A Nation Divided

by Kydus

II: Down to Earth

A Nation Divided, Chapter II: Down to Earth

Unlike mortal ponies, sleep was not a necessity for alicorns. It was a choice, and perhaps a luxury. One which Princess Luna had not really been able to enjoy for the past week at least, and one that she knew her elder sister hadn’t partaken of in months. The alicorn of the night rolled over in her silk sheets and tried in vain to get comfortable. It was late in the afternoon, and in a few hours’ time it would be her turn to oversee the daily operation of the kingdom as the sun set and she raised the moon. Or, nightly, more accurately. The ponies of Equestria were only a little bit more active during the night than she remembered compared to one thousand years ago, but they usually had at least enough nighttime woes and needs to keep her busy for a few hours before she went about her own business.

Finally admitting the futility of the endeavor to herself, the sheets covering her large bed were covered in a deep navy blue glow as they slid away from the princess and she stepped down onto the plush, carpeted floor. A second later, and the sheets were replaced, tucked back in tightly as if the bed had never been disturbed. Luna stepped into the four glass shoes that rested by her bed, and slowly walked past her desk. Resting on top were several books written while she was away. All of them were complex manuscripts delving into the depths of magical theory, a topic she’d been most keen on researching soon after she returned. Dominating the space in the center and still laying open was an incredibly large tome with an equally weighty title, Alfred Oatstein’s Tranquility & Dissonance: Fundaments and Nuances of the Magicks of Harmony and Chaos. She briefly considered resuming her study of the massive book, but decided to leave it where it was. After all she only had a couple of hours left before she must perform her royal duties, and she doubted anypony would miss the tome anyway.

The princess instead continued over to the nearby vanity where the rest of her regalia awaited her. Her horn glowed once more, and the necklace and tiara that previously lay there were lifted into the air before coming to rest on her neck and head. She briefly glanced into the mirror. Her indigo coat and cornflower blue mane were pristine as ever, though the latter looked a tad mussed due to her latest attempt at sleep. No matter. In a moment’s time it would be replaced with the ever-flowing, wispy stream of stars that her subjects were familiar with. With but a second’s concentration, it was so, as well as her body size increasing and her coat darkening to her favorite shade of midnight blue as she finished donning her more regal appearance.

Luna headed right for the door that marked the exit to her bed-chamber, opened it with magic, and stepped out into the circular room beyond. All of Noctus Tower, the second tallest spire of the palace, was dedicated to her and the glory of the night. There was plush, blue carpeting throughout, the walls and columns painted dark and rich shades of blue and violet. Hovering in the air above head-level along those walls were numerous small magical orbs of light, each giving off a soft, pure white glow. Various murals were always on display throughout the tower, featuring grand images of the cosmos, nighttime landscapes, and some of Luna herself. The ceilings above were heavily enchanted, showing a magnified, real-time view of the night sky over the palace. Even then, there were at least two large balconies on every floor, so that ponies may step out and view the majesty of the heavens first-hand if they felt so inclined.

The princess smiled to herself as she ambled across the room at a leisurely pace, spending a moment or two to “take in” the elaborate décor. The whole palace was grand indeed, but she unashamedly felt that her Noctus Tower was the grandest of all. It was not as massive or physically impressive as Solus Tower from the outside, but more sleek, and elegant. Inside it was not as wide open, but still invitingly spacious, and yet felt comfortably snug at the same time. The dark tones and cooler hues used in the decoration throughout often relaxed and put her at ease, now being no exception. The alicorn of the night was very fond of her tower, in no small part due to the many additions and renovations her sister made to it over Luna’s thousand-year absence. Celestia knew her younger sister’s tastes as intimately and accurately as her own, and had kept the tower impeccable for her, as if expecting Luna’s return after every passing day. She closed her eyes as she happily recalled the first time she set hoof in it after coming back, bouncing around like a filly at a birthday party while her elder sister showed her around, a warm, genuine smile dominating Celestia’s face as they explored the tower together. Luna remembered, as the two of them later took wing in the night together, and simply flew. Up, up, and further still, until their spirits left their bodies behind and they were “as one among the stars” once more, and all was forgiven between them.

Princess Luna reopened her eyes and gazed at the Ancient Equestrian words embroidered in gold on the bottom of the national flag that draped the wall: Uj Edo Umedw Kxo Jkuhj. The citizens merely considered the archaic, oft-forgotten tagline to their flag an abstractly poetic way of saying “together in Harmony,” or some other phrase to that effect. Only the royal sisters were aware of the true, literal meaning behind the phrase, and how deep their connection truly ran as the alicorns of day and night. It may not always be evident, what with the two of them being literally as different as the night and day, but theirs was a bond that not even one thousand years of mutual isolation, heartache, and desolation could ever begin to tarnish. And so the sisters decided, many eons ago, to adorn the flag of their kingdom with the phrase, representing the astral state of being that only they two were able to reach and to share, together.

The princess turned her gaze from the banner and continued to the opposite side of the room, coming to another stop at the large double doors. This floor, at the very top of Noctus Tower, was her private sanctuary. In addition to the bed-chamber, on it was most everything she needed for any personal endeavor she’d wish to take, such as a research lab packed with various magi-tech equipment, a rather large personal collection of literature in the study, a fully-stocked kitchen, and other such niche rooms for her to use at her leisure. For a while after Luna had returned she’d been known to spend hours and even days holed up in the top of her tower, but recently she’d been trying to spend more time out, even if it was just in other parts of the palace. As such, she magicked the doors open and began the long descent down the spiral staircase. Of course it would be much quicker to simply teleport to her destination, but Luna was in no hurry. Several floors down she left Noctus Tower and stepped into the palace proper, the bright ivory, marble and gold colors replacing the deep blues and purples.

At length she meandered her way to the ground floor of the palace, not passing a single pony on the way, save for several of the Royal Guard of course. The entrance chamber leading to the throne room lay ahead of her, but she stopped in her tracks at the sound of several hoof steps coming from up ahead, and a subtle, tingly feeling in her horn. Voices were added to the mix as the sounds grew louder, and rather agitated ones judging by the tone. A moment later and three ponies appeared, so engrossed in their heated conversation that they failed to notice Luna emerging from the corridor off to their side. Curious. The last session of Day Court should have ended at least an hour ago, yet it seemed that it had only just ended. As the trio walked by, the tingle in Luna’s horn intensified enough to catch her notice, as she could feel a strange sort of energy seeming to radiate from them. At this point the alicorn had a fairly good idea which particular group those ponies had just represented in court this afternoon. However, if they were just leaving, that meant she could catch up with her sister and have a suddenly much-needed talk with her.

~~

Of the many cavernous chambers that made up the sections of the interior of the Royal Palace, the largest by far would have to be those of the Canterlot Archives. As the most complete repository of knowledge in all of Equestria, naturally there were hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of books, tomes, scrolls, and every other manner of hoof-written work categorized and stored within. Despite the Archives being, in essence, little more than an enormous library, its chambers were usually filled with activity and the animated voices of numerous scholars, each one eager to play their role in the grand quest of advancing equine society. At this hour, however, the daily hustle and bustle of academic discourse had long since waned as the moon just began its graceful ascent into the night sky. There was scarcely a sound to be heard throughout the many wings of the Archives, as the only ponies left around were those so deep into their individual studies that they either failed to realize or didn’t care about the time, and a few of the royal guard patrolling here and there.

The quiet serenity of the Archives was only disturbed in a far-off corner of the Higher Magical Theory wing, by a tan-coated earth pony with a spiky brown mane balanced precariously on a ladder. The ladder, many stories tall to allow such bold ponies with neither wings nor magic to reach the highest shelves, was slowly rolling parallel to the shelf as the bespectacled earth pony stared pointedly at the cover of each book in his path, one hoof outstretched as he read the first word of each title aloud.

“Transcendental… Trangrams… Trannel… Should be riiiight-” he said before his hoof reached a sizable gap in the line of books on the shelf. “Oh, darn it all!” he said in dismay, his outstretched hoof lightly pounding the empty space between the books. “Now who’s gone and taken it this time?” he asked no one in particular. “Ah well. I suppose I’ll just have to do without it for a bit, then,” he resigned, lunging to grab two more relevant books that were within his reach. “Incoming!” he called, a second before he haphazardly chucked them backward over his head.

The two books freefell for a couple of seconds, and instead of hitting the polished floor below they simply stopped and hovered in the air a few feet from the ground. They were caught in a light blue field of magic, and floated over to the unicorn responsible so she could read the titles before placing them gently on the neat stack on the floor next to her. With that finished, the light green unicorn took a few steps back to allow room for the earth pony, who was now sliding haphazardly back down the ladder. He jumped down when he reached the bottom, and immediately began inspecting the stack of books, easily taller than both the ponies present.

“You know this would go much quicker if you’d just tell me what you were up to,” the mare remarked.

“All in due time,” he replied.

“Well have we at least got everything, Doctor?” she asked as she stepped over to the base of the ladder.

“Hang on…” the earth pony replied, still examining the stack of books before them with intense focus. Upon reaching the one at the bottom, he turned to face his assistant. “Almost,” he answered. “We have every book we should need,” he said with a nod. “Except for just one. Possibly the most important one, of course,” he finished dryly.

The unicorn glanced back at the pile of books, and noted the absence rather quickly. “Somepony’s borrowed Oatstein’s monstrous tome again, then?” she asked, pressing a hoof to the rune transcribed to the bottom of the ladder, causing the arcane symbol to glow with magic at her touch and light up a few others in a quick sequence.

“Looks that way,” the Doctor responded with a frown, beginning to pick the books up one by one and drop them into his saddlebags, embroidered with his golden hourglass cutie mark. “I just don’t understand it, Selena,” he said with a shake of his head. “This is the blasted Canterlot Archive, for crying out loud! How can we not have more than one copy of that book?” he nearly shouted, stomping a hoof on the marble floor.

The unicorn spared a moment to watch the ladder automagically collapse down on itself, then roll away of its own accord along a pre-set path. “Maybe because the Chief Archivist is always too wrapped up in ‘independent research’ to do his job properly?” she turned around and responded, punctuating the phrase with mocking air quotes.

“Yes, well-” the Doctor flustered, “It’s all very very important, earth-shattering research. For the greater good of Equestria and all that. Which you know that better than anypony.”

“Yes, yes,” Selena agreed with a soft laugh, “You’re going to save the kingdom, one random soil sample at a time.”

“You bet your horn I am,” he said, slipping the heavy saddlebags over his back. “Checking the magical balance in all that dirt is far more important than making sure the Archive is up to snuff at the moment. And besides,” he added with a smirk, “you’re my assistant, aren’t you? Why haven’t you taken care of that yet, hm?” he asked, pointing an accusatory hoof in the mare’s direction.

“Oh, come off it. I can’t very well do much archiving when I’m at your beck and call constantly, now can I?” she quickly countered.

“Quite right, there,” he conceded, raising a hoof to his chin in sudden thought. “Perhaps it’s time I got another assistant…”

“Wha… Really?” Selena stammered, caught off guard. “You mean it?” she asked excitedly.

“No,” the Doctor said flatly, eliciting a stare from his companion. “Two’s a party, but three’s a crowd, as they say.”

The unicorn merely rolled her eyes in response.

“That would never work out anyway, considering you’re really the only pony around who can keep up with me in the first place!” he added.

“Now you’re just flattering me,” she said, trying to keep the grin that sprouted on her face from showing by turning away and levitating the remaining books into her own saddlebags. “You must want something.”

“Who? Me?” he asked, pointing an incredulous hoof at himself. “Nooooooo, perish the thought!”

“Then why aren’t we on the way to the labs yet?” she asked, well used to this game they played by now.

“Because I’m waiting for you to teleport us?” he more asked, rather than said. “Please?” he added.

“I knew it,” she said with a sigh. “You know I hate teleporting. You’re awful lucky you’re you, you know that, Doctor?” she mumbled, building up enough magic in her horn to send them and the books into the adjacent section of the palace.

“Yes, I suppose I am… quite the lucky fellow…” he said quietly to himself before the two disappeared in a flash of light blue magic.

~~

Luna turned into the entrance chamber and strode through the still open doors into the throne room, where she was greeted not with her sister’s smile, but instead a brilliant flash of white light that lasted all of a second before winking out. The princess’s eyes widened in surprise, as it was a rare occurrence for her sister to teleport. She, much like herself, preferred to walk about the palace, or to use her wings or a carriage when traveling long distances outside it. She had said it was best to remain as visible to the public as possible, a point that Luna fully agreed with. As such, the younger sister felt compelled to investigate, out of equal parts curiosity and concern for Celestia’s well-being. She closed her eyes and softly ignited her horn. When she opened them, they glowed with the same navy blue aura, the tracer spell allowing her to see the subtle ripples in space caused by recent teleportation and follow their path. Judging from the direction and steep upward angle, it looked like she headed… to her bed-chamber?

The midnight blue alicorn teleported herself, but instead of following the golden afterglow left in her sister’s wake, her destination was a ways outside the palace. She spread her wings and flapped to catch herself, hovering in the air above the palace and studying the trail of distortion further. Sure enough, it led right to the top of Solus Tower, and her sister’s room. Luna released the tracer spell and flew up to the top of the tower, coming to rest noiselessly on Celestia’s balcony. The large windows were closed at the moment but the curtains were drawn, allowing her to see into the room as she stepped forward. There in the center of the room sat her elder sister, hunched over slightly and holding a hoof to her head, her eyes shut tight and her breathing heavy.

“Sister?” Luna called, trying to keep the growing worry out of her voice as she rapped lightly on the glass.

Celestia gasped in surprise and hastily looked about, her already agitated mane and tail flaring out for a moment in shock.

“Be calm, Sister, ‘tis only I,” Luna said quickly, just as surprised by Celestia’s reaction as she seemed to be at the sudden company. “May I enter?” she asked a bit hesitantly.

When Celestia’s eyes rested on the source of the disturbance, she exhaled heavily and her mane drooped. It picked back up again as she looked up with a warm smile at her younger sister, and magicked the window open to allow her to step through.

“Dear Luna,” the alicorn of the day said in her usual, collected manner as her younger sister approached and shut the window behind her. “Did you need something?” she asked, still smiling at her sibling.

To anypony else, those words would have entered their ears sounding completely normal, but Luna knew her sister well enough to know when she was putting on a brave face. Calling her on it now, though, was not her intention, as they both knew by now that they couldn’t fool each other in such a way. “Not precisely, Sister,” Luna answered, playing along with the facade for the moment. “I witnessed your egress from the throne room earlier, and was merely curious as to the cause, is all,” she said as she sat down in front of her fellow alicorn. “I did not mean to catch you unawares.”

“Please, think nothing of it,” Celestia responded with a casually dismissive wave of her hoof.

The sincerity of the request veiled behind the polite remark did not escape Luna’s notice, however. She chose to appease her sister. For now. “I take it those three ponies exiting the palace were representing the Misfits in court once more?” she asked.

“Yes, they were,” Celestia answered, finally letting the smile slip from her face. “They beseeched me, once again, to reconsider my decision and allow them to leave Equestria.”

“I see,” Luna said. “These few short weeks since then have seen a stark increase in their activity, yes?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And still you refuse to budge nary an inch, I expect?” Luna asked, an eyebrow raised.

Celestia shook her head in response, her pastel-hued mane waving in the non-existent breeze.

Luna remained silent, still looking right at her sister, until Celestia sighed in defeat.

“You are angry with me,” the pure white alicorn merely stated rather than asked, her eyes drifting down and away from Luna’s face with a pained expression.

“What?” the younger asked in surprise, not expecting such a response or crestfallen expression. “Nay, Sister!” she said hastily, shaking her own head for emphasis. “Thou art gravely mistaken! We are simply worried for thy health! We only wished to… to…” she stopped in mid-thought, her tone and expression changing quickly from alarm and concern to confusion at her sister’s odd behavior, which consisted of catching a sudden fit of the giggles. “Pray, why dost thou laugh at us?” Luna asked, her wings flaring out in indignation. “Surely thou dare not mock our concern-!” she was stopped by Celestia placing a hoof on her shoulder, now unable to contain the soft laughter that had been building up within her.

“You’re slipping again, Luna,” she said between the chuckles as the smile returned to her face in earnest.

Luna immediately opened her mouth again to speak, but then reconsidered and closed it for a moment. “…Indeed,” she admitted with a sheepish sigh. “Clearly I must work on that yet still.”

“There’s no need to rush. You have come such a long way, after all” Celestia said, now looking Luna in the face again. “I am truly proud of you, you know.”

“Yes,” Luna nodded, “And you are also attempting to change the subject, dear sister,” she added.

“Forgive me,” Celestia said, the smile sliding off of her face as quickly as her hoof off of Luna’s shoulder. “I only wish you wouldn’t worry so much over me, little sister.”

“And I wish you would not insist on acting like nothing is wrong, at least when we are in nopony’s company but our own,” she countered.

“Come now, Luna, that’s- Nng!” she began, but lost the rest of the sentence to the intense pain that suddenly overtook her, made evident by her mane and tail spazzing again as well as a hoof shooting up to her head where her eyes were shut tightly.

“Celestia?!” Luna said, jumping to her hooves in alarm.

The elder alicorn silenced her sister by raising her other hoof. “It was…” she started heavily, in between breaths. “Just for… a moment…” she managed to say.

Luna pawed at the carpet nervously as she watched her sister, her sharp, teal-colored eyes wide and alert.

After a couple of tense seconds, Celestia managed to recompose herself and took a deep breath.

“The bursts of pain are still increasing in frequency as well as intensity, are they not?” Luna asked flatly.

Instead of answering verbally, Celestia merely nodded in response, her eyes still loosely shut.

“As well as the number of ponies identifying themselves as Misfits and demanding to leave Equestria, yes?” Luna added, beginning to pace back and forth in front of her sister, evidently trying her hardest to keep her tone level.

“By the day,” Celestia sighed dejectedly.

“And… Yet still you feel that the issue will resolve itself, and their clamor will die down. All in due time?” Luna asked, keeping up her agitated pacing.

“I do,” Celestia said strongly, opening her eyes to look at her sister.

Luna stopped pacing and sighed herself.

“The alternatives… are too much to consider.”

“But we must, Sister!” Luna asserted, punctuating the word with a light stomp of her hoof on the carpet. “The time for waiting patiently has long since run its course! Truly, this debacle will only continue to exacerbate itself if left alone at this point. We need to plan, Celestia! We need to act!”

“Please, Luna, settle down a moment.”

The younger princess blinked, then complied, sitting back down in front of her sister and waiting poignantly for her response.

“Perhaps…” Celestia hesitated, “in the future… that may become necessary. But until then!” she hastily added before Luna could speak. “Until then, we should have faith that a voice of reason will sprout among them, and sway them from their disastrous path.”

“But for how long, Sister?” she pressed. “I no longer have any connection with the Elements at all, yet now I, too, can feel the tension and frustration emanating from those ponies. It is growing at an alarming pace,” she added, remembering her encounter in the hallway earlier, “as you are clearly well aware, given your… condition,” she finished.

“I will wait as long as I have to, little sister,” Celestia answered the earlier question resolutely.

A long silence filled the air between the two alicorns, as they continued to look into each other’s eyes. Several minutes later, Luna spoke again. “I see you are still quite determined on this course of… inaction, then,” she said, her head drooping just a bit in disappointment.

“We must believe that the best of our subjects will always shine forth in the end, especially on the brink of dark times,” she said with a nod. “Else we are all lost before we even begin,” she finished solemnly.

Luna considered this for a moment before answering, “You make a fair point, but this is a risky gamble, Celestia. I do not wish to see you hurt ever again, dear sister. Not like last time,” she finished softly with a shake of her head.

“I have the utmost confidence in the citizens, and in the Bearers. I am certain they will all come through.”

“Very well then,” Luna said with a nod. “If you are still so sure, I will continue to share in this confidence,” she said, standing up again. “At least for the time being,” she added pointedly.

“Oh, Luna,” the elder said, not bothering to try and hide the look of relief that washed over her features, “it means so much to me that you still trust my judgment on a matter of this nature.”

“Of course,” Luna responded. “You are still far more familiar with the workings of this modern world and its ponies than I. Therefore, ‘tis only natural that I follow your lead, until such time as I am duly acquainted myself. Be aware, however,” she continued, raising a hoof and pointing it at her sister, “that if I sense history is on the verge of repeating itself, I will intervene.” Just as I am right now, she added to herself.

Celestia nodded in agreement. “For both our sakes, I can accept that.”

“Excellent! I am glad we are in agreement” Luna said, finally satisfied with their conversation. “The night is upon us, thus I must take my leave from your company,” she said, walking back toward the balcony and opening the large windows. She was just about to step outside, but stopped and turned around again. “Celestia?” she called.

“Yes, Luna?” Celestia answered.

“Promise that you will not hesitate to call on me, should you ever have need?”

“I promise, little sister.”

~~

Back on the ground level of the palace, there was a brilliant flash of blue light, leaving in its wake two ponies and certainly enough books to make a respectable fort. “Thank you,” the Doctor said crisply as he dropped his saddlebags and strode out of the magic field. He immediately trotted over to his preferred work bench, leaving Selena stumbling out of her own spell.

Ugh. How she hated teleportation. Even after all her years of study in some of the finest schools in Canterlot, she still wasn’t very good at it. It had taken many of those years just to be able to reach her intended destination without fail, and sometimes she still ended up in the wrong places on the rare occasions she attempted to teleport much farther than she just had. Even so, it always left her drained, and more often than not a bit sick. In fact she had long since decided to never teleport other ponies with her for that same reason, except in severe emergencies. The only exception to her self-imposed rule was the Doctor, who somehow seemed to be immune to the nasty side effects of her sketchy teleportation spells. This made working with him that much harder, as he rarely wasted an opportunity to coax her into sending them someplace. He seemed to get a kick out of it, yet it only served to remind her how bad she was at it.

“Come on, now!” he called to her while pressing his face into a microscope. “Up and at ‘em, there’s plenty of work to be done yet!”

“I’m moving,” Selena groaned as she got to her hooves and her horn glowed again, experimentally flexing her magic. Finding that she could use it well enough, the unicorn encased all the books around them in a field of levitation, and slowly rotated them in front of her. As each passed by her face, she read the title and floated it over to where it belonged. Halfway through her task, the Doctor spoke up again.

“Selena, could you move these boxes out of the way?” he asked without looking up from his work. “Somepony’s gone and left them in the middle of the walkway,” he said, giving one a smart kick.

“Sure thing,” she responded, enveloping said boxes in her levitation field. They rose up into the air as well, mingling with the assortment of books floating around the purple-maned unicorn as she continued to sort them.

“And could you open a couple of windows?” the Doctor asked. “It’s getting terribly stuffy in here.”

“Alright,” she said, putting more effort into her magic field and having it begin raising a few of the windows.

“Oh! Hoof me those bags in the corner, would you?” the earth pony asked quickly. “I need some of the ingredients in there.”

“Hang on,” she replied, now frowning with concentration as she scooped up the requested bags with her magic and brought them into what was becoming a whirling jumble of items. A sharp, shrill shattering sound nearly caused her to lose her focus.

“Blast!” the Doctor said. “I’ve dropped a test tube. Let’s get that cleaned up, shall we? And grab me another, while you’re at it.”

Selena wordlessly complied, and bits of broken glass and lab supplies joined the swirling mass around her.

“You know what? I’m thirsty. Fetch me something from the fridge, if you please.”

The unicorn growled to herself, yet a cold beverage shrouded in light blue magic began floating its way across the lab.

“Actually now that I think about it, it’s getting a bit drafty in here. Why don’t you shut those windows?”

“But didn’t you just-” Selena stammered, her magical grip on the numerous objects flying through the air momentarily faltering before she caught herself and regained control. “Alright, I could’ve sworn you just…” she trailed off as she looked in the Doctor’s direction.

He simply stood there smiling at her, his work long abandoned on the bench.

“What?” Selena asked uncertainly.

“You know, I never get tired of watching you do that,” he said, his eyes drifting upward to a point above the unicorn’s head.

She followed his gaze, and was mildly surprised at the torrent of objects that had been revolving around her for the last several minutes. In her haste to get everything done that he had asked, she had neglected to put anything down, and there were books, boxes, bags, shards of glass and test tubes, a can of iced tea, and several windows still firmly clenched in her magical grip. “Oh, there’s nothing special about that,” she said quietly as she went about sorting the mess hovering in the air before them.

“There most certainly is,” the Doctor disagreed. “Not many unicorns can pull off levitation like that, let alone while barely breaking a sweat,” he said, returning to his work on the bench. “You should really give yourself more credit.”

“Doctor, you know that’s my special talent,” she sighed, turning slightly to hide the treasonous smile that had nonetheless crept up on her again. “That hardly counts,” she said while sorting out the last of the books.

“Well, regardless. You are a very skilled mage, Selena, and I wouldn’t have any other act as my right hoof,” he replied, turning his attention back to the microscope and his work.

“Thanks,” was her simple response. “Anyway, Doctor,” she began, trying her hardest to dispel the embarrassed flush across her face, “Is it going to be a huge problem that we’re missing that tome? I mean, if it is, I suppose I could try to track it down…”

“What? No, no, don’t trouble yourself with any of that,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hoof. “Actually,” he began, the hoof settling at his chin in thought, “That could turn out to be a rather large issue later, but… this isn’t later, this is now,” he said with finality. “And right now, I want you to come over here so I can show you something.”

“Oh?” The previous distractions forgotten, Selena’s ears perked right up as she trotted over to the lab station. “Are you finally going to tell me exactly why we’ve been rooting around in the ground all over the kingdom?” she asked, squinting at the petri dish full of soil under the Doctor’s microscope.

“Why not see for yourself?” he offered, stepping out of the way.

“Fantastic!” she said happily as she moved into position. “You know it’s about time you finally let me see…” she trailed off uncertainly. “…What appears to be a completely unremarkable pile of dirt,” she intoned after a brief moment of contemplation.

“What do you- Unremarkable?!” the Doctor questioned. “How could you possibly…? Move over a second,” he said, nudging her out of the way and taking another look. “What?” he said to himself after a moment. “Well that doesn’t make any sense, it was just right there, I promise!”

“Doctor,” Selena said, looking between him and the microscope with eyes half-lidded. “Did you mean to have this activated?” she asked, pointing at a small, unlit rune on the side of the microscope.

“Erm, very astute as usual, Selena,” he muttered before pressing a hoof to the small rune, causing it to light up and the microscope to emit a soft whirring sound. “Right. There we are. Have another go, then.”

“Alright,” she agreed, taking another look into the microscope. “Well,” she said after a moment’s quick study, “Bits of it are glowing a little blue. Pretty, but what am I really looking at?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute. About how much of it would you say is blue?”

“Oh, I don’t know… Maybe… fifteen percent? Tops? This is the sample you just gathered from outside the palace, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. Now take a look at this one from Fillydelphia,” he said, switching the petri dish out for another.

“Okay… I’d say twenty percent on this one. It’s a touch brighter, too.”

“Correct. And now this one from Los Pegasus,” he said, repeating the process.

“Mmm… Looks about the same as the last one, actually.”

“Exactly,” he said triumphantly.

“Exactly what?” Selena asked, looking away from the samples and at her companion. “Doctor, what is all this?”

“What you’re looking at is basically a snapshot of the amount and strength of Harmonious magic permeating each of those cities,” he quickly responded, easily sliding into his lecture tone.

“Really?” she asked with a raised brow. “Considering our kingdom is supposed to be the heart of Harmony itself, that seems like a very small amount.”

“That’s because it is a small amount. Tiny, relatively speaking, and continuing to lower even as we speak. Largely due to recent events, I expect.”

“You mean the Exodus Movement?”

“Exodus Movement?” he repeated. “Is that what we’re calling the whole Misfit thing now?”

“Apparently; I read that in the paper this morning.”

“Sheesh. Well, anyway, it’s understandable that such a large scale dispute among ponykind would have adverse effects on the ambient levels of Harmony,” he said, beginning to pace back and forth. “However, this sudden drop has been too much, too quickly for that to be the sole cause.”

“Do you know what else it could be, then?” she asked, looking at the samples again with renewed curiosity.

“Not yet, but I intend to find out,” he said with determination. “We just need to gather a few more samples first.”

“Where from? You’ve already got at least two corners and the center of the map.”

“Why, Ponyville, of course!” he said as if it were obvious. “In fact, you’d best go home and prepare. We leave by train tomorrow morning.”

Author's Note:

Almost a year later, and I've only just finished chapter 2. To try and prevent such an atrocity from continuing, I'm drastically altering my writing method from here on out, which should basically amount to "less thinking, more writing." We'll see how that goes.