Moondust

by Parallel Black

14 - Black and White

It was a miracle they hadn’t stepped on one.

The threads of gold spread through every street and alley like the web of a trapdoor spider, waiting for someone to set hoof upon it and alert Peace to their presence. One thread per path, branching further and thinner to cover as much ground as possible. That, at least, would make it easy to find the center.

Moondancer lit her horn as a spell presented itself. Her output rate still wasn’t enough to lift her own weight, but she had more than enough magic for something like this. Most of the streets were too narrow to rely on Skycroft’s wings, anyway. It would have been easy to go back and over the top instead, but it would be too late by then, and if Peace was being this cautious then she might spot something as large as the pegasus flying overhead. Her eyes glowed as Lodus Oculus activated. The strands of hair running through the neighbouring streets came into view, seeming to phase through the buildings. The threads continued ahead of them, the branching lengths converging and thickening as they went, until everything within several blocks was visible.

For all of Twilight’s wailing about Celestia’s ire concerning the spell, the other unicorn had shared her knowledge years back when another student kept stealing her projects. She’d never been able to handle it without Twilight’s help, though even now the perceptual strain overwhelmed her for a few moments as her focal point split into countless pieces. The branching web of hairs ahead of them became lengths of mane, which met further to become ropes, guiding her eye to what must have been the center of Blackwood Close. The spell faded out before that crucial final point, likely from being spread so thin, but it was enough.

“I can see where she is. Be careful,” Moondancer warned.

Skycroft grumbled something to himself, eyeing the strand that ran between them. He shifted closer to the wall and Moondancer did the same in the opposite direction. “Have you only just spotted that?” he asked, sounding somewhat annoyed.

“Yes,” she replied as they continued. Don’t get ungrateful with me, you meathead.

“Just wondering how you knew where to go up til now. I wasn’t really thinking about it since you seemed like you were following a trail, or something.”

Moondancer didn’t respond, because she didn’t really know. I guess I was just lucky, she thought.

The road tilted upward slightly, rising over the hump Blackwood Close had been built upon. It was more than likely a massive burial mound or something to that effect, but Moondancer didn’t want to think she was walking over one-thousand-year-old corpses on a day like this. The light of the Moon shone slightly brighter as the gap between the rooftops broadened. The next street was wider, gaining a number of narrow offshoots - perhaps an attempt to recreate a thoroughfare for the dead - the larger structures leaning taller on one side, leading closer to the center of the close.

Sunset was upon them, the light of day giving way to the quiet paleness of night. Canterlot never really slept, but in a place like this that quiet rumbled around in Moondancer’s ears; an alien sensation of absence, as if she’d stepped beyond the precipice of this world and the next without even realising it.

The strand they were following led to a dead end a few turns ahead, the hair rising up and over one of the buildings to join other lengths. They turned down another path and continued. As they went, most of the hairs combined together as usual, but others began to grip the corners of the stonework as if bracing against the walls. Moondancer followed the network ahead of them and saw structures covered in criss-crossing lengths. Not even an actual spider could make it through without being detected.

“This isn’t good,” said Moondancer. “If this keeps up we won’t even be able to get close.”

Skycroft paused for a moment. “You can ride on my back if we need t-”

“No.”

“Alright, alright. It would work, is… all.”

Her vision suddenly filled with feathers, Skycroft frowning at the ground ahead of them. Phasing into view from behind the wing was another length of hair, just in the process of shifting into place. It unfurled like a spool of thread, tapering to its end before appearing to solidify where it lay.

Maybe flying wouldn’t be such a bad idea, but they would need a wider gap in the rooftops first. If they tried to make it through the narrow streets, Peace would likely feel the movement of the air upon her mane and strike anyway. Had Twilight made it all this way, or had she already been caught, or worse…?

As if reading her thoughts, her pegasus protector spoke up as they trod carefully onward, retracting his wing, “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Is it important?”

“Not really. I was just curious how you came to know a mare like Twilight Sparkle. She defeated Nightmare Moon, didn’t she? Was she really just a normal mare before then, or was there more to her?”

That’s about ten somethings in one, but alright, Moondancer thought. “You’re just curious?”

He nodded.

“First of all, it was six ponies who defeated Nightmare Moon, not just her,” she responded, recalling the distinctive bright-purple of the magical pillar that split the landbridge apart. “She was… is a very normal pony, even after becoming a hero. There was nothing special about her aside from her power. As for how I met her, we were just students together. We just happened to be in the same class.”

Skycroft looked surprised by that. “Were there no other signs of what she would become? Messages from above, weird dreams, things like that?”

Moondancer raised her eyebrows. This stallion was just as dim-witted as the rest of them. “No, nothing.” She just woke up one day and decided to leave me in the dust. “Twilight cares about books and babies, just like anypony else. She never even wanted to be anyone famous.”

“That’s how it usually goes with heroes,” the pegasus commented. “They start out on a farm and then have to answer the call and complete some big quest or something.”

“That’s stupid fantasy stuff.”

He shrugged and grinned. “That’s where I came from.”

“I didn’t ask.” Moondancer’s own twelve-year hero’s journey would be coming to a close tomorrow or the day after, and she had nothing much to show for it. Keeping the circlet would make for a nice booby prize, if the bride was feeling generous enough. She was stronger than she had been, but her power wasn’t much beyond what one might expect from the simple act of growing up. Twilight was only at the first step of her own journey and she’d already defeated the big, evil monster lurking at the end of it. Assuming Peace was taken out of the picture, Twilight would be free to sit back and enjoy the rest of her cushy life being heralded as a hero who saved the world in a single night.

“Twilight means more to me than I could ever tell her,” Moondancer continued, half under her breath. The shade beneath her hooves had stopped fleeing, now looking straight ahead toward her goal. “She’s the only pony in this stupid city I can really count on, and the only one I really consider a friend.”

“I’m kind of surprised. When I heard the Princess’ prized pupil had a dragon for a pet, I expected her to be somepony more fantastical.”

Please, stop rubbing it in, Moondancer silently begged. She recalled that look of grim determination on her best friend’s face before she galloped after Peace. She glanced back at Skycroft again. She felt like telling him about Celestia, how the princess murdered her and the rest of the class, and that the Twilight they were chasing was some strange mixture between her usual bookworm self and the heroine the faithful desperately wanted her to be. It would be nice to have a total stranger to confide in, but she still wasn’t sure what the truth actually was, whether or not they were the same ponies who walked into that classroom.

“Like I said, Twilight is just a normal pony. She’s not a fighter or anything.”

“Hm. Maybe Harmony did have a role to play, then. Regardless, if my Brothers are here then they’ll protect her. If it comes to it, they can take on somepony of this level with ease.”

“I thought you said we’d need a miracle?”

He hesitated, giving her a look. His perfectly polished armour appeared to shine in the odd light, and his own shade flickered across the curves of its surface. “Hum… I lied,” he responded far too casually. “It’s more that I want another miracle. I want to see if my idea is right, about Harmony joining in. I’ll do my duty and protect you and I’ll do my thing without hesitation if there’s a fight, but a big part of me really wants to see Twilight in action.”

Moondancer didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Is it true she’s from a long line of Octenists?” he inquired, a glint in his eye, his Lunar Shade leaning far closer than his actual body.

“Is that really any of your business?”

He shrugged. “I’m just wondering based on what the seers said. They predicted this whole thing, after all. They said Nightmare Moon was going to return and that a group of ponies would be the ones to defeat her, one of whom would bear an anvil.”

“How could they possibly know any of that?”

Another shrug. “They didn’t say it that directly, obviously. They said ‘The Moon will join hooves with the world. When the sky turns red, the one bearing Sleipnir's Table will arrive’.”

Like most “prophecies” it sounded like imprecise nonsense. “The sky turned black, not red.”

“Purple is kind of a red, from a certain perspective.”

“No it isn’t.”

“Well the seers have never been wrong before, and considering we’re all still alive I’ll choose to trust them for now. They get their visions straight from the Starlit Union, after all.”

“Sure they do.”

“The prophecy is kind of why I’m hopeful about this whole thing,” he continued, motioning to the steel-slicing blades surrounding them. “Peace was never mentioned, so that means she wasn’t important enough, so it would make sense if she’s nowhere near as strong as Nightmare Moon, right?”

“Your point being?”

“Just wondering aloud at this point. Peace came from the Moon with her master, right? So that suggests there were more like her up there, hence why I called her an ‘alien’ before. If we assume the landbridge was actually meant to be a landbridge instead of just a convenient way to get from one place to another, then maybe Nightmare Moon was trying to set the stage for an entire army to come swarming down and destroy everything.”

The thought was terrifying, but irrelevant now that the bridge was gone. Still, perhaps that wouldn’t matter to a mare like Nightmare Moon. They reached another thoroughfare, this one slightly wider yet even darker than the previous one, the gap overhead rendered just as narrow by the monolithic structures that sloped inwards either side of them. All the lengths of hair here seemed to be settled in place, no movement to be seen. They were close now. “Do you think Luna’s still alive?” Moondancer asked.

Skycroft seemed surprised by the question. “I… don’t see a reason not to,” he replied, his large hooves edging between the criss-crossing blades. “Everyone I’ve talked to seems to think so.”

“Do you think she’ll try again?” With the Moon stuck in place, either Luna was dead, or she simply lacked the power to control it. The latter would change with time, and then who knew what would come if she still had the same goals as when she arrived? “Do you think she’ll try to take over if she’s alive?”

Skycroft shook his head. “Harmony purified her. Lord Hammerton said ‘Nightmare Moon’ is gone and done, and that she’s been reverted back to what she was one-thousand years ago.”

How would that even work? Moondancer thought. That sounds more like time travel than what Twilight told me. “So you think she won’t want to take over and take revenge, even after waiting for one-thousand years and building up this hypothetical army?”

He nodded. “Lady Harmony provided Twilight and the other bearers with the power to defeat Nightmare Moon, but that doesn’t necessarily mean killing her. A goddess wouldn’t need to do that when she can just-” He clacked a hoof against the ground. “- do away with all the bad parts.”

“So we’re talking a personality change? Or maybe a case of one-thousand years of experiences being wiped out in an instant. Is that what you’re saying?”

He paused at her tone. “Harmony is the Goddess of Balance. Nightmare Moon was pure evil. She kidnapped the Princess and she was willing to destroy the entire world.” He motioned again to the gap of sky above them. “Even the Moon is stuck in place now, as a consequence of her actions. Spending one-thousand years as a being of pure evil isn’t going to leave much wiggle room when it comes to getting balanced.”

Moondancer felt like pointing out the obvious fact that there was no such thing as pure evil, but that would have been somewhat hypocritical given how she felt about the dragon that had devoured her bovine friends so many years ago. That thing was probably still out there somewhere, rampaging around and taking whatever its mindless self wanted. Regardless of how she felt, Luna was still an alicorn, and as far as Moondancer was concerned, that alone made her a threat.

“It’s easier to think she’s dead. Everything makes more sense that way.”

“Do you have something against the Princess?”

She nearly stepped on one of the lengths as her whole body hesitated. “Why…?”

“No one knows what’s going to happen. Even the seers can only tell so much when it comes to Luna, but we should both hope she’s alive and well, at least, right? The Princess has been missing her sister for a whole millennium. Does she not deserve to see her again, even if you’re afraid?”

Just for a tiny moment, Moondancer felt something twist in her gut. The circlet felt like it was throbbing upon her brow as it tried to tear a yet deeper layer of her arrogance away, but she held onto it tight and didn’t let go. What Celestia had done to her was not just unforgivable; it was an act that exposed the alicorn’s true nature. Perhaps it was the nature of all alicorns, to view ponies as expendable, disposable. Little, short-lived and narrow-minded creatures to take their stress out upon. Nightmare Moon had been the same, and Luna would be as well. She had arrived proclaiming herself “Queen” in spite of not knowing a damn thing about Equestria. There was no reason she wouldn’t be the same after what had happened, unless Harmony truly was the existential nightmare Skycroft worshipped her as, and had somehow fundamentally altered the alicorn’s entire persona.

“Of course she deserves happiness,” Moondancer lied through her teeth. “But Luna’s still going to fuck everything up one way or another.”

“I have faith. Celestia will be there to guide her.”

“And if she marries the first pony she sees and tries to become queen?”

“Then you’ll be calling me Your Majesty, obviously.”

As the light of sunset turned from orange to purple the shadows began to shift. Skycroft’s shade walked with its wings flared, as if to make itself look bigger than it already was. Her own crept forward with the shadow that was its head appearing slightly larger and clearer, as if she was walking with it hung low, keeping herself hidden from view. Her vision was a mess thanks to Lodus Oculus, but even through the scatter she could tell there was something shifting at the edges.

Shadows move slower than hooves. Don’t stop.

The little, rose-coloured stripes on Moondancer’s hooves lit up the cobbles as she went, and the light of her horn and her enchanted eyeballs made her look like a walking torch. It was growing harder to see, but her own light reflected off the blades to guide their way. She could see a shape up ahead now, through the buildings, the focal points gradually coalescing as the spell slowly zeroed in on her goal.

“She looks like she’s just laying there,” said Moondancer. “She’s stretched out like a fur rug.”

“Can you see anyone else?” asked Skycroft.

She shook her head. “I can only see what Lodus Oculus is targeted at. At the very least I don’t see any signs that she’s encountered anyone, so maybe we’re still in the clear.” The strange light of day and night seemed to play with the otherwise geometric shadows, giving them life at the corners of her eyes. It’s just clouds passing in front of the Sun, she reasoned, in spite of the sky being almost devoid of them in this heat.

No they aren’t, spoke that little, inaudible voice in her head.

Something is coming towards us, said the other.

Moondancer felt a chill run down her spine and she stopped, Skycroft nearly walking into her. The line of light cast by the gap between the rooftops wasn’t quivering anymore and the lengths of hair filling her vision weren’t moving.

Something else had tipped her off. A distant noise, almost a skittering, like a very quick set of hooves wearing wooden horseshoes, speeding toward them. Moondancer’s ears swivelled, trying to figure out what the strange acoustics of this place were trying to tell her. She boosted her horn’s aura to cast away more of the gloom, revealing an odd gap between two buildings, barely as wide as her head, and spotted the source of the noise.

“Unicorn?” came a harsh, low voice.

The circlet did nothing to help her this time as she let out a full-throated scream. The pair of red eyes within the gap dilated and backed up, before a quartet of forelimbs reached out to brace against the surrounding walls.

Skycroft jumped a little as well. “Oh, Sleipnir.”

“What the FUCK IS THAT?!” Moondancer yelled, her terror breaking clean through the vocal enchantment.

Her legs moved by themselves but Skycroft blocked her exit with both wings, their tips brushing up against both sides of the narrow street. Behind her, the creature emerged, all eight hooves and a pair of insectoid wings helping it right itself on flat ground. From its helmet rose the crooked horn of a changeling, but this looked nothing like what Moondancer had seen in biology class. Its armour was segmented to match its elongated body, with larger gaps to allow the hard, pitch-black carapace underneath to serve its purpose.

“How’s it goin’, buddy?” asked Skycroft.

One of the wings wrapped around Moondancer’s side and gently pushed her forward, as if expecting her to greet this monstrosity. Her hooves scraped against the ground, her joints locked in place as she awaited some kind of horrifying end, but the seconds passed, her heart beating like a drum, and nothing happened.

“Why is she here?” the creature asked through the octite box connected to the front of its helmet. The voice sounded male, but its neck and - Moondancer slowly released her frozen jaw - legs were lithe like a female’s, and wracked with holes. Perhaps he was emaciated, or the mass had been stretched thin to create the extra limbs.

It’s just a transformation, Moondancer realised. He’s not actually a spider monster, just a freak of a changeling. While his legs were long and thin, his torso was relatively bulky, making his slim neck grow to an almost statuesque base that seemed to prohibit free movement. Rather than twisting, it craned, limiting the movement of his head with his glaringly red eyes doing most of the work. “S-Sleipnir?” Moondancer thought aloud.

“Nick-name,” the changeling responded, his voice slowing the word to a careful droll, as if his tongue had to consider each syllable as it came out. He flicked his eyes to Skycroft, the pupils still tiny within their darker sclera.

“It’s alright, he’s harmless,” Skycroft reassured her. He looked to his partner, who looked about as harmless as an actual giant arachnid. “This is Moondancer. She’s a friend of the mare who went after Peace. She’s here to rescue her.”

Moondancer shifted back as far as she could as Sleipnir leaned down at her, his neck almost creaking with the movement. His eyes narrowed. “Circlet?”

“Lady Gavelline gave it to her,” Skycroft answered. “Lord Hammerton sent me to get her out of here once Nightmare Moon’s ally is defeated.”

“You’re here to help me save Twilight,” Moondancer corrected with a growl.

Skycroft looked down at her with that annoying, cocky grin of his. His shade enveloped hers. “Ms. Sparkle isn’t the one I’m worried about, girl.”

Moondancer shoved his wing away and turned on him. “No! You’re here to save Twilight first, then me, THEN kill Peace!” she yelled. This idiot needed to learn how to listen.

“Send Firebright instead,” Sleipnir suggested, though it sounded more like an accusation.

She could tell by his face that that one hurt, and Moondancer couldn’t help but let a cruel smirk sneak through her fury. Skycroft’s smile only wavered in response, the rest of the pain hidden underneath as his Lunar Shade flared its wings and stomped its two-dimensional hooves. “Firebright can’t fly,” he pointed out, ignoring Moondancer, though the changeling had already turned his attention to the road ahead.

“String?”

The path was clear.

In an instant the deathly silence of Blackwood Close was pierced by a calamitous crash. The sounds of shattering stone and whistling wire filled Moondancer’s ears as the structures around them turned into geometric chunks. Between the pieces, shining golden threads twisted in midair before the light of day was cloaked in stone all over again. Her legs buckled as she bolted and she let out a yell as she felt herself being lifted from her hooves by a quartet of forelimbs. The world spun around her as Lodus Oculus lost sight of its countless targets. The buildings she could make out scattered and fused as her brain tried to make sense of what it was seeing, her focal point coalescing all too slowly for her stomach to handle.

Flashes of gold and the black rocks filling the air played through her vision before she fell back onto solid ground. Her nose bounced off the hard stone floor and she felt her whole body convulse as hot liquid muck made it past her lips, tarnishing the smooth material in bits of wormroot pie and whatever particles of dog hair had made it down her throat. Moondancer shook and tried to stand, but could only hold herself up against a nearby wall. The room was lit from outside, revealing circular patterns covering the black stone that turned it into a richer, blackish-grey, if there ever could be such a thing.

No, that was just her swimming vision. The shadows weren’t moving under her hooves.

With some effort she looked back, legs still shaking from a mixture of adrenaline and disgust, and saw her saviour standing on the edge of what used to be a wall, nothing but open air behind him. Sleipnir was missing two of his extra legs, trading them for another pair of wings. His eyes looked just as alien as before as he stared down at her.

“Wh… what just… happened?” she asked.

“Attacked. Stay here,” he commanded in his low, harsh tone. His wings buzzed and he lifted from his perch.

“Wait… Sleipnir? Where are you…?”

His pupils dilated again and his legs gave a twitch. “Do not call me that.”

She scowled. Just answer my question! Leave whatever petty bullshit you have somewhere else! The opening in the wall and the sky beyond it shifted like a billowing flag in her vision. The ground felt like it was moving, as if she were about to be tossed into that void, or be buried with the war criminals. “D-don’t just leave me here!”

“Peace is found,” the changeling replied. “Stay here.”

“Like hell I will!” Moondancer exclaimed. “Where’s Twilight? What happened to her?!”

His horn flickered red. “Unknown.”

With that, he flew away.

With her legs quaking, Moondancer stumbled to the edge and immediately fell onto her haunches. Blackwood Close was destroyed. The tall, domineering structures now lay in heaps of jagged, black stone, the narrow streets and shifting shadows lost beneath the district’s own bulk. This was why Peace had spread herself so thin and wrapped her tendrils all over the buildings. She hadn’t been intending on chopping them up; Blackwood Close itself had been the trap.

You already knew that, you fool.

She looked to her side, for a moment expecting to see Skycroft’s annoying face, but he wasn’t there. Did he make it out, too?

Was he dead?

We should leave.

She stood again and took another look outside. She spied “Sleipnir” wreathing himself in crimson before disappearing amongst the rubble, the long, segmented tail of a centipede following behind. There was no way to tell where she’d been lifted from but at least there weren’t any glints of gold amongst the ruins. Maybe Twilight had found Peace, or perhaps one of the Hammers had stepped on her tendrils. Moondancer thought back to her momentary freak out over Sleipnir’s appearance, to how her hooves scuffed against the floor in her panic. She was blaming everyone else but it could have easily been her.

I wonder if I just killed my best friend, she thought to herself.

You know she’s stronger than that.

She felt her right shoulder. It must have gotten bruised in the mayhem.

We need to leave.

She felt her left. Maybe it was when she landed on her front. Her forehead was throbbing and everything felt stiff. She was so tired…

“AH!” Her eyelids flipped open and her whole body jolted as something stabbed the base of her neck. “What the hell?” she exclaimed, twisting away from whatever had done it.

“Are you listening yet?” came a new voice from beside her.

The hoof she was using to cover the area received a lesser poke. She shifted it away, glanced to see if there was any damage, and then met the gaze of the tiny figure sitting on her right shoulder.

A few seconds of silence passed. Moondancer frowned at him. “I’m sorry… who and what are you meant to be?”

The tiny pegasus paused. “I don’t have a name,” he responded, helpfully. He was sitting comfortably, a miniature jousting lance resting against one leg.

“Are you a… are you a… toy, or something?”

He shook his head. His coat was a simple white, and it was now that Moondancer noticed the pegasus’ mint-green mane…

A few moments passed before she took a swipe at him, only for her hoof to phase straight through. She stomped it against the floor instead. “L-look, I really don’t have the mental strength left for… whatever this is, so please… go back to wherever you came from.”

“Twilight will die if you stay here,” came another voice.

Oh gods no, please, no. Slowly, Moondancer looked to the other shoulder. Just as she feared, an equally tiny changeling stood there, staring straight ahead at the open sky. What appeared to be an eight-ended candelabra was balanced upon his back. “Can I at least get rid of one of you?” she asked.

The changeling glanced at her. Its tiny, red-pink eyes looked annoyed. “You’ll die without our help,” it replied.

She rubbed her eyes and let out an exhausted groan. Now that she’d stopped moving and her vision was no longer screwing with her brains, she felt ready to lay down and sleep. Today had been a mess from start to finish. In a few minutes she would pick herself up and go help Twilight, assuming that was possible, and then flop into bed, preferably with Twilight reading her a bedtime story or something as payment for all the trouble she’d caused. She didn’t have it in her for magical spirit guides or whatever the hell this was meant to be.

The lance jabbed at her neck again, startling her awake. “Alright, alright! Stop!”

“This is not the time for relaxing! Do something already!”

“Wh-what should I do?! I don’t know what’s happening right now! Where did you come from?”

They both shrugged. “Not from your own magic, that’s for sure,” said the pegasus, fluffing his wings. They were of a much more normal size, relative to his tiny body.

“We can help you, but not how you want us to,” the four-legged changeling replied.

“We’re here because you need us,” the pegasus added.

“And why would I need a pair of magical fairy assistants?”

“Because otherwise you would have gotten lost, and Twilight would die,” the changeling repeated.

He was certainly focused, at least. The odd sound of the tendrils whistling through the air drew her attention, along with the occasional crunch of stone and earth whenever they struck the ground. A great burst of flame travelled along whatever remained of a distant street as the battle began. “Are you saying you’ve been here for a while…?” Moondancer placed a glowing hoof upon her brow, feeling the warm metal of the circlet. “Maybe I should just take this off.”

The feather-like weights of the two pixies faded as she tilted the band of metal up and away from the surface of her coat, only to feel it be snapped back down by a pair of angry mosquitoes.

“Don’t do that, you aren’t strong enough to help Twilight without it!” cried the pegasus.

“You need our help! You can’t see us without this! You’re too weak!” chattered the changeling.

“Be quiet!” Moondancer yelled. Her hoof held to the inside of the ring, but she released it and stomped on the floor again instead.

The pegasus poked her on the cheek. “Don’t act like that will solve anything. You can’t let your arrogance get the better of you now!”

The hoof came right back up. “So you are here because of this thing?”

“The circlet doesn’t affect your mind that way,” said the changeling, landing calmly back in place on her left shoulder. “You know that.”

No I don’t! Moondancer thought. For all she knew, this was all part and parcel of Sleipnir’s Bray, or whatever Sunflare’s equivalent was, sealed within the circlet to drive anypony who wore it insane. She’d be left vulnerable to the trickery of faith, her sense of pride stolen and her perfectly reasonable fears drained.

“You’re deflecting your fear again.”

So she wasn’t even safe in her own thoughts. Deflecting?! There’s way too much to be scared of to accuse me of that! “So you say you aren’t my own power, and you didn’t come from the circlet, either…”

“Celestia,” the pegasus stated simply.

Moondancer mulled the word in her head for a moment before it clicked into place. Once again she recalled the classroom, that look of deep anger on her former mentor’s face before everything was destroyed in a blindingly hot blaze. Her hooves gripped against the smooth stone floor and she felt her jaw going tight. So she really hadn’t come back the same. Yet another point for the “We’re already dead” side.

Celestia must have recreated everyone in the classroom down to the most minute of memories and abilities, barring a few physical differences like Twilight’s injury. The other mare must have been going through something similar. She did seem fidgety while she’d been sat in Meadow View, and the look she got on her face whenever she felt cornered was… unlike herself. That spot between Moondancer’s shoulder blades felt like a lump trying to push its way to the surface, as if her soul was trapped in a body it knew was not its own. “Is… Twilight experiencing something like this?” Moondancer asked.

“She might be,” the pegasus replied. “I can’t tell you something you don’t know.”

“She looked like a different pony back there.”

“She isn’t,” the changeling responded. “It was only her demeanor.”

“Whoever smirked at you in Meadow View, on the other hoof…”

“We should leave. We aren’t wanted here.”

Moondancer glanced at the other side of the room. Everything else looked intact. The walls and floor were unblemished, the empty archway leading to other rooms looked just as sturdy, but the lid of the coffin the room housed looked to have gained a slight gap, beneath which only darkness could be seen.

Only things that I know, huh? Moondancer thought. “If you’ve been here for a while, then why didn’t you warn me about Peace’s mane?”

“We were,” said the changeling. “That’s why you didn’t step on it before you realised you had seen it. You saw it in the corners of your vision, just like you sensed Twilight’s trail at the limits of your own presence.”

So that was how it worked. That was fine. It was still creepy, but it would be useful. “From now on, warn me out loud about that kind of thing. I don’t like being treated like a puppet.”

“We’re part of your own-”

“I know, I get it. I’m just saying.” The patterns on the floor shifted at the corners of her vision, flowing toward the opening.

A magical explosion met her ears and she looked back outside. Golden tendrils emerged from a distant alley, slicing cleanly through the surrounding walls. A flash of magic caught her eye and relief flooded her heart. A lavender unicorn rose into view, though she did so with a pair of feathered wings, and the aura around her horn was the wrong colour: Red, just like Sleipnir’s. The changeling rode in to attack, only for a pair of tendrils to clamp around its wings and drag it back down and out of sight. The mimicry was too good; the shout he released sounded exactly like Twilight’s voice.

“You aren’t strong enough,” the pegasus warned.

He was right, but…

“Twilight will die if you don’t do anything,” the changeling countered.

“I know. Shut up. Both of you.”

What could she contribute here? Or rather, what could Nature Magic do in this scenario? She had never shown any capability for elemental spells before, but perhaps with the added power of the circlet…

Moondancer sat and placed her forehooves together, the ends regaining that odd glow. She felt her thoughts sinking back into balance as her pixie-like friends sapped away at the excess mental strain. Her speciality was plant growth and not much else, and there was nothing more than moss here. It would stand to reason that a creature walking on two legs would have less balance than one using four, so maybe vines to bind or thorns to stagger were an option. Twilight hadn’t mentioned Peace having a tail, though perhaps the hair made up for it. It wouldn’t be much, but it might make a difference.

She felt that gap within her overcome her senses, that excess space in her aether veins that always threatened to slow her down if she didn’t keep pushing herself to ignore it. It was almost as bad as having an empty belly, but at a deeper, more fundamental level than mere hunger. Her horn lit up and the motions of the world around her answered louder than ever before. They were relatively quiet here, she could tell, but whatever tiny forces existed in Blackwood Close flooded the room in response to her presence.

Her mind cleared yet further, her thoughts replaced by the sturdiness of the stone around her and of the gradually fading heat of day on its surfaces. Spirit Magic was “alive” in a sense, made up of countless individual wisps with different personalities and preferences. Likewise, the spirits of the living world could watch and think, but they all spoke with the same voice, their minds flowing seamlessly into one another. Nature Magic required the user to give in to that voice, to feel the overwhelming comfort fill whatever gaps existed within them.

Moondancer had never been a believer in meditative practices. They seemed like an unnecessary use of time that could be better spent studying, practicing, or sleeping, but they were perfect for this kind of thing. She breathed out and imagined the shape she always used; the medal she’d won through attrition. She imagined its lanyard of different greens and the sheen of its metallic surface, the way the fabric shifted in the wind and how the gold split and writhed-

She opened her eyes, then closed them again.

The medal reappeared, but the voice of the world only grew quieter. Why wasn’t it working? She peeked at the glowing stripes that travelled a short distance up her legs. Zebras were masters of Nature Magic, but they didn’t glow. A zebra’s magical network was like an open drain for the voice, lacking any significant amount of resting mana, robbing even zebracorns of basic levitation. Was her network full, instead?

Another explosion, lighting up the black stone in a bright grey. Moondancer looked outside once more and saw a gout of flame spiralling its way through the war-torn street, followed by a swarm of magical constructs being flung in the same direction. The unicorn reappeared over the rooftops - the real one this time - her hooves glowing as she galloped through the air like a tiny purple reindeer and a pale white aura adorning her horn that was larger than her entire body. In her wake rose giant, transparent shield-like structures which her attacker’s lengths seemed to be struggling with. Each slash carved a certain distance through, but none were enough to cleave all the way.

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the district as the first shield suddenly broke, then the second, then the third. The shields fell quicker than they rose, and Moondancer watched in horror as Twilight dove back to the ground, soon followed by a rain of gold.

The weaker mare's forehooves pawed at the edge, almost forgetting that there was a multi-storey drop beyond it. Any remaining thoughts of fighting Peace fled from her mind, replaced with the simple hope that her friend would be ok. Her mental list shifted from offense to various means of escape, the power and the sense of pride and freedom that came with it withering as the seconds ticked by.

A flash of purple-white. Twilight reappeared, continuing towards the attacker on glimmering hoof. Moondancer felt the stress pressing upon her. This didn’t need to be happening. They could be at her home right now, reading or something, having a nice time before she left. So what if she felt like apologising or if she felt like beating some sense into Peace? It didn’t matter! There was no reason to apologise for being strong, or for having to punish someone who was trying to end the world. None of it mattered. Not the arguments, not her forgiveness of Celestia, not her own lack of strength.

This newfound power would mean nothing if she couldn’t help. The medal meant nothing compared to the mare she’d defeated to gain it. None of her achievements or dreams would mean anything if Twilight couldn’t be there to see them.

“You are still powerless compared to them.”

“So what?!” Moondancer shouted. “I don’t care about fighting! I just want her to be safe!”

“Then jump.”

“I can’t fly, idiot!”

“You should pay more respect to the dead,” said the miniature mimicry of Skycroft.

Moondancer glanced back and saw something that made her blood curdle. It was small, but it definitely hadn’t been there before. There hadn’t been anything coming out of the coffin. The floor felt damp around her hooves and the air had turned to ice. She could almost see her own breath, even as her heartbeat pushed the blood up into her face.

There were many reasons she avoided this place, Moondancer recalled, and one of them had just been disturbed from its slumber.

“They won’t tolerate us any longer. Jump already!”

She fled into the open air, letting out a scream as she plummeted toward the jagged ruins. Her horn lit up, only for the aura to be ripped away as she landed on something soft and lumpy. Moondancer held on for dear life as upturned sections of wall rose to either side, her flight descending from the sudden weight. She ducked as an intact arch whizzed by overhead, before her saviour skidded to a halt in an open space.

“Where did you come from?!” Skycroft exclaimed, quivering in place. His helmet was missing and a couple of his water bottles had broken, some pieces of one sticking out from between his feathers.

Moondancer slumped onto the ground and took in a few heavy breaths, the world feeling like it was spinning again as she lay there. The sky above had turned a deep violet, soon to be overcome by the purple-black of nighttime. The overbearing heat of summer was gone. How long had they been out today? The mare rubbed her eyes and sat up. Skycroft was staring at her in what could only be bewilderment. His shaking hadn’t been to get her off, it had been from the pain of his injured foreleg, which she had just exacerbated. Blood trickled down from the injury, which looked like it had taken more coat than flesh. The damage was probably internal. If only she’d paid more attention to what Peace had been doing instead of railing against Skycroft and freaking out at Sleipnir, then she would have been able to warn them, and maybe avoid wasting time stuck in an open tomb.

Moondancer pulled herself up. “S-sorry,” she responded quickly.

Skycroft looked like he wanted to pursue the point, but he merely grunted. “Are you alright, at least? I could take you out of here if you want?”

She brushed the dust off of her front and realised her shoulders were vacant again. “N-no, it’s fine. I need to see if my friend’s ok.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure!” Moondancer shouted. She shut her mouth, her anger quickly cooling as she realised what she was doing wrong. “W-whatever. Sorry. Thank you for saving me,” she added. He deserved better for putting up with her.

Skycroft nodded, oddly unshaken. “S’ alright. I can imagine how worried you must be for her.” Without a word he lowered his injured wing, tilting himself slightly to let her back on. She hadn’t ridden another pony since she was a filly, but she took the offer anyway. “I had a friend like that once. I went halfway across Equestria for her, but it turned out she’d started a new life without me.”

She hadn’t asked, but it was nice to know he cared. “Is your wing ok?”

“I’m more worried about my leg. I’m just glad it isn’t my praying hoof!” he responded with a laugh.

Far ahead of them, Twilight galloped back into view. The creature that was Peace rose with her, a mere four lengths of mane holding her up as the rest made chase, her single fur-covered hand and her sharp teeth clenching in rage while the remains of her equine disguise flapped grotesquely beneath her. The Hammer raised both wings, the shards of glass glinting in the fading sunlight, and he set off to battle with Moondancer in tow.

Comments

[Comickook]

All I can say is, once again, you did a great job on the exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Greatly enjoyed Moondancer's reflections on the spells Twilight has taught her as she was trying to magically bypass Peace's defenses, Skycroft and Moondancer having the dialogue concerning Twilight's role against Nightmare Moon, the argument with that Changeling and Moondancer's general reflections on just how important it was to find a way to help Twilight.

All in all, very definitely looking forward to more of this.

[source1]

Is this story a sequel? To be honest it's quite difficult to follow what's going on with all the characters and world. To the point where it feels like one has to have read a detailed prior story that introduces a lot of concepts/characters.

[Parallel Black]

10634292
Huh. How so? This story is currently a stand-alone thing, so is there anything in particular that's causing the confusion?

[Venerable Ro]

Ah, caught up, how about that? Another story to track, most excellent.

[Parallel Black]

10639344
Glad you're liking it so far!