, we don't want to be late."

They exited the library and proceeded to stroll down the cobblestone roads of Ponyville, passing many of the residents working their daily jobs. It was rather chilly that morning, and many of them were wearing knit hats and coats to keep warm. Hot drinks and adorable fuzzy boots were selling like hotcakes as the ponies tried to keep the cold from chilling them to the bone. Pegasi were moving clouds in the sky overhead to try and make room for a snowstorm needed a month later.





Twilight and her assistant reached Sugarcube Corner, the bakery's chimney smoking, filling the air with the scent of snickerdoodles baking. The unicorn mare pushed open the door to the well-decorated building with her front hoof, and walked in, greeted by the chatter of the customers stopping in to purchase baked goods and get out of the cold. There, at a pair of square tables pushed together to make one larger one, sat her friends in a circle. Pinkie Pie walked up to the table, a tray of cookies and empty white teacups balanced precariously on her head. She dropped the tray of goodies on the table, and then skipped happily over to Twilight.

"Hi Twilight, you're here just in time!" she said, giggling, "Techie just got here!"

Twilight gave her a look of slight annoyance, with a hint of smile, and then walked to the table. Fluttershy and Rarity seemed to be engaged in looking at a magazine about how to make small warm coats to aid reptiles through the winter. Applejack seemed to be more interesting in challenging Rainbow Dash to a game of wits, that is, to see if Rainbow Dash could guess what she was drawing on a piece of paper before she was finished. By themselves were Techorse and PAL, sitting over to the side, trying to take interest in the socialization at the table, but remaining separate. Techorse caught eye of Twilight, and turned to face her on his chair, smiling brightly.

"Hey!" he said, getting off the chair and walking up to her.

Twilight gave him a warm hug, and a quick kiss on the forehead, before they sat down together. PAL relinquished his seat to her, and approached Spike.

"Shall we play a game, Spike?" the machine asked, humming.

"Sure..." he answered smugly, "But this time, don't go easy on me!"

"Whatever do you mean by that," mused the machine, putting his hands together innocently, "there's a reason I only play games with an element of chance with others. It's the only way to make it fair!"

"We'll see," said the small dragon, "don't hold back PAL! This time, I'm going to beat you without you letting me win!"

PAL shook his head, and grabbed a copy of their favorite game from a nearby table where he had left it, and began to set up the pieces on the empty table. Spike immediately picked the silver colored metal cast pieces as opposed to the gold, and the battle began between the two of them, with PAL getting to go first.

Twilight looked back at the two playing their game of strategy, and then looked back at Techorse, "Sorry sweetie. It's just that Spike was telling me this morning that PAL keeps letting him win."

"PAL might be a robot, but he isn't perfect, and he isn't as good as the castle computer is at math,"
answered Techorse, "PAL's more like us now, and is legitimately losing any game Spike beats him at."

"Besides!" interrupted Rainbow Dash from across the table, "A little competition's good for Spike. It feels great to be the winner!"

"Speakin' of that," teased Applejack, winking at her, "ya still haven't guessed what I'm drawin."

"I will eventually," grunted the pegasus, shifting in her seat.

"Any new good books out there?" asked Techorse.

Twilight answered honestly, "Well... there was a new book on how to grow tulips, but other than that, no."

Reciprocating his care, she asked, "How about you, have you built anything new lately?"

Techorse sighed, "I haven't had a good idea in weeks. Well, there was this idea to make an ice ray, but I changed my mind about it. Last thing I want is to accidentally turn somepony into a popsicle."

"Did somepony say popsicles!?" gasped Pinkie Pie, popping up from out of nowhere between the two, "I love popsicles!"

"You wouldn't want to be one though, which is why I've decided not to make an ice ray," smirked the inventor.

Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her mouth, "I wonder what it'd be like to be a popsicle? Would I be one of those ones that has three stripes of flavors?"

A few moments passed, and then she gasped loudly, piercing the ears of the two dating ponies, "I just had a really really really great idea Techie!"

Techorse asked, "Really?"

Pinkie Pie smiled brightly, "Yeah! Maybe you could make the ice ray, and then, use it to freeze cookie dough instantly! You know, gingerbread needs to chill for a long, long time! But with that, you could do it right away!"

"Make an ice beam to flash freeze food?" said Techorse, happy with her idea, "Pinkie Pie, that's a great idea. Maybe I will finish the ray, but make it a small beam so that it can only freeze small batches of cookie dough, like you said. Thanks!"

Pinkie Pie then disappeared like a rabbit down a warren, sinking underneath the table, before returning with a thin gray book in her teeth, which she gave to Twilight.

"Here's a book I bought while I was out of town!" she said, "It's about how they get helium for party balloons! Lots of neat stuff you'd like, Twilight. You can just add it to the library collection when you're done, I'm finished with it."

Twilight accepted the book gratefully and thanked Pinkie Pie for her gift, "Thank you so much!"

"No problem at all!" she said, bouncing back and landing outside of the table.

She looked over the two happy expressions of her friends whose problems she had fixed, and said out loud, "My work here is done!"

A buzzer came from within the kitchen area of the building, and Pinkie Pie turned her head to the noise.

"Oops! Guess not." she giggled, "I gotta go get those brownies out of the oven, be right back!"

She bounded out of the room to go save the confections from being burnt, leaving her friends to talk.

"Pinkie Pie's just trying to make us happy," said Twilight, "no depressed ponies around her."

"We're lucky to have such good friend,." he answered, nodding.

Rarity paused from her magazine, and poured herself a hot cup of tea from the thermos on the table, then, using her magic, took a dainty sip from the cup.

She then addressed the others at the table, "It's good to see everypony here, out of the cold. I nearly froze trying to get to Sugarcube Corner, it was simply horrible!"

"I know," agreed Fluttershy glumly, "It's been very cold. My animals have had to all curl up by the fireplace recently. Poor things. It's not even time for them to hibernate quite yet."

"Yeah, I have noticed things have gotten much colder," said Twilight with questions in her mind, "I wonder why that is? Did the weather ponies get orders to make this winter colder? By tonight it'll be nearly twenty degrees below freezing I hear!"

Rainbow Dash stopped trying to guess what Applejack was drawing, and said, "Actually, now that you bring it up, no. We haven't been told to make it any colder or warmer. It was suppose to be a normal, cold winter. With plenty of snow of course, for a snowball fight!"

"That I'd win," said Applejack, "like I'm winning this game."

"You are not!" said Rainbow Dash, determined to win, "Is it a kind of boat?"

"Not even close," said Applejack, giving Rainbow Dash a teasing look.

Rainbow Dash groaned and buried her head in the table, "I give up. What is it?"

Applejack made the last few strokes on the paper after putting the pencil back in her teeth, and then dropped the writing utensil on the table. She the pointed to the drawing and explained what it was to the defeated Rainbow Dash.

"It's a kettle," she answered, "Like what you make caramel apples in!"

"Oh," said Rainbow Dash, looking at the picture, surprised she hadn't seen it.

"Anyways, the cold weather has been a bit strange," continued Techorse, "I've actually had to use a little bit of antifreeze in my battle saddle's coolant system to keep it from freeze-locking the system."

A robotic arm emerged from the device on his back, and picked up a cup from nearby, where he then helped himself to a cup of tea.

"We really ought to try and figure out why the weather has gotten so dreadfully cold!" urged Rarity dramatically, "If we do not, things will go horribly wrong for sure!"

"Like what?" asked Applejack, curious.

"Well for one thing, your apple trees may suffer a snap freeze! I've seen it happen to many a poor houseplant left in an open windowsill!" gasped Rarity, before fainting over.


"Oh my," said Fluttershy, getting off of her chair to help Rarity up.

"Well, there are things we can do to protect the apple crop from heavy frost," assured Applejack, "But I agree. If it gets too much colder, and the pegasus ponies had nothin' to do with it, we may need to talk to Princess Celestia about this. If anypony would know why the cold's gotten worse, it'd be her."

"That's probably a good idea!" said Twilight, eager to visit Canterlot, "We could probably go today if we don't have too much to do."

"I'm good," answered Rainbow Dash, "already took care of my work this morning."

All of the other ponies at the table seemed to not have any additional chores to do, and agreed to go with Twilight to Canterlot to discuss the strange weather with the Princess of the Sun. Pinkie Pie emerged with her tray of brownies from the back room, and set them down behind the counter of the store.

"Pinkie Pie, can you get off of work to help us?" asked Twilight hopefully.

Pinkie Pie knew the answer was probably no, seeing as how busy the bakery tended to be during very cold days.

However, to her surprise, Mrs. Cake overrode her husband's normal operations of the store, and said to Pinkie Pie, "This morning we woke up with my hair as solid as a cookie sheet. Help your friends Pinkie Pie, please!"

"Looks like I'm going!" she giggled, jumping over to her friends, "Let's go!"

"All right, now all we need are the two fearless generals over there," muttered Twilight, looking over at Spike and PAL, who were arguing over the result of a dice roll.

"PAL, are you and Spike arguing over a game again?" asked Techorse.

PAL crossed his large metal arms, "Spike decided to be inconsistent. He rolled a die off of the table, and counted the result because it was a six. The game's instructions clearly state you must re-roll dice if it falls off."

Spike, his hand in his cheek, answered with a groan, "PAL just likes to follow the rules exactly instead of getting on with the game."

"Maybe that's not a bad thing," considered Twilight, urging Spike to try and think the same way, "anyways, you two can have another 'glorious battle' later. Right now, we need to go to Canterlot and find out why the weather is so much colder than it was last winter."

"Oh, so we can come along?" asked Spike.

"Of course!" answered Twilight, "I'm going to teleport us all there, since Techorse didn't bring his teleportation device with him."

"Perhaps I can lighten the effort by flying over myself," suggested PAL, "I have a full charge for my rocket boots. It will likely take us an hour to get there, but I don't mind."

"I'm going with PAL!" said Spike quickly, eager to go with his friend, but also wanting to avoid the headache he got from being teleported by Twilight.

"All right, stay safe," she said, "let's head outside, everypony. We'll be there in no time."

The friends all headed outside, noticing that they could easily see their breath against the cold air. Spike climbed up onto PAL's right shoulder at his command, and the two lifted off into the air, a pair of blue flames under PAL's footpads as they lifted into the sky. Twilight Sparkle then ducked, and charged up the teleportation spell, a purple glow around her horn started, with pink sparks scattering about. In a flash of purple light, the friends had vanished, teleporting to Canterlot in a burst of energy. The nine friends had it set in their hearts to figure out why Ponyville was freezing, and wanted to do anything they could to bring back the winter they were accustomed to.






Princess Celestia sat in her throne room, alongside her sister, who was enjoying the warmth of the nearby vents that connected to the castle's main furnace. The Princess of the Night stood directly in front of the warm air current coming out of the castle walls through narrow grates, absorbing the heat into her dark blue coat. Jools and Jops stood at the sides of Princess Celestia, occasionally taking a quick glance at what she was writing on a scroll. It had something to do with commissioning a new cargo ship such that Equestria could trade further with surrounding nations, but the details were sketchy, as they could only slip a peek past the watchful Princess. Captain Arbiter was away, out attending to an issue concerning a slight crumbling of a brick on the outside of the castle, likely due to the cold. Princess Celestia finished the final strokes of her letter using her oversized quill, and then replaced the feather in its inkwell, before folding up the paper, and placing it in an envelope using light magic. She then sealed the letter shut with a small blue piece of wax, indicating the purpose of the letter, and set it down on a nearby wooden stool for later pickup by a mailmare.

Next to the spot where the letter was placed was a steaming hot cup of tea, creamy from the milk Princess Celestia had added to it. The Princess picked up her cup carefully, and moved it to her mouth to take a sip of the drink. As she went to take a sip, she noticed a small pinpoint flash of golden light in the middle of her throne room. Knowing what to expect from the mysterious dot, but not expecting it to appear at such an instance, she placed the cup quickly on its saucer and braced for the inevitable.

The dot of golden light opened up into a wormhole of golden energy for a split moment, and Prince Darkmatter jumped out of the hole through space, landing firmly on his four legs, and flapping his wings once to ease his impact. Jools and Jops jumped forward at the sudden surprise of the alicorn traveling through a wormhole, but slowly stepped back to their Princess's sides once the Prince assured them,"Jools, Jops, easy. It's only me."

Princess Luna recognized her brother's voice, and turned around, walking up to him, "Brother!" she said happily, giving him a rather informal hug, "It is good to see you again! What brings you back to Canterlot?"

"...And in such a strange manner," added Princess Celestia, rising from her throne, "we all know teleportation spells, Darkmatter. Perhaps you could try it sometime?"

"Ah but Celestia, wormholes are so much fun! You're missing out just flashing around, and my methods have a longer range as well than mere teleportation," answered the prince, preferring his use of portals to travel.

Princess Luna released her brother, his brass mane returning to its normal flow.

She asked him, "Is it about our other family? Is he still out there?"

"Ah yes, of course," answered Darkmatter, chuckling, "indeed, I've found him."

Princess Celestia smiled and said, "That's wonderful! Perhaps now our family can be complete again. Would you have interest in running the courts once more?"

"Unfortunately, now that we're responsible for our own cities, I doubt we'd ever return to being high judges," answered Darkmatter, "still, seeing as I provide a home for special ponies in The Domain, and he provides one for a different group living out in the cold... perhaps we provide justice to Equestria through that instead."

"I agree," concurred Celestia, nodding, "now, shall we go visit him?"

A moment of silence overtook the alicorns, and then, Darkmatter meekly admitted, "Well... I said I found him. He seems to have quite a lot of security. Of course, I'm not going to stick a squad of guards in a gravity trap just so I can see brother again."

"It's just as I feared," said Princess Celestia sadly, her ears folding back, "he still hasn't forgiven me, and is now even turning away you."

"But I came to see the truth about Luna and you," assured Darkmatter, extending a warm hoof to his sibling, "perhaps we can convince him the same. He might refuse to see us, but I was told by some locals that he'd accept ambassadors on his behalf, maybe if we..."

There was a knock on the throne room door, and Princess Celestia politely called out for the visitors to enter. Twilight Sparkle entered the room, flanked by her friends in a V formation, with PAL and Spike at the back, towering over the ponies thanks to PAL's six foot tall stature.

"Ah, Twilight Sparkle!" said Darkmatter, waving a wing, "Hello!"

"Prince Darkmatter?" asked Twilight, a little confused, "What are you doing here?"

Princess Celestia cut in front of her sibling and explained, "Darkmatter has discovered the whereabouts of our brother, Twilight Sparkle. We were discussing sending representatives in to talk to him about how... things are different now."

"Oh, you're trying to tell him you've been forgiven for sending away Princess Luna?" asked Pinkie Pie without much thought behind the sentence.

Princess Celestia gained a sad expression on her face, and looked at the floor. Twilight nudged Pinkie Pie with her left hoof, and the earth pony gave a slight gasp at the sudden jab.

"Ow, hey! I'm sorry!" she said, "Too soon?"

"Oh, please cheer up sister," begged Princess Luna, consoling her older sibling, "I was possessed by a monster of my own making. Please try to forgive yourself, there was no way to rid us of the demon and keep me as well."

"I try to believe that," answered Celestia, "but I still have one brother out there who believes I'm a monster."

"I'm sure once we've talked to him, he'll be more than happy to forgive you," assured Rarity, stepping forward, "I volunteer to speak on your behalf."

"We were going to get professional diplomats for this, most likely..." droned Darkmatter, not seeing the value of Twilight and company for the situation.

"Darkmatter, we should give my student and her friends a chance," said Celestia, "diplomacy is great for disputes, but this issue cuts deep emotionally for Sundial. Perhaps a more personal touch from the current Element holders will help."

"Sundial? That's your brother?" asked Rainbow Dash, "That's an odd name for an alicorn, no offense. It's just not as cool as what you three have, is all."

Princess Luna answered, "His real name is Temporios. A meaningful name, as his magic revolves around time, but quite the mouthful to say. So we always called him Sundial, as that is his cutie mark."

"Tem-pour-e-ose," said Pinkie Pie, the words rolling over her tongue.

She then paused and said abruptly, "Yeah, I can see why you called him Sundial!"

"Princess Celestia, we'd love to go out and help your brother," interrupted Applejack, "but we've been havin' a bit of trouble with the weather lately. Seems awful cold recently. The pegasus ponies tell us it isn't supposed to be this cold, but there's nothin' they can do about it."

"It has been getting colder," answered Princess Celestia, "the same has been true for the rest of Equestria as well."

"Perhaps Sundial has something to do with it," answered Darkmatter, "he is currently living in a cold, northeastern region roughly three hundred miles from the Crystal Empire's new fortress, Steamcastle. Due to the harsh weather, it's almost impossible to access the area without going through heavy snow. I was able to find it by scanning from above using a set of portals that allow me to view other areas. Eventually as I reached the north, I saw the city from above."

"Can it be reached by land at all?" asked Fluttershy, intimidated.

"There used to be a set of roads leading to Equestria, but the ice and snow has cut it off," answered the Prince, "of course, if you had a scout and guide, somepony quite talented at spying at the terrain ahead and pointing out a path, you could make it."

"Oh, you mean like Limpwing?" asked Techorse.

"Yes, exactly! The lieutenant would be perfect for this mission," laughed Darkmatter, "in fact, let me fetch her..."

Prince Darkmatter's horn glowed, and he opened a portal across space in the middle of the throne room. He then stuck his head inside the glowing circle of light, and then, after a few seconds, kicking and yelling was heard as he removed Limpwing, both surprised and angry at the Prince's action. Darkmatter carried her by her flight goggles using his magic, his horn glowing a light golden hue as Limpwing was carried from wherever she had been into the throne room. He dropped her gently on the floor, where she immediately stood up and protested angrily.

"Prince Darkmatter, did you have to just rip me out of my house like that?!" she shouted, enraged about being dragged through space and time, "I thought I was under attack!"

"I'm sorry lieutenant," he answered, "I needed you right away, and I figured teleporting into your room would have been equally startling."

Limpwing groaned, and adjusted her flight goggles on her head, before taking a deep breath and asking, "All right, well, you dragged me through a portal and scared the living hay out of me. So what are my orders? I hope this is important."

"It is. I need you to guide Twilight Sparkle and her friends to a city I just discovered to the east of the frozen north lands. I'll give you a map showing the location of the city, all I need you to do is navigate around the snowstorms and icy paths to make the journey safe for them," explained the Prince, "can you do that for me?"

Limpwing turned her head and looked at Twilight Sparkle, who smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah," she answered, "I could do that. What's in the city?"

"My brother," he answered, "you're taking them to see him, in hopes of convincing him to come back to us."

"Your brother?" beamed Twilight Sparkle, "As in Cadance's father?"

"That's correct," Princess Celestia confirmed, "I didn't talk to him personally as I believe he's not exactly interested in seeing his family. Bear in mind that he missed out on his own daughter's wedding."

"Can't imagine why," Limpwing said sarcastically, before returning to Twilight and her friends, "so, are you guys ready to go? We'll need to bundle up for the trip since it's going to be icy."

Twilight shook her head, "We came here to talk about how cold it was getting in Equestria, so we're not prepared for a trip right now."

"Don't worry about that," spoke up Princess Luna, "I will see to it that the local tailors give you coats. Please collect supplies so that you may leave immediately."

"Oh, a free warm coat!" cooed Rarity, who then turned to Fluttershy, "Isn't this exciting?"

Fluttershy nodded, "A warm coat would be really nice..."

"All right, well, let's not waste time and get set up!" said Limpwing, posing with a hoof curled as if ready for action, "I'll get you guys to the city, and then we'll see about bringing Prince Darkmatter's brother back."

"What about us?" asked Spike from PAL's shoulder, "Can we come too?"

"Of course you may," answered Princess Celestia, acting first to make sure Twilight couldn't say no, "You will need the ability to send letters to me in case of an emergency. Unfortunately, the communications artifact Techorse gave me a year ago has stopped working."

"You mean the hologram communicator? Well, if you wanted..." offered Techorse, "I could replace that with a radio so you could contact us at any time."

"A radio? That small?" asked Princess Celestia, confused. 

Only large, boxy radios were in existence in Equestria at the time, normally used to listen to news stations in large cities, or for communications on board ships.

"Of course," he answered, the back of his saddle opening up, "Twilight and I sometimes used long range radios like this to talk for hours to each other when one of us is away from Ponyville."

Techorse noticed Twilight blushing, and the other ponies in the room looking at him.

"You know..." he stammered, a bit embarrassed, "Just to test the things. Everything has to be tested!"

"Exactly!" giggled Pinkie Pie.

"I don't believe a radio will be necessary," stated Princess Celestia, "my brother has made it clear that he will allow diplomats, and I'd rather hear any news through a letter. With Spike, our response time will still be fast enough."

"You're probably right about that," answered Techorse, closing his saddle again. 

Perhaps some other time he'd get a chance to allow someone besides Twilight to use the long-range radios.

"If that's everything, then let's gear up and head out! I can't wait to meet your brother. What's he like?" asked Twilight of Princess Celestia.

"I do not know how much, as he may have changed over all of these years. Know that he's really a good stallion on the inside," answered the Princess honestly, "and please be careful. I cannot allow you to bring the Elements of Harmony with you, as I don't want to scare him."

"Don't worry, we can handle this!" said Rainbow Dash confidently.

"If you're sure, then we have nothing to worry about!" assured Darkmatter of his sisters, "Make us proud!"

The team left the throne room, with the three royalty calling out for good luck and safe travels for the group. Twilight Sparkle wondered who the brother could be, and excitement welled up in her at getting to meet a brand new alicorn. A strange gut feeling formed in her heart however, contrary to the excitement. Twilight knew that the diplomacy mission could not go as swimmingly as Princess Celestia was hoping for. She knew that the Prince surely must harbor hatred for his sibling due to avoiding her at all costs, even missing Cadance's wedding. There was also a chance that the alicorn that had attacked her earlier was a mercenary dispatched by the alicorn prince. Even worse, the cloaked stranger could be a son of his! Cadance would pass out if she learned she had a new brother she'd never know, and she'd pass out again upon hearing that he'd attacked her close friend! All of these "Revenge on Celestia" statements that cloaked stranger had made though, solidified his role in Twilight's mind as a servant to Prince Sundial. Nonetheless, Twilight put the fear of the alicorn out of her mind, and focused on the task at hand.

"I'm not afraid," she thought as she walked with her friends down the hallway of the castle, "if that cloaked lunatic shows up again, we'll be ready. We have to get Prince Sundial back to his family, and show him that things have changed between Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. Equestria depends on us!"





1,500 years ago

The queen faced away from her chamber windows, her husband out attempting to settle a dispute between the pegasi and the earth ponies. The lonely light of the evening shone through the opening to her bedroom, gracing her blue canopy bed gracefully, and reflecting off the many mirrors that she enjoyed collecting. It seemed that the sorrow of Equestria was growing on a daily basis, leading them closer and closer to permanent division of all the pony types. That was certainly not the future she had hoped for her subjects, and with any luck, the discovery in the west atrium of the castle would bring an end to it. As she thought about how she and her husband would implement the use of the Elements of Harmony, a familiar pattern of knocking happened on her door, three long taps, followed by two short ones.

"Please enter," called Nocturna, turning to watch the sunset.

The door opened slowly, and a fine mist poured across the floor, making way for Starswirl the Bearded as he entered the room, his magical energy carrying a mystic wooden staff with a curled top that tapped on the floor with each of his steps. His fine blue robe flowed behind him, and his hat seemed to bend in a point that tracked his eye movements. Of course, the very thing that defined him, his great facial hair, hung nearly to the floor. At this moment in time, he had tied the end of his beard back with a small piece of rope, indicating that he had been working on a potion and wanted to keep the white as snow behemoth on his face out of his work, as accidentally immolating himself was a pet peeve he shared with others who had beards at the time.

"My Queen," he said, with a cheery hum, his eyes hidden by the brim of his hat, "I can't help but notice that your husband has left you all alone in the castle again. What dire situation hath caused such a sudden departure for the third time this week?"

The queen turned around and answered her mage, "It appears the pegasi have stolen iron from the earth ponies, scores of tonnes of the stone."

Starswirl gave a slight smacking noise before continuing, "Tsk, tsk, such a pity, there's plenty of metal in the ground for everypony, and they fight over it like schoolfoals at the academy."

Nocturna thought carefully about the number of earth ponies who couldn't even read, and felt as if Starswirl's mind was far too sunk in the way of life unicorns like himself enjoyed. That academy, in her mind, should teach other things besides magic, but that was something her godfather before her didn't want to hear.

"I do believe this dark age of friendlessness is at an end," she said to him, raising her chin up to make sure he would have to put effort into eye contact, "very soon, ponies shall no longer fight based on their kinds, but instead work together for a happy Equestria."

"I could not agree more with that statement!" chortled Starswirl, erroneously believing she was referring to his recent work, "As such, I have a secret I've been keeping that seems to have gotten out. Since it's not such a secret, perhaps her majesty would like to see for herself what Diurne has told her?"

Queen Notcurna had no idea that Starswirl had an alternate solution to Equestria's problems. However, she couldn't reveal her hand to Starswirl without running the risk of him finding out about the Elements of Harmony. As such, she decided to play along and figure out what the grand mage's idea for Equestria was.

"I would love to see these ideas!" she answered, faking a happy expression and tone.





Starswirl led his queen down to the castle basement, a heavily fortified area which, rather than contain a dungeon, contained a vast alchemy lab and housing for Starswirl. Although the old magic user spent most of his time out at the academy teaching magic lessons, or in the woods perfecting arts and hunting for ingredients, this segment of the castle was still his home. The wide, open area contained several cauldrons of various metals and fires of various colors heating them, but it was one particular cauldron in particular that he wished to show his majesty. Next to the boiling silver pot were two ponies, one earth pony, and one unicorn. The unicorn was a male at the peak of his prime, white coat in color, with yellow eyes and a red mane. The earth pony on the other side of the cauldron seemed timid, but was still able to face Nocturna and look at her with her purple eyes. Her yellow coat and light blue mane were tied behind a cloth wrapped behind her head, and simple clothing.

"I've summoned your cup bearer and your clothing wash mare to aid in demonstrating my work," Starswirl said, pointing at the two with his staff, "I discovered earlier these servants fighting horribly about some debacle in town. Your wash mare thinks the unicorns are responsible, and of course, your cup-bearer disagrees."

Queen Nocturna frowned as she watched her two employees give each other disgruntled looks before turning their heads away in disgust.

"This potion... this, masterpiece of magic, can only be created by imbuing the purest water and cane sugar with a spell I have created," explained Starswirl, staring into the light blue glowing liquid in the cauldron before him, "observe."

He dropped his staff, and picked up two small ladles from near the cauldron. Floating over the ornate scoops to the servants, he encouraged them to have a sip of the liquid. They complied albeit reluctantly, and noticed that the flavor of the potion was mildly sweet from the sugar.

A few moments later after imbibing the magical drink, the ponies' eyes grew wide. Starswirl knew the potion had passed through their stomach walls and had affected their mental processes, and immediately brought up the ponies' quarrel from earlier.

"Do either of you remember the party responsible for the conflict in the town square this morning?" he asked in a calm manner.

The two ponies looked at each other, and the wash mare opened up to her coworker, "That? Well, I suppose it wasn't truly anypony's fault. Perhaps we should just forget about that and dwell on other things?"

"I agree," added the cup-bearer, "we shouldn't let such things get in the way of our lives."

Queen Nocturna's ears sank back, as she could not believe what she was witnessing. Starswirl had invented a potion that, if given to her subjects, would cause them to stop fighting. However, this would come at a price too high for Equestria to pay, the loss of their free will and ability to hold reasonable arguments. Controlling the minds of her subjects would not be acceptable, in the Queen's mind, even if it did solve their problems.

"Do not be alarmed, it's not a true mind control potion. It is a mixture that makes conflict seem less desirable to the mind. Your majesty, I can have this potion added to the town wells! Think of the future, a future where magic ends the conflicts ponies face!" beamed Starswirl, picking up his staff again and smacking the end onto the ground sharply.

The alicorn knew adding an antidepressant to the water wasn't right, so she simply shook her head and answered, "No. This is not right, any amount of changing of the mind is wrong. We should not force our subjects to behave, they should choose that out of happiness and value for peace."

"Well the unicorns value peace, as do all who seek magic and its infinite power!" cheered Starswirl, smiling and nodding his head, "Let's allow the unicorn ponies to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity!"

"...And therefore leave the other two ponies in poverty and violence?" asked Nocturna, annoyed, "Magic is very powerful, indeed, Starswirl, but all ponies are of value and should be treated as such."

"But a rising tide lifts all of the ships!" complained Starswirl, "When the unicorn ponies have created scores of barrels of this potion and used it to solve our worries, surely I will aid them in sharing their success with the others!"

"Just as you've opened up the academy so that the earth ponies may learn to read?" grunted Nocturna sarcastically.

Starswirl's face curled into a snarl, and he pushed up his hat slightly, the bells on it jingling as he answered, "I do suppose there's no way this can end without favoring the unicorn ponies. But they are the ones with the magic. The ones with the power we need to save this world. I merely wish to do what we must to save Equestria."

"Unicorns may have magic that affects the physical world, but I know not healthy plants or good weather without the others," she countered, "Even your students say we all have some kind of magic, even if we cannot understand it."

The two servants ran out of potion energy, and shook their heads as they woke up from their mind control. They looked at each other, and started to grunt and give each other vicious looks again.

The Queen noticed this, and then said to her mage, "Starswirl, we would need to produce this potion for eternity. We do not need such forcing, such browbeating to solve our conflicts and food supply issues."

"What dost thou mean?" asked Starswirl, curiously, "Could it be that there was another spell out there I overlooked despite hours in my volumes?"

The Queen closed her eyes, and smiled. Then she opened her eyes again, and revealed her secret to the bearded unicorn.

"There is a magic in existence, a vastly powerful one, more powerful than you could ever imagine."

Eager to hear about how great magic was, Starswirl listened in closely, "Go on, please!"

Nocturna raised a hoof and continued to demonstratively explain, "In this very world, there is a form of magic that all ponies may use, merely by coming together with traits that define close friends. This magic, available to all, will clean the land of conflict and bring us together!"

"Magic, that... any pony can use?" laughed Starswirl, "Surely you jest! Two thirds of the pony population lack horns, how will they use it?"

"You haven't allowed me to explain," she answered, irritated, "Any pony who holds a virtue of this magic dear to his or her heart may aid in the creation of said magic, simply by getting along with others who hold the other virtues. Once all of the Elements of this magic come together in one place, the Harmony inside arises from a spark! It is the most powerful force discovered yet, and it has been underneath our muzzles this entire time!"

Starswirl was confused thoroughly. It seemed that Queen Nocturna was saying that simply by having ponies get along willingly, it would end all their conflict, as if none of the other issues of life mattered. What he failed to grasp was the fact that many of these "issues" were the vast inequalities created by his ideology of magic reigning supreme. The power of magic, and subsequently unicorns, should be the only thing in his mind that ruled Equestria.

"Then please, by all means, demonstrate these... Elements," he said, glaring at her.

Nocturna cleared her throat and admitted, "I... cannot. It will be up to Equestria's citizens to wield the power of the Elements of Harmony. As of now, we have no holders who can carry the Elements individually."

"Then what good is it?" claimed Starswirl, grinning, "No pegasus will ever work with an earth pony, and the earth ponies certainly despise the unicorn ponies. Please, your majesty, allow me to use this mind potion to relax the nation!"

Queen Nocturna flew into a sudden fury, and turned around, bucking the cauldron and sending the contents all over the floor behind the three ponies behind her.

"We cannot take away our subjects' free will! We WILL be implementing the discovery of the Elements, and we WILL let our ponies free themselves from the conflict!" she screamed, using her royal voice.

Starswirl looked at his destroyed work, and felt like teaching the Queen a lesson, but understood in his mind that everything would work out in his favor... if he could tamper with her plans. Now that he knew that another powerful magic existed, far greater than his own, he would need to change it to ensure that unicorn magic was the solution to the conflict problem. Perhaps the mind control potion was a terrible idea, there would be more potions and spells. So long as magic held solely by academia trumped all else, and saved the kingdom, he was happy.

"I can see that you have already come to a decision," he said, smiling, "needless to say, I will sleep on this idea, and perhaps discuss it further with you later. Forgive me for even thinking that eliminating the illusion of choice was a solution."

He walked past her, and then turned his eyes to the ground, thinking to himself angrily, "I brought her and her husband up and out of being orphans. I taught them how to use their magic, and how powerful it can make a pony! Now, they want ordinary ponies using magic? They want the lords and the peasants to be... friends? To be EQUALS? What could possibly equal magic!?"






The bitter cold of the frozen northern territories tried to freeze through the warm coats the friends were wearing as they stomped through the thick blanket of snow. They had taken the train as far north as they could possibly get, and had moved east from their in hopes of finding the path to the "lost" city Prince Darkmatter had described to them. Limpwing stopped them occasionally to read the map, carefully plotting out their path through the tundra to help them avoid getting lost. Occasionally, she and Rainbow Dash would fly up into the air to try and get a look at the surroundings from above. During one of these reconnaissance moments, Limpwing spotted a thick, gravel path lightly covered in ice that led past a small range of snow-covered hills. In between the hills was a small evergreen forest that covered the area and sheltered the hills from the harsh snow and frost.

Limpwing pointed to the path from in the air and shouted to the ponies below, "There's a road down there that leads through that forest! We're going that way, with any luck the city will be beyond the hills."

"There's a lot of fog after that forest," said Rainbow Dash to Limpwing, "are you sure the city is going to be through that stuff?"

"No," she answered honestly, "but if I was going to hide a city in a cold, harsh area, I'd pick a massive fog bank too. It's way too cold to house a monster to scare ponies off, and snow alone reflects sunlight, which would make the city easy to see."

"All right, well, maybe I can clear some of that fog once we get there!" suggested Rainbow Dash.

"We'll need to walk through the forest with the others first, just in case," reminded Limpwing.

The two pegasi landed near their friends, bundled up tight in the warm parka coats Princess Celestia had provided to them, hiding their colorful bodies behind gray cloth. The only exceptions were Spike and PAL, as PAL didn't need to regulate his body temperature being a robot, and Spike was cold-blooded, meaning he could sit out in the cold with the only ill effect being he couldn't talk as fast as he normally could under warmer conditions.

"Let's get underneath those trees and get this snow out of our faces," ordered Limpwing, encouraging her friends to march into the woods.

"Yeah, let's! It feels like my nose is going to fall off!" joked Pinkie Pie.





They entered the calm evergreen forest and proceeded down the dirt path. There weren't enough trees to block the light out, but they protected the friends from the harsh snowstorms outside, and also offered shelter to white-pelted rabbits, foxes, and other animals who enjoyed living in the extreme cold. Despite this, life seemed to be rather sparse in the forest, possibly due to hibernation of other animals that might have lived in the area.

Eventually the ponies plus one robot and one dragon reached a small area that looked like a campsite. The snow was falling far more gently in this area, and a ring of tall pine trees surrounded them, providing a decent wall against the elements. A fire pit was dug in the middle of the widening path, and a pile of ash, cold yet somewhat recently created, sat in the middle of the ring of stones.

"Funny, it looks like this fire pit has been used recently," said Twilight, taking off the hood of her warm jacket, "but whoever used it left in a hurry. That doesn't look like a properly extinguished fire, not from the camping books I've read."

"Maybe another storm came alongg," said Rainbow Dash, coming up with a reasonable answer for the abandoned pit, "let's just forget about it and start our own fire."

"Sounds good, we can warm our hooves and get movin' later," agreed Applejack, spotting a pile of dry firewood nearby, "looks like there's plenty of logs left for us!"

"I'll help you out, Applejack," added Rainbow Dash.

While the two were busy putting together the wood for the fire after sweeping the ashes away, Rarity and Fluttershy moved some logs from the firewood stock to make a few seats. Techorse put a handful of dried pine needles in the base of the logs to provide some tinder. Once all of the preparations had been made, Spike lit the tinder with a short puff of his fire breath, and the campfire came to life just a few short minutes later. Soon the ponies were drying out their wet coats on a nearby branch, and were discussing the trip ahead.

"The city Prince Darkmatter described should be on the opposite side of the fog bank," said Limpwing, "after that, you guys will be on your own. I've been ordered to go back to Steamcastle and wait for the Prince there."

"Thank you for taking the time to bring us out here," said Fluttershy with gratitude in her voice, "I hope it wasn't too much of a problem."

"Well, I figure getting yanked through space and time meant it was worth taking you there," laughed the azure mare, "don't worry though, once I get back to Cadance's castle, I'm going to be bringing everypony back to the city after you."

"By then we'll have set everything straight," said Rarity hopefully, "I'm sure Princess Celestia's brother is quite easily persuaded. From Prince Darkmatter's description he seems to be quite the charmer."

"Forgive my negativity," interrupted PAL, "but Prince Darkmatter was quite angry about the incident of Nightmare Moon until we set him straight by raiding his castle. That's not exactly a conventional talking-to."

"English, PAL?" asked Rainbow Dash, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"In other words Miss Dash, I'm afraid that since Prince Darkmatter didn't know Princess Luna was forgiven and brought back, Prince Sundial is also unlikely to be friendly."

"Aw, you're just worryin' about nothin'," scoffed Applejack, who was staring at the machine.

Twilight Sparkle leaned forward from her seat on the log bench and said, "Maybe PAL's right, Applejack. That alicorn in the hood that attacked us at Discord's house seems to want revenge on Princess Celestia, and based on him targeting me, I think he works for Prince Sundial."

"It could be a unicorn pretending to be an alicorn," added Techorse, looking at her with concern, "Remember the time you told me about? When you all dressed up as the same character to trick Rainbow Dash? What if that alicorn that attacked us is really someone trying to fool us?"

"That could be. But why would he want to keep us from re-uniting the royal family?" asked Twilight, "He only mentioned Princess Celestia, not any of the others."

"Maybe he's nuts!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie loudly, shooting up from her seat.

Spike agreed, "That's for sure. I'm just glad you guys made it out ok from that guy, he sounded dangerous."

While they continued to talk, a large white caterpillar, fuzzy in texture with a blue stripe down its back, emerged from the snow-covered ground behind the log Rarity was sitting on. The insect crawled its way slowly over to the ponies, and then, scaled the log and began to climb up Rarity's left front leg without her noticing. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were sitting together on the opposite side of the fire, spotted the fuzzy creature climbing up to Rarity's head, and bit their lower lips trying not to laugh. Any second now, they thought, Rarity would notice the furry worm and screech loudly, giving them a good laugh.

Rarity picked up on the silly expressions on the two mare's faces, and asked in a somewhat annoyed tone, "What? What is so funny now you two? We're discussing something serious."

"Rarity," said Techorse, pointing at the caterpillar with a hoof, "there's a huge bug on your head."

Rarity gave a bloodcurdling scream and recoiled in horror, sending the hapless caterpillar careening off of her head. The insect landed in front of her, and propped itself up on its hind legs, lifting its forward section up to look at the terrified unicorn. She stopped her screaming, and growled at Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they fell off their logs laughing.

The unicorn mare crouched down and stared at the large caterpillar, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, it's only a caterpillar. For a moment there I thought a large tick was going to bite my head!" she said, relaxing, "It's actually quite darling for a bug."

"It's very cute!" remarked Fluttershy, getting off her seat and approaching the hotdog-sized larvae.

Fluttershy leaned down a wing to the fuzzy bug, and it crawled happily up her yellow feathers, and rested gently on her back in a ring.

"Friendly too! I wish I could keep it," she sighed, smiling and looking at it on her back.

"Hey, I recognize that caterpillar, it's called a winter worm," said Twilight, smiling, "they're caterpillars that burrow underground during cold times. If they find a source of warmth, they tend to latch on so they don't have to live underground as long."

"Our fire must have attracted it!" said Rarity, "I'm sure we could let it warm itself up, but we must leave him behind, Fluttershy. We simply can't have a worm tagging along on our trip."

Fluttershy frowned, "I guess I shouldn't take the caterpillar away from its home. I'll put him back when he's done getting warm."

Limpwing noticed a strange feeling on her rear hoof, and spotted another winter worm crawling up her leg as well. She shook the creature off in disgust, and then her eyes grew wide as she noticed what was happening behind everyone.

"We need to move," she said, "Let's go!"

"Hang on Limpwing, let's put out the campfire first," said Applejack.

"No time!" gasped Limpwing, "Look!"

The friends looked over the log, and saw that an entire army of winter worms had crawled out of the ground. Hundreds of caterpillars had emerged from their burrow, and would likely surround them within moments. Some of them began to reach for the legs of the ponies, others began to form a ring around the campfire. They grabbed the coats hanging up on the nearby branch, and shredded them into pieces with their tiny mandibles.

"If we don't get out of here, the winter worms will surround us for our body heat!" gasped Twilight, "I don't want to end up buried in caterpillars!"

"RUN!" screeched Pinkie Pie, only to get knocked over by a swarm of large winter worms eager for warmth.

"Hey, stop, that tickles!" she pleaded as the worms started to cover her.

Techorse shook his back to remove the bugs climbing on him, but started to panic as the insects began to mount and block his movement. Fluttershy noticed that all of her friends were about to be buried in caterpillars, and gasped as more of the insects grabbed her own legs.

"This must be why the previous campers must have run away," said PAL, bluntly, as he was being ignored by the caterpillars due to generating less external heat. Spike sat safely on his shoulders, but bit his clawnails at the sight of the ponies getting trapped by the mounting numbers of winter worms.

As the worms began to drag her down, Fluttershy regretted ever thinking they'd be a safe pet to keep at her home.

"Oh, why'd I ever want these caterpillars to come with me?" she moaned, "It's all my fault this is happening."

"No it's not," said Rainbow Dash, trying to fly away but failing due to the unwanted passengers on her wings, "it's these caterpillars, they're dumb!"

"Now don't say that, someday they'll be great butterflies I'm sure," retorted Fluttershy.

A moment passed before she thought about what she had said, "Butterflies! I have an idea."

Fluttershy then stood up, and with all her might, crouched and gave a cold, hard stare at the caterpillars surrounding Techorse. The caterpillars immediately snapped to the attention of Fluttershy, and climbed down the inventor's legs to the ground in front of Fluttershy. The light yellow mare continued using her fierce stare to get the other caterpillars to cease, and soon she had wrangled the larvae into a neat, organized formation. A perfect square, like an army, stood before Fluttershy of six inch long caterpillars, all of their insect eyes and antennas focused on her.

"That's much better," she said, "now I know you're very, very cold, and it is very icy out here. But dragging ponies down to get warm isn't right. You'll need to find another way to stay warm, and I know just the trick, if you'll listen."

The caterpillars tracked Fluttershy's every move as she walked over to the wood pile, picked up a small log in her teeth, and carried it over to the fire before dropping it in for fuel.

"If you keep the fire going, you'll be warm," she said, explaining her action to the winter worms, "if this pile runs out, there's plenty of sticks out there in the forest."

The winter worms formed a chain, and by working together, ferried a piece of wood from the pile into the fire pit, amazing the friends who watched the insects function as a group. Each insect played a small part in fueling the fire, and once enough wood was in place to keep it going at a steady roar, they circled around the blaze and sat still to soak in the heat.

"That was amazing!" exclaimed Techorse happily, "Way to go Fluttershy!"

"Butterflies are kind of special to me," she answered, blushing, "knowing that they're caterpillars, I was hoping I'd be able to talk to the winter worms and sort things out."

"Well you did more than that," said Applejack, pointing to them, "you taught them how to keep a fire going."

"Guess they're not dumb after all!" added Rainbow Dash.

"Now that we're not going to be buried in worms," urged Limpwing, "we should probably continue on to the city. Hopefully there won't be any more 'happenings' along the way."

"If there are, I'll handle it," said Fluttershy bravely, before slinking back and continuing with, "if... you know, you want me to."

Pinkie Pie threw her hooves around her friend in a warm hug, and said, "Of course!"

She then stopped her hug, and bounded down the forest path, saying, "Come on everypony! We've got a prince to find!"





The team continued onward, leaving the winter worms to keep themselves occupied staying warm by the fire. Although they had lost the coats due to the worms shredding them, they were able to push through the fog thanks to PAL being able to see in low visibility conditions with his robotic vision. Soon they found themselves facing the other side of the hills, and looked down at the city below. The multicolored ponies along with their robot and dragon saw a vast township, with red brick buildings for the residency, many of them with chimneys smoking as fires heated their homes. Light cloud cover mixed with bright sunlight in the chilly arctic wind across the land, but despite the conditions, they could see other ponies below working and playing out in the snow and cold.

"What a city!" gasped Rarity, "Those small brick homes are so quaint! And is that a shopping mall I see touching the town square?"

"We can go shopping later, Rarity," said Rainbow Dash, smiling and rolling her eyes, "right now we need to find Prince Sundial."

"Shouldn't be too hard, I'd say he's in that castle right over there," Applejack stated, pointing at a fortress in the distant with a hoof.

The castle in the background of the city stood at a few stories high. The centerpiece of the building was a large circular keep that stood in the middle of the set of towers making up the rest of the structure. The castle wall was far shorter and thinner than what was usual for castles, but each tower in the structure was topped with an ornate, colored dome, or a brass hemisphere that shone from the distance.

"All right, here's the plan," said Twilight, calling the attention of her friends, "we're going to talk to some of the townsponies on the way to the castle to try and make them more familiar with us before we ask to see the Prince. Hopefully we'll be seen as friendly visitors and get to see him before that cloaked alicorn shows up."

"If he does, I'm sure the castle's guards will help you out with that troublemaker," assured Limpwing, smirking, "Knowing Prince Darkmatter, his brother will have a force of his own."

"Unless of course that guy works for him," said Twilight, sighing.

"Don't worry about it Twilight, we've stopped him before, and we'll do it again if we have to!" comforted Techorse, intentionally making a slight whir from within the machine on his back.

"Let's just get going!" said a rather impatient Pinkie Pie, "I want to see what the townsponies have to do here! I wonder what kinds of parties they have?"

"All right, we'll get going," giggled Twilight.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye Limpwing," said Applejack, throwing her hooves around the pegasus, "thanks for bringin' us out here."

Limpwing removed herself from the hug, and stepped back, saying, "No problem! I'm going back to The Crystal Empire's forward castle now to see Twilight's brother. We'll all be back later to see how things went."

PAL waved goodbye to her, "Take care Miss Limpwing."





They parted as the rest of the team headed down the snowy hill to enter the city. They took a path away from the main street of town, and headed towards the residence areas. A large number of glass buildings seemed to be placed in rows around the homes, many of them triangular in shape. As the ponies passed by the small brick homes, they saw the residents peek out at them, and look at them curiously knowing that they hadn't seen them before. Many of them gave them a friendly smile when they walked by, as they didn't seem to have a problem with outsiders. In fact, it was almost as if the residents of town were pleasantly surprised that other ponies had made the journey to see their city.
Pinkie Pie bounced past one of the glass buildings, when one of the panels opened up, and a pale orange colored mare with a white and light green curly mane popped her head out of the opening, staring down at Pinkie Pie.

"Hi!" she said, a broad smile on her face.

Pinkie Pie stopped jumping along and turned around rapidly to greet the other pony, "Hello! My name is Pinkie Pie! Me and my friends are on the way to the castle."

"Oh, you must be messengers then," she said, hanging her hooves out the window, "welcome to Hourglass City!"

"Thank you!" smiled Pinkie Pie, "By the way, nice glass house!"

"It's a greenhouse, I only work here!" laughed the mare, "We grow all our food in these greenhouses, so we never have to trade with any of her towns."

Twilight Sparkle flicked her tail in confusion, "Who's 'her'?"

"Well you'll need to ask the Prince about that. It's complicated., she answered, "My name is Wintergreen Leaf. I mostly grow teas in my greenhouse, and it's fairly well known in the town. If you have any troubles out there, let me know."

Twilight Sparkle picked up a slight 'Russian' accent in the mare's tone, and started to correlate it with a voice she had heard earlier.

"So we're welcome here then?" asked Rainbow Dash, floating up to the mare by flapping her wings, "I'm just making sure we're not going to get attacked."

"No!" said Wintergreen, putting a hoof to her heart in shock, "We'd never treat guests so cruelly, after all, hardly anypony but official messengers get out here. Many of us have never left the city in our lives."

"That's sad," commented Fluttershy.

"It's not illegal, we've just been told that she doesn't like us," stated the mare, using that curious pronoun again.

"Hmmm..." said Techorse, "By 'She', you don't mean Princess Celestia do you?"

Wintergreen ducked slightly, looking to the left and right.

"I'll take that as a yes?" he asked, smiling sheepishly.

"Quiet!" whispered Wintergreen, now on her guard, "The Prince has told us that saying her name might mean she'll come after us!"

"That's just silly, Princess Celestia wouldn't harm a fly," laughed Applejack, "I don't know what horsefeathers Prince Sundial's been shovin' down yer throat, but..."

"Look, all I know is that the prince doesn't think his sister would enjoy having us around very much, we are separate from Equestria after all," Wintergreen said, interrupting, "but please, stop talking about it! I don't want to get in trouble."

"Don't worry about it," said Twilight, smiling, "we're going to talk to the Prince about Princess Celestia soon. He'll soon be telling everypony that there's nothing to be afraid about."

Wintergreen took a deep breath to try and calm herself, and then pointed towards the center of town, "If you want to get to the castle and speak to the Prince, you'll need to go through the front gate. I'd better go with you so that they know you're friendly."

"You'd do that for us? Thank you!" said Pinkie Pie.

Wintergreen opened the front door to her greenhouse, and exited, locking the door behind her. The earth pony faced the newcomers, and then noticed Spike and PAL standing beside them.

"I'm not sure they'll appreciate a handsome knight and a pet dragon though," she said.

"I am not a pet dragon!" complained Spike, crossing his arms, "I'm my own guy!"

"Handsome?" asked PAL, grinning, "Knight?"

"Oh... I'm sorry," she said to Spike, "I didn't know. We don't know that much about the outside world, do they let dragons live amongst ponies out there? Sounds dangerous."

"We'll explain on the way," said Rainbow Dash, landing next to the mare, "you've got a lot to learn, especially about what pegasi do with with the weather."

Twilight looked at Applejack, and they both shook their heads at Rainbow Dash's display of ego.

"Handsome..." droned PAL again, smiling as he rubbed his metal chin with his right hand, as if a rugged man.

"Don't let it go to your head, big guy," said Techorse, tapping his machine on the leg with a robot fist from his saddle.





Wintergreen led them to the center of the city, where the foreign ponies witnessed how different the square was from their own hometown. Ponies in this city had their shops set up more built into their own homes, each one featured a lobby to help shelter them from the cold, as opposed to the open carts being far more popular in Ponyville. Produce and other edibles were sold in delicatessens and grocery stores found every few blocks. In the center of the town was a thin clock tower with four faces, each one featuring solid gold hands showing the time by some force within the sandstone structure. The quartz faces reflected the winter light, and the clock tower featured the most beautiful crystalline chimes during the turning of the hour.

"I love your city!" complimented Rarity, "I simply must buy a souvenir while we're here, perhaps a scarf."

"You'll find plenty of warm clothes and hoofmade crafts!" said Wintergreen, "We'll make sure you get plenty of things on the way back."

"Then let's get started talking to the Prince!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, hopping around excitedly, "I can't wait to meet him!"

Spike and PAL noticed a warm looking cafe, and decided to ask if they could stay behind.

"Since we were informed that we wouldn't be welcome, perhaps Spike and I should stay at this cafe." the robot suggested.

"Sure. We still use the bit out here, so don't be afraid to get something you like!" answered Wintergreen.

"We'll be back soon, PAL," said Techorse, "sorry we're making you sit this one out."

"It's not a problem at all master." he answered, "I'm sure there's a reason for them not wanting robots or dragons loose in a castle."

"Stay out of trouble you two," urged Twilight.

Spike rolled his eyes, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

They left the two of them to their own devices in the city square, heading on with Wintergreen to the castle. Spike and PAL headed into the nearby cafe and sat down inside, noticing the strange looks they were getting at their appearances. The shop owner left from behind her counter, and approached the two as they sat down at one of the oaken tables inside the store. It was a small hole-in-the-wall styled place, with various paintings hung up on the walls, covering the vertical planks that formed the wooden home, with a tile floor that barely matched the wood.

"Excuse me," she said, trying not to be rude, "but this is a shop. I can see that you're new and all, but I need space for other customers if..."

PAL immediately dropped a pile of gold bits on the table, and said with a victorious grin, "Perhaps you can bring us some hot tea, hot cocoa, and a few scones? Or is it that you don't serve robots here?"

"No, no!" she answered, looking at the pile of raw cash on the table, "I've just had problems with ponies sitting around not buying anything! Did you say tea and hot chocolate?"

"Please," answered the machine, reclining in his seat.

"I'll be right back with it," the pegasus said after scooping the money into her apron.

"Well that took care of her," muttered Spike as she walked into the kitchen area, "thanks PAL. It's been a long walk, and I'm starving."

"Sorry I cannot likely find you any gemstones," sighed the machine, "I hope some pastries will do until we can find some for you."

"Hey, I love gems as much as any dragon, but I like other food too," he answered, "we can pick some off of Techorse's mining machines when we get back to Ponyville, right?"

PAL nodded and looked around for something for the two of them to do while they waited for their drinks. He spotted a cabinet with several colored boxes sticking out from the sides, and stood up to go investigate them. Spike waited patiently at the table, and PAL returned quickly with a board game in hand.

"Want to play a few rounds of this while we wait? It's brand new to us, Spike, but I'm sure it'll be fun."

"Sure!" answered the dragon, eager for a competition.

"Let's read the rules then, shall we?" hummed PAL as he lifted the cover off of the box.






The ponies reached the castle and stood outside of the front gate, a pair of brass doors several feet tall, sealing off the lower walls of the castle to outsiders. A pair of unicorn ponies, wielding crossbows on their backs, stood above in silver-colored armor, staring down from below on the fence.

Rainbow Dash called up to them, "Hey!"

"No thanks, I just had lunch," replied one of the guards, taking advantage of the pun.

"Oh very funny!" she responded, "We're here to see the prince. We're messengers from the rest of Equestria."

"We can't just open the gate you know," said one of them.

Wintergreen called up to that guard, "We know, but these ponies are serious about seeing the prince. They think they can help him solve some issues he's been having."

"I can see you're serious about this, but your visit is rather unexpected," replied the other guard, "but we're not allowed to turn away messengers without asking about things first, so give us a moment."

The two disappear from off of the battlements, and Rainbow Dash waited impatiently as the two stallions went to go ask for permission.

"They're going to turn us away," sighed Fluttershy, "we're not invited you know."

"I don't know, maybe we should just be patient," said Twilight, "they said they would check."

"If they don't, we're just going to have to figure out some other way in., Techorse said, winking.

"We are not breakin' in that castle." grunted Applejack.

"Shhhh!" hissed Pinkie Pie, "They're coming back!"

The guards returned to their place, and the leftmost one said, "We need to speak to Wintergreen first, have her come through the gate. Then once we're done speaking with her, we'll let the rest of you in. It's all a matter of domestic security."

"It's quite all right," Rarity said, with a pleasant tone in her voice, "we'll wait right here, darling."
"All right, open up the gate and allow Wintergreen through."

The brass gates swung open, and the pale orange mare trotted through, leaving the others behind. Once she was a good distance away from the other ponies, the gates slammed shut again, and Wintergreen found herself being whisked away by the two unicorns. She was tucked into an alcove far beyond the gates, and the two guards bullied her.

"Our Prince wishes to take them prisoner, as they are with Princess Celestia," the first unicorn snarled, "you will help us betray them by leading them out to the rear courtyard where we have an ambush waiting."

"But... I can't!" she whimpered, terrified, "You can do what you want, but leave me out of this! Please!"

"It's far too late for that," laughed the second unicorn evilly, "My brother and I have already gotten a bounty for this from the prince, and we're not letting you ruin a chance at any more benefits. If you cooperate, perhaps we won't arrest you for helping Princess Celestia's messengers out."

Wintergreen burst into tears, knowing that the two evil stallions were going to force her into leading her new found acquaintances into a trap. She didn't want to see them imprisoned at all, but was now being blackmailed into aiding her leader.

"All right," she said, crying, "just don't hurt them, please!"

"Oh, we won't," said the first guard, "that'll be up to the prince."

The three returned to open the gate, and Techorse gained a curious expression on his face as he noticed Wintergreen's sudden sadness. He figured that she must have been yelled at for bringing strangers to the castle, however, and that they were going to be allowed in anyway despite the inconvenience. Neither the inventor nor any of his friends had any clue that they were wandering into a trap laid for them by the castle guard.

"Please, follow me!" she said to them.





They obeyed, following Wintergreen to the courtyard described by the crossbow-wielding stallions. The marble stones lining the ground in the courtyard featured just four trees sprouting from dirt in the corners of the area, a walled-off section meant to let the light in so that the Prince could get some fresh air when need be. When the team was stopped in the courtyard, they looked around with confused expressions.

"Wait a minute," said Twilight, "this isn't usually how you enter a castle."

Suddenly, various mares and stallions armed with swords, spears, and crossbows filled the battlements around the walls. A cannon was even wheeled up to the stone walls, and tilted down at the seven ponies below, as Wintergreen and the two guards had stepped back. They drew their weapons, and pointed them at the friends.

"Eek!" cried Pinkie Pie, her hair frizzing up in fear.

The pony who had pushed the cannon into the area was a very large gray colored mare with a dark blue mane that she struggled to maintain, as it was large amount of mane hair that was not curly enough to bob nor wavy enough to drape behind her. As a result, she kept her mane draped over her shoulder, wishing she could let it free. She was a unicorn, with purple eyes that darted back and forth between her targets below, with a flashy white and silver ball with a blue fiery tail around it as her cutie mark. She wore heavy armor, a solid helmet with a blade on the top that aided in keeping her mane back, a set of metal boots, her plates around her body, and even a small piece for the end of her tail that resembled a war hammer.

"All of you are under arrest!" she boomed.

Techorse's battle saddle opened up, and he raised his robotic arms in surrender. Rarity fainted, and the others simply stood there, frozen in fear.

"Wintergreen..." Twilight said with sadness in her voice as she looked back at her.

She answered, "I'm sorry Twilight, they made me do it..."

"Who are you anyways?" demanded Rainbow Dash of the large mare.

She smiled and answered, "Why I'm Comettail, the captain of the guard of this castle."

"Please don't hurt us Ma'am!" begged Fluttershy.

"The prince wishes to see all of you," answered the Captain, "you're not going to come to any harm if you simply do what he says. Come with me, and I'll take you to him now."

"Well, at least we're getting to talk to Prince Sundial," sighed Techorse.

"I can hear you, you know!" shouted Comettail angrily, "Shut up until we get there."

A figure in a dark cloak appeared next to her, moving his way up the stairs within the battlements. Twilight Sparkle's mouth hung open as she recognized him as her attacker.

"That's enough, Captain," he said to her.

"It's you!" Twilight said angrily, "You set us up!"

The figure laughed, "Set you up? What are you talking about?"

"I know exactly what you're up to!" she said, continuing, walking around as she lectured. The guards followed her movements with their weapons, but Comettail waved her hoof as an order for them to stand down.

"You've been working for him as a mercenary, or you are his son, or something!" she said, her face turning red, "You've been trying to take me away to get back at Princess Celestia for him!"

"For him?" asked the figure, "For who?"

"For Sundial, Prince Sundial!" raged Twilight Sparkle, stomping her hoof into the ground, "You've been trying to capture me so that Prince Sundial can hold me hostage."

"You think I work for the Prince?" asked the cloaked stranger.

"Yes, I do!" she answered, grating her teeth.

The cloaked figure looked at his captain of the guard, then at several of the other ponies on the battlements, and then, burst into rich laughter.

"Oh! What I've done's too good!" he said, "Look, look friends, it seems Princess Celestia's number one student hasn't figured it out yet! She thinks I actually work for the Prince."

Some of the guards also joined in on the laughter, and even Pinkie Pie got caught up in the moment as she struggled not to burst out laughing at Twilight's expense.

"Fine," shouted Twilight, getting the laughter to begin to quiet down, "so what if you don't really work for the Prince. Are you going to take us to him or not?"

"Take you to him? Miss, that's why this is so funny, you see..."

The alicorn ripped off his dark cloak and discarded it into the courtyard. On the battlement walls stood a white alicorn with a blonde mane and full beard. His cutie mark was that of a large sundial, and his tail and mane waved in a jagged pattern. The jagged hoof hair cut at the base of his legs made him seem taller than he actually was, but his strong wings spread as the cloak tore off. His pointed horn sported a small golden crown, which he rather hated to wear upon being questioned. The last thing about him was his yellow eyes, which no longer had to glow behind the dark cloak.

"The funny thing is, I am Prince Sundial." he said, still laughing, "Surprise!"

Twilight Sparkle stood motionless for a moment, her mind in a bit of conflict.

"But..." she said, stammering, "Why? Why would you do it all yourself? You have quite the nerve attacking us in Equestria, so tell me why!"

The Prince continued to explain, "This is about making that nag Celestia pay for sending my sister to the moon for a thousand years. I just want to be a pain in her side. Sending some faceless goon to ponynap you wouldn't be very much fun or effective."

"Oh great, he's a total nut!" whispered Rainbow Dash to Applejack, who nodded in agreement.

"Now I have all of you! All six of the Elements of Harmony holders, and even the green one!" he said, trying not to squeal, "This is so exciting!"

"What are you going to do to us!?" whimpered Fluttershy, praying she wouldn't come to harm.

"You won't be hurt," he answered, shaking his head, "I hope."

"You hope?" screamed Rarity.

"Of course, if Princess Celestia resists my demands, I may have to give her some incentive. I just can't forgive her after what she did to Luna. Take them away, Comettail."

The Captain obeyed her orders, and commanded her troops, half mares and half stallions, to escort her new prisoners into the castle. The guards poked at the friends as they corralled them into a wide hallway that led into the depths of the building.

Twilight and Techorse looked at each other momentarily, frowning as they were led away with their friends into the depths of the castle. They had managed to save themselves from getting hurt or being held in terrible conditions, but now, they would need to bring Darkmatter in and hope he could solve the problem. Both ponies feared that Prince Sundial would not listen to his brother, and they would all end up in the same scenario they had gone through with Darkmatter. The others simply hoped that the princess would sort things out, and they would get back to Ponyville in one piece.





They were taken to a plain room with a set of cots lined up against the walls, and a small whitewashed wooden door leading to a powder room. It was originally used as a hospital room, and had been hastily converted into an oversized cell, due to the fact that it lacked windows and the door was bolted in four different places from the outside. The door had also clearly been hexed to avoid lock picking spells or brute force, as four engraved shield runes were embedded into the stone frame around the door to the room. Comettail urged them inside, and considered stripping Techorse of his battle saddle, but instead inspected it by opening the rear cargo hatch. Since she was only aware of the robotic arms and knew they were too weak to open the door, the captain resealed the saddle and let the inventor keep it. Then, the seven ponies were pushed into the room, although Rainbow Dash put up a good resistance by spreading her limbs over the doorway and attempting to hold on. The guards nudged her with their horns and the hilts of their weapons until she flung into the doorway, landing on her back.

Prince Sundial appeared at the large door to the room, and said to his prisoners, "You shall remain here for now, until we can use you as bargaining chips for Celestia's surrender."

"Surrender?" gasped Pinkie Pie.

"Of course," he answered, "should Celestia refuse to turn over Equestria to my brother and I, I shall have to simply keep you here, and perhaps... do things to encourage a quicker agreement."

"Look, everything has changed!" pleaded Twilight, mortified at the thought of being tortured, "Princess Luna is back in Equestria, and she and Princess Celestia get along well! That's what you want to know, isn't it? Didn't you ever bother to even spy on Celestia? If you had, you would have seen the truth ages ago!"

The Prince's eyes grew wide temporarily as he heard that statement, and then he shook his head, "That is a lie!"

"It's not a lie!" protested Techorse, "We want to prove it to you."

The Prince of Time paused and thought about it for a moment.

"How could you possibly prove it to me?" he said, "You have no idea what kinds of pain I've been through."

He then slammed the door to the cell, leaving the ponies alone to worry about their fates.

"How are we going to get out of this one?!" cried Pinkie Pie, "I don't wanna stay here!"

"It has been over a thousand years," said Rarity, "but some things never change. Perhaps if we were allowed to bring in somepony else who knew the truth, we could convince the Prince things have changed."

"Who?" begged Pinkie Pie.

Rarity answered, "Why his brother of course. Prince Darkmatter has already repaired his relationship with his sisters. I'm sure he can do the same, after all, Sundial did just mention him."

"That's a great idea Rarity!" exclaimed Twilight happily, "Now all we have to do is figure out how we're going to get Darkmatter to come here."

There was a slight knocking on the door, and a familiar voice called out from underneath it.

"Are you ok in there?"

"Wintergreen?" called Fluttershy, "Yes, we're fine!"

"Oh thank goodness!" she exclaimed with a breath of relief, "I was worried about all of you. I'm still sorry they've forced us all into this mess, but on the bright side, I was able to sneak back into the castle. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes!" said Twilight, "We need to send out a letter, can you get us some stationary?"

"Yeah, there's a writing desk down the hallway, one second!" the mare replied.

The slot at the bottom of the door normally used for delivering meals opened up a moment later, and a piece of parchment paper and a dipped quill slid under the door. Using her magic, Twilight grabbed the paper and wrote the letter to summon Prince Darkmatter, giving no indication that they were being held as prisoners, using the term 'guests' instead, just in case the guard of the castle was going to read the letter ahead of time. She then slid the rolled-up parchment back under the door along with the quill. Wintergreen collected the letter and placed it in a saddlebag she had stolen from the guards.

"I'll make sure this letter gets out to Equestria!" she said, "I may not have been out there, but I'll figure my way."

"Thank you so much for your help darling!" called Rarity.

"I got you into this, and I'm going to get you out!" she replied with determination.

"Don't go out into Equestria by yourself," instructed Twilight, "get that letter back to Spike, you know, the dragon who was with us! He can deliver the message."

"Got it! Hang on in there my friends. We'll get Prince Sundial's brother to sort things out," she said before the noise of galloping on stone indicated her departure for the ponies inside the room.

"Do you think Prince Darkmatter can convince his brother that everything is ok?" asked Fluttershy, "I really hope we don't have to stay here forever."

"I'm pretty sure they can work it out," answered Techorse, "Prince Sundial really just seems rather hurt that Princess Luna was banished, like his brother. I can tell that there's a much kinder pony in him, it'll just take the right things to get him out of this anger."

Rainbow Dash jumped onto a nearby cot and said, "Anyways, I'm going to take a nap. We're still going to be here for a while until those two talk it over, so we might as well rest up."

"Probably not a bad idea," sighed Applejack, climbing into her own selected cot.

"Let's rest then," said Twilight, "hopefully by tomorrow we'll get everything sorted out."






1,500 years ago

The king and queen began to develop strange ailments as their subjects' happiness continued to fade. Although the unicorns were still happy given their elite status in the kingdom, the other two "classes" of ponies were gravely unhappy, some of them choosing to resort to outright theft rather than earn a living in a bleak caste system. King Diurne suffered a strange flu, followed shortly by his wife, and they recovered simply because the castle nurse was an expert in respiratory illnesses, even if the treatment was simply a placebo. The sickness of their parents worried their four foals, even though they were young adults, they had never seen their parents sick before despite each of them being more than 300 years old. 

In truth, the alicorns were all kept alive by being given the support and happiness of their subjects and friends. They unknowingly absorbed the positive energy and converted it into raw power that granted their cells immortality. Starswirl had also been born with this genetic gift, and received the lions' share of the positive energy generated by his very happy unicorn pony students at his academy. Thus, when life was good and ponies were happy, the alicorns could live forever. Yet at this time, the alicorn King and Queen were finding themselves catching illnesses and suffering the effects of being ancient. This did not deter them from helping their subjects, however, and they swore to find a way to get their kind to deploy the Elements of Harmony.

King Diurne stood on the roof of his castle, looking out over the city in the broad daylight. It seemed that the city was at peace for the moment, as he had managed to convince the pegasi to use an alternate mine to collect their metal rather than take it from the earth ponies. But how long would that peace last?

Starswirl the Bearded had recently searched the castle using his magic detection spells to see if he could find the "Elements of Harmony" that Queen Nocturna had leaked information to him about. Although he had believed he had pinpointed the location of the artifacts, he needed to be certain, and would need to get his godson to spill his information as well.

"Your majesty, I'd like to speak to you," he said, smiling and shaking as if he truly was old.

King Diurne turned around, his golden mane flowing behind him.

"Starswirl, what troubles you?" he said, unhappy.

"I have heard rumors your majesty," continued Starswirl, walking up to him with his staff floating by him, "rumors of a new magic you have discovered. The Elements of Harmony. What are they?"

Diurne immediately caught on, and knew that he must not allow Starswirl to interfere. If he found out the location of the Elements, he might try to tamper with them in order to put himself in charge of fixing Equestria, thus ruining any chance of a good life for two thirds of the population. A private magic based solution would lead to the unicorn ponies ruling for all time, while the others would merely scrape by. However, Diurne also knew that he was no match for Starswirl's magical might, and should Starswirl choose to overthrow him, it would be over quickly. Starswirl had created him, and he could just as easily destroy him despite nearly 300 years having past since they met.

"The Elements of Harmony are how Equestria will be reborn, like a phoenix," he answered, "that is all you need to know."

"Your queen has already told me that," pushed Starswirl, attempting to get more, "I wish to know where these artifacts or magical powers are. I want to be a part of this glorious process!"

"You know nothing about glorious processes!" snapped Diurne, "Just this week I found your notes for a lecture at your school. You told unicorn ponies that their peers without horns are worthless!"

Starswirl cried out in a rage, "I did not do such a thing! My notes stated that it was up to the unicorn ponies to aid their brethren without magic! Magic is meant to keep peace and find redemption, not destroy!"

Diurne argued with his mage, "Is that so? I know something that happened last week that you've done clearly showing the opposite. I heard about what you did to those three sirens who were found feeding off of the conflict in our city."

"They were a threat to us," claimed Starswirl, "they devour the negative energy of conflict and use it to generate more."

"Perhaps they could have siphoned it off and used it elsewhere, maybe to keep the monsters in the forests busy so we never have to worry about monsters gobbling up our ponies again?" yelled the King, enraged, "You destroyed those three because it was a demonstration of magical might, to awe ponies into following you!"

"I did not destroy them. I tested a new dimensional spell on them. They're alive, somewhere in the universe," he said, trying to defend himself, although clearly losing.

He then came up with a white lie, "I did not want to awe ponies with magic. I was afraid the sirens would begin to eat them should the conflict not feed them enough. Perhaps I will modify my lectures a bit..."

The King's ears drooped, and he sighed heavily, "I am sorry for snapping. I fear much for Equestria, and I cannot have the unicorn ponies continuing to push for more power in times like these."

"I understand your ills," soothed Starswirl, "now then, please tell me about these Elements. You and Nocturna have great faith in them, and so do I! Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I need to aid my... family."

King Diurne took the comment as sincere and revealed the location on the artifacts,"The Elements of Harmony are located in the atrium, underneath the floor in the centre of the room. You will need to use your staff to open the door."

"Thank you. Please tell Queen Nocturna that I was wrong, and I will aid you in your quest to use these Elements," he said, smiling, "I hear they truly are a great magic."

"It goes beyond that," said the King, "the sixth in the set, is pure magic itself."

Now there was something interesting to Starswirl! The sixth element was pure magic, and to him, that meant it was the most important one. He turned around after bidding the King goodbye, and walked back for his room, happy thoughts circling in his mind.

"Perhaps I won't sabotage the Elements after all!" he said quietly to himself, "Perhaps the Element of Magic will simply need a little push ahead of the others! Then all that will need to be done is declare Magic to be the greatest, and my school will remain renowned for eternity!"

That was truly Starswirl's motivation for all of his ideas. He did not truly wish for the unicorns to be "the elite" per say, rather, he wanted magic to remain the most powerful force in existence due to his own skill in the art, and also wished for his school and his teachings to remain the most important in Equestria. It was why he had put the alicorns on the throne in the first place! By telling other ponies that the alicorns were gifts from the supernatural, and also happening to be the best magic user, he had managed to construct a world in which he would be remembered for all time. In addition, magic would remain the only force that mattered in the world, and that thought pleased him greatly.

He passed the young Princess Celestia and Luna in the hallway, and opened up a conversation with them.

"Good afternoon, young ones!" he said, "I was on my way back to my quarters just now. Your parents have discussed the Elements of Harmony with me, and I look forward to aiding them in their use!"

"Really?" asked Luna, "Our parents let us know that we were to not inform you about the Elements."
Starswirl knew exactly why he hadn't been informed until now, but shrugged off the fact that his alicorn "family" was starting to mistrust him.

He regained his smile after scowling from Luna's statement, and answered, "I gather the timing was right then!"

Celestia smiled, "We're glad you've decided to help us godfather. We really are!"

"Thank you, little Celestia!" he answered, "Now, off I go, I must brush up on my spell books for now!"

He left them in the hallway, and thought to himself, "Those foals will someday appreciate their gift of magic more than could be imagined! I hope they make excellent rulers one day, and take students of their own just as I have!"

The king and queen had gathered their young ones, along with a handful of servants, including the cup-bearer and the wash mare from before. They were staring at the Elements of Harmony on their stand, rotating about as the artifacts waited patiently for action.

"Now that we know about the Elements and have built artifacts to house them, we must discover how they work!" stated Nocturna.

"But what could it be?" asked Darkmatter, his brother standing next to him.

His brother suggested, "Perhaps only mother and father can use them?"

"I don't know what to make of this," puzzled the cup-bearer.

The wash mare turned to him and said, "You're a unicorn. I'm sure you'll be able to do something with it. You have the magic to do it."

The cup-bearer gave her a surprised look, "Are you saying I'm good enough to wield this device?"
"Of course!" answered the wash mare, apparently having forgiven her argument, "It is what you are good at!"

"But you are just as good at things..." he answered, trying not to leave her out, "I have never been able to grow a sprout in my life, but plants just spring into life at your home!"

The King and Queen noticed that the Elements gained a soft glow at the center of their crystals. Something was happening, something that hadn't happened before. They had tried many things to get their artifacts to use the Elements and their power, but it seemed that this mere conversation was the beginning.

"Look!" said Diurne, pointing at the stones.

The two servants stopped their conversation and looked.

"Test Keeper, please!" begged the Queen, "Start a spark as a unicorn, we believe it is your words that started the Elements' glow!"

Test Keeper, a mere cup-bearer, stepped forward, and touched his horn to the center Element. Despite his every thought and effort, nothing seemed to make the Elements glow any further.

"Nothing is happening," he said, backing off, "I am not as skilled as Fine Dust thinks."

Fine Dust the wash mare patted him on the back, "It's all right. It was brave of you for tryin'."
"You believe so?" he asked.

"Oh I know so," she answered, "we can talk more about this over some tea later though if you'd like, perhaps... if you wanted to be friends."

"I'd be delighted to be your friend!" answered the unicorn.

The absolute anomaly of a unicorn and an earth pony being friends at that time caused the Elements to suddenly grow brightly, and rotate quickly around on their mobile.

"I believe you've done it!" cheered the Queen, hopping up and down, "We know how the Elements function!"

"What is it?" demanded Celestia, "How do they work mother?"

Queen Nocturna explained, "My daughter, the Elements of Harmony respond to friendship! When our cup-bearer and wash mare became friends just now, they came to life, especially the central one, Magic! It must be that friendship is the most powerful magic in existence."

"Friendship is the most powerful magic in the world?" asked Darkmatter, "This is how we'll stop all the fighting?"

"Yes, by encouraging and teaching friendship to our subjects, the Elements will provide the defense and positive environment Equestria needs to once more be a whole world!" said the King, "We must start a new school teaching this philosophy at once! By emphasizing the importance of having friends, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorn ponies will finally find happiness and cease their fighting, just as our two servants have!"

"Then open a new school we shall! We must have students who know how to make friends!" declared Nocturna.

A curious Starswirl watched from a window, jealousy burning in his heart, "A new school? To replace mine? Never!"

He observed the structure of the first five Elements creating the might of the sixth, and understood what he had to do.

Starswirl said out loud, "If friendship is magic, perhaps I will simply make it so that whoever proves best at friendship will gain the power of magic exponentially, to the point of affecting their very self! Of course, if any pony were to be imbued with that much magical power... they'd become..."

He then lost his train of thought, and changed the topic with himself, "Well no sense crafting theories. I must unbalance these Elements to ensure that my own school does not fade out in favor. Tomorrow night I'll sabotage these artifacts, and they won't even know it."

Darkmatter's brother Temporios had seen the mage outside the window, but when he took a second look, he had vanished. He and his siblings walked together to their dining room to celebrate on their own independent of their parents.

Temporios tried to tell his siblings about what he had saw, "I think I may have seen our godfather outside."

Celestia said back to him, "Oh Sundial, Starswirl the Bearded is always up and about. He's a bit of a funny stallion."

Prince Temporios was called the nickname "Sundial" both because of the complexity of his true name, and because his cutie mark was indeed a sundial with a quarter circle of light descending upon it. He had picked up on Starswirl's experimental time magic early on, and had mastered the ability to control the flow slowly, able to change the speed of events, but very little control over the past or future. As he grew older, Sundial's strength in pausing time in a small area had grown stronger. Thus, he became the Prince of Time, and joined the ranks of his siblings in enjoying power over the forces of existence.
"You're right Celestia." he said, agreeing with his sister, "I guess there's nothing to worry about."
"Indeed there isn't!" she answered, "Especially because our favorite treat is being served tonight, chocolate cake!"

"You mean your favorite treat!" teased Princess Luna, poking her sibling in the gut, "You've gotten quite a soft middle from cake over the years!"

Princess Celestia did not have that much fat, and knew it was a joke, and gave Luna a subtle smile. They had always gotten along as sisters, and had been each others' company when their brothers were not around to talk to them. Nothing could separate the Princesses of Night and Day, or so they believed. As the four alicorn young adults entered the celebration area, a disgruntled wizard retreated to his laboratory to begin his plans for ensuring a very different future than what the alicorns upstairs expected.





Spike moved his last piece on the colorful game board into place, finally securing a victory against PAL. The young dragon gave a cheerful shout at his victory, disturbing the other patrons in the cafe, who stared at him. Sitting back down with embarrassment, Spike noticed PAL shaking his metallic head at him in disbelief.

"Well, it was a good game," said Spike sheepishly, "want to play again?"

"We've already played seven games," reminded the robot, "perhaps we should try something else now."
"Seven times?" said Spike with shock, "We've been here that long?"

"Yeah..." added the owner of the shop, "You've been here for hours."

Wintergreen appeared at the shop door, and stormed in, carrying the letter given to her in her mouth.

She dropped the scroll on the table in front of the rather surprised robot and dragon, and started to pant as she gave a tired statement, "You! I've got a message for you!"

"Me!?" asked Spike, pointing to himself, "What is it?"

"Your friends have been captured by the prince!" panted the mare, her tongue sticking out as she tried to catch her breath, "But Twilight gave me this letter for you. She said you could contact the Prince's brother."

"They've been captured?" wailed Spike, "Oh no!"

"We must depart for the castle immediately," said PAL, standing up from the table while placing both hands down on it sharply.

"There's no way you're going to be able to get into the castle without being caught," replied Wintergreen sadly, "I was told that you could send this letter out to Equestria though. Can you really do that?"

"Sure!" the dragon said as he picked up the scroll, "We're going to need all the help we can get."

Tossing the scroll up into the air, Spike spat a short stream of flame at the parchment, incinerating the paper.

"Why did you do that?" screamed Wintergreen.

"Relax," answered Spike, "my firebreath's been enchanted by Princess Celestia to deliver any letters I burn right to her. We'll get an answer back soon, hopefully."

"Oh, I hope master is all right," moaned PAL, sitting back in his chair.

"I hope so too," nodded Wintergreen, "the prince was quite angry when he heard they were friends of Princess Celestia."

"EEEK!" shouted the owner of the store as she dove behind her counter, "Don't say that name! She'll move the sun so close to us that we'll all cook!"

Wintergreen turned her head and said rather rudely, "Do you seriously believe all that stuff still? Seven ponies from Equestria have showed up, their two friends pay you to eat your food and drink your tea, and you think Princess Celestia is still a monster?"

"These two are servants of her?!" gasped the store owner.

"Servants? We've met with and aided her majesty on numerous occasions," droned PAL, a little confused by the terminology.

"You've both been very generous," she said, returning from behind the counter, "I've not had customers drop that much on drinks."

"We just needed a place to stay waiting for our friends to get back," Spike said, "PAL's the one who decided to spend so much. I'm not going to be able to drink all of this hot cocoa."

"If you two are being this kind, perhaps the Prince has exaggerated a bit about Equestria and Princess Celestia..." she mused.

"Well, if you believe it, spread the word," suggested Spike, "we came here to try and convince you guys to open back up to Equestria."

"I'll do my best!" answered the shopkeeper with a smile.

Wintergreen said to PAL, "I'm going to help spread the word too while we wait for help to arrive."

"We'll go with you," answered the machine with a broad smile as he stood up, "come on, Spike."

Spike nodded and climbed up onto the robot's left shoulder. The three then left the cafe to go talk about how life outside of Hourglass really was while they waited for help from Canterlot to arrive. If they could get the citizens of the city to believe that Princess Celestia was benevolent and wanted them to communicate with her country, then it would force Prince Sundial to reconsider his own ways.





Prince Darkmatter had decided to stay at Canterlot castle while waiting for a response from his sister's student and her friends. He was enjoying a hot cup of coffee, with arguably more sugar than coffee in the drink, and sat near a bay window in the throne room, looking at the snow outside. While he watched the snow fall harder than before curiously, he wondered why such a snowstorm was coming through when there were not any plans for snow from the weather pegasi.

He asked of his sisters, "Do you know where this snow is coming from?"

Princess Celestia answered, "I'm not sure, brother. I've contacted Cloudsdale to ask if the weather factory has been malfunctioning, but their mechanics have replied that the machines are working fine. The snowblower received its one hundred thousand storm tune-up just a week ago."

"Remember when peagsi had to chill the clouds themselves if they wanted snow, rather than use the magic machines for it?" chuckled the Prince, "Was funny to watch if they didn't have any chilling potions."

"I'm glad our balance of machines and magic has gone as it has," answered the princess, standing up from her throne and wandering over to her brother, "it's nice that earth ponies and pegasi have been able to make technology serve them."

"Especially Techorse!" exclaimed Luna, standing up and raising a hoof, "His machines are way beyond what anypony has seen this century!"

"Techorse's machines come from secrets he's taken from his original home, or at least that's what we discovered when my scientists tried to reverse engineer his 'battle saddle'," sighed Darkmatter, "I'm glad he keeps his best gadgets secret. His machines in the wrong hooves could be very dangerous. They almost ended up being my own tools of revenge."

"Most of Techorse's inventions are kitchen appliances and simple things for sale," assured Celestia, smiling, "In fact, I've bought a few myself for the castle chefs. All of the powerful gadgets either end up being destroyed, like a shrinking ray he once had, or get placed out of reach of the public."

"He's responsible, like any good citizen!" bellowed Luna.

She then lowered her voice and continued, "But of course, he does make mistakes. He's not perfect."

"And he's quite the gullible guy," added Prince Darkmatter, chuckling.

"That gets him into quite a bit of trouble sometimes, but it's part of what makes him unique," said Princess Celestia, "Holding the Element of Justice requires being able to give others a fair chance, and he certainly fulfills that."

Suddenly, a small burst of green energy appeared over Princess Celestia's head, and the scroll sent to her dropped in front of her on the floor. Prince Darkmatter looked at the summoned roll of paper curiously, and poked it with his hoof.

"What's this?" he asked, "It came out of nowhere."

"Oh, it must be a letter on the progress my student Twilight Sparkle has made with Sundial," said Princess Celestia, picking up the scroll with her magic, "as you send letters to Limpwing via enchanted origami, I have given her assistant Spike the power to send messages to me through his fire breath."

"Well please, read it!" asked Princess Luna, sitting down on a nearby throw pillow, "I wish to hear of Twilight Sparkle's progress."

Princess Celestia unrolled the parchment, and her two siblings watched her eyes track the text,
becoming more and more fearful as she finished the letter.

"This is horrible. Brother has imprisoned them all, and is demanding we step down as the Princesses of Equestria," she said slowly, sadness in her eyes.

Princess Luna's mouth fell open, "What...?"

Darkmatter stood up and declared, "I must do something about this! It was foolish of me not to accompany them in the first place, and I accept full responsibility for this. I will travel to his nation and confront him."

The Prince walked away from his sisters at a fast pace, heading for the door.

"Wait!" called out Celestia, "We're coming with you!"

"He'll attack." responded Darkmatter, looking over his shoulder, "It'll be unsafe without a detachment of guards. Even then, that'd put your guards at risk."

"Then we will go to Steamcastle and get Princess Cadance's aid," stated Luna, forming a tactic in her mind, "surely his own daughter can convince him to let them go."

"They haven't seen each other since Cadance was young," questioned Darkmatter, turning around fully, "Suppose he doesn't recognize her?"

"Then we'll need other means of... subduing him," said Celestia, "we cannot allow our brother to continue to cut off his city to the rest of the world, nor can we allow him to hurt Twilight Sparkle or any of her friends."

Darkmatter nodded, and opened the door to the throne room with his magic before turning around to exit. In the doorway, wrapped in his black cape, stood Captain Arbiter, a mischievous smile on his face.

"I heard somepony needed subduing," he said, chuckling, "perhaps I can be of service?"

"We can handle this Captain," answered Princess Celestia, rolling her eyes, "it is our brother."

"I'd still like to come along," he said, continuing to partially block the doorway, "it is my duty to protect you."

"Why the sudden interest, Captain?" asked Darkmatter.

The pegasus looked at him with his remaining eye and explained himself, "I've heard your lieutenant has joined you on this mission, and I'd like to get another chance to work with her again."

The two Princesses turned their heads slightly in confusion at the Captain's sentence, and Arbiter coughed once to try and draw their attention away from the sentence.

"You know, because we're both officers and keepers of the law. I enjoy working with another pony who loves swords as much as I do," he said, "plus, she owes me ten bits."

"You don't have to make excuses, Arbiter," said Celestia, "you only needed to ask. Come with us to Steamcastle."

"Let's depart then," he answered, smiling on the inside, but placing his typical tough expression on his face.

Prince Darkmatter's horn glowed brightly with golden energy as he cut a hole in space and time in the middle of the air.

"Meet you there, my sisters!" he cheered before jumping into the wormhole and sealing it behind them.
The two alicorns looked at each other momentarily, and then, after nodding, charged their own spells to teleport themselves and Captain Arbiter to Cadance's castle. The race against time to save Twilight Sparkle, and perhaps win back their brother, had begun!

Or so they had thought.





In a remote tower in Canterlot Castle, the Element vault sat alone. It didn't need to be guarded constantly with the castle walls and magical lock serving as defenses for the artifacts inside. Princess Celestia appeared before the vault in a flash of light, having split off from her sister. Looking around to make sure none of her guards were nearby to interfere, she cast a small combination spell into the vault's lock. The door's handle turned and recessed into the door, and the vault opened with the sound of stone grinding on stone.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she thought miserably as the door finished opening.

The white alicorn, her multicolored hair flowing behind her, entered the vault, and carefully opened the brand new containers for the Elements. By standing with her four hooves on certain panels on the floor, the center of the empty room opened up, and a new mobile, built of solid marble, arose from the center, with each of the artifacts adorning an arm. Twilight's tiara artifact sat at the top on a small pedestal, and the scales of justice sat in a glass enclosure at the base of the structure. Princess Celestia carefully removed each of the artifacts from their places, and put them inside a silver case she had brought with her. Packing them into the velvet interior, the Princess finished putting the artifacts in the case, and sealed it shut before tying it to her side.

She then stood and stared at the empty mobile, before returning to its place beneath the floor. Resealing the vault, Princess Celestia moved into the middle of the castle hallway, and looked over the stained glass windows depicting every major use of the Elements of Harmony. The Princess felt a surge of sad emotion, both guilt for having used the powers entrusted to her against her sister, and that she may be forced to do so again on her brother in order to save her student and her friends.

To be continued...