Friendship Day

by Crescent Pulsar

Chapter 7: Two Sisters

When they made it back to the statue, Twilight Sparkle levitated the stone balls down to the floor and drew them into a tight cluster. Then she stared at them, contemplating what kind of spark would be necessary to make the sixth Element of Harmony appear. That is, if the stone balls were more than the decorations that they appeared to be.

Wanting to be helpful, Rainbow Dash suggested, "Maybe set them on fire?"

"I don't think it's that kind of spark," Twilight Sparkle replied, barely containing the urge to express that she found that suggestion humorous. "I do have an idea, though. You might want to step back, just in case, because I don't know what effect it will have — if any."

Opting to heed her advice, Rainbow Dash backed up until she was closer to the doorway that opened up to the great hall than the stone balls. Once Twilight Sparkle saw that was as far as she would go, she returned her attention to the stone balls, closed her eyes and began to focus her magic on them. With no immediate reaction, she focused more and more magic, until each one developed an aura. She struggled to apply even more magic, which was when she got a shock that sent her flying backward, where Rainbow Dash caught her before she could hit the floor.

"Are you okay!?" Rainbow Dash queried with evident concern.

After shaking her head clear, Twilight Sparkle, feeling fine enough to have a different priority, looked to see if she had accomplished anything and became excited at what she saw. Pointing at the stone balls, she exclaimed, "Look! I think I did it!"

Rainbow Dash switched her attention to the stone balls, where there were bolts of magic jumping between them, and grew excited. That excitement died prematurely, however, when both the bolts and auras vanished. "Aw, man... It was a bust?"

Twilight Sparkle, who was still excited, gestured for Rainbow Dash to lower her to the floor so she could return to the stone balls under her own power. "It didn't reveal the sixth Element of Harmony, but that reaction indicates that they're not ordinary stone."

"They're not?" Rainbow Dash questioned, who flew beside her as they approached the objects in question.

"I'm sure of it," Twilight Sparkle said with certainty. When they reached the stone balls a few steps later, she continued. "I don't know what they are, but I want to find out so we can move on if they're not what we're looking for."

So saying, she focused her magic on only one of the stone balls and began to examine it. Initially, the information she was receiving told her that it was just stone, so she began to probe deeper, thinking that there must be something being concealed within. A few seconds later she felt something different and spent some time feeling out it's shape, so she could encompass it with her magic, then levitated it out while phasing it through the stone. What came out was a blue, hexagon-shaped gemstone, and both her and Rainbow Dash's eyes widened at the sight of it.

"Did we just find hidden treasure?" Rainbow Dash asked, who was about ready to explode with glee as she hovered and cupped her cheeks.

Twilight Sparkle looked on in wonder as she extracted gemstones from the other four stone balls, each one a different color. "I think these might actually be the Elements of Harmony, because they contain a magic that I'm unfamiliar with."

"Really!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her pitch rising but not quite a squeal. "So we just gotta figure out that spark thing, right?"

After nodding, Twilight Sparkle frowned and said, "Yeah... I'm not sure if the sparks I can think of will work, but my biggest concern is that at least one method could potentially damage them."

Losing a bit of her steam, Rainbow Dash landed and thought about the problem for a moment before perking up and suggesting, "Maybe the info on how to get the sixth element is also hidden somewhere?"

"I hope so," Twilight Sparkle replied, as she returned the gemstones to the stone balls, which she placed back upon the statue. "It would be preferable to try learning what it is before taking a risk with tests."

She knew that it might not matter, because of the time loop, but didn't want to assume that the Elements of Harmony, which held a power that she didn't understand, would be an exception. That, and she felt a lot more comfortable doing what she would normally do in a given situation — especially around others.

They proceeded to enter the great hall, where they decided to go through the first doorway on the right, with Twilight Sparkle providing light with her horn because there were no immediate holes in the ceiling and the sconces held unusable torches — if there was a torch at all. It took them to a corridor that split off into other corridors, with the occasional room between them, and no easy way to tell where the corridors led or whether they'd been in one before without seeing a room, pile of rubble, or damaged tapestry that was distinct from the rest.

Eventually, after several minutes of traversing the corridors, one of Twilight Sparkle's steps produced a clicking sound, which was quickly followed by the sound of a trap door opening up directly behind them. While she stiffened before whipping her head around to look over her shoulder, Rainbow Dash yelped and spun about while taking flight.

When she saw what had happened, and calmed down from being startled, Rainbow Dash flew close enough to the pit to see its bottom. "A trapdoor? Is that normal for castles?"

"It's not," Twilight Sparkle answered, who stepped up to the edge of the pit, which closed soon after her hoof left the pressure plate. Rubbing her chin while in thought, she added, "It's also not normal to have a maze of corridors, leaving very little room for staff and residents — unless there are sections devoted to them somewhere else and we've yet to find them."

"Only one way to find out, I guess," came Rainbow Dash's enthusiastic response.

Despite her enthusiasm, however, she still took the precaution of staying in the air to avoid any more trapdoors as they moved on. They went down several more corridors, aimlessly, before finding a staircase that spiraled down to the subterranean level of the castle. That seemed like a good place for hiding important things, so they decided to go down, with Rainbow Dash keeping pace with Twilight Sparkle when she wasn't feeling brave enough to fly anywhere that wasn't illuminated well.

The staircase led to a curved, vaulted passageway, and — unlike the corridors above — it was linear and had sections that varied in color and style. The first passageway to have something notable in it had both walls covered by disembodied pony legs on plaques, which Twilight Sparkle didn't even bat an eye at it. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, made sure to stay behind her so her unease wouldn't be seen.

Still, she wanted the unperturbed unicorn to believe that she was just as unaffected, so she said, "You're not scared of these, either?"

"These are pretty tame," came Twilight Sparkle's casual response, who spared the wall ornaments one more brief glance. "Ponies bring new works of art to the palace all of the time, and they can be, er... creative."

Rainbow Dash's ears perked up with interest. "You work at the palace or something?"

"Or something," Twilight Sparkle evasively replied.

Finding that answer curious, Rainbow Dash flew over to her side and regarded her with a cocked brow as she pressed, "Are you too embarrassed to say? What, are you a janitor?"

With a sigh, Twilight Sparkle stopped walking and made eye contact with her. "When ponies learn about who I am, they tend to react negatively. Such as by: expressing disbelief, or expressing disbelief followed by disdain; they might stop acting like themselves, maybe become obsequious—"

"Become what?" Rainbow Dash interjected, looking confused.

"Kiss up to me," Twilight Sparkle clarified, before finishing with, "Then there are some ponies who try to manipulate me, or take advantage of me, and some are better at hiding it than others."

Crossing her forelegs, Rainbow Dash looked at her skeptically and said, "So you're some kind of bigwig, huh?"

With a shake of her head, Twilight Sparkle started to walk again. "Does it matter?"

Rainbow Dash thought about it for a couple of seconds before deciding, "I guess not," and catching up with her.

After they left the disembodied pony legs behind, the passageway eventually took them to a doorway that was on the inside wall. They stopped to peek through it, where they found a cavernous room being occupied by a humongous pipe organ at the far end — well, humongous by the standards of its time.

"Y'know," Rainbow Dash began, her tone expressing suspicion as she eyed the pipe organ, "after the other things we've encountered here so far, I can't help thinking that this was a villain's castle."

"I doubt the two regal sisters, who moved the sun and moon, were villains," Twilight Sparkle disagreed, before pausing and conceding, "Although one did become Nightmare Moon, apparently."

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and nodded her head with self-satisfaction. "See? I bet her dark side was showing before she did."

Twilight Sparkle didn't see any reason to argue about that, so she said, "Either way, I doubt the information we want is here, so let's keep looking."

"What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked, as Twilight Sparkle began to walk away. "What if playing a certain tune reveals the info we need?"

Stopping, Twilight Sparkle looked over her shoulder and patiently said, "Because, even if that were the case, we have no idea what the tune is. And with the amount of keys available, the likelihood of guessing the right combination before dawn is extremely unlikely."

She continued walking, and Rainbow Dash followed her, with ears lowered, before lightly challenging, "Well, where do you think we'll find it?"

Twilight Sparkle looked up in thought for a moment before replying, "I think the most likely places are the study, library, royal bedroom, any room that's a part of the living quarters for royalty, and the treasure vault."

"Think we'll ever find any of them today, because of that maze?" Rainbow Dash wondered.

"Don't worry," Twilight Sparkle confidently assured her. "I've got an idea on how we can deal with that."

They continued down the passageway, and the next notable thing they encountered was a section with many full-bodied suits of armor being displayed on both sides. While Twilight Sparkle showed interest in them, in terms of their historical value, Rainbow Dash was intimidated by their dark, sinister appearance, who made sure she hid it by staying behind Twilight Sparkle once again.

"Definitely a villain," she muttered.

The passageway ended with another spiral staircase, which they took back up to the ground level. They found themselves in the maze of corridors again, but this time Twilight Sparkle took a yellow tapestry and tore it into many, confetti-sized pieces, which would stand out against the stone floors and red carpets when left in corridors that they had already been in.

With the ability to tell which corridors they had already used, they were able to find a room of interest in about an hour, one whose windows and damaged ceiling allowed more than enough sunlight to not require light derived from a horn. That room turned out to be the library, much to Twilight Sparkle's delight, who began to flit from bookshelf to book pile like a filly in a candy store, glad that these books had been preserved with a spell.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash had to interject herself between her and the books before chastising, "You remember why we're here, right?"

Looking abashed, Twilight Sparkle turned away from Rainbow Dash's critical stare, and bit her bottom lip when she found herself gazing upon more ancient books. It took some effort, but she was able to suppress her desire to start reading any book she could get her hooves on, partly because she remembered that she could come back at another time, another loop, and read to her heart's content.

After taking a steadying breath, she said, "Sorry. It's just... This is amazing!"

"Yeah, yeah; I get it," Rainbow Dash flippantly replied. "It's an egghead's paradise."

"It's more profound than that," Twilight Sparkle retorted, wearing an irritated frown.

Rainbow Dash had already turned her attention elsewhere, having flown over to a pile of books so she could look over them herself. "What language even is this?"

"Ours," Twilight Sparkle dryly replied. "Just older."

"Well, I can't read it," Rainbow Dash said, who turned to face Twilight Sparkle while folding her forelegs behind her head, leaning back and crossing her hind legs. "So I don't think I'll be any help here."

"What we're looking for isn't necessarily inside of a book," Twilight Sparkle pointed out. "You can reach a lot of areas much easier and faster than I can, and there are a lot of places where something can be hidden in a library of this size."

Rainbow Dash wasn't all that enthused about looking in nooks and crannies, but began to do it anyway because it seemed like Nightmare Moon's return might actually be true and she enjoyed the idea of taking her down, even if this part of the process was neither interesting or fun. While she was doing that, Twilight Sparkle was looking for promising titles on the fore-edges of books, and trying very hard to not open up and read interesting ones that weren't relevant to their search.

An hour or so later, after finding nothing, a flagging Rainbow Dash found Twilight Sparkle and asked, "Hey, can we take a break and get something to eat?"

More due to the fact that she was in a time loop — and thus not pressed for time — than feeling sympathetic, Twilight Sparkle turned her attention away from the bookshelf that she had been perusing and replied, "Sure. I'll stay here and continue to look while you're gone."

"Do you want me to bring back anything specific, or...?" Rainbow Dash prompted.

"Anything's fine," Twilight Sparkle replied, who had already returned her gaze to the bookshelf.

Rainbow Dash observed her for a second, thoughtfully, before shrugging and flying over to the long table nearby, wanting to rest her wings after using them for so long to look around the library, following all of the time spent flying around the castle. "Okay. I'm just gonna give my wings a rest first."

She went to a chair on one end, and once seated she leaned the chair back and propped her hind legs on the table. Hearing an odd sound from the chair made her stiffen, then she was startled and took flight when a pair of nearby bookshelves rumbled before sliding apart from each other, revealing a hidden room.

Staring at the entrance to the room in disbelief, due to finding it like that after so much work, she didn't notice Twilight Sparkle had approached her until she heard her exclaim, "Good work, Rainbow Dash! Hopefully this is what we're looking for!"

Opening her mouth to explain what had happened on reflex, Rainbow Dash paused when she saw Twilight Sparkle already leaving her behind to enter the secret room, then decided to just accept the praise and follow after her.

At the far end of the room there were two windows, one yellow and one blue, which had day and night motifs respectively. There were two alcoves, with one having a bookshelf and a table, while the other accommodated a settee. There was another bookshelf between the left alcove and the windows, and another table just to the right of the doorway. And then there was the book on the lectern, situated in the center of the room, which Twilight Sparkle made a beeline for.

"Is that safe?" Rainbow Dash cautioned as the unicorn's magic enveloped the book, because she thought the placement of the lectern was rather odd.

Twilight Sparkle stopped herself before moving the book in any way, then tried to see with her eyes, and divine with her magic, if there was anything to worry about. When she couldn't detect anything noteworthy, she self-assuredly replied, "I didn't sense anything wrong, so let's find out what 'The Journal of the Two Sisters' contains."

Upon opening the book, nothing happened. When that continued to be the case for several seconds, Rainbow Dash flew over and landed beside Twilight Sparkle, to await her findings. There was a troubled expression on her face when she arrived, so she asked, "What's wrong?"

Staring at the name that claimed to be one of the journal's authors, and having trouble believing it, Twilight Sparkle swallowed before answering, "It's... If this is true... Then this castle belonged to Celestia."

"The Celestia!?" Came Rainbow Dash's surprised response. When she received a nod, she had a revelation. "Wait! So that would make Nightmare Moon her sister!?"

"If this is true," Twilight Sparkle reminded her, before worrying her bottom lip. "But... It makes enough sense on its face: Nightmare Moon was sealed away a thousand years ago, and Princess Celestia has been moving the sun and moon for a thousand years. Also, the book that..."

Seeing her trail off and look even more disturbed, Rainbow Dash worriedly asked, "What? Is there more?"

Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes for a moment and took a steadying breath. "Before I left Canterlot for Ponyville, I warned Princess Celestia that Nightmare Moon was going to escape her imprisonment."

"Did she respond?" Rainbow Dash queried.

"Yes," Twilight Sparkle answered, her mind awhirl with certain details that only she knew. "And rather than address my concerns, she sent me to Ponyville to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration."

"That's how you got the job?" Came Rainbow Dash's incredulous reply, before she shook her head. "Anyway, basically, she didn't believe you?"

With a shake of her head, Twilight Sparkle answered, "I don't know. If there wasn't more to this than what you're aware of, then maybe, but..."

"What else is there?" Rainbow Dash was keen to ask.

Twilight Sparkle considered the pegasus, wondering if she should reveal anything, but couldn't think of a good reason for why she shouldn't, since Rainbow Dash wouldn't remember anything when the current loop ended. So, she adopted a serious expression and began to inform her on who she was, in relation to the princess, what happened prior to her leaving Canterlot, the princess' letter, the time loop, and the strange book in Ponyville's library.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Haha, it's kabuki all the way down. At this rate she'll end up conjuring Starsquirrel's element of Sourcery rather than the magic/faith/friendship she was intended to get.

Indeed, if the revelatory enchantment relies on Twilight achieving certain epiphanies on a set schedule or in a certain proximity, she may end up borking the entire thing simply by forming bonds of friendship here in these loops.

Wouldn't that be amusing...

[Yoshifan30]

When she saw what had happened, and calmed down from being startled, Rainbow Dash flew close enough to the pit to see its bottom. "A trapdoor? Is that normal for castles?"

From what I remember it's one of Princess Luna's favorite things about the castle

[Yoshifan30]

Ok wow so Twilight and Rainbow try to find any information about The Elements of Harmony is an about this Castle so far they didn't find nothing until they found a trap door or a trap room or whatever where are Princess Celestia and Luna's Journal is there and apparently they just found out that this Castle belongs to Princess Celestia and Luna 1000 years ago and so Twilight found out about this whole information so now what's going to happen

[hawthornbunny]

Ahh, it's good to see classic pre-friendship Twilight back again :) This is a fun ride!