Tales From Day Court

by Blade Star

Chapter 13 - Life Could Be a Dream

We all have bad dreams, to some extent or another. It just so happens that, when our brains go into their sleep mode and randomly generate images and sounds from memories and experience, sometimes the scenario that results can be quite frightening. But that is all they are; dreams, a fantasy of our minds. Once we wake, they cease to bother us, aside from perhaps an unsettling half remembered memory.

In Equestria however, dreams are a little different. Firstly, they are often much more… real, in my experience. You tend to wake up remembering your dreams more often than not, with crystal clear images and memories. Secondly, they often have some purpose, other than just random synaptic firings. Apparently, the world of Equestria has yet to discredit Freud and Jung in regards to dream analysis. While not always clear, dreams often carry some sort of message or meaning in them.

But by far the most interesting thing is that dreams are in fact connected to magic. When we dream, we actually enter the dreaming world, a sort of sub-level of Equestria, inhabited by thousands of different dreamers, each with their own dream. Nightmares are often caused by such magic, in an attempt to direct our attention to something. However, given the more lucid nature of dreaming in Equestria, the experience can be quite frightening, as I ended up learning myself.

In addition to her role as Princess of the Night, Princess Luna is also the guardian of dreams. Through magic that even my son can only just about understand, she is able to walk through the dreaming realm and enter the dreams of individual ponies. She often helps them, defeating nightmares when they become a problem, and doing her best to help ponies understand their dreams, and what they mean in the waking world. The princess helped remove the malignant nightmare from my mind, allowing me to sleep peacefully.

However, this time, I would find myself in more dire need of her assistance, and she mine.

---

I found myself reliving one of my darkest days; the day Tirek got loose. And Discord, my best friend, betrayed everyone he knew and sided with him. I later came to the conclusion, based on his actions of past and present, that this was most likely a scheme of his, but it ultimately came unstuck. He’s never told me, but I like to think he saw what Tirek was up to, and was planning to stab the oaf in the back, only the oaf moved first.

Still, on that day, we were no longer friends. I was standing outside my home when he and the magic sucking centaur came through town. Neither my wife nor I had much to fear from him. We had no magic to steal and so Tirek pretty much disregarded us. That didn’t stop him from taking the odd pot shot at me when I challenged him though. I remember, I was standing in front of my house, wishing I had a gun, so I could put a round right between the centaur’s eyes.

“I don’t know who you are, or where you came from,” I bellowed at the centaur. “But I do know that you are going right back to whatever hellhole you crawled out of!” I then turned to Discord, he actually looked a little uncomfortable, but I was too mad at him for his apparent treachery to notice.

“And you!” I went on, pointing an accusing finger at the draconequus. “You are going right back to a statue the moment this is over. And I will take great pleasure ensuring that every single bird in Equestria takes a dump on you, until the end of time!”

Of course, there was very little I could do to back up my threats. Twilight’s friends hadn’t managed to last long against him, nor had my two kids. Even Bones’ desperate use of dark magic hadn’t helped. Tirek grabbed me with his magic and threw me against the wall of my house. At fifty eight years old, that had left me crumpled on the floor in pain. Still, that didn’t put the fire out in me.

“You hear me, Discord?!” I called out, getting halfway on my feet. “My ‘best friend’? I’ll kill you for this! You hear me? I’ll kill you!”

The dream then jumped forward to after Tirek’s defeat, like a scene change in a film. As dangerous as he was, the bastard hadn’t lasted long. He was dangerous, but ultimately proved to be quite stupid, sparing the Element bearers and letting them blast him.

Discord had found himself double crossed and ultimately came hat in hand to Celestia to beg forgiveness. And, much to my surprise, she had forgiven him. It must be something to do with pony nature; they just don’t hold grudges as much as humans do. Their philosophy seems to be ‘forgive and forget’. I didn’t sign up to that.

The next day, when court had reopened to oversee important reconstruction work, Discord had dropped by my office. He said he was sorry, that he was wrong, and that he deserved whatever punishment I thought necessary.

The world around me shifted again, and a moment later, I found myself to be an observer of the conversation. I could see myself and Discord facing each other across my desk. I suppose you could call it an out of body experience.

I, as in the me I was watching, remained sitting at my desk, looked my best friend in the eye, and said this, in a cold, heartless voice.

“Discord, you’re nothing to me now. You’re not a mate, you’re not a friend. I don’t want to know you or what you do. I don’t want to see you in this castle, and I don’t want you near my house. When you go to see Celestia, I want to know a day in advance so I won’t be there. You understand?” I then turned back to my work, ignoring the draconequus completely

“I…” Discord couldn’t form a response. Through all his tricks and pranks, I’d always been in his corner. And now, here I was turning my back on him. He face looked beyond hurt.

Knowing him now, I wanted to intervene. I wanted to tell him that I accepted his apology. I wanted to tell myself that I was being an ass. But I couldn’t move, nor could I speak. I was completely immobile and mute, incapable of doing anything. It hurt me to relive this moment, I even began to feel the beginnings of tears as Discord slowly walked out of my office. It would be a good week before we reconciled. It wasn’t just remembering this that hurt, the dream triggered other, older memories. Memories that were far more painful, and of which I had far more reason to be ashamed of. I wanted to be done with this.

Luckily though, help was at hand.

I felt a presence behind me. I couldn’t quite describe it, but it felt comforting somehow; warm and gentle. I turned to look around. As I did so, the dream suddenly became unstable, warping in and out of focus. I found myself suddenly lucid and aware. The world continued to distort, and ultimately changed from my own office, into a strange void. It was as if I were in space. There were glittering stars all around, and the ground beneath me, which seemed to be a winding path across the sky, was now a sort of nebula; cloud like. And standing just behind me, a comforting smile on her features, was Princess Luna.

“Be at ease, my friend,” the dark alicorn said calmly. “The nightmare has passed.” She wrapped a comforting wing around me, helping me to steady myself. She was smiling kindly and seemed in no hurry.

“Thank you, princess,” I said as I steadied myself at last. The night alicorn stood beside me, looking out into the infinite expanse.

“It was not a particularly strong nightmare. But it was a nightmare nonetheless, hence my presence.”

“It was… just a bad memory, your highness. Probably brought on by that incident with the Yaks.” Luna nodded.

“Hmm, yes. My sister can be a little overzealous when it comes to military matters. I was certainly surprised to be roused from my sleep I can tell you.” That made me laugh a little and crack a smile. “But I think that there might be a little more to this dream than that. You were reliving more than just a bad memory; there was great trauma behind it.” I shook my head.

“It just reminded me of another incident,” I replied. After all, that had been the second time someone had double crossed me and betrayed my trust.

“Still, you feel guilty for your actions,” Luna prodded. I found myself half looking for the psychiatrist’s sofa.

“Of course I do. Both times, it wasn’t right of me to treat them the way I did. I guess I worry that I’ll just do it again. React that way I mean.”

This seemed to affect the night princess rather profoundly, for she fell silent for a few moments, simply sitting with me and letting me relax on the strange star covered path. Eventually, she spoke up again.

“Yes,” she said softly. “Dreams can act in such a way. After all, those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.” She paused for a moment, looking up at the moonless sky.

“Still, it has ended now, and you are in no danger. Will you be alright now?” I nodded my head.

“I’ll be fine, princess. It just shook me up a little; old memories and whatnot. You understand.”

“Very well, Mr. Owen,” she said, rising to her hooves. “Since it will be morning before long, I shall return you to the waking world.” Her horn began to glow with the same white light that had struck down my nightmare. A moment later, a door appeared not too far away from us. It resembled the door to my bedroom. The princess gestured for me to step through.

Grabbing the handle and turning the knob, I opened the door. And with that, the whole world went white.

---

With a sharp gasp, I woke with a start. I found myself sitting bolt upright in my bed. It was early morning; the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon. A quick glance at the clock on my bedside table told me it was just after six. Next to me, my wife continued to sleep, evidently more peacefully than I had.

On Earth, I’d begin to forget a dream from the moment I woke up, with the memory of it fading to mere vague images in a matter of minutes. However, in Equestria, I find that I remember them much more clearly. While Princess Luna had undone the nightmare, the experience had still left me rattled, stirring up old memories the way it had. Okay, sure, I had told that griffon, Riverbill, about the whole experience, but I hadn’t thought about that time since I left the old country.

Getting up, I pulled back the covers and swung myself round to the side of the bed, taking great pains not to disturb my still sleeping wife. I know from long experience that waking her up before she’s ready is a recipe for disaster. Unless of course, a celebrity has died, or it’s snowing.

Putting on my slippers I got up and headed for the bathroom, grabbing my dressing gown along the way to keep warm. Shuffling along the hall, I headed inside, flipped on the light switch, and examined myself in the mirror. Unsurprisingly, I had the look of a man who hadn’t slept well. My face was haggard, with bags under my eyes, and I had clearly been sweating profusely. Turning on the tap, I splashed some cold water onto my face, waking me up. I took a look at myself in the mirror again, now looking somewhat more human. Still, I had half a mind to take a quick drink to settle my nerves.

However, before I could head downstairs and sneak a drop, Margaret awoke from her own slumber. Finding the bed empty, she soon set out looking for me.

“Oh, there you are, Roger!” she declared happily as she trotted down the hallway. “I was wondering where you got to.” She then paused for a moment. “Are you feeling alright, dear?” I nodded.

“Yes, I’m fine,” I replied. “Just woke up a bit earlier is all; had a bad dream last night.”

“Oh? What was it about?” she asked.

For the life of me, I will never understand why my wife insists on talking about each other’s dreams. Usually at least twice a week I’ll get ‘I had this really weird dream’ from her. Right. What am I supposed to do about that? Tell Princess Luna, not me. Then she’ll go into details. One time she came out with; ‘it was our house…but it wasn’t our house. And you were there too…but it wasn’t you’. I ask you, what is the flipping point? So, whenever I make a passing comment about a dream, I get cross examined. But there was no way I was telling her; it would be far, far more trouble than it was worth.

“I don’t really remember too much,” I lied. “It just shook me up a bit. Princess Luna dropped by to help me though. So whatever it was is gone now.” That seemed to at least temporarily satisfy my wife. She grabbed her toothbrush and began to clean her teeth.

One thing did occur to me though, that seemed a little odd; Luna. She seemed…distracted, I suppose. When I’d been troubled by nightmares in the past, she stayed and talked with me for hours to help me overcome my fears. After all, time is accelerated when dreaming, a couple hours often translates to just a few minutes in reality, so she was never in any real hurry. Last night she seemed unusually pensive and lost in her own thoughts. Still, given what I had dreamt about, it was probably for the best. I didn’t want to have to talk about that time again anyway.

Still, her unusual behaviour stayed in my mind the whole day. Being the start of the weekend, I had little to do anyway. I went to bed that night expecting a typical peaceful night. Instead, I would find myself quite busy and with many a question answered.

---

I found myself in the middle of Ponyville at night. Not an unusual start to a dream. However, in this instance, I was not alone. Everypony in town seemed to be here, all in unusual forms. Lyra and Bon Bon were now a strange conjoined pony, Big Mac was a unicorn, and Derpy had to be about ten feet tall to name just a few.

In the middle of it all was Princess Luna, surrounded by a sphere of light, with white tendrils extending from her forehead. I quickly found myself to be entirely lucid; I knew I was dreaming, and apparently so did everypony else.

I quickly found my wife, and amongst the gathering crowd spotted my son, who now wore a duster coat along with his Stetson, and had a rifle slung across his back. I also managed to pick out my daughter; she was with Fluttershy and was wearing armour worn by the ancient knights of the Crystal Empire, complete with an affixed lance.

Quite quickly, we all found ourselves gathering around the princess, as well as Twilight. The younger princess explained the situation.

“So let me get this straight,” I said, when she had finished. “We’re all dreaming right now. And this Tantabus thing is going to try and turn all our dreams into nightmares.”

“Never mind the nightmares,” my son chipped in. “If this thing gets out into the real world, it’ll be a full blown Kobayashi Maru; Equestria can’t survive in a permanent nightmare.”

“Right,” Twilight went on. “So we need to all work together to capture it and stop it from escaping. Just remember, this is a dream; you can do anything you want.” My son now, pushing his Stetson back on his head, began to enjoy things too much.

“Yeah, this world has the same basic rules as the real world, rules like gravity. But here, those rules are no different that the rules of magic; some can be bent, others can be broken.”

At that moment, the creature appeared and began its assault. It was a small vapour like creature, like a will-o’-the-wisp, that resembled Luna’s flowing mane. We quickly saw its frightening ability, as it turned a simple thatched house into a snarling monster that tried to eat nearby ponies. It was imaginative, I’ll give it that.

Bones was the first amongst us to make a move. His relationship with Princess Luna is an odd one. The boy idolises her, seeing her in the same way that Twilight does Celestia. He looks up to her as a sort of mentor. However, at times he can be something of a zealot, quite odd for a rampant atheist such as himself. Seriously, if you speak a word against Princess Luna in his hearing range, he’ll drop down on you like a tonne of bricks.

Unsurprisingly then, he took a rather dim view of this Tantabus. He takes just as much a dim view of Nightmare Moon, the princess’ dark alter ego. The Tantabus flittered to and fro around the square near Town Hall, with Twilight and the others doing their best to corner it, and undo any attempts it made to escape. Deciding to take a stand, he called out to it.

“Nightmare!” he bellowed. It seemed to catch the creature’s attention, for it stopped in its tracks and turned to face him.

Rearing back a moment on his hind legs, Bones activated his magic. His cutie mark is that of a pair of crossed swords. His talent then lies in defensive magic, similar to Shining Armor. However, on the side, he has also studied dark magic. He very rarely uses it outside of researching spells due to the inherent danger, and he isn’t that powerful. But Twilight has told me that he has some skill.

As he reared up, his eyes took on an unsettling state, the whites of his eyes turned green, and purple vapour began to pour from the sides. The aura of his magic turned black, and as he landed again, obsidian crystals shot up from the earth around the Tantabus.

“Bones!” I exclaimed “What the hell are you doing?” Whether he was studying it or not, that kind of magic was dangerous and corrupting. As the Tantabus dodged his attacks, my son deactivated his magic and turned to me.

“It’s all a dream, Dad!” he replied. “Ah’m not using dark magic, just dreaming ‘bout it. It’s perfectly safe.” I quickly understood what he meant. Since we all knew we were dreaming, we effectively all had the same powers as Discord. I watched as my son switched back to his own magic, and unleashed a light blue beam at the Tantabus.

Twilight encouraged everypony else to join in as well. This resulted in the stalwart Big Mac turning from a mere unicorn into a full blown alicorn. And with a signature ‘eeyup’, he charged after the Tantabus. That got everypony else to follow suit.

Fluttershy turned herself into her infamous Flutterbat persona and took chunks out of the Tantabus, whilst Twilight brought back her old library and sent avian books flying at the creature. Bones continued with a mix of his own and dark magic based attacks, while my daughter joined up with Spike, who had turned himself into a sort of knight as well, and charged into the Tantabus like knights of yore.

We seemed to be steadily gaining the upper hand as the Tantabus was cut off at every turn. A lot of ponies, Bones included, began to even enjoy themselves. As he and a few other ponies launched themselves into another charge he yelled out.

“Come on you horses! You wanna live forever?!”

However, just as things began to turn in our favour, the Tantabus regained the advantage. Princess Luna, despite being an alicorn of immense power, was exempted from the battle. She was needed to hold the dream together. Otherwise, we would all be returned to our own dream and be unable to fight the Tantabus. Forced to be nothing but a bystander, she lamented what was happening.

As she did so, I saw the Tantabus throw off our attacks and seem to gain power. It turned from a mere wisp of nebula, into a shadowy alicorn, and seemed more resistant and more powerful, threatening to open up a number of rifts into the real world. Twilight and the others found themselves pressed to keep the creature at bay. Worse still, as the Tantabus gained ground, Luna seemed to weaken, finding it harder and harder to keep the dream together. Tears streamed down her face as she fought to keep control.

“This is all my fault!” she lamented, struggling to keep her magic going. I ran over to her in the middle of the square.

“What do you mean, princess?” I asked. Off to the side, I saw that Bones had broken off from his own fight and joined me. Twilight explained.

“Princess Luna made the Tantabus to give herself the same nightmare over and over, to remind herself of what she did as Nightmare Moon.” I was shocked to say the least. The idea of a pony torturing themselves like that, however serious the past mistake, seemed extreme. As Luna continued to blame herself, the Tantabus gained more and more power, getting closer to opening a portal. Her confession also drew my son to her side.

“Luna, in the name of your moon, why? Ya think Equestria hasn’t already forging ya for what ya did? You are not the demon that sought night time eternal. Nopony here thinks that.” As he spoke, the Tantabus lashed out again, now taking the form of a huge alicorn. “That’s it: time to put this thing in the ground.” Lighting up his horn, he disappeared in a teleport.

I meanwhile stayed with Luna, doing my best to console her. While I couldn’t be sure, that Tantabus seemed to be tied to her somehow. Every time she became more despondent, it grew more powerful. It was almost like the ancient Windigoes; creatures that fed off negative emotions and used them to create vast snowstorms. I thought that, if I could lift her spirits a little, it would weaken the Tantabus, and give everypony else a fighting chance.

However, as I stood by her, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. Twilight was still flinging living books at the Tantabus from her old library, but a little way off to the side, there was another mare. She had a light pink coat, with a dark purple and aqua mane.

It was Starlight Glimmer!

If she was in this dream, then she had to be in Ponyville right now! She was at last within my reach. I could catch her here, and then find her in the waking world. From what I could tell, she was simply observing what was happening. My guess is that she’d been pulled into the dream when Luna connected everypony’s dreams together. Since she was in town, she got pulled in. Thus she was here.

In any case, I had an opportunity to capture Public Enemy Number 2 (In case you were wondering, Chrysalis remains in the number one spot, since we were never able to confirm what happened to her). I acted quickly, crouching down and doing my best to stay concealed.

Now, normally, I’d be extremely cautious when apprehending such a mare. She had access to powerful magic, and was on par with Twilight, by the princess’ own admission. After all, she’d managed to temporarily steal their cutie marks when she caught them off guard. However, in this dream, we were equals in terms of strength. I could use magic if I wished, even dipping into alicorn or dark magic without risk, as my son currently was. Instead though, I decided to stick to a more human approach; speak softly, but carry a big stick. There was a good chance I could get her to come quietly.

Concentrating for a moment, I summoned forth a suitable instrument; her ‘Staff of Sameness’, in actuality, a well carved tree branch used to hide her magic from unsuspecting ponies. Still, it should do well when used to deliver a solid rap to the head. Sneaking up behind her, I tapped the mare on the shoulder.

“Hello, Bob,” I said calmly. A fitting quotation, considering I was currently holding her own weapon.

Her ears promptly perked up and her whole form tensed as she felt the tap at her shoulder. Turning around, she and I ‘met’ for the first time. Her eyes, for a moment, were filled simply with curiosity at the strange being the stood before her. They darted from my head to my toes, taking in the odd, distinctly non-pony body. Quite quickly though, it dawned on her that she was in trouble. Her eyes widened and she let out an ear piercing scream, though annoyingly this was drowned out by the nearby battle, so nopony else heard her.

Unsurprisingly, she then took off, galloping away from Twilight’s briefly resurrected library and further away from Ponyville. I did my best to keep up with her, though with this being a dream, I was able to increase my speed to keep pace with the proverbial prancing pony. Starlight briefly turned around a couple of times and took the odd pot shot at me with her magic. Luckily, on that front, I was able to dodge her inaccurate attacks.

I briefly got to wondering how large this dream was. Did it have a boundary of sorts? Or could this idiotic chase go on until we hit the sea? I didn’t get a chance to find out as Starlight suddenly peeled off. We were on the outskirts proper now, and nearing Twilight’s castle. The place, in my experience, is a goddamn maze. I know of three rooms in the whole castle, the throne room, which is also the front hall, the library (left, left, right, left, straight, right, and then the second door on your left), and the bathroom (ironically next door). I assumed that that was what Starlight was counting on, using the building as a way to lose me and then slip between the cracks once again.

Starlight darted in through the open front door. Quickly following, I found her staring at Twilight’s map contraption, which was in its active state for some reason, with all the cutie marks centred on Ponyville. I guess in this dream, the map knew there was a threat to harmony and had identified it. I quickly moved in on her and made a grab for her.

“Hold it right there, Starlight,” I warned. The mare however, simply took off again into one of the corridors.

Thus began a rather impossible game of cat and mouse. Neither of us knew where we were going and we didn’t know where the other was. What I did know though, was that this castle had one way out and one way in; the front door. I therefore stayed fairly close to the entrance to the castle, listening for the sound of hooves on the crystal floor.

I also decided that I needed a more suitable weapon. Concentrating for a moment, I swapped out the large stick I had been carrying for a tried and true Webley service revolver; six shots, accurate and loud. It would certainly scare the living daylights out of Starlight, even if I missed.

Carefully, I probed my way through the maze of corridors, checking each room carefully in case the blighter had gone to ground. Unfortunately, I had no luck in finding her. This whole escaping malarkey seemed to be a skill of hers; she’d eluded Twilight and her friends last time by disappearing into a network of caves near her messed up vault.

As I was working my way back to camp out on the front door however, I heard hoofsteps. Tensing up a little, I pulled back the hammer on my revolver; a hair trigger. Creeping around the corner, I caught a fleeting glimpse of the light pink unicorn. I let off a single shot, missing her by inches. The sound reverberated through the castle and made me grab at my ears. I’d forgotten how loud these things could be indoors; it’s not like in films. It was only due to it being a dream that I didn’t blow my eardrums.

Chasing after her, I ran back through the throne room and out the front door. She was running back towards town and the ongoing battle. To my horror, the Tantabus was now a giant alicorn apparition and looked poised to step through a massive portal.

Raising my gun and pointing it skyward, I deliberately fired a shot into the air.

“Stop, Starlight!” I called out. “Stop or I’ll kill you!” That got her attention. She at last checked her headlong flight and with her sides heaving, turned to face me.

At that moment thought, the whole dream shifted and the huge form of the Tantabus seemed to vanish. I later learned that the Tantabus was indeed gaining more power from Luna’s negative emotions. Despite the time that has passed since her redemption, she still apparently blamed herself for what happened when she became Nightmare Moon. This only extended to the current crisis, since the Tantabus was her own creation. It was only when Twilight and the others, my son included, told her that they had long since forgiven her actions that she began to let go of her regret. This deprived the Tantabus of its power, but also altered it. Turning to a shadowy mirror image of Luna, she and it reconciled and it returned to her.

One the one hand, this was all well and good; the crisis was over and the apocalypse was no longer upon us. However, it also meant that we would now wake up. And I didn’t yet know where Starlight was in the real world.

“Wait, princess, wait!” I called out. But it was too late, the world slowly began to fade out and I had no choice but to watch as, with an evil smirk, Starlight slipped through my fingers.

---

It was early morning when I awoke. This time, I quickly bolted out of bed, not caring too much for inadvertently waking she who must be obeyed. Quickly getting dressed, I made for Ponyville’s train station and boarded for Canterlot. While Starlight may have eluded me, we still had a better chance than before of nabbing her. The journey up the mountain would take an hour, but that would be all the head start she’d get. I could then come back with half the Royal Guard in tow and go hunt her down. Now we had a recent last known location, it was no longer a case of a needle in a haystack.

After what seemed like the slowest morning commute in history, and the longest cab ride to the castle, I eventually made my way to the throne room. Celestia had not even opened court yet when I burst through the doors, startling one of the maids, who dropped her tea tray and scampered off like a frightened rabbit.

“Princess!” I exclaimed. “We have a situation!” Celestia nodded as she dismissed the guard she was talking to prior to my sudden arrival.

“Indeed, my advisor. I hope I can trust you to aid Shining Armor with the investigation?” That confused me greatly and caused me to pause. How did she know already?

“Er, investigation? Your highness, we need to get down to Ponyville right away, there’s chance we can catch her if we move quickly.” Now it was Celestia’s turn to look confused.

“Oh, I see. It seems that we are talking about two different incidents,” she replied. “I was referring to last night’s break in at the Archives. The staff there are doing inventory now, but I fear something may have been taken. What case were you referring to?”

“Last night, your highness. In Princess Luna’s dream.” The mention of the incident made Celestia grimace; I imagine she didn’t take the news that her sister had been torturing herself for the past few years well. “I saw Starlight Glimmer; she has to be in Ponyville.” My thoughts then turned to the incident Celestia had just related. Who the hell would break into an old glorified library?

At that moment, we were interrupted by an old beige stallion with a silver mane, who was announced to be the head archivist. Evidently, they had finished up with their inventory.

“Ah, Proper Place,” Celestia greeted warmly. “I take it you have completed your inventory and refiling?” The elderly stallion nodded.

“Everything has been accounted for, your highness,” he answered in a tired voice. “Except for one spell.” Celestia now stood up from her throne.

“Which spell?” she demanded, sounding genuinely concerned. An understandable reaction; there was a lot of stuff in there under lock and key with damn good reason.

“According to our records, it was Starswirl the Bearded’s Time Travel Spell. It allows a sufficiently skilled user to travel back in time roughly one week; though with the spell itself to hoof, a less refined user might be able to simply charge the scroll itself to properly manifest it.” I turned back to face Celestia.

“Princess, I fear that these are not isolated incidents,” I offered. “Starlight may have travelled up here not long before myself and broken in during the guard shift change just before dawn. We did fear that she was planning something serious,” Celestia nodded in agreement and quickly summoned Shining Armor to the throne room.

The gallant white unicorn had been busy working with the rest of the guard assigned to investigating the break in. Celestia now though, gave him new orders.

“Shining Armor,” she began, her tone serious. “It is my belief that Starlight Glimmer was responsible for this break in, and that she may still be in the area; either here, or near Ponyville. You are to search the city for her immediately. She has stolen a potentially dangerous spell from the archives.” Shining nodded and I continued.

“We’ll need everypony you can get your hooves on, Shining,” I added. “No holidays and no other incidents today. Get the Royal Guard to go through this valley, section by section, blade of grass by blade of grass, and find that Equalist fruitcake if she’s out there.”

Author's Note:

Proofread by EnderHooves.

Well, that was a fun little chapter to write. I got inspired by the occasional Starlight easter eggs that popped up throughout Season 5. Let me know what you all think in the comments.

Comments

[Seeking Dusk]

Now the question is, how much of a difference with Roger's actions make in Starlight's plans.

[Minevera]

“Hello, Bob,” I said calmly. A fitting quotation, considering I was currently holding her own weapon.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Uh oh...

[Blade Star]

7375637 Glad to see somepony knows their history.

[harts fire]

I like it. I am not sure way but for some reason Starlight Glimmer reminds me of Harley Quinn.
and I remember going to see young guns 2 in the theater.
yep I am that bucking old.

[Amethyst Blade]

If Starlight's plan went through, Something like this would happened...
Fitting song, no?

[Blade Star]

7378026 Billy the Kid actually did say that in reality. After tricking and killing his guard while he was held prisoner at the courthouse in Lincoln, he grabbed Deputy Olinger's shotgun from the rack. The deputy had been eating dinner across the street, having transferred a few other prisoners earlier on. He heard the shot, looked up, and found himself staring down the barrel of his own shotgun. From atop the first floor window, the Kid called out 'Hello, Bob.' and shot him with both barrels.

[BenRG]

Time War. Starlight, if you had the humility to ask Time Turner, he'd tell you that there is no reward, no victory and no vengeance to be worth the sorrow it will bring upon you and everything that you hold dear.

What I did, I did without choice.

I know.

In the name of peace and sanity.

Yes. But not in the name of The Doctor!