Princess Luna is Dead

by Horsegirl123

Chapter 9

"Not a thing? Not one detail? Rarity, you realize how important this is, don't you? You have to try and think of some specifics."

"Stop it! Just stop it!" snapped Rarity, small droplets forming on her waterline that threatened to smudge her mascara. "I can't, I can't remember and I'm scared."

Spike moved to console the distraught mare, but Twilight held him back with a hoof.

"Twilight stop, you're hurting her!" cried out Spike, trying to force his way beyond Twilight's leg, but utterly failing with his small size.

"No Spike! She has to do this. Its the only way that we have a chance of figuring this mess out." Twilight turned her attention back to Rarity, who despite her crumbling emotional state, kept her magic connection with Twilight flowing. "Rarity, I know this is hard, but you really, really have to be strong. For me. For Equestria."

Rarity wiped under her eye, but never opened it, instead keeping both lids tightly shut and focusing on the memory spell. At that moment Twilight was deep in her thoughts, rooting through every memory Rarity brought to the front of her mind for Twilight to investigate. The first few had been from the past day, being as that was what Rarity was still thinking about, but as Twilight asked her to do so, Rarity began focusing hard on her memories about being a bridesmaid for the so called 'Princess Cadance'.

The spell Twilight was using had been taught to her by Princess Luna, who had her practice on Luna herself just weeks before. Luna had said that it would be a useful skill to have and that the brain of a pony, and even an alicorn, locked up most information and couldn't be recalled past a certain point in time. This spell however, assured Luna, would unlock anything in the brain as long as the pony performing the spell knew what to look for. The problem with Rarity and Twilight arose quite quickly though, because neither Twilight or Rarity could pinpoint exactly what they were trying to search for.

All Twilight could ask of Rarity was to "try and remember anything and everything about Shining Armor's bride", but since she couldn't provide herself or Rarity with any specifics, the spell was little help in their investigation.

The magic was difficult in theory, but for Twilight was quite simple; she reached some of her energy into Rarity, who using her own magic, created a door of sorts that Twilight was allowed to enter through. Allowing herself to see through her magic, Twilight was able to explore Rarity's mind, pulling and pushing memories away from her vision but being able to keep the memory of Rarity's memories in her own head. Trying to explain the process to Spike had been a killer, but Rarity had seemed to understand and agree it was the best thing to do in these circumstances.

Twilight sorted through the memories like a filing cabinet; she pushed aside the song Rarity had hummed while making the wedding dress, but paid close attention to the thoughts of the night where they had all gone out for drinks and Twilight had been incredibly angry about something, which they now deduced was probably the bride. The two unicorns, earlier in the experiment, had decided that wherever there was a hole in Rarity's memory, it was probably because it had to do with Princess Cadance. So far, they had deduced that that was what the fight was about, that's who the changeling queen took the form of, thats who Shining Armor was marrying, and thats who had been at the Crystal Empire when it first appeared with Shining Armor.

However, this had only given them more to research and try to find out, meaning there was more to the question than who had Shining Armor married. The trio, although exhausting every idea, was no closer to the answer than they had been when they begun.

With a sigh, Twilight broke the connection between herself and Rarity, allowing the white mare to collapse to the ground in relief and slight agony.

"I'm so sorry Rarity. I pushed too hard. I shouldn't have tried to bring that many memories up at one time," apologized Twilight, holding out a hoof to her friend. Rarity, however did not move.

"I can't believe you, Twilight," said Spike with a disapproving shake of his head and a scowl as he rushed to Rarity's side, patting her back gently as she remained somewhat motionless on the ground.

"What?" snorted Twilight angrily. "I apologized!"

Rarity, who was massaging her temples, opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it. Spike stepped in front of her.

"You could have really hurt her Twilight! Look! If you had gone any further you could have done some serious damage!" yelled Spike.

"I'm sorry!" exclaimed Twilight. She held a hoof up to her mouth, realizing how loud she had raised her voice. "I'm sorry," she repeated, softly this time. "I'm just baffled, and terrified, and bewildered. I don't know what to do and I'm scared."

Spike, letting down his macho man attitude, approached the purple alicorn. "We all are, Twilight. But if you don't remember, neither will Rarity. Just take it easy, okay?"

"Okay," agreed Twilight, letting her head fall low. She walked over to Rarity, ashamed. "Rarity, I am so, so sorry. I didn't mean to put you into this type of situation. Can you please forgive me?"

Rarity gave a faint smile. "Of course dear. I really am sorry that I couldn't be of more assistance during this, I was trying really hard."

Twilight smiled faintly. "Rarity, you did great. It's my fault; I couldn't provide you with the specifics needed to uncloud the memories, and I shouldn't have gotten angry at you."

"It's alright Twilight, we both tried, and that's all that can be done for now. However, if it's not too much trouble, I think I would like to go home now."

"Home? But we just got here!" said Twilight. She looked around the small storage room in the basement that they were currently hiding in. After exhausting all the materials of the library, they found a stairwell that led to the unloading dock where book shipments came in, and soon found a dusty yet spacious room where they could debate and experiment without witnesses.

Spike brushed a cobweb off his shoulder as he leaned against the slate grey wall. "Twilight, we've been down here for hours. We don't even have a place to stay. I'm with Rarity. Lets catch the next train out of here."

Twilight looked between her friends, wanting to express her desire to stay and uncover more, but now being tempted with the thought of sleep, realized how saggy her eyelids were.

A yawn escaped Rarity's lips, forcing Twilight to comply with their wishes. "Ok, you're right. We need our rest."

Twilight and Spike re-donned their disguises, and the two ponies and one 'foal' slipped through the quiet nighttime of the Crystal Empire toward the train station. They walked without speaking, mostly out of exhaustion, but also because there was no way small talk was even possible in a situation like the one they were in. Once or twice the front porch light of a crystal pony's home would flip on, stopping all three dead in their tracks, but after no movement from inside the houses, they would continue on.

Tired and hungry, they finally reached the train station. Rarity folded her legs neatly under herself on a bench while Spike sat patiently next to her.

"Do you guys want anything to eat? Drink?" asked Twilight, too stressed to sit or sleep.

"If you could find a sandwich at that little shop inside, that would be lovely," said Rarity sleepily.

"Yeah, it's uh, it's no problem." Twilight pushed through the glass doors into the small train shop that was open all night. Picking out two pre-made sandwiches, she sat inside the little cafe for a little while longer before returning to her friends. The board at the front of the entrance read all the train times, and by the looks of it, there was still at least thirty minutes until the next rain pulled in. Everypony in the cafe looked positively beat; the worker behind the counter looked as if he could barely keep his eyes open, dark brown circles forming beneath them into his light brown coat; a young pegasus mare with a striking yellow mane and equally stunning teal coat tried to take interest in the steam rising from her coffee cup, but her multiple yawns suggested that coffee wouldn't be enough to keep her awake for the night; even the ticket seller had looked like he would fall asleep in the middle of selling Twilight her boarding passes.

To say the least, the station was as dead as it could be. Twilight tried to focus on the colorful tile floors that reminded her of SugarCube Corner, but nothing could brighten her up at this moment, even though the candy coloring reminded her of Pinkie Pie. The ceiling looked like the type foals would stare up into during class and try to make their quills get caught in by throwing them up and hoping they penetrated the tiles, and the glass display case that was supposed to display confectionaries and breakfast options was grey and empty, the only food coming from the dull menus that were tarnished and stained that sat on each table. Twilight would constantly pivot her ears to try and hear the train, hoping that it would magically arrive incredibly early so that she could get into their compartment and sleep for the hours it took to return home. Either way, at this rate, they wouldn't arrive back in Ponyville until at least five a.m. the next morning.

After minutes on minutes of meaningless waiting, Twilight could finally hear the whistle of the train chugging along the tracks. She emerged back onto the platform to wake Rarity and Spike, and before long, all three boarded the train, along with some other late night travelers.

They tried to keep conversation on the train, trying to use any time possible to make connections, but Rarity was so tired, and Spike passed out as soon as he met the seat, so Twilight decided to give it a rest for the night. However, she couldn't find sleep, so her head rested against the cold window, hard and unyielding, and her thoughts raced with ideas of anyone who could help them remember something that may have never even happened.

Finally, the same exhaustion that had taken over her in the cafe returned to Twilight, and she too found her small bed in the train compartment and fell asleep quickly.

The train pulled into Ponyville Station as the sky began to turn light, and after saying her goodbyes, Rarity made a beeline for her home. Twilight, carrying the now undisguised Spike back to the library, was still beating up her brain for any clue, any missed detail that could help, but to no avail. The wooden door of Twilight's home creaked open softly, letting the moonlight flood into the dark home. Spike sleepily slid off of Twilight's back and drooped up he stairs, followed by a worried Twilight.

They climbed under the sheets of their beds, thankful to be home. "Well, this has been quite the hectic adventure," said Twilight, meaning to add a chuckle in the sentence, but not being able to muster one up.

"Yeah," agreed Spike, turning over in his bed, "things got pretty chaotic, but I'm glad to be home right now. Goodnight Twi."

"Goodnight Spike," said Twilight, her eyes glittering, for she had just gotten an idea.

Comments

[Legiondude]

[Rathalos122]

so why couldnt they just pay shining a visit?

[Horsegirl123]

3309857 that is explained in the last chapter. it would draw too much attention