(Present Chapter 16): Into the Highest Depths; The Star Sanctuary Temple
The blistering cold means nothing to the cloaked figure rushing through it, and the fools standing between her and the ruins mean nothing as well.
"Oi, you best get on the ground, afore we make this hurt, trespasser," one of the thugs says, stepping forward with a malicious grin. This one thug in particular being a minotaur.
The cloaked figure snarls. "Don't be so bullheaded." At that, they leap forward, bashing the minotaur into instant, bloody unconsciousness with a headbutt, before turning to the other two, who look nervously between one another.
"Getting cold feet? I thought you were going to ice me. You should really chill out, before you get the cold shoulder."
With that, the cloaked figure charges the pair, who try to strike her down, only for her to shoulder-check one of them into the other one, sending them both crashing into the snow.
"Fortune can be so icefickle, especially when you aren't glacier of who you're fighting," she says darkly, walking up to the scrambling pair of pony thugs.
She stares them both in the eye, her own eyes glowing with invisible light from within her hooded cloak, as a bottle of swirling liquid makes it's way into her hoof, ready for throwing. "Now, I'm going to flask you nicely. Fuck off, before I decide to put you on ice."
The two thugs turn to each other with an unspoken agreement, before grabbing their friend and running as fast as they can to their camp.
The mare looks to the entrance of Chaos Cacophony zone, before shaking her head sadly. Not so much as a hint of black flames to indicate the Shadow Realm's revival.
She'll have to keep searching, then. What a waste of the past several months. She really didn't think this plan through very well.
"Hey, wake up!" Gilda shouts, staring down at the pony infesting Bustling Beans' with their exhausted presence.
Sunset Shimmer jerks awake, her eyes already drooping back down as she stares up at the griffon she had met once or twice on errands for Weiss before...
She yawns. "What's up, closing time or something?" Sunset asks, grabbing her coffee and drinking the now-cold swill as fast as she can to minimize the experience.
Before Gilda can answer, she returns to the spread of papers that she had been poring over.
Gilda snapping her talons distracts Sunset enough to return her gaze to the griffon, where she notices Twilight and Trixie as well.
"We've been a bit worried about you. Have you been here every day this month?" Twilight asks, stepping forward with concern in her expression.
Sunset shakes her head. "Only every other day. I've just been pulling a lot of all-nighters is all. Translating this book is a lot of work..." She says miserably.
Gilda and Trixie share a knowing look. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Gilda says before a window is shattered in an instant by what at first glance appears to be a black bat.
What confirms it isn't, aside from its gigantic eyeball, is the holographic projection it displays on the table.
"Hello there, suckbag! If you're receiving this message, it's because you are an element of Harmony, and I'm feeling a bit bored. Luckily, I have the perfect solution!
"You might have noticed the floating island over the Everfree, well, guess what, that's Star Road, and even as we speak, it is gathering the wishing energy of every pony in Equestria!
"Now, I know what you're thinking. Keep thoughts like that to yourself, young lady." Weiss's hologram says, glaring at nothing but empty air as Twilight and the others fight off confusion and annoyance.
"Anyway! Yeah, Wish Energy, I'm going to turn them all into shooting stars, but you better believe this isn't for the good of Equestria, I'm going to be using all of those stars to create a Relic of Darkness unlike any other~! You could try and stop me, but so long as the Star Rod of Wishes is embedded in the hidden temple of Star Road, it's hopeless!"
"Even if you wanted to take it, it's inside the most dastardly dungeon I can devise, protected by monsters, warriors, and traps alike!"
"Even now, my Minish Cap grows fat with the power of Equestria's wishes, I can hardly wait!"
"And just in case you've decided that a Monday is just not the day to be traipsing into a dismal floating fortress in search of treasure and glory..."
Weiss steps out of the hologram's radius, dragging in a tied up Pinkie Pie. "Hi Girls! I got kidnapped! Weiss kinda didn't do it right though, cause he asked permis-" Her mouth is clamped shut by a hasty Weiss running back on screen.
"Look, the point is I'm doing bad guy stuff, and letting me amass Equestria's wish energy is just plain irresponsible, speaking generally. Bye!"
The hologram pops, and the Eyeroc plops down onto the table, panting softly from pumping out such a high-quality hologram.
Gilda idly snatches the bat-monster before it can try to flap away, glaring it into submission while Twilight and Sunset ponder the message.
"So Pinkie's been kidnapped," Sunset says.
"Yup," Twilight responds.
"Weiss created some sort of machine to absorb and concentrate the wishes that are made in Equestria..."
"Uh-huh."
"I guess you're going to go stop him?"
Twilight sighs suffering. "I wanted to try and help you today, but I don't think I can take care of whatever Weiss has planned in a half-hour..."
Gilda snorts, bullying the small Eyeroc in her grip. "We could probably help out. Trixie's no slouch at nerd stuff."
Twilight looks unsure, looking to Trixie's blushing face. "If you think you two can handle it..."
What a waste of Weiss's time. If this wasn't going to get the Grimoire Noir finally brought back into the public eye, he never would have put up with spending the last four hours pandering to paparazzi and carefully choosing words to maintain his reputation as a villain without unjustly harming Celestia's reputation further.
But now, at long last, he can return to what he adores doing. Annoying others.
"Avidus!" Weiss shouts, only for nothing to happen.
Right. Figures they would have shored up that vulnerability. There must be anti-teleportation wards on all of Canterlot, by now.
Oh well. Perfect chance to remind them he's not that easily thwarted.
"Vas Avidus!" Weiss shouts, calling down an actual thunderbolt, which rips through the anti-spacial wards in Canterlot long enough for him to slip through the warped space back home.
As he stares at his lamp, which is mere meters away from where he teleported, Weiss considers the risk of his backup teleportation spell requiring that he be sent back to his lamp. Well, there's nothing to be done about it. Only something Weiss places the utmost importance on is a valid target for his Vas Avidus spell.
His lamp is probably the only thing left with that sort of value.
Grubber is already waiting in his office, drinking one of his bottles of buttered corn soda.
"Hey! I need that stuff to stop mind readers, don't drink it all." Weiss complains, grabbing a bottle for himself, popping the cork on it with a hiss.
"So, what's the progress on Star Road's dungeon?"
Grubber nods. "Oh yeah, it's pretty much done, we still gotta buy the paintballs for the paintball room, and get the safety goggles for that part, but other than that."
I nod. "Good. Get on that double-time. I'll start making the invite."
Grubber looks like he wants to ask a question, so Weiss decides to pose it himself.
"Wondering why I'm making the fortress designed to be conquered?" Weiss asks.
"Nah, Tempest explained that to me and the Fizz Guards. I'm just kinda wonderin'... Why bother? If you're doing this because you can see the future, then doesn't that mean they'll beat all the baddies coming whether or not you help?"
Weiss is stunned by Grubber's apt question.
"Well, it's because I saw the future once, and that's it. If I'm not careful, the future could change. Harmony likes to try and steer things back to a more ideal future if things derail a bit, but that can sometimes take years or decades before it puts things back on course. I'm just minimizing the amount of luck required for the Element Bearers to do what they're destined for," Weiss answers simply.
Grubber thinks about this, before summarizing. "So you're already card counting, but you're also stacking the deck just to make sure?"
Weiss nods.
"Huh. Well, thanks for the syllabus, boss. I'll get the boys on double-time like you want," Grubber finishes, as he drains the last of the soda and leaves.
One thing about this meeting leaves Weiss deeply unsatisfied, however.
How the hell did Grubber manage to tolerate that soda?
Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy stand at the top of the hill in the middle of the Everfree Forest. The one that Weiss's soldiers had apparently painstakingly forged a save path through the forest to, erecting towering chain-link fences with wildlife bridges over them.
A wooden sign at the top of the hill reads out for all to see.
"A recent event has caused the Star Road to fall to pieces, we're working on having the path up to it repaired, but without the five Star Piece Gems, it might take a long time!
Sorry for the inconvenience!"
Twilight hums at this, while Rainbow Dash just scoffs. "Who needs some dumb bridge. We could just fly up there, right?" she says, jabbing a hoof up at the floating island, chained down to the planet by a string of broken chunks of earth, the damaged portion that those so-called "Star Piece Gems" would help repair.
Twilight just hums again. "It's a shame Rarity was too busy today making our outfits for the Grand Galloping Gala to help us here. Her Gem-finding spell would have made this a snap!"
"Well, she ain't here, so Fluttershy and I will just have to carry you up. Ready?" Rainbow asks, looking over to Fluttershy, who had been sitting in on some of Gilda and Dash's flight practice sessions.
She nods, speaking softly. "I think I can handle that."
The matter settled, the two pegasus mares hook a hoof under Twilight and slowly carry her up to the floating sky island, the trio plopping down, with Fluttershy panting slightly from the exertion.
Twilight's eyes widen at the sight of a swarm of glittering, bug-like electrical golems flooding the airspace below the island, and the large crystal eyeball on a stick with a crude sign on top of it that reads "Five Pony Minimum", glaring at their distinctly three-pony group.
"If we had brought Applejack and Rarity here, we would have had to repair the bridge, or those bugs would zap you two when you tried to make more than one trip to carry everypony up..." Twilight says, picking apart the trap for what it was.
"I guess Weiss doesn't know what the hay a 'Day Job' is, huh?" Rainbow jokes at what must have been an incredibly expensive and time-consuming trap to devise, making Fluttershy smile slightly at the humor, while Twilight chuckles.
"I guess not. Let's keep moving.
"There's no telling what Weiss is doing to Pinkie Pie right now."
"Seven-thousand two-hundred ninety-three bottles of pop on the wall, seven-thousand two-hundred ninety-three bottles of pop!
"You take one down-" A loud crash rings out "-pass it around, seven-thousand two-hundred ninety-two bottles of pop on the wall!"
Weiss crushes another slab of stone to rubble with his armored forehead, trying to drown out the nightmarish torture.
"Pinkie, perhaps we could do something a bit more interesting?" Weiss begs.
"Just because I can't leave the room for fear of you escaping those ropes doesn't mean we can't do something more genuinely entertaining."
Pinkie looks confused. "I've been out of the ropes since bottle nine-thousand six-hundred and twenty-five, though!"
Weiss removes his helmet, flinging it at the wall where it explodes into flames and evaporates.
"Whatever. I'm just going to put some cameras on the Mane... Three, I guess. Want to grab some lunch while we wait for them?"
Pinkie shakes her head. "It's not an authentic kidnapping if we just up and leave! Don't you know the first thing about kidnapping a pretty mare?"
"Yes, and should I do that, I'll be sure to apply it," Weiss deadpans.
"Wow, tell me how you really feel, why don'tcha." Pinkie giggles, hopping off of the chair she had been tied to and trotting over to a window.
"Oooh, it's all tilty, how'd you make the window do that?"
"I didn't, I made us do that, This whole tower is twisted in on itself to save space. Like a candy cane made out of hallways," Weiss explains.
"Well, any tower that's like a candy cane is a tower that's alright by Pinkie!" She says, hopping up and down in front of the window, tilting her head back and forth as she amuses herself with the distorted skyline.
"It's like a funhouse mirror, but for Equestria!"
Weiss exhales. "Yes, I suppose it is. Look, I'm going to go micromanage my creeps, if you need anything, there's a radio crystal on the table."
With that, the dark sage exits the room, leaving the pink mare to amuse herself.
The instant the door closes, Pinkie freezes in midair, her eyes narrowing.
"Now my master plan can begin..." Pinkie says, slowly stepping down from the empty air she was hanging over, and chuckling darkly as she turns to the door.
If Weiss had read the "Equestrian Hammy Anti-Villain's Guide to Kidnapping for Fun and Profit", he would know exactly what the damsel is supposed to do when the villain leaves her unattended...
The door slams shut on Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, as three suits of armor crash into the room. To the side, a wall slides open, and a hologram of Chibi Weiss Noir appears.
"Howdy, Element Bearers! I know some of you might not feel comfortable with combat right now. If you aren't willing to give fighting my evil guards a try, there's an observation balcony right this way!"
With that, a neon arrow points down the side-hall, while up above, a patch of the wall turns transparent, revealing a window and three chairs. A table nearby possesses several bottles of ice water.
Fluttershy looks to Twilight and Rainbow Dash for an answer.
Twilight sighs. "Well, at least he's being polite now.
"Fluttershy, would you like to wait, while Rainbow Dash and I take care of... These?" Twilight gestures to the suits of armor, which are slowly being filled with tiny black bugs, glittering like obsidian in the golden light of the chamber.
Fluttershy nods, grateful for Twilight's understanding as she trots down the side hall and up into the observation room.
As she stares out into the room below, Twilight summons the Master Sword, while Rainbow Dash simply puts her hooves up in a martial arts stance.
The three suits of armor ignite with black fire that seems to intentionally restrain itself to the inside of the armor, only a few trace embers escaping their joints.
The bug-armors each pick up a wooden staff, charging Twilight and Dash clumsily.
Twilight blocks the staff with her sword, while Rainbow Dash flies over and bucks it's helmet off, making the armor collapse.
The two suits of armor look at each other nervously, stepping back, before charging in unison this time, trying to attack the pegasus.
Rainbow Dash just smirks as she performs an aerial spin-kick on one of them, dodging the other's swipe with ease.
"Well, I'm glad they're having fun," Fluttershy says with a soft smile, sipping at the bottles of lemon-water to cool off a bit. Though, to be honest, Fluttershy feels a bit uncomfortable, just watching her friends fight while she sits here in safety. Maybe she should have tried to help, but...
Twilight slashes one of the armor suits apart, the bugs inside swarming away into the walls.
Oh, those poor beetles! Fluttershy hopes Weiss isn't treating them poorly...
"Alright, since the two of you can't read English, and I don't have six-to-eight months to teach it to you, we're going to cut corners," Sunset explains, surrounding the Grimoire Noir with candles and chalk lines.
When the candles ignite with purple flames, casting the almost pitch-black room in an eery light, Trixie feels the need to start asking questions.
"Trixie wishes to know what exactly all of this... ambiance... is intended to achieve."
"Besides skeeving us out," Gilda interjects, looking around the room nervously, her eyes trying to adjust.
Sunset finishes lighting the last candle and drawing the last symbol. "It's just supposed to set the mood. I'm going to use a spell called Lively Lecture Liberation, and we need to get into the author's headspace for it to work. Luckily..."
Sunset pulls out the squirming Eyeroc "Weiss has given us a piece of his mind."
The Eyeroc spots the book and scrambles over to it, where Sunset's magical spell allows it to be absorbed into the tome.
The book opens, white letters swarming out of the book's black pages until they form a portal.
Sunset turns back to the pair. "Well? We don't have time to waste if we want to get this book translated."
"You never explained what the spell is supposed to do-Oooo!" Trixie shouts, as Gilda rolls her eyes and just grabs the mare in a football carry.
"Come on Trix, let's get this over with," Gilda says as they leap into the gateway.
Trixie has the presence of mind to grumble as they enter an even darker room.
In true Shadow Realm fashion, torches on the walls begin to ignite, one after another, leading down a long stone hallway. Snow howling overhead the trench in the ground.
Sunset Shimmer walks confidently forward, while Trixie and Gilda follow more nervously.
They hear a voice as they walk, one that sounds almost familiar, though it isn't nearly as smooth, and it's a great deal younger.
"Entry number one, day three."
"Until such time that I learn the pony who rightfully discovered this spell first, I will take the liberty of speaking of it in my own ignorant terms, such that a fresh perspective can be had on what seems to be the simplest dark magic." The voice says, with an unsure, but excited tone.
Sunset shakes her head. "I've already translated this part. We'll need to move through this subject quickly, so we can reach the untranslated text."
She steps forward and summons up a Black Flame from her horn, which makes the area become quiet and still at the sight of her proof of understanding before another gateway opens, one leading to another, different place.
Twilight finishes having Rainbow move the last gigantic block, pipes embedded inside the block connecting with other pipes to complete a sealed network that causes a pressure gauge on the wall to fill up completely, as the blocks can now transport raw stardust through them at a high enough pressure to register on the sensors in the room.
The door, previously sealed with spears thrust through and over it, slides open, allowing them to pass now that they've solved the strange puzzle.
Rainbow Dash rubs her neck, sick and tired of these stupid puzzles interrupting her action-combat time. "Man, this place sure is weird. Does this guy just have his guards move blocks around all day to get in here?" Rainbow Dash points out, as they walk through the golden halls, streams of yellow stardust rushing overhead like a river and illuminating the entirety of the Star Sanctuary.
Twilight nods, but it's half-hearted, something that Fluttershy agrees with verbally. "It's a very beautiful place, though." Fluttershy points out, looking up at the glowing desires of all Equestria hanging overhead in lazy, swirling eddies, funneled deeper into the Sanctuary by the gentle gradient of the ceiling.
Suddenly, a small yellow object plops down in front of them from the yellow sparkling mass, before popping like a balloon and spraying stardust everywhere.
Rainbow Dash's sneeze fails to drown out the little whisper that emerges from the shooting star hitting the ground.
"I wish I could be just like my dad." The tiny wish asks, before dissipating back into dust motes floating to the ceiling.
Twilight's eyes are full of metaphorical stars. "It's incredible. Ponies have always made wishes, but I've never heard of anyone trying to bring them all into one place like this. The similar wishes are all clumping together, and then falling down... I've only heard of events like that happening once in a millennium, naturally."
Fluttershy nods, while Rainbow Dash tries to rub the glitter off of her nose.
The trio makes their way into a large, circular room, covered in blunted spikes all along the walls, and holes in the ceiling where streams of stardust float up into, collecting en-masse.
As soon as Fluttershy crosses the gap, sharp spears thrust up from the doorway, sealing them all in as they shout with confusion, Rainbow Dash wheeling about to charge the blocked doorway.
She crashes into it with a ringing clang of failure, as Tempest Shadow drops down onto the ground, balanced on a large purple ball, marked with bright yellow stars.
While Fluttershy cowers and Rainbow Dash puffs herself up, the dark purple unicorn simply grins, balancing on top of the ball with a few rocking motions before hopping down to eye level.
"Hello, Heroes." Tempest Shadow says with the smoothness of velvet and polished steel.
"You're after the Star Rod of Wishes, aren't you? Here to put a stop to Lord Weiss Noir's plans?
"Then you should have wished harder, to not face me as the guardian of the Star Sanctum."
Twilight steps forward with a determined expression. "We're not afraid of you, Tempest Shadow!"
Tempest's smile turns into a mocking frown. "Oh but you hardly know me.
"Besides, this isn't a trial for you. It's a trial for the Bearer of Kindness."
Twilight's face scrunches up in confusion. "Fluttershy? But she's not going to want to fight you!"
"I sure as hay do, though!" Rainbow Dash shouts, before charging directly at Tempest, who simply steps to the side with ease as the chromatic pegasus crashes into the giant ball, bouncing off of it into the blunt-spiked walls.
instead of suffering a painful poke, though, the walls zap the mare, trapping her in a bubble that she fruitlessly tries to escape from.
"Then it's a good thing we won't be fighting.
"Well, those of us not in a bubble right now, I suppose," Tempest states bluntly, smirking at Rainbow Dash's misfortune as she aimlessly bounces around the room before the bubble finally pops, dropping her to the ground with a thump.
Tempest's words manage to pull Fluttershy out of her tier-two cowering pose, as she reveals her head just enough to question Tempest's statement. "We aren't?"
"This is a trial, not a brawl. We'll be playing a game to see if you're worthy of the Star Rod."
"The rules are simple, I'm the only one who can let you through this door," Tempest says, jutting her head back to point to the gigantic door leading into the Star Sanctum's Inner Sanctum.
"And we're going to play Dead Man's Volley, to help me decide whether I'm going to do that or not."
"I'll kick this ball at you, and you have to knock it back. Fail, and..." She looks pointedly at the glaring Rainbow Dash, who finally managed to shrug off the wall's zapping and disorientation.
"And what's to stop us from making you let us through?" Rainbow Dash shouts, ready for another charge.
Tempest Shadow stares on, unimpressed. "You mean aside from your skills?
"If you try to fight me, somepony might get hurt. And I don't think that sets the right tone for proving the virtues of kindness."
Something about that strikes Fluttershy as odd, even as Tempest almost gently lifts her gigantic bouncy ball into the air, and kicks it towards them like a cannonball.
Pinkie Pie zips behind a corner when a Fizz Guard lumbers past, back pressed against the wall as she silently watches them pass, giggling when they don't notice her.
The Fizz Guard turns around suddenly, but Pinkie had already zipped up to the ceiling, holding herself there with careful positioning.
The guard's eyes narrow suspiciously before he pulls a thick chunk of obsidian from his belt. "We've got a 47-Dancer. Heard a voice, can't find the source. Advise."
A smooth chatter rings out over the magical device, and the guard nods, before continuing his lumber.
Pinkie, who had been sweating, drops to the ground and giggles again.
"Good thing guards never look up!" Pinkie Pie says with a giggle, ignoring the security camera rolling its eye at her.
She bounces her way through the halls of The Tower with instinct and feelings guiding her all the way to the supply closet. Opening the closet, she finds a practical treasure trove of party supplies. "Good thing I stashed some here just in case." She mumbles to herself, stuffing all of it in her mane, the poof parting and flashing slightly, some good old fashioned Rock Shampoo Mane Care helping keep her mane firm even while she stuffs a gigantic caber and two hundred rubber ducks into it.
Strapping the Parachute on her back, Pinkie goes over to the nearest window, and, kicking it open in a spray of ultra-reinforced glass, leaps out through it, unaffected by the warped space twisting her body in unnatural ways.
She does that every other Tuesday for Yoga Day, for goodness sake.
The parachute on her back allows her to easily glide all the way down to Star Road in the distance, where she lands with a fwump and even more giggles as she starts stuffing the used parachute into her mane.
"Now, let's see..." Pinkie scans the island for her destination, before spotting it, Star Sanctuary. At least, that's what Pinkie's assuming, from the gigantic mass of swirly yellow suspended above it.
"There's the party spot, now for the party shot" Pinkie mumbles, licking her hoof and holding both her hooves up to frame the temple with one eye closed and a tongue sticking out with concentration.
"Yatta, I've got it," Pinkie says victoriously once she has calculated the perfect arc. She whips out her Party Cannon and hops inside, aiming for one of the ventilation shafts.
Of course, Weiss being Weiss, the shaft isn't actually large enough for a pony to fit through, but has that ever stopped Pinkie Pie?
"Well, there was this one time I got stuck in a giant sandwich, but-" Pinkie continues to ramble, even as she completes her final pre-flight checks, and pulls a helmet out of her mane, only to plop the helmet right back on her noggin.
"-So anyway, that's why I'm banned from three billboard factories in Vanhoover alone!" Pinkie finishes, yanking a cable that causes the Party Cannon to erupt, firing her and a massive wave of party supplies in a gigantic arc towards Star Sanctuary, where her and the supplies all crash through the vent with ease, landing in some sort of room right behind the antechamber.
"Perfect. Now my master plan can begin..." Pinkie says, her eyes narrowing with barely restrained party-power.
Twenty losses in a row, much to Twilight and Rainbow's consternation. Fluttershy, however, seems to have almost gotten off easy, Tempest intentionally avoiding kicking the ball too hard when it's aimed at her.
Handicap or not, it's quickly becoming clear that Tempest could do this all day, and there's no telling how much longer it will take for Weiss to complete whatever evil plan he has with the Minish Cap.
"Ugh, I don't get it, we keep losing, isn't she supposed to try and kick us out or something?" Rainbow Dash complains, trying to work the stiffness out of her muscles after having been knocked into the electrified spikes for the twentieth time.
Looking at the intimidating captain, Fluttershy gulps, stepping forward while Twilight looks on with intrigue, but also some confusion.
"M'am, I know we haven't won your game yet, but... Could you please let us go through anyway? We need to get our friend back, and umm..."
"Stop your evil master's plans."
Tempest ponders this for a moment. Or at least, she appears to ponder it.
"Ok, sure."
With that, the door slides open, and Tempest hops on top of her bouncy ball, using it to launch her up through one of the gigantic holes in the ceiling, as though she was never there at all.
Rainbow Dash balks. "What the hay! It was that easy? I got shocked like, fifty times!"
Fluttershy's ears twitch at the cursing, but she restrains herself from giving some extraordinarily gentle chastising words for it.
"She said this was a trial of kindness. Kicking a ball around was fun, but it didn't actually have anything to do with kindness." Fluttershy explains softly.
Rainbow Dash grumbles. "Neither is getting zapped like a hundred times in a row."
Twilight chuckles, before walking forward to pat Fluttershy on the back. "Good work, Fluttershy. I had a feeling you would come through for us here. Now let's put a stop to this!"
The trio walks through the final doorway, into a chamber that practically glows from within, with all of the sheer wishing power concentrated in it, swirling around the Star Rod in the center of the room. Hundreds of Stars lay on the ground around it, caked into the floors, and on the walls. Shooting Stars, each one containing the concentrated power of Equestria's Wishes.
Weiss sits on the opposite side, chuckling as he adjusts the purple cap on his head.
"Welcome to Star Sanctuary's Star Sanctuary! I hope the amenities are to your liking."
Rainbow Dash growls, planting her hooves. "The only thing "amenity" here is going to be your butt after we're through kicking it!"
Twilight sighs. "Do you mean 'On the mend', Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow just points to Twilight as if to accentuate that, yes, that is what she meant.
"Well good luck doing that, the Minish Cap is almost charged, and even if you took the Star Rod out now, it can't be re-attuned that easily. I'd love to see you try, though. So feel free," Weiss responds, reclining back on his throne.
Twilight turns to Fluttershy. "Just like we planned, Ok?"
Weiss raises an eyebrow when Fluttershy walks over and pulls the Star Rod out of its holder with her teeth.
"Oh? You're going to make a wish?" Weiss chuckles.
"Good luck."
Fluttershy remembers what Twilight explained to her before they had started this trip.
"According to the rules of the spell Weiss used to create the Wishing Rod, it can only be used by someone who confidently makes a wish from the heart, without anything else muddling it, and his Minish Cap alone isn't going to be enough to transform Equestria's Wishes into a different form like Weiss is planning.
If you can just make a wish, any wish at all with the rod, it will fall under your control and ownership instead of his, stopping his plans cold. You're the only pony kind enough to have that kind of wish."
"I wish..." Fluttershy starts, thinking hard about what she really wants.
When she sees the swirl of beautiful wishes above her, She can't help but feel disappointed that this place will probably be discarded, when Fluttershy makes it useless to Weiss's plans.
Maybe with all these wishes in one place, they could start getting granted?
"I wish Star Sanctuary could be used for good instead of bad," Fluttershy wishes, making the Star Rod glow with golden light that floods the room.
Weiss wails melodramatically. "No! That's impossible! This cannot be!" as the lights intensify.
When the light fades after a few minutes, nothing seems to have changed, making Weiss look even more confused than Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash combined.
"Wait, that didn't work?" Weiss asks, hopping off of his throne and trotting over hastily.
"Let me see that damn thing, maybe the settings aren't set correctly?" He says, neatly plucking it out of Fluttershy's loose grip.
"I believe it worked correctly," Luna says, making Weiss jump and curse in unison.
"Christ, someone needs to put a bell on you, Luna," Weiss groans while the others bow low to their princess.
Luna plucks the Star Rod out of Weiss's own grip, bequeathing it back to Fluttershy. "Rise, my subjects. I received a letter claiming that 'Illegal amassing of Equestrian Magic' was occurring in our airspace, and I realized you don't have a day job, Weiss."
Weiss almost snorts at that, slapping a hand over his mouth.
Suddenly, a gleam enters Weiss's eyes. "Oh no! Now that the princess is here, my plans are truly ruined, I have no choice but to abandon my Glorious Star Sanctuary!"
"Curse you Fluttershy, curse you and your adorable mannerisms!" He shouts, charging the nearest window and leaping out of it.
Rainbow's confused expression borders on disgust for just how little sense this entire exchange just made. "So we won?"
Twilight sighs. "I think so? Let's find Pinkie and get out of here. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Princess Luna," Twilight apologizes, but Luna shakes her head.
"It is no problem. Twilight. I believe it is more than made up for by your help in confiscating this flying Island from Lord Weiss Noir. It will be in better hooves now that Weiss is no longer using it for one of his idiotic memes.
"I will bring an attachment of guards here tonight, to see about distributing these Shooting Stars. Perhaps this era would do better, if the rumors about shooting stars weren't just wishful thinking."
As the group walks towards the exit, they open the door, nervous at the dark room ahead of them, before suddenly, the lights turn on to the sound of a kazoo in Pinkie Pie's mouth.
"Surprise! I went ahead and made a 'Congratulations On Saving the World From Sort-of-Evil' party for you all!" Pinkie shouts, herding them over to the cake she baked for the occasion, one shaped like Weiss's face, but with X'd out eyes and a tongue poking out.
Twilight sighs, smiling at Luna's befuddled expression. "Never change, Pinkie"
Pinkie tilts her head. "Well, I gotta change sometimes, otherwise my clothes would get all dirty."
"You aren't wearing any clothes." Luna deadpans, lifting a dainty slice of cake to her mouth and devouring it neatly.
"Well duh, that's because I'm changing!" Pinkie says, as though it were obvious.
As Gilda rubs her head, and Trixie groans in pain, Sunset just looks confused and deeply disturbed.
"I don't get it, as soon as we go past year ten, the book ejects us. This spell is only supposed to fail if we are no longer in the author's mindset, but the writing after year ten, it's like it was a different person entirely who was writing it!"
Sunset sighs. "Well, I guess I'll have to go back to translating it manually. I'm sorry you two weren't able to help much with this."
Gilda shakes her head, flopping an arm over Sunset. "Hey, I had fun. I'm just glad I got something out of all this," she grunts, making her wing glow purple on command.
Trixie nods "Trixie learned Prestidigitonium from a tome in her youth so she could learn to juggle with her magic, but that book did not go into nearly as much depth as this."
Sunset just sighs again. "Well, I'm glad for the help anyway. You two didn't have to help with this, and you did anyway. I guess that makes us friends?"
Trixie nods, while Gilda laughs. "Sure, why not. Book Buddies for life."
Tempest looks displeased. "I'm not entirely sure that Luna is just going to let me and my guards keep living in Star Road if she's occupying the Sanctuary with her own forces."
Weiss shrugs. "I'll work something out. I've already got plans for another base, now that I've got what I needed Star Sanctuary for."
Tempest looks unimpressed with what apparently required enough raw wish magic to account for every single one of Equestria's bright-eyed dreamers in order to create.
"It's just a pot." Tempest deadpans, staring at the dark tan vessel, almost like a vase, with two wings jutting from both sides.
Weiss shakes his head, dumping an apple and a balloon into the pot, before stirring them both into nothing.
"Oh, it's not just a pot, Tempest Shadow. This is the newest Weapon of Light, the Krak Pot!"
The thusly named Krak Pot erupts with light, expelling a gigantic apple, which floats up to the ceiling as though it were filled with helium.
Tempest looks slightly more impressed when Weiss breaks the apple in two with his magic, revealing that it isn't just a balloon, but an apple with the properties of one.
"I hope you're ready, Fizzlepop, because very soon, you'll witness the power of Almighty Alchemy."
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HA!
Is the pot for zecora?
I wonder if Luna is going to call in a favor for ruling duty for Equestria or another vassal state, I think that might help with the persisted boredom that he has, would be funny to see a how his temporary subject would think of the way that he does things sense he was a mostly competent ruler back in the day. I can't wait to see this self righteous do gooder will face off Weiss, I am sure it would be entertaining for him to deal with this minor nuisance for him, along with the cult that seem to be revering? I wonder if hatching this 'evil plan' really looked that desperate to keep his image as 'evil' by Celestia and Luna's point of view?
Did Luna mean to say scheme instead of meme?
Because if not then you should do a thing about that.
I wonder what could've been more jarring than the species change thing; assuming, of course, that that event happened before year 10. I wasn't paying attention to the dates you put in.
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My guess is that it's for Pinkie. The Weapons of Light are intended for Element Bearers and Zecora isn't one.
I'm actually just thinking of a day where they will take him like he isn't serious but then... BOOM!! Serious Weiss is here and angry. Wonder what they will think of him fighting King Sombra~?
Im looking forward to how the Chaos Cacophony zone came to be
Did she mean to say memes here or was she trying to say schemes? If memes it raises even more questions on how close they were.
I wonder if Luna will make weiss work at the coffee shop since he needs to get a day job.
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I meant what I wrote.
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Well, given what we know, I'd guess that this gives us a time for the final battle with Sombra.
I got really confused for a minute there. I'm guessing this was meant to be Sunset?
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I'm so sorry about that. Corrected the error accordingly.
I must say, great story so far. I just catched up yeasterday and I can barely wait for what happens next!
One of my favourite things so far, are those little moments where you realize that Weiss is not as mentally well, as he likes to act. How the loss of the shadow realm and his people are still hurting him deeply. And how there seems to be nothing for him, after he killes Sombra. How he just can't see a future for himself after that.
He's broken, at least that's how I intepret it, and nobody truly sees it. It's such a opposite to his behaviour, that I sometimes forget it myself.
It's tragic. And I can't wait to see how it will be resolved.
👍
It is official Weiss is a meme lord .
Waitwaitwait. Are Trixie and Gilda... you know?
So wait, did Fluttershy fail to attune the Rod to herself? Weiss was actually using the fortress for good after all, and now Fluttershy doesn't have a relic weapon of her own.
Also, Sunset is just a piece of shit. She goes right back to invading his privacy to steal his shit when she already alienated him by stealing when she coukd have asked? Besides, she shouldn't be able to translate any further because he destroyed the book she was translating from, and he told her he wouldn't write things down anymore so she can't zteal them. Killing the golden goose and all that.
Just fucking yeets himself out of the window.
There is new info here. There is no way no one would have not noticed that zebra.
Or lack thereof
Krak Pot!? I'M dying here! Please, mercy. The puns!!!
This may or may not have made my mind jump to a couple uncomfortable places that would probably get me banned.