• Published 7th Oct 2012
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Dusk's Dangerous Game - Airstream

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The Long Play

With a sound like rushing wind, a group of exhausted ponies appeared in Twilight’s study at the Regia, bruised, battered, and smelling heavily of smoke and ozone. As the three Wielders collapsed on the ground, exhausted, Twilight spun on Luna, who was taking in her surroundings.

“How could you just leave Golden Radiance like that? There was no purpose served by her death!”

Luna’s face was grave. “If we had left without a rear guard to be sacrificed, then Cadance would have been able to follow us back here. And in our state, odds are good she would have leveled the Regia entirely with us not able to do a thing to stop it.”

Twilight’s horn flared, and her armor began to remove itself, settling on a nearby rack. “That’s impossible. You can’t just ‘follow’ a teleportation spell.”

“Twilight, an Alicorn just earned her status as a goddess tonight. Believe me when I say that you have no idea what she is and is not capable of. Golden Radiance’s death allowed a chance for our trail to disperse enough that she could not follow it.”

Twilight snorted. “Yes, we noticed. We lost good ponies tonight because she somehow became super-powerful. I thought she had come into her own as a goddess! But instead I had to ward myself against high-level mental manipulation the entire time we were fighting. What happened?”

Luna’s voice was weary and low. “Cadance has performed what is commonly known as a soulbind. It is something that a very few can achieve. In fact, before tonight, only two have ever managed to initiate one, though hundreds have experienced it. I will explain later, but I must know who we are able to rely on.”

Twilight took a deep breath, composing herself. “Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack can be relied on. Rainbow Dash is downstairs in the infirmary being treated for severe magical atrophy, and now that we have arrived, an operative will be up to inform us on how our plan to retrieve Rarity is commencing.”

At that moment, the door opened, revealing a Changeling holding a message sphere. Luna’s eyes widened, but as the Changeling bowed politely, she did nothing except return the gesture. Without a word, it handed the sphere to Twilight, who set it in a plinth on a nearby table and activated it. It began to glow purple as she spoke into it.

“Hailing strike team Bishop, come in Bishop. What is your status?”

The light in the sphere coalesced into the familiar visage of Rarity. She seemed surprised to see Twilight, though she quickly assumed an air of businesslike calm.

“Good evening, Twilight. Apologies if this wasn’t who you were expecting, Sweetie Belle is currently being treated for a broken leg, and Glimmer took an arrow earlier while we were escaping, which means I’m the only one who can use this thing. We’re about ten minutes into the Everfree and expect to arrive within the hour.”

Twilight didn’t skip a beat. “I’d like to know who in my party is still alive and undamaged, please.”

Rarity smiled. “Of course. Sweetie Belle is alive, as is Birchwood and Glimmer. Young Scootaloo is here as well, and the Gryphon. She’s been training her crossbow on me this whole time, and refuses to tell me her name, though I’ve heard Birchwood call her ‘Mahta’. That’s it.”

“I think you’re missing one. Is Night Light there?” Twilight inquired.

Rarity’s face fell. “Unfortunately, he is not. We were pursued, and he stayed behind to hold them off. Sweetie Belle is quite distraught.”

Twilight was stunned. “I…see.”

Rarity continued. “We’ll be there soon, Twilight. From what I can tell, you’ve been planning something big, and I must admit everypony on Celestia’s side has been curious as to what.”

With that, the sphere went dark. Twilight turned to her three friends, who were only now getting to their hooves. “Are you all alright?”

Fluttershy nodded weakly. “I just need to lie down for a while. It’s been a long day.”

Pinkie Pie looked around. “Do you have any water? I could use a drink.”

Applejack sat down heavily. “Same here. And while you’re at it, maybe you can explain why I should still be trusting you, Twilight. Seems to me I've been lured here under false pretenses.”

Twilight had completely forgotten to inform Applejack of her stake in all of this. Sighing, she stripped away the last of her armor. As the Changeling next to her opened the door, she gestured to the stairwell behind it. “Maybe we should sit down and discuss this somewhere more congenial. I’ll see if Rainbow Dash can be moved from her bed. If not, we’ll just have to bring it to us. We can start once Rarity arrives.”


As it turned out, Rainbow Dash was conscious and lucid, which was more than could be expected of her. Tarantella had intercepted Twilight as the Element of Loyalty was being moved, and informed her of their conversation. Twilight, while upset that Tarantella had attempted to speak with the dangerous Pegasus alone, was understanding of her motives.

“Honestly, I had no idea that Rainbow Dash blamed us for the death of Stormchaser. This puts things into perspective. And you’re sure she said that she would have no part in the conflict?”

Tarantella shook her head, watching as the bed was wheeled into the meeting room where they would be speaking. “She wants nothing to do with us. I don’t know how to turn her, and I certainly can’t force her to declare allegiance to us. She’s set in her ways.” She looked at Twilight worriedly. “You haven’t slept much, have you?”

Twilight looked her lover in the eyes, reminded of the question she had been so tempted to ask this morning. “Of course not. When have I ever gotten enough sleep?”

The Condottiero laughed. “True enough. Promise me that you will rest when you are done here. You do no good to your followers when you are exhausted.”

Twilight nuzzled her briefly. “Of course. But for now, I must go to work.”

The doors opposite them opened up, and Rarity walked through calmly, followed behind by Sweetie Belle, who looked more tired and drained then Twilight had ever seen her look before. The alabaster unicorn turned to her sister, murmuring something. Sweetie Belle nodded, sitting down heavily and favoring her foreleg. A medic rushed forward from near Rainbow Dash’s bedside and began to examine her, his horn lighting up as he checked her for injury.

Rarity approached the ruler of the Regia before sinking into a courtly bow. “Twilight. It’s been a long time.”

Twilight tilted her head curiously. “I can’t help but notice that you haven’t tried to assault me. I assume that means you have broken your ties to Celestia.”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you mean, Twilight.”

The purple unicorn’s horn sparked with light, sending a lance of energy at Rarity. The stunned unicorn could only watch as violet sparks erupted from her coat, catching the blow before she could even react. Twilight nodded in satisfaction. “You have. This makes things much simpler.” She turned to Tarantella. “Do you wish to stay or leave, Tara?”

Tarantella smiled. “I think I will stay. I want to hear this.”

Twilight nodded before turning to address the rest of the room. “Now, I think that we are all here. Guards have been set at the doors, there are drinks available. Your wounds have been seen to, and you are all gathered under one roof for the first time in years. Are there any who do not wish to be here?”

Applejack sat at the table, her face resolute and expectant. She still had a score to settle with Twilight, and she wanted to know exactly why her onetime friend had thought it appropriate to steal her child. Fluttershy was next at the table, meek and demure, but steadfast in her commitment to peace. Rainbow Dash looked on from her spot, her bed an oddity in the room, but the Pegasus within somehow still as threatening and regal as ever. Rarity took a seat next to Pinkie Pie, her face calm and composed. She had made her choice back in Canterlot. She was Twilight’s pony now.

Sweetie Belle almost opened her mouth to say something. She didn’t want to be here, she didn’t want to do anything except curl up in a ball somewhere and cry. But there was time for that later. Now she was needed at the table. She got to her hooves and hobbled forward, stopping at a hoof on her shoulder.

It was the medic. He leaned in closely. “Ma’am, I think we need to talk after you are done here. It’s not urgent, but it is important. Please, come see me after you’ve finished with Lady Sparkle.”

She nodded, shaking him off and taking her place at the table. One more thing to add onto the list, then.

The last pony to take her seat at the table was Princess Luna, holding two boxes of metal in her telekinetic grip. One contained Twilight’s Element, and the other Rainbow Dash’s. She set them down on the table, looking at Twilight expectantly. The unicorn stepped forward along with Tarantella, taking her seat at the circular slab of wood. The Condottiero sat at her right hoof.

Twilight smiled and began. “Firstly, I would like to thank you all for being here. You’ve placed a lot of trust in me, and I cannot express how much that trust means to me. I owe a lot of you answers, and it’s time that I peeled back the curtains and showed you all the truth. We have a lot of information to cover, and very little time in which to do so. So, the first order of business is to establish where we are now as opposed to when Luna was imprisoned, four years ago.”

Luna looked at a chart in front of her. “Am I correct in saying that you have the Everfree Forest under your control?”

Twilight nodded. “Completely, with the help of Radiant Zenith. Also, we have used the Changelings to great effect. Celestia’s intelligence networks are completely compromised, and we were able to eliminate many important nobles tonight as well as some of the top generals. Basically, we have decapitated Celestia’s army.”

“And you are sure you can trust the Changelings?”

Twilight nodded. “A patrol stumbled across the Hive about a year after you were captured. Though relations were tenuous at first, we quickly realized that the Changelings really only ever wanted food. And we were happy enough to give them that in return for their help. Chrysalis has been cooperative, and the Changelings as a whole are actually far more intelligent and empathetic than we gave them credit for. It’s almost like they’re ponies, just…not.”

Luna thought about that, gesturing for Twilight to continue.

“Tonight, agents of the Ever Free, working in conjunction with the Order of the Crescent Moon and the Changelings, have overthrown the garrisons in Trottingham, Hoofington, and Los Pegasus. Those cities are now under our control, and we are working on reinforcing them using the Ever Free militia, while the Lunar Guard and Lunar Reserve are holding the perimeter of the Forest. We think that if we can present a large enough show of strength, then Celestia will have no choice but to allow us independence.”

Rainbow Dash spoke up, wheezing slightly. “Not a chance. She wants you bad, Twi. She won’t stop until she has you.”

Luna nodded in agreement. “Celestia cares little for armies or nations. She considers it her sacred duty to bring you back to Canterlot.”

Twilight’s face set. “Well, she can’t have me. We’re dug in deep and ready for whatever she can throw at us. She’s got a wrecked army and no way to contact her commanding officers, those that are left.”

“But she does have Cadance.” Luna cautioned. “And Shining Armor still leads the Guard. He would have been up on the mountain tonight.”

Twilight turned to Luna. “I think you should tell me exactly what I am going up against when I’m fighting Cadance. What is a soulbind? How can she have gotten more powerful because of it? And is there any way for me to match her?”

Luna sighed. “Tell me, what do you know of magic in nature, Twilight Sparkle? How are unicorns able to use it actively where others cannot?”

Twilight thought back to her days at Celestia’s Academy. “Magic exists all throughout Equestria. It flows in natural patterns called ley lines, and permeates everything we do here. This is why Earth ponies can encourage plant growth and Pegasi can manipulate weather. Unicorns as a general rule can’t manipulate big things like that reliably, but we can use smaller amounts over a wider range of applications. Each unicorn, and any sentient creature who uses magic, draws from a reservoir of energy deep inside of them. The power of the user stems from two things.”

Twilight seized a cup and a pitcher of water, using them as a demonstration. “The first is reservoir size. This determines how much magic a user can access at any time. This is where the raw talent aspect comes into play. I have a large reservoir, so I can use large amounts of energy.”

She poured a glass as the others watched with interest. “The second is how efficiently you can regulate the flow of energy. That’s a result of discipline and teaching, which is what makes the difference between a student and a master Mage. Even if they have the same well of power, the master will be more powerful because he can better release and control his power.”

She took a small sip to illustrate the release of power. “I always looked at it like flowing water. Horns are the ‘pumps’, and the will of the caster moves water through the pump. It’s a focus point. Theoretically it would be possible to channel energy through another part of the body, say a hoof, but that would be extremely difficult for unicorns because we only ever concentrate it through the horns. That would be like trying to pump water with a hammer. It just doesn’t work.”

Luna nodded. “Now, what about sharing magic?”

Twilight’s face flushed. “Unicorns can share magic on rare occasions. They did it back before Celestia and Luna arrived in order to move the sun. It involves giving up ownership of your magic, and trusting one user to manipulate it in a beneficial manner. Generally, it’s only undertaken by those who trust one another implicitly.”

She lined up more glasses, pouring water into them until they were partly full and the pitcher was empty. As she spoke, she began to pour the glasses back in. “By pooling magic, you allow for one unicorn to do things she would not normally be able to do. Moving the sun and moon comes to mind.”

She poured water from the pitcher back into one glass before draining it dry in a quick gulp. “That about sums it up.”

Luna smiled. “That’s correct. Very well done, Twilight. Now, I must ask you one more question. Can a unicorn ever hold more than their reservoir can hold?”

Twilight shook her head. “There’s a limit. It would be very dangerous, possibly deadly, for a unicorn to have that much magic.”

Luna took the now empty glass and the pitcher. “I can tell you that not only is it possible for that to happen, but that it used to happen frequently, and that ponies survived it. It was what happened when my sister and I approached our subjects too closely, worked with them on projects or took them as lovers.”

Twilight tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

Luna sighed. “There is a school of thought that suggests that magic is in fact the essential makeup of the soul, that it is something about the souls of unicorns that allows them to store and use magic instead of manipulating it as the Pegasi and Earth ponies do. And when you share magic, you are allowing your soul to come directly into contact with the souls of others. This is why it is such an intimate experience for unicorns. To share magic, one must share a small amount of your soul.”

Fluttershy smiled. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

Luna’s lecture continued. “The sharing of magic involves sharing every spark of magic available, and parceling it out evenly. This is no problem if the unicorns in question are evenly matched in terms of power. Most unicorns are close enough in magical ability that a sharing of magic is not an issue. Any excess energy is vented quickly enough. However, what do you think would happen if one side of that equation was much more powerful than the other? What if it were, say, a goddess?”

Luna picked up the pitcher, pouring water in to the cup until it began to run over. Her point illustrated, she cleaned up the water and turned back to the ponies who were staring at her in wonder. “But that much magic isn’t vented. It’s impossible to release that much, like a pump that is under extreme pressure. So it sits, and it waits. As the unicorn regains more and more of its own magic, the shared magic is placed under greater and greater pressure. Soon, it has no place to go. The unicorn in question is torn between the goddess and its own magic. It is bound to her.”

Twilight’s voice was small. “A soulbind.”

Luna nodded. “At this point, there is so much extra magic that it may as well have become a third unicorn. Before we could find a way to contain it, a soulbind would inevitably result in the explosive venting of magic from the unicorn’s body. And it wasn’t just the excess, either. All magic would be released, as the unicorn attempted to rid itself of all foreign magic. The cure would kill them, forcing the soul out of them.”

The purple unicorn’s mind was moving fast, trying to apply the information as quickly as possible. “But why did she become more powerful as a result?”

“Because she received a large portion of her magic back. And not just her magic, a small amount of Celestia’s magic.” Luna said. “She was supposed to undergo her soulbind much earlier. More than a decade ago, in fact.”

Twilight’s eyes flashed in understanding. “The Royal Wedding. She gave away her power to Shining Armor at the Wedding, when they kicked out the Changeling Queen.”

Luna nodded proudly. “Exactly. Finally, she was able to regain her power, and more. She has received her full measure of magical potential, and she reflects that in her physical form. Celestia and I underwent the same changes during our first soulbinds. Now she is on the same level as she and I when it comes to power.”

Twilight’s analytical mind was working extremely quickly. “But what about Shining Armor?”

“He is in stasis on top of the mountain Canterlot is built on. I could sense the residual energy when I was fighting Celestia. His soul has fled his body, but he has been covered in ice to prevent damage. Cadance will release him soon, and his soul shall return to his body from the vessel it was placed in. Soon, all that will remain is a crystal sphere, containing one perfectly blank soul.”

There was only one question remaining to Twilight. “And why does Celestia want that soul?”

Luna’s expression was grim. “The Elements are a force of Life and Order. To reforge them, Celestia must present an offering. To bring back your Element of Magic, she must give a life. And now she has one, ready for the giving.”

The box containing the Element of Magic appeared at her side, and she split it open, revealing the fractured gem inside. “In three days’ time, she will have all the energy from the Element of Magic gathered in one spot. She will make her offering. She will reforge her Element. And you will fall, Twilight Sparkle.”

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