//------------------------------// // Part 7 - Celestia's Students // Story: Waking Night // by CrowMagnon //------------------------------// Waking Night by Crowmagnon The merchant lord asked of Celestia, "My princess, why do you take on protegès, knowing that you are destined to outlive them? Whatever they accomplish with your teachings will be lost in time while you continue on." Celestia afforded the merchant lord an accomodating smile and replied, "My little pony, when I take on a student, there are at least two ponies who grow wiser from the experience." Formulae. Geometry. The flow of mana, shaped and given form with the aid of a linguistic key. All unicorns... all ponies had their own unique magic which they could harness instinctively, but spellcraft was different. As much art as science, it was a long, complex process which required the spellcrafter to devote a great deal of time, attention, and in some cases their very essence, to give magic a shape which could be grasped by other ponies. It was a skill which Princess Celestia taught to all of her personal students over the centuries, and while the majority of those had been unicorns, the earth ponies and pegasi that she had taken under her majestic wing had also benefited from a deeper understanding of magic. Celestia's student carefully looked over her work one more time, despite the ache throbbing in the center of her skull or the dry craving in her throat. The formulae were laid out before her on a massive scroll, proofed and carefully condensed into spell form. So focused was she on checking her work and ignoring her discomfort that she neither heard the door opening behind her, nor the hoofsteps walking toward her until her visitor announced her presence by clearing her throat. Turning away from her scroll, the student turned to find her teacher standing over her. "Princess! I thought you'd be resting." Celestia smiled, accentuating the wrinkles in her face. Despite her height, the elderly alicorn was gaunt and emaciated from centuries of slow aging. Her mane and wingfeathers were likewise thin and brittle, though her hair still possessed traces of the ethereal vibrance that was spoken of in old writings. "I should say the same. It isn't like you to be so nervous about your magic. You and I have already looked it over many times. The spell is sound. You're the one who needs to be prepared." "I'm not nervous, and I'm perfectly fine," she protested, but a sudden, powerful spike of pain caused her to wince and bring a hoof to her head. "Oh, you poor dear," Celestia cooed warmly, her voice giving way to a dry, wheezing cough. "Perhaps... we should both sit down..." she whispered between coughs, and she settled down. She then lifted a wing, beckoning for her student to join her. An invitation that was accepted after the most perfunctory of refusals. While Celestia wrapped an aged wing around her student, an open bottle came floating into the room, held aloft by a green... no, a golden aura. It floated in front of the student's muzzle, and one whiff of its aroma made her throat burn with thirst. Despite that, she pushed it aside with her own magic. "No! No, I'm... I'm good. I just need some water," she replied, placing a hoof against her heart. Why was it beating so fast? "It will help you relax. Are you sure?" When the student nodded, Celestia set the bottle down on a nearby table. "That's alright, as long as you're rested for your big debut. This is all for you, my little pony. A thousand years of history are going to change because of your hard work." "... One thousand years ago, Eclipse attacked your sister and sowed discord between the races of Harmonia. You exiled Eclipse into the moon's shadow, but suffered a wound that's been killing you slowly ever since. Every single pony in Equestria knows that story, and... and it's all..." "A lie. A necessary lie... or at least, it seemed that way at the time. I couldn't tell my little ponies that their princess of the night had gone mad. That she had nearly killed me and plunged all of Harmonia into chaos. So, to preserve the memory of the sister I loved, I created a phantom villain to be her scapegoat. But that lie has long since run its course. My time is coming to its end. Before I go, I want to see you bring it to a close and prove to all of Equestria that you, my greatest and most powerful student, are worthy of taking my place." The student smiled, but not without a hint of regret as she nuzzled into her mentor's chest. "I won't let you down. Thanks for believing in me, Princess. For a while there, I didn't think you did..." "Of course I do," Celestia replied. "None of this would be possible without you." She leaned down to kiss her student on her forehead, then ran a hoof through her mane and waited for the unicorn to drift off to sleep. Once she was sure that she was resting soundly, "Celestia" carefully picked herself up and make her way out the door to the dimly lit corridor where a unicorn stallion was waiting for her, his horn glowing a sickly green. As soon as the door was shut, his magic dissipated along with the illusion of alicornhood which had been wrapped around Lady Moonshadow. "She's still putting up some resistance. She could end up causing trouble for us," Mesmer Eyes said with a sneer. "This would be much easier if you just made her drink the blood." Moonshadow brushed some dust off of her body and replied, "Forcing the issue would only harden her will, and probably cause her to shatter the illusion. Then we would have an angry unicorn on our hooves who also happens to be a magical prodigy with ten times your strength on your best night. And don't pout, my little pony. We both know it's true," she added, smirking at Mesmer as he scowled at the assessment. Turning to strut away, she continued, "Ultimately, we don't need her completely turned. She's one of Celestia's students, and if there is one thing that my fellow alumni tend to share, it is an obsessive need to impress 'mommy', even if the only way to win her heart is to carve it out of her chest. For a mare of her ego, the idea that she's being groomed to rule Equestria is more than enough to make her ignore whatever warning signs her subconscious is trying to send her." Mesmer grumbled under his breath, "So that's why you've been fixated on killing her for the last nine hundred years..." Moonshadow's nostrils flared. Mesmer Eyes didn't even have time to realize that the pegasus had stopped in her tracks until his mistress had already spun around and pinned him against the cold stone walls, holding him up off the ground with a single hoof. "You might want to remember that you're undead, Mesmer. There is so little of you that I actually need in order to make use of you. How would you like to spend the next five hundred years as a head, heart and stomach stuffed in a burlap sack?" Mesmer gulped and nervously licked his lips. "I... I don't believe that will be necessary... Lady Moonshadow..." "Then prove it," Moonshadow replied, cocking her head toward the door behind her. "Make sure she's ready to play her role when the time comes, and keep your amateur psychoanalysis to yourself." Mesmer Eyes rubbed his throat while Moonshadow left, glaring at the vampony pegasus's back until she was out of sight. "Whatever you say. You're the boss... for now." ----- The Grand Canterlot Theater. Once a magnificent hub of entertainment for the Equestrian capital, there wasn't a pony over the age of twelve in the entire city that hadn't seen at least one show there at some point in their lives. Urban legends claimed that, while the name and building might have changed every once in a while, there had been a theater on that spot since even before the founding of Equestria. While that was almost certainly a considerable exaggeration, what was undeniable was that it had been there for generations, providing a venue for just about every type of performance known to ponykind. From opera to vaudeville, all of it had graced that hallowed stage, but only the very best examples of each. No matter what the genre might have been, for a pony to perform in the Grand Canterlot was to be recognized as a master of their art. As a Canterlot native, Twilight herself had many fond memories of going with her parents and older brother to see the latest play or musical act. But as she grew up, scandal and mismanagement on the part of the owners had led the legendary theater into bankruptcy. As Twilight looked up at the once-venerable facade, now boarded up and weathered with disrepair, she thought back to the day when she had first heard of its closure. She had been sad, of course, but Trixie... ~~~~~ "They can't shut it down! That theater's a landmark! A national treasure! I won't allow it!" They were fourteen, and all of Trixie's closest friends from school, Twilight included, had gathered together to hang out at Donut Joe's. Twilight couldn't even remember what the others had been talking about, but whatever it was, it was interrupted when Trixie barged in late and slammed the daily newspaper onto the table. Minuette asked, "What're you going to do, though? You can't just get them to keep it open because you're Celestia's student." "Or can she?" It was Lyra who asked that, looking hopefully at Trixie. "I've wanted to play there since I was five!" "No... of course I can't. That's silly," Trixie grumped, but the way that her ears turned red told Twilight that Lyra wasn't the only one who had thought of playing the 'personal protegè' card. "This isn't about you. Or me. This is about culture! This is about history!" "Aren't you getting a D in History?" "Not the point, Moon Dancer!" At that point, Trixie's eyes had started to tear up. "How many ponies have performed there? How many ponies do you think have sat in those seats and seen magic unfold in front of them? My grand-père performed for the princess herself on that stage, right up until..." Sensing that her friend might start crying, Twilight levitated a napkin over toward Trixie, but it was ignored as the blue unicorn hopped up onto the table and reared up so that everypony in the restaurant turned to look. Raising a front hoof up to the sky, Trixie loudly proclaimed, "Mark my words, Canterlot! As Celestia is my witness, I, the Great and Powerful Trrrrixie Lulamoon, will save the Grand Canterlot Theater!" One could have clearly heard a fly cough in the silence that followed as the echoes of Trixie's voice faded away. Right up until a couple of high school students a few years older than them jeered, "What's the big deal? That place is, like, older than Celestia. And about twice as lame, am I right?" ~~~~~ Twilight actually didn't remember much about what happened next. It was all sort of a blur of righteous screaming and magical pyrotechnics after that point. While she reminisced, though, she also went around the back of the building and tried to see if she could get the service entrances open. Not only were they securely locked, though, but they were also boarded up, and it didn't look as though they had been disturbed in a very long time. Not finding any means of entry on the ground level, Twilight looked up, scanning the building until... a-ha! Up on the third floor, there was a window where the boards had fallen away, giving her just enough of a view inside to see that she had a clear shot. With a flash of magic, she teleported up into the theater. The instant that she appeared on the other side, Twilight sputtered and choked back the scream that wanted to come out when she felt spiderwebs all over her body. She couldn't keep herself from reflexively bucking and scraping the webs from her body with her hooves, though, until she was finally able to force herself to calm down. "Just spiders... just small, harmless, creepy little spiders that were minding their own business... not tripwires or traps," she told herself as she caught her breath. In another part of the theater, small bells tinkled, and the pony who was there lifted her head. "So, she's finally here," Trixie muttered. "If anypony could track me down, it would be my 'best friend'. Time to give Twilight Sparkle a show she'll remember for the rest of her very short life!" With that, she withdrew Moonshadow's Fang from the breast of an effigy of the princess and-- Twilight shook her head. "No... no! Trixie is not like that," she grumbled at the treacherous brain that would feed her such an idea. ~~~~~ "Happy birthday, Princess!" They were all sixteen years old. Twilight and the others approached the throne, carrying an enormous multi-layered cake in a shared magical field. Trixie was leading the way, strutting proudly toward her wizened mentor and ruler. As they walked, Trixie flicked her ear back at Twilight, and right on cue she 'tripped' on the carpet. She tumbled to the floor, pulling the gigantic confection down upon herself while she did. "Oh, dear! Is everypony alright?" Twilight heard the princess ask, muffled as her ears were with frosting. Trixie's voice, by comparison, rang out clearly. "Never fear! Your student, the Great and Powerful Trrrrixie, has studied long and hard to master the greatest power of all... the magic to turn back time itself! Behold!" The whole thing was an elaborate trick, of course. While Trixie made a show of her supposed mastery over the fabric of space and time, Twilight took advantage of the frosting covering her horn to teleport away without giving away the glow of her own magic. All so that Trixie could use the flash as cover while she replaced the vanished cake and mare with a pile of raw ingredients and Twinkleshine's baby sister, who happened to have a coat very similar to Twilight's own. From the room that she had teleported into, Twilight couldn't see or hear Trixie's performance. All she could do was wait beside the second cake that they had prepared ahead of time--the first being a mostly-hollow prop--and gather her magic while watching a small, enchanted gem. After a few minutes of recuperation, Twilight saw the gem flash with light once... twice... and on the third flash, she cast her spell to teleport herself and the second cake back to the throne room. While she and Trixie had done everything they could ahead of time to lighten the strain of back-to-back teleportation, Twilight felt her legs give out as soon as she reappeared in the throne room. Fortunately, before she could hit the floor, a pair of azure forelegs wrapped around her waist to prop her up. "And she's back, everypony, exactly as she was before! Or... well, close enough," Trixie proclaimed, eliciting a crashing wave of applause and laughter. Twilight groggily waved and asked, "Why's errybony laughin'...?" "No reason," Trixie quickly exclaimed, drawing another surge of laughter from the audience when she started whistling innocently. Twilight then realized that her muzzle felt a little itchy, so she brought a hoof up to scratch it. That was when she realized that, unlike rehearsal, she had grown an enormous and finely groomed handlebar mustache! The genuinely surprised shriek that erupted from her at this revelation had the entire room stomping and rolling with laughter. Even Princess Celestia, renowned throughout history for her calm, gentle humor, was in mirthful tears as she applauded until her laughter was cut off by a sudden fit of coughing which instantly brought an end to the joy of everypony in the room. In a flash, Trixie let go of Twilight and zoomed to the princess's side so quickly that one could have assumed that she really was the one who had pulled off the teleportations. Twilight also staggered over as quickly as she could, bringing her close enough to hear Trixie whispering frantic encouragement to the princess and allowing Celestia to lean on her until she could catch her breath. Once the princess was done and began breathing steadily again, Twilight overheard Trixie mutter, "I don't care how hard it is, or how long it takes... I'll find a way to turn back time for you too, Princess." "But then wouldn't I lose the years I've spent as your teacher?" Celestia replied with a grandmotherly smile. "I wouldn't consider that a fair trade, my faithful student." ~~~~~ "Right. She loves the princess. I'm sure, once I find her, there'll be a good explanation for all of this." If only she could think of one. Once she'd gotten herself calmed down, Twilight started moving. The room she had teleported herself into was an old storage room filled with cloth-covered furniture and boxes full of props and costumes. And more cobwebs than in her grandmother's attic, so she stepped carefully to avoid as many as she could on her way to the door. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Twilight kept going deeper into the theater. Focusing light through her horn allowed her to see in the dark, musty corridors while she swiveled her ears about to try to catch even the faintest of hoofsteps other than her own. Heading downstairs to the ground floor of the theater brought her to more familiar ground as her fillyhood memories came back to her. To see the once-lively halls and concession stands so empty brought a sad nostalgia to her heart, though. I kind of hope Trixie isn't here, Twilight thought to herself. I loved coming here, but she practically lived and breathed this place when it was still open. And the reason for that was hung up on display in a position of prominence. Old posters were hung up on the walls as a remembrance of ponies who had performed there over the years, and simply to be seen there was to be known as a master one's art, but the ones on display in the lobby were the brightest luminaries. They were the ones who weren't honored to be granted an opportunity to perform at the Grand Canterlot, but the ones who brought fame to the theater by agreeing to perform there. Among them, second from the right, once illuminated by bulbs filled with magic, but now only visible by the light of Twilight's horn, a large poster advertised for all to see that Trixie's grandfather, Quartermoon the Magnificent, had shared his vast repertoire of illusions and impeccable showmanship with the audiences of the Grand Canterlot for over three decades. An earth pony with no spells of his own, but who had performed feats of "magic" that his surviving peers were still trying to duplicate. If his grand-daughter was in trouble and needed a place to hide where she would feel some measure of comfort and safety, Twilight could only think of one place, so she dimmed her horn's light and crept her way toward the stage. And just as she had both hoped and feared, she saw her fillyhood friend on the stage where her grandfather had performed countless times. But instead of bright stage lights, several firefly lanterns illuminated Trixie and a quintet of ponnequins, four of which were clad in ratty old Royal Guard costumes. It was the fifth that held Twilight's attention and unease. The regalia was cheap costume jewelry, the hair a ratty old wig with faded colors, and the horn and wings were blatantly tacked on, but there was no mistaking the pony that it was intended to emulate. Nor was there any missing the shallow cuts scarring its breast. While Twilight stared, her mind racing to take in every detail and make some sort of sense of it, Trixie turned her head to look over her shoulder. "Twilight. I knew you'd be showing up sooner or later." "Trixie..." Twilight braced herself, her magical aura forming around her horn as she gathered her magic, preparing it to form a spell the instant she might need one. "What in Celestia's name is going on here?!" Trixie let out a bitter laugh as she turned to face her childhood friend. "Destiny, Twilight." "Destiny...?" "What else is there? You still remember how we met, don't you? When we were both trying to get into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns? You got so frustrated trying to solve an unsolvable problem that you teleported. All I had to offer back then was a corny fireworks spell," Trixie scoffed, shooting a spark up into the air above her head, where it exploded into a multi-colored burst of light that briefly illuminated the entire theater. While Twilight brought up a hoof to shield her eyes from the bright glare, Trixie continued her rant. "We were both offered a place at her side. I took it and you didn't, because that was our destiny." "I... I didn't take the offer because I didn't deserve it. It was my choice," Twilight protested. "Exactly! 'Destiny is the sum of our choices, when seen unshackled by linear time.' That's what the princess always says," Trixie countered. "The point is, I'm here because I'm supposed to be! It's not a mistake, and if I know without a doubt that there's something I have to do, that means that I'm going to have a good reason for it. Even if I don't know what that reason is yet..." Twilight glanced at the scarred ponnequin again and felt a cold chill run up her spine. "Trixie, whatever you think you need to do with Moonshadow's Fang... tell me about it. What are your sources? What exactly were you told? I've read a lot of stories about prophecies, and there's always a loophole! You want that too, right? I can't believe that you'd ever want to hurt the princess," she said, stepping toward Trixie with hope in her eyes. Trixie winced, but smiled weakly as Twilight drew closer. "Heh... you really are a good friend, Twilight. But that's exactly why I didn't want you anywhere near this. It's bad enough your brother won't listen... As it is, it'd take about a week to explain everything, and time's running out. I have to go before the moon rises. I'm sorry, Twilight..." Twilight reflexively stopped and braced herself when she saw Trixie's horn light up. The stage magician hat and cape that she was so fond of lifted up from her body and turned themselves inside out. Even the cape, which seemed to be nothing more than a star-spangled piece of fabric, opened up along a hidden seam to allow a bodysuit of thin purple material to spill out. The surprised young guard found herself too stunned to do much but watch as, the bodysuit wrapped itself around Trixie, including a mask which covered her every feature completely. Her formerly pointed hat, now wide-brimmed and dark purple, settled down on the magician's head to hide her horn. For all appearances, the mare standing in front of Twilight Sparkle was no longer her friend, Trixie Lulamoon, but a figure out of folk legend and comic books. "This is the way it's got to be, Twilight," Trixie said, her voice distorted by an enchantment in the mask. "I don't have time to explain, and I can't let you stop me, so please, just trust me. I've got to go, for the good of Equestria, and if you don't get out of the way... I'll have to go through you." Twilight felt her body shake. Confusion, uncertainty, betrayal, all swirled around in her head and clouded her thoughts. "Trixie... I..." She shook her head and braced herself, taking a stand in front of her costumed friend. "I won't. When I joined the Guard, I swore to protect the princess... but more than that, you're my best friend! You have been ever since the day I got my cutie mark! Whatever your reasons are, whatever you think is going to happen, I can't just step back and let you do something you'll regret for the rest of your life! So if you won't tell me why, then I'm going to keep you here. You know I'm strong enough to do it." Twilight couldn't see Trixie's expression through the mask, but heard her friend sigh. "I was afraid you'd say that. Sorry, Twilight, but this is one magic duel I can't lose. Yeah, you've always been stronger than me, but we're on a stage. And you know what a stage magician's greatest weapon is..." A surprise blast from behind sent Twilight reeling, knocking her to the floor before she could get off a spell. As the Trixie she had been talking to faded into nothingness, the real Trixie behind her proclaimed, "Misdirection!" ----- Several minutes later, the purple-clad Mare-Do-Well raced up the mountain as fast as her hooves could take her with Moonshadow's Fang strapped to her side. She glanced over her shoulder as she ran, and in her haste she ended up running straight into a pink beatnik, knocking both of them to the ground. Her eyes went wide behind her mask when she saw the dagger slip loose and go skittering across the stones. "My goodness! Don't run around if you can't see where you're going," the beatnik's friend said. A white unicorn in a farmer costume, who started to pick up the Fang with her magic while helping her friend back to her hooves. "Especially if you're carrying around something that could hurt somepony." "Don't touch that!" Mare-Do-Well snapped, rolling back up onto her hooves in an instant. She grabbed it by the handle with her mouth and yanked it out of the other unicorn's pale blue aura before running up the street again. She could vaguely hear the "farmer" complaining about her rudeness as she ran, but that was swiftly drowned out when she heard somepony in the crowd start screaming. This time, Mare-Do-Well stopped before looking over her shoulder, and the Fang nearly dropped out of her mouth when she saw the moon begin to creep up across the sky toward the sun. Wasting no more time, she turned and ran up the street once more, in the direction of the palace. ----- A short while earlier, Celestia's student beamed as the mare she saw as her mentor showered her with praise. "Very well done. Now, all that's left is the activation phase," Lady Moonshadow said, wearing the elderly princess's guise as she looked over the arcane symbols drawn on every flat surface in the room, turning the very floor, walls and ceiling into a giant spellbook dedicated to one single spell. One that had been lost to ponykind since the days before Celestia's and Luna's rise to prominence. That power would belong to a mortal pony once more, if only briefly. The student smiled up at her "teacher" and leaned in to nuzzle her chest. "Do you want me to go with you? Somepony else can power the spell. You'd only need two or three average unicorns to take my place," she said with no small bit of pride. A trait which brought an amused smirk to the vampony's face. "True, but there is nopony that I trust more to ensure that it is done properly," Moonshadow replied, running a hoof through the unicorn's fiery mane. "I just need to reassure my little ponies that there is nothing to fear from the shadows while you cast the spell. Once I've done that, I'll call for you. Then I will reintroduce you to the populace... not as my student, but as my successor. How does that sound to you, Sunset?" The unicorn grinned. "Princess Sunset Shimmer... I could get used to that. I won't let you down." "No, my little pony... no, you most certainly won't." Moonshadow wrapped her wings around Sunset, giving one final embrace before leaving the room. Once outside, her bat-winged thralls shut the door behind her and latched it shut. "Make sure she stays in there until Eclipse is freed," Moonshadow ordered the guards. "I don't care what happens to her after that, but until then, don't let her stray off-task." She then turned and grinned to Mesmer and Blue Rose, who were waiting farther down the hall. "Tell the thralls that it's time to fly. Finally, after all these centuries, the day will belong to us!"