Sparity Shipping Mega Epic

by Mareity

– 12: Here Be Dragons –

‘That tears it, sugarcube! I’m gettin’ mighty tired of you smuggin’ on down at me like that when we play games like these, and I daresay y’all ain’t gonna do it from any lower any time soon!’ Applejack harrumphed as she pushed Twilight away from her seat towards a nearby column accommodating a bust of Princess Celestia, ‘We did this for Apple Bloom when she was a young’un and now it’s your turn, I reckon! We are keepin’ track of this from now on. Darn near two years on from the coronation and it is undeniable that you’re shootin’ right up! No arguin’!’

Rainbow Dash laughed briefly before leaving her seat at the game board and zipping over to watch as Applejack harangued Twilight some more, before imitating the farmpony’s accent. ‘Oh man, I knew this day was gonna come sooner or later. You know Twilight, she’s been plotting this for a while! “That there lil’ sapling’s slowly but surely growin’ into a doggone oak as time goes by,” she said to me just last week! Good to see ya taking action finally, AJ!’

‘Sure, sure… fancy givin’ me a hoof with her, RD? I ain’t certain I can quite reach up to the tip of our princess’ horn,’ Applejack smiled as she leaned Twilight against the pillar, ‘Take this pencil and sketch out a notch up there if ya don’t mind, sugar.’

‘Can do!’ Rainbow Dash laughed again before complying, clenching the pencil lead-outwards between her teeth. ‘Get your tail up by the pillar, Twi, this’ll be over in a flash!’

‘Applejack, Rainbow, I really don’t think this is necessary!’ Twilight protested, ‘I’ve kept records on my height every moon since long before I was even a princess at all!’

‘So much the better, then, Twi,’ Applejack persisted nonchalantly, ‘We can backdate them readin’s onto this if need be.’

At that exact moment the doors swung open, and everypony glanced to where Rarity and Spike entered the room, the former wielding a vase of roses she hadn’t had on her person earlier. ‘Twilight, girls, we may have a–’ Rarity started, before Twilight interrupted her.

‘Rarity, Spike, there you are!’ Twilight cried out, drawing both their attention to her, ‘You know where the height logger is, right Spike? Tell Applejack and Rainbow to quit trying to measure me! My existing method’s perfectly sound! This is scientifically unnecessary!’

The recreation room the Friendship Council had returned to following its foray into Canterlot’s inner city for pizzas, ice cream and catch-ups was every bit as messy and lively as it had been when Rarity and Spike had departed the better part of a half-hour ago. Under Twilight’s predecessors it had been a serious room where serious meetings took place, conveniently located close to the throne room for when matters that required Princess Celestia’s immediate attention had to be mediated upon. Under Celestia and Luna’s successor, however, it had eventually been surmised that, with another three rooms just like this one dotted around the building’s wings, one could be sacrificed in the name of intensive hanging-out by order of the Princess of Friendship. After all, she considered these meetings to be of the utmost importance in and of themselves, and nopony dared persuade her otherwise.

As such, while the room was cluttered and crowded with fun and games and a sprinkling of authentic party cannon confetti at the ground level, it shared the same loftiness borne of the high ceilings of the castle sanctum’s hallway and aforementioned throne room, sharing the same painted stone vaults arching the entire width of the place despite being substantially smaller. It was curved at the far end with a round, partially-stained glass window of Princess Luna holding the moon in her hooves near the ceiling allowing light in from the courtyard beyond, and lined with five-tiered bookshelves that, while not towering over the full extent of the room, still had a roller-ladder attached to a rail which was able to ride the curve from one side of the room to the other. It was painted and carpeted mauve and furnished with a round, white marble table, not dissimilar to the Cutie Map table at Twilight’s old place but without all the mountains and cities, over a dozen antique chairs situated wherever they were needed and several marble ornamental pillars crafted in the Pegasusian tradition, each with a bust of important pony public figures, encircling the room’s inhabitants halfway between the table and the shelves.

Right now several of said inhabitants, the rest of Spike and Rarity’s closest friends, were seated in the chairs around the table where the deluxe, up-to-ten-players edition of Dragon Pit that Starlight Glimmer had brought along to proceedings was sprawled out, but they were mostly taking a break, chatting and watching the commotion with some amusement. While Starlight had taken to wearing a red blazer as the current headmare of the School of Friendship today she had, being off duty, arrived au naturelle, wearing just a magenta neckerchief adorned with an astral pattern of star-shaped sequins that, fittingly, glimmered under the window’s light.

Spike’s attention fixed upon Twilight after a momentary glance around. ‘Nice to see you again too, Twilight,’ he drawled, assessing the situation. Rainbow Dash looked towards him and, frantically crossing her hooves in midair, mischievously mouthed “No” in his general direction. He flew up to the trio and looked up. ‘Hey, AJ, Rainbow… careful with that pillar. I can see our ex-ruler’s likeness up there, and one hard bump could bring it down onto the current one’s head! That’d end badly, y’know!’

Rarity stood next to Spike and peered upwards at the recreation room’s high ceiling and décor, noting that the bust above them did seem to be wobbling around slightly with so many ponies trampling around at its base. ‘Goodness, yes! If you really must accost our dear princess regarding her princessly stature, you two, do it by the wall or a door, I’d say!’

Applejack paused, slowly exhaling before relenting. ‘Ugh, you’re right… I just wanna get a proper gander at it once in a while rather’n just seein’ figures in a book. Plus I gotta admit I’m a little saddlesore about losin’ to her, gettin’ dunked in the pit three squares from the finish in that last game… I’m sorry, Twi. RD, maybe we’ll do this later instead?’

Spike turned to Twilight as Applejack’s accomplice in basic mathematics sighed, then reluctantly withdrew her pencil from just above the princess’ horn. ‘Fine… I’ll butt out for now, AJ,’ she breathed with palpable disappointment.

‘As for the file, Twilight, sure I know where it is, it’s somewhere in the vaults under lock and key with the rest of your personal data. Although, I think AJ’s got a point – maybe we should be keeping a proper visual on your growth for everycreature? I don’t see any harm in it.’

Twilight stepped away from the column with some relief, then pondered out loud. ‘I mean, it was just for my own records in case of any anomalies, you know how these things happen sometimes… but I have been hitting my horn on stuff a little more than usual lately… hmm. Maybe a public record could account for future collisions like that.’

As Twilight pondered the possibility, Rarity tried an alert again now that Spike had defused the situation they’d walked in on. ‘For whatever my opinion is worth I think it’s worth considering on a semi-official basis, Twilight, goodness knows you won’t grow down… but anyway, we simply must impart some shocking information! You probably should know something rather alarming Spikey and I discovered in the little library down the west wing that may require a smidge of your attention, darling! Your magic mirror portal may be slightly… oh, how should I put this…? Twisted and unusual in its function?’

Twilight’s amethyst eyes widened, and her mane sparkled lightly as she turned to Rarity. ‘Nopony fell in, did they? That’s not supposed to happen anymore...’

The two unicorns and the dragon stepped to one side away from the others as Spike and Rarity explained. ‘No, it’s solid, but Rarity says she saw a million different me’s in the mirror from a million different realities,’ Spike confirmed, ‘It seriously freaked her out for a minute. The spell you cast on it a while back may be glitching it out, we think?’

‘“Freaked out,” Spike? It was downright terrifying, actually!’ Rarity clarified, ‘Nothing corporeal stepped through, thank goodness, but it was quite the assault on my senses seeing all those interdimensional Spikes simultaneously! Your portal is most certainly on the fritz!’

Twilight inhaled through her teeth, plainly perturbed by the report. ‘Wow, well I’m very sorry… I put a ward on it some time ago now but sometimes these things decay and I guess I forgot to renew it, now you mention it. You know, I have had concerns about that mirror recently but I figured it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. A few weeks ago I was in that library seeking some critical thinking literature for a magic responsibility class plan and I looked into it? And I saw… books…’ She looked around at the books on this room’s shelves nervously as she spoke.

Rarity felt the need to prompt her as she trailed off. ‘And? I don’t wish to patronise you of all ponies, Twilight, but of course you saw books in the mirror while in a library!’

Twilight’s uneasy look persisted. ‘Of course, but they weren’t the same books as the books in the room. I just caught a glimpse but the shelves looked like they were writhing with strange tomes. I felt like there was all sorts of arcane, otherworldly, even just banal… stuff inside them! I don’t know, I just knew they were not my books, I know my books, intimately, and it seriously gave me the creeps,’ she hissed, ‘But when I looked again everything was back to normal and the feeling passed, though I didn’t stick around long afterwards… I put it down to tiredness, it had been a long day. I’d honestly forgotten all about it until just now.’

‘That’s a lot less dramatic than the ravenous elder dragon versions of me Rarity said she saw, but, uh…’

‘Yes, the principle seems rather similar,’ Rarity concluded Spike’s thought, ‘Right down to…’ she giggled and blushed as she looked down at the floor, then back at Twilight, ‘Well, you do like books rather a lot, don’t you?’

Twilight chuckled and, for a moment, murmured close to Rarity's ear before sobering up. ‘You know, fondness could be part of it. At any rate, I believe you… and I’ll need to look into it ASAP. Keeping it covered’s all well and good but I don’t need it randomly frightening the staff or the guards!’

Then she turned to the rest of the party. ‘Girls, I’m going to need to take care of some business. Just a matter of renewing a spell I put on the magic mirror, but it might take some time while I step out…’

‘Aw, phooey. Can we at least measure you once you’re back?’ Rainbow Dash half-asked, half-complained, still hovering close to the column.

‘You know? Yes, you have my royal permission to take a physical record. You and Applejack find somewhere safer in the room to take a record and we’ll do it when I return. How’s that sound?’ Twilight smiled. Once the pair made their agreement clear she approached the door and said to everycreature in the room, ‘It’s just down the hallway… if I’m not back in ten minutes, come looking for me!’

‘Sure you don’t need a helping hoof? I mean, I can back you up as a number two,’ said Starlight Glimmer, rising from her seat at the gaming table she was nursing a tall glass of cider beside, ‘You never know!’

Twilight shook her head. ‘It’s a little job, and I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing, I’ve done it before a couple of times. Blame laxity… I get distracted from this stuff by royal duties sometimes! Like I said, ten minutes tops, then come looking in case something went wrong.’

‘Aye-aye, captain Twilight… I mean, arr! I be the pinkest dragon ye know, matey!’ said Pinkie Pie, still wearing the pink dragon suit she’d insisted upon as a “tactical ploy” for the duration of the last game and apparently also into this one. She whipped an oversized stopwatch which, clockwise from the top, featured a series of increasingly worried Pinkie Pie faces, starting with a smile and culminating in total panic, out onto the table and hit the large button atop it.

‘No argument there, Pinkie. Well, see you soon, princess,’ said Starlight, faint concern in her voice but nonetheless sitting back down. Twilight nodded and trotted off for the library in question and once she was on her way, Rarity approached the gaming table the others were largely seated at.

‘Oh, you two were gone for a while,’ said Fluttershy, grooming her mane before pushing her chair back and standing to circle around Spike, ‘I was starting to worry, although with Spike out of the game I was getting ahead, so it wasn’t all bad… um, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad you’re back or anything!’ Then she gasped and trotted towards Rarity, ‘Oh, those roses are very nice… did Spike give you those, Rarity? I wasn’t sure blue ones existed!’

Starlight, who had come along to the Friendship Council with the game in tow at Spike and Twilight’s behest, an invitation made due to her being increasingly frazzled from juggling childrearing and school-running recently, also stood and stepped towards the centre of the room. ‘What Fluttershy means to say is, she’s been getting the hang of capturing gems a little better since you two took a breather,’ Starlight laughed, turning to Spike, ‘She hasn’t surpassed your hoard from the last game yet, though! ’Course, you’ve had practice playing with me and Sunburst before and Flutters here’s a first-timer…’

‘What can I say, I’m a natural!’ Spike replied brightly as he landed on the box atop his seat, ‘But I maybe oughta ease up a bit and let the newbies learn the ropes, I guess. Sorry I uh, gobbled up all your diamonds that game, Fluttershy.’

‘It’s quite alright, Spike,’ said Fluttershy, returning to her seat, ‘You know, that jacket Rarity made you is even nicer than the pink one, although the, um, spikes on it… are you sure those aren’t dangerous?’

Rarity turned her attention to Fluttershy as she released her magic hold on the flower vase, plunking it near the seat she’d used during the previous round and smiled before sitting down. ‘Regarding the roses, Fluttershy dear, yes they are, yes he did and yes they do, though they are an, ah, a rarity! And the jacket was a collaborative effort between Spike, Yona and I, you know! The spikes were Yona’s idea and I believe Spike, ah, the, eh, definitive Spike and not just a spike on a jacket shoulder, I mean, would have to try very hard indeed to harm himself with them! I’d’ve vetoed the addition if I felt otherwise at all! The green fabric is a treated vinyl-crocodile emboss I’d normally use for a belt or a bag, but Spikey had better plans for it… isn’t it simply fabulous how it gleams a rainbow in the light?’

‘Magenta,’ Spike grumbled at Fluttershy’s recurring misassessment of his other jacket’s colour, before shrugging his shoulders inside his newest one and exclaiming, ‘Eh, whatever. I was worried it’d be stiff at first, but it’s way more flexible than you’d think. And I love it, dunno if I’d made that clear before!’

‘It’s a good choice. Iridescent green on your purple scales really suits you,’ Starlight nodded.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash, having spent the past few minutes chatting privately after Twilight had left, returned to the table. ‘Yeah, it almost makes you look cool for a change, Spike!’ Rainbow Dash teased, changing her tune slightly as both Spike and Rarity shot her a withering look. ‘Uh, I mean, it, uh, accentuates your, uh, butt. Your tush looks good in the clothes.’ she corrected herself as she flapped her wings twice before landing back into her chair.

Applejack snickered. ‘Well, ain’t you just got hineys on the mind this afternoon…’ Rainbow Dash said nothing, but smiled and side-eyed her friend in response. ‘Don’t give me that look, ya featherbrain.’ she chuckled, gently punching Rainbow in the shoulder with her left hoof. Rainbow Dash responded after a second by grabbing Applejack, discarding her hat and giving her an affectionate noogie, and they both giggled as the other ponies looked on.

Rarity removed the rose tucked by her ear, smiled sweetly and sniffed its stamen, shooting an affectionate, mock-disdaining look at them before floating it to the vase with the others to rehydrate. ‘Such uncouth behaviour from the apple gallery…’ she said as she poured herself a glass of mineral water and took a sip, ‘But no matter, Spikey-Wikey and I are back for more, although perhaps we ought to wait for Twilight to return before we commence with another game?’

Starlight took a draught of her cider then cast a glance at the door, looking pensive before looking back to the others. ‘Hmm…yeah, let’s wait on her. Besides, you two were off for a bit longer than we thought you’d be! Where’d you go, besides spooking yourselves with the mirror?’

‘Ah, here and there… I asked Spikey to show me some of the lesser-trodden areas of the castle,’ Rarity half-lied, her voice lilting noticeably more than usual, ‘The roses were a little gift he produced from thin air shortly before we returned, weren’t they, darling?’

‘Yeah, just something extra as extra-special thanks for the cool jacket more than anything,’ Spike elaborated, tugging on its lapels for emphasis as he spoke, again a half-truth from not wishing to give the game away too much. Then his attention was drawn up and to his left towards Pinkie Pie, whose dragon mask dangled gormlessly above his head as she looked at him from inside its gaping mouth with a dangerously cheerful grin. ‘You know, Pinkie, if I’d known you were gonna wear that thing all afternoon I’d’ve dragged that old baby dragon Nightmare Night costume along. It still fits, you know?’

‘Arr, I know,’ Pinkie said with a piratical portentousness that made Spike faintly uneasy before snapping back into her normal speech pattern, ‘But you won that last game anyway, Spike… nopony here could take on double dragons! I’m sure I only came third like I did because I have the power of a dragon’s scales.’

‘Or just because Spike’s practised and you’re lucky,’ Starlight giggled, ‘Or maybe the suit’s a valid tactic after all! The power of suggestion can give somepony the edge sometimes!’

Pinkie pondered that for a minute before removing the head of the costume. ‘Hmm… you might be onto something there, Starlight. Here, Fluttershy,’ she said before plunking the head onto the table, then sliding it past Starlight to the yellow pony.

Fluttershy recoiled, then looked at the thing for a moment as if Pinkie had just given her an actual severed head before gingerly picking it up with both hooves and casting a shrewd smile at her friend. ‘Oh, I get it… I have been entrusted with an artifact of immense power, and I accept this gift,’ she said, before stuffing it over her head backwards.

Starlight and Applejack, sitting either side of her, helped Fluttershy correct her mistake as Pinkie explained, ‘You got it! The full costume might be too powerful for one pony alone to handle, so you can have the head and I’ll keep the body. Hope it helps!’

With a mussed lick of her name protruding from the mask’s toothy mouth alongside her face, Fluttershy chuckled once she’d regained her bearings thanks to Applejack and Starlight’s assistance. ‘That’s very thoughtful, Pinkie. Um, how do I look, everycreature? I don’t need to talk like a pirate like you were for it to work, do I? I’m not sure I have any dragon powers yet… Spike, you know about dragon powers, don’t you?’

‘I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but I can’t give away all my secrets,’ answered Spike, smiling enigmatically.

‘Don’t get too carried away, just remember the power of suggestion, darling,’ Rarity filled in breathlessly, ‘If you believe yourself to be a ferocious wyvern who collects gems and refuses to be set back by a silly old pit, a side of yourself you never knew might just surface and win the day! I’m positive you can do it!’

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, Rarity. I will try to unleash the dragon a teeny bit more next game,’ smiled Fluttershy. She adjusted the dragon head with her hooves a bit, and one of its eyes rolled around a few times as she pulled it back to see through it fully.

Then she looked at Spike, who she could tell felt some awkwardness from those words. ‘Oh, yes… of course, it is a choice either way,’ she trailed off before lowering her voice slightly to him, ‘Ah, maybe “ferocious” was a questionable choice of words given our mirror mishap before? Excuse me ever so much, Spikey-Wikey…’

‘No, no, it’s cool,’ Spike breathed, looking up at Rarity with big eyes before lightening up again, ‘Dragon Pit’s a game that rewards aggressive play, after all! Fluttershy, you just need to stay the course! Dunk or be dunked! In a safe and supportive environment, of course.’

‘Yep, and that’s a beautiful thing,’ Rainbow Dash interjected, ‘Makes whupping all your flanks more rewarding! Aw nuts, I did it again! AJ, you’re right about me! I’m fixated!’ She put the front of her hoof dramatically against her forehead for a moment before looking left at Applejack, and they both snickered at each other.

‘Fluttershy, it’s just a costume, even if you do look cute in it… any “power” you gain from it comes from inside you,’ laughed Starlight, leaning over before flashing bunched cheeks of happiness at her newly-dragonified friend, ‘Aww… you know, I wonder if Lulu would let me dress her up like that! Goodness knows she has her fire-breathing moments at home, she might as well look the part! She’d probably wriggle out of it the first chance she got though…’

‘Little Luster Dawn… how is that little sweetheart?’ asked Rarity, remembering that she hadn’t checked in on Starlight’s family life in a while, ‘You’ve barely spoken a peep about her or school since you arrived in Canterlot! I suppose you’ve needed some time away, dear?’

‘Absolutely, Rarity… I’ve needed to turn my brain off for a few hours, for real,’ Starlight sighed with a little smile, ‘Life is good, but it’s stressful, especially between the new school year starting and a growing daughter. And when this guy and our currently departed princess,’ she motioned towards the little dragon sitting between Pinkie and Rarity, ‘Asked me over a few days back I wasn’t certain I could make it, but Sunburst and Trixie insisted I come, and they were able to cover between them for today… I’ve totally enjoyed unwinding with all of you today, really! I usually only get to play this with Sunny and the others once a weekend, and sometimes even then there’s no time… anyway, yes, Luster’s doing very well. It’s kind of funny watching Applejack try to measure Twilight since we started doing it for Lulu, now she’s walking…’

Her smile widened, and the ponies watched with interest as Starlight produced a lavender purse with a silver clasp from the saddlebag hanging over her chair and opened it, an avalanche of postcard-sized baby photographs unfurling itself onto the game board. ‘At the risk of mommyjacking the council, since you insisted, Rarity… Sunburst takes snaps of his “rays of sunshine” all the time – uh, that’s his dweeby pet name for the two of us,’ she couldn’t suppress a giggle as she continued, ‘And I rotate a bunch of the ones with her in and out of here. If I didn’t empty it out into a family album once in a while I’d drown in the things… anyway, come take a look!’

The other ponies and Spike stood and clamoured around her as Starlight sifted through the stack, locating some good photographs of her bubblegum-pink foal, two-thirds of them featuring herself besides. ‘Aw, she’s so cuuuute!’ Fluttershy cooed from between the jaws of her mask at a photograph of the foal snoozing in her mother’s arms, ‘Her mane’s like gold, and it’s already so long!’

‘Ah, they grow up so fast,’ Applejack added, a sentimental swell in her voice as she looked at a photo of her looking disgusted by the green dinner slop a floating spoon was attempting to deposit into her mouth, ‘She’s real purdy, Starlight. Won’t be so many moons ’til she’s talkin’, too.’

Starlight half-scrunched her muzzle and blushed before beaming with obvious pride. ‘That’s the next step, yeah, and I won’t pretend Sunburst and I aren’t quietly competing over whether mommy or daddy get her first word… well, these are all recent. Here we are at the market, here I am feeding her, and feeding the apron I was wearing at the time… oh, this one’s of Smolder holding her when I took her to school on her birthday a few weeks back… I probably shouldn’t flash that one around too much.‘ She magically flicked through them like a pack of cards before spreading them across the table likewise, ‘Oh, there’s too many for me to describe all of them! Pick a card, any card you like and I’ll explain it… heck, I’m sure there’s even fifty-something of ’em here!’

Pinkie Pie looked at a picture of Sunburst holding Luster up over his head at the Running of the Leaves that must have been taken the previous weekend, Luster giggling as he beamed with every bit of the pride they’d all just seen Starlight exhibit. ‘Aw, she just gets prettier every time I see her! You know, you should bring her over to Sugarcube Corner sometime! Pound and Pumpkin Cake would love her, I’m sure! I’d love to foalsit!’

Rainbow Dash looked at the photograph Applejack had selected and half-smiled. ‘Eh, better you than me, Pinkie. Sure she’s cute, but… I’m way more down with the kids after they’re past the poop factory phase.’ When Applejack nudged her in the back with an annoyed expression she protested, ‘What? It’s the truth! Oh, wait, I just did it again, didn’t I…’

Spike drank in the photograph of Smolder holding the baby, and he grinned at the obvious star-eyes she was making as Luster Dawn gummed on one of her claws. ‘Man, that’s the flipside of that pic Twilight’s mom still has framed of the two of us in the early going… and Smolder’s sensitive side exposed to boot, heh. Yeah, if I brought this up around her I’d get a sock in the arm. My lips are sealed, Starlight.’

Rarity looked over his shoulder, smiling as the picture reminded her of something Sandbar had said to her earlier that week. She couldn’t help herself as her smile spread and she burst into giggles, wiping her eyes after a few seconds as she rubbed her cheek against the metal pyramids on the shoulder she was peering over. ‘Oh, that sweet, sweet girl… I’ve always sensed that Smolder was a tad kindlier than she likes to let on! Aw, and darling little Luster is just the bee’s knees…’ she straightened up and looked over at Spike and he returned her smile, although she understood the lingering apprehension in his eyes. She put a hoof around his shoulder and gave him a quick hug, remembering how Spike’s last relationship had ended regarding such things. He readily reciprocated, though he measured his response as he felt necessary in mixed company.

The next few minutes were spent as their group clamoured and sifted through the spread, selecting several highlights between them for Starlight to elaborate upon as they beheld her offspring in all manner of situations, from the cutesiest to the most tantrum-ridden. Between all the adoration and general happy chatter nocreature amongst them kept track of the time, so when Pinkie’s oversized stopwatch suddenly screeched in terror Starlight bolted out of her chair, scattering several photographs to the floor.

‘Twilight!’ she yelped, ‘Oh, I was gonna go after her after seven minutes and it’s just passed ten, I got so wrapped up in showing everypony my foal I lost track, ooh…’ She pranced on the spot as the alarm continued to yell about the time and added, ‘Oh, I know she said it was no big deal but I also know mirror magic has a habit of catching somepony unawares! We should go to that library and help her right now!’

Spike likewise flew off his box. ‘Oh, boy, you’re not wrong she’s running late. Uh, should we all head over? Me and Rarity know where it is, it’s just a few doors down the hall to the right.’

‘I’m a-comin’,’ said Applejack, adjusting her hat and flipping a length of rope from her saddlebag, ‘Darn tootin’ a gal with a lasso is what you need when somepony takes a tumble into somethin’ sticky like she might’ve… but maybe we need a backup team? Fluttershy, RD, Pinkie, uh…’

‘If Twilight needs our help, we won’t stay here,’ Fluttershy asserted suddenly before Rainbow Dash could field Applejack’s query, then fell back into meekness, ‘We’ll all come, right girls? I mean, um…’

‘Fluts read your mind same as me, we’re coming too,’ said Rainbow Dash, already flying towards the door as Pinkie also bounced out of her seat, ‘You were gonna tell us to stay put, weren’t you, AJ? We’ll bring up the rear while the rest of you head in there. Sound good?’

‘That I was, but… yep, that’s a better plan,’ said Applejack, tying her rope into a loop and tossing it over her back. ‘Well, let’s go! Spike, lead the way!’

‘Who, me? Oh, yeah, I guess this is my personal stomping ground… sure, follow me!’

As they all approached the door Applejack snorted with mirth. ‘Oh, the rear… I get it now!’ Rainbow Dash blushed as all eyes set onto her for a moment, then laughed it off before they all made for the library room.

The seven of them made their way out of the room into the hallway; Spike led the way, bringing the guards at the door up to speed of the situation just in case they too were needed, with Starlight directly behind him and the two pegasi of the group bringing up the rear. He led them to the library opposite the dark stained-glass window of Stygian, and they found the door ajar and the area quiet, Flash Magnus and his group of trainees having long moved on elsewhere in the castle.

Starlight creaked the door inwards and the rest of them followed with some trepidation. Unlike last time when only Spike’s green flame had illuminated near the door, besides that being lit with unenchanted fire a few other candelabras on the walls were also crackling away. While the epistemology library had a layout similar to the room they had exited a couple of minutes ago, it was mostly dark due to its single, narrow window and substantially smaller, the tall ceiling common to all the rooms on this storey of the sanctum aside, and just two pillars halfway into the room opposite the door that descended from that ceiling’s vaults. Its size versus the volume of bookshelves it contained meant the room was cramped, or cozy depending on your perspective.

The three foremost ponies and the dragon of the group made their way inside and looked around, noticing a faint, cool luminescent cyan mist and a cold frisson in the air that made their nasal cavities tingle. Then Spike looked forward to where the mirror was and spotted Twilight, crumpled in a heap covered by what looked like an entire shelf’s worth of hardcovers.

‘Twilight! Oh, geez, looks like all I did before was delay the inevitable!’ he cried, flying up to her at full speed. The ponies in the room followed him as he checked his sister’s pulse and ran a claw over her brow, looking forlorn for a moment. He brushed her fringe back with his claw and noticed a wide first-degree burn where her crown normally rested and winced sympathetically, inhaling through his teeth.

‘Oh, dear… all those books must’ve fallen off this shelf,‘ Starlight observed, looking up at the bare shelf Twilight was laid beside and levitating some of them out of the way, ‘Is she okay?’

After looking forlorn for a moment Spike relaxed. ‘She’s breathing,’ he said with palpable relief, ‘But she’s hit her head and she’s a bit burned, somehow. Something must’ve gone wrong when she cast the spell and she got knocked out by a falling book. Applejack, Rarity, give me a hoof here?’

‘What’s going on in there? You haven’t all jumped through the mirror without us, have you?’ Pinkie interrupted, sticking her head through the door.

‘The mirror!’ Rarity’s attention jerked from her injured friend to the gleaming oval and looked at it closely, seeing nothing but their surroundings reflected back at them. ‘Ooh, it seems normal as ever, but that’s just what we thought last time until I saw those apparitions! Girls, stay outside for the time being, the coast may not yet be clear as it seems!’

Pinkie began to bounce into the room regardless until Rainbow Dash restrained her, snapping at her tail with her teeth and dragging her back beyond the threshold. ‘Pinkie! We’re the backup, remember? Listen to Rarity and park your keister, sister!’

Twilight stirred in Applejack’s hooves as Rarity spoke, and she groggily looked up at her cowfilly friend. ‘Ughhh… R…rrrrarity? Amplejack, we didn’t set the table for all the, the pomegranatejacks and bananajacks… I’m sorry Primpcess Cecelia, I didn’t mean to eat all of that cake, no, I’m okay, I’mn’t allergic, I’m just a… little hoarse, oh…’ she blithered, before groaning again and losing consciousness once more.

Spike noticed Twilight’s crown on the floor and flew over to inspect it. ‘We need to get Twilight outta here now. Heck, we should all leave and not come back in until she’s coherent enough to tell us what happened and we definitely need to not get any closer to the mirror. Man, I thought this thing was basically harmless, colour me wrong!’

He approached the crown and, mindful of the burn he’d seen on Twilight’s forehead, licked his thumb and foreclaw before touching it with their tips. He hadn’t even made contact before he felt its heat, and it started to glow white, light spreading from the jewel in its centre outwards. It was Rarity who noticed the reaction first, and it wasn’t the crown itself, but the air around them that registered. ‘Applejack and I ought to relocate our princess to her room… ah, Spikey, isn’t it getting brighter in he–’

But her observation came a little too late to be a useful warning. As the mist surrounding the party grew brighter and crackled with energy the crown let loose a burst of magic that sent Spike flying back towards the door, and he would have hit Starlight squarely in the chest if she hadn’t leapt aside. He narrowly avoided hitting the floor hard with an upward spiralling swoop as he took to the air.

‘Augh! Hot!’ he cried, nursing the claw that had handled Twilight’s golden tiara as he zipped to a stop above the others. As he caught his bearings he looked around at the mist and exclaimed, ‘What the heck?! Sweet Celestia, we need to go, now! C’mon!’

Applejack grabbed Twilight and lassoed a length of rope around her, tying her to her back with a few practised movements while the others looked on with increasing horror. ‘I got Twi! Let’s vamoose, pronto!’ While Spike started to back off towards the door with her, Starlight and Rarity were frozen in their tracks looking at the tall looking glass which was becoming increasingly radiant, more of the cold mist radiating from its reflective surface. She called out again, ‘Didn’t y’all hear Spike and I? We gotta get help!’

The room was eye-wateringly bright now, a low howling noise emanating from the mirror along with the blizzard of light, and the two unicorns snapped out of it. ‘Oh, this is bad news,’ Starlight breathed as she gained her bearings, ‘Whatever’s going on here isn’t just garden-variety transdimensional stuff or a major mirror malfunction… something powerful’s coming through! Everycreature get out of here! I’ll hold it back!’

‘What?!’ squeaked Rarity, incredulous, ‘I won’t abandon you like this now! I’ll do anything I can to help, Starlight! If it’s as powerful as you say, you’ll need all the assistance you can get!’

Hot on Applejack’s hooves, Spike hesitated as he heard Rarity say that and hovered in mid-air for a critical second, looking up and out of the doorway at the visage of Stygian in the hallway window above the alarmed ponies just outside the door, his head held high and his stern gaze cast low at the book he held. He looked back at the shadows Rarity and Starlight cast in the thrall of the mirror as he turned around. ‘Well, I’m not leaving without Rare or Starlight, if they need my help! We can weather this, girls! Just get Twilight to safety!’

Suddenly the noise coming from the mirror doubled in volume as the temperature plummeted, and Rainbow Dash took that as her cue to fly in as Applejack lugged Twilight to the door. ‘Both’a you get your hineys outta there right now! This is so urgent I don’t even care that I just did the butt thing again!’ She grabbed the two of them with both hooves and pulled them through the door just before it slammed shut. The roar of the magic mirror became louder and louder, swiftly drowning out the sound of Pinkie and Fluttershy shouting and pounding their hooves against the now magically-sealed door.

By now the swirling miasma was becoming such that more books were getting shaken off their shelves, and as enveloped in blinding light as he was it was mostly luck that Spike narrowly avoided a bonk on the head from a falling book as he returned to Rarity and Starlight. While Applejack had escaped with Twilight, Starlight had cast a ward, a reflex reaction to peril that shielded herself and her friends from the freezing cold and the worst of the sensory overload; Spike suddenly penetrated a teal bubble with a “pop!” to his great relief, removing his claws from his ear frills.

‘Ugh… man, that’s painful, but at least the jacket means I’m not a popsicle now,’ he breathed, noticing that his brief stint among the globules had indeed left frost on his shoulders. ‘…Rarity, Starlight, what’s the plan?’ he cried, the uncertainty in his voice rolling out louder than necessary due to the din still ringing in his ears.

‘I’m going to seal this thing the best I can,’ said Starlight, ‘And Rarity grabbed Twilight’s crown, though it’s probably too hot to hold, physically. It might be useful!’

Rarity shivered from the cold seeping into the bubble around them, feeling slight relief that she hadn’t left her scarf in the meeting room in the rush to come here. Casting her mind to more immediate matters as Starlight raised the subject she turned and levitated the crown, indelicately flipping it over in muted fright. ‘To wit, it seems important, and the fact that it’s suddenly much too hot for contact may be pertinent,’ she blurted out after a few seconds’ panicky inspection, ‘Twilight likely unexpectedly found herself in too-close-for-comfort combat with this device the same as we, and took some energy from it into her regalia!’

‘You’re probably right,’ Spike added to that thought, flexing the affected claw and rubbing it with his other, ‘I only touched it for a second but I can still feel it, and I’m a dragon… usually intense heat only bugs us for a moment unless there’s magic involved.’

Starlight tensed up as her horn began to glow and disperse a magic stream that channelled into the rippling surface of their protective sphere. ‘If I can move this bubble from around us to the mirror and concentrate, I should be able to seal it for as long as we need,’ she said, glancing up at the incandescent globules now swirling around them and filling up the library, ‘And hopefully get rid of all this mess around us! You two, uh, Rarity, you’re probably right that the crown is key to this… you and Spike see if you can’t figure it out!’

Rarity’s eyes widened as Spike articulated her thoughts, crying out, ‘Figure what out? It’s just Twilight’s crown… it doesn’t come with a manual, you know! Believe me, if it did I’d never hear the end of it!’

Starlight didn’t answer, as preoccupied as she was with her plan she’d screwed her eyes shut and had already begun to build up the momentum she needed to fling the bubble. ‘Our dear princess’ crown must have some magical properties, Spikey, think!’ exclaimed Rarity, swinging it around a little carelessly under duress, ‘After all, unless my memory fails me it was crafted as a conglomerate between Celestia and Luna’s crowns at the coronation before they bestowed it upon her?’

‘Uh, maybe? It’s only in use when she’s wearing it, and normally when her head is doing magic stuff she’s using her horn? It’s pretty rote to me, so I don’t look real closely!’

‘Well, it must be able to, ah, absorb somehow, darling! Haven’t you ever seen her do that with it? I’m grasping for something we can use here!’

‘Oh, man…’ Spike groaned, looking around at the screaming miasma encircling him and his unicorn friends, sending books in the library flying everywhere like they were weightless. Whatever it was, it was legion, a hundred thousand entities invading through the mirror that now seemed to writhe and whip its tendrils around the room with some kind of alien malice. Spike looked up and knew he had to take action before the sturdy walls of the library began to fracture or worse, to say nothing of the knowledge in those tomes becoming frozen and destroyed.

‘Oh, geez. Toss me the crown… I’m going back out there, Rarity! It hurts, but I can tough it out if I put it on for a minute. I can take the cold if I’ve got something hot! I’ll just have to fly blind out there thanks to how bright it is…’

‘You are? Oh, Spikey… It’s not safe out there in the, oh, it’s a downright hurricane!’ cried Rarity, looking over at him with grave concern. ‘You’d be swept away! Well, perhaps not far afield, but if that wind tossed you into a wall you could really get hurt…’

Starlight had the wherewithal to add to the discussion, despite the strain of maintaining the bubble. ‘Hnngh… no, no, Rarity, we’re in the eye of it,’ she said, ‘It’s way too bright and noisy, but he’d be fine to stay next to or above this thing.’

‘Well, I don’t wish to send you out into peril,’ She swung the crown over to him and he grabbed it in both claws, using the sleeves of his jacket as padding. Faint smoke came off of them as he gave it a look-over, ‘But we are in a pinch here and now. Oh, dear, that’s not going to do that fabric any good at all…’

Starlight grunted and strained as she mustered up the will to carry out her containment plan. ‘Whatever you’re going to do out there, do it quickly, Spike! I can’t hold this for very long, and I can feel the cold attacking the bubble so hard it must be colder than Mount Everhoof out there! When I toss this thing, we’ll be frozen solid if that blizzard’s still in the room!’

‘I’m on it!’ Spike shouted, and made for the surface of the bubble, ready to emerge in one of the most hostile environments he could consider. Lava was nothing to a dragon, he thought, but this wasn’t that… nonetheless, of the group he was the best-equipped for such a thing, and the crown was definitely a boon granted him in such a situation.

‘Wait!’ cried Rarity, and he turned around, just in time to catch a kiss from her onto his forehead. ‘Just in case, my little sweetheart,’ she said, and gave him a chummy pat on the back, the burning crown he was holding less than conducive to a proper embrace. ‘Oh, good luck…’

Spike giggled and gripped the crown a little harder, not caring that it was still quite hot. ‘Hee… aw, you made me blush, I can feel it! I’ll be back before you know it, Rare.’

Farewells exchanged, she smiled and patted his back once more before turning to Starlight, inquiring as to her status. ‘Ah, Starlight, can I help you, ah, stabilise this forcefield while Spikey does what he needs to do?’

‘If you don’t mind, anything helps!’ said Starlight, ‘Just focus on combining your horn power with mine for a moment, it’ll buy us some time. Good luck, Spike, but don’t be long!’

Spike nodded as Rarity obliged Starlight’s instructions, closed his eyes then flapped his wings, hopping out of the bubble’s roof in earnest with another “pop!”, then immediately wishing he hadn’t. If it had been chilly right before Applejack and Rainbow Dash had fled with Twilight in tow it felt like absolute zero now, and he screamed involuntarily as he winced and shrank back into his clothes. Even with his eyes closed everything was bright through his eyelids and the howling black noise of the wind was tremendous. In an effort to keep any warmth at all he put Twilight’s crown on his head, which helped cancel things out slightly. A few hundred books whirled around in the maelstrom, but close to its epicentre as he was they mercifully kept their distance.

Once he’d got his bearings Spike stayed in position above the magical sphere. Aside from a vague idea of where he’d exited Starlight’s bubble there was no way to tell which way was up, let alone see or hear anything, but as he wore the crown it seemed obvious that he didn’t need to. He spread his arms out and upwards, and with a thought he began to absorb the light and noise, completing what Twilight had attempted. The crown glowed white once again and with a strange, rising slurping noise the chaos began to drain from the room. It seemed to be working, but the intensity of whatever it was he was vacuuming up was making his head throb, not to mention that as the room regained its normal temperature and the more it absorbed, the more the heat of the crown hurt – partly due to that, but the accumulation of heat begotten from the light within the object made it hotter than a horseshoe on an anvil. While Pinkie had been onto something in the council room regarding a dragon’s scales being more resilient than a pony’s fur and flesh, the magical heat was still an ordeal to persist through, and he gritted his fangs as he struggled to tolerate the extremes of temperature.

After a minute of that the library books started to fall to the floor as they lost momentum, and as the noise abated Spike could hear Starlight call out, ‘Yes! It’s working! Spike, take that thing off before it burns you bad and we’ll seal this thing!’ Spike didn’t hesitate, yanking it off with an inchoate yell and tossing it to the floor where it singed the carpet on impact. ‘Rarity! Now! We have to do it now, or more of that stuff’s gonna come out!’ Starlight instructed, ‘On three! One, two…’

The pair heaved the bubble back and forth on countdown, and as Starlight yelled ‘Three!’ they lobbed it at the mirror, another “pop!” sounding as it flew away from where they stood. The white light coming from the mirror still burned brightly, but it was contained for now, and all three of them collapsed to varying degrees. Spike fell to the floor and Starlight’s knees buckled before she planted herself on the carpet, breathing heavily and holding her head in her hooves. Rarity nursed her aching horn before running up to where Spike had landed, looking at where the crown was nearby. It was still glowing white, faintly blue even, and it had seared a hole in the carpet exposing the stone floor beneath.

‘Spikey-Wikey, you did it! Oh, we all did it!’ she exclaimed, picking him up amidst the piles of books around them and giving him a joyous hug, before thinking better of a more intense embrace given his delicate countenance following that adventure. She held him aloft in her hooves and gave him a once-over, looking into his tired eyes, ‘Oh, I’m ever so sorry you had to go through that, precious-scales… Starlight, how are you holding up, darling?’

Starlight steadied herself, slowing her breathing before answering. ‘I’m okay, but that was rough. Thanks for the assist, Rarity. Is Spike alright?’

‘Sore,’ muttered Spike, dusting the frost shards off his jacket again as Rarity plopped him down onto the floor, ‘No kidding that was harsh, but it was the only way.’ He looked over to where the smouldering crown lay and observed, ‘Uh, should we do something about that? I have a feeling we should, in case those, uh, whatever-they-weres come back out and wreck things even more?’

Before Starlight could respond the door swung open without warning, several ponies and a griffon tumbling in. Pinkie Pie had become stuck to the freezing surface of the iron reinforcement across its middle by her tongue, and Fluttershy had run to fetch Flash Magnus and the cadets, including Gallus, that he’d been in the middle of training. One of the others, a purple, silver-maned young mare, had plainly been trying to detach Pinkie from the door by grabbing her scaly dragon costume and pulling, and she fell forward while Pinkie remained attached.

‘We’re in! At last, where’s the emergency?’ cried Flash Magnus, getting back on his feet and fully entering the library before looking at Spike, Starlight, Rarity, and the looking glass surrounded by the magical aura and the books scattered everywhere before instructing his squadron, ‘Stand down, cadets. It looks like the princess’ friends have contained the threat.’

Fluttershy entered the room, flying in over Flash’s head at a frantic but controlled pace, skidding to a stop as she looked extremely concerned through the mouth of the Dragon Pit-themed mask she was still wearing. ‘Girls! Spike! Oh, oh dear, is everything okay?’

Starlight got back onto her hooves and booted a book aside. ‘We’re all in one piece, despite that thing’s best efforts,’ she indicated behind her at the swirling light inside the bubble, ‘But we need to deactivate it entirely if possible! I gave it my all and Rarity’s too, but something powerful is on the other side of that portal and it won’t hold forever…’

Rarity turned to Fluttershy, grooming her mane where it had become slightly bedraggled during the mess before giving her a light hug. ‘Fluttershy, are you ever a sight for sore eyes! Being trapped in here was just awful, though I expect it was only a few minutes… but I see you brought company! Hello, Gallus, Sir Magnus, ah, other ponies with whom I am thus far unacquainted!’

All the cadets stood to attention as the pegasus stallion saluted her with one wing, much as he had earlier. ‘At your service, Rarity. We came as quickly as we could after Fluttershy here summoned us most eagerly.’

‘I couldn’t think of anything else to do after the door slammed so I fetched Mr. Magnus and his, um, soldiers here… Rainbow and Applejack took off with Twilight, just so you know. I’m sure she’s safe,’ she looked at the three of them as Starlight got back onto her hooves, looked behind them and added, ‘Is that what caused all the problems? It looks dangerous!’

‘Near as I can tell, it’s some sort of sentient snowstorm,’ Starlight explained, ‘Probably extradimensional? It was trying to get through the mirror – who knows why? – but we managed to stop it. Spike in particular really put his tail on the line so we could bubble its way in, the mirror I mean, without freezing.’

Having struggled to stay upright after Rarity had deposited on the ground, Spike suddenly staggered and almost fainted, to Rarity’s alarm. ‘Ooh, Spikey… do you need a hoof?’ She sat and fussed over him for a minute, putting her hooves on his shoulders, and he groaned as he looked at her as if he needed a nap, blinking once with his eyes out of sync. She tisked, gave him a hug and asked affectionately, ‘Aw, would you like to lie on my back for a little while, sweetheart? You can lean on me. It’s quite alright…’

‘Ughhh… I just need a couple of minutes, but if you’re offering…’ sighed Spike, haltingly attempting to fly onto her before stumbling back onto the floor. Having predicted something along those lines, Rarity grabbed a hold on him before impact and gently floated him onto her back fully, and he lay on her, his claws gently holding around her sides, the tips barely caressing her upper belly in an effort not to slide back off. He buried his tired head into the back of her mane as he rested it on the curve of her neck, and while she normally would protest at such a thing he’d risked his wellbeing and been so brave in the midst of that strange blizzard that there was no question that she’d allow it on this occasion. Besides, it felt nice to have such a lovely little dragon lying on her, nevermind if he was a little heavy.

While that happened, the temperature had risen enough that the rime keeping Pinkie Pie’s tongue bound to the door had melted enough that she was free, and she trotted into the room next to Fluttershy. ‘Ooh, a neat swirly thing!’ she commented as she beheld the mirror, though her face fell somewhat when she realised, ‘A swirly thing that hurt Twilight and may yet destroy the palace. Curse you, you, uh, less-than-neat swirly thing! Bad swirly! Bad!’ She waved a hoof at it in admonishment as it raged away in its confinement.

Starlight looked intently at the glowing crown on the floor, observing that it seemed to be cooling off slightly. From there her attention was attracted to where Pinkie was pointing for the first time in a couple of minutes and observed that it was becoming less of a swirly thing by the second. ‘Uh-oh… everycreature, eyes forward,’ she ordered, levitating it but still keeping it at hoof’s length, then stepping backwards, ‘Something’s happening in there. Could be more trouble incoming!’

‘Cadets, brace the door,’ Flash Magnus barked, ‘We may all need to evacuate the room ASAP and we don’t need it magically locking itself a second time.’ They obeyed, Gallus and one unicorn stallion swinging it inwards as far as it would go as the others gathered some of the scattered books and piled them against it as ballast, before all leaning against it themselves. While not the dizzyingly tall gold-leafed iron double-doors of the throne- and meeting-rooms, it was solid enough oak.

Everycreature else in the room did as Starlight had said, and they observed that the globules of light inside her forcefield seemed to be calming and congealing, still bright at first but becoming translucent, milk-white orbs that became glued together the more they jiggled and churned around inside, looking like frogspawn inside a sac. They began to lose their lustre, the mirror behind them becoming a de facto backlight upon them as they began to pulsate and hum.

Spike’s head jerked up from Rarity’s shoulder as the hum grew louder, and his eyes widened as he sat up to bear witness to this latest development. ‘Woah… what the heck is that?’ he mumbled close to her ear.

The pair, everycreature for that matter, looked up at the mass of roiling orbs and saw they were swelling up and dividing over and over, making “glub” sounds each time becoming smaller and more granular until they seemed to turn to writhing static inside the bubble, before swirling like drain water into the mirror, leaving only that static inside the mirror from whence it came. Horrified fascination on the behalf of all present meant the only noise in the room vanished into a continuous whisper once it had traversed back inside.

‘Is it… retreating? Is whatever it is going back inside that mirror? By Celestia, I’ve never seen anything like this, even during the old days!’ Flash Magnus wondered aloud, paraphrasing what everycreature was thinking, or hoping.

Starlight peered at the looking glass inside the field, not letting her guard down. ‘Stay alert, sergeant. I don’t think this is over yet…’

The mirror’s surface swelled again then bubbled away for a moment, but it was sudden and violent when something serpentine smashed through the forcefield and made a beeline for the crown Starlight was still holding, although she was quick enough to evade it, herself and Rarity, Spike still gripping her shoulders, both leaping aside as the beast struck the floor. The thing reared its head and filled the room with a screech not unlike the thunder of the blizzard Spike had endured minutes before, and they all got a good look at it… and its head looked just like–

‘Spike?!’ Rarity cried out, ‘Spike, that dreadful thing has your face!’ She wasn’t wrong, its burning white visage plainly the size and shape of a pupil-less, long-fanged baby dragon who had woken up on the wrong side of the bed, its head and frills imitating Spike’s exact shape along with some other glowing blue markings over its mouth and eyes. Otherwise it didn’t resemble Spike at all, or even any sort of dragon anycreature in the room had seen before. Its body, or neck, or whatever the party had observed it as at first was more of a tentacle composed of a woven cable of fibrous muscle, that form just about visible through the white-blue flames radiating off of it, with no limbs attached. Its fire burned cold, dragging the room’s ambient warmth down significantly once again.

Having hovered to one side quietly since entering the room, Fluttershy looked up at the Spike-mimicking light being, feeling a glint of confidence that this was more in her wheelhouse than whatever semi-corporeal form it had taken up to now. She took a deep breath and said, ‘Everypony calm down for a moment. Um, maybe I can handle this?’

‘Give it a shot, but be careful,’ said Starlight, ‘It might listen to reason, but…’

Fluttershy glanced around at everycreature in the room before slowly flying in front of the thing’s incandescent, chubby-cheeked but hostile face and smiling. ‘No, I understand. Um, welcome to Canterlot! You’ve arrived at the capital of the realm of Equestria. My name is Fluttershy, and these are my friends! You know, we’re both wearing dragon faces… and yours looks very much like my little dragon friend, Spike, over there! What brought you through the mirror? Would you like to talk about it?’

The thing opened its mouth to reveal a steaming blue fire in its throat, and before anycreature could react a volley of shots escaped its mouth at Fluttershy, flinging her across the room and pinning her to the wall above the door by her limbs and wings with black ice. As she struggled it turned away from her without further acknowledgement and scanned the room. ‘WEAK, PRETTY PONIES,’ it intoned, in a disembodied voice coming in from all directions that was at once comically low, yet felt like a fell wind blowing through the bones of everycreature present, ‘NO. NEVER “SPIKE”. I/WE AM/ARE ONE TALON OF MEUS. GIVE MEUS BACK ITS/OUR LIGHTLINGS IMMEDIATELY!’

‘A talon of “Meus”, huh?’ asked Starlight as Flash Magnus flew above in an effort to chisel Fluttershy, cold but otherwise well, from her bindings, ‘Whatever body part of Meus. Your light stuff was trying to hurt me and my friends, so we sucked some of it into this crown here. Should’na done that, or injured our princess, for that matter. If you don’t want any more trouble, you’ll take the loss, mosey on back through that mirror and go.’

‘Starlight, darling, I know tensions are high, but perhaps do not antagonise the raging blizzard beast towering above us right now?!’ hissed Rarity.

‘It’s okay, Rarity, I got this. At least, I’m pretty sure I do!’ Starlight smiled and reassured her, levitating the crown in front of herself.

‘THE DIADEM OF THE FIRMAMENT! YOUR WRETCHED RULER STOLE ESSENCE THAT BELONGS TO MEUS! RELINQUISH IT UNTO MEUS OR PERISH ALONGSIDE YOUR ALLIES, WEAKLING!’ Meus roared. Cold breath streamed down onto the party still inhabiting the ground level, the Royal Guard trainees in particular catching the worst of it. It wasn’t enough to freeze anycreature, but the silver armour they wore exacerbated it enough to make their teeth chatter.

‘Augh! By the cracks of Arimaspi!’ complained Gallus, shielding himself with a wing, ‘Can’t we do something about this thing now it has a face? I get not stabbing it while it was weird globules in a forcefield, but c’mon!’

‘Stay your claw, cadet,’ Flash Magnus responded, using the hilt of his sword to break one of Fluttershy’s hooves from the ice encasing it, ‘Bloodshed is a last resort, but if I say to fight, fight. Until then, remember your training and follow your superiors’ orders!’

Before the freezing mist cleared Meus lunged for Starlight and the crown, but she was ready. She leapt aside and cried, ‘Absolutely not. Pinkie, catch!’ as she tossed it in the opposite direction to her leap, towards Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie didn’t hesitate, neatly hooking it onto the front lick of her mane and flinging it up high. ‘Ooh, I know this game! Keep away! Keep the firma-whatsit away from Spikey-face over there, girls! Fluttershy, to you!’ The flaming frost giant snapped near where Pinkie jumped and spun three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, deftly avoiding its jaws, totally unperturbed. ‘Us draggies gotta work together to save the day!’

‘Pinkie, no! I can’t–’ Fluttershy started, but the thing whizzed near where Flash Magnus was chipping away at her wings and embedded itself in the ice for a moment, melting some of it away, and she looked at it in amazement as her other arm was freed by its heat. ‘Oh! Oh, maybe I can.’ She tapped it and winced, before picking it up, juggling it between her hooves like a hot potato and calling, ‘Oh, it’s still very hot! Um, Rarity! Spike! Catch, if you don’t mind!’ Then she threw it over into their general direction as Meus lunged towards her, then averted course after the airborne crown.

‘Incoming!’ Spike shouted, sitting bolt upright on Rarity’s back, and she responded with a jump towards where Fluttershy, her aim not terribly true, had flung the crown. Spike grabbed it in one claw and winced. ‘Ugh, still hotter than I’d like, but it’s nothing like before.’

‘Want to pass it over, sweetheart? Contact-free magic’s borne us this far!’ Rarity asked, ‘You’ve suffered enough, as far as I’m concerned!’

‘I’m good, but next time it comes our way, it’s your turn. Starlight! Quick!’ Spike yelled, lobbing the crown at Starlight who grabbed it with that contact-free magic again in mid-trajectory, making it float errantly as Meus again flew at it and snapped, narrowly missing both her and it with another blast of frost that hit the wall behind them.

‘Thanks, Spike! Hey, if we do this enough we can tie this thing into knots, I’m sure of it! Keep going!’ she called, before tossing Twilight’s crown back towards Pinkie.

This repeated a few times, the ponies, Fluttershy and Flash included once she’d been fully freed, hopping around and, in Starlight’s case, shooting lasers at the creature as it snapped for it with its steaming mandibles several times. ‘MEUS WILL NOT BE DENIED!’ it boomed, ‘ITS/OUR ESSENCE MUST BE MORE, NEVER DIMINISHED!’

‘Flash, to you!’ Starlight called on the third or fourth round pass, once again flinging the crown to the sergeant, ‘But look out! Its aim is lousy on moving targets but it might be powering up for another blast!’

‘Bah, I’ve had worse from real dragons!’ Flash boasted, catching batting the crown away towards Spike, having somewhat recovered from his earlier ordeal and now airborne, with a wing, ‘Cold ’n’ Ugly over there isn’t half the threat a rampant elder dragon poses in battle! Uh, no offense, Miss Fluttershy,’ he said, Fluttershy shaking her head and looking disapproving through her mask’s teeth.

Spike grabbed the crown, which had continued to cool to the point that he barely felt its heat in his claws anymore, and looked around quickly, calculating where to throw it next relative to Meus’ current movements and position in the room. As he looked first to Pinkie and then to Rarity, he saw the latter was ready to receive it again, looking up and waving. ‘Coo-ee, Spikey! Divulge yourself of that royal headwear tout-suite over here, why don’t you?’ she called, hopping up and down with one hoof raised.

She was so fixated on him that she didn’t notice Meus was about to charge at her, unexpectedly changing tack from following the crown, freezing blue vapour radiating from its mouth as it went for her. ‘Rarity, look out behind you!’ Starlight called out, half a second before he likewise shouted, ‘Rare! Watch out! It’s going for you!’

‘What?! Aaahh!’ she squealed as she ducked, just in time for another volley of blue ice balls to narrowly miss her. They barely grazed her mane, her pink scarf catching the worst of it – the trailing half-metre of fabric that wafted in the air after she hit the floor iced up immediately and landed by her, shattering into pieces.

Meus followed the attack with a sideways wallop of its tentacle that sent Rarity flying down the library aisle, crying aloud as she bounced once on a pile of books before connecting with the base of a shelf, the impact shaking a few more books on top of her. While it amounted to just a few flimsy cloth-bound tomes, Spike was horrified to behold the mare of his dreams taking a lash like that. ‘Rarity!’ he cried, reaching towards her as she struggled back onto her hooves.

Meus stopped, reared then looked down at where Rarity had fallen and inspected her for a moment. ‘A LIGHT SO RADIANT… WEAK LITTLE PONIES MAY DELAY AND PERSIST IN ANNOYING MEUS, BUT TO NO AVAIL… MEUS CAN SENSE A MOST PLEASING ESSENCE WITHIN THIS WHITE ONE THAN YOUR OTHERS, EVEN THE PURPLE ONES…’

‘You keep away from her!’ cried Spike, tossing the crown aside and flying between the predator and its potential prey, angry enough that green fire began to flicker from the corners of his mouth, ‘Whatever you are, I’m through with this! I don’t care that you stole my face for whatever weird reason, I’m not scared of you! You’ll have to get through me!’

‘Oof, ooh, oh, I went a bit hooves over hindquarters there…’ Rarity groaned, regaining her balance, ‘Oh, Spikey, don’t! That dreadful beast just turned my favourite scarf into a woollen popsicle!’ she called, inspecting the torn remains around her neck.

‘YOU DALLY TOO LONG, NOT REALISING THE STOLEN ESSENCE WITHIN THE DIADEM OF THE FIRMAMENT DIMINISHES BY EACH PASSING SECOND…’ Meus growled, ‘MEUS DESIRES IT NO LONGER… THE WHITE ONE OUTSHINES IT NOW. YOU SHALL IMPEDE MEUS NO FURTHER! I/WE SHALL TAKE HER! DO NOT INTERVENE!’

Spike responded by punching it square in the face, then wincing as he retracted his claw, which immediately became encased in ice on impact. It howled as he reared up into the air a bit, putting his affected claw in front of his mouth and melting the ice as he sneered, then shot a jet of orange fire directly at Meus – normally Spike’s fire breath was green, but when determined enough he could muster up stronger stuff. Meus hissed and recoiled at the spout of fire coming from the pit of Spike’s stomach for a minute, but as soon as the blaze abated back to its usual green even slightly it pushed back with its own breath, which forced Spike to fly backwards closer to Rarity.

Rarity reached up and grabbed Spike, and just as the ice blast was about to subsume his fire and encase his entirety she projected a crystal shield spell to deflect the blow, and the stream divided in two around it, protecting the two of them. At the moment it struck they both cried out in fear for their lives, and Spike turned around and embraced Rarity. She was glad he did in that moment, despite the shield beating the brunt it was still nithering cold where they were, and a fire-breathing friend helped take the edge off.

It stayed in that position with its mouth wide open, but just as it was about to follow up with another blast Starlight hit it in the side of the face with a magic blast, forcing its ice breath to one side. ‘Yo! Over here, bozo! Not interested in playing catch anymore, huh? Well, maybe this’ll renew your interest! Pinkie, toss it to me! Fluttershy, Flash, can you give me a lift?’

Rarity kept her shield up and backed away with Spike in tow while Meus was distracted, and Pinkie picked up the now mostly-cooled crown with one hoof. ‘Here ya go, headmare!’ she chirped as she tossed it towards Starlight, who grabbed it in a magical hold.

‘Oh dear, I hope we’re not getting up too close to that rather rude creature,’ said Fluttershy, ‘I only just got thawed out, and it nearly got Spike just then! Are you ready, Mr. Magnus?’

‘I was born ready for stuff like this, ma’am!’ replied Flash as the two came to Starlight, who extended both of her front legs for a lift.

‘Just get me to the back of its head while it’s distracted! I can take care of things from there!’ Starlight instructed the pair. Despite her attack before Meus’ attention had only moved from Spike and Rarity for a moment and there really wasn’t time to hesitate, so they whisked her over to where she said. ‘I think I get it! The crown absorbs and neutralises this thing’s power, which makes it hot, but when it drains out it’s ready to take in some more! Take this!’

Two seconds later she was close enough to magic the crown up and around onto Meus’ forehead just as it was forming another ice barrage, and as she had predicted it clasped tightly onto its fake Spike-face. Meus screamed and started to thrash around chaotically as the crown sizzled on its brow, trying to shake the steaming thing off. That gave Rarity the window she needed to take off to the other side of the book aisle, near where Pinkie was, while carrying Spike. Pinkie Pie, not oblivious to her friends’ distress, gave Rarity a welcoming hug for a moment before they watched further events unfold.

After seven seconds of thrashing around hard enough to topple the shelf Rarity had careened into before, Meus flung the crown back to the floor as the remaining books all crashed likewise. As Starlight had predicted, it was glowing white and almost certainly searing hot to touch again as it processed the cold light, close to fully-charged.

Meus reared its head again and shot Starlight a look of pure hate, its mouth agape. ‘YOU DARE?! YOU WOULD SNUFF THIS LIGHT YET FURTHER? IMPUDENT THING! RETURN IT TO MEUS THIS INSTANT OR PERISH!’ it bellowed.

Starlight grinned as she alighted Fluttershy and Flash Magnus’ grasp and landed near the door, having re-collected the burning crown from the hole it had made in the carpet. ‘Like a moth to a flame, aren’t you?’ she said, taunting the thing as it glowered at her and bared its fangs, ‘Feel like part of you’s missing? Y’know, Spike’s right, this is getting old… let’s see how far you can reach for it!’

Then she pitched Twilight’s crown out of the room straight through Stygian’s window, the book in the image smashed as it whizzed through it at high speed. ‘Whee!’ squealed Pinkie Pie, as her head and Rarity’s both whipped over their shoulder at it in synchronicity.

‘My goodness! Nice throwing horn, dear!’ Rarity gasped.

‘Oh, geez, I hope that doesn’t hit anypony outside! You just sucked up a bunch of energy!’ Spike quickly observed, looking at Starlight with irritation.

Starlight cringed, knowing she’d acted rashly in the heat of the moment, but before she could respond Meus barrelled past her, hyperextending its neck and shooting straight after the crown’s trajectory. It emitted another icy-cold roar before throwing itself out of the door, inches away from the terrified cadets still forcing it open. However, as it tried to burst through the window it was suddenly deflected, a black aura becoming visible for a moment as it bounced back, stunned.

Still connected to the mirror in the library, the tentacle seized up as Meus’ Spike-head thudded hard onto the hallway floor. If it weren’t for the plinth the mirror was attached to, chances were good it would have toppled over and shattered beyond repair. It roared and thrashed around on the floor for a moment before falling limp for good. The cadets looked on as its visage began to disintegrate, revealing a skeletal death mask that seemed to be its true face. ‘Yeesh,’ Gallus ventured as cold steam billowed from it and it started to vaporise, ‘Did Headmare Starlight beat that thing? It wasn’t so tough in the end…’

He spoke a little too soon. Suddenly another icy howl rushed out of the mirror and filled the room, and two more of the tentacle creatures shot out, wearing malevolent-looking Starlight and Twilight faces this time and spiralling around one another as they streaked past everypony. The cadets scattered as they shot at their fallen fellow appendage, wrapping around it before reversing course and dragging it back through the mirror with them.

Right before departing entirely the Starlight-faced tentacle reared its head, bared its knife-long teeth and growled in a sing-song inflection of her voice, ‘WEAK LITTLE THINGS AGGRIEVE MEUS… I/WE WILL RETURN THIS INDIGNITY A HUNDREDFOLD! AWAIT MY/OUR RETURN! I/WE HAVE MY/OUR WAYS OF MAKING PATHETIC LITTLE EQUINES SEE HOW SMALL AND HELPLESS THEY TRULY ARE!’

Then it withdrew into the glaring void, and the looking glass made a slurping noise and shimmered for a moment before changing from blinding white light to the more familiar pink swirl it took when in normal use. Then Princess Cadance appeared, looking not a bit frantic, with Flurry Heart holding her defensively by one front leg.

‘Twilight?! What’s happening?’ she inquired, ‘She called me and then there were noises and crashing and I couldn’t see anything… wait, where is she? What happened over there? Is Twilight okay?’

‘Sunshine, sunshine,’ Starlight said, her brow knit and her lips pursed. Rarity looked over at her and noticed she was shivering, and not simply from the cold Meus had left behind, not that she could blame her.

‘Ah… ladybugs awake?’ responded Cadance, ‘Should we do the dance? It’s kind of my thing with just Twilight, no disrespect meant…’

Starlight relaxed, although she was still quaking a bit. ‘No, that’s fine. You’re for real, I needed to check was all. We’ve had, uh, a pretty big problem with the magic mirror. Twilight got hurt but she’s safe. Everything okay over there?’

‘Everything’s the same as usual in the Crystal Empire… oh, dear, poor Twilight! Was there a fight, or a monster in Canterlot?’

‘Forgive me if I don’t feel comfortable discussing this through the current medium, princess, but yes there was, and honestly, I’m pretty shaken after what just happened. Hey, Spike, mind taking a letter for Cadance and Shining a little later?’

Spike and Rarity both approached the mirror, and Spike felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins fade and get replaced with achy stress, the same as Starlight and likely everypony else in the room was. ‘Sure I can. Sorry, Cadance, but I’m with Starlight,’ he said, staying right by Rarity for comfort, ‘Speaking on Twilight’s behalf, this thing’s off-limits until we know what happened for sure, because right now it’s a mystery we definitely don’t wanna risk repeating. Speak soon?’

Rarity put her hooves around Spike’s shoulders and looked down at him with a mild but concentrated frown, and Cadance almost smiled at them before replying in seriousness, ‘…Yes, I understand. I’ll await further word through magic scroll. Bye for now,’ she said, before flickering and fading into a normal reflection. Spike didn’t hesitate to throw the cloth back onto it once she’d disappeared.

‘Applejack and Rainbow took Twilight to her quarters,’ Fluttershy said as Starlight and the others paced away from the mirror, ‘Let’s go see if she’s awake yet. Mr. Magnus, would you mind terribly keeping an eye on this room?’

‘Gallus, Silver Sprite, call for some backup, and make sure there’re some unicorns among ’em. Starboard Stern, go outside and retrieve the crown, bring it directly back to our princess’ quarters but don’t touch it directly, horn only. Poppet, follow us outside, keep the door locked and make certain nocreature enters until they return with help,’ Flash Magnus commanded before turning to Fluttershy and confirming, ‘Yes, Miss Fluttershy, we’ll watch the room in case that thing returns. The area should remain secure so long as the room is vacated. We’ve got a good idea of what we’re up against after that display.’

‘Thank you very much,’ Fluttershy almost-whispered in abject relief, nodding her head then smiling sweetly at Flash. He bowed his head in response.

‘Yeah, thanks… no, really, I mean it, that’s reassuring to hear,’ sighed Starlight, looking very tired. ‘Girls, Spike, let’s check on Twilight and rest up, shall we…?’

‘Rest sounds wonderful, as does a rendez-vous with dear Twilight after everything we’ve all been through,’ Rarity nodded, allowing Spike back on top of her, ‘Let’s not delay a minute further! After the rest of you, Fluttershy, Pinkie.’

As everypony hurriedly left the room, Spike put a palm on Rarity’s neck, beneath the back of her mane. ‘I’m glad you’re okay, Rare,’ he said with a maudlin tinge in his voice, ‘Things got hairy there for a while.’

‘Aw, Spike… I’m very relieved you weren’t hurt by that great beast, throwing its weight around like that… but you endangered yourself unnecessarily, you know – Starlight could, and did, ward it off at range! Now’s not the time to fuss about these things, though… let’s just leave, and see to poor, dear Twilight,’ Rarity breathed, as tired as anycreature else in the group.

Spike didn’t answer, instead putting his head over Rarity’s shoulder and putting his claws around her neck and chest. She responded with closed eyes and a sigh as she trotted along to catch up with the others – it felt at once faintly inappropriate, yet precisely what she needed in that instant.

–––✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*💎*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧–––

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

Is Meus or those creatures planning to capture Rarity now?

[Mareity]

10275438
It's taken an interest in Rarity for sure, but "capture" is too straightforward a way of putting it -- remember that it's an amorphous force of nature. Make no mistake though, Meus will return! Although not for a few chapters, unless I change my mind

[Spade_McTrowel]

Wow, talk about an increase in tempo.

Very interested to see where this goes.
I'm also happy to hear that you aren't expecting to keep that tempo going indefinitely.

I was drawn to Spike and Rarity working things out between themselves like adults.
I'd hate to see this completely change course to become a Shonen manga...

Not to say a little action spicing things up is a bad thing.
Spice is good, but take care not to overwhelm the dish.

--Spade

[Mareity]

10276432
Don't worry, it won't take over... I've made a start on chapter 13 already and my plans after they've all checked in on Twilight and discussed the threat involve Spike and Rarity hanging out, talking about feelings then hugging and maybe crying, as is their wont. I'm probably not going to write a huge amount in the next week due to work but I'll do my best to plod along. Anyway, the talky stuff is easier to write for me. I just like making them say stuff and then they hug, it'd be silly to overcomplicate that!

All that said, Meus (and its/their as-of-yet unnamed alternate forms) will return in due time. I didn't call this story an "epic" for nothing and whatever the hell that was besides bad news is a mystery I intend to slow-burn reveal, same as everything else in this story!

Also, thanks for reading! Fingers crossed for the next chapter before the month's end.

[Mareity]

10284955
Thanks for the kind words -- I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Honestly I was worried this chapter would come across as disembodied talking heads, which is why I put some legwork into the hallway details -- plus the flower baskets were a bit of a callback to the flower fields in chapter 8, don't you think? Also part of the appeal of writing Rarity for me is one big vocabulary flex, as you may have noticed. Nopony else in MLP lets me cut loose nearly as much as she does. She's a fun way to indulge my wordier side, which I don't get to do super-often otherwise. Also there's all the other reasons why Rarity is extremely good, but surely I don't need to go into that

The next chapter (since this is a comment on ch.11) mixes things up a bit in a manner that might concern some but do not fret, there will be more cute emotional Sparity bonding fluff very soon and I have planned things out with the whole frost elemental hivemind invader thing -- it's actually something I've intended in this story from the start. I'm just spelling this out, several times, because I know many a fanfic has become derailed by a sudden tonal shift. I know the risks and how to avoid them! I know what I'm doing!! I swear!!!!!

Regarding "this situation", hah, well, I'm honestly lucky enough to live somewhere quiet that is, compared to many places, only affected a little by The Way Things Are In 2020, so far at least, and as much as I love to quietly harrumph about still needing to work (case in point: the last week was swallowed whole by it and I've only gotten about 500 words in the bag so far, which is also why this reply is so late) at least it provides some normalcy and routine to life... not to worry, I am basically keeping on trucking, general weltschmertz aside. I hope all is well with you too 😇

[Late_Night]

question: does the pronunciation "may-oos" work as well?