Darkest Hour Part Four! - Dawn is Unbreakable
Gilda had been in a lot of tight spots before. Really, as long as one focused on what was going on in the immediate sense, with a few cultists taking shots at her with magical beams while others used the covering fire to close in, it wasn't even in the top ten. She even had Pinkie Pie with her, which meant that she had backup.
Gilda glanced at the pony, thinking. Maybe not really backup. She certainly wasn't like Maud. But maybe with how bright and colorful she was-
"I'd make an awful shield," Pinkie said. "I mean I guess I'm better than nothing but I'm sort of short and griffons are bigger than ponies to begin with."
"I wasn't-" Gilda tried not to look guilty.
"You had that 'I wonder if I can use her as a pony shield' look on your face," Pinkie explained.
"There's a face for that?"
"This isn't my first rodeo," Pinkie said. "My first rodeo was in Dodge Junction! I tried to hogtie a hog but I kind of messed up and long story, short, you can't deep-fry cotton candy. We just don't have the technology for it yet."
"Why would you want to deep-fry cotton candy?" Gilda asked, perplexed.
"Because everything is better when you coat it in batter!" Pinkie sighed. "Except sauerkraut. Trust me. That was a mistake and it took forever to clean out the fryer."
"I'll take your word for-" Gilda flinched as the wall cracked next to her head, a stone splinter hitting her beak with enough force to leave a scratch.
"I guess there's only one thing to do," Pinkie said, reaching into her mane and retrieving two black balls, fuses already lit.
"You have bombs in your mane?!" Gilda tried to press herself deeper into cover, not that a few inches would make much difference at this range, even with primitive explosives like that.
"For party explosion emergencies," Pinkie Pie confirmed, leaning out of the alcove to roll the two bombs down the corridor. Gilda pulled her back when the pony tried to peek out of cover to watch, pushing her down and covering her with her wing.
There were shouts of confusion and, a moment later, two wet-sounding crashes of thunder that shook the floor.
"Oh wow!" Pinkie Pie said, as she got up. "You were gonna use me as a pony shield then you went and protected me with your own body! Does that mean you like me? Because I'm pretty sure Dash actually has a thing for you and I don't really want to be a third wheel because I've got enough of that with the Cakes and they're really nice and cuddly but-"
A talon covered her mouth. "I didn't want to find out the hard way if you were carrying more explosives," Gilda explained. She peeked past the edge of the alcove. Ponies were lying on the ground in various states of unconsciousness. None of them looked like they were ready to put up a fight.
"Okay, I think we're in the clear," Gilda said. She stepped out and walked over to one of the cultists. Instead of the torn flesh and blood she expected, he was splattered with fudge. "...What?"
"Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs," Pinkie said, very serious. "They induce a sugar coma in seconds when properly applied. Very dangerous to bake. I lost three ovens figuring out how to temper chocolate semtex correctly."
"Remind me to stop asking questions when I don't want to know the answer," Gilda sighed. "Let's go find Dash before she does anything stupid." Gilda paused. "Stupider than usual."
Final Episode
Darkest Hour Part Four! - Dawn is Unbreakable
Cadance focused, reaching out to the sun. Celestia had made sure she knew how to raise it. At first, Cadance had assumed it was so Celestia could get a break from her eternal duty, but it was starting to seem more like the ancient alicorn had ensured that there was a backup plan just in case something happened to her.
Something like her insane, genocidal sister.
The main problem was that the sun was stubborn. Heavy wasn't quite the right word - it wasn't something that Cadance was actually trying to lift the way she would with telekinesis. It wasn't something to be shoved around, but had to be goaded and herded like a big, stubborn... burning ball of gas. Cadance was too tired and busy to think of a better way to describe it.
The sun started to peek over the horizon, and light shot across the land again before she felt a dark presence try to shove it down again, Nightmare Moon's power totally, and literally, eclipsing hers.
Cadance flinched as she lost her grip, the world plunging into darkness again.
"You know I really love you, right?" Cadance asked.
"This isn't the time, honey," Shining Armor grunted, deflecting a bolt of ice magic. Nightmare Moon wasn't even looking at them, her attention focused on a small army of her cultists below them on the lawn. She was just throwing spells at random to keep the pressure up, and the varied and powerful attacks were more than enough to give Shining Armor a headache.
"I just wanted you to know that I love you. And if we ever have foals, we're going to teach them stealing is very, very wrong!" Cadance shouted, over the sound of stone turning into magma. "Especially when they steal the only defense against evil beings trying to destroy Equestria!"
"That's a very specific thing to teach them," Shining Armor noted, sweating. The floor under them sunk a few inches into the now-molten rock that was outside of his barrier, which quickly froze and cracked with Nightmare Moon's next attack. "Were you thinking about something in particular?"
"You know, it's funny, I was!" Cadance growled, trying to get a better grip on the sun. The assault on Shining Armor's shield let up for a moment as Nightmare Moon had to re-focus on maintaining her Endless Night.
"Okay, let's not panic," Twilight said. "Think about this one step at a time. Celestia knew this might happen, apparently. Otherwise she wouldn't have changed the traps into pranks. Since this vault-" Twilight nodded to the newest, most secure vault. "Is impossible to open, it means that the Elements aren't in there."
"Yes, darling, but that doesn't mean we have time to open every other vault." Rarity looked at the stone walls around them. "There must be hundreds. Some of them are barely big enough for a scroll!" She knelt down to look at one near the floor, a tiny door like a mouse had decided that it needed to store some very secure and confidential cheese.
"Why in the heck would they make such a mess of things?" Applejack asked.
"Security," Twilight shrugged. "Maybe some of the things locked up are too dangerous to be stored together. Or different ponies are allowed access to some items but not others. Or both."
"Um..." Fluttershy looked around. "I don't think we have to open all of them."
"Obviously not," Rarity said, standing up again. "Some are simply too small for the Elements. They were rather bulky stone balls, after all."
"N-no, I mean..." Fluttershy looked down at her hooves. She took a deep breath. "I know how ponies like Nightmare Moon think. She wouldn't use a small vault if there was a bigger one."
"So we should just open the biggest one?" Twilight asked, looking around. One end of the corridor ended in a huge black iron door. The small group trotted over to it.
"That looks like one tough apple to crack," Applejack said.
"...I didn't think apples were particularly tough to crack," Rarity said, confused.
"You ain't never seen an Everfree crab apple," Applejack noted. "You need a hammer t' get at the edible parts and if you don't pin 'em down first they nip you with their claws."
"That sounds fascinating!" Fluttershy gasped. "And a little scary. I hope I get to see one." She tapped her front hooves together, excited. "I think I might have some etching acid that would help. With the door. Um. I wouldn't want to use it on food. Or animals. Or food animals."
"No need." Twilight said, slowly. "Rarity, this is a Flim-Flam Model 1000." She wiped some dirt away from the small plaque on the door.
"You can't be serious," Rarity said. "There are less than a dozen left, and most of those are collectors items!"
"Is that gonna make it tough?" Applejack asked.
Rarity looked at Twilight. Twilight shrugged and gestured to the door. "Would you like to demonstrate, Rarity?"
Rarity nodded and started turning the combination lock.
"The mechanism in the Model 1000 is one of the most complicated and intricate ever made," Rarity said. "When they came out they were advertised as being impossible to pick or crack. And the truth is, no one has ever managed it, as far as I know. Not even me! And if I can't do it, it simply can't be done."
"Seriously?" Applejack sighed. "So we ain't got a chance."
"I wouldn't say that." Rarity smirked. "You see, that very same fact is the reason there are only a dozen of these left. The mechanism was so delicate and complicated that the combination was set by the factory. And it was a rather small factory, so..." Rarity trailed off as she finished spinning the dial.
"Every single Model 1000 has the same combination," Twilight finished, the door swinging open.
"I'm gonna admit, I did not think this all the way through," Rainbow Dash said.
Maud thought that was an understatement. She hadn't touched the ground in several minutes, though she had come distressingly close to doing so at extremely high speed several times. At one point the Wonderbolt had dropped her entirely to avoid a blast of magic, catching her a split second before she would have hit the ground.
"Rainbow Dash," Maud said, calmly, looking back past the pegasus' prismatic contrail. "I think there's a problem."
"Huh?" Dash asked, glancing back. Several of the remaining cultist unicorns stood in a circle, a glowing ring forming between them as magical bolts bent and twisted in a tight spiral, not hitting anything and just building up to a crescendo.
"Buck! That's an anti-air spell! Hang on!" Dash pulled to the left just as the circle launched itself into the sky like a buzzsaw, curving to follow her flightpath.
"It's still coming," Maud reported.
"We got a rundown on these from the EUP combined tactics division," Dash said. "They lock onto pegasus magic and follow it to the source!"
Dash ducked under a bridge in the castle gardens, Maud's hooves touching the water of the stream, fish bolting at the sudden intrusion. The ring followed, humming and passing just over the water, the surface flashing to steam in its wake.
"Some of these guys must be actual EUP troops," Dash continued. "This isn't something they teach outside the military!"
"How do we stop it?" Maud asked.
"You know, it's funny, the unicorns were real happy to show us how it worked, but not so excited to teach us how to beat it," Dash muttered. "They tossed a few weak ones at us that just knocked us out of the sky, but that thing-" She paused as she swooped around a tower, the spell not bothering and just going through the roof and setting it on fire, still going strong and even closer than before since it had cut the corner more sharply.
"Dash!" yelled a voice from close by. Gilda angled up from the castle, matching her erratic flightpath. "Drop Maud, then go through that thing!"
Dash glanced where Gilda was pointing. The flying buttress was great for holding up walls but less great for, despite the name, actually flying into or through.
Aside from that little problem, though, it seemed that Gilda had the one thing Dash didn't, at the moment. A plan. She looked down at Maud and let go. Maud fell for a few moments before Gilda caught her, veering sharply away from Dash's course.
As Dash neared the stone arch, there was a flash of color on the stone, bright pink against white marble, standing out even in the wavering darkness of the Endless Night clashing against the weak dawn Princess Cadance was fighting to bring.
Pinkie Pie waved to her as she barely passed through the tight space, her missing primaries making it a struggle to keep her course. Dropping Maud had let her go faster, but that was only making the turbulence worse.
Flares sprang to life behind her, confetti and streamers and explosions of alchemical light and sound, shattering the air and her wake. Dash tucked her wings in, letting the magic die off. Her momentum carried her forwards like a shot from a bow. The spell chasing her stalled, the flashes of stored magic in the alchemy of the flares battering the guidance behind it. Not finding her trail of pegasus magic, it wavered from left to right, chasing the sparks gently falling through the air before evaporating.
Dash flared her wings just above the ground, too close to get back into the air but with enough force to turn a fatal crash into a hard landing that slid her across a footpath and into a hedge maze, putting her through three layers of greenery before she stopped, the world spinning around her.
"Well, any landing you can walk away from," she said, standing up and immediately planting her face back in the dirt, mumbling the rest into the earth.
As the vault door opened, enchanted strips of silver started glowing softly, offering a ghostly, flickering illumination. Five stone spheres sat in the center of the vault, on a velvet blanket bunched up around them to keep the Elements from rolling away.
"I half expected them to be broken," Applejack admitted. "If I was an evil overlord type, I'd've taken the hammer to 'em instead of sticking them in a safe place."
"They've survived relatively undamaged for a thousand years," Rarity said. "It's entirely possible they're much more resilient than normal stone."
"There's another possibility, too," Twilight said. "Breaking the Elements might release a lot of energy. Like cracking open the boiler on a train engine when it's fired up."
"I read a news story about that happenin'," Applejack said. "Weren't pretty. They never even found all the bits of the train, or the ponies that were too close to it."
"We'll be sure to handle them with care, then," Rarity assured her. "Twilight, be a dear and help me. Two horns make light work, as they say."
"Rarity, nopony has ever said that," Twilight quipped, still helping her wrap the five Elements in the black velvet they were lying on before pulling them out of the vault.
Fluttershy waited for them to remove the Elements, then hovered into the vault gingerly, looking at the shelves.
"What are you doin'?" Applejack asked.
"Well, I was just thinking... as long as we have it open, we should look to see what else is in here," Fluttershy said.
"We'll make a thief out of you yet," Twilight joked. "But there's a time and place for looting. Never try and rob a burning house."
"Twilight Sparkle you have literally robbed a burning house on more than one occasion," Rarity said. "And as I recall you were typically the one to set the fire, as well."
"It's a metaphor, Rarity!"
"It's not a metaphor when you're trying to clean ashes out of a white coat!" Rarity huffed, turning up her nose.
"I wasn't going to steal things," Fluttershy said. "But if Princess Celestia really set all this up for us to find the Elements, maybe it's not all she did."
"That does make a certain kind of sense," Twilight admitted. "She was able to manipulate Nightmare Moon to use this vault, replaced the traps with harmless pranks..."
"As much as I've always wanted to be alone among the fabled treasure vaults of Canterlot with no worries of a Royal Guard wandering in, might I recommend haste, darlings?" Rarity asked, eyebrow raised.
"I think I found something!" Fluttershy said, excited. She pulled a sheaf of papers from the shelf. The topmost leaf was adorned with a six-pointed star.
Nightmare Moon had spent a thousand years alone, more or less (depending on how one counted voices in one's head and dreamwalking), on the surface of the moon. She was used to relying on herself.
Even so, it was an unwelcome experience to suddenly be forced to rely on herself because everypony else was-
"COMPLETELY USELESS!" She shouted, stomping hard enough that the stone that had the unfortunate fate of being under her right forehoof shattered. The air around her crackled with energy, her anger sending wild surges of magic into the air that ground themselves out as motes of light and sparks.
"Is it so much to ask for competent minions? Or at least less frustrating enemies?" Nightmare Moon seethed, turning to where a pink globe of magic was protecting Princess Cadance. "You can't hold out forever."
"And you're out of ponies insane or stupid enough to help you!" Shining Armor said, wincing as Nightmare Moon wove fire and lightning into a lash and struck his shield with wild abandon.
"Is that what you think?" Nightmare Moon hissed. "That I need ponies to sit and primp and pamper me? That I care about their adoration or their praise or their friendship?"
"I think you just like the sound of your own voice," Shining Armor said, spitting the words through clenched teeth.
"I just like to make sure ponies like you understand how gracious I am to take time out of my night to kill you with my own hooves!" Nightmare Moon shouted, grinning.
"It seems to me like the night is just about over," said a voice that made Nightmare Moon's eye twitch. She turned to look at Twilight Sparkle. The thief adjusted her jacket. "You know. Because we're going to defeat you and then... the night will end. Temporarily."
"Darling, you really flubbed that dramatic speech," Rarity sighed.
"You think a few more ponies will really make a difference?" Nightmare Moon asked.
"No, but I bet these will help," Twilight said, stepping aside to reveal the five stone Elements.
Twilight flipped through the papers Celestia had left them, starting to sweat as she read over them.
"Okay, so, we're in luck, sort of. This is a user manual for the Elements of Harmony." She said, trying to swallow around the sudden lump in her throat.
"Well that sounds as handy as a minotaur playin' card games," Applejack said, trying to read over Twilight's shoulder. "Let me guess, there's some mystical mumbo-jumbo words y'all have to say."
"You know, thankfully, we don't have to do that," Twilight said. "According to this the Elements are sort of locked down by a protective measure. They can only be used by ponies who exhibit certain traits that the creators presumably felt couldn't be used against their designed purpose."
Applejack considered that for a moment. "So what you mean is, they're darn picky about who can make them work."
"Right," Twilight said. "It's like, uh, imagine a sword that could only be used by a pony who was fighting for a good cause, so even if he dropped it, his enemy couldn't pick it up."
"Well we're all fighting for a good cause," Rarity said. "So this should hardly be difficult, darling."
"It's not entirely about a good cause," Twilight said. "In this case, I mean. According to this, the Elements are looking for a type of personality, or a trait, or..." She groaned. "Look, the point is, this is bad."
"How can it possibly be bad?" Rarity frowned.
"Okay, well, let me go down the list," Twilight said, starting to pace. "Laughter. Or more accurately, joy or good cheer. That one's not too bad. Then there's Magic, again, not too awful, we've got a bunch of ponies around who are great at that."
"This doesn't sound like a problem so far," Rarity said.
"Loyalty?" Twilight said.
"...There's honor among thieves," Rarity argued.
"Kindness?"
"Surely that's not a problem. We have many kind ponies around."
"Honesty."
Rarity opened her mouth, considered what she was about to say, then closed it and thought about it for a moment. "That might be an issue."
"And the last one's Generosity."
"You know, Nightmare Moon hasn't actually seen us," Rarity said, changing the topic. "Maybe we can just go to Griffonstone or Prance until this all blows over. Or for the rest of our lives! Either is fine, really. Veneighs is lovely under a full moon anyway."
"You know, some of us do actual honest work," Applejack drawled. "Just cause they won't work for you on account of you being a terrible influence on other ponies don't mean they won't work for somepony else."
"Maybe we can just throw them at Cadance and hope for the best," Twilight groaned.
"There are still only five of them, too," Fluttershy said. "Aren't there supposed to be six?"
Twilight flipped through the pages, then closed them, tossing the manual aside.
"I'm sure it'll be fine."
"They're not doing anything," Rarity hissed through her teeth. Nightmare Moon's expression slowly turned from one of shock to one of amusement. "They are supposed to do something, Twilight!"
Twilight smiled, with the careful, fixed expression that Rarity knew meant she was about to do something incredibly stupid. It was the same face she used when she had to bluff her way out of a situation, which in this case would be difficult as Nightmare Moon seemed to have the whole deck and Twilight only had a Mareopoly card.
"You broke into my house," Nightmare Moon said. "Killed many of my loyal soldiers, brought every part of your scheme into place, and this is your endgame?" She laughed madly, stalking towards Twilight with her head held low, horn parallel to the ground.
"I might have a few more tricks up my sleeve," Twilight said. "For example-"
She pulled something out of her jacket sleeve.
"The three of clubs?" Nightmare Moon chuckled.
"I take it that's not your card?"
"No, but I'll remember it. I'll make sure it's etched onto your tombstone." Her horn started to light up as she stepped past where Sunset Shimmer had fallen.
The Grand Magus smiled from where she was prone on the ground, forgotten after her failed duel against the alicorn.
"Gotcha," she whispered, Sunset's eyes opening. Nightmare Moon turned at the sudden motion, only to shudder and stumble as streams of magic braided together from the stone under her, twisting into bindings and wrapping around her legs and neck.
"What is this?!" She demanded, looking down. Runes shimmered on the partly-broken stone under her.
"I got the idea from the vampony you sent after us. He created a runic circle around us while he was disguised as something harmless." Sunset Shimmer stood up, brushing the ashes from her coat, revealing the wound on her chest and shoulder was mostly cosmetic. "I decided to just play dead and try the same thing. While you've been distracted with these idiots running around and causing problems, I used some enchanted chalk to draw the runes and waited for my chance."
"But that attack! You should have been-"
"Dead? Maybe if you were dealing with the average unicorn mage. I'm not nearly as good at big flashy shields as our Captain of the Guard over there, but I can manage a pretty good Mage Armor spell." She tapped her chest, hoof hitting something invisible just before touching her coat. "Proof against crossbows, blades, and blunts the effect of spells pretty nicely."
"This won't hold me!" Nightmare Moon braced herself as best she could, wings spreading wide. "I'll bring this whole city down around us first!" She beat her wings, the runes straining and sparking against her strength - both physical and magical working to free herself.
"Ain't this just three loads of apples in a one-wheeled cart," Applejack muttered. She ran over to Fluttershy, struck with an idea, and grabbed her bags without permission, rummaging through them.
"W-what are you doing?" Fluttershy asked. "Be careful! Some of those are-"
"Real dangerous, I know," Applejack said. "I'm countin' on it." She pulled out a vial that Fluttershy had only recently added to her collection.
"The sovereign glue?" Fluttershy asked.
"It'll help keep her in place, right?" Applejack asked.
"Oh!" Fluttershy gasped. "Yes! Just don't get any on her face. The effects could be-"
"Right, right, treat the world-ending threat nicely," Applejack snorted. While unicorn magic would have been more precise under normal circumstances, with the storm of energy around Nightmare Moon, none of the ponies could have matched the graceful (and, when used with a lasso instead of glass vials, rodeo championship winning) arc that Applejack managed with a simple toss of her head.
The glass shattered against Nightmare Moon's side, and an instinctive flap of her wings turned into a shuddering, jerking mess as her coat, feather, and skin stuck together firmly and almost instantly. This was poor enough luck for the alicorn, but things quickly became much worse when her free wing caught the air and sent her tumbling to her side, the bindings of the rune circle dragging her down to the stone floor, which also managed to bond with the glue dripping from her wing, leaving her stuck to the ground, legs kicking uselessly to the side.
"I'll kill you all for this indignity!" Nightmare Moon screamed.
"You've already said that a couple of times," Sunset Shimmer noted. "You'd probably have gotten a lot further if you tried bribing them. It wouldn't work on me, of course. Not because of loyalty to the crown or Celestia, mind you." She leaned in a little. "I just like winning too much to concede to somepony spoiled rotten so badly she's a thousand years past her best-by date."
"That was a good line," Twilight noted. "I gotta remember that."
"Darling, I seriously doubt you're going to fight anypony else that's a thousand years old," Rarity said, rolling her eyes.
"You never know." Twilight shrugged.
"Hey!" Sunset snapped. "Everypony over here! We don't have a lot of time!"
Gilda and Rainbow Dash set down near the others, Maud and Pinkie briefly hugging. Gilda pulled out her crossbow and leveled it at the prone alicorn. Sunset pushed it away.
"Don't bother. She's immortal."
"It'd make me feel better," Gilda muttered.
"Here's the plan," Sunset said. "Since the Elements of Harmony don't seem to be doing much work for us, we're going to make them work one way or the other. You know how binding rituals work?"
"Yeah," Twilight said. "Not really my cup of tea, but I know the basics. You have a focus and twist magic around it like, uh..." She considered for a moment.
"Like it's a knot in a balloon!" Pinkie supplied. "But instead of a knot it's more like a dam in a river and instead of a balloon it's an astral body!"
Sunset looked at the pink earth pony for several seconds, blinking.
"What? Did I get it wrong? Maybe it's more like the air inside the balloon is the bad stuff and the focus is the rubber and the knot is the magic, but instead of floating you keep it somewhere safe and you make it out of something stronger than rubber because you don't want someone to stick a pin in the wrong place and let demons out of Tartarus-"
"Never mind! Close enough!" Sunset yelled. "We've got five elements, so we'll use five focuses to share the load. Put them in a circle around her."
"This will never work," Nightmare Moon hissed. "I'll kill you. I'll kill all of you!"
"Not giving us a lot of incentive to stop," Dash said.
"Cadance, lift the sun up!" Sunset ordered. "Anything that'll help suppress her power until we're done!"
Cadance nodded from the other end of the ruined wing of the castle, the sun wobbling as it crested the horizon, sharing the sky with the moon. This time, though, it stayed in place, Nightmare Moon unable to force it away.
"Damn you!" Nightmare Moon hissed, struggling, tearing out her own feathers as she tried to free herself.
"Here goes nothing," Sunset muttered. She started casting, light building up as streams of dark magic tore free of Nightmare Moon. For a moment, things looked like they were going to work. The Elements stood fast against the strain. Then the first crack appeared.
"Uh-oh," Pinkie Pie said, her tail twitching. "I think-"
Whatever she was thinking (it involved chocolate moose pies, and how to convince a moose to stand still long enough to be part of a pie) she didn't get to tell anypony. The light flared in a multicolored crescendo as the Elements shattered into glittering dust of rainbow light, the haze of prismatic magic hovering in the air over the shrieking form of Nightmare Moon.
Celestia exhaled, as if she'd been holding her breath. She opened her eyes, blinking a few times to clear them, the last few flecks of stone falling away from her body and dissolving in midair before hitting the floor.
She looked at the broken walls, the shattered floor, and part of her was distantly aware of several fires.
"This all seems to have gone smoothly," she said, quietly, to herself, with only the barest hint of sarcasm. "The entire world hasn't ended, just this small part of it."
She stepped outside to where rainbow glitter was falling in a rain of light. Celestia squinted through it. It wasn't that the glitter was bright - she could stare at the sun all day - but that the haze of magic was affecting her senses. The sheer pressure of it was akin to walking against the current of a river. Her ethereal mane whipped back on its own, trailing like the tail of a comet as she stepped forward.
It was difficult to tell exactly what was going on, random swirls of spellcraft forming and breaking apart seemingly on their own. It was a type of magic Celestia had only seen twice before, a living magic that brought itself to order and could only be directed and never demanded of.
The light collapsed like the birth of a solar system, spinning into six twinkling shapes, and the rainbow faded into the orange light of dusk, leaving a miasma of flickering shadows over where Nightmare Moon had stood.
"Did it work?" Twilight asked.
"I think so," Celestia said, stepping past her. Twilight jumped in surprise, tripping over an unexpected weight on her fetlock.
"What the heck?" She held up her hoof, revealing an oval gem of swirling purples with a shape in the center like a black star amethyst, set in a bracer of silver and steel.
"You all managed to reinvigorate the Elements," Celestia said, pleased. "It was a near thing."
"Princess!" Sunset Shimmer ran up to her. "You're okay?"
"I was perfectly safe," Celestia assured her. "I knew I could count on you and my other subjects to learn the true power of friendship and..." she trailed off as she looked around. "...cause the minimal amount of necessary collateral damage in the process."
"What the buck are these things?" Gilda demanded, looking at the slim anklet around one of her back paws, just a twist of silver wire like a torc with a gem the size of a hen's egg in cloudy red.
"Those would be the Elements," Celestia said, looking around. Maud was trying to adjust a necklace of heavy chains hung with an orange stone. Pinkie Pie had a number of jangling ringlets around one hoof joined at a clasp made of blue gemstone. Rarity was admiring her reflection in what was left of a window, and the slim tiara around her head and studded with a central stone of violet. Fluttershy's was the smallest, an earring having appeared painlessly and adding a pink glitter that she didn't notice until it was pointed out to her.
"There were only five," Sunset said. "Where did the sixth one come from?"
"Ah, well," Celestia sighed. "The stone spheres were only the physical forms of the elements. Important but not vital to their working. The true form of the Elements of Harmony is an astral body of solid magic, with no source, growing boundlessly from the positive emotions and good karma of the world. When I fought Nightmare Moon the first time, one of the six Elements had its physical form destroyed, and in wielding all six at once, I strained and broke my own connection to them."
"I... almost understand," Sunset said. "So the sixth element was recreated along with the rest being reformed."
"Exactly. But none of them could regenerate until new bearers were found." Celestia smiled. "An odd series of choices, but I'm not one to... question Harmony..." She frowned as she looked more closely at the magical signatures in front of her. "Sunset, why is there dark magic bound up with the Elements of Harmony?"
"I couldn't get the stupid things working, so I, uh... improvised."
"Oh no," Celestia groaned. Sunset's improvisations were famous, and tended to involve just throwing enough power at a problem that the laws of nature would get out of the way rather than disobey her.
"...I can probably fix this," Sunset offered.
"One disaster at a time," Celestia muttered to herself. She looked at the sun and fixed the orbit, putting it high in the sky like a bright summer day at noon. Raising her wings, not that she needed to command even more attention, Celestia stepped towards the fading shadows, kneeling down to the prone shape lying there.
"Welcome back, Luna," she said, softly. Her sister groaned, eye opening slowly as she looked up. Instead of the tall, dark form of Nightmare Moon, she was barely the size of Cadance, the colors of her coat and mane bleached and washed out from the magical exhaustion she'd experienced.
"Tia?" Luna whispered.
"I'm here, Lulu," Celestia smiled. "I'm happy to see you again."
"I'm so sorry..." Luna said, tears welling up.
"There's nothing to apologize for. Now let's-" she tried to help her sister up. After a few moments struggling, she sighed.
"Can somepony get the universal solvent to free her?" She tried to move her hoof. "...And me."
"So... you had an evil sister," Twilight said, once things had been cleaned up, wounds bandaged, food gathered, and loyal staff returned to the castle.
"It's quite common," Celestia said. "Ask your brother."
"Hey! I'm not evil!" Twilight frowned. Shining Armor snorted with laughter, Cadance joining him.
"Neither is Luna. She was possessed by an evil spirit a thousand years ago. It drove her to do terrible things." Celestia smiled sadly. "I wasn't strong enough to free her, but you were. Both of us owe all of you a debt that can never be repaid."
"What are you gonna do with her?" Gilda asked.
"For now?" Celestia considered. "She's going to rest. Then we're going to talk, something that I should have done long ago. She was driven to this because I neglected her. If I am lucky, she will forgive me and agree to rule at my side again."
"That's sweet," Cadance said, smiling with approval. "She really means a lot to you."
"Yes, we-"
"Are you two...?" Cadance continued, motioning with her hooves.
Celestia almost spat out her tea, managing to retain her dignity enough to merely aspirate it and almost drown, sputtering and coughing. "No! She's my sister!"
"Darnit..." Cadance sighed and passed a small pouch of bits to Rarity.
Celestia closed her eyes and took a moment to recover some measure of royal bearing. "We also need to discuss the Elements. They were Equestria's greatest defense in the past."
"...Does that mean I broke them?" Sunset asked.
"I don't know," Celestia said. "The aura around them is different. And... these aren't the sort of bearers they'd have chosen in the past."
Even as she said it, though, she watched as Pinkie Pie whispered a joke into Maud's ear that made the implacable pony's mouth twitch into a small smile. Gilda and Rainbow Dash were arguing about who'd managed the more incredible feats in the battle, trying to one-up each other with more and more unlikely tales. Rarity was pouring tea for the other ponies around the table with a grace and elegance equal to any nobility. Fluttershy was quietly listening to Applejack's description of a blight that she'd seen on crops with the worry of a doctor hearing about a patient in need.
"...Though perhaps I'm wrong about that," Celestia admitted. "Regardless, Sunset, there's something I learned long ago. Sometimes you don't play to win. You just play to avoid losing."
"Huh?" Sunset tilted her head.
"Consider a game of chess," Celestia said. "Not my favorite game, despite the rumors, but one ponies know well. Perhaps you favor a strategy focused on the Princess, the most powerful piece, able to move almost anywhere on the board at will. Certainly, it's much easier to defeat your opponent while you have such a power on your side. But if you're cornered, if you can see a trap closing in, you might have to sacrifice it."
"Doesn't it make things harder later?" Sunset asked.
"Certainly. But if the game ends right then and there because you wanted to save something for some 'later' that never comes, it was still wasted in the end." Celestia smiled and nuzzled Sunset's neck. "I'm proud of you."
"So, since they're important, we should probably confiscate them," Shining Armor suggested. "Before certain people try to sell them."
"It wouldn't help," Celestia said. "They're bonded on a deep level. If the physical form of the element is distant or destroyed, in times of great need they will return to the bearer. No force I am aware of can prevent it."
"Great," Sunset mumbled. "So if Equestria is really in trouble we'd have to rely on a bunch of low-life thieves to save it."
"Hey, I heard that!" Twilight said, standing up with her front hooves on the table. "I'll have you know only some of us are low-life thieves! Rarity and Fluttershy are much higher class."
"Oh yes, I apologize," Sunset said, rolling her eyes. "A bunch of lowlife thieves, plus Rarity and Fluttershy."
"Thank you," Twilight said, smirking. Celestia stood, and all eyes followed her.
"Twilight, why don't we have a word outside?" Celestia suggested. "I've wanted to chat with you for a long time and this seems like a good time. Soon my time will be occupied with filling out repair bills and reassuring ponies I'm still alive, and you'll find some other way to entertain yourself."
"Uh, sure," Twilight said, backing down a little. Celestia motioned for her to follow her outside to a balcony, closing the doors behind them.
"You know," Celestia said, once she and Twilight were alone. "I'm happy with the way things turned out. Very few ponies ended up dead because of my mistakes."
Twilight shifted uncomfortably where she was sitting, looking out of the huge window. In the distance, just on the edge of visibility, was Ponyville. Celestia waited for a moment before continuing, obviously offering Twilight a chance to respond to that.
"Most ponies would have gone out of their way to try and take the blame," Celestia noted. "If I used that line on your brother he would have thrown himself on his sword about how it was his mistakes, not mine. Sunset Shimmer would have blamed Nightmare Moon. Cadance might declare it wasn't anypony's fault at all."
"Yeah, but... it was your game," Twilight said. "You knew Nightmare Moon was coming. You set things in motion. Even up to the last minute." She looked at the bracer around her fetlock. "Kind of hard to say it isn't your fault when you're the only pony whose plans seem to have gone as, um, planned."
Celestia smiled at that. "And you're willing to say that to my face."
"Why not? You already decided how this conversation is going to go," Twilight said, raising an eyebrow. "I get the feeling I could leave now and have the script sent along to my room."
"It's not always like that," Celestia said. "I just... well, I've had a thousand years to plan things with my sister. Once she rests I think she'd love to get to know you. Before either of us ruled Equestria she was a bit of a troublemaker."
"I think I'd be a bad influence on her, then."
"Or she on you," Celestia smirked, looking down at Twilight. "You and your friends will be duly rewarded. I believe you were promised a little something by Princess Luna, even if she wasn't quite in her right mind at the time."
"And let me guess, it'd be contingent on my good behavior."
"Twilight Sparkle, I would never presume that you could maintain good behavior long enough to avoid picking my pocket when I'm trying to put money in your hooves." Celestia smiled brightly. "But I know you can be polite, passably charming, and most importantly, you're a good pony deep inside. The ponies you've befriended are all better for having known you."
Twilight blushed at that, looking down. "Don't flatter me too much, Princess."
"I'm sure most of your friends wouldn't mind royal pardons for services rendered. Minor noble titles can be arranged as well. I'm not sure I could manage wealth beyond imagination - the budget is going to be rather strained repairing the damage to the castle."
"Money's just a way to keep score anyway," Twilight said, dismissively.
"It's the experience that matters more," Celestia agreed. "And that's why I have one more reward for you. I'm going to tell you two secrets. As someone who deals in subterfuge and secrecy for a living, I trust you can keep them?"
"Are they worth selling?" Twilight asked.
"Not worth a penny, really," Celestia admitted.
"Then they're perfectly safe."
"The first secret is that I didn't plan nearly as much as you think. Oh, I had some backup plans to thwart my sister's more obvious moves, but mostly I was just trusting in Harmony to take care of itself."
"I like to play it by ear, too," Twilight winked. "I won't let anypony know you have a knack for luck and improvising."
"The second secret is about your grandmother," Celestia said, her grin getting wider and more mischievous.
Twilight closed the door to the balcony behind her, face pale. Sweat dripped down her brow, and one eye was twitching.
"Are you feeling alright, darling?" Rarity asked, stepping closer. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"I think I need some fresh air," Twilight said, a little hoarse. Rarity nodded and helped her into the corridor, away from the others.
"What did she say? Don't tell me she's going to throw you in prison after all."
"I don't wanna talk about it. There are things you should never learn about your family, Rarity." She shuddered. "I'm going to need about a gallon of Zebrican rum before I can forget what I heard."
"It can't be all that bad," Rarity said.
"You have no idea. Hold this. I'm gonna go get Gilda and Maud and then we'll find that gallon of rum together."
Rarity had a cloth bag pressed into her hooves. Inside was something rather heavy and metallic. She glanced inside, and her eyes went wide.
"Twilight, this is Celestia's tiara!" She glanced inside, trying to imagine how long it would be before things exploded into chaos. "Why- how?!"
Twilight winked instead of replying, walking down the hallway without a word.
"Get back here and answer me!"
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Another!
No seriously though, this was fantabulous. Moar pls.
Okay I HAVE to know what did Tia tell Twilight about her (Twi's) Grandmother??
This has been great and I would love if you ever wrote more in this world.
sooooooooooooo witch off th
e everfree sequel
I honestly enjoyed every chapter of this story which is not something I can usually claim. I think you did well blending the two series in a way that was fun and sensible.
8109847
Yeah I think both of those are leaps a bit too far. Just a bit.
8109750
If I was a gambling man I'd wager that she was sharing the fact that Grandma Twilight stole more than JUST a kiss from Celestia like the rumors say. *wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more*
Goddamn that was a satisfying ending! I'd love to see a sequel to this, the characters and setting are both so amazing and intriguing.
I love this story! And now I'm sad it's finished.
I like the ending to the chapter, but I'm a little confused as to why you would end it ther- Never mind, I just read the author's note. Amazing story and I am looking forward to the sequel.
This can't be over! Twilight didn't bang the pink out of Fluttershy's mane or settle down with Rarity! This is unfair.
That. Is genius.
This story was absolutely amazing.
I loved all of the characters by the end, especially once Rarity and Twi actually semi-officially got together.
And the banter. The banter was wonderful.
And the ending. It was so good that I can't even feel bad about there not being any more. I mean, that's not to say that I don't hope to Harmony that Twilight does, in fact, get to reuse that line against some other 1000+ year old enemy. And that we get to see it.
And the action scenes were so much fun to read.
Basically everything was the best ever.
You and your editor. Perfect team. Never split.
Wait, what? I was right about gilda? Holy mackerel of cod! Still, I love it that the gallery of rogues has managed harmony. So very fun to see. Even shimmer, having her moment to shine, not to mention cadence and armor. Not often you see a pair holding their own like that. And especially at that tier of power. Still loving the little moment with maud and pinkie.
But this, this was golden, a real grand finale. Full of thrills, action, and everyone having a moment. I want to thank you for writing this, and by the sounds of it, continuing it as well. Even celestia has her fun, and her moments. Overall, i'm just sad to wait for things, but happy to with how enjoyable this was.
But I hope that you do continue this, because wow. Everyone has shined, and I hope that you find the muse to do so.
Thank you for writing this.
Stupid question: will the short stories (if any) be stand-alone one-shots as their own stories in the system, or additions to this particular story?
This was AWESOME! And I hope we get some more soon. Also, we need some music to celebrate the victory. So...
Really great story, keep up the good work!!
Pity they forgot to teach her not to accidentally 'break' said only defense against evil beings trying to destroy Equestria.
Loved the story, really enjoyed the ride, great work.
Heh, I loved everything about these two chapters. Firstly, they were named after JOJO parts, which is always fun for me. Secondly, I loved how this telling of the series went, as the fight was much more high stakes and the fighting much more believable. Everyone preformed great and the elements going to some new individuals was great to see. All and all, great job as always. Keep goin and stay golden^^
Celestia is Twilight's grandmother isn't she.
This has been an AWESOME STORY XD!!! I'm glad I was here for the ride through it. I can't wait to see what you've planned next.
Holy crap a lupin the third based series. Please tell me there is at least a chapter based off of the movie the castle of cagliastro
*ahem*
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I betting twilight grandma had a one night stand with the princess or the princess is in fact twilight grandma.....
i demand to see a season 3 and twilight sparkle the princess of thieves
Her granny was Celestia's lover?
8129707
Twilight Sparkle said it once: according to rumors, her grandmother Twilight Twinkle, among other things, stole a kiss from Celestia. But for once rumors weren't as wild as the truth.
8130070
So she kissed Celestia's and now I need brain... kidding!
New MagnetBolt fic? And it's complete? Excellent. I've read Witch of the Everfree several times and the same for what there is of Twin Chrysis.
Mind you, I've found the various incarnations of Lupin a bit hit and miss, but I trust you to bring out the best of the series.
Two things.
One: Awesome Penn and Teller reference.
Two: Maybe the second secret is where Celestia got kissed?
Would absolutely love a sequel. Also curious if Twilight would actually take (and keep) the pardon. It would limit her previous activities, but this seems like a good time for a change of pace and would let her date openly. Also really want to see where this rivalry between Rarity and Fluttershy would lead.
8175743
She would take it to have a break for a while then go back at being a thief.
I love this, it was just so incredibly well written! You really made an incredible au here
That was a really satisfying read. Gritty and funny and totaly deserving some more loving.
Can someone Confirm this for me. I'm probably just over thinking it.
So In your story instead of rainbow dash, Maud Pie and Gilda join the elements of harmony? And if so which one is the new element?
8311539
There's actually no new element. Gilda replaced Rainbow as Loyalty and Maud replaced Applejack as Honesty.
8470245
I hate to say it, but i actually like Maud and Gilda being the elements instead of Rainbow Dash and Applejack
More Please
This was in broad strokes good and in detail beautiful.
Pinkie Pie was far too underused for how well you wrote and employed her. Most authors either abuse her comedy for serious plot and ruin it or turn her into a thoughtless clown and ruin her. You bloody nailed the whimsy plus love equals Laughter-with-a-capital she needs to be a Proper Ponk.
Also: Obligatory MOAR! (because moar)
So thanks for that.
8735503
Really? The person they are working for said earlier is an agent of The Crown. As far as knew there was only one Crown in Equestria.
The cover story sounded as if Celestia was trying to keep a dangerous Eaton out of the hooves of possible terrorists or the like. Everything was worded to understand as if Celestia hired them and their behavior is as if they are doing agents of the crown or believe so.
So yes the idiot ball is in play after s the enemy agents and even if they thought it wasnt Celestia they were working for They should have stopped and questioned why someone would want keep such a weapon that is important enough deploy who was after said weapon.
Either case idiot ball is firmly in their court.
This story really deserves more luv. Amazing read.
You gonna make a sequel to this?
This was wonderful.
Now, I may be a bit biased because Lupin the Third has been a staple of my childhood, adolescence, and adult life, so this story was practically pandering to me, but I think you still made something great out of the premise. The inspiration is clear, yet your characters have their own life, their own personality, and are quite fun fusions of the two sources.
Some of the episodes took also pretty surprising turns, like the prison escape, and I really appreciated that you decided to do your own thing with it.
Long story short, this story has been a splendid companion this week. Thank you.
8736028
or they could of thought of it as a black-op with a "we disavow all knowledge of what you have done if you fail" clause.
8923816
Except that is run when goong to other countries not your own and not when you are deploying your own milotaru forces to do the same mission.
8924361
point
I love stories in which Gilda and Twilight are best friends.
This story was fucking great.
This was an incredible interpretation of Twilight, and everything I've ever wanted to see of the more confident, cunning side of her. The rest of the cast was also superb, and played off each other delightfully. I'm finding myself rather inspired by the interplay between Twilight and Rarity. I greatly enjoyed reading this, and thank you so much for writing it.
Lupin the 3rd crossover
8109923
Ur pic... is... is that applejack riding a bearshark?