14. Back To Normal Part 2
Despite being imprisoned in the Moon, Nightmare Moon was still able to use magic to look in on ponies’ dreams. And she could still infiltrate dreams as well. So for a while, her banishment fixed nothing. Nightmare Moon continued to give Equestrian citizens bad dreams in an attempt to keep them awake at night and change their sleeping patterns. This worked a few times, and Queen Celestia began to catch on to the possibility that her actions had been for nought. But just when she was about to investigate the matter of haunted dreams, Nightmare Moon discovered that in a thousand years, the stars would be arranged in the sky in such a way that she could cast a spell that would allow her to escape the Moon. So she stopped haunting ponies’ dreams. For generations, bad dreams were scarce and not too disturbing. However, in the months leading up to the thousand year mark, Nightmare Moon found that she’d conserved more than enough magical energy to cast her spell enabling her escape. And in her excitement, she began infecting ponies’ dreams again.
*****
Soarin was one of those ponies who’d been given a nightmare not long before Nightmare Moon’s return and subsequent reformation. This is what caused him to become an insomniac. So tonight, as Queen Luna was monitoring dreams as usual, when she spotted Soarin’s dream bubble, she realised she’d never seen him in the dream realm before. Then she realised he’d been one of the ponies she’d spooked in his sleep before returning for the Summer Sun Celebration. She decided to drop in on his dream to apologise.
*****
Soarin didn’t question why the rabbits he was flying with were orange, had nose rings, and were toting paintball guns, but when Queen Luna appeared alongside him, the absurdity seemed to hit him like a stone.
“I bid you goodnight, Soarin,” Luna said.
“Oh, hello your highness,” said Soarin. “Welcome to…”
He glanced around at the circus tent they were flying in.
“Whatever this is.”
“I have never seen you in the dreamscape before,” said Luna.
“Oh. I haven’t slept in years,” Soarin frowned. “Not since I had a nightmare about getting strangled by an Equestrian flag. I couldn’t help but feel like my bed sheets would do the same from then on.”
*****
Soarin and Luna touched down on a very large step ladder, the top of which was big enough for the both of them to stand on.
“I must apologise, Soarin. For it was I who gave you that nightmare,” said Luna solemnly. And she explained about her actions in the Moon.
Soarin wasn’t sure what to say. Eventually, he settled on “Well, I have a cat now, so I can lie still and sleep.”
“I am happy to hear that,” said Luna, “and I shall do my utmost to help ensure your dreams are undisturbed from this point on.”
“Thanks,” Soarin smiled.
“It was a smart move getting a cat to join you in your bed,” Luna went on, her face brightening a bit now that she knew she had Soarin’s forgiveness. “By nature, cats are hunters, and they know that they are at their most vulnerable while sleeping. They quite like to sleep with companions so that if they are attacked, they can likely face the danger together. I dare say if someone or something does try to strangle you in your sleep, your cat will…”
And then, instantly and without warning, Queen Luna disappeared from Soarin’s dream.
*****
If Soarin found this puzzling (and given that he’d woken up after it happened, he must have done), it was nothing to how Luna felt. One moment, she was speaking to Soarin in his dream, the next moment, she seemed to lose all her senses. She couldn’t see anything, she couldn’t hear anything, she couldn’t speak, and she couldn’t even move her forelegs or wings. Then the next moment, she found herself in a field of cornstalks and sunflowers. She gave her head a shake and looked around. She wondered if Soarin’s dream abruptly changed.
“Soarin?!” she called. “Are you still around?!”
There was no reply. Luna had raised her forehoof to the side of her mouth as she called, and was shocked to find that it wasn’t a hoof at all. It was talons. She looked at herself; she couldn’t see her own face, but her body sported kite down on her neck and a deer tail at her rear.
“I’m a peryton?!”
Luna tried to process what was happening. She was visited by the idea that someone had captured her on the balcony she always stood on while perusing the dreamscape by magic. It seemed plausible, as her conscious mind was always subverted when she did this, and she relied on her guards to keep any potential trespassers away, and to snap her back to reality if a situation arose in the waking world that required her attention. This didn’t explain the location or change of species, but Luna had no ideas for that. If her guards had been subdued, then the best she could hope for was a soldier patrolling the corridors would spot the problem and raise the alarm.
*****
If any castle guards did notice that Luna was no longer standing on her usual balcony, word hadn’t reached Queen Celestia yet. She was about to retire for the night. She was enjoying her pre-bedtime snack; she’d just finished a plate of cookies, and was now washing it down with a glass of milk.
She gagged and coughed. “I think the milk’s gone b…”
Her eyes glowed white.
*****
Celestia blinked. She was no longer in her bedroom. She was standing in a greengage orchard.
“Hello?!” she called.
She spotted some unfamiliar earth ponies. They were staring at the dark blue and purple sky. They were looking towards the horizon to the west. There was a sliver of bright golden light running across the horizon.
“Maybe it’s already up,” one of the earth ponies said. “Maybe we just can’t see it because those lazy pegasi didn’t bother to move the clouds. That’s why it still looks so dark out. I never trusted them pegasi. Honestly, if ponies were meant to be in the air, instead of clouds, there’d be waffles in the sky.”
“Don’t be stupid,” grunted the other impatiently. “Look at all those stars in the sky. You can’t see stars through cloud cover.”
“Then why hasn’t the Sun come up yet?!” snapped the first. “It’s well past 7 o’clock. It is the pegasi, I’ll bet ya! They want to alter the deal so they can get more produce out of us.”
Celestia heard hoofsteps, and turned to see an unfamiliar unicorn approaching the two earth ponies.
“It’s not the pegasi,” he announced.
The earth ponies jumped and turned to face the unicorn.
“It’s us,” the unicorn continued. “We’d like to negotiate a deal for some of the food you grow.”
“Don’t tell me…” one earth pony stared, “you horned lot are holding the Sun hostage!”
He and his colleague turned back to the western horizon. The Sun had still not risen. They looked back at the unicorn, who was smirking.
*****
Celestia recalled the story Twilight had told her about how she’d taken a potion brewed by Zecora that had given her glimpses of the distant past, and how that was the way she’d learned about the Tree Of Harmony. As she watched this scene taking place, clearly before the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi had united to form Equestria, she had no doubt in her mind that the bad-tasting milk she’d just drank had not been milk. Another flash of white light obscured her vision. Now she was standing on a cliff overlooking the horizon. The sky was brighter, and the golden streak across the horizon was more pronounced. Celestia could see the Moon in the distance on the other end of the sky. There was a small group of unicorns standing alongside Celestia.
“Tampering with the rise and fall of the Sun and Moon could have disastrous consequences,” one said.
“If my calculations are right,” said the one standing on the edge of the cliff, “the abilities I’m about to bestow upon my daughter will be passed down her family line.”
The third unicorn, a filly, said nothing; she just stood nearby looking nervous. Moments later, the Sun dipped below the horizon, and the full Moon became more pronounced. The unicorn standing on the edge of the cliff rubbed her forehead, then lit her horn. At once, she began sweating. Celestia watched as small orbs hovered out of the sky; one came directly from the Sun, the other directly from the Moon. The unicorn casting the spell was perspiring profusely as the two orbs latched onto her daughter’s flank. The filly didn’t yell or wince or even move. She just looked at her newly acquired cutie mark, a moon emitting sunbeams. If Celestia wasn’t so concerned about who had slipped her Past Glimpse Potion and what was happening in the conscious reality, she would have found it fascinating to witness the first pony to wield the ability to raise and lower the Sun and Moon.
*****
Another flash of white light obscured Celestia’s vision. Then she could see nothing but blackness. She felt constricted; much like when the Plunder Plants had captured her that very night when Twilight had taken Past Glimpse Potion. Only this time, it wasn’t thorny vines binding, gagging, and blindfolding her; it was her own mane and tail. She could tell because when she tried to turn her head to the right, the top of her head hurt. She struggled for a few seconds, and then tried to cast a spell to free herself. Nothing happened. She tried again. Her spell did nothing. She tried harder. A sharp pain at the base of her horn prompted her to stop trying.
*****
Celestia felt herself lift, and then all of a sudden, she could move again. She blinked and looked around.
“Is this… still a glimpse of the past?” she wondered, rubbing her eyes with her hoof. “Have the earth ponies conceded to the unicorns? Are they growing more crops to feed three tribes of ponies?”
Celestia remained where she was, expecting to see more history unfold before her eyes. But for several minutes, nothing happened. There was not a sound to be heard. So Celestia ventured through the field of sunflowers and corn stalks. Eventually, she heard a loud noise coming from the area she’d left, and she thought she could see a flash of white light through the thicket of crops and flowers. She was about to backtrack to see what it was, when she heard a familiar voice.
“What was that?! Is someone there?!”
Celestia turned away from where the faint white flash had come from.
“Luna?!”
“Celestia, is that you?!”
Celestia saw movement ahead of her, but while the creature who appeared from amongst a row of corn stalks sounded exactly like Luna, she looked nothing like her.
“Luna? Why are you a peryton?” Celestia asked.
Luna blinked. “Perhaps for the same reason you are a hippalectryon.”
Celestia looked at her body and gasped. She still had the head, chest, and forelegs of a pony, but behind her wing joints were tail feathers and talons. Before the realisation that she was a different species had sunk in though, an enfield jumped out from a cluster of sunflowers. Celestia didn’t know any fox-bird hybrids personally, but she thought she recognised this one. The identity of this interloper clicked as she called in a clear, resolute voice “Bookmark!”
*****
It was pitch dark in the cave outside Starlight’s Village, until an enchanted comic book titled “The Hologramatic Scarecrow Part 2” (though the front cover had been obscured by black paint) opened up and spewed out three ponies. The white light went out, and the Cave was dark again. Then a golden light filled the Cave as Evensong Glisten’s horn lit up. She looked around the Cave. The enchanted comic with the cover painted in black was only just visible on the ledge of the broken Cutie Mark Vault, right where she’d left it. She looked at the ground. There were shards of glass from the broken Vault lying all over the place. The Staff Of Sameness was standing upright next to her. And in front of her, wriggling and straining, were Celestia and Luna, tied up, gagged, blindfolded, and ears covered by their own manes and tails, with small black stones strung tightly around the bases of their horns. Neither of them could cast magic with chunks of Queen Chrysalis' old throne absorbing the energy from any spell they tried to cast to break free. Evensong watched the two Empresses of Equestria struggle and utter muffled shouts and grunts for several minutes.
“I only wish Mom and Dad could see their heroes now,” she grinned.
*****
Evensong negotiated her way through the glass-strewn ground to reach the Cave wall. She picked up two glass jars which, like the comic book cover, had been painted; these jars blended in with the rocks in the Cave corners and had gone unnoticed by the Wonderbolts before they’d sealed the entrance. Evensong unscrewed the lids from the jars, picked up the Staff Of Sameness with her magic, and pointed it at Celestia’s flank. Nothing happened. Evensong’s eyes narrowed. She gave the Staff a little shake. Celestia’s cutie mark still didn’t come off.
“What?” grunted Evensong.
She pointed the Staff at Luna, whose cutie mark also stayed where it was. Evensong prodded Luna’s flank with the wooden stick. Luna’s hind legs recoiled and she uttered a muffled yelp, but she kept her cutie mark as she trembled, not knowing who or what had touched her.
“I think I might be missing some information,” groaned Evensong, looking at the Staff Of Sameness. “Starlight must have used an incantation to activate this thing. Just great.”
Celestia gave a stifled exclamation and arched her body jerkily. It seemed she was lying on a large shard of glass. Chuckling, Evensong magiced the glass shards off of the Cave floor; she didn't want to risk the Queens managing to cut themselves free while she ventured off to fill the gap in her knowledge of the Staff. She turned back to the Vault.
“I hope I can get that information from her before dawn,” she said as she reached for the enchanted comic book.
*****
Before she opened the book, it opened and glowed white. Evensong jumped, dropped the glass shards, and tossed the book aside. A second later, it spewed out three other ponies; Sweetie Belle, Soarin, and Flash Magnus. They blinked in the gold light of Evensong’s horn, and looked quickly around the Cave.
“Cripes! She was right!” exclaimed Soarin when they spotted Celestia and Luna struggling in their mane/tail cocoons.
Sweetie Belle glared at Evensong Glisten. “You stole Marble’s Changeling Throne bracelet, swapped Zecora’s Past Glimpse potion with milk, and captured the Queens… just to spite your parents!”
Evensong was quite unabashed as she jumped over Luna’s writhing body, careful to avoid any glass shards, and looked at Flash Magnus.
“You’re Meadowbrook’s friend. You can tell me how to use this,” she said, brandishing the Staff Of Sameness.
“What is that?” Flash frowned.
“You know what this is,” said Evensong. “It’s one of Mage Meadowbrook’s Nine Enchanted Items.”
“Eight,” Flash said automatically.
“Huh?”
“Meadowbrook only has eight enchanted items,” said Flash, scowling. “Seven, actually. Everypony thinks her healer’s mask was one, but…”
*****
Evensong’s horn glowed brighter as some glass shards lifted from the ground and shot at Flash, who received a cut on his foreleg.
“No more bluffing,” Evensong snarled. “Tell me how I use this to take the Queens’ cutie marks off, or you’ll get more.”
She levitated more glass shards in a threatening manner.
“This is stupid, kid!” Soarin spluttered. “If the Queens lose their cutie marks, there’ll be no one to raise and lower the Sun and Moon.”
“There’ll be the Sun and the Moon themselves,” said Evensong impatiently. “I’m gonna release their cutie marks into the atmosphere. They’ll return to the Sun and Moon, and both orbs will rise and set of their own accord, just like they did thousands of years ago.”
“Well you can’t do that now,” said Sweetie Belle, taking a step forward. “There are castle guards waiting in Celestia’s bedroom. We found Part 1 of that comic book in there, so you can’t get away.”
Evensong glanced at the enchanted comic lying nearby. Undaunted, she turned her attention back to Flash.
“How does this Staff work?” she demanded.
“It doesn’t!” Flash Magnus snapped. “It’s just a stick. It doesn’t take…”
Evensong fired the glass shards she was levitating at Flash.
*****
Sweetie Belle quickly jumped in the line of fire, shielding Flash Magnus from the flying shards of glass. The shards vapourised as soon as they touched her.
“What?” Evensong’s eyes widened.
“Get behind me, Soarin,” said Sweetie Belle.
Soarin did so, but he and Flash knew it was going to be difficult for a teenage filly to shield two adult stallions.
“Oh, yeah? Take this!” Evensong snapped, levitating more glass shards and firing them at Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie Belle got on her hind legs, and stood, forelegs outstretched, as the shards of glass made contact with her and evaporated instantly. Evensong watched, confused, as vapour from the vanished shards drifted up towards the Cave ceiling. She tried again.
“Your magic can’t touch me, Evensong Glisten,” said Sweetie Belle. “Do you know why?”
Even when a shard got into Sweetie Belle’s mouth, it was vapourized; for a moment, it looked like she’d been smoking a tobacco pipe.
“It’s because you don’t know what your cutie mark means,” Sweetie went on. “I can’t be magiced into submission by somepony who doesn’t know what to do with their talents.”
More glass was lifted and fired at Sweetie Belle. More smoke plumed from the evaporated shards.
“You’re using your talents and abilities for evil,” Sweetie told the frustrated Evensong. “Why don’t you let me and my friends help you find good ways to use your magic? We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and we can help you.”
*****
Evensong snarled as she watched yet another barrage of broken glass turn to smoke upon hitting Sweetie Belle.
“You think you can outdo my magic?!” Evensong snarled.
She charged her horn. Sweetie Belle watched as her adversary’s horn glowed brighter and started to emit sparks. She charged her own horn; she wasn’t really sure what sort of spell to cast, but she knew whatever it was, it was likely to best anypony who was having a cutie mark conundrum. She fired a beam at Evensong. Evensong dodged, her horn ceasing to spark. Sweetie Belle’s beam of magic hit the broken Cutie Mark Vault. Some of the gridlines began to glow white. Evensong turned and watched the white glowing lines criss-cross along the rows and columns. Soarin and Flash Magnus gazed in amazement as the glowing white lines formed a maze. Sweetie Belle looked as her spell caused the four center squares of the Vault to merge. A symbol glowed magenta; it looked like a star. The Equal sign sitting atop the newly formed maze changed to a shield.
“What the?!” Evensong exclaimed.
Her cutie mark started to glow and vibrate. It split. The purple sun floated towards the maze where the broken Vault used to be. It entered a square and began to slide up, down, and from side to side along the maze. Evensong watched, mesmerised, as her cutie mark navigated its way through the maze, avoiding the center square with the star.
*****
Sweetie Belle marvelled at what her spell had done.
“I’ve done it,” she said softly. “I’ve tapped into my special brand of magic. I’ve created a kind of… reverse Cutie Map.”
“Take a closer look to join the adventure in this book!” Evensong suddenly shouted.
Before Sweetie, Soarin, or Flash Magnus could react, the enchanted copy of “The Hologramatic Scarecrow Part 2” glowed white and swallowed Evensong Glisten up.
“Oh, well,” shrugged Sweetie. “She only has two options, so she’ll get stopped either way.”
The light from Evensong’s horn was gone, but the Cave was still illuminated by the glowing white lines of the Grid Sweetie Belle had created, so Soarin and Flash Magnus went to free Celestia and Luna. Soarin removed the Changeling Throne necklace half from Celestia’s horn, Flash from Luna’s. At once, both Queens horns glowed, and one spell later, they’d disentangled themselves from their manes and tails.
“Thank you,” breathed Celestia.
“What happened?” Luna panted.
Before Sweetie, Soarin, or Flash could answer, a rumbling noise filled the Cave. They all looked up. Evensong’s evaporated magic had formed a cloud under the Cave ceiling, which was making threatening rumbling noises and emitting sparks. Celestia cast a forcefield spell over herself, Luna, Sweetie, Soarin, and Flash. Seconds later, a bolt of lightning shot down at them. It recoched off of Celestia’s forcefield and hit the boulder blocking the Cave entrance, reducing it to dust with a loud burst.
*****
The five ponies waited as the dust settled and a faint glow of early morning purple filled the Cave. They looked up through the forcefield. The cloud of failed magic was gone. It was safe for Celestia to remove the forcefield.
“What happened?!” they heard voices call.
Villagers were approaching the scene. Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but grin with amusement at the sight of shocked and puzzled faces. Ponies from the Village hadn’t expected at all to find the rulers of Equestria in the Cave, and they had no idea what to make of the modifications to the Cutie Mark Vault, in which Evensong Glisten’s cutie mark was still maneuvering.
“Hey, ‘The Hologramatic Scarecrow,” said Double Diamond, spotting the comic book lying open on the Cave ground.
He flipped the book closed with his hoof, and saw that the cover had been smothered with paint.
“Is this Part 1, 2, or 3?” he asked.
Sweetie Belle, Soarin, and Flash Magnus gave a start. They had no idea “The Hologramatic Scarecrow” was a three-parter.
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That actually explains a lot about him because the 1st time I saw him his eyes looks like they so tried or something
Whoa dang so the kid Evensong is just mad at her parents And wants to get back at them man she crazy Well at least we know what was happening in the beginning of the story I did not know what was going on until to that point but sweetie Belle is getting good with her magic And what do they mean part 3 of the comic book I guess we'll find out next time
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Well they thought she only had two options, but now they realize she has a third, and they have no idea where the third comic book is, meaning she's effectively escaped.