Dinky Doo: The Scion of Wind

by eclair_de_xii

Chapter 12: The Longest Day

Darkness.

That was all there was.

It was not vast.

Nor was it intimidating.

It was simply there.

The promise of oblivion lurked just beyond the buzzing and the abyss.

Bliss.

Freedom.

The words kept calling out to her, each call harder to resist than the last. She was broken. Sorrow had consumed her, deserted her in this hollow realm. More than once she had faltered; other voices beckoned to her, muffled and indistinct, and so onto them she latched, though she knew them to be beyond her reach. How long she was going to live out this sentence, where she had no body with which to affirm her existence, she hadn't the foggiest. What was she there but a disembodied thought, an orphaned consciousness? The dark preyed upon whatever she had been reduced to. Day by day, month by month, century by century it encroached upon her. What else was she, but a lone beacon in a foreign realm, trying to resist the urge to dissolve into its surroundings?

Home was but a word now. The more she reminded herself of it, the less meaning it had to her. 'Family' aroused stronger feelings within her, reminding her that she still was.

Cogito ergo sum.

Her words were proof that she was capable of thought. In time, she knew, those words would devolve into mere sounds, the emotions they aroused lost to oblivion.

What else was she then, but a lone aberration struggling to maintain agency in a desolate void determined to erode all trace of what constituted a pony? Tides swept and swished about a dark glassy ocean, and like sharks ready to seize their prey, they were circling a spire of rock that had no business being there.

Fear was as basic as breathing now, not something that could be washed aside easily.

Something else loomed in that hollow place. She could feel it, even though she could not yet perceive it.

Mentally shaking herself, she detracted her focus from the unknowns; those were variables that were beyond her ability to conceive. Relating those variables to knowns were entities that were fewer. Solutions had been long ago assembled, expressed as sums of independent quantities and possibilities that could not be pared down into tangible conclusions. Frustration dominated perusal of such musings, which had too often led her astray. Of 'home', of 'family', and all whom she knew and loved she thought in order to anchor herself.

A bright happy foal, the periwinkle of her eye; she was looking expectantly up at her, tail swishing to and fro. A mare the color of goldenrod; she was sticking a tongue out at her out of a retribution whose context was only vaguely known. Faces were easier to cling to; they did not fade as easily as words did, as they did not exist in a mental index that was slowly deteriorating.

Once more their muffled voices came, this time with greater clarity than usual. There was also… squeaking? Of the metallic variety, she added as a footnote.

A maw opened, one of light, of warmth and of welcome.

The featureless void was retreating, shunned and outshone.

Now it was unseen, but a memory that was thankfully starting to feel distant.

Her faculties were dawning upon her. The murkiness of her thoughts was being washed away, and a blanket of stars was waving at her like a flag.

The expanse between the margins of dream and reality was inconceivable. This she knew, because an impetus was hurtling her through it, the seemingly infinite interstice that segregated the unconscious and the conscious minds. Time is but a fantasy that enables perception. But here, it had no meaning. The trip took an eternity, and at the same time, it barely took more than the groggy blink of an eye.

To say that she was disoriented would have been an understatement.

Millions of things swarmed inside her head; they could have been thoughts, venues that may have held her interest in the idleness of sleep. Whatever they were, they were being submerged once more into her unconscious mind.

Somehow, she was staring at a ceiling; she couldn't help but feel like it was familiar. She sniffed; the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. Though the dusk — or was it dawn? — concealed them well, she could discern the tile patterns, which had been just as bland as they were over eight years ago.

Ditzy blinked.

The relations in her mind were feeling less consequential to her. Fuzzy surroundings absorbed themselves into the forefront of her mind, pushing her dream-born thoughts towards the back of her mind. She almost lamented the loss of them; but she knew she would meet them again in another dream, perhaps. It felt almost like the time she had woken up after the stress of her dissertation had overwhelmed her on the last day as an archaeology student.

It was lurking in her vision again.

Ditzy gasped.

As it transpired, the stars were still out. But at the moment, they seemed shy in the presence of something looming just beyond the horizon.

Squeak, squeak.

They were metallic squeaks, the very same that had woken her up.

A mare cursed the lack of available grease.

"Psst," Ditzy said, her voice feeling lighter after what felt like a century of not using it. "Psst. Daring."

Detail was returning. What little sunlight that was crawling in illuminated just enough to give her a rough idea of where she was.

She was lying in a bed, the only one in this ward. She was not alone. Sitting just beneath the windowsill was Daring Do. She was feeding some foul oil into her grey mechanical wing.

"Psst. Daring."

Daring flapped her metal wing tentatively; it still squeaked. She cursed. Flicking the tip of a metal syringe, she resumed her ministrations.

"Daring. Psst," Ditzy said, a little desperately. "Daring."

Still no answer.

"Daring Do."

Still nothing.

So Ditzy closed her eyes, one of which was still lame. She tried to think back, drawing upon her returning reserves of memory. She knew she had been itching to try something. It had been just a few weeks back — it might have as well have been a few months, or a few years, to paraphrase Miss Bestselling Author. Or herself, rather, since it was she who had broken her wing around that part of Sapphire Statue. The sisters had been out on their early morning flight. That moment shone, rejuvenating Ditzy like a beacon that cleared the clouds that had been dulling her mind.

"Is Rainbow Dash preening herself in public again?"

Wings straightened up; all four goldenrod hooves were now flat on the floor.

"Where!?" Daring said, scanning the ward hopefully.

Meanwhile, Ditzy had her forelegs crossed beneath her neck. A mischievous smile was cracking her otherwise tired face. She felt great; she was starting to feel like herself again. Watching Daring scan the ward was amusing, moreso when her scan ended on her sister, who waved.

Daring's wings drooped; her face was reddening. "Sis…! Wait. Sis? Sis!" she said, flying to her bedside; sister and sister embraced. "Oh, Sis, Sis, Sis. Thank Celestia you're okay!"

"Not so tight. My spine still feels like a whole temple fell on it."

Daring snorted. "That was a fun raid."

Ditzy snorted back. "Yeah."

The sisters felt each other's warmth. They had never thought they would see each other ever again. They were enjoying the moment too much to ever want to pull away.

Dawn was permeating the room, brightening it all the while.

It wasn't until it turned into precisely the right hue and saturation of purple that Ditzy remembered Dinky Doo.

Fear flickered in her golden eyes; she tried to blink it away, but couldn't. The memories were washing over her now.

Ditzy pushed herself out of the hug. "Daring," she said, her voice low with urgency, holding Daring steady as though to prevent her from escaping. "Where's Dinky?"

Sighing, Daring looked away; Ditzy let go completely.

"It's for the best, I guess," Ditzy said, falling back onto the bed with her forelegs crossed over her torso.

These words made Daring stare incredulously.

"What!? What are you talking about? But Ditzy, your kid — Dinky's in Haissan right now. How in the hay is that for the best!? …Hey, hey! Stop! The last time this happened, it took alicorn magic to put you right! You need time to rest your head!"

But protest as Daring did, stained gauze continued to fall into a tightly coiled pile like the shed skin of a snake. The light teal hospital gown was made to hug the floor.

Ditzy was already on her hooves, testing them on the tile. "Oh, believe you me, Sis. The last thing we have is time. We have to find Twilight and the others. We have to warn her."

"Warn her? Warn her about what?"

But Daring was just talking to an empty hospital ward at that point.

She caught up with Ditzy on wing.

Ditzy meanwhile did not look like in the mood to explain herself. So they flew on in silence.

The morning air made neither sister shiver. Streaming through it offered Ditzy no comfort. Tension bound the grey pegasus wings so tightly that it was a miracle she could flap them at all.

Though Ditzy had not asked for it, nor did she have any need for it, Daring led the way back to town. Ditzy remembered in another life, when Daring led the way home after Dinky's birthday party. A familiar weight had rested on Ditzy's back then. Divested of it, she felt bare, empty, like a part of her soul had been torn mercilessly away.

Ditzy wasn't really listening to Daring recap everything that had happened ever since Ditzy had fallen into a coma. She did ask, though, how many days remained until the Summer Sun Celebration.

After Daring answered, Ditzy used a particularly foul curse that would never reach Dinky's ears, ever. Even Daring was surprised; not even she wasn't daring enough to use it. But she shook it off and recovered. "Don't worry, this is our chance. As soon we tell Princess Celestia everything that happened, she'll fix everything, deus-ex-machina style. Bonus points, since she's an actual deity, if you know what I mean."

Daring waggled her eyebrows.

Canterlot was faraway. A pony had to squint to see the silhouettes of its spires. The mountain upon which it was built seemed to surveil the festivities that were soon to unfold. Ditzy couldn't help but feel small staring at it.

The town was growing taller in the distance. More and more buildings were poking their heads out of the horizon; some of them were still fuzzy.

This year's Summer Sun Celebration was to be held outdoors, in the main plaza. For the occasion, a stage had been erected, almost as wide as town hall some ways behind it. Thick red rope hung in loops around it; each segment began at one metal stake and ended at another. A short flight of stairs led to the platform, which was white with linings of familiarly pure gold. The giant sun-shaped hoop hung ominously above the platform, above the heads of the ponies who had congregated before it.

Whispers floated in the air. Some ponies were excited; maybe a bit oblivious. Others were still anxious about a dangerous pony lurking amidst them.

The jangling of armor made Ditzy's ankle throb.

Armored unicorns formed a wall of ponies at one entryway into the plaza. They had left a gap between them to allow the last of the Ponyvilleans to file in, the very last of which included the Cakes, who were ushered in by a pair of guards; Zecora wasn't far behind.

The halo of pegasi had shrunk small enough to fit inside the bounds of the plaza. Now, the squadron of armored pegasi were hovering by the rooftops, alert.

A violet veil was still cast across the skies. But it was disappearing, the cool shade it offered becoming ever brighter. Stars were lurking beyond, faint and distant; they seemed almost pitying as they faded away.

"Daring! Ditzy! Over here!" called a familiar voice.

Rainbow Dash flew up, ushering them over her way with an attention-grabbing hoof.

Ditzy and Daring followed it, flying over the heads of ponies as they did so.

Dash was with the usual crowd: Applejack right beside her, Fluttershy on her other side. Fluttershy was nearest Twilight, who stared up in awe, seeming to be lost in a daydream. Rarity was beside Applejack; both were rubbing one hoof over the other.

Ditzy landed beside Twilight.

Daring landed beside her and Fluttershy.

"Girls, girls, girls!"

The squeaky voice broke the tension, the murmurs and the whispers.

Ponies turned, the Mane almost-6 and the Sisters Doo included.

Bouncing towards them was Pinkie Pie, a path being cleared for her as she did so.

"Girls, girls, girls!" she said, bouncing onto a spot on Twilight's other side, and bouncing in-place still. "You won't believe what just happened. It was the weirdest thing! So there I was, changing diapers for the Cake twins, right? But no matter how many diapers I put on them, they just weren't clean enough for them — um, the diapers for the babies, I mean, hee hee, so anyway, Mr. and Mrs. Cake told me to the Summer Sun Celebration without them, while they took care of their foals. And then I pronked through that street with the shops and the windows that all the ponies like to shop through, right? So then I looked into one of those mirrors."

Expectant silence followed, but Pinkie said nothing more.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? And?"

"And," Pinkie continued, "I looked in one of those mirrors, and instead of another world with swirly hills or creepy chains, I turned around and saw another me. Another. Me. So I said, 'Hi, Other Me!', and then she said at the exact same time, 'Hi, Other Me!' while pronking around at the exact same time I was. I waved, and then she waved back. Isn't that amazingly awesome-weird and cool with strawberry-fudge sprinkles on top!?

"WELL!?" she screamed into the air.

It was silent for a moment; the seconds that whiled by could have been measured by Pinkie's bouncing.

"Just spectacular," said Rarity.

Applejack meanwhile clicked her tongue. "Y'all sure ya ain't just seen yer reflection, sugarcube?"

"Mm…" Pinkie went, pursing her lips thoughtfully for a full minute. "Nope! Absotively posilutely!"

Rolling her eyes, Applejack went to facing forward.

The rest of the crowd had fallen silent. They were staring ahead, enraptured seemingly by the sight of an empty stage. Breaths were held, doubtless, for the sun that was soon to shine, brilliant for their waiting eyes.

She seemed to emerge out of nowhere. Each step she took was punctuated with a muffled tink. That she was walking on the stage was plain; it was perfectly unremarkable in all meanings of the word, and therefore all the more surprising. There had been no teleportational pop, no majestic descent, no blow of trumpets to precede her. She was just walking.

All the same, ponies were sinking into grovels before her. "Princess…"

She took her rightful place, looking small but no meaner beneath the sun-shaped hoop. She knew her rightful place: a lowly servant self-sworn to call upon the Sun.

She looked down upon her people.

"Arise, my children."

Thus they did.

And as they did, they fixed their unworthy eyes upon her, lucky enough to see only the shadow of her face.

Her eyes were open, seeming to stare inexorably ahead, transfixed upon the darkness that she alone had the privilege and power to banish.

A breeze blew, heralding, as it transpired, the coming of something from the horizon. In they flew, cinders, red and golden, from flames long forgotten. And as they swept past her face, illuminating it for the first time that day, everypony gasped. A mane of ethereal rainbows flowed behind her, in a wind whose grace to which she alone could equate.

"Welcome, everypony, to the Summer Sun Celebration."

Her voice was soft, a loving whisper.

"I am honored to grace Ponyville with my radiance as I was once unable to, just some moons ago."

Ponies were hanging onto each gentle syllable that issued from her mouth.

All but one. "Freeze, Changeling. What have you done with the real Princess Celestia?"

Twilight gasped. "Big Brother…?" she muttered.

'Big Brother?' Ditzy and Daring mouthed at each other, before looking to the rest of the Mane 6 to find them expressing similar confusion.

Her laughter was muffled between her curved lips.

Her violet gaze was kind and motherly.

"Oh, Captain. I assure you: I am no Changeling. I do not hide amongst the shadows of my subjects. I am no impostor. In truth, I am more real than I once was…"

A thick white hoof was waved about in measured motions.

Lances were being drawn, held at the ready by the advancing pegasus guard. Unicorns were coming to flank the armored white unicorn stallion who had been addressed as 'Captain'. Horns were being charged, ready to strike at another wave of his hoof. The crowd moved back from the stage, their spots filled by Canterlot soldiers.

The stage was surrounded.

There was no place to flee, on foot or on wing.

She was unabashed.

She was as content to bask in the glares of her enemies as she was to bask in the admiration of her subjects.

She watched.

The Captain was ready to let his hoof fall, an order to arrest her.

She waited.

Solar winds continued to stream behind her. The particles of sunlight that were swept into the audience were dwindling, like every star in the night sky eventually did.

For a moment, all went still.

Now, her mien was solemn, composed; her eyes were closed as though to contemplate a dire affair.

"The time has come."

Gasps broke free of the crowd.

She was airborne before anypony realized it.

Her long majestic forelegs were spread high above her, their shadows cast over her audience. The colors of her mane were obscured behind a light yet to be, and the flow of it was waving high over everypony's faces.

The Captain still had his hoof out, watching cautiously. The soldiers whom he commanded held their arms at the ready.

She continued to float there, forelegs raised.

A minute light winked from beyond the horizon.

The guardsponies were lowering their arms, despite having received no order to do so.

The sky was abandoning its starry veil; it was assuming its eponymous hue of blue.

Even the Captain was lowering his hoof.

Calm was returning, palpable. Relief was sighed, cascading throughout the crowd.

The sun was rising to the level of the hoop.

For a fleeting moment, asking a favor to retrieve a couple of fillies from Haissan felt like an actual possibility. Maybe the runes Ditzy had seen on the invitation envelope had been nothing, after all.

Then it happened.

The rays struck her from behind. A brilliant white enveloped her; her divine form was imposed upon the eyes of all present. Her divine form was changing. The tips of her hooves were hissing with flames, which popped, as did those on the crook of her wings. The eyes opened, and they were pitch-black; the embers within were her pupils that found her little ponies.

Radiant orange hoofbracers kissed the stage. The last of the flames dissipated off the helmet that was now fixed upon her head. Throwing back her mane, a voluminous trail of fire, was a white mare who stood where she once stood. The latter's Cutie Mark was now emblazoned onto the chestplate of the white mare, as though to indicate that she was being held prisoner. Yet, the Cutie Mark that was now on her haunches…

Lightning struck, bringing out the hunger in her eyes.

A dark-red hue permeated the sky and all under it. Skeins of energy were arcing across the sky, jumping from one invisible pocket of the firmaments to the other. The sun was a thing of the past. In its place was a blood-red orb with tendrils that seemed to dance eerily in the sky, uncannily like her Cutie Mark.

Among it all, her divine form was most brilliant.

The Captain's eyes were glittering in disbelief. "What… Who…?"

A smirk crossed her lips.

An explosion threw everypony backwards.

Lances clattered to the cobblestone.

Everypony, the unicorn guard, the pegasus guard, the townsponies, the Sisters Doo, and the Mane 6 were on the ground. Groans now saturated the square.

Somepony was chortling.

But her laughter could no longer be contained between the curve of her lips.

She laughed throatily.

A paralyzed second passed.

Throwing her head back, she cackled; she cackled as loudly and shamelessly as though it were her dearest wish for all of Equestria to know her mad bliss.

Pulling his head up, the Captain held a hoof out to stop somepony. "Wait!"

But Twilight Sparkle did not. "Princess Celestia!" she cried, prising herself off the ground.

As she galloped towards the stage, Applejack called after her. "Twilight, come back!"

Snarling, she galloped after her. Flying aside her was Rainbow Dash, who said, with a shake of her head, "Nuh-uh. No way you're going there alone!"

"Me, neither," Fluttershy said, flying on Applejack's other side.

"Yeah!" screamed Pinkie, catching up to her on a gallop.

Not far behind was Rarity, who said with a flip of her mane, "Ugh! That I would desert my friends in their hour of need. The very thought! Hmph!"

Applejack looked at each of her friends in turn. "Aw, shucks, now yer makin' me blush. Twilight! Git outta there, quick! It ain't safe!"

"Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia! Please! You have to wake up! Princess Celestia!"

Twilight was feet away from the stage. Her eyes were wide. All they seemed to reflect was a fiery monster that too absorbed within her laughter to see her forsaken pupil's lament. Falling onto her haunches, Twilight bowed her head in defeat. Her breath was coming in terrified shudders. "Princess Celestia," she said to her own hooves, "how could I have let this happen to you…?"

She didn't seem to notice her friends budging her, trying to get her to flee.

They, in turn, didn't seem to notice when the white mare stopped laughing.

Watching the friends try to shake some sense into Twilight made the white mare curious enough to spare a tilt of the head. She strutted forward, one hoof after the other, as her pupils grew in anticipation. "Oh?" she crooned, her voice deathly quiet. "All the Avatars of Harmony in one place?" Fires spiraled along her long horn, flashing into a steady hum of an inferno. "Truly a serendipitous occurrence befitting the advent of a day that shan't ever end."

"Look out!" Daring and somepony else cried.

Flames consumed the Mane 6, roaring and humming, their heat beyond anything nature could conceive. Black swirled menacingly amidst the white and the orange that was falling over them. The fiery dome was too dense to let anything, not even the muffle of a scream escape, let alone any of the ponies whom it was converting to ash.

Laughter consumed the white mare again — only for it to be dispelled seconds later, alongside the heat dome, which exploded into a parade of ash and cinders. The fiery remains were subsiding, fading back into the aether.

"What!?" snarled the white mare, "but how can this be!?"

Two horns were interlocked, their glows twin in color. The violet of their magic resonated with the protective orb about the Mane 6 and the Captain. Side by side, the Captain and Twilight stood, glaring their defiance.

"Impossible!" the white mare spat, "you are but unicorns, mewlings in magic, compared to the wonder that is me!"

Neither Twilight nor the Captain answered.

Each of their horns ceased its workings; with a series of sounds that were not unlike slurps, the protective orb unraveled. The disintegration of its film cascaded to the bottom, over which a purple hoof stepped. "You will release my friend and teacher, you monster!"

Twilight stepped forward, standing between her friends and the white mare.

Silence reigned.

Breaths were held, eyes rapt with attention.

Winds swept, between unicorn and fallen alicorn.

Twilight stood, unrelenting and undaunted; her friends stood behind her.

The white mare cocked her head; her eyes flicked elsewhere in the crowd, then back to her dissidents. A fanged smile perked up her face. "Oh, my dear Captain," she crooned, spreading her angelic wings wide. She took flight, leaving the Captain and the Mane 6 a gust to deal with; the tip of her horn was ablaze. "This is why you so seldom triumph in our little chess games. If you choose to forsake your queen in order to come to the rescue of your pawn, I will be forced to punish you."

She launched a fireball at somewhere in the crowd.

Somepony shrieked.

"Cadance!" cried the Captain.

The white mare cackled at the expression on his face; but this too did not last.

"My love!"

A pegasus was flying at an invisible arc that was aimed straight for the Captain. Touching down, she shook the coat of ash off her body. After she shook her mane, a tandem of purple, pink, and cream, out of her face, Ditzy saw the horn. "Don't worry about me," said the alicorn, a mare, hugging the Captain. "I'm okay."

She smiled, a tilt to her head. "Not for long!"

Gasping, everypony looked to the blood-colored sky.

Once more, her limbs were spread out, as were her wings.

The sky flashed.

Insane laughter rung throughout the plaza, as close to each shivering pony as if it had come from right behind their ear.

"There! That's the way, my loyal subjects! Grovel before your master! AHAHAHA! My dearest sister cannot stay deaf to your pleas for much longer! AHAHAHA!!"

Another flash came.

Ditzy was trying to blink the red from her eyes as she got off the ground. She tried to breathe. The Ponyvilleans, the faces she had come to know and love for the past eight years, were lost in their panic. She could feel her heart pumping, on the verge of breaking. Gritting her teeth, she ignored what the pricks on her fur were telling her.

Pulses of energy were emanating from the smooth, once majestic white fur. A hot aura was waxing around her as though it were her personal corona.

The Captain was calling for calm; so were his pegasus guard.

"Everypony who can conjure a shield charm, gather here!" Twilight shouted into the air, her combed hair in stressed disarray.

It was hard to keep one's breath with the ground rattling so much. Earth ponies and unicorns stayed flattened to the ground; the pegasi were too scared to take to the air. The Canterlot guardsponies were trained for many things; unfortunately, the return of a fallen alicorn was not one of them. They did their best to help the townsponies without succumbing to the growing bedlam themselves.

The flashes were meanwhile growing redder, more frequent.

Sparks were bursting out of thin air. An unnatural heat seized the air, sapping it of all its moisture. Scarlet shadows washed over the town, a permanent dusk that portended a tragedy soon to come.

Shining high above the town was a parody of a beacon of hope: the white mare. She grinned, her horn humming all the while. The sound of screaming seemed to bring great delight to her ears. Cries for 'Princess Celestia' were of great amusement to her. The sight of ponies scurrying about like ants brought her immense satisfaction. She gasped and turned her attention elsewhere. "Oh? So that is where you have been hiding, Sister Dearest? Abandoning our subjects to come play with him in his little sandbox? Hmph, very well. In that case," she said, letting her eyes drink in the bedlam below for one last time, "it is to a land of ash and fire to which you shall return!"

"Everypony," the Captain shouted over the panic, the rumbling, and the flashing. "Now!"

The explosion of light was blinding; it consumed all in its path. Flames were rolling over the town like tides over the ocean, bent on converging onto the square. Houses were set aflame; the screaming was getting louder; the sobbing and wailing was too much to bear.

Fluttershy and Rarity were crying on the ground with each other for mutual comfort. Everywhere, the townsponies were huddling close, shoulders tensed as they braced themselves. Ditzy and Daring were holding each other tight.

Jagged beams of magic burst from the horns of Captain, Cadence, and Twilight Sparkle. Beads of sweat were sliding down each of their cheeks as they willed their magic to spill into the shape of a protective dome, like water would into the surface of an upturned bowl.

Fiery tides crashed. They rushed against the walls of the barrier, their insistent roars causing another chorus of screaming. It sounded like rolling thunder as the fiery sea crawled over the barrier to blot out the sky. Thumps came from above; the conflagration knocked and then it knocked, demanding to be let in. But the magical protection would not yield. An aurora of color permeated the square, dancing in Ditzy's mismatched eyes.

It had worked.

Every five seconds, violet shockwaves buzzed over the circumference of the protection, giving a distinct whir as it went. One such whir revealed a dark-blue silhouette of stars, lurking just beyond the barrier; it was almost as though the very night had returned to glimpse in every other pulse or so.

Taking off her signature plinth hat, Daring held it. "Luna's teat," she breathed in awe.

"Harrumph. We shall thank thee to not speak so liberally of our anatomy."

A few fillies pointed in the direction of Daring Do — and for the first time, she wasn't the one they were gushing over. "Princess Luna!"

"We're saved!"

"Wait, am I dreaming?"

"That has to be it! Something like this could only happen in a nightmare."

Lightning was shooting out of the long spiraled horn, cool and bright. Her long forelegs were bent ever so slightly. No bead of sweat blemished the pristine darkness that was her fur. Her eyes were fixed resolutely on the magic she was pumping skyward. There she was, in the fur and flesh:

The Princess of the Night, Luna.

"We fear this is no nightmare, citizens of Ponyville," said Princess Luna without so much as a glance their way.

"Princess Luna, Princess Luna!" Snips croaked, running up to her. "Something's wrong with Princess Celestia."

But then he started back at the sound of her tight hiss.

"We are quite aware, young Snips," said Princess Luna through teeth thus clenched. "As it so happens, she does not pose much a threat to anypony here, relatively speaking. Our magic will hold for a time, until we can purify her in the place in which she believes a source of alicorn magic to be."

"What?" Snips said. "But where'd she go?"

Nodding at the Captain, Princess Luna tugged on her surge of magic until it was ripped away. In her Canterlot voice, she spoke: "Twilight Sparkle."

Cutting off her connection to the barrier, Twilight galloped off to answer her summons.

"Young Snips," said Princess Luna without deigning to look upon him.

Snips stood up straight. "Yes, Princess!"

"We fear she has set her eyes eastward."

"East?" Snips said, tilting his head curiously. "East to where?"

"Eastward," said Ditzy and Daring, stepping forward, "to Haissan."

"Enough."

Princess Luna held her head up high, a lip pouted coolly. Her magisterial gaze fell upon the six ponies bowing before her.

"You must dispense with the usual formalities," she commanded.

Thus they arose.

"Heed our words, Chosen Six. A foul enchantment has taken our sister. It is the very same to which we succumbed not long ago. The Elements of Harmony — you must retrieve them from the Canterlot vault anon. They are our only hope of liberating our sister from the curse that now possesses her."

Twilight sunk into a curtsy before speaking. "But with all due respect, Your Highness, Princess Celestia has locked the Elements behind a spell that none but she can break."

At her, Princess Luna wrinkled a nostril. "Now is not the time for thee to be doubting thine abilities, Twilight Sparkle," said Princess Luna; she glanced at Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Daring, and Ditzy in turn. "Come. Before us!"

Without bowing, each pegasus walked awkwardly up and stood in a line.

Once bidden, Dash stepped forward.

Princess Luna activated the dark glow of her horn and lowered it to either side of the Avatar of Loyalty.

"Whoa," Dash said, unfolding her wings.

Beads of energy were drifting about each wing, encased alongside it in a cloud of nightly energy.

"Courage, Avatar of Kindness," Princess Luna whispered into Fluttershy's ear, after applying her enchantment.

Stiffening her face, Fluttershy gave a firm nod.

Next was Daring, who looked embarrassed; Princess Luna said nothing as she blessed her wings.

When Ditzy was bestowed her enchantment, she felt like like a family of excited fireflies were swarming at her sides.

"Our enchantments shall enable you to traverse the eastern waters in under an hour's time," Princess Luna said, pacing and observing the fliers. "That being said, our enchantment shall not persist for long, much like our protective spell." She pointed her indifferent snout up to indicate the barrier. "Time is thus short. We shall teleport you directly to Canterlot Castle. We trust you know the way to the vault." She then turned her attention to Daring and Ditzy. "And we trust you to know the way to the Garden of the Desert."

Ditzy shook her head. "Princess, I must refuse," she said, causing Twilight to gasp. "My daughter is in Haissan right now. I refuse to stand by and allow her to get hurt."

Princess Luna's eyelids were lowered, her expression unreadable.

"Very well," said Princess Luna, closing her eyes. "Thou shalt accompany us, then. However, we must warn thee that the threat that lies waiting for us has not loosed its fury for millennia. No mortal alive has ever been privy to witness its full power. Few of us immortals remain; fewer still have the courage to speak of it. If thou goest with us as thou art, without arms, we are not sure we can protect thee during the confrontation. If thou goest with us now, if the risks thus described are truly ones thou art willing to brook…"

Ditzy gave a firm nod.

"Very well, then," Princess Luna said; she opened her eyes. "We owe thee, after all, for providing our refuge these three nights past."

Then she faced Daring Do and the champions of Equestria.

"Now. Gather you seven. Now it is time."

"Go with Shining Armor, Spike," Twilight said, pushing him in his direction.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Spike said, already waddling towards the Captain.

He and Cadence were still holding the barrier aloft when Spike joined them. Flames still crashed against the barrier, like waves of lava against the inside a volcano. The bloodlust with which they were roaring was palpable. The townsponies, at this point, were too numb, too tired to scream, let alone move.

The Mane 6 lined up, chests puffed out: Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Next to Rainbow Dash was Daring Do, who was trying to hide her awkwardness at being included.

They all disappeared in a cool flash of light.

A second later, Princess Luna and Ditzy did the same.

"Come! We fly!"

---

Sunrise had long passed.

Repairs on the Equestrian warship still weren't done.

Smoke was billowing out of the back of the ship. Crewponies were working on that, including a duo of pegasi. Those pegasi were poking their heads into the pipes. Whatever they were doing, there was a lot of clanking involved. A puff of soot coughed into their bodies.

A wing of the ship required attention, and giving it was another duo of pegasi. One was working on the rotors, while the other was charged with holding up the wing.

A whistle came near one of the back fins of the ship. That was when a weaker-looking pegasus flew up, towel in hoof. An older pegasus gestured for the scrub started paying his dues there.

From her new vantage point, Dinky noticed the undercarriage, still blackened from when the Regent's airship had self-destructed. She assumed the soot would merely be shaken off during the flight, whereas any ash that fell off the fin could get sucked into and choke the exhaust pipes during takeoff.

Dinky figured most of the crew were pegasi, since their wings would let them orbit the ship more easily.

Imagining how airships worked was one of the more interesting segments of her morning. Suddenly, she was yearning for a life she could have had, a life of maybe attending an airship like the crewponies did.

Asking to be moved to a bedroom where she could watch them was a request Dinky had been working at since she woke up that morning. Her dues were less physically demanding than those of the scrubs; though, she personally felt hers to be way more painful.

The Regent had gone over their roles at the funeral ceremony at least six times. He really liked shouting, Dinky noticed. It was usually the really angry urgent kind of shouting that he liked doing.

But after it all, she was finally able to bargain for a new room. It was cozy and dark, just the way she preferred it.

For the seventh-or-more time that morning, the Regent's smelly cologne entered before he did.

"Yeah, yeah," Dinky droned without looking away from the window, "when it's your turn to speak, you're going to talk about some stuff about Alula. And then you're going to present me as his successor. Then you're going to say some stuff about acting as my regent and translator, at least until I'm old enough to rule properly and speak Saddle Arabian."

The Regent harrumphed, before excusing himself for 'other business' he needed to attend to. On any other day, Dinky would have stuck her tongue out at him. But that day, she just didn't have the spirit. She was missing the Cutie Mark Crusaders already. And it wasn't until then that she realized how much she had taken them and her family for granted.

Her airy sigh fogged up her window. Dinky assumed the Crusaders were holed up like she was; she hadn't seen them come out of the airship all that morning.

A thought occurred to her: Maybe if she scribbled on the watery canvas, the Crusaders might see and send a response back on their own window. And then she and the Crusaders could exchange messages that way, going on like that until the airship was ready to take off. That scene was a welcome respite from her lonely morning.

Even if the Regent hadn't forbidden it, she wouldn't pop outside for a spell. Dinky just wanted to be alone right now; she had never felt more isolated.

It didn't take long for the window to be see-through again; nor did it take long for Dinky to see the reflection of her captor again. "I must ask you, young Sultan. Is your magic still malfunctioning?"

Dinky rolled her eyes. "Let me check."

Lately, she found the loss of her magic to be a topic of only trivial importance. She was surprised that there were still ponies who cared about it.

She didn't really try to concentrate into her horn; not that she really needed to.

Tiny sparks buzzed and died down, before sprinkling down her indifferent face. "Nope."

The Regent got to stroking his goatee again, like a villain. Dinky learnt to hate when he scrutinized her. "Ah, well," he finally said. "Such a shame. We can only hope that it returns by noon. It shall be most difficult to proclaim you as His with your inheritance in such dire straits." He turned. "Nevertheless, everypony in the capital saw that magical flare you sent up yesterday. It was so very much like His, Dinky Doo. It was once used to call for action, did you know? For a moment, they thought He had returned. I daresay even if your magic does not return by noon, it shall not be a very demanding task to convince them that you are indeed His. They want it to be true, and therefore they will believe it so."

Dinky was listening to only half of that. "Whoop-dee-doo."

The Regent stiffened, serious; he turned to face Dinky's behind again. "I am informed by my fellow regents," he said in a biting tone, "that the whole capital shall be in attendance. Doubtless they are expecting more than just a ceremony to celebrate the fallen."

Dinky blew on the window without tone or enthusiasm. "Sounds fun."

"You do not seem excited, young Sultan. Is this not why you have come?"

"I came to learn how to control my magic," Dinky said, facing the Regent, "not to play Sultan."

"Ah," the Regent said breathily, "but it is a role you shall play well, young Sultan!"

Dinky grumbled, pursing her lips. She wished he would stop calling her that. But she also admitted that his alternatives were worse. So she settled on a petty retort. "Mister, I'm eight. I can't rule a city let alone an entire country. Have you been munching on funny grass or something?"

Watching the Regent's cheeks puff out and redden was satisfying.

Sadly, he was already straightening up and regaining composure. "It is a role you shall grow into. Obviously, you cannot learn to rule our country overnight."

"Well, duh."

"But with me at your side — "

"Yeah, I know," Dinky said, being interested in the window again, "you already told me what you're gonna say at the funeral, so unless it's a all a big lie, please leave me alone, Mister Regent, sir."

A pause followed.

The Regent was staring hard at the window, where Dinky's reflection blinked lethargically.

"Ah, it seems you've quite adopted the imperious tone that He once used. My Sultan," he said, bowing himself out of the room.

The door closed as silently as ever.

Dinky found herself sighing a lot at the window. Listless, she found herself thinking about how resigned she was to this life now. She kept ruminating on what the best thing was for everypony. Going back home wasn't an option anymore. Staying here in Haissan was tantamount to enslavement, albeit in fancier quarters and in unwanted praise. All she wanted now was a life of peace.

She didn't even notice the hoof-sized cyclone on her horn until it was playing with her bangs. The spectacle was only mildly interesting, and only because her magic was a different color than usual. "Huh."

Suddenly, her hoof was pressed to her bangs. She saw darkness. Her heart was beating fast again; some force was keeping her eyes glued shut. She heard that cackling again; this time, it was clearer than before.

"What just…?" she said, surprised to find herself panting.

The sun was still shining outside.

The crewponies were still at work on the ship. But for Dinky, so much had happened in such a short amount of time; so much that she was still trying to forget.

Her only distraction disappeared behind a pair of curtains, which had been clamped together by a red aura. "Oh, it's you. Is it time for me to get dressed?"

The lights came on.

As she gave one last tug on her garments, a mirror floated into place before her. Tight over her torso was a small white half-robe, the neck of which was lined with what Dinky suspected to be pure silver. The minute topaz-cuttings felt cool on her neck as she swayed back and forth between angles. Her newly fitted earrings jingled as she turned all the way around to get a good look at her Cutie Mark: a flute surrounded by three wisps of wind. If it hadn't been for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she would have never gotten it. It was a reminder of her destiny, whatever it was. Personally, Dinky liked thinking that the three wisps of wind were her friends. But the closer she got to the funeral, the farther away she felt from them. So maybe they weren't related to her destiny after all.

Dinky stood still to let the unicorn finalize the ensemble.

A silver bracelet snapped tight onto her foreleg, then lost its red glow. Over her neck hung a silver pendant; a cursory rub over it told Dinky it was embossed with the late Sultan's Cutie Mark, which was basically the same as hers sans the flute.

She frowned at her reflection; she couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but she felt like she was missing something…

A groan of frustration interrupted her vague musings. "Okay, okay, I'm going."

Between watching an airship get repaired, and getting ready for a funeral, she had had better mornings.

The new garb started to cling to her fur the moment she stepped outside. "Come, young Sultan," the Regent said. "We mustn't dawdle."

Catching up with him, Dinky noticed that he had henchponies, and that both of them were pegasi. "Can't we just fly there?"

"No," said the Regent. "We Haissanians consider this a pilgrimage of sorts. Believers from all over Saddle Arabia are travelling on hoof to honor Him. And we shall be no different."

Meanwhile he and his help were flying over a ledge, which was about thrice her height. Rolling her eyes, Dinky puffed her cheeks out.

The invitation had stated that the funeral was going to take place at the Royal Palace — or what was left of it, anyway. She had had a hoof in destroying it some moons previous.

The streets on the ground-level had lots of hoof-traffic. The Regent did not deign to stoop to the level of commonponies; not that Dinky took issue.

In this city, the houses were stacked atop each other like building blocks. The fatter buildings went on the bottom, constituting the bases for smaller structures that would go on top. And so on, and so on. Between a pair of such structures, the Regent and his henchponies strode through what transpired to be an alley of light gravel. The more Dinky walked on, the more this city felt like a maze.

She was really high up, too. If prompted to guess, she would say she was on the fourth tier of buildings. Her dizzy spell did no favors for her. The pavement beneath her hooves was always hot. The less contact she had with it, the less it stung her with a hiss. Teeth clenched, she found herself hopping from one spot on the path to the next. That the roads were lightly albeit constantly layered with sand increased her anxiety.

Doors started to appear on the upper levels. Most led to dormitories that were vacated; one did not.

The Regent stopped before a nondescript door. No visible lock punctured it. On the wall beside it a hole was bored; so was Dinky, who had gotten sick of playing hop-scotch on invisible tiles. One of the Regent's henchponies pulled out a key, pushed it in, and tucked it back into his saddlebag; the other henchpony pushed the wall open, bowing the entourage inside.

A low dark ceiling loomed over Dinky as she traversed the indoor thoroughfare. The trip lasted a few minutes longer than it would have normally taken; she had stopped to give the scorched underside of her hooves a much-needed rest.

Waiting at the other end of the thoroughfare was a bridge, not unlike the ones her aunt Daring had described. But judging by how little it rocked when she pressed her hoof to it, this rope bridge was way less precarious.

Dinky made it across.

"Are we there, yet?" she grumbled as the Regent passed her by.

"Soon," he said tersely.

Thereafter, the two henchponies passed silently by.

Grumbling more loudly, Dinky followed.

The Royal Palace of Haissan. "Finally!" exclaimed Dinky. Situated in the Saddle Arabian Desert, Haissan has, until recently, enjoyed a seat of power and prosperity amongst its neighbors in the Middle East. This was owed to the Generosity of the Alicorn of Wind, who came to be known as Al-Qafzah al-Ula in these lands. He served the ponies. In turn, the ponies loved him and proclaimed him their Sultan. Each morning, he would walk onto his terrace and see only beauty in those harsh desert lands. He would begin the wind, his gift to Equestria. He treasured his subjects. He treasured his servants. He treasured his good wealth and fortune. Rumors of his treasures did not take long to propagate beyond his realm.

Two adventuresses braved the sands to procure an ancient relic of his. Tragedy struck. One adventuress fled, and the other was with child. To the lands west fled the latter. The winds ceased a day after. Over eight years passed before the adventuresses returned. Corrupted by bitterness and spite, the Sultan conspired against the Sun.

It was here, in the gardens of his Royal Palace, where he was stopped. It was here, in the gardens, where he met his end. It was here, in the gardens, where a tall gate demarcated a crowd of Haissanians from where it all happened.

The cyclones had been wild, issuing from his horn and hers. Her aunt had been stuck inside it, trying to flap with her broken stub of a wing. Her mom had been hurled into a tree. She could still see where it was broken and splintered. Spires lay motionless and broken. Trees were strewn about, sad and forgotten. Nopony had dared budge an inch of the scene. The scene of the crime had been frozen in time, not unlike a dream Dinky had been having recently. Standing there was surreal for her. Images were flashing into her head again. "Young Sultan. Young Sultan. It seems that your friends are ready to depart. We shall provide an escort for them once we are finished here."

Dinky blinked, struggling to regain cognizance of her surroundings. "Here?"

A messenger pigeon had just flown off.

"The funeral," the Regent droned.

On either side stood his henchponies. He was standing on a stage in front of the silver gates that led to… Dinky struggled to complete the thought. She still had nightmares about the place. She tried to hide her winces, her discomfort.

They were a thousand in number. The attending Haissanians stood in a rectangular array that was miles long. Dinky could feel their eyes on her, likely scrutinizing the length of her muzzle. They kept murmuring in a necessary mix of Haissanian and Ponish; the only words Dinky could discern were, 'al-Ula', 'Doo', 'Equestria', and 'Celestia'.

The Regent called for silence.

Minutes passed before he got it.

He didn't get everypony's attention, though. Some eyes lingered on Dinky, who was feeling more and more like an impostor playing dress-up. She crossed a foreleg over the other while trying to pass it off as scratching her hoof.

Haissanian was a rapid language, Dinky had come to learn in the past week. Nopony translated for her as the Regent addressed the crowd. Even so, it wasn't exactly hard to imagine what he was talking about as he gestured to the gates. The Haissanians, including the Regent, bowed to the gates to mourn in silence, to honor the fallen. There was no body to speak of let alone honor; Dinky was probably the only attendant there who knew Alula had become one with the wind.

The more Dinky observed the Regent, the more enlightened she became to his intentions. That his robes were less decorated than hers told her that he wanted to present her as a jewel more valuable than himself and everypony else in the city. Dinky shifted awkwardly. Being Sultan wasn't something she deserved. She did not, nor would she ever be ready for it, no matter what anypony said. The heat intensified the blush in her cheeks.

Rising from his bow, the Regent turned back to face the attendees, who were also rising.

A hoof was gestured to Dinky.

It was to her the Haissanians looked expectantly. Some were stroking their goatees, studying her. She felt like she was on display. The possibility that they were sizing her up, comparing her to Alula was not a very remote one. She felt like she could cry; she wanted her mommy. Some of these ponies looked unsure of whether or not she could one day be worthy enough to take the throne.

All the while, the Regent continued, in words she could not understand.

Dinky felt more alone than ever.

All she wanted to do was master her magic so that nopony she loved would get hurt. Being expected to head an entire kingdom was too much. And yet, nothing else lay in store for her in the moons yet to come. She wouldn't stop missing everypony. No matter how dangerous she had become, she wanted her mommy's hugs and muffins; she wanted her aunt Daring to teach her how to be cool like her; she wanted to spend afternoons with the Crusaders goofing around and doing normal foal stuff, not whatever stuff fate, destiny, Alula, the Regent, or even her Cutie Mark told her she ought to do.

Her decision was made.

She had to leave.

She had to escape.

No matter what, she would return home, to where everypony knew her name.

"Huh?"

Dinky wasn't the only one who had looked up.

The sky was flashing. It was flickering between blue and blood, light and dark, in as much uncertainty as a crooked lightbulb. Gasps billowed throughout the funeral site as the attendees stared at the heavens in such indecision. Ponies were pointing, their foreign mutters anxious. For his part, the Regent was watching in a mix of anger and disbelief.

Finally deciding on a dire scarlet, the sky flashed white two, then three times, with thunder booming with the third as though to establish its choice. Not a cloud was to be seen, but that didn't stop jagged bolts from shooting high over the heads of everypony. Forbidding patterns were stamped against Dinky's eyes.

Panic ensued; ponies were fleeing, scurrying; shrill cries and confused warfare were amok.

It was as though a truly dark dusk had come early.

At it, the Regent snarled. "Sun Tyrant…"

Taking advantage of his current position, he shouted at the crowd as though to shout them back into a state of order. He shouted again, the tendons on his neck taut with strain. Veins were popping out his forehead; never had his face been redder. He was shouting over the chaos; some Haissanians were taking notice, recognizing him as their guide, their shepherd. Other Haissanians continued to scramble to safety while avoiding the ominously bright searchlights scouring from the heavens above.

Once, Dinky had asked her mom to get a surfboard, one of many that a pair of barbershop duet unicorns were flaunting about in Ponyville. As Ditzy had not foreseen going on vacation anytime soon, or ever at all, she had politely refused the once-in-a-lifetime family discount being offered to her; she and Dinky had gone on their way.

Riding a magically cloudy version of that surfboard, Dinky set her sights forward.

Her destination: the manse.

That was where they were waiting.

That was where she needed to be.

That was her only ticket back to Equestria.

She veered sharply to the left, then sharply to the right. The rays of light beaming down from the heaven did not bode well, to say the least. On the way, she flew alongside a pegasus, who was unlucky enough to be spotted. The searchlight kept blinking as though the pegasus were a lucky winner; thereupon, the searchlight widened. And try as the pegasus did, they could not shake it off. It was too late. A strange bead of light had already locked on, its four spokes spinning as it came hurtling. Glancing her apology, Dinky flew on before she could see any more.

She didn't have friends to help with the propulsion of her craft, so she had to keep blowing at the unseen ground to keep herself moving. Not only did she have to navigate in near-darkness and keep herself afloat, but she also had to dodge the thousands of pegasi taking to the air; some were fleeing, while others were taking to arms.

An orb of daunting red hovered high above Haissan, almost as bright as the strange celestial orb stuck in the sky above. That was where the searchlights were coming from; that was where they were promising death. That was where Dinky was fleeing from. That was where the Haissanians began to strike.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The Regent had not lied about Haissanians having cannons, more of which went off just then.

Dinky was flinching.

Spells were being fired.

High whistles were rending the air, which was way less tolerable than usual.

Civil war was not breaking out at all; the Haissanians were united.

From all sectors of the city, arrows were shot, all of them spearing through the chaos to mark a common foe.

Pegasi were charging, their warcries more desperate than fierce.

Dinky couldn't concentrate; her heart was beating like mad.

Fumes pervaded the air fast, causing her eyes to water, her nostrils to wrinkle. So many cannons, so many colors, so much magic. It was hard to breathe. Dinky kept trying to see beyond her anxiety. She had to move fast. She had to detract her attention from the terror within her; yet, the terror around her was no better.

The arrows being shot were being imbued with nascent ice magic, which seemed ready to detonate upon contact.

Somepony's laughter came, weirdly echoed.

Shaking it from mind, Dinky took deep breaths. She was a rock amongst chaotic tides. She would not be deterred; she was determined. She soon would regain her center. But when she did, her bearings were still an indecipherable mess. She could barely see anything in the scarlet shadows. So she headed in a direction, hoping that the landmark she thought she had seen was real.

The white garb was blown off.

A thin strand of wind sliced off the chains of the pendant, of enslavement.

A shake of the hoof made the bracelet follow.

Shaking her hair into its natural mess was the final step.

Riding the wind, Dinky finally felt like herself again.

She didn't care for the balls of fire whistling past her. She didn't care for the domes of fire expanding behind her. Their heat and light beamed against her back, casting the resolve on her face into shadow. The shouts and cries grew louder the longer she traversed the airspace. Bedlam reigned. Sense, rationality, and order were all succumbing to the throes of pain and madness.

The Haissanians continued to wage war with the threat. Whatever they were throwing at their enemy, it sounded like the enemy was throwing it right back: cannonballs, magic blasts, and rebounded pegasus troops. Their wings were broken, twitching before the bodies to which they belonged went limp.

Dinky perked up her ears: She had never thought she would be glad to hear the Regent.

He was shouting orders from atop a spire; it was the tallest one built into the silhouette that was his estate.

It was there where Dinky shot for.

More cannons shook the air.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom. Boom.

The vibrations disrupted her wind magic, rattling her head and sense of security.

Her cloud-board trembled; it wasn't long before it started to evaporate right beneath her hooves.

"No, no! AAGH!"

She was falling, screaming; air was streaming up her periwinkle fur; she was wriggling her legs helplessly.

"My Sultan!"

A body tackled hers.

A red searchlight found the Regent before Dinky collided with something else.

"Oof!"

Like a fish out of water, she flopped onto the metal of the surface, over and over again.

She rolled to a halt, wheezing. She was battered and beaten. Every part of her was sore. What little she could discern was merging and unmerging. The smoke had simply become too much at that point. She couldn't even breathe to feed her aching lungs. She had no magic left. But that's not what she needed: She needed help.

Somepony, Equestrian or Haissanian, took her, holding her against the metal of a chestplate.

Dinky was flown over; the pegasus landed and strode.

An order was given to get the engine running.

A pair of doors gave a mechanical slide, then kissed shut.

Inside, the cannonfire sounded more like poofs rather than booms.

The halls were passing too fast around her; she was nauseous enough already. The lighting here was brighter; it beamed some semblance of comfort against her eyelids. It made it easier to forget about the obstinate darkness waiting just outside the doors. Still, the tumult outside beckoned to her from beyond the muffled safety of the walls, which were probably metal, judging by the coolness they were exuding.

Boom.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Bombs were being detonated in steady cadence; she realized that she was too young to know that.

The pegasus holding her stopped.

Magic hummed; a ding-dong ensued, and after that, the slide of a door.

"Dinky!" rang a trio of voices.

Her limp tired body was set on a bed delicately.

The Crusaders were told to not leave the room; as if they needed a warning.

After droning their assent, the door squelched back into place, the ensuing beep signifying that it was secured.

The ship shook tentatively.

Then it whirred and it hummed.

The room jerked slightly; then the momentum of takeoff was negated, as though by magic.

Fires continued to rage outside, screeching as they pierced through the windy roars.

Dinky shifted in-place, eyes scrunched like she was having a nightmare.

Were she only that lucky.

The Crusaders were hugging her. She had not thought she would be loved again so soon. Her chest swelled, silencing the terror within her, even if for a little while.

But she had to talk.

She had to let them know.

Her breaths were coming out as choked spurts of ash, and she knew it, even if the Crusaders had not audibly winced.

"Dinky. Are you alright?"

"Swe-etie… B — "

Her head fell limp before she could finish.

"What happened?" Applebloom asked, suddenly panting.

It was too much, and all at the same time.

"Are you okay?" Sweetie asked.

The memories were still fresh in her mind: Her selfish decision to go home, the sky turning dark, fleeing the scene, hell raining from above, hell bursting from below. Dinky would give anything to not relive any of it.

She was going numb again. She felt like there were lines beneath her eyes. Why was her breathing so ragged anyway?

"Something's… wrong," Scootaloo said.

"Dinky…" came Sweetie Belle's voice; it felt so unreal.

Applebloom looped Dinky closer to herself. "Well, whatever happened, you're safe now. With us!"

"With… us…"

Her lips barely moved to form the words, and the sounds came out like a weak croak.

But then, more crashes, more explosions reached her from outside, making her groan again.

"S-stop… M-make it…"

Panting, Dinky fell silent.

"Is…" Scootaloo began in a whisper, "is she going to be alright, Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie didn't answer; but Dinky did.

"Ce… Cele — "

"Dinky?" asked Applebloom. How could she be so casual at a time like this?

"Cele — Celes… tia…"

"Oh…" said Sweetie, a realization coming to her. "That's what's going on. Princess Celestia's here to save the day and distract the Haissanians so that we can get away!"

"We're saved!" Scootaloo said.

"So that's what's goin' on," said Applebloom. "Told ya that creep'd be sorry he ever chose the wrong fillies to mess with! What I'd tell ya, Dinky. It wasn't goodbye after all!"

"Mmhm!" said Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie.

They all sounded too happy.

"Ba — bad… Celestia — Fi-ire… Bombs…" Each word she managed roused more pain within her. She had to see it all, to make them see it too. She didn't want them to see it. But they had to understand. So why couldn't they? They had to know…

Everything shook again.

Dinky was on the floor again, this time on warm fur instead of the cold steel of an airship.

Everypony's groans were interrupted by a ding-dong.

Everypony sounded surprised to find themselves being magically seized, the same as her. She imagined them floating and squirming in a magical levitation field like giant amoeba.

Everypony was being hurried off by a unicorn who was galloping. Was she hyperventilating?

Something metal crashed in front of them, making the unicorn turn to gallop in another direction.

"Sweet Celestia," Applebloom said, "the whole thang's comin' apart!"

Dinky winced. The air was disturbed by exclamations, of being hit, of confusion, of disbelief — all of which confirmed that her fears were only going to come true. She could feel her fur pricking up in dark anticipation of what was only inevitable.

A ruckus was taking place just outside, on the deck of the airship.

Magical shots were fired.

Ponies were yelling and screaming.

Then silence.

Dinky squirmed again, restive.

She and the others were hurried down a short flight of stairs. The explosions were louder down here, the scent of fiery ruin more pronounced; it wandered around her like a looming predator. She was safe nowhere.

The unicorn spotted an escape pod and galloped for it. Deposited into it were Applebloom, then Sweetie Belle, and then Scootaloo; Dinky meanwhile could feel the winds below, calling to her. When the unicorn tried to move her next, something in her just broke.

The floor burst open.

The winds were wild; the fire they carried moreso. They had a mind of their own.

There was a flash and a pop; Dinky and the Crusaders were on their own.

They were sucked into the outside world.

None of them were safe here.

None of them were safe anywhere.

Be it by a crash or her horn nopony could survive.

Screaming.

That's what kept ringing in her ears.

Rushing wind.

Her ears were flapping against it.

"Dinky! Please! You have to wake up! Dinky! Dinky!"

A periwinkle hoof budged.

Too much screaming, too much.

When Dinky finally opened her eyes, despair enveloped her senses. The nightmare had refused to end. It was like one of those dreams a pony had where they woke up inside a nightmare, woke up inside another nightmare, until they found the key that would free them from that torturous cycle.

This was no such nightmare.

There was no such key.

There was only the escape pod, filled with her friends.

Then there was her. For some reason, she was trying to reach out to them. "My friends…" she murmured, barely aware of having done so.

The sound of the words sparked something within her.

She blinked.

She blinked again.

She fought and fought against her fatigue, even if it didn't look like she was doing anything. She concentrated, to make her body obey. She concentrated not into her horn, but into her eyes.

She blinked hard to will her vision to become one; and then it did.

She had to keep pressing her eyelids together, to burn her surroundings into them, to make them stay there.

The color was returning to the gold of Dinky's eyes. She was falling through the air, thousands of feet above a smoldering wasteland of ash and sand, which was being haunted by a daunting red hue. Below her was a metal ball with a translucent core. Through it peered their faces for her pupils to consume: Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle too.

A gasp arrested her, holding her throat in suspense before everything she was, and everything she felt awakened all at once.

"Dinky!"

The cries of the Crusaders were of relief now.

"Don't worry about us," Scootaloo shouted, muffled against the window. "We just found a parachute. We'll be okay! Just save yourself!"

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle pressed their faces beside her. "Please!"

Nodding, Dinky angled her body down like she was a squishy-nosed missile; she inhaled.

But before she could do anything else, something swooped fast upon her.

"Dinky!" cried the Crusaders. "Dinky, no!"

The world was spinning.

But Dinky had to focus; her horn sparked.

Far below, a green cloud burst out of nothing. Taking hoof of it, she flipped herself over, landed, and surfed it fast towards the ground.

Dinky found herself heading towards what used to be a grassier part of a plain. Except much of the grass had wilted to a lifeless black. Geysers of fire were shooting in random spots below her; she had to be careful of where she landed. She studied the plain, and the holes in it. She could only hope she chose a safe spot.

The escape pod had already half-sunk into the sand when she landed, and her cloud-board was more than half-evaporated by the time she galloped off to embrace with the Crusaders again.

She was panting what little air was cool enough to breathe.

The ground was stinging with each hoofstep she pounded into it; a shockwave hiccupped her mercifully off it.

She yelped, her limbs poised in a would-be offensive stance as she slid backwards.

Snarling, she wiped her face on her shoulder; it was stained now.

"Mmhmhmhmhm…"

It was that laughter again.

She looked around for it.

But was it coming from inside her head, or from somewhere else?

She stumbled, but regained her balance —

Somepony slammed onto the ground, throwing off her feet.

That somepony was tall, especially for an alicorn. Throwing her fiery head back, she cackled her joy; the furs on Dinky's coat were standing on-end, one by one. An otherworldly radiance radiated from the divine form; it was as though Dinky were squinting at the sun itself. Orange plates clad the mysterious mare… her wings and her chest, too. She glimpsed the Cutie Mark. It couldn't be… Could it?

A geyser of flame shot up with each step the white mare strode.

"Well, well, well," the white mare said in a voice as smooth as silk. "I am glad to see that my ambush was not enough to dig your grave, Brother."

"Brother?" Dinky said, nonplussed; she was scrambling backwards on her haunches.

With grace the other went forward. "Do you not remember me, al-Ula? I am different, this is true. But I am still me, under it all. You have not forgotten me, have you?"

Dinky was shaking her head, over and over, but not in answer to her question.

"No… No, no, no!" she said. "What have you done with her? What have you done with Princess Celestia?"

The white mare bit hard, her face now twisted into a snarl.

Somepony yelped from faraway.

Stars roamed in Dinky's suddenly black vision. All she could think about was how much her muzzle hurt. Why was she rolling along the ground?

"Do not dare," the blurry mare said, danger in every syllable, "mention that pathetic excuse for an alicorn in my glorious presence, whelp!"

Black and red were shifting apart again.

The white mare was approaching, stomping.

Her image kept blurring apart, into an afterimage of Princess Celestia and a shadowy outline of her, and together again, into the coherent whole that was the fiery white mare. What… was she?

The white mare deigned to stoop. She locked eyes with Dinky's cowering form, her irises of tar, her eyes of hungry embers.

"Oh, I think I shall enjoy squeezing every last drop of pain from you."

Fiery snakes slithered about the long white horn, which flashed. The fires had united at the summit, and hot currents were drooling from it.

Whimpering, Dinky could only watch.

"Dinky!" the Crusaders cried from faraway.

The escape pod's latch banged loose.

Ash was painting an unmarred strip of grass, only stopping when a foal the color of burnt periwinkle collided with a tree.

The impact sent her airborne for a second, and airborne she stayed, for Dinky was graced by an aura. It was not unlike the body of a roaring fire, with her at its core. Though it felt hot, it did not sting when she was stuck inside it; this was of little comfort.

"I wonder," the white mare pondered aloud somewhere behind her, "do you care for them, al-Ula?"

The levitation field exploded out of existence and reappeared in front of the white mare.

"Well!?" she shrieked, slamming her forehooves upon the spell with which she imprisoned Dinky.

Blood spurted out her mouth in reply.

The white mare flinched; her surprise evaporated as quickly as the splatter on her cheek.

The tar-stained eye widened.

Within the immaculate folds of her burning magic, the foal finally had the sense to thrash about, desperate for any hope of escape.

The long spiraled horn hummed, ready to burn to life again.

"Silence, impudent runt!" she snarled at her prey, which was now inches from her muzzle.

Frozen, the periwinkle foal gave the faintest of whimpers. Her lip was trembling, her heart was pounding, ready to leap out of her chest. Were her golden eyes dilating? She dared not look away from the hateful face of her captor.

Yet, the details she could focus on were not much better.

Behind the mare, the sky was blood-red, cloudless; the once-verdant fields — now ash.

"No, don't hurt her!" cried a voice, which the white mare seemed to take no notice of, for she had eyes only for the crumpled heap in her telekinetic grasp.

With a forked tongue she traced her fangs; she smacked her lips appreciatively.

Then her eyes flashed.

At the end of her horn bloomed a ball of swirling fire, which made the captive foal hiccup inside her magical prison. Out of options, the foal kept trying to push herself from the safest corner of the prison.

"Dinky!" cried a voice that, again, the white mare took no notice of, since she was too busy relishing the sight of her prominences dancing around in her victim's shrunken pupils.

"Dinky, DINKY!" the white filly shrieked, her squeaky voice cracking.

Tears trailed across the blackened grass. She galloped and galloped, desperation in every dry pant and every hiss of a hoofstep. Her fuchsia hair dragged thinly and lamely behind her.

"Sweetie Belle, you dummy, no!"

An orange filly started into a gallop. In seconds, she caught up with her white-coated friend.

A yellow filly who lacked a bow wasn't far behind.

"It's too dangerous! C'mon! It's too late. We can't do nothin' here now. We gotta get outta here. Now!"

If the white filly was paying any attention to her friends, who were galloping on either side of her now, she didn't show it. She raced further ahead and sidestepped a volcanic geyser, her eyes fixed stubbornly on the bully of a white mare.

The white mare perked her ears up. "Oh?" she crooned, a slight glance over her shoulder.

Pausing its idle undulations, her burning tail stood up straight as though it had been caught red-handed. It twisted into itself, its tendrils coiling over each other over again. Tighter and tighter into itself the tail wound…

Ash clumps were spraying past the white filly as she ground her forehooves to a halt. Mouth agape, she watched, paralyzed.

"Oof!"

The yellow filly stumbled, falling onto her.

The orange filly's hoof skipped a step, her wings fluttering feebly before her momentum parted her from the ground.

Dazed and sweating, there the little fillies lay.

They looked up.

Now a fully braided serpent of flame, the tail was ready to swoop upon the prey under its glow.

"Mhmhmhm," the white mare chortled to Dinky over the screamed terror. "Humorous, isn't it? That these foals could ever think they could stand up to me, the Bringer of Day Eternal!"

Paralyzed, Dinky could say nothing; she roved her eyes over her friends' faces for the last time.

The point of the fiery tail winked a deadly promise.

Finally, Dinky gasped herself awake. "Applebloom! Scootaloo! Sweetie Belle!"

But they could not hear her over her screaming.

"Ah," the white mare purred, eyes closed. "Music to my ears."

Helpless, Dinky watched the fiery serpent dive. She could blame only herself in that moment. It was her fault for dragging her friends into this. It was her fault for what was going to happen them now. It was her fault for being foalish enough to go with him to Haissan in the first place…

She couldn't look.

---

Who was she?

Where was she?

She was falling, falling…

How long did it take?

Why couldn't she care anymore?

An abyss swallowed her.

Darkness eclipsed her senses.

For a long while, that was all there was: darkness.

Then there was water.

The water was blue.

It was neither hot nor cold.

It did not push against her sides.

It was just letting her drift down.

Thus to depths unknown she sank.

Nothing shone behind those golden eyes anymore.

Who was she?

Why couldn't she care anymore?

Lower and lower she sank.

Sleepier and sleepier she got.

The more sleepy she got, the more her eyelids drooped.

Darkness again.

Images again:

A dark blue alicorn, standing proudly at an unruined palace, the silver strands of his mane billowing in the tranquil breeze. Tranquil they were no longer. Clouds churned above him, of storm and of lightning. Flash. Towers broke apart; they spun about, the same as the trees and bushes of the garden.

Then a bright blank background.

Faces were fading in, one by one.

A kind smile, with a head-tilt to match: Sweetie Belle.

She disappeared.

A wink, followed by a stuck-out tongue; orange feathers parted to form a peace sign: Scootaloo.

She disappeared.

Refastening her bow, she only then noticed; surprise turned to delight, and she stopped fiddling with her bow to wave: Applebloom.

"You want to see them again, don't you, Dinky?"

As well as she could, she nodded.

"Then swim."

How far had she sunken?

How long had she been sinking?

Bubbles swarmed out of her mouth.

She blinked, amazed that she was still there.

But where was she?

Was there somepony else there?

Shaking off her questions, her doubts and her fears, she swam.

No fish swam beside her; nothing did.

There was only the deep blue, empty and pure.

Every swing through the water was effortless, as though she was spreading her limbs through thin air to ascend.

A twinkle begged for her eyes; spurred on, she hastened her motions.

Years were passing.

The higher she swam, the darker got.

The darkness was eager around her.

Dinky didn't care.

The only thing that mattered to her was following the light.

She kept going.

And going.

And going and going.

No matter what it took.

The shadows were closing in on her, ready to hug her.

But she wouldn't let them.

Dinky reached her hoof out.

Ripples echoed on the surface, and something was shining just above it.

"Do you remember me, Dinky?" the voice said, as the periwinkle hoof breached the surface. "It's been a while."

The horrible laughter was returning…

But now, she was brave enough to face it.

Burnished hoofbracers were being ruined, dug into the ground as she slid. Waves of ash and dirt were throwing themselves up in her wake. Something was hissing, and it wasn't fire.

"Unforeseen," the white mare muttered; she was glowering at the fillies three, who were still holding tight onto each other, quavering.

She lashed her serpent tail back into its naturally wild state.

She lit her horn. "Let's try that again," she said, danger tinging each softly uttered syllable.

But then she gasped, her surprise disappearing behind an interlocked pair of wings.

A radiant orb of wind was pushing against her. And no matter how much her hooves protested to the ground, the white mare could not help but be shoved further and further back. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, went the orb, as it ground against the angelic wings.

Teeth were gnashed, more energy summoned into the fierce roars of magic.

There were hair-thin streams, and once they brightened into existence, they transpired to have been spinning into the wind orb like tides into a whirlpool. Long bands of dark-blue were unfolding out of the magical orb. They were glowing petals of a flower that twisted and spun; they kept spinning until they were the wings of a rotor whose torque was forcing her back. The haunting howls of the attack were enough to rumble the ground, the effusion of energy almost enough to glare out the ambience that had eclipsed the land.

A figure was stalking forward, growling and glowing.

"What the hay?"

"No way!"

"It can't be…!"

The sound of their voices was empowering. One hoof was placed in front of the other, to exert will indomitable upon the magic. To heart's desire it was drawn, and to that desire, the leylines were aligned. There was no sweat of effort, no anticipation of anything; just tenacity. No image of victory enticed her, just the here and the now.

Eyes were transfixed, breaths held in suspense.

The magical orb stopped pushing, as though it had reached a wall that it could not drill through.

The white mare seemed to hold her ground, and she would be shoved back no more!

Thus her wings exploded, wide and majestic, a black silhouette cast against a canvas of white, for all to bask in.

Too soon it was gone.

Threads of wind and lightning raced about. Dirt was carved, the scalpels of backfired magic revealing the bone-like dust just beneath. Trees were unlatched cleanly from their roots. Sand turned instantly to glass at the sting of an electrically charged tendril. A crater appeared in the ground, popping the ash loose; it hovered, airborne for less than a second before being swept away into the storm.

There was no cowboy hat to fly off this time.

Sheltering the Crusaders was a dark-blue forcefield.

The white mare had her head bowed; she was panting.

"How!" she snarled from the other side of the trench that she couldn't believe she had been used in order to plough. "How is this possible! Who are you, really!"

Ethereal wings unfolded, a periwinkle outline of wings that once were. The white of her mane was billowing in a breeze that would never stop blowing, not ever.

"My name," she said, opening her green eyes, which were ablaze with hope and fury, "is Dinky Doo. I am the daughter of Ditzy Doo, and the niece of Daring Do. And you will not," she snarled, her voice echoing mystically as she stamped the ground, rousing a parade of debris to be devoured by her aura, "hurt my friends!"

"Dinky — "

Unfolding one of her newfound wings to silence Sweetie Belle, Dinky glared across the dead-grey trench, and through the floating remnants of the golden cinders that were her magic.

The once-pristine face of the white mare was twisted by the growl of a wolf; absently she smeared her cheek.

She fell silent, frowning curiously; she was staring at the crook of her foreleg. Something about her was changing. Her frown was slowly turning up. "Mhmhmhmhm… Ahahahaha! AHAHAHAHA!" she shrieked into the air. "My, my, al-Ula! It has been quite a while since I've had this much fun!"

"You!" Dinky shouted, magically magnified. "Tell us what you've done with Princess Celestia! Give her back. Give her back right now!"

Stamping her hoof again sent a shockwave rippling through the ground. Dirt, sand, and all else were roused, and they were merging into a tide of debris that travelled the length of the trench until they swept past orange hoofbracers, which did not budge.

The white mare had closed her eyes, as solemnly as Princess Celestia would. "Oh, but Celestia is no more, child," she said in a loving whisper; and then she humored Dinky's tenacious leer with a teasing one. "Allow me to grace an unworthy alicorn such as yourself with my name — my true name!"

She strode forward.

Smoldering hoofprints were impressed upon the grey of the trench.

"I am the first Fallen Alicorn."

Geysers cheered on either side of her, punctuating each measured hoofstep. Liquid ash was drooling out of the geysers and leaking into the trench.

Teeth gnashed, Dinky unfolded her wings, a weak pretense at shielding the whimpering Crusaders.

The scarlet glow of the white mare was waxing, a corona advent.

About halfway between Dinky and the end of the blackening trench, the white mare paused.

There, she placed her hoof proudly upon the sun of her chestplate and pointed her snout up. When she opened her eyes, her gaze was empty, her whisper rapt with passion.

"I am the Terror of the Stars."

The words set the bottom of her hooves aflame.

Flames roared between her hooves and hoofbracers, eager to be free of their binds.

The fire of her mane was more restive than ever.

The white mare's eyes, raging more than ever, were trained on Dinky, glaring both intent and disdain.

"I am the Shadow of the Sun."

Fiery shadows hissed from within her, causing her mane to shoot up to heights impossible. She was the eye of a giant ember, from which searing winds were being issued, winds that were hissing as they picked up speed, a veritable storm of fire whose glowing strands were slicing clean across the surface of Dinky's barrier.

There, a crack popped into being, and yet more were webbing from it.

The mighty white wings were spread.

The inferno advent heaved a mighty shudder. "I am…"

Pillars of hellfire exploded behind her, above her, and all around her, and in that moment, only the hunger in her black gaze — tarred eyes and brightly slitted pupils — could be seen.

"Daybreaker, the Bringer of Day Eternal! And you — "

The white muzzle was suddenly inches from the barrier, both hooves pressed on it.

" — shall — "

Dinky's barrier froze in its cracking, suspenseful.

It was soundless for a second.

" — PERISH!"

She inhaled, her mouth full with flames as Dinky poised her wings; glancing her apology, she fanned, and the Crusaders were swept away, screaming beyond the boundaries of the dissipating barrier as she lunged.

"What!?"

A crackle, pop, and a flash, and then she was shooting a cyclone at the Fallen Alicorn Daybreaker thousands of miles above ground. Skeins of magical dark-blue were sprinkled with sparkles of gold, and they were spinning wildly into a force that was driving her foe back.

Thunder might have gone off then, but it was just the sound of the cyclone slamming Daybreaker into a mountain. The crater that appeared there could have been made by the base of Canterlot Castle crashing into it.

Keeping herself aloft with her glowing wings, Dinky wasn't sure what her goal was. She needed to warn somepony, anypony. But she also needed to keep her friends safe. All she could hope to do was stall until help came.

She strengthened the force of her magic.

The crater in the mountain expanded further.

The mountain glowed red-hot, along with the cracks that slithered over its sides, like chains wrapped over a safebox. The explosion that followed was subtle, but Dinky could feel it even from a distance. The mountain took the cue from its newly formed cracks; it slid apart along those contours. The end of the cyclone, meanwhile, was unraveling, its magical seams coming undone at the force of a meteor piercing straight through it.

Eyes widening, Dinky ceased her magical flow and flew well out of the way.

But before she could get far, a pop of fire sent her hurtling back.

Dinky, in turn, maneuvered her wings in a way that would send her spiraling upwards. For her, flying was somehow as natural to her as her magic. At the apex of her flight, she twisted and went back around. She had her horn charged, her hooves straight in front of her.

"My, my," said Daybreaker, amused. "It appears that your attempts to restrain me have failed, al-Ula. It is truly a disappointment, Brother. You are not half as entertaining as Luna was a millennium ago." She tapped her chin condescendingly. "Perhaps you require, ah… the right motivation."

The crashes of the mutilated mountain boomed in the distance.

From Dinky's horn came a flash, and Dinky became a periwinkle lightning bolt that smacked Daybreaker right across her jaw. Before she had time to recover, the lightning bolt struck her again; it zoomed side to side, and each time it blipped over her, her fur and chestplate were decorated with a new patch of scorch marks.

Periwinkle blurs unleashed a final flurry of kicks that sent her into a mid-air zigzagged stagger. A kick to the chest slammed her some distance away; her head was about to droop down.

The lightning bolt took the cue; it zoomed over to her, arcing in a concave-up path to deliver the uppercut kick.

"What the — ?"

Dinky was being hoisted up by the ankle. As much she tried to squirm free of fiery magic's grasp, breaking free simply wasn't an option. All she could do was look at Daybreaker's upside down smirk — well, maybe that was a lie.

"Ow, my eye! You'll pay for that, runt!"

Flying away from Daybreaker, her horn still sizzling, Dinky locked eyes with her.

Popping out of space, Dinky delivered a piledriver kick on top of Daybreaker's back.

Snarling, Daybreaker looked up to find Dinky blowing a raspberry at her. She fired, but missed, the resulting fire blast racing and fading into the sky. Meanwhile, a bolt of periwinkle lightning was zooming in zigzags in her general area; it wasn't attacking her, but trying to confuse her. Daybreaker was following it wearily with her eyes.

Groaning, she closed her eyes to focus.

She inhaled and exhaled.

"Ah, there you are."

When she opened her eyes again, Dinky was caught within the fiery folds of her magic. Try as she did, she could not squirm, let alone gain any momentum to escape. Her attempts to do so were rewarded with her prison shrinking closer upon her.

"Do you think yourself so special, al-Ula?" she asked in a whisper, muzzle to muzzle. "Do you think your blows thus far have been real? No. No… You should know this better than anypony else: they are Generosity. Surely, it must have occurred to you that thus far I have been exhibiting but a fraction of my true power."

"Surely not!"

A black beam shot Daybreaker, whose grip loosened; ethereal wings spread to break free. Before Daybreaker realized it, her captive had disappeared in a flash and pop.

In a flash and pop, Dinky reappeared beside Princess Luna.

"Princess Luna, Princess Luna!" she said, pointing. "Something's wrong with Princess Celestia! We have to help her get back to normal!"

Princess Luna and Dinky were hovering in the air, about half a mile from Daybreaker.

"Normal?" Daybreaker said, throwing the word at the conspiring duo. "This is normal! Do you not see? This is what I was always meant to be, Sister! This is what I've been held back from for so many millennia. I've always had to consider others. But what about me? And now you wish for me to restrain such power, to forsake my true colors and to dim myself to just the way you and those envy-ridden cockroaches prefer it!?"

She teleported, and was up in the air, with her forelegs raised high above her; her teeth were shamelessly bared.

"But now that you're here, Sister Dearest, the true fun can begin."

High above were red twinkles growing in the sky, casting Daybreaker's shadowed leer and gaze into sharp relief.

"We shall negate her meteor attack," Princess Luna told Dinky. "Thou shalt keep her occupied."

Pop. "Oh, way ahead of you."

Princess Luna gasped. "No! Dinky!" she said, a spark in the air stinging her outstretched hoof; hissing, she turned her horn skyward.

A fiery mane was coiled around Dinky's neck, and it was taking her to the ground. Dinky couldn't even scream; the lack of breath, not to mention the scorch of her flesh were too much. The smell of herself burning was forced into her nostrils; she was seeing stars. It was too dry for tears to ooze out of her eyes. As if that weren't enough, she learnt the hard way that Daybreaker's mane was fuzzy with pricks of what felt like very hot needles. She was going numb again…

A slam awoke her, and too soon.

Daybreaker was leaning over her face, pressing her hard against the sand-glass. Her horn was ready, and her eyes looked eager.

All the air Dinky could draw into her lungs was smoke. She coughed, causing Daybreaker to wince. So Dinky threw sand into her eyes. Hissing in satisfaction, she slid under her. She jumped up and down as a lightning bolt, alternating between sand-glass and alicorn mail while picking up speed.

Daybreaker didn't notice until she was being rocketed into the air.

Lightning dust was fading off Dinky as she pushed Daybreaker towards Princess Luna's spell: a black vortex that raged from her horn. Poised to face up, it siphoned light and flame off the rocks until they lost enough heart to fall lamely to the ground. Daybreaker realized, eyes widening, that she was next; so was Dinky, who felt a strand or two of her own magic get sucked into the spell.

Smirking, Daybreaker disappeared.

The black tornado was still active, and Dinky was heading right for it; so she disappeared, too.

When Dinky popped back in, another giant raging ball was homing in on her. Flapping to flee barely slowed it down; in fact, it just seemed to fan the magic that it was made of. The more it followed her, the larger it became, not unlike a ball of snow rolling down a mountain. Dinky tried to swerve at a sharp upward curve to lose it; but a glance over her shoulder told her that it had traced her path. What's more, it seemed to teleport whenever Dinky did. Gritting her teeth, she felt its heat at her hindhooves; she dared not look back. The more she flew, the more the light needles of the fireball were distorting the space of her vision. She silently prayed to Princess Luna for help.

Except Princess Luna was already embroiled within a direct confrontation with Daybreaker herself.

Daybreaker charged her horn, raised it high, and brought it down again, the resulting energy disc racing for Princess Luna.

Princess Luna teleported out of harm's way and teleported back into exactly the same spot as before, except with her neck craned back as though to check her shoulder. The lunar crescent she flung at Daybreaker only collided with another energy disc; another followed, and it would not have missed had Princess Luna not teleported out of the way again.

Taking Dinky, she teleported back whence she had come.

"We must hurry, little one," she said to Dinky, who was still catching her breath. "We must not tarry. The longer this goes on for, the more permanent she becomes."

The fireball that had been chasing Dinky, meanwhile, crashed into a mountain, which turned into a silhouette that flashed for a moment before unraveling from the whole, like the torn pieces of a leaf being scattered by the wind. The shadow of Daybreaker's smirk could be seen in the light of the explosion.

"Oh, but is that such a bad thing?" Daybreaker taunted in a baby-voice, her forelegs held carelessly out.

Princess Luna scowled. "We both know what thou art capable of," she said. "And we both know that thy continued existence benefitsp none but thyself."

"Oh, but spare me the morality lecture, Sister," Daybreaker said with a dismissive hoof. "So tell me, where on Equestria have you been hiding these few days? Surely, not behind a silly mirror; I have seen to that, after all."

"That is of little concern to thee," Princess Luna said with a tight lip. The metal on her hoofbracer glinted as she pointed. "As we speak, the Avatars of Harmony are on their way. And it is they who shall put an end to this madness, once and for all!"

There was silence.

Then there was laughter, there were shrieks; and then there were shrieks that devolved into insane laughter, with Daybreaker pointing childishly at Princess Luna all the while. Dinky thought to shut Daybreaker up by hurling a bolt of magic at her, but Princess Luna held her foreleg out to forbid it. And it was at that precise moment when Daybreaker stopped laughing.

"Surely," Daybreaker said, her demeanor suddenly dire, "you must know that their precious instruments are hidden behind a spell that can be broken by nopony else but my devolved lesser, whom despite her clear weakness and unnecessary restraint you still find the heart to care for?"

Princess Luna was shaking her head.

She fixed her determined eyes on Daybreaker, pursing her lips tighter. "I have faith in Twilight Sparkle," she said, a hoof to her chest, "as you once did." She closed her eyes, her horn alight. "Forgive me, Sister."

A black hole stretched open above Daybreaker. Two more appeared on her sides, followed by another below and another behind. Another widened to block her entire body from view. Before she had a chance to teleport, comets shot out of the holes.

The hissing of ice against fire was filling the air.

Amongst the mist, something shone; Princess Luna already had her dark-blue barrier up.

The explosion that followed enveloped Princess Luna and Dinky in hot white.

It lasted for a few seconds; Princess Luna still did not drop her barrier.

The wormholes were no more, and the same could be said of the ice attack.

Daybreaker was hovering on her hindlegs, a hoof to her chestplate. She was giving a look of mock-endearment. "Oh, Sister. Why, we are moste touched. For thee, the moste versed of ancient tongues, to cease ye Old Ponish for the benefit of us? 'Tis truly an honor to be so familiar with an alicorn as inferior as thyself."

Princess Luna growled.

A boom cut across her, and through the air, which visibly rippled and rumbled around the wind orb.

A beam of hot energy drowned it out before it could attain critical mass.

Now, that beam of energy scanned the skies for Dinky, who had flown up; she was about to be spotted.

Erecting a barrier, Dinky twisted her body, with her hooves pointed forward. She spun into a forward dive, to drive her barrier forward to pierce through the beam of conflagrative energy. The front of her barrier was contorting into a sharpened point, like a diagram that Twilight had once shown her of a Sonic Rainboom. Despite the danger, Dinky couldn't help but enjoy a fantasy about pulling one off in her ascended state — a fantasy she shut away, because she needed to concentrate. She spun herself and her wings harder, even calling upon her breath to propel herself forward. But no matter how hard she drilled, she could push no farther; in fact, it almost felt like she was being pushed back. Her shield was evaporating —

The flames dispersed, but only because their caster was being assailed by a series of lunar-white crescent blades.

Each blade clawed at the orange regalia and raked at the white fur.

Daybreaker was snarling, too angry to notice the thousand or so crescents spinning into being, surrounding her from all corners of the sky.

Dinky noted the presence of an anti-teleportation field; it was way more powerful than Twilight's.

With the wave of a hoof, Princess Luna let the sharpened edges of her magic sail.

Meanwhile, fireballs were growing out of nowhere, surrounding Dinky, who spread her wings. Each clap of them sent a blade of wind that eviscerated through each fireball, cutting it in halves — halves that sparked, eager to regenerate. But the funnel-like stream of air that Dinky was blowing at all of them prevented that possibility from coming to fruition.

Gasping, she teleported out, and right back where she had left. She had no time to so much as glance at the deflected lunar crescent that she had dodged, because she had to dodge three more headed her way.

Daybreaker jerked above a pair of such crescents to let them smash together in a white explosion, before using her tail to swat another two Dinky's way; with her wing, she commanded two to return to Princess Luna. Dinky slammed her forehooves together, sending a supersonic shockwave to slow down the blades of magical energy enough for her to fly out of the way.

Princess Luna merely had to flick her horn to banish her rebounded magic.

For her part, Daybreaker was breathing hot torrents to overwhelm the remaining crescent blades to make them wane and wane, until they were new once more.

But she didn't have much time to recover. "Oh, but what's this? Another cage made of magic? How original."

Arcs of electricity were zooming fast around and over her, and after enough orbits, she was enclosed within something that was like a fishing net made of electricity. It was a net that, moreover, was getting closer and tighter still.

Daybreaker was unperturbed; her hooves were crossed in an X over herself, and her eyes were closed as though in a meditative state. Her wings exploded open alongside her inner fire, and electricity assimilated into fire upon touch, fire that realigned itself into a long barbed whip that, soaring and with the wave of a hoof, she lashed at Princess Luna while she was charging her next spell.

Horn dimmed, she cried out and fell from the skies.

"Princess Luna!" cried Dinky; she snarled, her horn buzzing angrily before she teleported again.

"Oh, come," Daybreaker said, directing her whip at her foe above, "surely this must get old for you at some point."

She was a conductor whose baton was her hoof, her orchestra the whip some ways above her.

The whip clipped Dinky on the shoulder, but she ignored the pain.

Another lash was coming.

She disappeared so quickly that she could have teleported.

Electricity crackling at her horn, Dinky aimed at Daybreaker. "It doesn't."

Skeins of electrical fury shot out; they intertwined and interwove into a thread that was eager to sting.

And sting it did.

The magical lightning exploded upon impact, buzzing particles lingering in its wake.

Soot coated her plates and her twitching fur.

Limbs trembling, she seized Dinky by the hindleg, pinned her against her chest, and did three mid-air somersaults before swatting her away with her tail.

Hissing, a scorched scar across her face, Dinky teleported again.

Popping back into space again, she aimed her hindhoof for Daybreaker's underbelly — only for that to disappear, too. "Behind you, runt! GAH! Luna!" Daybreaker snarled, somersaulting as a barrage of crescent blades merged into one asynchronous bundle of magical cutlery that spun and ground at her shuddering hoofbracers.

Deflecting the chaotic edges, she paused to regain a second's breath as she slid backwards in midair.

"Look out!" Dinky yelled, punting Princess Luna out of the way of one of her crescent blades.

"Together!"

Dinky nodded, and so, linking forelegs with Princess Luna, she encapsulated them both into a bolt of lightning. It went about in circles that became rapider and more solid with energy. At the tangent of one, she launched the duo forward, guiding the impetus of the twin tackle. Zaps and crackles were petering off them as Dinky let go; and now, shooting forth, side by side, they charged their horns in unison.

But a flame consumed Daybreaker before either spell found its mark.

"It is time I put an end to this little game of ours once and for all!" her voice announced, for all the lands to hear.

Gasping, Dinky and Princess Luna looked up.

Electricity was arcing, black yet bright across the dark-scarlet skies, allowing lesser eyes to glimpse upon an unholy silhouette.

With her limbs spread far and wide, she was ascending in an uncannily familiar way. Once she was at the apex of the sky, rays of light issued forth from her white form. For a mad moment, it was like she was an angel descendent — an impression that was dispelled the moment her white form flashed redder than the heavens around her.

Maniacal laughter rent the air.

The black streaks of lightning were soaring more and more chaotically across the dark dome of sky.

"NOW! Now you shall know true brilliance! Now, ALL of Equestria shall know radiance in its TRUEST form! Now, ALL shall be purified, bathed in my holy flames! Now, ALL SHALL BE LOST FOREVERMORE TO THE PURGING BLISS OF OBLIVION! ALL IS AS IT SHOULD BE! AHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAAAHA-! AhaHAhAAhaHAa!!"

Shockwaves were billowing from her cackles, causing Princess Luna and Dinky to flinch.

Try as they did, neither could approach.

The red flashes were becoming more frequent. The facsimile of a sun was returning to its eerie red hue; and it seemed to be shaking.

But that wasn't the only thing that was shaking: The sands that were left unmarred were now being jostled; the fallen trees were withering away, branch and leaves and all, until they were nondescript dust being swept into the eye of the storm; new cracks were budding up the mountains, and they were shuddering so much that they simply could not stay whole anymore.

Dinky's vision was malfunctioning: The image of her periwinkle hoof kept shaking into multiple, less opaque versions of itself, each one bearing a surreal hue, and every single one refusing to merge back into a solid form.

But it wasn't over.

Daybreaker was still high above them all, as she righteously believed she should be. So absorbed in the fury that was to be unleashed that she took no notice of a wind tunnel swallowing her whole like a serpent.

The sparkles on the serpent's dark-blue scales gleamed golden as the serpent raced back around, drawn to the part of its body where its prey still hovered, unflinching. Once that part of itself was intersected again, the windy howls entrapping Daybreaker grew, with her none the wiser. The wind serpent looped back, its destination much the same; the radius of its loops was shortening. Shorter still the wind serpent became, and with one finalizing squeeze of the knot, it was an orb of gyrations that kept Daybreaker prisoner.

She stopped flashing.

On either side of the orb were Princess Luna and Dinky.

Sweat was leaking down Dinky's brow. She kept her teeth gnashed in anger and concentration; she had to keep her films of magic taut and bound. Ever so slowly, ethereal feathers were falling loose from her flank.

"Young Dinky, do not give in!" Princess Luna shouted from across the prison of wind. "Thou must hold strong! The Avatars of Harmony shall be here soon! They are our only hope!"

Daybreaker stood up on her hindlegs. Leaning her elbow casually on the wall of the wind orb, a cheek resting on her hoof, she addressed Princess Luna. "Come now, Sister," she said, absently flicking her star-spangled horn, "let us have no more pretense about that. Do you truly believe they shall? Tsk, tsk." She gave a condescending shake of the head. "A true joke, I should think, that we should wait for their arrival! Why, I daresay the little one's reserves shall run dry before then, would you not agree?"

"Shut… up!" said Dinky.

Daybreaker smirked. "Little one. Do you truly believe this dinky little orb of yours shall hold my brilliance at bay forever? Or," she said, facing Princess Luna, "for a thousand years, perhaps?"

"It doesn't need to."

For above the three shined the six hues: purple, orange, white, pink, cyan, and yellow, woven into a radiant orb that was parting the darkness that had overtaken the world.

The blood-red was being ushered away by clear blue.

The sun flickered on and off between red and white, on the verge of succumbing to what was only inevitable.

Within the radiant orb, six ponies were holding hooves, their eyes at peace, their hearts as one.

Daybreaker gasped. "The Elements of Harmony!"

Snarling, she tried to ignite her horn, only for it to fizzle out, unresponsive. For the first time, there was fear in her tar-black eyes; the embers of her pupils were dwindling.

"Whoever you are," said Twilight Sparkle, opening her eyes — and there was no mercy in her gaze, "you will let my teacher, my Princess, and friend go.

"Now!" cried Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.

When Twilight Sparkle blinked, her eyes were shining pupil-less orbs.

The orb of rainbows trembled with power for a moment, then stopped — a false reprieve.

A strange whir resounded, heralding the eruption of a blinding something shooting out of the Colors of Harmony. What else could it have been, but a helix of rainbows that dispelled the rest of the cursed day and looped back down, setting its aim on the white mare.

It was reflected in her tar-stained eyes, and it was growing in size and brightness until it was all she could see. "No. No. No!!!"

Light exploded in an overwhelming frenzy of purification. In it, no evil could survive, and no other radiance, not even that of the Bringer of Day Eternal, could compare truly.

Did it have other powers, too? Dinky did not know. But she did know it was comforting; she couldn't help but lose herself in it. This past week almost started to feel like one long nightmare now. She was starting to feel at peace now.

And that's when her wings started to wither; she felt them unfolding, the last of them unraveling into the aether.

A breeze came softly, the breath of an apology.

"You were with me all along, weren't you?" Dinky said, a sad smile over her shoulder.

Then closing her eyes, she touched the magical feathers as the last of them evaporated out of her grasp. "Thanks… Dauntless."

Comments

[Bronycommander]

nicely done and what a twist but great!

[eclair_de_xii]

12041554
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. Originally, the entirety of this story existed solely to provide a context in which Dinky could awaken her latent alicorn powers. I read the original story and thought on the amount of potential in the concept of a unicorn who has the soul of an alicorn. I hope that I realized that potential to its fullest degree.

[Bronycommander]

12041556
And i think you did very well