To Rekindle the Sun

by Donraj


Chapter 3

“Oh my goodness, I think he’s waking up!” said a soft voice from somewhere above Shining Armor.
“Everypony stand back and let him get some air,” somepony else cautioned. Applejack, he realized.
Shining Armor rubbed his head and groaned as he opened his eyes. He wasn’t in town hall anymore. A quick look around told him that he was back in the library. A library which appeared to be spinning around and wobbling. Shining Armor winced and closed his eyes again.
“What happened?” he croaked.
“That’s what we were hoping you could tell us, darling.” Shining Armor opened his eyes to see the unicorn from before looking down at him. She blushed prettily but managed not to fall into a swoon this time.
“Yeah!” shouted the annoying pegasus. She touched down next to him and glared at him from well inside his personal space. “What did your sister do to our princess?!”
That jerked Shining Armor back to reality. “Twilight!” he shouted. He sat up, smacking Rainbow Dash in the face as he did. She sputtered in outrage and started to respond in kind. Applejack grabbed her by the tail and dragged her away before violence could ensue.
“Now simmer down Sally,” Applejack said through a mouthful of multicolored hair. “He wouldn’t have gotten all banged up like that if he had known what was going to happen.”
Rainbow Dash stopped struggling. Applejack spat her tail out. She turned and looked Shining Armor square in the eye. “But I reckon he can help us figure out exactly what’s going on.”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash filled Shining Armor in on what he had missed. Pinkie Pie pantomimed the more theatrical parts. Shining Armor’s head swam as he took it all in.
“I knew Twily had been acting odd lately,” he muttered. “I thought it was just stress from organizing things and worrying about the princess.”
Rarity lifted an eyebrow. “Worried about the princess?’ As in Princess Celestia?”
Shining Armor nodded gingerly.
“Why ever would that be?” Rarity pushed.
“Ooh!” Pinkie Pie said. “Has she been sick? Or sad? Or out of cake? Or—”
“Yes,” Shining Armor said.
“Oh no, Princess Celestia is out of cake?!” Pinkie Pie gasped. She was clearly horrified.
“No...I mean yes...I mean...oww.”
Fluttershy crouched down next to him and held a damp cloth against his throbbing forehead. “Try not to move too quickly,” she said. The beautiful pegasus had the sweetest little voice. Shining Armor couldn’t help relaxing slightly.
After the dizziness subsided Shining Armor spoke again. “My sister is Princess Celestia’s personal student. For the past year, maybe more, the princess has been in a deep depression. She’s withdrawn from official duties and as near as anypony can tell she has secluded herself in her private chambers. Every pony in a position to know about this has been concerned, but my sister…”
Shining Armor grimaced again. This time it wasn’t from the headache. “Twilight has always been close to the princess. She took it hard.”
“Ya don’t say,” Applejack snarked.
“You have to know her,” Shining Armor explained. “When Twilight gets fixated on solving something nothing distracts her until she’s done it. When she can’t find a solution…She can get a little crazy,”
Applejack raised an eyebrow at that. Rarity arched an eyebrow at Applejack and mouthed the word ‘stubborn.’ Applejack gave Rarity an annoyed look. Rainbow Dash ignored them both.
“Yeah yeah, but what does that have to do with an old mare’s tale like Nightmare Moon?”
Fluttershy shuddered. “The princess called her ‘Luna.”
“Yes,” Rarity said thoughtfully. “And whoever she was she said something about her sister having bad dreams about this Twilight Sparkle.”
“So what does that all mean?” Rainbow Dash demanded.
“Maybe Nightmare Moon is Princess Celestia’s long-lost sister!” Pinkie Pie chimed in.
Applejack sighed. “Pinkamina Diane Pie, we’re being serious here.”
“The princess,” Shining Armor interjected. “Where is she?”
“Took off after the whole fracas,” Applejack supplied. “Said something about protecting the Elements of Harmony.”
Shining Armor blinked. “I know that name. Twily said something about them not long ago.”
“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What are they?”
“No idea,” Shining Armor admitted.
Everypony except Pinkie Pie sagged at that.
“The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide,” Pinkie Pie said.
Everypony looked to see Pinkie Pie pulling a book off the shelf. “However did you find that?” Rarity asked.
“It was under E!” Pinkie Pie sang as she hopped over to a table.
The others crowded around as Pinkie Pie laid the book open on the table and began to read from it. Afterward Shining Armor frowned in thought.
“Most powerful magic known to ponykind, huh?” he said.
“Least til your sister found out about it,” Applejack said drily.
“So that must be where Princess Celestia went, right?” Rainbow Dash said. “To get these Element things and use them to put Nightmare Moon away again?”
“Maybe,” Shining Armor said. “And if we figured it out Nightmare Moon probably has too. She’ll want to get to them first to head the princess off.”
“And, uhm, your sister was chasing after Nightmare Moon,” Fluttershy pointed out.
Shining Armor nodded. The dizziness was fading. “And that means that if I want to find Twily I need to find these Elements of Harmony.”
Rainbow Dash surprised him by bumping his shoulder with her hoof. “We need to find them, you mean.”
Shining Armor looked at Rainbow Dash in surprise. She shrugged. “Can’t let you go alone when you’re all beaten up. So...where are they?”
“Whelp,” Applejack said. “Good news is the book says ya don’t need to go far.”
“Seriously?” Shining Armor said. There had to be a catch.
“Yup,” Applejack said. “They were last seen in the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.”
Shining Armor frowned. “Never heard of it.”
Applejack winced. “Well, it’s in…”

“...The Everfree Forest is supposed to be a lot less blown up than this,” Shining Armor commented to Applejack as they picked their way over the rubble of what had been a fair-sized ridge.
“Reckon we know which way they headed,” Applejack said as she hopped ahead to get off a chunk of stone that had started to slide underneath her. She grunted slightly and checked her hat once she was back on relatively secure footing.
“So, uh, your sister. She’s really that powerful? Never woulda figured such a little pony could do…” Applejack waved a hoof at the wreckage. “All this.”
“Yeah, Twily’s always been a prodigy,” Shining Armor said. He flicked his horn and brushed some sharp looking rocks away from the next chunk of stone. “The princess made Twily her personal student the day she got her cutie mark.”
Applejack hopped to another level patch. “Oh? How’d that shake out?”
“Hatched a dragon. Blew up a building. Turned our parents into potted plants,” Shining Armor said.
Applejack froze. “Seriously?”
Shining Armor nodded. “Yup.”
Applejack whistled. “Land’s sakes.”
“They got better,” Shining Armor added.
Applejack relaxed a bit. “Oh, okay then. Was concerned for a sec there.”
Shining Armor banged his already injured leg and winced. “Yeah, I think the princess took her on as much to teach her how not to do that again as anything else.”
Applejack looked around and whistled. “And here Ah thought Apple Bloom and her two friends were a walking disaster zone.”
She saw Shining Armor’s expression and grimaced. “Sorry. Didn’t mean…”
“I know,” he said shortly. He chuckled bitterly. “Some big brother and Captain of the Royal Guard I turned out to be.”
“Hey now,” Applejack said.
“I didn’t see this coming when it was my duty twice over. I got knocked senseless when the princess was in probably more danger than any other time since the Guard was formed. And for all I know Twily is—”
“Hey!” Applejack said. She jumped onto the same chunk of rock as Shining Armor, grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn and look at her. She locked eyes with him.
“Now you listen here. Ah don’t know you or your sister or the princess for that matter, but a blind fruit bat could see how much you love your little sister. You wouldn’t be walking through the Everfree at night all beat up like this if you weren’t a good big brother or a good guard pony. Ah may not rightly understand everything that’s going on here, but Ah know you’re going to be there for your sister come what may, cus Ah’m going to make sure you get there. Understand me?”
Shining Armor’s eyes teared up and he started to sway a bit. Applejack held him up firmly but gently. “Thank you.”
“S’nothing but the honest truth,” she said. They had made their way across the rubble. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were already waiting. Rainbow Dash was hovering with her hooves on her flanks.
“Come on you guys,” she said testily.
“Rarity, how you coming along back there?” Applejack called back.
“Just a minute!” Rarity huffed. Applejack rolled her eyes.
“Ah swear, if you’re looking for diamonds or making sculptures or something Ah will…”
While the two bickered Shining Armor scanned the area. The forest resumed a couple dozen feet ahead. There were no conveniently leveled trees to point the way. He frowned as he tried to remember the not very good map they’d found in the library.
“Something isn’t right here,” said a quiet voice from right behind him. “The animals are all scared,”
Shining Armor nearly jumped out of his coat. “Fluttershy!” he shouted. That pony was too quiet by half.
Fluttershy cringed away so much her belly was nearly touching the ground. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Shining Armor shook his head. “It’s alright. What do you mean not right?”
“The animals are all scared. I can hear them nearby, but they’re hiding,” she said.
“Well, sounds like they have better sense than us,” Shining Armor said.
Fluttershy’s ears tilted back in alarm. Shining Armor mentally kicked himself. “I’m sorry, I mean…”
“It’s okay,” she said. “How is your leg?”
“My leg?” Shining Armor said? “Oh, it’s fine. Still sore but I can walk on it fine.”
Rarity had rejoined them by this point. They made their way into the woods. After about five minutes they found themselves staring into the muzzle of an angry manticore.
The magical super predator roared in rage at them. Shining Armor instinctively threw up a shield over the group before it could pounce. It remained there, crouched and menacing.
“Okay everypony,” Shining Armor said. “Let’s just circle around it. Don’t make any sudden moves and don’t run. If we don’t set it off then maybe...Fluttershy?”
The pretty pegasus had slipped around his shield and was fluttering toward the manticore. The monster roared again, and the force of the sound plastering her mane back. Everypony shouted in alarm. The gestalt of their protests was that getting near the carnivorous beast was a bad idea.
Fluttershy ignored them all. She moved her muzzle close to one of the manticore’s big paws and whispered something. The manticore looked confused and held its paw out for inspection. Fluttershy gasped.
“Oh dear!” she said. And without a moment’s hesitation she pulled a nasty looking stone splinter out of the manticore’s paw. The manticore roared in pain and seized Fluttershy with its free paw. Everypony tensed to spring forward, knowing it was too late. Fluttershy...giggled.
“Aww, you’re just a big old kitty!” she said as the giant creature licked her mane and face. Once it settled down she reached into her bag and pulled out a roll of bandages. “Now I need you to hold still for just a second…”
Once she had finished cleaning and bandaging the injury she nuzzled the manticore one last time and turned to her companions. Shining Armor’s jaw was hanging open.
“Fluttershy, that was amazing!” he said. “But that was a crazy risk.”
Fluttershy smiled. “Everypony deserves some kindness when they’re hurt.”
She paused, then added, “Oh, and he says that he got hurt by an angry-looking pony who was chasing a cloud of smoke. I asked and he said he could show us the way.”
Shining Armor was dumbfounded. “...How?”
Fluttershy smiled again. “I asked nicely.”